Hello All!
It has been a beautiful week filled with, you guessed it, more miracles!! Haha you think I would be used to this by now, but I'm blown away every week! I'll start off with exchanges on Tuesday and Wednesday.
I had a great exchange with Sister B! She is from Herriman, Utah, and she's such a blast to be around! Our exchange was a bit insane. We went to a member's house Wednesday morning to have a lesson with a less active woman. Lessons are usually a challenge with this member because she is not short of opinions. Well, this time, she was outrageously opinionated! By the end, her and the other members were debating about unfair treatment in medical facilities! We both had no clue how to bring the lesson back, so we decided to sing "Nearer My God, to Thee." The Spirit came back, and we were ready to finish the lesson. Then, the less active member asked us, "do you know how that song got famous?" I was terrified of her answer. Haha The Titanic! This sent her off into another rant about how every movie that depicted the Titanic left it out.... What a gong show! We were exhausted by the end of the lesson, but now we had to go to lunch with this same member.
I got to experience another first on my mission, Ukrainian food! I've had perogies a few times, but now I got to experience the real deal. We had to start with a traditional soup called Bortche. (I literally have no clue how to spell these words! hahaha) It's made from beets, carrots, cabbage, and some other various vegetables. Haha It was very interesting! Then we had a Kubbie Patty with cabbage rolls and cheddar biscuits. My one word to describe it would be thick. Haha and we can't leave without dessert! Which was a mango/peach pie slice bigger than my face! By the end, I had decided that I wouldn't eat food for three days! Hahah it was probably one of the most memorable lunches I've had on my mission! And to make sure we would remember, she gave us a giant sausage to split! Hahaha you'll see it in the pictures from this week. I promise there were some spiritual moments on this exchange! But this was by far the most memorable part! It was great that Sister B has a great sense of humor!
One of the miracles we had happen was on Sunday night. We were with a member going to an appointment, and it was in the same building as an investigator, L, that I had taught when I was on exchanges with Sister H, and he was being passed over by Sister A and Sister F. He was so prepared! In the middle of the lesson, he asked what he needed to do to follow Jesus Christ. We just knew he was ready to go! Sadly, after that lesson, the sisters weren't able to get a hold of him. We were telling this story to this member as we walked up to the building. There was a man outside smoking, and the closer we got, the more familiar he looked. President! It was L!! He doesn't even live there anymore, he was at the building for literally 5 minutes to pick up some things from his old apartment! We were both almost in tears as we started talking to him. He was just as blown away as we were. He had gotten a new phone and lost our number. He still wants to learn, and we are seeing him next week when he gets back from Calgary. I'm seriously so blown away by Heavenly Father. He personally knows every single person we talk to. And He will help us find them.
The man we were going to teach that night is also super prepared! His name is J, and he has been through every phase of a rough life that you can imagine. Motorcycle gangs, drugs, prison, the whole nine yards! He has a friend who is the ward mission leader in another ward here in Edmonton, and he reached out to him and expressed his desire to find God in his life. Fun side note! Remember by investigator in Lacombe, L? The ex-boxer who was an alcoholic and a scaffolder? J is just like him!!!! I couldn't believe it! It's like I'm teaching L all over again! I love it. We were able to talk to J about the story of Alma the Younger and how Christ's Atonement can literally transform us. He loved it, and he is so ready to change. We're meeting with him again on Thursday, and I can't wait to see Christ change his life.
One more funny moment of the week. Every thing funny seemed to revolve around Ukrainians this week! We were at the LRT station waiting for the next train, and I approached these two older men and started chatting with them. They had just come from a CFL football game, and so we start chatting away about that. They asked me why I was in Canada, and I explained that I Was a missionary for my church. One of the men, with a thick Ukrainian accent, asked me if I had ever drank alcohol before. I told him I hadn't, and next thing I know, this 70-something year old man is trying to convince me to try partying for a weekend!! Hahahah I couldn't help but laugh. The other man was just shaking his head. He kept saying I was missing out on all this fun, and I told him I have plenty of fun without it, so I can't really be missing out on that much! hahaha needlesss to say, I don't think he was too convincing. I promise I won't be partying anytime soon. Haha
On a more serious note, I want each of you to know how much I love this gospel! It's incredible to watch it change people, and I have noticed a huge change in myself. Over the last 13 months, I have been blessed to meet people in almost every circumstance out there, and if there is one thing I know, it's that Heavenly Father loves every single one of us. It doesn't matter if we acknowledge that love or not, it is and always will be there. It's up to us to embrace that love, which can literally heal our hearts. I'm forever grateful for that love.
I hope each of you will feel of that love and of my love this week! Have a great one!
