Hurricanes and Earthquakes and more! Oh No!

Hello!

Well, this week has been a crazy one! Hurricanes, earthquakes, and oh so much more!

Monday was a great day. We met with Kia to finalize everything with her baptism. It was so much fun to see how excited she was! Sis. Joseph and I had a fun time as well. We decided to to go to a barbeque restaurant and we had some "real southern barbeque." It was pretty good. They use vinegar and 'slaw' (coleslaw) for EVERYTHING. We went to a little store that was kind of like the DI and I found a really cute orange cardigan for a buck.(woot!) Then, we had a missionary fireside with the branch that evening. I love the branch. They are fantastic. A few of them brought some friends that weren't members and we were able to talk with one of them and he has great potential. The other two left before we had time to talk with them. The branch likes to call on me for piano stuff. I think I'll be a professional sight-reader when I get home. They asked me to play 2 different vocal/piano accompiaments and then to play to solo pieces for this fireside. I had 12 hours notice for one of the vocal accompiaments. It turned out really well though! I'm 100% confident that Heavenly Father was guiding my fingers the whole time. I had no idea what I was playing. The fireside itself was fantastic. We did a brief overview of the restoration and the spirit was very strong and it was just a wonderful way to end the day.

Tuesday we met with Fabiola and Scott. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went really well. We also gave them a frame with the proclamation to the family in it. Fabiola was super excited about that and said she was going to hang it up on her wall. It pretty much made her day. We met with Matthew (the referral from the Elders) later in the evening. He is fantastic! We had a good lesson about following the prophet and tithing and it went really well. We had a couple of members come with us and they did a great job too. Matthew is probably the most converted individual (besides Kia) that I have met. He is incredible. There is a bit of contention with the parents and that is causing some problems. Parents....

I guess there was an earthquake in Virginia that everyone felt here except for us missionaries.

Everyone was going all paranoid about the hurricane and asking us if we had bought our bread and milk yet. We told them no. Sis. Poaletti is one of the funniest ladies I have ever met. Her thoughts about buying bread and milk were, "Forget the bread and milk. I'm thinking chips, dip, and soda!"

Wednesday we had a really good district meeting about hope. Read 2 Nephi 31:20. We talked about having a perfect brightness of hope and what that means. A perfect brightness of hope to Sis. Johnson means that even when the going gets rough, you can still see the sun through the rain clouds. We also talked about the importance of having the Holy Ghost and what a blessing it is. It really is a great blessing. Sometimes I think we take it for granted until we see others who don't have it. I'm sure thankful to have been born and raised in the gospel. Elder Cahoon told us that for him having a perfect brightness of hope means that he expects to go out and teach. Sis. Joseph and I took that to heart and we ended up teaching 3 other lessons on Wednesday. It's amazing how if you really hope for something, then you have faith and then it all works out. We taught a lady named Miranda who had two little girls that were 4 an 2. We showed the 4 year old the picture of Moroni burying the gold plates and Sis. Joseph asked her what she thought Moroni was holding in his hands. She looked at it, squinted and then said, "um...well it looks like...um...it kind of looks like a lunchbox." I was dying of laughter inside. I think there is a good chance that I am just an easily entertained individual.

Thursday we did weekly planning and it actually went really well and it was great! We taught Loraine that evening about the restoration. Sis. Carman was so excited to invite Loraine over that she a made a "Hurricane cake" for us to eat after we finished the lesson. It was pretty hilarious. I'll have to send home a picture. :) The wind started blowing in the afternoon that day so we helped Sis. Carman take down all of her stuff on the porch. That night we recieved a call from Sis. Cotterell and she to

(This is where the email ended....sorry, not my fault!)

August 22, 2011

Hi!

This week has been a week of miracles!

Monday was wonderful. Sis. Joseph and I recieved a phone call from the zone leaders (Elder Pace and Elder Cahoon) informing us that they had some very good news. The conversation went something like this:

Elder Pace: "Have you been praying for a miracle?"

me: "yes"

Elder Pace: "Do you want an investigator?"

me: "yes!"

Elder Pace: "Well, we can do that."

Turns out there was YSA who was being taught by some elders in Kinston who moved here to Greenville for school and now we are teaching him! We met him yesterday at church. His name is Matthew. He is fantastic. He plays an instrument that I don't know how to spell in the marching band at ECU. I'm so excited to teach him!

