...perhaps until the day I die.

Friends and Family, 

All is well on the Yakima 3rd South front. Elder Moser and I are having a blast as we continue to watch over our area with love and care. On Saturday, we decided to use bikes all day. We biked all the way from our apartment down into the streets of our area and saw so much success. Not only did an enormous amount of people see us as we peddled down Nob Hill, but we were able to personally meet a great amount of people as well. We had an experience that really illustrated how useful the Spirit is when it comes to finding new people to teach. 

We had just finished knocking on the door of one of our investigators. Her brother had answered and said that she had a late night last night and that she was asleep and asked if we could come by later. As we walked back to our bikes, preparing to make our way to our back-up plan, I felt the impression that we needed to ride up Yakima Ave instead of Nob Hill. I told Elder Moser we should change up our route and head north instead of south. He agreed, and minutes later as we approached Yakima Ave a man stepped out into the street and said, "Elders! Are you on your way to an appointment?" We told him that we were on our way to hopefully make an appointment, and he asked us, "Do you want to meet a member of 3rd Ward who probably doesn't have his records here?" We nodded and he explained he was a member of 2nd Ward. We quickly jumped off of our bikes and followed him into this apartment complex where he introduced us to a man named Charles. We talked with Charles for a little bit and he expressed his desire to "return back to the path". We showed him a picture of the vision of the tree of life and explained the importance of the iron rod to help him do so. We read with him in the Book of Mormon and he was so happy to be feeling the Spirit again. He then told us the story of his family, and mentioned his brother who was never baptized when they were younger due to a fear of water. He told us he would get us his address so we could go by, because he really wants his brother and his brother's family to be baptized! That was just one of the many great things that have happened in our area this past week. 

Evelyn is continuing to progress really well. She and her mom came to church, and her mom is taking more and more of an interest. She's starting to read the Book of Mormon with Evelyn, which is great because it helps both of them. Jessica (Evelyn's Mom) doesn't understand a lot of it, so Evelyn gets to explain it. When she doesn't know what something means, she asks us about it in our next lesson! 

We had a really great lesson with Laurette. We took the Lamphier's over and worked with her more on family history and answered questions about the church. She knows a pretty good amount about the history of the church. Brother and Sister Lamphier did a great job with clarifying some of the not-so-true things that she's heard. We focused really hard on getting her to church, and her main concern is that her family were ministers in a different faith and she would feel like she's going against them if she came to our church. She loves every member we bring over and talks about how much she knows she would like it, it's just helping her get outside of her comfort zone. We've been praying and pondering over what doctrines Laurette needs to understand to help her to make the commitment to come to church. She's been praying about it, and we've got some great ideas were planning to do to help her keep progressing.

There are a TON of really great things that are happening in our area. I love every street corner, stop sign, and person in it. Just the other day Elder Moser and I came back for lunch and ate as quickly as possible so that we could get back out into our area. We're making really great progress with a lot of the people we're currently working with, and seem to always be finding someone new to teach. My feelings about these people can only be summed up in the words of Ammon. 

"Yea, I desire to dwell among this people for a time; yea, and perhaps until the day I die."

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder King

First Fruit of Repentance

Friends and Family, 

First off, happy (almost) Fourth of July! My favorite holiday of the year. I could ramble on and on about why Fourth of July is the best holiday, but I'll save my ramble for another day. Hobbies: rambling.

Hands down, no questions asked, not a doubt in my mind, the highlight of this past week and maybe even past year was Evelyn's baptism. I have been teaching Evelyn since October of last year. It has been a LONG journey, but so eventful. She and her family have changed so much. When I asked her about her favorite thing about meeting with us for so long, she said "I love seeing how much I've changed, and how much my family has changed and blessed because of my change." Summed up, that's the gospel in a nutshell. Complete change and happiness. 

We've been busy with zone conferences and exchanges as well. Our main focus this past zone conference was effective finding. We've set a goal as a mission to baptize fifty people in one month, and we all know that the only way to achieve that goal is to find an enormous amount of people. 

