I drove a car for the first time in 14 months!

Driving for the first time since December 2013!

Hi Family!

Hope that everyone had an awesome week because I sure did back here in Wausau.  The weather is finally getting warmer!  FINALLY.  I even down-graded from fleece lined to regular tights today which is a pretty big step haha.  I don't think the winter here is over yet, but it is a bit more bearable.

Had a pretty good and busy week this week-

Tuesday we had Zone Training meeting.  It was very inspiring.  I think the zone leaders here are my favorite zone leaders that I have had so far.  All of the missionaries in this zone are pretty experienced.  With the exception of my cousin Elder Shaum who just barely came out... haha, everyone in the zone has been out for over a year!  So this zone likes to work hard and work smart!  I love it, but it also made it that much more intimidating to have to give a couple of trainings.  It wasn't as scary as the zone conference trainings that we had to give though because we just train them on the things that we learn at MLC instead of having to start from scratch.  I felt pretty good about the trainings that we gave though!  Still getting the hang of everything, but it is coming slowly but surely.  After the meeting we went on exchanges with the Wisconsin Rapids sisters from Tuesday to Wednesday. 

I got to go with Sis. Roper to Wisconsin Rapids.  Wisconsin Rapids is where Sister Kelley had been serving before she came down to Madison to be with me.  She always talked about the Grunden family and about Carol so I felt like I knew them.  And then I got to meet them!  So that was pretty cool.  I have grown to love exchanges a lot. Oh and by the way- we got our car back on Wednesday!!! Yay!

Some of the people that we got to see in Wisconsin Rapids that Sister Kelley taught.

On Thursday we did this Zone Leadership conference call and we talked with the zone leaders and all of the district leaders in our zone.  we came up with the goal to have every area in our zone set a new baptismal date before our all-mission meeting this weekend.  Sister Weaver and I were bound and determined to set an example for the zone and set a baptismal date!  So we prayed so hard that Heavenly Father would bless us to find someone to set a date with as we worked hard.  I promised Heavenly Father in our prayer that even after we set a baptismal date we would continue to work just as hard.  We went out that day and set a baptismal date with the very first potential investigator that we contacted!  It was seriously such a miracle!  Her name is Sandra and we met her tracting a few weeks ago but hadn't been able to get back in contact with her.  So now she is working toward May 2!  It was seriously the coolest thing.  I know that Heavenly Father was blessing us for our righteous desires and our hard work.  And just so you know- I have been keeping my end of the bargain by continuing to work hard and be obedient!

Friday was a good day.  I have never really had one of those experiences on my mission where the Spirit prompts you to knock on a specific house and then that person opens the door and starts crying because you are an answer to their prayer and then they start begging you to let them be baptized.  haha.  Though that would be SUPER COOL, it has just never really worked that way for me.  But on this particular morning we were driving out of an apartment complex and I saw this cute little boy playing on the grass.  We turned the corner and I saw his mom out working on their car.  Normally I am not one to stop the car and start chasing people down the street like a crazy person, but I for some weird reasons felt strongly that we needed to talk to her.  Before I knew it I was yelling at Sister Weaver to quick stop the car and I walked over to this woman and asked her if we could help her with her car.  (I don't know why because I know absolutely NOTHING about cars... haha).  We got to talking and I brought up that we were missionaries for our church and I bore my testimony about how I know that this gospel will bless her family.  We prayed with her and set an appointment to come and start teaching her next week.  Now even though this story doesn't have a huge miraculous ending (yet), I was so grateful for this experience.  It really helped me to build my testimony of acting on the spiritual promptings that we receive.  She didn't start begging us to be baptized, but we do now have the opportunity to start teaching her and her family more about the restored Gospel.  I feel really good about her and her family and am excited to see what happens this coming week when we go meet with her.  And even if she doesn't show up to the appointment like so many people do when you are a missionary, I KNOW that we were supposed to talk to her that day.

Nail party with Lavona

Saturday we got to go on exchanges again with the sisters serving in Gresham.  I stayed in Wausau this time and Sister Payne from Billings, Montana came to be with me.  Because I stayed in our area this time, I had to be the designated driver.  I have never had a car on my mission until now so that was the first time that I had driven a car in over 14 months!!  haha weird feeling.  But don't worry, I didn't kill us.  It did make me miss Barb a whole lot though...

So we had a pretty great week! Right now I am just looking forward to our all-mission meeting down in Milwaukee this weekend!  I will get to see all of my missionary friends and we will have the opportunity of hearing from L. Tom Perry and Craig C. Christensen!  So that is pretty exciting!

Hope that all continues to go well back home!  As always, you are constantly in my thoughts and prayers.  Sure do love you a lot!  The church is true!

Love,

Sister King

Here are some pictures of an FHE group that we put together.

Goodbye Madison!

Hello Family!

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

Bowling with the district last p-day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I miss Madison already!

Sister King