Change is good, but hard

Hello Family!

 

Well this has been a crazy week with a lot of changes! Change is hard, but it is also good.  I have learned so much from all of the changes that a mission brings, so I am grateful for that.

 

Tuesday was Sister Newton's last day of her whole mission!  WEIRD!  I was so excited that I got to be a part of it though.  I love Sister Newton so much!  It was a really interesting experience to be with a missionary who is going home.  But I absolutely loved it.  It was kind of hard because it made me feel like I was going home too, even though I have got quite a ways to go.  But at the same time, it was the most amazing blessing.  I learned so much working with Sister Newton.  Because Sister Newton was such an amazing missionary, I saw first hand what kind of missionary I can become by the end of my mission if I work hard while I am out here.  It also really made me step back and contemplate what exactly it is that I want to accomplish while I am out here and where I want to be by the time it is time for me to be heading home.  And I am not there yet!  Good thing I've got 14 more months to work on it... haha

Last picture with Sis. Newton :(

For her last day we were able to have an amazing lesson with our investigator Tubree.  We brought Sarah to the lesson which was absolutely amazing because she was able to bear really powerful testimony that this gospel really can change lives because it changed hers.  I absolutely love Sarah to death.  I hope you all can meet her someday!  We spent a good chunk of the day packing up all of Sister Newton's stuff and reminiscing about her mission.  She really has had some amazing experiences.  And then the Lenhard's took us out to dinner for Sister Newton's "last supper."  Haha it was a great day! 

 

On Wednesday I killed my Grandma.  Haha that's mission language for "I was companions with my trainer's trainer when she ended her mission."  It was fun because I got to hang out at transfer point again all day with all the other missionaries.  I got to see Sister Osmond!  It was kind of a neat thing because both of our companions were headed home that day so we got to chit chat about what that was like.  Such a tender mercy to have a little piece of home out here with me.  I love Sister Osmond. :)  I also saw Ashley Green at transfer point.  She was in my ward at BYU and lived right across the hall from me and was in my FHE group and stuff.  She just came out this transfer!  So it was fun to see her too.  Oh, and I got to see Sis. Tanner.  She is still one of my favorites.  :)  Before I knew it, they were whisking Sister Newton away from me and Sister Silva arrived here from her previous area in Appleton.  So my new companion is Sister Tammy Silva and she is from Eureka, California and is 22 years old.  She has been out 10 1/2 months and is a really good missionary.  She is an absolute sweetheart!!!  She is a lot different than the past companions that I have had, but I love her to death and I think that we work really well together.  It is going to be a good transfer! 

Check out who I saw at transfer point- Sister Sophia Osmond!

Thursday was a miracle day!  I was super nervous about having another new companion here in West Allis, but we were able to find 4 new investigators within a couple of hours that day!  SO COOL!  We were also able to have a lesson with our investigator, Matt.  He is the one that is super staunch Lutheran, but likes learning about our church.  He always asks super deep doctrine questions and knows the Bible like the back of his hand.  So I was super nervous for this lesson, but it actually ended up going pretty well.  We told him that it doesn't matter what we tell him, he can pray to know for himself that this church is true.  I have so much faith that if he sincerely prays to know the truth that Heavenly Father will answer his prayer. 

 

Friday we received 2 Headquarter referrals which was a huge miracle.  Those are always fun to try to contact.  Here in Milwaukee, the HQ referrals are either super legit or they are crazy, old, schizophrenic people.  So that should be interesting.  We got to read some more in the Book of Mormon with Fred.  He is progressing and his testimony is slowly being strengthened, so that is good.  Then, spent the rest of the day weekly planning.

 

Saturday we were able to contact one of the HQ and teach her the Restoration and she became a new investigator!  So that's cool.  It was Sister Silva and my first time teaching the restoration together, and it went very smoothly!  That is a big deal because the restoration is the most important lesson to teach and also the one that we teach the most often, so it is good that Sister Silva and I are able to teach well together.  Also- this referral lived in the boonies and we had to take some busses that I had never taken before.  And they ended up changing the routes because of all of the construction, but I was still able to get us there which was a huge tender mercy.  On Saturday we also met this really cool lady named Denise.  We were just walking down the street which was absolutely DEAD because there was a Brewer's game, and stopped to talk to the only lady in site.  She was this sassy black lady that was wearing cheetah printed EVERYTHING.  haha.  I know this is really bad, but in my head I had already decided that I would just tell her a little bit about the church and then we would be on our way.  But when we started talking to her, before I knew it I had whipped out a Book of Mormon and was bearing testimony to her about how I know that this book can bring people closer to our Savior Jesus Christ than any other book.  It was seriously the weirdest thing.  I can't even explain it.  The words were just coming out of my mouth.  The reason that I didn't really want to tell her is because we talk to ladies like her all the time that just aren't interesting and can be kind of bold about it sometimes... haha.  So that is what I was expecting her reaction to be like.  But it was the COMPLETE opposite!  In fact, she told us that she works at a behavior center at the hospital, and invited us to come teach all of her patients about the Book of Mormon!  It was amazing and the Spirit was so strong!  Unfortunately, the hospital that she works at is outside of our area so we had to pass her off to some other sisters.  But it was still to coolest things ever.  And that was an experience where I KNOW without a doubt that the Spirit was working through me to teach Denise about the Book of Mormon.  So cool!

