Hurricane Ida

Hola y'all! 

 

 

Sorry this one's a little late but here's how the week of the hurricane went for me...and it was a lot better than my first hurricane experience, and way more organized too! 

 

 

Monday was a pretty good pday. Our district met up in Laurel after we got groceries at Walmart and lunch at Wendy's. We played some basketball, pingpong, around the world ping pong where everyone switches places and then some form of 3 v. 4 pingpong where we kept playing as long as the ball was bouncing. It was lots of fun. Then we played cover your assets and Elder Aldana taught us all how to throw playing cards. Pretty good pday. Then we went home and both our lessons fell through...oof. Then I realized how many pdays I have left on my mission (7)...OOF. 

 

 

On Tuesday morning I had been looking at this red spot on my collarbone and then I noticed a small ring forming...MY RINGWORM IS BACK! I was like"bruh what the heck?!" So that's fun...then we met with David to see how we can help him build his ministry that helps recovering addicts, he bought this house for $10 and needs help fixing it up so that'll be fun. Then we biked to visit Keith and Sandra. It was pretty hot out there feeling like 105 degrees and all but I got to ride my bike all nice and fixed up back from the shop. So that was super nice! My legs just felt like noodles having not biked for the past 2 weeks. But the best thing ever that makes it all worth it is when we see Keith's truck out in the driveway because that's when you know we're gonna have a lesson! We knocked on their door and they were both home and we got to talk more about the Book of Mormon with them. Sometimes Keith likes to get a little roasty though since he is a retired Baptist pastor. We were reading in Mosiah about King Benjamin teaching his sons from the brass plates and he was like didn't God's commandments come on stone. I was like yeah but those are the 10 commandments and the brass plates are like writings from Moses and Isaiah and stuff. Gotta be pretty bold with him sometimes jaja. But it was good and we testified that the Book of Mormon is true and is the word of God, just like the Bible and invited them to pray about it. Then we talked afterwards for a while too and he asked about our missions and stuff. We're really bonding with them. They even invited us to swim in their pool after our missions lol! They're seriously so sweet. Then we biked home on the bumpy road, had lunch, had a lesson fall through then drove to another lesson with Stephanie that fell through. Since we were up in Mount Olive we decided to knock on some people's doors that know the missionaries. So we knocked on the first one and the lady was not interested. The next one we pulled up to was a house with a bunch of dudes out front but we were looking for a woman, Lukinda. Some dude went to get her and an older lady came up and said that she was her mom...it was just weird. But we made an appointment with her since she didn't have a phone...wack. The next one, the lady, Elle, was outside trying to jump her car and I was like "Do you need some help? If you have jumper cables I can jump your car" *thanks mom and dad for that knowledge* but she didn't. But she did remember the Elders and wanted to meet up with us again. Then we prayed with her, she was super sweet! The last guy we went to, Eric, was outside working and said we could come back later because he wants to get back into the God stuff so that was dope. Then we drove home and called a bunch of people. Then we had a lesson with this lady named Sophia who we've never met. We pulled up to her house and there were a bunch of kids outside, the older one looked kinda familiar and he said she'd be back in an hour. Then I asked him to tell her the missionaries stopped by and he was like "wait are y’all the ones from last week?" and it was Jeremiah! One of LaToya's nephews who we met last Saturday but she told us she only had them once a month!! MIRACLE! WHAT A CRAZY COINCIDENCE!! 

 

 

Ok so Wednesday morning...funny story…I woke up and Sister Cropper wasn't in the room so I thought she may have fallen asleep on the couch like she sometimes does. So I asked her why she slept out on the couch and she replied "because you locked me out"...apparently the night before I had locked the door (which I never do) when going to bed and she tried to open the door but couldn't. And I was probably dead asleep and didn't hear anything so she just slept on the couch! We had a good laugh about it but I also felt so bad so now I always open the door a few times before shutting it and going to sleep jaja. Anywho we went to our last district council of the transfer that morning too. It was good though, we set monthly goals and I got a little heated, as I always do because I want to set high goals (that are still realistic and achievable of course) but Elder Kephart was on board with it so it worked out and we set some good goals and talked about member missionary work! Then we had lunch together and did a little potluck; Elder Keen made chicken fried rice, Meridian made brownies and we brought sodas and I made cookies (that were gone in like 2 minutes because Elders eat EVERYTHING jaja). Then we did car inspections and headed up to Taylorsville to have a lesson with Heather. We pulled up to her house and 3 huge dogs came barking at us but I decided they were friendly and then they wouldn't stop licking me lol. We went up to the porch and there was a tiny little kitten! So cute! We knocked on the door but nobody answered so we played with all the animals for a bit and were about to put a note in the door when a little girl opened it, then closed the door immediately. Then Heather pulled up. Sadly she just got back from work and had to take her daughter somewhere but we got to talk for a bit and she was really nice. Basically the rest of the day we knocked gray dot doors (people previously taught by missionaries). At the second door we tried, some dude came behind us while we were knocking and told us that the man we were looking for died 15 or 20 years ago...that was wack...we tried talking to the man but he was really weird and just kinda mumbling and said he was "in a bind right now"...it was just weird. Then we knocked on Ora's door who we'd met once but hadn't been able to get in contact with her. She answered and we were able to talk with her outside for a bit, I shared a Book of Mormon scripture with her and she really liked it and said she'd read the introduction for us. She was just super sweet and told us all about New York and how different it is coming back to Mississippi jaja. Overall we talked to some good people and got some stuff set up for next week...if we're here...After we drove home we basically just called people, did Spanish study, had a cross study with Elder Snapp and Elder Kephart and then had a call with our zone about Brief Informal Missionary Discussions with our units. Then it basically just turned into a call with Sister Cropper and Sister Quick using messenger face effects and talking until 10pm. 

