Return Of The BEDBUGS

Hola y'all! 

 

 

Monday morning Sister Lynch made chcolate chip pancakes for breakfast! She is so sweet and they were delicious! We also rearranged the Blue Bell wall (my project to start in each one of my apartments) in the kitchen. Also we ended up going to the store today on 3 different occasions…basically we just kept forgetting things, I even forgot an entire bag of groceries until we got home! Luckily when we went back in, the lady remembered us and gave it to me. MIRACLE! Also our neighbor complimented our Jesus wall we made in the living room (although we are not sure if he saw it through our front door or through our window…After pday was over we called some folks and did some Facebook work. 

 

 

On Tuesday we had our “health and safety day” in the mission, which was basically an entire day of missionwide zoom meetings centered around health and safety. We did personal studies, then had our first zoom meeting of the day, we watched bike safety videos and I finally got to work on my bike! We filled up my tires and messed around with the brakes, I felt like a true Elder Jacobson! We were given a few extra dollars to make healthy meals today so since we all fasted breakfast I made a fancy omelet. We had vehicle training with a special guest from the missionary department and did a kahoot. Brother Steiner talked about mental health for like an hour, we got medical counsel from Sister Amos about new COVID stuff and the vaccine coming out. Elder Call, the dentist dude also taught us about brushing and flossing our teeth and stuff, which afterwards Sister Lynch went and brushed her teeth to try out his techniques lol. We even had someone talk to us about orthopedics. Then everyone went outside to clean their cars, we got apartment training and then cleaned our apartments. The Monroe Stake President Heim even gave a talk about local guidance and safety training! The AP’s talked about safe exchanges and how we can even do virtual exchanges if needed. Then lastly we had some training by the mission presidency with President Amos to close out…man oh man that took the entire day long!

 

 

Wednesday afternoon we went to visit the Millards, sadly it was just Sister Millard who was home but luckily we had planned for a lesson if the kids weren't there. We were just talking with her, getting to know her better and seeing how things have been when HER HUSBAND (a nonmember) walked in because he had work off that day! He just kind of ate some food at the kitchen table while reading something as we talked. We totally forgot to introduce ourselves though, we asked him about his job as a construction safety dude and told him about our safety and health day yesterday. He wasn't too talkative but as we talked with Sis. Millard, he did chuckle at a few things. We shared Matthew 7:7-8 She has such a strong testimony and wasn't afraid to talk about these spiritual things in front of her husband! At the end she said she likes having us come over to share uplifting thoughts that bring positive energy!! She's so sweet! Then we skirted on over to District Council in Leesville arriving just in time. Elder Miyasaki had forgotten his mask and made one out of paper towels lol, I guess it was at least better than Sister Hansen forgetting a mask too and not caring about it. After we used the computers to plan out Melanie’s baptismal program! Ahhh so exciting! Then we drove over to Sister Hancock’s house for our lesson but we were a bit early so we drove around and parked for a bit. Then Sister Lynch was like “is that Sis Hancock?”Sister Hancock was getting out of her car to throw away her trash with a cigarette in her mouth! I was like bruh did she see us?! Should we drive away?! Sister Lynch was like “yeah” so I sped off...maybe a little too fast…anyways…She didn't mention it in the lesson…she did however mention how Trump could have made America great if we had given him the chance...Then we asked what commamnments she could work on, hoping she would say smoking but instead she asked for a "refresher course on covenants" saying she doesn't entirely know what she should be doing...oof...especially on Sunday. Eventually she showed us a “no smoking” sign outside her door and said her friend Camila is trying to stop smoking with her! Sister Hancock even said the sweetest closing prayer straight from the spirit and from her heart! So sweet! Once at home we called Austin again and confirmed that what he said was true…he’s in 8th grade…So we are trying to get his parents to join in on the calls and thought we heard some people in the background. During our dinner hour we both had to shower because man we smelled like smoke from being at Sister Hancock’s house! Then by the end of the night we finally had time for personal study!

