I AM STAYING IN PLEASANTON FOR ANOTHER SIX WEEKS! Yay! I was afraid I was going to be transferred this time, but nope. I get to stay which has made me very happy because I love it here. This week was very good. I went to the Temple on Saturday morning. Sister Swaim took us up and then she took us out to lunch. Sister Davenport (my trainer) and Sister Kleisler (my last companion) serve in the area where the Temple is so they joined us for lunch which was really fun. I love my companions so much. I miss Sister Denison. I haven’t seen her but once since we were together. Basically all my companions instantly become my best friends for life. Where it would usually take me about a year to become really good friends with someone, it now takes about 6 weeks with a companion because we spend every second together and we somehow really enjoy it. Even the hard times are fun. Rambling…I’m done
So this week started off blah. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t super amazing either. That’s how most days are. These kinds of days are the ones where you learn the most. They are days void of interesting stories, but they are the days where your true character is shaped. So basically it was boring and hard to keep going but you just keep going because you have to and you want to because, who knows…the next person might be ready to listen. Well, day after day after month and finally we have a day like yesterday. Yesterday was awesome. We taught Becky, Jared and Nicholas in the morning: Becky is a young single mom living with her two cute sons Jared (10 years old), and Nicholas (3 years old). She let us come in last week and we’ve been teaching them every day since then. Jared asks a million questions and I am letting him borrow my little kid Book of Mormon so he can read it with his mom. They are really sweet and as of right now they want to get baptized.
Then we saw Anna Hopp. She had her back surgery this last weekend. Everything went well and she was so excited to see us. She loves us and needs us and it makes me feel so good to feel loved and needed. We found out that her distant LDS family members are in fact RLDS, but she feels like she is where she needs to be. The ward is awesome. They are taking her dinners and she is loving it.
Then after Anna we went and taught Laura. We met Laura knocking on Saturday. It was raining and before we even introduced ourselves at the door she let us in, sat us down, and gave us some ginger ale. She’s really nice. She’s Baptist and her husband is a very catholic Catholic. She believes in Christ, but has been searching her whole life trying to find something to feel a void in her heart. Yesterday when we saw her for the second time she had read the Book of Mormon and had written down a bunch of questions. One of her questions was “what does the Holy Spirit feel like?” We explained that it was sometimes a peaceful warmth, or a stream of ideas, or a feeling that gave you goose bumps. She said she didn’t really know what that felt like, but she said that when we were over teaching her the day before and as she was reading the Book of Mormon and as she was talking to us right then she felt excited and could talk fast enough to ask all of her questions. She had so much excitement to learn more. She said this excited feeling was unusual for her because normally she was very calm and mellow. “That’s the Spirit,” we exclaimed. I like the way she put it because I’ve felt the Spirit like that. Since I’ve been on my mission, I feel like I’ve gotten better at recognizing the Spirit. I’m still not very good at it, but I’m a little better than I was before my mission. Anyways, back to Laura. So we taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ AND the plan of Salvation and she was very touched by the things we said. Things were just clicking. Yes! I can’t tell you how wonderful it is to see someone have it click. Especially if all day long you are meeting amazing people who are not ready yet. Who don’t understand with their heart the things we are saying. It was awesome…and then Laura’s husband came it. “Are y’all Jehovah’s Witnesses?!” “no…,” we meekly replied (well kinda we are but in a different sense than he was asking). Then he grunted and stormed off. All I have to say is that I’ve never been more grateful not to be a Jehovah’s Witness than I did in that moment. Needless to say, her husband isn’t thrilled with us coming over so that will add some complications, but it just shows that he loves his family because he wants to protect them…I can respect that.
After Laura we taught a lesson to a woman named Monica. Sister Ashley has been inviting her friend, Monica, to church activities and last night she let us come over and start the lesson with her. Wahoo! It was awesome. It’s days like yesterday that get me through the drudgery of routine. Consistency is the greatest lesson I’ve learned while out here. And the reward isn’t necessarily the good/amazing days, but the reward is the person/people that me and my investigators are becoming because of the steady march.
I just wanted to say real quick how much I miss my family. I love all of you and I miss you a lot. I’m not trunky, but I do miss you guys just in case you thought I forgot about you.
Love, Sister Johnson
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Friday, October 9, 2009
It's not worth it
You are not going to believe this. We had a baptism yesterday. Yep, Anna Hopp was baptized. I should probably tell you a little more about her since I’ve hardly mentioned her at all. Once upon a time about eight years ago Anna was having a rough time. She heard a knock on her door and suddenly she was being taught the doctrine of Christ to two Sister Missionaries. But it wasn’t time for her to be baptized yet.
