The BoM Changed My Life

Hola y'all! 

 

On Monday morning Sister Ward and Angilau got ready to leave for Baton Rouge because Sister Ward is flying to San Francisco for her Portugal Visa stuff. Exciting! Imma miss them but they’ll be back on Friday…until then it’ll just be Sister York and I. Got to call my family which is always good, told them how I broke open my supply of peanut butter m&m’s this week after my little disobedience crisis and they told me all about almost killing Ripley on a hike lol. After making our usual Walmart run we went to the church building where the Vicksburg and Farmerville Elders were already there playing basketball, so we sat down and waited for the rest of the zone to get there while Sister York played her ukulele. Then Sister York wanted to go outside and “photosynthesize” so we went and sat outside in the sun while everyone slowly arrived. I wanted to go back inside and play volleyball and stuff and say hi to everyone but apparently there was “too much testosterone” inside for Sister York with all the guys playing sports and stuff so we continued to sit outside…until finally we went inside and I convinced Sister Young to go join in the volleyball game (consisting of the El Dorado sisters and the Winnifield Elders) with me where we all sucked so that was fun. Then everyone got SUPER into the game Secret Hitler and I had no idea what was going on lol especially when I became Hitler, it was wack. Then everyone got into playing with Kandomas and some people could do some pretty cool tricks! Then at about 5:30 everyone started leaving, even though they’re all supposed to be back in their areas proselytizing by 6:00…so I was a little mad/disappointed at some of them…oof. Then us and the Zone Leaders got ready for Zoom MLC and Elder Rogers brought us some curry which was actually really good! In MLC we discussed a mission scripture and we all almost voted on this obscure scripture in Nahum 1:7 that I’d never heard of before but was actually pretty good.  Sadly, it got outvoted for 3 Nephi 5:13 about being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Then Sister Earl asked a bunch of questions that led to a bunch of new policies that everyone hated (so the usual Sister Earl super obedient questions) like now we can’t even draft an email for our weekly emails until after 9:30pm. Now for me it is already hard enough to keep up with emails as y’all know, so I spoke up and asked if we can before draft emails before 8:30am or during lunch and dinner to which President Amos responded “geez give them a yard and they ask for a mile” which made me feel SO stupid…so y’all wont see me speaking in MLC ever again for a LONG while. But anyways our new Zone Leader, Elder Ruegner, seems cool since Elder Reed left for Argentina. Then once our meeting was over, the Zone Leaders were doing exchanges so those Elders (Keen, Miner, Cameron, Grant) helped us clean up the building before heading out. 

Tuesday morning at 8am we had a zoom meeting with the Zone Leaders and Brother Moore, the Stake High Council Member over missionary work. Brother Moore is super cool and so helpful. He was straight up just like “tell me the garbage areas and I’ll tell them they’re garbage! But I’m a kind person so I’ll do it nicely” LOL. He is the best!! After that we had time to plan for our day, do personal study and pack until the West Monroe sisters came over for exchanges. I went with Sister Smith to West Monroe and Sister York stayed in Monroe with Sister Young. This was my very first exchange as an STL where I had to be the one leading and fixing problems and stuff. I was super nervous but tried my best to be flexible and go along with the schedule Sister Smith had planned out. Once at their apartment in West Monroe, I had some major flashbacks to when I stayed the night here for my second ever Zone Conference with Sister Farris back in the day. It was crazy! Sister Smith is super nice and spunky, she even made a full on pasta with chicken and salad for us for lunch! Best day ever! Then we had comp study…for like 2 hours …whoops, my bad. We basically planned our lesson for Leslie for like an hour as Sister Smith gave me every single one of her ideas...oof, but by the end we had a very detailed lesson plan. Then we painted bibles and if y'all know me then you know that I have 0 artistic ability so while I was attempting to paint an ombre rainbow sort of thing on the cover of a bible, I realized that I have no clue how to do that, so it turned out to just be stripes in a rainbow jaja. After that we went to our lesson with Leslie and brought Marianne from our ward in Monroe who recently came home from her mission and is the absolute best! Sadly, Leslie said she'd been smoking but she was super nice. She had LOTS of questions centered on this book on the Bible she found with a section all about different religions, including ours. So of course it had some false stuff about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that we tried to help clear up. So basically that lesson plan that I described earlier that took up an hour of our time, yeah, we chucked that plan out the door…We just answered all of her questions, which are honestly some of the better lessons when the person we’re teaching has questions they want answered. We went everywhere from Mary having sex to get pregnant with baby Jesus to Jesus being married to the notion that only mormons go to heaven to mormons can’t have caffeine (this book had MANY things incorrect). Marianne had a great explanation about how the Word of Wisdom helps protect us from things that may lead to addictions which helped Leslie better understand. I testified of God's love for her and she was like “really, you can feel it?” And I was like “yes!” Then I shared the classic “slurpee scripture” in Alma 7:11-13 and she was like “he really experienced EVERYTHING?” That kind of blew her mind that Jesus went through everything we have felt and will feel in this life. We shared some more scriptures, answered some more questions and invited her to write down the times when she saw the hand of Lord daily, she even expressed wanting to be baptized again! She really LOVES how much the missionaries love and support her no matter if she decides on a baptismal date or not. Marianne even asked to take her out to lunch and stuff! Freaking awesome! Then we booked it back to the West Monroe apartment for a Stake training meeting with the Stake Relief Society and Elder’s Quorum which was really good. Brother Moore, the high councilor over missionary work, is hilarious and Stake President Heim is so cool and has such a strong testimony of everything man. They both make the ultimate members willing to help with missionary work. 

