Hey Fam!

Can't believe that another week has already come and gone!

We have been pretty busy and seeing so many miracles!  It is the best. 

The highlight lesson of my week this week was definitely with our investigator Rachel.  She is actually a lay minister in her Lutheran church.  She is a very good Christian person- probably one of the most Christian people I have ever met!  She was on her church's Facebook page the other day and someone posted something along the lines of "Please pray for the ____ family!  They have chosen to leave the Mormon church and we are so glad that they are finally able to escape.  We need to pray that they will be able to find the truth and to stay away."  Isn't that soooooo sad? Yeah.  Rachel thought so to.  She commented on the post and said, "Please remember that Mormons are God's children too."  Within 3 minutes the Lutheran pastor deleted her post and sent her a personal message about why what she said was wrong.  Well that just didn't sit right with her.  So she decided that she wanted to find out why everyone thought the Mormons were "so terrible"and she also wanted to understand the doctrine of the Mormon church so that she could correct any misconceptions next time she was in a conversation and Mormonism came up.  So she started meeting with us!  :)  We answered all of her questions and taught her about the Restoration of the gospel through the Prophet Joseph Smith and the miracle of the Book of Mormon.  The first few times we met with her, she was very stand offish and made it very clear that she was only there to gather information- not to convert.  Well we invited her to be baptized anyway!  haha.  And we invited her to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it so that she could know for herself.  The first couple of weeks she hadn't been reading.  But when we met with her this week, something was different and you could tell right off the bat.  Her countenance was different. 

When we asked her how her Book of Mormon reading had been going, (expecting her to say that she hadn't and then to just move on) to our suprised she whipped out her Book of Mormon and a study journal where she had been taking notes!  All she had been doing was reading just one chapter every day and you could tell!  We spent our entire lesson just discussing the Book of Mormon and the amazing plain and precious truths that she had learned about just in the first few chapters.  Then, we asked her if she had been praying about it.  She told us that her and the Lord had been "chatting" about it a lot lately.  And that the whole time she has been reading from the Book of Mormon she has had a calm and peaceful feeling.  She knows that it is true! All this time she told us that she was not interested in converted, but now she has been considering and praying about the decision to be baptized.  She told us that she really wants to be, but she is just concerned about leaving her Lutheran church where she is a mentor for a couple of the girls.  So please be praying for Rachel that she will not only receive an answer, but that she will have the courage to act on it.  I feel so good about her!

Also- just wanted to point out that The Book of Mormon never ceases to amaze me.  It is the BEST tool to have as a missionary because if people don't really want to listen to us or if they have a lot of questions or concerns, we just give them a copy and let the book do the work! The Book of Mormon is a book with a promise.  Everyone can come to know that it is true for themselves.  So as a missionary it is so awesome to have a little book full of truth!  We have the ultimate trump card!  haha. 

Also- this week was...... my last zone conference.  Yeah I know, it is super weird.  At a missionary's last zone conference President Cutler invites the departing missionaries to bear their testimony.  i remember at my very first zone conference seeing all the missionaries that were about to go home giving their testimonies and thinking to myself 2 things.  First, they must know everything!  And second, that day is never going to happen to me.  well that day came, and I don't know everything.  Not even close.  But I have learned a lot though.  I bore my testimony of the Atonement.  You know, the Atonement is a pretty incredible thing.  I NEVER would have been able to get this far on my mission without it.  It has changed me and enable me to do things that I never could have done on my own.  I am so grateful for the Atonement. 

This Zone conference was focused on something very interesting.  It is a very important commandment that I think we don't take as seriously as we should.  Keeping the Sabbath Day holy!  I love this commandment!  I thought that I understood it, but President and Sister Cutler really opened my eyes. 

 In Ezekial 20:12 it says,

12 Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths, to be a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord that sanctify them.

