Can You Believe It Is August??

So the sidewalks in West Allis always have these stamps on them that say the year they were constructed and the entire time I have been here I have been looking for one that said 1994 since that is the year I was born and I FINALLY found one this week!  It only took me 7 months... haha

Eli's baptism

HHello family!  

Another week has come and gone in West Allis.  And can you believe it is August??  Me neither.

Tuesday we had a really good district meeting.  My district leader asked me to give a training on a conference talk that I had been studying lately.  So I chose to talk about The Tender Mercies of the Lord by Elder Bednar.  It's something that I have been thinking a lot about lately.  I feel like the Lord blesses us with His tender mercies so much, that sometimes it can be hard to recognize them.  But when we are making a conscious effort to recognize the Lord's hand in our lives, we find it there more abundantly then we ever even thought.  I think especially as a missionary, there are so many miracles in my life everyday that sometimes it just becomes routine to have the Lord sending us so many blessings.  If that makes sense... haha.  We really need to take a step back and see how the Lord is blessing us and then thank Him for it.  If we recognize those blessings and thank Him for them, I feel like He is probably more likely to keep blessing us.  Also, the Lord's tender mercies are also how he can answer our prayers.  So that is pretty cool too.  This was totally one of those things that even though I was teaching our district about this, it was me that really needed to learn about it and study it.  So I was grateful for that.  That evening we had dinner with one of my very favorite families in the ward.  They were actually inactive for about 20 years and just recently started coming back to church at the beginning of this year.  It was seriously a miracle!  I have felt so blessed to be a part of their journey.  And they told us at dinner that he now has a calling in the Elders quorum presidency in our ward.  He is so humble about it, it is amazing.  It is so cool to see them so involved in the ward.  The gospel truly has blessed their lives so much!  Then on Tuesday evening, it was time for our exchange for the transfer.  Guess who got to go on another exchange with Sis. Tanner!!  I was beyond excited.  But this time, we got to go down to Kenosha together. 

Wednesday morning we woke up and got right to work in Kenosha.  There is so much going on down there!  We were able to visit many less active families and also some recent converts.  (It was amazing how much work we could get done when we had a car... haha)  We were also able to have a lesson with their investigator that just got baptized this past Saturday.  We taught her about enduring to the end.  It is so important that people understand that before they get baptized.  Because they get baptized and that's great everything, but then you have to keep going!  And that is the part that we are all at in life right now-- the keep going part.  haha So it was really cool to be able to bear my testimony to her about that.  It was also really fun to be able to just catch up with Sister Tanner.  It was cool to see how far we had both come the last time we went on an exchange together, but it really amazed me to see how we had both learned and grown so much just since the last exchange that we went on.  She is a great example to me.  I got back to West Allis that evening just in time to be able to make it to our Relief Society's ice cream social!  That was way fun.  I just love all of the women in this ward so much!  Tubree came to the activity and really got to know a lot of the sisters in the ward which was AWESOME.  They did this fun game where you bring 3 items in a paper bag that describe who you are and then everyone else has to guess who it is.  With my limited supplies as a missionary, I put in a mini basketball, a candy bar, and a picture of Jesus.  The whole ward could guess who I was right off the bat.  Haha so that was really fun. 

Thursday was an intense weekly planning session because we had a lot to plan for with Tubree's baptism coming up this week.  But with the time that we did have, we spent it contacting people at the state fair!  The state fair is HUGE in Wisconsin and is about a half a mile from our house.  I love it because it brings out all of the normal people onto the streets... haha.  So we have been able to teach a lot of people about the gospel as we walk and talk!  We were able to meet this really cool lady named Jennifer that was working at a parking lot.  We told her a little bit about our church and how the gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families.  She really opened up to us about how her dad is an alcoholic and it is tearing their family apart.  She asked how on earth Jesus Christ could help her family in this situation.  

I whipped out a Book of Mormon and read to her these verses from Alma chapter 7:

  11  And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

In a nutshell, I explained to her that Christ has experienced all of the hard things that we have experienced and he gets it.  And like it said in the end of verse 12, he did this so that he could know HOW to help us.  He knows how because he has felt it.  Because Jesus Christ overcame these things, with His help we can overcome them too.  She was so touched that she asked if she could have a copy of the book I was reading from.  Of course I told her yes!  :)  We then prayed with her and prayed for a special blessing on her father and her family.  It moved her to tears.  I know that the Spirit was there and I was glad that it was helping us teach.

