Mon, May 4, 2009
the library's power shut off so we had to come after our p-day activity (P-day at the Yaukman's (a very very wealthy lds family who caters lunch for us and then lets us basically play in their disney land of a house). long story short: this is going to be a very fast email.
my face broke out in a bad rash weeks ago so I've been having to go to doctors for them to treat it. It's psorasis. blah. they said there was a medicine that they knew of that would clear up my skin the only down side is the fact that it destroys your immune system and gives you cancer...hmmmmm...tempting but I said I would pass.
Sister Denison makes fun of me because she says I talk with my hands alot. She's afraid I'm going to flap away someday mid-conversation. It think its genetic from my mom.
We are in finding mode meaning that all of our potential invesitigators were dropped because they weren't progressing. I seriously can't believe I'm using this language but its been burned into my brain and it wont escape.
Sister Denison want me to mention how sick she is hear about my face.
Ummmmmm, I don't know what else to say and my 15 minutes is almost up. Oh yeah! Blanca's mom is getting baptized! But they moved to south Austin...darn, but still awesome.
Oh yeah. So I get the hiccups really bad. Annoys the heck out of my companions but I can't help it. So I had them and we walked up to a door and all the sudden before we get a chance to knock it a guy throws the door open and growls at me. Ahhhh! it was scary, but it made the hiccups go away. He took a Book of mOrmon. ahahh gotta go I love yall
sj
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Thursday, May 7, 2009
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
one plus one
Mon, Apr 20, 2009
Thank you so much for the emails! It is really nice having mail when I get online. Thank you for the package. I think I like the toothpaste-squeezer the best…genius. I’m 23-years-old. I’ve waited a long time for this day so I could say, “No body likes you when you’re 23! What’s my age again?! What’s my age again?!” …Okay, so that was total not missionary appropriate, but I couldn’t help it…I’ve seriously waited like 10 years to sing that song. Anyways, my birthday came and went like any other day. Sister Denison bought me a strawberry shortcake twinkie the night before as a stand in for my traditional birthday cake. And I got a text message from a member and an awesome package from my family. It was weird. I thought I was going to be super depressed about being 23 and blah blah blah, but I actually didn’t have a whole lot of time to think about it. Things have been crazy!!! Good crazy and bad crazy, but even the bad crazy is usually good crazy in disguise.
So basically everyday this week we had an incredible day of appointments lined up, and by the last hour of the day every single one of them would fall through. That’s been happening for the past two weeks. However, don’t get discouraged. Because that last hour of the day usually turns into this miraculous appointment we weren’t even expecting. First was the Puente family. They were taught the lessons about three years ago, but then moved and hadn’t seen the missionaries since. After a day of disappointment, we knocked on their door to see if they were home and voila! they let us in and we got to teach them a lesson. Same thing happened with a guy named Joel and a guy named Ray. Interesting thing about Ray. We met him outside a members house just a few weeks ago. He acted like he had met us before so I just assumed we had because we meet 1000 people every day (slight exaggeration). He was visiting his 18 year old son at his ex-wife’s house and the 18 year old son said we could stop by another time. So we got the 18 year old’s phone number…but not Ray’s phone number. Whoops. Over the next two weeks we kept thinking about him and how we wished we had his number, but there was nothing we could do. His son wouldn’t give us the number because he didn’t feel comfortable giving out his dad’s number to a stranger which is understandable. So we were sad. One day we thought about him again and as we were groaning about how sad we were that we didn’t have his number, suddenly we look down at an old potential investigator sheet and lo and behold his number was right there! The sisters who were here before us met him and had all of his information and for some reason that particular paper was just sitting out. Whoa. Okay, that probably doesn’t sound as cool as it was, but it was cool. We called him up and had an appointment with him that night and he said we can come back. Yay!
This last few weeks has been full of drama, but I’m happy to announce that most of the drama is reconciled at this point. Holy moly. Holy moly. Don’t worry, sister Denison and I get along great.
Oh! We have had a couple of really cool member referrals. Some guy who is business partners with one of our members asked to come to church on Easter and then he came again yesterday! Another family said they had a friend that kept asking questions and asked if he could go to church. Cool.
At church someone was giving talk and said, “It’s as simple as one plus one equals two. Obedience plus sacrifice equals blessings.” I guess my brain decided that it needed to do an algebraic exercise because suddenly I stared proofing the equation in my head: Blessings minus sacrifice equals obedience? Blessings minus obedience equals sacrifice?…I’m not trying to be annoying it just happens automatically.
