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HIKING

New Companion...Sister Savage

First Transfer!!

I am in Centerville, Ohio!!  I have been so anxious to email you today. My new companion is Sister Savage...funny story, she was Sister Smith's last companion in this area. It is the largest active ward in our mission and I am already loving it! Sister Savage is from San Francisco California and she is actually going home next transfer, which means I will be getting a new companion in August. My week has been great! I am just meeting new people and getting to know the ward and the investigators here. We have a family that is getting ready for baptism in August, which is really cool. The mom is a member and she is just waiting for her son to turn eight so all of her kids can be baptized together. We are also teaching someone that has been learning from the missionaries for 5 years and came to church for the first time last week. I am really learning how to recognize the Spirit. I feel it so strongly and it is helping our investigators to grow. The bishop of the ward is gaining faith in the missionaries. He introduced me to the whole ward and then I said the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting my first week. Everyone is so welcoming. I am coming from a ward that usually had about 100 people at church each Sunday, to a ward that now has over 200 each Sunday. It is so sweet that they all seem to want to become involved in missionary work. My zone also broke the mission record of member presents this week. The record was 112 and we got 128!  So awesome!!! It is stressful in this area but I am loving it. I do have to walk everywhere, but I am getting use to it...good exercise:) I am also serving in an area that has an Air Force Base, so there is a lot of military, it is great! Leaving my last area was sad, but I knew it was time and I was ready. I really missed getting your letter last week. I am glad you now have my new address. I am excited to hear from you. I love you all! Sister King

Letter from June 23, 2014

 My week has really been a great one. I did a ton of service which is good but very tiring. There is ALWAYS opposition in all things. Satan knew we were going to have a great week so he made the last one hard. This week was great. Monday I went to the chiropractor and that was so awesome. She was really great. I got some stretches to do so hopefully that will help but I have to go back tomorrow if I am not getting transferred. Monday night we had a lesson with an investigator  again and she really wants to get baptized so we are working with her and her boyfriend, his  heart has been softened a little so hopefully everything will work out. Tuesday we helped one of our members move. After that we went and had an awesome lesson with another  investigator.  At first when we got there she was yelling at her kids and saying some words we didn't want to hear. I didn't want to stay but Sister Smith said we needed to bring the spirit. When she came and sat down, we were bold with her and told her that we have the answers she is looking for. We brought the spirit super strong and she said she would be baptized. She felt the spirit way strong. Later that night we contacted out member  referral and come to find... She is Incredible and wants to get baptized! Apparently she has had the missionary discussions before and was going to get baptized but got scared when it came to her interview and she didn't understand why she had to be interviewed so she didn't get baptized. We are now teaching her and she is so ready. We haven't even taught her the Word of Wisdom but she remembers she has to stop smoking and things like that so she is already doing that. She got a blessing yesterday and the reason she said she got it was to have the strength to get baptized. God's Grace! She really is so awesome and she came to church yesterday. Wednesday was my 6 month mark! Can you believe it?!!! We did more service and meetings today. Thursday we helped someone else move and had weekly planning. Friday was a pretty good day. We had 2 members out with us. It was pretty great. Saturday we got to clean up the Ohio River. It was a huge thing and we got permission to do it and it was fun. Very dirty, but way fun. It has been a pretty good week and now we are just waiting for the transfer results....I will let you  know, when I know. I love you all. Sister King

Keeping busy:)

