New missionaries, small trees and English Bulldogs‏

Yet another week down. Here are a few of the exciting things that happened this week.

With transfers we had a new Elder come to our branch, Elder Hsu (pronounced shoe more or less). He has spent the last 20 months of his mission in Chinese work, and has now been transferred to Spanish work. He is throwing himself into learning the language and always has a smile on his face. An explanation on to how this came about, the California Arcadia mission is now qualified as a bilingual mission, English and Spanish. So here Elder Hsu is.

We also got to go up to the mountains for a service project and water baby trees. It was super fun, I haven't done good honest hard labor in a while, and the view was beautiful. It was a little bit of a nice
mental break, and we got to know the zone a little bit better. And there were two big dogs, who were very sweet.

Speaking of dogs we met one this week that was a little less friendly. We were meeting with one of our investigators and her family's English bulldog slipped through her legs and went straight for Hermana Glenn. Fortunately he wasn't able to latch onto her and she walked away with
just a small scratch, a pretty nice looking bruise and a good story. Still, not a fun thing to watch.

In other news Blanca is still doing well. She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying. She is having a little bit of trouble coming to church but we are trying to help her with that. She is also super
interested in learning more about her family history so an Hermana in the ward is helping her out.

With everything else we are dealing with playing the piano in sacrament meeting (Hermana Glenn and I are switching off week now), investigators not keeping their commitments or flaking on appointments and the general missionary life. We did see a few miracles this week, like actually making and then bypassing our goals, and a few less actives we though would never come to church coming. Basically life is continuing.

Thank you for all you do!

Hermana Anna Christensen

All quiet on the Azusa Front‏

                                                                     My roommates

                                                              Our nutty little district

Another transfer call night has come and gone here in the California Arcadia mission, and it was a fairly quiet one in our pad. None of us (Hermana Glenn and I, and the English sisters) are leaving. There was much rejoicing when none of us got the call. There is just so much for us to do together here. Two elders in my district were transferred however, Elder Bair is being sent to Pasadena and our district leader Elder Bardsley is going back over to East LA. Elder Bardsley was also the branch pianist, so Hermana Glenn has stepped up. I had better start practicing too, just in case.

The run down of the past few weeks..

Zone meetings and zone activities: we had a wonderful zone meeting where we learned a little more about aligning our wills to the will of the Lord and then helping those people we work with to do the same. We have learned a lot lately about making sure we are converted, because we can't convert people past our own conversion. Then last Monday we had a zone activity with pizza, ice cream and volleyball. It's always fun to see different missionaries than the ones I usually see.

Progressing investigators! We have almost more progressing investigators than we know what to do with! We are still teaching Joaquin, who is progressing fairly well, then we also added Blanca, Mario and his son, and Maria. It's so interesting to see how all of these people found the gospel. We contacted Joaquin on my first day in Azusa, Blanca was contacted by the English sisters then sent to us, Mario was a self referral through Mormon.org and Maria was a former we decided to try teaching again because her son is currently being taught by the English sisters and her grandson is being taught by the YSA elders. (Yes there are 3 sets of missionaries visiting that house almost daily, we keep running into each other and accidentally interrupting lessons).

Exchanges: this week we went on exchanges with the sister training leaders, also known as the Azusa 1 sisters or our roommates. Hermana Glenn went with Sister Cardiel to the English area, and Sister Duncan and I went to the Spanish area. It was interesting because Sister Duncan speaks little to no Spanish, and most of the people we teach speak only Spanish. So I did a lot of teaching that day, which was good for me. We also got some help from the members, which was incredible.

Valentines Day: we celebrated Valentine's Day this year by Heart Attacking a few of our MVPs who help us the most with lessons and a few of our investigators. It was so fun! Then later we had the branch Valentine party, (for those who want to know Valentine's Day is usually called día de amor y amistad en español) complete with food, games and a dance. Best of all our investigator Mario and his family came and loved it!

Regional Conference: yesterday we had the wonderful opportunity to listen to a few of the General Authorities over a satellite broadcast to the people in the Pacific areas. It was incredible! Two of my favorite parts were when Sister Oscarson explained that the church is "more than a Christian social club" but is the kingdom of God here on the Earth on preparation for the Second Coming, and when a member of the 70 (can't remember his name and I don't have my notes) talked that every broken thing can be mended through the Atonement of Christ. All of the talks were incredible though.