 

 

On Thursday we visited Sister Green, we got to know her and her son, Josh. They were pretty cool. Sister Green said she felt the happiest in the "Mormon church" but there are some things that she doesn't believe. She doesn't believe in the "Mormon Bible anymore" (aka the Book of Mormon as the Southerners call it) and she says that she has prayed but doesn't know that she has ever received an answer. Also her son Josh has down syndrome and he really REALLY wants to be baptized, but someone told him that he can't be baptized because he can't answer the interview questions...so now he hates our church and wants to be baptized in another church, making it difficult for Sister Green to want to be active in our church again, despite her love for our church and desire to come back. We shared a message with them and left them with a Book of Mormon. I just can't believe that missionaries would tell Josh he can't be baptized because of the way he answers the questions man! We came home and sat on the couch updating areabook and researching some of their questions when I looked at my finger and saw a brown bug! I flung it off and then Sister Lynch was like “what was it?” so we looked and found it on the ground...immediately  I was like NO NO NO. I told her to get a plastic ziploc bag and we put it in there and looked at it...we confirmed that it was in fact my worst nightmare: a bed bug. I HAVE BEDBUGS AGAIN! So we went straight to work, we stripped our clothes, put them in the wash, vacuumed, swept, bagged some clothes, ugh man. We are pretty sure they came on us at the Green’s house because it wasn’t exactly the cleanest and there were piles of stuff everywhere…Then we had to go to the Partins. We played our Plan of Salvation board game and taught a BUTTLOAD of principles to Melanie and Sister Partin, then we went over the baptismal interview questions which went eh...Melanie kept looking at her mom to answer first and all that, never really giving us solid answers…Brother Partin sure did step in though when I asked if she had repented of all past transgressions (one of the baptismal interview questions)…oof…he was like "did you just ask a 10 year old if she had repented of past sins?!" As we were leaving though Melanie stayed outside and talked to us! I think we're basically pals now!! Once home we called some people then made a Walmart trip for some trash bags and a pillow protector for Sister Lynch to fend off the bedbugs AND we saw Jessica, the ASL lady, and Sister Lynch got to sign with her! So cool! AND on the way back our neighbor, Nietta, was outside with her dog and we got to talk to her! She was like Utah and California are far away, what brought y’all here? So I let Sister Lynch give the classic “we’re missionaries” speech, which she killed!

 

 

Friday we did some bedbug research to discover that Beelzebub (we named our bedbug in the bag) is a fifth stage larva at size 4.5mm, the step before adult...oof…also we researched bites cuz Sister Lynch has some cluster red dots on her chest that itch…don’t think they're bedbug bites but we are not experts…After lunch we went to the library to print out Melanie’s baptismal program, which ended up being a whole ordeal involving us getting DeRidder library cards in order to access the internet. Then we talked to the landlord about our bedbug situation and were told to buy the bug spray from Lowe’s and an exterminator would be here at the beginning of the week to spray the apartment but that it was our responsibility to spray the furniture. Later that day we were having Melanie’s baptismal interview over zoom with Elder Engler, the district leader, and we were a little nervous since Melanie is so shy with strangers so Sister Lynch and I prayed about it individually and then as a companionship before the call happened. I was mainly worried about the second question if he asked what a prophet means to HER and that it would go bad from there…unfortunately I was right…Elder Engler was nice and offered the opening prayer and started the questions with her and Sister Partin while they were in the car. Question 1 was good since it was just yes or no. Question 2 was a yes or no, until the end when she broke down, stopped looking at the camera, cried for like 15 minutes and Sister Partin was being so sweet, but she just would not stop crying...we even gave her some hints about her nicknaming prophets “the spready people” (as in they help spread the gospel and what God tells them to) and ended up giving them a 20 min break to come back. During that time we called Elder Engler to brainstorm some ideas to get her to open up; having us talk to her first and then get into the questions. We called back and we talked with Sister Partin about the pet shop then asked Melanie some animal questions and got her to respond great! Then the second Brother Partin got in the car and kicked her out of the front seat (she moved to the back by herself) she freaked out...oof. Brother Partin told us to postpone the baptism and do some more calls with Elder Engler since Melanie didn’t know him...my heart literally broke! I was so sad and felt so bad!! Hopefully we can work with her to feel more comfortable. After our lesson with Austin fell through, we went to Lowe’s to get the bug spray, sprayed our mattresses and furniture, sleeping on the air mattresses for the night and called the STL’s only to find out that they may have been the ones to give us the bedbugs…

 

 

On Saturday we finished spraying down our apartment, had a missionwide social media call, did more bedbug laundry, called people, had Austin cancel, Talesha canceled, but Brother Larimer held strong!