Eight years later she found her self in Salt Lake City, Utah to visit family who had recently moved there. During her visit She was determined to achieve one of her dreams: to see the Mormon Church. She marched her husband and step son all around Temple Square taking pictures of the temple, the fountains, the flowers, the statues. One of her favorite experiences was taking a tour of Brigham’s house. At the end of the tour, two happy sister missionaries asked the crowd to take a card and fill out their names and addresses so a DVD about Jesus Christ could be sent to their homes. And what do you think happened? No one took a card…surprised? Not me, but Anna was. “How rude!” She thought to herself, “They just gave us a free tour of this huge house and no one was willing to take a card?” So she took a card. “They won’t be able to find me,” she warned, “because I live way out in the boonies.” But never fear! They sent the Pleasanton Sisters out to find her because out-in-the-boonies is our specialty.
So we found her and taught her a lesson about Joseph Smith, but she didn’t seem incredibly interested, however she agreed that we could come back and so we did. We taught her again and tried to get her to come to church for several weeks, but it never worked out. We had about given up on her three weeks ago after leaving a voice message on her phone inviting her to church just one more time. The next morning at 10am we sat waiting outside the church waiting for our prospective church attend-ers--the 15 minutes before church is a very nerve racking and often very depressing experience, but every week we stand out there waiting in hopeful anticipation. Suddenly we got a call. Rebecca? Janie? Henry? No, it’s Anna. Anna? To be quite honest we weren’t expecting her to call us back let alone come to church, she surprised us and asked if she could come to church even if she was late. Yes you may come and please do! So she came and loved it. The ward made her feel welcome. The next Thursday we drove all the way to Floresville, which is about a 45 minute trip, to teach her again. It was the end of the month and we were running low on miles, but we threw the miles to the wind and had faith that the miles would work themselves out. :) (Side note: the miles DID NOT work themselves out which testified to me once again that faith is principle of belief AND action, not just belief. Oh well. You live, you learn, and then you move on…and then you apply what you learned otherwise the experience is merely another declaration that, yes, that “boing” you keep hearing is wise counsel bouncing off my forehead…all right my theological rant is over.)
So we visited her the following Thursday and she had read the entire gospel principles manual which made for an interesting discussion about the second coming: Apparently Obama is the Anti-Christ? I have no comment. I love being completely oblivious to all news outside of my personal interactions with others. But don’t worry, all the really important news filters down to us: Michael Jackson’s death for instance. Anyways, I need to speed this story up. The next Sunday she came for the whole thing and loved it. We asked her to pray about being baptized next Sunday, she read more of the Book of Mormon, we went on a field trip to the San Antonio temple and sat in the waiting room with her which was Awesome!!! And then poof! She got baptized. Her testimony about the Book of Mormon was shaky and then it was solid as a rock when she had to defend it to her future son-in-law who thought it would be a good idea to pull out an anti-Book of Mormon Book two days before her baptism. It definitely had the opposite effect on her than he was expecting. She pulled out the bible and spent the whole night testifying to the truth and validity of the Book of Mormon. And then we heard Elder Holland’s talk the day of her baptism. Bam!
So her years of study finally flowered into the making of a simple covenant to follow Christ to the end. It was beautiful and she is determined to remain true to that covenant.
Comments on Conference: AMAZING! I don’t know if it’s just my perspective as a missionary, but we sure got a “talkin’ to.” You knew they weren’t messin’ around when the very first talk was Elder Scott’s talk. Bam! I loved Elder Christofferson’s (sp?) social commentary…it was awesome. I totally have fallen into the trap of relying on other people to tell me what is right and wrong instead of learning principles and then figuring it out for myself. I know that over the years I have dabbled a little too far into the “It’s all good” philosophy and have forgotten that my motto instead should be: We’re ALL children of God and because of that, no, it’s not ALL good. Respect the children, discern wisely, and have the courage to say, “It’s not worth it.”
Eight years later she found her self in Salt Lake City, Utah to visit family who had recently moved there. During her visit She was determined to achieve one of her dreams: to see the Mormon Church. She marched her husband and step son all around Temple Square taking pictures of the temple, the fountains, the flowers, the statues. One of her favorite experiences was taking a tour of Brigham’s house. At the end of the tour, two happy sister missionaries asked the crowd to take a card and fill out their names and addresses so a DVD about Jesus Christ could be sent to their homes. And what do you think happened? No one took a card…surprised? Not me, but Anna was. “How rude!” She thought to herself, “They just gave us a free tour of this huge house and no one was willing to take a card?” So she took a card. “They won’t be able to find me,” she warned, “because I live way out in the boonies.” But never fear! They sent the Pleasanton Sisters out to find her because out-in-the-boonies is our specialty.
