March 28, 2016-Find, Teach

Hello family and friends ! It has been a very busy week as we made great effort in sharing the message of the atonement at this time. I hope you all had a good time with family and made Christ the center of your weekend !
This week was busy . Lots of work teaching and trying to find. We saw success in both. There were two very cool things happen this week.
The first was our zone finding activity.  We got together Saturday morning and had a little devotional given by our zone leaders to pump us up for what we called a "2hour of power." We started at 11 am -1pm and did just straight finding.  Elder t and I began by first praying to know where to go. My impression or thought was to go to an apartment complex that we had already been too . And I questioned it because I thought I might have been not very creative in my ideas. But then elder t said "now I know this seems weird, but I think we should go to the river plaza apartments again." THAT WAS THE EXACT APARTMENT I WAS THINKING. So we went. And for an hour we had a few contacts and handed out a copy of the Book of Mormon but the guy wasn't very interested . We were both pretty disappointed since we had done an entire loop in the apartment and almost were to our car. Last door.... We meet this guy named M. He was the reason why went to that complex . We shared a message of the atonement with him out of the Book of Mormon. After he heard one of the scriptures he was so surprised and said " what book are you reading from and how do I get one ?!" Plus he just got married... And between him and his new wife they have 8 kids and one on the way. Perfect.
The other miracle was on Sunday. We were struggling having investigators keep their commitments to come to church. But through fasting and prayer we had a lot of our precious investigators attend church and that surprised both elder t and I. People we thought never would come showed up. Might have to do with Easter but we are going to see about next week. 
Conference is coming up everyone so I invite you all to come with questions about anything and I promise that with a sincere heart and with real intent those questions will be answered. The Holy Ghost is a reality ! He is real and will give you revelation. Just seek it ! Love you all !
Elder kristensen
This bird almost flew and hit me in the head.

March 21, 2016- Busy Week!

Hello family ! 

This was an incredibly busy week. Filled with lots of teaching appointments and finding activities. I loved every second of it.  We worked so hard this week and I gained a testimony of weekly planning. Not weakly planning but weekly planning. It is key to a successful week. Once you get that down your week goes way smoother and more effective. It takes sometime but worth it. Thanks to an idea inspired by kaden oviatt my missionary experience  has been way more effective .   

This week N (18 year old baptized a few weeks ago ) came out with us almost every day. He has been such a help on fellow shipping and teaching. He is getting so excited for his own mission. He even goes out finding with us. He is willing to do the hard part of missionary work (also the most fun). 

I don't know how else to explain this week... We just worked hard ! R  was interviewed by president Jardine on Sunday. President Jardine is starting to work on Rs application to the first presidency approval for baptism! We are so excited !! 

Also D ( another investigator we have been teaching) was interviewed for baptism and passed. So he should be baptized next weekend. Great kid ! I'll tell more about him next week !   

I started to get a little sick on Wednesday. Thursday it picked up. Then Friday I was practically dead. I had a fever and a super intense head cold. But we had to many appointments and I'm not very smart, so we went out and taught. I could hardly keep my eyes open. I got accused for falling asleep in one of our lessons because I was fighting off a sneeze.  

Saturday we attended C's funeral in east Sacramento. I was grateful to have been able to see many people who I love from mission oak ward. A lot of C's family attended. And it was so sad to see. I wish they knew and understood the plan of happiness of our father in heaven.  That's all I could think about. There is so much comfort in truly knowing gods plan.  Knowing exactly where we came from why we are here and where we are going will give some of the most comfort when things like this happen. 

But I was also sick like a dog that day. We had stake conference that night and had elder higham from the seventy give a devotional.   President Jardine was there and after the devotional he stared me straight in the eye and told me that I was staying in bed on Sunday then turned to elder T and told him that he was big enough to keep me there. So Sunday I stayed in all day . Super lame. I was very excited for Sunday because of the general authority being there. 

Anyways gotta go ! 

Elder kristensen 

Elder T looking after me and good ol' Sacramento ! 