 

 

Sunday morning I woke up on my nice air mattress, it has also been a little hard to focus during my personal studies since I've read the whole Book of Mormon now which has been wack. We also made cookies to drop off for the Jacksons. Later we visited the Partins (Melanie’s baptism was supposed to happen on Saturday, yesterday) and had the sacrament there. Elder Engler joined over video and we did a ‘get to know you’ activity with some fun facts about everyone. Even Melanie was talking! We shared a video and asked what prophets mean for everyone…Melanie didn't answer and Brother Partin just kept filling the silence...we even watched the video again with Melanie’s question in mind and she said nothing…I finally reminded her of an answer she's given before and we invited her to write it down in hopes of her remembering and being able to share it next time. At home we called some members, posted a Book of Mormon on Facebook Marketplace and had a movie night watching some Kirtland Ohio videos.  

 

 

Not gonna lie this week was kinda rough from finding a bedbug to Melanie’s baptism being postponed, but we pushed through it and I know that the Lord is with me through it all and that everything will work out according to His will in the end. 

 

 

Have a blessed week! 

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

 

 

Love, 

Sister Johnson

 

 

January Bug Bite Count: 20 bites

December Bug Bite Count: 12 bites

November Bug Bite Count: 18 bites

October Bug Bite Count: 39 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. Selfie with our yummy Dominos delivery 

2. Selfie with our healthy breakfasts 

3. My face when we found Beelzebub the bedbug…

4. Beelzebub himself

5. Us sitting on our couch with trash bags over the cushions…

1 Nephi 11:17

Hola y'all! 

 

 

Monday was Pday! Always so nice. I got to call my family who are hilarious as per usual. My mom was a little mad at all the politics going on and what not but they're doing good. I love my parents. And I got to help wake up Ethan lol. We went up to Leesville for pday activities, we went to the church building and there was LEGIT SNOW ON THE GROUND! So obviously Sister Lynch made a snowman and we all had a mini snowball fight which was so much fun! Also the Leesville sisters pulled a little prank on Sister Lynch cuz when they pulled up in their minivan, Sister Lynch threw a snowball at their windshield and it was totally cracked! Sister Lynch literally felt HORRIBLE…until they revealed that it happened at the car wash. After our pday shenanigans we headed back to DeRidder and Bro. Eastwood canceled because Bishop Baesler has COVID and we usually meet outside since he’s a dude and it’s freezing outside. Then we got Popeye’s for dinner which is so good and got beignets which are always awesome!

 

 

On Tuesday morning we exercised inside because it is somehow so freaking freezing out there here in the South. After personal study we called Sister Buck and boy oh boy do I like that old woman! She talked about the rioters and at first I was like “here we go again” but then she explained how Trump was egging them on and stuff! So she’s cool in my book now lol. After companion study we drove over to Anthony’s and realized that his apartment was for seniors and that he was probably over 65...but he didn't answer the door so...it might be for the best, health wise...so we'll try video calling him. After lunch we did some training and roleplayed the law of chastity and practiced some of the commandments. During language study I tried to beat Elder Miyasaki’s score on Duolingo which was fun. Then we left to go to the Partin’s for a lesson. Sadly Robin was still at her dad’s house, but Melanie seemed to like the commandments card game we created even though Bro. Partin said he couldn't play, but Sister Partin and Melanie had a good time. And Sister Partin seemed to really love teaching Melanie and helping her to learn the gospel and commandments that Sister Partin knew, it was so cute! Then we went home, had dinner and did some Facebook work(: and we had a little movie night while watching some church history video Sister Lynch liked, it is always fun to have little activities like that and feel like a normal person again.

 

 

Wednesday morning we headed to Many for District Council and had car inspections. During District Council our whole district was a little surprised that we had no accounting to do for our area (which usually we have a lot to say but not too much happened this last week) so it went by shorter. It was also way short because Elder Reck gave the discussion and forgot his notebook so he only asked us all like 3 questions and was done. I tried to help by asking a question about member ministering, but it didn’t really help. Afterwards we carpooled in the Leesville van to Sonic for lunch so we could all eat together as a district (well minus Elder Reck and Elder Coon who didn’t eat anything…maybe they were fasting…). On our way home we stopped by the church building to make sure we had all the baptism stuff we needed; that the font was clean, we had the baptismal clothes needed, etc. Once we got home, Sister Lynch and I contacted a bunch off people and finally got to personal study a.k.a. one of my favorite parts of the day, although it’s a lot harder to do at 4pm than 9am without wanting to fall asleep. Then we contacted some more and our lesson with Brother Eastwood fell through, but we always have our Brother Larimer calls! He even asked me a math question about positive and negative numbers so that was fun! After dinner I did language study and Facebook work when Brother Partin messaged us asking about the time of the baptism!! It was really nice to hear that from him since he always seemed to be the one hesitant about letting the girls be baptized, we even got them thinking about who might talk during the program too! Ahhhh! So exciting that they are starting to take it into their own hands!

