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

Staying in Lakewood!!!

Sorry this is super short but I just don't have time! I wanted all of you to know that transfers are tomorrow and I am staying put for another 6 weeks with Sister Duprey! We are going to see miracles this transfer and we are going to do amazing things, I know it. The Lord is so good :)

I hope all of you have a fantastic week and that you can feel the Spirit every day and find opportunities to share the gospel with all those you come in contact with!

Love,

Sister Koenig

P.S. Please write to me! I haven’t had much mail lately! J

Last week of the transfer here in Lakewoooood

Sister Duprey and I worked so hard this week! This area is progressing! We had so many miracles and God's hand is really in the work. I love it.

On Tuesday we were able to see L, who is 12. She is from a part-member family - Her great grandma is totally active in our ward, her grandma is a member but completely inactive, and her mom is not a member. They all live in the same house. L loves the church and she is so excited about us coming over! We did Personal Progress with her which was really fun, and she said that she has already completed quite a few experiences on her own time and she has been reading from the Book of Mormon! We asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she got so excited and said yes! But we have to take it slowly because of her family situation. She came to church yesterday and stayed for Sunday School and Young Women, and Sister Duprey and I got to go to Young Women with her :) It was fun! I miss being a young woman....hmph. And Lena said she would come next week and stay for all 3 hours of church! She wanted to stay for sacrament yesterday but had something else she had to get to.

A week ago Sister Duprey and I went and saw a less-active lady who lives at a nursing home a couple blocks from where we live. As we were leaving, I saw a table with a puzzle on it and I said "Aww, I want to do a puzzle." (I'm kind of an old person at heart - I like doing puzzles and knitting. Yup, I'm cool). Then the brilliant idea came to me - we could do service at that place and do puzzles with old people! YES! So we have gone there a few times since then and we totally got to do part of a puzzle with this old guy named M and he was very cool. He was 91 years old! We also have started going to the more intensive care unit and just chatting with the people there. The ladies who work there are really excited about having us come. When we first came and asked if we could volunteer, they said "Umm....yes? We think so...no one ever asks if they can volunteer!!" and then they came up with a whole long list of people who need a visit and various ways we can help. They basically just told us to wander the halls and chat with people. I have discovered that I am really good with old people. They like me a lot. Sister Duprey thinks it's the dimples haha. We met this sweet 92 year old lady name K, from Texas. She was adorable, and we just sat and talked with her for like 45 minutes! She was soooo grateful for us coming by, and it just warmed my heart. I love hearing everyone's stories and I love when they talk about their youth. It's fascinating.

There aren't many places for us to do service around here, and we usually go to this donation place and sort food. But there are a ton of people that volunteer there and we do the same thing every time, which gets boring. Hanging out with old people is way better. :)

On Wednesday we saw S, our investigator from China. There is definitely a bit of a language barrier there, but she knows more English than she thinks! She's just self-conscious about it. Thankfully we have had this returned missionary from a neighboring stake who has so willingly come out with us to lessons, and he speaks Mandarin. It's really helpful! We gave her a Chinese Book of Mormon a couple weeks ago and she has already finished 2 Nephi, which is fantastic! She also came to church yesterday, and she came last week too. Last week she said she only understood one of the talks, but I didn't even really understand the other talk so whatever. :P

Yesterday I think she understood much more, and seemed to enjoy it a lot! Our translator came, but he really didn't need to do much. There were just a couple words she didn't know, like "thee" and some Mormon culture words. Her 7 year old son came as well, and I sat next to him and we drew pictures the whole time. He is a kick! Last week he was totally bored and I didn't want that again so I made an extra effort with him - and he was much less antsy and had a good time :) We will see them again on Tuesday and I'm really excited! She doesn't have a Christian background or anything, but she is very smart. We are trying to help her feel God's love for her -- I can feel it! I see her and her son and my heart just gets bigger, I swear. I never thought I could love people so much, it's unreal. Sadly her translator is headed off to school in a couple weeks, but I think we should be ok by then without him. Hopefully! The Spirit knows all languages, right? Maybe I should start praying for the gift of tongues....

Last night we had a really great miracle. A few weeks ago we tracted into this woman from India and she was so interested. She had been struggling and then we knocked on the door and just completely changed her life, apparently! We saw her a few days after that, but haven't been able to see her since. Sister Duprey and I were so worried about her but finally she did text us and said that her sister was in preterm labor and so she was just crazy busy dealing with all of that and that she was still interested in learning more when she had time. Last night we felt like we should see if she was home (we had stopped by sooooo many times and she was NEVER home) AND SHE WAS!!!!! She let us in and we got to teach her and watch The Restoration DVD with her. She and her son really liked it :) Sadly she hasn't been able to read from the Book of Mormon in a while because of all this crazy stuff that has been happening in her life (seriously, she told us everything, and it's a lot to deal with!) but she was just about to start reading it again when we knocked on her door :P We gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet to read before we come back next time, and her son had already started reading it before we left! They're the cutest. I love them! She went on and on about how we are her angels, and how she knows we were praying for her sister and the baby because everything worked out okay. And she said "Seriously, when you showed up on my porch that first day, you were like angels. I wasn't going to answer the door but I felt a push toward it and you were standing there, and I immediately felt peace. You are my real life angels." Aww :)

I love being a missionary! One thing that we've been doing lately which is really fun is having members come tracting with us. All of you should find your missionaries and ask if you can go tracting with them! I promise that you will see miracles, and it will be amazing! God is the best. Transfers are next Tuesday and I'm kind of nervous but I know the Lord will put me wherever I am needed! Whether that means staying in Lakewood or going somewhere else, it will be great.

