July 25- A New Week!

This week was another good one. I have had my testimony of prayer grow so much this week. There had been many things I had been praying for the last few weeks and the Lord had asked me to wait, until this week when He answered almost all of them. Sister Bohman and I have been saying all week "Prayer Works!" It really, really does. Sometimes the Lord asks us to wait for a bit before we get our answers, but faith in the Lord means faith in his timing as well, and I have realized that the times He's asked me to wait, are the times I've appreciated my answers the most. I love in the bible dictionary under prayer it defines prayer as aligning our will with Gods. It's something I'm still learning to do, but something I appreciate so much.
Our new investigator, Hayes, that I told you about last week is amazing! Since we met him last week he has come to church and is on the fourth lesson. By the second lesson he was already talking about 'when I'm a member' before we even taught the Plan of Salvation. He hasn't set a date for baptism yet as he feels like he needs to know more, but he is praying about the 20th of August now. He's amazing though. He's definitely is an answer to one of my prayers. We taught the Word of Wisdom last night and he committed to live it all the time, even though he was a little sad about losing his occasional beer that he likes, he just said that he knew the Lord would bless him for keeping that commandment. A few hours later he texted us to say he had resisted a beer and that he was off to eat some 'flesh of beasts or fowls of the air' for dinner (he cracks us up sometimes...). I don't think I've ever been happier or more excited for someone in my life. It's funny, I always knew I would grow to love and want so much for my investigators and the people that I serve, but I can't even describe. It's so much more than that. If small steps make us missionaries his happy, I can't imagine what our Heavenly Father must feel when we come to Him. Oh what a wonderful thought. We made quite the sight doing a little joy flip out on the bus we were riding.  Haha!

I also have a new favorite lesson to teach.  I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It's the third lesson, technically, but it is the foundation for any lesson.  I love how it all just fits together.  In Moses 1:39 Heavenly Father says 'For this is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man'.  When we teach this lesson Sister Bohman always draws two pits that we fall into in life.  Physical and Spiritual Death.  Physical death, or the immortality of man, was bridged over by Christs resurrection, but to get us out of the second trap, spiritual death, Christ built a ladder through his atonement.  Faith, Repentance, Baptism/the Sacrament, Recieving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end, make up the rungs to that wonderful ladder.  As Timothy J. Dyches stated 'All that is unfair about life can be made right through the atonement of Jesus Christ.'  I promise that this is the case.  There is no pit too deep, that God can't pull us out of.  If only we choose to climb that ladder.

I love you all and hope that you're well!

-Sister Christensen-

July 18- The Week of Crazy!!

This week was pretty slow but good! Monday we shopped.  It started as a hunt for Rain gear but ended with a few new skirts... oops.  :P  Tuesday was CRAZY! We had district meeting and three appointments, but only two held, before having to hop on the train to come to Edinburgh for exchanges. Our second appointment will go down in history as the craziest lesson ever given. We were teaching an investigator named Matthew who we planned on teaching the Word of Wisdom to, when we got there though he had brought two of his friends, which was cool. :) One of his friends was a previous investigator who we taught previously who just wanted to see how many crazy questions he could ask us, the other was brand new and the only thing he knew about religion was the story of Sampson, as that is his name, and Matthew asked us a ton of questions that led to us to teaching the Law of Chastity. Pretty much we had three lessons in one forty minutes....The gospel of Jesus Christ for the first one, the restoration for Sampson, and the Law of Chastity for Matthew. IT WAS CRAZY! But fun....

Wednesday we had exchanges and I learned so much!  Thursday we had a couple of lessons but all but one fell through so we had lots of street contacting... and Friday and Saturday Sister Bohman was sick so we only taught a few lessons those days as well. Sunday we were right as rain and off to work again.  I even gave a talk on temples in church.  Hope they don't get sick of me too soon! The only lesson we had scheduled was with Alice, who we told you about last week. We had contacted her Saturday and she was still planning on it and super excited but on Sunday she didn't answer her phone or come. I was heartbroken, but we think she got called into the hospital for work as she is a surgeon. We'll see if she responds to our request for a new appointment. I hope so!

Hayes was our blessing this week. We met him GQing and he knew that there was a God but had no religion background at all so he accepted to meet with us. It was such a cool meeting! He's solid! It was really cool because it was like we had a completely blank canvas and everything made sense to him. Like when we introduced prophets. He had no idea what a prophet was but as soon as we explained it to him he was like 'Oh! That makes so much sense! I see why that is so important!' It was super cool.

Well I probably have chatted your ear off (or eyes off as this is an email?) so I'll let you go but I wanted to say how glad I am to be on a mission. It's oh so very hard, but oh so very worth it. Hope you have/had a good week!

Lots of love,

-Sister Christensen-

July 11- We Have Arrived!

