Most AWKWARD sacrament meeting ever and MORE.

Well... A lot happened this week. I don't even know where to begin. But.... some cool things happened this week so I will just share the best parts. I am going to try and make this short. But who knows, you may want to make some hot chocolate and cinammon toast (that sounds SO good right now).

 

GROCERY STORE PRAISES 

Monday night Sister Loo and I were going to the grocery store to contact. There is this one Grocery store called HEB and it is CRAWLING with young single adults (Sister Loo and I are such creepers. Being a missonary is so awkward.) Like it is weird doing missionary work exclusive to one specific category of people. I mean we talk to everyone we see not just college age people, but its just weird to be targeting the gospel to a specific type of person. It is going to be weird to go back to a family ward (crossing my fingers that never happens. I would be more than happy to just stay in YSA wards! It is so much fun and you can BE YOURSELF!) Anyway.... we were at HEB and we walked in and Sister Loo said, "Dang it! We forgot to pray before we came in!" She grabbed my arm and pulled me into the canned vegetable isle. We were like "well.... this will be awkward, but we need all the help we can get!" Sister Loo started to pray. It was just a few seconds before I heard someone's footsteps coming down the isle. I couldn't handle the awkwardness so I opened my eyes and my arms half folded, pretended to read the lable of the nearest canned item I could get my hands on. Meanwhile I look at Sister Loo as an awkward smile forms on her face while she continues to pray as fast as she can (barely audible) with her arms folded and head bowed. The guy just looked at us like we were crazy.... Sister Loo quickly ended, "In the name of Jesus Christ Amen!" I grabbed her arm and we sped around the corner laughing hysterically in awkwardness. 

 

BRANDON IS ALIVE!

 

Okay... so remember Brandon? We tracted into him and we had an amazing first lesson and church tour a while back? Well we thought that he was MIA (Muddling in Anti) That is my new acronym. Just came up with that, like literally as I typed it. (clever eh? haha) Anyway, we figured that he had maybe gotten into some AntiMormon literature or youtube videos because he would not text or call us or his fellowshipper. It was very unlike him. So last week we fasted for Brandon and our other MIA investigators, that we would be able to make contact with them. AND this week we got a lesson with Brandon. It was a miracle. Turns out he hasn't been MIA but he has just been super busy with work lately. We had a really good lesson with him and at the very start of the lesson we asked him if he had any questions about the Book of Mormon or about the Restoration or anything.. and he says, "Yeah actually I do have a question about Missionaries for ya'll... So since I am 21, have I like missed out on going on a mission?"  WHAT?!? I almost passed out. Sister Loo and I just looked at each other and I am pretty sure that Lonnie's jaw hit the floor (Brandon's fellowshipper). We hadn't even asked him to be baptized yet. It was pretty amazing. We taught him the plan of salvation and it was really neat. He is such a visual learner and Sister Loo and I had made this really cool diagram laying out the different steps to the plan. It was really neat to watch it click in his brain. All through the lessons we teach he rarely makes eye contact while we teach he just looks down with his brow furrowed just like really, intent on understanding. He has such good questions and you can tell that he just really wants to get it. He is sincere and very appreciative of us taking the time to help him become closer to Heavenly Father and Christ. He said such a neat prayer at the close of the lesson. "Thank you for this plan that you have put before us to help us become closer to you...help me to know if these things they are telling me are what you want me to do and take hold of." It was really powerful. Hearing investigators pray is such an amazing thing. I LOVE it. 

 

OUR TEXAS BROTHERS

So we have Kevin who is our older Brother. He takes care of us, watches out for us, feeds us and is just such a cutie. He needs to find an adorable wife. He's hilarious and he took us out to get BBQ the other night. It was really funny. Sister Loo and I had never really been to a legit Texas BBQ place. And so we had NO idea what to order. I wanted Kevin to videotape us ordering but he was too embarrassed... we were holding up the line and asked like a million questions. Sister Loo loves food even more than I DO! Never thought that would happen. We are both indecisive so that didn't help either. But Kevin was pretty embarrassed by us haha my favorite question we asked the cashier was:

 

 "What even is creamed corn? is that like a Texas thing?"

-"ummm I hate to be sarcastic but it is CORN and CREAM."

 

Kevin was in stitches.

 

We also have Frank who is our little brother. He just loves to joke around with us. He is ridiculous. Such a little smart-alek. It is ridiculous. I feel like he is the annoying little brother that Sister Loo and I never had. We were teaching him about Baptism and the Holy Ghost and we told him that when he is baptized, then he gets the gift of the holy ghost and it can be with him always! Frank paused, grinned and said, "I don't really think that I would like having the chills 24/7...." It was pretty cute. He wants to be closer Christ and follow him and we told him that if he comes to church he will be one step closer. He said that he would come! (more to come on that...)

