More fun stuff about the House of Israel!

I got to go to Women's Conference this week, and it was FANTASTIC.  You can watch it online if you missed it! One of my favorite things was Sister Marriott's talk, how she talked about whenever there is a temple, it lessens the power of satan on the earth or something like that. And then she went on to talk about how we are temples. And it just hit me that whenever there are righteous women in the world, it lessens the powers of satan on the earth. And that we really are beacons of light for the world around us! In the Zone Conference with Elder and Sister Lawrence, they were saying that the House of Israel was scattered because those of the House of Israel would be the light that would shine throughout the nations, and if they were all concentrated in one place then it wouldn't have that effect.

I also LOVE President Uchtdorf, of course. He's fabulous. I used the raining blessings/umbrella analogy in a lesson yesterday. It was received very well.

Quote from President Uchtdorf's talk at Women's Conference

I am SO excited for General Conference. It has never been so important to me until now, on my mission. I have finally realized how amazing it is that we have a PROPHET and APOSTLES and amazing leaders of our church who receive revelation from God to help us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THAT'S INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!! And I'm just so giddy about the whole thing and I want it to happen now and I can't wait. It's going to be amazing.

I don't really have anything too interesting to write about this week, and I don't have a ton of time, but I thought I'd share more about what we learned during the Zone Conference with the Lawrences! I can't remember anything I said last week, so I apologize in advance if I repeat stuff.

Our spirits are all made of light, and we are literally the spirit children of God. Meaning that at one point we were all "born," or formed. When we were formed, we were all equal to each other. But, even in our pre-mortal existence, we had agency, and some people used that agency to progress faster than others. We developed talents and skills in the pre-mortal existence, and we worked on those things before we were born. That's why some people seem to have a knack for certain things like music or math, etc. Because they learned it as a spirit! Some spirits distinguished themselves through those talents that they developed, and others distinguished themselves by exceeding faith and good works. So while some developed talents, others developed "spirituality" (the ability to recognize truth, and then act upon it) and some developed both.

Jehovah, or Jesus Christ, progressed the fastest out of all of the spirits, and that is why He became the Savior and Redeemer of the world. We looked up to Him because we knew Him and we knew His talents and how great He was. And we also trusted Him because he was our brother and we loved Him and knew that He loved us. That's why we trusted Him when He said He would perform the atonement, and that's why we chose to follow Him.

Another really cool thing that Sister Lawrence said is that Heavenly Father doesn't touch our agency, but He knows us so well that He knows what we will do. I've always wondered how He could know everything that was going to happen, because it didn't seem fair. It seemed like we didn't really have any control over anything. But now I understand so much better that we still totally have control over our lives, but He knows us so well that He knows what's going to happen. And it makes sense as well why He still gives people chances even when He knows they won't take it - because He's hoping that they will change! He WANTS all of His children to return to them, and He's not going to give up hope.

In the pre-mortal existence, Heavenly Father presented the Plan of Salvation. Lucifer took one side, and Jehovah sided with the Father. There was a war in heaven over who we would follow. It wasn't a literal war, like with swords and shields, but it was a war of words and of testimonies. Satan had followers, and Jesus had followers, and the followers tried to convince the others to side with them. We know that although many people chose to follow Lucifer, the majority chose to follow the Savior. All those who followed the Savior came to earth or will come to earth in the future. So, congratulations! You followed Jesus Christ!!!! That's fantastic.

The war in heaven was won because of the "blood of the Lamb" (the atonement of Jesus Christ) and because of the testimonies that were borne. We bore our testimonies in heaven, trying to convince our friends and families to follow the Savior and come to earth! Those who helped God to win the "war" were called and elected as the House of Israel. You can read more about this in Revelations 11 and 12, I believe. Heavenly Father called and elected those who had the most potential to become like Him. It talks about that more in 1 Peter 1 and 2.

So Satan never got a body, and he never will get a body because he and his followers were cast out. His only pleasure now is making us miserable, so he focuses on those who he is most jealous of - those of the House of Israel! Those who fought against him! He HATES us and he is low enough to do anything to make us miserable. He's kind of a jerk.

In the pre-mortal existence, women were "pre-designated with the influence of motherhood" and men were "pre-ordained with the power of the Priesthood." It's kind of cool when you think how often in the scriptures it refers to "influence and power."

And here is more information on the Abrahamic Covenant:
It is the way to become more like God. Abraham promised that he would be loyal, obedient, and that he would be a witness for God. We make a similar covenant at baptism, when we promise to take His name upon us, always remember Him, and keep His commandments. Cool, right?

