JOHNSON, MEGAN: 1 Nephi 11:17

Hola y'all!

Monday was Pday! Always so nice. I got to call my family who are hilarious as per usual. My mom was a little mad at all the politics going on and what not but they're doing good. I love my parents. And I got to help wake up Ethan lol. We went up to Leesville for pday activities, we went to the church building and there was LEGIT SNOW ON THE GROUND! So obviously Sister Lynch made a snowman and we all had a mini snowball fight which was so much fun! Also the Leesville sisters pulled a little prank on Sister Lynch cuz when they pulled up in their minivan, Sister Lynch threw a snowball at their windshield and it was totally cracked! Sister Lynch literally felt HORRIBLE…until they revealed that it happened at the car wash. After our pday shenanigans we headed back to DeRidder and Bro. Eastwood canceled because Bishop Baesler has COVID and we usually meet outside since he’s a dude and it’s freezing outside. Then we got Popeye’s for dinner which is so good and got beignets which are always awesome!

On Tuesday morning we exercised inside because it is somehow so freaking freezing out there here in the South. After personal study we called Sister Buck and boy oh boy do I like that old woman! She talked about the rioters and at first I was like “here we go again” but then she explained how Trump was egging them on and stuff! So she’s cool in my book now lol. After companion study we drove over to Anthony’s and realized that his apartment was for seniors and that he was probably over 65...but he didn't answer the door so...it might be for the best, health wise...so we'll try video calling him. After lunch we did some training and roleplayed the law of chastity and practiced some of the commandments. During language study I tried to beat Elder Miyasaki’s score on Duolingo which was fun. Then we left to go to the Partin’s for a lesson. Sadly Robin was still at her dad’s house, but Melanie seemed to like the commandments card game we created even though Bro. Partin said he couldn't play, but Sister Partin and Melanie had a good time. And Sister Partin seemed to really love teaching Melanie and helping her to learn the gospel and commandments that Sister Partin knew, it was so cute! Then we went home, had dinner and did some Facebook work(: and we had a little movie night while watching some church history video Sister Lynch liked, it is always fun to have little activities like that and feel like a normal person again.

Wednesday morning we headed to Many for District Council and had car inspections. During District Council our whole district was a little surprised that we had no accounting to do for our area (which usually we have a lot to say but not too much happened this last week) so it went by shorter. It was also way short because Elder Reck gave the discussion and forgot his notebook so he only asked us all like 3 questions and was done. I tried to help by asking a question about member ministering, but it didn’t really help. Afterwards we carpooled in the Leesville van to Sonic for lunch so we could all eat together as a district (well minus Elder Reck and Elder Coon who didn’t eat anything…maybe they were fasting…). On our way home we stopped by the church building to make sure we had all the baptism stuff we needed; that the font was clean, we had the baptismal clothes needed, etc. Once we got home, Sister Lynch and I contacted a bunch off people and finally got to personal study a.k.a. one of my favorite parts of the day, although it’s a lot harder to do at 4pm than 9am without wanting to fall asleep. Then we contacted some more and our lesson with Brother Eastwood fell through, but we always have our Brother Larimer calls! He even asked me a math question about positive and negative numbers so that was fun! After dinner I did language study and Facebook work when Brother Partin messaged us asking about the time of the baptism!! It was really nice to hear that from him since he always seemed to be the one hesitant about letting the girls be baptized, we even got them thinking about who might talk during the program too! Ahhhh! So exciting that they are starting to take it into their own hands!

On Thursday morning I was so tired, but we had a pretty usual morning. During companionship study Sister Lynch was sharing some things she leanred and I had A LOT of questions about it all; like can someone be an angel without having the companionship of the Holy Ghost? Did God change the commandments for Nephi to kill Laban? Is there only 1 singular prophet at a time? Then I went down the rabbit hole of thinking that if God can change His commandments, like He did for Nephi, then that means He is changeable and if God is changeable then He ceases to be God. I just could not wrap my head around it and was asking about the whole Lehi and Jeremiah being prophets at the same time thing, like it makes sense that God loves His people but why does that limit it to just one prophet? I thought of a lesson Sister Farris and I taught in El Dorado to Ms. Mary where we tried teaching her there is only one prophet as we read 1 Nephi with her where Lehi is the one prophet. I just couldn’t stop getting farther and farther in a hole until I broke down crying into my Book of Mormon that I used to cover my face from Sister Lynch. Then I went into the bathroom (just about the only place you can be alone as a missionary for a few minutes) and knelt down in prayer because I had no idea what else to do. I kept on uncontrollably crying and didn’t even know why I was crying anymore. I tried thinking about our conversation and how I will never know everything (even though I just read the entire Book of Mormon) like I read in 1 Nephi 11:17 and how even Nephi who had WICKED STRONG faith didn’t know everything, but it starts with a desire to know. Although I'm still learning a lot, I don't know everything but that's ok. I'm not perfect and all I know is that God loves us, He is all powerful and He has a plan. After I had those thoughts, I began calming down, and eventually came out of the bathroom. Then Sister Lynch gave me a hug and we moved on to other things. After lunch we did some weekly planning and made our Plan of Salvation board game for Melanie. After that we went to visit Ray. We pulled up to his house and there was a 21 year old kid in his wheelchair, his name was Dameon was quite polite, he got us chairs and offered us drinks. Also MAN CAN RAY TALK! He just kept talking to us, which is great but he tends to veer off subject. And there were a couple of times we tried to leave saying “it's been good talking to you but…" and then he would just keep talking. But good news! He quit drinking! He had promised himself that after 1 year since his wife died, he would quit. Although he has wanted to pretty bad, he says that he hasn't had a drink since December 31st. Then he proceeded to share his entire life story, he really really loves his wife and misses her. He still does seem to have it in his head that she is up in heaven, talking his actions over with God to convince God to let Ray into heaven. So we asked him who God is and he told us he doesn't really believe in miracles, but then he shared a miracle involving finding money at our church building. Ray also said that he talks to God, offering gratitude and believes in grace, but he doesn't like to ask God for things because Ray doesn’t really trust anyone. We are trying to decide if Ray is willing to change. Then he jumped to talking about how he had 5 charges against him at the beginning of the year and how he has to take care of all of his affairs before this surgery where he might die, actually he is kind of banking on the fact that it will kill him…some freaky stuff. Sadly since Ray talked so long we were late for our lesson with the Partins and had to cancel. Brother Partin even texted us concerned if we were ok, which was sweet. Then one of our new referrals called us basically demanding us to come over at a certain time, so we did and when we got there they asked us to come by a different day, kinda sad. We ended the day with a church history video movie night while eating a Chip cookie with Blue Bell’s Mardi Gras flavor ice cream.

