PRAY FOR MATTHEW

PRAY FOR MATTHEW

Our golden investigator Matthew who I was raving about and is amazing KNOWS the book of Mormon is true, and just the other day told us that he couldn't stop smiling since we came to him and that we are his angels and all this stuff, he is so so sweet. Matthew has been a smoker for 12 years and he always smokes. So we taught him the word of wisdom the other day and he just flat out accepted it.   Before we went up and knocked on his door we were like sick to our stomach with nervousness but brother Gieseke just kept saying, "why are you nervous? It doesn't matter if you're scared. This is the LORDS investigator NOT yours. If the lord thinks he needs to hear about the word of wisdom, then tell him about the word of wisdom!" So we did even though we were terrified and it went so well! He only had a problem with tea! We prayed with him before we left and he said, " dear god, we are going to have to have a big conversation about this whole tea issue..." we went back the next day and HE HAD QUIT SMOKING COLD TURKEY. Talk about faith.... he knows it is true. So cool. We were so proud of him we just wanted to give him a huge hug. So that night we taught him about prophets and he was really interested in "this munsen guy" so we told him about Thomas S. Monson and showed him clips of general conference and everything and we asked him to pray about if what we had told him was true.

GAH.....

The next day we were planning on extending a baptismal date. We show up at Matthews house and I was like so confident going in.... Sister F was nervous but I was like "Whatever we got this!" WRONG. We were so blindsided.... gah. He was a totally different person... I think he was on edge from not smoking but gosh... it was like a total change of heart. He had looked up all this anti-Mormon stuff and was really defensive about it. The questions he was asking were so terrible and untrue. The people who make this anti-Mormon stuff are going to have a hard time with god later down the road that is all I gotta say....

As we sat outside on his porch (the same porch where less than 48 hours ago he had told us that he couldn't stop smiling about what he felt inside) a huge thunder and lightening storm that rolled in. There was a lull in his questions and we could see the gears in his mind ticking as the stared down at his bible for answers. Sister F and I exchanged a heartbroken look to one another, and believe me it wasn't the first one we had swapped throughout this terrible discussion... I said, "Matthew... how are you feeling right now?" He looked up to the dark clouds and the clapping thunder clouds pointed to the sky and said, "THIS is going on in side my chest right now." So hard... I just looked down at my scriptures and I have never prayed so hard in my life to know what to say or what scripture to share. It was really hard and it made me feel so insecure as a missionary and really humbled me because there are so many things that I don't know.. and every single thing we said to matthew, I can testify was from the spirit. Sister F and I didn't really even remember half the stuff we said to Matthew after the lesson.

Oh man we feel like we have just gone through a breakup... I really think that Satan was breaking Matthew in half!  It was heartbreaking. We found out a lot of stuff about his past and about his relationship with god and how he was angry with god for a long time. But now he is trying to get back on the right pathway. We said goodbye to Matthew and I just started bawling. It probably didn't help that we were listening to the Guardian soundtrack and it was like super sad music but we just talked about Matthew and how he will eventually come around.  It was heartbreaking because he is so so close and Satan knows that he is SO close to being happier than he has ever been before. 

We called and invited him to come to the temple grounds with us and we could talk but he said that he didn't want to. He didn't come to church and just texted us all sorts of stupid messed up anti questions all day yesterday. It has been a hard week. But living with the Giesekes makes it all better. Last night Brother Gieseke made us popcorn and talked to us about his crazy dreams that he has. He is the best. We just love him. He is going golfing in Ireland this week and we are so so sad. We will miss him!

NICK

Nick is being disowned by his mom for wanting to gospel in his life and we just pray that he will be able to come back to church. I text him everyday different chapters in the Book of Mormon to read and so hopefully we will be able to maintain that spirit and then when he goes away to school he can get baptized. Satan is working hard in texas! But that just means that we will have to work harder!