So we found her and taught her a lesson about Joseph Smith, but she didn’t seem incredibly interested, however she agreed that we could come back and so we did. We taught her again and tried to get her to come to church for several weeks, but it never worked out. We had about given up on her three weeks ago after leaving a voice message on her phone inviting her to church just one more time. The next morning at 10am we sat waiting outside the church waiting for our prospective church attend-ers--the 15 minutes before church is a very nerve racking and often very depressing experience, but every week we stand out there waiting in hopeful anticipation. Suddenly we got a call. Rebecca? Janie? Henry? No, it’s Anna. Anna? To be quite honest we weren’t expecting her to call us back let alone come to church, she surprised us and asked if she could come to church even if she was late. Yes you may come and please do! So she came and loved it. The ward made her feel welcome. The next Thursday we drove all the way to Floresville, which is about a 45 minute trip, to teach her again. It was the end of the month and we were running low on miles, but we threw the miles to the wind and had faith that the miles would work themselves out. :) (Side note: the miles DID NOT work themselves out which testified to me once again that faith is principle of belief AND action, not just belief. Oh well. You live, you learn, and then you move on…and then you apply what you learned otherwise the experience is merely another declaration that, yes, that “boing” you keep hearing is wise counsel bouncing off my forehead…all right my theological rant is over.)
So we visited her the following Thursday and she had read the entire gospel principles manual which made for an interesting discussion about the second coming: Apparently Obama is the Anti-Christ? I have no comment. I love being completely oblivious to all news outside of my personal interactions with others. But don’t worry, all the really important news filters down to us: Michael Jackson’s death for instance. Anyways, I need to speed this story up. The next Sunday she came for the whole thing and loved it. We asked her to pray about being baptized next Sunday, she read more of the Book of Mormon, we went on a field trip to the San Antonio temple and sat in the waiting room with her which was Awesome!!! And then poof! She got baptized. Her testimony about the Book of Mormon was shaky and then it was solid as a rock when she had to defend it to her future son-in-law who thought it would be a good idea to pull out an anti-Book of Mormon Book two days before her baptism. It definitely had the opposite effect on her than he was expecting. She pulled out the bible and spent the whole night testifying to the truth and validity of the Book of Mormon. And then we heard Elder Holland’s talk the day of her baptism. Bam!
So her years of study finally flowered into the making of a simple covenant to follow Christ to the end. It was beautiful and she is determined to remain true to that covenant.
Comments on Conference: AMAZING! I don’t know if it’s just my perspective as a missionary, but we sure got a “talkin’ to.” You knew they weren’t messin’ around when the very first talk was Elder Scott’s talk. Bam! I loved Elder Christofferson’s (sp?) social commentary…it was awesome. I totally have fallen into the trap of relying on other people to tell me what is right and wrong instead of learning principles and then figuring it out for myself. I know that over the years I have dabbled a little too far into the “It’s all good” philosophy and have forgotten that my motto instead should be: We’re ALL children of God and because of that, no, it’s not ALL good. Respect the children, discern wisely, and have the courage to say, “It’s not worth it.”
Monday, September 28, 2009
every member a missionary
We have had the coolest P-days recently. Last week our zone came to our area for a BBQ at one of our member’s homes. They have a pond and the Elders caught a 20 lbs bass and a 14 lbs catfish. I don’t know what that means, but I guess it’s cool. The Brown’s house is like a hobbit hole; it’s covered with dirt so we hiked their house. Mostly it was fun to sit and talk with the missionaries about everything that is happening in our areas.
This P-day we had a Sister’s P-day! Wahoo. It was only the San Antonio sisters so the Austin and Border sisters didn’t get to come. We had it at Sister Cutler’s house (Mission president’s wife) and she made us lunch and we made key chains and talked and talked and had a clothing exchange. Yes! A sister missionary clothing exchange: it’s where you bring the old ugly sister missionary clothes that you are sick of wearing and exchange them for NEW old ugly sister missionary clothes from someone else! It’s awesome!