Hanging out with some Elders at sports on p-day

The Lenhard's!  They are the senior couple that lives in our apartment complex and they are seriously such a blessing.  They are like my grandparents away from home.

Sister Peterson- my sister training leader that I went on exchanges with last week in Kenosha

My new companion, Sister Silva!

Sunday was good.  Tubree came to church!  Yay!  We spent the rest of the day contacting less-actives and such.  Nothing too special.

 

 

Overall, this week was amazing!  I am excited for the weeks to come here in West Allis with Sister Silva!  I am sad because I feel like I will probably be getting transferred out of here next transfer.  So I want to make sure that I am doing everything that I possibly can be doing to make sure that I am accomplishing the work that the Lord wants me to do in West Allis.

 

Please keep me in your prayers!  And keep writing me too!  They both make a huge difference!  Bigger than you think!

 

Love you!

 

Sister Courtney King

Last week with Sister Newton

Love this girl!

Transfers are this Wednesday!!  It is exciting and sad all at the same time.  I will be so beyond sad to see Sis Newton go. :(  But I just found out like 5 seconds ago that my new companion's name is Sis. Silva.  I don't know much about her.  In fact, I don't know anything about her haha.  But I will meet her on Wednesday!  I am super excited.  I feel like a lot of good things are going to happen in West Allis this transfer.  So we will see how it goes.  But didn't this transfer go by so fast??  Like I seriously feel like Sis. Newton got here yesterday.  And can you believe May is already over too???  Weird.  Fun fact- for the month of May I counted how many sirens we heard everyday here in West Allis and the total was 119.  Haha I don't know if that is because it is a busy city or if it is dangerous or probably a mixture of the two.  But we hear sirens going off all the time!  Haha 119 in May.

As for the update of the week, not a lot happened because P-day was late last week.  But here you are:

Wednesday we got to play volleyball in the morning with the women of the stake.  It was way fun and Sis. Newton and I could definitely hold our own.  Then we had our last district meeting of the transfer. :( again, bittersweet.  We had a really good district.  We all got along and were friends, but most importantly we all worked really hard.  It really was a good transfer.  Then Kopp's (the famous frozen custard place in Wisconsin) had my favorite flavor that day.  It's called Never Enough Chocolate and it is just as good as it sounds.  So we went out to lunch together.  That night we swapped with the Sister Training Leaders for exchanges.  It was so fun to get to see Sis. Tanner again!  I didn't get to go on the exchange with Sis. Tanner, but hopefully next transfer.  I got to go with Sis. Peterson and I absolutely love her too!  I went with her on my very first exchange and I have definitely grown sooooooo much since then.  So it was really fun.  I got to go to Kenosha on the exchange so that was kind of exciting!  All I have ever known my whole entire mission is West Allis.  So I was excited to get to do something new.  Plus Kenosha is widely known as "the promised land" in this mission because they get a lot of baptisms.  So it was fun to get to go down there.

Last district meeting with these guys

And yes I win for funniest face!

Thursday- my day in Kenosha!  We ended up visiting a lot of less-actives and recent converts.  So that was cool.  The biggest difference for me though is that we had a car!  That was a luxury that I have yet to enjoy on my mission!  haha.  Nothing super exciting happened while we were there.  But we did meet this one guy on the street who told us that he had a vision that he needed to meet Taylor Swift.  So he walked allllll the way down to Chicago from here.  Taylor Swift was set to perform in 9 days.  So we waited 8 days, and then walked home.  hahahaha yeah I know.  It was interesting.  But it was a really good day and I learned a lot from Sis. Peterson.  I forgot to take a picture with her. Sorry!  But she is awesome.  it was so good to be back in good ole Stallis at the end of the day though.  And back with Sis. Newton. 

 

Friday was kinda lame.  We spent a good chunk of time waiting for appointments that never showed.  Oh and the most awkward thing happened hahahaha.  We were out street contacting and I walked up to this lady and asked if I could talk to her about the church and she says, "Um I'm in your ward." hahahahahahaha in my defense she had big sunglasses on and I had never met her before.  Oh well. 

Triple dog dare you to count all the double chins

Sunday was great!  We were fasting for some of our investigators to know what to teach them and I really feel like we got the answers at church.  So that was cool.  Tubree came to church too!  So that is always fun.  After church, we were on the bus on the way to an appointment with a less-active.  We were the only ones on the bus.  Just us and the bus driver.  And it is a bus that we don't normally take very often.  Lots of times if the busses are running ahead of schedule they will pull over and wait at a bus stop until it is time to leave again.  As soon as we got on the bus, this bus driver pulled over to wait.  He turned and looked at me and said, "Can I ask you a question?  How can two people grow up in the same home in the same circumstances, but take two completely different paths?  On path being good and the other being bad?"  Whoa!  What a loaded question!  I was so scared to answer.  I had no idea what to say, but then the Spirit completely took over.  I explained to him about how we are all given agency, but because of Christ's Atonement for us, he can make up for all the bad decisions that we make.  All the mistakes that we make can be made right through Him.  As we continued to talk to him, he completely opened up to us about how his brother had died just 2 weeks earlier.  His brother had made some bad choices that had taken him down a completely different path.  He then asked, "So does my brother still have a chance?"  How grateful I was to be able to explain to him that YES his brother does still have a chance.  He is in a better place now and he still have the opportunity to accept the gospel.  I could tell in the bus driver's countenance that he was feeling the Spirit.  Ya know, that is really cool that we have that knowledge.  I don't know what I would do if I had someone close to me like that make some not so good decision.  I would want them to have another chance.  And because of our Savior, we do!  How amazing is that?  We taught him some more about the Plan of Salvation until our bus stop came along.  I know without a doubt that we were supposed to be on that bus that day.

