September 19-September 25, 2023-Week 20-Guadalupe

 Title: The bus of miracles!!

This week was my first full week of training. I am not going to lie, it was a harder week for me. It is hard to be the one to plan the whole day, the only one who can (and only slightly) speak the language, who is still trying to figure out how to be a missionary, to teach and lead by example all the time. There were some really hard moments, but we had phone interviews with president this week and he said whenever I am having a harder time to think what the Savior would say if He walked into the room. What came to my mind when He said this was, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter into the rest of the Lord" (Matt. 25:21). The Lord speaks to me through scripture, and I know this is what He would say to me. This does not take away the stress and the urgency to be a missionary, but it gives me the reassurance that the only person's opinion that matters is that of our Savior. He sees our every little effort, and He is our rest. He will make up the difference when we fail and falter and stumble. 

One day, it was a little harder day. A lot of our lessons had fallen through and the lessons we did have were with people who are not really as interested. We were waiting for the bus and walking in the direction of our lesson when it finally passed. I said before we got on "we are getting on this bus to see miracles!", and honestly only said it half heartedly, hoping and doubting a little that it would be true. We get off the bus and enter a neighborhood, and lo and behold, an actual miracle! A friend we were planning to visit canceled because she was going to be in the city, but she had gotten home early and she was on the corner of her street and welcomed us into her house. We had a good lesson with her and she gave us cookies, so really MIRACLES! I am learning more and more that the Lord just needs us to keep going, keep walking, and to especially keep trying. 

We continued to see miracles this weekend after that bus ride with the baptism of our friend, Isaac. This was really cool and special because I have been able to be apart of all his lessons and we are going to watch general conference with him! He was so excited to hear that we get to listen to the prophet this weekend. Another miracle was the brother of a convert in our ward, Jair, who is going to leave for his mission tomorrow, and his brother, Yosmar, literally coming to US asking us to teach him so he could serve a mission like his brother (side note: he is 24 and to serve a mission you have to have your papers in before being 25, so we are going to GET ON THAT haha, but we have three set appointments AND are going to watch general conference with him).  Yet another miracle, going into the home of a single mother, Virginia Nicole, and her understanding the significance of the BOM and asking us to keep coming back and we are going to watch general conference with her. This was such a special lesson, and the spirit was strong, we were all crying by the end. She was so focused and excited to hear this message of hope! And extending many baptismal invites to friends and them wanting to be baptized and prepare for this step!

To top it off, we were taking a taxi ride home last night and Taylor Swift was playing on the radio. So, got to listen to Delicate and sing with the windows down in a country I love, doing something I love so much. “The greatest decision I ever made in my life was to give up something I dearly loved to the God I loved even more. He has never forgotten me for it.” (Pres. Monson, In Search of Treasure, April 2003). He will never forget you.

Funny moment: I am literally eating something at the church for a ward activity and a beloved Hermana, Angeli, of our ward comes up to me in the kitchen when I am hanging out with the Elders and our ward mission leader and says: "hermana christensen, you're looking fatter than when you first got here". I really wanted to respond "well when you only feed me a mountain of rice and fried chicken for two meals for the past four months and I haven't seen or tasted a vegetable either, what do you think is going to happen??" I guess it is a cultural thing just to tell people they are fat, but I am glad it is not in the states. Oh the sacrifices for the mission. Also we had a GRINGO FAMILY move into our ward haha. They show up with their broken Spanish and I end up having to translate for them, but they are very nice but probably having a wholeeeee lot of culture shock here. Everyone in the congregation just thought they were passing through, but nope, they are here to stay with the lovely traffic, power outages, mornings without water, cold showers, and hora Panamanian (Panamanian time) to get accustomed to. 

My baby and her first chicheme

Our recent convert Fidencio and familia Hernandez Tejada -- Eyda, Joel, Lya, Lucas

Elder Verry at our mission correlation! He's from New Zealand

Ward mission activity with Isaac Joel Peralta Edwards!!

Jackie, Vicente, Isaac, and -- parents of Isaac.

Jackie is the women who forgot she was a member .

September 14-September 18, 2023-Week 19-Guadalupe

This week...or past few days, have been good as a missionary. It is pretty weird to now be the senior companion and training and leading out the area since I only have been in Panama for three months. On the bright side, my companion, Hermana Lunt, is great. She is from Arizona, Gilbert área. She went to BYU Idaho for three semesters and studied to be a marriage and family counselor. She has three other siblings and is the second of the four. Her dad served in Honduras and her brother is about to end his mission in Atlanta. We get along well. She is quiet and I think overwhelmed with the mission, but she is going to learn Spanish and to love Panama fast! She is very kind and sweet and understands Spanish. But, it is sometimes hard to teach lessons kind of by myself. Sometimes, well everyday, I feel pretty insufficient. But, I know God has a reason for having me train right out of finishing training and to have me stay in Guadalupe for a transfer more. 