 

 

On Thursday we set up so many appointments since we had some more miles at the end of the month. We literally just planned for our lessons and then left in the morning. We drove to Mize to meet with Delia for the first time in-person. Her husband, Thomas, opened the door (the one who is secretly a member) and had us come in and we met Delia...I don't know what I thought she would look like but imagine the lady in the Pixar short Bao (the one with the lady who has a dumpling child and then eats it at the end jaja) but with white hair and is Mexican. That was her. She was so cute and sweet! We talked and taught her the Restoration and the spirit was SO STRONG! When I was reciting the first vision, when Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ, she was listening so intently and then when I finished her face was like a little shook and like in awe. I asked how she was feeling and she said "He chose Joseph Smith" and we were like "YES!" It was so good and as we tried to schedule another time to come over, which is always hard with her unknown schedule, she couldn't commit to an exact date and time but realized that we're representatives of Jesus Christ and straight up said "I don't want to reject Jesus" by not having us over again. It was just so cool to see her feel the spirit and begin to know that what we were saying was true. I just get so hyped after a good Restoration lesson. Then we drove to meet Barbara, who requested a missionary visit. After working up the courage to approach her door with the barking dog protecting it, she came out and was this sweet but sassy old lady. She was kinda hilarious but so talkative and such a strong lady who has been through a lot. We shared Matthew 11:28-30 with her about how Christ can lift burdens and she really liked it. She told us that she had been to many different churches but none of them seemed right. I asked if she'd ever been to our church and she said no so we invited her. She also said she wants to be a preacher and stuff (which she can be a teacher in our church) and wants to learn so we told her about the 5 lessons we teach and she wanted to hear them and we left her with a Restoration (lesson 1) pamphlets to read. It was a good lesson. Then we drove home, had lunch and 2 appointments fell through so we did a whole lot of weekly planning before going over to Annja's (recent convert who moved from Iowa) house for dinner. 

 

 

Friday morning we were told that some zones would have to be evacuated for the incoming hurricane, hurricane Ida. Our zone wasn't one of them so we thought that we would be having missionaries come stay with us. So we went about our day as usual. We woke up and headed out at 7am for Bishop's Storehouse for the last time. It was fun to have almost the entire zone there (minus the Meridian Elders cuz they live 1.5 hours away) and then we all went to Smoothie King for breakfast. 10/10 recommend Pineapple Surf with vanilla frozen yogurt yall. Then we hung out at the institute building while drinking our smoothies, it was a very nice and chill morning...then we got home and started planning for our day when we got the email: we were getting evacuated for Hurricane Ida. Basically everyone in the mission got evacuated to the Alexandria and Monroe zones, so instead of us thinking we'd get missionaries staying with us, we had 2 hours to pack up and leave our apartment! We scrambled to take stock of the stuff we had, run to the store then pack everything up in the car to head out on time. We started our 4 hour journey to Alexandria. It was kinda funny that for my first hurricane evacuation for Laura I was also in Alexandria jaja. We also made a pit stop for lunch in this little town that had a gas station and went to a Mexican restaurant that looked totally abandoned. It was like 2 on a Friday so there were only 2 workers and a child so that was fun. Our food was out so fast! Then we just kept on driving! It was really sad that we had to cancel all of our appointments that we'd set up for that day though, fat rip, we even had like 4 appointments. Anyways we got to the Alexandria Elders apartment and we're staying with all the sisters in our Zone and the Gulfport Zone, so a total of 12 sisters in this little apartment. We shoved all 12 of us in the 2 small bedrooms upstairs, someone may or may not have slept in the bathroom and put all of our suitcases downstairs...it was a mess...the members were super awesome though and brought us Spaghetti and cookies for dinner (and I knew who she was from doing exchanges in Alexandria and helping pack up her family member's trailer, crazy)! Then we basically just personal studied and did some language study before calling it a day. I also somehow snagged a real mattress and not an air mattress which was so nice!!