 

 

Overall, it was a great week.  A great last week with Sis. Newton.  Transfers should be interesting!  Can't wait to talk to you next week!  Love you!

 

Sister King

4 Months!!

Can you believe it was a just a week ago that we were talking to each other???  It seems like a lifetime ago!  Mom- you asked me if I was homesick or if talking to you guys affected the work this past week.  It was actually something that I was really worried about.  I prayed so hard to Heavenly Father to help me continue to be focused and motivated after I got to talk to you.  It was seriously the biggest tender mercy because we ended up having a really good and successful day that day!  So many miracles had happened that day.  I KNOW that if we had had a bad day, then talking to you would have made me feel super homesick and not motivated to do anything.  But because it had been such a successful day, I was excited to get back to work after talking to you.  I know that was a direct answer to my prayer and a blessing from Heavenly Father.  Talking to you actually really gave me the push and the motivation that I needed.  Knowing that you guys are proud of me and that I have so much support from the people that I love most has made a world of a difference.  I know that getting to talk to your family is an experience that is different for every missionary, but I was so grateful for it!

Monday-  Ok so last Monday there were CRAZY rainstorms.  Like seriously some of the craziest weather I have ever seen.  There were 3 flash flood warnings.  Sister Newton and I were lucky enough to be caught outside right in the middle of one, so that was interesting.  But we are alive and here to tell the tale.

Tuesday was Zone Conference and it was absolutely amazing.  I really just can't speak highly enough of the Cutler's and how inspired they are.  They gave us trainings on how important the family is.  That is one thing that I noticed in my setting apart blessing as I was reading it the other day.  It counsels me to preach the importance of families and how we can be together forever as much as I can.  I was grateful for this training because I do want to make families a focus for me personally here on my mission.  It really is the biggest blessing that we get to be together forever.  We also talked about finding "the one" that we were sent here on our missions to find.  I really think that there is at least one person in every area that I serve in that needs me, Sister Courtney King, to find them and share my testimony with them.  I am determined to work hard to make sure that Heavenly Father will always be able to bless me with those specific opportunities.  Zone Conference was awesome because I got to see Sister Tanner again!  Boy, have I missed her.  It was really funny, Sis. Tanner volunteered me and Sister Newton to do a musical number at the zone conference so we decided that we were going to get her back.  Earlier in the week we had sent her this fake letter from an ex-boyfriend pretty much proclaiming his love for her and asking for her hand in marriage.  It was legit!  When we got to zone conference she started telling us all about this letter that she had gotten.  Sis Newton and I started CRACKING UP.  She totally fell for it!  Haha one of my prouder moments... :)

Wednesday was a MIRACLE day!  We found this brand new part member family and they are THE BOMB!  It is this couple that is engaged and they have the cutest little 1 year old daughter and another baby on the way.  The mom, Melissa, is a member and joined the church back when she was a teenager.  She hasn't been coming for the past couple of years because her fiance, Hunter, isn't very religious.  But we got in there and established a really good relationship with them.  We are so excited to start teaching them.  We were super nervous because we knew that a lot was riding on this first lesson.  But then a few minutes after we left we got a text from Melissa that said,

"Thank you so much for coming today.  You guys were so perfect, and Hunter is already excited to see you next week.  I know now for sure that he will join the church, maybe sooner than I thought.  Never thought this day would come."

I can not even begin to tell you how much that text meant to me.  After getting the training the day before about finding "the one" I really think this family could be the one for me!

Later that day we had another lesson with our investigator Tubree.  I think I told you a little about her last week.  The lesson went so amazingly well!  We taught her the Plan of Salvation.  She loved the idea of the Spirit World and how everyone will have a equal opportunity to accept the gospel there.  I have never really thought about that a lot before.  I think I have taken that for granted sometimes.  It really is amazing that our Heavenly Father loves us so much and he is so merciful that He wants to give us every opportunity to make the right choice so that we can make it back to live with Him again.  How grateful I am for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation!

 

Thursday was my 4 month mark!  That is a good chunk of time!  It doesn't seem like very much when you think about how I still have 14 more months ahead of me, but hey!  My mission is almost a third of the way over!  There is so much that I have to learn and so much that I want to accomplish still!  Time is going by fast and slow all at the same time.  To celebrate we went to Organ Piper's Pizza for dinner with the sisters from Muskego Lakes because Sister Pope came out with me so it was her 4 month mark too.  It is the coolest restaurant ever!  Glad we got to go.

