Sister Christensen's "Eh" Team
​Canada Edmonton Mission
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A whole heap of stories!

11/24/2015

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Hello!

We had so many things happen this week! I hope this isn't too many
stories for you! I couldn't narrow it down!

We had our second lesson with T! We taught her about Joseph Smith,
the Book of Mormon, prophets, she just loved it all! She has so many
questions, but she loves that we are still receiving revelation from
God! She still has a long road ahead of her, but she has agreed to be
baptized!!! We don't have a date yet because of other commitments she
has at her current church, but it's going to happen!!

A sweet woman we met this week is Sister N. She is from Olds, but
she and her husband have a house in Gull Lake, and they are in
transition to moving to Dubai! This woman is so incredibly close to
the Spirit! She has no idea why they are moving to Dubai, she just
knows that that is where the Lord needs them! They have sold their
house, started selling furniture, and are preparing to move forward
with this plan! Her faith and diligence to the Lord has been so
inspiring to me! We went to her cabin to help organize her sewing
room, (she's a quilter! Mom and Grandma C would be in heaven!) and we
spent the whole time listening to the numerous experiences she has had
with Heavenly Father. I hope to one day have the same relationship she
does with Him!

A small little miracle we witnessed this week was with Sister R.
Her husband was the one that passed away a few weeks ago, and she's a
horse dentist! Our investigator lesson fell through so we decided to
go see her. Turns out she was in dire need of help with a blog and
Twitter! I can fix that! I helped a 62 year old lady tweet for the
first time! What a blast! She is one of the sassiest ladies I've ever
met, and we get along famously! She has been praying for help, and
guess who showed up at her doorsteps. The Lord really does work in
mysterious ways!

Saturday was Super Saturday! It's amazing what becomes a big event
when you're a missionary.. 😂 We had a less-active member making soap
for one of the activities so we signed up! It's not nearly as adorable
as your soap mom, but it was fun to make. We were listening to
Christmas music, and just chatting like Relief Society sisters do. It
was a nice stress reliever! And I ended up being the DJ, so life was
great! We also got to teach a class on making candy cane lollipops.
There's white chocolate in the middle and dang it was so good!

Sunday was the re-dedication of the Montreal Quebec temple. Ah it was
wonderful! The chapel became an extension of the temple, and you
really could feel a difference! We went to the 7 am session and the 10
am session. While it is the same prayer, you get something different
out of each time, just like the temple! Something that really
resonated with me was how in the Old Testament, the temple was always
built on a mountain. Now it's not always the case, but symbolically,
we venture up the mountains of life to go to the house of the Lord. I
have really been missing my mountains, and now I know that I have the
strength of the temple to represent my mountain!

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to be trained in family history, and
I found a name! Elizabeth Godfrey! She is the only one in her family
that hasn't received anything! How sad is that! Aimee, I would love to
help you get the baptism stuff so then I can do the initiatory and
endowment, and then mom and dad could do the sealing! So dang cool!
Something they mentioned in the temple dedication was that while the
work is strong here, the work on the other side is working 10x faster!
So we've got to do our part by helping them receive the ordinances
they have accepted!

I love Canada! I feel so blessed to be serving my Heavenly Father.
We've become the best of friends, and I have loved the quiet time I
have had with Him. I know that he loved all of his children, and I
love that I get a small glimpse of that love for my investigators and
those I teach. Have an amazing week! I love you all!

Sister Bethany Christensen
#blessed

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Josh Turner came to visit me!

11/17/2015

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Yep, the man voice has returned! It started out as just a typical cold
weather cold. Then came the congestion, then the coughing, and now we
have the voice of a bass! It has been pretty comedic, especially when
they asked us to come to choir! I definitely sat in the Alto section!
I have attached a video to prove my voice! Being sick is no fun, but
anything is better than what I had in the MTC!
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Our first lesson with T was amazing! We taught her the plan of
salvation, which is a tough thing to start with! She had never heard
of the Book of Mormon, and so trying to explain that really quickly
was tough! But we were able to use both the Bible and the Book of
Mormon to explain the plan of happiness. She had so many questions,
and she has an incredible knowledge of the Bible. She was really
checking our knowledge! I felt like nothing we were saying made any
sense, but thank goodness the Spirit is the real teacher! Although we
didn't answer all of her questions, the Spirit was so strong, and
she's just dying to know more. She gave the most beautiful prayer at
the end! It is amazing how quickly you can learn to love someone,
especially in the Lord's work! She's definitely one of those people I
feel like I was supposed to find on my mission.

