Reality Check

I come home in 9 days... Things are starting to seem a little bit more real and I am freaking out. But I am trying to make this last week count! This will be a short email since I am really only reporting about half a week since I emailedon Wednesday.

I just wanted to share a little piece of my testimony. The mission really is like a mini life. You have ups and downs. Like honestly, I have never been so sad and I have never been so happy all in a matter of days. It is exhausting, stressful, mind-numbing and lonely. BUT I have never been so happy in my entire life. I was talking to Sister Flannery about this the other day and I told her how scared I was to go home and to start this new chapter of my life. I said, I feel like I am just starting to understand how to do things and then I have to go home!  She said something that I really needed to hear. She said, " The mission is training wheels for life. We aren't expected to be perfect, but we learn the tools that can help us when we have to get on the actual bike."

I love that! These tools help us to grow and progress and remain close to the Savior. And even when our Father in Heaven takes off our training wheels and gives us a push in the right direction we aren't expected to be perfect. That is why the Atonement is there. 

To some extent I don't think that I will ever be ready to end my mission and to have this mantle lifted because spiritually speaking, this is the strongest that I have ever been. But I don't want it to be the strongest that I ever will be. This is just the beginning. Now I just have the tools to deal with everything and anything that life can throw at me. I just have to keep them sharp and ready to use. That is the key.

The church is true. I am so happy that I have been able to have this amazing knowledge of my divine potential, not only the potential that our Heavenly Father has for me, but the divine potential that he has for all of his children.

Church is true. 

xoxoxox

See you in nine days :)

-Sister King

Because He First Loved Me

VERTIGO

So I have been really sick and going crazy lately. I have learned a lot this transfer and had to rely on the Lord in everything. I was not going to go to the doctor because I kept saying, "I have 3 weeks left, I will just go to the doctor when I get home." But then on Wednesday morning I was so excited to go see Bankah at the Buddhist temple, but I felt terrible. Sister I tried to convince me not to go but I was set on going! Then the Elders called and Elder Tanner tried to convince me that I needed to go get checked out because I might have a brain tumor or something. Long story short... I ended up at Instacare and for this last week I have been on a gazillion pills and have been really out of it. It is hard to push hard and finish strong when my body is saying, "Nope, you're done." But my mind isn't so it is frustrating. I have been having some serious mind games going. But the scriptures, prayer and a loving and understanding companion have really helped me to turn to the Savior.

HE LOVES US

I gave my last testimony at Zone Conference yesterday and that was so strange. I felt sick to my stomach. It was the same pit in my stomach feeling I had as I was driving to the MTC! But one thing that I have been thinking about is that EVERYTHING that happens to us is for a reason. It is for our benefit and often times it is so we can be brought low enough to ask for his help. 

Here is a question that I have been thinking about a ton, "If God loves us why did he make a plan to have us leave his presence?"

President Mortensen's response when teaching a lesson:

"You have children, you love them and as parents you care about them. But would you want to have your children depend on and live with you in your house for the rest of your life?"

"No."

"Why not? You love them don't you?"

"Yes, but they need to be out on their own and experience things, learn responsibility and make choices."

"Exactly. That is how our heavenly father feels about us. And when your children leave the nest do you want to hear from, help them and watch them in turn have their own families and progress."

"The family is truly ordained of God."

We got to go to the temple today and that is all that I could think about through the entire thing. How he is our Father. He loves us and I am his daughter. 

Church is true. 

xoxoxoxox

-Sister King

HALLOWEEN LEFTOVERS

Sister I has been SO cold ALLLL week. I bought her boots at Target. Mom, I knew that if you were here you would have bought them for her. Like mother like daughter.

Cat pants and cold weather.

Ruth's little Sister wanted her own copy of the BoM. SO cute. We left her our passalong card and it had our number on it. We hadn't even been driving for 5 minutes when our phone rang. It was Jester and Maureen all we heard was breathing and giggles. I expect more prank calls in the near future. SO cute.

 Westlake homies.

Horseloverzzzz

District at the Temple! 

Poor Nymeyer broke his collarbone 2 weeks before we go home! :(

Tree-climbing.

Cold weather! I can't wait to bundle up again! I have missed my tights and scarves!!

I LOVE AFRICAN FOOD.

