Hermana Emilia Christensen

Emily sent us the following email and pictures on Tuesday, October 21, 2014:

*big sigh....

somehow I made it until this day. Yesterday we had interviews with the royal man [i.e. President Hall]. He is so great! I don't exactly know what we talked about because it was just 10 minutes, but he told me to enjoy the time I have left and be careful about setting too high of goals that aren't possible to finish in my amount of time. He told me that we want to do more than good, but that we want to be good. I am going to spend probably the majority of my time studying and really trying to make sure that i acquire attributes of Christ. (PMG 6)

I told him I didn't ever want to stop being a missionary. He told me that that would change. I cried. And then he gave me a hug. I love the president.

Wow! Sounds like you [Peter] and Skib had a really fun daddy-daughter adventure! I really liked the picture of both of you :) I like being off about "my Father's Work" it's really nice. And probably to other people, I've dropped off the face of the earth and I am lost somewhere in California. I am feeling good about the things that I am doing. It's true that my teaching and finding skills should be the best right now that they've been up until this point because I've been out for the most amount of time, but I've learned that God really is the one that supplies the miracles and so sometimes it is when we feel like we should have the most success that we have a major trial of our faith. We are doing really well, but we need to be diligent with our daily contact and bold with our invitations. We are having such a great moment in our missions.

German and Francisca finally have a date to enter into the temple. It took so much work to get to this point because first German had some fears and inadequacies he had to understand, and then there was the coordinating to get him the priesthood and take those classes and then the classes for the temple. they still haven't started those, but after being persistent, our matter was treated, and they are going to make sure they come 2 times a week to receive the classes so that they can enter in the temple on the 29th of november. Francisca is excited to find a white dress that she can wear. We are going to go look at Burlington Coat factory after we email because....well hopefully we can find a dress there. I don't know what they can afford, but I don't think it will be very much. We are going to see if we can talk to enough friends in the ward and put together a pot luck reception so that they can have food without that being another expense for them. YAYY!! IT is going to happen!

The familia Higuerra is about the cutest thing you've ever seen. The three little kids are going to get baptized on the 2 of November. The smallest one, Abraham, is about the most precious little thing you've ever seen. We had a wonderfully fun and humorous lesson with them. We taught them the plan of Salvation and the older brother was there too. He has left the church and is only there on weekends. He asked some insightful questions, which showed that he feels the spirit when we are there and knows we are sharing truths. He wanted to know if you could move kingdoms after judgement. After clarifying his question, we answered it. I think the straightforwardness of 'no' caught everyone a little off guard. (Don't worry; it was appropriate) :) We asked Abraham if he wanted to follow Jesus. He nodded and said yes. We asked him why. I don't think his siblings will let him live down getting a little choked up when he answered that it was because he wanted to go to Heaven instead of Hell.

This family loves the movies and it was all I could do to keep reverent when hna asked them if they know where where the spirits go after death...Shebalba!

I know that every one has to have some large challenge. I don't know exactly what it will be for this family. Maybe that the mom isn't quite ready to come and be really active in the church. Or maybe she kinda is. She is a mystery. I know the dad is worried that the older son is too set in his ways that he won't listen to us. He should've been pleasantly surprised by how interested his son was. He wouldn't agree to read the scripture with the rest of his family, but he did agree to pray and smiled when we committed him to pray for the desire to read in the scriptures.

The whole family has such good manners. The older son, (Emanuel or Manny; almost 21 years old) walked us out to our car. When you come, we'll have to make sure we visit them at night because it is so much more fun and creepy and halloweeny to make your way to where they live. There are a lot of people here in California that have some pretty strange ideas. A trendy idea that many will latch onto is that religion in general is a government conspiracy. We talked to manny and by the end of our conversation, he understood the BOM and the clarity of our message and agreed to read it!

We had another marvelous lesson with Mauricio. He is already reading 1 nefi 13 and his comprehension is incredible!

We spend the majority of yesterday doing role plays with the missionaries as they came to have interviews.

We spent the majority of Saturday setting up for a wedding. It blew my mind how much works goes into just doing the simplest things! The bride was very happy to be married after many years of living with her husband and kids.

Sunday was super great! The Higuerra family came and was sooo excited to see us! Walter Madrid kept his promise and somehow made it to the church! He didn't make it with his family, but we need to celebrate that he made it! Walter is so funny! He has a very childlike ability to seem pleased with simple things. He kept appearing pleasantly surprised that he was at church and around lots of other nice people. Someone stood up in Relief Society and cried because 2 angels (hna y yo) had come to her house and helped her and her family set some goals (ward mission plan). It was just a good Sunday!

Romonita had a lesson and we invited the bishop. That went well. she is thinking about getting married to Jorge in January. We'll have to try to get that to happen much sooner!

I went on another great exchange with Hna. Glauser! She is one of the cutest, sweetest, most incredible girls. She is always giving to others. She is such a hard worker. I feel like she has really worked to be able to treat others and love others like Christ would. Spending time with her was a huge blessing for me.

Is there anything else i need to answer...... :) I love you guys!

BESOS, Hermana Christensen