 Friday we met with Fred.  Last week's lesson didn't go so hot.  He hadn't been reading in the Book of Mormon.  But this week was so much better- he had been reading this week!  I don't think that is a coincidence.  Later that night we had dinner at Sarah's house.  When we got there, we decided to invite Tubree over to join us last minute and she ended up coming!  It was so fun!  Tubree and Sarah get along great and their daughters are the same age so they love to play together.  Sarah is so excited to help others learn about this gospel now that she has seen how much it has blessed her life.  We had an awesome discussion about how the Book of Mormon has changed our lives and the Spirit was so strong.  Tubree has started reading the Book of Mormon and has already seen a difference in her life.  It was such a wonderful night!

 

Saturday we had another lesson with Tubree.  She is seriously my new favorite person.  We taught her to Gospel of Jesus Christ and she loved that as well.  She is so golden.  So grateful that Heavenly Father is letting us teach her.  Later that night we went to visit a less-active lady in our ward.  She has MS and lives in an assisted living center.  She can hardly move and can't talk very well.  So trying to talk with her didn't work very well.  Instead, we decided that we would sing hymns to her.  The Spirit was so strong in that room as we sang and it brought tears to her eyes.  There were even some of the workers there that stopped in to listen to us singing.  Such a cool experience. 

 

Sunday Tubree came to church and this time she brought her 16 year old son, Josiah too!  He is way cool and has a lot of potential.  Tubree is seriously the biggest miracle. 

 

That is pretty much it for this week.  So many good things are happening here in West Allis!  Thank you so much for your letters and e-mails!  You are the best!

 

Love,

Sister King

Mother's day

Oh my goodness getting to talk to you guys last night still just doesn't even feel real!!!  It was so fun!  It is so weird that one second it is against the rules to talk to you guys and then all of a sudden it is ok.  And now it is not again.  haha but I seriously can't wait for Christmas!!!

 

Here is a rundown of this past week!

 

Wednesday-  It took us the whole entire day to make it over to our appointments house and then as soon as we got there, the lady called us and cancelled.... typical.  haha.  but that's ok.  So that pretty much took our whole day.  In the evening our favorite Sister Stewart came out with us to some appointments.  She dropped us off back at our apartment and we still had like 30-40 minutes of proselyting time.  That really hard in a bus area because that is how long it takes to even wait for the bus.  So we decided to just walk around the block a few times and see if there was anyone that needed to talk to us!  We prayed so hard for someone to be placed into our path that was ready as we walked for 30 minutes.  We walked... and nothing happened.  UNTIL right when we got back to our apartment at 9 o'clock.  There were these two girls sitting outside.  Their names are Destiny and Aly and they are so awesome.  They have both been through a lot and we shared how the gospel can help them in their lives with everything that is going on.  So we will be meeting with them again tonight and I am so excited!

 

Thursday-  We met with our less-active Fred.  He had been making a lot of progress but when we went to visit him this time you could tell that he had fallen back a little bit.  He hadn't been reading him Book of Mormon for the passed 2 weeks and you could see it in his countenance... :(  But we re commited him to reading everyday and he is already doing better again!  It is seriously crazy the difference that the Book of Mormon makes in our lives.  Then we had a lesson with our investigator Matt, the guy that is an elder in his Lutheran church.  Lessons with him are always interesting.  He knows the bible reallllllllllly well and I don't so that makes things really interesting.  He is a really nice guy though so we are praying really hard to know what do get to teach him this coming week and how to handle all of his intense deep questions.  So that should be interesting.  AND THEN we had our first lesson with our new investigator Tubree.  She is seriously the bomb diggity.  She is so cool and so prepared.  Like I feel the same way about her when we taught Sarah for the first time too which is a really big deal.  We taught her the restoration and she accepted everything and absolutely loved it!  I can't wait to start meeting with her more.  You will probably (and hopefully) be hearing about her a lot more in the weeks to come!  Tubree lives kind of far away so while we were there visiting her there was a referral that we received a loooooooong time ago that lives in the same area.  But we had never been able to get ahold of it.  We decided to stop by today and we were finally able to make contact with the people that lived there.  It is a newly wed couple and the referral was actually for the wife, Melissa, but when we went her husband DeAndre answered to door.  They are super good, religious, Christian people and while they are very active in the church they go to they said that they would love to learn more about what our church teaches.  So seriously all they need to do is read the Book of Mormon and feel the Spirit and they will be golden.  So pretty much Thursday was a bomb day.

 

Friday we had our weekly planning sesh.... but we made it fun by having a cereal party.  #reese'spuffs.  That night we had dinner and a lesson with Sarah who is doing as awesome as ever!  We talked to her about missionary work and how she can share this wonderful gospel with other people that need it too.  She loved it!  She is so excited to share the gospel.  After dinner, the plans that we had cancelled, so we decided to head to this bus stop that we had been to a lot.  At this particular bus stop we run into this girl named Samantha sometimes.  She is way cool and we hadn't seen her in a while so we decided to stop by.  She has never been super interested in meeting with us, but she has always been way nice to us and I know that her heart will soften eventually.  So we headed to the bus stop and guess what!  She was there.  As soon as we walked up she said, "Sisters!  I was hoping I would run into you again soon!  I lost the card that you gave me and wanted another one so that I could check out that website."  What the heck how cool is that!!!  No doubt it was a spiritual prompting that we needed to go see Samantha at the bus stop again that night.