So we almost thought we lost Rebecca this week and we cried. Well, Sister Dodge cried and I laughed because everyone deals with tragedy differently. But we had an awesome lesson with her last night. She didn’t come to church this Sunday but it was because she was checking out the Presbyterian church in town because it’s where she used to go when she was a kid. We were so scared she would like it…and she did. She loved it. She felt comfortable and loved and needed…How do you tell someone to leave a place like that and come to a place like Pleasanton ward where she doesn’t feel as comfortable or as needed…but we know this is Christ’s church and we know this is where He wants her. We explained that we felt like it wasn’t an accident that the Lord placed her in the Presbyterian church when she was little. The Presbyterian religion taught her faith in Jesus Christ, it taught her to trust in God. It helped her turn to her Savior during the adversities of her life. We explained that by us asking her to leave the Presbyterian religion we weren’t asking her to abandon or forsake her childhood faith, but instead to build upon it by accepting further revealed truth. The Presbyterian religion will always be a part of her and it will have been an important vehicle to lead her back to God. But it’s still going to be a sacrifice to leave the comfort and the memories. I can’t undermine the sacrifice it will be to close that chapter of her life—and it will be a close—that’s the reality. I would never ask her to make this sacrifice and join the Church if I didn’t believe with my whole heart that this truly is Christ’s church. I believe that this church is an important branch of His work and he is soliciting all the help He can get. Call me brainwashed (many already have), call ignorant or discriminatory, call me heretical and narrow-minded—It’s a bold claim that this is Christ’s Gospel and this organization is actually headed by the Savior, but I can’t turn my back on the light that I have received. However, I can sympathize with how hard it will be for Rebecca to leave the religion of her forbearers. I can’t even imagine how hard that would be. We told her to call her LDS Brother who she hasn’t talked to for years. It will be interesting to hear his reaction.
Anna Hopp came to Church again this week! That’s twice now. She also went to the Relief Society Broadcast. What an awesome meeting: totally a call for repentance, but they did it in such a loving way that I think everyone left with a determination to do a little better. My favorite line was, “Your attendance at your Relief Society meeting on Sunday will bless YOU, but your participation in the work of Relief Society will bless the whole world!” Ouch. I felt that one, which leads me to my next tangent:
I have received several letters here and there from women who have expressed a little sadness at not having had the opportunity to serve a mission. Now, I’ll be honest. Serving a mission is the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. Never again will I have the opportunity to go up to a perfect stranger and dig into the depths of his or her faith to determine whether they are ready to accept Christ’s entire message available to the earth today. I will never be able to do that like I can now as a proselyting missionary. However, until now, I had no idea the importance of the home and visiting teaching programs. As official missionaries our job is to help people enter the gate of the road to exaltation, but the job of a visiting and home teacher is then to take that person’s hand and keep them on that road as they progress through conversion. We can baptize people, but they can walk right back out that gate as quickly as they walked in unless they are able to keep their testimonies nourished and growing. Missionaries help with the teeny-weeny first step, but the rest of the road is up to the convert and to their visiting and home teachers. I can’t tell you how nerve racking it is to leave an area and wonder if the visiting and home teachers are taking care of your babies. Are they giving them the spiritual and emotional nudges they need to continue the road that they started with you. It doesn’t matter if they were baptized at eight or at 38. Everyone is at some point in this road and none of us have reached exaltation yet. I have to go, but don’t worry if you didn’t go on a mission. There’s plenty of missionary work to do as a member. You're work you've already done is important. :)
love,
Sister Johnson
This P-day we had a Sister’s P-day! Wahoo. It was only the San Antonio sisters so the Austin and Border sisters didn’t get to come. We had it at Sister Cutler’s house (Mission president’s wife) and she made us lunch and we made key chains and talked and talked and had a clothing exchange. Yes! A sister missionary clothing exchange: it’s where you bring the old ugly sister missionary clothes that you are sick of wearing and exchange them for NEW old ugly sister missionary clothes from someone else! It’s awesome!
So we almost thought we lost Rebecca this week and we cried. Well, Sister Dodge cried and I laughed because everyone deals with tragedy differently. But we had an awesome lesson with her last night. She didn’t come to church this Sunday but it was because she was checking out the Presbyterian church in town because it’s where she used to go when she was a kid. We were so scared she would like it…and she did. She loved it. She felt comfortable and loved and needed…How do you tell someone to leave a place like that and come to a place like Pleasanton ward where she doesn’t feel as comfortable or as needed…but we know this is Christ’s church and we know this is where He wants her. We explained that we felt like it wasn’t an accident that the Lord placed her in the Presbyterian church when she was little. The Presbyterian religion taught her faith in Jesus Christ, it taught her to trust in God. It helped her turn to her Savior during the adversities of her life. We explained that by us asking her to leave the Presbyterian religion we weren’t asking her to abandon or forsake her childhood faith, but instead to build upon it by accepting further revealed truth. The Presbyterian religion will always be a part of her and it will have been an important vehicle to lead her back to God. But it’s still going to be a sacrifice to leave the comfort and the memories. I can’t undermine the sacrifice it will be to close that chapter of her life—and it will be a close—that’s the reality. I would never ask her to make this sacrifice and join the Church if I didn’t believe with my whole heart that this truly is Christ’s church. I believe that this church is an important branch of His work and he is soliciting all the help He can get. Call me brainwashed (many already have), call ignorant or discriminatory, call me heretical and narrow-minded—It’s a bold claim that this is Christ’s Gospel and this organization is actually headed by the Savior, but I can’t turn my back on the light that I have received. However, I can sympathize with how hard it will be for Rebecca to leave the religion of her forbearers. I can’t even imagine how hard that would be. We told her to call her LDS Brother who she hasn’t talked to for years. It will be interesting to hear his reaction.