 

JAMAICAN ME CRAZY

 

Fitz is an investigator we met at the Mission. I can't remember if I wrote about him but he is an AMAZING piano player and he invited us to his house for what we thought was a lesson. We were SHOCKED because we have only met in the Library of the college and so this was a HUGE step in the level trust he had with us. When we asked him if we could bring a friend to fellowship him he responded saying, "Yes but only one. Be sure that they dont bring alchohol, or any iilegal substances of any kind. They are not allowed at my house." Does he not understand that we are Mormon? :) haha But really....Sooo...this made us think that maybe this lesson was not a lesson but that it was a party for the end of finals. We got there and his parents who are from Jamaica had made this AMAZING lamb Curry. (Too bad we were fasting.) We took some home and it was FAR the best thing I have had to eat on my mission so far. Dad you would have LOVED it.

 

Anyways, it turned out that it was a party to wind down from finals and there were 4 other friends of his there. Score! Finding through investigators! They all were musically talented and so we ended up having a little talent show for us. His friend Max played the classical guitar, Casey the trumpet, Elizabeth sang a German Opera song for us, and Fitz played a piano. Fitz is an incredible pianist. We requested he play an impromptu Christmas song and it was beautiful! As he was playing we would request to change it to different genres like blues, swing, reggae, and different key changes. And he would do it off the top of his head! He is so talented as well as all of his friends. We thought to invite them to be a part of our christmas sacrament meeting program as a way to draw them to church and they all agreed to play! They were really interested and excited to play for the ward... We still have to talk to Bishop about this. But I hope it works out.

Before we left, Fitz's dad started talking to us about leaving a legacy, building love and trust in the home, and our purpose. He kept going on and on. Sister Loo and I were trying to take every opportunity to testify and let him know that we believed in the same things he did. But he kept talking and talking. But it was so crazy because he is SO close to the truth. I wanted to bring up the Book of Mormon but I didn't want to over step the boundaries. So I decided to wait. We are going to go back this week and have a lesson with them! It is so cool how the spirit works between you and your companion when you are unified. Like I didn't have to worry about Sister Loo testifying of the Book of Mormon because if we are in tune with the spirit then our brainwaves are the same and we will just fluctuate to what the spirit wants us to say. I can't even count the number of times we have prepared a lesson and it is turned into something TOTALLY different than we thought! It is really cool. #COMPUNITY 

 

FASTING WURKS PART 2 

 

So... yesterday was EXHAUSTING. But it was really good. Not only did Sister Loo and I give the opening & closing prayers, but we sang in the choir and had 3 investigators at church! You could say it was quite the day, but there was so many miracles that happened:

#1 Elizabeth who we met the day before at Fitz's party ended up coming with us to sing in the choir for sacrament meeting! Super cool. And man did we need her. We were TERRIBLE.

#2 Bryce's phone was disconnected and we had no way of communicating with him and invite him to church. Sunday morning we get a call from an unknown number and guess who it is? Bryce and he was telling us that he was going to come to church! We hung up the phone and we were jumping up and down for joy.
#3 Frank attended all 3 hours of church! And he loved it!

#4 Sister Loo and I decided to make a goal on Friday and fast to have 4 investigators at church and we ended up having 3! - Bryce, Elizabeth, and Frank.

 

HIGHLIGHT OF THE MEETING: The fact that it was a CHRISTMAS program and a member of the high council outlined the law of chastity in PAINFUL detail.  What a day to have three investigators at church.... :0 It was beyond painful. MERRY CHRISTMAS! So glad that we can come together to celebrate our saviors birth! Now lets talk about the law of chastity! Cool.... real cool. God has a sense of humor apparently. He made us sweat a little bit too much yesterday. Whew. It was painful. We had to sneak into the bathroom between classes and just say a prayer that we would be able to keep it together and that our investigators would be able to keep it together, despite the talk.   

PLANTING SEEDS

 

So when I was in Cypress Creek Sister Montierth and I had a little family that we would stop by that lived in our apartment complex. There was this lady named Cindy we met when we were out walking, a 60 year old chain smoker of a million years. She is super nice and had experience with Mormons when she lived in Utah for a little bit. She really loved it! Someone did the 12 days of Christmas to her and she always raves about that. (you never know who you are going to leave an impression with! People remember random acts of kindness!) Well Cindy was someone that we would visit from time to time and we got her twin 9 year old grandsons involved in scouts, they loved it! Well CINDY IS GETTING BAPTIZED IN JANUARY!! Miracle times 1,000! I didn't know how interested Cindy really was in the church, but she did love that the Book of Mormon was about her ancestors (she's got some native american in her). Miracle! Miracle! #Miracle When we would visit her she didn't even seem interested. I dont think that we ever even taught her a lesson. But Sister M would keep me updated and she is getting Baptized! How cool! I didn't teach her or anything but if I hadn't talked to her while she was smoking on her porch the sisters would have taken years and years to find her. If ever! Talk to everyone! Plant those seeds, people!

