Tae Tuan Do

HELLOOOO!!!

This past week was a complete blur! But it was the best!!!

So, we'll start with the major exciting things from this past week. TUAN GOT BAPTIZED!!! It was the best thing ever! So I told you that he has been investigating for more than 6 years?? Well during that time he accumulated like a bajillion friends. So there were a ton of people there! We ended up having to move it into the chapel so that we could fit everyone in there. Super awesome! Ha all of the people who spoke told us how lucky we were to be able to be the missionaries that got to see him be baptized. Just think 6 years of meeting with the missionaries... that would be a ton! But it was also a very humbling experience cause without all those contacts, without all the fellowship, without everyone else Tuan wouldn't have gained the rock solid testimony that he has. After the actual ordinance and everything had taken place Tuan wanted to bear his testimony.  It was super sweet. Yesterday was his confirmation and it was awesome as well. Ha he even received the priesthood and got a temple recommend. He's just going to be the best member ever! So excited to see where he goes cause he has such a solid testimony and wants to share it with everyone now.

Dawsyn got baptized on Saturday. For the past couple weeks we have been teaching her the lessons.

TUAN!!!

Tuan again... he's so happy :)​

JAMBAAAAAA!!

Kyndal... one of our YW

So ya, that was the high point of the week! But there were some other fun things that happened as well! We picked up 2 new investigators this week. So Megan and Daniel, the couple that we picked up last week, told us to come back and teach their kids. They have 4 boys who all have so much energy!! But they are all so smart!! We taught them the Restoration and the 12 year old boy was talking about the priesthood and asked when it came back... cause ya know, God loves us and wants us to have direction. Ha it was awesome! And they are super excited to read the Book of Mormon together and just learn more. We're really excited to teach them this week!! I feel like they are golden and the spirit is going to hit them real hard. Sick.

Alfred-- so remember when I first talked about Alfred and he said that we were "planting a seed on hard ground." Well we felt like we should keep meeting with him, and at his last lesson he told us that we were softening his heart. Ha so he's 87 and doesn't believe that there is a God... but he said that he's starting to believe in something. His wife, Ann, was there and her jaw dropped and as we left she said that we've got the farthest with him than anyone has before. So there's a glimmer of hope!!

Zeyu-- So Zeyu is just the best. We met with him this week and taught the Restoration. He has tons of super awesome questions. He's just super sincere and wants to learn and grow. He wants to know for himself. Man, I can just feel that he's going to get an answer! Unfortunately he's going to China for a couple weeks :( so we won't be able to meet with him for a bit. Ha but he set up a return appointment with us for June 14... Zeyu on June 14th! ha so that'll be great! Plus he said that while he's traveling there he's going to read lots from the BOM-- PERFECT!! We're excited for him.

Ha biggest tender mercy of the week though: our ward mission leader brought us Jamba Juices from the states. He literally put them in a cooler for us. Please don't take Jamba Juice for granted. It's the best.

So ya, life is great. We are meeting with some more potentials this week that we are really excited about! Plus I feel like our YSA ward is starting to get the missionary spirit and it's the best. We have a bunch of RMs coming home that just wanna baptize nations-- so that's chill.

Shoutout to Mama King and that award that she got this week. Yay... you're just the best :)

Another shoutout to Baby Briggs-- please come soon. 

Anywayyyy I'm loving this area. It's awesome. And so so happy that me and Sister Ho Ching get to stay together and see some more miracles!

Qote of the week: "Our promised blessings are beyond measure. Though the storm clouds may gather, though the rains may pour down upon us, our knowledge of the gospel and our love of our Heavenly Father and of our Savior will comfort and sustain us... as we walk uprightly... There will be nothing in this world that can defeat us." -President Monson

Scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 22:2-- Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation.

Love you all and hope that you have a killer week!!!

Sister King :)

Cha-Qing

HELLOOOOO FAMILIA!!

This week was seriously the best thing since sliced bread... no joke.

So many exciting things to report I don't even know where to start!

