Week 61

Elder Nelson is my BFF

If you haven't joined our mission Facebook page, do. My companions and I, with the help of Sister Sweeney, just uploaded an album of pictures called " We are the message!" from this weekend in the valley. :)

 

We had an all mission conference with the Mesa mission and were able to shake hands with Elder Nelson on Saturday morning. He just turned 90 years old. He was so cute as he energetically skipped into the room. We also heard from Elder Foster and Elder Todd Hansen of the 70. Elder Nelson talked about a lot of things. Marriage was included, he said how important it is that we make sure our potential spouse loves God more than they love us. Because if they do, their capacity to love us will be so much greater.I really like that thought. Also he talked about how important family history is and how the family history consultant should be the missionary's best friend!

Sister Cole, an Eagar sister, had a baptism that she got permission to stay for that night in Mesa and she drove down with us. We were able to stay one more night at the mission home and Elder Nelson spoke on Sunday for stake conference in the Phoenix East stake. So of course we went to that too! We sat on the 3rd row right in front of him next to one of Sister Doolhoff's recent converts. After Elder Nelson sat down I was smiling brightly at him and he smiled back, winked, and mouthed, "good morning". :) Getting that from an apostle of the Lord is far greater than being front row at any Justin Beiber or Taylor Swift concert! He shook all the hands of the stake members after the meeting.  I could have easily shook his hand again but felt bad depriving the stake members of a sooner privilege so I just watched for a minute. I know he is a man truly called by God.

Before we left for the 6+hour drive to the valley we were able to have another lesson with Cynthia this week. We had called her Thursday and she left a message on our machine Thursday night telling us we could come over Friday. She is still reading the Book of Mormon and not entirely loving it yet. Well she wasn't able to sleep very well that night and woke up at 3am and decided to read. She read for two hours and ended on Jacob chapter 5. SHE LOVED JACOB 5 AND WAS PRACTICALLY JUMPING OUT OF HER SEAT telling us about it. She went on to say how much sense it made to her. We had a member, Sister Elmer, there with us and Sister Elmer was able to share a lot of similar concerns she had when joining the church with Cynthia. We helped Cynthia recognize that the prompting she had to read the Book of Mormon at 3am was from the Holy Ghost! She seemed to understand that and she understands now that there ARE some things in the Book of Mormon that she likes. She is a one of a kind. Jacob 5 of all chapters haha. 

Also MIRACLE, because we have dubbed her with high functioning autism, Sister Doolhoff had a recent convert in her last area with the same thing. When she met Cynthia she said, "wow she is EXACTLY like Sage." She said that Sage would have the same thing happen where he would hear a voice in his head telling him what to do and that's how he heard the Holy Ghost at first and is learning more and more how to recognize it. BUT HOW PERFECT is Sister Doolhoff for our area right now!? She is seriously so perfect in our area in so many ways I can't believe it, I love her so much! She is from Roy, Utah and is 24 years old. She is a lot of fun!

I love you all!

Hermana Christensen

Our beautiful trio!

we love Sister Sweeney!!

My companions and I after meeting Elder Nelson

I love Hermana Wheelwright

We made lunch after Stake conference with President and Sister Sweeney before we left for home.

"We ARE the message" (Sister Doolhoff, Me, Sister Cole, Sister Thompson, Sister Harrast)

Week 60

Something that we are beginning to realize as we drive many many miles each day to visit people is the way that will work best for us to get more baptisms. Quality vs. Quantity. For us, we are definitely more about the quality of our investigators.There are some people who want to learn how to gain eternal life and some who don't really care about that right now. The Lord is preparing people to receive us- it's our job as members and missionaries to invite so we can find the prepared!

We lost Sister Lee this week to the valley. She is now in Mesa! And we are going to get a new companion named Sister Doolhoff from Roy, Utah. She is still in commute up to us and we will pick her up in Eagar tonight!

Sister Harrast and I have had a few good days being in a duo again. It feels so normal to just be with one companion. But I guess in a trio is where I need to be! We are really excited for Sister Doolhoff to come up to "The Land of Enchantment" with us! 

Sister Harrast spoke in Luna on Sunday and it was Sister Lee's last Sunday with us so we tried to guilt trip every person we saw this week into coming to church for those two reasons. Haha just kidding but kind of. We mentioned too that it's a commandment and reminded them how important the sacrament is. CYNTHIA came to church again!! She had a negative experience last time but she decided to come again to support m comps and she was pleasantly surprised at how much more normal this sacrament meeting was. What a blessing that was! Hopefully we can help her to keep coming now!