 

CHRISTMAS THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

I was reading this week in Jesus the Christ and it was really cool it was talking about the humble and poor shepherds and how they saw the christ child and then went to testify of his birth to all that they could! But only the poor and humble would listen to the shepherds. The rich and stuck up people still needed to know of Christ's birth, so god sent the 3 wisemen to declare to those that were proud and wanted learned men to prophecy. James E. Talmage says is better than I can, "But there were classes of people among the Jews whom these lowly Shepherd witnesses could not reach, and had they been able to reach them the story of the angels visit, and the concourse of angels singing the magnificent song of "Peace on earth, good will to men," would doubtless have been accounted an idle tale of superstitious folk...Hence God raised up another class of witnesses--'the wise men from the east'...God raised up witnesses for himself to meet all classes and conditions of men--the testimony of angels for the poor and lowly; the testimony of wise men for the haughty king and the proud priests of Judea." (Jesus the Christ page 109) It made me think about us as missionaries. We may not be professors or have a masters degree in ministry, or have a religion degree. But we know that Christ lives and we tell EVERY single person that we can about it. So neat. I love that. I had never thought about the wise men and she shepards that way. I love thinking about different angles to the Christmas story. Anyway... MERRY CHRISTMAS! Y'ALL!

 

Church is true!

 

xoxoxoxo

Love,

 Sister King

This is us at Pday last week with most of the missionaries in our zone! SO fun. I will write more about it some other time. We played Zombie Tag. Nerf guns and glow sticks included.

Fasting Wurks.

80 DEGREES AND XMAS TREE SHOPPING

Well Sister Loo and I decided to be legit and cut down our own Christmas tree. Too bad that we went to the Xmas tree farm and the littlest tree was like 50 bucks! I was thinking that they would maybe be like 25 or 30? But nope. The trees were BEAUTIFUL. But they were very expensive. So Sister Loo and I headed back to WalMart for the third time in the same Pday to get our tree. We went to get groceries, we went back to get a tree-stand, and then we went back to get our tree. A cute member in our ward asked if we wanted to use her extra xmas decorations so she dropped them off at our apartment and she even gave us a cute little poinsettia. And then when I got mom's cute little advent calendar and gifts, we just about died! It is so cute! Our apartment is so festive. The members are taking care of us! We even got some gingerbread hand-soap, it makes me hungry. 

So we got out tree but we didn't have a saw to cut off the bottom so we tried a steak knife. FAIL. Then we went to a few of our neighbors... FAIL. Then we asked the AP's. FAIL. Then we asked our maintenance guy at our apartment and he looked at us like we were crazy but we got one! I wish we had taken a video of us sawing off the end of our tree. I was COVERED from head to toe in sapp. It was hilarious. We felt pretty boss afterwards though so we snapped a picture of us in our gangsta onzies. #Htownpride

#POLYGIRLPROBS

Sister Loo's family send her LOADS of Polynesian food and whenever she gets a package I say, "20 bucks says its full of food!" And it always is! haha. So funny. I always scrunch my nose and say, "that looks nasty!" But then i end up loving it. So now whenever she gets something and I start to scrunch my nose she rolls her eyes and says,"REALLY Sister King? you do this every time and then you end up loving it." She may or may not have converted me to spam and eggs (never thought that would happen haha) Oh I love Sister Loo so much. We go really well together. She is the best. I have been way too blessed with my companions they are all my best friends. Today we are getting out hair cut and I am going to bring stuff to write letters because Sister Loo has like 10X as much hair as I do. When I braid her hair I like no joke get like a forearm workout. I feel like I have been rock-climbing whenever I am done braiding her hair. I am dead serious. One of these days we are going to brush it out and it will be a fro. I will be sure to snap a picture.

CHURCH MIRACLES

So Sister Loo and I fasted yesterday for our investigators (who are all at a standstill, or ignoring us) we think that some of them may have gotten a hold of some anti-mormon literature.... Sad day. Man, as soon as they get close to knowing the truth, blasted Satan steps in and with a click of the mouse they doubt the spirit that they felt. So Sister Loo and I have been wondering what to do about that, we weren't sure if we should approach them about it and tell them to come to us with any concerns they may have, and not google. We were fasting for that and we were also fasting for our lesson. We taught in Relief Society yesterday and we planned out this really good lesson about missionary work. We shared a bunch of really cool quotes and then we shared Russell Ballard's talk from this last General Conference when he said, 

"We are not asking everyone to do everything. We are simply asking all members to pray, knowing that if every member, young and old, will reach out to just 'one' between now and Christmas, millions will feel the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a wonderful gift to the Savior.” - Elder M. Russell Ballard

