LAUREN'S DEC.8 E-MAIL - LOTS OF PICTURES!!!

THE HOLIDAY SEASON IS IN FULL PROGRESS

LOTS OF PICTURES!!!!!

Picture sent to Donna from Sis. Crawford who was visiting the Oakland Temple!  Lauren took the picture for Sister Crawford and her husband then they took a picture of Lauren with one of the VC Sisters, Sister Martinez.  Then Sis. Crawford e-mailed the picture to me!

This was after the YSA fireside with Elder Bednar! We were all red, white and blue with stripes :) In the middle is on of our amazing members, Elisa! (And new companion - Sis. Orantes!)

This is the face she makes when she holds or sees something cute! Hahahaaha!

Decorating the VC! This was Thanksgiving morning!

 
Hi Mommy!

I'm glad you got that picture! I've had one other missionary parent couple do that but I couldn't remember your email so I put Dad's email address. It might not have been correct though! But this time I had that card with all the emails with me so I got to send it to you this time! Yay!

Yes, things are getting busy now! The Christmas season has officially started. We have a few performances every night - one in the ISC and one at the VC. They have all been really good so far! We have a lot of members and a good amount of non-members too! As far as what we talk to people about - it depends on what station I'm at. If I'm in the front foyer, we don't get to talk as much because they are passing through going to other places, but sometimes if they are sitting down we'll have a good convo. We mainly just try to take the short time we have with people to get to know them a little and do whatever we can to help them feel or at least be interested in the Savior's love for them. It's been awesome to have the "He is the Gift" video because it's so perfect for talking about the Christmas season and how to remember Christ as the real gift of Christmas. I've had other neat conversations - one example is the other night Sister Harmon (another VC sister) and I were on outside tour, and she speaks Spanish so she went over to some members in the parking lot who were drinking hot chocolate. Of course they gave us some (hehe), so after we were walking around drinking hot chocolate and a couple walked up to us and asked us about why we don't drink hot drinks (which was funny since we were drinking hot chocolate haha) so we explained that we don't drink coffee and tea and all that jazz. Even though in the end they weren't interested it still ended up being a great conversation. And yes, it is a huge blessing that we get to talk to so many people! Sometimes it's overwhelming because there are so many, but you just do the best you can with the short time you have with everyone!

Yay, I'm excited for Christmas too!! I was just thinking the other day about using the same thing we did for Mother's Day so I'm glad you thought of that. :) (Lauren is talking about us google chatting on Christmas day!)  Can't wait to see everyone!!

Well that's all I have time for today, sorry it was short! Love you all and enjoy your week!! 

Sister Johnson

LAUREN'S THANKSGIVING POST - DECEMBER 1ST

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!

Lauren understands this...

YEAH CHANDLER HIGH!!!!!

Hello!! Happy Dec. 1st!

Wowzers it sounds like y'all had a fun week!! That's amazing that Chandler won!!! Wooo!! Finally!! :)

This past week was pretty crazy! We had three exchanges, two of them were back to back. But they were all super fun like always! We also started the Christmas schedule this week! We had it Saturday and Sunday, and then it starts again this Friday through the rest of December. Christmas schedule means we're basically in the Visitor's Center all day with no time in our area haha. So we either work from 9 to 1 and come back at 4:30, or start at 1 and then stay for the rest of the night. It is super fun because from 4:30 on all the sisters are together in the VC. We are stationed at certain spots and switch stations every hour. We are never with our own companions either. We have a new comp every hour and are paired with someone who speaks a different language (that doesn't really matter for me though haha, I'm pretty useless when it comes to different languages :-p) So, the first two days went well! On Saturday we celebrated the Christmas lights and there was a performance in the auditorium in the Inter-Stake Center and we also had a performance in the Visitor's Center. So Saturday was realllllly busy! It was exciting though! We've also been showing everyone the short "He is the Gift" video. If you haven't seen it, go to christmas.mormon.org and watch it right now!

Last week we also had Brother Lusvardi, the director of all Visitor's Centers and church historic sites, come and train us! He was awesome!! He really helped us to get pumped for Christmas and really what we want to achieve with the "He is the Gift" initiative. Basically it all comes down to helping everyone that comes to the Visitor's Center feel the love of the Savior and be inspired to discover, embrace and share his love. That is our main goal for this Christmas!