 

 

On Thursday morning I was so tired, but we had a pretty usual morning. During companionship study Sister Lynch was sharing some things she leanred and I had A LOT of questions about it all; like can someone be an angel without having the companionship of the Holy Ghost? Did God change the commandments for Nephi to kill Laban? Is there only 1 singular prophet at a time? Then I went down the rabbit hole of thinking that if God can change His commandments, like He did for Nephi, then that means He is changeable and if God is changeable then He ceases to be God. I just could not wrap my head around it and was asking about the whole Lehi and Jeremiah being prophets at the same time thing, like it makes sense that God loves His people but why does that limit it to just one prophet? I thought of a lesson Sister Farris and I taught in El Dorado to Ms. Mary where we tried teaching her there is only one prophet as we read 1 Nephi with her where Lehi is the one prophet. I just couldn’t stop getting farther and farther in a hole until I broke down crying into my Book of Mormon that I used to cover my face from Sister Lynch. Then I went into the bathroom (just about the only place you can be alone as a missionary for a few minutes) and knelt down in prayer because I had no idea what else to do. I kept on uncontrollably crying and didn’t even know why I was crying anymore. I tried thinking about our conversation and how I will never know everything (even though I just read the entire Book of Mormon) like I read in 1 Nephi 11:17 and how even Nephi who had WICKED STRONG faith didn’t know everything, but it starts with a desire to know. Although I'm still learning a lot, I don't know everything but that's ok. I'm not perfect and all I know is that God loves us, He is all powerful and He has a plan. After I had those thoughts, I began calming down, and eventually came out of the bathroom. Then Sister Lynch gave me a hug and we moved on to other things. After lunch we did some weekly planning and made our Plan of Salvation board game for Melanie. After that we went to visit Ray. We pulled up to his house and there was a 21 year old kid in his wheelchair, his name was Dameon was quite polite, he got us chairs and offered us drinks. Also MAN CAN RAY TALK! He just kept talking to us, which is great but he tends to veer off subject. And there were a couple of times we tried to leave saying “it's been good talking to you but…" and then he would just keep talking. But good news! He quit drinking! He had promised himself that after 1 year since his wife died, he would quit. Although he has wanted to pretty bad, he says that he hasn't had a drink since December 31st. Then he proceeded to share his entire life story, he really really loves his wife and misses her. He still does seem to have it in his head that she is up in heaven, talking his actions over with God to convince God to let Ray into heaven. So we asked him who God is and he told us he doesn't really believe in miracles, but then he shared a miracle involving finding money at our church building. Ray also said that he talks to God, offering gratitude and believes in grace, but he doesn't like to ask God for things because Ray doesn’t really trust anyone. We are trying to decide if Ray is willing to change. Then he jumped to talking about how he had 5 charges against him at the beginning of the year and how he has to take care of all of his affairs before this surgery where he might die, actually he is kind of banking on the fact that it will kill him…some freaky stuff. Sadly since Ray talked so long we were late for our lesson with the Partins and had to cancel. Brother Partin even texted us concerned if we were ok, which was sweet. Then one of our new referrals called us basically demanding us to come over at a certain time, so we did and when we got there they asked us to come by a different day, kinda sad. We ended the day with a church history video movie night while eating a Chip cookie with Blue Bell’s Mardi Gras flavor ice cream.

 

 

Friday morning we had another call with Sister Buck who even asked some questions about the early Saints and wants to be sealed to her husband when she dies...but when we found out more we discovered that she doesn’t have to wait to be sealed to her husband so that will be exciting to tell her! We also had a lesson with Cæmeron over Facebook today which I was super excited for! He was really nice and I got to share my story of asking questions and finding answers through the scriptures, instead of relying upon the testimony of others around me. I also gave my spiel on bad things happening to good people by looking at everything that Christ went through but how that does not mean that Heavenly Father did not love Him. He hadn't really heard much about the BoM so we asked for his address to get him one and he said he'd want to read it!! So cool! Then we had a call with Mr. Jones but he asked if we could reschedule. Also Sister May brought us chicken salad sandwich stuff and eclairs!! She's literally so sweet! Later that night we had our lesson with the Partins. Sadly, Melanie wasn't there, but Robin was there!!! So we mainly ended up helping them sort their Magic The Gathering cards for an hour and a half! Then we got to share a thought about the BoM. Bro Partin said it gives direction. Sister Partin said that it has peace and answers for every time she opens it. We asked Robin if she had the opportunity to read and pray about the BoM. She said no but then Bro said how they don't want to push it onto her. Her dad isn't all about religion...doesn't really believe in God and what not…I was not satisfied with that though. I asked Robin if she believed in God and she said yes! We invited ALL of them to pray about the BoM and learn further of its truthfulness, even if they already had. Bro and Sis Partin said yes and Robin nodded!!(: they even gave us some soup for dinner! Brother Partin claimed his soup only had 3 different kinds of peppers in it, compared to his usual 7 peppers but DANG my mouth was on fire it was so spicy!

