2 months in Colorado!

On Saturday I hit my 2 month mark of being in the field! Sooooo exciting! Some days it feels like I've been here way longer, but most days it feels like I've only been here for a week. Next thing I know, my mission will be over. Weird weird weird.

This was quite an exciting week. We are using this new method instead of normal tracting. It is called the "Survey Approach" and we go around with a clipboard and a survey with 10 questions and ask people if they would be so kind as to help us out. The goal is once you've finished the survey, you're supposed to transition into a lesson. I love it. We taught 12 lessons in two days because of that thing! It's amazing! And we found a lot of new investigators.

Thursday we went to a huge meeting. More than 1/3 of our mission was there! The Director of Proselyting for THE WORLD was there with this other higher-up guy from Salt Lake, and they basically taught us how to be better missionaries. It was really cool. You'd think that they'd tell us specific things to say, and how to teach, but the main thing they told us is to simplify. They said we need to teach with simple, pure doctrine, and that's how the Spirit can teach people the best. It was so helpful. However, the meeting lasted for 8 hours, and we were so drained afterward! And it took a huge chunk out of our day.

Ooh and, exciting news, we moved!!!!! Someone called us Friday night and just said "So Sisters are you moving in tonight or tomorrow?" and we were like "WHAT?!?!" We moved in on Saturday :) It was quite the project. We had to pack all of our stuff, move it all down the road to the new place, and unpack everything all in one day. We were exhausted! But we love the new place. It is glorious. And it is in a basement so we will stay nice and cool during the hot summer! The members here are so good to us. (If you want the new address, message me or Alannah on Facebook.)

On Sunday we had to teach the Sunday School class and I think it went ok. It's weird how we teach people all day and that's no problem, but then the thought of teaching a class at church made us nervous haha. I love teaching though. I never thought I would, and actually in the MTC the thought of teaching made me cry, but ever since the first lesson I taught out here in the field I have LOVED it. It's the best.

Last night we had dinner with one of my favorite members in our ward. She is the sweetest, funniest little thing. She always says "Okayyyyy" and "whatever girls, whatever!" It's adorable. And she cooks the best food! Last time we had ham and potatoes and bread and green beans and it was like a full Thanksgiving meal! Yesterday it was even more! We had lobster (my first time ever having lobster....it was weird. I don't know how I feel about it.), shrimp kebabs with mushrooms and tomatoes, fish fillets, salad, jello salad, garlic bread, fancy rice, and something else....and then she gave us cookies and ice cream for dessert! I don't think I have ever been so full! But it was delicious. And she is such a crackup.

I'm running out of time but I love you all! And I miss you! Have a great week :)

Love,

Sister Koenig

God is Our Loving Heavenly Father

Hello everyone! It has been another week of miracles and answered prayers. Lately I've really been trying to recognize the Spirit more, and this past week I really really did. It was fantastic. Heavenly Father truly is there and He cares about me and about each of you!! Yesterday was Father's Day, as you all probably know, and it just hit me so hard that our Heavenly Father is there, and He loves us, and He is our FATHER! Isn't that amazing? Everyone should watch the Mormon Message "Earthly Father, Heavenly Father." It's a good one. I'll even include it because I am nice. Here you go: Earthly Father, Heavenly Father

So totally changing the subject, apparently I say the word "both" incorrectly. Say it out loud, right now. Did you say it with an "l?" Because I do. Like "bolth." I never realized that I did this, and then my lovely companion brought it to my attention and now I am self-conscious. Haha ok not really, but it has definitely become a running joke and anytime ANYONE says that word now, we crack up. It's kind of a problem sometimes....whoops. Bolth of us laugh ;P See what I did there? Yeah we're weird. This is what happens when you have no electronics or any form of "normalcy" in your life. Just in case you were wondering.

Despite all the laughing and ridiculousness, we actually do get some work done! And boy did we work hard this week. We are supposed to do an hour of "finding" every day, and we have definitely exceeded that. We don't have that many people to teach at the moment because everyone that we teach for a while then stops wanting to see us....it's really sad. That's why finding new investigators is so important, because if we didn't do that, we'd probably have like 5 people to teach haha. But this week alone we found 8 new investigators! And most of them we found through knocking on doors and just talking to everyone we see. It's the best.

