Aloha and Mele Kalikimaka!!!! CHEEHUU!!!!! Can I just say how fun Christmas is going to be! We are having a celebration with the Sr. couples tonight where we are all going to sing carols, have treats, and watch some Christ centered movie. Then tomorrow we will wake up and open presents!!! Then have a zone breakfast then call our families!!!! (BEST PART) Then later in the day we are going to have a gingerbread house making contest, and white elephant and a scavenger hunt so it should be fun : ) I would like you to know I woke up to pure bliss this morning! Picture this: we all pulled out our mattresses and put out the presents and slept in the family room with the Christmas lights and first thing we all did when we woke up was lay in bed and play the uke!!! So thank you for that dear Christmas present I felt like a little kid again on Christmas day. Just waking up and playing with my new toy haha. But anyways I am just so so so stoked to talk to you tomorrow!

Alright some quick highlights: first off I am companions with SISTER MILLETT again! That is seriously unheard of! Out off 22 sisters I am serving with her again! I am so stoked! I have known this for a while because we help with transfers but something could have changed you know so I haven't said anything but here we are back again! And let me just tell you I am very very very grateful to serve with her again! I love her so so so much! We have a great time and work really well together! She has the easiest personality to serve with : ) We have had quite the week though. We went to Honolulu on Tue to do all the transfer stuff then on Wed and Thurs we had to go to Koniohe to get the car checked and fixed and then on Sat we were on exchange haha. Oh funny story we went over to see one of our friends and when we get there she is wearing a t-shirt that says "I'm a Mormon I know it I live it I love it" When I saw that I was like WAIT WHAT haha how did you get that-that’s so awesome (mind you she is our investigator) and she said they were handing out free t-shirts to all the Young women so she got one haha. So sweet huh! The ward is so bomb too! The young women invited her to their activity on Sat night where they all went ice skating in town at ice palace and she went and had a way good time! I was so happy to hear about her getting involved with the ward; that will make all the difference!

Love ya all,

Sister Christiansen

Alright so let’s see... This week went so fast! We had our ward Christmas party which was a blast! We had a live nativity hahah and the bishopric rode in on three horses as the wise men. How sweet is that! We just did it over at Laie Park so that was fun! They had choke food and then we sang some Christmas carols and watched the nativity.The next day we went to a birthday party which was really fun! Man so much partying this week : ) They even had a live Mariachi band and a piñata for the kids and yummy Mexican food! I was so grateful for that! I miss Mexican food! And then because the mother is Polynesian they also had the typical plate lunch stuff too so it was fun to have both the cultures represented!

The youth in the Arise and Shine video are all in my ward – which is so awesome. They are all great. If you haven’t seen it, look it up on the church web site. My mom and I love it – we watched it even before I came here. It was used for this year’s theme song for the 2012 Young Men/Young Women’s theme.

We have a baptism this week – yea.  Man this is going to be one crazy week! Tomorrow we have our deep clean then Wed is the baptism then Friday we do the transfer news then Mon my companion will be pau! And then Tue it's already time to go back to town and help with all the craziness of transfer meeting! We will be bringing in the new missionaries and figuring all that out again! I can't believe it's already time! And then wow just like that it will be Christmas!!!! YEA! Oh Grandma asked about our plans for Christmas so I shall share : ) we are going to go to the Sr. couples and have some treats and sing Christmas carols and do a white elephant and then come to the VC and watch a Disney movie!! CHEEHU! (that’s Christmas Eve) and then Christmas day I will be calling my family. The VC will be open for a little bit too.

Love ya,
Sister Christiansen

 Every Sunday night we have Christmas performances so this was us last night with  singing in the Ha'ula Choir.

I have learned to Haka! Sweet huh

This week has been probably the most exhausting but fastest week of my mission. Because we have to go on exchange with all the sisters and the transfer is only 5 and a half weeks because of Christmas we have already been on exchange with two sisters this week. It's crazy-I haven't really even been in my own area at all because I have been in the other sisters’ areas with them. Going on exchange with the other sisters is really a nice way to get to know them. I am grateful I get to do this - I am really enjoying it!  I didn't realize all the stuff they did before. It seems like there is a lot more administrative stuff that goes into missionary work then I realized. It's all good though.

So we drove to transfers in Honolulu (I can say I have officially driven to Honolulu now. I was a bit nervous but it all worked out fine. The traffic was insane though!) and we picked up the 6 new sisters. 
 
Also something really special that happened to us this week was we were running all around the VC trying to round up numbers for the ZL's and in walked these two ladies that were so so so prepared I just stopped right there really quick and gave them a tour and the both wanted missionaries to come when they got home! It was just a little tender mercy! I had been worried before that with all the administrative stuff how would we get any actually missionary work done you know. But Heavenly Father saw we were trying our hardest and so He just sent them right to us. I think as long as we are working hard on whatever it is we have to do he will bless us to see miracles in our area and the Visitors Center as well.

