Monday: We went to the Marcado…holy cow that feels like ages ago. It’s a Mexican market wanna-be. Actually it was cool because they were selling a lot of the same kind of stuff that I saw at the markets in Mexico when I went this summer: wooden dream animals, black pottery. Anyways, the most important thing is that I got my TSAM ring. There is a guy there that said as soon as we walked up:” TSAMers right?” (Texas San Antonio Mission). He knew what we wanted by our tags. Its kind of tradition that when you serve in South zone, which is the zone I am in, you go to the Marcado and get a hand carved silver ring that says TSAM. So now that I have that I consider myself a true TSAMer and I have officially grown out of greenie-hood. Yay! We had FHE with Toby and his brothers, and the Swaim family and we did a reenactment of Nephi building his boat.
Tuesday: We had dinner with the Browns who live under a hill (like hobbits) and have a lake in their front yard and said we could go fishing there sometime. I love fishing! Tuesday night we had a lesson with Gary and Clarissa about eternal marriage and we brought the Partridges, a young couple. It went pretty good…she wants a forever marriage, he would like it too, except he’s still at level one in trying to decide if he even believes the Book of Mormon. But he really wants to know and encourages Clarissa to read the Book of Mormon with him every night.
Wednesday: Zone Conference!!! It was awesome. President told us that he felt impressed that we need to encourage our investigators to pray more during the lessons. He said that until they ask God themselves, they will never get an answer. Then we had New member lessons in the evening. (There are a lot of converts in the ward so we set up a class every Wednesday night to re-teach the lessons to the converts). And Gary came! When the sisters first met him he was a huge jerk to them and to Clarissa and wouldn’t even talk to them, but now he’s coming to new member lessons and reading the book of mormon and spending more time with the kids and Clarissa.
Thrusday: Tschetter’s for dinner!!!! Brother and Sister Tschetter had three kids that all grew up. I guess they decided the house was too quiet so they decided that they wanted more kids so they opened up their home to foster care. Originally they wanted to take in 3-6 year old kids, but over time their house turned into a last chance house for teens. The Tschetters get all the teens who were kicked out of all the other homes for bad behavior…but the Tschetters are awesome and the kids change when they come to their home. So now the Tschetters have 12 kids (excluding their biological three). They take up an entire bench at church. When I saw that I thought, “Hey! I know what that’s like.” I feel like I can relate a lot to this family. They are so cool.
Friday: We went over to Gary and Clarissa’s hoping to just catch Clarissa so we could talk about one of them moving out so Clarissa could get baptized on the 19th. But providence ruined our little plan and as we pulled up we saw Gary’s motorcycle out front. Great…should we bring up the moving out thing again with Gary? We didn’t want to offend by being too pushy…but we decided that we would talk about the stuff we had planned and just prayed that the Spirit would direct us if we were supposed to do something different. So we went in a taught a good lesson. I love teaching with Sister Kleisler because we thing the same way. We smoothly transition from one topic to the other. We know what questions we are supposed to answer and what questions are for the other companion. It’s neat. So we reemphasized the need for them to separate and asked them to pray about it and they agreed.
But anyways, at the end of the lesson we asked Gary to say the closing prayer. “No, I don’t think I’m ready. I get nervous and embarrassed.” Well, we had just had a zone conference all about getting our investigators to pray so he wasn’t going to get off that easy. After some gentle prodding and after we fell to our knees waiting for him to pray he finally knelt to the floor himself and began to pray. It was the sweetest prayer ever. He was talking straight to God and told Him how thankful he was for his blessings, and then told Him how much he wanted to be a good father and a good husband to his future wife (meaning Clarissa), and then he asked for help in knowing how to handle the situation of them separating so Clarissa can get baptized. It was so sweet and when the prayer was finished I looked up and Clarissa was just in tears. It felt really peaceful and joyful, but nothing super amazing. Then Sister Kleisler asked, “Gary, how do you feel right now?” BAM! As soon as she said that the entire room filled with the Spirit and suddenly we were kneeling on sacred ground. I felt like I was in the temple. The feeling was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Our hearts brimmed with pure love straight from our Father. I was so happy and my heart got so full that it starting leaking out my eyes. We all just looked at each other in wonder and we couldn’t stop smiling. “I feel really warm right now and really happy,” Gary replied. “That’s the Spirit!” we chimed. Wow, I didn’t want to leave because I just loved the way I felt. I wish I could send that feeling to all of you so you could feel it. It would dispel any doubt that may plague your mind. Unfortunately the greatest poet in the world could never describe the joy and the clarity that rested on our hearts in that moment, and that feeling only comes when God wills it. I feel so blessed to have been lucky enough to be a part of that experience. It was as if eternity opened and poured out pure truth upon all of us. We had a heavenly confirmation that our Father in Heaven approved of what had just taken place.
