Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello Family! 

We've got a good couple inches of snow!

It was so good to get to hear all about your Thanksgiving!  Thanksgiving is such a wonderful time of year.  I sure did miss all of you.  But it brought a lot of comfort to know that I will be able to share next year's Thanksgiving with you.  Thank you so much for sending updates and pictures of your week!  It always means a lot to get them.

We had a pretty good Thanksgiving week back here in Madison too!

Having a little fun on p-day

Tuesday we had district meeting and we talked about the Holy Ghost's role in conversion.  It is amazing how vital that really is. As a missionary, it is so important to always have the Spirit with me so that others can feel it.  That is something that I have been trying to work on lately, always having the Spirit with me.  We also had a really cool lesson with Sarah that night.  We have been sharing stories with her from the Book of Mormon to help her have the courage to tell her family that she wants to be baptized.  We shared the story of Ammon and how when he went to the Lamanites, all he did was serve and love the people there.  Eventually their hearts were softened and an entire nation was converted!  That is what we challenged Sarah to do.  Continue to love and serve her family and let them know that she loves them.  As she does, I know that their hearts will soften.  We haven't been able to talk to her yet so I will have to let you know next week how telling her family went!

Wednesday was a really good day!  It is so weird, nothing super crazy or special happened.  It was just a good day to be a missionary.  We were working really hard and managed to find some really cool people along the way.  A goal that Sister Kelley and I have for this transfer is to pass out more Book of Mormons.  We are kind of doing like a "25 days of Christmas" thing by trying to give away 25 Book of Mormons!  We found 2 really cool people that we were able to give a copy to that day.  So we are off to a great start!  So many people were placed in our path that day.  It was just amazing.  I KNOW that the Lord's hand is in this work.  We also had a really cool lesson with our returning less active named Emily.  We taught the Plan of Salvation and talked about how none of it is possible without Jesus Christ.  He is the center of the plan.  It has been really cool to learn and grow with Emily as she starts coming back to church.

Thanksgiving with the Thurston's

Thanksgiving with the Durtschi's

hursday was THANKSGIVING!!!  What an amazing Thanksgiving day we had!  Obviously I was feeling a little homesick, but I didn't let that take away from the day that we got to have here.  We got to go over to the Thurston's for a Thanksgiving lunch.  That was really fun because I guess technically the Thurston's are family.  4th cousins totally counts, right?  The thought of spending Thanksgiving with "family" brought me a lot of comfort anyway.  Also, I have grown so close to them and they mean so much to me that they are as family as it gets for me out here in Wisconsin.  So it was super cool to be able to spend Thanksgiving with them.  Plus the food was absolutely delicious.  And GUESS WHAT.  As we were about to eat Hayley was telling us what all of the food was and she gets to this one dish and says, "and this just some raspberry stuff."  So I was like, "Wait, what is in the raspberry stuff?"  She said, "Just eat it.  You will like it."  So then I said, "Oh, because my Mom always makes this really yummy pretzel raspberry jello stuff every year for Thanksgiving."  YEP, THAT'S RIGHT.  Hayley made the raspberry pretzel stuff for Thanksgiving!  She didn't even know!  So I still got to have our family's Thanksgiving classic out here.  Such a huge tender mercy.  But seriously though, how could that NOT be a tender mercy from the Lord? 

Afterward, we got to go to the Durtschi's for another Thanksgiving dinner!  It was so fun and absolutely delicious.  It was cool because the less active lady that teaches us to knit came and I have gotten really close with her.  So we got to spend Thanksgiving with her as well!  So that was really fun.  After the Durtschi's, we headed back to the Thurston's again for dessert.  :)

