JOHNSON, MEGAN: New Year & 9 Months

Hola y'all!

Monday was a pretty chill pday, hung with the district, Sister Lynch played some intense monoploy deal yall! Also Sister Hansen’s trainee, Sister Pedigo, kept leaving the room ALONE and I kept wanting to say something but Sister Hansen was out longer and I could tell Sister Murdoch wanted to say something too…it was the worst! When we got back to our apartment I had to pack for exchanges and Sister Lynch was super sweet to make pizza for us since I was stressed packing. Then we had our classic Brother Larimer call to read the Book of Mormon, Dennis canceled on us…then we drove to Cooter’s Bog to meet up with the Pineville Sisters. Sister Lynch was with Sister Jacobs doing her pass off exchange and I was with Sister Despain in Pineville/Alexandria staying with the Greens in their home. Oh how I love the Greens (but I still don’t think they remember me despite how many times I’ve been there but oh well jaja). And they got a new puppy! But he was in his cage for bedtime…so that was super sad…

On Tuesday morning we didn’t have time to exercise! Hallelujah! We were going to go do service for the food bank early in the morning. Brother Green made us hot ham and eggs which were delicious and I even had a glass of chocolate milk! Yum! The food bank we went to is run by the national guard, so it was all very organized, assembly line kind of thing. The Elders in their district were there too! After that we came home and went about our normal stuff, had some leftovers from a member for lunch (this place really does feel like you’re at home bruh) and finally got to play with their puppy, Billy Bob. Afterwards we called this lady named Neicy who was so sweet and totally reminded me of Ms. Mary in El Dorado so that was nice. One of their member’s called us about his ministering lady who is a hoarder and how he needs help to help her, so we set up a time for the missionaries to come help out. Then we drove to the church for an appointment that fell through and had a member, Sister Alford, pick us up to help someone named Kady move. Their trailer was heckin messy and something that a lot of people here in the South have are dirty babies, and this is the saddest thing for me to see when someone’s kids are filthy or they forget them in the car (like this lady did…oof). But we helped pack up their stuff and the kids even helped me pack up some boxes too! The kids kept wanting us to just hold them but sadly as missionaries we can't do that, so the parents got mad and sent them to their rooms. They also had the tiniest, most adorable puppy ever (aside from my own of course)! After that we went to Cane’s for dinner, Sister Despain had a Zone Leadership call with the Ap’s, then we headed home and called Pauline, a recent convert, in the car to do a Book of Mormon read and I highkey got car sick so that was fun. Then we reunited with our actual companions! In the car on the way back to DeRidder Sister Lynch said that it was interesting to see how other missionaires do missionary work and in my head I was like “Oh no does that mean she hates the way I do missionary work?!” but later she said that their day was just “meh” and how she wants to be friends after the mission and is gonna miss being my companion…so I think we’re good jaja. She is literally the sweetest! Then we had ice cream and cookies to celebrate being back together.

Wednesday we had our usual morning, I reluctantly went outside for exercise then we listened to Saints, Sister Lynch says she secretly thinks imma church history nerd…not really but sure. As part of a normal District Council morning, I was stressing about my part in giving the refining and then Sister Lynch’s discussion was only like 10 minutes so I had to take up the rest of the time but it was cool. During our Wendy’s district lunch everyone bonded over having COVID during Christmas…expect for Sister Lynch and I…awkward…the rest of the day we did a lot of Facebook since it was raining, Sister Lynch practiced the piano and we called Brother Larimer. He was so sweet and said that he missed me yesterday during exchanges, aww.

So to be honest, this week has been uber slow with the holidays, having no appointments which kinda sucks and all but Thursday rolls around nonetheless and we make a video for Facebook, which Sister Lynch basically hates doing. We did our studies, training stuff, roleplays, lunch, weekly planning, district goal setting (where we had the highest goals since Nachitoches only made goals with their current people and set some goals as 0…yall I just hate goals set to 0 you don’t even understand how heated I get BUT I decided not to fight anyone…this time). We did have a call with Judy about the Godhead but then she started talking about speaking with her dead ancestors so we mentioned family history and she said she even went to church with the Elders once, but she doesn’t quite sound like she’s all the way there…oof. During language study I was trying to do my “no English hour” thing but Sister Lynch needed help editing the video but it was still good. We did some more Facebook stuff then the power went off like 5 times and it gave me a little hurricane PTSD yall but we was good. Then we had some sparkling cider to celebrate the New Year at 9:30 cuz we still missionaries.

