Putting My Heart in Texas: KittenFish

Dos Baptisms

Saturday was a miracle day. We had Matthew and Nick's baptism in the Hausmans pond. It was BEAUTIFUL. And so perfect. We went there with the Parkers and their son. We also brought one of our Investigators named Ben and he really enjoyed it! So neat. When I saw Brother Gieseke I ran into his arms and gave him a huge hug! He got all teared up and said that he missed me. It was like hugging my dad it was awesome! I just love him. I miss the Gieseke family. AND I got to see Sister Folsom and my old crew from the Magnolia ward. It was a good time. I miss Folsey. She's the best. I had to give the closing prayer and the spirit was so strong gosh... it was crazy. I had tears streaming down my face. It was neat to have the locusts chirping and birds flying overhead. It made me realize how simple and pure this gospel is. Just like Christ's baptism. It was really amazing. We all laughed because there were catfish jumping all around it was pretty funny. Brother Gieseke said they were makin' a fuss because of all the sins that got left in the water, haha!

I made Matthew a rap song! Remember how I made him one for him so he would come to church? Well... I thought it was only appropriate for me to make him an even better rap for his big day. Sister Montierth can BeatBox and so it was epic. I have a video but its too big to send. I will have to send my memory card home and you guys can see it. This is how it went.....

July 07 Matthew came to church

to hear the good word, pray, ponder, search-

teachin' the truth it's what we do.

Christ got baptized, so did you.

Book of Mormons true- legit to read-

Alma 32- like a pomegranate seed (break)

Sittin' on the porch lit by a flame

spirit bore witness to bear Christ's name.

We found our brother Matthew

(fast) he chose to change his game

found the good word- life will neva be the same.

TacoBell Baptist

We went to TacoBell as a district and there is this really cute old couple sitting next to me while we are eating. Theyre eating and I start talking to them about the heat. (Obviously... isn't weather always the icebreaker?) They ask me where I am from, about how they are from Maine... blah blah blah.We talk for about 5 minutes. Then the old lady squints to read my nametag and says, "so where are ya'll from?" I tell her "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, heard of us?" They both look down, pick up their trays and say, "Yes we have." They walk away and I say, "Well it was nice to meet ya'll!" The man walks back over and says, "Yeah.... Its nice meeting the other side." They walk away, I look at Elder Mortimer with my head cocked, he looks at me with his head cocked and we say in unison, "what does that even mean?" Apparently we are of the devil to some people here in Texas. You'd think we were Leprous!

Sister Brower

Oh what a lady... we had dinner with her and I tell you... we have to pray for the gift of discerning tongues... We just smile and nod with about 70% of the things she says. She gave a tour around her entire house and showed us all her antiques. I am pretty sure that her house is worth a million dollars just with the things she has inside. We are going to try and become her best buds because man.... her house is worth a fortune. With some luck maybe we could fit in on the very bottom of her will? She has the most adorable little bathrobe hanging in her bathroom and I just HAD to snag a picture of it. It just makes me so happy. I can just picture her in it with her cute little slippers. Doesn't it look like something off a movie. She is one of the widows that loves us to death. Oh shes such a gem.

MY SEEDS

Brittany gave me the best birthday gift ever. I don't even know how to explain it but its kinda like a chia pet but way way better and it like growing out of a little kittens backpack. Oh man.... I love it. Anyway I plant it and every morning I wake up, gasp and say, "MY SEEDS!" And then run bedhead and all to the window to see if anything has begun to grow. I call it my faith kitten. Sister M always makes fun of me and sometimes throughout the day she will startle me by just gasping and her eyes go huge and she will say, "YOUR SEEDS!!" We get a good laugh out of it. She cracks me up. She calls me Kittenfish sometimes because in Cat and the Hat I guess he calls a baby catfish a kitten fish. Speaking of Catfish... I am a fan. I just have to not think about what they look like and then I am fine.

Puppy Love

There is a 15 year old that just moved into our ward and he is literally in LOVE with us. Like he came with his parents to drive us to the baptism and the entire way back he was just staring at us. He said, "I wish my seats turned around so I could look at you guys. I always love the missionaries that come into the ward and then they leave. So I need to memorize your faces. Can i write you a letter? Whats your address? " Dont worry we didn't give it to him. So funny. He is a really cute kid. He looks like he could be Ian Thomas' twin. It's weird how much he looks like Ian.

RANDOMS

• We were teaching a lesson and of course RIGHT when the spirit is the strongest the dog farts SO loud. Like this is the most rancid smell I have EVER in my life smelled. It was bad. But man... it was so funny.

• We tried LIVER AND ONIONS.... NEVER again. It was so bad. I just had to tell myself it was steak... But I mean if you think about what the livers function is.... its like the filter of the body! Whyyy would you voluntarily put that into your body. I am not picky but that was pretty bad. We have a video of us eating it its hilarious.

• I cannot even tell you how grateful I am that I am not on a bike. We were talking to the Elders and they said that they can't see where they are biking because they have so much sweat in their eyes. They have like almost passed out these last few days. I also don't know why ANYONE would want to listen to them when they are that sweaty and smell like death. It's awful. Oh man.... So grateful that I have a car.

• Sister Montierth is hilarious... I am going to start counting how many times this happens... I say, "So... do you want to go visit the Ortegas or the Sarcenos?" Her response is.... "Sure!" Umm... which one? She does that ALL the time. "Do you want to pray or do you want me to?" Her response? "Yeah, that works!" Its hilarious. I just look at her and say, "Which one Hermana?!" Its so funny.

• Brother and Sister Colley are my favorite. The other night we stopped by their house to get some advice about someone we are teaching. It was like 9pm when we were leaving and we had to still walk down the road to our car. Brother Colley stood on the corner of the street and watched us until we got to our car safely. We rolled down our windows as we drove past him walking to the house and we yelled, "Brother Colley, thanks for being our Texas Dad!" He just laughed and waved to us to be safe. We have the best members here. They are amazing. We are so lucky to be serving along side such loving people. My heart literally felt like it was about to burst out of my chest as we drove away. He is the sweetest.

• This morning we put Yoshi in my backpack. Sister Montierth was trying to trick me and put him in there without me seeing and if she had succeeded that would have been SO funny. But I saw her and we got such a big laugh out of it. Oh man. These cats are so funny. God knew we needed a good kitten snuggle every once and a while :)

church is true.

xoxoxox

-sista king