Back on the Bus!

Hey Family!

My time is cut super short today for a couple of different reasons so I will just try and give you a mini update of the week before I have to run. 

Tea time with Nancy :)

I GOT TO RIDE THE BUS AGAIN!

For starters, last p-day after we were leaving the library from e-mailing we stopped to get gas and noticed that we had an oil leak.  So we took it in to get it checked.  They told us that it would only take a few minutes.  But then they came back out and told us that the problem was a lot worse than they thought.  We ended up having to take our BRAND NEW car back to the dealership to get a bunch of things fixed haha.  

So we have been without a car for the week and still don't have it back yet.  This is nothing new to me though!  Haha we got bus passes this week and have been doing a lot of walking.  Sister Weaver has not been used to it, but I am trying to help her to love it as much as I do.  It is a little harder though because our area is WAY spread out so it is a little more difficult to maneuver on foot.  I really think that because of this whole ordeal there is someone that Heavenly Father really needs us to meet!  There was this really cute old man named Norman that we started talking to at the dealership while we were waiting for the news on our car.  He wouldn't take a Book of Mormon but he liked talking to us and had a lot of questions about the church.  Or maybe the reason is because we needed to meet the guy that works at the dealership named Cable that has been helping us out.  He has been really nice about everything so I am going to give him a Book of Mormon whenever we get to go get our car back.

The cheese factory across the street from our house

But we pretty much just spent the week tracting the neighborhoods around our house since we couldn't go too far and I got to do my favorite thing in the whole entire world- contacting people on the bus!   We talked to some cool people and gave away a good number of copies of the Book of Mormon, but not a lot has come from that yet.  Sister Weaver and I decided that we pretty much need to start this area from scratch.  The sisters that were here before Sister Weaver and I had just had quite a few baptisms right before we both got here.  So we are definitely in finding mode.  We have been working hard at talking to people and trying to find them.  We hope that we will start to see some of those fruits here in the next couple of weeks.

Reunited with Sister Packer :)

This is Sister Askerlund.  She took my place in West Allis when I left.

West Allis represent

The biggest highlight of the week was my first Mission Leadership Conference!  Ok, my first MLC might actually be one of the biggest highlights of my mission too.  Seriously such an amazing experience.  For starters, got to see so many friends from the mission!  Sister Packer was there.  She is an STL down in Milwaukee.  And I got to see Sister Askerlund who took my place when I left West Allis and she is now an STL in Kenosha.  She got to tell me all about a lot of things that have been going on.  Do you remember that less-active named Fred that I worked with the entire 7 1/2 months that I was there?  We taught him every single week so I am sure that I talked about him a lot.  He is also the guy that I talked about when I wrote that letter to the relief society about how awesome the Book of Mormon is.  Anyways, Fred only came to church probably 1 or 2 times while I was there but only stayed for sacrament.  Sister Askerlund told me that he is completely active!!  He comes and stays for all 3 hours and participates and is paying his tithing and got the priesthood!  I just about collapsed when she told me that!  So cool to know that all of that hard work wasn't for nothing! 

Oh no I am running out of time so I won't be able to tell you everything about MLC that I wish I could.  But MLC was all about the priesthood.  The priesthood is something that I have never really understood a lot about. But I have learned a lot about it on my mission.  The cool thing about the priesthood is that even though only men can hold an office in the priesthood, priesthood power affects everyone!  We can have and feel the power of the priesthood in our lives everyday.  That power is God's power.  And it is real.  I know that is true.  One of the reasons that I have to leave so soon is because we have to plan a training on the stuff that we learned at MLC to train to zone on it this week at zone training.  So hopefully I can tell you all more about it then.

Love you guys!  Hope that you have a great week!

Love,

Sister King

"I'm so grateful that I get to be a missionary!!"

Hello Family!

Can you believe it is already P-day again?  July sure flew by I will tell you that much!