 

 

On Saturday morning our call with Christopher fell through because he had to work on his car…We did some training, continuing to prepare for Melanie’s baptism. After lunch we went to visit Audriana, but we pulled up in this sketch neighborhood, knocked, and some kids answered the door and then a woman came and it was her. She knew the missionaries from them volunteering at the soup kitchen, she seemed a little off...there was also some blind woman that came to the door too at one point...wack...a car had just pulled up though and she asked us to come back later…sadness. On the way home we stopped at the park for some more weekly planning and took a walk. Then we came home, had our call with Brother Larimer, language study, called a bunch of members and got in contact with the missionaries where Cameron lives in Alabama. 

 

 

Sunday was exciting because we had 5 whole lessons planned and only 2 of them ended up falling through! We called this Austin guy from yesterday who has the same number as a member and were able to share some verses with him and talk about Jesus. It was good. Then at the end we set up another time to call and were like “thanks Mr. Austin we'll talk to ya later”. Then he quickly said "you don't need to call me Mr. I'm only 13"...leaving us utterly SHOOK! Totally thought it was a 30 year old man!! Bruh. Why can we only seem to attract the minors or the 65+?!?!?! Later we went over to Audriana’s and knocked on the door...the kids asked who it was and we said the missionaries, they were like "why do you come over EVERYDAY" lol. A possibly blind lady answered the door and said that Audriana wasn't home, so we asked her to tell Audriana that we came by. Then we came home, took a walk and called some people and had our usual Brother Larimer call. Later we visited the Partins and Melanie was there this time! It sounded like they picked her up early so we could have her baptismal lessons! So awesome that they really do care about her preparing for baptism!! We had the sacrament together and we followed up on Brother and Sister Partin with praying about the BoM and they did, saying "it's still the book of truth" and Melanie also prayed about baptism and said "I felt fuzzy!" Then both Brother and Sister Partin responded with "you should shave" lol (they are hilarious) and she was like "I felt lighter than a feather"!!!! We were so happy she's feeling the spirit and recognizing it! We showed Melanie a video about church organization and talked about service and helping people out. Melanie goes and visits her Grandma and they told her she doesn't realize how much she has been a blessing to her grandma. How sweet! She also said that she’s been reading the Book of Mormon! 

 

 

What a rollercoaster of a week full of my own questions, finding a wide variety of new people and helping Melanie progress towards baptism! No matter how difficult things may seem at times, I just hold on to the things that I do know to be true and strive to share that testimony with others. Just like I know that God loves me and each one of His children!

 

 

Have a blessed week! 

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

 

 

Love, 

Sister Johnson

 

 

January Bug Bite Count: 2 bites

December Bug Bite Count: 12 bites

November Bug Bite Count: 18 bites

October Bug Bite Count: 39 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. Snow companion selfie

2. Having a snowball fight 

3. Delicious Popeye’s

4. Classic district pic

5. Our classic smores selfie with Sister Lynch’s oven smores 

6. Us with a cool tank in the park

Finished The BoM!!!

Hola y'all! 

