Monday, September 30, 2013

Week 12 - Inman, SC - 9/30/13



Another week come and gone as a missionary! I can't believe how fast these weeks are going by! This week has been a rather interesting one for sure!

Last week, our investigator D met up with us for a discussion on how church went a few weeks back since he couldn't meet up with us sooner and we were going to answer any question he may have had. Well, he met up with us and the first thing he tells us is he's moving to North Carolina later that day. ... What?! Luckily he's only moving 3 miles away from the border of our area and he's only going to be there for a few months doing maintenance on a house for his pastor. He's willing to meet us in our area so we can keep teaching him. Don't worry, it's ok for us to keep teaching him! We talked to our Zone Leaders about it and they said as long as the move is temporary, we'll be fine especially since he hasn't committed to baptism yet. That was definitely the strangest thing that happened to us this last week.

Saturday was probably the most eventful day of this past week. We were able to go to Harvest Days in Inman which is kind of the equivalent of Swiss Days and that was fun! We didn't realize it was on Saturday or else we would have tried to set up a booth or something!

Right after that, we went to a baptism for someone the Elders in my ward were teaching. And guess what? I did a musical number for it! It was weird because I haven't sung in front of a group of people for so long... But I guess it was pretty good considering I had less than 2 days to find and prepare "When I Am Baptized." The 2nd Counselor in the bishopric told me that I made him cry. I asked him if I made him cry because it was good or because it was bad and he didn't ever answer me. Awkward.

Then we had the General Relief Society Broadcast that night! It was weird having it at 8 pm though. But probably the coolest thing about that broadcast is that I knew that several of my family members and friends were watching the same broadcast as me at the same time even though we're across the country from each other!

Also get this. We're trying to improve the ward missionary work in the Boiling Springs ward so with our ward mission leader's permission, we kicked off a 40 day fast yesterday. We're not trying to starve the people in my ward by making them fast for 40 days, I promise! What we've asked is that one individual or family sign up for a day to fast and we'll have someone fasting each day for the missionaries in the ward and for missionary opportunities for themselves. I hope that made sense. I'm really excited to see what happens from this! I'm sure it can only bring blessings to the ward!

That's all for this week! I love y'all! Have a blessed week :)

- Sister Amy Christensen



Me at Harvest Days!

Me, D and Sister Craig in Hardee's. Classy place for a picture, I know.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Week 11 - Inman, SC - 9/23/13



Well this week has been rather eventful! I mean I went to my first Zone Conference which was super awesome. It made me feel all pumped up and ready to do missionary work! It's not like we did a whole lot except for talk about missionary work but I think it was being in a total missionary environment where everyone I turned to was experiencing something similar to what I'm going through was just the best!

Other than that, I turned 20 1/2 last Tuesday! Yay for half birthdays! This family in my ward, the Kitchen's actually threw Sister Craig and I a half birthday party for us since both of our birthdays are in March. It was so great! Especially since they sang "Happy (Half) Birthday" to us. And get this! They even made funfetti cake for me! The best! I have some great people in my ward.

After we ate at the Kitchen's, we took Sister Kitchen out with us to visit some people in the ward since she's a ward missionary. Well it turns out that every person we planned on visiting was gone. We asked her if she had anyone in mind to go see and she asked if we could go visit the C family. We didn't really want to especially since the C's haven't contacted us since K came to church with us... So we thought that they hated us or something. But we went ahead and saw them anyway. It turns out that they don't hate us, K's phone just broke and they couldn't get a hold of us. Then we invited them to go to dinner with us the next night at a member's house and they said they would go!

So we got to the member's house the next day and I was praying that the C's would show up... And they did! They always surprise me! They really seemed to enjoy themselves and the members did a great job at making them feel comfortable about talking to them. The members didn't even bring up the gospel at first. The C's totally brought it up! It was so neat! We have a return appointment on Wednesday and I'll be sure to let you know how that goes :)

Also Sister Craig and I have been working with this less active, Sister H and she is nothing but wonderful. She was kind of offended by somethings that went on in the church so that's why she was driven away from it, but she loves us! We've been painting her fence and she'll pay us by feeding us. I guess she just thinks that's the greatest thing because she tells everyone about us - family, friends, co-workers, etc. She told us about that when we went over on Saturday! I mean she didn't really like the missionaries before us so the fact that she loves us is fantastic!

Sister H was talking to me about missionary work that day and asked me what the community could do for us since we do so much for it. I told her they could give me a Southern accent. ... Yeah. I really said that. She started teaching me some slang around here and it cracks me up! Like saying hose pipe instead of hose or buggy instead of a shopping cart. Oh goodness. She also feeds us a lot of Southern food like when we went over on Saturday, she let us try what they call "liver mush." It was kind of weird... But I like it! It's like sausage almost but you can taste the liver and it has corn meal in it. It's like a meaty corn bread. It probably sounds gross... But it really wasn't that bad. The big adventure will be trying fat back which is fried pig fat. Apparently Sister H is just dying to make us it. Sister Craig isn't too excited about it but I sure am! I'm just excited to experience the culture here in South Carolina while I can, you know?

- Sister Amy Christensen

Check out what street sign I found on the way home from Zone Conference!





Monday, September 16, 2013

Week 10 - Inman, SC - 9/16/13



Holy cow! Is it really Week 10?! I'm in the double digits! Wow. This is just going by too fast! I can't even believe it! The past week has been pretty good for me, I definitely can't complain!

So first off, let me tell you something that I'm quite proud of. I'm changing out here for the better. Like it's noticeable to me, my companion and other missionaries. On Tuesday, we had a Zone Training and this girl who was in my MTC district came up to me and said "Sister Christensen! You seem different from when we were at the MTC!" And it's true. I just feel like I've matured and also humbled myself a lot since coming on my mission two months ago. I'm excited to see the progress I make throughout the rest of my mission!

Other than that, we had exchanges this last week and I went out of my area for the exchange for the first time! It was such a great experience! I was actually out with my Sister Training Leader, Sister Stout, who came out the same time that I did! It was a really cool experience because we were able to talk about how much we have grown since we came out! I also learned a lot from her like how I can be more bold with my own investigators. It was so great! I am just a firm believer of exchanges!

This week Sister Craig and I got to do our first legit service project for a less-active in our ward and it was awesome! We just stained some pickets (fence posts) on her deck because she didn't have the time to do it. It was pretty great, especially because she gave us homemade chicken pot pie, which was the best, and cupcakes since we wouldn't let her pay us. It was a pretty even trade I feel like.

We had President and Sister Holm speak in our ward yesterday and it was fantastic! They spoke about member missionary work which was so great because it's something that our ward kind of struggles with. I hope that those talks helped pump the members up so they can start working on getting us referrals! That would be cool! And guess what else? We had another investigator, D, come to church yesterday! I was so impressed because when we invited him to church, he said "Well I can't guarantee I'll be there... I'll probably sleep in..." But he didn't! I think it was a great experience because President Holm took a few minutes and talked to him personally about the church! It was so cool! We're going to meet with D later this week and hopefully we'll be able to answer some of his questions he had about our church service so he can progress :)

That's all I have for this week though! I hope all is going well! Love y'all!

- Sister Amy Christensen

 P.S.  2 additional photos have been posted to Week 9.
Photo of Sister Christensen and Sister Craig taken by a sweet lady in Boiling Springs, SC and sent home to the family!