We had a great lesson with her on Monday. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson and invited her for the 3rd time to be baptized. She won't even set a date for December yet. But she is halfway through 2nd Nephi and wants us to keep teaching her! She is expecting a big answer to come to her letting her know that everything true. We are trying to help her realize how much she is progressing!! 

The Lord doesn't expect immediate perfection, only immediate progression!

She is doing so great. She keeps all of the reading commitments we leave her. And still prays everyday. We just love Cynthia.

We also love Phyllis. She was going to come to church but got sick....She really did. She watched 17 miracles at the Thompson's and LOVED it. 

Then the Thompson's have this friend named Dale.... They told us about him MONTHS ago and have been thinking about inviting him. They finally did and he had dinner with us at the Thompson's and then we watched Ephraim's Rescue, He really felt the spirit during the movie and teared up a little bit. Afterwards brother Thompson invited Dale to learn more about our beliefs. It was SO GOOD and Dale agreed!!!!!!

Also get this.....He knows Brad from the tennis club and coached against him at Weber! We talked tennis for a while. What a tender mercy. Pray for Dale that he might desire to live the gospel!

My favorite thing I learned this week was revelation I received through the Book of Mormon. Sunday Sister Thompson taught the R.S. lesson on raising children in light and truth. She asked us missionaries to come up and share something our parents taught us that helped get us on a mission today. After my two companions shared, I shared how you taught us to know Jesus Christ thorough memorizing The Living Christ. I told how I would hear things in church or in conference and be reminded of the feelings I have about Christ. I know that because you taught me, mom and dad, how important Jesus Christ is through memorizing that document, my life will never be the same. I am so so happy that I was able to remember the redemptive power of Christ's atonement many a times. Thank you for teaching me how important Jesus Christ is. That is the most important thing you could ever have taught me. 

The next day I was reading in Preach My Gospel and under chapter 5 and looked over the questions of the soul that The Book of Mormon answers. One question was " How can a belief in Jesus Christ help me?" It directed me to Alma 36. 

 17 And it came to pass that as I was thus racked with torment, while I was harrowed up by the memory of my many sins, behold, I remembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.

 18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me, who am in the gall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting chains of death.

 19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my pains no more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.

 20 And oh, what joy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

 21 Yea, I say unto you, my son, that there could be nothing so exquisite and so bitter as were my pains. Yea, and again I say unto you, my son, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as was my joy.

I love verse 17 because Alma was in a VERY LOW point in his life and felt SO GUILTY for all of his many sins. And he remembered something HIS FATHER said about Jesus Christ. I have had this same experience in remembering things my parents taught me about Jesus Christ. I know that I have been healed spiritually many times through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I know the sweet joy that Alma speaks of that comes through true repentance. I am so very grateful to have been taught this from a young age!

Sometimes it is strange to think that I know more about how to have true joy through the gospel of  Jesus Christ than some of these 70 year old men we teach. I know that the Book of Mormon teaches true doctrine! 

How are your Preach My Gospel studies?

I promise you can learn so much from it! Elder Ballard tells us in his talk "Following up" to read it. EVERYONE! How are you doing?

Thanks for all of your letters! Trevor I cannot believe you are in advanced Spanish in the MTC you little smarty pants! Hopefully you don't get your visa and can come wait in Scottsdale! :)

I  LOVE YOU ALL!!! Families can be together forever! Thanks for doing your part family!

CON MUCHO AMOR,

Hermana Christensen

The skies were beautiful this week.

Sister Thompson and I (my Luna mom)

Week 59

Cynthia.

She is a rock star. We had 2 lessons with her this week. The first one, we read 1 Nephi 21 and 22 with her because she was super confused when she read them on her own. She is very analytically and worries about all of the small details. Our focus recently with her has been helping her to recognize the Holy Ghost. 

Friday she wanted to talk more about Joseph Smith and we decided before hand with her to watch the Restoration Video. We showed up on Friday and she popped popcorn and got out little bowls to watch the restoration video. She got all dressed up in non-working with the horses clothes. SO NICE. She's such a cutie. She really doesn't want to change her religious ways as of now because the way she feels closest to God is when she is out riding her horses. But she wants to keep reading the Book of Mormon and learning more. Plan of Salvation this week! Because she doesn't understand the WHY to all of this yet. ETERNAL LIFE in THE CELESTIAL KINGDOM!

Pie Town trailer and Church.

Took another cold shower in the Trailer this weekend. We will have to winterize it pretty soon so we are figuring out what to do this winter.

