Shout out to Ryan!

Hey Family!

First of all I would like to give a shout out to Ryan!  He is now a return missionary!  How cool.  Can't believe it has already been 2 years since he left.  Hope that I can be the kind of missionary that he was!

The weather has finally been getting nicer here, almost into the 70's!  But then we woke up this morning and it was snowing.  So we will have to see what the weather has in store for us this week.

We were pretty busy this week!

We visiting with a lot of less actives in the ward this week that we hadn't been able to get in with before, so that was pretty awesome.  The Wausau ward is pretty big and retention is definitely an area that can be improved so Sister Weaver and I are working hard to help with that.

On exchanges with Sister Peel, the Nou Vang's had us over for dinner.  They are one of the Hmong families in our ward.  Last time I told them that I love somtum, so they made me a plate!  Thought you might like that Mom.  Both of us ate authentic somtum on our missions!  Good stuff!  :)

Exchanges with Sisters Payne and Cook.  (Check out my hair cut!  I got 4 inches off.)

Got to go on exchanges with Sister Cook.  She is from McGrath, Alberta, Canada.  That is one of the places that we went when I went up there for my soccer tournament so it was fun to reminisce about fun times and fun places up in Canada.  We saw a lot of miracles.  We were out tracting and met this guy  from Brazil.   He already had a copy of the Book of Mormon! I think he may have met with missionaries many years ago. We told him that the Book of Mormon was a record of people on the American continent, somewhere in central or south America. That really caught his attention! He said that he would read and that we could come back and teach him more. It is so cool to me how the Lord prepares me.  Maybe he wasn't completely ready to accept the gospel when he received the Book of Mormon before, and the Lord led us to find him now that he is ready!  So hope that all goes well.

Also got to go on exchanges with Sister Peel.  She is from Mt. Pleasant, Utah which is where Jessie Jorgensen's farm is so it was fun to reminisce about that as well.  She thought it was cool that someone actually knew where it was because it is a pretty small town.  She finishes her mission in about 2 weeks so it was fun to be able to learn from her.  We met with some less actives and then tried to find some new investigators.  We got a referral from one of our investigators to visit her sister.  She told us the street that her house was on and that is was the 2nd house on the left and it was blue.  When we went to try to find the house, the 2nd house on the left was white and the one next to it was blue.  So we didn't really know which one to try.  We decided to try the blue house first.  We knocked on the door and this guy answers.  I asked if Patty was there and he said no.  I said, "Oh no, we must have the wrong house then.  Sorry!  But what is your name?"  And he said, "It's- get off my porch!  Do you need a spelling for that?!"  hahahahahahahahaha man I have been rejected my fair share of times but that has got to be one of the most interesting. 

I also got to speak in sacrament meeting yesterday.  Perks of being a missionary- they ask you to speak just a couple of days before the meeting!  Yay!  But I was actually very grateful for the opportunity to speak because the topic that they gave me to speak on was my very favorite- The Atonement!  Man, I could just go on talking about that and how much I love it forever!  I have been studying a talk that Elder Holland gave a while back called "Missionary Work and the Atonement."  Man, is it a good one.  This is one of my favorite quotes:

"Anyone who does any kind of missionary work will have occasion to ask, Why is this so hard? Why doesn’t it go better? Why can’t our success be more rapid? Why aren’t there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don’t people just flock to the font? Why isn’t the only risk in missionary work that of pneumonia from being soaking wet all day and all night in the baptismal font?

You will have occasion to ask those questions. I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience.‍ Salvation never‍ was easy. We are The Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, and He is our Great Eternal Head. How could we believe it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? It seems to me that missionaries and mission leaders have to spend at least a few moments in Gethsemane. Missionaries and mission leaders have to take at least a step or two toward the summit of Calvary.

Now, please don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and‍ investigators, to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to know something of this price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price.

For that reason I don’t believe missionary work has ever been easy, nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness is. I believe it is supposed to require some effort, something from the depths of our soul.

