Love my Mission

Holy cow what a week! Sister King and I realized that we could be pushing ourselves a lot harder. So at the beginning of this week we talked about what we can do to really see more growth and changes in Suriname. So we changed all of our goals and made them a lot higher. Haha we might have been a little crazy because some of them were almost doubled of what they had been before but we prayed lots for Heavenly Father's inspiration and we knew that with his help we could accomplish anything. We both told each other we wouldn't be satisfied unless we came home exhausted every night... I worked harder this week than I ever have in my life. We were biking all around Suriname it felt like teaching people, finding more people, every chance we got we shared the gospel. It was so fun! Honestly missionary work is a blast! And it was really cool to see Heavenly Father blessing us as we were giving all of our energy to our work. We received so many blessings this week and were able to meet so many amazing, and super prepared people. When you lean on the Lord for help it's amazing to see how successful you can be. Then yesterday when we were looking at our goals for the week, we were so amazed! We were able to achieve every single one of our goals and even exceed some of them! It was a miracle and my testimony was really strengthened in knowing that when you give everything to the lord and lean on him for help he will provide miracles and help you. The Lord really is in this work and he wants so bad for all of His children to find the truth. If there is one thing I am learning more and more is that I am just an instrument in his hand. And the more diligent and obedient I am the more useful I am. Becuase he can bless me and help me to find those he is preparing. So why wouldn't I want to strive for those things? I want to be able to bring as many people into the truth as possible because it just makes me so happy :) I'm so grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life and all of the wonderful things it has brought me. And I want that same thing for everyone! The gospel is the key, honestly it is the only thing that really matters. I'm so happy I'm a missionary and I have this opportunity to teach people how they can find this happiness, light, and truth for themselves. So if you already have the gospel in your life, don't take advantage of it. Use it, live it and love it. And I promise with my whole heart you will be happier than you ever have been. I love you all so much and I want you to know this and to never forget it. Through the gospel of Jesus Christ we can accomplish anything :)

Real quick a funny story that happened to us yesterday. So we went over to a members sister's house for dinner... She was so nice to have us over and the food was lekker! But the kinda weird thing was that she was not a member...she was hindu! Haha she just really wanted to feed us for some reason. So we were really grateful. But they weren't just kinda hindu, they were REALLY hindu! They had like 10 Hindu flags outside of their house and then inside they had pictures of hindu Gods eveyrwhere. And there was also this little shrine thing in one of the rooms. It was real interesting, Me and sister king kept looking at eachother like where are we. Haha then her husband was watching this weird bollywood film with really weird music and her kids kept walking by and looking like what are this 2 white girls, with Jesus Christ name on their shirts doing here. Haha so funny, it kinda felt like a trip to the twilight zone it was that weird. Hahah definetly a night I won't forget!

It's been a really good week! I hope all of y'all have a wonderful thanksgiving and to remember to thank God for all of the wonderful blessings he has given you. I love you all so much. Talk to you next week! Doei!

Met Liefde, 

Zuster Christiansen 

What a Week!!

Wow what a crazy week! I'm writing this email right now soaking wet. Haha it just poured down rain on us as we were headed to come cyber. But my companion Zuster King flew to Trinidad this week for a leadership training, she is going to be the new sister training leader here in Suriname! She's gonna be so awesome :) So I stayed back here with a mini missionary. She is a young girl in our branch who wants to go on a mission. Her name is Zuster Zeeglar, she is 20 and basically all around just a boss. I had so much fun working with her this week and she really helped me with my dutch, she speaks okay english but mainly dutch. So I was able to learn a lot! She is so cool, she is 20 years old and the seminary teacher for our branch... Like I said she is a stud! So along with missionary work this week I got the opportunity to help her teach seminary. It was really fun :)
This week really did push me though, I had to lead out the area and step it up with my dutch. It was fun though, I like to be pushed :) Nothing too crazy happened, we worked really hard and taught lots of lessons. I really had to rely on Heavenly Father's help though, dutch is still really hard sometimes. I try not to get frustrated, but it's just annoying when I know exactly what I want to say to them... in english. Not dutch. I'm learning that Heavenly Father really wants to humble me. Haha so there are good and bad days with the language but i'm still trying really hard!
Okay so today we went to Brownsberg! Brownsberg is about 2 hours from the city out in the middle of the jungle. It was a blast. We went on 2 hikes to these really cool water falls. I sent pictures. Me and Sister King climbed to the top of one of the water falls. It was slightly sketch because it was super slippery but we felt real adventurous :) haha It felt so good to be out there in the middle of nowhere, walking around in a beautiful jungle. I almost couldn't believe it. I love Suriname, it is a hidden wonder.
Well something cool that happened this week. Yesterday a lot of our lessons had fallen through and we still had like an hour until we needed to go back to the apartment so we were riding our bikes around trying to find someone we could teach. So we stopped by 3 different houses of old investigators and no one was home. So we keep riding. Then the strap on the back of my bike fell off that was holding my scriptures and they fell all over the road. So i jumped off my bike to go pick up the books and sister king fixed the strap. While this was happening Zuster King said "I think today is a day Heavenly Father just wants us to endure through." We both laughed then right after she said that a lady walked by so we contacted her and it turns our she is really good friends with a member who just left on a mission to England. So she had heard about the church and she was really interested. She was so nice and took a book of mormon and we scheduled a lesson with her for later this week. It was really cool to see how Heavenly Father had lead us to her. That everything else feel through and no one was home so we could meet this awesome girl! God's hand really is in missionary work and I love moments like that when I can really see him there helping. It's really comforting to know that I'm not doing this alone, I have lots of help!
Well I love y'all and I hope you have a great week!