 

Saturday morning the new senior couple that moved in down the street had us over for breakfast.  So that was way fun.  Later that day our ward had a baptism.  It was a family that the Elders have been working with for a long time.  The dad just got the priesthood a couple of weeks ago and on Saturday he baptized his 9 year old and his 8 year old boys!  The spirit at the baptism was really special.  Also- they didn't have a pianist there so I got to fill in on the spot! haha I actually didn't do too bad.

 

Sunday-  BEST DAY EVER!!!!!  Our investigator Tubree came to church!!!  She loved it and she was participating in the lessons and everything.  Her daughter Shantella loved it too.  Tubree is about the same age as Sarah and their daughters are the same age too, so Tubree and Shantella already have friends and feel comfortable coming to church!  It's great!  Spiritual conversion to the gospel is really important, but social conversion is important too.  Having a friend there to support you and answer your questions and bear their testimony is KEY.  For example, Sarah had the Dominguez family and the Feezor's.  So I don't think it is a coincidence that our recent convert just happens to be the perfect fellowshipper for Tubree.  It also gives Sarah a chance to bear her testimony too so that is way cool.    After church we took Mother's Day cookies around to some of the investigators that we have been working with.  So that was way fun.  Then.......  We went over to the Boston's to talk to our families!!  Totally the highlight of my past 4 months here!  You guys all look so good!  I sure do miss you.  It was totally a tender mercy that we had been having such a great day, because if it had been a bad day I think I would have gotten pretty homesick.  But Heavenly Father was looking out for me and made yesterday the best day ever.  And for that I am grateful.  While at the Boston's, there is this tradition that you show all the new missionaries this Yoda poster that they have in their family room and while they are looking at it you run and tackle them into the bean bag chair.  Let's just say I NAILED sister newton.  haha so that was fun.  And then to top off the most amazing day ever, Tubree texted us right before we went to bed and said, "Thank you so much for bringing me to church!  I can't wait to meet again."  It is days like today that make a mission worth it!!!

 

Also- here is something cool that happened.  The record for "other lessons" in the sisters area in West Allis is 22 in one week.  And Sister Newton and I had 22 this week so we tied the record!  But don't worry, we will break it this week!

 

Hope you all have an amazing week.  Thanks for being the best family ever!  LOVE YOU!!

 

Sister King

The Chicago temple

Courtney and new companion, Sister Newton

Can't believe another week has already come and gone!  The days are kind of slow, but the weeks are going by so fast!

 

This past week was kind of hard.  We had a lot of miracles last week that didn't end as well as we would have liked.  But hey- that's mission life!  Also, if there is opposition then that means that big miracles are coming!  So I am excited to see what lies in store for Sister Newton and I this week.  But not a lot of cool stuff to report on this week.

 

Tuesday-  Our first district meeting with the new district.  Our new district leader has a lot of high expectations for us this transfer.  And it makes me really excited and motivated to work harder!  So that is good.  I was really worried about getting to district meeting though because get this- the day sister tanner left they changed a lot of the bus routes due to construction!  Haha OF COURSE.  There is a saying here, "There are 2 seasons in Wisconsin- winter, and construction."  And it is so true!  The freezing cold winter makes the roads so bad and then they spend all summer fixing all of them just so they can get ruined all over again in the winter.  So it has been an adventure trying to figure out the busses, but Heavenly Father has definitely blessed me to be able to navigate my way around Milwaukee.  That night we had a lesson with a less active that we have been working with for a really long time that really hasn't progressed at all.  It ended up being a really intense lesson and after a lot of hard work, we committed her to read the Book of Mormon everyday for at least 10 minutes and see the difference that it makes in her life.  I have so much faith that if she puts forth the effort, it will change her life!  I just hope that she puts forth the effort.  So I am excited and nervous to follow up with that this coming week.

 

Wednesday-  We had our first lesson with Matt!  He was the guy that we met a few weeks ago at the gas station that came up to us and said, "why have no missionaries knocked on my door yet??"  It was an awesome lesson!  He is so cool!  He is an Elder in his Lutheran church, but he admits that he doesn't believe in everything that the Lutheran church teaches.  The spirit was so strong during the lesson.  Seriously- all he needs is to read the Book of Mormon and I KNOW that he will know this church is true.  But he is super hesitant to read it so we have been working on that.  Then later that day... WE GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE!  It was an amazing experience.  I really have come to love the temple so much and I miss it terribly.  The temple is such an amazing place.  It was such a blessing to get to go as a missionary.  The Spirit that is felt in the temple, specifically the celestial room, is undeniable!  I love it.  I didn't want to leave!  When I was in the temple, I knew that Heavenly Father was so proud of me for how hard I am working.  The Chicago Temple is absolutely stunning!  It was so fun to get to go because mom was there not too long ago, and it made me feel close to her!  Haha so that was cool.  I love the temple.  Don't take having so many temples so close for granted.  Go as often as you can!

 

Thursday-  Maybe I should just come right out and say that Thursdays are always a weekly planning day so they are usually pretty slow and not a lot goes on.  So not a lot of excited news for Thursday.  But we did get to go to the Boston's for dinner!  They are so great!!  That is where we are going to skype you guys this next weekend!  I can't wait!

 

Friday-  We did a lot of street contacting and finding.  We are trying really hard to find new people to teach and to enhance our teaching pool.  We met a lot of cool people, but nothing really to report on.  Then we went to Sarah's for dinner and she is doing as amazing as ever!  Her testimony is continuing to grow every single day!  I am so happy for her.  Her life really has changed.

