In Which We Aren't Actually Selling Anything and the Greatest Companionship of All Time is Born

Hello!

I feel like I've actually written to tell y'all what's happened, and then I remember that I haven't, and I get all overwhelmed, and then I get more overwhelmed because yesterday decided to be a holiday, so the library was closed. It's kind of pathetic, but we'll work through it. 

I opened my email today, and there was so much love! Thank y'all for all of your messages and love and happiness and joy. It was just what I needed. 

We left the MTC on Wednesday of last week. We had to report to the travel office at 2:30 in the morning, which means that we woke up at 1 in order to beat the crowds and have sufficient "Oh! I forgot ____" time. We flew on a couple of planes, and then we were all of the sudden in Texas. It was an odd thing - we'd been waiting for this for how long, and it was all of the sudden staring us in the face. The Pingrees were there to meet us, though, which made it all better. Everyone who kept telling me how great the Pingrees are was 100 million percent correct - I fell in love with them from the first moment I saw them, and it's just grown ever since. President Pingree is a bit like a 17 year old acting like a mission president, but he is just an amazing man. He kept telling me how stoked they were to have us and pulled a Napoleon Dynamite style "yesssss" when I agreed to let him offer the prayer after our interview. He asked me to tell my folks hello from him. Oh! Amy! I found Kate for you! I showed her some of the pictures that were on my camera of you, and she was really excited.

Are you all ready for this story, because I don't think that you are. We're in the transfer meeting, yes? President is announcing all of the trainers and having them come up, and then announces the new missionary who'll be with them. About halfway through, he announces a Sister Quist. Mhmm. I leaned over to Sister Santistevan and we kind of freaked out, thinking that there was no way that this would happen. Guess whose name he says next? You are now working with the invincible duo of Sisters Quist and Liljenquist. I think we get a bigger kick out of our names than anyone else does. We look over at each other occasionally and just giggle. I love this girl. I love her guts. We are so similar, it's a little creepy. She sings, she likes Doctor Who and Sherlock, she geeks out about Disney with me... We even said the same thing at the same time with the same inflection during a lesson the other day. We're just the coolest. 

So, the famed struggles we were talking about. Really, the struggle was that I was expecting myself to be a perfect missionary from day one. I'll tell you a secret - I HATE tracting. I hate it with every fiber of my being. I feel so weird, and more often than not, people are not very nice to us. We spent about an hour tracting on Friday, and I was literally nauseous and wanted to cry the entire time. We came home, and my legs were COVERED in bug bites, and I felt like a total reject and a failure, and I just wanted to go home. The elders in our district assured me that it wouldn't go away, and Sister Quist never really had this problem. I spent a lot of time feeling really sorry for myself. Things have gotten better, though. It's taken a lot of relying on the Lord, and a lot of faith, and a lot of laughing, but I'm getting there. I tracted an entire street last night without wanting to puke or cry, which is probably the biggest miracle I've experienced so far. 

Funny story - so last night we were tracting and we saw this man doing yard work. We went over to offer to help and he scurried away, but came back when he saw that we weren't leaving. The conversation went a bit like this. 

"I'm really busy."

"That's fine - we just wanted to see if you wanted any help."

"Well, I have to weed and edge, so if you want to hang out for the next 45 minutes..."

"That's fine."

"What are yall trying to sell?"

"We're not selling anything, we just wanted to offer our help."

(Incredulous Look) 

"Can we help you with anything?"

"No, I'm fine."

It was just funny. He was super sassy, so it was kind of hilarious. 

The members are excellent, and we've been fed almost every night, so no worries there. Our area covers Woodlands, Conroe, Shenandoah, and Spring. ALSO - we have a car. Her name is Shannon, and she is beautiful because it is too stinking hot outside for walking or biking. Just ask the biking sisters - they'll tell you. We've been teaching two investigators that I didn't have to find, so I feel kind of spoiled. One is not actually in our area, but he got really attached to Sister Quist's last companion, so we still team teach him with the sisters in his area. His name is Josh, and he is quite the character. He thinks he should have been born 200 years ago and dresses like it, and is the son of a preacher. He's stubborn, but has a lot of faith and finally committed to a baptism date. Our other investigator is named Kezza. She is the daughter of an American woman and an African man and grew up in Uganda, but is here with family for school. Her family is in our ward, so they referred her to us and she's been taking the lessons. We taught her about the Restoration in our last lesson, and she just got it. She really connected to Joseph Smith, and had no problems with what we were telling her. She committed to be baptized and accepted all of the commitments we gave. After our lesson, she followed us out to the car and said that she didn't feel like she was a good enough person for the gospel - that she was a bit of a rebel. We assured her that she was indeed good enough, and that everyone makes mistakes. She was a bit incredulous when we told her that we made mistakes, but we assured her that we made maaany. She's just really cool. 

Alright. I love you guys. Thank you so much for the love and support. You're my heroes. Remember that I'm praying for you and that I'm thinking about you. And all yall that I haven't heard from since I left? Yes, you know who you are. Write me letters, knuckle heads. I have just a couple of requests for anyone reading this - First, I want all of your favorite motivational quotes. I have a jar, and it's lacking in motivation right now. Second, Picutres! Pictures of you, of what you're doing, of Utah, of whatever. I like paper pictures in envelopes best, but I can handle emailed ones, too. 

Be good, listen to your moms, and remember that the Lord loves you. Things are good, I promise. Just look for the best things and they'll be there. 

Olsem Wanem!

Sister Liljenquist

Kate Pingree and I

Sister Quist and I whilst emailing. We take really cute pictures. 

 

 

This is our District Leader, Elder Vought. He's from Arizona, has 6 weeks left, and is a Cowboys fan. We try to forgive him for that one. He showed up to District Meeting in this get up that he procured from the thrift shop where we volunteer. This was also the day before he and his companion, Elder Cornwall, stole our GPS to teach us a lesson. We didn't even notice that it was gone...