My last report as a Missionary.....

Hello dearest family and friends!

I guess this is the last time I will be reporting home as a missionary. That is mind-blowing! It has been a hard fact to accept. Being a missionary has brought more peace and joy into my life than I thought I could ever have; especially given the circumstances of everything that has happened over the past year and a half. I am grateful for the time I have had to serve as a missionary. It has been a "trial of my faith" most definitely and I feel that I have come out on the winning side. :) I have "fought a good fight. I have finished my course, I have kept the faith" as Paul would say. (see 2 Timothy 4:7) Paul is my hero of the New Testament.

A lot of good things happened this week.

We had dinner with the Randall’s, a recent convert family on Monday. They are such a great couple. I love them. We had a good lesson with them about being steadfast and immovable.

On Tuesday we had the best lesson EVER with Jeri. We taught her the restoration and prayed that we could teach it to her in a way that would be meaningful and applicable to her life. It was seriously one of the best lessons ever. She is such a great lady and works hard to overcome her fears and doubts. We invited her to be baptized and she accepted! (yay!) We stopped by several less actives and part member families afterwards. Unfortunately, no one answered the door.

Wednesday was the last zone meeting. It was really good. We were able to do some role plays and I feel like I finally have figured out how to do a good street contact! (better late than never I suppose :] ) We did a role play with the Assistants whose first response to our being assigned to role play together was, "get ready to learn from the best!" No pressure...it went well. (whew!) I love teaching and being able to recognize the spirit. Something we have started to do after role plays is asking the question, "Are there any thoughts that you didn't vocalize?" Those thoughts are usually things the spirit is prompting you to act upon, but we as human beings tend to ignore them sometimes.

We visited with Leah afterwards. She is a tough cookie. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. She had all sorts of crazy questions from her JW background. We told her to read the Book of Mormon. That will answer any question.

We went to the Petty’s afterwards and carolled to their neighbors, Ola Mae and Charles. They are an older couple. Ola Mae can play the piano like nobody's business. She played us some hymns with some baptist-esque overtones. It was fun. We were hoping to set up an appointment with her, but she pulled the "I'll call you" card. Hopefully she'll let the future sisters come back and teach.

We then went carolling to all of our investigators in R2 ward with the ward choir. We stopped by Bro. Ngo who was quick to invite us into his home and we sang him several hymns. The spirit was definitely there and he enjoyed it very much. He sang along with a few of the hymns and it was great! We tried singing to the Wakefields, but they weren't home so we carolled to their neighbors and gave them a Joy to the World DVD. They were a nice young couple. Our last stop was Sister Bogue. We were able to sing to her and she was so grateful we thought of her and stopped by. She was almost in tears.

Thursday was a day of "last time I will ever do this as a missionary" moments. I weekly planned for the last time (hallelujah!) on Thursday. We went to Sister Donaldson's afterwards and showed her the Mormon messages on mormon.org. She has been struggling a little, but the Mormon messages brightened her day! She told us she would be spending a lot more time there now that she knew about it. I went to the last coordination meeting ever as a missionary on Thursday. It must have been "National-be-late-to-coordination-meeting Day" because everyone came around 820 pm. It starts at 8. Despite our late start we were able to accomplish a lot.

We went to the farmer's market with Sister Bogue on Friday. She has CHF so we were able to go and help her go shopping for groceries since she can't do it herself. She likes fresh veggies and fruits a lot. She lined us up with a lot of fresh lettuce, spinach, and kale. I discovered that I really love kale. All of our appointments for the remainder of the day fell through. However, we were able to FINALLY contact a part member family, the Dixon’s. They were running around like crazy trying to get dinner in the crock pot because their niece just had a baby and they were on the way out the door. We helped slice onions and a miracle happened! I didn't cry! Anyway, it was a good ice breaker and they invited us to come back next week.

Saturday we went to lunch with Sister Patrick at this super ritzy Italian restaurant with mediocre food. At least the company was exceptional. :)
We also met with Sister Falco. She is in the Pearl of Great Price now! We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and she has just kept going. It's been great to see her progress.

Sunday was crazy. We went to church, Daisy and Jeri both came! It was a great way to end the week. We had a lesson with the Wakefields who were planning on coming to church, but Bro. Wakefield hasn't been able to kick a cold that is working on him. We then went to Bro. Ngo's and reviewed the restoration with him. He has been reading which is great. He is such a cute little old man. We then taught a mission prep class at the Clay's with a RM, Sister Despain who served in Ogden, UT. She is probably the most energetic missionary I have ever met in my life. It was great!

Well, I know this is the Lord's work and there is nothing more important that sharing the gospel with all of God's children. I love the Book of Mormon with all my heart and I know that Book changes lives. I know it is a gift to us from God. I know it is given to bring us closer to Christ.

See you soon (ahh!)

Love,

Sister Johnson

It has been a great week!!!

Dear Family,

MONDAY
I finally got a haircut! Sister Asay wouldn't let me get a haircut for the LONGEST time. It is nice to have hair that is symmetrical again. :) We had a great experience at Great Clips. The lady that cut my hair was Muslim. She had a lot of misconceptions about the church which I was happy to dispel. Sister Asay's stylist was very interested in what we do as missionaries. She also told Sister Asay that the manager of Great Clips, Angel was having a really bad day because her best friend had gone into a coma after a pretty serious surgery. We were able to talk to Angel and prayed with her. The spirit was definitely there.
We met with Daisy. She is doing wonderfully. We had a great lesson on hope and the spirit was so strong. We also did a mini testimony meeting and she bore her testimony. Hearing her testimony was such a wonderful experience. She has a solid testimony. The Lopez family from the Raleigh 3rd ward invited her and her mom over for dinner yesterday. The spanish elders were able to teach her mom a lesson and we talked to them afterwards and Daisy's mom agreed to have the elders come back so she can learn more! Hopefully Daisy's whole family will be able to benefit from the gospel now.

TUESDAY
We had Christmas Zone Conference! The four of us sisters (Sister Asay, myself, Sister Wilson, and Sister Prestwich) all have the same cardigan so naturally it only made sense for us to wear them and match. :) The Assistants asked me to play the piano for everyone that sang. Luckily a couple of the elders had polished their piano skills and were able to assist in playing as well. Sister Asay sang the First Noel as a solo and I played for a duet (What Child is This) by a couple of elders serving in Apex. We went through the arrangement once during lunch and thankfully it turned out pretty well. I really believe that performing musical numbers in church are a way to gain a solid testimony that the Lord hears and answers prayers.
The Bernhisels are so funny. They came up with a version of "The 12 Days of Christmas" and had us all doing choreography in the gym during lunch. I never thought I would do something like that as a missionary. :)
We went to the office afterwards to drop off a couple of things and saw that Sister Asay's bike had arrived! (Did I mention Sisters are going to start riding bikes after this transfer?)
The Assistants were there and convinced us that they could have her bike ready to go within 10 minutes.

1 hour later we finally left the office. lol. We now have a bike rack on the back of our car and I feel like an Elder.

We had dinner with recent covert family, the Gibsons that night. They are absolutely incredible people. They told us their conversion story and it was incredible. It's amazing what the gospel can do for a person.

WEDNESDAY
 As a result of our service to Jeri last week, she invited us to come back to answer some questions she had. She asked us about the role that women play in the church and how we can know that Joseph Smith was a true prophet and not a false prophet. She had great questions. We were excited to teach her and she was very receptive.
I was supposed to go to the eye doctor to figure out why my eyes are so sensitive to fluorescent lights, but alas, they did not accept our insurance. Apparently the lady I talked to on the phone didn't know what she was talking about, bless her heart. We went on exchanges with Hermana Lopez, a recently returned missionary in the 3rd ward. She gave us a couple of referrals which we were able to forward to their respective areas.

THURSDAY
Happy Birthday to Sister Asay! The Clays came up with this creative idea of hanging paper snowflakes outside our door so Sister Asay could have snow for her birthday (It has snowed every year on her birthday). We tried to make buttermilk pancakes, but they didn't work out quite as we hoped.

FRIDAY
Sister Falco, the returning less active is doing fantastic. She told us that she was able to do tithing settlement and we talked to her about preparing to go back to the temple. That is her next goal and she is working hard to prepare. She is a diligent scripture reader. I admire her diligence.

Sister Asay and I have invited ward members to go caroling with us this week to investigators and less actives. Our ward mission leader in the 2nd ward told the ward council about our plans and everyone is really excited to participate. We are excited to spread some Christmas joy by bringing "glad tidings" of Jesus Christ to as many people as we can this week.

SATURDAY
Great day! We went to a baptism for the elders.

SUNDAY
I have been struggling to know for myself that the work I have tried to do here (especially in Raleigh) is acceptable to the Lord. I have prayed a lot and I finally feel like I received an answer as I was reading about being steadfast and immovable today in my studies. 1 Corinthians 15:58 answered my question and I feel that the Lord is happy with our efforts here. We are going to make sure we work our tails off this week (just like every week :] ).

love yall!

Sister J

December...? WHAT!????

