"When it rains, work harder."

Dear Momma and Family-

Hola from Washington DC! This past week has been the longest and craziest weeks that I can remember. I can't believe that I made it till Monday again! I am glad to hear that Matt and Katt finally have some real plans to move out of the house. It must be really exciting to finally have some definite plans in progress. Good for them. Also, well done Kat for all the Yard selling stuffs. You really are awesome at that. Harry- I am sorry to hear that your steer is stinky right now. I am sure that he'll be fine before too long. What days are the fair this year? How much does that thing weigh and further more, who is the steer out of? It better not be mine. (but it probably is.) Do you need me to come home and kick that thing in the rear for you? Well, no that wouldn't really work that great, but I'm sending lots of angry thoughts at it for hurting my brother. 11th at state Forestry?! WHAT?! Harry! you're soo good! I bet Mr. Edwards was pretty pleased. He's bringing that contest up from the ground up. Dude, next year you will surely be awesomeest (If that's a word). While Harry's in Washington DC come and visit me. We actually have Arlington Cemetery in our Zone boundaries. So swing by and say hey :). Just kidding-don't, but know that I'm in the same humidity and heat that he is, and it's awesome. Love it. Thanks for the talk momma. It really was inspiring and really helped me to focus on the things that matter most. Oh, and have so much fun in California. It will be great. and you're tough enough to handle one of those wimpy kayaks :)

So it has been raining like crazy here. It was funny cause the day I got here the mission president told us that when it rains to work even harder than before. He then told us to think about all the people that we know who were converted because of someone inviting the missionaries into their homes and out of the rain. At that moment, I thought to myself- Hey..... That's me! If it hadn't been for a couple of missionaries tracting in a Mississippi rainstorm, I would likely not be here right now wandering around in the rain trying to preach the Gospel.

My last letter was written in about a million miles an hour. So I think that I forgot to mention some cool things about this area. The first thing is that this is, I think, the second richest county in America. It is insane. I can count on two hands how many cars I have seen that are older than '05. Crazy right?! There are some ENORMOUS houses. I really want to go knocking on one of them, but my trainer reminds me, rightly so, that it is not likely to be the house of a Hispanic, but someday, I want to try one of the big houses. Currently we are knocking on some apartment complexes that are probably 80% Latino. Most of the people that we teach have been from El Salvador. But we've had some Mexicans, Guatamalans, Bolivians, Colombians, and Peruvians. But the problem is that part of the rest are from India and it is really hard to tell the difference at the door when they answer. So most of the time we start off our little door approach and after about 3 minutes, they say in their cute little Indian accent, "I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're saying." Boy do we feel dumb. But, they're nice enough either way. We get to teach the poor people of Virginia, which is the way that I would prefer it to be. The rich people kind of scare me.... weird right?

The stake here loves the missionaries. We came to a bare apartment, but by the end of this past week it was fully furnished. That is one of the perks of being in the richest counties in America. We have a 2 nice tables, 2 nice desks, 2 nice dressers, a vacuum and a really nice set of silverware and cookware. It was mostly from the English wards of the Stakes, but they have just been so nice to us, to help us move into the area.

The other day I saw my very first ice cream truck in real life. Guess what? THEY EXIST! I wanted to go buy an ice cream but we were really busy knocking doors so we couldn't, but we've seen it like 12 times since the first time. Someday.

We finally have our first progressing investigator. And it is a family. We knocked into them and they are just beautiful. They believe in God and want to be good people. They've got some sincere questions and currently do not go to any church. I love them already so much and want them to keep progressing. I know it is foolish of me to expect everyone I meet to be baptized, but I really want it for them because the Gospel would help them so much in their lives. Oh they're wonderful. Their names are Melvin, Norma and they have a toddler named Ariel. We're going by again on Thursday.

I just love the Spanish Ward. Everyone is just so welcoming and love to chat with the missionaries. I understand most of what they say, but when they ask me something, questions in Spanish can be reversed or something so sometimes I get confused with what they're asking, but they sure are great. I don't think that we'll starve while we're here, that's for sure. (Good thing too, because food prices are CRAZY! I went to the store with a shopping list and bought like half of it because we didn't have enough money! I would have easily bought all of it in Idaho, but being in one of the richest counties in America does have its downsides.)

The Church is true and I am happy. I crawl into bed every night beyond exhausted, but so grateful to be a missionary and preaching the Gospel to the people of Washington DC South. God is good to me. and I am definitely nothing without His help and guidance.  I love you all!

Love Hermana Christensen