So the weather this last week wasn’t that hot, but THIS COMING ONE WILL BE DREADFUL!! I’m a lot better than I thought I’d be!! Still not all the way there though :p but I only have a month left of this desert summer heat, I can’t believe I’ve been here 2 SUMMERS, TIME IS SO FAST ITS NOT FAIR!! (10 day forecast for Bakersfield: 104, 107, 109, 109, 111, 110, 108, 100, 102, 103).

 

My car troubles NEVER CEASE!! Weeeee got a flat :') on Monday :'') to start off the week :''') BUT, it’s been fixed, and all is well in Zion again. I knew this transfer was going on too smoothly

 

Sister King still
loves Cats!

This week was crazy! We finished teaching A. all the commandments, she's still set to be baptized on Saturday, so extra prayers for her! She always bears the most amazing testimony. On Saturday we were talking about baptism and the importance of it and how she can come closer to Christ. She started talking about how this gospel has helped her to be a better person, how she's happier and nicer and more patient and doesn’t want to do the bad things she's done before. And even though reading is hard for her, she still reads the Book of Mormon every day because of the "peace" it gives her. She put into words perfectly how the Holy Ghost helps us in our lives in a way that I haven’t been able to. And we spent a solid 5 minutes talking about how she doesn’t need to swim to be baptized and how she won’t drown ha ha,  goooood times.

 

Sister King still
loves cats!

We met this family who said that they knew Mormons but weren’t really interested in our message. We gave them a pamphlet and just briefly described the message of the restoration, how God always worked through prophets who held His authority, but when Christ and his apostles were rejected, it was lost for a time but has been brought back so that we can have extra guidance and more truths to bring us to Christ. He looks at us and goes "Really? I’ve never heard it put like that before... that makes sense! You CAN come back!" Whoa. It was the coolest testimony builder of simplicity in teaching. God made everything about this gospel SIMPLE FOR A REASON!! When we over-complicate things, dwell on ideas that don’t build our faith but confuse us, don’t do the "primary things" like going to church and reading the scriptures and saying our prayers, we WILL not feel the spirit abundantly in our life. 

 

I've been thinking of the story in the Old Testament, when the people simply had to look at a staff with a snake on it to be healed from their wounds and many STILL COULDN’T DO IT! How often do we do that today? Skipping scripture study or a prayer or sleeping instead of serving and learning. All easy things that don’t seem like they’ll be missed but they make the BIGGEST difference .

Sister King still
loves cats!

Recently I’ve been getting a bit frustrated when people aren’t keeping their commitments. Like, how hard is it to dedicate 10 minutes a day to the Lord to read more about him? Or to carve out 30 minutes to learn more about His plan for us? And an hour for sacrament meeting? In Alma 37:44-46 it talks about how the words of Christ will point us to the straight path to eternal bliss, and if we follow it we'll be blessed. Simple? Check! Easy? Not so much. It’s like when President Uchtdorf said if you tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he’ll believe you, but if you tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he’ll have to touch it to be sure. The easier a task, the harder it is to believe it will benefit us. That’s where faith comes in! Faith to give it a try, to DO the simple things and SEE how it’ll change our lives! How it’ll bring us REAL peace and joy above everything the world has to offer.

 

Sister King back with Sister Wheeler
 for her birthday!

Does that make sense? "Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?" HA, life is grand, I love being a missionary. I got to see my daughter, Sister Wheeler, 2 days before her birthday :D she's 22 and we DID sing Tswizzy. Anything else exciting?? My brain’s a wreck right now, I don’t think I’ve thought straight in a few weeks

I’ve only seen Pokemon Go on a phone, but only the weird blue screen when it’s loading or something. L  Hopefully it will still be popular when I finish my mission.

 

Like, no one asks us to do service for them around here! We went to a nursing home a few times to visit some people there. We'll be helping a recent convert clean her craft room on Wednesday, but it’s always just jobs like that :p

LOVE YOU!!

 

 

July 18, 2016

The worst things about missions is that each week just gets faster and faster until it feels like every day is full of 24 hours of experiences. But here goes nothing!!

We were able to spend a lot of time with our investigators which is NEVER a bad thing!! We met with R., this super cool guy with the cutest lil’ girl, whose brother got baptized in Lancaster. We taught him and his girlfriend more about Joseph Smith and how he RESTORED the gospel of Jesus Christ, and how prophets help point us to Christ. It was a really cool lesson because we actually saw in their eyes how they were beginning to see how the message we were saying is true and how it can help lead them back to their Savior who will help us back to our Heavenly Father. And his baby girl was just smiling the whole time so we shall NOT complain about that :D

H. and A. in the same part of the discussions and we ended up seeing them on the same days, so we'd teach the SAME lesson twice in a row ha ha. Double Word of Wisdom and tithing and prophets!! They're so cute, they keep going around telling their friends and family about how they’re "going to be Mormon on the 30th!" … more like they will be entering in a covenant to help bring them eternal life on the 30^th, AMIRITE!? Anyways, they're bomb. But this is nothing new.

