Week 5!!!

I don't have much time today, and we had a pretty slow week anyway, so this will be short. Sorry! Next week will be better!

We had a really funny miracle on Wednesday. We went to see one of our investigators but she couldn't meet with us, and we set up a time that we could come back. When we were leaving her apartment, which is on the second story, we saw these two terrifying dogs walking around on the ground near our car. We didn't want to go down the stairs because the dogs were loose and they were so scary! We tried to come up with a plan to bolt to the car but we didn't really know what to do. Then I saw that one of our potential investigators, who lives on the ground floor of the apartments that we were at, was home. I thought we might as well talk to her while the dogs were surrounding our car, so we went down the stairs and knocked on her door. She was talking with us when the dogs starting coming toward us and Sister O got really scared and frantically said "Sorry can we come inside?!" as she was already jumping inside this girl's house! The girl said "Yes, hurry!" and we closed the door so the dogs couldn't get us. Then we proceeded to teach her an awesome lesson on the Restoration, and it went so well, and the Spirit was so strong. It was perfect! I don't think she would have let us inside if those dogs hadn't been there. By the time we were done with the lesson, the dogs were nowhere to be found and we made it out to the car safely. As scary as they were, I know those dogs were sent by God! We wouldn't have taught this girl otherwise, and now she and her whole family are open to being taught. Heavenly Father works in the strangest ways sometimes. I love it.

We also had a tornado on Saturday. I nearly died. Just kidding, it didn't even touch down....but it was still scary!!!! The weather is crazy here.

Seriously - It was scary!!!

Yeah that is about all I have time for haha. But I love you all! Stay awesome! Look for missionary opportunities!

The church is true!

Love,
Sister Koenig

This has been a week!

So my last email got cut short because we were totally out of time. At the end of last week I got to Skype home on Mother's Day! It was great. This couple in our ward invited us over for dinner and we went over a couple hours earlier and Skyped, and then they fed us one of the most delicious meals I've had on the mission! They were hilarious too, and we just chatted with them for a long time. It felt like I was back home :)

Skyping on Mother's Day!

This past week was a little tougher than some of the others! No one wanted to see us haha. Everywhere we went no one was home, and we would set up appointments and people didn't show. It was sad! We still worked really hard and we were still able to find a lot of new people, but it was rough!

On Tuesday we went tracting and we knocked on this one door and this old lady answered. She was 94!!! She invited us in but she couldn't hear very well so we were like yelling everything at her. At one point Sister O asked her if her faith brought her peace and the lady was like "WHAT?!" and Sister O said "HAS YOUR FAITH BROUGHT YOU PEACE" and the lady said "WHAT???" and Sister O basically screamed "PEACE! HAS IT BROUGHT YOU PEACE?!?!" bahahaha it was great.

This week our solid investigator, R, dropped us :( She got baptized into a different church.....it was so sad. It's hard when we know what will make people the happiest, and they know it too, but they choose the easiest path instead. Doing the easiest thing will not make you the best person you can be! It just won't! I don't want to go on a rant but it is so frustrating to me!!! I understand more when people just don't get it - why would you do the hard thing when you don't believe that it will help you? Or when you don't believe it's true? I totally get that. But when you KNOW, and you still choose another path....ugh. I just see the potential that everyone has, and I can see a glimpse of how much God loves each person, and then to see them choosing the lesser path for themselves is so disheartening.

Anyway....Wednesday night we had a meeting with the other missionaries in our ward and with our Ward Mission Leader. After the meeting we went with one of the ward missionaries, Sister T, to go see an investigator. But the investigator wasn't home. Surprise surprise! Haha we didn't know what to do after that, and Sis T wanted to show us some pictures at her house, so we went over there. When we got there she kind of jokingly said "We could teach my son!" He is not active, and he's really struggling right now, and we were like "Hey why not!" So we went in and she told him that we were going to teach him lol. He's like 20ish and he was just about to head out, but she made him stay for a "5-minute lesson" (it ended up being 10 minutes. Hehe). We taught him a quick version of the first lesson, which talks about the Restoration of Christ's church on the earth - the church that we have today. We asked him a lot of questions to get him thinking, and at the end we asked him something about the Book of Mormon. Sister O said "I don't know if you've ever read the Book of Mormon, or if you've read it recently, but it really is an amazing book that will give you so much guidance and happiness" etc etc. Then he said "Yeah, I really need to start reading it again." And I said "Will you read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon this week?" and he said yes, and you could tell he really meant it. The Spirit was SO strong. Then we asked if we could leave him with a prayer, and Sister O was about to ask if she could say it, but then I turned to him and said "Actually, would you mind saying it?" And he did! And it was an amazing prayer!!!! You could really tell the difference in him from the beginning of that lesson to the end. It was a miracle. I guess he hasn't said or done anything "church-y" in a really really long time. After the prayer he headed off and his mom and Sister O started crying and I was definitely tearing up. It was so cool.