We were asked Saturday by Sister Cox to teach Gospel Doctrine for her! It was on Jonah and Micah and missionary work. We did pretty good! I feel much more learned about Jonah! He is not the best missionary- he doesn't LOVE his dear brothers and sisters in Ninevah. EGH I have a few problems with him,yet I am grateful for his story.

ANDY.

Andy is our NEW INVESTIGATOR and HAS A BAPTISMAL DATE!

We met him at the fair in Reserve a few weeks ago. We met him yesterday in his Air-stream trailer. He was sweating bullets and was SO NERVOUS to meet with us. He is such a shy little guy. He is 21 and Buddhist kind of. He wants to learn more and wants to be baptized! UHHH MIRACLE!!!! 

Weekly Planning.

We sometimes struggle with short attention spans during our long weekly planning sessions. This week, to work on our companionship unity and communication skills, I duct taped my eyes shut, sister Lee put in some of my ear plugs and duct taped over them, and we duct taped Sister Harrast's mouth shut. HAHAHAH, it didn't last the whole 3 hours but the way we worked together proved effective and we are super united! Call us creative!

Singing.

We Sing for EVERYONE. And are famous for it. 

Gardens.

Everyone is so generous with their gardens and we come home everyday with a bag full of fresh fruits or veggies.

Frog.

The other morning on the dirt road while jogging- I passed a half dead frog. I summoned my companions and we decided it was best to put it out of its misery. I ran around and found a huge rock and ran back with it. As I dropped the rock on it, I ended up with frog guts and blood all over my legs. That was a highlight this week.

BINGO and Phyllis.

Phyllis has a home here in Luna that she and her husband live in during the summer. They live right by adam-ondi-ahman and have heard a lot of anti things. (She says we can stay at their home there in Missouri any time really!) But she is loving us like her own children and we are so happy about it. She is more open than her husband and grew up with an Atheist father. She had a brain tumor when she was thirty. She has had lots of experiences that have told her there is a God. 

After she took us to lunch the other day with Sister Gray, we went up to the senior center Bingo... we didn't play BUT we socialized with many. After I talked with a few new faces I went up the the front and asked if I could help the man call out numbers. It was so much fun and the oldies loved my accent and clear enunciation of the numbers. We a good time. The best was that before we left we asked to sing them all a hymn. They were all so attentive and it was neat to feel the Spirit fill the room. 

I LOVE THE AREA RIGHT NOW. Sunflowers line the roads. It is all so green and BEAUTIFUL!!!! Pictures cannot do this area justice right now.

I love my companions!

ALSO...Last week at Zone Conference.. President Sweeney said I may stay here until February.... my heart is filled with peace and JOY! I LOVE LUNA AND PIE TOWN! 

TREVOR- Have so much fun in the MTC! I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM AND DAD AND RILEY AND MIKE AND OAKLEY!

Hermana Christensen

Zone Conference (FUNNY)

Zone Conference

Week 58

We visited Cynthia this week. She just finished the First Book of Nephi! And she had some crazy questions for us. She reads The Book of Mormon every night before bed. Good girl Cynthia :)!

Labor Day weekend in Alpine... SO MANY PEOPLE were up here. We met lots of people and A LOT of them came to church on Sunday.

The best day this week was Sunday.  There were 564 people at Sacrament Meeting.  Sister Lee, Harrast and I sang "We'll Bring the World His Truth" during the meeting. My nerves only showed a little! 

Then we were asked a few weeks ago to prepare to teach the 5th Sunday lesson. We were able to teach about missionary work yesterday. The lesson was really good if I do say so myself. We started it with the "Because of Him" video and then explained the difference between immortality and Eternal Life. Our whole objective here on Earth is to prepare to gain the greatest of God's gifts- which is Eternal Life.

How much more anxious should we be to help all of our Heavenly Father's children to know about and strive to earn this gift?

I was pondering on this the other day, I really don't want to live FOREVER AND EVER AND EVER in a kingdom other than the Celestial. I would probably be super upset with myself for ETERNITY knowing that I could have lived in there but never being able to after the final decision was made.

I want to live in the BEST place my Father in Heaven has prepared for me, and I want everybody there with me!!!

We will all be SO HAPPY!!

We did a role play during our lesson and Sister Myer's came up and I gave her a real life scenario and she practiced what she would say to me as her friend. She did so well. 

2 hours after church she left a message on our home phone saying that she finally called and set up an appointment with her friend Nancy to come meet us...GOOD JOB SISTER MYERS!

We are also implementing a member teaching record. We keep track of every lesson we teach to investigators and Less Active members…. Now we are keeping track of our lessons taught to members. This sheet gives them goals for their personal missionary work that they can pick and choose from.

