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