RUTH

Okay... I had Zambian food this week and I was SO excited it was amazing. The rule was that we couldn't use any utensils. We were just covered in food by the end of the meal it was so good. Ruth is amazing. She has been through so much and she is so ready to make changes. We committed her to read 3 Nephi 11 and when we came back the next day she was reading it and she said that she was trying to understand all the words and had looked them all up in the dictionary. It was so sweet. She came to church and offered to say the closing prayer in gospel principles. It was SUCH a refreshing prayer. Sometimes we get so caught up in the routine of prayer at church that we think that we can't break outside the box of "vain repetitions" her prayer was beautiful. I always ask her to pray because its like she is singing. Her voice gets loud and then soft and she never says the same thing twice. As she stood in front of the class over 6 ft tall in her heels and her beautiful dress. I was just in awe of how gorgeous she looked, and gorgeous the gospel is as it floods to every corner of the earth. 

One of the Sisters in Relief Society had twins and then a major surgery due to a complication, when the sign up sheet came around to ask for volunteers to bring her dinner. Ruth didn't skip a beat and wrote her name down to take dinner to the family. So sweet. We had a pie crust making enrichment activity last week and Ruth wasn't able to come so we made her a pie crust and she has never had pie! We are going to make a pecan pie with her this week and I am so excited :)

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT JOSEPH SMITH WAS A PROPHET?

We have been trying to make contact with a less active for a quite a while. Her home teacher told us that if you leave something on her porch she feels inclined to call you and thank you for it... so since she wasn't returning our calls was never home or anything we decided to just stop by with some treats and leave them on her porch. We pulled up and I was just going to have Sister I run them up to the door but then we noticed that the car in the driveway had its light left on. Even though Sister M's roommates hardly speak English we decided that maybe this was a sign that we were supposed to knock on the door. So we knocked on the door to tell them their lights were on and she said, "oh thank you so much! I will go get Maria so you can give it to her!" She was HOME! We got in and had a really powerful conversation about the gospel. Sister M has some doubts and is looking for a different church. It all stems from little things in the gospel that she disagrees with like coffee and a glass of wine a day and a few other things like that. Sister I was trying to resolve the concerns but we were just going around and around in circles. 

Then this quote from Preach my Gospel came to my mind, "Just as the arch crumbles if the keystone is removed, so does all the Church stand or fall with the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The enemies of the Church understand this clearly. This is why they go to such great lengths to try to disprove the Book of Mormon, for if it can be discredited, the Prophet Joseph Smith goes with it. So does our claim to priesthood keys, and revelation, and the restored Church. But in like manner, if the Book of Mormon be true—and millions have now testified that they have the witness of the Spirit that it is indeed true—then one must accept the claims of the Restoration and all that accompanies it.”

The spirit helped me to know what to say and the only thing that was coming to my mind was that EVERYTHING depends on the Book of Mormon.  I had remembered that the first time I had ever met Sister M about 5 months ago she had told me that she didn't have a testimony of Joseph Smith when she was first baptized. She decided that she was going to plan a trip to go to the Sacred Grove so she could know for herself. She did just that and the Lord answered her prayer. She knew that he was a Prophet. That experience that she had was all I could think about... so when there was a pause in the conversation I scooted forward on the edge of my seat and said, "Sister M, do you believe that Joseph Smith was a Prophet?" 

There was silence and I could see her replaying the moments in the Sacred Grove when the spirit had told her that he was. I felt it. She fumbled over her words trying to talk her way out of it. But I know that she felt it. I reminded her of her experiences that she had shared with us. And then testified of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I told her that I know that book is true largely because I know that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God. Sister I then tearfully and humbly shared her testimony she has such a sweet and loving testimony, she is truly a humble servant of the Lord. I am so blessed to be her companion! Sister M felt something, I don't know if she will come back to church but she did tell us that we could come back and read the Book of Mormon with her, and that is a start. 

I love this gospel so much.

Church is true. 

xoxoxoxoxo.

-Sister King

Sister Mattson's gift. So excited she is taking temple prep! We had to take a picture by the fireplace because Sister I had never seen one before! :)

Me, Ruth, Maureen her adorable daughter and EPIC African food.

WARD COUNCIL REVELATION

EBOLA?!

