175th Anniversary of the Kirtland Temple Dedication

Hey Everyone!

Happy Spring! It's been so bright and cheery here for the past five days! However, the high has been 30 degrees, so it still feels like winter. Mom, Im glad to hear that camp is going well! Dad, thanks for filling me in on who is planning to go on missions! It's gonna be fun for me to give them some RM advice :) Jacosa congrats on "Once on This Island" I'm sure it's a great show! I would LOVE to take President Treadway's friend on tour! 

 

Well, this week is kind of strange. Sister Stewart is going home and I'm heading into my last transfer. It still doesnt seem real. Ive been companions with Sister Stewart for 3 transfers (4 1/2 months) and it's been the best companionship ever! Im going to miss her a lot! However, I know this next transfer will still be great. I know who my companion will be and she's an awesome missionary. I'm determined to work super hard my last transfer and to see miracles happen. Im excited!

 

Yesterday we had an amazing experience. We celebrated the 175th anniversary of the dedication of the Kirtland Temple. The Kirtland Stake and the Cleveland Stake put together a special program in the Temple. There were two sessions one at 7am and the other at 6pm. We were able to receive tickets for the 7am session. It was so cool to be in the temple as the sun was rising. We were privileged to hear from five speakers. Patriarch Anderson (who gave me my patriarchal blessing) spoke on the events of the dedication. My mission president, the Kirtland Stake president, and the Columbus temple president spoke on the keys that were restored by Moses, Elias, and Elijah. (Those who hold keys spoke on the keys restored!) It was so cool! Then Elder Seldon (the area Seventy) concluded and shared with us some pretty awesome closing remarks about a variety of things. 

The best part of the whole thing was the closing hymn, The Spirit of God. The choir was made up of members of the Kirtland and Cleveland Stakes who participated in Handel's Messiah this past Christmas season. So you can imagine how good they were! There was also a live orchestra! It's hard to describe the feeling that was present as they sang. Ive never heard a choir sound like that! There wasnt a dry eye in the room. The congregation was supposed to join in the last verse, but there werent many of us who could sing at that point. It's something I will always remember.

 

One cool story that Elder Seldon shared with us. In 2006 President Boyd K Packer decided to come to the Kirtland Stake Conference. Elder Seldon picked him up from the airport and as they were driving asked, "President Packer, you could assign yourself to ANY stake conference. Why Kirtland?" 

"I needed a renewal", came the response.  

When Elder Seldon shared this it reminded me of the dedication of the Historic Sites here. President Gordon B. Hinckley, in the dedicatory prayer in 2003, said that this would be a place of "spiritual refreshment". I wish everyone could come to Kirtland and feel what I feel here every day. I thank Heavenly Father every day for allowing me to serve in such a sacred place!

 

I'm super excited for General Conference! Im curious to see if Kirtland will be mentioned? It was on a Sunday 175 years ago to the day (April 3) that Jesus Christ appeared in the Kirtland Temple. On that same day the Priesthood keys were restored by Moses, Elias, and Elijah. Read Doctrine and Covenants section 110!

 

Well, I love you all! I hope you have a great week! Try not to miss me too much haha!

The gospel is true!

 

Love Sister Kingston

Happy!

Hi Family!

 

Wow, the weather there sounds crazy! It's been sunny here for the past few days, but it's raining today :(  That's awesome to hear about all of the people from our stake serving missions! I hope they can make the goal of 40!

 

Well, I survived my stressful week! The youth activity on Tuesday was awesome! The youth came dressed in missionary attire, received a name badge, were assigned to a companion and to a district. The two districts rotated between two classes taught by the missionaries (Sister Stewart and I, and 2 other Sisters in the ward). We taught a class about our purpose as missionaries and had each companionship role play. Sister Spring and Sister Manwaring played missionary jeopardy, testing their knowledge of Preach My Gospel and the missionary schedule.  It was great to see the youth jump right in...they will make great missionaries!