This week I had an interesting experience. An atheist man we were talking to said something to the effect (in much cruder terms) “When I get to heaven and God confronts me and says that I didn’t devote all my life to kissing His feet I’ll say back to him, ‘Yeah, but I was nice to your children.’ And God will be okay with that.” I thought about it because this attitude is pretty prevalent down here and I wonder, is it enough just to be nice? In sacrament we sang Hymn 191 and sang “He died, and at the awful sight The sun in shame withdrew its light. Earth trembled, and all nature sighed in dread response, “A God has died.” At that moment in the song I was filled with shame for my ingratitude. The God of this world who gave us this chance to become more like him so we can be with him again is being forgotten by his very own children. No. It’s not enough just to be nice. We can’t forget that the opportunity to love comes from His sacrifice. He gave us all and we want to take it and run.
I love you! thank you for your letters and emails!
love,
sister johnson
Thank you so much for the emails! It is really nice having mail when I get online. Thank you for the package. I think I like the toothpaste-squeezer the best…genius. I’m 23-years-old. I’ve waited a long time for this day so I could say, “No body likes you when you’re 23! What’s my age again?! What’s my age again?!” …Okay, so that was total not missionary appropriate, but I couldn’t help it…I’ve seriously waited like 10 years to sing that song. Anyways, my birthday came and went like any other day. Sister Denison bought me a strawberry shortcake twinkie the night before as a stand in for my traditional birthday cake. And I got a text message from a member and an awesome package from my family. It was weird. I thought I was going to be super depressed about being 23 and blah blah blah, but I actually didn’t have a whole lot of time to think about it. Things have been crazy!!! Good crazy and bad crazy, but even the bad crazy is usually good crazy in disguise.
So basically everyday this week we had an incredible day of appointments lined up, and by the last hour of the day every single one of them would fall through. That’s been happening for the past two weeks. However, don’t get discouraged. Because that last hour of the day usually turns into this miraculous appointment we weren’t even expecting. First was the Puente family. They were taught the lessons about three years ago, but then moved and hadn’t seen the missionaries since. After a day of disappointment, we knocked on their door to see if they were home and voila! they let us in and we got to teach them a lesson. Same thing happened with a guy named Joel and a guy named Ray. Interesting thing about Ray. We met him outside a members house just a few weeks ago. He acted like he had met us before so I just assumed we had because we meet 1000 people every day (slight exaggeration). He was visiting his 18 year old son at his ex-wife’s house and the 18 year old son said we could stop by another time. So we got the 18 year old’s phone number…but not Ray’s phone number. Whoops. Over the next two weeks we kept thinking about him and how we wished we had his number, but there was nothing we could do. His son wouldn’t give us the number because he didn’t feel comfortable giving out his dad’s number to a stranger which is understandable. So we were sad. One day we thought about him again and as we were groaning about how sad we were that we didn’t have his number, suddenly we look down at an old potential investigator sheet and lo and behold his number was right there! The sisters who were here before us met him and had all of his information and for some reason that particular paper was just sitting out. Whoa. Okay, that probably doesn’t sound as cool as it was, but it was cool. We called him up and had an appointment with him that night and he said we can come back. Yay!
This last few weeks has been full of drama, but I’m happy to announce that most of the drama is reconciled at this point. Holy moly. Holy moly. Don’t worry, sister Denison and I get along great.
Oh! We have had a couple of really cool member referrals. Some guy who is business partners with one of our members asked to come to church on Easter and then he came again yesterday! Another family said they had a friend that kept asking questions and asked if he could go to church. Cool.
At church someone was giving talk and said, “It’s as simple as one plus one equals two. Obedience plus sacrifice equals blessings.” I guess my brain decided that it needed to do an algebraic exercise because suddenly I stared proofing the equation in my head: Blessings minus sacrifice equals obedience? Blessings minus obedience equals sacrifice?…I’m not trying to be annoying it just happens automatically.
