Week 72 - Latta, SC - 11/24/14

Family and Friends!

It's a great week to be alive! I'm sorry that I don't have too much to repost on this week due to mine and Sister Clinger's injuries... But I won't complain! I have so much to be grateful for which is appropriate since this week is Thanksgiving. I'd just like to give some bullet points of what I'm thankful for:

- The Mission: I have never changed so much so fast in my life. I've met a lot of great people and gained a lot of new experiences to help me become the person my Heavenly Father wants me to be.

- The Church: This is my constant. No matter where I am, it's always there for me! We are so blessed to have Christ's true church restored on the earth today!

- My family: Y'all are my rock!  I'm so blessed to have such an incredible support system.

- Hospitals: For obvious reasons.

- Pants: I don't get to wear them much any more... But when I do get to wear them, it's pretty much the best. 

- Jesus Christ: Without Him, I'm literally nothing.

John and Faye are still on track to be baptized! They have given up their coffee and now need to work on the smoking. They both came to church yesterday and loved it! Please keep them in your prayers that they will be able to be baptized on December 13th!

Oh boy. The church is so true. It's been manifested to me in so many times this past week that it's true that there's no way that I could deny it! I say this quote every morning for part of our standing quotes, "I love tough things! I am first to do tough things! I do tough things first! I'm a finisher! I love being a missionary!" Pretty much sums me up.

I love y'all! Have a blessed week!

- Sister Amy Christensen

Eating fish & chips with Sister Weatherford

My new cast (up until today) - it hurt :(

We ate at a cool Chinese buffet after my CT scan.

Week 71 - Latta, SC - 11/17/14

Hello family and friends,

This has been...quite the interesting week. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot to report on, so I will keep this brief. 

This week, Sister Clinger and I had a sweet companion study. I had just read about the Anti-Nephi-Lehies and we thought it was cool that they buried their weapons of war. We decided to do the same thing. We wrote down some of our weaknesses on a piece of paper that we wanted to improve upon and we were going to bury them but we taped them on our walls instead. We want to be reminded of how we can improve. 

Next, we have John and Faye. We saw them this week and committed them to pray about baptism on December 13th. It was a very spiritual lesson and we were praying that they would be able to find their answer. We called them on Thursday and talked to John...and he said...THEY'LL GET BAPTIZED ON DECEMBER 13TH! *Cue Victory dance!*  We are very excited for them and look forward to their baptism! 

And get this, Brother Josh got a calling yesterday to be a branch missionary! He has progressed so fast. Makes a missionary proud. 

Some of you may have noticed in my pictures that I have a cast and Sister Clinger is on crutches. We cannot discuss why over the internet so if you want to know why, it looks like you have to send me a letter. *Hint, Hint*

Sorry for the short email, this isn't even me typing due to my cast (Hi everyone, it's Sister Clinger! ;)) She's a champ.

I love y’all. Have a blessed week.

Sister Amy Christensen

Sister Clinger and I with our "weapons of war"

With Elder Speck and Elder Smith at church yesterday.  #CrippSisterzz

Week 70 - Latta, SC - 11/10/14

Family and Friends!

This past week has been quite the interesting week! Not a whole love has happened that was super eventful unfortunately. But I'll tell you what Sister Clinger and I have been working on.

The Marion Sisters area is a wreck. When I came in to the area, we had 700+ potential investigators and 200+ former investigators. Not ok. Especially since a lot of them really weren't interested or they weren't really what I'd consider to be formers. We have been visiting every single potential and former in our book and taking them down if they aren't really interested (which a lot of them haven't been). It's been a huge project but it's been worthwhile. Through it we've been able to find even more potentials who are actually interested in learning about this message. No complaints.

Well we've still been working with John and Faye. Faye is amazing! She committed to go a whole day without coffee or cigarettes. Unfortunately the day got stressful so she ended up smoking but she went a day without coffee! We were so proud of her! Hopefully she continues to go without coffee and works on going without cigarettes! But both John and Faye made it to church yesterday! *Cue victory dance* They loved it! Faye said she's going to try to get work off next week so that she can come again! Yay! Things are looking up!