Okay well the most exciting news: SABRINA GOT BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!! It was the best thing of my entire life. Honestly,  Sabrina was so prepared it's ridiculous-- we had only been teaching her for like a month and now she is officially a member of the church. Just seeing her progress in the gospel has helped my testimony grow, she has so much faith! Like she believed everything that we talked about and said that the spirit was confirming it to her and when we talked to her right after her baptism she said that she felt so good and couldn't wait to be confirmed to receive God's spirit. Man, I just love her. So ya, the baptism went awesome!


Her friend Ryan, who introduced us to her got to the the baptizing and it was just awesome. Sabrina is just the best. And it was super cool cause she was actually supposed to go to Australia for 4 months this week but somehow it got changed to next month and she said that she knew it was because she was supposed to get baptized. So cool. Love that girl. And she's doing great. The confirmation was also one of the coolest things! HA baptisms are just the best!

Ha, I could talk about the for forever but we did other fun stuff too. On Tuesday we were able to go to the temple with the whole North of the mission-- like 85ish missionaries. That was awesome! My first time doing a session in the Calgary temple and it was great! Seriously the spirit was so strong. Just think that many missionaries all in one session-- coolest experience! The temple is the best place in the whole world! Especially when you get to see all your friends in the celestial room all together. It was just an overall amazing experience!

Our zone!​

Our hilarious district

Ho-King

Spanish Elders :)

Baby Burnside at the temple

Hermana Thorstensen aka the cutest human being ever

We also picked up 4 investigators this week :) ha it's been a while so we were super excited about that. Qing Li, in our ward, is a convert of a couple years and we met with him this week and he brought one of his friends. We taught the Restoration and the spirit was super strong and his friend, James, wanted to learn more :) it was awesome! Then get this, Qing brought one of his other friends, Zeyu, to church yesterday. We had seen him before and shared a brief message with him but he came to church and we are meeting with him again this week. Ha Cha-Qing!!

When a member gives you this....

Qing-- gave me a cheesecake just cause. #blessingsonblessings

On Saturday we had a little bit of time so we went tracting, and we ran into a couple families that said that we could come back. We went back to this one house last night and the mom and the son, Boshra and Amere, sat down and we got to teach the first lesson to them. There is such a good spirit that comes every time you talk about the first vision, I love it. They are also from Pakistan and are wanting to explore Christianity. So we are super excited about teaching them again this week.

Ho-King pt 2

Our other investigators are doing well. We met with Tuan yesterday and he is still feeling good about May 20th :) We're super excited for him. 

Pretty much the work is moving along and it's the best. We have a bunch of potentials we're meeting with this week and our investigators are all progressing! It's awesome. The Lord is working miracles here!

Transfers are also this week so we are getting pretty antsy to see what's going to happen. We think that Sister Ho Ching should be staying but you never know-- but we've been praying for Ho-King to stay together so we'll see what happens!

Anyway, I'm doing really well. Can't wait to see your faces on Sunday. Still can't believe how fast that came up... but see ya on Sunday :)

Scripture of the week: 2 Corinthians 4:17-- For our light affliction, which is but for a moment. worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

Quote of the week: "When we link our suffering to an assurance of purpose in our mortality and more specifically to the reward awaiting us in heavenly places, our faith in Christ increases and we receive comfort to our souls." -Elder Evan A. Schmutz

Love you all!!!

Sister King :)

"I'm not interested..... I'm a witch."

HELLO FAMILIA!

This week was pretty much the best thing ever! If the time could slow down that'd be chill.

Anyway, so the most exciting new for this week... 2 of our investigators are on date for baptism!!! We'll go with Sabrina first-- okay so we got a text from her fellowship early on Wednesday morning saying that they talked with her and she wants to celebrate her 21st birthday by getting baptized!!! CRAZY! So we obviously scheduled an appointment with her for that night and ya, she does indeed want to! Ha so we're having a baptism this Saturday!! Ha we haven't been teaching her for all that long so we still have quite a bit to teach her-- we met with her like 3 or 4 times this past week and had a lesson. Then get this. She came to church yesterday and she brought one of her friends! Her name is Nosha and she ended up enjoying church and then they both came to a baptism that we had in the zone yesterday. 

