Work is the best medicine

Hi family!


Man, these past few days have definitely been mixed emotions. But something that I have learned on my mission is that work is the best medicine. So we have been working pretty hard! We have been pretty busy and I am sorry but kind of running out of time to e-mail. This week we went on 2 exchanges. Which meant that I was exhausted. haha. But also means that we worked really hard and got a lot done.

One of my exchanges was with Sister Schlosser who just finished up serving in Madison. It was so fun to get to catch up on what has been going on there and how the people are doing. Madison just has such a special place in my heart. So it was a huge tender mercy for me to be able to work with her for a day.

One of the biggest highlights of the week would also have to be Sue!!! She has been reading in the Book of Mormon and she came to church yesterday so she is progressing toward baptism! Super exciting! She has had some health problems lately, so we had to move her baptismal date back to August... It was July 25. I really wanted to keep trying for that date for certain reasons. haha. But I know that she needs to progress at her speed and that God has a better plan for her than I do.


Zone Training Meeting this week went very well I thought! That was my last one. It's funny- by the time I finally feel confident and comfortable with giving trainings, I don't have to give them anymore. haha. Heavenly Father sure knows how to help us stretch and grow. And then as soon as we are comfortable, he will throw something else at us to help us stretch and grow and become better. That is why missions are so hard but also so incredible. Your entire mission is just one big stretching and growing experience. You are asked to do a lot of things that are hard, that are uncomfortable, that are weird (or at least appear weird to the rest of the world), and some things that you just plain don't want to do. But you do them anyway so that you can help the work move forward, and most importantly so that you can be obedient to what God has asked you to do.


I love my Heavenly Father so much. I love Him so much that I rejoice in doing the things that He has asked me to do- even the hard things. This week my mission scripture has been popping into my head a lot.

 9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. 

It is funny because I thought that I felt the same way Alma feels before my mission. But I had no idea what I was really in for. However, I can say with perfect confidence now that I DO glory in what the Lord has commanded me. I love being an instrument in his hands- it is the most fulfilling feeling in the entire world. I love preaching of repentance and the Atonement of our Savior to the people here in Wisconsin. This really is my joy. This really is what brings me peace and happiness. I am so grateful for this gospel and the blessing that it is in my life. I love you all so much! Till next week!

 Love, Sister King

Hello from Wausau everybody!

This is our house!

Man what a crazy week.  Transfers are always pretty crazy and EXHAUSTING.  But we made it through. 

So to start out, here is a little update on my life.

My new companion is Sister Ashley Weaver and we came out from the MTC together.  So we have both been out just over a year.  (Actually, yesterday we both celebrated our 13 month mark.  So that was fun!)  She is from Salem, Oregon and is 24 years old.  She graduated from BYU Idaho in 2012 in Creative Writing.  She has served in Waukesha which is in Milwaukee (not too far from West Allis) and Sun Prairie (which is not too far from Madison). 

And a little more about Wausau.  So first of all, it is significantly colder here than in Madison.  And a lot more snow.  So that has taken some getting used to.  But- we do have a car!  We drive a brand new 2015 Subaru Legacy.  (I know, right??)  Wausau is ssssssuper hilly.  Like there are just hills everywhere.  And it is the funniest thing- there is one hill here that is a little taller than the others and they call it "Rib Mountain."  hahahahahahahahaha to them thinking that it is a mountain.  It was so refreshing that you guys sent me so many pictures of Timp this week.  I will have to send you a picture of what I call Rib Hill one of these days.  We don't have an apartment, we live in this cute little house.  And we live right across the street from.... you guessed it- a Cheese Factory.  Wausau is pretty much what you would imagine a town/city in Wisconsin to be like.  There is a large population of Hmong people here.  There is a set of Hmong speaking elders in our ward. And then the Zone Leaders are in our ward too.  

Sister Weaver and I doing Valentine's Day right!

Obviously I can't be 100% sure, but I would be willing to bet that this will be my last area.  So everyone can send everything to this address and don't send anything to the mission office.