CHICKEN WRANGLING

In the midst of our phone call with Matthew we were sitting in our little log cabin sweating bullets while discussing what to do with matthew and we get a knock at our door. It was Brother G and he needed our help wrangling and hearding all the new baby chickens into the new chicken coop! So we got a kick out of that. It was pretty funny. We needed a good laugh. Sister F and I both stepped in a huge fire ant nest and so now our feet and legs are itching like crazy. But just to have to wrangle chickens and heard them across the pasture was worth it. It was so funny.

Anway... I am pretty sure that Folsey and I are staying here. I hope so anyway! Love you alllllll! I love Texas! There was the most beautiful sunset the other night and gosh we had some gewwwwwd Mexican food.

church is true.

xoxoxo

-sister king

Oh the Baptists..

 I forgot my camera last pday so here I am on the fourth of July!

MIRACLES

I just want to climb to the top of a huge mountain and like scream for joy. This week has been UNREAL. Sister Folsom and I decided that the only way we could adequately even begin to describe it is like the feeling when you get a first kiss and then you close the door and you are just flooded with happiness and like butterflies. Except.... these are like spiritual butterflies. Like Holy Ghost style. I just am in love with my life right now. Like we went to bed smiling and I dont think we have stopped smiling. My face hurts. GAH. I dont even know where to begin.... MIRACLESSSSSS. We are up to our ears in AMAZING THINGS.

NICK

Gah. Okay, so Nick is the boyfriend of one of our laurels and he has been progressing so so well. He could get baptized tomorrow if he wanted. The Merrill's (his girlfriend's family) have just like taken him in. I am pretty sure that he is closer to Brother Merrill than he is to his own dad. Everyone in the Merrill family except for the dad is out of town and Nick wants to do as many lessons as he can before his GF comes back. He is like so committed to doing this on his own and not having his feeling for Kenzi influence his decision in getting baptized! It is so exciting! So Brother Merrill is there for all the lessons and it is amazing! And he is well on his way to getting baptized. He asks such good questions and I can just see it in his eyes that he knows it is true. The most powerful thing is when an investigator takes that leap of faith and prays in front of you to know if what we are teaching is true. We asked him to be baptized last night and he said YES!

KAREN'S GUARDIAN ANGELS

We got a referral from the spanish elders the other day because they tracted into this amazing woman named Karen! We were on exchanges and I was way nervous because this was like my 2nd real lesson that I had taught and Sister F wasn't there. But we prayed and had faith that It would go smoothly and goodness.... it did! We stopped by and she told us that she is in such a difficult situation. They dont have a car that works, dont have money to fix the car and because they dont have a car they can't go find a job to get more money. They also can't afford groceries, they dont have a ride to go and buy groceries. They dont even have money to pay for the city to pick up their trash. So her husband Catalino walks 5 miles into town everyday to stand on a corner to find work for the day.

I have learned on my mission that poverty is real and there are people here that are trying so hard to make a life for themselves but they just keep getting kicked down. It is so hard. But Karen saw something in us and so she let us in. We taught Karen and her two kids (Aiden, 9 and Victoria 16) the restoration and they were so so excited about it. In the middle of the lesson Aidens friend comes to the door and asks him if he wants to come play with him. Aiden says he can't, closes the door and then comes and sits back down on the floor next to me! WHAT 9 year old kid turns down playing to hear about the restoration of the gospel!  It was so so cool. We invited them to the 4th of july breakfast and by some MIRACLE got them a ride and an instant fellowshipper in the ward. Oh man. SO awesome.

