All,

Alyse is now home! What a great blessing to have her back and to feel of her wonderful spirit and love. What a great mission she fulfilled. We will all miss her exciting and inspiring letters!

Another reminder...

She will be speaking in our sacrament meeting tomorrow, June 27th at 9:00 am. Our building is located at 50 E 600 N in Lindon, UT. Hope that some of you can join us. We will also be having a little brunch at our house after our meeting block at 12:30 pm. Please join us if you can. Our address is 755 N 400 E, Lindon UT.

hi

We had the coolest lesson last night!!!!! We found this guy named Jason and he is really neat. He randomly had a Book of Mormon on his bookshelf and said he had meant to start reading it. We brought over the gospel doctrine teacher with us last night and they really got along. Jason has a fiance and so we were assuming that we would have to help him move out or get married, but we found out last night that they are living separatly and fully intend to live apart until they are married! That is rare and awesome. He also told us that he was telling a co-worker about mormons at work and his boss overheard and was super excited and said, "hey! i'm Mormon! You're talking to the missionaries?!" And I guess they had a long discussion after that. Sweet!

We also miraculously found the fiance of a less active woman. She's a recent convert (the fiance), but went less active about a year after her baptism, but now she wants to come back and we're teaching her 9 year old daughter and her fiance. They are awesome.

Also, Sonya told us earlier last week that she couldn't come to church anymore because she got a job that had her work on Sunday. We prayed really hard for God's will to be done, and then on Friday she called us all distressed because the job fell through, "Can you get me a ride to church?" Wahoo. She'll find a job, don't worry. But apparently the lord wanted her to have another job. :)

We also were driving away from our apartment and we forgot something so we drove back and when we did we saw an investigator that we had been teaching but then she fell off the face of the earth. But there she was. I jumped out of the car and we have an appointment on Wednesday. She's just going through a lot.

And guess what else? sister Wesley is training even though she's only been out for 6 months! There are 6 new sisters coming in this transfer to replace the 4 sisters leaving. Crazy! Sister wesley will do a great job.

Sigh. Well...People keep asking me how I feel...I feel normal. I'm not really excited or afraid...I just feel like I always do out here because my days are the exact same as they were 18 months ago. I wake up, read scriptures, find and teach people, come home and plan, and then go to bed. It hasn't really hit yet. President said in my exit interview that feeling normal is normal. He said that missionary work keeps moving and you just jump on the conveyor belt and when it's over, it doesn't slow down, you just jump off. So I'm still on the conveyor belt.

This has been the greatest experience of my life. hopefully the mission is a launching pad. But actually i have more than hope. This experience will be a launching pad because i am choosing now to make it the launching pad of my life. It's not over...however I will no longer be giving weekly email/blog updates on my life, I'll just call you...or talk to you in person--even better :)

love,
sister johnson

I gave a talk in Sacrament and then Sister Wesley and I sang "Brightly Breams Our Father's Mercy." I love that song.

We met a girl named Sasha. She is the oldest daughter to one of our recent coverts. She's 18 and finishing up high school this summer, but she seems like she's 25...She's way more mature than me. Anyways, she's got a good head on her shoulders and she came to church and liked it. We'll see her again on Tuesday.

Oh.... this is funny and random:
I was telling Sister Wesley about Kirsten, but I accidently called Kirsten Sister Johnson. So then I said, "Yeah, Kirsten is another Sister Johnson...well, actually she's Sister Moody. She used to be Sister Johnson, but then she got mad.....I mean married."

Did I tell you I ate cow tongue? It's pretty moist and it doesn't have any fat or anything...but nevertheless...as soon as I found out I was eating cow tongue tacos I couldn't take another bite.

Linda Sue came to Church and everyone was so happy to see her! She's so cool! I love her a ton.

I have decided that I really like Jehovah's Witnesses. I was warned about them when I got here, but I have had really good experiences with them. They often give us water and treats when we come to the door expressing that, "We know how it is cause we're out there too." And anytime we ask for a referral they say, "Let us get to them first." :) But they are nice, plus they are the ones responsible for taking the issue of door to door proselyting to the Supreme court. Because of their efforts, our door to door proselyting is legally protected by the first amendment. We carry around documentation of this because some cities and home owners associations have made ordinances against religious proselyting, and we have to explain that the ordinance is unconstitutional. :0) But it's a different story on public property. Anyways, my thanks goes out to Jehovah's Witnesses for the kindness they've shown me on my mission.

In fact, most of the people here in Texas are pretty nice. Usually our worst door approaches are people sincerely warning us that we have been deceived. They are worried for us personally which I appreciate even if I don't agree. Now Elders have it different...people here are a little rough with the Elders.

For the past 2 and half months we having been working with a philipino woman from New York. Her name is Racquel. She's pretty intelligent so we have very interesting discussions, but for on reason or another she wont come to church and you can't really progress in the gospel unless you are willing to participate in covenants and ordinances. So we were going to drop her yesterday...a terrible term, but I define the term "drop" as the action of placing the invstigator back in the Lord's hands for further preparation. Anyways, that was our plan. We showed up and she wasn't there. It was blistering hot out so I was ready to leave and go some place else, but Sister Wesley said, let's go see if Jen's home (an investigator we have also been working with for several months who lives down the street). I looked down the street and Jen's car wasn't home... Then sister Wesley suggested that we walk instead of drive... mind you it was blistering hot and we could clearly see that Jen wasn't home, but Sister Wesley wanted to walk which is very very very very unlike her. She hates the heat and is always trying to find an excuse to get back into the car. So we walked and it was hot, but our characters were being built and as soon as we got to Jen's house it was clear that she wasn't home...but then there was Racquel walking around the corner of the street. she thought our appointment was earlier and that we had forgotten. So we walked back, taught her some more and she is understanding more and more. We decided not to drop her yet. We'll give her a little bit more time.

I love the Spirit and I love companions that listen to the Spirit!

love, sister johnson

the devil in the red blouse

Miracles happen everyday. Dissappointments happen, too, but dissappointments are much more rare than the miracles which is why dissappointments seem to take the forefront of our thoughts. We are surrounded by miracles every second of every day. photosynthesis--a miracle, the growth of our fingernails--a miracle, the allignment of the solar system--a miracle. Miracles are everywhere, but our society defines miracles as phenomenons that we understand to a degree, but that we mostly don't understand, and the miracle is only a miracle if it doesn't happen very often and if it is clearly attached to a source (like a prayer or the wave of a magic wand) and must happen within a short amount of time otherwise it's not a miracle. To me, a miracle is any beneficial creation or action that exists or happens beyond my own efforts...but my favorite miracles are the decisions made by individuals to act in faith.

Anyways, last week we contacted a lot of people, talked to them about the gospel, and then most of them rejected the message for one reason or another. We met a man that was drunk, but coherent enough to understand a bit. He wondered why God made commandments that went against the natural man. He questioned whether we were from God or not, and then he started calling me the "devil in a red blouse"! it was weird because we felt strongly to go to this fellow, but he was not really interested at all, plus he was drunk so who knows what was actually sinking in. We feel strongly to go talk to a lot of people and usually we don't every see the fruits that explain why. So we left. We had a bunch of people lined up to come to church this week, but none of them came. however, one of our members randomly met a woman on her walk. They started talking about pologamy and then the conversation turned more to the gospel and then she invited her to church. The woman loved it! But we found out she lives in the neighboring ward which is good for her, sad for us, but we're just glad Sister Lambe invited her to church. Then we had a referral from the Eden elders. Her name was Sonya. We had a ride for her so she could go to church, but she told our ride she couldn't go to church because the maintenance guys were over putting in her AC. Well, after church we went to see her and the maintenance guys were still over. We invited her to go to 1pm Church, but she declined because the maintenance guys were still over. Well, suddenly the maintenance guys started leaving. "Where you going?" Sonya yelled at them. "We're going home! Today's the Lord's day." So they left and then we invited her again. "You really want me to go to church with you, don't you? Alright, i'll come." So then she came, and then she bore her testimony at sacrament meeting about how she feels comfortable and not judged at our church and then Sister Wesley bore her testimony about how that comfortable feeling comes from the Spirit. Going back, on the way to church we get a call from the 1pm ward elders. "Sisters, a guy you EBP'd (contacted) just walked in so he's sitting with us. His name is james." James? whose james. i went through the week and i thought about all the people we talked to. We had some really extensive conversations with some people and they were pretty interested. one guy told us about how he died, another one said he'd give us a call when he had time. We walked into the building and there stood the man who called me the "devil in the red blouse!" he stood next to the Elders weeping...and he's a tough guy! The elders put their arms around him and took him to the restroom to get some tissues. We don't know why he was sad, but after the meeting he said we wanted to come back because he liked what he saw. We're seeing him on Wednesday. Miracles happen. i used to look at moments like this and wonder about people's motives and their sincerity. but I've learned something: Every single person on this earth is a child of God. Every single person. When I understand this, my own motives become pure and I myself become more sincere. God answers my prayers, miracles surround even the spiritually blind, and because of Christ, the angels continue to strive with each one of us.

The Return of Alyse

Hey everyone,

I am writing this to let you know that Alyse is returning from her mission on June 25th! Yea!! She arrives at the SLC airport on AA flight 604 at 2:00 pm. Anyone who would like to meet her at the airport is welcome to come.

Also, she will be giving a talk in our Sacrament mtg on June 27th at 9:00 am MDT. Again, everyone is invited. You are also welcome to hang out at our house after the meeting. We’ll be staying for the 3-hour block, but if it works best for you to leave after Sacrament mtg, please feel free to hang out at our house until we get home just after noon.

We will be having a potluck lunch at about 12:30. We will provide rolls and cold cuts and sandwich fixins. Please bring a salad of your choice.