We actually had a really awesome experience yesterday. In church, in our Sunday School class, the teacher told us an experience he had on his mission. One time he and his companion wanted to know where they should tract the next day, so they decided they would each pray about it and come up with 5 street names, and then compare their lists and then pray again and pick one. So they did that, and they both came up with this one name. So they pulled out their map of the area and looked for the name, but it wasn't on the map! They were really confused because they knew that they both received the same answer, and then they remember that they had another map that showed just a tiny bit more of the area. They pulled that one out, and sure enough the street was there, about an inch off of the page of the first map! They went the next day and tracted that street and had so much success.

Sister O and I decided to do that yesterday. We pulled the car over and we each prayed about where we should go. I was desperate for an answer, because I really did want to go where the Lord wanted me to go, but I don't know the street names very well here. I had just been reading the night before in the Book of Mormon, in Mormon chapter 9, and it talks all about God and how He does still perform miracles. Verse 20 says "And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust." but verse 21 says "Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth." and the end of verse 15 says "God has not ceased to be a God of miracles." Those verses really hit me as I was saying this prayer to ask where we should tract, and I really KNEW that God is a God of miracles. I said to Him "I don't know who needs to see us, and I don't know and street names, but you do. And I know that you can tell me where to go." As I was saying that, a street name flashed in my mind. At first I was a little hesitant, but I did know that that was a street name in our area that I had seen before, and I kind of asked God if that was where I should suggest and again I saw the name flash in my mind. I finished my prayer and looked up, and Sister O was done praying. She said, "So where do you think we should go?" and I got all nervous for some reason but then I said "Umm....." and then I told her the name of the street and she FLIPPED OUT. She was like "Oh my GOSH that is SO WEIRD OH MY GOSH." hahaha it was great. I was like "Soooo is that what you thought????" and she said "When I was praying, S and J (a less-active man and his recently baptized daughter) kept coming back to my mind and I couldn't shake it. And they live on that street. Oh my GOSH. This is soooo weird!!!!!!" haha we had a moment of freaking out a little bit because it was just so cool and it really strengthened my testimony that God does hear and answer prayers! So we went there and we saw them and taught a great lesson and it was just really good. We are definitely going to try that again.

This week we also started seeing this family from the ward. The mom is a member, but her husband is not, and she has a 7 year old daughter preparing to be baptized and a 3 year old son. THEY ARE THE CUTEST. The mom wanted us to start coming by to teach the 7 year old and get her excited about being baptized. So we went and we taught about prayer, and they are seriously the cutest kids ever! The little girl is so beautiful and so smart and so sweet and I just love her. And the little boy is such a riot. He is so funny. I'm so excited to see them again this week :) I LOVE teaching families with kids, it's the best! But there just are not very many young families in this area, and hardly any in our ward. The Primary kids sang for Father's Day yesterday, and there were MAYBE 10 kids. And there are like 3 youth..it's sad! Sister O and I are desperately praying to find a family who is ready to hear our message. God has prepared people, and now we just have to find them. It's exciting!

One last cool experience and then I'll finish up, because this is getting long...sorry :P

On Friday evening we were going to go tracting (of course haha). Sister O told me to pick which street to tract. As we were driving down the street, I was looking at street names and trying to pick one. We passed one that had a bunch of cars and that usually means people are home. I was going to say that one, but then I didn't, and we drove a few more blocks and I picked a street. Sister O said "Hmm, there's not very many cars, I don't know." Then I said "There were a bunch of cars on that other street, we could try there instead." So we had to backtrack and go there. We parked, and there really were quite a lot of cars - too many. We realized at that moment that it was Friday night, and probably a bunch of people were having parties. That's not the best time to go knocking on people's doors....so we decided to see one of our investigators instead. We went to our house, and she said she wasn't interested anymore. Sad day. Then we crossed the street and decided to try a less-active family who I have never met before. We knocked and waited a minute, buuuuuuut nobody was home. We were feeling kind of crummy at this point and didn't have a plan for what to do next as we were walking back to our car. Then, this guy in a wheelchair scooter thing came up to us and said hi, and told us he used to be Mormon! So we talked to him for a minute and found out that he was moving to Florida in just a few days. We asked if he needed help, and he said "Let me ask my wife" and he wheeled away and we followed him. He lived just a couple houses down, and his wife was there in the front yard sorting boxes. We helped her and talked with her and she was SO NICE!!!! She told us that her dad had been a minister in their church for years and years and years. Then the dad came out, and he was this cute, sweet old 84-year-old man. Oh my gosh he was adorable. He kept talking about Jesus and how much he loved him, and kept quoting all these great scriptures, and it was so great. They have soooo much faith! It's incredible. We helped them as long as we could but we eventually had an appointment we needed to go to. We asked if we could help them the next day and they said they would be up working around 6 am. So the next morning we got up at 6:30 and went over there! We got to sort through all sorts of stuff and help pack and load up the moving van and talk with them more. The woman's dad kept singing us all these songs and hymns he had written over the years. One of them said "You're good-looking when you're looking to the Lord!" haha it was cute. At one point he said "I'm good for nothing..." and looked all sad and we were like "oh my gosh you are not!!!!" and then he perked up and said "Nobody pays me to be good! Haha!!!" it was SO CUTE ahhhh I can't handle it. We helped them for like 3 hours and it was the best. It's those kinds of things that make missionary work THE BEST.

