7/26/2011 Hermana Christensen

welllllllllllll well well! happy 26th everyone! can you believe it's already come again? best days.

want to give a quick shout out to kaylynn: HAPPY BDAY SISTA!!!!!!!!!!!! HOPE IT'S BALLIN!

It is an exciting time! we're having some mid transfer changes! president and sister clayton's daughter was set apart as a missionary and she's paired up with a battalion sister and they are going to open an area RIGHT BY THE BORDER. i'm so excited for them! and becuase it's just a three week thang, they're going to be shacking with us. PARTY! it's going to be a blasty! can't wait. i love my life.

okay. so lets just get real. how was everyone's pioneer day. what better way to spend it than AS a pioneer?! haha. i just feel so incredibly grateful (for so many things! but especially) to have such incredible heritage of pioneers and modern day pioneers. I just feel so proud. so proud. but. pioneer day was so good. we were at the battalion (honoring our antepasados!) and then we had a SICK stake party at the park right by our stake center. an hour before the picnic started there was an activity for the primary kids with like butter shaking and making, quilting, etc. and guess what the rama was in charge of? straight up tortilla making. hahaha i'm pretty sure that wasn't a part of the story but you know our stake loves mexicans and their incredible talents to make unbelievably rica food. and it was a hit! they'd even brought rice and beans to top off the homemade corn tortillas. haha. it was the best. but actually only the second best because my rama did not fail to amaze me with their love. we invited one of our new investigators who is friends with the sweetest member who is one of the most incredible women ever. (he member is dora medina and she is the mexican version of joan. she's so faithful. she walks and rides buses to church and the temple. she's been working on this friend of hers forever and she's finally coming around. we added her last week as an investigator and hna medina gave me a HUUUGE hug and had tears in her eyes. she gets it. and her friend's GONNA GET BAPTIZED i just know it!) ANYWAY. they came to the party and the rama... words cannot describe what happened. they just, they literally surrounded her and made her feel SO WELCOMED and SO LOVED. it was stunning. by the end of the party she'd invited several people over to make deeeelcious dominican food (hopefully us too! hah) and they were all just long lost friends and family. my words don't even do the situation justice. it was just... it was so neat. these people understand the gospel and the need to share it and how to make others feel loved. they are SO good at what they do. and they are examples for me and for everyone. i will forever be different for serving in such a celestial branch!

our baptism and confirmations fell through. we have been down about it, not gonna lie. satan little s is attacking these people from all angles right when they're so ready. one of our investigator's husbands just won't, WILL NOT, let her get baptised. he's catolico until he dies. and she WANTS to get baptized. so we're praying for a softening of several hearts in that familia. pray for miracles. i KNOW that heavenly father wants them to get baptized. and He WILL provide the way!

sunday. we went over in the morming to despertar an investigator so she and her less active mother could partake of the sacrament, but she wouldn't get up. we got to the church and president morgan greeted us and could tell instantly that something was wrong. i promptly burst into tears (it had all just piled up, you know? so many good people, so much potential, so much falling through. breaking my heart!). he held and patted my hand and said, with tears brimming in his eyes, "it's no wonder that as you are called to represent Jesus Christ, you feel what He feels." and i did feel a tiny portion of that... ouch, that... that loss that... disappointment, that hurting and aching for these people. yearning for them to change and feeling broken because they wouldn't. i.... I feel so grateful. I feel so grateful to be given this chance to represent Him in some small way because it helps me understand the worth of every soul. i feel like that's my quest.. to understand that. the worth of EVERY SOUL IS GREAT. Anyway. Ah. it ended up working out; one of our investigators that vanished into the depths of tj reappeared after a month, and the girls house that we were at that morn and her mom showed up JUST as the priests were covering the bread and switching over to water, but presidente morgan told them to take the sacrament to our investigator and her mom personally. wow. it was just tears of joy at that point. i will never forget when the meeting got started and our numbers were few and i was feeling so sad when in walked investigators and their family and members and their non member friends and hna lewis said, "redemption!" haha. it truly was. i feel like I physically CAN'T get sad for too long because heavenly father just LOVES to bless me!

the work is rolling forth. it is the best thing ever. i am so thankful to be here. i am happier than ever before. i want this time to never end. and i know it won't because i'll forever remember what i've learned here. and these people! oh, i love them! and i cannot wait to enjoy the eternities with them in the mansions of our father. until then, we will all continue, enlisted in the cause of truth. may we all press on and press forward!

i love you! get those profiles finished! set a deadline and DO IT! we saw a miracle using two of them yesterday to ENGLISH MEMBERS so don't act like i don't need YOU to do it because i was called spanish and am serving in a spanish branch. NOT TRUE. i need you more than you know and i need you to do it NOW.

mi amor

hermana christensen

ps. oh yeah. elder ballard is coming on saturday. no big deal. he's just our mission president's wife's dad. whaaaaaaa?

JILLIAN FRITZ IF YOU ARE READING THIS ASDLKFJAL;SDKFJA;LSDFN;ASLKDFJ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i about BURST with your letter today! i actually cried, literally tears! i am SOOOOO HAPPY FOR YOU!!!!!!! CONGRATS GIRL!!!!!!!

joan bourne glad i heart you! sue sent pictures and you look beautiful! thank you for smiling! i'm praying for you!