That about wraps it up for this week, we'll see what this new one has to bring!
Hermana Anna Christensen

I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain‏

My subject line this week comes from a primary song that talks about
baptism and the promises that are made. It seemed fairly appropriate
this week because....

Krystal got baptized yesterday! It also rained for most of the day, but this is what we found when we left the building afterward
So not quite a rainbow, but still good.

And Miracle of miracles, Joaquin not only came to church, he also came to the baptism!

In other news, this week was kind of missionary Sunday, with Elder Castañeda and I speaking, me giving the special musical number, and finally with the presentation of the ward mission plan. All in all it was an awesome day.

Thank you for all of the love and support!
Hermana Christensen

When Tuesday becomes P-day‏

Hello all! No I am not breaking the rules by e-mailing on Tuesday
instead of Monday, it's just that our P-day was moved this week
because of interviews with Presidente. So here are the highlights of
this week.

Worldwide mission conference- this week every missionary in the world
received training from the Church Missionary Committee, which is
headed by Elder Dallin H Oaks of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles. It was
incredible. Various members of the committee went over the basic
fundamentals of missionary work. The main focus of the conference was
teaching repentance and baptizing converts. That really is what
missionary work is all about, helping people repent and build their
faith in Christ in order to become converted.

Chincha scare- since about Christmas Hermana Glenn has been getting
these strange insect bites all over her body. She has mostly been
ignoring them, thinking they would go away. Instead however it has
been getting worse. This week we decided we should probably figure out
what it is. Unfortunately the first people we asked happened to be the
elders, who told us chinchas, or in English, bedbugs. It kind of
freaked Hermana Glenn out, who decided that she needed to wash all her
bedding that night, and we also decided we needed some more
professional advice. One of the housing inspectors came and checked
out the pad and the bites and the good news is that it's not bed bugs!
The bad news is we still have no idea what is eating Hermana Glenn
alive.

Noche de Juegos- as a missionary activity for this month we held a
game night, which was so much fun! It was also a huge success because
not only investigators, but some less active members came and loved
it! Possibly the highlight of the night was the final game of musical
chairs which was very intense. The last two standing happened to be
Elder Casteñeda and Hermana Glenn. Hermana Glenn won.

Our golden investigator is almost too golden- in missionary speak a
golden investigator is someone who keeps all the commitments, and is
progressing towards baptism almost instantly. We are currently
teaching one by the name of Joaquin. We got thrown for a loop though
when he told us that he and his family had been baptized when he was a
child, and then almost instantly stopped going to church. However a
search in the church records revealed nothing, and so we will continue
teaching him as an investigator, and help him progress towards his
baptism on the 21 of February!

Temple- the definite highlight of this week was getting to visit the
temple grounds and visitor's center with Krystal, who is getting
baptized this Sunday. She is honestly incredible. So many people are
so excited for her baptism, and is was amazing to be on the temple
grounds with her and to hear how excited she was, not only for her
baptism, but what will come after, going through the temple, going on
a mission, and eventually being sealed for time and all eternity.

I hope all of you are doing well. Have a better than average week!

Hermana Anna Christensen

Hermana, we're missionaries!‏

Hello out there,

We had an awesome week here in Azusa! It was perfect for so many reasons. First of all the weather was perfect all week long, no rain, just sunshine and a little breeze. Though now I'm looking out the
window and it looks like we're in for more rain tonight. Oh well, we enjoyed it while it lasted.

This week was also good because of the work. And there was certainly plenty of it to do this week. We found ourselves running straight from lesson to lesson quite a few times this week, with a personal record of 10 lessons in a day on Saturday. Here are some of the highlights:

We picked up an awesome new investigator named Juaquin. We contacted him my first day here, and we both didn't think he was too interested. However in our first lesson with him he explained that he has been looking for answers in his life, and he doesn't believe that things happen by accident, so he feels like we have been sent to him by God. He is super excited to learn more and act on what we ask him to do.

Hermana Glenn and I were able to see the benefits of being in tune with the spirit. There are small manifestations of it, like Hermana Glenn picking the song I wanted to sing for companionship study when it's her turn to pick or getting out of a tight parking spot without scraping up the car. There are also of course the bigger manifestations of it, like helping a member of the English Ward find a ride home from Target where she was stranded, or actually making it to all of our lessons on time, some just before the person we wanted to teach was leaving so we were still able to teach them. There are so many tender mercies of the Lord, and many times He works through other people to bless His children.