 

Monday we drove up to Alexandria for Zone Conference the next day. On the way up we called Darlene and Robert…Robert was a little worried about our “rules and laws'' since we had described those as lessons 4 and 5 that they needed to know before being baptized…that was awkward…(literally they are called Lesson 4: The Commandments and Lesson 5” Laws and Ordinances). We tried to reassure him the best we could, it was kinda funny though since we were calling Darlene and Robert was just speaking in the background at us the whole time lol. Once we got to the Alexandria building for pday with the zone we played volleyball for like 3 straight hours I thought I was gonna die! Then we played just me against Sister Lynch with Elder Kephart as the setter for both teams…now that was interesting and very tiring! So Sister Lynch and I took a walk outside so we could take our masks off and get some fresh air. After pday activities the AP’s came to give us our mini Zone Conference minus President and everyone else. It was bomb though! The Ap’s were totally led by the spirit talking about our missionary purpose and real intent (aka President Amos’ motto #Moroni 6:8). During some of it I got called out and asked when I remembered hearing our mission’s baptism by February goal and was essentially like bruh I don't know and asked Sister Lynch who proceeded to give me a “Sister Johnson what do I do?!” look but it worked out fine. Then the Zone leadership talked on this devotional about loving yourself and leaving the place better than you found it which was a good reminder. Then Brother Boswell from the Alexandria ward spoke to us on setting and accomplishing goals, something I absolutely suck at. Then we went to the Green’s house where the Alexandria sisters stay and I got to play with their adorable puppy Billy! 

On Tuesday morning we woke up to Brother Green making us breakfast sandwiches at like 7am! While the other sisters were out exercising we chilled with Brother Green and he even had Billy out for us to play with! On our way out he helped us with our bags and hugged us and kissed us on the head…now that’s Brother Green for ya! But honestly he and his wife care and love us missionaries so much it is the best! During our personal study back at home the power went out for like 20 minutes and totally gave me hurricane PTSD yall…very wack. During our companion study we worked on that goal setting thing the AP’s asked us to do because Sister Lynch is real big on keeping commitments and is so good at remembering to do them. Like I said before, I suck at making goals so it was a little rough, but I did make a personal goal to journal at night from 9-9:30 then have a reward treat from 9:30-10 and then go to bed. We had some training time, Sister Lynch roleplayed teaching me how to pray, had another person not answer our phone call lesson and decided to work on our Restoration Jenga game which is turning out pretty cool. After language study we took a walk and saw our little friend, Corbyn, from when we were looking for plants for a FB post. He is in fifth grade and has a sister in eighth grade, we also think his parents might be split up. Anyways we were walking around the complex and just kept seeing him. Then we saw our old neighbor Sean outside!!! He said hi and even came down to talk for a bit. I was reminded of old times with Sister Teague and I talking to Sean and Josh while they smoked and sharing about our religion…and the time Josh’s friend asked Sister Teague out…good times. It was nice seeing him and I sure do miss our neighbors over in our temporary apartment, then Corbyn asked for our number so being the struggling missionaries we are, we gave it to him…big regrets there…Once we were back at our apartment he called us and texted us and even came and knocked on our door to see if we got his messages to come play with him. Sister Lynch just straight up told him that we are working and that we woul be busy because we work long hours…awkward…Then we did some paper areabook calling and accidentally called the same guy twice! It was literally so embarrassing!! Also Sister Lynch reminded me of me calling people with Sister Farris and saying that I just wasn’t ready to talk to someone yet. Oh how the tables have turned! During our daily call with Brother Larimer we all ended up sharing our testimonies of Joseph Smith and I shared mine that I didn’t even know that I had. I testified of my witness that God magnifies our efforts and how Joseph Smith having only a 3rd grade level education proves that after he was able to do so much in the hands of the Lord. After dinner we got a text from Corbyn asking us BOTH to be his GIRLFRIENDS!! We both totally flipped out and didn’t know what to do…the district had a good laugh at us though…can’t say many missionary companions have been asked to by polygamy girlfriends to a fifth grader…

