Getting "hickified"

Hey there! Ha I feel like I was emailing you guys just yesterday!

Anyway, since Wednesday there really isn't too much to update you guys on. We have been doing lots of service with the Christmas initiative-- so that's been really fun. And we've actually had some pretty good opportunities to talk to people about our church. The other night we went Christmas caroling/shoveling. It was a complete blizzard but we walked around shoveling people's walkways. We were wearing Christmas lights too, cause ya know #lightingtheworld :)

Shoveling  #lighttheworld

The other day we went to help the Anderson's make pizza-- it's their boxing day tradition and Sister Anderson wasn't feeling very good so we got called on to go and help. They had their Mennonite friends over to help us with that, and then the girls liked us so much that they invited us to their Christmas party. Ha which is another story... 

Highlight of the week though was that we picked up 2 new investigators. So our Bishop brought some friends to our Christmas party. On Thursday we stopped by just to say hi and they invited us in (maybe cause it was like negative 27...) but we started talking to them. I talked to the mom, Adrian, and she seemed pretty sad. I asked her how she was and she just started sobbing and completely just opened up to us and told us all these things that they were going through, then she invited us in to share a message. There was a really sweet spirit there. They invited us back to share another message with them. It was just really cool! So now we are teaching another Mexican Mennonite family :) 

Our Mennonite family watching Light the World

Okay so back to the Christmas party. So the girls that helped us make pizza-- their names are Susie and Maria. The invited us to their Christmas concert. We went and holy smokes... I swear it was like every Mennonite in Southern Alberta... soooo many people there and I am 92% sure that we were the only ones there that weren't.

 But anyway, we snuck in and just sat down. The entire time everyone was eying us... for like 30 minutes. It was ridiculous. Ha then I took a hard look around us and realized that all the girls were sitting on the right side of the room and all the guys were on the left side of the room. And where were we sitting? Ha we were sitting right in the middle on the left side. #awkward but we just laughed it off cause what are ya going to do? It was pretty great. 

Lemme tell ya, Taber town knows how to do Christmas! I love it! We were able to go and help at our Vauxhall ward Christmas party. We were a shepherd and wise man then they had us be elves for when Santa came. Just to give  you a little perspective on how tiny the ward is, we pulled up and there were about 12ish cars and the Torries who drove us said "Wow, what a great turn out." ME and Sister Taylor just looked at each other..

​Vauxhall Ward Christmas Party

Anyway, life is good! Loving it here in Taber Town. They keep telling me that the longer I am here I am becoming more "hickified".   I love it.   Hope that you all have a fantastic week!

Scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 25:25-- We are made alive in  Christ because of our faith.

Quote of the week: "All the Lord asks is that you give your best effort and your whole heart. Do it cheerfully and with the prayer of faith. The Father and his Beloved Son will send the Holy Ghost as your companion to guide you. Your efforts will be magnified." -President Eyring

Love you all!!

Sister King :)

Sister Taylor thought that it would be a grand idea to kidnap this cat for a sec...
he liked us cause it was about negative 25 at the time...

We got to go play ball with some of our awesome ward members, Don and Shawna.

Matching night gowns cause why not?

A member made me a christmas ornament... it is a snowflake with my face on it.

​Homemade chocolates!

Our do-rags... best day ever.

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