Letter and Pictures - Week 60

The weeks keep on flying by!

Hey Family,

This week was good. We had Danielle come to church this week! She brought her kids as well. She has a real desire to be baptized. The Lord provided a way for her to come to church through another church bus which was awesome because it's hard for her to get bus but then something happened and that fell through so she couldn't get to church that way. But she exercised her faith and she found another way for her to come which was great! She loved it. We are helping to prepare her for baptism on the 15 of October. With Kelly-Ann and Wendy who are working towards baptism all together as a family they accidentally slept in and missed their ride with a member this week so they missed church. They are still progressing well and are really excited about the gospel and for baptism. We are going to have to move their date back though to the 8 of October after Conference weekend. Elder Dixon and I are doing well. I love serving with Elder Dixon because of his great desires to do the work as well as improve himself. He is a great missionary. We had a cool experience last night. It was a really spiritual night. We brought the senior couple missionary Elder Mills with us to teach an investigator and the lesson was a powerful lesson. Elder Mills is a really spiritual man and he is close to the spirit. After Elder Dixon asked Elder Mills for a priesthood blessing. He usually has his dad give him one at the start of every year and last year he had President Herrington but this time he asked Elder Mills. Elder Dixon wants to be closer to the spirit so he can have the power that follows. Elder Mills simply but powerfully taught him and me about giving our whole heart to God so we can be sanctified by the Holy Ghost and receive that power. The spirit was strong. After he gave him a blessing that was powerful. I really appreciated it. One thing that has been happening in our zone is an increase in faith and it is resulting in a lot of miracles. Every night during our nightly calls we hear of all these wonderful experiences that the other missionaries are having and it's so awesome to be a part of. There was a baptism that we were privileged to attend. It was in one of the groups and it was done in a river. The place was gorgeous. What I loved most was the peaceful feeling of the spirit that was there. It was wonderful. I gave a short talk on Baptism. We've found some great people this week that we are excited about. Below I'll write a little about the people we are working with. 

Wendy, Kelly-Ann, Princess - Wendy is the mother of Kelly-Ann(20) and Princess(9). It is a big age difference but it's not unusual to find. Kelly-Ann has a young child of her own. They are happy, love the gospel, and will be baptized soon. 

Danielle - She has five kids. The oldest is 15 and her name is Aaliyah but she goes by Sophie :) I thought you might like her name. haha She was taught before but was never baptized but now is ready. 

Jenielle - We've only seen the once because we haven't been able to get a hold of her. We will keep trying. 

Kiesha and Andrea - We also haven't been able to really meet lately. Their kids are great!

Elizabeth - We haven't been able to teach but we've been able to make contact. She is growing in her desire to repent and be baptized. She is making changes on her own. 

Alisha - We met her this week and we've had three lessons. She has a little child and lives by herself. She lives close to the Maturine's and that's how we met her. She is very smart and has good gospel knowledge. She has been keeping all her commitments and is reading and praying to know if these things are true. She has been baptized before and is hung up on authority. She is praying about it and about baptism. 

Sister Shirlan - We had a great FHE with her and her daughter. We gave her daughter a blessing.

Brother James - He is doing well spiritually but he has health problems that makes it difficult to come to church. His two boys, Jospeh and Michael, are okay but aren't really interested right now in the gospel. We are going to be starting having FHE with them on Monday nights to strengthen their family. 

Gilly/Kelsha - We had a first lesson with both of them that went well. They are Aunt and Niece. They live at the same place with their family. They are reading and are interested to know more. 

Rayneesha/Carleen - Both aren't really interested but we were led to their neighbor named Kellisha who is very interested. We contacted into her and she has a boat load of questions. I think either Elder Kasteler and I or the previous missionaries gave her a book of mormon but nothing happened from it but she began reading and she has some great questions as well as personal life questions. 

John Francis - He is 17 and can't read so we are teaching him how to read a few times a week. It is great. 

I love you all and I know the gospel is true!

Love,

Elder King

 

Witnessing the baptism of some other elders.

 

 

Letter and Pictures - Week 59

Hey family,

It's been a good week. We put in a lot of work. We were able to reach our goal of 21 lessons this week. Unfortunately Kelly-Ann and Joseph and their families didn't come to church this week. Bro. James has some health issues so he couldn't come and that kept back the boys. We are sure why Kelly-Ann didn't come. They were missed. Kelly-Ann came to the opening of institute this week though which was good. We are really impressed and amazed by her. She has a great desire to live the gospel and be baptized and it makes her so happy. She is really smart as well and knows a lot about the gospel already. We had her read the plan of salvation pamphlet and a chapter in the book of mormon and then come back and teach us the plan of salvation! We would be the investigators and ask questions that would help her to learn more as she taught. She did really well. We helped where she needed it but she didn't  really need it. It was great. Her mother Wendy had her boyfriend move out already and she has a desire to be baptized as well. Wendy came down with Zika and couldn't make it to church. We had some other good lessons and some other disappointing and frustrating lessons but things are going pretty well. I'll take more photos of the people we are teaching. It's a goal of mine so I can share my mission experience with all of you and keep all these wonderful memories of these wonderful people. Today we are flying to Barbados for MLC! I'm so excited :) It's such a great experience to be a part of. We are staying there a little longer for like a mission conference over skype but we get to be there in person. It will all be fun. We met with Carleen and her roommate Rayneesha a few times this week. Rayneesha is cooler than we thought. I think her and Carleen don't get along and that's why Carleen has a poor perception of her. We had a great first lesson with her and she had a question of the soul that we were able to answer using the book of mormon and she was happy and agreeing and loving the things we taught. She wrote some things down and accepted to read. We will see how it goes. As for Carleen we aren't going to be teaching her anymore. The lessons we've had have been pretty frustrating as she is hardening her heart and not listening to what we say and doesn't really want us there so we won't be going back. Right now she is going through a lot of difficult things that is putting up a big wall. Hopefully her trials will overtime come to soften her heart and she can continue to be taught by missionaries later down the road. It was hard. We tried talking with her to help her see and understand but she wasn't accepting it. It was a big contrast from the first and third lessons that we had with her. She had a lot of potential but satan comes with great force to bind us down, harden our hearts, and blind our eyes to keep us away from every good thing. Continue to study and pray to keep you up, to keep your heart soft, to keep your eyes open, and your flame of faith lit. I love all of you so much. I know this gospel is true. It's what we all need everyday. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder King

