DEJA VU
Well Sister Loo and I are just getting along as dandy as ever. We pretty much know everything about eachother. It is awesome. We are going to be friends forever. I have made such strong friendships since I have been here! With members, investigators, and with my companions and other missionaries! We were over at a members house and we just love her to pieces. I think I have written about her before. But she has Stage 4 breast cancer and she is just the sweetest lady ever. We visit her about once a week. She has such a strong testimony! We were talking about missionary work and I felt prompted that we needed to show her the youtube video of all the Olympus Highschool kids opening their mission calls and she LOVED it. We were all just crying. It was so strange remembering when I opened my call. It seems like a dream. I can't believe that I am here now on a mission it is just crazy. I was so emotional. If I had known what would be in store for me here in Houston when I first opened that envelope, I think I would have said, "ALRIGHT WHERE IS THE AIRPLANE TO HOUSTON?! I AM READY!" It was a strange feeling. I wish that I had my journal from back home. I think I wrote about opening my call. I am pretty sure that I did! It will be really cool to come home and read my journals from my mission and compare them to the journal entries that I had when I was deciding to come out or right after I got my call. Sorry this is so scattered. My fingers are freezing and we are trying to hurry! Anyway, it was neat to watch those videos and relive the experience of opening my call. SO many emotions!
MATTHEW
Well I have been thinking a lot about Matthew since I have been in the singles ward. I know that he got a calling as the Young Men's secretary and then then I heard that he hadn't been to church in a while :( He moved so he is still the Magnolia 1st ward boundaries but it takes a lot of miles for the Magnolia missionaries to go visit him so I guess they haven't? Not really sure. Sister Loo and I decided that we were going to save up our miles all week and make the trip to go see him. I wish I could say that it went well. I also wish that I could say that I was prepared for the things that Matthew said and the way he looked.
When we first got there it was pitch black. And FREEZING. We were in the middle of nowhere and we had no cell service. His house has a huge fence around it with a padlock and 3 huge black dogs barking at us. We shone our brights on the house and prayed really hard that Matthew would see us and hear the dogs barking and come outside. After about 5 minutes he came stumbling out of the house. I wasn't sure if it was him or his brother. My heart was beating out of my chest. As he got closer the light of the moon caught the side of his face. I could see him. He looked sad and lonely. Frankly he looked terrible, the light was gone out of his eyes. The last time I had seen him was at his Baptism. His countenance had flipped 180 degrees.
Earlier Saturday morning I had been praying about what to share with Matthew when we made the trip up to see him. I thought about a scripture but I wasn't sure if it would fit. So I decided to keep reading my scriptures and hopefully the answer would come to me. I said a prayer, opened my scriptures and turned exactly to the same verse I had originally been thinking about. Mosiah 27:29- I have Matthew's name written in the margin of my scriptures next to verse 29.
"My soul hath been redeemed from the gall of bitterness and bonds of iniquity. I was in the darkest abyss; but now I behold the marvelous light of God. My soul was racked with eternal torment; but I am snatched, and my soul is pained no more."
As I stood there in the freezing cold with only the light of our cellphone I read to Matthew verse 29. I got a bit choked up as I finished. But slowly as we talked and testified to him, we saw the light coming back into his eyes little by little. I don't know why we felt prompted to visit him, or if that scripture even hit him at all. But he is lost. Very, very lost. We ended with a prayer and I said it, and I have to tell you that it was hands down one of the hardest prayers I have ever said. The best prayer I have ever said was at Matthew's baptism. The spirit was leading me to know what to say, and the now the spirit was guiding me in a prayer that was totally opposite from the one I had last said with Matthew. Pleading to have his heart softened, and to remember Christ, and the spirit. To remember the love, peace and comfort he once felt with the gospel, to be gathered into christs arms once again.
Pray for Matthew.
Man, Matthew has just put me on a roller-coaster. He knows its true. I can see it in his face!
Love you all!
Church is true!
-Sister King!
Trying to get our milk. It was SO far back there! I look ridiculous!
TACOS with the new sisters in our district! SO excited!
BEST BILLBOARD EVER.
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