Something funny while up in the country town of Ephrata is that we walked into the home of this less-active member and I said hello and he immediately asked if I was from Texas. I was pretty surprised he was able to pick it out so quickly, so I asked him how he knew. He told me, "You sound just like how my Mom talks, and she's from Texas." Turns out I now have a Texas accent! Spending all this time around country farmers has given me more of a country flavor than my whole life in Texas has!

I am absolutely loving in here. It's such a weird thing, I really don't know how to describe it. All of the fun little towns and all of the hard country folk, it's something else. 

After Evelyn's baptism, I started reflecting on everything I've learned thus far on my mission. I was just beyond happy when she was baptized, and so I started thinking about how happy the gospel can make us and what I've learned from it. In short, I've learned

1. God does listen to and answer our prayers

2. The biggest blessing of the priesthood is the opportunity to serve others

3. You can completely and entirely change yourself because of Jesus Christ

Again, I could ramble more on these things. Instead, know that I know that this is without a doubt the Lord's kingdom here on the Earth. While in the service of the Master, I have come to know Him. He lives, and He loves us. 

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder King

Happy Half-Christmas

Friends and Family, 

For those of you unaware, yesterday was half-Christmas. It marks six months until we'll all be gathered around the tree once again. I think some of the wiring inside my brain is all messed up because I think I get more excited about half-Christmas than I do about real Christmas. I think it's the warm weather or something.

Last P-Day we went on a hike out in Naches to do some cave exploration. It was really fun. I took some pictures inside the cave, but it was pretty dark so you can't see much. Go figure. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was really cool inside. 

I was able to reconnect with Elder Taele this past week while on exchanges in Moses Lake. He's serving in my old area now in the Moses Lake 11th Ward and YSA Ward and we had a really cool experience together. We were out tracting in one of the neighborhoods when this car with two girls inside pulled over and asked, "Are you the Mormons or not?!?" We both smiled and walked over and introduced ourselves. The girl in the passenger seat, Alissa Kolosnitsy, moved to Moses Lake from Russia a while ago and she has been attending the Russian Orthodox church but really doesn't feel that her beliefs are in harmony with that church. She has a friend who is Mormon, but hasn't made the best decisions in his life. She asked us, "Are you bad people too??" We chuckled slightly to ourselves and said we try not to be. We taught her about how we are always striving to become more like the Savior and to live according to his teachings. Although we are always striving for this, we don't always succeed. We had a GREAT conversation with her and by the end she looked at us and said, "Hmmm.... Maybe I should become a Mormon.... Will you teach me more about your church?" Pretty incredible to think about the Lord's hand in bringing this girl alllll the way from Russia to Moses Lake and having us out and about so she could stop and talk to us.

On exchanges up in Omak, I was able to teach a REALLY cool family. The Morgan family was a referral from a recent convert up in Omak. They have made many life changes and have LOVED learning about the restored gospel. Lydia, the ten year old in the family, relied on faith and overcame a strong temptation. Her grandparents, who she doesn't see very often, invited her to a Seattle Mariner's game. Of course, the game is this Saturday. Lydia was faced with a very tough decision. Push back her baptism to attend a special opportunity to attend a baseball game with her grandparents, or miss the game to be baptized with her family? Last night, the Elders had a lesson with the Morgan family. They followed up on Lydia and her prayers about whether she should push her baptism back or not, and she still felt uncertain. After teaching about how Heavenly Father will answer her prayers, the missionaries knelt down with the family and Lydia asked Heavenly Father specifically about when she should be baptized. After she closed the prayer and the last 'amen' was said, there was a brief moment of silence when Lydia pipped up. "...I need to be baptized with my family this weekend. I really want to go to the baseball game, but God told me this is more important. He'll help me go to another baseball game some other time."

"Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 18:3)

Lydia has been a great example of how we should become as little children. Working with such amazing people has completely changed my life.

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder King

Trying New Things

Friends and Family, 

Happy Juneteenth! Lots of stuff happened this week, so I this week's email will be long. Long story short, life is good. Evelyn's baptism is being pushed back to the 30th at 6pm so that the Gilman Family can be in attendance. I'm SUPER excited and happy that she is finally getting baptized. Everything is going great for her. Exchanges were great.

Now, read below if you'd like the short story long.