Our Church: 50 E 600 N, Lindon UT
Our House: 755 N 400 E, Lindon UT


Y’all come by now, ya hear!
Lane

Incomprehensible Joy

You're not going to believe this!!!! You are not going to believe this! LINDA SUE WAS BAPTIZED!!!! Yay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was awesome. We weren't planning on her being baptized this week. Well, we were, but then we saw her last Monday and felt more comfortable about waiting another week to help her understand the gospel. Plus, her doctors were afraid that she was having another stroke or something and so she had to have a bunch of tests this week to see if she needed to have surgery. Anyways, we decided to postpone. We went over a few days later after her tests to tell her the baptism would have to wait. She said, "No! I don't want to postpone." She was very set on being baptized yesterday. She cancelled a memorial day trip with family just so she could stay home and make the covenants. So we went over the baptismal questions again to make sure she really understood what she was promising. Well, she did amazing! She understood way better than we thought she did. She just had a hard time explaining it back to us. The Spirit helped her and we understood what she was saying. It was awesome. So that happened on Friday. We immediately called President Orgill in the mission presidency to arrange the interview and started making a ton of phone calls to get everything ready for Sunday.

Sunday came and Linda Sue was glowing and so happy. We were really happy too. Sister Wesley and I helped bring her down into the font and then she was baptized. Afterwards she was smiling and said, "I did it! I did it!" Then she received the Holy Ghost. Usually they do it Sacrament Meeting, but we had permission to do it since she might be in the hospital next week. It was beautiful. I was super sick this week, but it all melted away as I watched her shine.

I don't really know what else to say. The Gospel is amazing and she looked so glowy!

Love you all
sister johnson

Oh yes Jesus!

So we've been teaching a lot of people recently who speak spanish....and neither i nor Sister Wesley speak spanish. how did we get through the lessons and make a return appointment? i have no idea. but now sister wesley and i are reading the book of mormon in spanish with a handy spanish/english dictionary nearby. We met this really short, older hispanic woman. We communicated that we wanted to teach her about jesus. she smiled and put her shaky hand into her bag and pulled out her address. "We come jueves at cuatro o-clock." So we showed up later that week for the appointment and she opened the door and looked mad. "uh....hi...we're those missionaries you met last week...somas missionarias...can we come in?" And she snarled at us and said, "no!" We stood there stunned not knowing what to do...and then suddenly she started laughing! This tiny little hispanic woman fooled us into thinking she was mad at us and she thought it was hilarious. then she had us come in. We read the spanish pamphlet of the restoration and half way through she stopped us and start telling us a story. Sister Wesley and i would smile and nod and then we'd look at each other and through our facial expressions we'd ask, "Do you know what she's saying?" "No idea." After her stories she'd start laughing and laughing and i would laugh because she was laughing and because she was so cute and nice. Then she gave us Sprite. I'm not sure she understood our message, but we understood her message. She loved us and we hardly knew her.

We taught linda sue again this week. it was awesome. She's so worried about her "test." We tried to explain the baptismal interview and she thinks it's a test so she stressed out trying to learn everything. but we finally helped her understand the restoration and Joseph Smith!!!!!!! The cut outs worked and the Spirit helped a ton! She understands that we believe that we are the only church that has the power. When she first figured out that what we believed she was hesitant. yes!!!! I love when people question that claim because it means they understand it! So we told her to pray about it. She said that one day her family was getting frustrated with her and calling her crazy and she felt bad. So she grabbed the Book of Mormon and started reading it and she felt better. When we came back we explained more about the restoration to clarify somethings and afterwards she said, "Can i show yall some'n?" She put in the restoration DVD and we watched it. She's watched several times before and didn't really understand it, but liked the way she felt when she watched it. Well, this time as she watched the movie she started explaining to us what it all meant. "So he was confused about church! Just like I was. And then God told him and he didn't have to go to the other churches anymore because now he knew! Am I right?" "Yes Linda Sue, " I said, "You understand. You get it" And then she threw a little punch in the air and with childlike excitement exclaimed, "Yes! Oh Jesus! I get it" Sister Wesley and i were crying like little babies...so embarrassing. I love the restoration DVD and i always feel the Spirit, but i was watching it through new eyes. i was seeing it as though i was learning it for the first time because Linda's eyes were being opened and was starting to understand. She is so excited to get the Holy Ghost because she believes that it will help heal her even more.

We'll see if she' get baptized this week i hope she does, but there's just some minor road blocks...before my mission i was all about people taking a long, long time to get baptized because I only saw baptism as membership in the Church which it is. As a missionary I see baptism as the necessary ordinance to get the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I've seen investigators that took 6 months, 2 years, 7 years to join the church and they are completely less active. i've also seen investigators who get baptized with less than a month of study and they are super active years after. personal conversion is a choice. it's not about time, it's about faith. When you have faith that leads to repentance time is irrelevant. As soon as you're ready to let Him in He comes in. Plus, conversion is totally amplified by the gift of the Spirit. But before baptism you must show through your works to the Church that your faith is pure and sincere so it creates road blocks...good road blocks. sigh. But she'll get baptized!

Margaret...we're still working, but she's coming along.

love yall,
sister johnson

:)

Hello!

I have a new companion! Her name is Sister Wesley. She is from American Samoa. She is the youngest of four kids and all of her older siblings went on missions. She came to Texas with Sister Hill so she's been here for four and a half months. I always thought that I'd get her as a companion so it didn't come as a surprise when it was announced that she would be my new companion. Sister Green went up to San Marcus with Sister Christensen who was my companion in December for 2 weeks. I miss her, but I know she'll have fun in San Marcus.

At transfer meeting President Cutler said something that he says a lot, but I have come to really understand this quote the longer I'm on my mission:

"Go about making other people happy and you will find happiness."

Linda Sue (our investigator who had a stroke two years ago) was VERY sad to see Sister Green leave. Like I said in my last letter, they had a very close connection so it was heartbreaking for her. She was crying and asking us why. It was pretty funny when I tried to comfort her because I said, "Linda Sue, I'll still be here," And she looked up at me and then over at Sister Green and then she started crying even harder, "It's not the same!!!" Haha. She turned to Sister Green, "Why do you have to leave before I go under the water?" It was pretty sad, but also really touching to see the love that Linda Sue had for my companion. But it is probably best that Sister Green was transferred so that Linda Sue can base her testimony on the gospel and not on Sister Green.

So after that we weren't sure if Linda Sue would still want to come to Church. She told us during the middle of the week that she was going with her sister on Sunday to her church. We called her the night before to see if she would come to church with us and she said no, she was going to Church with her sister. And then for some random reason Sister Wesley and I decided to show up at her apartment at 8AM Sunday morning and we asked again if she was coming to church with us and she said no, because she was going to church with her sister. So we stood there awkwardly and she said, "I can't go to church like this" pointing to her pj's. "Sure you can," I joked. And then suddenly she said..."okay. I'll call my sister." My jaw dropped. She called her sister and then turned and told us she'd go to church with us. She went in the other room to get ready and we ran out to call someone to come and pick her up. By that time it was 8:30AM, 30 minutes before church. No one was answering their phones cause they all had already left for church. What were we going to do! But then we got a hold of Sister Rodriguez and she picked up Linda Sue and Church was amazing! Linda Sue loved it. She turned to me during Relief Society and said with tears in her eyes, "I'm more happy today." oh...she's so great. It was awesome. I love it when investigators go to church for several reasons, but one of the reasons is because the week after church they seem to be more spiritually in tune and they have an easier time understanding the concepts we teach...and because of Linda Sue's stroke, we need all the help we can get. I want her to understand as much of the doctrine as she can. We are going to try and see her every day for the next few weeks to really help her understand what she will be covenanting with God when she's baptized.

We met an awesome lady on Friday night. They way we met her was pretty cool. We had a few minutes before we needed to go home. We were going to knock some apartments. "Where should we knock?" I kept noticing one door, but it wasn't in a very logical place to begin knocking. Then Sister Wesley said, "Right over there." She pointed to the same apartment building. "Which door?" I asked, she pointed to the same door. "That's exactly where I wanted to knock! haha. wouldn't it be funny if the first door we knocked the people let us in and they ended up being golden." We laughed...yeah right, like that would ever happen...haha....Well we knocked and Margaret opened the door and before we said anything she told us to come in and we were instantly friends. Apparently her mom was baptized several years ago so she's talked with missionaries before...but she didn't join cause she doesn't think it's right that we use water instead of wine during the sacrament...however, she doesn't bash with us and she listens AND she's feeding us tonight so we feel like there' potential.

Church was great yesterday. I finally feel like I know a good chunk of people in the ward. I love smaller wards. So much better.

love yall
sister johnson

I don't need you

We invited Linda Sue to be baptized and she said yes!!!!! But we have a lot to help her understand before she can get baptized. Because of her stroke its hard for her to understand who Joseph Smith is and how his story relates to the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm making a paper timeline with pictures of prophets. I'm going to make a little earth and show each prophet come to earth at different times to teach the people. Hopefully that will help her understand the time that separates Christ's ministry with the restoration of the gospel.

Linda Sue connects really well with Sister Green. They have a super sweet relationship, so it was really sad to find out that Sister Green is getting transferred on Thursday. I'm staying in Windcrest for the rest of my mission...but I shouldn't assume that cause anything could happen. :)

We are working with a family called the Kendziors. Did I talk about them last time? The mom is a less active member who is trying to come back and her husband is not a member. They have a pretty busy life, but they have decided to do family devotionals every morning. They read a scripture and talk about it and then pray. If your family is going through a rough time my suggestion is to read scriptures everyday. It will work wonders! Anyways, they have three super cute kids. Sister Kendzior wants to give me corn rows and braids because I told her that when I lived in Texas before, a lot of my friends had braids, and I really wanted to have braids too, but I was warned that I might get beat up if a little white girl like me showed up to middle school with corn rows and braids :) Now's my chance to fulfill my dream!!! But it's not going to happen. As soon as Sister Kendzior suggested the braids I looked at Sister Green and her mouth dropped, she closed her eyes, shook her head, and in a calm voice she said,..."no." "why not! they'd look so cute!"...."no." Haha...oh well, maybe someday.

