The London Fog

I am learning what it means to be humble and to trust in the lord and have an eternal perspective. The past few weeks I have been trying to wrap my head around how it is not fair that I was born with so many opportunities, to a wonderful family, with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I’ve seen many things that are painful; kids are homeless, families that don’t have food to eat, and many people that don’t have hope and something to live for. There are Haitians enslaved in the cane fields and many families are separated- half in Haiti and half here. We were told in the MTC that the D.R. is the third poorest country in the Western hemisphere, Haiti, being number one. At times, seeing these things has made me feel very insignificant and discouraged. I was expressing my frustration to my companion and she reminded me this isn’t my work, it’s the Lord's. It seems obvious but I absolutely needed to hear that. It isn’t my work and it isn’t my world. There is a lot of pain, sickness and poverty in this big world that I can’t fix. I can’t give everyone a home, food, and a family that loves them. But everyone can have the gospel. It’s neat to be a part of something bigger and better than I am. I have leaned on the story of President Hinckley when he received the advice from his father to forget himself and go to work. He recalled how he felt the London fog was lifted then. I have experienced a similar feeling. There's a lot I don’t know but there are also things I know with certainty. God is just and fair and things will work out. 

Some positive news is that we have a family that is progressing. They have two cute little girls and have been going to church and ward activities. They want to get baptized but need to get married first. Most couples aren’t married here because the process is a little difficult. This couple isn’t married but they have a marriage date for July. It’s a little far but she wants to get married on her birthday.

To answer your questions about food; we aren’t allowed to eat with members or out of any houses for sanitation and financial reasons. However, the people are very generous and sometimes make us take their baked goods, which we re-gift to other houses we visit. There are four of us living together and we all cook for ourselves. And yes, I am still vegetarian! The apartment we live in is cute. We have to unlock four locks to get inside. We have fans to keep us cool but the power goes out often. Thank you for all the love, support, and prayers!  You guys are my source of strength. I think about you so much. And dad, I am so excited to help you garden, and I mean that. Tell uncle Steve muchisimas gracias for the family history package he sent. I love all your insights and everything. I dont have any photos because 1) most people who plug their cameras into the computers here lose all their pictures and they get a virus in the camera 2) because there are thieves looking for electronics. LOVE YOU!!!

"Just as doubt despair and desensitization go together, so do faith, hope and charity. The latter however must be carefully and constantly nurtured; whereas despair, like dandelions, needs so little encouragement to sprout and spread. Despair comes so naturally to the natural man." - Neal A Maxwell

"You cant do everything for everybody everywhere, but you can do something for somebody somewhere."

Con amor, 

Hermana Meg

Saludos

It looks like the weather in SLC is a little bit different than in the DR. It is hot, hot, hot here. I have a really nice sandal tan- any sunscreen I put on seems to just sweat off. 

 

To describe La Romana... Our area is quite large and covers both city areas and more of the country side. There is a large river called Rio Salado in our area that is pretty. Most of the streets are really loud. Music is always blasting and they are not afraid to use their horns. They are the champions of the wheelie (wheely?) here. It is not a rare occasion to see a motorcycle or bicycle pop a wheelie for an entire street. The houses are really bright vivid colors. There are fruit stands on every corner and all the mango trees are ripening as mango season is just beginning. Dominos is a favorite pastime and people play it on tables on all the sidewalks.

We don’t typically knock on doors, mostly we bang on people's gates outside their houses and yell, "buenas", or "saludos". When I introduce myself I think many people think I am saying I am Christian rather than Christensen because often the response back is, "Christiana, amen, amen." I love walking around - which is good because we do a lot of walking. My feet are holding up pretty well - so far! There are times where we take a carrito to things if it is too far to walk - such as district meetings. A carrito is pretty much a car that claims to be a taxi. 

Many of the people live in impoverished circumstances. It isn’t rare to be sitting on buckets, teaching in a one room house with the six children and chickens running all over... (ok well the chickens only happened once but there are a lot of stray chickens, dogs and cats everywhere!) It is a challenge to see the way other people live. They have such simple lives; it makes me wonder why I was able to be born into a good LDS family in the United States and why these people weren’t. As I have thought about this, it helped to hear President Uchtdorf’s talk about West Africa and seeing the light in places where there are challenges. Light is always triumphant. Many of these people are still happy and radiate light despite their circumstances. I also liked the quotation you sent from President Uchtdorf’s Priesthood meeting talk: “Remember that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is built not for men and women who are perfect or unaffected by mortal temptations, but rather it is built for people exactly like you and me.”   The gospel gives us much to hope for (Ether 12:4).

I read the other talk you sent with me, His Grace is Sufficient and I absolutely loved it. We had to turn in our mp3 players at the Mission Home, so I am not able to listen to the talks you sent with me, but I love the hard copy ones - so thank you! 

Every day is a new adventure. 

 

 

"If we all threw our problems into a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back"

Con Amor, 

Hermana Christensen

 

40 Lessons Last Week

No Time for Photo's This Week

Padres!!!!!