The rest of the week blurred by until Sunday. The week before Toby’s baptism has begun. Ugh…I had the week before baptisms. We were worried about Toby not being ready, but we went through the baptismal interview questions and we determined he is more than ready to make the commitment. But Sister Kleisler felt awful after church. During lunch she was on the couch in some kind of despair and agony because she was worried about Clarissa’s life that seemed to be falling apart. We started talking about Clarissa’s Baptism and how it was three weeks away. I had been having thoughts about moving it up, but I wasn’t sure if it was the Spirit or if it was my own selfish desire to get it over with. I started saying to Sister Kleisler, “ I don’t know if this is a good idea but—“ “You want to move up the baptism?” I was worried cause I didn’t want Sister Kleisler to think I was trying to push it up for numbers so I squeaked a little, “yeah.” She all the sudden jumped up and said, “I was thinking that too!” We felt so good and peaceful and all our worry about Clarissa disappeared as soon as we said it. So immediately we ran over to Clarissa’s and told her that we think she should move up her baptism to this next Sunday. She had been having a really hard week because they have tons of debt and their rent is overdue and then we kept telling them they had to separate. Because of all of this we were nervous that our suggestion would push her over the top, but on the contrary, her eyes lit up and she seemed relieved. She liked the idea and said that her a Gary would figure out their living situation before Sunday. Yay!
Then we went knocking. Our phone rang about an hour after we left Clarissa’s. She was calling us, “Hi guys, I just wanted to let you know that after you left I got a call from Gary saying that all the meat cases in the grocery store went out and since he’s the manager he has to stay late and they’re going to pay him over time! The extra money will really help with our finances.” She felt like it was a blessing because she moved the baptism date up. Then we hung up and were super happy and kept knocking and then she called again and left a message, “Sorry I keep bother y’all, but after I got off the phone with you I started praying to thank God for blessing us with the overtime and as I was praying I got a call from my aunt who needed a babysitter next week and she said that she would pay me for it.” Holy moly cow! Is this not awesome to anyone else??? Heavenly Father is blessing this couple so much. I’m getting chills as I write this now. What an awesomely awesome week! Two baptism next Sunday!
Well, it’s time to go. Today for Pday we’re going to the Tschetters to play kick ball since they have an entire team. Wahoo!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Marci, you are awesome and I’m so proud of you for your decision. I’m also glad it worked out so well. Your rock. Andre, you have really been beat up this year. Holy moly. Hope everything calms down a bit for you. Michelle, I’m sorry your face hurts. I’ve had a lot of surgeries, but getting my wisdom teeth out was by far the worst one. Yucky, yucky, yucky, smelly. Mom, I’m sorry about your sickness and I’m glad you’re feeling better. Dad, it’ll get better and when it does it will have all been worth it. Kirsten, is mark back yet? How’s Jaron? Catherine and Adam, what’s up? Mike, please write me a song. Clint, please write me a song too. Kevin, write me a letter...I know I don’t deserve one because I only sent you like 3 letters your whole mission, but I’ve been out for a third of my mission, so it’s about time for my first letter from you :) Lauren, you should send me pictures from your wedding because I haven’t got any. Brian, congratulations on the play. Caleb, you’re awesome. Y'all are wonderful...okay, so I know I sound like a dork when I say y'all, but I love that word. Eventually I will refine my country speak'n and be able to say it so it doesn't sound like I'm a utah transplant.
So I‘ve transferred to a small town named Pleasanton and I love it!!!
701 Oakhaven #402
Pleasanton, Texas 78064
Its nick name is “the birthplace of the cowboy” and I believe it. I live in the place all the country songs sing about. It’s tiny town, population like 1500 or something. Our area is huge. The size of our area is bigger than the entire city of San Antonio so we cover a bunch of these po-dunk specs on the map. We are the most South our mission goes. Everyone waves as they drive by. There are a lot of trailer parks complete with the old couches and dirty toys scattered in the front lawn. There are also the sweet little country homes with real wood teas porches where you can sip pink lemonade and bask in the heat. It’s hot and humid! I love it!
