September 26, 2011

Hello!

Well, transfers happened last week and I am now with Sister Matthews. She is fantastic! We get along great and I'm pretty much 100% confident it's going to be great transfer. She is an amazing missionary. Sister Matthews is from Moses Lake, Washington. I guess that's the dry part of Washington. She has connections. I think everyone in Greenville is either originally from there or knows someone from there. It was pretty funny. Everyone who talked to her at church at some sort of connection with someone that she knew.

This week was wonderful. On Monday, Sister Joseph and I enjoyed our last prep day together by writing letters and watching a zillion mormon messages. We went on a run/bike ride through Ayden for the last time and it was a beautiful morning to be outside. The sunrises here are gorgeous. It looks just like a painting...but better. We met with Brittany that evening and taught the restoration. It was great! She actually understood the apostasy which a lot of people have a hard time understanding..so we were ecstatic to say the least!

Tuesday we had appointments set up already before we knew that Sister Joseph was being transferred so I went on splits with a sister from the second ward. She served a mission in Chile so we had a good time teaching up a storm. We taught a lady named Tabitha in Ayden. She grew up Catholic, but attends a Unitarian church now. I didn't have a lot of high hopes at first for her because Unitarians are hard to crack. They don't like having a set belief really. However, she really liked the Joseph Smith story about all the different churches and how he wanted to know which one to go to. She said she is really excited to read the Book of Mormon! We gave her a Book of Mormon from the first time that we met her and her husband took it and she doesn't know where he put it, but she really wants to know more and she asked me when we were coming back before we even got to that point. It was great! Afterwards, I was greatly humbled. I was feeling pretty confident that I knew my way around Greenville so Sis. Wells (the sister I was on splits with) and I went up to Greenville to meet with a recent covert in the branch. However, we ended up going in a giant circle and had to cancel that appointment because Sister Johnson doesn't know Greenville as well as she originally thought she did. Lesson learned: bring maps. After that I spent about 2.5 hours calling and then Sister Matthews came! Sister Joseph was her trainer too.

Wednesday we had the great priviledge of going to district meeting. Elder Westley is now our District Leader. We had a great lesson on the importance of sacrament attendance to help people progress and develop a deeper relationship with the Savior. After district meeting we went to Bro. Parker's (a recent convert). He is an older man and is hilarious. We had a good lesson on the priesthood and he is excited to be able to pass the sacrament. However, he said he doesn't like all those little boys running around him when they are preparing because the room is too small. So, he set up a system where they can go in the room and he would carry the trays out. Afterwards, we met with some YSA's on campus named Byron and Cody. Byron came to church last week because one of our members invited him. He really liked church and wanted to know more about Joseph Smith. We had a really good lesson with both of them. I learned last week that teaching simply makes it a lot easier to be bold. I love teaching. Then, we visited the Stantons who are members, but we thought they were an investigator because someone put the wrong name in with their number. They are a great younger couple and have a desire to do missionary work. So, it turned out to be a great visit!

Thursday we spent the ENTIRE day weekly planning. And we still didn't finish. We figured out that we have 17 investigators right now and that is why it took forever. We met with the Limas, a less active family in the evening and taught them about baptism and why it is important to come to church and take the sacrament. They are coming to church this sunday and we are happy. God is happy.

Friday we went to another Less active named Johanna. She doesn't really understand a lot about the church. She converted about 3 years ago and we asked her how her reading from the Book of Mormon was going. She said she hadn't been reading at all. We are going to try and set up having a ward missionary teach her all the lessons again. It is sad to see people who get baptized and then go less active and they don't really understand all the promises they made, but that is why we all have callings in the church. We all help each other learn and grow. We met with another lady that Sis. Joseph and I had originally met at the grocery store on Monday. Her name is Montressa. She is a single mom with two kids. We went over to her house and taught her a little bit about the church and the restoration and what our purpose as missionaries is. She agreed to have us back over and wants to come to church!

