Nothing greater than bringing the gospel to these crazy Chilenos!

This week has been incredible!!! I feel like the time has gone by way too
fast!! We have been running from lesson to lesson and traveling and then
before I know it the week is over! It´s crazy!!! But it´s SO great!!! We
are SO BLESSED in this sector! We have so many people to teach and so many
people who want to be baptized! Now we just have to help them get there! :)

Hermana R, is incredible!! This week we had intercambios with our
Hermana Leaders and they were absolutely incredible! I am so grateful for
Hermana L.! I learned so much from her and we saw so many miracles! I
know intercambios are inspired because it gave me the excitement and JOY
that I needed to keep working with all my heart!!! I am so grateful for our
Hermana Leaders! They`re the BEST!!! But also being away from Hermana
R. made me realize how much I love her!!

 Guess what?? WE PUT THREE FECHAS THIS WEEK!!!!! I am so so excited for
them!!! One is O., and she has such a special spirit! She has born her
testimony to us of how she started praying like we taught her, and she has
seen MIRACLES! It´s incredible!!! We also put a fecha with V., an
antigua investigadora, and her daughter J., they want to get baptized
too!!! But the struggle we are having now is that we are always finding new
investigators, and that`s great because we always have citas! And we are
running around all afternoon, but because of that, it´s hard to have
consisitent contact with everyone to help them progress! We have lots of
potential, but it´s hard for us to give enough attention to every
investigator, but we are trying to come up with plans to help have more
consistent contact with them and to help them come to church! But it´s
incredible to be here!!!

Oh what JOY it is to be a missionary!! There is nothing greater than
bringing the restored gospel to these crazy Chilenos!!! OH I love them! And
I love you all! Have a great week!!! Keep spreading the JOY of the gospel!
:)

Con todo mi corazon,
Hermana Christensen

Oh what a joy it is to be a missionary!

Wow Mom! Sounds like such a good week!!!! Wow, you guys are just incredible!!!

This week flew by!! I literally have no idea where it went!!! But I am happy to say that we are happy and the work is progressing!! Our area is incredible!! My companion is amazing!! This week rocked!! We were out talking with EVERYONE again, and taking out citas, and sharing the gospel, laughing with everyone, and sharing the JOY the Savior offers us!!! Haha we literally laugh so much with everyone!! But hey, it opens doors!! :)

So we seem to have lots of investigators, but not many that are really progressing. We will have a lesson about once a week, or more, but no real progress. But what we decided to do is to make specific plans to help our investigators progress!! But even though we don´t have tons of people progressing, we have seen HUGE progress with two of our investigators! Ad. and D.!! On Friday D.came to our ward activity and Ad. is reading the Book of Mormon and praying every day! She shared her testimony of the difference it has made in her life and shared a spiritual experience where she was praying, and all the sudden she was crying, and she didn´t know why, but it was because she was feeling the Spirit!!! The spirit is working in her!!! It´s the most miraculous thing to see the change the spirit makes in the lives of these people!! IT´S THE COOLEST THING TO SEE THE CONVERSION OF THESE AMAZING PEOPLE!!!! Ad. is being converted! Oh my heavens I love this lady so much!! She is truly incredible!!! All she needs is to go to church! She knows it too, and she WANTS it!!! But we are doing everything we can to make that happen!!! :) But little by little, big things are happening!!!! Because "by small and simple things, great things come to pass." And that is SO true!!! I know it! I have seen it firsthand!!!  So we are trying to be constant in all the little things, so that the miracles can come!!

OH WHAT A JOY IT IS TO BE A MISSIONARY!! I just love it!! I just feel so blessed!! I just want to be the best missionary I can be so I can help as many people as possible receive this same JOY that I get to feel every day!! One night this week, we got home, and I just was sitting there pondering about how incredible the gospel is, how amazing all the prophets are, and how much they sacrificed for this great cause. I want to be just like them!!! I want to give EVERYTHING to the gospel!! For now and forever!!!!! I truly want to turn my heart over to God!!! After all, that is the key to happiness! :)

I LOVE THIS GOSPEL!!! It´s so true!!! Have the best week and share the JOY and LIGHT we have with everyone around you!! I love you all so much!! Thank you for all the love and support!! :)

With all my love,

Hermana Christensen

They all said yes, all three of them, three days in a row!

*We LOVED our Mother's Day skype with Ashley!  Wow, that girl fills up our home with sunshine, even through a computer screen!  She is doing so well and she is just so happy and smiley and excited about her mission!  We loved every second we had with had with her!  Here is her email:

HELLLOOOOOOO MOTHER!!!! 

