It's HOT in DC!

FAMILY-

I have not been more grateful for any day of the week than I am for today right now. (To a point) I have never been so tired in my entire life. I knew it was going to be hard, but holy smokes it hit me hard and fast. There hasn't been a moment to waste. I am so excited to catch my breath. Thank goodness for P-day. Phewwww. Firstly, it was super great to hear from Bob and Dale on my way over here to DC. Sorry again for keeping you up at 430 in the morning waiting for my call that I couldn't make. :(. I’m sorry. BUT, it was fun for the minute that I could. Bob, you’re a champ for hiking around the world (AKA Celebration Park.) I hope y'all caught something. I am glad to have an update on the farm and was so grateful for the news about rain. That is such a great blessing.

Now what everyone has been waiting for..... MY FIRST WEEK IN WASHINGTON DC. Firstly, I love my mission President (President Riggs) He is just super duper. He kind of reminds me of Mitt Romney. He speaks with the same kind of voice and he looks kind of like him too. I was assigned my first trainer to be Hermana Rane (sounds like Rain). She has been out in the field for exactly 12 weeks. She just finished training as well and is now prepared to take on a greenie like me. Wow she's brave. She is also waiting on a visa to Argentina. I was really surprised that we got put together, but of course the Lord knows what he is doing. Okay the next thing is that I did indeed get put into Bella vista, but what I hadn't anticipated was the fact that we are opening the area. Uh huh. I repeat, Opening an area. White wash style. We had nothing to start with. Even our apartment was 100% bare. Luckily the wards nearby have been pitching in to get us some furniture, but it is pretty scanty. We didn't have the names of anyone in the ward list, including the Bishop. We had a new phone with no numbers and a spot where we didn't know if there are any members nearby. Luckily we are added onto the Bella Vista ward which has 3 other sets of missionaries. This ward is the only Spanish ward in the entire stake so it covers the entire stake boundaries. So the first day, without any delay we went knocking on doors to see what we could do for the work. We only ran into English people, but it was awesome at the same time. I think I prefer Spanish doors though. They seem to be way nicer. Anyway, we eventually got a hold of our DL who gave us the Bishop's number, but it turns out that he was out of town until yesterday. We went knocking on some apartments close to us, but had little success until we met some members referred from the DLs.

We then got some referrals from those members and had a starting point. We have been working like madness to open up this area. We had to start up the area book and get a whole bunch of stuff so that we could live. Wow it has been a crazy week. I haven't been so tired in my entire life. Never, ever, ever. Not even when we were in Hawaii and we had crazy jet lag. Like this is insanity, but I haven't ever been happier. This work is divine and I am so happy to be playing a tiny part in it. We have had some really wonderful lessons, but haven't been here long enough to have progressing investigators. But I feel confident that we will before too long. We have found a couple of apartments which have a bunch of Spanish speaking folk so that is awesome.

Church yesterday was so awesome. Everyone was so welcoming and so nice to us, the rookie Hermanas. I am so grateful to have Hermana Rane she is so tough and practically runs wherever we go. She's from the good old state of Idaho- Rexburg to be specific, but went to BYU Provo. Anyway, Spanish will come pretty soon I hope. I can understand everything if I put every single ounce of willpower that I have when someone speaks, but it is really hard, so it tends to go in waves of understanding and confusion for me, but I can teach my parts of the lessons without too much difficulty. (Sure a bunch might be wrong, but they seem to get the message alright: )

We are sleeping on mattresses on the ground right now until we can get some elders to come and fix it for us. We have a ton of stuff to do today (i.e. buy FOOD) and do laundry and maybe put our apt in order. I love being a missionary and I love serving the Spanish People.

The church is true and I love it here even though the only time that I am dry is...... oh wait, never. Life is good and the work will move forward

I love you bunches and bunches.

Love Hermana Christensen