So this week was pretty much just saying goodbye to everyone in Madison and then meeting a bunch of new people here in Wausau.  So not a ton to report on the week.  Sister Weaver is still pretty new to the area so we are both learning a lot together as we go along.  We have been trying to meet more of the members in the ward.  It has been cool because a few times we have gotten the wrong address and end up finding someone at that address that let's us in to teach them the first lesson.  We are working on building up the teaching pool and trying to find more people to teach.

One last picture with the T-birds in Madison before transfers

My favorite person

Dinner at the Durtschi's

Goodbyes with Rachel

Brunch with Kendall

Janet

Sarah

The Thurston's

Shay

Emily

And goodbye to my best friend!

I am sorry that this letter is so short!  But I am outta time!  I love you guys so much!  Until next week!

Sister King

Goodbye Madison!

Hello Family!

Well, another transfer has come and gone.  Crazy how time flies.  As it sounds like most of you already know, I found out that I am going to be transferred this week.  I have been really sad about it, but I trust that the Lord has good things in store for me.  So I just found out that I am going to be transferred to Wausau.  And I have been called to be a Sister Training Leader.  My new companion is going to be Sister Weaver.  She came out with me so if you look back at some of my MTC pictures then you can see who she is.  She is the absolute cutest so I am way excited to get to be companions with her.  I have heard so many amazing things about the Wausau area.  Sister Kelley just came from that zone and she raves about it.  Sister Newton also served there and that is all she would talk about when we were together.  

Bowling with the district last p-day!

One of my favorite recent converts here in Madison.  He is going to the temple for the first time later this month!

Also, guess what!  The Wausau sisters area has a car!  I am still learning about Wisconsin geography, but I do know that Wausau is North of here.  Which means more snow and more cold!  Yay!  I hear that the work has really been taking off there, so I am really excited to start meeting people and getting going!  So I will leave Wednesday morning to head to Wausau. 

But back to this week...  It was a little sad because I knew that a lot of the people that I was seeing was probably going to be my last time seeing them.  But it has made me realize what an amazing blessing all of these people have been in my life. 

Tuesday we had some more crazy snow storms.  I didn't think that there was even anymore snow in the atmosphere because all of it must have fallen on Sunday when church was cancelled.  But nope, we had even more on Tuesday.  We had district meeting and then when we went to catch the bus afterward, we ended up getting stuck at the bus station for an hour because all of the buses were running way behind because of the crazy amounts of snow.  And then once we got on our bus we were stuck on that bus for another hour because everything was moving so slowly and there were so many car accidents.  It was an adventure to say the least. 

But while we were stuck on the bus for so long, we were able to meet this kid named Darnell.  He is studying to become a pastor for his Unitarian church.  We were able to talk about the differences between our churches and he was very impressed with us for giving up a year and a half of our lives to teach people about Christ.  He wasn't extremely interested, but I know that we were supposed to run into him on the bus that day.

Wednesday we had a couple of appointments fall through.  It was kind of a bummer because they were people that we met on the bus that we thought were super solid.  But that is ok.  What is meant to happen will happen.  We got to have a lesson with Sarah though and we invited her boyfriend Vince to come so that we could teach both of them together!  So that was a fun.

Thursday we had a lesson with a recent convert named Shaun.  He is going to be going to the temple at the end of this month so we had a little temple prep lesson with him.  We also had a huge miracle on the bus!  So last week we ran into this woman named Marlene on the bus.  She had investigated the church back in 1999 and was going to be baptized, but then moved here to Madison and lost contact with the church.  So when we saw her we were able to get a little bit of her contact information.  But I think that maybe she hadn't paid the phone bill or something like that so we were not able to get in contact with her and we were so sad about it.  But on Thursday, we ran into her AGAIN but on a different bus!  It was seriously the biggest miracle.  She recognized us and told us that she was so sad that we hadn't been able to get ahold of her.  She also had been reading from the Book of Mormon that we gave her and she had lots of questions.  It was so incredible to see how the timing worked out perfectly to be able to get back in contact with her.  So now we will be able to start teaching her!

