Hola y'all!
Alrighty so this week was ROUGH, but I found so many little joys throughout the week despite all of our crazy problems! Mission life is a roller coaster, but totally worth it!
On Monday Sister Earl found bed bug #2 on her leg that morning. And this one was HUGE! Apparently it was an adult bed bug and it was a lot bigger than I had imagined. Sister Earl caught it, put it in a plastic bag and we started calling people all over again. In better news, since our car is in the shop a member, Sister Utsch, offered to give us a ride to Walmart to get our groceries for the week, so we wouldn't have to go on our bikes. MIRACLE! Another miracle we had was during our paper area book (book full of past progress records and teaching records) calling when Ms. Elizabeth answered the phone. She was busy working, but asked US to explain how the Bible and the Book of Mormon work together! We got her address and prayed it was within walking distance (since Sister Farris's bike was missing a tube) and it was 1.9 miles away! MIRACLE! Then one of our investigators, Ms. Mary, called us back and she is just amazing and can't wait to make us dinner of chicken and collard greens!
On Tuesday guess what we found in the morning?!? Bed bug #3! Sister Earl found it on Sister Cottle's bed and this one was TINY! It was like 10 times smaller than Bed bug #2. So we called even more people and are getting the apartment sprayed (not by us this time) on Saturday morning. Thank goodness because it's a little freaky going to sleep with the thought of bugs in your bed eating you… Then later that day, it was my turn to find bed bug #4 on my shoe! It was just slightly bigger than bed bug #3 and Sister Farris crushed it right away! That was when we bagged all of our clothes and put our sheets in the dryer on high heat to hopefully kill anything on them. Then our STL's (Sister Training Leaders) drove all the way from Monroe to surprise us with bike stuff (for Sister Farris's bike), 2 air mattresses (since we only had 1) AND Blue Bell ice cream (classic Southern deliciousness). MIRACLE! Our lessons that day all fell through, but we made some Alfredo Pasta and had a sleepover in the living room on our 3 air mattresses (Sister Earl slept on the floor though because she is just that nice).
On Wednesday we didn’t find any more bed bugs!!! Whoop whoop! I don’t know if that’s only because we weren’t actually sleeping on our beds though...so...but we had 4 lessons planned for today!! Our first one fell through...our second one happened! It was our first actual lesson with Lea AND we actually got to go INSIDE their apartment!! It went really well and Lea seems more interested in the gospel than Clifton (her recent convert fiance) did! She really likes the idea of having us as friends and a ward family (she has had a really hard life), she just completely lights up when we call her our friend!! :) Then we embarked on foot to Ms. Elizabeth's since Sister Farris's bike is still out of commission. When we got there Ms. Elizabeth's daughter answered the door and said that her mom was still at work… :( BUT we talked with her daughter for a while until Ms. Elizabeth got home! Unfortunately she was called back into work, so we set up a different time. She was really sad about it and even said that her daughter could join our discussion (since she's been into ouji boards lately...creepy…). So we are looking forward to that...Then we walked back home and our lesson with Ms. Mary fell through… :( But Sister Earl made us delicious fried chicken as our last meal before starting our fast (sacrificing 2 meals for a specific purpose) for President Varner and his heart (he just had surgery to get it back in rhythm). Then we had a quad sleepover on the air mattresses while watching The Testaments (church movie about the Bible)!
