Growing up!

I'm growing up!  My trainer is gone!  But so far, so good!

First day out with Sis. Newton.  She is seriously the greatest.

This week was really crazy with transfers and everything, but also really exciting.  Good things are happening in West Allis!

A three generation photo!  My mom and my mom's mom, who is also my new companion!

One last selfie with Sis. Tanner for old time's sake

Tuesday was seriously a blur.  It was my last day with Sister Tanner :(  We spent most of the day packing and getting ready for Sister Tanner to leave and Sister Newton to come.  It really was a bittersweet day.  I was so sad to see Sister Tanner go, but I am so excited to see what else lies ahead of me in my mission.  Change is hard, but it is good.  And I know that the Lord is in charge.  I felt pretty confident about Sister Tanner leaving and getting a new companion here that didn't know anything about West Allis.  I feel like I know the area well and I know the buses pretty well and I also know most of the members.  The thing I was most worried for though is not knowing what to go and do once my new companion got here!  However, the Lord is so mindful of us!  I was praying so hard that I would know what to do and where to go.  On Tuesday night I got a call from some Sister Training Leaders who had 3 miracle referrals for us!  The day that the new missionaries got here they took them out street contacting and tracting in our area, and they came across 3 people who were interested and they got their information and gave it to us.  I could not even believe it!  My first day that I arrived here was one of the coldest days of the year so we didn't have to go out and do any contacting, but these new missionaries did.  And boy am I glad that they did!  We got to reap all the rewards from it haha.  So we had at least 3 people that we could go visit when my new companion got here.  Seriously the biggest tender mercy in the whole wide world.

 

Last transfer with my fellow T-bird in West Allis

Wednesday was transfers and it was crazy!  We woke up and went to our stake center which is the "transfer point" for our zone.  We meet up there and then everyone disperses from there to where they need to go and the missionaries that are waiting for their new companion to come here just sit and chill at the church together.  Sister Newton was coming clear from Wausau which is about as far from here as you can get so I was waiting at the church for a while.  While all of the missionaries were there waiting we had a devotional which was actually really cool.  We all shared something that we had learned from the transfer.  One thing that I learned this transfer is that Heavenly Father know us better than we know ourselves.  He is mindful of us.  I know that He is.  And I am so grateful that I have come to learn that so early in my mission.  That is something that I will need to remember!  While at transfer point I got to see Sister Packer because she is training.  It was such a tender mercy to get to see her and talk to her!  It is crazy to see how far we have both come since the day we stepped into the MTC together.  After a long time of waiting at the church, Sister Newton finally arrived in West Allis!

 

Got to wish Sis. Packer good luck with training her new missionary this transfer.

The Carter's, one of our favorite senior couples in the mission office!

My new companion is Anna Newton and she is from Mountain Green, Utah which is kind of by Morgan.  This is her very last transfer of her mission!  So she is basically a pro.  She has 10 siblings, 9 of which are sisters! Haha.  I think she is number 7.  Her little sister is also on a mission in Kentucky right now.  Before coming on her mission she was a nanny for a family in Luxembourg for a year.  And she also went to one semester of college at Utah State.  When she goes home she wants to study to be a personal trainer which is pretty cool!  One thing I love about Sister Newton is that she loves to go running every morning.  That has been so good for me!  It is a serious stress reliever.  She is full of energy and has a positive attitude about everything which is exactly the kind of companion I need.  We already get along great and are becoming good friends!  I am so stoked to get to have this transfer with her. I don't know why Heavenly Father has blessed me with the 3 best companions in the whole mission so far, but I ain't complaining! 

The only problem is that since this is her very last transfer before she goes home, it kind of makes me feel like I am going home too.  But I'm not.  Not even close.  Haha so that is something that has been weird and kind of hard for me.  But I will survive! 

 

Thursday we headed out to contact some of those referrals that we got!  Not many of them were home, but we did run into this really cool girl named Kassie along the way.  She was walking home from work and I had a really strong spiritual prompting that I should stop and talk to her.  Her ear phones were in as she walked so it was so awkward to stop her to talk to her, but hey!  I'm a missionary!  I signed up to be awkward!  Haha.  She opened up to us about how she has been depressed lately and right before I stopped to talk to her she was talking to her friend on the phone about how she was looking for what the purpose was in life.  I bore my testimony to her of the Plan of Salvation.  The Spirit was so strong!  So we will be meeting with her this week.  I am so excited for that!

