Winter Care Package from Jen & Vic!

Holy Visa Batman!!

Can you believe it?! I'm going to BRAZILLLL! haha This week has been good. First of all, JEN AND VIC CAME TO SEE MEEEE!! I have an amazing mission president and he let Jen and Vic come give me a coat! And blankets, gloves, hats, scarf, PJ bottoms, fuzzy socks, chocolate, sleepytime tea, candy cane chapstick and other AMAZING stuff that has kept me warm this week (the chapstick definitely keeps me warm haha)! It has been SO COLD. I was dying on Thursday- it was sooo cold! Then, I got Jen's call and ... She has perfect timing. Thank you SO much!! It was so fun, and so surreal to see family on the mission. I was so completely giddy for like 3 days. haha I just was so happy. And I've been so warm, which we all know equals happiness. :) 

 Seeing Jen!!!!!

I also got to go on splits with Sister Khong again! (King Khong part 2) so it was fun to see her. It was perfect tho, cuz we were in my area this time and I got to lead us all around Manhattan and really test my navigation skills! I didn't get lost ONCE! We took subways and buses and... I'm a pro. haha 

ALSO on Thursday (Wow, Thursday was a REALLY good day) we had zone conference and were trained to be online proselyting missionaries! I am officially allowed to use facebook as a missionary! So, I will probably post a thing or two, and then be restricted from facebook again cuz I am fairly positive Brazil won't be doing facebook. haha but it's cool to get a week or two of facebook proselyting!

On Sunday, Sister Weyandt and I gave talks in our ward - our ward mission leader spoke too. We were basically introducing online proselyting to the ward so they don't think they have heathens for missionaries when we start adding them on facebook. haha AND because it's SUCH an awesome tool and such an amazing progression in the work - it's so so exciting! We were hoping to get them motivated and involved. I think we did well and we definitely had fun. We'll see what happens. (: We already have a very wonderful and helpful ward. I'm going to miss the members here. 

First looks at Facebook ha ha!

Also this week, we went singing in Times Square. It was a little awkward at first, but it turned out really cool - getting to sing hymns in the middle of the craziest place ever. People stopped and took tons of pictures of us and other people were filming and joining in on the well-known hymns. Now I can cross "singing in Times Square" off my bucket list. haha I'm kidding. That was never on my bucket list. I love what our zone is doing though - just trying to find new ways to reach out to people. Not only does it make life more exciting for us, but so far it has been a lot more successful than just passing out cards on the street. haha oooh New York.

It honestly hasn't really hit me yet - that I'm leaving to Brazil so soon. I can't really believe it. I've been daydreaming about the day I'd get my visa call so much that when I actually got it, it felt like just another dream. haha But I'm glad. I want to live my last few days here to the fullest and squeeze every ounce out of New York that I can. :P I LOVE it here. I'm so so so in love with NYC and I'm so grateful I've gotten to serve here. I'm so sad to be leaving. But, I'm so excited go where I'm going. What an adventure this has been! Can you believe all this? I just never imagined I'd get to serve in two places. I was looking through facebook pictures yesterday (we have to go thru them all before we're allowed to post) and came across some pictures from our NY trip in 2005. I almost died because those places I was standing are SO familiar to me now! It blew my mind. Who would have thought I'd get to serve in NYC? Anyways. I'll stop rambling. I'm just grateful. 

I love you all so so much. Thanks for all your sweet emails and uplifting thoughts! Happy Halloween!! Oh, speaking of that - we are quarantined here on Halloween cuz apparently it's gonna be CRAZY this year. No one got Halloween last year because of Sandy, so they're making up for lost time. haha We have to be in our apartments by 5:00. Crazy business. (: It'll be fun. haha and we're having a zone halloween party today for Pday so, that will be fun too. I'm excited. :) I LOVE YOU ALL!!

Drea

I'M GOING TO BRAZIL!!!

Hello My Dear Family!

You probably all know what this Tuesday email means. It means that this morning I received a call from President Morgan and MY VISA HAS ARRIVED!!!! As such, I received permission to send an email today to let you all know. :)
 

I heard Sister Weyandt say "Hi President Morgan!" and my heart just started racing. Your heart always races when you receive an unusual call and you're waiting for a visa. When he said "I need to talk to your companion" I almost died. When he told me that they received my visa this morning I said "Are you kidding?" and he said "Sister King. What kind of terrible person would about something like that? Of course I'm not kidding!" I was kind of silent and he said "I don't know how I feel about it either. I don't want to let you go. But we don't have a choice." haha He is such a wonderful mission president. I cried.
 

