MIRACLES!! And snakes!

C is getting baptized on Saturday! He had his baptismal interview last night and passed it like a champ :) We are soooooo excited and I seriously can't wait. Please keep him in your prayers! He is such a special soul and I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to know him and help him to make covenants with Heavenly Father! It's pretty much the best thing ever. He texted us after the lesson and said "Thank You for all the lessons and help you've all given me in preparation for my baptism on Saturday!!!! I feel truly blessed to have had you both as my teachers!!!! You are both extremely special ladies to me." Awwww :D :D It was precious.

When we went to his house yesterday it was about 95 degrees in there. He has like no body fat and is always cold, so he had his heater on and was wearing two shirts and a sweatshirt and a thick beanie, while the rest of us were DYING. Oh man it was so hot. We brought this girl from the ward with us to the lesson. She's going on her mission to Texas in a couple weeks! She was dying from the heat just as much as we were and we told her she's gonna have a rough time in the South haha. But she'll do great.

Lately we've seen this garter snake around our house that goes under our porch. It creeps us out a lot. On Sunday I almost stepped on it after church!!! AHHH. Then an hour or so later our neighbor who shares the townhouse with us saw ANOTHER snake by her door. So we freaked out and called the Elders to come kill the snakes (which didn't go well and caused some drama. Whoops! Let's just say they didn't come...and now our neighbor hates them) and then called a member to come. He came prepared with gloves and thick boots and a bucket. We walked around and looked for movement and tried to find the snakes, and he would snatch em and put them in the bucket. We found 5 snakes total and they were soooo gross. The member brought his two year old daughter who kept calling the snakes her friends and wanted to pet them haha. We're wimps.

Ew

Then yesterday I opened our front door and left the room for just a minute. When I came back to the room there was this horrible noise that sounded like a massive bee buzzing around and hitting something. I was freaked out.....but it was just a hummingbird! He was so cute and was stuck inside our house, hitting against the window over and over! Poor thing. Sister Patera and I formed a rescue party and got him out safely :) And of course we got a video, because duh. I have to preserve these kinds of things for my posterity so they know how COOL my life is.

On Friday the Spanish Elders texted us and told us they had a referral for us. They were tracting and met this woman who said she wasn't interested but her granddaughter M has been looking for missionaries for months now. They told us that and said the granddaughter would be home all day Saturday. We went on exchanges Friday night so I wasn't there, but Sister Patera and Hermana Bendorf went and tried this girl. She's 17, and SO AMAZING. Apparently a while back she was searching online to learn more about God and she came across mormon.org. She said that she loved everything she read and knew it was true! They taught her lesson one and she totally recognized the Spirit. She accepted the baptismal date of June 23rd and is really excited about it. At the end they asked her if she had any questions and she said "Yeah I just have one....where can I get one of those books that it talks about on the website?" As in the Book of Mormon. Yeah she's so solid.

While I was on exchanges I was totally blessed with the gift of tongues and I knew nearly everything that everyone was saying the whole day. I even taught part of the Restoration in Spanish! It was really cool. The Spanish Elders gave the Spanish Sisters a referral that day too. They told us they had just been tracting in these trailers and had just met a woman and done the survey with her and gave her a pamphlet and told us to try her the next week on Saturday. Well Sister Allison decided to try her right then, so we did, and it was incredible! Her name is B and she has the cutest little boys. We taught them the Restoration and the Spirit was so strong in there. She also accepted a baptismal date of June 1 and so did her son who is 8. They are really excited about it.

Last week at the library some weirdo in a pink shirt dropped a piece of paper on Sister Patera's keyboard as he walked by. It had his name and phone number on it hahahaha. Sister Patera freaked out and gave it to the Elders and told them it was a referral :P Then they guy came back in the library and kept staring at her!! Finally he left and about 20 minutes later we left too. Sister Patera jokingly peeked outside to make sure he wasn't waiting for her, but then when we went outside he TOTALLY WAS WAITING under this tree!!!!! Thankfully he was on his phone and we rushed out to the car while he stared.

Two days after that we had District Meeting and the Elders said "Sister Patera, we talked to your secret admirer. Although I guess he's not so secret." They had actually called him and told him that they were the missionaries and asked if he wanted to learn more. He freaked out and then said "Wait. Did a tall girl or a short girl give you my number?" I'm the short girl. Then he said he was Baptist and wasn't interested lol.

