Last week we were knocking and I opened and walked through a gate in order to get to someone’s house. There was no “beware of dog” sign so I thought I was fine, but of course, once I was inside the yard I heard the jingling sound of a loose collar and I saw a black dog racing across the yard bearing the look of death. I screamed and ran back through the gate. Missionary work is dangerous. I could hear a conversation I had had with my dad years early. We were walking down the street and a friendly black dog came running up to lick me to and I flipped out. My dad asked, “I thought you liked dogs?” And I responded, “Not big, black ones!!!” So I guess I’ve never overcome that fear. Fortunately the dog I saw last week wasn’t the biggest black dog I’d ever seen. He was more like a medium black dog, but I don’t really like those either.
Then this week Sister Kleisler and I were knocking again and we walked up to someone’s house and under their big dodge truck was a big scary dog, unchained (because country folks are crazy), and ready to eat us. We slowly started backing away and then two more dogs ran up barking something terrible. There we were standing face to face with three missionary-eaters and all we could do was back up. We were trying to decide if we should run or just act casual. “Hey dogs, good to see ya, sorry we disturbed your nap, what fine fur you have, and what large teeth…” Needless to say, we made it back to our car in one piece which is lucky because our district leader got a pretty bad bite from a dog a few weeks ago.
I went on exchanges this week with Sister Dodge who was Sister Kleisler’s old companion. We had tons of fun. I went up to central San An which was nice. They share a ward with elders so we spent a lot of time with them. I love being with other missionaries! Sister Kleisler hardly ever get to see other missionaries which stinks. AS missionaries we are always a separate identity from everyone else. From the people we talk to everyday, to our investigators, even the members in our ward: we are just different. So it is so nice to be around missionaries who are the same…the same as people who aren’t different. Anyways, it was fun. We helped a member family move. One of the kids, an eight year old, was helping and by the time we got there he was dripping with sweat. The kids love the Elders so one of the missionaries started playing around with the eight year old and then jokingly asked pointing to a sweat bead, “Dude, what’s that?” The eight year old snapped back, “I HAVE SWEAT PROBLEMS, OKAY!!!!” I almost died laughing. It was hilarious. I don’t know what that kid’s medical history is like, but when you live in south Texas, everyone has sweat problems.
Yesterday was the best day this week. We didn’t have anyone at church. Bummer. But we did find a girl named, Alyssa. She had seen us before because everyone has seen us before. Because Pleasanton is so small I almost feel omnipresent. Anyways, we taught her and her friend the restoration. She liked it, her friend…not so much. But that was really cool for us. Then that night we taught Rebecca again (the science teacher). She’s so cool and we asked her about coming to church and she said she didn’t like to go to church because she always cried and it was embarrassing. “Hey! Our church is the perfect for people who cry a lot! Everyone cries.” We told her about the spirit and how sometimes you get overwhelmed by it and all you can do is cry and then she started to cry. It’s really sad that we were excited she cried. We don’t necessarily like it when people cry, but we do like it when they feel something as a result of the thing we teach. Booyah.
Thanks for your prayers and support. Have a great day!