 

Friday was an awesome day!  We met this really cool lady named June.  She referred herself on mormon.org.  She had been researching religion for a long time and she felt like we have what she is looking for.  We taught her the Restoration and she loved it.  We invited her to be baptized and she accepted whole heartedly.   A lot more cool stuff happened during the lesson, but I can't even remember because she ended up calling us this morning right before I got here to e-mail and she told us that she wasn't interested in meeting with us anymore.  My heart completely sank.  She had been doing more research about our church and came across a lot of anti material.  You could tell from her voice on the phone that her countenance had completely changed.  I am still so sad about it.  I was so excited to get here and tell you guys all about this way cool investigator, but now I am just so bummed about it.  I am still really sad, but that is missionary work for ya.  I think/hope I will get over it eventually. 

We also had dinner with Sarah on Friday and that was so fun!  She is doing great and her testimony is as strong as ever!  Her faith never ceases to amaze me.  Thank you so much for your prayers in her behalf. 

 

Saturday we did a lot of walking!  15.88 miles to be exact!  Haha YES my legs felt like they were going to fall off at the end of the day.  The busses don't run very often on Saturdays do we had to walk everywhere we went.  As we were walking around trying to contact some more referrals, we made our way to the closest bus stop that was going to take us to our next referral.  As soon as we got to the intersection, I saw the bus drive right by us.  We had literally missed the bus by about 10 seconds.  Normally I would have been pretty frustrated about it, but for some reason this time I felt really calm about it.  As soon as I watched that bus zoom by I knew it was because there was someone that we needed to meet and we weren't going to meet them if we took that bus.  We started walking towards our next referrals house as we waited for the next bus to come.  As we got off of the later bus, we got to an intersection at the exact same time as this other lady named Kim.  We started walking with her and just making small talk about the weather or something like that and it came out that I was from Utah.  As soon as she heard that she yelled, "I LOVE DONNY OSMOND!!!!!"  hahahahaha that was a first on my mission.  She told us that when she was little she always wanted to be a mormon because of Donny.  When we told her that we were missionaries for the mormon church she started freaking out even more.  She told us that she wasn't really interested anymore, but we just continued to talk to her anyway.  She really opened up to us about some hard things that are going on with her family right now.  Her daughter is into drugs and got her grand daughter taken away because of it.  She is trying really hard right now to get her grand daughter back.  We asked if we could say a prayer with her and Sister Newton offered one of the most inspired prayers I have ever heard in my entire life.  The spirit was undeniably strong.  As soon as we said Amen I looked up to see tears streaming down Kim's face.  I will never forget the words that came out of Kim's mouth after that, "You girls ARE making a difference."  That really hit me and has stuck with me even now.  Sometimes I wonder if I am making a difference.  We go out and work hard every day but never really get to see if it even matters or not.  After that experience with Kim, I KNOW that we are.  There is no doubt in my mind that we were supposed to run into Kim that day.  As soon as we said goodbye and turned the corner, I turned to Sister Newton and said, "that is why we missed the bus."  Experiences like that are what make missions worth it.

 

Overall, miracles will happen this transfer!  Some not so good things happened this week, but some really good things happened too!

 

This week I have been thinking a lot about the concept of mercy.  And that is actually what the theme of our sacrament meeting was yesterday too!  I noticed something kind of cool in my studies of the Book of Mormon this week. 

 

In the very first chapter of the Book of Mormon, Nephi says this:

20 And when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had cast out , and stoned, and slain; and they also sought his life, that they might take it away. But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.

 

Then in the very last chapter of the Book of Mormon, Moroni says this:

 

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in you hearts.

 

 

The Book of Mormon teaches us all about how merciful our Father in Heaven is!  I love that.  Not only is God our God, but he is our Father!  And he is looking out for us.  Through Jesus Christ, He can show us mercy in all things.  What a blessing.  That is definitely something that I need to remember. 

