Last week we were knocking and I opened and walked through a gate in order to get to someone’s house. There was no “beware of dog” sign so I thought I was fine, but of course, once I was inside the yard I heard the jingling sound of a loose collar and I saw a black dog racing across the yard bearing the look of death. I screamed and ran back through the gate. Missionary work is dangerous. I could hear a conversation I had had with my dad years early. We were walking down the street and a friendly black dog came running up to lick me to and I flipped out. My dad asked, “I thought you liked dogs?” And I responded, “Not big, black ones!!!” So I guess I’ve never overcome that fear. Fortunately the dog I saw last week wasn’t the biggest black dog I’d ever seen. He was more like a medium black dog, but I don’t really like those either.
Then this week Sister Kleisler and I were knocking again and we walked up to someone’s house and under their big dodge truck was a big scary dog, unchained (because country folks are crazy), and ready to eat us. We slowly started backing away and then two more dogs ran up barking something terrible. There we were standing face to face with three missionary-eaters and all we could do was back up. We were trying to decide if we should run or just act casual. “Hey dogs, good to see ya, sorry we disturbed your nap, what fine fur you have, and what large teeth…” Needless to say, we made it back to our car in one piece which is lucky because our district leader got a pretty bad bite from a dog a few weeks ago.
I went on exchanges this week with Sister Dodge who was Sister Kleisler’s old companion. We had tons of fun. I went up to central San An which was nice. They share a ward with elders so we spent a lot of time with them. I love being with other missionaries! Sister Kleisler hardly ever get to see other missionaries which stinks. AS missionaries we are always a separate identity from everyone else. From the people we talk to everyday, to our investigators, even the members in our ward: we are just different. So it is so nice to be around missionaries who are the same…the same as people who aren’t different. Anyways, it was fun. We helped a member family move. One of the kids, an eight year old, was helping and by the time we got there he was dripping with sweat. The kids love the Elders so one of the missionaries started playing around with the eight year old and then jokingly asked pointing to a sweat bead, “Dude, what’s that?” The eight year old snapped back, “I HAVE SWEAT PROBLEMS, OKAY!!!!” I almost died laughing. It was hilarious. I don’t know what that kid’s medical history is like, but when you live in south Texas, everyone has sweat problems.
Yesterday was the best day this week. We didn’t have anyone at church. Bummer. But we did find a girl named, Alyssa. She had seen us before because everyone has seen us before. Because Pleasanton is so small I almost feel omnipresent. Anyways, we taught her and her friend the restoration. She liked it, her friend…not so much. But that was really cool for us. Then that night we taught Rebecca again (the science teacher). She’s so cool and we asked her about coming to church and she said she didn’t like to go to church because she always cried and it was embarrassing. “Hey! Our church is the perfect for people who cry a lot! Everyone cries.” We told her about the spirit and how sometimes you get overwhelmed by it and all you can do is cry and then she started to cry. It’s really sad that we were excited she cried. We don’t necessarily like it when people cry, but we do like it when they feel something as a result of the thing we teach. Booyah.
Thanks for your prayers and support. Have a great day!
~sister johnson