Abby's call as a Sister Training Leader

 

Largo can't get rid of us that quick!!

 Wow!! Okay I say this every week but this week was SO GREAT. I hope you all had an amazing week too!! Thank you for your prayers this week!! I really have felt them!!! 

CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEK. I AM SO GIDDY!!!

Here are some of the highlights from this week!!

-well we had interviews with President which are ALWAYS a highlight! For half of my interview President Hollingsworth had me teach him some spanish! We laughed a LOT and had a great time haha! He is SO GREAT. 

-we had some of the BEST lessons with Victor this week! He was announced and presented to the whole branch as the newest member of the branch at church yesterday!! Victor didn't realize I wore glasses occasionally and so I put them on during one of the lessons and when it was his turn to read the next verse in the Book of Mormon, he wasn't saying anything and so we looked up and he was LAUGHING AT ME. Hahaha! He is a HOOT and is such an example to me. He really wants to be the best father to his two little kiddos and it's so inspiring to see people change their lives because of the truth and HAPPINESS they find within the gospel of Christ :) 

-Patricia gets baptized TOMORROW and she is so excited! She is someone that we have seen from the very beginning just GRASP on to the gospel and apply it. Her family is ALL Catholic and she said she really wants them to SEE a change in her not with words but with actions. She really wants to be an example for her cute family!! Pray for her the next little bit to have confidence in her decision!! Sometimes the best decisions really are the hardest, but oh boy is it worth it!! She is AMAZING! We went through the baptism program we had planned for her and she had the BIGGEST SMILE on her face :) 

-Haydee is SO GREAT. Two hours before her baptism yesterday she called us in tears. She had a family emergency come up and wasn't going to make it to the church in time. She thought she was going to have to wait another week to get baptized but when we explained that she could get baptized during the week any day she wanted, she was so excited. She will be getting baptized in the next few days! She is such an EXAMPLE to me. We are so grateful and excited for her!!!

-ANOTHER FUN EXCITING HIGHLIGHT is that Hermana Marler and I are STAYING IN LARGO TOGETHER!!! We are SO pumped and excited and GRATEFUL to have another 6 weeks here in this AMAZING place TOGETHER!!!

-we had our last district council and it was so sad!! Our district is changing quite a bit but we went to the aquarium as a district for the last preparation day of the transfer!! SO FUN!!

-President called me a few days ago and asked me to be a Sister Training Leader so I will start doing that this next week! 

Coming on my mission I thought I would be the one teaching new things to people like Patricia, Mia, Haydee, Victor and other to help them become better disciples of Jesus Christ but BOY was I wrong. I have learned so much from the people God has put in my path. I have become a better disciple of Christ from being here on my mission, not because I study the scriptures everyday (that helps haha), but because of the special people I've been able to meet. My mission and the people I've met because of my mission really have helped me change into the person and disciple I know I need to become! 

I wanted to share a quote with you all today from John Bytheway!

"Do your best to be happy now, in whatever circumstance you find yourself, a challenge Moroni must gave grappled with while wandering alone for more than two decades"

Something I love from this quote is the beginning when it says DO YOUR BEST. We don't need to be perfect right now, that's why we have the Atonement of Jesus Christ, right? This week I challenge each of you to be kinder to yourselves! Something I've noticed is that it is a whole lot easier to do better when we're nicer to ourselves. This week is General Conference and what a PERFECT opportunity this is to come to the sessions with a question. Realize that each of you are doing BETTER than you think you are!!

I love you all!!!!!! So so much!!!!!!

Love,

Hermana King :) 

A great week for a baptism!!

 HELLO EVERYONE! I hope this week was GREAT! 

Here in Largo, miracles are HAPPENING and it's been so so SO cool to be able to see some of them happen!! 

Here are a few highlights from the week:

-VICTOR WAS BAPTIZED!! It was one of the coolest moments ever. He walked into the building with his family who aren't members and was just BEAMING. He was SO excited!!! It was super fun to see him meet the members in person that we had had SO many lessons with virtually! I think my favorite part was his testimony at the end of the baptism! He got up and bore the SWEETEST testimony and then sat down but realized he didn't end all the way haha so he popped right back up and said "OH! In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!" It was SO SWEET. He spent over an HOUR at the church talking with members afterwards which was so so good! He is already in the Elders Quorom group chat  He will be getting the priesthood this week! While he was talking to other members, we were able to talk with his sister, brother in law, his niece and nephew! His sister has interest and wants us to start teaching the family!! She gave us her number and we are SO excited to see where it goes!!

-we got a text from Victor that night just thanking us for helping him take this big step in his life and it was the SWEETEST message we've ever received! The gospel of Jesus Christ really is LIFE CHANGING! 