This week I was pretty much knocked unconscious. I was sick for 3 days and could hardly move. I had super bad vertigo. I texted the Elders and said, "What are the symptoms for Ebola?"  That is how bad it was. I got a blessing and then a member asked me what my symptoms were and said, "OH! You just have allergies! Just take some allergy medication and a nasal decongestant and you will be good to go!" Wish I had known that BEFORE we wasted 3 days of my mission thinking I had the flu! (Mom, don't get mad but I haven't gotten my flu shot yet.... 'aint nobody got time fo' dat!)

Then last night Sister I was like, "uh oh... I feel dizzzzy..." And I was like, "ohhhh noooo! VertiGgGooOOOO!" My crazy driving probably didn't help much :) And then we called the Elders this morning and they were like, "HELP! We are dizzzzzyy!" Ragweed is just making its rounds. It is so bizarre so we dropped off out allergy pills this morning.

ANCHORS

Had a lesson with a family and shared Ether 12:4-

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hopecometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

We drew a little picture of an anchor and had a good lesson about how we need to strengthen our anchors of faith in the gospel so we don't drift away. I then posed the question to the whole family, "what can each of you do this week to make your anchors of faith stronger?"

The 5 year old looked up at me, and then said in her adorable little voice " umm.... I am going to make metal. WEALLY stwongmetal."

I was so confused at first but then realized that this adorable, humble little child had taken my question literally. It was such an adorable moment. :) The cooler part was that the dad who doesn't come to church said that his goal would be to take the sacrament this week. So cool.

KROGER MAGIC

 SO on Saturday Elder Mortimer told me that if you scan the barcode on the last page of the book of mormon it recognizes it as a Kroger's Value Card and you can get discounts. We tried it this morning and it scanned saying, "welcome valued customer!" I about died. I laughed the entire way home. Cute, innocent, Sister I said. "Wait, isn't this stealing??" haha. Oh bless her heart.

ANYONE SPEAK CHINESE...PLEASE?!

We FINALLY got in with an investigator that had been off the radar forever! She is so cute. She is from China and she speaks really good English but it is really hard to read the BoM with her because she doesn't understand any of the words so we have our copy in English and her copy in Chinese and its so hard to help her understand it. But she is so sweet. She LOVES the church and is trying to hard to be a good mom. We are going over there for Chinese lunch tomorrow I am so excited. YUM!

WARD COUNCIL NIGHTMARE

Yesterday in ward council we had a really good spiritual thought from our Elder Quorum President. This was the jist. It was really good. He said, "The goal us to be Christlike. If we are striving for that and trying to exemplify his many attributes we should be trying hard to include one of his most intimate titles. FRIEND. Yes, he is a peacemaker. Yes, he is the Shepard. But one that we often forget is FRIEND. Be a friend. See someone sitting by themselves? Don't just say hi and leave. Sit with them, be genuine.  Be close enough to people to know their struggles and their battles so we can help them. It is not a chore for the Savior to listen to us when we complain and have struggles, so should we make it a chore for ourselves?"

After this spiritual thought that seemed to be out of nowhere, the meting continued to move forward and comments were thrown out there about how we are a great ward when it comes to fellowshipping and we are warm and friendly. We were all stunned when near the end of the meeting the Elders Quorum President told us that the reason he had chosen his spiritual thought today had to do with the fact that he had just found out the day before that there are 3 or 4 people right now that used to be fully active that are now on the brink of being inactive. The reason? They don't have a friend. There was an awkward conversation that followed and different auxiliaries defended things and made excuses. But The Elders Quorum President looked at the ground, closed his eyes, sighed and said, "It is not up to us to decided if they have a friend or if they shouldn't be offended. We love them anyway."

It was a very humbling meeting. I learned a lot and I hope that the ward council took something from that meeting. I know that we have all been talking about it non-stop and have since made a whole new game plan for our ward. HELP THE MEMBERS FORGET THEMSELVES AND LOVE THOSE  THAT ARE STRUGGLING. 

 There is so much work to be done but it can't only be us as missionaries. It needs to be through the members. But everyone is so focused on themselves that it is not happening. We try our best to pull up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees but it is really difficult when you don't have relationships with these people and they don't want to be viewed as a project. It is hard to know what to do. And we need to rely on the Lord. We spent a few hours this week chalking those people that are in need of a little love. My challenge? Look and see who is sitting alone. Look and see who needs a friend. The church just came out with this really goodmormon message. Watch it. http://www.mormonchannel.org/video/mormon-messages?v=3851853843001&cid=HPTU102114502

It was a great week. And I learned a lot. A lot about ragweed and a lot about the gospel. I love this work. I love it oh so much.