Saturday was the best day ever! Kia was baptized and it was a wonderful baptism. I was so worried at first because they were late to their own baptism. It turned out great though and it was really neat. She was so happy! Afterwards we went with Kia and her family and the Tieks and the Youngs out to dinner. Then, we were off to save some more souls! We met a lady named Kim at the gas station and taught a little bit to her there. She was really interested so we are going to meet with her this week. Then, we remembered that the RS broadcast was that night so we went to that and it was AWESOME! Pres. Uchtdorf is my favorite. That talk was something that every lady in the world needs to read.

Sunday was also the best day ever. Kia was confirmed by her husband, Chevaughn and it was definitely a tender mercy of the Lord to see that. I love their family so much. This was probably the most relaxed Sunday I've had in twelve weeks. We were still very busy running to and fro from ward to ward, but it was just a calm day. I don' t know what changed, but it did. We went to Brittany's later and taught part of the plan of Salvation. It was a great week!

I am thankful for all the small things we get to enjoy every day. I am also so thankful for our Savior who made it possible for us to obtain salvation and exhaltation through the Atonement. He lives!

Thank you for every square inch of support you have willingly sacrficed and given for me to serve a mission. I am thankful and love you all.
God Bless!

Love, Sister J

Another Busy Week!

Dear Family,

Hello! It is so good to hear from y'all every week. Thank you for sending the giant bag of frosted mini wheats. They made my day! mmm....

So, this week was crazy! On Monday, we had a busy, busy prep day. We met with Scott and Fabiola Monday evening. It was a great lesson about families and the faith and building a relationship with Heavenly Father. It was so neat to hear them talk about how they had noticed that things were coming together now that they have started reading from the Book of Mormon and praying. They hadn't recieved an answer yet, but they said that they had seen a huge change. (Fabiola got a job, Scott had two job offers, etc.) We are still trying to help them get to church. They have twins who are 2 1/2 and they truely live up to the title, "terrible twos." Sunday morning church is hard for them to do, but we told them that it would help them find answers, and would also be a blessing. So, we are hoping that they will make it to church.

Tuesday was deep clean day. We spent quite a while shampooing the carpets, vacuuming and deep cleaning the bathroom. I'm glad deep clean day is over. We had an appointment with a former named Karen who didn't show up. So, we decided to tract the street since we didn't have any other plans at that time. We knocked on a door and saw a man look out the window. Then he came over to the door and said, "oh. it's the mormons" (in a very unenthusiastic voice) We didn't even have to say anything and he just told us that he didn't have time for us today. Afterwards Sis. Joseph and I laughed all the way to the next house. At least he knew we were calling him to repentance! We met with Sis. McCoy's friend, Max that evening as well. Max has been taught by the elders before, but she has a hard time believing the Joseph Smith story. We asked her what things she could do to learn for herself and we had a great lesson about Jesus Christ and how the Book of Mormon also testifes of Jesus Christ. The page before the introduction of the Book of Mormon is the best! It was a good lesson. Everyone here says they 'know Jesus.' I'm still trying to figure out what that really means. We met with Brittany later on. Brittany is amazing! She was having a really hard day and asked us if we could come over. We did and turns out she told her boss she couldn't work on sundays because she wanted to go to church and her boss told her that was an unexceptable excuse and she lost her job. I know the Lord will bless her for her willingness to keep the commandments.
We also met with Matthew. Matthew said he felt really good about talking to his parentals this weekend so we hoping for the best!

Wednesday we had zone training. It was really good! We talked a lot about charity and also focusing on the very last page in PMG. The biggest thing I learned was that we show charity to people by being bold with them. Sometimes that is hard, but that is how we show our love for others. I also learned that teaching simply is the key to success. Sis. Joseph and I like to be deep thinkers a lot of the time and we make things much more complicated than they really need to be. We practiced teaching more simply and amazingly, it's a lot easier to be bold when you do that. Oh how I love zone training. We talked to the elders who taught Matthew and I can see why Matthew is so truely converted. They are great missionaries. We talked with Kia afterwards, and her baptism is set for the 24th and is not moving. Woot!

