BACK IN OAKLAND AGAIN!
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| 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
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