Letter and Pictures - Week 30

Hey guys!

This week has been good. We went on a trade off with the DL in Vieux Fort and his companion on Friday(Elder Alldredge and Elder Tye). On Tuesday we went on trade off with Elder Wallentine and Elder Powell. I went down to Vieux Fort with Elder Tye. It was fun to go back down there. I've been down there a couple times since being up here in Castries and have been able to see some of the people down there. I've seen Earl and Ambrose. They are doing well. It was a fun time going with Elder Tye. We did some good work and we found a few people who I believe are prepared by the Lord to be taught by the missionaries. I went with Elder Powell in our area. He is a great missionary and he has great desires to do the work. When I went on trade off last week with Elder Platt we contacted into this lady named Joan and she is really cool. She's looking for the truth. We gave her a book of Mormon when we met her and she's already reading. We had a good first lesson this week and hope things continue to go well. We met with Shenelle a couple times this week. She started reading as well. Sadly she and Villia didn't come to church.  Both said they would come. We don't know why they didn't but we will follow up on that when we meet with them. This week we have MLC and Zone Conference. We leave to Barbados right after we finish emailing for MLC and then after we get back we have Zone Conference. It will be fun. I'm excited for it. It also means though that we will be out of our area a lot this week. Hopefully we can make it productive and still do some good work during the little time we have. I love you guys! Hope you all have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder King

 

FHE at Sister Sarah's! Kevin came along with us. She made us some really good fish cakes. I'm not sure what they are called but they were really good. After we had the lesson we ate and played a fun game. It was a good time.

 

 

Visiting Ambrose with Elder Tye this week.

 

 

Letter and Pictures - Week 29

Hey Family!

It's good to hear you all had a good week. Though I hope those who are sick get better. I enjoyed participating in the fast for Jay. I had to make a sacrifice and pass up a good meal(they had cake and ice cream too) with all the missionaries at a members house but it was worth it for Jay :) I'm glad to hear he joined in on the fast as well. It means a lot to hear all the good progress and changes that are occurring in his life. I too feel that he will be a blessing to others with his exemplary acts of faith and trust in the Lord. He is already a good example to me. This week we had zone mtg. It was amazing. Elder Moli and I taught along with the Sister Training Leaders (Sister Maico and Sister Conrad) It was a powerful lesson on the Atonement of Christ and repentance. The Spirit was so strong there and it was moving. It caused me to reflect more into my life as a missionary and realize where I'm at and where I need to go. The Spirit prompted me to reach for higher and do more as it often pleads for us to do. It caused me to think of the Savior and his love for us. His selfless act was motivated by his perfect love for us and Heavenly Father. Learning of it makes me want show my love back to him by using the atonement more in my life. I want to develop greater love for others and for my Heavenly Father and I know that that change is possible through Christ and his gospel. I gave a talk in sacrament mtg this sunday. With the busy week I soon found that sunday morning was here and I had yet to prepare. Oops. I had a little over an hour to prepare. It went way better than expected. The Spirt helped me along in preparation and in giving the talk. I thought it was really good. It was on our duties in life like our duty to God, to our families, and to others. I learned about how we have the obligation to first learn out duty and then to act and fulfill our duties. It was a powerful reminder to me that I can't become complacent and I constantly have to learn and remind myself of my duties and then go forward with faith and do them. Our main duty in life is to be obedient to God and his commandments. How we learn our duty is to prayerfully ask God to know, and the to seek an answer through studying in the scriptures, attending church/temple, and other classes and mtgs. It's been a great week. Hope you all have a great one!

Love,

Elder King

Kevin: Doesn't work but is looking for a job. He lives with his parents and has a small room where he sleeps and studies under his parents home. He comes out with us teaching most days since we have to have a male present at each lesson we teach to women. He enjoys it and is learning a lot. It's amazing to see his understanding improve day by day. He is still learning but it's great to see things coming along. He puts in a lot of hard work to learn and grow. He has a strong desire to follow Christ. He is working towards March 5th.

Villia: She does housekeeping. She loves animals. She has a lot of little puppies and cats. She also has some bigger farm animals. She too wants to change and follow Christ. She wants to be baptized and she is working towards March 12th. We taught the plan of salvation last night to her. She enjoyed it. She is always so welcoming to us.

We've met some other cool people the past couple weeks. Ariana's(the one we baptized) mother, Sister Sarah, has a friend who has been taught before by the missionaries named Kim. She actually referred the missionaries over to Sister Sarah and she got baptized a year ago but Kim never got baptized. She is now seeking help and wants the same change that Sister Sarah had occur in her life. We had a finding lesson with her and she just opened up to us. She talked a lot but when there was a pause we bore powerful testimony that the gospel will help her. We gave her a book of Mormon and invited her to read. She said she will. She's friends with Sister Sarah and talks with her. Sister Sarah wants to get involved and help out too. Hopefully things work out well and we will be able to help Kim build in faith and repent to lead her to baptism. I taught a guy named Tyson actually on an exchange with the DL (Elder Platt) and it was a great lesson on the restoration. He is so prepared. We invited him to be baptized and gave him a date to work towards (March 19). He readily accepted and is willing to do the things to prepare. He has realized in his life that the world has nothing to offer and he wants to turn his life to God.

Things are going well and I'm enjoying life here in the Caribbean! Love you guys!

