BEST WEEK

 How can it be the END of January?! What the heck! Time is flying way too fast! My prayers have started to become a lot of asking for time to slow down but I guess that's not what God has in mind! Ha! This week was a GREAT one:) 

I am extending my challenge first thing today! I want to invite you all to write down services that people do for you throughout your day. Or one a day for a week! (Ex. I walked into the store and this kind man opened the door!) I promise you will be happier every single day. :)

Here are some highlights!

- we had 3 back to back to back Stake Coordination Meetings with Stake Presidencies and communication directors! We are reevaluating all of our social media efforts and plans as a mission with each stake! So we got to see our mission president a lot this week which was THE BEST! He is the best and my best friend!!!

-  we got to go film an advertisement this week with some of the greatest missionaries! We drove quite a lot this week which was so fun to get out of our office and drive throughout parts of the mission! Our mission has a little bit of everything! From beaches to open fields and HORSES haha! It's the best:)

- this week we went to the Lakeland zone twice and when we pulled in to the church parking lot last Thursday I had a feeling like we weren't supposed to be there. We thought we needed to go to Wendys. It was like 7 at night but we looked at each other and felt we needed to. Long story short, we walked in and the cashier was who we needed to meet. Her name is Ke'Ara and she noticed we were missionaries and started asking a bunch of questions about our journeys and what we do! All of her coworkers came over and started listening and talking! Ke'Ara looked at us and said she was needing us. She is deciding to get back on the right path back to Jesus and she called us her miracle! She is 23 and so we scheduled a lesson with the YSA Sisters! She is ELECT and so happy about learning more. She told us she believes we have something important to teach her! 

- we had so many district trainings this week! We have been doing social media exchanges with each district! It has been great to see all of the missionaries(over Zoom haha) 

- I got to see Hermana Breshears AND Hermana Marler this week and I MISS THEM so much

- we also had INTERVIEWS IN PERSON this week with President AND Sister Hollingsworth! This interview was the best interview I have ever had since being on my mission! He sat down with me and told me everything I needed to hear, he asked all the right questions and listened to me with SO MUCH LOVE AND PATIENCE. I know one of the reasons I have been called to the Florida Tampa Mission is because of President Hollingsworth. 100%! I feel so grateful and so blessed. 

Today we had a very eye opening experience. We were at Walmart and in the parking lot we saw this lady screaming and swearing at this guy. I felt so embarrassed for her. The guy walked away after saying sorry and we went over to him to ask if he was okay. He had been having a hard day and accidentally got in this lady's way. It just reminds me that we are ALL GODS CHILDREN. No one is the exception! 

A quote that popped into my head when thinking about this is one from President Nelson. “Whom wouldst Thou have me help today?”

Everyday brings opportunities to serve. Not just to serve but to find not only God's children but our brothers and sisters to help. We all have bad days, we all have trials, but we also all have the Spirit that can help us during those times. Every interaction we have with people should reflect our divine calling to represent Jesus Christ as lifelong disciples of Him:) 

You are all AMAZING examples to me and I love you SO MUCH!

Make this week the best:)

All my love!!!!

Hermana King :) 

- my favorite people

- sister moli made her famous teriyaki chicken

- us doing what we do everyday hahaha

- CUTE SISTER HOLLINGSWORTH 

- cutest sisters that we got to visit

- funnest time filming the ad!

- LAKELAND SISTERS

- we're officially part of the USF crew

- MY FAVORITE PEOPLE EVER

Blessings on blessings type of week : )

 Hello!!! I still can't believe it's JANUARY! I hope you all had the best week:)

This week was busy!! I'll keep it brief!

- we have been doing companionship trainings ALL week! Each training is 30 minutes and we've done over 50! And we aren't quite done yet...it honestly has been so fun to see each of the companionships get excited about using this new tool that our President is excited about! 

- coming into the mission I was so excited to meet everyone! With the corona virus we have had everything virtual and so it's been hard to meet the missionaries! BUT I feel so lucky to be in a position where I literally get to meet EVERYONE! 

- I hit 14 months this past week and it's CRAZY how fast time is flying! I am so grateful to be on my mission!! I NEVER WANT IT TO END.

- i tried a new food! It's called Musubi and its seaweed, rice and spam and I'm a fan! It's different but super good!

- we got locked out of our apartment on Sunday because the Sisters we live with felt like they needed to lock the garage door but that was our way in so as soon as Sister Moli and I got home and realized what had happened we were LAUGHING. We got back in our car and headed back to the church and watched videos for the rest of "lunch" THEN the Elders that we work with (President calls us a quad companionship haha) came to our room and said they had made some extra food they wanted us to try! They had no idea we hadn't eaten! TALK ABOUT LITTLE MIRACLES haha!! 

- we also has MLC this week!!! It was all about goals and alllll virtual! It was one of the best MLC'S I have gone to. We knelt in prayer as leadership to pray about our goals and President Hollingsworth said one of the most powerful prayers I have ever heard. I am so grateful for the Florida Tampa Mission!!!!

