Another Week In Dunn - April 29, 2012

Another week came and flew right by! I don't even know where the time went. Gracious. All days kind of ran together this past week.

 

We had so much free time this past prep day. It was crazy! In both my past areas we were at least 15-20 minutes from any sort of shopping to get foods and the necessities. Dunn has a Walmart that is like 2 miles down the road. It is AMAZING. I never thought I would be so thankful to have a wally world so close, but really, it's a tender mercy. We finished washing clothes, shopping and everything that must needs be done by 2 pm. I am still in shock. That never happens!

 

We had dinner with Bishop Ginn (whom I finally got to meet! He sprained his ankle and wasn't able to come to church on sunday so, I had no idea who the bish was until Monday night.) He's hilarious. He reminds me of you dad. I think you two would get along really well. Anyways, we were supposed to have a lesson with Bruce and Margaret, but they weren't able to come so we did FHE with the Ginn family. Their six year old daughter reminds me of Ashlyn. she kept rolling herself up in a blanket on the floor and then crawling around like an inch worm in the living room. It was very amusing. We watched the old seminary video about the Plan of Salvation and how the Plan is like a three act play. Then, we read Alma 24:14. It's a great scripture about how God loves us and give us the Plan of Salvation in every dispensation. Good stuff! Bishop likes to talk. A LOT. He told us about the one and only missionary serving from the Dunn ward currently. Elder Truelove. This child sounds like quite the character. I think it will be in order to come back and meet him. He is basically legendary in the ward.

 

Tuesday the sweetest lady in the ward, Sis. Knight came out on exchanges with us. We had several appointments, but all of them caved. So, she took us to see very less active Debbie who has been attending the baptist church for nearly 20 years. She loves her church, but I think she knows something is missing. Her husband died in a car crash a few years back and she has asked sis. Knight several times about the Plan of Salvation apparently. We talked to her about the Book of Mormon and she is going to start reading and invited us to come back so, that's a good sign! We also had a wonderful lesson with Lewis (investigator). Lewis has had a very challenging life. He is incredible. He has a  long, long ways to go, but he's working at it. We read Elder Scott's talk about the Power of Scripture and he started crying. I almost cried too. We invited him to read the Book of Mormon everyday and he said he would. He also said he'd be at church...which is amazing because he just had surgery on his lung like 4 days before. Incredible man.

 

Wednesday was district meeting. That's the only place we have to drive a long ways to get to. It takes almost an hour. We drive to Fayetteville (or as some folks call it, "Fayette-nam." There are a lot of sketchy places in Fayetteville. Which is why sisters are in Dunn.) Anyways, we had a great district meeting. Elder Merrill is our district leader. He actually served in Dunn as his first area (way back before they took elders out and put us sisters in). He also broke Sister Wilson's bed when he was serving in Dunn.. Sister Wilson's bed is being propped up with a screwdriver box currently. Elder Merrill is one of the most dedicated missionaries I have ever met. He really knows how to do missionary work and what it takes to become an effective missionary. We talked about planning. "Planning is the most important 30 minutes of the day." I was rebuked. Planning is not my favorite 30 minutes of the day. That's for sho'. But, there is always hope. I can improve! We went out to dinner with the Elmore family that evening and sis. Elmmore's daughter brought her friend, Lauren who plays the guitar in the baptist church she attends. We shared a spiritual thought with them in a sneaky way and invited her to go to mormon.org. She seemed to really enjoy it and Sis. Elmore's daughter said she would explain more later on. Hooray for member missionary work! We then met with Bruce and Margaret and had a nice lesson about the apostasy. Margaret is still having hang ups about Joseph Smith. I'm not sure what she needs. Then, since they have been reading the D&C, Bruce read section 132. Oooh boy. That lead to a lengthy conversation dominated mostly by Bruce. After every one calmed down, we told them that they should pray about it and one of our members suggested going on lds.org to learn more. Thank heavens for members. I had no idea what to say. I'm just a missionary. I don't know everything!