Also! Sister Orantes and I had a super sweet experience yesterday in the VC. It was a slow Sunday afternoon, so we were just quietly sitting and studying. We went up to the front and an older guy with his member friend were at the front, ready for someone to take them around. He was pretty bold and insisted that we show him around and show him what's so great and different about our church. So we showed him the Savior of the World room first and told him everything we believe is centered on Jesus Christ and patterning our lives after him. He asked questions and we took him to the back and showed him the Special Witnesses room, which is all about the prophet and apostles. He then had all these questions about the Book of Mormon, and other stuff. Basically, his heart was pretty hard in the beginning. But Sister Orantes is a spiritual beast and was totally inspired the whole time and threw all of these inspired questions at him. He really opened up to us and his heart softened so much. It was so neat to see!! By the end, he said he was really surprised and wasn't expecting the visit he had. Also, by the end he was really eager to get a Book of Mormon and said he was going to start reading it that night. Point of the story - it takes courage and faith to ask people inspired questions to help them open up and soften their hearts. But once we do, miracles happen!!

Oh yes - Thanksgiving was delicious!!! We went to the home of one of G*****'s parents house, who live in Moraga and are in the Moraga ward, the last ward I served in! :) (G**** is the member in our ward who is dating our investigator T****, who is getting baptized in January!!! She's the cutest and sweetest and most amazing investigator on the planet probably!!!) So we had it there with their family and it was very nice!! They have an amazing family! I only had two plates of food but I was about to die after I was so full haha. So I was well-taken care of for Thanksgiving!

Well that's it for this past week! Love you all!!!

Love, Sister Johnson 

LAUREN'S PRE-THANKSGIVING POST

GETTING READY FOR TURKEY DAY!!!

"This is how your Dad likes to eat pumpkin pie!"

Happy Turkey Week!

Yes I did get the packages! Thank you!! And yes I will be getting a Thanksgiving dinner at a members home - but, the food you sent me will be great for when I'm craving leftovers :) So thank you again for sending them to me!! You da bomb!

Woohoo, I'm excited for Chandler High! I hope they win! That's so cute about Missy and Fuzzell. I miss those furr balls! Everytime I see a kitty I just wanna go up a squeeze it! But I don't so that I don't get a disease.

Another great week over here though! Went on two more exchanges this week. The Lord really helps me a lot on exchanges. Well He has to, or else I will fail haha. It is so cool to see all the other sisters in their own areas and elements though. On Tuesday Sister Wang (the one who I live with) came with me to Berkeley and we have a lot of great lessons. She is super fun, cute and a ray of sunshine! We had a lot of fun in Berkeley. On Thursday I went to Lafayette with Sister Hsu, who is also from Arizona! We sang for some elderly people, which was really fun and such a spiritual boost. They have really tender hearts and cried at every song we sang. I just love those people! We also had an awesome first lesson with a woman and her husband who have been searching for the right church for years. They came to a members home - an awesome couple in the Lafayette ward, and another member came as well. I was intimidated at first because all these people are old and wise, but it ended up being great and they are the nicest, most loving people ever. And every lesson is a million times better with members there. I just love members. Without them, missionary work is really not much. Members are the key to everything! So that was a great experience and they are really interested in learning more. :)

On Saturday we had Elder Nielson, who is in the missionary department, come to our MLC meeting on Saturday (Missionary Leadership Counsel). It was an awesomeeee meeting - right up there with Elder Bednar's from the weekend before. His theme echoed Elder Bednar's, which was to be an agent who acts. He gave us great advice when we talked to him about what we feel we are doing well in our mission and what our challenges are. He also explained to us the organization of the Twelve Apostles and all the Quorums of the Seventies, which was super interesting!!! So we got to learn a lot of awesome stuff. I was taking notes like a crazy person. 

He also introduced to us a new video and Christmas initiative coming out THIS WEEKEND. It's called 'He is the Gift.' This is going to be a big thing, but only if everyone shares it!!! The church has paid a lot of money for this initiative, so it's every members job to share this with everyone! It is simply a 30 second video about the Savior and that He is the true gift of Christmas. If you go to lds.org, it will be on there this weekend. Be sure to watch the video and then share it with everyone. It will be on Youtube's homepage (on December 7th I think) and also featured in New York Times Square. In the December Ensign there will be 10 pass along cards for members to hand out to friends to share the video. This is a great missionary tool, but again we need everyone's help! So spread the word, and share the real gift of Christmas so that it can touch people's hearts who are ready to learn about Jesus Christ and His Gospel. :)

That's it for this week! Have a Happy Thanksgiving, think about what you're grateful for and keep being happy. The Gospel is so true!!!!