I think yesterday was an excellent day to come to church too because it was the Primary Program! Oh my goodness! It was amazing! I think what amazes me the most is how simple but true the songs are. My favorite song was "The Family is of God." It was pretty much The Family Proclamation in song form! It was amazing! The Spirit was so strong! I just pray that the less-actives and investigators who were there were able to feel that Spirit and want to come back!

Something that I've been learning a lot this week is how I need to rely more on the Spirit and not on my own knowledge. I've been working on "getting out of the way" so that the Spirit can testify to the people the truth of this message. It's not about me or Sister Clinger but about our Savior's teachings. How can they feel that way if I don't make it about that, you know? I was reading in Alma 21 today and I read verses 16 and 17. It says "And they went forth whithersoever they were led by the Spirit of the Lord, preaching the word of God in every synagogue of the Amalekites, or in every assembly of the Lamanites where they could be admitted. 

"And it came to pass that the Lord began to bless them, insomuch that they brought many to the knowledge of the truth; yea, they did convince many of their sins, and of the traditions of their fathers, which were not correct."

I know that as we pay attention to the Spirit and rely on it more fully, we will be placed exactly where God needs us to be and we will be able to bring even more souls unto Christ!

That's it for this week! Thank you for all your support and love! I appreciate all y'all do for me! Just keep on writing :) Love y'all! Have a blessed week!

- Sister Amy Christensen

This is what we look like when we see an empty mail box. Just throwing that out there.

You Only Mission Once. Apparently that statement terrifies Sister Clinger.

Rocking our Walmart jackets. #WhatItIs

Week 69 - Latta, SC - 11/3/14

Hello everyone :)

How's it all going? I feel like there's always so much to say but too little time to email... so "let's get down to the nitty gritty!"

Sister Parker and I had to get to Irmo on Tuesday for the Training meeting so that we could meet the trainees and go out to work with them for a little bit. But here's where it gets weird.  After we went out to work, guess who we ended up staying with for the night? The West Columbia Sisters! I stayed in my old apartment with my old companion, Sister Johnson and her trainee. I even worked in their area with them. It was so hard for me to go to those lessons because we saw people that I worked with when I was there.  It was kind of a throwback for me. Throwback Tuesday. It's a thing now.

Then if that wasn't weird enough, at transfers, I saw everyone and their dog - Sister Dent (MTC comp), Sister Gardner (Boiling Springs comp), Elder Bateman (who's from my home stake) and Elder Tonga (Boiling Springs Zone Leader) came to visit! So crazy.

But to get the suspense done and over with, my new companion is Sister Clinger! She's from Bountiful, Utah. She's 19 years old... just like all of my other companions. Haha. She's been doing great so far in this area. She'll be good for me because she's pretty opposite of what Sister Parker's teaching style. I think that she will be able to help some of my weaknesses in my teaching become strengths.

Halloween was pretty good! No complaints. We didn't have much to do that day since we do our Weekly Planning that day and then we were on "lock down" that night. So what did we do? Some much needed updating and we baked cookies. Yup. We're living life on the edge. But we did enjoy our candy from the package that y'all sent me! Thank you :)

Church yesterday was amazing! We were lucky enough to have Melissa come again and John come to his first sacrament meeting! Unfortunately Faye couldn't make it due to work. But John said it was "interesting" and that he liked it! Wahoo! Not only that, but one of our less-actives, Sister M came to sacrament meeting for the first time since I've been here! It was amazing! We're hoping that this past Sunday will lead to lasting conversions for all of them!

Well everything's going well! We're just doing a lot of "cleaning up" with our potentials and formers. We have far too many! Good things are going to happen these next two transfers. I can feel it in my bones. Thanks for all of your love and support! Remember that I still love getting mail regardless of how much time I have left ;) Love y'all! Have a blessed week!

- Sister Amy Christensen

Oh! P.S. I was told yesterday that it sounds like I've been in the South for a while now! Mostly because of instead of saying "y'all" like it's spelled, I say "yaw" like a true Southerner. Score!

My posterity! Me, my daughter Sister Johnson and granddaughter Sister Strom.

The other part of my posterity!  My other two daughters, Sister Gardner and Sister Clinger.

Gas prices at $2.67? Say what?! That's the lowest I've seen it in a long time! Had to take a picture!