In return, God promised Abraham that he would have posterity, property, and priesthood (or in other words, he would give Abraham all that he has).

Abraham had Isaac, who had Jacob and Esau. Traditionally the "birthright" was given to the oldest son. The birthright is a double portion of what everyone else got, because it was supposed to be one portion for the son and then the other portion was to be used to bless the rest of the family and others. Isaac knew that Jacob was more deserving of the birthright, and would use that double portion more wisely.

Then Jacob had 12 sons, and again he chose Joseph to have the birthright, and Joseph wasn't the oldest son either. But because he had the birthright, the line of those in the House of Israel is much greater through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh. He had twice the responsibility! And his posterity was much greater. And Ephraim also had the birthright in his family, which is why the majority of people from the house of Israel are from Ephraim.

I love you all! Have a great week!  Transfers are next week (Tuesday), so if you are mailing things to my address here in Grand Junction, hold off until I know if I'm staying or going.  I'll update with any changes next week!

Love,
Sister Koenig

A BUSY WEEK!

This is going to be really long and probably out of order and confusing and I apologize in advance. But this has been an awesome week and a ton of stuff happened and it's overwhelming.

On Tuesday we had a missionary conference for all the missionaries on this side of the mountains. That's a lot of missionaries. Elder Lawrence, a member of the quorum of the seventy, came, and he and his wife spoke to us. For a really long time. And everything they said was amazing. I will try to quickly summarize it, buuuuut I forgot my notes so I'm sorry if it doesn't make much sense. I'll bring my notes next week and write a better email about it, hopefully.

So Sister Lawrence talked to us about the House of Israel. She said that Jesus Christ basically had a mission call where he was assigned to labor among the House of Israel - those who were descendants of Abraham. She showed all this proof for that, like how there was a Canaanite (aka not from the House of Israel) woman who wanted Christ to heal her son and he totally ignored her. His Apostles were like "Dude, what's up, why are you ignoring this girl" and Christ said "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Crazy!!! But then she gave a totally witty response to something he said, and I think He really liked her, so in the end He did heal her son. But that was an exception.

Then He said to His Apostles the thing about "Other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring" etc etc. Well, those sheep are literal descendants from the House of Israel. And He could go to America because they were from the House of Israel, which is who He was assigned to teach on His mission! Then He came to the Americas and taught them, and then told them that there were yet other sheep who he had to see - those from the OTHER lost tribes of Israel!!! Pretty crazy. We don't know where He went after that, but obviously there were other people who saw Him after He was resurrected.

Anyway yeah there was so much more. I'm going to have to send another email about this next week because it seriously blew my mind.

On Friday we had interviews with President Murdock. We usually do those every other transfer, but for some reason the last one was in May. Those can be so scary! I don't know why, because he's always sooo nice, but it just feels like you're in the principal's office or something! He's the best though. And then Friday night, President and Sister Murdock came with us to see a part-member family. The dad is not a member, but the mom is really active and they have 10 kids who are all baptized and active. The dad has been coming to church for like 9 years though, and he totally knows it's true, but he is stubborn and won't admit it because he doesn't want to give up his coffee and tobacco. Lame. The lesson was amazing though. The Spirit was soooo strong, and we taught the Restoration and this guy TOTALLY knows it is true. After the lesson Sister Keavali and I went outside with the Murdocks and they said "You two are amazing! That guy doesn't stand a chance against you Sisters! He'll be baptized within the month!" haha that would be nice, huh!

Yesterday we had our invitation Sunday, where everyone was supposed to invite a friend to church. Sister Keavali and I have pretty much been inviting everyone we talk to! And it totally paid off, because we had a bunch of people come! It helped that Sister Keavali spoke and then the two of us sang "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" because everyone came to support us haha. We probably shouldn't have done both on the same day, because then we would have had two weeks to convince our investigators and less-actives to come out and support us ;P Oh well. It was great though. Sister Keavali did an AMAZING job with her talk. It was probably one of the best missionary talks I have ever heard. I love that girl. Transfers are in two weeks and I'm so worried that I'm going to lose her! I have a terrible feeling that I'm going to be training this next transfer. Eek!