Anna Hopp came to Church again this week! That’s twice now. She also went to the Relief Society Broadcast. What an awesome meeting: totally a call for repentance, but they did it in such a loving way that I think everyone left with a determination to do a little better. My favorite line was, “Your attendance at your Relief Society meeting on Sunday will bless YOU, but your participation in the work of Relief Society will bless the whole world!” Ouch. I felt that one, which leads me to my next tangent:
I have received several letters here and there from women who have expressed a little sadness at not having had the opportunity to serve a mission. Now, I’ll be honest. Serving a mission is the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. Never again will I have the opportunity to go up to a perfect stranger and dig into the depths of his or her faith to determine whether they are ready to accept Christ’s entire message available to the earth today. I will never be able to do that like I can now as a proselyting missionary. However, until now, I had no idea the importance of the home and visiting teaching programs. As official missionaries our job is to help people enter the gate of the road to exaltation, but the job of a visiting and home teacher is then to take that person’s hand and keep them on that road as they progress through conversion. We can baptize people, but they can walk right back out that gate as quickly as they walked in unless they are able to keep their testimonies nourished and growing. Missionaries help with the teeny-weeny first step, but the rest of the road is up to the convert and to their visiting and home teachers. I can’t tell you how nerve racking it is to leave an area and wonder if the visiting and home teachers are taking care of your babies. Are they giving them the spiritual and emotional nudges they need to continue the road that they started with you. It doesn’t matter if they were baptized at eight or at 38. Everyone is at some point in this road and none of us have reached exaltation yet. I have to go, but don’t worry if you didn’t go on a mission. There’s plenty of missionary work to do as a member. You're work you've already done is important. :)
love,
Sister Johnson
Monday, September 21, 2009
political without the tickle
Reality check…again. Sigh. You’d think I’d get used to this, but it’s still hard. Each day is a rollercoaster. We had some investigators fall through this week. We found a ton of new investigators the week before which is awesome. As the number of investigators increase the number of potential baptisms increases as well, however this increase also leads to an increase of the number of people we teach who will not be baptized. We knew some would fall off the map and we expected it, but we also lost two this week that we weren’t expecting to lose at all.
We met Janie doing drive-by EBP which is our mission lingo meaning that we pull our car over and get out anytime we see people outside. It’s quite annoying and probably very weird for the innocent by-stander, but not as weird as you would expect. Anyways, we met her and she said she could come back because she had a hunger to find answers to gospel questions. We came back and then met her son, Andrew. They are awesome. They told us that they’d been feeling like something great was coming, and then we showed up. They truly believed we were an answer to their prayers and they loved the Book of Mormon and decided they wanted to be baptized. So then it was time to get them to church. Usually that comes before the decision of baptism but not in this case. To make a long story short…her ex-husband doesn’t want her or his son to go to our church. Ugh. Why does an ex-husband have that kind of control over his ex-wife and his 20 year old son? That is also a long story, but the point is I’m mad. It’s one thing if our investigators drop us because they don’t want the gospel, but it’s is a much more difficult thing for me to deal with when the investigators want the gospel but can’t have it because of a chauvinistic and controlling male. Frustration!
Anyways, there’s nothing we can do about it so we have to walk away and pray that the ex-husband’s heart will be softened, but we know that’s not going to happen and in reality that’s not the biggest problem. Janie has the power to take control of her situation, but she doesn’t feel like she has control; she feels helpless even though she could easily have the upper hand if she wanted. We have to pray that Janie will find the strength to stand up for herself and her kids and kick this guy out of the picture…way easier said than done.
Other drama happened this week and I’m not sure how we get involved in it, because really we’re not supposed to be involved in drama at all, but we sure run into doosies as missionaries. I remember at the beginning of my mission I said that I liked a little drama in my life. I take it back. I don’t want any more drama! It’s not fun at all; it’s awful.!
On a good note, we had four people come to church! President Cutler (mission prez) spoke in our ward which was awesome possum. Rebecca came and she liked it, of course. However, she was quite interested to learn that only those who are married will enter the highest degree of the celestial kingdom (gospel principles class…sigh). Her philosophy on marriage is “I’ve been divorced twice, I’m not getting married ever again, so help me_____.” So Sister Dodge explained it a little more and assured her that she would not have to get married in this life if she didn’t want to and she for sure didn’t need to get married to be baptized.
