SISTER JOHNSON'S MAY 18, 2015 E-MAIL

LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Sister Halverson!  Our little Mini Missionary!!!

Sister Halverson!!!

​Indian Buffet!

I've missed Indian food (haven't had a lot on my mission) and Sister Houskeeper loves Indian food too. So today was the day for Indian buffet!

The awesome couple who I've met at the Visitors' Center who paid for our dinner!

 ​J****, an awesome member who is moving to Arizona! We're gonna miss him!

Hello there!

No email this week?? :''''( ...........that's okay though, things must be pretty crazy over there. :) And! I got Brad and Tatum's invitation today! It's so beautiful and wonderful!!!!! I'm so excited for them! And it's less than two weeks away which is crazy! I better get an explosion of pictures in my email the Monday after the wedding. I expect 200 pictures at the very least. Just kidding. :-)

Well this past week was just wonderful an amazing. I am loving serving in the Oakland 9th ward SO much! And Sister Houskeeper is also awesome and doesn't even need me to train her because she's just wonderful!

A few great things happened. First off we had the pleasure of hosting a mini missionary for the weekend! It was a blast and Sister Halverson is a pure angel! She is in high school and wants to serve a mission after she's done school for a year. She'll be going to BYU next year in the ballet program so maybe Chandler will meet her. :) It was really fun though and she was our good luck charm because a lot of miracles happened while she was with us. The first is that we had a hand-off lesson with some sisters serving in the Oakland 1st ward. They met a guy on the street named O*** who is from somewhere near Ethiopia, but he lives in our area so we joined the lesson with them so that we can continue teaching him. Omar is the coolest guy! We taught him the Restoration and he was blown away by what we shared, especially with the first vision. His words were, "this is what I've been waiting for." Pretty cool huh? So that was the first miracle. The second was our lesson with D***, our middle-aged Korean investigator. The last few lessons with him have been a doozy because he likes to talk, which, don't get me wrong, can be great, but then it's difficult to really teach him anything. But, this time we set some solid expectations for our lesson and he was really considerate of our time and let us teach! And Dave really is the nicest person. He always pops us popcorn and soda and has tons of boxes of fruit loops that he tries to give us haha. But the coolest part is when we told him about the first vision. (We still hadn't taught him all of the restoration haha) His expression was unlike anything I've ever seen. His jaw dropped and he was in shock! He didn't know what to say. Then he finally said, "I thought Moses was the only one who saw God!!" It was just neat because I don't think I've seen a reaction like that before. His as well as O***'s reactions were the best I've seen to the first vision and they both happened in the same week. It made Sister Houskeeper and I realize how truly amazing this vision was and that there are some people who, when they first hear it, just have so much pure faith to believe that it actually happened without asking any questions or having preconceived notions. That's what's awesome about teaching people who have never heard of "Mormons" before. The Spirit can truly testify to their hearts and they don't have doubts, rumors and other stuff to get in the way of that. So, those were two really cool experiences. I wish everyone reacted like that! Because the first vision really is true and is amazing. A 14 year-old farm boy really did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

Also, Sunday was awesome. Our members are so funny and one of our members sang and played piano and it was mind-blowingly good. I was also asked to bear my testimony which I was really grateful to be able to do. I shared one of my favorite verses from the Book of Mormon which is 1 Nephi 17:13. It says, "And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inashmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promise land; and ye shall know that is it by me that ye are led." I love this scripture because on my mission I've recognized how this is literally true. When we do what he asks us he illuminates our paths and helps us to accomplish things we never thought we could do. And I love the last part of that verse because we will know that it is indeed Christ who leads us. Not anyone else, but Christ. He is the only one who can.

After church we went stop by some less-active members and didn't have much success with finding anyone home, but the last home we stopped by had a miracle. We asked the neighbor next door if she knew the member that lived there and she at first said no, but then we started talking to her and told her we teach people about Jesus Christ, she opened up and said she actually does know the member haha. Then, as we started talking she told us about her beliefs and we asked if we could come back to share more with her and she was more than willing to have us. I love how it's always the last person we meet who is the treasure!

Well, that pretty much sums up the highlights of the week. I love you all and have fun!!!!

Love,

Sister Johnson