On Thursday we had district council over the phone since our car is STILL in the shop and won’t be done until Wednesday! It’s ok though, the Elders were super nice about it since we had already asked them to switch the day of district council, thinking we would have the car by now...We called a bunch of people through the paper area book and were even able to finally get a hold of Ms. Jan! She was still hesitant about meeting with us, but we will press forward! We had some outside time and we got to go out in our proselyting clothes for the first time! And we ate the rest of our Chip cookie supply while watching the MTC devotional! Good times! :)
On Friday we got our first member referral!! So after lunch we biked to the animal hospital and dropped off a Book of Mormon to the member to give to her friend! So cool! Then we biked to the church to do some paper area book calling and we realized that we forgot the church keys...so we sat outside like homeless people and called potential investigators. We biked back home and had some outside time, but there weren’t very many people outside...there were some cows though! After dinner, we had a lesson with Sister Russell and Sister Farris was just like “Sister Johnson will be leading this…” I think I died right then and there. Luckily it went ok...I hope...I’m slowly getting better and improving...I think…
Saturday morning the bug guys were supposed to come over and spray our apartment for bed bugs at 8am...so we got everything ready, off the floor, vacuumed and got ready with our bikes to spend the day at the church (with the church keys this time ;)). We waited...had a quad Book of Mormon read...waited...had Come Follow Me (weekly gospel discussion with specific readings) with our district...waited...walked to the apartment office, but it’s closed on Saturdays and Sundays AND they had a training session...so by then it was 10am and the bugs were still there! We will just have to wait until Monday. Later that day we biked to meet with Mr. Fred (who we met during another one of our bike rides) and was so nice, he even met us somewhere closer to where we live so we wouldn't have to bike as far! We even gave him a Book of Mormon! Then we biked to Ms. Elizabeth's to try again...she wasn't there. BUT her daughter, Shamilldriana was home! She told us how her mom still wasn't home and she couldn't talk because she had to walk the dog. That's when Sister Farris said "well is that a big chore for you? We can do it!" And this is surprising because Sister Farris does NOT like animals, so that was an amazing statement! And I GOT TO WALK THEIR DOG!! His name is Bear, a pitbull husky mix who was adorable, a little stinky but it was so fun! And it made me feel like I was back home walking my dog Ripley. :) It was some good service and then we biked back home, with a bike mileage of 6 miles that day.
On Sunday we walked to church again and it was HUMID! Sister Farris said that meant a storm was brewing! whoop whoop! At church with Brother Ricker and Ms. Amber we discovered that I know Amber’s cousin Conner! They showed me a picture and at first I didn’t recognize him, but then I looked at the picture again and I was like, “that’s Elder Ricker!” He was in my online MTC district not too long ago! (But you have to realize that my MTC district never actually met in real life, so I only know what their blurry top halves look like over Zoom jajaja) What a small world! Then they told us some cool stories and we had a lesson about patriarchal blessings (a personal blessing given by a Patriarch in the church that declares your lineage, gives blessings and warnings for your life) since Amber is thinking about getting one! Then we walked home and got to call home for Father's Day! It was great to talk to my dad that day!!! Later Sister Utsch picked us up for my first ever dinner appointment INSIDE someone's house! It was lots of fun and made me think about when I was home and we had the missionaries come to our house for dinner...weird how the rules are now reversed jajaja. Although it was probably the healthiest dinner I'll ever eat on the mission. We had a chicken, pasta salad thing that was really good, some watermelon and then cake brownies things with ice cream for dessert. It was all delicious and the Utschs are soooo nice! On the way home we even saw like 10 deer! And there was a storm so we got to watch the lighting as it poured rain outside. Then the quad got a little crazy and we ran outside dancing in the rain which was so much fun!
Ok I know this email just kinda made it sound like we're not doing missionary work, but it has been really hard to find people AND keep their appointments. I hear that's just the constant struggle of being a missionary though. I am hopeful that we will find more people next week and that our appointments will hold and that the few people we are teaching will progress!! I know that I am out here in Arkansas doing the Lord's work and that when we press forward with faith everything will work out the way it's supposed to :)
Have a blessed week!
Smile because God loves you and remember that I love, love, love you too!
Love y'all,
Sister Johnson
Pictures!!
1. Blue Bell galore!
2. Bed bug #3 who is literally so small next to that nickel!
3. Classic water towers that we see everywhere here in the South
4. A cool path Sister Farris thought might look like Argentina :)
5. We found some cows near our apartment
6. I shared the Book of Mooormon with them!
7. Cute companion photo shoot with some pretty flowers
8. Walking Bear!!
9. Air mattress sleepover!