But, I'm SO excited. And I'm sad. It's so many mixed emotions. But I got permission to email today and tell you that I fly to Brazil on November 11th at 8 PM!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S ACTUALLY HERE!!!! OH my goodness. I haven't stopped shaking all day. haha I have 13 days left in the United States and I will not miss a moment of it. I am so excited. I love it here, but I can't wait to see what's in store.
 

I love you ALL!! I'll talk to you more tomorrow!!
 

Drea

Sidewalk Chalk Drawing in Union Square

Woah. What a week. I'm a little confused, to be honest. Or... shocked. How is Uncle Val? How are you Dad? Was this expected? Are we okay? I wish more than ever I could be with you all. I just... wow... ...wow.

I'm glad you were able to see the Plan of Salvation video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJhLtjl246k  You can see me drawing at 1:05 and there is one part you can see my face, (about 2:25) but I'm in the background so it took me a while to see it! haha It's when the girl has her iPod and it shows her holding the pamphlet. You can see me teaching someone! It's only for a split second... but I still felt cool. That was SUCH a cool experience. And I got to wear PANTS!! Do you know how long it's been since I've been allowed to wear jeans? Like 10 weeks. I MISS PANTS! That was probably my favorite part. haha just kidding. But seriously. So nice. 

STREET CLOTHES!!! It was a celebration

 

Drawing the Earth

Click to enlarge

Anyways, we went with the zone to draw a HUGE plan of salvation and then just talked to TONS of people. It was SO EXCITING! And the best part was that it went on KSL a few days ago, and in 3 days the video got over 11,000 views. And our zone leaders blog got almost 12,000. You should check it out - they have been posting stuff from our activities the past few weeks. It's reachmygospel.blogspot.com and... it's pretty exciting stuff. haha They've actually been called by some newspaper thing asking for an interview! haha I have no idea if that will happen, but we've been pretty excited over here. I mean... 11,000 views on a project we thought would last a day? That's pretty legit. Also, I helped draw the Earth which is my favorite part. Doesn't it look awesome?! If you look closely in the pics, you can see where I drew a big dot on Porto Alegre! :P hehe I felt cool. 

Eating chicken feet. What an adventure.

Also this week, I ate Chicken Feet! UGH!! And by "ate" I mean I "licked". I licked and ever so slightly nibbled a chicken foot. It tastes just fine, but oh if cartilage could kill! I couldn't really do it. But I licked it just so I could say I did. haha so that was new.

One day at Zone conference, we all matched.
It was so weird. Sister Khong, Awerkamp, and I matched the most!

All of us were wearing pink, white, and black. Haha not planned at all.

Then - do you remember how last week I told you I met Bishop Holloway's brother?! Yeah... so turns out, they're from Grace, ID!! I talked to Kelsey (the girl in my ward who's Dad is Bishop Holloway's brother, and who is from Grace) and her Mom again this week and they said they're from Grace, and Kelsey had Brother Bean as an elementary school teacher! She said she knows their family and Sister Holloway (Kelsey's mom) knows Sister Bean!! It made me so happy! What a small world! So many connections.

Bringing cake to church.
 Everyone was staring at me and giving me the weirdest looks!
We should bring cake around more often - good way to talk to people! haha

This week was our primary program! Our primary has 9 kids, so we were confused as to how they would make it work, but they did SUCH an awesome job! My favorite part was when one of the boys who's line was "God blesses US!" said instead "God blesses the United States... What? ... Oh. God blesses us." hahaha! I laughed so hard! It was the cutest thing ever. It made me pretty home sick tho - I'm not gonna lie. They sang the songs we worked on this summer in Primary (I always went to Primary with Shar and Jarom and Kaydance when I lived in Hayden this summer) and I just missed hearing the sweet voices of my niece and nephews, and I just missed going to primary with Shar. haha I maybe bawled when they sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" cuz that's one of my favorites. Someday I'll get used to this being away and cut off from home thing... but it's been hard.

