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