On Wednesday morning Sister Smith and I were exercising and had just finished when Sister York called about our car being crap. Anyways we got all ready for the day, I had cereal out of a plastic cup with a fork and man do I understand the purpose of bowls better lol, a cup just does not get that milk evenly distributed over the cereal jajaja. So grateful for bowls and spoons! We joined the other sisters for a little virtual comp study in which Sister York and Sister Young told us about a lesson they got with Brother Oglesby and his nonmember friend Andrew…then they explained how their lesson plan was to “follow the spirit”...Sister York knew that I wanted to throw hands because man I hate that answer and based off of Sister Smith’s extremely detailed lesson plan yesterday, she does too. Anyways we went to District Council where we were gonna finish our exchange and switch companions back. Then at the church building when the other sisters pulled up Elder Grant said a pray that our car would shift to park (because it wasn’t working) and it worked! MIRACLE! Sister Smith gave a good discussion on Preach My Gospel chapter 9 on finding people to teach. Sister Young’s refining was really fun too where we each pretended to be a member or a missionary and guessed the member’s referral. Then I went back on home with Sister York to the Monroe apartment and did a little comp study for our lessons that day. We had a lesson with Katherine over the phone where we got to know her better and she really opened up! She still doesn't expound upon our questions, simply giving us a “yes” or “no” answer so that's fun. Sister York mainly talked the whole time because we didn't have much of a plan and I did not see where Sister York was trying to take the lesson, so I didn't have stuff to add which I felt so bad about and later I asked if she hated me for not talking and she said no. Gosh I love her. Then we had our lesson with Sadie. She explained an episode in The Chosen that really touched her and Isaiah 43:1 about God knowing us personally. Some good stuff. We shared some scriptures and she mentioned her patriarchal blessing and how it didn't bring her comfort but she hasn't read it in a while (I just don’t know if she really wants to improve or progress or simply find something that says she’s gonna get to heaven with the way she’s living now...). Sister York got really teary but it ended alright. After dinner we had stewies with El Dorado. It was super interesting to do individual calls with each companion and from Sister Munford hear that everything was going well then from Sister Holloway who was asking us how to find joy doing missionary work and having difficulty rooming with people…fat oof. Then Renaisha called and began by saying how the Book of Mormon changed her life. Then how it talked about hell. She said she marked it and loved it and she is just a very whimsical human being. At least she didn’t throw her Book of Mormon away this time…Then we joined our MLC report to the zone but were only there for the last 7 minutes…whoops and Elder Ruegner was boring everyone to death while Elder Rogers looked totally dead…oof. 

Thursday morning we had a call with Ramona but she didn’t answer. Then we drove over to the Daily Harvest to have lunch with the members and Sister York was  freaking out about the car not shifting to park and decided that “we aren’t supposed to be here" as we were literally in the parking lot…but we went inside anyway. Maybe her feelings weren’t entirely off because Brother Holt, our ward mission leader, was just making me mad. He basically said that COVID has stopped all missionary work and asked us to remember that members have lives so they can’t always help the missionaries (even though it should ideally be the missionaries helping the members with the work in the area that they actually live in) and they have their own church callings that they need to fulfill. Then he proceeded to go on a tangent about how the Lord provides a way, even though he was coming up with excuses for not helping us…then he brought up how no one in the ward liked his Facebook post about some missionaries in Africa because those members “are not invested in the work”...we tried to ask who we could reach out to over technology to be COVID safe and stuff but he couldn’t get over the fact that no one likes his Facebook posts…it was quite the conversation. Then we dropped off a bible to Birtha and a Book of Mormon to Sister Bollinger to mail to her friends. Back at home we weekly planned, had MCC with the Winnsboro Elders and the amazing Brother Hathcock who keeps track of the people we are teaching so he can ask about them and how he can help us, even if that simply means giving us some advice. During language study Renaisha called us again and we decided that the best way to describe the way she speaks is in spoken word poetry. Some of it is cool stuff that makes you think while other things she says make absolutely no sense at all. Then we called the ZLs to discuss our plan for Zone Conference and how we would present the topic President Amos gave us and how we would “spice it up”.

On Friday after our studies we tried to serve the other sisters by cleaning up, Sister York did most of it while I put dishes away, swept and tried cleaning the mirror but accidentally used the wrong cleaning stuff, and made it al foggy…whoops. We even put up some cute little hearts in their room too. Then sadly our lesson with Drew and Brother Oglesby got canceled so that was sad. Later we left to go visit Brittany, which is an almost hour long drive, and on the way there she asked to change the time to later so we just hung out in some random church parking lot contacting people until we could go over. As we pulled up to her house, her husband, Dakota, was leaving. She has 2 adorable little kids! Michael, the older one, is like 2 and wore only a diaper, and just handed us cars and things the whole time then proceeded to climb on Sister York on the couch lol. Trinity, the little girl, is only a couple of months old and just so cute. Makes me so sad that missionaries can’t hold children. Then we called Marianne over the phone to try to get her involved in the lesson and Michael came over and nuzzled next to me on the couch while watching videos on Brittany’s phone. So cute! We showed them a video on her TV and went through the pamphlet as she asked lots of questions that Marianne helped us answer too. Afterwards Brittany tried to get us to stay for cookies and I think that was the first time I've ever turned down cookies man lol. Then we had to BOOK IT to the Temple’s home to have our lesson with the Winnsboro Elders. They started without us and when we got there the Elders were on the couch and there was this stool thing and a little kid rocking chair left to sit on. Sister York took the stool, so I took the chair that was WAY too small for my butt, so I kinda sat on it at an awkward angle…oof. But it was still a good lesson on the priesthood, Betty was a little zoned out but the guys seemed to like it since they are preparing to receive the priesthood soon. Afterwards Brother Temple was so sweet and backed our car out of their driveway for us since he knows one of us has to get out and do it. Once we got home I knocked on the Bastrop sisters’ door and Sister Ward already had her arms open for a hug! She knew it! I was so happy to see them! They had a nice little vacation lol with Sister Ward in San Francisco getting her Visa stuff for Portugal and Sister Angilou was in Baton Rouge. 

Saturday morning Sister Ward and Sister Angilou spilled some of the Zone Conference tea because they got to go to the Zone Conference in Baton Rouge already. The schedule was changing to become more flexible during the day and insisted that you take breaks too, kinda sounded wack but they were doing it already. Later that day after studies and contacting, we had stewies with the other El Dorado sisters, Sister Rosas and Sister Quindo, who are awesome. Sister Quindo was literally so sweet and reversed our questions back to us to check on how we are doing since we don't actually get our own stewies. Then of course we called Renaisha, this time over Facebook messenger. She's so cute and as we read the introduction of the Book of Mormon I was really feeling inviting her to be baptized like those missionaries who extend the invitation to be baptized if the person comes to know that the Book of Mormon is true once they’ve read it. Pretty cool stuff but I didn't do it because Sister York thinks she's unaccountable. But boy does that girl love Jesus and even made a comment about how testimonies take time to grow! She's so cool!

