Week 54 - Latta, SC - 7/21/14

My dearest family and friends!

I'll tell you what - South Carolina has more rain, thunder and lightning storms than I ever imagined to be possible! We've had like 3 flash floods and at 4 this morning, Sister Parker and I woke up to our room constantly lighting up from the lightning and also from our house vibrating from the thunder. Not ok. We are some sleep deprived missionaries on this fine P-Day.

Another thing is I've never been chased by dogs while I've been a missionary... Until I came here. I've been nearly attacked by two dogs this week! I was saved our investigator, Mack for one of the times since one near attack was by his dog. Then the other one I booked it to our car and chilled in the back seat for a while. It's been crazy! I feel like I've had the real missionary experience now!

The tender mercy that happened to us this week is most definitely from a potential investigator, Brother J. When we first met him, we said we were Sister Christensen and Sister Parker and he was like "You may call me Brother J!" Ha ha. Well we didn't see him for like 2 weeks after we first met him because of conflicting schedules but when we went back on Saturday, he said "I checked out Mormon.org and I read everything! I read your Articles of Faith and I really liked those! Let me just say this... you guys are the real deal!" My jaw dropped. Usually if we don't see someone for a while like that, they don't keep their commitments or anything. But Brother J surprised us! We invited him to be baptized on August 16th and he accepted!

Yesterday we had Branch Conference and we were so excited! We were convinced that we'd have at least 14 investigators/less-actives/recent converts there because everyone was so solid when we invited them and re-committed them... We only had one show up. It killed us on the inside. Now M and R are off date (but they'll be back on date soon!) and Adrian and his family will need to come the next two Sundays in a row. We're doing a church tour with them tonight so hopefully that will help out!

Everything's going just great here in Marion! I love the branch! I love the people! I love the area! I love my companion! I love being a missionary! I hope y'all have a great week! Love you!

- Sister Amy Christensen

Chillin' with cold treats from Mickey D's!

Will the real Sister Christensen please stand up? Sister Parker forgot her tag for church yesterday and I just so happened to have another one so I let her borrow it!

The District - Me, Sister Parker, the Nolans, Elder Roetker, Elder Smith

Week 53 - Latta, SC - 7/14/14

Good afternoon from Latta, SC! How's everything going? I hope well! Let me just tell you about one of the crazier weeks I've had out on my mission!

We had a rough start to the week. Investigators were dropping like crazy. Within a few hours, four people dropped us. It wasn't a complete heartbreak though because the people weren't really progressing. But even our progressing investigators dropped off the face of the earth. I won't lie, I was a little stressed about it. But Sister Parker and I know that there is opposition in all things (2 Nephi 2:11) and something good was bound to happen.

Well first, we got a media referral. This guy M wanted a Holy Bible. He's clear up at the top of our area but since we have a rental car (meaning we have unlimited miles), we figured we'd go. M and his girlfriend, R, were outside and R ended up wanting a Bible too. They are the most humble people! They accepted a Book of Mormon and want to learn more from us. Not only that but during that visit, they also accepted the invitation to be baptized! They are some prepared people and we're hoping to get them to church this week so they can still be baptized on August 2nd!

Then on our way to Zone Training Meeting, we had to get gas. As we were stopped at the gas station, this car was blasting one of the most vulgar songs I've heard in my life. We're just sitting there singing "I Am A Child of God" while we're filling up. Sister Parker had the impression to give him a pass along card for some strange reason but we followed it and gave him one. Later that day, we got another referral from Temple Square. The guy we gave the card to, A, actually called the number and was interested in learning more! Wut. We went over on Saturday night and taught his family. We put all six of them on date! A seems the most sure of the six to be baptized. We're seeing them tonight and stressing the importance of this baptism in comparison to any other baptism they may have had already.

Back to ZTM, we had interviews with President Turner then. He's a great man! I love him already! Except in my interview, he said "It looks like you're a seasoned missionary!" I cringed. I just love being a missionary so much I don't want to be a seasoned missionary yet! It means my time's coming to an end! But other than that, we had a pretty good meeting! I'm excited to be working with President and Sister Turner for the remainder of my mission.