To update you all on Sister Patera, she is doing ok. We're working more, but still not full days. She's such a champ though, I probably would have given up way long ago. I'm so blessed to have her as a companion, serving in this area with these special people.

Next week I'll only have 20 weeks left on my mission and that is so crazy to me. I've been reflecting quite a bit lately on the Lord's hand in my life, leading me up to this point. I am so grateful to know that He really is in charge and that He has the best plan that will lead to ultimate happiness. This upcoming Sunday I'm speaking at church about the Atonement and how it has helped me with my missionary work. Well if it wasn't for the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I definitely would not be here today and I certainly would not be as happy and blessed as I am.

I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you can see the Lord's hand in your life, leading and guiding you to where He knows you need to be.


Love,

Sister Koenig

Pizza, llamas, and burrito bugs.

Hello everyone! I never know how to start these. Sorry I'm so awkward. It comes with the job.

On Tuesday we had interviews with President! They were fairly uneventful. That night we went on Exchanges and I was with Hermana Allison, but first she had to have her interview with President. She was the last one, and it was getting kind of late. Sister Murdock, my Mission President's wife, had been at the church the entire day just sitting there and she was so bored and tired.  I was in the room with her and we both just laid on the floor and she Facebook stalked former missionaries and told me about what they're all doing in their lives. When President and Hermana Allison came in the room after her interview they started laughing at us, and Sister Murdock turned to me and said "Sister Koenig, that was a first. And I'm sure now you'll always remember laying on the floor for half an hour with me. Now I'm going to go to bed." It was pretty funny and weird.

I learned a lesson this week about the power of prayer. Sister Patera told me on Thursday morning that she was craving pizza. So I said a little prayer that we would get pizza. Well, no one called to offer to buy us pizza at 11am, so we went and each got a large pizza from Dominos (they were on sale. Don't judge us too much). We each ate two slices. Then we went to dinner with members, and lo and behold, they fed us pizza. We each had another two slices. On Friday we ate more of the pizza that we had bought ourselves, for breakfast and lunch and dinner. Then on Saturday we ate more pizza for breakfast, and then went and did service for some members in the ward. Near the end of service they ordered pizza and they ordered a whole large pizza from Pizza Hut just for the two of us, plus cheesy breadsticks and a giant cookie. So we ate some slices there, and then brought the rest home to eat for breakfast and lunch on Sunday. I feel like I'm turning into a slice of pizza. It's kind of disgusting. But I know now, for sure, that God is looking out for me and answering my prayers. I love Him.

We saw B on Tuesday night. I took a picture with his llama, Bok. And then Sister F asked us if we wanted to eat llama when they feed us on the 26th. Of course we said yes!!! So we get to eat the llama that B punched and killed!!! I'm really excited and a little scared.

This is the surviving llama!

The same less-active man who asked us last week if Adam and Eve had belly buttons confused Martin Luther and Martin Luther King Jr. this week. We were teaching about the Restoration and mentioned that many people, like Martin Luther, prepared the way for the Gospel to be restored through Joseph Smith. He said "Martin Luther King Jr. lived not that long ago. How could he have led up to Joseph Smith?" We had to explain that we were talking about Martin Luther, not Martin Luther King Jr.

Our investigator C is doing really great. We were able to teach him this week, and he said he would come to church. The Ward Mission Leader, Brother Christensen, usually drives to C's house to pick him up for church. He literally picks C up and puts him in the truck, and then wheels his chair up a ramp into the bed of the truck. Brother Christensen has some pretty severe back problems though, so it wasn't the best situation. On Wednesday we came up with the idea to ask a recent convert to take Brother Christensen's truck and get C. He's young and strong and it's not a problem for him, plus he's SO GRATEFUL to have a responsibility and a chance to serve. He's so awesome. It worked out perfectly and they were both at church! Woohoo!

We saw C as he was in the parking lot about to enter the building. He said to me "Hey I wasn't able to read those chapters in the Book of Mormon that you asked me to..." and I said "You need to read EVERY DAY! This is your salvation on the line!!!!" and he looked at me for a minute and then said "Just kidding! I read up to chapter 3. HA HA." and scootered away with a maniacal laugh.