Friday we had a really good lesson with Tubree in the home of a family in our ward.  They are an AWESOME family.  Their son is leaving to go on his mission to Uruguay at the end of this month and he is going to be great.  So we invited Tubree over to their home for the lesson.  It was cool because the mom and two of the kids stayed for the lesson and they were all able to bear their testimonies of the message that we shared.  It was awesome and it really helped to make the lesson more powerful.  So Tubree is getting ready for her baptism on Saturday!  A lot can happen in a week and we have a lot that we need to do to make sure that she is 100% ready and to make sure that everything is ready for that day.  So if you could plllllease keep Tubree in your prayers.  And also Sis. Silva and I.  We can use all the help that we can get too. :)  Later that night, a huge rainstorm rolled in while Sis. Silva and I were out and about.  We had forgotten our umbrellas and our apartment was 2 busses away to run back to grab them.  We felt that we really needed to contact one of our investigators anyway.  So we endured through the crazy rain waiting at bus stops and such.  We were praying so hard that Heavenly Father would bless us with a miracle for our diligence.  However, the investigator that we went to see wasn't home.  And we didn't meet anybody else either.  I was really sad about that and I had so much faith that Heavenly Father was going to bless us.  All I can think of is that those blessings are going to come later. :)  So we got home SOPPING wet that night haha.

Saturday was a miracle day in the West Allis ward!  There was one primary baptism and 4 investigator baptisms!  One of the sets of elders in our ward has been working really hard and they were able to help 4 of their investigator enter the waters of baptism that day.  It was amazing to be able to witness that.  The missionary spirit sure is alive in this ward!  I am so excited to watch Tubree be baptized this Saturday!

I love you all so much!  Please keep us in your prayers!

Love,

Sister King

CRAZY weather!

This week was pretty busy and absolutely flew by!  Can you believe that this is going to be the last week of June?  Super weird.  But, I love being busy :)

 

Tuesday-  We had district meeting and I really learned a lot.  We talked about "understanding".  The reason that we are willing to go to church and read our scriptures and pray every day is because we understand why it is important and we understand the blessings that come from it.  Our investigators and people that we are teaching don't understand that yet!  So when we help them understand by teaching them to their individual needs, it will lead them to act.  Nothing happens until our investigators act!  I really learned a lot that district meeting.  Tuesday night we had a lesson with Sarah.  She told us that she got to go visiting teaching for the first time this week!  Can you believe it??  Sarah is a visiting teacher now!  it is so exciting and I am so proud of her.  Also- she had her interview to get her patriachal blessing!!  So many good things are happening I can hardly even believe it!

 

Wednesday we had crazy weather.  In fact, this whole week has been CRAZY weather.  Like super crazy bad thunder and lightning storms.  Between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning there were 3200 strikes of lightning in Milwaukee.  Isn't that crazy?  Lightning was striking seriously ever couple of seconds.  The power went out in our apartment and there were trees everywhere in town that had been knocked down.  It was nuts! but we were kept safe. :) 

this past week, we haven't just experience crazy weather, but we have met some pretty crazy people too.  Wednesday afternoon we went to go contact a headquarter referral that we received for a lady named Happy Holiday.  The second we saw the name, we knew we were in for a treat.  we went to her house and she told us that she was a member of the church, but had stopped coming and was looking to "re-investgate."  so we started trying to get to know her a little better and asked her what made her want to start coming back to church.  Here is the kicker- she looks up at me and says, "I am Jesus Christ reincarnated in a woman's body."  Yeah, i know.  Sis. Silva and I could hardly keep it together.  We got out of there real quick.  hahahahahaha everytime I think about it I still laugh out loud.  but, that is west allis for ya!

 

Thursday-  You'll never believe it.  We got to meet Jesus again!  But this time it was a black lady.  We were waiting at a bus stop and I sat down to talk to this lady and introduced myself as Sister King.  she asked why I went by sister.  In my head I was thinking, "Yes!  This is great!  A perfect opportunity to teach her about the gospel and she is the one that brought it up!"  So I explained to her that we believe that God is our loving Heavenly Father and we are all of his children.  Because of that, it makes all of us brothers and sisters.  she looks at me and says, "NO.  God is not your Father.  He only has one son.  and that's me.  I am Jesus Christ."  hahahaha  Sis. Silva turned to look at me but I knew I couldn't look at her or else I wouldn't be able to keep it together.  this lady was seriously crazy.  She kind of reminds me of that one lady in that youtube video that's like, "ain't nobody got time for that!"  But anyways, after she said that there was this really awkward silence.  So I tried to fill it by getting to know her a little bit better.  I asked, "so, are you originally from Wisconsin."  She looks at me and says, "No!  i was born in Bethlehem!"  Duh, courtney.  Jesus was born in Bethlehem! hahahaha.  Yeah so those are the types of people that we meet on the bus here in Milwaukee.  I don't know what Sis. Silva and I are doing to deserve getting to meet Jesus twice, but we must be doing something right to deserve these blessings!  :)

Sis. Silva with our rent certificate!

