Staying in Lethbridge for at least 7 more weeks!

Hello!!!

So, Monday was so much fun! A member owns this super nice golf course and all the missionaries get to golf for free. That was a party!! The weather was so nice at the beginning of the week! Ha I already know that in the summer I'm going to be a walking, talking lobster... but that is totally all right!

Tuesday was our last DTM with our district :( I really lucked out with who my first district was, we all got along so well. We also went out to lunch with our district to this sushi place called Fusion. So my first sushi experience was a great one! Ha hard to believe that I had to come to Canada to try my first sushi, but it was really good! After lunch we went tracting because of the nice weather and that was actually pretty successful! We ate dinner with some super cute girls in our YSA ward too, so Tuesday was just awesome! On Tuesday night there was this super weird energy because everyone was getting their transfer calls and calling us to tell us where they were going... crazy madness!! Ha I was actually really glad that I didn't have to stress about anything, I still get Sister Blake for 7 more weeks! We also met with Stake President Maclennon, it is so fun to have so many connections! He updated me on the people back at home.

Wednesday was so much fun as well! We met with one of our investigators and helped her move some furniture and stuff. It's really hard to have an actual lesson with her because she really likes to talk, but we meet with her again this upcoming week and hopefully we can teach her! We also went to the Doctor for Sister Blake, don't worry everything is just dandy! We had dinner with this cute couple in our family ward. I am really so impressed with the people here, everyone is so stinking nice! Canadians definitely live up to the talk about them being so nice! They gave us this referral to go see a family just around the block, so right after dinner we went to go talk to him. The dad answered and let us in, He ended up being a pastor for his religion and he's from Kenya. So he started like bible bashing us, kinda funny! But it really made me so glad for the Book of Mormon, we just testified and gave him a BOM and told him to read it (not expecting that he would, but still hopeful)

Thursday, the dreaded day of transfers... this super nice lady invited all of our district over to her house to have one last breakfast together. So sad but so fun! We had to say goodbye to Elder Roberts and Wimber and Sister Tolbert. Luckily we ended up getting some other awesome people to lessen the blow of losing them. It really is sad to say goodbye, you are only with them for a little bit but they really become your family. Making lifelong friends here!! Another thing that was fun, the pastor texted us a bunch of questions about the BOM... he's actually reading it! So that was a miracle in itself! WE went to go have a lesson with our recent convert and unfortunately he was drunk, so we didn't end up meeting  with him. That was really sad, you could see a huge difference in  him... but he came to church yesterday and we're meeting with him tonight!

Friday was just an average day, nothing super bad or super awesome happened... but we did get to meet with one of our YSA less actives and she is doing so well!!! That was our miracle of the day! We talked to her about the temple and she is so excited to have that as her goal! We also had dinner with the most adorable old couple! They are from England and have the coolest accents and they just have the coolest story, literally they need to have a movie made about their life!

Saturday was so much fun! We went and got to act in a primary program... then we went to this missionary boot camp that the stake was throwing, that was really fun! We got to bear our testimonies to all the youth about how awesome missionary work is! We also had our Zone goal meeting that day, it was fun to meet everyone in our new zone. Let's just say that we are going to have so much fun! So pumped!! We also got to have dinner with the Maclennan's that night. Seriously so fun to talk with them! One other fun thing that happened was that me and Sister Blake have been pestering our wards because want some bikes, and on Saturday we got 2! So we are pretty excited about getting to ride our bikes around!

Sunday was actually pretty stressful. We had 2 ward councils and had to prepare to teach gospel principles and the laurels. Ha we showed up to our gospel principles class and no one was there... so we didn't have to teach. Then when we went into laurels there were only 2 of them and they were sisters and we're already pretty tight with them. But that was still super fun!

This week has been pretty fun and when you look for the hand of the Lord in your life you will see how much he actually is there and does for us every single day!

One thing that me and Sister Blake do that I love is that we set fun little goals for everyday. Like one day was to make 3 people laugh and another was to get to know someone better in our ward. Setting little goals like that makes it so fun!

Anyway, hope that you all have a fantastic week. Love and miss you!!