Wednesday morning while we listened to our daily dose of Saints, we listened to the story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre and my ancestor John D. Lee’s involvement in the slaughter of the Arkansas immigrants…maybe me serving in El Dorado, Arkansas was a sign…We got ready and drove over to God’s Food Bank to do some service but they were closed due to COVID, so we went to For The Critters but they were also closed which was a fat oof. But we came home and did personal study and I read the last chapter of the Book of Mormon!!! I finally finished the whole thing! Cover to cover! Word for word! It was pretty good and I liked Moroni 10:4 about asking God if these things are NOT true and that He will manifest the truth to you. Then in Preach my Gospel I read in the Pray with Faith section and read verse 4 one more time before getting on my knees to pray. That was the most crazy spirit-led prayer of my life man! I was definitely feeling the spirit there! I told Heavenly Father about verse 4 and asked “is The Book of Mormon true?” and the words “you know it is”came to my mind. I knew it was true the whole time, I don’t necessarily know at what point in my life I knew it was true but I know now. Feelings of the spirit were guiding my prayer and my words completely. I even teared up a little bit! Later after lunch we did some training, Sister Lynch practiced the Word of Wisdom and I did the Restoration for our lesson with the Partins tonight. Our lesson with the Partins that night ended up being a GREAT LESSON! Their daughters Robin (whom we never met before because she was always hiding in the back room) and Melanie were out front with the cats when we pulled up so we got to talk with them for a bit and got to bond. Inside we got to talk with Sister Partin since Brother Partin was not home yet, then once he got home we taught the restoration simply. When we asked them how the gospel blesses their family Sister Partin said that it makes them more unified. Robin even read a scripture for us in Moroni 10:3-5 and Brother Partin shared about when he read the Book of Mormon and got a good feeling that he knew it was true or, as Melanie described it, the feeling like when you eat a brownie (this was when we asked about how praying about her baptismal date was going). Afterwards we played our Restoration Jenga game which was fun and emphasized each point a little more. At the end Melanie even said the prayer (with a couple do overs) which was huge!! Brother Partin even said it was impressive that we got Robin to stay for so long! Then we came home, had dinner, did some Facebook and journaled while eating Blue Bell cream cheese ice cream! Good times

On Thursday morning I did my personal studies with a brand new, fresh Book of Mormon which was so weird! I decided to make it my “testimony” Book of Mormon marking people’s testimonies and how they grow their testimonies, and I also am gonna use the blank pages in the back for my companion’s to write their testimonies in too.  Basically The Book of Mormon is bomb and it is so cool to see that while studying a new topic I can see things differently and it’s like “whoa have I read that before?!” Pretty cool stuff yall. Sister Lynch and I started looking into all of our addiction recovery and stop smoking program stuff to finsd something to help Sister Hancock stop smoking but it took a lot more prepartion than we had planned out before having to drive to Leesville for interviews with President Amos. The Leesville sisters were there and while Sister Lynch was being interviewed they left and then it was eventually my turn. President asked about the usual things like my spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health. Then I got to tell him how I finished the Book of Mormon yesterday and he was so happy! He said I have basically left the old Sister Farris and am the new and improved version of her, which is like the highest of compliments so that was like whoa. I asked him about the first time he prayed to know that the Book of Mormon was true (he became a convert later in college after several years of missionaries) and he said that he had to do it a few times with real intent in different ways; once to know it wasn’t “hogwash” lol then if it was the word of God, if it was inspired, if the man translate it was inspired, etc one thing at a time, little by little building his testimony. He then proceeded to give his little spiel about his “repentance timer”  that keeps his meetings on time and how repentance really just means to change and improve, nothing super scary. He told the story of how a missionary couldn’t wake up until 8:30am but started waking up 10 minutes earlier each day and by the end of the transfer they were waking up at 7:30am. That’s what the repentance process is and what us missionaries are being asked to do, little changes over time and to help call other people to repentance or to change. He even mentioned an example of a smoker making specific, measurable goals and he asked me my thoughts and I immediately thought of Sister Lynch and I trying to plan a lesson for Sister Hancock only a little bit before our meeting! Crazy miracles yall! The spirit really does work! Essentially God wants us to improve and change little by little and an inch is still improvement! President Amos is literally the best ever! I can tell he really listens and cares about what I’m doing. Then later that day we got to have our lesson with Sister Hancock. We shared the story of when Alma was commanded to return to Ammonihah and he speedily returned. We asked her what she thought she could do to be more obedient to the commandments. She said that she felt pretty good about being obedient 90% of the time but the other 10% were the "big/hard things"...and somehow we got onto keeping the sabbath day holy and she thinks that her neighbors actions make it harder and that she feels like she doesn't put her foot down. So we are working with her one step at a time, even if smoking was not on her list of hard commandments she doesn’t follow…Then for miles sake since we were in the Leesville area, we went to the Nances’ house. Her little kids, Ashlyn and Connor, were a little crazy, showing us their trampoline and dance moves and toys. They even have a bird, Coco, that we got to hold and a HUGE great pyrenees dog named Max who was just a total lapdog without realizing how huge he was lol. We played our Restoration Jenga game in hopes that the kids would pay attention but sadly it didn’t quite work…but she asked about having us over for dinner so something went well!! 