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

November 12, 2012,

I WILL BE HERE FOR CHRISTMAS!! Heavenly Father heard my wish!!! We set up the Christmas trees today! Also, quick note- we had 21 lessons this week so that was exciting! And we have a new investigator. Also, we are looking forward to all the new sisters that will be coming soon. Very exciting! Have a great week.

 

November 5, 2012

Oh such a busy awesome week! Ok so can I just tell you that this week we had 17 lessons!!!! That is a lot for us! The Standard of Excellence, the amount the President has set for us as Sisters serving in the VC, is 10 lessons a week! It was so sweet we had so so so many lessons! Heavenly Father just kept taking care of everything and helping us be in the right place at the exactly right time!  One day this week was really heavy though. Every lesson we had the people opened up about all the hard things in their lives. I feel like the mission has really opened my eyes to what some people have to face and I don't know why some people have to go through so many hard things. I realized something that day though, when we signed up to act as representatives of Jesus Christ we signed up to go and do what He would do and Christ would be there helping those that really need him. I am so grateful I got to go on a mission.

 

 

And oh how I love my Ukulele!!!

October 29, 2012

So crazy week! Did you hear about the Tsunami warning? Well we live at the beach pad you know so we had to put all our stuff upstairs, pack an overnight bag, and stay over with the Sister Trainers. It was so cool though to see all the people in the community gather together on the temple grounds. We literally had saints evacuating their homes and going to higher grounds, and gathering together at the temple for safety ! Doesn't that just sound exactly like something Heavenly Father would want to see His children do! You should have seen Kam highway it was packed with cars bumper to bumper driving up to the temple. and the whole field was full of cars. Lots of people just camped out there and it was really exciting! I have never been part of a natural disaster so I was loving it! It was so cool! I will send you a picture of all the cars at the temple (and that’s not even the parking lot that is the grassy area! Sweet huh!) But the coolest part of the whole night was when one of our investigators thought to call us during time of tragedy!! She called us to ask us what was going on and what she should do! We felt so honored that she would think to call the missionaries : ) 

We had some really sweet experiences with some of the people we are teaching. It was a week full of blessings and tender mercies. One of the most exciting is that we have a family with a Temple date set. I am so happy for their family and I really really really hope Sister Johnston and I can go to their sealing in Dec. but I don't know if I will be here-we shall see! Well happy Halloween! I love you all! Sister Christiansen : )

 

Night of the Tsunami Warning

October 22, 2012

Oh so so so many miracles! It is so crazy how you go from a really hard week to a really good week so fast. It seems like it almost goes back and forth every week haha. This week has truly been so wonderful! We had a wonderful experience teaching a woman this week. She came for her first lesson to the VC and we took her and her kids thru God's plan for His Family. It was awesome! 

That day had started out different too. For some reason the spirit was so strong all day! Even during comp study while we were singing "I know that my Redeemer Lives" together we both just started crying. And I just feel like all day we were seeing miracles because Christ was so close to us all day.

 So best/craziest news of the whole week..... We have a new investigator with a BAPTISMAL DATE!!!  We know our Heavenly Father is so aware of all His children and He knows when they are ready to hear the gospel.  It is all so exciting!!!

Ok so it was be far the best week (work wise) that we have had together yet! and hey while we were out walking one day we started making up "you know your a missionaries when..." and so I am going to tell you a couple we came up with : )

 You know you are a missionary when:

1. You are the only person in the world that looks forward to Mondays

2. The only man you get excited to see is the mailman

3. You are grateful to tract in 90 degree weather because at least you are burning off last nights dinner appointment

hehe well get excited to hear some more next week : )

Love to all of you,
 Sister Christiansen

WOW WOW WOW!!! God is drafting all of his stripling worriers right now! I just felt like every talk was on missionary work! That was crazy! That was so so so sweet! We watched the press conference after and Elder Holland said that God's work is hastening! And that is so true! There will be so many more missions now and the gospel will soon be spread to all four corners of the earth just as prophesied! This is the best time to be on a mission! I feel like Heavenly Father needs all of us right now! Now is the time to focus all our efforts on making sure everyone has the chance to hear the gospel! Oh I just loved Elder Holland’s talk too about feeding his sheep! Basically he was telling all the youth if you love the Lord repent and go on a mission. And lowering the missionary age will seriously change the world! Because think about it basically every girl will serve a mission now. (Why wouldn't they?) And more young men will go too. This was such a testimony builder for me that God knows the plan and knows what’s going to happen and He knew that I would be so sad if I hadn't gone.I just loved conference so much! How could anyone listen to them and deny that they are men called of God! They truly speak His words and just like the scriptures we all get out exactly what we need.

