Happy 4th of July!!!

HELLO EVERYBODY!!!! HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!!!

Ashley and her housemates sporting their patriotic bling on their 4th of July P Day!

WOOOOO!!!! WHAT AN AMAZING WEEK!!!! Okay but seriously!!! So much is happening here in Chile! We got a new mission president! I love my housemates! I am teaching English classes by myself! Chilean soccer!!!  M. passed her baptismal interview, and I feel like I can actually speak Spanish now! Sometimes! But really, I LOVE THE MISSION!!! I can’t believe how fast the time has gone! It’s amazing! I have learned so much!!!!

But really quick update with my peeps!!!!

B. and M. B. has a fecha for the 30th of this month and Miranda is getting baptized this Saturday on the 9th with two other people in Machali! She has already had her baptismal interview and she passed! She’s ready to go! But we are going to be verifying every day this week to keep her on the course! She is so amazing! Her first lesson was my first day in the field, 4 and a half months ago, and it’s been a long road, but she knows now, and is ready to make this covenant! It’s going to be an amazing day!! We are trying to find some new investigators right now, but we have lots of investigators with potential to progress! It’s actually amazing!!!

I just want to share a quick experience! We were talking to M.’s aunt this week who is a very active member of Cachapoal, and she told us this story. She was talking to M. about her baptism one day, and she knows that Miranda loves the missionaries and we have a really close relationship with her. But she asked M., "Do you really believe? Because I know you love the missionaries and I don’t want you to get baptized just because of them. They are amazing but that’s not why you should get baptized." and M. said, "Clementina, I believe. If I didn’t I wouldn’t get baptized." And my heart was so full of love for that girl! It’s a miracle! I am so happy for her!!!  I really cannot believe all the miracles that are happening in our sector!!! It’s miraculous!!!

That’s about it for now! Things couldn’t be better here in Machali C! Thank you for all your love and support!!!!! Remember, to always choose the harder right, than the easier wrong. That’s the new motto thanks to our beloved Prophet! 

All the love in this lil’ Chileans heart,

Hermana Christensen

P.S. REMEMBER: Nothing is awkward when it comes to eternal salvation! :)

P Day soccer

Sleepy Hermanas

New Mission President!

Ashley got a new mission president this past week! Here is the information about her new Mission President that was found on the Church's website:

Reed Juan Harris, 58, and Kathleen Coleman Harris, six children, Twin Falls 24th Ward, Twin Falls Idaho South Stake: Chile Rancagua Mission, succeeding President Thomas R. Warne and Sister Renae K. Warne. Brother Harris is a former stake president, stake presidency counselor, bishop, high councilor, stake Young Men presidency counselor, ward mission leader, and missionary in the Bolivia La Paz Mission. Self-employed cardiologist. Born in Moses Lake, Washington, to Dee Meikle Harris and Betty Jean Kinghorn Harris.

Sister Harris is a former ward Relief Society and Young Women president, ward Relief Society and Primary presidency counselor, Relief Society meeting coordinator, and ward Young Women adviser. Born in Moscow, Idaho, to John R Coleman and Marjory Remington Coleman.

Here is an email and a picture that President Harris sent to us today:

We are President and Sister Harris, and we just arrived in Chile as representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to direct the work of Jesus Christ in this part of the world. Also, We are excited to work with Sister Christensen, who we had the opportunity to meet this week.

Thank you for the support that you are giving him. Sister Christensen is an excellent missionary, and we are ready to work hand in hand in this great Work of Salvation for the children of our Heavenly Father.

President and Sister Harris

CHI CHI CHI LE LE LE VIVA CHILE!!!!!!!!

WOW!!!!!! It sounds like you guys had an absolutely amazing week! Oh my goodness your lil trip sounds like so much fun!!!! Awww!!! I am so happy for Hayley! I am so glad everything turned out so well!!! 

Okay!!! So this week was absolutely CRAZY!!! It was the Copa America, Hermana Al.’s birthday, Its officially winter, my president is leaving tomorrow, I found out I am actually twins with my compañera even though she’s Columbiana, M. is telling everyone about her baptism, it’s been so sunny, I destroyed my bike again, all four of my compañeras decided we are going to travel to New York someday together, all of that mixed together with teaching my first real English class, futbol, laughs, lots of contacts, some doors slammed in the face, but lots of learning and love!!! 

So if that’s not a crazy week I don’t know what is!!! 

