May 27, 2013 Letter

Hola Familia! Family I love you!! I am so grateful for you!! It sounds like everyone is doing well! MICHAEL IS IN THE MTC!!! AHHHHHH!!!!! That is so crazy that he's there! Oh man I am so proud of him!! I love him to death! What a super stud! He is seriously one of the strongest people I know :) Cute little Lindsay! I am glad she's ok! Grandma is looking out for her :) I can't believe Cooper is walking and holy cow Aspen and Rex are WAY TOO mature for their age! haha cute little kids! I love hearing about them! I don't have much time today because we are going on the Air Force Base here and taking a tour of the B-1 airplanes! It's Dyes Air force base! I will probably have to send pictures of the baptisms next week! I apologize! Since it is Memorial Day no where is open so all the missionaries want to email here at our apartment complex where we email! So we had 4 baptisms this past weekend!! 3 Spanish and 1 english! They were amazing! I got to Baptize the mom of the Spanish girls! And It was crazy doing it in Spanish but it was so amazing!! I loved it! And I also got to confirm her the next day! That was tough.. Being directed by the spirit in a language you don't know how to speak... haha all i can say is THE LORD WORKS MIRACLES!! haha I was able to say some things and words popped out that I didn't think would! It was amazing! The spirit is awesome here and I am way excited to keep going onward!! I got a letter from a friend in college saying that one of my roomates got baptized this past week!! SOOO COOL! I thought sterling might like this but our english baptism he was a Ranger in the Army! He fought in Vietnam when he was 18 and he is retired now, but I love talking about his stories and his medals and he's awesome. haha Makes me think of sterling everytime. He's an E7. That's a 1st Sergeant. It's cool. But anyways, sorry to be brief, but I love you family!! Life is amazing!!! And i love being a missionary! LOVE YOU FAMILIA!!! Love, Elder King (I will be waiting for some wedding invitations sometime soon :) hahahahahaha

May 20, 2013 Letter

Well hello familia!! Man I can't believe how fast that week went by! Seemed like an eternity, but now that I am here I can't believe that it's been a week since we talked on the phone! Crazy how fast time flies here. MICHAEL!!!!!! TONGA!!!! it's not Texas Lubbock mission... But I guess it'll do... hahahahaha CONGRATULATIONS!! I seriously can't stop smiling for how happy I am for you. You were meant to go there man and the people just can't wait to have you there!! That is amazing news!! And next monday?!?! Talk about holy cow you leave sooooo soon!! Better get packing!! Christee!! NO DATING!! Mom and Dad lied when they said you were born in 1997! They really meant 1998! So you still have one more year :) hahaha Kiddo I love you! Be careful who you go on dates with and remember!! It's OK to say no :) But I am excited for you! It's one of the funnest things to do! Man, It seems like life just flies by with how many things are going on! But it's only been 3 months! crazy stuff! I love hearing about those cute kiddo's ripping you off at restaurants, walking now, becoming stronger than Arnold Schwarzennegar. however you spell it.. haha And just growing up! Please send my love to those cute little Kiddos :) Texas, it's absolutely wonderful. Burning hot and in the 100's now, but just wonderful! We had our first official Spanish sacrament meeting yesterday for the brand new Spanish branch! I have never seen so many White people in a spanish branch... haha, but we'll change that soon enough :) It's tough because now that the branch has started we really have to focus on that one, but we need to still help the english ward, and man it's tough juggling the 2! We have 5 units attending the same building, 3 wards and 2 branches. it gets pretty hectic! Spanish Ward goes from 2:20 to 5:20 and English ward goes from 1 to 4... Overlap makes things difficult! But we'll figure it out! Guess how many hours I spent at the church yesterday??? 9 hours!!!!!!!!!! I spent my whole day pretty much at the church!! It was one long day... Got to the church at 11 for correlation meeting and left at 8 o clock after a baptism... I never left in between either. man I was going crazy in that tiny building! haha One hectic day but it was awesome. On saturday we had a BBQ with the Spanish family we are baptizing and it was awesome! We had Carnitas and elotes. Elotes are the things one Nacho Libre! The corn in the chile with mayo! hahaha they are too shabby! :) And my favorite thing ever! Tripitas! Cow intenstine! hahaha they actually weren't too bad. it's all mental, but it tastes like beef jerky, but it's just intestine... and looks like intestine.. haha not too shabby either though :) We have 4 baptisms coming up this weekend! We have David in English, and Martha, Martha, and Jacelyn in Spanish (Mom and 2 daughters) All on saturday! That's going to be another busy day probably spent at the church as well :) There are baptisms at 11, 2, 4, and 6. Crazy stuff! Work is progressing! The Mom, Martha, asked me to baptize her so I am way excited! But I have no idea how to speak spanish so I am so scared! haha But I guess I got some memorizing to do!! And if one of them asks me to confirm them I'll be even more toast!! Oh dear, I gotta learn fast. Spanish is coming EXTREMELY slow here because we just don't have enough chances to speak it! But it is definitely possible to learn it so I won't give up on it at all! I am happy to hear about how everyone is doing and I hope everyone knows that I love them sooooooooooo much and I pray for you all individually every night!! Greg you definitely have to send me pictures of your trip adn scuba diving! And i will definitely take some pictures of riding my bike! haha I always forget to do that, but I will try hard to remember! I love hearing the stories and I am so excited for Michael!! It's the best thing EVER out here!! And I know all the boys can agree with me on that one :) Family I love you sooo much and I will continue to pray for you! Hope all goes well and so happy that I'm here. LOVE YOU!!! :) Love, Elder King (Walker Texas Ranger)