Thursday  was also interviews with President Cutler.  I remember being so nervous for them last time, but I was actually really excited this time.  I love getting to talk to and learn from President Cutler.  This time, we were asked to come prepared to interviews having studied the Atonement from PMG.  I loved being able to study the Atonement.  It is my favorite thing to teach people.  My favorite quote (or one of my favorites) from Preach My Gospel says, "Everything that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ."  I love teaching others about Christ's Atonement, but because on my mission I have been so focused on others, lots of times I forget that the Atonement applies to me too.  I always expect a lot from myself and sometimes I feel inadequate even for Christ's Atonement, which I know is silly.  I just want to make sure that I am doing all that I possibly can be doing!  I shared some of these thoughts with President Cutler.  He told me that sometimes we think that we are saved by grace after all we can do.  But the Atonement has to time frame.  It is infinite!  Christ's Atonement helps us through things and helps us to become better as we face things.  He said a lot of other things that blew my mind that I really wish I could remember.  But the one thing that I do remember is that the Spirit was so strong and I know without a doubt that Christ's Atonement was for me!  And it is for all of the people that I am here to touch in Wisconsin as well.  So pretty much I left that interview feeling on top of the world, which is exactly what I needed.  The rest of the day we spent weekly planning.  And our apartment complex had a picnic!  So Sis. Silva and I went to get to know our neighbors a little more.  They had a raffle to give away a certificate for $500 dollars off your rent, and Sis. Silva and I won!  haha that was cool.

 

Friday was exchanges and guess what!  I got to be with Sister Tanner for the day in West Allis again!!!!!!!  What a tender mercy that was.  I didn't even realize how much I missed her until I got to be companions with her again! When we started teaching together again, it was almost as if she had never left.  we were able to have a lesson with Sarah that night and it was so fun to be reunited with the 3 of us again.  we all grew so close as we helped Sarah on her journey.  Getting to be with Sister Tanner again also helped me to see how far I have come since she left. 

Sister Tanner and I with Sis. Rebarchik.  She is an amazing blessing to the missionaries in West Allis.

So good to be with Sister Tanner again!

Saturday we got to go and visit a couple of less actives that Sister Tanner and I worked with a lot when she was here.  That was cool because I think she sparked a fire under one that she had a really good relationship with.  we were also able to meet with Tubree and this time she brought her son Josiah and we set a baptismal date with both of them!  Miracles happen on exchanges.  But then it came time for Sister Tanner to head back to Kenosha :(.  I was really sad to see her go, but also happy to have Sis. Silva back with me.  On Saturday night, Sister Stewart in our ward had all 6 of the missionaries in our ward over to her house for dinner.  One of the Elders was giving the spiritual thought at the end of the lesson from a conference talk that sounded really familiar, but I couldn't remember just which one it was.  He commited everyone to be better member missionaries, and then for his promised blessing he said, "If you to this, you will find joy.  Just like this family!"  He whips up the Ensign that he had been reading from and there was the picture of our family in the Ensign back in 2009. hahahaha it was super funny.  I guess he had just happened to read that Ensign earlier in the day and came across our picture. 

 

Sunday church was exactly what I needed to hear.  funny how it usually works out that way.  We got to go to the Dominguez's for dinner!  Love them.  But the world cup was on and that was a super big temptation for me.  but don't worry, I withstood.  All I know is I better get a lot of blessings for missing it!  haha

 

So this week was pretty awesome!  I am praying for you all!  Thanks so much for being the best family ever!  love you!!!

4 Months!!

Can you believe it was a just a week ago that we were talking to each other???  It seems like a lifetime ago!  Mom- you asked me if I was homesick or if talking to you guys affected the work this past week.  It was actually something that I was really worried about.  I prayed so hard to Heavenly Father to help me continue to be focused and motivated after I got to talk to you.  It was seriously the biggest tender mercy because we ended up having a really good and successful day that day!  So many miracles had happened that day.  I KNOW that if we had had a bad day, then talking to you would have made me feel super homesick and not motivated to do anything.  But because it had been such a successful day, I was excited to get back to work after talking to you.  I know that was a direct answer to my prayer and a blessing from Heavenly Father.  Talking to you actually really gave me the push and the motivation that I needed.  Knowing that you guys are proud of me and that I have so much support from the people that I love most has made a world of a difference.  I know that getting to talk to your family is an experience that is different for every missionary, but I was so grateful for it!

Monday-  Ok so last Monday there were CRAZY rainstorms.  Like seriously some of the craziest weather I have ever seen.  There were 3 flash flood warnings.  Sister Newton and I were lucky enough to be caught outside right in the middle of one, so that was interesting.  But we are alive and here to tell the tale.