March 14, 2016-780 to the 916

Malo e leile!
So sorry about not writing last week. I sent an email and it had a video and wouldn't send it . Then I ran out of time . So I am terribly sorry !!
Here is my update on this week. It was a great week. Super busy .
I'll tell you first off the "book of Mormon musical" has been in Sacramento this week. And if you don't know the play is quite derogatory towards the church. ( I won't deny some of the music is not that bad ) BUT the purpose of the play is to make fun. So what the mission has done is set a booth up outside of the theatre with a massive stack of copies of the Book of Mormon to hand out to everyone. Over two nights the mission has handed out 300 copies of the Book of Mormon and has generated lots of referrals. Anyways so Fox News wanted to interview president Jardine about the play being in town and what he thought about it. After receiving approval from salt lake president Jardine was interviewed, asked questions , THEN turned the interview around and started teaching the lady interviewing him over the news. How amazing is that ??? He read Moroni 10:3-5 , also known as moroni's promise and committed her to read the Book of Mormon. Coolest thing.
Also want to tell you about one of our new investigators. We received a Referal from president Jardine to go and see someone that just was released from prison after being there for 18 years. He was in a half way facility and we were approved to enter. He is one of the greatest men I've ever met. He is about 70 years old. He has been going to church for the last 9 years in prison. He was teaching classes  at one point . How amazing is that ? I'm pretty sure he knows more about the gospel than I do ! He's been going to church longer than I've held the priesthood. So humble and respectful and resembles a perfect change of heart.  So we are working with president to get him approved by the first presidency of the church to have him baptized. What a miracle.
Littler spiritual thought that a less active member of the church gave me was
" God will give us more than we can handle, because if he didn't give us more than we could handle we would never need to rely on him and experience the great blessing and joy of his atonement."
Next time you are given something you can't handle, know that God can, and you should access his power through the saviors atonement.
Also we had zone conference this week ! Lots of great things learned ! It was very centered on the Book of Mormon and also the new Easter initiative. Which I hope you ALL. Will watch. I will attach some of my notes from it.
To understand prayer you must first understand that God is your loving Heavenly Father . 
He wants to hear from us so we may know by what name we will be called
"No one has failed who  keeps trying and keeps praying"- elder holland.
When we are genuine we have real intent.
Spend more time meditating
In prayer we don't convey anything he doesn't already know. He knows it all. Doesn't matter how we say it or ask it, Heavenly Father just needs to hear it. Needs to feel our desire. He needs to know we want to act.
LOVE YOU ALL.  The work is great. We had a fina'ofa on Friday which is one big Tongan ward event.... So. Much. Food. I ate horse. Don't ask questions.
Elder kristensen
President Jardine on the news.
Also super crazy. At the north stake center we went to go practice singing ( also I sang at some conference .. Yikes) there was another group practicing. Turns out the group practicing was from elder tokis home town in laie Hawaii . His family and friends were all in this group. What are the chances ?

March 7, 2016

Hey everyone,

There was not a big email for everyone this week.  Unusual for Elder Kristensen, but I know that he is very busy.  His email to his dad and I was short but great.  He is learning Tongan, and he said that he bore his testimony in church on Sunday in Tongan.  It is amazing to me how only after 2 weeks he is able to get up in front of people at a pulpit and speak their language!  You can see the hand of the Lord in helping Elder Kristensen do things that most of us would think impossible.

I want to thank you all once again for all the support you offer to our son, from here at home and those that support him in Sacramento.  What an experience he is having.  So proud of how his is working hard and doing his best to be the kind of representative that the Lord needs him to be.

Love,

Carrie Kristensen

March 1, 2016-It feels like summer...

Hello family ! This will have to be a quick one sorry ! 
First week of the transfer has passed and it has happened super fast. Looking after two wards is great though. I love the Tongan ward. Sacrament meeting hymns are so much more powerful and spirit filled than the regular sacrament meetings. It's true they give you lots of food. But more than worth it. It tastes sooooo good. They have food at every event .  Kinda crazy. We also are allowed to learn Tongan. So that will be cool.  
This was a good week. A big chunk was preparing brother R baptism that happened. So that's awesome. President Jardine came . So that is always stressful. Especially because we started a half an hour late waiting for R's son to show up. It was a wonderful baptism ! Went smoothly. Plus he gave an amazing testimony. Hopefully in a year he will be sealed to his lovely wife. This was a long time waiting and we are so happy that it happened. 
Church is super long. We are there from 9-5:30. It is a great day of meetings. Double the sacrament ! The rest of these pictures are of the zone activity we did ! Elder O was going home so we had some fun. Including a chalk fight.  
I love you all. I know the gospel is true. It has changed too many lives for the better. It has changed my life for the better. And it is 100 % because of the atonement that my life has been changed. I don't know what it'd be like without the savior . Clearly not good . He's real! He lives! If you don't know this.... Then ask. He will answer. 
Elder kristensen