Oh how i love new york!

From: Corrine Christison
Date: Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 6:11 PM
HERMANAS Y HERMANOS!

oh how i love new york! let me count the ways for you:

1. i love how when we're tracting down the country roads, we have to step over the three-day old roadkill... i think ive passed possum, beaver, and deer. yes it is sad, but it is new york!

2. it rains 5 out of the 7 days of the week and the natives say we're behind on our rain this year! i dont want to see how much it has to rain for us to be on target!

3. there's a hamburger joint in town called "chill n grill" where we went all the visitors for the best ice cream around. they have a map so visitors can put a star where they are from... 50 % of the stars are on utah! :) palmyra truly becomes a mormon town in the summer
time!

4. the palmyra temple is laid out exactly like the raleigh (that is really in apex) temple so everytime i go, i get a taste of good ole north carolina.

okay! thats enough! truly though, new york is growing on me more and more and i know that it is because when you truly serve people, you grow to love them. i wanted to share a testimony building experience i had this week. one of our investigators named ian told us
"since you ladies have been coming, i feel like ive moved from that kid in the back of the classroom to the front of the room"..... tender i know! but truly, when our relationship grows, when we better realize that we are not just one in the 6 trillion billion people that have come
to the earth but that we are a daughter or son of god-- we feel more special. we are more able to feel HIS LOVE in our life and thus, we will strive to do his will. the best way i have found to feel closer to my father in heaven, to feel my relationship with God growing is through
prayer. let us strive to say more meaningful prayers... just as if we were talking on the telephone to
our father who we havent seen in a long time! i
promise that if you can strive to do this, your relationship
with your father in heaven will strengthen and his love will
be more abundant in your life! prayer- it works!

sister christison

Daddy Email - 5/31/09

hey daddy,

i wanted to share with you the letter our assistants to the presidents just sent us. so bear with me!

"we have moments of great joy but also times of great sorrow and disappointment.  this is an essential part of our mortal existence. we can exprect our faith to be tried and disappointments to come. those times, however, "need not lead to discouragement," because we can also expect miracles and great joy.  by definition, to discourage is to deprive of confidence and the ability to conquer fear or despair.  discouragement causes us to lose focus, motivation, and the desire to obey. it weakens our fatih and brings with it greater difficulty in feeling and following the spirit.  the reasons it comes are varied.. it comes from missed expectations, from comparing ourselves to others and feeling that we dont meausre up.  often, it comes from doubt, thoughts like "i dont know if i can do this"... sometimes discouragement seems to come uninvited and withou reason, even when all is going well.  nevertheless, it comes. how is it overcome? ... discouragement is overcome by choosing faith "even when the mist of darkness confromnting us is exceedingly great".  when these time of disappointment come, to "maintain a vision of who we are and what we are doing," and to "continue to diligently move forward".  we must also plead for the strenth, desire, and guidance we need.  it is our testimony that we cannot comprehend the joy that awaits us for "as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which god hath prepared for them that love him".

so dad, when disappointment comes, we must choose FAITH, remember who we are- that we are SONS and DAUGHTERS of a LOVING HEAVENLY FATHER and then PRAY for the STRENGTH to continue on

i love you sooooooooo much!

sister kiddo

Corrine Mass Email - 5/20/09

> Date: Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 12:03 PM

> HERMANAS Y HERMANOS!
>
> so im not a spanish speaking missionary but i got the
> chance to invite someone, well, kind of invite him, to read
> the book of mormon in spanish!  it was a rush thats for
> sure!!  anyways, i'm telling y'all right now that im
> falling in love with the country (and i thought i was a city
> girl!)  but spring has just come into full bloom and
> the rolling fields here in palmyra are just
> GORGEOUS!!!  i'll take a picture and send it
> sometime... just so you can see the beauty!
>
> we had stake conference last sunday.  elder robert d.
> hales spoke a little bit about the sacrament.  he said
> that in the sacrament prayer it says: "to always remember
> him..." elder hales pointed out that in order to remember
> something, we first must experience it or know it.  so,
> in order to remember christ and his atonement during the
> sacrament, we must first know him and experience the effects
> of the atonement in our lives!  so next week, as you
> all are sitting church, strive to REMEMBER the savior--
> recall how you felt his love this past week, reflect on what
> you learned about him, etc.  not only will your sundays
> become more spirit-filled but your life will be richly
> blessed, i can promise you that!!  blessed how you may
> ask? well, elder porter (also at stake conference) said "the
> fruits of the spirit are JOY BEYOND EXPRESSION and DEEP
> INNER PEACE THAT IS BEYOND UNDERSTANDING"... sound good to
> anyone?  it does to me!
>
> i hope all of you are having a great week!
> sister christison
>
> ps.  every week we have a site meeting where all the
> senior couples and young sisters who are working at the
> historical sites get together.  a couple of weeks ago,
> one senior sister told of an experience she had at the book
> of mormon publication site where a boy asked: "why didn't
> jesus christ waitl till the computer age to print the book
> of mormon?" (prompted of course by just learning about the
> old fashioned printing presses) . so she is relating this
> story when another senior elder raised his hand. he says: "
> the lord wanted the gospel to be restored by a prophet, not
> a computer nerd"
> ** an apology goes out to all the computer nerds reading
> this... i think you're right up there with a prophet in
> terms of importance!