Church is true.

xoxoxoxoxo

-Sister King

I kept checking my temperature to see if I had a fever and if I did we would have to go home haha.

Us and Stephanie!

Samantha! Stephanies daughter :)

Thanks for the Halloween treats! We are carving pumpkins with the Elders today! So excited! :)

Cats.

Chalking :)

we love halloween :)

Cutest door knocker everrrr :)

Breakin' my back in TEXAS.

ZZZzzzZZzzzzZ

-Apparently I was laughing really hard in my sleep the other night and scared Sister I, haha. No idea what my dream was about.

-Sister I was going sit-ups early one morning and she was counting. I hear her say, "forty-eight---forty-nine----forty-ten------*pause* "what the heck am I doing!?" And then we just CRACKED UP. That is how tired we are. 

SERVICE UP THE WAZOOO

We did SO much service this week. I think that is why we are so tired. Wednesday we were doing service all day. We went to the Buddhist temple, then the Elders were like, "Hey this inactive couple move and there is no way that we can help them back just the two of us. Can you com help?" Since we were already in service clothes and covered in paint we decided to just join them.... Flashforward to opening the front door to the apartment---> In this moment I decided that maybe the Lord is trying to tell me that my ideal career path is to de-clutter. And help hoarders de-hoard. I would pass something to Elder Barney and mouth, "quick take that to the dumpster!!" haha. It was so funny.  We have to sneak things to the dumpster without them knowing. I am getting really good at it haha. It sounds rude but if you understand hoarders you will know what I am talking about. If the TV show Hoarders ever comes to SLC. I will totally volunteer. At least this time with Fred and his wife there weren't any cats.Remember when I cleaned the cat lady's house and I got like a hundred flea bites all over me? yeahhhh.... that was fun. 

 This member has such a cool conversion story though! He had a stroke and was outside learning how to walk again using a walker he had totally lost all his speech. As he was walking he saw the elders ride by on their bikes and he felt something tell him that he needed to call to them, he suddenly heard himself yell "HEY!" Fred was shocked that he had spoken! The Elders turned around and came to talk to Fred. Fred managed to say, "pray with me." They started to meet with Fred and read with Book of Mormon with him, and that is how Fred learned how to talk again. By reading the Book of Mormon out-loud. How neat is that!?

Then we helped another inactive clean their house and we have never really been able to have a very spiritual lesson in their home because it is always so messy. But after we cleaned their living room you could actually see their floor! It was amazing! The spirit was SO much stronger in their home and the house literally got like 5 times brighter. We talked to them about getting sealed in the temple. They were so excited. And because the spirit was there we were able to bring up the Elephant in the room, that they weren't coming to church. SO cool. Sister I and I were like on a cleaning spree we just wanted to keep cleaning and cleaning and cleaning because it made the BIGGEST difference. That is one thing I have learned from being on a mission... because we go into so many homes, I am able to feel the difference in the spirit inside each one. Our homes really are temples! TAKE CARE OF THEM!

RANDOMS

Thursday we helped Donna and Nathan move. We have been teaching Donna since I first got here. Now she has a Boyfriend and he said that he is interested in taking the lessons! I hope that they continue to progress with the new sister missionaries we have! :)

A recently reactivated member is sharing the gospel like crazy! We are so proud of her. It is so cool to see someone who has so recently discovered it,  share it so passionately. Frank called the other day we talk pretty regularly and he gave out 2 Book of Mormons to his friends. His new calling is a ward missionary :) As a ward missionary their challenge by the ward mission leader is to invite at least 3 people a week to something. An activity, church, mormon.org etc. It is so cool. I loved Elder Bednars talk about sharing the gospel. If you haven't watched it or listened to it. DO IT! https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/10/come-and-see?lang=eng

CHURCH IS TRUE! LOVE YOU ALL!

xoxoxoxox

-Sister King

Lovin' the weather.

Nathan, Donna and her kids! :) I told the other sisters that they have to take good care of them since they are moving out of our area :)

Adious Elder Barney! :( So sad to see him leave.