Sis. Joseph and I enjoyed prep day by going to visit a potential at her family bakery in Ayden. We met with Boronica and bought some baked goods. The tart was divine. Then, we went to the church buidling and played piano, played basketball, etc. Sometimes I really miss playing the piano. Afterwards, we went and did some tracting. We met a neurosurgeon whose bother was a member and he had Book of Mormon. We invited him to read. I guess we'll see what happens there! We also tracted into a family (Scott and Fabiola) and gave them a mormon.orgcard. We didn't think they seemed that interested, but they called us back about 20 minutes later and said they wanted to know more. So, we set up an appointment with them to come back on wednesday.

Tuesday we went to Melinda's. She is such a funny lady. We invited her to come to church (for the zillionth time). She always has an excuse of some sort (the flea market, pick up her little girl, etc). This time, it was because she had a vegatarian council meeting. We told her she could still make it because church was at 9 in the morning and her meeting wasn't until 6. She didn't agree. People are so funny sometimes.

Later, we went on exchanges with Sis. Bland. I loooove Sis. Bland. She is a less active who just recently started coming back to church a few months ago. She was fantastic. Afterwards, we went and visted the Lima family..who are less active. They came to church last sunday! We were so excited to see them there. We taught them the commandments and it went really well. Bro. Lima asked why we have the sabbath on sunday since it was originally on saturday. We've had probably 4 or 5 people ask that question. I don't know the answer. Sis. Joseph and I came to the conclusion that it must be because we focus more on Jesus Christ's resurrection than his crucifixion so, sunday was the day that he was resurrected. That is our hypothesis.

Wedensday the best day ever; and it was district meeting! We talked all about baptism and things we can do to help our area to grow. It was really good. Nothing that we hadn't heard before, but I feel like it's always good to keep those things in mind so we don't forget them. Elder Tripp made some amazing peanut butter brownies for afterwards. It was probably the best brownie I've ever eaten in my life. Afterwards we went to the Pinders and did a mini-MTC experience with their kids. It was super fun! Their little boy was hilarious. We asked him why he wants to be a missionary. His response? "To go swimming." I think he'll have to rethink that one. After the Pinders we went to visit Scott and Fabiola. It was the best lesson ever! Fabiola was the only one home, but she had looked up everything on mormon.org and really really liked the plan of salvation. we gave her a little bit of background on that and then taught her the restoration. She said that she felt really good about it and that it "just seemed right." She was so excited to read the Book of Mormon. It was amazing. Later, we went to Kia's. We have been trying to help Kia progressfor quite some time now. We have taught her everything and we weren't sure how the lesson was going to go because when we had talked to her and her husband (Chevaughn) last, they said they wanted to pray about a date for baptism. So, we went in and taught them obedience and baptism and confirmation. We asked Kia what her thoughts were and she said she was ready! She pulled out her calendar and said that she would be free on the 27th. So, that was the second miracle of the day.

Thursday was great! Weekly planning ensued at 10 am sharp and we had a great time. During weekly planning our neighbor, Loraine came over to ask us to help her take a bag of sand out of her car. We did. Then, she invited us into her home and we ended up teaching her part of the plan of salvation. She said she wanted to know more so, we are planning on coming back next week. Loraine is a sweet lady. She has been trying to grow some grass for some time now, but bad things always seem to happen to her lawn. Last time it rained, it washed all of the sand that she had imported into the ditch. Then, some power cable guys came and parked on her dirt...which had started to grow some grass and they dug a big hole in her front yard. From what Sis. Carman said, she wasn't very happy about that. The lesson sis. Joseph and I decided we could apply to that was that if you worry about things too much, then they usually start falling apart. You have to have faith that everything will work out.

Friday was a day full of fun and adventure. We went up north to a lady named Sis. Lang. Sis. Lang's family does not like the church. They made sure we knew that. We took Sis. Stevenson on exchanges with us to Sis. Lang's. I think Sis. Lang just needed someone to talk to. We listened to her for about 45 minutes before there was a break in which we could share a message with her. She is a such a cute lady. I love her smile. Sis. Stevenson was fantastic too. She knew exactly what to say to Sis. Lang and has such a strong desire to do missionary work. It was fantastic. Afterwards, we were stuck in traffic (now that ECU is back in session). So, Sis. Stevenson took us to Bojangles' (which is everything fried food). Welcome to the south!