This week I had an interesting experience. An atheist man we were talking to said something to the effect (in much cruder terms) “When I get to heaven and God confronts me and says that I didn’t devote all my life to kissing His feet I’ll say back to him, ‘Yeah, but I was nice to your children.’ And God will be okay with that.” I thought about it because this attitude is pretty prevalent down here and I wonder, is it enough just to be nice? In sacrament we sang Hymn 191 and sang “He died, and at the awful sight The sun in shame withdrew its light. Earth trembled, and all nature sighed in dread response, “A God has died.” At that moment in the song I was filled with shame for my ingratitude. The God of this world who gave us this chance to become more like him so we can be with him again is being forgotten by his very own children. No. It’s not enough just to be nice. We can’t forget that the opportunity to love comes from His sacrifice. He gave us all and we want to take it and run.
I love you! thank you for your letters and emails!
love,
sister johnson
Monday, March 30, 2009
flying golf balls
Mon, Mar 30, 2009
This week has been crazy. We were given a brand spanking new 2009 Chevy Malibu at the beginning of this transfer. It now sits in the parking lot outside with a plastic garbage bag taped down where the back windshield used to be. The car is also covered with dozens of little dimples. I never knew that hail could cause so much damage, but when they are the size of golf balls it makes a little more sense. Joshua was the one who warned of the upcoming storm so of course we thought we were going to die. He’s so dramatic. Haha. He thought he would have to bring a gun to stake conference to fight off all the mobbers who would try and attack the gathered mormons. He was slightly joking…but still.
Sigh. It has become extremely difficult to know what to write. I have one hour to sum up a week filled with so much stuff that it would take an entire book for me to really compile these events and my feelings into some plane of coherency. I can’t share the most significant stories and concepts that I’ve had to come to terms with because they are sacred moments and reserved only for those involved.
Bonnie and Blanca were baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. Those women have been through some of the hardest knocks life can inflict and they’ve endured it as gracefully as possible. Blanca is my age and has a cute 3 year old son who is out of control…seriously this kid is the smartest most energetic terror I’ve met and his life revolves around his mother. Blanca also has a two month old baby. We met her a month ago in a parking lot and accepted everything we taught her. She has a hard life. I feel like I’m back in my sociology classes being faced with an unanswerable social dilemma, only the statistics are replaced with three living and breathing souls. She has had the cruelest week and even after she was baptized we felt like the adversary gave her one last humiliating kick in the face to shatter her will. But amid her hardships and anguish she stands as a savior to her children because she has knelt before the Savior in tender humility.
Bonnie’s baptism was one of the most touching experiences I’ve had on the mission. In glowing excitement she entered the font and was baptized by water. It was just incredible the spirit that entered the room during the ordinance. And I just have to say that greeting my investigators/new converts as they exit the font is one of the most precious blessings I’ve been given. Their faces glow, their spirit sings and I thank the heavens for allowing me to play a part in their life.
I am so grateful for the Savior and for this opportunity we have to learn and grow. I’m so glad I’m here…not just on a mission but on this Earth. I want to serve him and give him everything I am and yet I am constrained by my own fear and inadequacies. I’ll pray for more opportunities to grow, but when they come I curse my bitter plight. The lyrics from a favorite song: “Sometimes I pray for a slap in the face, but then beg to be spared because I’m a coward.”
May we soar with the experiences set before us by turning to the Savior. He counts our every tear and sends angels to catch them.
This week has been crazy. We were given a brand spanking new 2009 Chevy Malibu at the beginning of this transfer. It now sits in the parking lot outside with a plastic garbage bag taped down where the back windshield used to be. The car is also covered with dozens of little dimples. I never knew that hail could cause so much damage, but when they are the size of golf balls it makes a little more sense. Joshua was the one who warned of the upcoming storm so of course we thought we were going to die. He’s so dramatic. Haha. He thought he would have to bring a gun to stake conference to fight off all the mobbers who would try and attack the gathered mormons. He was slightly joking…but still.
Sigh. It has become extremely difficult to know what to write. I have one hour to sum up a week filled with so much stuff that it would take an entire book for me to really compile these events and my feelings into some plane of coherency. I can’t share the most significant stories and concepts that I’ve had to come to terms with because they are sacred moments and reserved only for those involved.
Bonnie and Blanca were baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. Those women have been through some of the hardest knocks life can inflict and they’ve endured it as gracefully as possible. Blanca is my age and has a cute 3 year old son who is out of control…seriously this kid is the smartest most energetic terror I’ve met and his life revolves around his mother. Blanca also has a two month old baby. We met her a month ago in a parking lot and accepted everything we taught her. She has a hard life. I feel like I’m back in my sociology classes being faced with an unanswerable social dilemma, only the statistics are replaced with three living and breathing souls. She has had the cruelest week and even after she was baptized we felt like the adversary gave her one last humiliating kick in the face to shatter her will. But amid her hardships and anguish she stands as a savior to her children because she has knelt before the Savior in tender humility.