On saturday we went back and Karen started tearing up and said, "miracles are happening since you have been in my home. I know that it is you guys! I know it!" She told us that her brother mailed her money for food randomly and THEN her husband got offered a full time landscaping job! I said, "Karen that is so great! But how is he going to get there if you dont have a car..." she started tearing up again and said that the person is going to pick him up everyday and drop him off everyday. Wow, what a blessing. They came to church yesterday! Victoria's boyfriend even came! They were all wearing jeans because they dont have any church clothes. The ward didn't care, didn't judge them, they swarmed them and took all the kids to the right classes.  They fully, fully, embraced them and it was amazing! Sacrament meeting was packed for some reason and so there wasn't room for me to sit by Karen. I was SO nervous that she was going to like raise her hands and say "HALLELUJAH!" In the middle of someones testimony because that is what she is used to, but I couldn't tell her anything or explain things to her because there wasn't room! I was a nervous wreck.... And THEN In the middle of testimony meeting Karen leaned over to Brother Hawks sitting behind her and said, "I am sorry sir but whats the priesthood?" he quickly got up and knelt next to her and explained to her what the priesthood was and he was talking to her for a good minute or two.  It is amazing. The members here are UNREAL. They keep thanking US for letting them serve and helping with our missionary work. We just have to keep telling them that they are the ones that are going to be blessed. SO neat.  Karen kept hugging me and saying that I was her guardian angel. We are going to buy her groceries and drop them off at her house because they dont have anyway of getting to the store! I think the ward will help them out if she keeps coming to church. So cool. I love love Karen and her family. We are going to ask them to be baptized this week!

OUR BEST BUD FROM THE PRE-EXISTANCE

Sister F keeps saying that she is going to name her first born son Matthew after this guy. That is how much she loves him and I couldn't agree more. Oh man. Sister Merrill (the sister that was here before me) tracted into him when sister F was on exchanges and they gave him a book of mormon and he started to cry. He knew that there was something special about it. He is 28 and is amazing. He reminds me so much of Adam Sandler only with a beard. He is so so sweet. And he loves the Book of Mormon. He knows that there is something different about us. And we can see him changing. He used to just blow cigarette smoke in our face when we taught him but now he realizes that it wasn't chance that the missionaries knocked on his door. He wants answers.

He used to be a truck driver and you can just tell from his quiet dignity that he knows himself so well.

I just picture matthew driving through the vast countryside with nothing but his thoughts and the rolling pavement. I know that we have what he has been searching for. We invited him to church on saturday and he was super hesitant but we bribed him... we said, "okay we will bring you dinner?" no bite. "we will...... bake you cookies?" nothin..... "we will wash your car?" didn't budge. then I had a brilliantly stupid thought come to my head... I said, "Matthew... what if we make you a rap song." He smiled so big and said, "YOU? Two white city girls? HA! It's a deal."

He came to church.

We need to make a rap! gah! we came up with one line so far... it goes:

"July 07 matthew came to church/ to find the good word/ pray ponder search."

pretty good right? right? We are going to try and incorporate a baptismal invitation into the next line and present that to him tonight.

After church we stopped by last night and we pull up to his house around 9pm and I kid you not... this was like something off of a church movie. Like the best two years or something...

ready for this?

We pull into the driveway and Matthew is still in his pressed collared shirt from church, sitting in his garage in a camp chair READING THE BOOK OF MORMON. Sister Folsom and I looked at each other and wanted to cry. We talked to him about church and he said that he really enjoyed it and that he really likes that fact that we dont have crosses and images of christ on the cross. He said, "That part of other churches has always made me feel so uncomfortable. Why would I want to remember my savior that way, in pain? It is nice to see that ya'll dont have that." Then he talked about how he really likes the BoM and how he totally gets that it is true. He asked, "So what does it say that there can only be 3 witnesses of the Book of Mormon?" and Sister Folsom and I go on to explain how the book was just too sacred... blah blah blah... and then after listening to our whole schpeel he says, "Well I mean I get that.. but like I mean if it's true, why aren't these plates like in a museum or something?" He is just so so legit. I love him...

 THEN if our love for Matthew isn't already exuding out of our ears.... We asked him to pray and oh man we just about died. It was the most genuine prayer I have ever heard. I had tears streaming down my face by the end of his prayer. It was amazing. He just talked to god like he would a friend. He said, "God, i want to walk with you, if this is the right path so I can do that, so I can walk with you and have you by my side, then help me to know that it is right. I dont think that it is just coincidence that these sister missionaries are in my life. I know that I have a lot to change, a lot to work on but I can do it if that is the right path. Show me the way to walk with you..."