So much fun with Sister O!

I don't have my planner and I don't really remember anything else we did this week....haha. It all blends together! I don't know! I have mission brain. Today was great though. We went up to Red Rock park (I think that's what it's called...?) and took a ton of pictures. One rock looked like Pride Rock from Lion King and I said to Sister O "Look, there's pride rock!" and she said "Really?" and I said "Yeah, that's where they filmed the movie!" and she said "No way, really?!" and I said "No, it's a cartoon...." ahahahhahaha. Good times. It was beautiful though! The weather has been great the last couple of days although I'm really worried that I'm going to get another sunburn! I might have said this in last week's email but again, I have mission brain so I don't know, but I got a sunburn last week on Saturday and the next day, Mother's Day, it snowed like 6 inches....haa. The weather is very weird here. Ok probably none of you care about this at all. But yeah I love Colorado!

Pride Rock from the Lion King, haha

It's great! Being a missionary is great! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is AMAZING!!!!!!! I love it :)

Lots of Love,

Sister Koenig

PS - Please write me!!!! :D :D :D

Here are a few more pictures from the last few weeks:

More Red Rock Park:

 

 It's not where Lion King was filmed?

There are bunnies all around our house!

Sister O in the snow!

 Rainbows and crazy weather

I love this work!

A Week of Miracles!!!

Hello everyone!

This week was great. God is really blessing us, and the work is hastening! It gets hard sometimes but remembering all the miracles and wonderful things helps us to keep going.

On Tuesday we taught this man in our ward who is really old. He's active, but we practice the lessons on him and he loves it and we love it. He pretends to be an investigator and it's the cutest thing ever. We asked him at the beginning before the lesson if he was going to be himself or if he was going to be an investigator and he said "We'll just have to wait and see!" and then as we were teaching, we asked him "What does faith mean to you?" and he said "Well.....*whispers* I'm the investigator.....faith means - " hahaha it was so cute.

That night we weren't really sure what we should do because what we had planned had fallen through. The whole time I've been here there has been this investigator that we have tried to see, but for some reason Sister O didn't have an address for her. Sister O and her last companion had found her and had seen her a couple times, but apparently her last companion was the one who knew where she lived and Sis O had no idea. Every day I have felt like we should see her, but we couldn't because we didn't know where she lived! So we decided that with our time we would find out where she lived. I said a prayer and asked for the Spirit to guide us to her house. Sister O knew what the house looked like, but had no idea where it was. After the prayer we just started driving around and as we were driving Sister O got all nervous and said "I'm letting my fear conquer my faith!" And I said "What are you afraid of?" And she said "Not having enough faith!!!!" Hahahaha it was funny. We drove for like 10 or 20 minutes, and then WE FOUND THE HOUSE! It was amazing. The Lord really does answer prayers! However....she wasn't home right then. But at least now we know where she lives!

In the car :)

On Wednesday we got to go to the temple! Now I've done sessions in 3 temples! I love to see the temple :D We had to get up at 4:30 am though. That was not so fun. We were so tired but I still loved it.

