Hola y'all!
So everyone knows I stink at emailing so here is an email for week 42 of my mission (the last one I sent out was week 37 and I'm currently at week 45) but imma try to get better friends!
Monday I had a pretty good pday. It started off with Sister Lynch making pancakes for breakfast. She's literally the sweetest. Then we went to Leesville and played phase 10 with the Leesville sisters and Many elders which was fun. Also Louisiana weather is so weird. Just a couple weeks ago it snowed and today it was 73 degrees and 100% humidity! It almost felt like summer. When we came home I had to explain we have bed bugs again to my family...I asked them to guess what news had happened and my dad guessed on the first try! Oof! They're hilarious, Ethan has become a chef and practiced making Ratatouille (in preparation for Valentine's Day). That night Janaya asked to reschedule, but at least she's still keeping in contact with us! And Sister May brought us Shepherd's Pie and brownies for dinner. AND someone even responded to my free Book of Mormon ad.
On Tuesday we had an awesome lesson with this guy named Cameron who Sister Lynch had been messaging on Facebook and was interested in learning about our religion. We did it with the Elders (boy missionaries) who lived in his area in Alabama. It was awesome! The spirit was so strong as we shared the story of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appearing to Joseph Smith to restore Christ's church on the earth. He felt so uplifted and the Elders are going to give him the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ this week. MIRACLE! That afternoon we went to do some service for the Jones family in our ward. They're a cute young couple stationed on Fort Polk. Sister Jones needed some more help unpacking since she moved here recently (p.s. we found 2 cockroaches while unpacking...welcome to the South jaja) We also got to know her better and she's so sweet and is trying so hard to keep her high standards. She even asked us how she can stay active in church when we aren't holding physical meetings. She's awesome! Then we came back and filmed a video about doing service for our ward. We're trying to get service hyped.
Wednesday we had district council in Many and carpooled up with the Leesville sisters. Elder Coon gave a great discussion about sharing the gospel with charity, our love for the people we meet. It was awesome! We got Subway for lunch and ate all together as a district. It was the most I've heard any of the missionaries ever talk. Of course on our last meeting before transfers next week jaja. Afterwards we drove back to Leesville, sadly our lesson with Sister Green cancelled so we just came back to DeRidder. As we did our personal study I had a question that dug me into a question hole, ya know the usual? I KNOW that everything is part of God's plan but the verse made it seem like some things weren't part of the original plan, even though I KNOW God has a plan for everything...I kind of had a mini breakdown about having too many dumb questions because I like to ask the district and they're probably annoyed with me, but Sister Lynch was great at being nice to me to make me feel better. Despite my insecurities about my questions, I finished studying and closed with a prayer. As soon as I finished saying "Dear Heavenly Father" I felt like there was this warm blanket wrapped around my shoulders and felt so much love. I felt like that was God reassuring me that He loves me and I know He does.
On Thursday we had a pretty chill morning. That afternoon we did a call with the STL's (Sister Training Leaders) to finish having Sister Lynch pass off her 12 week missionary training. She's officially been trained! And 5 days early! Whoop whoop! She's so awesome! Then we had our last weekly planning session of the transfer. Later that night we finally got to visit the Jacksons. Janaya had friends over but we just waited out in the car until she got back. We were just able to talk with Ja'Ron, the 13-year-old, and Janaya because AJ, the 15-year-old, was sleeping. They've been so busy (we hadn't seen them since before Christmas) and have had a lot of recent struggles. We shared our favorite Matthew 11:28-30 about coming unto Christ to have your burdens lifted. It was like we had just talked with them yesterday. Ja'Ron had so much to say. He's a spiritual powerhouse man. And Janaya loves supporting her kids and believing in God. They're so awesome. We also shared 2 Nephi 31:20 which says, "Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." This is one of my favorites about pressing forward with faith, no matter how small that step is, and turning to the scriptures to endure to the end with the goal of living with our families for eternity.
