Crazy this week, but so good!

Such a crazy week this week, but so good.  We witnessed so many miracles.  We have been so busy and are always exhausted, but that is the way that it goes most days.

Sister Kelley and me

Tuesday we had district meeting and we talked a lot about our purpose as missionaries.  We looked at it through the lens of the Restoration.  Our purpose as missionaries is to teach people the restored gospel.  Interesting that it always specifies that.  It is because we are living in the last days before Christ is going to come to the earth again.  We are so blessed to get to be a part of the Restoration and I am glad that I have the opportunity to share that knowledge and that joy with others.  After district meeting, we went to go visit a new investigator that we had found, but she wasn't home.  However, her neighbor Jake was outside and we started talking to him.  He told us that he is Atheist, but we started talking to him about Christmas and were able to help him to open up.  We talked to him about this new He is the Gift video that the church has put out.  (Which is really good by the way!  You should watch it.)  It has been cool to see how people that wouldn't normally talk to us or open up to us are more willing to listen during the Christmas season.  Later that night we were able to go to our ward's relief society activity.  They had a program called ''The Women Who Knew Christ."  It was very interesting.  It was pretty much just testimonies of the women who were involved in Christ's birth.  Pretty cool.

Wednesday we had a lesson with our investigator Zoe.  She has been progressing more now.  She has been reading from the Book of Mormon everyday and really enjoying it.  We talked about the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  We talked about what it feels like and why it is such a blessing to have as a constant companion.  She just has a few concerns that we are trying to work through.  We were also able to visit a few other recent convert's and less-actives.  Nothing too crazy.

Thursday we had a lesson with out new investigator Ishmael.  He is the one that we met on the bus a few weeks ago.  We had taught him the Restoration last time and he really liked it.  But we wanted to make sure that he understood it all the way before we moved on.  So we watched the Restoration DVD with him and it was super powerful.  He told us that he was having warm feelings in his heart when he watched it so that is a good sign!  We gave him his own copy and he went home and watched it 4 times... haha.  So we are excited to see him again this week and hopefully we can set a baptismal date with him!  

Exchanges with Sister Brewster

Friday was exchanges!!!  I got to go on exchanges with the one and only Sister Brewster!  So fun to get to be back with her again.  She goes home on Thursday so it was fun to get to reminisce.  So crazy!  But this time we were back in our area together so that was pretty cool.  We got to see a lot of people that we taught together when we were companions.  We got to see Rachel together again which was really cool.  Reminded me again of what a miracle she is and what an amazing example she is too.  It was fun to be together with the 3 of us again.  We talked about the Christmas story in the Book of Mormon.  It must have taken a lot of faith on the believers part to stand up to the unbelievers when it came time for Christ's birth.  We also got to see Shay who is doing very well too!  She still reads from the Book of Mormon everyday and has started going to institute every week.  So that was pretty cool.  It was fun to get to exchange with Sister Brewster, but it was so nice to have Sister Kelley back again!  Sure do love that girl.  I am going to miss Sister Brewster when she goes home this week.

Kendall's baptism

Isn't Kendall just glowing?

Saturday was KENDALL' S BAPTISM!  It was such an amazing day!  This week was definitely full of ups and downs.  Kendall was out of town all week for business, so we had lessons with her over the phone everyday.  There was definitely a lot of opposition, but Kendall has been so strong.  Her family was not very supportive of her decision to be baptized.  But she says that she received and answer to her prayer and she knew what she needed to do.  There was really a special spirit at her baptism.  Kendall is amazing because she was already a very spiritual and Christlike person before she found this church.  But when Kendall bore her testimony at her baptism, she talked about how this new found faith is only going to strengthen and add to the faith that she already has.  Which is to true.  I love that this gospel does that.  It takes our strengths as well as our weaknesses and helps us to become better through them.  You can feel the Spirit so strongly whenever you are around Kendall and you can tell that she is just glowing with the light of Christ.  I am so grateful for her amazing example to me.  If everyone had faith like Kendall, the whole world would be baptized by now! 

When Sister Kelley and I were setting transfer goals back at the beginning of the transfer, our biggest goal that we decided on was to witness a Christmas miracle.  I think we did just that with Kendall!  She truly is a miracle and I feel so humbled and so blessed to have gotten to be a part of this.  I love being a missionary!  It is people like Kendall that make this all worth while.

I hope that you all are having a great Christmas season!  I love you!

Love,

Sister King

UNBELIEVABLE miracles this week!

Hello!!!

Ok you guys- UNBELIEVABLE miracles this week!

So on Tuesday our investigator Kendall sent us a text in the morning that said something along the lines of "How long until I can get baptized?"  I KNOW, RIGHT???  Sister Kelley and I were freaking out.  A week or two before Thanksgiving Sister Hammatt and I were teaching her and we invited her to be baptized on January 10.  A date that soon absolutely scared her half to death.  And then we weren't really able to meet with her because of all of the craziness with Thanksgiving.  We thought that we had screwed everything up and that she didn't want to be meeting with us anymore.  So when we got this text, we were super excited but also super confused. So she went on to tell us that she was really thinking and praying about it a lot.  

