October 25, 2011 w/ pictures!

Tuesday: Madsen and I went shopping at Old Navy. Holy heck I have missed shopping. It was bad though---it was like giving an alcoholic a sip of vodka and then taking it away. Now I just want to shop all the time. I found a way cute shirt for 7 bucks and a long maxi dress for 12. Old Navy was having a sweet sale. I got compliments on my shirt on Sunday...for those of you who know me, that made me very happy haha. We made a no-shopping November rule---pray for me. ha.

Wednesday: Ugg was so annoying. We are teaching another Bible basher, Conner. We will probably drop him tomorrow. He wants evidence that the Book of Mormon is true and basically he has no belief in faith, just facts. I totally shut down when people start going off on us. All Bible bashers want is to convert us and I am thinking, "Are you serious?! I am giving up 18 months of my life, working my butt off, preaching the gospel all day everyday, and you think you can shake my testimony and change my entire life path by showing me some anti-Mormon crap and talking my ear off??" I really really dislike Bible bashers. It's emotionally exhausting. ha, ok sorry for the rant. Also on Wednesday we taught Aaron and Jess and had a Relief Society activity which was fun.

Thursday: We woke up at six and went for a three mile run/walk. There are a TON of hills where we live and it's brutal. I can run pretty well on flat ground and slightly uphill, but we were dying on the bigger ones and had to walk a little. I wore braces on both my knees and it went o.k. Later that morning we taught Heather, our mission leader's sister-in-law. We taught all about Joseph Smith and it went really well. She is progressing and we love it! Also on Thursday our dinner appointment canceled and instead they brought Cafe Rio to our house. I am a die-hard Cafe Rio lover so that was legit! We also did some service for people and visited with some people in the ward that we love.

Friday: We had our weekly planning session and then had a bunch of appointments in the afternoon. Our nightly appointments all canceled so we went out and visited less actives and former investigators.

Saturday: We had breakfast with some former investigators which was a lot of fun. They are a really sweet older couple and they are a lot of fun. We want to pick them up as investigators, but they are pretty devout Biblical Christians. They love us though and we really enjoyed breakfast with them. Later we did service for a family with triplets and helped them move. In the afternoon we went tracting which produces very little results, but we are trying to be better about doing it more often. Madsen and I are really working on finding new investigators and we have to start somewhere right?

Sunday: We had Church and meetings until 230. Then we went and did member visits. There is this one area that is full of families we love so we just go and park and go house to house, sharing a message. We had dinner with the Merrick's and I finally had her upload our rap video from back in September in the ward talent show. I think she tagged me on Facebook? It was a lot of fun to do so check it out.

Monday: It was Amber's 15th birthday! Shout out to Amber--love you lots! It made me a little homesick to think that next year at this time she will be 16 and have grown up so much and I will not be home yet :( I got a little trunky, not going to lie. But then we had an awesome district meeting and a great afternoon and night, full of teaching and talking to people, so that helped me focus again. We still have two baptismal dates, one for Jess on the 11th and one for Ricky on the 19th. I hate getting my hopes up so I am scared to be too excited about their baptismal dates, but I would be so thrilled if they went through. I have been teaching them both for the last 3.5 months and I really love them. I just want them to be ready to take that step and feel good about their decision and it's hard not to pressure them, but Madsen and I both really want to be here for it, but we def don't want them to get baptized before they are ready....such is the life of a missionary. It's slightly stressful. And then once they do get baptized, our teaching pool is down massively so that's a little scary too. Oh well.

Missionary work is hard but it's worth it! I have grown to love these people so much and I am finding myself get more and more bold in talking with everyone we see and sharing the gospel. I still have a long way to go, but I am feeling like I am really starting to "get it." This week is going to be sick. I love love love Halloween and we have fun stuff planned and it should be awesome. Party hard for me :) and convert people everywhere!

Love you all lots,
Sister Christensen

We found this beauty, or monster, in our bathroom this morning. That thing is like a little baby compared to other ones we have seen.

Madsen and I are making little magnets for all our dinner appointments that says, "Now's the Time: Alma 34:23" with this picture - helping people remember that their labors are to bring others to Christ and be missionaries! We took a million photos and finally decided on this one because it's dorky. Ha, my mascara was running in some of the photos because I was laughing so hard -- Madsen takes really good goofy photos.

October 18, 2011 w/ pictures!

