CONGRATULATIONS TO CATE & NATHANAEL & WHITNEY!!

Sister Lunden (from Finland)

Sister Bridge (from Australia)

This week has been great :) We had district meeting on Tuesday then went on exchange with the Congleton sisters. I got to stay in Congleton with Sister Lunden and we had a great time together. We met a lady who wasn't interested but referred her son to us and we taught him about baptism on the spot and invited him to learn more, to which he replied in the positive. The only tense thing was that he was holding his pet snake the whole time. 

Visiting with a less active and her pet owls #magical #harrypotter #hedwig

We exchanged back the next day and on Thursday commenced another exchange with the sisters in Macclesfield. I stayed in Newcastle (with the car :) ) and Sister Bridge and I got to stop and talk to a lot of interesting people. I told the joke I got from Jacob to someone on the street and they laughed! (Q: What do you get when you cross the world's best story teller with the world's biggest mammal? A: A whale of a tale!) I was challenged to tell a joke whilst finding and then tied it into how we can find happiness or joy in this life. It was well… fun ;)

It was really tiring week but seriously, so much fun! I love serving with Sister McDonnell. I get along with her  perfectly. We have a good laugh everyday and can still be serious and do missionary work. So I love it.

Sunday with Sister McDonnell

Congratulations to Cate for her mission call! and to Nathanael and Whitney for their baby! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week :)

Love, Sister Christensen

I Love to See the Temple

Sister McDonnell, Sister Pong, Sister Christensen

Congratulations to Jacob for getting called to the Armenia Yereven Mission! That is so exciting!

Well, this week has been amazing. I am still meeting so many new people and getting to know the area. 

The Congleton District

Our District leader didn't like the name of our District so he renamed it the J. Lunnche District
by mixing up all our surnames

I got to do lots of driving this week! I drove to both Chorley and Manchester. We went to the temple on Wednesday, which was amazing! I loved it :) and we went to a meeting in Manchester on Friday, which was really fun as well. Sister McDonnell and I had to give a training on Ministering and Administering and how we need to follow the Saviors example when leading. I love how the Savior leads by giving others the opportunity to lead and learn for themselves. He serves them and encourages them and lovingly corrects them in order to help them better reach their potential.

We have an investigator that we have had trouble seeing over the last couple of weeks and we were able to see her twice in the last week! She is incredible and everything just makes sense to her. Like when we talk about repentance and baptism and asked her if that is what she wants in her life, she says, "Why wouldn't I want that? Who wouldn't want that?" She can see how clearly it can help her and her family to be happy and move on with their lives. 

The Atonement is real! It is a miracle that I am privileged to see almost daily as people make those little steps toward accepting Jesus Christ more fully in their lives. 

I love England! I love being a missionary and I love the gospel. It's true.

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

Love, Sister Christensen x0

Eh Up Duc?

Me with Sister McDonnell--she's a Treasure

I am now in Newcastle-Under-Lyme/ Stoke-on-Trent and it is lovely so far :) Sister McDonnell and I are getting along famously, I absolutely love her! She is so cute and calls everyone a treasure or poppit. We have fun together.

It has been kind of a crazy, busy week. I said goodbye to my Rhyl family at the beginning of the week. Then went to transfer meeting where we helped transport some of the departing missionaries. That was hard because a lot of people went home this transfer who Sister McDonnell and I were really close friends with, so it was hard to see them leave. 

Me, Sister Lever--trainer to Sister Larson, from Utah

We got home late and had a crazy weekend of planning, training, and teaching! I absolutely love being back in Newcastle Stake and seeing familiar faces as well as getting to meet a lot of new ones! 

Sorry it is a short email this week and I didn't share anything really specific but I'll write more next week :) I love you all lots and hope you have a brilliant week!

Love, Sister Christensen xo

IT'S BEEN RHYL

Saying goodbye to ward members
Sister Becky Donaldson

Kennedy Morris

So, my service in Rhyl is coming to a close. I am leaving Wales and moving to Newcastle-Under-Lyme and serving with Sister McDonnell! and Yes! I did go on exchange with her a couple of weeks ago! We were such a golden companionship for 24 hours that they had to put us together :). We'll be Sister Training Leaders together, so that will be crazy and fun! 

I cut Sister Lever's hair

Sister McDonnell will be my third English companion. She is from Birmingham area and she is so sweet. She is seriously one of kindest people I have ever met. She is also so humble and grateful for everything she receives. I cannot wait to serve with her!

Leanne and daugher Amber

Sister Lever also got asked to train! I'm going to be a mission grandma! She is so excited. She is going to do a great job. She is so diligent and wants to put her best effort forward. She loves being a missionary and has such a strong testimony of how it can change peoples lives for the better, because she is a convert herself. She's cute, she's asking me all these things about when I came into the mission because she thinks she is going to train an American. haha I love her, she's going to be a great trainer.

Also, Sister Lever will be done training on Wednesday and it was our last week together so we decided we were going to make it count! So we did loads of finding and saw some great miracles. We made a goal for the week and we were two lessons away from reaching it (and I know it isn't all about the numbers, it is about people) but we went out Sunday evening and said we need to get those two lessons and a new person to teach. So we knocked a couple of doors and talked with man that wasn't really interested but he listened to us. That's okay, but it's not the best. Knocked a couple more doors and we met a young girl from Lithuania. She is so cute and sweet and was smiling the whole time! We gave her a Book of Mormon and shared a Restoration pamphlet with her and are meeting with her again this week!

The Trio in Rhyl Ward

We saw other amazing miracles throughout the week and I feel like I really have worked my hardest whilst serving in Rhyl. I am sad to go, though. I really love the members and the people we're teaching. It is such a great area, so many people here are prepared to hear the message of the restored gospel. 