Dear Family,  This week definitely had it's up's and down's. Wednesday morning we had a study with the Zone Leaders which was really cool. The Sister Training Leaders were there too and Sister Smith and I split up for a little so we could talk to our leaders. They wanted to get to know us better. They are incredible leaders! It was interesting talking to Elder Hanks and having him ask me questions.  Anyway, we had District meeting Wednesday morning and learned how to be accountable.  We had dinner at Chipotle with the bishops wife and then had ward correlation meeting with Brother Shuley and the Elders in our area. That went really well. Brother Shuley is great. They are like my family away from home. You can tell they care about me. He picks on my like a dad would pick on their kids. They really have helped me so much. We had to walk so much this week. We didn't have that many miles left so we had to walk EVERYWHERE!!!!! My feet are so sore! I have blisters all over my toes and my body ached but I am doing better. I have a pretty wicked tan line on my feet and where my ring is. That has made the week hard because it didn't get us anywhere. Thursday Sister Barnes (Sister Shuley's mom) took us out to lunch.  We had an awesome lesson with an investigator and extended baptism for June 21 and she accepted so we are working with her a lot. We are trying to hard to find more people to teach. Everyone says I am good at talking to everyone. Saturday was the last day we had to walk because we get more miles Sunday. We tried a ton of people and had a member come out with us but no luck. Even though again we walked everywhere and had a rough week, we had 23 lessons. We are working with the less actives a lot. We have gained the trust of the bishop and other members in the ward. Sunday was Fast Sunday and the whole mission and each areas ward fasted for a family to find and baptize in June. We had a great testimony meeting about missionary work and they say how great we are. Brother Shuley says we are some of the best missionaries they have had. We had a BBQ at their house yesterday and it was great! All I can say is it's great to have a car!!!!

I am so proud of Austin! When is he going through the temple and I need your help... We are doing sharing time on Sunday about temple and I need a fun activity idea. If you have any great ideas let me know. I am sending you a bunch of pictures because I didn't send any last week due to the computer issues. I love you all so much! Keep praying for me. Write soon. Love Sister King

Letter from May 27, 2014

Hello Family! How are you all? Sorry you didn't get an email from me yesterday. President Porter wanted us to work. This week has been really great! I tell ya if there is ever a bad week.. a great one is coming. This week has been full of miracles. We have been trying to serve members of the ward this week. We put sticky notes with quotes on and things on their doors. It is really great!. Monday after I was done emailing you I got to go to the aquarium (it was kinda expensive) but it was fun! Then on our way to a members home after the aquarium, we got lost and some how ended up going over 3 bridges into Downtown Cincinnati which is scary!!! It was hilarious. Sister Smith was freakin out. I was laughing so hard. On Wednesday we had Zone Conference from 9-5. What a great experience that was. President Porter is an amazing leader and really helps the missionaries so much. He is an inspired man! Wednesday we saw Gods's grace all day long! We had 3 different members come out with us and we taught some really powerful lessons. We had our investigators in tears. It was so spiritual. Friday I went on exchanges in Northern Kentucky with the new Sister Training Leader, Sister Corbridge...That was sooooo amazing. We had such a great time and I had so much fun. Sister Corbridge has been out 9 months but we have so much in common so it was fun. Saturday I got your package and I LOVED it! Thank you so much!! We did a lot of service on Saturday  and just had a good day. Sunday we had church and walked all night. We are allotted a certain amount of miles each month (1200) and we are running out of miles so we have been walking a alot. We walked about 5 hours:/ ya I was tired. Haha and yesterday ...was so incredible. For Memorial day, we had a ward breakfast that we went to help at  and then at 3 went to another area and helped their branch with a BBQ and play games. One of the members from the branch came and got us. It was about an hour drive, but it was so much fun. A lot of the branch had never seen sister missionaries, so that was awesome. There was also a guy there who was deaf, so I was able to sign. It was fun! I love serving the people and I am so happy to be here. I think of you often and I love you all! Love, Sister King 

A members dog.....so cute! Makes me miss Willow and Kaida:)

Letter from May 19, 2014

Hi! Just a heads up...I don't know how much I am going to write because these computers are really acting up today, so this may be short. This week, has actually to be honest.....it's been really rough. Satan has been working really hard on getting me down. He is attacking me where he knows he can get me, which is within my companionship and home. So I have been trying to get myself not to worry about home and I know I am doing the right thing in being out here. We have struggled as a companionship, but hopefully this week will be better. Even though I feel like this week has been horrible, we have really seen God's Grace. We were able to have 29 lessons and we are working hard to work out our issues as companions. Monday we had an awesome day with the Zone. On Tuesday, we tried a ton of doors and NO ONE answered so it made it really difficult. Wednesday most of our plans fell through with all of our investigators. We did alot of service this week. One good thing happened a couple of our investigators are really progressing and they are aiming for baptism in June. Today we are going to the aquarium. We also got a new Zone Leader, Elder Hanks! Crazy...all these Cottonwood missionaries:) I love you all so much! This week is going to be better!! Love, Sister King