 

I love this gospel and I know that it changes lives!  I have a testimony and I am so grateful that I get to share it with the people of West Allis everyday. 

 

Love you!

 

Sister King

 

The End of an Era

The end of an era!  Sister Tanner is being transferred.

First of all, let me bring you all up to date on transfers!  It is official- Sis. Tanner is leaving and I am staying here in West Allis.  It really is the end of an era.  I loved every second I spent with Sister Tanner here.  She is an awesome person, an awesome missionary, and one of my closest friends.  When we talked to President about transfers he told us he was sorry he had to split up the dynamic duo. :)  So I am going to miss her, but I am also excited for some change.  And I found out that my new companion is going to be...... Sister Newton!  Sister Newton is basically a legend here in this mission.  Everyone has been freaking out for me and so excited because she is coming here.  She was Sis. Tanner's trainer!  So because Sis. Tanner is my mom and Sis. Newton was her mom, that makes Sis. Newton my grandma!  haha.  She was a Sister Training Leader in her last area.  And this transfer with me will be her very last transfer before she goes home!  (So because she is leaving that most likely means that I will be staying here in West Allis another transfer after that.  So I will be here until July probably.)  I am so excited!  I have heard so many good things about her!  I am so excited that I get to learn from her.  It also makes me kind of nervous because she is such a good missionary, but I am excited to find out what happens!  Transfers are on Wednesday so that is when all of the switching around will take place.

 

Sister Tanner is going to be going to Kenosha, which is about 40 min south of here, and she is going to be a Sister Training Leader!  I am so proud of her.  And guess what else- she will be MY sister training leader, so I will still see her all the time and I will get to go on exchanges with her too! 

 

Here is the funny thing about missions.  Most of the time I am having the hardest week ever and then right before I come to write you guys about it all, Heavenly Father pours out blessings that I don't even have room enough to receive them!  It's crazy!  That is how I felt about this week.  It was a really tough week and I was getting really nervous about transfers and everything, and then at the end of the week we found out all of the transfer information and it couldn't be more perfect!  I know without a doubt that it was a direct answer to my prayers. 

Anytime that I am having a hard time, I know that it is the adversary.  Which is sad and really hard.  But here is the other thing- anytime something bad happens, it is because a miracle is about to happen or we are about to be blessed!  Satan just wants us to feel discouraged.  But when we endure, the blessing are worth it and we become stronger and better people because of it.

 

Tuesday-  The last district meeting of the transfer.  It was way cool.  We had a testimony meeting and the spirit was so strong.  I have learned a lot from the people in my district.  Half of them are leaving this transfer, so that is sad.  But I am excited for our new district too.  After the district meeting we had a lesson planned with our investigator Kojo.  Last time we taught him, he welcomed us into his home and the lesson went so well and he was open to everything that we had to say and invited us back for another lesson and everything.  But this time when we knocked on the door, his countenance had completely changed.  He didn't let us in and started telling us all of the concerns that he had with our church.  He had watched some sort of youtube video about the church and had all of this false information and was pretty rude about it and then shut the door.  That was really hard and discouraging because he had so much potential.  We were even planning on inviting him to be baptized during the lesson, but obviously that didn't happen.  So that was a huge blow and was hard to deal with.  I am sure that he will be more open someday, but today is not that day.

The Cannon Family!  Love them!

My last district meeting with these awesome missionaries!

This definitely sums our district up in a picture!

Wednesday- we just did a lot of service for people in the ward.  Also-  got a package from the fam!  Thank you so much!  That will literally change my whole mission. haha.  Nothing else super exciting happened

 

Thursday-  Hard day.  Every appointment that we had fell through.  We had a lot of appointments and I was super excited for all of them.  And that makes it even harder when they fall through, when you have high expectations for them.  We also got a referral that we were excited about and we took 2 busses all the way over there, and then the address didn't even exist.  So that was also frustrating.

 

Friday-  I was feeling kind of sick and starting to get stressed about transfers.  It is just kind of scary not knowing where you are going and who you are going to be with.  We had more appointments that fell through and the lessons that we did have did not go very well.  Except we did meet this really cool guy named Matt though!  We were at a gas station and he came up to us and said, "are you missionaries?"  We said yes and then he said, "well how come you have never knocked on my door??"  haha it was so cool.  He is a really nice guy and seemed super excited to learn about the church.  I don't know if he is super interested in changing and joining our church, but he was extremely nice and was excited to learn about our church.  So that was exciting.

