Sister Hayley King

Letter from April 13, 2015

Oh my goodness! So what a week!!!! Miracles really do happen!!! God is totally with us 100% of the time! First off, I am STAYING IN THE PROMISED LAND!!! Unfortunately I will not be with my best friend though, Sister Watts is leaving She really has been the best thing that has happened to me on my mission!:(

So honestly... I don't even know where to begin, but I guess Monday would be a good place:)

Monday was a fantastic start to the week! When we got done emailing we went grocery shopping. While we were grocery shopping, we ran into one of our favorite members and she saw that we had our grocery cart full and she said, " I am going to buy all of this for you" We were in a shock! It was so incredible! GRACE! Then we went and played football at the church. Elder Mower hung out with us because he couldn't really run because of his toe and then at the end, we all played basketball and it was so much fun! I did get really competitive though hahah... Leave it to me to get competitive. My new companion better like sports or I will rid her of that habit. Anyway, Monday night we just had a lesson with J and tried to find new gators.

Tuesday honestly, I was a little still depressed... I felt like nothing was going right and I didn't feel like I was doing work. I felt like I was slacking. I asked for a blessing on Thursday and that helped. But Tuesday night we got together with the Zone Leaders and planned Zone meeting and man, we are so good! Hahah actually God is so good but we had a great idea for Zone Meeting.

Wednesday we had Zone Meeting! It was fantastic!!! We talked about church and how important it is to get our investigators and less actives there! We also taught about the importance of prayer. We had set up 2 hours before Zone meeting and we did this HUGE obstacle course and we blind folder all of the missionaries in our zone and the only instructions we gave them was, if you don't know what to do, PRAY. We then took each of them in different areas of the church and there was obstacles in the halls as well. They had to figure out that they needed to get on their knees before we would move them to the next obstacle. It was so cool! There were some missionaries in our zone crying and they all told us thanks for the most spiritual experience. We ended in the Chapel and the talk by Elder Holland about Missionary Work and the Atonement was playing and we finished Zone meeting with a testimony meeting! It was so incredible! The spirit was so strong and it really seemed to help our missionaries. We had really good lessons the rest of the day!

Thursday we did weekly planning and then have very spiritual lessons with members! We are teaching the Doctrine of Christ and it is so fantastic! L had her baby Thursday morning and we went and saw her that night!!!! He is so stinkin cute!!!! Friday we were on exchanges and it was fan freakin tastic! I went to Highland Heights with Sister Campbell. We had a powerful lesson with their progressing investigator, and then we went and worked on the NKU campus and OMGOsh!!!! That was so much fun! I love campus work! Talking to everyone and they are all so nice and open! Then we got to go to Chipotle with the Shuley's!!!! Soooo fun! I really loved it! We talked a lot about how much I have changed and it was just fun!

Saturday was incredible! We took J and his fiancé to the temple and it was so good! We got to sit in the Celestial room for a long time and it was so relaxing.

Sunday, well you heard about it from Sister Watts. Hahah it is a long story to type ha

We don't have a teaching pool- thus it is extremely difficult to get people to church. The stakes were raised when our investigator that has been coming for 10 years (married to a member) decides not to come..... and when the Zone Leaders ask us on Friday to get 5 new investigators before Sunday... and commit 3 of them to church. sooo! Whenever Problems arise it is time for miracles to happen. We met this man T on Wednesday, outside a hotel one of our Less Actives live in. (elders area=sketchy area) He said he wanted to learn more and come to church! We didn't think much about it--- BUT we text him Saturday to see if we could come deliver him breakfast before church and we wake up to a text on Sunday......

"Alright we be ready in the morning. I got a couple of people with me."

so we figured through a string of texts that he wants to bring 3 of his friends!! Our elders told us we were allowed to go over without a male member with us.... On our way over to the address we come to find out it is an address for a Motel 6..... they said to come around back! Yes... Sister King and I were peeing our pants. We pull around back and they were all waving to us on the street! and... it all turned out! We taught them the restoration on the street..... J our member did not feel comfortable taking all four of them in his car alone (two of them had alcohol breath. so by a miracle we got another member to come and pick up two of them PLUS a new guy we met named LA. Their stories family...... wow. One guy-- 50ish lived in motels all his life. LA was homeless living under a overpass in Covington for a year as a 22 years old. Foster kid.... yeah. It was very eye opening to me. Quite the contrast to Triple Crown-- multi million dollar homes... golf course... yeah. Our area is just wee bit different.

Sunday night we had dinner at Ma and Pa's and taught them the DOC and then went to E's. She is fantastic!

I know this is the true church and I am so grateful for this amazing work!