 

Thursday we actually finished weekly planning before the day was practically over. That was amazing. I keep being amazed by how much simpler things are here. Only one ward to worry about, stores are close. It is wonderful. I love being closer to civilization. There are actually people to contact too! We had a great afternoon of contacting. We met a very nice man named Michael. Him and his wife are both ministers for a non-denom church. They started getting kind of preachy with us and weren't making much sense, but they were very nice people. Their little boy kept bringing out pictures he had colored to show us. He really wanted us to acknowledge his coloring skills. :) He referred us to his neighbor. She said, "I'm baptist." and that is where the conversation ended. We also went to his other neighbor he told us to go by. His name was also Michael. He is moving the Pennsylvania, but knew about the temple in Apex (aka Raleigh) and the DC temple. He asked us if we were voting for Mitt Romney. We told him the church doesn't have a politcal stand. He said he was voting for "Mitt" and had a picture with him as well. He seemed really interested and wanted to learn more, but alas, we are sister missionaries and could not come into his house. We invited him to come to church though and he said he would like to come. Unfortunately, he never showed up on Sunday. (sigh) "just come to church!" (as sis. voyles would say). We had a lesson with Bro. McGee (less active) at the church with Sis. Knight. He is going through a rough time, but is trying to come back. He did come to church on sunday..so we are excited about that!

Oh, and we had a neat experience when we went to get gas at the store. I wanted to talk to someone at the gas station, but it's always kind of awkward to just walk up to people at the gas pump and be like "oh hey! we're missionaries just walking around the gas pumps and we have a question for you..." So, I was praying that we would be able to talk to someone without it being super awkward.  We have to save our receipts to send into the mission office. Well, when the receipt came out, it was completely blank. So, we walked up the the little kiosk to talk to the lady who was working.  Her name is Celeste. She saw our tags and said that she really liked seeing people with the name Jesus Christ on their tags. We then had the opportunity to share more with her and gave her our card and she gave us her info and we are going to call her and teach her! It was great. We also got our receipt problem sorted out. Good day.

 

Friday we met with Jan. She was being taught by the Fayetteville elders, but she lives in our area (which is HUGE by the way.) She is amazing. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes! We are tentatively planning on the 19th of May, but she wanted to talk to her dad before she does anything. Her boyfriend is a less active coming back that the Elders were working with. His name is Russ. He is quite the character. He's had a pretty rough life, but knows he needs to come back to church. He kicked his unhealthy habits that have held him back and is on his way back to coming to church. So, we are really excited about that. Jan has a glow about her. She is so excited to learn about the gospel. We went to lunch with them afterwards at Burger King. I haven't been to BK in like, 2 years. It made my tummy upset. Agency is gone when it comes to food and being a missionary. I'm looking forward to reaclaiming that after the mission.

 

We also had dinner with the Moodys. She is the RS president and is hilarious. She is a computer game addict basically. It's kind of funny. We had a "picnic" at the church and had tuna sandwiches, crackers and pudding for dinner. Then, we went to Bruce and Margarets and had a lesson about faith and assuarances that come from exercising faith. (See Alma 58:10-12 and Jeremiah 3: 7-17) It was a fun lesson, but hard to teach because the Moodys are talkers, and the Hudsons are also talkers. I am not. I am learning how to be more assertive and stay in control of the conversation though. So, I guess it's good. Sister Wilson is really good at extending invitations to everyone and sharing her testimony. I admire her a lot.

 

Saturday we spent the morning do another service project in Benson. I was so beat afterwards I had a hard time staying awake (evidence of being out of shape). We walked like 4 miles and picked up garbage along the road. Sis. Dean was with us and told her whole life story basically. She found someone's driver's license, a bmx bike with wheels and chain still in tact, and a softball, a microphone, and a roll of film. Oh the things you find when picking up trash! We talked to the police officer who was escorting us. he doesn't go to church, but said he knew enought about our church already. Right. Whatever. We planted a small seed at least.