Met Liefde,
Zuster Christiansen 

Fish Eyes

I know I say this all the time... but I love my mission! It's the best. We had a really good week. On Monday the senior couple from Guyana came and they are the sweetest people ever! They are sister and elder Poulson and they spoiled us missionaries so bad :) Last monday we had a sports day so all of us missionaries got together to play volleyball and football (soccer) and jewl (a suriname game thats really fun) We had a blast and it felt so good to play volleyball again. Then after our sports day the Poulson's took us all to get Subway. That is such a treat here. It was delish! Then after Sister Poulson came over to our apartment and cut me and sister kings hair. It was so nice to have another sister to talk to, since we are stuck with only elders here... all the time! She is the nicest lady on planet earth. She was just like our mom making sure everything was okay and we were happy. I'm so grateful for her. Sister King, Sister Poulson and I are all best friends now. 

We worked really hard this week and a couple times we came back to the apartment and our legs were so sore they felt like noodles because we had biked so far. There isn't the insane hills here like in st. vincent but it is so windy! Haha I'm gonna have some seriously toned legs by the end of my mission. Me and Sister King decided that we were going to work really hard, be obedient and give our everything to the Lord but that doesn't mean we can't make our missions fun at the same time. So we make "fun" goals every week, that we do so we won't go completely insane and to have some fun. Our first week we made spaghetti and ate it without plates and then this week we made caramel apples. Since it is still really hot here, we thought caramel apples could put us in the crisp, fall mood. It was so fun and they turned out super delish :) 

Haha funny, random comment I got this week. We started teaching this guy named Marshel. He has so many questions! We have to plan to have lessons with him for almost and hour and a half because he just keeps asking question after question. Anyway so the first time we went over there he asked me and sister king what sports we played. I told him that I played volleyball and he said really... I thought you would be a swimmer. I asked him why he thought that and he said. "You have fish eyes." And I was like ummm... what does that mean. Then he said no you have WET eyes. Haha I still had no idea what he meant by that. Then he said your eyes are the color of the ocean and you look like you spend a lot of time in the water. I finally figured out the thought I was a swimmer because I have blue eyes. Hahah so ridiculous, people in Suriname make the craziest connections. People here are always so amazed by my eyes, I think it's just cuz they don't see very many blonde haired, blued girls running around. I'm constantly so amazed by how much Heavenly Father is here with me. Helping me in my missionary work. That is something that I have been working on, is having more specific prayers and to look for times when Heavenly Father was there helping me. And since I have been doing that I see his hand in almost everything I do. I'm so grateful for him and all of his blessings he gives me. I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and the book of mormon. Living and keeping the commandments and reading the book of mormon everyday has brought me so much happiness. That is where you will find true happiness in this life, through the gospel. I love all of you and I challenge you to do this. To take on the name of Jesus Christ and to follow him. I promise you won't regret it, it'll only bring you happiness. Thank you for all of the love. Till next week :)

Liefde, Zuster C

God Answers Prayers

I hope y'all all had the best Halloween and eat lots of candy for me! They don't celebrate Halloween here so I almost forgot about it. Haha I guess that's what happens as a missionary, you start to forget things. 

