Feliz Navidad

Mi querida familia y amigos,

Feliz Navidad!

We had a lot of new investigators this week. I think something that has helped us is that Hermana Probst and I are really making that effort to give out a copy of the Book of Mormon every day to someone who is committed to reading it. So far we have been very successful. And we have noticed many more opportunities to share The Book of Mormon with people than we did before.

Hermana Probst and I are serving in the local food bank every week for a few hours. It has been a good experience for us to serve the Hispanic community and we have even seen people we met at the food bank while contacting and vice versa. Plus, service just feels good.

We had a lovely mission Christmas activity on Wednesday at the stake center in Bellevue. We ate dinner, watched Mr. Kreuger's Christmas and The Grinch, and performed a special musical number as a zone (I played the piano!). President Larkin shared a special Christmas story from his mission about how they were in the middle of the country in northern Japan where no one was Christian and how they had a branch with 8 members so they knocked doors all day long and because they were so far out in the field they didn't end up going home they just hoped someone would let them in. No one let them in until that night when a grandma opened the door and saw that they nametags said "Elder" so just assummed that they were someone important. He said she bowed and asked them to come inside. It was a very large house and a lot of extended family lived there. They were all upset that she had let these strangers into the house. The missionaries told them that they could share with them what to them was the American holiday of Christmas was all about. They agreed to that and they shared the Christmas story with them. He said that as they continued teaching more and more people from throughout the whole house gathered to hear them and that the Spirit was strongly present there. What a special story. We are excited to go out on Christmas day and share with people about Jesus Christ. I love being a missionary! I hope you have a very, very Feliz Navidad!

Con amor,

Hermana Kinghorn

La fe para mover montañas

Querida familia y amigos,

We had a great week here in Seattle. To be honest, every week is good as a missionary.

We went to the temple this morning. I really love the temple. We were able to arrive early and do our personal study in the temple. I am so grateful for the impressions that I received there.

Yesterday we went on exchanges and I was in Federal Way with Hermana Heywood, the new sister, while Hermana Melton was with my companion here in Seattle. There wasn't much planned for the morning so we decided to go tracting and for some reason this locked apartment building that Hermana Melton and I had tried to get into months ago came to my mind. Months earlier Hermana Melton and I had really wanted to get into the building. We heard Spanish music playing in one of the apartments so we stood outside of the balcony and shouted up to the apartment in Spanish, "Hola?! Buenas tardes!" But no one ever answered and we were never able to enter the building. This time we arrived at the apartment complex and there happened to be someone there cleaning the carpets of the building so the door was open and we could enter. We tracted into a man named Jose who told us that he had lived in Provo, UT for six years ten years ago and that he went to the Mormon church there. Sometimes people say things like that and they think that and they are really members but they think that because they don't go to church anymore they are no longer members so I asked him if he had ever been baptized. He told us that he hadn't but that he regretted it and that he wanted to be baptized. We have been praying as a mission to find people to help to be baptized in the month of December and I am so grateful that the Spirit whispered to me that he was one of them. So right there in the door in the lesson we were having with him I invited him to be baptized on December 22... and he accepted. Miracles are happening here. It turns out that if Hermana Melton and I would have tracted the building earlier, Jose would have been in Mexico visiting his family. I know that things happen for a reason.

I know that this gospel is true through the power of the Holy Ghost. I know that we have a Heavenly Father who love us. And I love Him. I am so thankful for our older brother, Jesus Christ, and for His atonement. Thank you for all of your prayers and have a fabulous week!

Con amor,

Hermana Kinghorn