Hi!

Where does time go??! It's already December!

Well, enough panicking. No one ever got anything accomplished by panicking about it. :)

I've been trying to learn to trust in the lord more this week. I was inspired by a young lady from the Raleigh 1st ward who told us she has been trying to follow impressions by writing them down or acting on them. Sister Asay and I had a really neat experience with that this week.

We were able to have a great miracle this past week because we acted on an impression. We had made plans to go by a former investigator one morning. We were able to contact her, but she wasn't interested. As we were walking back to the car I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help us figure out why we were in this neighborhood. We were walking down the street and saw a man back his car into his driveway. I felt impressed to go talk to him, but didn't want to because it is easy to rationalize why it wouldn't be good to contact him in his car. We were getting closer and I had decided not to talk to him, but then remembered my goal to act on impressions so we quickly turned into his driveway and contacted him as he was getting out of his car. Ton Ngo (pronounced, "no") was his name. He is from Vietnam. We talked to him a little bit about Jesus Christ and asked him if he believed in Jesus Christ. He said that he thinks he has a belief in Jesus Christ. We asked if we could come and teach him about Jesus Christ and how Christ could bless his life and he agreed. We were able to meet with him yesterday and had a good lesson with him. He had a lot of questions and has a desire to believe in Christ. His wife passed away four years ago and we were able to testify some about the plan of salvation. He has a hard time reading small print and in English, but we are going to make sure he can start reading from the Book of Mormon as soon as possible. He is a wonderful man and I know that our paths crossed for a reason.

We had an Alma and Amulek experience this week too. We contacted a potential investigator named Jeri after an appointment we had with our investigator, Leah. Jeri was moving and seemed a bit frazzled and wasn't open to the idea of having us come over and start teaching. We had a member from the Raleigh 1st ward with us (miracles always happen when you are with members). We decided to be like Alma and Amulek and offer service since she wasn't interested in meeting with us. So we offered to come back and help her move since she had no one except her daughter's family coming to help her move. We came back a few days later with the Jacobsens (member family in R1 ward) and the R1 elders and we were able to help Jeri move. We were also able to help her catch her run away dog! She told us it was helpless. We said no way. We started running and probably ran about 1/2 a mile before we were able to sneak up on the dog and catch him. I basically tackled him. It was gross as he was a very sweaty dog. She was happy to have her four-legged friend back. As we were helping her move, we noticed another man that was there helping her move. We recognized him as a member of the Raleigh 2nd ward. He is a less active that has been working his way back for quite some time. We were very surprised to see him there and asked how he knew Jeri. He told us that he had met her a few weeks previously online and that they had started dating. He told us that when he saw she had a Book of Mormon he knew she was a "keeper". It is a testimony to me that the Lord really is in every detail of our lives. Jeri was surprised that we knew Bro. Shearer as well. After we helped Jeri she told us we were welcome to come back anytime and that she wanted to start learning more about the church. We were so excited that we couldn't keep from smiling! We are going back this week to do some more service and have a lesson afterwards.

We taught YW on Sunday. It was one of the most emotional meetings I've been in. I never cry and I was crying for most of the meeting. We were able to teach the YW about the joy missionary work brings and it brought far too many tears to my eyes. It was a wonderful meeting though. Everyone else was crying too.

Well, I have to go, but I hope you all have the most wonderful week ever! Love you.

Love, Sister J

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Dear family, friends, and favorite people,

Happy Thanksgiving!
Turkey day here was great. It was crazy, but it was great all at the same time.. The Clays had like 10 of their grand-kids over. We locked ourselves in our tiny little room upstairs so we could do our weekly planning...and guess what?! We actually finished it all in one day! We took a break for lunch and played tag with some of the grandkids in the backyard. That made their day. Afterwards we went to the Waldorf/Gandolph family's home for dinner and had a delicious thanksgiving dinner. I love little kids. The Waldorf's daughter, Kaylee is the cutest little girl (besides Ashlyn). Sister Asay and I spent about 2 hours after dinner serenading all their family with "The Sound of Music" and select hymns. It was so much fun. Kaylee and their son Tillman also came and sang with us.
There is a lot to be thankful for. I am thankful for my family; they are the best ever. I am thankful for my health, for all of the wonderful companions I have been blessed with, for all the amazing people I have been able to teach, the Book of Mormon (because it is the most amazing book ever), prophets, etc. The list could go on forever. I realized as I was pondering about all the things we are blessed with that it really comes down to remembering to be thankful to our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. We are forever indebted to him. The scriptures from Mosiah 2 have been going through my mind this whole week (see verses 20-25). I am forever grateful for Jesus Christ. I am thankful for the hope that the Atonement brings and that I have had the privilege of being raised in a home where that knowledge was taught and practiced.

Reshell has officially moved to Durham. :( She said she still wants to meet with missionaries there! I hope it works out okay. We had some great miracles this week.

Here are a couple:

Sister Asay felt impressed to go by an active member of the ward. I was somewhat hesitant, but agreed that we could call her and set up a time to visit her. We had a good lesson with her and by the end of the conversation she was telling us about a mother and son that she had invited to live with her until they can find a place to live. They are not members and they came to church last week. We talked to the sister (Sister Boyd) about asking them if they would like to talk with missionaries. She agreed to do that and we are going to see them this week! Sister Boyd also invited them to the Community Christmas Celebration (aka: Creche. Creche is a word from Greek(?) that means nativity)
Sister Asay and I have seen several "tender mercies" which I believe is in part due to our efforts in asking for referrals from everyone and trying to talk with everyone we see. As we were getting ready to leave church yesterday an older brother in the ward came up to us and told us about his son's family that he wants us to work with. They are less active and their daughter has started opening up some about learning more (she's not a member). We are hoping to set something up with them this week.
The Clay family we live with has really caught the missionary fire as well. Their daughter Joy was telling us about another girl in the ward who invited a couple of friends to meet with missionaries. One of them is getting baptized, but the other isn't....yet. She wants to invite her over and have us teach her to see if she would be more receptive to Sisters. It is exciting!

Well, my time is about ready to expire, but I know this is the Lord's work.

Have a wonderful week! Love y'all!

Love, Sister J

We Are "Elderettes"!

Hello!

I hope you are enjoying the snow. It's just windy and cold here. Today is exactly one month until I become a part-time missionary. :] I think Sister Asay is trunky for me. She tells EVERYONE when I am going home.

We had the craziest week this week. It was so much fun and it went by way too fast.

Last Monday we decided to be a little extreme and we cut our preparation day short so we could have a lesson with Daisy. We had the best lesson with her about fasting and living the word of wisdom. We are going to fast with her next sunday. I am excited for her to experience that. Fasting is such a wonderful way to tap into spiritual power. We dinner with the Pixton family. Their son reminds me a lot of Lance. He is ridiculously tall too. Bro. Pixton (the dad) is about 6'7". They are such a wonderful family. Afterwards went to the Coombs household and had a lesson with Sis. Coombs and "Bro. Bill." Bill told us he doesn't really want to have the lessons anymore which was sad. We had such high hopes for him, but at least we planted a seed! I feel like the song "We are Sowing" is the story of my life...which is fine, but discouraging at times.
I found a really great scripture in Ether during my personal study that morning. It's Ether 12:41. It's so good!

Tuesday was insane. We had an appointment with a man named Donovan at 11 that morning so we met a member at the church to take us there for the lesson. Donovan is less active. He had been wanting to come back to church for a while and thought it was interesting that we just happened to show up on his doorstep one evening. We had a good lesson with him. Sister Evans shared a lot of good things with him. She is a convert and has a really powerful testimony. He told us a really neat story about how his son had texted him that same week and told him that he had decided to start attending the "Mormon church" again. So, it's neat to see how the Lord is working in both of their lives. He was supposed to come to church yesterday, but didn't come. (sigh). It is hard to come back to good things when you have strayed away from them.
When we went back to the church transfer meeting was going on. We ate our lunch in the kitchen and by the time we were finishing up, transfer meeting was over. I got to see Sister Welch and Sister Tillman and a few of the other sisters.
GUESS WHAT?!? Sister Welch told me that the Hudsons (from Dunn) finally have decided to get baptized!!! They are going to get baptized in January. I was so excited! Sister Tillman was telling me about Greenville and I guess they are teaching a girl Sister Joseph and I started teaching named Hawa and she has also worked really hard and wants to get baptized. It is exciting to hear about these people. I am happy for them.
Sister Welch was by herself with all of the elders who were going home (she was the only sister going home) So we asked Pres. and Sister Bernhisel if we could "kidnap" her for the day and go on "exchanges" to an appointment that we had with Reshell. They said that would be fine so we did just that. Reshell was sick so we ended up contacting a few people. We talked to a really nice man named Jose. He didn't speak much english, but we asked him if he would like to learn about Jesus Christ and his face lit up and he said, "Yes!" The spanish elders will now have a good referral to go to. :) Our dinner appointment cancelled so when we took Sister Welch back to the mission home the Bernhisels told us to stay for dinner. We had burritos and laughed ourselves sick. Sister Welch is so funny. I love that girl.

