Week 2

Hey Everyone,

This week has been a blur haha. Things have been kinda off with the teachers and our district lately.  For example, we were told the wrong dates on which investigator we would be teaching. And the teachers got mixed up on their teaching schedule so we've had like three lessons on how to use gospel library, instead of having Japanese class. So I may not have improved as much in my Japanese skills, however, if everyone is wondering how you can link scriptures together on your phone, I got you. Haha also my douryo (companion) has been pretty sick, so it's been hard to study and prepare lessons. Luckily, we've only had to miss one class and one devotional. So let's hope we get back on track for tomorrow. I think with the power of priesthood blessings and doterra oils, we can do this haha. But even with all the craziness, I've still been doing good and have been loving it here. I feel bad for sounding so negative before because I honestly love being a missionary, it makes me sad when I have to take my badge off to go to bed haha. The fact that my purpose for the next 18 months is to just grow spiritually and help others learn about this amazing gospel is awesome. 

As for a spiritual thought, what I've really been thinking about is the concept of enduring to the end. When I'm teaching in Japan, I don't just want people to get baptized, because that's only the first step. I want them to be able to use the gospel their whole lives and to continually strengthen their testimonies. I think sometimes we forget that if we want to stay grounded in the church we have to continue to strengthen our testimony. If we are just going through the motions, it's harder to have those spiritual experiences we need. We are always told to pray and read our scriptures, but there is a reason for that! I can't tell you how much more I've felt the spirit or have felt peace, just because I'm taking scripture study more seriously or saying sincere prayers. Heavenly Father will see your efforts, he will bless you for it, I promise. :) so everyone make sure you're "enduring to the end". Haha

Honorable mentions, 
As you can imagine we are all exhausted by the end of the day. So one night the shimais were praying together, and Johnson shimai said, "please bless that we can all live happily ever after" she was so tired she didn't even notice, it was pretty funny, but I don't think I would be too upset if we were all blessed with that. 
Also, St. George people really don't realize how cool St. George is, the people in my district are from Australia, California, Arizona, New York, Philippines, and what not. And when I told them that High School Musical 2 was filmed in St.George, they thought it was the craziest thing ever. I felt pretty cool not gonna lie ;) 

Well, that's my week really, love you all and thank you for all the sweet emails and letters, you guys are the best. 

Love, Christensen shimai 

Written as we were chatting on e-mail: 

I'm doing good, things were a little bit harder this week. But it should all be fixed by next week, I kinda explained it in my group email. I feel like my Japanese hasn't improved a whole lot, but I'm picking up on a few more words in class and have been trying to say half my lessons without a script. Which is really hard haha. We just barely started learning grammar things so hopefully, that will help with the translating. Once I get faster at writing my lessons, I'll have more time to actually study. But Even though it's been hard, I'm still loving it. I don't understand how people could not like the MTC. Even when you are feeling down, you always feel the spirit which picks you up. A lot of my district hasn't been doing good though, a lot of the boys are really homesick, you can imagine when they just leave high school. My douryo has been sick and some of the girls have been having stuff going on at home. So I've honestly just been trying to make them feel better, which honestly has helped me not worry about myself, which is nice. I, of course, hope things get better for them though. I feel like I'm always optimistic and am happy, which helps them I think. I think it was just an off week for everyone. But it's honestly true when they say that if you are constantly serving, you'll be happy, that's been me this week. 

I love you guys so much.  I think about you all the time. And I'm glad things are going well.  I pray for you guys every day, I love you sooo much. Hope you have a good week 

Sister Blazer is another sister in my district, we just get along really well. We do splits when we workout, meaning we switch companions, so we hang out quite a bit. I'm close with all the shimais though, we just always happen to take pictures together haha

Books!

Yeah.. don't ask