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.

I survived my first transfer!

Hello family~

Transfer calls came on Saturday, and, as expected, Sister Lamborn and I are staying in Pleasant Hill South! The North Sisters are staying, too, so we're all here for Christmas and New Years! :)

I got the iPod and the Shutterfly package! Thanks so much! I'm enjoying the music. The Shutterfly one is under our tree. I'm excited to get whatever else you've sent. :)

And I'm glad you like Light the World so much! I think it's awesome. We're sharing it with everyone. Everyone has time for a 30 second video a day. :P

I'm so glad Amanda liked her card! And that all the other kiddos are doing well.

This last week was SO MUCH BETTER than last week! Attitude really makes such a huge difference. I decided to have a better week, and I did. I had to consciously change what I was feeling once or twice, but it helped a ton. Nobody likes a mopey missionary. :P

Last Monday I had french fries for the first time in a month. That's not significant. I just really wanted fries.

We had District meeting on Tuesday last week instead of Thursday. We had a end-of-transfer party and our Zone Leaders wanted to be there. Hence the switch. All of the thoughts were on joy and Christmas. This District has been wonderful to be a part of. One of our Hermanas goes home tomorrow, and two of our Elders are being transferred.

We taught S_ _ (our miracle investigator) the Restoration, and she had some fantastic questions. She said she has never in her life wanted to step foot in a church, nor has she really felt God's love... until she met us. Her father is a less-active member, so she's seen missionaries in the past, but has never been interested, never had it click.

We built a bookshelf for her, which was so fun. They were super grateful, and I was just glad to have a project to do. I wish I could build one of those little models, but there would really be no time for that.

They bought us dinner, too! She's so incredibly grateful for everything, and just wants to give back whatever she can. Her dad is this cool old super deaf Canadian with great childhood stories.

Then we visited B_ _ and A_ _ and their daughter. They're recent converts and their daughter just barely turned 8. They're going to have another little girl in January. :) Other missionaries have had a hard time or haven't bothered trying involving the dad in lessons, and he made it a challenge. She and Sister Lamborn both like Pokémon, so she likes her because of that and it makes it easier for us both to engage her. We had her draw the Plan of Salvation (I'll send a pic). She is an amazing little artist! It's such a fun idea to get kids involved in the lesson and help them remember it too.

We were suuuuper late for service on Wednesday, but it was SO GREAT. I LOVE Give Kids the World. We worked in the castle for the first time!!! It's so amazing. They have a star on the ceiling for every child that's been there (well, nearly. They didn't start that right when the organization started). Over 145,000 stars. It's stunning. We had two main jobs in there.

First, to help the kids write their names on/decorate their stars. We then take the star and give it to Stellar the Star Fairy. She puts it up overnight, and they can come back the next day to see where their star is.

The other main job is the Pillow Tree. Every kid that visits GKTW, along with every child in their group, gets a pillow. It's this cute little tree with an owl that talks to them. The tree grows the pillows with love. The kids make them grow by touching the tree and thinking of who they love. Then the pillows...magically appear in a little stump next to the tree. It's just all so cool. (And actually, people around the world make the pillows and send them to GKTW to be stuffed! It's awesome!)

There weren't many people that day, but we explored the castle and colored and just enjoyed the atmosphere. GKTW is the best.

Thursday was a busy day, we taught so much! One woman we delivered a Bible to was interesting. She invited us in and talked to us a ton, but when we started teaching the Restoration, she cut us off. She said she wanted to read the pamphlet and some of the Book of Mormon so she had some background in what we were teaching, and THEN she'd have us over. Kinda weird.
But then we had a lady who we taught the whole Restoration to... and she loved it. She accepted what we were saying and told us that she loved having us there.

Met the most interesting lady that day too. She waved at us as we were driving away and looked SO HAPPY, so we pulled over and walked with her for a bit. She was super sweet and a little crazy, haha.

Fridays are slow because most of what we do all day is planning. So we're stuck in the house all the day and we go a little crazy. We were joking and laughing so much towards the end, haha. Also contacted a ton of referrals. We have a bunch, and they're often hard to get a hold of.

Saturday was super interesting. We left about 7:15, and drove an hour and a half to a town called Christmas. We spent the day at Fort Christmas historical park? They have a festival/showcase/something once a year. Lots of little booths selling little things. The mission hosted a booth focused on Family Search, so we basically just sat there with Elder and Sister Kearl, wandered a bit, tried to talk to people... So many people said things like, "I already know too much about my family history." Haha. We also had a handcart, and Elders James and Zollinger pulled kids around in it. It was a fantastic conversation starter. (There are pictures of me in the handcart, but I'd have to get them from Elder James.) I really want to go there another year. There were so many cool things to see.

After that, we went to the tail end of Angie's baby shower. We get invited to all the parties, it's pretty great.

We were at church so long on Sunday. We had coordination with our ward mission leader at 12, then ward council. We didn't go to Relief Society, and instead talked to the less-active daughter of Sister Burton (they're fantastic and they like to give us food and other things). She wants to be more active and introduce her boyfriend to the church, and was asking us for how to approach the topic, where to find scriptures, etc.