Wednesday was district meeting. The new elder in our district is Elder Waniel. He is from the South Pacific somewhere. (I can't really understand him very well). He is a good elder though. We did a fun district meeting where we were each assigned a topic associated with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we taught about how it applies to us as missionaries, to members, and to investigators. It was fun. We sang a hymn to go with each section so I got a lot of piano playing in! It was great! We had a lesson with a less active named Sister Lybarger afterwards and taught the restoration. She really enjoyed the lesson and gave us pumpkin pie afterwards. We went on exchages with the office sisters afterwards and had no success contacting our backup plans (our original appointment cancelled).

Thursday was great! We had dinner with the Petty family. Their daughter just returned from a mission in Brazil. She a great member missionary now. She brought three nonmembers to dinner. We had a really good lesson with them afterwards. Sister Asay sang and I played the piano and it brought the spirit so strongly and then we testified of Jesus Christ and of prophets and apostles and of the Book of Mormon. We are hoping we can meet with their neighbor, Charles again this week..and we're still working on Sister Petty's unofficial boyfriend, Jared. :]

Friday we went to IHOP with Sister Patrick and her daughter Allison for lunch. I like pancakes. We had a good little lesson with them and then we went and contacted a lot of less active members of the ward that lived in that area. We were able to set up some appointments with some of them and it was a productive afternoon. We had dinner with Sister Donaldson afterwards. I think I'm still full from that meal.

Saturday we stayed busy all day and had a lesson with Shaunti and helped her get organized in her new apartment. We then had a lesson with Sister Falco. The most amazing thing has happened with Sister Falco. I always have some reservations about how things will work out when we promise people blessings for keeping commandments and such. Since Sister Falco has been paying her tithing, she has been incredibly blessed. Her son who lives in Fayetteville had previously estranged her basically, but that morning she received a phone-call from his wife and they talked for a long time and they are going to make plans for the holidays! Sister Falco was so happy and it was neat to see that she recognized that it was Heavenly Father blessing her. We dinner with the Willis family who invited a less active named Sister Barbour over for dinner and then we did a little "music party" afterwards. Sister Willis plays the accordian and her and her husband yodeled for us and their kids did the mexican hat dance too. It was fun and it was really good for Sister Barbour to be there.

Sunday was crazy. It was a taste of Greenville again. We went to three sacraments! We went to the third ward because the Clays were performing a musical number and had invited a non-member friend they wanted us to meet. So, we went. We got to hear from a returned Sister missionary. She served in Mesa, AZ. She gave a great talk and it was by far the best sacrament meeting of the day. A less active member came to church in second ward and he referred to us as elderettes. It made my day.

The church is true and I love you all!

Have a great week!

Love, Sister J

Color Explosion!!!

Dear family and friends,


Well, we received the results of black Saturday and you'll never believe it (actually you probably will)....Sister Asay and I are companions still. Transfer #3. That means I will only have had six companions my entire mission. The only person that is even leaving from our district is Elder Lee.

As usual, I don't have much time to write, but a few highlights from this past week include:

Sister Falco: She is the less active lady we have been working with since we first came to Raleigh. She has come to church every week except for the week her car broke down. We called her this week to see how she was doing and as she answered the phone in a sing-song way she explained to us that she had listened to all of conference again this week and that she had found some talks from Carlos Asay and LeGrand Richards. Look up "Simplicity in Christ" by LeGrand Richards. Sister Falco pulled it up for us and we watched it. Elder Richards is so funny. I don't think it was intended to be as funny as it was, but I love the way he talks and how he phrases things. We then watched Elder Holland's "Safety for the Soul" talk. That one will knock your socks off!

The Relief Society in 2nd ward had a dinner/service activity. It was fun to be with the sisters and help them clean up afterwards.

We had a great lesson with Daisy. It turns out she is a guitar pro! She played us some songs and enjoyed listening to her talent. Our lesson was all about fasting. We are going to fast with her at the end of the month. I really think it will be a big turning point for her. There is so much spiritual power that comes from fasting.

I forgot to mention last week, but I want to mention it now because it was my favorite thing that happened last week! The Wakefield family came to church last week! It was the best thing ever! My favorite part was seeing Bro. Wakefield be able to take the sacrament again. We had a great lesson with them afterwards and Sister Wakefield is praying about the Book of Mormon. We are praying for her too.

We met a man who is less active named Bro. Perkins today. He wants to come back to church. He said he had actually been thinking about that and it was really neat to see how the Lord works on people because just a few days after we stopped by initially his son (who is also a less active member) text him and told him that he wants to start going back to the "mormon church." It's great that the Lord prepares His children is so many ways.

Well, my time is pretty much up. I love you all and hope that you enjoy all the snow. Please make a snowman :)

I know that the Lord prepares His children to hear the gospel. See Alma 16:16.

God bless!

Love,

Sister Johnson

Fall is finally here!

Fall is finally here! The air is crisp and the cold goes straight to your bones. I think I will be permanently cold until next summer. (sigh).

Things went really well this week! We had a delicious dinner with the Wade family on Monday night. They made these delicious orange rolls and their little girl Ausha made us laugh. We also got to meet with a part member family, sister Coombs and her husband whom we affectionately refer to as "brother Bill." (He requested that we call him that haha..) We taught them the last half of the Plan of Salvation. Bill really wants to make sure he is doing everything he needs to in order to make it to "Heaven." He is also very stubborn and likes to stand by his catholic beliefs. It is fun teaching him the gospel. Now he just needs to start coming to church!

We met with a less active on tuesday. Her name is sister Drake. I love sister Drake. She is a riot.  She joined the church about 2 years ago and has been struggling as of late. We went over and she asked us a zillion questions. We mostly just listened and told her about the importance of reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. Going back to the basics so to say. It will be fun working with her more in the future.
We met with Dennis and Reshell afterwards. They are both doing great! Dennis has been working on quitting smoking. He went and bought a whole bunch of smokeless cigarettes (they use water vapor). Reshell was so happy. I think it is so neat to see how the gospel changes people. One of my favorite things is seeing how reading from the Book of Mormon helps a person gain confidence and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and then, they begin to gain confidence and faith in their own selves because they begin to understand their relationship with God. It is the best!
2 ward had their trunk-or-treat in the evening. It was chaos. Mona came! Also another crazy miracle was that Charmaina's kids all came and as they were walking around, a recent convert (Shaunti) saw Shade (Charmaina's daughter) and said hi to her. We asked Shaunti about it and she told us, "Oh yeah. I've known Charmaina and Shade for years! We used to babysit each others' kids." So, that was providential if I do say so myself!

Happy Halloween! Wednesday was a crazy district meeting. We told Elder Masulonis we wanted to do introductions (now that it is the end of the transfer) so we knew who our district members were a little better. He took it to the extreme and made us answer a bunch of ridiculous questions that were totally gentile! (By gentile we mean that it doesn't have anything to do with the gospel. For example, "Who is your favorite Disney character and why?")
The elders all wore the ugliest ties they had since it was Halloween. They really were ugly.
Afterwards we painted pumpkins with Sister Patrick and her daughter, Allison and shared a message about prayer from the ensign. The Savior sets the perfect example of how we should pray in 3 Nephi 19:19-20,23.

We went on exchanges with Sister Hocking on Thursday and visited the sweetest less active lady named Sister Van Riper. She is the most service-oriented person I think I've ever met. She was so sweet.

Friday was fun! We went to Sister Falco (returning less active) and had a pizza party with her. She told us she had been craving pizza so we went and bought one to share with her. Sister Arkell and Sister Burdick, the office sisters came and we had a great time. We also had a bizarre lesson with her. It definitely didn't go as planned, but ended on a high note. :]

Saturday we had coordination with second ward which is always a trip. We have some funny folks in that ward.
We had lunch with less active sister Nachel and her daughter Jessica and afterwards went to Sister Beck's house to get some music for Sister Asay. (She's singing in sacrament next week! I am playing the piano! Yay!)

Sunday was a day I was quite honestly very nervous about. I wasn't sure if I would be an emotional wreck or not. Surprisingly, I was just fine. I still feel fine right now too. I felt very calm and peaceful and I really believe that it was because mom doesn't want us to be sad. She wants us to find joy in life. I love her and I miss her so much. It still hurts, but when it does, I always am comforted. Especially as I read the Book of Mormon. That Book is true.

I love you all!

Have a wonderful week!

Frankenstorm Arrives!

Hurricane Sandy has apparently acquired a nickname, "Frankenstorm."

Luckily, we haven't been affected hardly at all. Mostly just lots of wind and a "fizzy" rain. It's really not that exciting. It could be that we're pretty far inland though.

We had a good week. Lots of people stood us up this week which was disappointing, but it was still a good week. :)

We went and did some shopping around last Monday. We found a Target in our area! I haven't been to Target in over a year.
We found some good deals which was great!