Something I've learned on my mission: Being a wife and mother is hard. Holy moly. Oh man. we see people in all kinds of circumstances and oh man. it's hard. You give and give and your only motivation has to be love, because if you're motivated by appreciation and approval you will never receive the amount due. I also have a lot of respect for my moms, cause I've seen a lot of bad moms out here. no offense to them...a lot of them are just parenting the way that they were parented...they don't know any different. It's a good parent who respects their children like people, and disciplines out of love instead of anger. I've also seen a lot of good mom's out here. They're not perfect, but there's only one perfect parent. One of these mom's respected her kids agency a lot...she's not a member...but she respects their agency. For instance, her 18 month old was climbing up a ladder on a swing set. It wasn't super safe for the 18 month old to be on it so the mom ran out by the ladder. But instead of grabbing the kid and putting her back on the ground, she positioned her arms around the baby just in case the baby fell, and then instructed the baby to step down off the ladder. She never forced her kids physically unnecessarily to do something, but she was right their teaching them and helping them do what was right. Obviously if the baby was about to fall she would have grabbed her, but in this situation it wasn't necessary to grab her. so she helped the baby get of the ladder by the baby's own efforts. She probably doesn't always do that parenting style, but I learned a lot from watching her. I feel like that was how all my parents raised me. that's how I'm trying to work with my investigators. We guide them so they can do things on their own so that one day they don't have to rely on us anymore. When Elder Bednar came here he told us the best compliment we could ever receive as missionaries is, "Thanks, but you don't have to come over anymore because I don't need you. I've learned to do it myself."

love ya
sister johnson

He loves his children

We are teaching a woman named Linda Sue. She had a stroke a few months ago. When she first met the sisters before I came, she could barely speak. now she talks real good. She still slurs all her words, but she is able to communicate and she can read! She went to church this Sunday and loved it. Everyone was really happy to meet her. She's amazing.

We also taught a woman named Karen. i want to tell you her story so i changed her name so I can tell you what she's been through. we met her in the parking lot of her apartment complex. She told us that she was from another part of Texas, but her husband and she had separated because she said, "he's mad at me..." After talking to her a little more she told us that she was having problems that she couldn't quite understand and her husband basically sent her away. At first we were thinking, what a jerk. but as we talked to her she told us that one night she was just feeling weird. That same kind of weird that got her sent away from her family. it scared her so much that she called the police and they admitted her to the state mental institution. A week later she was diagnosed with bi-polar with severe depression. They started her on some medication and that's when we ran into her. She was super sweet but so sad because she didn't understand what is going on with her. She was so sad because she said her husband wouldn't say he loved her anymore. She said she was lonely. we taught her about the plan of salvation and tried to uplift her and gave her some scriptures to read. it was sad. but she said she felt better after our discussion. We told her that even though she was lonely, she was not alone. God was watching out for her. We told her that she could pray for the strength of Jesus to help her endure her sorrow. A week later we returned and she was doing much better. She said that her husband had come to visit her. They had talked about things and he seemed to want to support her through her trial now that they had a better understanding of what was going on. She said that one day she was really, really sad, but she prayed through her tears and it helped a lot. I'm not doing a very good job at helping the reader feel how significant this experience was for me. it was just beautiful to see how the atonement works. God had not forgotten her. He sent the missionaries to her so she wouldn't be completely alone. We did nothing, but that which we are taught. We are led everyday to those that need us most. My testimony of God's love for His children has grown so much on my mission because I see the way he shapes His children's lives and places people and blessings in their path to help them.

karen is gone now. She moved back home. We are definitely following up with her to make sure the missionaries go and see her, but we wont work with her anymore. but it doesn't matter because we are just the instruments. this isn't my mission--this is the Savior's mission and i've been blessed with the opportunity to help in His work and His glory.

it makes me think of this woman that i once worked with in one of my areas. she really loved the teachings of the Gospel and felt the spirit really strong testify that it was true. but one day she nervously told us that she had suffered from same gender attraction since she was young and she knew that it wasn't accepted in our church. After she explained sorrowfully her struggle she looked at us wanting to know our response. wanting to know her standing in the church and...well...with God. We said the first thing that came to our hearts. "God loves you. You are his daughter and He loves you so much. He loves you more than you'll ever know. God loves you." We didn't say anything super unique or profound, but in that moment the room filled with the love and the Spirit of the Lord testified that what we had said was true. All of us in the room were touched by that love that God has for his daughter.

People have hard lives, but God is watching out for them and loves them...this i can testify with a surety.

sister johnson

we found 11 new investigators this week....that's amazing... for me anyways....And we picked up 13 more investigators because the entire stake's boundaries changed and we got a pretty good-sized chunk our of the Elder's area. We are no longer going to share the ward with the elders because a new ward was just created and they are going to cover it. Don't take this the wrong way (because I know some of you will want to), but they were kind of like extra companions because we had to see them at least once a day to get to dinner appointments and such and so it will be weird not seeing them anymore. But now we're doing a car share with the woodlake elders. Ugh. can't get rid of these little brothers who cramp our style. haha. just jokin.

Anyways, we've got a jam-packed week this next week and all the wards are in complete upheaval which will be interesting, but fun. Tonight we get to eat at the coleman's. sister coleman is from Thailand and she said she would make my favorite thai dish: sticky rice with pork dipped in brownish sauce with little green leafs floating in it. I don't know exactly what the dish consisted of because when my host mom made me food back in Thailand I never asked what was in it cause the few times I did ask I got answers like: pig tongue and fried peacock, and that just ruined the dining experience. so anyways, I'm excited to know what she's going to make.

We are teaching a family called the Kendziors. the wife is a less-active-wanting-to-come-back member and her husband is a somewhat interested investigator...and they have the cutest kids ever. Ohhhhh. they are super cute. the little 4 year old boy, Qwinton, always gives me a hug and says, "I love you." Ahhhhh....

We're teaching another lady named Letasha who has a super cute little boy too. During our lessons he'll ask over and over and over and over....and over again, "what's this?" Our lesson this week sounded something like this, " I know that this....a pig...book will help you and your....a pen....find happiness.

We're teaching some other super neat people too, but I don't have time to go into all of them right now.

:)

On Saturday we met an older gentleman named Daniel. We had actually talked to him earlier in the week and he wasn't interested at the time. But we went to an appointment that fell through so we looked around for the reason why we were there and we met Daniel. He told us again that he wasn't interested, but when we asked if we could share a short message he agreed. It wasn't a super amazing lesson. We just shared basic truths, but he felt something while we were there and he wanted us to come back, so we did. He's a marine and he served in Vietnam. Over 30 years later he is still struggling with the experiences he went through during combat and suffers from post traumatic stress syndrome. He also has liver cancer. He is very intelligent and good natured and sincere. Yesterday we read the Book of Mormon with him. He is of Navajo descent and told us about the legend of the white, bearded God dressed in a white robe who came and visited his people and said he would return someday. He told us that he thought the God was Jesus so we read 3 Nephi 11. It was cool. As we were getting ready to leave he told us how he still struggled with the fact that he had killed people in Vietnam so we read Alma 43:45-47 and told him that he would be judged righteously by Jesus. He said, "We thought we were defending our country and our families from the communists..." I don't know what my political stand is on the war in Vietnam, but I do know that a lot of good people with pure intentions fought to protect their country and their family, Daniel being one of them. How grateful I am for Christ's atonement that can heal Daniel's heart and the heart's of the family members of those individuals who he killed. By Adam pain and suffering entered the world and by Christ we are strengthened to endure and overcome that pain and suffering.

The other day we were riding our bikes. It had been raining really hard and I decided to go through a puddle. That was a stupid decision because my tire pooped...haha...I mean popped...I'm keeping that. Anyways, so it popped and we had to park our bikes and lock them up to a pole. As we walked away I through my helmet on the handle bars instead of intertwining it with the lock. Sister Green said, "Aren't you afraid that your helmet will get stolen?" "No one's going to steal my helmet." When we got back my helmet was still there, but as Sister Green tried to unlock our bikes the key broke. Well, we couldn't get a hold of anyone with boat plyers so we had to leave our bikes over night in the not so good part of our area. I complained to Sister Green, "I want my bike back!" She responded, "I'll give you your bike back! I'll give you a broken back!" Just kidding...she didn't say that, but Sister Latimer would have said that because (and this has nothing to do with anything) she is a "What's Up Doc" fiend too! We found out because one day we were driving and I repeated myself and I said, "I am not repeating myself, I am not repeating myself" and then Sister Latimer said, "Oh Gosh, I'm repeating myself." In deep low voice I turned and said, "What." She looked nervous and said, "What?" She thought I was mad at her until I yelled, "You've seen "What's up Doc"! Good quoting times followed which was good cause I had been having "What's up Doc" quote withdrawals. But enough of this foolishness. The next day the bishop drove us where our bikes had been left and.....our bikes were still there. hallaluja! But the helmet had been stolen. haha. I deserved that. We cut through the lock and now we've got our bikes back.

We had Zone conference this week and we went to the temple this week. It was amazing.