 

Saturday  we spent all day visiting different less-actives.  Some of them are really coming along, but some really haven't been progressing too much.  We have really been pushing the Book of Mormon.  Preach My Gospel says that the Book of Mormon together with the spirit is the most powerful tool for conversion.  I really have a testimony that it is.  So we have been pushing that a lot lately.  I have faith that miracles will come from that.  Then later that night we got to meet a new senior couple that just moved into our apartment complex, the Lenhard's!!!  They are so cool and I love them so much.  They seriously are already like grandparents to Sister Newton and I.  They actually won't be serving in our ward, they will be serving in the Inner City Branch, but they are still so close!  So I am so stoked to have them here. 

 

Overall, this week was a lot of work.  We have walked 76.01 miles since the start of the transfer!  haha so we are tired all the time but we have met a lot of cool people and are so excited for what lies ahead of us.

 

Hope you all have a great week and I am literally counting down the seconds until I get to talk to you on Sunday.  LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

 

Sister King

Growing up!

I'm growing up!  My trainer is gone!  But so far, so good!

First day out with Sis. Newton.  She is seriously the greatest.

This week was really crazy with transfers and everything, but also really exciting.  Good things are happening in West Allis!

A three generation photo!  My mom and my mom's mom, who is also my new companion!

One last selfie with Sis. Tanner for old time's sake

Tuesday was seriously a blur.  It was my last day with Sister Tanner :(  We spent most of the day packing and getting ready for Sister Tanner to leave and Sister Newton to come.  It really was a bittersweet day.  I was so sad to see Sister Tanner go, but I am so excited to see what else lies ahead of me in my mission.  Change is hard, but it is good.  And I know that the Lord is in charge.  I felt pretty confident about Sister Tanner leaving and getting a new companion here that didn't know anything about West Allis.  I feel like I know the area well and I know the buses pretty well and I also know most of the members.  The thing I was most worried for though is not knowing what to go and do once my new companion got here!  However, the Lord is so mindful of us!  I was praying so hard that I would know what to do and where to go.  On Tuesday night I got a call from some Sister Training Leaders who had 3 miracle referrals for us!  The day that the new missionaries got here they took them out street contacting and tracting in our area, and they came across 3 people who were interested and they got their information and gave it to us.  I could not even believe it!  My first day that I arrived here was one of the coldest days of the year so we didn't have to go out and do any contacting, but these new missionaries did.  And boy am I glad that they did!  We got to reap all the rewards from it haha.  So we had at least 3 people that we could go visit when my new companion got here.  Seriously the biggest tender mercy in the whole wide world.

 

Last transfer with my fellow T-bird in West Allis

Wednesday was transfers and it was crazy!  We woke up and went to our stake center which is the "transfer point" for our zone.  We meet up there and then everyone disperses from there to where they need to go and the missionaries that are waiting for their new companion to come here just sit and chill at the church together.  Sister Newton was coming clear from Wausau which is about as far from here as you can get so I was waiting at the church for a while.  While all of the missionaries were there waiting we had a devotional which was actually really cool.  We all shared something that we had learned from the transfer.  One thing that I learned this transfer is that Heavenly Father know us better than we know ourselves.  He is mindful of us.  I know that He is.  And I am so grateful that I have come to learn that so early in my mission.  That is something that I will need to remember!  While at transfer point I got to see Sister Packer because she is training.  It was such a tender mercy to get to see her and talk to her!  It is crazy to see how far we have both come since the day we stepped into the MTC together.  After a long time of waiting at the church, Sister Newton finally arrived in West Allis!

 

Got to wish Sis. Packer good luck with training her new missionary this transfer.

The Carter's, one of our favorite senior couples in the mission office!

My new companion is Anna Newton and she is from Mountain Green, Utah which is kind of by Morgan.  This is her very last transfer of her mission!  So she is basically a pro.  She has 10 siblings, 9 of which are sisters! Haha.  I think she is number 7.  Her little sister is also on a mission in Kentucky right now.  Before coming on her mission she was a nanny for a family in Luxembourg for a year.  And she also went to one semester of college at Utah State.  When she goes home she wants to study to be a personal trainer which is pretty cool!  One thing I love about Sister Newton is that she loves to go running every morning.  That has been so good for me!  It is a serious stress reliever.  She is full of energy and has a positive attitude about everything which is exactly the kind of companion I need.  We already get along great and are becoming good friends!  I am so stoked to get to have this transfer with her. I don't know why Heavenly Father has blessed me with the 3 best companions in the whole mission so far, but I ain't complaining! 

The only problem is that since this is her very last transfer before she goes home, it kind of makes me feel like I am going home too.  But I'm not.  Not even close.  Haha so that is something that has been weird and kind of hard for me.  But I will survive! 

 

Thursday we headed out to contact some of those referrals that we got!  Not many of them were home, but we did run into this really cool girl named Kassie along the way.  She was walking home from work and I had a really strong spiritual prompting that I should stop and talk to her.  Her ear phones were in as she walked so it was so awkward to stop her to talk to her, but hey!  I'm a missionary!  I signed up to be awkward!  Haha.  She opened up to us about how she has been depressed lately and right before I stopped to talk to her she was talking to her friend on the phone about how she was looking for what the purpose was in life.  I bore my testimony to her of the Plan of Salvation.  The Spirit was so strong!  So we will be meeting with her this week.  I am so excited for that!