Thursday we did weekly planning. It was great. The most amazing thing happened! We recieved a referral from church headquarters that a girl who lived in the dorms on campus wanted to have a Book of Mormon. We weren't sure how we were going to get into the dorms because only the people who live there are allowed in and you have to be escorted everywhere. BUT it was so amazing! We were going through all the new members who had moved into the branch since school started and there was a girl who happened to live in the same building. We gave her a call and she let us in, we were able to contact the referral, Amanda and had a great lesson about prayer, scripture study, church and how to balance life when it's crazy. We just taught her in the hall and it was great! She is a very sweet girl going into CLS. We set up a return appointment for next week!

Friday was insane. We had a zillion appointments and then we went to an evening of music program. We met with a young man named Raheim. It was so neat! We were just going to meet with him, but then his roommate was there and then his friend, Sam came over too. They all agreed to read the Book of Mormon and to pray about it. It was a great lesson! The weather has been fantastic this week. It's been in the 60's all week and it feels wonderful. I never thought I would ever, ever say that, but it feels fantastic.

Saturday we went on exchanges with Sis. McCoy. She is hilarious. We tried contacting some referrals in Grimesland without any success. It was one of those discouraging days I suppose. We spent a lot of time trying to contact people without much success. As one sister in the branch put it, days like those are "character building days". We met Sis. Carman's family (none of them are members) and they asked a lot of questions about the church. It was really good! We are going to try and stop by her cousins later this week. Saturday night, we recieved a phone call from the elders informing us that Sis. Joseph is being transferred. It is thumbs down. Sis. Joseph is the hardest working person I've ever met in my life. I suppose Heavenly Father likes to do that when we start feeling comfortable; like we are finally gettting the hang of things.

Sunday was wonderful. We had ward conference in the 2nd ward and learned a lot from Pres. Walker about the importance of missionary work. We had a really good meeting with the branch as well. They are so good! A few of them brought their friends to church yesterday so, we have a lot of work in the branch this week! We met Kia later that evening at the Robionson's home (they are part member family) It was so good! Chevaughn got Bro Robionson (he's not a member) involved and invited him to come to Kia's baptism and to read the Book of Mormon. Sis. Robionson got to bear her testimony to Kia and her husband and it was amazing. That was probably the best lesson I have ever been in. Kia bore her testimony too. It was beautiful.

I love this restored gospel and I am so thankful we have it to share and learn from. It is a blessing x 10000000.

Thanks so much for all the love you always send! I send my love as well. :) I hope all is going well. You all are in my prayers; always. Tell Nelda and Dale they are in my prayers too.

Love,
Sister J

Temple Trip Week!

Dear Family and Friends,

Hello from North Carolina! I hope you all have been having a fantastic week! It's been a great week here in Ayden/Greenville/Winterville/all of Pitt County.

Monday was good. We didn't have a prep day because we went to the temple on Friday. We met with the stake president, Pres. Walker that night. He asked us if we had done anything fun for prep day. I told him we didn't have one today because of the temple trip on friday. Then, he asked us what we normally do on prep day. We told him about our adventures. He told us we need to lighten up and his best advice to us was, "go and hit something." So, I guess I'll have to find something to hit today.

Tuesday was a great day. We went out to Grimesland and tried to contact a former who informed us that she was not at all interested in ever joining the church. Then, we decided to go to a less active who lived down the road. We had tried contacting her several times before, but had no success. However, she was there today! We talked to her in her garage with the chickens. In the heat. Chickens are pretty funny to watch. They each have their own distinct personalities. We invited her to come to church and she said yes! So, it was a successful visit. We also went and visited another less active whose son is not a member. She is from Europe and had a pretty strong accent. The first thing she asked us when we came in was, (in an italian accent or something like that) "where are you from?" we said, "utah" and then she said, "oh. well that explains why I can't understand anything you say on the phone." (we thought the same when we spoke to her) After visiting with Sis. Visbal we went onto ECU campus to meet with some new members who had just moved to campus. The campus is HUGE. I learned some fun facts about ECU.

1. ECU is the #3 party school in the world. I think it would be great to go and give out word of wisdom pamphlets, but I guess that would be wasteful.