 

Sunday was the best day ever! Lewis came to church, the Hudsons came to church, and Jan went to church in fayetteville with Russ. The sacrament meeting was all about the restoration and the blessings of the restoration and priesthood. It was perfect for Bruce and Margaret! I hope they got some answers to their questions. We had 5th sunday potluck afterwards and sat with Lewis and his mom (who is a member) They kept cracking jokes about Sis. W and  I getting married when we get home. I told him that was a loooong ways off. He didn't believe me. Funny old people.

 

It was a good week. We had a lot of fun being missionaries and talking to poeple and it's just been great. I read Alma 32:40 this morning and realized that we need to keep our focus on Christ if we want to partake of the blessings of the Atonement. See also Matthew 14: 27-31. I know that is true and we can do it by reading the scriptures; especially the Book of Mormon and praying for strength and attending church. Then, everything else falls into place. The church is true. I know it.

 

Love you all so much. Have a wonderful week! I can't believe May is right around the corner. Ah!

 

Love,

 

Sister J

Transferred To Dunn, NC - 4/22/2012

Well, it was a crazy week to say the least. Monday was insane. We packed. And then we packed some more. And then some more. Poor Sister Nannie Mae. She was so sad to see us go. It almost broke my heart. I hope she does okay with us gone. She seemed pretty down in the dumps that we were leaving. We made it to bed around 10:45 amazingy that night...only to discover when we woke up at four in the morning to leave that we had completely forgotten to clear out the fridge! (oops!) We stuffed everything we could into the trash can, but then realized that the dump wouldn't oplen until 9. So, we were just stuck out of luck. We left the garbage with a note apologizing for leaving it and started our trek to Raleigh for the trainer's meeting that Sis. Matthews had to go to. When we arrived in Raleigh, we found out sister Welch was training. So, I went on splits with Sis. Dean and Sis. Oliverson until tranfer meeting. We went to the temple, and admired it and then we stopped at the book store and bought some stuff there. Then, we had breakfast at McDonalds (barf) and drove around Raleigh with one of the Jacksonville members until 1 PM. We tried getting gelato, but the gelato place was closed. :(

Sister Wilson and I are now companions. Sister Wilson is great! She likes to cook. I don't. It's a good combination! I think I've had more vegetables this week than my entire six months in Deep Run. (no joke). She is an amazing missionary though. She doesn't need anymore training in my opinion. She is training me! Sister Wilson is a pro at asking for referrals and making sure that basically every appointment we have with members has an investigator there as well.

 

The first day I was in Dunn. We had an appointment with a lady named Bessie. Bessie is 86. Bessie reads the Book of  Mormon and comes to church, but won't live the word of wisdom. We invited her to pray about Joseph Smith. When we followed up with her this week about that, she said she hadn't, but that she would take our word for it that he was a prophet. lol. We told her she would need to find out for herself.

We also met with eternal investigators, Bruce and Margaret. They have been taught by missionaries since last september and no one can figure out why they "haven't received a confirmation about whether the church is true or not." I'm stumped. They come to church, they read (they've read the WHOLE Book of Mormon), they even fasted. Margaret is a Quaker and one of her issues is that Quakers don't believe you need to be baptized by water. She thinks it is prideful to do outward signs to show your commitment to God. Whatever. We are trying to help them and trying different things to see if it will help.

 

We had a lot of miracles, we met investigators, Terry and Christy at a dinner appointment with a member. They are awesome. They want to come to church this coming week and they have been reading the Book of Mormon.

We also met investigators, Karen and Chandler via a member who had invited Chandler to attend church. Karen (his mom) said she had noticed taht he respected her more and had noticed that since he had been attending church with Sis. Gautier.

The members are awesome here. They want to help with missionary work. They are willing to do just about anything they can to help you.