 

 

Saturday morning we woke up and took a walk (well I guess Sister Cropper ran jaja) around the neighborhood and park for some exercise time. Then our entire apartment anticipated getting transfer news that morning because Saturday morning is usually when it happens. It was super weird already knowing my transfer news and keeping it secret from everyone and just waiting for everyone else to find out. I guess I didn't know who my companion was gonna be yet but I had a few guesses about who it would be...then finally the transfer boards went up (my very last transfer news)! It was confirmed that I would be in Biloxi Spanish and my companion would be Sister Scrogham. My suspicions about my companion were correct! She got here last transfer and has been being trained by my former companion, Sister Tippetts, in NOLA. Crazy stuff! I'm super excited to die training someone but we'll see how follow up training (coming in to train during their second transfer) goes. Later the member family that lives in the house next door to the apartment we were staying in and who rent the apartment out to the missionaries had us over for breakfast. We had waffles and got to know Sister Burch and her family. They were super cute! Then we got back to the apartment and had a lesson with Shanu from Nigeria about faith. It was kinda wack but he said that after our meeting with him he started reading his scriptures and getting back to church! So that was awesome! Then we had a little salsa jar to the foot accident with Sister Bailey dropping and then stepping on a shattered jar of salsa...it looked like a very messy situation with red salsa chunks everywhere. Then we had personal study, did some Facebook, had some members bring us all Cane's for lunch, which was so sweet! We were trying really hard to stay busy so we took a walk and did our stewies call with the STL's, well just with Sister Fisher since Sister Simpson left to France. Then we did language study and I got to help out the sisters who are trying to learn Spanish but didn't go to the MTC for it which was fun. At some point in the evening we had to leave the apartment with 12 sisters and only like 3 separate rooms to go get gas in our car and to take a short break from being around so much chaos jaja. Then after dinner, a different member brought us more Spaghetti and cookies jaja, and the Burch family invited us over for a little FHE. We had popcorn and got to play games with their kids which was so fun! 

 

 

Sunday morning we went to the church building with all the Elders to have our own missionary sacrament meeting. It was kinda cool to have missionaries on the stand, passing the sacrament and giving talks...and the random family that came into the building full of missionaries jaja. Then the Elders quickly kicked us out of the building and our apartment full of sisters took our last walk outside before we got shut in lockdown for the hurricane. We all walked around the park a couple of times which was super nice then headed back to church for a zoom meeting with the mission about Hurricane Ida and the stuff going down. It is so crazy that Ida is hitting the same day Katrina hit like 16 years ago! These people are really going through a lot! Then we had lunch with the Elders and it was so nice getting to interact with some different people and talk with our zone. Then we went back to our apartment and went into lockdown for the next 24 hours. So we used technology to check in on some of our people to make sure they were ok, I had a trainer meeting, we had another meeting to go over more hurricane stuff...it was a very exciting day…(not really) lol we just did studies the rest of the day and looked out the windows longingly. 

 

 

I just want to end with my simple testimony that I know the Lord is looking out for each one of His children aka us!! And will help everything work out the way it needs to and that He wants to help us find joy and return to live with Him again. And the way to do that is through following the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that this will bring peace in your life because it has in mine.

 

 

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, 

Hermana Johnson

 

 

August Bike Mileage: 41.8 miles

 

 

Pictures!!!

1. Selfie with Keith and Sandra! My faves!

2. Us when people don't answer our calls

3. District pic 

4. Me and a cat

5. The squad

6. Squad but we included the rest of the Zone this time jaja

7. Gotta love our Smoothie King

8. When we ate at an abandoned Mexican restaurant and had it all to ourselves 

9. Random wall selfie

10. All the sisters with all the Elders staying in the Alexandria building. Pre-chaos pic...

11. Then the chaos ensued...

Habla Español

Hola y'all! 

 

 

Let's just say this was a pretty interesting week...

 

 

So Monday was kind of a lame pday...the trio was in Columbia so we couldn't meet up as a district since it would've been just the Meridian Elders and us. So we spent the day talking to family, getting groceries at Ramey's (and missing Walmart), messaging people, walking down Main Street to go in a few stores and antique shops, going to Roses Discount store and that's about it. We did go to Huddle House for dinner which was nice. Then we came home and did some studies, called some people and did some Facebook stuff. 

