Cana- DOWNTOWN!

Hello hello!! Coming to you live from downtown Calgary!!

So ya, on Thursday I was transferred from Lethbridge to Central Calgary (downtown) ha and seriously it is like a COMPLETELY different mission up here, but still so great! I am super excited! There is lots of potential here in this area!

DOWNTOWNNNNN!

We met this guy, Marshall, while we were contacting. He's homeless but he makes the most of it
and decorates his cart... ha definitely not the same as in Lethbridge

 My companion's name is Sister Madison Barlow. Fun story-- we were in the MTC together! So we've both been out for a little more than 6 months. She's from Farmington Utah and went to Davis High.

This pretty park with Sister Barlow, my new companion

Anyway, saying bye to all my Lethbridge peeps was actually a TON harder than I thought it would be! I seriously just love everyone there so much so it was sad to say goodbye. Saying bye to Ken and Linda... boy oh boy, that was difficult. But I'm gonna stay in close contact with them! Also, saying bye to Sister Burnside was super hard as well. My little baby is all grown up and getting a new companion and stuff. sad and happy day.

Lethbridge zone pics

​Saying bye to more of my peeps   1. Donna and Jim

2. Elizabeth

3. the Bettgers

4. the Maclennan's

Aron insisted that I send this to ya Dad!

Saying bye to our investigator Aron.

Last District Pics!!

2 of my favorite families--   1. the Heggies

and 2. The Traweeks.

Anyway, Downtown Calgary is seriously so different!! It reminds me a lot of like San Fran mixed with Salt Lake City. Pretty much I can describe the area to you in 2 words... STREET CONTACTING! Okay seriously, street contacting is like my favorite thing in the whole world so this is like my dream area! It's so great! We've already met a bunch of super interesting people. I'm serving in the Calgary 5th ward and I already know that I am going to love it here, the people here are just super nice to us. The past couple days that's really what we have been doing. Going and reaching out to the members and sharing a quick little message with them and getting the ball rolling in the missionary work. Lots of our time has been calling people off the ward list... the behind the scenes work of missionaries. It's very tedious but needs to be done. Also, the area is gi freakin normous! Oh and another fun fact... walking area!! Again my dream come true! Gonna walk off all that meat and potatoes we get fed :) 

Ha fun story of the week. Out contacting downtown and we start talking to this guy and he full on just starts swearing at us out of no where... ha we're just sitting there trying not to laugh. That's the neat thing though about serving here. If one person won't listen to you then you just turn around and talk to somebody else, it's so great! 

So ya, missin Lethbridge but just super excited about this new area and the potential here. It should be a good couple weeks :)

Love you all!!

quote of the week: "Don't you quit. You keep on walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead." -Holland

scripture of the week: D&C 12:8-- And no one can assist in this work except he shall be humble and full of love, having charity, being temperate in all things, whatsoever shall be entrusted to his care.

Sista King

"I've Got a Serious Case of Donald Trump Hair"

Hey there fam!

This past week has been great, just flew by!

We had quite a few lessons this week, which was super awesome! There's definitely still lots of work going on here in Lethbridge!

So we have this less active girl in our ward, Sompit,  and she's from Thailand. She had a baby shower and invited us to it-- so we went and helped set up and everything and got to be there for that. Ha that's probably the most confused I've ever been in my life because every body there was speaking in Thai... ha we were literally the only Caucasian people there. I felt like that's how mom felt on her first couple days in Thailand. So that was pretty fun!

This week has been sad because we're pretty sure that this is my last week in the area because transfers are this Thursday. So I've been able to just go and see lots of the people that I have really gotten to know over the past 6 months. It's hard but I'm excited for something new. On Tuesday night I'll be finding out my fate...

We were able to do some fun service this week. So this week was Whoop-up days (pretty much like the state fair but in Lethbridge)  Every year the Lethbridge stake has a booth in the park where we make Elephant ears and earn money for the young men and young women programs. We were able to go twice and help make all of them-- that was SUPER fun! And I believe that the stake made like 26,000 dollars... So I'd say that it was a success! Plus we picked up a new investigator! Her name is Mackenzie and she's 16. She's dating a kid in our ward and they both came to help make the Elephant Ears. We were able to have a super good chat with her and she is super interested in learning more! SCORE! We're pretty excited about that!