So many other things happened but this email is probably sufficiently long enough...sorry! I hope you're all doing well! Go read through the Isaiah chapters in 2 Nephi!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sister Koenig

BULA VINAKA! I'M IN FIJI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haha just kidding, I'm still in Grand Junction. But Sister Keavali and I have brought Fiji to Colorado! On Tuesday night we had a Relief Society activity that was something about traveling around the world, and they had all these people who were from different places teach everyone about the culture and stuff. It was fun. They asked Sister Keavali to do one for Fiji because she's from there (they didn't ask me to do one for Washington...I guess it was just too awesome for them to handle. Or maybe they knew they wouldn't understand the culture no matter how much I tried to explain it). We got all dressed up and I wore a Jaba (pronounced chamba) which is a traditional Fijian dress!!! It was so much fun! And she taught me their traditional "welcoming" song and we danced. It was superb. All the ladies loved it.

Me with Sister Keavali! 

Getting ready for our Fijian dance 

I love missionary life :)

Next week on Sunday, we are having a special "Come and See" Sunday where we invite as many people as we can (and the Ward does too) and then we have a special sacrament meeting and focus on the Savior and stuff. This is a mission-wide thing, which is really awesome. And Sister Keavali is speaking in our Ward! And then she and I are singing a hymn! We are so unprepared - like we don't even have a song picked yet - but we have all this ambition haha. The plan is to sing in Fijian and then English. She wants just me to sing, but I'm like "Dude I'm not going to sing a solo in Fijian while my FIJIAN COMPANION is sitting on the stand behind me. I'm not a poser. That's lame." but she's still convinced that she's not singing. Hahaha stinks for her. If you're my companion, you're going to sing.

We've had some pretty awesome things happen this week. On Thursday, Sister Keavali wanted to try a former investigator who she hadn't seen in a while. We stopped by her house and she was sooo nice! But she hasn't been reading the Book of Mormon at all or anything like that. We asked her if she believed it to be a true book, and she said yes. She also believes that Joseph Smith was a prophet. So I said "Why aren't you a Mormon?!" and she said "Because I'm a Baptist!" and I said "Well that's dumb." ............why did God let me come out on a mission. I do not understand. But actually she received that really well! Surprisingly. Maybe God made her hear me differently haha. But we talked about why she wasn't a member, and how if she KNOWS it's true, it doesn't matter what church she grew up in. She needs to be a member of the Lord's true church. She was still stubborn though. We asked her if she would commit to going to church on the 21st, for the Come and See Sunday, and she said maybe. She wouldn't fully commit though.

We asked her if we could come back in a couple days and read the Book of Mormon with her, and she said of course. So we did, and we brought a member with us. They hit it off really well! And we listened to 2 Nephi 29. Great chapter. At the end, we asked her if she would come to church on the 21st and she gave a solid yes! She even promised us! And then again we asked her if she thought the Book of Mormon was true, and she said she thought it was. Sister Keavali looked at her and said "When you come to KNOW that these things are true, and really know, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized?" and she said YES!!!!!!!!!!!! It was fantastic. Apparently they had asked her a bunch of times in the past, and she always said no. She is so prepared!

Another really cool thing happened yesterday. We had our Ward Coordination mtg. after church, and the Ward Mission Leader gave us a referral to a part-member family that he home teaches. We went over there last night, just dropped by, and they totally opened their home and their hearts to us! The mom was baptized a long time ago, but only to please her grandpa who was a member and who was dying. She didn't really know anything about the church, and never really went. She married a Catholic (he wasn't there last night) who is really nice, but doesn't like the LDS church. They have two boys; one is 14 and the other is 7, and they were both there last night. We just started chatting and really enjoying each other's company and it was awesome. We were able to answer some of the mom's questions, like "What is the Doctrine and Covenants and Pearl of Great Price?" and I realized that I don't think anyone has asked me that before. I struggled to describe the Pearl of Great Price haha. Good thing I have a companion!

They are awesome people though, and they are dying to have us come back! They said that it has been a long time since missionaries have stopped by, and that we were the coolest missionaries they had ever met. I felt honored haha. When we were leaving we asked if there was anything we could do for them and the mom joked that we could clean her house and we were like "Ok! When do you want us?" and she was like "wait what" and we said "We would love to clean your house." They are just about to do foster care, and they have to have a housing inspection tomorrow, so we're going to go in the morning and help clean :) The house isn't even dirty though, sooo I'm guessing there will just be a lot of chatting lol. And then the mom said "When can we have you guys over for dinner?" It was so cute. I am so excited to teach them. The 14 year old isn't baptized, and obviously neither is the 7 year old. But there is so much potential there! They are really genuinely good people.

