Goodbye Madison!

Hello Family!

Well, another transfer has come and gone.  Crazy how time flies.  As it sounds like most of you already know, I found out that I am going to be transferred this week.  I have been really sad about it, but I trust that the Lord has good things in store for me.  So I just found out that I am going to be transferred to Wausau.  And I have been called to be a Sister Training Leader.  My new companion is going to be Sister Weaver.  She came out with me so if you look back at some of my MTC pictures then you can see who she is.  She is the absolute cutest so I am way excited to get to be companions with her.  I have heard so many amazing things about the Wausau area.  Sister Kelley just came from that zone and she raves about it.  Sister Newton also served there and that is all she would talk about when we were together.  

Bowling with the district last p-day!

One of my favorite recent converts here in Madison.  He is going to the temple for the first time later this month!

Also, guess what!  The Wausau sisters area has a car!  I am still learning about Wisconsin geography, but I do know that Wausau is North of here.  Which means more snow and more cold!  Yay!  I hear that the work has really been taking off there, so I am really excited to start meeting people and getting going!  So I will leave Wednesday morning to head to Wausau. 

But back to this week...  It was a little sad because I knew that a lot of the people that I was seeing was probably going to be my last time seeing them.  But it has made me realize what an amazing blessing all of these people have been in my life. 

Tuesday we had some more crazy snow storms.  I didn't think that there was even anymore snow in the atmosphere because all of it must have fallen on Sunday when church was cancelled.  But nope, we had even more on Tuesday.  We had district meeting and then when we went to catch the bus afterward, we ended up getting stuck at the bus station for an hour because all of the buses were running way behind because of the crazy amounts of snow.  And then once we got on our bus we were stuck on that bus for another hour because everything was moving so slowly and there were so many car accidents.  It was an adventure to say the least. 

But while we were stuck on the bus for so long, we were able to meet this kid named Darnell.  He is studying to become a pastor for his Unitarian church.  We were able to talk about the differences between our churches and he was very impressed with us for giving up a year and a half of our lives to teach people about Christ.  He wasn't extremely interested, but I know that we were supposed to run into him on the bus that day.

Wednesday we had a couple of appointments fall through.  It was kind of a bummer because they were people that we met on the bus that we thought were super solid.  But that is ok.  What is meant to happen will happen.  We got to have a lesson with Sarah though and we invited her boyfriend Vince to come so that we could teach both of them together!  So that was a fun.

Thursday we had a lesson with a recent convert named Shaun.  He is going to be going to the temple at the end of this month so we had a little temple prep lesson with him.  We also had a huge miracle on the bus!  So last week we ran into this woman named Marlene on the bus.  She had investigated the church back in 1999 and was going to be baptized, but then moved here to Madison and lost contact with the church.  So when we saw her we were able to get a little bit of her contact information.  But I think that maybe she hadn't paid the phone bill or something like that so we were not able to get in contact with her and we were so sad about it.  But on Thursday, we ran into her AGAIN but on a different bus!  It was seriously the biggest miracle.  She recognized us and told us that she was so sad that we hadn't been able to get ahold of her.  She also had been reading from the Book of Mormon that we gave her and she had lots of questions.  It was so incredible to see how the timing worked out perfectly to be able to get back in contact with her.  So now we will be able to start teaching her!

Friday we finally got to see Kendall again.  Her life has been kind of crazy lately and we haven't been able to see her for a long time.  Luckily things are going a lot better with her family.  Things have mellowed out a little bit and Kendall said that she has really been able to feel the companionship of the Holy Ghost is her life.  Also- Kendall got a calling this past Sunday to teach the 10 year old primary class!  So we are super excited about that,

Saturday the transfer text came and my name was on it...  I was super sad.  But it was also nice to know for sure so that I could start saying goodbye to people.  And I am running out of time sorrrrryyy...........

Sunday I actually spoke in church!  Brother Durtschi texted me on Friday night to ask if I would.  It was pretty stressful to be able to find time to put a couple of thoughts together, but we made it work.  I was actually grateful for the opportunity because I was able to tell everyone in the ward just how much I love and appreciate them.  I really have learned so much from this ward.  They are absolutely incredible. 

And pretty much have spent the rest of the time starting to pack and saying goodbye to people!

I love Madison with all my heart and it kills me to have to go.  But I think the thing that I am going to miss the very most is Sister Kelley.  She is one of the most Christlike people I have every met and she is an incredible missionary.  I prayed so hard to be able to have a good companion for the Christmas transfer, and boy was my prayer answered.  I learned a lot from Sister Kelley, but I think the biggest thing I learned from her was selflessness.  She is just so selfless!  She just has a way of making you feel loved and important and I hope that I can be more like her in that way. 

Geez.  I think one of the reasons that missions are so hard is because they are just one huge goodbye.  First to your family, then to all the people you know and love here.  It is so hard.  But it is absolutely incredible.

I miss Madison already!

Sister King