On Sunday sorry for the details y’all but ya gotta know that I just keep on waking up super sweaty because it is so hot and humid here! Then I decided to make pancakes for everyone! So that was fun. During personal study I studied my patriarchal blessing and it's freaking dope! I literally love it so much y'all. I was really feeling the spirit and that the Lord knows me personally like no one else can. We had Stake Conference today where we heard from 3 RMs (returned missionaries), President and Sister Amos and the temple president and matron! Wowza, it was just loads of good stuff! After that we had our very last Facebook live event before the social media specialists changed it up. Then we had some comp study and as we were about to plan our lessons I got an email from one of my best friends, Mira, and quickly glanced at it. The subject line was “sad news” and the first sentence was that her dad passed away yesterday. I slowly started crying and Sister York asked what was wrong and then came over and hugged me and I started balling. I wanted to give my friend Mira a big hug and tell her about the Plan of Salvation (that she can see her dad again) and just be there for her, but I can't even send her a message the same day it happened because it's not pday. I started thinking about her family and how a lot of them are still in Russia and it's just her mom, grandma and sister left to plan a funeral and things. They don't have a ward to help them out with everything! (made me super grateful for the support system that the church provides) Sister York had a friend whose mom passed away in 9th grade so she started balling too. We were a mess. Then we listened to a sad song called "why god", which really hit the spot. I made a plan to make Mira a video and ask my mom to reach out to her, then we got back to work. It was rough. I did some language study, we contacted and had a Come Follow Me call with the Temples and the Winnsboro Elders. We led it and it was kinda awkward because Sister York asked me where we wanted to start and I just started reading the intro paragraph before everyone was there which caused some mad confusion, whoops, kinda embarrassing. Later that night we had another lesson with Anthony. It was super difficult to hear him the whole time, but he gave great insights about the bible and stuff. But at the end he kinda wiggled out of the commitment but yeah twas good. Then we called the ZLs to do the zone report and called it a night.

Basically this was quite the week. I just wanna say that I am seriously so grateful for having the gospel of Jesus Christ be a part of my life. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and can honestly say that it has changed my life for the better. I know that Heavenly Father loves me and sent His Son to die for me so that I can receive a remission of sins and experience joy. I know that Jesus Christ is the one who understands me perfectly and is there, carrying me through the hard times. 

Have a blessed week! 

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

Oh and remember that "we did not come this far only to come this far"!

Love, 

Sister Johnson 

February Bug Bite Count: 6 bites

January Bug Bite Count: 28 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

SNOW And Mars

Hola y'all! 

 

Monday morning we woke up to SNOW!!! We all got so excited but it was so dang cold! I seriously did not know Louisiana would ever get this cold jaja. I got to call my family and they told me all about Ethan’s elaborate Valentines Day setup for his girlfriend, Summer, by decorating our dining room with cute lights and Ethan made Ratatouille (he practiced making it twice before in preparation) and chocolate mousse from scratch! Then they dressed up all fancy to watch the movie ratatouille together, it sounded so cute! He’s quite the romantic! And my dad is turning 50 this year which is crazy! So my mom is planning a fun vacation for when I get home at the end of the year to celebrate, I think she’s getting a little stir crazy with all the COVID quarantine stuff. Then Sister Ward drove us to Walmart in the snow which was a little scary since there were a few inches of snow on the ground and obviously Louisiana is not prepared with snow plows. We even scraped the ice off our car with our missionary tags lol! Then when we got to Walmart there was even a line because they had so few workers because people freak out over the snow, but we got what we needed and slowly drove home. Then we all went outside and played in the snow! We even built a snowman and had a snowball fight! Then after pday hours we contacted and worked on some spreadsheets for media orders.

On Tuesday we had a long, slow day for Mardi Gras. We did our studies, had lunch then a call with Katherine. But it was REALLY weird, we both followed our lesson plan but had no idea what the heck was happening, I don’t know if the spirit wasn’t there or what. The only responses we got out of her were “yes ma'am” and “no ma'am”...it was wack. Then we had stewies with Sister Rosas and Quindo, did some training pass offs and they spilled the tea on their district that Elder Read was leaving for Argentina on Wednesday and that Elder Coon was coming back to Ruston because he got COVID again and couldn’t go to Chile. I was kinda mad that Elder Read (Zone Leader) didn’t tell me he was going back to Argentina though! I hope it means things will open up for me too! Then Sister York and I began planning all of our exchanges with the sisters in our zone. It was my very first time doing this as an STL so it was a little wack. We had to decide on when to do each exchange, for how long and who would go with who and to which area. I started by asking her if I could go to El Dorado because I REALLY wanted to visit my old area! We tried following the spirit as we made decisions, which was super hard so i mainly went with Sister York’s thoughts on everything because they seemed right, then just before we were about to finish and contact the sisters with our plans Sister York said that she didn’t feel right about something…about me going to El Dorado…I basically almost balled my eyes out because I wanted to go there so bad, but in my mind (and the way she acts), Siter York overrules me in STL decisions because I’ve never done it before. Then we called some referrals and the Zone Leaders to talk about social media but it had to be fast since Elder Read was preparing to leave for Argentina. I still can’t believe he didn’t tell us! After dinner we had a Monroe Zone Leadership zoom call with President Amos but the Zone Leaders totally forgot so it was just us and President! But it was still good, we discussed our zone and he gave us some stuff we can apply. Then we contacted some more people and had stewies with Sister Ward and Angilou which were kinda wack and awkward…don’t know why…Then as we were about to go to bed, Sister York checked her phone and saw a LONG message from Sister Cottle about wanting to call her and how President Amos said it was ok (not usually ok to call another missionary outside of your zone for non-STL type purposes). So she called her and it was nice to see Sister Cottle too, she was really freaking out so we all talked through some stuff and then Sister York played a song on the ukelele while I waved my hands in the background. Then we prayed with her and she felt good enough to end the call and we went to bed. 

Wednesday morning we had District Council over zoom as an abundance of caution with all the ice still on the roads. But it was SO awkward over zoom, I don’t know what’s up with our district but we have just not quite bonded yet, so there was just a lot of awkward tension and stuff…wack. Then after lunch we sent out a bunch of mass texts to the zone with important information, filled out some forms, contacted more people and then had our usual weekly lesson with Sadie. We just talked about being a disciple, or a follower, of Jesus Christ (off script from our usual Come Follow Me lesson). Then she told us about going to the liquor store to get whiskey and cigarettes and somehow we got on the topic of logic and religions and I felt prompted to share my testimony, so I did and then she bore hers on the Book of Mormon. It ended up being really good in the end! After dinner we had stewies with the other El Dorado sisters, Sister Holloway and Munford, who seemed fine until we had individuals (where we talk to each sister individually instead of as a companionship). Sister Holloway, the trainee, went first. She seemed like she was trying to be the only positive one, encouraging their companionship to get things done and eventually asked what we thought of our Trainers…OOF. Obviously she is having a hard time with her Trainer, Sister Munford, and for me to say that I loved my trainer was rough for her to hear. It was the same for Sister York cuz she loves everyone. Then Sister Holloway asked us how we find joy on the mission. OOF. Clearly she is struggling but didn’t want to admit that she was having a hard time with her trainer. Then Sister Munford was up. She was much quieter until we finally got her going a little. She said the area sucks (she's spent her whole mission so far in Gonzales, the promised land), they made cookies with the Young Women and NOTHING came of it, shoveled snow and NOTHING came of it (girl you won't see the fruits of your labors for a while!) Then she talked about all the disobedient things Sister Holloway was doing like biking too fast so Sister Munford was alone and not wearing the right pants (I think she is just new and doesn’t know better, that’s what a trainer is for!). It was a little rough but we tried offering some advice to help. 