Sister Bethany Christensen
#blessed
It has been a beautiful week filled with, you guessed it, more miracles!! Haha you think I would be used to this by now, but I'm blown away every week! I'll start off with exchanges on Tuesday and Wednesday.
I had a great exchange with Sister B! She is from Herriman, Utah, and she's such a blast to be around! Our exchange was a bit insane. We went to a member's house Wednesday morning to have a lesson with a less active woman. Lessons are usually a challenge with this member because she is not short of opinions. Well, this time, she was outrageously opinionated! By the end, her and the other members were debating about unfair treatment in medical facilities! We both had no clue how to bring the lesson back, so we decided to sing "Nearer My God, to Thee." The Spirit came back, and we were ready to finish the lesson. Then, the less active member asked us, "do you know how that song got famous?" I was terrified of her answer. Haha The Titanic! This sent her off into another rant about how every movie that depicted the Titanic left it out.... What a gong show! We were exhausted by the end of the lesson, but now we had to go to lunch with this same member.
I got to experience another first on my mission, Ukrainian food! I've had perogies a few times, but now I got to experience the real deal. We had to start with a traditional soup called Bortche. (I literally have no clue how to spell these words! hahaha) It's made from beets, carrots, cabbage, and some other various vegetables. Haha It was very interesting! Then we had a Kubbie Patty with cabbage rolls and cheddar biscuits. My one word to describe it would be thick. Haha and we can't leave without dessert! Which was a mango/peach pie slice bigger than my face! By the end, I had decided that I wouldn't eat food for three days! Hahah it was probably one of the most memorable lunches I've had on my mission! And to make sure we would remember, she gave us a giant sausage to split! Hahaha you'll see it in the pictures from this week. I promise there were some spiritual moments on this exchange! But this was by far the most memorable part! It was great that Sister B has a great sense of humor!
One of the miracles we had happen was on Sunday night. We were with a member going to an appointment, and it was in the same building as an investigator, L, that I had taught when I was on exchanges with Sister H, and he was being passed over by Sister A and Sister F. He was so prepared! In the middle of the lesson, he asked what he needed to do to follow Jesus Christ. We just knew he was ready to go! Sadly, after that lesson, the sisters weren't able to get a hold of him. We were telling this story to this member as we walked up to the building. There was a man outside smoking, and the closer we got, the more familiar he looked. President! It was L!! He doesn't even live there anymore, he was at the building for literally 5 minutes to pick up some things from his old apartment! We were both almost in tears as we started talking to him. He was just as blown away as we were. He had gotten a new phone and lost our number. He still wants to learn, and we are seeing him next week when he gets back from Calgary. I'm seriously so blown away by Heavenly Father. He personally knows every single person we talk to. And He will help us find them.
The man we were going to teach that night is also super prepared! His name is J, and he has been through every phase of a rough life that you can imagine. Motorcycle gangs, drugs, prison, the whole nine yards! He has a friend who is the ward mission leader in another ward here in Edmonton, and he reached out to him and expressed his desire to find God in his life. Fun side note! Remember by investigator in Lacombe, L? The ex-boxer who was an alcoholic and a scaffolder? J is just like him!!!! I couldn't believe it! It's like I'm teaching L all over again! I love it. We were able to talk to J about the story of Alma the Younger and how Christ's Atonement can literally transform us. He loved it, and he is so ready to change. We're meeting with him again on Thursday, and I can't wait to see Christ change his life.
One more funny moment of the week. Every thing funny seemed to revolve around Ukrainians this week! We were at the LRT station waiting for the next train, and I approached these two older men and started chatting with them. They had just come from a CFL football game, and so we start chatting away about that. They asked me why I was in Canada, and I explained that I Was a missionary for my church. One of the men, with a thick Ukrainian accent, asked me if I had ever drank alcohol before. I told him I hadn't, and next thing I know, this 70-something year old man is trying to convince me to try partying for a weekend!! Hahahah I couldn't help but laugh. The other man was just shaking his head. He kept saying I was missing out on all this fun, and I told him I have plenty of fun without it, so I can't really be missing out on that much! hahaha needlesss to say, I don't think he was too convincing. I promise I won't be partying anytime soon. Haha
On a more serious note, I want each of you to know how much I love this gospel! It's incredible to watch it change people, and I have noticed a huge change in myself. Over the last 13 months, I have been blessed to meet people in almost every circumstance out there, and if there is one thing I know, it's that Heavenly Father loves every single one of us. It doesn't matter if we acknowledge that love or not, it is and always will be there. It's up to us to embrace that love, which can literally heal our hearts. I'm forever grateful for that love.
I hope each of you will feel of that love and of my love this week! Have a great one!
Sister Bethany Christensen
#blessed
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