Friday we finally got to see Kendall again.  Her life has been kind of crazy lately and we haven't been able to see her for a long time.  Luckily things are going a lot better with her family.  Things have mellowed out a little bit and Kendall said that she has really been able to feel the companionship of the Holy Ghost is her life.  Also- Kendall got a calling this past Sunday to teach the 10 year old primary class!  So we are super excited about that,

Saturday the transfer text came and my name was on it...  I was super sad.  But it was also nice to know for sure so that I could start saying goodbye to people.  And I am running out of time sorrrrryyy...........

Sunday I actually spoke in church!  Brother Durtschi texted me on Friday night to ask if I would.  It was pretty stressful to be able to find time to put a couple of thoughts together, but we made it work.  I was actually grateful for the opportunity because I was able to tell everyone in the ward just how much I love and appreciate them.  I really have learned so much from this ward.  They are absolutely incredible. 

And pretty much have spent the rest of the time starting to pack and saying goodbye to people!

I love Madison with all my heart and it kills me to have to go.  But I think the thing that I am going to miss the very most is Sister Kelley.  She is one of the most Christlike people I have every met and she is an incredible missionary.  I prayed so hard to be able to have a good companion for the Christmas transfer, and boy was my prayer answered.  I learned a lot from Sister Kelley, but I think the biggest thing I learned from her was selflessness.  She is just so selfless!  She just has a way of making you feel loved and important and I hope that I can be more like her in that way. 

Geez.  I think one of the reasons that missions are so hard is because they are just one huge goodbye.  First to your family, then to all the people you know and love here.  It is so hard.  But it is absolutely incredible.

I miss Madison already!

Sister King

Yes, I Am Alive!

Hi Family!!

This is me out in the crazy snow storm yesterday right after we found out that church was cancelled.

This guy is just casually skiing down the street... haha.  That is how much snow there was!

Yes, I am alive.  You thought I would be buried in the massive amounts of snow that we got this weekend.  But we managed to make it out here to the library. 

Kind of a weird week this week.  We have been doing a lot of finding this week.  All of the investigators that we have had lately are either not progressing or have gotten baptized.  Haha so we have been trying really hard to find some new people to teach.  We gave away quite a few copies of the Book of Mormon this week so that was pretty exciting.  We are still following up with all of those people and hoping that something comes of it.  I know that the Book of Mormon has to ability and power to change hearts!  So hopefully we will be able to start reaping some of those seeds.

Tuesday we had a couple of lessons.  One with Sarah who just recently got back in town.  School here and UW didn't start back up again until last week.  So we finally got to see her again for the first time since the end of November.  She is doing well and has been reading a lot from the Book of Mormon.  We are planning to have a lesson this week with her boyfriend Vince that plays on the football team. So that should be good and we are excited about that.

Wednesday we had interviews with President Cutler!  Interviews are always a great experience.  I know that President Cutler is inspired of God to lead this mission.  In preparation for interviews, President Cutler asked us to study Elder Christofferson's talk from this last conference called "Free Forever, to Act for Themselves." He has really been pushing this idea to "act, and not be acted upon." I love the quote from this talk that says something about how we need to go out and get to work so that God has something to help us with.  The enabling power of the Atonement can help us as we are out doing our best and working hard.  Something that I learned and really want to start working on, is doing things more out of intention and not habit.  Or doing things for the right reason.  Do I go out and work everyday because I am supposed to?  Or do I go out and work because I love the Lord and truly want to help bless his children.  Are we reading our scriptures to cross it off of our to-do list?  Or are we reading our scriptures to change our hearts and learn more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ?  Sometimes it can be hard to figure out which reason it really is, but I think that is where the Atonement can come in and help us out a little bit.  It was so good to be talking to President about these things and I learn so much from him.  He said that things are going well back in West Allis and that Tubree is doing a lot better!  So that made my day.  He also said that an apostle is coming to visit the mission on March 21!  So that is exciting!  Who do you think it will be??  I told President Cutler that I have really loved serving here in Madison.  So hopefully he will let me stay here another transfer with Sister Kelley!  But we will see.  :) 

