Happy New Year!

Christmas Conference in Manchester

It was so good to see you last week! Everyone looks exactly the same except for James. 

Lots of good things are happening in the area. We're getting more and more people to teach. More people are willing to listen and learn more. Christmas time is so good in that it softens peoples hearts to learn about Jesus Christ.

We had a great Christmas with the Morris'. They are my family away from home. We hung out with different families in the ward, it was great! They are all so loving and take good care of Sister Lever and I. 

Thanks for all the packages! Tell aunt Kristen that I love the planner she got me! I love it! and I like my new onsie ;) thanks to gram for her package as well.

I miss you all so much and it was hard to be away from home, especially at Christmas but I want you to know how much I love being a missionary, especially at Christmas. I love telling people about the Saviour and how he changes our lives and helps us be happy and have peace in our lives. I know that the message of the gospel is true and that it changes peoples lives for the better. I love the quote, "The gospel makes bad men good and good men better." The gospel is for everyone. 

I hope you all have a happy New Year! Love you!

Love, Sister Christensen

It’s Christmas time in the City….of Rhyl:)

Merry Christmas from the Preston Temple

This week has been phenomenal! We went to the temple last Tuesday then I went on exchange with Sister Cardoso (from Portugal) back to Rhyl. She has an amazing voice by the way, she sounds like a proper opera singer. So beautiful! and I taught her how to hold a violin and play twinkle twinkle little star :) But we had a huge miracle together! One of our appointments fell through and a random less active member popped in my head that lived close by, so we called by them. They let us in and we found out that their niece is serving in Portugal and Sister Cardoso actually served with her on her mini mission, before coming to England. The craziest part is that this sister missionary told Sister Cardoso that she needs to visit her family that lives in England that is less active and we saw them the one day we were on exchange together! How crazy! The Lord works in mysterious ways and he definitely has a sense of humour. 

This is just something cute that happened this week. We went to Bishops house for tea one day and we walked in and were taking our coats off and their two little boys ran up to us and gave us little Christmas cards they had made for us! Becky, Bishops wife, said to us, "The best part is, I didn't even ask them to make them." They are the sweetest family! I love them so much!

Sister Lever and Sister Christensen

We had a presentation on Sunday at the chapel called the Christmas Truce, celebrating the truce between the English and German soldiers on Christmas day. Dad will be proud to hear that I played prelude music with a member for the sacrament service, played at the Truce, and I played twice yesterday at the Christmas missionary meeting. It was neat because I was able to teach a man a bit of the Plan of Salvation when he asked me about playing the violin after the Truce had ended. He is from the Spiritualist church and isn't interested in converting but he said he enjoyed the service and liked the "energy" or Spirit that was in the building. Miracles!

Making Cookies with Laura and Kennedy Morris

I love you all and look forward to seeing you in two days! Merry Christmas!

Love, Sister Christensen xoxo

I am so loved.  Thank you everyone!

He is the Gift   http://www.mormon.org/christmas?cid=HPFR112814529

This week has been amazing! Thank you so much for your encouraging emails. I am so grateful for my family, the gospel and the opportunity I have of serving a mission.

A member of Rhyl ward has recently returned home and she has been spending lots of time with us and it has been a huge asset. I love the members here! The people in general are so kind and just smile at you! We did lots of finding, praying, and teaching this week. 

I hope you are all aware of He is the Gift because that is where all our miracles are coming from! Christ is the gift this Christmas season and we need to share him with everyone! We had more lessons in the past week than I've had any other week of my mission. Sister Lever and I have been working out tails off trying to find new people to teach. It is Christmas, so people are busy but many have shown sincere interest and I believe our teaching pool with grow a lot in the new year. The members are so excited about missionary work and are so willing to help us. They also love feeding us..haha So don't worry, mom, about me going hungry ;) 

A miracle we saw this week is we went to a tea appointment in Bodelwyddan but got there early so we decided to do some finding. We tracted a street that two less active people live on. We taught a woman about Christ and shared a He is the Gift card with her and she told us to visit a woman on the corner whose husband had been killed in an accident the year before. We went over and taught her and she invited us back. We also met a woman whose sister passed away and a teenage girl who has never thought about God before. These four women were each touched by the message we had to share and could recognize how they needed the Saviour in their lives. It was a miracle to me to see the Spirit touch their hearts. 