Hello hello. Week two down. This week was soo much better. SO much better. It is still hard and I’m still learning but the first week I felt lost. But I love my companion. Our friendship grows every day. She never had to struggle with the language but she is patient with me. She is a crazy hard worker. We don’t take our dinner break and we shorten other breaks. We taught 40 lessons last week and we could easily get sixty because a lot of those were long lessons. We can get into 97% of the houses here. I imagine there aren’t too many places like the D.R. Everyone wants to talk about "la palabra de dios." 

I was able to watch conference on Sunday and loved Elder Holland’s talk. Loved!

 I have been reading some of the talks you printed off for me padre. I love Elder Holland’s Remember Lot’s Wife, The Inconvenient Messiah, and Elder Maxwell’s The Inexhaustible Gospel!!! So good!  I actually love all the Neil Maxwell talks you sent me.

Also, thanks for the photos and the info you sent on La Romana, it was interesting. A ton of people here work at the Casa de Campo... I think it’s a resort with a lot of rich Americans... 

 

 

Mom I forgot to mention how jealous I am that you met Mr. Mitt Romney!!!!! Shut the front door! I am jealous. 

Guess what... 26 missionaries are coming in May... Guess what... 20 are Hermanas!!!! I am either going to have to train or be in a tri-panionship. This should be interesting haha.

Yesterday we had interviews with the President and the office missionaries brought me a wonderful letter and package!!! Thank you, thank you!!! I think they sent an email with my addresses to you? They said to tell our parents to only send packages to the package address because it is much more expensive for the letter address and they take money out of our accounts for packages. 

Funny story... so last night we were teaching a lady and half way through my comp challenged her to baptism and she said she's already been baptized, which is what a ton of people say, so my comp said we are going to explain more about the authority of God. I proceeded to explain Christ’s ministry, the apostasy and restoration. The whole time she was nodding her head and just saying "si." After I asked her if she would be baptized. She repeated that she had already been baptized. I tried again to explain that the baptism wasn’t legitimate because it needs to be performed by a priesthood holder. It was a lot of explaining... Well, we came to find out she was LDS and had a Book of Mormon with her hahaha. We were bullying a member and wasted an hour. 

 

People here still tell me they don’t understand me... I always feel like telling them I don’t understand them either. Mom you're right, you do feel like a little kid again. I was on the verge of tears every moment last week and lessons were the scariest thing because I had to try so hard. But I’m getting the lessons down better and understanding more. The biggest difference is that I try and laugh and enjoy it. There is so much to laugh about and there are some really neat people.

 The thing I’ve noticed most is how much the gospel blesses families. There is such a different feeling in the houses of members. I am so grateful for the gospel and for our family. 

LOVE YOU LOVE YOU. Thanks for your emails and updates

Hermana Meg 

First Week - La Romana

The first week in the field went pretty well overall. I have a wonderful trainer and I am among some of the most kind and humble people in the world. Of course, as everything in life, the beginning can be challenging. There were a couple of moments when I felt like walking home - but luckily God put me on an island. J It's a bit overwhelming to see so many people who live very different lives than the life I have known.

My companion is the lovely Hermana Arce. She is from Spanish Fork. Her parents are Mexican so she was raised speaking Spanish. Our area is La Romana. Sister missionaries haven't been in this area for over fifteen years and now there are four of us (my companion and I and another companionship all live in the same apartment). The ward here is wonderful. They welcomed us so warmly and are so willing to help us and befriend us.

The bishop picked us up from the store and we piled into the back seat of his little car while his wife held all of their small children in the front seat. There wasn’t room for our groceries with the luggage he had in the trunk so he tied his luggage to the back of his trunk. Other ward members have been wonderful - going to lessons with us and helping us find our way around. A perk to being a Latter-day Saint is that you have someone looking out for you no matter where you are in the world.

My companion and I were asked to sing an Easter song for the musical number yesterday - just minutes before sacrament meeting started. Neither of us has any musical talent and I am convinced the song we ended up singing is the highest Soprano song in the hymnbook. We sounded really good – not.

Something interesting I learned this week is that other religions often pray out loud at the same time together. This caught me off guard when I was starting a lesson with a prayer and the whole family all started praying.

The people are wonderful and I am growing lots. I love you so, so much but I am happy to be here and want to work hard.

Con Amor,

Hermana Meg
 

Presidente Heriberto Hernandez

I'm Even Going to Miss the Chef

Temple President & Matron

We went on splits this week with real life missionaries and had our first experience in the field. I have become too comfortable at the CCM the past few weeks and the experience in the field was a reminder of how I need to continue to push and how I have much to learn. "There is no comfort in the growth zone and no growth in the comfort zone." The hermana I went with is from Costa Rica but moved to Nevada at a young age; she's fluent in Spanish and English. I was intimidated at first but she was very kind and an amazing missionary. When she asked me to begin one of the lessons I froze and I have no recollection of what I even said; words were just coming out. I am sure I didn’t make any sense. A couple of hermanas in the field expressed that they had been concerned with all these young girls coming out but they said they know we can handle it.

