Just call me Grandma

CATS

We are seriously up to our ears in cats. Our neighbors went out of town and just left Yosh outside. Good thing its like 100 degrees outside or pouring rain. So we let Yosh inside a ton. We pretty much have a third roommate. All she needs now is to read the book of mormon and help with the dishes. She just falls asleep on me during our studies and its pretty darn cute. We bought some cat food for her and Tayless. We really are cat ladies. 

JUST CALL ME GRANDMA

The spanish Elders texted us the other day and wondered if we could sew. I volunteered to sew his satchel bag for him. (The church came out and said that they don't want missionaries using backpacks anymore. So... all the Elders have had to buy man purses. They are not happy about it. I am not either. I guess I can still carry Yosh around the house in my backpack.) Anyway... I sewed his satchel because the strap broke. Pretty sure I am going to be mending all the satchels in the whole district pretty soon. Everyone already calls me grandma because we go to bed so early and I am like one of the oldest sisters out here right now. I think its hilarious. 

PRIMARY PRO

Sister M makes me sing Primary songs to her sometimes while she does my hair. I feel like a three year old, and she sometimes does pigtails and says, "okay, all done." I just glare at her lovingly until she takes it out and actually tames my frizzy mess into a less frizzy masterpiece. 

I don't know how but Sister M knows like every single Primary song in the book. Her mom just sent her a mini one and the other day I asked her a Doctrinal question about the spirit of Elijah and she says "hang on...." then she grabs her Children's song book and like gets a scriptural reference from the bottom of some random song I had never heard of. She like uses it as a manual! Its so strange to me but its awesome at the same time. She is going into elementary education and she is going to be so good at it haha. She wrote this kids book about being like Jesus and I colored in the pictures that she drew on each page. We share it with families with little kids when we go have dinner with them. They just eat it up! 

PANDA REACTIVATION

We were trying to call random less actives and schedule appointments with them and we called up this guy named Tom Rice. We met with him and turns out that he hasn't been to church in 10 years. He is like 60. He is way nice and supper smart and like way funny. He loves animals and dinosaurs and stuff. He works at the animal shelter and at the natural history museum. We talked with him and invited him to church and he said that he would think about coming. That Saturday I was coloring in the childrens book Sister M had made and there was a panda. I couldn't remember if the pandas eyes were black and its head was white or if the head was black and the eyes were white. I said, "you know who could solve this debate?.... Tom!" I call up Tom and he gets all excited and give us the correct information in much more detail than I would have liked. I think he even gave us the scientific name for Pandas and some other facts about extinction or something haha. Anyway... he came to church the next day wearing jeans, a spirit shirt with horses on it and his hair in a ponytail. And he came up to us holding all these pictures that he had printed off of Pandas. Like probably 6 different pictures. It was the cutest thing ever. He was all excited to give them to us. Dont worry I kept them.

 I was pretty sure that he has just gotten baptized and then just didn't have support from members or the ward and had then just fallen off the bandwagon. That happens to almost all of the Less Actives that we are working with. So when he went to the normal sunday school class instead of coming to the Gospel Principles class I was a little worried. ESPECIALLY when I heard that they had talked about the Celestial Kingdom and Temple Marriage and stuff...

Then about a week later... we get a phone call from Tom saying he wants his membership number so he can get back onto LDS.org and start getting his life back in order. He loved coming to church! We called the clerk and was shocked when we looked up his membership number we found out that he had been married and sealed in the temple like 30 years ago. He told us that his wife died in 2001 and the only thing that kept her moving forward before she died was the fact that they would be together again. He said that he had never met someone with so much faith. It was such a sweet conversation. He told us that he had dug out his patriarchal blessing and was starting to read the Book of Mormon again. I was so excited! It was a miracle! A Panda miracle. He had gone to that class and had been reminded of the importance of his temple marriage. I like seriously felt his wife's spirit in the room while I was on the phone with him. It was SO neat. 

PROPHETIC POWER

We taught Angelica about prophets and she loved the concept she said, "So you have seen him!? You've been in the same room with him?! What is that like to see him?!" It made me realize how amazing it is that we are able to be in the same ROOM as the prophet. I mean when you think about Moses and the power he had as a prophet, that is just crazy! I forget that Thomas S Monson has those exact same priesthood keys and its so cool to think about that. We take it for granted living in Salt Lake for sure.

LOVE IS PATIENT, LOVE IS KIND.

We were at a members birthday party and the two couples that were there both had a spouse with a severe disability. Remember the Fry's? They were there and the other couple is amazing also... then there was the Senior Couple Missionaries that are in our ward and they were all so cute and then it was us and the Elders. They were all telling their love stories and how they met and everything and the love was just pulsating through the room. Sister M leans over to me and says, "Okay... there is WAYYYYY too much love in this room right now for me to be a missionary." SO true. Somedays I just want to come home and find that amazing guy and have an adorable family. These members are so cute. I just love them and the love they have for eachother is unreal. It is ETERNAL. 

WATER WALKER

I was reading in Matthew 14 the other day about Peter walking on water and man it hit me like a brick wall! I started crying during personal study and sister m was like ARE YOU OKAY? and I was like, "yeah I have just never realized the power in this event before!" I just love faith it is my favorite concept! Sister Montierth's had her brother in-law email this to her today and I LOVED it.

 It is a quote from Bro. Brent L. Top who teaches at BYU and is a past mission president. He said this at BYU education week (in 2008 I believe) regarding Peter walking on water:

“We all too often emphasize Peter’s failure and the Master’s rebuke, ‘Oh thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’ To me this story is not one of failure or lack of faith, but one of extraordinary triumph. The focus should not be on Peter’s sinking, but rather on Christ’s lifting. I believe that Jesus caught hold of Peter by the hand and lifted him back to the surface of the lake like a father would lift a child who has fallen down. To me the miracle is not so much that Peter took a step or two on the water, but rather after he took hold of the Savior’s outstretched rescuing hand, he walked back to the boat with the Savior. Not only did Christ walk on water, but He also enabled Peter to do the same. Now do you see the message in this miracle? When you try to walk on water yourself, you will always sink, but when you take hold of the Savior’s outstretched hand of grace, and walk with Him, you cannot fail. Christ’s grace not only rescues us and lifts us, it empowers us.”

AMAZING.

Hope you're doing well. 

-sister king

                                    Being a grandma sewing is my new trade.

   

I was having a really rough morning the other day and I took like a WAYYY long shower, since that is the only alone time you have a missionary. (And that is saying something because ya'll know how much a hate showering!) Anyway, I get out of the shower and Sister M had gone through all my pictures and stuff and made this collage on my wall! I started crying. It was SO sweet. She seriously is the best. We were at a members house and they said, "we can't believe you two have only known each other for 6 weeks!" I put my arm around her and said, "Its crazy, right? But you know when I picture my wedding, I just KNOW Sister M is going to have to be there!"