Merry Christmas from LITTLETON, MA!

Merry Christmas everyone! What a wonderful time of year. I hope you all are staying warm and safe and healthy!

We have had a wonderful week and a very exhausting week as well. Tuesday was our mission Christmas conference which was wonderful! We had an amazing session at the temple (my first time seeing the new video, it was so good!) and then we hung around Harvard Square in Boston for a little while in the snow and had a fun chat with an atheist lady. Then we had a wonderful musical program by the missionaries in the Providence, Rhode Island stake, which was so good! We had a great time! During the conference it was snowing constantly and the roads got so bad that they had to find a place for all the missionaries to stay! Since we only live about 20 miles away from the temple we just went to our Sister Training Leaders apartment which is a little closer. It took us an hour and a half to get there when it would have only taken us 30 minutes. We walked about of the Belmont chapel after the meeting and there was about 8 inches of snow! It was crazy!

We met with B, the less active lady who we are reading the book of Mormon with, and we asked her to read at least one chapter between our meetings and she read 8 and understood them!! It was amazing. Sister G and I were so excited and we could hardly believe it. She also gave us a Christmas present, she's the best.

We are doing a lot of less active work in this area. There is another Lady, Donna, who asked us to visit and lift her spirits. We didn't really know what to expect, because the last time we were there she wanted us to do her dishes for service... when we got there we sat down at her kitchen table and she immediately asked us who Mormon and Moroni were and how they are related. So we explained and she then said they are "ancient aliens". What? Really? She saw that on a TV show. Then she started arguing with her daughter about it. It was a really weird experience. So we quickly shared a Christmas message with her focused on Christ.

On Thursday we had a relief society Christmas party, they personally asked us to be there. It was a Hymn testimony meeting which was so neat. But before they started, they presented us with quilts they made for us a month or two ago. It was so nice! Everyone here is so loving and really care for us.

We had some really good appointments this week with some of the struggling women in the ward. They all told us how appreciative they were of our visits; I really love serving them because you can just tell they need the company and the love.

It has been such a wonderful week and I am excited for this coming week of Christmas!! I am so excited to Skype with my wonderful family and see everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and feel of the Saviors love. That is the most important part of this season, remembering the Savior's birth. I am so grateful for Jesus Christ. I love the story of His birth because it is such an incredible event. Remember Him in all the activities of this week. I love you all and hope you have a safe and merry Christmas!!

Love, Sister Christensen

11 MONTHS

Dear Family,

Can you believe I have been on my mission for 11 months today!? It is crazy how fast time flies. It has almost been a year... I wish it wouldn't go by that fast.

This week has been a crazy one. We had a snow storm come in this past weekend and so church was cancelled. It reminds me of my first few weeks in the mission, where we didn't have church due to the snow.

 

Even though we had no church we still had a baptism happen!! Jd has been investigating for a year now and has finally decided to be baptized! We had such a wonderful time. He says the storm was answer to prayer, basically, because he wanted a small program, not too many people, though there was still a good amount of people there. But he seemed so happy and I am just so proud of him and excited for him. He will be such a wonderful addition to the ward, though he has been to church I think every week for a year now. So he isn't really an "addition" anymore. He is just a member now :)

This week we went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders, which I love because I always feel uplifted and motivated to working harder. But I am always grateful to return to my original companion afterwards. We have some wonderful Sister Training Leaders in my zone, they are amazing missionaries. One of them just left her first area which by the way was my first area, Westerly! So we had a lot of fun talking to each other. She is probably one of the nicest people I have ever met. She was acting like she was learning so much from me and kept asking for advice and I didn't know what to do. I am not the Sister Training Leader and I kind of hope I never have to be one. But it was a nice exchange.

After we exchanged back Sister Grant and I went to a dinner appointment with Tattoo D and his friend J.  D is a member of our ward who converted about 2 years ago, I think. He is pretty funny and has tattoo's everywhere but most noticeably on his head. His friend J has been looking for a church to go to. She is most recently a born again Christian and asked what the similarities are of our two beliefs. So we went over the similarities and left out the differences for this time around. She was interested in meeting with us again and even coming to church! Sadly, church was cancelled... But she lives in our same apartment complex so hopefully we will see her around a lot :)

We visited with B, one of the less actives we are working with, this week and we started reading the book of Mormon with her since she has never read it before. She has a hard time understanding it. So we started slowly and you know what? It really helped her and not only her but it helped me too. It really helps reading the scriptures out loud and then explain it to someone, it is amazing how much I learned. I loved it!