Late night guacamole grilled cheese :) #GOUTES. (Members keep me posted on the score. GO UTES)

Elder Barney, Elder Harris worked their charm and got Amu to come to church to sing! So neat. There were hardly any dry eyes in the chapel. The Elders said that it was the spirit helping them. When they sang with the guitar in church, it was UNREAL. ANd Amu's whole family came too :) His Sister said that she was SO happy to see him in the chapel. It was beautiful. This is a recording from when we were over at Amu's house practicing :)

"Why do missionaries have such big bladders?....Because they only get one P day."

Hope you enjoyed my not so funny joke. It is only minimally amusing. But I heard it yesterday and it made me laugh. Although it hit a little too close to home since I have the smallest bladder ever. 

Today we have our pday and we get to email instead of Monday because we are going to the temple and had to switch our P-days around. 

It is hard for me to think right now because instead of writing down my thoughts for a week, I have to grab my thoughts out of my brain for 2 weeks.... 

I have to get myself oriented here... hang tight for a minute while I collect my thoughts. 

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OKAY. Got it.

DROPPED LIKE ITS HOT.

SO this week was really hard. But really good. Sister I and I worked really hard. We fasted, and prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed some more. 

Sue and Judith dropped us. I was on exchanges when Sue called but she told Sister I that she had prayed about the church and was pretty sure that the church was not right for her right now. Sister I was so shocked that she didn't really know what to say. I wish I could have been there to help her and talk more with Sue because I don't really know what happened. We prayed about it a lot and felt that it was right for us to just give her space for a week or so. We had a member stop by with some cupcakes and just say hi. Hopefully we are able to serve them and when they are ready they will know where to come to accept it. We were really sad about that.

Then the next day we had a lesson with Jose our other progressing investigator. We walked up to his house and he was smoking a cigarette. We asked how he had been doing and he told us that he couldn't meet with us anymore. I closed my eyes, prayed silently and asking him why he felt that way. And he told us that he had some demons that he had to conquer first. I sat down on the chair beside him and I said, "Who is that can help you overcome those demons?"... he paused and said, "Jesus Christ." The spirit was so strong and I said, "Exactly Jose, and when we meet with you, who are we helping you get closer to?"...pause. "Jesus Christ." "Yes, exactly. So you think that not meeting with us anymore would help you conquer those demons?"

Pause. "I don't know I just can't."

We talked for a few more minutes, bore testimony and then left. It was a really sad conversation, watching him turn away from the one thing that he is looking for. It was very disheartening. 

So since we had everyone and their dog decide not to meet with us/answer their phones or doors, we decided to put our heads, hearts and spirits back to the drawing board. We picked a section on the map and decided that we would pray as a companionship and then independently write out 5 street names that stuck out to us and then come together and whichever one matched we would tract it. And guess what? The first street name we had written down was the same. It was very cool. So  the next day, just as we had planned, we loaded up our bags with pass-along cards, family history information and book of mormons. 

We got to the street and there were 3 miracles that happened all on the SAME STREET-

HAYSTREAM DRIVE= MIRACLE LANE

1.) Randy- We always have bug spray in the car. Always but we could not find it anywhere we check every pocket, the trunk, under every seat. It was nowhere to be found. It was so bizarre. So we saw this guy in his garage. We went up to him and he ignored us at first (thinking we were going to drag him to a come to jesus meeting or something) but when we asked him "Hi sir, this is a really random question but do you have any bugspray?" He smiled, grabbed some out of this garage and walked back to us with a HUGE bottle. He said, "Put out your arms." I was so confused, but did as he said, then he sprayed both of us down and had us turn. He even made sure the backs of our necks were sprayed. he said, "I am the handy-man every kid on the block comes to me for bug spray on nights like this, I fix all their bikes while their dads are drinkin' beer on the couch. I am the neighborhood dad, I guess." He smiled and the corners of his huge handlebar mustache  turned out. We talked for a bit, and as we have progressively tracted the rest of his street this past week we have seen him on multiple occasions and we always yell, "Hey Randy!" We planted a little seed and we left him a little note on his door with a plan of salvation pamphlet, thanking him for being our Texas dad. You know what the weird part was. When we got back in the car the bugspray was sitting RIGHT THERE IN OUR CAR. We needed to talk to Randy apparently! :)

2.) Mike- Randy's neighbor right across the street. After getting sprayed down with deet by Randy we knocked on Mikes door and he opened up with the common "Yeah, what do you want...." type of response to two missionaries standing on his door. But the words just came to me, "Hi! We are going around talking to people about Family History. Have you ever done any of your Genealogy?" He cocked his head to the side and said, "Yes, actually I have. I have a bug binder inside!" After talking for a minute and introducing himself, He stepped outside into the mosquitoes and we motioned over to Randy and said, "Well Mike, you better go get bug sprayed by Randy over there before you come outside! :)" He laughed and began to tell us all about his interest and passion with family history. He is going to come to the Family History Fair that the stake is having on the 25th and we are going to start reading the Book of Mormon with him! MIRACLE.