Denver Colorado Temple with Sister O

Wednesday night we had Exchanges so the Denver 1st ward sisters came to our house and one of them, Sister M, stayed with me and my companion Sister O and Sister M's companion went back to the Denver 1st area. Sister M is awesome and I love her. We planned for the next day, and I was really nervous because I had to take charge and plan everything because I know the area and the people, but usually Sister O does the planning and I just go along with it! AH! But I managed it and it wasn't too bad :) Then we went to bed and got up at like 5:50 the next morning so that we could run around our lake. As we were walking back home we passed this bakery, The Taste of Denmark, which Sister O and I pass every day. It looks super sketchy so we've never gone there, but it always smells really good at 6am. Sister M apparently heard of it before and said it was amazing so she asked if we could get our money from our place and come back and get breakfast and of course I said yes haha. And IT WAS AMAZING. There were so many options....and they all looked so heavenly..... I had the best cinnamon roll of my life. Apparently this is like the second best bakery in the world, and the first best is in Denmark. Who woulda thought that would be right here in little Lakewood?

Anyway, we did our daily studying in the morning and then we went to do service at the Jeffco Action Center for 2 hours. I had a blast! We stacked bread haha. Then we were supposed to go tracting but I didn't really want to because I was nervous....so I asked if we could see this other new investigator V who we tracted into one time and briefly taught her about the Restoration and set up a return appointment, but when we came back she was in the shower. So I wanted to try her again, because she lived right next to the lady who we were going to see in the next hour. We went to her apartment and she didn't answer. I was really bummed because I knew that meant we were going to have to knock some doors haha. I normally love knocking doors, but I was so nervous because I've never done the whole door approach on my own before because Sister O always jumps in and does it for me! And I didn't want to look like an idiot in front of Sister M. But I toughened up and we knocked the rest of V's apartments. And we had SO MUCH SUCCESS!!!!!! It was incredible. Everyone we talked to took a pamphlet and was interested and set up a return appointment with us! And I wasn't nervous at all and I did a great job! I love tracting. 

Then we saw a man on the balcony right by V's door and we went to track him down and teach him, but by the time we got up there he was gone. However, V's door was open, and she was home and she invited us in and we taught her! It was a great lesson. We gave her a Spanish Book of Mormon and she said she would read it! She is 17 and she is Hispanic. We were asking her questions when we were teaching her and she gave short answers, and then apologized and said she was giving short answers because she's not as comfortable talking in English. Sister M is a Spanish speaking missionary and I thought she would start teaching her in Spanish, but she didn't. I think she didn't want me to feel like I had no idea what was happening haha. Then at the end as we were leaving, we saw V's mom and Sister M asked her if she would be interested in having the missionaries over and her mom said she didn't know English. Then Sister M whipped out her Spanish and started speaking in fluent Spanish to her and asked the question again and V and her mom were totally shocked that this blond white girl was speaking fluent Spanish haha.

Later that night we went to try to see the lady whose house we miraculously found on Tuesday. As we were getting out of the car, this lady pulled up and she lived in the same duplex that the investigator lives in, but the other side. We ran up to her and asked if we could give her a pamphlet, and she said sure, and we taught her a half hour lesson on her front porch! It was great. The original investigator wasn't home, but I know we were supposed to go to her house at that exact time so that we could teach her neighbor. It was very cool.

Then we had an hour to kill before our 8 o clock member appointment because our 7 o clock appointment fell through. Sister M asked if we could tract these apartments she had seen earlier, which were right across the street from the member's house, so we did, and again we had so much success! Everyone was so nice and interested and we set up like 5 return appointments. Then I called the member to see if we could come a little early because it was cold and because we had to leave their lesson early, and the member said she was actually just about to call us and cancel. I was bummed because I was really ready to be done tracting, and I wanted to go inside a warm house....But we had to keep going. Which ended up being a miracle because just 5 minutes later we were walking in those same apartments and we were headed to our car and we saw this lady walking toward her house and we chased her down. She invited us in and we taught her and she was soooo nice! I love her!

The weather changed this weekend - snow! 

Anyway, I have to go now but I love you all!

Sister Koenig

ALSO - Please do not send mail directly to the mission home address.  It is supposed to get forwarded to me, but people are finding it just gets returned to them after a couple of weeks - the forwarding isn't working.  If you want my address, just message me on Facebook or contact Alannah Mitchell.  I love mail! 

Week 2!

Hello everyone!! I survived Week 2 in Colorado!!! It was a strange week haha.

Tuesday I had the stomach flu! It was awful. We had to stay home all day and cancel all of our appointments. It was terribly boring, but it was nice to sleep all day and I felt way better the next day. And my companion was such a good sport about it.