 We ate dinner with Brother and Sister Quetel last night and introdiced the Member Teaching Record. She chose to start up a facebook and shared the "Because of Him" video on her page. 

It is so so incredible to see our MEMBERS progressing! They are starting to understand!

The Luna Chicken Fry was a lot of fun and a lot of people showed up. My companions and I all sat at different tables and were able to meet many new members of the community. We invited them all to church to hear us sing and pretty much all of them blatantly told us no. But that's okay because they invited us to their homes!

Diana ( Jewish with the goats in Luna) was really going to come but one of her goats was dying so she stayed and tended to her goat's needs and couldn't come listen to us sing. That was almost a miracle! She is hilarious and refuses to call me Sister Christensen and demands to call us by our first names... She's really fun. She's the one that taught me how to waltz at the music night a few months ago.

Remember this.

Alma 13

28 But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering;

29 Having faith on the Lord; having a hope that ye shall receive eternal life; having the love of God always in your hearts, that ye may be lifted up at the last day and enter into his rest. 

Hermana Christensen

 Me being a flower child with my outfit at the Fair last week.

Our cute cottage :)

We wear each other's clothes. True companionship unity

Cynthia's horse Mariah and me :)

Week 57

This week was a quickie! 

Maria and family did not come to church. we are not sure why yet, but good thing there is always next week! 

As for the food we eat here- its a lot of GREEN CHILE! Green chile every thing. I have had green chili fudge even! And green chili cheeseburgers. That's what we do here. Its all about the green chili. And TexMex. 

The stragest thing I have almost eaten here was mountain oysters.

I didn't though.

A new key indicator that our mission is keeping track of right now is TTI's. Which are first contacts with people we don't know and inviting them to learn more. So my competitive drive has come out even more in talking with everyone.

We had the Catron County Fair this weekend, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. They cancelled school on Thursday for the fair- its a BIG deal here! A few weeks ago we visited a less active family here in Apache Creek and they are in charge of a lot over the fair and so we were able to help out on Saturday cleaning up after the BBQ. Everyone of the usual helpers were so thankful and appreciative of our help- we washed A LOT of dishes. 

There was a group of young men there paying guitars and singing and we were able to talk with them. We ended up inviting them to learn more about the gospel and 4 of them agreed and they all happen to live in PIE TOWN of all places. So we carved their numbers into a Styrofoam lid and told them we would call them! 

Then my favorite part of this week happened Saturday and Sunday.

We were heading out of town for a meeting in Eagar and we had just left Brother East's home (He has a whole nother story). When we were passing down one of the 5 roads in Rancho Grande I noticed some men sitting out on a porch and waved. Then I remembered TTI's! So I said should we turn around? I got a "no that will be so awkward."  So I turned around anyways because I thrive off of awkward situations. We pulled in front of their home and Sister Harrast was a little apprehensive at the sight of the men and Sister Lee said, "yeah big blonde and beautiful over here is going to get us killed." hahaha. So I walked up and noticed they were all drinking... They spoke Spanish and were so happy I did too! They are here working for a few months from Mexico-legally! 11 of them live in that little house. I said that we have a special message to share with them about Jesus Christ and asked if we could come back another time when they weren't drinking. They tried to invite us in but I was persistent and we set another appointment. 

So SUNDAY, Bishop Payne came out with us, we went in the house and all of the men were dispersed through out the house and they kind of awkwardly ignored us. So Bishop motioned for me to take charge. I walked through the house and told everyone to come listen to us that we had a message for them. After a good ten minutes of trying to rally up these tired men, we had 7 of them sitting in front of us.

 

I started us out with a prayer and then went right into how the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth by a prophet in these last days. Bishop explained about Joseph Smith and then we introduced the Book of Mormon. They were all staring bright eyed and attentively at us. It was so neat.

Bishop Payne and I were able to teach them together in Spanish. We had a copy of The Book of Mormon for each one and read a few parts all together. One of them, Roberto, was so sincerely interested and had SUCH GOOD QUESTIONS. Then the other ones started asking if they could be baptized into our church and then if they would be able to serve missions too if they did! Haha, we explained that yes they could, once they read the Book of Mormon and believed that the things we teach are true. 

We taught them how to pray and invited them to church to hear us sing next week and to the chicken fry on Saturday. They seemed really excited to have something to do other than work and lay around the house and drink all day so hopefully they come! 

The cool thing is, is that Saturday morning I took a Spanish Book of Mormon out of the car to carry around with me instead of an English. I said a prayer in my heart asking Heavenly Father to help me find someone to give it to. That night I gave it to Jesus the Mexican worker I talked to on the porch. I know that my prayer was answered and form that small act of faith we were able to teach many people in Spanish. I am so happy. 

