SURPRISE! I'm leaving Santa Cruz! (and right before Hermana Whittingham got there!)

Wow what an exciting week this has been! Definitely one of the most tiring weeks in my mission! I don´t know why, maybe because we were running around doing service and teaching and changing sectors between Paniahue, Relief Society anniversaries and mutual for the young women! But with that said, it was also the best week of this cambio!!! I had such a blast! And SURPRISE!!!!!! I am leaving Santa Cruz! I am going up to Buin (suburb of Santiago) still as a Hermana Leader, but with Hermana Owen! (Hermana Gardanier’s CCM companion!!) I AM SO EXCITED!!!! 

But I am so sad to leave Hermana Hilburn, and Nathaly, and all our amazing people we have found here in Santa Cruz!! Yesterday was the BEST day here! We gave our testimonies in Sacrament meeting in Paniahue, then we taught Principles of the Gospel, and taught Luis and Nathalia, our GOLDEN investigators in Paniahue, and we taught Joanna! WE TAUGHT SO AMAZING!!"! It was like the peak of our teaching as a companionship!!! We both felt the spirit so strong!!! We felt it guiding our words and our lessons!!! 

I don´t have much to say, but I just want to express how grateful I am for this cambio! Santa Cruz was definitely my most humbling sector, and even though this cambio was a bit of a rollercoaster, I wouldn´t trade my experiences for anything! 

All I know is that this gospel is so true. I have seen it change lives. There are miracles in every moment. And when we center our lives on Christ, we can always hope for better things to come! 

And it looks like for this crazy lil’ missionary there are miracles awaiting me in BUIN!!!! But I am so ready for this crazy ride!!! 

I love this gospel. And I just LOVE being a missionary!!!! Keep sharing the light!! I love you all!!! Have the BEST week!!! 

All the love in this Chilean heart, 

Hermana Christensen 

PS. I now will have 6 transfers as Hermana leader... that’s half my mission! And I will have 7 transfers with gringas.... that’s over half my mission! Crazy! 

*****We were hoping that Ashley and her friend from high school, Kristi Whittingham, who just got to the mission this week, would g et to serve together.  Sadly, they JUST missed each other!!!  Kristi was sent to Santa Cruz the day that Ashley was transferred out of Santa Cruz!  If Ashley hadn't been transferred, they would have been housemates and with Ashley as a sister training leader, they would have got to go on exchanges together.  So that was sad!  Ashley is excited for her new area though.  She said in her journal, "It's so funny!  My whole mission I knew I was going to go to Buin! (because she didn't want to)  But wow.  I am going to be with a gringa again!  That is over 1/2 my mission with gringas!  And 1/2 my mission as a Hermana Lider.  Wow.  I am so blessed!  I love these Hermanas!  And my zone in Buin is going to ROCK!  Hna. Betaneur, Hna. Brown!  And Hna. Mendoza, the Filipina! (the trainee of Hna. Hilburn). SHE'S GOING TO TEACH ME TAGALOG! I am SO PUMPED!  I know my Heavenly Father just loves me so much!  I will forever love Santa Cruz!  It was just a little time, but it's changed me!  I love the mission! I am so excited! AHHH!"*****

*****Also, I didn't get any pictures from Ashley this week, but I became friends on Facebook with her investigator, O., from Rauquen/Curico (where she served for 7 months before transferring to Santa Cruz)  And from O.'s Facebook, I got some pictures of O. and her family at the Santiago Temple grounds with Hermana Kristi Whittingham!  They met there while Kristi was still in the MTC (which is right next to the temple) and Olga and her family were visiting the temple grounds!  Small world!  Below are a couple pictures of that!*****

Land of Miracles!

From Capillas Abiertas at the beach, special trainings, new investigators, intercambios, peralillo, Bible videos, falling off bikes, rides through the country, lots of laughs, answers received, hearts changed, and the miracle of forgiveness, this week has been INCREDIBLE!!!! And wow this week has just flown by!!! But it´s been incredible! I feel like I learned SO much! And the Lord totally answered all of my prayers! I feel so blessed!  