I survived another transfer!! As did my companion!  Ha - our ward mission leader wrote a letter to my mission president requesting that we both stay for another six weeks and we had a bunch of families praying that we stayed. Not going to lie to you people, but my ward loves us! When I got here, it took two or three weeks to get our dinner calendar filled and now it takes one Sunday and it's done. Madsen and I just work well together and we know the balance between having fun and working hard:: the downfall is that now we are almost positive that we will be separated in six weeks which is like an awful countdown to the unknown. We would love to be together for the holidays, but we are pretty sure it won't happen :( Such is the life of a missionary.

Anyway, this week was good! On Wednesday we had sister exchanges. Another missionary, Sister Richards, came to my area with me, and Madsen went into their area, with Sister Columbe, for 24 hours. I was a little worried because Sister Richards has a bad rep. for being a white handbook and some what stiff, but I actually really liked her. She was different and def. more strict, but it was a great learning experience. I found out that her bad rep. came about because of the elders in her district who haven't quite found the balance between fun and reverent, so they didn't like her. My opinion changed though and even though I missed Madsen, I was glad to see different ways to do missionary work. Also, I came to realize how awesome my area is. She was white washed into her area and is lucky to have three or four lessons a week. Teaching is easily my favorite part of missionary work so I can't imagine not being able to do it a lot. I appreciate my area and ward much more now!

We switched back on Thursday. At the beginning of the week, Madsen and I made a goal to teach 21 lessons and so we really tried to stay as busy as possible. We got canceled on a bunch on Thursday so that was a downer. Making goals that are hard to attain really stresses me out!! I hate making goals I cannot achieve so I was frustrated Thursday because things just kept not happening for us.

Friday we kept way busy and taught three lessons to investigators which is awesome (all while trying to get our weekly planning done which usually takes 3.5 hours so we were never without stuff to do). I don't know if I shared this with you, but it's a bit of a long story. Awhile ago, Sister Madsen and I started this "member missionary lesson" where we teach active families and then leave them with an envelope and challenge them to give us a referral within a specific date. So we did the lesson for our ward mission leader and his wife and daughter. Thankfully, they took the challenge seriously and were really trying hard to pray about a name to give us. Sister Thatcher, the wife, was praying about it and her sister (who is not a member) kept coming to her mind. She kept thinking, "No no she is not ready and wouldn't want it." Brother Thatcher (our ward mission leader) said to her, "Stop trying to decide who the Lord has prepared to hear the gospel" so Sister Thatcher challenged her sister to take the missionary lessons. Her sister accepted. This is a big deal for their family. Now we are teaching her sister, Heather, once a week. She is so awesome. She has had a hardddd life and is really humbled. She is following through with her commitments and really has a desire to know the truth. My challenge to anyone reading this is don't try to decide for God who is ready to hear the gospel. If you have had a friend for 20 years and you get the impression that you need to talk to them about the Church, do it. That is the Spirit telling you that it could be the right time or moment to let them know. I loved Sister Thatcher's story because I know I am guilty of making up excuses for why I can't give missionaries referrals. Now I am a missionary and I know the other end. We just want to knock some of you people upside the head and tell you to do what the Lord has asked and gather his sheep! haha. Ok, I am stepping off my soapbox.

Saturday we did service and had a picnic with one of our favorite families. Sunday was busy busy busy with meetings and appointments. It was the primary program which was so cute and fun! I love that I can look at the kids on the stage and I know 3/4 of them and their families and I adore at least 1/2 of them! We have really gotten to know our ward which makes it feel like home.

We didn't reach our goal of 21 lessons but we got close enough that I was happy with it. We tried really hard. I got a taste of how Heavenly Father must feel. I so badly want to force people to let us come over and teach and allow them to grow in the gospel, but everyone has their agency and are free to choose how they want to live their lives. It must really frustrate Him when we make dumb decisions and pull away from Him. Madsen and I just want to help people and do service and allow people to feel the Spirit and enrich their lives, but we cannot force it on anyone. Ha. Oh well.

Monday was great despite the fact that we got canceled on. We have such an awesome ward that even when we get canceled on, we can still find a family to teach and get our lessons in. We also got a referral this week and have an appointment set up for Wednesday, so we are excited about that. We really want to increase our teaching pool so we plan to do some solid work to find more people to teach.

Today in personal study I was reading in Alma and it felt like stuff I was reading for the first time. Alma is giving some solid advice to his sons, and when you think about it in terms of your parents giving you advice, it can really hit home. If you cannot read the whole chapter at least read Alma 37: 32-37 and Alma 38. It's legit advice. Currently in my Book of Mormon reading, I am marking all mentions of any member of the Godhead and, in only six verses, a variation of God is written 11 times....I think putting our trust in God is important, no?