 

Friday was an awesome day!  We met this really cool lady named June.  She referred herself on mormon.org.  She had been researching religion for a long time and she felt like we have what she is looking for.  We taught her the Restoration and she loved it.  We invited her to be baptized and she accepted whole heartedly.   A lot more cool stuff happened during the lesson, but I can't even remember because she ended up calling us this morning right before I got here to e-mail and she told us that she wasn't interested in meeting with us anymore.  My heart completely sank.  She had been doing more research about our church and came across a lot of anti material.  You could tell from her voice on the phone that her countenance had completely changed.  I am still so sad about it.  I was so excited to get here and tell you guys all about this way cool investigator, but now I am just so bummed about it.  I am still really sad, but that is missionary work for ya.  I think/hope I will get over it eventually. 

We also had dinner with Sarah on Friday and that was so fun!  She is doing great and her testimony is as strong as ever!  Her faith never ceases to amaze me.  Thank you so much for your prayers in her behalf. 

 

Saturday we did a lot of walking!  15.88 miles to be exact!  Haha YES my legs felt like they were going to fall off at the end of the day.  The busses don't run very often on Saturdays do we had to walk everywhere we went.  As we were walking around trying to contact some more referrals, we made our way to the closest bus stop that was going to take us to our next referral.  As soon as we got to the intersection, I saw the bus drive right by us.  We had literally missed the bus by about 10 seconds.  Normally I would have been pretty frustrated about it, but for some reason this time I felt really calm about it.  As soon as I watched that bus zoom by I knew it was because there was someone that we needed to meet and we weren't going to meet them if we took that bus.  We started walking towards our next referrals house as we waited for the next bus to come.  As we got off of the later bus, we got to an intersection at the exact same time as this other lady named Kim.  We started walking with her and just making small talk about the weather or something like that and it came out that I was from Utah.  As soon as she heard that she yelled, "I LOVE DONNY OSMOND!!!!!"  hahahahaha that was a first on my mission.  She told us that when she was little she always wanted to be a mormon because of Donny.  When we told her that we were missionaries for the mormon church she started freaking out even more.  She told us that she wasn't really interested anymore, but we just continued to talk to her anyway.  She really opened up to us about some hard things that are going on with her family right now.  Her daughter is into drugs and got her grand daughter taken away because of it.  She is trying really hard right now to get her grand daughter back.  We asked if we could say a prayer with her and Sister Newton offered one of the most inspired prayers I have ever heard in my entire life.  The spirit was undeniably strong.  As soon as we said Amen I looked up to see tears streaming down Kim's face.  I will never forget the words that came out of Kim's mouth after that, "You girls ARE making a difference."  That really hit me and has stuck with me even now.  Sometimes I wonder if I am making a difference.  We go out and work hard every day but never really get to see if it even matters or not.  After that experience with Kim, I KNOW that we are.  There is no doubt in my mind that we were supposed to run into Kim that day.  As soon as we said goodbye and turned the corner, I turned to Sister Newton and said, "that is why we missed the bus."  Experiences like that are what make missions worth it.

 

Overall, miracles will happen this transfer!  Some not so good things happened this week, but some really good things happened too!

 

This week I have been thinking a lot about the concept of mercy.  And that is actually what the theme of our sacrament meeting was yesterday too!  I noticed something kind of cool in my studies of the Book of Mormon this week. 

 

In the very first chapter of the Book of Mormon, Nephi says this:

20 And when the Jews heard these things they were angry with him; yea, even as with the prophets of old, whom they had cast out , and stoned, and slain; and they also sought his life, that they might take it away. But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance.

 

Then in the very last chapter of the Book of Mormon, Moroni says this:

 

3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in you hearts.

 

 

The Book of Mormon teaches us all about how merciful our Father in Heaven is!  I love that.  Not only is God our God, but he is our Father!  And he is looking out for us.  Through Jesus Christ, He can show us mercy in all things.  What a blessing.  That is definitely something that I need to remember. 

 

I love this gospel and I know that it changes lives!  I have a testimony and I am so grateful that I get to share it with the people of West Allis everyday. 

 

Love you!

 

Sister King

 

The End of an Era

The end of an era!  Sister Tanner is being transferred.

First of all, let me bring you all up to date on transfers!  It is official- Sis. Tanner is leaving and I am staying here in West Allis.  It really is the end of an era.  I loved every second I spent with Sister Tanner here.  She is an awesome person, an awesome missionary, and one of my closest friends.  When we talked to President about transfers he told us he was sorry he had to split up the dynamic duo. :)  So I am going to miss her, but I am also excited for some change.  And I found out that my new companion is going to be...... Sister Newton!  Sister Newton is basically a legend here in this mission.  Everyone has been freaking out for me and so excited because she is coming here.  She was Sis. Tanner's trainer!  So because Sis. Tanner is my mom and Sis. Newton was her mom, that makes Sis. Newton my grandma!  haha.  She was a Sister Training Leader in her last area.  And this transfer with me will be her very last transfer before she goes home!  (So because she is leaving that most likely means that I will be staying here in West Allis another transfer after that.  So I will be here until July probably.)  I am so excited!  I have heard so many good things about her!  I am so excited that I get to learn from her.  It also makes me kind of nervous because she is such a good missionary, but I am excited to find out what happens!  Transfers are on Wednesday so that is when all of the switching around will take place.

