Letter and Pictures - Week 26

Hey!

So with this week being transfer week we all got our calls from President Herrington and Elder Moli and I will be staying in the same place. There are a lot of changes though with the other missionaries so we will have to deal with all of that. It will be fun. That's cool that Mom and Dad were able to go to visit the Hornes. All the missionaries love them. Miguel is the son of Sister Sarah and he is about 11. Ariana is doing well and has already found and started attending the ward out in Columbia. Alma is the mother of David. We have only taught a few times but she has started to read in the Book of Mormon. She hasn't come to church yet but hopefully next week she will come. She lives next to a strong member named Odellia who is around 20. Hopefully things work out well with Alma. We haven't been able to visit with David and Shatal unfortunately. We were out of our area a lot this week.  Elder Moli and I flew to Barbados to on Thursday evening and came back Saturday morning. We went to do an exchange with the Assistants to the President. I went with Elder Pape and Elder Moli went with Elder Stewart-Johnson. Both are exemplary missionaries. I learned a lot from them. They are so loving and selfless. We had a worldwide broadcast on Wednesday for all missionaries which was awesome. It was some really great training. I learned about the importance of the Spirit in teaching. Us as missionaries are vessels for the Spirit. The Spirit carries the message UNTO the heart of the people and not INTO the heart. God respects agency so much that he will not force anyone to have faith and repent but He is constantly inviting us to make the change and provides a way for to do so. My job as a missionary is to be worthy of the Spirit. We have been teaching a guy named Kevin recently who is really progressing. He is reading, praying, coming to church, has a date for baptism, and he even comes out teaching with us. He loves learning and has been progressing really well. Hope you all are doing well! I love you guys a ton!

Love,
Elder King

P.S. - Yep the McFarlane family were originally contacted by the Horne's and a lot came from it. I was blessed to be around them but yeah we had to walk a lot to get to them and teach them. Lots of hills but it's a pretty road to get there. I enjoyed going up there.  There are public places to wash clothes and shower.

BAPTISM OF JOHNATHAN!

 

Elder Moli taught him with his companion Elder Hardy and then was transferred so Elder Hardy and Elder Platt (the other two in the photo) continued to teach him and he was able to be baptized on Saturday. Elder Platt is the DL and since Elder Moli taught him before I performed the interview for him on Friday and it was a really spiritual experience. Johnathan was well prepared and he has a strong testimony and a desire to be baptized. Others tried to put doubts in his mind and question his judgment but he pushed forward determined. He was really happy and also nervous but it was a great experience for him and for me. He later that day came out teaching with Elder Moli and I and he really helped our investigators understand the Spirit which was way cool. We just sat back as they talked together. He is a great guy and loves the gospel.

 

This is Sister Sarah's and Sister Tessa's family. Both are members who live next to each other. Sometimes we go and have a combined family home evening with them. It's fun. Sister Tessa isn't in the pic. But in there is Ariana, Miguel, and the little girl in Sister Sarah's arms and these three and her kids. Then there is Nelida and Nile who are Sister Tessa's kids. In the back in Zidanne who you all saw on Skype. :)

Today, for P-day we went to Pigeon Island which is an old fort on top of these hills on the coast. You can look up more about it but it was pretty cool. It had a great view. 

Pirate ship sailing in the ocean

THIS IS GORDON HUMOR ALL THE WAY!

Enemy ships ahoy!! Fire the cannons! Boom Boom....oh no they're firing back at us! ahhh look out!