This week I have decided to really focus on charity. I decided to start memorizing Moroni 7:45-48, and it has TOTALLY helped me! So whenever I have an impatient thought, or I get bugged, I think of that scripture, and it helps remind me of how incredible charity is! And I have just been trying to replace my negative thoughts with scriptures and hymns, and IT TOTALLY WORKS! I love memorizing scriptures! And I have definitely noticed and increase in love for everyone and everything!!!

But as far as the work goes, N., our fecha for 16 de Abril RECIEVED AN ANSWER!!!! We have been continually talking about her baptismal date, and inviting her to read and pray and really ask God about everything we are sharing, and she has been keeping her commitments SO well! But the other day we were in intercambios, but Hermana Hilburn passed by, and N. was so excited to tell her that she was just cleaning the other day, and thinking about everything we had shared with her, and when she started to think about her baptism, she said a huge peace overcame her, and she just knew that was her answer!!! How cool is the Holy Ghost?! She couldn´t come to church though because Saturday night she was in the hospital with a kidney stone, but she is progressing SO much!!! I love how we can always count on the Holy Ghost to testify!!!

Also, Paniahue. I think that name is probably translated into English as ¨land of miracles¨ right? :) Because let me tell you it is the LAND OF MIRACLES!!! Yesterday we passed by a menos activa, who is a single mom, and she let us in! Words cannot express the amount of excitement she had to receive us, share with us, and learn with us!!! She has such a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon, and a strong desire to return to the church, she just needs a little bit of help getting there! But she was SO HAPPY to receive Hermanas, she told us how hard it was because she could never really receive the Elders. But she committed to read the Book of Mormon every day and to pray, and she is preparing to come back to church!! MIRACLES!!!

We also found a new investigator yesterday that is looking to change his life and come closer to Christ. He is married to a menos activa and she doesn´t remember anything, but we had an incredible first lesson with them yesterday! The spirit was so strong!!! We are just seeing so many people prepared to receive the gospel! And we are SO GRATEFUL for the chance to work in Paniahue!! This little branch has so much potential! I just love that place with all my heart!!!!  

But the thing I have learned probably the most this week is that we are all agents! We have the power within us to CHOOSE!!! How cool is that?! We can choose to be happy, choose to repent, choose to be patient, choose to love, and choose to be a disciple of Christ. And with this agency, we can CHOOSE TO RETURN TO GOD´S PRESENCE!!!! Isn´t that incredible? God created us with the capacity to choose to return to his presence if we want to! I am so grateful for my agency! And every day I just want to choose Him.

I love this work! I love being a missionary! I have seen the divine power of the Atonement work not only in my life, but in the lives of many others here in Chile, and I know it´s all true!!!!

Thank you for all your love and support! I love you ALL!!! Have the best week!

Sending all my love from Chile,

Hermana Christensen 

Ashley's 1st time to see the ocean on her mission!

Beautiful countryside

Capillas Abiertas

Found a cute puppy!

Puppy love!

How happy I am giving my all to the Lord!

HELLOOOO!!! 

Yet another AMAZING week here in Santa Cruz! I really love this place! We never stop seeing miracles!!! So week we found a bunch of people from Venezuela, ate lots of ice cream, had a lot a prayers answered, intercambios, interviews with president, lots of laughs, talking to literally EVERYONE in the street, capillas abiertas, and on top of all that we have a new assignment! I am so excited! We are being send to work in another sector and branch in Paniahue to strengthen the branch, and relief society and find new people I am SO EXCTIED!!! 

But I think the biggest thing I have learned this week is just how happy I am giving my all to the Lord! When I give him everything I don´t even have time to think about myself! And I don´t really like thinking about myself so it works for me! But I have a new favorite scripture!!! So just thinking about how God uses broken things, and imperfect things, and for me, an imperfect person, this scripture gives me a lot of hope!!! 