 

 

Tuesday morning we finally got to meet Annja who is a recent convert that moved in just after we got to Collins. We went over and met her and her almost 2 year old son, Elliot, and talked with her. She's super cool and seemed very into her Book of Mormon reading as we read where she's at in Helaman. She did have some good questions about women and the Priesthood that we didn't get to answer cuz she moved on but we'll have to talk about that and some other things down the line. Then we hurried home, ate leftovers for lunch in 20 minutes then called Danielle over Facebook. She's always super sweet and even though she didn't pray in the mornings like we invited her to, she recommitted herself to do it this week. We did a little Bible study on the importance of scripture study and it was good. We also did a little cross study with Elder Snapp and Elder A'isea in our district since Elder Snapp is also in training so that he and Sister Cropper could do some role plays together. It was really good for her, especially since we haven't been able to teach people more than the first lesson and she came out of it really wanting to be a better missionary so that was good. And the Elders made pretty funny Southerners being taught the Plan of Salvation (God's plan outlining why we're here, where we came from and where we're going) jaja. We had 2 lessons fall through but it gave us time to be able to call a lot of people. We also had the first Spanish call with the missionaries wanting to speak Spanish...it was interesting...only 1 companionship joined and they all kept asking me questions, I was able to answer them correctly...hopefully but it was just freaky to think about how little Spanish I know and having them rely on me for their questions, but it was alright. Elder Aldana also organized a call with his mom for her birthday so we could sing to her in Spanish that night which was pretty fun. 

 

 

On Wednesday morning I had a good personal study. I read Matthew 27 about Jesus Christ being tried and crucified. It was kinda intense yall, it really just put into perspective EVERYTHING that Christ chose to suffer, for me, and for you. I mean He had just suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, was betrayed by one of His apostles, was starving and thirsty when the chief priests were accusing Him of doing things He hadn't done because He is the Son of God, then His own people have the choice to free Christ or a murderer and they chose the murderer. Christ was mocked, tortured, spit upon and crucified (which is like the worst death ever as your body earns for the sweet release of death). And during all of that He could have made them stop. But He didn't. He suffered it all to carry through God's plan, which allows us to have second chances. I just got super overwhelmed at everything Christ has done for us. Us. Then we went over to Keith and Sandra's but they weren't home...rip. But we went around knocking doors in the area so that was good, always a struggle to find people's address sometimes though. Then we drove back home (since my bike is in the shop) for virtual district council since the trio is in Columbia. Sister Cropper was a little nervous because she was giving her first discussion and when we logged on the AP's were there too! She basically flipped out jaja but she gave a great discussion on effective study, specifically personal study which I think was really good for her too. Then we tried to have district lunch virtually too but the Meridian Elders had service to go to so they were lame...We had 2 lessons that both fell through so that was an oof. But we got to do some Facebook active calling which is always freaky but produces MIRACLES! I even had a Spanish class led by a member with all the missionaries trying to learn Spanish. It was really good for me to review the basics again super in depth. Man I need to work on my Spanish...I was also craving mashed potatoes for dinner and made some with some potatoes, milk and a LOT of butter jaha which was fun...I secretly like cooking. We also had the Mendenall Sisters spend the night with us, Sister Martin and Sister Killian, which was fun. 

 

 

