This week's email....:)

Beautiful Lancashire

So, I think you can guess that we spent last Monday with Rachael at
the Blackpool Zoo :) It was fun and was a stress reliever since I
didn't email anyone besides my mission president. We had lots of fun,
especially Sister Madsen, if you can tell from the pics, haha. She's a
weirdo but I love her.
                                              
This week has been good. Wednesday we went around Preston, Chatburn,
and Downham with the northern half of the mission for a church
historical tour. It was really fun and I tried to look cute but it
rained the whole time so I just look wet in the pics but it was
incredible to see the places where the first converts were baptised in
Britain. We went to the River Ribble, to where President Hinckley
lived whilst serving his mission, and also where Elder Kimball was
attacked prior to baptising eight more people into the church. We had
a testimony meeting on the coach on the way back to the Chorley
Chapel. It was a perfect end to the tour. Half the missionaries were
asleep but the half that were awake and shared their testimonies all
felt of that special Spirit and the truth of this message that changed
so many hearts in the early 1800's of this land.

me and Sister Chu

                                     
After the tour I had the wonderful opportunity to go on exchange with
one of our lovely chinese speaking missionaries! Sister Chu is a
fireball but is a great example of teaching by the Spirit. She was
lovely and I learned a lot from her. She helped me to learn to teach
more in unity-not only with my companion- but with the Spirit.
We had the miracle of meeting a man named J on exchange and taught him
the Restoration the next day!-still on exchange. He is 77 and says he
would like to be baptised and he came to church yesterday! he couldn't
hear the second speaker so he left and went to his daughter's house
(who lives just down the road from the chapel) but loved the first
speaker! It was incredible to have him come.

Preston Museum

S also came to church! I think it might have been a lot for him but he
is so good, he just went with it. He asked questions in gospel
principles but I think he didn't want to cause a disruption in the
other classes. Later that same day, he sent us a text saying thank you
for arranging for him to be able to come. Sister Madsen and I were so
grateful we were almost in tears.
                                     
We also did a big street contacting activity with the zone on saturday
and I was really scared and nervous about it so Sister Madsen and I
said a prayer together and tried to get really pumped and excited for
it and just went out to join the other missionaries. We both had a
great experience! sister Madsen felt so drawn to stop this young man
that had actually researched the church before. She had a great
conversation with him and tells me about it everyday since then :) I
also stopped this man and told him that we are sharing the Book of
Mormon with everyone and he said, "are you going to give one to me?" I
said if he wanted one I would. I told him more about it and gave him a
copy with a Restoration pamphlet and asked if he wanted to meet with
missionaries but he said he's a traveler and couldn't do that. So I
told him about mormon.org and he was really interested! He loves
reading and reads all the time because he is always traveling. So that
was a little miracle that I noticed this week. The prepared and elect
are out there! We need to try to find them or they'll remain
"wanderer's".
I love you all and hope you have a brilliant week!
Love, Sister Christensen

Wonderful tea appointment..lots of squirty cream

fixin' the GPS

for funnies:

As we were tracting, I was quoting the Joseph Smith movie to sis M,
the part where he rebukes the men who have him in prison, and I said,
"silence! silence ye fiends of the internal pit--" sis M is like,
"what? changes the quote a little bit." (infernal) ;) same thing.

Sis M went on exchange with sis Yuan from China, and they would link
arms whilst walking. what a cutie! and she'd be taping sis M's arm
with her fingers. She told her in her cute little english that she
likes sis M and thinks she's cute cause she's "so comfortable". then
she told her that she has plenty of "bye-bye-ro" (no idea on the
spelling!) which is the opposite of muscle ;) at lunch she was feeling
her stomach and asked me if she could take a nap on her stomach. haha.
I love sis Yuan. Sis M came back and said, "It's like, I'm not even
offended, but hint taken" she's hilarious.

our sat nav, Serena, broke this week! right after we exchanged! sis M
was the passanger and was trying to text our appointments in one hand,
and was holding the sat nav and directing me with the other. of
course, 80% of our conversations is giving each other cheek; so I said
something to her because I had missed a turn and she held up the phone
and sat nav and was like, "don't sass me!" haha

after 2 days of our broken sat nav, we tried our best to fix Serena.
and, we did! there is now blue tack, sticky tape, and string holding
Serena to our windscreen ;) saving the mission money since July 2015
;)

On our mission history tour, it was split into 2 days, and there were
so many missionaries! We saw our german friend, elder Tiegle, and sis
M only knows like, 6 words in german. so we went up to him and she
said one of the few things she knows, which is, "you're fat". and then
there's me saying the only other thing I know in german, which is,
"you stink". haha, elder Tiegle turns to our ZL and was like, "elder
hollingsworth, say something! they are bullying me!" we elder Tiegle,
he's a pal

