Adventure is Out There!

My 3rd transfer has officially kicked off and I have a new companion Elder Seal from Tooele, Utah. It's actually really great to talk to someone about "grandma sycamore" but anywho this last week has had it's ups and downs.

Monday last week I learned how to Flint nap. (make arrow heads.) that was actually really cool. There wasn't much else that happend while we were out but the flint-napping thing was a big highlight. 

Tuesday's we had interviews with President Hewlett which helped me so much because I've been getting a bit homesick (yes it finally happend.) And I wasn't really getting along with my companion. But being able to talk to President Hewlett really helped me unwind. Also President and Sister Hewlett think Tate is a nut (only when he had his long hair.😂)  once we got back from Interviews we had our Tuesday night devotional with the branch which was super powerful. one of the people we're teaching, Heather, came and it's really surprising that she isn't already a member, she has such a great testimony. We then gave two priesthood blessings to some members of our branch and it was great night.

Wednesday we got hair cuts and talked about family history with the barber and everyone at the barber shop, it was low-key but really cool. The rest of the day just helped strengthen my testimony that baptist are crazy (not that their bad people, just crazy) and then we said our good-byes with Britney (the lady we had on date) she was moving and we just wanted to leaver her with our testimony of the Book of Mormon. 

Thursday: the best part of today was our hour of power where we ran into 1 new guy who's really promising and a friend of a member who said they really appreciate what we do, but their baptist and don't need what we have to give. I was really close to just giving my baptist schpeal to them when I just felt prompted to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon and give them a copy. Now they said they'd read it but what ever happens, I know I've done what I can and I felt so grateful that I followed the prompting I had to not rant on someones door step. 

Friday was a visiting day, we went down to Fred for district council and on the way back we tried to visit less active members. then at the end of the day we burned Elder Ure's 6 month tie.

Saturday we cooked a pig. And yes I killed, skinned, cooked, and ate that pig... Don't be too concerned I'm doing just fine. The experience, while traumatizing, was good to have.

Sunday everyone actually showed up to church! now I say everyone, but it was just like 6-7 people which is pretty amazing. Now it was Erika Martin's farewell but we still had people show up. There was a guy from the Red-Head Express who showed up, which I guess is a popular band out here but I've never herd any of their music. The rest of the day was super stressful because we were getting transfer calls the next day, so we didn't know who was staying or who what leaving.

Monday this week I found out that I was staying in Woodville. The rest of the day we just visited people Elder Ure wanted to say goodbye to and then we got him packed and ready to go. 

All and all I've received a great testimony of The Book of Mormon this last transfer and I've gotten a great companion this transfer. So I can't wait to tell you guys all about it next week, but until then, Have a Great Day!

-Elder King 

                                                                          Elder Seal

                                                                      Sister Odom

9:00 pm Miracles

This past week has gone by so fast, and I've been so busy that I've been lacking in journal entries. so this week will be one sentence days.

Monday - great day; nice emails, nice family home evening, very relaxing.

Tuesday - Service with a brother with whom I'm getting sick of; Most of my problems with him reside in me, but it's difficult because he's crazy.

Wednesday - Elder King is now a missionary because he passed Certification and has now changed his name to Elder Tupu because of the Samoan family he's is teaching.

Thursday - I have come to realize Heavenly Father has such a deep love for those who are ready and willing to do his work; which was discovered by having a companion ship study with Erika Martin and Noah Bishop who are preparing to serve missions and by going and knocking doors this night until 9:00pm. 

Friday - I had an exchange with my District Leader Elder Lloyd where not much happened but much was learned.

Saturday - I served a lot today and was chastised by the lord to go out and knock doors in the cold until 9:00 pm

Sunday - Another great Sunday where in Church we had a "baptist" sermon, we visited and taught lessons, and played Foosball.

This was a great week even though I condensed it down for the Email. I've found I have a really strong testimony in the Book of Mormon which I discovered as I've shared it to as many people as I can. I've also been strengthening it by following Moroni's promise in Moroni 10. I encourage all of you to go to the Book of Mormon with your problems; as I have studied the scriptures I have found many answers to problems and questions I have had, and I can promise you that if you search diligently through the Book of Mormon, you will find an answer. As always keep having fun, and have a Great Day!

-Elder King

                                                  the blood moon was super cool

                                                            it's really cold right now

The Field is White, Already to Harvest

This week has been really amazing. To start of with Tuesday we did service at the Degarmo's, I may or may not have fallen asleep... Then we got back Elder Ure wasn't feeling well, we went over to a members house and she looked at him and said "you look really pail Elder" I looked over at Elder Ure and he was really pale. so we decided that it would be best to keep him away from everybody. With the time I had at the Apartment I decided to just study. I finished the Book of Mormon, and a lot of really great things stuck out to me this read through. Ether 12, and 2 Nephi 4 are my favorite chapters at the moment. 

Wednesday was similar to Tuesday, Elder Ure was really sick so I just cleaned and studied. It was nice for me to get everything down for Certification this week, and this is like the first test in my life where I feel completely prepared. I had a lot of pondering time today; I thought a lot about the missionary I can be, as well as what the lord expects of me. It's been really great to just sit back and think about all the responsibilities and potential paths I can take.

