First week training!

Hi Family!

So I made it through my first week of training and taking over the area!  Yay!  :)

Though this past week has been one of the most overwhelming and stressful of not just my mission but my entire life, I could definitely feel the power of your prayers helping me through.  I could also see the hand of the Lord in helping me.  It was a great week.

My birthday package from the Smart's!

To finish out my birthday on Monday we were able to go out to lunch with the elders in the district and then go to dinner at one of my favorite member's houses.  They made me the most delicious chocolate almond birthday cake.  And then for FHE we went over to a Spanish part-member family's house and tie dyed t-shirts!  It was definitely a fun day.

My birthday lunch with my district at Nitty Gritty

The Allred's made me a birthday cake :)

The Thurston's got me a birthday present!

Tuesday was pretty crazy because we were running around doing so many last minute things before transfers.  We were able to say goodbye to a lot of investigators and less active members and they all seem excited that I am still going to be here.  So that's good.  We had a super powerful last lesson with Rachel.  The experiences that we had with one another of her journey to baptism were amazing and we grew really close.  So that was a tough goodbye.  Later that night we went and stayed at the Madison 2nd sisters apartment to make things easier for transfers the next day. 

Wednesday was TRANSFERS!!!  It was pretty crazy and hectic but everything ended up working out fine.  Instead of waiting at the church, 4 sisters that were waiting for their new companions all came and we worked in the Mad 2 area.  we visited some recent converts and then went out to lunch together.  Then we headed to the church to pick up my new companion.

Some last pictures with Sister Brewster.

Sister Sierra Hammatt is an amazing person.  She is 19 and she is from Appleton Wisconsin.  She is a trial missionary because when she was 16 her lung collapsed in an accident and they just want to make sure that she can handle a mission before they send her out for good.  But President told me that there is no doubt in his mind that she will serve the rest of her mission.  So one cool thing is that she will be receiving her actual mission call within the next few weeks and we will get to open it together!  So that will be cool.  Sister Hammatt went to BYU for a year before and she is studying English and Editing and plans to go to law school after her undergrad.  She is so awesome and we have a lot in common and we click really well.  She came out on her mission so prepared and already pretty much knows what she is doing!  Also- she speaks Spanish!!!  So she has been able to communicate with a lot of the Spanish members and she can talk to the Hispanics that me meet on the bus and stuff.  So that has been pretty much the coolest thing. We are going to have an amazing transfer together.

My greenie Sister Hammatt!

When we got back to our apartment she unpacked a little and then we headed out to work!  I was able to navigate the buses and get us to our appointments that night which was a huge tender mercy.  AND we ended up meeting 2 new investigators along the way.  So that was pretty amazing

Day 2 into the transfer and we are already matching.  It's going to be a great transfer!  :)

Thursday we were able to meet with Myrtle again but she had some pretty sad news.  She ended up moving to Indiana this weekend!  :( that was really sad because she was our most progressing investigator.  But I have faith that the Lord is going to bless us and send us some other investigators to help keep us busy.  It is also cool because Sister Hammatt has a family friend here in Madison that actually doesn't live too far from us.  So we went to and gave her a Book of Mormon and will hopefully be able to start teaching her this week.

Friday we spent most of our day volunteering at a Blood Drive at EPIC.  If you haven't heard of EPIC then you should look it up because it is a really cool company with the most amazing facility I have ever seen.  And they like to hire people from BYU, so that is pretty cool.  Many of our ward members work there.  We met a lot of cool people at the blood drive and planted many seeds.  But I think the coolest part was when we were driving back in the shuttle with another one of the Red Cross volunteers.  She told us that she thought that it was amazing that not only do we come on missions to spread the gospel, but we also come to give service and to help people.  She was super sweet and her heart is softening too!

Saturday was pretty crazy.  We met with some more recent converts and then we were also able to have a lesson with Rachel.  We talked to her all about the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  We talked about the different roles that the Holy Ghost plays in our lives, especially when we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and have it as a constant companion.  Something that I have realized since I have been on my mission is that recognizing how the Spirit is really hard for me.  I was blessed enough to grow up in a home where the Spirit was constantly and consistently there.  So because I am so used to feeling it, sometimes the only times I can notice the Spirit is when it is gone.  If that makes sense.  But I love the Holy Ghost and my goal is to do everything I possibly can in my life to always be living worthy to have it has a constant companion.  And how cool is it that Heavenly Father loves us to much that he has given us the Holy Ghost??  Like we get to have a member of the GODHEAD with us constantly to help us!  What an amazing blessing.

Then Sunday morning, Rachel was confirmed!  It was a beautiful experience and I for sure felt the Spirit there. 

