October 11, 2011 w/ 2 MORE pictures :)

Ok, so last week the only thing I missed reporting on was my first experience eating an artichoke. My companion hates artichokes and I don't think I have ever really eaten one. I just assumed I hated them. So I tried one, and it wasn't bad at all! Although it's a lot of work to eat one, so it's not really worth it. But if you have ever eaten one, you know how annoying the hairs on the heart are. I was warned several times "DON'T SWALLOW A HAIR" and I was trying really hard not to, but I did. The hair basically attaches to your throat and is very annoying and scratchy for a long time. I tried everything to get it to go down, but it wouldn't and it drove me nuts. Moral of the story....never swallow an artichoke hair.

Anyway onto the week. On Wednesday it was rainy, rainy, rainy. I hated it. I am such a wimp. We stayed indoors as much as possible and thankfully we had enough appointments that I never had to get too wet. We picked up a new investigator named Conner. More updates on that later. That night we had a dinner with a family full of boys which was so fun and reminded me of my family even though it was all boys. The mom had accidentally hit her oldest son and he was joking around that his mom beat him. I totally did the same thing when I was in high school -- my mom scratched under my eye and it got all red and a little bloody.  Haha I even took a picture of my face to show people. And they play lacrosse so I can talk about that with them. They are a fun family.

On Thursday we had our 5th lesson with a lady named Velvet Rose and consequently, we dropped her. To put it nicely, she was a bit eccentric. She believes that when we talk about Jesus Christ we are secretly talking about Joseph Smith because she thinks we worship and praise Joseph Smith....it was....interesting. We also picked up a second new investigator, Heather. She is awesome and is so ready to hear the gospel. She has definitely had some hard life experiences and she is humble enough to finally turn to God. We are excited about her.

Friday we had a funeral for a lady in our ward. It was my first funeral since one of my close friends, Rachel Bucci, died. It made me sad. Life is so short. We had a couple lessons we taught just for people in our ward.

Saturday we cleaned a man's house which hadn't been cleaned in a long time. It was awesome. We washed his house and dirt and cobwebs were just pouring off it. I love cleaning and organizing. That night, during dinner, my companion started having an allergic reaction to the cat. From the moment it started, within 20 minutes, her eyes were so swollen they were almost shut. It was hilarious. Ok, that makes me sound like a jerk, but it was just like on "Hitch" -- she got so swollen and puffy it was insane. It didn't affect her throat at all so it was fine. The whites of her eyes filled with fluid so she looked like a crazy person. We called a doctor and she just took some Benadryl and went to bed. At Church the next day, four people legit asked if I had a new companion and others started speaking in Japanese to her. See attached picture. It was funny.

So Sunday was bomb (other than Sister Madsen looking Asian). Our ward mission leaders' wife talked about the gathering of Israel and how important missionary work is. She had us come up and do a little section of the lesson. We are excited because she got other women excited to do missionary work and help us out! I loved it!

Monday we had an awesome district meeting that helped inspire me and made me want to work harder and do better. We kept busy all day which makes the day so much better. We also had a great lesson with Aaron and Jessica - we are still working towards 11.11.11 for her baptismal date.

Anyway, that's all I have to report. Life is good on the mish. Write me :)

Love, Sister Christensen

Sister Madsen's allergic reaction.

My second district.