That is kind of an interesting phrase.  That the sabbath is a sign between us and God.  But what is it a sign of?  It is a sign to God of how much we really appreciate the Atonement.  The most important thing we do on the Sabbath day is to partake of the sacrament as a reminder of his sacrifice for us.  With the sacrament, we renew our covenants.  People tend to think that the sacrament is only a renewal of our baptismal covenant.  But that is not true.  Modern day prophets have taught us that the sacrament renews ALL of our covenants!  So that is pretty neat.  President Cutler also taught us that all or the ordinances that we do in the church we only do for ourselves once, and then we do them for other people.  For example, we are only baptized once and then when we do baptisms for other people in the temple.  Except for the sacrament!  The sacrament is the only ordinance that we repeat purely for ourselves over and over and over!  That is how important it is. We need the power of the Atonement in our individual lives so badly.  We can not make it back to live with God again and with our families forever without it!  I love this quote from Elder Petersen:

Our observance or nonobservance of the Sabbath is an unerring measure of our attitude toward the Lord personally and toward his suffering in Gethsemane, his death on the cross, and his resurrection from the dead.

So think about the Sunday that you had yesterday.  Were you showing God just how grateful you are for the Atonement of His perfect Son?

Definitely an area that I need to improve!  haha.

I am so grateful for how much I am learning.  I have learned so much!  And grown so much too.  But I know that I still have a long ways to go.  That is why I am so grateful for the Atonement.

I love you all so much!!!  HAve a great week!

Love,

Sister King

I may or may not be an icicle, but I am alive!

Got to meet Elder Shaum!  I remember Grandma saying that we are related or something!  :)

Sister Weaver and me.  With a classy fire hydrant in the background.

So since I am in a car area now it is my responsibility to stand behind Sister Weaver and back her up.  (It's a rule in the white handbook.)  But usually I just make faces at her in the rear view camera instead.

Hey Family!

Yes I am still alive!  I may or may not be an icicle, but I am alive!  This week was pretty crazy cold, but we managed to survive.   Wausau has been treating me pretty nicely so far.  I definitely feel a little more settled in.  Still trying to adjust- it is completely different from the other 2 areas I have served in.  But I love it her!  There is so much potential in this area and I think our success will depend on what we choose to do with it.  Sister Weaver and I are pretty excited!

Tuesday we spent some time finding and planning our training for zone conference later in the week.  We also had a lesson with our investigator family.  Their names are Kathy, Spencer, and Stephanie.  We taught them the Law of Chastity.  (We ended up teaching the LOC a ton this week... haha)  Stephanie actually had studied to be a sex therapist so that was by far the most interesting Law of Chastity lesson I have ever taught on my mission and my life as well.  But they are progressing.  Slowly, but progression nonetheless.  They have been investigating since last summer so hopefully we will be able to get a move on things with them.

Wednesday we had a pretty neat experience.  We had a few different appointments that morning that all had fallen through.  It was the worst...  We went to our investigators Jimmy and Vicki's house for an appointment with them and, you guessed it!  They weren't there.  But their roommate Nate answered the door.  He invited us in to wait for Jimmy and Vicki to get home.  As we were waiting, we started talking to him and getting to know him a little bit.  He told us that he has 3 beautiful children, but had been having some marriage problems which is why he had been crashing with Jimmy and Vicki for the last little while.  Sister Weaver and I started bearing our testimonies of the Atonement and I pulled out a Book of Mormon and told him how I learned more about the Savior and the Atonement as I read from it.  He took it in his hands, looked at it for a moment, and looked up at me and said, "This book is going to help my family.  Isn't it?"  Why yes, Nate.  Yes it is!  The Spirit was so powerful in that moment.  I remember thinking as we were leaving that house how incredible our Heavenly Father is.  To me, it appeared to just be yet another appointment that had fallen through.  But the Lord used us as instruments in His hands to help Nate and his family to draw closer to each other and closer to Jesus Christ.  It also made me stop and think about how having our family founded on Jesus Christ really is what has been the biggest strength to us.  And I am so grateful for that!

Thursday was Zone Conference!!  My first zone meeting in Wausau so that was pretty fun.  Sister Weaver and I gave a training on the importance of working with the members.  We talked about some examples in the Book of Mormon of member missionary work.  There is Abish who invited everyone to come and see King Lamoni and listen to Ammon.  There are the members that fasted and prayed in behalf of Alma the Younger to help him to see the light again.  And there is my personal favorite, Amulek, who testified with Alma to the people of Ammonihah.  We got a pretty good discussion going and I don't think it was too bad for my very first training.  But we can only improve from here I guess!  :)  President Cutler trained us on the doctrine of the Plan of Salvation and how the Atonement of Jesus Christ is what makes the plan possible.  I love 2 Nephi 2:6-8 that talks about that.  One of my new favorite scriptures!