Tuesday was miserably hot and humid.  But that was the first day it has been like that the whole entire summer.  People say that the summers here can be just as bad as the winters, but for some reason this has been a super mild summer.  It's been about 75 everyday and not too humid!  It's great!  The only problem is, I am worried that means that we are going to have another record breaking cold winter.  But we will see... :)  We had district meeting and guess who I got to see there.... Sis Packer!  She is officially down here in our zone so I will get to see her a lot more now.  #tendermercy  After district meeting we were able to have a lesson with Tubree.  She is progressing nicely.  I think that there might still be a few bumps in the road, but hopefully they will be resolved by August 9 and she will be able to be baptized.  We just had to teach her a few of the commandments that were left so it was a pretty laid back lesson.  Afterward, she was able to come to the Relief Society's recipe group with us.  It was so awesome!  All of the Relief Society sisters bring a sample of some of their favorite recipes so pretty much we just get to go and eat a bunch of yummy food.  But Tubree came this time and was able to make a lot of friends!  That was so awesome because it is so important for investigators and recent converts to have friends in the ward.  We have gotten really close to Tubree, but we aren't going to be here forever!  So now she has friends in the ward that will take good care of her.

Wednesday we did a lot of finding and we were able to talk to a lot of people.  One thing that was cool though is we went to contact this potential investigator because we really felt like we needed to see her that day.  But when we went to her house, she wasn't there.  :(  Later that day we were walking to a bus stop, and right when we passed a store she came walking out of it at the exact moment we were walking by!  Coincidence, I think NOT!  (Name that movie)  We were able to follow up with her on her Book of Mormon reading and she is not progressing very fast, but she is progressing nonetheless.  So we were grateful that we got to see her.  Also, on Wednesday Sarah was officially adopted by the Feezor's in our ward!  It is legally official!  Sarah truly sacrificed so much to become a member of this church and embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, and she is already being blessed so much for it.  She gained a new family-- and a new ward family too!

Thursday was pioneer day!  And also Sis. Silva's one year mark!  But we didn't really do anything to celebrate because we were so busy.  We were able to meet with Tubree again though which is always fun.  We went over the baptismal interview questions and it actually went pretty well.  As we were talking about her upcoming baptism I told her to be strong because I am sure that there has got to be some opposition coming her way.  I told her "Satan doesn't want you to get baptized" and she replied, "Who cares about Satan??"  haha if was also funny because our church starts at 9:00 a.m. and getting to church on time that early in the morning has always been a struggle with her.  She always gets there just after the sacrament and that is the reason that we go in the first place!  haha  So we were pretty bold with her and told her that she really needed to come to church on time especially leading up to her baptism.  She told us that on Saturday night she was going to sleep with her clothes on and just wake up and come.  haha she is sassy just like me so we get along really well.  There was a Spanish missionary meeting while we were there at the church having our lesson with Tubree.  We got done around the same time, so we introduced Tubree to President and Sister Cutler and she absolutely loved them!  She invited them to her baptism and everything haha.  So that was pretty cool too.

Friday we had a number of appointments that fell through... but we were able to meet a less active family in the ward that hopefully we can start working with!  They are AWESOME!  They both work for the FBI!  Yeah, i know right?  And we really hit it off and I think they like us.  So I am excited to start working with them. 

Saturday morning we were able to take Tubree to a baptism in the City Branch.  It was an amazing experience.  The Spirit was so strong and I think Tubree really enjoyed it.  During the ordinance, she leaned over to her 6 year old daughter and said, "Look, Mom is going to be doing that soon!"  It just warmed my heart.  We spent the entire rest of the day with Sis. Stewart running around and visiting about a million less active sisters in the ward.  Needless to say, we were exhausted by the end of the day.

