Hola y'all!
Shazam! Another one!
Monday was our Zday. It's kind of like a Zone Conference but minus President Amos. And we were combined with the Hattiesburg zone in Wiggins so there were like 50 missionaries there! It was so hype! We had our meeting from 9am-noon which was super good about the importance of CPR (spiritual CPR aka Church Pray Read, the lifeblood of the gospel) and then we spent the rest of the day together. We had lunch at the church then went to a member's house, the Schiffers, for board games, spikeball, a slip n' slide and a BBQ. It was a lot of fun! Then we all went back to the church for a bit and Sister Quick basically cut everyone's hair since she's a licensed cosmetologist. And the Pascagoula sisters spent the night with us!
On Tuesday morning we were out exercising and I was walking (as I do since Sister Cropper runs everyday) and had a little morning rev (aka revelation). I was thinking about not doing my personal study yesterday because it was such a busy day and I didn't have time. Everyone always talks about how their day just sucks when they don't read their scriptures versus when they do. I was thinking back on my day and we did super fun things and it was like a "meh" day, not the best day of my life but not the worst either...so I started thinking "Am I doing something wrong?" Then the thought came to mind "Did I progress spiritually?"...I had to think about that for a bit...I learned some cool stuff at ZDay during our meeting, but without coupling those new insights with my own study I didn't really feel like I had progressed or moved forward spiritually...and yall know what they say "if you're not moving forward you're going backwards" so oof jaja. But seriously I LOVE learning and progressing to become like our Heavenly Father is literally the purpose of this life, so if I'm not doing that everyday I'm just gonna have "meh" days and that's not what I want. Anyways that was my rev, thanks for listening. Later that morning we got to go to the library and help shelf books. I'm getting really good at the alphabet without singing the song ya'll!! Major accomplishment right there. Sister Cropper also passed off some of her training stuff and did great so that's always awesome. We wrote a bunch of notes to people previously taught by the missionaries and were gonna deliver them but it started raining and then this couple, the Waters, in our branch brought us SO MANY groceries (cuz we didn't get the chance to go to the store on pday cuz it was way too busy) it was amazing! We also had our Addiction Recovery group that meets every week to go over the church's addiction recovery program which is so awesome. There's some great stuff in there just about hope and preserving through the hard times by relying on God. That night I even had a little breakdown crying in the bathroom for like 20 minutes and felt that need to rely on Christ to get through even the little things that build up in us (don't worry I just got kinda stressed as people threw away all my food, I got assigned to speak in church and all that good stuff).
Wednesday morning we had interviews with President Amos which are always fun. It was nice to see him and talk to him about stuff, he even wrote down some stuff to talk about with the Zone Leadership so it made me feel good that I was still contributing to the mission even though I'm not an STL (Sister Training Leader). President Amos is just the best! Then I drove us down to Gulfport for District Council in the POURING RAIN. I could not see a single thing! But it's ok, we're alive and well (: At District Council we got to talk about our members and how to get them motivated to do member missionary work...basically they want Sister Cropper and I to give some roasty talks in church this Sunday so we'll see how that goes...then we finally had lunch at like 3pm...I WAS STARVING MAN. Anyways after lunch we drove home and then Sister Cropper and I drove to our very first appointment! We were super hyped and she was kinda nervous for her first lesson. It was with this lady named Lela who we met at Walmart. We went to her house and knocked on her door 5 times, called her, played with her very small puppy outside that attacked Sister Cropper's feet (in a nice puppy way though, she kept asking if it was a rat though cuz it was so small but I assured her it was a puppy...even though I've seen rats that size here in the South...oof) and left a note on her door. It was sad that our first appointment fell through but hopefully we'll be able to get in contact and meet her another time.