Also, get this, I used American Sign Language for the first time on my mission this past week! We contacted some people on their friend's porch and one of the ladies mentioned how their friend's daughter was deaf. I haven't even heard of anyone being deaf in any of my areas thus far so I was like "It's time to use my talents!" The daughter came out and I asked her what her name was and told her my name. Since it's been a few years since I've signed all that was coming back to me was how to say "Nice to meet you," "Chemistry," "Turtle" and "Read this." There wasn't much I could say about chemistry or turtles so I pulled out a pass along card and asked her to read it. She thanked me and said something else to me in sign language that I couldn't understand... So I just went with it. It was still cool though! I got to contact someone in sign language!

Well that's all for this week! Thank you for all your love and support! I'd love to hear from all y'all! Anyway, have a blessed week! Love y'all!

- Sister Amy Christensen

No better way to celebrate my year mark than with peaches and ice cream!

Week 52 - Latta, SC - 7/7/14

My Dear Family and Friends,

Yup. I'm hitting my year mark this week! I can't even believe it! I'm silently panicking because I feel like there's still so much to do in 6 months! That's such a short amount of time! This is just madness!

Well this week, we went by one of our former investigators, T's house to give her a letter that the previous Sister wrote to her. They dropped her because she had some Word of Wisdom problems and wasn't ready to keep commitments. When we went by, she told us she's been clean since they had the drop lesson with her and that she was ready to commit! She didn't make it to church this week unfortunately because she had to work but she was totally going to go if she could! She was so upset when her fiancé reminded her that she was working on Sunday! But there's always next week!

We met our new mission president and his wife this week, the Turner's. They seemed super nice! And they gave us gourmet suckers. They've pretty much won me over already. Haha. We'll have interviews with him on Wednesday and I'm excited for it!

The 4th of July was good, I guess. It seemed like any other day except we had to be in by 7:30. While we were in we ate "Red, White and Blue Bell" ice cream and made star sugar cookies... That's pretty much it. But there was also a pink, white and blue sunset that day! That was pretty patriotic! The members in our branch told us yesterday that South Carolina is the most patriotic state in the country apparently! So that was why I was sent here because I'm the most patriotic person that I know! Haha.

We went out to eat with just about the whole branch on Saturday at this place called Shuler's Barbeque. My goodness! It is the best Southern buffet I've had since being here! That's saying a lot! Well when we were there, there was a camera crew just filming the inside. When we asked what was going on, someone told us that they were filming a reality TV show called "The Profit." I thought they said they were filming "the prophet!" I was like "President Monson is not even here!" But yeah. When that show airs, look for an episode where he goes to Shuler's in Latta, SC. I'll probably be in there, just saying!

Just yesterday, I was talking to Sister Parker about when I put in my mission papers. I wanted to go Spanish speaking so bad mostly because then I'd be bilingual. I never really realized why I'm English speaking until yesterday though! I remembered going to a hand off lesson with a set of Spanish elders and one said "I don't really know how to teach The Restoration in English so you'll have to take the lead on this!" I know that the Lord has called me to this English speaking mission because I needed to learn how to be comfortable with sharing the gospel in my native tongue.

Oh guess what? There's only one piano player in our branch and she was gone yesterday. I couldn't really play the piano because well I haven't practiced in nearly a year. But they asked us to play in Primary yesterday and it was so bad it was hilarious! Sister Parker played the right hand and I played the left! We were cracking up the whole time as we were playing "America, The Beautiful." But then the kids wanted to sing "We'll Bring the World His Truth." It was so neat because the 10 kids were like belting out the song and you couldn't even hear our bad piano playing! They brought the Spirit so much with that song! It got me all pumped to go out and do missionary work again! Then in the closing prayer, the oldest primary kid got up and was like "Thank you for the Sister Missionaries coming to play the piano for us today." It basically melted our hearts! Needless to say, I'm going to need to start practicing the piano again.

Well that's all I've got for this week! Thank you for all your love and support! I wouldn't complain if any of you wanted to send letters... Just saying ;) Haha. I love y'all and keep you in my prayers! Have a blessed week!

- Sister Amy Christensen

I pledge my allegiance to "Red, White and Blue Bell" ice cream!

  

The most patriotic sunset on the most patriotic day!

Sister Parker and I in our patriotic outfits! I have the red (kind of) and she has the white and blue!