The other day we were walking around and came to this small apartment complex. About 10 people were outside chating with each other and this one lady saw us and said, "This man needs Jesus!!!!!!" A referral. Sweet. So we went to talk to this man and his friend and they both laughed. We tried to teach a lesson, but they were just making fun of us so we gave them pamphlet and started to leave when one of them, Ricky, said that all of his friends who went to the mormon temple were rich and so he asked why. We told him that we were allowed in the temple and we were poor and we told them about the temples all around the world where the homeless could come and stand equal with the estate owners. "How can you get into the temple?" We told him how we needed to live a worthy life and then told him about our basic standards: word of wisdom, law of chastity, good family relationships...etc. Ricky paused and sat thinking for a moment. The tone in the atmosphere changed and then he said, "Well...I'll tell you this. It's very refreshing to see young people like you not mixed up with the things that most kids your age are mixed up with." We thanked him and the Spirit spoke softly to all our hearts. I love how crazy moments can change so quickly as soon as the people allow the Spirit in.

I love you all and I pray for you frequently. Thank you for your prayers. I can feel them.

sister johnson

I sent you

April 12

There are no coincidences. I've learned this while i've been on my mission. Before my mission I believed in coincidences. I had to believe in coincidences, because if there were no coincidences it meant that God was up in heaven inflicting pain, and violence, and evil all around the world and i couldn't believe that because it didn't sound right and because if i did believe that I would be very angry at God. So instead I decided that I would believe in coincidence. But now I have learned there are no coincidences and I'm not angry at God. How did that happen? I don't really know. But here is what i do know:

We live in a fallen world. bad things happen. people make very bad choices that hurt those around them, but God respects our agency so much that he won't get in the way of the choice, but after the choice is made he's provided a Savior to save us from the consequences. Not necessarily to take away the consequences completely as much as to help us endure them well and the Savior would take the rest that we could not endure. So how does He help us endure it well? He gives us strength beyond our own and He gives us angels. I have a testimony of Angels. They are real and they are all around me and my companion. We are not alone. I don't know how it all works, but I just know this is true. When a bad choice is made I believe there are Angels ready to counteract those bad choices with good choices of their own. I don't know how much influence they have, but I do know they exist. I have been strengthened by them, I have been led by them, and I'm just telling you that there are no coincidences and we are not weathering these storms alone. I don't have any super amazing stories to illustrate what I'm talking about. I just know now that all those times I thought I was alone I wasn't. God has always sent at least someone to help me. Whether they are passed away or living, the Lord gives His children the commission to answer the prayers of His children and as we help Him with His work we become more like Him. He kills two birds with one stone. I heard this little story once and I like it. There was a man who died and when He met the Lord He sorrowed for all the pain and devastation in the world. "Lord, what are you doing to combat the evil that is infesting our society? What are you doing to destroy hate and envy and greed?" And the Lord replied, "I sent you."

Obviously we can't do it on our own. We need strength that can only come through the Savior's atonement, but Christ is the perfect teacher. He doesn't do everything by himself. I like to think of God as the dad that lets his son wash the car even though it looks terrible the first time, because after a lot of counsel and advice, and after a lot of time and effort and special strenghth from the dad the son learns to wash the car just as beautifully as the dad by using the skills he inherited and learned from his dad. So the car I'm washing doesn't look that great right now, but I'm trying and I trust my Teacher. And I trust that He has sent others to help me and that God is fully involved in my life through others. I don't believe in coincidences because I believe everything that happens no matter how bad or how evil, even if God didn't want it to happen, Christ's atonement can turn it to work out for our good if we let Him work within us. That is a miracle.

He Is Risen!

April 5

I have been transferred to East San Antonio to a ward called Windcrest. My new address is
6700 N. Vandiver #905
San Antonio, TX 78209

Hey! I saw Klark Brinkeroff on the screen singing in the institute choir! Crazy.

My new companion is Sister Green from St. George, Utah. She's very mellow and chill--and doesn't show a lot of emotion, so when she tells jokes it's really funny because either she will randomly throw out a dry-humor kind of comment that you'll miss unless you're listening closely or she will suddenly erupt into craziness and start speaking in a British accent. Very funny. She was adopted when she was 8 years old and afterwards she was baptized. At the baptism her dad told Sister Green's biological brother who had also just been adopted and baptized that someday he could go on a mission and help others to know about the gospel. Eight-year-old Sister Green piped in, "What about me? Can girls go on missions?" When he affirmed that girls could go on missions Sister Green decided right then that someday she would go on a mission and share the truths that she had found.

Windcrest is unlike any other area I've served in. It's an inner city area, so it's rough. Not too rough, but rough. the weird thing is that right next to the really rough areas is the nicest and ritziest neighborhood in San Antonio, Terrel Hills. this is a half bike area and half car area. We share the car with the elders who are in our same ward. We get the car for half of the week. Let me just tell you about riding a bike in a skirt...actually nevermind. Luckily I've put together the sister missionary version of a skort (skirt and short combination). I call it Skants.

On my first day went to visit an investigator, but she wasn't home. So we went to talk to two guys playing basketball at a near by court. We called to them and told them we had a message to share. One of them declined saying that he had had friends that were LDS and he wasn't interested. The other guy, though, came running up to talk to us. He was totally drenched with sweat, losing a bunch of teeth even though he's only in his late 20s, and he was wearing pretty worn clothes. We started with a prayer and taught him the restoration right there in the basketball court and it was one of the most profound moments of my life. His name is Derrick and ask we taught he listened intently and it was obvious that he was pretty well versed in the bible and the non-denominational religion. He listened to us like pearls were dropping out our mouths. As Sister Green recited the first vision she was overcome with emotion and we stood in silence enjoying the sweet spirit that was present. He was very touched and agreed that the Spirit was there confirming our words. We set up another appointment to meet him at the basketball court the nest day. We showed up and he wasn't there. It happens. Sometimes, well, alot a times we are ditched on return appointments. darn. we thought he'd be ther for sure. So the member we brought with us drove us around in her airconditioned car (it is so hot right now...it's beautiful!) and nothing happened so we drove back and lo and behold there was Derrick and his friend playing basketball. We ran up to him and he found out that he had pulled up as we were pulling out. We asked if he still wanted to learn more and he said he did. He ran to his car and got out his book of mormon and the pamphlets we left. He had read everything and we had another great lesson.

On Saturday night after conference we knocked and tried contacting people on one side of our area and nothing happened. I kept exclaiming, "Where is everyone! Does anybody live here?" It was prime time and it was a pretty busy section of town so we were wondering where the party was that we obviously weren't invited to. So we left after a couple hours, discouraged and trying to figure out what to do with the 30 minutes we had left. We walked past our apartment and crossed the street and saw a couple in thier late 30's walking their bikes. We went up to them and asked to share a message and the guy looked like something amazing had just happened by us talking to him, his girlfriend on the other hand looked like she was having a bad day. After talking to her a little the guy convinced her to listen to us and we started with a prayer in the parking lot and taught the restoration. After we were done we asked if he had any questions. "No, I don't have any questions, just a statement." Then he went on to tell us that he had been searching all types of religions within the last few months trying to find where God wanted him to be. He said that someone showed him the Mormon bible and he said to himself, "We already have a bible. Why do we need another bible." Then he told us he flipped open the book of mormon and landed on a phrase similar to his own and God answered saying he could give more scripture 2 Nephi 29. He then told us that he didn't think anything was a coincidence and he felt like God had sent us. We told him about conference and he said he'd try to make it. The next day it was crazy and it was two mintues before the morning session and I ran out to call Matt (the guy's name) to remind him of conference. Usually investigators have to be reminded a lot at first. So I called and to my despair, no one answered. I left a message inviting Matt and Nicki and hung up the phone. I turned to the Elders to show my disappointment when suddenly behind me I heard someone say, "Sorry, Nicki couldn't make it." I whipped around and there was Matt dressed to the nines in a very nice dark suit. I almost fell over. "Whoa!!! I didn't see you!" So he watched conference and it was amazing!

this was my best Easter ever! I'm so grateful for Christ's Sacrifice and fopr heaven's help!

sister johnson

can I shake your hand?

So last week we were teaching Jennifer Lopez but then she dropped us....over a text. Lame. But so much other cool stuff happened this week! First of all, it is transfer week: I am getting transferred and Sister Latimer is staying. In the last 4 1/2 months I will have had 6 companions! Compare that with the first 12 months of my mission: I only had 4 companions. Crazy. I could go to one of four places, Windcrest, San Marcus, Pleasanton, or Anderson Mill. I've already served in Pleasanton and in Anderson Mill so it will be interesting to see if I get transferred to one of those places again. Chances are I'll go to San Marcus or Windcrest. Where ever I go it will probably end up being my dying area!!!!! Weird.

