Almost time for Argentina!

I'm leaving on a jet plane! Don't know when I'll be back again (jk I'll be back in December of 2015)!! WE HAVE FLIGHT PLANS FOR ARGENTINA! I don't actually have a visa in my possession, but I am leaving the country on Monday, July 28! Hermana Terry, Elders McCutcheon, Valenzuela, Gregory, Merrill and I will all be flying from Salt Lake City to Atlanta GA for a 4 hour layover and then off to Buenos Aires! I cannot believe I have been here for 5 weeks and am "ready" to leave. Don't get me wrong, I am so excited to go but sad to leave so many friends here at the comfortable MTC.
In preparation for our flight on Monday, Hermana Terry and I cleaned our apartment (which is really quiet again now that the other 4 Hermanas are in Mexico) and have begun to pack. We barely started the packing process and are nearly done, we just have out the living essentials and neither of us can figure out how or why it took the last four Hermanas 5 days to pack and they still left a few things for us to find...
Every Wednesday, our P-Day, we do service (cleaning around the campus). Our district is pretty much the coolest cleaners. When they sweep, the elders go from building to building "playing Quidditch" complete with commentary in a British accent. Hermana Terry and I are super efficient and end up doing like 5 chores when everyone else does 1-2 and today, we had our reward. There is a room here on West Campus. It is full of pillows, nearly to the ceiling and it is a blast. That is right, the workers took the 7 of us in our district to this secret room and we had a massive pillow swim/fight. It was the best!
We had 10 girls at "Girls' Soccer on Thursdays" last Thursday and all of them said it was their favorite gym experience here, so I think we have something going! I am sad that I only have one more soccer day here though :( I think we'll have a few more and hopefully it continues to happen and keep growing even after we leave. The workers here said they've never had sister missionaries organize a soccer game and they thought it was so cool to see us playing!
Our Branch President's wife, Sister Doman always has a tie contest between the Elders on Sundays and it is the event of the week for them. She doesn't like red ties though so this last Domingo, all of the Elders in our zone wore red ties just for her!
We get 12 new Elders in our zone today which puts us at 30 Elders and 6 Hermanas! Hermana Terry and I are the new Sister Training Leaders and are doing our best to keep track of the whopping 4 other Hermanas (chiste jajajajaja). We love them all and are proud of ourselves for knowing everyone's name and a bit about them. Now we just have to add these next twelve to our brains!
The devotionals this week were good! Tomorrow is Pioneer Day which is huge here in Utah, so on Sunday, T.C. Christensen was the speaker and we heard lots of cool pioneer stories and how they apply to us as missionaries! Yesterday night we had quite a treat! Stanley G Ellis of the 70 was there with his wife and 8 of his 9 children who have all served missions (the youngest is currently in Korea!) They each bore their testimony on missionary work. Talk about strong! I really enjoyed the points that Sister Ellis made, she said
Faith=power
Obedience=the price
Love=the motive
The Spirit=the key
Christ=the reason
Joy=the reward
It is so true. Each of those points are huge attributes of missionary work. Through faith, comes miracles. Speaking of which, the topic for Sunday was Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement and as I was studying and preparing my talk I came across a scripture in Ether in the Book of Mormon which says: "For if there be no faith among the children of men, God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith."
I read that and thought "Peter Pan!" Now before you all go declaring me crazy, let me explain. Peter Pan is my favorite story, not the Disney version, the book and play by J.M. Barrie. Read it this week if you haven't already. In the story, Tinkerbell drinks poison intended for Peter in order to save his life. When Peter realizes she is dying, he explains to Wendy that in order for Tinkerbell to survive, the children in the world have to believe in her. Peter turns to the audience and asks "Do you believe in fairies?" and the audience must declare their belief in fairies so that Tink can live! It is the same with God, we must have faith, we must believe, before we can see miracles. So I marked my scripture, wrote Peter Pan and "I do believe in fairies!" right next to the verse and used the analogy in my talk. And yes, I did talk on Sunday, and everyone loved the Peter Pan part.
My district is singing on Sunday since it is our last chance. We'll be singing The Olive Tree and as of now, we don't have a pianist so I might be singing and playing the piano! We'll see how that goes...
I love and miss you all! I hope that you are having wonderful summers and using this time to grow closer to Christ. I have grown so much in these past few weeks and I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord. When I came here, I wanted to help others. I still do, but now I know that I am really here to serve the Lord. For it is His work and His glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. And it is my job to help him do just that. I love the Lord, I love this gospel. I love the Book of Mormon (which I hope to finish before I get on the plane on Monday). I love missionary work. I know I am supposed to be here and that there are people in Argentina who have been prepared by the Lord to be taught by me.

Until next time, which will be from in Argentina!

Hermana Christensen

argentinamish.blogspot.com

Sister Hannah Noel Christensen
JUL28 ARG-NEU
2023 N 900 E Unit 800
Provo, UT 84602