 Wherefore, redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah; for he is full of grace and truth.

 7 Behold, he offereth himself a sacrifice for sin, to answer the ends of the law, unto all those who have a broken heart and a contrite spirit; and unto none else can the ends of the law be answered.

 8 Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.

Also, President Cutler gave us this packet of deep doctrine questions concerning the P.O.S. and the answers that he has found to them in the scriptures.  Pretty much the coolest thing ever.  President Cutler should be the next prophet.  He also told us that if our investigators ask us questions about the plan that we don't know, to read Alma 37:11 with them.

11 Now these mysteries are not yet fully made known unto me; therefore I shall forbear.

Haha needless to say he used that verse for a couple of the deep doctrine questions that we asked him as well.

And when we got back to our area, we got to go play volleyball with all of the hmong members!  Volleyball is to these hmong members as soccer was to the Spanish members in Madison.  haha

Friday we met with our investigator Kelly.  She REALLY wants to get baptized but is having a hard time giving up smoking.  We had a powerful lesson on the power of the priesthood and then brought a member with us to give her a blessing.  So we are praying that all will go well with that so that she can get baptized in the coming weeks!

Running out of time, but I sure do love you guys!  We are seeing miracles everyday.  I am so grateful for you guys and all that you do for me!  Till next week!

Sister King

It's not every day your companion gets a mission call! :)

Hello Family!!!  

Tampa Florida for this girl!!!

As always, it is so good to hear from all of you.  It has definitely been cooling down here in Wisconsin and winter is right around the corner, but the work here is still going strong!

We had a pretty busy week this week which is just how I like it.

All the sisters in the Madison zones

Reunion with Sis Brewster

Tuesday we got to meet with a few recent converts in the ward and then we also got to meet with Shay!  This week was pretty much centered around Shay because we have so much to teach her before her baptism THIS SATURDAY.  We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was cool because when we got to talking about baptism, I asked her what helped her make the decision to be baptized.  She talked about how she had always felt that something was missing in her life.  But ever since she met us that day at the bus stop, that hole that she has felt is starting to be filled.  And every time she meets with us she feels a little less empty.  Shay just has such amazing faith.  Everyday I just can't believe what an amazing miracle she is.  I just remember that I was so grateful for the amazing experiences I had teaching Sarah while I was being trained.  More than anything I wanted Sis. Hammatt to be able to have those same experiences.  We prayed so hard the first day that we were together to be able to have a baptism this transfer.  And the thing is- it is not anything that we did!  It has just all been miracle after miracle and tender mercy after tender mercy.  It was the Lord, and Sis. Hammatt and I have just been instruments in his hands in helping Shay to come to the fold.  We are so excited for this Saturday! 

Wednesday we met with a few of our investigators in the singles ward.  We taught Sarah and she is still going strong.  Instead of setting a baptismal date with her, we set a "tell your parents you are getting baptized" date with her.  So we are really hoping that goes well.  We talked about obedience and how important it is that we are obedient to the commandments of the Lord.  There are 3 reasons that we are obedient.  The first is fear.  We are scared of the consequences that will come if we aren't obedient.  The second is desire for blessings.  We are obedient because we desire the blessings that come from it.  (I think that the second category is where most of us fall).  And the last reason- and the one we are all striving for- is love for the Lord.  We should be obedient because we love the Lord and want to do what He asks of us no matter what it is.  I think that we are obedient for all of these reasons throughout our lives.  But being obedient out of love for the Lord is something that we all need to learn to do in this life.  We will never be perfect, but I am so grateful for my mission and the opportunity that I have had to begin learning how to do that.

The missionaries in the Madison 1st ward

The Madison 1 ward building

Thursday we had zone conference.  I LOVE ZONE CONFERENCE.  I think that is one of the things that I will miss most about my mission.  In fact, I might look up where the Provo mission zone conferences are and sneak in a couple of times later on in life... haha.  But this time we talked all about the Book of Mormon and how important it is.  Lots of people try to become "Preach My Gospel missionaries" and that is great.  But President Cutler wants us to become "Book of Mormon missionaries."  It is amazing because I can feel that more and more everyday of my life.  Zone conference was great and I always leave them feeling so motivated to be a better missionary. 

