Hola y'all!
On Monday we went to Farmerville for pday and were like 2.5 hours late so we missed the water balloon fight but Sister York played the guitar while the Farmerville Elders and West Monroe Sisters and I played this game called Unstable Unicorns. It was quite interesting and I won the first game but then they were all concerned about me the next game that Elder Grant won lol. Always fun to hang and chill with the district. Then we headed home and went to our lesson with the Williams at 6pm. We were doing it virtually since they live pretty far away. It was super cute because all the kids huddled around Sister Williams’ phone, except for Elijah, as we asked them some getting-to-know-you questions, read about Jesus' baptism in Matthew 3:13-17, talked about Heavenly Father and Jesus and the Holy Ghost. She even said they were all listening very intently! We also talked about prayer and invited them to say family prayer and Maddox even said closing prayer!! MIRACLE! Literally such a cute family! Then later that night we had a call with the ZLs about a transfer input spreadsheet. Apparently as the transfer is ending, the Zone Leadership fills out this spreadsheet for President Amos about every member of the Zone with info about if we feel they would be good trainers, District Leaders, Zone Leaders or STLs and anything else we feel President Amos should know. This blew my mind that I never knew I had been talked about amongst the Zone Leadership to determine if I should be a trainer or STL! It was crazy, but also cool.
Tuesday morning we had a lesson with Brenda over the phone. She shared an experience about after her husband died she went online and talked to a dude for a year and he was a con artist…oof. Brenda has a hard time telling the difference between Satan and God sometimes. So we talked about the fruits of the spirit and how if the fruits are good, it's from God. She really likes our calls though, she even makes everyone in the back be quiet and said she was excited for our next session. (: She literally set up her own follow up appointment, we love that! Later we called this girl named Brelynn over Facebook Messenger. She is this girl that the missionaries used to meet with but we could tell that she has some sort of brain injury (that’s what the previous missionaries who taught her had written in areabook) based on the way she spoke and stuff. She was really sweet, we got to know her and shared our favorite verses. I was gonna share my favorite one in Alma 26:12 but the spirit was like nah Alma 30:44 so I just went with it…wack thing how the spirit works but it was good. Sadly we don’t know if she's accountable though and just looking for friends more than the gospel :/ Then we went to Walmart to buy birthday supplies for Sister Ward’s birthday tomorrow. Then we were supposed to go over to Nashaun’s for another lesson but she wasn’t quite home yet so we decided to go down our list of referrals (since we get like so many a day and as soon as we put in that we reached out to them, whether they’ve responded or not, on areabook they disappear into our list of like 200 yellow dots and then easily get forgotten if they don’t reply back to us) on paper so we can better keep track of those who don’t respond and reach out again. I also had a feeling that we should call someone and we did and she answered and really appreciated it! It was quite nice to know that the spirit speaks to me and I can listen lol. Then Nashaun got home at 4:30 and we went over there but this time for only 2.5 hours (we’re slowly getting better jaja)! She started by explaining her week and how she doesn’t work on Sundays because it is a holy day (yes!). Then she shared this weird dream she had of herself, it was kinda wack and she proceeded to share with us some of her other dreams too that were even wackier. Then she shared a few stories about her boyfriend, being a tomboy when she was younger, hanging with her friends back then, and at like 6:40 she asked about how long we serve out here as missionaries (seriously, just when we get back to the good stuff it’s been 2 hours and we actually HAD to go because we had a meeting with President Amos at 7). She’s seen the Elders in NOLA biking around and had been taught by some nuns who hit her with a paddle. Then our backup plan was for the ZLs to call us so we could leave and they did, so we physically stood up to try and leave. We said a family prayer with them in a little circle on the floor where Nashaun prayed, then Willow said a prayer and then Sister York closed us out. It was very cute. So we had to join the zoom call in the car and talked about the Zone and the missionaries being trained and transfers coming up and the notes we made on that spreadsheet and stuff. Dude it would be so hard to be President Amos and have to find out where every single one of our like 200 missionaries should be, who they should be with and what they should be doing. Then later at like 9:40pm we began birthday scheming. We had left all of our birthday supplies in our car trunk so Sister Ward wouldn’t see them, we brought them out while she was asleep because she goes to sleep crazy early. We decorated the entire apartment with streamers, birthday banners and balloons. I even sneakily strung some streamers on their bedroom door and accidentally popped a balloon but they stayed in there!
