Merry Christmas!

Hey Family!

 Well I'll keep this short since I get to talk to you all in a few short days :) Speaking of which, Mom I was actually planning on calling around 12 my time which would be 9 your time. Sorry so early but we have a zone activity later and a member dinner and my comp needs to call her family too, so I dont have another time. Sorry! I hope everyone can make it! I'll be sure to call the cell numbers.

Mission Conference was SOOOO GOOOOD! The spirit was so strong the entire time. Our song went well. My favorite was when we sang part of the last verse acapella. It was powerful. Another one of my favorite parts of mission conference was when we had the opportunity to bear our testimonies. Each zone was assigned a choir box (in every corner of the temple) and there we shared testimonies with each other. The most powerful testimony came from a non-missionary. His name is Andrew and he is a recent convert of a few months. His story is incredible and I'll share it with you one day when I have more time. He was invited to come to mission conference because he is thinking of going on a mssion. Anyways, I wish I could remember what he said...but I cant. I just know that I was weeping as I felt the Spirit witness of the truths he spoke.

After the temple we went to the stake center and ate lunch and finished in the chapel. We sang Christmas hymns and then they passed out our letters and we all read them as we sat there in the chapel. Im not gonna lie, I was a bit dissappointed that I didnt receive any hand written letters but I know it wasnt your fault. I was glad to receive the e-mails at least! The same thing happened to my companion last year so she empathized lol.

We're still teaching the twins and preparing them for baptism. We're hoping to find some more investigators soon too! The gospel is true and there's no greater work than this!

I love you all and will talk to you later...this week :)

 

Sister Kingston

Mission Conference in the Kirtland Temple

Hello!

Wow, sounds like you all had a busy weekend full of festivities! I love Christmas! I'll have to send some pics of Kirtland with the lights and all the snow and the nativities. Sister Stewart and I helped Elder Butterfield send some pics off to Mormon Times the other day and theyre supposed to do some type of article on Kirtland. Im so blessed to be here at this time of year again :)

Im glad Jacosa will be moving in finally! I know what its like to live out of a suitcase for long periods of time haha. Im excited to see the condo when I get back. So, the weather here is pretty crazy right now. There's a huge blizzard and it's 17 degrees outside. Hopefully we'll still be able to drive...last p-day we werent allowed to. We HAVE to this week though because we've been living off of cereal and ward Christmas party leftovers lol.

 

Im sooooooo excited for tomorrow! We're having Mission Conference in the temple! We were told to come fasting and to prepare spiritually. The sacrament will be administered. The Brethren gave our Mission President special permission to bless and pass the sacrament in the Temple. It's not done very often and I know it's going to be an amazing experience. The zone leaders will be passing it, I'll be thinking of you James and your awesome calling. Im also singing in the Temple for mission conference. Sister Stewart and I are singing in a quartet with 2 Elders. We're singing Oh Holy Night too! It's the only musical number being performed in the Temple so I hope it goes well!

 

This past week was good! We're still teaching the twins Corri and Jaclyn. Did I tell you that they came to Sites one day in the summer just because they saw it as they drove by!? They took a full tour. A couple months later Jaclyn googled "mormon" and was lead to mormon.org where she began chatting with missionaries on-line and then decided to meet with them in person. Pretty cool huh? The Sisters who were in this area before us started to teach them and now we are continuing to help them receive the restored gospel! But you want to hear something amazing? I was the one who took them on that tour when they came to sites for the first time! The Lord's hand is definitely in this work!