3.) Trudy-  We rang this persons door bell and it just kept ringing..ding dong, ding dong, and it never stopped, and we look at each other and were like, "That's an annoying ring, hope they don't get mad at us for ringing the door bell!" So were standing their for a while, listening to it ring and ring and ring.... I thought maybe it was an alarm or something... we were wondering if we should just walk away... and then the door opens. It's an older lady and she was sooooo sweet to us, she tells us that she had just been sleeping cause she works nights, and the ringing had woke her up. We told her how sorry we were and then she just smiled and said its okay.then she reaches her hand out the door and tries to unstick the door bell button, and that's when it clicked and we were like, OH!! The doorbell is stuck! So we helped her unstick it and she told us that she would love to have us come back. She is an adorable little lady from Switzerland. How crazy... I am fully convinced that the Lord knew that she needed to hear our message so he made the doorbell stick so she would wake up and come to the door. It was so neat. He was answering our prayers!

We had some other really neat things happen this week with Less-Actives and members. I have a ton of pictures. We got some really cool t-shirts to do service in and all the Nuns thought they were so cool! And we say the most gorgeous sunset ever so we stopped and took some pictures :)

Can you believe that I only have 6 weeks left?

I am going to sprint to the finish line like crazy.

Keep me in your prayers that I can keep my head and my heart in this work. I love it so much! Miss it already. 

XOXOXOXOX

CHURCH IS TRUE.

-Sister King

Elder Robins last P-day came and sat down in the computer room with this meal he had prepared in the kitchen. It was SO funny. I had to take a picture. 

We bought this to help a member track how many cigarettes she has each day so she can quit and get to the temple. We left this cute little note inside :)

Sister Tomsick bought us some workout DVD's and some candy. (Moderation in all things haha) She is so sweet :)

SUNSET!

I LOVE TEXAS!

Waffle cones with a member :) #candid

cutest puppy everrrr. Yorki Chihuahua 

Sister I asked me to cut her hair. I was SO nervous. But I did a stellar job! haha

Me and Petey on exchanges. I love her to pieces.

Us in our matching service outfits.

"This work is about LOVE, not statistics" - Jeffery R. Holland

This quote has a lot of meaning to it. Especially in weeks like this one.

Looking back on the week, we didn't really have a whole lot of lessons. We didn't have any baptismal invitations, and despite our best efforts we weren't able to find any new people to teach. Looking at the numbers, I would say that we didn't have a very statistically successful week. And as a trainer I had to talk to Sister I about the fact that just because we didn't have very good numbers this week, doesn't mean that we didn't fulfill our purpose. I am fully aware that the Lord recognizes every effort that we put in. Every heartfelt text we send that doesn't get a response, every doorbell we ring that is blatantly ignored? He is standing by our side, hoping they will open to us. Because if they open to us, they open to Him. He sees our love for these people, as they don't heed to the message we have to share. Our steps off the unanswered door are ushered out with loud music and the flickering of an obscene movie. He sees our effort. He knows the work we do is HIS work. And he knows that as disciples of the the Lord, we are IN the world and not OF the world. 

FUNNY THINGS

-We were with a bunch of missionaries watching the 3rd session at the stake center and all the talks seemed to be all about the Prophet and the importance of listening to, and sustaining him NO MATTER WHAT.  After about the 3rd talk on the subject I turned to the Elders and whispered, "I have a feeling that the Prophet is going to announce something BIG. Fasten your seatbelts kiddos....I am scared!"

Elder Harris quickly replied saying, "Oh yeah dude... I think Monson is going to get up there and he is gunna tell is it's about time to pack up and hear to Missouri. It's fine.... we've got the mini van." I laughed SO hard. 

-Belfry was a big hit at conference. I attached some pictures of the snuggling that went on haha.

