SISTER JOHNSON'S MAY 26, 2015 E-MAIL

THE CITY OF OAKLAND!!!

#Oakland

Well hello there!

I bet everyone is running around like crazy this week.... I can't wait to hear about all the wedding stuff! 

Everything in Oakland is just plain great and awesome. Last week we met a lady named T****** while going to visit a less active. She really liked us so we asked if we could come back the next day and she said yes. So we went back with a member (Sister S********) and it was one of the most memorable lessons of my mission. T******* is soooo crazy and sooooo funny. She basically told us her whole life story and is one of the most animated and exuberant individuals. What's even more amazing though is her story. She has been off of drugs for 10 years and her and her husband are the nicest people just trying to make it in life and are so grateful for all they have. She is excited to learn from us and loves us.

Another exciting miracle recently is that we've met a few times with someone who has been investigating the church on and off for 4 years. He's had many baptismal dates and they have all not happened. Well recently we met with him and he told us he wants to be baptized. We extended a date for this Sunday (the 31st) and he excepted! Now the only thing we have to do is do everything in our power to make sure it happens! He is an older man, in his late 60's, and is so sweet but something always seems to get in his way. Not his time though! The ward is really excited about this because he's been learning for so long and just needs to enter into that water!

Those are a few highlights from the week. We went to the temple today and there are other pics we took recently. Life is great!

I love you all and have a wonderful week and CONGRATULATIONS BRAD AND TATUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) I'm so happy for you both and for your new family! I can't wait to see you when I come visit in a few months! Enjoy your special day!!!!

Love,

Sister Johnson

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 

SISTER JOHNSON'S MAY 11 E-MAIL

BAPTISMS!!!

This is E** J** from the Berkeley ward! I taught her and she got baptized yesterday. I couldn't go since I'm not serving in Berkeley anymore, but she stopped by the VC after and I got to get a picture with her! Yay!!!!

These are from J*** and E** J**'s baptisms!! J****'s was on Friday and E** J**'s was yesterday. Sad I couldn't be at them but just so happy and thrilled that they happened!!!! Miracles!!!!!!!

J*** ready for Baptism!  with Sister Smith and her companion

E** J** Ready for Baptism!

 

The Berkeley Ward and members that helped with the baptisms!

Howdy hi!

It was great talking to everyone yesterday even though I couldn't understand what people were saying most of the time! Hehe. Just a few things I want to tell you about our week last week. On Monday we had family home evening to celebrate Cinco De Mayo, which was fun. Heavenly Father blessed us with being able to find a ride at the last minute as well for one of our investigator's named D***. (Such a cool name huh?) D*** is 14 and is the sweetest girl ever. We also had a lesson with her last week and we brought Sister Williams with us, who is a-ma-zing. She offered to help D*** with school work and is such a funny lady with a big heart. We have a lot of people like that in our ward. So it's a good time. Yesterday in church, in Gospel Principles class people were sharing memories of their mothers and it was so sweet. I wanted to share how amazing my awesome wonderful perfect mother is but there were too many people that wanted to share so I didn't get to. So, I just want to publicly announce how wonderful my mom is!!!! She writes me the most amazing emails every week and will help with anything and everything I need help with. She's completely selfless. She's as bubbly as a bubble bath, as sweet as a field of roses and as wild and quirky as a classroom full of clowns. (That's me trying to be poetic) :) I just love my mom. She's the bestest!! Love you mommy!

Well, I hope you all have an amazing week. Don't forget to pray and read your scriptures! Love you!

Love,

Sister Johnson

SISTER JOHNSON'S MAY 4 E-MAIL!

MOTHER'S DAY PHONE CALL!!!

May 4 from Lauren:

Yes I will be calling you this weekend but I'm not sure at all what time. We don't even know who will be having us over yet. It could be in the morning or in the evening. So, you'll just have to be ready at any time! It will most likely be in the evening though possibly...I don't know yet! And it's so cool Giselle came!!!! I'm so glad she got to meet you all!!!! Isn't she awesome??????? I love her!!!!

