Service and a chainsaw

Wowza! What a week it's been here in Largo! I hope you all have had the best week!! Happy 24th of July to you all!!!! 

This week was great!! We had exchanges, zone conference and a lot of time focused on making videos and posts for facebook!!

Being here in Largo right by the water makes driving around pretty awesome. Any direction is the water! I feel pretty lucky! This past week at zone conference President made a few changes! We are no longer calling isolation isolation haha, we are no longer using the word isolation and we are using the word innovation instead! He has done a great job at keeping us so excited to get up every morning. 

We had exchanges this past week!! I'll for sure include a picture. I was in Palm Harbor for a day! It is so pretty out there! It is always so fun to go see other parts of the mission and meet other missionaries! I definitely learned a lot! Palm Harbor is an english area too, so it was fun to do everything in english! It was a fun little twist! 

Since we had exchanges and zone conference we spent a lot of time outside our area! We were still able to have lessons with our friends which was SO GREAT! Mia is doing amazing and was able to attend our virtual church yesterday! We sang primary songs and read out of a Book of Mormon stories book! We also had a few lessons with our cute friend Patricia!! She is from Peru(I think I said that last week hahaha) but she REALLY has progressed this week! She told us last night how grateful she is for the Book of Mormon and us sharing the gospel with her!! We are excited to continue to meet with her(virtually) haha! She is our best friend and we have a party every time we get to see her on our screen!! 

We have spent a LOT of time on making Facebook videos and posts this past week! My companion Hermana Marler and I have a video coming out on the English page "Finding Jesus Christ in St. Petersburg" so you can check us out there if you ever wonder what I'm up to throughout the week! Haha! Our video comes out tomorrow WOOT! 

We also have been doing a LOT of service! Us and the elders have started doing service Tuesday-Saturday. We split it up every week on who has what days haha! You could say we are realllyyyyy good car washers!! This week we were able to take out a MASSIVE tree! On mission coordination the elders brought up that they needed a member with a chainsaw to come to a service they found for us and we all started laughing and then got a text Friday night saying we were meeting early Saturday morning to take out a tree haha....and yup there was a member and a chainsaw there ready to work some magic haha! It was so fun!!

I want to share a thought from one of the talks by President Nelson that I read this past week and it's called "Perfection Pending" and boy was it good!! One of the  quotes I want to share today is this: 

"We all need to remember: men are that they might have joy—not guilt trips!"  

The other is...

"let us do the best we can and try to improve each day. When our imperfections appear, we can keep trying to correct them. We can be more forgiving of flaws in ourselves and among those we love. We can be comforted and forbearing."

I love these two quote so much. I am pretty hard on myself and this week was a big eye opener for me that I am here to do the Lords work. The work is very different than it was a few months ago. Something I want to also share with you all was from Zone Conference! We were asked if we believe that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Then we were asked if we think God can perform miracles and created the world we live in. THEN they asked us if we thought the because of Corona it would change the gospel. This gospel is the same yesterday, today and forever. Just like President Nelson said in his talk, we are loved!! He says "let us try our best". When we try, we give effort! This earth life is an opportunity!! 

I challenge all of you to read the talk "Perfection Pending" by President Nelson!

You guys, I love being a missionary! I love this gospel so much. I am grateful for each and every one of you guys!!!

Love you all of BUNCH!!

Hermana King :)) 

Capital M for MIRACLES!

Hello everyone!! I hope you all had a great week!! 

This week was a super crazy one but it was full of miracles!

I want to share 2 miracles from this week! The first one is about our friend Marcela! So Marcela is the mom of a recent concert from my old area, Ocala! We have had a hard time getting in touch with Marcela because she's living in Columbia. We do what we can, but sometimes it's just hard! We have been working the past 4 months on getting her reference sent to Columbia but for some odd reason it won't send. Our President has sent it directly to Salt Lake to have them handle it and somehow it keeps coming back! We have tried contacting anybody we can in Columbia...but nope:/ so Marcela is our friend back in Ocala but this past week we received her reference here in Largo! Uh WHAT! We got permission from President Hollingsworth to talk to the Hermanas in Ocala to see what happened! They said they tried to send her contact to Columbia but landed in the reference pool here in an English ward. Because our names had been on it, the English sisters passed her back to us...so from Ocala to Largo, Marcela is just following along! Haha! Well we looked at each other and knew there was no coincidence that she landed with us! We prayed so hard and fasted about what to do and to see if we could think of SOMETHING we hadn't tried! We got in touch with our social media specialists and with their help we were able to get involved with a few Facebook pages! A missionary servicing in Columbia reached out and we are FINALLY in contact with the missions over there! We are so excited that Marcela will finally be able to meet with missionaries and continue to grow her testimony!!