WOW. I almost hugged Matthew it was unreal. Sister F and I were bouncing off the ceiling the member that we were with is preparing to go on her mission and she was so pumped too! Oh man. THIS IS WHY I AM HERE. I know for a fact that we knew Matthew before this life. I can just feel it. We better not get transferred TOO many good things are happening in our area.... as Sister Folsom always says, "his spirit bore witness to my spirit that he knows its true." TRUER WORDS HAVE NEVER BEEN SPOKEN. Oh man..... I know this is like a way heavy email but it was a good week. 

6 investigators at church and 5 of them are progressing.  UNREAL. We had to go through the drought to get here. I may have seemed peppy and all smiles in my other emails but these first 5 weeks here have been hard and we have hardly taught anyone... but now our hard work is paying off. I love this gospel and I can honestly say that I have never been happier. Oh man. GOD BLESS TEXAS.

In closing let me just share with you something that Elder Mortimer shared with us when we were talking about faith at a meeting on the 4th of july. We were talking about faith and how faith and fear are opposites.

FAITH<------->FEAR

Elder Mortimer said, okay so if faith without works is dead... and they are inverses of one another, then fear WITH works is dead. So in order to not fear we just have to act.

WELL SAID.

LOVE YOU.

Church is true.

xoxoxox

-sister king

Temple trip, so pretty!

After a sucessful fast and testimony meeting with 6 investigators to look after we came home, picked some fresh cantelope from the garden, had some pizza and took a well deserved nap. WE LOVE THIS GOSPEL. #texasforlyfe

HOLA

Okay I have no much to say this week but I am sooo tired so I dont know if I will be able to say it all. We have a 4th of July/ Sister King's birthday party for Pday today so I am excited. 

KING OF ALL JOKES

okay.. If I hear the joke, "Sister King? Oh that is so funnny! It should be Sister Queen!" Of course I laugh genuinely but on the inside I want to scream. If i could count how many times I have heard that joke in the 4 weeks I have been here in Texas I would be very very rich.

PEARL HARBOR

Sister F and I were driving in the car and we were listening to the Pearl Harbor soundtrack. The main title song came on and we both just sighed and said, "Ohhhh how I love this movie, SUCH a good love story." Then I asked, "Wait.. who does the girl even end up with? I can't even remember what happened..." So sister Folsom goes on to tell the shortened version of the love story and by the end of it we have cranked up the music, and shes saying, "AND THEN, BEN AFFLECK IS KNEELING BY JOSH'S BODY AND JOSH SAYS....TAKE CARE OF HER FOR BOTH OF US!" and my eyes are flooded with tears.. OH MAN. Such a good movie. Missions make you emotional that is all I have to say. Sister Folsom always says, "I used to cry as much as you... then you just become immune to it." Well I hope that happens soon because I can't handle it.

GOOD TIMES IN THE TRUCK

1. We were driving the other day and I start telling Sister F about how much I love Disneyland. Remember when we went over xmas to the World of Color at California Adventure? They like projected the clips from all the different movies and had like fog and lights over the pond... oh man... I remember that I was just crying through the whole thing. Like when Mufasa says, "SIMBAAAA- REMMMEMMMBA who you are..." ummmm Hello.... Mufasa is like god? DUR. Walt Disney knew what was up. He's for sure in the celestial kingdom, no doubt in my mind. NO DOUBT.

2. We were Jammin out to Celine Dion in the car and like screamin at the top of our lungs... and then we realize that the car in front of us is like waving and trying to get our attention and turns out it was a member of our ward. We were so embarrassed. Oh man. SO funny. People are always watching us... always. Even when we are jamming to Celine.

RANDOMS

 1. My eye has been twitching NON-stop. And this bloody heat is really starting to get to me. Its hoottttttt. And its not even July yet!

