Eliza's Hand Written Letter: received on May 31, 2013

I want you to know I have a strong, true testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ.  I know through Him we can find joy and peace and know of the meaning of life.  I know that He loves us so much and wants us very much to follow Him, to know Him, and to come unto him so we can live with Him forever.  I don't understand the people who don't know or understand the gospel and won't accept it or try to know it.  I don't understand the ones who have tasted of the sweet joy of the gospel and have left.  How can you leave something so good, so precious and perfect?  Pres. Packard said at our zone conference last week that "religion is mostly self-discovered"-- That if someone will not make the effort to find joy and happiness and truth for themselves they will not truly find it anywhere.  The Gospel is so personal.  I just don't understand those who leave because they were offended by someone.  I know that these are things that we do not fully understand how or may never know in this life, but that is not a reason to find fault with the Gospel.  I know that this is the true and only restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I love the temple and the blessings and truth we get from it. It is an amazing place to be.  I love the peace there, I love knowing I am coming closer to God when I attend the temple.  I love you.  I am so incredibly thankful for my dear, faithful parents.  Thank you for your example, love, support and strength.  Thank you for teaching me the Gospel and staying true to the covenants you have made with God.  I love you so much and miss you incredibly, but I know I am doing the greatest work there is.  I am grateful for that.  Love, Sister Eliza Christensen

2 Nephi 25:23

I love this scripture because it is something we do now as missionaries and members of the Church. We try and teach all to come unto Christ and help them gain a relationship with Him, so that we can be saved as long as we try our best to follow the Lord's commandments, and His prophets. I love the scriptures so much, I was talking to my companion this morning and we were talking about how it was hard to read our scriptures for more than 30 minutes each day. And now we study for two hours each day. And I always wish we had more time. I always want more and more from the scriptures. they are full of revelation and truth and joy and happiness. I love it! It is amazing how much I love studying the scriptures and preach my gospel now, on my mission, compared to before, where it was really hard to do it for more than a few minutes. I love the things I have learned so far on my mission. I have grown so much, spiritually, it is incredible. I love being here!

Yesterday we had the opportunity to go to the temple. It was perfect. Our zone was supposed to go to the 8:20session but only the Waterford sisters and us were able to get in at that time. All the Elders were late. But our session was about 2/3 missionaries from all over the mission, it was a mix of 5 different zones. It was really nice to see some familiar faces. President Packard helped out our session it was awesome! He was helping sister Preszler through the veil and I got distracted because I heard his voice. He is awesome. I love the Packards so much its rediculous.

We had a really good day yesterday and this past week. Because of the Musical Firesides that are coming up we have been inviting like crazy. President Hutchins (our stake president) wants our zone to have at least 75 nonmembers/less actives there and our branch alone has invited at least 75 on its own!! I am really excited for it. I am playing in both of them, for our stake, on the 2nd and on the 8th. I am actually doing a duet with Hermana Sorenson. She is really awesome and really really good at the violin. It's kind of intimidating. But it will be good. We are practicing tomorrow.

Transfers are coming up in a week from this thursday so I won't be emailing until wednesday next week. I am nervous for transfers.. but we will see what happens!

I love you all, hope you are all doing amazing and enjoying life! Have a wonderful week.

Love, Sister Christensen

                             

May 27, 2013

Short on Money so they got a gift from the Newport  Elder's  

We love that they included Sardines!

Our view from our Branch meeting place

Sacrament Meeting

Relief Society

                                       

MORMON MESSAGES

I have a lot to report on this week. It was full of many wonderful experiences (good and not as good but still good). First of all, on Thursday Sister Preszler and I decided to go and visit a member who had back surgery a few weeks ago and hasn't been able to make it to church yet. We decided to share a Mormon Message with her but didn't know which one would help her most. So we prayed about it and then decided on one. As we sat in her living room and having a nice conversation we decided to show a different one. She liked it and said she had never seen any of the videos before. But then we thought we should share one more with her. It was the one on Stephanie Nielson. During the video this sister started to cry. Afterwards she said that one she heard one line at the beginning she wanted to know everything that Stephanie had to say. It really touched her heart and it was exactly what she needed to hear. She said that she was so grateful for us and the spirit we bring, noticing that it was Heavenly Father who helped her in this moment. That small and simple experience was a testimony builder for me. Even though it did not seem like much, sharing a Mormon Message, it meant so much to this sister. And the more I think about it, the more it means so much to me.