Our district meeting was a hot mess. Our District Leader was at the temple for the departing temple trip, and so he didn’t assign any talks or role plays or anything because he thought the elder who was assigned to run it would do that. So it became a 90 minute discussion on the importance of finding the elect. I've given many schpeels on that, but the coolest thing I learned from it is how GOD prepares people to receive His gospel, we just need to work hard to FIND them. We never need to convince people to listen to us, if they’re ready they’ll accept Christ with open arms. We have some sick plans for this coming week, so expect miracles!!

We visited some members in a nursing home and got flashbacks to my first area where we went to them every week! Recently I’ve been praying for the ability to see others through God's eyes, and I felt the power of that when we were talking with the people there! God doesn't look on our outward appearance, our worldly accomplishments, or even who we've been. He looks at our hearts and the person we have the potential of becoming. Talking with these people who don’t even have the strength to push their own wheelchair, and don’t have the memory to recount what happened yesterday, and then having the spirit testify that they are beloved sons and daughters of God was the coolest thing EVER!

I feel kindda like a preacher with this email; I swear I don’t sound this fru fru in real life.  It was just awesome because God knows them and loves them just as much as He knows and loves me, and I love helping other people know what I know and feel what I feel.

Anyways, I’ll get off my soapbox. Hope this didn’t come out as weird as it seemed in my head?

I love you all so much!!

Sister King's birthday dirt cake!

Sister Clegg, Sister King, and her birthday dirt cake!

It was 96 degrees at 10 am, and 119 degrees at 1:05 pm!

July 11, 2016

I am doing well!!!! My birthday was bomb, it was so fun to see the video from home and to see people from my last area and to have BBQ!! Legit, my fav. They got me this cute bracelet that says "So special, So loved." They’re the best!! Ha ha, that’s so funny that you made that video, it kinda looked like I died though with my pic surrounded by candles. Some  of my favorite people from my last area came up to their daughter's house (who is in my new ward) and we PARTIED IT UP! For just dinner of course. Then we went out and hastened the work of salvation. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING!! The birthday box got in on Thursday and the other one on Friday. Someone had broken the key so the box the package was kept in was open, but it was still there! Tender mercies!! I loved all the gooey things, my comp goes "Wow, your family loves sticky things, huh," and I got flashbacks to the millions of things we've thrown at walls to see how long they’d stay. Never realized we have a thing for them until she pointed it out, ha ha. AND I LOVE THE NATS BAG!!

Sink Leak!

On the 4th of July we had a 7 pm curfew but we went to a quick walk outside our apartment for some fresh air. Bakersfield apparently is a fan of large, illegal fireworks and the experience was similar to what I imagine walking outside during a WWII bombing would be like. We also come home from church on Sunday to find out our garbage disposal broke and created a large puddle of black mysterious liquid that smelled like rotten eggs. Still not sure the diagnosis since it was Sunday and no one was working or available to answer our questions. Hopefully dumping it down the tub was the solution because that's all we thought to do. Adventure is out there!!

We were able to teach H. AND A. the first 3 lessons in more detail this week and they ate them all up! H. reads like 20 pages of the Book of Mormon every day and has the best questions when we come by. We meet outside and he pretends that we're teaching him on a beach and says that we're starfish and that the cars are sharks. Whenever we call him he goes "I’m great, watching the sharks and reading about Alma." And A. said that she feels the most amazing peace when she reads, which is crazy because she really can’t read well. Often times she can’t even fully understand what’s going on when she reads, but she says the spirit that she feels is so strong that she KNOWS it’s true. God is so great, I love how this gospel is for literally everyone to enjoy, He is no respecter of persons. 

M. has officially deemed us her "besties" and says that the chapters we gave her were "on point." She also said that she wants to get baptized right before her birthday next month for a "fresh start" and as a "birthday present." She texts us everyday telling us we're her sisters in Christ. She's literally the funniest person alive and gave us 5 loaves of bread to represent the "bread of life." It was really cool though, we were there and her 7 year old jumped up and said he wanted to pray and after he finished she told us that was the first time ever in his life he prayed out loud. Joseph Smith much? The Restoration is too true.