Which again was the best thing ever-- Baby Burnside and Sister Rowberry had a baptism yesterday! It was the cutest thing-- and they bore their testimonies and the whole time I was just sitting there thinking "My baby is so cute, look she's all grown up." It was pretty awesome. But ya, Sabrina is super stoked to get baptized so it's just the best. When we had our last lesson with her she said the closing prayer and in it she said "I am so excited to receive your spirit" SHE IS THE BEST!!!!! I can't wait for her to be able to receive the Holy Ghost! Seriously being a missionary is just the best thing ever.

Got to go on a "mini-exchange" with Sister Hathaway this week

the famous Peter's drive-in milkshakes

Out with the old and in with the new-- We got a new car this week... and I mean brand spanking new! She only had 21 kms on her... we named her Tyra.

and I mean brand spanking new! She only had 21 kms on her... we named her Tyra.

Go Flames!!

The best backer outter there ever was.

Now, TUAN! So we literally started meeting with Tuan like a week ago and he is now on date for May 20th! We're so stoked! He is literally the most prepared person ever. He knows that everything that we teach is true and he wants to be able to go to the temple. So he's just the best. When we were teaching him this last time we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and when we were teaching about baptism we asked him how he felt and he said that he was feeling the holy ghost tell him that it was true. BOOM the spirit was so strong. 

We had some fun moments out tracting this week. We knocked on this lady's door and she answered and peered from behind the door and said "I'm not interested... I'm a witch." Ha we died. It was so funny. We are tempted to knock again and just talk to her about stuff, that'd be funny. But ya, we found this super awesome apartment complex that we have been starting to tract out and the people there are so humble it's the best. We met this guy that said that we could come back, and we also have a return appointment with 2 other families. So things are going well.

This upcoming week should be pretty awesome. So pumped about being a missionary and teaching and finding... pretty much just love being a missionary.

Scripture of the week: Alma 58:11 Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him.

Quote of the week: "Your best chance for being happy is to do the things that happy people do. Live the way that happy people live. Walk the path that happy people walk. And your chances to find the help of angels when you didn't even know they knew you existed, improves exponentially." --Elder Holland

Love you all and hope that you have a killer week-- especially Court in France :)

Sister King

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

Sealed it with a kiss

HELLLOOOOO FAMILY!!!

How are all of you?! This past week flew by!! 

First things first, Linda is now an official member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. How neat is that?! Any who, her baptism was seriously fantastic. The spirit was so so strong!! I've got to say that the actual baptism part was super interesting. Ken was able to baptize his wife... his best friend, Brother Lander was helping him and then we had Brother James in the font as well to make sure that everything ran smoothly. It was quite a full font-- but still everything went well and Ken and Linda were so excited. Her confirmation yesterday was awesome as well. We looked over and Ken was bawling the entire time. So cute! We also met with them yesterday and I wish that you could all see the difference in them. 

One of the first things that we teach people is that the gospel blesses families-- and I've seen first hand how them embracing the gospel has affected their relationship. They've been growing closer to their Savior and in turn grew closer to each other. Ha they told as ahead of time but they decided that they wanted to seal the baptism and the confirmation with a kiss... ha it was adorable. So ya, the baptism was wonderful and they are doing fantastic!!

We had a zone conference this week-- so we got to see a bunch of missionaries and President and Sister Miles, that's always fun. Ha so before we went Sister Burnside was a little nervous because they had told us to practice some role plays (which we did) but she was afraid that we would have to get up in front of all the missionaries and do it. Ha I assured her that I had never seen that before and that it wouldn't happen. But let me tell ya, the Lord has a very good sense of humor and me and Sister Burnside were picked to do a role play in front of everyone... don't worry it went well and we survived. But standing in front of 80+ missionaries teaching the Restoration to Sister Miles (pretending to be and investigator) is actually pretty dang scary.

Fun thing this week. Our stake did a softball tournament. Each ward had a team. And you had to have 4 girls on the field at all times-- our ward didn't have that many so they recruited us sisters to come and play with them. WE crushed it. Our ward ended up winning the entire thing! Dad you would have been proud! Plus we had some nonmembers come to play as well-- so it ended up being a pretty good finding activity. 