2. they are not that good at football

3. their colors are purple and yellow

4. their mascot is a pirate

5. their school saying is, "aaaaargh!"

After meeting with one of the members there we went to Matthew's. Matthew said that he didn't get a chance to talk to his parents this past week. We encouraged him to have faith and confidence. I read a really good conference talk from 2009 entitled, "Hope". It says that hope is when we place confidence in something. We were initially not sure what to do when we first got there, but we brought a fantastic member with us who just returned from his mission about 3 weeks ago and he did a great job explaining to Matthew why it was so important and how Heavenly Father blesses us when we do what we know in our hearts to be right. I am so thankful for members. They always make the lessons complete by adding personal experiences, etc. It's wonderful!

Wednesday we had district meeting. It was Elder Tibbetts last district meeting! We had a good discussion about the importance of members and having them help out during the lessons. It was a good lesson that I needed to hear. Afterwards, we went to Brother Parker (a recent convert) and taught him the last of the new member lessons. His wife past away a few years back and he shared some very tender words with us about how much he loved his wife. It reminded me of Elder Scott and how he speaks of his wife. It was a good discussion about the temple and such. We went to Kia's that evening and she said she wanted to move her baptism to the 12th because she was tired of moving it all the time. We told her we couldn't do it on Monday nights so, since she has to work on the 17th, it is now officially set for the 24th. Hopefully there won't be any hurricanes, tornados, etc this time.

On Thursday, we did weekly planning. It actually worked out quite nicely! Weekly planning isn't so bad. We went to breakfast with the 2nd ward. I lost my wallet and after thinking about it for a while realized I had left it in a member's car (thank heavens). We called her and I told her it would be fine to get it the next day. I forgot we were going to the temple though. So, Friday morning I woke up at 5:30 because I was so excited to go to the temple and I realized that my temple recommend was in my wallet. Which I didn't have. So, we called Sis. Rice (the member) and made arrangements to pick it up that morning before we left. Everything worked out nicely. We made it to the temple and the session was the best one I've been to yet. The Raleigh temple is so tiny! We road home with Pres. Cotterell and Sis. I got to see sis. oliverson and sis. bateman again. It was good to see them again. Sis. oliverson had me almost rolling on the floor reminding me of all the crazy things we did in the MTC. I can't believe I forgot about everything we did there. We ate lunch with all the other sisters and I finally met them all! The sisters in this mission=the best ever. They are all amazing and I don't think I would mind being companions with any of them.

Saturday we met with Trisha after a long period of not seeing her. She told us that she felt guilty for never returning our calls, but she just didn't know who to believe. She recieved some anti material apparently. She also told us she had a dream about how one of us went home because she wasn't doing what we had asked her. It occurred to me then that we need to make sure that we clearly state that when they are making commitments, it isn't for us, but it is for Jesus Christ; who we represent. That really hit me hard. I am going to make sure every person who we teach knows that now.

Sunday was good. Every meeting was about the importance of families and making our homes a christ centered home and about how we should keep our bodies clean (law of chastity). They were all really good talks. I learned a lot. Everything we bring into our home should help our home maintain it's sacredness. Our homes are comparable in sacredness to the temple. So, we should be mindful of what we bring into our homes. It was a wonderful sunday!

Love you all!

Sister Johnson

Hurricane Irene....Part 2

Hey hey hey!

So, last week I was so excited to tell you how living through my first hurricane went and then the computer shut down. But it's okay because I can finish telling you the adventures of Sis. Joseph and Sis. Johnson now.

