Week 53

Crazy week. Sister Lee was sick for two days so that set us back a little bit. Nevertheless, we saw many miracles.

We saw Gary again this week! He finished the whole restoration pamphlet and told us it was all right on the money except for when it got to Joseph Smith. He clarified on a few more of his concerns and we tried to help him understand a little better from teachings in the Bible but he just said he disagreed. So I happened to have a Plan of Salvation pamphlet in my current proselyting Book of Mormon. I asked him, "Gary have you ever wondered where you came from, why you are here, and where you are going after you die?"

He said, "woah those are deep questions."

He thought for a second and said "yes, I do wonder that."

We invited him to read the Plan of Salvation pamphlet and he agreed!

So we will just keep helping him along! Good thing we have so many pamphlets!

I went on exchanges this week and I went down to Eagar with Sister Heap while sister Thompson came up  here with my two companions. It is good to be in a different area for a change sometimes! We taught a woman in a retirement home with Dimensia- that was a blast. Then we visited a few more people and had a BBQ dinner up in Nutrioso.

Now I will back up to about a month ago. Sister Lee went through the temple with one of her Less Actives and Sister Arevalo went too. So sister Heap, Pass and I worked in Eagar. Dinner that night happened to be at the Roger's in Sister Heap's ward. It was her first time at dinner there. Anyways, it ended up being Kaisa's new husband's grandparents house! Sister Rogers said that Kaisa would be visiting for the 24th and I said oh you should come up to the Rodeo in Luna! We will be doing tickets......

So fast forward to this week. I forgot about Kaisa and the Rogers until we drove past the Rogers and I said," it's the 24th weekend! Kaisa was supposed to be here!" We stopped by to see, before we headed to Nutrioso fro the BBQ. Sure enough, I got to see Kaisa and her whole family. Small world. It was a little tender mercy. What are the chances I was in Eagar in sister Heap's area for that day one month ago for dinner and the day this week that Kaisa was there?! Heavenly Father loves me so much that he set that all up :). I was asked to offer the prayer before we left their home. Such a tender mercy.

Well transfers are next week and I am excited to see how our are will be changed up! I am so excited to stay! ( I don't officially know yet, but I do know I am staying.)

Sister Thompson in the Luna ward gave me a Luna t-shirt that she bought at the rodeo. She was wearing the same one and I told her how much I loved her shirt! I was in Nutrioso on exchanges so I didn't get a chance to see any of the t shirts. I asked her how I could get one and she said they only sell them one day a year at the rodeo. I told her I'd be back next year! As I was leaving her home yesterday she hugged me and handed me a folded up t shirt that was the same as hers, my size and everything. She kissed me on the cheek and told me she loved me. 

I love my Luna mother! I know she did not purchase the shirt for me, but she was so kind and generous. I wore it bed last night and looked at myself in the shirt in the mirror as I was brushing my teeth and started to cry haha, I am just so happy that people are so kind!!!

Food for thought:

"Because we face challenges everyday, it is important that we work on our spiritual stamina EVERYDAY."

Daily scripture study and prayer are to protect us from falling into temptation. Just like exercising our bodies we need to work out our spirits so that we may win the daily battle to Satan and his temptations! We are commanded to read and pray each day. Remember, obedience brings blessings!

I love you!  

I love being a LUNAtic! 

Hermana Christensen

After Volleyball last Monday we came home to a beautiful full rainbow!

I made bacon jalepeno poppers the other day :) my companions are hooked.

Luna T-shirt :)

Week 52

Highlights of the week:

-We play volleyball Monday nights in Reserve with the community. BEST way to make friends. And I am not too bad at volleyball!

- We drive to Eagar once a week for district meeting and get a few groceries while we are there. 

- We went to a community self defense class this week and learned some survival skills. Also we each have a killer cat key chain (a self defense tool).

- Also sister Thompson in Luna gave us the self defense Hair brush- the brush pulls off and turns into a killer dagger.

- My testimony is being strengthened of the importance of The Book of Mormon. I am studying 1 Nephi chapters 12-14 and others. The restoration is a marvelous truth. 

- We sang at a funeral this week. We did real well, accapella. It was Bishop Payne's first non- LDS funeral and he gave a wonderful sermon on the resurrection. He and his wife and us missionaries were the only Mormons. There were about 60 people there and we got a lot of compliments after and met a lot of new people! It was really good. I am surprised at how I am coming to recognize people in the community and remember their names! We almost know every person here! haha.

-We drive about 100 miles a day on average.. 

-We are hoping to get a truck soon! The other day bishop had to drive us to a dinner appointment because our car can't go on certain roads. To get to the home we crossed a river 7 times. They live down this MAYAN canyon in a river bed of rocks and among trees and snakes. It was the most unique living quarters I have ever been to. They don't have  a house. They have like an army camp set up. It was different!

