This is it!

Well family, this is it.  And I can't even believe it.

It is really hard to put into words how I feel about the last 18 months of my life.  But what I do know is that the decision I made to serve a mission is the best choice I have made thus far in my life.  Being a set-apart representative of Jesus Christ is the most incredible, fulfilling, and meaningful thing you could ever choose to do.  I feel so blessed that I have been able to feel that and see that this last year and a half.  The reason that missions are so special is because they are a front row ticket to watching the Atonement work.  You get to watch the Atonement work in the lives of everyone around you, but most importantly you get to watch the Atonement work in your own life.  Missions are really hard.  And they literally wouldn't even be possible without the Atonement to help enable us to accomplish the things our Heavenly Father has asked us to do. 

I have learned a lot.

I have come to know that Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ love us.  They love us so much!  They love us each individually and perfectly.  They show their love to us by the tender mercies that we see in our lives everyday, and often times through other people.  They love us so much that they want each and every one of us to return to live with our Father again and be exalted in the Celestial Kingdom.  God knows us better than we know ourselves.  He knows what is best for us and he knows what we need to become better- even if those things are hard.  Jesus Christ understands us perfectly because he has felt and experienced everything that we have ever felt and experienced.  God loved us enough to send us His only Begotten Son, and Christ loved us enough to perform His infinite Atonement.  That is love.

I have also learned that the Book of Mormon is true.  I enjoyed reading from the Book of Mormon before my mission.  But not until now have I come to understand its role in the Restoration and its importance in helping us to learn more about Jesus Christ.  The Book of Mormon testifies of Christ EVERYWHERE.  I truly believe that the real reason that missions are so life changing is because we devote this time to not just reading but studying from the Book of Mormon every single day and helping others to learn about it as well.  The Book of Mormon is how I learned about the Atonement.  There is a special power that comes into our lives as we read the Book of Mormon every single day.  I can't even describe it.  You just have to do it yourself and find out the difference that reading the Book of Mormon makes.  The Book of Mormon is also how we can come to know the church is true and that the gospel really was restored through Joseph Smith.  If the Book of Mormon is true, then Joseph Smith really was a prophet and this is his church on the earth!  The Book of Mormon is a book with a promise.  I have done as Moroni directs and asked God.  I will tell you this much- The Book of Mormon is true.

I have learned that Eternal life= Family life.  Living with God and our families forever!  The gospel blesses families so much!  I already knew that because I have seen what the gospel has done to my own family.  But on my mission I have seen families that don't know about these principles start to apply them, and they are forever changed.  They are happier and they are closer!  When your family starts to live the gospel, you can't even stop the blessings from coming!  Families can be together forever because of the binding and sealing power of the Priesthood.  The authority to act in God's name has been restored to the earth for us today through a prophet.  We can all feel the priesthood giving us power in our lives as we keep true to our covenants.  I am so grateful that I was able to serve a mission because I have been so blessed to have to knowledge that I can be with my family forever and everyone deserves to know that!

Even though missions are full of life lessons and hard times, they are also a lot of fun.  I have met people- investigators, ward members, less-active members, President and Sister Cutler, and especially companions- that have changed my life. Preaching the gospel is fun and it makes me happy.  That really is why I love this gospel.  It brings peace and happiness into our lives.  So while this year and a half has been hard and a huge struggle, I also don't think there has been a time when I have felt happier and more fulfilled.  Serving others, and most importantly, serving God is the best thing we can do. 

Having to leave all of this behind is going to be one of the hardest things I have ever had to do.  But I have learned that God has a plan for each and everyone of us.  I know that God always has greater things in store for us than we will ever be leaving behind.  My mission will be a part of me forever.

I love God.  I love my Savior Jesus Christ. He is the Savior of me, you, and anyone you will ever meet.  Even though my full-time missionary service is coming to a close, I look forward to continuing to serve and love God through out the rest of my life and the rest of eternity.

I love you and will see you soon!

Love,

Sister King

God hears our prayers no matter what language we are speaking in

Hey Fam!

