Hola y'all!
This was a crazy week full of so many miracles! As President Varner always said, "when you see a cardinal, you'll know that angels are among you". That truly did happen for me this week.
On Tuesday we had p-day which was so weird that it wasn’t on a Monday, but that’s ok. My missionary email kind of broke on p-day so sorry none of the pictures worked, they should work now and my email just got fixed today! After p-day we got to visit this lady named Ms. Kristin, who just moved here and had a baptism date for Sunday the 12th! MIRACLE! We were thrilled to go and meet her. She was so sweet and so nice and so ready to be baptized! We got to answer all of her baptism questions and get to know her better! She really recognizes the importance of God in her life! As we were heading out we discovered a law of chastity issue...which meant we would have to push her baptismal date back...then we were leaving and kind of got chased by a chicken on the way to the car jajaja didn’t think that would happen on my mission. Then we spent our 22nd night on the floor but we finally have a bed bug spray appointment on Wednesday at 8am.
Wednesday was transfer day! Sister Farris and Sister Cottle had to wake up and leave at 5am to get down to Hammond, Louisiana so that Sister Cottle could transfer to Albany and Sister Farris could give her presentation on the new 12 week training program she created in like 2 days (she is so awesome) to all the new trainees and trainers. This meant that Sister Earl (our new STL (Sister Training Leader)) and I were companions for the day! It was SO WEIRD not being with Sister Farris! But Sister Earl and I got everything ready for the bed bug guy at 8am...then it was 8:15am and we started freaking out! So we decided to go for a walk and just as we were coming to the apartment office a TERMIN-X truck pulled up! We stopped him and asked what apartment he was looking for...it wasn’t us...so we told him our story and convinced him to come and spray our apartment! MIRACLE! He even told us he was gonna “baptize the apartment!” jajaja...he didn’t realize how funny that was to us...then we biked to the church (our home for the day while the apartment was getting sprayed). Then we biked to an appointment with Ms. Sheila, but when we were almost there Sister Farris called us to say that Ms. Sheila cancelled on us. I was really worried to do a lesson without Sister Farris, but still sad it fell through. But we decided to visit some of the people Sister Earl has instead. The first person was Ms. Sandy and we were trying to decide whether to share a scripture or ask about service opportunities. We chose to share a scripture and by the end of it, she brought up the service place she works at on her own! Let me just say that when you put God first, you can accomplish everything! Then we visited Mr. Chales, shared a scripture and biked back to the church. Later we headed out on another biking adventure to Hillsboro to visit some referrals from Sister Earl’s areabook (list of contact info for people in our area that the missionaries have met). On the way there, just before the “death hill” it started POURING rain! Luckily you couldn’t tell the difference between sweat and rain jajaja. None of the referrals were interested, but we did get to talk to some Baptists (also not interested) on the way back to church! Then we prepared for Ms. Kristin’s law of chastity lesson that was gonna be ROUGH! She literally opened up to us about how hard of a life she has had and how excited she is to be baptized...then we had to break it to her that her baptism would be postponed and explained why. She didn’t take it well and saw it as choosing between her baptism and her boyfriend (which we emphasized was not what we were asking her to do because she could still have both) and was silent the rest of the time. It was probably the hardest thing I’ve had to do so far on the mission and saw how devastated she was when just an hour before she was so excited to join the church. We invited her to pray about it and let’s just say, there was no baptism on Sunday...then we biked home, changed into exercise clothes and walked to Bishop’s house to mow his lawn AND one of Sister Earl’s investigators’ lawn. We mowed them so fast so that we could be done by 8:45pm and then quickly go back home before 9pm. And on the way home we saw FIREFLIES again because it had rained today! They are seriously just so cool, even the second time!! We made it home 5 minutes before 9pm, showered, ate dinner and put the apartment back together (from the bug spray) and Sister Farris arrived just before 10:30 with our new quad-mate Sister Burns! They were so tired from the 5.5 hour drive so we went inside and went to bed!
