Sister Allie King: September 28, 2015

September 28, 2015

Greetings my fellow Americans! This week I've been grateful FOR Americans and not all the European tourists that are not the nicest people around!

This week started off with a bang! The Elders found a woman, Carol, who is interested in Family History so we swung by her house to tell her about the class we have twice a week on it at the chapel! Remember how I said everyone here has multiple dogs? Well we noticed her gate was especially difficult to get through but thought nothing of it until she opened her door and her demon rat dog came at me for the kill. The little devil nipped me five times, but thankfully everything's okay. So we went into her house afterwards and even though she isn't interested in the gospel, she agreed to come to the family history center! We met up on Thursday there and it was so cool! She was finding old census records, discovered her dad was a bartender (which he conveniently didn't tell her haha) and her mom's maiden name! Worth it!

We had an incredible lesson with Nick on the Book of Mormon! He's starting to see how important it is to actually READ THE BOOK in order to gain a testimony that our message is true! He has such an amazing spirit and is so close with our Heavenly Father! Then of course we discover HE'S ALREADY A MEMBER!! He was baptized when he was 18! So now our efforts have been swiftly redirected to reactivating him and helping him get back that testimony of this gospel he once had!

We spent a while having the most civil discussion with a person of a different religion that I've ever experienced in my time here. He asked genuine questions, accepted our answers and was very grateful for our visit! Of course at the end he said we were all wrong and he was just curious, but still! I love it when people can actually have a nice discussion about our beliefs without a constant attack!

We've been visiting a lot of the older people in the ward since they need a bit of extra support and this one couple, the Bartholomew's, casually mentioned how their son is the home teacher of PRESIDENT UCHTDORF! They're full of interesting stories; I can't wait until I've reached an age where the things that come out of my mouth can actually spark interest instead of mere amusement at my ramblings.

You asked about music. We sing a hymn for comp study every day and we sing in the car constantly. They’re picking less common songs in sacrament meeting so we can become more accustomed to the hymnbook. There’s no ward choir in Bishop, since only 40-50 people come to church every week.

Next week there’s a big potluck between Sunday sessions of conference so that’ll be fun! We're planning on doing a lot of finding this week, we've been pushing ourselves but this week it’ll be to the max!! And we didn’t plan for Tuesday and most of Wednesday since we had exchanges in Ridgecrest, which is 2.5 hours away, but that got cancelled, so we'll see what we end up doing!

The biggest blessing this week was of course WOMEN'S CONFERENCE!! What an amazing opportunity we have to be able to listen to leaders and apostles give us insight that is specifically for us at this time! My favorite point made was how happiness is a choice and that anyone can achieve it through faith and hope in the Lord and His plan for us! That happiness will spread to charity, the pure love of Christ, and of all man! We should never make our love conditional, only by giving it freely to all men, whether we feel they deserve it or not, can we be able to receive that love and acceptance in return, not only from our peers, but from the spirit our Father is waiting to bless us with! I also finished the Book of Mormon this week (!!!) and one of my favorite passages I read relates to this directly! Moroni 7:45, " And charity suffereth long, and is kind, and envieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

I know that as we strive to see everyone as beloved children of our Heavenly Father, our joy and desire to share this good news with them will only increase! I love the work and I love it here in California! And I'm so excited for GENERAL CONFERENCE!! Everyone should go watch it (it's on TV!), even if it is only for a bit! The blessings and insight gained from heeding to the words of these inspired men and women has changed my life for the better and is one of the biggest blessings this restored gospel gives us! God reveals his secrets unto His servants, the prophets, and WE'RE SO LUCKY HE DOES :D

Sister King