March 20, 2012

Aloha to the people I love more than anything in the world!! I want you to know that I think about all of you every day!! Ok so first I have to just say CONGRATS to Amy and Zack!!!! Woot Woot!! I am so so so happy for you both! You will be bomb parents! I seriously jumped up and down when I found out you were having a baby! I am so excited to see this little one when I get home!! So so happy for both of you! Also Becky I hope you have a wonderful birthday! I love you so so so much! Mom thank you so much for your St. Patrick’s Day card you- are such a gem! That was so fun to get! Holli I got your package and loved everything about it! That was the best! Seriously made my whole day. Every day I have been hoping that I would hear from you and I was so stoked to get your letters and I love that locket! I will wear it always! Also I can't believe you sent me a lock of your hair that was so great haha. You are such a nerd! I will be writing you back shortly because I have much to say about your last letter! WOW I wish I could just talk to you about all of that right now but don't you worry a letter is on its way! Rick, I am so glad that you get to stay for spring semester! I love when stuff just works out like that, you just know God has it all planned out and takes care of us! Cami K, all I have to say is I am stoked for you!!! You are so so great and will be awesome! I was stoked when I read your letter about all the big things going on in your life! Dang I have such amazing family and friends and you are all doing so many good things and I am so proud of all the good stuff you are all doing! So many happy things you are all letting me know about! Please keep the letters coming-I just love them so much! I want to give a shout out to Logan as well, I was so excited to receive a letter from you, Mr., it’s about time! haha jk But really I want you to know I love you so much and I can't wait to hear about your call! Please, please, please come this week!!!! I have been telling everyone you are waiting for it! And Ann thank you for being such a good pen pal : ) A hockey game sounds real fun haha I hope you had a great time and tell the little ones I love them so much!

Ok so I have to be honest this week started out a little tough because the homesickness thing hit me really hard. And man it just gave me a whole new appreciation for all of you that have served missions in really crazy places speaking crazy languages and here I was sitting in Hawaii feeling down-how lame is that. I think I was just missing you all a lot and then it was kinda a disappointing beginning of the week. We still haven't found our keys so that was weighing on me. Our investigator with a baptismal date, told her mom who is a diehard Catholic that she wants to join our church and she freaked out, so our investigator came crying to us. That was Wed. and we had a lesson planned with her for Fri. and Sun. but she didn't show up and she hasn't returned any of our calls. We have been really worried about her and it doesn't look like she will be getting baptized this Sat. So that has been a major bummer. But I guess that the Stake Pres. and owner of the place where she works called Pres. Dalton to visit her at work and so he went to the grill with the AP's and had lunch and talked to her. She explained to him the situation and he told her to just be there for her mom right now and to give it some time. So at least she knows we aren't trying to cause any problems with her family and we just care about her. I think the reason she hasn't called us back is because she probably feels like she will be letting us down by postponing it but we don't feel that way we just love her and want to be there for her. So I really hope that she will call us back. Also do you remember how I told you about the one we met on the street. Well he never showed up to meet with us-we just stood out there waiting haha and he hasn't answered our phone calls either. So basically I think the combination of things was just hard but it was a very humbling week and just like in all things, God always takes care of us, and the week got better and better as it went on.

On Sat. we had an amazing experience that made up for all of the stuff that happened earlier. We were at a dinner appointment with like 6 girls. They were roommates and friends and just really awesome. One was even an RM sister. And we were just eating and talking and then we gave our little message and read a scripture and asked if they knew anyone that would benefit from hearing the message of the gospel and they said “well, she's not a member”. And we were like wait, what! haha So they had invited their nonmember friend and we had no idea. So at first we thought they were kidding right, because they were all laughing, but then they were like “no, really, she isn't a member”. Then she explained that she has lived here her whole life and has had plenty of missionaries knock on her door and has never been interested. But I just thought, you know what the heck, I am just going to be bold because we have been rejected so much this week what’s it going to hurt. Haha So I just said well, would you be willing to meet with us? And she sat there for a second and then she said ya ok. I was seriously so happy!!!! We have set up a lesson with her for Wed. and it’s so cool because she has the best kind of fellowshippers you can ask for. The RM is her best friend and they are all in her ward so they will be exactly what she needs to keep moving forward. I am so grateful for them and their willingness to keep inviting her even after she has turned it down so many times!!

Sunday was a great day too! We had a lot of tours at the VC and Monday was wonderful too! It was my companion's birthday and so she kept getting packages in the mail and her dad sent her flowers to the VC. It was just fun and for dinner we went to one of our ward members and she fed us and we had a great lesson with her. Then after we got home and we were done planning and stuff we had a little birthday party thing with our two other pad mates haha. It was fun, we had birthday cake and she opened her presents. Also today has just been amazing! For comp study we were able to come here to the VC and watch Mormon messages so that I could be more familiar with what to show people when they come in, and man oh man are there some inspiring ones! Watching those videos just made me realize how lucky and blessed I am and that there are always people going thru something harder than I am.

I hope this letter didn't sound like I was just sitting here complaining because I want you to know that even with the ups and downs I really am so happy to be here and every day gets better and better! I am finally starting to get the hang of things and I am really starting to love it! I love you all so much! I think this quote is so true, “missionaries leave their families for 18 months to 2 years so other families can be together forever!" I have found this to be the reason that I am here! As I take families through the “Heavenly Father's plan” tour and promise them that they can live with their families forever it just brings me so much happiness! God really does love us so much, and blessing us with a plan that allows us all to live together is the greatest blessing ever! It's hard enough to be away from you for just this little bit, I can't even imagine not living together forever after this life. I love my Heavenly Father and Savior, Jesus Christ, so so so much! I am so blessed to live in beautiful Laie and to be serving the Lord! I love my life :)

I love you all!!!!!!

Sister Christiansen : )