"We don't have to do big things to be like Jesus."

Hello Hello!

I am alive! We're just emailing a little later today!

So this week was super great. On Monday President and Sister Miles took me and Sister Shields out to lunch.... so that was super fun! I just love them so dang much, such Christlike people. But get this-- so they took us to this Mexican restaurant that they had been to before and they gave their server a pass along card.  They asked her about it and said that Sister Shields and I could teach her sometime if she wanted, and she gave us her number!! It was so awesome!

There are some fun things happening here. On Thursday we got a referral for these 2 people in an old folks home. We called the lady who gave us the referral and she just threw in one more name. We stopped by those people that day and the one that she added in at the end was SUPER interested! She used to be Muslim, and she converted to be an Anglican and is just super great. She had heard something about Christ coming to the New World and was wondering about it... we were just like "We can teach you about that!!" So we taught her about the Book of Mormon and she was so so excited about it! We're going to see her tonight so we'll see how that goes.

We also did exchanges this week-- that was super fun! Hermana Vera came here with me and Sister Shields went with Hermana Dean. It was just a super great day! I love doing exchanges because I am learning so much! I also gave my first trainings in zone training meeting this week and it went really well. So that was a big relief.

Finally, a picture of Sister Shields and me

Exchanges with Hermana Vera :)

We are all in this together    *HSM dance moves

Elder Chen photobomb

 our cute zone-- we've mastered the self timer :)

A better picture of our zone

Myrna gave us some cute fuzzy socks :) love that lady

Saturday was really fun! We cleaned the church with a few people in the ward then we got to hang around for Super Saturday with the Relief Society. So apparently that is a thing everywhere... who knew!? But it was really fun! Lots of Christmas crafts and stuff. Sister Shields made an essential oil face cleanser thing, so that was pretty sick! 

Yesterday was the primary program and it was super fun! I didn't know how many kids we had in our ward until they were all up on the stage-- ha I just thought our ward was SUPER old, but no, there are kids! It was great! Seriously the best thing, so adorable! 

Ya, not too much really happened this week other than that. Just making my way downtown, walking fast, faces pass... Ha when you're walking downtown it's ridiculous how often I think of that song...

Ha but anyway, life is good! I'm really doing so well! 

Quote of the week: "We don't have to do big things to be like Jesus." -Casper Parry (a little kid in the primary program)

Scripture of the week: Ether 6:8 and 10-- And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land... and they did have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water.

How awesome is that?! There may seem like there are lots of wind and stuff in our life but it'll all be for our good-- because it's blowing us towards the promised land. And the Lord is going to be there for us in our ups and our downs... just love it.

Hope that you all have a great week! 

Love ya,

Sister King

ps... SHOUTOUT TO ABBY FOR BEING A STATE CHAMP!!!!! Seriously you're the coolest! :)

Influenza....

Hello hello.

So this week went not quite as planned... 

Wednesday-- the day of MLC I woke up with the flu. So unfortunately I had to stay at a members home for the whole day while Sister Shields went to that. It was pretty tough but everything happens for a reason right? I was super pumped to go to that but luckily the Bauers were kind enough to be so sweet to me and treat me like their own-- they really were so sweet :)

Anyway, on a more positive note we saw oh so many miracles this week! Like it was crazy! Tuesday we felt prompted to go see our investigator Jasmyne, we showed up and she was so excited to see us. She said that she had prayed that we would show up. She completely opened up to us about everything that she has going on in her life-- she is just amazing. She got diagnosed with MS a couple of years ago and now her whole left side of her body is paralyzed. But she somehow is still the most positive person I have ever met. She says that she still has 50% of her body that works and she is grateful for it. I honestly can't even describe how optimistic she is about life, never have I ever met someone with that much faith. And she is on date for baptism! So we're pretty pumped about that.

Okay I just have to tell about the weekend that we had. It'll blow your mind. So on Saturday we just saw so many miracles. We were able to do some service for a ton of non members! And they were all so grateful! Ha none of them were interested but they said that they were going to tell all of their friends about us and took our card to give to someone else. Man we must have raked those leaves real good (ha I got good practice from dad), but anyway. We had an appointment fall through. It was 8:00 and TBH gets kinda sketch at night so we didn't really know what to do. We pulled over and said a prayer about where we should go. Then we counted down from 3 and said where we both felt we should go. We both said Marda Loop-- ha so we went there. We were walking the streets and nothing really turned out to be happening. But we knew that we were sent there for a reason. So we just kept going. It's almost time for us to be home so we started to head back to the car. We see one last person before we got to our car so we just had to talk to him. He was on a bike but we just started talking to him. He saw our nametags and asked us about Jesus Christ and if we had anything to tell him to restore his faith. Ha we said "of course we do, we're missionaries. That's what we do." So he asked us right then and there to teach him a lesson. We both felt prompted to talk about the Plan of Salvation. He went on to open up about his life and all the hard things that he has been through (which are so so many) and that he didn't feel like anybody loved him. He even told us that he was thinking about killing himself... We shared our message with him and told him to come to church.