 

Our workshop on obedience and opposotion went well on Friday. The meeting was running long so we only had 20 minutes instead of 40, but I wasnt complaining! I LOVE going to those meetings! The Spirit is always so strong! On Thursday, Elder Hunt announced what the agenda would be for the next two days. He announced that we would start off by having a testimony meeting. For the next hour and a half all 40 missionaries in attendance shared their testimonies. It was especially neat for Sister Sewart and I, being the only Sisters there, to hear these young Elders bear such powerful testimonies. No where else, besides in the Church, can you find young men who have such a firm faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ. It was another testament to me of the power of the Priesthood.

 

Sites has been getting a bit more busy, both because of the weather and Spring Break. We had a couple of really cool tours. One was with a group of Restorationists. They are a break off of the RDLS church (now Community of Christ). They were having some sort of womens retreat...Im not sure if they call it relief society? Anyways, those groups can be nerve racking because you dont know exactly what they believe. However, I  just followed the Spirit and continued to bear testimony of what I know. I noticed one of the women tearing up, in a few different rooms, as I shared my testimony. It showed me that the Holy Ghost always testifies of truth, as long as the recipient is truly listening with an open heart.

 

The other cool tour was with Elders serving in the Cleveland Spanish branch and their investigators and a recent convert. In the beginning of the tour we play the words of the Savior (the Christus). We decided to play it in Spanish. It was the first time I ever listened to it in Spanish. As I listened, I felt the Spirit, as I thought about the Savior and his love for everyone! I also thought about James and how he was sharing those exact words with the people of Mexico.

 

Well, I better go. I love you all and thank you for your love and prayers on my behalf! Have a great week!

 

Love Sister Kingston 

- Show 

Inviting all to come unto Christ

Whttps://lds.org/youth/video/inviting-all-to-come-unto-christ-sharing-the-gospel?lang=eng 

p.s. We're showing this video to the youth for part of the activity we're doing with them. Watch it!

 

Stressed!

Happy Monday Everyone!

Sorry to hear that all the kids are sick! Hope everyone gets better soon! Mom, I would love to come to camp but Im not sure if I'll be able to? My best friend from the mission (the one who's wedding I was trying to go to in Hawaii) is having her reception in Utah on July 9th. If I can somehow make it back in time I'll come. Dad, thanks for the offer to help with the MTC. I will definitely get recommendations from President Sorensen and Elder Butterfield if needed. However, I think the greatest determining factors are going to be the number of available openings and my teaching skills. So we'll see what happens?

 

This weekend we got over a foot of snow! I'm ready for winter to be DONE! In our weekly missionary coordination meeting (Saturday) our ward mission leader mentioned the snow and asked if we were ok driving in it. We told him that it hasnt stopped us all winter long...no reason to stop us now. He then proceeds to say, "Well a snow storm is better than a Tsunami." This comment seemed rather irrelevant considering #1 we live in Ohio where the largest body of water is Lake Erie which is about 40 ft deep across #2 we had NO IDEA about the Tsunami that had just ocurred in Japan. We (the four missionaries in the ward) sat there silently awkward as we tried to figure out where he came up with comparing a snow storm to a Tsunami. Finally, one of the members of the ward spoke up and informed us on the matter. Sometimes it's nice not to know what's going on in the world today. Other times, however, we feel so out of the loop! We'll continue to keep the people of Japan in our prayers and hope they can recover quickly! It's nice to know that all of the missionaries there are safe! Four of my roommates in the MTC went to Japan.

 

 The computer is kicking me off so part 2 of this e-mail will arrive shortly

(if it will allow me to log back in!)

Here's part 2!

 

This morning we had our weekly training meeting at the John Johnson Farm in Hiram, Ohio. We had it there to celebrate the 76th section of the Doctrine and Covenants, which was received there in February 1832. We were also commemorating the tarring and feathering that also occurred there  a month after section 76 was received. I LOVE the Johnson Home! To be in the revelation room where Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were seen together in vision is incredible! I dont know how Im going to leave these places behind when I come home.