We told the Relief Society that we could give the Savior an amazing gift this Christmas. We came up with a goal of 3 baptisms in our Relief Society before Valentine's day! It was cool to incorporate all the things that Sister Loo and I do every day like asking and praying for goals and numbers and names and have the Relief Society do that also. On the hand out we had a little spot to write down our goal and who they were going to reach out to before Christmas. It was neat. Sister Loo played, "I Know That my Redeemer Lives" on the piano and we had everyone think and pray about who to reach out to. Then we invited everyone to kneel and pray to know who the Lord wanted them to reach out to. The spirit was very strong, Sister Loo and I knelt down as well and man, it was powerful and our Relief Society grew so much closer! And we had so many Sisters come up to us after and tell us that they had all these names come to their mind and they were going to do it! And we have gotten texts today about Sister's friends that need to be reactivated. It was such an inspired lesson. It was all the Lord. We were just his mouth piece. It was amazing. 

We had 5 less actives at church and one investigator. I could hardly breathe because our investigator was covered in cigarette smoke. But then I remembered a quote that I once heard saying "we should smell cigarette smoke in sacrament meeting, because that means that people are where they need to be." I really liked that. They are in the right place. Also... Bryce send us the cutest text ever. He got a job at an Italian restaurant and so we helped him find a red tie. He can't afford to buy one. So we found him one and this was the conversation we had: :)

Church is true. Man, it's true. I love this time of year. I hope that you were all able to watch the Christmas Devotional it was so so good. Now that I really truly have a personal relationship with my savior, Christmas means oh so much more to me than it did before. As we were hanging up the advent calendar mom sent, "I believe in Christ" was playing and the Christmas spirit was very strong. I KNOW that Jesus Christ lives. Man I know it. And the priesthood is very powerful, we are so very lucky to have it on the earth today. 

Sorry to get all mushy. Love you all! :)

Oh and PS. I performed at the Christmas Talent Show... it was pretty great. Yeah I sang with my mouth closed. It was pretty epic.... haha. Love you all! 

xoxoxox

Sister King

Ward Christmas Talent Show- We showed up in our Ugly Christmas Sweaters. Elder Wilstead is a party pooper.

Temple day! 

Fitting the tree in our car trunk...

 Our tree :) 

Footsie thugs

Our ADORABLE ADVENT CALENDAR!

Xmas Tree Farm... then we cheated and went to walmart because it was cheaper. Like WAY cheaper.

GOBBLE GOBBLE

Alright... let me start off by saying, Hope everyone had a FAB thanksgiving. I know that Sister Loo and I did! We had a jam packed day. Sister Loo is infamous for being able to fall asleep anywhere, anytime, and she proved that to be true when we got in the car and had I had literally driving for like 4 minutes and I look over and she is PASSED out. I tried to get a picture without her noticing but my camera made this obnoxious noise when I turned it on and it woke her up.. not to mention that I almost crashed the car in the process. I figured that living to seetomorrow was probably more important than the hilarity of the picture. But not by much. It was pretty funny. We were tired!

 

THANKSGIVING

 

So Sister Loo and I found out from the Christan group that there were some people getting together to feed the homeless at a halfway house for women. So we decided to join them! It was so cool, we talked to a bunch of people. Sister Loo served the mashed potatoes and I did the gravy. We served SO many people it was really neat. The people were very grateful and we met some very sweet people. One man who reminded me of Jack Coleman (from the picture I have seen from your emails) he was a cute, tall, slender, black man and he said, "Thank you thank you. Where are your wings and your halos, ya'll do a great job in hiding those. You are truely angels." It was really neat. Such a cool way to spend our thanksgiving morning.

 

After wards we ate dinner with Kimberly Jones (a member in our ward) and her family. They were super nice in having us over and goodness they were so proper. I have never seen a more beautifully decorated home in all my life. Sister Loo and I pulled into the neighborhood in the woodlands and our jaws just about hit the dashboard. As we pulled up, Sister Loo said, "Do you think it'd be rude if we asked for a tour?! haha"  Well we didn't even have to ask! Kim's cute little nieces dragged us all around the house, and mannn it was gorgeous. Kim's mom did all the decorating and I just about died, mom you would have LOVED it. They had crystal doorknobs and gorgeous cabinets. k.. no one cares about this but Sister Loo and I were in heaven. (Side note: They play Christmas music in the office of our apartment which is quite a treat. We love it. Sister Loo is currently belting "All I Want For Christmas Is You" by mariah carry and i can only picture Sarah-Ashley with bright red lipstick on. haha. SO funny. Oh I love our family.) Anyway... we had a great Thanksgiving. Kim's dad is the area seventy for Mexico and he was super nice. We shared a message about the Atonement and he told us that he was talking to Elder Maxwell about the atonement and said "I have always viewed the atonement as being so personal that the savior saw MY face while he was in the garden and didn't suffer for all our sins all at once but one by one, each individual sin, one at a time." Elder Maxwell responded by saying, "Yes. That is exactly right." Then President Jones said, "How crazy is it that in the scriptures is says that christ suffered for 3 hours in the garden but really... how could he have felt all pains of every single one of god's children one by one...after all 'time is of man, not of god' [Alma 40:8] who knows how long he really knelt there. It must have felt for him, like an eternity. But for us.... for YOU. He still did it." I LOVED that. Sister Loo and I just looked at each other and were like... Wow. It was cool.