Thursday we got to see Ishmael which was really good.  He has been having a little bit of a hard time since his baptism.  But we taught him all about the power of the Atonement and I think that helped him to feel better.  He even ended up going out with the Elders over the weekend to help them teach some lessons!  So that was awesome!  He is pretty solid.  We also got to see Shay.  ( We have been trying to focus a lot on our recent converts lately to make sure that they are all still going strong.)  Shay is doing well!  We talked to her about fasting and the power that comes behind it.  I love Omni 1:26

26 And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.

We talked about the role that fasting plays in this.  So then it was really cool to be able to fast with her this past Sunday.  :)

Friday we met with a few of our other investigators that haven't been progressing as much so not a lot to report on those.  We did meet a few cool people on the bus though.  One who said that she had met with missionaries back in 1999 in Chicago and was interested in started to meet with them again.  So that was a cool miracle to be able to run into her on the bus. 

Saturday we got to go to Sister Durtschi's card class.  This was great because we were able to reconnect with her friend Jeanne that has been reading from the Book of Mormon, and we schedule a time to teach her this week!  So we hope that all goes well with that too.

Sunday was CRAZY.  We woke up in the morning to probably around 5 new inches of snow or so.  Church ended up being cancelled which we were pretty bummed about.  Because no church on superbowl sunday??  A missionaries' worst nightmare!  Haha we didn't know what we were going to do all day.  But we made it work and there were actually a lot of miracles.  President Cutler gave the missionaries permission to administer the sacrament.  So we got together with the Elders in our district and had our own mini sacrament meeting.  It actually turned out to be one of the most special experiences of my mission and something that I will never forget.  While the Elders were preparing the sacrament, I was reading in 3 Nephi 18 when Christ institutes the sacrament to the Nephites and he says this,

10 And when the disciples had done this, Jesus said unto them: Blessed are ye for this thing which ye have done, for this is fulfilling my commandments, and this doth witness unto the Father that ye are willing to do that which I have commanded you.

I was thinking about how Sister Kelley and I had trudged through the mounds of snow everywhere to be able to partake of the sacrament.  This was us "acting" and not being "acted upon." Christ says,  "Blessed are ye for this thing which ye have done."  We have to DO something!  And by partaking of the sacrament, we were keeping the commandments and doing what Christ had asked us to do.  I just felt to blessed and grateful that we had the opportunity to do that.  We spent the rest of the day trying to visit people but that wasn't very successful.  We tried to ride the bus a little but no one was on the bus because of the snow and the super bowl so that was hard too.  But there was a sweet family that had us over for dinner so that was a huge tender mercy.  I was feeling a little homesick because I wished so badly that I could have been out of the cold and wet snow and watching the super bowl with you guys.  But this family that we had dinner with had just returned from a family vacation to Disney World!!!  So I got to talk to them all about their trip and see all of their pictures.  Seriously the BIGGEST tender mercy.  We all know how much I love Disney and to be able to have that at the end of this hard and dreary day was exactly what I needed.  I know that there is someone up there looking out for me.

So we had a good week this week and I am excited to see what his coming week has in store!  Thank you for all that you do and for being the best family ever!

Love,

Sister King

BAPTISM!

Ok everyone-  Apologies in advance because I am pretty sure this e-mail is going to be kind of short and maybe a little lame.  It just hasn't been very long since I e-mailed last so not a lot to report on.  Except for.... ISHMAEL'S BAPTISM!!  It went so well this week! 

All of the missionaries in our ward with Ishmael.

In fact the couple of days that I have to write you about this week are pretty much all about Ishmael.  On Wednesday, the Spanish members of the ward get together to play soccer so we invited Ishmael to that and got to play with him and have a lesson about missionary work.  That was super fun because I got to destroy everyone at soccer, and also Ishmael made a lot of new friends in the ward.  :) 

Thursday we spent the whole day visiting less-actives in the ward.  We visited Deserae who is the less-active that teaches us how to knit.  (My scarf is coming along reallllll nice by the way)  And we shared with her Mosiah 18:21

21 And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another, but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love one towards another.

So we talked about having our hearts "knit together in unity and in love" which I thought was pretty clever.  :)

We also got to see Rachel!  She is doing well.  I can't remember if I told you this or not but she just got a calling to teach Sunday School!  She teaches the 14-17 year olds.  So that is pretty cool.  She taught her first lesson this passed Sunday and that went well.  So it was fun to talk with her about that.

