-36 degrees!

I hope that you all had a great week this week!  It was so good to hear from all of you.

Things have been going pretty well back here in Madison.  It was CRAZY cold this week though.  At one point it got down to -36 degrees.  So that is a little frigid.  But we are making it work. :)

So this picture sums up what the weather was like this week!

Tuesday was a great day.  We had another zone training meeting.  We talked a lot about what we have learned about The Atonement this past year.  That was interesting to reflect on. I truly have learned a lot.  I think that is probably the thing that I have learned to most about on my mission- The Atonement of Jesus Christ.  The Gospel is centered on this!  It is so important.  The way that I have learned so much about it is from reading the Book of Mormon.  That Book tells us so much about Christ.  So that was cool to get to talk with the missionaries in our zone about. 

We were also able to meet with Ishmael!  We talked to him about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He loved it!  He is excited to be baptized!  We had to move his date back one week to January 24th just to make sure that he is ready and prepared for baptism.  But January 24 is looking pretty solid!  So we are way excited about that!

We also got to meet with Rachel and talk about the Plan of Salvation.  She is doing so well.  She actually got a calling this past Sunday!!  She is going to be teaching the 14-17 year old Sunday School class!  She will be SO GOOD for that.  She is really excited and I am way excited for her too. 

Wednesday we had a lesson with our new investigator Jeanne.  She is the one that read the Book of Mormon in 3 days.  We taught her the Restoration and she loved it!  She said that it makes sense for the priesthood authority to be restored back to the earth.  She is still reading from the Book of Mormon, but is hesitant the come to church.  So hopefully when we see her this week we will be able to help her to make that next big step.

Thursday was kind of slow.  Just saw a couple of less active members and volunteered at the American Red Cross for a blood drive.  Pretty much we were just trying to do our best to be doing good and productive things inside and out of the cold.  So it was a littler slower.  But we were able to talk to some people on the bus.  Nothing super crazy or special to make note of though.

Friday was pretty cool.  We had to opportunity to teach one of the Elders' investigators!  Her name is Debra and she has a 12 year old daughter named Jayda.  They met them a few weeks ago and Debra was looking for a place that she could take her children to help their family to come closer to Christ, and then she met the Elders.  She was so excited and wants to get baptized this coming Saturday!  But the Elders were having a hard time being able to teach her everything before then, so we got to go over to teach them a lesson.  We talked about tithing and fasting and they absolutely loved it!  It has always been amazing for me to see people that are so excited to start contributing to the building up of the kingdom of God.  And it was so cool, we were talking about how we fast once a month on the first Sunday of every month.  And Jayda chimes in and says, "can we fast at other times if we want help with something too?"  It was just the sweetest.  So cool to see how the gospel has already started to change this family.

Saturday I got to go on exchanges in the Madison 2 ward area with Sis. Ostler.  She is from Ephraim, Utah and is absolutely amazing.  Such a great example for me!  We got to meet with a couple of recent converts in their ward and also a few less-active families.  We went to go stop by a potential investigator that they had, but she wasn't home.  So we started talking to her roommate.  We told her that we were teaching her roommate how she could come closer to Jesus Christ.  That sparked her interest and she was curious as to how.  So we were able to give her a Book of Mormon.  She said that she would read it and is a new investigator for those sisters now!  So that was a pretty cool miracle.  At the end of the exchange though, I was so happy to be back in the Madison 1st ward with Sister Kelley.

Sister Kelley and me in the Capitol building

On exchanges with Sister Ostler.  She is so great!

We made Snoopy waffles :)

Got to see Sister Christiansen for the first time in a year!  We came out together but have always served in different zones.

Things are going pretty well out here!  We are doing our best to stay busy and out of the cold.  The Lord is blessing us so much!  Please keep us in your prayers! 

Love you!!!

Sister King