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. 

---------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------

-----------------

---------

------

---

---

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.

SORRY JUDITH, NO MORNIN' COFFEE, SWEET CAKES.

Wait....?? It is almost OCTOBER?! What the! Oh how I love Autumn. Too bad I am in Texas though... and the weather hasn't hardly changed at all. I miss the leaves changing colors. Today I bought a Glad Plug-in that is scented like "Autumn Leaves"  I'm hoping that a Maple or Aspen tree starts sprouting out of the wall but something tells me that is wishful thinking. But hey I can still have hope right? 

Sister I had never seen a orange pumpkin before! She was so weirded out by all the gourds. I hope a member invites us over to carve pumpkins this year, Sister I has never carved one before. She also had asparagus the other night for the first time. She really liked it until the Elders told her that it would make her pee smell weirdhaha. (Gotta love those Elders....) 

MY MAGIC BAG WITH A BLUE BOOK IN IT

So last week we got a media referral text for a lady named Sue. So that was super exciting! All it said was  "GOLDEN! Her Son was just baptized and she wants to learn more and get closer to Christ. She would prefer Sisters."

SATURDAY-We were so excited. So Saturday we got to her house and Sue's sister Judith answered the door. She was sarcastic and crabby (probably about 75) and when we asked if she was Sue she just scowled so we were kinda taken back... maybe we had knocked on the wrong door? Then we hear Sue call out from the background "I am Sue! Come in!" Judith invited us inside and it all started from there. Sue is about 65 and she was sitting on the couch watching a Teddy Roosevelt documentary, grinning from ear to ear when she saw us walk in. Her Son (Rob), who referred her, was just baptized 3 weeks ago. He was actually visiting them for the weekend (coincidence? I think not....) and he told us all about his conversion story. The Elders knocked on his door a few months ago. He kept calling them "his boys." So cute.  Sue told us that she saw a huge change in her Son and wanted to learn how she could feel that same peace and joy in HER life. He had already told her all about Joseph Smith and she couldn't wait to learn more!  She had been waiting for us to come! 

She started reading the Book of Mormon on her kindle a few weeks ago but she said "I just wish I had a hard copy so I could highlight the things that I like!" I smiled and opened my bag and said, "Well... Sue! You are in luck! Look what I have just for YOU."

 Her eyes widened as I handed her the little blue book that has changed my life and was about to change hers. Her wrinkled hands unsteadily grasped it from me and her shaking fingers stroked the cover. "It is beautiful. This is for ME? Oh thank you! Thank you!"

We talked for about 45 minutes and when we asked them if they would like to come to church tomorrow. Sue said "YES!" Before we had even finished the invitation. Judith (who we found out has dementia) was so funny about coming... but we got her to agree. Oh man... I love her so much. She and I fist bump all the time and she dances everywhere she goes. 

SORRY JUDITH, NO MORNIN' COFFEE

SUNDAY- Church starts at 9am. We were sitting in a early morning meeting at the church building it was about8am and I felt prompted to look at the phone since it was on silent. I look at it and we had a missed call from Sue. She had left a voicemail saying, "Hello ladies. Judith and I are at the church. It seems we may have arrived a bit early.... we will just wait for you to call us back. See you soon! Bye!" We had to run back into ward council and grab our bags. We told everyone they were here and everyone was so excited! Sister 'Ita'aehau and I walked into the chapel and found an empty chapel and two white haired angels sitting on the middle pew. Someone had seen them walking around and invited them into the chapel, bless those members hearts. Sue was excited. I mean they had gotten there at 7:50am it starts at 9am!  Sue was reading her Book of Mormon and Judith was just.... well... being Judith haha. We sat down and Judith puts her hand on her hip and says, "Well y'all. I am just here for the mornin' coffee. Where is it?" We just smiled and laughed. Sue rolled her eyes and said, "Judith, I told you. They don't have coffee here sweetie." Judith proceeds to pout her lips and then put her sunglasses on (inside the chapel mind you...) and sit with her arms folded. haha. It was hilarious. 

Everyone was very welcoming and Sue loved it. Judith was so funny. The family behind us told us later that they got such a kick out of sitting behind them because Judith was talking through the Sacrament prayers about some baptist church she had been to haha. Sister I was sitting next to her and was like, "Shhhh... Judith,we are about to pray. Can you tell me about it later? :)"

"HUH?!"

"We are about to pray. You can tell me after :)" 

*pause*

"Anyway... I just wanted to tell you that this baptist church was really small and....etc" 

Guess she didn't understand haha, bless her heart.

