Letter Home - Week 21

Hey Everybody!

 

This week has been crazy busy. Unfortunately, not much proselyting was done though. With transfers missionaries were leaving and new ones coming in so Elder Moli and I had to make sure everything worked out with that. We were basically a taxi service picking up and taking people to the airport and a lot of other miscellaneous things. And yes that means we have a car and no Elder Moli cannot drive. So before all of this I had to get a driving permit for here in St. Lucia and immediately after start driving on the left side of the road. It's been fun. It's different but not as bad as I thought. I've been here for almost 5 months so I'm used to being on the left side. If I were to start immediately driving from when I first arrived here in St. Lucia it would be harder to transition. We had a Branch Christmas Luau Party on Friday and it was awesome! It felt like a ward party back home. I like the Branch up here in Castries. There's a lot more kids and youth and it feels like a family. I'm blanking our area which means that neither Elder Moli or I were working in it so we are doing our best to find people to teach and build up our teaching pool. We are doing what we can to work closely with the members and teach their friends and family. I find that that works best and a lot of success can be found in doing so. Elder Moli is from Tonga and is one of the hardest working missionaries I know. I will learn a lot from him during my time serving with him as I have already learned a lot just this past week. He has been out 10 months. He is super obedient, he gets things done, and he really loves the people. I saw this love when we went to visit a family he had been teaching for the last time. Saying goodbye he broke down in tears. It was really hard for him to leave them. I heard Patrick and Lenelle both accepted to work towards a baptismal date this past week and Patrick came to church. He only came once a while ago and hadn't been back for many weeks. Junior is also doing really well. He as an investigator has already started going out with the missionaries teaching. He is on ch. 20 in the book of Mormon and came not only to church the past two weeks but also an activity today and the baptism for Earl. He is awesome. I love to see it when people are changing their lives. I love to see the light and happiness that follows making the right choices. Choose the right let the consequence follow. Hope you all have a great time this Christmas Season and I'll see you all on Friday!!

 

Much Love,

Elder King

Letter and Pictures - Week 20

Well it's been a fun time serving in the Vieux Fort Branch but it has come to a close. Now I will be up in the Castries Branch which is on the other side of the island in St. Lucia. I've finished my time with Elder Whipple and how great those 12 weeks were. I loved serving with him. He is a great missionary. He is hardworking and obedient while still being able to have fun. I will now be serving as Zone Leader with Elder Moli who has been the Zone Leader for St. Lucia. Both of us will be ZL's as he will be training me to be one. All I can say is....crazy.... but I'm happy to do it and to serve and help out in the Zone where I can. Earl's baptism was amazing. It went super well. I was privileged to be the one to perform it and Elder Horne confirmed him a member and gave him the Holy Ghost. I can probably get you guys there contact info so you can meet them. As for Skype, unfortunately because of location and inaccessibility I was sadly informed that it will not be happening....not on Christmas or any other day...only email as usual. Maybe it will work out for mother's day but we will see. Love you guys tons and I hope you don't hate me for nearly giving you a heart attack for making a funny joke ;) sorry but I had to haha. Of course there will be Skype on Christmas and I can't wait!! I will make note of mike's schedule to make sure that we Skype after 12:00 your time or 3:00 our time. Definitely send me your Skype name. There was this guy named Junior that is 21 that Elder Whipple and I started teaching and he is progressing really fast. He is awesome and I am sure he will be baptized soon. I'm sad I don't get to see it through. This past week was fun but hard. I hate goodbyes. It was hard to leave the people in Vieux Fort as I've loved serving them so much. It was so amazing and I am grateful for the time I had to spend there and the people I was able to meet. I love you guys tons! 10 days!!! Hope you all have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder King

 

Earl at his baptism!

 

 

 

Elder Whipple and Elder Tye witnessed and I performed the baptism. I asked Earl how he felt after and he said that he felt great! He was a happy guy. He was saddened when I told him that I was leaving. I will miss their family but I'm glad to see them all get baptized before I left.  

 

 

Ambrose and Gaius were baptized together. I'm happy that I was able to see them get baptized as well before I left. I was able to interview Gaius and he is an awesome guy. 