Letter and Pictures - Week 25

Another week down! Next week I'll hit my 6th month mark and will be 1/4 of the way complete with my mission! As I think about it I think of how nice it will be to be finished and then I also think of how much I will miss the work here. It is such a blessing to be a missionary and to have an impact on people's lives. There is a lot of joy that comes from missionary service. It's often called the Labor of Love and we all need at one point a helping hand from someone who reached out of love. Then I think of the Savior and his hands how they are always extended out to each of us. He extends them out of love for us. I know our Savior lives and loves each one of us. I know we have a loving Heavenly Father. I know they both, out of love, want each of us to return to our Father's Heavenly home. All we have to do is reach to the Savior and believe in him and his loving words. But the end of my mission is a ways away which is cool because there is a lot more goodness and love to spread around. This week was good. Unfortunately we weren't able to visit with Alma and Shatal and David. They were busy but hopefully we will catch them a couple times next week. Shatel and Joseph we saw once. They are looking for a way to get to church. We talked with them about the book of mormon and read with them to help them with understanding what they read. No real progress with those other three. It was also hard to visit them. We spent a good deal of time with Ariana and preparing her for her baptism which went very well on Saturday. She was so excited to be baptized and confirmed a member and receive the Holy Ghost. She took everything in that we taught and started applying it to her life. She absolutely loves the gospel and I've never seen anyone progress so quickly. She was so happy before and after her baptism and confirmation. She felt so good and I don't think it will be a day she will every forget. She will be a good influence on her friends and family back in Columbia as she has already been such a good influence on her mother and brother (Sister Sarah and Miguel). She wants to share the gospel with all those around her. It's been so great to see the impact of the gospel on her life. Yeah I just interviewed Johnathan but it was such a great experience for me to do so. I felt the Spirit really strong. Elder Moli and his companion, Elder Hardy, found and started teaching Johnathan. He actually just gave his first talk on Sunday and it was really good. The ship was changed after the movie. It's now like a tourist ship where people can pay a bit to take a ride and sail around. The beginning of the first movie was filmed here in St. Lucia. Yeah Sister Stewart, who was in my mtc district, and Sister Nelson, who I served with down in Vieux Fort, both got there purses stolen with a lot of there stuff in them. It wasn't cool and Sister Nelson was shaken up a bit about it. They are okay though. I'm glad they didn't get physically hurt. It would be scary to have that happen. We started teaching a few new people this week. There are three that have a lot of potential. They are Ron, Maverick, and Tyson. All three are searching for the truth. Hopefully we can give them the direction they need to find it in a way that they will exercise their faith and find it. I know this Church contains the fullness of truth that will heal us and set us free if we let it. I love you all and I hope that you all have a great week!

 

Love, 

Elder King

 

Elder Wallentine, Elder Moli, Ariana, and Elder King. I baptized and the other two witnessed.

 

Today, we all as a zone played soccer! Though there was a bit of mud from the rain yesterday! Super fun with everyone slipping and sliding around :)

 

Letter and Pictures - Week 24

Man this transfer is flying by! I feel like I just started it but it's already the start of week 5! This week was great. Monday - Volleyball! And we had FHE with a family in the branch who were baptized about a year ago. Tuesday - We taught an older guy named Alfred who wants to be baptized. We are trying our best to help him understand more about baptism and the gospel because he believes all he has to do is be baptized to be saved. We are trying to help him develop faith. We also taught a family the restoration and it went over pretty well. The names are Kevin(Father), Velma (girlfriend to the father), Craig (Father's son), and Princia (Sisters to either Kevin or Velma and then there are lots of little kids. We are trying to continue to teach them. Wednesday - we contacted a cool young couple with 3 kids who love learning about the gospel. Names Shatel and Joseph. They were taught before a couple times by other missionaries but they have a hard time getting transport to church otherwise they would be golden. We started teaching a 14 year old girl of a member who is leaving to Columbia this next week and she will be baptized on Saturday. Her name is Ariana and her Mom is Sister Sarah. We teach everyday and she loves it and has a strong testimony. She has been coming to church for a while now. Fastest baptism ever! haha It's been way fun to teach her. Thursday - More teaching and finding. Friday - Interview for Johnathan. Saturday - Baptism of Johnathan. Sunday - Confirmation of Johnathan. I'm running out of time but it was a great week. Love you all lots! Thanks for writing! Have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder King

 

Today for P-Day we went down to the Marina and saw the Black Pearl from Pirates of the Caribbean and got to go on the boat and take some pics! It was awesome! There were two boats there. The first was used in the movie in the background. It was filmed here in St. Lucia to start and then the rest was filmed on the island of St. Vincent. The original actually sank during filming and the second was built after the movies and is used to take people on tours. Both were cool to see.

 

 

 

 

 

Elder Moli and I. And in case you forgot cause it's been a while Elder Moli is on the left and I'm on the right ;) It's been great serving with him. I look up to him a lot!

 

 

The two Samoan's who sang. Elder Lameta on the left who came out the same time as me and then Elder Ropati on the right who's been out for over a year. They are companions right now. They are fun :)

 

 

 

Letter Home - Week 23

Hey guys!

