I was accepted to BYU!

Hey Everyone!

 

Wow, I had so many e-mails in my inbox it was AWESOME! Thanks to everyone who wrote me! I LOVE getting mail and hearing from everyone back home. I also received two e-mails from BYU and BYUI this morning informing me that I've been ACCEPTED into both schools!!!! I opened the e-mail at sites and the Sisters crowded around to see the result. Everyone was so nervous for me... when the e-mail finally opened everyone screamed when they saw the words "congratulations" on the screen! It was like opening another mission call. Except this time I didnt cry (shocker)! Ive decided to attend BYU Provo and will be starting in the Fall. There are some Sisters who want to live together, so hopefully everything works out :) I'm excited!

Well, I dont have much time to write because most of my p-day is already gone. Sister Stewart and I had to go to the Visitors' Center today to take an interesting tour. I will be making my first (and probably my last) TV debut! The local fox news came and we took the host of one of their shows on tour. It was an experience for sure! He did most of the talking. I swear it seemed as if he was talking a mile a minute, my brain could barely process what he was saying in time to answer his questions haha. It felt as if I was moving in slow mo. Oh well. The show will be airing March 21st. We hope that it will bring more local people to the Sites!

There's not much to follow up on from last week. We have yet to have any appointments with the people we met. But as always, we're continuing on with an eye of faith!

I love you all and hope you have a great week! This is the best work EVER!

 

Love Sister Kingston

New Investigator Miracles

Hi Family!

Im sitting at the Visitors' Center (libraries are closed) and my fingers feel like theyre going to break off! The heater broke a couple days ago so it's freezing in here! Theyll hopefully have it fixed by today. Last week the weather was crazy nice! It got up into the 60's :) Unfortunately winter has returned and it's back down to the 20s and 30s. But March is just around the corner! Happy Birthday Mariana! I cant believe she's 6! 

This week has been soooooooo good!!! We had some pretty awesome finding miracles. I'll share a  couple with you. One day this week we went tracting for a few hours. We decided to go to an area we had never been to before. When we arrived at the previously planned street, we park and sat in the car for a minute while I finished up a phone call. As we're sitting there a few teenagers walked passed us. They looked pretty young so we decided not to look like creepers and chase after them. We got out of the car and were walking up to the first house when we hear someone yell, "She wont answer the door! She's 98 and she doesnt answer for anyone. She's my great grandma." It was one of the teenagers who passed by. She pointed to the house next door and said, " But they'll answer.That's my house."  We started talking to her (Alex) a little and asked if she attended a church. She said she used to and that she thinks she was "bathtized". She was pretty interested and we gave her a website card and told her about the youth website. As we were talking we see someone else walking towards us and Alex says, "Hey Mom, we're talking about Jesus!" (she's 13 by the way). Her Mom came over and we were a bit nervous about how she would react to us but she was sooooooo nice! She said we could definitely come over and share our message. She was on her way to take dinner to her grandmother(the 98 year old who lives next door) so she didnt have time to meet right then. She then asks, "Do you take down numbers?" We replied, "Of course!" So we wrote down her phone number and we are calling her today to set up an appointment! We are so excited for their family to hear the gospel! After talking with Alex and Sue (her mom) we only had a few more minutes before we had to head to an appointment. We decided to knock on one last door. Tori a 23 year old answers the door. We introduced ourselves and asked if she had ever heard of the church. She replies, "Yes, my grandparents are Mormon. I used to go to church with them and they used to take me to the Oakland Temple." We asked if she noticed anything in her grandparents that was different. She said she never knew anyone who was as forgiving as her grandmother. We told her that was because of the gospel and we promised she could find greater happiness. She was super open and we'll hopefully be meeting with her this week too!