Sunday- church is always AWESOME.  Tubree barely made it in time for the sacrament...  She took it out in the hall.  So we are getting there!  haha  Then for Sunday School we had the best Gospel Principles class of my whole entire mission-- and that is saying something.  The lesson was on service.  Somehow we got on the topic of how missionaries give service for 2 years of their life, and then all of a sudden all of the investigators in the room pretty much took over the lesson.  They all bore their testimonies about how the missionaries had changed their lives and how grateful they all were for everything that we had been doing.  The Spirit was so strong.  It was exactly what I needed to hear.  I often forget that even though we don't see the fruits of our labors, we are making a difference.  I had no idea that we had actually touched all of these peoples lives so much.  It was great.  Also- a member of the bishopric announced in Sacrament meeting that the whole ward is having a fast for us (the missionaries in their ward) this coming Sunday.  It has really motivated me so much to work hard this week so that we are doing everything that we possibly can to have miracles in the next coming weeks.  The missionaries in our ward have been working really hard.  Sarah was the first baptism that this ward has seen in a couple of years.  But now, one set of Elders in our ward is having 4 baptisms this coming Saturday and Tubree is getting baptized that Saturday after that.  Is is amazing to see how the missionary mentality of the ward has changed as the missionaries have been working hard and bringing people to church.  Miracles really are happening! 

Heavenly Father is so aware of us and is grateful for our efforts to move the work forward.  I am so grateful that I get to be a missionary!!

I love you guys so much!!!

Sister King 

We made the cupcakes with the mix you sent!

(Amy's note- I took this picture off of the Milwaukee Mission blog.)

Sometimes Sister Silva lets me go to the Disney store on P-days!

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

 

'Stallis Strong

Prayers have been answered because Sister Tanner and I will be staying together for another transfer here in West Allis!!!  I'm so grateful and I'm so excited.  I hope these next 6 weeks will be just as awesome as the last.  It is so weird that I have already been out a transfer.  I think that means I am 1/12 of the way done.  Crazy!  It is going by so fast!  And I can't believe that Sophia will be here on Wednesday.  Sis Tanner and I are going to try to swing by the Stake Center on Wednesday so hopefully I will see her!  I sure do love that girl.

Also, Wyatt I think got transferred to somewhere up in Green Bay so I won't be seeing him anytime soon.  Transfers seriously are crazy.  That is another reason that I know the church is true because there is no possible way that transfers could work if it wasn't.  Haha but Sis Tanner and I will be together this transfer so that is all I really care about.  Also I was thinking... there is this transfer and then the one after that is Mother's Day so I will get to talk to you guys!!!!  I can't believe it! I am so excited.  I know that I say it a lot but I sure do miss every single one of you.

All the other sisters were jealous of how awesome my trainer is :)

Here is what has been going on in 'stallis.

Tuesday was fun.  We had a zone training in the morning and that ended up taking most of the day because afterwards we all went out to Buffalo Wild Wings as a zone.  hahaha that was fun and also delicious.  After that we met with a new investigator that ended up coming to church this week so things are looking promising there.

Wednesday was probably the best day of my mission so far.  In the morning we didn't have much to do so we decided to set out and go tracting.  We decided that we would get off the bus somewhere around 80th street and then tract around there for an hour or two.  The bus driver missed our bus stop so we ended up getting off around 76th.  I don't know why but we decided to walk back to 80th street to tract.  At the time it didn't seem like we were being prompted very strongly to do it, but it was just kind of the way things worked out.  We met a lot of nice people on 80th street (as well as a lot of mean ones...) But the cool thing is that as we were walking down the street this girl came out of her front door and started walking to her car.  We crossed the street to try to talk to her before she left.  I handed her a mormon.org card and she gasped and said "I have always wanted to learn about this!"  She was in a hurry so we couldn't talk to her for very long but we set an appointment for later and then she left.  Her name is Tess  and  just 5 minutes later she texted us and said "I am so shocked that I ran into you girls."  I know without a doubt that we were supposed to run into her that day.  It wouldn't have happened if we hadn't have walked back all that way to 80th street.  Later that night we had dinner with Sarah who is the friend of one of our ward members and we had dinner at her house.  It was so fun!  She is so cute and she is so prepared and has so much faith.  She made us the yummiest dinner ever and then shared some of the experiences that she has had since she has started coming to church last month.  Her faith and testimony have really helped to strengthen my faith and testimony.  She is such an amazing example to me.  It is so fun because she really has become our friend.  I love Sarah because I have seen how the gospel has already changed her life for the better.  She is amazing.

