Last Transfer!

Hello hello hello!!!

Transfer week was crazy!!!! But awesome. Saying bye to Sister Ho Ching was super sad, but she headed down to Cardston to be an STL down there. So proud. She's gonna kill it! My new companion is Sister Romo. She's the greatest! She's from Virginia and has been out on her mission for just 5 months! So she's definitely still got that greenie fire, it's awesome! This week we were able to take her around and meet some of the people in our wards, that's been super fun! She's going to fit in here just fine.

Okay, serious tender mercy of the week! So we got a call from the APs on Wednesday night telling us that one of the new missionaries was heading down to the south so we needed to go pick her up and be her companion in the morning until she went down to Lethbridge. GUESS WHO THAT MISSIONARY WAS!! SISTER LIZA SMITH! I got to be companions with her for like 2 hours and it was the best thing of my entire life. God is so good! 

SISTER SMITH!!!!!!

SISTER ROMO!!

Our week was kinda crazy, as transfer week always is. Sister Ho Ching was saying her goodbyes then when Sister Romo got here we were saying hellos. This is going to be another great transfer! I just love both of our wards so much and I'm so happy that I get to stay here for another one.

We did have some awesome lessons as well. We got to meet with Zeyu and we taught him the Plan of Salvation. He really liked it. I mean it's the greatest thing ever so I don't know why anybody wouldn't like it. But he said that he wants it to be true he just needs to pray about it. Then he came to our FHE activity last night! Miracle! He's just doing great.

We also met with Jacob yesterday. He's doing really good. He's still having a hard time with God, but he's doing the things that he needs to do to get an answer, so I know that he will. He's still on date for July 22nd. Yesterday we had a lesson on recognizing the spirit, that went super well! He's just great!

My girl Kat, got baptized like 4 months ago

causally holding a bird....

Saying bye to Sister Ho Ching

This weekend we had Stake conference and it was awesome. The Stake President just went off about Tuan and how cool of a story his baptism was. And he talked about us Sisters and it just really made me feel good. Tuan is just awesome.

So ya, things are going really well. Just transitioning and stuff, but change is good! Also shoutout to everyone that ran the half! You're just too cool, it's fine.

Quote of the week:"Those who choose to maintain a covenant relationship with Him by coming into His fold, remembering Him always, and striving to keep His commandments choose to be changed through His grace." --Brad Wilcox

Scripture of the week: Mosiah 4:3-- The spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were filled with joy, having received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith which they had in Jesus Christ who should come.

Anywayyy, love you all lots! Hope you all have a fantastic week :)

Sister King

SWEET SIXTEEN!

HEYYYYY!!!

So again, this past week was a complete blur. 

Best news of the week!! Zeyu is back from China! We were able to meet with him on Wednesday and it was awesome. He is still SUPER interested in meeting with us and honestly has the most sincere desire I have ever seen. I would have to say that one of my favorite things is hearing investigators prayers... like they are literally the most genuine things ever. Zeyu said the closing prayer and you can tell that he just wants to know so bad that these things are true.

So this is what we did for the fathers in our ward. It's not a burger... it's a cupcake and a brownie. Mind blown.

Elder Murdock goes home tomorrow....​

My study desk-- Sister Rasmussen gave us fresh peonies.

Fish Creek park

 first fruit by the foot in 16 months

Amy Georgson... aka the best human being in the whole world. Celebrating her birthday with her.

The Young Men in our ward... they like us.

Just the greatest.

Our girl Sabrina

Yesterday we were able to meet with Jacob. That was an awesome lesson. We read with him the conference talk from October called The Soul's Sincere Desire. That's a real good talk, just saying. We talked lots about prayer and faith. That's one thing that he's been having a little problem with-- he thinks very logically, so we just had a real good discussion. Pretty solid. Ha another hard thing though-- every weekend, pretty much, he goes out to help his 105 year old grandma instead of coming to church... how do to tell someone "hey stop going to help your grandma and come to church." Ha but we did talk about the importance of it and that church is a good place to receive answers as well-- so he's coming to Stake Conference this week :)

Jody-- she's doing really well! We saw her on Thursday and we talked about the Restoration. It was so cute cause she was teaching her daughters what a prophet is and it was just adorable. So we're teaching her kids now too. Super awesome. We were also able to meet with her on Saturday where we taught the Word of Wisdom... not gonna lie that's always kind of a scary one to teach when you know that they are struggling with some of them. But when we were teaching she said that she would give up everything. She said that she knows the first week is going to be the hardest but it'll be worth it. MONEY! Seriously she's so golden!

Fun fact: we saw President on Friday and guess what! Sister Ho Ching is being transferred because she's going STL!!! So sad that she's leaving me going to bigger and better things but so so excited for her! Tonight we'll find out where she is going and who my new companion will be. Transfers are always crazy! The anticipation kills me. But it's all good-- luckily all of the sisters in our mission are amazing! Also-- on Thursday at transfers I will get to see Sister Liza Smith. So that'll be great. She comes in this transfer... so pumped!