On Wednesday we were super excited for Sister Ward to see all of the decorations, we waited for her downstairs and when she came down she seemed to like them all and really appreciated it. We had even bought her a birthday girl crown and sash (my idea) that we made her wear to District Council. Then our last surprise was sneaking waffle stuff in our car trunk for District lunch. We had District Council in West Monroe and this week everyone had so many miracles to share! Elder Grant gave a nice discussion on Preach My Gospel and Elder Cameron gave a refining lesson about how to use PMG better. Then for lunch we had the surprise waffle party for Sister Ward! We had lots of fun toppings and things like nutella and fruit and stuff. Then when we got home Sister Ward’s mom and sent her some cupcakes which was super sweet. Our lesson with Katherine fell through so we started doing some family history work since that was recommended with the new daily schedule from Zone Conference. At first I was attaching records and doing good things then I wanted to see how far back I could go and so I started from my mom’s side going from my great grandma Aagard’s line. I start getting really far by clicking on people with pictures and I start wondering if I can get to around Jesus’ time and then...I see Jesus. On. My. Family. Tree. Jesus. Labeled "Messiah Jesus Christ" with the classic Jesus in red portrait and I FLIPPED OUT. The family tree app says he married Mary Magdalene and had 2 kids, Sarah and Joseph (although he was born in 044 and Jesus died in 033 so) but like bruh. So then I thought maybe I could get back to God. So I kept going up the Jesus line, passing King solomon, Jezebel and then Enoch and Noah and then Seth and then ADAM AND EVE whose parents are "Elohim Heavenly Father" and "Heavenly Mother Sr". That's when I literally DIED. I don't really know whether to actually believe it but that was pretty cool. Then we contacted some more yellow dots with our new paper recording system which seems to be working out well. We called Saide and had no plan, so Sister York decided to do a faith flip in front of her which was interesting. We landed on Alma 28 and 29. I don't know if it was actually a good lesson for Sadie or what but at the end of Alma 29 Sister York started tearing up (also she teared up in the opening prayer cuz I think she thinks she's getting transferred but like in the car on the way home from DC I was feeling I might get transferred so oof). Afterwards we got a text from Casey about the “Melgelestic priesthood” lol and just how he is worried about being worthy and all that jazz since we are helping him prepare for it and all. So we had a good little talk with him and during our next lesson will definitely address that more. Then we had stewies with the El Dorado Sisters and they’ve been biking lots which is super good to hear! Sister Holloway’s training pass offs were also really good! Then Sarah Coenen came by to deliver a birthday cake for Sister Ward. She loves baking and we asked her if she would be able to bake a cake for Sister Ward and she was thrilled to help out. It was beautiful, round, purple (Sister Ward’s favorite color), with yellow and white polka dots and flowers on it. Sister Angilau and Sister Ward started cutting into the cake while on the mission Instagram meeting and dude, it tasted like it was from a professional store or something! Amazing!!! Then after 9 we went into our room and I somehow got sad about Argentina again. Sister York joined me on my bed and then we talked about her problems too. Luke, her ex-boyfriend who she dear Johned while on her mission, sent her a letter and our DL gave it to her at DC (she won’t share her address with him but he sends stuff to the mission office and then people deliver it to her) and she chucked it, then Sister Young picked it up and she chucked it again, confusing everyone. He sent a Valentine's Day thing too with a painting of her and stuff. She doesn't know what to do about him continuing to send her things after they’ve broken up. She also said that she really doesn't want to go home so we talked through some things. I gave her the classic “your life's a mission get over it” (Elder Jacobson, my mission dad) speech lol.
Thursday morning during our exercise walk we found some guppies on the little streams next to the road. After getting ready and our usual studies, we went to lunch at the Daily Harvest. On Thursday their daily special is gumbo! Yum! Brother and Sister Holt were there as well as Brother Rennick and his sister, Sarah. Brother Holt asked about Larry, as always since he was the one who baptized him, who is doing great and we also brought up Nashaun. After lunch/MCC we came home and did some weekly planning before our lesson with Laquita. She told us how being with her boyfriend now that he's out of jail makes her unhappy. So our lesson on families kinda went out the door, then Sister York gave her some options about what we could talk about and Laquita chose the spirit. Sister York just busted out like 3 scriptures in 10 minutes and then looked at me and was like “bear your testimony” and I was shocked. I didn't catch how much time she had for a lesson and was trying to follow where Sister York was going with prayer?? It was a little rough (Whenever Sister York seems to be following the spirit and can never seem to get on the same train and can’t follow where Sister York is trying to take the lesson). Anyways after that we spent 3.5 hours weekly planning. We contacted people and set a bunch of things up. At point point we called this guy named Akila and left him a voicemail. Then he called us back and we were on the phone with him for 1.5 hours! Although it was more like Sister York talked with him as he told her how awesome she is (we’ve never called this man before ever), was absolutely shocked that she was only 20 years old and ended up offering her a management position at his real estate agency and said he'd help her do some big things. It was one crazy phone call! He was amazed at her dedication to serve God (I basically didn't exist, I tried inserting myself in the conversation a few times but he was so involved with Sister York that he didn't quite catch that another person was speaking). She told him about our church and he liked how it sounded like Christ’s New Testament Church (duh, because it is jaja) and then at the end we were somehow talking about church callings, like what Sister York’s gonna do when she goes home (which she has been freaking out about) and Sister York was like “can I be bold?” and just dumped doctrine about the apostasy, priesthood, the restored church and all that jazz. It was totally crazy and more like a therapy/real estate call with God mixed in there at the end. We set up a time to meet on Tuesday and he'll see about bringing his family too. MIRACLE! Later that night we called El Dorado for stewies and Sister Rosas and Sister Quindo were giving us all of their transfer predictions for what would be happening on Wednesday. Ahhhhh.