On Thursday morning we had a missionwide Vehicle training meeting over zoom which is always fun and I got to see Sister Lynch over video! Then later that afternoon we had another missionwide zoom to watch the Mars Rover Landing!!! It was so cool. Sister Amos (former NASA engineer) gave a little presentation about Jesus before starting and about the knowledge we bring with us for eternity. It was a cool live event over YouTube with NASA at JPL and everything went well (indicated by the constant heartbeat tone coming from perseverance while it couldn't rely back to earth (I think)), it was dope and then everyone got hyped about it safely deploying parachutes and landing! Then we had a Q and A with Sister Amos afterwards…there were some really weird questions out there and a bunch of missionaries that want to work for NASA. Prez dawg (aka President Amos) even stepped in (and Sister Amos at first thought he was telling her to wrap it up because he’s the time police and was like “no I have until 3:30!”) just to say that he married a rocket scientist. They're so cute! It was just super cool to see them promoting how science and religion work together! The we weekly planned for like 3 solid hours. The West Monroe Sisters also came over to get some of our toilet paper since all of the stores are closed because when it snows all of Louisiana just shuts down lol. Later that night we had MCC with Brother Hathcock who is always awesome. Then we had stewies with West Monroe who are struggling to find new people to teach. In individuals Sister Young sweetly brought up Sister Smith not being motivated to be obedient to exercising in the mornings and always getting easily distracted. I felt good that I was able to suggest having a codeword for when they get distracted. Then Sister Smith was pretty chill, she explained how she gets morning sickness and it’s hard for her in the mornings sometimes(hence Sister Young said that it's hard for her to be obedient to morning wakeup times…oof there’s always something you just don't know).

Friday we called the Zone Leaders (Elder Ruenger in Ruston is the new Zone Leader who moved to Joneboro with Elder Rogers) to talk about doing zone unity calls and stuff. Elder Rogers was just like “let's do them now, how long will they take?” I thought they would take like 30 minutes but possibly 15-20 minutes so we started with the Winnfield Elders and it took an ENTIRE hour!! Granted they each got calls in the middle but still (also Elder Arave got the call that he’s going to his original assignment in Kenya)! Then we were able to do shorter ones with West Monroe, Farmerville, El Dorado (mainly Rosas and Quindo), Ruston, Greenville and then called the Zone Leaders to talk about what we found in the zone about what they need and what they are struggling with. Then we went to dinner at the Coenen’s house as Sister York drove as slow as humanly possible with all the snow on the ground (it's fine I'm just a speed demon man lol). And boy do the Coenens live in a nice neighborhood! Their house was huge and on the bayou! We had grilled cheese, tomato soup and crawfish etouffee! It was kinda funny though because I think we were a little awkward since we’d been inside due to the snow ALL WEEK lol. Then we went in the other room to talk with their girls and it felt so normal especially since Marianne just got back from her mission and is struggling to adjust back to normal people life. Sister York even played the guitar a little. Then we shared a quick spiritual thought since it was 9:37pm! We totally lost track of time and were there for WAY too long (missionaries are supposed to be back at home at 9:00).

On Saturday Sister York and I were figuring out the best way to film a video of her singing and playing the ukelele for a video to go on the mission’s Sunday Facebook live. It took a while but we finally got a decent video. We also had a companion discussion about our area and making a new plan for our referrals since we receive so many that it is hard to stay on top of the ones that don’t respond. We also contacted some more people and sent a mass text out to our different groups of yellow dots (those who have expressed interest in missionary visits) and sent out zoom links for church tomorrow. Not too much went on today…then at the end of the night Sister York told me about her ex-boyfriend who she “Dear John-ed” (which means that she broke up with him whilst on the mission)...it was kinda weird y'all…his name is Luke and for her birthday on the mission she sent him 857 paper stars he folded with little sayings that he loved about her on them, which is cute but they were broken up and continues to send her things, literally her ukulele is a gift from him…it just gives off slight stalker vibes…

Sunday morning Sister York made french toast for all of us! And I made buttermilk syrup to go with it. Then we had ward council at 8am where there was a big discussion about going back to in-person church again. They were set on coming back for first hour sacrament meeting but less confident about second hour classes. Then we had church over zoom and got to hear Marianne give her missionary homecoming talk from the church building which was great! Then we went to the church building to get the sacrament from Brother Holt and despite us asking him to bring Sister Holt, when we got there he told us that she “needs time to relax in the mornings at home”...oof. Luckily there were a whole bunch of people there though for Marianne’s homecoming talk. We talked with Sister Bollinger, this cute little old lady, as she slowly scooted closer and closer to us, almost across the whole hallway! I kept scooting back, trying to social distance myself but she kept moving closer until she grabbed Sister york to keep her there lol. Then by the time Brother Holt was ready with the sacrament all the women had left…my heart sunk! I died. We were in a building with a bunch of men, breaking the missionary rule to always have another woman there. I felt so horrible, so I held it in until we got home, went to the bathroom and started balling my eyes out silently about feeling disobedient. After a few minutes as I got worse Sister York knocked on the door (I imagined how I could go out there crying and ask for a hug) and she held her arms open for a hug and I let it out. MIRACLE! She already knew exactly what I needed! She's so good and I talked and we won't have zoom church after Stake Conference so there shouldn't be a problem anymore when we go in-person and get the sacrament there. I just kept questioning “do I put my obedience on the line so that Brother Holt, the WARD MISSION LEADER, can give us the sacrament?” Oof. Later during our companion study we were reading the safeguards about approaching missionaries with problems. It made me think of the Bastrop Sisters not wearing pros clothes inside the apartment (like not wearing dresses but sweats when they are inside) and Sister Ward not wearing her tag inside. So Sister York finally decided to take action and went up to their bedroom door (I said no and that we should think it through and approach the situation differently) and asked Sister Ward about not wearing her missionary tag or pros clothes and Sister Ward (a former STL and honestly kinda scary lady) replied  “I'll think about it, but I can’t promise change” then we left and felt really bad. Then after a while Sister York went back and told Sister Ward how great she is and apoligzed and stuff, it was kinda awkward…so I’m still not sure how we correct missionaries as STLs…oof. We ended up going over to the Coenen’s house (members) again for dinner. We had bean burritos and a LONG discussion about members and yellow dots. Brother Coenen even looked through our list of referrals and knew some of them, giving us names to visit which was literally AWESOME! He also gave us lots of advice for how to be a missionary…We shared a spiritual thought on the Restoration and Sister York highkey skipped some points but I was able to go back and do them smoothly and man did I feel the spirit strongly when reciting the First Vision with their eyes closed (my favorite thing to do ever)! Twas good. And at the end I testified of God answering our prayers when the spirit hit me like a BUS yall. So good! 