Betty and Joe (names have been changed) came to church. Here’s the story: Joe’s oldest son was in the military and he became a member of the church. Then the son had cancer and he passed away. Joe and his other children were very sad obviously and Joe was looking for something to relieve his sorrow. He randomly ran into Elders and they taught the family and all the kids were baptized, but Joe was not because…well I’m not sure why he didn’t get baptized that first time. Anyways, they moved to Texas two weeks after the baptisms and went less active because they didn’t know where church was. Well, the Lord loves this family, so Joe randomly ran into missionaries again and they called the sisters and the sisters arranged to have his kids go to church. So for the past year the kids have been going to church by themselves with help from the members. The girls are 15 and 13 and the boys are 12 and 10. Sweetest kids ever! When the sisters first met the family Joe told them he wanted to be baptized, but he couldn’t because he was living with his girlfriend, but couldn’t get married because he hadn’t divorced his previous wife. They’d been separated for years and years and years. We run into this all the time. Very common problem. Divorce with kids is expensive and he’s not super rich. Plus his girlfriend, Betty, was not one bit interested in the church. Well, about three weeks ago Joe randomly calls us and asks if we could teach his girlfriend about the Book of Mormon. “Yes, yes we can,” we responded and then when we hung up the phone we jumped around our apartment in joy. So we’ve been teaching the two of them now and he knows it’s true and has already read the entire triple combination and Betty is reading the Book of Mormon and is growing in her testimony. Good news, but there’s still the divorce so marriage and baptism are not going to happen anytime soon. They have a child together and our Mission President has told us that if the parents want to be married and they have kids, it’s better to keep the family together and work towards marriage instead of splitting them up just so they can get baptized. Good counsel.
Anyways, I love being a missionary even though things aren’t always a fairytale. We met a little old man this week from South Africa with the coolest accent ever and he said his name was Polit: political without the tickle. That made the whole week worth it :)
I love you all!
Sister johnson
We met Janie doing drive-by EBP which is our mission lingo meaning that we pull our car over and get out anytime we see people outside. It’s quite annoying and probably very weird for the innocent by-stander, but not as weird as you would expect. Anyways, we met her and she said she could come back because she had a hunger to find answers to gospel questions. We came back and then met her son, Andrew. They are awesome. They told us that they’d been feeling like something great was coming, and then we showed up. They truly believed we were an answer to their prayers and they loved the Book of Mormon and decided they wanted to be baptized. So then it was time to get them to church. Usually that comes before the decision of baptism but not in this case. To make a long story short…her ex-husband doesn’t want her or his son to go to our church. Ugh. Why does an ex-husband have that kind of control over his ex-wife and his 20 year old son? That is also a long story, but the point is I’m mad. It’s one thing if our investigators drop us because they don’t want the gospel, but it’s is a much more difficult thing for me to deal with when the investigators want the gospel but can’t have it because of a chauvinistic and controlling male. Frustration!
Anyways, there’s nothing we can do about it so we have to walk away and pray that the ex-husband’s heart will be softened, but we know that’s not going to happen and in reality that’s not the biggest problem. Janie has the power to take control of her situation, but she doesn’t feel like she has control; she feels helpless even though she could easily have the upper hand if she wanted. We have to pray that Janie will find the strength to stand up for herself and her kids and kick this guy out of the picture…way easier said than done.
Other drama happened this week and I’m not sure how we get involved in it, because really we’re not supposed to be involved in drama at all, but we sure run into doosies as missionaries. I remember at the beginning of my mission I said that I liked a little drama in my life. I take it back. I don’t want any more drama! It’s not fun at all; it’s awful.!
On a good note, we had four people come to church! President Cutler (mission prez) spoke in our ward which was awesome possum. Rebecca came and she liked it, of course. However, she was quite interested to learn that only those who are married will enter the highest degree of the celestial kingdom (gospel principles class…sigh). Her philosophy on marriage is “I’ve been divorced twice, I’m not getting married ever again, so help me_____.” So Sister Dodge explained it a little more and assured her that she would not have to get married in this life if she didn’t want to and she for sure didn’t need to get married to be baptized.