So how are things looking in Machali C?! M. is REALLY progressing! She is telling everyone about her baptism on the 9th of July! She is really excited! I love this girl so much like me daughter! We dropped her off in Young Women’s alone this week and I felt like I was dropping off my daughter at kindergarten for the first time!! But she is amazing. With tea she is doing a lot better, and we explained that if she is going to be baptized she needs to stop drinking for these next two weeks completely and she said she will do everything she can to do that! We had an amazing lesson with her where she shared her testimony about Joseph Smith, Heavenly Father, and Jesus Christ. I LOVE THIS GIRL SO MUCH!!! It was seriously probably the BEST lesson I had here on my mission!!!  I hope she can make it all the way to her baptism! Other than that we have B. who is progressing a little slower, but still progressing. We have LOTS of Menos Activos that we are working with, and we are currently in the process of finding new people to teach. But that’s about it! Oh and en serio, Hermana G. is AMAZING!!!!! I know cambios are inspired because she is my TWIN and we are the same in SO many ways!!! This is so helpful because she knows exactly how to help me! I seriously never knew I could have SO much in common with a lil Columbiana but I LOVE HER!!!! We must have been best friends in the pre-existence, that’s all there is too it!! 

1. Okay questions!!! YES I AM SO HAPPY!!!! Couldn’t be happier!!! And man I am so old in the mission! I can’t believe it! But I am healthy too! I’m getting a lil chubs because these Chilenos know how to feed us, and feed us, and keep feeding us.... haha but I LOVE MY LIFE!!!!! 

2. Haha I have no idea about pants, but I don’t want to wear them! Ewww weird!!! Especially because all the pants that we can use look like the women police here... SCARY!!! Haha but its officially winter!!! It gets pretty cold in the night, but during the day when the sun is out sometimes it’s hot... like whaaaaaat? I don’t know! It’s not too bad! I am sups prepared so no worries!! 

3. (Explanation of a pic from last week): That was our zone "snowball fight" where we filled up socks with flour and had a snowball fight! And played dodgeball and MAN it was SO FUN!!!! So that’s what we did to celebrate winter!!!! 

Okay, so one last thing! Copa America finals last night! We had to come inside early, but ALL our neighbors had parties and it was so loud! And there was a neighbor who had the game on big screen on their back patio so that was funny! You knew exactly when there was a goal because it was SOOO LOUD!!!! And the Elders kept calling us for updates! SOO funny! And they WON!! And the streets were filled with noise all night long!!! Yeah there was constant yelling screaming honking and just noise all night last night!  Man, I love Chile. 

Thank you for all your love and support! I love being a missionary!! It’s amazing to see how the gospel can change people’s lives, and I know more than ever, I would not be anything without this gospel and my savior Jesus Christ. I love you all! Have the Best week ever!!!! 

Hermana Christensen 

CHI CHI CHI LE LE LE VIVA CHILE!!!!!!!!

Grateful for the spirit

This week we had an amazing Zone Conference! I learned so many things, and it was another testimony to me that this work is inspired, because I was struggling with baptismal invitations, like how I should best go about that, and then SO many answers came during conference! It was amazing! Our church is so amazing! It truly is founded on revelation, and we each have the chance to learn directly from our Father in Heaven. So. Cool. Our church rocks, man!!!

As for this week in our sector, Bruni still has her fecha but didn´t attend church this week. But we will keep working with her! She had a hard week, and lost two loved ones, but it was an amazing experience to help console her and help her remember God´s plan. With Miranda, her fecha is for this Saturday, but we are going to have to change it. First of all because she hasn´t quite stopped drinking tea, but she has made significant progress! And second of all, her abuela says she won´t talk to her if she gets baptized. Miranda said if it wasn´t for that, she would be ready to be baptized! Freakin' Satanas. But it´s good for her to have a challenge to really put her faith to the test.  We helped her with some of her doubts and challenged her to keep praying for answers. We are going to keep working hard with her because she is such a good kid, with so much potential! Besides them we have some less actives that we are trying to help get to church, and a few new investigators, but that´s about it!

To answer your question of if I’m happy and healthy-- Yeah I’m pretty happy! Everyone tells me I’m happy! So I would assume so!!!  I laugh A LOT with my compiiii! She is perfect for me!!! Hahaha. I love that girl! And I have learned so much from her! It really is amazing how inspired these companionships are! We have LOTS in common! Which I would have never imagined I had so much in common with a Colombiana but we are like twins!!! hahahah

Healthy--- well this week I stayed in one day because I had diarrhea and was about to throw up all day.... I ate a bad empanada... hahahah it was so funny but horrible, but funny! So yeah! We pulled down my bed and watched The Testaments slumber party- style with fried bananas and rice that night because we had to be in early because of the soccer game. Yes, that’s a thing! The streets are too crazy when they play so we have to be in early!! SO funny! This week they play Colombia, AHHHHH!!! And oh man, did I hear about the game.... poor Mexico!!