Friday morning we had a call with Sister Buck, an older member in our ward, to read the Book of Mormon. She also told us how she would be going in for her second COVID vaccine next week so that was exciting to hear that stuff is happening with that. Later that afternoon we went and visited someone named Colton that used to be taught by the missionaries. We shared our recent favorite Matthew 11:28-30 about coming unto Christ to have your burdens lightened. He really liked it and the importance of prayer. We introduced the Book of Mormon and invited him to pray about it that night and he said he would AND that he would follow up with US about how it went. No one ever follows up with the missionaries!
On Saturday we got invited to a baptism in Nachitoches for this young lady named Mackenzie. We carpooled with the Leesville sisters in their minivan and showed up to the Nachitoches church building at 10am...to an empty parking lot...we all died a little inside after the 1.5 hour drive. Apparently the baptism got moved to 1pm but no one told us...so we just did our personal study in the car and then went inside and had a giant district companionship study which was cool. We grabbed Cane's for lunch before the baptism and when we got back the Nachitoches Elders told us that Mackenzie's family and friends were in the food industry so there was a BUNCH of food and cake and brownies! (Now this was after we all INHALED our Cane's (fried chicken fingers, french fries and buttered Texas toast) in 10 minutes to get there on time and we all wanted to explode...food overload). But the baptism was awesome and Mackenzie was so happy and can't wait to go to BYUI for school in the fall. After her baptism we drove back with Leesville and I got so carsick...not fun but we made it back to DeRidder and our lesson fell through...oof. But we were able to finish all our studies, call Brother Larimer and get a Spanish-speaking referral. We texted him in Spanish and it was exciting. I'm super nervous to maybe teach him a lesson, but excited to use some Spanish!!
Sunday we woke up and Sister Lynch found a bug Bite on her finger and a spot of blood on her pillow...gosh dang bed bugs...so we sprayed our living room with some more stuff but it was WAY stronger than the spray we used last time and we were straight up coughing up poison! (Not really but that's what it felt like) As we started our personal study, we were contacting some people to finish setting up our lesson with Michael today (Sister Lynch's first one with him because we haven't been able to contact him since he stopped paying his phone bill). As she looked at her phone she found an email from President Amos with her transfer news. *drum roll please* she's staying in DeRidder and will be training a new missionary!! Literally I had no clue how to feel about her training right out of training. I mean it happens but woah. I know that she can do it though and it will be a good challenge to help her talk more, she's got it. Then I looked at my email to verify her meeting time and I also had an email from President Amos...I would be part of the Mission Leadership Council...meaning I'd be a STL (Sister Training Leader). I died. Definitely freaked me out but I pushed my nerves to the side and moved on to personal study. After that we went to visit Pastor Jerry's Christian Fellowship church in town. There were a few more people there this time and the pastor even memorized our names...not quite sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing though. I thought it was interesting how he preached that we just have to believe in Christ to make it to heaven #James2:26. Then we came home, had lunch, watched the Sunday live devotional on Facebook, had a missionary correlation meeting with our ward, then decided to make cookies for our old neighbors. After that we went to the church building and had our leadership orientation meetings with President Amos before our lesson with Michael. We invited the Jones couple in our ward and Brother Skarstedt to join in our lesson with Michael. We told them that we'd just be reading a Book of Mormon story and that we haven't been able to meet with him in a while. When Michael got there they did a great job of being friendly and then we went into the church building to start our lesson. They all basically pushed AT&T when Michael said he was trying to pick a phone company. Then we got spiritual. As soon as we started talking Brother Jones asked Michael "what made you want to convert to Mormonism?" and I freaked out! I was like "woah woah woah he's not converting"...Michael is someone who declined a baptismal invitation a while back.
In closing of this wacky email I just wanted to testify that I know God loves each and every one of you out there reading this. In John 14:18 it says "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you" and I know that this is true. He will never leave us completely alone, Christ already did that for us so that we don't have to. Our loving Father in Heaven is looking out for each of us and wants us to return to live with Him as families. I know that God has a plan for me and for each one of yall too! If we need peace or guidance we can turn to Christ at all times and He WILL be there for you!
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: 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. Companion selfie on the classic couch!
2. Celebrating Sister Lynch's 9 month mark! Crazy!
3. We ate brownie banana split sundaes in celebration of Sister Lynch's 9 month mark!
4. Got a little crazy with them banana splits!
5. We had a companionship study with our STL's over Facebook messenger
