Christensen Missionaries

2/27/2012 Elder Christensen "Small and Simple Things"

2012-02-27T13:11:00.005-08:00

Hey there everyone. It`s been a great week of work ONCE again doing that best thing a teenager can do.... I`ve felt a lot of gratitude these last few days regarding my mission, and who I am. I honestly feel SO blessed for everything that has happened to me during this mission and as well for the things that happen every day... I read something interesting in Preach my gospel... I don`t remember exactly what it says but its like.... the best way to be humble to God is through gratitude..... I really liked that and it got me thinkin.

We did LOTSSS this week.. My comp had to get his chilean identification renewed so we had to head down to santiago... Can`t lie I felt like I was back in the office haha. We also found some sweet ties being sold right outside the registro civil... o sea... its like the government... I dunno. Can`t describe it.. Where foreigners go to become legal! But anyways these ties were cheap and sweet! It`s like a missionaries dream to find sick cheap ties so we were happy.... Also we got together as a zone and did whats called a cosechón... It means harvest in english... We just all get together and take the trash out on ONE sector... Thats a LOT of priesthood in one place hahah. Had some success there..

More than anything I`m grateful for where I am, and who I`m with. My comp is amazing. Step by step we`re seeing changes in the ward. One miracle is our mission leader. When I got here he was DEAD. Just going to church and that was it.... leaving after first hour... But now? We have our meeting with him EVERY week.. Also, we got him to come out with us! We had a MIRACLE and got into the house of a contact we did a few weeks back. It`s amazing to see the fruits of your labors.. This guy has cualquier enthusiasm and he`s excited now to work with us. I just wanted to share my testimony with you guys this week about doing the SMALL and SIMPLE things... In our ward we get like... 30 people to church every week.. I feel bad for our bishop because he has SO much on his plate.... Basically we`ve just gone to all the leaders of our ward and shown them our desire to WORK. To be PUT IN during the clutch moment. To lift where we stand and support everyone.. however we can. That`s what has sparked the change in the people.. You can`t just do something and expect instant changes. No. It doesn`t work like that. GOD doesn`t work like that. These things require time, patience, constant nourishment and attention. ( Alma 32:37-43. ) It depends on US. Our desicion to do what is right. AGENCY.. I KNOW that everyone thinks I`m that person who needs things NOW.. Mom I know you even put "urgent" as my ringtone on your phone...(By the way I heard that song this week and it brought a tear to my eye) But now? I know who God is.. I know how he works... I have a testimony that everything works out how it should and when it should.. Sometimes we want things our way right now.. but its not like that... Sometimes we want the results of hard work without actually doing any work.. but that? IS NOT FAITH. We have to be constantly looking forward with an eye of faith if we actually want to get anywhere in life. If we can`t see with that eye? We will NEVER achieve what it is that we want in this life. (Ether 12:19, Alma 32: 40)....

I just wanted to end with these scriptures that have to do with what I`ve written about today....

DyC 64:33 Wherefore, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things proceedeth that which is great.

34 Behold, the Lord requireth the heart and a willing mind; and the willing and obedient shall eat the good of the land of Zion in these last days.

In spanish it says... "No os canséis de hacer lo bueno....." DO NOT become tired of doing what is good..... We as members of the church are doing it! We are putting the foundation for the church in years to come. I know it`s HARD to be consistent with a calling... I know its HARD to have a real responsability in this church... But we can do it. We are all that the Lord has to build and fortify his church in these the latter days. Heres the invitation that King Benjamin gave in Mosiah 5.....

15 Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen.
Lets do it. We`re a team. On top of that, GOD and his son Jesus Christ are with us. I can testify of this work. This IS the church of Jesus Christ restored on the earth.. The only way.... and there is no other way... (2 Nephi 31:20-21)

Hope the week is as good for everyone else as it is for us here in Peñaflor. Sigamos adelante con buen animo hermanos míos.... Yo se que Nuestro Padre Celestial está con nosotros y nos ayudará a que seamos ejemplos de los creyentes....

Elder Christensen.

2/20/2012 Elder Christensen "Busy Busy Business"

2012-02-20T12:59:00.002-08:00

WOOOOOOOOOOOoooo! Changes have come and gone.... My new companions name is Elder Braddy from North Carolina.. I saw this kid get BORN in the mission! He has two changes less than I do and we´re already having a ton of fun here in Peñaflor. This week we walked like latter day children..... We walked and walked and walked and walked.................. Haha. The country is such a great place. Let me be honest... We just eat random stuff off of trees like plums, apple pears, and black berries... Its... wonderful. We were eating TONS of blackberries and then randomly we saw a dead cat on top of the bush... Definatelyyyyyy gross.... Spit it all out. Other funny things that happened...... I got bit by a german shepheard on the hand. My own fault for trying to play with it.. Everyones gotta get bit once in the mission right? DONT¨ WORRY THOUGH... I am already all healed up. I don´t have ANY rabies either... Last funny thing... This random girl like... proposed to my comp and I.... SUPER GROSS.... we just were contacting her sister and she was saying all kinds of stupid stuff.... The worst one was that one though..... "Just so you guys know, I´d get married to either one of you."................. Ahemmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... Ya...... We just laughed over that one for a few hours.

Okay now that I got all the cuestiones locas out of my mind, let me talk about the gospel. Here in our zone, we have this initiative to take our pictures of Christ around and use them to get into peoples houses... On Wednesday, we were knocking doors and we found this guy who was ticked off with the missionaries... Apparently, one time some missionaries were really mean to him in his house so he HATED them from that moment on... Anyways, after a few minutes of conversation and testimony bearing, he let us into his house... We basically just talked about God... Who he is, his natural being, what role he plays in our lives... This guy was sick! Honstly super cool. He had a few particular things he wanted us to pray for... his family is pretty messed up and they live in separate places... so he wanted to ask God for unity and blessings in his work.... He asked me to say the prayer and we kneeled just like always... I dunno this was kinda weird...the spirit was STRONG there... you could have cut it with a butter knife... I don´t even feel like I spoke during that prayer. It was like God just took over and talked through my voicebox.. This man FELT Gods spirit. He FELT his love... He just sat there for several minutes and cried....We testified that it was his spirit...Super super fuerte.. After that he gave us the tour of his house haha. Kinda funny. We´re gonna pass by there this next week.

Just wanna end with a scripture.... 3 Nefi Chapter 13

     19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break through and steal;

     20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal.

     21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Try to see with celestial eyes this week. Often times we get lost and focus on things of this world.. We won´t take any of that with us to the next life..... We need to be constantly focusing on worthwhile goals.. CELESTIAL goals.... may we lay ourselves up treasures in heaven... Hope all goes well this week. Love you all! Elder Christensen.

Pics... I only took like two.. I´ll take some with my new comp this week and send them next week! Love you! Take care! Chaoo!

2/13/2012 Elder Christensen "Dios nos da milagritos"

2012-02-13T18:38:00.000-08:00

Our zone picture!!

Okay guys... I have like no time once again. Sorry this always happens. It`s been a week full of adventure and MILAGRITOS...Miracles.... I`ve been able to see God`s hand on various occasions.....

I got to go on divisions with an Elder from Australia this week......It was funny because in the same house that night, we had an Australian, a Canadian, an Argentinian, and an American.. (Me... yours truly.) We all had a bunch of different slang and words we were using at the same time without really even meaning to haha. Anyways.... Our day was pretty frustrating... We got SHUT DOWN a couple times and we had a few lessons that didn`t go well either... On top of that, their baptismal date priscilla stood us up and had some family problems that may impede her from being baptized... After that stand up, we tried to do a contact and once again got SHUT DOWN...... I could tell that my comp was kinda down.... then he started to cry in the street.. Just out of pure frustration... I felt pretty bad to be honest. Horrible...I kinda froze and didn`t know what to do... The first thing that came to my mind was just testify.. I testified of God`s love... and of this mission that we are serving... It turns out that this companionship has been really frustrated because they feel they have been working hard and having very little success....We probably talked for a good ten minutes in the street before working again.... It was POWERFUL. Maybe one of the most powerful things I`ve lived on my mission. THE VERY NEXT HOUSE we knocked, they let us in and we blessed their house.... Honestly it was pretty amazing. Right when we said amen, one of the guys asked us..... ¿Ustedes pueden regresar cualquier día de la semana? He asked if we could come back ANY day.... then he explained to us that he had just gotten out of jail... and that he wanted to follow the path of Christ... I was honestly blown away. I KNOW that God loves us and blesses us with miracles... Also I saw the BIG smile on that Elders face as we walked out...

Me and the Aussie Elder... SICKEST division ever!

BUT HOLD ON PEOPLE thats not it...... Later on, this random guy started yelling at us and motioning to us... He looked like your typical drunk... so.... we ALMOST didn`t go talk to him... but something told us to.... so we did.. TURNS OUT... he`s an inactive member from the year 1993 who wants to come back to church... Also, he had the missionaries coming over to their home in the south to give his family the lessons so they could be baptized... They are pretty new here to Peñaflor... Anyways, we met his wife, they told us a bit about themselves, and set an appointment for the next day... I didn`t go, but the Elders went and they said the people even have their TEACHING RECORD from the missionaires in the south, and that it`s like all the way full... They just need to go to church and they are ready to get in the water. TWO HUGE miracles in the space of only a few hours. I KNOW that our Heavenly father is aware of us.... He knows how we feel and what our needs are. It was amazing. Honestly...

Me getting my haircut haha. The guy cutting it happens
to be the... well.. mission leader.

The last thing I`m gonna share... We were doing some SIMI work this week.... looking through ALL the member records and visiting them in their houses... We got to this one, and this lady was MEAN. She just said... I DONT WANT YOU TO EVER COME BACK HERE..... What can I do to get my name off of the church lists FOREVER? Man... it made me so sad... She didn`t even care.. We tried to reason with her and there was no hope.... I was BLOWN AWAY.... How could someone get baptized, and then just completely TURN on their experience? Turn away from their covenants? Turn away from GOD? There are so many people like this that are lost... just lost..... Just please maintain your testimonies.. How hard is it? Read, Pray, go to church.. Pray... repeat.... NEVER be lost. Maintain both hands and all ten fingers on that iron rod... CLING to it. By small and simple things, great things are brought to pass. Remember that.

My comp and I eating Chinese food about an hour
ago... Ohhhh yeaaa!!

Well.... getting changes tomorrow. I`ll get my last comp and we`ll be ready to rock another change here in Peñaflor. I hope you guys all know I love you tons... Keep up the hard work. Lift where you stand.

Much love, Elder Christensen.

Take care guys. Godspeed.

2/6/2012 Elder Christensen "Without it, we are NOTHING!"

2012-02-06T15:55:00.000-08:00

Found some sick train tracks... Yea.... had to take this pic..

Hey there guys! Man this week flewwwwwwwwww right by. It seems like we just get so busy sometimes that by the time we stop to take a breath the week is over... Is the real world like that too? Haha. Let us begin.

We had a sweeeet special training this week in Maipu. (Laugh it up Colby... laugh it up..) It had to do with "Santificando el´día de Reposo"...... What does the word.... Sanctify mean? Holiness... Purity.... cleanlines... Basically, here in our mission this is one of the most broken commandments in the church. HONOR THE SABBATH DAY..... keep it holy.... This meeting honestly hit me in the face like a ton of bricks people. We should do things that help us become closer to God.... I started thinking a lot about my life before being a missionary... I would go to church, get home, throw my stuff on the floor, change, eat something, and go downstairs to play Halo... Like everyyyy week. Then in the night time, I would do laundry and clean my room a bit.... Maybe do some homework... EVERY................ SUNDAY.............. Sure that`s not BAD by any means.. I wasn`t buying stuff, out at the movie theater, or playing organized sports! But hey... I was doing other activities that may be numbing to the spirit of the Lord that SHOULD be present with us on this sacred day. Thats why it`s a rest! We are taking a worldly rest and focusing on the spiritual side of life only. Man... Looks like there`ll be some changes in the future... We should do entertaining things... things that help us grow in love and unity as a family... But we should try to do that through other entertainment that isn`t "Worldly"...... Am I preaching doctrine here? I dunno.... Am I saying what HIT ME IN THE FACE on thursday? Yes..... We need to PURIFY the sabbath day... not just go to church and stay inside....

Elder Monsen and I... Presidents House..

The NEXT day, Friday, we went to presidents house for our monthey Zone Leader Council... as they call it. Super long but SUPER good. We got lots of new and inspired initiatives to apply here in the mission. Once again... talking about charity. BIGGEST attribute ever... GO AND READ 1 CORINTHIANS 13.... That one will change your life... Maybe even make some cross references to Moroni 7 if you have time. CHARITY PEOPLE..... I just want to attach one verse....

2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
We can have ALL of those wonderful gifts.... we can be amazing people..... but if we don`t have charity? WE ARE NOTHING. Man... we all need to work constantly to obtain this one.... Just read that chapter and be blown away!

Last thing... sorry... not a lot of time..... Moses 1:39..... Very known Scripture right?

39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

Elder Fuhriman and I.... Presidents House...

Gods work... His true purpose... his plan... is to get us BACK to his presence.... To help us acheive an eternal life of happiness with our families.. Simple. But what is our job? What can WE do? Link that to DyC 11:20.....

20 Behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all your might, mind and strength.

POWERHOUSE.... A member shared this one with us and it really impacted me. OUR work is to obey... To do what he has already commanded us to do. WE are the ones who complicate it and try to get fancy. It`s like sports... We can just do the classic and well known layup, or we can try to to some 360 dunk and blow the whole game. I know that Tawny has been saying.... its simple... its easy... and I`m here to testify that it IS. ITS SO EASY. It`s all been done before. It`s prepared. Its GODS ETERNAL PLAN and he has commanded us to OBEY with all of our might mind and strength. That`s it. We can do it. This mission has helped me so much in my spiritual progression as a child of God and with every coming day, I become stronger. Obedience is the first law of heaven my friends.

Found this HUGE spider right by my desk...
Freaking huge. We burned it with matches. Hahah...
Got that one on video.

Well.... Thats about it... I`m gonna see if I can`t send some pictures today... Super ghetto computers everywhere I go. Lots of bad luck! Hope all is well and that they continue to that way for everyone no matter where you may be. Love you.

Take care,

Elder Christensen.

YOU ROCK!

1/30/2012 Elder Christensen "The Story of the Lightbulb"

2012-01-30T20:40:00.000-08:00

Hey family and friends! It`s been a super busy week here in El Sauce.. I can`t believe its already over... We had a lotta things goin on.... We had zone conference, ward council ( MILAGRO!), baptismal interview, and the baptism itself. Somehow, we still managed to have a decent amount of success in our sector. The Lord is really blessing us. I actually had the opportunity to interview this lady named Mirta Rubio for her baptism.. Man it was incredible... to be honest. This lady is like 60 and her conversion story completely blew my socks off. She had a dream and she saw her grandson who had passed away... He told her that he wanted to be together with her one day and that she had to talk to her daughter that day... She woke up, went and talked to the daughter, received the missionaries, and got baptized. She went 3 weeks in a row and even got up her first sunday to BARE HER TESTIMONY!!! Wow.... anyways.. this lady had already lived the principles of the gospel and just needed an "Empujonsito" as she said... or just a little push in the right direction. I would say there were about 70 people at her baptism. HUGE status. One cool thing... We talked for about 25 minutes in the interview before we even prayed. It was kinda out of control. She just started talking and telling stories IMMEDIATELY. But... I loved it. I learned a lot from her. She actually BORE TESTIMONY to me in the interview... she just said.. I want to assure you that THIS is God`s church.... and that it is all true.... I sat there shocked and was just like... uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhm.... Whos doing the interview here? I felt like maybe I should get re baptized! Haha. No. But it was incredible to see somebody so prepared by our Heavenly Father...

Okay... So this week we listened to some talks on my iPod while we went to sleep. One of which was President Dieter F. Uchtdorf`s talk about "The lightbulb". Super good talk. He tells the story of a plane that crashed and killed over 100 people... All of this because of ONE little tiny 5 cent lightbulb that failed to illuminate. This was the light that showed whether or not the landing gear of the plane was down... They got distracted, panicked, and weren`t paying attention to the constant descent that the plane was making. All of this could have been avoided had they just stayed the course and payed better attention... He went on to explain that its the same in life. We need to stay focused on the MOST IMPORTANT THING and work for IT. Not losing our focus... This can be hard... it requires FAITH, and consistency. I found a story that is strikingly similar in my scriptures... In Alma 51.. One of the war chapters believe it or not..... Moroni is one of the best leaders there is... great example... there began to be contention and problems between the people... a little group called "Kingman" were the ones causing it all as well.. What happened? This people became divided.... They stopped worrying about the most important thing, (Their freedom? The existence of their people?) and started worrying about something much less important.... which was the changing of a few laws and the placement of a king over the land.... In the middle of a war, why in the WORLD would you worry about such stupidity? Goodness.. anyways, this contention cost Moroni and his people... We read....

Alma 51:2 Behold, it came to pass that while Moroni was thus breaking down the wars and contentions among his own people, and subjecting them to peace and civilization, and making regulations to prepare for war against the Lamanites, behold, the Lamanites had come into the land of Moroni, which was in the borders by the seashore.

23 And it came to pass that the Nephites were not sufficiently strong in the city of Moroni; therefore Amalickiah did drive them, slaying many. And it came to pass that Amalickiah took possession of the city, yea, possession of all their fortifications.

26 And thus he went on, taking possession of many cities, the city of Nephihah, and the city of Lehi, and the city of Morianton, and the city of Omner, and the city of Gid, and the city of Mulek, all of which were on the east borders by the seashore.

27 And thus had the Lamanites obtained, by the cunning of Amalickiah, so many cities, by their numberless hosts, all of which were strongly fortified after the manner of the fortifications of Moroni; all of which afforded strongholds for the Lamanites.

All this happened..... because they LOST THE VISION.. They LOST THE FOCUS.... Just like one little 5 cent light bulb can kill 100 people, one little stupid contention caused the death of many and the loss of many cities..... So we can apply lots from this... We need to have our GOALS, and stay focused on them. Little things like sports, movies, music, video games, etc, shouldn`t take our eye off the prize. Let us maintain the focus on the task at hand and, with the help of God, endure to the end. Hope all is well there. Take care. Have a great week. Elder Christensen.

PICS.... Ya.... well..... I attached my pictures and its pretty dang fishy... I dont want anyone getting any viruses! Looks like it`ll have to be another week. Truth be told... Internet cafes= Not very good! Sorry everyone!

1/23/2012 Elder Christensen "Strict Obedience=Eternal Happiness"

2012-01-23T10:49:00.001-08:00

Hey there everyone! Man I have a lot to say and only about 15 minutesto say it so.... LETS GO!

This week... Well.. the cosa de mayor importancia... we set a baptismal date with a ten year old in our sector! To most missionaries this seems like something easy but this girl? Is probably smarter than I am haha. Not that that is saying

much... but anyways... At first she was really shaky... her name is Aline (Ah-leen) and she wants to be SURE that the church is true before getting baptized. We painted a big rock and wrote "Orar" on it with sharpie... she keeps it in her pillowcase which is cool! So the fecha is set for the 26th of Febrero. We have our work cut out for us and shes got to be praying constantly.

We had a leadership meeting in Maipú that was super good. It went from 10am to 5pm (ARE YOU SURE!?!?) but it was honestly amazing. President King is the man plus the classes that we had were amazing. We have excellent Zone Leaders and District leaders in this mission. Even President says that the mission is the best its ever been... All the leaders are just Powerhouses! You know what I think the reason is? Two things.... 1.) A desire to work... A desire to thrust in the sickle..... 2.) STRICT obedience to the mission rules. That right there is a recipe for success.

We had a sweet lesson on obedience in our Zone Leader Council up at Presidents house a couple weeks back and I`d like to share a little thought from that.... The lesson was called.... The transforming power of obedience... SICK. President told us a story of a missionary from our mission who went home not that long ago that made him sad... He said that in his last interview, this missionary explained that he was plenty happy without having to obey the mission rules AND that the Lord was still blessing him with success... President said that he KNOWS the Lord loves us and is going to bless us... right? The difference is, that through obedience we can receive even MORE blessings. God will ALWAYS give a commandment AND a blessing together. Thats just how he is. ... Heres a scriptural example.... SWITCH the words kingdom for state of happiness..... (DyC 88; 21-24)

21 And they who are not sanctified through the law which I have given unto you, even the law of Christ, must inherit another kingdom (State of happiness.) even that of a terrestrial kingdom (State of happiness.) , or that of a telestial kingdom.(State of happiness.)

22 For he who is not able to abide the law of a celestial kingdom (State of happiness.) cannot abide a celestial glory. (State of happiness.)

23 And he who cannot abide the law of a terrestrial kingdom (State of happiness.) cannot abide a terrestrial glory.

24 And he who cannot abide the law of a telestial kingdom (State of happiness.) cannot abide a telestial glory; therefore he is not meet for a kingdom of glory. Therefore he must abide a kingdom which is not a kingdom of glory. (State of happiness.)

KINDA confusing but VERY true.... if we are not sanctified thorough our strict obedience to the law, we will not be able to receive the state of happiness that we really desire... Yes we will still be happy and we will still be blessed because God and Christ love us.. but, imagine what more we can do if we just OBEY. Like this missionary who had his interview with President... He had success! He was happy! But he could have gone even farther with the principle of self mastery and become more like God is. I love this church. I love the doctrine of Christ. Its the greatest. Last thing.....

DyC 78:7 For if you will that I give unto you a place in the celestial world, you must prepare yourselves by doing the things which I have commanded you and required of you.

If we want a place in the celestial world, its time we make celestial decisions... Its time we be obedient to EVERYTHING that God asks.... after all... our goal is Exhaltation. I know its tough to choose what God wants.... I know that Dad.. My dad... Will Christensen always was trying to put good principles on me... trying to teach me things that are correct... Did I want to do it all the time? Nope... Sure didn`t... I did NOT want to cut the lawn every wednesday.... I did NOT want to go to scouts and get merit badges..... but hey.... I obeyed (barely) what my earthly father asked and it has made me a better

person... I wish I could go back in time with the knowledge I have now and spend time only doing those things... the things I didn`t want to do... By being obedient to what our heavenly father asks, even when we don`t understand it, we achieve a GREATER state of happiness. Remember that in your crazy daily lives. I testify that the doctrine of Christ makes us happier. I`m living proof of it. I hope you like the new me because its a lot more obedient than it was before.... :) That’s chatter for another matter... I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Be obedient.

Chaoooooooo! Elder Christensen

Pics!! Uhhm.... Well.. I have some pics to attach but my computer is Ghettisimo. VERY ghetto.. Soo... next week? Double pics? Love you! Chao!

1/16/2012 Elder Christensen "Busy Week!"

2012-01-16T11:25:00.000-08:00

HEY everyone.. wow. this week has been really excellent here in Peñaflor. Super tranquilo. I have like nooooooooo time to write though because I attached some pictures... that took a good chunk of time.. Anyways! My comp and I are doing GREAT. Having tons of fun and taking the trash out. We get along really well its kinda weird haha. Its kinda like the Lords spiritual scout camp out here haha.

The work is kinda slow but at the same time we are seeing CUALQUIER milagritos... We did a little cosechon this week.... its called a harvest. We got everyone we could from the ward and split up the SIMI... its like.. a roster of inactive members... So everyone took some names, some addresses, and we were off. My comp and I didn`t have too much success.... but the other groups? Found SEVERAL families who are part member, and want to listen to us! So we are stoked about that and we know the Lord is blessing us... GET THIS.... we stopped to eat ass.. (Remember thats FOOD people.. not a swear word!)..... at a place close to our house.... Then suddenly one of the workers asked if we could give a health blessing to a baby IN THE RESTAURANT... I was like... uhhh..... Uhh........ um...... We`re eating? Haha no I didn`t say that... we did decide that it was Irreverent though.... so we got her address and promised to pass by... turns out that this girl knows EVERYTHING about the church because her parents are members in a neighboring ward... she never got baptized because an elder offended her... Story of our lives... Anyways!! Her AND her friend want to listen to us.. Milagrito de verdad. We`re gonna be going by like every Sunday to see what we can do.... The Lord is truely blessing us and we can see his hand on a daily basis.

Okay... gotta wrap up.... THOUGHT of the week! Alma 34:38-39....

38 That ye contend no more against the Holy Ghost, but that ye receive it, and take upon you the name of Christ; that ye humble yourselves even to the dust, and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in, in spirit and in truth; and that ye live in thanksgiving daily, for the many mercies and blessings which he doth bestow upon you.

39 Yea, and I also exhort you, my brethren, that ye be watchful unto prayer continually, that ye may not be led away by the temptations of the devil, that he may not overpower you, that ye may not become his subjects at the last day; for behold, he rewardeth you no good thing.

These scriptures blow my mind!!! We need to make up our minds and DECIDE to take upon ourselves the name of Christ.... To receive the spirit... we can do this by being his witnesses EVERYWHERE and really deciding to give ourselves to him. Think of ammon..... In alma 17... 24 and 25... Lamoni offers ammon one of his daughters right? Had Ammon done that, he would have been a prince in the Kingdom... he would have been filthy rich and well off among the lamanites... I had NEVER thought of it like that...but because he had the spirit with him, because he KNEW his purpose and had taken upon him the name of Christ, he rejected that offer. HE KNEW that he could perform much good among the lamanites and convert many. That was where his heart was. That was his interest... His desire. He didn`t care about fame and riches... he cared about God and his will. We need to do that. CHOOSE GOD. Every minute of every day. Think about what you would do if you were in the prophets presence... Christs presence... Gods presence.. that will influence what you do, say, and think and whether or not you are capable to maintain the spirit with you... Remember... what is not light, IS NOT from God.... May you have a wonderful week. Much love!

Su querido Elder Christensen...

PICS!!! Lets be honest here.... theres a TON of pictures... NO time to put a caption today... We hiked up a HUGE hill for pday and took some SICK pics... My comp and I got a few pics together in there as well.. ENJOY! CHAOOOOOOO!

1/9/2012 Elder Christensen "Yoo"

2012-01-09T11:12:00.000-08:00

My old companion who came down to visit at changes... Elder Gutierrez!