Saturday we met with Fabiola and Scott again. Scott had a lot of questions about Joseph Smith. We answered their questions as best we could and then we taught the Plan in depth. They really liked that and they wanted us to come back! That was really the only exciting news for saturday.

Sunday, Pres. Cotterell came to the branch and talked all about missionary work. It was awesome. He is a great mission president. We also went and did a missionary moment in the 1st ward primary. It was fun. Sis. Joseph said primary reminds her of the MTC. (full of immature children). I love Sis. Joseph. :)

We went and taught a recent convert named Dante afterwards. He is a football player at ECU and has an incredible testimony. He talked to us about how he wants to be like a tree, firmly rooted in the gospel. It was a great lesson.

I love doing missionary work!

I hope all is well with each of you.

I am sure glad to have the gospel in my life. It really is such a blessing.

love you all!

Sis. Johnson

August 15 - 2011

Howdy Y'all!

Well, this week has definitely been an eventful one! (as always...)

On monday, we decided to go out for ice cream at the local pharmacy. It was delicious! (besides a little freezer burn here and there). We met with Talia and had a great lesson! She is progressing wonderfully!

Tuesday was nothing but tracting, tracting, and then tracting. It was fun though! We had fun going down a really cute street by our house. We found a couple of YSA's and we were super excited for that! We also went a visited a member who was taken off dialysis. Her daughter, Gloria has been caring for her and isn't a member of the church, but she probably one of the nicest people I have ever met. We sang a song to Doris (her mom) and then had a wonderful lesson with Gloria about the Plan of Salvation. Sis. Joseph informed me that her and the other sister missionary who had been there before me had tried teaching Gloria and they have taught her basically everything, but would never commit to reading the Book of Mormon, but she did this time! Woot! We were excited to say the least.

Wednesday was great! We were walking down the street while tracting for a referral that we had been given, but couldn't find her house when we heard in the not so far distance a whistle. I just kept staring at the ground thinking "stinking kids..." but Sis. Joseph looked around to see who it was. Turns out it was a member who happened to be outside. We went over and talked with her. She knew who the girl was that we were looking for and pointed us in the right direction. I also made a new friend on Wednesday! We went to the Jorgensen home for dinner on Wednesday and their little girl (who is 3 years old) was SO excited that we were there. Sis. Jorgensen told us that when they had told her that the sister missionaries were coming over, her response was, "They have GIRL missionaries?"

I love that little girl. She gave me a baby spoon to eat my soup with. We taught a lesson with their whole family and we were reading from Alma 26 in verse 22 and we had each of the kids be a part (like repentance, faith, good works, and the last one was mysteries) and we had them tell us what each one was. Their little boy that we gave the part of 'mysteries' to, didn't want to participate so he went and hid in the cupboard. It worked perfectly since he was the 'mysteries of God'!

Thursday we did weekly planning. It was great; or as great as planning a week in advance can get. I made soup! And it worked! You would be pround mama. We had dinner with the Furstenburgs again. I love them. Sis. Furstenburg is such a sweet lady. We had homemade french fries! It was divine. We went out to the country afterwards and visited with Sis. Bland whose husband is not a member. He is a really sweet man and he has been taught by several sets of Elders. We taught him from 2 Nephi 9 and it went really well. Then, we had to book it home because we couldn't see what time it was and ended up going over and then we were out in the middle of nowhere and it was quite the adventure!

Friday I had a really good personal study time. I read from Alma 29. It pretty much sums up how I feel about missionary work and I learned the importance of being humble while doing the Lord's work. Verse 9 was my favorite. We went and visited a less active named Wanda. Her parakeet died and she has been really struggling with life. She asked if we could just kneel and pray with her. We did for about 20 minutes. It was such a neat experience. I kind of felt like I was stepping in God's shoes for a bit. She poured out her soul for the full 20 minutes and it was very touching. Afterwards, we went and taught a referral about the Plan of Salvation. She really liked it and invited us back!

Saturday we went back out to the country with Sis. McCoy. We taught Steve. He is struggling, but making it through.

Sunday was great!

Well, my time is up. I hope all is well.

I love sharing the gospel!

Love,

Sis. J

Another AWESOME Week!

It sure has been a wonderful week!

I hope everyone's has been great as well. :)

Last monday for prep day I guess we didn't do anything really that neat because I have no memory of what we did last monday.