-Also wedding in the zen garden at the Buddhist temple we were SOAKED in sweat. Bahnka (our favorite nun) went and got us Lemonade. It is SO good. We named it "Buddah's Tears". Don't worry I don't think Bahnka heard us haha. But it is amazing. It is like Hot Dog on a Stick Lemonade on steroids. SO good. 

-I saw a cat laying in the gutter and pulled over, fearing that it had been hit by a car, it was SO cute. His name was Tipsy! :) We got some pictures with him. #catwhisperer

CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS

I was struck with the amount of love and compassion that was emphasized during Elder Hollands talk. My favorite part was when he admitted that He as an apostle of Jesus Christ. He stated "I don't know the answers to everything, but I know that God knows. Ask Him."

That was one theme of the meeting that I saw through out the entire conference. Uchtdorf said it best- "If you have spiritual questions, seek spiritual answers."

-Need Hope? ACT in faith towards the Savior. I tell this to my investigators and Less-Actives ALL the time. "Faith is stepping into the darkness, knowing you will be given solid ground, or wings to fly." 

-EVERYONE needs a testimony of Joseph Smith and if you don't have one,  get one.

- Marriage/ dating advice?- Elder Gavarret said (about his wife), "I always knew it would be easier to follow the Savior with her by my side." 

I loved the colorful choir. They were beautiful. But I remember being a little disappointed and wishing that they could be as powerful and put together as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. But as they sang the closing hymn "Abide With Me; 'Tis Eventide" the spirit whispered to me, "To Heavenly Father, this awkward funny looking choir is JUST as beautiful, and just as special as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir." I couldn't hold back the tears. 

It was the same spirit I feel when I tell people that God hears every single prayer they offer, no matter how awkward or how short. He hears every word. It was a powerful lesson. 

-We got to watch conference with Sister Hail she is totally inactive. She was baptized in 1969 and she had never watched conference. She didn't even know what it was! It was so cool that we got to watch it with her. She loved it and the spirit was so strong in her little apartment. She was crocheting while we listened to it. I am pretty sure I saw a few tears well up in her eyes :) 

Church is true! :)

xoxoxoxo

-Sister King

Belfry and I ready to hear words from heaven.

Elder Barney got some snuggles.

Tipsy :)

ANOTHER EMAIL FROM SISTA KINGSEY

Well this week was good. We had some high highs and some low lows, but that is the way that missionary work goes. It has been an emotional rollercoaster. 

IT'S THE LITTLE THINGS

We got to watch "Meet the Mormons" and it was SO good. I hope that everyone goes to see it. It was very emotional and very powerful and it was funny too. The beginning was so funny. We were all cracking up in the chapel and President Mortenson had to calm us down haha. But as a missionary, humor is everything. It is like the only thing we have left to keep us sane so of course we loved it. Then we went to the dentists office. Unfortunately I didn't have time to write the whole Salt Lake Valley, but I did crank out a few letters. I wrote one to Ashley. (Remember Ashley I taught her and baptized her in Cypress Creek?) Well she is going through the temple and wants Sister Montierth and I to be there. I am so excited. 

We went and saw Sister V (remember she is the one where Christ was in the room and she wouldn't pray) well we read the BoM with her and guess what.... we asked her if she had prayed that week and she HAD! So all week Sister I will be like driving or something and one of us will say, "Remember that one time that SISTER V PRAYED!?" We get pretty excited and I do a car dance every single time.  

SUE AND JUDITH

 

We had lesson with Sue and Judith and Sister Love came with us. It was a really cool lesson. We taught the restoration and Sue was just soaking it up like a sponge! She had told us that she stumbled across this whole library of talks from years and years ago and she can select any topic she wants to read all about it. GENERAL CONFERENCE! She told us that she had already printed out a bunch of them and can't get enough. In the middle of the lesson while we were talking about the priesthood being restored, Judith leaned over to me and said, " Hey... so what do you think about all this Isis baloney?" I hadn't even heard of Isis until then. So I had no response for herhaha. ( We later asked what Isis was... I think I said, "What is this Iris thing Judith was talking about?" And I regretted asking about it. Man... it is nice to not know what is happening in the world. I kinda like living under a rock! It is nice. Ya'll should try it.) 

Sue and Judith are trying to apply for medicaid and so that is all that Judith would talk about. She said, "soooo do any of you know anything about medicaid??"

Or when we were closing the lesson and inviting Sue to pray. She didn't know what to pray for or what to say. So we were telling her that you thank him for things and then you ask him whatever you'd like! Whatever is in your heart. Judith sits up straight and pops her head up saying, "MEDICAID?!"