If He could come forward in the night, kneel down, fall on His face, bleed from every pore, and cry, “Abba, Father (Papa), if this cup can pass, let it pass,” ¹⁶ ‍ then little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or easy thing for us. If you wonder if there isn’t an easier way, you should remember you are not the first one to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot grander asked a long time ago if there wasn’t an easier way.

The Atonement will carry the missionaries perhaps even more importantly than it will carry the investigators. When you struggle, when you are rejected, when you are spit upon and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, you are standing with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect life ever lived. You have reason to stand tall and be grateful that the Living Son of the Living God knows all about your sorrows and afflictions. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane and on to Calvary. The only way to eternity is through Him—the Way, the Truth, and the Life."

I don't think we will ever come to understand the Atonement perfectly.  However, I have come to understand it on my mission better than I ever have before and in ways that I never could have experienced if I wasn't here.  

 

As a missionary, I understand to a certain extent a small degree of some of the things that the Savior felt.  He was rejected, mocked, spit upon, judged unfairly, ignored, and persecuted.  He worked diligently all the days of his ministry and still there were many, many people that did not want to listen to the amazing and beautiful gospel message that He had to share.  I have felt some of those same feelings on my mission.  But because of the Savior and His Atonement, I don't have to endure it alone.  I can find strength, peace, and joy throughout anything that may come my way.  And I am so grateful because I appreciate and understand that part of the Atonement in a very personal way now.  I love my Savior.  I am so grateful for the example that he set for us to follow and that He has offered divine help along the way.  I know that He loves us.  That is why He endured everything that He did!  He loves us, and He loves God.  That is his motivation for perfect obedience.  I love this gospel and I love the ability that I have to tell people about Christ's Atonement every single day, whether they choose to listen or not!

I love you all!

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

2nd Mission Leadership Council

Hey Fam!

Happy Easter everybody!

Easter package from the world's best family

I know that I always say that I don't have much time, but this time I really don't.  Haha we have a meeting that we have to go to and we have to prepare our training for Zone Training Meeting tomorrow. 

But for an update of the week- we were pretty much just doing a lot of tracting and contacting again all week trying to push the churches "Because He Lives" campaign. 

We also had a lot of meetings this week.  I got to go to my second Mission Leadership Council and it was not as scary or intimidating this time, so that was good.  It was fun because our zone had that miracle week where we doubled our number of baptismal dates so we were the topic of much of the meeting.  We were also trained on the things that we need to train the rest of the missionaries on this week.  This month we are talking a lot about sacrifice and consecration, so that should be interesting!  Also, the Cutler's daughter Hannah got back from her mission to El Salvador the day before MLC so we got to meet her there!  That was pretty fun and a super special weekend for the Cutler's.

Group of the some of the sisters that I came out with at MLC

Courtney's second Mission Leadership Council - I got these from the Wisconsin mission blog that Sister Cutler updates.

Sister Cutler's picture of the STL's from the Wausau area: Sister Weaver and Sister King

A couple of quick thoughts from conference before I have to jet out of here-

The 2 talks that stood out to me the most were Elder Clayton and Elder Pearson.  Man, sometimes these seventies that you don't really know just pop out of no where and tell you exactly what you need to hear!  I loved that Elder Clayton talked about how faith and belief is a choice.  That is something that I have really come to learn and understand on my mission, both in my life and seeing it in the people that we get to work with.  He said something about how faith doesn't just happen to us.  We have to go out and do something about it!  And when our prayers are answered, we need to choose that that was an answer to a prayer.  I don't know if that really makes sense.  Just something that I have been thinking about.

Man I really wish that I had more time to talk to you about our week and how special this conference/Easter weekend was.  :(

They named a street after Ashley out here!

Some Easter traditions never die :)

 

But just know that I have a testimony of our Savior.  He really did suffer for our sins, pains, afflictions, sicknesses, sorrows, and anything else that we have to deal with in mortality.  And most importantly, he really did rise again!  Christ's Atonement is central to God's entire plan for us and I am grateful for that perspective that I have gained.  It affects all of the decisions that I make everyday not only as a missionary, but also as a daughter of God.  I love this gospel so much and am so excited to be able to go out and continue to share it this week.

Sure do love you!