Friday is our Winnsboro day so that afternoon we headed down to Brittany’s. We had our lesson outside since it was nice out. Also their dog, Remi, totally loved us by the end of it lol. We showed a video about faith and read in Alma 32 (the classic faith chapter). (Sidenote: her little 2 year old son, Michael, is just so cute!) Brittany brought up her goal to be baptized in a few years (cuz kids and she doesn't have as deep of a relationship with God as she wants oof). Sister York picked up Michael to move him a couple times so he wouldn't ask her to hold him…I don't really think that's allowed man with the whale missionaries can’t hold children rule but oh well I guess. Brittany also tried getting us to stay longer because most of the time she is at home all day, alone, being a mom while her husband is at work or traveling for work. Sadly we had to go though to make it to our lesson with the Temples. With the Temples we have been going through the Preach My Gospel lessons and everything since they each have their own copies. So today we were in chapter 6 about Christlike attributes talking about knowledge. We thought this would be good since Casey has been freaking out about getting the Melchizedek priesthood soon. We discussed how they don’t need to know everything RIGHT now. They are still recent converts and are literally killing it! Casey expressed a desire to go to the temple and we showed them the Rome Italy temple tour video (it is literally one of the best temple videos) which they really liked and said they felt much peace when watching it.
On Saturday we did exchanges with the Bastrop Sisters, I was with Sister Angilau in Monroe and Sister York was with Sister Ward in the Bastrop area. We exchanged after getting ready so that they could do their extreme workouts with each other jajaja they really do go crazy hard man. Also on our walk this morning Sister York found this hanging sun decoration thing in some guy’s trash out front and took it home with us lol. Anyways, we daily planned and contacted some people before doing some service at 9:30am. We were going over to Meiko’s house to do yard work for her because she was one of our service referrals. We pulled up and her yard literally looked fine…Brother Reeves was coming to help out by bringing equipment like a lawnmower and some rakes and stuff. Meiko asked us what church we are from and Brother Reeves told her. She asked if we had church services going on in-person right now and if there were lots of kids (since she’s got some kids). So we got to excitedly tell her that of course we do! Then we got to work. Brother Reeves cut the grass (aka Southern speak for he mowed the lawn jaja) while we raked in the backyard and Sister Reeves cleaned up the leaves. Then as we were finishing up, Brother Poulsen and his teenage son, Mason, showed up too! So they helped us pull weeds. Then after everyone left, I asked Meiko if we could say a prayer with her and she was ok with that. We held hands in a circle (another Southern thing and probably the first time Sister Angilau’s ever prayed like that) and after she asked for our church card! MIRACLE! Of course it was the one time I did not have a pass along card with me but we said that we would text her the information. After that we came home, did personal study and decided to go to the Daily Harvest for lunch (when doing exchanges within a quad, it is best to get out of the apartment so that they can tell you anything they need to without their companion being there). I ordered the banana split crepe and she got a sandwich and some chips (: While we were there Sister Angilau was able to open up to me about feeling like a “useless missionary” so she asked me for some tips and advice but then President Amos called looking to speak with Sister Angilau. Apparently in her weekly email to President (the thing we all have to do every pday) she had said some stuff and he wanted to call her and talk about it himself. He is so sweet and I think it showed her how much we all care for her, as well as freaked her out a little bit that President Amos had called her jaja. Then we had comp study and Sister Angilau shared with me how she was feeling a little homesick when she sees all the family events she is missing out on. I talked about appreciating eternal families and temporary sacrifices we make as missionaries. I was also tasked by Sister Ward to talk with her about 4 eyes (having 4 eyes on one screen at all times, so that your companion is always seeing what you are doing) so I brought that up and she said that she feels like she’s doing way better than at first, so improvement is good to hear. Then we had training and we read from PMG and did some roleplays as she passed off some stuff to me. She still needs some basic teaching skills like maintaining eye contact and having gospel knowledge since she hasn't read the Book of Mormon all the way (like me when I came out so I was able to share my testimony on that which I literally love doing because God will help you fill in the gaps of what you don’t know as long as you are willing and put in the effort) but she is SO great with people! Then we went on a quad walk where we caught guppies, walked to the Bayou and saw a dead turtle. Then back at home we called the Williams for another lesson. Chris and Elijah were getting haircuts (their dad took them without Sister William’s