Love,

Sister Johnson 

SISTER JOHNSON'S NOVEMBER 18, 2014 E-MAIL

BACK IN OAKLAND AGAIN!

Lauren's new place is just 2 minutes from the Oakland Temple and the Visitor's Center!
Her area is Berkeley Campus in the Single's Ward but she lives in Oakland.

Howdy doodlers!

Well it's been a fun and crazy week, full of miracles! And yes! The temple is super super busy during the holidays. The weekend after Thanksgiving is going to be really busy because that's when we turn on all the Christmas lights and have a performance to celebrate. Then starting December 5th we have two to three different performances going on each night. There will be performances in the Visitor's Center, in the auditorium and other parts of the temple grounds. So thousands of people come through each day and we are stationed in different parts of the VC and outside to welcome and talk to people. I'm told it's exhausting but really fun!! So I'm definitely excited :-D

I'm totally jelly that you got to watch the temple dedication! What a treat. :) We also had a really special treat this past weekend because Elder Bednar came for the 50th Anniversary of the Oakland Temple! He spoke on Sunday night for the celebration, which we couldn't go to unfortunately, but that's quite okay, because we got to see him for almost 6 hours on Saturday!! We and the San Jose mission got to have a special conference with him, then later that evening he spoke at the YSA fireside and Sister Orantes and I also got to go to that since we are serving in a YSA ward. :) It was an incredible day!!! To put it simply, Elder Bednar is a wild man. He's so funny! I haven't ever seen him like that before. It was really cool to see him let his hair down and at both the missionary meeting and the fireside we were able to ask him a lot of questions. It was pretty amazing and by the end of the day my head was spinning from the awesomeness of it all. The theme of both meetings, for us and the young single adults, was about being an agent and not an object. Objects are acted upon, but agents act. He also told some amazing stories. Someone at the YSA fireside asked him a question (can't remember what it was) but it had to do something with what he does as an apostle. So he told us what apostles "really" do. He said "most people think apostles go all around the world and just speak and go to meetings. Yes, that's what we do when we go places, but those aren't the reasons why we go. We go because there is someone in every place that needs us. We go to find the "one." " I loved that, and there was a lot more he said about it but that's the gist of it. I think overall what I took from seeing him speak all day was an even stronger conviction and testimony that he is truly and apostle of the Lord. Without a doubt he is!! So, GREAT day. :)

Also! We had neat miracles. Last week we had two exchanges and they both went awesome! Miracles really do happen on exchanges. On Tuesday Sister Zhao from the VC came with me to Berkeley and both our lessons went awesome, especially with with our investigator from Brazil! For the second exchange I went with Sister Smith to her area (Spanish speaking) and although I wasn't able to really teach with her, in the lesson we had with an investigator I could feel the spirit so strong as she taught. It was crazy awesome. Also, we got a new investigator last week! He's a freshman at UC Berkeley (a friend of someone from the ward). He is Korean and super sweet. Has zero religious background but had friends back in Korea who were members so he's familiar with the church. Additionally, last night, we extended a baptismal date to our investigator from Brazil and she accepted!!! She's amazing!!! I was a little nervous all day about it but the lesson went awesome and the spirit was just right. So, that was another huge miracle.

Well I'm out of time, but I love you all and thanks for your prayers. So much happens that I can't write it all, but just know that you're prayers work because throughout the day the Lord creates miracles and helps me to do things that in the past I would have thought to be impossible for me. So thank you. I love you all!!!

Love,

Sister Johnson

LAUREN'S NOVEMBER 10, 2014 E-MAIL

PLANNING FOR THE HOLIDAYS AT THE VISITOR'S CENTER

 ITS GONNA BE NUTS !!!

 Nutty Lauren doing deep cleaning

Hello Mother!