Friday we got to meet with Ishmael again!  We talked about enduring to the end.  Baptism is just the first step on the covenant path back to our Heavenly Father.  It is cool because teaching people about covenants and enduring to the end on my mission has given me such a greater appreciation for the covenants that I have made.  All of us are working on the "enduring to the end" part of the plan right now, and it is our covenants that help us with that.  Ishmael understands that this is just his first covenant that he needs to make.

And then.... Saturday was his baptism!!!  Ishmael was so incredibly prepared.  This was definitely the least stressful baptism that I have ever been a part of on my mission.  It was just so peaceful and nice.  It was great!  There was a great turn out from the ward.  The actual ordinance went very well!  One of the things that really drew Ishmael to the gospel was the opportunity to be born again and have all of his sins washed clean.  So it was great to be able to witness that.  He bore his testimony afterward about how much he just wanted to follow God's commandments and how following the commandments so far in his life has brought him so much happiness.  So now Ishmael is the newest member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! 

Frozen Lake Monona.  Check out all the ice fishers!

My BFF

I feel so incredibly blessed and grateful that I have been able to be a part of so many miracles on my mission.  Everyday I see the Lord's hand not only in this work, but also in my life.  I am grateful that the Lord placed Ishmael in our path on the bus that day.  I know that there are people out there that are prepared to hear this gospel, and as a missionary I get to be one of the people that help them to receive this good news.  It really is amazing and there is just nothing like it.  I am so grateful that I am here.

I love you all so much!  Sorry again for the shortness and lameness of this letter.  But know that I love you guys and am doing well!  Also- the Church is true!  So very true.

Love,

Sister King

Last week freezing, This week SO NICE!

Hello everyone!

So weird to be writing you guys on a Tuesday.  I am so sorry if this e-mail is kind of all over the place because we don't have a lot of time to write.  Because today is a normal day and not a p-day we have a couple of appointments tonight that we need to get to.  But I will do my best to give you a run down of what has been going on over here in Madison.

My home girl Sister Kelley.  I love her to death!

For starters- the weather has been SO NICE.  Ok granted, it is still below freezing.  But at this time last year I was coming home at the end of the night and doing our nightly planning session with our feet in the tub full of warm water so our toes could thaw out.  Last week was pretty brutal, but it has been so tame ever since.  Knock on wood, but I think I may have lucked out with one of the nicest winters Wisconsin has seen in a while.  We will see how it goes.

I might just have to hit some of the bigger highlights from the week since I am running out of time.

Blurry, but this is us on the bus yesterday.  The semester here at the University started up today so all of the students were getting back.  There was close to 100 people crammed on the bus.

Sister Kelley and I found this HUGE coat in our church building that we both fit inside of.

So the biggest and most important news from this week would be Ishmael!  His baptism is still set for this coming Saturday!  He is so beyond prepared.  We were able to meet with him a few times this week and they were all great lessons.  First, we got to meet with him and we brought Kendall to the lesson.  She is the one that just got baptized in December.  You guys, I think that this lesson with Ishmael and Kendall is probably one of the biggest highlights of my whole entire mission.  We taught Ishmael the principle of tithing.  We taught it using skittles and taught the analogy of "pouring out the windows of heaven."  Gave him 10 green skittles and after he gave us one back we poured the entire bag of skittle into his hand and he couldn't even hold all of them. haha so that was fun.  But the reason that I like that so much is because the "blessings" that he received for "paying his tithing" weren't all green.  Some of them were, but most of them were other colors.  That is what it is like when we receive blessings.  Sometimes it could be financially or temporally, but I feel like more often than not the blessings that we receive for paying our tithing are spiritual.  Tithing is a principle of faith, not money.  