We all laughed and told Sue and Judith that YES! God will even help them answer their prayers and questions that they have about Medicaid and what to do to get medical help. 

It was adorable. Unfortunately Judith has been acting out lately and Sue hasn't been able to meet with us or come to church. Keep Judith and Sue in your prayers please. :)

FRIDAY

We had district meeting on Friday and before the announcements Sister Peterson, the Sister Training Leader for our zone told us to keep Sister Flannery in our prayers because her mother had passed away. I buried my face in my hands. I knew that this day would come eventually but I wasn't prepared. 

Sister Flannery is like my little sister out here on the mission. I love her so so much. We served in the same district together those 9 months I was in the YSA ward. And I remember many late nights we had when we would just talk and talk and laugh and cry together. She is one of my best friends on the mission for sure. When Sister Flanneryleft for her mission, her mom had cancer and was barely holding on. She didn't know if she should serve because she might miss that last year and a half she could spend with her mom. But Sister Flannery's mom assured her that her serving the Lord would bring peace, blessings and strength to their family and that she wanted her to serve the Lord with all her heart. Christmas and Mother's Day were hard for Sister Flannery not knowing if this would be the last time she would see her mom on this side of the veil. But no matter what, Sister Flannery always had a smile on her face as she preached the gospel. I love her to pieces. And I know that her Mom will now help her to serve the rest of her mission strong and be with her every single step of the way. 

 As I sat there in District Meeting,  hearing those words that her mom had passed, I felt so much love and compassion for Sister Flannery that I couldn't contain myself. I had to walk out of District meeting into the hallway. Sister I just held me as I cried. The amount of compassion and empathy I felt in that moment made me see how much love and compassion the Savior must have for each of us as we are going through these trials. Not only is he right alongside us but he has experienced it WITH us. 

I prayed a lot on Friday. My blanket was wet with tears. And I felt his love pouring out over me and Sister Flanneryand her family. He is there. Always. He lives to comfort me when faint.

Words from one of my favorite Hymns, "I Know That My Redeemer Lives"

He lives to hear my soul's complaint.

He lives to silence all my fears.

He lives to wipe away my tears.

He lives to calm my troubled heart.

He lives. 

This is a beautiful video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqEA-nxcD9c

ALSO- this is EPIC. Read this. A member shared this in RS on Sunday. Her Sister sent it to her :) BEAUTIFUL STORY.

A member of our ward shared this amazing experience that he had this week. He was in an airport and was trying to find a kiosk that would allow him to charge his phone. He still had plenty of battery strength, but felt he should charge it nonetheless. He found several kiosks, but they were all full. He finally found a place and was sitting across the table from a young Chinese woman who seemed visibly upset. She was on the phone with an airport employee trying to explain her situation. The problem was that she spoke very little English. He heard her repeat the word 'Mongolian'. The employee did not speak Chinese Mongolian. My friend wanted to help, but did not speak Mongolian either; however, he had a friend who had served a mission where he had to learn the Chinese Mongolian language. My friend (Russ) called his friend (John) and explained the situation and asked if he would be willing to help translate so that this young woman could get her problem resolved. John agreed, so Russ gave his phone to the young lady (YL) & said "Mongolian" and pointed to his phone. The YL hesitantly took the phone and soon began chatting very rapidly while Russ just looked on. After a few minutes, the YL began crying almost hysterically. Russ was wondering what John could have said that made her cry, but just waited, knowing there was nothing he could do. The YL would stop crying and seemed to gain control over her emotions, only to start crying once again. Russ was totally bewildered! The conversation lasted about 15 min. & a smiling, teary-eyed YL handed back the phone to Russ. John was pretty emotional too as he explained to Russ that this YL was a girl he had taught while on his mission and he had baptized her and her whole family! She was on her way to the MTC in preparation for a mission!!! He had also helped her resolve her airport problem. 

This story gave me chills on top of chills!!! What are the chances that this would take place??? Think about it... Russ was led to the right kiosk where the YL was. Russ felt prompted to help in the only way he could...by calling his friend. Is the Lord mindful of his missionaries or what??? He is mindful of all of His children...and that means YOU!!!

Church is true.

XOXOXOX

-Sister King

My Favorite picture of me and Sister Flannery :) 

keep her in your prayers.