SISTER JOHNSON'S JULY 21, 2014 E-MAIL

SINGING SISTERS AND

LOTS OF MIRACLES

Hello Mother Dear!

Well, it was another slow, but good week last week! It was a slow week as far as teaching lessons, but we did what we could and were able to see small miracles everyday. :) 

Yesterday Sister Henderson and I sang in church! We sang a really neat arrangement of "Come Come Ye Saints" in honor of Pioneer day. It's funny because when we got done singing a lady came over and asked us to sing it at the Pioneer picnic the ward is having tonight and other missionaries want us to sing it at other meetings coming up, like VC training and zone training. Haha, it will be our one hit wonder. It is so much fun singing with Sister Henderson because she has an amazing voice!! I'm so lucky I get to be her companion!!!

Last week in the VC was intense! So a few months back, a guy came into the VC one day and ended up talking to Sister Henderson and I for over an hour. He asked us what we believe about sin, grace, mercy, etc. and asked a lot of awesome questions. We taught him the Doctrine of Christ, which answers all those questions. Anyways, we've been emailing him since then and although he's super awesome, he kind of likes to Bible-bash and asks us really nit-picky questions (kind of for the sake of argument). Last week we spent a good amount of time putting together an email that answers his questions but doesn't bible-bash back. Anyways, it is just awesome because we feel deep down that he will accept the Gospel one day and will realize how simple it is! That is something major that I've learned while I've been out here - is how simple and perfect the Gospel is. If it ever seems complicated, it's because we as imperfect humans make it complicated. It's just amazing that we're promised so many blessings when we do the best we can to follow Christ and keep His commandments, and we get His help and His love through it all. And that's all we're asked to do!! How amazing. I've learned sooo much about the Gospel that I didn't know before and have felt Heavenly Father's love and miracles since I've been out here on a mission. The decision to go on a mission is the best decision I've ever made!!!

Today we had a couple of cool miracles - first off, when we were about to pay for our groceries, a lady ran up to us and gave us each $40 cash (she ended up being a member) which we're not allowed to accept but she kind of shoved it in our faces and ran off haha. So that was unexpected and neat! People are so awesome. Also, there is a worker there who we've seen a few times who we've felt impressed to talk to. Today, we were able to talk to him and invite him to come to the Visitor's Center and church. He said he would love to go to church with us, and that it's a blessing because he recently got Sunday's off of work!! We asked him if he would like to meet with us so we can teach him about what we believe, and he said he would love to! We can tell he is such a humble guy. We are so excited!! The Lord is always preparing people for us. :)

As for your questions about the VC - our schedule is different every week. We are there all but one or two days a week. We work either 9 am - 3 pm or 3 pm - 9 pm. We love the VC. We're so spoiled there.

I can't believe (actually I can) that Brad was awake for that long! He's gonna die!!! Tell him to sleep. He needs at least some sleep every night. When does his internship end? There are a lot of investment-bankers in our ward and I tell them that Brad is doing it too! They are also super busy and never at home haha. Oh also, it's super neat because the son of Tad R. Callister (author of The Infinite Atonement) is in our ward! He recently gave a talk this past January called "What is the Blueprint of Christ's Church?" You need to read it!! It's awesome! He's written a lot of other amazing talks as well.

Well that's it for today - thanks again for your email! In the VC we've had a lot of visitor's recently from Arizona! They tell me it's blazing hot down there (something I definitely don't miss :)). Have an amazing week and I love you all ever so!!

Love,

Sister Johnson

SISTER JOHNSON'S JULY 14, 20l4 E-MAIL

MISSIONARY LIFE IN MORAGA

I'm being a doofus

Going on Exchanges!

Howdy ya'll!

This is going to be a short email this week! Well, it's definitely summer time! A lot of people in the ward have been gone so last week was a slow week, but we are still loving it. :) One of our investigators, L*** (the daughter of Bro. M***** who just got baptized) is gone for 3 weeks, so we won't be able to see her - but we met with them last week and she is continuing to do awesome. She is growing so much! It is also awesome to see all the support in the ward for Bro. M*****! We really do have a great ward. Everyone is always really busy, but they do a great job at reaching out a midst their busy lives.

Our main focus right now is meeting with the part-member families in the ward (there are a lot of them) and new families. The ward is so huge though so there are always so many people we've never even met! It is fun to get to know these families though and hopefully some of these part-member families will become whole-member families soon, if you catch my drift ;) (Jk lame joke)

Last week on Wednesday we had our monthly Zone Training, and in the morning I studied Chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel (the chapter about finding people). The chapter talks a lot about always emphasizing and connecting our conversations with people to the Restoration, and that is what our Zone Training was all about! The Restoration is the unique message of our church - so if you ever have a conversation with someone who doesn't know anything about the church, always mention that our church is centered on Christ, and that He has restored the gospel He taught while He was on Earth through a prophet named Joseph Smith...etc. :) That is my challenge for you all! I definitely have a testimony of Joseph Smith, and the more I study the Book of Mormon the more I come to understand that everything in it really happened - which is how I know Joseph Smith is a prophet. If you've read and love the Bible, the Book of Mormon will blow your mind! It is another testament that Christ really did live and was the Son of God here on Earth, and that He continues to live today. It explains to us the Plan of Salvation and the answer to so many questions that we all have. It is truly from God and I know it with all of my heart. Read the Book of the Mormon! You'll be glad you did!!!

Well, that's it for this week - thanks for reading! Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts. Love you all very muchly!!! 

Love,

Sister Johnson

SISTER JOHNSON'S JULY 7, 2014 E-MAIL

MAY THE 4TH BE WITH YOU!

The 4th of July in Moraga, CA

Passing out Blood Donation flyers to the folks getting ready for fireworks!

The best place to see the fireworks (and talk to people about the church)

A Sister's work is never done!

​Hello Mother!!

I'm glad ya'll had a fun 4th!! Our day was pretty fun also! We did weekly planning most of the day (which is where you plan everything for the upcoming week so it takes about 3 hours for us since we're in the VC) but then that evening we went out at a shopping center to talk to people and invite them to a blood drive hosted by the church in Moraga and at the temple (so we used that to also give them a temple card and invite them there hehe). We did that for about 45 minutes, then got ourselves ice-cream (our 4th of July treat :-)) and then went to visit a member (Sister K**** - baptized 2 years ago and is amazing!!!!) Then, on our way back (we had to park far away from her house because she lives right next to a golf course where everyone goes to watch fireworks) we talked to more people! And then when we got to the Safeway parking lot where we parked, we talked to more people. Hehe. Didn't really have any quality conversations with people, but we were glad to be able to talk with people and invite them. 

Anywho - don't have much more time to write, but last week was a good first week to the transfer! Visited Brother M*****'s daughter L*** (he was the one who got baptized 2 weeks ago :)) And she is just awesome. She is growing so much and has such a desire to read! At church she brought her tithing and showed us her testimony that she wrote in her journal. She is leaving for 3 weeks though to spend time with her mom so sadly we won't see her for a little bit. But after that we are going to continue teaching her and set a date for her to get baptized :) So we are really excited about L*** :) Such a sweet, smart girl.

We also visited some other families last week to get to know them and also visited a few part-member families. One of them, the husband (non-member) goes to church all the time, but we think he's not baptized yet because he feels pressure. But we will see how we can help him :) There are actually a lot of part-member families in our ward. So we are focusing on meeting all of them! 

We love the families in our ward! So many awesome families with wonderful, smart kids. We're lucky to be here!  