I think the reason that Wednesday was so amazing is because it was the first day on my mission that I have truly felt like an instrument in the Lord's hands.  This is His work and He is the one preparing people.  I am just the instrument that He uses!  For example, with Tess

I know that Heavenly Father has been preparing her.  He sent us back to 80th street to find her!  Looking back I know that it was a spiritual prompting that we acted on and it is the best feeling in the world.  I love serving the Lord!

We were really looking forward to Thursday because we had an appointment scheduled for every hour.  That never happens because it usually takes us an hour or more to get from appointment to appointment on the bus, but we had worked it out so that members could come with us and drive us to appointments.  We were so stoked to have such a busy and successful day!  Most of the appointments ended up falling through... that's missionary work for ya.  But we were still able to get a lot done!  It was still a good day.

So good to see Sister Packer again!

All of the Sisters that I came out with together again!

Friday was New Missionary Training!  We got together with all of the missionaries that I came out with to have a training together and for President to see how our first transfer has been going.  It was so fun to get to see my MTC friends again.  Especially Sister Packer!  Oh how I have missed that girl.  She is so sweet and she seems to be doing well.  She is in Sun Prairie which is up by Madison.

Our training started out with President Cutler teaching us about some missionaries from the Book of Mormon.  One reason that I love the Cutlers so much is because they really are concerned about each of the individual missionaries and their conversions.  Even though trainings can be long, I have loved each and every one of them.  Then we got to have lunch and this was probably my favorite part of the day because I really got to catch up with all of the girls I came out with.  It was fun because I totally have the coolest stories so far.  Because we are in Milwaukee and we take the bus we meet crazy people every single day so I just told them all about all the drunk people we meet and that was fun.

After that we just did a lot of role playing and practicing teaching all of the different trainers that were there.  It was fun to get to teach all of the other trainers and they were all so nice.  That being said, I could not be more grateful that I lucked out with Sister Tanner.  The other trainers were nice but Sister Tanner is totally the best/coolest/funnest one.  Haha I was thinking about it as I ate lunch with both Sister Tanner and Sister Packer and I don't know how I lucked out with the two best companions in the whole mission to be my first two companions.  I feel so blessed!  I hope that I can be a good companion throughout my mission.  I also liked the New Missionary Training because it helped me to see how far I have come.  Just in six weeks I have already learned so much!  I know that I still have a loooooooooooong way to go, but I am grateful for how much I have grown so far.  The training was awesome.

After that we had dinner at the Boston's who are the super awesome members of our ward and we played marshmallow wars :)

Saturday morning we got the transfer text and we were STOKED to find out that we will be staying together! 

Sister Tanner and I got bored one night... haha

Over all, it was a pretty good week! And it was also a good transfer.  Excited to start the next one!

Today it is like 45 degrees outside so we are roasting!  And a member invited us to go to the zoo so that is what I will be doing for p-day today. 

I thought I would just leave you with the cool quote from President Monson that I like to remind myself of here in the mission field, especially when things get hard and it's tough to have a good attitude.

"There is only one thing that is more contagious than enthusiasm, and that is the lack of enthusiasm."

WE HAVE THE RESTORED GOSPEL ON THE EARTH!!!!  How exciting is that?  It really is such a big deal!  Be excited to share it with anyone that you can because the gospel truly is good news.

Love you all so much.  I appreciate your letters and e-mails more than you know!  Have an awesome week!

Love,

Sister King

Greetings from West Allis, Wisconsin!

Hello!!! Boy do I miss you guys!!!  Reading everyone's e-mails really has brightened my day and is going to make this week that much easier.  I got some e-mails from a lot of family friends and I just feel so blessed that there are people that are thinking about me and praying for me while I am here.  We really do need all the prayers we can get and I really do appreciate all of the support from family and friends back home.  I am so blessed!!! 

Matching with my homies: Sister Wilson and Sister Weaver

Well from your e-mails it sounds like everyone is dying to know about where I am and what I am doing haha.  Yes I am alive!  The last couple of days in the MTC was amazing.  My advice to anyone going into the MTC is to take advantage of every single moment you are there.  The MTC is a great place.  We left the MTC at 2:00 am on Tuesday morning, had a layover in Denver where I got to talk to my AMAZING family, and then headed into Milwaukee!  