We live in some apartments across from the church which makes things very nice. When I walked into church it was full of cowboys. Brother Chandler is the epitome of cowboy—he’s got a handle bar mustache with big curls at the ends, a leather vest and a cowboy hat. Grumpy would have fit in nicely here. Is this what Beeville was like? Speaking of, someone mentioned Beeville, but now I can’t remember who. We sang the National Anthem as our closing hymn at church...priceless. Some ward members have to drive about an hour to get to church. Most of the people in the ward are pretty quirky which is great for me because I’m pretty quirky so I feel like I fit right in.
Sister Kleisler is my new companion. She’s great and we get along really well. She’s from Mesa, Arizona and has been on her mission for 10 months. She’s a fantastic missionary and we teach really well together which is good because there are so many people here to teach. First there is Clarissa and Gary. Clarissa was referred to the other sisters by Vanessa, a recent convert. Clarissa is about 20 years old and lives with her boyfriend, Gary. She has completely embraced the gospel and has pretty much decided that she wants to get baptized. Sister Kleisler warned me that Gary was a jerk and she wanted Clarissa to break up with him, but our first lesson together Gary listened as we taught the word of wisdom and he even said he would try it for a week. He asked if wishing on stars was considered praying and we told him that even though we don’t remember God from before, part of us is always trying to connect with God and when we have an urge to tell our troubles to a heavenly orb in the sky, we really are reaching up to our Father in Heaven even though we don’t remember Him. Then we had another lesson where we taught Gary the restoration and at the end of it he said, “So I guess now what I need to do is pray to find out if this is true.” Wahoo! They both are pretty awesome and we’ll see if they decided to get married or separate, because one of the two has to happen.
The next person we are teaching is a 10-year-old boy named Toby. He and his two brothers just moved in with their father for the summer. His father, Shaun, was just baptized a month ago and asked the missionaries to teach his kids. Toby wants to get baptized, but his mom (they’re divorced) wants to make sure he knows everything before he makes the decision. So we are teaching him a lot. He’s only 10, but he is super smart and asks amazing questions and understands the significance of the things we are teaching. A very elect kid.
Yesterday Sister Kleisler had the feeling to visit this one couple, but they weren’t home so we decided to visit a less active member across the street. She said that her and her husband needed a spiritual kick to get them out of a rut. Her husband (a non member) let us know that he wants to eventually get baptized. Sister Kleisler said that this was a miracle because before he wouldn’t even talk to the missionaries, but now he’s decided to open up. It’s not because of anything we did. We just followed Sister K’s prompting and it happened to be just the right time. Cool. There is so much going on here.
The other day we were eating a member’s house. AS she was serving us she said, “most people hate this meal, but I love it so that’s why we’re going to eat it.” Oh great. Well, it was chicken with a peanut butter sauce. It wasn’t too bad for me because I ate chicken with peanut butter sauce in Thailand all the time, but Sister Kleisler thought she was going to gag. Usually when I’m served gross food I can wash it down with liquid so I was really excited to be served our drink. She pulls out this pitcher of brown juice. “What kind of juice is that?” I asked. “Try it first and guess. It’s a surprise.” So we sipped some and it was pretty good, but we couldn’t figure out what it was. “It’s green tea with tamerindo (sp?)” What!? Oh great, we had just taught the word of wisdom that morning and here were are breaking it. The situation was such that it would have been really awkward to ask for water instead, so I just went with out drinking and had to force the food down dry. Sister Kleisler I don’t think really understood that the drink was tea…the kind of tea we’re not supposed to have, because she was guzzling it and pouring more so she could get the food down. Hahaha. I tried making eye contact with her trying to let her know what she was drinking, but it was to no avail. Later she told me that she thinks the Lord will forgive us for breaking the word of wisdom unknowingly, but now I know. I’m in South Texas, and they drink tea instead of water here and I’m pretty sure tea comes out their sinks and shower heads as well, so I need to be extra cautious.
Whelp, its been a long week, but I’m so glad that I’m here. I feel so much more comfortable here than I ever did in the other wards, not that I didn’t like the other wards, but here is just more my style. Slow, personable. The other wards were also in an area that was very similar to the area I lived in Utah, so it was weird serving there because I felt like I was serving at home, with just different faces. Here in Pleasanton I feel like I’m back in Thailand—a completely different world that is easier for me to relate to. I feel like I’ve got enough room to spread my wings and unleash my ideas and personality.