You know, I love serving others so much, especially when you can see how appreciative they are of it. Yesterday, we had a member come up to us and tell us about another member who wasn't having Christmas this year, so she gave us an extra Christmas tree to take to her. You could just see the gratitude in her eyes when she saw the tree. It was definitely a highlight of my week, just seeing, in her eyes, how grateful she was for the gift. What a wonderful time of year!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season. I love, absolutely LOVE being on a mission during this time of year. I cannot express how amazing it has been. I love how Christ is more of a focus and more people are open to hearing about the Savior, I love the cheer and joy people have and the feeling of giving. It is such a beautiful time. I love you all so very much and hope you know it. Have a wonderful week.

Love, 

Sister Christensen

H, my friend who rock climbs in her 80's.  I look so tall!

PARTY

We had quite a few parties this week! It was really fun. We put together a dinner/game party for a family who have investigated the church before and we are trying to help them get involved with the ward members. It was a success! The mom text the Elders asking if we could do it again and the members that came said that as well. It was so great! We threw Elder Ripplinger a surprise birthday party which was pretty funny. We got mostly the youth to come. It was hard to be sneaky about it. When we finally were going to surprise him everyone hid on the stage in the cultural hall except Sister Grant and I. She was going to film it and I was holding the birthday sign. The Elders walked in and I flipped on the lights and Sister Grant yelled out "surprise!" without anyone else saying it... it was hilarious because it looked like it was just me and her but then the whole group jumped out from behind the curtains.. It was pretty funny. We had a good time. The Third "party" was that we had an interfaith musical night with 5 other churches in Littleton. We had so many people at our church for it! The morning before we passed out invitations for it at a Holiday Bazaar at the local middle school, and a lot of people came from that! It was great!

We visit 3 less actives on a weekly basis. It is interesting to see the different progression of these 3 ladies. They are all in different places in life. One is really trying to come back; the other two are not as diligently seeking it. The first one is B, this week we told her we think her goal should be to go to the Temple, and we gave her a talk by Elder Nelson on preparing for the temple. She doesn't think she will get there because there are too many things she has to do and she doesn't believe she can be that good. But she wants to be better, which is a great start. We gave her a beautiful picture of the Boston Temple that our bishop took, to put where she can see it and remember her goal. I really hope she makes it there.

Wasn't the Christmas devotional just so amazing!! I loved it so much. It really helped me feel the Christmas spirit and makes me want to share the love of Christ so much more! I love being on a mission at this time of year. It just makes it feel so much happier and more fun and more incredible. Though when I think about it, the mission is so much more fun than I ever imagined it would be! I love being here and sharing the gospel with the people here in New England. I love to see the light in their eyes when they finally understand. I love to see the curiosity of those who see how happy the Mormons are and the amazing beliefs and truths that we have. How amazing is it to be on the earth at this time, where the Lord's work is hastening and we have the great blessing of being apart of it! Especially at this Christmas time, where people think more of Christ and what He actually has done for us. Even those who don't really know Christ or only celebrate Christmas because of tradition and presents, even they know there is a deeper meaning of Christmas. What a wonderful a beautiful time of year! Please take advantage of it.

I love you all so very much and hope that you are enjoying this great season. 

Love, Sister Christensen

first snow!

CREMATION,  HOMEMADE CHOCOLATES, THANKSGIVING, BAPTISM

Dear Family,

 

Helping at the Gobbler 5K Race

This week has been pretty eventful! We finally visited an inactive woman, B, who is trying to come back. She has a lot of questions and has been asking us to come over but she keeps putting it off too. But we finally got in this week! Yay! Her main question when we went over was on where the church stands on cremations because she wants to be buried over her husbands grave. We didn't say this but we thought "what is the problem with being buried next to him?"  Her other question was when can she take the sacrament, which we advised her to talk to the bishop about that. She still loves her coffee but even her doctors are telling her to quit, so we will work on that with her. She made an awesome suggestion though! She asked if there were any more people "like her" who have fallen away from the church and are trying to come back. So we said yes, we are working with a few other ladies, too. So she suggested that we all get together and have one big meeting! So we are going to try and figure that out and maybe start reading the Book of Mormon with everyone, which would be awesome. Especially since B has NEVER read the Book of Mormon, she said she knows it's true but we told her she still needs to read it and that we could help her.  :)

