Putting My Heart in Texas: 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!