-another highlight is about our new friend HAYDEE! She was passed to us from the elders because they couldn't get in contact with her so they asked us to try! We got in contact and brought her cookies! In our first lesson with her she asked how she can become a MISSIONARY. She said that we are different than other people and she wants to do what we do! Well...we asked her to be baptized and she's getting baptized this upcoming Sunday!! She came to church yesterday and tells us EVERYDAY how excited she is to be baptized! She's 18 and is studying to be a nurse JUST LIKE MY COMP AND I! She is the best and we LOVE her!! Keep her in your prayers!!

-another super cool miracle happened with Haydee has we were teaching her the Plan of Salvation! Our service in our house is SO BAD. So we got on and started with a pray but the first 10 minutes it was a lot of "can you hear us now? How about now?" BUT we decided to just the starting the lesson. We started teaching the Plan and NO TECHNICAL PROBLEMS AT ALL. Right has soon has we ended explaining the kingdoms and talked about it all, boom TECHNICAL PROBLEMS again. We got through the WHOLE PLAN without any problems. SUPER cool miracle!!!!

-well Patricia is as good as ever and is still SO SET on being baptized the 29th! She is one of the most ready and elect people I have ever met. She tells us every lesson about new, super spiritual experiences she has while reading the Book of Mormon! I have never seen a testimony like hers about The Book of Mormon! She has her interview tomorrow and we know without a doubt she is prepared:) yesterday when we had a lesson to review each interview question she told us ALLLLL about her testimony about every little thing that we've taught her and wow it was a COOL, COOL experience:) 

-mia is still progressing and she is such a happy girl! We were able to have a virtual lesson with Hermana Marlers 9 year old brother and Mia! It was such a fun lesson and it went so well! Having Mia see other kids her age that are members AND that can speak english has been a super crazy, awesome blessing!!

Wow. I have felt the spirit stronger than ever this week! A quote that I want to share with you this week is from President Nelson's talk, "Hear Him!" and it says:

"Regardless of where you live or what your circumstances are, the Lord Jesus Christ is your Savior, and God’s prophet Joseph Smith is your prophet" 

To describe this week in one word I would say NONSTOP. And how grateful I am to say that! If you were to tell me a year ago that I would be doing missionary work virtually, not having church in person, not teaching in person, not meeting our friends in person until their baptism but STILL BEING SO BUSY I would have thought you're crazy. God is VERY aware of each of us and he is AWARE of His work. The work is moving along!! I feel SO lucky to be apart of it!!! Just like this quote, no matter where we are, God is our Father, Christ is our Savior and Joseph Smith restored the gospel of Christ. Even though we are inside and our lives have CHANGED drastically because of the Corona Virus, we have these truths that will never change. I am so grateful for the knowledge we have!!!

Also. I AM SO HYPED FOR CONFERENCE!!! I invite each of you to continue (or start) reviewing the talks from last conference to prepare yourself for these upcoming sessions!!

I love each of you SO MUCH. Thank you for the support and prayers!!!!!

Love,

Hermana King :) 

This gas station had BLUE LIGHTS EVERYWHERE in the store, so why not capture the moment? Haha

Victor's baptism!! (He is on the far left, LOOK HOW HAPPY HE LOOKS)

another great week:)

  Hi all!!! I hope you all are having a great start to your week!!! It was an eventful, full of smiles kind of week here in Largo!! 

I want to share a few fun things that happened this week!!

Highlights:)

-we said goodbye to the cute online MTC missionary helped us with a few lessons! She is now in Ogden, Utah! Woot!! She will be so great! 

-okay okay okay! A quick update with our cute friend PATRICIA! We had a few lessons this week with her and she is DOING AMAZING. A week ago we had challenged her to pick a date to get baptized. We really felt prompted to have her come up with a date on her own so we gave her a time reference of anytime the week of the 26th...well all of our lessons with her have ended up being about baptism so we made a plan to talk about temples and families! On Thursday of this past week, we were about halfway through our lesson with Patricia cuts us off and says "so about the date I was supposed to pick" ....what! Haha! She said she had been reading the Book of Mormon and praying about the 26th and the number 29 popped into her head! She works on Saturdays and so when she looked up the calendar and noticed the 29th was a Tuesday she said that was her answer! She told us that she wants to BE BAPTIZED THE 29TH OF SEPTEMBER! We are so proud of her and so happy for her!!!

-Victor is so great! He wasn't able to make church yesterday and so we have to change his baptismal date just a little bit, but he is super ready and excited! He told us which friends from the branch he wants to baptize and confirm him! He told us he is SO excited!

-ALSO we have some REALLY AWESOME Facebook videos coming out the next 2 weeks! So watch out for those!!

