Week 48

I love my life, I am so lucky.  No I am blessed beyond belief. Our area is FLOURISHING right before our eyes. THINGS ARE HAPPENING HERE IN LUNA AND PIE TOWN NEW MEXICO.

BERNIE GOT BAPTIZED! HE IS SO CUTE! I was talking to him on the phone two days before about some things and I asked if he was excited. He said that he couldn't sleep because he was so excited! Awe Berns.

We have met so many people here who we have fallen in love with and who are falling in love with us. We are the senior citizen whisperers.

First off, Carol Moore. She is from England and lives 2 minutes away from us. We have planted her a garden and helped her shovel woodshavings at the saw mill into bags and lay them in her horse stables. She invited us over for  lunch and we love her.

Also Linda Burkhart. She is an old widow who plays cards with all the women in Luna once a week. She was a referral sister Carrillo and I had in February. We contacted her and she didn't want anything to do with us. BUT we have seen her a few times since then with our members and she accepted to have us come and clean her windows! So we got on ladders and had adventures cleaning her windows then she made us lunch and never wanted us to leave and she accepted a Book of Mormon!

We have so many old friends who just love us.

ALSO, Ms. Joyce Smallwood who we live with. She plays cards in Luna too and she told us in the morning the other day when we saw her walking that everybody tells her all the time how lucky she is to have us living with her. SO we thought "we need to start visiting Joycey". Last night we went to visit her and she had set out sliced cheeses and cherries and grapes and made a frozen limeade. SHE WAS SO EXCITED TO HAVE US OVER. So we talked for a while and at the end I asked her " how do you find peace?" She told us she finds peace in certain things but not religion like we do. Then she asked me, " How do you find peace?" I told her I find peace in knowing who I am as a daughter of God. Before we left I asked her if we could sing her a song. We sang I am A child of God. She teared up (SHE FELT THE SPIRIT) and told us how beautiful it was.

Little miracles are happening! These old single ladies all LOVE US! AND WE ADORE THEM. We are still serving a lot and getting to know the members.

The reasons I feel most happy right now are...

- This area I felt so curious about 5 months ago is now it's own area and FLOURISHING.

-My companions are so loving and obedient and FUN.

- The members are so supportive.

- The non-members are ABNORMALLY KIND and loving

- Our Bishop and Branch President are so supportive.

- I am doing EXACTLY what Heavenly Father wants me to do and am EXACTLY where he wants me!

I LOVE EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING!

WE ARE THE LUCKIEST MISSIONARIES IN THE WORLD. I LOVE NM.

Hermana Christensen

Zone Training Meeting

Photo shoot at the Snow residence

Laying out in our backyard during lunch :)

Random Bathroom pic in Pie Town ( the trailer still doesn't have plumbing or electricity so we use the church)

MY HALF BIRTHDAY drink

Week 47

This. week. was. awesome.

After the temple trip on Wednesday, I was driving on main street in Snowflake on the way to dinner when suddenly the car starts beeping frantically at me and the screen in front of me says something about the engine overheating so I screamed a little to be dramatic and then pulled over in front of a vacant house. The hood was steaming a bit and we (idiotically) opened the hood and saw the engine coolant tank bubbling over. It didn't hurt us luckily. I kid you not within the next 10 minutes of this happening we had about 10 cars pull up next to us and try to help. Anyways- after much speculation and drama our vehicle coordinator told us the car had to left left in Snowflake and towed to ShowLow in the morning to be worked on because the car was still under warranty- no one else could touch it. This posed a bit of a problem because we now live about 3 hours away from Snowflake. Long story short....

We got a ride to Eagar with Sisters Arevalo and Heap. They let us take their car in the morning to our service project 45 minutes away in Quemado. Where we helped dig up weeds and plant grass for a young mother less active member we found out there. AND MIRACLE... she ended up making us an absolutely beautiful lunch she had prepared in the crockpot and made potato salad. SO CUTE. Then again we borrowed their car again and drove about an hour and a half way to a home in Luna where we helped chop 22 heads of cabbage for a wedding. Where afterwards we had dinner and talked with the mother who is not a member.

