Tuesday, July 5, 2011

7/5/2011 Hermana Christensen "Happy 4th"

to my dearest darlingest familia.

shorty today.

i hope all of you are well and fighting the good fight.

it's been a good week. bullet points, shall we?

• we got our new mission president--president and sister clayton. they are woooooooonderful. i love the donaldsons, but they really stressed the need with us of switching out loyalty fully over to the claytons. it's been hard, but i LOVE the claytons. so much. so so so much. they are amazing. they are so humble. they are meek. they are smart. they are selfless. they are caring--about the ONE. they are here in this grand labor of love with their whole heart on the line. i feel like they are more parental figures... they just treat us more like their children. they love us and worry about us and are there for us. and they have the keys. so we're excited to get to know them more and keep going forward in the work. :)

• president clayton asked us to read jacob 5 and put ourselves in the position of the servant. as i did this, i was struck by how many times the lord of the vineyard says, "let US." let us. the Lord is working with us in this, here, His vineyard. Why do i not depend on Him more? it's His work! i love how He gives the servant specific directions about where to go and when and what to do--to dig, to prune, to hew down, to wait... he says "spare it a little longer..." He's involved in the details and knows what's best for our specific part of the vineyard. and he cares. He cares SO much. you can just feeeeeeeeel the master's aching when he says, "what more could i have done for my vineyard?" ah. but He tells the servant to work with Him and to be diligent and keep all the commandments so that the vineyard can prosper and bring forth fruit. it was so valuable. and I would like to invite all of you to read it and put yourselves in the position of the servant. will you?

• on sunday, we were able to eat dinner in our own apartment (that never happens. we normally don't eat or eat pretzels in the car or something). but this day we were able to make a dinner and eat it in our apartment before heading out. as we crossed the street there was a lady waiting at the crosswalk and we asked if she was headed into the mormon battalion; she said that she didn't speak english. so sis lewis asked if she spoke spanish, and it was like this sigh of relief came out of her when she realized she could communicate with us. she told us that she was lost--she'd gotten separated from her family in old town, and, because it was sunday and the weekend of a holiday and old town was super busy, she couldn't find them .she was shaking and was so scared and nervous.. and she had no cell phone and couldn't remember anyone's phone number. so we stood there with her, trying to decide what to do, and turned out she did have someone's phone number and i called them and found out they were relatively close, so we walked with this lady, elpidia, over to them. she was SO grateful that we had come to her aid. she said she'd been praying that someone would come and help her, and that was right when we walked out of our apartment. wow. don't worry, we got her info and we're going to send her a bom, but it was just the neatest thing to know that we really were her angels, and we really were guided and directed to help HER specifically at that time, this sweet, gentle daughter of God who really was lost! and we helped her. i still love being a missionary. nothin better.

• 4th of july already? unreal. i remember last year like it was yesterday. freaking mtc ... they kept us encarcelated so we wouldn't hear the stadium of fire but we got to watch the fireworks... oh it was sooo fun! and last night we got to be at the battalion and watch the fireworks on coronado island from the tower... and then we took smores into the "campfire" room and sing patriotic songs and just have a blasty altogether being so grateful for our country and our freedoms, especially the freedom to preach the gospel.

• la mesa is amazing. we have several people who are preparing for baptism and it's so blissful. that area is thriving. there is so much potential. we will now officially meet n the cultural hall every week-=-it's growing so much! and sister lewis is doing wonderfully and soaking up the pilot program and all is well. and next week is transfers. we'll see what's up. no clue. just happy and grateful and excited for whatever may come my way.

i love you. i'm thankful for your support. i'm praying for you.

hermana christensen

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