Love,

Sister Christiansen

This is our bike adventure.  We decided to ride bikes and be real missionaries because someone was borrowing our car and of course my companion gets a flat.  So, we were those poor pathetic missionaries you see walking their little bikes on the side of the road. haha It was classic!

10/4/12

Aloha,

So so so many good things!!! Life is just so great! Best news ever: the young man we were teaching on-line got baptized!!!!  YEA!!  We are so happy for him.

So cool experience on the tram tour this week! We didn't have anyone come on the tram so we were just pulling out to leave when a huge group of Japanese people all came running to catch the tram. So they got on and we realized that we didn't have any Japanese sisters on tram that day or at the VC. So here we were thinking ok great we have a group of people literally running to us to hear the gospel and we can't even teach them : ( But when we got to the BYU-H campus we yelled out to some of the students and asked if any of them spoke Japanese and this RM locked up his bike without any questions, jumped on the tram, and gave the whole tour!! It was such a testimony builder to me about being ready to serve at any time on or off a mission! I just know Heavenly Father was so pleased with that student for being worthy and ready to teach the gospel in a time of need!!! It was so cool too to see all those people just sitting in the Christus room listening to it in Japanese and then just gathering around him to listen to what he had to say. They were so receptive while watching him the scripture that says "if ye love me feed my sheep" came to my mind : ) I know that guy probably had lots of homework or classes or whatever but he loves the Lord so much he was just ready to feed the Lord’s sheep at a moment’s notice!

Alright so this is random but my new favorite food is Fijian Curry!!! It's so bomb! Whenever we get it here I am always stoked! I will learn how to make it for you all when I get home! I am also in love with coconut shrimp! Yum Yum Yum! Haha I will miss fish when I get home! I also love so much how the Polynesian people have so many awesome legends and cool stories! Like this one Fijian family was telling us that before they walk into the house at night they spit and tell the bad spirits to leave.  And in Tonga I found out that when the moon is full and half way in the sky it’s the perfect time to cut your hair because it will grow long and healthy.  They have so much history and culture and I just love them! I love serving around so many cultures! At BYUH we have people from 70 different countries and it's so cool to go to sacrament meetings and see all these cultures and people from around the world. I can just see Heavenly Father being so happy to see all his children getting along so well.

I just want you to know that the mission is the best. I am having the time of my life and I am so lucky to be serving with my best friend here-she is the bombThe mission is the best because you just feel so much joy all the time !  Enjoy conference - I can't wait!!!

Love,
 Sister Christiansen

Alrighty well another week has come and gone... How crazy! This week was a very eventful week too. On Wed we went to Pearl Harbor for a zone service project and it was sooo fun! I love my zone they are so funny! I will attach some pics from that! Then on Fri. we had to go to town again to take the car in because the brakes have been rusting like crazy. We had no idea we would be there from 9 in the morning until 5 at night! We  decided to go tracting while we were there haha. It was sweet we just went to an apt. and started knocking doors. We talked to one guy and shared a scripture with him and invited him to go to Church on Sunday. He said he would check it out and then we asked if the missionaries could call him and set up a time to come back and he said yes. It was a great day.
We have had many amazing experiences at the Visitors Center and on the tram. We meet so many wonderful people. We are also teaching great people. We are reminded often of how much our Heavenly Father loves each of his children and knows just what their needs are.
I have asked my mom not to post my personal experiences with the people we meet here as I respect their privacy and I appreciate them letting us visit with them and teach them. So, just know that the gospel is going forward and we are seeing so many miracles in the lives of so many people. Life is great in Hawaii. Love you all.
Sister Christiansen

We went to Kualoa ranch again and it was fun; we did a jeep tour this time so it was just like off-roading really fast thru the jungle! So fun!

My new companion

What a wonderful place to be

August 27, 2012

I honestly love love love being a missionary! I am just so happy all the time! It's weird that I feel so happy too because I have never been so busy or stressed in my whole life. But it's the best kind of busy because we are busy doing the Lord’s work and stressed about others. I don't even have time to think about myself because I have so many other people running thru my brain and keeping me up at night. I feel like in a small way I can relate to you, Mom, haha. I can see why being a Mom is a lot like being a missionary because all of a sudden you just think about your investigators (or kids) all the time! So many times I will wake up in the middle of the night and I'll remember something I need to do for someone or something I need to share with them! Reminded me of you, Mom.This Sunday we had some amazing miracles! We decided we were going to fast for 24 hours to plead with our Father in Heaven to please please please help us get investigators. And He heard our prayers! We literally went from having no one to a potential of like 10 new investigators!

