Safely in Porto Alegre Brazil

Sister King with President & Sister Wright

 

Andrea made it safely to Brazil!! :)  Since we (her Mom & Dad) are a bit hard to get ahold of because of being in Africa on a mission, I (Drea's Mom) wrote a message to the mission to see if she made it safely: 

Dear Brazil Porto Alegre North Mission,
 

We are just inquiring to know if our daughter, Sister Andrea King arrived safely yesterday from New York City.
 

We have been very happy that her visa came and she’s so excited to be there. 
 

We hope all is well in Porto Alegre.

Many blessings, 

Elder & Sister King

Africa SE Area Mission

 

                                We got a prompt reply from Andrea's sweet Mission Mom:

 

Good morning Dear Sister King,
 

I was actually going to call you directly this morning and let you know that we had a delightful visit with your amazing daughter yesterday.  Thank you for making contact with me!  She looks great. 

She is incredible!  And she shared with me about the faith and diligence of her parents and her siblings.  We met her at the airport, she met her companion, and we took her to her area.  For now, she will be serving in Porto Alegre.  She was the last of 5 flights that arrived yesterday.  Our Pday is Monday and she will write more than.  

Elder and Sister King, your story has inspired us and strengthened our faith.  We feel very blessed to have your daughter serving with us!  She is very prepared and has great faith and diligence.  If you ever have any questions or concerns, please write immediately.  This is my personal email and I will respond immediately. Could you also tell me our time difference?  I usually call the parents when the missionaries arrive, but neither she or I knew how far apart our time was.   

May the Lord bless you for your selfless service and sacrifice!

Warmest regards,

Sister Wright 

 

 

A few final NYC pictures

                                                         Some Final NY Pics!



Elevator pic of my zone. haha

Us in Washington Square Park

Aimee!!! and Kade!!

A Visit from Family

Andrew and Hannah drove up to Albany and then rode with Victor & Jennifer into the city.  Saturday they all went to dinner together and they went to Andrea's ward the next morning.  What a great send off to Andrea just before she leaves for Brazil.  What a kind hearted President Morgan for giving permission for this family visit.

Here is Jennifer's description:

Seeing Andrea as a missionary was an incredible experience. Not many people get the opportunity to see "their" (parents, siblings, or children as) missionaries in action: I have always known Andrea was strong, but I couldn't otherwise have known that she is -this- strong.  When Andrea taught and testified about principles of the Gospel, she spoke with tremendous strength and conviction. As we sat at Olive Garden Saturday night, Andrea, fully enjoying her time with us but also watching the time, finally said it was time for them to share a message with us. She challenged us to watch for miracles in our daily lives and to write them down.

She hasn't been in NYC for long, but on Sunday we could see that she has very obviously already made a difference in her ward and with those she has helped teach. The ward was sad for Andrea to leave. One man, who Andrea has helped teach, very eagerly introduced himself to all of us -- her family and loved ones -- and couldn't stop singing her praises. Since it was her last Sunday in NYC, she had ward members handing her notes, cookies, and other gifts of love and appreciation. I think she has already made many life-long friends!

Andrew & Andrea

Andrew, Andrea, Hannah

Twins forever

Andrew, Andrea & Jennifer



 

Goodbye to Jen



Goodbye to Andrew

Five Days till Brazil!

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for your wonderful emails! I loved them so much! It's been a good week. It's been crazy though. I can't believe I only have 5 days left in the United States! haha It blows my mind! But I'm SO EXCITEEEDDD!!! :D The other day I was awakened by our neighbor who was gagging and coughing. This wakes us up every morning. It's lovely, really. But anyways, I woke up Sunday morning to those horrendous noises and said to myself "eight more days." Then jolted out of bed "EIGHT MORE DAYS?!" in nervous energy cuz I had totally just scared myself. haha It's pretty crazy.