Friday morning we went outside in the 42 degree weather which I am still shocked is a thing here in Louisiana. We had a full day planned out with 6 lessons!! But of course all of them fell through except for our daily call with Brother Larimer. So we went to Walmart to buy cards and paint for another game to teach Melanie, called a bunch of people including Darlene who was in the hospital from a car accident! Jeez we are never gonna meet with these people again.We also had an accountability call with Elder Engler which is always interesting, not super helpful but interesting.

On Saturday morning we went to For the Critters to help out and ended up literally taking all of the stuff from inside the store outside! Bruh! We cleaned up shoes, belts, hats, purses and all that jazz and I got to pet the resident cat!!...who laid on top of all the clothes...ehhh. At home we had a call with Judy where we're pretty sure she straight up lied to us about having her Book of Mormon by her when she said she keeps it in her room...as we were about to read she had company so she had to go...what an interesting lady. As we planned for our lesson with Sonja who asked us to talk about backsliding (which we thought meant the Fall) we realized, from our Pastor friend Little Jerry, that backsliding actually is related to repentance and salvation…so we had to change up our lesson plan a bit. She was super busy so we agreed to meet her at her work. We pulled up to this slightly sketchy looking house with a singular car in front..we had kind of imagined a whole team of people working there so that was strange but we found Sonja in the yard singing and painting! She invited us in and said she was remodeling the place for the lady who owns it. We sat in the front room, Sister Lynch sat on a chair, and I sat on a kids rolly thing and Sonja on a paint bucket…gotta love being a missionary in the South! We were able to talk with her and got to know her. She really opened up and she has had a rough life but she is one tough gal!! And she LOVES God! She "found" God about 7 years ago but she really wants to do what's best to please Him. Also... she REALLY knows the Bible. So when we pulled out our scriptures and she saw a quad (containing Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon and Doctrine & Covenants), she was like "what's that?"...oof…so we literally listed off the standard works..she's heard some rough stuff about the “mormons” and Joseph Smith... but she seemed open-minded because we seemed pretty normal (not like the supposed “crazy mormons” she had met) and explained it well (about Christ coming to the Americas and Joseph Smith’s first vision). She did know a bit about the first vision, about Joseph going to the grove to pray and stuff. So we taught a little of the Restoration and brought up some scriptures in the Bible. After we had been three for like an hour she was like “ok what’s next?” so we asked if we could meet up another time to talk more. She was super sweet and open to what we had to say! Then we got in the car and SIster Lynch got kinda mad at me for talking the majority of the time even though I kept looking at her to talk and she never caught on…She even said she was about to speak but then I started talking and cut her off. Man I didn't even know! So when we got home, we made goals and I think I took it too far when she tried justifying that usually on a first lesson with someone she doesn't talk much until she knows them better and she started crying. Dude I literally felt so bad! What kind of mother makes their child cry! I'm the worst! That was not what she needed! She walked away and started her scripture flashcards so I just did my language study…what a rough and weird day…

Sunday morning we had an MCC (missionary coordination meeting) with literally just the Bishop and Sister Pontiff which made it hard since they didn’t know many of the part-member families we brought up. Also Sister Pontiff just fell and broke some ribs and Bishop is just getting over COVID! He totally had it while we were there before Christmas…so we’ll see how that goes…Later we went to the Partins but Melanie and Robin weren’t there. At first it was just Brother Partin and his ex-wife, but we were able to get the sacrament and share a spiritual thought with them. Also we discovered that Melanie and Robin are both Tessa’s daughters! We totally thought they were Dan’s! Wack! Then we went to the Lyons house who are awesome! All of their kids talked A LOT! Little Lyla literally stuck to me like glue, and just talked to me the entire time while Sister Lynch got to know Sister Lyons better. But bruh their tacos were freaking delicious!!! Seriously looked like restaurant tacos!! We played our favorite Resto jenga with them and the kids literally knew so much about the gospel! It was so fun!

This was a big week for me, finishing reading the Book of Mormon for the first time all the way through, cover to cover, for MYSELF was an amazing experience! For anyone who hasn’t read my new favorite book (which is saying a lot because I hate reading) I invite you to because it WILL change your life, it changed mine. 

Have a blessed week! 

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

Love, 

Sister Johnson

January Bug Bite Count: 2 bites

December Bug Bite Count: 12 bites

November Bug Bite Count: 18 bites

October Bug Bite Count: 39 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. Cute group zone pic

2. Even cuter district pic

3. Finding our district leader’s sweatshirt…

4. What’s going on in my first DeRidder apartment post-hurricane

5. Got a surprise treat!

6. Some texts with our fifth grade boyfriend

7. Finding sleet on our car