~sister johnson
Monday, August 24, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Mon, Aug 3, 2009
Have I told you about Fritz and Kline? I met them the first time we went running. I was running down the street thinking, “I love running! I love being a missionary! What a beautiful tree! La La La!” When suddenly from across the street I heard a rattling chain and Fritz comes tearing across his yard towards me: “Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff!” (Ruff’s are barked as eighth notes). Ahhh! I almost fell over. I stopped jogging and decided to walk very carefully while in sight of Fritz—But then suddenly I heard another rattling chain as Kline barreled right up to the chain link fence—the only thing standing in the way of me and the jaws of death: “Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff!” I started to do some breathing exercises and tried not to make eye contact with them as I passed by the fortress (a simple brick home on a two acre lot) that they guarded so well. So every morning we run past their home and keep running until the end of the street and then we turn around and run past the house of Fritz and Kline again. And every single stinking morning and every single stinking time we run in front of their house the same thing happens: the two German Shepherds come out to bark us out of their sight. You would think that after six weeks they’d lay off a bit, but no. Every morning they come running out with as much furry as they did the first day—they have a lot of pride for where they live and they know their duty. One day I was running back home with Sister Kleisler behind me. We had already been barked out of sight so I was waiting for round two. As I ran in front of their yard I saw Kline (alright. I actually don’t know which dog it was. And I don’t even know their real names, but I personally I believe Fritz and Kline should be their real names) licking and sniffing a cat. He was so distracted that he didn’t see me pass by. I thought it was hilarious and I almost called out, “Stop flirting with your girlfriend!” Of course I didn’t say that because I knew he would eat me. But he must have heard my thoughts because he all the sudden snapped out of lala land and came chasing after me. Ahhh! Gets me every time.
We ate over at the Scotts house this week. They are an older couple who have been in the ward forever and they know everything about everyone. While we were over there they had a sign on their wall that read: “When I die I want to be buried in the Wal-Mart parking lot so my wife will come and visit me every day.” Then they showed me another sign that they found. This sign was located underneath a handicapped parking sign. It read: “Stupidity is not considered to be a handicap. Park somewhere else!” Haha.
Then my favorite thing that happened this week was during testimony meeting. We had some investigators visiting so of course we were super paranoid about what is said during the church meetings. Someone in the ward went up and bore a beautiful testimony, and in the middle of it they testified of the importance of learning all different kinds of skills. “Who would have thought that learning how to belly dance could save someone’s life?” We heard “belly dance” and about fainted. Then the person recounted how one of their relatives was choking and they would have died if they had not been taught a belly dancing move that acted as a self Heimlich maneuver. So there you go. Belly dancing can save your life.
As far as missionary work goes, I don’t really know what to say. This has been one of the most memorable weeks of my entire mission. It was up then down then up then down. But we found a bunch of people to teach so it was all worth it!
Hope you have a great week! Talk to ya later!
Sister Johnson
Have I told you about Fritz and Kline? I met them the first time we went running. I was running down the street thinking, “I love running! I love being a missionary! What a beautiful tree! La La La!” When suddenly from across the street I heard a rattling chain and Fritz comes tearing across his yard towards me: “Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff!” (Ruff’s are barked as eighth notes). Ahhh! I almost fell over. I stopped jogging and decided to walk very carefully while in sight of Fritz—But then suddenly I heard another rattling chain as Kline barreled right up to the chain link fence—the only thing standing in the way of me and the jaws of death: “Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff Ruff!” I started to do some breathing exercises and tried not to make eye contact with them as I passed by the fortress (a simple brick home on a two acre lot) that they guarded so well. So every morning we run past their home and keep running until the end of the street and then we turn around and run past the house of Fritz and Kline again. And every single stinking morning and every single stinking time we run in front of their house the same thing happens: the two German Shepherds come out to bark us out of their sight. You would think that after six weeks they’d lay off a bit, but no. Every morning they come running out with as much furry as they did the first day—they have a lot of pride for where they live and they know their duty. One day I was running back home with Sister Kleisler behind me. We had already been barked out of sight so I was waiting for round two. As I ran in front of their yard I saw Kline (alright. I actually don’t know which dog it was. And I don’t even know their real names, but I personally I believe Fritz and Kline should be their real names) licking and sniffing a cat. He was so distracted that he didn’t see me pass by. I thought it was hilarious and I almost called out, “Stop flirting with your girlfriend!” Of course I didn’t say that because I knew he would eat me. But he must have heard my thoughts because he all the sudden snapped out of lala land and came chasing after me. Ahhh! Gets me every time.
