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

The Ways of the Welsh

Me & Sister Madsen

I feel like I am so clever with my email headings sometimes :) My first week in Rhyl has been absolutely fantastic! I love the people here! The members are so kind and they think I'm really cheeky, which british people like I guess.. But Sister Madsen and I have been getting along famously and it makes the work so fun.

We visited a lot of members this week, which was really fun. I loved getting to know them right away, I feel like I've known most of them since the pre-existence. We've also had a tea appointment literally everyday this week. I am going to get fat. Not complaining though! "Let your soul delight in fatness" (2 Nephi 9:51 or Isaiah 55:2).

Sister Madsen is amazing. She is so happy about serving and is very supportive. I feel like I'm relearning a lot because of the past couple of transfers and she is a great teacher. She's been out two transfers less than me but our companionship is very equal. We have the same goals for this area and really desire to work hard and do our best. I feel like there are no limitations, we get to work hard all the time and don't have to worry about anything stopping us! We've had a great week already and everyday is good. I am so excited for this transfer.

We had a miracle last night, actually. We were walking back to our flat and we stopped a girl going home from work. When we first started talking, I thought she felt we were really weird and wanted to get away from us but we kept talking and asking her questions, just having a good conversation when she asked where we're from and why are we in Wales? We told her that we're missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and we're out sharing a message about how we can be with our families forever. She is really close to her sister and liked that idea. She said all churches should be like that. So then we had a gospel conversation with her and prayed with her. Then we asked if she would like to meet again and learn more. She thought about it for a second then said, "Why not?" It was so exciting! She's a new investigator and we're going to see her on Friday!

We have a Zone Meeting on Wednesday and dad will be happy to know that I'll be playing my violin for it! Finally! We're doing "Come Unto Christ" which is the Youth Theme for 2014 and my beautiful companion and a couple of other missionaries will be singing and such. Should be good! I'll try to have Sister Ulrich record it and hopefully put it on the mission facebook page or something.

I hope everyone is doing well and has a great week!

Love, Sister Christensen

A member crochet'd this dragon for me

We made our own Halloween Fun

I'm in Wales

New District: Elder's Van Wagonen and Jolley
Sister's Klemm & Ryser
Me and Sister Madsen

It Just Got Rhyl!

New Companion...Sister Madsen

Hiya/ Greetings from Wales. I already know some Welsh!

Bora da- Good morning

Nosta- Good evening

Iesu Grist- Jesus Christ

Sid y hie- how are you

and I got a welsh name badge! Well, I ordered it. I don't have it yet but it's coming. It was funny because we went to Stake conference yesterday and a man came up to Sister Madsen and me and gave us beef for having English name badges whilst serving in Wales. Cheeky. Just kidding, the Welsh people are so nice! I have never felt more welcome in a ward. The Ward Mission Leaders wife came up to me and just hugged me and said, "I already like you!" Sister Madsen and I have been friends since she came in the mission so she told the ward about me before I came and I guess they liked what they heard! 

We have had such a blast already! We went to the adult session of stake conference on Saturday in Chester, straight from Transfer Meeting. That was really fun. There wasn't enough room in the chapel, so the missionaries went to a classroom and watched it on a tele. We hadn't had tea either and a member brought us food so we were all eating and listening to the talks. President Ulrich talked and asked all the missionaries to stand up so Elder MacMeikan stood up and just ran in there and we all followed like we were going to battle. It was hilarious and so fun.

We went to Stake Conference the next day in Rhyl and that was really good as well. There was a girl who was home temporarily from the Czech Slovakia mission and she talked about how they were getting signatures from people to make our church legally recognized in the country. There was an elder who had been serving for about 6 weeks and couldn't understand the language at all. he dedicated his whole morning study to just be able to say, "I believe in God, the eternal Father, in Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost." That is all he knew how to say but he got twice as many signatures than everyone else. I just love that story! We may feel weak and inadequate but Heavenly Father knows how to use those weaknesses and make them strengths.

I kind of said this before but the members here are amazing! I've loved the members in my last two areas but just everyone is so nice! Wales is to England what Canada is to America, They get made fun of but their still known as being super nice. Wales is beautiful and the people are great. We are going to go to a waterfall later today. A waterfall! This transfer is going to be so fun, I can't wait! I love love love Sister Madsen and we are going to "take out the trash" in Rhyl. ( shout out to my brother Andrew, who just got home from his mission)

I love you all so much! Hope you have a splendid week!

Much Love, Sister Christensen

Family Home Evening at Sister OKanes

Sister Christensen with her Trainer Sister Hansen and Sister Hansen's new Trainee..a new Sister Missionary who converted a little over a year ago from the Massachusetts Boston Mission!

Farewell to Stafford…Hello Wales

This week has been pretty crazy. We had a miracle on Monday, music on Friday, and we got transfer calls on Saturday.