Something that is different about my mission right now is I'm not having continuous spiritual experiences. I'm not teaching lessons, I'm not contacting anyone and I'm not proselyting at all. Something I have noticed is the importance of trying to see God's hand in my life on a daily basis. I have been able to rely on the Spirit and rely on seeing small miracles throughout the day. I would love to hear from each of you on a miracle you have seen in the past week! :)

I wanted to share a really cool experience Sister Moli and I had yesterday at church. Like I've said in the past, we aren't assigned to a ward and so we attend the ward that meets in the building where the mission office is where we work. We were sitting in Sacrament meeting and Sister Moli turned to me and said she felt like we should check the foyer to the right of us! We got up and checked..no one, we checked outside..no one. The Sacrament was about to start and Sister Moli headed in but I was running the the other side..she asked me where I was going and I said to follow me because we were not suppressing a prompting from the Spirit. We made it to the other side and there was no one there. Sister Moli ran to the door and we checked outside..no one...for a few seconds..then we made eye contact with this guy in his car. We ran over to him and basically opened the door of his car and asked him what is name was! He said his name was Michael and that he was afraid to come in. WELP. We told him that he could come in with us and we'd go together:) He had met with the Sisters one other time and wanted to see our service. He came and sat by us in the back and WE MADE IT so he could partake of the Sacrament. We explained what it was and as it took the bread and water tears came streaming down his face. As the meeting concluded we started talking about his life story and he had fallen a few years back and barely made it. He had super bad head trauma and he said he heard the words "I gave you another chance. Go do my will." He had been looking for a way to change his life and accomplish everything God had in store. We were all in tears and we told him how proud God was of him for being there and how much he is loved. We passed him to the Sisters right then and there and they had a lesson in the chapel. Sister Moli and I went to our room and just sat for a bit. These are experiences in my mission that I will never forget. We are here as missionaries to help our brothers and sisters remember where they came from and how much they are loved. Well this earth is one big mission right? We are all called to be missionaries. We all have the Spirit with us. It's up to us to follow it. I am grateful for Michael and I am grateful for my companion. I am grateful for the example that I have to follow from our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

I want you all to write down the miracles you see throughout the week. And I can promise you that through the Holy Ghost, God will tell you someone you need to serve this week. So my invitation is to ACT and DO:) 

I love you all!!! I pray for you all!!!

Love,

Hermana King:) 

Pics:)

- we ate peppers doing MLC 

- Hermana Marler was dropping her companion off for transfers and so I got to see her!!!!

- Sister Moli and I made MUSUBI

- we had over 25 hours of meetings this week so this is what every companionship saw hahaha

- our red eyes 

- we started doing Bible ads on Facebook Marketplace and BOOM it's working!!!

- we don't have in person exchanges so we did a mini exchange with the sweetest sisters!

- Sister Moli cut her hair so we celebrated with the yummiest acai bowls! 

- the Elders always try to screenshot us in our best moments 

"When is the soonest we can implement this?" BLESSINGS.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! HAPPY 2021!! Holy cow that's crazy! I can't believe I was in Perú last year for New Years. Crazy what a year can do, right?

Well this week was a big one for social media of the Florida Tampa Mission! I won't take too much time for this but I'll share a few highlights:)

-we met with Tom Larsen (top dawg at the social media department) and we walked him through our new process that we were wanting to roll out in the mission and he LOVED IT. We got to pick his brain and it was so crazy to hear about how they receive revelation. Social media really is a tool that the Lord needs us to use to hasten His work.

-we got to meet with our area leader, Lee Donaldson! We asked him about how we can take best practices from other missions to put into our plan here in the FTM!

-we met with several missions from ALL over the country getting stats and picking their brains about using their personal profiles to find people!

-that brings us to last Saturday when we had our BIG presentation with President Hollingsworth to present to him our idea we had spent over a week working on. After the 45 minutes were over, he looked at us with the biggest smile and asked "when is the soonest we could implement this? All of  it." WE WERE SHOCKED. Last time there was a lot of questions and this time around there were absolutely none. 

-starting this week, we are able to train missionaries on using their personal profiles to find, teach and baptize! They will be able to join groups, use zip codes to find people in their areas and more. This has taken 9 months to get approved by our mission president and we are so grateful for this next chance to use a new tool to hasten the Lords work!!

-another super great thing happened this week was that we started running a different type of ad that basically replicates a media referral from the church and so as a social media council, we got to act as the referral center for our mission! So many referrals were coming in and we got to input all the information and pass these people on!!

It's been different not teaching people or finding people for my own companionship to teach but there's something that is so special about finding people and sending them to specific companionships that we know will be the best for these people.

Each calling that we are given in life brings different responsibilities BUT it also brings so many different kinds of blessings. Coming on my mission I thought I was going to be finding people, teaching people and helping them enter in to the waters of baptism. Right now, my calling is to really help others bring people unto Christ. It has been the most humbling experience I have had on my mission so far. 

I wanted to share a quote with you all from Sister Wixom.

"Because you are His child, He knows who you can become. He knows your fears and your dreams. He relishes your potential. He waits for you to come to Him in prayer. Because you are His child, you not only need Him, but He also needs you."

Sometimes I lose sight of my identity, of who I am or even who I am becoming. Those times happen and I am sure we all feel like it sometimes, but then because of those times we are able to feel and see a change in ourselves when we kneel and ask for help from our Heavenly Father. Our Heavenly Father loves us. He really does. We are His children. As the new year starts it is the PERFECT time to start this year with the knowledge of WHO we are. And that is loved children of a loving Heavenly Father.

I pray for you each day! I love you all so much!

Hermana King:) 

-filming for an advertisement with the funnest sisters!

-we ran into our district leader and his companion TWICE this week haha!

-our car got heart attacked by the sweetest sisters 

-we celebrated Seour Moulton's 2 months today!

-we danced to the new youth album this morning when we realized it came out haha!! 

-what we do all day haha