Well sorry but I'm running out of time, so I apologize this email isn't the best! And I have heard something about tablets, but haven't heard that our mission is getting them anytime soon. This may sound weird but I kinda don't want tablets! I like doing everything the old-fashion way. I probably wouldn't say that though once I've actually used one haha. They are really good tools though because there are a lot of awesome videos to show people from lds.org!

Well I love you and have a great week! Keep being happy and amazing!

Love,

Sister Johnson 

SISTER JOHNSON'S JUNE 30, 2014 E-MAIL

A BAPTISM AND NEW FRIENDS

Sisters with a recent convert from New Jersey

Bro. Hilton Baptized Bro. Mulhern on Saturday!

The Hilton Family!

Hello!

It's great to hear about everyone! I'm so glad to hear Brad is doing awesome! Sometimes I think about him and worry that he is going die from no sleep. It makes me grateful that I get a good 8 hours of sleep every night! And that's exciting that you guys are finally cleaning out the garage - I'm so jealous, I wish I could help you clean it! While I've been out here my love for cleaning has increased a lot (haha). I just love being tidy and organized. :-)

So this week is a new transfer! And guess what? Sister Henderson and I are staying together in Moraga! Yipee!! We were hoping we would stay together! It is her last transfer so she is going home in 6 weeks, which is super sad!! :''( But that's okay, life moves on I suppose. :) 

Last week was awesome - Brother Mulhern's baptism was on Saturday! And it was wonderful!! President Meredith (mission president) came to the baptism too!! It is so funny because Heavenly Father always has a way of making things work out perfectly! When Sister Henderson and I first got to the building (which is huge - it's a different building than the one we go to because ours doesn't have a baptismal font), we could not for the life of us find the baptismal font! We spend a good 15 minutes wandering around trying to find it (and it was super creepy because it's an older building - we were there all by ourselves and we kept hearing weird noises and once we swear we heard a door slam! Haha) and then we finally called our ward mission leader. He told us where it was (some random door in the far corner with no sign) so we quickly went to fill the font. We were a little worried because 1) it takes an hour to fill and we started it late so we were worried it wouldn't be ready on time and 2) the font in that building is like the size of a bathtub, and Brother Mulhern is basically like the grandchild of Goliath (as Sister Henderson says haha) - he's about 6'8"! But anyways, we quickly started it. Then we got everything set and ready to go and people started showing up and Brother Mulhern and his family still weren't there! They called and said that they were almost out of gas so they had to stop and showed up just a couple of minutes after it was supposed to start so the baptism itself started about 20 minutes late haha. But, in the end everything ended up working great! The talks were awesome and Sister Henderson and I sang a musical number (again) to fill in for someone who had to cancel the day before. :) The font filled right on time and Brother Mulhern fit in the font! Yay! Haha. Afterwards he and his wife hosted a BBQ at their house, and so many people from the ward came!! It was awesome because we were a little worried not very many people would be able to come because a lot of people had just come back that week from Girl's Camp, Scout Camp, etc. But there were so many people there and it was just wonderful! So long story short, Heavenly Father answers prayers and always makes things work out when you're worried or don't know how they will. There are so many times on my mission that I've seen this happen and I'm still learning about how to have perfect faith! Never worry - always have faith! He always provides a way!

Another cool thing that happened last week - in the Visitor's Center we got a phone call from mormon.org and it was a guy from Canada. He told us he was really offended because he had called a couple of days earlier and whoever answered the phone was really rude to him and he just had a question about the Word of Wisdom. But after talking to him for a while, and apologizing about whoever was rude to him, he really opened up to us! He told us he's been meeting with sisters there in Canada and had a ton of questions for us. Long story short, he is one of the funniest, open-minded people we've talked to so far! We have a blast talking to him and answering his questions. He also calls me Sister Sunshine (because he says my voice is like a ray of sunshine to him! Hahah.)

Anyways, great week and we are happy to be staying in Moraga! We are ready for more miracles and ready to work harder! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Johnson

P.S. - Thank you also for sending more family history stories!! I do remember some of them! :)