 

Saturday-  The transfer text came in the morning and then I really started stressin because I knew for sure that sis tanner would be leaving and I would have to be steppin up here in West Allis.  We had 2 appointments that day and can you guess what happened with them?  Yep, they fell through.  It really was a rough week.  I was feeling pretty down, but then we got to go to the adult session of stake conference and it was absolutely phenomenal.  Elder Godoy of the 70 was there and he is the coolest and most hilarious person in the whole wide world.  The whole session was about missionary work!  They had 4 or 5 converts speak first and they told their conversion stories.  Then Elder Godoy told his conversion story too.  The spirit was so strong and it made me so stoked that I was a missionary.  It really reminded me of my purpose of why I am here.  I really do love being a missionary! 

 

Sunday-  Easter!!!  And also the best stake conference ever.  At stake conference I met the Monk family.  Their grand daughter was in my ward at BYU!  They are some of the nicest people ever.  And Sis Tanner ended up knowing some of their grandkids too!  haha small world.  When we got home from church Sis. Tanner and I had our own easter egg hunt.  Her family had sent her eggs for us to hide for each other with prizes in them!  It was so cute.  I must get my egg hiding skills from grandpa because I must say, I did a pretty good job hiding her eggs.  We spent Easter night with the Dominguez family!  LOVE them!  We made an easter egg hunt for their kids.  It was so fun. 

 

Searching for my Easter eggs

Sis. Tanner and I had our own Easter celebration

So the week ended pretty awesome which was the biggest tender mercy ever. 

I am so happy that it was Easter weekend.  If you didn't get to watch it, you should definitely watch the Because of Him video that the church made!  I absolutely love it!  I love Easter!  I love this time that we have to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior.  I am so grateful for Him and for His atoning sacrifice for me.  I know that He lives and I know that He loves me.  I have a testimony of this gospel! 

I love you all so much!

Sister King

FIRST BAPTISM!

What an amazing week!  I feel like I always start out my letters that way, but it is just so true!  I can not believe all of the miracles that I have seen this week.  I will just have to start at the beginning.

Tuesday-  District Meeting as usual.  This one was way good though.  We talked about the Spirit's role in conversion.  It was so cool.  Sister Tanner and I shared how we have seen the Spirit play a role in Sarah's conversion.  It was so cool to get to sit and reflect on that.  I know that Sarah is truly converted because I know that she has felt the Spirit.  And because of that, she has helped me to be able to feel the Spirit more in my life which is such a blessing.  True conversion only comes through the Spirit!

Wednesday-  Full of miracles!  Well for started I guess I should tell you that I got proposed to.  That was interesting.  Like down on one knee and everything.  The whole enchilda.  Now that it is getting warmer all of the crazy people are starting to come out...  Haha it was actually really funny.  I told him no of course.  I did try to share the gospel with him though!  Planting seeds, planting seeds... haha.  Anyways, on to the miracles!  I started out the day with GREAT studies in the morning.  And when you have good studies in the morning, you know it is going to be a good day.  We called this guy named Kojo that we met on the bus a couple of weeks ago and had given a Book of Mormon.  He said that he had read the chapter that we have left with him and would be open to meeting with us!  He is way cool.  He is from West Africa and came here to America about 15 years ago.  His mother died and he wasn't able to go back to Africa to say goodbye or anything.  So I am hoping that once we teach him the Plan of Salvation and that he can be with him mom forever, it will be hook, line, and sinker!  Or whatever the saying is.  Then the Spanish Elders in our area called us and said that they had tracted into on of our former investigators!  Her name is Lenny and she was pretty interesting, but would never return our phone calls and would bail on appointments so we had to drop her.  But they tracted into her and I guess she is ready to start meeting again!  So that was a complete miracle.  I know that the Spanish Elders tracting into her was NOT a coincidence.  Afterward, we had a lesson with Sarah.  Which are always amazing.  We talked about Baptism and Confirmation with her.  This was our last lesson before she got baptized!  So we shared our testimonies with her and the spirit was so strong.  It was kind of bittersweet having a last lesson with her.  But she is so beyond ready.  After Sarah's we had an appointment with another investigator.  He ended up not showing up so we had no idea what to do.  All of a sudden a name of a less-active/part-member family popped into my head and on a whim we decided to go visit them.  Looking back- it was totally a spiritual prompting!  We have been trying FOREVER to get into their home and nothing has ever come of it.  We make appointments that they don't show up for and stuff.  But when we stopped by that night, she let us right in!  I shared Alma 37:36 with her and we talked about prayer.  She is going through a lot right now and I think it was exactly what she needed to hear at the time.  That lesson was 100% by the Spirit.  It was amazing.
  