But, I think what I have already learned from these past few days is how great the responsibility is to be a mom. I don't know how all the wonderful women in my life have done it, and I love you all!! Because some mission jargon is that I am now Hermana Lunt's mom in the mission, because she was just born into the mission, haha. Anyways, all she is going to learn falls on my head and she is going to follow my example. This just stresses the example to me to try to be the best disciple of Christ and follower of Him for my future kids one day. It also makes me really grateful for my mom and grandmas, aunts, and Marsha. 

Some funny moments of the week were when..

Hermana Lunt and I were served tejadas, or fried plantains, and she asked ´ïs this fish¨ and when she thought someone was knocking on our door but it was just the fireworks going off. She will have fun getting used to Panama and all the differences in the culture!

Picking up Hermana Lunt from Bella Visita, the chapel in the city, before leaving for our area. Picture with President Forsberg our mission President.

First duro for my baby (Sister Lunt)

September 5-September 13, 2023-Week 18-Guadalupe (Wednesday P-day Because of Transfers)

Title: Four months in the mission!

Hey all!! Today is my last day of my second transfer! If I had to have a theme for this transfer, it would be conversion!

We met so many members who had left the church or had slowly distanced themselves from the church since their baptism. We also worked with many members. I learned that our conversion really requires a daily, consistent effort to stay converted. It is not a one and done thing, but a life long process that requires obedience and sacrifice. Truly in my second transfer, I learned about what kind of disciple of Jesus Christ I want to be after the mission: I want to work with missionaries, always minister, focus more on my family, always be inviting people to the gospel of Jesus Christ, always study my scriptures and pray, and continue to have Christ at the center of my life. 

That being said, here are the crazy news of cambios (changes) for this upcoming transfer. I thought I would leave and go to a new area. But, I get a call from President, which honestly is never that good of a sign, haha, and he asks me if I would like to TRAIN A NEWBIE! I accepted and said yes and we are going to stay here in Guadalupe. I just did not really expect that, especially since there are only 3 other hermanas coming into the mission and I thought someone with a wholeeeee lot more time than me would train. I am excited but would not be lying if I have shed a few tears because of how inadequate and slightly nervous I feel. But, the Lord will provide and President told me to take my call seriously, but not myself too much. The good thing is I know this area well, I can speak Spanish more or less, and the members are really nice. 

I have come to really dislike dogs here. I am sorry to everyone who loves them. I swear they can smell or see that I am a gringa because they do not approach the Panamanians, but always seem to try to kill me. Luckily in one of my near death moments some Panamanians came and saved me. 

Another random highlight is a member gave me Dr. Pepper!! This is a rare commodity and it was so funny because he comes home from school and is just casually drinking Dr. Pepper cream soda and I am like ¨uhhhh excuse me where did you get that,¨ and he pulls out another and gives me one! Life was made in this instant haha!!

But I really love the mission and feel like I am hitting my stride and just loving being here. It is always hot and I am always sweaty, but I really love to teach and invite and focus on what matters most. I read this quote this morning from the Infinite Atonement that said ¨we become like those things we habitually love and admire. And thus, as we study Christ's life and live His teachings, we become more like Him¨. If I can wish for one thing, it is to become more like Him everyday!

4 months on the mission!! And Dr Pepper from a member :)

Lessons with members!! We love Arell!! And she also drove us around!

Last district council before transfers.

Waiting for a taxi very late so of course we had out our umbrellas and my rape whistle.

After a service project of cleaning an hermanos house and yard.

The parrot was tickling me so bad

There are two random horses always walking in the valdeza.

Mirror selfies!

Casually Panamanians like to burn trash and plastic

Happy 4th birthday Leia!!! We love this family, Marta and her daughter Leia

Nidia and Madeline, recent converts

A member needed there adult diapers and we snapped a pic

Our favorite member, Tifani Navarro who is going to serve a mission soon!!

Irichell and Yairichell Castillo, Hermana Hatch, Tifani Navarro, and me in the Castillos house one Sunday

August 29-September 4, 2023-Week 17-Guadalupe

Title: first baptism!!!