Bonnie’s baptism was one of the most touching experiences I’ve had on the mission. In glowing excitement she entered the font and was baptized by water. It was just incredible the spirit that entered the room during the ordinance. And I just have to say that greeting my investigators/new converts as they exit the font is one of the most precious blessings I’ve been given. Their faces glow, their spirit sings and I thank the heavens for allowing me to play a part in their life.
I am so grateful for the Savior and for this opportunity we have to learn and grow. I’m so glad I’m here…not just on a mission but on this Earth. I want to serve him and give him everything I am and yet I am constrained by my own fear and inadequacies. I’ll pray for more opportunities to grow, but when they come I curse my bitter plight. The lyrics from a favorite song: “Sometimes I pray for a slap in the face, but then beg to be spared because I’m a coward.”
May we soar with the experiences set before us by turning to the Savior. He counts our every tear and sends angels to catch them.
Monday, March 23, 2009
transfers...
Tue, Mar 17, 2009
We had transfer calls last night and Sister Davenport is opening up a new area and she's training again! I'm staying in Cedar Park. I don't have a lot of time, but life is good. I hope you all have a fabulous day! Thanks for the prayers!
We had transfer calls last night and Sister Davenport is opening up a new area and she's training again! I'm staying in Cedar Park. I don't have a lot of time, but life is good. I hope you all have a fabulous day! Thanks for the prayers!
my heart’s plugged into your heart
Mon, Mar 23, 2009
Sister Denison is my new companion. I know her really well because she was one of the other sisters in my zone before the transfer. She’s really fun and throws her heart into everything that she pursues. I really respect her for her decision to go on a mission. She didn’t come because she had to, she didn’t go because she felt like the Lord asked her to, she came because the gospel changed her life and she wants to help spread the gospel so it can change others’ lives.
Last week Sister Davenport and I had an interesting experience. We met a man walking his dog and he invited us in for a lesson with his family. The spirit was extremely strong in that lesson. When I repeated the first vision the whole room just went quiet and we all just sat there for a couple seconds. That hardly ever happens in our lessons. It’s not for lack of trying, but most of the lessons I teach are mostly informative and interesting, not necessarily spiritually intense. I’m sure the Spirit is present during our lessons, but he was especially present during this lesson. That probably didn’t make sense, but oh well. Afterwards we were trying to figure out what was different about that lesson. Did we do something different? We had been trying to have better prayers so maybe that was part of it. But in the end I decided that the spirit was strong because someone in that room was super in tune with the Spirit and ready to hear the message. I forgot to mention that the parents were drinking alcohol as we taught…It could have been something else…but I’m pretty sure they were a little tipsy by the time we left. Maybe the parents were receptive to the Spirit even though they were drinking, but I felt really connected with kids and I believe that they were the reason we were there. The next day we had an appointment with the family, but they weren’t there so we decided to go and visit a referral given to us a while back. We knocked on the door and some kids answered. Some of the kids were the kids from that family we had just taught. We talked to an older sister there and she said we could come back the next day. We went to see her, she wasn’t there, so we went back over to the family we taught before hoping to see them again. We saw them at the door and the wife was laying on the couch looking really sick and then their “friend” saw us and asked us to come out on the front porch with him. He shut the door behind him, cracked open another beer (he was pretty drunk) and proceeding to tell us that we were crazy and that the bible was the only word of God. He made a complete fool of himself. We didn’t say much except that we wanted to talk to Amy and Jesse ourselves but he didn’t let us in. So we walked away. And that was it. Randomly the next day when we were back in the area we ran into the drunk friend and he apologized. That was nice, but we mostly just wanted to go and talk to Amy and Jesse and the kids again. We’ll try back later I suppose. I just have to say that after a while the looks and the comments start to wear you down…
This week started off with paintball and I got two massive bruises on my arms. I have no idea why the president allowed us to paintball, but it was super fun and I hit three elders!
Sister Davenport was saying goodbye to Jenny and her kids(a recent convert). Sister Davenport: “I’m going to be sad to leave you.” 5-yr-old Emily: “That’s okay cause my heart’s plugged into your heart.” Ahhhhhhh….cute. A 9-yr-old was hanging on Sister Davenport crying and said: “You can’t go!, I can’t have any more depression in my life!!!!” haha.