 

It was dark so I couldn't get a very good picture but these are Kiesha's and Andrea's kids. We gave them a couple of the Book of Mormon story books last time we were there and they absolutely loved them. They've been reading them and wrote all their names on them. We came a little late the next time but all the kids had their books open on the floor waiting for us to come. They were so happy. It was great! We watched the restoration video with them all and Aaron the oldest boy was saying he remembered that story from the book and he gave some perfect answers to the questions we asked. He is around 12 or so but if he were older he would be a golden investigator right now! :)

 

 

Another pretty sunset because they are so awesome! :)

 

 

So Monday after we finished emailing we left to the airport but....our flight got cancelled so we got a flight to Barbados on Tuesday at 12:50pm but didn't leave until 1:50pm and our MLC mtg. was Tuesday at 10:30am.... :(

 

 

We didn't arrive at the mission home until almost 4:00pm and we got there just in time for the closing song and the closing prayer and the mtg. went long by almost an hour. So we missed MLC but we got to come and stay for the devotional, dinner, interviews, and the big zone conference and lunch the following day.

 

 

It was a little bit of a mission reunion for me as I got to see some old friends :)

 

This is Elder Zivic and his wife. They were awesome and it was a really great conference.

 

 

Kelly-Ann and Wendy at their home. We went looking for their home and we found them! They live above the smith's and they are good friends with them. When I say above though I mean you have to go hiking up the mountain to get to their home. It was a fun climb and it has a good view from up there.

 

 

This is the view. It overlooks the stadium.

 

 

 

Letter and Pictures - Week 58

Hey family,

It's been a good week. We put in a lot of work. We were able to reach our goal of 21 lessons this week. Unfortunately Kelly-Ann and Joseph and their families didn't come to church this week. Bro. James has some health issues so he couldn't come and that kept back the boys. We are sure why Kelly-Ann didn't come. They were missed. Kelly-Ann came to the opening of institute this week though which was good. We are really impressed and amazed by her. She has a great desire to live the gospel and be baptized and it makes her so happy. She is really smart as well and knows a lot about the gospel already. We had her read the plan of salvation pamphlet and a chapter in the book of mormon and then come back and teach us the plan of salvation! We would be the investigators and ask questions that would help her to learn more as she taught. She did really well. We helped where she needed it but she didn't  really need it. It was great. Her mother Wendy had her boyfriend move out already and she has a desire to be baptized as well. Wendy came down with Zika and couldn't make it to church. We had some other good lessons and some other disappointing and frustrating lessons but things are going pretty well. I'll take more photos of the people we are teaching. It's a goal of mine so I can share my mission experience with all of you and keep all these wonderful memories of these wonderful people. Today we are flying to Barbados for MLC! I'm so excited :) It's such a great experience to be a part of. We are staying there a little longer for like a mission conference over skype but we get to be there in person. It will all be fun. We met with Carleen and her roommate Rayneesha a few times this week. Rayneesha is cooler than we thought. I think her and Carleen don't get along and that's why Carleen has a poor perception of her. We had a great first lesson with her and she had a question of the soul that we were able to answer using the book of mormon and she was happy and agreeing and loving the things we taught. She wrote some things down and accepted to read. We will see how it goes. As for Carleen we aren't going to be teaching her anymore. The lessons we've had have been pretty frustrating as she is hardening her heart and not listening to what we say and doesn't really want us there so we won't be going back. Right now she is going through a lot of difficult things that is putting up a big wall. Hopefully her trials will overtime come to soften her heart and she can continue to be taught by missionaries later down the road. It was hard. We tried talking with her to help her see and understand but she wasn't accepting it. It was a big contrast from the first and third lessons that we had with her. She had a lot of potential but satan comes with great force to bind us down, harden our hearts, and blind our eyes to keep us away from every good thing. Continue to study and pray to keep you up, to keep your heart soft, to keep your eyes open, and your flame of faith lit. I love all of you so much. I know this gospel is true. It's what we all need everyday. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder King

 

Elder Dixon pretending to eat some fish at Bro. James' house.

 

 

Me and Joseph.

 

 

Elder Dixon and I have some good lunches! We trade off cooking each day and he made me some meatballs with this super good, sweet sauce with some rice. I loved it!

 

 

Up in the hills of our area has some sweet views! This is a view overlooking the stadiums and track that I wish I could run on or play soccer in. I ran on the little track outside of the stadium.

 

 

Grenada sunset :) Aren't they pretty?!

 

 

This is Kelly-Ann and Wendy with Kelly-Ann's little boy. They are great!

 

 

This is Bro. Smith and Nia :)

 

 

We teach Kelly-Ann and Wendy at Bro. Smith's house. Bro. Smith has a ton of great gospel photos up on his walls. Here's another photo of them. I think this one is better.

 

 

I can't remember if I sent photos of our apartment or not but these are some photos of our wonderful apartment. It is basically a beach front apartment/villa. It's way nice and well kept and the view is great!

 

 

Outside our apartment with the great view!

 

 

Around the island! What a wonderful place to be! The one with the pool is at the senior couple's place.