This was a good week though! First, we had Halloween!! Halloween here in the city is CRAAAZY! They quarantined us at 5 PM because apparently the Halloween parade gets a little out of hand. People were everywhere though and everyone was dressed up. We were on the train in the morning and I had the thought that people might think we were dressed up too! JUST after I was thinking about it, I heard someone say "Mormons." after a second, his friend leaned over to him while completely staring at us and whispered "Do you think they're real?" BAHAHAHA!!! It kind of made my day. It cracks me up how often people see us and just say "Mormons" and move on. haha weird. Being quarantined was fun tho. We did our weekly planning, then went downstairs to the Spanish Sisters' apartment (they live right below us) and watched the Testaments and... relaxed? Is that what we did? haha That's a rare commodity on a mission. It was pretty wonderful.

Halloween Party watching Testaments!

Then on Saturday we worked in the Bishop's Storehouse! Aimee, our investigator, signed herself up and asked us to come with her! haha She's incredible. Everyone was like "You're investigating, and you're volunteering here?!" Then they'd see us and be like "Oh, your missionaries brought you." and we'd be like "Nope. She brought us." haha it was so much fun though! What a cool opportunity! I had never seen a Bishop's storehouse (that I remember) so volunteering there was fun. Especially with Aimee. I'm gonna miss her. 

We decorated the sisters' window from our fire escape...

And we decorated the wrong windows.
So our Chinese neighbors know we love them! hahahah

We decorated the sister's windows to surprise them... But we're tired missionaries. And by tired I mean we're just unintelligent. And we decorated the wrong windows. So our Chinese neighbors know we love them! hahahah So we had to take the sisters on our fire escape and show them our beautiful art. :P OOOOPS.

This week, Travis accepted a baptismal date for November 30th! We've been teaching him for about 4 weeks? He just showed up to church one day and asked to know more. haha! Every missionary's dream. I'm sad I won't be here, but I'm grateful I was able to learn from him before I left. What a blessing.

Payson Street!!

Also this week, one of our members (Sister Murdoch, from Grace, ID and Bishop Holloway's niece) took us to Thai food!! But, first we met her at her work - Dean & Deluca! Have you heard of that place? I hadn't heard of it, but it is SO cool! It's been in a few movies (Julie and Julia, and The Devil Wears Prada) and just has the coolest set up. They have super expensive import stuff from all over and more cheese than you could ever comprehend. Dad, when we're off our missions, let's go back there. You need to see this cheese supply! It was kind of a fairy tale land. haha She let us taste Truffle Oil (Truffle stuff is HUGE this year cuz it's at an all time 'cheap' price. Only $5,000 per pound. The fungi not the chocolate) and some aged balsamic vinegar! It was good. But also nearly $300 per bottle. Not even bottle. Flask. It's crazy. Crazy good. Such a cool store. Then we went to Thai food and it was so good. I got massaman curry. So happy. The bathrooms were made of two-way mirrors. So from the outside it looked like mirrors, but while on the inside you could see everyone. And you could see whenever someone was coming up to knock on the door. So weird. Is that a one-way mirror? I'm not sure. But it was so weird. haha

Dinner with Sister Murdoch at the Thai place (Sister Murdoch is in the middle)

Then, last night as we were walking home, I heard a cat yowling. It was very sad. I looked around and found her up on this high rafter thing. We stood there until curfew trying to think of ways to get her down but she wouldn't jump (even when I sang Soft Kitty). We had to get home so we had to leave her. But this morning there was a fire engine there and she was safely running around. She ran over to me and rubbed against my legs. haha Apparently fire engines saving cats is not just a thing of the movies! (I guess fire engines never save cats. It's probably the fire fighters.) :P I was glad tho. (Even if fire engines are scary. I've seen 6 just today. That's a lot of fire engines.)

Anyway, it's been a really fun week. :) I've had some good New York experiences and I'm gonna live it up. I can't wait to see some of you this weekend! My next email to you will be FROM BRAZIL!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHH. I'm so excited! :D I love you all so much and I hope everything is going well for you! I think the Pday for Porto Alegre North is Monday, so I may not get to email again until the 18th. But hopefully you'll hear from me before then. haha I love you all so so much! Hope all is well!

Drea

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.