Mr. Brian's Baptism!!!

Hola y'all! 

So A LOT happened this week! There's some pretty crazy stuff coming y'all! 

Monday we had pday in El Dorado! We went to downtown El Dorado and walked around, ate frozen yogurt and took a BILLION pictures! It was so much fun exploring that part of town! Then we visited the South Arkansas Arboretum. It was a cute place with trees, a butterfly garden and some nice trails to walk on. It was very pretty. Then when pday hours were over at 6pm, we put on our biking pros clothes and biked out to our appointment with Ms. Laylay...but she wasn't home...so we came home and had a lesson with Ms. Mary. She is just the cutest! We taught her the 10 Commandments, very slowly, using hand gestures which she LOVED. She ended the call with her usual catchphrase of "stay sweet" because shes the best and treats us like her own daughters.

On Tuesday we had a lesson with Mr. Brian and Brother Ricker in the morning. It went well other than Brother Ricker's audio being wack so there was a huge echo, but he couldn't figure out the buttons to mute himself jajaja. Gotta love Brother Ricker! Then we had a meeting with Stake President Heim, who is super cool and tells some great stories. Our lesson at noon with Ms. Venus fell through because she was still in bed...people here in the South either wake up real early (Mr. Brian) or real late! For lunch we made some dirty rice using one of the recipes I got from "outbound finding" on Facebook. It was good! We biked to Sister Russell for a lesson about the plan of salvation  but she broke down in tears to us about her daughter not making the right choices. So Sister Farris, being the coolest missionary ever, switched to a lesson about mothers, tied with this week's Come Follow Me about the 2,000 stripling warriors. It was awesome and completely led by the spirit!  At home we got to have a bike race with this little boy named Jayden, who is literally ALWAYS outside asking us to play with him or give him candy. So we finally agreed to have a little race with him within our apartment complex and he loved it! Seed planted! We had a second lesson with Ms. Donna from the Facebook page! Boy does she LOVE Jesus!! Then we had a lesson with Malika and she even brought her boyfriend! And we're dropping him off a Book of Mormon! 

Wednesday was district council! We decided to have a last minute potluck for district lunch too. We had a LOT of cheese dip from Bishop that we had no idea what to do with until it had been Sister Earl-ified. The Elders brought chips, chicken, homemade bread and a GIANT watermelon. It was pretty great! On the drive back, we dropped off Deandrae, Malika's boyfriend, a Book of Mormon because MIRACLE he lived on the border of our area on the way home from district council! Then they dropped us off on the bikes to try and have a lesson with Ms. Jan, she wasn't home but we were able to street contact and even set up an appointment with a man named Mr. Aaron! MIRACLE! Then we biked home and had dinner with the Nashs at Antigua's. I ate some pretty good fish tacos man. 

Thursday was FULL of meetings! No meetings I was actually a part of, but lots and lots of meetings for leadership since my companion is the coolest. We did have our last lesson with Mr. Brian though in the morning! It was great and he shared how grateful he has been for our studies! He is just so sweet! We biked to the church after lunch to change up our meeting area a bit...then we biked home and had a lesson with Malika, her boyfriend wasn't there but she assured us he would be next time jajaja. She is in Mosiah 5! This girl is awesome! Then we had a lesson with Ms. Mary who is just so cute. We read her a Book of Mormon story, which she loved. She said bye to us using her usual catch phrase: "Stay sweet!" 

On Friday we had Mr. Brian's baptismal interview with Elder Tauraa! Mr. Brian was pretty nervous, but we had practiced the 6 questions on Thursday and he did well. When he kind of forgot something's Elder Tauraa did a great job of saying "yes!" And then asking more questions to get him to the right answer a couple times. It was great! On our bike ride we saw some pretty crazy miracles! So we've been having a hard time finding new people...the area has slowly started to slow down...just as Sister Farris is leaving...but we were biking and talked to a Mr. Tommy, it almost got a little bashing but he said he had met with missionaries in the past and we explained we don't believe in the Trinity but in the Godhead as 3 separate beings...very interesting...Then we continued biking to our appointment with Mr. Aaron. On the way we stopped to talk to a lady and then she was like "there's some Latter-day Saints in the house" there were like 2 members in there! We met Ms. Nikki who is a member and another lady, Ms. Ashley, who we ended up giving a set of scriptures too! MIRACLE! Then we went to our appointment and ended up biking past his house like 3 times since Mr. Aaron wasn't sitting outside. He finally came out and we met his wife  Ms. Betty, and got to share a verse. Then we started biking to Ms. Lena from the paper areabook and we got to meet her son, sadly she was asleep but that's ok. On the way home we were talking to a very drunk man who asked if we were the police...we said no and he was like "Good cuz I had a few beers and am bout to go get another" as he stumbled on the road...we gave him our card...At home we made rice krispies for Mr. Brian's baptism and homemade pizza for dinner! 