This is going to be a quick email! My new companion Sister Orantes is awesome!!! We've served at the VC together so I already know her really well. :) We have so much fun together; probably too much fun. She is from Houston Texas, 22, really fun and outgoing, sporty but also really girly, loves Disney princesses and pandas. She reminds me of Ella actually. Hehe. She is half Mexican, half, El Salvadorian, so she speaks Spanish. Being back in Berkeley is strange but fun!! It's good to see all the faces I first met when I came out on my mission. :) I don't know the address of our apartment but it's right next to the temple and we live with two other sisters, Sister Wang from Tawaiin (a different one than my last companion) and Sister Vaiangina (from Tonga). So it's been super fun because I've never lived with other sistas before! Our apartment is huge also. It's basically like a little house.

So this past week has been tiring but a lot of fun! We've been creating the VC schedule for the rest of this transfer and getting ready for the Christmas stuff coming up, which is going to be nuts. Basically during the month of December we are at the VC all day every day so we only have like 3 hours in our area a week. We have multiple performances and events going on every day so the VC is going to be suuuper busy. But it is going to be so much fun!

Oh yeah! We also found a new investigator this past week! She is from Brazil and is dating one of the members in the BerkeleyYSA ward. He's taught her a little already and she's already read a lot of the Book of Mormon. She is so sweet! So we are really excited about her :) We also have another investigator who is awesome and are working with a lot of recent converts and less actives in the ward. So the transfer is off to a great start!

Oh yeah, and Brother G***** got baptized on Saturday! I wasn't able to go, but there were over 60 people there and he was super happy. Hopefully I will get pics from Sister Wang soon so I can send them. I really wish I could have been there! But that's okay. Such is life!

That's it for now, sorry this email is short but we don't have very much time today (we are going to deep clean and rearrange stuff in our apartment today, which I'm super excited about haha). Tonight we are going on exchanges, so it's the first exchange of the transfer!

Thank you for all the updates and everything! Love you all so much!!

Love,

Sister Johnson

LAURENS NOVEMBER 3, 2014 E-MAIL

TRAINING A NEW SISTER

AND TRANSFERRING BACK TO BERKELEY!

Hello!

Sorry, this e-mail is going to be a little bit short! Sounds like a fun Halloween!! Last week was fun for us too! We had our Trunk or Treat Tuesday evening. We taped candy to temple-cards and decorated our trunk with a sign that said "Happy Halloween! Invite a friend to the Oakland Temple!" (Super creative huh? ;) Jk) So that was fun! We took pictures of some of the kids and their creative costumes. It was fun to mingle with everyone. :) Wednesday morning we had a Visitor's Center breakfast and the four sisters who are leaving this week gave their departing testimonies (Sister Kim, Sister Leung, Sister Bayot and Sister De Aquino). I'm so sad they are all leaving!! Wahh! It is especially crazy that Sister Kim (my trainer) is already going home! When I came out, she was out as long as I am now. Weird!! 

For Halloween, we did our weekly planning that day, then went to a member's home for dinner and went home by 6 to deep clean. We moved the fridge and cleaned underneath and on the walls and the stove. There was a a lot of grime and grease stains so it was exhilarating to clean! Haha. So that was a fun night! Saturday, Brother G***** had his baptismal interview! He's getting baptized this Saturday!! Everyone is so excited for him! His conversion has taken 5 years. So it's about time!

So transfers are this week, and sadly I will be leaving Moraga. Guess where I'm going? Back to the Berkeley University Ward!! I will be a sister trainer with Sister Orantes. A sister trainer goes on exchanges, gives trainings and works with the other leaders in the mission. I'm excited but also don't feel qualified to be a sister trainer. But, the Lord qualifies those who He calls right? Let's hope so. :) What I'm most excited about though is 1) I get to be with Sister Orantes- whom I love and is awesome!!!! And 2) I get to go on exchanges with all the other VC sisters and learn from all of them. :) I think that's what I'm most excited about, is I'll get to learn a lot from the other sisters. Hopefully that's not selfish haha. Of course I am excited too that I get to help them and support them in whatever way the Lord needs me to. :) So, there's that. I'm really going to need a lot of prayers so please pray for me.

