November 12th

Querida familia-

Primero- Feliz Cumpleaños al Matt. And I feel like such a bum, but I missed Claire´s birthday. Sorry, but it is really hard to remember sometimes. I love you bunches and bunches and hopefully you had a good one.

Sounds like the cattle harvest went well. Don´t worry, it is wierdly easy not to get too homesick. I think that it is because I am really far away from anything familiar or normal. I mean seriously. The other day I saw a 30 something year old man in really fancy clothes walking in the sidewalk with briefcase in one hand and a big fat chicken under his other arm. I am definitely really far away from normal. It was fun to see the pics. Nice work to Ben on the Project and Scomps to the sister missionaries. They are real troopers. I am glad to hear that Ben is finishing up with his senior project. nice one. Sounds like a whole bunch of fun over there as usual. Dad- Congrats on the beets. That is phenomenal!

Today for Pday our zone went to some sand dunes close to where we live. We climbed that sucker and got sand all over our clothes, hair, shoes, mouths, bags, everything. But we rented these really cool snowboard things (believe it or not, but they are called Sandboards) to ride down the slope. It was super duper awesome, but it was really annoying to climb back up after going down. And yes- I got sunburned. Hermana Martinez was in shock that a person could get so red (don´t worry mom, it wasn´t a bad sunburn) she had just never seen a white person with a sunburn. It was pretty funny.

We have been working a lot with a less active family whose last name is Bueno. We love the famillia Bueno. They have been less active for about a year, but it is because their daughter named Milagros (who has a mental handicap) has been really ill. The only thing that she really talks to us about is her birthday. She has been going on and on  about her birthday for about 3 months. Each time we visited she was really quiet and kind of out of it. But when we mention her birthday she lights up and laughs and claps. It is so cute. Her birthday is today and later we will be stopping by to wish her a happy birthday.

We had a really cool trainning the other day with our ward council. All the ward councils from our stake met in our ward building. Our mission president was there as well as the stake leaders. They taught us about how to use the ward councils to help people learn the Gospel and stay active in their testimonies continually. After the intro, we grouped together and discussed what we learned. We talked about people in our ward as well as investigators and families. It was really a super awesome experience. Seriously now is the time for every member of the church to be a missionary. The lord is hastening his work and preparing people to hear and accept the Gospel.

I love being a missionary. Seriously though. I freaked out yesterday when I realized that I had finished 7 months as a missionary. I love talking to people about the Savior every single day and sharing my feelings for Him. I started reading the New Testament again and am currently in Luke. I have learned so much from the example of the Savior and his attributes. It is just incredible. I am so grateful to him and for my wonderful family and friends who support me every day.

This one is of me at conache. It is like Breanu Sand Dunes, and at the bottom was a beautiful little Lagoon

I love you All

Hna Christensen