Fun story of the week. We were talking with one of our less actives in our family ward and she randomly said that she wanted to share a story with us-- she didn't know why. She told us about how she was down in Utah and she didn't have any money and was homeless and this super nice family took her in and she lived with them for 2 months then they paid for her to get back here to Canada. She talked about how this family had completely changed her life and how she wanted to be able to thank them someday and that she wants to find out how to contact them. I asked her what their names were and she said their last name was Pentz. Well, we have an Elder Pentz in our zone-- so we gave him a call and this family happens to be his cousins. So he got their contact info and she's going to be able to contact them. Ha what are the odds right?!?

This week really was just so great! This might sounds cheesy but I am just so happy and I love being a missionary. When you see someone embrace the gospel and see an evident change in them, it really makes you feel like you're doing something good. I'm just so happy! I know I was sent here to Lethbridge for Ken and Linda. Love them to death! Being a missionary is the best thing in the entire world!!!!

When we came home our landlords had cut this whole in our wall to fix the AC.

Yay for olympics!!!

This is Jackson.

Just a little pre-baptism selfie :)

Quote of the week: "The Atonement's reach is individual and infinite."

Scripture of the week: Alma 26:12 Yea , I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever. 

Love you all! Have a wonderful week!!!

Sister Ashley King

#dunkofsalvation

Well hey there fam!

This past week was literally so much fun! It flew by!

First of all... WE HAD A BAPTISM ON SATURDAY!! Ken is now a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His baptism was just great! I wish that you all could have seen how happy he was (mainly because in the pictures he isn't too good at smiling... but I promise you he was ecstatic!) It was so fun because Brother Lander (their neighbor and best friend) was able to baptize him. This was just a case of super awesome member missionary work. Ken and Linda have been taught off and on by the missionaries for a while but the Landers have continued to teach them while they weren't meeting with the missionaries, so we were just lucky enough to be here at the time that he was prepared enough to take that step, and boy oh boy was he prepared! He was so ready to be baptized! Linda isn't quite there yet but she said that soon enough she will be ready to take that step as well. So we're just praying that she will be able to realize this church is true for herself. Me and Sister Burnside were able to sing a song at the baptism. Whenever we would go over to teach them Ken would want us to sing them a song because he just absolutely loves hymns and music, so we thought that we would sing to him on his big day. We sang How Great Thou Art... and it went great. Everyone told us it was really good except for this old lady who said that we would have sounded better if she sang with us... but still it was great! Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention-- Ken is about 70, as is Brother Lander so we had to have Brother James from our ward be the font lifeguard. But everything went well! So the baptism was great but my favorite part I think was the confirmation yesterday. Everyone was just so emotional which means that the spirit was there. Ken was just so happy and crying and brother Lander was crying and it was the sweetest thing that I have ever heard. 

Ken (I promise he's happy!)

Us with Ken, Linda and the Landers (their neighbors)

After the baptism with Ken and Linda :)

Anyway, the rest of our week was great! We had a good lesson with Alex. He is doing so well. This week we are going to take him to the family history center and get him some names so that when he goes to the temple soon he'll have some people to do baptisms for. 

One other fun thing that happened this week. We had supper with the James family (one of our favorite families in the ward) and they have adorable kids. So we gave them our tags and then they disappeared and came back like 5 minutes later and they were all dressed up as cute little sister missionaries. So we taught the dinner message to them then they gave it to the family. It was probably the cutest thing I've ever seen. They were teaching and testifying-- wonderful! 

Fun moment of the week. J and J came with us to institute!! We read Alma 32-- J's favorite thing to talk about is faith. So it was perfect! We're hoping to meet with them this week and see where that's gonna go.

Pretty much this week was bomb and I love being a missionary! We've been focusing a lot on service and trying to find people that way and it is so fun! I love the fact that I literally get to just go out and serve people for 18 months. It's kind of selfish if you think about it because serving people makes you happy... but anyway. I love you all and have a wonderful week. This gospel is true and it makes me so so happy!!

Dinner with the Sisters... Monet and Adeline James

Saying goodbye to Sister Larsen, she's now home :(

Our dinner with the Burtons-- learning the uke for Ukie-yokie. 

Quote of the week: "with each step of faith on the path of discipleship we grow into the being of Eternal glory and infinite joy we were destined to become." -Uchtdorf

Love you!

Sister King