We ate over at the Scotts house this week. They are an older couple who have been in the ward forever and they know everything about everyone. While we were over there they had a sign on their wall that read: “When I die I want to be buried in the Wal-Mart parking lot so my wife will come and visit me every day.” Then they showed me another sign that they found. This sign was located underneath a handicapped parking sign. It read: “Stupidity is not considered to be a handicap. Park somewhere else!” Haha.
Then my favorite thing that happened this week was during testimony meeting. We had some investigators visiting so of course we were super paranoid about what is said during the church meetings. Someone in the ward went up and bore a beautiful testimony, and in the middle of it they testified of the importance of learning all different kinds of skills. “Who would have thought that learning how to belly dance could save someone’s life?” We heard “belly dance” and about fainted. Then the person recounted how one of their relatives was choking and they would have died if they had not been taught a belly dancing move that acted as a self Heimlich maneuver. So there you go. Belly dancing can save your life.
As far as missionary work goes, I don’t really know what to say. This has been one of the most memorable weeks of my entire mission. It was up then down then up then down. But we found a bunch of people to teach so it was all worth it!
Hope you have a great week! Talk to ya later!
Sister Johnson
Mon, Aug 10, 2009
Well, I forgot my planner so I can’t really remember what happened this week. Oh yeah! Zone Conference!!! That was good. We had to do role plays with President which was TERRIFYING! Role plays in and of themselves are no fun, but with President…We knocked on President’s door ( the pulpit in the chapel) and he answered it. Our objective was to get into the house. Afterwards he told us that sister’s are good teachers, but we’re not very bold door approachers…surprise, surprise. This week we tried to apply what we learned. So we started knocking and at the first door (where someone actually came to the door) we basically said, “We’re missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We’re sharing a message about Jesus Christ that brings a lot peace and happiness. Do you have time for us to come in (bad bad bad thing to ask, but don’t worry we recovered.” “Well, I’m leaving.” “This message is very important. Will you allow us to come into your home and share this message with you? It will take five minutes.” And then the miraculous happened…she said, “Alright” and then let us in. Okay, maybe that door approach seems lame to you and uncreative, but it works a ton better than us going on and on about what a prophet is and the history of the Book of Mormon. It’s weird how willing people are to let you into their home if you just ask. Sad it took me this long to learn that, but oh well.
Other things that happened this week…hmmmm…I got to see Sister Denison at Zone conference which was cool. She was transferred down to San Antonio. We played a song for President during our interviews. It’s a song all about Pleasanton and our inside jokes. Sister Kleisler came up with the ideas and I wrote the lyrics and played the guitar. She has a guitar so I get to play it. It’s fun.
I don’t have a whole lot to say this week so I guess I’ll sign off. Hope everyone is doing well. I love you all and I really appreciate all your support! Welcome Home Grandma and Grandpa Johnson (on Friday)!!!!
~Sister Johnson
Well, I forgot my planner so I can’t really remember what happened this week. Oh yeah! Zone Conference!!! That was good. We had to do role plays with President which was TERRIFYING! Role plays in and of themselves are no fun, but with President…We knocked on President’s door ( the pulpit in the chapel) and he answered it. Our objective was to get into the house. Afterwards he told us that sister’s are good teachers, but we’re not very bold door approachers…surprise, surprise. This week we tried to apply what we learned. So we started knocking and at the first door (where someone actually came to the door) we basically said, “We’re missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We’re sharing a message about Jesus Christ that brings a lot peace and happiness. Do you have time for us to come in (bad bad bad thing to ask, but don’t worry we recovered.” “Well, I’m leaving.” “This message is very important. Will you allow us to come into your home and share this message with you? It will take five minutes.” And then the miraculous happened…she said, “Alright” and then let us in. Okay, maybe that door approach seems lame to you and uncreative, but it works a ton better than us going on and on about what a prophet is and the history of the Book of Mormon. It’s weird how willing people are to let you into their home if you just ask. Sad it took me this long to learn that, but oh well.