Overall, it was a great week.  I really could FEEL your prayers this week.  It was the coolest thing.  Thank you so much for all that you do for me.  I love you so much!!  Have an amazing week!

Sister King

P-DAY B-DAY!

Sis. Brewster was so sweet and decorated the apartment this morning.

Hello Family!!!

Ok so much to tell you guys!!!  This week has been absolutely insane!  For starters, this week is transfers.  I didn't say anything about it last week because Sister Brewster and I weren't expecting it to really affect us.  We thought we would be together until Sis. Brewster goes home in December.  But then the transfer text came on Saturday and we found out that she actually would be leaving.  We just checked the transfer board a few seconds ago and she is not going too far... She is going to be my Sister Training Leader in the Madison 2nd ward.  As for me, I will be training here in the Madison 1st ward!  I am beyond nervous.  I felt nervous just knowing that I was going to be taking over the area after only being here one transfer, but now I will be training a brand new missionary too!  All I can say is that I am really going to need the Lord's help on this one.  Please keep me in your prayers!

Let me just start back at the beginning of the week...

Tuesday we had our last district meeting of the transfer.  Didn't this transfer just fly by?  Seems like just yesterday that I got here to Madison, and not I have a whole transfer under my belt!  It was a super awesome district meeting.  We talked all about asking our investigators what we call "inspired questions."  Asking them the questions that Christ would ask them if he were here to help them open up.  It was really cool and we received a lot of revelation for our area and the people that we are working with.  So that was pretty cool.  We also had a district testimony meeting which I absolutely love.  Our district really did see miracles this transfer!  We have been working hard.

My district this transfer

Mad 1!

We made dinner for a recent convert, Janet.

Wednesday we had a lesson with our investigator Zoe.  She is pretty solid and has some righteous desires, but has gotten caught up on the whole women and the priesthood thing.  So it was kind of an interesting lesson.  I just bore my testimony to her that we aren't going to understand everything here in this life.  But as long as we know that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith restored the gospel, and that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today, nothing else matters.  It will all fall into place.  It is kind of interesting because a lot of those types of things that bother a lot of people about the church don't really bother me.... But they seem to bother a lot a people here in Madison.  So I just do my best to answer their questions the way Jesus would and be the best representative of Him that I can be

Out for hot chocolate because it is ALREADY FREEZING COLD :)

This is Estefany and she is one of the spanish members in the ward.  She just got her personal progress award, so we took her out to hot chocolate!

Thursday we had a lesson with Rachel.  We talked to her about callings and service in the church.  She is super excited to receive a calling and start visiting teaching!  So that is pretty awesome.  We also had a lesson with a brand new investigator named Myrtle.  Her fiance is a member of the church so he wanted her to take the missionary lessons.  It was such a miracle- we set a baptismal date with her in the very first lesson!  December 13!  So that is pretty awesome.  The work sure is going strong here in Madison.

Friday we had another lesson with Rachel.  She gave us really cute gifts.  I will cherish my picture of the temple from her for my entire life.  She really is a special daughter of our Father in Heaven.  We talked a little bit about the baptismal covenant that she would be making and we also talked about enduring to the end.  The is what she has to work on now for the rest of her life!  Enduring to the end!  We also shared our favorite scriptures about Jesus Christ in the New Testament.  Rachel was Jewish before, so it has been amazing to see her discover her Savior and what He means to her.

Rachel gave Sis. Brewster and I gifts the day before her baptism

Saturday was the craziest but best day ever.  We woke up and got to go over to the Allred's house to have a yummy breakfast and then watch conference together with Rachel.  We found out right before conference started that Sis. Brewster was going to be transferred, so that was kind of sad.  But in order to lighten up the mood, Rachel opened her brand new quad.  And she absolutely loved it!  The look on her face was priceless.  As soon as the conference session ended, we headed off to the church for Rachel's baptism.  It was the most powerful baptismal service I have ever attended.  The turn out from the ward was great!  We didn't even all fit in the Relief Society room.  Everybody just loves Rachel so much.  Rachel had asked me to give the talk on baptism, so that was super nerve wracking.  But I just bore my testimony of Jesus Christ and how Rachel is following his example.  It was pretty awesome.  But the best moment of the whole day was when Rachel got to bear her testimony.  I will send you a copy of it because I just won't do it justice.  But Rachel's testimony just absolutely glows through her.  It was an amazing experience!

Love this girl!

Sunday we got to have breakfast before conference with my favorites.... The Thurston's!  Our investigator Zoe came with us so that was pretty awesome.  You can always count on the prophet to invite the Spirit. :)  Then we watched the afternoon session with another favorite family in the ward.  It was the biggest tender mercy to get to watch most of the sessions in members homes.  Made me miss you guys!  But that's ok. 