Oh my gosh I almost forgot the funniest thing that happened this week. One day we saw a less-active, and she absolutely adores Sister Keavali, so she always gives her little presents. It's cute. This week she gave her some fuzzy slippers! They're beautiful. And fluffy. Later that night we came home for a minute to grab something and Sister Keavali said "I have a headache. I need to lay down for just a minute." She got all cuddled up in her bed and she was cold so she put her new slippers on. We left like 10 minutes later to go teach one of our investigators. After we had been at her house for a while, she reached down to Sister Keavali's feet and said "Wow, I love your slippers, where did you get them? Haha." Sister Keavali looked down in horror at her feet - she had forgotten to switch back to her normal shoes before we left the house!!!! It was really ridiculously funny. I couldn't stop laughing, and Sister Keavali was blushing so badly and didn't say anything for like 15 minutes after that because she was so embarrassed. Gooooooood times. Man I love her so much.

Sister Keavali (no slippers though)

And I love Grand Junction. Have I mentioned that? I mean it's not Fiji, but we make it work. The people here are just so awesome, and even though everyone is a little gun crazy, I love them! :P Being a missionary is literally the best thing I have ever done with my life, and I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father pushed me to do this and made it possible. He's the best.

I love you all. Stay fantastic. Share the gospel with everyone you meet. It's the best thing you could do for them. :)

Love,
Sister Koenig

This one's for Jonah :)

BULA!!!

I LOVE IT HERE!!!!!!!!! It's amazing. I was so scared on my way here, and I was heartbroken about leaving my Greenie area. But I truly love it so much and I am so happy that I am here!

Sister Keavali is my new companion, and she is fantastic. She's from Fiji, and she is teaching me Fijian. I'm pretty bad at it haha. I think I accidentally swore a few times....but she's patient.

My first full day, Wednesday, we had soooo many set appointments, with members who came to every single one! I've never had that many set appointments before! It blew my mind. We are working SO HARD and I love it. I almost didn't want a p-day today, because there is just so much to do, but then I was like 'nahhhh, that's crazy talk.' Hence why I'm on the computer right now :)

Driving to GJ with Sister Murdock was awesome too. I love that woman!!!! I feel like it was a 5 hour personalized training with her, and she just helped me realize so many ways that I can improve and be a better missionary! I needed it, too...struggles haha. And she has the Spirit so strongly and I think it rubbed off a little bit on me :P  I feel like I have been so much bolder since coming here. Probably in the last week I asked about 10 people why they weren't Mormon haha. Because it really is just the cool thing to be, ya know?! Ok well maybe it's not always cool, but it is RIGHT, and the gospel is completely true. Who doesn't want the truth? There is so much confusion in the world today, and the gospel is just so simple and it brings so much peace when you truly understand it and apply it to your life. AND IT IS TRUE!!!!!!!!! Am I the only one that cares about having the truth?!?!?

We are teaching quite a few part-member families, where one spouse isn't a member but is totally involved in the church and comes every week. And all of the nonmember spouses in those families who I have talked to totally have testimonies, but something is holding them back. But like it says in Alma 34:33 - "Do not procrastinate the day of your repentance until the end!!!!!" I read that to one of the part-member families last night (I told you I'm getting bolder haha) and the dad who isn't a member just looked at me, totally defeated. He had nothing to say to that, because literally that is all he is doing - procrastinating! Yes, it's hard, but it is so worth it!!!!!! Then he asked us why we cared if he was baptized. Especially me, because I had just met him. Well, we care because it is the most important thing!!! We want his family to be together forever, and that just cannot happen without the sealing powers of the Priesthood. It just can't. Whether you want it to or not. Even Heavenly Father is bound by laws, so why wouldn't we be? And, if we are doing the things that Heavenly Father has commanded us to do, we can have a little piece of heaven on earth with our families. And that is a gift. And I care because he is my brother, and I believe that I knew him before coming to this earth, and that I will know him again. And I want to see him in the Celestial Kingdom, with the rest of my brothers and sisters! And that's all of you!

Speaking of gifts, I told this man that Heavenly Father has given an amazing gift to all of us. It's wrapped in blue leather, with a little bit of gold. Any guesses? Yup, it's the Book of Mormon haha. And just like any gift, it's USELESS until we open it! It is THE BEST GIFT that I could give to anyone, but it won't benefit them at all if they never open it and use it!! But I have seen what happens when people put forth that effort, and have opened it and read it and applied it, and I can promise that it can change anyone's life if they let it. People are so stubborn though, I swear.

