2014-01-07 EAT DRINK AND BE MERRY ... FOR NEXT WEEK I DIE

Yes. That is correct.  I am going to die in the Utah Ogden Mission on the 13th.  MY VISA CAME THROUGH!  Apparently here when you leave the mission everyone says that you die, so I have my death date :(

I got called yesterday when I was making pancakes for lunch.  Sister Hadden passed me the phone and Sister Erikson from the mission office asked if I was cold enough yet, she then said that I didn't have to worry about it any longer because I was leaving for Taiwan!  Hhaha Sister Hadden was worried when I got off the phone because she said my face looked like Sister Erikson had told me that someone had died in our family or something drastic!!  So yes I am starting to sort what things I DO NOT NEED in Taiwan, like my boots, my winter coatS, and thousands of cardigans!!

Loads happened this last week.  Um.  We had our Zone monthly goal setting meeting and filled in our "Circles of Life" for each companionship.  They allow us to see where our investigators are at.  We had 1 in the "golden area" which means they are ready to be baptized EXCEPT for a few small concerns.  So we set the goal to baptize 1 person, unfortunately that fell through right after we set the goal :(  NEVER FEAR THOUGH THE HOLY GHOST IS NEAR!  The night the date fell through we got a call from a member named Brad saying his friend Wington from the Dominican Republic really wanted to meet with the missionaries.  We met him that night and he is so ready to be baptized.  He has been to institute classes at USU, he comes to church with his friends, and is SO READY!  IT WAS SO COOL!!  There was a dispute about where he lives though and we almost had to pass him over to the elders, we cover the odd numbers on his street and the elders have the even apartments.  Wington lives in an even number BUT comes to church with our ward so the Elders talked with their bishop and we get to keep him!!!  YAAY!

I MET A RETURNED SISTER MISSIONARY FROM TAIZHONG!  She came over to our house for Language Study this week and she's amazing.  Sister Watterson used to live in Taiwan because her dad was the MISSION PRESIDENT THERE, then she went there on her mission!  It was such a blessing to have her come help me because I was drowning with the 15 books they gave me at the MTC and I just had no clue where to start.  Some days I would study and learn a lot, but others I was just lost.  (Side note: I got a Chinese character PMG and a Chinese pinyin PMG and the words are not the same.  The pinyin book is correct, but the characters are wrong a lot of the time.  SEE MY CONFUSION??)  Anyway she came and said she would lend me her book, and I am learning the Restoration this week and we will go teach some members :)

ALSO SHE SAID SHE CAN HELP OUT WITH RAE!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Remember her?  She has such a strong strong testimony but her grandmother in Guangzhou won't let her be baptized???  Well.  Brother Watterson (who was the Mission President) called another Chinese Girl's parents that wouldn't allow her to be baptized so we are going to talk to Rae about that!

OH AND I WENT TO THE CHINESE BRAANCH!! The reason it has taken a whole month for me to get there is because another companionship has that Branch.  They don't speak any Chinese though.  They didn't want me to come into the branch because it was their area.  But I talked with President Heirs about what I should be doing and how to go about doing it, and then I magically got a text inviting me to Sacrament meeting haha!  The branch has a total of .... 5 people!!  And 3 kids :)  Everything was in Chinese, but everyone also could speak English.  So there was some Chinglish here and there!  What was so cool was that I could understand most everything, some grammar things I was surprised at but when I didn't know I would just ask and they would help out!!  There were like 7 or 8 people who couldn't speak any Chinese so they all had the 5 people who could translate for them.  Each time someone got up to bear their testimony there were 5 other people talking and translating haha :)

What really touched my heart was that I was told the people in this branch have been praying so long for a Chinese speaking missionary.  That's why I've been here.  I have been able to be an answer to their prayers :)  THEY WERE ALL SO NICE!  And I have 2 referrals for my mission before I even land!!

One of our investigators dropped us early in the week :(  That was really hard.  She was so close to being baptized, she just always had church on Sunday so she never came to church!  Sister Lolofie was kind of sad that I didn't cry in the lesson, I cried once we shut the door.  But she drove past us as we were all crying and sad on the sidewalk so she saw how upset we were about it.  Preach My Gospel says we need to show people that we are "DEVASTATED" when the steps to coming closer to Christ aren't taken.  I know I can do that for sure.

We also "lost" a less active but he just moved for his job.  Thanks to Facebook I still have been having minilessons with him about his scripture study (which has been more frequent than when he was meeting with us!!) and other things!  I am going to miss teaching through Facebook and sharing the gospel and love of Christ :(

New Year's Eve was fun!  We were told to be in by 6, so that meant we had Pday all day!  We found a sister to help us out with a ride for the day because we no longer can hitch a ride with our roommates the Spanish sisters.  Anyway it was way nice :) We waited to study until the hours we had at the end of the day, but it still felt like we were just sitting around!!  SO WEIRD!  The Spanish sister bought a carrot cake and some poppers that we set off around 10:20.  We party hard.  And went to bed by 10:30 hahahaha

I am loving being on my mission!  I really have grown to LOVE THE PEOPLE HERE!  I love them enough to walk blocks and blocks in freezing weather.  It hasn't snowed in forever, I think it's cause it's too cold to snow!!  I love teaching people about what makes me the happiest I've ever been, the knowledge that I have a Heavenly Father that is seriously invested in me.  He loves me and he loves everyone around me.  I am so happy I have been able to serve here in Logan.  I hope I have done what I needed to :)

Next time I write I'll be in TAIWAAN!!!

LOVE YOU ALL SO SO MUCH,

Sister King

Wang JM
Juju jimmie

Ether 12

Mosiah 4:2-3