Thursday- Not much because it was weekly planning day.  But we were able to visit with this guy Fred that we have been working with.  And guess what- HE MADE US NEON CTR SIGNS!!  They are way cool!  The pictures seriously don't even do them justice.  Hopefully I can keep it forever and I will always be able to remember!  They shine brightly in our apartment now haha.

Friday-  The most sacred and special day on my mission so far. SARAH'S BAPTISM!  A lot of opposition- but it was all worth it!  In fact, it was pretty much the worst day ever until 7:00 pm hit.  But I know why there was opposition.  Satan really was working overtime to make us feel discouraged.  All of our appointments fell through that day.  And we met a lot of mean people.  I was almost expecting it because I knew Satan wasn't happy with what we were doing, but it was still hard.  But then 7:00 pm came.  And all of that didn't matter anymore.  The baptismal service was absolutely beautiful.  I will never forget the look on Sarah's face as she came up out of the water and had been washed clean of her sins and made a covenant with her loving Father in Heaven.  The Spirit was so strong.  After her baptism, she bore her testimony.  It was the sweetest, purest, and most sincere testimony I have ever heard.  Sarah really has found out for herself that this is Christ's restored gospel on the earth today and she has already seen how that has begun to bless her life.  When Sarah was driving us home that night, she told us that it was everything she thought it would be and more.  She said that the feeling that she felt as she was baptized was amazing and she will never forget it!  Wow.  What an amazing person and a wonderful example for me.

Saturday-  We did a lot of service and went out to lunch with our favorite, Sis Dominguez!  We went to perhaps the best Mexican restaurant in Milwaukee called El Beso. We also met a new investigator named Turtle.  Haha gotta love Milwaukee.

 

Sunday-  Sarah's confirmation was absolutely amazing.  She is now the newest member of the West Allis ward!  Gosh, do I love the West Allis ward.  I can not believe that after everything, Sarah has now been baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  What a miracle.  Everything about Sarah was a miracle.  The rest of Sunday was pretty awful again... haha.  It was POURING rain all day.  One of our appointments fell through so we were out tracting in the storm.  At one point it got so bad that we just had to find shelter for a couple of minutes.  But we sang hymns together which helped us to feel the Spirit.  It is moments like that that I am going to miss with Sis. Tanner.  Transfers are a week from Wednesday and while nothing is for sure, Sis Tanner is most likely a goner and I will be stuck here in West Allis without her.  :(  But we will see what happens

Overall, my experience teaching Sarah and watching her grow and become converted to the gospel and eventually enter into the waters of baptism is an experience that I will never forget.  I remember in the MTC, Sheri Dew was giving a devotional and she said something like, "The greatest joy we will ever feel is being intimately involved in the process of salvation."  I completely understand that now.  And it is so true.  Sarah has been such an amazing example to me.  We are going to be friends and have the special bond forever!  The effect that she had on me will last for eternity, I am sure of it.

 

Watching Sarah change the life that she had to a much better life embracing the gospel of Jesus Christ has shown me just how important having that gospel in my life is.  I am so grateful for it.  I am so grateful for my Savior and I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have to help others come to know Him better. 

 

Keep being the best family ever!  I love you all so much!  This gospel is real!

 

Love,

Sister King

#LDSConf

WHAT AN AMAZING WEEK!!!