But the highlight this week was Thursday night because Sis. Hammatt got to open her mission call!  She will be serving in the Florida Tampa mission!!  I am beyond stoked for her.  Abby- you were spot on my friend!  Good work.  She is super excited and I am super excited for her.  Not excited that she is going to be leaving me... :(  But excited nonetheless.  It was cool because Shay got to come and watch Sis Hammatt open her call.  It was a very spiritual experience for all of us.

The Hammatt family

Sis. Hammatt and me with our investigator

Friday we met with Shay again because we have a lot to teach her.  We talked about the Law of Chastity and also Tithing.  Both went over very well and she is excited to start following these commandments.  We also met a couple of cool people on the bus this past week and set up church tours with them on Friday.  None of them showed... haha.  But that's cool. Shay made Friday worth it.

Saturday we got to see Rachel.  She is still doing so well.  She has seen so many blessings in her life since her decision to be baptized.  We got to teach her all about patriarchal blessings and she is so excited to get hers.

Sunday was a cool day because I realized that it was my one year anniversary for going through the temple!  Isn't that crazy?  I am so beyond grateful for the covenants that I have made in the House of the Lord.  How cool is it that we can make promises with our Heavenly Father and he promises us so many amazing blessings in return.  I love this scripture in the Book of Mormon about covenants:

1 Nephi 14:14

 14 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, beheld the power of the Lamb of God, that it descended upon the saints of the church of the Lamb, and upon the covenant people of the Lord, who were scattered upon all the face of the earth; and they were armed with righteousness and with the power of God in great glory.

Our covenants really do empower us.  I have literally FELT that on my mission.  It is crazy because in the past 9 months I have only gone to the temple 1 time, yet my testimony of temples has increased ten fold as I have studied this gospel and taught it to others.  I am so grateful for temples and the blessings that they are in our lives.  And you should all go to the temple!  There are about a bajillion temples so close by.  GO!  It's the best place in the world.

So this week has been pretty awesome in case you haven't been able to tell.  I just wanted to share one more thing from this week.  In our lesson with Rachel, we were discussing  some of the talks that were given in Stake Conference last week.  The stake president talked about doubt and what we can do to have faith rather than fear.  So we kind of got on the topic of doubt.  And Rachel said something that I will never forget.  She said, "If we make it to the end and it turns out all of this isn't true.... Then it should be!"  Haha I just love that.  This gospel should be true!  Look at everything that has come from it.  I look at my life and everything that I love and all of the blessings that I have and they have come directly from living the principles of this gospel.  I LOVE THIS GOSPEL.  It makes me so happy.  It should be true!  And it is true.  I know that it is.  I love the opportunity that I have to tell everyone about it everyday.  I love the fact that it is all that I ever talk about.  I love being a missionary. 

Thanks so much for being the best family ever.  And if you could keep Shay in your prayers this week, that would be very much appreciated!!!

I love you!!

Sister King

It's not every day your companion gets a mission call!  :)

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

#LDSConf

WHAT AN AMAZING WEEK!!!

Wasn't general conference the most amazing thing?  It is seriously so cool that God still speaks to man in our day through a modern day prophet and that we get to hear from him as well as all of the Lord's apostles twice a year!  I think we forget how amazing that is sometimes.  But let me start back at the beginning of the week:

My zone after our Zone Training Meeting

Sister Stuart goes home this transfer.  She is a great missionary and has been an amazing example for me!

Tuesday-  We had a zone training meeting.  It was really good!  We have some amazing zone leaders that taught us all about how the Spirit is vital for conversion.  So it is so important that we, as missionaries, always have the Spirit with us--especially when we are teaching people.  We also talked about doing what is good, better, and best.  I love that talk from I don't even remember who.  Lots of times we are doing good things or even better thing, but we need to always be thinking of what the best things are.  During the meeting our zone leaders told us that President wanted us to start using family history in our finding activities.  I had no idea how we were going to do that... but stay tuned to see what happened when we tried it.  [Addition from Mom- I read on her companion's blog that since this was April Fool's day, when Courtney played the closing hymn for the Zone conference.  The hymn was announced as "If You Could Hie to Kolob" but Courtney played  "Joy to the World".  Courtney- you are so funny!]