What an incredible week we were able to have this week!  We saw so many miracles.  While the rest of the mission was being transferred all around the state, Sis. Karlsson and I took this opportunity of having so much extra time to work and try to jump start our area for this transfer.  I am really excited to have a new transfer ahead of us.  We have some great goals and exciting ideas to help us to have a lot of success.  So I am excited to see what happens.  I know that  Heavenly Father will bless us for our hard work.

Contacted into a lady who had met with missionaries multiple times in the past.  She had accumulated this many copies of the Book of Mormon from them.  haha it is super cute to me to see how missionaries are always so excited to share this book.

So a member in our ward served his mission in Sweden the same time that President Cutler was the AP there.  He had pictures of all the people he served with in that mission.  So this is President Cutler as Elder Cutler!  haha kind of fun.

We met a lot of cool new people this week.  We were out tracting one day and knocked on this door and a little boy answered.  He ran without saying anything to get his dad and they both came back.  We tried to start talking to the Father, but soon realized that he couldn't understand what we were saying.  The little boy told us, "My dad is deaf.  But I can sign to him for you if you want."  We were able to teach all about the Restoration of the gospel with the help of a 9 year old boy who knew some broken sign language.  This family was very Christian and already had a church that they attend, but they were very kind to us and accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon.  At the end, the Father said a prayer for us in sign language!  It was really such an incredible experience for me.  On my mission, I have worked closely with people who speak Spanish and Hmong.  And I have gained a testimony that God hears our prayers no matter what language we are speaking in.  And I KNOW that God "heard" his prayer in sign language that day.

We also met this cool new investigator named Ryan.  We were out and about and had had some of our plans fall through.  We were in the area of a less-active new move-in that the ward wanted us to track down, so we decided to stop by.  We knocked on the door looking for an Ashley, but Ryan answered.  It was very dark in the apartment and you could tell that it was a little dark in his eyes as well.  We could tell something was wrong.  We started talking to him a little bit and he told us that he did not believe in God.  He said that there were too many bad things that happened to good people.  He felt that God had given up on him, so he had given up on God.  We were able to testify of the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ and of God's love for all of his children.  As we continued to talk with him, you could tell that he was facing some hard times in his life.  He told us, "don't worry about it.  It is not your burden to carry."  I know that what I told him next came directly from the Spirit.  Immediately the scripture in Matthew 11 popped into my head:

28 ¶Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

We testified of Jesus Christ and how our burdens can be made light through Him.  And then testified how we were set apart representatives of Jesus Christ.  We were there to help him to feel the power of the Atonement in His life.  Tears were falling from his eyes as we told us that he had given up on God, but decided to say one more prayer asking for help.  And that is precisely when he heard a knock on the door and saw us standing there.  We are so excited to continue to meet with him and help him feel the power of the Atonement in his life.  I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can heal our hearts.

We also had another miracle when we stopped by the visit a less-active family.  We have been meeting with them weekly now and haven't seen a lot of progress.  But this time when we got there, they had invited a friend (Sue) to the lesson and we were able to start teaching her!  (We ended up setting a baptismal date with her and she came to church yesterday!)  While we were talking, another friend/neighbor of theirs (Leann) walked up to us and asked us about who we were and what we were teaching.  So we sat there teaching these two new people about the Restoration and we saw a fire start in the eyes of this less-active family.  They started bearing their testimonies of the gospel and were able to testify to their friends about the Restoration.  I have such a testimony that sharing the gospel and doing missionary work is one of the best ways that we can strengthen our own testimonies.  And the coolest thing was, before Leann got up to leave, the mom of the family leaned over and gave her a temple pass-a-long card.  Leann looked at it and turned it over the read the back.  The back of those cards have questions on them like "Where will I go after I die?"  After she read the card she looked at us and said, "My husband asked me these exact 3 questions this morning."  So cool, right??  We are so excited to start teaching Leann and her husband!

With Father's day being this week, I have been able to reflect on the blessings in my life of both my earthly Father and my Heavenly Father.  I sure am blessed. 

http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/earthly-father-heavenly-father

John 3:16

16 ¶For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

I am so grateful that our Heavenly Father loved us enough to give us His perfect Son.  So that we can all return home to live with him again and to be with our families forever.  I am so grateful for the knowledge of this gospel and how it blesses my life everyday.  There is nothing greater than being a full-time servant of the Lord and getting to share this beautiful and perfect message every single day.  I love it!