 

Thanksgiving was great and don't worry I got a pecan pie at the service lunch we did! It was a MINI pie. It was so little and cute!

 

HASTENING LIKE CRAYZAY

 

Okay... So we got a crazy phone call last week. Elder Cluff and his companion Elder Blake called. You're probably thinking, okay.... so what two elders called? BUT.... they are serving in California in the Santa Rosa California Mission... So why are they calling us? Good question. We were thinking the same thing. Sooo....In the Santa Rosa mission they have iPads and can use Facebook and Skype to teach people. And Elder Cluff is FROM Spring, Texas. And as missionaries using FB, they have their own FB page and they add all their friends from back home and talk to them. So Elder Cluff was calling to tell us that he has skyped with his friend from High School a few times and shared the restoration with him and talked to him about the church. Amazing. They were calling to pass him off to us and ask us if we could drop off a Book of Mormon to him. It was really neat! Like to think of the amazing things that are going on in the mission field. Sister Loo and I were BLOWN away. Like how amazing is that to be using the technology like that! Truely inspired. They told us that they have taught lessons via Skype in Pakistan and mainland China. NOTHING can stop the lord's work from progressing. So neat.

 

The next day at FHE a member of our ward came up to us and said, "Random... but you were in my little brothers weekly email home today! He said he called you to give you a referral!" It was weird! Elder Cluff's brother is in our ward! Man... the world felt a little too small there for a second. It was cool. We set an appointment to go over and visit Elder Cluff's friend whose name is Juwan. And before we went we were praying to know what do share with him and I felt really strongly that we needed to invite him to be baptized. Crazy and terrifying since we had never even met him before... but we went over and he AND his 17 year old sister were there. We taught them both the first lesson and the spirit was SO strong. Easily the best Restoration lesson that Sister Loo and I had ever given. At the end Sister Loo invited them to be baptized once they knew that what we were teaching them was true, and Juwan's sister almost jumped out of her seat and said, "YES! I have always wanted to be baptized!" It was really cool. Juwan said yes also! Really neat. We are going to pass them off to the Elders in the family ward I think since Juwan's sister is not old enough to be in our ward, and we want them to stick together. (Sidenote: through this experience I realized that I am TERRIBLE with black people names. I have to write them down so I can remember them. Our district leader and his companion are teaching someone named DeQuanshay. Oh man... so great. Also they are teaching someone who used to do drugs with Lil' Wayne all the time. And yes... he has teardrop tattoos on his face. But HEY! EVERYONE needs the gospel, especially lil' wayne and his friends haha :) So great. I love my mission!)

 

PRAYER

A Member told us a really cute little story that I have been thinking about a lot lately. She said that a 4 year old little girl that she knew was saying the prayer at the dinner table and she mumbled and mumbled and was praying really, really, quietly. When she was done she said, "AMEN!" The grandpa, said, "Honey, I didn't hear anything you said! When you pray you need to speak so we can hear you!" And the little girl folder her arms, closed her eyes and proudly said, "Well... Grandpa! I wasn't talking to you, was I?!" I thought that was so cute. Sister Loo and I were invited to pray with all the girls in the Christan group this week and it was SO strange. Everyone was praying for like attention and for praise. Prayer is between you and god. It is not for other people to hear. It doesn't matter what you say... it's if you MEAN what you say. I thought that was pretty powerful and I have been thinking a lot about that this week.

LIVIN' ON A PRAYER

 

On Saturday Sister Loo and I were not really sure what we needed to do and where we were supposed to be. (You feel that way a lot when you are a missionary) I was feeling like we needed to walk to one of our Less Active member's apartments but its like super far away and so I was like, "Pshhh yeah right." and then just didn't say anything. I didn't even tell Sister Loo. About 3 hours later. We decided that we needed to pray about it. We knelt down and asked what god wanted us to do. We waited, and listened and then thought to walk to jennifers apartment hit me again! I really felt like we needed to... no idea why. But we got up from our knees and Sister Loo and I looked at each other. I said, "Get anything?" "Nope, you?" "I think we need to walk to Jennifer Rudolph's apartment." "WHAT?! That is so FAR!" "I KNOW!!" We knelt down again and asked if that was what we were supposed to do... and as I said the prayer my heart was beating out of my chest! I closed the prayer, stood up and Sister Loo said that her heart was beating out of her chest. We put on our shoes, got our bags, grabbed an apple, said another prayer, (are you getting an idea of how much we pray as missionaries? haha) our Books of Mormon and headed out the door.

