Down to Taber Town!

Howdy yall!

Coming to you live from the town of Taber!!! So, transfers were on Thursday. On Tuesday night they called us to let us know that I would be coming back south! My new area is Taber and I am serving with Sister Taylor.... and it's seriously the best thing in the world! Taber is so cute (ha pretty dang small, definitely not like downtown) it's seriously the cutest. The ward is so cute! We cover the Taber 1st ward (which is a pretty decent sized ward) and the Vauxhall ward (which is literally the smallest thing ever.  I have never seen a smaller chapel, but it's still the cutest) Sister Taylor is from Nashville, Tennessee. And she is literally my favorite person ever. She is going to BYU-- and fun fact, she almost went there to play basketball. Ha we're literally the same person so it's the best thing in the world!!

My new companion, Sister Taylor
(Sorry Mom,  we'll have a better pic next week!)

Anywayyyy, before transfers when I was in Downtown we were continuing to see so many miracles! Before I left we picked up another investigator.  It was a lot harder than I thought saying goodbye to everyone!  Crazy how fast you grow to love people, ha and I already love the people here! Yesterday at church one of the speakers was sick and couldn't speak, ha so they took that as an opportunity to have me go up and speak. Ha yay for being a missionary and getting called up to the front to speak for like 10 minutes with no notice... but it's all good. It went really well!

Elroy Pantherbone-- gave me an authentic dream catcher

Jasmyne

Tammy and the dogs (Junior and Seisel)

Saying bye to Miss Myrna Wood

Kathy and Linda

The work here is a little different. Ha small town is super fun! We have a couple of investigators but I can tell that lots of our time is going to be devoted to finding people.  Ha but such is missionary life so it's all good! We are teaching this adorable family. They are Mennonite so that's pretty cool. The mom would join the church in a second but in the Mennonite culture if she were to join then she would be completely shunned... ha but she doesn't really care. We just have to get her husband on board and then they would all be baptized.  It's pretty fun. We have a couple  more investigators and a few potentials.  Lots of our work is trying to find less actives and work with them, ha which is hard because since it's such a small town some people don't even have an address. The only thing they give us is their mailbox number, ha so just got to go out and find them somehow. 

We called our dinner appointment for Saturday and she gave us directions to her house. It's funny cause when you ask where people live they don't tell you the number (most of them don't even know their house number) they just tell you like "2 miles past the Roberts house, take a left and drive 1 1/2 miles and it'll be the house that's in the trees on your right." HA I love it!!!

Got to see Baby Burnside at transfers!! She is training the next 2 transfers and I am so excited for her! She has a little Taiwanese Sister that doesn't really know English. She's going to be the best trainer though!

Saying bye to Sister Shields

Took a tour of a firetruck with some cute kids in our ward.

People take Christmas decorations very seriously here! There are plenty of houses that look like this. Plus they have had the decorations up for a while cause you never know when you can wake up to like 2 feet of snow.

One other thing that has been really great is the new Christmas initiative that the church came out with.  It is such a good tool in finding people! I would suggest that you all participate in it!  Let's #LighttheWorld!!!

We met Devin Durrant!

But ya, life down here is pretty darn great! I loved the city but just love the South so much!!

Love you all so much! Have a great week, I know that I will :)

Oh and happy late Thanksgiving!!

Quote of the week: "When we come to Him with humble and teachable hearts- even if our hearts are heavy with mistakes, sins and transgressions- He can change us, for He is mighty to save."

Scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 9:18 They who have endured the crosses of the world... they shall inherit the kingdom of God, which was prepared for them from the foundation of the world, and their joy shall be full forever.

Love you all! Shout out to Abby for everything with basketball. #15

Sister Ashley King

What day is it?... HUMP DAYYYY!

Pulled out the big winter coat this week-- but hey still smiling :)

Well hey there!

I've survived being a missionary for 9 months! Holy smokes it's going by way too quickly! Can't even believe it!

Anywayyy, this week was ridiculously awesome! Seriously can't even relay the miracles that we have been seeing lately!

Ha the first fun thing that we did this week-- we met with a less active, who is Native) and he showed us a bit of his culture. We did a smudge with him... ha it's pretty much where they just burn sage grass and say a prayer, but it was in Black foot and it was real cool. I did leave smelling awful!!! But I got an Indian name so that made up for everything! You can just call me Moakshkinny-- ha that means red hair, real original right?

