What Was That Again?: In Which Elder Kieth Isn't Singing Loud Enough and It's Not the Trick-or-Treaters

Hello, everyone! It is really good to be able to write to y'all this morning. It's a nice, cold, sunny day, and it's pants day. I'm a pretty happy lady.

I'm trying to think of a nice adjective to describe this week, but none are really coming to mind. It was a week. There was some good stuff, and there was some lame stuff. Opposition in all things, friends. #studiedthatthismorning

Remember my bestie Amber? She is doing SO much better. We had an incredible lesson this week where we finally got down to the bottom of this "higher power and you can call it God if you want to" nonsense. After I brought that up, she said that she did believe in God, and after further questions told us that she gets through all of the insanity of her life by giving it to God when she can't handle it anymore.

I KNEW SHE WAS USING THE ATONEMENT. I JUST KNEW IT.

Ah, it makes me so happy! We showed her the Because of Him video from Easter #stillmyfavorite and when it finished, she said, "I believe that." Then she told us that her husband was opening up and asking questions about religion. Honest to goodness, I teared up when she told us that. It was just so good.

On Wednesday I was able to go on exchanges with the fabulous Sister Niedert in the Cypress Creek ward. One of the most hilarious moments of my week came after we were done playing bingo with the old folks.

Side note - Elder Kieth is a fabulous bingo caller. We told him many a time that he should really consider it as a profession.

Anyway, there's apparently a tradition that someone sings the song (does it have a name? It's the one about a farmer and his dog, Bingo, and then it spells out his name, just in case you didn't know) when the bingo game is over - and since my old folk partner and I won, we chose him. The only issue was that Sister Niedert's old folk couldn't hear him because he was laughing too much, so Sister Niedert had to sing it for him.

We did some good work, Sister Knee-dirt and I. We went tracting, where one of my favorite experiences happened -

SCENE: Sister Knee-dirt and Sister Linjinquist knock on a door.

LADY INSIDE: Who is it? (Texans feel the need to yell at you instead of looking through the peep hole - not my favorite thing)

ONE OF THE SISTERS: It's the missionaries!

[All of the sudden, the porch light is turned off, and the Sisters sit in the dark for a moment, quite puzzled, then walk off. As they do, they discuss how awkward it will be when they have to go to this random lady's judgement day and say, "You turned the light off? Really? You couldn't just tell us to go away?"]

But it was a good time. We met a girl named Hope, and she is just the nicest, sweetest thing ever. She does quite a bit of evangelizing for her church (it's a big thing down here,) but said that Mormonism had been on her heart for a while. I really think she'll be baptized someday.

We were able to get in contact with some lost less actives this week, as well as find some new investigators in the many lists of potential investigators that we have since...forever ago. Nothing too concrete or solid, but we're getting there. It's bloooooming!

Another one of my favorite moments came, again, when we were tracting.

Side note - Tracting no longer makes me want to cry, which might be the biggest miracle of all time.

We knocked on a door and a girl answered - we started to talk to her, but she looked really confused, so I didn't know how far it would go. Then, out of the blue, we hear a voice from the house that says, "Is it the trick-or-treaters?" and then yells, "It's the Mormons!" when he sees us. His name is Aaron, and he does think that Joseph Smith was on to something, but does not think that God lives on a planet named Koe-lobe. Aaand he very bluntly (and awkwardly) said no when we asked if he wanted to talk to missionaries. He did have nice swooshy hair, though, and when I asked, he said it was natural. He's looking for a wife, so his body is peacocking.

Oh, the hilarity.

We're just chugging along over here. Sister Hudgens feels the need to make comments about how many weeks we have left and the fact that said number can be counted on two hands, but I'm not about that life. I'd be too tired if I was. I don't really have anything figured out, as much as I wish I did, but I know that I'm doing what I need to. And that's all that matters.

Y'all are great. Have a good week, talk to someone about the gospel, and hug your mom.

Have a Blessed Day!

Love,

Sister Linjinquist

Scraping ice on Christmas morning #christmasmiracle