At the street display, my DL had me hold a picture of jesus and ask
them what they think about it. the first man I stop was black, and I
was like, "what do you think about this picture of Jesus?" and he went
crazy and said that Jesus wasn't white, and he's looking at all us
caucasion missionaries, and then he sees one on the end from panama
(who is brown) and was like, "you should know what I'm talking about!"
haha, that elder was so offended. all we could do was laugh a bit.
don't worry, although initially he was angry and stuff, he left on
good terms

During the street display, sis M and I went to our table set up for a
drink of water, and we saw a bag of m&m's in elder curtis' bag. and we
asked his comp who was there if we could have some, and he said sure,
as long as e. curtis didn't find out. so naturally, we take his bag
and the 3 of us have a couple, and as I'm leaning down to put them
back he came to the table! ah! haha his face was priceless! he was
all, "excuse me? why would you do that?" but he was alright.

We were tracting, and 2 little boys answered the door. this little 8
year old with braces said in his cute little english accent, "not
today, thank you," (which his parents told him too), and as he was
closing the door, his little brother said cherrio! ah. hahah so cute
and funny! what a dignified kid! not today ;)

Last Week's letter..the computer shut off right before I sent it...ugh!

Hello! I can't believe that Jacob is now on his mission! That is so
crazy. He is so grown up.
We have had such a busy week this week! We went up to Lancaster on
Tuesday to join the missionaries up there for District Meeting because
we were going on exchange with the sisters right after. It was a
really good meeting about involving the ward council and members in
missionary work.
Afterward, we started our exchange and I stayed in Lancaster with
beautiful Sister Hall from South Africa. She was so patient with me as
I exclaimed to her the whole time about how beautiful I thought
Lancaster was. I've always wanted to serve there but going for a one
day exchange was good enough ;)
When we exchanged the next day, I came back to an ill companion. Poor
Sister Madsen :( she worked through it though. We had a busy day and
she was so funny! She would tell people that it was just bad hay fever
so they didn't avoid her like the plague. I'm like, "you're going to
make everyone sick!" and she said, "but I don't want to be alone!"
The next day we were off to Manchester for the day! Thought we'd take
a day off ;) just kidding. We helped a sister who has been ill to take
her luggage to the Mission Home. She is so sweet and I hope she is
able to return soon.
It's been a great week, lots of miles, but we've had a blast!
I love you all! I hope Jacob has a good first week at the MTC! and I
hope the rest of you have a smashing week!
Love, Sister Christensen

for funnies:

We were at a member's for tea, and as part of the lesson after, we
shared a 4 minute video about the first vision. towards the end, right
when Joseph is getting his answer, their 5 year old son was trying to
keep his 2 year old brother interested and told him, "if you keep
watching, a rabbit is going to jump out and kill Joseph." HAHA what?
Later, in the same lesson, the 5 year old wanted to read a scripture,
so sis M picked one that related to the lesson in JSH.it was really
long also. Halfway through the scripture, after trying so hard to
pronounce super big words, the kid says, "ah, I'm done with this", and
handed it to his 9 year old sister. "you read it now". the mum was
like,"who picked this scripture? what happened to 'my father dwelt in
a tent'?" haha they're a great family ;)

We were driving and this mum was pushing a pram (stroller) with a
little kid in it, and he was about 2 and so cute! So sis M exclaimed to
me, "look at the chubby little ginger with glasses!" and I was like,
"wait, are you
talking about yourself?" joking! haha I love her really ;)

I like to mess with sis M, esp when it's my car day. We were
walking to the car, and sis M was waiting for me to unlock it, and I
unlocked her door with the key, and left her standing outside! until she
begged of course. another day, she was inside the car and I'd gotten
out already and then I locked the car. and,there was no way to
unlock it from the inside. She kind of panicked a bit cause she thought I
didn't notice (but I did:) I'm sneaky)

This is Sister Madsen's favourite: so, we had just worked on one street,
and our plan was to street contact and then work on another one. Sis M
asked me how to get there, cause I had the map. I had used the map all
day so far and I said it was her turn to do it. She claims that she
always looks up the streets the day before so it is my responsibility
to manage the map during the day. (not true by the way, I always help
pick out the streets). so we are
throwing the map back and forth to each other,and she shoves the map
in my arm then runs away! Then I yell to her, "if you don't take the
map,
I'm going to throw it in this bush!" She kept walking, and then I yell,
"I threw the map in a bush!" she laughed and turned around, and I'm
back there, standing with my arms folded. "I hope you save the Lord's
map sis C," she shouted back. then kepted walking. She's so mean to
me. I grabbed the map and followed her but I was stubborn and wouldn't
look up where we were going. So we walked down the street and she asks
me where to go. I say that I don't know. She sighs and takes the map
and ends up having to use it. Aha! Another win for sister C!

ZOO DAY

Thanks Rachel!!