On Tuesday we visited with Trisha. She had been reading and praying and keeping all of her commitments. I think one of my favorite things about sharing the gospel with people is to see how much their countenances change from one visit to the next. Trisha's has totally changed since we started meeting with her. We shared with her about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was a great lesson. However, the next day, we recieved a call from Trisha informing us that she had prayed to know the truth and if she should be baptized and all of that good stuff and she said that God had told her she needed to wait. So, we are trying to work out her concerns. It kind of breaks my heart when that happens, but it was still a good day. We went tracting in the evening because our other appointments fell through. We were enjoying the cooler evening air and came upon a well-kept trailer house. We walked up to the front porch and noticed there was something sitting there on the porch. As we got closer, we realized that it was a snake! Sis. Joseph and I debated about what we should do for a bit and then after staring at the snake for a bit I decided that it was a fake. Sis. Joseph didn't think it was. I pulled out a pass along card and poked the snake and quickly ran away. It didn't move. Then, we poked it again and what do you know? It was fake! We visted with Norma and Cindy (who are both friends). We decided to teach them both the word of wisdom. Teaching two investigators like that wasn't such a great idea. They did not like the lesson at all. They told us the didn't believe any of it. Oh well.

Wednesday was district meeting. It was a good meeting about having faith and being obedient. Sis. Joseph is the queen of rules. I always want to be a rebel now, but I was definitely humbled after learning about the blessings of obedience at district meeting. Sometimes I think we need to be reminded of what we think we already know. We went and visited with Jose on Wednesday too. Jose told us he had this incredible dream about a man dressed in white who told him that he was doing the right thing and then the man came and put his hands on Jose's head; like he was giving him a blessing. Jose said that he could definitely feel a difference in his life ever since he had started reading the Book of Mormon. He's been going to town with that! We usually leave him a chapter or two, but he's done all of that and he's read through all of 1 Nephi and part of 2 Nephi as well. We shared with Jose about revelation in Alma 5:45--46 and it was a lesson that I hold near and dear to my heart. We also met with Norma. Norma is such a sweet lady. She'll talk your ear off! We had a nice followup discussion about the importance of eating a well balanced diet and why smoking and drinking coffee and tea isn't good for you. Norma is still a little undecided about the whole thing, but I thought it was funny to see that she had made the effort to remove all of the ashtrays from her house, replace the empty space with flowers and such things and to open the windows. I think she is trying to quit without letting us know. She is funny lady.

Thursday was the blessed day of weekly planning and the never ending calling list. We went and visited with some of the branch members after we finished...mostly. It's so much fun to get members excited to do missionary work. Getting girls to come on exchanges is hard though. I am going to sign up for exchanges all the time when I get home.

Friday we did a lot of tracting again. We had a really neat experience with a man named Phillip. We were walking down the street and he saw us, waved and then came down off his porch and asked if he could see our book [the Book of Mormon]. We let him look at the one we were carrying. He then commenced to tell us that he had been taking the lessons from the Elders in Clayton, NC. He said he really liked everything about the church and we told him a little bit more. He asked if he could keep the Book of Mormon to take to the beach with him that day because he had left his at his home in Clayton. We let him have it. It was awesome! In the evening we went and visited with a lady named Melinda that we met last week. She is a sweet gal. She is Hindu and also a vegetarian. It was pretty funny when we went over there on friday because she told us we would have to stay outside because she had been burning incents all day and had accidentally smoked out her house. I could smell it outside and it was pretty strong. We had a good lesson with her. She really liked learning about the fall of Adam and Eve.

Saturday, we woke up to rain! Sis. Joseph and I went on a really good run through the puddles and it was so much fun! I love running in the rain! We went and visted Cindy again and like Norma, she had removed most of the ash trays from her house. We shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with her and read from Alma 38. That is such a good chapter. Go and read it. We ended up getting drenched on the way out from Cindy's lesson and spent the rest of the day looking something like drowned rats as it dumped buckets of water. Cindy gave us a bunch of clothes from her son (we still don't know why she gave them to us) and we didn't know where to take them so we went to the Free Will Baptist Press and asked them. It was quite the site to see to LDS missionaries walking into their store.