2. I am a professional fly swatter. In the middle of district meeting I swatted a fly SO hard that it got chopped in half right on Elder Nymyers scriptures... Oooops.

3. Sister Geiseke bought me and Sister F matching shirts so the three of us could match in these cute little Texas shirts. I will have to get a picture and send it to you. Its pretty darn cute. I LOVE Brother and Sister Geiseke. I am going to miss them SO much when I get transferred. Brother Geiseke is just so wise with the gospel and with the atonement and everything he said, "in order to be a perfect person we don't need to add things, you need to subtract them. God made you in his image, so you are perfect, you just have to get rid of all the other junk in your life. And guess who is the garbage man to get rid of all that garbage in your life? ...Jesus Christ."

POOR WAYFARING MAN

One of our ward missionaries is AMAZING. We went over to her house for dinner and she told us that her son is not active anymore. She told us that she felt prompted that her two sons needed to sing "Poor Wayfaring Man" in Sacrament meeting while they were both in town for the 4th of July. She told us that she highly doubted that it would happen because he hasn't been back to church in years... but... a miracle happened! Yesterday they sang together! Her older son who is a strong member of the church and her son that is not active. It was SO powerful the older son could hardly sing because he was so choked up by the spirit. I kidd you not there was not a dry eye in the chapel it was amazing. She told us after that she hopes that the spirit he felt, singing with his brother, will be a source of comfort for him while is serving in Afghanistan. Such a neat thing to witness. I kept thinking about the brotherhood between Joseph and Hyrum while they were singing. It was amazing. 

THE CATS

So the elders met with Dash at the church they thought that it would be a good experience for him to feel the spirit without having to worry about 5 cats crawling on him. (ps. kittens were born.... and now there are 70 cats! YIKES) The elders felt prompted to bring along Brother Parks who is a ward missionary and turns out that Brother Parks used to be a vet and has connections! (MIRACLE!) So Brother Parks talked to him about the situation and how they would be taken care of and Dash agreed to start getting rid of the cats! Wheww its a miracle. I had a dream that I wore my cat blouse to his baptism haha. SO funny.

ISAIAH

Oh man... I am in love with Isaiah. Remember him? The kid from the trailer park with the creepy skinny parents that are on drugs? Welll... I LOVE him he looks like just Mike Schmidt (Suzz's brother) but with blonde hair. What a sweet kid. We went and talked to him the other day and like I said he just has a light about him. And when he sees us he lights up even more! He can see that we have something special. We asked him if he started reading the children's book of Mormon and he told us that he has read a little bit and that he likes it. I asked him if his parents are home and he said "yeah!" I said, "Can we come in and share a message with you guys?" And he smiles SO big and said, "Yeah! Well... let me see if thats okay." We could hear the TV on in the background of the dark, stingy, dirty trailer and so I thought for sure they would say yes.... but... nope he said, "ummm we are kinda busy but... Tomorrow? Could you come back tomorrow?!" Unfortunately we couldn't. We told Isiah that if he or his little sister needed ANYTHING that he could call us or text us. And he smiled and said okay. We told him that we would try to stop by later because we are teaching a few other people in that trailer park. 

My heart BROKE and I just started crying. How could god let such a sweet kid be in a house where his parents are high and he can't do anything about it? He has no control over anything and that is so sad. How can god let that happen! Sister Folsom said, "Sister! It's okay... one day when Isaiah is 18 and he is all moved out he is going to have the missionaries knock on his door and he is going to open it up, smile that huge adorable smile and say "I have been waiting for you! I used to have missionaries that came to visit me and my sister when we were little!" And Isaiah is going to join the church and become a priesthood holder and go to the temple and it is going to be worth it." Man, how right she is. It is so crazy how much love we can feel toward complete strangers... If I felt that much love toward just ONE of gods children... I can't even imagine the amount of pain and sorrow he feels when each of his children are suffering. It is so crazy how much he loves each one of us. DONT FORGET THAT.