Wasn't general conference the most amazing thing?  It is seriously so cool that God still speaks to man in our day through a modern day prophet and that we get to hear from him as well as all of the Lord's apostles twice a year!  I think we forget how amazing that is sometimes.  But let me start back at the beginning of the week:

My zone after our Zone Training Meeting

Sister Stuart goes home this transfer.  She is a great missionary and has been an amazing example for me!

Tuesday-  We had a zone training meeting.  It was really good!  We have some amazing zone leaders that taught us all about how the Spirit is vital for conversion.  So it is so important that we, as missionaries, always have the Spirit with us--especially when we are teaching people.  We also talked about doing what is good, better, and best.  I love that talk from I don't even remember who.  Lots of times we are doing good things or even better thing, but we need to always be thinking of what the best things are.  During the meeting our zone leaders told us that President wanted us to start using family history in our finding activities.  I had no idea how we were going to do that... but stay tuned to see what happened when we tried it.  [Addition from Mom- I read on her companion's blog that since this was April Fool's day, when Courtney played the closing hymn for the Zone conference.  The hymn was announced as "If You Could Hie to Kolob" but Courtney played  "Joy to the World".  Courtney- you are so funny!]

Wednesday-  HARD DAY.  Like really hard.  Every single appointment we had fell through.  And then all of our back up plans ended up falling through too!  We felt so discouraged and had no idea where Heavenly Father wanted us to be or what he wanted us to be doing.  And then on top of everything, we ended up meeting some of the craziest people throughout the day too.  There were these 3 guys pestering us at the bus stop and saying inappropriate things.  And then when we got on the bus there was this crazy lady that wouldn't let me get off of the bus and I thought she was going to beat me up.  Just a lot of little things happened that all added up together to make me feel so frustrated and discouraged.  I know that Heavenly Father was still looking out for us that day and keeping us safe, but I just was not feeling too happy about everything.

Thursday- A MUCH better day.  We had a lot of weekly planning to do and then dinner and a lesson with Sarah!  My favorite!  We went over the logistics of her baptism and it is all starting to feel so real now!  I can hardly believe it.  After Sarah's lesson, the Bishop of our ward wanted to come out and visit people with us.  I LOVE the Bishop of our ward.  He is a great man.  He is a convert of only 7 or 8 years and he is already the Bishop!  He is a good guy.  But I was so nervous to go out with him and his wife that night.  But it really ended up being such a blessing.  We went to visit a less active that we have been working with for a LONG time.  His name is Fred and he is awesome.  He came to church last week for the first time!  I think he felt special that we brought the Bishop of the ward with us to have a lesson.  We talked about conference and what we could do to prepare for us.  And then Fred shared with us a cool story!  Our last lesson with him we talked about the Book of Mormon and how reading it everyday will change our lives.  He accepted the challenge to read it everyday.  Then this past week he was at work.  He bends neon and glass or something like that.  He had recruited his friend to come help him carry some supplies and things and his friend accidentally dropped some glass that he had already been working so hard on.  This accident was going to cost Fred a lot of money.  He said that normally he would have completely lost his temper and been very upset and frustrated about everything.  But he had read his Book of Mormon that morning.  He said that he felt calm and at peace with everything and that he handled the situation a lot better then he ever thought he could have.  And then he told us that he KNEW it was because he had been reading the Book of Mormon.  It is so cool to see the Book of Mormon making changes in people's lives.  I love that book.

 

Friday-  Speaking of the book of Mormon, I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time on my mission.  Turns out- IT'S TRUE!  I enjoyed every single second of reading the Book of Mormon.  And I can hardly wait to start it again!  That book changes lives, I'm tellin ya!  As we were out talking to people we decided to try to use family history like President and our zone leaders had asked us to do.  At first nothing really came of it and it was hard to connect things back to the church and stuff.  So we reverted back to our original methods that we usually use.  But then we came to a bus stop and started talking to the lady named Nel.  At first she was very stand offish and didn't want to talk to us at all.  She was a little rude even.  But then I said, "We just want to talk to you about family history!"  After that she completely opened up!  She told us all about her family and her ancestors and how important her family was to her.  We told her that in our church we know that families can be together forever and she absolutely loved that!  We said a prayer with her before we left and the spirit was so strong.  Before we left she told us that Tanner and King would make a good name for a beer company... haha.  She was a cool lady.

