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

Greatest moment of my life and I wasn't there!

Family,

Can you even believe how amazing the tender mercies of the Lord are in our lives?  I know that the Lord loves us and is so aware of us!  His hand is in the details of our lives!  Ashley meeting Kendall is one of the greatest moments of my life and I wasn't even there!  Haha.  So amazing! 

So transfers are on Wednesday and we just found out transfer information.  I am going to be staying here in Wausau.  My new companions name is Sister Karlsson.  I don't know hardly anything about her...  But I hear she is from Sweden or something.  So that should be interesting!  Excited to get to meet her this week and get to work.  A little nervous to take over the area.  I have done it a few times now but this time I am going to have to show her the ropes with leadership stuff.  So hope that all goes well. 

So last week for p-day we hiked Rib "Mountain."   Here are some pictures.

Sister Weaver is getting transferred to Madison 1!!!  I am so stoked!  She gets to go meet all of my very favorite people!!!!!  And Sister Kelley got transferred to be a Sister Training Leader in Green Bay so I will get to see her at MLC and stuff like that.  So lots of fun and exciting things happening with this transfer. 

So JT got baptized this week!  We weren't teaching him, the Elders were.  But we have gotten to know him pretty well and his story is pretty amazing!  He has been a flaming atheist his whole life.  The Elders met him tracting 6 months ago.  He told them not to waste their time because he didn't believe in God.  But the Elders were persistent and finally convinced him to come to a baptismal service a few months ago.  He felt the Spirit and couldn't deny it.  He has spent the last couple of months changing his entire life and entire way of thinking to now believing that there is a God.  And he is SO HAPPY!  When he bore his testimony at his baptism he said, "I have always sort of been a lone wolf, but I now have found my pack!"  He also said, "Now, it is REALLY hard for an Asian to say the word LOVE.  But I can honestly say that I love you guys and I love God!"  So that was pretty neat.  So grateful for JT's example to me.  He is a kingdom builder! 

We also got to have our interviews with President Cutler this week.  He talked to me about the importance of powerful personal prayer.  As I was studying and preparing for this interview, there was a line in PMG that really stood out to me.  It says, "No one can know of spiritual truths without prayer."  It really is so true.  God can't give us answers if we are not asking Him questions!  Heavenly Father wants to hear from us.  I know that the power of prayer is real.  I couldn't get through a single day of my mission without it. 

Sorry that I am running short on time again but I have to be quick because of transfers this week.  I love you all and CAN NOT EVEN WAIT to get to talk to you on Sunday!

Love you!

Sister King

Prayer is a supernal gift of our Father in Heaven to every soul. Think of it: the absolute Supreme Being, the most all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful personage, encourages you and me, as insignificant as we are, to converse with Him as our Father. Actually, because He knows how desperately we need His guidance, He commands, “Thou shalt pray vocally as well as in thy heart; yea, before the world as well as in secret, in public as well as in private.” ¹ 

^{-Elder Richard G. Scott}

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

Greetings from West Allis, Wisconsin!

Hello!!! Boy do I miss you guys!!!  Reading everyone's e-mails really has brightened my day and is going to make this week that much easier.  I got some e-mails from a lot of family friends and I just feel so blessed that there are people that are thinking about me and praying for me while I am here.  We really do need all the prayers we can get and I really do appreciate all of the support from family and friends back home.  I am so blessed!!! 

Matching with my homies: Sister Wilson and Sister Weaver

Well from your e-mails it sounds like everyone is dying to know about where I am and what I am doing haha.  Yes I am alive!  The last couple of days in the MTC was amazing.  My advice to anyone going into the MTC is to take advantage of every single moment you are there.  The MTC is a great place.  We left the MTC at 2:00 am on Tuesday morning, had a layover in Denver where I got to talk to my AMAZING family, and then headed into Milwaukee!  

In field orientation. 

Our other teacher, Brother Ferrin-- he is awesome! 

