Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Emily sent the following email on Monday, June 2, 2014:

Dear familia,

Here's something cool.  Exercising your faith is something that is always just theoretical until you actually do it and it always seems to have a surprising outcome.  It is really one of those things that you can't understand unless you experience it and even when you do experience it, in order to keep remembering how it felt, you need to keep nourishing it and having experiences.  It is so easy to unknowingly fall out of exercising faith even when you feel like you are.
Teodoro has better days and worse days.  Mom, thanks for what you sent!  I bought some ice cream at the store today with some cones and we are going to go and surprise them sometime with the moosetracks I bought.  I'm going to show him the pictures you sent me of our family and tell him this treat is from you.  He is going to be so excited!  Teodoro was so cute because earlier on when I'd asked him about helado, he told me that he like fresa y coco (strawberry and coconut).  Doesn't that just melt your heart?  I don't know why little things like this do!  It's like when German told me his favorite color was verde.  With the other part of the money, I am going to buy him a himnl because he LOVES the songs and really should have a book of his own.  He tries to keep track of the hymn numbers that we sing that he likes. 

Sam will do well at the MTC.  He is pretty resilient and strongly opinionated.  That should help him.  

Why is Skibby so talented and so cute.  I still have a great desire to take piano lessons when I come home from my mission.  I don't know how that is going to work out, but that is a great desire of mine. 

I'll email Nate something nice :)

This has been an interesting week.  My companion has done some nice things for me that have surprised me in their tender nature.  There are definitely things that we need to learn from each other.  I kinda felt like at some point during my mission I would get to serve with Hna. Hardy. 

This month we will have interviews with the president and we will also have temple trips.  This will be fun!  It is crazy because I still haven't been out quite a year, but whatever happens at this next transfer meeting determines a lot of the rest of my mission.  After this transfer, I will just have 4 transfers left. 

We are having good things happen with some of our investigators, and with others it is just frustrating because they don't seem to understand.  Sometimes I think the prophet has sent us all out so we can become converted.  It's definitely for that reason too!  We are meant to learn how to have faith and be trusting and feel vulnerable and learn how to love and be open and support each other.  Learning to be humble is inescapable.  I feel like your communication with other people is so limited, that when you need someone you have to turn to God. 

It is so true about friends.  We have a 'dealing with stress' booklet here in the mission and one of the suggestions that is supposed to help you is: "befriend your companion".  I liked this because first of all, I have experienced this and it helps, but second, I like how it shows us that it is a choice that we make to be a friend, and it is the Christlike path.  Third, I like it because I know that God put us here on this earth and he meant for us to be and have friends.  That is how he left us not so alone.  He also realizes that we are all really different but that we all have a tenderness in our nature that can reach out and care for another child of God even if they are different from us.  We need more love in this world and we need to take care of all of God's children.  Sometimes it's the ones that act like they don't need to be loved that need love the most.  :)  It's true. 

I'm already starting to drink water because I need to be a little more hydrated for sports today than I was last week ;)  I love playing sports and I have a lot of friends that I get to see mondays. 

I love you guys and I'll talk to you soo soon!!

Love, Hna. Christensen!

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