While I was on exchanges with Elder Bird this weekend, we had a pretty interesting experience regarding Juneteenth. This past week I've been trying something new. In an attempt to contact an enormous amount of people, I've been on bikes in our area almost every day. It's SO much fun. I love biking, it is definitely the best way to be a missionary. While biking down in the streets, we noticed some ladies setting up for something at Martin Luther King Jr Park. We asked what was going on that day, and they told us that there was going to be a Juneteenth festival in the afternoon. I was really excited for multiple reasons. I think the history of Juneteenth is pretty interesting, and on top of that it was going to be such a different way to contact an enormous amount of people. After lunch, we biked to the park and saw an older gentleman walking with crutches. We immediately locked our bikes up and ran to go help him. He told us that we should just call him Rev because he was a reverend for a long time. As we supported him and walked him over to a table, so many people came up to us very confused and asked Rev if he was okay. He was so kind, and told each of them, "Oh yes, I'm fine. These two nice young gentlemen are just helping me to a table." His reaction to our presence made me even more excited for what was to happen as we talked to people at the park. 

Unfortunately, everyone else did not have the same reaction to us as Rev. I went up to a man wearing a hat that said "STOP HATE" and his opening line to me was, "I HATE WHITE PEOPLE." I learned a lot about first impressions from him. He told me that his name was James, and expressed to me a plethora of feelings against white people. I talked with him for a while and told him I'd be his friend, and he didn't like that too much. I just listened and nodded for a while as he ranted, and then at the end told him that I cared about him. His attitude changed. It didn't change much, but it did change a little. He said, "....I can't be mad about that." 

Everybody else wasn't as abrasive, but they were very confused about us being there. Kind of ironic. They spent a lot of time talking about unity in the community, and it felt very segregated. We tried talking to more people, but nobody really gave us much attention. I decided that in order to try and soften the people's hearts, we'd focus just a little on the kids. A group of children were playing soccer, so we went and helped them set up some tables for goals and coached them a little. They LOVED us being there. It was nice to feel wanted. After a little bit of that, we decided our efforts were better spent elsewhere. We were talking about if anything we did at that festival even made an impact, and on our way back to our bikes the oldest woman there called us over to her. She had oxygen tubes and gray hair and looked us in the eyes and said, "Thank you. Thank you for watching over the children. You two are great young men." We may have not found any new investigators at that festival, but at least we changed one person's perspective of the Church.

Also while riding bikes on exchanges with Elder Kiser, we knocked into this lady named Mildred Shoemaker. She was very old and had a hard time getting around. We talked with her and explained who we are and what we do, and she said that she wasn't very interested but did want to know if we knew anyone who would mow her lawn for cheap. We told her we'd do it for free. She didn't believe us and kept chuckling to herself. Why would two twenty-one year olds want to mow some old lady's lawn in shirts and ties for free? She couldn't even fathom it. We told her we'd return in the afternoon and if the lawn wasn't taken care of, we'd do it. We returned later and to no surprise, the lawn remained untamed. We knocked on the door and asked where we could find the mower. She was hesitant at first, but eventually opened up and told us it was in the backyard. We brought it out front and began to mow. Just as I was about to finish the lawn, this couple came up to us and introduced themselves. The man said his name was Jeremy and that he was raised in the church, but never baptized. He and his girlfriend were looking to change their lives, and when they saw us mowing an older woman's lawn they took it as a sign. We got their phone number and set up an appointment for the following week. It's always fun and exciting to see how Heavenly Father will bless us for our efforts and service. 

Laurette is doing great. We've had three lessons with her on family history, and she's just soaking it all up. She's beginning to make great friendships in the ward with the members we bring. We're planning on bringing Carolyn with us to our next lesson, hopefully they kick it off. It'll be interesting to see how Laurette progresses. She just said her first prayer with us today at the end of the lesson. She also made a comment to us on our way out that she thinks her husband (who recently passed away) brought us to her door so that we could show her "some fun new thing to do". Family Search should really use that in their marketing. FAMILY SEARCH: Some fun new thing to do. 

I love summer. I think it's my new favorite season. At least up here in Washington, summer in Texas is can be very humid and hot. 