On Wednesday we had zone conference, in Oxford, MA. We were supposed to have it this coming Thursday in Hartford but it was moved because our Stake President was coming to speak to us and he could only do it last week. It was a really good meeting. A former President of the Boston Temple spoke to us and talked to us about how to become better teachers. Then President Hutchins (our stake president) came. He talked about our stake, of course.  There are two zones in the stake so one of the zones at zone conference was kind of left out.  But he talked about the up coming musical firesides in the stake (put on by the missionaries). He is so awesome, very missionary minded, it is amazing! So he promised us that he would invite 30 people to the firesides and took off his shoes and gave them to the Elders in his ward (our Zone leaders) and said the he won't get them back until he has fulfilled his commitment!  It was so awesome! He did that because of Ruth 4:7. He is so awesome.

Another great experience we had was on Saturday. We don't have anyone really to teach so we decided to fast about it on Saturday. We broke our fast that night and went to the Adult Session of Stake Conference. That meeting was so inspiring. President Hutchins and President Haight (from the Mission Presidency) are incredible. I really wish we could have had more people there! But the commute it pretty far for a lot of the members. They really hit missionary work pretty hard during that meeting. They  want everyone to invite as many people as they can to the Musical Firesides. Both President Haight and President Hutchins are so empowering. We are lucky to have them as part of our leadership. After the meeting a man seemed very anxious to talk with us. He had gone up to another sister from an area in Northern Connecticut and asked if she was from Westerly. She pointed us out to him and he told us he wants us to teach his family! He got our information and was so excited to find us. This was a true, clear answer to our fast!! It was incredible. So I am hopeful we will be able to teach his family this coming week!

I am so grateful to be here in Westerly. It is such a beautiful area and the people are amazing and there is so much potential!! I really am glad I am here right now!  How great is this work! I absolutely love it here. I am nervous for the up coming transfer... but at least it is still 3 weeks away. 

I love you all so much!  I miss you greatly but in a good way. The way that shows how much I love you and you're worth being missed! :) You are such great examples to me and I am so proud to be apart of this strong powerful family.

Love, Sister Christensen

Happy Mother's Day!

                                

I loved talking to everyone yesterday. It really helped me a lot. But afterwards I was talking to Brother and Sister Mitchell and Brother Mitchell said something that I kind of agree with. He said that it would probably be easier if our time to talk was only about 10-15 minutes, short and sweet, because any longer makes it hard to say goodbye again. I think he said that because he could tell I was struggling a bit from having to say goodbye to you all. He also said it might be harder when we get to see our families but not be able to be with them. I think he is right about that, I think it is a little bit harder that I am able to Skype you and see you. I wonder if it would be easier if I would just call. But I am grateful I am able to Skype. I wouldn't want it any other way. I miss you all so much and to not be able to see your faces for 18 months would make it harder!

This week has been pretty good. We are doing well with visiting less actives. Hopefully we can help them come back to the church! Yesterday at church a members less active son came to church after quite a few years and he said that he would like it if we came and visited him and his family! that was super awesome! It is sad though because his father is still not a member, he has been investigating for nearly 38 years or so. But he is slowly progressing! It would be awesome if we could get him baptized and become part of the branch. We all know how much we need more priesthood holders since we only have 7.

The Branch Presidency asked us (well we volunteered) to make the Mother's Day gifts for the women in the Branch. So we spent Saturday dipping 170 pretzel rods in chocolate! It was so fun and everyone was impressed and really like them. They made me feel really good. We also offered to make dinner for the Mitchell's for Mother's Day and also since they have fed us almost every week since we got here and they were letting us use their skype. They are so amazing. So we were a bit nervous to make dinner because they are kind of picky. But we did our best. They also don't really like to branch out that much on trying new things. But we still made them a very simple dinner and they loved it! They were so nice about it. Elaine (brother Mitchell's mother who cooks every week for us) said we might have showed her up this week. :) She is so sweet. We had a fun time yesterday. It was quite a good day. I hope everyone had a good Mother's day!