We have a couple people on date, which is awesome. The work here is progressing, and it's all because of the amazing members! They are fantastic. So many people are willing to come out to lessons with us, and it's as if they're begging to go! Some people have actually literally begged! It's hilarious and so different and I kind of don't understand it but I am soooo not complaining. It's fantastic.

Yesterday was my first day in the Ward and everyone was really confused because Sister Keavali had a different companion the week before...but I just smiled and said "Yup! I'm new!" and the dimples got em every time. ;D I sang really loud in sacrament meeting, because that's what I do, and I find it funny, and I had about 8 people come up to me later and tell me that they could hear my "lovely soprano voice" haha. They've already asked me to do a musical number. I said I'd get back to them.

On Thursday night our Zone did a Zone Tracting for 2 hours. All of the missionaries in the Zone had to set aside that time just for tracting, and then we were supposed to text everybody when we got a new investigator or when we had a miracle. Sister Keavali and I were late leaving our dinner, and we had to run home really fast to grab something before we started. As we were driving down our street, we saw a teenage girl sitting on the corner. Sister Keavali said "Let's stop and talk to her!" I kinda thought Sis Keavali was crazy, because we normally don't pull over to talk to people on the streets, buuuut we did it anyway! Cuz we're cool! And we ended up having an AWESOME lesson with her, and she said we could teach her more tomorrow. Yay! She's searching, and she loved everything that we said to her. She had been sitting on the sidewalk, so when we came up and talked to her, Sister Keavali sat on the sidewalk next to her and then I just sat on the street in front of her. In a skirt. It was awesome. At the end of our chat I got up and asked if there was dirt all over me and she said "Nah, you're fine. When you sat down on the street I was like 'DANG! This girl is legit!'" So yeah, I'm legit guys. Don't forget it ;) And pray for her please!

We are teaching this woman named T and she is a kick. She always says she'll read the "Mormon Bible" (Book of Mormon) but then she never does. Or she'll read a page and then come up with some excuse to not read more. She LOVES the church though! We asked her on Sunday what she wants, and she said "I want the Mormon church without Joseph Smith!" Welllllll that's not gonna happen.... So we're working on her haha. But she just called and said that she found out how to listen to the Book of Mormon on LDS.org and she listened to 9 chapters and really enjoyed it! And she said that she's excited to read more! I'm telling you, the Book of Mormon is key to conversion. For everyone! Investigators and members alike!

Today has been a super awesome p-day, except I might have broken my toe. Awkward. We had our zone p-day and played broom hockey and then ultimate frisbee! And we had a BBQ. It was a blast. All the missionaries in my zone are amazing and I love them dearly. And everyone is so nice! People are just better on this side of the mountain haha. It's a magical place.

I love you all! Sorry if this email was crazy, but I'm a little crazy sooo it happens! I hope all of you are well and I would love to hear from you! Tomorrow I hit my 5 month mark. Craziness.

Oh by the way, have I mentioned that missionaries get FREE SONIC here???? Yeah. Remember what I said about this being a "magical place??" I was being serious.

Have a great week! Read the Book of Mormon!
Au lomani iko!
Sister Koenig

AHHH BIG NEWS!

Ohhhhh my goodness everyone what is life.

Umm so last night (Monday) at about 7:30, my Mission President called us. Sister Duprey and I were tracting and we were set on finding 3 new investigators by the end of the day. We had already taught one family and had another planned and we had taught a random guy on the street who really wanted the Spanish missionaries to come teach him more, so we just thought it would be an AWESOME Monday night. Right? Well.....yeah we didn't find 3 new investigators. Because President told me to pack my stuff and be at the mission home this morning (Tuesday) at 7 am so I could GO TO GRAND JUNCTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I moved half-way across the state! I'm in Grand Junction now!

So I was up alllllll night last night packing and going crazy and being sad and saying bye to people and it was just awful. And then this morning we got up before 5 (ew) and got ready and drove to the mission office, and then took like a 5 hour drive to Grand Junction. Fun day! And Sister Murdock only eats Subway so we went there for breakfast and lunch haha. I love her.