Other things that happened this week…hmmmm…I got to see Sister Denison at Zone conference which was cool. She was transferred down to San Antonio. We played a song for President during our interviews. It’s a song all about Pleasanton and our inside jokes. Sister Kleisler came up with the ideas and I wrote the lyrics and played the guitar. She has a guitar so I get to play it. It’s fun.
I don’t have a whole lot to say this week so I guess I’ll sign off. Hope everyone is doing well. I love you all and I really appreciate all your support! Welcome Home Grandma and Grandpa Johnson (on Friday)!!!!
~Sister Johnson
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Hello wall
Tue, Jul 21, 2009
Transfer calls came yesterday: Sister Kleisler and I are staying in Pleasanton.
I got to go to the San Antonio temple for the first time on Tuesday! It was awesome. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. Sigh. Wednesday was district meeting and a senior couple paid for us to eat out at a steak buffet. Yum. That night we taught Toby, Mallory, and Billy Boy. We painted prayer rocks and those boys ended up being quite the little Picasso’s…
Thursday: Sister Kleisler’s teeth have been hurting. I inspected her teeth and noticed that part of a filling had chipped off so there was a large hole in her tooth. So arrangements were made for her to go to the dentist. He took one look in her mouth and said, “That’s not a chipped filling, that’s a huge cavity.” Apparently her last dentist didn’t do a very good job so now she’s got a mouth full of cavities. The dentist filled some, and then prescribed her heavy pain pills to ease her mouth pain. The pills did a good job at getting rid of her pain, but she was a zombie. So we did splits with some sisters from the ward. Sister Kleisler laid on Sister Swaim’s couch while I went out with other sisters in the ward. I went with Sister Midget(a sweet 78 year old woman who loves people and loves to share her testimony) for half the day, then the second half of the was spent with Vanessa.
I have to tell you a little about Vanessa because she’s one of my favorite people in whole world. She’s been a member her whole life, but had a rough childhood which led to her falling away from the Church. She had some terrible, terrible things happened to her as a result of the choices she made while she was away from the church. Ten-ish years later she’s got two kids from one marriage and two from her current boyfriend. Last fall, she was in the depths of humility, I suppose, and she was super depressed standing outside her toaster (what she calls the trailer she lives in) when she saw two sister missionaries knocking door across the street. She prayed and reasoned with the Lord that she would go back to church if He would send those two missionaries to her door…So guess what happened??? They never showed up. Bad missionaries? nope. Vanessa’s awesome and she went to church anyways because she knew she was supposed to go and she didn’t need a sign to realize that. She walked into Church with her boyfriend and four kids and the sisters immediately ran over to them because here in Pleasanton new people are gold. So now 9 months later she is very active and her boyfriend wants to get baptized…as soon as they get married which can’t happen because…well that’s an incredibly long story that I won’t go into. I’ve learned a very important lesson from them. Even though they have sincerely repented of their sins and want nothing more than to live righteously now, they still have to suffer the consequences of their decisions. They can’t get out of it—these consequences will be stuck with them for their entire life. However, they are at peace. Vanessa is surrounded by chaos, but she is at peace because she knows now that she is on good terms with God so she can trust that he’ll help her out in the exact way the she and her family need. What's neat now is that we often get promptings to go see Vanessa right when she needs us. Even though the Lord didn't send the missionaries to Vanessa the first time she asked, He has since sent us several times. So she is the awesomest member to take with us to appointments because she has a tough life so she can relate to the people we teach (everyone who listens to us have very difficult lives) and when she bares her testimony you can feel her sincerity and her peace.
