MTC Email One!

This week was totally cool. Guess who came to the mtc.. DAVID ARCHULETA!! and RICHARD ELLIOT (the organist for the mo tab). They both pretty much only preformed for us. They both spoke a bit, but then they just performed. It was amazing!!

So i was never on the whole I LOVE DAVID, fan club thing... until now, He is seriously so cute! short, really short, but so cute. And his voice!! When he sings he makes me melt like a popsicle on the fourth of july... (little rascals, anyone get that??) but seriously he is so talented. And I have never listen to a more amazing organist. He played such amazing stuff and one of the songs he did with pretty much only his feet. It was sooooooooo cool. 

Every Sunday we get to watch the music and the spoken word before relief society. It has been so nice! MUSIC!! we aren't allowed music at the mtc, so that little bit each Sunday is so nice. 

This last Sunday I was picked to speak in church, in french. My heart was pounding so fast. but it went will. I spent most of the time just reading scriptures. but it was good. 

hmm, we had a really good lesson with our "investigator" Muriel. I cried, I always cry, but the spirit was really there and it just amazes me because it isn't even a really lesson. Well it is, but it isn't. And I cried in class the other day, so embarrassing, because we were reading 3 Nephi 11, each person would read a verse in french, we would say what had happened, then continue. And when the part about Christ holding out his hands to the people to come and see them, I just felt the Spirit and cried. I barely understood what was going on because we were reading it in french, but the spirit was there. So cool, it still just blows my mind how the Spirit works. 

We cleaned the temple today which was nice, but super exhausting. The temple is really pretty, more extravagant, and bigger but I like the Edmonton one a lot better. As I was cleaning (I was in the celestial room) I just noticed how so many things weren't up kept very well. There were stains on the baseboards and chips in all the furniture and wall things. Not really noticeable for anyone but a cleaner. But it just made me sad because of whose house it really is, and that it isn't kept perfect. But it was still really nice.

Oh and also, it snowed!!! For Christmas we got snow and its been snowing a lot since, well a lot for here, so its super pretty with the snow covered mountains and stuff. I love it. 

There's this talk that we can watch called the Character of Christ, It's by Elder Bednar, from an address he did at the mtc a few years ago. I don't think its available to anyone else, but it is amazing!! We watched it after the David and Richard devotional, and all my amazement at their talent was totally gone after watching the Character of Christ talk. That talk 100% changed me, and it wasn't that he was talking about really deep doctrine, it was simple plain, easy to understand. The main point was that, when the natural man pushes us to turn in (think about ourselves, help ourselves, be selfish), Christ's reaction is to turn out (in love, sacrifice, actions...). Some of the examples he gave are; 

1). After being tempted and fasting for 40 days, Christ is visited by angels who came to administer to him, the JS translate, changes the verse to say that instead of the Angels administering to Christ, Christ sent them to John, who was in need. After 40 days of fasting and then being tempted by the devil, he sent angels who came to help him, to help his cousin instead. Christ turned out when the natural man would of influenced us to turn in. Mosiah 3:19, my favorite scripture was quoted a lot. There are so many other scriptures, but we have to find them :)

Well, this is all I have time for today. 

LOVE LOVE LOVE, and MISS MISS MISS everyone!

Thanks for your prayers! That means a lot :) 

Soeur Christensen

Quick Answers about the MTC!

What day are you leaving the MTC?
February 3, 2015.

Who is your companion in the MTC, and where is she from? 

Soeur Hurd, she is from Virginia, but has been studying art history at BYU.

Who are the other girls in your room/district, and where are they from?

Soeur Nef, California

Soeur Andersen, Denmark

What do you do during gym time? Volleyball? Basketball? Treadmill? 

We played cache-cache (hide and seek) this last time. It as kind of a failure but really funny because me and my companion hid among people playing 4 square (such a fun game) and the people that were looking for us walked by I think 3 times. We were all killing ourselves it was so funny. I've been doing volleyball too, but none of the other girls are very athletic, so it gets boring sometimes because you don't really get rallies going and when we play with elders, they kind of just run the show. So we play a lot of 4 square and a lot just jogging and exercise circuits at the track.