Oh yesterday was so much fun!!! You guys really are my heroes!!!! Every time I talk with you guys you give me so much motivation to work even harder!!! I know our reunion will be a joyous one!! But it will only be joyous if I give everything I have right now!! So THANK YOU for inspiring me to do that!!! :) 

Okay this week was INCREDIBLE!!!!!  But what can I expect? It's the mission!! I am doing so good! I have made goals that I am really excited to fulfill this week! But really this week we have seen SO many miracles!! So many answered prayers! And so many invitations to baptism!! :)

My companion is incredible!! I don't know how I always get blessed with the best companions!! We get along great, and we have the same desire to work, which makes everything go so much better!!!!! It's such a dream being her companion!!! She is such a hard worker!! She never wants to lose even one minute of work, so we are always doing something to help the work progress! I love it!! She is so incredible!! We laugh so much together!!! Yesterday we were yelling in the street how amazing of missionaries each other were! 

What I am MOST excited to tell you guys is that we have really been trying to apply the goals and plans of the mission to our sector!! And OH MY, IT HAS CHANGED EVERYTHING FOR US!!! Now we don't teach a lesson without talking about baptism or covenants, and it's truly incredible just how many people God is preparing for baptism, but they just need the invitation!!! This week, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, we had three different lessons with three different investigators, and we explained the doctrine of baptism, and our testimonies, and then at the end of the lessons, we invited them to baptism, and THEY ALL SAID YES!!! All three of them!! Three days in a row!!! We were SO excited because I know they really will be baptized!!! And they were asking us questions about it, and how, and why and it was so amazing to see the glow in their eyes when they understood how grand this opportunity that God gives us really is!!! We are SO excited to continue inviting all of Constitucion to baptism!! The Lord is blessing us SO much!!!

Well, that's about it for this week! When I have goals, I have a direction, and it makes EVERYTHING go better!!! And I know that with the Lord's help, there is nothing we can't achieve!! I love you ALL have the BEST week ever!!!

Love, Hermana Christensen 

Skyping with Hermana Christensen was the best!

Now a "greenie breaker" by the sea!

Ashley’s email this week answered my questions about her new area, her new companion, and how she is adjusting to being transferred again.  Here’s what she said:

 MY NEW AREA IS AMAZING!!! Haha no, I don't have a bike, but it would be impossible because there are SO MANY HILLS HERE!!!  I literally get to hike through the forest to cross our sector!!! IT’S SO FUN! I LOVE IT!!!! It literally is like a dream come true!!! The sector is amazing!  It’s kind of crazy though because these hermanas have been baptizing like crazy!!! My companion is Hermana R. de Mexico City. She's so crazy and so fun! She just finished her training so I am her greenie breaker! :) Hahaha!  But she is such an incredible missionary already!!! It’s been kind of fun to be with a new missionary again because it’s been so long that I have been with oldies like me!!! Haha!  She is incredible!! And in her 2 cambios here they had 4 baptisms!! But right now we have 2 fechas! J., who is 14, and I., who is like 84! And this week we have seen miracles! We have found 9 new investigators in just five days!!! 

The bishop here told us that this is the "Promised Land" AND OH BOY, IS HE RIGHT!!!! It’s a pretty big ward of like 100 attending church!! It reminds me of my first ward! Machali!!! It’s the BEST!!! The bishop is amazing!!! This place is an adventure for sure! :) 

 My companion is great! Yeah, we get along well! It's weird after being with my best friends as companions for the last 6 months going to someone I do not know at all, so we are still getting to know each other, but she is SO AMAZING!!! And we get along great!! 

This has definitely been one of the harder changes for me to adjust to, but it’s all good because the Lord has given me an opportunity to grow, and to stretch my comfort zone, and to become who he wants me to become!! It's been hard, but it's been good! He is really teaching me to be humble!! It's incredible!!! And with that I would like to share what I studied this week about our Savior. In his biggest trial, he turned out. When he was suffering for all of our sins, he accepted God's will. That's what I want to do in my trials, accept God's will. And it’s very interesting that as soon as Christ accepted God's will, our Heavenly Father sent him an angel to strengthen him. And even though we can't always see the angels, I know God is always sending them to strengthen us, especially when we are being humble. And when the Savior was in his deepest agony, he prayed more earnestly. 

