JOHNSON, MEGAN: God Works In Mysterious Ways

Hola y'all!

This week went by so fast and so slow at the same time. Overall it was pretty weird but I'll let ya read about it below.

So Monday was Elder Angilau's last official day here before he leaves for his original assignment in the Dominican Republic. So we all met up in Laurel for pday as a district. Sister Cropper and I went to Walmart to get groceries and then went to Smoothie King for lunch (I was still hesitant about my stomach still hurting from almost passing out on Sunday) then met the Elders at the Hellfighter Motorcycle Shop HQ. We ate lunch together outside then went in and got to look at all the motorcycles and guns and stuff. It was pretty dope. Then we headed back to the church and played ping pong and Scum. I definitely crushed everyone in Scum, it was great jaja. Elder Angilau also made us a Tongan watermelon drink and chocolate pie (it was more like brownies on pie crust but it's the thought that counts) with Blue Bell ice cream. It was a fun pday! Then we drove back home to Collins, had dinner, did some studies and called it a day cuz my head and stomach were still a mess from the events from Sunday...rip me.

Tuesday I was super worried I still wouldn't be feeling well but we had to bike 5.6 miles to our lesson with Keith and Sandra in the heat. So I took a nap in the morning and was feeling basically all the way back to normal. We had personal study, a cross study with another trainer and trainee and the AP's then headed out. And it was a MIRACLE because it was COOL. That's right, an August summer day in Mississippi was cool! And there was even a breeze that followed us all the way to Keith and Sandra's house. The Lord was definitely looking out for me. And we only had to bike away from 1 mad dog! MIRACLES! When we got to their house Keith had to step out on a call and Ms. Sandra told us that over the weekend she got diagnosed with Alzheimer's and she was crying a little and I wanted to hug her so bad. But then Keith came in and we all started talking. He had even read some of the Book of Mormon and said it sounded like the Bible and was wondering if Nephi was the author. They were such awesome questions. At first I wasn't sure if we should teach the Restoration like we had planned but his questions combined with the spirit helped confirm to me that what we had planned was right. They were both really into the lesson the whole time too. Keith even "tested" us a little by asking about tithing and gave us this scenario and then asked if he should pay tithing, I gave him a bold yes and testified of the joy that comes from living the commandments in Mosiah 2:41 and then he started laughing and said that's what his friend asked and Keith said the same things I said jaja. He's a funny one, but it was cool for him to see how similar our beliefs are. The whole idea of prophets and the Priesthood and Christ restoring His church seemed to make sense to them and Keith said he was excited to keep reading the Book of Mormon. Such a dope lesson! Then we biked home, stopped at the Williams to see if they were home but they weren't so we left a note then finished biking home. I made it the whole 11 miles and only felt like I was gonna puke a little! But I definitely felt a lot better by the end of the day. About 2 minutes after we got home, we called this lady named Delia who we've been trying to schedule something with but every time we call she's busy. So we called and she answered and we asked about when we could call later to share a Jesus message and she was like "now is good", Sister Cropper was a little thrown off so she handed me the phone and I whipped out my Bible to share some scriptures in Matthew 11:28-30 about Jesus bearing our burdens. I really wanted to talk about the Book of Mormon too since the Elders had just been doing Bible studies with her so I asked if she'd heard of it before and she said yes. I asked how and she said her husband used to practice it...I was a little shook and she said that he has one. I jokingly said she should come to church this Sunday and she was like "Ok where's it at?"...I was shook again! No one ever says yes to that!! So we told her where it was, she asked what time it started and we could hear the husband in the back talking and telling her to ask us where we're from and stuff (the basic missionary questions). We found out that she's originally from Mexico and I told her I'm practicing my Spanish and she told me to keep it up and that she could help me practice. We even set up a time for another phone lesson this week. MIRACLE! It was such a cool phone call. The rest of the day we had 3 scheduled appointments but they all fell through. But while we were out and about we decided to knock on some people's doors that were previously taught by the missionaries. At one house we found out the person we were looking for passed away a few months ago...that was an oof. At another house I swear we almost witnessed a dog fight, there were like 4 mangy dogs outside this person's house barking at us and as we were attempting to knock on the door, 4 more huge dogs appeared from the forest barking and getting closer. Literally thought I was gonna die, so we hid in the car for like 10 minutes until I decided the dogs by the house were nice. While Sister Cropper knocked the door and left a note I was on dog duty...the dogs were pretty gross and stinky but at least they were nice, some a little too nice...but we made it. Then we drove back home, had dinner, I studied Spanish and we did some role plays and ate Strawberry Cheesecake Blue Bell. T'was a great day.