2 Corinthians 12:9-10 

¨And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for  my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I 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.¨

I love you all! I hope we can all find new strength as we learn to really on the infinite Atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. I love this work with all my heart. It´s all true. Have the best week! 

Hermana Christensen 

**Since her email was short this week due to computer troubles, I am including a excerpt that I typed up from her journal: 

25 Febrero 2017

"We just had the best day ever!  We had capillas abiertas (an open house at the church)!  And it was like crazy with everyone running around everywhere!  Well, basically it was us running around everywhere because the elders were in the baptism room!  We were short on members and missionaries and the refreshments got there an hour and 15 minutes late!  Haha!  But I was just so happy the whole time!  I just wanted to bring EVERYONE to church!  I was just like, AHH!  And even though it was crazy and we had to run everything and organize everyone as we were going, I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father because we saw SO many miracles!  I love all the hermanas here!  They all taught so well!  S. came! And she was so excited to learn more!  She left with a Book of Mormon!  Lots of menos activos came!  And one of the neighbors we invited with Hna. Andrea came!  OH! What a day! But the best part was the baptism at the end of the day!  The elders' investigator N. got baptized!  He is a kids that used to be into drugs, who is changing his life!  I just LOVE being at baptisms!  They are so powerful!  Just being in the same room as someone making a covenant with God, and knowing that when they walk out of the water, their lives will never be the same is just so powerful!  It really does bring tears to my eyes!  I love the spirit so much!  I love the peace I feel in the chapel!  I was so happy!  Even though it was a crazy day, I was just SO happy!  Today I gave my all!  You know what the difference was?  I turned ALL OUT!  I did not for one second think of myself!  I love that so much!  I want every day to be like that!  Every day is going to be like that!  Because after all, my life is not mine!  It's all for Him!  One of the little moments I loved from today was walking and singing Primary songs with Hermana Hilburn and really thinking about the message!  I just love being a missionary!"

Feet tan lines!

Future sister missionaries!

Matching hermanas!

Just follow the wind

I LOVE SANTA CRUZ!!!!!!!!!! 

Welcome everybody to the PRETTIEST SECTOR IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!!!!! Wow!!! What a week it has been! We have been working SO hard! We have been talking to everybody! And we have been led by the spirit to amazing families!! But more than anything else, I feel like Heavenly Father has really been teaching me this week! I have learned SO much through the spirit! It´s crazy because I feel like as soon as I finally strengthen one weakness, or I finally feel like I got it down, Heavenly Father is like, Oh wait, you have a lot more to work on! And then he shows me what else I can improve, but not only that, he gives me opportunities to try to improve! How cool is that? God just loves me so much! :) I JUST LOVE IT!!!!! 

 So Hermana H is incredible! She literally makes me so happy! We laugh SO HARD together!!! Haha President didn´t know what he was doing when he put us together! :)  

But actually, he probably did know what he was doing because we have seen SO MANY MIRACLES this week!!! So F., set her own fecha for 17 of May. She said she is going to give it three months to try to stop breaking the word of wisdom and law of chastity and change her sins, and if she sees progress, she will get baptized! Woooohooo!!!!  It´s awesome because basically she said she doesn´t want to feel guilty before God like she does right now! 

But more than anything else, I just want to let ya´ll know that PRAYER WORKS!!!!! We started off this week with all the excitement in the world to convert all of Almendrosa right? And so we decided, before we started contacting, we were going to start with a prayer. I said it, and at the end, Hermana H looked up at me and said, ¨Hermana, this is going to sound really weird, but I feel like we need to follow where the wind is blowing.”  Without even thinking I said ¨Okay!¨ and we felt the wind blow us to the corner of the street, then it changed directions, so we followed, and it blew us right to a man who was trimming his tree outside his house.  Long, long story short, he invited us in and we taught him and his wife, and they were excited to invite us back. HOW COOL IS THAT?!?! Literally, prayer works. The spirit is amazing. And I will never stop being amazing by how the spirit always leads us to those who are waiting for the gospel. Even if he has to carry us to them in the wind. :) 

I love you all so much! Keep praying!!!! (Cuz it always works!!!) And have the BEST week ever!!!! 