Betty and Joe (names have been changed) came to church. Here’s the story: Joe’s oldest son was in the military and he became a member of the church. Then the son had cancer and he passed away. Joe and his other children were very sad obviously and Joe was looking for something to relieve his sorrow. He randomly ran into Elders and they taught the family and all the kids were baptized, but Joe was not because…well I’m not sure why he didn’t get baptized that first time. Anyways, they moved to Texas two weeks after the baptisms and went less active because they didn’t know where church was. Well, the Lord loves this family, so Joe randomly ran into missionaries again and they called the sisters and the sisters arranged to have his kids go to church. So for the past year the kids have been going to church by themselves with help from the members. The girls are 15 and 13 and the boys are 12 and 10. Sweetest kids ever! When the sisters first met the family Joe told them he wanted to be baptized, but he couldn’t because he was living with his girlfriend, but couldn’t get married because he hadn’t divorced his previous wife. They’d been separated for years and years and years. We run into this all the time. Very common problem. Divorce with kids is expensive and he’s not super rich. Plus his girlfriend, Betty, was not one bit interested in the church. Well, about three weeks ago Joe randomly calls us and asks if we could teach his girlfriend about the Book of Mormon. “Yes, yes we can,” we responded and then when we hung up the phone we jumped around our apartment in joy. So we’ve been teaching the two of them now and he knows it’s true and has already read the entire triple combination and Betty is reading the Book of Mormon and is growing in her testimony. Good news, but there’s still the divorce so marriage and baptism are not going to happen anytime soon. They have a child together and our Mission President has told us that if the parents want to be married and they have kids, it’s better to keep the family together and work towards marriage instead of splitting them up just so they can get baptized. Good counsel.
Anyways, I love being a missionary even though things aren’t always a fairytale. We met a little old man this week from South Africa with the coolest accent ever and he said his name was Polit: political without the tickle. That made the whole week worth it :)
I love you all!
Sister johnson
Monday, September 14, 2009
she's at an 8
I don’t even know where to start. Basically, right now is the happiest time of my entire mission, and in all reality, right now is the happiest time of my entire life. I can’t express how much I love being a missionary. Oh man, I’m tearing up in the library right now just thinking about it. Do you know what I am doing right now? I testify about Jesus Christ everyday. Before I left I had to give a talk on the atonement and I was completely puzzled by what the atonement was. I knew what it was but I didn’t really grasp what it was. I remember trying to piece together explanations from all the philosophies I had been taught in college. I tried to create an intellectual expression of the divine role of the Savior. I knew it, but I didn’t feel it. I think I understood the atonement a lot more as a 14-year-old than I did as a 22-year-old college grad when I left on my mission. So in college I created an intellectual framework of my testimony, but since I’ve been on my mission I feel like I am actually apply what I’ve learned and creating something much more substantial with in myself. I’m grateful for the knowledge I gained in school and now I’m grateful for the chance to apply that knowledge.
A man who has wanted to get baptized for years but hasn’t been able to because he can’t get a divorce and because his girl friend has been very against the church just called us a while ago and asked if we could come and teach his girl friend about the Book of Mormon. We’ve taught her twice and she’s said that she’s not ready to be baptized yet, but that she probably will be once she learns more.
An older man in our ward who is a convert of 2 years told us that we should go see a women named Kristi. He is a wonderful man but he’s very intense and kind of pushy, doesn’t listen real well and we usually try and steer our investigators away from him because we’re afraid he’ll scare them away. But I’ll tell you what, this last week he a doctor’s appointment up in San Antonio and he had a neighbor take him up to it and the whole way he bore his soul to her about the gospel and the blessing that it is in his life. And then of course he told her to talk to missionaries and if she did talk to us then she would be forced to get baptized and that there was no turning back otherwise she would be cast off to outer darkness. Sigh. But guess what! She agreed to meet with us because she said that as this man was going off about the gospel she felt something warm inside of her. She said she got the goose chills. I love the Spirit! We try to offer the gospel on a china plate instead of flinging it in their face, but if we do our best the Spirit will make up for the rest. This man prayed for an opportunity to share the gospel and two days later he was presented with an opportunity and he took it and did the very best he could to share the convictions of his heart and Kristi felt something. Cool…
We are teaching a man named Luz. He’s not super interested but then his friend came to him asking questions and seeking answers about God. Luz let him borrow the Book of Mormon we had given to him and showed him the promise at the end of the book that says if you pray about the book you can know if it’s true. The friend, Jaime, started reading with a critical eye, but then decided to pray about it. He did and he received an answer that made him actually consider that this book could be from God. So then he called us and asked if we could teach him more. After recovering from severe shock we agreed to do so.
