Week 49

Hello everyone! 

Not too much time to write, we just have too many fun things to do on this Pday...(aka sleeping and buying cool pens). But anyways, this week was good! 

The theme of this week was Charity, so obviously you can't beat that.
I was asked to give a training on Charity and what that means and I was given some cool experiences this week to go along with it.

  
One of them was when we taught one our friends, she is very smart and is a deep thinker, and we have taught her quite a bit but it's hard for her to connect the things we are teaching to the truth. But we gave her a BOM challenge and she ended up reading the end of Moroni 7, which talks about charity, the pure love of Christ. She told us how she believes that it's the most valuable thing we can obtain and she wanted to know how to become a charitable person (she's so cool).  We talked about the power of Christ's atonement which eventually leads to God's love for us. I shared an experience of when I truly found out for myself God's love for me, and you could tell it really impacted her. The whole conversation was just filled with the spirit. We asked her what she thought and she said something like, "I think I've realized that the most important answer anyone can find out for themselves is whether or not God loves them." I asked her if she wanted to know that for herself and she said she did. I promised her that God does love her and if she asks him, she will receive that answer she is searching for.   After that lesson, I just realized the power of Charity and how it really is so important that we know that God loves us. If he didn't, well nothing else would even matter. 

This week we tried sharing that love and brought flowers to people that we thought would need a pick me up, even though it was so simple, it seemed to be something they all needed. 

Henry B. Eyring once said, 
"Brothers and sisters, the Lord has opportunities near you to feel and to share His love. You can pray with confidence for the Lord to lead you to love someone for Him. He answers the prayers of meek volunteers like you. You will feel the love of God for you and for the person you serve for Him. As you help children of God in their troubles, your own troubles will seem lighter. Your faith and your hope will be strengthened." 

I know when we strive to share Christ's and God's love to others, we will feel that love as well. I'm so grateful to represent my Savior and serve the Japanese people every day! Even though most of you who read this email don't have a missionary badge on, we can all still represent our Savior and continue to share his love. I know if you do that, you can draw closer to the Savior more than you can imagine. 

Moroni 7-
46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail—
47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever, and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him.
48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. 

Have a great week everyone! 
Love, Christensen 姉妹

Week 48

Hello everyone! 

We are super busy out here in 河内長野市 and it has been so fun being with Johnson 姉妹！ 

Some highlights, 
We went to an event for mission prep, it was a multi-stake activity where we paired up with one of the youth and went out finding, and visiting people for the day! It was super fun and I was paired with the cutest girl ever. We did some training and then went out proselyting for a couple of hours. We didn't find a whole lot of people but we were able to still testify about our Savior and I was able to share some cool experiences from my mission! I also found out she was fluent in English by the end of the day, so that was a fun surprise haha. But for the activity they planned us going out from 1-00-3:30, we were all a little worried because it was pouring rain, but for just those 2 1/2 hours it was perfect weather (coincidence I think not). But it was a great experience and it made me so grateful to be a missionary, I just wanted to convince everyone there to go! 

Also, I got to see my sweetest friend Macaspac 姉妹, who I roomed with in Abeno. It was the greatest reunion, you make the best friends on the mission!   On the way home me and Johnson 姉妹 got lost on the trains like 4 times, idk why we just lost all sense of direction. But we were able to meet some really cool people on the way back, I'm grateful God can make miracles from my weaknesses! 

Funny moments of this week:
We called some people in our area book, to see if we could find some people to teach, this one lady answered and she was quite interesting. She was so excited to hear from us and then told us that it was her birthday last month. I told her congrats andthen she's like, "yeah, so can you buy me some shoes? I found some really cute ones at the mall and I really want them. So I thought you could get them for my birthday" I literally had no idea what to say, I was just like, uhh how much are they? And then she told me they were only 70 dollars, and she would pick them out and everything for us, we just needed to pay for them...I was tempted to tell her, sorry but I have no idea who you are. But I don't think that's very Christ-like. Haha, I told her I think we probably should meet and get to know each other before I buy her shoes lol. We have an appointment with her today so we will see how that goes. 

Another fun moment, we were teaching one of our people and I just wanted him to feel the spirit so bad. We shared the Because of Him video and I asked him what he thought or felt. He said he didn't know that Jesus was a Carpenter. I then asked him if he felt anything and he said, I felt surprised that he was a carpenter...I love teaching teenage boys. 

As for the spiritual thought, I just wanted to share a scripture and add some of my own words in it, (which I love doing). 
1 Nephi 13 
"And I will also be your light in [ your life]; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised [blessings]; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led."

I loved this scripture. It's simple but I know that when we follow the commandments, whether it's guidance we receive from God, prayer, the law of tithing,  the prophets words or anything, we will be guided by our Savior and he will be our light. 

That's about it for this week, 
LOVE, Christensen 姉妹

 Me and my cute little friend

Macaspac 姉妹！！！

Week 47

No group letter this week but here are a few pictures...

Us with the Suzuki Family 

Sister Smoot posted this on the Facebook Page last week

New Companion, Johnson 姉妹

Week 46

Hello everyone!

This week is going to be a little shorter and just filled with pictures, (everyone's favorite email right?)

We had transfers this week and I'm staying here in Kawachinagano! I said goodbye to my beloved companion, and Johnson 姉妹 became my new comp! We actually were roommates in the MTC so basically it's a throwback to the MTC days it has been pretty fun.

This week was a little bit rougher on the finding side of things, we went out for hours, I got yelled at by a mean man, and someone told me then they don't speak English and my Japanese wasn't good, so I wasn't exactly walking on sunshine. But it made me think of why I'm here and how much I'm grateful for my Savior.  Even after rough days, I was able to see some miracles, which I'm really grateful for. Which leads to my spiritual thought: 

Alma 26: 2 And now, I ask, what great blessings has he bestowed upon us? Can ye tell?

My spiritual thought is short today, but this week when I was feeling a little more down, I read this scripture and thought, Can I tell the blessings that God has given me? I then realized that I had been focusing on the wrong things that day, which probably wasn't helping me feel better. It made me think of all the blessings that God had given me and how much of his help I was relying on. I promise that Heavenly Father is always bestowing blessings upon you, and if you look for his hand in your life, you will find it. It made me think of the recent conference talk, "The Immediate Goodness of God",

I hope everyone takes the time to think of the blessings God has given to you specifically. He loves us more than we can comprehend! 

Love you all, have a great week!
Love、Christensen 姉妹

Lesson with Sari さん

 Our friend Daisuke さん who was baptized

 Me and Miyamoto Shimai with our matching shirts, sorry we look crusty, we took these right after we woke up haha 

Kento くん

                                            We went to Kyoto for Miyamoto 姉妹 birthday :)))

Kiyomizu Temple