Well what a week! I learned how to make roti at a members house and oh my goodness it was heel lekker! We made these tortilla type things and you put this yummy filling inside. It was so good. The food here is really different but for the most part super delish. They do eat chicken feet though... I"m dreading the day when I have to eat that. Haha well we moved into our new apartment this week and the water works and there is no cockroaches. I'm So happy :) No more bucket showers!

Then on saturday we were able to do another mormon helping hands service project. It was a blast, we were walking around raising awareness about chickungunya and different ways to prevent it and what you do if you do get it. It ended up being really big, lots of members came and helped and 2 area 70 came. It was also covered by the local news. We had so much fun and we were able to meet so many awesome people. And hopefully help them so they won't get chickungunya... it's the worst! Everyone who gets it says it's terrible and your whole body is in pain. Something kinda ironic and sad that happened was one of the elders got chickungunya while we were walking around telling ways to prevent it... poor guy!

So we have this investigator named sheriel and she is amazing! We started teaching her right when I got here. And in our first lesson we committed her to a baptismal date. She has come to church the past 3 weeks and her first time at church she started crying because she felt the spirit so strong. She is so accepting to the gospel and just wants to find the truth for her self. Its so amazing to see. But she can hardly read. It's really hard for her to understand the book of mormon because it has such big words. So me and sister king brought her the childrens stories book of mormon and we are helping her practice her reading. This way she will learn all the stories and hopefully that will make reading the book of mormon easier. It was hard at first.. trying to teach someone to read in dutch when I don't even know dutch myself. But in our last lesson with her she was doing so much better and she was smiling and so proud of herself. So we asked her if she had been practicing and she told us that she had been praying to Heavenly Father to help her read. I'm just so amazed with how humble people are and how much faith they have. Sheriel wants so bad to be able to read the book of mormon and she is doing everything she can and is trying her hardest. And it's amazing to see that as she gives all her effort and does her best then asks for help from the Lord. That he is there to make up the difference. That he is there to help her. He loves her so much and wants her to come back home to him. I can see that and it makes me so happy to know Heavenly Father trusts me enough to help guide her on that path that will bring her back home to him. The gospel is true :)

Well I love all of y'all so much :) and remember God loves you too and he is always there for you no matter what! Have a good week and I'll talk to you next week! 

liefde, 

Zuster C

P.S. if you want to send me letters or packages (I would love that hehe) here is my address 

P.O. Box 2932

Paramaribo, Suriname

South America

Stay sweet xoxo

Finally in Suriname

Wow this has been a pretty intense week! It was transfer week, so it is always a little crazy! I left St. Vincent on Tuesday afternoon and flew to Trinidad. I was really sad to leave all of the awesome people I had met there. It already felt like home but I was so pumped to be heading to Suriname.So I stayed in Trinidad for a day and went out with the sisters there. It was really fun to be serving in another country for a day and just see how different it was. I contacted this one guy... actually he contacted me. He was sitting in his house and waved for me to come over so I started sharing our message with me. Then when I finished he said he really liked the vibes I was sending him. Hahah he was such a Rasta man. It was really cool to see how even though people and places are so different the gospel is the same and it can touch people in many different ways. So what he wanted to call the Holy Ghost cool vibes, I'll take it. Haha gotta start somewhere :)

Okay so after my adventure in Trinidad I got on a flight to Suriname with 7 other elders and we flew in at 2 AM. I was exhausted but the ZL's drove me to my apartment and I finally got to meet my companion! Her name is sister king and she is awesome! We are already best friends, I am so excited for this transfer :) We are going to work so hard and have so much fun! She is from Alaska, she loves the outdoors,and she is up for any kind of adventure! We're going to have a blast!

Well so the next morning we woke up and our branch was having a sports activity. So I got to meet lots of the members in our branch. They are so awesome, I love them already. And they taught me some Suriname games, haha it was a really fun morning. Then we went back to our apartment and the water wasn't working there so we had to take our showers out of a bucket! Hahah talk about an adventure... we had to fill up 2 big buckets of water and dump it over our heads and call it good. Sister King was telling me they have moved 5 times since she has been here and they are trying to find a new apartment where the water works! Haha I guess that is what happens when you are the first sisters in Suriname. But don't worry we were able to find a new apartment and it is really nice. We actually moved in this morning. So hopefully we won't have any more apartment problems.