Wednesday-  HARD DAY.  Like really hard.  Every single appointment we had fell through.  And then all of our back up plans ended up falling through too!  We felt so discouraged and had no idea where Heavenly Father wanted us to be or what he wanted us to be doing.  And then on top of everything, we ended up meeting some of the craziest people throughout the day too.  There were these 3 guys pestering us at the bus stop and saying inappropriate things.  And then when we got on the bus there was this crazy lady that wouldn't let me get off of the bus and I thought she was going to beat me up.  Just a lot of little things happened that all added up together to make me feel so frustrated and discouraged.  I know that Heavenly Father was still looking out for us that day and keeping us safe, but I just was not feeling too happy about everything.

Thursday- A MUCH better day.  We had a lot of weekly planning to do and then dinner and a lesson with Sarah!  My favorite!  We went over the logistics of her baptism and it is all starting to feel so real now!  I can hardly believe it.  After Sarah's lesson, the Bishop of our ward wanted to come out and visit people with us.  I LOVE the Bishop of our ward.  He is a great man.  He is a convert of only 7 or 8 years and he is already the Bishop!  He is a good guy.  But I was so nervous to go out with him and his wife that night.  But it really ended up being such a blessing.  We went to visit a less active that we have been working with for a LONG time.  His name is Fred and he is awesome.  He came to church last week for the first time!  I think he felt special that we brought the Bishop of the ward with us to have a lesson.  We talked about conference and what we could do to prepare for us.  And then Fred shared with us a cool story!  Our last lesson with him we talked about the Book of Mormon and how reading it everyday will change our lives.  He accepted the challenge to read it everyday.  Then this past week he was at work.  He bends neon and glass or something like that.  He had recruited his friend to come help him carry some supplies and things and his friend accidentally dropped some glass that he had already been working so hard on.  This accident was going to cost Fred a lot of money.  He said that normally he would have completely lost his temper and been very upset and frustrated about everything.  But he had read his Book of Mormon that morning.  He said that he felt calm and at peace with everything and that he handled the situation a lot better then he ever thought he could have.  And then he told us that he KNEW it was because he had been reading the Book of Mormon.  It is so cool to see the Book of Mormon making changes in people's lives.  I love that book.

 

Friday-  Speaking of the book of Mormon, I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time on my mission.  Turns out- IT'S TRUE!  I enjoyed every single second of reading the Book of Mormon.  And I can hardly wait to start it again!  That book changes lives, I'm tellin ya!  As we were out talking to people we decided to try to use family history like President and our zone leaders had asked us to do.  At first nothing really came of it and it was hard to connect things back to the church and stuff.  So we reverted back to our original methods that we usually use.  But then we came to a bus stop and started talking to the lady named Nel.  At first she was very stand offish and didn't want to talk to us at all.  She was a little rude even.  But then I said, "We just want to talk to you about family history!"  After that she completely opened up!  She told us all about her family and her ancestors and how important her family was to her.  We told her that in our church we know that families can be together forever and she absolutely loved that!  We said a prayer with her before we left and the spirit was so strong.  Before we left she told us that Tanner and King would make a good name for a beer company... haha.  She was a cool lady.

 

Saturday- CONFERENCE WAS FINALLY HERE!!!!!!!!!!  I was so completely stoked for conference you have no idea.  The Saturday morning session was my favorite session I think.  It is hard to pick favorites because they were all phenonmenal, but I especially loved that one.  We watched the sessions at our stake center.  And then Sarah came to the Saturday afternoon session with us.  She LOVED conference!  Her loving conference made me love conference even more!  She said that she felt like the talks were meant for her.  We had another investigator, Lenier, come to conference too.  That was a miracle.  We will see how things go with him this week.