                                   

I love you all so very much! thank you for all your love and support. It is felt everyday and it always helps me get through the harder days. You are all so amazing and inspiring!

Love,

Sister Christensen

Sister Preszler

Sister Preszler & Sister Christensen

I don't know where to start today. It has been such a crazy week. So last week was transfers and I got my new companion, Sister Lewis. She is amazing and such a fireball. We had a wonderful lesson with Josh and I noticed a complete difference in his prayer that night. The first time I heard him pray and well all of his prayers do not sound sincere at all. You can tell he doesn't believe God is listening. But after our lesson I was taken away by the sincerity of his prayer. It was amazing. I am seeing such a difference in him. I think it is because of the branch. He has been investigating for years!  But he is changing now. I cannot believe how much I am able to see that too. This area is changing so much from the first while I was here. It is an incredible experience. I love it!

This week has been one of the hardest, yet most beneficial weeks of my mission. Sister Lewis has been struggling with some medical issues and was in constant communication with her family and President and Sister Packard. It was kind of hard on me because she was able to talk to her family whenever she wanted to. And she has such a great relationship with President and Sister Packard. I wish I had that kind of relationship with them. But she made a very difficult decision on Thursday. She decided to go home and get better, then try and come back out at the end of the summer.

So Friday we went to Zone meeting (which I had to do training on finding joy in the small things and Sister Packard came and she kept leaning over to me saying how great it was :) that made me feel really special. We had to leave zone meeting early because we were to meet the LP/UNI/CRW sisters, they are a trio serving in the ysa/sa wards up in Boston. Also my dear sweet sister Ford is in that trio. But one of her companions, Sister Preszler, is my new companion. Sister Packard talked to them and it was a possibility for either sister Ford to come back to Westerly or for Sister Preszler to come down. Sister Preszler didn't want to come down and Sister Ford really wanted to come back. So obviously Sister Preszler came down. But I know Sister Ford is needed up there. Anyway, we were supposed to meet them at the Cambridge Stake Center at 2pm in Boston but we were an hour late because the traffic in Boston is nuts. I was getting so frustrated! It took us an hour to get through Boston when it should have taken like 20 or so minutes... But we finally got there and had to head straight to the airport to drop Sister Lewis off and meet up with President and Sister Packard. They are amazing. They truly and deeply love every one of the missionaries in this mission. I wish everyone could meet them. They are so inspiring.

After the airport Sister Preszler and I went to the Longfellow Park Ward to meet up with Sister Ford and Sister Jordan. Sister Ford and I basically clung together the whole time I was there--which went into Saturday as well. Sister Packard said I could stay with them as long as I wanted, as long as I was able to go to church in Westerly on Sunday. So I stayed until 3 pm Saturday. But we had a really awesome time helping out with a Boston Stake Relief Society activity Saturday morning and it was a good thing we were there too. There were about 20 missionaries there helping out and they needed every single one of us. It was so fun. But I am glad I am serving where I am. I don't think I ever want to serve in the Boston area. It is just so different. 

                                    

Sister Preszler was in Sister Lewis's MTC district and so we all came out at the same time! Crazy isn't it?? But she is really nice and easy going. We had a wonderful Sunday yesterday. We finally got a Relief Society President in our branch and I nearly jumped out of my seat I was so excited about it!! She is so fabulous and really, desperately needed in the branch and in Relief Society. She is Josh's wife, Teddie. She is amazing and I love her so much!! I will send you a picture of Sister Ford and me with her. It is awesome because we are already at her house nearly every day. Quite amazing! I am so excited!!

                                    

That wraps up my week (at least in a shortened condensed version). It was such a crazy week that I cannot write all that I would like to. But I am so excited about this area! It is growing already and it is amazing. I love it!! I love you all and hope you are having a wonderful week. I am so excited to talk to y'all on Sunday! It will be such a great day.

Love,
Sister Christensen