-Katie in Pie Town wants to come back to church- WOOHOO. And she wants visiting and home teachers!

-Kristin in Pie Town finally let us know how anti-mormon her husband is. But she still wants us to visit her, and will think about letting visiting and home teachers be assigned to her. 

We have interviews and inspections this week I am really happy! 

I am so happy that Trevor received his endowments! 

Love you all!

Hermana Christensen

Also at Joyce's I french braided Sitka's hair haha. Everyone doubted me. I did it! I want a husky! So I cant french braid its whole body!

District Meeting

Lipstick

Week 51

Girls camp was awesome. The first day with the YCL's we talked to them 3 times (3 groups) for an housr each time. Tiring. As sister missionaries. We each shared a different aspect for about 10 minutes of how to come closer to Chirst. I talked each time about prayer. I shared a personal experience and yes i cried every time. At dinnner that night one of the girls (Brook) came up to me and thanked me for my story because it really helped her.  I asked her about it and she told me why. She is so sweet and asked me for advice everyday at camp. She looks like a combination of Riley and Savannah. Everyone told us we looked like sisters.
This happened with so many of the girls. I MADE SO MANY FRIENDS! haha I really LOVE all these girls so much. I was able to love a lot during camp.

This week at girl's camp a miracle happened. We had 1 non member come with the Luna ward to camp, Logan B. She is 16 years old and lives VERY far from the church but has come a few times over the years with her non-member mother. At camp she got along well with all the girls and with us. Friday during the day Logan read the Book of Mormon with Sister Pass and ENJOYED what she read and learned. Testimony meeting came Friday night, she bore her testimony about the Love of Christ. After testimony meeting was over we were all walking towards the bathrooms and sinks to get ready for bed. I walked next to Logan and asked how she was.
She said, "just thinkin."
I responded, "thinkin about what?"
"activating" she said.
I asked, "activating what?"
Logan said," come on you are bright.....Activating myself in the church!"
I grabbed her shoulders and retorted with wide smiling eyes, "you want to be baptized?!"
"YES!!" She said!
By then Sister Lee and Hermana Pass were by us and we all squealed and embraced her and jumped up and down.
Logan told us how she has been to so many different churches but that she always feels SO GOOD when she is at the Mormon activities, she said "there is something about your church that makes it different from the rest and it makes me feel so good!"
We were so blessed to be at girl's camp and forge this friendship with Logan. She is excited to see us again!
I feel so happy! We are seeing miracles! There are prepared people here, we are sure of it, just is a matter of finding them.
We are trying to figure out how to REALLY motivate the members to HELP us. We literally cannot do anything with out them up here.

I failed to mention that on July 5th when sister Lee and I were on our way to Pie Town we decided to stop by President Hobbs and President Parker's homes on our way. They both live by Quemado Lake. We didn't know exactly where, just kind of, but there aren't too many houses between us and Pie Town so I figured we could find it. Anyways we didn't. But on our way back from the Lake to the main road, and ambulance passed us, headed up towards the lake. I figured an accident happened on the Lake right? Well, then that night the scary lightning happened. Then the next day at church Sister Lee and I were studying in the relief society room and Sister Hobbs and President Hobbs were the first to show up for church. Sister Hobbs walked in with her sunglasses on and asked how we were and hugged us. Then we asked how she was and she started to cry and said, I am very sad this morning. President Parker passed away last night." 

President Parker was helping a neighbor out on the roof and slipped and fell off and hit a railing. He didn't make it to the hospital. That ambulance we saw was for him :(.... really crazy, the ONE time we ever tried to go to his home, he ended up dying.
After we talked to Sister Hobbs for a minute she left, then President Hobbs came in and asked if we heard about President Parker. We said yes and he looked at us with tears in his eyes, '"Sisters, I need your help, I am losing everybody in the branch. "
Talk about MOTIVATION!
His wife Della asked us to sing at his funeral "I am a Child of God." I remember that's the song we sang at Grandpa Eem's funeral.

There were lots of nonmembers at the funeral and they loved the service. They all live in the gated community by Quemado Lake, we will go visit some soon. We didn't stay the whole time, it was really hard for sister Pass, that's the first funeral she had been to since her mom's. Then we headed back to girl's camp.

We were finishing weekly planning yesterday and we had this prompting to leave and contact this referral we received from Bishop Payne. We went and found this man Anthony, his dad just committed suicide. We had a nice visit and he was very kind and appreciative of us coming by. Then his girlfriend came out as we were leaving and we waved to her and said hello.
As we started to drive away she started running towards the car so I rolled down the window. In her Russian accent she told us how she didn't appreciate us talking to her husband instead of her. That we are missionaries and should know that that is immodest. 