We also visited this cute elderly lady who can hardly move around her apartment but still cooks like a maniac! She is always cooking something when we go over. She makes a lot of chocolates and caramel and anything that you can think of really. She is amazing! So this week we stopped by and she was making sweets for the holidays and for some other people who still order her stuff, and she gave us some. And let me tell you, It was delicious! It was so good. I can't wait to go over there again :)

One night we stopped by a family who we haven't really gotten to know that well yet, and they invited us in. We sat talking to them for quite a long time. It was really nice. They asked a lot about us and I told them that I haven't decided on a major yet and I think it stuck in their heads, because we went back over there Thanksgiving night (the next day) and they were talking to me about this lady, in Littleton, who is a career coach and they want me to talk to her so I can figure out what I want to do. haha it was pretty funny, they felt like my parents! I just wish this happened more towards the end of my mission because it’s making me think more about the future and I just want to think about missionary work right now. Oh well, we will see how it goes :).

Thanksgiving was such a wonderful day. We started it off in the freezing cold, helping out at an annual 5k race in the town of Stow. It was a lot of fun but man, it was cold!

We then did some fun weekly planning with Elders and figured out a great game plan for our investigators and the area. It is getting pretty exciting here!

The wonderful Holland family invited us over for Thanksgiving. It is sad because they are the only ones in both of their families who are not in Utah. So they are quite a ways away from their family. But they are also pretty lucky, because they have nephew who is serving in this mission and they got permission to have him and his companion over for thanksgiving, so those Elders were there and then another family in the ward came. The Holland’s are so fun and so nice, they helped us feel at home and loved, it was such a great day!

Friday night is the usual appointment with one of our investigators, JD, he is the one getting baptized on the 15th!! So this time we went over with the Elders to teach him because we felt like we should all be there to show him our support and that we are all working to help him. It went so well! Last week the Elders had an interesting visit with him and they got a little worried that he wasn't going to be ready for his baptism. But we straightened everything out this time. I think it really did help a lot that we were there together. Because the Elders would get down to business and get what we needed done, and the Sisters would be there to help JD feel loved and that we actually care for him, and help him feel like this is a good thing. It was amazing! JD is "all set" (New England term) for his baptism on the 15th! :)

This week we also got an awesome referral! A girl who grew up here but lives in Oklahoma now, called us and told us about a high school friend who she just reconnected with on Facebook and her friend asked her to pray for her. So, seeing that this was the perfect missionary opportunity she shared the gospel with her friend and invited her to church! Her friend is a single mother with 6 kids and just got out of a bad relationship. She said she had planned on coming to church but ended up not showing up. Hopefully next week she will come. But since it was fast and testimony meeting we set it up just for her, and a few other investigators. We asked one older couple to bear their testimonies on families and how that made a difference in their conversion story, they have been members for 19 years. The Elders asked a few other members to bear their testimonies on something that would help JD. And the meeting was incredible. The spirit was so strong and everyone's testimonies were just perfect. It was just too bad E didn't come. But it was amazing how the ward came together to help make it a good meeting for her. We had emailed the ward about her coming and we got so many calls asking more about it and how they could help. It was incredible! I think this is just what this ward needs: Someone who they can all work on together.

Yesterday we and the Elders visited an elderly man in a care center. A family in the ward, the Christensen's :), asked us to go see him and to take him some frosted cookies we made, Gatorade, and higley's gum. He leaves the facility to go home tomorrow, I think, and so it was perfect timing for us to come. I think we were supposed to meet him. He has taken the lessons before, but he seemed to have more questions and seemed a little more interested now. Though he said he isn't very religious. But somehow we got on the subject of if he has ever thought about what his purpose is here on earth and the Elders did a great job teaching a bit of the plan of salvation to him. They were able to get his home address and phone number. It was a pretty cool experience.

I know this is a really long letter! I could go longer but I know some of you will get bored and not want to read such a long letter so I will spare you the time :). I love you all so much and am so grateful for each of you. You are amazing people. Keep sharing the gospel and sharing the love of Christ with everyone you meet!

Love, Sister Christensen