So Vanessa and I did splits for part of Thursday and part of Saturday. On Saturday we went knocking. Usually when we’re with members we take them to solid appointments, because finding people to teach is awkward for them, but our teaching pool has dried up so we have to find more people. Plus, the zone leaders wanted all of us to set someone with a baptism date before the 19th. Okay…that probably sounds weird, and it is. How can you have a goal that depends on another person’s agency? Well, the answer is that the “goals” are more like promises to the Lord that we will do everything in our power to bring people to Christ and then we trust that he will lead us to those people who are ready to make that step—cause we don’t know where they are! I wish we had radar that gave us coordinates to all those people who are ready to hear this message…and I guess in a way we do—the Spirit. But I’ve found that if we make no effort, no plans, and no goals, we don’t find anyone. It’s like God wants us to actually put forth as much effort as we can before he’ll help us out…weird. But with that said…sometimes we DO put forth all of our effort and we still don’t find anyone! But such is life—I have a feeling that something greater than my perception detects is going on here, but that’s just me.
Wow, today’s the letter of tangents. Anyways, on Saturday we weren’t teaching anyone who was ready to set a date to get baptized. But the zone leaders were praying, Sister Kleisler was praying, and I…well I was skeptical because we had three hours and I wasn’t in the mood to convince someone to get baptized just so I could turn in pretty numbers. So we were knocking and an older woman opened the door. She invited us to sit down on her front porch and we asked if she was interested in our message (after explaining for a couple minutes) and she said, “I have different beliefs than you.” She said she had been studying with the Jehova’s witnesses for several years which to us is a big red flag that she likes to learn, but doesn’t like to commit. At this point I normally would have said “thanks for your time” and then would take off down the road to find someone else, but for whatever reason, I decided to read out of the Book of Mormon. Partly because I can tell if people are ready by how strong the Spirit comes while we read from it. Well it came strong. Holy Moly. Wasn’t prepared for that at all—neither was she. Vanessa bore her testimony about the Book of Mormon and about the church and as she did so I got the impression to set her with a baptismal date. Of course I talked back to the thought in my mind, “Are you serious?” “Yes.” Well, I couldn’t argue with that. So I asked her if she wanted to be baptized. “You mean I can be baptized again?” So I explained priesthood and as I did she said, “I keep getting goose bumps while y’all are talking.” So were we. Anyways, we explained that we had a lot to teach her before she was baptized, and that we wouldn’t baptize her until she understood more of what she was getting into, but the feeling that she was getting right now was the Lord telling her that this road was good. Okay, disclosure: we didn’t push her, we didn’t manipulate…she wants to be a part of Christ’s Church—all we did was read from the Book of Mormon and she knew. I love that Book! Our meeting was 25 minutes long. We sat down, felt the spirit, and then we were gone. Sister Kleisler cam with me the next day to visit her to make sure she was legitimately interested and she agreed that Melrose (that’s the woman’s name) was ready to set a baptism date. She had already read 16 chapters in the Book of Mormon and told the Jehova’s Witnesses that she was going to try something new. So her baptisms set for Aug 30th. Whoa.
At church I walked in and saw a woman sitting by herself who I didn’t recognize. I figured out that she was a Methodist who just wanted to come to our church meeting. I asked her if she attended other religious meetings frequently and she said “No, just this one.” She said, “I came here a couple of weeks ago for a funeral (Brother Bishop had died) and the meeting truly touched me. You go to all these different place and don’t feel anything, I feel something when I am here. So I wanted to come again. I came last Sunday, but showed up at the wrong time, so I came again this Sunday.” …Well, I rambled off something like, “Yeah…cool.” But inside I was like, “Um….am I trapped inside an Ensign-Magazine-vortex or is this reality?” So I don’t know what’s going to happen there, but it was cool.
Okay one more story. A lady in our ward was telling us how her father would sometimes punish her and her siblings. I guess he would use the belt often (in a non-abusive way I’m assuming??), but on special occasions when the kids were being extra bad, he would make them talk to the wall. She said it happened when the other siblings were around so they could watch. He would start, “Alright…go to the wall.” “Daaaaaad…noooooo (said in a very whiney teenager voice)” “It’s the wall or the belt.” They shot to the wall.
“Repeat after me”
“Oh my gosh (rolled eyes)”
He starts in a deep, provoking voice, “Hello wall.”
“Hello wall,” the punished kid would say in a small, embarrassed voice.
