Sister Ashley King : Al-birth-a (Sister Blake's birthday)

Family!! Hello how are you! It feels like forever since I've been able to talk to you, this week has gone by so fast but has been jam packed!

Monday was just it's usual fun day- the weather is very similar to Provo in the sense that it is hecka bipolar! So Monday the weather was icky at the beginning of the day, got really nice then ended icky again. But for FHE we went out to Raymond and got to play 3 legged soccer with the ward. Okay that was super intense and hilarious! I was partnered with Sister Palmer and the first play of the game a member of the bishopric and his wife and then me and Sister Palmer all went after the ball... ha they completely took us out and we were tied together so none of us could get up. Ha so funny! We were just laying there on the ground for like 15 seconds waiting for them to get off of us So ya, that was hilarious!

Tuesday was great! We had an awesome district meeting. I just love training meetings! The sad part of the day was that we got another bike and so we went on our bikes for the day... and lets just say we were going up a curb and Sister Blake couldn't quite handle it. Total face plant on the bike! Luckily she didn't brake anything and she just has a gnarly bruise on her knee. Ha so far our bike experience hasn't really gone as planned. First a bike gets stolen then Sister Blake turfs it...

Wednesday was great! We stopped by a few former investigators and some Elder's in our zone gave us this great referral for a lady named Holly. She is in the hospital with failing kidneys and her roommate in the hospital went to say his prayers before he went to bed and that just started a whole conversation about why he did that and it sparked an interest for her. So we've gone and met with her twice this week and she loves everything! She literally just absorbs everything we've told her so far! It's so fun to introduce people to truths about our gospel because there is so much hope in the message that we share and it makes her so excited!

THURSDAY WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY ENTIRE LIFE!! We got to go to the Cardston temple for zone conference. The whole southern part of our mission (like 100 missionaries) all met at the temple and we went through and did a session together. To have that many missionaries in the temple at once was a once in a lifetime opportunity. The spirit was the strongest that I have ever felt in my life! When we were all in the Celestial Room together... words can't even describe how happy I was. Such a special spirit.

When we walked out of the temple it was a complete blizzard outside!! What?!? That was funny, it had snowed the entire time we were in the temple and everything was covered in snow. We went to the church across from the temple and had lunch then we had a discussion on the Atonement. For the past couple weeks our mission has been reading and studying conference talks about the Atonement, that was fun and there was as special spirit there too. Then we had testimony meeting. I wish that we could have been there the entire day!

Friday was same ol same ol. Weekly planning and stuff. We did meet with this less active house of returned missionaries. That is so sad to listen to these returned missionaries who knew that the gospel was true and have now turned Atheist. So so sad! But we had dinner with the cutest couple in our ward, so that helped us feel a little better.

Saturday was awesome! We met with our investigator Alex-- who is doing fabulous by the way. He told this super cute story. So he went to breakfast with his mom and he told her that he had been taking the lessons from us and that he wanted to be baptized, all of a sudden she just started bawling. She said that she hadn't prayed in years and this past week she was overwhelmed with a feeling that she should pray for her son and that he would find God. Boom, spirit! Isn't that so fun?! He's doing great and is still on date for June 4 :)

Ha so Saturday night was crazy! Sister Francis planned this surprise party for Sister Blake. So I was in charge of getting her there without giving anything away. Which is probably one of the hardest job in the entire world! Sister Blake loves to know everything and anything... so I was really proud of myself for getting her to the Francis's house without her suspecting anything. The party was like 30 minutes but it was way fun. The Francis's are literally too nice to us, I promise we don't deserve everything the do for us!

Sunday (Sister Blake's 20th bday)

This was a fun day! She got to open her birthday package in the morning then after our studies we ran over to this rest home and sang I feel my Savior's love in their sacrament meeting. The rest of the day was great! We taught gospel principles and got to have dinner at the Francis's (they really are too good to us). Then we got to end the day by going to this Syrian Refugee fireside. That was really cool! Canada brought in like 26,000 refugees and some of them are here in Lethbridge. It was very humbling to hear from them and the journey that they have had to go through. Anyway, Sunday was a great day and Sister Blake had a wonderful birthday! This week was great! Also, thanks to everyone that sent me a letter this week. Totally made my day :)