 

We had a stake service day on Saturday and cleaned up the highways in Fayetteville. A newspaper man took our picture so we may have ended up in the newspaper somewhere in North Carolina. It was a good week.

 

My time is up! 

 

Love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderful week. 

Find hidden treasures at mormon.org. 

check out the "eternal truth" message. It is about a member in Kinston. Then you can see what N. Carolina looks like in the winter time! Brown.

 

With all my love,

 

Sister Johnson

So Long Deep Run (April 16, 2012)

I haven't been transferred yet, but we found out yesterday I am going to Dunn and will be with Sister Wilson! She just came out last transfer. I met her briefly at temple day. She seems very sweet and bubbly. She is from Alpine, UT. She is very petite. That is really all I know about her currently. I will most certainly have more details next week. :)
Sister Matthews is going back to Greenville (I am so jealous!) She is going to be training one of the new sisters! So, that's the news.

This week was chaos X 10. We were running every which way trying to meet with all of our investigators, less actives, and other families before we leave. We managed to meet with all of them except for Jean. I am sad to be leaving Deep Run, but I know I have fulfilled what I was called to accomplish here. We had some wonderfully fulfilling experiences this week that helped Sis. Matthews and I to know that we had done our best here.

We went to the only place where there is a rise in elevation on this side of the Carolinas on Monday. We went to the Cliffs of Neuse! It was really pretty. Lots of trees and the Neuse river below us. It felt so good to get outside and be in the dirt and woods. I miss doing those sorts of things.

We met with Clara on Tuesday with the Elders and Bro. Whitehurst...and guess who else also sat in on the lesson? Her boyfriend! We talked about baptism and how important that day would be for Clara. Clara has been reading to Joe (her boyfriend) and explaining everything she has learned since she started taking the lessons. Clara is so sneaky! Joe requested that we not ask any questions directed towards him, as it was his first time sitting in. However, Clara knows why the Word of Wisdom is important and has explained it to Joe before, but he still had some questions about it and as we were teaching she would say things like, "and why is it again that we don't drink coffee and tea?" Clara is amazing. Joe ended up participating some by the end and it went really well.

Wednesday we did service with the Anderson family. I sure do love the Anderson family. We helped Dana do her math homework (since Sister Matthews is a math major). In evening we met with Greg and Miranda and taught them about the Tree of Life and how to hold onto the Iron Rod. Greg won't budge on his date of being baptized Dec. 26, 2012. (it's so far away!) At least he has the goal. We informed the ward that they better remind him of that commitment.

Thursday= Happy Birthday Lance! Sweeeeeet 16. That is so crazy.
Thursday was Activity Day Zone Conference! We had a meeting in the morning, a pig-pickin' that afternoon, and then we played volleyball, soccer, capture the flag, ultimate frisbee, and did a relay. I am still sore and could hardly sit the next day. I learned the importance of doing exercise EVERY day (except Sunday of course). That's for sure. Our meeting was really good. We talked about revelation through prayer and why kneeling while we pray is important. When we kneel, we show the Lord how important what we are asking is to us. We also talked about how prayer is one of the first signs of faith. (see Alma 34:17) In the evening we went to Sis. Sinclair (recent convert). She is so solid. I love her to death!

Friday was so busy we forgot to schedule lunch or dinner. Oops! We had a great lesson with Clara. She and Joe went to Raleigh on Wed. and they weren't able to get his passport. :( Clara has really been struggling and was faced with quite a bit of opposition shortly thereafter. We were able to talk with her, help her see what God expected of her, and she gave the most heart-felt prayer. It was definitely a tender mercy. She knew what she needed to do after she finished praying. It was amazing. We also met with Lisa. She surprised us by telling us that she had been reading the Book of Mormon! She said the Elders could come and continue teaching her so we are excited to see (or I guess hear...) about her progress.