Love you all,
Sister JOhnson
Reply Forward
So I‘ve transferred to a small town named Pleasanton and I love it!!!
701 Oakhaven #402
Pleasanton, Texas 78064
Its nick name is “the birthplace of the cowboy” and I believe it. I live in the place all the country songs sing about. It’s tiny town, population like 1500 or something. Our area is huge. The size of our area is bigger than the entire city of San Antonio so we cover a bunch of these po-dunk specs on the map. We are the most South our mission goes. Everyone waves as they drive by. There are a lot of trailer parks complete with the old couches and dirty toys scattered in the front lawn. There are also the sweet little country homes with real wood teas porches where you can sip pink lemonade and bask in the heat. It’s hot and humid! I love it!
We live in some apartments across from the church which makes things very nice. When I walked into church it was full of cowboys. Brother Chandler is the epitome of cowboy—he’s got a handle bar mustache with big curls at the ends, a leather vest and a cowboy hat. Grumpy would have fit in nicely here. Is this what Beeville was like? Speaking of, someone mentioned Beeville, but now I can’t remember who. We sang the National Anthem as our closing hymn at church...priceless. Some ward members have to drive about an hour to get to church. Most of the people in the ward are pretty quirky which is great for me because I’m pretty quirky so I feel like I fit right in.
Sister Kleisler is my new companion. She’s great and we get along really well. She’s from Mesa, Arizona and has been on her mission for 10 months. She’s a fantastic missionary and we teach really well together which is good because there are so many people here to teach. First there is Clarissa and Gary. Clarissa was referred to the other sisters by Vanessa, a recent convert. Clarissa is about 20 years old and lives with her boyfriend, Gary. She has completely embraced the gospel and has pretty much decided that she wants to get baptized. Sister Kleisler warned me that Gary was a jerk and she wanted Clarissa to break up with him, but our first lesson together Gary listened as we taught the word of wisdom and he even said he would try it for a week. He asked if wishing on stars was considered praying and we told him that even though we don’t remember God from before, part of us is always trying to connect with God and when we have an urge to tell our troubles to a heavenly orb in the sky, we really are reaching up to our Father in Heaven even though we don’t remember Him. Then we had another lesson where we taught Gary the restoration and at the end of it he said, “So I guess now what I need to do is pray to find out if this is true.” Wahoo! They both are pretty awesome and we’ll see if they decided to get married or separate, because one of the two has to happen.
The next person we are teaching is a 10-year-old boy named Toby. He and his two brothers just moved in with their father for the summer. His father, Shaun, was just baptized a month ago and asked the missionaries to teach his kids. Toby wants to get baptized, but his mom (they’re divorced) wants to make sure he knows everything before he makes the decision. So we are teaching him a lot. He’s only 10, but he is super smart and asks amazing questions and understands the significance of the things we are teaching. A very elect kid.
Yesterday Sister Kleisler had the feeling to visit this one couple, but they weren’t home so we decided to visit a less active member across the street. She said that her and her husband needed a spiritual kick to get them out of a rut. Her husband (a non member) let us know that he wants to eventually get baptized. Sister Kleisler said that this was a miracle because before he wouldn’t even talk to the missionaries, but now he’s decided to open up. It’s not because of anything we did. We just followed Sister K’s prompting and it happened to be just the right time. Cool. There is so much going on here.
The other day we were eating a member’s house. AS she was serving us she said, “most people hate this meal, but I love it so that’s why we’re going to eat it.” Oh great. Well, it was chicken with a peanut butter sauce. It wasn’t too bad for me because I ate chicken with peanut butter sauce in Thailand all the time, but Sister Kleisler thought she was going to gag. Usually when I’m served gross food I can wash it down with liquid so I was really excited to be served our drink. She pulls out this pitcher of brown juice. “What kind of juice is that?” I asked. “Try it first and guess. It’s a surprise.” So we sipped some and it was pretty good, but we couldn’t figure out what it was. “It’s green tea with tamerindo (sp?)” What!? Oh great, we had just taught the word of wisdom that morning and here were are breaking it. The situation was such that it would have been really awkward to ask for water instead, so I just went with out drinking and had to force the food down dry. Sister Kleisler I don’t think really understood that the drink was tea…the kind of tea we’re not supposed to have, because she was guzzling it and pouring more so she could get the food down. Hahaha. I tried making eye contact with her trying to let her know what she was drinking, but it was to no avail. Later she told me that she thinks the Lord will forgive us for breaking the word of wisdom unknowingly, but now I know. I’m in South Texas, and they drink tea instead of water here and I’m pretty sure tea comes out their sinks and shower heads as well, so I need to be extra cautious.