So, Thursday night we recieved a call from Sis. Cotterell and she told us to pack up our things and be ready to leave Greenville by 8am the next morning. We did as she instructed and then we set off to go and stay with Sis. Kissell and Sis. Welch in Wake Forest (which is near Raleigh). We drove out there. It was really odd to leave our area behind. I felt like part of me was missing. Wake Forest is the ritzy-est place I've ever been in my life. We basically stayed in a castle. The sisters there live with a member, Sis. Ingram. She is one of the funniest ladies I've ever met in my life. Wake Forest also has hills! Sis. Joseph and I went on a run and it was like we were running in the mountains. Greenville is flat. I can count on one hand how many hills (if you can call them that...more of a gradual incline) there are. The hurricane came through Friday night/Saturday day/Saturday night. I guess it was really windy outside and the power was going on and off all night in Wake Forest, but I was dead to the world and had no idea. No one else slept well and they informed me of the adventurous nights they had with lots of lightning and wind. The damage in Wake Forest wasn't bad. There were a few trees in the road, but that was about it. We weren't allowed to go outside all day on Saturday so we updated all of our area books. Then we had a slumber party and watched Finding Faith in Christ and pulled out all of our beds and slept in the living room together.

Oh! I tried fried green tomatoes. Sis. Ingram has these giant tomato plants (they're more like bushes) So, she made us some fried green tomatoes. They were really yummy.

We had to cancel Kia's baptism because of the hurricane. We called her and Chevaughn did not want to cancel. He said he didn't care if there was a hurricane. He was going to go through with this. I guess the bishop was able to persaude him otherwise. She is rescheduled for Sept. 17 though!

On Sunday, we walked outside and it was the most gorgeous day you could ever imagine. You wouldn't have ever guessed that a hurricane came ripping through 12 hours prior. We got to go to church with the Wake Forest sisters and it was really good to see how they did everything. It definitely helped Sis. Joseph and I know how we could better help the people in Greenville. The members there are fantastic. They desire to be involved in missionary work and want to help the sisters out as much as they can. They even gave us assignments to go and contact some less actives! It was great!

Monday we headed home and there was a lot of damage in Greenville. Most people were without power until the middle of this week due to the large trees that had taken out the power lines. Lots of houses were damaged by the trees. There was also quite a bit of flooding. Most of which had been soaked up by the time we got home on Monday. Sis. Carman faired well during the storm. There was no damage to her home. Her sister who lives only a mile up the street had a lot of her windows blown out, shingles missing and water damage from when the windows broke. It was sad to see so many homes in such a mess. We spent this whole week helping clean up. I caught a cold of sorts this week (the sisters in Wake Forest were sick) and it pretty much wiped me out. I've just been sleeping the past couple of days, but feel much better now. I've never been so exhausted in my life. Sis. Joseph went on splits with a YSA to go and see Matthew. Matthew has a solid testimony. He knows it's true. He just needs to talk to his parents about being baptized. We are excited for him. We also were able to get a hold of Talia (she was supposed to be baptized on the 13th, but her mom wouldn't let her). She is leaving for the Navy next week, but she wants Sis. Jospeh and I to stay in contact. So, I am thankful for that at least.

On Saturday night, Sis. Joseph called Kia to make sure she would be coming to church, but she said she had to work. We both started thinking, "great. now we'll have to start from square one for the zillionth time before she can be baptized." Sunday we were still moping and who walked through the door? Kia! She told us she wanted to surprise us. She sure did! I'm so happy. She has changed so much since we first started teaching her. It's incredible to see the difference. The only thing I really desire is to see people who are truely converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't desire to baptize millions unless they are truely converted. Kia is truely converted and I am truely thankful for that.

We shared a message with Stake Pres. last night. I was scared stiff. Pres. Walker is one of the most intimidating people I know. It ended up being really good though. I really like Pres. Walker now. He is hilarious. It was a good message. We shared a lot of missionary scriptures and I learned a lot from him. Afterwards, we went to a part member family. Rusty's wife, Brittney isn't a member and she's been taught by the elders before, but he said he thought she would be more comfortable with sisters. We taught her and had a good lesson with her. She is very sweet and wants to be baptized. We are very excited to help her gain a testimony and work towards that desire. She wants us to come back over!

It's incredible to see how God works and after leaving the area last week, I realized I have a lot to be thankful for. This area is incredible and I know Heavenly Father has many people prepared. I read a really good talk by Elder Perry called, "Bring Souls Unto Me." Y'all should read it!

The church=true. I know that for a fact.

Love you all so much!

Love,

Sister J