 

As we walked we waved to every single car that we saw. It was fun! We have such a big area that we drive most of the time. It was cool. We talked to EVERY single person we saw, not knowing where the lord needed us. Jennifer wasn't even home! BUT we got 2 potential investigators, got a referal for the elders in the area, asked some random lady if she had any bandaids for Sister Loo's blisters, left a Book of Mormon on a car, ran into some random cashier that we had talked with over a month ago, laughed a lot, switched shoes half way through so our feet would equally take the toll of walking on the side of the graveled shoulder (companionship unity at its finest), and grew our faith. It was a really cool experience. Who knows if anything will come from it, maybe someone driving by just needed to see us and remember, "Oh yeah.. I remember when I met with the missionaries, I think I still have their number." Either way, it showed the Lord that if he gives us a prompting, (even if it is to walk almost 7 miles) we are going to follow it! It was pretty neat.   

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

Sister King: "I am terrible with silence. It drives me nuts...So I have just had to get used to awkward silences on my mission..."

 

Elder Mitchell (an American Sign Language Missionary): "Yeah, me too."

 

I DIED LAUGHING. Elder Brookes and I couldn't stop laughing. I had to sit down that is how hard I was laughing. Oh man.... It is pretty funny. He is surrounded by silence all day every day.. how strange would that be?! I think I would go crazy haha. If I had a deaf companion I would be really tempted to listen to legit music and I think god knew that haha.

 

 

LOVE YOU ALL!

 

Church is true!

 

xoxoxox

 

PS. New favorite scripture this week: Alma 42:36 "Let the Lord have FULL SWAY in your heart." We sometimes feel our heart pulling us one way or another but let the lord control what we want and what we need and we will succeed!

 

PSS. ALSO... in testimony meeting yesterday someone bore a really cool testimony and said that he was reading about personal revelation and when we have been praying for something for a long, long time and we haven't gotten a specific answer, that is probably because the Lord trusts us to make the right decision. I LOVE that. I felt that way a lot when I was trying to decide if I was going to come on a mission. I wasn't sure but I decided that I would just go for it and if I wasn't supposed to go, heavenly father would let me know. And... man, I sure am glad that I let the lord have full sway. Let go and let him take the reins. It is hard but "TRUST IN THE LORD WILL ALL THINE HEART AND LEAN NOT UNTO THINE OWN UNDERSTANDING." Proverbs 3:5

 

 

Sister King

Thanksgiving!

 

The town was like a ghost town so we had some fun taking some "texan"pictures at random places

 TACO CARTS!

FIRE BY FAITH. FAITH BY FASTING.

OKAY. Longest week ever LONGEST EMAIL EVER. SO Sorry about that. You might want to like go pop some popcorn before you dive into this massive novel of an email. Seriously. This week was NUTS. Sister Loo and I hardly had time to even USE the LOO. At one point on Wednesday we were driving and I turned to her and said, "Hermana! I have to pee so bad!!" And she said, "GAH! ME TOO, WE DONT HAVE TIME THOUGH JUST HOLD IT!" It was hilarious. We didn't even have time to write in our journals this week so last night and today we spent like 3 hours writing in our journal... my hand hurts but it is fresh i my mind so i will just do day by day of what happened this week! Starting withMonday!

MONDAY

We went fishing with our zone! It was really fun. I was SO close to catching a little turtle but then it swam away! It was SO cute. I want to catch a turtle bad. Elder Viamatahau (Elder V) is from Tonga and he caught a fish and skinned it and then just sat there on the bank of the river eating it raw. Sister Loo and I tried it and it was so strange Just biting into the side of a dead fish that had just been caught. It was the freshest sushi I will probably ever have haha. It was legit redneck texas sushi. I love sushi but this was a once in a lifetime deal. Never again. It was really fun though. Sister Loo and I had a blast and we are for sure going to go back next week! I decided that I want to take up fishing when I get home. I mean for all of you that remember when I was obsessed with that fly fishing movie that I saw at BANFF... yeah... I think I was destined to become a flyfisherwoman. It's happening.

FHE- we had an investigator at FHE! His name is Frank. We met him at the woodlands mall and he has read the Book of Mormon and couldn't stop talking about how epic of a book it was. He went to youth conference when a friend of his in High School and said that he LOVED it. But then the girl he was dating told him that he couldn't read the Book of Mormon anymore...BUT now he's single. SO HUZZAH! He is really cool (for more on Frank see further down under under "Wednesday")

TUESDAY

We gave an amazing church tour to an investigator that we found a few weeks ago. 

