Hellllloooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Today is such a beautiful day! The sun is shining and the sky is blue! What could make today better?? I know, we have a baptism tomorrow!!! I am so beyond excited!! This is my first real convert baptism!! I am so excited! I will tell you more about that later... :)
So Thanksgiving was fun. Definitely not the same as being home with the family, but we had fun none the less! We went to the Creek's house for dinner. They are such a great family. They had great food too! There wasn't really anything out of the ordinary to eat, which is good. haha! I struggled a little this last week with being homesick. It's my first holiday away from the family and knowing that Suzy was going to have her baby any day.It was really hard not to think of home, but I had a good day! After dinner, Sister McLelland and I met up with the Elders and headed to Greeneville. We walked around down town and saw all of the beautiful sights and took a lot of pictures! I will send you some in my next letter! The weather was absolutely beautiful! It was in the 70's here. I hear that it is freezing there. I am not missing the snow at all! But I hope that the weather will ease up for you soon.
So wanna hear a sad story? I was looking at my pictures on my camera from before my mission and from the MTC and from the ones that I have taken since I got here... well I guess I hit the wrong thing on my camera and I deleted all of my pictures... I cried. But I realized that it's not the end of the world. I keep a good journal and I will have those memories recorded in my heart forever!
Anyway... Transfers are this week. Sister McLelland is getting transferred and I get a new companion which means that I will no longer be a greenie!!! WOO HOO! I am sad for Sis Mac to leave, but I am excited for a change of pace. I pray that I will get a good companion and that I will get along with her and that we will be able to help bless many lives(it might even be Sister Nygren!! That would be awesome!) So I decided that I am going to give you my apartment address, since it takes so long for mail to go to the mission office and then to me. So my apartment address is:
Sister Christiansen
1300 St Louis Street
Apartment 2
Johnson City, TN 37601
This last week at church was great! We had Christina there!! It was so good to see her again. She is really struggling in her marriage and her nerves are shot. She was just shaking as we hugged her. My heart breaks for her. She wants so badly to be baptized, but is held back becuase of someone elses agency. It is so hard to be patient. I know that she is anxious to get thing going in the right direction, and she has so much faith in the Savior. I know that He will bless her and that she will eventually be able to be baptized, it will just take some time. I am hoping that it will be this next transfer so that I can be here for it. I will most likely be transferred in January.. Either that or I could be getting a greenie of my own.. Our Zone Leader, Elder Lindner, was just made the Assistant to the President, and he and I are fairly good friends. Well, he was teasing me the other day that he was gonna make me train soon and that he would do his best to put me in his district.. haha he is such a silly guy. We shall see what the Lord has in store for me next. But I think for now I will just worry about this new trasfer coming up.
Life is so good here! As I said earlier, we have a baptism tomorrow! B is amazing! She is so excited to be baptized and she has the greatest testimony of the Book of Mormon! At her family Thanksgiving party, her family was all discussing things that they like to do for fun when they get off work or get home for the day and everyone was saying things like: I like to watch Tv. or I like to read the paper... Well Bailey told us that she just kept thinking that all she really likes to do is read the Book of Mormon!! She is so awesome!! Truly prepared to hear the gospel! She got antied by her friend the other day and B handled it like a pro!! She just said that that's not what Mormons believe and that she knows that this church is true. I love her!
Other than that, I am frantically reading the Book of Mormon. I have to be finished with it by wednesday and I slacked in the first transfer, so I have to make up for it now. I am reading in 3 Nephi and I am loving it! I love hearing about Christ's minisrty among the Nephites. I have learned so much from the Book of Mormon this time through. I love that everytime we read it, we learn something new! I have loved reading a brand new copy and marking it again, because I learn all new things, I don't just re-learn something that I had learned before. My love for the Book of Mormon has grown so much!! I love this gospel! The other day I was reading and I could feel the spirit so strongly as I read in 3 Nephi 11 vs 14. I read about Christ telling the people to come and feel for themselves that He is the Christ and that they were truly able to feel the prints in His hands and in His feet. I cannot imagine what that would feel like. I haven't ever felt the marks in the Savior's hands or in His feet, but I have felt the record of these people who did feel those marks. I know that they did! And that is enough for me. I don't have to feel the marks to know that He is the Savior, the living Son of the Living God. I have faith that He really is real and that He really did atone for our sorrows, sins, weaknesses, shor comings, pains, depression, everything!!!! I know it with all of my heart!!! The Atonement is the greatest gift that we have been given and I challenge you all to use that gift. The great blessing of repentance and the miracle of forgiveness are some of the sweetest things I have been able to experience in this life! I have felt the weight of sin and guilt for things that I have done lifted as I have applied the Atonement in my life. And that is why I am here now! I am here to help people apply and use the Atonement for themselves. I am here to help them know of Christ as I know of him. To help them feel of the unexpressable joy that I have felt only through the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love this church and I am so grateful to be able to be here sharing my testimony of Christ every day!
Thanks so much for all that you do and for the love and prayers! It means the world to me! I truly love you with all of my heart!
Always!
Sister Shaylyn Christiansen
