December 27, 2011 w/ a picture

Wednesday: We spent the morning wrapping Christmas presents for a family in our ward who needed some extra help. It was lots of fun. That night we went to Candy Cane Lane with Jessica. It's a street where everyone has to deck out their house -- it's part of a contract when they move in. It was a fun Christmas adventure.

Thursday: We picked up a new investigator! Her name is Sherri. She is awesome and when we were talking to her, she quoted the Book of Mormon - meaning she totally read and understood what she read! We are excited. The day was super windy and cold so we mostly stayed indoors. All week we shared a Christmas message with all the families we saw.

Friday: Was long! I just wanted Christmas to be here. We did weekly planning, walked around and contacted for a couple hours, and taught Jess. Nothing special.

Saturday: Was the big mission-wide Christmas party! We drove down to Vista with Madsen and her comp. There was a devotional, lunch, a talent show, and a Sacrament meeting-esk program. I got a gross cold earlier in the week and it was the worst on Saturday. I was coughing up a storm and blowing my nose, which kind of put a damper on the party, but it's all good. We had Christmas Eve dinner with a really nice lady and then stopped by one of our favorite families to help leave out cookies for Santa.

Sunday: Christmas!!!! It was so great. We had Church from 9-10 and then presents! We got sooo many presents. The lady I live with emailed all our Relief Society to get money to buy us a ton of stuff. I got more this year than I have ever gotten in past years. It was overwhelming but so fun. We hung out with some of our favorite families and then got to make calls home at 3. I Skyped with my family! It was like I hadn't been gone. I already miss them again but it was great! We had a fabulous dinner and finished our evening helping a family pack for a trip to Utah. It was a great Christmas and I was surprisingly not homesick.

Monday: Was a pooper day. I was sick and grumpy. I had to start listing my blessings to my companion to remind myself that my life rocks and missionary work is awesome. It worked for the most part.

It was a quick week. I am def. sad that Christmas is over, but I still have New Years and my birthday to look forward to. January 7th my companion is going to need to pull me out of bed due to depression because I know I'll be bummed all the holidays are over. Such is life. But the Church is still true.

Party hard people! Love ya!
-Sister Christensen