 

Something pretty cool happened in the phone room this week. We get incoming calls from people who call the 1-800 numbers (on the pass along cards) to receive a free dvd or Book of Mormon. Well the phone rang and I answered. The man was a member and was calling the number to see if it was still valid so he could post it on his website. I told him "yup it still works"! He then introduced himself...it was Allen Osmond haha. He has a family website and he's going to post the 1-800 number for anyone who wants to learn more about the church! Those Osmonds really are great missionaries! I know of two members of the church here in Ohio who have joined  because of the Osmond family! You should have seen Sister Putnam's face (a woman in the Kirtland ward) when I told her I talked to him on the phone! Well, I couldnt just let him get off the phone. I asked him to sing to me. Just kidding! I did ask him for a referral though. He gave me a name and number. I called his friend and he accepted to have missionaries visit him! Mom you would like this guy he's into natural medicine lol. I guess he's helping Allen with his MS. He has a website if you want to check it out...I cant remember exactly what it is though...it might be watercure2.com...but Im not sure? I wrote it down somewhere. His name is Robert Butts. Anyways, check it out and tell me if it helps you  lose weight haha. No really though, he said it does!

 

Ive seen a lot of miracles in the phone room lately. My zone leader Elder Hunt has left tons of referrals! I called his uncle the other day and he accepted. Because he hasnt been afraid to write those names down and give them over to us, 5 of his friends/family members are being taught by missionaries! Ive called other family members and friends of missionaries and its amazing to see how hearts are softened and prepared!

Oh that reminds me Mom, if you get the name and number of Pres Treadways friend you can just call the Visitors Center (440) 256-9805. Just say you have referral information and theyll have you talk to a young Sister. Just give whoever it is the info and it will get passed along to me :)

 

Well I love you all! Thanks for all your support and your examples! I love this work and my testimony continues to grow each and every day! Hope you all have a great week and cant wait to talk to you on Christmas!

Love Sister Kingston

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Zone Leader Council

Hey Family!

Well, I think Im definitely going to have a white Christmas this year! It's been snowing like crazy! Im having de ja vu, I cant believe Ive been here for a year! 3 weeks til I get to talk with everyone!!! YAY!!!

I was super bummed that I missed President Treadway! :( Normally, Im at sites all day Tuesday...but I was in a meeting in Cleveland that day. President Sorensen (my mission president) invited Sister Stewart and I to Zone Leader Council. The meeting lasted all day so I couldnt make it back to Kirtland in time to see President Treadway. Im glad he had a good experience though. The sisters told me that he brought a non-member friend who lives here in Ohio? Can you get her name and number from him and e-mail it to me next week? I want to call her and invite her to the nativities exhibit here. Thanks!

Although I was super sad to miss Pres Treadway, Zone Leader Council was amazing! We were there with all the Zone Leaders in the mission and the A.P.s and President Sorensen. We met in President's office. It was so neat to see how a Priesthood council works. Before we started we watched a clip of President Eyring, explaining how different the Lord's councils are in comparison to those that he learned about as he studied business at Harvard and then taught at Stanford. Im not sure how you can find it on the internet, but if you can WATCH IT! He was at some type of press conference, if that helps at all. Anyways, one moment during the meeting stood out to me. We were discussing an item on the agenda and we couldnt agree. After quite a while one of the Elders suggested that we pray. We all knelt down and he offered the prayer. We stayed on our knees in silence for a moment...and then sat back in our seats. As we went around the room everyone agreed on the matter. It was an experience I will always remember.

That same day of Zone Leader Council, Sister Stewart and I had our first training meeting. We talked about diligence in relation to the phone room. We had them study a certain section in Preach My Gospel in preparation and we did a little demonstration with beans and buckets. Its hard to explain but it went well :)

My Birthday was GOOD! Thanks everyone! It was pretty much a normal work day except that the Butterfields took me out to lunch :) and then the Sisters in my house decorated and we had hot chocolate floats that night! I took a few pics and I'll send them next week.

The rest of the week went well. We're doing our best to find a family to teach and baptize! Oh Mom you asked about Brenda, I hope she's doing well but since Im not in that area anymore I dont know for sure? But we have two invsestigators (they are twins!) who have a baptismal date for jan 1st!

Well, I better go. Thanks everyone for your support and love!!! Have a fantastic week!!!

Love you all!!

 

Sister Kingston

My Companion is from Hurricane!

Hello everyone!

