Letter Home - Week 17

Hola mi familio,
 

Thanksgiving is this week! Hope you guys have fun! Today us Elders went to a field  for p  day and played a little touch football :) It was fun. We are going having our Thanksgiving feast today! I'm excited. Last week I was just a few days of feeling discouraged and because of the gospel I've bounced back and feeling really good! I'm happy :) I love the work and it just puts a smile on my face being a missionary. It also makes me happy to see how well things are going with you guys at home. I love you guys and can't wait until Christmas to skype you all :) One month! Next week will be my four month mark and it feels like time is just flying. It's really great weather down here right now by the way ;) Haha hope you guys stay warm! It feels like it's still the summer for me. The families we are teaching are doing really well. Ambrose if all goes well will be baptized this Saturday! He has made some great changes in his life. He loves God and wants to serve him to the end. I'm happy for him and the decisions he is making and has made. Earl will follow Ambrose the following week to join his family as a member of the church. :) Earl has made some big changes as well. He has really come a good way since I first met him. He has really been able to humble himself before God and gain a testimony of the Gospel. He has a strong testimony now of the Church. Megan who is one of the members grand daughter has been really faithful. She reads prays and comes to church each week. She is 16 and has a testimony. We were finally able to start teaching her mom together with her and we had a couple really good lessons with them. Hopefully the mom comes around so they can be baptized together and that their relationship together blossoms. There are a couple ladies that we started teaching that I feel really good about. I believe they are prepared for the Gospel. Their names are Natalie and Andrina. We've only taught one lesson to each so we will see what comes of it. There is also this guy named Gregory that I feel good about as well. He is looking for the truth and has started going through the book of mormon. He has great questions. He really wants to change his life. Rodrique is doing awesome! He loves the gospel and is so faithful. He will be a great blessing to the branch down here. He seems like a leader. The McFarlane boys are doing really well. Their family has been greatly blessed by the light of the gospel and they are seeing that. The mom Pauline is seeing her prayers answered of her whole family being part of the gospel. The Gospel just makes life sweet! There is good in everything. We just have to look for it. Love you all so much! Have a great week and take care!

 

Love,

Elder King

 

P.S. - The district mtgs are going really well. I'm learning a lot about how to be a better teacher and leader. It's cool. I've done two and tomorrow I'll do my third one. The first time I went through a Enos 1 verse 12 about desires and faith to help motivate the missionaries to take the good desires they have and nurture them with their faith. To have the faith to find ways to help their desires of being great missionaries come true. The missionaries in my district are already amazing and are really obedient. They inspire me to be a better missionary and I learn a lot from them. Last district mtg I talked about Christ like attributes to help build us missionaries up to them in turn help build our investigators up. Both I felt like went really well. I do attend ward council mtgs along with all the other missionaries. No pec. I take part with Elder Horne(branch president who is from Orem and is returning home in January. He also owns Talons Cove golf course. I thought Mike might like that. He and his wife are absolutely amazing and are a big help to us missionaries.) and Bro. Hippolyte(First Counselor from St. Lucia) in the weekly mtg before church where we discuss things about the branch. I sit on the stand and I assume one week I will conduct the Sacrament Mtg. Elder Odhiambo did when he was Second Counselor. I think they rotate between the three of us each month. So maybe next month it's my turn. I teach quite a bit as well in priesthood and gospel principles. Lots of work but I love it! Love you guys!

 

Love,

Elder King

Letter Home - Week 16

Hello!

 

Love you guys! Thanks for the emails and pictures! Dad to answer your question I don't do interviews for the branch but I do do the interviews for baptism. This week was hard for me but in the end turned into a beautiful one. I just felt really down. I was beating myself up for things that I later realized were out of my control. I was looking at all the negative and it made it really hard. I was looking at all the areas where I wasn't doing well and putting unnecessary stress on myself to improve all at once instead of taking things one thing at a time and like it says in the scriptures how we learn and grow line upon line and precept upon precept. We also need a plan for improvement or else we have no hope. I'm so grateful for our Heavenly Father's plan for us and how this Gospel gives us the hope we need. To get over my troubles I turned to our only source of hope. I turned to my Heavenly Father. I turned to the Gospel. It is our ray of hope in a dark world. Through Jesus Christ we have access to the power of the Atonement. Through him we can change. I focused on what I could do instead of what I couldn't. I prayed. I read in my scriptures. I read conference talks. I found answers to help me along and as I applied my faith to apply the gospel into my everyday life I started to feel a joy. I started to feel happy. I saw things in a different light. I felt better about myself. I was able to escape my head and my negative thoughts. My week finished off awesome! It was beautiful. The Gospel is true. I know it is. It fills my life with joy. I love you guys so much. Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder King

Letter Home - Week 15

Good morning from St. Lucia!