So as we were teaching Ishmael, we asked Kendall to bear her testimony about the things that we had been talking about.  Kendall also comes from a Catholic background and because she so recently was making these same decisions as Ishmael, she was able to really connect.  She started bearing her testimony of not just the principle of tithing, but also of her conversion to the gospel in general.  As I sat there listening to Kendall bear such powerful testimony, the Spirit just absolutely filled the room.  I sat there and looked around and realized that there I sat with Ishmael who has so much faith and is so excited to follow the Savior and be baptized, and here is Kendall who was just learning these same things not so long ago but now has a testimony of these principles because she has already seen the blessings that come from living them.  It was amazing to see the change because it seems like just yesterday that Kendall was in Ishmael's shoes.  It was cool because I could see that the things that we were able to teach Kendall are now a part of her and she was sharing those same things with Ishmael.   

One of the most (if not THE most) powerful lessons on my whole entire mission.  I am so grateful for how  I was able to see the Lord's hand not just in my life, but in both of these other children of his in that moment.  I will never forget that.  Also, I just thought I would let you know how much I love Kendall she is such a great person and a great example for me.  I am so grateful that I came on a mission just because I got to meet her and that reason alone.  I have learned so much from the people that I have met here and I will be forever grateful for that.

Ishmael had his baptismal interview this morning and he passed with flying colors! He was interviewed by the one and only Elder Harmon from Timpview!  So that is nice to have under our belts and we can spend the rest of the week helping him to prepare to make this important covenant.  The other cool thing was that he had his interview this morning right before district meeting so when he saw that all of the missionaries were going to stay there to learn, he asked if he could stay as well.  So he ended up staying for our whole district meeting today!  haha.  Today district meeting was about how to have a more effective study.  And then we role played and practiced teaching.  So Ishmael wanted to practice too!  He shared with us his favorite story from the Book of Mormon.  Turns out, he had listened to the entire Book of Mormon in just a few days!  So he taught us about Captain Moroni and shared with us Alma 48:17.  He taught us about what we can do to be more like Moroni and what we can learn from his example.  It was so cool to be taught by one of my investigators!  Another highlight of my whole mission.  Ishmael is seriously so great and so ready for baptism this week!  I can't wait for Saturday!  Please keep Ishmael in your prayers this week! 

The other big thing that happened this week would be Debra and Jada's baptism.  They were the Elder's investigators, but we ended up helping a lot with their baptism and even taught some of their lessons.  So it was cool to get to be a part of that.  Debra is a single mom and Jada is just 12 years old.  They met the Elders when they were trying to contact a referral one day and invited them to church and they showed up!  There were definitely a lot of bumps in the road with their journey, but so many miracles happened to make their special day possible!  We fasted as a district the day before to ask that everything would work out.  Things didn't work out the way that we thought they would, but they did work out nonetheless!  So grateful that I got to be a part of their special day!

Debra and Jada's baptism

And yes, that is Elder Harmon.  Timpview with the win!

Also- I hit my one year mark this week!  CRAZY!  We didn't get to really do too much to celebrate or anything this week because we have been so busy.  But that is ok, I would MUCH rather be busy.  But I am so beyond grateful for this past year of my life.  I have learned and grown so much.  I can remember the day that I left for the MTC like it was yesterday.  I had no idea what was really in store for me.  I am so grateful that I still have time left to use the things that I have learned and to continue to become better.  This one year mark is also significant for you guys too because it marks one year that you have been the best missionary family in the whole wide world!  I am so grateful for you and all that you do to support me out here.  Sure do love you guys.  Can't wait to hear from you again soon.

Love,

Sister King

-36 degrees!

I hope that you all had a great week this week!  It was so good to hear from all of you.

Things have been going pretty well back here in Madison.  It was CRAZY cold this week though.  At one point it got down to -36 degrees.  So that is a little frigid.  But we are making it work. :)

So this picture sums up what the weather was like this week!

Tuesday was a great day.  We had another zone training meeting.  We talked a lot about what we have learned about The Atonement this past year.  That was interesting to reflect on. I truly have learned a lot.  I think that is probably the thing that I have learned to most about on my mission- The Atonement of Jesus Christ.  The Gospel is centered on this!  It is so important.  The way that I have learned so much about it is from reading the Book of Mormon.  That Book tells us so much about Christ.  So that was cool to get to talk with the missionaries in our zone about. 

We were also able to meet with Ishmael!  We talked to him about the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He loved it!  He is excited to be baptized!  We had to move his date back one week to January 24th just to make sure that he is ready and prepared for baptism.  But January 24 is looking pretty solid!  So we are way excited about that!