Crazy to think that I have been set apart as a mission for 16 months! Sweet Sixteen!  Still can't really believe it. Time is literally flying by! 

Anywayyyy... life is good. Really good.

Scripture of the week: Mormon 1:7-- I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will.

Quote of the week: "Repentance is a continuing process i which each of us needs to draw on the Atonement for real relief, real forgiveness, and real progression." -Elder Maxwell

So ya, love you guys lots. Good luck with camp and the half marathon this week. Y'all are gonna kill it. And tell the Smith's that I will give a big hug to their daughter for them :)

Sister King :)

Thank you for sending Sisters King and Ho Ching to serve in the Pine Creek YSA Ward

President Miles got this email from a bishop of a ward they are working in and he forwarded it to them :) :

Pres. Miles,

I just had to write and let you know how great Sis. King and Sis. Ho Ching are doing in our ward.  They have opened the blessings of heaven for sharing the gospel in our ward for which I am extremely grateful.  It's not often that I have seen such a dedicated companionship with enthusiasm, happiness and love that exudes from them.

They participate in our ward council and come prepared, with complete forms (yes last names of all investigators), ideas on how our ward council can best help.  They engage the ward missionaries (and me) in teaching lessons and they participate in our many YSA activities with non-members happy to see them and welcoming them.

Thank you for sending us these great sisters with the resulting blessings we are seeing and I thank the Lord for answering our prayers through them.

Bishop Greg Stringham

Pine Creek YSA ward

It's a Great Day in the Kingdom!

HELLOOOO!!

Man this week has been a complete blur! Honestly can't even remember much of what we did, but we were very busy!

I'll just start with the most exciting news? Ya know Jacob? Well he is just awesome and always has these super intense, and deep questions.... like it's pretty ridiculous. But hey, the spirit always comes in clutch. But anyway, we met with him yesterday and that lesson was so bomb! WE PUT HIM ON DATE FOR JULY 22!!!! So crazy! It was seriously the best thing ever. We went over the plan of salvation and everything that we talked about last week then we just asked him questions. Just a whole lesson on asking him where he's at. It was so sick! He knows that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that the church was restored through him, he knows all about Jesus Christ and he wants to be more like him. His only hang up is still with God, but he said that he was willing to show his faith and pick a day-- He knows that he's going to receive an answer before then. How sick is that?!? I'm just so pumped for him. That's just like the best thing about being a missionary-- it's literally a front row seat to see people change. Like our first lesson with Jacob I was scared, he's pretty intimidating, but as we continued to teach him you can see a physical change in him. It was just awesome.

Temple with Sabrina

Sister Ho Ching

Alfred, our investigator, made us each a cutting board with wood from Zambia

Exchanges with ma girl Sister Grange

Held a week old kitten

Ha I don't think that I have told you guys about Jody. She's one of our investigators that we started teaching like 3 weeks ago. Her husband is a member but he hasn't come to church in like 15 years. Oh and he's an ex-marine and is kinda super scary... ha but that's beside the point. We have been able to see some real miracles with them as of late. THEY CAME TO CHURCH!!! David hasn't even prayed in 15 years, then he told us of this amazing experience that he had the other day where he finally decided to pray and he knew that God was there. Now he will pray at the end of our lessons and he has been to church twice. CRAZINESS! And Jody is just golden. She got baptized 2 years ago as a Jehovah's Witness, but she felt like she wasn't really progressing at all. So she stopped going, and she literally just eats up everything that we teach her. 

This last lesson that we had we asked her to start praying about a date for baptism, and she told us that she would because she knew that when she picked a date that would show the Lord that she has faith that everything will work out... ha we just sat there like "ya, ha that's exactly why." So it has been amazing working with their family. They have 2 kids and they are just the sweetest little kids ever. They came to primary and got CTR rings and they refuse to let anything happen to them. Super cute!

But ya, our people are doing really good. We also had one of our less actives come to church on Sunday. She hasn't been to church in years and we met with her and she decided to come. And she brought her husband, who isn't a member. We're meeting with them tomorrow night so hopefully that will go well. Honestly it's kinda crazy the miracles that we are seeing. I love it. God is good.

Another amazing thing that happened this week. We were able to go to the temple with Sabrina. We had a ward temple trip and President Miles let us go with them cause Sabrina was going for the first time. BEST DAY EVER! Seriously, Sabrina is the sweetest. And it's always super cool cause obviously we have a goal to help people get baptized... but our real goal is to help people get to the temple. So that was super awesome. And she is just being the best little missionary ever. She wants us to teach a couple of her friends... SCORE! Love it!

Ha so we have to park our cars and walk one day a week, and this past week we chose Saturday. Worst decision of our entire lives. It has never rained so much! Ha but we had fun out in the rain. Fun fact: when you're in a YSA ward your area is HUGE!! Ha so walking is always a party. But anyway, it's a good thing that Sister Ho Ching is fun or that day would have been miserable.