Thursday morning we woke up and drove down to Oak Grove for Zone Conference! So exciting! It was a Mississippi Zone conference with all 3 zones serving in Mississippi. So hype! We got there early for pancakes from the AP's and got to talk with everyone before the meeting started. It was really good. The AP's calculated out 4127 hours as the number of hours that we use on a 2 year mission proselyting (so the total 2 years was like 17,000 hours but with sleep and pdays and meal time taken out it was 4127) which freaked us all out about using our time wisely. Crazy stuff! Then we had a mission vehicle training with the Odd and Ends Elders at Zone Conference and the rest of the mission was over zoom. It was fun! We did some great workshops and had some great presentations about using time wisely. President Amos even showed us this video of ants building their ant hill after it got rained on and man those suckers are diligent! They worked for 15 hours straight, each carrying 1 menial piece of sand, while it even fell a couple times. It taught us to not be discouraged, the small things make a difference and that it just takes patience and consistent hard work. So good! Then we had pizza for lunch, Klondike bars for dessert and played some team bonding games after taking pictures. Then the President asked to talk with me about a "special assignment"...I kinda freaked out and was like what the heck does he want me to do?! We stepped outside (so we could take off our masks lol) and he said my special assignment during my "bonus transfer" as the President called it (because I chose to extend my mission) was to "habla español"...I totally died inside!! This is what I had been telling people my dying wish as a missionary was and it was finally gonna happen that I could speak my mission language! He hadn't told anyone else yet so we basically just threw a bunch of ideas out there and asked for my thoughts. They're getting 4 new Spanish speaking sisters next transfer so Sister Tippetts and Sister Hunt will each train 2 of them but there are currently 3 sisters in training so he said that 1 of them, whichever needed more help, would come with me so I could finish out training her. We talked about what Spanish areas there are in the mission to send us to and he basically said I'd be going back to the Gulfport Zone. This gave me A LOT to think about! I was so pumped to finally be able to speak Spanish...but I've also only ever spoken to like 3 Spanish people and that was mostly in my first area...so a WHILE ago...and I only have 1 transfer left...it was very overwhelming and quite the mix of emotions, I'm excited to train again but it's follow up training which isn't really training and I've heard kinda socks...I'm excited to speak Spanish but I know I'm not very good and I only have 6 weeks to speak it...Basically everything kinda freaked me out. But we were going on exchanges...which seems to always happen when President tells me something...so I didn't have time to ponder too much on it, especially since we got in the car and Sister Fisher told me it was my last Zone Conference...I hadn't realized that...next transfer it will just be a Zday...sadness. But we went to dinner with this single old lady who was super sweet and has gone through quite a lot in her own life but somehow keeps pushing through everything. Then we got home and I was finally able to do my personal study. joy! I wanted to read something to help me feel less stressed with this huge Spanish speaking and training task that lay in front of me but I started by reading where I was at in the Book of Mormon. I was at 1 Nephi 3 and when I realized that and the classic verse 7 "I will go and do" I think I lost it. I started silently crying over my desk in the Purvis apartment because that's exactly what I needed to hear. I read the chapter and it seemed like every little thing related to me and my situation, God was asking me to do something hard but He's not asking me to do it alone, if I have faith and put in the work, He will provide a way for me to accomplish what He has in store. How awesome is the Book of Mormon!! It seriously answers every question, even if we're just reading in our normal place! It just made me feel like God knew who I was, how I was feeling in that moment and was ready to help if I came unto Him. 

 

 

On Friday I was in Purvis so we woke up, did our studies and all of our stuff for the day slowly fell through...oof. But Sister Fisher had a call with the Zone Leaders and all the District Leaders that I kind of just sat in on and it was wack. They were talking about how to apply what happened at Zone Conference and my mind started running, coming up with all these ideas and things to help the Zone...but I'm not an STL...so I didn't say anything...even though no one else had any thoughts! It was just wack and I felt like I was an STL back in Monroe but couldn't actually help...I did slip in an idea to do another Zone pday though (that was all I felt appropriate to chime in about jaja). Then after lunch we went to the church to do a bunch of Facebook. We tried calling a bunch of the dudes I've been messaging out of the country who want to have calls but they didn't answer...rip. Then we decided to do some active calling and all the people I called answered! We got a new person, Daphne, and I had a video chat with, Cindy, but she said she's too busy to do Bible studies but I can send her daily verses. (Then a crazy miracle was that Cindy commented on my "moved to Collins" post and asked me to friend her daughter. THEN a member replied to her comment and asked about how she met with me! Instant fellowships for the future! MIRACLE!) Then we found out Sister Simpson is leaving for her original assignment in France on Monday! So we freaked out about that and what's gonna happen as we drove back to meet up with Sister Cropper and Sister Simpson at the giant watermelon (aka halfpoint between Collins and Purvis). When I got back with Sister Cropper she told me that she did a lesson over the phone all by herself! Proud mom moment! That was exactly what I needed to hear that everything on her exchange went well, especially with all this special assignment stuff. I know she can lead the area but it was just nice to really put it to the test. Then we basically spent the rest of the day doing Spanish study (cuz I really gotta grind that out) and weekly planning. 

 

 