Miracle of the week however was on Thursday night. We had a lesson with our investigator, Tashina. So we got there and she said that she was say too busy for us to meet... :( but her dad, Gerald was there so we decided that we would ask him if he would be interested in hearing a message from us. HE SAID YES! Ha so we sat down and had a really good lesson and he like completely opened up to us with some crazy stories about how his wife had died and his son committed suicide so we taught him about the Plan of Salvation and he loved it! We asked him if he would want to come to church and he said that he wouldn't be quite comfortable yet, so then we decided that we should take him on a church tour. He said that was a great idea!

Calgary Tower with Sister Jones and Sister Longson

So on Saturday morning we took a tour of the church then last minute we decided to take him down to the Family History Center.  He got talking with a consultant and now he's super interested in family history! So we'll hopefully be coming again with him. That was pretty cool because I made a personal goal last week to talk with someone about family history.... ha and it happened!

First actual gingerbread man cookie!

We were able to go on exchanges twice this week, so that was pretty fun. I went up to Airdrie-- which is the most north that our mission goes, so that was pretty fun! It's beautiful up there! 

On Saturday we were able to go to this really cool meeting. Devin Durrant came and talked to our stake about Teaching in the Savior's Way. It was really good! And he is REALLY tall! It was a great meeting and it was really a discussion. He was walking around and the whole audience was participating.  It was just a real good experience. 

Awkward moment of the week: so our ward Christmas party is coming up and the lady that's in charge of it asked me and Sister Shields if we would like to sing in a little group a cute little Christmas song, we of course said yes. We had our first practice yesterday. Turns out it is all the SUPER cute young newly weds in our ward.... and then us. Ha there is literally 5 adorable couple-- all of which like haven't been married for more than 4 months. Then us. Ha but it's all good-- life as a missionary is all about having fun with the awkward moments.

The weather here has definitely started to cool down! Ha oh ya! Had to bring out the big guns this week (my big huge winter coat) but honestly I love it! It makes things exciting. Plus Downtown is so beautiful with the fog and the snow, I just love it here!

Calgary tower, Sister Jones was trying to take a cool pic of us lying down, but I wasn't having it.

The Christmas tree that mom sent us-- it's the best!

So ya, things are happening! We have picked up so many new investigators and we have a ton of potentials! The Lord is blessing us so much right now with people to teach!

Scripture of the week: 1 Nephi 18:21-- I prayed unto the Lord; and after I had prayed the winds did cease, and there was a great calm.

Quote of the week: "The grace of God does not merely restore us to our previous innocent state... His aim is much higher; He wants His sons and daughters to become like Him." -Uchtdorf

Another one cause gotta love them general authorities: "In our lives we experience trials, but if we are ambitious for Christ, we can focus and Him and feel joy even in the midst of them." -Elder Yamashita

Love you all! Have a fabulous Thanksgiving!

Sister Ashley King

Miracles in Calgary

We met Santa Claus downtown this week :)

Well hey there fam!

Honestly do not even know where to start! Our week was so awesome! Seriously so many miracles!

Lets see, where to start?

Okay so we have just been thrusting in our sickle real hard this week. So last week when we were on exchanges we gave a Because of Him card to this guy named Martin. He said that he would watch the video then give us a call, here's where the miracle comes in... HE ACTUALLY CALLED US!! What is life?! so that was pretty cool. We met with him and taught him all about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration and he said that he would love for us to come back and teach him more, score!!

Then another similar story, last week when I was with Sister Jones on exchanges our appointment fell through and I felt prompted that we should go see our less active, Myrna. Which was pretty weird cause we had just seen her the night before, but we went and visited her and had a good lesson. But just as we were leaving she had some friends show up. Their names are Wanda and Brent. We gave them a #hallelujah card and told them to watch the video then give us a call. She gave us her number and we called her and got her address. We stopped by last night and talked to them. She said that she had been thinking about us a lot and she wanted to learn more about what our church believes. Ha we just sat there all shocked and told her about the Book of Mormon and set up an appointment for tomorrow. So that was pretty awesome as well.

Okay here's a fun story too. So yesterday after church we had an appointment with our investigator Aman. He lives in an apartment that's like right across the street from the church. We went to go meet him and he wasn't there... :) BUTTT there was a guy out there who was waiting for the manager so he could show him one of the apartments. So we started talking to him and he's like the coolest person in the world. His name is Christian Seon and he played soccer at Gonzaga. We talked about that for a bit. We were trying somehow to switch into a talk about the gospel, he was about to leave cause the manager didn't show up to show him the building. So I found myself saying "you didn't get a chance to see the apartment, but would you like to come see our church just right across the street?"... as soon as the words came out of my mouth I thought to myself, probably one of the weirdest things ever, there's no way he would say yes. But he did! So we ended up giving him a church tour and talking with him, he gave us his number and said that he would love to learn more. Seriously what are the odds? So great! We were pretty stoked about that. Seriously miracles everywhere!