 Also Last night we went to an incredible fireside by Elder Oaks! He was at the campus because of some BYUH project going on and it was so so so good! As he was talking people that we teach kept coming to mind. You know like stuff they need to hear and scriptures that would be good for them : ) That’s something I love about being a missionary-you can receive revelation for other people. Something really interesting Elder Oaks said though as he was closing up was he talked about the scripture that says to some is given the blessing to know the truth and to others it is given to believe on the truth or something like that. And he said “I want you to know that whether you know this is true or not I know this is true and if you don't know then believe on my words because I know”. It was really powerful! He said it with such conviction and it made me think that even if people don't accept what I teach or testify of I hope they know without a doubt that I know it is true and that I truly believe what I am teaching them. Because I do. I really do know that what we have to share will change their lives!

K well I love you! Time is flying! And I hope you all have a fabulous week please please please pray for the missionaries.

Sister Christiansen

August 23, 2012

So here we are.... A new transfer! Wow that went crazy fast! But this will be quite a different next two transfers because I am training! Ah! Here's the thing I have just been stressing (aka can't sleep or eat) because I just came from online and it is so so so different! I feel like I can't even remember how to run a physical area plus the only time I was in one was when I was being trained! And my companion led out on a lot of stuff you know? All will be well though. And at least I have the best companion ever. She really is a dream come true! She is this beautiful Disney Princess haha but for real she was Ariel at Disney Land. And she is just as beautiful inside as she is on the outside! We are just going to learn together and become best friends. We are going to see a lot of miracles and work really hard. We went on a hike so she could see beautiful Hawaii and know how great it is here.

We are starting from scratch but I know that Heavenly Father can help us find those prepared people! We won't have a lot of time because we will have an extra hour of comp study because we have to do the training program and we will still be in the VC all day but I just want her to see a lot of miracles! We are going to work so hard! Well point is we will be so busy! But that will be good. And I am realizing just how fast my mission is going! I have so much still to do! 

It was a great experience having the chat line assignment. I talked with so many great people. Now this assignment will be awesome too.

Sister Christiansen

 

July 31, 2012

MIRACLES are happening here in Laie! This week more than ever!

First off we had EXACTLY 28 Baptisms!!! So amazing! And to feel part of the whole 28 miracles Sister Millett and I set a goal to have 28 SR's that week!( Which really was a huge goal when you consider a couple weeks ago our whole VC with 9 companionships had a total of 33 SR's in one week!) But Heavenly Father always blesses us when we have a lot of faith and expect to see miracles so.... we had EXACTLY 28 SR's! It was so crazy cool! And the VC had 74 SR's all together last week! That is the most I have seen in one week my whole mission! It was awesome! And I was thinking about why we are seeing so many miracles and if I already wrote home about this sorry I can't remember but you know the phrase “it’s better to be trusted then to be loved”. God loves everyone but what we really want is to earn his trust. Well I was thinking about how that is so true! No wonder everyone says exact obedience brings miracles. Because when we are obedient then God knows he can trust us with his "referrals" or his precious children. Just like members you know? We have to gain their trust before they will give us a referral because their friends mean a lot to them and they don't want to just hand those people over to anyone.

Alright so here is another HUGE miracle! Probably one of the happiest moments on my mission haha and it may not seem like a big deal to you but I was jumping up and down.  Sunday we get an email!!! And he said he called the missionaries, went on a church tour on Sat with them, and then he went to all 3 hours of Church on Sunday!!!!!!! And he really liked it!!! Oh you don't even know how happy we were!!!

Next awesome thing! We have had sooooo many prepared people come on chat. Last transfer Sister Gulla and I referred 4 people to missionaries the whole transfer! Well last week Sister Millett and I referred 5!! All in one week! It was awesome! And the best part was one girl came on and she said she had just returned home from a business trip. We asked where from and she said..... HAWAII! So we asked if she had gone to Laie at all and lo and behold she had ridden on OUR tram from the PCC. Incredible right? So we asked if she remembered Sister Christiansen or Sister Millett and she said, "ya Sister Christiansen remember I was the one with the bag you said was cute!" haha I totally remembered her! I had talked to her for a while and she was so nice and because of a little pass along card she had checked out the website and Heavenly Father sent her to us! How sweet is that! So we asked if missionaries could teach her and she said yes! But we are going to teach her until they get in contact with her : ) So cool! Man I can't believe all this has happened in one week! We really saw so many miracles!

Sure love ya!

Sister Christiansen

My new companion.

July 24, 2012

Aloha Ohana!

