Crafting and Christmassy Things

Hello~

Thanks for all the pictures, I love getting them (once they actually
load). I got 5 packages on Sunday, haha. The ornaments are wonderful.
:) The other 4 are under the tree. I'm excited for Christmas. 

I'm glad you had a good time at the zoo! I meant to grab Misty's email
this week, but forgot when we were rushing out of the house. Tell them
I say hello! Daniel is so cute!

I broke my favorite necklace this week. :( :( That labradorite stone
from old town San Diego. Our house is entirely tile. And I knocked it
off of the counter.

I napped more than once this week. I don't know why I've been so
tired, bleh. I've felt mostly fine physically. Just somewhat stressed.
I'm working on it.

I don't know what to write this week other than what happened,
honestly. It's been crazy.

Tuesday was the best day. The best. It really, properly rained for the
first time since I've been here. It's drizzled a bit a couple times,
and that's how it started off on Tuesday... But then it kept going.
The drops were small, but it was really fast. We were both soaked
within minutes. I had even thought about putting my poncho in my bag
that day, hah. We just biked in the rain for a few hours. It was
fantastic.

While in our lesson with S---, it thundered and lightninged a bit.
Luckily it cleared up a bit before we left, or they wouldn't have let
us bike away. She is amazing. She wants so much to understand what we
teach, and has great questions. Her father's input is always awesome
too. She told us that her entire life, she'd hated and feared God. She
never thought of Him as a loving being, until we started teaching her.
And she'd talked with missionaries before, because her dad is a
member... but she'd never connected with any until us. She said she
can see God in both of us. It was such a cool thing to hear.
We taught 8 lessons that day, which is a record for us. :)

We worked in the Cafe at Give Kids the World for the first time on
Wednesday. Basically that involves helping people carry their trays of
food, getting drinks, cleaning tables, and just interacting with the
kids. :) It's great too because there are other missionaries around to
talk to. We may not see the difference we make there, but we do make a
difference. Elder James said he had someone come up to him and
apologize, because earlier in the week she had been rude to some
missionaries. Then she remembered that missionaries work at GKTW, and
that we're actually pretty great. She promised that she'd listen to
the next LDS missionaries she saw. :)

Thursday we saw kittens in our yard. There's so many feral cats here,
which is sad. But we enjoyed watching around 5 little fuzzballs
traipse around our backyard. :)

It was the first District meeting of the new transfer, and we have 3
brand new missionaries in our District. They seemed a lot more put
together than I felt my first DM (and they were wearing shoes).
We celebrated T---'s birthday and brought her a cake. :D (Have I
talked about T--- yet? She drove up next to us at a stop sign one
day, told us she was a member and gave us her address. She was
baptized earlier this year. She's one of our absolute favorites to
visit, along with her sons F--- and Y---, and her husband R---
who is sort of investigating. Y--- now loves us and wants us to pick
him up when we go. And we can't. :( ) Sister Lamborn taught F--- and
the two other littles in the house about Nephi getting the plates, and
it was fun to listen to her teach it in a way that a 2, 4, and 9 year
old could understand.

Fridays are also gross because we're stuck in the house. We go a
little bit crazy. Luckily towards the end of the day we seem to end up
in a goofy mood, and the silliness breaks through any frustrations of
the day. :P

Saturday we started biking to a member's house, but stopped to talk to
a woman who was trying to back her car out of her driveway. :P She was
pinned in by two of the other cars there, and was trying to maneuver
out diagonally. We helped her move one of the other cars to get out.
Everyone in our town is just super nice.

We ended up having the other Sisters pick us up to go the rest of the
way (they were headed there too). And then we spent about 7 hours at
Sister Fritz's house. We established a game plan to get the members
working more in unity with each other, and loving each other more. In
the hopes that eventually they'll be more receptive and willing to
help each other and to do missionary work. So she baked and we
crafted. It was super fun. I made a bunch of candy cane reindeer. :P

Sundays are always great. I didn't write in my journal last night so
I'm trying to remember specifics, haha. T--- and her kids came to
church for the first time in a while. :) We had another lesson with
Sister Burton and her daughter. The Burtons, can't remember if I've
mentioned, bring us food like once a week. And it's usually something
that lasts the entire week, like a huge casserole. They're fantastic.

I've still been dealing with some stress, but it seems like every time
I have a bad day, a great day follows. I know I'm where I need to be,
with the people I'm meant to be with. The gospel is amazing. And I'm
so happy and excited for Christmas!

Love you all.

Love,

Christine

Sister Lamborn, F---, T---, Y---, me and their puppy Hennessy.

Sister J---'s dog Rocky. He was in

the garage and wanted to cuddle with Sis Lamborn.

At Sister Fritz's house with all the things we made!

 Just junk on our street :P but it was foggy this morning.