Our investigator, Candy stood us up on Tuesday so we went and stopped by a less active/recent convert family (the Drakes). They are great! Sis. Drake had actually just been talking with Sis. Swift the day before and was talking about how she wanted us to come by and teach the lessons again and then, we show up on her doorstep! So, that went well. We brought her brownies and she told us we were way better than the elders :]  We were able to finally get up with our investigator, Charmaina afterwards as well. In the evening we went and taught the activity day girls in the 2nd ward the restoration with the cups. They all thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.

Wednesday was District Meeting. We discussed the importance of teaching by the spirit. Our district really is hilarious this transfer. They played a game of "ninja" afterwards which was entertaining to say the least. We were also able to have a lesson with Dennis and Reshell and that went great! Dennis asked us before we could ask him about baptism. He asked us "So, if I wanted to...you know...join myself with the church...what exactly would I have to do?" It was so great. We were able to help him understand what was expected of him we set a date for him and Reshell to get baptized on the 24th of Nov.
We took brownies to the Wakefield family (we just started teaching his wife last week). She talked our ears off for a good 20 minutes and all I have to say is that sugary goodness soften hearts.
We had a really good lesson with the Coombs/Freschette family afterwards. They are also a part member family. We taught the first part of the Plan of Salvation and it went very well. Bro. Freschette asked a lot of questions and was really interested in the whole idea of the pre-earth life.

Thursday was insane! We volunteered to teach early morning seminary for the Bishop's wife in the 2nd ward. We are such brown nosers... Teaching early morning seminary entailed that we wake up at 4:30 in the morning to make it on time by 6 am. I can now say I have experienced "real seminary" and I don't think I would have survived living outside of UT. No one fell asleep so that was good! Those youth are so dedicated. We met with Sis. Donaldson in the afternoon. She is doing really well! We also taught her the Plan of Salvation. She didn't remember anything about it so it was a good review and we definitely all left feeling edified. I love the Plan of Salvation. :]
So remember how I told you about Mona who hasn't been interested in meeting with missionaries forever? We called her this week and she actually let us set up a time to meet. She just cancels before our appointment ever happens, but we do have an appointment set up for friday. We are hoping she won't cancel again.

Friday was just everyone and their dog standing us up. Nothing too exciting to report on. We tracted a lot and planted many seeds!

Sunday was very similar. At least Daisy came to church!

The Plan of Salvation is true

My time is up, but I love you all!

Have a wonderful week.

Love, Sister J

Keepin' Busy

Hello!

Hope y'all had a wonderful week!

So last monday was GREAT! we had a wonderful lesson with little miss Daisy at the Wades' home. The Wades are both return missionaries and love, love, love to do missionary work. They have been wanting to have someone taught in their home for the longest time it finally happened! Sister Wade was so happy she was crying (tears of joy of course) almost the entire lesson. We had the most perfect lesson with Daisy. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). Since there were 5 of us, we assigned everyone a topic and had them used the index to look up a few scriptures that they liked about each of the topics. We gave Daisy the topic of baptism and it was so amazing. She found a scripture in Alma 5:62 that is basically an invitation to repent and be baptized. We talked about the verses and she told us that she felt like that verse was speaking right to her and she wanted to get baptized on the 27th. We were like, "Wahoo!" and then we were like, "uh...that's coming up really fast!" The lesson was so powerful and the spirit was incredible there. We talked with Daisy later this week and she told her mom that she wants to get baptized. Her mom still feels like she needs to make sure she knows more before she makes that decision. So, her baptism is postponed for now. She is a spiritual giant though. It is amazing.

We met with our new investigator, Candy last tuesday. She is a funny lady. She was being taught by the elders, but told them she wanted us to teach her instead (mostly because she felt like she could be more open with us than with the elders). We talked about patience and the Word of Wisdom. She has some real struggles there and wants so badly to be baptized, but is having a really difficult time giving up her coffee. She has the desire to do what's right so she should be a lot of fun to teach. :] 
A less active lady named Mona lives like 5 apartments away from Candy. As we were walking the opposite direction to go back to our car I felt like we really needed to go by Mona. We turned around and walked back down. Her car wasn't there so we decided to just leave her a note to tell her we loved her and missed her. As we were finishing up her note to stick on her door, she pulled up! She came down and talked with us on her porch for about 10 minutes. She was so happy to see us. She started to cry because she was so happy. It was amazing because she told us that just the day before she had been praying for help and had even opened her Book of Mormon again to try and find some direction and felt quite in despair. She told us that it didn't matter who had sent us, but she was grateful that we were there and felt like it was a sign that God was mindful of her and loved her. We told her she was right. She still wasn't willing to set up an appointment for us to meet, but she said that we could call and stop by again and maybe she would let us in to teach a little. Progress!
We also met with Reshell and Dennis and had a great lesson on the restoration and the Word of Wisdom. We were a little unsure about how they would receive the Word of Wisdom, but once they understood why it was important, they both agreed to live it and said they felt like this was the right path for them and that they were making the right decisions. Reshell found out she won't be moving for another two weeks which means we can continue to teach her for 2 more weeks! :D
We had dinner with the Beck family (and I usually only mention dinner if it was aboslutely amazing). We had a feast! It was like thanksgiving. Then we ended it all with apple crisp made with freshly picked apples (2 days old) from the Blue Ridge Mountains...where ever those are. It was the best apple crisp. Fresh apples make all the difference. I feel like I had forgotten what a good apple tastes like. Mmm!

Wednesday's district meeting was great! Our district is really great this transfer. There are several elders in our district who have tasteful senses of humor and make district meetings quite entertaining. My favorite one liner was from Elder Gilespie when we were talking about the difference between being bold and overbearing when making commitments. He said, "You shouldn't be sneaky when you extend invitations. It hurts to get hit with the bold stick a whole lot more when you're not expecting it." haha...I wrote that down in my study journal and so did Sis. Asay. We had our weekly lunch/lesson with Sis. Patrick. She made some yummy soup with rolls. We watched the John Tanner Story movie and talked about sacrifice. It was a really nice lesson. We met with Sis. Donaldson who is still not feeling well. Bless her heart. I hope she gets feeling better soon. She has struggled so much. Sister Bernhisel asked us if we would take a 19 year old girl named Hannah on exchanges with us because she wants to serve a mission. She lives in Durham, but she drove down to Raleigh to come with us. We went to dinner and had some scrumptious lasagna with the Fuller family. Bro. Fuller had made it completely from scratch. He loves the food network. lol. We then went to visit with Sis. Falco and also taught her about sacrifice. She is so solid. Her car starter quit working this week and cost her a huge sum of money. She wasn't sure how things were going to work out, but she went ahead and paid her tithing. She is exercising so much faith. It is great to see.

We spent all of friday tracting (and I mean all of friday) for lack of other things to do. No one would respond to our phone calls. So, we decided to park the car and just go and talk to people. Unfortunately, not many people wanted to talk with us. The weather was nice though and we had an enjoyable time talking with the people who actually did engage in conversation with us.

We spent all of Saturday morning helping a recent convert move. She is not the most organized packer so we helped her get things organized. She was about ready to panic. Good thing the ward was there to help her!

Sunday was stake conference. It was jam packed. There were a lot of good talks. Daisy, Reshell, and Dennis all came to church and loved the conference. We had a lesson with a girl named Brooklynn and her parents after church. Brooklynn has been coming to church for almost a year now and loves the church. She asked her parents about meeting with missionaries and they agreed that we could come over. Her parents didn't have any intentions of changing from their Lutheran background, but want Brooklynn to make her own decisions about religion. It was kind of a weird situation because when we asked about a time that we could come back, they asked us what was normal. We told them we would like to come back in a few days. They didn't like that idea. Her mom said they were thinking more like the end of December (that's forever away!). They want Brooklynn to be "educated" about the religion, but said they won't let her make any decisions about joining the church until she is at least 18. She's 17 right now. At least we got to plant some good seeds! :)

We also met with a part member family, the Wakefields. Elder Pace actually referred them to us when we asked him who he knew we could teach in the Raleigh area (he served in Raleigh almost 2 years ago).  We went by one night and they agreed to have us over. We had a great lesson with them. I was so nervous for some reason. Sister Asay and I both felt like we should teach them about the Plan of Salvation. So, we did. Nothing amazing happened, but I guess Sis. Wakefield just needed to know that. We also talked a little about families and gave them copies of The Family: A Proclamation to the World. They want us to come back...so that's a good sign! I hope things will progress with them. Bro. Wakefield is very nice. He loves the church. Just got out of the habit of going.

I read an ensign article today that talked about the importance of looking up to the Lord to know how we are doing and not looking sideways to see how other people think we are doing in our progress of life. I learned that we aren't supposed to be pleasing other people; we only need to be concerned with pleasing the Lord. If we keep our eyes focused on Him, everything will work together for our good in His time.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Read the Book of Mormon! It's the best book ever! (seriously!)

Love,
Sister J

So Many Blessings

Dearest Family, friends, etc,

Hello! The leaves are changing and are ridiculously vibrant. It is so pretty.