 Mom thankyou so much for telling me about Pres Treadway coming today! Im soooooo excited to give him a tour! I'll make sure to take pics and send them next week! Im glad you all had a good Thanksgiving! I cant believe Christmas will be here in no time! I did think of a few things that you could send me for Christmas, if you want to that is. Any colorful/cute scarfs would be much appreciated! There are some good ones at Target.

Well, this week has been crazy! Nope, Im not quite settled into the house yet, all of my clothes are still packed up. Im hoping to unpack today, but it looks like I might run low on time. The good news is that this is the last time I'll have to unpack before I come home :)

Sister Stewart my companion is from Hurricane, Utah! Her older brother Brad dated Jaycee's sister Amber way back yonder. Jaycee you probably know some of her older siblings too. She's one of 14 kids, so youre bound to know a few Stewarts right? haha I love Sister Stewart! People (senior couples) would always get us confused. They say we look alike. We lived together in the Boynton home and she's a really close friend of mine here. So needless to say I'm happy :)

Thanksgiving was good for me too! I ate LOTS! The weather wasnt so great so our Turkey Bowl had to be altered a bit. Instead of playing out in the rain (c'mom we're Sisters we cant afford to get mud in our hair!) we decided to go to the church building and play knock out and a few other games. It was fun! I didnt take pics because my camera died but I got one group photo. Elder Butterfield even played with us in his white shirt slacks haha. The dinner was awesome. At the end of the dinner one of our favorite senior couples (the Grays) bore their testimonies because they were leaving the next day to go home. Their last request was to have all of us Sisters sing the Ohio Cleveland Mission song. It was a mess! We were ALL in tears after the first verse.

The rest of the day we took it easy. We had to plan for the upcoming week, and that took 5 hours! The longest weekly planning session of my life. If you want to know what we do for weekly planning go to chapter 8 in Preach My Gospel and we do everything from 1-13 under weekly planning! Since Sister Stewart and I are both new to the area it took longer than usual.

We've already seen a few miracles in the past few days. We were able to find 2 new investigators, one of which came to church and we set a baptismal date with him! His name is Bruce. He's a character! Ill tell you more about him next week!

Tomorrow is our first training meeting. Sister Stewart and I are nervous, but we're relying heavily on the Lord. We are responsible for training all the Kirtland Sisters (24 of them) each week. We use Preach My Gospel, our Kirtland Guide, and the scriptures to give workshops.  This time around we're focusing on diligence in the phone room (referral center).
 I'll let you know how it goes! Also tomorrow, Sister Stewart and I have been invited to attend the Zone Leader counsel. It's a meeting where the Zone Leaders, Assistants to the President, and the Mission President get together to discuss the needs and concerns of the missionaries in the mission. I'm sure it will be inspiring and uplifting...at least I hope so because it's 51/2 hours long!
Well, I better go. Thankyou all for your love and support! Oh and for the birthday wishes too :) I cant believe how old I am! Yikes. Anyways, I hope all of you have a great week!

Sister Kingston

p.s. Mom thanks so much for putting money into my account! It looks like my school

applications arent technically due until Feb. 1, 2011. Whew! So the money will just sit for now until Im ready to send them off :) Love ya!

p.p.s I think the photos are pretty self explanatory except for the one where Im in the tub haha. Well here's the back story. Once upon a time there used to be only 2 "showers" in the Smith home. One of them (the one you see pictured) we call the midget shower. Sorry it's not pc. Anyways, no one ever wanted to shower in it because you have to sit down (the ceiling is too low to stand). Well, I didnt want to wait forever to get into the shower (6 girls and one shower= no good) so I decided to just use the midget shower. It then became my shower. So when I moved back into the Smith home this past week, I found this in the bathroom. Sister Schumann and Sister Wright (they just went home this week) put it together! The sticky notes say "Welcome Back Sista Kingston" and something about sitting Indian style haha. Oh and the pink thing is a sheet. One day my companion decided to wash my towel w/out drying it...so I had to use a sheet haha. So there are now three showers in the Smith home......but I still use the midget shower! Its more for nostalgia than anything else. Yes Im weird.

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