EVERYTHING is bigger in Texas (INCLUDING FIREWORKS)

MIRACLES

This week was pretty good! We have been making a lot of progress in getting to know all the less actives. Our ward has like 500 people on the role and about 40% of them are less active. So we are focusing the majority of our efforts on reactivating. It has been exciting to see the spirit softening people's hearts in this area. We went and visited a totally inactive couple and at first they were a little cold towards Sister Wessendorf and I and then they invited us in and we talked with them for quite a while. He told us about how he was once in the Manti Pagent and he started to tear up a little bit as he told us about it.

A few days later in correlation the Elders asked us when we had stopped by their house. We told them and they said, "Oh! because we stopped by and we had a good conversation with them too!" Then the Elders told us that they had looked in their notes and the missionaries before us had written next to this couples name, "DO NOT CONTACT. HE WILL SHOOT YOU." 

It was neat that the spirit had lead both of us to visit them this last week. You never know when people are prepared. Never give up on people. The Lord is working with their hearts. 

DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES

I am not going to lie. I kind felt like I was on Desperate Housewives a little bit this week. I have never seen the show (nor do I plan to) but there was a lot of drama. People just tell us things when we have a nametag on. We are professional listeners. But then I think that we really are Christ's ears, we just have to turn them to the Savior! The spirit really leads our conversations  because Sister Wessendorf and I have ZERO experience with marital problems, verbal abuse and drug addiction. BUT the Savior does. 

MEET THE MORTENSENS 

Well we had the chance to meet the Mortensens this last week on my birthday! And man, they are going to fit in perfectly here in Texas! We are so lucky to have them. They have the sweetest little family. We have been praying for them for a very long time and they told us that they have been praying for us for a long time also and that it was kinda surreal to finally be here with us. 

BIRTHDAY

Well... on my birthday eve I got a phone call from a number we didn't have in the phone. Turns out it was FRANK. He was calling to invite me to be there for his patriarchal blessing. He was on cloud 9. He said that he had just gotten off the phone with the patriarch and that he felt the spirit SO strongly as they talked. Oh man... love that kid. I can't believe that I will be there! How cool to see him all the way through from contacting him in a park to being there for his patriarchal blessing. Best birthday gift I could ever ask for.

I woke up on July 2nd, walked into the bathroom and there was a HUGE cockroach just staring at me. I squealed and Dorfy said, "awww... he just wanted to be the first to wish you happy birthday!" I smacked it with a shoe, screamed, and hopped onto my bed out of fear. We got Jamba Juice for breakfast- yummmerz (still my favorite job I have ever had.) Sister Loo gave me an ADORABLE orange skirt for my birthday. Oh I just love her to pieces. Her recent convert spotted it at Forever 21 and it is PERFECT. 

Then we had a lesson with our investigator names Donna. She made both of us cry when Sister W asked her, " Why does Heavenly Father ask us to have faith in him?"... Donna paused for a long time, the spirit was working in her and then she said,

 "Because when you believe in God..... you can believe in yourself."

I LOVE it when you learn something from your investigators. Sister Wessendorf and I both started to tear up. It was a powerful lesson.

I had a great Birthday!

WHY DO BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE?

Yesterday Sister Wessendorf randomly brought up this question after church yesterday. We talked about it and the fact that the Lord wants us to stretch and to grow. It was on our minds all day long. We decided to visit Sister G, a Sister in our ward that had had a serious whirlwind of misfortune these past 8 months. She moved into the ward in October and she was 6 months pregnant and on bedrest. Then her husband died of cardiac arrest, leaving her with 2 kids and one on the way. A few weeks later she was in a car accident and as a result this past month needed to have hand surgery. She is diabetic and the surgery caused a major staff infection in her hand and on Wednesday they had to amputate her finger and are hoping to not have to amputate any further.

 We went over to visit her last night and it was 100% inspired. Sister G told us she felt as though these other trials had been difficult and she has stumbled, but she lately she feels as though she can't get up anymore. She is stuck, weighed down...Sister Wessendorf loves Joseph Smith SO much and it was fitting that she felt prompted to share Doctrine and Covenants 121:7-8 with Sister G. This is when Joseph Smith was incarcerated in Liberty Jail for months on end. Joseph pleads with the Lord in asking him, " O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place? Sister W read the following verses to Sister G, replacing "son" with "daughter." The spirit was so strong you could have cut it with a knife.

 My [daughter] peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine afflictions shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exalt thee on high; thou shalt triumph over all thy foes.

 Sister Wessendorf couldn't get past the first few words without crying. We were all very emotional and bore testimony that we weren't sure why all these things were happening to her one after another, but we know that the only person she can turn to for comfort is Christ.

We asked her if there was anything we needed to do and she wiped the tears from her face and said, "yes... do you have an appointment after this? If you do then its okay...but do you Sisters think that you can help me wash my hair in the tub? I haven't been able to wash it for weeks because I can't get in the shower with my hand."

We were quick to help and let me tell you.... That tiny act of service brought SO much love for her into my heart. I could only think of the Savior washing the feet of his disciples and the power and the love and charity that the Savior has. In that moment we were his hands, to cleanse her. It was a beautiful experience and we are all praying for her at this time that she will be watched over and given peace. The Relief Society has been AMAZING through these last few months. I have so much respect for the time and energy that the women in our ward have dedicated to also being the Saviors hands. THAT is what this Gospel is all about.

We were knocking on an inactive's door on Saturday and their daughter and her husband answered. We shared with them our testimonies of the Book of Mormon and gave them a copy. The man said, "One thing I will say, I respect you a lot. Many people don't actually do the things that they believe but you Mormons, you get out there and you practice what you believe. I love that."

It is all through Christ.

One of my favorite experiences about this is one by Gordon B. Hinckley. He was once talking to a Protestant minister. He had asked why there were no crosses anywhere if we say we believe in Jesus Christ. President Hinckley answered, “‘I do not wish to give offense to any of my Christian brethren who use the cross on the steeples of their cathedrals and at the altars of their chapels, who wear it on their vestments, and imprint it on their books and other literature. But for us, the cross is the symbol of the dying Christ, while our message is a declaration of the living Christ.’“He then asked, ‘If you do not use the cross, what is the symbol of your religion?’
“I replied that the lives of our people must become the only meaningful expression of our faith and, in fact, therefore, the symbol of our worship."

Church is true. LIVE IT.

xoxoxox

-Sister King

Festive Letters

BIRTHDAY JAMBA

The Elders doorbell ditched us with birthday cupcakes! How sweet are they! Too bad they got caught!

Happy 4th of July!

 

I have NEVER in my life seen so many fireworks. Members in the ward all pool their money and go in on fireworks, right here behind me is $5,000 worth of fireworks! IT was AWESOME.

 Sister G's Great Dane named Moose- I am in love.

ALSO... My new favorite painting of Christ. A member in our ward has this hanging on her wall, this is what she said, "This is my favorite picture of Christ. You want to know why? Because when I picture the Savior this is how he looks. He looks tired, and sunburned and dirty from working all day. He is humble. He is dirty from being with the poor and lowly, from feeding the lost sheep and from walking, walking,walking and walking, because that is what Christ does."

"There seems to be something inside of us that resists endings.

Why is this? Because we are made of the stuff of eternity. We are eternal beings... endings here in mortality are not endings at all. They are merely interruptions—temporary pauses that one day will seem small compared to the eternal joy awaiting the faithful.

How grateful I am to my Heavenly Father that in His plan there are no true endings, only everlasting beginnings."

Dieter F. Uchtdorf