well hello hello my dearest familia! got a lot to say so i'll just hop to it.
so many milagros at the temple lately it's NOT EVEN FUNNY!
first story number 1--the other day four hungarian guys came in, mid twenties. they were super open and WAY awesome. they didn't know a ton about the church, so we showed them our little picture book and then hit em hard with the restoration. at the end they were 100% down with receiving copies of the BOM. i had this feeling that we should go to our storage place inside the temple and grab a hungarian bom--not for them to have (we want missionaries to take it to them personally!!), but just to look it over and read a portion with them. we stood near the entrance of the temple, holding this hardback book of pure truth and they read moroni 10:3-5 out loud in hungarian. when he finished reading it, we paused and the spirit testified SO STRONGLY. they are going to be GOLDEN contacts for those hungarian missionaries! it was incredible.
2--that day at the temple we got 10 referrals... all international: four from hungary (those ballers), four from VIETNAM, and two from RUSSIA. okay!
3--we served on the grounds last night event hough the temple was closed from labor day and HOLY GUAC! it was sooooweet how many people came onto the grounds! i had one of the neatest experiences of my mish. sis ortez was talking to a herd of brown people, and i was grabbing some garby for some asians. waaaaaay off in the distance, leaving the temple going up the stairs, i saw a couple people. i was like aww me-an, they are gonezo. shucks. but then i was kicked by the spirit and literally sprinted across the temple grounds to meet them. haha. the lady was way weirded out but i was totally panting as i asked if she wanted to see pictures. her name was jo jo hugs. :) i went on to show her and her two friends the pictures. they ooo'd and ahhh'd like no one has ever done before. they LOVED it. and as i showed them the pictures of those rooms and tried to discern what it was that i needed to say.. i felt like talking about how our bodies are temples and how we have the word of wisdom! WHAT?!!! but it was done. and they told me that they all knew each other because they were part of narcotics recovery.. that they'd been clean for 11 or 12 years... they said that their lives had been so different since they'd changed and they were so much happier. i told them there was EVEN MORE of that and they couldn't believe it. the spirit was so strong and there was this beautiful connection we had. the best was that after i'd gotten three pages in, another 33-day clean friend showed, and the original three were GIDDY to start over from the beginning--and they explained everything to him in DETAIL! they had really paid a lot of attention and remembered all the little details. and then that guy got way stoked, and then ANOTHER friend showed up! hahah so that guy explained it to him, and then we finished them together. :) and then we read moronis promise and they felt the spirit like a wall. they even said, "wow, that's intense. that's so deep." and when i asked them if i could send them boms, they were all SO OPEN and one even called his friend to go outside and check the housenumber to make sure it was the right address!! ahh. and then they asked me to autograph their drug recovery books. haha. so famous. naw. and then they all hugged me. yep. these two ladies and three huge past drug abusers totally loved hugging. it was one of those really special experiences where our hearts were all touched by the spirit and our souls all connected in this beautiful fusion of truth and love right at the exit of the temple. i was SO GLAD i'd ran to them!
*bottom line: people are prepared. they ARE!
4--when we were getting off our temple shift last night we needed to use the bano and wash our hands bc we were frozen cold, so the security guard, kevin, who was a baller, let us into the temple. AKA I WAS IN THE SAN DIEGO TEMPLE AT NIGHT BY MYSELF (well, with my companion), WHEN IT WAS CLOSED!! hahah i was like--"ONLY IN THE SAN DIEGO MISSION IS THIS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!" i am so blessed! and i know it! and i LOVE MY MISSION!!!
okay. next. so our guy that we're teaching who's way golden didn't come to church. or to the appointment that we had members at for him. huge fail. BUT. we received a really interesting call during the week from his FRIEND who wants to meet with us! huh? when does that happen? someone called us? and they want us to come over? haha. so that was a miracle. for sure. such a blessing.