Sister Packer and I matching as usual... haha

My first memory of Wisconsin was flying over Lake Michigan.  I tried to get some pictures but they just don't do it justice.  It is so BIG and it is absolutely stunning.  Right now it's almost like the water was in the middle of a wave and then it froze.  It is absolutely breathtaking!  

Riding the bus to the airport at 2 AM! 

Flying to Wisconsin! 

Lake Michigan-- my first view of Wisconsin.

Our flight was delayed a while because it was so cold, so we ended up getting there around 2 pm.  As we walked through security, there was President and Sister Cutler, their daughter Megan, and the AP's.  It seriously all happened in slow motion.  I had dreamed about this moment for what seems like forever!  I will never forget the smile on president Cutler's face and the firm handshake he gave me.  He is an AMAZING man.  Usually when new missionaries get off the plane, they hand them a Book of Mormon and don't let them come back until they have placed it.  But they said it was way too cold to do it that day.  So turns out the deathly cold here was a blessing in disguise.  

We love each other! 

Everyone was seriously so jealous that I got to see my brother-in-law every day!
Thanks for visiting all the time Bryan, it was so fun!

Sister Packer and I with the investigator we taught, she is really just a teacher in the MTC.
We learned so much from her, she is great. 

We all loaded into a van and headed for the mission home!  We had lunch and then we started orientation with one of the senior couples here in the mission.  We were given debit cards. After orientation, the Cutler's looked down on us in mercy and allowed us to take a nap.  BEST NAP I'VE EVER HAD. We woke up, had dinner, and then took turns having our first interviews with President Cutler.  I loved every second of my interview.  I wasn't nervous at all.  He made me feel so welcome and I feel like he is my friend.  There were a lot of things that I was nervous about and that I had been praying about and when I sat down in his office he said, "Sister King, before we get started, I feel like there are a few things I should tell you."  

He proceeded to directly answer some of the questions and concerns I had been praying about.  Of course, being Mom's daughter, I started bawling.  It was amazing.  Such a testimony to me that President Cutler really is called of God and that he receives direct revelation for his missionaries.  He told me that he knows Wisconsin is exactly where I need to be, and I know that it is where I need to be too.  After interviews, we had a testimony meeting with all of the missionaries, and then headed off to bed early. 

The other Sister King in the MTC. 

Our room at the MTC.

Sister Packer and I with our Branch President, President Mosher.
Because we were the Sister Training Leaders, we got to work very closely with him-- he is such a great man. 

The next morning we woke up and got ready to go meet our trainers.  This is where I got nervous.  We went to the stake center and unloaded our luggage.  We lined up in the foyer of the chapel and the APs opened the door and as we walked inside there were all of the trainers singing called to serve as we filed into the chapel.  It was a really special moment. (ps the shift key doesn't work very well on this computer so sorry if not everything is capitalized correctly haha. Casey, maybe you can fix it for me so I don't look like a fool on the blog haha) it was also cool because when I walked in, there was one trainer that caught my eye.  I don't know how or why but I knew she was going to be my trainer.  

After we sat down, President Cutler would announce a trainer and then who they would be training.  Not gonna like, it was a lot like a reaping in the hunger games.  Anyways, my trainer is Sister Karlie Tanner!  She is AMAZING!  She actually keeps a mission blog and I had looked at it a couple of times before coming out here.  If I remember correctly, it is teamsistertanner.blogspot.com so you can check that out if you want to!  I hope she says nice things about me........ haha.  

What the MTC does to you. 

Love this Sister! 

We are assigned to West Allis.  West Allis is just southwest of Milwaukee.  In fact, part of west Milwaukee is in our area.  There are about 3 or 4 companionships of sisters in the WHOLE mission that don't have a car, and we are one of them!  Lucky us! haha I actually really don't mind that much.  The bus system here is okay.  The only problem is that it gets pretty darn cold waiting at the bus stop and walking places.  But that's ok!  I actually really think my testimony may be keeping me warm sometimes.  

