DERIDDER, LOUISIANA!

Hola y'all! 

So this email comes from DeRidder, Louisiana! It was an interesting week of getting used to all sorts of new things, people and places. But enjoy this email! ;)

On Tuesday we finished packing all of our stuff up and by some miracle I FIT EVERYTHING! I really don't know how since I've definitely gained more stuff or as Sister Farris puts it, I'm an accumulator and "She accumulates things I've never even seen accumulated!" Jajaja Then we drove down to Ruston, LA for our last district pday! The Elders bought 6 pizzas for the 12 of us for lunch, which were gone in a flash! We played our usual game of district volleyball, kickball and then Elder Jacobson gave us one of his 30 minute jokes about 12 green golf balls. And then we headed out forever!  We got back to El Dorado and went out to dinner with the Nashs one last time at the Laredo Grill. We said goodbye to Arkansas and spent the night in Monroe, LA. 

Wednesday was transfer day! We drove down to Hammond, LA where I met my new companion Sister Estes while leaving Sister Farris. I was pretty sad to be leaving my first in-person companion and trainer. :( But Sister Estes is pretty nice and we drove to DeRidder, LA making a stop for lunch at Cane's of course! We also lowkey left the mission on the way up as we went through Lake Charles for like over an hour...whoops! Once in DeRidder, we unpacked and then went to a church service at the First United Pentecostal church in town. That is what Sister Estes has been doing to build relationships with the people here. Also fun fact: DeRidder is supposedly the place with the most churches per capita in the whole country! It was a very interesting experience...the minister preaching was very loud, it was very different from what I am used to. Overall he shared a great message about prayer, it just had a different spirit that filled the room.

On Thursday I spent my first official day in DeRidder! We did our usual studies in the morning and I had my own desk! Sister Estes even joined me for language study! She really wants to learn Spanish and already knows a lot, so that's pretty cool. Then we went to Brother Hutton and his mom's house to have spaghetti lunch and clean their house. They also have a huge Great Pyrenees dog named Earl who was literally as big as ME! He was gigantic! And we helped groom him a little by cutting off his matted fur, well Sister Estes did the cutting while I did the distracting by petting jajaja. Then we came home and Sister Estes made chorizo for dinner (she really likes Mexican food and it was real good) and rice pudding for dessert! We also had a lesson with Mr. Robert who is super nice, but he's moving to New Orleans...so our teaching pool is down to 2 people...really only 1 though since we called and he pretended to not be himself :/

Friday I realized just how many bugs are in this apartment...so we live right next to the woods on the first floor, so the bugs just come on in. That morning I found a GIANT SPIDER in the shower and I'm talking like tarantula size spider! I died a little inside! We also have cockroaches, centipedes and termites...at least there's no bed bugs...yet jajaja. We drove to district council in Leesville and it was so weird not going to Ruston, but I guess change is good. Our district includes the Leesville quad of Sisters  the Many Elders and the Natchitoches Elders that just got whitewashed in. They are all nice, it's a little strange to have a new district and they are all training except Many but their companionship includes the district leader and Sister Estes and I are the only regular companionship of Senior companions. Ahhhhhh I'm a senior companion now! That's freaky! Everything was just so different, it's gonna take A WHILE for me to get used to it all...also apparently Sister Farris just did things differently from most missionaries, so I'm also getting used to not doing it the awesome Sister Farris way...on the way home I got my base pass for the army base in our area and stopped by Sister Hancock's to share a spiritual message. She even fed us chocolate cake and ice cream! 

On Saturday we had a mission wide zoom call to discuss some exciting new things happening this transfer (including Sister Farris basically being an AP or assistant to the president, it's a pretty fancy assignment, she's quite literally THE BEST) and the hurricanes that are supposed to hit on Monday. We had to prepare our 72 hour kits, I did not have one so...we got permission to get all our groceries for the week today and stocked up on food we can eat without power and refilled our gas tank in case of emergency evacuation. So now we are prepared!! We are only on the edge of it though, so we should be fine. My first lesson with Ms. Charlotte, our only investigator, fell through...BUT we decided to call out of the paper areabook (how we found Mr. Brian who was baptized last week and is the best) and we set up an appointment with a lady named Ms. Judy!! MIRACLE! For dinner we went over to Brother Woolley's house and had pizza. Here in DeRidder we do a lot more with the members since a lot of them don't actively come to church and we have no one else...it's a bit rough but I know that it'll get better. We even decided to street contact in this park on the way home, we got rejected but a cute little girl did come running up to me and hugged my leg so that was nice :)

Sunday we went to church! In DeRidder they actually have church sacrament meeting! It was only 30 minutes, with 2 short 5 minute talks but it was great! It was also my first time at church as a missionary welcoming people inside so that was pretty cool! After that we went to a Catholic church service which was very different. There were priests in robes and people reciting prayers together out loud. There was like guitar music and they even had communion which was super similar to the sacrament! It was cool to see what was similar and the spirit that definitely felt different there. Then everyone left and put their tithes in a bowl at the front. On the way home we received a REFERRAL! I just about cried with joy! His name is Dusti and we set up a call with him next week! Hallelujah! At home we had the Sunday live devotional which was great as always! Then we went to a lesson with Ms. Judy from the paper areabook. She loved having us over, she spent most of the time talking about Jesus and prayer but she totally accepted the Book of Mormon we gave her and said she'd read it! MIRACLE! Once we got home the Lafayette Sisters were at our apartment after evacuating for the incoming hurricanes. There are 2 coming, one on Monday that shouldn't be too bad and one on Wednesday that might be worse, but nothing too crazy. Then we all headed to the Pentecostal Gospel Lighthouse church. The people were so nice and welcoming! They spent like the first 30 minutes just singing and dancing. The pastor was VERY loud and went from talking about the Bible, COVID, Democrats, gun control, puppies to baptism. We got to see a baptism happen! It was so similar to what we do! The kid was immersed in water, the pastor said a prayer and gave him the Holy Ghost. So similar to our church just without the proper priesthood authority! It was a great experience though! 

What a week! I definitely never thought I'd be leaving El Dorado or Sister Farris. DeRidder is very different, it's a bit bigger than El Dorado so my missionary strategies for finding people don't exactly work the same...I also don't have a bike so...Sister Estes and I are very different and we have 2 very different ways of doing missionary work. She has been out for 16 months and has been in DeRidder since March...that's a LONG time to be in one area! I am trying my best to adjust to all these new things, but I know that I can rely on the constant comfort of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I continue to grow and learn new things about the gospel and even about other churches. My testimony in the gospel of Jesus Christ and His restored church gets stronger every single day. I know that I'm out here doing the Lord's work and I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY :)

Also here's my new address:

408 Somerset Drive #C

DeRidder, LA. 70634

Have a blessed week! 

Smile because God loves you and remember that I love, love, love y'all too!

Love, 

Sister Johnson 

August Bike Mileage: 46.9 miles (guess this won't really change much without a bike jajaja) 

July Bike Mileage: 161.0 miles

June Bike Mileage: 61.6 miles

Pictures!!!
1. Last picture with the Ruston district on pday. Best. District. Ever.
2. Sister Farris and I recreating our first minivan picture. 
3. Sister Estes, my new companion, and I in the Deridder apartment.
4. Sister Estes and I street contacting in a park.
5. Me in front of this cool tank in the park.