He would then say, “It’s me again.”
“It’s me again” Meanwhile the other siblings are rolling around on the floor laughing.
Gruff-father-whose-having-way-too-much-fun voice: “I’m back…”
I-can’t-believe-I’m-doing-this voice:“I’m back”
Then the climax “Cause I’ve been Bad!!!”
Kid would sigh and in a little bitty itty voice, “Cause I’ve been bad…” Other kids would erupt into more laughter. He did it to them well into their teens, but she said they have a recording of her when she was only three.
“Hello Wall.”
“He-woa wah” (in a cute little guilty voice).
“It’s me again.” “It me again.”
“I’m back.”
“I back.”
“Cause I’ve been bad.”
“Cause I be bad.”
Well I love you all! Hope your having a fabulous day. Thanks for your prayers and support! Until next week.
sj
Transfer calls came yesterday: Sister Kleisler and I are staying in Pleasanton.
I got to go to the San Antonio temple for the first time on Tuesday! It was awesome. I didn’t realize how much I missed it. Sigh. Wednesday was district meeting and a senior couple paid for us to eat out at a steak buffet. Yum. That night we taught Toby, Mallory, and Billy Boy. We painted prayer rocks and those boys ended up being quite the little Picasso’s…
Thursday: Sister Kleisler’s teeth have been hurting. I inspected her teeth and noticed that part of a filling had chipped off so there was a large hole in her tooth. So arrangements were made for her to go to the dentist. He took one look in her mouth and said, “That’s not a chipped filling, that’s a huge cavity.” Apparently her last dentist didn’t do a very good job so now she’s got a mouth full of cavities. The dentist filled some, and then prescribed her heavy pain pills to ease her mouth pain. The pills did a good job at getting rid of her pain, but she was a zombie. So we did splits with some sisters from the ward. Sister Kleisler laid on Sister Swaim’s couch while I went out with other sisters in the ward. I went with Sister Midget(a sweet 78 year old woman who loves people and loves to share her testimony) for half the day, then the second half of the was spent with Vanessa.
I have to tell you a little about Vanessa because she’s one of my favorite people in whole world. She’s been a member her whole life, but had a rough childhood which led to her falling away from the Church. She had some terrible, terrible things happened to her as a result of the choices she made while she was away from the church. Ten-ish years later she’s got two kids from one marriage and two from her current boyfriend. Last fall, she was in the depths of humility, I suppose, and she was super depressed standing outside her toaster (what she calls the trailer she lives in) when she saw two sister missionaries knocking door across the street. She prayed and reasoned with the Lord that she would go back to church if He would send those two missionaries to her door…So guess what happened??? They never showed up. Bad missionaries? nope. Vanessa’s awesome and she went to church anyways because she knew she was supposed to go and she didn’t need a sign to realize that. She walked into Church with her boyfriend and four kids and the sisters immediately ran over to them because here in Pleasanton new people are gold. So now 9 months later she is very active and her boyfriend wants to get baptized…as soon as they get married which can’t happen because…well that’s an incredibly long story that I won’t go into. I’ve learned a very important lesson from them. Even though they have sincerely repented of their sins and want nothing more than to live righteously now, they still have to suffer the consequences of their decisions. They can’t get out of it—these consequences will be stuck with them for their entire life. However, they are at peace. Vanessa is surrounded by chaos, but she is at peace because she knows now that she is on good terms with God so she can trust that he’ll help her out in the exact way the she and her family need. What's neat now is that we often get promptings to go see Vanessa right when she needs us. Even though the Lord didn't send the missionaries to Vanessa the first time she asked, He has since sent us several times. So she is the awesomest member to take with us to appointments because she has a tough life so she can relate to the people we teach (everyone who listens to us have very difficult lives) and when she bares her testimony you can feel her sincerity and her peace.