Even though spending Thanksgiving on a mission is REALLY hard, it was an amazing experience.  It is so amazing to be able to have a time of year that we can reflect on the things that we are grateful for.  Back at home when we have Thanksgiving and we all go around the table and say something that we are grateful for, my answers have always been the gospel, my parents, my sisters, my extended family, my home, Sadie, school, etc.  But this year, I was pulled away from all of those things (except the gospel of course).  But being away from those things has given me a greater appreciation for them.  It has also helped me to focus on the one thing that I still do have that I am oh so grateful for.  And that is the gospel.  The gospel has always been a constant in my life.  I am so grateful for it.  But this year, there is one more major thing that I can add to the list of things that I am grateful for- MY MISSION.  I am so beyond grateful for my mission.  I haven't loved every minute of my mission, but I have been grateful for every minute of it.  My mission has taught me and given me so many things that have changed me so much.  My mission has given me a greater appreciation for family.  It has strengthened my testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ.  My personal relationship with Him has grown exponentially on my mission.  My mission has given me lasting friendships that I will cherish forever with companions, other missionaries, ward members, investigators, recent converts, and so many others.  My mission has given me a greater knowledge and love for the scriptures.  My mission has taught me how to be a better wife and mother which is one of my greatest desires.  I owe so much to my mission.  Making the decision to come on a mission was one of, if not THE, hardest decision I have ever made.  And it continues to be very difficult.  But I am so grateful that I , with the help of my Father in Heaven, made the decision to come.  I am so grateful for my mission.

Friday was a pretty good day as well.  We met some more cool people on the bus on our way to a few different places which was super fun.  We met this guy on the bus named Ishmael who ended up coming to church yesterday.  So that was a HUGE miracle!  More to come on him next week.  When we got home that night, we made ourselves some yummy dinner and then we decided to keep up with our family's tradition of watching a Christmas movie.  We weren't able to watch That Santa Clause... :)  But we were able to watch Mr. Krueger's Christmas.  So I was able to keep that Thanksgiving tradition alive out here as well.  :)

Saturday we were able to meet with Shay.  She is still doing so well!  And guess what!  She have her very first talk in Sacrament meeting yesterday!  She is so amazing and is continuing to grow in the gospel.  Gosh, I love her so much.

So that was pretty much my week!!

Ok family, before I sign off I have a very special challenge for you.  This is something that has been on my mind a lot that I have prayed about and that I really feel is a good idea.  Here is the challenge:

Starting on December 3, read one chapter of the Book of Mormon every single day.  If I have done my calculations correctly, then you will finish reading the Book of Mormon on the day that I get home!  The Book of Mormon is so important.  Being able to read from the Book of Mormon so much on my mission is what has truly helped my testimony to grow.  Even though it might be easy to let a day or two slip, make it a priority RIGHT NOW to read one chapter every single day.  It should only take about 5 minutes out of your day.  Elder Scott told us this last conference that reading from the scriptures is even more important than sleep sometimes.  So if it means that you need to get up a few minutes earlier or go to bed a few minutes later, I promise you that it will be worth it.  This is something that I feel is really important, so take this challenge seriously!  Doing it as a family would be cool, but I think that you should do it individually.  That way you can all share with me some of your thoughts in your weekly e-mails.  And you can share thoughts in family home evening and at dinner and stuff because we will all be in the same place in the Book of Mormon.  It would really mean so much to me if you would do this.  I love the Book of Mormon so much and I really want to be able to share this cool experience with you.

I love you so much!  Thank you for all that you do for me!

Can't wait to hear how your Book of Mormon reading is going!

Love,

Sister King

Farewell Sister Hammatt, Hello Sister Kelley!

Hello Family!

Man, this week has been pretty crazy with transfers and everything.  But it has been a really good week too.  The weather is really starting to get pretty cold.  We have got quite the winter ahead of us, folks! 

Sister Kelley and me

So... what you have all been waiting for.  My new companion is Sister Amanda Kelley and she is absolutely amazing.  She is from Riverton, Utah and has been out for about 4 months.  She went to BYU for a year before leaving on her mission and is studying Public Health.  She is the oldest of 4 and they are all brothers.  She served in Wisconsin Rapids before coming to Madison.  She is an amazing missionary.  There is so much that I can learn from her.  We already get along so well and we have a lot of the same goals and are both here to work hard.  So I am grateful for that.  I am grateful that she is the companion that I get to spend both Thanksgiving and Christmas with.  We are going to have a lot of fun and see a lot of miracles.  I can tell.  :)

But... Back to the beginning of the week.

Saying goodbye to Sis. Hammatt

How we really felt about saying goodbye...