Overall this was a good week full of all sorts of interesting stuff as I figure out how to be a therapist, better correct other missionaries and discern between spirit of the law versus letter of the law. But it was really nice at the end of the week to share the message of the Restoration with the Coenens and be reminded of why I am out here doing this missionary work for the Lord. I always feel the spirit so strong when I recite Joseph Smith’s First Vision aloud and it is my favorite thing to recite when people have their eyes closed and can really focus on what they are feeling. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ who instructed him on how to restore Christ’s church onto the earth again. And I know that just like with Joseph Smith, if we let Him, God can use us to do miracles too. 

Have a blessed week! 

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

Oh and remember that "we did not come this far only to come this far"!

Love, 

Sister Johnson 

February Bug Bite Count: 3 bites

January Bug Bite Count: 28 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

Larry’s Baptism

Hola y'all! 

 

 

Monday was a pretty chill pday. We went to the store, Sister York bought some plants, I continued trying to bond with Sister Ward and Sister Angilou and found out that they are sending missionaries back to Argentina! I really need to keep on improving my Spanish! Then we all headed up to Farmerville to hang out with the district and found out some tea that Elder Cameron got emergency transferred from his last area because a sister really liked him…oof…I didn’t even know that could actually happen :/ But it was fun because in Farmerville we went to this lake and there was a BEACH! Like with seashells and everything! Sister York even made a sandcastle! She’s so funny. Then we all went on the dock for a bit before exploring the nearby forest next to the dam. Then it turned into a war of seafoam when Sister York threw some foamy stuff in the water at Elder Cameron and then he tried to get her back with Elder Grant's help so me and the West Monroe sisters (Sister Smith and Sister Young) ran for it jaja until the Elders cornered Sister York and got her, totally hilarious and made for some good district bonding (minus the Bastrop sisters who were kinda off doing their own thing). Then Sister York and I had to leave in order to make it to MLC (Mission Leadership Council), we drove to Alexandria to pick up those sisters (Sister Despain and Sister Cowgill) and Brother Green made us pot roast for dinner! He even remembered me! Then we all drove the 4+ hours together down to Pride to stay the night before headed to Baton Rouge the next morning. Once we got to Pride the sisters all kinda knew each other so there was lots of screaming when we first arrived while Sister York and I just went to set up our air mattresses and go to sleep while they all talked. 

 

 

On Tuesday morning let’s just say it was an interesting night (the sisters talked for so long and didn’t come into our room until like 1am and were so loud that I was about to snap and pop off on them but luckily that comp unity kicked in and Sister York told them to be quiet, I even woke up a couple times to Sister Despain sleep talking lol). Then luckily Sister York brought some bagels to eat for breakfast since I didn’t know we had to bring our own food…awkward…anyways we made it over to Baton Rouge to be seated at 8:50am for MLC to begin. It all just seemed like a massive social event just a little bit but a lot of policy things also happened as well. It was overall very interesting, Sister Amos gave us all a COVID update, the LSU Sisters (where Sister Murdoch is serving, which was nice to see a familiar friendly face) gave an overview of what was covered in the last MLC which I literally didn’t know anything about (I guess I can blame that on my Alexandria Zone Leadership for not sharing or making clear for everyone)! But it only stressed me out even more, feeling like I knew nothing, hence I didn’t say a single word the entire conference. Then the AP’s talked about specific questions from the Zone Leadership where we decided to change our pday the week of transfers from Tuesday to Monday, which I wasn’t quite a fan of but didn’t have enough solid evidence as to why I wasn’t a fan. Then each zone took a turn standing up and sharing their baptism goals and everyone seemed to have a plan and to be really moving on it and had some great ideas for zone unity. Also President Amos chimed in and totally called everyone out on not using “Elder” and “Sister” lol (as in just calling missionaries by their last names). It was just overall cool to see what Zone Leaderships were doing that we could apply to our own zone. When we talked about bikes Elder Tubbs got up and was like “EVERY area should be biking”!! Which was hilarious because he was my Zone Leader in El Dorado when we were biking like crazy people, he is very passionate about missionaries being outside. Then we all had Cane’s for lunch together which felt like Zone Conference. President Amos even came and sat by Sister York and I and was asking us about the areas we had served in and stuff which was just a total testament that where we serve truly comes from the Lord. Sister Amos joined us too after returning from the hospital with stitches in her finger from slicing it up preparing our lunch. Then we helped bring out Blue Bell ice cream sundaes and we all threw Mardi Gras beads everywhere! It was so fun! I even got to see Elder Jacobson who was my very first district leader in El Dorado! Then we all went outside to take pictures in front of the Baton Rouge temple! Then we made the long drive back up to Monroe. When we finally got home, I was so tired but so excited to go say hi to the Bastrop sisters because I really missed them while we were gone! The rest of the day was chill, we had dinner, contacted people, did a pass off for Sister Angilou’s training (the STLs are in charge of passing off the new sister missionaries training which is kinda fun for me since Sister Farris created the training program), then Sister York, Sister Angilou and I had ice cream together to help bond (while minus Sister Ward since she already brushed her teeth and goes to bed early). 

 

 

Wednesday morning we had district council in West Monroe (it literally feels like I go to so many meetings now) and had a great discussion on obedience which is always a favorite subject of mine but hard to do when others have different standards or expectations than I do…Then the West Monroe Sisters made us lunch with mac & cheese, broccoli and salad while the Elders secretly cooked brownies for us all. Even though this district is small they are all very close and super nice! Once we got home we had a practice baptismal interview with Larry and it went so good! He literally knew everything so well! Although he did tell us some stuff that Elder Cameron will have to talk with him about just to double check that we don’t need additional approval for Larry to be baptized. Then after dinner we had a lesson with Sadie which went well. She was struggling to see how helping in missionary work applied to her since she isn’t a member (she is a transgender woman who was excommunicated from the church but wanting to come back). She explained that she is "open to baptism" but is on "indefinite probation" and has done everything on her end…oof. So I gave my whole disciple spiel and she really liked it, even saying she'd study it up more! Then we had stewies (stewardship calls that STLs do with each companionship of sisters in their zone) with the  El Dorado 1 Sisters who are so cute! Sister Quindo and Sister Rosas are both from Texas and are absolutely hilarious! Sister Rosas is training Sister Quindo and they are in my old area so we got to talk about some of the people I know there which was kinda weird but fun to hear about the Nashs and Ms. Pat and all those good folks. Then we did stewies with the other El Dorado Sisters, Sister Holloway, who is one eager new missionary who likes to talk and is so sweet, and Sister Munford, her trainer. 

