Work is the best medicine

Hi family!


Man, these past few days have definitely been mixed emotions. But something that I have learned on my mission is that work is the best medicine. So we have been working pretty hard! We have been pretty busy and I am sorry but kind of running out of time to e-mail. This week we went on 2 exchanges. Which meant that I was exhausted. haha. But also means that we worked really hard and got a lot done.

One of my exchanges was with Sister Schlosser who just finished up serving in Madison. It was so fun to get to catch up on what has been going on there and how the people are doing. Madison just has such a special place in my heart. So it was a huge tender mercy for me to be able to work with her for a day.

One of the biggest highlights of the week would also have to be Sue!!! She has been reading in the Book of Mormon and she came to church yesterday so she is progressing toward baptism! Super exciting! She has had some health problems lately, so we had to move her baptismal date back to August... It was July 25. I really wanted to keep trying for that date for certain reasons. haha. But I know that she needs to progress at her speed and that God has a better plan for her than I do.


Zone Training Meeting this week went very well I thought! That was my last one. It's funny- by the time I finally feel confident and comfortable with giving trainings, I don't have to give them anymore. haha. Heavenly Father sure knows how to help us stretch and grow. And then as soon as we are comfortable, he will throw something else at us to help us stretch and grow and become better. That is why missions are so hard but also so incredible. Your entire mission is just one big stretching and growing experience. You are asked to do a lot of things that are hard, that are uncomfortable, that are weird (or at least appear weird to the rest of the world), and some things that you just plain don't want to do. But you do them anyway so that you can help the work move forward, and most importantly so that you can be obedient to what God has asked you to do.


I love my Heavenly Father so much. I love Him so much that I rejoice in doing the things that He has asked me to do- even the hard things. This week my mission scripture has been popping into my head a lot.

 9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy. 

It is funny because I thought that I felt the same way Alma feels before my mission. But I had no idea what I was really in for. However, I can say with perfect confidence now that I DO glory in what the Lord has commanded me. I love being an instrument in his hands- it is the most fulfilling feeling in the entire world. I love preaching of repentance and the Atonement of our Savior to the people here in Wisconsin. This really is my joy. This really is what brings me peace and happiness. I am so grateful for this gospel and the blessing that it is in my life. I love you all so much! Till next week!

 Love, Sister King

Spirit Tracting

Hey Fam!

Man!  What a week. As usual I am short on time so I will just tell you about a few of the highlights of the week

Our Zone Training Meeting went really well!  Giving trainings is still really scary and stressful to me, but I feel like I have gotten better than when I was first thrown into it.  So that is a blessing.  

Something interesting that President Cutler taught us that we got to teach the other missionaries in our zone is that there are 3 different kinds of obedience. First, you can obey out of fear.  You obey because you are scared of the consequences that will come if you are not obedient to what God wants you to do.  For example with tithing- D&C 64:23 tells us that if we don't pay our tithing is like fire insurance.  So some people are obedient because they are afraid of being burned.  

Second, you can obey out of want of blessings.  There are lots of promised blessings attached to the commandments that God gives us!  This is especially important as a missionary because we need the blessings of the Lord that come from obedience if we are to get along.  Or if we continue with the tithing example, Malachi 3:10 tells us that if we pay our tithing then the windows of heaven will open and pour out blessings that we won't even have room enough to receive them.  So some people obey the commandments because they desire blessings.  

Or the last reason for motivation behind obedience is love.  We simply love the Lord.  Do we really love the Lord?  when I wake up in the morning on time right at 6:30 and throw myself onto the floor to pray, am I doing it because I am afraid of what will happen if I don't?  Am I doing it because I want the blessings that will come?  Or am I doing it because I love the Lord so much and am excited that I have another day ahead of me to devote to serving Him.  Why are you being obedient to the commandments?  It is an interesting thing to think about.

John 14:15

If ye love‍ me, keep‍ my commandments.

Also- you should watch/listen to this talk!  Elder Holland can say it better than I can!

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/the-first-great-commandment?lang=eng

We got to go on exchanges this week.  I went to Stevens Point to be with Sister Clawson for the day.  She is finishing up her mission here in a couple of weeks so it was cool to get to learn from her.  We have served around and near each other in the same zones almost our whole missions so it was fun to get to spend the day together working.

We had a cool experience this week.  It was about 8:30 at night and our last appointment had fallen through.  Pretty much the whole state of Wisconsin goes to bed at like 7:00pm so knocking doors didn't seem like the best use of the half hour that we had left of the night.  So we decided to go on what I like the call a "Faith Walk."  We said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father to place someone in our path that needed to meet us that day so that we could make the best use of our time.  We started walking and knocking on a few doors that had lights on, when we passed by this woman named Angie sitting outside of her apartment.  We approached her and started talking to her and she completely broke down and told us of the struggles she had been having with her son.  We answered SO MANY of her questions with the Book of Mormon.  It was incredible!  She told us that the Jehovah's Witnesses had knocked on her door a couple of days ago and that she was thinking of meeting with them, but now she wants to meet with us instead!  It was seriously a miracle!  I KNOW that Heavenly Father needed us to meet her that night.  We will be teaching her again later this week!

Also this week we were working at the food pantry that we volunteer at every week and ended up meeting an undercover less active that volunteers there!  He is currently in jail so we aren't allowed to visit him... haha.  But we did give him a Book of Mormon that he can read while he is there!  Apparently he joined the church when he was 12 with his older sister without their parents back in California and had been ordained a Priest.  But he had gotten into a little bit of trouble... and now he wants to turn his life around again!  So that was pretty cool.

We also were out contacted a couple of people in these indoor apartment complexes and with the way that the doors were set up and with the amount of time that we had left we weren't going to be able to knock on every single door.  So we decided to do what I like the call "Spirit tracting."  Pray to figure out which of the doors we needed to knock on!  We ended up meeting the 15 year old boy named Ricky.  He is Hmong though so we referred him to the Hmong Elders in our ward.  They taught him twice this week and just yesterday they set a baptismal date with him!  YAY SPIRIT TRACTING!

Ok we also met another cool lady named Teresa this week.  She was a headquarter referral that requested a Bible and a Book of Mormon so we thought that was pretty interesting.  When we went by to give her the books we started talking to her.  And apparently she had been meeting with Elders 6 years ago until one day she came home to find her house burned down!  Her Bible and Book of Mormon were completely destroyed.  Because of all the chaos between trying to find a new place and dealing with insurance and trying to salvage anything that was left from the fire, she fell out of contact with the missionaries.  But now she feels that it is time for her to start meeting with the missionaries again!  So she is going to start reading the BofM again and we are going to start meeting with her this week!

See- so many miracles are happening!  So I didn't even miss you guys in Cancun.  :)

But really though, I LOVE this work.  There is no place I would rather be.  The hand of the Lord has never been so prevalent in my life than it is now.  I see it everyday and I am so grateful for that.  This truly is the Lord's work and "no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing!"   "Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go for boldy, nobly, and independent until it has penetrated every continent, visited every clime, swept every country, and sounded in every ear."  I know that this gospel is true and that it is real.  It changes lives!

Love,

Sister King

Sorry!  Only one picture this week and it is from my exchange with Sister Clawson

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.