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