Hola y'all!
So this week was kind of all over the place, but I'm now back in Louisiana "where the air is thick, the sky is blue and the trees are tall"! (Quote from a Pentecostal Pastor we visited on Sunday, I think it accurately describes Louisiana jajaja)
On Monday I got to take an actual shower for the first time in a while. It was nice to not have to be terrified about flashing everyone as the curtain blows open. Also that day all the Sisters decided they wanted to go out for breakfast since it was pday. They're definitely different then the Sisters I've met so far...it took them like 30 minutes to decide where to eat jajaja. All 7 of us went to Huddle House in Pineville. I got pancakes, sausage and hashbrowns and it was delicious! We even got to talk to the waitress about our church! She was like "who are y'all?" so we got to explain the whole being a missionary thing. She was surprised when we told her that we PAID to be here for 18 months to talk to people about Jesus Christ. The Pineville sisters even got her phone number AND she invited them to come to her church! So exciting! Then we went to Walmart to get groceries and I discovered that Blue Bell (HUGE ice cream company in the South that's delicious!!!) has sherbet too! So I bought some Pineapple Sherbet to try :) Then we went to the Alexandria church building to join their district's pday activities. We played murder ball and spicy Uno. It was a lot of fun! Then we got a call saying Leesville got power back! So we packed up our stuff in Pineville, we drove around so Sister Teague could say goodbye to some people (Pineville was the previous area she served in) and then drove back to Leesville. The Leesville sisters staying in Lafayette were coming the next day since they were a far drive away, so we got to sleep on their mattresses that night. It was awesome to sleep on an actual mattress instead of my usual air mattress.
Tuesday morning I woke up feeling so good after sleeping on Sister Hansen's mattress! I kneeled on the ground and had just finished saying my morning prayer in the dark when everything went totally silent...the power went out! Sister Teague and I thought we were going to die! Luckily it turned back on about 5 minutes later jajaja and we were able to get ready like a normal day. We drove down to DeRidder and helped the Barrows in the ward pack for their move since Sister Barrow has been so stressed about doing it by herself. She even made us lunch! She made this bowl with ground beef, black beans, onions and bell peppers since she eats super healthy. Now the thing is, all her spices were already packed up, so she found this spice packet in her cabinets and threw that in...let's just say that my mouth was on FIRE! It was SO spicy, I thought I was gonna die, my nose was even sweating! After a while she and her husband even said it was hot and I can't handle ANY spice! But I ate the whole thing, only 2 water bottles later! Then we went to our new apartment in DeRidder (the one bedroom one they stuck us in until a 2 bedroom opens up) to move all of our big furniture from our old apartment to the new one. We even got all 6 Leesville sisters to come down and help us move. We moved a couch, dining table, 2 beds and bed frames, a microwave, 2 study desks and all of our other stuff that day, but we got it all out! Then we drove back to Leesville and had a lesson with Michael! It went so well! We introduced Sister Teague and she helped answer his questions and shared a really cool personal experience that he related to! He's so awesome that he even brought a notepad to take notes as we talked about the Book of Mormon!
On Wednesday we did our usual studies and then went for a morning walk as we texted some of our peeps. Then we came back and I made myself some fancy pasta with vegetables for lunch :) I had some language study and then we drove to DeRidder to unpack and organize our apartment there, only to discover that there was no power...apparently the apartment complex didn't realize it was still off...so they're working on turning it back on soon...so we just organized everything as we sweated it out in our second floor apartment. By the time we finished we had one giant trash pile and a semi-organized apartment minus the kitchen because it was too dark jajaja. Then we drove back to Leesville, started making Chicken Noodle Soup for dinner, dropped the Leesville sisters off at their lesson, finished cooking the soup and cornbread for dinner and ATE IT (my favorite part)! It was delicious! Then we Facebooked and Sister Newby sewed my dress for the Zone Conference.
Thursday we did our awesome morning studies (I say this a lot...and by this I mean an hour of personal study, an hour of companion study and an hour of language study) and by then it's noon so we ate lunch. I wasn't feeling too fancy so I microwaved some chimichangas:) Then we went to the Rosepine church building (our building) to film Sister Teague's video for the Facebook live devotional on Sunday. While we were there we got to meet the Pontiffs in our ward (or congregation) who are super nice, but over the age of 65, so we haven't seen them at church. Then we went to our new apartment in DeRidder and the power was on! We didn't have enough time to clean everything so we washed the car for Zone Conference (meeting for a bunch of missionaries in the Alexandria area) tomorrow and drove back home to Leesville. We had some leftover soup for dinner, Sister Teague planned out her "go home testimony" for tomorrow since she's going home this transfer and we all played Spicy Uno together after 9pm!
