FALL IN NEW ENGLAND
                                    

 This week’s email might be a little bit short because I am running out of time!! AAHH! But It has been quite the week! We had wonderful interviews with President and he is just such a wonderful man, I always feel so special when I talk to him. He also told me that the stake President here begged for me to stay last transfer. I was supposed to leave a transfer ago but because President Stratford begged for me to stay, President reconsidered and the Lord told him to let me stay. I think it was a good thing, though it was rough for me at the start. But that made me feel pretty good. Who knows what will happen this time around! We will find out Saturday night (during or most likely after the priesthood session... it's going to be a late night on Saturday, since we are two hours a head of Salt Lake time. Priesthood session won't start until 8pm!). So for all who are interested… I will not be emailing until next Wednesday! We got an amazing referral this past week! A sister missionary serving from the Bridgeport ward, serving in Tennessee, emailed us and told us her friend from quite a few years ago emailed her and is really interested! She is seriously a GOLDEN referral. She came to church yesterday and enjoyed it and felt very welcome! We have an awesome ward. She is super cute and I am so excited to start talking to her! And what is even more awesome, she already knew where the church was because she lives right around the corner! Crazy! Since we haven't ever tracked, especially in this area because we are so crazy busy!, We decided to try it :) It was not a very successful try but it was kind of fun! Most people weren't home or they just wouldn't answer the door. One lady answered and wouldn't let us say a word and just said "no thanks". And another old lady had her grandson over (about our age) helping her in her yard and she kindly told us we couldn't have him. That was pretty funny. She was a sweet old lady :). But it was fun! There are so many trees with leaves starting to change color and most of them are so vibrant! It is beautiful! I love it so much. I can't wait to see all of the trees changing! I will be sure to take some picture! Thank you everyone for all the birthday wishes! I appreciate them and have had quite the 22nd birthday! It's weird to say that I am 22! Nathanael told me not to say I am old since he will be 25 this week :) So I won't say anything. Love you all! have a wonderful week! Love, Sister Christensen

Carrot Cake from Wonderful Shuck Family

The following pictures are of Little Eagle's Baptism

The Wonderful Shuck's

Bridgeport Young Women

A Wonderful Sister in our ward

The 7th member of my family is now in the Mexico MTC.  I have included his blog on my page so check it out.  Congratulations Will!

Beach in New Haven and Baptism

Last week we had Beach Zone Pday in West Haven. It wasn't the nicest beach but it was pretty fun. We can walk in the water as long as it's shallow and we don't go swimming, of course. So we were walking along the shore, and there are millions and millions of shells everywhere. Everyone's feet got cut up, guess it wasn't the best idea.. But it was fun, though my feet did pay for it for a few days.

                                     

                                     

This week has been kind of long, though a lot has happened. There is this really cute girl, Gia, who lives next to one of our members. We were introduced to her about a month or two ago, because we did some service in her yard for her. We always stop by her house whenever we are in the area or are visiting that member. She is so friendly and always lets us in. We visited her this past week and we talked about decorations for Halloween  She said she never decorates a lot for Halloween but she goes all out for Christmas. Her husband is really nice too and is pretty funny. He told us they always have the best Christmas tree ever. I said I hope I will be around for Christmas so I could see it. They asked about why I might move and we talked a little bit about missionary work. I have talked to her about it a little before, they are super open to hearing what we do and talking about religion. It's awesome. They said we are welcome to come over anytime, especially around Christmas so we can see their tree! :) I will have to get a picture with them before I have to leave this area.

So. we had a baptism this week!! My first one. Simone was so ready, all we had to do was teach her all the lessons and get everything set up for her baptism. It happened so quickly, all in about 3-3 1/2 weeks. Crazy! But she is so amazing. The program went really well. It was so cool because she was baptized on her birthday, the 19th, and she is getting confirmed on my birthday!! How cool is that!?                                                                                                       

                                        

                                        

                                        

This past weekend we had Stake Conference. And we got most of our people there! Simone came with her mom (who is a nonmember), and two teenage girls came with a recent convert, Sarah. These girls didn't know Sarah at all until we introduced them, but these girls are the ones I told you about, who called the church a few weeks ago saying they were interested. Saturday was the first time I met them because we were on splits the first time we were to teach them. But they seem like really good girls and I am excited to teach them!