Love,

Sister King

Merry Christmas!

Thank you so much for all of the Christmas packages that I have received.  I feel so blessed.  I am excited to get to spend this Christmas as a missionary and servant of the Lord, but I sure do miss you guys.  Christmas is such a great time to be a missionary though!  People's hearts are softened at Christmas time and talking about the Savior comes so naturally.  I love it.

"Hanging our stockings"

This week was pretty crazy.

Tuesday was the last district meeting of the transfer!  Can you believe it?  That is so crazy!  I can't believe another transfer has already come and gone.  The transfer will be on December 31.  That reminds me- this week on Saturday we will find out if I am being transferred or not.  So I will be able to write you about that next week.  I am pretty sure I will stay here in Madison another transfer with Sister Kelley.  But you never know. 

This last district meeting was a really good one.  We talked a lot about the Atonement as outlined in the lessons in Preach My Gospel.  Did you know that the Atonement is a principle that is covered in all 3 of the first missionary lessons?  As I was studying it this week, I noticed that in each lesson the Atonement takes on a different role.  In the Restoration, the Atonement was part of the Savior's earthly ministry.  It was the most important thing that He did while He was on the earth.  In the Plan of Salvation, we learn that the Atonement is how we can overcome physical death.  Because of the resurrection, we can all be resurrected too!  

In the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we learn that the Atonement helps us to overcome spiritual death and is how we can be cleansed from sin.  I thought it was so interesting that in all of the lessons, it all comes back to the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Christ and His Atonement truly is central to all that we teach, all that we do, and all that we know.  I am so grateful for His Atonement in my life.  I truly feel that it empowers me.  I love being able to talk about it every single day as a missionary!  I am so grateful for the power of the Atonement in my life. 

White Elephant gift exchange with my district

Wednesday we had a lesson with Zoe.  She is still doing well.  She is progressing, but it has been extremely slow.  So we are going to have to figure out what we are going to do about that when she gets back from Christmas break.  We just focused on Jesus Christ and why we celebrate Christmas.  That night we got together with our district before our ward's sports night and had a white elephant gift exchange.  I sure have loved this district!

Thursday was a CRAZY DAY and my favorite day this week!  We had a lesson with Ishmeal in the morning.  I think that I have told you a little bit about him.  We met him on the bus a few weeks ago.  We taught him the Plan of Salvation and he loved it!  It is always so fun to me to be able to teach people that they can be with their families forever, and that if we repent and take certain steps while we are here on earth then we will be able to live with God again.  He was so excited!  He was a little hesitant when we had talked to him about baptism before, but after this lesson we was a lot more confident.  We set a baptismal date with him for January 17!  We are so excited about it!  It is going to take a lot of work and a lot is going to have to happen before then.  But we are excited to hopefully help Ishmeal enter into the waters of baptism. 

We also had a lesson with our new investigator Sally.  We got a call from our Bishop at the beginning of the week saying that there was someone who had been visiting some of their friends out in Utah and wanted a visit from the missionaries when she got back.  So Sister Kelley and I trekked out there and met Sally.  She is the sweetest woman I have ever met!  She was so kind to us and I feel that we hit if off right away.  Before too long we learned that her sister is a member of the church and that is who she had been visiting out it Utah.  She said that her sister lived in Lehi and that while she was out there she was able to go to temple square and listen to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  While she was talking, I heard the word "Sivert" pop up.  I asked her if she knew Sivert's in Utah and she said that her sister is a Sivert.  Turns out, her sister is Bob Sivert's mom!  WHAT???  I was just blown away.  I remember back before I left on my mission Bob messaged me and said that his aunt lived in Beloit Wisconsin.  But Beloit is the one and only city in southern Wisconsin that is cut out of our mission.  So I didn't think anything of it.  Turns out, she moved here to Madison the same time that I got here to Madison!  Isn't that insane?  It has been absolutely amazing to see how many little connections I have been able to make here in Wisconsin.  I know that they aren't coincidences.  The Lord's hand has been in all of this.  Sally is the absolute sweetest and I feel so grateful to have even more "family" out here.  So we have started teaching my Uncle's Aunt!  :)

Friday was fun because we were able to celebrate Christmas with the Thurston's.  They are out in Utah now to spend Christmas with their families, but wanted to be able to celebrate Christmas with us, so we had an early Christmas with them.  It was a lot of fun!  We ate good food, sang Christmas songs in Spanish, and decorated sugar cookies.  I am so grateful to be serving in a ward with such amazing members!