Hola a todos!!! (Hello everyone)

Quick note to start --- I am no longer allowed to messenger people, only my family. So if I don't respond to a message, I am not ghosting you haha! 

This week was really good!! I really love the mission and all the parts of it! Some cool miracles that happened were the baptism of some of our friends. Some Hermanas before me have been teaching them, Nidia and Madeline Sanjur, since May. Nidia needed to be married to her pareja (partner), who is an inactive member of the church. They got married -- which in itself is a miracle because it is expensive and difficult to get married here in Panama. If only it was like Vegas lol....All jokes aside, it was beautiful to see a family all be united in their faith and to have members of the ward come and support them. I know they will be blessed and strengthened through their decision to be baptized and to have the Holy Ghost with them always. 

We also put one of our other friends, Isaac, on date. It is kind of a wild story because my companion before this transfer, Hermana Anderson, met his mom on a bus the day before I got here and she was like "she is a contact of oro (gold)", aka someone just ready to hear the gospel!!! So ALL last transfer we visited her and taught her just to find out that she was baptized in our church in 2017 but cannot for the life of her remember anything lol. What adds to it is she pulls out a Book of Mormon a few weeks ago and it is the original copy she received from the missionaries who baptized her HAHA. So if she would have pulled that out from the get go, we would have known since the church recently changed the format of Spanish BOM and her BOM is an old version. Oh well. But! We started teaching her son, and never have I ever seen a kid more excited about the gospel. He does all his reading assignments, writes out questions, always asks questions, came to church all by himself, and now is getting baptized! There was a hot minute where his mom thought he was also baptized with her, but he wasn't. Needless to say with all the craziness that has happened with this family, God has miracles for us and people that are ready to hear this message! 

The last miracles is our friend, Ariel, came to church yesterday. Sadly he is not a mermando??, but we found him by accident. We thought we were going to visit the house of an inactive member, but plot twist, they moved. Ariel also asks tons of questions, but I think that shows that he really understands. We are hoping to continue teaching him! But this just testifies that God has much bigger and better plans for us. We thought we were going to visit one person, but God provided someone else and that person that needed to hear this message. 

I love the people here! They are really full of faith and love. They are humble and just love us to be in their homes, and I know it is because we carry a message of love that will change their lives! I know that everything happens for a reason and if people don't progress in the gospel, I find joy in bringing people one step closer to Christ.  

Funny moments:

Beer shirt --

One of our friends in our ward, Jair, is awesome and we are really good friends. He is actually going to Olivia Tolley's mission, too! Anyways, he is a recent convert and just loves the gospel. We go to his house to teach his parents (who also another miracle, want to be baptized now!) And he walks out with this shirt (see photo below). He was so funny and so embarrassed but grateful because he originally planned to bring it on his mission lol.

Panamanain lover --

So we are at the house of a member eating dinner with her and randomly she starts talking to me saying "so hermana Christensen, I'm not gonna say who, but someone in the ward is in love with you. They think you are the most beautiful thing they have ever seen and they are so sad because this is your first ward and you'll probably be transferred. But when they saw the photo of you and your family with your hair curled they just couldn't stop gushing, and he is even learning English for you". Welp, now I will not show that photo anymore but would I be lying if that didn't boost my self confidence a little bit? 

Iglesia de los Santos --

The other day I was soooo tired and it was 8pm and we had one more lesson and I go up to present myself. Normally I almost always just say "hola y buenas yo soy hermana Christensen y somos las misioneras de la iglesia de jesucristo" but all my Spanish had left my head and all that would come out was "somos las misioneras de los santos". And for the life of me I tried FIVE MORE TIMES with the same result and hermana Hatch was laughing way to much to help me. Finally the kid was like, "yeah I know you're from the church of Jesucristo" and saved me. 

That's all folks!!! I feel like I am hitting my stride. Todavía el español me cuesta de vez en cuando (Spanish is still hard for me from time to time), but everything else is good!! If you made it to this point I applauded you. I really write this for journal entry and to make my mom happy. 

The sunburn lines are STRONG

The beautiful Capira!!! This hill reminds me of little women

Happy 21st birthday Hermana Hatch!!!

Joel Hernadez, Alexander Tejada, Nidia and Madeline Sanjur, Hermana Hatch and me

Facetiming Hermana Anderson for the baptism of Nidia and Madeline

Jair did not know what his shirt meant haha

Familia Cueto!!!

A cute little dog I found

The car says "controlling your wife"

Bowling with some of zone, still wild to be here with Cole Clark.