Hey Everyone!  I made it!  I have arrived in the field!  I am currently serving in the Aberdeen, Scotland area in the Bridge of Don ward.  I love it!  Aberdeen is....grey.... it's entirely made of granite except for our apartment.  :D  It is red brick.  We live in the top apartment.  :D  My new address is

31 Ashgrove Avenue

Aberdeen AB253 BQ

Scotland

My trainer is the wonderful, incredible, Sister Bohman.  She is from Texas, but went to BYUI for a bit before serving.  She's been out three months and she knows Aberdeen like the back of her hand.  I get so lost!  :P  Haha.  I just have to remember I've only been out for a week right?  :P  

I think my favourite moment this week so far was on Friday. We were on our way to an appointment and waiting for a bus and a lady came in and sat down next to us. I suddenly just felt like I needed to strike up a conversation with her and soon we were talking. She loves the Mormon Chanel on YouTube, especially the video about God raining blessings on us and the life of Christ videos. We started explaining what we do as missionaries and she was so excited. We asked if we could share a message sometime with her and she was like 'I thought that's what we were already doing! Yes!'. We have an appointment for this Sunday with her and I can't wait. It's funny how the Lord works in little blessings. Even if she isn't ready for our full message yet and we simply lay the foundation for future missionaries, that little conversation and the fact that someone was excited and willing to talk to us has carried me through the rest of the weekend. The Lord really does know us and our needs.

I'm so ready and excited to be here on my mission. It's hard yes, but mostly just because I keep getting ahead of myself and wanting to be useful, prepared and ready now. I had a hard moment on Saturday where I told Sister Bohman I just felt like I needed to be doing more so that I could be more useful and helpful and, I don't know... feel successful?... not quite the right word but she was so helpful and kind. She just laughed kindly, and said 'Sister! You've only been here five days!' I sure doesn't feel like it but she's right. I have so much to learn and so many ways to improve, but with time, patience, and the Lord's help, I know I can.

I can't wait to keep learning and growing here in the field!  Some days are long, some days are funny, and some days are awesome.  But all days are incredible with the Lord.  

We are pretty much in the heart of the city so we teach lessons and street contact mostly.  I'm getting much better at street contacting though!  Last week in the MTC they took us out in Manchester to Piccadily (is that how you spell it?) and had us street contact for two hours.  It was a good break in but it was pretty confusing when it's two greenies together with no idea how to start of continue a conversation. :P  Luckily my trainer is amazing and is teaching me all the ropes.  

I love you all and hope you're all doing well!

Best wishes!

-Sister Christensen-

July 6- Sister Christensen has arrived

Dear Brother and Sister Christensen,

On 05 July 2016 we welcomed Sister Sari Christensen to the Scotland/Ireland Mission.  She arrived safely from the Missionary Training Centre and we are excited to have her in our mission.  I interviewed her and felt her spirit and desire to serve our Heavenly Father. One of our very best missionaries, Sister Ashley Bohman, has been assigned to be her trainer and they are assigned to the Aberdeen Zone in Scotland.  Letters can be sent to her directly at her address – which she can give you on Monday which is her preparation day.  Be sure to read the mail guidelines attached! 

Sister Donaldson and I will have the opportunity to meet with your daughter for a personal interview every two to three months. In addition, she will be seen regularly at Zone Conferences and other training meetings and communicate with me regularly in weekly e-mails. She will also meet regularly with her district and zone leaders where she will be trained with other missionaries.  Therefore, with interviews, zone conferences and our weekly letters I should be able to help her meet any challenges she may have, and answer any questions you may have.

We are grateful for the part you have played in preparing her to serve in this important work. We would encourage you to write her weekly letters of encouragement. Letters from home provide a powerful sustaining effect on the confidence and morale of our missionaries.

If you at any time have a concern about your missionary, please feel free to contact us here at the Mission Home in Edinburgh.  We testify of the truthfulness of this work and are grateful to be a part of it.

Sincerely,

George R Donaldson

George R Donaldson, President
Scotland/Ireland Mission
51 Spylaw Road
Edinburgh Scotland
EH10 5BP

Email to Mission office: 2018500@ldschurch.org 
Phone:  +44 131 337 1283

                                                                 What ‘eer thou art, act well thy part

D&C 123:17

Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

June 28- We are here Peeps!

So we are here!  We are loving this!  And we are so happy!

This week has just flown!  For the most part we just have classes and things everyday, but this MTC is cool because we get to LEAVE it like once a week.  On P-days we walk down to the shops and the LDS bookstore here and I ooh and ahh over all the amazing pictures and the little lds necklaces that for some reason are so cute even though they aren't church related, they just have a scripture on the packaging.... haha!  

On Thursday though we got to do a church history tour of Preston here as it was the first place in England where missionary work was done.  We went to the river Ribble where the first baptisms took place and walked down the streets and saw the houses that the Apostles and missionaries stayed in, including the house where President Hinkley stayed on his mission and received the letter to 'Forget himself and go to work'.  My companion and I were apparently a magnet because out of the 57 missionaries on this tour, we were approached by people for information and were able to give out pass-a-long cards more than anyone else.... it was actually really cool!  My favorite by far was Downham though (look up pictures guys it's my new favorite place on the planet) which is a little village that has been owned by the same family since the 1500s.... We went to the chapel there (more like cathedral) and learned about the town a bit.  Then afterwards, the mission president asked me to sing a slow, classical version of 'Called to Serve'.  I almost choked on the first note because the spirit was so strong in the room it was like there wasn't room for my voice.  But I got to stand in the oldest building I've ever been in and sing about my calling to the Lord.  It's a memory I'll hold onto for a while I think.  I haven't even been gone two weeks and I'm already seeing how the Lord has given me things to help and share with people, from being asked to design a card for a missionary who lost his brother, to singing, to simply talking with people on the streets.  Every morning I physically put on the name of Christ with a weight and a wonder that cannot be described, but I've never been more happy.  I love being a missionary.

I love you all!!  All the best wishes and prayers!

-Sister Christensen-