A Brilliant Week

P-day Selfies

Hello! How is everyone? This week has been so fun. We've been working in the rain and wind and seen lots of miracles and just crashed at the end of each day. I love it. I love our investigators, I love the members, I love being a missionary in Northern Wales. I could probably stay here forever. 

Oops!  Sister Lever spilled!

We had a crazy day on Wednesday. We pretty much scheduled to see everyone that day and were just rushing about but we had about twenty minutes to do some finding. We knocked some doors and the second door we knocked knew one of the members! She's Catholic but not really, like she was christened but isn't a church goer or anything but she invited us back! It was not an accident that she had been exposed to the church through a friend and we just knocked on her door!

We were waiting for a bus and this girl sits next to me and I ask her how her day has been, where she's going, etc. Then she asked me what I was doing in Wales if I'm from America and I told her I was a missionary. Her mum used to be a Jehovah Witness so she started asking me all these really good questions about what happens after this life and stuff.

We had tea at one of the members homes and we got to hear their conversion story which is amazing. It's hilarious because he met his wife (who was brought up in the church, active) when he was out having a drinking party of sorts and for some reason, she gave him her number. They got talking and she told him that she is a church goer and she told him all her standards and she didn't want to mess about. So, even though he was very atheist, he gradually became more and more exposed to the church through her. He asked her questions all the time, especially when he finally started being taught by the missionaries. He was baptised, then six months later they were engaged! Then six months after that they got married! I think everyone in this ward has the best conversion stories. It's my favourite question to ask them.

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

Love, Sister Christensen

Family Names

Rhyl Miracles

So this week has been so good! We started it well last week with Paul's baptism and one of our investigators came to a baptism and is now working towards a date to be baptised! We just had miracle after miracle of finding new people to teach, finding less active members who wouldn't have been found except for such coincidence!, and we had three of our investigators attend church this week! I don't know what it is like in other missions, but here that is a lot.

So, our investigator has been praying about baptism and Joseph Smith and the Restoration and had his baptismal interview with the mission president yesterday and it was incredible. It lasted for a couple of hours then President Ulrich invited Sister Ulrich, Sister Lever, and I to come in to say a prayer. I offered it and the Spirit that was in that room was so incredible. We didn't hear anything that was going on but you could feel it immediately as you walked it. Our investigator was so happy and so excited to ask one of the Elders to baptise him, it's the first thing he did walking out the door. It has been a miracle. Sister Madsen and I found him and then Sister Lever and I have taught him all the lessons and we've had amazing fellowshipping from the ward, he has progressed so quickly.

The next day we were waiting at the bus station and a girl that was waiting was just looking and smiling at us and made some small talk. Then another lady accused us of being police women and we're like, "No, we're missionaries." and this girl just smiled to us and said, "it's okay, I know who you are." We're like, do you? We found out that she's been less active for about six years and she is moving, so we got her number. If we hadn't seen her, no one would be able to find her because of her address and number changing. That was a miracle because you can see so plainly how Heavenly Father puts you in the path you need to be on.

We were a bit early to an appointment one day, so we did a bit of tracting and we knocked a door and this woman comes out with the cutest little boy I think I've ever seen. She told us he is her nephew and we got talking about families and the Plan of Salvation. She started out saying that she didn't have a faith in God and not being into religion then said we could come back and share more with her! I love when you can see the Spirit change peoples hearts right in front of you!

We tracted into another lady who knows the Bishops kids from the school she works at and she invited us back to share more. She loves working with children and told us about how close she is with her family and about her grandchildren who have some terrible health challenges and was interested to hear about what we had to say about how the gospel can bless her family. 

We taught a new investigator this week whose aunt is a member. We found him last week and he said there was a void in his life that he didn't know how to fill. He told us that he is apprehensive about religion from past experiences but we had a great lesson about the Restoration and he came to church on Sunday! He blended right in with the ward, they were so excited to have him and he has read up on church history so he was quite knowledgeable with Joseph Smith and the restored church, which we talked about in Gospel Principles class! 

We had a lesson with another one of our investigators and I think we just finally broke down a barrier, she completely opened up to us and we were able to address her concerns and she was also able to come to church! She loved it and said she's going to bring her son next week! Ah! She kept saying thank you for inviting her and the members came and talked to her and really helped her feel welcome.

Sister Lever and I were so excited to have so many people come to church, we were glowing on the way back to our flat when we met a man walking his dog who has a lot of inquiries about religion! We invited him to the Book of Mormon class in the middle of the week and church on Sunday and he said that he'll come! We got his number and asked if we could meet with him again and he said he could meet us at the church because he conveniently starts working at a place close to the chapel this week! God's timing and placement is perfect! Those are just some of the miracles! 

Sorry if this email is too long or boring but I just love being a missionary and I love seeing all these incredible things happen! This area is so prepared to hear the gospel, I can't believe I am so lucky to be here and see such growth in the area and in the people. 