 

Sunday-  We went to the Sunday morning conference at the stake center again.  And Sarah came too!  :)  this time we told her to write down 2-3 questions and they would be answered during the session.  It was so fun because during the session she would lean over to me every couple of minutes and excitedly say, "That answered my question!!"  Haha conference is amazing and so completely inspired.  After the first session Sarah had her baptismal interview!  We were nervous but she came out of it with a huge smile on her face and the first thing she said was, "My cheeks hurt from smiling so much!"  Haha she's golden.  Elder Harmon is the district leader so he did the interview.  Afterwards he called us and told us that Sarah was so amazing that that we did a good job preparing her.  That made me feel really good to know that we are doing good things and being good missionaries!  Except that Sarah really has been being prepared by the Lord for a long time and we really haven't done much because she is just so ready.  But still felt good nonetheless.  And because Sarah passed her interview- it means that it is official!  We are having a baptism on Friday!  It is seriously such a miracle.  I can hardly believe it.  I feel so blessed.  Blessed that Heavenly Father has trusted me with his precious daughter Sarah. 

 

Overall, I LOVED general conference!  If I had to pick one favorite talk it would probably be President Uchtdorf's Sunday morning.  I loved what he said about not just being grateful for things but having an overall attitude of gratitude.  I don't remember the exact quote, but he said something like, "Gratitude is a catalyst to all Christ-like attributes."  I love that!!!!!  So if we want to become more like Christ, then we need to be grateful.  There is so much more that I loved about conference but I thought I would just share one more thought.  I also loved Elder Ballard's talk.  He talked about missionary work.  And he spoke specifically to you guys!  He said that you should study preach my gospel to better understand what your sons and daughters are doing in the mission field.  You guys need to do that!  Preach my Gospel is an amazing book!  I think it would be so cool to share insights and thoughts from studies in preach my gospel.  I know it will bless all of you because I have seen it bless me.

 

Playing marshmallow wars last p-day with some other missionaries from our zone.

Reppin' my Duck Dynasty socks!

Anyways, I love you all so much and hope that you have had an amazing week!  Be praying for our investigator this week as her baptismal day is approaching!  The church is so true!  Love you!

Love,

Sister King

PS I would love some letters :)

Another week in 'stallis

STOKED when I got Dad's letter!!!  Especially the stat sheet!

HELLO!!!!!!!  Can't believe it is finally P-day again!  Reading e-mails from you all is the best thing in the world!  Haha it was so funny!  Sister Tanner and I both instinctively started running when we got off the bus at the library today.  Kind of embarrassing.... but that is seriously how much we love getting mail.

Fair warning- not a lot happened this week so sorry if this e-mail is lame and boring.

Tuesday was the funeral for the Relief Society President's husband.  Sister Tanner and I helped a lot with that.  It was a great service.  He wasn't a member so there were a lot of non members there in the congregation during the funeral.  The spirit there was so strong and the relief society president said that there were some people asking her about the church after.  We really are so blessed to have the knowledge that families can be together forever and that this life isn't the end.  I am so grateful for my family!  That is all I could think about during the funeral service.  It is so cool that we get to be together forever!  Sometimes that is the only thing that can help when I really start to miss everyone throughout the week.  We should thank Heavenly Father everyday and but then we also need to do our best to live worthy of these blessings.  Interesting story, Sister Tanner's companion before me came up here for the funeral from her area because she was good friends with the relief society president.  They had a member of their ward drive them and during the luncheon I sat down and started talking to her.  I don't remember for sure how she said she was related to them, but I think her husband is Dave Crowther's brother!  Isn't that so cool?  It was such a tender mercy to get to run into her!  She was so sweet.

I met Sister Crowther!  She is related to Dave and Kris Crowther.  It was so fun to meet her!  She was so sweet.

Wednesday was BLISTERING HOT!  And by blistering hot I mean it got up to 48 degrees!  It was nuts!  Sis Tanner and I were so stoked that we didn't even wear a coat all day and we walked everywhere!  We went to Kopp's for lunch which is the super famous Wisconsin Custard place and boy was it good.  Other than that, every one that we visited wasn't home, but at least it was warm!  :)

Thursday was another somewhat uneventful day.  Except we did have a lesson with one of the less active members we are working with that went so well.  We read Alma 37 and talked about how by small and simple things are great things brought to pass.  And how we shouldn't be slothful because of the easiness of the way.  And then we shared Sister Oscarson's conference talk called Be Ye Converted which is a GREAT talk and you should drop what you are doing and read it right now.  It talks about how we need to do the small and simple things to gain our testimony. Conversion isn't an event, it is a process.  We need to be continually converting ourselves to the Lord every single day.  If there is one thing that I have learned so far on my mission, it's that.  Reading your scriptures everyday, saying sincere prayers, and attending church are SO IMPORTANT.  They are the simple and obvious things, yet there are so many people that struggle to do them.  Reading my scriptures everyday has made such a difference for me here on my mission. 

