A week of Ups and Downs

Hello from the land of sweltering heat and tobacco fields!

Monday we made smores in the oven and they definitely were not as good as a firepit smore, but still delicious. We have been teaching a less active lady name Donna on Monday evenings. Her son just got married and he is also less active. His wife is not a member. They want to take the lessons and have been asking a lot of questions about the temple. We were supposed to meet with them this past monday, but one of them was sick. So, we taught Donna about the importance of going to church, taking the sacrament and having the holy ghost. It was a really, really good lesson. She said she would come to church!Tuesday was a pretty full day, but everyone cancelled so we did A LOT of tracting that day. It's been really, really hot this week. I never thought I would fully appreciate air conditioning, but I most certainly do now. After we had talked to a zillion people, we knocked on a door that is just down the street from where we live. A lady named Maria answered and we told her our purpose. She agreed to have us come and we were able to teach the restoration to their whole family (4 of them!) They were very receptive to the message and asked to have a book of Mormon. They don't read english well so we gave them a spanish Book of Mormon and they were really excited to read. The best was when their son, Jose stopped us when we were talking about praying to know if the book of mormon was true and said, "I pray to the virgin Mary and I have a giant flag with her on it hanging above my bed." Sis. Joseph and I just smiled and didn't know what to say so we just continued and then Jose asked if he could pray. He offered a prayer and it was such a wonderful expreience. I really love that family. Oh! the other best part was when Sis. Joseph was bearing testimony about reading a praying about the Book of Mormon and Jose Sr. piped up and said he already knows it is true. It caught both myself and Sis. Joseph off guard.

Wednesday we had zone training. It was great! We learned about teaching people, not lessons. I think that is a hard concept to grasp, but it was good. I learned a lot from the conference. Afterwards, we met with a lady named Cindy. Cindy is hilarious. We tracted into Cindy. She lives a sketchy part of town, but she is very sweet. She has been taught by the missionaries before. Her biggest hang up is the polygamy thing. She also thought that we never wore pants. It's been a lot of fun teaching her.

Thursday we met with a less active lady named Carolyn. Carolyn has an incredible testimony, but has had some experiences in the past that have shaken her faith in the members. We have been trying for the past 3 weeks to get her to come to church, but she always has a health ailment suddenly pop up on Sunday mornings.

Friday was the best day ever! We met with Trisha who we have been teaching for the past couple of weeks. She was so excited to have us come over and immediately started telling us about how she has been trying to sell her house, but hasn't been able to, but we invited her to pray and to read from the Book of Mormon every night and she said she has been doing that and she had someone make an offer on her house. She has changed so much. I think one of my favorite things about the misison is being able to see how much people change. The light in their eyes; their whole appearance is different. We taught Trisha the word of wisdom...again. She said that she had actually considered getting a frozen hot chocolate that morning, but decided to get the iced coffee instead. We invited her to live the Word of Wisdom again and she said she would. Then, she grabbed her coffee and took a big slup. We told her she couldn't do that. We poured the rest of it down the sink. The best part about the whole visit was that the family down the street that are members (the Willets) have been friendshipping her since the elders started teaching her last year and Sis. Willets was there with us.She bore her testimony to Trisha and it was one of the most wonderful experiences. They both cried (tears of happiness of course) and hugged. We invited Trisha to be baptized and she said she definitely wants to. We are still trying to figure out a date though. Trisha came to church yesterday too! It was so exciting. I hope we can start teaching her son, Adam too. He is 8 years old, but hasn't ever sat in on the lessons with us. I'm just praying that Trisha won't get discouraged.

After Trisha, we went and visited with Bro. Rose. I love sharing the gospel with Bro. Rose. He is so knowledgable in the bible. It was really neat too because we had planned to teach him the Word of Wisdom, the commandments, etc. and the first thing he asked when we got there was, "I was wondering if you could tell me about any guidelines your church has and that sort of thing." We told him that we most certainly could! Bro. Rose always has deep questions that make my brain hurt and I generally have no idea how to answer them. He asked why we don't drink wine when Jesus drank wine and why everyone else drank wine in the bible.

We also met with Bro. Parker, a recent convert that evening. He had been taking the lessons from the missionaries for 50 years before the sisters were able to convince him that being baptized was probably a really good idea since he knew it was true. We taught him about service. It was a great lesson. He reminds me of Elder Scott. His wife passed away and you can definitely tell that he really does love his wife very much, just like Elder Scott always expresses in his talks.

On Saturday we met with a referral at the church building in Greenville and did a church tour. It was a great experience. The pictures in the church building make teaching about the gospel so much easier. Afterwards, we drove back to Ayden and ate dinner with the Furstenburgs. The Furstenburgs are so sweet. I love them. They have a table that all of the missionaries sign. So, my name is now on a table in their living room along with about 300 other names. It was the coolest table ever! I am doing that when I grow up and have a table of my own.

Sunday was an eventful day. I got to speak in the YSA branch. Discovery of the week: writing a talk without the internet=hard. I learned how to use my resources though!

All of our investigators in the 2nd ward didn't show up and then we had a girl named Talia come to the YSA branch for the first time. She really liked it and said she wanted to come back again. Trisha and her son came to church in the 1st ward. It made my heart happy to see them both there.

We taught Talia after our 8 hour day of church (or something like that...(8:30-4:00) and we invited her to be baptized. She said yes! Her mom is a member so she already had talked to her mom about it and she feels very strongly about everything the church teaches. I am very excited for her. She said she is really excited too.

I think that is everything! I Read from 2 Nephi 4 in one of my studies this week. It's all about repentance and it was incredible. It really hit home for Trisha when we taught her.

I hope all is well for everyone back at home. I love you all. I know that this is Christ's church restored to the earth today. Thank you for everything you do.

Love,

Sister Johnson