Okay... It was an unreal miracle how we found him. IT WAS LIKE THE FIFTH DOOR WE HAD EVER KNOCKED ON IN THIS AREA!  AND WE FOUND BRANDON. Anyway... we taught Brandon a lesson and gave him a church tour where you talk about all that goes on in the worship service and give them the opportunity to feel the spirit. The SECOND we stepped into the chapel it was like we were hit with the spirit like a brick wall. It was so strong. I looked over at Brandon and asked him softly, "how do you feel right now Brandon?" He replied "Calm, really calm." We continued with the church tour and he LOVED the picture of jesus christ standing outside of the door knocking. We explained the symbolism and he also really liked the fact that we didn't have crosses in our church. (SIDE NOTE: One of the members in our ward was talking about crosses and I have been meaning to write about this in my email for weeks now but I always forget... anyway... Pamela said, "I dont understand why people worship or love crosses... I mean like if I died in a car accident would ya'll wear a car around your neck to remember me?!" SO TRUE.) Anyway... we gave Brandon a Book of Mormon and he was SO excited to read it. It was cool. He said that he was going to be calling us with LOTS of questions. We left, and Sister Loo and I were jumping up and down. Not only had we had an amazing church tour BUT we had prayed to know which member to bring with us to the lesson and Lonnie (who we had had there with us in the lesson) was PERFECT. He and Brandon hit it off super well. It was really neat. After Sister Loo and I contained our excitement, we got a text from Brandon saying, "Hey I posted on FB about our meeting and now my mom wants to come to the next lesson!" WHAT? So cool. Church is true.

WEDNESDAY

Okay....gah. Crazy day at Lone Star. We had not really recovered from Tuesday but we were starting off the day well on Wednesday. We went to Lone Star and talked to a bunch of people. After wards we asked Michael (President of the christan group) where the library was because we had to go there to teach a few people we had met on campus the previous week. Michael told us that he would just walk us there because he had something that he wanted to talk with us about. Sister Loo and I were a bit nervous as to what he was going to say... but he is SUPER nice and seriously is amazing, not to mention really cute haha. (I'm a missionary? Whaaa?) Anyway... we thought that he was going to tell us to never come back but then he said that he would just prefer if we didn't hand out "mormon bibles" after their sermons because its a nondenominational group. That totally makes sense so we were wa chill about it. But then he totally caught us off guard when he said, "Yeah so just don't pass those out, thank you! But... could I have one?" BAM. It was cool. I handed him the book and I said to him, "Michael. You can read this book two ways. Just like the Bible. You can read it as a story. Or you can read it as scripture. If you read this book trying to prove it wrong, you are not going to get anything out of it. You have to pray about it and read it with a sincere heart. If you want to know if what we are saying is true for yourself, read the Book of Mormon. Everything we know to be true rests on this book. If the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith translated it by the power of God. If the Book of Mormon is true then Joseph Smith was a true prophet and if Joseph Smith is a prophet, then Jesus Christs church is once again back on the earth restored." After I said those things I was like GOSH the spirit was so strong when I was testifying of it being true. And I wasn't even nervous. I know its true so I can support it and back it up. It would be hard to come on a mission and not know if the Book of Mormon was true. I am so grateful that I know that it is true, so I can use my testimony to help others feel and know of its power and divinity. Who knows if Michael will join the church. Right now he doesn't even think that we are Christian... But i know that he felt something as those words (that were not my own) flowed out of my mouth. Missionary work is nuts. I was feeling super bold today apparently.

We had a great lesson with two new investigators right after our talk with Michael. And we are going to hopefully be giving them a church tour this next week!

Remember Frank? The one that loves the Book of Mormon? Well we gave him a church tour (which is our new favorite thing) and the spirit was so strong. We ended at the baptismal font and we just looked into the font. The spirit was really strong and we were all really quiet as Frank just looked in, he said, "This is so cool! I just want to get in!" It was really cute. Then Jacob, the member that we had with us, said, "Frank, what would that mean to you to have a fresh start? A clean slate?" WHEW. Strong spirit. Frank kinda got scared I think. He stepped away from the font and said, "now ya'll are just being dramatic!" We sat down in front of the font at the the close of the lesson I asked him if he would be baptized. He said, "well I have already been baptized." So Sister Loo and I resolved his concerns and talked a little more about baptism. In my mind I was thinking, "Okay. You did your job, you invited him." But then... the spirit told me to ASK HIM AGAIN! GAH. I was terrified. So I asked him again, "Frank, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding that proper authority from god?" PAUSE. PAUSE. "Yes." A little smile came over his face. It was really cool. Oh Frankkkk.... Sister Loo and I gave him a Restoration DVD to watch and then Jacob said, "Let's watch it right now!" and Frank was like, "OKAY!" Sister Loo and I had to go to another appointment but Jacob stayed and watched it with him. HE LOVED it. We are going to watch the full length one this week at a members house. BRING ON THE POPCORN AND TREATS!

Sister Loo and I didn't get home until 9:30. So I attached a picture of me planning on top of the dryer while Sister Look cooked us dinner at 10pm. WHEW.