In field orientation. 

Our other teacher, Brother Ferrin-- he is awesome! 

Sister Packer and I matching as usual... haha

My first memory of Wisconsin was flying over Lake Michigan.  I tried to get some pictures but they just don't do it justice.  It is so BIG and it is absolutely stunning.  Right now it's almost like the water was in the middle of a wave and then it froze.  It is absolutely breathtaking!  

Riding the bus to the airport at 2 AM! 

Flying to Wisconsin! 

Lake Michigan-- my first view of Wisconsin.

Our flight was delayed a while because it was so cold, so we ended up getting there around 2 pm.  As we walked through security, there was President and Sister Cutler, their daughter Megan, and the AP's.  It seriously all happened in slow motion.  I had dreamed about this moment for what seems like forever!  I will never forget the smile on president Cutler's face and the firm handshake he gave me.  He is an AMAZING man.  Usually when new missionaries get off the plane, they hand them a Book of Mormon and don't let them come back until they have placed it.  But they said it was way too cold to do it that day.  So turns out the deathly cold here was a blessing in disguise.  

We love each other! 

Everyone was seriously so jealous that I got to see my brother-in-law every day!
Thanks for visiting all the time Bryan, it was so fun!

Sister Packer and I with the investigator we taught, she is really just a teacher in the MTC.
We learned so much from her, she is great. 

We all loaded into a van and headed for the mission home!  We had lunch and then we started orientation with one of the senior couples here in the mission.  We were given debit cards. After orientation, the Cutler's looked down on us in mercy and allowed us to take a nap.  BEST NAP I'VE EVER HAD. We woke up, had dinner, and then took turns having our first interviews with President Cutler.  I loved every second of my interview.  I wasn't nervous at all.  He made me feel so welcome and I feel like he is my friend.  There were a lot of things that I was nervous about and that I had been praying about and when I sat down in his office he said, "Sister King, before we get started, I feel like there are a few things I should tell you."  

He proceeded to directly answer some of the questions and concerns I had been praying about.  Of course, being Mom's daughter, I started bawling.  It was amazing.  Such a testimony to me that President Cutler really is called of God and that he receives direct revelation for his missionaries.  He told me that he knows Wisconsin is exactly where I need to be, and I know that it is where I need to be too.  After interviews, we had a testimony meeting with all of the missionaries, and then headed off to bed early. 

The other Sister King in the MTC. 

Our room at the MTC.

Sister Packer and I with our Branch President, President Mosher.
Because we were the Sister Training Leaders, we got to work very closely with him-- he is such a great man. 

The next morning we woke up and got ready to go meet our trainers.  This is where I got nervous.  We went to the stake center and unloaded our luggage.  We lined up in the foyer of the chapel and the APs opened the door and as we walked inside there were all of the trainers singing called to serve as we filed into the chapel.  It was a really special moment. (ps the shift key doesn't work very well on this computer so sorry if not everything is capitalized correctly haha. Casey, maybe you can fix it for me so I don't look like a fool on the blog haha) it was also cool because when I walked in, there was one trainer that caught my eye.  I don't know how or why but I knew she was going to be my trainer.  

After we sat down, President Cutler would announce a trainer and then who they would be training.  Not gonna like, it was a lot like a reaping in the hunger games.  Anyways, my trainer is Sister Karlie Tanner!  She is AMAZING!  She actually keeps a mission blog and I had looked at it a couple of times before coming out here.  If I remember correctly, it is teamsistertanner.blogspot.com so you can check that out if you want to!  I hope she says nice things about me........ haha.  

What the MTC does to you. 

Love this Sister! 

We are assigned to West Allis.  West Allis is just southwest of Milwaukee.  In fact, part of west Milwaukee is in our area.  There are about 3 or 4 companionships of sisters in the WHOLE mission that don't have a car, and we are one of them!  Lucky us! haha I actually really don't mind that much.  The bus system here is okay.  The only problem is that it gets pretty darn cold waiting at the bus stop and walking places.  But that's ok!  I actually really think my testimony may be keeping me warm sometimes.  