Okay miracle number 2! I think this one is one of my all time favorites. So my companion and I arrived here about a week and a half ago and the elders who we share a branch talked to us about the people here! They said they had recently stopped teaching a 9 year old girl named Mia because it got a little hard with video calls and she's got a lot of energy! WELL I looked at my companion and we thought we should have a lesson with her and see how it is! We got creative and thought of a few super interactive lessons that we could do over video call! We were so nervous BUT after our first lesson we just looked at each other and smiled! We had a few of the best lessons we've ever had as missionaries with the sweetest 9 year old girl. She has the sweetest testimony! We love her energy and we love finding new ways to teach her! I've been laughing a lot because if you know me you know I don't have a creative bone in my whole body but yet this week we have been able to come up with crazy fun lessons! This really is Gods work! I couldn't do it if it wasn't!

We went to the zoo again today and had the funnest time!! We went bowling with our district and it was a blast! 

My spiritual thought for the week is this:

"His peace is not necessarily political; His peace is personal." -President Nelson

I love this so much! One of the words our prophets used to describe our Heavenly Father us personal. God knows each of our individual needs and desires! In this quote he talks about peace. God loves each of us so much! He loves perfectly. He knows how to comfort us perfectly and individually!!

My challenge for this week is this:

Sometimes days can be hard, but there are always good things that happen even if we have to look really hard! Last week I challenged you all to say gratitude prayers, and this week I want to challenge all of you to write one of the best things that happened everyday! 

I love you all oh so much!!

Hermana King :)

Here we LarGOOOOO!

Hello everyone!!!! Happy Monday!!!

I'm here in Largo now and I am just loving it!! I hope you all are safe and happy!!!

Member goodbyes

Hermana Molvar had me cut her hair hahaha

last car selfie with alllll our stuff!

picture with Elder Briggs haha we asked for a picture in front of the new car with him

last picture with cute Hermana Molvar

7/11 slurpees

On our way to the zoo!

the zoo!!

Well I'll just jump right in and give a summary of some highlights this week!

-After we found out about transfers we made a LOT of cookies, like a TON haha and went to say bye to some of the members! It is so crazy because I was only in Ocala for about 3 weeks and MAN I miss it so much! We all made such strong connections with the people we were teaching and the members! It was rough saying goodbye! 

-Last week we were able to have one last lesson all together with Jesus, Elizabeth, Evee and Victor! A highlight from those I want to share was with Victor! He was our last lesson Wednesday night and so that meant that was our last lesson teaching as a companionship! For the lesson we had planning on just reading wherever he was in the BOM so we could help him study! Wellllll turns out he was in 1 Nephi 10. We started reading and next thing we knew we were talking about baptism! We extended a baptismal date again to him and he just looked at us and smiled. He said he would pray about it for reals and give us an answer on Saturday! It is so crazy how even though we aren't in person, we are able to feel the spirit so strongly. It's like the church is true or something! Haha! 

-Thursday rolled around which meant transfers! We got to the mission office and got keys to our new apartment, all that jazz figured out and then we got the keys to our NEW CAR. When I say new car I legit mean new car haha! We got a call a few days before transfers saying that because the church is all out of church owned cars they are renting a bunch out! SO we got lucky enough to be a companionship with a rental! Which means unlimited miles and no Teewee haha teewee is something they put in the car to log where you are, your speed, aggressive driving and all that! But we don't have that so we feel pretty lucky haha! Saying goodbye to Hermana Molvar was rough!!! We are so happy for her though and she will be SO GREAT leading the area in Ocala!!

-We pulled up to our new apartment and we were so pumped! We walked in and looked around and then headed up the stairs..our apartment is TWO floors and is actually massive haha! The only thing is elders were in here before and so Elder Cook who is over housing warned us to take a day to clean.. which is exactly what we did and MAN it is great! Hermana Marler and I are so excited to get started here in Largo!

-We share the branch with elders and they are great! They passed us some people the were teaching because they felt like we would connect better! We had our first lesson just yesterday with one of them and she is so cute! Her name is Karem! We are so excited to get to know her better! Just in 3 days of being here, we already have received a few references and we could not be more excited to get BUSY! 

-We were also able to meet more of our zone! They are awesome! Our zone Leaders gave us the sacrament on Sunday and it was just a great and special as ever! I'm so grateful we get to take the sacrament every week!!

-The majority of the past few days have been spent making cookies and taking them to members! The members here are AMAZING! I am so excited to get to know them better! 

This week was filled with cleaning and meeting members so just wait till next week haha!

I wanted to share some quotes with you all about what I've been studying this week. :)

I have been reading President Nelson's talks everyday and I think my favorite from this week was "With God Nothing Shall Be Impossible" even the title of the talk gave me chills! 