One last story. Friday night towards the end we were getting ready to leave the visitors center to head home. Sister Lee, my former companion, started telling us a story about someone they took on tour the day prior.He came to Kirtland because he said he drove past it all the time but had never been here before. He was a non-member who had tons of questions!  He also said that he had just recently learned what we believe about Christ, who He is to us. He asked about the Priesthood and after they explained it to him he said, "So if Im understanding correctly..." and re-taught it back to them. Sister Lee said he taught it better than she did, explaining that men and women have complimentary roles. She said he also asked about Heavenly Mother. He said, "So if Im understanding correctly you believe that families are eternal, and you call God Heavenly Father, does this mean there's a Heavenly Mother?" They hesitated for a minute (you often dont want to get into deep doctrine haha) but simply said yes. Sister Lee said by his reaction that it seemed he had already come to that conclusion on his own and that it made sense. He ended up staying here at the Visitors Center for three hours. He watched every video on the kiosks and continued to ask sincere questions. After hearing this cool story I asked where he lived. He didnt leave his address but they knew he was a pastor and he said some Sisters tracted (he didnt use that term haha) into him the other day as he pulled into the driveway. Immediately I turn to my companion and said, "That was us!!!"  We were shocked in amazement as we remembered our interaction with Paul the Pastor just a few days earlier. We were tracting his street and were just arriving at his driveway when he pulled in. Gotta love those awkward moments as your waiting for someone to get out of their car haha. We went up and started talking to him. We introduced ourselves and our purpose.  He said he was a pastor and we said, "Thats great, we probably have more in common than we do diferent." He then said the one thing that he knows is different is our belief in the Godhead. He said that he understood God and Jesus Christ to be one person. He wasnt argumentative just stating what he understood. I cant remember exactly what I said in response, but I told him that we do have a different knowledge about the nature of God and Christ. I testified of who they are and their purpose. I was a little surprised by his reaction. He didnt say anything. He just listened. It seemed that something the Spirit prompted me to say resonated. After what seemed like forever (in reality a few seconds) he said he had to go take care of his dog. We gave him a mormon.org website and continued on our way. Turns out he did visit the website and then decided to come to Kirtland!!! After we made the connection (that it was us) the other Sisters said," you HAVE to go teach him, he's solid!" So we're planning on going over there sometime this week! We'll be praying hard for this one! It's so neat to see how the Lord touches the hearts of people we talk to, even when it seems they are content with life. But I know people are always looking for truth, they just dont know where to find it.

Well, I better end this novel now. Thanks for everything. I love this work and I love you all! Have a great week!

Love Sister Kingston

p.s. Mom, can you start forwarding James' e-mails to me again? Thanks!

      Oh and can we just have Jacosa sing a song for the musical number for our homecoming?

       "Come thou fount" is the theme song of my mission so that would be awesome!

       Unless James has any preferences. And I dont really know why I want to speak

       after him...it just seems like he left first so he should go first haha. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi Everyone!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! Mom, I did get the package you sent thank you so much! I will be making those cupcakes soon! The weather there sounds sooooooo nice! There's been a "warm spell" here too...it got up in the 40's yesterday!!! It's crazy how acclimated you get to cold weather, so much so that 40 degrees seems warm haha. It does make tracting a more enjoyable activity when it's not freezing :) Dad, what are you speaking on in Natomas 3 ward? Mom, Im glad you're experiencing gospel principles and comments that are shared. I'll have to share some stories with you when I come home...they're better told in person! As far as my homecoming is concerned, are James and I reporting on the same day? If we are I have two requests: #1) Can I speak after him?  #2) Can the closing hymn be The Spirit of God? And yes I would love to have a get together after! Some of the Sisters are planning on coming down too, so it should be fun! Dad to answer your question, we havent received mail from the Butterfields. But, we did receive a phone call from them last week. They called to update us on how their homecoming went and they wanted to see how things were here. I miss them both a lot! Elder Butterfield told us that they were at a restaurant with some of his daughters and grand kids one day and he said this, "I looked around and thought to myself, somethings missing. It seemed like we should be sitting at Max and Irmas with you two." They used to take Sister Stewart and I out to lunch for our meetings. Max and Irmas was one of our regular restaurant choices :) We thought about telling the Edmans about this little lunch tradition (so they could carry on the legacy) but we decided that it should stay a Butterfield memory.