We also got to meet with Rachel and talk about the Plan of Salvation.  She is doing so well.  She actually got a calling this past Sunday!!  She is going to be teaching the 14-17 year old Sunday School class!  She will be SO GOOD for that.  She is really excited and I am way excited for her too. 

Wednesday we had a lesson with our new investigator Jeanne.  She is the one that read the Book of Mormon in 3 days.  We taught her the Restoration and she loved it!  She said that it makes sense for the priesthood authority to be restored back to the earth.  She is still reading from the Book of Mormon, but is hesitant the come to church.  So hopefully when we see her this week we will be able to help her to make that next big step.

Thursday was kind of slow.  Just saw a couple of less active members and volunteered at the American Red Cross for a blood drive.  Pretty much we were just trying to do our best to be doing good and productive things inside and out of the cold.  So it was a littler slower.  But we were able to talk to some people on the bus.  Nothing super crazy or special to make note of though.

Friday was pretty cool.  We had to opportunity to teach one of the Elders' investigators!  Her name is Debra and she has a 12 year old daughter named Jayda.  They met them a few weeks ago and Debra was looking for a place that she could take her children to help their family to come closer to Christ, and then she met the Elders.  She was so excited and wants to get baptized this coming Saturday!  But the Elders were having a hard time being able to teach her everything before then, so we got to go over to teach them a lesson.  We talked about tithing and fasting and they absolutely loved it!  It has always been amazing for me to see people that are so excited to start contributing to the building up of the kingdom of God.  And it was so cool, we were talking about how we fast once a month on the first Sunday of every month.  And Jayda chimes in and says, "can we fast at other times if we want help with something too?"  It was just the sweetest.  So cool to see how the gospel has already started to change this family.

Saturday I got to go on exchanges in the Madison 2 ward area with Sis. Ostler.  She is from Ephraim, Utah and is absolutely amazing.  Such a great example for me!  We got to meet with a couple of recent converts in their ward and also a few less-active families.  We went to go stop by a potential investigator that they had, but she wasn't home.  So we started talking to her roommate.  We told her that we were teaching her roommate how she could come closer to Jesus Christ.  That sparked her interest and she was curious as to how.  So we were able to give her a Book of Mormon.  She said that she would read it and is a new investigator for those sisters now!  So that was a pretty cool miracle.  At the end of the exchange though, I was so happy to be back in the Madison 1st ward with Sister Kelley.

Sister Kelley and me in the Capitol building

On exchanges with Sister Ostler.  She is so great!

We made Snoopy waffles :)

Got to see Sister Christiansen for the first time in a year!  We came out together but have always served in different zones.

Things are going pretty well out here!  We are doing our best to stay busy and out of the cold.  The Lord is blessing us so much!  Please keep us in your prayers! 

Love you!!!

Sister King

Happy New Year!

Hope that you all had a wonderful New Year!  Can you believe it is 2015?  Yeah, me neither.  I am excited for the New Year.  I was looking back on 2014 and just thinking what an amazing year it has been.  With the exception of about 15 days, I spent the entire year of 2014 as a missionary and full-time servant of the Lord.  What an amazing blessing that is.  I am so excited to see what 2015 has in store.

Turning the clock ahead so we can celebrate the New Year before we go to bed!

Celebrating the New Year with Mexican Soda!

It has been pretty bitterly cold these past couple of days and is supposed to be getting worse throughout the week.  Or so we have been told by the members here.  When we left our apartment this morning it was -26 with wind chill.  So that is a little frigid.  But we are making it work. 

As for the week...