Heyyyyyy! Well, as you know, changes came and went.... I was super duper nervous throughout the entire change meeting.... Its kinda sucky knowing that you`re gonna finish the mission in your next sector..... Actually why beat around the bush... ITS AWFUL! But hey, I got a sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet sector over here in Peñaflor. Elder Fuhriman is too dang sick as well. We`ve already spent a lot of time cleaning up the pension and making it look like a vacation spot. Haha. No not really..... but it does look nice and organized. I`ll get you some pics next week.

The ward I`m in is called "El Sauce" which I think means... the willow? If I`m not mistaken. It`s a big change from the city.... There is no smog whatsoever..... My first day I just stopped and sniffed up a big beasty breath of fresh air.... Man... its insane. I realized I was back in the campo when I rang somebodys doorBELL. It`s a literal bell attached to a string thats mounted way up on their deck. Haha. It`s already been great and I know we`re gonna work like crazy over here. I`M EXCITED to be where I`m at and with a good companion as well.

Elder Higgs and I at changes

Got a couple little thoughts for you before I gotta run. Lets just say.... The Book of Mormon is.... SICK!

Mosiah 28:3 Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish ; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble .

PARENTS... This little full bread german shepheard is 6
weeks old..... the people bought him for 20 bucks...
SICK DEAL! Super Cute too

This is my attitude regarding the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ..... It`s kinda strange... as you get "older" in the mission, you REALLY start to care more. You realize that everything... EVERYTHING... that we do as missionaries is important. I have come to realize that EVERY single person that we talk with is a son or daughter of God... I know that somehow, with some words and with the spirit, we as missionaries can touch the light of Christ in them and WAKE THEM UP. ¡DESPIÉRTATE! I know that every missionary has felt the sadness that comes after a really great lesson or contact.... where the spirit is just testifying like none other...... and you just spill your heart out and throw down some testimony... Then, after it all, they smile at you and say.... "No me interesa.... están perdiendo el tiempo aqui." Like the scripture says, I CANNOT BEAR THAT! Knowing that the eternal gospel of Christ is being rejected just hurts me.... I LOVE these people. I LOVE being a missionary... We just gotta work with all our heart, might, mind and strength, and the Lord will do the rest... Just the fact that the people use their agency poorly makes me... upset.. It`s out of our control though.... we can do all we can do.... and thats all we can do...May we remember that and use our agency well. I`ll close with this last one....

DyC 123:16 You know, brethren, that a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm, by being kept workways with the wind and the waves.

17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

Elder Monsen and I at changes

It`s amazing the influence we, as active members in the church have on other people...... This is one of my favorite scriptures found in the DyC...... It`s time for us to act... it´s time for us to serve... I just love what it says... Let us CHEERFULLY do all that we can...... everything that is offered to us.... then we can just stand still... because we KNOW that we are good. We know that we have done all that our Lord wants us to do. These are gonna be the best two changes of my mission here in Peñaflor. Why? Because we`re dedicated.... we`re converted... and we`re gonna do all that we can with BUEN ANIMO.... Just as the Savior himself did..... Amazing. This is Christs Church. I`m grateful that we can live happily and that we can be safe from evil if we just.... do as it says in the scriptures countless times.... Obey the commandments.... Endure to the end... How hard is that. It`s simple. We are so blessed to live in the time that we do.... May we remember that in our daily lives. Many members of our church have suffered and even died to get the church to where it is at this point today. Now it`s OUR turn to lift where we stand and take the trash out. So lets do it. I love you guys and I hope this can be a great week for you wherever you may be.

Take care.

Elder Christensen.

A VERY PAINFUL tie trade.... you be the judge... MOM.... I`ve said NO NO NO to everyone who has asked for that orange tie... but Elder Fuhriman is a baller... Couldn`t help it.... To this moment it is painful haha but check those paisley ties out! SICK! ENJOY!

1/2/2012 Elder Christensen "Nos Vemos Parque Combarbala"

2012-01-02T19:14:00.000-08:00

Went on divisions... Elder Cervantes and I.

Hola Hola! How we doin? Man it sure was fun to see you guys on skype last week and to chat it up a bit. I can`t beleive that time is just..... gone. Tawny already finished. MOVING ON! New Years and Christmas were both pretty fun. Lotttttttttta alcohol in this place haha. We spent a lot of time just fortaleciendo or strengthening the faith of our members. The Atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is something amazing and we can all change our lives through it.

HAPPY NEW YEARS! Or.. if you`re a Christensen..
MERRY NEW YEAR!!!

Well.... We got the call on Saturday and I`m being transferred. I had definately expected that though...to finish the mission with 5 changes in one place is... practically un heard of. Either way? I`m STOKED. The next two changes will be the best that I`ve had yet I can promise you that. WORK WORK WORK. That is the secret..... I`ve seen a great change in the members and the leaders of this ward during my 4 months here. We just try to do little different things to brighten up everybodies days... for example.... every day after we are done eating lunch with the members, we try to sing a hymn and just help them feel the spirit. Over time, the members have really come to treasure that. I spoke this sunday... ( SURPRISE! ) and I let them know that I really do love them and that I`ve seen the change in each of them. The gospel is amazing.... I will never stray from this camino and I hope that we can all be happy... as Tawny says... Find joy in the journey. Life principle right there folks.

We as missionaries can`t hold babies.... but the rule says nothing
about dogs! Shes just a little smaller than Steffi.

Well.. my keyboard is super fome so I`m gonna finish up. Sorry this is short.... I want to remind you of one of my favorite scriptures.....

35 Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all power, all wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a merciful Being, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name.

36 Now if this is boasting, even so will I boast; for this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo. Yea, blessed is the name of my God, who has been mindful of this people, who are a branch of the tree of Israel, and has been lost from its body in a strange land; yea, I say, blessed be the name of my God, who has been mindful of us, wanderers in a strange land.

37 Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen.

We have reason to rejoice because God loves us. This is his Church. I LOVE IT. If this is boasting, then let me BOAST. These are the latter days and we are in the middle of a spiritual war. May we remain faithful to our God by heeding to his word and that of his prophets. There is no other way.....

I`ll talk to you next week in my next sector. Hope all is well in orem.

Much love,

This is priceless... RIGHT NOW, as I was typing this letter, a cat jumped
up on to my desk and I started to pet it.... As sister King says with her
5 fingers..... 1 we 2 are 3 in 4 chile 5 now. Welcome to south america haha.

BEAUTIFUL sunset..... The catholic church there was just a bonus.

Ps Don`t worry about changes. Gotta run. Hvea a great week. I`ll go where you want me to go dear Lord. Even to the ghetto and dangerous place. I`ll say what you want me to say dear Lord.

12/26/2011 Elder Christensen "Bah Humbug!"

2011-12-26T19:10:00.000-08:00

White elephant extravaganza. Its two pictures
because its two tables full of gifts!

Merrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Christmas to you all!!!!!!!!!! Man it`s still too dang weird to have a hot Christmas. This is the 3rd hot Christmas of my life and I still don`t really know what to think of it. Once again this year I forgot on various occasions that it was even Christmas.. only to be reminded by some ghetto decor and the smell of beer. Haha. Actually I think this has been one of the best Christmases I`ve ever had. The ward has been really..... warm.. Does that work? They´ve just LOVED us. We got a mountain of gifts as well from the members which is something I never had even thought of! Everything from ties to scripture cases to MOUNTAINS of food. I honestly was blown away by them... everyone... not to mention the spirit of Christ that they have really determines the way they live their Christmas. It`s interesting to see the difference between the members and the non members.... the difference in both spirit and atmosphere only separated by a chain link fence. We, being members of Christ`s church, have EVERYTHING it seems like. I dunno... kinda weird to describe. I just love our gospel and what it does in our lives. On Christmas eve and Christmas day we just shared with all the members we possibly could about the Atonement.. Although we went with roughly the same lesson plan for every one, the lessons all turned out different and special for different reasons. We also tried to sing all the Christmas songs we possibly could with EVERYONE. As I`ve written in previous letters, the Spirit of Christmas is the spirit of Christ... and we tried to take it to EVERYONE during this special time. Excellent.

As a mission, we got together in a chapel here in la cisterna. WOW it was hotttt there honesty. 180 missionaries in a fairly small chapel. We listened to talks, choirs of missionaires, and watched " A Christmas Carol" together. Man WHY have I never seen that movie??! Honestly I loved it. Simple story but it has a very powerful message. This man HATED Christmas... you could even go far enough to say that he hated charity... but as he was reminded of his past and saw things in the present and future, he changed. He promised himself to remember Christmas forever... Past, present, and future. Thats honestly something that each of us could do. Obviously we won`t keep the tree and lights up year round but we CAN maintain that same spirit and respect for what our Savior, Jesus Christ did for us. Thats something I plan on doing... In turn, I believe that will help us live with a spirit of Gratitude like the prophet has asked.

One little thought I`d like to share before I wrap up, about the atonement... I find it very interesting that in verse 11 it says.... "laying it aside.."

11 And now remember, my son, if it were not for the plan of redemption, (laying it aside) as soon as they were dead their souls were miserable, being cut off from the presence of the Lord.

12 And now, there was no means to reclaim men from this fallen state, which man had brought upon himself because of his own disobedience;

13 Therefore, according to justice, the plan of redemption could not be brought about, only on conditions of repentance of men in this probationary state, yea, this preparatory state; for except it were for these conditions, mercy could not take effect except it should destroy the work of justice. Now the work of justice could not be destroyed; if so, God would cease to be God.

14 And thus we see that all mankind were fallen, and they were in the grasp of justice; yea, the justice of God, which consigned them forever to be cut off from his presence.

15 And now, the plan of mercy could not be brought about except an atonement should be made; therefore God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, to bring about the plan of mercy, to appease the demands of justice, that God might be a perfect, just God, and a merciful God also.

Elders Monsen, Christensen, and CRIST... The Utah 3 Party. At the Christmas Party.

The atonement is amazing... My understanding of that great merciful act is one of the key pillars of my personal testimony as a member of this church. Sometimes, we as members, "Lay it aside", we take Christ and his atonement for granted... We sin. We stray from the straight and narrow path.... But, at one point or another, we recognize once again how NECESSARY the atonement is in our lives.... As the scriptures say, without it, we have no way to be reclaimed. We have no way to be rescued. The entire plan of salvation is voided.... What a miracle it is to have a Father in heaven who loves us.... as John 3:16 says, he loves us SO much that he sacrificed his SON for us.... so that WE could have eternal life. Amazing. Bliss. Love. That is how I`m feeling during this time of the year. Grateful.. Maybe I even feel a little bad because I`ve neglected these same feelings for YEARS. Being a missionary has opened my eyes and changed the way I see with them. I used to trade time with the family or friends for time playing xbox or even just time alone. I would think about myself... what I needed. What I could do. Why I wasn`t happy. But now, I don`t even know who I am anymore. I hope to never re-discover that either. I`m happy with who I am now. I`m happy with what I`m doing now... I KNOW that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is GODS KINGDOM ON THE EARTH. I know it. I know that he sent his son as a great part of his eternal and loving plan for us. I know that through Christ and his atonement, we can once again find the peace and joy that is eternal... That lasts... I know that the backpack of pain, sorrow, and grief, can be taken from our shoulders if we just submit ourselves to our fathers will and agree to take it off.... to live a higher law. That is why we make covenants.... to sign the contract and agree to change. It`s so clear to me... it`s so perfect to me. I`m converted. This is the best time of the year to really count your many blessings and plan for the future. So do it. Kneel down and thank Heavenly father for all of your blessings, then, by the spirit, set some worthwhile goals for this year. If its by the spirit, it`s God`s will. Remember that. Bueno. I`m wayyy outta time now... but I love you all. I wish you all a Merry Christmas (belated), and a Happy new year.

Christmas BREAKFAST! Actually I made that today
because I wasn`t hungry on Christmas Morning... Haha.

Much love,

Elder Christensen.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

12/20/2011 Hermana Christensen comes home!

2011-12-20T19:04:00.000-08:00

YEA!!!!!!!!!!

12/19/2011 Elder Christensen "The Spirit of Christmas is the Spirit of Christ"

2011-12-19T18:44:00.000-08:00

Elder Tialavea and I... He`s GONE...........

Dear Friends and Family,

Wow.... Life is insane to be quite honest with you all. This whole thing is just breezing right by my face... This week, our group becomes the oldest group of Elders here which is mind boggling to me. Ugh. Anyone who has served a mission knows how I`m feeling..... just in a state of unbelief.

Elder Monsen and I....... Thank rella for the SWEET TIE!

We`ve been working like crazy here both in the sector and in the zone. Our zone is really special.... We just have a really good mix of people that get along and work well together. This change we have a special iniciative from President King that is called.... "El Espiritu de Navidad es El Espiritu de Cristo"..... During this time of year, it`s SO important that we can remember Jesus Christ. My whole LIFE I`ve heard people say that... but I guess I never really understood it until now.... Now I know because I`m converted... Now I get it because I have come to know Jesus Christ and his gospel. But how can we remember him? What can we do to make this the best Christmas ever? Our initiative is a chain of scriptures in the Book of Mormon... It starts talking about the prophets and the prophecies they received about the coming of Christ... then it goes all the way from his birth to his death... really pretty cool.. We read this chain of scriptures with members and invite them to give away THAT Book of Mormon, with the chain already marked, to somebody special. Then its up to us as missionaries to go to the house of the person, sing a hymn, and start sharing the gospel. That is just an example. There are TONS of things that we can do to honor Christ and make this the best Christmas ever. You can pile up a bunch of money and go deliver sub for santa stuff... or you can take dinner to someone who you know is in need. I`d like to invite you all to pray in your families and think of something you can do. There is NO better time to preach the gospel than during the Christmas season. Even in Utah there has to be people that aren`t members. You return missionaries try to find someone who speaks your mission language! The opportunities are all around us.... thats why it is important that we pray so that we can be alert.

COMPLETOS! Our Pday Lunch

Runnin out of time here so I want to just share this last thing.... Mosiah 4:6-9......

6 I say unto you, if ye have come to a knowledge of the goodness of God, and his matchless power, and his wisdom, and his patience, and his long-suffering towards the children of men; and also, the atonement which has been prepared from the foundation of the world, that thereby salvation might come to him that should put his trust in the Lord, and should be diligent in keeping his commandments, and continue in the faith even unto the end of his life, I mean the life of the mortal body—
7 I say, that this is the man who receiveth salvation, through the atonement which was prepared from the foundation of the world for all mankind, which ever were since the afall of Adam, or who are, or who ever shall be, even unto the end of the world.

8 And this is the means whereby salvation cometh. And there is none other salvation save this which hath been spoken of; neither are there any conditions whereby man can be saved except the conditions which I have told you.

9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend

Elder Clark and I after our divisions.....

..BELIEVE IN GOD.... believe in his son Jesus Christ... Tawny this is personal so I hope you don`t mind me sharing... We had a lesson yesterday with some members.... and I felt prompted to share this.. It doesn`t have a ton to do with Christmas until you really piece things together.... It talks about coming to a "Knowledge of the goodness of God"... as well it talks about the atonement and the plan that has been made for us. I shared with this family about your accident in Lake Powell Tawny... about Chase who passed away... the spirit was suppperrrr strong by the way..... then I went on to tell them that your testimony had been made strong because of that... You were converted even more to this gospel because of what happened to you. I remember once you also said.... " I dont know how people can live in this world without having this plan, without having a surety of what will happen tomorrow." WE have that surety... WE have that plan. We know our savior Jesus Christ.... During this special time of year, we need to make it known. We need to really push our testimony into the hearts of everyone. Whatever is to be done, it is to be done with the spirit.... Lets make this the BEST Christmas ever... and remember.. the Spirit of Christmas is the Spirit of Christ......

Me at the Ciber! Mom thats the Tawny tie....
Wore it in her end of mission honor

I love you all. Elder Christensen

CHAOPO!!!!

12/13/2011 Hermana Christensen "you are no longer an american. you are a LATIN american"

2011-12-13T14:27:00.000-08:00

so we met this lady named zelda gave us these slippers because
we helped her move a rock.. hahah they're so funny!

hello beauties.

what a week.

this is us after a devo blowing out our candles

well, i must say that there is absolutely nothing in the world that could possibly physically even come the slightest bit close to the indescribable beautiful incandescent translucent full complete eterno love and happiness i felt on friday night as i sat across the room from my chilean father, armed in the robes of righteousness, making covenants with our heavenly father. it. was. BEAUTIFUL. i got to sit next to his sister, dearest sister peterson, and we just giggled and cried and held hands and rejoiced together. i don't think our feet were on the ground as we floated in the celestial room together. a bunch of his ward members came; i loved seeing those familiar faces and feeling that love and unity and gratitude for our father's plan that unites us all. ahh. so joyful.

a funny: the session started at 8. do you realize what that means?! we were looking at sealing rooms at 10:15 at night. HA! uuum.. we got outta there fast. (don't worry, president knows.) but as we were drivnig home (not speeding!) we saw a utah license plate on the car next to us. now, normally i would've flashed my fellow utahn the black badge of honor and glory to foster some instantaneous camaraderie (sp?) without palabras... but imagine that! missionaries cruising down the freeway at 10:20 at night! hahahah. needless to say we just smiled at her innocently.

look familiar? surprise! paulita as the soldier!

oh, i forgot the sweetest part of all. we got to also be in the session with our members who got sealed on saturday. they received their investiduras that same session and it was stunning to be with the rama, too. on saturday, after their sealing, there was a fiesta at the capilla. they had a guy come and do mexican tacos and oooooooooooooooh were they good! they are so happy, it was unreal to see them and the great difference they've made. they'd invited a ton of friensd and we were able to get things set up so they can also have that joy. ah. and also, what was so neat, and sis mccullough and i talked a lot about this afterwards, was the FEELING of their "reception" you could call it. it wasn't a utah, mormon reception. ew no. boring. it was a celebration. and it ws for the RIGHT REASON. it was that this family (mom, dad and two kids) had been united for ETERNITY. that they'd changed their lives and they were one with god. it wasn't about the dress. it wasn't about the ring. it wasn't about the colors or the decorations or the hair or the bridesmaids or ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the garbage that it ALWAYS is about. it was simple and plain and about this family. and the spirit was strong. and it was just beautiful. i was so inspired and uplifted!

Hermana C with Paul, Angela, & Grandma Judy

on thursday we went on exchanges. i'd talked with one of the sisters who's struggling with her companion, and we'd kinda plotted that i'd go out with this struggling sister to help her realize that she actually does want to be here and doesn't want to go home and that this is the GREATEST WORK AND TIME OF OUR LIVES EVER!! but i was sad that day man. i was just way bummed out because our area's kinda struggling and i'm feeling like a really small little missionary doin nada buena. so what went down? well so we go on this exchange, and this sister... holy cow. she just... she transformed. she lifted ME. she boosted ME. she helped ME remember. we taught people and made THEM happier.. and it just.. it wasn't about us. it was about losing ourselves! and as we did, holy hannah. it was pure bliss. both of us rejoicing. and we saw milagros and had way bomb lessons and added people and just felt so guided by the spirit. it was incredible. that's how the Lord works. he answers our prayers as we just get to work. as we serve him. as we forget ourselves.

this is one of our sweet members. she made us
straight up pose with these hats in front of her
tree... in frnot of the fireplace.. i've got like 500
more pictures from this photoshoot.
she was so into it.

ps. something about that that touched me: the rs pres was going to come out with us, but she couldn't. so what did she do? she didn't just say, " no lo siento hermana otro dia" freak no she FOUND SOMEONE ELSE! i was blown away. this is coming from one of the branches with the highest baptisms in the US. and why? beucase the leaders GET IT. this is about ETERNAL LIFE AND HAPPINESS AND SALVATION. they get it. and that's one of the many millones de reasons that i'm grateful for my mission. in some small way, i GET it now. i get it a little more and i want to ALWAYS be a missionary and ALWAYS be building the kingdom and ALWAYS be striving to share the gospel.

does the lord bless us or what? on sunday we had FOUR SEPARATE INVESTIGADORS AT CHURCH!!!!!! the room was FULL!!!!! the ramam is creciendo! it was sooooo cool! ah! and one of our investigadores committed to live the word of wisdom and is reading and coming to church and saw the baptism on saturday and AH! we're going to invite him to get baptized THIS WEEKEND so pray hard for alberto to accept the invitation to move his date up!

i'm sorry this is long and i've got soo much to say! it's just been a great week!

on sunday night it was my last spanish charla foganera. i wanted to go SO badly! but. we didn't have an investigator going. now we could've gone anyway to sing in the choir, but we KNEW that god would bless us if we sacrificed. so we didn't go and we found a new investigator and one of our investigators (who's ebeen coming to church for 11 years but WON'T GET BAPTIZED) CALLED US!!!! we were SO bold and invited him to get baptized. it was just amazing to see how the lord truly does provide when we sacrifice.

i have some great homework for you and me, it's going to be fun! in the liahona this month, there's an activity for the jovenes to make a list of 100 things you're grateful for. it's right at the beginning and it's going to be EEEEEEASY and way fun. will you do it? it's on page like four or something, right after e eyrings message.

this is us settin up the christmas tree. willy
you would LOVE IT! it's a huge, full tree!

last night we watched the joseph smtih dvd with another investigadora and her novio who's islamic. huH? well, it was SO AMAZINg. the spirit in that movie is UNREAL! and they FELT it. i was just flooded with emotion. i am so eternally thankful for the clarity of the restored gospel of jesus christ. it is SO CLEAR. it always has been! it's so simple! there is NO OTHER WAY to be happy. there is no other way! tha path is clearlyu outlined; got wants to answer our prayers and he WILL tell us if the bom is true if we just READ IT and ASK. as i gave them my testimony i was so overcome with the realization and gratitude of the profound blessing it is and has been to testify on the daily that there has been a restoration of the truth, that god never leaves us alone or confused. i am so thankful. i love being a missionary more than i could possibly put into palabras. i feel such deep gratitude for my savior and for his sacrifice. i love him . i love his gospel. i am more sure than ever that there is no other way to everlasting joy than by living his restored gospel and the making and keeping of covenants through his restored priesthood power. i know that joseph smith restored that poiwer, that he's a prophet, and that tomas s monson is the profeta hoy en dia. i know that god lives. i know that jesus is the christ. i love him. i love representing him. i will always and forever be grateful for this sacred time of my life that iv'e been able to draw ever nearer to him and my father in heaven. i love this work. it's his. he's at the head of it. his spirit directs us. let us always follow him and ALWAYS share this message of great tidings and glad joy with the world.

i love you. so much. and i thank you for your continued support and prayers. have a beautiful week!

hermana christensen

the solanos sealing. :) kristen, she's wearing the
pink crystal earrings!

12/12/2011 Elder Christensen "The Light of Christ"

2011-12-12T13:55:00.000-08:00

Man aliveeeeeeee is it HOT in Chile! Almost every day I ask the people.... "¿Y como suportan este calor?" How to you guys put up with this heat?????????? They usually say...... WE DONT. Hahah. Super funny. I miss the ozone layer. What a great thing.
Moving on! We had a pretty sweet week to be honest... A couple MIRACLES. My mission doesn`t seem to be stuffed full of miracles like that of tawny, (haha!) so when we get one I KNOW that Heavenly Father sent it. We were walkin in the street one day and this guy we had contacted the week before just yelled from a distance, HELLO BROTHER! In english and everything... Then he just opened up his door and said... Come in! Again in english... We talked to this guy and his family for a good half hour about their beliefs... They aren`t married because the guys is "waiting for his ex wife to die"... Sounds CRUEL right? It`s just really expensive to get divorced here... kinda kills us sometimes. Anyways, he seems pretty interested so we`ll be going back there. We sang a hymn, blessed his house, and bounced.

The next day, we showed up superrrrrrrr late for one of our citas. We had another two set citas as well that were going to end the day so we tried to re-schedule it.. The people wanted us RIGHT THEN so we were kinda... unsure of how we were gonna do it. These people are catholics... Also a miracle. REALLY SICK people. We taught them the first half of the plan of salvation...they loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed it. Like pretty much everyone not of our faith, they had always thought of Adams fall as a BAD HORRIBLE thing... but they just don`t realize the GREATNESS of it becuase they don`t have the Book of Mormon. We read 2 Nephi 2:19-25 with them and just talked about it... I was about to ask.... now... Was it good or bad that Adam ate the fruit? But before I had the CHANCE, the lady, Graciela, just blurted out... SO IT WAS GREAT that Adam ate the fruit! Now we have a chance to get bodies! I could see her whole face change and her eyes light up as the power of the restored gospel sparked the light of Christ in her. AMAZING honestly. SO cool.

Alright.........HOMEWORK TIME!!!!! Everyone MUST read Alma 37 this week. DRINK from it please!! Don`t just skim over it! Wow it`s full of goodness. The following are GREAT....

34 Teach them to never be weary of good works, but to be meek and lowly in heart; for such shall find rest to their souls.

Relate that to D&C 64:33... Man SO good. We should neverrrrrrrrrrrrr be weary of good works. Just serve and serve and serve and serve with a smile... Realizing that this is what God wants us to do. LOVE it. This is even BETTER.... 41 to 45....

41 They were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not progress in their journey;

42 Therefore, they tarried in the wilderness, or did not travel a direct course, and were afflicted with hunger and thirst, because of their transgressions.

43 And now, my son, I would that ye should understand that these things are not without a shadow; for as our fathers were slothful to give heed to this compass (now these things were temporal) they did not prosper; even so it is with things which are spiritual.

44 For behold, it is as easy to give heed to the word of Christ, which will point to you a straight course to eternal bliss, as it was for our fathers to give heed to this compass, which would point unto them a straight course to the promised land.

45 And now I say, is there not a type in this thing? For just as surely as this director did bring our fathers, by following its course, to the promised land, shall the words of Christ, if we follow their course, carry us beyond this vale of sorrow into a far better land of promise.

SO good... I love it in spanish... the start of 45 in spanish says.... Is there not symbolism in this?? THERE IS. Often times we CHOOSE to make ourselves suffer. We CHOOSE to fall off the path or even go in an entirely different direction.... They "Tarried" in the wilderness.... LET US NOT TARRY. We can read the scriptures, find the quickest route, and TAKE it. Why do we as human beings CHOOSE to do things that disctract us? That NUMB us.. that freeze us. IT IS EASY TO GIVE HEED TO THE WORD OF CHRIST.... As it is promised.... we will be carried beyond this place into a FAR BETTER land of promise. Don`t be stubborn.. Don't let the natural man take over... I know that this is what we need to do to be happy... Its the recipe for rejoicing. Obviously if I want something to turn out right I gotta follow the recipe EXACTLY... When we decide to add salt instead of sugar is where life turns sour... Please just be obedient everyone. Pay attention to the compass and I promise it will really change your lives as it has changed mine. Know that I love you all.. I hope you have a great week and that you welcome home my wonderful SISTER and my good friend Ammon.... Man alive.. Shoulder to the wheel yet again!