Lots of love from this happy lil’ Santa Cruzana, 

Hermana Christensen 

My new area is SO AWESOME!

This week's email from Ashley was her answering my many questions!

1. How is your new area? Are you adjusting well? Are you happy?
 My new area is SO AWESOME!!! I really feel like there’s a lot of potential! The thing is I got here, and last cambio it was Hermana Al-M's last cambio, and so they had lots of stuff to do for her, so we don’t really have investigators but we are finding so many people!! BUT SANTA CRUZ IS SOOOOOO PRETTY!!!!!!!!!!! I really really really love the country so so much! I literally feel so lucky to be here!!! But YES I am so happy!!! This week we have contacted people, Lots of people! And we taught a Spanish Class to a bunch of Haitians! There’s so many of them here! The little branch is SO CUTE!! The members here are incredible! They are so strong!!! I really love Santa Cruz! I will admit this past week has been a little bit hard to adjust, to adjust to a new area, working with different people, etc. but it has not been bad at all! I LOVE HERMANA H!! We are so happy to be together! And the whole mission KNOWS how much we love each other, so the funniest part of this week was going to Consejo (the monthly training meeting at the mission home with the mission leaders)! There are 6 Hermanas from my MTC group that are Hermana Leaders right now too, and the best part was to hear all the reactions of everyone else when they found out we were companions!!! Ha-ha, we are just so happy!!! :)

 It was sad to leave Rauquen, but I will be back!!! I am happy for new opportunities! And there is a LOT of work to do here! But honestly, that’s just what I wanted! God always answers my prayers! I was praying for a change that would help me to WORK WORK WORK because I love it when you get to that point where you just forget about yourself and you just give your whole heart! I LOVE that! And I feel like I am getting to that point again! I lost it for a little bit, but I’m back there! I LOVE THE MISSION!!!! So I would say yes I am happy! :) 

2. What is the branch like?
 The branch is great!!! It’s so small but so cute! There’s a lot of helping the members with their callings and filling in! They are awesome though! Attendance this week was really good apparently!!! And we had 3 investigators in church!!! But usually like 30-40 are at church! 

3. How has it been serving with Hermana H again?   IT’S BEEN AWESOME!!! Honestly I love her! But it's been really weird transition hahahah because I love her so much, and we get each other like completely, but there’s some things we do differently, but we are getting there!!! But I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!! It’s been AWESOME!!! She even agreed to come running with me in the mornings!!!! She has changed so much! She told me I have too! And that I am more confident now!! WOOOOO go team!!! But really I LOVE her!!! We teach really well together! Still! After a year we still got our rhythm!! She rocks. But she is SO good at contacting! I just am amazed! I love her! 

4. Was it hard to leave Rauquen and Hermana G?
Yeah, but not too hard because with her, it’s not the end.  And then she gave me an "I can do hard things" necklace at Consejo after 3 days without her, and I CRIED!!! Hahaha I love her too much!!! :) 

5. What are some things you like about your new area?
IT’S SO PRETTY!!!!! And the people here are SO nice! Literally you talk to anyone in the street and they are SO friendly!!! And it's so small! You can walk everywhere!!!! It's SO PRETTY!!!!! And I love the hermanas in our house!!! But the people! I like the country people a lot more!!! Our sector has a few really new neighborhoods that have lots of potential! I really love it!!! 
6.  Do you know any of the other missionaries in your district/zone?  Elder G. came to my zone with me!!! We were in Rauquen together for 6 months! He is like my brother! I love him! And I knew Hermana H, but other than that, nope! BUT Elder Lee is in my zone! I talked to him!!!! He’s cool! It was so funny! He was like "I think our parents are like really good friends" and I was like yep!!! Hahahaha 

2 Curico Zones

 Goodbyes.....