 

It's been an exciting week with all the new missionaries coming and old ones leaving. I miss them but I like the spirit and attitudes of the new ones. As district leader  I am in charge of overseeing the district and relaying information from the mission president, ap's, and zone leaders to the district. I carry out the teaching in district meetings which are basically reports and training within the district on how to be better and more effective missionaries. I take the nightly calls and make sure things run smoothly. With Elder Odhiambo gone I'm also now the Second Counselor in the branch. Mom, I do know Elder Taylor but the other one is new and I haven't met him yet but I will shortly. They are in my zone but not my district. There are now two districts up in castries with the flood of new missionaries and one still in vieux fort. Our investigators are doing very well. We had 8 of our investigators come to church this sunday which included christian and ambrose, earl, patrick and lenelle, patrice, nash, and megan. Nash is an older guy who we started teaching and he loves sitting down with us. He has a few things to try to overcome but he has a willing heart. Megan is 16 and we are going to start teaching her mom. She has some friends in the church and has been coming faithfully to church often. She is really cool. Patrice keeps reading in the book of mormon and is doing well. Patrick has been taking the lessons with Lenelle and we are preparing both to be baptized together. That will be a great day. We continue to see progress with christian and ambrose. The highlight for my week though would be yesterday when we were finally able to sit down with earl after church. I guess after the baptism of his kids it brought a lot of questions and some inner reflection for him. We had the one lesson after the baptism with him that was really good and then from there it's been between him and the Lord. Sitting down with him I noticed a change in him. We had a great lesson and during it he was talking and basically shared his testimony of the church which has been the things holding him back. We were able to point that out to him and it was really cool. We gave him a date to work towards and helped him understand that he needs to go into the book of mormon now to further his testimony. He is willing and I'm so excited for him. I think he will be ready to enter into the waters of baptism by that date and will be able to join his family as a member of the church. I was so happy during that lesson and Earl himself in the closing prayer mentioned that he loved it too and prayed that the next time will be even better. The church is true. I love it! Have a stellar week!

 

Love,

Elder King

Letter and Pictures - Week 14

Hey Family!

So this week has been really good. We've seen a lot of good progress with Ambrose! He came to church this week for all three hours and fasted the full 24 hours! He spirit has changed. He is more humble and his light is growing. I can see it. He has been reading in his scriptures each day and has quit smoking!! We have a baptism date for the 12 of December for him. With Christian we've also seen some changes. He has started becoming more involved and asking questions. We haven't been able to teach Earl since the baptism because of him being gone but he came to church this week. He still has the desire to be baptized but needs to gain a testimony first before he gets baptized. Patrick and Lenelle are doing well. Lenelle came to church again and this week when we went to go see him we found him studying in the book of mormon. Lenelle and his dad are reading the book of mormon together and we extended a baptismal date for the 5th of December. Hopefully he can be prepared by that date. These two are good people and deserve to have the blessings of the Gospel. We met and started teaching this lady named Patrice this week. She has a sweet spirit and has been keeping her commitments. She loves the book of mormon and she came out to church and another activity! She also has a baptismal date for the 19th of December. This week we got transfer calls from President Herrington. Elder Whipple and I will continue to work together in the same area! I'm really excited about that because there are some really cool people that I want to continue to teach. Elder Odhiambo though is leaving the island and going to Barbados to be a District Leader. He was the DL down here so guess what that means.. I got called to be the District Leader for the Vieux Fort area. It's going to be a good experience and I'm excited to serve! Down here they don't celebrate Halloween but Elder whipple and I bought a big bar of the toblerone chocolate! It was sooo good :) I loved seeing the pictures of your holiday adventures! Loved the pumpkins! Good job! The gospel is true and it's full of light and happiness! I'm glad to hear about all the good! Have a great week! 

Love,

Elder King

Lenelle reading and studying :) It made me so happy to see him doing this! He is 14 and is such a great example to his family. Such a good kid.

This is our new "apartment". It's a 3 bedroom house and cost the same as the other apartments. I like it.
     

Us with Christian Ambrose and Max :)

Oh and with the new apartment Elder Whipple and I are now biking back and forth from it! I like that part a lot :)
 

Letter Home - Week 13

Hey family!

I love you all! It's great to hear all the good that's happening! Keep doing good! This week has been really awesome! On Saturday we moved apartments. The one we moved into is way bigger and really nice. Then later on Saturday we had the baptism of Rodrique. I baptized him. He was so happy and felt very blessed. He got confirmed by Elder Whipple and received the priesthood yesterday! He has such great faith and such a great spirit about him. He will do a lot of good down here in the branch and in bringing souls unto Christ. We continue to work with him. Shantel and Petrus are doing really well. They have a lot of good support. We didn't meet with Earl this week but I talked with him on the phone and I felt something different about him. The boys were very happy and thankful to be baptized. They expressed that they felt really good. Kyle who is 13 paid his tithing the day he was confirmed. Nyle is 11 and Shane is 8. We talked with them about the priesthood and Kyle will most likely receive it next week. We started teaching Lenelle's dad who's name is Patrick. He is receptive to what we are teaching. They said they will start reading in the Book of Mormon together. Lenelle will be a big help and strength to his dad. His dad said that he has seen a change in Lenelle since going to church. We also have been teaching this older guy named James Daniel. We had a really spiritual lesson this week with him. He said something really cool. He said,"I know it's true...I know it and cannot deny it" He just needs help in turning to Christ for help with overcoming his addictions. It's good to hear things worked out with the car! Looks nice. I'm proud of Jay. Keep on going bro! Love ya man! I hope the locker is doing okay... I wouldn't want to take a kick from Kaylee ;) Hope her foot heels quick! Mom hope all goes well with the ms keep on fighting! Glad to hear that the school year has started off successful for you Dad! Hope mike is doing well! Love towards each of you and the Douglas clan! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder King