I'll be a missionary all of my life :)

Soooo things are pretty amazing here in Lakewood. We are working so hard at being exactly obedient, because we know God will bless us and we'll see miracles. And we have! The work is hastening and we have been able to see God's hand in our lives every single day this transfer. I LOVE IT!!!

We have been tracting a LOT lately. We don't have a ton of people to teach, so we're focusing on finding those who have been prepared. Instead of traditional tracting, we do a "Survey Approach" where we ask people if they'll take a quick survey. It has 10 questions, like "Do you believe in God?" and "Is a close, strong family important to you?" and "Have you ever asked yourself questions like 'Where did I come from,' 'Why am I here,' and 'Where am I going?'" That kind of thing. It works really well, and people are way more likely to listen to us, and then we can go from the survey into teaching them about the Restoration of the gospel. This past week we were able to find 10 new investigators through the survey, which is pretty much unheard of here. The most I've ever gotten is 8 in one week. But we surpassed that, and all of the people that we found are amazing!!!! I'm so excited to continue teaching them!

I don't have a ton of time to write so I just want to share some miracles that happened this week.

On Monday night after p-day, Sister Duprey and I decided to do the survey. We didn't really want to, and we were tired and not super motivated, but we pushed through and did it anyway. We were able to find this guy who seemed super interested, and he was really nice. We had a great chat with him, and then I felt like I should tell him to watch the video the church put out around Easter titled Because of Him. We asked if we could come back and teach him, and he said no...disappointing! We really thought he would agree!  Then, two days later we had to run into McDonald's so that my companion could go to the bathroom. I waited outside and looked up......AND SAW THE GUY WE TAUGHT TWO DAYS EARLIER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so cool! He waved and I walked up to him and asked if he watched the video. He had, and he said it was really powerful! He had more questions, and we said we would love to come over another time and answer all of them, so he let us come back last Saturday. It was really cool. And so random!

On Saturday we went to try and contact this family after dinner. No one was home, so we went back to the car and decided to try another family. Sister Duprey said a prayer and we were going to pick another name to go try. While she was praying, I felt like we needed to be on a particular street. Then I remembered that there was a family on that street we knew, so when she finished the prayer I looked at the list and found that family. Then I realized it was the people we had just tried…and we were parked in front of their house still haha. I didn't know what to do because I still was thinking about that street, and I couldn't get it out of my head! So I said "I need to say a personal prayer" and Sister Duprey thought I was really weird lol. But I knew that we needed to be on that street, so I ended my prayer and said "I think we need to survey this street." It was raining, and we were tired, and she clearly wasn't super stoked about it, but she trusted me and went with it. She's a good companion :)

The first door we knocked on, this guy answered. He was so nice, and did the survey. He was in the military, and his daughter goes to UW, and we just had all these connections. We quickly told him about the restoration and asked if we could come back and teach him and he said definitely. So that was cool!

We were really excited about the street at that point so we kept going. I just felt pumped. Finally we went up to the very last door on the street and knocked. I saw this little boy peek his head through the curtain and I waved, and then he disappeared. A minute went by and no one answered...awkward! People do that a lot. Finally when we were just about to leave, this woman answered. She agreed to do the survey, and OH MY WOW it was amazing.

Her name is A and we asked her if she believes that Christ is the Son of God and she said "Well I'm Muslim, but I do believe in Christ." We asked if she thinks the Bible is the word of God or just a history book and she said the word of God, and that she has read it because she went to a Christian school. Then we asked if she prays and if she thinks God hears and answers her prayers and she said definitely, and then told us all about living in India and all of the horrible things that she saw and the things that happen there. It was so sad. But she said God helped her to realize how much she had and how blessed she was, and that God helped her get to America safely with her 9 year old son.

Then we asked if she would like to be happier than she is now and she said "Yes. I'm all alone and I have no family and I was so sad. She shared some really personal things about how hard things were and then told us, “And then you showed up. You're an answer to my prayers." I just had to stop and hug her. We told her that by following Christ she could be happy, and that she could live with her family again forever and we could teach her how that was possible. Then Sister Duprey pulled out a Book of Mormon and told her about it, and how it could help her. We bore powerful testimony of it and of Christ, and she was getting emotional. When we handed it to her, she knew it was special. She WANTED it - like she needed to know what was in it. We asked if we could come back and tell her more and she said definitely, and said she would start reading the Book of Mormon right away. We are scheduled to see her on Saturday. :) The Spirit was so strong, and she is ready. She needed us! And she was so grateful that we came, and her son was so grateful as well. We hugged her again and just told her how much we loved her and how much God loves her, and then we said a prayer and left. It was amazing. I was almost crying as we walked back to the car.

President Monson once said, "The sweetest experience I know in life is to feel a prompting and act upon it and later find out that it was the fulfillment of someone's prayer of someone's need. And I always want the Lord to know that if He needs an errand run, Tom Monson will run that errand for Him." I felt that, and I want the Lord to know that I, Sister Koenig, am willing and ready to run any errand for Him. It's the best feeling!

Sister Duprey and I are really trying to involve the Lakewood Ward more in missionary work. It's not the members who are supposed to assist the missionaries - it's the missionaries that are supposed to assist the members! We come and go so frequently, and we don't know this area or the people here, but the members do! The members around the globe (myself included) really need to change their mindset on that and realize that there is sooo much work to be done and we all have the responsibility to do it. We are going to be bringing a lot more members to lessons, and we are going to bring members out tracting with us! We think it will help light that missionary fire in all of them, and I know it will make our area boom. It will be awesome! Tomorrow we are taking Sister D tracting with us - she is 78 years old, and she is amazing and hilarious. She's always going going going and I swear she never stops! I told Sister Duprey that I wanted to invite her to come with us and she said "Do you think she'll be able to keep up with us?" And I turned and looked at Sister Duprey like she was crazy and said "I don't think we'll be able to keep up with her!!!" haha and it's true! It's going to be a blast. :)

ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS give missionaries referrals. Talk to your friends about the gospel and about what you believe! Share your testimony of Christ! Invite people to activities, and to church, and introduce them to the missionaries! Everyone deserves the chance to hear about the restored gospel and the blessing it is, and we have the responsibility to give them that chance. I believe in all of you! If you pray for opportunities and then LOOK for them, you will always find them. And what's the worst that could happen? Someone says they're not interested? That's ok! And best case, they are interested and ready and it's exactly what they needed at that time in their lives! Maybe you will be an answer to someone's prayer too!

Love you all!

Sister Koenig

TRANSFER 3!

We had a great week this past week, and the Lord has so much in store for us this transfer! We've already seen miracles, and I know we are going to have some huge ones in the next 5 weeks.

On Monday Sister O mostly said goodbye to people (she was getting transferred the next day) and then we spent the whole night packing up her stuff. The next morning we had to get up bright and early to get to the Transfer Meeting. I'm talking like 4:30 am. Rough! Everyone came to the mission office and we met in the chapel and the Assistants to the President announced where everyone was going. My new companion is Sister D! She's from North Carolina and she has been out for 1 year, but she was in her last area for 10 and a half months!!! I can't imagine being somewhere for that long... She did awesome things there. And she served with one of my MTC companions, and my friend from back home, so that's neat.

Sister O went off to a different stake, but still in the Metro Area. It's still weird to me that she's gone! You spend 24/7 with someone for 3 months, and then you don't see them again. But the work goes on. So strange.

Sister D was coming from out west, so she wasn't going to get to the mission office until 7:30 pm, and I got to tag along with another companionship for the day. It was so fun! We spent the day in their area and I got to teach some really great people. I get to go on exchanges in that same area this Friday, so hopefully I can see some of the same people again!

Finally Sister D came and I picked her up and took her to our place. She unpacked a bit and we planned, and then got ready for bed. And then.....our toilet broke. I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED but it wouldn't flush, and the water was at the top of the bowl. Then Sister D came walking in and was like "Oh I'll fix it" and fiddled with the chain inside the lid, which essentially just flushed it again, and all of a sudden water started POURING OUT ALL OVER THE FLOOR. It was so intense. Thankfully I had just washed all these towels, so I quickly grabbed them and threw them on the floor. Then I ran into our laundry room to find more, and I saw a hose in the laundry room that had water gushing out of it!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHH!!!! This was all happening at like 10:45 pm and we didn't know what to do! We got the house owner to come and he turned off the water to the hose, thankfully. Apparently it was connected to the water softener machine thing, which was low on salt and decided to drain itself. Uhhhh.....sketch. And he fixed our toilet temporarily, and got us a new one a couple days later. Now our old toilet is sitting on the front lawn with a free sign next to it hahaha. Awesome, right? Yeah I think Sister D had a great first night....

We managed to teach quite a few lessons this week, and we worked hard for each one. Oh and we had a couple people get really mad at us this week, more mad than I've ever seen anyone on my mission. One investigator in particular went off on Sister D, and I'm not sure why??? I didn't know what to do! But Sis D handled it quite well. I don't think we'll go back to teach that investigator again.....awkward.

We went tracting on Friday and this guy answered the door and say "WHOA, you're the Mormons! I was just talking about the Mormons! This is creepy!" Apparently he was actually baptized into the church when he was a kid, but never really went. His records weren't in our ward or anything, but we were able to talk to him, and he is interested in learning more! We came back the next day and gave him a Book of Mormon, and he was so grateful. He also said he wanted to come to basketball, and wanted to do family history and all this other stuff. It was awesome!

We actually placed 4 Books of Mormon this week...we're getting dang good at it. We tried a former investigator who Sister O and I had an awesome lesson with a couple months back, but then she dropped us. Well, she let us in again, and we taught her more and it went really well! We're seeing her again on Wednesday and I'm hopeful :) She is soooo sweet, and she has the cutest little girl.

We also contacted a few part-member families and a few less-actives that I've never met before, and they all said we could come back! This one family in particular seems awesome. The mom is a convert but hasn't been active for a few years, and she has 7 kids! She was SO nice, and the kids are adorable.

And we got to see our investigator S this week! I love that woman, she's a little spitfire. I love it. Afterward we went to the Relief Society Mid-week Meeting with her and at the end everyone made us take their leftovers. That was fun. :P

Last night President Murdock called us and asked if we could do a special project for him....we freaked out a little bit. Thankfully it wasn't as bad as we thought. He wanted us to come to this training meeting that they were having for the Ward Mission Leaders and Ward Missionaries, and he wanted us to bring our Progress Record. We rewrote it to make it nice and neat haha. We ended up being on this panel and did a role play with other members of a good Ward Coordination Meeting. It was fun! I was really nervous beforehand but once I got up there I was fine. And it was nice to see President Murdock, he's the best.

Overall the work is great! I never thought I would love walking around in 100 degree weather knocking on strangers' doors, but I do! There is nothing else that I could be doing with my life that would make me happier right now.

Love,

Sister Koenig

TRANSFER WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow I start my 3rd transfer! I'm officially trained and ready to go, and I'm getting a new companion! But thankfully staying in Lakewood J I love it here. Sadly I will have to say goodbye to my Aussie trainer L but I know there are exciting things ahead!

My last week with Sister O! 

We didn't do a ton this week because of sickness and craziness and it was just a weird week. But we got to have a few really awesome lessons!

We teach this lady named S - I've talked about her before. She was meant to be baptized a month ago but it didn't happen because she's struggling with the word of wisdom. Her daughter is actually a less-active member, and her husband and their daughter as well. She wanted us to teach her 11 year old daughter A. She's homeschooled, and VERY smart, and her mom wants her to have a sort of "Bible Studies" class - so that's what we're doing! We basically are just teaching her the normal lessons that we teach to investigators because she doesn't really know anything about the church, and then when she turns 12 this month we are going to start doing Personal Progress with her! I am so excited - I love Personal Progress J  

She is soooo shy though, and I don't think she particularly WANTS another class haha. She already has a crazy, grueling schedule. She doesn't really say anything when we teach her, and if we ask her a question she just shrugs. We taught her the Plan of Salvation this week and it went really well, but she didn't say anything. Her mom sits in, though, and she was involved, which is great!

Afterward, I asked her to show me all of her pets. She does 4-h shows, and has a few dozen rabbits and chickens and guinea pigs - basically my most favoritest things ever. She took me outside and showed me the rabbits and we really were able to get to know each other better! She finally opened up to me and said more words than she ever has before. I am really excited about our next lesson with her because I think mayyyybe she'll be more receptive. I really feel like I'm the one who needs to teach her and help her, so hopefully I am able to! I just love her so much and she's so cuuuuute and reminds me a lot of myself at that age. Poor thing haha.

We also had a miracle this week - My favorite part-member family that we see every Sunday night CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WAS SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sister O and I sang a duet in sacrament meeting (scariest thing ever - we did it a cappella, which was maybe not the smartest choice, but it went well) and we invited them and they said they'd come - and they did! When I saw them in the foyer I could not stop smiling. It was like Christmas x12352480205. Best thing ever. Oh man they're just the best. And we managed to have 3 investigators at church, the most I've ever had! Miracles miracles miracles. I love it.

Tomorrow is transfers, which means that we have to get up wayyyyyyyy early in the morning and drive to the mission office. Then all the missionaries on the metro side of the mission are together and they announce all of the companionships and where they are serving. If you're serving out West, over the mountains, you get up right then and leave because it takes hours to get there. If you're staying on the Metro side, you stay and the people going home from their missions bear their testimonies and President and Sister Murdock both speak and then you find your new companion and then leave! Exciting! My new companion is coming from the West though, so she won't get here until tomorrow night, and I have to find another companionship to tag along with for the day. That will be fun! I am soooo excited and ready for a new transfer - great things are going to happen :)

Love you all! Have an awesome week! Read your scriptures! ;)

Love,

Sister Koenig

Still a bit bruised up, but doing well!

The 4th of July and other fun!

Hello everyone! Things have been crazy busy here. It's weird how fast time flies! Next week is transfers and I am nervous! I don't want to leave Lakewood - In the past 3 months it has become my home. I think I'm going to stay, but I won't find out until Sunday :(

This past week was a lot of fun but we didn't get to accomplish a ton of missionary work. Between the FIFA game on Tuesday (I think?) and the 4th of July, no one wanted to see us! Everyone was either out of town or busy. We did have a couple cool things though.

Last week we went to the house of one of our new investigators that we tracted into a few weeks ago. Her name is S, and she is so nice! It was actually kind of funny when we tracted into her because we thought no one was home and Sister O had already started walking away but I stayed at the door adjusting my bag or something when she answered. I had to awkwardly call back to Sister O but then she didn't hear me, and then finally she realized and turned around and ran back. We had a great conversation with her at her door and she has a close Mormon friend and we talked about the church and her family and it was just really good. Anyway, we went back to see her last week and she said her husband was busy inside watching tv or something, but that we could talk on her porch. She made Sister O and me sit on the chairs and she sat on the cement. It was soooo hot that day, probably in the high 90s, and she was completely in the sun, but she didn't complain at all. We taught her the first lesson really fast, in like 15 minutes, and it was probably one of the best lessons that Sister O and I have taught together! And she received it so well! She was interested in learning more, and when we were talking about the Book of Mormon she said that she had one that her friend gave to her and she was going to look for it. Then at the end we invited her to pray about the things we taught to know if they were true, and she said "I already know I'm supposed to listen to you!" and we were like "What?" and she said "When you knocked on my door last week, I wasn't going to answer it. I was just going to ignore it, but then as I was walking away from the door I heard something tell me to answer it and talk to you, so I did!" IT WAS THE COOLEST THING. I was so excited. And then she was asking us if our church accepts donations of baby formula and clothes and stuff and we said yes and she was just so excited about everything. I love that woman. We haven't been able to see her since, but we will definitely try to see her this week! Keep her in your prayers, please!

Yesterday at church we found out that we are going to sing a duet next week at church...we've sung for a few families in the ward, and I guess someone ratted us out to the musical number director person and they are making us sing! Ah! Anyway, we told this family that we love and visit all the time, and invited them to come, and they said they would! I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!! This is the best thing that has happened on my mission, by far. They haven't been to church in years and I'm just sooooo happy that they're coming. I don't even care that I have to sing - it's worth it.

We had a fun 4th of July on Friday. I taught Sister O the National Anthem over the past week or two and we sang it A LOT haha. It was fun. We also went to two barbecues and hung out with members and just had a great day. That night we drove around watching all the fireworks that people were setting off in front of their houses :P  Sadly there was no Ward breakfast, and no parade, and no big fireworks show....I definitely missed home a little bit :( But it was still fun, in a very different way.

4th of July!

The day before was the 95th birthday of the lady we live with! We got to go to her little party during our lunch hour one day. There were all these cute older ladies from our ward there, eating cupcakes and talking about how many great-grandchildren they had hahaha it was adorable.

Oh and something really cool that happened this week - Sister O and I got bikes! We still have our car, but we just borrowed a couple bikes from members because we wanted to try out some trails for our morning exercise, and we thought we might ride them to some nearby appointments sometimes. We went riding for the first time on Saturday morning and it was nice, but we had pigged out so much the day before that I got sooo nauseous! Sad. Then we went riding again this morning, and we were headed to this awesome trail, and going down a giant hill, when I crashed.....WHOOPS! I totally biffed it and got SO scraped us and I have some massive bruises! Thankfully I was wearing a helmet because it smacked really hard into the sidewalk! ALWAYS WEAR A HELMET if you're going to ride a bike! Seriously!  But the bike is fine haha. And I'm fine too...just a little tattered :P Fun times. I'm at the library and everyone keeps staring at me because I have a wrap on my arm and am covered in scratches and bruises and it just looks really nice...

This is the "after" picture - I'll spare you the ones before I got cleaned up!

I can't think of much else that has happened lately. I love all of you! Thank you for the prayers and the letters and support! You're all the best! Remember how much I love and miss you and remember how much God loves you!

Have a fantastic week!!!

xx Sister Koenig

 Apparently we shouldn't try to bake...

We had a wonderful Sisters' Conference last week!