Have you been sleeping okay? Homesick at all??? 

The first few night were hard to fall asleep because I was used to going to bed around 12, but now I'm so tired I fall right asleep and its been super nice! No tears yet, but some of the other rooms do not understand the idea of quiet time. It's a bit annoying. 10:15-10:30 is the quiet time where your not supposed to be disruptive and you really should be praying or reading your scriptures or journal or something quiet like that, but some girl's are soooo loud!!

What is your favorite part of the day? 

I LOVE choir! its every Sunday and Tuesday. the director is amazing. The music is good, but nothing super special, its the small little lessons that the director gives about the music and the message it actually is sharing that is so amazing.  Since it was Christmas we did songs about Christ, obviously. And because of the things the director was talking about, I just thought about Christ in a whole new way, well not a new way, but things that I had never really thought about but knew, I started to think about. IT was amazing!! 

Also, Elder Nelson came Christmas day. That was nice. THE spirit when he walked in to the room was so strong. I just stood there and let the tears fall, I couldn't help it. He talked about the doctrine of Christ it was really good, and his wife gave an amazing talk as well,, she talked about everyday being Christmas for missionaries because of the gifts that we give/receive while we serve. The thing that stood out most to me was the idea that there are family members (angels) of the people that we may meet in France helping us so that through our teaching their temple work can get done. What we do not only affects the lives here but the eternal lives of our/their ancestors. If that makes sense.

What is your favorite meal of the day? 

Hmm. Blah, when I eat a grapefruit at breakfast. It's the only time I feel healthy. But the food really isn't that bad. I just eat sooooo much and sit soooooo much. Thinking about it makes me sick.. blagh

Sister Christensen Spends the Night in Vegas!

Camrie's flight to Provo was Edmonton - Las Vegas - Salt Lake. But once she got to Vegas their connecting flight to Utah was cancelled. The airline paid to put them up in a hotel and scheduled in flights for them the next day. It was stressful for Camrie, she hadn't had much sleep, didn't really know what was happening, and had a bit of a frustrating time figuring it out. But luckily once she found her way to the shuttle set to take her to the hotel she met an older couple and found out they were Senior Missionaries! They took her out to dinner with them and made sure she was looked after. What a blessing! (I'd say coincidence... but a flight to Utah? The chance of running into another Mormon is relatively high, especially on intake-outake days for the MTC!) 

Anyway, Camrie was able to get a hold of her cousin Joce (who lives there!) and let her know about the change of plans for picking her up when she got to Utah. It all worked out. And Joce was even able to bring Camrie something she 'forgot' in the car and snapped a few pictures of her with her badge on- thanks Joce!

Soeur Christensen! Complete with newbie sticker :)

au revoir soeur!

Night before she left Cam was set apart and then spent all night packing. 3 am bed-time and an early morning!

All ready to go!

 

This is where all the hugs start... they always make me tear up. I swear we're all happy she is going- even her!

The point of no return! The final goodbye. 

But we all stayed to watch her go through security- hoping for one last wave!

Good Luck!

Night at the Ledge

We've enjoyed going to the ledge the last couple of years to see the lights. We always intend to go skating, but end up just walking around and chatting. For some reason it's always to cold to skate, or to warm out for the ice to be nice. 

She cracks me up, haha. And yea... we know we're all gorgeous ;)

Crimson for Camrie

One of the things on our bucket-list as a family before Camrie left was a good long stay at the cabin. We started coming out in the winter maybe 3 or 4 years ago, and look forward to it all year! Midnight walks around the lake, or on the lake, glowsticks, skiis, warm fires, cold mornings and good food all make it a good time.

This year we came out just as the first snow-fall of the year was starting, so we got to watch the lake freeze over. From this to completely covered over the course of a weekend. 

We love our Camrie!

We took the opportunity to find some crown land and shoot some clay pigeons. Saw this sign half-way down the trail. It made us nervous until we remembered that Bears hybernate.

Camrie hanging out on the bear look-out someone had set up.

We can't wait to go back with Camrie when she gets home, it won't be the same without her!