I love the way he confronted this great and ultimate sacrifice that only he could make, and it gives lil’ old me the perfect example of how to deal with my trials and challenges however small they may be. I want to always accept God's will. 

But the Lord has been really merciful in showing me my weaknesses.  And it's all good because when we recognize our weaknesses we CAN progress!! And just as the apostle Paul, I now know that God's grace and strength is made perfect in my weakness. "Therefore I will take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Cor. 12:9-10 

But regardless of the hard moments, the mission is still the GREATEST thing that has ever happened to me!! And I can still feel the JOY of serving the Lord with all my heart might mind and strength. Oh I love it!! It truly is incredible!!!! 

Like Alma, I will rejoice because "this is my life and my light, my joy and my salvation, and my redemption from everlasting wo."

As I strive to depend on Christ's atonement, my love for him grows. I hope you can all feel the same love from Heaven that I feel every day!!! I hope you have the best week! Thank you for all your prayers! We can sure feel them!!! 

Love, 

Hermana Christensen 

 PS. IT WAS THE BEST WHEN I SAW HERMANA WHITTINGHAM!!!!!!!! I WAS SO SO SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!! And it was SO fun with my distant cousin Cosi, too, on my last night in Buin!! 

So great to see Hermana Whittingham!

With her new compi at the beach!

A little glimpse of heaven

GUESS WHAT?!?!?! I AM BEING TRANSFERRED.  God has the craziest plans for me!!! I am SO excited, but sad to leave.  But it’s a great feeling to feel that God trusts you and that you fulfilled your part when you leave a sector and that’s what I feel!!! I am so excited! I am not going to be a hermana training leader, but that’s okay because I am SO excited to just be a normal missionary and to give absolutely everything to the work and to my investigators!!! I am going to be with Hermana R.  I don’t know her, no one does, so I think she is relatively new.  I am SO EXCITED.  I will send lots of pics because I heard it’s so pretty there!!!  And an adventure for sure!!! CRAZY!!! 

THIS WEEK WAS INCREDIBLE!!!!!! I love Buin, I LOVE Hermana Owen, I LOVE the mission!!! I LOVE this gospel!!! But most of all, I love the Savior! Oh, God's plan is oh so perfect!!! 

I am so overwhelmed with all sorts of emotions!!! This week we continued with our goal to find 30 investigators in 30 days, and you know what? We found 7 new investigators this week!! And GOOD investigators!! Isabel and Daniela, Javiera, Blanca, Elvira, Adolfo. Oh the miracles just keep coming!! We have been working so so hard and I LOVE it because the Lord is really blessing us so much!!! Yesterday we even put a fecha with Angelo!!! (Our Haitian investigator)! He's a goodie!!!  But more than anything important that happened this week, was all the things that we learned this week. 

This cambio in Buin has changed my life!!! Never in my life have I felt so close to and so guided by the spirit. Never in my life have I felt so synchronized with God's will. Never before have I felt so humbled. Never in my life have I experienced so much peace-- real, lasting, deep peace. The gospel is just true! And when we live it, the Lord is more than willing to change, shape, and mold us into the sons and daughters he wants us to be. I feel like I just ended a chapter of my mission! And I am about to start a new one! And it is the sweetest feeling to know that I fulfilled my part of God's plan!! I am convinced there is no greater joy than to know that God can and does use you as an instrument in his hands, to bring to pass his marvelous work here on the earth. Oh such joy!!!!

So as I leave Buin, to go all the way down to my new area, I am so excited to see how the Lord will continue to grow my testimony, and give me new challenges and responsibilities according to my abilities! OH I am just so grateful! That's all I can say! So grateful for this plan! For this amazing cambio in Buin with these amazing people!! For the way they have helped me and taught me!!! I love them SO much but most of all I love my Savior. I love him so much!! And I will forever be grateful for his infinite atonement that has given me the ability to become like him. I love the atonement! If there are two things I love most in the world, it’s the Atonement and Missionary Work. And those two combined? Well, that's a recipe for the deepest joy I believe we can experience here in this world! I believe it's a little glimpse of Heaven. 

I am just SO grateful! I really don't know what else to say!!! I love this Lord! I love this work!! Come to him!! He is ONLY one that will heal you!!! And he will!!!!! 

I hope you all have the BEST week ever!!!! I know I will! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!! Thank you for your love and support!!! 

With all the love in this lil’ Chilean heart, 

Hermana Christensen 

At last Hna. Christensen got to see Hna. Whittingham, her friend from home!!!