Anyways as for my birthday today!  We are going on to lunch with my district!  So that should be pretty fun.  But mostly it was just the best birthday present to get to  read all of my e-mails from you guys today.  Thank you so much for being the best family ever.  I loved all of the cards and letters that you sent me.  Each and every one meant so much to me.  I love you guys so much!  Have a great week.

And remember, please keep me in your prayers a little extra! 

Love, 

Sister King

My Birthday package!

Opening birthday presents!

Life in the Empty Sea (that's what the cool kids call the MTC these days...)

Hello!  I miss you so much already!  It is so weird that I have already been here for a week and now I get to write to all of you!  This week has been crazy and so much has happened and changed already!  So this letter might be a little chaotic and messy, but I will do my best.

Loved running into Elder Merrill! 
It's funny, Andrew was in the mission prep class with me when I met Sister Packer for the first time.

It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone on Wednesday.  But they put me right to work!  It was so fun to have Mom's friend be the one that put the nametag on me. I think she had been looking for me to put it on so that was really sweet of her.  Then, I found out that my companion was Sister Packer and i KNEW everything was going to be ok.  She is amazing and we are already best friends.  I love it.  We work really well together and we fill in where the other lacks especially when it comes to teaching.  I am so grateful to have her as a companion.  Because of that I have never really felt lonely here at the MTC.  Such a tender mercy from Heavenly Father.  

All of the other elders and sisters in my zone and district are amazing too.  Sis packer and I are really good friends with another companionship here in our district named sister ormsby from perry Utah and sister Plante from Orem.  They are so hilarious!  Sister Ormsby kind of reminds me of Audrey Nelson.  There is an Elder in our zone named Elder Lore and I swear to you he is Jarett Tanner in the flesh.  He is hilarious.  My district is all sisters so that is pretty weird.  The other district in our zone has 4 sister and 4 elders so the elders are really outnumbered.  It is kind of nice to have an all sisters district because we are able to focus better than the district with elders i think... haha.

When I got home the first night and started unpacking a little bit I found a present that abby left me in my suitcase!  It was so sweet and the letter definitely made me cry.  Thank you abby!  I love you!

Our teachers in our classes are amazing too.  We learn a lot and really feel the spirit but we have fun too.  One of our teachers looks EXACTLY like frozone from the incredibles.  Or obama.  Take your pick.  

On Thursday we met our Branch President and had interviews with him.  After the interviews and a short testimony meeting, Sister Packer and I were called as the Sister Training Leaders for our Zone.  This basically means we go to a lot of meetings and trainings and are in charge of orientation for new elders and sisters.  And we are in charge of looking out for the sisters in our zone.  It is a lot of responsibility.  It was very humbling because there are plenty of other AMAZING sisters in our zone.  But if Heavenly Father trusts us to do this, then I know we can do it with his help.

On Friday I ran into Elder Jared Richardson!  That was fun.  He left earlier this week.  I was able to run into him a couple of times actually.  We got a picture so I will try to figure out how to send pictures in a little.  We started teaching our first investigator on Friday.  Her name is Darla.  The lesson did NOT go well.  Haha you could tell is was mine and sister packer's first lesson.  It was very humbling and exactly what I needed though.  Because I know that I can't do this without Heavenly Father's help.  And I DEFINITELY can't teach ANY lessons without listening to the Spirit.

Sunday was great!  There is that thing that people say that if you can just make it to Sunday in the MTC then you will be fine, and it so totally true.  Sunday was like a mini P-day.  It was great.  Except for Sister Packer and I had a million meetings because we are the sister training leaders.  But it was still great!  Our walk to the temple was around 1:30ish I think.  So you all were in church.  If you try to come to the temple next week then don't let me see you because I think that would be hard for me.  But the temple walk was amazing! As much as i absolutely love it here, the MTC is for sure like a prison.  We are crammed inside of our cave of a classroom quite literally all day so it was so nice to leave and breathe in fresh air!  I forgot what sunshine was.  

On Sunday they let the Sisters watch Music and the Spoken word (which was AWESOME) and then all of the sisters in the MTC meet together for relief society.  Sister Wixom (the primary general president) came and spoke to us for relief society.  It was way good.For sacrament meetings here in the MTC they call on random missionaries to speak.  I think it is supposed to be practice for the field. haha I played the piano and actually did ok with a couple of songs I had never really played before.  Then on Sunday night we had the MTC wide devotional!  that was way cool too!    Sheri Dew spoke!  One thing that I remember she said was "Conversion requires immersion."  That is something that I need to remember here.  I am completely immersed in the gospel and I love it!  I need to help my investigators do that as well.  At the devotional I got to see Elder Merrill!  I was so happy to see him!  He is great. At dinner I saw Jared Roy and he told me that Ashley started varsity!  I WAS SO STOKED.  I told him to tell her I celebrated by eating a bowl of cereal.  I hope you understood my inside joke.  I AM SO PROUD OF YOU ASH!!  You're awesome.  I love hearing the updates of your games.  