Tuesday was Zone Conference and it was absolutely amazing.  I really just can't speak highly enough of the Cutler's and how inspired they are.  They gave us trainings on how important the family is.  That is one thing that I noticed in my setting apart blessing as I was reading it the other day.  It counsels me to preach the importance of families and how we can be together forever as much as I can.  I was grateful for this training because I do want to make families a focus for me personally here on my mission.  It really is the biggest blessing that we get to be together forever.  We also talked about finding "the one" that we were sent here on our missions to find.  I really think that there is at least one person in every area that I serve in that needs me, Sister Courtney King, to find them and share my testimony with them.  I am determined to work hard to make sure that Heavenly Father will always be able to bless me with those specific opportunities.  Zone Conference was awesome because I got to see Sister Tanner again!  Boy, have I missed her.  It was really funny, Sis. Tanner volunteered me and Sister Newton to do a musical number at the zone conference so we decided that we were going to get her back.  Earlier in the week we had sent her this fake letter from an ex-boyfriend pretty much proclaiming his love for her and asking for her hand in marriage.  It was legit!  When we got to zone conference she started telling us all about this letter that she had gotten.  Sis Newton and I started CRACKING UP.  She totally fell for it!  Haha one of my prouder moments... :)

Wednesday was a MIRACLE day!  We found this brand new part member family and they are THE BOMB!  It is this couple that is engaged and they have the cutest little 1 year old daughter and another baby on the way.  The mom, Melissa, is a member and joined the church back when she was a teenager.  She hasn't been coming for the past couple of years because her fiance, Hunter, isn't very religious.  But we got in there and established a really good relationship with them.  We are so excited to start teaching them.  We were super nervous because we knew that a lot was riding on this first lesson.  But then a few minutes after we left we got a text from Melissa that said,

"Thank you so much for coming today.  You guys were so perfect, and Hunter is already excited to see you next week.  I know now for sure that he will join the church, maybe sooner than I thought.  Never thought this day would come."

I can not even begin to tell you how much that text meant to me.  After getting the training the day before about finding "the one" I really think this family could be the one for me!

Later that day we had another lesson with our investigator Tubree.  I think I told you a little about her last week.  The lesson went so amazingly well!  We taught her the Plan of Salvation.  She loved the idea of the Spirit World and how everyone will have a equal opportunity to accept the gospel there.  I have never really thought about that a lot before.  I think I have taken that for granted sometimes.  It really is amazing that our Heavenly Father loves us so much and he is so merciful that He wants to give us every opportunity to make the right choice so that we can make it back to live with Him again.  How grateful I am for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation!

 

Thursday was my 4 month mark!  That is a good chunk of time!  It doesn't seem like very much when you think about how I still have 14 more months ahead of me, but hey!  My mission is almost a third of the way over!  There is so much that I have to learn and so much that I want to accomplish still!  Time is going by fast and slow all at the same time.  To celebrate we went to Organ Piper's Pizza for dinner with the sisters from Muskego Lakes because Sister Pope came out with me so it was her 4 month mark too.  It is the coolest restaurant ever!  Glad we got to go.

 Friday we met with Fred.  Last week's lesson didn't go so hot.  He hadn't been reading in the Book of Mormon.  But this week was so much better- he had been reading this week!  I don't think that is a coincidence.  Later that night we had dinner at Sarah's house.  When we got there, we decided to invite Tubree over to join us last minute and she ended up coming!  It was so fun!  Tubree and Sarah get along great and their daughters are the same age so they love to play together.  Sarah is so excited to help others learn about this gospel now that she has seen how much it has blessed her life.  We had an awesome discussion about how the Book of Mormon has changed our lives and the Spirit was so strong.  Tubree has started reading the Book of Mormon and has already seen a difference in her life.  It was such a wonderful night!

 

Saturday we had another lesson with Tubree.  She is seriously my new favorite person.  We taught her to Gospel of Jesus Christ and she loved that as well.  She is so golden.  So grateful that Heavenly Father is letting us teach her.  Later that night we went to visit a less-active lady in our ward.  She has MS and lives in an assisted living center.  She can hardly move and can't talk very well.  So trying to talk with her didn't work very well.  Instead, we decided that we would sing hymns to her.  The Spirit was so strong in that room as we sang and it brought tears to her eyes.  There were even some of the workers there that stopped in to listen to us singing.  Such a cool experience. 

 

Sunday Tubree came to church and this time she brought her 16 year old son, Josiah too!  He is way cool and has a lot of potential.  Tubree is seriously the biggest miracle. 

 

That is pretty much it for this week.  So many good things are happening here in West Allis!  Thank you so much for your letters and e-mails!  You are the best!

 

Love,

Sister King

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