STUNG BY A BEE

BUT SLEPT THROUGH THE EARTHQUAKE

Howdy doodles!!!

Don't worry, I'm alive!! I found out about the earthquake the morning after it happened! When we went in the VC one of the Senior sisters asked us if we felt it, because she says a lot of people felt it, but she didn't. I actually faintly remember waking up to something the night before, but didn't remember much. Then I thought maybe I didn't feel it, but the mom in the family we had dinner with last night said she woke up to it and it was really loud! So maybe I did wake up to it! It was in Napa, which is a few hours from where we are (I think?). I heard there was a lot of damage there in Napa, but none here that I know of. It was a 6.0 I think, which is big! So, that's my exciting earthquake experience :)

I am glad you get to spend some time with Granddaddy and everyone else, and so excited to hear about Cathy's wedding! It sounds like it's going to be really fun! And that is cute - I do remember her always loving mac and cheese! Send her my love and congratulations and that I hope it's a magical day for her! :) Be sure to send lots of pictures too!!

This past week was interesting! All the lessons we had went way over time because everyone we visited loooves to talk! Haha. Which isn't bad - everyone just likes to tell really long stories haha. But, it was neat to get to hear people's stories and experiences. I always love hearing those. We still haven't been able to meet with our newest investigator M****** (the one who works at S******) for a few weeks now, which is a big bummer, and he still hasn't come to church yet! We will hopefully see him this week though. He says he still wants to learn and meet with us, it's just his work schedule is all over the place and he lives far. He's not in our area actually, so technically we shouldn't be the ones teaching him haha, but he says he wants to meet with us in Moraga because he is here more during the day. We will see what happens though! Our other investigator L*** is continuing to do really well and we are going to re-set her baptismal date for mid-September this week when we see her. :) Other than that, we have just been focusing on ways to find new people to teach and have been meeting with the recent converts in the ward weekly to support them and help them continue to learn. :) We love all of the recent converts! All of them are awesome. I love seeing them have the desire to learn more and more. It makes me excited to learn! And I'm so lucky I get to learn, read the scriptures and study the Gospel each day. Sometimes I wish personal study was a couple hours longer because there is so much I want to read and dive into that I can't do in 1 hour haha. But, that's okay! I'll just have to do that when I get home!

Well, that's pretty much it for this week - sorry it's short and not the most exciting! Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. We definitely need them out here! 

Oh yeah! I got stung by a bee the other day! My first bee sting ever! Haha.

Thanks for everything!!! Oh and I did get the GPS - thank you so much!!!!!! I love you and hope yours and everyone else's week is magical!!!

Love,

Sister Johnson

Earthquake!!!!

EARTHQUAKE!!!!

Hello, friends.  It appears that the 6.0 earthquake which occurred at 3:30 on Sunday morning was 45 miles north of Moraga, Lauren's current location.  Also, it is not in her mission or in the County that her mission is located in.  We did not receive a phone call from anyone in her mission so we are assuming that all in well in Moraga.  We should be hearing from her Monday and will know more about her experience in her e-mail.  Prayers and love go out to the people in Northern California who were in the earthquake zone!

LAUREN'S AUGUST 18, 2014 E-MAIL - A NEW COMPANION

HELLO SISTER WANG!

LAST PICTURE WITH SISTER HENDERSON

 NEW COMPANION - SISTER WANG!

 

Hello Mother!!

I forgot to tell you last week that today is our P-day because it was our temple day today! So we didn't have P-day yesterday which is why I didn't email. Sorry 'bout that! :-)

Yayyyyyy I'm so glad you're doing well and are recovering so quickly! Is Brad a better nurse than me? Or was I better? (Jk, I already know the answer to that... I am glad he is doing his best though :-) hehe) Oh and thank you for the GPS! We've been doing fine without it actually. And it's fun to use an actual real-live map!! Haha, how sad is that. A real-live map. This generation....I just don't know. But, the GPS will be a big help and will make things faster! So thank you!!!!

It has been an awesome first week to the transfer! Sister Wang is awesome!!! She is so much fun. She is so sweet, but also so blunt. Haha. She makes me laugh so hard!! So our first week together has been really fun!! As for people we are teaching - L*** (13 years old) will be getting baptized in September sometime! What an amazing girl she is! We visited her yesterday and she asked us a ton of questions about being a missionary and said she has been thinking about going on a mission some day!! I just love her. And she's so spiritually mature!! I can't believe how much she's grown since we first started teaching her and her dad. When I was 13, I was a doofus. (Well, I might still be one...let's not go there though) But not her! And her dad is just amazing. He was called to be a cub scout leader and is so excited for it! They're family is on fire I tell ya!!

So Moraga is Moraga! Beautiful, rich, quiet, polite people but not interested because they're content with their lives. We do meet some really neat people though. There are hidden gems in Moraga, I just know it. We just have to find them!!

