Dear Family and Friends,

 

This has been the best week of my mission thus far!! We truly have witnessed miracles. I hope I can remember to look back on this week when times are discouraging. We were able to meet with our family of investigators twice this week! We had a lesson with them on Tuesday about commandments and obedience. It went really well!. They signed up on our dinner calendar to feed us so we ate with them on Thursday :) We had invited them on Tuesday to go to the Portland Temple Visitors Center after dinner on Thursday but they realized on Thursday that they had Back to School night. We'll shoot for this week though :) The Visitors Center is definitely a game-changer!

 

Our theme for tracting this week has been "You can't say the wrong thing to the right person; you can't say the right thing to the wrong person." If they're ready, they'll listen. And when people turn us away we say to ourselves "Forgive them, for they know not what they do." We tracted into one man who talked to us at his door for about five minutes! (Our longest door approach up to this point) We talked about the Bible and introduced the Book of Mormon. He believes that the Bible is the only word of God. He nearly quoted the scripture in 2 Nephi 29:3 "A Bible! A Bible! We have got a Bible, and there cannot be any more Bible." But hopefully it was a seed planted and he'll look into it in the future. We tracted into another man who had the opposite point of view. He grew up Catholic. When we knocked on his door, we said our little blurb asked him if we could share a message (I don't remember exactly what we said, so it must have been by the spirit :)) He said sure and invited us right in!! (How often does that happen?!) However, we asked if anyone else was home and he said it was only he and his pets. We politely explained that we'd have to just talk at his door because we're women. He agreed and we taught our first doorstep lesson :) We again talked about the Book of Mormon (he had never heard of it, nor Joseph Smith). He readily absorbed every word and said that you can never read too much about Christ. I was holding a Book of Mormon as we were talking and he said he'd love to read it if we had a spare copy. (Whoa, whoa, whoa. He just ASKED for a Book of Mormon himself!!) We gave him that copy with a pass-along card that has our phone number on it. He said we could come back and talk more sometime. However, he is a truck driver and travels a lot. It'll work out though :)  We tracted into one more person in that area (these three were all from the same apartment complex!)   He will be moving into the apartment in a few weeks (he was there renovating it) so we were lucky we caught him. We did the usual: knocked on his door, said our blurb and asked if we could share a message. He politely said no thank you and closed the door. We walked away and had only taken a few steps when he again opened the door. He said "Wait, you guys are Mormons, right?" We said yes and he asked us to clarify our beliefs on the Godhead. We talked for a few minutes and he said he used to work with some Mormons and he really respected them. He said we could come back after he's moved in :) Miracles!! So much tracting success :) That's how you get all your good stories, so beware; you may hear these again in my homecoming talk. Speaking of good stories, we had an awkward encounter this week...missionary work is awkward a lot of the time but this was especially awkward! We were contacting a referral that we had received from a ward member (And when I say referral, in this case I mean someone who said 'go convert my neighbor', haha) We had just gotten off our bikes in front of the woman's house and were discussing what we knew about her, what we would say, and then we prayed. We walked up to her door and her porch came into view and...there she was; sitting in a chair on her porch! :P By the knowing look in her eye we could tell that she'd heard everything we just said :/ Haha, she politely said she was not interested, so we walked away embarrassed. Now we're able to laugh about it and we think it's pretty hilarious. We related what happened back to the member who referred us to her.

 

On Wednesday we were able to go with Brother Pierce (our ward mission leader) and (Brother See) a ward missionary to a less-active man's house. And when I say less-active, I mean he hasn't attended church since Primary. His parents were and are active (although his mother recently passed away) but half of his six siblings are inactive and half are active. . At her funeral he felt the spirit and he now wants to put his life back together. He currently lives with a roommate (ex-girlfriend) and is trying to figure out how to nicely kick her out (she's relying too heavily on him; she's had multiple DUI's and can no longer drive. She doesn't have a job. It's pretty sad because she graduated with a Masters from an elite school but now she's hit rock bottom and is overwhelmed to have to climb back up) Anyway, he wants us to teach him from ground zero so we'll treat him like an investigator. We'll meet with him every Wednesday night. This week we'll teach the Plan of Salvation with Sister Marker (a ward missionary). Brother See is his neighbor and is the one who deserves the credit for making this happen :) What a great member missionary!

 

On Saturday we had our monthly breakfast with the Stake President. It was great to hear about the wonderful missionary work happening in the Tualatin Stake! We've had 34 year-to-date baptisms and our Stake goal is 43; we'll make it for sure! Many companionships have investigators with baptismal dates and many more that are close. The work is progressing!! We were also able to get an official set of keys; they are on a fairly large ring that is welded closed. We have a key to every building and library in the stake as well as to the Family History Center and the baptismal font. That's the main reason my e-mail is so long today; we're here with the sisters from the Cedar Creek Ward because they have a car. We're so blessed :) Speaking of cars, or lack thereof, we're still on bike. We got caught in the rain this weekend but the members are gracious about giving us rides and we walk when it's really coming down. I love the rain :)

 

Church was great yesterday! A girl who is leaving for a mission on Wednesday spoke about adversity as part of the Plan of Happiness. I've gotten really close with her; sometimes we'd take her to appointments and tracting with us. I look forward to keeping in touch with her. In Relief Society we talked about reaching out to the sisters around us. It was a visiting teaching conference and all the women were there (the young men and women took care of primary). The Relief Society President passed around a questionnaire asking who knows who and how well. It's part of her master plan to get in contact with every sister--even the ones on the 'do not contact' list. We're excited to be a part of it!

 

Because it gets dark early now (and it's only going to get worse) we have to be home unless we have a teaching appointment. Because of this, I've been able to get some extra studying in! I've loved this time to read more from the Ensigns in our apartment. I especially loved an article by Lawrence E. Corbridge in the September 2011 issue of the Ensign. He said " 'Don't count the cost'. In comparison with the immeasurable price paid in Gethsemane, whatever might be required of me is 'small change'." How true that is! We would all do well to abolish our 'woe is me' attitude. When we get caught up in thinking about the many 'sacrifices' we're making, we should think of Christ and the many things He's done for us. Surely we can give back without doing it begrudgingly. I love my Savior and I'm so very grateful for the price he paid for ME. "I believe in Christ, so come what may" :) I know that this Church is true and am so happy that it's a part of me and my life. Scratch that, it is ME and it is my WHOLE life. I never want that to change. The gospel has changed me and I'm a much better person because of it. I love you all and am so grateful for your love and support. I know I say that every week, but I mean it every time! I'm so blessed to know each one of you :)

 

Love,

Sister King

 

P.S. A great quote I heard by Donald L. Hallstrom "Live by covenant rather than convenience."