Aimee and Kade! They're SO awesome

Well, I hope everyone is doing alright. It's been quite an eventful couple of weeks, hasn't it? Heck, it's been an eventful few years for our family. haha But, we always make it thru. I send my love and prayers that all will go well with the funeral and that peace will come. Thanks so much for your sweet emails and for all your love and prayers. Mom, I love what you said about Tyler's email about Grandpa. That really was beautiful. He's definitely right. Our family on the other side has been working overtime it seems, to comfort their struggling missionaries. I sure need them. I'm sure we all do. I'm just grateful for the knowledge that they're there. 

United Nations building for another zone project! :) We had fun.

I love you!! Until next week - Ate mais!

Sister King

PS.  The video now has over 22,000 views. And our Elders just got interviewed by Deseret News.

Uplifting Messages in Union Square

Hello Family!!

It's been so fun to hear of all of your adventures this week! It sounds like it was a wonderful one and I'm so glad I at least got to experience it thru your awesome letters. :) Thank you so much for keeping me updated! 

It's been quite a lovely week here in NYC as well. :) Sunday was crazy. So, first of all, a friend from Freshman year German class at BYU came and visited the ward. She's living in Virginia now and I haven't really seen her since Freshman year, but we were good friends! It was so funny cuz we were talking and I was like "Woah, you're married?!" And she, at almost the exact time, was like "Woah, you're a missionary?!" hahah it made me laugh. Anyway, that was fun. THEN, one of our members got up to introduce her parents, who were visiting the ward. It turns out, her dad is Bishop Holloway's brother!! hahah How crazy is that? We chatted for a minute or two about Sequim and... what a small world. Then, Sunday night we went to a fireside and The 5 Browns were playing! Have you heard of them? They're an LDS family of 5 siblings who all graduated from Gulliard (Which is across the street from the church haha) and they're SO good! I hadn't heard them before but it was pretty cool to get to hear them live. Sadly, the church building could only fit one grand piano, so we didn't hear their 5 piece piano parts. But, the three sisters played a piece together! Anyway, it was really cool. What a fun day.

Sister King and Sister Khong

 

On Monday we did a District APF (Area Proselyting Focus). I had never done one before but it sounded terrifying. haha Basically where the district gets together and we all go contacting in one area. I was kind of dreading it cuz contacting is scary, and doing it when 7 other people can watch you get rejected is even more scary. haha But anyways. We decided to change it up a bit. We brought index cards to Union Square where we just asked people to write an uplifting note, or an inspiring message on it. We told them we'd later give their card to someone we saw as we walked who was in need of a pick-me-up. We talked about how there are so many sad people in the city and we were just trying to help. People were SO excited about it! We had so many amazing quotes and happy thoughts. We'd have them write a thought, and then we'd leave them with a card that gave the blog address to our zone leaders blog (they are allowed on facebook and blogger and everything! how cool is that?!) where we would post our experiences. And it may or may not have been a pass along card. hahah anyways... it was SO much fun. Seriously, talking to random people in the city and having them listen to you and participate in your game? So much fun. We still had a lot of people blow us off. But it wasn't as many as usual. And... anyways. Such a cool experience. My favorite quote was "The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes." -- Marcell Proust. The crazy part? We ran into two Brazillians who I tried to talk to ... but failed miserably. haha Elder Potter saved me as I kept saying "umm... umm... onde... um... Brazil?" haha wow... It's just even scary talking to people in ENGLISH. Then I hear Portuguese and I'm like "YES!!! Oh no. Oh no. Oh no." haha

Anyway, it was a good week! I've been finally buckling down on learning conjugations in Portuguese and it has been good for me. I met a German in church yesterday and I tried to speak to her and it all came out Portuguese! hahaha My brain is so messed up. But, I'm happy it's coming out in Portuguese now because it took me a long time to switch over! haha I've still been getting to do a little Portuguese study with the help of my Zone Leader which has been so nice. The other day, we were studying and our companions decided to do some contacting (like 2 feet away. Don't worry). They said "We'll find you a Brazillian to talk to!" And Sister Weyandt and I rolled our eyes. Literally 5 minutes later, we were speaking Portuguese with a Brazillian who approached them! haha CRAZY! 3 Brazillians in one week. Gotta love it.

umm... what else... I feel like it's been an eventful week but I don't have much more to say. But I'm so so happy for all the good news the family had to share this week! Drew - I'm so excited for you! I'm so glad you got to be in Utah with Mom and Dad and that's SO cool that Uncle John came! I love it! 