I am so tired today. Our fire alarm decided to give up the ghost last night around 10:45 and would not hush up even after we took the batteries out! We finally mustered up the courage to go ask Sis. Clay to help us find some batteries and we finally had it fixed sometime after 11. I'm not sure how this incident is supposed to play a part in the Lord's plan, but I guess everything happens for a reason. :)

We had the best week EVER! There were so many good things that happened this week. The Lord is definitely in the details of our lives.
We had a really good lesson with Daisy last Monday on the 10 commandments. We read from Mosiah 12 and 13 and discussed them. Daisy is just amazing. She is in 2 Nephi now and she is reading the New Testament as well for seminary. She told us that she talked with her mom and we are going to be meeting with her tonight! Also, they both came to a fireside last night that was at the mission home. It was incredible. The fireside was for recent converts and investigators and basically, they just had some recent converts bear testimony of the Book of Mormon and how they were introduced to the church. There was such a special spirit there. I was so glad her mom was able to come with her. Daisy loved the fireside too. So, things are going really well there. I hope they will continue.

We got a call Monday night from Charmaina (investigator) who informed us that her daughter Shade (pronounced Sha-day) got hit by a truck earlier in the evening and was in the hospital. Naturally, we were excessively concerned about them. The relief society definitely fulfilled their purpose and offered necessary assistance to Charmaina and her family. Shade is home, but has some broken bones in her back and a LOT of road rash. Poor thing. She told us she is bed-bound for the next three weeks. We were talking with Sis. Swift, the WML wife who introduced Charmaina to the church originally and she told us that Shade was planning on going to YW the following night and then she said, "Satan definitely went below the belt with Shade." I would have to agree. It made me smile that she said that though.

Tuesday we contacted a zillion referrals which was great! Unfortunate for them, they did not choose to accept our invitation to learn more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and how it can bless their lives (sigh). We did get to visit with less active, Sis. Edmonson. We helped her vacuum and sweep her floor and shared some scriptures with her. She came to church yesterday too! We had dinner with the Whitt family and ate giant red velvet cupcakes that were seriously the size of my face. Afterwards we had a great lesson with Sis. Huber (less active) about obedience and read from 1 Nephi 16 and Mosiah 2:41 and Ether 12:27. It was such a good lesson! She then informed us that she would be bringing her boyfriend and kids to church on Sunday. We had no idea she even had a boyfriend. It was great though! They all came to church on Sunday. We were stuck in 1st ward's ward council meeting during 2nd ward's gospel principles class so we didn't get to meet them which was sad, but it was great to see that Sis. Huber is sharing the gospel and that her testimony is growing. We're doing our job!

Wednesday we had lunch with one of my favorite people, Sis. Patrick. She is so great. She made this delicious chili. Sis. Asay thought it was gross. I loved it. It had carrots, green peppers, onions, tomatoes, beans, etc in it and just made me so happy. I love vegetables!  After sharing a message with her about General Conference we proceeded with a crazy afternoon. We met with recent convert, Sis. Donaldson. She has been very sick. She wasn't feeling particularly well when we were over there, but we had a nice lesson with her and discussed some of the things we learned from conference. After we had dinner, we went to see recent convert, Sis. Smith who was blasting Christmas music when we got to her apartment. She LOVED conference and printed off basically every talk. It was so funny.

We had zone training on Thursday which was definitely an answer to many prayers. We focused a lot on finding and how to involve members. It was just another testimony to me that the Lord really is in the details of our lives. Sis. Asay and I came up with a lot of creative ways to find last week after having a rather slow week (that is an understatement by the way) and as we have been applying those things this week the most amazing thing has happened! We have been led to those who are prepared to hear the gospel. I feel like the Lord recognizes when we are doing our best and He shows that He trusts us to teach people the more we do everything we can to further the work. We had a fulfilling evening by going to the RS homemaking activity for the 2nd ward which was called, "Making Pies and Missionary Moments." We talked to the sisters about Pres. Uchtdorf's talk called, "Lift Where You Stand" and read from Alma 8 and talked about ways they could "lift where they stand" to share the gospel. The pie was delicious too. There are some good pie makers here. I especially enjoy the pecan (PEE-can) pie here. It is now my favorite pie.

Thursday was madness. We had a great lesson with the less active Gonzalez family and taught the restoration to them. Sis. Gonzalez told us as we were leaving that she really enjoyed the lesson. Now we just need to figure out how to help them come to church! We went contacting afterwards and talked to several people. People are so funny. We tried to help a lady wash out her flower pots, but she insisted that we just keep moving along our way. We left a mormon.org card for her anyways. :]
We had a great lesson with our investigator Reshell. Reshell has been listening to her Book of Mormon on CD that we gave her diligently. It has been so neat to see how she has changed. She is so happy now! I love that the Book of Mormon can help people find peace and happiness in life. BUT the miracle was this: when we went over to Reshell's, her boyfriend (whom we also were not aware existed) was there. His name is Dennis. He had a roommate a year or so ago who had met with missionaries when he was living in New York. Dennis said he had sat in on the lessons, but didn't remember much. We taught the Plan of Salvation and they both participated, asked great questions, etc. It was fun. We invited Dennis to church and he initially declined, but then as we were leaving he said, "you know, I think I would like to come to church." So, we found a ride for the two of them and they came to church yesterday! A member told us that he had asked Dennis about his experience at church. Dennis told him he loved it and would definitely be back! We found out that Reshell is moving to Durham. :( At least the missionaries there will have someone amazing to teach!
We then had dinner with Bro. Lopez, the Ehrismans, and the Moores and a Mexican restaurant with giant burritos. I ate the whole thing. It was delicious. We also met with Sis. Falco afterwards and had a great lesson with her. I love her so much!

Saturday and Sunday were great. Church was super busy. We went to the fireside on Sunday night and it was such a neat experience. It's amazing how people find the gospel.

The church is true.

I love you all!

Love, Sis J

Witnessing History

Hello dear family and friends!

It is officially October weather here in NC. We finally had a cold-snap! It is enjoyable. I think it would be more enjoyable if I wasn't in a skirt. :]

I hope you all had an enjoyable conference weekend and that you were able to learn much from the speakers. It was definitely a spiritual feast. I learned SO much. I can't believe they changed the ages for missionaries! That is so exciting! It was pretty hilarious to see the crowd's reaction when Pres. Monson announced that. We just witnessed history! Lance can go when he's 18 now!
Elder Lee heard a rumor last year that they were going to change elders' length of time back to three years and he told us afterwards that he thought for sure when Pres. Monson was talking about change and missionary work that they were changing it back. He said he was bracing himself when Pres. Monson was speaking. He's only been out 12 weeks. I would be nervous about that too. LOL!!!
I thought it would be appropriate to share a few insights and thoughts from conference:
"Life is not a race. It is a journey. Enjoy the moment!" Pres. Uchtdorf
"Anything essential is only visible to the heart. It is invisible to the eyes." Pres. Uchtdorf and Elder Gonzalez (they both used the same quote!)
From Elder Eyring's talk about removing the pavilions we have I pondered the question of what pavilions I may have that are preventing me from doing the Lord's will.
Elder Eyring also had a great quote about how we should "come to know the Lord as well as He knows us" (I am paraphrasing because I grabbed the wrong notebook and therefore cannot remember all of the things I learned from conference. :/ )
Do we have grime our the walls of our soul or are there squares in the windows that aren't quite in line within the windows of our soul?
"Are you willing to sell your soul for a nickel?" -Elder Gay
Take an inventory of your life and look for the blessings; great and small that the Lord has given you -Pres. Monson
There were a lot of other things that were so great from conference. It's a shame I grabbed the wrong study journal. (sigh).
My two favorite talks were Elder Ballard's about bees and doing service and Elder Bednar's (of course) and the connection between testimony and conversion. I can't wait until we get the ensign!

This week was another trying week in the aspect of missionary work in Raleigh. It's a good thing we had general  conference. It always comes right when I need it most. All of our appointments with investigators fell through. Daisy's mom doesn't want her out so much, Reshell was sick, Dale stood us up, and Charmaina was working crazy hours. Lehi knew what he was talking about when he said that there is opposition in all things!

There were a lot of really tender moments this week as well though. Last Monday Sis. Jacobson whom I adore took us to William B. Umstead park. The Fuquay Sisters went with us and we had a great time hiking through the trees. It was so peaceful (besides the occasional airplane that would fly. The park is literally right next door the RDU airport.) We had a great time though. Our appointment for the evening stood us up so we went home and did some area book updating since it was dark and we are not allowed to proselyte after dark.

Tuesday was a lot of fun. We went to see Dale who also stood us up. Sister Epps came with us. She is a fire cracker! Dale's aunt was home and sister epps got us in the door, set up a return appointment, and invited her to church. She is a great missionary. We went to visit less active Sister Bennett afterwards. She is a great seamstress and had a whole room of theater clothing that she has sewed. It was absolutely amazing! We had dinner with the Thaxtons afterwards. Bro. Thaxton served his mission here. He had a lot of funny stories. It was fun talking to someone who had served here previously.

