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