I love you all so much and hope you have a brilliant week :)

Love, Sister Christensen

BAPTISM

This week has been pretty fantastic. We went up to Manchester on Wednesday (Amelia's birthday) and had a meeting for Sister Lever, because she is finishing up her very first transfer. I loved it! It was such a good meeting. We practiced finding people to teach, did a sort of evaluation of this past transfer and the new missionaries shared their favourite miracle that they experienced over the last 12 weeks. We were taught by President and Sister Ulrich and the assistants and each other. It was very uplifting and boosted Sister Lever and I to go out and do the work with "gusto". 

Sister Lever and I have been working on being better at travel contacting, or finding people via train, bus, etc. So, I had a really good conversation with a man on the train to Manchester. He was atheist but I went around that by talking about family history, which wasn't too hard because he is from Lancashire, where a ton of my ancestors are from. That was really fun. I'm learning to do a Lancashire accent as well! So, be excited to hear it, eventually! 

On the way back to Rhyl, Sister Lever and I taught four more people, which is an accomplishment! Approaching strangers in a strange city, believe it or not, is actually really scary. But we did it and gave three of them a copy of the Book of Mormon, which made us even more excited to apply everything we learned that day in our own area.

We had some great miracles the following day. We were catching to bus to Prestatyn and met a man at the bus stop who actually approached us. His aunt is a member and he was checking if we were Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses. We sat with him on the bus and he told us how he had friends from a lot of other religions but he couldn't really agree with them but there was a vacancy in his life that he didn't know how to fill. He also commented on how missionaries from our church or members always seemed to have a better outlook on life, that we just seemed happier. We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked if he'd like to learn more, in which he readily accepted.

Paul, second from right, baptized by Emma's nephew on right
Emma is in the red coat,  Happy day!

Later that same day, we taught Paul, who was baptized last Saturday, and we had a great lesson on the Book of Mormon combined with prayer. We talked about how being a member of the church is a continuing experience of learning and teaching. We are all growing and all learning and the best kind of learning comes from our Father in Heaven as we study the Book of Mormon and pray to know of its divine truth. His baptism went really well. It was very simple and the Spirit was there. He was so happy! I love baptismal services.

I hope you all have a brilliant week and are enjoying the new year! Love ya!

Love, Sister Christensen

A New Year!

How was everyones New Years? I hope you all made some good New Years Resolutions!

To help me be accountable, I'll tell a couple of my goals. In our mission we choose two Christlike attributes to work on for the year. I have chosen hope and diligence. I chose hope because I want to develop an attitude to be hopeful and happy even when circumstances don't look good. I chose diligence because I don't want to get lazy! I want to have the attitude to work hard until the end. I also like in Preach My Gospel how it says that diligence is to focus your efforts on the most important things. For me, as a missionary, it is really easy to see what is most important because everything I do is measure and reported, like key indicators. When I'm not on a mission any more, it will require more thinking and prayer to know what is the most important. But yeah, those are two things I will be focusing on starting this new year.

Our New PJ's from Sister Lever's Mum

So this week has been amazing. I think everyone under the sun has been poorly this last week, including myself. We stop proselyting a little early on New Years Eve anyways but I was feeling not too good after we visited a member who is in hospital, so we were just going to go home after that. But we got back to Rhyl and decided to talk to everyone we could on the walk back to our flat. 

We stopped a man smoking outside his house and he quickly opened up to us and said, "I don't know why I'm telling you this, I feel like I've known you my whole life!" We went on to talk with him and invited him to learn more, which he accepted. 

Christmas with the Morris's

As we were walking away, about halfway down the street, he called after us and told us to come back. He said his landlord had seen us on the cameras and wanted us to come speak with him. He thought we were someone else but listened to us and we shared a Book of Mormon with him. He also accepted the invitation to learn more. 

Last, but not least, we met Nadia. A little background first. My companion has family from Liverpool, which is just across the bay from Rhyl, so a lot of people are from there who live in our area. Sister Lever loves liverpool! Nadia is from Liverpool. We stopped her and prayed with her and she got really excited and told us to come visit her. We introduced ourselves as missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which she hadn't heard of but she told us to visit her and her mum and said, "Just so you know, my mums a mormon." Sister Lever said, "No way!" and Nadia said, "No, no, she's alright, don't worry!" and we just laughed and said, "we're mormons!" then she said, "You're joking! My mum and I have lived here for 15 years and haven't been able to find your chapel!" It was crazy. We saw her again this last weekend and we shared a Book of Mormon with her, so that whole experience was really exciting. 

Great Ball with an Exercise Ball

With my two daughters

...and their grandma

We had a great week with some of the most spiritual lessons of my whole mission and miracles happened daily. I am so excited about missionary work! It is hard but it is so good! It is interesting because Sister Lever and I didn't have the right attitude the week of Christmas, so that whole week was a bit challenging but this last week we were just determined to talk to everyone and try to testify to as many people as the Lord put in our path and the difference is faith changing. I am so grateful to be on a mission and to be changed by the Spirit. "The Spirit combined with the Book of Mormon is the most powerful tool in missionary work!" 

I'm not even close to perfect but it has been great at this time of reflection to look back and see how far I've come. I love sharing this experiences with you and the people I serve with. I love you all so much and hope you have a smashing week :)

Love, Sister Christensen