West Allis is a pretty big city.  The ward here is awesome!  I have already met a lot of people and they are all so nice.  The ward feeds us every night just about.  So that's good.  There are 2 other sets of elders in our area and ward.  Our district leader is Elder Skylar Harmon and he went to Timpview!  He graduated the year before me.  I never knew him super well, but I do remember hearing a lot of good things about him around the halls of Timpview, so that is good. Also, I think he played basketball with Ryan freshman and sophmore year or something.  He is a really good missionary out here.  It is so fun to have someone from back home! We talk about provo stuff sometimes so that is fun. 

First thing I saw when I got off the plane-- I am definitely in Packer country.

We slept in these bunk-beds at the mission home. 

In front of the mission home! 

The rest of the day was spent unpacking and buying a couple of groceries.  We had an appointment that ended up falling through.  We had a relief society activity my first night here, so I got to know some of the ward members right off the bat! So that was good.  Then we went home and I tried to sleep! haha 

Last selfie with Sister Packer! I am going to miss this cute girl! 

My bedroom in our apartment in West Allis. 

Our living room, isn't Sister Tanner so cute?!

My first morning in Wisconsin.  We woke up and we are given an hour during the winter months for exercise in the morning.  So we did that and then got ready for the day.  Then we have a bunch of hours of studying, and your first 12 weeks in the field you are given an extra hour of companion study which is when most of the "training' happens.  So pretty much our whole entire morning is studying.  

Getting bundled up to hit the roads of West Allis. 

Waiting for an appointment that never showed up. 

A lot of what we do here in our mission is visit less actives.  Our ward actually has over 400 members, but probably more than half don't come.  So that is a lot of work for us missionaries to do!  In fact, that is what we mostly did this week- visited a bunch of less actives. Every single lesson we have had planned to teach this week, the person didn't show up.  Hahaha joys of missionary work!  But we stay positive and we do what we can! It is kind of hard though because the buses only come like every half hour, so we can't really get much done in a day.  If we go to an appointment and they don't show, it usually wastes about an hour and a half of our time AT LEAST. But we make do with what we have!  haha 

Our matching PJ's! 

I love Sister Tanner! 

Saturday was my favorite day here in the mission field so far.  Ok I know I only have like 4 days to choose from, but it was really good haha.  There was a baptism for a little girl that morning, so we invited one of our investigators to it!  Her name is L.  We took her on a church tour and showed her around the building.  The whole time she was like "I love the spirit, I feel here" and "this building has an amazing feeling." and then we took her to the baptism and she LOVED IT. " She was crying the whole time and was like "I feel so good!" haha it was so cute.  The tour could not have gone better.  I absolutely love L!  

After the baptism, Sister Tanner and I went to Kopp's.  Kopp's is a super famous frozen custard place here in Wisconsin and it was so good!  We went because Saturday was Sister Tanner's half way mark so we had to celebrate!  So sister tanner has been out 9 months. It is weird to think that when she goes home, I will be at my half way mark! It is going to go by fast!  After that we went to an appointment at the library that didn't show up... haha anyways, that night a family in our ward invited us over to play marshmallow wars!  They are the Boston family and they are AWESOME! Sister Boston is like the Aunt Jenni of West Allis.  They had marshmallow guns and we played in their basement.  It was like capture the flag but with shooting marshmallows at each other.  It was great!  (don't worry, my team won)  One time I went to shoot a marshmallow at Sister Tanner and she shot one right into my mouth hahahahaha.   I think it is really important to build relationships and trust with the members here because we want them to trust us to teach their friends the gospel. Anyways, it has been really hard, but I am loving it here in Wisconsin!  Sister Tanner is a great trainer and I think she is the perfect trainer specifically for me.  She is so kind and positive and she is so patient with me.  She is here to work hard, but she is here to have fun too.  It's great.  Plus she is a really good missionary, so I can learn a lot from her.  Please keep praying for us!  We really do need your prayers!  I would love to hear from all of you, so shoot me an e-mail or a letter in the mail!  Oh and send pictures!  I love to see what you guys are doing just as much as you probably want to see what I am doing!  Love you!  Sister King