Sunday rolls around and he didn't show up to church, we were pretty bummed. But when we got out of church we checked the phone and he had sent us this crazy long text about how he had come to church but he was overcome with the spirit and he was too afraid to come inside but he also went on to tell us that he was going to kill himself but that we were an answer to his prayer. He didn't believe that there was a God there because of all the hard things that he has been through but he prayed one last time and then we bumped into him. He said that now he knows that there is a God and we're meeting with him tomorrow. BOOM how crazy is that?!? Seriously revelation is so real. I know that God needed us there at that point in time to be there for Adam. God is so great! I'm so happy that I get to be a part of this amazing work and to just let people know that there is hope and that there is someone who loves them. It was a huge testimony builder for me that's for sure!

So ya, miracles are happening. God is leading us to where we need to be.

Anyway, there's my little moment of the week. I hope that you all are doing great! How is it the middle of October already? The time is just flying by. 

Also want to give a personal shoutout to Kathryn and Trevor-- good luck with the wedding this week. Love you both!

Scripture of the week: D&C 93:46-- I called you servants for the world's sake, and ye are their servants for my sake.

Quote of the week: "He who created us and who loves us perfectly knows just how we need to live our lives in order to obtain the greatest happiness"

Love you all!

Sister King :)

Sister Miles encourages 5 minute breaks every once in a while...
we found this swing and took a wonderful 5 minute break.

 the Myers-- just love them...

Met these random guys on the street and they wanted to take a pic, so we did.

When it's late night and freezing (we were mimicking the dogs on the poster behind us)

HAPPY CANADIAN THANKSGIVING!

Hello lovely family!! 

Okay, so lots happened this week. First things first, on Monday night I got a call from President Miles. He told me that he was making our area an STL area and that he wanted me to be an STL (Sister Training Leader). So that was pretty fun, but also pretty sad cause he said that Sister Barlow would be getting transferred :(

Our zone before transfers. You could say we're pretty cool.

So for Tuesday and lots of Wednesday we were going around saying goodbye to everyone for Sister Barlow. On Tuesday night we got the calls from the Zone Leaders on what was going on. Sister Barlow is now in BC and my new companion's name is Sister Shields. She's from West Bountiful Utah and has been out on her mission for 16 months! So she's winding down. I've only been with her for a couple days but I already love her so much and I can tell that we're just going to get lots of work done here, I'm pretty pumped-- ALSO since they made this an STL area starting this week we get to have the car full time! Ha this past week was a little brutal. Apparently winter here starts in October... so we woke up on Friday to snow!! Not gonna lie I was actually super excited about it! Until I remembered that it was our walking week. Ha we made it out alive and it was actually super fun!

Walking around in the snow... it's awesome.

Okay, so today is Canadian Thanksgiving!! How neat is that?! Yesterday our Bishop had us over for dinner and boy oh boy,  was it delicious! Then we're having another Thanksgiving tonight with Sister English and Linda (OUR RECENT CONVERT!)

Oh my, I just realized that I may have completely forgot to tell you. Linda was baptized on Saturday!! Linda is the one who is special needs and is just the cutest person in the world. Saturday was a super special day-- the spirit at the baptism was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. It was awesome. Linda was crying through the whole thing-- there wasn't a dry eye in the place. That's one thing that has been super cool, she may not know everything or at least remember everything but Linda can feel the spirit more than anyone that I have ever met. And that is why she decided she wanted to be baptized, because she felt the spirit so strongly. 

Linda's Baptism

Yesterday, the confirmation was the sweetest thing as well. Honestly this whole situation has been a huge testimony builder... just all the obstacles that we had to get through to help Linda be baptized and then to see her face just beaming with happiness was one of the coolest things that I have ever experienced. This gospel is so true and it can help anyone. You can't deny that feeling. 

So we had the fumigation on Tuesday and we had to wash everything that we own...
so as a missionary this is everything that me and Sister Barlow own :)

I just think this is funny... there is road construction EVERYWHERE!

The biggest BOM of my entire life!!!

