What Was That Again?: In Which Bluebell Makes Everything More Manageable and Eye See a Bug While Biking

Hey, people.

I'll just warn you now - I have a wicked head cold going on right now, so I'm not sure how coherent this email is going to be. It's kind of nice being sick on Pants day, but also not, because then how am I supposed to get things done? #missionproblems

Last week, I failed as a missionary and did not tell you the most important news of all -

Jace, Layla and fam came to church -

all three hours of it!

I don't know if you quite understand the connotation of this event. In my almost 11 months of mission life, I have only had investigators come to church...a few times. Less than ten. It's almost impossible. Add to that the fact that they have 7 kids, including two year-old twins and a 3 month-old? It was amazing.

They are the coolest.

We were able to meet with them a few times this week, and a good part of our focus had to do with the fact that Layla's family is convinced that she is joining a polygamist cult. #ithappensallthetime She was good about dispelling rumors, but they're going to spend two weeks with them starting on Friday, so we're a little worried. We've been doing all we can to build their testimonies and to help them see what the Spirit feels like so that they can have some strength to face everything. Long vacations are scary as missionaries, especially when they're spent with people who don't like the church. We're praying a lot.

Jace came to church yesterday with the twins and the two boys while Layla took their 7 year-old and the baby to...something or other. So, not only did Jace man the ship all by himself for all three hours again, he also brought everyone back and stayed for the entire linger longer last night. He is the definition of a trooper in my book.

KJ is kind of coming along... I think. We challenged him to stop smoking, and he sort of did well for a little bit. He dropped a bit of a bombshell this week when he told us that he doesn't believe that Christ is our Savior, but that he's just a prophet. It's been really interesting to try and see how to help him. We were able to meet his family this week, which was a total miracle, and we taught them about Joseph and the coat of many colors in the Bible, because it's the same as the story in the Qur'an - she wants us to teach them more about her religion, which is really awkward, seeing as I do not know a single thing about Islam. We'll see how that goes.

We were also able to meet the Mortensens this week, and I officially love them. It was really hard to see the Pingrees leave, but I don't think we could be in better hands. President Mortensen has grabbed the bull by the horns and Sister Mortensen and the kids are so adorable, I can't even handle myself. Sophie, their oldest daughter, said something to the effect of, "I thought it was going to be rough, but then we landed and we ate Bluebell and I knew that everything was going to be okay." A woman after my own heart, right there.

This week was a little less thrilling than I would have liked, but it's all good. Sometimes, when your name is Sister Liljenquist and you're serving in the Texas Houston Mission, you get sick. Well, it's not really "getting" sick so much as a never ending sickness that just keeps morphing into other random sicknesses.

I blame satan. (Whose name is not capitalized, because he's not that important.)

I was able to see a doctor this last week, who doesn't really know what I have, but found that my immune system is "jacked up," so I get to take lots of pills and change my diet to the point that I basically just eat meat and vegetables. It's really frustrating, but I think that the Lord is trying to teach me patience. The ward has been really good about helping me, and I'm being so very obedient. You should be proud. I'm learning a lot about myself and what I can do, and I'm having to rely on faith a whole lot. It'll get better, I just know it.

In other news, this poor bug met its demise in my eyeball the other night as we were biking. I felt a little bit sorry for it, but mostly I just yelped and braked and tried to get it out.