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder King

Apostolic Visit

Friends and Family, 

B_SY W__K. 

Care to buy a vowel?

It has been a very busy week! We had transfers on Wednesday, and on Saturday we had to get every single missionary from our mission (ranging from the Canadian border all the way down to Oregon) to the Stake Center in Richland, WA. It was quite the task. Elder Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and President Donald Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy came and did a mission conference with both our mission and the Kennewick mission. Aside from the spiritual insights I learned, I was able to reconnect with Elder Stevens! He was an Elder I served with in the MTC in Mexico, and talking with him was so much fun. He's still the same Elder, hilarious and kind.

Elder Anderson shared some really interesting things with us, his visit wasn't entirely what I had expected it to be. He was very laid back and casual and discussed things in such an informal manner, it was fun and different. Towards the end of his remarks, he asked the question, "If you were stranded on an island for ten years, alone, with nobody else, would you say that you still believe Jesus Christ lived, died, and was resurrected?" I'd like to think that I would!

He shared the a secret that he's learned is to get the teachings of Christ deep into our bones. How do you do that, you may be wondering? His advice was to memorize ten scriptures from the Book of Mormon and ten scriptures from the New Testament and to call upon them anytime we need the Spirit of the Lord in our lives.

As I've been working on the challenge he extended, I have felt the power of the word of God in my life. There is so much power behind words, and especially when the words come from our Father in Heaven we can feel their power in our life. Try it out yourself! You'll notice a difference in how you think, feel, and behave. I'll share one scripture that I have been working on getting deep into my bones.

"And the Lord provided for them that they should hunger not, neither should they thirst; yea, and he also gave them strength, that they should suffer no manner of afflictions, save it were swallowed up in the joy of Christ. Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because he prayed in faith." (Alma 31:38)

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder King

1 Year in Yakima!!

Friends and Family, 

Transfers are upon us, and Elder Moser and I will be staying together for another transfer. This will be my eight transfer in Yakima, adding up to ONE WHOLE YEAR in the great city of Yakima. My heart is so happy. Little did I know, August of last year when I was reunited with Elder Wilson, that the next year of my life would be spent in the crazy gangsta hood that is Yakima, WA. It's also my last complete transfer in the mission, which doesn't seem real. I'll only be staying for half transfer next time due to this weird thing called 'college'.

Evelyn is getting really close to baptism. Her Mom says that she just wants to attend church one more time for all three house before she'll allow Evelyn to be baptized. Working with God's timing has actually been really beneficial. Because we've been patient with their family, Jessica has made tons of progress. She is praying every night with her kids and LOVES coming to church each week. She was going through a reallllllly hard time this past week with a lot of legal issues regarding custody over the kids. Elder Moser and I decided we'd write her a thank you note, expressing our gratitude for allowing us to teach her family and for being so supportive of her daughter's desire to come unto Christ. Jessica texted us later that day and told us how much she appreciated the kind gesture, and that it meant a TON to her. It was perfectly timed, exactly when she needed a little encouragement.

"...by small and simple things are great things brought to pass..." (Alma 37:6)

Matt expressed to us that his top desire is to get his family reading the scriptures daily. We've been working on it and we've helped them to set some goals and make plans on how they will accomplish the vision they have for their family. The biggest struggle we've seen is the oldest son, Calvin. Elder Moser and I have both agreed that the reason he is such a challenge when it comes to scripture study is because we were the same way not too long ago. It's been an interesting obstacle to overcome. If any of you have any suggestions or ideas on how to help teenage angst-balls gain the desire to read the scriptures, we're open to all help and advice!

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder King 

Prepared

Friends and Family, 

Okay. I am actually really excited to write this week's email because so much has happened this past week and one of the coolest experiences ever took place last Tuesday and I'm eager to tell you all about it. I'll save that story for last, because just like my food I like to save the best for last. Maybe I'm the only one that does that, but I love to save the best tasting thing for last.