but it kinda turned out to be a funny/scary experience. he was supposed to come to our cita on sunday night that our investigator failed to come to. we left, a little bummed, and then he called us! he told us he was at a house nearby, so we went over there and talked with him and another friend he was with. it was dark and late and they invited us to come in. we of course said no, so we sat at a table outside and started talking. and these guys were kinda crazy. we thought it was funny at first and we joked around with them, but then i realized that the dark floor was LINED with beer bottles. i counted. at LEAST 14. these guys were totally drunk!! ay ay ay. so we tried to just teach and get outta there, not just because drunk men isn't the best situation to be in, but because we couldn't get through to them and they were guessing our ages and sorta hitting on us and it was just WEIRD. oh, and the five year old boy was running around unsupervised while his dad was totally borrachado. unbelievable. but as we taught i was thinking, this is so uselss. they aren't even with it! lets just roll... but then i felt REAL strong, the rebuking of the spirit, reminding me that THIS MAN, this totally drunk, little brown guy, who is bragging about making 100 buck in construction, is a SON OF GOD, A KING. wow. i was filled with love and compassion with him. we promised blessings and left. in the car, sis ortez explained that she'd had the same experience... feeling like it was useless but then the spirit testified to her that these men would feel something and that they would remember the visit when they weren't drunk. so we'll see.
ha. here's a good story. we go over to a cita we had w/a potential investigator, and she let us in but left us. we ended up talking to her roommate who we'd actually been looking for the first times we'd passed by--she's a less active member! we had a way powerful chat with her, and then their other roommate came out, who's a guy we added as an investigator last week. so then we had a lesson all together and talked about the restoration. a few things: when that pillar of light comes down in the restoration movie.. the spirit is UNDENIABLE!!! ah! wow!!! later in the lesson we found out that he's been meeting with missionaries off and on for TEN YEARS. i have no patience for that. so i threw down hardcore and told him to DECIDASE aka decide ya crazy! and we invited him to be baptized. and he said YES! of course he's got a ways to go, but it was so awesome, that moment. the best was about five seconds later when he asked how we live and what he'd need to change. kristen.. this guy loves The Witness and that's what brought him to listen to the missionaries the first time. ummm isn't the little boy in that movie from an Amish family? i don't remember. but this guy straight up THOUGHT WE WERE AMISH!!!!!!!!!!!! and he committed to a baptismal date KNOWING HE'D HAVE TO BECOME AMISH!!!!!!!!! hahahah now if that isn't faith--what is?!! he was SHOCKED when we laughingly told him that we drove CARS, used ELECTRICITY, wore MAKEUP... hahah. the costumes in the joseph smith movie didn't help that misunderstanding...
my quote of the week. we were talking about the plan of salvation during comp study and i heard myself say about adam and eve, "they were just walking around petting animals." hahahahah.
we contacted into a lady last week down in the waaaaay south part of town. she was golden and actuallylives right by the church, but she was way reluctant to hear from us. so whatever. the other day a member wants to take us to dinner. to my horror she asked us to meet her at KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN. (haha willy all i could hear was you.." kentucky fried fat.." NOT HELPFUL!) so we go there and guess who we see? THIS LADY!!! and she and the member clicked like THAT and started talking about looking for apartments together to be roommates! huH!? soooo divinely orchestrated!
i love you all. sorry it's largo. i just love my life and want to share! oh and ps. come to find out... i love cantelope. huh?? after all these years! i know! it's so good!
and the church is SO TRUE!!! and i love you all! until the next time rolls around for me to tell you about our wonderful week!
hermana christensen
pics. me last night with the SUNSET and my GOOOORGEOUS scripture cases from my broseph that i love sooooooooooooo much!
my mexican blanket sweater. I LOVE IT! and ps. check out the tan line on my feet ha!
temple before we left. there is the most BEAUTIFUL painting at deseret book that i'm going to buy someday. it's the sd temple like this but it's focused more on the tree.. and the pathway to it and it looks like the TREE OF LIFE! ah. it's stunning!
pss. THANKS DER AND JENN FOR DELIVERING THE BOX OF HEAVEN! sooooooo grateful! love you guys a TON!
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