Sister Marli MacLay: World Championship Goat Contest!

us volunteering, doin our thang.

This week was one for the books! I got in trouble with the law and went to the 45th Annual Goat Cookoff!

So I guess starting with last p-day, we went over to a member's house (Sister Williams, sweetest lady ever) and were taught how to crochet! My transformation into an old lady is moving swiftly.

Wednesday we had district meeting with our new district! We now have Sister Halvorson who is in training and Elder Jones who is fresh from the MTC and is here waiting for his Russia visa. They're both great! Sister Lloyd and I are crocheting coasters and bookmarks and anything else we can think of and giving them to them all as gifts. Haha

So on Tuesday we went over to David's and had a lesson with him. After, we had an awkward 20 minutes before dinner and so we decided to do companion study in the car. We drove to the other side of David's little duplex complex and parked in the shade. Neither of us felt good so we just put our seats down a little and were studying. This lady comes out of her duplex and looks at us all weird and so we wave and she just keeps suspiciously staring at us. Then she whips out her phone and starts taking pictures of us, and then our license plate. Then we see her on the phone. A minute later a cop car rolls up and says there were neighbors reporting "suspicious activity" lol. So he ran my license haha. It was so dumb. But he was really nice and Sister William's daughter is getting his address for us so we can go bring him the gospel. Haha. But all the members found out and were making fun of me lol. A member's husband is a volunteer firefighter and so they have the radio going all the time. They heard them run the license plate and say how the car was owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Lubbock and they heard him run my Arizona license. Hhaha.

Thursday we went out of town to Joe B. Tipton's house! Joe B. lost his wife, Dorothy, a few weeks ago. She is the one I got to dress in her temple clothes. Joe B. is up in his 90's, and his son, Bud, is living with him. He was taking care of Dorothy before she died. Well, they own a ton of property and have hundreds of goats! And Bud is so proud of them so of course we got a tour. It made me miss owning goats (': one day I will have a house goat instead of a dog lol. Then Joe B. showed us his thousands and thousands of arrowheads he has found over the years. But we had a super good gospel conversation with them where the spirit was so strong. They haven't been to church in many years, but they will come back to the fold!

THEN FRIDAY NIGHT AND SATURDAY WAS THE 45TH ANNUAL WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP GOAT COOKOFF!!

Friday night some members took us over there because the Brady banks do free dinners. I WILL LITERALLY NEVER BE THE SAME. You don't know good BBQ until you've been to a cookoff in the heart of Texas. I had some bomb ribs, pulled pork, sausage, corn, catfish, and a bunch of other things delicious to the taste. I also tried a fried oreo which was soo good haha. I plan on coming here every year for the goat cookoff until I die. Such. Good. Food.

Saturday we volunteered at one of the entrance gates and got free volunteer shirts from it lol. We also set some high goals (for Texas lol) and went contacting at the cookoff for a few hours! We ended up giving away 2 books of Mormon, 18 passalong cards, and 6 pamphlets!

After we got to have a lesson with an awesome kid named Adler who is trying to change his life around! He has so much potential!

Yesterday we had an amazing fast and testimony meeting. There may only be like 20 people in the branch, but you have to fight your way up there if you want to bear your testimony. Haha. But this is seriously the most amazing branch ever. All of the members are so dang faithful and humble and kind. I am so lucky to be here! It goes to show that even if our numbers are few, we can still be powerful.

Welp I think that's pretty much it! I hope y'all have an amazing week!

Also, shoutout to my niece, Paisley Rae, who turns 6 today!!

With all my love from the

️ of Texas,