11/15/2011 Hermana Christensen "My Life is so Great!"

this is gorrrrrrrrgeous mt soledad!

familia!

this is us with CALVIN! huge baller!

okay so have i ever got a story for you or WHAT. last tuesday to end our preparation day we went to mt soledad--easily one of my favorite things to do here (see attached fots). well first, actually, we went to lunch at my FAVORITE restaurante (EL TORITOSSSSS SOOO GOOOD) then my favorite (free) ice cream shop (GOLDEN SPOON [sooo rico!!]) which both happen to be in an amazingly wonderfully strikingly familiar place of mine (la mesa) and we were almost about to just go home... but we thought we'd go to mt soledad even just for a sec. so we go there and start taking pics, etc, then this guy asked if we wanted one altogether. sure thang! so he took one then--you know how it is when you wear a black nametag--we just got into this beautiful gospel discussion. turns out his name's calvin from tennessee and he had a vision about coming to san diego to find TRUTH. ummmm. so he came here to meet these two guys from his vision so he could get a church started. wow. um. so basically what went down is that we taught him EVERYTHING THERE IS TO KNOW (very helpful that the temple was in plain sight!) and then he left us with every possible piece of literature a missionary could offer. family, it was... unreal. like, we were just GIDDY, GIGGLING and beaming. we were all freeeeeezing but there was NO WHERE in the world we would've rathered to have been! he had so many great questions and is just this young guy, TOTALLY prepared and looking for the truth. we were so bold with him. he was bold back. but we had ALL THE ANWERS--and when i say we i mean THE SPIRIT. seriously, it was incredible to see how everything came back to restoration and the bom being true or not. at the end he was just fumbling for questions because he did not want us to go. the gospel is full. it is complete. it is PERFECT!!! one of our members always says that it's like a circulo completo (a full circle) while the other churches are medio circles (half circles [if even that!]). It was one of the most beautiful experiences ever. And there was NO other way i would've rathered to have spent the last two hours of my preparation day! funny h ow the most memorable preparation days are the ones when i do actual missionary work... like teaching... and not being selfishly involved in sports or shopping or whattheheckever. I love being a missionary. there is nothing that fills me up quite like this does. nothing! not even ICE CREAM!

though that does a pretty good job.


our 11/11/11 11:11 DISTRICT BRUNCH!!


ps thanksgiving is in nine days. WHO'S EXCITED?!!!!

alright so guess what? well, i knew for sure we were going to have changes. hermana ortez and i were just too dang good to stay together. she is INCREDIBLE and helped me be myself and reach my full potential as a person and missionary and i will be FOREVER grateful for those gorgeous two transfers we had rockin linda vista. welp. she peaced out. WHAT! i thought IIIIIIIIIIIIIII would be the one to go! but god's better. so i'm still in my good ol area with a brand new beauty named hermana mccullough from oregon. she's bomb. i know she's going to touch lives and change eternities! we're finding out that we're really similar (apart from the fact that she doesn't like ice cream and i don't like chocolate). last night we cleaned out a cupboard that's been driving me BONKERS in our apt, and we both looked at each other tentatively at first about what we should throw away, but then we realized we're both PRO for cleanliness and de junking and we laughed and tossed a lot. it was gorgeous. i love her lots. she's got a lot to offer, and I feel like part of my role will be helping her see how AMAZING she is so she'll open up, speak up and be bigger than life. i'm muy animada.

sis mccullough and me!

so linda vista is still treating us amazingly. if only you could've seen us on sunday! i was beeeeeeeeeaming! our little reunion sacramental was PACKED!!!!!!!!!!!!! we had TEN INVESTIGATORS AT CHURCH! ARE YOU HEARING ME?! TEN!!!!!!!!! we had miracles EVERYWHERE!!!! this one SAINT of a member brought the whole salvador family, then drove all the way home to bring ANOTHER family! what?! okay. so then the second hour we've been teaching a dinky little gospel principles class. BUT. this week it was taught by actual brown people, we had more than five people (four of them being missionaries)--in fact, the room was totally FULL!!! we all sat in a huge circle around the room and talked about how God is our Heavenly Father. what? it was unreal. investigadores that normally peace after the first hour stayed for the second, less actives showed up, one paid TITHING, hermana alamillo was called as a branch missionary and hse paid tithing, too! i mean... wow. it was sooo amazing!

also, on tuesday night we had a training with our branch mish leader, branch pres and the leaders of auxiliares. whatever. haha. but seriously. okay. so um. branch council? SO INSPIRED!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it is SUCH AN INSPIRED PATTERN! order! way to do it! seriously! as we talked about how we can improve our consejo the spirit just filled the room and you could see it click in our leaders' brains and hearts and wow! it's like... if we want our little branch to grow then DANG the leaders have got to be united first! and how can we do that? branch council. i love that new manual. seriously. we are SO BLESSED. the Lord's church is perfect and so organized! i am so thankful to be part of a mission that focuses so much on something like this. we have received so much training and are so blessed! i know that this little branch will soon be standing on it's own feet and that it''ll be a self ran WARD!

sis mccullough and me again....

i feel like i'm living on borrowed time. i was just telling bro that this extension makes me realize how this time REALLY isn't mine and how this is bonus, extra time that i have. so i' have GOT to find the people the Lord needs me to and to say what he needs me to and to BE what he needs me to be! Why didn't I always look at it like that? I mean, i tried, but this really is crunch time... final countdown haha willy... but seriously. and i'm SO grateful!

one of my transfer goals (like the other 11 transfers) has been to focus on humility. and i had a HUGE epiphany the other day... nothing new or way amazing or anything but i realized that i'm being prideful as i withhold gratitude..whether to the lord, my comp, whomever. so to cmobat my pride, i'm going to be EVER GRATEFUL!!!!! there's something about november that ust really brings it out of us huh? so ... have an ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE!

funny thing. sis mccullough is always cold. so we have been keeping things a little more toasty as of late, which i LOVE doing for her. the other day as we drove the heat was on and i was just sweating and started laughing thinking of how kristen always turns the heat waaaaaaaay up and kurtis and i die in the back.. rolling down the windows and everything... and then willy just asks her to turn it down and she says, "well turn your side on cool!" hahah and he's like "it's not like the air can stay separate! your side is hot and mine can't be cold!" oh the imagery/memory was sweet and made my day. i love my family SO much!

hayden! SO ADORABLE! thanks for the libro!

this morning i studied for the salvadors about how they can be happy as a family. and i was led to mosiah 2. um. can you please go read it and look what it says we need to do to be happy as a FAMILY. i was blown away. soooo cool. read it!

i love you all. life's bliss! thanks for all your love and support--it means the WORLD!

love,

hermana christensen

so incredibly wet. you see, parents allow us to stand in the rain and babysit as their children pan for gold while they comfortably sit on the benches under the roof. REALLY?! i wsas seriously out in the rain for a SOLID 30 MINUTES!!!!!!!!! sooo wet!