Whelp, its been a long week, but I’m so glad that I’m here. I feel so much more comfortable here than I ever did in the other wards, not that I didn’t like the other wards, but here is just more my style. Slow, personable. The other wards were also in an area that was very similar to the area I lived in Utah, so it was weird serving there because I felt like I was serving at home, with just different faces. Here in Pleasanton I feel like I’m back in Thailand—a completely different world that is easier for me to relate to. I feel like I’ve got enough room to spread my wings and unleash my ideas and personality.
Love you all,
Sister JOhnson
Reply Forward
Monday, June 1, 2009
Mon, Jun 1, 2009
This week Sister Denison and I were called “workers of the devil,” “misguided and brainwashed” (maybe that was last week...), spreaders of “Satan’s word,” and a woman who was running us off her property while yelling at us told us that the message we bring is one of hate :)
Sigh. I usually don’t tell stories like that, but there were just too many good ones this week to keep to myself, however, I’ll spare you the details. I wish I could say these experiences are the hardest part of the mission, but they’re more entertainment than anything. The hardest part of the mission, for me anyways, is when someone that you know feels the spirit and knows it’s true, but then walks away. The second hardest part is making mistakes. It’s one thing to have bad things happen, but when they happen because of your very own selfish mistakes….it’s a nasty feeling. Not the I-forgot-to-write-something-down mistakes, but the I’m-being-selfish-and-prideful mistakes that are the real killers…ugh. Luckily I don’t make mistakes so I’m off the hook on that one!
Anyways, believe it or not, this week has been amazing! I only wrote that above stuff to let you know that sometimes it’s hard. We taught Mandi this week. I love her!!!! I love these people so much. Every day I love them more. It’s really strange. I still feel intimidated and shy and scared, but it’s getting better. I am just trying to set those things to the side to make room for the love.
Mandi loves Christ. She knows a lot of bible stories…but she can’t put it all together. She can’t connect the stories. She can’t figure out exactly why Christ is important. We laid out the plan of salvation, but she felt uncomfortable because she couldn’t tell us her beliefs. She thinks are beliefs are different when really we basically have the same beliefs; we just have a little bit more expanded view. The expansion pack of religion…haha. I crack myself up….my time’s almost gone. I love you all. I really am doing fine don’t worry. I just want these letters to be multi dimensional so I have to add in some sad stuff.
This week Sister Denison and I were called “workers of the devil,” “misguided and brainwashed” (maybe that was last week...), spreaders of “Satan’s word,” and a woman who was running us off her property while yelling at us told us that the message we bring is one of hate :)
Sigh. I usually don’t tell stories like that, but there were just too many good ones this week to keep to myself, however, I’ll spare you the details. I wish I could say these experiences are the hardest part of the mission, but they’re more entertainment than anything. The hardest part of the mission, for me anyways, is when someone that you know feels the spirit and knows it’s true, but then walks away. The second hardest part is making mistakes. It’s one thing to have bad things happen, but when they happen because of your very own selfish mistakes….it’s a nasty feeling. Not the I-forgot-to-write-something-down mistakes, but the I’m-being-selfish-and-prideful mistakes that are the real killers…ugh. Luckily I don’t make mistakes so I’m off the hook on that one!
Anyways, believe it or not, this week has been amazing! I only wrote that above stuff to let you know that sometimes it’s hard. We taught Mandi this week. I love her!!!! I love these people so much. Every day I love them more. It’s really strange. I still feel intimidated and shy and scared, but it’s getting better. I am just trying to set those things to the side to make room for the love.
Mandi loves Christ. She knows a lot of bible stories…but she can’t put it all together. She can’t connect the stories. She can’t figure out exactly why Christ is important. We laid out the plan of salvation, but she felt uncomfortable because she couldn’t tell us her beliefs. She thinks are beliefs are different when really we basically have the same beliefs; we just have a little bit more expanded view. The expansion pack of religion…haha. I crack myself up….my time’s almost gone. I love you all. I really am doing fine don’t worry. I just want these letters to be multi dimensional so I have to add in some sad stuff.
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