Chao!! Elder Christensen
Just one pic.... Sorry I`m lame! We went bowling... Gotta love it.

12/6/2011 Hermana Christensen "Always"

2011-12-06T14:34:00.000-08:00

awww a bunch of battalion sisters after shift

Oh my dearest darlingest familia!

what an amazing week. holy hannah. i feel like i have so much to tell you i don't know where to begin! haha.

me in my fave place: the BATTALION!!!!
just chillin after our meeting

so on thursday we had a bomb
lesson with our golden family... FINALLY. haha. what went down was one of our rockin members invited them over for a carne asada. and what's cool is that this family went through a lot of the same probs that our golden familiy is going through... but they overcame with the gospel and are getting SEALED on saturday! so they can testify hardcore of the power of the atonement and how the gospel blesses families. it was amazing. really. we watched the "remember lots wife" mmessage and then our member just started in promising them blessings. and then there was another solid family there that also testified hardcore, and it almost turned into everyone promising this family tons of change and blessings and ahhh. i think she felt a little overwhelmed because there were a LOT of us and one of her arguing her point... but it was wonderful. it was also a bday party so it was deeeeeeeelicious and we just had a fiesta. and tonight we're having another one. YES!!! anyway. the family is coming.... kind of. we're nervous about it. they aren't keeping their committments and stuff. agency is SO HARD. it's so hard. i'm so grateful for it. but i hate watching people use their agency like this. it's killing me. i love that family so much! keep the salvador fam in your prayers.

sunset... from our apartment!

i had a really bomb study the other day. i was delving into perseverar hasta el fin (enduring) and i came down to this gorgeous conclusion as we studied in pme capitulo 13 about strengthening new converts/ less actives. go check it out. but okay so look at this. it says that these people need to have an amigo, an assignment and be nutridos por la palabra de dios. so i was thinking about this and they need to be taught about the gospel of christ... they need to unerstand that restoration especially and then all the commandments. aka so they can be obedient and perseverar verdad que si? okay so then what do they need? they need to be given opportunities to serve. mosiah 2:17 right? okay so then check this out... as they serve others their own testimonio va aumentando and they are able to... PERSEVERAR! so then look at what we've got here! our conversos recientes need to understand what exactly the gospel is so they can keep the commandments and be obedient--which is how we show our love for our heavenly father. and then they need to serve others by sharing the gospel and serving in different capacities and callings... is this sounding like the two greatest commandments to anyone else out there?! LOVE GOD (by being obedient to him and keeping his commandments! that's why we teach lessons 1-5 after their baptized so they CAN do that!) and to LOVE THY NEIGHBOR?! it was so cool. the gospel is... SO COOL. it is so full! it is SO TRUE!

your caramel!!

ready for a beautiful story? okay so remember how the solanos (the couple helping us with our golden family) are getting sealed on friday? well, we aren't allowed to go to that becuase we're not the missionaries who taught them. BUT. remember ENRIQUE HERNAN GONZALES?!!! my chilean father?! WELP! he's receiving his endowment on... FRIDAY AT 8!!!!!!!! hahah i am THRILLED that it all worked out and i'm just hoping that they'll be in the same session. and so, beacuse he's my convert, WE GET TO GO!!!! we get to go see my sheave taken to the garner! i am just EXPLODING with joy here!!!! and it'll be in spanish, too. :) can't wait. heavenly father is so generous! pics to come.

something else about His generosity towards me. this past week, well, it's been good of course, but it's been hard. we feel like we worked our TAILS off all weekend to get people with dates and at church and stuff, and then, last minute, they all fall through. they CANNOT progress unless they come to church! and i'm feeling like a failure of a missionary over here because no one is coming to church... how are they supposed to progress towards baptism! anyway, so me and my misery are sitting in sacrament feeling miserable as alma 30:60 haha not really but you know what i mean... i'm feeling all sad and discouraged, hearing hermana mccullough in my mind from earlier in the morning when she asked, 'are we not working hard enough?"... when into the reunion sacramental walks our good friends alberto, monica and olivia. I GASPED AUDIBLY!!!!!!!! hahahah of COURSE! Heavenly father NEVER lets me be sad for too long! i'm telling you! on thursday we were headed to go visit someone in our plans, but it didn't feel right. i am trying SO HARD to follow the spirit and be an effective missionary who heeds myf ather's promptings, so we pulled over and prayed and felt like we should go visit alberto. this guy has so much potential and has met with missionaries for like 10 years off and on.. anyway, he's not progressing so it was going to be the charla franca. we go and had the most beautiful lesson. and the spirit was strong. he cried and said he wants to change, and accepted the baptismal invitation. so he comes to church with his inactive roommate and another investigator and they loved it. i was just... i was so happy. i was so full of gratitude for my heavenly father and his infinite patience and love and GENEROSITY. i know i'm a weak missionary and i know i mess up and i could be so much stinkin better it's discouraging, BUT! he knows that i'm trying. he knows that i'm esforzandome al maximo and so what does he do? blesses me way more than i deserve. :) ah. so there's that. we'll see what happens with our dear friends! bottom line: heavenly father loves us! we just do our part and wait for the blessings ... and they'll come! and oh, they will be sweet! so this week, when you're feelin down, just think what more could you do to esforzarse, do it, and then wait. you'll feel better after that, and you'll feel EVEN BETTER when you see the blessings!

these are the three families: the salvadors,
solano y aguilar after our riiiiiiiiiiico
carne asada. oooooooooh!

life's a bowl of cherries. i love being a missionary more than anything. thank you for the support and emails! i sure love you guys! hope you have a GREAT week!!!

hermana christensen

the woodburys took us to el torito!

12/5/2011 Elder Christensen "Workin Away"

2011-12-05T12:07:00.000-08:00

SICK hawaiian tie! Wow... just wow. Great for pday! Hahah

Hello Friends and Family!

Not sure what happened to this week.... whoops! Just disappeared!

Okay anyways, lets get down to business here. This week was pretty good.. Lots of contacting to be honest. Every spare second we had we were contacting. I think we did 142.... which is a TON at least for our mission. As well we found ourselves talking to several pastors which is always...... well.... you get the point. Its LAME! All they ever want to do is fight and share stupid scriptures nada que ver. Yesterday we ran into some guy from a church I`ve never heard of. They also claim to have a prophet and twelve apostles... It was horrible honestly... we just sat there humbly while he pounded us into the ground with his doctrine.. But you know what? It means NOTHING.... Nothing at all... they were all really deeply analized scriptures with all kinds of deep apostate interpretations..... but whos going to argue that? All we could do was boldly testify of the Book of Mormon... I love that Book.... It is a second witness to the bible. It testifies of the exact same doctrine.... except it is pure because it has only been translated once... I KNOW that Jesus Christ came to the Americas after his resurrection. I know it. In the end we talked about the Priesthood... We testified boldly yet again about how Peter, James, and John came down to confer the priesthood upon Joseph Smith... THAT is how it was restored to the earth... He couldnt tell us where his "Prophet" had received the priesthood... We are 20 years old... We`re not that smart. BUT we DO have the truth of the restored gospel in our lives.. I can recall saying that like 6 times in the contact... The world is lost.... and its up to US to rescue all of those found on the side of the trail. Interesting what things happen when you talk to everyone eh?

The advent, all the presents, and yours truly. You guys truly are amazing.
Thanks! Christmas is gonna be a BLAST!

I`m runnin out of time here so I gotta be quick.. Last week I had the opportunity to do a baptismal interview... Man that is COOL. Knowing that you get to give the green light for somebody to be baptized and in turn, enter into GODS KINGDOM.... Is just a great feeling.. Anyways, she passed no problem and we had a great time during the interview. On Saturday, we were able to go to her baptism only a few minutes away in a taxi.. We showed up and there was NOBODY there except for us 4 missionaries, the lady (Iris), and the bishop from the ward... I had only met this lady once when I interviewed her but I noticed right away that something was wrong.... I sat down and talked to her a little bit. How she was you know... small talk. Then I asked where her NEW husband was.... They had been married 2 days before her baptism..... Turns out, they had gotten in a fight as she was leaving for her baptism, and her husband told her he wasn`t going to go. This is a return missionary we`re talking about here.... just inactive.... She started to cry.... I honestly felt awful for her. Here she was, about to make coventants with her heavenly father, and her own newlywed husband turned his back on her... Not to mention that NOBODY from her family came to support her and nobody from the ward had shown up yet.... I pulled out the scripture 2nd Nephi 2:27.... It shows that satan wants us to be miserable.... Ya we`re free to choose and all but he wants us to be just like he is.... I congratulated her for having come and testified to her that she had beat satan. Honestly it was amazing and the spirit was strong there.... That was a HUGE testimony for me.... It would have been SOoooooo super super duper easy to say.... Nope I`m not gonna get baptized today.... See ya. But no.... she chose to follow through with her commitment and to be baptized. She chose to do what God wanted her to do even though maybe the circumstances in her life weren`t that great in the moment.. Thats how I want to be... We are members of this church and even we aren`t that strong sometimes... Thats my challenge to you guys this week.. CHOOSE GOD. Choose his way. Choose what he wants. No matter what may be your plan... no matter what other thing you might have going on.... Drop it. Make your will and his will be one. Forget yourself and go to work as Gordon B. Hinckley did.... Is my prayer for each and every one of you.

We have an investigator progressing well for his baptism on the 8th of January. Keep praying for him. His name is Eduardo. Every prayer counts. Onward, ever onward, as we glory in his name. Thanks to all of you for everything that you do for me. The church is amazing. I hope you all have a great week!

Chaooo! Elder Christensen.

11/29/2011 Hermana Christensen "Verge of Explosion"

2011-11-29T13:41:00.000-08:00

making a "mad" face. no more pumpkin pie! hahah elder
woodbury, brenchley and sis kearsley

(from being so full and being so joyful)
How am i emailing you again?!

well. it has been a WEEK! and i mean that with emphasis on the week because it's been great. it's actually been really rough. haha. but it's been great! funny how those two words always seem to coincide verdad?

how was everyone's thanksgiving? i have got something REALLY exciting to tell everyone, mostly grampa. so.. you know how i hate mixing foods? well for TWENTY TWO YEARS OF MY LIFE i have been missing out on a SCRUMPTIOUS experience! but this past thanksgiving, elder brenchley cooed me into trying gravy (sorry folks, i've never been a gravy lady. but for e brenchley i'll do anyting. especially when he fantastic chef of a wife cooks it!)... and i put it on my potatoes.. and ate that WITH GRAVY! alll in the same bite! hahah ooooooooh my goodness! what have i missed all these years!? it was wonderful. we served in the battalion that morning, and i knew it was going to be crazy. last year it was busy but then everyone magically stopped coming around lunchtime. all day long i was wondering what was going to happen when our feast started at one with tons of people here... well, of COURSE people started trickling away, but at one on the dot a cute brown family came in wanting a spanish tour. haha. so the person who'd been counting down for thanksgiving missed the feast. but it's okay becuase i am a firm believer in sacrifice bringing forth the blessings of heaven. and they were great family. and when i was done being edified by their lamanite goodness i still got some grub. sweet potatoes OH so good kaylynn! i love serving at the battalion. seriously. i am so blessed! these sisters and the senior couples... it's just this family, this bubble that we're in. i love it. there is so much love here actually that elder evans told us we can't hug so much anymore because people think we're lesbians. dot dot dot question mark. but okay. anyway. moral of the story, i love my call. second moral. thanksgiving was bomb. i've always heard stories of missionaries eating so much they felt sick and wanted to burst, but i've never experienced it. well, i did then. haha. never before have i prayed first to throw up and second to just not explode, please. haha. our branch mission leader fed us and it was tasty but i was SOOO FULL I COULDNT'! and then he was all offended and said we ate like cats.... umm well roxy eats a lot... haah but seriously. it was annoying. and i didn't get any pumpkin pie. i'm still bitter about it. but i am SO THANKFUL for all that i do have! i count my many many many blessings--namely my family and the gospel! and also that i didnt' explode on thanksgiving. it's been four long thanksgiving away from jude's so i was thinking fondly of all of you. i love you all so much!

most of us before the feast.

we had a really beautiful devotional on thanksgiving. we always have devos at the mb on thursday--have i ever mentioned that? well, this week the sisters had us make a list of all the things we were grateful for yadda yadda and then we shared two each. and then they pointed out how strong the spirit got as we all expressed gratitude. so true. express it. it's prideful to withhold gratitude! ---- and theeeeen they asked us to think back two or three years ago to what our gratitude lists were like. we all kinda chuckled and then these sisters got quiet and invited us to think about how much our lives had changed from serving missions. it was stunning. the moment was just... so tender. we are all so thankful to be missionaries. i love what the mission has done for my life and how much my Savior has helped me to change. life is so much clearer and better and i am just SO full of thanks!

we've got a drill to clean dishes after people feed us.
haha tiny kitchen lotsta brown love.

i didn't get enough food so i had to dumpster dive...
in a pioneer dress... hahah no jk. lost car keys.

speaking of baptism.. our golden family is failing. we haven't been able to find them all at home for weeks. they haven't come to church. it's been sooooo sad. so so so sad. they lost their baptismal date. but. finally. on sunday night, we found them at home and we had a great lesson. we made no bake cookies and had each part represent a part of the gospel, like FE is that we're going to have the cookies... but you have to START! butter and sugar. but then you mess up (cocoa) so you need to REPENT. and then what? BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (leche) and then you add the other garby like vanilla and pb and oats and then what? the cookies STILL aren't done because they've gotta harden.. they've gotta ENDURE TO THE END. it was cool to see the lights click in their brown eyes and the realization about what they need to do. they know they need to get married and get baptized. the mom doesn't want the girls to do it without them,a nd she doesn't want to get married to her h usband. we were REAL bold.. we asked 'what is your butter and sugar? where are you going to start?' and it's annoying because she just points all the blame at her husband and the marriage therapist inside of me just boiiiiiiiiiiils but i can't counsel people on their personal matters.... so we throw down doctrinally. but she's just so stubborn. please pray for the familia salvador. the girls and the dad want to get baptized but they can't. they're just stuck. but we're going to seguir and hope that the Lord blesses her with a softened heart. the cookies were fun though, even though we left a little sad. we have faith it'll all work out.

after our no bake cookie lesson. :)

so guess what? on saturday we had two baptisms in the rama! comin comin comin comin! even though it's been a hard week, there is sooooo much light and potential for this ramita! just gotta be patient and look towards the future with a bright eye of faith and hope.

purple pioneer dress in honor of kristen!

life's good. the work of a missionary is hard and slow but it's noble. i love my father in heaven for giving me this chance to understand a MORSEL of what he feels. a tidbit? i tiny sliver. i love him for that. i love him for his endless love and patience. and wow. lately i've been feeling and recognizing how short i fall. and i was just thinking about how heavenly father will somehow accept my small, humble weak offer because the atonement of our savior jesus christ makes up for all my deficiencies. somehow. wow. i love jesus christ. He is the only way. i love His gospel, more than anything. i am so thankful to be a missionary--it is unreal. i wouldn't trade this time for anything in the universe. hermanos, we are so blessed. let us always just keep in mind the blessed state we're in.

i love you. que esten bien y sepan que les amo muchismo.

hermana christensen

ps two weeks worth of pics

11/28/2011 Elder Christensen "Hot, hot heat!"

2011-11-28T13:37:00.000-08:00

Elder Crist and I at changes... He was nervous for the
whole office thing! Check that FACE out! haha.

Hello from sunny burning hot Chile! Man I do NOT know how the people get used to this heat over here! I was just day dreaming about being in Alaska with Elder Roney in that -15 degree stuff... Man missionary work is the greatest. Remember Elder Roney, many are called but few are frozen. They should invent a saying like that for us missionaries in HOT places. Anyways, I think it`s a cool thought that we, the missionaries of the LDS church, get to go out and preach the gospel ni importa how the weather is. To think that we`re getting burned here, the Elders in Africa as well, then you have Elders in other parts who are FREEZING. But we do it for a reason... because we KNOW that what we share can change lives. I`ve definately seen the change in not only myself, but in many people who I`ve been blessed to share with for an extended period of time. The gospel blesses families. Second principle of lesson one. I can testify of that honestly. Just doing simple things like reading the scriptures, praying together, and having an edifying yet FUN family home evening can bring us together, united in Christ.

Elder Tialavea and I at Presidents house... He finishes the same
time Tawny does... SOON! Check that sick tie out parents!

This week, we had one really interesting lesson... We had previously had a baptismal date with a kid named Eduardo. He`s great honestly and has the desire to follow the Savior. Before, for family reasons, he was unable to follow through with his goal for baptism... A couple days back we taught the whole family together in their back yard. We put a blank piece of paper down and asked them to write down some goals that they want to achieve as a family. Of course it started out with stupid stuff like money and cars and blah blah blah.... Then it got more serious.... They wrote down Eternal Life.... From there, we made a tree of goals... Eternal life> Sealing in the temple> Bishops interview> Priesthood> Receiving of Holy Ghost> Baptism > all the way down to reading the scriptures and praying.... They themselves wrote down ALL the necessary things to gain eternal life.... This example helped them see the importance of the commitments that we leave and WHY they have to commit to doing the small things... Most everybody lost attention except Eduardo... We set another baptismal date with him for January 8th. PRAYYYYY please.... We took him to church... he went ALONE... What a huge leap of faith and a miracle for us as missionaries. The work moves on.... hay que poner tu hombro a la lid... Put your shoulder to the wheel and WORK...

We didn`t have turkey for thx giving, but we DID buy
a whole Chicken, fries, and make a cheescake.... all
of which you see on the table. Happy Thanksgiving!

1 Nephi 17:13 And I will also be your alight in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the bpromised land; and ye shall cknow that it is by me that ye are led.

Push on... he will be your light in the wilderness.. Love you all a lot and I hope you have a great week in the SNOW. Much love, Elder Christensen.

About to FEAST on some pollito!

11/22/11 Hermana Christensen "When God give you rainstorms......PUDDLE JUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-11-22T17:44:00.000-08:00

this is from one of my friends weddings here in sd! so cute!

well hello my dears.

we just came from a huge spiritual banquet (aka zone conference). loving my life.

this is the pic of us outside the temple after
our awesome leccion

this week has been bomb. on saturday we had an incredible cita with one of our investigadores who was a referencia from a filipino member up north in a different stake. BUT. we decided to get this guy here to the cita we had INSIDE THE TEMPLE and it was soooo cool. first of all, our investigator is BOMB. she is SOOO solid! we showed her the pictures of the inside of the temple and explained everything to her (that was how this whole thing came about... she was talking to her member friend about the temple because she lives right by it) and it all basically just came down to the restoration of the gospel. and it was AMAZING because the members were just ON FIRE! and they threw down testimony and did EVERYTHING that an ideal member would do.. they didn't interrupt the missionaries but testified of what they said, invited the investigator to listen to us and to do what we said and they promised blessingsand shared stories from their own conversion. oooooooh so good. and she felt the spirit. and sister mccullough! she invited her FIRST EVER REAL PERSON to be baptized! and? SHE SAID YES!!!! oooooooooh the spirit was so so strong and everyone left edified. i have pictures. the best was her (our investigators) prayer at the end. she was all, " we come before thee from all different parts of the world--my friends from the philippines, me from mexico, and my sisters from the states--and we're all speaking different languages, but here, in your house, in your presence and by your spirit we are all speaking the same language..." uh! and then she prayed to be able to make her baptism... it was just.. amazing.

lioness after the rainstorm. haha so wet!
love puddlejumping!

and earlier on in the day we went to one of out less actives--well wait. we took a member out that i've been thinking for a long time would be good for one of our investigators who's 81.. but this lady wasn't home. so we had a member with us and we had good backup plans, but i asked if she knew so and so.. and she went on to tell me that they worked in the temple together. they are best friends! they talk everyday! but they live far away and they don't get to see each other very often (and the one lady is inactive because she was offended). so! we go over there and our member THREW down. we'd planned to share matthew 18 about the talents and the debt and forgiveness and that, and our member was just like, "you aren't forgiving when you have been forgiven of wayyyy more." bold. just like that. and then she started crying and said that everytime she goes to the temple she thinks of this less active lady and knows that SHE NEEDS TO COME BACK.

ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!

and i loved that. i loved that both of these lessons BEGAN WITH THE TEMPLE. that is the goal! our district leader a few weeks ago talked about how if our investigators could just see that the TEMPLE is what it's alll reeeeeeeeeeeeeally about, baptism would just be a little step to get there! it wouldn't be SUCH a holdup! and i remember president donaldson always saying that our converts should be able to see the temple spires from the baptismal font. THAT'S what this is all abuot. and just barely in zone conference we talked about alma 26 ( :) my favorite ever! small world broseph!) and how SHEEVES are our fruits, our converts. but the garner is the refinement that comes from the TEMPLE. from making covenants.

family. i love you. i am so grateful for you. this gospel is so clear and simple. heavenly father's plan is that jesus christ could come to the world to save us. to give us the example. we live in dark times, truth has been lost. but it is RESTORED. enduring to the end isn't simply enduring and performing tedious tasks like sitting through sacrament meeting. enduring to the end is really enduring to the endOWMENT. the phrase of enduring to the end LITERALLY means to make everlasting and omnipotent. as we make those covenants through the restored priesthood power, we are able to live our lives with the light, knowledge, and JOY of the gospel in our lives. it's so simple! that's what this is ALL about! remember how simple it is! and get our brothers and sisters under covenant, first, but then onto higher covenants and the consistent renewal of them!

and, well, with that, i'm off. i've been studying gratitude, like the rest of the world, and we talked the other day bout how gratitude is an expression of our faith. WOW. as we humbly express our gratitude, our faith increases. so. if we want increased faith in our Savior and His plan, let's be GRATEFUL for it and share it with the UNIVERSE! Let us live in thanksgiving DAILY! (alma 34:38)

know that i am thankful for you. i am thankful for my Savior. i am thankful for His atonement. I am thankful for my gracious father in heaven and His infinite patience with me as i struggle weakly to preach his gospel. i love. love. LOVE my mission. i am so grateful i came. i am thankful to all of you for your love, prayers, support and encouragement. my heart is SO full of thanks! i hope you have a wonderful thanksgiving. feel my sincere love and prayers for you and know that your sister in sanD has you on her mind.

love,

hermana christensen

ps my subject line is because it poured down on sunday night. and when i couldnt' see and stepped into a puddle, it was all downhill from there. i guess uphill. because i then just started puddle jumping. haha. hey! if you're already wet, why not have FUN!? my compa thought i was crazy but i thought of staisha ann and had a BLAST. i love you sassar! never forget that day! gutter laying, red truck splashing...! gotta find joy in the journey my friends!

ah! totally forgot!

1 we had a BOMB lesson with our golden family! th ey came through the tour and thenwe watched the js movie and the mom siad she knows js was a profeta. they are movin slowly but sure. aren't they ADORABLE?!!!!

11/21/2011 Elder Christensen "Happy Thanksgiving"

2011-11-21T14:38:00.000-08:00

Elder Van Dyke and I... After our division!

Happy Thanksgiving.... does that even work? Merry Thanksgiving? I dunno anymore. If we are lucky we might end up making some cheesecake on that special day sooo.... Keep us in mind while you`re eating all that rico (delicious) garbage in the US of A!

What did we even do this week? We shared a lot of lessons with members and did a heck of a lot of contacts. Our ward is a ward that is full of older people or families that have been here for a really long time. Other people have been here but they have come and gone with the time. The work of the Lord does not function at all with just missionaries... the members MUST get involved. Anyways, we`ve been working a lot on strengthening our recent converts and helping a lot of the families. President King described to us once a parable of a flywheel... I didn`t even know what that meant when I heard it so I hope you guys can imagine something.... Its like a big huge metal wheel and, like any wheel, its purpose is to spin. So... this work, the work of the Lord is like this flywheel.... Now.. The flywheel is at a stand still... The work isnt moving. Nobody is working. Us, being the missionaries or members, have to push with ALL of our might to even get this wheel to budge an inch or two. It takes a lot of work but it moves several feet. After a long time of constant effort it makes one entire revolution. It`s moving slow but it is still moving. Eventually, it starts to get faster and faster and faster... it becomes so fast that we don`t even need to push anymore and it spins on its own... What do I want to say with this.... Think of something in your life... some goal that you REALLLLYYYY want to achieve... Then apply the flywheel parable.... here in our sector the ward seems to be at a stand-still with the obra misional... People just aren`t understanding that this is IT. I don`t care about sports or video games or any of this garbage that they seem to be doing... lets think about the game of life here.. I don`t care if you`re tired or if your friends might not want to listen... At one point or another in life we decide that we are ourselves and the rest don`t matter.. That my friends and family is what we want to change. This needs to be a ward of miracles. A ward of people that want EVERYONE to arrive to the correct conclusion. The conclusion that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter- Day saints is the only true church on the face of the earth.

The Zone

Changing temas a little bit here... A great friend of mine, Elder Poulsen, taught me a lot about charity. Yesterday in church my companion and I had the opportunity to discursar... o sea... to give talks in church. I can`t lie I`ve actually grown to really like giving talks. I still don`t like when they ASK US right in the moment.... "Elder... can you give a talk?" uhhhhh...... Diez Virgenes plz? Fill your lamps with oil already! Whats the scout motto? Haha. But, as I said, I like it. I chose to speak on... well.. you guessed it. Charity! I thought a lot about it before I got up there.... Obviously we know that Christ was our biggest example of Charity... His atonement was the SINGLE greatest act ever of Charity... I also used the example of him performing miracles.. Theres one point in matthew where he is healing a lepper... The lepper asks Christ to heal him and Christ responds by saying..... in spanish... "Si Quiero"... YES I WANT TO! Desire.... Desire is one of the greatest things that we need to have in order to be charitable! We gotta really want it. Service is a great thing.... but if we have a bad attitude the whole time we are doing service then it doesn`t mean anything... we aren`t having the desire.... I invite you ALL to read Moroni 7 45-48..... I think about these verses several times every day... Man its hard to have charity but.... read those verses and you`ll understand... Pray to the father with ALL the energy of heart.... and he will grant unto you this attribute.. the greatest of all.