May 10th Phone call:

Lauren called on Sunday, May 10th to wish me a Happy Mother's Day!  We had the same set up that we had at Christmas and Mother's Day last year.  We were on Google Chat with Alex and Brittany in Utah, Brad was here with us and Lauren in Oakland!  Unfortunately, we couldn't see Lauren!  She could see us, but we couldn't see her.  It was her internet conductivity or something.  But we could hear her!  We had about a 45 minute phone call and talked about the upcoming wedding and Sister Orantes' visit.  It was great to talk to her, but it was like, "we're going to see you in 3 months anyway, so ..."  haha!  Really, it is always great to get everyone together and chat!  I just wish we could have seen her!

May 2 - Guess who Came to Dinner!

 OUR VISIT WITH

 

SISTER ORANTES!!!

Lauren's former companion!

 Steve, Donna and Sister Orantes!!

No, this isn't Lauren, its Brittany with Sister Orantes!

May 2

Hi all you Blog readers!   We had a wonderful visit this weekend from Giselle Orantes, her mother, Peela and her former missionary companion, Mariba.  They had all just come from Peela and Mariba's Missionary Reunion in Snow Flake, Arizona.  Mariba came all the way from Mexico and Peela came from Houston to be with their former mission president.  Lauren's former mission companion, Giselle, was the sweetest, cutest, most lovely person and we so much enjoyed meeting her.  It was so fortunate that they had the mission reunion in Arizona so that we could have them stay with us.  It was a fun few days!  As an added bonus, Brittany happened to be visiting!  It was great that Brittany and Giselle got to meet!  Here are some of the highlights of their visit that I gave to Lauren!

Me:  "Giselle had her nails done because her mother took her first thing to get pampered when she got home.  She said she would wear them until they fell off and probably wouldn't get new ones put on, but she was so cute and fun.  She said she never laughed so hard as she did with you and that she could see little things that Brittany would do that reminded her of you! Then I was doing things that reminded her of you when we were talking.  She would say, "Sister Johnson makes that face!"  Stuff like that.  haha! 

 Lauren:  "Haha that's funny!! Hehehehehe. She is so amazing!!!! I love her to death. :)"

Me:  I told Brad we were going to look at your baby pictures and watch some funny videos and he said that was going to be very boring so he called Tatum to bring over the kids.  Jagger was so cute and the ladies loved him and thought Presley was so pretty.  They have grandkids of their own.  Jagger was moving the empty square water bottles from the silver shelf over to the family room where we were all sitting.  We said that he was "working" and we would say "do work, Jagger" and I took the pacifier out of his mouth and he threw his head back and laughed and everyone thought it was so cute.  Then Brad took the kids outside to play for  awhile and Presley brought in an orange and I told them they were off of my tree and they couldn't believe it and went out to get oranges for themselves.  We cut them up and ate them at the table with juice everywhere.  They loved our oranges."

Lauren: How fun! Oh, btw, Sis. Houskeeper's brother is getting married June 30th isn't that funny? And he proposed last weekend. So we're both excited because both of our brothers are getting married and neither of us will be there! So we'll be the outcasts together hehe. By the way just so you're aware a month and a half after Brad's wedding I'll be coming home. July 15th! Just want to let you know so that you don't forget about me at the airport haha just kidding!"

 IT WAS A FUN WEEKEND!

SISTER JOHNSON'S APRIL 27 E-MAIL

SAYING GOODBYE TO BERKELEY

AND SISTER SMITH

Sister Smith and Sister Johnson

Roomies w/Sister Smith

District activity last P-day at this really cool boardwalk in Berkeley. Everyone on it was fishing. One of the best districts I've been in! I love them all!

