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