Thursday was Zone Conference. President Hewlett gave a great talk on how one thing can ruin a mission and how we shouldn't allow that one thing to bring us down. This year is the Year for "Hope" Moroni 7 is the chapter that we are trying to read and follow out here on the mission. It was crazy for me to see this chapter because I just read it and It brings a new light to "Hope" for me. After Zone Conference we stuffed about 6 people in our car and talked for 10 minutes about the mission and just socialized, which was amazing for me because there are no missionaries around out here in the Boonies.

Friday we had Exchanges with our Zone Leader, Elder Davies. He was such a riot and a good time. He really helped me see more of what a missionary could be. We had a really great lesson with Heather and are just trying to get her to quit smoking. Once she's done with that she is fully prepared to be baptized. It's great seeing how the Lord prepares people to be taught. On rather sad side note, I guess I forgot to let everyone know that Britney is no longer on track for Baptism. She's ready to receive the gospel and knows that it's something more that just another church, but she's having some family problems and needs some more time to get life figured out. 

Back to the better part of the week, we found 3 new people with Elder Davies and Had a great Exchange.

Saturday we finished up the Exchange. Elder Davies gave us great advise and told us we were some of the best Elders in the zone. That really just made my day knowing that I'm doing the right thing. It was another day of biking and that hurt the legs a lot, (Woodville has some rolling hills) 

Sunday has been the best Sunday I've had on my mission. It started with Church. (2 hour church is still really great) Then we went visiting with a member to some less active members, they were really nice. once we got back we had an emergency blessing to give to someone out in Dam B, which really hurt our mileage, but "smiles before miles." and finally we went to dinner with a Samoan family who have been coming to church for years but aren't members. So we put the family on date for baptism and are planning to teach the lessons in the upcoming weeks. This just put the cherry on top for the week.

My companion found a really great scripture that sums up our last week. 

Hebrews 6 10-12

As always have a great day!

-Elder King

What Lack I Yet?

Whew! This last week has been a trip. A couple of changes and plenty of adventures.

Tuesday we were on Degarmo time. we went to do service at brother Degarmo's and we had him pick us up so we could save on miles. We did service by roofing a chicken house and that lasted from 10 am - 3 pm. It could have gone faster if we were able to use drills, but it's a mission rule that we cant use power tools so it took a while to get the house roofed. once we got back to work not much happened so the day felt pretty empty. I went to bed determined to make Wednesday great.

Wednesday, I woke up sick. (just my luck) I knew that I had to be working that day so I got on my knees and prayed to be strengthened throughout the day. After we left the apartment I started to feel better, and literally the second house we knocked on there was a Mexican family that wanted to hear our message (early p.s. but I love Mexicans). We also went to McDonald's later that day and ran into a couple members from another branch that offered to buy us food. Wednesday was going really great but once we got back to the apartment, I felt sick again. I'm grateful for the lord in strengthening me to go out and do his work!

Thursday was another slow day, It was really rainy and it seemed like no one was in or out today. It must have been one of those days where you could just fall asleep listening to the rain on the window while sitting on the couch with a blanket and not have to deal with anyone, because no one answered to door today. we did spend a lot of time studying for missionary certification which is basically a test I have to take (I thought I was done with school for a while). I developed a fun way to study though. what I did was I wrote a list of points I need to learn and memorize from 1 - 20, then I have my companion roll my 20 sided dice and tell me what I point I have to give back to him. My companion kept rolling 20s so he must have some amazing luck or the spirit thought I needed to learn point # 20.

Friday we had district/.5 zone conference, were a couple of new changes happened. the only one I'm going to talk about is park your car Saturdays. This is where we take a car fast on Saturdays by parking our car in the area we need to be and then go out biking or walking the rest of the day. this is a change to hopefully allow us to stop relying on our cars and to be out and about more. I think this change will take some time to get use to and it made it pretty stressful this weekend when I went on exchanges to the Jasper area.

Saturday, so on friday and today I was on exchanges with Elder Walter in Jasper... well It was super stressful for me and I'll leave the details why in my audio recording. After that I returned to Woodville and taught a lesson with Heather who's the lady we taught last monday who's ready to be baptized. that went really well, and then we biked around town, helped a guy break a chain, and went to game night.

Sunday, 2 hour church baby!!! Come follow me is such an amazing resource and I encourage each an every one of you to make the most of it. The rest of Sunday was really great too, one of our recent converts, Callie, came to church and talked to us about getting her patriarchal blessing. we told her she had to talk to the branch president for that, and she did. she also invited us over to her house later that day to teach her boyfriend or rather explain why our church does some of the things we do. That lesson actually went really well, though I'm not sure her boyfriend is going to change much with his lack of desire to learn more. While we were there her little brother Alvey had a loose tooth ready to be pulled so we attached some string to his tooth and a Nerf gun and shot out his tooth. He was so afraid of doing it but the tooth came right out.

That's been my week this week, the audio recording explaines the subject "what lack I yet?," so until next week, Have a great one!

-Elder King