Saturday was good. We had a little social media safety moment on our Saturday call about Sister Missionaries and the sad reality of creepy men. Basically they encouraged sisters to friend other women on Facebook and that the Elders will friend the dudes...it reminded me of the time a "professional pervert" messaged me...I blocked him before anything crazy happened but yeah...wack stuff out there. But after that we went to meet LaToya. We drove to her house and as we pulled up there were some kids playing outside and when we parked they ran to the door, but it was locked and they started banging on it, acting like they needed to be let in or we would kill them...it was kind of hilarious jaja. But LaToya came out and explained that her 6 nieces and nephews would be joining us for a lesson outside. At first they were NOT into it. But she made them listen and asked us to share a message as she used a metal bar to wack her poor dogs away (I straight up almost cried). Since we were planning on just teaching LaToya the Plan of Salvation, which is a kinda intense lesson, we had to switch up what we were sharing for kids. To list the children we had Kenesha (11th grade), Jeremiah (9th grade), Patrick (6th grade), Jemaria (5th grade), Kaden (3rd grade) and Jayla (1st grade). So we had a wide variety of audience. We taught them the Restoration extremely simplified and using the pictures in the Book of Mormon. We even gave each child their own copy of the Book of Mormon. Good stuff. The kids ever so slowly warmed up to us so by the end they were sharing experiences with prayer, what Jesus meant to them, volunteering to read verses and saying the closing prayer! It was so fun and then LaToya asked us to tell them about our purpose as missionaries here on earth and Kenesha even asked us some questions! It was so good then we asked when we could come back and LaToya said she only gets them once a month so that was kinda sad but we can still meet with LaToya. Then we drove home and had lunch. After lunch we called my friend Shanu from Nigeria. He messaged me saying he wants to be "born again" so I told him I'm a missionary and teach 5 lessons in preparation for baptism and he was interested. I had been trying to video call him like 5 times previously but today he answered! We only got to talk for like 15 minutes but he said he was looking for a church. He said none of them met his standards or were God's church so I promised him that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's restored church on the earth today and that he found what he's looking for. He was super excited and thanked us many times. It was so crazy! We are still in the process of trying to find his missionaries though...so that's fun. Then we went to visit Grace but apparently she doesn't feel good until 3 or 4pm so when we came over at 2pm she was not in the mood...wack...but she let us help her prepare some meals for her which was nice. Then we came home and called a billion people (members and nonmembers) for like 2 hours! Later that night we did another cross study with Elder Snapp and Elder A'isea. Sister Cropper was a lot more confident in this one and it went well (even though Elder Snapp was pretending to be a drunk Mexican guy (cuz he's practicing Spanish but really speaks Portuguese) coming from the bar holding a Corona). Pretty interesting stuff man. She's growing up so fast.

 

 

On Sunday we invited a bunch of people to church who said they'd come but didn't show up, #constantstruggle. We had like 12 people at church to hear my 35 minute long talk since I was the only speaker, but that's ok because I always prepare way too much so I had to cut my talk in half because I just love talking about Jesus for forever I guess. That was fun, but Sister Jones was super into it and had so many head nods in agreement as she took notes, it was the sweetest thing ever. A couple of the older dudes were definitely asleep but oh well. Then after church we had a really good missionary coordination meeting with our branch mission leader, Brother Stelly. Good stuff. The rest of the day we did our studies, called people and took an evening walk. 

 

 

In closing I know I've said this just about a million times already but I can PROMISE you, in the name of Jesus Christ (and this is coming from a representative of the Lord) that The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ can answer every one of your questions, each one you've got deep down in your soul, The Book of Mormon has an answer. I don't always logically know how it does (I mean God) but it does, if you are sincerely searching with faith. And I know that The Book of Mormon is evidence of God's love for all His children. I know it is the word of God and can help make your life just that much better because it's done that for me. And I know that with God, we can all do hard things (hopefully even speak Spanish jaja). 

 

 

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, 

Hermana Johnson

 

 

August Bike Mileage: 30 (ya know, not having a bike really messes with my mileage man)

 

 

Pictures!!!

1. Me taking a walk down Collins Main Street...I promise my legs aren't THAT white

2. Sometimes there's cool stuff in Collins...like this thing outside the funeral home…

3. Always gotta take a comp selfie

4. Me and a nice Collins sign

5. The new standard mission bikes jaja

6. Dinner at Huddle House

7. Yall I made myself a little fake Thanksgiving with chicken, mashed potatoes (that I made from scratch cuz I was craving them), stuffing and green beans! It brought me so much joy!

8. The Sole sistas store we met at for exchanges

9. We took a picture in front of this GIANT watermelon!

10. Such a big watermelon!

11. There was a funny sign at the store too

12. Sister Cropper's mom sent us both hairbrushes 

13. Cool sunset comp selfie

14. Took this picture then like 2 seconds later the train started honking at us...whoops we almost died...but not really but also kinda jaja

15. Me in front of the Collins train station!

16. Comp selfie at Collins station

#socialmediaworks

Hola y'all! 