Sister King

Last pics with the district

Found this adorable cupcake shop in downtown Lethbridge

Elder Roberts Golden Birthday (21)

More blossoms!

Cana- D.Todd Christofferson!

HELLO FAMILY!!!

This week was absolutely fantastic! 

The rest of Monday was pretty much just the same as usual.

Tuesday was really good. We had a really good district meeting about using the scriptures regularly in lessons. One thing that I really liked was that we shouldn't be using scriptures to back up what we are saying, we need to use the scriptures and then back up what it is saying. The scriptures are direct words from God, so what better source to teach with?!

We spent lots of the day on the North side of our area. We had a great lesson with our investigator Vanessa. We had to take her off date because of her health but she is going to Calgary to have surgery or something like that this week so we'll see what she says when she gets back. She is a real sweetheart and we get along really well. Before all of her health problems she used to coach soccer, so that is super fun! Anyway, we're just praying that everything in Calgary goes all right so that we can go forward with her baptism. 

We also had a lesson with our recent convert that got baptized the week before I came to the area. He is so great and so excited about anything and everything with the gospel. We are a little worried about his addictions... so we're praying for that as well. That night we had got to go and meet with a less active family. The father was one of the coolest people ever. He used to be a professional MMA fighter, so he taught us some moves. That was so much fun! They are a really cute family and we saw them at church yesterday!

We had our last waffle Wednesday at the institute building this week. School is getting out so we can't do it anymore :( Speaking of finals and stuff I hope that everyone at home isn't too stressed out! We met with our druggie investigator as well and just read the Book of Mormon with him. We aren't really seeing much progress in him but he likes to read the Book of Mormon (who wouldn't?) It was really nice weather so we walked a lot. 

We helped this cute little old lady, Sister Hansen, move and organize some boxes. That was really fun. We found this little library box where you are supposed "take a book, leave a book." We didn't miss out on the opportunity, so we had to put in a Book of Mormon. If that ended up getting someone interested that would be a pretty cool story.

Thursday was actually really difficult. The night before we had the whole day planned out with like 5 lessons. As soon as well set down our planners literally every one of them called us and canceled... including our dinner appointment. So that was a huge bummer, but luckily we had high spirits because we just went off of our ward list and tried to find some less actives or people that we don't even know. So that was fun! Also, thank goodness for the Francis' because she said that we could eat with them. They are seriously the best! We also made some yummy rice krispie treats (here they are called squares) to give to some of our investigators that kind of stopped talking to us. Even though the day did not go nearly as planned, we still ended up being able to have a positive attitude. Attitude is everything! The mission is such a mind game and so staying positive is so important!

Friday was great as well! We got to meet with out less active that we recently reactivated *confetti emoji! That is really cool to see someone remember the things that they once knew and just be so happy. She really just told us how happy she was that she had her testimony back. That night we went and delivered some of those treats we made... and it worked! 2 of our investigators were there and we got to talk to them for a bit and we made appointments with both of them. Sugar works wonders!!!

SATURDAY WAS JUST THE BEST DAY IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!!! We woke up at 5:30 because we headed up to Calgary.We got there at about 8:10,  then got to talk with and meet so many missionaries! This is the first time our whole mission has been together at the same time, so that was really cool! I saw Elder Fellos. He was my FHE brother at BYU, so that was really fun. 

However, most importantly we got to meet Elder Christofferson! He shook all of our hands before  he talked to us. We also got to hear from Elder Martino. It was a really good meeting.  It was really cool to feel the spirit change as soon as they walked in the room. So happy that we have a living prophet and apostles!  They truly are called of God!  Elder Martino spoke to us first and he talked about how we can better find people and get more referrals from members and how important members are in missionary work. That was really cool.

Then Elder Christofferson spoke to us. He did a question and answer. That was really cool and  I learned so much. Then he talked to us about how important the Book of Mormon is. He also told us multiple times how proud the Lord was with us for being out on our mission. And that the best thing that we can do for our family, especially if they are going through something hard, is to just stay out here and be a good example. It is so true. The blessings of being a missionary are plentiful! That meeting was so good. Then we got to come back and go to a baptism in our district. Saturday was just such a spiritual high!

