You Know You've Been in The South Too Long When... 3/27/2017

... all the speakers at Women's Conference sound like they have accents. 

...your legs are covered in bug bites from the strange bugs they got down hur

...you have a bit of a southern drawl yourself

Women's Conference was amazing! We had one of our investigators, Rosalind, her two granddaughters, Imagine and Kelly, and their friend Talia there. Rosalind loved the peace and inspiring feel of it all. She said she wants to come to General Conference as well. She asked, "is

it finna be in this sanctuary?" I smiled as I said "Yes. Yes it will be right here." 

Another fun experience with Rosalind, and her husband Ron, was when we stopped by to see them and they somehow got on the subject of how jacked up my legs look. In their words:

Ron "You look like you have a bacterial infections"

Rosalind "Yeah I was going to say something. Honey, you okay? I didn't want to ask, but I was worried."

Hahaha. I just laughed and said, "yeah. I do a lot of walking through the "grass" (if you can even call it that down here) and end up with a lot of bug bites. I guess I'm just very tasty!"

They thought that was really funny. Ron was huffin and puffin he was laughing so hard! 

I have laughed several times this week as people have asked me where I'm from and then are surprised when I say UT. They look confused and say, "wait. You're not from around here? You could pass as one of us" 

Sister Lindberg: The Southern Imposter.  No one will know I'm not from here when I am done. 

I have also come to a sad realization this week after some encounters with people. I think I have known this for a while, but just didn't want to think about it, but this week's experiences have made it come back to the surface. 

Racisim is still a very real thing down here. The color of your skin is the first thing people see and judge you on. It's sad. 

We met a woman this week that had A LOT of chickens. When I asked her how many, she got angry and said "Well. I'll put it this way. I had more until a colored boy started takin them" 

Why does it matter what the kid looks like. She launched into how it was only to be expected and what she thought he had done in the past based on what color he was. 

Sigh. I guess some people have nothing better to do with their lives but pre judge people. 

I got to talk to President Olson this week in interviews. He is helping out a lot with the departure date thing. He was very supportive of my feelings. He asked if I still felt strongly about the July transfer. I said yes. He said "alright. I will look into it. It isn't your fault the extra week got added on. And it sounds like you had planned to come out earlier so you could make it back for school. So this isn't your fault or anything you have done wrong. I will try to figure something out for you and keep you updated." 

So that's wonderful!! 

Alright folks. Get ready. I have some pictures comin at ya.