Okay, to finish really quick, I just want to let you know how grateful I am for the spirit in my life! This week me and my companion had an experience where we felt the protecting power of the spirit. We both felt prompted to quickly leave an area we were working in, and we felt it really strong. At the same time. So no doubt about it we left! Nothing happened to us but I know it was the spirit who warned us, and I am so grateful to have the influence of the spirit who is there to not only protect us spiritually, but physically as well. I forget about that sometimes, but the Lord has promised, and we he promises, he sticks to those promises! I hope that we can all continually remain worthy to have the spirit with us always, because his power is so real.

I love this gospel, and I love this life! AND I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!!! Thanks for being my hero!!! Oh and Happy ANNIVERSARY!!!!!

Love ya! Bye!!!

- Your lil Frutillita :)

I am learning a lot!

DAD GOT SURGERY WHAT THE HECK??!?!?! Wow, you guys really like to scare me with all these surgeries and things, but it’s all good because I know the Lord has your backs!!! Wow! But wow!!! Sorry you canceled your trip! I was really excited for you guys because Martha's Vineyard is in GILMORE GIRLS!!!! 

And wow, I could use some summer right now!!! Haha just kidding. But it’s getting pretty cold! But I am super prepared! So no worries!!! I am doing good! Well ehhhh, good some days, others not, but that’s life, ya feel? Missions are hard! 

Okay, answers to your questions!! 

1. Pres is leaving the 25 of June and I get my new pres. the 25 of June... so yeah! We will see how that all goes down but I’m excited! I’m super sad but excited too because President Harris will be my pres for the majority of my mission!! Man I am OLD in the mission practically! 

2. The work is good! We are finding a lot of new people to teach and MIRACLE!!! B. accepted a fecha too! And Paula got baptized!!! M. is not going to be baptized on her fecha... well, I guess I don’t know but we still got to work on some things because she still hasn’t asked God if this is true, but she wants to be baptized, but her grandma, who she is REALLY close to said she would never talk to her again if she gets baptized, so that’s hard. Really hard. But she is getting friends in the church, which is amazing! So we will just keep working with her! And there were several other miracles this week in my journal but I don’t have a lot of time because TONS of people wrote me! 

Here is an excerpt from her journal:  

Yesterday was INCREDIBLE!  I learned some amazing things!  So we were contacting this lady and we talked about eternal families and she was like Hmmm and said no. But then Hermana G shared about prophets, apostles and the priesthood and then something changed in her and she was like, "So I usually have time on Mondays."  And I was like wow.  That's when I realized something.  Everybody needs something in the gospel and it's not going to be the same for everyone, so you just got to keep trying!  Because they don't know they need it but WE KNOW THEY NEED IT!  So yeah! The biggest miracle of the day was with J.  So J. had a fecha and everything when I first got to this area, but then she just stopped.  She dropped us and we never figured out why.  And then she moved and we didn't know where.  So we were talking to this menos activa girl in the new neighborhood in our sector (that we hadn't been to before) and I looked to the side and I saw Pal., J's little sister, in the window so I was like WHAAT?  It was a miracle! So we went and J. was there!  That was also a miracle because every other day she gets back and 8 pm!  And the 3rd miracle is that she said we could come back next Thursday!  And I realized that if it had been any other missionary in that moment, other than me, they wouldn't have known, because I am the only one that knows her who is still here.  Wow, I really don't believe in coincidences at all.  It is all a part of the plan.  Wow!  The church is so true!

3. Todavia no package :( I hope it didn’t get lost! We will see this week! We have zone conference so I will be at the mission home! 

4. Espanol! So I can understand like everything basically. I can speak pretty fluently! Well,I can say everything I want to say because if I  don’t know how to say something I can find a way around it, so that’s amazing! I can speak! WOOO!! I still feel like I can’t, but I can! It’s crazy because I don’t realize I’m speaking Spanish like another language sometimes!

PS my new favorite person in the Book of Mormon is Abish. She is a BOSS!!! She’s in Alma 19 if you forgot, but she is a missionary too!!! 

 I am learning a lot!!! I am constantly realizing how weak I am everyday but the Lord always strengthens me and answers my prayers. And that is amazing. The gospel is life! There is no other way around it!!! 

PS Thank you for raising me the way you did with the gospel the center of our home. Hermana A. always asked me how you raised me and what things you did in our house because she wants to do things the same way in her home someday!! And honestly I couldn’t have a better family or better parents. You are a PERFECT example of righteous latter day saint parents, and I could not be more grateful!!! I just think of the scripture that the stripling warriors talk about their mothers saying "we do not doubt, because our mothers knew."

 I LOVE YOU MOM!!!!! Lots of prayers for you and dad! THANK YOU!!! 

Miracles. Every single day!

Well here it’s finally getting cold!! Man! COLD!! But it’s all good!! Just a minor cold here!!!