We had lunch at Bojangles with the older couple we have been teaching, A.L. and Pauline. A.L. told us he was mad we were leaving...lol. We had a good time with them. Pauline promised us the first time we met with her that she would make us a cake. So, she did! We had a chocolate coconut cream cake. It was very good and I was very full after all was said and done. We were also able to meet with Nathan in the evening. He told us about how he had been struggling the day before and turned to the Book of Mormon as a source of peace and comfort. We asked him how he had felt after reading and he said that it had calmed him down and that he felt much better. :) He has also been praying about baptism. We asked him about that and he said that he plans on joining himself with the church soon, but wants to talk to his parents first (they don't know he is taking the lessons apparently.) He has a friend in Wilson who is getting baptized this coming week and he is going to go to his baptism and confirmation to see how he feels there. I am so excited for him! He has changed a lot. He told us about how instead of playing video games, he was using that time to read from the Book of Mormon. It was pretty funny because we ended up on a side conversation about how him and Kaela (his girlfriend) needed to admit themselves to video games anonymous. "I need to be admitted to VGA." "No. You just need to be admitted to computers anonymous." Anyways, it was neat to see him making those changes and prioritizing his life better.

Sunday was a miracle! Nathan came to church, Greg came to church, and Clara came...with Joe and her three kids and her little sister (Paola) who also wanted to come to church. It was amazing. Joe really liked church and plans on coming back next week. He went to all three meetings. The elders took him to priesthood and it was great! Clara looked so pretty. She told us she got "extra ready" to come to church since Joe was coming. She told the elders she was sad we were leaving. Elder Otteson told her if it would make her feel better, Elder Taylor (who is often times referred to as Elder Pelon because he is bald) could wear a wig so she wouldn't feel like the only girl. We all thought that was pretty funny.
We had homemade icecream in the evening at the Strouds, made a couple of stops by members and then went home. Our apartment currently looks like a tornado ripped through there. I don't know how we are going to have time to clean everything up. Should be fun!
I am going to miss Deep Run. It will always have a very special place in my heart for many, many reasons. I know Heavenly Father is there to help us and we can't do this alone. I read my favorite talk ever...it's called, "In the Strength of the Lord" by E. Bednar this week. It was a good reminder of how much we need to remember Jesus Christ in all things and that it is only because of Him that we can accomplish all that we need to. It is the best talk ever. Really. Read it and it will change your life.
It changed mine.

I love you all so much. The church is true.

Sister Johnson

Happy Easter! April 9. 2012

Happy Easter!

I hope you had a good Easter. When you get a chance, go to mormon.org/easter and you can see people's testimonies of Jesus Christ and add your own!

Well, we found out Deep Run will be closing to sisters. :(
We also discovered that closing an area is awful. People cry, want to know why you are leaving them, and threaten to kidnap you. (94 year old Sis. Sutton has told us she is going to kidnap us...lol. I love her. She is a fantastic lady that is full of energy. I'd be darned if she doesn't have more energy than me!) So, if we go missing you'll have a good lead as to who has whisked us away.

We had a really awesome experience with Clara last week...and I can't remember if I wrote about it or not. So, I am going to write about it again. We were supposed to meet with Clara, but she had to cancel because she had a family event of some sort come up. She told us not to worry though because she had asked her sister if she could read the Book of Mormon with her. Her sister agreed and they read Alma 7 together. Clara then commenced to explain why her sister (Irma) needed the blessings of the Atonement in her life and how the Atonement had blessed her life. Clara is such a good missionary. She is still reading away to her boyfriend. We also were able to hear about a neat miracle in that regard as well. We have been trying and trying and trying to get Clara to set up an appointment at the Consulate so that her boyfriend can get a picture ID and they can get a marriage license. However, every time Clara has tried to call and set up an appointment, no one would answer the phone. We invited to try again when we talked with her during the week. We said a prayer asking that a way would be provided for them to continue on their way towards getting married. Clara dropped everything she was doing, went and called, and someone answered! She and her boyfriend are planning on going to Raleigh on Wednesday to get that all squared away this week. Yay! We are so happy for her. It's the best feeling to see her grow. She is sharing the gospel with so many people. It's amazing! She told us about how she was talking to some people while she was at a friend's house and the topic of church came up. She had the opportunity to share with them about the church and it was really neat. Especially since Clara is "shy". Ha! Hardly so anymore.