Wednesday we taught this couple, R and T, who are devout Roman Catholics. I love them! We met R tracting the week before, and he said it would be ok for us to come back. When we were walking up to their house, Sister O tripped on a crack in the driveway and nearly face planted. It was hilarious. We were cracking up on their doorstep when they answered haha. Anyway, they had very interesting insight and I loved having a doctrinal discussion with them, instead of just teaching a lesson. It was also nice to clear up a lot of misconceptions they had about the Mormon church. It's always so interesting to hear what people think we believe haha. They thought we didn't believe that Christ is the Son of God, that we just thought he was a prophet, and things like that. And we also talked about Adam and Eve a lot, and I think they really enjoyed our insight on things! But they didn't really like that we said that we are the true church of Christ, and the only church that has the Priesthood authority...so we'll talk to them more about that next time! They still want to see us again so that's a good sign haha. And they sent us off with Girl Scout cookies and water bottles!!!! It was like the nicest thing any investigator has done for us!

We also taught K again. I love him sooo much!!! He's hilarious. And he calls us his "little sisters." Isn't that sweet? He really would protect us against anything. Wednesday night we started feeling really sick - like with a cold or the flu. We took a bunch of medicine and went to bed early, and we felt awful!!!

Thursday we woke up with that terrible cold still, and had to stay home again! We were so weak haha. We just medicated and slept all day. It was better having us both be sick though because then I didn't feel bad about making my companion stay home with me.

Friday we still weren't feeling great....but there was work to be done! We had a great day and the weather was lovely. We had two days worth of people to see and teach, so we were busy!

Saturday went really slow...it seemed like everyone we tried to see wasn't home or wasn't interested. Even our usual commitments fell through, and it was so discouraging! We did manage to teach some people though, and we did a lot, but it felt like we didn't really accomplish much. Saturdays can be really great or really hard. People are more likely to be home so tracting is usually more successful, which is great! I love tracting!!! We always have such strange experiences. and it's so fun meeting people and talking to them. And a little weird because if they let us talk to them and share a message, we always ask at the end if we can pray, and most people say yes, so then we are praying on people's doorsteps all day or on the sidewalk or anywhere! Definitely strange.

Saturday night Sister O was calling someone to set up an appointment for the next day, and she left a voicemail and totally said my last name wrong, which threw her off, and then she was distracted when she was leaving the message, and she started to end it by saying "We say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen." It was SO FUNNY. She only said "We say" and then she realized what she was doing and freaked out and said "Uhhhh, ok, BYE!" and hung up and threw the phone bahahaha. It was priceless.

Sunday was great! We were fasting and church was wonderful. The testimonies during sacrament meeting were all about Christ and they were very good and powerful. I love good testimony meetings. After church some members had invited us over for a late lunch and that was really fun. Then we went tracting and managed to meet some awesome people and teach them and we got a new investigator! And then we went and saw a couple less-actives who I adore, and we just chatted and had some good lessons with them. Every Sunday night we see the T family. I love them with my whole heart and soul. The mom and her 19 year old were both baptized years ago, but they don't go to church. The dad and the 12 year old boy are not members. They love the missionaries and we literally go every sunday and do like a Family Home Evening with them. We just chat and it's like being home with family. We teach them a lesson and the dad is very open to talking about his beliefs and about our beliefs and just discussing and comparing, but he has different ideas about who God is. They always give us dessert and we play a game or have an activity or something. I adore them. Ahhh I just want to see them every night haha. They're some of the best people I have ever met in my entire life, and I love going over there. I definitely look forward to Sunday nights.

Today has just been a nice p-day. We have to clean and do laundry and prepare for the week, but we also got to go play volleyball at the church. There are always tons of Elders and Sisters that play sports on p-days, so that's fun. And then after dinner at 5 o clock it's back to missionary work and we have people to teach tonight!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! It's the best thing I have ever done and I love every day I have here. This is where I'm supposed to be, and this is what I am supposed to be doing! The Spirit is so strong, and I know that what I teach people is true. I wouldn't be on a mission if I wasn't sure. I know Heavenly Father truly does love all of His children and He really has restored the church on the earth to provide a way for us to be happy and live with Him again someday. It's amazing!!!!!!

I miss all of you and I love you!!! Stay amazing!

Sister Koenig