So wow, yeah change!! But oh my heavens, I LOVE Hermana G. SO FREAKIN MUCH!!! We were SO meant to be companions! Like one thing after another, we just we work really well together. And she is strong in all my weaknesses and I have already learned SO much from her! It’s nice to be completely focused on the work again!!! And Hermana Al M. is training a gringa! Hermana B.! She’s from Cali, she’s 21, and a convert of a year and a half and I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!!! I could not be blessed to be with better people!!! Seriously!!! 

So this week. Miracles. Every single day! We found TONS of promising futuros, and had some very powerful lessons with investigators. and M. ACCEPTED A BAPTISIMAL DATE!!! I love this girl so much! And she accepted a date! She wants this!! But now the real work begins! We need to help her feel ready and learn these things for herself. But man, it was amazing. And in church this Sunday, SO many miracles! B. came to church again! And V., who we have only taught one lesson two weeks ago, she came and she brought her boyfriend and they stayed for principios del evangelio! And M. came too! AND on top of that, this menos activo family that I found Monday night contacting came to church too! And Hermana K., another menos activo! I WAS SO HAPPY!!!! SO SO HAPPY!!!! Yesterday was amazing!!! 

But wow. The miracles are starting to flow! I am learning so much from the Hermanas, it’s insane. And if there’s one thing I know, it’s that Heavenly Father answers your prayers. In one way or another He answers: through my companions, the scriptures, hymns, and especially investigators! And sometimes I forget I asked for something and He STILL answers my prayers! Or He gives you something you didn’t realize you were missing! And it’s because He just loves us so much! That’s all there is to it! So remember to ask, because He is SO EXCITED to give it to us!!! 

I love you all!!! Have the most amazing week ever!!!! :) 

All the love in this Frutillita's heart! 

Hermana Christensen 

Four Months Out and Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Hey how are you?! I love you!!!! Wow Park City! Have so much fun!!! Okay wow! Quick rundown of this week! 

Well this week we did a lot of packing, saying goodbye to members, divisions while my compi went to Santiago, more packing and crying and singing at baptisms, and my compi's final interview with President and everything. And Saturday night we found out the cambios! I am SUPER blessed though! I will be staying in Machali and Hermana G is going to be my new compi!! She’s from Columbia and she’s the one that knows Austin!!! Haha So not only am I blessed to be with someone I like and know, and have already worked with... But Hermana Al-Malki is staying in Machali too! She is my hero and I want to be just like her! I learn so much from her every day!!! But the sad news is Hermana Cook is leaving us! :( Man, we were so blessed these passed 2 cambios. These girls are my miracles. They have all touched my heart and helped me become better in different ways and I love them with all my heart!!! Last night we had our last noche de hogar with the four of us, and we went around and told everyone what we were grateful for and why we loved each other. okay this sounds SO CHEESY MAN!!!! hahahah I know it is but I JUST LOVE THESE CHICAS TOO MUCH!!! Needless to say there were LOTS of tears! But I am ready to work SO hard this cambio! And really lose myself in the work!!! There’s a lot to be done in Machali I know it! I just gotta do it! Haha But that was this week! I just dropped off my companion at the mission home and she is leaving on the plane this afternoon! Woooo Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!!!! Hahaha yup! So that’s been my life!!!! 

The "Fantastic Four" (Ashley & her housemates) and friends

Last week with Hermana Darley

We had a lesson with M.  Oh, I love that girl!  And we asked, “What do you think you can do to better have the Spirit in your life? And she said “Go to church” and I was like YAAAAA!, because she recognized it!  And that’s the first step.  But she’s coming this Sunday!  Slowly but surely we will get her there!  She’s so amazing!  

(Answers to ?s:) Yes I am still healthy and keeping warm for now! And I am really happy! I really am! Sad this chapter is ending but excited for another, but at the same time sad because we were really lucky to be so close! It won’t be the same, but it’s okay! December of 2017 we are all going to meet in temple square and reunite! It’s a promise!!!! And yes, I am enjoying biking, but I broke my bike.... and I have to fix it hahaha so I gotta pay for that! 

Also... did you hear missionary sister are going to be able to wear PANTS!!! LIKE WHAT!!!! I DON'T WANT TO, but our mission is one of those missions apparently! hahahah 

Oh also one last thing! I gave Hermana Darley your contact info! Because I told her to visit you guys! Anyways in October I think she is going to conference so please invite her to our house if she needs a place to stay!! because I already told her she could! And she wants to meet you guys and just love her because I love her with all my heart okay??? :) 

And that's about it! have so much fun in Park City! Enjoy summer because its winter here and the people feed us so much freakin bread and I’m getting FAT hahahahaha yup! LOVE YOU!!!!!!