Unusual Promptings

Friends and Family, 

Lots of cool things have been happening this week. On Monday we were out working in Waterville, this tiny old town that seems to be stuck in the 50s, when we went to knock on a door that I had knocked previously and spoken with a nice woman and shared the message of the restoration very briefly. She opened the door and said that she had her niece and her family visiting and that we could sit outside and share a message with her. We introduced ourselves to the niece and discovered that she was a less-active member who used to live out in Leavenworth who was taught and baptized by Elder Wison! I showed her the picture I had in my PMG of Elder Wilson and she was overcome with the feelings of happiness that she felt when she was first hearing about the restoration and the peace she felt when she was baptized. She came outside and joined us as we shared the gospel with her and she testified so powerfully of the blessing of baptism to her aunt. 

Later on in the week, we were driving out to another smaller town in our area named Entiat. We received a referral from some members that live out there of a nice hispanic family that they know that could really use the gospel. They also told us about a less-active member who recently went through a pretty tough divorce and moved to Entiat from Wyoming with her kids to live with her brother. I had met this less-active sister before when I was with Elder West at a Shell Station, and shared a #Hallelujah card with her. As we were driving, we passed by that same gas station and I felt the strongest impression. "Go to the bathroom." As you could probably imagine, I was very very confused as to why I had felt such a strong impression to stop at that gas station to use the bathroom. Nevertheless, I had faith that it would be for the best. The moment we walked in, I saw this less-active sister standing there. I was blown away, thinking about the odds that I would find here AGAIN at some dinky old gas station on the way out to Entiat. I couldn't help but smile and waved at here and went over and introduced my new companion and talked with her about how she was doing. We talked and talked, and her heart was softened as we got to know her better and better and eventually she invited us to come stop by the following Wednesday. The Lord works in mysterious ways! 

Cool things are happening in the great state of Washington. Have a Happy Memorial Day! I love you all! 

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder King

Preparation and Pig Hearts

Friends and Family,

We've been working on the Mom of our recent convert ever since we first met him. Every time we would come by to teach him, we would always invite her to join us for a discussion, to which she would reply with "I'm busy" and then sit at the table playing on her phone. After diligent inviting and serving her in any way we could, her heart softened little by little. Every once in a while she would come over and ask us a question about the gospel that she didn't fully understand. We'd answer, bear our testimonies, and tell her to think about the things that we've shared with her.

This cycle repeated time and time again. She would come back with another question, further investigating her previous concern. Sometimes bringing up a new concern after receiving the answer to her last one. We'd do the same thing every time. Answer her question, bear testimony, and ask her to think about the answer we gave her. Eventually, she reached the root of her concern. She realized that she wasn't recognizing the hand of the Lord in her life, and wasn't exactly sure why. She came to us humbly asking for our help. She thought that she must have been praying wrong, or praying with the wrong kind of faith or something. We shared the parable of the seed in the book of Alma with her, and told her that we would come back with more to help her.

We prayed about her situation, and counseled with our Ward Mission Leader and Bishop, and decided that the best thing to help her to recognize God's hand in her life was to commit her to pay tithing. We planned out our lesson that morning and did a role play, and at the very end of the role play we felt impressed to prepare for a concern that she would have about having to wait for so long to see the blessings of her faith. We found a scripture we could use, Ether 12:6, and felt content.

That afternoon in the lesson, the exact concern we were feeling would come up in companionship study came up. We both looked at each other and both opened up to Ether 12:6 and testified that it is after the trial of our faith that we receive a witness. She looked at us teary eyed as the Spirit testified to her that what we were saying was true. I asked her if she trusted us, and she replied yes, and then committed her to live the law of tithing.

It was really cool to see the fruits of our preparation. I know that people are prepared for our message, and I also know that as missionaries we must prepare ourselves for the people.

"Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field" Proverbs 24:27

Also while out tracting around in a trailer park, we saw a short man standing behind a fence and we just heard him call out, "Hermanos!" and he signaled us over. He was having a get together with a lot of his family, and asked us if we wanted to eat some tacos. We did, and then he went back into this weird shed and brought out a PIG HEART. He asked if we wanted to eat some too, and I was definitely not about to pass up that offer and accepted. He threw it in a giant tub of lard and started to fry it, and then took it out and cut it in half and gave me a half.