 Had to eat at my fav place in Berkeley on last time

Lots of Goodbyes

Berkeley Singles Ward with J****

Most recent Service project

Plus These Guys literally went Home!

AND SAYING HELLO TO 

SISTER HOUSEKEEPER

AND THE OAKLAND 9TH WARD!!!!

She's a Greenie!

Salutations!

So many wonderful things have happened this past week!! First off, we got to have lessons with all the amazing people we've been teaching in Berkeley before I left on Wednesday. I seriously love all of them to death and they are angels. I will attach pictures of all of them! 

Also, on Wednesday I met my new companion named Sister Houskeeper! We are serving together in the Oakland 9th ward and so far we LOVE it! It is an amazing ward and I am so lucky I get to be with Sister Houskeeper because she's awesome. She's learning so quickly, is so fun and outgoing and is doing so wonderful. She makes my job as a trainer super easy so I'm really blessed. Heavenly Father has spoiled me my whole mission with so many wonderful companions. Seriously I don't understand it. 

We've already seen so many awesome things happen in the past almost week that we've been together! A few neat things that have happened: on Thursday we met our investigator named D*** who is Korean. He is a super nice guy and expressed to us how he wants to have a better life and feels this feeling inside that makes him want to know more about Jesus Christ. He has a lot fears though with God and Jesus because he says he does things he knows he shouldn't like smoke and drink, so he's scared of Them. The member we brought with us though, Sister L******  (super funny because she's really blunt and bold) just told him, "Ya need to forget all that. Just forget that and stop freakin' out. The whole point of the Gospel is to become clean so stop worrying so much." Haha, it might sound lame reading it but experiencing it was the funniest thing ever. And if it was another person, they might have been offended, but it was exactly what D*** needed to hear. After she said that he was like, "Really?? Oh thank you so much!!!" And kept thanking her and was so happy haha. So it was pretty great. 

Also at the Visitors' Center we met two people from Vietnam, one of which met with missionaries when he lived there many years ago. Anyways, they were outside taking model shots (haha) and we started talking to them and he said he loves missionaries and loves how he feels talking to us. So we brought them in the Visitors' Center, gave them a tour and by the end he really wanted to meet with missionaries again. And guess what? He lives in our area so we get to teach him! Yay!!! We also had many other cool experiences and other people we are excited to meet with and teach. :)

But, the biggest miracle of all.........yesterday after church Sister Houskeeper and I went to the Visitors' Center to pick something up, and Sister Smith (my last companion) saw us and ran up to me to tell me that J*** (our investigator in Berkeley) has decided she wants to be baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You might not realize how big of a miracle this is but it is HUGE miracle!!!! We haven't been teaching her for that long (since January) but we've talked about baptism a lot with her and over these past months it has been amazing to see how much she has grown and gained a testimony of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. And she is SO prepared for this. I can't even begin to describe how amazing she is. Seriously - at the beginning she had zero interest in being baptized and just wanted to learn more. But because she had an open heart, the Spirit was able to touch it. Not only that but she is just a wonderful person. So open-minded, funny, smart, humble, sweet, loving, confident, curious, and an angel sent from Heaven. I can't describe how happy I am for her. Also, E*** ****, who is also going to be baptized in a few weeks, is also an angel. At the end of my last lesson with her - and I tell you this not to boast but to help you understand how sweet of an angel she is - she said the closing prayer and in it thanked Heavenly Father for sending me to her and she starting crying and after the prayer kept crying and I gave her a hug and she thanked me for everything. I knew she was the sweetest person on Earth but didn't know I had that impact on her. I was like what in the world??! Is this really happening?? I was touched. It is all these wonderful people and moments like that that help me to see why Heavenly Father sent me on a mission.

Well, I love you all and thank you for everything. Your prayers work because I've seen so many miracles happen on my mission and know I will see so many more these last few months I am here. I can't wait and am so excited for everything else that's about to happen. :)

Love you!

Sister Johnson