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

"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