 We were singing in the choir too and so they got to see us up there singing and Sue was so cute about it. We are going over there tomorrow and I am so excited to teach them about the restoration! 

THE MYSTERY MAN, EMIR

The Sisters in like May contacted this guy at the park named Emir. I had only heard his name and we had textedhim a few times when I was with Sister Wessendorf. But we had like 4 separate appointments with him this week and he kept rescheduling (so in order to fit him in we would switch our dinner plans or swap appointment times with Less Actives.) But then after all that he would cancel or not show up. So he texted us on Friday and asked to meet Saturday. We told him that we would love to meet with Saturday but would he really show up? We told that our message is important and can bring him closer to Christ. But if he doesn't want to make meeting with us a priority in his life, he should think about it and let us know when he is ready to meet. He send a text back super quickly saying, "No, I really do want to meet. I promise. Tomorrow at 12:45 at the church."

Deal.

We show up and the only thing I know about this guy is that all his siblings are members and he isn't and that the Sisters met him at the park. I didn't even know what he looked like! We met at the church and he said that the minute he walked in he got the chills and felt something special. Something that he couldn't explain. His brother used to be a Bishop in NJ and his 16 year old daughter is investigating the church in NJ. He told us that he has seen a change in her and she was going down the wrong path but now she is going to church. (none of this we knew before hand.) It was NOT coincidence that we had just happened to have our lesson in the Young Women's room. On the wall there is a vinyl decal of the young women's theme. I looked over at it apparently he needed to hear it because before I knew it I said, "Emir, this is what your daughter recites every single week as she comes to church." I read the theme aloud as he read along. The spirit was so strong. I turn to him and I could see the spirit working on him. I ask, "Emir, what do you think has caused such a change in your daughter?"..... silence. His eyes started to fill with tears. "Jesus Christ." 

"Exactly. Do you believe that he can transform you and bring peace to your life just like he helped your daughter?"

"Yes, yes. And that is what I want."

Well he has come to the right people! :) 

Emir came to church yesterday also. He had to come to a different ward because of the time but we went and he really enjoyed it. He told us that he wasn't going to come but his daughter called him and talked him through it. 

MTC FLASHBACK AND A MIRACLE

We had a super cool fireside last night in Cypress! We had like 100 missionaries there for a choir, musical numbers, recent converts speak and the mission president and his wife spoke also. It was so powerful. Everyone was sitting in the pews and then all the missionaries filed in as we sang "Called to Serve" it was so powerful. There were many people crying, including me of course. The spirit was so strong. Then we sang "a childs prayer" and "the efy medly" http://youtu.be/-13tk2uPUo0 and at the end we all filed out singing "I'll Go Where You Want Me To Go" Man, it was powerful. I felt like I was at the MTC again. The spirit there is so strong. Just all knowing that you have the same purpose. Wow. SO cool. There were 300 people that came. Many of them were investigators, I know that they felt it.

And do you want to know the cherry ontop? After the fireside I looked at the phone and we had a voice-mail from a number we didn't know. We listened to the voice-mail and this is what it said, "Hi Sisters you don't know me but I am Emir's daughter and I just wanted to call you and talk to you for a little bit. I want to thank you for everything you have done for my dad. I want to get to you know you and talk, so give me a call back when you can thanks!"

I ABOUT PASSED OUT. HOW STINKIN COOL.

We are going to call her later today. Gah. Love this work. I miss it already. 

CHURCH IS TRUE.

xoxoxox

Trying to fix the accordian doors at the church so we could play volleyball. #eldersarestupid

Our EPIC meal when our dinner cancelled.

 A cute note.

Love these dudes. #carpool

Isn't her outfit COOL? #tonganlyfe

The Sisters in our district! Love them!

BUDDAH and LOVE

DENTIST HORROR FILM

Well, at 11:30am last P-day we found out we had to take Sister I to the dentist. We weren't prepared at all. We hadn't even eaten lunch. But we had to email. Needless to say neither of us expected to spend all day at the dentist. And when I say all day, I literally mean ALLLL DAYYY. We were there for 6 hours. I just sat in the corner staring off into space. I tried studying the scriptures but the sound of suctioning saliva from my slumbering companion's mouth harmonizing with the noise of them drilling holes into her teeth wasn't the most soothing atmosphere to receive revelation. It wasn't until hour 6 that she told me that she had a notebook in her bag the entire time. So sorry everyone. The whole Salt Lake valley would have a letter personally addressed to them in the mail this last week if I had known that there was a notebook 2 feet away from me. Maybe next week when we have to go back for round 2 I will be able to crank out some letters. 