On Thursday we had a mission-wide zoom call about social media and how to respond to media referrals. Then President Amos gave us some new updates about masks...now they are only a recommendation for those both vaccinated and unvaccinated unless it's the law to wear a mask or someone feels uncomfortable having us in their home without a mask. Everyone freaked out! We're basically back to mission rules pre-COVID and I don't even know what that looks like. It's pretty crazy stuff. After lunch we biked to what became our first appointment to hold! We biked 4.5 miles and I haven't done something like that since being in El Dorado (our quad mates think we're absolutely crazy jaja) and we were totally DRENCHED in sweat when we pulled up to Ruth's house. But she was just sitting out under her carport waiting for us. She's this cute old lady who just got out of the hospital and one of our members, Mavaun, lives with her so instant fellow shipper (we just have to reactivate her a bit). They were both so sweet and we got to talk with them and their dogs and get to know them better. We shared a spiritual thought from the New Testament in Matthew 10:29-31 about how much God loves us and Matthew 11:28-30 about how God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to comfort us and bear our burdens. She loves it so much and said she felt the spirit and "wasn't lying" jaja then when we were done she asked if we had any more scriptures for her so we're going over on Saturday to share some Saturday scriptures. It was so good and felt so nice to see someone else feel and recognize the spirit! It's been a minute since I've had a lesson (like a month) so it was a nice reminder. Then as we were biking home we decided to stop at this place called Frosty Mug to get shakes and do our weekly planning. They were really good and we got to talk to all the people outside getting food too (in the shade with some fans thank goodness). Then we biked home and were so exhausted after our 11 mile biking journey (added miles for going back to the house since Sister Cropper forgot her tag after we just made it up the BIG hill and turning around for Frosty Mug). So we had dinner and called a bunch of people the rest of the night.
Friday was quite an interesting day. We were supposed to have a lesson with Pauline at 9am (a referral we got the night before at like 10pm) but she didn't answer...rip. This was also our Poplarville day so after personal study we headed out and parked at the Francis' house (our Branch President). They're out of town so we decided to clean out their entire carport as a fun surprise. We pulled everything out, found so much trash and about a billion and one cockroaches, spiders, a cup of fish eggs, maggots, and other mysterious bugs. We pulled everything out into their yard and started sweeping and organizing and stuff when it started POURING rain! So we frantically started bringing stuff back inside after I felt like I had just jumped in the pool! But after a couple hours the carport looked nice and organized, a little muddy and wet...but organized! Then we were all starving and went to the Way Out West Grill for lunch. I got a burger and sweet potato fries (literally my favorite things ever! But only if they're dipped in ranch). Then we drove across the street (since it was still raining) to talk to Julissa, the shrimp lady, about her Book of Mormon reading and stuff. She read like half of the introduction and said she'd message us with any questions but has been busy with her 5 month old baby. She was super sweet and assured us that she's just been busy. Then we came home (since our lesson with Mary fell through because of "bad weather") and finally got into dry clothes, after being soaking for like 4 hours, and I had some hot cocoa. The rest of the night we finished our studies and went to McAllister's for dinner.. It was super yummy. Then we came home and did some role plays about baptism so that was fun jaja.
On Saturday mornings we usually go to the animal shelter at 9am and do service for them for an hour. I'm in the 2/4 quad members that enjoy going. Then at 8:30am the one other quad member that likes to go decided she just couldn't do it today and wanted to make it a monthly and for less time. That meant that we had 30minutes to shower, eat breakfast and get ready for the day since we usually do that after the animal shelter since we're disgusting and smell like cat pee. It just made me super frustrated that this one quad mate was in a bad mood and threw off our schedule for the day and the animal shelter's schedule and we had 30 minutes for both Sister Cropper and I to be ready. I was very mad/frustrated. I jumped in the shower and then did my language study so Sister Cropper could get in the shower without missing any personal study time (since usually that's what we do at 9am). I kinda forgot to eat breakfast until like 10 so I was a little h-angry too...basically by the time we finally got to do personal study I was just super mad at this one person. (we also got a call that Sister Cropper and I would be having to give 20 minute talks in sacrament meeting on Sunday instead of just 10 minutes so I was super stressed) I wanted to find an answer in the Book of Mormon that would help me feel more peaceful, really any other emotion than what I was feeling, but the place I was in the Book of Mormon just wasn't gonna do that for me. So I decided to do something I'd never done before and read a random passage in the Book of Mormon relating to my feelings of frustration. I found a little excerpt from one of the church magazines with little cards that told you where to read "when you're feeling…" so I went to the frustrated one and read 2 Nephi 4:16-35 and what stuck out to me were verses 26-28 when Nephi was saying
"...why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions? 27 And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy? 28 Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul."