We also discussed faith in our companion study. I love teaching about faith, but faith is so tricky!! If you have lots and lots of faith you can move mountains and perform miracles, but if you don't exercise your faith CONSTANTLY, it gets taken away. And it's easy to have a little faith, but to be constantly building it up, sometimes we hit walls where we aren't really sure what we need to do next to increase our faith. For instance, I am reading my scriptures daily, and I pray like 10000 times a day and I am teaching people all the time, but I am falling into a rut. I want to challenge my faith to build it stronger...does this make sense? I don't know. Feel free to send advice my way :)

No matter what, I love the gospel and I love what faith in Jesus Christ can do for your life. It makes life more beautiful and meaningful. Never forget that! Have a great week everyone! Loves from California!

-Sister Christensen

Sister Madsen and I happy to still be together!

At the picnic playing games with the Scott's.

Ok this picture is so funny. We were playing with the Everts' and the little boy got mad and ran outside and sat by the tree crying. I got permission from Sister Everts to take a picture of him -- we couldn't stop laughing. It was the cutest tantrum ever!

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.

October 4, 2011 + more pictures (she's on a roll!)

I am so mad right now! All throughout the week I take little notes so I can remember what to write in my weekly email and I forgot my notes!!! So you all are getting the condensed version. I'll start with all the funny/random stuff.

1. My companion always keeps me laughing. She loves to be crazy and play with kids but a lot of times ends up getting hurt. Last week she decided to jump a curb on a scooter. She jumped it and then totally biffed it and fell on her bum. You'd think that would be enough to make her not want to do it again, but no, she made a second attempt. This time, the scooter whip lashed and smacked BOTH the insides of her ankles. Her pained face left me laughing for a solid five minutes. She got two huge bruises on her ankles.

2. My companion started a contacting approach with "Did you just come from the grocery store?" She immediately knew it was a dumb line because she made a funny face and in my head I was like "ehh....yeah...good one Sister Madsen." It's inevitable that when contacting people, you will say something dumb and think, "What was I thinking?!". We have a lot of those moments.

3. The zone was all together for General Conference and the elders taught us a new, very entertaining, but totally not spiritual or reverent game. It's called the Slapping Game. You stand in a circle and literally slap each other across the face, but you can't show your teeth (laughing or talking). It sounds terrible, but oh my heck it's so funny. Obviously my companion decided to play and she was determined not to lose. Her face was priceless. I wish I had recorded it.

4. Playing with some kids, we were pushing around one of those little tyke cars and chasing the little boys. Sister Madsen decided to sit on top while I pushed. I put all my effort into pushing her and she decided to jump off, hence causing me to fly OVER the top of it and crash to the ground. My skirt flew all the way up, face plant into the ground....needless to say it was embarrassing but hilarious.

5. Again with some kids, we were playing frisbee. My companion picked up the frisbee and accidentally launched it straight into the back of our Relief Society president's head. Then a couple minutes later we are playing a paddleball game. It was getting dark and harder and harder to see the little blue ball. Her son hit it straight into her cheek and then a couple minutes later the ball whacked her right in the eye. She was such a trooper and just kept trying to play. We all died laughing.

Ok, so a lot of my stories have to do with inflicting pain on other people, but I promise no one was seriously injured in any of these situations. It was just a funny week. Now on to the spiritual stuff.

Tuesday and Sunday we taught Ricky and Meg - they are progressing slowly. Ricky loves the Church but she isn't so sure about the Word of Wisdom. She is still working on it.

Monday night we taught Aaron and Jessica. We acted out the story of Alma and the four sons of Mosiah. It was really fun. Some elders joined us in helping perform the play and then we taught on repentance and obedience. For our activity we played the Slapping Game. Hilarious. We also met more with our new investigator Rose....I'll report more on that one next week if we are still working with her.

So General Conference this weekend was legit! I cannot wait to go back and reread all of the talks. I loved the one about the little girl being like, "Mom, is that a REAL missionary?" Some days I still have to remind myself I am a REAL missionary. I am trying every day to be the best example I can be and do the things that REAL missionaries do. It's not easy but randomly I will be overcome with so much excitement or happiness and I know I am doing the right thing with my life. I love it!