We also met with Claudia and Sis. Anderson this week. Claudia is stuck. She wants to change, but is struggling to find the desire to put up the necessary collateral in order to make any progress. However, we rediscovered an amazing talk by E. Bednar before he was E. Bednar called, "In the Strength of the Lord" and it is my favorite talk ever. It is all about the Atonement and how there are two functions of the Atonement. The part that allows us to be forgiven and receive remission of sins and also the part that enables us to do hard things. It is a great talk. I would highly encourage you to read it. We want to share that with Claudia at some point in the near future. We were supposed to go hiking with her today, but she bailed. :( Hopefully we will be able to see her before we are gone from Deep Run. She is a super sweet lady. She and her family are getting ready to move back to Cali in July.

We had the best district meeting ever on Wednesday. We had a great discussion about the relationship between faith and agency. There is another really good talk by E. Bednar that talks about this. It is called, "Seek Learning By Faith." I would also encourage reading that talk. It is fantastic. Anyways, we talked about agency and read from 2 Nephi 2 and how we were given agency to help us develop our faith. When you destroy agency, you also destroy faith because those two priniciples are very much so intertwined. We learned about having faith to meet our expectations, and how humility is a prerequisite to faith.
Among other things, I was study the act of "becoming" this week and how there is a difference between being converted and having a testimony. Testimony can lead to conversion, but having a testimony alone is not enough. We need to become converted by sharing our testimony. I also have the question (that has yet to be answered) of how we can teach people so that what we teach becomes part of those we teach and not just something they do. If you have any ideas or suggestions, I'd love to hear!

Mmmm...what else...Oh! We had Sisters' Temple Day this past Friday. It was fantastic! The weather was great, the sisters are great, Pres. and Sis. Cotterell are great. I also got to see Sister Carman again! I love that woman. She told me to come back to Greenville. I told her she would need to put in a few words to Pres. Cotterell and God and then maybe it would happen. :] The temple was all wonderful. We had a very good session. A very full session too. I finally met the other new sister, Sis. Wilson. We have such great sisters in our mission. I sent some pictures...
We went to the mission home afterwards and had Hawaiian Haystacks. Those are so good! I love home food. Yum! We then had time to share our thoughts and testimonies of what we had learned from conference. It was really good. It was like getting my battery recharged.

Sunday was Happy Easter! We had a wonderful Sacrament meeting in Woodington. The talks were on repentance and how it pertains to the resurrection (see E. Chirstofferson's talk, "The Divine Gift of Repentance") and then a talk on the Atonement. I got to play the organ. I didn't even know what I was doing. She just told me the preset to use and we sang "I Know My Redeemer Lives." I guess it went okay...even if it was awful, the people singing made it all better. It is amazing how music can bring the spirit. While we were singing, you just knew that the words in that song were true. It was like hearing 265 people bear their testimony all at the same time. We had dinner with the Pates AND the Grays. I was very full. Very. Full. We were able to have a good lesson with the Pates' son who has been less active for quite some time. We talked about the Atonement and the blessings of the Atonement and how reading the Book of Mormon had strengthened us and invited him to read. He said he would and asked if we had an extra reading chart so that he could start reading. Hooray! Sometimes I wish I could stay in an area forever. Maybe not. It sounds nice right now, but probably not in the long run.

I am so thankful for the knowledge we have of our Savior and Redeemer. I don't know what I would do without that knowledge. I know that Atonement can make all things that seem unfair in life right. I know that Jesus is the Christ. I am thankful for the hope that He brings to our lives.

I hope you have a great week! Love you lots!

Love,
Sister J

General Conference Rocks! April 2, 2012

So, there were a few things I forgot to mention last week that were definitely noteworthy.