Well, this week has been another rough finding week. Reading Alma chapter 8 has really helped me to stay motivated and to have an eye of faith! We did have a really neat experience though. Do you remember the couple that I told you about last week...Wendy and CJ who came to sites and self referred? Well, right after they left sites I called the A.P.s and told them all the background info. Elder Farmer and Elder Smith said they would contact her right away and keep us updated. Well, on Friday the aassistants called us. They proceeded to tell us that Wendy and CJ are as solid as we said they were. The Elders called them and invited them to a baptism in a near by area. They came and had an amazing experience! After the baptism the Elders took them on a church tour. Sometime within that church tour they committed Wendy and CJ to baptism and they both said yes! Wendy said the only thing really standing in her way is the word of wisdom. The Elders promised her that she would be able to overcome those temptations and that the Lord would prepare her! Isnt that AMAZING! After we got off the phone with the assistants Sister Stewart and I sat there in our bedroom and cried. Even though we are frustrated in our area and we arent seeing things happen, we are still able to fulfill our purpose at the Visitors Center by inviting others to come unto Christ.

Thank you all for everything! You know, just because Im coming home soon doesnt mean that I cant receive mail (*hint hint). Hook a Sista up! This gospel is so true and it amazes me every day how blessed I am to know that! I love you all tons!!!

 

Love,

Sister Kingston

mormon.org

Hello Family!

Im glad you all had a great Sabbath! We were in the referral center last night and it was interesting to call people during the super bowl. I dont know why people answer their phones when they dont have time to talk? Mom, I should be able to go on the trip to Kirtland. You cant come here without me! Im not sure if I'll be going to Hawaii after all. Ive talked to some of the other Sisters and none of us can really afford it. We're hoping she'll have a reception in Utah so we can all go to that. We'll see, but for now just plan on me coming with you :) I just checked the status of my BYU applications (I applied to Provo and Idaho) and my transcripts made it in on time! YAY! Now, I just have to wait to see if I get in. Sister Stewart thinks that it takes about a month or so to hear back. If they send anything to the house be sure to forward it to me here, pretty please!

 

Well, we're still looking for investigators at this point. We have the faith that we'll find someone this week! We had a district fast yesterday to find.

We had a cool experience yesterday at the Visitors' Center. A couple came in for a quick tour. They only had about 30 minutes. They are from North Olmsted which is about an hour from Kirtland. Theyre non-members but they had been here before (about a year and a half ago) took a full tour and loved it. They were on a weekend get away and decided to come back. Sister Stewart and I showed them the film and then took them on a quick walk through of the Whitney Store. After the movie, we asked them what their favorite part was. Wendy replied, "I dont know if I have a favorite part, I just like how it makes me feel." After talking for a while longer we found out that she used to live in Utah and has met with missionaries before. She called herself an LDS scholar. She's very intellectual and told us that she understands everything intellectually but has a hard time making the spiritual connection. She's read tons of books on Mormonism and has a lot of respect for us and what we do. We invited her to once again have the missionaries in her home (it's been years) so they can help her find out if this is true. We told her that the feeling she feels here comes when we recognize truth and light. She self referred! Her husband is open as well, he's never met with missionaries before. Well, turns out she lives in the A.P.'s area. These Elders are the best! They'll definitely help her to make the spiritual connection (we call one of them the Boy Prophet!). It's neat to see how the Lord leads people to Kirtland and how their lives are touched by coming here!

 

Well, I hope you all have a great week! Did you ever make your profiles on mormon.org? Read about it in last months Ensign! I love this work, I love my Savior and words cant describe how Ive come to know Him here in Kirtland. Thank you all for your love and support!

 

Love,

Sister Kingston

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