We lunch with Sis. Patrick on Wednesday. She is the best person ever! She is also a great member missionary. She is going to invite one of friends over the next time we come and hopefully it will be a good result. We had a tender moment with less active Sis. Falco on that evening. Sis. Falco is a lady we have been working with for several weeks now. She has been less active for quite a while, but once we invited her to change a few things, she did it! She told us her feats of the week when we met with her and she was so excited! She is working towards getting her temple recommend again and thanked us for coming. She told us she didn't think she could have come back on her own accord if we wouldn't have come. I am grateful we get to act as the Lord's representatives and invite people to come back and change their lives. It is so rewarding.

General Conference weekend was insane. The Clements family had us over for waffles in the morning. We made a variety of waffles which included: chocolate chip, bacon and cheese (weird, right? well, it tastes good!), and banana. I absolutely LOVED the banana waffles. They were so good. They are hands down my favorite kind of waffle now. We went to the church and watched all of the sessions there except the last session on Sunday. We headed over the the Henderson's home in first ward and watched it there. I discovered that I prefer watching conference in the church building. I am less inclined to feel the temptation to fall asleep. :]

The church is true. I love you all and I am so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope we can all continue to develop and strengthen our testimonies and conversions of the gospel as we ponder the words of the prophets and apostles from this past conference and study from the scriptures. They will tell us "all things what [we] should do" (2 Nephi 32:3)

Have a wonderful week!


Love, Sister J

I'm Drowning In Missionary Work!!!

Hello! Happy October! It looks like the leaves are turning all sorts of gorgeous colors out west. Thank you for the pictures.
They are just starting to turn here. I am really looking forward to seeing them in full swing this year. Raleigh has so many trees. It is really a beautiful place.

This week was nothing short of completely and utterly insane. We were up to our eyeballs in missionary work. We had a zillion appointments this week. All with less actives and recent converts.It was great! I loved it!

Sis. Wilson was with us for the majority of the week. It was fun teaching in a trio again. I think it helped us to find more balance in our teaching.

Since my time is going faster than I can keep track of, I will give a brief overview of the highlights of the week:

Zone Leader/District Leader council was this past Friday. It was amazing! A few things that I learned:
*Observe to identify needs of investigators and members. Pres. Bernhisel called this "living the higher law." Sis. Asay and I have been trying to do a better job of that this week. It is a lot of fun!
*We had a few people from the department of proselyting or something like that. Bro. Watson gave a great lesson on what our purpose is and what it means. Bringing people unto Christ means helping them, assisting them, guiding them, etc. It also simply means that we help people make and keep covenants with God. He talked about incorporating the Doctrine of Christ into everything. I felt like what he taught was one of those 'puzzle pieces' that you just can't seem to find the right place for and then you finally get it! He told us to consider asking these questions after a lesson:
What evidence is there that (insert name of person)'s faith is increasing?
What evidence is there that they are repenting?
What evidence is there that they are working towards making/keeping their baptismal covenants?
What evidence is there that the spirit was present?
What evidence is there that they are eduring to the end? (i.e. working towards going to the temple, etc)
*Bro Wade also spoke. He is from Fruit Heights. He told us that if we ask for referrals we better follow up with them because it would be better that we had never asked if we aren't making plans to follow up.
There were so many great things that we learned from that! It's been fun to try and apply as many of the things as we can in our lessons.

All of our appointments with our investigators fell through this week. :( It was frustrating. We were able to stay in contact with them all though and Reshell and Daisy both made it to church yesterday! It is neat to see people change. We definitely stayed plenty busy with all of the less actives and recent converts we are teaching.

We took Sis. Wilson back to Fuquay on Saturday so she could stay with her companion until her companion goes home tomorrow. We met the family they live with, the Measoms. They are a great family. Fuquay is a lot like Dunn. It is a good balance of country and city. I decided I missed all of the tobacco and cotton fields! There aren't any of those in these parts of the woods!

We were able to schedule a time to meet with Charmaina and her family! (she was the referral from Bro. Swift, our ward mission leader in the R2 ward). I am excited to teach them about the gospel and how it can bless them. There are so many blessings that come from the gospel. It is amazing.

The relief society broadcast was wonderful as always. Sis. Asay was crying through the whole thing. I was kind of worried. She is okay though. :) Just being a typical sister missionary. It was definitely an incredible broadcast. I am looking forward to reading it when the ensign comes! Don't forget to prepare to here the prophet speak this week!
Here's a link that can help you find ideas of how to prepare for conference:
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/prepare-for?lang=eng

I love you all and I know that the prophet speaks for God and that if we listen to and follow his direction we will be blessed and we will 'prosper in the land.'


Love y'all!

Love,
Sister J

Training Meeting, Temple, Trio, Tornadoes, and a Trip to the Baldwin Estate

Dearest family and loved ones,

Hello! I hope y'all have had a wonderful week and that you are enjoying the cooler weather (?) Hopefully it is cooling off. I hear it was similar to an oven this summer in the western states.

We had a crazy crazy week! Everything was backwards and upside down. We had district meeting on Monday due to the temple trip which was taking place on Wednesday for the elders. We did 2 hours of preparation day after district meeting (hence, the letter you received last week). District meeting was fantastic. We talked about how we can help investigators come to church and why it is so difficult for them to attend church. We read the sabbath day holy section in PMG and then talked about faith and collateral again. It was great! Members are so important in helping their friends come to church. One thing I've learned a lot recently is that being a disciple of Christ and helping those who are striving to receive the restored gospel doesn't end when they are baptized. We are still expected to love them and treat them the way we would our dearest friends. Sometimes we forget that.
We met with our little investigator, Daisy in the evening and taught her the plan of salvation. She absolutely looooved it! She kept telling us about how it just made so much sense and liked that with the three kingdoms, it does not just end with heaven or hell...the way most of the world views life after death, but that there is more.
We met with a darling older lady named Vyrettie afterwards. She joined the church several years ago, had a stroke, feels frustrated that she can't do anything on her own now and wouldn't accept our numerous offers to help in someway. Some people are so stubborn! Hopefully she'll soften her heart and allow the ward to help her.

We had the BEST training meeting EVER on Tuesday. It was specifically for trainers and their trainees. Elder Brewer gave an amazing lesson on teaching the restoration. He showed us that we are supposed to teach the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Not the message of the restoration of the priesthood or anything else. He used some scriptures from 2 Nephi 31:17-21 and explained that Nephi who was a prophet told us that this is the ONLY way we can return to live with God. It was a nice rebuke. :] We split up afterwards and the trainers went and had a discussion and the trainees had a discussion with the Bernhisels. Elder Brewer opened up the discussion and asked if we had any questions about training. The top two questions? "How do you help your investigator stay awake during personal study?" and "How do you help them overcome homesickness?" We all gave input. My favorite was when we were addressing homesickness. The elders were throwing comments out there like, "just tell them to suck it up" "tell them that we shouldn't talk about it and then it will get better." I suggested that they tell their companion that they knew they had a purpose in being here and that there wasn't a better place for them to be that here. The room went completely quiet. Then after some more silence Elder Brewer says, "Well, we wouldn't have figured that out our own."
Pres. Bernhisel gave a great lesson about how what "astonished" the people more than anything that Jesus Christ taught them. It was his doctrine! (Look up "astonished" in the topical guide)
We met with Reshell on Tuesday and she is doing really well. She cannot read very well so we are going to get the Book of Mormon on CD for her. We asked her how she has felt since she has been meeting with missionaries. She told us that she has noticed a big difference. She explained the peace that she felt now and that she didn't get angry and frustrated as easily. It was great to hear. I am so excited for her. She is such a sweet young lady.

We were temporarily displaced from the Clays this week. They had a wedding and had oodles of family coming into town so, we moved to the Baldwin Estate mansion and lived with a very sweet lady named Sis. Baldwin. Her house is HUGE! I felt like I was in Beauty and the Beast or something. We stayed there until last night and then we were able to return to the Clay residence. A giant rainstorm came through this week. It was like a flash flood. We were out walking around when it decided to dump buckets. Apparently there were toranado warnings. Good thing they were only warnings! :D

Friday we made our trip to the temple and had a great session. Sis.Harper took us and we had a grand time. I was able to receive some good personal revelation on how to prioritize everything. As of late, I feel like I've been drowning in everything there is to accomplish and all the expectations that members have for us and assignments they give us. I came away feeling very much relieved and renewed. It was fantastic! I was able to talk with Sis. Welch and the Bunker family (family with the giant dog that thinks it's a human)  that we started teach is getting baptized next week! Woohoo!!! I love miracles...and the gospel that changes people's lives.

We had dinner at the church on Saturday. They were doing an Italian night. It was enjoyable. I think the bread wasn't cooked all the way though. It was kind of doughy. All of the youth looked hilarious with their fake mustaches. :{D
We met with the less active Gonzalez family. They wanted to talk about Mitt Romney. I did not. They thought that the church supported Mitt Romney and that we were giving him donations, etc. At least we were able to clear that up. :]  They are such a sweet family though. They really want to get back on track with things and align their will with God's.