Friday morning we had another call with Sister Buck who even asked some questions about the early Saints and wants to be sealed to her husband when she dies...but when we found out more we discovered that she doesn’t have to wait to be sealed to her husband so that will be exciting to tell her! We also had a lesson with Cæmeron over Facebook today which I was super excited for! He was really nice and I got to share my story of asking questions and finding answers through the scriptures, instead of relying upon the testimony of others around me. I also gave my spiel on bad things happening to good people by looking at everything that Christ went through but how that does not mean that Heavenly Father did not love Him. He hadn't really heard much about the BoM so we asked for his address to get him one and he said he'd want to read it!! So cool! Then we had a call with Mr. Jones but he asked if we could reschedule. Also Sister May brought us chicken salad sandwich stuff and eclairs!! She's literally so sweet! Later that night we had our lesson with the Partins. Sadly, Melanie wasn't there, but Robin was there!!! So we mainly ended up helping them sort their Magic The Gathering cards for an hour and a half! Then we got to share a thought about the BoM. Bro Partin said it gives direction. Sister Partin said that it has peace and answers for every time she opens it. We asked Robin if she had the opportunity to read and pray about the BoM. She said no but then Bro said how they don't want to push it onto her. Her dad isn't all about religion...doesn't really believe in God and what not…I was not satisfied with that though. I asked Robin if she believed in God and she said yes! We invited ALL of them to pray about the BoM and learn further of its truthfulness, even if they already had. Bro and Sis Partin said yes and Robin nodded!!(: they even gave us some soup for dinner! Brother Partin claimed his soup only had 3 different kinds of peppers in it, compared to his usual 7 peppers but DANG my mouth was on fire it was so spicy!

On Saturday morning our call with Christopher fell through because he had to work on his car…We did some training, continuing to prepare for Melanie’s baptism. After lunch we went to visit Audriana, but we pulled up in this sketch neighborhood, knocked, and some kids answered the door and then a woman came and it was her. She knew the missionaries from them volunteering at the soup kitchen, she seemed a little off...there was also some blind woman that came to the door too at one point...wack...a car had just pulled up though and she asked us to come back later…sadness. On the way home we stopped at the park for some more weekly planning and took a walk. Then we came home, had our call with Brother Larimer, language study, called a bunch of members and got in contact with the missionaries where Cameron lives in Alabama.

Sunday was exciting because we had 5 whole lessons planned and only 2 of them ended up falling through! We called this Austin guy from yesterday who has the same number as a member and were able to share some verses with him and talk about Jesus. It was good. Then at the end we set up another time to call and were like “thanks Mr. Austin we'll talk to ya later”. Then he quickly said "you don't need to call me Mr. I'm only 13"...leaving us utterly SHOOK! Totally thought it was a 30 year old man!! Bruh. Why can we only seem to attract the minors or the 65+?!?!?! Later we went over to Audriana’s and knocked on the door...the kids asked who it was and we said the missionaries, they were like "why do you come over EVERYDAY" lol. A possibly blind lady answered the door and said that Audriana wasn't home, so we asked her to tell Audriana that we came by. Then we came home, took a walk and called some people and had our usual Brother Larimer call. Later we visited the Partins and Melanie was there this time! It sounded like they picked her up early so we could have her baptismal lessons! So awesome that they really do care about her preparing for baptism!! We had the sacrament together and we followed up on Brother and Sister Partin with praying about the BoM and they did, saying "it's still the book of truth" and Melanie also prayed about baptism and said "I felt fuzzy!" Then both Brother and Sister Partin responded with "you should shave" lol (they are hilarious) and she was like "I felt lighter than a feather"!!!! We were so happy she's feeling the spirit and recognizing it! We showed Melanie a video about church organization and talked about service and helping people out. Melanie goes and visits her Grandma and they told her she doesn't realize how much she has been a blessing to her grandma. How sweet! She also said that she’s been reading the Book of Mormon!

What a rollercoaster of a week full of my own questions, finding a wide variety of new people and helping Melanie progress towards baptism! No matter how difficult things may seem at times, I just hold on to the things that I do know to be true and strive to share that testimony with others. Just like I know that God loves me and each one of His children!

Have a blessed week!

Smile because God loves you and remember that I love, love, love y'all too!

Love,

Sister Johnson

January Bug Bite Count: 2 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