 

 

 

I witnessed along with Unan(member who is turning in his papers to be a missionary) the baptism of Ambrose and then I gave Ambrose the Holy Ghost. It basically was a blessing of strength against temptation. Then Unan baptized Gaius(who was taught by the sister missionaries) and Elder Whipple and I witnessed. Unan helped a lot in the teaching of Gaius.

 

 

 

Hiked to a cool waterfall two p-day's ago. The hike lasted about 30 seconds...hahah  Last p-day we went on a bus tour around the island which was cool and then this p-day we had a zone activity at a beach and played some volleyball. 

 

 

 

After the 30 second hike we went on a real hike that went almost straight up this mountain. It was a sweet hike. Those peaks that you see are called the Pitons. There are two of them and they are incredible.

 

 

 

Bamboo Bunch! Saw this on the hike

 

 

 

Another pic from the hike and you can see one of the pitons

 

 

 

Pic from the tour around the island. It was a gorgeous view.

 

 

 

 

Letter Home - Week 19

Good afternoon!
 

This week has been a good week. My understanding about faith grew a lot this week. I've been thinking a lot about improving myself and my missionary efforts. The spirit is really an amazing teacher if we listen. I found many things that I can do. I wanted to change what I was doing right then but unless I did something and applied my faith nothing would change. It was something the spirit really helped me to see and it was a great blessing to me this week. The Christmas Devotional was exceptional and so inspiring. I hope you guys got the chance to see it last night. I've personally been working on faith this week for my Christlike attribute. I've set goals and tried different ways to make sure I achieve them. Earl's baptism got pushed back a week so we could finish all the lessons but we are excited for this Saturday. We had a really special lesson with him on Saturday night where the spirit was so strong. We watche the restoration video and shared testimonies after. Dad I'll work on compiling info for each person for you guys this week. I hope you all are having a wonderful christmas time! It truly is a wonderful time of year to reflect on the Savior. Love you all! Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder King

Letter Home - Week 18

Hey guys!

 

This week was jam packed with things to do! On Monday we had a thanksgiving dinner that was provided by Elder and Sister Horne. It was amazing! Reminded me of home. We had all the missionaries on the island there at the church and had a great time. Tuesday was district mtg where I taught about our purpose as missionaries. They all really enjoyed the mtg. One of the zone leaders and his companion came down for it and then after we went on a trade off. So I was with the zone leader and Elder Whipple went up to Castries for 24 hours. It was a good experience. I learned some good things as Elder Malyon (from London and yes he has a cool accent) and I taught a few people from my area. Friday we had zone conference with President and Sister Herrington. It took up the whole day but it was worth it. I loved the spiritual boost that came from it. It helped me think about and focus on some areas where I could improve and some areas where Elder Whipple and I could improve as comps. Saturday was the baptism of Ambrose and Gaius. Gaius is Sister Maughan's and Sister Nelson's investigator and he is really cool. I had the opportunity this week to interview him. The gospel has blessed both of their lives. We taught Dorothy on Saturday with her mom and brother. She read what we gave her last time and she is understanding what we teach. She had questions and we were able to answer them. She was really accepting and believing. We invited her to start reading from the book of mormon to gain her testimony and to really find out for herself the truth. We also went up to Earl's home and taught him. We've been teaching him about the different commandments and he has been really receptive to what we teach. He has changed a lot. His prayers when we invite him to pray at the end are really heartfelt and you can see the love that he has for God and his family. He is a good man. We hope all goes well this week and that he will be baptized this Saturday. On Sunday we gave Ambrose and Gaius the Holy Ghost. Since Elder Whipple baptized Ambrose I gave him the Holy Ghost and Elder Horne gave Gaius the Holy Ghost. After teaching some good lessons there was an area seventies broadcast for the carribean. We were able to teach a less active named Ange and bring him with us to teach Natalie who is very accepting and really understands and also to the broadcast. Then today as a district we went on a hike that was absolutely gorgeous! It was an adventure! Thanksgiving for you all sounded like fun! I bet the Elders were absolutely stuffed by the end of the day! Hope you all have a fantastic week!

 

Love,

Elder King