"Last door, 4th floor"

Hello hello!!

So it's Monday again... crazy how fast Monday's come.

But anyway, first things first. The subject line-- this was my favorite pun from this week. There is this super cute old lady in our ward named Sister Longbotham (not to be confused with Longbottom from Harry Potter) but there is this less active guy named Rex who is pretty much wanting to marry her... but for her there is no rex-ual attraction... ha I laughed too hard at that one.

Linda is adorable and made me this super cute vase :)

The world's largest shower-- it's like 2 by 2...

Just a cute little house we found this week

Ok so these "car2go"s are all over the place here. I don't know if that is just a Canada thing or if it's in the states...

downtown 

In case you are ever wondering what fun things are going on in Calgary, this is the information board!

I forgot to mention how cute Sister Francis is. Somehow it came up that Grandma King always had
lemon drops and how I loved them... she gave me a bag before I left Lethbridge.

But anywayyyyy this week was pretty good. We didn't have the car so there was lots and lots of walking. It also just so happens that it was the coldest week thus far on my mission. YAY. But no it was actually super fun. Accomplishment of the week; it was HORRIBLE weather on Wednesday-- super rainy and cold, and yet we were still out and about doing things. We walked 15 kilometers. So even though it was a long and wet day we still felt like we had given it our all. When you get home at the end of the day and you can't keep your eyes open, that's when you know that you worked hard :)

So ya, this week was definitely us finding the tender mercies cause it was pretty rough... But hey, we met some very VERY interesting people while we were out tracting and street contacting. On Tuesday we were just having a super slow day, honestly just wanted the day to be over and we were just sitting on the bus when this little girl named Betty came and sat next to me. She was just super cute and had the most energy and I just loved her. I felt like that was the Lord just giving me one little confidence boost to get through the rest of the day, and it totally worked. That day I helped Sister Barlow give away her first Book of Mormon while out on her mission. That was pretty sick and she was super excited about that! Going along with the bus tender mercies we made it a point this week to try to talk to more people on the bus and just make them feel good. We aren't allowed to proselyte on the busses unless they ask about it, but we have been trying super hard for people to just feel uplifted after talking to us. And when we got to our stop the bus driver talked to us before we got off and said that he was listening to us talk to people and he just wanted to tell us to keep smiling because we really are making a difference in people's lives. So again, the Lord coming in clutch with the confidence boosts!

So we have started this fun game where we see who can give away the most pass along cards/ BOMs/ pamphlets and whoever wins at the end of the week the other person owes them a treat. So that has been a fun motivation for us both to just talk to literally everybody! We have been killing the street contacts this week! It's been pretty awesome.

We met with this less active in our ward-- that was also super interesting. The first thing that she says to us when we walked in was "I'm looking at 2-10 years in prison and I'm totally content with that." Ha so that goes to show you what an odd meeting that was. Don't worry I think she'll be fine.

We had some good lessons this week with Linda and Dara. Linda is on date for October 8 and Dara is on date for October 15! So we're pretty excited for what we got going on. They are both super adorable and you can see the difference in them from the first time I met with them to now... it's incredible!

Lastly, WASN'T WOMEN'S CONFERENCE LIKE THE BEST THING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD?!?! I seriously just ate the whole thing up, it was so good. Leave it to President Uchtdorf man! His talk was amazing! All the talks were great but I especially liked his. When he talked about going to the "last door, 4th floor." Never has a little statement like that been so relatable. It just makes me feel like pressing on even when it's hard because eventually you will find that person that is so ready to meet with you. I'm so pumped for conference this week you have no idea!!!

Anyway, this upcoming week is going to be great. We're just going out and finding more people to teach :)

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

Quote of the week: "If you're going to serve others or worship the Lord, you're the happiest and most effective when you do it with all the joy and energy you have."

Scripture of the week: D&C 123:17-- Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

-Sister King :)

Another Baptism Coming Up!

Hey hey there fam!

So this week was seriously one of the best ones ever. No joke. 