Saturday was Mr. Brian's baptism!!! We woke up early to fill the font for this 9AM baptism! We were missing keys from the lockers to the font, so Sister Farris had to do a little maneuvering to get in there. We sanitized the church while this font of stinky slightly tinted green water filled up. It ended up taking only 26 minutes to fill...it's apparently usually 1-2 hours, so that was cool. Then everyone arrived (9 people total to fulfill the 10 or less COVID rule)! It was great and Mr. Brian really seemed to like the ward members there and Brother Guibergia who baptized him. Mr. Brian was just SO HAPPY after he came out of the water and was confirmed. He even bore his testimony! It was great! Then we cleaned and sanitized everything and headed home to do some service for Ms. Pat. Now since we were at the baptism in the morning, instead of our usual Saturday morning 9am service, we went over at 1pm...BIG MISTAKE! We were just laying down some fertilizer and what not, but IT WAS SO HOT AND HUMID! That was the most I have ever sweated in my life! It just kept coming down and didn't stop! Even Ms. Pat had to take a break! We definitely got a little heat stroke out there in our long socks, jeans, long sleeve shirts and short sleeves on top. Luckily the rest of the day was pretty chill. 

On Sunday Mr. Brian came to our mini sacrament meeting of 9 people where he partook of the sacrament for the first time! He even got to witness a priesthood blessing given to Brother Ricker! Mr. Brian was so cute and took the bread and just kind of held it, until he realized he was supposed to eat it. Then after he took the water, he put the cup back in it's spot instead of in the trash part. But it was super special and a very spiritual time. He even stayed for our Come Follow Me lesson! Later that night we had our Sunday service with Malika, taught by Sister Dukes, the Young Womens President. Sister Dukes was baptized at age 19 and just connects so well with Malika who is 17 years old. Malika just loves the Book of Mormon so much too! She's in Mosiah 26 and even gets on her boyfriend about reading it jajaja! For dinner Sister Earl made us this BOMB chicken and we made beignets using pillsbury crescent rolls! Who knew?!

Monday we had a packed day! In multiple senses...half of the lessons fell through though...but we did get to go to Sister Russell's and have a great plan of salvation lesson with her 2 daughters listening in. We called Ms. Donna and we are sending her a Book of Mormon! (Since she lives out of our area) Then we had a lesson with Malika and had a pretty intense law of chastity lesson...Sister Earl made us a grand feast for dinner since Sister Farris AND I are being transferred! They are white washing our area with brand new missionaries and I'm going down to Deridder, Louisiana folks! Goodbye Arkansas!

This week was packed full of all sorts of crazy stuff. I am super nervous about leaving my area, getting a new companion and meeting completely new people! I know that it is where the Lord wants me to go, doing what He wants me to do though. I know that as long as I trust in Him, everything will be ok and He will magnify me for what I need to do.

Have a blessed week! Talk to y'all next week from Louisiana! 

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

Love, 

Sister Johnson

August Bike Mileage: 46.9 miles

July Bike Mileage: 161.0 miles

June Bike Mileage: 61.6 miles


Pictures!!!
1. We spent pday in downtown El Dorado!
2. We also got frozen yogurt at the Creamery! 
3. Comp photo shoot in downtown! 
4. A cool guitar at town square! 
5. Meeting with President Heim, the Monroe Stake President
6. Sister Farris and I racing Jayden, a little boy in the neighborhood! 
7. Comp matching part 1!
8. Comp matching part 2!
9. Ms. Mary who is literally the sweetest! 
10. Sister Farris and I filling up the font…
11. Mr. Brian's baptism!
12. Mr. Brian by the baptismal font! 
13. Us with Sister Russell! 
14. Goodbye Arkansas