 

 

On Thursday morning we went outside for exercise time and boy was it FREEZING! Also during breakfast while our companions were showering, Sister Ward asked me to talk about 4 eyes (the policy of having 4 eyes on your screen at all times so your companion knows what you’re doing) during our exchange with Sister Angilou because she was struggling with it. Dude it is so weird to have people come to you and lead the exchange with a secret agenda in mind! For lunch apparently every week the sisters go to this restaurant called the Daily Harvest owned by some members and meet with the ward mission leader and his wife (Brother and Sister Holt). It was super fun and they were very nice. At home we did weekly planning, Kacey canceled our lesson, we worked on Larry’s baptismal program, called the Zone Leaders about giving an MLC report to the zone and the new way to do media orders for the zone (where we record what media they need like Book of Mormons, pamphlets, pass along cards, etc.), then we called Elder Oswald since my phone had been weird and I may not be able to make it work with the SIM card in it…awkward…then after dinner we had MCC with the Winnsboro branch and the Winnfield Elders since we share the Winnsboro branch with them. Brother Hathcock is honestly one of the best mission leaders I’ve had, he led the whole thing, planned a spiritual thought and kept track of people previously talked about! Then we called the zone to talk about what happened at MLC and the Elders did most of the talking. Then that night we woke up at 11:30pm to call all of the sisters in the zone while the Elders called all of the Elders essentially for an emergency drill to see who would answer their phones after hours, which sadly a lot of people failed to answer our surprise call…

 

 

Friday during comp study Sister York had a little breakdown about trying to be more charitable and how she doesn’t think she should be an STL, even though I think that she is literally so sweet so I distracted her by asking what she thought of the talk I have to give in church on Sunday. Then since we were driving to Winnsboro we stopped in Columbia to drop off a Book of Mormon to this lady we’re teaching named Sharon. Then we drove 45 minutes to get to the Temples, we had to wait for Betty to get home (since we can’t go inside without another woman) but we were able to pet all their dogs and talk with Casey who is searching for a girlfriend who is a member of the church which was really cool to hear from him as a recent convert! Then we all had a great lesson together about virtue since we are going through the Christlike attributes in Preach My Gospel. AND we were able to involve Betty more this time! Then we drove home and had a meeting with the whole zone and Brother Moore who is on the Stake High Council over the missionary work in the Stake. He was super young and had a Tony Stark goatee and asked each missionary in the zone what reality they would live in if they could choose…very interesting guy jaja. Then we had a short discussion on how he can help the missionaries get stuff done and what help we need. Also during dinner Sister Ward told us that she is leaving for San Francisco on the 23rd to complete all of her visa stuff to go to Portugal! Ahhhh! So exciting! And during that time Sister Angilou will be in a trio with the Baton Rouge sisters for the week. Crazy! Then we had stewies with the West Monroe sisters who had some funny stories to share. 

 

 

On Saturday morning during personal study I finally got to start writing my talk since being asked to give it yesterday on “How to Give Christlike Love”, in theme with it being Valentine’s Day lol but I really only saved myself like 10 minutes to do it so that was a fat rip. Then we had the usual Saturday social media call, some compy study, Crystal rescheduled our appointment after being sexually assaulted and placed in a safehouse (please pray for her, she is so sweet), then we swung by Walmart to get cupcakes for Larry’s baptism before heading to the church. Then we began filling up the font, printing out the programs but we didn’t know the password so I kinda flipped out since the baptism was in a couple hours, we said a prayer that something would work out, called the West Monroe sisters to see if they knew but didn’t, then I tried all of the supposed passwords again to no avail, got frustrated and clicked some random button and we were in! MIRACLE! The spirit works in mysterious ways y’all! Sadly our call with Brittany fell through, so we decorated the church building for the baptism trying to make everything look cute which probably annoyed Sister York a little but whatever jaja I just need everything to be perfect. Then the Elders showed up, Larry showed up (the most stressful part is waiting for the person getting baptized to arrive), we got the baptismal form signed, Larry changed into his white baptismal jumpsuit, and everyone else arrived (Bishop, Sister Poulsen, the Reeves, the Holts, etc), we got people to join the zoom link including Sister Andrews who taught Larry zooming in from Korea at 6am! Twas good. Then Brother Holt got in the font to baptize Larry and apparently the water was totally FREEZING! Whoopsie. But it happened and it was awesome and the spirit was there! Then while they changed we had time to share testimonies and I got to share my testimony too! Then literally once everything was over Bishop decided to interview Larry to get the Aaronic Priesthood and issued him a limited-use temple recommend!! Man is Bishop on top of things!  Then we came home to find Sister Ward left us little Valentine's Day chocolates on our beds with some hearts! So sweet!

 

 

Sunday was Valentine's day!! We had zoom Ward Council at 8:30am and went until almost 9:30 but it was really good and super productive! Everyone was basically having regular meetings that we would have during normal church, with BYC and all that jazz. What a great ward! Then I had like 30 minutes to finish up my talk literally 2 minutes before 10am (when church starts) and it was just written down notes, so I didn't have a script, nor had I practiced it to time it to see if it was enough time or not…oof. The Bishop's son gave a youth talk before me for what seemed like 2 seconds and I didn’t know if there would be another speaker after me either so the timing was a little interesting. Nevertheless I gave my talk and it went great, the ward really liked it and sent us messages afterwards saying that it was good. It was definitely like 20 minutes long though. Brother Rennick talked a bit afterwards and said he served a mission in San Diego!! Dude crazy! Then we went to the church building for sacrament and Brother Holt didn't bring his wife this time and complained to us about having to have another woman in the room and how they should just trust him...it felt so wrong…then we grabbed the baptism jumpsuits from yesterday to take home and wash. After lunch we had a good Come Follow Me call with the Winnsboro Elders and the Temple family. Then us Zone Leadership had a call with all the district leaders to discuss a zone vision which was good because they definitely seemed to know their districts a lot better than we knew the zone. Then we did the zone report summary together, a little more successfully than last time. Then the quad ate our Valentine’s Day cake that Marianne (literally JUST got back from her mission in San Bernardino) and Sarah Coenen dropped off since Sarah makes cakes. Although the cake seemed to be missing an ingredient and was kinda hard, but the frosting was BOMB!

 

 

Man oh man what a week here in Monroe! It feels like sometimes there isn’t a lot of time to breathe and we are just go go go with a bunch of meetings and lessons and stuff where the Lord is really pulling me through it all. I’ve learned so many new things this week about how to be an STL, how to help the zone, what is expected of me as a leader, etc. it's crazy! But all the work was worth it when I saw Larry get baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and now is preparing to receive the priesthood! The church is true y’all and the book is blue!