-we got to work with some of the BEST members to make some posts for Facebook and it was just so fun to be able to get to know more of our branch! They are all so so great!!!

This week was a BLAST and I feel very lucky to be able to be here in Largo. I am so grateful for all of the members and our friends!! 

I wanted to share a quick quote and challenge with you all! Last night was the Face to Face with Elder Rasband and wow it was so good!! A quote that stood out to me was this "Be optimistic about the future. Even now" The prophet told us how EXCITED and OPTIMISTIC he is about the future. The worldly perspective is the complete opposite. We can have the same confidence in the future that President Nelson does!! We should optimistic about what's to come. D/C 68:5-6 is a good reminder of that!! 

President Nelson in 2018 extended an invitation to all of us and it's a challenge I want to extend to all of you today! This week as you read the Book of Mormon write down and ponder these questions:

"First, what would your life be like without the Book of Mormon? Second, what would you not know? And third, what would you not have?"

The Book of Mormon is TRUE. The Book of Mormon proves that this gospel has been restored, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the authority of the Church of Christ has been brought back to the earth. We have the knowledge of ALL OF THAT. What a blessing!! The Book of Mormon is OH so important and I challenge all of you to ask Heavenly Father THIS WEEK if it's true. I am so grateful for the Book of Mormon and the knowledge and joy it brings me in my life! 

I love you all SO MUCH! I can't thank you enough for all the love and support! Thank you SO MUCH! Thank you so much for the prayers for our friends! We appreciate it SO MUCH! 

Love,

Hermana King:) 

A week of VICTORy:))

 Hi everyone!!! HAPPY SEPTEMBER!! And happy Labor Day to you all!!!

This week was SO GOOD. I hit my 10 month mark and wow I cant believe it!!! 

As far as this week goes, we had SO MANY MIRACLES. 

Here are some highlights!! 

-our friend Víctor who was our reference from missionaries in Texas who we couldn't get a hold of for over a month, WELL he has a baptismal date for the 19th of this month!! We are so excited for him!! Please keep him in your prayers! Victor has 2 kiddos that still live in Mexico and he told us the reason he feels SO GOOD about the Church of Jesus Christ is the "family feel" and the support from all of the members. He loves his family and wants nothing more than to be with his sweet little kids. I love having the truth and being able to know of the knowledge that we have of FOREVER FAMILIES. What a blessing!!!!

-Patricia is as amazing as ever. She told us she is READY and EXCITED to be baptized but recently she has had some work issues come up and she won't know her work schedule. A few days ago when she talked to us about it she was SO SAD because she really wants to get baptized. We are praying SO hard for her to be able to have a more stable schedule and work this next little bit! Fun story about our cute friend Patricia happened yesterday! She joined us for our virtual church and she couldn't figure out how to exit the call at the end of church and so it was just our Branch President and her on the call hahaha, our Branch President they talked for awhile and he said how great Patricia is!! Patricia RAVED about him after the meeting! -we had testimony meeting yesterday and Victor AND Patricia were there! They both LOVED it!! A few of us missionaries bore testimony as well as some of the GREATEST members in the whole world. The Largo branch is one of the BEST branches I've ever been a part of!! 

-Mia is as cute as ever!! We are still working to get a lesson with her dad because he's been working a lot, but we have faith that this week we'll be able to!!

-we had exchanges and Sister Vogel got to come to a spanish area this week and we had SO MUCH FUN. She killed it with Spanish!! Haha!!

-we got a NEW CAR this week. We turned in the rental and got a brand new car with only TWO miles on it...I told my parents how proud I was that God trusts me with this nice car more than I  trust myself with it...hahaha!

-last miracle for the week happened a few days ago! We wanted to bring cookies to a reference we had just received. When we pulled up to her apartment we realized we didn't have her apartment number...we saw 5 call buttons labeled 1-5..after thinking long and hard about what to do, I looked at the buttons and looked at Hna Marler, smiled, and said we should pick on to call...haha. She laughed and then realized I wasn't kidding hahaha! We said a prayer, looked at each other, counted down from 3 and said the number each of us thought we should pick at the same time and we both said 4...with no hesitation we clicked it haha! Next thing we knew something came out of their door and WE GUESSED RIGHT! It was Marivi's door! We got to drop cookies off and talk a little bit with her sister! Fun little miracle but wow it gave us a big laugh and smile after. :) 

This week was FULL of highlights and miracles. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here and to serve as a missionary. There is something so special about being so close to watching this gospel CHANGE people. I am so grateful to be an instrument in helping Gods work!!! 

A quote I wanted to share with you all this week is this: 

"the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives."