"God has timeless trust in us"

"The Lord employs the unlikely"

"Is anything too hard for the Lord?"

In this talk he talks about things that are "impossible" that the Lord did. It was crazy to read about them from this perspective. He talked about how a virgin became a mother, a 90 year old woman became a mother, and so many more stories like these ones in the scriptures. I loved the last quote, "is anything too hard for the Lord?" Nothing, NOTHING is impossible to the Lord. He created us as individuals to develop our own talents and abilities. God does the impossible. I am so grateful for the knowledge we have of our loving Heavenly Father!

My challenge this week is this!

Awhile back I made a goal to end my night with a gratitude prayer and always start my morning with a gratitude prayer. There's been times this week that have been really hard for me, times when usually I would spend a long time asking for things. This week I want to challenge all of you to start and end each day with a gratitude prayer! As I've been doing this for awhile now, I really have seen a difference in my day. 

I hope you all know how much I love you! And how much I love this gospel. I love waking up every day and being a missionary! This gospel is true:)

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

Hermana King :)

The Lord is out here throwing quick ones!

Well hey everyone!! I hope you all had the best fourth of July!!!! We had a party with pop-its, watching fireworks and roasting s'mores over our stove!!!

I've got some big news!! I am being transferred this Thursday to an area called Largo! I am transferring with Hermana Marler so we will be companions for longer!! Largo is righttttt on the coast haha from what we've heard so we are SO EXCITED! They are white washing the area so it will be allll new and empty for us to figure it out!! It'll be a fun, new adventure! Hermana Molvar will be getting 2 more companions coming here to Ocala! I also hit 8 months in the mission on Sunday!! I cant believe it!!! My comps surprised me and decorated my desk with hearts for my 8 months and it was so sweet!!!

We had the best week here in Ocala!! I wanna share some of the highlights with you all!!

Well! We had interviews this week! We did it through zoom and my companions told me as soon has I came out from talking to President that they heard us laughing the whole 20 minute interview hahaha! President Hollingsworth and I both love to laugh so it was a good time!

We also had a "Finding Friday" where everyone in our zone prepared all week to find miracles on Friday!! We pushed and prayed SO HARD! We were planning during daily planning on Friday and we had the feeling to call this reference...she answered and she said she had time right then to talk! WHAT! FIRST hour of miracle Friday and here we are! An hour and a half later of talking to our new friend Evee was just the best!!! We were able to have another lesson with her AND a member on Sunday as well! There were so many miracles from Friday!! It was so crazy!!

We had the funnest service!!! We moved one of our members out and in to a house!!! He took us to McDonald's because the weather got SO SCARY AND SO BAD SO FAST! It was so fun to get out of the house and do service all day!!!!!

Update with Victor!! He has been so so sick lately but we were finally able to start making a few video calls with him! He had  date to get baptized and then got sick :( he asked to get a blessing for his health!! We really pushed to power of priesthood with him and he asked all on his own if it was possible to get one! What!! So our branch president, President Grant is headed to his house tonight to give him a blessing. We are so grateful for our branch here! They are amazing!!

Speaking of our branch members, we got a call Saturday (FOURTH OF JULY WOOT) from a member, Hermana Suero saying she had some treats for us! We went to her house and came home with 5 things of bread, 2 sheet cakes, 2 cases of chocolate chip cookies, 2 cases of other cookies and a dozen donuts! WHAT!! OH, and some milk. Haha! We split it with the elders who we share the branch with. But WOWZA! It was a lot!! Haha! Our fourth of July was so great! We got to watch some RAD fireworks and we did pop-its and roasted marshmallows! We had a party and a half!!!

Okay guys I just want to tell you how much I love this gospel!! This past week I made a goal for myself to listen/watch one talk a day from President Nelson starting from the very first one he gave and WOW is it powerful!! It's one of the best parts of my day!! I look forward to it every morning!

My spiritual thought comes from his talk, "Self-Mastery" and boy was it good! One of the quotes I loved is this:

"To reach your highest destiny, emulate the Savior." Wow!! I know that this gospel is based on simple and plain truths. This is a plain and simple truth from our living prophet!! To become our BEST self, we simply focus on how we can emulate Christ. 

My challenge to all of you for this week is this!

Pray about a member of the First Presidency. Whichever comes to your mind, start reading their talks daily! It has become such a blessing this past week for me to listen to the prophet's voice!!

Wow I love all you!!! I love being a missionary!!! Thank you all for everything!!!!!!

Love,

Hermana King :)

Celebrating Hermana King's 8 month mark!

Her companions surprised her by decorating her desk area!