Sam

Early Christmas with the Thurston's before they go to Utah

Saturday was super cool!  The Madison Campus Elders (Elder Wyatt Baird!) were having a baptism at our church building.  So we wanted to bring Ishmeal to it so that he could see what a baptism was like.  The baptism was all in Chinese, but the Spirit was very strong.  And Ishmeal could feel it.  He is so excited to be working toward his own baptism in January.

Ok- I am running out of time so remind me to tell you about Kendall and her trip out to Utah when we talk on Thursday! :)

Pretty miraculous week this week!  I love you guys so much!  Can't wait to talk to you on Thursday.  I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas and remember why it is that we have such a fun holiday at this time of year.  I am so grateful that my Savior was born into this world to make it possible for me to make it back to live with my Father in Heaven again. 

Talk to you soon!

Love,

Sister King

Another crazy week in Madison!

Another crazy week in Madison.  It has been a lot colder this week.  :(  It reminds me that winter is around the corner...haha And also I've been a little sick.  But we have still been working hard!

Tuesday was awesome.  I had my first Zone Training Meeting in Madison.  It was kind of weird because I had always been in the same zone my whole mission, so it was different to be in a new zone.  But it turned about to be an amazing training meeting.  We talked about becoming more consecrated missionaries.  It was really good and really made me reflect on my mission and what I can do to become more consecrated.  I feel like consecrating yourself to the Lord is what really changes you.  We talked about some examples of consecrated missionaries and prophets in the Book of Mormon.  I think my favorite would probably be Mormon.  He literally devoted his whole life to abridging the records so that we could have the Book of Mormon today.  How grateful I am that Mormon was consecrated to the Lord!  Also- he was doing this while his entire nation was literally being demolished.  That sounds like it would have been easy to give up and wonder if all the work he was doing was even worth it.  I am grateful for that example.  I think that consecration is important because it is a Celestial Law.  Now is the time to learn to live it!

After Zone training meeting we got to go to the Thurston's the celebrate Sam's birthday :)

Wednesday was pretty busy.  We were able to have lunch with a less-active woman in the ward.  We have really starting building a strong relationship with her and I hope that she will begin to trust us as we share the gospel with her.  She is also really good at knitting and has been teaching me how to knit, so I am working on knitting myself a scarf for the crazy winter that lies ahead.  We were also able to have a lesson with our investigator Sara.  She goes to UW.  Her boyfriend is a member and is a starter for the Badger football team!  So it has been fun to teach her.  She is progressing, but wants to make sure that she is doing this for the right reasons.  So we have just been focusing on helping her to recognize her answers.

Thursday we had exchanges with my new sister training leaders.  I was beyond nervous because I was going to be staying in my area and having my STL, Sister Bennett, come here.  I have only been in the area for 2 weeks and still don't really know my way around or anything.  But I did manage not to get us lost. :)  We had a lesson with Danyella.  She had actually been in the hospital this past week so we haven't really been able to start teaching her very many of the lessons, but we were able to read from the Book of Mormon with her.  So that was awesome.  We also had our Relief Society activity that night which was really fun!  We had an investigator and a less active member come!  That was awesome and I was glad that my STL was there to see that.

Friday we were able to go to service at the St. Vincent's food pantry.  Even though it is a Lutheran organization, they LOVE the Mormon missionaries there.  It is always such a humbling experience to go there and help people to pick out food for themselves and their families.  Then we had a lesson with our investigator Charles.  He is a good friend of a recent convert.  We read 3 Nephi 18 and talked about the importance of the Sacrament and coming to church.  it was a super powerful lesson.  he didn't end up coming to church this week.... but it was still a good lesson :)  then we exchanged back and I was beyond glad to have sister Brewster back!  we really have grown to love each other and we work really well together.