                                        

We have this other awesome non member family that we are kind of working with, with the Trumbull Elders. Their daughter was baptized two years ago and she has been thinking about going on a mission, which helped them open up to us and want to learn more about missions. We now have a set dinner with them every two weeks :). We had one with them yesterday. We always have to block out a big chunk of time for them, because Rosa, the mom, never has dinner ready until about an hour to an hour and a half after we have arrived. But we always have a really good conversation with her. She is so sweet. She is like my mom out here on my mission. We had such a good conversation with her yesterday. She gave us lots of advice, and we talked about religion with her. Everything she said goes along with the things we believe. We just wanted to shout out and tell her that we have all of the things she believes, it's right in front of her! We are taking it slow with them because their daughter asked us to and the bishop told us to take it slow as well. So we are just building a really good relation ship with them. We are trying to get members more involved with them so they don't just drop off when the missionaries all leave. I love them so much! they are such a great family. We always have such a good time with them. I feel like they will join eventually, probably not while I am here, but they will. I can tell, especially the way Rosa talked about her daughter going on a mission. It will be so good for that family if she goes on a mission. She probably won't go for a while, but it will be so good for them!

                                       

One last story.. sorry it's so long. But this week we had a really cool tracting experience! We never go tracting (unless you count trying to contact less actives, then we go tracting all the time!), but one day we were trying to contact a referral/former investigator in Stratford, and no one has ever answered the door for us yet. And at this time we were so thirsty. It was a hot day and we had forgotten our water bottles at home. So we just thought of using that to get into someone's home. While we were around the former investigators home Sister Hinton saw someone at a window nearby and said "let's go knock on that door." so we did. We were planning on just asking for water, but that wasn't what we were supposed to say. Instead we asked if the girl who was there, would like to hear a message. She immediately said "sure". So we quickly shared a short version of the restoration and then asked if we could use the restroom. She let us in and I talked to her for a minute. She had watched a video, the day before, about a mormon guy talking about his mission. He said that everyone should let the missionaries in because they are just trying to be nice. She thought it was weird that she watched that the day before we showed up! We gave her a Book of Mormon and we got her number. What a miracle! Afterwards, Sister Hinton said that the person who was at the window was not the same girl who answered the door, and she was obviously alone. It was such a cool experience!! :)

I hope ya'll have a great week! love you lots and thanks for all you do for me, and for everyone around you. You are amazing!

Love, Sister Christensen

Miracles Every Day

Hello from back east in the ghetto of Bridgeport, Connecticut! Well actually I am in Trumbull, Connecticut but still.. My area is called Bridgeport but I also serve in the beautiful towns of Stratford, Trumbull, Shelton, Monroe, Fairfield, and Easton. All are surrounding poor, old, ghetto Bridgeport. But it is such a wonderful place! I love it here. The people are so amazing. Well, most of them.

We had a funny interaction with a lady this week. We were in Black Rock contacting less actives (which is actually a very pretty area of Bridgeport), no one answered this door we were knocking, so we asked this lady who was next door. She looked disgusted at us and said she didn't know that person and said, "I suggest you keep walking". As we were walking away she came back outside and started yelling at us saying we were liars and "God doesn't like liars", apparently the person we were looking for has "never" lived there. That was a fun exchange! :)

Don't worry that was the one and only sad experience from this week. It has been quite the week actually! So first of all, the past 3 weeks have been incredible. Each Sunday someone new comes around wanting to either be baptized or learn more about the church. The first week was dear Simone. She came to church and said she wanted to be baptized! So we taught her all the lessons and started getting her ready for baptism. She is getting baptized this Thursday, which happens to also be her birthday! It is going to be such a special day. I am so excited. 
The next week, a 16 year old girl called asking what time we met for church. She said she had watched a Mormon family on YouTube and said they looked really happy. They had mentioned the Book of Mormon and so she downloaded it on her phone and read some of it. She said it made her feel good so she wanted to learn more! Crazy!  Now this week. One of our members brought a friend of his wife (who is not a member), to church. Everyone would ask what her name was and if she was visiting. Her reply was, "I'm Linda, and I hope to be a member someday". What? really?! I don’t know what we have done here but people just fall into our laps lately. It is kind of weird.

I just love being here and apart of this amazing work! I have been trying so hard to have people to teach, but it just hadn't happened since I first got here to this mission. (8 month mark today! :)) I guess opening up the two areas I have served adds to that. Starting from scratch in one area, and in the other we hit the ground running. Two completely different areas, but both incredible places. But now the work is starting to show. I have never even dreamed of having so many investigators. We kind of get overwhelmed a lot because we have so many people we have to see and help. It is hard, but so amazing at the same time! I feel so blessed to be a part of these people’s lives.