On Friday we had Zone Conference!! They decided to start having Zone Conference only be half the day instead of basically the whole day, so we can still do stuff that day. But we still woke up at 6am to drive all the way to Alexandria to be there by 8:30am and when we got there Elder Hales a.k.a Mama Hales brought cookies he made! They were delicious!! Zone Conference was super good and during the go home testimonies there was a surprise testimony thrown in there! Elder Teare! My district leader! We were all super confused because he only came out a transfer (6 weeks) before me! He shouldn't be going home! It turns out he's going to Portugal! That's his original assignment and he'll be leaving at the end of this transfer in November!! That's crazy! For the last activity the Zone leadership had invited a member from every ward or congregation, so Sister Britt came for us. We did some games with them and talked about involving the members in missionary work. It was super cool. Then we had lunch with them too! Pizza, salad and Klondike bars! Afterwards the members all left and we took pictures, the sisters had interviews with Sister Amos this time (instead of the usual President Amos) and started exchanges with the STL's. I was companions with Sister Hollingsworth from my first Zone in Monroe! She's awesome! And they live in a member's house on the second floor, so Brother Green had dinner ready when we came home! Beef stew! It was great! Then we meet up with the other 3 companionships of missionaries assigned to the Alexandria ward (they have NINE missionaries in their ward!) for smoothies. Yum!
Saturday I woke up from sleeping in a KING SIZE BED at the Green's house! It was awesome! All five of us Sisters got ready and then went to a member in the Alexandria ward's house to help clean up after the flooding from Hurricane Delta. It was a huge mess! The water had come into their trailer with 2 feet of water INSIDE the trailer that is raised from the ground! I don't know how clean the house started out, but there was wet trash everywhere, so many cockroaches and spiders and brand new never-before-used kitchen appliances (victims of "it's such a good deal, I'll buy it). But with all 9 missionaries there, we were able to clean up a lot of stuff! I even killed 2 giant spiders (I'll admit one was on accident, but the other one was totally intentional since the Elders just wanted to poke it)! After that we went home to change, got lunch at Cane's and headed to the church to eat it and so Sister Teague could register for classes. We also had personal study and companionship study there too. Then we went back to the Green's and made flapjacks for dinner before heading back to Leesville. Boy did those Leesville sisters miss us! ;)
On Sunday we went to church for the first time this transfer! It was Sister Teague's first time at the Rosepine ward! And there were like 40 people there! The most I've ever seen!! We got to talk to a bunch of people after church too! Then we went to our DeRidder apartment to eat our chicken noodle soup leftovers and DEEP clean the apartment since everything is almost unpacked now. Then we watched the Sunday live, had lunch, cleaned up some more, personal studied and then went to Valorey's house! This was the first time we had gone over since we met them during service after hurricane Laura. Her husband, Bruce, was there too! They welcomed us in and were a true representation of Southern hospitality! They were so sweet and nice! We got to know them better and they even shared some of their own spiritual experiences with us and wanted to do a Bible study next time we come over! And she gave us cake as we left and they invited us to their church too when it comes back in November!! MIRACLE! Then we drove to Leesville to go to the First United Pentecostal church with one of their friends, Alexis. She loved that all 6 of us came too! Even the pastor came up to us after and thanked us for being there! We got to be involved in a real "Pentecostal experience" as the Pastor described. His whole sermon was about being proud to be a Pentecostal (little awkward for us…) and the strength that comes from that knowledge. There were people dancing, singing, clapping, running through the pews and even a lady who "received the Holy Ghost". It was really cool to watch as she spoke in tongues and the pastor came up to interpret it. I could feel the spirit, but it was different...I don't really know how to describe it, but I felt like I had the spirit with me however I couldn't necessarily feel the spirit in the room. It was wack. But then we got invited to a birthday celebration with the congregation afterwards and they gave us dinner and we got to talk to Alexis more! We had gumbo and potato salad, a classic Southern meal :) Alexis was super nice and curious about our religion and kept asking questions, it was awesome! I felt like I was back home talking with my friends about my beliefs, but this time I had 5 member friends who all have strong testimonies of their own. It was so cool!
This week was a good one, we're back in Leesville doing our thing and hopefully we'll move into our temporary one bedroom apartment in DeRidder soon! It was awesome being in Pineville, having exchanges, Zone Conference and moving apartments! Getting to see so many missionaries really strengthens my testimony too! I know that if I keep moving forward with a steadfastness in Christ, I will get to where I want to be spiritually with time. But for now, I know that Heavenly Father loves me, is looking out for me and is helping me along the way. I know that Jesus Christ is right there beside me too, picking me up when it gets hard. I know that our Savior lives and loves each and every one of y'all!
Have a blessed week!
Smile because God loves you and remember that I love, love, love y'all too!
Love,
Sister Johnson
October Bug Bite Count: 29 bites
September Bike Mileage: 0.0 miles
August Bike Mileage: 46.9 miles
July Bike Mileage: 161.0 miles
June Bike Mileage: 61.6 miles
Pictures!!!
1. Sister Teague and I with the Lineville sisters at Zone Conference with the Ap's photo bombing us in the back!
2. District picture at Zone Conference!
3. Me falling asleep in the car on the way to service...I was tired man…
4. Sister Teague and I with the other 9 Alexandria ward missionaries doing service at the Spell's
5. Me holding the Green's cat, Chynna!
6. Me holding or more he Green's cat, 'Rona, lounging on me jajaja
7. Dinner at the Pentecostal church with Alexis!
