#Because He Lives

Hey Fam!

Gabby and Sister King wishing Mom a Happy Birthday!

Super sorry but I don't have a ton of time today.  We have been pretty busy and myldsmail was down for a while today so not a lot of time but here is a quick update:

So pretty much if you want an update of what we have been doing, we have been doing a LOT of tracting.  We have been pushing the church's new Because He Lives initiative.  If you haven't watched that video yet, do it now!

helives.mormon.org

also while you are at it watch this one from last year.  MY FAVE

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng

Being a missionary at Easter time is the best because people are a lot more open to hearing what we have to say.  People that usually would slam the door in our faces will listen for at least a second.  That is the thing about Wausau- most people here are already very religious.  Everyone is either Lutheran or Catholic.  It makes me so happy to see people that have faith in the Savior.  In Milwaukee and especially in Madison I met a lot of atheists or people that just didn't care.  So we have been telling people about this Easter video to try to add to their Easter experience. 

Selfie with our local Jehovah's Witnesses!

How I felt about our empty mail box

Me with Holden's Flat Stanley

My favorite scripture about Christ's resurrection is in Mosiah 16:

 7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.
 8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death‍ is swallowed up in Christ.
 9 He is the light‍ and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.

The sting of death is swallowed up in Christ!  He overcame both spiritual death and physical death as well.  Because of Him, we will get to be united as a family again in our perfect resurrected bodies. And the amazing thing about this is that resurrection is a gift for everyone here on earth no matter what choices they made.  Man, Christ must love us a lot.

We met with our new investigator this week.  He was just sitting outside his house and I went up and started talking to him.  He is recently divorced and having a really hard time.  We testified of the Book of Mormon and he accepted a return appointment to learn more.  We have taught him the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and he came to church yesterday!  So more to come on him.

The women's broadcast this past weekend was a huge highlight for me.  LOVED the focus on the family. Though it did make me miss my family, especially because is was Mom's birthday.  But like I said before, we will all be together forever.  So no big.  Favorite thing that I learned from that meeting- God has a plan for each of us, but He also has His timetable.  Something that is always good to keep in mind.

The broadcast made me even more STOKED for general conference coming up this weekend.  General conference is seriously like Christmas morn for a missionary.  So sad that this is my last one!  Excited to hear what all of you think about conference this year!

Also- I thought I would share with you something that Sister Hammatt shared with me this week.  I guess they had a Jerusalem expert come to their mission to teach them about Jesus Christ.  

Apparently there is a sign in the Garden of Gethsemane that says, "You have never before been to this place, but your sins have."

I love that!  The Savior truly suffered for each of our sins.  He loves us so much.  So grateful for this Easter season that we have to celebrate that.  And what better way to celebrate than hearing from his prophet on the earth today.

Love you all!  Happy Easter and Happy General Conference!

Love,
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