Alright well this week has been a miracle week for sure!! I can honestly say I love my mission and we are being so blessed right now!!! So the 28 miracle baptisms is totally going to happen! WOW can you believe it! We are going to have 15 baptisms this Sat! All the fonts in Laie will be filled!!! We have seen so many miracles; like On Sunday two of the Elders were fasting all day and right when they finished the Bishop called them and said he has a family of 3 that is ready to be baptized! They have already been taught and want to be baptized. Talk about "The Best Two Years" moment right?!? How sweet is that! WOW!

Alright, so my companion and I had a miracle too this week! So we always joke around about and pray that someone will come on to chat and ask be baptized and Yesterday our prayers were answered!!! Someone came on to chat and the first thing she said was, “What is the first step in becoming Mormon?" CRAZY RIGHT! So we referred her to the missionaries and we committed her to baptism right there! She is going to send us a picture of her on her baptismal date and everything! It was truly what I would call golden investigator material! 

In the VC this week we also had so many prepared people come in! This couple came in and said they didn't know why they were here but they were driving to the Polynesian Cultural Center and got a phone call about a family member passing away and then they saw the temple. We told them Heavenly Father sent them here because we have a plan of happiness that can allow them to live with their family member again! We taught them all about the temple and took them thru God's plan (the walk thru movie) and afterwards they were both crying. They both wanted missionaries and we are going to follow up with them for sure.  

We also had a miracle day on Tram! So last week we only had 3SR's the WHOLE week! So we set a goal to have 5 SR's on tram and Heavenly Father sent us 8 prepared people! Every single non member we took on our first three trams refered! And we went from having 3SR's last week to having 12!!!! It was an awesome week full of so many wonderful people who were ready to receive the gospel but didn't even know it. They just thought they were stopping to see a pretty building but it turned out they were stopping to receive Salvation : )  

Today for p-day we watched the new Joseph Smith movie (it's in the perspective of the Mom) I would invite you all to watch it!! You should go to the IF VC and watch it! It's amazing and after watching it I wondered how could anyone not believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet! And the Saints went thru so much! And all the missionaries at that time leaving their family and going to England! It just made me feel so grateful that right now I can in some small way build the Kingdom of God just like all those early missionaries! 

So this week I have been thinking a lot.... And I just really really really want to be a baptizing missionary! For real though! I just want to baptize so many families! I want to be a missionary like my Zone Leader! He is a crazy good missionary! Our zone had like 3 or 4 baptisms last month and then he comes in here with his super positive attitude and gets everyone pumped up and now look we are going to have 30 people enter the gate to eternal life! I think he just expects miracles you know! He just has so much faith! I want to have more faith! 

Alright well I love you so much!!! We are so blessed!! Share the gospel with everyone!

-Love ya!

Sister Christiansen

7/5/12

Happy Fourth of July and Happy Birthday to my nephew!!!!!!! Yay! How exciting! I hope you all had a wonderful week! I loved your emails this week! Thanks so much for those! Wow lots has happened this week... I don't even know where to start! Ok so here are the highlights:

1. Ceaser was baptized!!!!!! Yay! You remember the man I taught with Sister Looney from the Philippians? Ya well Sister Rodrigez and Sister Moyes kept teaching him and he got baptized last Sat! I even got to say the prayer at his baptism. I was so glad we got to go! That is one awesome thing about serving in here; even when we get transferred out of our areas we are still close enough we can go to the baptisms of our old investigators.

2. Last P-day we met this guy and we asked him to come to the VC on Sat and we would teach him there. Well we didn't know if he would really show up you know but he came and it was sooooo awesome! We taught him the restoration in a "tour of the VC" version. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he agreed to being taught by the Zone Leaders! It was so awesome!

3. We had a Women’s Conference with Sister Dalton and Sister Clayton. It was awesome! It was all the sisters on this Island including all the Sr. Sisters and she was such a great speaker! One thing that was so awesome was the day before the conference Sister Gulla was asking me why she wasn't just called to Germany so she could get better at it and just be back there teaching her people. She was just saying she didn't understand why she was serving German speaking when none of the Germans here would listen to her because she sounds so American. She was just kinda down about it but during the conference Sister Clayton looked right at her and said you are all called here to this specific mission, speaking a specific language for a specific reason. It was so powerful! We both just looked at each other and knew that Heavenly Father was speaking right to her thru Sister Clayton! The spirit was so strong during the whole meeting. Everyone was so happy and there was just so much love in the room.

