Sister Allie King

Monday, October 31, 2016

October 31, 2016

Okay, speeding through this email!

This week wasn’t the MOST eventful for missionary work sadly, BUT, still saw miracles :D The non-missionary miracles both involved food. We were hungry and were talking about how much we love soup when a member texts us and says she made extra soup because she was thinking about us and wanted to give us some... and THEN, we were tracting and I said how I wish people texted us offering cookies and ice cream when it’s hot outside. So we stopped by a members house so we could use the bathroom and they open the door and go "sisters, we just made cookies, do you want some with ice cream?" So I’m not quite sure why every time I pray for food it’s answered, but it’s much appreciated!

We met with our investigator B. and she got in a really bad car accident. It was on The Grapevine going down to LA last week and the car flipped 3 times, but they only got seatbelt bruises. She's been trying to increase her faith and when she got home she said she just started praying and crying. She said she felt something that she's never felt before, and that she actually felt like God was right there listening to her! She's going through a lot so we probably won’t meet with her again soon, but it’s been awesome to see how if people truly have a desire to come closer to God, it happens!

Our investigator K. is still keepin’ on, still pray that her mom will let her be baptized on the 12th!

IT WAS SISTER HAYES’ BIRTHDAY!! A member gave us some money to go out to lunch and when we got there we saw my OLD STAKE PRESIDENT from the south side and paid for us instead! So we got to go get frozen yogurt :D

Okay, trunk or treat on her birthday, it was EPIC! There were like 300 people there, including this former investigator’s son! His wife was against the church, but there are some awesome families who are fellowshipping them and her heart is softening!

Halloween 2016
Bakersfield, CA

The APs gave us our transfer calls early, as a birthday present... and we're BOTH STAYING~~~ what a blessing :D The next transfer is December 14 or something, I leave 2 weeks after that... ALL my college friends will be getting home from their missions in February and beyond... so it’ll just be me at school next semester :p I don’t like to think about the fact that we'll all be RMs, I still feel like a Laurel haha.

The District
Bakersfield, CA, October 2016

Whoa, so sorry this was so random and didn’t make sense, but trust me more happened, the Lord is hastening His work! A recent convert just got a calling, activity days worker (she'll plan activities for younger girls so they can have fun and whatnot) and her husband came to church! He’s been less active for years and her testimony is inspiring him to come back!

Okay, I finished up the war chapters in the Book of Mormon, and I got another insane reminder that if we just do what the Lord asks us to, he WILL protect us! He's only in our lives to the degree that we will allow Him, so as we do our best to follow Him, He'll bless us.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Sister Missionaries
Bakersfield, CA, October 2016

Monday, October 24, 2016

October 24, 2016

SO, this week had its ups and downs. We get ice cream when we're feeling down and we had to go out for it 4 times. BUT, it ended on a HIGH, so life is still grand :D

We had a lesson with a less active girl. She's 16 and dropped out of HS and is taking classes at the community college. She's had a really hard life but is so carefree and chill we thought it didn’t have much of an impact on her. We taught her the plan of salvation to help prep her for a youth activity involving it and she opened up and said all the reasons why she's been hesitant about church and God. She said it's hard because everyone has "perfect" families and she doesn’t, she doesn’t know much about the gospel since she wasn’t exposed to it much growing up, and she feels like she's never felt the spirit. We were able to testify about God's love for her and her circumstances, about how this is all part of Gods plan and about how when we can focus on the big picture, things will get easier. We challenged her to read the Book of Mormon and testified about how Christ can change us. Her grandma (whom she's living with) texted us after and said that her views on the church and religion did a 180, that she’s excited to read AND to come to church! It’s so cool to see the Spirit working in others’ lives :D

We have been struggling finding people to teach, so Sister Hayes and I pull out a map of our area and say a prayer and pick a street. We felt prompted to go to "Fremantle," so we went and the first few doors we knocked were AWFUL! But we kept going and we ended up meeting this kid who just graduated from high school. Apparently missionaries had talked to him and invited him to church a few months ago and he's been looking for it ever since. He accepted the Restoration really well and is excited to read the Book of Mormon! God delivers for both us AND His son who is seeking the gospel!

On Halloween, our president is having us stay indoors and is giving us 4 articles to read since we have to be in early... Good times... My companion’s birthday is on Saturday and that’s when the ward trunk or treat is, so it should be a BLAST!

On Saturday I got to see some of my favorite people from around town since they had the missionaries usher for a BYU ballroom dance performance in town :D Sadly they didn’t let us stay, so it was short lived... but amazing, I love this place so much!!

We met with our investigator K after church, which was the PRIMARY PROGRAM!! I cried 5 times, there’s just something special about a ton of cute little kids sharing what they learned about the Savior. The spirit was SO strong and no one there could deny that what those kids were saying was true. Our lesson after church was on learning and serving in the church and this couple talked about their callings and how the members have been able to strengthen them in hard times. She had this rare condition where her body was rejecting her own lungs so she had 12% use of them and couldn’t leave the house for 3 years while she waited for a transplant. She talked about how God supported her and helped her through the service of others, and K talked about how much she's been strengthened by taking the sacrament every week. Our next lesson with her is on temples, but she’s already been down to the Visitor’s Center and has read a whole magazine on it, so there won’t be much new information for her haha!