Last week we were going to an appointment and it fell through. Sister Latimer felt strongly that the appointment fell through so that we could see another investigator, Tim, who lived in the same apartment complex. We walked over to Tim's apartment. He answered the door and looked terrible. He said he was feeling really tired and it was just not a good time for us to come over. We said we hoped he felt better and we left. Sister Latimer was a little confused why she felt so strongly to go over to Tim's apartment, but we shrugged it off and started walking back to the car. Suddenly I felt a really strong impression that there were a lot of people in this apartment complex who were ready to accept the gospel. As we were trying to decided if we should start knocking doors we saw a guy across the apartment complex so we went to talk to him. We taught him a lesson about the restoration right there in the parking lot. His name is Mosa and he's studying to be a police officer. He said he was interested in learning more. After that we started knocking and we met a ton of people. We were giving out cards left and right and setting appointments. The next few days we followed up on all the people we met and nothing came of it. One guy totally lied to us and gave us a fake number and a fake address. Someone else called to cancel. We couldn't ever get a hold of Mosa. Yesterday morning we went to one last appointment, but the lady wasn't home. I was so confused why I had felt so strongly about this apartment complex when everything fell through. We were going to leave, but Sister Latimer wanted to try Mosa's apartment one more time. We knocked a couple times and no one answered. We walked downstairs and looked at our map trying to figure out where to walk next (We're doing a lot of walking right now cause our car is in the shop for a week to repair damages from our accident last transfer). While we were deciding to go next we heard Mosa's door open. Sister Latimer ran back up the stairs and there was Mosa! So we taught him about the plan of salvation and called his boss to get Saturday off so that he could watch conference. Neat. We started walking out of the complex after that, but we saw a lady walking in so we went to go and talk to her. Her name is Amy and she speaks a little English, but mostly Spanish. She said we could come and share a message with her and she directed us back to her apartment chatting all the way about her 13 year old son who is autistic. She is so neat. When we came into the apartment complex we saw her husband, George. We suddenly realized that we had talked to him before! That first day we started talking to people at the complex we saw him on his phone and he was throwing out his trash. He looked very busy, but we still went up to him and introduced ourselves. He was very nice, but said he didn't speak English and neither Sister Latimer nor I speak Spanish so we just gave him a card and that was it. So we were so surprised to see him at Amy's house. She said that he had taken the card home to show Amy and they hung it up in their car cause it's a nice picture. So here are: they want to learn more about the Church, we want to share more about the Church, but we can hardly, hardly communicate at all.....this is where the gift of tongues is supposed to come in. I started speaking English hoping that somehow it would translate into Spanish, and guess what! They didn't understand a single thing I said. So we put in the Restoration video and played the Spanish version. It was great. Afterwards they asked us where the Church was located and we gave them a map, but then we remembered General Conference which complicated things, but we set a follow-up appointment and we're going back! yay! They are super sweet people and we are pretty excited about them. Also, the day before we were around Tim's apartment again. I didn't want to go back over, but Sister Latimer felt like we should. He answered and looked terrible again! We apologized and were going to leave, but suddenly he said, "just so you know. I trying to quit smoking right now so I'm locking myself in my apartment and I'm having a pretty rough time." We were dumbfounded. What do you say in a moment like this? What do you say when an investigator tells you that he is taking steps to live the word of wisdom? I didn't know what to say, so as usually I just started talking to fill up space. "Wow, good for you! Can I shake your hand?" "Uhhh...I guess." I am so glad that Sister Latimer followed the prompting to keep going over there, cause I know that it was one of God's ways to remind him that he loved him. I love it when God uses us! It's the best feeling in the world!

So here is the moral of the story: follow the promptings of the Spirit even when you don't understand why. There having been numerous times when I have a prompting, I follow it, and nothing happens. Or at least I don't think anything happens, but I am learning more than ever that things happen for a reason, especially when you are a missionary. Every now and then we are blessed with the "why," but mostly the Spirit just gives us the "what" and it's up to us to trust the Lord. Easier said than done. The Spirit doesn't seem to care one bit about social policies and procedures. Oh well.

Calen came to church, and Zach. Zach is a less active member we found and we're teaching his girlfriend's family now! Cool! Other awesome stuff happened. This is the best thing I've ever done in my entire life. I love being a missionary

I love you all

sister johnson

Every day isn't always a stamp day

We are teaching Jennifer Lopez…yes…the real Jennifer Lopez…she’s real…but she’s not J-Lo.

This week was blah-ish, but good. Oooh! I went on exchanges with the Windcrest sisters. I went down to Windcrest and was Sister Green’s companion. Sister Green is super cool. I love meeting new missionaries because they are all so interesting. They all have crazy lives! Each missionary is unique, but we’re all united in one common cause. I love exchanges because it’s a fresh start. I am always a better missionary when I go somewhere I am not used to. I rely more on the Lord and I rely more on Preach My Gospel.

The ward choir sang in Church and believe it or not I felt the Spirit. They weren’t super amazing—they were a ward choir, but they sure sung their hearts out and you could feel it.

We went to the relief society president’s house and she was telling us about her 4 year old son who sometimes would come home from school sad because he didn’t get a stamp. He would get a stamp at the end of everyday if he accomplished a certain number of requirements during the day. He would come home sad and his mom told us that she would pull him aside and ask him, “Did you do your best today?” and he would reply that he had. “Then you’re okay…everyday isn’t always a stamp day.” Later that day we had some appointments fall through, I wasn’t accomplishing my personal goal of being a perfect missionary, and I was getting frustrated with myself. I turned and looked at Sister Latimer in a moment of overdramatized despair, “This isn’t a stamp day for me!” So this last week I’ve been trying to figure out how to be hopeful and happy when I’m not having a stamp day…because I’m not on a mission to earn stamps! I’ve learned that anytime I realize that I have something in my character that needs tweaking and I decide I want to be better at that certain thing, I immediately take five steps backwards. It’s like an invisible mirror from the land of honesty comes out from nowhere and shows me things about myself that I really didn’t want to know. Blah. But these things were always there and ignoring them doesn’t fix the problem. Finding out what they are, and then setting personal goals, and then, most importantly, praying like crazy helps me fix my problems. So that’s what this last week has been. I’ve had a very good dose of self-realization which is never fun. However, my self-esteem is still intact. I have faith that the savior can dissolve my selfish personality traits and I am so grateful for that! As soon as I recognize something I can work on I feel the Spirit testify that the Savior will help me do better. I’m dealing with the same traits I’ve dealt with my whole life, but I am changing and I’m doing better. And just so everyone knows, Me and my companion get along fine. Haha. I just read over this and it sounds like Sister Latimer and I got in a huge fight or something. Oh man, that’s funny. No, we get along great. No big event is triggering this email. Just a series of subtle internal moments of “I should do better.”

thank you

March 15
The Elders gave us a ride to the library today for email. Elder Najar is sitting next to me dramatically bemoaning the fact that he only got one email this week and it’s from one of his friends telling him that she’s engaged. Hahaha. Sad day. But he goes home in 2 months so he should just be lucky that he’s even getting any mail.

So this is a cool story: One of my recent converts from like a year ago named Joshua called me to get the number of the Elders who live in his mom’s area. His mom was sick and he wanted to give her a blessing, but needed another priesthood holder. The next day was p-day and I saw Elder Murphey, one of the Elders who went with Joshua to give the blessing. “So how’d the blessing go?” I asked. Elder Murphey smiled and said, “Well…He commanded his mom to be baptized…” hehe…I love recent coverts. Unfortunately his mom was too sick to and incoherent at the time to set up a return appointment with the missionaries. They decided to wait until she is feeling better before they followed up on that.

This week has been full of interesting-ness. On Tuesday we were walking down the street when suddenly a terminex truck pulled up and the driver called out, “Sisters! I have a referral for you!” That was out of the blue. It was a member in another ward. His wife is a convert and her family lives in our area. He said, “They aren’t interested at all, but you should still go over a visit.” So we tried two times and no one was there both times, but this Saturday we tried one more time. We knocked at the door and an older woman and her 23-year-old daughter answered. The daughter was beaming and smiling!...the mother was glowering and scoffing. So we introduced ourselves and asked if we could come in. The mom agreed to let us in, but then walked out to finish some yard work. The daughter ran after her, “Mom! This is for you!” So after some gentle proding we convinced her to come sit down with us. “So how did you join the church?” we asked the daughter, Kimberly. As soon as she started talking the mother jumped to her feet and went to the kitchen and started making cookies with a lot of vigor and venom…I was glad I was not that cookie dough. So we switched our conversation to the mom, Debbie. “So you’re Catholic? Have you been Catholic you whole life?” “My family has been CATHOLIC throughout the ages all the way back to ST. PETER!” We turned back to Kimberly and she smiled nervously. “Oh….hmmmm. So you weren’t happy that your daughter joined the Church?” Debbie just rolled her eyes…oh heaven help us. Well, we asked her about her Catholic beliefs and she opened up a bit. Suddenly she said, “One of my patients was your president.” “Umm….what? President Cutler?” “Yeah, I think so.” “The guy with the herniated disk?” “Yeah, I was his nurse.” (Quick back ground, President Cutler had spinal cord surgery last week because of a random herniated disk. It was a big deal among the TSAM). So I guess President had talked to her quite a bit and made a fairly good impression with her. Crazy! So we talked her into listening to a 10 minute first lesson. “Okay, 10 minutes. That’s how long the cookies will take.” I’m here to tell you that that was one powerful 10 minute lesson. I could feel years of prayers being answered in that 10 mintue chunk. Her heart was softened. We had her get one of the many copies of the Book of Mormon that had been given to her and we marked Moroni 10:3-5. We gave her some pamphlets and set another appointment for this next week. It was pretty cool. She was still grumbling and huffing as she handed us some cookies, but we could tell she was just a super sweet lady. Who knows…
One last story. This has kind of been a sad week for the Encino Park ward. Last Sunday Sister Walls, a recent covert of a few years, was taken by the ambulance to the hospital in the middle of Sacrament. She died on Thursday because of an unknown hole in her heart leaving her 16 year old daughter an orphan. The ward was at the hospital, the young women and seminary classes were writing Ashleigh, the daughter, letters and sending cards. The relief society has been making preparations for the funeral. Sister Wall’s siblings have flown into town and they’ve been having meetings discussing who Ashleigh is going to live with. It’s all very sureal and it has hit a little close to home. I saw Ashleigh yesterday for the first time after the passing of her mother. All I could do was give her a hug and I said, “Your hair looks cute.” She smiled and the young women in the ward surrounded her and led her to Sunday school. They asked me to go and talk to the mia maid class (while Ashleigh was in the Laurel class) and explain to the girls how they could help Ashleigh. I told them to show their love for her without limitation. I remember how wonderful and uplifted I felt when I received letters and presents from friends and church members. I told them to keep inviting her to parties and activities cause she’s going to need distractions and breaks from her grief. I told them that they would be extremely important friends to Ashleigh for the rest of her life. I told them that it’s okay to talk to her about it, especially in a few months when things will have calmed down. As I talked to them I couldn’t help thinking about all the people who helped me and my family almost 10 years ago when my family was in the car accident and I’ve just been filled with gratitude for all that help. I just want to publicly thank everybody who helped us in some way. Thank you Aunt Rachel for taking pictures of me and my friends, thank you Leslie Merkley and Sherri Cutler for staying by my bed at the hospital. Thank you Uncle Neal for calling me telling me that you wished you could be in Texas with us. Thank you to the city of McKinney. Thank you to all my teachers at the time who came to the funeral. Thank you to all my friends at school who came to visit me. Thank you for all my seminary friends who visited me and planned that party for me, and stayed in touch with me all these years. Thank you Uncle Jim for giving that beautiful tribute to my mother at her funeral. Thank you Mckinney 2nd ward. Thank you Grandma wiltbank for crying with me that one time. Thank you Sara for coming to get me when the doctors forgot about me in that hall way :) thank you Kirsten and Clint and Andre and Caleb for being salwarts. Thank you Lane and Marcia for taking us in. Thank you Catherine, Kevin, Mike, Michelle, Marci, and Brian for accepting us. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa Johnson for everything. Thank you Ellen for staying with Caleb. I have a bunch more thank you’s but I’m running out of time. The computer is about to kick me off. But I just want everybody to know how much I am grateful for everything they did. It didn’t go unnoticed, but it was too hard to say thank you before and it still kind of is. I love all of you and I am on a mission because of your love and help