Tuesday was pretty fun!  We went out to lunch with the district to say goodbye because half of them were getting transferred.  And then Sister Kelley and I headed out to contact a referral from Sis. Durtschi (Sis. Merrill's sister-in-law).  She had given her a Book of Mormon so we headed over to follow up with it and see what she thought of it so far.  When we got there, she let us right in!  Her name is Jeanne and we had met her a couple of times before at Sister Durtschi's house.  We went in and started talking to her and got to know her a little bit better.  When we brought up the Book of Mormon, she told us that she had read the whole thing-cover to cover- in only a matter of about 3 days!  And then get this- she said, "It has got to be true!  It is all about faith!"  haha we were blown away.  Then she told us pretty much the entire story line of the Book of Mormon and how she learned more about faith by reading that book than she ever had before.  We then had this really cool discussion about faith and why it is important and asked if we could share a scripture from the Book of Mormon that talked about it.  We shared Ether 12:4 which says:

4  Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety   hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith , maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works , being led to glorify God.

Jeanne loved it so much that she ran to grab her Book of Mormon so that she could mark it in hers.  She opened up her Book of Mormon to the chapter that she had marked and it was Ether 12!  Jeanne took that as some sort of sign.  So we asked her if she wanted to learn more about the Book of Mormon and where it came from and why it is important, and she said yes!  It was seriously one of the coolest experiences on my whole mission.

Wednesday was pretty cool because we were already planning on having dinner at the Durtschi's with all of the other missionaries in the ward, so Sister Durtschi invited Jeanne over to have dinner with all of us too.  We had such a good time and a absolutely delicious dinner.  We stayed after to talk with Jeanne and Sis. Durtschi.  We read Moroni's promise in the end of the Book of Mormon and challenged her to pray about it to receive an answer that it is true.  She said that she would! So we are super excited about Jeanne!  More to come on her next week.

For New Year's eve that night we were given strict instructions to go to bed on time, plus we were completely exhausted anyway.  So Sister Kelley and I just moved our clocks back to 11:59 and ended up celebrating the New Year at about 10:17 or so.  Haha we drank some Mexican sodas and then went to bed.

Thursday was another really cool day.  We had a lesson with Ishmael in this really cool member family's home and taught him the Word of Wisdom.  hahahaha to teaching the word of wisdom on New Year's.  BUT- he committed to live it!  So Ishmeal is moving steadily toward his baptismal day.

We also had a lesson scheduled with Shay.  We had been asking her for a referral for a while now and she surprised us and brought her friend Amanda to the lesson!  Amanda told us that she could tell that Shay was different and happier and wanted to know why and how that was.  So we told her about the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy and are going to start teaching her this week!  We are super stoked!  Amanda has had a reallllllllly hard life.  Shay has gone through a lot too so she bore her testimony to Amanda about how learning about Christ and his Atonement has helped her to move past those hard things.  It was a very powerful lesson and Amanda began to cry a little bit when we told her about how Christ suffered all things so He knows how she feels and wants to help her through.  Also- Shay is doing absolutely amazing as well. 

Friday was pretty slow.  We just did some service and some planning and a little bit of contacting.  Nothing too crazy.

Saturday we made lunch for our recent convert Janet.  Isn't she just the cutest?  She is doing well but getting a little old.  I think she really appreciated our visit.

Also- haven't been able to get ahold of Sally and she wasn't at church.  Hopefully we will be able to see her sometime this week.

Overall- we had a great first week of 2015!  We for sure met a lot more drunk people on the bus than usual.  But that's ok.  It makes for good stories to tell you when I get home. 

I had been thinking a lot about the New Year and read Elder Holland talk called "Remember Lot's Wife."  If you haven't read it, it is definitely worth a read.  Especially at the beginning of the new year.  Basically he talks about the council that Christ gives us in Luke 17:32:

  32  Remember Lot’s wife.

That is kind of some interesting little advice.  If you remember, Lot's wife is the one that was commanded to leave Sodom and Gomorrah and not look back.  But, Lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.  Elder Holland goes into a lot more detail about why this is so important, but this is one of my favorite quotes from the talk.

"So, as a new year starts and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterdays, however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives. So a more theological way to talk about Lot’s wife is to say that she did not have faith. She doubted the Lord’s ability to give her something better than she already had. Apparently she thought—fatally, as it turned out—that nothing that lay ahead could possibly be as good as those moments she was leaving behind."

I hope that you all have had an AMAZING 2015 so far.  You are constantly in my thoughts and prayers and I love you very much.  Until next week! 

Love,

Sister King

PS- I will see you this year!  :)