Saturday morning we had a lesson with Rachel.  Her baptismal date is still looking pretty solid for October 4 so I am beyond excited for that!  We taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the different steps that we have to take to make it back to him.  But we got hung up on baptism for a while because she is just so excited about it!  :)  We also had another lesson with Danyella and we got to meet some of her family members.  They are not interested in learning more, but I think after meeting us they will be a lot more supportive about her decision to be baptized so I was grateful for that. 

Sunday was great.  We had 6 investigators at church!  It was awesome!  After church, our apartment complex had a little party for everyone that lives there to get to know each other better.  Sis Brewster and I decided to go to get to know our neighbors a little bit better and so that they would all know that we are missionaries for our church so that they can ask us if they have any questions.  When we got there, we were to only white people there.  EVERYONE that lives in our apartment complex is either Chinese or Indian.  Haha it was kinda fun though because we were totally the life of the party.  I ended up talking to the neighbors that live right about of.  Her name is Tianqi Sun and she just moved here from China.  I told her that I was a missionary for my church and then she read the name "Jesus Christ" on my tag and got really excited.  She said that there was a little group of friends that she had at school right before she moved here and they would get together and try to study the Bible together to learn more about who Jesus Christ is.  She said that she has always felt drawn to Christ and that even though she doesn't know much about him, she has faith that he lives!  Wow that was so amazing to me!  She barely knows anything about Christ besides his name, yet she was willing to have the faith the believe in him.  I told her that what we do as missionaries is teach people more about Jesus Christ and she just couldn't give me her phone number and information fast enough.  She told me that she was super nervous to come to church and learn more because her English is not very well and she has a really hard time understanding it.  I promised her right then and there that we would work together and we would pray to our Heavenly Father for help and that she would be able to understand.

She the stopped me and said, "I think that God led us to each other to meet each other.  I had been praying that once I moved to America I would be given the opportunity to learn more about Jesus Christ." 

It was seriously an amazing experience.  I LOVE being a missionary.  I love serving here in Madison.  I am so grateful for the blessings that I have seen in my life from this gospel.  I love you all and hope that you have a great week!!!

Love,

Sister King

Baptism!

So good to hear from all of you!  I am so grateful for your e-mails and letters and most importantly, your prayers.  Sounds like it was a pretty crazy week back in Utah.
Crazy week here in West Allis too!

Tuesday-  District Meeting.  This time we talked all about the Doctrine of Christ. To be put simply, the Doctrine of Christ is what we have to do in order to make it back to Heavenly Father.  4 steps: faith, repentance, baptism, and receiving the gift of the holy ghost.  And then making sure that we continue to do those things as we endure to the end.  Our purpose as missionaries which can be found in Preach My Gospel is to "invite others to come unto Christ by helping receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end."  


So as we talked about the Doctrine of Christ, we talked about how as we come to understand it better, it can help us to fulfill our purpose as missionaries!  I seriously felt so pumped and motivated as I left district meeting to go out and baptize all of West Allis.  Haha.  But after district meeting, Tubree had her baptismal interview and.... she passed!  I was nervous.  Not because I didn't think Tubree was ready, but because I knew that Satan had been working pretty hard to make sure that she wouldn't be baptized.  So it was a huge relief when she passed!  We spent the rest of the day planning and preparing for her baptismal service the coming Saturday.

Me and my district with the Wisconsin State Fair's famous creme puffs.  They are huge!

Wednesday-  We went and did service for this woman that we met named Colleen.  It was actually pretty cool because clear back when Sis. Newton was here, our goal for our transfer together was to find new investigators and people to teach through service.  We offered to give service to everyone that we met.  Nothing ever really came of it, but we tried really hard anyways.  haha.  But then this lady Colleen called us up this week and asked us for our help to help her move.  Colleen was a lady that Sis. Newton and I had met on the street clear back in May.  So we were able to go over and help her move and got to talk with her a lot as we packed up some boxes.  We got to talk a lot about the church.  And then before we left, we shared a scripture with her from the book of mormon.  It really touched her and she agreed to meet with us later to learn more about the church.  We won't be able to meet for a while because she is still in the process of moving so her schedule is pretty crazy, but I thought that was so cool!  Sis. Newton and I were praying for finding opportunites back in May and it finally payed off!  That is a testimony to me that no effort is wasted.  We are planting seeds and you never know who is going to call back, even if it is months later.