Elephant ears  :)

Behind the scenes of the Elephant Ear booth at Whoop Up days

My girl Lizzie... saying bye to her

On Tuesday we did exchanges. I went with Sister Dean to Taber. Fun story. Guess where Sister Dean is from.... GREEN BAY WISCONSIN!!! So I had a good time talking with her about Wisconsin and hearing a little about life there. Reminded me of Court-- so that was super fun. In fact one of her good friends turns out to be Sister Hammatt-- one of Courtney's comps. Wow, such a small world. So Taber was super fun!

 Exchanges with the STL's

 Had to get a pic with the swaggin wagon before I left.
Been driving this baby for a while now and I think that I'm really gonna miss her!

Had to take a pic in our "posterity pajamas"

the newest addition to our room-- thanks to Sister Dean

Probably one of the hardest things for us right now is getting people to come out to church. We meet with our investigators periodically during the week and they always sound super sincere and genuine when the say that they'll be to church on Sunday, then when sacrament meeting rolls around me and Sister Burnside usually end up awkwardly sitting by ourselves... but hey when you're a missionary you just got to own the awkwardness! Hoping that next week will be better... even though I'll probably be in a different area. Change is good-- it's scary but good. And Lethbridge has treated me very well! I'll let y'all know what happens next week!

Have a fantastic week! Love ya!

One of our favorite families-- the Bly's. Love them

Brad and Kayla-- they had us over for breakfast

some of my YSA homies

scripture of the week:John 8:29-- And He that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him

quote of the week: "there is no greater service you can give to your family than being a diligent missionary. You're a constant witness and example of truth-- that is the best thing that you can do." -Elder Christofferson (when he came to the mission) 

Sista King :) 

6 MONTHS.....

Wow, so it's already Monday again and I'm starting to get super worried cause the time is going by wayyyyy too fast!! 

I hit my 6 month mark on Wednesday, so to celebrate we were able to go to the temple. The Parkinsons, serving a couples mission, took us. That was really fun! It had been a while since both me and Sister Burnside had been to the temple so that was a really fun experience!

Temple day!!

I think that Elder and Sister Parkinson beat our jumping picture :)

On Monday we were able to meet with our recent convert. He has been working in Saskatchewan for a while so we hadn't seen him for a bit. It was great to see him and see how well he is! He's gone more than 70 days sober from everything! That is a major accomplishment and he wanted me to share with everyone that he is doing so well!  

Thursday was Sister Burnside's 3 month mark! How neat is that? Ha I feel like she just got here... my baby is growing up! 

Saying bye to Brad-- doing the "brad pose"

The teaching this week was a little slow. Summer is winding down so everyone and their dog is busy... which means we get to be creative with our time and try to find some people to teach! We've been going through our area book a TON lately and we always wish that we were teaching more lessons but I think that we did pretty good with our time. 

We were able to have a meeting with our Stake President, President and Sister Miles and our district. So that was really fun! We talked a lot about what we can be doing with the members to get them more involved and stuff, super great! Plus it's always good to be able to see President and Sister Miles. That night we had a fun relief society activity. It was really fun because I got to talk to a lot of the people that I've really grown close with over the past couple months... I'll probably be leaving Lethbridge in a week and a half so it was good to see all of them.

We were able to go to the Francis's for supper on Friday-- we made chimi-changas. So that was super fun. They really are too good to us.

This is Wendy!

On the way home the Parkinson's took us to this crazy little beach in the middle of nowhere!!!
Don't worry, we didn't touch the water or anything!!

Crazy moment of the week. We got a referral from this guy in Cardston to go and visit one of his friends who has been struggling a lot lately and is trying to find meaning in her life-- SCORE (that's every missionary's dream) so we go and see her and she happens to live in like THE sketchiest place I have ever seen! Smelled like drugs, beer and anything else that you can think of. So we were super scared to go in, but the girl came to the door and she is just adorable! She had gotten into a lot of bad things but she was super cute and loved meeting with us. We're meeting with her again next week-- this time probably somewhere else. But we made it out alive and it was a neat experience!

The Thompsons are doing great! Their health is going down hill a little bit so if you could keep them in your prayers that would be great! But they are just loving everything church related! It's great! Alex is doing wonderful as well! All my peeps here in Lethbridge are doing great!

We're teaching a little girl and she is so close to committing! So that is exciting!

Anyway, the work is going great and I'm just very grateful for the time that I have had in Lethbridge. Hoping that I can stay just one more transfer here but I think my time is coming to a close... but it's just that much more exciting to see where the Lord needs me next!

quote of the week: "being distinct and different from the world will draw some criticism, but we must anchor ourselves to eternal principles and testify of them, no matter the world's response." -Neil F. Marriott

Scripture of the week: Hebrews 12:1- Let us 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!

peace out (kip voice)

Sista 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