Ha sorry this email is all over the place. But I guess to sum it all up I could just say that things are going peachy. Our wards are doing great, our people are doing great and I am having fun. That's really the gist of it. 

Hope that everything is going well at home, and that you all have an amazing week :) Love you lots!!

Scripture of the week: Matthew 19:26-- with men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible.

and another one cause scriptures are great:Jacob 5:75-- And blessed art thou; for because ye have been diligent in laboring with me in my vineyard, and have kept my commandments, and have brought unto me again the natural fruit, that my vineyard is nor more corrupted, and the bad is cast away, behold ye shall have joy with me because of the fruit of my vineyard.

Quote of the week: "Kindness is the essence of a celestial life. Kindness is how a Christ-like person treats others. Kindness should permeate all of our words and actions at work, at school, at church, and especially in our homes. Jesus, our Savior, was the epitome of kindness and charity." -Joseph B. Wirthlin

Love you lots!

Sister King

 ps It's a great day in the kingdom :)

cAUNTada

Hello hello hello!!!! I have been waiting for this day for forever!!!! Literally so excited for the fam! Welcome to the world little Carson-- I can tell that everybody loves him so much, and I'm feeling that same thing even up in the Great White North!!

Sister Ho Ching's auntie

Flying a kite. His name is Franklin.

Made a fruit basket for a girl in our ward

Tracting at its finest

All my little friends-- Sophia, Tressa, Mia and Musa

This week has been amazing! Seeing so many miracles it's ridiculous!! The first one-- let me tell you about Samantha. She's the one who's brother died not too long ago. So we went and saw her last Monday night, and taught her the plan of salvation. That was amazing!! She was asking questions-- where is my brother? why are we here? ha seriously those questions that you hope everyone asks. So that lesson was great, tears were shed. AMAZING. We went back and saw her again last week. We talked to her about everything we talked about last week. She said that she felt like it was true. She said that she didn't want to be at the bottom kingdom, she wants to be at the top. She knows that she needs to make some changes but she is so desperately wanting to make those changes! It was amazing. We're going back to see her on Saturday and I know that it's going to be great. Seriously the Lord is preparing people for us to find and teach, we're honestly doing nothing. Just trying to be in the right place at the right time, but the Lord is leading us to these amazingly prepared people.

Alfred-- so Alfred is 87 and doesn't believe in God. He has met with missionaries on and off for a really long time... and yet he has never come to church. UNTIL NOW! Alfred came to church on Sunday! It was the biggest miracle ever!! Afterwards he told us that his heart was softening. WHAT?!? This is the same guy that told us that we were trying to plant a seed in dry ground. Ha funny how the spirit can change people hey?

Jacob-- okay get this. So we met with Jacob yesterday and that was awesome! We felt like we should bring our Bishop with us so we did. That ended up being the best decision in the entire world. Jacob has so many questions that are great but he was able to have a really good discussion with Bishop. We read the talk about the Godhead-- Elder Oaks from this past general conference. The spirit was so strong. Last week when we talked to him he straight up said that he hated God, then yesterday at the end of our lesson we asked him how he felt about God. He said that he doesn't hate Him anymore. He doesn't necessarily love God, but he doesn't hate Him. PROGRESS!!!  He really is being changed by the spirit. It may be slower than we want, but he is progressing. And of course it's not our timing, it's the Lord's. So ya, he's doing great!

This week especially I have been thinking about the Plan of Salvation like a lot! With everything going on with our investigators and with everything going on at home with Carson being born. How amazing is it to know that there is a purpose to this madness that we call life? There's a reason we go through the things that we go through, and we aren't alone. There is something after this life, and it brings me so much hope and happiness knowing that this isn't the end. 

Is it hard to not be there with Carson? Of course! But the thing that I keep remembering is that families are forever! I get to be with you guys and him for eternity, and I'm just so glad that I got the amazing family that I did. You guys are pretty dope. I'm just so grateful for the opportunity to be able to share this message with others. Just especially with the experience that we had with Samantha-- this plan just makes sense. God wants us back!! His purpose is to "bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." He wants us to experience that true happiness, and I know that it will come as we try our best to be like Jesus. That's when we truly can be the most happy, and again it's amazing to be able to see that. I literally get a front row seat to see the spirit work with people and them become happy as they try to be more like our Savior. 

HA so ya that's my littler rant. I am just so happy to be a part of this work, even though I feel like the Lord and the spirit pretty much do everything! Just trying to be a worthy vessel :)

So. The church is true. The book is blue. I love Carson, and all of you.... wow that cheese though. Really do love you guys a lot though.

Scripture of the week: For I pray continually for them by day, and mine eyes water my pillow by night, because of them; and I cry unto my God in faith and I know that he will hear my cry.

Quote of the week: super simple but I love it... "I testify that we have a Heavenly Father, who loves us. I testify that we have a Holy Ghost, who guides us. And I testify of Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Savior, who makes it all possible." --Dallin H. Oaks

Love you all so much!!!! Hope that you have a killer week. Thanks for all the pics of everything!

Sister Ashley King :)