Thank you for all the support you give me! It means so much to me! I wouldn't be able to do this without all of the love I get from all of you :)

Love,

Sister Koenig

Just a few pictures and a brief update :)

We went from 2 progressing investigators last week to 9 this week, which is AWESOME. And we had our cute little Chinese lady and her son at church yesterday! We haven't been able to see A, because her sister is in the hospital in preterm labor and she has been busy dealing with that :( And N, one of my favorite investigators, apparently left for church last week and disappeared and no one has seen her since. I'm so worried about her. Crazy stuff.

We managed to teach 22 lessons this past week, but I literally have no idea how. I feel like we did nothing, and God just threw lessons at us. He is too good to me!

Please pray for us and for our investigators!

Love,

Sister Koenig

Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks:

We got to go to the temple last week! Love it!

 Smiles!

 More companion fun

 Me and Sister Duprey! 

I think I mentioned in an earlier blog that our toilet broke... here it is! Haha

Hello hello, it’s me again

Ok so a couple people brought it to my attention that I said I didn't have very much time to write, and then I wrote a novel....sorry not sorry haha. I ended up having more time than I thought, and I didn't proofread. YOLO. :P

This week has been pretty dang great. We started teaching these twelve year old twin girls, and they're awesome. They're great grandma is an active member of the church, and their grandma is a completely inactive member, and their mom isn't a member. All of them live in the same house haha. Sister Duprey and I went to their house with the ward Young Women's president and gave them each a Book of Mormon and a Personal Progress book. They were SO excited about it! They were already planning their projects by the time we left :) It was adorable. We'll be going back sometime this week with one of the young women that they know from school, and we'll all do some Personal Progress together. I'm so excited about it!

We also got to see our miracle investigator A who we tracted into a week and a half ago. She and her son are doing AWESOME. They had already started reading the Book of Mormon, and A had the best questions, and we were able to answer all of them. We also told her that any question of the soul could be answered with the Book of Mormon and she was like "Really????" so we had her think of something that was bothering her and we were able to find some great scriptures that totally answered it for her and gave her so much peace. It was fantastic. We are going on a church tour with them tomorrow, and she said they'd go to church next Sunday! I really think she could be baptized this month, it's incredible.

On Thursday we tracted for over 2 hours and had NO success. Almost no one answered, and those who did wouldn't listen to us. It was kind of discouraging! The next day, however, was a miracle. We tracted for less than two hours and were able to teach 7 lessons and get 3 new investigators! I had felt prompted to bring a Chinese Book of Mormon to this Chinese lady we are teaching, and she was on the complete opposite side of our area, but we went anyway. After that, we didn't know where to tract, and Sister Duprey and I were getting different promptings as to what to do...we tried to tract a street and not a single person answered so we went back to the car. We prayed about where we should go, and looked at our map, and picked a street. At the first house, this lady had just walked out of her door and we went up to her and did our survey with her. Somehow it came up that she had been given a Book of Mormon a while back by some missionaries, in Walmart of all places, and she had read 40 pages of it. She was really interested in learning more, and we pulled out the lesson one pamphlet and she looked at it in shock. There is a picture of Christ holding a lamb on the front cover, and she said "I just saw that picture on the internet this morning and I was wondering where it came from and where I could get a copy of it!" It was so crazy. Then I invited her to be baptized, and she said YES!!!!! We haven't put her on date yet, but it was so cool. I've never walked up to a total stranger before and done that! It was neat.

That same day we were able to teach N and B, with one of my favorite members in the ward. B was baptized into the church as a kid but he never went. N is his daughter who lives with him, and she never really knew much about the church, but we've been able to teach her a few times and she is SO interested! We gave her a Book of Mormon and she was so grateful and thought the cross-references to the Bible was the coolest thing ever. AHHH I'm so excited for her. She is so ready for the gospel.

Also my favorite bakery, the Taste of Denmark, finally opened again after a month-long break, so that was fantastic.

We're also teaching this couple from Kenya - they're refugees. They have some crazy stories and they're very smart. We gave them Books of Mormon and they were very interested, so we'll see how that goes! I'm excited to teach them again. The husband has been to many churches, but he said he has never been to an LDS church and he wanted to go to see what it was like.

And we have that investigator from China, who we gave the Chinese Book of Mormon to...oh man this is an awkward situation but I love it. She barely speaks any English, and Sister Duprey and I don't speak any Mandarin (surprise surprise). We found this kid who came home from his mission in Taiwan just 3 weeks ago, and he came to a lesson with us last night. We thought he would translate...but he basically ended up teaching her the whole lesson in Mandarin while Sister Duprey and I smiled and nodded and looked pretty lol. Awkward! She had great questions though, and she had started reading the Book of Mormon and wants to learn more. We'll see her again on Tuesday....and see how it goes. She wants to go to church, but again there is kind of a language barrier haha. I'm not sure what to do about that.

The Lord is amazing, and the work is hastening! I just want to testify that the Book of Mormon is one of the greatest gifts that God has given us. I love that book with all my heart and I read from it and learn from it every single day. You can never read it too many times! I have seen that book change lives, and most importantly I have witnessed it change my life. If you want to know truth, read that book, and pray to your Heavenly Father. Nothing is impossible through Him, and the Book of Mormon is a testimony of that. We've probably placed 15 Books of Mormon this week and every time I bear my testimony of it, it is strengthened and becomes far more powerful. The moment we start talking about the Book of Mormon in a lesson, the Spirit that I feel is undeniable, and I know that it is true. And all of you can know that for yourselves as well.

I love you all and I love being a missionary at this time and in this place. There is a wonderful work to do, and I wake up every day grateful that my Father in Heaven has chosen me to do it.

Love,

Sister Koenig