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
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