I can now answer the question, "What is the weirdest thing you've eaten on your mission?" with the answer of "Fried pig heart."

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder King

Shaved Head and God Rap

Friends and Family, 

Last P-Day after playing kickball, Elder Aguilar decided he wanted to get a haircut since we had interviews with President Lewis on Friday and his hair was getting pretty long. Our Zone Leader taught himself how to cut hair, and does a pretty good job at it, so we just asked him if he could do it real quick after kickball. Of course he said yes, so they went into the bathroom at the Stake Center and I was just waiting outside when all of the sudden I hear a loud scream. I run into the bathroom and see Elder Aguilar sitting there with a giant bald spot on the side of his head and Elder Solis with a huge chunk of hair in his hand. Apparently Elder Solis took the guard off of the clippers to trim the back of his neck, and forgot that he had it off and went back to trim down the side and just took out a huge chunk of hair. It looked SO ridiculous. The only way we could fix it and make it look mildly normal was to shave the side of his head down to a 0 and the top to a 2. It made him look like an ex-Marine or something, so I've been making the joke this whole week that he doesn't do transfers anymore, he does tours. As we've been out driving around and tracting this week, sometimes I would just look over at him and start laughing because he looked so ridiculous. The funniest part about it is that at our last Zone Conference, President Lewis specifically said not to get buzz cuts. AND two people that day told him that he shouldn't shave his head. I've been fulfilling my part as his companion by giving him a hard time for it ever since. 

While out tracting in the rain, this old lady pulled up to us in her minivan and started telling us that it was about to rain even harder and that we ought to go grab some rain coats or something. We told her that we had rain coats in the car and that we would go grab them real quick, and thanked her for warning us. We continued to talk with her and found out that she knew a couple Mormon people and had met with missionaries before and really liked talking with missionaries and always kept an eye out for them to help them out with things. Her name was Barbara and she was very funny and very kind. At the very end before she drove off, she asked if she could give us her 'God Rap'. There was no way I was about to pass up the opportunity to listen to her rap, so I asked if she needed a beat and she said yes and then said "By the way, you KNOW this rap is from God because I am CLEARLY not a rapper."  I beatboxed for her as she rapped, which was pretty hard to do because the beat kept changing every once in a while. In all my life, I never expected that I would end up beatboxing for some old lady as she raps about God on my mission. 

Elder D. Todd Christofferson came and visited the Wenatchee Stake for Stake Conference this past weekend, and we got to translate for him and listen to him speak fluent Spanish as he spoke at a Spanish session of conference. During the adult session, we had given our mission president's wife a sticky note to put on the podium to remind to speakers to speak slowly and clearly to help us out as we translated for them. When Elder Christofferson got up there, he said "There's a note here that reads 'speak clearly, take pauses, you're being translated'. I can't wait! I'm so glad I came. Finally get to be translated." It was hilarious. I got to shake his hand and talk with him afterwards, which was super cool.

I won't be able to send any pictures this week because the Stake Center is getting it's carpet cleaned so we had to email at the city library which doesn't allow for any outside documents to be attached. So sorry! I still love you all!

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder King

Picture courtesy of Sister Lewis's mission blog:

Stomach over Spirit

Friends and Family, 

This past week has been filled with a lot of cool things. This past P-Day, our zone went hiking up in this cool town called Leavenworth. It's a super touristy town, where everything is super German. Even the gas stations as German. It looks like something out of Shrek. All the people who live there speak with German accents and are super funny. It's such a beautiful town. These members that live up there hosted a German BBQ where they cooked us authentic German brats and German potato salad and strudels and everything. 

In Wenatchee over the past week there has also been this giant parade/festival called the Apple Blossom Festival. It's like the big event of the year, and at this park they host this food fest where all of these food vendors come and sell all sorts of cool foods. Tons of people attend so we went one day for lunch and tried out some of the food and talked with a ton of people and explained what we do as missionaries.

I also went on exchanges with some of the Elders in our zone that serve in the Spanish Ward here in Wenatchee, and this Sister named Liliana cooked us real authentic carne asada tacos for dinner. It was some of the best food I've eaten on the mission. She made her own homemade salsa and tamarind drink and everything. It was her son's birthday that day so she gave us birthday hats to wear and ate some really good birthday cake as well. 