She was MAD and stormed off.

It was really awkward.

Then we felt sad because our prompting to go to visit them wasn't as fruitful as we expected and we felt a little discouraged. 

On the way back through town I got a feeling to stop by this house we had talked to people at last week on the 5th. My companions weren't too supportive after what had just happened but I stopped anyways because I knew the girl at this house would cheer us up.

Sure enough. Veronica was ECSTATIC to see us again! She hugged us and talked our ears off! She told us her whole life- SUPER SAD! She is 18 and just moved here with her boyfriend into her cousin's home. We had such a good visit and were all crying as we shared experiences with one another, She accepted to read The Book of Mormon. She was so excited. She asked us to please come visit her next week and she will text us after she finished the chapter we assigned her to read. She recognizes when she feels the Holy Ghost and loves feeling that "spiritual high". A REAL investigator! She just has a lot of things we have to help her with. We are excited to HELP HER!!

I love Reserve. There are some harsh people a lot of the time actually. But we are softening a lot of hearts. Progress. :)

We were talked about as Ninja Warriors in Relief society yesterday. We are the ninja warrior missionaries!

Haha Love you all! AND THANK YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE! BEST PACKAGE EVER! I THINK I SAY THAT EVERY TIME! BUT THEY JUST GET BETTER EVERY TIME! :)

Hermana Christensen

Brook and I

The first aid girls

Week 50

I love love love Luna and Pie Town

I am so ecstatic! I NEVER WANT TO LEAVE THIS AREA! We are working really well up here and the members are all starting to catch the missionary spirit.
We are praying and fasting to find one investigator.
Miracle happened. We contacted a referral and sat down to ask her about service opportunities in the area. She referred us to SEVERAL people. Right after left her home we had a lunch appointment with Bishop Payne. But we had about 5 minutes and I turned around because we had just passed a street one of the people lived on that we had just been referred to. We didn't know the exact house but we chose a house, stopped and prayed then got out of the car. In the driveway was and elderly man a little hard of hearing. We introduced ourselves and asked where Viola lived. He pointed to the house down across the street and said to tell her that "her neighbor Gary says hi!" We agreed and then he asked if he could have our Watchtower because he enjoys reading those. We told him that we aren't Jehovah's Witnesses but I handed him a Restoration pamphlet with our number on the back and invited him to read that. He held it out and studied the cover for a few seconds while saying under his breath, "restoration"....

We went back the next night to see if he had read it. He read the first four pages then got too tired and fell asleep. But he told us how he agreed with everything it said about how there are apostasies and God takes away His power from the earth for a while when the people are bad.  I felt prompted to invite him to be baptized. He told us this long story of how he died 25 years ago and had an out of body experience, then heard God's voice telling him that it was not his time to die yet.

Since that he has been praying for 25 years to find what God's purpose is in keeping him alive. He has been baptized twice already and knows that he is a son of God but he is "churchless" right now because he does not agree with how churches interpret the Bible. I know that we are an answer to his prayers. He doesn't know it yet but he will. He agreed to finish the pamphlet and pray about whether or not it is true. I testified of its truth then we left. We will visit him again in a few days.

MIRACLE.
I love how fresh this area is. We are able to find people like this with NO exposure to the church who have been waiting for YEARS to hear the truth.
I know we are true messengers of Jesus Christ.

Another miracle. Hermana Pass left to Eagar for the baptism of her trek sister on Saturday so it was just me and Sister Lee together for a day. Along with the Gary miracle another miracle happened that night. We were staying the night in Pie Town in our little trailer. Our housing coordinator called us and asked us to find the meter number for the electricity so we can get power in our trailer. It had been raining but had stopped.

(Monsoon season started this week and it storms everyday)

The sun was setting and the whole sky was a really weird yellow color and was like a huge cloud that had no dimension. The sky was creepy. But we were trying to find the non-existent meter number we have been searching for for weeks. I was messing with the box on the electric pole, then stepped away for a second. All of a sudden the whole wire right above us lit up and buzzed because it got struck by lightning. I stood there with my mouth wide open just staring at it. And sister Lee started booking it for the church. I was seriously shocked I couldn't move. Then sister lee grabbed me and we went inside. If I would have been touching the pole still I probably would have been electrocuted. It was a miracle!

Also. We visited the Green's this week. A less active family Bishop asked us to see. We have heard about their dogs and been told to be very careful because their dog has bitten almost every person that has visited them badly. We went in and they had one dog that was super nice. We got to know them a little then the mom left to go to the bathroom. All of a sudden we hear her scream "oh no I didn't know he was in here!" (She let the killer dog out on accident). Everyone in the room isn't very healthy so none were quick to catch it. They all screamed to get it so it wouldn't attack us. But all it did was bark and sprint to us, then it stopped right in front, sniffed us all and walked away. They were all in awe. It was a miracle, that the dog only sniffed us they said, I know we were protected.