The Ensign this month is awesomeee! It's all about the Book of Mormon and how it is a second testament of Christ. There was one part I liked a lot and wanted to copy down. It says:

"To know that this book is true is to know that Heavenly Father and his Son live. It is to know that life is beautiful and eternal. It is to know that as long as you keep trying to be your best and repent when you fall, then you will always be forgiven. It is to know the true meaning of family. It is to know that you will never lose a loved one, as he or she waits for you. It is to know the blessing of Heavenly Father. It is to know the comfort that whatever storms comes your way, you can face them, as they are for your essence, it is to know love in all its expressions."

I have never thought of the Book of Mormon like that, but as I read and get more and more familiar with it, I know it is the word of God. The Bible is awesome and is filled with the great teachings of Christ, but the Book of Mormon changes lives because it testifies of the one true church of God on this earth and is untouched by men and other religions. Some days when you don't feel like reading, remember that that is what Satan wants! He doesn't want us to read the word of God, so strive everyday to read and show him up!

Anyway, I know I had a lot more to share because we do a lot every day, but I can't remember it all. It was a good week.

Love you all lots! Be nice to the missionaries!

-Sister Christensen

The Halloween decorations Mom gave! I love Halloween!

Aaron and Jessica and baby Oliver, Brother Thatcher (our ward mission leader) and his daughter Dez and Madsen and I. We had a BBQ and watched Conference together on Saturday.

September 27, 2011 w/ 2 more pictures!

It was an AWESOME week. I shouldn't say that because then I will be cursed with a terrible week, but oh my heck, it was a great week. I will start from last Tuesday:

We met with our investigator Ricky and her daughter Meg and we set a baptismal date for November 5th! She still has so much to learn but we feel really good about having a date set to work towards. She is from Japan and sometimes we face language barriers/cultural differences that are hard to explain to her, but we think that over the next month we can prepare her enough for baptism. Meg is only seven and is very ADD, but we love them and enjoy teaching them.

Wednesday: We had interviews with our mission president. It was short and to the point and yes, I cried the entire interview. Haha. He was very encouraging and helped me realize that I just need to focus, really focus, on the work and everything will be ok. Later that night we had a great lesson with Jess and Aaron on the Plan of Salvation.

Thursday: In the morning we went to the library and checked out mormon.org. It's obviously a Mormon website, but the Church is putting a lot of work and effort into it. I love mormon.org! We get to get on it every two weeks and check it out so we can recommend it to people and tell them what they should check out. We watched Mormon videos about different Mormon families around the world (under "meet our members")--there are some awesome, cool Mormons out there!! One guy is a hard core Harley Davidson motorcyclist, we have an Olympic swimmer, a lady in Australia who does a TV show called "Polka Dots", etc. It's so fun! Check it out for sure if you have time.

Also we picked up a new investigator. She is 19 and has had a very hard life. She is so different from anybody that I would ever know or hang out with and I love the opportunity to show love to her despite how different our lives are. We aren't sure how sincere her desire to learn is, but we plan to meet with her again tomorrow and if she kept her commitments and is open to hearing our message, we are more than happy to teach her. We also taught some members.

Friday: We did service in the morning, then had our weekly planning session. Then we took cookies to people in our ward. We have so many people in the ward who are fighting cancer. Like at least ten! It's crazy! Cancer is becoming a common-place illness in my area. Not cool. Anyway, later that night we stopped by our ward "empty nester" party (all the old people who don't have kids at home have a party once a month) and we got a referral! I love getting referrals!

Saturday: We cleaned out a lady's garage-- I loveeeee cleaning out garages. I love organizing. I am becoming well known for my organizational skills. I love it. Anyway, we went to the referral we got Friday and she was great-- her name is Rose and she is really interested in learning the truth about the Church. We will see her again this week and see how it goes. Saturday night was the Women's Relief Society broadcast which we went to. I loveeeddd Elder Uchtdorf's talk, as I am sure many of the women did. He is such a skilled speaker. Afterward the stake put on a salad bar dinner. Sister Madsen and I were leaving and Sister Madsen was like, "My mom would kill me for not staying and helping clean up." It hadn't even occurred to me to help clean up, so we stayed and helped. Sister Madsen is teaching me a lot about service and I love it. She is very service minded, I appreciate it and hope to become more like her!

Sunday: Busy busy. We had Church and meetings until 3. Ward council takes an eternity. Afterward we went and visited some ward members until dinner at 5 and then we had lessons all the way until 9. It was a busy day. I was exhausted.