THURSDAY

Well... Thursday it rained... A LOT. And our bonfire was on Friday. We were freaking out. We were literally running around with our heads cut off. It was ridiculous. The AP's have been kinda MIA since its Transfers and our Ward Mission Leader is MIA. It was a fun few days trying to balance our appointments and activity planning. We decided to literally fast for sunshine. So we prayed and told the lord that we KNEW that he could make the rain stop. So what if it says there is a 70 percent chance of downpour... THE LORD WILL PROVIDE. That is our motto. We had worked so hard on this activity, the Lord was trying to test our faith! We decided to do all that we could and then put it in the Lord's hands. We called around the ward to see if we could borrow any tarps so we could cover the wood so it wouldn't get any wetter than it already was. I mean... Sister Loo and I are not boy scouts but it doesn't take an eagle to know that wet wood will not make for a very fun bonfire. So Sister Loo and I found some tarps and we trudged through the muddle field carrying tarps and bricks and plastic table clothes so we could cover the pile of wood. We were covered in mud and rain and grass and we looked ridiculous haha.  This week we discovered that the list of things that one can do in a skirt has grown significantly. 

FRIDAY

MY 6TH MONTH MARK! Crazy! Sister Loo and I looked outside and man.. it was a DOWNPOUR. We prayed and prayed and we said, "Well... now what." about 400 times but we were not giving up! We got a text from one of our ward missionaries and it said, "So... it's raining just in case ya'll didn't know." THANKS haha we had NO IDEA IT WAS RAINING! It was hard to be getting texts all day saying,"Soooo its raining. What are you going to do?"  "Is it still happening?" It was hard. Sister Loo and I couldn't even study that morning because we were so discouraged. Every time a zap of spiritual enlightenment would come rolling into my mind it was crippled by a huge clap of thunder that literally made us jump out of our seats. It was crazy. We had all the missionaries in the area praying that it wouldn't rain. We even had the ASL missionaries bringing investigators! It had to happen! So we prayed and prayed and prayed and then we ate some ice cream and then we prayed some more haha.

Sister Loo and I decided to drive by the field to see if the tarps had stayed on. NOPE. They had all blown off and the wood was totally soaked. At this point we had no idea what to do. It was about 3:30 and the bonfire started at 7:30. It had stopped raining but it was so muddy and so wet on the field. So we decided to switch locations to another members house that lived a few houses up. Problem... we had no wood. Sister Loo and I started to drive home in silence. But then I saw a sign for firewood outside of a hardware store so we pulled in there were also some wood pallets stacked in the parking lot. So we went inside and talked to the guy in the store. We told him that we were having a bonfire for our church and that all of our wood was wet we asked him how much the pallets were and that we maybe needed 10 of them. He said, "Oh well you can totally just take them, if its for a church that is totally fine and I will throw in a dozen logs that are totally dry. No charge." I ALMOST PASSED OUT. SO NICE. Then he said....

"Do you have a truck or how are you going to get them there?"  

"Oh! We can just have someone come pick them up in their truck later is that okay?"

"Well how far away is the fire?"

"It is at a member of our congregations house its like 10 minutes away."

"OH! Well if its that close just take my truck and my worker can drive them over there and unload it for you!"

WHAT?! UNREAL. He was an angel. Sister Loo and I couldn't stop thanking him. We made a little postcard with pictures from the bonfire to give to the whole store and especially Bob because without him the Bonfire would not have happened! It worked! The wood worked! People came! And the LORD PROVIDED A WAY FOR US TO HAVE IT. It didn't rain at all! Our fasting and our prayers worked it was unreal. I think the lord was just trying to test our faith. But hey... it worked. We had a really good turn out despite the weather and we had 13 non-members there! It was a miracle! We shared a really cool spiritual thought in front of the fire and it went really really well.

I still have so much to say about this week but mannnn.... this is way too long. So I hope that people even read it. Man. What in the world. Sister Loo and I purposely set aside time during the day today so that we could write this massive email. Geez.... and Pdays are supposed to be relaxing. Dang! Whew! Thanks for reading my novel. Miracles this week folks, miracles! Out here on the mission field it is FEAST OR FAMINE!

 I will leave you with one of my favorite things from my studies this week. I just love Elder Holland. In his talk titled "Lord, I Believe" he says, "The size of your faith or the degree of your knowledge is not the issue. It is the integrity you demonstrate toward the faith you do have and the truth that you already know."

SO GOOD.

CHURCH IS TRUE. Keep being missionaries! I love you all.

xoxoxoxo

Sister King

9:45 dinner and planning

 A glimmer of hope bursting through the clouds on thursday night!

 BONFIRE!!

POST BONFIRE BINGE!

 J'Leeta our favorite little member missionary

 FISHHHHH

 OH! AND I FORGOT TO SAY... HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I AM GRATEFUL FOR ALL OF YA'LL! (Texan accent included)