West Allis is a pretty big city.  The ward here is awesome!  I have already met a lot of people and they are all so nice.  The ward feeds us every night just about.  So that's good.  There are 2 other sets of elders in our area and ward.  Our district leader is Elder Skylar Harmon and he went to Timpview!  He graduated the year before me.  I never knew him super well, but I do remember hearing a lot of good things about him around the halls of Timpview, so that is good. Also, I think he played basketball with Ryan freshman and sophmore year or something.  He is a really good missionary out here.  It is so fun to have someone from back home! We talk about provo stuff sometimes so that is fun. 

First thing I saw when I got off the plane-- I am definitely in Packer country.

We slept in these bunk-beds at the mission home. 

In front of the mission home! 

The rest of the day was spent unpacking and buying a couple of groceries.  We had an appointment that ended up falling through.  We had a relief society activity my first night here, so I got to know some of the ward members right off the bat! So that was good.  Then we went home and I tried to sleep! haha 

Last selfie with Sister Packer! I am going to miss this cute girl! 

My bedroom in our apartment in West Allis. 

Our living room, isn't Sister Tanner so cute?!

My first morning in Wisconsin.  We woke up and we are given an hour during the winter months for exercise in the morning.  So we did that and then got ready for the day.  Then we have a bunch of hours of studying, and your first 12 weeks in the field you are given an extra hour of companion study which is when most of the "training' happens.  So pretty much our whole entire morning is studying.  

Getting bundled up to hit the roads of West Allis. 

Waiting for an appointment that never showed up. 

A lot of what we do here in our mission is visit less actives.  Our ward actually has over 400 members, but probably more than half don't come.  So that is a lot of work for us missionaries to do!  In fact, that is what we mostly did this week- visited a bunch of less actives. Every single lesson we have had planned to teach this week, the person didn't show up.  Hahaha joys of missionary work!  But we stay positive and we do what we can! It is kind of hard though because the buses only come like every half hour, so we can't really get much done in a day.  If we go to an appointment and they don't show, it usually wastes about an hour and a half of our time AT LEAST. But we make do with what we have!  haha 

Our matching PJ's! 

I love Sister Tanner! 

Saturday was my favorite day here in the mission field so far.  Ok I know I only have like 4 days to choose from, but it was really good haha.  There was a baptism for a little girl that morning, so we invited one of our investigators to it!  Her name is L.  We took her on a church tour and showed her around the building.  The whole time she was like "I love the spirit, I feel here" and "this building has an amazing feeling." and then we took her to the baptism and she LOVED IT. " She was crying the whole time and was like "I feel so good!" haha it was so cute.  The tour could not have gone better.  I absolutely love L!  

After the baptism, Sister Tanner and I went to Kopp's.  Kopp's is a super famous frozen custard place here in Wisconsin and it was so good!  We went because Saturday was Sister Tanner's half way mark so we had to celebrate!  So sister tanner has been out 9 months. It is weird to think that when she goes home, I will be at my half way mark! It is going to go by fast!  After that we went to an appointment at the library that didn't show up... haha anyways, that night a family in our ward invited us over to play marshmallow wars!  They are the Boston family and they are AWESOME! Sister Boston is like the Aunt Jenni of West Allis.  They had marshmallow guns and we played in their basement.  It was like capture the flag but with shooting marshmallows at each other.  It was great!  (don't worry, my team won)  One time I went to shoot a marshmallow at Sister Tanner and she shot one right into my mouth hahahahaha.   I think it is really important to build relationships and trust with the members here because we want them to trust us to teach their friends the gospel. Anyways, it has been really hard, but I am loving it here in Wisconsin!  Sister Tanner is a great trainer and I think she is the perfect trainer specifically for me.  She is so kind and positive and she is so patient with me.  She is here to work hard, but she is here to have fun too.  It's great.  Plus she is a really good missionary, so I can learn a lot from her.  Please keep praying for us!  We really do need your prayers!  I would love to hear from all of you, so shoot me an e-mail or a letter in the mail!  Oh and send pictures!  I love to see what you guys are doing just as much as you probably want to see what I am doing!  Love you!  Sister King