May 13 Letter

Family!! It was so wonderful to be able to talk to you yesterday!! It doesn't feel like I have been gone too long so that didn't really seem like anything too out of the ordinary for me to call you guys! haha But I loved it! Thank you for everyone and talking to me and your love! I love you guys so much!! And Michael I can't wait to hear where you go! No matter where you go, we'll be waking up each day and doing the exact same work with an angelic mother so talented she can help us both whenever we need! That is going to be a neat experience!! So I don't know what else to ask about because I pretty much got the jist of it yesterday! But family I love you sooo much! I guess just keep me updated and If you could, I would love my basketball shoes, definitely more pictures of the family because I only have a couple, and I can't think of anything else! Texas is still great as always! Definitely heating up alot more here lately, and it'll be triple digits soon enough! Oh joy!! :) haha where I am is humid as well so that doesn't help much! But I would rather have heat than cold, so I am grateful :) I have a new companion you all know I think. his name is Elder De***** and he is from Og**n! He's a huge help to my spanish because he's pretty good at it, and They announced on sunday the opening of the spanish branch here so I will be able to learn more spanish here soon! I am very excited for that. ummm... I don't know what else to say! I think I told you everything.. but If you have any questions I would love to answer them! I get to have tripitas this saturday which is intense, I love my bike, I will send some pictures today of stuff I haave recently decided to photograph... haha some of the pictures are funny just read what it says on the sign! like the milk one... and hmmmm.. I don't know what else!! I love you family!1 I will continue to pray for you! Hope all is well in Utah :) Love your Texan( Part Texan, not full yet) Elder :), Elder King OH!! P.S.!! I saw my pictures and this past week we had a Tornado warning!! The AP's texted us and told us to stop working for the day and go home!!! So You will see some sweet pictures of the clouds and it rains pretty hard here. When it rains it POURS. But The Tornado missed us luckily it went a little south of us, but it was pretty neat! Just thought I'd tell ya :)

May 6th Letter

Familia!! Como estan??? Haha and that's about how good my spanish is.. haha just kidding. but seriously.. How is everyone?!?! Thank you so much for the updates on everyone! I feel like I am home because i feel like I know about everythign going on with everyone! haha But It makes me happy to hear all is well. I love you Family!! I pray for you individually every single night, so I sure hope you can feel my love from Texas! Michael!! Dude I can't wait for you to get back out!! That is so exciting! and SOO SOON! Hold fast till then!! Things going on in Texas! Well this week was a definite shift from the last!! That past week was sooooo rough.. man it was tough, but the Lord was just preparing us for this next week!! We have 5 new investigators and we have 3 baptismal dates set with hopefully 2 more and whoever else we find! So the Lord definitely prepared us to have an amazing week! If everything goes well I will have 9 baptisms within my first 2 transfers! BUT that is according to my diligence and faith, and to their desires and actions. So all I can do is share and work my hardest and hope for the best! And of course with all that good happening.. something comes out of nowhere... Transfer calls were this last saturday and my trainer is getting pulled away to go be a Zone Leader in Hobbs New Mexico! So I get someone else to finish training me! It's going to be tough because I know the area and whats going on and he doesn't so I will have to be the one to take charge in alot of things, but I am brand new! But the Lord loves me enough to throw me in the fire and just get the new guy stuff over with and GET TO WORK! haha I really am going to miss my companion because he's helped me through so many things and I can't thank him enough for setting the tone for my mission. My next companion goes home after this transfer, but I hear he'll work hard with me, so I hope for the best! That means I will have 3 different companions within my first 3 transfers of the mission. haha good ol change :) Spanish is coming along... slowly.. We are beginning to teach more spanish lessons, but I still haven't progressed much.. I have lost alot of my ability from the MTC due to not speaking, but just got to work that much harder! We had 7 spanish people to church on sunday, and the spanish branch should be getting started soon! So hopefully I can speak A LOT more spanish! I love it here in Abilene though, never gonna live in Texas, but I do love the people here. haha I miss the Mountains and the Green! but I think I am in the greenest part of the mission so I am blessed. Oh by the way!! This will be fun to know for the boys. Friday Night Lights the movie? All that is in my mission! Permian high school is in odessa which is like 2 hours away and Cooper high school is 10 minutes away. So that is where I am where all that went on and stuff! Haha just thought I'd let you know. Family I really love you so much! I am so grateful that I can write you and hear about you and Serve you by being out here!! I want you to know that there is no place I'd rather be and no work I'd rather do! It's the greatest work here on the earth and I get to be a part of it! Oh and Michael I'll put in a good word to the President about getting you down here :) I love you family!! I pray for you everynight and I am so grateful for you! I love Hearing about you all, and the Cute Kiddos from Brittani, and their adventures :) I love you all!! Love, Elder King (Mafuhatus)