Poor Sister I! She was so out of it. I treated her to her first ever Jamba Juice as a reward haha. She was in heaven. I was in heaven for a different reason...to get out of that dungeon of a dentist office!

CHRIST WAS IN THE ROOM PART 2!  

Remember Sister V? She is struggling a lot and we had a powerful lesson with her a few weeks ago and man... it was an intense lesson. Well, I didn't tell Sister I about that lesson that Sister Cecil had. I just gave her the background. We went in and had an even more powerful lesson. We felt prompted to sing "I Am a Child of God" and Sister I and I couldn't even get through the first few lines without intense emotion waving over us. Sister V just sat curled up on her couch with tears streaming down her face. We held her and consoled her. Bore testimony of the Atonement, it was powerful. And I could tell that Sister I was amazed at the amount of the spirit she felt. I can remember those intense moments when I first started my mission.  Especially with Matthew as Sister Folsom and I sat outside and bore witness of the Savior by candle light. The missionary mantle is real. We are given the words to say and the spirit to testify. I KNOW that. 

We prayed with her and when we got to the car Sister I turned to me with tears in her eyes and said, "He was there. He was in the room. I know he was." We both just burst into tears and hugged. I told her that Sister Cecil and I had felt that same presence of the Savior in that room. She thinks she is alone, but she is not. 

He is there.

There are many women in our ward that are struggling right now. Sister I had the great idea of burning them a CD. So we just burned 10 copies of a CD that is geared straight towards these women that need to know that they are a daughter of god. It will be a really beautiful gift to give them.

PRIESTHOOD BLESSING

We got a media referral from mormon.org.  A member from New York had referred his friend because he had told her about priesthood blessings and she asked him if we could come give her one. We called the Elders and we all went over to Crystals house to console her. She is also dealing with serious problems and she hadn't eaten in days due to stress and grief. She has a 1 year old and a 6 year old. Her boyfriend left her with .27 cents in her account and no car. She had no one to turn to. We  Since we didn't have another guy with, the Elders couldn't go inside. So all stood in the backyard and talked to her and taught her about the power of the Priesthood. We were eaten alive by mosquitoes, but Elder Barney gave a beautiful blessing. And Crystal felt the spirit. We visited her the next day and she told us that was the first time she had had a good night sleep in weeks. We shared 3 Nephi 13: 31-34 with her. She hadn't even finished the first verse before the spirit overcame her and brought tears to her eyes. "These words... I feel like he talking straight to me..."

31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. 
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself...
It was so neat!

It was so powerful. We bore testimony of the Book of Mormon and SHE asked US for a copy. The Bishop went over later that day and visited with her and helped her out with some things. She came to church yesterday and really enjoyed it. We are excited to see what happens from here :)

BUDDAH 

President Mortensen has been encouraging us to volunteer a lot and be seen in the community. So the guess where we started volunteering every week? The Buddhist temple! So stinkin cool! We are like best buds with the Buddhist nuns there and they have these really cool dogs that just wander around all over the place. I will try and send more pictures next week! The first time I went there I could only think of that bath house in spirited away that is like exactly what its like!

The first week we were there there was a huge spider and I stepped on it violently. Luckily the nuns didn't see me because I later found from my world religions book that that Buddhists don't harm anything that is living.... oops. I think it might be because they believe in reincarnation. The elders joked that they would have a little shrine around the dead spider the next week we went haha. I really did feel bad. Elder Harris is so funny. He is obsessed with the robes that the monks and the nuns wear but all the ones in the gift shop are too small for him so they are going to order him one from Vietnam haha! So funny. We have such a fun time with Bahnka. She is the nun that speaks the best English. They even feed us lunch! It is awesome. Best service opportunity I have ever done on my mission. Their temple is beautiful, We have to take off our shoes before we go inside. The whole construction is all volunteer work and so we are helping them with landscaping and things like that.

This week has been crazy busy! I had a funny voice recording to send but I forgot to bring it. I will try to remember to attach it next week. I love this gospel and I love this work! I love all of you!

Thank you for the prayers and the love!

CHURCH IS TRUE.

xoxoxox

-Kingsy.

I WAS STARVING and all I wanted to eat was salsa. But after almost spraining my wrist trying to get the jar open I decided to lamoni on the floor....

Writing on our handy-dandy pass-along cards. We are using family history a ton with less actives and it is awesome!

 Sister I passed out on the floor with her nilla wafers


The Elders and the temple dog. His name is Panda! :) SO cute.

Who needs sunscreen when you have THESE? Epic.

The Elders, Panda and Bankah