On Wednesday we had our first district council with the new district. Since the new Trio of Elders (well Elder Keen with his new companions Elder Snapp and Elder Aisea who came out at the same time as me) were driving up from Baton Rouge we met later than usual and did lunch first...it was pretty awkward until the end of district council when we were all more comfortable with each other...it'll be a fun transfer jaja. Anyways after that we drove home and took a walk around Collins. It was nice, not too hot and I didn't almost pass out. Then we had a mini miracle as we were calling people a different lady, Nicki, answered the phone and said she'd leave a message but then Sister Cropper was like "what's your name?" And we got her phone number and set up a time to talk about Jesus! MIRACLE! And a proud mom moment.

Thursday was a weird day...I was just in a mood like all day long and I don't really know why...we had a good morning full of studies, started our weekly planning and had lunch. Then we biked to an appointment that fell through even though we heard someone inside the house as we knocked on their door. So that sucked. We biked around and tried knocking people previously contacted by the missionaries but ½ didn't have a house number...so that sucked. Then we made a plan to bike to Kennitha's house, someone we haven't really been able to contact. At one point Google maps wanted us to cross a busy highway but the road was like blocked off so cars couldn't go straight across it unless you went the wrong way for a sec. So that sucked because we had to backtrack even farther to cross the highway to get to Kennitha's. We said a little prayer to see if we should really visit Kennitha cuz now we were gonna bike past so many other dots on the way but we still felt like we should. So we crossed the highway legally at a light, I almost died because there was a little downhill before the light and I only have half a brake on my bike and it decided not to work at that moment. So that sucked. But I'm alive. Then we took multiple other detours because Google maps wanted us to bike on the busy highway that would've taken us right to her. So that sucked. Finally we got to the highway where there was supposed to be a road to go straight across but it was also blocked off! I was so frustrated at this point that we just biked on the wrong side of the road for a bit to cross the highway, but we did it at the same time a truck was reversing out of the turning lane we were trying to get in, so that was real awkward. Then we finally made it to the other side of the highway and started biking up this hill when Maps tried to tell us to make a U-turn but I was too frustrated to turn around so we biked to the top of the hill and then took a water break. Almost immediately this guy in a truck pulls up and asks if we have any pamphlets. MIRACLE! We give him 3 pamphlets and a Book of Mormon then he tells us how his almost ex-wife's boyfriend started going to his church so he doesn't want to go there any more so we told him about our church services. His name is Brandon and we got his phone number! It was pretty sick! Then we finally made it to Kennitha's, and had only one more almost crash on my bike near this steep hill because my brakes are nonexistent/suck. And Kennitha wasn't home. So that sucked (we did see her daughter and give her our phone number though). Then we had 5 minutes to book it to our appointment with Grace. So we started figuring out how to cross the highway and the way we came was now blocked off by construction. So that sucked. We had to backtrack even more to find another way across the highway and when we finally got to the other side there wasn't a road back to town. So that sucked. We ended up just biking on the highway for a bit, backtracking even more, to find a road back to town. Then we finally got to Grace's house late. We had an interesting lesson with her...we started reading the Book of Mormon but only got through one verse...at one point I felt prompted to talk about temples and then she asked about the spirit world and said her church didn't believe in that. So I whipped out 1 Peter 3:19, because she loves the Bible, and showed her where Jesus preached to the spirits in spirit prison after He died and before He was resurrected. Then she started preaching her own thing...yall have to remember I'm already a little frustrated and trying really hard to be nice...then Sister Cropper asks Grace if she wants to learn more about the mysteries of God and Grace says she doesn't believe in Joseph Smith (even though she loves the Branch President, General Conference, reading the Book of Mormon, Relief Society and clearly feels the spirit at church and our meetings) and goes off about our "Mormon Bible" as they say in the South. After a while I stopped her and explained that it is not our version of the Bible but Another Testament of Jesus Christ, meant to be read along with the Old and New Testaments. She was a little shook but kept going. Eventually she finished up and we read the last paragraph of the introduction of the Book of Mormon and I testified very boldly that if she sincerely read the Book of Mormon and prayed about it, with real intent, she would know that Jesus is the Christ, Joseph Smith is His prophet and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is his church once again established on the earth. I'm hoping she keeps her commitments because she hasn't really been progressing so we may have to stop teaching her soon, but it was interesting to say the least. The rest of the day we finished weekly planning and had a very disorganized call about Zocial Media Day on Monday (a Zone Social Media Day).