The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches that we are able to have JOY in any circumstance. That's the PURPOSE of this life for us right? Adam fell that man are that they might have JOY! When we focus on the Savior and not turn our attention towards worldly things that tend to change, we ALWAYS have the gospel of Christ and our Savior who stay the same and is CONSTANT. 

I challenge all of you to read the talk "Joy and Spiritual Survival" by President Nelson and pray about something you can do this week to focus more on our Savior and really finding JOY in our everyday lives:)

I love you all SO MUCH!!

Love,

Hermana King:))

*side note! Elder Miller and I got to see our NAMES in one of the cutest books ever written. Sister Katie Steed--YOU ARE SO TALENTED. Thank you so so much!!!!

Happiest I've ever been!!

 Happy almost SEPTEMBER to you all!!! This week was a great one!! We have had SO MUCH rain this week it's been crazy! 

Well we've seen SO MANY miracles this week!! As far as our friends go, they are KILLING it in the progressing game!! We were able to teach Mia and she is as cute as ever and she has the sweetest testimony!! This week we were able to talk to her mom, Magaly! We talked to her about when she wants Mia to get baptized! She said she has seen so many changes in Mia and she knows it's because of the gospel. Her husband isn't a member and we got a lesson with her AND HIM this upcoming week!! She thinks the changes he has seen in Mia has been such a good thing for him!! He is interested and we teach him on Tuesday!! Patricia is has GOLD as ever! She told us this past Tuesday she knows she wants and needs to get baptized! She pulled put 2 Nephi 31 and explained to US that she needs to be baptized! Haha! She is praying about a date right now!! We lost contact with her for a few days this week because she was visiting some family, but she texted us telling us she missed us ha! She is so great! 

COOL MIRACLE!

OKAY! We were able to find new friends this week but the one new friend I want to talk about is Victor! He was a reference from missionaries in Texas and he had met with them for a bit! We received his contact WEEKS ago and haven't been able to have any contact with him! The sisters in Texas hadn't had any luck either, he just dropped off the face of the earth! So we sat down during weekly planning and prayed to tell God we were planning to drop him if he didn't answer us. HE ANSWERED WITHIN A FEW RINGS! What!! We decided to be bold with God and he told us what needed to happen. We had a lesson with Victor on Friday and he is SO GREAT! We dropped off a Book of Mormon the next day and he just happened to be in front of his house so we got to meet him!! We had another lesson last night and he told us that he feels this church supports one another SO WELL and he wants to be apart of that. He loves how Gods plan is focused on family and we extended a baptismal invitation and he accepted with NO HESITATION! He is going to pray about a date and we are SO PROUD of him. We were able to get him a friend from the branch and WOW our members are the best!! 

One more miracle!! So we have been recieving so many referrals from Facebook! We got a referral and we felt like we should call this sister right away. We called and turns out she is a less active member that has been inactive for YEARS. She realized something was missing from her life when she had her cute little baby 2 months ago and began to have really bad post partum depression. She told us she knew that coming back to church was what she needed to do and she needed help doing it! HOW COOL. We are going to meet her in a few days! God cares about every one of his kids, members, less active, friends investigating the church, or just someone of the street. HE LOVES US ALL. So so cool!! 

God is not shy to show us what He wants us to do. Today I want to share of few quotes that I've found this week that have been SO helpful for me and I hope they can be something that you need to hear as well :)

"Your Father in Heaven knows your name and knows your circumstance. He hears your prayers. He knows your hopes and dreams, including your fears and frustrations. And He knows what you can become through faith in Him." 

-Elder Holland

"It’s impossible to live a perfect life. Only one man was able to live perfectly while dwelling on this telestial planet. That was Jesus Christ. Although we may not be perfect, brothers and sisters, we can be worthy: worthy to partake of the sacrament, worthy of temple blessings, and worthy to receive personal revelation."

-Sister Cravens

I LOVE these 2 quotes. Our Father in Heaven KNOWS each of us individually. I know I am SO unbelievably hard on myself BUT I know that because we have our Savior, Jesus Christ, we don't need to be perfect right now. Just like Sister Craven said, Christ lived a perfect life. We might not be perfect (yet) but we sure can live a WORTHY life. When we live worthy, God will not be shy to rain down blessings. I know as each of us strive to make little improvements everyday, that because God knows our hearts, we will be able to progress EVERY DAY. As we TRY, we will be able to be the happiest we ever could be!!

This week I challenge each of you to find a small service to do for something else at least once a day. As we strive to help others, we will be able to become more like Christ!! 

I love each of you!! Thanks for following along in this crazy adventure with me!! HAVE THE BEST WEEK EVERYONE!!!

Love,

Hermana King :)