Okay... well... i think that about wraps it up. Kind of a boring letter... not too many miracles or anything huge this week. We have a few investigators we might leave because they aren`t really progressing... Its an inactive couple with investigator kids... super complicated... They have been going alot to the Evangelico church... We´ll see. Pray for us. Be grateful for all your blessings this week.. Count them, name them ONE BY ONE as the song says, and be happy. Like Tawny said.. an attitude of Gratitude. I`m going to read the prophet`s talk from 2 conferences ago for my personal study that day.... DO THE SAME! SOoooooooooooooooooooooooooo baller. Love you all so very much. Have an excellent thanksgiving week. Have fun putting the Christmas tree up as well. RAWR!! Chaooo! Elder Christense

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

2011-11-15T14:53:00.000-08:00

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!

11/14/2011 Elder Christensen "The Weekly Shabang"

2011-11-14T14:16:00.000-08:00

Joty, Gaby and I after the sealing

Well... HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OUT THERE! It`s been a pretty busy, fast, and full week here in Parque Combarbalá.. I`m not gonna lie it`s been one hot mother! We´ve walked around a whole bunch and talked to a whole lotta people. Probably the BEST part of my week was being able to go to the temple with two of our converts for their sealing. Shout out to Nate Stoddard! O sea.... mi padre de la misiòn! It was honestly insane and the spirit was definately present. I remember teaching these two guys and they didn`t want to do ANYTHING we said! Hahah! We would get on them about not going to church, or maybe not reading their book of mormon... It was just amazing to see the sweet spirit that they had finally found in their lives. They`ve ALL changed a whole bunch since the last time I saw them. That was the second, and third time ( Because they were two separate sealings) that I`ve seen converts of mine jump one step ahead of me in God`s eternal plan. I love it. Honesty. Its the greatest. I was smiling from ear to ear the whole time we were inside the temple.. The church is true people. Know it. Love it.

Both couples and I after the sealing

Okay... well.. I dont have a lot of time here... I was doing some personal study this week and I came across the 33rd chapter of Alma... Man I love Alma... what a great book. Anyways, I wanted to show you verses 20-23..... In these verses, it`s talking about the story where Moses puts a snake on a staff and whoever looked at it was healed instantly......It makes a comparison as well with the scriptures and how we need to believe in them.. It reads....

The two wives thanking me and saying bye! I thanked them more!

20 But few understood the meaning of those things, and this because of the hardness of their hearts. But there were many who were so hardened that they would not look, therefore they perished. Now the reason they would not look is because they did not believe that it would aheal them.

21 O my brethren, if ye could be healed by merely casting about your eyes that ye might be healed, would ye not behold quickly, or would ye rather harden your hearts in unbelief, and be slothful, that ye would not cast about your eyes, that ye might perish?

The Santiago temple... Kinda blurry..

22 If so, wo shall come upon you; but if not so, then cast about your eyes and begin to believe in the Son of God, that he will come to redeem his people, and that he shall suffer and die to atone for their sins; and that he shall rise again from the dead, which shall bring to pass the resurrection, that all men shall stand before him, to be judged at the last and judgment day, according to their works.

23 And now, my brethren, I desire that ye shall plant this word in your hearts, and as it beginneth to swell even so nourish it by your faith. And behold, it will become a tree, springing up in you unto everlasting life. And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his Son. And even all this can ye do if ye will. Amen.

Elder Monsen, Crist and I on Cerro San Cristobal. (Name of the hill)

SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good honestly.... I absolutely loved these verses and it made my day. I TOO, like Alma, desire that YOU plant this word in your hearts..... If you could be healed INSTANTLY from whatever burden you may have... from whatever trial you may be living... or from whatever past sin or memory that haunts your daily being... WOULD YOU LOOK!???? Would you plant this seed and apply what it says?? I know and testify that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the cure for everything... Sometimes we use our agency poorly and CHOOSE to do things OUR way..... the wrong way... But if we are constant in the gospel we KNOW which is our way and which is his way... We`ll have to spirit as well to help us discern and decide what to do... The scriptures are the greatest tool we have... They are the instruction manual to life. So please, LOOK... BE HEALED.... I promise like it says in v 23, that God will take your burdens and make the light THROUGH THE JOY OF HIS SON.... Meaning... THROUGH the atonement of Jesus Christ. I`m happy here in Chile... The mission just keeps getting better and better with each passing week. I love and care about each one of you and hope that you too are doing what is right... That you too are LOOKING to the scriptures and holding fast to the rod. May God bless you in your daily lives this week.

Elder Monsen, Spencer and I again on the Cerro San Cristobal.

I love you all tons!

Chao Chao!

Elder Christensen.

11/8/2011 Hermana Christensen

2011-11-08T13:18:00.000-08:00

that's a dove. no big

can i just begin by saying wow. wow? wow. i am... SO GRATEFUL to be sitting here at this tiny cubicle with my throbbling leg (i just got ran over by my companion hahha) surrounded by people chatting about family history because it means that i've still got this beautiful black semi-dimmed tag on... it means i'm still a missionary. i cannot even begin to describe how surreal these past few days have been. i feel SO GRATEFUL to still be here.. to still be a missionary. It definitely wasn't time. i definitely wasn't ready. there is no way i was supposed to go home today. I recognize that everyone's plan is different and that God has it all under control--but I am SO THANKFUL that it was part of His plan to let me stay. Because it feel so right. and I am so happy. and there is SO MUCH WORK TO BE DONE!!!! gotta harvest!!!!

okay this week was BOMB! freaking holy cow! bullets immediately!

that is a huge rainbow. SO BEAUTIFUL!

• we had a beautiful lesson with our golden family. actually two this week. first--funny story. on fridya i think it was we had a HUGE rainstorm and it was the best thing ever. soooo funny. but the thing is that these san diegans are BABIES and their whole lives and world shut down if it starts sprinkling for heavens sake! and people don't let us in because "it's raining"... exactly! let us in! hahah anyway, so we get their with the elders for our cita with this awesome family (the one that we knelt on their dirt floor last week) (we did that again this week by the way. so great.) and the lights were all off... siter ortez rang their bell (its a legit bell... like a REAL BELL!).. no answer.. and then she just went CRAZY because she thought they weren't home? and she thought that would help? hahah okay well turns out that as she was banging the bell and the elders and i were trying to figure out what would be best to do, we see a light go on inside... turns out they were IN BED! hahha they were sleeping at 7 because the rain makes them tired. ?. okay so anyway, the point is that they let us in and we had this GORGEOUS lesson. first of all--they EASILY could've turned us away and been like naw we're in bed bro, but they didn't! we all sat on their floor, dripping, talking about the restoration and building a tower of cups to represent HIS CHURCH. it was beautiful. in the middle of it i turned to e debaltzo (dad hes from ohio and is going to write you about your mission i think since i told him you hate ithahahha ) and mouthed 'FECHA' becaus ethese guys are SO GOLDEN AND SO READY AND THEY NEED A BAPTISMAL DATE!!!!!! and so we then invited them, in the most beautiful way, to come together as a couple and as a family to follow the example of jesus christ and be baptized by someone with that restored priesthood authority. and they said YES!!! ahhh! the whole family! and they came to church ALLL BEAUTIFUL with new shoes and loved it. the whole family! it was unbelievable! they are our tender mercy! their biggest stumbling block is sabbath on sunday not saturday. she said that we have her up until that point. help? we're hitting her hard but if you have nay bright ideas, hit me up! they are incredible though, and so generous and humble. we love them so much! the pic you see below is of that night, we took a bday cake for the little girl. i made a deeeelicous carrot cake and was super excited to eat it. but little did i know that mexicans have a tradish... after we sang happy bday they all started chanting "que le muerda que le muerda" she got into position to bite into it, and someone pushed her face into it. INTO MY BEAUTIFUL CAKE!!!! hahhaha the elders said my face was priceless. i was NOT expecting that! i was so sad to have to throw HALF of my delicious cake away because who wants FACE on their cream cheese frosted carrot cake?! i mean come on!

this is carla on her bday... and the carrot cake...

• we met with a less active this past week who won't go to church. the details are really sticky but it involves some breakage of the law of chastity of her husband with someone in the branch and then one of her leaders taking HER temple recommend away. but so now she's decided she's offended by the whole world and won't to go to ningun lado. she'll just sit at home and hate everyone. so we sat on her couches and i just CRIED, kristen.. it was like that lesson of repentance i mentioned a few weeks ago. there is NO REASON to hold yourlself back from salvation. NO REASON to let yourself not be happy because of other's choices. it was SO POWERFUL. and we just sat there and THREW DOWN that she is the only one holding herself back and that it will be hard but it will be SO WORTH IT!!! and that the lord will help her... and she knows. she totally knows. this poor lady. it was so sad but we decided that this is a huge test.. .iterally a test for her. will she pass? will WE pass? we are in a time of testing. we KNOW what we need to do! she NEEDS to come back to church, to forgive and forget and get back onto the path of righteousness! but will she? it's HARD. but she KNOWS she needs to. it's the same with us. we KNWO we need to! so why do we not do it?! DO IT! do whatever it takes to get FULLY ONTO THE PATH!!!!

this is me and sis ortez eating jenns deeeeeeelicious
pumpkin love! THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!

• sunday night we had the mission president's fireside.. we almost didn't go but i'm SO GLAD WE DID! because we got to see der, jenn, aidan, and james! i sure love them! it made my night! and then hermano marquez came with ivan and his BROTHER! who, when i was there, was tooooooootally against us... it... this.. the gospel. i looked out and saw themand just BEAMED and felt SO HAPPY AND SO GRATEFUL!

• also, a neat experience. we were in a cita with a couple living together without being married. the thought crossed my mind as we were teaching that they were living in sin. after the lesson sis ortez was like HOLY BOLD SISTER! huh? she told me that i ACTUALLY SAID THAT! i literally looked at them and told them that! WHAT! hahah well, as mensajeros de dios we defender la verdad and invite others to repent. well, quite literally, He helped me know to say that. and to say it. the cool thing was that they didn't act way offended or anything.. because they KNOW! we KNOW! we know the things we are doing wrong and that they're wrong and that we need to stop! i hate sin! i hate that we would rather sin that have COMPLETE HAPPINESS from being righteous!

• ...being in a little bubble is the best thing ever. i studied some pme ch1 yesterday about our calling and setting apart... and wow. what a blessing. to REP RE SENT jesus christ... of COURSE we can't be calling you all the time or getting online or whatever. no way! i LOVE being a called, set apart, full time missionary! there is NOTHING BETTER!

my life is beautiful. transfers tomorrow will send us all for a huuuge loop. but we'll see. i know that it'll all work out and be okay.

i love you. thank you for all you do and are. thank you SO MUCH for your profiles! you guys are the BEST! gpa! what is your link?! THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!!!

my four!

keep on keepin on. and have a WONDERFUL WEEK!

hermana christensen

11/7/2011 Elder Christensen "Happy November!"

2011-11-07T13:28:00.000-08:00

Delicious Halloween cookies! Man America has never tasted so good!

Hey there everyone. Wow I just figured I`d point out once again that time DOES NOT EXIST. Honestly...Tawny...or... Hermana Christensen would have finished her mission TOMORROW had she not extended it..... Okay... Moving on! Insane thoughts!

Elder Cummings and I with our sick ties haha.
Maybe tawny will recognize that black and gold gucci one.

This week... Let me think... we had a 70 come to our mission! His name is Steven E. Snow and he honestly did an amazing job. Kent F. Richards is a 70 as well I think.... maybe not... but he spoke as well. One REALLY cool thing... the missionaries from the Chilean MTC went as well to the devotional and I ran into an ELDER from my second sector! He had entered into the MTC 2 days before. I`ll attach a picture. I was DEFINATELY emotional about that one! Anyways, Elder Snow`s talk was so fuerte. Super strong. He talked about the Holy Ghost... seems like a basic theme right... He told a story about a friend of his who is a FANATIC of Christmas... He is to the point of like... saving his gifts and opening them in february. Now.. he compared it to having this beautifully wrapped gift... the gift ofthe holy ghost... and choosing to place it on the shelf.... Some of us, being missionaries, are just barely taking the gift off the shelf for the first time and realizing how beautiful it is.. (ME..) I didn`t want anything to do with lots of things you guys all liked to do before the mission... Obviously I read the scriptures and prayed and went to church... but it wasn`t something I LOVED like it has become for me now. I will NEVER put that gift back on the shelf. How can we obtain the spirit? What things has it taught us personally? Have any of you ever learned something from your own mouth? Super cool... When you say something and you suddenly realize how amazing it was... That is NO accident... In order to obtain that spirit, we must ACT. We have to take the gift off the shelf and decide to open it! As missionaries we`re FORCED to act... if you work, you are acting.. Things like doing contacts, knocking doors, giving classes, and teaching lessons are all different forms of acting that help us obtain the holy ghost and keep it with us... It`s a simple principle really.. ACT. Kneel down to say a prayer... or getting up earlier than usual to leave yourself time to study the scriptures... Fasting..... Going to church to take the sacrament. It`s ALL up to us! It requires this action... The ball is on our court. We`ve all had to work at some point to feel the spirit, but it sometimes gets away from us.. Some of you have had this gift... have seen how wonderful it really is... then put it back up on the shelf.... Who knows why.. for laziness, lack of worthiness, a lost testimony... Whatever it may be it is NOT correct. You have stopped acting.. That is where we as members are lost. Check Mosiah 2:9... How can we treat THIS THING lightly?? I invite you ALL, like King Benjamin did, to open up your hearts and minds to once again be able to enjoy this beautiful gift we have. (DyC 8:2-3) ACT. LOVE your LIVES! You are a blessed people and I KNOW with all my heart that if we do these things... these simple things... we can maintain this beautiful gift..

Elder Speakman and I at the devo! You can definately
tell he is going home in two weeks HAHA!
(Don`t get mad when you read this Preston.)

Well... It`s lookin like we`re out of time once again. The mission is the greatest experience anybody can ever have. The greatest learning opportunity of a lifetime. The university and studies one needs to be able to achieve success in this life. I`m grateful for all of the blessings that I have received as well as each and every one of you who are my friends and family. Have an EXCELLENT week! Much love, Elder Christensen..

Sister King and I. For you mother.

Take Care!

A member from my second ward, (Elder Cordova) and I at
the devotional. SO cool! Greenie power!

11/1/2011 Hermana Christensen "I'M SO HAPPY IT'S NOVEMBER!!!"

2011-11-01T16:11:00.000-07:00

me and sis adams/lee on our 17 month mark!

Well HELLO FAMILIA!!!!

How was everyone's old hallow's eve? Halllllloooowwwwwwwwwwwwen. I bet we all missed broseph and his magic with the fog and chainsaw... so fun. We had to be in at 530 and so we did some weekly planning and then had a TALENT SHOW at the battalion! it was a blaaaaaaaaast!

lets skip right to it!

this week has been fabulous. highlights:

• bullets? haha.
• there was definitely trick or treating in the outfitting room last night (where we dress people up like soldiers). classic.

• yesterday was rough finding people at home... not sure why. you'd have thougth it was christmas or something--people are crazy here about halloween. anyway, so we go to an investigators apt, not home. go to another, and there's this nurse lady who cares for both of them and she tells us she's in the hospital. oh no! she then said she was going there right now and that we could follow her. at first i was like, "naaw not so much" but then i realized that maybe there was a reason everything was falling through. so we went! and as we stood there, holding this 81 year old lady's hand, you could tell that it meant so much to her. it was one of those moments where we knew we were in the right place at the right time. and we asked if she'd read in the BOM, she said no but that she wished we'd brought one... whoops! got on RIGHT HERE IN MY BAG! haha she was all excited and said she was confined in there so she'd for sure be reading. sooo neat.

i don't know if you can tell or not... but my knees are dirty. literally. with dirt.

• on friday night we had a cita with a golden family. the dad was recently deported but tried ten times to cross and finally succeeded on the 11th time and is back. so this family of seven lives in this tiny house and doesn't go outside because they live in fear of being caught and deported. wow. so sad. anyway, they have this little tent area to the side of their house and we met them there. they'd dressed up for our visit and we talked to them about the proclamation to the family; the husband and wife have tons of marital problems... that's why they're not married. and that's also why they're listneing to us... they realize we have something that could help. OH WILL IT! anyway, it was a beautiful lesson. really truly. but i think my very favorite part was when they asked if we could kneel in prayer because that's what we've done before! We looked at the elders kinda surprised and got down onto the dirt floor to pray. it was SO special to me that this family didn't care about getting dirty so they could pray. the spirit was so strong and i felt SO HUMBLED and so grateful to not only have my little prayer rug by my bed, but to be a missionary and to be able to flood the earth with the TRUTH. and i KNOW that it is the truth and that the GOSPEL BLESSES FAMILIES!

• another cita right before that was with another family who is kinda struggling. i got all teary as i told them that FAMILIES CAN CHANGE and families can be united and together and SO HAPPY... but only if they are ROOTED together in Cristo and His evangelio. I just feel so thankful for my familia!

bought my companion elote: corn on the cob.
mayo. chile. sounds disgusting. i refuse to try
it. but she was like a little girl on christmas.

• huge highlight: for about two months now sisters have been asking me and another sister if we were going to dance to the talent show. so here's the thing. how do you dance when a) you have NO time to even think about it b) out of shape much? c) in that room?!! where?! hahahahah so i was like uuuuh i have no idea. but i felt like i was burying my candle under a bushel (willy). so in my mind i threw something together, and the night before the talent show me and sister smith danced IN THE PARKING LOT, BAREFOOT, IN PIONEER DRESSES. in a much lesser scale than preaching the gospel and salvation and saving souls and baptizing, it was one of the funnest nights of my mish. just... what? who does that?! and actually doing it was so fun. hahah doing it once actually full out together first time--hilariously fun and felt soo good to move! don't worry, we've got videos--even of the parking lot love. so fun!

• on sunday one of our extreeeeemely less actives came. we've been promising her for MONTHS if she came to church she'd feel better... and wow. she finally came and WOW did she feel better! she said she felt like a new person. holy! and she made comment after comment and said her first prayer in church (after being a member for 30+ years!)... she felt edified afterwards. definitely!
• also. it was my recent convert weekend. i got to see hermano chavez--he frequently brings me fruit at the battalion. haha. he's doin well! karina is doing AWESOME!! she's almost had her callnig in the primaria for a YEAR and she loves it! and my chilean father and his sis/bro came into the battalion on saturday and it made my heart SO WARM to hear that not only did he receive the melchizedek priesthood last week, but he's preparing for the temple here in a few weeks. he is so wonderful. i feel SO BLESSED. i know these relationships will go on for eternity!!

and family, that's what matters. this. the gospel. the straight and narrow. we are asked to do the small, simple, little, seemingly insignificant things becasue it's THOSE THINGS--like going to church weekly to renew sacred covenants, reading daily, praying often--that keep us able to resist temptation and stay on the path of truth and righteousness!! Look at the picture in the october ensign (SO BOMB!!!) about the tree of life. we keep using it to teach lehi's vision because it's SO GOOD... SO VISUAL SO DEPECTIVE. So keep going! and remember that THAT'S why. i know sometimes it seems like a lot... but it's not. the more we understand that, the easier it is to LIVE it and then to invite others to do the same..especially if they've already made convenants. you know what needs to be done.

elder woodbury and my daughters (hna mendoza y ortez).
easily the funniest thing ever. them singling/dancing
to "speedy gonzalez." SO CUTE!

i think of ou allllllllllllllllll the time! thank you for your love and your examples!
hermana christensen

10/31/2011 Elder Christensen "This is Halloween!"

2011-10-31T13:03:00.000-07:00

My bed on the floor with the title of liberty flag

Definately short on time here... but Hey.. We had a GREAT WEEK! The Chilean sun is coming back out though and oh my goodness its ripping us apart. Dad you always ask me to send you some pictures of our house so finally I took a few. It`s pretty tiny don`t get me wrong! We like it though. The only real problem is that its not insulated. So its an OVEN during the daytime hours.

We were able to find a few new investigators as well but we are worried because well... they aren`t exactly young people haha. It`s always hard to teach the gospel to ancianos... old people but hey, we`re gonna give it a shot. As well we had a bunch of really good lessons with some inactives we found while knocking doors.

Study ZONE! You can guess which side is
mine....haha. The crazy pic filled one.

Elder Zeballos, a GA 70 came and spoke to us this week. Super poderoso. I love love love listening to our leaders honestly. They definately have their heads on straight. He talked a lot about a lot haha but he did mention one cool thing. The engish scriptures are the original transalted words from Joseph Smith himself. As you know, we definately don`t use our english books like.... at all here haha. So he was talking about the difference in the translations and there is SO much we can find in the doctrine.. How blessed we are to have them. We, and you being english speakers, don`t think about that often. But man it honestly is cool. English is the language of the restoration. I feel so blessed to have been called to Chile and to have been able to learn another language. It`s an eye opener folks. Also his wife shared a little story about one of their kids who had invited a friend to church... they were only like 12... So the one kid started to go. After that, the parents got involved and started to go as well. En fin, they were all baptized into the church. The POINT! They had received missionaries 10 years before and wanted nothing to do with the church.. It just goes to show that the Lord is sabio...wise.... and he does everything in his own debido.....appropriate time. You are all wonderful people and I`m sure you`re planting seeds every day. :)

Bueno I only really want to comment on one thing I read this week... I was reading about Alma and his bros. Man what STUDS they were. This is Alma 26 and I invite you all to read it. Super good. Anyways, he talks about Joy.... more specifically the joy that he and his brothers have because of the sucess that the Lord gave them. Verse one... My brothers and my brethren, behold I say unto you, how great reason have we to rejoice; for could we have supposed when we astarted from the land of Zarahemla that God would have granted unto us such great blessings?

Our tiny kitchen... My comp is in like every pic by the way haha.

I was thinking about how that is related to us... to me... DId I suppose when I left Utah that God would give me..... THIS!!?? No way. I`ve found such happiness in life. In the gospel. Not only that, but as the chapter moves on to describe, we were able to bring many other sheaves into this the great gospel..

6 Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the astorm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them.

7 But behold, they are in the hands of the Lord of the aharvest, and they are his; and he will braise them up at the last day.

Our NAVY blue house. Its not that big, we live in the back
half of it. The window on the left is ours.
Our house=Kitchen, bathroom, upstairs big room. Simple

I was thinking a lot about my converts.... My "Sheaves". HOW GREAT IS MY REASON TO REJOICE!?!?!? They are safe. They have found solace and happiness in this the great gospel of Jesus Christ. They are in the hands of the Lord of the harvest and safe from wheaver storm that may come their way. Amazing. This chapter helped me so much. Honestly I felt kinda down that day... this picked me right back up. So cool. I marked a ton of stuff haha.

9 For if we had not come up out of the land of Zarahemla, these our dearly beloved brethren, who have so dearly beloved us, would still have been racked with ahatred against us, yea, and they would also have been bstrangers to God.
Had I not come on this mission? If we werent here preaching? They would still be lost. Maybe they wouldn`t hate us.... but they would definately not have been close at all to our heavenly father... as the verse says... they would have been strangers to God.

Elder Guzman and I after another division. Don`t ask
me about his face haha. Crazy one.
(SICK TIE MOM! MTC Gift remember?)

35 Now have we not reason to rejoice? Yea, I say unto you, there never were men that had so great reason to rejoice as we, since the world began; yea, and my joy is carried away, even unto boasting in my God; for he has all apower, ball wisdom, and all understanding; he comprehendeth all things, and he is a cmercifulBeing, even unto salvation, to those who will repent and believe on his name.

Have we not reason to rejoice? Have we not reason to press onward in such a great cause? As Ammon says if this is boasting, LET ME BOAST. I love this church. I love our Heavenly Father. His plan of salvation is perfect. Down to even the minute detail... The Atonement is for us. It can help us with any kind of problem that we come across in this life. We just need to press forward and trust in him.

Sweet chapter eh? Drink it all up please. So good.

Tiny bathroom with SUPERRRRR tiny
shower. Cozy no doubt!

Last thing. You guys have lots of time in the house where you can just get on the computer and search. We have access to general conference talks back to the stone ages. Just set apart 25 minutes this week, at some point, and go back years and years into those conference messages. Find a title or a topic that relates to you and your life. Then just turn off the lights, grab a snack or somethin, and watch it. WATCH IT PLEASEEEEEEE! We have pages and pages of doctrine from all of our prophets. Hours of talks. Modern revelation for our days directly from God himself. (http://lds.org/general-conference/conferences?lang=eng) Theres the Link. Honestly. Just do it. Maybe share if for family home evening. Whatever it may be, just check it out and I promise you`ll feel the spirit.

Okay. Officially outta time. HAPPY HALLOWEEN. I dont think there will be anybody in our yard scaring kids with fog machines and a leaf blower this year...... lamest halloween ever haha. But hey. Enjoy it. Eat tons of candy now you hear!?!? We`re gonna make some cookies ourselves... thats about as exciting as it gets haha. As requested dad, house pictures. Enjoy. Have a great week everyone.

Much love from Chile, Elder Christensen.

Love you all! CHAO!

