In Which We Find Brother Ford and Elder Petersen Hates Happiness and Joy

Oh, Greetings. It's Monday again. Would you look at that! (I usually have something clever to say about how the week has gone by quickly/dragged on, but I don't today. Sorry about that.)

I must first tell you about last Monday. President Chappell and his cute wife live in the Woodlands and invited our Zone to their house for P Day last Monday. It was GLORIOUS. Their house is...it's just large and beautiful and perfect and amazing and I love it, and they fed us good food, and we played games, and President Chappell turned on The Sound of Music. A REAL MOVIE. A spectacular real movie, at that. We also played a get to know you game in which everyone wrote something interesting about themselves, and then we guessed who it was. Someone decided to write that they hated Disneyland. That someone turned out to be Elder Petersen (not our Zone Leader - another, much lesser being.) He said such blasphemous things as "overrated" and "lame." Needless to say, Elder Petersen and I are not friends.

That next day was just one of those days. So, I'm not sure if you're aware, but being a missionary before about 5 o'clock is really, really hard. No one is home, it's hot, and there's nothing productive to do. We spend a lot of afternoons doing service so that one, we're being productive, and two, we don't end up slitting our wrists out of frustration every day. Well, Tuesday our service was short, so we were left with a whole afternoon. It sucked. A lot. I was so grumpy and tired and I wanted nothing more than to go home. It finally, gratefully ended, and we went to Mutual because we had just decided to that morning. I felt a little out of place when we got there, but we ended up covering for two of the leaders who weren't prepared. Sister Quist went with the Laruels, and I got to go teach the Mermaids about member missionary work. It was an answer to my prayers because I've been looking for a way to teach members how to help us forever, and it had just fallen into my lap. On top of that, one of the less active girls in the ward brought her nonmember friend. They were really excellent - the nonmember especially. They both said that they would come to future activities and the nonmenmber said that she might be interested in taking the discussions. Whaaaaaat? So good.

Wednesday we had interviews with President Pingree, which is always a party. He is just a party in a person. While he was talking to us, he was talking about cars - I can't remember why. Then, a conversation much like this happened:

President Pingree: "I was about to call him Brother Ford... The guy who invented the car?"

Some Random Person: "Henry Ford?"

President: "Yes! Henry Ford. Well, hopefully Brother Ford now, right?"

He is just so much fun. We had a really excellent lesson from the APs about improving our first lessons with investigators, and Sister Pingree gave us a new book that the church came out with called "Adjusting to Missionary Life." It's a book all about handling stress. I know it wasn't, but I think that the church may have made it just for me. The thought went through my mind as I looked through it that if my mother saw it, she'd probably say something like, "Oh, Al, they made a book just for you!" And they did. It's awesome. I got to chat with President Pingree, which is always the best, and I finally got my mission T shirt! WOOOOOOOO! I'm pretty excited. I may or may not have worn it every night since I've gotten it and told Sister Quist that I'm going to wear it until it smells. Maybe.

We finally got in to meet with Raymundo. I think it went well - it's difficult because he speaks English well, but church English is another matter, and I have no idea what he actually understood. He doesn't really see the need for religion if he "has God in his heart," but he committed to read the Book of Mormon. We're meeting with him again tomorrow, so I'm hoping that he actually did it.

The Relief Society Broadcast? So great. If you missed it, make sure to watch it, because it was excellent.

Church yesterday was a totally bipolar. We got there and neither Kezza nor Raymundo came...which sucked. A lot. We haven't been able to get a hold of them so we have no idea what actually happened, but we're going to track them down tonight. We got to teach the lesson in Relief Society, though, and that was really neat. We got a bunch of the Sisters in tears, which is the mark of a successful lesson, I think.

Okay. So, I love y'all. I hope you're doing well and that you're keeping out of trouble. Transfers are next week, so I may or may not have a new companion and/or a new area. We'll see how that goes... Keep reading your scriptures, keep praying, and keep helping the missionaries. And all y'all that STILL haven't written to me? REPENT. I'm pretty sure that those who write missionaries get righteous points...I'm just saying.

Cordially,

Sister Liljenquist

I thought Ted would like this tree. It looks pretty scared.

Sometimes nature is awesome.

This is Sister Laws and Sister Zamacona. They reeeeally like hot sauce. 

This is what two years will do to your shoes, courtesy of Elder Vought

Elder Cornwall is dashing, no?

Levi made dinosaur feet. He said I couldn't wear them, though. Rude head.