Thursday, June 28, 2012
June 28, 2012
Aloha : )
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
Friday, June 15, 2012
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
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
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
Monday, June 4, 2012
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
Thursday, May 24, 2012
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
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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)