Monday: Great day! The weather was beautiful, we had district meeting, we went tracting and we had a delicious dinner with a hilarious family. Kids here do early morning seminary and since I did it, I can totally relate. Sister Madsen had release time seminary so she gets made fun of alll the time. It's pretty funny. We might be subbing for a seminary teacher in the near future so I'll let you all know how that goes. After dinner we met with Aaron and Jessica and Jessica set a baptismal date!!! She wants 11.11.11 haha. Sister Madsen and I were so excited!! We love Aaron and Jess and cannot wait to have Jess be a member so they can eventually be sealed as a family at the temple. Loveee it! At 830 we went and did a lesson with a younger couple, the Everts, who are soo funny and great people. We laugh so much with them. It was a great end to a great day.

Anyway, that was my week. I feel like this email was a little boring, but I am telling you it was a great week. We were busy all week and got referrals and new investigators and set two baptismal dates (which will double the baptisms for the year for my ward) and we are getting to know and love our ward more and more each week.

The Church is true! It changes lives, gives direction and makes bad people into good people and good people into great people. Be nice to any missionaries you see because hopefully they are working their butts off to make this world a better place and bring people back into our Heavenly Father's arms.

Love you all
-Sister Christensen


My zone after a zone meeting. I am sitting next to one of my zone leaders who gets done with his mission October 16th.

At the park where Sister Madsen and I drew the Plan of Salvation.

September 20, 2011 w/ pictures!

This past week was long! Sister Madsen and I both felt it. I don't know why because it wasn't a bad week, it was just....long.

One thing I have been meaning to make mention of is super random but, here in California, there are huge spiders everywhere!!! Huge, no joke. And they build webs everywhere and we walk into them all the time and it's disgusting. And scary. Thankfully I have only had one inside the house which I screamed very loudly and killed very quickly. But these spiders are like multi-colored with huge butts and are really scary. It's weird.

Anyway, onto the week. Last Tuesday we had a district activity and played a whole bunch of sports. We did volleyball, basketball, pac-man, ninja, super knock out -- we were running around and active the whole time. My knees were killing me. And then the next day, Wednesday, Sister Madsen and I were like old women. Our backs and arms were sore and I was limping around. Ha, apparently having no cardio activity for a couple months turns you into a sissy. I was using ice packs for a couple of days and we had to take it easy because my knees are such a joke and can't handle stairs and hills and all the fun stuff that CA has to offer. But Wednesday was a good day. We had an awesome lesson with our recent convert and investigator, Aaron and Jessica. A guy from our ward who is a recent convert of a year, came with us to the lesson and we taught about the importance of prayer and scripture study. I think I have said this before, but I love recent convert testimonies because they are so pure and simple and powerful.

Thursday Sister Madsen and I went to a leadership conference. It was eight hours long. We learned a lot. President Cook talked about how people will lose their faith if they aren't constantly working to put their faith in action and always reading and praying and doing what our Heavenly Father asks of us. We also learned about how to have successful dinner appointments and other important things. It was a good conference.

Friday was the big ward talent show! Sister Madsen and I performed our rap and everyone LOVED it! No joke, we were one of the best performances that night. One of our members is going to post it to Facebook and tag me so everyone can see it. One lady sent the video to her son in Germany and people keep requesting personal performances. haha, it was really fun and Sister Madsen and I enjoyed doing it. Now if the members could just give us referrals so we could have a million people to teach, we would love our ward even more.

Saturday we did some tracting and ran into some former investigators. They were super nice and we hope to get to know them and possibly teach them. While tracting, Sister Madsen and I got into a little argument and I was so bugged. Normally, it would take me a couple hours to let it go and get over it, but on a mission, you learn to get over fights real fast. Haha, it was a nice lesson on how to forgive and forget quickly because otherwise the day would suck. Anyway, later we did service and then had dinner with the family that has twin, triplets, and a single and a baby on they way. They have two dinner tables haha.

Sunday was great and Monday was long, although we had a lesson with Aaron and Jessica which went really well and always makes me happy. Ricky and Meg, our other investigators, are progressing slowly. We have a lesson tonight which we are crossing our fingers goes really well. Ricky loves us a lot, we just aren't sure how much she understands about the Church.

Anyway, that's all for now. Hope all is well and everyone is happy and loving life!

Love,
Sister Christensen

The ward talent show rap. We are g's.

The Scott family who I love! And they love us!

With some members from the ward at a Labor Day BBQ.

September 13, 2011

Ok, so every week I always forget stuff that I wanted to write so today I am trying a new method. I am going to write each day and little tid bits about it.