Thursday we had to do a lot more planning for Tubree's baptism.  We were also able to get in with a less active family for the first time in forever.  They have 2 little girls that haven't been baptized yet, so hopefully we will be able to start working with them.

Me with my favorite person in the whole wide world- Sis. Stewart!  She got me this skirt from Hong Kong!!  Isn't she the cutest?

Friday-  So I have been reading through the New Testament trying to learn more about the life of Christ and on Friday morning, I finished John.  So I am now done with the 4 gospels.  I have loved reading about Christ's life and I have learned so much from the example that he set for us.  I feel like I have a really long way to go, but I really have come to know my Savior better than ever before.  I have always wanted to have a strong relationship with Him.  All it takes is a little effort on our part.  I will tell you this much, I know that my Redeemer lives!

We were also able to have our last lesson with Tubree on Friday.  We answered any last questions that she had about her baptism and then talked about enduring to the end.  Baptism is great and important and it is our first covenant that we make with our Heavenly Father.  But then we have got to keep doing it and keep living the gospel!  The enduring to the end is the hard part.  But it is the part that makes it all worth it too!  We were also able to bear our testimonies to hear about how much we had seen her grown since we have been working with her, and also how much we have grown as missionaries as we have learned from her example as well.  It was a very powerful lesson and the Spirit was so strong!

Saturday- Tubree's Baptism!!!  Saturday was nothing short of a miracle.  I think that Tubree had been having a pretty rough morning before her baptism.  That, my friends, is how Satan works.  Lots of the friends and family that she invited to her baptism didn't come.  So I think she was a little sad about that.  But here is the cool thing about becoming a member of this church- You gain a ward family!  There were so many wonderful ward members there to show their love and support for her.  It really meant a lot to her.  President and Sister Cutler even came, so that was pretty cool.  I thought that I was going to be able to hold it together pretty well at the baptism, but... I am my mother's daughter.  I lost it at the opening song.  For the opening song we sang Lord, I Would Follow Thee.  

1. Savior, may I learn to love thee,
Walk the path that thou hast shown,
Pause to help and lift another,
Finding strength beyond my own.
Savior, may I learn to love thee—

Lord, I would follow thee.

Aren't those lyrics absolutely beautiful?  "Savior, may I learn to love thee, walk the path that thou hast shown."  Here was Tubree getting ready to enter into the waters of baptism and follow the Savior's example.  The is beginning her walk down the path that He has shown.  "Pause to help and lift another, finding strength beyond my own."  Not gonna lie, this week had been pretty hard.  I felt a lot of opposition which I knew was Satan because of Tubree's baptism.  And I also was feeling kind of sad that I was missing Kenzie's wedding and Casey and Bryan moving and stuff.  But when I heard the words "pause to help and lift another"  I realized that I literally have put my life on pause to come here to Wisconsin to help others.  And at that moment as I was sitting by Tubree singing this song.  I knew that it was worth it.  Tubree was worth it.  And this journey wasn't easy.  I definitely could not have been able to do it by myself.  I was able to "find strength beyond my own" as I turned to my Savior to help me through the difficult times.  "Savior, may I learn to love thee- Lord, I would follow thee."  Ultimately, I am trying to become more like my Savior.  I know that helping Tubree become closer to Christ has helped me to come closer to Christ as well.  What a blessing.

I don't know if any of those thoughts even make sense.  But to sum it up, that hymn was exactly what I needed to hear at that moment in time.  And I felt to Spirit probably one of the strongest times ever on my mission. 

Then, Tubree was baptized!  It was amazing and the Spirit was definitely there.  I know that Tubree felt the Spirit.  After she was baptized and had changed, she came back out and sat by me.  I leaned over to her and whispered, "How do you feel?"  She paused for a second and looked at me and with a big smile on her face she said, "New."  Wow.  What an amazing daughter of God she is. 

I feel so blessed and humbled to have been able to teach Tubree and help her on her journey back to our Heavenly Father.  After Saturday, I really do know without a doubt that this is right where I am supposed to be at this point in my life.  I am so grateful for my testimony of my Savior and how that has helped me through the ups and the downs in my life. 

The Church is so true!  I love you all so much!  Thank you for your love and prayers!!!

Love,
Sister King

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