I have learned a lot though since being in Moraga. When I first got here I was told it is a really slow and a difficult area for missionary work. But, I saw the opposite. Although it may not historically produce baptisms like other areas, I saw many miracles- some big and some smaller that have the potential to be big. If we believe that an area is slow, it will be. If we believe and have faith that miracles will happen, and act on that faith by working hard and being obedient, miracles will happen. It's all about faith and nothing happens without it. This past week as I studied faith, the principle that Ether chapter 12 and the good ol' Bible Dictionary teaches about faith stood out a lot, which is that faith produces miracles- miracles do not produce faith. It is only until after we exercise our faith that Heavenly Father is going to show us a miracle or give us a witness. :)

That's pretty much it for today. I didn't have as much time today so sorry it was short! Thanks for your prayers and love! Have a fantastic week!

Love,

Sister Johnson

PICTURES - MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2014 E-MAIL

P- DAY IS FUN DAY

 During Chinese food buffet

 After Chinese food buffet

 All the mail that Lauren isn't getting from us - except for e-mails (which we are good at)

 Getting everyone in on the selfie

Oakland Temple Sisters on P-day

Hey we're twins!! We also had our primary program on Sunday, and we went to a member's home for dinner and also had pot roast! Yipee!

This past week was good! We had some neat things happen. We were able to visit (finally) a former investigator who we haven't seen in a long time. He is still waiting for permission to be baptized. So it was so good to see him! We shared a simple thought with him on hope. As I've studied hope, I've learned that hope is as important as faith. Hope is not only the wish, or the desire, but having optimism - especially when the immediate future is foggy. Faith is action, and hope is the attitude! We can have faith, but if we aren't hopeful, we're not going to be as happy. Hope also teaches us patience, and that we know that in the end, everything will work out together for our good. It talks about this in Romans 8. It's a great chapter in the scriptures about hope!

We also had a neat experience stopping by another former investigator's home (he investigated back in 2009). He actually moved a few years back, but his grandma still lives there so we decided to stop by and meet her. She was super nice and let us in, and T*** (the former investigator) was there! So we ended up talking for like 45 minutes in their living room. He investigated for a year and loved coming to church. What is sad is he said it was a sacrifice for him to stop going to church because he enjoyed it so much but with the feelings of pressure and doubts, he stopped going. Anyways, we had a great discussion. He asked a lot of questions and even though he said he will never convert, we were grateful we stopped by and got to know him. And he doesn't even live there - he lives about 2 hours away but just happened to be there when we stopped by. We invited him to come to church with us and he said he would consider it. So there is hope! Heavenly Father definitely led us there that night. :) 

We also decided to call another former investigator who we stopped by a few weeks back but wasn't home. He answered and was super nice! We invited him to some upcoming events and asked if we could visit him - and he accepted! It was a bit of a surprise because that doesn't happen a lot haha, especially over the phone (for our area at least). We also were able to get in contact with a member who sent us a referral a few months back. We visited his friend, but at the time he said it wasn't a good time and he wasn't interested. When we talked to the member though the other night, he said that he told him we stopped by and is interested in having us visit again. So that was also a surprise! Some other neat things: M***** came to church yesterday!! He has finally been getting back to us and said he needs to come to church. So he did and he said he really needed it.  We just want to do all we can to help and support him. He's such a great guy!

We are also getting everything ready for Brother G******'s baptism! Everyone in the ward is so excited for him. He is awesome and has become so enthusiastic with such a strong desire to learn. It's amazing to see!!!

There are a lot of fun things happening this week: tomorrow we have our ward Trunk or Treat, Wednesday we have a Visitor's Center breakfast at Elder and Sister Poulsen's home, then Friday is Halloween (which means deep cleaning!) And then Saturday is Brother G's baptism interview and transfer calls! Unbelievable that it's the last week of the transfer!! This next transfer is going to be awesome also because Elder Bednar is coming! Yay! I am so excited for the Holiday season!!!

Also I'd just like to add how awesome all the families are in our ward. Every time we drive home from visiting members or having dinner with them, we are in awe by their kindness and love for us! It is so inspiring to be able to be around so many wonderful people. And the awesome thing is all of these wonderful families are not only here, but everywhere! All over the world! The Gospel is spreading more each day. And, even though things in the world are getting worse, the Gospel is growing stronger. I can feel it and see it, especially being at the Visitor's Center. I love seeing people of all different backgrounds and cultures come in and have an interest in the Gospel. The work is progressing and it's our duty to share it. This is what we're all here for! Invite friends to activities and to church. Share thoughts with them. Miracles will happen as you do!!!

Love you all and have a Happy Halloween week! :-)

Sister Johnson