Wednesday: It was freaking hot. The member we live with doesn't have AC so we were literally boiling. The inside of the house is hotter than the outside so during our lunch break, we were dripping sweat and at night we didn't even bother with the covers. We kept trying to remind ourselves that our missionaries are serving in places that don't even have AC anywhere and that we are blessed. ha. Also on Wednesday, we got our new district. Two sets of elders were white washed out and we got two greenies (white washed means they are both totally new to the area and a greenie is someone straight  out of the MTC and  a new missionary....I still call myself a greenie). So we got four new elders in our district. I am thrilled. My last district was......painful. Is that mean to say? They were just really awkward with any/all girl interaction and very unenthusiastic. At one meeting I was so bored I wanted to start sawing my arm off just to have something to do. Ok, that was a little mean but it's the truth! Anyway, yay for a fresh district.

Thursday: We didn't get much accomplished. We kept busy but our appointments kept falling through and we spent a lot of the day getting rejected. We did teach a lesson with our investigator Ricky and talked a lot about baptism. She is having trouble giving up tea because tea is a big thing in Japan. Hopefully we can figure out a good substitute. Also there was a huge power outage all around us but we weren't affected haha. Apparently some guy in Yuma, AZ disconnected something that shut down all power from Mexico to Coto, CA. Somehow my area wasn't affected which was great.

Friday: We had a lesson with the Scott family (we have a lesson with them every Friday night, the kids adore us) and Brother Scott, the dad, made a comment I really appreciated. He is a recent convert with a crazy past. He went from ex-convict to loving father and adoring husband. I love him and his example. He is an awesome guy. Anyway, we were talking about the passing of Sacrament during Sacrament Meeting and he mentioned how sacred that time is for him. If any of his 5 kids are irreverent during the passing of the Sacrament, they are grounded for the next day. That might seem a little extreme but he has taught his kids that the Sacrament is a time to reflect, repent and grow closer to our Heavenly Father. I love that! As a member of the Church my whole life, I have become a little jaded about the importance of Sacrament and what it should mean to me. I am def going to try harder to be more reverent.

Saturday was crazyyyy! It started to drizzle rain, then got heavier, then it started to HAIL and water was gushing down the street and the thunder and lightning scared me and then it stoppped and was sunshine and beautiful all day. So random! Anyway, I had a really great personal study. I read D&C 109:21-30 where Joseph Smith dedicated the Kirtland temple I believe: it's really powerful. It talks about the blessings that come from temple attendance and how important it is. If you have time, read it. I swear it will make you want to run to the temple and do a session. Ha.

Also, Saturday was the adult session of Stake Conference. Elder Baxtor of the Seventy was the main speaker. He made all of my district (about 16 of us) stand up in front of the entire audience (about 300 people) and sing "Called to Serve." Twice. I enjoyed it but the dumb elders were hardly singing and it sounded terrible! ha, the session was awesome though so it was all good.

Sunday: I totally had a meltdown. I got a pounding headache that wouldn't quit even with medicine. I just did not want to be a missionary for the day. I wanted Mom to comfort me and baby me. I am such a wimp! Haha, my companion is awesome though and totally helped me through it and I said a prayer and we got to work. The miracle of the day was that every person we talked to was friendly. I know that might sound dumb, but I am still super sensitive to when people are jerks to us and I think Heavenly Father knew I couldn't handle a harsh rejection. We probably talked to about 50 people and all of them were nice. That doesn't happen very often.

Monday: We had a district meeting which was good. We taught Aaron and Jessica which is still going well. Also Madsen and I started our member missionary lessons. We plan to do it with every family in the ward and want to get a referral from every single one of them. We did a little lesson and then role played to show the family how easy it is to be a missionary and invite people to learn more about the Church. We even had costumes for our role play. The loved it haha. We are such dorks.

Today Madsen and I were practicing our rap for our ward talent who. We were both trying to throw down beats to rap to. It was hilarious. We are such white girls with no rhyme. It's going to be....a very entertaining performance I think.

Anyway, just wanted to share my quick testimony that I know that the Church is true. I know the work that all the missionaries around the world are doing is the work of God. I know that the gospel blesses families and unites them not just for time, but for all eternity. I know that the small pains I face as a missionary don't even come close to the pain that Jesus Christ suffered so that we could all overcome sin and be able to return to our Heavenly Father. I know that God loves us. I know it because I look at my life and the beauty around me and I know that it all comes from Him. I love you all and miss you!

Love,
Sister Christensen