We just loved being missionaries this week. Multiple times this week we would just look at each other and one of us would say, "Hermana we're missionaries!" And both of us would be just so excited about it. In district meeting this week we talked a lot about the missionary purpose and how we can bless other people. One of my favorite quotes says "The work of our missionaries is a magnificent expression of the Lord's redeeming love." And really that's what missionary work is, love. Missionaries are happy when they love the people, love the work, and love being obedient. And I feel like that is what we are doing right now in Azusa. I feel like even if we weren't having lessons and the work was being rough, I would still love it, because you know what, I'm a missionary!

I hope all of you had a wonderful week as well! You are all often in my prayers. Thank you for all you do!

Hermana Anna Christensen

First week in Azusa‏

Hermana Glenn asked me this week what my first impressions of Azusa were. My answer was wet. We got rained on both Tuesday and Wednesday this week. Streets flooded, we got soaked, all those good things. But Thursday dawned bright and clear and we still had a great week.

We had a ton of lessons this week. There are a lot of great people here in this area. We do a lot of less active work, but we are still working with a lot of investigators. We are teaching this amazing young woman right now named Krystal. She is the best. Her parents gave
her permission to be baptized for Christmas and so she will be baptized on the 31! She is so sweet and has such a strong testimony. It is such a blessing to be able to teach and learn from her.

I can't think of anything else to share right now, but I hope all of you had a wonderful week! Stay dry if it's raining!

Hermana Anna Christensen

"Behold, O Lord, their souls are precious, and many of them are our brethren; therefore, give unto us, O Lord, power and wisdom that we may bring these, our brethren, again unto thee."
-Alma 31:35

"¡He aquí, sus almas son preciosas, oh Señor, y muchos de ellos son nuestros hermanos; por tanto, danos, oh Señor, poder y sabiduría para que podamos traer a estos, nuestros hermanos, nuevamente a ti!"
-Alma 31:35

New year, new area‏

Hola a todos! Feliz año nuevo!

Along with my new goals for this year I also got to start out in a new
area! That's right transfers have come, and I once again have moved
areas. I am now in the Canyon Branch, which covers Azusa and part of
Irwindale, with my new companion Hermana Glenn. I was sad to leave San
Gabriel, but I'm super excited to see what this new area will bring.

Here's a rundown of my last week in San Gabriel:

Tuesday: possibly the worst day ever. We got locked out of the
apartment, we met some incredibly creepy guys and we got lost and
ended up on the frontage road. That was also the day that Hermana
Austin got the call telling her that she would be training this next
transfer. All in all it was a long and stressful day.

Wednesday: we got to get up at 5:00 am to go to a meeting at the
mission office. It was cold it was dark and the buses were late. But
the meeting really helped out Hermana Austin, and I got to spend a
good amount of time talking to a friend of mine from Rimgrove, Hermana
Packard. We were both exhausted but it was a good day.

Thursday: we started out with district meeting, then went to help an
Hermana make tamales. Then we had lunch/dinner with our ward mission
leader. We made a lot of really good plans to help the work move
forward in the Ward. The food was also super good.

Friday: weekly planning, we were both super stressed out so a good
portion of it was spent in companionship inventory trying to help each
other destress. Though we also did clean out the area book a little,
which was very much needed. To end out the day we heart attacked a few
of the members.

Saturday: we spent the day in El Monte trying to find potentials and
less active members. Then we got home just in time for transfer calls.
It was nice because I didn't really have time to stress about it too
much, I just walked in the door and the call came. Elder Grisham has
also been transferred, he is heading out to Tajunga, so Elder Moncayo
and Hermana Austin are holding down to fort in San Gabriel.

Sunday: we just visited a few of the members and investigators I had
gotten close with during my time here. Then we ran home so I could
pack. It was also testimony meeting so I was able to bear my testimony
to the Ward one last time.

All in all it was a very full week. I'm excited now to see what
adventures await me here in Azusa.

Hermana Anna Christensen

                                                                   Making tamales

                                                 One last photo with the Chinese sisters.

The view from out the window in my new apartment. Hello mountains!