The Zone :) from left to right

Top: Elder Nixon, Elder Platt, Elder Powell, Elder Wallentine, Elder Alldredge, Elder Miller, Elder Tye, Elder Hardy

Middle: Elder Mikesell, Sister Layton, Sister Campbell, Sister Maico, Sister Conrad, Sister Benn, Sister Nelson

Bottom: Elder King, Elder Ropati, Elder Moli, Elder Lameta, Elder Johnson

 

 

Letter and Pictures - Week 28

Hey guys!

Sounds like you all had a fun week! Full of good things. :) Last week at church there were a lot of tourists there on vacation. The ladies you talked with mom were there and we started talking and they asked where I was from and I obviously I told them Africa and they were like no way that's so cool! Then they said they were from Orem and I was like no way I know people from there! They are really awesome people! With all my enthusiasm she was like I definitely need to meet them and so she then got in contact with ya :) There are like 50-70 at church each week just like in Vieux Fort. The money each money is plenty but it's only used for certain things like food and travel. It's not used for souvenirs. Gas is normal but food is a little more expensive. Our apartment is nice and yes it has a shower in it. The missionaries are well taken care of. There are people here who's homes are very poor and then those that are really nice. Yes it's nice that we've found a good family to work with and progress to baptism. We teach them at different times though. Shatal is 3 months along with her baby and she had to go to the hospital for surgery. The baby and the mom is fine thankfully. I don't know exactly what it was. I think she had a thyroid or something. We went and visited her there in the hospital. She enjoyed that. She's been reading. We haven't been able to visit with her unfortunately. We will though once she's out of the hospital. She's ready to get out of there. I don't blame her though. It's kinda a sketchy place. I hope I don't have to go there for any reason. She's doing well though. She has friends and family that have been there for her. So there are two kevin's that we have been teaching. One is progressing the other, the one with the girlfriend and attends a 7th day church, said he doesn't want to waste our time and visit with him anymore because he's fine where he's at. We talked with him and let him know we are always there for him if he changes his mind. He wasn't really progressing. I think he was more curious than anything and when we tried to visit him it was hard. He may be ready later on but not now. He has a copy of the book of Mormon that he can read and he has our number if he changes his mind. He was nice and we left with our testimonies. Hopefully one day he will put in the effort to seek, knock, and ask. It was sad for us. The other kevin is progressing really well. We just had a great lesson on the plan of salvation and he loved understanding his purpose in life and knowing where he came from. He wants to be in the Celestial Kingdom with God and Jesus Christ and understands what he needs to do to get there. He was struggling to pray on his own about the book of Mormon but he overcame his fear and had faith and said his prayer one night after he read. He will continue to read and pray to gain his answer. This week we had MLC and it was amazing. I learned a great deal about the Atonement and repentance. We will then take what we learned and share it with the zone tomorrow in Zone Mtg. We have a great lesson planned for it. I'm excited. The mission life is great! Not struggle free but it's good :) Love you all so much! Have a fantastic week!

 

Love,

Elder King

 

This is Kevin in his little room under his mother's home where we teach him :) He is great! 

 

 

So Christina is the one in white and the lady on the right is Sancha who is Christina's daughter. There's not anther guy in the photo.

 

 

Letter and Pictures - Week 27

It's great to hear about all the good things that are happening! Trek sounds fun for Kaylee. It's good to hear that school and work is going well. I love hearing about Jay and the missionaries. I'll be joining in on the special family fast. I wish I could've gone to the temple with you guys. We had transfer calls last week on Saturday and then this past week on Wednesday is when all the changing around took place. Elder Moli and I took those that were leaving to the airport and then later picked up those coming in. They were 5 coming and 5 going and at several different times. It was fun. Then on Thursday morning we did all the paperwork for each of the new missionaries so they can be legal here in St. Lucia. Everything worked out well for the most part. Elder Nixon coming in from St. Maartin got stuck in Barbados for the night. He was taken care of though. We picked him up in the morning. We also had the baptism of Christina who I interviewed. She was first taught by Elder Moli and Elder Clement and then Elder Hardy and Elder Platt finished the teaching. She is a wonderful lady and loves to feed us missionaries. We've had several times of going over to her humble home and her providing for us. There home is like the ones you've heard about where it's very small and the showers are outside. She doesn't have much in the eyes of the world but she has a wonderful family and friends who love her. She was so happy when she went through on her righteous decision to follow Christ and be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. She had the biggest smile on her face and felt good about what she did. Despite the time taken away we still had some good lessons this week. We extended a few baptismal invitations and set some dates. Alma accepted a date and Villia as well for March 12. Villia and Alma are sisters who live close to each other. We teach them separately. We teach Villia and a lady named Shenellle together. Both of them came to church this week and they loved it. We will set a date with Shenelle just now. They've started their reading in the book of Mormon. We hope to see them continue to progress. Kevin has been doing everything we ask him to do and he is feeling the joy of doing so. He comes out with us to our teaching appointments and comes to church and also to baptisms. He reads and prays. His prayers are getting better each time we visit. He is a bit slower in his understanding so we are going through the lessons slowly but he is diligent and tries his best. I've been studying a lot about the plan of salvation lately and I read a talk by Elder Hales on it that I really liked. In the talk he said that as we seek to understand more about God's plan of happiness for us, His children, and couple that effort with prayer that it will change the way we see life. There is another quote from somewhere else that I liked that said that life makes more sense from the creator's perspective. I know that God's plan is perfect because of Christ and his atoning sacrifice and that this is the way to true lasting happiness. I love you all!

 

Love,

Elder King 

Christina Didier's baptism. This is her family. Elder Hardy on the left and Elder Platt on the right.