4. Speaking of happiness... Holy Cow was Fourth of July so happy! haha we had so much fun! After we got done with tram we all had a BBQ at the Sr. Couples pad. And it was a blast! Sister Gulla and I strung up our Christmas lights and put up streamers too so it looked real nice haha you would have been proud! You will have to check out the pics I sent. But anyways we all just sang, took crazy pictures, ate good food, and watched the fireworks! It was so so so fun! I love my Zone so much they are all so fun!

Well those are some of the events from this week! I love you so so so much and I hope you are all doing well! Next week is transfer week so I am not exactly sure when my P-day will be so if you just have your emails sent to me by Monday that will work just fine!! Thanks for the responses to my emails!

Love ya! Sister C.

June 28, 2012

Aloha : )

 First off Happy Birthday to LOGAN on SUNDAY!!! WOOT WOOT!!! YAY!!! 19! That is such a huge Birthday in a guy's life! So exciting! So this week was very very interesting... Always lots of surprises you know. But it’s all good-it makes life exciting.

One major thing that happened this last week was on Saturday night Sister Gulla (my comp) wasn't feeling too well so she went in to lay down at 8. She said it felt like her breathing was really heavy and she just wanted to call it an early night but when I went in at 9 she was crying! She said that she didn't know what was wrong but she just couldn't breathe normal and it was really freaking her out. She was scared to fall asleep with her breathing being so heavy and feeling like she couldn't get a real solid breath in. So we called the Sister Trainers and Elder McDanaugh and they decided to take her into the ER. So we went in at about 10 and we didn't get home until 1 in the morning! They had her breath in this vapor gas stuff though and that helped and so they decided to send her home with an inhaler. She might have seasonal asthma or something like that? I don't know she says it has been helping a little but she still sometimes has to take really huge breaths to try to get enough air in. It was a crazy and exhausting night.

We also had a very interesting tour-it lasted 2 HOURS!! It was with this guy who does long distance Jet Ski rides for causes? He has ridden jet skis from like Florida to New York and crazy rides like that. He told us once he did a 32 day ride! He didn't get off for 32 days! We taught him the whole restoration while using exhibits in the VC so that was kinda sweet.

Hey something really awesome I found out is the 24 year old son talked about in Elder Evans talk from the last General Conference was Sister Gulla's recent convert. He has an awesome conversion story! It's cool-you should read the talk and when it mentions the 24 year old son that got baptized that was totally right here in Hawaii by our very own Sister Gulla herself : )

Update on online.... Well let’s just say we have had all the controversial topics in the book. I must just attract them because Sister Gulla said she never had them before : (  I just want to teach the doctrine of Christ and that is all! But I do love my life and all of these experiences just keep it all interesting you know.

 Ok so our Zone theme for this transfer has been 14 miracles because we really really want 14 baptisms in July. So we have been praying, fasting, cheering, putting up reminders, just all kinds of stuff about 14 miracles and the coolest thing happened on Tuesday. The ZL's were given a list of 14 people. All of them are currently living the word of wisdom and law of chastity and going to BYU-H!!! How sweet is that! EXACTLY 14! So that was way cool! And that’s just one example of the miracles we have been seeing with this whole 14 miracles thing. So far we have 16 investigators with a baptismal date for July so I really really hope all of them are able to be baptized!!

Last thing: for p-day this week we went to Kualoa Ranch and it was so pretty! And way sweet too because the bus driver showed us all the places that movies like Pirates of the Caribbean, Hawaii 5-0, Jurassic Park, Godzilla, Lost, ect. were filmed. I will put up some pictures from that too!

Ok well I love you sooooo much! I love getting your letters and emails! They mean so much to me! Please keep them coming! I love you! Have a great day!

Sister Christiansen

June 15, 2012

Aloha !!

Ok so this week was really good on chat! We have 3 new investigators and we referred 2 people to the missionaries this week so that is beuno! 

I'm setting up a little boot camp work out for out for our zone : )

I would also like to thank you so much for sending me the Avengers' picture thing that Alyssa posted on FB!! So awesome! That made my day! So cool to see all my friends out serving missions! And thank you so much for sending me all their emails I love hearing how they are doing. We are all having such different experiences but it's so cool because it's all the same work!  

Sister Christiansen

Aloha!!! First I just have to say SISTER GULLA IS THE BEST COMPANION EVER! Wow life is so great when you are around people you love and I just love her so much! We have so much fun together and we have seen choke miracles this week!!! As far as SR's go in the VC I have never had a better week! We have been blessed with the most prepared guests ever! All my last two transfers my goal was to have 3 SR's in the VC (not counting tram) in one day and we never reached it but last week we got 3SR's two days in a row and we had 1 or 2 at least ever day!! I have never had such amazing tours either! We have just really worked on asking inspired questions as we go throughout the tour and they have been really spiritual experiences!