This gospel is for families and for individuals. God knows us personally, I know that. I hope you all have the desire to share what you know this Christmas season as we celebrate the greatest birthday of all, that of Jesus Christ. I love you all and hope you have a great week :)

Love, Sister Christensen

TRAINING IN RHYL

Add There are two Irish men walking together who are looking for work. They see a sign that says, "Looking for Tree Fellers" and they say, "Oh no, there is only two of us." HAHAHAHAHA(because Irish people can't say th) (tree fellers, three fellers) caption

Last District Meeting in the Wrexham District

 I have been called to train again! I'm staying in Rhyl but Sister Madsen is going to Hyde to whitewash train! Hyde is a little bit South of Manchester. But yes! Transfers are always crazy.

This week has been pretty good. We got to go to a carvery for thanksgiving! It was the best! We've seen lots of miracles and I am loving Rhyl! I don't have much time to email today but I love you all!

Love, Sister Christensen

Angel given to me by our investigator

Rocking around in Rhyl Town!

Welsh/English

That Subject line makes me feel like a gangster. Probably because Rhyl is full of that kind of people.. 

This week has been Super Good. That's how one of the Zone Leaders say it. We went shopping for P-day in Wrexham with the Wrexham sisters because Sister Klemm is going home next week. I cannot believe how fast this transfer has gone! I feel like I just came to Rhyl.

Posing on the Beach

We went to a conference on Wednesday where Elder Dyches from the 70 came and spoke to us. He gave us little tips on how to work with ward leaders better and build trust and unity in our areas. It was good because he showed how the difference is made while working in the details. We should do little acts of kindness for the members just to let them know that we care about them. We should ask the Bishop his opinion of where we should go find or what we should do in certain teaching situation to show that we respect his authority and value his opinion. It was really uplifting and gave Sister Madsen and I ideas for what we can do differently.

Making Choir Practice more fun

We actually went to Bishops for tea this week and did service by making tea with his wife. It was so fun! It is called Tagliatelle. I'll email you the recipe next week, if I remember. Their kids are so cute, I've never wanted to babysit for anyone more in my life and I can't! Ah! I love Rhyl ward, they are just a big family and they make you feel like you are family.

We taught our investigator, Paul, last Thursday. It was so powerful. I felt like the Spirit was literally in the room with us as we testified of the power of the Atonement. He has been dating a member in the ward for the last year and decided he wanted to take the missionary discussions and guess what. They got engaged last night! They are getting married! It is so exciting! I feel like I'm one of the missionaries from "The District" (missionary teaching videos). Eternal Families! 

Shopping before Sister K goes home

I had to give a talk in church yesterday on Tad R. Callister's talk from the last General Conference. I was so nervous. I prayed so much that morning and when I stood up to speak, my nerves just left me. I don't know how well I did but I wasn't nervous at all! I just got up and talked then sat back down. I talked about how three major things mentioned in the talk were that children need to be taught 1. The Gospel of Jesus Christ 2. Meaningful Prayer and 3. How to Use Time Wisely. I then paralleled it with missionary work and how each of those sections are in Preach My Gospel then gave examples of each.

setting up for Christmas

I feel like I'm finally starting to feel like a proper missionary. Everything is a learning experience and the last 8 months have just been building on everything I've learned from home. So thanks mum and dad for being my prime gospel teachers.

I love you all and hope you have a brilliant week!

Love, Sister Christensen xox0

Wrecked in Wrexham

This week has gone by so quick! Time has just flown by. We went on exchange and I went to Wrexham (Wrecsam) with Sister Ryser. She is from Switzerland and we were in the same MTC group! She is so cute and I learned so much from her. We did a lot of finding together and were able to teach together really well. She is fearless! She isn't afraid to talk to anyone, she'll stop every single person and it was amazing because we found five new people for the Wrexham sisters to teach. 