Friday was quite the interesting day! It started out as a normal day,
and I was doing great! But then we started singing Silent Night before
our companion study, and before I knew it, I was a mess! It was like
someone poured a bucket of memories over my head! All these family
Christmas parties and moments came flooding in my mind, and I was just
overcome with emotion! Of course a little homesickness came into play,
but the emotion was gratitude! I feel so so blessed to have had these
beautiful and sacred memories with my family! I'm slowing starting to
see just how lucky I am to have such a strong and close family! We
teach people that the gospel blesses families, and my family is a
fulfillment of that promise. Our families can become a solid
foundation in the craziness the world has to offer. I am so truly
blessed!

Friday got even better! We were going to go to Rimbey to visit 2 less
active members. About an hour before we were going to leave, we
realized that we needed someone to go with us because we were going to
see a brother! Duh! So we called and called so many people, and after
exhausting all of our options, we decided to call Sister W who
lived in Bentley. She's in her late 60's early 70's and we thought we
should give it a shot. She was quite hesitant, but finally said yes.
So we pick her up, and she tells us that she is preparing a sacrament
meeting talk about yielding our heart to God. So she had to say yes!
We were so happy she came! She knew both of these members, and it
really broke the ice! It was a great experience, and it gave her some
great material for her talk!

Saturday was Q's bridal shower! Still blows my mind! It was a
blast, and they even had me run the games because her sister was sick.
We had so much fun, and I just adore that girl.

I realized something amazing this week! The John Tanner story is on
the gospel library app! Watching it again, it brought me to tears! I
am so grateful for everything he did, and I love that I get to claim
him as my Great great great great grandfather! He witnesses and
performed miracles. I love how powerful family history really is.

Well I hope you have had an amazing week, and thank you for accepting
my challenges! This next week's is a great one! ☺️ I love you all!

Sister Bethany Christensen
#blessed


OK people... this is way above my pay grade!!  The two videos that I've loaded on this blog that go in upside down have been loaded the same way as the ones that are right side up... so the only thing that makes sense to me is she must be videoing it differently?  Sorry!  wish I knew how to fix it! 
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Ashes in a Camouflage Urn & Harley Riders

11/10/2015

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Hello!

An interesting title for this week comes from the funeral we were able to help with on Wednesday. A less active member's husband passed away, he was in his 70's. He used to be an amazing member of the church, but then fell into inactivity, and started hangin out with his "biker dudes." It made for an interesting mix of people at the funeral! But his family did an amazing job of having both humor and testimony. It was one of the best funerals I've been to! The two hymns we sang were Abide with Me, tis Eventide and God Be With You till We Meet Again.... Not cool! I almost lost it, but I kept it together! It was a beautiful service full of wonderful stories about his life. 

Something I've been focusing my efforts on this week is how we can best serve the members of our ward and build relationships with them. We have a very dedicated ward council, and I want them to know that they can trust us! We've really been trying to reach out to the families we are assigned to, and then reporting back our efforts. I want to show that although we are young, we are capable of completing tasks efficiently! 

We have a new investigator named T! She works at the Home Hardware! One of our members works with her, and she referred her to us. She just had a friend in a house fire that is now on life support. It's a really tough situation, but it has sparked a lot of questions about the Pre-Mortal life and the After life. She wants to know if there is anyway her friend can be saved because her friend doesn't acknowledge God. Golden question! We are teaching her the Plan of Salvation on Wednesday! I love her so so much already. I feel like she is "my" investigator! I can't wait to see where this journey takes her. She's an amazing person with a heart of gold. 

A sad thing we experienced yesterday was with a less active member. She has expressed to us that she has very strong feelings against the church. But she has always been very welcoming to us. We had supper at her house last night, and when we asked if we could share a message with her, she informed us that based off of what the church did this week and many other things, she is officially having her name removed from the records of the church. She expressed that it had nothing to do with us, and we are still welcome in her home. She then gave us the paper work to give to bishop. This is heavy stuff! It broke my heart! I'm not sure what has happened in her life to cause such strong feelings, but I know that she is just one of many who will choose to leave.

I know that this policy addition is extremely controversial and the farthest thing from popular, but if we really trust in Heavenly Father, then it doesn't matter what we think. This isn't our church, it is His. We chose of our own free will and choice to take His name upon us, and now we need to defend it! I know that this policy change is for the benefit of all men everywhere, although it doesn't seem as so. When we raised our arm to the square just a few weeks ago, we sustained the first presidency and twelve apostles as prophets! And we vowed to support them. We already made our decision! We sustain them, and we support them. Regardless of world view and opinion. Being a Latter Day Saint isn't easy, but who ever said it would be?? I know that the Lord will give us the strength to stand up for His gospel if we commit to doing so. We must be devout defenders of the restored gospel in all topics and situations. I'll step off of my soapbox now, but I hope you will reflect on where your testimony stands. ️ 

I love my Savior so so much. I already feel like I don't have enough time to study His teachings, and I have more study time than ever!  I am so beyond grateful for His endless love and grace. It has carried me this week through the thick of all the craziness. He really gets it! And I know he is always looking out for me. This gospel is so true! And I love that I get to represent the greatest big brother in the world. I hope you guys had a great week. I can't wait to hear all about it! 