Love sister johnson

someone wants to talk to you

March 8

Well…I’m sitting at the library writing this email while the keys to our car sit comfortably in the trunk of our corolla. Sigh. This wouldn’t really be that big of a deal, but it’s the second time this week we’ve locked our keys in the trunk…I wrote a list of things I wanted to write about this week…but it’s in the trunk, so who knows what I’ll write about. I’m excited to see.

Last Monday was one of the worst days of my mission and looking back I’m trying to remember exactly why it affected my so terribly. We are working with an amazing woman named Wendy. She’s our best investigator right now. She studies everything we tell her to and she makes us food. She’s happily married to a police officer and she’s got three adorable children under 5. Wendy is amazing. Well, last week we made Wendy cry…and they weren’t good tears. It was a big misunderstanding, but basically we were idiots…mostly me… and we said some things that were pretty offensive. There’s no point going to go into it because it’s trivial now, but it was terrible. I felt like the scum of the earth. It wasn’t even that bad, but I’m a missionary. We shouldn’t be offensive or defensive, we should be the perfect examples of a disciple of Christ---and we aren’t! I have never been so aware of my inadequacies as I am as a missionary which seems really paradoxical, but it’s true. Ugh. The worst part was feeling like I had shattered her chances of having a fair opportunity to hear the gospel, which I realize is dumb. Her salvation does not rest on my stupidity, but still it makes you wonder…why does the Lord send us out when we seem to be hurting the work more than helping it?! Blah. All I could think of this whole last week wanted to send a huge airplane flyer message thing throughout the world that says, “In behalf of all the Mormons who stay and do dumb things when they should be representing the Lord in all things and in all places, I’m Sorrrrrrrrryyyyyyy!!!!!!!!” I was so afraid that she would be one of those people who years down the road missionaries would knock at her door and she’d respond, ‘I’ve talked to you people before and I don’t really think you represent Christ very well so obviously your church must not be His church.’ We wrote Wendy a little note to say sorry last week and this Saturday we showed up at her door with a little bag of starbursts and a hand written paper of the answers to some of her questions that we weren’t able to answer when we had talked to her last. As soon as she opened the door she smiled, “Hi! I just made cookies! You must have smelled them!” We just stood there eyes-wide and shaking. “Come on in!” As we walked in past her she smiled, “Don’t I get a hug?” oh man. It’s moments like that where I get a glimpse of judgment day and the relief that will come because of Christ’s mercy. Wendy is truly a good example of being Christ-like. We apologized again and gave her the starbursts and she appreciated it. We appreciated her. So, we’re back of okay-ish terms with Wendy. It’s interesting how we are called in our weakness. Wendy strengthened and taught us with her example and we have the privilege of sharing the restored gospel with her. I have been very blessed because of my investigators.

Right now the biggest struggle in missionary work is helping our investigators get to church. For weeks now we have not been able to help anyone get to church even though we are teaching a lot of people. It has been hard for me. I know people have their agency, but I can be doing more. This week we went around on Saturday and invited all of our investigators to church and we called our ward missionaries and asked them to fast and pray that our investigators would be blessed with circumstances and with an abundance of the spirit necessary to overcome any fears or inconveniences of coming to church. Church started and not one person showed up…again. I was ready to burst into tears but I didn’t because that would be weird. I kept thinking of things I could do better to help more people come to church. I know it is their decision and I only have control over me so I was formulated what I could say and do better this next week and I frankly felt terrible. Suddenly, in walked Mary Flemming. We’ve been trying to get her to Church for six weeks now! She stayed for 15 minutes!!!!!! But then she left cause I can’t remember but something came up, but she came!!!! At the end of church Brian Foote, a recent RM came up to us and said, “Cydni Gardner has a friend that wants to talk to you.” We to 18 year old Cydni and she said that her friend once jokingly said she wanted the missionaries to come to her door. So we went to her door and she was so excited. Her name is Riley. We have an appointment with her and all her Mormon friends are coming. Oh goody. I am super excited. Blessings. Blessings. The Lord loves me and He answers my prayers. I trust that. It is always an exciting ride to see how he decides to answer them.

A few weeks ago we contacted a guy at ‘The Estates.’ An apartment complex where a ton of our investigators live so are there all the time. He is a maintance worker for the Estates and the first time we met him he said he wasn’t interested. The second time we saw him we forgot that we had talked to him and this time his wife and three kids were out waiting to take him home. We talked to them and got their info…they lived outside their area, which was a bummer, but this family was amazing so we didn’t care that we wouldn’t be the ones teaching them. The third time we saw him at the apartment complex we gave him a Book of Mormon. A couple days later we got a message from the Stone Oak elders thanking us for finding the Perez family. They said that they had had one of the best lessons of their missions with the family and they were going to church. We were so excited. As a missionary sometimes you are blessed to be part of the entire experience of finding and teaching and baptizing, but usually you just get to be part of snippets…missionary work is not about us having cool experiences, its about us learning that we are not serving OUR mission, but HIS mission. We come and go almost anonymously. Hardly anyone will remember us, but being remembered isn’t the point—in fact were trying to forget ourselves completely and focus on our brothers and sisters. It is a trying, but beautiful experience

Feb 22

Elder Bednar came to our mission on Saturday. It was an incredible experience that I will never forget. President allowed the entire mission to attend so all 180 met in the chapel in complete silence studying the scriptures and listening to prelude music waiting to hear from an apostle. It was a very sacred and spiritual meeting. He’s just a normal man, but his calling is larger than life. He said some really cool things, but the Spirit was the main teacher in this meeting. In the middle of the discussion Elder Bednar said, “Raise your hand if you had a question answered today that was neither asked nor discussed.” Several missionaries raised their hands. Elder Bednar emphasized how we need to work as hard as we can to cultivate an environment for the Spirit to teach and then we need to get out of the way. If the Spirit isn’t teaching then all you are doing is talking to yourself in front of investigators. Nothing we haven’t heard before, but it was awesome to have an apostle with us and reminded us the reality of the message we share.

Everything else that happened this week is a blur. Sister Latimer is my new companion. She’s from American Fork, Utah. Woo Utah! She’s a lot more quite and reserved that Sister Hill, but she’s got a crazy side. This morning we were fixing our voicemail answering message. I started off by saying, “Hi! This is the missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sister Johnson…” And then Sister Latimer said in her sweet little voice, “…and Sister Latimer. Please leave a message and we’ll get back to you. And remember, if you don’t get baptized, you’re going to hell.” What?! Where in the world did that come from?! I looked at my quiet/shy companion like she was crazy and then she started to giggle. Oh… it was a joke I realized, but I was still taken a back. Just imagine my face. Well, we tried to change it, and we thought we did, but….The San Pedro Elders called us and left a message “um….sisters, you need to change that message now!” Hahaha. So we finally removed our pounding-at-the-pulpit answering message thingy and all is well, hopefully.

So that was my funny Sister Latimer story. I also have a funny Sister Hill Story. At the beginning of last transfer I mentioned the potato famine to Sister Hill. She started laughing histerically. “Oh a potato famine! Hahaha! Like they couldn’t eat anything else. Hahah!” I asked, “You’ve never heard of the potato famine?” Then she started talking and laughing in an Irish accent, “Oh no! I’m going to die because there’s no potatos! hahaha” I know there were Irish people rolling in their graves. So I had to listen to her make fun of the potato famine all transfer long cause she thought it was some kind of fabricated myth. On our last day together we were knocking in the morning and she started going off on it again. I turned to her and said, “The next time you meet and Irish person, you ask them about the potato famine and let me know how it goes.” She laughed and laughed. Later that day we picked up sister Forsey who was one of the 6 sisters going home this transfer. She would spend her last day with us. We were a three-some for the day. That night we were leaving an apartment complex and we saw an older gentleman walking so we went up to talk to him. After we introduced ourselves he introduced himself in a thick…Irish accent. He is a Catholic priest who had immigrated years before. “So. I’ve heard about some potato famine that was supposed to have happened in Ireland. Can you tell me a little about that.” Suddenly the sky darked as the Irish man’s eye furrowed and he began a dramatic monologue recounting the epic tale (that happens to be true), “The Irish people exported all the barley and wheat in nighty-turthy seven”(insert correct year cause I forgot). “There was a blight and the potato crops failed…” “In nighty-turthy seven Ireland had a population of 9 million. In nighty-turthy nine their were 3 million. 2 million immigrated……4 million died!” After he was finished I was beaming with the glow that only comes when you throw back “In your face!” Sister Hill was laughing so hard because it was so classic and couldn’t have been better timing. Now she knows about the potato famine.