 

Sister Tanner is going to be going to Kenosha, which is about 40 min south of here, and she is going to be a Sister Training Leader!  I am so proud of her.  And guess what else- she will be MY sister training leader, so I will still see her all the time and I will get to go on exchanges with her too! 

 

Here is the funny thing about missions.  Most of the time I am having the hardest week ever and then right before I come to write you guys about it all, Heavenly Father pours out blessings that I don't even have room enough to receive them!  It's crazy!  That is how I felt about this week.  It was a really tough week and I was getting really nervous about transfers and everything, and then at the end of the week we found out all of the transfer information and it couldn't be more perfect!  I know without a doubt that it was a direct answer to my prayers. 

Anytime that I am having a hard time, I know that it is the adversary.  Which is sad and really hard.  But here is the other thing- anytime something bad happens, it is because a miracle is about to happen or we are about to be blessed!  Satan just wants us to feel discouraged.  But when we endure, the blessing are worth it and we become stronger and better people because of it.

 

Tuesday-  The last district meeting of the transfer.  It was way cool.  We had a testimony meeting and the spirit was so strong.  I have learned a lot from the people in my district.  Half of them are leaving this transfer, so that is sad.  But I am excited for our new district too.  After the district meeting we had a lesson planned with our investigator Kojo.  Last time we taught him, he welcomed us into his home and the lesson went so well and he was open to everything that we had to say and invited us back for another lesson and everything.  But this time when we knocked on the door, his countenance had completely changed.  He didn't let us in and started telling us all of the concerns that he had with our church.  He had watched some sort of youtube video about the church and had all of this false information and was pretty rude about it and then shut the door.  That was really hard and discouraging because he had so much potential.  We were even planning on inviting him to be baptized during the lesson, but obviously that didn't happen.  So that was a huge blow and was hard to deal with.  I am sure that he will be more open someday, but today is not that day.

The Cannon Family!  Love them!

My last district meeting with these awesome missionaries!

This definitely sums our district up in a picture!

Wednesday- we just did a lot of service for people in the ward.  Also-  got a package from the fam!  Thank you so much!  That will literally change my whole mission. haha.  Nothing else super exciting happened

 

Thursday-  Hard day.  Every appointment that we had fell through.  We had a lot of appointments and I was super excited for all of them.  And that makes it even harder when they fall through, when you have high expectations for them.  We also got a referral that we were excited about and we took 2 busses all the way over there, and then the address didn't even exist.  So that was also frustrating.

 

Friday-  I was feeling kind of sick and starting to get stressed about transfers.  It is just kind of scary not knowing where you are going and who you are going to be with.  We had more appointments that fell through and the lessons that we did have did not go very well.  Except we did meet this really cool guy named Matt though!  We were at a gas station and he came up to us and said, "are you missionaries?"  We said yes and then he said, "well how come you have never knocked on my door??"  haha it was so cool.  He is a really nice guy and seemed super excited to learn about the church.  I don't know if he is super interested in changing and joining our church, but he was extremely nice and was excited to learn about our church.  So that was exciting.

 

Saturday-  The transfer text came in the morning and then I really started stressin because I knew for sure that sis tanner would be leaving and I would have to be steppin up here in West Allis.  We had 2 appointments that day and can you guess what happened with them?  Yep, they fell through.  It really was a rough week.  I was feeling pretty down, but then we got to go to the adult session of stake conference and it was absolutely phenomenal.  Elder Godoy of the 70 was there and he is the coolest and most hilarious person in the whole wide world.  The whole session was about missionary work!  They had 4 or 5 converts speak first and they told their conversion stories.  Then Elder Godoy told his conversion story too.  The spirit was so strong and it made me so stoked that I was a missionary.  It really reminded me of my purpose of why I am here.  I really do love being a missionary! 

 

Sunday-  Easter!!!  And also the best stake conference ever.  At stake conference I met the Monk family.  Their grand daughter was in my ward at BYU!  They are some of the nicest people ever.  And Sis Tanner ended up knowing some of their grandkids too!  haha small world.  When we got home from church Sis. Tanner and I had our own easter egg hunt.  Her family had sent her eggs for us to hide for each other with prizes in them!  It was so cute.  I must get my egg hiding skills from grandpa because I must say, I did a pretty good job hiding her eggs.  We spent Easter night with the Dominguez family!  LOVE them!  We made an easter egg hunt for their kids.  It was so fun. 

 

Searching for my Easter eggs

Sis. Tanner and I had our own Easter celebration

So the week ended pretty awesome which was the biggest tender mercy ever. 

I am so happy that it was Easter weekend.  If you didn't get to watch it, you should definitely watch the Because of Him video that the church made!  I absolutely love it!  I love Easter!  I love this time that we have to celebrate the resurrection of our Savior.  I am so grateful for Him and for His atoning sacrifice for me.  I know that He lives and I know that He loves me.  I have a testimony of this gospel! 

I love you all so much!

Sister King