10/25/2011 Hermana Christensen

2011-10-25T19:17:00.000-07:00

it's been really misty here these past few days and this looks SO COOL!

oh my familia!

so much love! holy cow! i am. SO. GRATEFUL! and excited about alllllll the profiles!! madre bay i'm so sorry! i remember you giving me the code to get on it, but i thought it was still in the works! and dad and bro! AH! i'm making a list of all of your profiles so i can have it at the ready. gramps thanks so much!!! and uncles... wow. you guys are the best. thanks so much for doing it! i'm sorry it was a difficult assignment. was it just hard to know what to say? or like literally the site was difficult? i'm sorry! i've heard it was kinda slow and stuff. but hey! you're heeding the prophet's call, so more
blessings to you! at gold panning sometimes i invite the parents of missionaries to make profiles bc the missionaries can show their investigators and people that mormons are NORMAL people! it's so powerful. i'm so excited about it, so thanks a million!

wwow. what a week it has BEEN!!! i just want to pause and say first off how happy i am. things... wow. really. things are going so well. our area is coming along poco a poquito but it's SO SATISFYING! and i feel like i need to give a huge shout out to hermana ortez. she is seriously the BEST thing ever. i feel like, with her, i am happier than ever. not that my other compas aren't bombsauce or anything, but there's something so special and so perfect about her for me at this time of my life and mission. I feel like she inspires and helps me to be my very best... and we are ALWAYS laughing. life is always so good and we are just so happy! and the Lord has really blessed us to get onto the same page in every way! like with waking up early to go exercise and to teach together and to want ice cream at exactly the same moment.. hahah. but seriously. i'm just so happy and feel so blessed that we're companions! thank you mama madera!

this is us five seconds ago at the templo

we had a BEAUTIFUL i repeat beautiful week. some highlights:

1: on sunday we went to an appointment we had with a lady in la jolla who is AWESOME. after her recent divorce, she's grown so close to the Savior and she is now in medical school so she can go to Africa and serve people there. wow. so we taught her about the restoration on sunday and it was probably the best lesson i've ever been a part of. the spirit was SO STRONG and everything just flowed together and her questions were so perfect and wow. there were also these amazing analogies that just painted it all so perfectly.. wow. she said herself that she feels like her life has been like a puzzle and the pieces are all coming together and she's so happy.. and I looked at her and got all emotional and told her that it wasn't coincidence that we were led to her at THIS time when the puzzle pieces were arranging as they were... and that she was missing the CENTER, the prettiest, most rewarding part of her puzzle! ... and that's what WE OFFER! she looked stunned and the spirit totally touched all of our hearts and wow. it was incredible. and i loved that analogy that we used all throughout the lesson. the gospel and alllll the knowledge and blessings we get from it is EVERYTHING! it's like the picture of the puzzle! kaylynn and i always used to do the edges first... but so that's what life is like without the gospel. you've freaking got nothing! you can't even see the beauty and the beast picture! or the little mermaid one! (those were always my faves) but with the gospel... it all justmakes sense and life is SO COMPLETE AND GRATIFYING.

this is that cute scarf padres! thanks so much! i love it!

2. sunday night we went for another cita with a bomb lady who lives right by the beach. haha. as we were headin in, we saw the lights on in one of our less actives house. gasp. we went to her door, knocked and she was there! we had this joyous moment but we HAD to get to our cita... so we invited her to come! she was kinda weird about it at first, but she came and wowowoowow. the lord put these two ladies RIGHT NEXT DOOR to each other for how long? and they are perfect for each other and thye're just BARELY finding it out! the less active has been trying to get work off foreverrrrrr ( that is the hugest problem with linda vista. EVERYONE WORKS SUNDAY. its never been such a huge struggle before, in any of my areas!)... and turns out THIS SUNDAY she has off! so she invited the investigator and wow. the whole lesson they laughed because we kept referring to them as best friends, but i think they really will be! it was so neat to see the hand of the Lord just leading and guiding the work that night. and wow. everyone was edified. the investigator, the less active, the missionaries...!

3. the battalion continues to be sacred ground for me. i have been blessed to take these tours lately that have inspired and uplifted me SO much. i can't even tell you. the battalion is SUCH a haven for me. and somehow the people that come there are there for me to teach them? i think it's the other way around! (ps it was so fun seeing the dyers! and ma, sister dyer was wearing toms and she said you'd inspired her!) anyway. i love my call and i love the battalion.

4. also on sunday (the other days of the week were good, too, promise!) we taught gospel principles (we don't have a teacher and we always forget to ask someone/the elders so we just do it).. and we felt like we should teach about repentance. well, unfortunately none of our investigators came booooooo but we taught a less active. and wow. i share this with such tenderness and such ... well, it's sacred. we were in this tiny little room and the spririt was there, but this lady asked a question about how she can't forgive someone and the spirit kicked me HARD core to speak. so i did. and a little tidbit of my mom's story came out. and then i was crying. and the spirit was soo strong and i was so grateful to be able to testify of my mother who, after years of not being able to forgive and being hindered by that, was able, through the atonement, to forgive and let go... wow. she is a NEW. PERSON. and she is full of life. and she is happy. and my family? is.. wow! we are so happy. the spirit taught her and taught us. it was beautiful. thank you so much mom.

all is well. life is bliss. thank you for all your love and support. love my family so mucho. hope halloween is boring without me and kurtis but that you eat a delicious shake with the candy you get. haha. love you all!

hermana christensen

dyc 136:11

ps this was a really special tour we took. so the little boy, jackson, was sent to san diego like three years ago by make a wish. he was born and the doctors misdiagnosed or did'nt diagnose something and so he lost all of his motor skills as a small boy. he understands everything but can't respond or move his body how he wishes he could. so sad. but these parents and the sister were AMAZING. it was neat to see how strong the family was even through their trials. we all four lifted his stroller up onto a stool so it could balance for a sec while we took a picture. it was really special.

10/24/2011 Elder Christensen "Calling Occupants"

2011-10-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

Elder Monsen and I.... we took this same picture in the
same place 17 months ago.... what happened??? SICK!

19 months ago!

Hellloooooooo everyone! Wow.. We had a pretty normal week here in La Cisterna but nonetheless we had FUN. The Lord has also blessed us bastante... (How does that translate...anyone?) Blessed us.... a lot this week in the sector. Yesterday for example we found 4 new investigators just by knocking some doors and looking through our past investigators... The future looks bright watson! The good thing is that my companion and I are having a blast. Elder Higgs... talk about a classy guy haha. I`m also really excited that you guys got to go to Elder Poulsen...or.... ahem... Sam`s homecoming yesterday. What a straight shooter that guy. I learned a lot from him about just... being charitable and having a good time. Theres that song thats super old that says... "Don`t worry... be happy." If we could all remember that and actually apply it.... along with "Charity never faileth".... then we would be set for LIFE. That`s really become my new attitude on not only my mission but my whole life. Charity IS the pure love of Christ... If ye have not charity, ye are NOTHING... Strong words right? Nice work Moroni. "He who has charity in the last day, it will be well with him." SO good.

Okay then... This week I read the story about the Anti Nephi Lehi`s and when they buried their weapons of war. I know that I`ve already talked about this previously but it`s SO important and it`s something that we can do often in our lives. (See alma 23:24.) This people understood what conversion really is... they knew that their swords were clean and they actually feared God`s wrath against them... So they didn`t want to re-stain them... It says in 24:13 that maybe the blood of Christ would no longer be able to clean them if they returned to kill once more.... they got scared... so what did they do? They buried them up... Hid them... chao.... I LOVE 24:19..... Once they knew the truth and believed in it......they maintained themselves STRONG in it... They even were willing to die before taking up their arms again.. In the end. you know that like 1000 of them die but that more of the lamanites get converted than the number of slain men... The Lord works in mysterious ways to get his people converted right? Because those who had died were saved, and those who were killing them got converted... meaning that everyone was saved in the end practically... SO COOL! Anyways..... we need to re SEARCH our lives and figure out what our weapons ARE.... I know I`ve talked about this but its key honestly.... RID YOURSELVES of those weapons... I know its got to be hard. Some of your favorite music, movies, habits, etc... but DO it. Alma 13:12....After having been cleaned by the spirit, having cleaned their robes, being clean before God, they couldnt see sin without DISGUST.To me, sin is something... disgusting. It has to become that to us. Being latter day saints, that is part of what we believe. It`s part of who we are.... and it NEEDS to be that way so that we can have the spirit with us always. So that we can stand as witnesses of Christ at all times and in all places.... DyC 121:33...... "What power is there that detains the heavens? It would be as worthless for a man to reach out his arm to stop the flow of the Missouri river as it would be to try to stop the all powerful from spilling his spirit upon the latter day saints..." The POINT is... God`s spirit will continually be spilling upon those who are worthy.... if we are busy toiling with weapons of war, we will miss out on those important impressions we otherwise would have received. GET RID OF THEM NOW. LOOK UPON THEM WITH DISGUST!! Then, you will be blessed. I know that really is how it is... I`ve seen NUMEROUS examples of it on my mission... Once we fully consecrate ourselves and turn ourselves over to the Lord, we can take advantage of all that our loving father has in store for us. That is the message of today... Do it. Love it. Be HAPPY! Okay then... I hope you have a wonderful week. Know that you have a friend and family member on the other side of the world who`s prayin for ya. Take care now. Much love, Elder C.

Pics... Only two sorry... Don`t want to get robbed out there!

Elder Higgs and I in our tiny kitchen.. Its dope though!

10/18/2011 Hermana Christensen "agrio"

2011-10-18T22:28:00.000-07:00

last preparation day we went to coronado island. soo pretty!
mis hijas!! all of my daughters... this picture is PRECIOUS!

It's been another amaaaaaaazing week in linda vista!

this morning we went on the most gorgeous hike to a place called cowles mountain. we left really early and were able to be up at the top of the mountain for the sunrise. you'll love the pictures! it's not quite hawaii, but it's its own kinda beautiful!

okay so. this week has been wonderful. really truly. i have a couple experiences i want to share:

--we had a lesson with hermana alamillo and one of her fellowshippers at the church. we watched the testamentos in the foyer and after the movie we huddled around the book of mormon reading 3 nephi 11 on the floor while the sun went down and the sky was pink around the palm trees... the spirit was so strong as we read the Savior inviting all of us to venid a El and to touch the wounds in his hands and in his feet.. she cried and said she was so happy she followed his example and was baptized and that she knows the church is true and always wants to sit and read the book of mormon... oh, it was gorgeous. and time just flew!

hermana ortezs FIRST experience with frozen yogurt.
WHAT?!! good thing she has me.

--there is a less active family, well couple, in our branch that we've been meaning to visit. they've been on my mind a lot lately, so we dropped by and the senora let us right in. we sat and started talking to her and her husband came down. what's fun about being new is that you can act like you don't know the background about anyone (even though you totally do), so we were like, "alrighty, well, we'll see you at church on sunday?" haha even though they've been inactive for four years... and (something i love about hispanos is how francos they are) they were like, 'well hermanas, honestamante we are kinda alejados um far distanced from the church right now..." and we acted all shocked then simply asked why. haha. then they told us. and honestly... i don't remember a time when the spirit was as strong as i looked them in the eye and testified that going from life inactive to partly active or whatever it may be to ACTIVE ACTIVE is the ONLY. THING. THAT. MEANS. ANYTHING. my cheeks got all hot and i just felt the spirit surging through me and the room. we all sat there, crying, and i told them that one of my favorite parts of being a missionary is being able to feel the Savior's love SO POWERFULLY and so clearly--even for people we don't know. we told them that more happiness and joy than they can even IMAGINE is waiting for them. we'd talked about eter 12:6--the anchor--and about hope in our Savior. The hermana is really sick right now and the hermano works and so it's been really difficult for them to come to church, but they want to. i have heard that a million times before, but these two meant it. they flat out told us that they have no reason to be distanced from the church--only that he'd been called as a second counselor in the branch presidency and he wasn't paying his tithing, so he didn't feel worthy.. but they told him he was...? so he stopped coming. but he said that other than that they have NO REASON and that they want to come back. it was a celestial cita. seriously.

a hike we went on this morning at 450 called cowles mountain
and look, we were in the clouds! it was gorgeous.

--last night we had an fhe planned with an active family and a less active one. the less active hermana called the active one and said she was feeling sick and... you know... but the active hermana (who is AWESOME) said, "oh dang! you're sick? well that's okay. we'll just come over to your house and you can sit in your chair!" haha. no refusal. so we went over there and built up the lords church out of cups that symbolize authority, baptism, faith, profetas, etc. well, turns out TONS of her roommates were there, including one who has eighty billion preguntas, so we had this insaaaanely wonderful lesson in a huge circle of like 12 people just talking about the precious truths of the restoration. ah. and? it was FUN. like we laughed and we cheered when another person came in the room and we had cookies and milk and aaah. it was just SO FUN. especially when our less active hermana testified and answered her non member friends questions.
hahahhaha okay so the other day we were headed to an investigator's house, but we were right by a really discouraged members' house, so we decided to knock her door. turns out her son (the reason she's discouraged) was home with his friend. they said they'd just baaarely left. we were like aw dang, but started to talk to them... we went to the lawn in front of their house and had a sweet little charla about alma 36 and change and repentance and forgiveness. the boy's friend has been in and out of jail and he's only 19 and he feels like he's bound to be like his dad--who's in jail--so we had a really powerful lesson with them. the world is in SUCH DARKNESS! ah. it was amazing. but that's not the funny part. the reason i said hahahah is that because, as we sat there, the members son started getting really jittery. then he said that they had... enemies,... and that we had to not sit there, that they couldn't be there and they didn't want to be responsible for us. huh? so we went back to the house and talked to them in the doorway (there wasn't a woman there so we couldn't go in) and we noticed this three-dotted tattoo on their hand... THEY ARE STRAIGHT UP IN A GANG!! we laughed about how ridiculous the whole thing was--19 year old and a 17 year old in a gang wow. our lives. well, the world is horrible, first of all, but our lives! don't worry. i never feel in danger. just chillin in the hood. (but it's not really even at all!)

so there are these cristianitos who pray and they draw out all their s's. so they'll be like.. "oh diosssssssssss... venimosssssss ante ti para darte graciasssssssssssssss" as we were making plans for an investigator that does that i said we should invite him to talk to salazar slytherin for us.... but hermana freaking didn't know what i was talking about and i had this little spasm (this girl hasn't even had FROZEN YOGURT FOR HEAVENS SAKE!) so i was like YOU DON'T KNOW WHO HARRY POTTER IS?! hahhaa nd then she was all, "oh you still have to see the movies.." and i was like " DON'T WORRY i've got that taken care of already.. my sister and i are going to dress up and watch them..." and she was all, "are you going to dress up like that girl?" "hermione granger?! no! are you serious? she's boring! i've already been her." hahahahha it was in that moment i realized what a geek i sounded like... already having dressed up like her like freshman year... ohhh so funny. anyways, kaylynn we've still got that date! and mal--i totally thought of you and ken-- haha "HE WAS THEIR FWEND! THEIR FWEND!" bottom line: don't pray with drawn out s's because you don't speak parseltongue ya crazy cristianitos.

i'd like to give a HUGE SHOUT OUT to you SAINTS out there heeding the prophets call! dearest willy has a profile!!!!: http://mormon.org/me/4GWG/ does bro! and gma/pa and kristen are working on theirs. you can do it! check em out and then get to yours!!!

last thing. yesterday i took a tour with a couple from utah. in the beginning the woman said her ancestor, abraham hunsaker, was in the battalion. COUSIN!!! hahahah okay so it was distant but still. we had a reeeeeally sweet bond there and alllllllll throughout the tour she just LOVED it. she cried. when i showed her his pic at the end, she just cried and said she can't wait to meet him and that we have so much to thank him for. i don't know that much about his life. i know that you may have told me but i just don't remember. she told me some stuff i didn't know and i just feel even more proud to be his descendant. what an incredible man. anyway, the point was that it was so neat to be able to take them on the tour. they were a very special couple that were touched by the battalion's story. i looooove my call.

well, all's well in sion. mucho amor to you dear ones out there. keep goin in the battle!

hermana christensen

10/17/2011 Elder Christensen "50 Years of Chilean goodness"

2011-10-17T18:09:00.000-07:00

Elder Poulsen and I before he left..

Elder KING and I at the stadium! SICK ONE! OREMITES!

Okay so this week was officially lights out. Way cool. As some of you know we celebrated 50 years of the LDS mission in Chile. SO COOL. The first missionaries in Chile had a little clip where they talked.. how are those guys even still alive?!? We went to a stadium called... El estadio Santa Laura... Kinda far away from where we live but hey we liked it! We went on friday to "Practice" singing a hymn... "I`ll go where you want me to go". Then we actually went on Saturday to the real thing. The Area Presidency spoke which was pretty cool although lets be honest it was hard to focus on that.... WAY COOL thing though I ran into tons of members from El Conquistador my second sector! Man I LOVE that place! I`ll send you a pic maybe you`ll recognize them.... They built a little temple that looks like where Christ came down in the Americas.. They reinacted that whole scene as well... Really really really cool.. They also had 2000 teenagers dress up in loin cloths and stuff and sing on the field... Whats that called in english... To bring the world his truth? The armies of helaman? Something like that... But anyways it was SICK! I have it recorded... The coolest part I think was when they let us sing. We sang at like 9:45 but it was a POWERHOUSE. Our mission, the north mission, the east mission, the Viña del Mar mission, and half of the Rancagua mission. LOTS of power! The echo of our singing was superrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr loud. It had to have been heard for several blocks... OH YA! I also bumped in to Elder King again. Talk about a huge baller. OREM POWER! Hahah. We had a blast.

Kinda blurry but its the 2,000 stripling warriors!

Elder Speakman and I at the stadium.. needs a haircut!

The work is going well too. My new companion is from Ogden. His name is Elder Higgs and he`s got about 16 months in the mission up til now. We`re brainstorming some ideas to try and lift up our zone a little bit. We`re all in kind of a weird funk.... But hey, as Joseph Smith said to Brigham young, the Lord takes raw material and molds it to make what he wants... We`re in the molding process right now and we know the future is a bright one. Referring back to the stadium and the event we had... It was cool to think that just 50 years ago these first missionaries had arrived and there were no members or anything.... Now we can FILL a stadium with members.. We have tons of stakes and wards. It`s like Daniels interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzars dream that was talked about in conference..... The rock that broke and FILLED the earth. The gospel as well is filling the earth at this very moment. Think of ALL the converts in ALL the world each month... There are LOTS of people making covenants each month..It`s moving slow but it`s definitely MOVING. We`re here to gather the wheats from the midst of the tares... Theres just a TON of tares to sort through in order to find that wheat. Hahah. They are there though. I know they are there. It`s up to us to find them as well. This is Gods Church. People always say that they want the church that applies "The bible". Thats when I`m like... Hellllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooooo... listen to us! Then they go off about how we don`t apply the bible because we worship Joseph Smith... ¿Mas ignorante? Ignorance. IGNORANCE and STUBBORNNESS are what prevent the work from going forward at times. People don`t know what we preach... they have heard rumors... and they are too stubborn to actually open their hearts and hear the truth. WE declare the word as the sound of a trumpet. (DyC 42:6) We`re bold in our teaching. We know what will happen and when. THOMAS S. MONSON IS a prophet of god. How can you know of a true prophet? By his fruits. The church is true. Let it be known. Joseph Smith is it`s restorer..... Remember that! If you`ve fallen off the path and let go of the rod...well... ITS STILL THERE! The rod hasn`t moved! YOU HAVE. The Iron rod is the word of God. Let us read the scriptures DAILY and grow closer to our heavenly father. As nephi said its for our benefit! We should constantly be meditating their teachings passages in our lives. I`m converted. I´M CONVERTED. If you`re not.... GET CONVERTED! You live in UTAH for crying out loud!! What in the world is your opposition there? The majority of the problems are from poor use of agency... Here in Chile it`s people that are lost because they have never found the way. They have never found the rod. We have to DRAG them out of that great and spacious building and put their hands on the rod... Once they find it, they LOVE IT! However... in Utah it`s backwards.. Members who have CHOSEN (Poor use of agency) to let go of the rod and what they know is true so that they can party in that same building. Obviously I know this doesn`t apply to everyone but you have all the tools in the world to get yourself converted in Utah. Get to seminary. Get to mutual. Get to Scouts. Get to institute. GET TO CHURCH! Conversion... Get on it. Thats my challenge this time. Find your weak points. You know what they are. Pray about it. Pray for help. Change little things. By small and simple things great things are brought to pass..... so work on the small things and I promise you that you will all be more converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You will literally become more like him and grow in ways you never thought you could. Turn of that Rap, turn off that rated R movie, get your scriptures out and learn about what really matters! I love you all so much. There is no greater work than this. I wish you all an excellent week.

Much love, Elder Christensen.

Front of my Triple. Thought you'd like that.

10/11/2011 Hermana Christensen "?que son los bienes para mi? (dyc 117:4)"

2011-10-11T18:14:00.000-07:00

this is us at la jolla coves

helloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

i did something sweet today and read your emails first. :) well, parts of them. haha. lov eyou guys!

okay let me just tell you something.... WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT REALLY HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!! it was... wow. it was just the best thing ever. we realized early on last week that hermana alamillo (la que se bautizo) was WAY more prepared than we realized. she... she has such desire to follow jesus christ. on friday we had a HUGE scare--her husband found out she was meeting with us to get baptized and if she didn't come to the church at 4 (for her interview!) she wasn't going to get baptized. ahhh. we found that out at eight in the morning. so we decided that EVERY time we'd pray we would pray for her to be baptized. we knew it could happen. and when they drove up to the churhc..... i fell to the ground. hahaha we were SO happy!!!! it was spiritually draining i'll tell ya. but she passed her interview and was there on saturday and we had a really sweet service and then... she was baptized. to say the least, it was one of the most uncomfortable baptisms i've ever had to watch, and i was reeeeeeeally nervous she was going to back out because she just COULDN'T GET ALL THE WAY UNDER.. but she didn't. she finally got all the way down. ................... huge sigh of relief from EVERYONE present. but seriously. (she's way afraid of water... and to add to that she can't lean back because of a surgery she had... so she was literally ON HER KNEES and president was literally trying to push her under the water and she was blowing bubbles and almost crying...oh my gosh. BUT!!!! SHE DID IT!!!! hahha. and afterwards she shared her testimony (i did'nt think she'd do that either!) and it was more like a prayer, but it was so sweet! and she said that she just felt sooo different and so happy and she couldn't stop crying. and on sunday, after she'd been CONFIRMED A MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS!, she participated a TON in our sunday school lesson. this coming from the lady who used to HATE church. hahah she was always so bored and wanted to leave and kept asking how much time there was... hahah but we gave the lesson about the spirit world and we got talking about the need to act now, and hna alamillo raised her hand and straight up was like, "my husband doesn't know i got baptized, but i knew it was the right thing to do. i feel so happy and i know i did the right thing! and it was hard, but i know it's worth it." uuuuuuum okay. it was BOMB. and its sweet because she totally prays tha ther husband will accept the gospel. :) and one of her main reasons for wanting to be baptized is because we talked SO much about doing baptisms for the dead for her son who recently passed away and for the baby she miscarried like 40 years ago. it's going to be a joyous day when she does their baptisms, but even more so when she and her husband are sealed.. .then those kids can be theirs for FOREVER!

ah. i love this. i love what i'm doing. i'm so thankful. SO SO THANKFUL. i love my mission. i feel so privileged and so blessed and so fortunate!

IMELDA'S BAUTISMO!! hna delgado and presidente curtis

so in my studies the other day i was reading about christ's church bearing His name. I'm reading in doctrine and covenants and guess where i was that day? wow perfect--section 115. verses 3-6. what really struck me was when it says (in vs 6) "a fin de que el recogimiento en la tierra de Sion y sus estacas sea para defensa y para REFUGIO contra la tempestad y conta la ira..." with that i was thinking about the branch. about how Christ's church is meant to be a REFUGE from the anger of the world. guys, things are coming in our little branch. on sunday, there was laughter in our gospel principles class. people comforted each other. people were friendly. it was really neat to see! I was thinking about la mesa, and how when i first got there i felt... well, remember how sad i felt? haha. ridiculous. because i wasn't in chula anymore.. left my ward of 900 for a branch of 30 and it was a shocker. but in my ten months there, i watched that little branch change. and i saw people grow TOGETHER and closer to the Savior in suuuuuuuch a beautiful way. so i KNOW it's possible. maybe that's why heavenly father put me here... in this branch that's been a branch for thirty years. i know it's possible that they can love each other and be there for each other and make church a haven! i know that the way to do this is to USE them more, and to take them out with us so that they feel that love Heavenly Father has for each child and to help them feel it too. Aaaaaaaand? this past week we only had ONE LESSON without a member! it's neat. so we're going. we're already seeing progress!

this is where we llive. and kristen, i got
many a compliments on that necklace!

but continuing on with that thought, i realized that's, too, what a home is. it's a refuge. it's a haven. it's a safe place. and in the mission manual it says "church members may dedicate their homes as sacred edifices where the Holy Spirit can reside and where family members can worship, find safety from the world, grow spiritually, and prepare for eternal family relationships." and then i was so thankful for you guys. really truly. i 100% feel that way. home is such a refuge for me. and that's what it's intended to be. i know that doesn't sound like anything profound, but wow. the other day i was thinking about how a lot of my friends are now married and with children, and how i probably won't hang out with them like we used to.. and it made me sad. but THEN. guess what i realized? well, i pictured kaylynn and colby and me watching a movie with tabstar crawling around... just totally chilling. willy was on the couch behind us and kristen coming downstairs with a treat. and wow. i realized that "hanging out" with friends is totally just mimicking what goes on at home. being together! and just passing time together! that's what it's ALL ABOUT! eternal family relationships.. my best friends. wow. it sounds silly, but it was this big beautiful spiritual confirmation i had that everything's going to be okay and that i've got this incredible family bubble that are the funnest, funniest, BEST possible people to be around. so i love you guys! home is where my heart is! what a sacred refuge from the storm!

random--the other night i had a dream that you all came to church with us. and i held tabby. and then in the middle i was like, "wait! i can't hold children!" and then i woke up feeling guilty... haha. but it was super real to me. it was good to see ya in church for a sec!

This is the info on Henry Boyle at the Battalion: On December 8, 1846, he wrote, “I have heard the sound of the everlasting Gospel, have been convinced of it’s truth, have been driven from my parental roof for obeying it & here I am in the service of a government that has driven the Saints from its borders & we are as a people wanderers in a strange land. But all is well, all is right. I love the people I am associated with & the principles of the Gospel better than all else & my heart leapt for joy when I contemplated the situation I found myself in compared with what it had been.” wow. isn't that beautiful!

well. off to another week in the most blessed work of eternity. hope all's well. thank you for all you do for me! love you dearly! can't wait to see your profiles! (except WILLY!!!!!) :) YAY!

hermana christensen

--us feeding the squirrels (REMIND YOU OF LONDON?!) the... TAPATILLO DORITOS! haha he loved it!

10/10/2011 Elder Christensen

2011-10-10T10:47:00.001-07:00

My comp and I... our last pic! Hes OUT!