Sunday was great too! We got to speak in our Chinook ward about member missionary work. The meeting was so good and I think that we really got people thinking about what they can do as members to help hasten the work. I got to talk about the talk by Mervyn B. Arnold about rescuing. Lots of the work out here is finding those lost sheep, so that was really good. I would highly suggest reading that if you get a chance.

Sorry that this email is so long and if you got bored I'm sorry. This was just such a great week and I am so thankful I get to be a missionary!! 

Love you all so much and I hope you all have a great week!

Sister King

The wind is crazy!

Sister Miles put this on the mission blog. This is the group Ashley came in with.

I was not kidding when I said the wind is crazy! Also, do not walk in tunnels if the wind is blowing, you'll die!

FAMILY!

This week was seriously so much better than last week! 

Monday was great as usual! We were going to do Pday outside because it was such nice weather but it is so bipolar here that it started to rain and be ridiculously windy so we just played a big game of soccer. There's an Elder here from England and he is so dang good! Before he came on his mission he lived and breathed soccer... so obviously we get along real well.

Just driving through the streets of Lethbridge.

The trees are starting to bloom!!

Tuesday was fun. We had zone training meeting which was great then we met with this less active from Thailand. Ha mom I tried to tell her that scripture that you taught is in Thai but she didn't understand one bit of it! Ha so maybe she'll have to teach me some more. We just met with a bunch of less actives. I've realized that lots of the work here is reactivating people. Even though it isn't going out and baptizing a bunch of people it is still just as important.

Wednesday was full of teaching. We taught 2 investigators. Our first one is super frustrating.  She is 19 and is pretty much a member of the church (minus the baptism part) but her mom won't let her get baptized. She is from China, so that respect with the parents is super important to them. So that's pretty hard, but we're still working with her and she will definitely be baptized eventually. Our other investigator  kinda dropped us.  She has lots of Native ties and doesn't really want to change that. But we're still going to teach her and hopefully she changes her mind because she really is so happy when she comes to church and in our lessons, so we're hopeful.

Thursday was the best day ever!!! So last week we did a mission wide fast for the hearts of the people, especially families, to be softened. After that whole fast we thought the our current investigators hearts would be softened but they all slowly dropped us... so on Thursday we decided to just put it all in the Lord's hands. We made a goal to get one new investigator and to get a return appointment with one family. We went out on our way and first thing we pick up a new investigator! She is adorable and is really excited to meet with us! We then went on our way to find a family and in a strange turn of events we got 4 RETURN APPOINTMENTS WITH DIFFERENT FAMILIES!! Crazy! Moral of the story is that sometimes we don't get what we want, but when we do what the Lord wants then He will provide! We also got a bunch of referrals that day, so the rest of the day consisted of contacting those people.

Retrainers with my MTC district!

The STL's in Calgary invited us over for lunch after retrainers.

Found some seashells and had to take a pic cause #life

Friday was fabulous as well! We had to leave kind of early in the morning to head to Calgary because we had retrainers. I loved it so much! I got to see all the people that I came out with and see how they're doing. The thing that is weird is that each area is so different! Our work is completely different than every other area in the mission. But it was really fun to just listen to everyone's stories and how their work is going. I got to see Sister Rasmussen! YAY! We went out to lunch with a few missionaries in Calgary, which was super fun! It was a long drive back so we had to go straight to our dinner appointment. That was really fun. The lady that we ate with is so cool! She travels all over the world! She showed us a bunch of her pictures and that was really fun, she also served a mission so we got to have a super awesome discussion with her about the second coming. GUYS this gospel is so cool! It is so hopeful!

Saturday was pretty long. We did our weekly planning and then we went to go contact those families that said we could come back. The first house that we went in to was so good! It was a single dad with 2 little girls. We did a fun little object lesson with them about prayer then talked to the dad and he said that we could come back! YAY!

The rest of the families weren't there when we stopped by but we'll stop by again sometime this week. Later on Saturday we had Stake conference. I talked to President McClennan for a little and his nieces are Lani and Mckenzie. Such a small world! It was fun to be able to talk to him about that for a little. Stake conference was good. It was about missionary work which makes it easier for us as missionaries because hopefully it gets the members all fired up to do some missionary work.