 

 

Have a blessed week! 

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

Oh and remember that "we did not come this far only to come this far"!

 

 

Love, 

Sister Johnson

 

 

February Bug Bite Count: 1 bite

January Bug Bite Count: 28 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. Our Monroe quad selfie at the lake on pday

2. District selfie in the woods

3. Silly companion selfie at MLC

4. Entire MLC in front of the temple

5. Monroe Zone Leadership selfie

6. Sister York and I in front of the Baton Rouge Temple

7. Freezing outside on a walk

8. Classic selfie with the Temple family

9. LARRY’S BAPTISM with Brother Holt, Larry, Sister York and I

10. US AND LARRY

11. Getting to eat our Valentine’s Day cake from the Coenens

12. Sister York and I going crazy over cake lol

Bye Bye DeRidder, Hello Monroe

Hola y'all! 

 

 

Alrighty so this was an exciting week full of new stuff y'all.

 

 

On Monday we got another referral! Of course now we actually start getting referrals once I’m supposed to leave but it will definitely help prepare Sister Lynch with some people before she takes over the area. Instead of having pday today we had a normal Monday with pday on Tuesday. That morning the mission had “Greenie Graduation” for all the trainees in celebration of them finishing their training, the STL’s also called and gave us both some advice for going into our new leadership roles with me becoming an STL and Sister Lynch becoming a trainer right out of training. We also were able to go drop of a Book of Mormon to Anthony who the sisters at the Hawaii Visitor Center are teaching, although once we dropped it off we called them to see when we could start teaching him, hoping to join in on the next lesson since we just met him but they were super weird about it and said we could join a later lesson…weird but oh well. Then we visited Audriana and had a quick lesson with her, but she doesn’t seem quite all there…so it was kinda awkward and short…But we directed her to listen to the Book of Mormon app since she can’t read so hopefully that all goes well. Sadly Brinda was waiting for her doctor so she had to cancel. That night we got to go over to the Marshall’s for dinner to say goodbye. They are the sweetest little old couple ever who are so active in the church and willing to help us out with anything. Also during our spiritual thought they were just total spiritual giants and man does Brother Marshall know A LOT of stuff about the Book of Mormon! Then after the day was over I frantically packed and tried to study past MLCs (Mission Leadership Council) to try and know all the tiny little mission rules and in hopes of learning more about being an STL. Stress!

 

 

Tuesday we had pday! Woot woot! My last pday and full day with Sister Lynch, my baby. She was too cute and made pancakes for breakfast and I made homemade buttermilk syrup (shoutout to Sister Hoopes for the awesome recipe) and it was amazing. Then I started putting all my clothes through the dryer again to pack and so that I don't take the bedbugs with me to Monroe since they won't come spray until Wednesday. Oof. For pday we went to Nachitoches and since it was Elder Miyasaki's birthday last week, his mom paid for the whole district to go out for sushi! I had never actually had sushi before but we all got a bunch of rolls to share and it was SO GOOD! Definitely liked the cooked rolls more than the raw ones but it was a good time bonding with the district before peacing out (well Elder Coon is getting transferred to the Monroe Zone so I'll still see him). Then we all went back to the Nachitoches church building and played chess and said goodbye to everyone. T'was a sad time, I've known them all for so long. Then we came home, called Brother Larimer for the last time and went to our last dinner together as companions. Sister Lynch and my "last supper" if you will jaja. We went to this Mexican food restaurant called Fiesta Cafe and I got shrimp and crawfish fajitas and she got the same thing in quesadilla form. It was each of our first times having crawfish and it was really good! Basically, it’s like a mini lobster! Then we came home and she helped me pack the rest of the night because I was major stressed. I have accumulated A LOT of things and am the worst at packing jaja. 

 

 

On Wednesday we woke up at 6am to finish getting everything together and make the 3.5 hour drive to Baton Rouge. We did stop at Smoothie King along the way though for breakfast. At transfer point we had to be super COVID cautious because one of the office missionaries tested positive for COVID...oof. But I got to see all my missionary pals from my first district, my mission dad and Sister Cottle (who gave me all the tea on my new companion, Sister York, because they were companions for 2 transfers. She sounds awesome!). I even got to meet Sister Lynch's baby she's training, Sister Carroll, who seemed super sweet and I hyped up Sister Lynch for her and it was good. I was with Sister Young (going to West Monroe) since both of our companions were just staying up in Monroe and then we also had Sister Ward (who came out into the mission field the same day as me) who was training Sister Angilou (a brand new missionary) loaded into the West Monroe minivan. We got Cane's (of course) for lunch with all the other missionaries then made the 4 hour drive up to Monroe. They are all super nice and Sister Ward and Sister Angilou are serving in Bastrop but they live in the same apartment as the Monroe sisters, so I'll be living in a quad with them. It was SO weird to be going back to the Monroe Zone (my very first zone) and we got to their apartments and I even remembered the directions to the church building to meet the other Sisters to get the apartment keys. Sister York and Sister Smith (West Monroe) were teaching the young men and young women at the church, so we saw them (my first time seeing my companion, Sister York, since I first met her during hurricane evacuation for Delta when she was Sister Cottle's companion). Then we unloaded all our stuff at the apartment and they got home and Sister York came and gave me a big hug! Yay! They even made us dinner! So sweet! I ate super fast though because we had a call with a returning member named Sadie to talk about this week's Come Follow Me over video call. Sadie was super sweet and she even knew Sister Farris!! So we bonded over that jaja. Also Sister York bore her testimony and she got all teary eyed and it was just so cool to see how strong of a testimony she has! I can tell Imma love this girl! 

 

 

Thursday morning I totally woke up and forgot where I was, expecting to see  Sister Lynch. It was wack! Sister York and I went for a walk for exercise time to get to know each other better. She's pretty chill (or in the words of Sister Cottle "she's a hippie"). After getting ready we went and got groceries as a quad (wow I missed living with other missionaries man) and came back home, did our studies, had lunch (where I tried to break all that awkward silence of getting to know each other) and did weekly planning. It's always interesting to see how other missionaries do things. We also have someone named Larry being baptized next week so we had to plan for that!! Super awesome!! Since we're the STL's (Sister Training Leaders) we also had time to plan for our exchanges (STL's have to go on exchanges with each Sister in their zone and we have 8 other sisters in our Zone so we were trying to plan 4 exchanges. Fun). Then we had dinner, language study and a missionary coordination meeting with President Hathcock, the branch mission leader in Winnsboro (since we cover 2 units and share the Winnsboro branch with the Winnfield Elders). He is so awesome and is so invested in the missionary work! It was great! Then we called the ZL's (Zone leaders) to talk about which areas in the zone could become biking areas since the mission is losing miles and cars. Then we had a stewardship call (as STL's we do this with each companionship of sisters once a week) with the West Monroe sisters and I was super nervous, but they were really nice and it went ok. I'll have to work on my advice giving and stuff though jaja. 