Beautiful Tree we pass by each day

So Monday, we met a man last transfer who seemed very interested. We called by him and got a return appointment. He says he is not religious but it is a conversation that has been coming up with his wife and he said he would let his children decide for themselves about religion. He invited us back for tonight to learn more, so we're on the right track!

Dad will be proud to know that I used my violin teaching a lesson! We didn't know how to teach one of our investigators because she's not really a traditional investigator where we go in, teach the lesson, then leave. She usually just tells her everything that has been going on in her life and she expects us to give her spiritual guidance. We just teach a little section of a lesson and apply it to her. She needs to take it slower, little by little. We found out that she likes music and we thought we would teach her through the hymns! We sang Abide With Me, Where Can I Turn for Peace, and Have I Done Any Good. It was great to see the spirit work with her through music. She is very sensitive to the spirit and always acknowledges God in her life. So that was amazing.

Cutest Family...The Sherrard's

Sister Sika and I are whitewashing out of Stafford. Two Elders are replacing us and one of them is training a new missionary! So that will be exciting. Sister Sika is going to St. Helens which is close to Liverpool and serving with Sister Fetuli who is also Tongan! I will be going to Rhyl in Northern Wales, right on the coast! I cannot wait! It will be so cold but I've never lived by the sea before! I'll be serving with Sister Madsen. I met her when she first came into the mission and we're already good friends so I am so excited to get to serve with her! I love Stafford and will miss the people here terribly but the I know that the Lord sends us to where we need to be and I'm grateful for the time I've had to serve here. That is pretty much it for the week, it looks like everyone had fun in Moab! So jealous, but I love you all and hope you have a stellar week!

Love, Sister Christensen :)

BE HAPPY

You know what I love? I love that when you look back over your life or experiences (like serving a mission) and over time you just forget the bad things and only remember the good. Like, I have received emails from people telling me how much they miss me but if I was with them, they would tell me how annoying and weird and obnoxious I am. I can only remember the times I always got on with my brothers and sisters. I knew that we fought but I remember more specifically when we didn't.

I love being on a mission. Hard things happen everyday, all the time but you look back over the day or week or month or year and you can only remember the miracles you've seen, the spirit you felt, and how you've changed for the better. I think it is a natural thing to just be happy. I think the people who are miserable and don't want to talk to missionaries have to work really hard to stay that way. Maybe it's just me but I'll be upset and then I'll remember something funny and I won't be upset anymore. Sister Sika thinks I'm crazy because sometimes I'll just giggle to myself when that happens.

Exchanges with Sister Taylor

I studied a talk by Elder Christofferson this morning entitled "Justification and Sanctification". In his talk he says, "Righteousness (or obedience) leads to happiness and sin leads to misery." It is that simple and that easy. Just do what Heavenly Father tells you to do and you'll be happy. He is our loving Father in heaven and he would never ask us to do something that he didn't know would make us happy. He has done so much for us already to show his love. Elder Christofferson later states that we have access to the atonement, it has been given to us, we just need to CHOOSE to accept it. He quoted something that said roughly, "if someone gives you a good gift and you don't receive it, then it is no good to you or the person who has given it." The Atonement is a great gift that has been given to us and we need to use it everyday and it will take away our griefs and sorrows, so that both we and the giver of the gift can rejoice together.

I love you all and hope you see many miracles this week!

Love, Sister Christensen

Before haircut

after haircut
Thank you Sister Taylor

Quoting Amelia: #General Conference is Life

District Meeting

This week was a week of miracles. I went on exchange last week and I felt like a really didn't live up to my own expectations. I feel like I really have been lacking when it has come to travel contacting (talking to people whilst traveling or whilst out of my area). So we took the train to District Meeting last Tuesday and I talked to a woman from my old area! She was very nice and conversational. Even though she wasn't interested in religion, it was kind of a little note to me that I really do like talking to people and I just need to open my mouth and the Spirit will fill it for me. I don't have to be afraid to reach out a little bit.

We also did some finding this week and had an amazing lesson on the spot with a woman named Susan, who was a Jehovah Witness. So she wasn't interested either but she was willing to speak with us and she shared her conversion story and we bore our testimonies with her and we were very unified for that short while. It was a unique experience.

And....Conference! We went up to Newcastle-Under-Lyme for General Conference and went out on the town for an hour between sessions. A recent convert from the Newcastle Stake came with us and she stopped a man named Dan who we were able to teach and then invited him to come up to the chapel and watch the last session of conference with us. (It was the Sunday morning session but in England it airs at 5 pm so it was the last session shown at the chapel.) He came and he said he liked it! He is very opened minded and said he might come to church but not sure if he wanted to be visited by missionaries right then.

I just love conference! Sister Sika could tell you how excited it makes me :) I love how the main themes seemed to be: Having a testimony, Repenting, Keeping the Commandments, and of course the atonement is in all the talks. I love the Gospel, it truly blesses families. I know we have a living prophet today and he leads and guides this church. I love you all! The church is true! 

Love, Sister Christensen