What Was That Again?: In Which My Joy is Full and I Left My Brain at the Apartment

My first comment is this - it's April. Why in the world does Houston think that it can be 95 degrees? I am not ready for this - not at all. I swear it was just February.

Anyway, off the soap box. I have to apologize before I do anything else, because I have no idea how this email is going to turn out. I've had this little problem for the past 8 1/2 months or so where I can't remember anything beyond this precise moment - call it missionary brain. Don't ask me what we did or what we're doing, because I have absolutely no idea. We have come up with two nifty solutions to this conundrum - they're called the planner and the journal. The planner is great, but right now, I am in need of the journal... which is currently safely sitting safely at our apartment.

Hmph.

So, I really hope I can remember what all happened this week. I make no guarantees.

It's been a pretty slow week here in the Windrose. We're still struggling to find any investigators, and we're still working on connecting with the ward. A whole bunch of our dinners cancelled this week, which doesn't help, but there's not much we can do about that, so I try not to worry about it. Sometimes it works. We've gone through the potential investigator section in our area book and have tried to prayerfully choose and look into a few names in hopes of finding some new people to teach. So far the only person that's been home when we stopped by was ignoring us...or their vacuum was just really loud. Who knows? I'll go with the vacuum - optimism and all.

We played dodgeball with the youth on Tuesday. I kid you not when I say that I feared for my life multiple times - or at least my physical well being. It was mass chaos, but I also think that it ended up being really successful. The leaders encouraged everyone to bring friends, and we invited the Champions Elders, who invited some of their people, so there ended up being about 50 people there - hence the chaos. For the record, my team may have lost miserably, but I'm pretty sure that it was because we're the most righteous. I don't know why that would make sense, but just go with it.

Thursday was interviews/specialized training. I'm a fan. We had some really excellent training on how to use the area book (ours looks spectacular, by the way,) and meaningful prayer, and Sister Pingree gave us Sister Pingree reminders - making sure that we're riding our bikes and all of that good Sister Pingree stuff. I never think I need those reminders, and then I let go of my pride issues and discover otherwise. We also wrote notes to the Mortensens, who have been called to be the next mission president family. Those silly Pingrees think that they're leaving at the end of June or some such nonsense.

By far the most important news, and indeed the only real news of importance to proceed from this email account in the last 8 1/2 months, can be summed up in this one image -

I had the great pleasure to attend Megan's baptism this Friday. Can I even describe the smallest portion of my emotions? Not even a little bit. She was just beaming, and she wasn't even nervous - well, maybe a little bit, but for Megan, our little worrier, that's incredible. I was able to sing I Need Thee Every Hour with the amazingly talented Sister Colton accompanying me on the guitar, and all of the speakers gave wonderful talks. When they excused Megan and Brother Mann to go to the font, I leaned over and asked Megan if she knew where to go - she didn't, so I went with her to show her the ropes. I can't even describe how sweet of an experience it was to be right there with her as she went in, and then to watch right from the side as she was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ. I cannot say how much I love this amazing, amazing woman, and I am positive that she has taught me more than I could ever hope to teach her.

In the words of the former Elder Burri, my joy is full.

I've come to learn a lot this week about expectations. A lot of the times, what I expect out of myself is not what the Lord expects of me. I convince myself that I should be doing so much more than I am, and when I don't reach this unrealistic goal, I beat myself up. It's kind of a thing in my life. I've been trying to be easier on myself this week, and I've found that I am a lot more content and a ton less stressed. Who'd have thunk, right? My good friend Elder Maxwell gave an excellent talk (which I would strongly encourage you to find here - https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1976/10/notwithstanding-my-weakness?lang=eng) in which he said this -

"Some of us who would not chastise a neighbor for his frailties have a field day with our own. Some of us stand before no more harsh a judge than ourselves, a judge who stubbornly refuses to admit much happy evidence and who cares nothing for due process. Fortunately, the Lord loves us more than we love ourselves."

How grateful I am for a Heavenly Father who loves me more than I love myself and is content with whatever progress I am able to make, no matter how small. As long as I'm doing my best and utilizing the Savior's Atonement when I fall short, I can know that He's pleased. If that's not a cause for contentment, I don't know what is."

Have a good week, friends. I love y'all, and am praying for you. Go do some good work!

Love,
Sister Liljenquist

Sister Shell got her visa, so she's leaving me tomorrow for Brazil. It brings me great sadness.