Honey Creek Bridge in West Allis

Friday was definitely the highlight of the week.  It was my very first zone conference!  I loved every single second of it!  Guess what!  I played the piano!  It was scary because this conference was combined with 3 zones so there were tons of missionaries there plus President and Sister Cutler so I was waaaaaay nervous but I actually did a really good job.  Yay!  The theme of the conference was prayer.  Sister Cutler talked to us about the importance of fasting with prayer.  She pointed something out that I have always known but thought was a good reminder- Fasting is a tool that Heavenly Father has given us to make our prayers more powerful.  Fasting isn't just skipping a couple of meals.  It is an opportunity for us to receive blessings from Heavenly Father!  I thought that was way awesome.  President Cutler talked to us about Joseph Smith and his experience with prayer.  I mean if you think about it, a 14 year old boy restored the Lord's true church on the earth again in our day all because he decided to say a simple prayer in a grove of trees one day.  In fact, every time Joseph Smith needed help and revelation, he said a prayer to receive the revelation.  It wasn't just given to him.  I think that is important for us to remember.  President Cutler also pointed out another thing that I thought was interesting.  He talked about when Joseph faced the adversary as he began praying before he had the first vision.  In verse 20 of JS-History Joseph says something like Satan must have known he was going to be an "annoyer" and "disturber" of his Kingdom.  Then President Cutler said this, "If you don't feel some opposition, you need to re-evaluate what you are doing." BAM.  Isn't that so true though!  As missionaries we are definitely annoyers and disturbers of Satan's Kingdom.  That is why we are here!  And Satan doesn't like it.  I think that might be one of the reasons that missions are so hard.  Also, this totally applies to real life too.  We should always be doing something to be disturbing satan's kingdom.  Whether it be teaching someone else the gospel or building our own testimony.  If you feel some opposition, then you are doing it right.  Just a thought.

Reuniting with some MTC homies at Zone Conference!!!

More MTC homies!

Another cool thing that happened at zone conference was when President Cutler had all of the missionaries that are leaving after this transfer bear their testimonies.  They were amazing.  I hope more than anything that I sound like that when I am getting ready to leave.  It reminded me a lot of Timpview Soccer.  I remember when I was a freshman and Coach Rob had all of the seniors talk to us on their last day of practice.  They told us that time goes by so fast and to enjoy it while we can and to work hard while we still have the chance.  I remember thinking to myself, "sucker!  I've still got 4 years of this!"  But then I blinked my eyes and it was my senior year and I was trying to tell all the Freshmen that time really does go by so fast and all of those same things.  I caught myself having those same thoughts as they were bearing their testimonies.  I thought to myself, It's fine!  I still have 18 months!  But then I remembered.  And I learned my lesson this time.  I want to make this 18 months count while I can.  I hope it doesn't go by too fast!

Overall, I just thought I would reiterate how much I love the Cutlers.  I know that they receive direct revelation from Heavenly Father for our mission and I am so grateful for them.  Zone conference was awesome!

Saturday was another normal day.  We met a couple of people on the street and we were able to give them some Book of Mormons.  It was awesome!  Saturday nights on the bus are always pretty interesting.  And scary.  Everyone is usually high or wasted so they can't drive home so they are on the bus.  And then they see our nametags that say Jesus Christ on them.  And then they feel like they have to pour out their whole life stories to us.  I have some pretty crazy stories to tell but I am running out of time!  Ah!

Warming up with some hot chocolate at the bus stop

Sunday was great!  I love going to church and having the opportunity to renew my covenants!  It was so awesome to hear about Tommy's homecoming and see pictures.  You can tell he was an awesome missionary.  It is weird to hear about people that come home because I just barely left. 

Anyways, we are working hard here in West Allis!!  Thank you so much for your prayers.  AND LETTERS TOO!!!  I love you all so much and am already counting down the minutes until next p-day when I get to read your e-mails again.  Love you so much!!

Sister King