 

 

On Friday morning we all exercised inside, Sister York did yoga while Sister Ward and Angilou did some hard core workout video thing. We had district council in West Monroe and it was so weird having such a small district, my smallest district so far with only 4 companionships so only 8 total missionaries…wack. But that meant that it went by so fast! Sister York gave a great discussion though, she is super chill about everything. Also Sister Angilou is already such a great missionary when it’s only her first week! Once back home we contacted a bunch of people and it was weird not knowing any of them (since in El Dorado we weren’t teaching anyone and it was basically the same when I first got to DeRidder). We had a video lesson with this lady named Brittany. She's got 2 little kids who woke up in the middle of our lesson so then we couldn’t really talk much after that…oof, but she read the pamphlet the missionaries gave her and is super sweet! Then we drove down to Winnsboro (they usually go down there only once a week due to miles and such) where I got to meet the Temple family, recent converts in the Winnsboro Branch. They were all so nice, Betty was pretty quiet while her husband, Thomas, did most of the talking as well as their son, Casey, who is our age. They are so fun and absolutely love the gospel!! They also have chickens, like 5 huge dogs, cats, so many animals outside in the middle of nowhere Winnsboro.

 

 

Saturday morning we went for a walk for exercise time and found little guppies in the gutter which was cool. We got a referral, Charmaine, who we texted and were able to set up a call for today in the afternoon (apparently they actually get referrals here in Monroe/Winnsboro). She was super sweet and Sister York was so good at genuinely being there to help her and working together to meet her goals. It was a teaching style I had not yet seen before in missionaries, however we basically had no lesson plan and we pulled scriptures out of nowhere (which was great)! After lunch we visited one of the Monroe members, this old lady named Sister Bollinger, to drop off her violin and some Book of Mormons (she always wants some to mail to her friends) and she gave us some old coins so “we’ll always have money” lol. Sadly Brittany canceled our lesson for today but when we called Sharon it turned into a lesson about agency and redemption! And she wants another Book of Mormon for her friend who has been meeting with missionaries! Then as STLs we had a call with one of the El Dorado companionships, Sister Munford and Sister Holloway, who were specifically asking me for advice about people that were being taught when I was there. It kinda scared me but they asked about Ms. Diane who Sister Cottle and Sister Earl taught but that Sister Farris didn’t think was accountable due to some mental stuff. They told us how Ms. Diane got SUPER mad at them for not accepting money to go buy her food since she’s sick, and they put her back on date for baptism…not really sure that was the best idea but hopefully that works out. It is so weird being an STL and trying to help other sister missionaries with their people and stuff going on, I kinda feel like I’m expected to be the therapist that solves all of their problems. Then we had a call with Larry (also we literally have so many lessons a day here in Monroe! It is so awesome!) and the Elders in Farmerville (Elder Cameron and Elder Grant) and Brother Oglesby in our ward, which might have been an overwhelming bunch of people for Larry who just seemed to listen and absorb the information we taught about the commandments. During dinner we tried to all bond as a quad asking more getting to know you questions and stuff. Then we contacted more people, had an accounting call with Elder Cameron, our district leader, who was very serious and straight to the point (a stark contrast from Elder Engler doing calls while he laid in bed).

 

 

On Sunday I had a nice, chill morning where we zoomed into church and had testimony meeting which was nice to actually have church meetings go on. AND the whole ward has such strong testimonies like dang! Then we went to the church building with the Bastrop Sisters to get the sacrament from Brother Holt, the ward mission leader, who was sweet and even gave us some time to “ponder” before he blessed the sacrament (another stark contrast to getting the sacrament in the Partins’ living room surrounded by dogs lol). Then at home we contacted a bunch more people, had a good companion inventory where she questioned why I burp so much and pop my shoulder all the time…whoops. Then we had a video call with Brittany to discuss a video she saw on Instagram about Lilith (which we had been freaking out about all day because there is no scriptural evidence for Lilith who the video said was supposedly Adam’s first wife) but then it turned out Brittany just wanted to know if the video was true and was satisfied with us saying that it was not true. Period. So that was chill jaja. Then we got to do a Come Follow Me video call with Brittany, the Temples (who are all friends) and the Winnfield Elders (and Elder Keen from my very first district in El Dorado was still there! So it was really nice to see him again!). Then we went over to the Poulsen’s house for dinner to break the fast and they were so sweet and are members who recently moved here from Escondido, California! Crazy! And we invited Larry to come and the Poulsens were so welcoming of him! And Larry had remembered everything we taught him from our last lesson (even though he never said anything and I was convinced he might not be listening)! It was so good! AND Larry even had some really good questions for us because his family had been asking him questions about the church and Larry wanted to know the best way to answer them. So sweet! AND Brother Poulsen just kinda took over answering all of Larry’s questions which was amazing because we were hoping that Brother Poulsen would be a good fellowshipper for Larry! Then that night we had my first ever zone report call where the STLs and ZLs (Zone Leaders) do a video call to collaborate on a weekly report of the zone to send to President Amos. I felt really bad because I had no idea how to contribute and the Elders (Elder Rogers and Elder Read) were like "sisters please help" since they were kinda doing everything. And then Elder Rogers was too sweet, saying he would have to pray about it all later while Sister York was a little too chill saying that President wouldn't even really look at it that much...oof..AND the call went until 9:51, when we’re supposed to be in bed by 10:30!

 

 

This week involved a pretty big change, meeting lots of new people and figuring out all of my new duties as an STL. It was crazy but I made it through - definitely only with the help of the Lord because each day here in Monroe was jam packed full of stuff. It's been crazy trying to remember who everyone is but I’m slowly figuring it all out…hopefully ;)

 

 

Have a blessed week! 

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

 

 

Love, 

Sister Johnson

 

 

February Bug Bite Count: 0 bites cuz them bedbugs didn't follow me to Monroe!!

January Bug Bite Count: 28 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. It was Elder Miyasaki’s birthday so his parents treated our entire district to sushi

2. Getting goodbye selfies with my favorite people, Sister Murdoch and Sister Hansen

3. It was so sad to say goodbye to Sister Hansen after knowing her for so long

4. For Sister Lynch and my last meal we wanted crawfish and they happened to have some at this Mexican restaurant

5. CRAWFISH

6. Cool sunset picture on the bridge crossing the Mississippi River

7. Comp selfie on the tiny Monroe couch with Sister York as my new comp

8. Selfie with the Temple family

9. A silly pic of Sister York and I waiting for one of our video calls