Sister Burnside puts up with my weirdness... only sometimes does she question the weird things I do.

First things first. LINDA IS ON DATE!! It was the best thing of my entire life. I don't know if I have mentioned this before but a little more than a month ago she got hit by a car and has had a concussion... and that was kind of her excuse for not being so for baptism. But this week when we went to meet with them we talked to Ken about him receiving the priesthood and that he could potentially baptize his wife and when she heard that she said that some switch flipped.She felt like that is why she was holding out. So she just got this adorable little smirk on her face and I asked her what the smirk was for and she turned to Ken and said "So, when are you going to be ready to baptize me?" IS THAT NOT THE CUTEST THING YOU HAVE EVER HEARD!! Me and Sister Burnside were freaking out! So... She is on date for August 13-- Ken got the priesthood yesterday so he will be the one to baptize her. I just love this.

Ha we had some other really funny moments that happened this week. First of all--  we walked out of a lesson and there was a mother deer feeding her 2 fawns (pictures to follow.) 

Our wildlife of the week. And as promised here is the Mama deer and her fawns :)

We also had a dinner this week with this super awesome couple in our ward. Their garden was growing outside and she gave us these peppers and said to give them to the Elders because they were the hottest thing she had ever tasted. I believe she said that they were apache peppers. So of course me being me had to try one to see if they truly were the hottest thing... let me tell you. My mouth has never ever been that hot in my entire life. Never will I ever question the members here ever again :)

Fun tender mercies this week. Our power went out (along with our entire side of the street) and was out for about 3 1/2 hours and we were worried that our food was going to go bad. The Elders called us for board updates and said that they were going to come get our food so it wouldn't go bad (it was a little after curfew) but me and Sister Burnside just said "No. Obedience brings blessings." and legit right after we said that the power turned back on. It was crazy!

Other tender mercy of the week. Yesterday at church we got there a little early because Ken had his interview for the priesthood so we talked to him before that. And the sacrament meeting before ours got out a little late so we walked by and I saw out of the corner of my eye someone leaving the chapel that looked super familiar. I literally ran after her and caught her just before she left the building. It was my home girl Kenzie Knapp! Yay for seeing my Provo friends. That was really fun to see her for sure!

MCKENZIE KNAPP!!! 

The most interesting lesson that we had this week was with our investigator, Karen. Ha we walked in and the first thing she said to us was "I have a problem... I fell asleep in the bathroom putting on my makeup." Ha and I just thought to myself "same girl." But me and Sister Burnside couldn't help but bust up laughing. That lesson was also interesting because we were talking about Lehi and his family coming to the Americas and she just got hung up on the boat. She kept asking us "but what happened to the boat?" She asked us that like 5 times and we were just like "This happened like 600 years before Christ. I have no idea where the boat is." She eventually understood us but it was super funny.

On Saturday we had the opportunity to speak at this little girls baptism in our ward. We had gone and given her some lessons before her baptism and she asked us to speak at it, so we were all excited about that. I guess it went well because a couple people told us that was the best talks they had heard at a baptism. So either they were just being really nice or the spirit was super strong. But ya, it was really fun!

The little boy told me that he had a crush on me... So he wanted a picture :)

Baptism!

One other awesome thing that happened this week-- we have been trying ever since I got here to get a lesson with this little girl. And this week we were able to get in and have a lesson with her and I think that this upcoming week we should be able to put her on date. So that's super exciting!!

We did zone service finding and all of us sisters piled into the swagon wagon... never felt like more of a soccer mom in all of life.

Anyway, this week was just awesome! Lots of super spiritual moments but also lots of fun memories. I love Lethbridge so much!!

Quote of the week: This is Elder Ballard speaking about missionary work and he just sums it up perfectly! "weaknesses become strengths, challenges become opportunities, trials become triumphs, and adversity becomes an adventure in the service of the Lord."

Scripture of the week: Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." 

Love you all and hope that you have a fantastic week. God is good.

Sister Ashley King