 

Saturday- CONFERENCE WAS FINALLY HERE!!!!!!!!!!  I was so completely stoked for conference you have no idea.  The Saturday morning session was my favorite session I think.  It is hard to pick favorites because they were all phenonmenal, but I especially loved that one.  We watched the sessions at our stake center.  And then Sarah came to the Saturday afternoon session with us.  She LOVED conference!  Her loving conference made me love conference even more!  She said that she felt like the talks were meant for her.  We had another investigator, Lenier, come to conference too.  That was a miracle.  We will see how things go with him this week.

 

Sunday-  We went to the Sunday morning conference at the stake center again.  And Sarah came too!  :)  this time we told her to write down 2-3 questions and they would be answered during the session.  It was so fun because during the session she would lean over to me every couple of minutes and excitedly say, "That answered my question!!"  Haha conference is amazing and so completely inspired.  After the first session Sarah had her baptismal interview!  We were nervous but she came out of it with a huge smile on her face and the first thing she said was, "My cheeks hurt from smiling so much!"  Haha she's golden.  Elder Harmon is the district leader so he did the interview.  Afterwards he called us and told us that Sarah was so amazing that that we did a good job preparing her.  That made me feel really good to know that we are doing good things and being good missionaries!  Except that Sarah really has been being prepared by the Lord for a long time and we really haven't done much because she is just so ready.  But still felt good nonetheless.  And because Sarah passed her interview- it means that it is official!  We are having a baptism on Friday!  It is seriously such a miracle.  I can hardly believe it.  I feel so blessed.  Blessed that Heavenly Father has trusted me with his precious daughter Sarah. 

 

Overall, I LOVED general conference!  If I had to pick one favorite talk it would probably be President Uchtdorf's Sunday morning.  I loved what he said about not just being grateful for things but having an overall attitude of gratitude.  I don't remember the exact quote, but he said something like, "Gratitude is a catalyst to all Christ-like attributes."  I love that!!!!!  So if we want to become more like Christ, then we need to be grateful.  There is so much more that I loved about conference but I thought I would just share one more thought.  I also loved Elder Ballard's talk.  He talked about missionary work.  And he spoke specifically to you guys!  He said that you should study preach my gospel to better understand what your sons and daughters are doing in the mission field.  You guys need to do that!  Preach my Gospel is an amazing book!  I think it would be so cool to share insights and thoughts from studies in preach my gospel.  I know it will bless all of you because I have seen it bless me.

 

Playing marshmallow wars last p-day with some other missionaries from our zone.

Reppin' my Duck Dynasty socks!

Anyways, I love you all so much and hope that you have had an amazing week!  Be praying for our investigator this week as her baptismal day is approaching!  The church is so true!  Love you!

Love,

Sister King

PS I would love some letters :)

Spring is Here!

The weather is finally warmer!  And by warmer, I mean about 40 degrees.  But it feels like summer to me so I am grateful for that! I seriously thought that warmer weather would never come and I would just feel cold for the rest of my life.  But it seems like we have almost made it!  Sometimes thinking about how I am going to have to survive another whole entire winter really scares me, but I try not to think about it and then I am fine!  :)

Tuesday- That was a fun day!  There is a cool family in our ward and they are apartment managers a few blocks away from us.  So we went over there to do service and help her clean some of the apartments.  It was way fun.  But the funnest part was that afterward, she took us to lunch at the restaurant that they own!  It was way yummy food and if I ever come back to Wisconsin I will have to go there!  Then we had district meeting. 

After district meeting, Sarah called us and was pretty upset.  A close friend had e-mailed her and told her that if she was baptized then they couldn't be friends anymore.  That absolutely broke my heart, and I think it broke hers too.  However, you would not even believe how strong she is.  She told us, "I have felt the Spirit and I can't deny it.  I know this church is true and I know that I need to be baptized."  What an amazing example of faith she is to me.  She has completely changed her life and left so many things behind to embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ and become a member of His church.  I think we all take for granted the fact that we are members of this church and that all (or most) of our friends and family support us.  At least I know I do.  Every single day we should be grateful for this gospel and how it blesses our lives.  We need to reach out to others and be a support for them.  Never forget how blessed you are to be a member of this church with a family that loves you and supports you in it.