On Friday we literally set up 6 lessons that day and every. Single. One. Of. Them. Fell. Through. It was kinda rough, we drove to Keith and Sandra's hoping they were home since we talked to Keith the day before but no one answered the door. So we drove to our next appointment with Ravonda. It was in a pretty sketchy neighborhood and we had some dudes knock on our car window to see who we were and what we were doing (since we were so early to our lesson we were just doing Facebook work in our car). They were definitely high and checking out the backseat of our car...it was wack. Then we knocked on Ravonda's door, which was already like a foot open, and a dude walked by and was like "who are you?" So we said we're the missionaries and he went to get his mom, Ravonda. Then this 5 year old girl dressed in just a huge t-shirt stepped outside and talked with us. Her name is Riley and she was super nice. Then we went inside and Ravonda asked us to pray for her adult son, Murrell, the dude at the door before he left for work so we did...he really liked us...we sat down and Ravonda was telling us how Ry knows the Lord then Ravonda had to do a bunch of other stuff so we were just talking with the 5 year old. She was telling us how Murrell was crazy then he popped back in and was like "what's she saying about me?!" It was hilarious (also this whole time I think Sister Cropper is a little shook because she hasn't said a single word jaja) and he gave us the classic "beautiful women" comment. Then Ravonda had to go into town so we had to reschedule but at least we got to meet them all! And then when we were outside Murrell motioned us towards his car and asked if we could be friends. I told him we could, but we could only visit him if there's another woman at home and we could send him Bible verses...it was wack. Then we drove home and the rest of the day we had all of our online lessons fall through, so we went crazy trying to friend 500 people on Facebook before Zocial Media Day on Monday.

Saturday we really hit that Facebook grind. We made posts in the morning, finished them up that afternoon, got on people for not uploading their posts, then continued friending A BUNCH of people to get our 500 since we had a lesson fall through. BUT that evening we had a phone call lesson with Delia and it was good, she's gonna find her husband's Book of Mormon and wants to speak Spanish with me when we meet in person! Then we got ready for our church tour with Brandon. Luckily we found a woman to come with us (we tried like 5 other people but they were all busy so we tried Ananda, this less active member and she said yes) and she even brought her daughter, Kyra, and it turned out perfectly. Brandon was super late but got there and told us his whole life story in the hall. Dang that man has been through a lot, especially since his wife is currently divorcing him and it's really messy which has been stressing him out and made him start looking for a new church. We showed him the chapel and a little video, he liked that we take the sacrament each week but at the end he said "there's no one like me" and pointed to his tattoos and piercings, holy jeans and baseball cap. Ananda (who was literally wearing a tank top, overalls and has face piercings along with her daughter) told him about Al Carraway, the tattooed Mormon, which was dope. He said he'll wear his nice clothes for church tomorrow. Then we showed him the primary room and he said he'll have to bring his son sometime and he really liked the idea of Young Womens and Young Mens! Then we showed him the library and he started asking about Joseph Smith and "the gold box in the ground" and the Vikings. We told him we'd have to talk to him more about that later AND Kyra said she wanted to come to church too.

On Sunday we went to church and right after we pulled up Kyra pulled up! MIRACLE! She was like 30 minutes early and just hung out with us before church started. It was so awesome even though we only had 17 people come and half of them were the Stelly's posterity visiting jaja. The entire time we kept thinking Brandon was going to show up but he didn't...but then we were talking with people and he was there! He missed the whole church part but got to meet a few members and said he'd be here next time. Then we went home, got on people about getting us their Facebook posts lol, had lunch, did our studies. Then we had a little phone call lesson with Stephanie and just shared Matthew 11:28-30 and even mentioned the Book of Mormon! Afterwards we continued friending a bunch of people on Facebook before walking to the park for our lesson with Brandon. On our way there I noticed this dude on his motorcycle was following us...I was kinda creeped out and then he pulled up next to us and told us he's a member but super inactive. He looked familiar and he said he accepted our friend requests on Facebook (I guess that's what happens when you live in a small town and friend literally everyone jaja) and that his mom wanted to get back to church but didn't know if we were having services. MIRACLE! It was so cool and crazy! Then we got to the park, almost got attacked by the giant mutant ducks and waited for Brandon cuz he was 30 minutes late. We taught him the Restoration but he was really only half listening the whole time, reading verses in Sister Cropper's Book of Mormon. He even showed us this video from a pastor he really likes...the whole thing was wack but I think he ultimately felt the spirit which is good. Then we came home, had dinner and our last call to talk about Zocial Media Day before tomorrow...yikes, it'll be fun!

Basically this was a really interesting week...God works in very mysterious ways sometimes. Whether that is through getting frustrated on bikes so you are bold with an investigator or having 13 lessons cancel so you can knock on people's doors and almost get mauled by dogs or friending 500 people to find an inactive member whose mom wants to come to church. Whatever it is, God is in the details and although we don't always see the fruits of our labors immediately, they will come eventually on God's time and according to His plan. And I know that He has a plan for each and every one of yall because you are His child and He loves you.

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: 20 miles

Pictures!!!

1. Companion selfie on pday before meeting up with the Elders

2. As a district we went to the Hellfighter Motorcycle Shop

3. There were a TON of motorcycles there!

4. And I found a hydra bike from the Captain America movie!

5. And I got to write my name on a wall