Sister Dodge and Sister Davenport went home this week. Sad day.

sj

no offense

February 15

Hello everyone! Transfer News:

Sister Hill is getting transferred and I’m training again in Encino Park.

What in the world? I am so sad. I’m excited and I know it is the Lord’s will but I really like Sister Hill and this is the first time that I won’t have two transfers with one of my companions. I love second transfer with a comp! By the time the second transfer comes around the fluffy façade you try to fake in front of people is exposed and suddenly you go from being missionary companions to being best friends. That was cheesy, but it’s true. Oh well. All the sisters made the transfer maps to try and figure out where everyone is getting transferred to and we’re pretty sure that Sister Hill is going to either Anderson Mill or Pleasanton: the two area that I’ve served in! So even though she’ll be away from me, I’ll still haunt her with my presence (via the area book and former investigators) in those other areas. Bahahaha.

At district meeting this week we did some role plays with the San Pedro Elders. Our purpose was to ask questions that would help us figure out what our investigators’ true concerns would be. So the San Pedro Elders pretended to be investigators with a pretend concern and Sister Hill and I tried to figure out their concern. “Elder Hennessey, what brings you joy?” I began to ask. “What do you feel your purpose is in life?” Elder Hennessey paused and then looked up at Sister Hill and I and said, “Well…no offense to you sisters…but my girlfriend is hot!” A brief moment of stunned silence ensued while Sister Hill and I sat wide-eyed registering what he had just said and then we turned and both looked at each other and that was it. We burst out laughing and we could not control ourselves! I started convulsing silently because I was laughing so hard and tears streamed down my cheeks. Sister Hill kept throwing her head backwards shrieking with laughter struggling to get the air she needed in order to continue breathing. I don’t know why it was so funny to us. Maybe it was because we were tired. Maybe it was because of poor Elder Hennessey face: He was shocked because he wasn’t trying to be funny at all and he didn’t quite understand the abrupt repercussion that followed his statement. It probably isn’t that funny to any of you, but that moment has brought me so much happiness this week.

Needless to say, we were completely unhelpful the during the rest of the role plays because we just kept bursting in giggles and the redder Elder Hennessey’s face got, the more difficult our laughter was to control. Oh good times. I’ve never laughed so hard as I do with Sister Hill so it’s probably a good thing she’s getting transferred.

This week we got to clean the temple. We don’t usually help clean the temple because it doesn’t help us find new people to teach, but a bunch of temple workers are in our ward and they needed help so we went over and helped. It was so cool. We all dressed in white and together with the other ladies in the ward we helped to clean the house of the Lord. It was really a peaceful experience.

We contacted a lady named Julie on the street this week. She was painting her house and we offered to help. It was fun. Julie is originally from China, but then moved here and married an American. She divorced him awhile ago, and is now in the middle of her second divorce. She is struggling and really wants her 11-year-old daughter, Cailyn, to have God in her life. So we taught them the Plan of Salvation. At the end of the lesson Cailyn started to tear up and was a little embarrassed. We asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she said she did. Julie was really excited for Cailyn. I’m not exactly sure why Cailyn started to cry. Partly I think she is overwhelmed with the stress that comes from watching your parents get a divorce and the message brought some relief to that stress. We had Cailyn go to activity days last Wednesday and she loved being with the girls. Julie doesn’t really want to start going to church yet, but Cailyn is working with her. A couple days later and Cailyn told us that she taught her mom how to pray. Cute!

The rest of the investigators are struggling right now. They’ll get through it, but everyone has hard lives and then trying to persuade people to rearrange their priorities is soooooo difficult! We are trying to show them that Church and prayer and scripture study should be at the top of the list, but they are too afraid to let go of the things that they’ve convinced themselves brings happiness. A lot of them are in somewhat stable circumstances so they don’t want to do anything to topple over their security but when you step back and look at their lives their foundation is completely cracked and decayed and it’s only a matter of time that it will come crashing down. It’s like they are living in these old buildings that are falling apart and as missionaries we are asking them to step out of the building and come over to new spot of ground with a solid foundation and help them build a new building with some new material and some of the old material that they bring over. That’s how we see it as missionaries, but the investigators see us threatening their safety. If you were in an old falling down building and someone was telling to get out of it wouldn’t you be scared that any sudden movement would cause everything to come crashing down? But what they don’t understand is that remaining in the old building is only putting off impending devastation—ignoring the problems doesn’t make them go away. It’s sooooooooooo frustrating!
One more interesting story. We knocked on an older gentleman's door and we extended an invitation to hear a message about Christ and responded that he already knew about Christ because he was catholic. "Have you ever talked to Mormons before?" We asked. "Oh yeah," he responded, "I know all about Mormons. You know the Angel Moroni on top of the temple?" We nodded our heads and I braced myself for a bunch of anti, but was surprised at his response. "Yeah, the angel Moroni actually appeared on some property owned my family..." We were not expecting that at all and wanted to ask him more questions, but he was in his pj's. Interesting and I don't really know what else to say.
Anyways, we gotta go. Thank you so much for the prayers! I can feel your love and support by them. I love yall a lot!
Sister Johnson

Honey! We have Mormons in the House!

Housekeeping first:
1. The missionary website has upgraded to work with google, so they created new email addresses for all of us, so my new email address is:
alyse.johnson@myldsmail.net
2. My new address is:
Sister Alyse Johnson
C/0 Kim Thomas
21122 Pacific Grove
San Antonio, TX 78259

It was wet and cold this week. I’m such a baby, but really…Actually, it is an answer to prayers for this area. San Antonio has been in a drought for some time and this fall and winter have brought a ton of much needed rain. So we worked in the rain. Knocking in the rain is something else I’ll tell ya. It’s actually pretty fun because people always ask, “What’n the world are you doing out in this weather?!” “We’re out here to find you so we can share with you the message of Jesus Christ.” Through rain and snow and wind and mud…I made up a song actually:
We’re tromping through mud, rain, and snow (we had like five flakes this year which is a pretty big deal)
Wait! This is San Antonio!
Where the heck is the sun?
Embrace it and just move on.
Knocking was okay this week, we found a few potentials. We knocked on this one guy’s door and he opened it all cheerful-like. And he started to invite us in. We were taken back by his welcoming smile, but we were excited that someone was going to let us in, but then he stopped, “Wait. Are you here to see the kennel?” We laughed and said, “No, we’re missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints here to share a message about Christ with you.” With the same smile and cheer he exclaimed, “Oh, Goodbye!” and shut the door without further ado. It was hilarious. On that same street a Christian woman who used to be wicken let us in. She was pretty cool, and then her husband came home from work. He walked in and she yelled cheerfully, “Hey honey! We have Mormons in our house!” Well, the husband was cordial and let us finish the lesson, but then he dismissed us. Another guy opened the door and said, “I’m catholic and I like it,” and then he shut the door. How can you argue with that? Then we went to see some former investigators. We had talked to this guy last week. He was really nice and told us that his wife was studying with Jehovah’s Witnesses, but that she needed uplifting visits so we would be welcome to come back later. So yesterday we went back and they were out in the yard. We got out of the car and he said, “I told you mormons never to come back! I thought I made it clear to the last one that was here.” Sister Hill said, “You said we could come back.” “No you. The other Mormon girl who came by. I’ve had a bunch of Mormons from your clan come by since you guys were here. A 19-20 year old blonde girl with curly hair came by saying fire and brimstone and all this other stuff if we didn’t join the Mormon Church. I told her to get out of here and non eof yall are allowed back!” “Are you sure they were Mormon missionaries?” “Yeah, she was from Ogden, Utah.” It was weird. I know all of the sisters in the mission and all of the sisters in the ward and none of them fit that description. It was the weirdest thing. Sister Hill was pretty fired up because she hates being accused of something she didn’t do. I feel bad for the investigators. I don’t know who they talked to, but they obviously didn’t do a very good job at making friends.

So that stunk, but then we got to go and see Evelyn and Jesus. They are Philipino and the nicest couple ever. Evelyn says that we showed up right as she was praying for guidance from the Lord. They invited us for lunch and I haven’t eaten that much in a long time. We ate so much. We cancelled dinner that night because we were so full of philipino food. I love food from Southeast Asia. It reminded me of thai food. Yum. Evelyn said, “I was telling my husband about you and I told him that you looked like Charles angels.” “Like who?” “Charles Angels” “What?...oh, like Charlie’s Angels?” Haha. We’ve never been described like that before.

Mary Flemming wants to get baptized, but she couldn’t come to church for this and that. But she will next week, hopefully. And hopefully she’s bring her fiancé. Heidi and her family are stagnant. They won’t do anything to change, so we might have to back off for a while. We had exchanges this week so I went with Sister Reas (new sister). It was fun. She serves in a singles ward which is really cool, but I pray I never serve in singles ward because I hear it is weird. Everyone says it is so fun and so weird. Angela got a blessing this week and she says that it has made a huge difference in her health since then. Pete randomly showed up for church and said he would be going to boot camp for a month or so he can get baptized.
And last story:
We saw Tim and his fiancé. Tim wants to get baptized. We met him like two months ago, but he was busy and worried about his finace, but we met them yesterday and she’s awesome and totally open to learning more. They’ve already been to church once. Yay!

It’s so funny because little tough stuff happened this week, nothing out of the ordinary, but it is always overshadowed by the amazing stuff that happens. I love these people. The people in Texas are good, God-fearing people. They have a little state-pride, but other than that, good, good people and I am so grateful to be here serving with them. I love them!