The first day Sister Denison and I were together we knocked the ginormous houses. Haha. They are huge. I’m in a very very wealthy area. Haha. At this one castle, four super spoiled lap dogs with diamond collars barked up at us through a huge glass door and fancy pool reflecting in the back. We just stood there awkwardly reminding ourselves that we were the higher species.
At church the primary sang us called to serve at their opening exercises. It was cute.
Blanca and Bonnie will be getting baptized this next Saturday. They have incredibly difficult lives and their lives of course are going crazy this next week so it’s going to be fun! Why can’t every baptism be like Joshua’s? His just flowed perfectly with no hang ups. Haha. I love Bonnie and Blanca and they need this now more than ever.
I love you all! Thanks for the prayers!
sister johnson
Sister Denison is my new companion. I know her really well because she was one of the other sisters in my zone before the transfer. She’s really fun and throws her heart into everything that she pursues. I really respect her for her decision to go on a mission. She didn’t come because she had to, she didn’t go because she felt like the Lord asked her to, she came because the gospel changed her life and she wants to help spread the gospel so it can change others’ lives.
Last week Sister Davenport and I had an interesting experience. We met a man walking his dog and he invited us in for a lesson with his family. The spirit was extremely strong in that lesson. When I repeated the first vision the whole room just went quiet and we all just sat there for a couple seconds. That hardly ever happens in our lessons. It’s not for lack of trying, but most of the lessons I teach are mostly informative and interesting, not necessarily spiritually intense. I’m sure the Spirit is present during our lessons, but he was especially present during this lesson. That probably didn’t make sense, but oh well. Afterwards we were trying to figure out what was different about that lesson. Did we do something different? We had been trying to have better prayers so maybe that was part of it. But in the end I decided that the spirit was strong because someone in that room was super in tune with the Spirit and ready to hear the message. I forgot to mention that the parents were drinking alcohol as we taught…It could have been something else…but I’m pretty sure they were a little tipsy by the time we left. Maybe the parents were receptive to the Spirit even though they were drinking, but I felt really connected with kids and I believe that they were the reason we were there. The next day we had an appointment with the family, but they weren’t there so we decided to go and visit a referral given to us a while back. We knocked on the door and some kids answered. Some of the kids were the kids from that family we had just taught. We talked to an older sister there and she said we could come back the next day. We went to see her, she wasn’t there, so we went back over to the family we taught before hoping to see them again. We saw them at the door and the wife was laying on the couch looking really sick and then their “friend” saw us and asked us to come out on the front porch with him. He shut the door behind him, cracked open another beer (he was pretty drunk) and proceeding to tell us that we were crazy and that the bible was the only word of God. He made a complete fool of himself. We didn’t say much except that we wanted to talk to Amy and Jesse ourselves but he didn’t let us in. So we walked away. And that was it. Randomly the next day when we were back in the area we ran into the drunk friend and he apologized. That was nice, but we mostly just wanted to go and talk to Amy and Jesse and the kids again. We’ll try back later I suppose. I just have to say that after a while the looks and the comments start to wear you down…
This week started off with paintball and I got two massive bruises on my arms. I have no idea why the president allowed us to paintball, but it was super fun and I hit three elders!
Sister Davenport was saying goodbye to Jenny and her kids(a recent convert). Sister Davenport: “I’m going to be sad to leave you.” 5-yr-old Emily: “That’s okay cause my heart’s plugged into your heart.” Ahhhhhhh….cute. A 9-yr-old was hanging on Sister Davenport crying and said: “You can’t go!, I can’t have any more depression in my life!!!!” haha.
The first day Sister Denison and I were together we knocked the ginormous houses. Haha. They are huge. I’m in a very very wealthy area. Haha. At this one castle, four super spoiled lap dogs with diamond collars barked up at us through a huge glass door and fancy pool reflecting in the back. We just stood there awkwardly reminding ourselves that we were the higher species.
At church the primary sang us called to serve at their opening exercises. It was cute.
Blanca and Bonnie will be getting baptized this next Saturday. They have incredibly difficult lives and their lives of course are going crazy this next week so it’s going to be fun! Why can’t every baptism be like Joshua’s? His just flowed perfectly with no hang ups. Haha. I love Bonnie and Blanca and they need this now more than ever.
I love you all! Thanks for the prayers!
sister johnson
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