One day we had a lady come in and she was so prepared she came in and said, " I saw the temple and just felt like I should turn around and come in." WOW! We were so stoked we played the Christis narration and then testified that Heavenly Father sent her to us today because we have what she is looking for we then played the movie Finding Happiness and asked her if she would meet with missionaries and she said, "You know what ya I will!" It was an awesome tour!!!

We also had the coolest experience where at District meeting we had training about seeking member referrals after a dinner message but because we don't cover a physical area right now S. Gulla and I role played with Elder La and Elder Menlove like we were in the VC taking a member tour and seeking a referral. But Elder La decided to add a twist and be a nonmember coming with his member friend. Which ended up being exactly what we needed to practice because that night a girl from Haula came with her 3 nonmember friends and we took them through God's plan and then because the spirit was so strong all three of them agreed to meet with missionaries!!! And then best part is they are all in our Zone so we found 3 new investigators for the Elders and they have already had a lesson with them!!! And thats how most of our SR's have been almost all of them have been for Hawaii so we are helping the mission move the work forward!

I think the reason we have seen so many miracles this week has been simply because we are loving what we are doing. Sister Gulla and I have such a blast together and everyone that comes in can feel that love we have for eachother and for the work and its made such a difference. We have had so many people comment on how happy we are and I think that has helped them want to learn more because they want that happiness too you know!

 

Ok last thing so we have a new Zone Leader and he is BOMB! He is so pumped about the work and he has been helping everyone get really excited! Our Zone theme is 14 miracles because we want to get 14 baptisms in our Zone for the month of July. And to help pump everyone up he asked S. Gulla and I to send out a voicemail to everyone every night about the miracles everyone is seeing and it has been so fun!! It's way cool to have everyone hear eachother's miracles and it has really helped unify us as a zone! We also confrence call everyone at 10:14 and pray together for a mission which is really sweet too! And S. Gulla and I have been spotlighting someone every night too which has been fun because it has helped us to get to know the Sisters and Elders better because we are watching them more clostly looking for good things to say about them : )

Basically this is just an awesome transfer and our Zone is rockin it! We are seeing amazing things happen and I am loving it so much! I hope all is going great back home too! I love you all so much! Thank you so much for the letters and emails they mean so much to me!  Thanks!

Sure Love Ya!!!

S. Christiansen

Aloha from Hawaii,

Our last night before transfers we had a tender mercy. Someone we have been working with decided to get baptized. It was awesome. We set the date for July so the Sisters that are taking over our area will be able to be  a part of that wonderful experience. We had transfers and my companion is going to Maui and my new area is online! Sister Gulla (my new companion) is the BOMB!!! I love her so much! We are so much alike and she is so so so fun! We are laughing all the time and I just love it because she has so much energy and she is such a go getter! She is awesome, I really couldn't ask for a better comp! Life is so good! I love being an online missionary too because from the minute you sit down at the computer you are teaching lessons for 2 or 3 hours straight. It truly is amazing! It's so fun too! I love it love it love it!

Sister Christiansen

Aloha Family!

Well last week we had lots of miracles! We had mission tour (which only happens once a year, so that was my one and only mission tour. How crazy is that!) with Elder Wilson and his wife. There were so many good things taught and said but there are two things I wanted to tell you about. So first we had a sister's meeting with Sister Wilson and it was awesome! She read from 2 Corinthians 4 about how we are all earthen vessels with cracks and imperfections but that is the way God wants us because its through the cracks that the light is able to shine through and God is able to use us. I loved that : ) it was so nice to hear because I think we are all too hard on ourselves. Then something that Elder Wilson suggested we start doing was inviting members of the ward to be Book of Mormon reading companions with our investigators and less actives. He said that he has seen so many miracles come of this. You just have someone in the ward invite the person struggling to read the Book of Mormon to meet with them two or three times a week and read the Book of Mormon together taking the time to stop and talk about it a little and you read from cover to cover with them so they can actually get through the whole Book. I am so excited to start this with the people we are teaching because we can only see them and teach them so much but it will be so awesome to have someone else there helping them strengthen their testimony. Especially because we get transferred out of the area but the member will be there the whole time you know!


Speaking of the people we are teaching we got a new investigator yesterday!!! It's kind of an interesting situation so this 30 year old lady is in our young single adult ward and she is dating this 50 year old man. He has a 30 year old son and a 20 year old son and his wife passed away last year but he is the sweetest little man ever. He doesn't speak super great English but he is really, really nice. And I guess he met with missionaries right  before his wife died but everything got so crazy and he hasn't met with missionaries for a while but now we are teaching him. We taught him about prayer and prayed with him and it was so awesome! Also one of our less actives we have been teaching told us last week he has decided to go on a mission and he is going to start his papers now!!! I was so happy to hear that!


