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