We live in a townhouse and our neighbors who share a wall with us are so awesome. It's a single mom in the Delta Ward and her two sons, A (he just turned 5 and he is telling everyone about it) and J (he's two and his nickname is Fatty McNaughty). A got sick with a cold the other day and he came over and said, "I have a cough because there is a little bug inside of me. He's this big (held up his fingers about an inch apart)." I asked "A, what does the bug look like?" and he said "Like a burrito." And then he coughed on me so I got the little burrito bug too.

Me with my  neighbor

Overall it was a pretty good week out here in good ol' Uncompahgre.

Adios!

Sister Koenig

I got transferred

So I'm officially serving in Uncompahgre Ward. Woot woot! What a big change.

Sister Patera got her cortisone shot on Tuesday, but it didn't work...or at least it hasn't worked yet. It actually made the pain way way worse for a couple days afterward, but thankfully the added pain is mostly gone now and she's back to the same amount of pain she was in before. The Doctor said her reaction was "atypical." That's not really something you want to hear...

On Friday we went on Exchanges with the Spanish Sisters again, but only from 4pm on Friday until 10am on Saturday. This time all the lessons were completely in Spanish, sooo I basically just sat there and smiled and nodded my head every once in a while. I think we're going to be going on a lot of Exchanges with them this transfer, so I guess I should start learning Spanish.

On Saturday morning we had our Zone Meeting which was pretty good. There are only 4 Sisters in the whole Zone now, and 16 Elders. There was a lot of testosterone in that room, and it smelled kind of weird. The trainings were good though.

Yesterday was Mother's Day, and Sister Patera and I got flowers and chocolates at church because we're women. Score. I also got to Skype home! That was super fun, although it's never enough time. That was my last time skyping though, which is super weird! In just a few months I'll be HOME.

Yesterday in Relief Society the lesson was on the Book of Mormon. Our opening song was from the children's hymnbook, Book of Mormon Stories. Quite a few of the old ladies were doing the hand motions - including the Native American feather gesture. It was really weird. Sister Patera turned to me and said "I'm really grateful that we don't have an investigator here right now...." I about died.

A less-active man asked us this week if Adam and Eve had belly buttons.

A man just walked up to Sister Patera and me in the library and handed us some papers and said "You need this." It's titled "Die Boek van Mormon" and we thought it was anti-Mormon material, but upon further inspection it's actually proof that the Book of Mormon's translation is legitimate and that the Book of Mormon is true. Before we could even really look at the guy or say anything he was gone. I am so confused.

Tomorrow we have interviews with President Murdock, which is exciting. I don't really know what to say to him about the work. I suppose I could teach him about Church History based off all the Living Scripture prophet movies we've watched. I think we've seen every single one at this point except Thomas S. Monsons haha. Impressive, eh? I can tell you all sorts of fun facts about the prophets now.

I love you all and I hope you have a great week. Remember who you are and what you stand for!

Love,

Sister Koenig

Hola, como esta? I'm getting transferred.

On Friday I went Spanish speaking for a day. That was different. By the way, I don't know Spanish. And the Sister I was with is a greenie but thankfully she knows more Spanish than me. It was interesting. We met a man named Jose, and he looked really familiar, and then he told us he owns 3 car washes in Delta and I realized that he bought Sister Patera and my car wash at the beginning of the transfer 6 weeks ago. That was cool. He told us to come by whenever we have a dirty car. What a nice man.

Also this week Sister Patera had like 4 PT appointments. I get to hold the timer while she's on the inversion machine. I have to make sure she sits up every 3 minutes. It's a really big responsibility.

On Wednesday she had an MRI and we found out that she has a bulging disc in her back. Sounds pretty painful. She might be getting a cortisone shot tomorrow from this spinal surgeon specialist in Junction. He's going to look at her MRI and X-Ray and check her out and decide what to do. I'm praying that it will heal her,because ...............................................................................................................................................
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We got transfer calls and I'm getting permanently transferred to Uncompahgre Ward to be with Sister Patera. Woohoo!!! Good thing I like her. :P

But seriously, it's going to be a great transfer. B got confirmed on Sunday, and C is getting baptized on May 30th!!! We taught him yesterday at the church and it was really great. He came to church even though his family was sick and it's so hard for him to get there!!! He's so solid.

I have a new address, so if you want it you can message me or Alannah on Facebook.

Write me pleeeease!!! I'm inside most of the day, and I get a little bit bored. Letters are much appreciated :)

Love you all!
Sister Koenig