We are seeing lots of tender mercies. I love this area and am SO SO HAPPY. President wrote today and said I will probably be here for a few more months! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I can't wait to see how much this area will grow. He is also working on getting us a truck! We are being so blessed!!

We go to girl's camp this week!

Life is crazy and rewarding as a missionary.

Also we will get ipads in the fall we are told!

Alma 5.

 32 Yea, even wo unto all ye workers‍ of iniquity; repent, repent, for the LordGod hath spoken it!
 33 Behold, he sendeth an invitation unto all‍ men, for the arms‍ of mercy areextended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you.
 34 Yea, he saith: Come‍ unto me and ye shall partake of the fruit‍ of the treeof life; yea, ye shall eat and drink of the bread‍ and the waters of life freely;
 58 For the names of the righteous shall be written in the book of life, andunto them will I grant an inheritance at my right hand. And now, my brethren,what have ye to say against this? I say unto you, if ye speak against it, itmatters not, for the word of God must be fulfilled.
 59 For what shepherd is there among you having many sheep doth not watchover them, that the wolves enter not and devour his flock? And behold, if awolf enter his flock‍ doth he not drive him out? Yea, and at the last, if he can,he will destroy him.
 60 And now I say unto you that the good shepherd doth call after you; and ifyou will hearken unto his voice he will bring you into his fold, and ye are hissheep; and he commandeth you that ye suffer no ravenous wolf to enteramong you, that ye may not be destroyed.

Also we just named the Snow's 8 puppies.

Have a great week!
Love,
Hermana Christensen

Bernie's baptism!

workin'

Brushing horses in our boots

pig

Washing Joyce's windows.

Happy 4th! Eagar parade

Cruzville

I jog with a soccer ball on this dirt road in the morning.

Week 49

Familia, (that's the only thing I remember how to say in Spanish) Jk. I am still practicing. Every now and then we meet someone up here who knows Spanish.

I am so happy. Heavenly Father is blessing so many people through us. 

Member after member came up to us at church yesterday to tell us about someone they talked to who said such good stuff about us sister missionaries! Our service is changing the hearts of the community. We are helping to prepare so many of these people to receive the gospel.
Something I remember from mission prep was when we were stating our purpose as missionaries.

"Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel..." He stopped us after "helping them". So it's..."Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them"!!
 I know that just by helping these people right now they will be more prepared to receive it!

Our companionship is so perfect. We all help each other out so much and have so much fun! We are the trifecta. 

We branded cows again twice this week. I'll send pics next week I forgot my cord.

Friday at Brother Cox' up by fence lake (Pie Town Branch). HE is a real cowboy. They live in the middle of NOWHERE up this CRAZY dirt road for like an hour. And then his house has no electricity. He is real. My job that time was giving shots into the neck muscles. Also we got SUPER dirty and brother Cox delighted in spreading blood all over us after he castrated soo that was fun.There were a few less actives and non-members there that we were able to talk with as well.

We are going to help him be worthy to receive the priesthood. He has just been active for about 4 years now after marrying a member of the branch. We also are helping to get a young women's program started in Pie Town. They are still working on getting the trailer fixed.

Then on Saturday we helped the Snow's brand their calves. It was 5 girls and 2 men, such a small crew. 1 was up on the horse roping and the other helped us flank. It was wild and crazy but somehow we all got it done together!

We are working now with Paul. He is the less active who stopped us in Reserve the other day. We brought officer Hammond with us yesterday to the lesson because Bishop requested that we bring a Priesthood holder with us every time we visit him and Bishop wasn't able to come. Officer Hammond was SO PERFECT during the lesson and he stayed and talked to Paul after we left. That was an inspired friendship. Paul is still super apprehensive and a little rebellious about everything we do but I have such a strong feeling that he wants us to help him SO BAD. He talked about coming to church next week with out us even bugging him too bad about it!

I love Luna. I love Pie Town. I LOVE THE PEOPLE here so so so so much. I want to be a cowgirl. We have girl's camp next week! There is a fire in Vernon where we are supposed to go so our location may be changed but we are excited! There are 17 non members going. 

I love the scriptures. I am making my way through the New Testament right now and I know Jesus is the Christ. He performed miracles. It's all true. I love His teachings and I love Him so much. I am so thankful for the atonement and the power I am able to access through it. 

I am so excited for Trevor to be a missionary!

Are you all still reading Preach My Gospel? What are you learning?

Thanks for having fun in Hawaii without me your trip sounded fun and I can't wait to see pictures! Especially of Coco. I would have rather been here though serving the Lord and pruning His vineyard :)

Hermana Christensen

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