Sophia asked me in my email about if I am weird yet... ummm NO. I dont think I am going to be that weird for a while. Folsom is totally normal and I think that I am going to be exactly the same way. LOVE YOU! LOVE YOU!  

church is true.

xxoxoxoxox

Sister King

DEEP IN THE HEART OF TEXAS

Well everyones prayers worked! The water is fixed! Whew! That was bad there for a few days but we made it through! Texas just keeps getting better every single day. It is amazing! What happened this week... ummmmmm...... first of all! WE GET FACEBOOK AS MISSIONARIES SAY WHAAAA?! So cool.

EXCHANGES

Well I am finally starting to feel like my true self! These first few weeks in Texas have been super bizarre and I haven't really felt confident in following the spirit or suggesting things because I had ZERO idea of what I was doing but that all changed this week. Since Sister Folsom is the Sister Training Leader for the Zone she goes once a week and we do exchanges. I was way nervous at first because we had NOTHING in our planners for ALL afternoon and I had no idea what I was going to take Sister Huber to visit because we were trying to save miles. I called like 5 members to see if they could take us out and none of them could. I prayed and prayed that night that Sister Huber and I would be able to figure out where to go and how we were going to get there. We woke up on Wednesday morning and we had a voicemail from Sister Ruth I almost cried listening to her sweet sweet message, she said that she had gotten our message and would be more than happy to take us out and visit people! Sister Ruth has the sweetest accent I have ever heard. I can't even describe it. Sister Ruth is like Skeeter from the Help in 60 years. She is such a sweetheart. So we went around visiting less-actives in the ward. We got to one trailer and knocked on the door and got the door slammed right in our face, Sister Ruth was taken back by it and I just grabbed her hand and said, "It wouldn't be missionary work without rejection, now would it?" She was so sweet. She told us all about her love story with her husband and it sounded like something from a Frank Sinatra song.

BLACK HAWK DOWN

Somehow all of our funny stories involve having to go to the bathroom.... we were on our way home from a lesson and both had to go to the bathroom like WAY bad. I am telling you its because we drink like 12 water bottles a day. I kid you not. Anyway...all of the sudden, traffic comes to a complete stop. And there are like 9 cop cars and ambulances everywhere blocking this entire intersection... we were like "What the heckkk is going on?!" THEN a helicopter lands in the middle of the intersection. NBD. It's fine... like what? We were so confused as to what was happening. It was bizarre I felt like I was in a movie. We call our district leaders to laugh about black hawk coming down right in front of us and then we realize that:

1.) we aren't going to make it home by 9:30.

2.) this is the only road that leads to our house unless we want to take a 50 mile detour (no thank you.)

3.) we REALLY need to find a bathroom

4.) our gas light has been on all day.

It is was a pretty great situation. Oh man. We just cranked the music and waited. We thought about tracting along the street and talking to everyone waiting in the traffic... but then we realized that everyone was going to be just as irritated as we were and so that would not end well...  We ended up waiting for 45 minutes. We finally get to a gas station and we are so tired that we put our credit card up the place where your receipt comes out.... oh man. We just had to laugh. The lady inside was nice about it but it was a very long day. Then we came home and our water was out again. We laughed even harder because we still hadn't gone to the bathroom... I tell ya. God has a sense of humor. That he does.

THE BEST TIP I HAVE EVER LEFT

Sister Huber and I were so hungry after exchanges that we went to Chile's and had lunch. I felt like I needed to leave our waitress a mormon.org card with the check but when I reached into my purse I saw that I had a book of mormon so I grabbed it and we left her a note! I attached a picture of it! Who knows if she will read it but maybe she will put it on her bookshelf and then forget about it and when she is prepared she will look at it and think, "hmmm... maybe I should give this book a try?" Or maybe she will give it away to a used book store and someone else will pick it up who knows! PLANT THE SEED!