1) Sis. Matthews found an eight-legged critter in her bed. I am paranoid now.
2) One of the elders' investigators got baptized last week...In brown water! The city failed to mention that they were working on the water lines and when they filled the font up, it looked like a dirt puddle. He didn't want to wait though...so he was baptized in dirty water! Rather ironic considering the symbolism behind baptism...David (recent convert) is awesome though. He knew what baptism meant and didn't want to put it off any longer.

This week's letter will be quick. My time is almost up! Ah!

General Conference was fantastic! I love, love, loved every single one of the talks. We watched the first session at Sis. Nanny Mae's. Her satellite died partway through so we missed one the talks, but the rest of them were incredible. I especially liked Pres. Eyring's. We are just being polished. Angels will bear us up and God will always keep His word. Fantastic talk.

Nathan came to second session on Saturday. I am totally convinced that E. Scott's talk on the recognizing the spirit and receiving and recording revelation was meant just for him. When E. Scott started talking, Sis. Matthew's and I just looked at each other wide-eyed trying to confirm if what we were hearing was really what we were hearing. E. Scott even talked about fasting and prayer! We just talked to Nathan about both of those things! Crazy! It was amazing. E. Holland's talk was also very good for him. "Don't delay. It's getting late."

On Sunday Clara went to the Smiths for conference. We told her she could go to the church, but then had the Smith's invite her over. She text us and was super confused. She said, "wait. I thought this conference thing was at the church, but Sis. Smith just invited me to watch it at her house?? How does that work??" We explained. She watched Sunday morning's session at the Smiths and had a question in mind that she was looking for the answer to. After the session was over, we received a text from Clara that said: "One word. Amazing." She said she thinks she got an answer to her question and she was also very excited to see Pres. Monson speak. She had to cancel her appointment she had with us this week but said, "Don't worry. I am going to be teaching my sister. I asked her if I could read the book (Book of Mormon) with her and she said that would be okay." We asked her about it later and she said that she had read Alma 7 with her sister (Irma) and talked to her about how she thought the Atonement was something she needed to use in her life and how it could help her. Clara is my hero.

We watched all of the Sunday sessions at the Woodington buidling. Taylor and Carmen (youth came) and we watched it together. The elders were there too. In between sessions E. Brown and E. Garvin decided to play the organ and piano. E. Brown tried to teach E. Garvin how to play "Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater" for about 10 minutes. It was highly entertaining as the conversation went something like this:
E. Brown: "Do you want to learn how to play peter peter pumpkin eater?"
E. Garvin: "Yeah."
E. Brown: "Well, this is what you do. See those three black notes? You just play those."
E Garvin starts playing notes...
E Brown says: "Nope. That's not it."
E Garvin starts playing again.."Is that right?"
E Brown: "Nope"
They did that for about 10 minutes. E. Garvin eventually learned how to play Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater. lol.

We didn't get to teach many lessons this week. Sis. Matthews and I both came down with some sort of something that put us out. So, we watched every video that a missionary is allowed to watch. Being sick as a missionary is horrible. Those were the most boring days of my life hands down. I am glad we are on the road to recovery. :)

Sis. Matthews and I took an interesting approach to conference this weekend. We decided to ask the questions, "what is being taught?" "why is this being taught?" and "how can I implement what is being taught?" to all of the talks. I learned oodles of goodness from conference! I would invite you to do the same as you review your notes. Ask those questions and I can guarantee you will receive addition revelation from the talks. It is good stuff!

Well, I should be off by now. I love you all. Thank you for your love and support. I know that we have never gone too far or too low for any of us to not be recovered by the Atonement of the Savior, Jesus Christ. He is there for us. Sometimes it might seem quite lonely, but He is always there for us. He knows what we are feeling (How is something I don't understand, but I know he does) and desires to help us. Never forget that you are a child of Heavenly Father who loves you more than you know.

Love you all!

Love,
Sister J