Wednesday was exchanges!  I was nervous.  Not NEARLY as nervous as last time, but still nervous.  This time Sister Milligan came to West Allis with me.  She had served in West Allis before so that made me feel better.  She is from Sacramento, California and actually knew Sister Tanner before they came out here.  She is an amazing missionary and I learned a lot from her.  We had a lesson with our investigator.  The entire time we have been teaching him, we haven't been able to get him to pray.  But he finally prayed with us on Wednesday!  It was amazing and the Spirit was so strong!  Praying with our investigators is important because if they are praying with us, then we know that they are praying on their own too.  Plus prayer really invites the spirit and it helps them to have a spiritual experience.  So that was awesome.  Later that night our ward had their annual YW Pancake dinner!  The YW have this dinner every year to raise money for them to go to girls camp.  It was way cool.  I participated in the pancake eating contest and held my own for a while.  But I ended up losing to the second counselor in the bishopric.  Haha I love the West Allis ward!  It was such a fun night.  Afterward, we switched back from exchanges and it was so nice to have Sis Tanner back again.

Thursday- I really focused my studies on the Book of Mormon and  I read this talk from Elder Holland and you should stop what you are doing right now and listen to it.  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/safety-for-the-soul?lang=eng

If there is one area of my testimony that has been strengthened since I have been on my mission, it is that the Book of Mormon is true.  I know that it is.  I have seen such a difference since I have been studying it so much!  I also have seen it make such a difference in people's lives here as they have started to read it.  It is such a blessing.  Heavenly Father loves us so much that He gave us this amazing book to help us strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ.  The Book of Mormon truly is the word of God.  If you haven't been good about reading it everyday, make the change now and become better!  Start reading it every single day and watch your life change.  Do it.  I know that the Book of Mormon is true!

Thursday was the birthday of a woman we are teaching!  We celebrated by going to Organ Pyper's Pizza with her and the Dominguez family.  It was so fun!  That is definitely another place that I want to go back and visit someday.  She celebrated her birthday on this day, and on April 11 she will get to celebrate being spiritually reborn!  YAY!!!!

Friday-  It was definitely a miracle day.  The night before we had planned for over an hour to try to make everything work out that we wanted to do the next day.  We had a lot that we wanted to get done and a lot that we felt we should do, but we had no idea how on earth it was going to all work out.  We had to plan out the bus schedules to be able to get everywhere we needed to go and it seemed nearly impossible.  But guess what.  We ended up getting everything done that we needed to and going everywhere that we needed to and seeing everyone that we needed to!  I have absolutely no idea how it all ended up working out- WAIT yes I do!  It was Heavenly Father.  He needed us to be in all of those places.  It was crazy because looking at the bus maps there was absolutely no way it would work out, but it did.  Friday was another day that I really felt like I was an instrument in the hands of the Lord.  And let me tell you, it was a great feeling.  We met this lady that day  and we started teaching her about the Book of Mormon.  The following words actually came out of her mouth:  "I would love to learn more about this!" 

I could hardly believe my ears!  I never thought that would ever happen!  So we are teaching her this week.  I am so stoked. 

The Stallis Palace   Haha!

Saturday we were at the church all day helping for the Women's Conference.  Our stake did this way cool thing.  Starting at 3 there were a bunch of workshops that you could go to and then they fed us dinner and then we all watched the broadcast together.  It was awesome.  Spiritually, I was feeling on top of the world!  It was great!  And wasn't the women's broadcast amazing??  I learned so much.  And it made me so excited for general conference next week!!!  I can hardly wait! 

It truly was another amazing and miracle filled week. I am starting to feel that this is exactly where I am supposed to be at this point in my life.  I feel it more and more everday.  I know that this church is true.

I love you all so much!  Have an amazing conference weekend!  I can't wait to hear all of your thoughts!

Love,

Sister King

PS I have so much faith that they are going to announce a temple in Madison, Wisconsin this conference!  Just you wait and see!