Sister Johnson

:)

January 25, 2010

This has been an awesomely awesome week! We were on our way to visit a potential and we passed three women who were having a ‘ladies night’ and we were sure that they wouldn’t be interested in a message about Christ, but we talk to everyone we see so we talked to them. And guess what? They weren’t interested just like we expected. We had a nice conversation with one of the ladies who told us about her “Mormon” friend has two wives. “Uhhh…If he has two wives then he’s not Mormon.” “Nope, he’s a Mormon. I’m sure of it. And he has two wives and he is so in love with both of them and the new wife that he just married is super sweet and nice and—” “Okay, well we gotta go.” So we smiled and started to walk away and see our potential investigator and we were so distracted by the conversation we forgot to ask for a referral which we usually do. But suddenly one of the ladies stopped us and said, “y’all should go to that apartment with the light on.”

So we walked up to the apartment and knocked on the door and asked if we could come in and share a message about Christ. Heidi, a sweet, down-to-earth woman in her early 30s, looked down at her happy 8 year old daughter, Alexis, and asked, “Do you want them to come in?” To our excitement the 8 year old smiled and said yes, so we went in and taught them the restoration lesson. Then we came back the next day with Sister Stucki who has kids same age as Heidi’s kids and Sister Stucki took the kids to church that Wednesday to let them play with the scout and achievement day girls. We taught about the Plan of Salvation and Heidi thought it made a lot of sense. This is huge. She’s pregnant and on bed rest which complicates things, but nothing good came cheap. We took dinner over for her and her family and the ward is now going to bring her family dinner every Friday until the baby comes. Coolio.

Next cool story: Saturday is finding day and we weren’t finding anyone. So we started knocking at 8pm to finish up our night. We met a woman and her 20 year old son and they let us in. Her name is Angela and she has no legs because of diabetes and she has little use of her arms. She is very down to earth and has great faith in God and has been looking for a church. We invited her to church and her response was, “How are you going to get me there?” referring to her inability to walk, and the fact that they don’t have a car. “If you want to go to church Angela, we’ll get you there.” So she agreed and we got some members of the ward to come and pick up her heavy wheel/scooter chair, and some to bring her and her son to church. It was awesome! I think she really liked church. She fell asleep during sacrament meeting but who doesn’t? But she and her son really enjoyed gospel principles because our ward missionaries rock. Anyways, it was awesome!

WE also had this boy that we taught a while ago randomly show up for church. He’s dating a less active member, but became interested in the doctrine. He’s about to go to military boot camp and he wanted some religion in his life and mormon doctrine made a lot of sense to him. So he arranged for us to come over and teach him. We invited him to be baptized and he said that he’d probably like to do that. But the following Sunday he couldn’t come because his parents didn’t approve. Blah. He said he’d call us when he could see us again. Well he just randomly showed up to church yesterday and gave us big awkward hugs when he saw us. As we were awkwardly escaping his hug he told us that he was going to into boot camp on Monday (today). WE told him to look for missionaries at the base and to get baptized when he gets there. Wahoo!

Then we had another investigator randomly show up to church. Annette Flechas is married to less active member. Over the last few years the Flechas have pushed away from the ward, but for some reason we stopped by at the right time and things are moving in their lives as to allow for us to teach them . Jaime, Annette’s husband, just had his 17 year old less active daughter move in with him from her mom’s house. He wants to help his daughter so he asked us to come and teach his daughter and he annouced that he would be coming to church. We invited Annette, but she said she had work so she couldn’t come. But come Sunday, she and Jaime woke up early and drove to her work to check her schedule and she fould out she could at least make the first meeting. So in walks Annette, Jaime, and his daughter! Sister Hill and I were dying. Best day ever.

One more story: This is Super cool!

I called Sister Dodge (my companion in Pleasanton who is still serving in Pleasanton) to ask her some things. After I was finished she said, “I’m glad you called because I wanted to tell you something. Janie came to church today and she brought her daughter faith.”

Background:

When Sister Dodge and I were in Pleasanton we worked sooooooooooo hard. We had two baptisms together which were awesome, but we also had a ton of heartache because of the dozens of other people who fell through. It was hard. One of the disappointments was having Janie reject the gospel. The sisters before us knocked into her but they could never get a hold of her again. But Sister Dodge and I were able to get a hold of her and we taught her the lessons. She had issues with every single commandment. We poured out our souls to her telling her that she would be happy if she would just let go of all these sins. I’ve never been so bold with any investigator like I was with her. She came to church a few times, but just couldn’t change. She knew what she was doing was wrong, but she didn’t want to give up the lifestyle because it was fun and exciting to her. She didn’t want to go to our church because we expected her to give up her sins and become a new person. Pride. We’ve all had issues with pride before. We rely on our own wisdom more than God’s. Pride is nothing more than self-inflicted pain. We loved her so much, but she was tripping herself up and it was so sad to watch her and her kids suffer.

We had one last lesson with her last October where we just bore our souls to her about how she needed to change. Sister Dodge told her that her goal should be to marry someone for eternity and commit herself completely to that person. She deserved fidelity and eternal love and she was capable of fidelity and eternal love. We told her about the spiritual and physical damage that comes with putting harmful substances into your body. We put everything out there and invited her to be baptized….but she couldn’t do it….she couldn’t do it, because she didn’t want to.

So we left. We told her we loved her and told her how to get in touch with us if she was ever ready to change. We walked out of there thinking that nothing had sunk in. We thought that everything we said just bounced off her conscience. But we were wrong. I’m not sure what followed in the months to come, but she told Sister Dodge that one day she woke up and had a huge desire to change. She wanted to be a better person. She immediately exclaimed, “Where’s my book?” She dug through her stuff until she found the Book of Mormon we had given her. She read every reading assignment we had given her. She pulled her 9 year old daughter, Faith, out of catholic school (Janie wouldn’t let her come to church with us because she wanted Faith to be catholic). Janie felt like Faith should decide for herself what religion to join. Then Janie talked to her mom about our church and her mom gave her blessing for Janie to go to the Mormon Church. Her mom said, “we all worship one God. It doesn’t matter which church you go to” (I usually hate hearing that comment for obvious reasons, but in this case I was super happy!)

So she decided to go to Church because she was ready to change. Sister Dodge must have fallen off her horse when she saw Janie at church (if she was sitting on a horse). Sister Dodge hadn’t talked to Janie since she and I had spoken to her almost three months before so this was huge!!!!

All I have to say is that I have faith that people can change. She was the last person I would have thought to change in this short amount of time, but Christ’s Atonment and His spirit can work miracles. Don’t give up on anyone who is holding on to self-destructive sins and thought processes (including yourself). Change is possible! Happy day.

:)

January 18, 2010

Ahhhhh…I just looked at all the family Christmas pictures yall sent and it made me so happy to look at them. Our family produced the best surprised-faces ever. I was laughing really hard.

We gave Annette (who’s a catholic) and Jaime (who’s a less active Mormon and an active catholic) a Book of Mormon and invited them to read from it. They said they would and we’re hoping to see them to night to see how it went.

This week we tried to get in contact with families in the ward that are made up of members and non-members. Everyone is so nice. One of the families we met knew one of my sociology professors back at BYU really well so we talked a lot about that.

We taught Jeff, the youth pastor, this week also. He is really nice and open. His wife and kids are really sweet as well. He likes the dialogue between us, but has said he’s not interested in changing religions. We basically told him we’re here to help people be baptized so we decided we’d come over one more time after he read and prayed some more and we’re hoping that maybe he’ll be a teeny bit more open to switching religions…we’re hopeful, but it’s not our choice to make. People have a hard time understanding why we want them to switch religions when they are in a good religion…or, my bad, a good church (no one likes to claim a religion down here. It’s out of style. The “in” thing right now is to be non-denominational because people believe religion is too restricting and gets in the way of your relationship with God. The problem is objective reality is impossible. We are subjective and finite individuals who live in a finite and subjective world. God is full of truth without limitation and He’s infinite, so try as we might, we cannot understand Him objectively. It’s impossible. But I don’t really think objective-ism is our ultimate goal. Our ultimate goal is to live with God again and to be happy. He’s given to each of us a paradigm that we are constrained by, but also enlightened by. He sends prophets to our paradigm to speak to us in a way that we understand and He also sends us the Holy Spirit to help us connect with ultimate truth. We are not capable of objective-ism, but through God, we are capable of understanding ultimate truth. Non-denominationalism’s goal is promote peace within the religious turmoil of modern Christianity, and it does a really good job in my opinion. However, the truth still remains the same, the attempt is man-made and false ideas and concepts eventually creep in because the loving correction given by God through prophets is non-existent. Although Christ often does His work through man, and we learn the most when He works through us, if He is not present through direct revelation, then apostasy threatens truth. Without prophets, false ideas and concepts would infest the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as well. We are constantly given direction to keep us on the path. But even we as members of the Church falter and ignore the prophet’s counsel and personal apostasy creeps into our hearts and our homes. Paul wrote to church members, “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel….But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Paul was called of Christ to preach, so were the other apostles. We can hear their claim and then work it out in our minds and reason until we are satisfied with our own personal conclusions about who these prophets and apostles truly are, but we don’t have to rely on reason alone. We can tap into ultimate truth and receive direct revelation for ourselves through prayer and the Spirit.)Son Anyways, Jeff feels at peace with his beliefs and doesn’t understand why we would try and pull him away from his happy, Christian life. We showed him a picture of Christ and covered two thirds of the picture and explained that He should feel at peace with His beliefs about Christ, because the part of the picture he can see is true. We told him that we weren’t trying to get him to look at another picture, but the restoration is an uncovering of the rest of the picture of Christ...(or at least more of the picture). A simple object lesson we learned in primary, but it made sense to him.

We taught some other cool people this week too.
sj