Jesus Loves You Snow Much!

Can't believe another week has gone by here in West Allis!

Don't know if you can see, but the water tower in the back says West Allis on it.  I am really starting to love it here.

Waiting for the bus... as usual.

Waiting inside for the bus because it was way too cold outside.

Time really is a weird thing when you are on a mission. I still don't really know the best way to let you know what has been happening here, so here is a little synopsis of the week:

Tuesday- We had a really awesome district meeting! Elder Harmon is an awesome district leader. We all bore our testimonies on something that we thought was the strongest part of our testimony. It was really interesting the think about. We found that we all had similar experiences. Whenever our faith was being tried, we all had to fall back on the things that we did know. Satan is going to try to shake you, but if you have a testimony, then it will be ok! We got to spend a lot of time in the mission office because we wait for buses haha. But it is ok because we get to spend a lot of time with the senior couples that are there and they are AMAZING! They are the Carters and the Shumways just so you know if I ever talk about them.

Wednesday- Was really slow. We visited a couple less-actives.

Thursday- This is the day for weekly planning in our mission. In PMG it says that weekly planning should take about 3 hours, but Sister Tanner and I are such good friends now that we often have a hard time focusing when we are stuck inside for that long... haha so sometimes it takes us a little longer. I am just glad that Sister Tanner and I get along so well. I am so grateful for her. Anyways, Thursdays are usually pretty slow too because of weekly planning, so we weren't able to get a lot done. 

The heart shaped pizza that some awesome members gave us for Valentine's Day!

 Friday- Valentine's Day! I asked Sister Tanner to be my valentine, and she said yes. So I totally had a valentine this year. We made cute little valentine sacks and handed them out to people we saw on the street and on the bus. Don't worry. We put mormon.org cards in all of them. It was another slow and hard day. Most people that we went to visit weren't home.  But then that is when I got the package so thank you so much Mom! It really came at a time when I needed it! I love you! That night some members of our ward brought us a heart-shaped pizza for dinner. We really do have an awesome ward.


Saturday- As of Saturday I have been gone a month! ISN'T THAT THE WEIRDEST THING EVER??? A whole month. Only 17 more to go... haha. We went to St. Josephat's Basilica Saturday morning with a member of our ward. It was absolutely stunning! I think it is so cool to see how other religions worship God. Funny though, going to this Catholic church mangaged to strengthen my testimony of our true church. I am so grateful that I have a knowledge of the fulness of the gospel.

St. Josephat's Basilica in Milwaukee.  It was absolutely beautiful.

Love this girl!

The rest of Saturday was super frustrating and discouraging. After a long and unsuccessful week, Saturday managed to seem even longer and even more unsuccessful. The bus schedule is AWFUL on Saturdays so we missed our buses a lot. We were stuck in the ghetto waiting for buses for long periods of time. We went all the way to the other side of town and had to catch 2 buses to get there to visit a referral. When we got there, the address didn't even exist. And we weren't allowed to tract there because it was too far in the ghetto and not in the sister's proselyting area. So we were stuck waiting for the bus for like an hour. It was starting to get dark so Sister Tanner and I sang hymns together. It really helped us to invite the spirit back. As we were singing, we both had the feeling to go and visit one of our investigators. Finally! Some spiritual promptings and a direction to go! So we went there and....... she wasn't home. We were both feeling pretty down. Why would Heavenly Father want us to go there? Wisconsin is one of if not the least baptizing missions here in the states. For the most part, we probably won't get to see the "fruits of our labors" while we are here and Sis Tanner and I were both getting pretty discouraged about it. So we decided that Sunday we would fast for a miracle.

Elder Shumway, one of the senior elders in the office, let us drive one of the mission's brand new cars from the office to the stake center!  Since we don't have a car and are stuck on buses, I think we had a little too much fun.

Like it is embarrassing how much fun we had on our 1.5 mile drive to the stake center haha!

 So this week I was studying King Benjamin's address to his people.

 In Mosiah 2:41 he says, "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they arew received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness." What a cool scripture, right? I love how it says we will be blessed in things both temporal and spiritual. But then as we were teaching some people this week that definitely aren't feeling blessed and happy, I wondered what on earth made these people so happy. Like I know that they were keeping the commandments, But I try to keep the commandments and I don't feel happy all the time. So I noticed that the word "happy" is cross-referenced in the footnotes to Matthew 11:28-30.

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." They weren't happy because everything in their lives was easy and rainbows and butterflies. It was because of Christ. They had taken his yoke upon them. Through him, our burdens are made light. We can be happy because Christ makes everything better. And that is why I am here! To let people know about Christ and how they can be made whole through him. It is weird. My soul really does delight in the scriptures. I am becoming a missionary and it is great! Another hard week here in West Allis, but we are pushin through! Miracles will happen! Love you! The church is true!

 Sister King