Last Monday for P-Day we went hiking out in Naches. The drive was really pretty, it reminded me a lot of Leavenworth. Once we got to the site where we planned to hike, we started on the trail. Our plan was to hike the trail and make it to some caves where we would go spelunking. We faithfully followed the Naches Elders along the trail, until we reached a dead end. Elder Moser and I decided we would be the Lewis and Clark of the group and with the mindset of manifest destiny, we trekked onward through the unpaved wilderness. We climbed rocks, leapt over trees, and scraped many knees. After a while of exploring, we determined that the trail actually ended back where the rest of the group was. We made our way back and delivered the bad news, and everyone began to make our way back to where we had parked our cars. As we made it back to the parking lot, one of the Elders went and used the restroom. While his companion was waiting outside for him, he noticed another trail that went off from behind the bathroom. Once his companion joined him again, the took a quick detour while everyone was preparing to head back to town. After a couple minutes along the hidden trail, they discovered that it was the trail we wanted to hike the entire time. Such is life. The path that takes us where we want to go can often be hidden behind smelly nature bathrooms. There's a lesson in there somewhere.

We have this one investigator named David who looks like Tarzan mixed with Jesus and his entire house is a garden and he only eats bananas, peanuts, oranges, and milk. He is the most interesting man in the world. When we first knocked on his door, his response was "You'll never convince me." He came to church two weeks ago, and actually really enjoyed it. He LOVES gardening and has taught Elder Moser and I so much about growing fruits and vegetables. He runs a non-profit organization where he creates community gardens for people in poverty, and we did service with him where we went out and worked with him on his garden. I seriously felt like Adam in the Garden of Eden being instructed by Jesus. It was a blast. He also taught us some cool gymnastic tricks on a set of bars that were for some reason placed near where the community garden was growing. Catch me on the US Men's Gymnastics Team and on the Garden Channel in a couple years.

Matt and his family are progressing really well. We've got him started on family history, and he's already caught the bug. He has his four generations on his Dad's side filled out, and he just started Thursday! It's spreading to his distant family as well as he asks them for information about his ancestors.

Alright, I'm sure most of you probably have just skipped to the end to read this story I've been hyping up. For those of you that have made your way through reading, congrats.

I was privileged to return back to my first area in The Dalles, OR for exchanges this past week. It's always fun to return to the areas where I have previously served, there is always some miracle that happens in my time back. My old ward mission leader had signed up to feed the Elders that night for dinner, so I was pretty excited to get to see him again and catch up with how the work has been going. He called us before dinner and told us to meet him at the hospital and that we'd be eating at the hospital cafeteria. We all chuckled a little at the interesting of idea of eating in a hospital. We showed up and met up with Brother Stewart and ordered our food. Brother Stewart was telling us about everyone in the cafeteria that he knew, and we said hello to everyone we could while we waited for our food to finish cooking. Once it was all brought out, we sat down at a table and I chose the seat that faced the door that opened to the kitchen. Throughout the meal, I kept seeing this woman through the little window on the door. She was working in the kitchen, and whenever she walked by she would stop and look at me and smile. I would smile back, and then she would move on. This happened repeatedly throughout the dinner. Once we finished eating, we said goodbye to everyone there and made our way out to the parking lot.

As we were standing outside the front entrance to hospital saying goodbye to Brother Stewart, I saw that girl from the kitchen come running out towards the entrance. She bolted through the doors and slightly out of breath looked at me and said, "Hi, can you teach me the steps to be baptized?" Without hesitation, I said yes. We were all in awe.

We talked with her for a moment, she told us that her name was Taylor we got her address and phone number. She explained that she has a friend in the tri-cities who she has been talking with a lot about the church and that she's been reading the Book of Mormon and really wants to be baptized. She had been praying the day before for an opportunity to see the missionaries and talk with them, and when we walked in and she saw us through the window, she knew her prayer was answered. Since then, she has set a goal to be baptized in June, came to church with two of her friends, and continues to read in the Book of Mormon.

People are prepared. They, like Taylor, are just waiting for the opportunity to accept the gospel in their life. To all you missionaries currently serving, missionaries that have returned home, missionaries preparing to leave, and member missionaries, don't be discouraged. There are Taylors all around us. As long as we're prepared for the people, the people who are prepared will be lead to us. Many have had a big impact on Taylor's life that brought her to that point. Each of you can do the same for someone else.

Con Mucho Amor, 

Elder King