My big challenge right now is not letting my fear be greater than my faith. When I focus on what’s ahead and how unprepared I feel regarding the language, it can be a little daunting. But focusing on the unknown is hindering. On Sunday, we watched an MTC devotional given by Elder Holland in January. He said the following, "We know you're young. We know it’s hard. We are not going to apologize for that. Even at your tender ages - grow up overnight if you have to - but we expect you to be bold, powerful teachers. The Lord has always trusted young people." His whole talk had a 'rallying the troops' feel. It was great.

 

I leave the safety of the CCM walls in five days. I wish I could say I've mastered Spanish but that is still a work in progress. I am going to miss the people I have met here. My teachers are incredible people. You get to know everyone really well because it is so small. I’m even going to miss the CCM chef who tries to get me to eat meat every day. I am going to miss my companion - who has a beautiful voice; I make her sing for me every night. But it’s time to move on. Let the adventure begin!

"What is the source of fear? I think it is rooted in the assumption that I must solve all my problems and face my challenges alone, using my own resources. That is frightening, because deep in my heart I know how limited those resources are. So when I am fearful, I am hopeless. And without hope, I find myself paralyzed. Knowing that I am not capable of changing myself or my circumstances for the better, I stand frozen in fear." - Gregory Clark

 

I know I am not doing it alone. I have never felt closer to the Lord. I am so grateful to be here and so grateful for this gospel. We have so many reasons to be faithful and so much to hope in.

 

Les extrano,

 

Hermana Meg

 

Are We Done Studying Yet?

 

Making A Run for It

There were two days in a row this week that I didn’t go outside - at all. I temporarily went insane. The following day my comp and I were so stir-crazy, during our ten minute break we ran down four flights of stairs, outside, and across the parking lot. The president's wife later said she saw two Hermanas out her window that looked like they were making a run for it. I have started running. It has been a terrific outlet for me. I run around the temple lawn; it probably takes 10+ laps for a mile but it is a great outlet. Its a great way to clear my head after being in a classroom all day.

 

We made it to the University this week. It was very crowded. It's good to practice being bold. It can be intimidating approaching someone and striking up a conversation using my broken Spanish. But for the most part everyone is very kind and loves to try and help. They are a very social people and enjoy talking. Tomorrow we are all splitting up and going into the field with missionaries. I'm nervous but it will be a great opportunity to taste what it’s going to be like.

I LOVE my teachers. LOVE LOVE! They are the neatest people and are all hilarious. And I have learned so much here! So much. And I am so glad that I have a good gospel foundation and knew some Spanish coming in.

 

 

All the missionaries that have been here with us left for their assignments this week. When you are around the same people all day long you get close and it’s sad to see them go. Our district was alone in the CCM for a couple of days but today a huge group arrived. There are around forty new missionaries and the majority of these are sisters. There is another big group coming when we leave. The sisters are going to have to change sides of the building with the Elders, where there is more room. It is so fun to be a missionary at this time; there is so much energy with all the changes. Because there are not that many Hermanas currently in the field and so many are coming, we have been told we are going to be training very quickly. EEK! I am going to have to step it up with the Spanish seeing I won’t get to rely on a senior companion for very long.

I am grateful for the things that have challenged me in my life: soccer, school, the Romney campaign, and my jobs because those hard times are helping me now get comfortable feeling uncomfortable.

It’s warm and beautiful here. Life is good.

Love,

 

Meg

 

You will either step forward into growth or you will step back into safety

- Abraham Lincoln

 

Things I Never Knew I Never Knew

Hola

 

We were supposed to go to the University last Friday to talk to the students on campus. However, there have been riots going on at the University but they said it’s only dangerous if you don’t join in with the rioters. And for some reason they didn’t want us to do that. Instead we went to a park to practice. Everyone I spoke with was so kind and patient with my Spanish. I may have mixed up 'where are you from' and 'where are we' because everyone I asked pointed to the ground and said “El parquet." I hope I wasn’t getting that wrong because 1) that would have been a really silly question and 2) I learned how to ask that on day one. Perhaps they were all just park residents.

 

One of my teachers said not to worry when we get things wrong. One of her companions was giving a talk in sacrament meeting and was trying to say she was embarrassed up there and it was the bishops fault but. But she used the word "émbarazada"' for embarrassed, which incidentally means pregnant.

 

The following are the highlights of the week... We have weekly doctrine classes with President Freestone. He is so wise and my understanding of the gospel is growing more than ever. To quote the wise words of Pocahontas: “I’m learning things I never knew I never knew.” Thursday mornings we are able to go to the temple which we all look forward to. Another highlight is the daily volleyball games we have during fitness. Almost all the missionaries participate. The phrase "'en tu cara'" (in your face), has caught on and at least one person says it after every point scored.

 

The Spanish learning has hit a bit of a plateau. I have to remind myself it’s ok to be progressing at a slower rate as long as I am growing. I am amazed at the capacity our minds do have. I am still working on utilizing my mind more and expanding my rate of retention.

 

Something I have found to be tricky is learning to simplify the gospel. With all its complexities and depth, it’s challenging to know how deeply to dive in. But there is also a beautiful simplicity about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The key principles being, God loves his children and wants us to progress. We can’t stress that enough when teaching. A scripture that was shared with me this week was Romans 8: 35, 38-39:

 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?... For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Te amo,

Meg