Then we met with Rebecca last night after church. Our last appointment had been talking about baptism and she didn’t really know how she felt about it. We called her before church and she was still deciding whether or not she wanted to go. She had mentioned that she wanted to go back to her other church that she went to10 years ago, “but it’s really weird. I can’t find any information about that church anywhere in the phone book.” We were silently thanking the Lord for that. She decided to go to church for the first hour. Lucky for us the Bishop was speaking and he devoted his entire talk to the 13 articles of faith. After that talk she decided to stay for the rest of church which was awesome! After Church Rebecca was asking Sister Dodge if she could replace Coffee with Big Red…we will have to talk to her more about the danger of addictions, but the fact that she is even considering given up coffee is so sweet! We celebrate every little victory. That night we had decided to back off on the baptism thing for a bit to give her some space, but I of course was dying to know what she was thinking about it so I asked, “On a scale from one to ten with one being you don’t want to get baptized and 10 being you do want to get baptized where would you fall?” She answered that before church she was at a four, but she learned so much about our beliefs and understood so much more about authority she now considered herself to be an 8. She’s and 8!!!!!! All night long we were dancing around the apartment. “She’s an 8, she’s an 8!” It’s still going to be quite a process before she’ll feel ready but she’s a lot closer!
I have tons more stories, but not enough time. Basically we have had so many miracles this week. I love it. How many of these miracles will make it to baptism? I’m rootin’ for all of them (I’ll always be a greenie at heart), but in reality I will only see one or two get baptized, but someday the others will probably join them! I love being a part of this work. I finally feel like I understand the importance of baptism. It’s not about changing churches, it’s the first promise that maps out the rest of eternity.
Love, sj
A man who has wanted to get baptized for years but hasn’t been able to because he can’t get a divorce and because his girl friend has been very against the church just called us a while ago and asked if we could come and teach his girl friend about the Book of Mormon. We’ve taught her twice and she’s said that she’s not ready to be baptized yet, but that she probably will be once she learns more.
An older man in our ward who is a convert of 2 years told us that we should go see a women named Kristi. He is a wonderful man but he’s very intense and kind of pushy, doesn’t listen real well and we usually try and steer our investigators away from him because we’re afraid he’ll scare them away. But I’ll tell you what, this last week he a doctor’s appointment up in San Antonio and he had a neighbor take him up to it and the whole way he bore his soul to her about the gospel and the blessing that it is in his life. And then of course he told her to talk to missionaries and if she did talk to us then she would be forced to get baptized and that there was no turning back otherwise she would be cast off to outer darkness. Sigh. But guess what! She agreed to meet with us because she said that as this man was going off about the gospel she felt something warm inside of her. She said she got the goose chills. I love the Spirit! We try to offer the gospel on a china plate instead of flinging it in their face, but if we do our best the Spirit will make up for the rest. This man prayed for an opportunity to share the gospel and two days later he was presented with an opportunity and he took it and did the very best he could to share the convictions of his heart and Kristi felt something. Cool…
We are teaching a man named Luz. He’s not super interested but then his friend came to him asking questions and seeking answers about God. Luz let him borrow the Book of Mormon we had given to him and showed him the promise at the end of the book that says if you pray about the book you can know if it’s true. The friend, Jaime, started reading with a critical eye, but then decided to pray about it. He did and he received an answer that made him actually consider that this book could be from God. So then he called us and asked if we could teach him more. After recovering from severe shock we agreed to do so.
Then we met with Rebecca last night after church. Our last appointment had been talking about baptism and she didn’t really know how she felt about it. We called her before church and she was still deciding whether or not she wanted to go. She had mentioned that she wanted to go back to her other church that she went to10 years ago, “but it’s really weird. I can’t find any information about that church anywhere in the phone book.” We were silently thanking the Lord for that. She decided to go to church for the first hour. Lucky for us the Bishop was speaking and he devoted his entire talk to the 13 articles of faith. After that talk she decided to stay for the rest of church which was awesome! After Church Rebecca was asking Sister Dodge if she could replace Coffee with Big Red…we will have to talk to her more about the danger of addictions, but the fact that she is even considering given up coffee is so sweet! We celebrate every little victory. That night we had decided to back off on the baptism thing for a bit to give her some space, but I of course was dying to know what she was thinking about it so I asked, “On a scale from one to ten with one being you don’t want to get baptized and 10 being you do want to get baptized where would you fall?” She answered that before church she was at a four, but she learned so much about our beliefs and understood so much more about authority she now considered herself to be an 8. She’s and 8!!!!!! All night long we were dancing around the apartment. “She’s an 8, she’s an 8!” It’s still going to be quite a process before she’ll feel ready but she’s a lot closer!
I have tons more stories, but not enough time. Basically we have had so many miracles this week. I love it. How many of these miracles will make it to baptism? I’m rootin’ for all of them (I’ll always be a greenie at heart), but in reality I will only see one or two get baptized, but someday the others will probably join them! I love being a part of this work. I finally feel like I understand the importance of baptism. It’s not about changing churches, it’s the first promise that maps out the rest of eternity.
Love, sj
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