 

 

This was a good week. It felt so long but also so fast at the same time...wack. But some good stuff happened so that's always hype.(:

 

 

On Monday we had Zocial Media Day in the morning and the rest of the day was a zone pday. We all met up at the Oak Grove building which is like Utah-sized aka HUGE! It was sick. We basically had a 3 hour meeting doing different things with social media missionary work. We had 3 different workshops about posting, active calls/20 second videos and reels. It was kinda hilarious because since I don't have Instagram I don't really know what a reel is but they explained it to us.  We are doing a challenge to see who has the best reel in the mission, which is fun. We also had some cool miracles come from this day. We had broken off into our companionship to apply active calls, it's like cold calling people but calling random friends on Facebook who are active and sharing a scripture or something with them. I was super nervous about it but the first person I called, Danielle, answered and I got to share a scripture with her and she was super sweet and it wasn't as weird as I thought it would be. MIRACLE! Then Sister Cropper and I finished presenting the presentation and hyped everybody up about how #socialmediaworks. Then we went to Which Wich for lunch with the STL's then had a zone pday. We played basketball, had some crazy shots playing PIG, chair soccer, then team chair soccer and then regular soccer. It was so much fun and we played for like an hour! I was so gross and sweaty by the end of it but it was a blast. Then to finish the day off we played this board game called Settlers of Catan, I had never played before so it was interesting but fun. Overall a fun day. 

 

 

Tuesday morning we did our personal study (I went crazy reading like all of the Children's Old Testament stories cuz they're dope) and then headed out on the bikes to Keith and Sandra. They had just redone the road the last time we were there on Friday and put gravel down and they hadn't finished it so we were biking on gravel the whole way there which totally slowed us down, was super bumpy and smelled funny jaja. Then we got there, knocked on the door and Keith looked through the window and shook his head at us. I was so shook, in my head I was like "Did we do something? Did we not do something? Did his pastor tell him something? What happened?!" Then after a minute he opened the door a crack and told us they'd been exposed to COVID and were getting tested tomorrow...oof. So we biked home and it started getting really hard to bike and I realized my back tire was slowly getting flat. So I biked on it for as long as possible until it was totally flat. Then we walked, luckily we were almost to the Williams' house and knocked on their door. Their daughter and grandson pulled up...awkward...so we told them we'd come back another day. Then I continued walking my bike home the 2 more miles we had to go while Sister Cropper biked in circles around me. I got so sunburned and my feet hurt by the end but we made it home! Then we had an awesome lesson with Danielle over Facebook. We got to know her better and shared who we are too. She was super sweet and slowly opened up with us so that we could help her understand prayer and invite her to do it this week. It was so good! MIRACLE! The rest of the day we finished studies, did Facebook work and called a bunch of people including our branch mission leader for a great missionary coordination meeting. 

 

 

On Wednesday we had district council which was fun and it was all about charity so I learned some good stuff like without charity we are nothing and like the Primary song we can start with kindness then love then charity. Good stuff. Made me want to be more charitable towards everyone. Then we got Panda Express for district lunch and talked about our favorite animals. Mine is a fossa and of course no one had ever heard of it before. They're pretty dope anyways.   We then went to Walmart and got some stuff to fix my bike since the Elders couldn't and some props for the reel we're making. Then we went home and I replaced the back tire on my bike put it all back together and then heard air leaking from it and it got flat again...I think there's either a hole or something sharp puncturing my tube over and over again...oof. So we ended up just driving to Mount Olive since my bike isn't all the way functional. We delivered a Book of Mormon to Stephanie and knocked on some people's doors that had been previously contacted by missionaries. Although we had a hard time finding like half their addresses, it was a struggle from past Elders putting it in weird. Then we came home, had dinner (I was in the mood for cinnamon rolls) and then I had a call about Spanish. They started some Spanish groups for missionaries who want to learn Spanish but aren't called Spanish-speaking. Elder A'isea assigned me to be a "comforter" to Sister Larsen the Spanish group leader who's almost been out 6 months and decided to start learning Spanish last transfer...so that's gonna be fun jaja. 

 

 

Thursday we did a whole lot of weekly planning. In between that we had a lesson with Grace. She kept her commitment and read the introduction of the BoM and had questions about it that we were able to answer. She even asked about some of the stories like the Jaredites and the Tower of Babel so I explained it to her (I later found out Sister Cropper had no idea what I was talking about and she listened to me teaching, I was like LOL that was literally ME every single lesson with Sister Farris. Straight up how I learned the gospel. That and prayer of course). We were still very bold with her and she seemed to understand that us missionaries are here for a reason and that she needs to be progressing if we're gonna continue meeting with her. Then we went over to the church building and met with this guy that messaged us on Facebook, Doug, who we discovered (from the Elders in our district) is an MMA fighter. He was meeting with the Elders in Petal but then they lost contact and he actually lives in our area. He reached out because he has a fight to defend his title over the weekend and wanted an extra spiritual boost. So we met him at the church with some members and he was super nice, he's only 22 and the Elders taught him a lot of stuff and he's been going to church and has a lot of member friends. He even said he'd try to make it to church here but his face might be all beat up...so that'll be interesting. Then we came home, finished up our studies for the day and worked on our reel for our missionwide competition to see who can make the best Instagram reel. Not gonna lie ours is pretty hype (I'll put the video down below). 