The Visitor's Center has been fun like always!! And I'm glad that I get to keep being a part of Chinese tours! Haha. Maybe it's a sign from Heavenly Father that I need to learn Chinese since my last companion and current companion speak Chinese. Hmm..............

Well, that's all for this week. I hope you enjoy your week and the rest of summer!!! Love you all forever!!!

Love,

Sister Johnson

SISTER JOHNSON'S AUGUST 11, 2014 E-MAIL

GOODBYE SISTER HENDERSON

 Sisters who are leaving this week!

 Sister Henderson literally at the finish line in her mission!

 Sister Henderson, Corrine (a new member) and Sister Johnson

 23rd Birthday at Loard's Ice Cream Parlor with Bro and Sis Lavendar

 The District Hike

 Elder Eh found a stick that looks like a gun!

Mommy!!!

So sorry I didn't finish emailing you last week! It has been a great couple of weeks though! I am so proud of Brad! Tell him I say Congrats dude!!!! I don't know if I mentioned it before but there are a ton of investment bankers in my ward and I always tell them about Brad and they are always so impressed that he's with JP Morgan and such. I could never remember though what position he works under and one time I told one of the members at dinner that his position has to do something with the word "culture"...haha (because the word diversified makes me think of the word culture) and he was like "hmmm....that doesn't sound like something that would have to do with investment banking" haha, I felt dumb! Lol. Now I know though! It's Diversified Industries. :) I am glad he is home now though and that ya'll get to be movie buddies again! And yes he's lookin very sharp! Tell him to send me an email some time telling me about the fun adventures he had in NY!

I am so glad you're doing well by the way!! And thank you for the birthday gift and the tops! Did I tell you I needed some white tops? Because I don't remember doing that....but I must have because I did need some! So thank you :-) For my birthday, Elder and Sister Lavendar (Visitor's Center senior couple) took Sister Henderson and I out for lunch! We went to a yummy Mexican place and after got Sis. H's and my favorite ice cream called "Loard's" ice cream. Then at the VC that night some of the other Sisters brought me a cake! So I was spoiled that day :) 

You want to know where I go shopping and what I buy? Haha, well I go to this mystical grocery store called Safeway and I buy a bunch of weird alien food. Just kidding, lately I've been buying spinach, frozen chicken, carrots and honey mustard dressing and have been having salads at the VC for lunch and dinner! And they are super yummy! I also buy green apples and delicious peaches every week. I also buy some sort of frozen food that I can make for dinner, like frozen pasta and I like to buy those cheap but really good PastaRoni's or RiceARoni's and make those for dinner when we don't have dinner with members. I also buy really yummy ham and provolone cheese and make grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with a salad, or I'll make eggs and ham. I also have been obsessed with juice. I have to have some sort of juice every week! Like 100% Cranberry juice or Strawberry Orange Banana juice. So that's pretty much what I've been eating! 

Last week we went on a district hike and it was super fun! It was a super easy hike (basically walking on a dirt road the whole time) but it was really pretty and at the top we could see Moraga from where we were. At the end we had a pic-nic potluck (which you would think would be pretty lame since we're all poor missionaries) but everyone brought so much food so we stuffed our faces haha. It was so nice to go on a hike though; that was the first real hike I've been on in a while!

Another fun thing that we did last week was do a service project for homeless people called Homeless Connect. We did it in Richmond (about 30 minutes north of Oakland) at a convention center. It was so much fun!!! Most of our zone and another zone went so we had about 50 missionaries and some senior couples there. It was a community event so there were a lot of other people from the community as well, so there were a total of about 200 volunteers. But what it entailed were there were a bunch of booths and stations set up for the people to go through to get connected with resources such as housing/shelter, insurance, eye care, hair cuts, employment, the DMV, etc. They were also served breakfast and lunch. Sister Henderson and I were in charge of welcoming the guests after they filled out some paper work and taking them to their first station. We got to meet a lot of really neat, funny and humble people! There were some that were making us laugh a lot because they were dancing and being all crazy on one of the hallways. It was just so fun to help them and be a cheerful face. We also got to talk to some of them about religion and invited them to church. We had a neat conversation with one of the other volunteers at lunch and invited her to church and gave her information to learn more and she seemed really interested. :) The only sad part is I didn't bring my camera so I didn't get any pictures!!! Oh well!

Anywho, so this is Sister Henderson's last day as a normal missionary! Tomorrow she gets to have a fun day with all the other missionaries who are leaving and then goes home on Wednesday. I am going to miss her so much!!!!!! But I am so excited for her! So I will be staying in Moraga and my new companion is Sister Wang! She is from Taiwan and is super adorable and sweet!!! So I'm really excited I get to be with her and start a new adventure. :) 

Well, that's pretty much it for today! I love you all and love hearing about all the fun stuff going on at home! Thank you for everything!!

Love,

Sister Johnson

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