I love you all so much! Thank you for all your sweet emails and for being the best ever. I love you!!

Drea

Kind People Everywhere

OI!!!! Tudo Bem?!

I'm getting all stoked for Portuguese again! haha I CAN'T WAIT!!! I mean... I can wait. And I will wait. I'm just STOKED out of my mind.

A very strange sheep gas station

This week has been good. We had Conference Cleaning Checks last week which turned out to be really fun! Not really the cleaning part... but you know what I mean. The Senior Couple who came to inspect our apartment ended up fixing EVERYTHING for us! haha it was SO nice. And then they took us to lunch at a real Chinese place! We thought we weren't rich enough to go to the real Chinese food places in Chinatown, but this place was cheaper than any other place we had been and SO MUCH better food. Sister Tappen was talking about how much she liked the Squid there, so I thought I'd give it a try! haha I GOT THE SQUID! And she was so proud of me. I was pretty proud. :) It was good! I was pleasantly surprised. That's pretty much all there is to the story... except that that Tappen's are so fun! They got their mission call, and left for the mission field NINE DAYS LATER. Can you believe it?! That blows my mind. I don't think I could have done that.

David Letterman studio with Sister Barker
(Spanish speaking sister who lives downstairs)

 

 I saw our Cinderella studio and it made me SO happy!! I had to send a pic! hehe I LOVE YOU!!

"Our" Cinderella Broadway Theater!!

Wasn't Conference AMAZING this weekend?! I always expect it to be amazing, but it always exceeds my expectations. We were lucky and got to watch every single session and I was so glad. It was just what I needed. One of our investigators, Aimee, got tickets and went to Conference in Utah with a friend! What?! haha we were so excited! She's amazing. She LOVED it and was texting us all weekend! So exciting! haha 

My very first time trying a twinkie (It was so gross!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week we went to visit one of our less active members I had never met before. She knew Sister Weyandt and told her before we came "Oh, you have a new companion? Good! I need to meet her. I'm gonna make her cry." Needless to say, I was slightly terrified to meet her. And by slightly I mean a lot. I did not want to go. But, we went and had dinner and she was delightful! I guess my companion failed to convey the joking side of her. Which, I'm still not quite sure if she was joking because she DID make me cry. hahah I was admiring some baby elephant statues on her fireplace right before we left, and she picked one up and shoved it in my hand. I was like "Oh, I can't take your statue!" She said "I GOT THREE. Who needs three?! TAKE IT." So thanked her and I teared up cuz... elephants!! And she was like "Don't get all mushy or I'll take it back! Man up!" BAHAHAHA!!! I laughed so hard. I love her. She also has SUCH cute kids! I did the cup song with her daughter, I'll have to see if I can send a video this week! Anyway, it was so much fun! 

 The sweet woman who took us to dinner in Times Square!

 

Another example of how incredibly wonderful people are to missionaries: Yesterday we were contacting in Times Square again and it was kind of an off day. People don't take your cards if it's cold outside cuz no one wants to stop and say hi. They just plow on by. So it's just not as fun if it's cold outside (okay, so it's never quite "fun" but it's at least cool getting to talk to people). haha Anyways, we were getting ready to head out cuz the day was a bust and it was time for dinner, and this woman came up to me and was like "Sister King!! My name is Sister Williams!" She was visiting from Utah and was out on the town by herself cuz her husband was at work. She was SO sweet! We talked for a few minutes and she asked what we were doing for dinner. We were just gonna go try to find something on the way back to the church, but she took us out to Applebee's! Just the sweetest woman, taking two random missionaries out to dinner. We get treated SO well! It's insane! Anyways. That was such a happy experience! haha

The other happy thing that happened this week was that my new Zone Leader is from the Portuguese Program here in the mission! He is taking a "vacation" from the program to serve English speaking in the city, but he's been helping me SO MUCH. He let me teach a lesson to him in Portuguese yesterday for language study and it was SO helpful. He said he's trying to get permission for me to skype-teach some members from his old area who are from Brazil! We'll see if that happens, but isn't that awesome?! I am so stoked. I love Portuguese!