Sister King

Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission conference March 2015

#Because He Lives

Hey Fam!

Gabby and Sister King wishing Mom a Happy Birthday!

Super sorry but I don't have a ton of time today.  We have been pretty busy and myldsmail was down for a while today so not a lot of time but here is a quick update:

So pretty much if you want an update of what we have been doing, we have been doing a LOT of tracting.  We have been pushing the church's new Because He Lives initiative.  If you haven't watched that video yet, do it now!

helives.mormon.org

also while you are at it watch this one from last year.  MY FAVE

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng

Being a missionary at Easter time is the best because people are a lot more open to hearing what we have to say.  People that usually would slam the door in our faces will listen for at least a second.  That is the thing about Wausau- most people here are already very religious.  Everyone is either Lutheran or Catholic.  It makes me so happy to see people that have faith in the Savior.  In Milwaukee and especially in Madison I met a lot of atheists or people that just didn't care.  So we have been telling people about this Easter video to try to add to their Easter experience. 

Selfie with our local Jehovah's Witnesses!

How I felt about our empty mail box

Me with Holden's Flat Stanley

My favorite scripture about Christ's resurrection is in Mosiah 16:

 7 And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection.
 8 But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death‍ is swallowed up in Christ.
 9 He is the light‍ and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.

The sting of death is swallowed up in Christ!  He overcame both spiritual death and physical death as well.  Because of Him, we will get to be united as a family again in our perfect resurrected bodies. And the amazing thing about this is that resurrection is a gift for everyone here on earth no matter what choices they made.  Man, Christ must love us a lot.

We met with our new investigator this week.  He was just sitting outside his house and I went up and started talking to him.  He is recently divorced and having a really hard time.  We testified of the Book of Mormon and he accepted a return appointment to learn more.  We have taught him the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation and he came to church yesterday!  So more to come on him.

The women's broadcast this past weekend was a huge highlight for me.  LOVED the focus on the family. Though it did make me miss my family, especially because is was Mom's birthday.  But like I said before, we will all be together forever.  So no big.  Favorite thing that I learned from that meeting- God has a plan for each of us, but He also has His timetable.  Something that is always good to keep in mind.

The broadcast made me even more STOKED for general conference coming up this weekend.  General conference is seriously like Christmas morn for a missionary.  So sad that this is my last one!  Excited to hear what all of you think about conference this year!

Also- I thought I would share with you something that Sister Hammatt shared with me this week.  I guess they had a Jerusalem expert come to their mission to teach them about Jesus Christ.  

Apparently there is a sign in the Garden of Gethsemane that says, "You have never before been to this place, but your sins have."

I love that!  The Savior truly suffered for each of our sins.  He loves us so much.  So grateful for this Easter season that we have to celebrate that.  And what better way to celebrate than hearing from his prophet on the earth today.

Love you all!  Happy Easter and Happy General Conference!

Love,
Sister King

Mission Conference with Elder Christensen

Hello Family!

Another week come and gone.  I can hardly believe it. 

So for starters- we found out about transfers this Wednesday.  Sister Weaver and I are going to be staying here together another transfer in Wausau!  YAY!  That is what we thought was probably going to happen.  But you can never be sure.  So it is nice to know!  :)  But there was a sister training leader area that did close down so we are going to be picking up a couple of new sets of sisters that we go on exchanges with and stuff so that should be interesting.  Gonna get to travel around the state a little more so that should be fun!  Exhausting, but fun. :)  The next transfer I believe is going to be on May 6.

This week was pretty cool.

Tuesday we got to meet with True.  Do you remember her?  She is the one that I talked about last week that we pulled over to help her with her car.  Well, we set a baptismal date with her this week!  We went over and taught her the Restoration and she loved it!  There is still a lot that we have to teach her and a long way to go, but she has a day that she is working toward.  She is a cute little Hmong lady and she is so kind to us!  So hope that all goes well with her as we continue to teach her this week.

