October 6, 2014

Hello Everyone!

I love you all so much!! It's so good to talk with you again today and tell you a little bit about my week. It's been another good week here in Bellevue:) We see miracles everyday! I am so thankful for this time that I have to be a missionary! It is the greatest experience of my life up to this point! But, can you believe it's already October? Halloween will be here soon! I really, really, really love my companion Sister Hirro! She is one of the happiest people that I have ever met and I have learned so much from her over the past couple of weeks that we have been together:) She is really helping me to grow and really love every second of my mission:) We laugh all of the time and have so much fun together! Don't worry, we take our work seriously around here:) But, we find many opportunities to enjoy life:)

My legs are getting pretty strong and my endurance is improving since we have been on bikes! I think that it is getting a little easier with time and practice:) It takes a lot of skill to ride around on a bike, in a skirt, up and down hills, with a wind factor:) haha:) It is not for the faint of heart:) We are really rocking the look though with the helmet if I do say so myself!

I had a Philippino dinner this week!:) It was actually very yummy! We had Lumpia:) You will have to look it up sometime on the internet:) It is delicious! We also had Asian noodles.. it was a very odd texture:) haha:) but all in all, it was great!

I went on exchanges Wednesday- Thursday this week which was a lot of fun! We did some service at a thrift store:) Then on Saturday, Sister Hirro and I went to goodwills (a thrift store) and did some service there as well:) We finally found a consistent place to provide service in our area! We were both very excited to do that! So, we will be serving there a couple of hours each week:)

While on exchanges, Sister Hirro and Sister Dumont, went to see N F! He is so great! His heart has been softened since the last time that we saw him:) He finally accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said that he would start reading it! He actually already believes in a lot of the same things that we do! He believes in "3 tiers of Heaven with God dwelling in the highest one" and that there are 3 separate beings in the Godhead. He really wants to find truth and was intrigued by General Conference and hearing that we have a Prophet in our day. He is doing very well! Keep praying for him!

Did you just love General Conference? I know that I sure did! It was so amazing!!! I am so thankful that we were able to watch all of the sessions! I had many prayers and concerns answered through not only what they said, but what I felt:) It was so neat that they had many people give their talks in their native languages! That was really historical:) Although I really liked many of the talks, one of them that had helped me a lot at this time was from Jorg Klebingat. He started off by asking each of us a question. If we were to have a personal interview with the Savior, Jesus Christ, in one minute, would we be prepared? Would we feel confident and comfortable in His presence? Would we run to Him or hide our face? He shared 6 things that we can each do to become more Spiritually confident! They aren't anything new that we haven't heard before, but when applied with faith, we can change our very natures through His Atonement, so that we can truly feel comfortable in His presence! Those 6 things are (1) Take care of your spiritual well-being (2) Take care of your physical well-being (3) Embrace whole hearted obedience! (4) Learn to repent thoroughly and quickly (5) Forgive others quickly and thoroughly (including ourself) and (6) Accept trials, set backs, and surprises as part of life. I really liked the part when he said to acknowledge your weaknesses but don't become immobilized by them! I felt like he was speaking directly to me because this was actually one of the questions that I had written down, prior to conference.

We hear wonderful things at Conference. Many of us write down notes on great things they said. But as we learned from the last General Conference from Elder Hallstrom, "Simply stated, the purpose of general conference...is fulfilled only if weare willing to act—if we are willing to change." We all learned great things from conference but it will do us no good if we don't act on the things that we learned.:) Remember, we all have weaknesses but we can change because of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. "The invitation to “come unto Christ, and be perfected in him”(Moroni 10:32) both requires and expects change. Mercifully, He has not left usalone. “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. … Then willI make weak things become strong” (Ether 12:27). Relying upon the Savior’sAtonement, we can change." I know that this is true! Although I am still far from where I would like to be, I have found strength through the Atonement to change my very nature and become more like Him.  

I love you all so much! I hope that you have a wonderful week!

Sister Christensen