On Thursday we woke up to our first sleep in actual beds! It was quite nice, a little weird not sleeping on an air mattress, but nice. We took an early morning bike ride to the Miskins to do some service and help them clean their house in preparation for the move! Afterwards the quad biked to the church for the big leadership training meeting over Zoom. Sister Farris had to explain the mission leaders’ roles involving the new training program. It was very official! After that we biked home and decided to take the car to our first lesson with Mr. David because we were both exhausted from yesterday. Sister Farris’ 10+ hours in the car and me biking 15.2 MILES yesterday! A new record! I was so sore after just biking to the Miskins! It was so nice to take the car, but also strange because it was our first time in the car without the other Sisters because we always bike. Then we had an AMAZING lesson with Mr. David as we read some of 3 Nephi 11 with him from the Book of Mormon. He asked so many questions that really showed how much he was paying attention. It was great! Then we drove home, stopped by some houses and left notes and went to bed...in OUR BEDS!
On Friday we had a morning lesson with Mr. Brian over the phone and discussed the chapter in 3 Nephi 27 that he had read about Christ’s New Testament church. We kind of “fractured his testimony” in his home church as Sister Farris put it because he pointed out that Christ’s church had 12 apostles, but his church does not have 12 apostles...then he agreed to have a tour of our church tomorrow and we sent him a picture of the 12 apostles today!! After we drove to district counsel and Sister Farris and I slept almost the whole way there...we needed it jajaja. We even got to celebrate Elder Davis’ birthday with the cake district leader Elder Tauraa made and the 4 half gallons of Blue Bell we brought! It was weird having 2 new greenies (new missionaries) and not being the youngest one in the district anymore. Then we drove home and later went to the Miskins to pick up a bunch of food from them.
On Saturday the Nashs drove us to church to give the tour to Mr. Brian! It went so well! He was a little shy at first, but then opened up more and started asking more questions. At the end of the tour we asked him how he was feeling and said that he knows this is the true church...At first I was shocked that a man, we only just met in person today and who we’ve only read from the Book of Mormon like 3 or 4 times with could know the church was true, then he said he still needed to pray about it. IT WAS CRAZY! The spirit that filled the room and the amount of joy I felt from knowing that this man was one step closer to better knowing Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father was like nothing I've ever felt before. It was such a miracle! Then we went home, had some of the Miskin's beef and bean soup (that had a pretty thick consistency for a soup) for lunch and then went out on our bikes during an excessive heat warning with the temperature being like 97° but the heat index at like 115! IT WAS SO HOT! We took lots of breaks and on the way there Sister Farris stopped and shared the story of someone in the Martin handcart company with me: “‘I have pulled my handcart when I was so weak and weary from illness and lack of food that I could hardly put one foot ahead of the other. I have looked ahead and seen a patch of sand or a hill slope and I have said, I can go only that far and there I must give up, for I cannot pull the load through it.’” He continues: “‘I have gone on to that sand and when I reached it, the cart began pushing me. I have looked back many times to see who was pushing my cart, but my eyes saw no one. I knew then that the angels of God were there.'" Sister Farris said that she knew angels would be with us pushing our bikes. That day we biked in the shortest amount of time EVER getting to Hillsboro, it was hard but I wasn't even half as tired as I usually am during that biking journey. AND we biked past Hillsboro, the farthest area we've ever been to. It was truly a miracle! Then our lesson with Mr. David went amazing! He didn't read, BUT we went over the Book of Mormon more in depth and he really seemed to understand it! He even said that he had never heard Joseph Smith explained to him like that! Then we started biking home, took a shake break at Betty's and made it home. Now the bike ride there was easy, the bike ride back home (which is usually so easy) was the hardest it's ever been! It took us twice as long as usual! It was a strange biking day! Also we got home and the Miskin soup did NOT agree with us!
We had a pretty normal Sunday other than Sister Farris and I spending most of the day on the toilet, but we're doing better!
Overall this week was a whole mix of stuff, but it just continually shows me how much I love being a missionary out here in Arkansas doing the Lord's work. I know that when we truly strive to do our best to align our will with God's, there will be angels among us and we will see miracles happen. I know that we can find joy in Christ and in sharing His light with others.
As always, have a blessed week!
Smile because God loves you and remember that I love, love, love y'all too!
Love,
Sister Johnson
July Bike Mileage: 62.9 miles
June Bike Mileage: 61.6 miles
Pictures!!!
1. A 4 Sisters bag of rice at Walmart we found pretty funny!
2. Sister Earl and I after biking in the rain.
3. Cleaning the bathroom as we did service for the Miskins!
4. Cool street name on the way to Mr. David's.
5. Behind the scenes shot.