Whats today? Uh.............. (long pause.) October? It`s PDAY!!! We`ll see who catches that quote :). Wow lets just say it was an INTERESTING week to say the least.. We didn`t actually work a ton in our sector... Like hardly at all. I was doing divisions in other sectors all week long with other missionaries... My companion had to do all kinds of things to get ready to get on the plane. Lots of meetings, trainings, they went to the temple.. etc... But ya. So I don`t really have any miracles to share at the moment haha.. Next week my letter will be a lot more spiritual don`t worry! We did almost get robbed though... I went on divisions with an Elder named Elder Lowry here in our sector... This was... Wednesday.... Ya... We were just contacting this lady and this guy starts yelling at us... Which is normal so we didn`t pay too much attention.. He yelled and said that he wanted to talk to us about Christ and the church and whatnot so we went... He made small talk until there were no people around then he asked for our watches... he told us his 3 friends were gonna put bullets in our backs if we didn`t comply... ya it was definitely scary! Then some more people started to walk by and he changed the subject to Christ... It was obvious that he was alone and had nothing to really threaten us with... So we started walking and went into a bank... Long story short... He ended up just running away and yelling swear words at us..... That is why we don`t carry expensive thingsaround! The funny part is that we were both wearing those 5 dollar wally world watches lol. His is the one with the calculator and mine without.... Here they sell those types of things for drugs. Now we`re definitely walking with our heads up and praying for extra protection! You have no need to worry though honestly I just figured I`d share that haha. Apart from that... We taught some members the plan of salvation with a little puzzle I have.. THat was FUN. This kid named Enso is super smart.... we had previously taught him the Plan and it was touching to watch him re teach the plan to his little brothers. Honestly. Prepare yourselves to SERVE in the Lord`s army! These are the last days! Well... we gotta go to Maipù today so that my companion can be on his way... Sorry I can`t write more.. This isn`t my typical letter... I have no real spiritual story nor commitment for you guys this week... But you KNOW where you have to improve and what you have to do it. I`ll let you ponder about your own lives this week. I hope all is well in all of your lives and that you continue strong as examples of the believers.

Much love, Elder Christensen.

Fast and testimony bingo lol. For you mother! 3 bingos!

Cya guys. Take care.

10/4/2011 Hermana Christensen "Perpetual Pacific Smile!"

2011-10-04T15:55:00.001-07:00

this is elder stanley and e debaltzo, the missionaries for the branch!

unreal.

literally ALLLLL WEEKEND LONG, anyyyyyyytime i thought of you guys hanging out with my la mesa friends, i couldn't help but beeeeeeeeeam! and giggle! AH!!! how was it?! aren't they soooo great!! thanks sooo much for letting them stay at the house! i cannot cannot cannot WAIT to see pictures and read your emails! i actually just met hermano chavez for a sec at the battalion and he gave me the fritos. hahah tapatillo! but he was just... wow. he was so full of light. he pulled out his camera and showed me alllll the pictures of you guys and even a video and wow. SO NEAT! i cannot telll you how much i loved seeing all of those i love SO DEARLY together!! it made my DAY! and my weekend! and my LIFE! hahah!

but seriously. this weekend, as i sat and watched conference, knowing that they were there, staying with my family, in my house, and in that moment in the conference center... i just felt so grateful. six months ago sister mendoza and i asked hermano chavez to take notes and listen intently to conference. we fasted. but not just us, our WHOLE DISTRICT fasted so that THAT MAN could get his answer. and after the sessions, when we pulled him into a classroom to let him know we, as a district, were praying and fasting for him to get his answer, he told us he was fasting too. the spirit was so strong in that room! and then we knelt and he offered a beautiful prayer of gratitude. and then he hugged all of the missionaries and there was this mutual understanding... even for those who couldn't speak spanish. and there was such LOVE. everyone just desired SO BADLY for that man to finally get baptized! and so sitting there this year, hearing the speakers talk about BAPTISM and remembering looking over excitedly to hermano chavez six months earlier, hoping he was getting it, but this time realizing he is a MEMBER..? wow. there is no words for that kind of love and gratitude and joy. i. love. my. mission.

one of my very fave sistas, sis kearsley. :)

conference was... beautiful. i loved taking specific questions and getting specific answers... in the first session! it's so true--knock and it shall be opened unto you. it was such a feast. really. love the talk about hope from elder hales. hope for the future, hope in facing challenges, hope in the Savior. "el esperar en el senor requiere fe, paciencia, humildad, mansedumbre, guardar mandamientos, y perseverar hasta el fin. Hay que esperar en El y tener confianza en El. Hagamos todas las cosas que deberiamos hacer hasta perfeccionarnos. Confiemos en El y en sus meritos." ah sorry english. you can translate that. i just love that it went on to say it's hard to have hope, especially when we don't understand his plan. pero it comes line upon line precept upon precept little here a little there. lets pray for paciencia to be able to bear it all. in his time the answers will come. his blessings are ETERNAL.they are more than we can even realize. Hope has the power to change eternities! And i hope to be able to bless these people here with my knowledge of the gospel. ah. i just loved that talk so much. it was so comforting and direct answer to my concerns. i love general conference.

so not only is the battalion helping to preach the gospel to every nation, language, kindred and tongue (including mandarin now!), but there's a new addition! the last few months of jesse's mission he served in the mtc referral center where people can get online and ask to chat with representatives to answer their questions and request more information. well. because of this delightful mormon.org campaign (where are your profiles?!) it's EXPLODED. and so? the referral center missionaries can't do it on their own. they've asked for historic sites and visitors center misisonaries to be trained so that we, too, can participate in online chat work. We are SO excited!!

things in the branch are going well! we are having a baptism this weekend. so blessed.

...long story. she asked me to color the sky blue..

all i had to use was my scripture marker... ummm.

i just read part of my email from you mom. tell sue i love her so much. joan was... wow. she played such an important role in my life. i love her so much... ah. i am so thankful for her. and for the plan. and for knowing that she's now able to garden all day everyday and read books and walk freely and not have to worry about sick gluten waffles... haha. there are no words for joan bourne glad. what a saint. what an example. i love her so much. sue, i'm praying for you and yours. thank you so much for always being so selfless and such an example of constant service. i love you and your family so much! please let me know if there's anything i can do for you all.

i guess here's where that hope talk was even more meant for us, huh? hope. we have to hope that things will all be okay and that we'll be able to manage without joan and with all this change. we can hope and have faith that heavenly father has a plan. i know that He does. i know that He loves us. I love him so much. I love Him for the deep, eternal kind of love that he has for each of his children, and for how freely he loves us. He's so constant. He's so aware. He's so present and involved in our lives. Let's be better this work in noticing how involved he really is.

i love you all. thank you for the love and the involvement in my life and my mission. thank you so much for your support and prayers. i'll be thinking of you during the funeral on thursday. sigan adelante.

hermana christensen

ps. staish. read dyc 137. i read it this morn and thought of you.

jean i love you. thanks for bring joan into all of our lives. :)

mal. 100% considering it. ttyl hags.

mikey glad to hear the branch is growin. you've done such selfless work for that branch for so long! thanks for writing!

10/3/2011 Elder Christensen "Wow!!!!...Conference!!!!"

2011-10-03T21:16:00.000-07:00

My companion and I at the top of the fort. Dad you`d LOVE this.

Not a lot of time.... Gotta get right to work! GO! General Conference... Wow... I was definitely on the edge of my chair and just SO excited the whole time while we waited for it to start. While you were in the comfort of your living rooms with blankets and popsicles our zone was in a huge beasty room using primary tables to watch the action. I can`t decide which is better... I honestly think I like it more when I`m in a shirt and tie and I can just write at a table in the stake center! Anyways.....I`m gonna talk about my favs from each session....
1.. Saturday Morning... BOYD K. PACKER!! This man is super old and yet still has like 634 times the power that I do. WOW! Blew my away... He talked about how we are being raised in enemy territory and that the adversary is honestly everywhere. I have no idea how I honestly made it through the labyrinth that those teenage years really are... Its so dangerous to all of us honestly. We are surrounded by those who have lower standards than us! We are surrounded by FILTH and all kinds of other spiritually numbing things... I loved how he talked about being imprisoned by the adversary... Once we slip? We`re cooked. Thats when we get to the other extremity of life and lose all of the spiritual hope we had worked so hard to acquire. Now... I loved how he said.... We have the KEY to unlock the prison cell from the inside.... We have the way out! We just need to decide to stand up, and actually unlock the door. Also his little example of the Crow made me laugh.. So awesome haha.

This is my cannon!

2... Saturday Afternoon... L Tom Perrys talk about sharing the gospel related to a temple open house... EVERYONE can come in and see whats up right? We can get these people comfortable and then start to ease them into the process. They themselves will have curiousity sparked just from what they see and hear. He also talked about being BOLD in our declaration of Christ. I know that there has to be someone in Orem who isn`t a member so get sharing with them! As well we need to be an example... I love that scripture that was repeated 3 times from Timothy... Be an example of the believers... In EVERYTHING you do.... The people will get curious and really have the desire to come to know the gospel for themselves..

Our Zone at the Fort in Santa Lucia.

3... Priesthood session... Okay honestly.. Need I say who? Obviously it was Jeffrey R Hollands talk.. INSANELY sick. He talked about being worthy and really taking this work seriously... The thing I most loved was when he said... You cant sit around with the adversary and then try to put on the armor when its mission and temple time! That hasnt worked and will not work in the future! Sad to say there are lots of people who are actually doing that.... Thats where we need to get better right? The mission is no walk in the park by any means so it`s important that we stay WORTHY and actually prepare ourselves for whats to come. POWERHOUSE. Sign my up Elder Holland.

4... Tad Callister... THERE IS NO MIDDLEGROUND FOR THE BOOK OF MORMON... I liked the little rhyme..... Its the word of god or its a fraud! If this book is true, than JOSEPH WAS A PROPHET!! This IS Gods church on the earth in its restored form.Whats to misinterpret? We can know for ourselves... we can first gain a testimony of that and then maintain that testimony! IT IS.... Or it isn`t.... Loved it.

Elder Guzman and I after our division....
Mom you like that flag?

5... Last but not least.. The Prophets closing words.... EVERY calling here on the earth for members is important for the construction of God`s kingdom... I was to send a shout out to all of you reading this that have callings. You make a difference! People look up to you as their teacher and example at church on Sundays. You play a part. Just be sure you LIFT where you stand and really give it all you got. Thats what`s important. YOU. Nice work guys!

With President and Hermana King after my interview. They rock!

Okay.. Thats it. Whew. Now I can breathe a little bit. I hope you can all love General Conference as much as I do.. Honestly. We get to HEAR the living Prophet speak! What could be better than that? Certainly not a sporting event or playing video games! We should take advantage every 6 months to really sit down and look at how we can better ourselves. The mission has really changed my perspective on conference... Its the BOMB! Okay guys. I love you all. As always. You`re the best. Friends and family keep a missionary on his feet. I hope all is well for you and that you continue letting your light shine! Have a
great week! CHAO!

Elder Christensen

9/27/2011 Hermana Christensen "Atalaya"

2011-09-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

baskin robbins one dollar tuestday night scoops.
thoughtof you parents! but i didn't get bubble gum...

Hello hello hellllllllooooooooooooo!

What! End of the transfer?! We've been hearing about everyones changes all day today... so sad! I hate change. so maybe it's a good thing that we don't find out until we're at our battalion transfer meeting verdad? ha. I am really happy. really truly. this past week i've been thinking a lot about that. heavenly father and i have been coming to our own little understanding together of what happiness really is. and happiness is a choice. I know this isn't anything new to anyone out there, but freak. sometimes it's hard to choose. this week i've discovered that i have a talent. i think it's a new one. but dealing with change on the mission has helped ME change. hermana ortez pointed out this week that i have been extra hilarious haha and that we seem to be laughing pretty much always. hm. so heavenly father has helped me learn how to deal with change by laughing and by having an eternal perspective. i'm SO grateful that he's helped me in that way. i feel blessed. and i feel GENUINELY HAPPY with all the changes going. change is hard, but we alllllllllllllll know that we always end up learning a ton and counting the many blessings we have.

i'm hopping right into it because there's zero time.

haha that is sis smith cutting my bags with scizzors..
and i'm holding a trash can.. oh an i'm in a pioneer dress..
HAHAHAHA my life! so funny!

i went on exchanges with sister lee and we had the sweetest experience. i think that exchanges are actually just time set apart for sick milagros. so we went to teach a way funny guy the restoration (after we were fed a horrendous meal of mexican soggy pasta, watery lettuce, and PURPLE JELLO.. WITH NUTS IN IT!!!!!!!!! who does that?!!!).. .but he wasnt' home! ay. but guess who was? the inactive lady he lives with.. and her non member sobrina..? oh, her neice. ha. se me fue. but they were just chillin there talking about God and about jesus christ right when we show up. i'm sure that was jsut coincidence. haha. so we had this beautiful chat with them.. really it was so gorgeous.. and as if that wasn't enough, in the middle of it this guy comes over to sell the neice gold (yeah right). haha. so she goes in the back to get her dinero and this guy looks over at us and asked if we were mormons. we gave the affirmative and asked if he knew any mormons. he then said that he'd met with the missionaries over two years ago and TWO DAYS BEFORE HIS BAPTISM he lost everything... his car his house his phone his family.. i don't know what happneed.. but he said that he hasnt'r eally known where to go ever since then. he asked if we could send missionaries to his house. um? we were like... uhhhh YES! he gave us all his info, down to the zip. when we ran to the car we just laughed about how beautiful it is to be the Lord's instruments to bless the lives of His children. it's seriously the best thing ever.

something i've realized this transfer is how when i'm sad or feeling sick or feeling tired or ______, i know it's time to teach ten minutes ago. that's because i ALWAYS, 100% iof the time feel better after we teach. always. always always ALWAYS. and this morning as i studied i realized that the SPIRIT of light and truth quickeneth all things. WOW! so blessed to be a missionary! so when i feel devastated that so and so flaked out again--it's probably just because i'm being selfish! haha. no i really do value their soul and their salvation. but i also want to feel that drive, that high, that rush, that SPIRIT that only comes from teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ! it's the best thing EVER!

the other day as we were driving in the area i saw a utah license plate. i honked and rolled down the windy and we talked. haha the people were like, "oh you're from utah?" yeah blah blah they were going to a wedding or something and they said, where are you going? I said, "we're just off to preach the restored gospel of jesus christ!" so happily and they looked way confused... hahah it took them a second to see the tag. but they drove away and we all jsut felt so happy to be part of the Lord's one and only true church on the face of the planet. i feel like the luckiest happiest person ever! and the best part is... ANYONE CAN JOIN! in fact, ALL SHOULD JOIN! haha. that's the goal.

this stop sign is legit crochetted around
the bottom to look like a flower. cute!

funny story? okay. freaking. our branch mission leader totally just does what he wants. he's a straight up baller, but he does what he wants. well so, the branch had a baptism. wait. THE BRANCH HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was awesome. first one in a looooooooong time. the lady hasn't been to church for a few weeks and she's never stayed for all three hours (she didn't even know what relief society was... ay)..... so it's not necessarily the ideal situation, but the elders did a good job and the lady will come a long way. ANYWAY. the elders had the tv ALLLLLLL set up for the halftime presentation and all, but our mission leader stands up and announces that the sisters have a special musical number prepared and sat down. hahah i guess that spirit quickened me rightthen because i just stood up and looked to hna ortez *(who HATES SINGING! HAHA) and we walked up to the front... yeah.... so we sang sunshine in my soul... and, no offense to her, or me, or the person who volunteered to play the TOP HAND on the piano HORRIBLY, but it was downright AWFUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hahahaha i felt so badly for everyone there. we were probably the reason why the lady didn't get confirmed... haha sad. but no seriously. shoot we'll get her confirmed. but the song was just awful. but wej ust laughed. so funny. and the elders never did end up using the tv.... (did he not realize it was just standing there?!! hello!

we taught a less active the other day and she needed a blessnig.w e called the elders over right then and they came in and gave her a blessing. the spirit totally just descended upon us and i felt SO thankful for the priesthood and for righteous priesthood holders who exercise and cherish their priesthood. i've loved reading all the priesthood talks in preparation for conference. i lvoe the priesthood and am so thankful to our Father in Heaven for giving it to worthy priesthood holders to benefit all of us.

district meeting! minus sis park you goose!

will everyone PLEASE go and read doctrina y convenions section 101? i loooooooooove the little story about the senor de la vina who tells the guys to build a torre but they don't listen... 100% applies to us today. and i love what he says to them and how he says !como! i told you guys what to do! we've been given EVERYTHING we need to prepare. especially with conf coming up... oh! they are just here to help us prepare! they are our atalayas! let us listen to them!

i love you all!

hermana christensen

9/26/2011 Elder Christensen "A Great Week Ahead of Us!"

2011-09-26T13:17:00.001-07:00

An old picture that I don´t think you saw...
Elder Speakman, Poulsen, and I eating rice at 11pm haha.
We all look DEAD especially Elder Poulsen. Haha love it.

Hey there friends and fam! Well... this weeks like the opposite of last week! I was just BARELY sitting at this computer... It feels like it should be like Thursday or something and not Monday again already.. But.... Whatever! Thanks SO much for the package that you guys sent me. Anybody who´s served a mission knows what a blessing it is to receive some goodies from the fam. Mom... your chex mix is absolutely insane! It´s so good that if Barack tried it he would probably resign from presidency. But no really its tasty. My compliments to the chef!

Second division with Elder Nieto. He´s from El Salvador.
Great day! (That sweet brown tie I got is a trade between
Elder Crist and I. Too good.)

Okay so nothing really big happened this week.... we had 3 investigators show up to church, which was also ward conference. Pretty sweet. We got 100 people to show up which is 30 more than I´ve seen since I got here.. One of the 3 gators was a contact Elder Nieto and I did in the street on divisions. He lives far away too but he showed up! Turns out that he´s evangelic and that he´s like a spy kinda guy... He goes and gives reports on what he´s learned in other churches... He stayed ALL 3 hours and LOVED it... We taught a class on ayuno... or fasting for our gator class and he at one point even said... "In this church you guys apply everything correctly!" hahah that is right my good friend emilio. We are hoping that he comes back and ends up being converted. At the end of the block the ward gave out true to the faith books and bookmarks to everyone in attendance. I Loveeeed my sunday.. Oh ya. We sang in the choir as well haha. We´re not the greatest singers but at least we´re supporting the ward.

I was pondering last night about what I would say to you guys today... I ended up thinking about conference.... CONFERENCE CONFERENCE CONFERENCE. How is it here again? Honestly I was just barely watching it on the projector in the office.... Dunno what happened to that six months... Anyways... I thought I´d start out with this Scripture in DyC 1:38.... ALL will be brought to pass.... through HIS voice OR the voice of his servants... THESE men that we will be listening to this week are his true servants on the earth today. What they speak is real... What they speak is directly from him. It´s like the line of authority here.. The big boss tells his servant and the servant tells EVERYBODY ELSE. Thomas S. Monson is called of God and he will tell us exactly what we need to here if we GO prepared... I invite you RIGHT now to start pondering.... Thinking of questions... I´ll make the same promise they always made us in seminary... If you write these questions down and watch ALL the conference sessions, you WILL receive an answer to your questions... In DyC 78:7... it says something to this effect.... If you want that I give you a place in the celestial world, it is precise that ye prepare yourselves, doing what I have commanded of ye....... If we want to start progressing towards the celestial kingdom, this is the way. Prepare ourselves. What better way to do so than to listen to and apply the things that the living prophet and apostles of God tell us to do... Fill up your oil lamps and be ready for whatever may come your way... Last scripture... DyC 88:77-80.... Teach one another the doctrine of Christ.... Do so diligently... You will be instructed in doctine, things that apply to Gods kingdom, new things he wants you to learn, things on the earth as well as in heaven, how things have been as well as how they will be. EVERYTHING that we need to know about our lives... about this state of probation and beyond... will be talked about this weekend. This is a HUGE deal people.. I get more fired up about General Conference then I do when they shut the lights off at the Jazz game and start announcing the players.... Those are two different aspects of LIFE entirely yet one gets me just... LIT UP!!! I know for a fact that people reading this letter right now have trials in their lives... I know that we all have aspects where we need to improve and where we could be contributing more... So lets think about these things! Lets study ourselves, find our weak points, receive some direct revelation this week, and better ourselves. As I said this life is a state of probation.. We have our agency and its up to us to make the right decisions. I want General conference to big as big of a deal for you guys as it is for me or for any other missionary for that matter. It´s like Jordan Johnston said... Its wayyyyy better than sitting in a hammock in Hawaii haha. Liked that one. Look at it as ten hours of time with God... Time to learn directly from him... Not just ten hours of obligatory listening before you can go hang out with your friends... TAKE NOTES PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE: Oh my gosh I´ve never been so bugged about anything before in my LIFE!! Everyone says they fall asleep.... DUHHH.. Sitting in the dark for two hours in a hot stake center will do that to you! As well you get those people who say.... "The Liahona will come out and I can read the messages when it comes... Or even better. Online.." COME ON!!! NOWWWW is the time. Maybe you´ll receive some revelation while writing things down that you would otherwise not receive 3 months later when the liahona gets to your porch.... (Liahona is an ensign by the way.) Last conference I wrote like 20 pages of notes AND I still have the liahona... Thats 20 pages of the doctrine mixed with my thoughts and feelings as WELL as the magazine with the original articles for referral... You see the point? Just do it. Nike. Just do it. PLEASE. Make conference an enjoyable, edifying experience. It´s the greatest honestly. Well........ I think that´s about all I have for today. I´ve said it before and I´ll say it again. The mission is the single greatest thing I´ve ever done in my life. I love it. We learn tonssssss about who we are. Its like having two years of personal study and coming to know Christ.. I know that what we are doing is God´s will. I know that this is HIS church. I know that Joseph Smith suffered through all kinds of trials so that he could translate the plates and get us this MARVALOUS book. The Book of Mormon! Definitely the best book I´ve ever read. As Joseph himself said... A man can grow closer to Christ through it than through any other book..... That says enough right there. I´ve written TONS in my book... Its more like a journal now hahah. And finally I know that these men who will speak to us this weekend are true messengers of our Heavenly father. I hope you can all have a great attitude and go ready to learn this weekend. I love you all tons and I hope that you have a great week. You´re all in my prayers. Much love, your son, your friend, Elder Christensen.

Elders Crist & Christensen (second cousins!)

PICS!!!

Did divisions twice this week... Once with YOUR FAVORITE Elder Crist... Hahah. The family oughta love that one. It was super cool to work ALL day with that Elder... I definitely thought... What a coincidence that we´re both in Chile and we´re actually on Divisions together... Hmmm... Small world.

9/20/2011 Hermana Christensen "viva mexico! VIVA! x3 = EL GRITO!"

2011-09-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

so we went to a lighthouse. so pretty!

HELLOOOOOOOOO!!!

this past week we celebrated the independencia de mexico y todo latino america. it was SOOOOOOOO sweet! if you can get onto youtube you can watch "el grito" in mexico city. sooo sweet! they do this incredible fireworks show that puts the stadium of fire to SHAME, and the presidente does "el grito" in the middle of the town square... oh my goodness. we watched it in devotional the other day and it gave me the hibbee gibees. so sick. so, to celebrate, we had a fiesta! the rama had a REALLY good party--like it was organized and people came AND brought their friends! it was cool! the last party we had there was rice and fruit (that we brought).. but this one was sooo awesome. and way fun to convivir and get to know everyone better.

this is all of us huddled around the pics in the introduction room listening

i've got big big news for you. yesterday marked a day in history that will never be forgotten. WE GOT THE TOUR IN MANDARIN CHINESE!!!!!!!!! ooooooooooooh my. soo sweet. seriously! and, i'm sure it was just a coincidence, RIGHT as it finished uploading, two asians walked in. :) so they took the tour (with tons of mormon battalion sisters)--the first tour EVER in chinese--and it was SOOOO COOL! it's real quiet in the introduction room, so we were all just peeeeeled the pictures. ah. these two asians just felt so loved! the fact that the tour is now in their language helps them feel ilke we are reaching out to them and embracing their culture. at the end, they both referred, and that was great because they live here in california. so the missionaries can go to them. but for all the mainland china asians that will come through here, they will get this first exposure to the church and when the time is ready and the work opens there... aaaah harvest.

got to see the hepplers the other day! so fun! and jennica! AH!!! love!

district meeting... plus chex mix. SO GOOD!!

welp, zero percent time. the work is going my friends. it's so funny how every area really is way different. we've been able to find and add more people than in la mesa, but i feel like the commitment is wayyy lower. we just cannot get people to leave their babylonian jobs and get to church. seriously. sooo annoying. and HARD to get people to the covenant of baptism! hellooooooo! but it's made me really realize the importance of being led by the spirit to find those who are SEARCHING. and yesterday we found one. so legit. he's the bro of a referral. when he sat down we were like aaaaaw me-an he's totally going to bash us hardcore, but he was way nice and just listened and chimed in some stuff about "albedrio" (no one knows what that word agency means come on! so cool!). it was aweosme. the spirit was way strong and they openly invited us back tonigh. so ballin. and he's got an expedition. so that'll help solve one of our other problems.. not having RIDES. haha. oh boy. and now we're on to using our members and getting them excited... one thing at a time.

we had a mexican independance day CELEBRASH!!!

things are wonderful. i feel so happy and content to be part of the Lords work. i know it's his. we are planting seeds all around the world. i took a choice english couple through the tour last night. they've seen missionaries in liverpool but they wouldn't talk to them, no way no how. but they'll stop and talk to me for an hour and a half because i'm totally nonthreatening, hilarious and in a pioneer dress. mercy! so good. i love it. they totally referred. and, as they left, they said when they see the missionaries next, "we'll have plenty to talk about..." haha. i love it. and this whole tour in chinese thing... come on. the Lord is in charge here. the work is rolling forth and every kindred nation and tongue will confess that Jesus is the Christ. and THIS is His church!

all's well. love you dearly.

hermana christensen

ps. joan and sue. got your note from elder brown! yep! totally made my day! love you twooooooooooooo!

9/20/2011 Elder Christensen "Independence Day"

2011-09-20T13:16:00.001-07:00

Me holding a plate of anticuchos! Superrrrr

dank I can´t lie! Great P day activity!