The family of our recent convert came to church yesterday! Miguel's mom has recently found herself in some humbling circumstances and came to us asking for guidance and help. We told her that no matter what is going on in life, church will always bless you. We pointed out the changes that have been made in her son Miguel, and with a softened heart she brought the whole family to church. They are such a great family, and I have so much love for each of them. 

I feel like most of this email is centered on the food I've eaten over the past week, so you can see that my priorities are still right in order. Love you all!

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder King

Planting Seeds

Friends and Family, 

We've had some really cool experiences this week. Once again while visiting some potentials in a trailer park in our area, we saw Bro. Cumpton out working with his son trying to build a fence. We said hello and asked if we could do anything to help out, and he had us help him move some lumber and nail some boards together, and then asked him if we could help him do some family history work. We went in and he pulled out his computer and we helped him enter in some info for his ancestors. He told us that he knows that he and his wife aren't able to go to the temple yet, but he told his son that lives in another ward in the stake that he will do all of the work if his son and his daughter-in-law will go to the temple and perform all of the ordinances. It's amazing to see how important the work of salvation is the both of them!

On Friday, we had a lesson planned for a part-member family that we've been working with for a while now. We prayed and planned for our lesson, and decided that we would read 1 Nephi 17 with them and discuss how we can face difficult times in our lives. Our Ward Mission Leader came out with us to our lesson, and on the way there he was talking to us about how hard work has been for him lately. At the end of our lesson, he looked at us and thanked us for prayerfully planning that lesson, and that reading and discussing the faith that Nephi had as he faced so much opposition while trying to build a boat really helped him out with the trials he was facing at work. Another great reason to bring members with us to lessons, sometimes they are the ones who need to hear the lesson! 

In that same lesson, our investigator Rafael shared a cool story with us. He said that 20 years ago he had to fly from Seattle down to Mexico and on the plane someone sat next to him and talked with him for a long time and at one point the conversation reached the Book of Mormon. The man who sat next to him was a member of the church, and explained a little bit about the Book of Mormon and offered a copy to Rafael, to which Rafael said he was okay and that the man could keep the book. A couple months ago, Rafael saw that same man at a bus station and instantly recognized him. He went up and talked with him, and said that he and his family were now reading the Book of Mormon together. 

It's amazing to think about what impact our actions and choices can have on those around us and the future. We never know when we are planting seeds, and we never know how much fruit those seeds will bring. When you cut an apple, you can count the seeds, but you can not count the apples from a seed, for it can be infinite. You never will know the influence you will have and how that influence can spread. 

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder King

Russian Accent and Humble Dinner

Friends and Family, 

One of the new missionaries who came to our district this past transfer, Elder Nunez, is from Mexico City and super super hispanic and funny. I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with him this past week and it was so funny and interesting. He speaks next to no English so the whole transfer we spoke Spanish which taught me a lot but also hurt my head a lot. He taught me how to speak like a 'chilango' which is essentially a mexican hillbilly, and I tried to teach him English. He told me that I sound EXACTLY like a Russian man speaking spanish, which was the complement of my life to be told that I sound like a Russian man speaking Spanish. 

A couple months ago, while tracting out in the Sunset Trailers, we found this family. The Cumptons. They are pretty much the only white family in this trailer park, and we went up and talked to them that night and helped them bring in some groceries and found out that they were actually members and hadn't been to church in a very long while. They started telling us about some of the problems that they had in their lives, and we asked if we could say a prayer with them to ask for some help in their lives. We did, went on our ways, and passed on the information to the English Elders. 

This past Friday, the Cumpton's fed us dinner. It was one of the most humbling and uplifting member dinners yet on my mission. The 4 of us showed up at their humble little trailer home where Sister Cumpton and her husband fed us kale salad, pizza, and cheesecake. They talked with us and I learned that they have been coming back to church and now have a goal to be sealed in the temple in 3 months. The spirit was so strong as we talked about complete dependence on the gospel and they shared how that fateful night a couple months ago showed them that Heavenly Father was still looking out for them, and that they really needed some help that night when we prayed with them and gave them a blessing. 

All it takes is a simple act of charity. As we act upon the promptings we feel and earnestly seek to bless other, we can change lives. 

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder King