Putting My Heart in Texas: I HATE that a roach trap was on my grocery list...

JESUS.

Some of you may have heard how awesome my family is. Others may have heard how rad they are. Either way they are awesome. Guess what they sent me? Ummm A LIFE SIZE CARDBOARD CUT OUT OF JESUS. Yes. it is true and it is the talk of the town. I wish I could bring it everywhere I go and then "If the savior stood beside me" would take on a whole new meaning. It scared me SO bad the other day. We came back at like 7 am from the gym and it was still pretty dark, I opened the door and almost DIED of fright. Jesus was standing right there waiting for us to get back.

We called the Cypress Creek Elders and said we had a really good friend that we wanted them to meet. They said, "Ummm okay... as long as its not a cat" so we went over and put Jesus on their porch, rang the doorbell and hid. Elder Matu was SO confused when he opened the door it was hilarious. Speaking of the Elders we were worried that they weren't taking care of Yosh because when we went over there the other day he was limping around and looked SUPER skinny. So we made the elders a sign with the cat stickers that my mom sent us and we dropped it up. We also put a scripture that would guilt them into feeding Yosh and giving him water. Mosiah 4:16, "And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; and ye will not suffer that the beggar putteth up his petition to you in vain, and turn him out to perish."

Elder Matu felt guilty after so he gave yosh a cookie to eat. A cookie?... really?

PRIESTHOOD POWER

The other day I was supppper sick. We texted one of our ward missionaries in the ward and explained my symptoms and she said that i might have like ecoli or something... Of course....Sister M was like, "ummm are you dying?" As I laid on the floor I looked up at Jesus and thought, "How awesome would it be if I could be healed by Jesus right now...." Then in my state of delusion I remembered that we have that power back on the earth... It is called the priesthood. Durrr. SO cool. Anyway, we called our cypress creek elders to get a blessing... but they didn't answer. We called the spanish elders and they said that they would ride their bikes (10 miles) to come and give us a blessing. I yelled in the background saying, "I'm not THAT sick, I'm not like bedridden! I can walk haha!" So we got in the car and Elder Allen who is brand new out here gave me the sweetest blessing. It was powerful. I just love the gospel. I felt SO much better and we were able to get so many lessons that day. We saw miracles. Shelby (who I'll talk about later) is one of those miracles.

TOUCH OF THE MASTERS HAND

Well, we had dinner with Tom and his parents this week. They aren't members, but Tom is. Oh man it was a delight. I had a blast. His parents are such characters. Tom told us that his dad makes and plays violins and I said, "ooooh! Do I have the video to show him!" We went over and had dinner, talked, Tom showed us his parrot named willy (btw did you know that parrots can live to be like 80 or older?!) Anyway, we watched the touch of the masters hand which is this old school sunday school video. I dont even remember where I first saw it but its so good. Anyway, we watched that and his parents LOVED it. It is based off of this poem.

Touch of the Master Hand

Twas battered and scarred, and the auctioneer
thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on the old violin,
but held it up with a smile; "What am I bidden, good folks," he cried,
"Who'll start the bidding for me?" "A dollar, a dollar"; then two!" "Only
two? Two dollars, and who'll make it three? Three dollars, once; three
dollars twice; going for three.." But no, from the room, far back, a
gray-haired man came forward and picked up the bow; Then, wiping the dust
from the old violin, and tightening the loose strings, he played a melody
pure and sweet as caroling angel sings.

The music ceased, and the auctioneer, with a voice that was quiet and low,
said; "What am I bid for the old violin?" And he held it up with the bow.
A thousand dollars, and who'll make it two? Two thousand! And who'll make
it three? Three thousand, once, three thousand, twice, and going and
gone," said he. The people cheered, but some of them cried, "We do not
quite understnad what changed its worth." Swift came the reply: "The touch
of a master's hand."

And many a man with life out of tune, and battered and scarred with sin,
Is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd, much like the old violin, A
"mess of pottage," a glass of wine; a game - and he travels on. "He is
going" once, and "going twice, He's going and almost gone." But the Master
comes, and the foolish crowd never can quite understand the worth of a soul
and the change that's wrought by the touch of the Master's hand.

Anyway... we shared that and then Tom's dad disappeared. We were all upstairs and then heard him playing his violin. One that he had made. It was so neat. He is 89 and is still movin right along! What a guy! So neat. Anyway... he played us "Ashokan Farewell" by Jay Ungar (youtube it) its such a pretty song. oh man. I felt the spirit so strong when he was playing. it was so cool. I like felt the spirit of the pioneers coming across the plains! It was so cool. I swear there were angels there!

HEARTS ARE SOFTENED
Did ya'll hear about the Spring High School stabbing? Was that big enough to make national news? Well it was a gang related stabbing and lots of the people that we teach have been affected by it. Since we switched apartments we now live like right across the street from Spring High School and so when we went running past the high school in the morning there are still cop cars everywhere. The school supplied everyone with see through plastic backpacks. It was really sad. We went to the candle light vigil the night that it happened. The complex we used to live in was the complex that the boy who was killed lived in. It was perfect timing that we moved out and switched with the elders because since then it has been really unsafe. Everyone's hearts are really softened these past few weeks.

Anyway, we have seen a lot of miracles come from that. One girl we met because I felt very strongly that we needed to go talk to her mom but she was smoking and drinking and looked very rude. Sister M and I were both terrified. We stood outside, talking over the roof of the car trying to boost our courage and strength to go talk to her. Finally I said, "pray for strength, let's go talk to her." It was super awkward at first but then her 17 year old daughter came out and we started talking to her. She was about to leave to go to a therapy appointment because she said that she hadn't been herself these last several days. I had no idea what to say or how old she was but I said, "because of what happened at Spring High?" She just burst into tears and instinctively i gave her a huge hug and she said, "thank you, I needed that." Satan didn't want us to meet Shelby! He tried to use fear so we woudn't talk to her. It made me realize that the people we are most scared to share the gospel with are probably the ones we need to share it with the most. We talked with Shelby for a while and after a few minutes her mom comes up to us and just 5 minutes earlier she had been cold, and short and rude to us, not she gave us a hug, handed us $20 and told us that we will be blessed for what we are doing. I didn't want to take the money but she insisted! It was a really neat experience.

We talked to Shelby and so many others these past few weeks about about peace and how Satan can mimic happiness, he can mimic comfort and confidence, he can mimic all sorts of emotions. He uses all sorts of things to do that. He uses drugs, smoking, alcohol pornography, all sorts of things but the one thing that he cannot mimic that is LASTING, is that peace that the savior brings. We have been giving that peace message a lot lately and been praying with a lot of people in their homes with their children. It is neat to see how an event like this, although it is devastating can change the hearts of the children to their father. I thought about 9/11 and I can remember thinking after it happened how strange that would have been to be a missionary in NYC during that event. I am sure that the message of eternal families and resurrection was so comforting to hear. This gospel is amazing!

ONEZIE

-Ashley's baptism! So cool! We are so excited for her! She has the funniest dreams and they always involve us or the gospel in some aspect of another. It is hilarious. Oh how I love her. She was having some doubts about getting baptized but then she said a prayer and the ensign that she was reading fell on the floor and it landing on an article about baptism. She told us that she knew 100% that this was the path god wants her on. It was really neat. She is so cool. I can't wait for her baptism. We called her yesterday and told her that we have her white onzie to try on I hope that it fits her because she is 5 months pregnant! Anyway, we called and told her we need to drop it off and see if it fit her and she said, "oh goody! If I cry when i try it on I'm sorry my hormones are crazy!" we both laughed and I said, "its not like its your wedding dress ashley! haha! its a hideous ONEZIE for crying outloud!" She thought that was hilarious. But I mean it is a big day just like her wedding, the outfit is just not nearly as attractive. haha. We just love her. She is the sweetest.

RANDOMS

-the cultures here are so crazy and all so different, one members home is like only spanish speakers and you have a legit Guatemalan meal, then the next night you spend a night in Louisiana.. last night we spent the evening in Tonga. My brain hurt so bad because I was trying SO hard to remember all the kids names.... they were like "Tafalauiki and Malalilafik" Who knows... it was ridiculous but the food was great and they we were there talking for like 3 hours. Who needs to go to Tonga on their mission just come to Houston and you can serve in Tonga, Honduras, Mexico, NYC, Louisiana, and Utah.

- Sister M made like this legit bible just for jehovahs witnesses. We found this awesome book that a member of the church wrote to just like disprove everything jdubs believe... so Sister M marked like all these scriptures and we are ready to give our epic lesson to our investigator that is a Jehovahs witness (Jdub). After she finished she said, "aight, lets go pwn some jdubs." (Sidenote: for all you older readers out there, the word pwn is short for "personally own." ) She makes me laugh. We are off to pwn some jdubs.

Church is true.

xoxoxox

sista king

best watchdog ever.