Wow it seems like its been an eternity since the last time I wrote you guys hahaha. Thats the opposite of normal. Normally I take two breaths, a nap, and I back here at the computer writing again.. Sorry our internet time was changed to tuesday this week because everything was closed up. These chileans LOVE their holidays more than anything else in the world hahaha. Super funny to be honest.. Lets see here. Let me start with a little random thing that you might find funny.. Mom I love beats now! Superrrr good. It´s kinda amazing how your tastebuds change on the mission. Every return missionary knows what I´m talking about haha! Dad will LOVE that one seeing as how he hates beats.

Okay we had zone conference this week... As a mission we are now going to be teaching our Lesson one a lot deeper than we were before especially when it comes to Joseph Smith. Usually we just go into very little detail about who he actually is and jump right into his religious story and the first vision. But now, we are going to LIGHT EVERYONE UP with his background story.. Once they get to know his story, then the whole miracle of the first vision will actually have more meaning in their hearts. I learned something new that I loved... I had NO idea that the Smith family had previously had farms and that they had failed them, causing them to change locations several times. Why in the world is that important? Because God had to put them in the right location so that they could be close to the sacred grove. BOOM! That one hit me like a ton of bricks! You can actually see the hand of God in Josephs life. Of course the other farms would fail... because they had to get to THAT one so that Joseph could have his experience. Super cool right? I know that that´s how it is in our lives as well... We try to do what we want, and our father says... NOPE! Wrongooo!! Think again! That´s when we get our curveballs. The Lord always knows though.. He always does.

Brother Candia, his sons and I making shish
kebabs... Here they´re called... Anticuchos.

Second thing I wanted to share.... In our sector we have been knocking a ton of doors. It seems like we are finding more less active members of the church than we are new investigators hahah. We have recently met 3 families who have different stories... Two of these families are sealed in the temple for time and all eternity... So my question is... How does that happen to the faithful latter day saints in our days??? HOW!?!? How does one get to the TEMPLE and accomplish a HUGE goal in the role of progression, then fall all the way down to rock bottom... To the point of not even using garments and negating the testimony that they once had of this marvalous gospel... HOW... Heres the sadder part. It seems to be the same excuse for many people.. These people lost their testimonies and threw away all the good that they had found because of the doings of some other person in the church.. So and so did THIS to me so I NEVER want to go back to church.... Wait wait wait..... WHAT!??? You´re going to DENY all that you have learned because of some person´s poor use of agency??? NOT LOGICAL. One of the stories has to do with a bishop.... The family had asked the bishop to help them find a job so that they could support their family... Simple enough right? The bishop, being a busy man, failed to search and in the end, didn´t help them find a job. So what did they do? They went inactive and fell away from the truth... How in the world is that even possible.... This IS the church of Jesus Christ here on the earth.. It HAS been restored. Let us all remember that one okay? Don´t doubt for ONE SECOND that this church may not be true because your neighbor did something idiotic. Forget them and think about you. Remember all the blessings that you have in your life because of the gospel and it will all be clear again. That is my main focus for this letter.. I think it was President Hinckley who said we should omit the word offended from our vocabulary. I agree very much with what he said. Once we get offended and blame the church for our problems, we´re on satans doorstep. Bottom line. Your testimony is YOURS.. Nobody can take it away from you but YOU. Remember that in your daily dramatic lives as members of the church!

This cat totally climbed this tree to escape a dog haha.

Okay well thats about all I have today. Our independence day was insane. Everything was closed, everyone is drunky and partying in babylon, and here we are. Trying to share the Plentitud of the gospel with everyone. As always I wish you all a wonderful week. Do all that you can do nourish your testimonies like the tree in Alma 32. Constant nutrition is necessary for it to be maintained. Love you all so much. Take care, Elder Christensen.

9/13/11 Hermana Christensen "APAGON!"

2011-09-13T20:35:00.000-07:00

all the ice cream was melting! we had to eat it!

Hello all!

Sister Ortez and i were both just leaning back in our chairs, not even knowing where to begin. Zero ideas.

LOOK AT WHAT TIME I GOT IN BED!!!!!!!!!!

so you heard about the power outage? ohhhhhhhh my. it was SO. FUN. SOOOOOOOOO FUN!!!!! haha okay so we were at the battalion that night. it was like four or so. and because school's out its been semi slow. (which is okay because there's so much to do--theres never a dull moment!) i was in the back looking at some papers when everything went black and quiet. it was scary for one second, so i ran up to the front and all of us came together from all over the battalion and we reported and quickly located each other. we didn't really know what to think. there was only one tour going, so we got them outta there. good thing sister evans is PREPARED! we knew where the flashlights were in every room because she went through and prepared us a few weeks ago. as soon as everything was good and safe we started having the time of our lives making dumb jokes and being silly... cartwheels down the hall in pioneer dresses (because the cameras weren't workin!!)... i grabbed the lantern in one of the rooms and we used that for many a photo and the bathroom... haha and then sis kearsley and i took pictures in some of the rooms--like the one where i'm holding those bags of wheat.. oh my. so funny. but the thing was that it has been SO HOT here lately. and we could feel the temperature rising! everything had to close, but we had no cars and no where to go, and the freeways were UNBELIEVABLY blocked.. so we were able to sit and study and just be with each other. then when the emergency lights went out and elder evans kicked us out of the battalion, we had no other option but to eat all of the food that was going to go rotten. so it was a strange combination of cereal and ice cream and.. yeah. good pictures. then we planned, i wrote in my journal using the light from my camera and we were able to go to bed. EARLY! you'll see the pics. i have about fifty more, too becuase i was so thrilled about it. haha. but it was so hot in our apartments i think i was just laying there awake, sweating, all night. but it was SO FUN! so memorable. we heard that it was all the way from LA to new mexico. freak! it was crazy. i talked to this hiarious lady at the battalion who said she and her son were driving here and they couldn't find a motel and didn't have any cash, so they just straight up went to a park. seriously. i hope i'm that cool next time the power goes out! it was legit though. we had nothing. seriously. it made me question my preparedness and also made me sooo grateful for simple commodities that i so often take for granted. but yeah. all is well!

isabel and axel's baptism! ...and juanito's!

so remember a few weeks ago when sister lewis and i went and taught a lessonwith hermana garcia on our preparation day? well my goodness. they got baptized on saturday! the dad has been less active his whole life and has been recently reactivating. the wife recently had a baby, so they blessed the baby and have been coming to church mas a seguido. and they noticed their lives start to change... so the dad, oscar, was recently ordained to the aaronic priesthood and he baptized his wife and her 10 year old son. it was the most BEAUTIFUL thing ever. soooo so so soooooo neat. wow. and then our other investigator, juanito, se bautizo in the same servicio. it was a POWERHOUSE! i was so grateful i was able to go. it was beautiful being there with those dear people for such a sacred service. love. love love love captial L. theres a pic of us all of us, and then another with just them, hermana garcia and me because, as i was heading out, oscar stopped me and thanked me. then isabel came over. they said that the first lesson we had with them (that preparation day RIGHT before transfers), they felt the spirit really strongly and said that i'd had a role in helping her want to get baptized. it was so.. so humbling. i was so grateful we'd sacrificed that day to go with them! and now i just have another reason to always be a part of the garcia family! :) funny how the lord works. he had me do something little and then bam. outta there. we've gotta be on our game doing what the Lord needs of us! definitely learned that that day.

exchanges are probably inspired... yeah. probably. awhile back i went to el cajon with sis smith. it was an english area. we went up and down this street contacting a ton of people and getting quite a lot of rejection. we were reeeeeal lot and kinda just done but we saw this lady in her car kinda a ways away, but decided to talk to her. she wasn't super promising but kinda listened. we told her she could find so much happiness in our message and that we'd love to bring her a bom. she said we could bring it by and just leave it in the mailbox sometime. haha. dang. okay. see ya. the next day--transfers. sis smith was taken out of that area and sis kearsley came in with sis kennington. they took this lady, diane, the bom, and the first time she wasn't interested. the second time she came to the screen door. the third time she opened the door a little bit. the fourth time she came outside and talked to them. and now? she has a baptismal date. this woman lives alone with 10 cats and two dogs. she almost committed suicide a few months ago but didn't want to leave her PETS. wow. so when we came and said she could be HAPPIER..... she caught hold onto that. and she is happier than EVER. she can't wait to get baptized! she found what she's been looking for. and she's GOLDEN the sisters say. wow. remember how we almost didn't talk to her? ohhhmy. gotta do what the lord wants us to!

full moon shot. between the palm trees. unreal.

ha. we got a referral from a lady in sis park's ward. actually she gave us like four. we went and contacted one and this lady, ramona, let us RIGHT in, sat us down, gave us water and just started chatting with us. she thought i was her nurse! hahah ummm no we are missionaries! we laughed way hard then she was like, okay. ensenen me. teach me. um? she is the most lively 81 year old i've ever met! she's so lively! she even knelt and prayed with us at the end! yeah. she believes her ancestors are mayans or something. aka shes going to LOVE testamentos! milagro!

dear cade, happy birthday on the 9th! sorry i didn't say that last week! hope it was great!

got to see hermana maltiz and ximena at the charla sun night!
love them!

a few funnies:

--at the baptism on saturday hno miller asked me to lead. cool beans. whatever. afte the ordinances and the testimonies of the peeps who were baptized, hno miller gave me a head nod. and I THOUGHT HE WANTED ME TO SHARE MY TESTIMONY! hahahah so i walked up there to the pulpit and was like uuuuh hermano miller gave me a signal.. and he said, "yeah to lead the music!" i felt SO DUMB! hahaha. but i had to freaking stay up there to lead the music! OHHHH MY! so funny. i was like, "well, the church is true!" wow.

--at church on sunday hermana alamillo leaned over to me and told me i looked like a doll. i was like, well hey thanks. and then she was all, "tu te ves como la virgen." aka.. she thinks i look like the virgen mary. awesome.

is everyone reading this month's ensign? por favor read it. wow. read e ballard's talk. SO GOOD! a few weeks ago our ward mission leader gave people an assignment to help reactivate a less active. i thought it was a little strange at first, but then BAM elder ballard says to do it. so give yourself that same assignment! i love how he talks about the atonement before that. just read it. and then do it.

love you all. (especially you, joan!)

hermana christensen

mormon 5:14

all of us when the power went out. conversing

9/12/2011 Elder Christensen

2011-09-12T12:05:00.000-07:00

Okay... Let me break it down.. This week was all around awesome. It was a bit insane as well! I know that 9/11 is important in the states but here as well its a little different. Its like rebellious teenager day... So every year they just go crazy. Last night we were in the house at 6pm because it wasn`t safe enough for us to be out. We heard tons of gunshots, car alarms, as well as they cut our power. It was definitely interesting haha. We just hung out, read a little bit, and rested. We made french toast as well. Super good!

At our converts SEALING!

Our Zone meeting.

Also had our Zone meeting, which was wayyyyy good. We had a total of 5 classes. Me, my comp, and the DL`s. As well we had a leadership meeting with President King and the assistants. Mom you`ll love this part. SURPRISE! My converts went to the temple to be SEALED. What happened??? That was a YEAR ago??? I really was baffled by that. So I got PERMISSION to go! On Saturday, I went with an Elder from barcelona named Elder Lacambra to the session and sealing afterward... Man.. I`ll tell you that place is amazing. AMAZING. There is nothing like seeing some people you helped learn the gospel take such great and eternal steps. I had a funny thought as well as a sweet revelation Id like to share. First the funny ish one. Its amazing how we find these people... right.. and in the moment they have NOTHING. THey dont really have any spiritual goals, nor do they have any idea about God and his mysteries. After a few short discussions they get baptized. They make covenants. Then a year later, they get SEALED. Suddenly.... WHOOPS 180 degree flip flop now they are one step ahead of me! Isnt that weird? They go from having nothing to being ahead of us! I sat there as a WITNESS to the sealing thinking.... Wow... these are wonderful people and they really are an example to me... Now I look up to them and not the other way around. Super cool I think. Now the cool thought... As one of our initiatives here in the mission we taught a principle called... "El ojo de la fe." It just means.. the Eye of faith. What the heck is that?? Think about it. What do you think it means? Now... Go and read Ether 12:19. The basic message of the scripture is that these people saw brought to pass what they had already envisioned previously with the eye of faith. Make sense? Its like seeing the end from the beginning. We can always have joy when we look through the eye of faith right? As well it helps us see the end result of a goal that we want before you have even done anything to achieve that goal.. As missionaries we should try and see people already dressed in white entering the waters of baptism. That is how we can see with the eye of faith. Now... All of you should have other goals. The goal of eternal life and exhaltation maybe? I tried to think of this life as a compass. We have our North... which is our goal. It is an EXACT degree, or, an exact goal. Think of moving a compass.. You move even JUST a little bit and whoops there went the needle a few degrees. Now remember what President Uchtdorf said about that... What happens when we are off even just by a few degrees? We end up in a completely different place then we originally wanted. There was even one plane that hit a mountain just because they were off a couple degrees! Us, as human beings, need to be right on course. If we are watching too many rated R movies that are full of vulgar materials, or listening to spirit numbing music, then we are most definitely putting ourselves off the course a couple degrees. In the end, we will not become what we had originally visioned. We will end up far below our original potential and end up in some other place. Everything that we do differently than what the scriptures and the prophets have said, puts us off course even if only by a few degrees. That is why we MUST be careful with what we do and how we use our agency. I invite you all to envision with the eye of faith your final destination. See YOU in the end.. See what it is that you want to become.. Then to think of your life as a compass and follow it PRECISELY. I know that by doing so we will see miracles in our lives. Honestly. Then once you reach the goal, like in ether, you will see what YOU had seen with the eye of faith brought to pass. I as well am trying to apply this every day. We NEED to baptize! I know that we can do it here, and that you can do it there. I love you all so much and I hope that you have another great week wherever you may be. Take care! Much

love,

Elder Christensen.

Elder Monsen and I with pretty ties!

COMPLETOS!!!!!!!

9/6/2011 Hermana Christensen

2011-09-06T12:10:00.000-07:00

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!

welp, i think that's it. the message is... PEOPLE ARE PREPARED. THE LORD'S GOT THINGS ALL WORKED OUT. we just have to be willing to step INSIDE kfc (not necessarily eat anything from there!) to see miracles and see people who are prepared. are you getting me? there are people just WAITING for us to go out of our way a little bit so we can share what we have and follow heavenly father's plan. it might require running inside to grab that book of mormon in jibberish (hungarian), or running all the way across the temple parking lot, or stepping into a restaurant that even the NAME makes you gag... but if we DO IT... if we GO OUT OF OUR WAY A LITTLE BIT, the lord blesses us with unforgettable experiences. are you hearing me? so what is the spririt telling you to go and do? go out of your way and DO IT! i promise you won't regret it!

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!

9/5/2011 Elder Christensen "A Busy Week"

2011-09-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

My companion Elder Pari and I at Presidents House. SICK!
Great meeting. Great comp

Hello to all you people out there! Its been a crazy week. Trying to get ready for changes, as well as continuing to train the secretary in the office got me stressed! But hey.... The 180 degree change has been made and here I am. I`ve been called to be a Zone Leader here in the zone La Cisterna. Its city.. Fairly humble.. It reminds me a lot of Carlos Valdovinos actually. We have a lot of good missionaries here and we`re all excited to see what we can do together. My companion`s name is Elder Pari. He is 27 years old and from Peru. Cool guy. We seem to get along well and we have good unity in our teaching methods. We`ve worked like crazy this week! We did tons of contacts, had a couple meetings with missionaries and President, and just been trying to find new people to teach. We went to Presidents house all the ZL`s and had a special little training meeting. SUPER good. The spirit that these missionaries have is honestly so powerful. I loved loved loved the meeting. We learned some new initiatives that we will be teaching in our zone meeting this Wednesday. It`s honestly going to be super sweet. Our house is pretty tiny though! Its a small kitchen, a small bathroom, and one big room upstairs. Definitely the smallest missionary house I`ve seen up til this point. I`ll try and get some pics of it next week. Our neighbors have a German Shepherd that looks a lot like steffi as well. I`ll have to get a pic of her too! Her name is Lyka. Don`t worry shes not as cute but very similiar!

Elder CRIST and I at district meeting!!! SICK!
He`s a DL in our zone. I`m excited to work with him!

This week I`ve been thinking about love. That may sound weird but as missionaries it is SO important that we love everyone. If I love this person, I am going to do everything I can to get them to listen to this message. I am going to testify like its my job (It is!) right in their faces until they get it. Make sense? Doing our contacts, we have come across a bunch of people who want NOTHING to do with us. Typical missionary treatment haha. Anyways, it really gets me sad when they just flat out reject us. All we can do is testify, love, and share. The frustrating and sad part is that they have their free agency to reject us and keeping wasting time in unbelief. This is religious WAR. I thought that.... we were knocking a door, the testigos de jehovah were behind us doing the same, and the evangelics were yelling over their megaphone. 3 religions in the same block... the only problem is.... only ONE of them is true. EVERYONE needs to know that THIS is Christs restored church. You cant and will not enter into his kingdom without repentance and baptism by someone with the authority... Its our job to love these people. Teach them this simple doctrine... and baptize them if it be our Heavenly Fathers will.. But like I said. If they choose otherwise, so be it. Bueno. I`m about out of time so I`ll have to stop there for now. I`m going to try to get some pics up here to so hold on tight! I love you all so much and I thank you for all that you are constantly doing for me. Your prayers are felt and appreciated. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Elders Monsen, Spencer and I....well.... You get it haha.

Much love,

Elder Christensen.

Love you guys! Have a great week! Chao!

8/31/2011 An Email from President King

2011-08-31T20:37:00.000-07:00

Dear Brother Christensen ,

I am pleased to inform you that your son, Elder Christensen, has been called to serve as a Zone Leader in our mission. He has exhibited leadership capabilities through his desire to learn and lead out in his efforts as a missionary. His example of hard work, following the Spirit, and concern for his fellow missionaries have prepared him to assume these new responsibilities.

This opportunity will stretch him and give him new opportunities for growth. As he lifts and sustains the missionaries under his stewardship, he will develop a deep love for them and for the Lord. These abilities will sustain him throughout his life.

Thank you for the opportunity to serve with your son here in the mission field. This is the work of the Lord. His efforts are blessing the lives of so many. I am grateful to you for supporting him in this new and important calling.

Sincerely,

President Richard W. King

Chile Santiago West Mission

(As a side note I wanted to let you know what a wonderful job your son did in the mission office. We will miss his enthusiasm, generosity and hard work. He was really nervous about leaving the office and becoming a Zone Leader but was much relieved when he found that Elder Pari, a Latin, was his companion. Elder Pari is a very kind and gentle soul. I know Elder Christensen will be a wonderful Zone Leader as he teaches those elders he has stewardship over to be obedient and faithful just as he is. Sincerely Hmn Dorius)

Hermana Dorius

Secretaria de Registros

Mision Chile Santiago Oeste

8/30/2011 Hermana Christensen

2011-08-30T20:26:00.000-07:00

we get to wear bonnets when we go talk to
people in old town! :)

my dearest friends!

aka my familia. mis seres queridos wow how mucho do i love you?!! so much! wowowow. okay okay okay let me just thank you, again, for your prayers. i know you've been with me this week! i've FELT IT!

second week in the rama already. what? i have no idea what is going on anymore. BUT. i do know that things are good! things are going well well really well and we are happy. i realized last week that i didn't say nothing about hermana ortez. she is AMAZING! freak! okay so she looks like jennifer love hewitt in her face, except imagine her mexican style. hermana's mom is from guadalajara mexico (where people think i'm from, which i accept gladly) and her pa's from el salvador. she's the FIRST missionary in her family! she is sooo good talking to people and is so friendly and open and outgoing. she's also really meek and humble and teachable and is taking all this in so well. she never seems to get stressed out and is literally the happiest person i know. she's really feminine and matchy and reminds me a ton of kaylynn. she's also pretty dang funny and says things like kay would. so that's a sweet tm to be think of my seester with mi hermana. both of whom i love. dearly! anyways. so she's wonderful and teaching me a lot.

i feel genuinely happy. it's been a difficult change, but, again, like i said last week, i'm grateful for the chance to grow and stretch.

very secure fence

we've been going around trying to meet the members and less actives and find NEW PEOPLE TO TEACH! and it's been going alright. i've realized that when it comes to this, to building an area, practically starting from scratch, you go back to the necesities of pmg. to work with ward leaders, to teach the restoration, to talk to everyone, and to ask EVERYONE for referrals... just the basics! i didn't always do all of that in la mesa.. or even in chula. but it's like here, there is no other way to grow the area than that! so that's what we're doing. the other day we were visiting a less active and her son and we talked to a guy out front gardening. and he is a BALLER. he came to church on sunday! hahah except he showed up about three and half hours late. aka he missed 100% of church. hahah we laughed way hard because it was SO uncomfortable for all of us since we cleeeeearly said church ended at four and then he was dropped off and lives kinda far away.. and his shirt was unbottoned way low... and he was checking out my companion... oh my! hahaha. but we found the guy a ride home and were able to meet with him later and teach him the restorash. and he was so stinkin open to it. it was awesome. he's met with missionaries before. but they pressured him to get baptized and he peaced. but he accepts that js was a profeta and that the bom is the palabra de dios. so that's ballin. we told him that we could tell him tons of things but he should ask god for himself--and he cut us off and said that he trusted that if we were lying god would let him know. it was neat to see that he has that open relash with his padre celestial that he could recognize that we were bearing a true message and that we were true messengers of god. it was beautiful.

then, we've tried passing by another less active a few times with no luck, but.. we talk to her neighbs! and we set up a cita with this one lady named olivia that we visited yesterday. we were talking to her when this guy appears then disappears. he came out and stood awkwardly in the hallway for a little while and then said he had a question he's wondered for a long time. he asked why the heck there were so many different churches and how we could know which one was true. haha. ooooh wow what a grrrrrrreat question! you just take a seat buddy, we'll tell you why. :) so we did. and it was beautiful. especially in the middle when he surprised us all by saying, "and so is this when joseph smith had the vision?" ................ huh? haha. yeah. so he's familiar. we'll be going back to teach him. he was way open and even cried a little bit in his prayer when we left saying how thankful he was that we'd come. wow. so things are going. slowly but surely, but they're coming!

this was about an hour ago. AT THE
BORDER OF MEXICO!!!!!!! SO SICK!!!

and the branch is awesome. really. they have so much stinkin potential. we had a party on saturday and people were showing up like two hours late.. and the guy who was going to bring the pollo or chicken forgot to come, so we had rice and fruit. hahah! so funny. but we got to be with them and hear some of their conversion stories and WOW. powerhouses. i don't know why it's been a branch for so long, but we are going to switch that up ASAP! the members are awesome. we just need to foster some lovin and they'll be good to go. :)

speaking of ramas and switching that... the blessed branch of la mesa third is going to be meeting in a CHAPEL for the first time on sunday!!!!!!!!! they will no longer be meeting in the gym (which was even a step up from the rs room!) nor combining with an english ward. they're going to be doing it ALL solo! that branch is growing SOOO MUCH!! and hna lewis told me hno roman blessed the sacrament on sunday. :) the church is true!
ah. all is well. i want to extend a super super simple invitation. talk to everyone. just do it. even a hello. you'll be surprised what will happen! i love you dearly and am so grateful to have you!

hermana christensen

hel 14:13

8/27/2011 Elder Christensen "Here I Am"

2011-08-27T20:12:00.000-07:00

Elder Jorgensen. (IKE) and I the day he left.

Hey everyone. Somehow we´ve wrapped up another week here in chile. Like always, I´m not really sure how or where the time goes, but it does. Mom I LOVED the pictures you sent me. Those Stoddards look super happy. What a guy he is! Also, it makes me happy that you were able to get in contact with Ike Jorgensen and snatch those brass frames. They are really sweet and they will be a prized family posession.

Well, we were actually unable to get out into our sector 3 days in a row this week. Not that we had a ton to do, but that the people had strike days. Seems kind of illogical to actually have days where you are actually allowed to strike... It wasn´t too bad but still it was kind of sketchy to be walking around. The people are all out lighting bon fires in the middle of the road, cutting the electricity, up to no good whatsoever. So we just stayed in here and got a lot done. My replacement is learning really fast and I feel comfortable leaving him in charge of the entire missions visas. It seems really weird to me that I´m already leaving the office... It does feel like I just got here lets be honest.... This is my last Saturday P-day as well. I won´t have a P-day until next monday the 5th of September. I´m sure that time won´t even exist either.. Why? Because I´m going to be OUT doing what I LOVE to do. Preaching the gospel allllllllllll dayyyyyyyyyyyyyy longggggggggggg. Wow.... I feel like being in the office opens your eyes... It seems like sometimes we get tired, or we have a bad attitude about working in our sectors as missionaries... But once you are in the office, you really gain an appreciation for that.. When you can focus 100 PERCENT on the salvation of the people and their spiritual well-being. It´s going to be so fun and I have no doubt that we are going to work like no ones business wherever I go.

That´s about two grand in Chilean pesos. You´d think that
with that money I could get some better glasses
than Rick Astley right? HAHA.