We were out walking around last night and came across this guy that was super, SUPER high. he saw that we had Jesus Christ on our tag then went into his car and gave us 2 paintings of Christ... they glow...

Anyway, so ya things are going great. We're heading to the mall today to get some more winter gear :) ha so don't worry I am staying warm. Yay for fleece tights :)

Quote of the week: "The light of Christ is a light that swallows the darkness, heals our wounds, and blazes even in the midst of the deepest sorrow and unfathomable darkness." -Uchtdorf

Scripture of the week: D&C 19:23 Learn of me, and listen to my words; walk in the meekness of my spirit, and you shall have peace in me.

and one more scripture cause who could have enough scriptures am I right?? 

Hebrews 12:1 lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.

Love you all!! Hope you have a happy thanksgiving ;)

Sister King

2 new INFESTIGATORS

Hello lovely family!

So seriously get ready for the craziest story ever. The subject was not a typo... let's just say that this week the saying "goodnight, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" took on a whole new meaning.... Ha kind of a gross story, just warning you. But it turned out pretty cool.

She has an obsession with Elvis.

We woke up and there was this random poster outside of our apartment. We aren't complaining though.
 #yoda #yodalicious

So. On Tuesday literally ALL of our appointments fell through. It was pretty hard. So we decided that we would stop by this less active that we had been trying to meet with for a while. She was home, so we went in and met with her and shared a little message with her. While we were in there we noticed that there were these little red bugs crawling ALL OVER our legs... so gross. They were literally all over the apartment as well. So we made our visit a quick one then scurried on out of there. From her apartment to the car we were shaking out all of our clothes to make sure we didn't have any of the bugs with us, cause I was fairly certain that they were bed bugs... unfortunately I was correct... We talked with Sister Miles on the phone and she had us immediately go and wash all of our clothes and shower and everything just to be safe. So we did.

Waiting in the Laundromat

A bedbug :(

When you find out you have bed bugs so you take your second shower of the day and kick Satan in the boat and choose to be happy instead of upset about that fact that your place is now infested with bed bugs :)

Next day we woke up and Sister Barlow had a couple bites on her leg. Oh no... So we talked to Sister Miles and we had to wash all of our bedding and our clothes. We had to go to the laundromat and ended up spending lots of our day there. We were in the back studying our scriptures when all of a sudden we both got this craving for pizza.. Super weird, right? 

Luckily there was a Little Caesars right next to the laundromat, so that's where we headed. When we came back into the laundromat there were 2 guys in the front eating pizza as well-- they said that we should just join them. So we did. Long story short,  we ended up teaching them the first lesson. They have been trying to find a church that they want to go to and have just been exploring their options. PERFECT right? So we were like "that's literally what we do. just teach people about our church." So we ended up setting up a return appointment with them and we actually met with them on Thursday!! How neat is that? Their name's are Jody and Ammon and they're roommates. We call them our infestigators... too good right? So that was super cool because the day was starting out to be super crumby but apparently,  it was bed bugs that had to get us to find these two.  Ha as for the whole bug situation, our whole house and car are being fumigated tomorrow. Ha so that is just dandy. But It'll be great, the bugs will be gone.

This is Yee and Meow. They own the laundromat that we went to.
Got to know them real well cause we were there almost the whole day :)

Ha anyway... wasn't conference just the best thing of your entire life?!? I seriously loved it so much! Literally loved every single talk, but I think that the one that really stood out to me the most was President Nelson's. Men are that they might have joy. It's so true. I feel like just being on the mission I have really seen how life can be pretty hard sometimes, but it makes it so much harder when you don't choose to be happy. Choosing to be happy sounds so simple but it's so dang hard. When we focus on the Savior we will be able to find that happiness that we are looking for-- even when times are difficult. He also mentioned that us missionaries aren't out here just to make our number in the church bigger-- we are out here to bring more joy to the world. I have the biggest testimony of that. Seeing someone embrace the gospel is great but it's that happiness that they have which makes it totally worth it.

We watched priesthood session during our dinner at Sister Leonard's house. We had this yummy Indian food.

Our lovely zone

Our lovely zone

I just loved conference a lot and there is too much to say about it. I'm so grateful that we have a living prophet and apostles on the earth today. 

Love you all very much!! Hope you all enjoyed conference as much as I did. And remember, don't let the bed bugs bite :)

Scripture of the week: Romans 8:37 We are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Quote of the week: "He is perfectly positioned to lift us and give us the strength we need to endure our afflictions. We have only to ask." - Elder Oaks

Have a fantastic week!! And good luck to Kathryn and Trevor :)

Sister King