After church they had Young Women in Excellence and dinner. Some of the YW in this ward are so amazingly talented. One girl loves theater, loves Hamilton, sang a song from Waitress... Her family is so cool.

And then it was the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. The Spanish branch was watching it, and technically we shouldn't have been there, because we're supposed to be home by 8 on Sundays... But our District leader is serving in the Spanish branch, so he was there and he gave us permission. :)

That was the week, and I'm not sure what else to write! I hope these letters aren't too long and boring. :P

Basically what I've learned from this week is that prayer and positivity are so important. Choosing to have a good week affected my entire week for the better. I got along with Sister Lamborn better, I taught better, I had more of a desire to teach... Attitude is important.


Last thought: people here take Christmas seriously. The moment Halloween was over, and especially after Thanksgiving was over, lights were EVERYWHERE. Not just a few lights. Lights ALL OVER. It's amazing. Christmas is the best. I hope you're all enjoying the holiday season. I love you all.

Love,

Christine

District "birthday" party.

 Our District, and then our Zone leaders too.

The Plan of Salvation as drawn by Alex. Left to right, but bottom to

top. Premortal existence, creation, Adam and Eve, Alex and her ability

to choose good or evil, Jesus, the spirit world, and the kingdoms of

glory.)

Give Kids the World Castle!!!

The thrones.

The wishing well.

The

Pillow Tree!

 The star tower

Those are all stars. STARS.

A little hollow in the castle.

Ibises.

The sky Saturday morning!

The handcart

Picture sent by a member. 

We built gingerbread houses today! Me, Sister Lamborn, Sister Angelo,

and Sister Parish with our houses. Sister Parish's broke, hah.

Gotta run, love you, bye!

MORE pictures arrived. 

Thanks for Snakes

Hello family!

Mom, you're a missionary?! So cool!

I'm glad you had a good Thanksgiving. It was interesting to me to think that when I was going to sleep, you guys would have still been at dinner.

How awesome that David Robbins got baptized! That's so exciting. I don't think you'd told me that Kellie Felez had died.

Thanks for the music. I'm glad for the Sparrow in the Birch songs. :) The speaker works great, and so does the cuff. Thanks for sending that. :) Dunno when I'll get the other packages, but I'm excited.

And thanks for all your pictures! I love all the birds you're seeing. You NEED to come here with me after my mission. There are so many birds! I see multiple osprey every week, buzzards/vultures ALL OVER, ibises, storks/egrets/herons, little tiny finches... Unfortunately I don't have time to get pictures of them all. :P I wish I knew what they all were.

The stars here are also amazing, and so clear. I wish I had something to identify them with, but alas, Sky Maps is not an authorized missionary app. :P

Oh yeah, I clicked "send" on the pictures last week, but we had to leave right then. And then I didn't have wifi until Thursday, at which point it automatically tried to resend them. I'm glad they all went through okay.


Honestly, this week was probably the roughest I've had. Just lots of little things building up, stress, and Satan. I've also been exhausted, blah. I'm choosing to have a better week this week, to focus on more positive, spiritual things, and to try to turn outward and serve more, instead of focusing on myself. I have an amazing support system out here. Sister Lamborn is amazing and I'm so grateful for her.  We're so lucky to have Sister Parish and Sister Angelo to be around as well. I love all three of them. And Heavenly Father is always there for all of us, in any struggle we may be having, big or seemingly insignificant. He can and will help.

Now on to the actual week!

A member picked us up from the church last Monday (Sister Guevara, we call her Sister Fanny. She's hilarious and a little crazy, haha. We love her) and took us with her to the cemetery where her mother is buried. There we met a woman about our age, who was looking for her father's grave. She found it, along with her grandfather's. She was so touched and grateful that we helped her and just that we were there with her in that moment. It was just a neat experience.Tuesday we biked somewhere around 20 miles. It was great. :D I forgot sunscreen that day, though, and that was definitely a mistake.

We had such an amazing miracle that day. We tried visiting a less-active member the first week here, and his nonmember daughter answered the door and chewed us out because nobody had visited or knew that her dad was in the hospital. She was super anti and made it incredibly clear that she would never join the church. But we told the ward about him, and they donated a turkey dinner to them for Thanksgiving. She called us and was crying, incredibly grateful, and is now wanting to learn more about the church.

We got in early and had a movie night. :P Basically I watched training videos for an hour and a half and colored. We're not always super comfortable biking around at night, as some areas are not well lit and we've heard there are gangs nearby.

Wednesday was interesting. I struggled with motivation for a while. But luckily it was a service day, and I had the chance to read and pray while we waited for kids to ride the carousel. I've got so many resources and things to support and encourage me. :) If we work at the carousel again, I REALLY need to take pictures of it. It's so cool.