SECOND-HAND SMOKE SALVATION

Sister Huber and I decided to tract a bit before our dinner appointment so we started walking and we knocked at this really creepy looking house. Sometimes you knock on the door and you secretly don't want them to answer... Yeah this was that house. We left a card on the door and then kept walking. A few seconds later as we were walking down the driveway, a guy yelled, "can I help you with something?" I turned around and said, "Yeah we are missionaries and just wanted to share a message with you!" he said, "okay give me a second..." We waited for a minute and then Kelly came out with his best friend Stewart. They both lit up cigarettes as we introduced ourselves. Stewart was wearing one of the most obscene t-shirts I have ever seen. But as missionaries we both looked past it and viewed them as god does. As his children, children that are lost from the path and need us to help them! We talked to them about god and if they were religious, they both kinda shrugged and said, "uh not really... we don't think about that kind of stuff." I said, "well haven't you ever wondered where you came from, why you are here, and where you are going?"  Stewart looked at me and as he blew smoke in my face said, "Okay fine. Then where did we come from?" Sister Huber and I started to teach them the watered down version on the plan of salvation and ended up giving Kelly and his girlfriend a Book of Mormon! We have a return appointment tomorrow so we will see how it goes!

TRACTINGX6

We switched back to our companionships later and when Sister Folsom got into the truck I just started laughing my butt off. She was DRENCHED. The sister she did exchanges with made them tract for like 7 straight hours in the texas heat, they didn't have dinner even after a member offered to feed them and then they got rained on. She was such a wreck and she smelled SO bad. It was hilarious. We had an appointment with Kimber that we were really excited about and we were going to teach her and her boyfriend about the restoration. We got there and she wasn't there... It had been a very long day with lots of miracles but also lots of rejection. So we went home at like 8 and watched 17 miracles with Sister G. OKAY IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS MOVIE YOU NEED TO WATCH IT! MOM MAKE THE WHOLE FAMILY WATCH THIS MOVIE IT IS SOOOO GOOD.  Annnnnd wee granny is in it!

THE CATS ARE THE PROBLEM

The Elders in our ward are almost ready to baptize this investigator named dash. The problem is that he lives in a trailer with 50 cats. YES. 50 CATS. His wife moved out because he chose the cats over her. He will only get baptized if his wife is there by his side to support him! Sister Folsom and i went to visit his wife and she just about broke my heart. She started crying and said, "I still love him so so much but he chose the cats over me... who would do that?" We are trying to help him with it but he views them as his children and he won't get rid of them unless he knows they will have a good home. I think the elders are going to try and put them up for sale on craigs list for like 10 dollars each and then when people come to get them they will just give them away for free. I have no idea... he spends all his money for his medications on cat food and cat litter. None of his children talk to him because of the cats...he is just depressed about it but its because of the cats! It is a big problem...

THE SUIT

So at the MTC there is a box that missionaries can but extra clothes or books or anything that they dont want in. Its right by the luggage scale so like if your bag is too heavy people just take stuff out and put it in the give away box. Well Elder Oleson found this suit in the giveaway box the night before we were leaving to fly to Texas. He felt like he should take it for some reason even though it wasn't even close to being his size, but he couldn't let a good suit go to waste so he put it in his bag. When Elder Oleson and Elder Larsen started teaching Dash they invited him to church and he said that he didn't have any church clothes. They told Dash that they would try and find some clothes for him. When they got home that night Elder Oleson remembered the suit and pulled it out. It was DASHES SIZE!! So they wrapped it up and gave it to Dash for fathers day! How awesome is that?! God works in such crazy ways. Everything happens for a reason. The elder at the MTC with the heavy bag? He could have taken other stuff out but why did he choose a perfectly good suit!? Why did Elder Oleson pick up a suit that would be WAY too small for him? BECAUSE HE WAS GOING TO TEACH DASH! Oh man... SUCH a miracle. It is this kind of stuff that makes me so excited about missionary work.  

Love you all!

-Sister King

ps. remind me to never mention my political stance EVER again as long as I reside here in Texas. God bless the democrats!