I love you all, and I love being a missionary and doing God's work!! There is nothing else I would rather be doing with my life. And I am so grateful to have a wonderful Father in Heaven who leads me and guides me every step of the way in His work.

Love,

Sister Koenig

I've been out for 2 months!

That's right people, 2 months ago today Alannah was pushing me out of her car at the Missionary Training Center and she threw my bags out behind me and zoomed off. Rude, right? Ok maybe that's not exactly what happened....but that's what it felt like! And since then, I have been on the weirdest adventure of my life! And I have loved every second J

Last Tuesday morning we got up at 4:45 in order to make it to our Transfer Meeting on time. Every 6 weeks we have transfers, and missionaries get moved around to different areas. Sister O and I weren't transferred, but we are still expected to go to the meeting. It's always really nice - the Mission President and his wife speak and all the missionaries who are going home bear their testimonies, and they announce where everyone will be transferred to. If you're going out to the Western Slope, you have to get up right then and get on the transfer train and leave. One of our favorite Sisters got sent out West and we had to say the fastest goodbye and it was so sad!!! L 

Wednesday we had to get up at 4:45 AGAIN so that we could get to the temple. I love the Denver temple!!! It's beautiful. We walked around the grounds and enjoyed the sunrise before we went in. It was lovely. That night we had our Ward Coordination meeting which is with the Ward Mission Leader and his wife and the Elders that are also serving in our Ward. The Elders are in a trio, and two of them are new. One of the old ones was a Zone Leader, but he got moved up to an AP (Assistant to the President) and the other got transferred to a different area. We got a new Zone Leader, and another new missionary, and they seem great!

After the meeting Sister O and I went to see a less-active family - a father and his 12 year old daughter. We had the BEST lesson with them. It was probably the best lesson I've had on my mission. We read from Alma 32 and talked all about faith and what it means to plant the seed of faith in our hearts. You should all read that chapter! It's one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. (Read it here: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/bofm/alma/32)

Thursday we had our District Meeting in the morning (it was a week of meetings, apparently!) and got to meet our new District. Most of the missionaries in our District got transferred out, and we got a brand new greenie missionary as well, so I'm no longer the newbie! Hooray!

We also got to teach a great lesson to an investigator that we met a few weeks ago. We haven't managed to get in to her since we first met her, but we felt like we should stop by and she was home and invited us in. We taught her the first lesson, which is about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it went so well. It's amazing to see how the Lord has prepared people before they ever even meet us! She kept saying that she loved the things we were teaching, or always thought they should be that way, and it was really amazing. At the end we kneeled and she said the prayer and it was really powerful. I love being a missionary because moments like that are priceless.

On Friday we saw S! She is the most hilarious woman I have ever met, and she is on date to be baptized on June 22nd! Lately we have been meeting her at the Taste of Denmark bakery to teach her, because it's easier than meeting her at her house. And it's the best bakery in the world, so....I'm certainly not going to pass up an opportunity to eat there! We had a great lesson with her all about baptism and the Holy Ghost and we were able to address some of her concerns. She gave up coffee that day, and as long as she doesn't have coffee or go back to her e-cigarette, she will be on track to be baptized on the 22nd!!!! I'm SO excited for her. She is so ready, and I know she wants it, and I really think this is her time.