I absolutely love it here in Suriname. I just know this is exactly where I am supposed to be. The members are amazing. I bore my testimony yesterday in church (in dutch) and everyone told me they couldn't believe I had just been here for a couple days. That my dutch was really good... I'm not sure if I believe them but it made me feel good :) So just now I'm gonna be fluent! Hahah but everything here is wonderful and I'm ready for all the crazy adventures that I'm sure are just waiting for me. I'm so happy this is going to be my home for the next 15 months. I hope you have all had a wonderful week! Thanks for all the emails and love you send me. I'll talk to you next week

Suriname Bound

What a week! My visa came in so I'm leaving for Suriname on Wednesday! I'm so pumped but I am really going to miss it here on St. Vincent. I've already made life long friends here so it'll be hard to say goodbye. But it's alright because I'll be coming back here just now and I'm definitely up for the adventure in Suriname. I'll be on a bike so I'll let y'all know how riding in a skirt goes!

Haha this week we climbed some pretty steep hills and got absolutely soaked a couple of times... but hey it's building character right? The funny part is everyone here is afraid of the rain. If it starts raining everyone in sight takes off for the nearest dry spot and they won't leave until the rain stops. Haha it's actually quite hilarious! Well me and my comps love the rain! It gets so stinkin hot here so when we stand out in the rain it feels so good. So we continue to walk around even if it's pouring and as we walk by people always yell at us to seek shelter or to hurry inside before you catch a cold! haha they're so ridiculous... We've also had people tell us we're gonna catch cold from the AC in the car.. I love my vincey's! :)

Well this week we met so many amazing people. I really am going to miss it here, all of these people are just so wonderful. But my two fav's were Tanni and Nick. We met Tanni last week and taught her a couple times then found out she had a boyfriend so we asked if we could teach him too.. So he joined us! And oh boy is he awesome! When we met him he wasn't wearing a shirt (guys here never wear shirts) but he had this huge scare all the way down his stomach and he was limping and walking with a cane. So we asked him what happened and he said a month ago, just down the road he got shot 3 times! Twice in the back and once in the foot. And so the huge scar on his stomach is where they went in for surgery to remove the bullets. He told us he is lukcy to be alive and he felt that God spared his life for a reason and that he wants to be a better man. So we started teaching him about the restorations and it was so cool to see how accepting he was. he has so many good questions and most of them were answered with the restoration! This lesson really reminded me why I'm out here on a mission and just how much the Lord's hand really is in the work. I read this scripture the other day and I really liked it. It's D&C 68:5-6 "Behold this is the promise of the Lord unto you... be of good cheer and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you and will stand by you..." This scripture really hit me because since I've been a missionary I have really felt the Lord right there nest to me, helping me along the way. And this scripture is true for everyone. if there is one thing I know for certain, It's that God and Jesus Christ love us so much and they are always right there with us. So be happy! Don't be scared because there is always someone there for you. We are all children of God and every single person is important. So remember how important you are and be happy :) I love y'all so much! Thank you for all the prayers and support. Talk to ya next week! Tot Ziens!

Liefde, Zuster C 

Wah Gwaan

Wah Gwaan (whats going on in Vincey) hahah

It's been such a good week! President Mehr and his wife came this week for our zone meeting! It was so fun to see them, I love them so much. I don't know how I got so blessed to have such a great mission president. And I got to go out teaching with them while they were here. They contacted this guy named Jammall. He lives in our area so we got to go out and teach him with them. It was awesome. It was such a cool learning experience for me. To be there and see how President and Sister Mehr teach. They are fearless and so bold with the message of the restoration. By the end of our meeting we had committed him to baptism and he already wants to have us teach his sister, brother and some other family members. Haha it was so awesome :) The gospel is such a blessing. That has been one of my favorite things since I've been on my mission to see. Just how great the gospel is and what a blessing it is in peoples lives. It's my favorite when I'm teaching someone and the message just makes sense to them. And I see them make so many changes in their life so that they can live in harmony with the gospel. People here sacrifice so much, it amazes me. But with out fail I've seen when you sacrifice something for the Lord he blesses you 10 times more. It almost makes that sacrifice not seem like a sacrifice. The gospel really is the key to finding absolutely happiness in life, I've seen it and I'm living it! I have never been happier in my whole life than I am now. When you do what is right and you're really trying to follow Jesus Christ, that's when you feel true happiness. I love you all so much! Sorry the Email is short today... I don't got much time! 

One Love, One nation...

Liefde, Zuster C