Then the HIGHLIGHT of our week and the talk of the town. We helped brand, castrate, and earmark about 100 baby cattle for some members in Luna.  Sunday morning we slept in Cruzville but Sister Hulsey drove 45 minutes to pick us up at 6 am. Then after we finished, we had lunch and  she drove us 45 minutes back home. The car ride home I got to talk with her and thank her for letting us come and help and get to know so many people. She then told me how much it meant to her and everyone else that we did what we did. The men who helped us were non members married to her active daughters. Also a less active in the ward. She said that it meant so much for all of them to see us missionaries not afraid to get dirty. She was so thankful to us. On Sunday 2 of the men ended up coming and we all sat together. It was a miracle. All from our wonderful morning of torturing baby cows :( haha. 

Last night we spent in Luna with brother Thompson of the bishopric and his sweet wife who reminds me so much of Cherie Leavitt. We were able to teach them a lesson and feel to spirit so strong in their home. Brother Thompson expressed to us how thankful and "tickled pink" he is to have missionaries living in their ward. They have never had missionaries living there and let me tell you- miracles are happening. We have 19 referrals received this week. The members are becoming so missionary minded. I feel so FORTUNATE to be part of the building up of the kingdom in this special area. I LOVE the people in Luna.

I know that Jesus Christ is directing this work. Hearts have been being prepared for years here. I am so blessed to be an official representative of Jesus Christ right here right now.

The gospel is true, I love it.  I am not perfect but I love striving to live it. Repentance is necessary and worth it, forgiveness heals. Faith in Christ is essential. And the sacrament cleanses. The Holy Ghost is real and really helps me. How grateful am I to know the way to be truly happy.

Pray for us here in Luna and Pie Town.

Hermana Christensen

Waiting to be picked up- notice the wolf box in the background (where little kids would wait after they got dropped off from school so they weren't eaten by wolves). This is right off our driveway.

I will have nightmares the rest of my life about cutting off ears.

Branding

Can you see all these ears on the ground? I probably cut off around 75 ears.

Thanks to Sister Campbell from Pie Town- I had a rockin outfit.

I love cows. especially babies.

I made a couch out of our kitchen chairs to lay on. Sister Pass was jealous and wanted to as well. haha

With Brother and Sister Thompson

Week 46

I know that Heavenly Father loves us so much that he permits suffering to occur. I am so grateful for the sadness I am able to feel at times. I know that Jesus Christ can heal any wound. I know that anything unfair about life can be made right through His atonement.

We attended church yesterday in Luna. President and Sister Sweeney came. It was fast and testimony meeting and Sister Snow bore her testimony and talked about how blessed her family has been from having us sisters stay in her home. And President Sweeney commended us sisters as well. And a few other people talked about missionary work. After the meeting, people swarmed us. We received referrals, dinner appointments and service opportunities. We still don't know many members up there, and the houses are extremely difficult to find on our own. But I have so much hope for little Luna. We are working on getting to know members this week. The work up there is starting to build and I have faith miracles WILL occur with time and obedience.

Hermana Christensen

District MTG and the day we moved into our home with the help of our wonderful housing coordinator Elder Dale and his wife!

Sister Campbell from Pie Town gave us a box of clothes, I love my new purple pants.

random desk pic

This is how I fish in my new purple pants

Week 45

Eagar Arizona Stake Trek 2014

We are trying to work out with the elders in the New Mexico mission in Bernie's home town how to work with Bernie. They live 2 apartments away from him. But Bernie wants to be baptized in Pie Town on the 21st of June still.