 

 

On Friday we woke up and drove straight down to Hattiesburg for Bishop's Storehouse. Almost our entire zone was there! It was so fun and then we all went to Smoothie King and hung out at the institute building playing games while finishing our smoothies. Then we took my bike to a bike repair shop (since there's no bike shops in Collins or Laurel) and gave it to them to get it repaired...there ended up being a few more things wrong with it than I'd realized (basically the rear tire tube needs to be looked at cuz it keeps going flat, rear brakes need readjusted, front tire rim is bent really bad, missing front brake pads, back gears are bent so it's dangerous to go down to 1 because it might hit the rear tire) AND a lot of them were safety things so I couldn't just continue to not have those fixed...it was kinda expensive but the lady said it'd feel like a brand new bike after...I hope so...then we drove back home, personal studied, our lesson with Danielle fell through and we drove up to Taylorsville. We had lunch with Sister Kilgore, the Relief Society President, and then from 1pm-7pm we were out doing ministering visits all day. Even though we really only got to talk to 2 people...for a really long time jaja. We visited Skaggs and talked with them as their girls got home from school and their 6 dogs slobbering all over us, which was fine with me. Then we visited Sister Tebo who has had to stay home with her 90 year old mother-in-law because she cannot be alone and needs to be cared for. So it was good to get her some social interaction as we sat out on her porch. Then we drove home, had a quick dinner then some meetings and called it a day! Man were we tired by the end of it!

 

 

Saturday morning I finished reading the Book of Mormon for the second time and it was dope! Afterwards I read my patriarchal blessing (little recorded blessing that acts as a roadmap for my personal life) and it just confirmed a lot of my feelings and told me some things I need to be doing. Then I closed my personal study with a prayer and asked if the Book of Mormon was NOT true (like it says in Moroni's promise) and had an absence of those spiritual feelings, which my patriarchal blessing helps me understand better. So then I bore my testimony to my Heavenly Father in prayer and felt the spirit confirm everything I testified of to be true. It was pretty sick, there were definitely a few tears. Then we called Doug to pray with him before his MMA fight at the Hard Rock in Biloxi. He had just finished some light training and was headed over for the rules rundown and stuff so we were able to say a prayer and he was feeling good. Freaking stuff man. The rest of the day we did a TON of social media work! We called a bunch of people and went on a walk too but we had a Social Media call, did some Facebook Watchmen stuff gathering together posts for the FB page, making posts for Facebook, messaging people and making a reel. We had to wait until it was darker though to make our reel and it was so fun! I'll put some pictures of the whole glowstick dancing process. 

 

 

On Sunday it was a pretty boring day...we had 14 people come and again half were the Stellys and none of our friends came so that was a rip even though Brandon and Doug said they'd be there. But Doug lost his fight so that was rough...Basically the whole day we studied, edited our reel (which took FOREVER), did some Facebook work and did training stuff. Nothing too exciting...OH BUT I FORGOT! So on Saturday I finished reading the Book of Mormon for the second time and started reading it for the third time on Sunday! So that's pretty hype! 

 

 

Well this week we had a TON of social miracles and it really helped us find people to talk about Jesus with. I just want to say that I know the Book of Mormon is true and it has been written for our day and time (I mean Moroni literally saw our day for Pete's sake!) because we need it. I know that the Book of Mormon and Bible are the word of God because I have prayed to know for myself and the spirit has made me feel those Galatians 5:22 kind of feelings. I also know that we can only find out the truth through our own efforts of study, ponder and prayer. I know that Jesus Christ lives and is at the head of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to return to live with Him again and we can get there by trying our best to be obedient.

 

 

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

 

 

August Bike Mileage: 30 miles

 

 

Pictures!!!

1. The zone at zone pday 

2. Leaving zone pday there was a cute sunset

3. With all the people I friend on Facebook there are bound to be some interesting ones like this…

4. Me with my favorite flavor of Blue Bell! Strawberry Cheesecake!!

5. Fixing my bike for the millionth time

6. District pic

7. Sister Cropper and I out doing some street contacting

8. The homies, Elder Baxter and Elder Back at Bishop's Storehouse 

9. The whole zone at Bishop's Storehouse minus the Meridian Elders...rip

10. Selfie of Sister Cropper and I with our scriptures (well actually they're both my scriptures jaja)

11. Filming our reel…

12. The reel finished product (don't judge too hard yall)