Greetings from rainy, but warm Dunn!
It has been dumping buckets basically all week. Luckily we get some sunshine pretty much everyday too, but then it dumps buckets. At least the 'bacco plants and cotton plants will have plenty of water this summer! It might be better if tobacco ones didn't though...
We had a great week this week. We were incredibly busy this week and saw so many miracles. It was amazing!
We had a relaxing P-day last week. It's so nice to just rest sometimes. I am thankful for the convenience of close stores. that is definitely something I took for granted back home. We had a lesson with the Hudsons that evening. It was really good! We each chose our favorite scripture from the Book of Mormon and talked about why it was our favorite. The spirit was so strong there. The Deans came with us and they are just the cutest old couple ever. We talked to them about baptism. Bruce says 'yes!', but Margaret says she can't truthfully answer that she believes Joseph Smith was a prophet. Bless her heart. She wants to know, but just can't seem to accept it. I sure do love the Hudsons. She will get there. I know she will.
Tuesday we had another sweet experience with sweet miss Jan. She didn't come to church last week. We asked her why she wasn't there and she said that she didn't go because Russ didn't feel like going. She then went on to explain that she had felt awful all Sunday because she knew that she needed to come to church. I love the spirit. :) We talked to her about how that was the spirit telling her she needed to come to church. She opened up with us a lot and told us that she wants to know this true for herself and not because she is trying please Russ. That made our hearts so happy! She is praying about a baptism date for June 23rd. She also bore her testimony to us about how she had felt very much alone before she started meeting with missionaries and that ever since she had been coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon she didn't feel alone anymore. I thought that was a very profound statement she made. She is very right in saying that. We do feel alone when we aren't doing things to allow Christ into our lives. I pondered a lot about that this week and realized that He doesn't ever leave us. We either choose to leave him or don't know where to look to find Him. That's why being a missionary is definitely the most rewarding job we can do. You get to help people develop faith in Jesus Christ and see how the gospel changes everything about their lives. Hearing Jan say that was definitley one of the sweetest moments I have experienced.
We went on exchanges with a couple of future missionaries later that day (Sis. Gunn and Bro. Guymon) to go and see Lewis. When we got to Lewis' house, he had his George Albert Smith book out and was reviewing Sunday's lesson. He said he really liked it and wanted to learn more about it (it was all about prayer). We had a great lesson on the Atonement with him. We then spent the evening trying to meet with less active and part member families. Nothing came of it.
Wednesday we had a great district meeting as always. Elder Merrill is a great district leader. We focused on teaching people, not lessons. We made cinnamon rolls for our district and they were gone in a jiffy! Elder Merrill doesn't eat sugar. At all. I don't know how he does it. He told us a story about how a snake almost got into the cottage in Dunn. I was thinking to myself, "Great. we might find a slithery creature in our cottage. At least in Deep Run we only had to worry about spiders getting into our beds. Now we have snakes!" I am completely paranoid now. Elder Merrill and Sister Wilson think it is hilarious. We keep a bamboo stick right outside the door just in case now. :) (That's how Elder Merrill killed the last snake that was there). I don't know if I'll ever be able to live that one down now.
We had this crazy miracle happen Wednesday night. We didn't have any appointments so we decided to drive out to Benson and contact some PM families and LA families there. We had zero luck until we knocked on the door of a less active lady. She wasnt home, but her son was there. He hadn't been to church in almost 10 years. We talked to him for a few minutes. He told us about how he had wanted to serve a mission at one point. We told him he still could if he wanted to start coming bck to church. He said he didn't think so and we left. We decided to do some proximity work around the neighborhood there (which took about 30 minutes) and were unsuccessful with that. As we headed back to the car, we saw Derek (the less active) run out to our car. He asked if he could meet with us the next day because he had decided that going back to church would be a good idea. We were completely ecstatic and told him that we most certainly could! It was definitely a tender mercy. Especially since I was thinking to myself while we were there, "what in the world are we doing in Benson? Nothing has happened since we've been here." And then, a miracle happened.
Thursday we took the future missionaries (sis Gunn and Bro. Guymon) and went to see Derek. He was running behind schedule so we decided to meet at the ice cream parlor in Angier called Sunni Skies. I think we taste tested all 99 flavors. They even had this ridiculously spicy kind. I thought my mouth was going to burn up! My eyes were watering and it was bad. Luckliy the taste tester lady gave me some vanilla to sooth the burning. I guess they have you sign a disclaimer if you decide to buy the spicy ice cream. lol. We ended up meeting with Derek there and had a great lesson. It was kind of like an Ammon and King Lamoni (see Alma 22) experience. Derek isn't sure that god even exists, but he feels like he needs to come back to church because he has seen how happy people are who are in the church. He is moving to Florida this week. So, we forwarded his info to the elders that are there. He text us and asked if we had sent it to them today. He is on fire and totally ready for the gopsel in his life. It reminded me a lot of Elder Holland's talk from conference about the laborers in the vinyard. It's never too late as long as the master is still asking for more helpers.
Friday we met with Jan again and reviewed some of the Plan of Salvation. We also had a lesson with Bro. King (he lives in front of us) He is a funny old man. He was going off about some song that talks about whiskey. It was pretty funny. We met a very nice less active man. He was very drunk when we contacted him, but he really liked going to church when he was a kid. His wife is baptist and wouldn't come out to meet us though...she thinks we are heathens according to him. He told us that we could come back, but to call so he wouldn't be drunk. lol. We also had a miracle happen! We had recieved some referrals from the Clayton elders (elder pace and elder jaros) and we were able to go and contact one of them. The elders had originally met him while helping to jumpstart his car and had talked to him about meeting with the missionaries. We drove out to Angier, found his house, and contacted him. He came out and was SO suprised that we actually came! It was really funny. We set a return appointment with him for saturday, but he jaked us.
Saturday was an adventure. We went to a baptism in Fayetteville with the Hudsons. It was their first time ever coming to a baptism! Jan and Russ also came and they all had a good experience. After the baptism the hudsons took us out to lunch to a place that is kind of like Zupas, but Zupas wins. It was good and then we had to make some stops with them since they don't come to Fayetteville very often. We went to Sams Club. It was kind of funny walking around Sam's with the Hudsons, on a saturday. We came home and washed Bro. King's cars for him. He told us we should make him some brownies again because they were really good. lol.
Sunday was wonderful! It was ward conference and Pres. and Sis. Cotterell were there. They taught the gospel principles class and it was amazing. The spirit was so strong in that room. Jan came to church all by herself! She called Russ to go, but he didn't want to :( She came though! She really enjoyed church and Sis. Knight took her right under her wing and made her feel right at home. The Hudsons were able to talk with Pres. Cotterell after church and he was able to talk specifically with Margaret for quite a while. I think it really helped her. She started crying when he asked her what her question was that she had. I was so grateful he was able to talk with her. we had a lesson with them that evening and watched 'safety for the soul' by Elder Holland. She thinks the Book of Mormon is true! She just needs to listen to her heart now.
Speaking of Elder Holland, he is coming to our mission on June 2nd! I am nervous. He is super intense. It should be quite the experience though!
The church is true. I know the Book of Mormon contains the words of Christ. (see 2 Nephi 33:10-11)
Have a great week!
Love you all.
With lots of love,
Sister A. Johnson
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