Sunday was the primary program for the R2 and R3 wards. It was half spanish and half english. Completely hilarious. I think my favorite was when a couple of the older girls got up to sing "i'm trying to be like Jesus." They go up to the microphone and one of them whispers (really loudly) "wow. this is really scary." Then as they were singing, one of the girls kept singing really high and then she would sing a nice tenor part. I was crying by the end from trying to suppress laughter. After church we got a phone call from Pres. Bernhisel and he informed us that Sis. Wilson would be coming to stay with us for a while. (Trio AGAIN). So, we are in a trio again...and I am with one of my former comps...again. It is great. I love Sis. Wilson so much. She is such a great person. She has a special spirit about her.

We packed our bags last night and moved back with the Clays. Hopefully we will be able to move into our area someday...in the near future and not have to be house-hoppers anymore. :)

It was a good week overall.
I hope y'all have a wonderful upcoming week! Enjoy the fall colors. Don't forget to prepare for General Conference coming up in a few weeks! (read Mosiah 2:5-9)

The Church is true. Try it and test it for yourself. Do it frequently and I know you will be blessed and feel your testimony strengthen.

I love you all so much!

Loves!

Sister J

Where Have You Gone, Time?

Dearest family and friends,

The weather has taken a turn for the better here! We've been enjoying 70's and 80's this whole week and it has been splendid!

The work is going splendid as well. :]

We had dinner with an 80 something year old lady on Monday evening. Old people are so funny. Sis. Stroud was a hoot. She knows where Deep Run is too! In fact, she's related to people out there. We shared a message on the Atonement with her after dinner. She piped up at the end of our conversation, "you girls must really have to tone your beauty down when you become missionaries." Then she said something about how our hair wasn't very flattering. Sister Asay just had this blank stare of "What did you just say?" on her face. It took me a few seconds to process. I was about to bust up laughing, but just smiled and nodded. I think we'll just assume that it was because she didn't have her glasses on. :]
We went to teach miss Daisy afterwards. We had a great lesson with her on the restoration and used the cups to teach her about priesthood authority. We invited her to be baptized and the spirit was SO strong! She wants to, but doesn't feel ready and her parents aren't so sure that she is ready to make that big of a commitment quite yet. She is a scripture reading fanatic and is up to 1 Nephi 10. She is amazing.

We had a crazy situation on Tuesday. One of the sisters in the mission, Sister Baldy has been really sick so she came to stay with us on Tuesday until her flight the next day. She has fibromyalgia or something like that and was really struggling. I think Heavenly Father knew that and all of our appointments for the evening cancelled so we were able to have dinner with the Hubers who talked our ears off and then we went home and did area book stuff. Sister Baldy is a trooper. She is so sweet and really knows how to trust the Lord. I'm glad we got to serve together for 24 hours. :)

Wednesday I got up early and ran on the Clay's treadmill while Sis. Baldy and Sis. Asay took showers. It felt good to push myself. We went to the mission home at 8 am. Traffic in Raleigh pre-8am is INSANE. I am glad we don't normally drive at that time of day. We had breakfast with the Bernhisels, the Assistants, and another elder who was going home for medical leave. One of the elders who was there had served in Raleigh before so he gave us a bunch of referrals! Yes! After breakfast we went to district meeting which was on all about prayer. My favorite scripture that everyone probably knows is Alma 37:36-37. It's a great one for receiving some personal revelation. This talk is also really great for learning more about prayer: http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2008/10/pray-always?lang=eng&query=prayer+%28name%3a%22David+A.+Bednar%22%29
When Elder Holland came he told us, "Prayer helps us to see the dimensions of our soul." I have been pondering quite a bit about how prayer can help us to see these other dimensions and what we need to do to see all the dimensions of our soul. When I figure it out, I'll let you know. :D
We had a good lesson with Sis. Donaldson in the afternoon. We read Enos with her and we wanted to ask her about how she knew that the Book of Mormon was true. It was like she read our mind or something because before we even got to that she brought her journal out and read to us her experience of when she received a witness that the Book of Mormon was true. It was so good. She definitely has a rock solid testimony of the Book of Mormon. We then had dinner with the 2nd ward Bishop and his family. It was divine! They are a very sweet family. Afterwards we went to visit less active Sis. Huber. We had a pretty good lesson with her about how the Lord will strengthen us in our hard times and then it somehow shifted to forgiveness. It was something she really needed though. So, I guess that's all that matters!

We went on exchanges with Sister Bernhisel on Thursday! It was a lot of fun. We went to see less active Sis. Falco and had a super great lesson on tithing and faith and Sister Bernhisel was able to bear her testimony about tithing. Sis. Falco fell down the stairs, but still came to church! She is such a cute and diligent little lady.
We also went to see our investigator, Dale..whose name is actually Cham. (the one who told us he could be his own prophet and that his whole life is a prayer and therefore, he doesn't need to pray out loud.) We had an amazing lesson with him and we were able to teach a lot of the restoration and focused a lot on him learning for himself to know whether or not the Book of Mormon is true. It went incredibly well. He even prayed at the end! We're making progress! We had dinner at a really yummy italian restaurant with sister Evans and she talked our ears off about how she joined the church. It was a great story. She went through a lot to be where she is today.

We have discovered that 2/3 of our investigators have alias names. We met with "Michelle" on friday. We discovered at church on Sunday that her name is actually Reshell and she just didn't correct us because everyone gets her name wrong. lol. We had a great lesson with her on Friday and she invited her friend, Amy to sit in on the lesson as well. Sis. Wade came with us. I love love love Sis. Wade. She is amazing. We talked to them about doing missionary work a few weeks ago and miracles are happening all over the place now! Sis. Wade talked to her friend across the street about getting together and when they swapped numbers her friend noticed that she had a Utah number. Sis. Wade was surprised she knew the area code and as it turns out, Sis. Wade's neighbor's best friend is from Ogden UT. Raised in the church, but not active. So, Sis. Wade is going to try to get all three of them together to have lunch or something. I am so excited for her!

We went and did some service for recent convert, Shaunti on Saturday. We cleaned out a closet for her and in the process found 4 baptism jumpers. Shaunti response, "Oh yeah. I wondered where those ended up." She is a funny woman. The Swift family had a miracle in doing missionary work as well. They had been looking for a missionary opportunity and as it turned out, their neighbor came and asked them what church they went to because she saw them go to church every week. Bro. Swift told her a little about the church and invited her to have us come over and share more. We went and met her daughter who is really excited to come to church and is looking forward to meeting with us this week.

Church was good. Reshell was able to come for gospel principles and relief society. The ward swarmed her with welcomes and love and everything else you could ever hope a ward would do. We finally were able to do weekly planning on Sunday. (It was the only day we didn't have appointments going all day). We had dinner with the Clays and it was a good way to end the week.

I can't believe September is already half over. (AH!) It is insane how fast time flies.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. The church is true. It has God's authority.

Love,

Sister J

Happy Birthday, Momma!

Hello dearest family and friends!

So, my time is quickly ticking away today so I will briefly summarize. More so than I already do. :]

Monday=great. We had a great lesson with a 14 year old girl named Daisy. She is friends with a member in the 1st ward and get this, she goes to early morning seminary. EVERY morning! I don't know if I was even that dedicated in high school. She is an amazing young lady though. She understands a lot about the gospel and it is a lot of fun teaching her. We are going to teach her the restoration tonight with the cups. It is such a fun lesson and I am SO excited! We also had the pleasure of meeting with Sis. Coombs on monday. Her husband isn't a member. We weren't really planning on teaching him because she said she didn't want us to push or do anything with him, but he ended up sitting in on the lessons. He is super great as well. Sis. Coombs is very active in the church and does a lot of family history and her husband is very supportive. He doesn't know much about the church, but is willing to read and pray "at his own pace." I believe the Lord will set the pace for him. :)

Tuesday was wonderful as well. I witnessed a great miracle! I forgot to fill up my water bottle before we left home in the morning and by mid-afternoon I was parched. We don't have a key to the church building yet and no one seemed to be home or willing to let us talk to them. So, as I was dying of thirst I asked Heavenly Father to please provide a way that we could get some water. We stopped by the church in hopes of it being open. Unfortunately it wasn't open, but Sis. Asay spotted a water bottle in the middle of the parking lot. She jokingly suggested that I could take that water bottle. I laughed and told her no, but upon closer examination we discovered that the water bottle wasn't opened! I could hardly believe my eyes. Yes, it was very hot water, but regardless, it was water. It was like manna from heaven! So, that was the miracle of the day.
We had a great lesson with Sis. Donaldson about patriarchal blessings. She is excited to prepare and receive her patriarchal blessing.

