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