 

This week we got to spend a little more time in our area but there was still a bit of other matters that we had to tend to. We are blanking the area so we don't have a big teaching pool as of now but we have a few who we have high hopes for. We contacted into a younger couple named Shatal and David who are expecting soon and really want to start their family with Christ in their lives. They are really searching. We have taught only once but it was a good finding lesson to see what they want out of life and what they are looking for. We have really been working around the members to find people to teach and also been talking to as many people as we can. There's another lady named Louise who is in her 20's that we contacted into and taught a lesson who has a lot of questions and seems really interested. We had an MLC or mission leadership council meeting this week. It was kinda intimidating to me to be around so much experience as there were the mission president and his wife, the AP's to the president, and all the other zone and sister training leaders in the mission present. It is so great to learn from their experience. The meeting went about 4 hours and was inspiring. We will be having a zone mtg. tomorrow where Elder Moli and I will take the things from the mtg. and teach it to the zone. It's great to hear about all the fun you guys are having. It's such a wonderful time of the year. I love that precious time with family. I'm so jealous of what Jay gets to experience! That tour sounds absolutely incredible! At the request of Kim my new years resolution is to study more about Christ and his character and to strive to become like him. I hope also to dive more into the book of Mormon and be able to use this amazing gift and tool to bless the lives of those I teach. I love you guys so much! Hope you all have a great week and please write! I love hearing from you all! Thank you for the efforts of those who do write me. I really appreciate it :)

 

Love,

Elder King

Letter Home - Week 22

A note about this letter:  I asked Gordon to give us more detail on the people he's worked with in Vieux Fort.  I'm compiling a list of his contacts and baptisms with information about each.

 

Hey Family,

 

It was great to see and actually talk with you guys! I loved it so much. I spent time writing about the different people that I taught this week. Shantel's mother's name is Shaunta. Shaunta is a member and is dating a member named Dannus. Earl is a carpenter. Rodrique works at a warehouse and is dating Mamma Sherba's daughter named Veena and they have a daughter named Skii(sky). Ambrose is a mechanic but did not work with Earl. They are friends at church but live in different areas. Ambrose lives in the main part of Vieux Fort while Earl lives up in the hills of Vigier. Sherline and Shequan kept being taught by the missionaries. She is a really strong Catholic though and so it was hard for her to get away from the ties she had there. I will need to follow up to see if she is still being taught. Christian stopped working with Ambrose and started work elsewhere. He stopped coming to church and the impression I felt from him was that he didn't really want us meeting with him and for quite a time lost contact with him. It was really sad to see. Max didn't want to give up drinking and smoking. He too was kinda running away from us and lost contact with him. Lenelle(Patrick's father) is cousin's with the McFarlane boys. I think the relation is on Pauline's side. Patrick does security at a local school and other things as well. Both Patrick and Lenelle are progressing towards baptism but the hard part is finding transportation to church. James Daniel became really hard to find home and teach. He never came to church and wasn't reading in the book of Mormon. He has health problems and one day we heard he was in the hospital so we went to visit him. He didn't look to good. He couldn't really communicate but the impression we got from him was that he didn't want us there so we left. That was the last I saw him. The strange thing was that we were told that he wanted us there by another person. Patrice comes to church a lot and she loves it. She has a daughter around 10 years of age. Patrice has a hard time understanding but has a good heart. Hopefully she will continue in her faithfulness and one day when the understanding comes become a baptized member of the church. Nash is an older guy about 63 I think. He lives with his brother named Stephen that he takes care of. Stephen has been in and out of the hospital for his blood pressure. Nash is a good guy but struggles with applying his faith in God. He came to church once but not since and because of his eyesight has a hard time reading the book of Mormon.  Urania is Megan's mother. Her grandma is named Sis. Baptist and she is a faithful member with a strong testimony. Megan I think will get baptized soon but the mother is struggling with her faith. She is letting other things keep her from going forward. It is really sad to see when people give up and quit pursuing answers from Heavenly Father. One thing I've learned about when we seem to hit a road block or when the road we are traveling gets rocky is that if we SEEK(a verb which mean action is required) help from the Lord. Just like Joseph Smith we need to turn to God in prayer and scripture/gospel study to FIND answers to our problems. Matt 7:7-8 It requires patience and faith but to those who are really seeking and really desire it answers do come. If we read Moroni's promise in the back of the book of Mormon(Moroni 10:3-5) it tells us that in order to gain answers and receive revelation from God we need to do something first. We have to pay the price to receive the reward. It won't just be given to us but the promise is there. If we do our part answers do come. I love you guys so much and I hope you all have a fabulous New Years!

 

Love,

Elder King