Sister Ryser & Me

Sister Klemm, Sister Ryser, Sister Madsen, Me

Thursday we taught a member referral and it was incredible! My highlight of the week, definitely. This member, Emma, has been dating this man for a year and he would always ask her questions about her faith but wasn't religious. She invited him to come to church and he's been coming for over a month now and last week he agreed to take the missionary discussions. He had a good idea of what our church was about so, when we taught the Restoration, it wasn't really new information. We talked about Joseph Smith and he had seen the Restoration movie and something about it reminded him of a dream he had and he told us that that was an answer to him. He knew the church was true because of that. We are just teaching him everything he needs to know before he gets baptized! The Spirit was present in that lesson. It was such a privilege to have Emma show that kind of trust in us to teach the people she cares about!

With the Wade's,  I also made the scarf I am wearing!

There is also a family that is just reactivating into the church and we visited with two of the sisters and that was so good! They are really sincere about coming back and have such strong testimonies. One of them has a son that hasn't been to church since he was two but since they are starting to come back to church, he has all these questions about it and we are teaching him later today!

We went to Sister Calcott's home for tea this week and we showed up and her daughter is there! She has been less active for a while but has young children and wants to give them a foundation in the church. We were able to get to know her and teach her about how God is our loving Heavenly Father. That was also so incredible to see the Spirit work with her and her family.

Last miracle, we were walking to church and this girl passed us right in front of the chapel and we stopped her and taught her! She was on her way to work, so she couldn't come to church but we set up a time to see her again. Ah! I love being a missionary! I love seeing how much this gospel blesses the lives of everyone who will hear it. I hope you all look for opportunities to share your testimonies. I love you!

Love, Sister Christensen

I’ve Decided….I’m Getting A Castle!

We went to Conwy Castle last Monday! I went to a Castle in Wales! How many people can say that? Probably a lot, if you're from Wales..

Anyway, This week has been wonderful! We had a few miracles throughout the week. Tuesday, we went up to Denbigh and we were walking down this road and Sister Madsen remembered knocking a door the first week she was in the mission so we knocked it again and L answered! A former investigator. She said it was a bad time and was about to turn us away but something changed her mind and she told us to come in. We sat down and she just opened up to us about how stressed she was and about everything that is going on in her life. What was really miraculous though was she moved houses on Friday, we went by her on Tuesday so we were able to get her new address and we'll be teaching her this week. 

We went to a tea appointment and got there early so we prayed and did some tracting for forty minutes and we had four lessons, two new investigators, and one potential investigator. Our two new investigators are also families! It was so amazing! I have never had such strong lessons on peoples door steps. It reminds me of a talk that says when we teach people on the street or in front of their house,  piece of sidewalk was consecrated for just that moment and it becomes holy ground.

A similar thing happened the next day. We got to an appointment 20 minutes early and did some tracting. It is funny because we planned on doing tracting closer to our flat but we didn't think we had time but we ended up being early so we tracted somewhere else. We met Laura, a mum of two boys, who is also a new investigator! Later that same day, we called by a referral that has been impossible to contact but she answered the door! We prayed with her, and it was so cute, she just kept saying thank you while we were praying. We also have an appointment with her this week!

Last one, we met with Bishop and he gave us two streets to tract. There is a walkway that goes between the two streets and we prayed on the corner of the walkway to begin our finding and a man saw us and started talking to us about it and now he is a new investigator as well! He has been to pretty much every church and he has even read some of the Book of Mormon but not much, so he doesn't know what to think about it. 

I just want to end with telling you how much I love Wales! I love the members here! They’re are my family too and they are so excited about missionary work and involve the missionaries in everything. I love serving here! I am so grateful for the gospel and I feel so privileged to be sharing it with the people of Great Britain! There is no greater cause than this, to share the gospel! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Christensen 

This is what Welsh looks like

Found my Knight in Shining Armour

I made a delicious breakfast

I got my Halloween package