Anyway, things are good. Thank you all so much for the updates!! I hope those of you in Utah/Idaho have so much fun this week with Mom and Dad and Andrew!! That sounds like it will be a whirlwind week for you, Mom and Dad. Good luck with everything! I love you all!! Have a great week!

Visa is ready! I Love Manhattan! Excited for Brazil!

Oi Minha Familia!!

I send greetings today from.... NYC! hahahaha sorry... no Brazil yet. AHHHH I can't believe my visa is ready! Is it just processing or is it DONE?! That's INSANE!!!!!!! I seriously can't even really comprehend it. I've been trying so hard to just not think about Brazil cuz I was expecting 3 or 4 months in NYC. I never imagined what it would be like to get that letter that says my visa is ready! haha I tell you what, I opened it right before bedtime and then maybe didn't sleep for like 4 hours cuz I was shaking and my mind was racing. I'm stoked out of my mind to go to Brazil! I'm not gonna lie, leaving NYC is gonna be sad. I've fallen so in love with Manhattan and I know my way around now! It's SO COOL! I love the city. But there's nothing like knowing that Brazil is only a short ways away! To answer questions, today was transfer day. So, I'm 99% sure I'll have to wait until next transfer to leave. Which means another 6 weeks. Can you believe I've already been here 6 weeks?! Anyway, President Morgan hasn't heard anything of my visa yet, and often they won't tell the missionaries or the president that the visa is ready until like 4 days before the missionary leaves. It's like they don't want us getting distracted or something! haha pshh... anyway, I have no idea what my fate is. Either way, I'll be happy though. Another 6 weeks gives me time to take 30 million pictures and *cough* see Jen and *cough* send some stuff home with her. And *cough* force Andrew to drive up from VA to see me too. *cough* Which is totally allowed by the way. I asked.

My kitty friend in Chinatown!!!

ANYWAYS - this week was good!! It was transfers and we're both staying, so not much changing. BUT I went on exchanges this week to Chinatown!! (We live in Chinatown, but we don't live in our area... it's weird.) It was such a crazy experience! First of all, I'm pretty sure the only reason they did the exchange was so I could be with Sister Khong and they could call us King Khong all day. Hahaha! Seriously though, they told us that's the reason. But it was so good. We taught in Chinese! And by "we" I definitely mean "she." But I tried contacting in Chinese! She taught me some Chinese phrases and I said them to people as I handed them things. I think I was supposed to be saying "Free English Class!" Which was ironic when it's this non-Chinese speaking white girl butchering it. "Yeah... you can teach me English... I believe you." Anyway. That was quite the experience. But I got some King Khong pictures I'll have to send you! hahah Sister Khong is so great. I had fun!

King Khong!!

 

NYC Planner cover I drew for my companion

The mission bought me a Portuguese Ensign (Liahona) this week! I almost cried, I was SO EXCITED. Especially cuz I could read the whole... front cover. haha I'm getting a lot better at reading Portuguese tho. I can read the Book of Mormon and only have to look at my English one for words here and there (they don't teach us words like 'desolation' in the MTC). I have been trying to speak more Portuguese with our RS President and Ward Mission leader, but I still struggle with speaking. But at least I'm doing something, right? And Aaron is sending me clips of speaking so I can hear pronunciations which is so so so nice! Thank youuuu!



NYC King - that's right!




It was so cool. I felt so cool. I love it.

A woman in our ward, Annie Poon, MADE a Mormon Message!!!! She made the whole thing! I love it. She's amazing. She comes to lessons with us all the time and she's just so great. We love her. Anyway, here's the link: http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-08-011-the-shiny-bicycle?lang=eng It's so cute!

The building from Enchanted!!!

Things are good this week. I've been working hard to be positive and happy and it really has been working. I feel blessed because I know the Lord really has helped me stay strong in so many ways this week. I am happy, healthy, and so so so so excited to see what happens in the next few weeks! haha I love Manhattan, and I can't wait to get to Brazil. Either way, I'm so set. 

My awesome zone on our last day before transfers. :) They're so great.

I love you all so so so much! Thank you for your prayers and for all the support. I have the greatest family ever. :) I love you!!

Drea