We saw this one member who got baptized in August. She is the epitome of integrity and diligence in gospel living. Her husband was baptized when he was a teenager but still doesn’t have a desire to come back to church, so she comes with her 3 girls every week. She’s been going through a hard time and we shared a video with her about the Savior and how we can keep Him in our lives more often. We shared Isaiah 49:15-16, which says, "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me." It was so cool because I had another amazing reminder about how mindful God is of us. There is nothing we are going through that He doesn’t know and there’s nothing that we need that He isn’t aware of. He's only in our lives to the degree that we allow Him to be, so as we open out hearts and our minds to Him and His will, we can see the endless blessings He has to offer us! Her daughter, who is 12, hasn’t been baptized yet and she agreed to let us teach her more about it to see if it’s something she wants! The Lord is WORKING with that family, we're excited to continue to see miracles!

You know how I told you about the member who has great great grandpa Sjodahl’s Book of Mormon Commentary? WELL, it came up in conversation with one of my favorite families here and the dad goes and grabs an old copy of it he has and opens it up and shows me! He goes "do you have a copy with your great great grandpa’s name?" I say no and he HANDS IT TO ME and tells me to keep it! They said they bought it last year at DI and they thought they got it for themselves but it turns out they "actually got it for me" HOW SWEET IT THAT?! Also, the Sjodahls were sealed in the Manti Temple, and he was the first man ever to be endowed AND sealed there! I really gotta get more into family history when i get back...

I ate pig stomach! The pig itself was good, nice and flavorful and juicy, and the skin was really crunchy like a chip, and the stomach was delicious. And I ate chilies the other day; we are not allowed to play "dare" games, but someone told me to eat 3 chilies, so I just did it…

Watch the video That They Do Always Remember Him, it’s 6 minutes long and is supa cute.

I LOVE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

Sister King and Sister Hayes at Dewars Ice Cream
Bakersfield, CA, October 2016

Sister King and three of her current and former companions!
At Dewars for some ice cream for
Sister Larsen's birthday
Bakersfield, CA, October 2016

Monday, October 17, 2016

October 17, 2016

Okay, this week was random and jumbled but EPIC, legit!!

We finished teaching K the commandments and she went to the LA temple on Saturday! The youth went down and she went through the Visitors’ Center while the youth went in to the temple for baptisms and she LOVED it! She said the spirit there was incredible and she just kept looking at the temple and said she had this feeling inside that she’s never felt before, but she wanted to go into the temple more than anything. She picked a date for November 12; she'll be going to Utah with a member family for Thanksgiving and wants to go to the temple while they're there! Her family is not too supportive of her baptism, so if everyone could PLEASE pray for her that would be super appreciated! I’ve never met someone with as much faith. She's already planning on going on a mission. Mind you, her being introduced to the church came from her friend inviting her to the sacrament meeting when he'd be giving a talk. So simple, but look what came! We really don’t know who is prepared in our lives; it’s our job to share the good news about Christ with EVERY one!

We taught B the Plan of Salvation, or God’s plan for us, and she said that she's been wondering what the purpose of life is, and that we answered her!! Now is the time to prepare to meet God, now is the time to grow our faith and serve others and become better people! Plus more. Ha ha, we had a super long discussion on it and she wants to be baptized so badly. AND we saw E, the cool old genius, and it turns out he was one of the men who discovered that the chromosome was made up of DNA strands and not a skeleton... HE’S SO SMART, and still has the strongest testimony of Christ!

So the BIGGEST thing to happen this week was a MEMBER OF THE SEVENTY came and spoke to us. Elder Cook!! We had a 6 hour discussion on repentance and how to teach is effectively, it was incredible!! We talked about how it’s a way of life, refining ourselves and becoming better through the atonement, and I sure wish I had time to elaborate on everything I learned. But I WILL share my favorite analogy!! Sister Cook was speaking to us and she told us how after a caterpillar forms a cocoon, it releases an enzyme that turns it to LIQUID! And then AFTER that it becomes a butterfly. SO, if we ever feel like our life is a big soupy mess, we can know that God is refining us and we'll come out on top soon! We also talked about making Christ our senior companion, about how we need to go to Him in EVERY decision, and once we do that we allow HIM to hasten His work! He’s in the details, he knows where the elect are and He is ready to help all of us in every aspect of our life!

"During the pupa stage the caterpillar does not feed or grow bigger.
All that eating they did prior during their larva stage provides energy for this transition.
Metabolic activity forms new organs creating the adult butterfly,
while chemically deteriorating the organs from the caterpillar."

WISH I had more time, but I love you all so much and God continues to work miracles!!