Sunday was wonderful! we have been working with a girl named Talia in the branch. She wants to be baptized and she is just the sweetest girl you'll ever meet. We taught her during sunday school and asked her to specifically pray to know if the chruch was true, etc. She did and recieved her answer right then. The spirit that we could feel in the room was incredible. We shared from D&C 9 about knowing when you have made a good decision. It was so exciting to see her recieve an answer. Probably the highlight of the week...acutally, it definteily was.

I hope y'all are doing well!

This church is completely true. I am thankful for my knowledge of that.

love you!

love,

sis j

A very BUSY Week!

Hey Hey!

Last prep day was quite the adventure! We had district prep day and played sports together. Elder Tripp ended up spraining his ankle really bad before we even got there. We found some otter pops in the freezer at the church...and that is how he iced his ankle. We played ulitmate frisbee for a while and then sis. Joseph and I played soccer by ourselves for a while. The elders made hamburgers that actually tasted pretty good. Probably the best meal I've had in a while. Monday Sis. Joseph and I did splits for the first time too! I was scared to death. I went to Sis. Jones' with the Young family and we taught about tithing and repentance. Sis. Jones informed us that she didn't feel like she quite ready to be baptized so we are praying and working towards a date in August now.

Tuesday was a busy busy day. We went and visited a less active who has been actively attending a baptist church. She is such a sweet lady...we asked why she stopped attending and she said she didn't understand where the Book of Mormon came from or "who that Joseph Smith feller was." I don't think she knew what she was getting into when she was baptized. We are teaching her and her husband who is not a member. We also went and visited with Trisha. It ended up being pretty crazy because Trisha was babysitting the Willets' kids (there are six of them) It was insane. We scratched our plans for teaching and decided to watch the restoration video with all the kids and have them draw pictures of what they learned. I think that was my favorite lesson so far. Trisha is doing so well! I am proud of her. Tuesday nights are now dedicated to branch work with the members. We didn't have any appointments with branch members because they cancelled, so we had a nice evening of tracting with two of the ward members. We found a girl who has been taught before and her roommate was a member.

Wednesday we taught Jose and his family. Jose had read everything we assigned him and then he went back and read the first 11 chapters of 1 Nephi. It was amazing! He said he loved reading from the book of Mormon and that it made him feel happier than he had felt in years. He asked us to assign a lot more reading this week so he would stay busy. Oh, he also told us that he liked reading the Book of Mormon more than watching TV. We commmended him for his excellent choice. We are trying to work with their whole family..which makes things hard. His wife is currently attending the JW's so, she is not as willing to accept learning about the Book of Mormon, but she still said she would read with Jose if we gave her an El Libro. So, we did. I am so excited to see them this week!

Thursday we had weekly planning. I sat on my pillow and we planned for a VERY long time. I am not a fan of weekly planning. After we finally finished planning around 3:30, we went to the Robinson family home. Bro. Robinson is not a member, but is a very sweet man. We had a good lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the kids there. He listened very intently. We asked if he would like us to come back and teach him, but he said no. We will see what happens though! Then, we tracted for the rest of the evening.

Every appointment we had on friday fell through. We called for about two hours and then sis. Joseph said she might go insane if we didn't go outside and start doing some missionary work. So, we tracted for a very long time on friday. We tracted on a road and found a family that said they wanted to come to church, but didn't have a car. One of the kids piped up and said, "I want to go to church more than I want to go to school!" We told him we could help him with that and also encouraged him to like going to school. on saturday we continued tracting some more due to cancellations. We went with sis. Farrer. She is one of the most hilarious people I have ever met in my life. She served a mission in Michigan and had all sorts of stories. We drove out in the middle of nowhere and tried contacting some less actives and some of our investigators that lived out there without much success.

Sunday was probably the best day ever. We had two people who weren't members show up for church. We showed them around and then took them to sacrament. One of the ladies who came was friends with a lady who is a member in Bermuda. We met her as well. She was so excited that there were sister missionaries because she said that she had only ever seen the Elders in Bermuda. Then, Talia (our YSA investigator) came to sacrament again! She loves reading the Book of Mormon and we are so excited for her. One of our newer investigators came to church as well. Her name is Norma and she really enjoyed church. It rained cats and dogs during all of church and the thunder shook the whole building. It definitely made church an exciting experience!

Well, my time is up, but I hope all is well with everyone. Send my love to Grandma and Grandpa. I hope they are doing better.

scripture of the week: Hebrews 12:1-2 and 2 Nephi 9

I love y'all!

Love Sis. Johnson