Friday was January 1st!! We went outside for exercise and it was 40 degrees! So cold! Hence I had Kringle and hot cocoa for breakfast. We did our typical morning studies (I went crazy and read 6 chapters in the Book of Mormon in my personal study), did some roleplays, called some members who didn’t answer, called Judy and Ricky (her ex-boyfriend) answered and gave us Brinda’s number but sadly Birnda didn’t answer. Sister Lynch did a pass off with the STL’s over video call, we went drop crazy during weekly planning, called Brother Larimer, went to Popeye’s for dinner to celebrate my 9 month mark (even though no one remembered it…sad) with beignets. Then the ZL’s randomly called us to check in on our goals and then I asked them a ton of questions because I love asking people my gospel questions so that was nice. Then we spent like an hour trying to make me look pregnant for my 9 month mark pictures, I think I gave up like 3 times but Sister Lynch was super sweet and kept pushing that we do it because she knew I really wanted to!

On Saturday we did a roleplay on the Holy Ghost and Sister Lynch did so good! I on the other hand did not do so good in my mind, but she claimed that it was what she needed to hear so…it’s always weird how that seems to work out. We called some members, set up a regular scripture study with one of them while the other one went off about politics and COVID…Sister Lynch had to take the lead on that one since I couldn’t think of the nicest things to say… :/ We made cookies and Sister Landry got a pizza delivered to us for dinner. Then we went to deliver the cookies as a last effort to contact Janaya. We even saw AJ in the window and I wanted to knock so badly but our missionary rule is that we can’t unless we are expected…ugh!!

Sunday morning I had a nice personal study of Moroni 7. Then we went to little Jerry’s church, a pastor who had been messaging us and who I had visited before Hurricane Laura took out their building. But when we pulled up there were only like 3 cars in the parking lot…which is an extremely small congregation to blend in with…but we walked in anyways! It was super awkward but I just led us in, acting like we were supposed to be there. This cute old couple welcomed us and made sure we had hymns which was super sweet. The old woman was their praise and worship leader who got up to lead the music and commented that everyone needed to bring their bibles next time in case she “and the pastor lied to them”...that was kind of weird to say…Then Pastor Jerry got up to teach about salvation even though he claimed it wasn’t “teachable”...There was a lot of truth in his sermon but when he said that “us being children of God is so far-fetched from the truth” I lost it. The rest of the time I kept thinking about how in Saints missionaries back then would just get up and preach sermons in different churches and I wanted him to ask us to preach because boy did I have a lot to say! Then we got home and called Brinda who said she loves our calls! We made a post for free Bibles and Book of Mormons on Facebook Marketplace and while taking pictures outside we met a little boy named Corbin. He is the most polite and well-mannered child I have ever met! He’s only like 11 years old and said that it was “a pleasure to meet” us. We went over to the Partin’s house to have the sacrament and met Brother Partin’s brother, Jeff, who parked his semi truck in their yard. Brother Partin also insisted that we stay for dinner; BBQ and steak! When we went inside Melanie saw us and totally lit up and even waved at us! Tracey, Brother Partin’s ex-wife, joined us for the sacrament too. Then we had the sacrament on a TV dinner table in a house full of dogs…that was pretty interesting jaja. For dinner we had baked potatoes, BBQ chicken, collared greens with bacon, sausage and steak. Sister Lynch and I sat with Melanie at the “kids table” and got to know her a lot better which was awesome! When it was time to share the spiritual thought it felt kind weird to give our prepared one about the sacrament prayers (even though we desperately wanted to talk about baptism with Melanie) since there were non-members there so we read Helaman 5:47 from the Book of Mormon and connected it to baptism somehow! We talked about taking the name of Christ upon ourselves and then I acted stupid and was like “wait Melanie have you been baptized? No? Do you want to be?” Then she said yes so we set a date and made some goals! It was basically the least formal baptismal invitation EVER but it worked and Tessa was totally down…although Brother Partin wasn’t really in the room and he was the one with problems about it so we’ll see how that goes…

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