Alrighty now for the VC. Well this week at VCTM Elder McDanough read us what the Presidency of the Church considers when choosing a VC sister and the objectives and main goals of the VC. He said that our main calling and responsibility is in the Visitors' Center and that our main purpose as VC sisters is to advance the image of the Church (meaning every person that leaves this place should have positive feelings about the church and of course hopefully want to learn more).  He brought up statistics too about how 25% of converts first contact  is a VC. He just had so many good things to say and it really helped me understand more clearly what I am supposed to be focused on and what I should be doing in the VC. I love the VC because we get to testify so much and really learn to love people really fast and this week I realized that this is my mission!


Heavenly Father called me to work in the VC for a reason so I need to be giving it my all. I will be in the VC most of the time and I want to be 100% focused on the VC. I think before I have been caring more about my area and I still need to but I am very blessed to be serving in the VC and I am going to work harder in here to really reach the goals we set. I don't know if I have told you much about this but every day we set goals to have a certain number of guest Self Refer (SR's) meaning give us their contact info so that we can send the missionaries to them. This week after the training we were really pumped to go out and find the elect and prepared that come into the VC and  so on Monday we set a goal to have 5 SR's. And we just really focused on being enthusiastic and happy and getting to know as many of the guests on our tram tour as we could and we just had such a good time and Heavenly Father blessed us by sending 6 really prepared people on our trams!!! They will get baptized for sure! Those lucky little missionaries that get to teach them will feel like they have truly found golden investigators because they are so ready to learn. One of the guys I talked to was so awesome! I asked him if he has ever seen a Mormon temple before and he said no but that he had friends that were members but they never invited him to Church. So instead of beating around the bush with this one I just said well we would love for you to join us at church! Could missionaries come to your house and teach you about what we believe? And he said yes! And then his fiance walked up and I asked her if she would like to be taught by the missionaries too and she agreed too! I bet they will both be baptized and start a new little Mormon family haha.


I just know that Heavenly Father heard our prayers and sent those people and the next day we had awesome members come in and actually give us some referrals as well! It was a miracle week that's for sure! And because it's the last week of the transfer I think we will continue to see miracles! Sister Looney and I are going to work so so so hard this week and finish out our transfer together really strong!


Well I love you all so so so much I am sorry I don't get to respond to all your emails individually but I will be sending letters and just know I love you so so so much! PS Mom I got the package! You are the best I saw the treats you sent and I just kept saying wow my mom knows me so well and loves me so much! You are the best! Thank you a million times! And thanks for having Sonya forward me Holli's email that was so fun to read! I can't wait to hear more from her!! PSS the pictures I sent were from the hike to Laie Falls that Sister Looney and I went on today!


Sure love ya!!!
Sister Christiansen

May 17, 2012

Aloha

I just want to say how wonderful it was to talk to you all on Mother’s day!!! I am so glad to hear you wore your lei to church too!! Oh and I got your letter from FHE that was signed by everyone! That was so fun!! Thank you for doing that! Please thank everyone for that! It sounds like everyone is doing well and I wouldn't want it any other way! I am so grateful for the wonderful family we have! I feel so blessed to be in our family!

So a few of the highlights of this week (other than calling home of course) were:
We rode bikes and wore these ridiculous helmets and we saw so many people we teach and someone we know found it so humorous he pulled over and took a picture of us : ( haha Oh great! No, but it was so fun-we rode on the most beautiful bike path! There was the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other side!! How I love Hawaii!

 We took a family through God's Plan (it’s that 15 min. walk through video they have at temple square) and at the end the spirit was so strong we asked if we could kneel and pray for their family right there. It was awesome. I fell in love with their whole family instantly! We also were walking down the street the other day and met someone that we were able to talk to. Anyways we asked if we could pray for him right there at the bus stop and bless him with help in his life and he said yes. I love being a missionary! When in your life can you just walk up to people and pray for them and it is acceptable behavior. It was so sweet! 

We were able to set up an appointment with a person we have been trying to meet with for a while. Yea.

We went to lunch today and the owner said it was on the house and that we are welcome to eat their for free any time we want! The members here are soooo nice! Where ever we go people always wave and say “Hey Sisters!” And, man, I just love them! 

But yes those were a couple of the highlights of the week and there were many other wonderful parts of the week but there's just not enough time to write them all down. I did want to mention though that tomorrow is Mission Tour so we are having Elder Wilson come speak to us! (He spoke in General Conference.) I'm sure we will learn so much! I'll let you know next week how that all went. Well I love you a whole whole bunch and hope you are doing great back in Idaho!

Sure Love Ya!!!!

Sister Christiansen