The strangest thing I’ve eaten this week? I had butter beer and molds mead, a member recreates foods from Harry Potter. The molds mead was essentially honey and black licorice, so YOU’D like it. I tried it. Not a fan.... but the rest was bomb! No cowboys on THIS half of Bakersfield, just lots of sassy people! More cowboys to the south.

Splinters!

Anyways, this week I got a ton of splinters in my knuckles from an unfinished door. We go to a member’s house to get some tweezers and she told me to put ointment on them and to cover them with a Band-Aid for a day. This will soften my skin so that they can come out easier. It totally worked and she told me it came from a conference talk this last April!! So of course I go to read it, and it’s called "The Healing Ointment of Forgiveness" by Kevin R. Duncan. He relates resentment to the splinter, and the atonement to the ointment. If we let hatred for someone or something stay with us, the only thing it hurts is us. But when we let the savior in and give it to Him, letting HIM heal US, that pain can go away. Just like the splinters. My favorite scripture from the talk was Jacob 2:8, which says "And it supposeth me that they have come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul.”

Happy Independence Day,
Sister Clegg and Sister King

I know that Christ came to HEAL us, to help us to get over the bad and to focus on the good. I’ve seen how his sacrifice has helped me to become better, to become happier, and to let go of the past. I’m so grateful to have him and his amazing gospel in my life. I love you all, thanks for all the birthday wishes!! Stay classy ;)

 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sister King celebrated her 20th birthday this past week.

Many of her friends came by the house here in Maryland to make her birthday cards and to celebrate and record a video for her:

And in Bakersfield, here she is getting her birthday cake:

Sister King's Maryland friends
wishing her a happy birthday

Happy  Birthday, Sister King

Sister King's Birthday Cake
Bakersfield, CA

Sister Clegg and Sister King
watching the video of her friends
back in Maryland

July 4, 2016

WOW what a week here in the hood! And we're loving every minute of it ;)

We were able to find a few awesome investigators, including an older woman named A. and a guy named H.! They both came to us and told us that they wanted to go to church. H. was given a Book of Mormon a month ago and has been reading it up until we found him Saturday! And A. loved church so much when someone said they were leaving for a month she goes "oh I'll see you here in August then!" It's really cool because she expressed a strong desire to help show her grandkids the way to get closer to God, she's super worried for them since this world is going downhill and she said that this is the answer to her prayer. Hopefully we'll be meeting with them this week, so prayers!!

A senior missionary who lives here in Bakersfield passed away this week so they had all the missionaries serving here go to his funeral. It was a super good service, and even though I only met him once it was awesome to see the influence he has on other’s lives, especially his family. It just makes me grateful to know God's plan for us and for families,  the Plan of Salvation for the wiiin! And it was the last time we saw President and Sister Wilson because they WENT HOME!!! I can’t even believe it, I remember when they had a year left..... time moves almost TOO quickly.

We saw a former investigator named V. and it was so cool because in essence SHE taught US how to pray. She was telling us how she developed a super personal relationship with God and how she just loves talking to him as a friend. She said the closing prayer after our lesson and it was literally 20 minutes long, just telling God about her day and what was fun and how she was feeling and what she read in the Book of Mormon. It felt like He was right there, it was so cool! She's working on quitting smoking before she can be baptized, just like S., so prayers please! We're going to drop a bomb on tobacco plants we're SICK of it and I HATE seeing these people have such a desire to quit but are unable to for a time. But thankfully, nothing is impossible with Christ!

We also had a chance to go on exchanges and I went out with MY BABY SISTER WHEELER! It felt just like old times, it was unreal. And we met someone who apparently saw me at Panda Express on Panama like 3 times so she recognized me.... caught red handed.... but she's a rodeo queen! 

 Not to mention Tehachapi had a fire so they had the sisters there come down and spend the night with the four of us and SISTER OLSEN WAS ONE OF THEM! So literally all 3 of my mission children were there and we had a sleepover. Still in bed by 10:30 because we're obedient and whatnot but it was almost too much fun. 

There’s a couple in the ward here that reminds me of Mugga and Pappap, and they live on SCOTT Place!!

This week shall have even MORE miracles! Just like Philippians 4:13 which says: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

This is HIS work, he'll move it along and He can do the same with our lives. Most people who get baptized were introduced to the gospel by a friend, so go and reach out to others and help them see the joy that comes through Christs restored Gospel!

I looooove youu!

Sister Clegg, Sister King, and a former
Senior Missionary Couple who were in town visiting
Bakersfield, CA July 2016