With love, 
Sister Bethany Christensen
#blessed
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Even IHOP in Canada is Great!

11/3/2015

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Ah so many miracles this week! I wish I could just blurt it all out to
you! I hardly know where to start!

Our sister training meeting was amazing. We talked about President
Nelson's talk, A Plea to My Sisters, and how it applies to us as
missionaries! It is such an incredible talk. Women in the church have
such a sacred responsibility, and it isn't something to take lightly.
But it is so important to remember that we are completely capable of
achieving what is required of us. The Lord created us, and with that
came the ability to be powerful women! The church just released an
article about our Mother in Heaven. Read it!! It is amazing.

Saturday was such an incredible day. We started out by visiting a
recent convert, S. Love her! She is in her 40's and her family
has basically disowned her for joining the church, but she's still
going strong! We then taught a lesson to our investigator J! And we
have set a baptism date!! 🎊🎉🎊🎉 November 28th! It was a great
lesson, and we had it at a less active family's house, the Ds.
They have 5 kids, 2 of them have autism so church is really hard. But
we got them to church on Sunday! Trying to keep those kids busy was a
challenge! But we loved it. Back to Saturday, we had supper at our
investigators house, B. Of course this is Halloween, so during
dinner, we would hear the door bell. And B's wife, L, would just
leap out of her chair and run to the door! Probably one of the most
enthusiastic candy distributors I've ever seen! They are sweet people.
We still don't have a baptism date for him, but he is continuing to
read the Book of Mormon and pray!

A few fun facts about my week!
-went to Tim Horton's for the first time! Best donut I've ever had!
- we carved pumpkins with a hand drill! #canada
- we didn't make it to the temple because of traffic, but we had a
blast eating dinner at IHOP!
- because of all that amazing candy you sent me in my amazing greenie
package, I now have to limit myself to 1 candy a day!
- I taught sister Lee how to refill the windshield wiper fluid! Haha
- Now that Halloween and Thanksgiving are over, it's Christmas music!!

The best part about this week- we had exchanges!!! So for 24 hours, I
got to be with one of the sister training leaders, Sister Holbrook.
She is from Virginia, and she goes home in 2 weeks! 24 hours was not
enough, because she has so much that she can teach me!
One of the miracles we saw yesterday started by our decision to go
knock on the door of someone who was a "do not contact." I had never
met these people, and so I thought it was worth a shot! If nothing
else, a great story was going to come out of it! So we knocked on the
door, and soon found out that they had moved! This 20 something girl
answered the door, and so I asked her if we could share a message with
her. She let us in, and we found out that she is seventh day
Adventist, and she attends the university here. She, N, talked
about how she has come to know God, and we had an amazing conversation
about it! She said she didn't know much about our religion so we
shared a few things, and then Sister Holbrook blew my mind with the
next part!  N said she doesn't really read, and of course I had
no idea how to tell her, "well I have this 531 page book that you
should read anyway!" Sister Holbrook talked about how she had friends
in college who would start out their studies with reading from the
Book of Mormon for 5 minutes, and they saw a major improvement in
their school work and invited her to try it! Genius! She anxiously
accepted, and we got her info to come back. AMAZING! This work is so
inspired! What an great miracle we were able to be a part of!
Yesterday we also turned two of our potential investigators into
investigators! We are meeting with both of them on Friday!

We worked our tails off yesterday, and it felt so good! I want to just
be exhausted when I come home, and it was an amazing feeling to do
that. During my personal study yesterday, I studied Brad Wilcox's
talk, His Grace is Sufficient. It only gets better the more you read
it! It's pretty incredible to be working in such close proximity with
people, and to see how the Atonement is changing them. I get to
witness the enabling power of grace every single day! I know there are
so many things that I could never accomplish out here. But the grace
of Jesus Christ doesn't make all the difference, it is the difference!
Those that willingly accept the Atonement into their lives, those who
embrace the change, are blessed with an enabling power that is
unlimited! I know that the Atonement is infinite and grace is endless.
Jesus Christ is remarkable, and I love Him so much! I know that
Heavenly Father does not care at all what your current circumstances
are, he loves you and will always love you! And he is always waiting
with open arms. And I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

I love you all so much! I miss you tremendously! But being on the
Lord's errand, there is no place I would rather be.

With love,

Sister Bethany Christensen
#blessed

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    We are Sister Christensen's mom and twin sister.  Aka: Mama S & Aimee  We will be updating this blog with emails, photos, and adventures from Sis. Christensen

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