PS I hope you had a happy birthday!  and i hope you found the present I left you.

Monday started bad and ended great.  One of the Sisters in our zone has mono I guess...  So she was sick all day.  And a lot of the sisters in our zone were dealing with that.  She got a blessing from our zone leaders and is starting to do better.  After having to deal with that, Bryan brought the cupcakes that Abby had made!  It was the best thing ever!  It was Sister Brown's 21 birthday.  We had a mini birthday for her back at our residence hall.  Everyone loved the cupcakes.  They were great.  And all of the sisters told me that I have the best little sister in the world.  But I already knew that.  Sister Brown wanted me to make sure I told you thanks too.  She said it was the best birthday she has had in a long time.  So thanks Abby!  It really was so thoughtful of you!  

On Monday we started teaching our TRC investigator.  TRC is basically you go in and teach and you don't know if they are members or not.  Lots of times it is converts replaying their own conversions and the experiences they had while we teach them.  But lots of them are real investigators!  In fact, the MTC had 2 baptisms in the last couple of weeks.  That means brand new missionaries converted them!  So we are teaching Cindy.She is from Madagascar and she is awesome and our lessons are going well.  We are getting to be better teachers.

Tuesday I had a really cool experience with a lady who is the wife of one of the branch presidency members that knew Grandma King.  Could you dear elder me their address so i can send them a hand written letter of what happened?  I don't have time to e-mail it.  

Also on Tuesday I got my first package from the Harrison family!  I loved it and it made my day.  Will you please be sure to tell them how much I appreciated it and how much I love them.  They send treats for my whole district!  I love them!  On Tuesday night there was another MTC wide devotional.  Sister Packer and I sang in the choir so that was way cool.  Also, Elder Merrill was in the choir so I got to hang out with him for a while.  FUN!  Gerald Cause came and spoke.  He is the first counselor in the presiding bishopric.He is french so it was kind of hard to understand what he was saying.... but he talked about how if we saw Christ, would we recognize him?  Interesting to think about.  That is actually what we decided to talk to Cindy about in one of our lessons. 

On Tuesday night I was laying in bed and I had a thought.  Last Tuesday I was laying in my own bed at home, today I am laying in my bed at the MTC, and next Tuesday I will be sleeping in Wisconsin.  CRAZY! 

Then Wednesday came.  A bunch of new missionaries were getting here!  SO WEIRD to think that it was me last week.  I have learned so much since then.  It was fun because since Sister Packer and I are the Sister Training Leaders, we got to do orientation for the new district of missionaries coming to our zone.  It ended up being an entire district of Elders that are going to Virginia.  It was fun to teach them what we know about the MTC so far.  In our lesson with Darla on Wednesday, I felt prompted to invite her to be baptized.  I was TERRIFIED, but guess what!  SHE SAID YES!  I wish you could have seen the celebratory dance Sister Packer and I did in the hall when we left.  I had asked Cindy to be baptized once before and she said no.... haha so I told myself I would never do it again.  But then I really felt prompted to ask Darla.  It was great!  The spirit is awesome.

Thank you so much for your letters!  We get the Dear Elder letters everyday so I REALLY have appreciated those.  Please send me more!  ANYONE AND EVERYONE WRITE ME!!!  I didn't realize how much missionaries love mail, but those letters I have been getting are GOLD.  Thanks mom, dad, and casey!  I love you guys.  Bryan is off the hook because I see him everyday.

I have seen a lot of people here.  Sara Ripley and CaLea Bagley from soccer, Jared Richardson, Andrew Merrill, Kris Crowther, Syd Lamb's Aunt, and a ton of friends from BYU.  It is so cool that we are all here to serve the Lord! The cafeteria food is great!  It actually isn't too unhealthy, its just that they serve you a full meal for breakfast, a full meal for lunch, and a full meal for dinner so Sister packer and I usually try to eat just half of what they give us.  haha it doesn't always go well but we are trying.

Overall, I really am having a great time here!  So much has happened that I can't even begin to explain to you how much I have learned.  I LOVE this gospel.  I love the opportunity I have to share it with others.  I thought I knew before I came here that this is what I was supposed to be doing.  But I ABSOLUTELY without a doubt know that this is where I am supposed to be.  I have really grown a lot spiritually.  I love that I can feel the Spirit pretty much all day long.  It really is a blessing.  I love being a missionary!  

I love you so much! Write me!

Love, Sister King

PS  What blood type was President Hinckley?

       Be positive

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA MTC HUMOR!!!!!

Love you guys!