Tanya Devany

I'm so glad that the family was able to get together for grandpas funeral. He was a great man and I miss him loads, but I'm grateful for the knowledge that I have that families are forever. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

End of Transfer Celebration...McDonald's Breakfast

Love, Sister Christensen x

CHESTER ZOO

Thank you Cara, for taking us!

We went to Chester Zoo on Monday. We went with Cara and the Elders and we all had a blast! We're just a bunch of kids running around looking at the animals :)

Tuesday, we went to Manchester for a mission activity and we got to watch the film, Meet the Mormons. I thought the first bit was hilarious! I liked the cross referencing to other media. I might have gotten a little teary- eyed at some points as well.. I loved it!

We went on exchange with the sisters in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, so not the nice Newcastle. I went with Sister McDonnell and I loved it! She is amazing and we had a lot of fun together. We think we'll serve together sometime :) She is such a treasure. (She's english and when she thinks you've said or done something nice, she calls you a treasure). I loved teaching with her, it was really easy and we were unified right away! I hope she will be one of my companions.

 with Sister McDonnell 

I came back to Rhyl for my birthday, which was so fun! Thanks to everyone for the happy birthday wishes, presents, and cards :) 

Thank you Lizey & Amelia for this shirt

My nick name in the District is bunny rabbit...

The box the Elder's in the ward gave me the present in...I am the only American

Valentines day was busy! We did some finding, knocking on doors which was really fun. We had wonderful gospel conversations with people and shared a few copies of the Book of Mormon. We had a busy day of appointments but the last lesson was my favourite. We're teaching a young girl named Hollie and she is so cute! Her family are returning members and they are all such a miracle. I love them all so much. She is learning about the church and her mum is still less active, so we teach her at her nan's. It is a miracle because, now, her mum's partner is asking about the church, he is curious and wants to learn more. 

I love working in this area. It has been so amazing and I love the people here so much. I never want to leave!

Also, I'm sorry I won't be there at Grandpa Cook's funeral. I send my love and prayers to all of you. I remember Grandpa making us breakfast, singing opera, and bouncing us on his knee to "Trot, trot to Boston". He was such a lovely man and I know I will remember him and how good he was forever.

Much Love, Sister Christensen

Baby Rhino!

Well Good...

This week had been swell :) The weeks just fly by! We've seen lots of little miracles that have come just at the right times to build up my faith, despite the cold weather! 

It is funny because we've taught the Word of Wisdom lesson to people on the street a lot this week. I think the media has a lot of stuff about being healthy and the negative effects of coffee and tea. So we talk to people about it and they agree with it. It was funny because one lady said, "This religion is all about being healthy, isn't it?" I know God wants to best for us, just as a parents wants their young child to grow up healthy and strong, so does Heavenly Father desire for us to be physically and spiritually healthy.

We had an appointment with a family we thought was golden but they fell through and we had no backup plans for the evening. It was dark and freezing and I was not up for wandering the streets talking to people for an hour. But that's what we did. We met a teenage boy who totally opened up to us and we shared a Book of Mormon with him and bore our testimonies and how much the Gospel of Jesus Christ has blessed our lives and our families. We invited him to church as well but he said it started a little too early. We'll see if he comes one week.

We later met an older man who has recently had some family problems. He had lots of trouble with religion but we talked about Charity with him. He thought we were talking about Charities that collect money and how they are business and are corrupt, etc etc. But then we started talking about what they were originally and how we are all on a journey to become more charitable. We all really felt the spirit and hopefully we'll get to see him again in the coming week.

Also, miracle. We called by and were able to see the family that fell through earlier in the week! We taught them more about the Book of Mormon and testified of its truthfulness. They are incredible. The man is an atheist but has the desire to believe and the woman is a semi active member of the Church of England. She has been reading but he has a hard time getting into it, seeing he has no religious background. They have so much potential. I have never been so excited or motivated to see investigators progress. I just love them and I love missionary work. It is so fun and incredible! 

Everything is going well in Rhyl! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! 

Love ya! Love, Sister Christensen x

I Am Forever Walking in Puddles!

Matthew's baptism

K before I forget: happy birthday to Gram, Doug, Catharine and Cate :) and anyone else I missed..I'm horrible.

So, we had a baptism on Saturday! It was so good! I got to play the piano, so that was interesting. A lot of the ward members came so that was amazing! Matthew is super good. Sister Madsen and I stopped him whilst walking to an appointment last November. He told us that no matter where he traveled to, he always ran into missionaries. We humorously told him it was a sign and that he needed to listen to us, so we set up a time to meet with him again and he's just progressed from there! Whenever he has had a question, he either answers it himself through prayer and reading the Book of Mormon or whoever is fellowshipping with us has the perfect personal experience and testimony to convince him of the truth! 

We had a meeting on Wednesday where we learned some new stuff about how to make us better missionaries then I went on exchange with Sister Warren, who is serving in Runcorn ward. At the end of our exchange, when we were walking to catch the train, we stopped a man who was walking to pick up his son from school and we taught him how to pray. We asked if we could see him the next day, which we did. I was with Sister Lever at that point and we went and taught him and his partner the Restoration! It was a miracle. They are both looking for answers and are willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and Joseph Smith. 

On Saturday we were walking home in the crazy cold and wind and we ran into a woman we had met before but couldn't get in contact with. We talked some more with her and prayed with her and now we are going to see her this week. It was a miracle that we ran into her at all, Heavenly Father blesses us so much by putting us in the paths of those who need us when we choose to be obedient and go out and work even when the weather is horrible!

I hope you have a wonderful week this week! I love you all!

Love, Sister Christensen :)

I got my birthday package!  Christmas letters from the ward.