On Friday we were able to go up to the temple. The youth were doing a temple day on Remembrance Day (veterans day) so all of us missionaries went to the stake center by the church and we did some little presentations on the Plan of Salvation. That was pretty cool and the spirit was real strong. Unfortunately we weren't able to do a session, but we walked around the temple and hole smokes it is gorgeous!! That was awesome. They also did a little Remembrance Day service, that was great! They told us why we wear poppies on November 11.

 If you get a chance look up the poem, Why Wear a Poppy? It explains it better than I can.

On Saturday some elders in our zone had a baptism, President Miles has really been emphasizing teaching the restoration during the "changing time". So, since Elder Harrison performed the baptism and had to change himself, they asked us if me and Sister Shields would do it. We said yes. THERE WERE SO MANY PEOPLE AT THE BAPTISM!! Seriously such a good turnout, and there were a TON of nonmembers there. So we got real nervous for it. Then President and Sister Miles walked in as well. Ha the pressure was on. But it's all good cause the spirit came in clutch and it went really well. Both President and Sister Miles texted us after and said that we did a good job, so that was real nice of them.

So ya, honestly there are so many good things going on here. This is the most new investigators that I have found on my mission this transfer! Really excited about everything that is starting to happen! the Lord is preparing people left and right for us, we just have to step out of our comfort zone and go find them. 

Anyway, love you all. The work is good.

Scripture of the week: Mosiah 14:6-- All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.

Quote of the week: "Faith means that we trust not only in God's wisdom but that we trust also in His love. It means trusting that God loves us perfectly, that everything He does- every blessing He gives and every blessing He, for a time, withholds- is for our eternal happiness" -Uchtdorf

Love you all! Have a great week!

Sister King

​Calgary Temple :)

Wearing our poppies for Remembrance Day

NO SHAVE NOVEMBER!!!

Zone Selfie!

One by One

HELLOOOO KING FAMILYY!!!

Okay I'm like feeling real good today-- so I'm just gonna start out with a fun joke.

Why do missionaries have such big bladders??

Cause they only have one P-day.... ha.

Anywayyy, so ya, this week was like real good! Seriously flew by and so many miracles!

First things first, MLC on Wednesday was just the best day of my entire life. The training that I had to do went super well and the spirit throughout the whole meeting was so strong. There are so many amazing missionaries in our mission. We talked all about having faith to find people to teach, diligence and setting and accomplishing goals. It was just super awesome! Plus it was in Lethbridge!! Soooo many memories came flooding in... ha I know I haven't been gone from that place for too long, but it was still good to see everything again, ha and the wind was still there :)

Sister Dean-- she goes home at the end of this month so this was probs the last time seeing her in a while.

Ha so remember when I said that there are rabbits everywhere? Well we cornered this one to try and catch it.
ha 1 bunny vs. 4 elders... and the bunny still won. It was hilarious!

Exchanges with the lovely Sister Jones

 Seriously just so happy to see her... ha Papa Francis in the back :)

My mama :)

MAMA FRANCIS!!

Reunited with the swaggin wagon

All of Sister Blake's comps (minus 2)

Some other fun things that happened this week! On Friday we had a lesson with this guy named Ian. He was a media referral and was super excited to meet with us! He told us that he had taken the lessons in Vancouver about a year ago and was on date for baptism and then his life kind of fell apart, so he dropped them. But he's moving to our area and is feeling so strongly that he needs to pick it up again. So we met with him, and he brought a friend! #blessed we talked with them both and they are both super excited to meet with us some more. They even came to our stake conference yesterday. It's awesome. And Ian has kids who are 15 and 8 who were taking the lessons as well, so they will be meeting with us sometime soon. We're real excited about that.

Then another miracle! Yesterday we met with this potential named Tashina-- we met with her a couple weeks ago and taught her the first lesson but she wasn't sure if she wanted us to keep teaching her. So we stopped by and she let us in and we got to share the Plan of Salvation with her. That went SUPER well! She completely opened up to us about losing her mom a year ago and that her brother recently committed suicide. So we were able to share with her that she'll be able to see them again and how they are in a better place right now and how God loves them so much. She was bawling throughout the whole thing (ha funny how as missionaries we think it's a success when people cry in the lessons) but ya, it was just great! Then she wants to meet with us next week as well! So we are definitely seeing that people have been prepared for us, and it's been a huge testimony builder for me of just how amazing the message that we share is. 

It's amazing that we know that there is life after this world and that we get to see our loved ones again. I just love being able to share that with people.