Wednesday was crazy. We had so many appointments. It was wonderful to be so busy. Our RS president from the 2nd ward came out with us and we were able to teach a man named Dale. He is from Zimbabwe and his dad is a member. He is very opinionated and said things like "I can be my own prophet." "I don't need to go to church to feel the spirit of the Lord." It was a challenge, but I guess we'll see what happens with it.
We met with Shaunti, a recent convert in the 2nd ward. Her little girl, Georgiana is hilarious. She is 8 years old and a firecracker.  Someone knocked on the door while we were there and she goes and answers the door and says, "We can't talk to you right now. We're talking with the Mormons." Haha... Then she proceeded to close the door. Shaunti is a great lady. I don't know how she does everything she does and maintains a positive outlook. She is raising 3 girls all on her own and barely has enough to scrape by. She knows the gospel blesses her family though and that is a great blessing for her.

Thursday we had coordination for a LONG time. It was good though. That was about the only thing that happened on Thursday. We discussed the importance of taking care of the individuals God has entrusted into our care and that He will not give us more if we aren't taking care of what He has already given us. I just so happened to read Acts 2 this week and it goes right along with that.

Friday we had district meeting and interviews. The church building is always so cold! I thought I would turn into a popcicle while we were there. Regardless of the cold, we had a good lesson from Elder Masulonis (not sure on the spelling...) about receiving revelation through prayer were spiritually warmed and fed. Prayer is so important for a person to understand their relationship with their Creator and to build their faith (see Alma 34:17).
We met with less active Sis. Andujar. She mostly talked at us. Bless her heart. She has a lot going on in her life right now. Luckily we were able to squeeze in a few words here and there. I hope she took something away from all of that. We also met with Sis. Falco. She is funny as ever. We figured out which car was hers based on the stickers which said things like "muggle smuggling wizards" or something along those lines. I love Sis. Falco. She is such a sweet lady. She came to church again this week too! Yay! We had dinner with the Heltons as well and had this delcious quinoa chicken soup. It was really yummy. Sis. Helton served a mission in Japan and told us so pretty funny stories about tracting in Typhoons. I am thankful to be in the USofA. That's for sure.

Saturday we went back to Shaunti's to help her wash her walls. She is trying to move and needed some help to get things organized. We were able to have a good conversation with her about putting our trust in God whilst washing her many walls. (I could hardly turn my head on Sunday due to muscle soreness. I am out of shape x 10!) Georgiana was blasting the Flintstones the entire time. I was grateful for silence once we left.

Sunday was definitely a miracle day as well. We had Sis. Reeves visit us from the General RS presidency. (It might the primary presidency.) She gave a wonderful talk in Sacrament meeting. I felt like that was exactly what I needed to hear. It was like the spirit had whispered directly to her the words I needed to hear. She spoke of her 17 year old daughter who had passed away 7 years ago and how she knew that the veil was so thin and that her daughter was aware of them and how the Lord gives us trials to chisel us into the people we need to become and that in the end, all the things we endure here will not matter. Just as long as we make it back with our Father in Heaven, that is what will matter in the end. It was so helpful and brought so much peace to my mind. I am thankful that she was directed by the spirit on what to say in that meeting. I know that mom and a lot of other people who are on the other side are assisting us and helping the missionary work here in NC. They have to be.
We had a wonderful lesson with a referral who called and wanted to learn more about the church. Her name is Michelle. She wants to come closer to God and wants to turn her life around. She also wants to get baptized! Yay!

Good things happen everyday. Today is mom's birthday. I think of her everyday and think about how great of a lady she was. I miss her a lot, but I know we will see each other again. I know that she is busy sharing the gospel with a whole bunch of people and I am grateful for the restoration of the gospel that brings clarity and understanding to things like the after life. The church is definitely true.

Have a wonderful week! Keep pressing forward and don't forget to find joy in the journey!

Love,

Sister Johnson

Happy Labor Day 2012

I hope y'all had a good Labor Day! We did. It was actually a very relaxing preparation day. We finished doing grocery stuff, came home, wrote some letters, played the piano (the Clays have a piano...and it is the best thing ever!), took a nap and accomplished everything we intended to accomplish that day. It was nice.

Last preparation day was a different story. We were still trying to figure everything out and it ended up being a very long day. We had dinner with the Hockings and ate salmon. If I am not mistaken, that is the first time I've had fish since I've been in NC. I have missed my fish. We were able to talk about the sisters of the ward with her. I really like Sister Hocking. She is a great lady. Afterwards, we did some contacting and called it a day.

Tuesday was a day of  miracles. We went to contact some referrals. One made it very clear they were not interested in learning more. It was pretty traumatic for Sis. Asay. I wanted to leave that area, but we both felt like we needed to try a couple of other houses before we left. So, we did and we were able to talk to a couple of individuals who were interested in learning more! The first one was a man named Rich. He just moved here from Pennsylvania and expressed quite a bit of interest in learning more. As we were walking to the next house we wanted to go to, a little boy on his tricycle came flying down the giant hill where we were at and ran into a garbage can. It was pretty hilarious and I wondered if he was hurt at all, but he emerged from the garbage can and started running up to the hill again. We said hi to him and he told us his name was Joey. I think he was probably 3 or 4 years old. We knocked on a few other houses and as we were getting ready to leave Joey stopped us and told us to knock on a door. We asked him if he knew who lived there. He told us his girlfriend lived there...haha...So, we knocked on the door and a man named Antwan answered the door. We introduced ourselves and he said, "Hm. I just got saved on Sunday. That's really odd that y'all show up today." So, we were able to talk to him for a while and he wants to learn more because he thinks that us showing up was a sign from God. He wants to get baptized too! And, he was actually just visiting his brother who lives there so he isn't in our area, but the elders will get to teach him! :D We told him about Joey. He said there weren't any ladies in the house...lol. I think Joey was just inspired to tell us to go there.
We had a great lesson with Sis. Donaldson who was recently baptized a few months ago. Her health isn't the best, but she has a strong testimony of the gospel. It is really neat. We also met with Sis. Falco. She is obsessed with Harry Potter and Harry Potter legos. It was really funny. She has all of Hogwarts and that town they go to (can't remember the name...) set up in her apartment. We had a great lesson with her and brought recent convert of 2 weeks, Sis. Gibson along with us.

Wednesday we had a zone meeting with all of the elders. Sis Asay and I got to share a message on the doctrine of Christ.It went well. We had a miracle when we went to contact a less active later that day. We went to this apartment complex and as we were getting out of the car we saw an older lady who was struggling to get her groceries and her wheel-chair situated. We offered to help her and and she allowed us to help her. She then invited us to share more with her about the church. We squeezed that in where we could. She likes to talk a lot. Her name is Virginia. She wants to learn more about the church and I am excited to see how things go.
We discovered on Wednesday night why it is so difficult to see at night whilst driving. I have been having a MAJOR blonde moment and I have been driving with the low-lights on instead of the regular lights for a whole week. I thought the regular lights were the brights. After further investigation on our way home, we discovered that it was user error. :) Hahaha...oh my gracious. I love life.

I was just happy when Thursday was over. We definitely overbooked our schedule and I felt like hyperventilating the whole evening because we were just constantly running behind. Lesson learned. Plan wisely. Sometimes I wish I could just take on the whole world. Sometimes I think that I can. It definitely backfires every time.

We met with former investigator, Lisa on friday night. She was one of our last stops and told us she knew that God had sent us her direction. She wants to start coming back to church, etc. I am really excited for her! She has had a rough past.

Saturday we had Sis. Arkell and Sis. Burdick (the senior sisters who work at the office here in Raleigh) came on exchanges with us. We had a great lesson with a less active named Sis. Huber. She wants to come back to church and by the end of the lesson she agreed to come to church the next day. I love seeing how the gospel changes lives. She looked so happy when we saw her at church.
We also got to go to a baptism in the 2nd ward. They couldn't find a pianist so they asked if we could come. So, we were able to go. I'm guessing Bro. Clements probably sent the picture that he took of all of us there.

We had a great turn out of less actives coming to church. It was great to see them. One of them came even though she felt nauseous and hadn't slept in like 30 something hours. I was proud of her. I'm pretty sure Heavenly Father was too. Fast and testimony meeting was really good. There is a dear old man in the 2nd ward who bore his testimony about a 9 hour silent film. I'm not sure where he was going with it really, but his actual testimony was very good. Our plans for the evening fell through, but we had dinner with the Clays. They are a funny bunch. We were laughing so hard a couple of times I thought I might break a rib.
One other miracle that happened this week was after we finished dinner, we noticed our ward mission leader from first ward, Bro. Henderson had called and had left a message. Apparently a lady named Michelle had called him after talking to another member and wants to learn more and come to church. He gave us her info, we called her and she is excited to meet with us this coming Sunday. I love miracles! When you put good in, you get good out.

I hope everything is going well for everyone. I heard about Katie's baby and my prayers go out to the Branch family.
I know God's plan is much vaster than what we can see with our finite minds. Sometimes things are hard, seem unfair,or  don't make sense. A wise person once asked me if I believed that Heavenly Father can see the end from the beginning. I told him I did. He told me that Heavenly Father most certainly can see the end from the beginning and that with that knowledge we can have our rest assured that He will take care of those things that are unfair, and hard in life in His time. I know that is true. I am grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister J