Hermana Emilia Christensen

Emily sent the following email and pictures on Monday, Nov. 10, 2014:

Hey mom! Hey dad! Ok, I am so happy to hear from you! :)

Ok, news! So, did you like my hesitant schedule that you guys come here on the 16 (tuesday) and get me and then we spend wednesday and thursday running around trying to track people down and then drive home on the 19th??? Remember how I told you that I invited German and Francisca to come and visit us?? I think they are really thinking about it. Work for them is almost an unmovable obstacle, but Francisca told me that German, who knows how, got a whole week off. I urged Francisca to ask her boss if she can take off friday and Monday so that they could hopefully drive home with us Friday, stay Saturday and Sunday, and then drive back Monday.

I know this sounds crazy, but it's actually soooooooo cool! They have never been out of California and they will never have a better chance. They will never have work off like this. There will never be as many fun and festive things happening in utah and temple square will never be prettier. I know it seems like such a big thing, but I know this would be a dream vacation for them and it would be so much fun for us too. Is this ok with you guys? I invited them in all seriousness because I didn't think you would have any problem with it, but I realized that I never actually asked you. It'll be crazy because I will have my two worlds crashed together! First you guys will be here running around California with me and then they will be in Utah, having the time of their lives. We could just spoil them so much! Do you realize how fun this could be? :) We could make them yummy treats for December and Christmas, introduce them to snow or take them sledding, take them to do baptisms for the dead for the first time, show them temple square and let them listen to music. It doesn't seem like it could really happen, but...WHAT DO YOU THINK? Can we give them a dream vacation? :) They would love to hear you play the piano and see the pageant that you always do at church. We could find out what will be happening on temple square and we could take them to grammy and bompa's and show them fruit and cook with them.

This week has been one of the longest weeks ever!

This week we had MLC (Mission Leadership Conference) and mostly talked about the mission plan for 2014 and what it should include for 2015. It's crazy because about 90 missionaries will go home in the next 3 transfers. (almost half the mission) We are a really old mission. Each of these coming transfers will take so many missionaries. And then our mission will be replenished with all new missionaries in the summer and the mission will get a new mission president then. CRAZY!

We sought a lot of revelation for our ZTM (Zone Training Meeting) and we trained on Coordination mtg, Ward council, and mission plans (from MLC). From our own creation, we talked about working with members, but more specifically have adventures misionales (missionary adventures!). This is when a member comes out with us for a couple of hours and we really don't know what we are going to find! We might have lessons and they might fall through, but then we'll contact or knock or try to find people that will let us in to teach a lesson. Marketing it as a missionary adventure should be helpful to us as missionaries because then we aren't quite as uncomfortable when things don't go as planned and it makes it exciting! ;) Just like how before teaching a new investigator we would do a "how to begin teaching", we will have a how to begin adventuring. We'll prep them with what they will encounter, why we do it, what they can do, etc. People were really excited!

We also trained on setting baptismal dates. Pretty much every lesson should be a baptism lesson. We talked about strategies to use to help people understand our purpose and feel really comfortable talking about baptism.

I have really had to look at what I'd like to get done with the time that I have. There are a couple of people that I'd really like to see make it to baptism before I have to leave: Romonita, Angel, Mauricio (!), Dulce y familia, and Isabelle. They are our focuses. There are 2 menus families that I'd like to strengthen and Hna Higuera needs a testimony of the Book of Mormon.

Sometimes I don't realize that I'm ever going to leave and sometimes I feel really weird. I know that I will do everything I can to help these investigators progress while still maintaining our finding efforts. It is so hard to prioritize your time because it just feels like you hardly have any time. It is hard because returning to apts with potentials feels like such an unproductive use of time because I want to make every hour count. I don't know. I'm probably just babbling now.

We've dropped our investigators that probably won't progress and we want to see more from some of the people we do have.

I can't believe that Sammy is already 1/4 done with his mission. Where did HIS time go?!?

I love you both so much! I am trying to look ahead and see what preparations I need to make for when you guys come here. Don't get your hopes up too much. This little patch of California is actually pretty ghetto and dirty. I'm sure the only reason I love it is because I'm here on a mission! We might not find anyone home or they might not remember me! But we'll give it a go and you'll get a good dose of culture, I hope :)

Love, your favorite,

Hermana Christensen