Wednesday we met a new investigator named Andrea.  The Elders in our ward had been teaching her Dad, but he wasn't that interested.  We decided to try stopping by his daughter's (Andrea's) house to see if we might have more luck with her.  She let us right in and we were able to teach her the Restoration.  Her boyfriend has decided to sit in on the lessons too!  They loved the Restoration so much, that they wanted us to come back the very next day on Thursday to teach them the next lesson!  So we set a baptismal date with her has well.  Her boyfriend, Andres, is a little more hard-hearted and not as willing to work toward baptism.  But we know that the Spirit will soften his heart.  :) 

It was cool though because our zone (like I talked about last week) set the goal for every area in our zone to set a new baptismal date before L. Tom Perry was going to come.  OUR ZONE WAS ON FIRE THIS WEEK!  We doubled our goal for baptismal dates.  It was absolutely incredible.  We were all working so hard to prepare to hear from an apostle.  And then on Thursday, the day before we were going to be leaving for the conference, we got a call from our zone leaders to tell us that Elder Perry wasn't going to be coming anymore...  Yeah... needless to say I was pretty disappointed.  Still am a little bit... haha.  But holy cow look at all the miracles that came from just the thought of an apostle coming to our mission!  The conference still ended up being such a cool experience.

Some pictures from our mission conference

Got to see Sister Osmond!

Celebrating Gabby's year mark!

It was about a 4 hour drive down to Milwaukee because we had to pick up another set of sisters in Gresham on the way.  We didn't get to stay with anyone from West Allis.  :(  But we did get to stay with a family from Sister Weaver's old area in Waukesha!  So that was pretty cool.  We stayed the night there and then headed to the Milwaukee South Stake center in the morning.  This is the church building where the West Allis ward meets!  So many memories flooded through my mind as we walked into the building.  Such a tender mercy to be able to be in Milwaukee again.  I sure do miss that place.  And I got to see so many of my missionary friends there.  Biggest highlight though- seeing Sister Kelley!  Made my whole life.  Sure do miss that girl.  She told me all about what has been going on back in Madison too so that was pretty cool.  Praying that she gets transferred up here to Wausau next transfer... :) 

So Elder Perry didn't end up coming....  Yeah that was a bummer.  But Craig C. Christensen of the seventy still came.  And he is pretty awesome!  This is kind of sad though- he told us that the reason that Elder Perry wasn't able to come at the last minute is because President Monson and President Packer are both not doing well.  Their health just been declining so much.  And he needed to stay last minute to do some things to get ready for general conference coming up because he is the next in seniority. 

Even though Elder Perry wasn't able to be there, it was still a very special meeting!  Elder Christensen is also a very inspired man.  He talked to us a lot about the Atonement and how we can learn about it has we read from the Book of Mormon.  I thought that was interesting because that is something that President Cutler has been talking to us about that a lot lately.  So I guess they both received the same revelation that that is what we needed to hear!  Elder Christensen also talked a lot about humility.  I thought that was interesting because the question that I took to this meeting was, "How can I be more humble."  I thought this was interesting- he said, "Humility is knowing who you are and at the same time knowing who God is."  Kind of makes you think doesn't it.  I think sometimes we think that if we are humble that we need to think very low of ourselves.  That isn't true!  Humility should make us confident!  But we just need to make sure that we are equally confident in the Lord as we are in ourselves.  It is really hard to find that balance.  But then I think about how we have a perfect example to look to- The Savior.  Boy was he humble.  He did exactly what the Father asked him to do, but he was also confident in his testimony and in the things that he knew.

So this week was a pretty special one!  I think that Sister Cutler said she was going to be posting a picture of the whole mission that we took together on the mission blog soon.  (There should also be some pictures there from the last zone conference here in Wausau and from my first MLC!)

So grateful for the experiences that I have been having out here.  I miss you all everyday.  But I cherish every moment that I get to spend here. 

Love you all so much!  Have an awesome week! 

Love,

Sister King

Mission Leadership Conference

Mission Leadership for the Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission

Sister Weaver and Sister King, Sister Training Leaders for the Wausau area

                                                           THAT'S OUR GIRL!!

Here is a link to the blog for the Milwaukee Wisconsin mission: http://wisconsinmilwaukeemission.blogspot.com/2015/03/milwaukee-south-green-bay-and-ellsworth.html