She was thinking a lot about a lesson that we had had with her on Faith and how faith is the opposite of fear.  She ultimately decided that her faith was being overshadowed by fear.  Putting all fear aside, she sincerely prayed to know if this is what she should do.  And she received an answer to her prayer!  She has decided that she wants to get baptized this Saturday!!  So basically this week was spent frantically running around and trying to get everything ready and make sure that we have taught her everything before then.  You guys, this is seriously the biggest miracle.  Our mission has been working so hard and praying so hard to meet our goal of 300 baptisms this year.  This is literally a miracle that the Lord has blessed us with.  Saturday is going to be such a great experience.  We are so excited!  Kendall is so amazing and her testimony is so strong.  

After we got this text, it was time to head to district meeting.  We talked about our experiences with finding and what has been working and what hasn't been.  We talked about having the faith to find.  Sister Kelley and I have been doing a lot of finding lately so it was nice to have a district meeting to help us with that.  Later that night, we were at the bus station and we had about 10 minutes until our bus came.  So Sister Kelley and I said a prayer and then walked up and down the bus station trying to find the one person that we felt that we should talk to before our bus came.  We both felt distinctly impressed to talk to this one woman sitting alone on a bench.  So we approached her and when we got there and tried to start talking to her, discovered that she didn't speak any English.  At first I was a little disappointed because we had both felt impressed that we should talk to her.  So we did our best with the limited Spanish that we both knew to try to talk to her.  It ended up going very well actually!  We testified of Jesus Christ and invited her to our Ward Christmas party and ended up getting her information.  I have no idea how on earth that happened since I don't know any Spanish.  But we gave her information to the Spanish Elders in our ward and she is now a new investigator for them!  We were totally supposed to talk to her that night.  Even though we weren't able to talk to her very much, the Lord allowed us to talk to her enough.  So that was a pretty cool miracle that happened.

On Wednesday we had to rearrange most of our plans to make sure that we had time for Kendall.  We need to be meeting with her just about everyday to make sure that she is taught everything by Saturday.  So we were able to show her the baptismal font and teach her about baptism and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Kendall really likes the concept of repentance.  Except she hates the word "repentance."  That word does kind of have a negative connotation to it.  So instead of using the word repentance, we use the word "change."  Ultimately, that is what repentance is.  It is changing to become more like our Savior.  So that was a pretty cool lesson that we had. 

Thursday we had a really cool lesson with our new investigator named Ishmael.  He is the one that we met on the bus that showed up to church last week!  We taught him the Restoration and when we invited him to be baptized, he said that he really wants to be able to get to that point.  So that was really exciting.  We are excited to get to start working with him some more.  We also had another lesson with...  You guessed it!  Kendall!  We taught her about both the Word of Wisdom and Tithing.  She has already been living these commandments and she said that she has been able to tell a difference.  It is really cool to see people when they just start living the commandments and they start to see differences in their lives because of it.  Just another testament to me that the Lord will bless us to "prosper in the land" when we keep the commandments.  We also were able to have a lesson with Rachel about the Book of Mormon.  Rachel is still doing so well and her testimony is growing every day :)

Friday was pretty simple.  Volunteered at the local food pantry and then had a lesson with Kendall.  We taught her pretty much the rest of the commandments.

Saturday was St. Nick's Day!  I had never heard of it before, but people celebrate it here in Wisconsin.  Apparently December 6 is St. NIck's Day.  I don't know the reasoning or meaning behind it, but pretty much it means that you get a present from Santa on December 6.  Sister Hammatt sent me a St. Nick's Day package to open.  So that was really sweet of her.  
By the way, she e-mailed me today and all is going well back at the MTC!  :)  Saturday was also our Ward Christmas party  It ended up being a huge success!  We had a couple of different people that we met on the bus show up which was super cool.  And Ishmeal came.

Sunday was Kendall's baptismal interview and she passed with flying colors!  We got to have dinner at the Senior's house with all 8 of the missionaries in the ward and then stayed after to watch the Christmas devotional.  I LOVED the devotional.  How cool that we get to start off the Christmas season with that.  I loved that Sister Oscarson talked about how Christmas spirit is really just Christlike love.  That is why everyone is so happy at this time of year.

Us and the Allred's with their brand new baby.

I hope that you have all enjoyed starting to read the Book of Mormon.  Man, that's a good book.  I think my favorite thing from the reading this week was in 1 Nephi chapter 6.  I think it is verse 6 where Nephi talks about how there isn't anything on the plates that isn't of great worth.  That means that every little thing that we read in the Book of Mormon was put there for a reason and it is of great worth to us.  Book of Mormon reading should not be taken lightly! 

So overall, pretty crazy but awesome week.  We are going to be having a baptism this Saturday!!!  Please keep our investigators in your prayers.  Anyways, running out of time but I love you all!  Have a great week!

Love,

Sister King