In our pension the other day we had a really long conversation between us 5. It started out really weird to be honest. The city of Santiago is practically full of Pornography... So we were talking about that and how the world today is just so.... Corrupt.. Dirty... Lost... We talked about how it´s literally a poison to the spirit.. A destroyer of all the good things God has done in our lives. Its what the enemy of god, the natural man, wants most. This conversation was amazing though... We talked for like an hour and a half.... The spirit was the strongest I may have ever felt it in my mission.. This may sound weird but we felt like.. Really different. Outside there are people shooting their guns in the air and lighting bonfires, yet there we were inside talking about what matters most, the gospel. It FILLS our lives. It makes us who we were destined to be. As well we talked a bit about our families... How much we all LOVE our families. The gospel does that to us you know? It makes us really focus on that central unit that is the family. How cool is to for example to be a BROTHER? I am the only man in the family apart from Dad... Meaning. I have a huge role to play in the progression of my sisters as well as my parents. It´s MY job to be brother, to be son. There is no other brother... there is nobody else who can play that role and support that part of the family... That thought was really strong to be honest.. We all have to help each other. I thought of how you guys have always been there to help me. Whether it´s with a broken collarbone or an eagle scout project... My parents and my sisters have been there. Just that SIMPLE thought sprung out all those ideas. To be a brother.... How cool is that. You never actually think of that kind of thing. It is an experience I wish I could have recorded somehow. Never will I be able to come up with words adequate to describe exactly what we felt nor what we discussed.. But there we were. 5 annointed ministers of Jesus Christ, talking about life. Talking about solutions. Talking about the simplicity of our duties in this world and how us, being human, make it so hard. ITS SO EASY. The gospel preached by Christ himself IS our life. Or at least it should be.... Once we perfect the principles within it, we will be prepared to fight off any temptation, overcome any trial or problem that may come upon us, as well as KNOW our role as human beings here on this Earth. I was up in bed listening to music afterward just thinking about it.. What an unbelievable feeling it was.. I hope to maintain that feeling that I had during that conversation. Thats my challenge to anybody who may be reading this... Think of the most powerful spiritual experience that you have had in your life. Think of how you felt.. Think of the things that were testified unto you by the power of the spirit. In THAT moment, you don´t care about anything else.. You just care about what you are feeling right then in that instant. Then afterward, it leaves you, and you are left thinking. Thats how it always is.. Now.. The goal. STRIVE to maintain that feeling that you felt to fuel your life. Think of it when you are down. Think of it when you are passing a difficult moment. It can give you enthusiasm about life and help you continue in your spiritual growth. It´s something I will apply for the rest of my life. It WORKS. Several times I have felt contention, and I just fall back on that little thought and BOOM. I have the desires to be better. Try it. You will love it I promise.

Elder Spencer and I learning how to barbeque from
President King. Haha. SO good!!!

Bueno. I think thats really the just of what I wanted to share with you guys today. I have another two hours and I think I´m going to use them packing up all my things for the change. This Tuesday at 10 am I will officially be travelling to my new sector with my new companion! WOW! That should be 7am your time. I will have plenty of things to tell you next pday about all of those things. I love you all so much. Honestly. This mission is amazing. Every day I re-realize that. It has made me know for a surety the things I thought I knew before. My testimony of this gospel is firm. It´s built upon a rock that I can say for sure. Jesus Christ IS our savior. His atonement is meant for us! Through it, we can overcome anything standing in between us and salvation. It´s NEVER to late to come unto Christ. You can always repent and find the kind of joy that is eternal. I continue to pray for all of you and your success on a daily basis. May the Lord bless you in everything that you do this week, and may his spirit be with you unceasingly.

Much love,

Elder Christensen.

8/23/2011 Hermana Christensen "In the Celestial Kingdom we won't have to worry about transfers!"

2011-08-23T20:20:00.000-07:00

I feel like I have so much to say and so little idea how to relay it all to you.

this week has been... it's been good. it's been good. but it has easily been one of the hardest of my whole mission. I.. i've been able to reflect a lot and have had to do a bunch of introspection and really evaluate some things, and I feel.. I feel so grateful. I feel so full. I feel so at a loss of words but i remail wholly entirely completely 100% grateful to be a missionary. that remains very clear and very true. but just because i love it doesn't mean it's not hard! ha ha. ah, but seriously.

Hermanas Ortez & Christensen

I was transferred. i am training a wonderful new sister, hermana ortez, and we are white washing a new area. the branch there has been a branch for over 20 years but there haven't been sisters in the branch for 10 years. there are about 120 members and only 30 that are active. apart from a couple child of record baptisms the the last baptism was a year ago. the biggest problem in this area is people getting offended. i've asked several ward members and elders that have served there in the past what the branch needs and they all say the same: "amor. animo." the need love and excitement. and you know what? we are up to that task. for the past ten months i have been in the most loving, amazing branch in the entire planet--one where the members would give the shirt off their back and the food off their plate for one another. they taught me how to be sefless, to look beyond myself and serve freely, openly and always. they taught me how to save, how to rescue, how to cuidar de uno a otro. those people LOVE each other. they embody charity. they understand the worth of every human soul. so if there is any way that i can repay those people or my heavenly father for ten of the best months of my life it would be by going out and spreading that pure love with others. lo hare.

us after the sesh. that's hna garcia, hna collina and jeneanne lock. :)

on thursday night i got the sweet sweet blessing to be able to go on exchanges with sister lewis to the temple and attend an endowment session for one of the members who was returning to the temple for the first time in many years. it was... so beautiful to be there with her. i cried throughout the whole session because - well for a million reasons. a) holy heavenly fathers love. b) the worth of every soul! this precious daughter coming back into the fold and being reinvestido con poder de los garments! c) sitting behind hna garcia and seeing several of the ward members and just feeling SO grateful for them d) what a special sacred ordinance the endowment is and e) how CLEAR it was fifteen times "go to, PRUNE THIS GARDEN, be HAPPY." duh sister christensen. another opportunity to serve. go to! serve! work hard! have fun, be HAPPY! ah. i felt such peace. especially as we stood in the celestial room, this tiny little corner of brown people and a whitey crying her eyes out. the sweetest thing was when hermano carranza turned to me and grabbed and held on to my hand and said, "in the celestial kingdom we won't have to worry about transfers!" with his eyes brimming over. so true. and that is one thing that i've learned during all my goal setting and reevaluating and praying--these associations that i am BLESSED to have formed will only STRENGTHEN over time. these people will be a part of my life FOREVER! and in the celestial kingdom i know there will be a gigantic section for all the brown people and all their goodness and love and good food. and i hope that i can live worthily to be a part of it.

i'm a mess. haha so teary! but! i feel so happy. i really do. we have so much work to do, but i am excited. and i knew that i couldnt' stay in la mesa. i mean, i'd hoped i would, but it would've been to easy, too comfortable. so i know this is right. i know it's an opportunity to grow and learn and serve and REALLY remember why i'm here--which is to invite others to come unto christ by making and keeping covenants! it's so clear and it's so simple and the time is SO SCARCE. so i will go to. i will serve wholeheartedly. and i will do my part.

and i will rely upon my savior. my greatest, deepest, most far reaching desire for my mission is to come to know my Savior, Jesus Christ better. As I was on my knees the other night crying, I realized that THAT'S what this is all about. it was clear as day (even though it was night. ha). so as i knelt, literally wetting my pillow as nefi said, i prayed that my Savior could help me. i prayed that through his atonement i could move forward and be strong and not be selfish and not refer to la mesa as "my area" anymore and just let go and get to work. and i felt His love. I felt His peace. I felt Him. I know He's there. I know He's aware of us. I know He loves us. I love my Savior. I am so grateful for all that He's done for me, and for all that He does for me day to day. I'm so thankful for my Father in Heaven who sacrificed His Only Begotten so we could all be saved. We are hopeless without Him. And I feel as if, almost overnight, this burden of mine has been lifted. I KNOW it's true--"ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you"--because I asked! i knocked! and i received! And now it's time to get to work.

I loved bro's email last week. talking about organization. sister ortez and i were so disorganized in our apartment because the two sisters had zero warning that they would both be leaving and then my stuff was scattered EVERYWHERE and there was just everyone's stuff everywhere. haha. and i/we felt that it was true what he said--we cannot receive revelation and be open to promptings if we're unorganized. we had to take some time and get situated and get all clean and ready to put our hands to the plow. so thanks for that, bro. i was thinkin of you the whole time.

the other day here at the battalion i had a really interesting conversation with a lady who's gotten into buddism. she told me she'd researched tons of different religions and even read and prayed about the bom but never got an answer. she feels that where she is now is correct. wow. what do you say to that? but as i stood there looking down into the gold panning sluice i felt prompted to ask her that question of the alma in pmg ch 8--what's the purpose of life? she laughed and said she still didn't know but that she'd get back to me. i looked at her and said, "what if i told you that i knew what it was?" and she said, "i'd think you were selfish for not sharing it with me." that hit me like a train. guys. we HAVE IT. we have ALL THE ANSWERS. we have them. ALL! we have ALL OF THEM! and how selfish we are when we don't share them! this week i want you all think about unselfishly, boldly sharing what we have. we've got it all. so let's just throw down the truth. okay?

and i wanted to follow up on the whole elder ballard commitment i extended you guys.. about praying for opportunities to share the gospel. prayerfully seeking them. how is it going? i know it's possible.. even in utah!

well, that's about all i've got for you. except a big old bearhug. i want you all to know that i've felt your prayers this week. stronger than ever. thanks for being with me.

i love you all dearly. keep me knowing how i can serve you all. praying for you on the daily!

hermana christensen

ps--oh our investigator, hna roman, in la mesa, is getting baptized on saturday. :) salvation coming right up!

this is us after a district meeting. yep. believe it. we are in the SAME ZONE AND DISTRICT!!!!!!! hahaha (oh and ps it's a trilingual district. how SICK is that?! it's english, spanish and sign. kaylynn! i've been thinkin of you so much as i've watched these guys bear their testimony and teach in sign! SO COOL!)

8/20/2011 Elder Christensen "Not a lot to Say"

2011-08-20T21:59:00.001-07:00

Hey everyone. Sadly to say we didn`t get out in sector a ton to work this week. We`ve had some stupid little problems that have kept us from getting out. I`m still training my replacement and he`s learning really fast. I have no doubts that he will be ready to take over entirely in another week and a half. This week we had a SICK conference about the MIT. (The most important thing.) It`s from President Lawrence Corbridge from the area presidency. He`s a seventy if I`m not mistaken. Anyways, it was supperrr awesome. We talked about a couple of the missionary discussions and how EVERY SINGLE PRINCIPLE is related to the Most important thing... Which is... The gift of the holy ghost. Think about it though.. it`s insane... The great apostasy... how does that relate? Well.. during that time people were changing the gospel that Christ had preached so... NOBODY had the power to give the gift of the Holy Ghost to anybody else... Make sense? Anyways, we went through all of lessons one and two, and even some of 3. DO IT. Open your PMG and check it out. It really is insane. I`ve been trying to focus a lot on how to teach with power and authority.. We`ve been doing a lot of contacts and stuff trying to do just that. Well.. My companions are already done with their time and I feel kinda dumb just sitting here while they stand around... So I love you all and I`ll talk to you next week. I promise to send a good email next week with some pictures attached. I love you all. Please send regards to the Stoddards for what`s happened this week. As well as congratulations for the sealing... What a mixture of hard and happy things... Well.. Boring letter but thats it this week! I love you tons. Take care. Elder Christensen

8/16/2011 Hermana Christensen

2011-08-16T19:27:00.000-07:00

me n sis lewis

hello my dearest!

we got a call from our beloved hna garcia to go and teach her cunada y cunado this morning, so we got to spend our preparation day teaching! it was great! for one split second i thought.. wait groceries.. laundry.. then the spirit was like HEY wait! this is what you spend preparation day PREPARING TO DO... to TEACH!!! duh! so we trusted the lord would provide time and got to go teach one of the best lessons ever. i mean that they were the best. it was SO NATURAL. i feel like i said that last week about the ramirez family, but i tell ya, hna garcias cunados are SO prepared! he is less active but his wife isabel is WAY interested! they've been coming to church and are already talking about being sealed in the temple! AND she said she can't wait to learn about the word of wisdom! .... what?! hahahahah. we were just bursting after the lesson. that is what it looks like when the spirit teaches and we rejoice together. :)

okay. i'll be fast.

--i met a dad and son from freaking israel the other day who were here in the us to go to wisconsin.. i was like, "what the heck wiconson for?" and they were all--"for oshkosh!" and i felt real close to ya right then daddio. how crazy!

--met the rover's last night! they are SO nice!

on sunday night we had a charla foganera and things worked out we got to sing the missionary choir. it is the BEST ever being able to do that because the spirit is SO strong there. i may have mentioned these before; it's a mission president's fireside where recent converts share their testimonies and then president stands up and invites people to GET BAPTIZED. it is Soooooooo inspiring!!! we have them in english and spanish and they are such an incredible tool! wow. but so anyway, one of the ladies this past sunday, maria, wasn't there and the mission presidency was kinda rummaging through their papers when one of the ladies in the front row, a member, stood up and said, "no soy maria... pero soy yo..." "i'm not maria, but i'm me.." and she went on to share one of the most POWERFUL testimonies in the world. not only was it humorous that she totally covered for someone else, but her testimony was SO heartfelt and sincere and everyone in the room felt the spirit as she talked about how being a member has blessed her life and that of her family. it was impresionante. i just want everyone to realize the POWER of your testimonies. we have knowledge that NO ONE ELSE IN THE MUNDO DOES. we are SO BLESSED!!!

can i invite you to read page 123 of true to the faith?

so guess what happened on sunday? we were slightly bummed since our investigators proved to be a little more lazy than we'd hoped... we were supposed to meet our golden familia ramirez but they didn't show up, but as we started singing the opening hymn, hermana silvia popped her head in and we waved vigorously to her. she came in with the kids and they LOVED it. after the reunion sacramental she was literally SURROUNDED by the branch (sound familiar? like mahybe with hna thomas at the 24th of july celebrash?) and everyone just greeted her and welcomed her and made her feel SO at home. and then the kids just left, "i'm off to class, ma!" and that was that. next thing we knew she was invited to the charla foganera and to a lesson we're having in an hour by a member. UNREAL. she's going to get baptized. it was amazing.

things are amazing. i love my calling.

transfers tomorow. last night we had a going away party for two of the most incredible sisters ever. change happens SO fast. i loved bros email about that. change! ah! it helps us to grow but it's SO HARD! ahh. elder evans messed up and said that Sister Christensen was leaving too.. he tried to correct himself but we knwo that one sister will go outbound (not in the battalion)... so we'll see. i'm sh akin in my boots because i don't know if i can survive without the battalion vibe. I LOVE THIS PLACE. ah. but tomrrow. i trust the master's wise plan. always.

i love you all. thanks for being mine.

hermana christensen

joan. my mom sent me a lovely photo of you! keep smiling, you're wonderful!

kena. if you are out there in the wide expanse of the universe reading this email--on sunday i almost burst into laughter when the choir director did motions EXACTLY like you and i had done in the past practicing for your future as a choir director. i'm NOT kdding. it was SO funny. and i love you. PERIOD

i have the cutest neice in the planet. the cosmos. thank you VERY MUCH for her. the video is HIGHLARIOUS!!!!!!!! please bog that!

us at the charla with hna jeneane

two of the songs from the charla foganera on sunday directed by gma jude's pal! :)

8/13/2011 Elder Christensen "The Weekly Goodies"

2011-08-13T21:11:00.001-07:00

We have had a supppppper busy week. I´ve been trying my best to train Elder Spencer on all the important tasks that he has to fulfill during his time in the office. This week we filled out all the new visa application papers for new missionaries. Stressful part. Everythings gotta be right or the missionary will be illegal within a couple months. So we spent a lot of time making copies from their passports as well as filling in all of their personal information. Also we took a lot of time making new manuals for the greenies who will arrive this change. We got out into the sector for a little bit but a lot of our plans fell through. I´ve been thinking a lot about changes. I know that I always talk about changes when I write you guys but hey... I look at them in a different way. Not changes in the mission, changes in our lives. Why things happen the way they do at the time they do and the results that they end up bringing us. It is always for our spiritual well-being though. The Lord knows our limits and will push us all the way to the border of them, but that´s what helps us grow. It´s like it says in Ether.. We will have no testimony until AFTER the trial of our faith. That´s the way the Lord works. We´ll be okay for awhile then something else will put us back down. Lots of people throw in the towel right there. It´s tooooooooooo hard they say... The Lord is punishing me and I don´t know whyyy. But we´re not alone in those feelings. We don´t really know what certain people are going through right now in their lives. We usually just live in our little world and the world revolves around us. I think that´s most people´s perspective. Here in the office we´ve been changing a lot of things. The Elders who have been here for the last...well.. forever have been neglecting the sector and working more in the office. Even we have found ourselves doing the same sometimes. But hey... The office work is really important you know? So we´ve been trying to change some of the old bad lazy habits of the past. We went through the area book and ripped it apart. Now it´s all organized and ready to point us in the right direction. We´re also setting apart time for our studies and actually working together. It´s SUPER hard trying to balance the office on top of being a regular missionary with the same schedule. But that´s why we´re doing it. How are we supposed to have exito (Success) without being organized? That´s the simple principle I want to get across in this letter. Organization. How are we going to reach a goal if we have no plans to achieve it? We have to start somewhere or we will just end up sitting still. I can see the connection between the office and the sector used as a life principle of balancing work with the family. It might be hard but we HAVE to have our family prayers. We need to hold weekly family home evenings on Monday. Scripture study with the family on a daily basis. It doesn´t need to take TONS of time.. Just the fact of getting together and doing it even for just a few minutes. That´s where we come back to organization. Everyone needs to be on the same page with the schedule. Everyone needs to know what we are going to do, who is teaching, what part they will play. The prophet has said this sooooooooooooooo many times. Simple basic fundamentals applied every day together.... Easy.. It just requires some organization. When God created the world he didn´t just go and do it right?? The scriptures say he planned.... He took time... He gathered materials... He knew what he was going to do in advance. If a person in this world wants to be successful they need to understand that. Now... To organize ones self requires the desire to do so. In this last conference I heard the words... "This church is not a comfortable one." We are ALWAYS working. There is always something to be done right? Whether its just going to church, doing your weekly visits to members, paying tithing, or doing service." If we are comfortable, we are doing something wrong. Obviously that is not to be taken too far, but if we are just sitting inside coasting through life one day at a time thats TOO comfortable. If we were doing that, we wouldn´t be working and in turn, we wouldn´t be progressing. We are always going to have to break out of our comfort zone as members of the church. We make sacrifices ALL the time.. Joseph Smith said; "A religion that does not require complete sacrifice in all things will NEVER have the power sufficient to produce the faith necessary to take us to eternal life and salvation." STRONG words from a chosen prophet of God. The point is. There is SOMETHING in all of our lives that we can improve on. Another place where we can make a sacrifice. A new goal we can set together for our growth. A few acts of service we could do to help others. I don´t know what that would be in many of your lives. But lets do it. Lets focus on organizing ourselves and finding a balance in our lives of all things. Work and family. School and friends. Religion and every day life. Sit down with the fam, a paper and a pen, and set yourselves some reasonable, achievable goals. I promise you all that as you do so you will begin to see God´s hand more in your lives. You will begin to see him take control and mold you into something you never thought you would or for that matter could ever be. My testimony has been strengthened while applying these things here in the mission and in the office. I love the mission so much. It´s the greatest thing that I´ve ever chosen to do. Pretty soon I will leave the office and I will be able to apply these things in the mission field.. Pardon me but I think it will be easier out there... I will be able to focus 100% on the people. The members, the investigators, the random people in the street. Now I recognize the time that I HAD before and how I didn´t always take advantage of it. I couldn´t be more excited! I love you all and I hope you have another great week. You´re in my prayers. Espero que sigan adelante con fe en Cristo y que tengan el deseo de organizarse. Las metas son importantes por nuestro bienestar espiritual y cuando dejamos de fijarlas.... Allí queda nuestro progreso... Les quiero y por eso comparto mis pensamientos con ustedes.. Cyaaaa next week!

Ciaooo! Elder Christensen.

8/9/2011 Hermana Christensen

2011-08-09T18:15:00.000-07:00

boy do i feel like i have a lot to say!

it has been an incredible week of milagrotes. unreal and becoming less real every day. what?

okay so did i write a few weeks ago about a lady that came into the battalion that lives in my area? for some reason i doubt it. okay, well july was crazy. we had like 17,000 people come through the battalion. the tours were huge and we totally had to follow the spirit to know who to talk to after the tours, etc. i took a gigantic english tour through by myself and after everyone filtered through the camera zone and out into gold panning and eventually leaving, i finally got out there and felt like i should talk to this one cute lady with a baby stroller. we chatted and come to find out (just sheer coincidence i'm sure) that she lives in la mesa. i about had a heart attack--but mostly because the baby cried right then and she calmed her in SPANISH. (la mesa nevereverever gets referrals. there just aren't many brown people there!) i eventually got her to refer, and we just barely got around to contacting her on sunday. and it. was. PERFECT.

literally perfect. Perfect. capital P. She opened the door and let us in. what? haha. both things?! it was incredible. we sat down in her kitchen with her son (WHO'S TWELVE!!!! i didn't know he existed! he needs to be baptized, too!) and her adorable eight year old daughter.

and we sat around and chatted and it was so... natural. normal. easy.

sister lewis and i were able to teach together and we followed the spirit, and it was just.. bliss. we shared a message about finding happiness in the gospel of jesus christ. and we watched one of the church movies (which is kinda cheesey but i LOVE it. and the guy has a sick spanish accent. like from spain.) and get this. they don't have a couch, so we got to sit on their floor. it was like.. perfect! down to the very last detail! anyway, i'm being so wordy. the point is that after the movie she said, "You know what.." and i was like, oh no, here comes the rejection.. they're fine, they're catolicos..

blablabla, but no. she said, " i think this is perfect timing that you're here because we aren't going anywhere right now and i think this is exactly what we need." stunned. i was speechless. i think i giggled a little bit and just told her she was EXACTLY right. and the kids? they were SO into it. AND!!! at the end i was asking for a referral -- no no no. i asked if she knew any mormons.. which i don't normally just ask that in an appointment.. at the battaloin, yes. but she said yes, and turns out its someone in our BRANCH, hermana diaz!

we'd been with her just five seconds earlier in church! we're way tight with her! vanessa had invited this lady to church months earlier but she wasn't in the right place. the sweetest thing was hearing this lady say that they were ready and willing and that it was time. and they love the changes they've seen with vanessa and her family, and the 12 year old is friends with diego diaz and he's all excited to see him at church.. and AH! sis lewis and i literally were running and skipping and singing and crying as we jetted to the battalion afterwards! BUT! yesterday we returned because she wanted us (key word! she WANTED) us to come back and meet her husband. so we did.

sitting around with that family around their little table, feeling the LOVE that they have for each other was like... wow. impresionante.

they are members. i think they just forgot to get baptized. they'll be getting sealed. you wouldn't believe it. how UNBELIEVABLY prepared they are... it's golden. like, seriously, if there ever was a golden family (GOLDEN FAMILY!!!! A FAMILY!!!)--it's them. we taught them the restoration yesterday and the dad was like--it just depends how you look at it. some may think it's unbelieveable, others may see it as totally believable." and at the end of the 20 min mov it shows joseph's dad getting baptizzled and afterwards the kids asked about that. uhhhhhhum YES you can get baptized, too!!!!! like literally..

perfect. all of it. unreal. we feel so blessed!!! before we left the kids were even showing us what they are planning on wearing to church... in seven days! :)

sunday was beautiful. hermano chavez bore his testimony. hermano roman bore his testimony. (they both love their bookmarks ps and say MUCHISIMAS GRACIAS HERMANA CHRISTENSEN! that's you ma!) hermano roman also passed the sacrament... to his parents. wow. that was the sweetest thing ever--seeing him take his investigator parents the emblems of the atonement. and then guess what we did in branch council? talked about our branch becoming a ward. :) we've got vision and we've got PLANS!!!

yesterday we taught our other golden investigator hermana tomas from the republica dominicana the plan of salvacion. we taught with hermana garcia's son, jair, and freak. it was the sickest thing ever. she is, first of all, the most open, willing, accepting person i've ever taught. but i think she REALLY gets it.. it's not like she's just faking. she told us that she's always told her kids that if they were not so good, good, or really good they would get to go in one of three doors. what? so when we taught about telestial, terreste y celestial it was like... oh hey.. you've actually been teaching this for years... hahaha. i was so touched, though, by something that jair told her as we taught our earth life. we were talking about oposicion (she's had a rough life) and about how God's plan for us is to be HAPPY, and we read about adam falling that man might have joy, and jair piped in after i'd said our purpose is to be happy and said, "pues de hecho creo que lo que significa esto sorry sorry in english--"well actually i think that this means that we are meant to be happy, yes, but this verse says gozoso...JOY. we are to be joyful.." and he went on to explain that joy is ETERNAL. it lasts.

it's duro. its eternal. and i got the chills and thought IMMEDIATELY of my family, and the JOY that we feel. yes, we feel happiness! and freak i feel WAY happy to have yet another package from you! but when someone closes their door in my face or a lady swears at me in a few hours i might forget about that. but at the end of the day I HAVE JOY because I KNOW that truth is on my side and that I have a loving Heavenly Father and a GRACIOUS, wonderful family who i have the PRIVILEGE to be with for forever. now THAT is joy. and i have so much of it.

i was talking with president morgan the other night at an activity we had, feeling a little discouraged about some investigators that are failing, and he said, "you know what though, sister christensen? i've read the end of the story. and we are going to WIN!" i don't know if i shared that or not already, but i've been thinking about that a lot lately. and yesterday sis lewis and i were talking and she said, "if you understand how important the message is and you love God, you won't be bashful." we know that these things are true. we know we're going to win and that truth will conquer. we know it. so why on earth am i not always bold about it?!

but i am trying! last week we taught one of our DEAR investigators who is a lesbian the law of chastity. and she totally accepted it and was nodding and all and we were about done when we asked what she thought about it, if she believed it. and she said, smilingly, "absolutely not." and i literally laughed, I LITERALLY LAUGHED, because i thought she was JOKING! but she wasn't. at all. she was dead serious. she said that she knows plenty of homosexuals who are happy and that God wouldn't restrict our happiness. we listened, but we threw down testiony and read scriptures and just let the spirit do its job. if she's humble and open to it, i KNOW she'll get her answer and she'll make changes. she even said she might not get baptized on her date, but maybe in the future. i have hope for these people becuase they already know the truth, it's innately inside of them. the world makes them forget but we help them remember.

have i mentioned that i love my call? beyond words.

and i love all of you. thank you for all you do! this week--will you just be bold? tell your less active friend to just COME TO CHURCH.

it's the only way to receive a remission of your sins! whatever it may be, just say it boldly. remember i told you to, but more importantly, remember that Jesus Christ told ALL of us to. truth is on our side and we WILL win!

hermana christensen

maril. got the pic. he's beeeeeeeeeautiful!!! congrats!!!

joan. i love your hair! you are looking gorgeous! keep smiling!

sassar. still prayin for you!

hermana christensen

ps. last week we drove down to the border. and it was the COOLEST thing ever. i saw that huuuuuuuuuge mexican flag and literally.. this might sound weird... but i literaly felt the spirit. i LOVE these people and their place and their culture and who and how they are. it was so cool, seriously. i really love my mission call. i'm so thankful to be here in san diego!