I love my companions, we have a lot of fun and are very creative in the ways we talk to people and the things we do to bring about much good in this area. I love it here. 

Hermana Christensen

Among the flowers.

One of our many river crossings, and check out the beautiful country we live in! (in Luna)

Week 56

In the PT trailer! Also I have so much hair.

This is the Snow's ranch down the road from us. This is where we spend every preparation day!

being models

Holding my elk Jerky

At Ale Gray's being models.

With Sister Gray.

I wanted all 3 of us to ride together in the front seats. Don't the 3 other seats in the back. We love each other. :) 

Sister Harrast and I in the back of Linda's car on the way to dinner in Alpine!

Crossed my legs while on a long drive from Datil to Reserve.

At Foxfire with our friend Linda (non-member) and sister Lee

Week 55

These last few days were awesome! The best part was seeing Cynthia again. We drove up and she was outside working in her yard in her red shirt like always! She was so happy to see us. As we went inside she started talking about how she finished all the readings we gave her in the Book of Mormon. She told us how simple and easy it is to understand compared to the Bible. (YEAH!) Then she talked about how after we left the other day she was searching for something in her dresser and stumbled across the notebook that she wrote her answer in to her prayer about which church to join. She read it to us along with the date that it happened. It's true that God does hear and answer prayers. In Cynthia's case she heard an actual voice saying that the churches she was considering joining "are not my church and they are not your church either."

We ended up answering a few questions she had about her readings. She told us how she finished reading Moroni chapter 10 then asked herself who Moroni was.. SO she read the whole book of Moroni and found out he is Mormon's son! Then she was wondering who Mormon was! We told her she just has to read the entire book!

We taught her all of lesson one in good depth. She is such a fun person to teach because she asks questions right away whenever they pop into her mind! As we would explain things she would listen intently and then repeat what we said in her own words for clarification! She is the best investigator ever! 

As we were finishing up the lesson she stopped us and said, "Please leave me more passages to read in The Book of Mormon before you go?"

We said of course! After we invited her to be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority from God, she looked at us and said, "well it sounds like you are telling me that my baptism wasn't valid?"

I don't remember what I said back to her but my companions said it was perfect. She understands prayer and the role that the Holy Ghost will play in helping her receive an answer from God. She knelt and prayed at the end of the lesson. She thanked Heavenly Father for sending us to her and pleaded that we would keep coming back to teach her. I want to cry just thinking about it. She is a truth seeker and it is so incredible to watch her eyes light up as we remind her truths that she once knew.

I love Cynthia so much.

We did service again this week for Linda B. We got ladders and cleaned the bricks of her huge fireplace. She was so appreciative and we sang hymns and primary songs as we worked. She invited us over to play a game with her next week then I asked her if we could have dinner with her too and she agreed! Haha woo!! Best friends with Linda! One day she will join the church. We are making good headway!

We were able to help out at the church for an auction we had. We had to finish raising $10,000 as a community so that we can have a pavillion built in Luna. It was approved by the church as long as we raised our part of the money. The auction/enchilada dinner was a success! Sister Lee and I helped the man at the mike. We chose the items that would be bid on and held them up and I modeled them when I could haha. The next morning in Ward Council was complimented on my Vanna White skills.

I realized this week how incredible our area is doing. I thought about day 1 up here. There were 2 investigators that I knew of. Now we know SO many people and have created an actual teaching pool. It helps me to stay positive when I think about day 1. We have made so much progress. I love Luna and Pie Town!

Also the picnic in Pie Town was so good! The members brought so many friends and we have 3 service appointments set up from it!

Also some members volunteered to clean our trailer this week! Yay for clean trailers!

I love studying. I love companion study. I love learning about the scriptures. I love singing songs. I love the mormon messages, ("the Savior wants to forgive" is still my favorite). I don't ever want to stop being a missionary. I know who I am and I know my purpose. 

Thanks for sending me Tad's letter. He sounds great! Thanks also for all your letters!  Coco looks like a little Kass/Drew! Like she should!

Also I had fresh antelope meat yesterday at Sister Gray's. It was killed just two days prior. It was yummy! Yay for all the hunters.

With Sister Harrast in the Trailer!

Luna welcomes you

ALSO I FAILED TO MENTION THAT ELDER ORME IS IN EAGAR IN MY DISTRICT NOW! My life just got that much better!  Weekly call ins with the District leader. (We are an hour ahead of them and I was ready for bed!)