Hola y'all!
I had another great week in the mission field. It's flying by so fast, but I wouldn't trade my time here for anything!
On Monday we drove down to Ruston for district pday! We threw some frisbees, found a turtle and played district volleyball! It was a blast! Then we drove down to Monroe for our interviews with the mission president, President Amos. We dropped off the STL's at the church for interviews, got the car washed and ate some Raising Cane's. Delicious! We changed into pros clothes and I got to have my first interview with President Amos. He's great! After all those meetings we drove to the West Monroe Sisters' apartment to stay the night.
Tuesday was Zone Conference! Sister Farris even did my hair all fancy in this braid crown thing. She's a braiding wizard! Zone Conference was amazing, although my favorite part was probably when Sister Farris gave her presentation on the training program with Elder Obray (an office Elder). They've put a lot of work into the new training program for our mission and it's pretty fantastic. The West Monroe Sisters took us out to Wendy's (drive thru) and then we drove 2 hours back home to El Dorado. It was a LONG, but good day.
On Wednesday we had a lesson scheduled with Mr. Brian, since he is being baptized next Saturday! Whoop whoop! However something came up (Satan) and he had to cancel :'( That afternoon we went over to visit Lea and Clifton to drop them (when they aren't keeping commitments and showing a desire to change, so we stop teaching them for a while until they are ready), something I feel like I'm an expert at now...but it was my first drop in person so far and it went pretty well, yay! Then we tried this new Facebook thing called "Outbound finding" where we join Facebook groups to meet new people. I posted somewhere looking to learn how to cook, cuz I can't jajaja. Let's just say that it was very successful and by the end of the week I had over 700 comments...that now I have to answer...then we went to dinner with the Nashs! We went to this Mexican restaurant called Antiguas, it was really good and they gave you SO much food for a good price! Brother Nash even gave us a cute speech about how he's always there for us missionaries, no matter where we serve! Their family is the best! To top the day off, we had a lesson with Malika and the Young Womens President. It went great and Sister Dukes really connected with her!
Thursday we biked to Hillsboro. It actually wasn't too bad after all the times we've biked down there and since my bike got fixed. We had a lesson with Ms. Alexis, but she kinda forgot and wasn't home...but we waited and she got home! We went inside and were able to share a scripture with her since she was so busy. Since we had some time...we went to check on Ms. Jan, but she wasn't home. So we started biking home, did some facebooking at a Pavilion outside, went to the church for weekly planning and then biked home.
On Friday we had a lesson with Mr. Brian in the morning, but he didn't answer! Then 2 hours later he called us back and we had a lesson! MIRACLE! Satan really is working hard on him! We decided to bike to a park since we were gonna be inside most of the day. We did LOTS of answering Facebook comments at this park! There were definitely some pretty interesting conversations...Then we biked home, our lesson with Gabe got cancelled, but we had a great lesson with Malika! We taught the plan of salvation and she loved everything we taught! She even asked us to give her MORE stuff to study! She's awesome!
Saturday we had exchanges. Since it's my second transfer that meant I was leading the exchange in my area with the STL's. So basically we switched companions for the day, I was with Sister Burns and Sister Farris was with Sister Earl. It was pretty nice that the STL's just live in our quad. We went and did service for Ms. Pat in her yard and got nice and sweaty! Then we hurried home, changed and went to lunch with a part-member family, the Moores (Sister Moore and her 3 boys are members but her husband is not). Sadly the husband wasn't home, but Sister Moore made us some great Chicken Spaghetti. Then all of our plans proceeded to fall through...but it was our day to message for the Facebook Page for our Zone so we literally spent all day responding to messages! We even had a lesson with someone over the phone from Facebook! Her name is Ms. Donna and she is so nice! That night for dinner Sister Earl made us all some mashed potatoes and gravy, which were bomb! To end the night we had Come Follow Me with the district!
On Sunday we were having our last Sunday service that we need before Mr. Brian's baptism THIS Saturday. He's ALWAYS early, but today he wasn't there early...so we just waited...even the family leading the Come Follow Me discussion was late! Then by some miracle Mr. Brain pulled up in his little green car! And we had an amazing lesson from the Guibergia family! At the end Mr. Brian bore his testimony. He said that he knows the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church and that the Book of Mormon is "100% true"! He's the best! Then we had the sacrament with the Nashs, Brother Ricker and Ms. Amber. We taught Ms. Amber about our current prophet President Russell M. Nelson, who is just so awesome! We walked home after the live event and started planning Mr. Brian's baptism! We even had a Sunday service with Malika and Brother Bates!
This week has been great and I am so excited for Mr. Brian's baptism on Saturday! Please pray for him to stay strong in his faith! Seeing how much joy comes from living the gospel is such a blessing and I am so glad that I got to know our Savior, Jesus Christ from such a young age. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to learn more about the gospel every single day. Sometimes I question how much I really knew before coming out on my mission. Sister Farris seriously teaches me something new every week, it's crazy! But I know that my faith in Christ and Heavenly Father has brought me to where I am, with the trainer I have and to the people that surround me. God is in every single part of our lives, we just have to be willing to look for Him.
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: 15.6 miles
July Bike Mileage: 161.0 miles
June Bike Mileage: 61.6 miles
Pictures!!
1. Companionship at church! This was last week but I just forgot to include it so here it is!
2. The turtle from pday!
3. Sister Farris and I waiting for our interviews with President Amos.
4. The district at Zone conference!
5. Best companionship ever!
6. Cute district Polaroid.
7. District got a little crazy after picture time
8. Sister Farris and I late at night after Zone Conference, prepping for the long drive home...we were pretty tired.
9. The quad (during some exchanges) and the Nashs at Antiguas.
10. Weekly planning at the church!
11. I don't remember when this was but we were TIRED!
12. Walking down the street.
13. Us at church on Sunday.