I got here at about 2 and we went straight to a lesson with an investigator! Craziness. My new companion is Sister Keavali, she is from Fiji, and I JUST LOVE HER!!!! She's fantastic. She was actually companions with my last companion! Pretty crazy. And she was companions with Sister Lara, from the Shoreline Stake, who I saw today!!! I love that woman. She is amazing. And she is serving right next to us, soooo I think I will see her a lot! YAY :D I also got to see another Sister who I served really close to in Lakewood - she was in a neighboring branch, and Sister O and I spent a lot of time with her my first transfer :)

I'm excited to be here but it is definitely a shock! You're probably wondering why this happened and to put it simply a Sister was having some problems (not me, don't worry!) and things needed to be switched around, so after all the shuffling now I'm here. I miss Sister Duprey soooo much already, and the Lakewood area, and everyone over there!!!! My heart is broken. But this is mission life I guess, right? I am so excited to be in Grand Junction though. It is a fantastic area and I can tell already that the ward is awesome! My first lesson here there was a member present, which is fantastic!

I hope all of you are well, and I love you all a ton, and AH! My life is crazy haha. I love being a missionary.

Love,
Sister Koenig

P.S. - As usual, if you want my mailing address please message me or Alannah directly and she will get it to you.  If you send mail to the mission home it's supposed to get here, but apparently things often don't and you just get them returned to you... if you're lucky!

The work is hastening!

Hello people :)

It has been quite a week! Tuesday morning was transfer meeting, so we had to get up reeeeeeally early to get to the mission office. All of the missionaries going home bear their testimonies, and then they show a slideshow telling us where all of the missionaries are serving and who their companions are. There were SO MANY missionaries leaving! And I knew most of them, so it was really sad.

My companion Sister Duprey is a Sister Training Leader now, which is like a Zone Leader except for Sisters only. There is another Sister Training Leader (STL) in our zone, and the two of them have to work together a lot which means that the other STL's companion and I end up together a lot. This week we start doing Exchanges, and I'll be staying in my area with the other STLs companion. My companion is going to a different area with another Sister for 24 hours. We will have one or two exchanges a week this transfer, soooo I'll be doing this a lot haha.

On Wednesday Sister Duprey and I were able to see L, one of our investigators. She is 12, and she is amazing. We have been doing personal progress with her, but we decided that we were going to start teaching her the actual lessons to prepare her for baptism. We taught the Restoration and then put her on date for September 20th!!!!! She wants to be baptized so badly, and if everything goes ok with her family she will be this month! We are so excited. She is such a smart cookie - seriously, she knows more about the gospel than most members her age. Or even a lot of members my age!

We also saw S, our investigator from China. Sadly this was the last time we could have our Chinese interpreter there because he went back to school the next day. But the lesson went SO WELL!!! We taught about the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. She said that she has just decided that she is going to believe in God, even though she hasn't felt it yet. But she wants to believe so badly! She also told us that she and her 7 year old son have started praying together before meals and they take turns. We didn't even teach her to do that, she just started to on her own!!!! AND she said that she is having trouble focusing at work because she is always thinking about God and the Book of Mormon and everything! Which is probably not good that she can't focus, but I just think it's the most adorable and fantastic thing ever. :)

Yesterday at church, Sister Duprey and I were sitting in our combined Relief Society/Priesthood meeting for 5th Sunday. Our ward has RS/Priesthood first, then Sunday School, and then sacrament meeting. It's backwards, I know. I was kind of zoning out, to be honest, when someone pulled up a chair next to me. I glanced over and then had to do a double-take, because S WAS SITTING NEXT TO ME!!!!!!!!! She has never been to the first two hours of church before, just sacrament meeting, and we didn't expect her to come. I was so happy! We found out later that she came but didn't know where to go, and she and her son were wandering the halls. They were about to give up and go home when a member snagged them and brought her son to Primary and S to our class. Yay! And they stayed all three hours and they really liked it :)

I asked the Primary President after church how L did and she said "Oh he was great! You know how it is with new kids though, they can be really quiet and shy. He didn't say much." And I said "Yeah, it doesn't help that he doesn't know English!" haha it was funny. She had no idea :P

This past week we tracted a LOT. Like 2 or 3 hours a day. It was great. Most missionaries really do not like tracting, but I love it! I think it helps me knowing that my parents are tracting converts, so I have a lot of faith in tracting. We are just doing our best to find those people that are prepared, and to bring them back to the fold! I love this work and I love this area, and I love the gospel so much. There is nothing I would rather be doing with my time than serving my God.

One of my current favorite scriptures is D&C 84:88 "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."

I love you all! Find opportunities to share the gospel with all those you come in contact with. It's the best work you can do :)

Love,
Sister Koenig