MIRACLES are already coming forth from trek. We got a phone call this morning from a Pa over a non member from Pie Town. He told us she wants to take the missionary discussions. She goes to the Pie Town branch almost every week and is living with members. We will see her this Saturday!
There were 2 handcart companies.
There were 23 families with about 10 kids in each. I was in family 23! Last one called :)
I had the best trek family. I was so so so so blessed. I was in the Hadlock family and I was an adult participant with the elder from Hawaii Sister Arevalo and I talked in church with for his homecoming. I had 4 little brothers and 4 little sisters. We all got along SO WELL. 2 of my little sisters were visitors to out stake. One lived here 5 years ago and her dad is a doctor in St. George now, his office is the one I went to, to get my medical papers done for the mission! small world. So they invited him back to be a doc on the trail. And Lydia came along. She plays soccer too at Dixie High! We got along soooo well. And the other little sister's grandparents are in the stake so she came along. She reminds me exactly of Eden and we all hit it off. We had a blast.

The trek was so REAL. The Eagar stake does not mess around. We cut the head off of out our chicken and then plucked it, gutted it, and cooked and ate it. I washed my hair in the river, made taffy, WATCHED people shoot black powder rifles, dipped candles. We watched a girl get baptized in the river. We had over 5 river crossings waist deep ( the closest I will come to swimming my whole mission). Sacrament Meeting was really really powerful. We all brought our own little homemade rolls or scones or bread and then we passed around the plates and broke off bread. We also passed around 1 cup and sipped out of that one cup in our family. It was a really spiritual experience and all the youth were so so reverent. 

In my AMAZING family with a non member named Lupe who comes from a Spanish home here in Eagar. She PLAYS SOCCER like me ( and our Pa is one of her soccer coaches at the school), she is SBO president next year and is the coolest girl ever. I was able to have conversation after conversation with her about the gospel and the church. She was invited along by member friends and she is starting to think a lot more about the church and will attend the fireside next week! (I witnessed her being invited by a member friend). THE YOUTH IN THE EAGAR STAKE ARE INCREDIBLE. During the testimony meeting on Sunday night more than 100 of the youth bore simple sincere testimony I was so impressed. At least 3 of them were NON MEMBERS (Lupe included).

One particular experience from trek... Lupe and I had gone down to scrub a pot clean. We were sitting on the ground scraping off blue corn meal mush using dirt, rocks and sticks. This was the first time we had really been alone the whole time and I started praying in my mind asking Heavenly Father what I should say to Lupe, I felt so nervous! I asked her what she thought so far of the trek. Her first response to these questions was always " You Mormons are CRAZY!!" Then I asked her about a few more things and eventually she said, " you know, I don't think I could ever change religions. I have been Catholic my whole life and I just couldn't change." So we sat there for a few seconds and I said very sincerely, " Well Lupe, if you KNEW that everything we teach in out church is true, would you join it?" And she stopped scrubbing for a second and said, " hmmmm, I have never thought about that." And we sat there in silence for a minute. Then I told her to think about it and I would ask her later. She agreed.

Then the next day during the 4.5 hour solo time I gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read 3 Nephi 11 about Jesus Christ visiting the Americas- which she did. Then that night is when she bore her testimony in front of EVERYBODY about how good her experience had been and how much she loved her family (me :)).

That last night she went to bed a little earlier than everyone else and I went and layed next to her for about an hour. I asked her about her whole life and her dreams for her future. We then discussed the purpose of life and where we go after we die. She was so intrigued and kept saying," wow, I have never thought about that before." I finally ended up bearing her my testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I was so nervous! I invited her to pray and ask what she should do, which she agreed to. She will be baptized one day, she had SO MANY SEEDS PLANTED. I can't even begin to explain all the little miracles that happened with her and all the other experiences us missionaries had those 4 days.
There are so many miracles about to take place in these next 90 days after the trek. It was a hard, spiritually uplifting missionary experience.

I love EAGAR. I LOVE sister Pass and Sister Arevalo. I know that our current companionship is SO INSPIRED. I know that without a doubt. :) I love being a missionary.

I love Jesus Christ and I know that he lives!

 Hermana Christensen

Sister Pass labeled everyone in our district haha

My trek family (minus Jeff)

Me and my bff Madie Snow at the finish!