Sunday was actually super busy! We had Stake conference again.  Then we just had a bunch of meetings that we had to go to with people in the ward. We got a bunch of names of people to go visit, which is nice because we never run out of work to do yet also super stressful because we now have a gigantic list of things that we need to do. Slowly but surely we will get through it. 

Saw this guy in a kilt and thought it was cool so I took a pic!

Crazy decked out house, we don't even know who lives here but we had to take a picture!

Our relief society president just has the coolest house and is the coolest person, she plays the harp among many other things. She's just great.

Overall this week was great! The work is hopefully going to pick back up again. We're still just on a spiritual high from conference, so that's great!

Anyway, I love you all so much and I hope that you have a fantastic week. Try to find someone that might need a friend, it helps a lot more than you think!

Sister King

HELLO FROM LETHBRIDGE!

HELLO FROM LETHBRIDGE!

Not gonna lie,  this week has been pretty rough and not very many exciting things happened during the week. Both me and Sister Blake had really, really bad colds.  Like to the point where we were coughing and sneezing more than we weren't... that was pretty hard because our work is starting to calm down a little so we felt like we should be doing so many more things but we just couldn't cause we were sick. But on the plus side we are feeling so much better now and this week can only be better! :)

We ate with this super cute family the other night.

Tuesday we had a few lessons but like I said those were kinda rough because of the sickness... also our super awesome investigator dropped us that day. So that was just pretty rough all around. 

Wednesday was about the same as Tuesday.  Our other solid investigator decided to go back to her Catholic religion. It's really hard to see someone who was progressing so much and found so much joy in the gospel just not want to take that step towards baptism. Luckily we got to meet with the lady we found in the hospital that we put on date. Her health is getting a little better but I don't think that she will be quite ready to be baptized on the original date that we set, but she is still progressing which is great! 

Thursday was awesome because we got to have interviews with President. Have I mentioned how awesome President Miles is? Cause for real he literally answered all the questions that I had going into the meeting and I didn't have to say anything. It was great, coming out of that I felt loads better! That carried over to Friday.

The spanish elders "porcupined" our car for April fools... pretty solid.

We ate with this awesome family that had a recording studio in their house so obviously we had to try it out!

Friday was so stressful but so great! The zone leaders got us a referral.  They played basketball with this kid and his friends were going on missions so he was wondering why. Super awesome for us! The stressful part was that we had to get a girl to come with us so that we could teach. We called literally everybody we could think of and no one could come! The very last girl that we called (like 15 minutes before we were supposed to be there) ended up being able to come! The Lord answers prayers!! So we went to that lesson and the Zone leaders were there and they were doing exchanges with the APs... so it was Me, Sister Blake, The Zone leaders and one of the APs... talk about intimidation! And then we walked in and there were actually 2 nonmembers there and 2 friends. So there was about 10 of us in one room teaching the first lesson. It ended up going really well and we picked up 2 new investigators! YAY! Then we got a call from an unknown number and it just so happened to be the Simmonds family from my home ward in Provo. I got to meet up with them and that was just so much fun!

GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THE BEST TIME OF THE YEAR!!

Holy smokes, I loved conference so much! I seriously got so much out of every single talk! It's the most I have ever gotten out of a conference. One thing that I particularly loved was Elder Holland, ha he just always brings it! The Lord really is happy that we are trying our best and even just wanting to be better. Sometimes on the mission it is especially hard to keep this in mind because there are so many things that you want to improve on and it can be overwhelming at times, but it was so great to hear what Elder Holland had to say.

One other thing that I really loved was the talk about rescuing. I want to challenge you all to look around and see if there is someone who needs saving... it can be so easy. And don't delay!! Just do it!

Anyway, the end of the week definitely evened out the crumby week that we had and our spirits are high again and we are ready to work.

The church is true and we have a living prophet on the earth today. I love this gospel so much, it makes me so happy and listening to the servants of the Lord is seriously just the best.

Love you all so much and have a fantastic week! Remember what you learned in conference!

Sister King