 

As far as investigators are concerned, Jaclyn has a baptismal date for April 9th! She still has some things to work on but she's come a long way! She texted us the other day and asked if she should take her lip ring out! We were shocked because we hadnt even talked about it yet. We read the  For the Strength of Youth pamphlet with her at our next lesson and she took it out that night :)  It seems like such a small thing to us, but it's really an act of faith on her end.

 

In other news, I have two cold sores on my bottom lip! I would always get cold sores around finals time because I get so stressed out. I think stress is the culprit this time around as well. Let me tell you why Im a little stressed this week.  First of all, Im sleep deprived! haha On top the the time change we had to wake up at 4:45 this morning to travel to the Johnson Farm. Second, we have two ward activities this week (mutual and the chili cook off) where we have some pretty heavy responsibilities. I'll tell you more about those next week. Third, we're in charge of the monthly investigator fireside and it happens to be this Sunday. Fourth, we're trying to find new people to teach and prepare Jaclyn for baptism! I think the fifth reason why I'm stressed takes the cake though.

 

Last night Sister Stewart and I received a phone call from one of the A.P.s. Elder Hunt asked if we would accept an assignment he had for us. I asked if we had to accept before we knew the terms and he said yes haha. So we accepted. He asked if we would give a workshop at the leadership training meetings this week. The topic is on obedience and opposition. We'll be giving this workshop to all of the District Leaders and Zone Leaders in the mission, and also in attendance will be President Sorensen and the A.P.s of course. We about peed our pants when we received the assignment! Especially when he told us we have 40 MINUTES! I was thinking 20 minutes max! So needless to say, Im a wittle nervous! Sister Stewart and I have been joking about what to say to these Elders for 40 minutes. We've talked about doing multiple musical numbers, all hymns focusing on obedience and opposition, and having them guess the topic of our workshop. Hahahaha! Just Kidding! We're seriously pondering and hoping that we'll receive some type of revelation on what to share. I'll let you know how it goes!

 

Well, thanks for reading this elongated e-mail! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

 

Love Sister Kingston

 

"This Preach My Gospel is good stuff"

Hello!

Happy Birthday Mom!! I hope you have a great day and know that I'll be thinking of you! I even wrote it in my planner at the beginning of the transfer :) Thanks for the congrats about BYU! Im super excited too! Dad, Im glad you had a good trip to Westminster Woods. Mom it sounds like you had a good visit with Grandma even though it was short! 

I hope the new member lesson goes well.Don't you love the ups and downs of missionary work? I'll be excited to participate when I get home. Dad, the stake activity sounds really cool! You should study lesson 1 in preparation. It's in Chapter 3 in Preach My Gospel. By the way, we'll be studying a lot from PMG as a family when I come home haha! We're even going to role play! Youre gonna love it! Ive been thinking a lot lately about teaching at the MTC when I attend BYU. It's super hard to get a job there, so Im not banking on it, but I would LOVE it!

 

This past weekend we got to witness a pretty cool baptism! The other Sisters in our ward found the Jones family a couple months ago. Sister McAlister had always noticed their house and how cute it was. So one day they stopped by and the rest is history. The family was super interested. Brother and Sister Jones and their two kids Joey (17) and Jordan (15) are solid! They act like theyve been members all their lives! Brother Jones recently got a copy of Preach My Gospel and he studies it along with the scriptures. The other Sisters received a text from him one day saying, "This Preach My Gospel is good stuff!" haha

Their baptism was Saturday and there were so many people there, we had to hold most of the service (except for the actual baptism of course) in the chapel. The Spirit was so strong! The next day it was even stronger as we watched all four of them receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Polly...or Sister Jones, was in tears and the rest of the family was beaming. They now have found true happiness and it emanates as they live the gospel!

 

Not much else to report. Well, we set a baptismal date with our investigator Jaclyn, but she broke the Word of Wisdom so we'll have to push it back now. We're still excited for her though because she sincerely wants to change! I'll let you know how it goes.

 

I hope all of you have a great week! I love you all! The gospel is true!

 

Love Sister Kingston