We also tracted (knocked doors) for a couple hours and got to teach quite a few people! On our way back to the car we were walking by this house and these people were hosing down a freezer in their garage. We stopped and asked if we could help and they said no, but then the husband came down the driveway and talked to us for like 45 minutes! He was really nice and has had quite an interesting life, and he agreed to let us come teach him more about the church! That's always exciting. Apparently they were hosing out the freezer because some hoarder had been living with them and she filled up the freezer with hundreds of pounds of food and they didn't know, and the freezer got unplugged and everything got moldy. As we were talking to him we kept getting whiffs of the nasty moldy food smell...it was gnarly.

On Saturday we got to see my favorite family!!!! They are the part-member family we see every Sunday night for a couple hours, but we got to go over on Saturday morning to do service. We cleared out their garden and pulled so many weeds and cut tons of trees and branches. It was a ton of fun! I love gardening now - my mind kind of goes blank and I don't have to think about anything except the task at hand. It's very relaxing.

Sunday we got S to drive us to church! And church was great, as usual. We even talked about baptism during our Sunday School class, which was perfect for her. I don't think I can express to you how much I love this woman, or how hilarious she is. She has some pretty colorful language, which is always a riot at church. Everyone thinks she's so funny. And she likes to pretend like she's this tough lady, but she's such a sweetheart :P She would kill me if she knew I said that though! She always says "I'm gonna kick yo butt" hahaha she is the best.

Sunday night we got to see that part-member family again, and we had a great dinner with them and we just had a blast together. We watched the Mormon Message called "Will of God" or something like that. It's about a gardener trimming his currant bush back, and how sometimes God trims us back to help us grow into who He wants us to be. You should all watch it - it's one of the best Mormon Messages I've seen, and you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr8xvw0cgw0&feature=kp J

Today we have had quite a nice p-day. We went to the World Market and got a bunch of Australian stuff! Apparently "Tim Tams" are a huge thing in Australia (according to Sister O) and we found some! Except they're called Arnott's. But they're delicious! And we did "Tim Tam Slams" which is where you get hot chocolate and take a bite out of opposite corners of a Tim Tam and then suck up the Hot Chocolate through the Tim Tam like a straw, and then eat it....it's hard to explain. But it's delicious! I also got a Mars bar, and a couple other Aussie goodies. Yum J

I love you all dearly! And I love the gospel! I finished reading the Book of Mormon this week and I can testify that it is the most true book on earth, and it will help you come closer to Christ if you read it. I love it! And I love my Savior!

It's true!

I hope you all have the best week! Look for missionary opportunities! And remember, people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. True principle J

Love you all!

Sister Koenig

I SURVIVED MY FIRST TRANSFER!!! (This is the June 2nd update a bit late)

Only 12 more transfers to go! That seems like a lot....but I know it will just fly by! By this time next week I will have been on my mission for 2 months!

This past week was great. We lost 2 of our favorite Sisters - one went home and the other is being transferred to the Western Slope. I will miss them!!! Mission life is sad like that - you meet the most amazing people, and then they're just gone from your life! :(  No tornadoes this week - thankfully. That was quite the experience haha. We did have a couple lightning storms though. We have a storm almost every day around 3 pm. I love lightning!!! It's the best.

We had a cool tracting session this week. We tried to see one of our investigators but she wasn't home, so we decided to tract her street. We managed to teach a couple people, and gave out a few pamphlets, and it was all good. Then we came up to this one house and as we were walking up to the door, this wasp appeared out of nowhere and was flying around Sister O's head. She tried to swat it away but it kept flying around her head. Then, right as she was reaching to push the doorbell, the wasp flew RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DOORBELL and hovered there! It didn't move! We instantly knew that we were NOT supposed to ring that bell, and we were out of there in a second. It was scary! I got chills! I know that the Lord uses animals to do His work sometimes.

Then the next door we walked up to, we rang the bell, and there was movement in the window. Sister O put on her biggest smile, and in the nicest voice she could muster, she said "Hi!!!!" Then she paused and said "Wait, is that a DOG?!" This dog was just sitting in the window, and she thought it was a person. I started cracking up, and then she said "I have never spoken so nicely to an animal" hahahaha good times. It was so funny.

Anyway, that's about it! Sorry this isn't longer! I love you all!!!!!!!

Love, Sister Koenig