Basically after I read that I felt like the one person getting on my nerves was "mine enemy" and that it was stupid to let them continue to make me mad for over an hour! It's up to me how I react on the outside but also how long I let them make me feel frustrated on the inside when I want to feel "peace" and get out of the "valley of sorrow". I just really related to Nephi, said a little prayer and it made me feel so much more at peace and not so angry/frustrated. The power of the Book of Mormon is REAL yall!! Anyways after lunch it was pouring rain and we were deciding how we were gonna get to Ruth's house for our appointment 4.5 miles away. Usually we bike but it was raining and we were running a little late so the other sisters were trying to convince me to take the car (basically because they hate biking and think we're crazy for doing it). An hour before, Sister Cropper was telling me how we shouldn't bike for safety reasons then suddenly she was trying to convince me to go out biking...it was wack, but she said she really felt we needed to bike so we did. I could definitely feel the angels pushing my bike up some of those hills! Then as we turned onto her street with like 0.5 miles left it got real hard to ride my bike so we pulled over and my back tire had gone flat! Bruh! So we walked the rest of the way and would figure out getting the 4.5 miles home after our lesson. We had a good lesson with Ruth and Mavuan about prayer. It was kinda hard because Ruth is like 80 years old and when we asked her questions she said she just didn't know or didn't know how to answer our questions...it was kinda rough but then I shared my experience from that morning about the Book of Mormon helping me find peace. Then she started asking more about what the Book of Mormon is. Mavaun (the like 70 year old member) tried to explain to her that it was like the Bible but took place "on another world"...that's when we had to step in and set some things straight. We explained how the Book of Mormon is Another Testament of Jesus Christ but is a record of the people in the Ancient Americas. She seemed to get it and we invited them to read the introduction and invited Mavaun back to church, but she has a hard time sitting and standing for very long, so we sent her the zoom link for church. Then we asked if they had a bike pump for my flat tire. Ruth asked Danny, this guy in his like early 30's, to fix it for us. As he replaced my bike tube we were talking with him and his religious beliefs. Basically he thinks Mary was not a virgin in order to get pregnant with Jesus and there is no God because if we were created in God's image then we'd already be Gods and he's not. It was very interesting and then we talked about how he knows 7 languages and is gonna help me learn Spanish next time we come over. So mini miracle! And MIRACLE that he fixed my bike so I could make it home, now the brake pads were touching my back tire the whole time, making it extremely difficult to bike but I made it! Then basically for the rest of the day we called people. Then after 9pm, I spent the rest of my night preparing for my talk in church and then rewarding myself with leftover cheesecake from McAllister's, the best kind of talk motivation.
I spent all of Sunday morning finishing writing up my talk. I was trying really hard to get it to be 20 minutes because Sister Cropper had never given more than a 5 minute talk before and wasn't too confident about filling the whole 20 minutes...which meant I would have to cover for that...stressful! We got to church and it was good. Sister Cropper gave her talk first for like 13 minutes and then I went. I ended up having WAY too much stuff prepared about sharing the gospel and had to cut like half of it out lol. That was a fat oof so it was a little more disorganized than I had hoped but it was alright. That night we had dinner at the Hughes house. Sister Hughes is a member but her husband, Opie, is not a member but loves having the missionaries over! We had spaghetti with them and then Sister Hughes wanted to give the spiritual thought by watching Elder Uchtdorf's talk "Come and Belong" because she thought it would be good for Opie as he tries to say his prayers. It was a good talk about how we don't need to be perfect to talk to God or come to church. Good stuff.
I just wanna close with my testimony that God always answers our prayers, sometimes it takes a little more diligence and patience on our side, but He always does. I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us so much and are always there for us to lift us up during the hard times and bear our burdens. Christ knows us so well that He knows exactly what to do to help us.(:
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
July Bike Mileage: 32.3 miles
Pictures!!!
1. Sister Cropper's mom got us all matching Wiggins shirts so we were them to Zday
2. The quad at McAllister's
3. Funny "classic Southerner" text from Tracy, the recent convert