The quote wall the Sis. Hammatt and I created of all the funny things that were said this transfer.

Tuesday was just full of goodbyes.  Sister Hammatt had to say goodbye to all of the people here which was rough.  So we spent the day saying goodbye to people and packing.  It was really cool to be able to have one last lesson with Shay.  The three of us have a special relationship together.  Usually investigators go through a couple different missionaries before they get baptized because of transfers and stuff like that, but Shay was just so prepared that it didn't take her long.  So Sister Hammatt and I are the only missionaries she has known.  It has been quite the journey that we had together and I will never forget the things that we learned. 

Wednesday was TRANSFERS!  Crazy.  I can't believe that another transfer has already come and gone.  That transfer sure went by fast.  We got up early in the morning to drive to the transfer point and then the moment that I had been dreading all transfer came... I had to say goodbye to Sister Hammatt.  :(  I really learned so much from her and I am so grateful for the amazing example that she is for me.  I know that she is going to have an amazing rest of her mission in Florida.  But still tough to say goodbye.  Pretty much the duration of the day was spent waiting at the church for my new companion to get here.  From the moment that I met Sister Kelley, I could tell that we were going to get along great.  Still going to miss Sister Hammat, but excited about Sister Kelley.  Also- I was thinking.  I have had 3 companions in all of my areas.  that doesn't usually happen.  But it was nice because I had already had to introduce a new companion to the area before so it was a lot easier this time.  We were able to go to Rachel's house for dinner that night so that was a lot of fun. 

Thursday most of the day was spent weekly planning to teach Sister Kelley about the area.  And then we were able to volunteer at the American Red Cross for a blood drive.  So kind of a slow day.  But still good.  Later that night we were able to meet with Sarah.  She is planning on telling her family over Thanksgiving that she wants to be baptized and she is super nervous about it.  We brought the Bishop's wife to the lesson with us.  She was Sarah's age and dating a member when she was baptized.  And her family is super Catholic as well.  So it was really cool to have her there to bear her testimony to Sarah and give her some tips on how to talk to her family.  We are excited and nervous to see how this Thanksgiving goes for her!

Friday we spent the day visiting a lot of less actives in the area.  We were contacting some people on our ward's "lost sheep" list and we ended up finding this 97 year old woman named June in a nursing home.  When we got there she said, "I was wondering when the church would find me." haha.  June is very active and has a strong testimony but is just too old and frail to come to church.  So we were able to help the ward set up some people to take her the Sacrament on Sundays.  And hopefully we will get to continue visiting June.  :)

Saturday we met with Shay and we were able to teach her the first new member lesson.  We were kind of nervous to see how she would react to a new missionary, but she LOVES Sister Kelley!  So Shay is still doing so well!  She even went to institute this week!  She pretty much just dove head first into this gospel and has loved the blessings that it has brought into her life.   On Saturday we contacted were contacting a potential and ended up finding a family!  We have a return appointment with them this week so you can keep Franklin and Natalye on your radar.  I so badly want to find a family with the months that I have left on my mission.  I have been praying so hard for that miracle to happen and Franklin and Natalye could be it!  :)

Over all, good week this week!  Change is always hard, especially with transfers.  But I am excited about the potential that we have this transfer. 

I hope that everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving this year.  I love this quote from President Uchtdorf from his talk 2 conferences ago about gratitude. 

"We sometimes think that being grateful is what we do after our problems are solved, but how terribly 

shortsighted that is. How much of life do we miss by waiting to see the rainbow before thanking God that there is rain?"

Thanksgiving is an amazing time for us to take a step back and recognize the blessings that God has given us.  But one goal that I have for this Thanksgiving is to work on having more of an attitude of gratitude.  God does not expect us to be less grateful during the hard times that he does during the good times.  We need to continually be thanking our Heavenly Father for the things we have.  Not just once a year on a Thursday in November.

D&C  78:19

 19 And he who receiveth all things with thankfulness shall be made glorious; and the things of this earth shall beadded unto him, even an hundred fold, yea, more.

I hope that you have an amazing Thanksgiving.  Please know that I am so grateful for you and that I will be thinking of you on Thursday!  Love you!!

Love,

Sister King