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