Email Letter - January 23, 2012

This week was exceptionally long. I attribute it to the lack of sunshine. It's been raining almost non-stop since Thursday. There was a break Thursday but that was not enough. Welcome Winter! But not really, rain and missionary work don't go together very well.

The rain has slowed the work too. The people are depressed, they still don't like missionaries, and Elder Vergara doesn't like the rain either. It's been a struggle the last few days. We do have a baptism this week though! Our friend Elyssa, she's 12, and great. Her mom decided she wanted to make all of the children wait to be baptized until she thought they were old enough to really know and decide for themselves. That's not the Lord's way, but whatever, she's chosen to be baptized and it's happening. Which is great! Plus, we get fed really well whenever we go over to teach them. Her dad went to Japan on his mission and always makes us some food he learned how to make over there, and it's typically pretty good. Nice people.

I'm also going to the temple in the next couple of weeks. I'm super excited for that, I miss the temple. That's going to be a highlight for sure. It'll be great.

That's it for this week, there's not a lot to report this week. I love you all, take care!

---Elder King

3rd Nephi 5:13

Email Letter - January 16, 2012

Hey everyone. Things went well this week. That's usually how it goes though.

The work in this area is tough! The people are a lot less receptive than those in Yuba City, probably because of the higher amount of wealth here. Sadly that's how it goes sometimes.

Despite that though, the work is picking up really quickly. We should have a few new people to teach starting this week, we've been working really hard and there have been a couple of people invite us back.

A fun story behind one of which: we were out tracting, probably at the worst time to tract the entire week, the last minutes of the 49ers game. As I'm sure many of you know, it was a very tight game and people weren't very interested in talking to the best looking, hardest working and humblest missionaries around. As we're going though I was getting really sick of people telling us to buzz off in no uncertain terms, so this door we knocked, I saw the game was on, and in stead of the usual pitch I spit out "We just want to know what the score is". So the guy let us in! We watched the last minute's worth of game, told him who we were and what we were doing, he said come back, and so we will! Pretty great right?

Good to know that even when I'm more interested in the score than salvation, the Lord can still use me to bring salvation. Mostly I like to think I'm a pretty adaptable tool in His hands.

Anyway, that's all for this week. I love you all, you're great, I validate you, etc. Take care!

---Elder King

3rd Nephi 5:13

Text Message - January 15, 2012

I received this message a few minutes ago! Super cool to get these kinds of surprises.

"Proof that they are fighting for the light side of the force. We enjoyed having your son over for dinner tonight."

Email Letter - January 9, 2012

Comin' at ya from Roseville! Things here area going really well, I've had a good first week here and expect to enjoy the rest of them as well. The first week in each area is particularly tough though, so I'm looking forward to this week even more than last. It's just tough to get around not knowing the area and the little things like that. One of the things I like in Roseville though is the high amount of bike trails and that almost every road has a bike lane, unlike Yuba which had hardly any. It's nice being here. I can't wait until things turn green though, Roseville has a city ordinance or law or something that ensures that a certain percentage of land stays undeveloped. So there are a lot of fields and parks and wildlife which is a lot of fun, I hope I get to stay until summertime to see all of that even more so.

My new comp Elder Vergara and I get along really well too which is great. He is a hard worker which makes me happy; we've both enjoyed working together, at least for this week. It seems that the other elders in our apartment really sabotaged the relationship with his last companion and that's not cool. We're going to keep that from happening though, because that kills the work. There hasn't been work in this area for a long time sadly. I think President has put me here to revive the area like I did in Yuba, which is tough but possible. We're going to be working hard so the Lord will bless us in our efforts. I'm not worried.

Something fun that happened this week to Elder Vergara and myself was when we were tracting, we ran into a catholic priest, father Martin. He first let us in because he thought we were the bishop of his parish St. Lucif... Clares. He's a fun guy; we talked a lot about the similarities and differences of our churches. Of course he disputed our authority saying that it didn't come from Peter, which was funny because our authority comes from Christ, which is something they don't claim. He also disputed our mode of baptism, which is funny because we baptize how Christ was baptized, which is something they don't do. There was a lot talked about, he accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, and we're going back this week when we finish tracting his street.

The thing I'm most excited for is the temple. I get to go as soon as I find someone to take me and another missionary that can go, Elder Vergara isn't eligible time wise because he went a few weeks ago. I can't wait, I've missed the temple a lot and since it was closed while I was in the MTC I haven't been for a little over 7 months. It'll be so great to go, since there are other missionaries from my group that just came from areas that they weren't able to go I'm sure one of them will be able to go with me, that'll be a lot of fun. To get to reconnect as we visit the Lord's house. It'll make me very happy.

Well that's all for this week, I love you all, take care and have a wonderful week!

---Elder King

3rd Nephi 5:13

Email Letter - January 2, 2012

Well it's been an eventful couple of days, I wish I could say the same about the rest of the week but again due to the holidays it was unnaturally slow. I do have some big news though; as you can guess with the subject of this email I am indeed being transferred! I am leaving the Hillcrest ward and heading south to the Roseville 5th ward, which if I remember correctly is the ward that Randy and Chele used to live in. Maybe I'm wrong. Either way I'm very excited, it'll be a new challenge to help me grow even more. I've heard a little bit about my new companion as well, he's from Colombia, and doesn't speak English very well as of yet. He's been out a little bit longer than me, I think just one transfer, and his favorite band is the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Lately, I've been practicing on the piano; I've felt the need to. So I've been playing various hymns on p-days the last couple of weeks and I'm getting pretty good, I can sight read the top hand most hymns that only have one sharp or flat, and I'm improving each week. Maybe I was meant to play the piano after all mom!

Pertaining to the work, again, a slow week. People are still out of town or were busy, that happens but its okay. Elder Thueson and Elder Richie his new companion should get along really well and do some good work here, besides, if they don't, Brother Tafua will hurt them.

Anyway, that's all for this week, sorry I wrote late and that it's short again. I love you all, take care!

---Elder King

3rd Nephi 5:13

Email Letter - January 1, 2012

Hey everyone! happy new years to you! I love you all, you're great! Just saying.

---Elder King

3rd Nephi 5:13