Sister Ashley King : One Ginger Just Wasn't Enough!

Family!!! Hello! Can I just say that this week has been the craziest week of my entire life?!? First of all, Waterton was absolutely beautiful! I loved it! It was so good to hike and be in the mountains. I miss my Utah mountains so I felt right at home! But also-- got crazy sunburned... This week I will be investing in some strong sun screen and aloe vera.

Anyway, the whole beginning of the week was devoted to teaching the people that we are the closest with because Sister Blake had to say her goodbyes to all of them. That was really fun! It was also really sad because literally every person that we were saying goodbye to started crying because they loved Sister Blake so much! That just goes to show you how much of an influence she was around here-- and just how loving the people here are too.

On Wednesday we drove up to Calgary to pick up my baby. It was so crazy because on Tuesday night I had this really weird dream that I got a redheaded companion. So we walked in where all of the new missionaries were and I saw that there were 2 gingers. I just knew that one of them would be mine! And I was totally right!

My new companion's name is Sister Burnside and she is from Sandy, Utah-- and just happens to be a fire redhead! I love it! I already love her so much and she's one of the cutest girls I have ever met. She is a hardcore Irish dancer (so thanks Mom for helping me know who Michael Flatley is because that broke the ice for sure) and she's also just so excited about the work! I am so pumped that I get to train her because honestly she came pre-trained... really I'm doing nothing! We have already gotten so many comments about our hair it's ridiculous. But it's a really good conversation starter that's for sure!

GINGER POWER!! (except next to to Sister Burnside I honestly don't look like a redhead)

It was extremely hard to so goodbye to sister Blake at transfers-- I know that she's going to do good wherever she goes and whoever she is with. Love her so much!

This week has been full of some of the highest and lowest points of my mission so far. ON SATURDAY WE GOT TO SHAKE HANDS WITH PRESIDENT NELSON!! Words cannot even describe how incredible that experience was. Our mission is so dang spoiled! We met Elder Christofferson, and now President Nelson, we have 2 temples in our area-- we even got to have zone conference in the temple, and we have cars-- we choose when we want to bike. really though feeling so blessed right now!

So back to President Nelson. He has got to be the cutest, sweetest, most hilarious old guy in the entire world. That meeting was so fun and funny, but also super spiritual (if you would have been there you would have known that it was good just by looking at me-- the tears were definitely flowing!) But really, it was so good. We heard from Elder Suarez (presidency of the seventy) and his wife and also Elder Bassett (member of the seventy) and his wife, along with President and Sister Nelson. There were so many wonderful things that were spoken. It's cool to see the apostles as their true selves... like President Nelson is hilarious. Among the things that he said he said one thing that I thought was just hilarious. He wanted to know where we were all from so he named off different continents and we stood up when he called ours... he forgot about Asia. Then he said "God loves the Chinese! That's why he made so many of them!!" Maybe it was a "had to be there" moment but he was hilarious. He said that he believed in instant repentance. So funny. He talked a lot about the Atonement and the Book of Mormon. So pretty much they are real important.

We had a women's conference later that day where Sister Nelson spoke to us, then yesterday we had another conference where Elder Bassett came and spoke to the Stake, then that night there was a YSA conference. So pretty much we are all conferenced out... but it was all super good. Being a missionary is such a blessing! I love you all so much and we really are doing so well-- life goes on even when it's hard.

Love, Sister Ashley King