Thursday! Thanksgiving! Such a great day. District meeting was a little more silly and disorganized than usual, but it was fun. We were all just in a happy holiday mood. Our District Leader, Elder James, gave a really powerful thought; he told us to imagine ourselves in the Celestial room of our favorite temple, and imagine Christ talking to us about our missions. How would we feel talking to Him about who we've become? He told us that what we do and don't do has importance, but far more important is how much we grow.

We spent the whole day with the North Sisters and had THREE member meals. The Quispes had us over for lunch. Their family is awesome. I really want Crysta and their middle daughter to meet; I think they'd get along really well. We played bingo and just talked with them for a while.

Second meal, first dinner with the Hammock family. It was awesome to be part of a typical family Thanksgiving meal. That one was probably my favorite, too... One of their daughters has a 7 foot Colombian red-tailed boa. And I got to hold her. I was so excited. Sister Parish came with me and held her briefly too. I hadn't handled a snake in aaaages.

Part three, with the Guevaras. Sister Fanny and her brother and sister-in-law, plus a couple from the ward and some other random people. :P They like non-traditional Thanksgiving, and had nachos, orange chicken, and other assorted foods. We decorated their Christmas tree. I have a ton of pictures, I'll try to pick a few good ones. :) (I might just send the SD card home after Christmas, even if it's not full.)

Friday was my ONE MONTH MARK. (Forgot to tell y'all, MTC time doesn't count.) We celebrated by staying inside the house and planning all day. :P

The Guevaras also gave us a Christmas tree that they don't use, so we decorated that day! We bought some lights for around the house too. Having decorations around makes me so happy. I just want to get a couple fun ornaments, instead of just baubles.

Saturday we visited our investigator and his family. They're so cool. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom. This week we've been sending him motivational texts every day. But he's not struggling at all. He and his wife both say that once they decide to quit something, that's it. It's not a temptation any more. He still hasn't been to church yet, unfortunately. She was sick a couple weeks ago and he was sick this week. :(

Tried to find some people in the super south part of our area, with the help of a member. That area is impossible to reach by bike (no sidewalks, 50 mph roads) and eats miles if we don't have a specific purpose. Nobody really answered or wanted to talk to us.

We had dinner with a less-active family, and they fed us SO MUCH. We were dying, oh my goodness. We taught the Plan of Salvation to their kids and had them draw the different points while we talked about it. It was certainly an exercise in patience, haha. They had fun though and their parents appreciated it, and were glad to sit down and have dinner with us.

Sunday started out kinda meh but turned out fantastic. We biked a bit. A couple of the cranes flew directly behind me and made their dinosaur noise, which was terrifying and made me laugh so hard. (Look up the noise sandhill cranes make. It's my favorite thing.) And then my skirt got caught in my bike. That was certainly interesting.

Church was amazing though. One of our investigators came with her 17 year old son and 4 year old daughter (SUCH a cutie. She was so good the whole time), and a neighbor. Her husband couldn't make it. We're working on their understanding of Priesthood restoration and that our church is the only true and living church... But she really enjoyed all the meetings. She said it felt familiar and peaceful. I can't remember the last time I felt the Spirit that strongly in Sacrament meeting. It was great.

I think I'm the go-to for Relief Society piano now. So that's interesting. Sister Lamborn and I taught too; that was also interesting. Not my favorite thing. She thinks I'm a good teacher, I just need to actually speak and teach more.

I'm going to try and send some of my favorite pictures from this week. I hope you all have a great week! I love you and love seeing your letters and pictures during the week.

Love,

Christine

I forgot to write about this!!!! We saw our first alligator 

on Tuesday! He was about 3 feet long. 

Sister Lamborn named him Frollo. 

Wewere maybe 6 feet away from him. 

I saw another one Saturday, but just barely. 

It was dark and we were both moving. It looked HUGE though.

This is the woman who we met in the cemetery. Also Sister Fanny,
Sister Lamborn, and Sister Stevenson. 

In District Meeting, we drew ourselves surrounded by light. 

Sister Lamborn and I are the ones on the far left. 

Elder Zollinger's, at the bottom, is my favorite.

Sister Parish kept taking selfies, haha. This is the least awful.

Sister Parish and me and Missy the snake!

I was so happy. So happy.

This is my favorite picture of me, possibly ever. 

Use this onfacebook or something. 

It's the most genuine smile I've ever seen 

on myself in a picture.

The video Sister Parish took, and we didn't realize she was taking it.

Thanksgiving, we decorated at the Guevaras'.

It's so difficult to get good pictures of Sister Lamborn, haha. 

She always pulls a face.

But I get good pics of her sometimes. This is with Sister Parish.

Sister Parish and me!

They're cute and I love them.

We're all pretty great. :)

Little Olen put the star on top.

Our tree! We had to rig it up so it won't fall. 

There's only 3 feet at the bottom and 

it wants to fall over. Silly tree.

Sister Lamborn wanted a picture of the tree 

but her iPad was dead.
So I took a picture for her, haha.

I might send a couple more of the Christmas decoration ones. 

I have so many and I love them all.