The Lord is preparing this land to receive a temple. Ever since the ground breaking of the Hartford Temple, many miracles have been happening. There is of course the times where Satan is hitting. But as I have been reflecting those situations, the people are more prepared and are stronger than Satan seems to think. They have pushed through pretty gracefully, so far. I am so excited for these members to have a Temple in their own state. What a blessing!

Love you all so much and pray for you everyday. Hope you have an amazing week!!

Love, Sister Christensen

Bowling for p-day...Sister Christensen WINS!

Beautiful Park in Trumbull

Elders waiting to be let in the church to study...on P-day

A couple knew my birthday was this month so they sent me flowers and chocolate!

MIRACLES IN MISSIONARY WORK

I want to start of with a short, cool story. Yesterday, we thought we had ward council for Bridgeport ward.. Turns out we missed it last week because we were attending the Trumbull sacrament meeting... But as we were waiting in the foyer for ward council, one of the clerks ran out to us and said "there is a girl on the phone and I think you would want to talk to her". So we went in and picked up the phone. A girl about 16 years old was calling to see what time church started (she would be in the Trumbull ward so it had already started). She went on to say that she had been reading the Book of Mormon and feels that it is true. She said she has always been pretty spiritual but her parents don't really go to church. We set up an appointment with her for Wednesday. She wants to bring her friend who also has been reading the Book of Mormon! 
What is happening to this area!

Stories like this have been popping up like daisies! Like S, the Jamaican girl who showed up at church last week saying she wants to be baptized. By the way she has a baptismal date for the 21st of this month :). Her story is a pretty cool one as well.

Another random story, when Sister Hinton and I first got here, the Bridgeport Elders (at the time) were going to hand off one of their investigators since we didn't have any. We met with her once, with them, and then we couldn't catch her at a good time. A couple weeks ago we decided to try again. And we caught her! We had a really good talk with her and we are back on! We are so excited.

We had one of our investigators almost drop us too. Because she thought we were like Jehovah Witnesses. But I convinced her to let us come over again. She is a sweet older lady, and once we were in again she kept saying how much she likes it when we come over and we have a return appointment.

Things are going really well here! It is incredible to see the changes people are willing to make and do make! I love seeing the progress of not only the people but of the area as a whole. This work is amazing!!

Love, Sister Christensen

An Explosion of Miracles!

Dear Family,

Can you believe we have about 12 investigators or soon to be investigators!? We found most of them within the past two weeks as well, is that even possible!? Pretty amazing miracles are happening in this area. It is exploding with missionary work. It kind of is intimidating and overwhelming because I'm afraid we will not be able to get a good hold on it, it's coming so quickly!

One of them is from Jamaica, she came to church yesterday and said she wants to be baptized! She just moved here from New Jersey where we was taught by other missionaries and she hadn't gone through with baptism there. But now she says she is ready!

Another lady, Anneliese, was a referral from one of our bishops but she would be in the other ward. She has been searching for the truth all of her life. She is a widow and her daughter lives in North or South Carolina. We met with her for the second time this week and she is so open to us! The first time she told us, point blank, that she doesn't know how to pray. This week she said she isn't sure if she knows God is there and that He is listening to her, but she believes He is there. I told her to look up Elder Holland's talk from last General Conference, "Lord, I believe". The spirit was so strong there, she is so sweet. I am excited for her! She grew up Lutheran, but she didn't like that so she tried being Catholic, didn't like it, and tried being a Jehovah's Witness and really didn't like it. She tried almost every religion and hasn't found anything. I hope we can help her. She is amazing.

We have a sweet old lady in the Bridgeport ward who we just started visiting when we first got here. She loves us so much, and got mad at us one week when we didn't visit. I hadn't realized we basically visited her once a week if not more. But now she has a friend who is now one of our investigators! we taught her the restoration this past week and she is so believing! She believes in the Book of Mormon right off and the Joseph Smith story! I am so excited! :) :)

We have so many people that members are bringing to us! It seems like every other day a member is telling us about one of their friends!! Today we are having a pretty known labor day picnic in the Trumbull ward (they have it every year). And there is supposed to be many non members there and less actives!! We are so excited :) We even had the chance to go to the Temple today but decided that we should stay here and meet these people who could possibly turn into our investigators! I am pumped :)

I love missionary work. How great it is! Well I am running out of time but I love you all so much and miss you. Hope you have a wonderful week!!!

love, Sister Christensen

           All pictures of the Bridgeport District