realizing) so it was just Maddox and Ammon. We did an activity (Sister Angilau’s idea from using the Primary handbook!) were we each drew ourselves on a piece of paper and they were like mini artists! We explained how Heavenly Father is a real being just like us and the paper versions of themselves that they drew. We taught them that before this life we lived with God and He still knows us as His children. Maddox and Ammon said it feels good to know God and that we are His kids. We told them that they are Sons of God which means that they are like kings and they were pretty happy about that(: Sister Williams mentioned how they like singing so our commitment for them was to have them sing “I Am a Child of God” and to share what they learned with their other 2 brothers who missed out. Then we had another phone call lesson with Michele. We started by asking her about her day and she didn’t want to tell us because she thought that we would think less of her and we said we wouldn’t. Turns out she went dumpster diving and it’s her favorite hobby so I told her about Sister York finding that sun decoration thing from this morning and all we hear is her yelling in the back "Robert they like dumpster diving!" Lol I guess that helped us bond a little? Basically Michele has been through a lot of stuff; her ex-husband tried to kill her, but she prayed and God delivered her 2 days later, her dad molested and raped her but she kinda forgives him. The scriptures we had prepared lined up PERFECTLY with what she was saying so that she could relate to how God delivers us from bondage, and how He is mindful of all people and the importance of trusting in Him (Alma 26:37 and Mosiah 29:20). Good stuff. After dinner we had a lesson with Brelynn where we read the Book of Mormon with her. She seems to answer questions pretty well but we did have to break it down verse by verse as we read. Sister Angilau did a great job of picking up on what I was doing when I started explaining the story one verse at a time! It was actually really nice to feel insync with my companion again…
Sunday was pi day! Obviously one of my favorite holidays as a math major (: Also at 6:19am Elder Hill informed everyone that transfer boards were out! Bruh. Sister York and I are staying here in Monroe, the district is staying the same except that the Elders are getting whitewashed with Elder Baxter and Elder Elder (getting yeeted as a greenie after his first transfer in Covington oof also yes you read that right, his name is Elder Elder). Elder Cameron, our DL, is going to be the new ZL with Elder Young and Elder Grant will be the DL in Winnfield (so Sister York and I still get to work with both of them!) Crazy stuff! And Sister Quindo and Sister Reynolds are greenie breaking (when their first transfer out of training is with another greenie right out of training) each other in El Dorado oof. Getting transfer news is always exciting and then everyone spends so much time just looking at the transfer boards over google drive. We had a ward council meeting at 8:30am and I just can’t tell yall enough how good this ward is. They are all sooo willing to help out with the missionary work going on and truly care about all of their members and follow that with the effort to help them. We walked to church and at first there weren't a lot of people there and then during the opening hymn the Williams got there!!! Larry wasn't there though…oof. But like 40 people were there, so not too bad (I can’t believe that i’m saying 40 people at church is “not too bad” wow). Then right after sacrament meeting the ward swarmed the Williams family (exactly what members should do when new people come to church for the first time)!! Brother Reeves gave them the Young Men activities schedule. Sister Tuft (Primary President) was talking to the boys and with Sister Williams. Bishop Jones took Sister Williams into a room for a priesthood blessing while we talked to the boys. The twins played an intense game of rock paper scissors in the front lobby area. Maddox kept walking around to explore. They just seemed comfortable in the church building. Then we got to have our lesson about Jesus. They actually knew quite a bit about Jesus since Elijah said "every church knows about Jesus" lol. Elijah was having lots of fun. We showed the kids video explaining Jesus, building on their knowledge of Him being a kind, respectful person. We talked about choosing the right after Elijah talked about Jesus as a shield. Chris asked who created God...I was like bruh this 8 year old is getting into the deep questions man. Elijah asked about if Jesus was perfect and stuff and ended up answering his own question! Then he wanted to say the closing prayer too (he said the opening one too) so Chris was nervous but he did it! They are so cute!
To close up this was an interesting week and I’m excited to see what the next transfer will be like with all the new people we’ve been finding and teaching. I know that God is looking out for me and that even when things don’t quite go as planned, it works out in the end. I know that being a missionary can be hard sometimes but it is people like the Williams family that keep me going and wandering to go tell everyone about Jesus Christ who loves them.
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
March Bike Mileage: 9.9 miles
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