Yesterday we had stake conference and it was this cool broadcast from Salt Lake to all of Canada and the Central states. It was so good! They talked a ton about the temple- and Elder Rasband talked about how the Savior cares about the one. And how He does everything one by one. It was so so good! Oh, ha and Elder Durant gave a little shoutout to President and Sister Bateman in Missouri, and I just sat there thinking "hey I know them!" So that was pretty cool.

We ate with some really cute members on Halloween and they gave us a little goodie bag
since we had to stay in our apartment all night.

Ha some other cute members dropped by and gave us these cute cupcakes, the ward is so good to us here!

The one and only, kinder egg surprise. Remember these? Well they're still my favorite things.

The famous Seniore's Pizza!!

got a package from my cute family :) yay for Christmas music!

Hermana Briones. Unfortunately she is going home today, but we got to go over and say bye to her.
She is going to do some amazing things at home :)

Ha but probably the biggest miracle that happened this week. So recently we have been getting fed lasagna a lot... ha and me and Sister Shields talked about how we were just really craving a big ole steak. Ha so we may or may not have been praying for a steak dinner... but guess what! Last night at dinner we got fed steak!! ha tender mercies are real! #thelordcaresaboutthelittlethings!

So ya, seriously life is just so good! We get to do trainings in our zones that we cover this week and we are super pumped for that!

My life is good, really good!

Quote of the week: "If you want the Lord to guide your steps, you have to move your feet." -Sister Miles

Scripture of the week: Moroni 8:3-- I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end.

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Sister Ashley King

This is Halloween :)

Well hey there fam!

This week was super awesome! I can't believe that it is already Monday/Halloween/almost November!! Seriously it's so crazy. Also, super fun cause I opened up my mission call a year from yesterday, so that's pretty fun.

But anyway, life is good! One thing that was super cool yesterday is that Tammy, our less active that we have been working with for a while got a calling! She's working in the nursery, but it was pretty cool to see that she is active and excited about getting a calling in the ward. So that was pretty cool.

The CALGARY TOWER!

THE Calgary Tower Burger... it did NOT disappoint!

We had some pretty good lessons this week as well. Jasmyne is on date for baptism on November 19-- so we are helping to prepare her for that. She has really been progressing but her wheelchair is broken so she hasn't been able to make it out to church in a little bit, but that is getting fixed so we should be good.

Tender mercy of the week! So at interviews with President on Wednesday, Sister Miles talked to all of us and said that we need to get our flu shots... bummer. Still hate needles. BUT on Saturday we went to see if we could get them so we went to this place and asked if we could get them. We didn't have any proof of residence with us but the pharmacist that was there said that we didn't need to do any paper work or anything. He was from Korea and he had talked to missionaries on the streets there a couple times and he knew that we were doing something good, so he just let us get them. And I didn't die, so that was good too.

We went on exchanges and I got to go with Sister Jakobi to Arbour Lake (it's like 30 minutes North), and we were going to stop by some of their less actives when this name jumped out at me. His name was Stan. So we stopped by and guess what... he is Tammy's dad! So we got to talk to her parents for a little, which was super fun! But what are the odds of that happening? It was pretty cool.

​Exchanges with Sister Jakobi!

There are like SUPER nice cars everywhere!! This is one we saw yesterday.

Outside of Ron's house-- the actor for Disney

Fun moment too; we have this super awesome potential investigator named Ron Nash. He is an actor and has been in a bunch of Disney movies... He has so many pictures with a ton of famous people and get this, he has pretty much like every Disney movie ever! So you could say that we're gonna baptize him cause he's already got life half right :) but ya, seriously he's living my dream life. He said that when I get back from my mission if I give him a call he could hook me and my family up with some free Disney passes. So you can bet your bottom dollar that's what we're gonna do!

Waiting for the Elders to open the FHC so we can email you guys :)

We also started up this youth game night thing in our ward and it was SUPER solid. We had a ton of people there and we got to play ball and now we have a couple more potentials. So basketball is the way to baptisms, I have a testimony of that :)

This is as close to a moose that I have seen in Canada...

Anyway, this week was just full of good things! We have a lot more potential investigators so that's pretty exciting. Just living and loving life.

Quote of the week: "Humility is the key to inspiration"... ha gotta love it. but here's another "we, in our imperfect view, sometimes focus on our imperfections and then despair because we think we'll never measure up. But our Savior, Jesus Christ, sees us as we can become. As we allow His Atonement to work in our lives, He will shape us into masterpieces who will one day live with the King of Kings." -- Ellen C. Jensen

Scripture of the week: Mosiah 24:13-15 Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me... And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions... yea the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

Love you all,

Sister Ashley King