So Vanessa and I did splits for part of Thursday and part of Saturday. On Saturday we went knocking. Usually when we’re with members we take them to solid appointments, because finding people to teach is awkward for them, but our teaching pool has dried up so we have to find more people. Plus, the zone leaders wanted all of us to set someone with a baptism date before the 19th. Okay…that probably sounds weird, and it is. How can you have a goal that depends on another person’s agency? Well, the answer is that the “goals” are more like promises to the Lord that we will do everything in our power to bring people to Christ and then we trust that he will lead us to those people who are ready to make that step—cause we don’t know where they are! I wish we had radar that gave us coordinates to all those people who are ready to hear this message…and I guess in a way we do—the Spirit. But I’ve found that if we make no effort, no plans, and no goals, we don’t find anyone. It’s like God wants us to actually put forth as much effort as we can before he’ll help us out…weird. But with that said…sometimes we DO put forth all of our effort and we still don’t find anyone! But such is life—I have a feeling that something greater than my perception detects is going on here, but that’s just me.
Wow, today’s the letter of tangents. Anyways, on Saturday we weren’t teaching anyone who was ready to set a date to get baptized. But the zone leaders were praying, Sister Kleisler was praying, and I…well I was skeptical because we had three hours and I wasn’t in the mood to convince someone to get baptized just so I could turn in pretty numbers. So we were knocking and an older woman opened the door. She invited us to sit down on her front porch and we asked if she was interested in our message (after explaining for a couple minutes) and she said, “I have different beliefs than you.” She said she had been studying with the Jehova’s witnesses for several years which to us is a big red flag that she likes to learn, but doesn’t like to commit. At this point I normally would have said “thanks for your time” and then would take off down the road to find someone else, but for whatever reason, I decided to read out of the Book of Mormon. Partly because I can tell if people are ready by how strong the Spirit comes while we read from it. Well it came strong. Holy Moly. Wasn’t prepared for that at all—neither was she. Vanessa bore her testimony about the Book of Mormon and about the church and as she did so I got the impression to set her with a baptismal date. Of course I talked back to the thought in my mind, “Are you serious?” “Yes.” Well, I couldn’t argue with that. So I asked her if she wanted to be baptized. “You mean I can be baptized again?” So I explained priesthood and as I did she said, “I keep getting goose bumps while y’all are talking.” So were we. Anyways, we explained that we had a lot to teach her before she was baptized, and that we wouldn’t baptize her until she understood more of what she was getting into, but the feeling that she was getting right now was the Lord telling her that this road was good. Okay, disclosure: we didn’t push her, we didn’t manipulate…she wants to be a part of Christ’s Church—all we did was read from the Book of Mormon and she knew. I love that Book! Our meeting was 25 minutes long. We sat down, felt the spirit, and then we were gone. Sister Kleisler cam with me the next day to visit her to make sure she was legitimately interested and she agreed that Melrose (that’s the woman’s name) was ready to set a baptism date. She had already read 16 chapters in the Book of Mormon and told the Jehova’s Witnesses that she was going to try something new. So her baptisms set for Aug 30th. Whoa.
At church I walked in and saw a woman sitting by herself who I didn’t recognize. I figured out that she was a Methodist who just wanted to come to our church meeting. I asked her if she attended other religious meetings frequently and she said “No, just this one.” She said, “I came here a couple of weeks ago for a funeral (Brother Bishop had died) and the meeting truly touched me. You go to all these different place and don’t feel anything, I feel something when I am here. So I wanted to come again. I came last Sunday, but showed up at the wrong time, so I came again this Sunday.” …Well, I rambled off something like, “Yeah…cool.” But inside I was like, “Um….am I trapped inside an Ensign-Magazine-vortex or is this reality?” So I don’t know what’s going to happen there, but it was cool.
Okay one more story. A lady in our ward was telling us how her father would sometimes punish her and her siblings. I guess he would use the belt often (in a non-abusive way I’m assuming??), but on special occasions when the kids were being extra bad, he would make them talk to the wall. She said it happened when the other siblings were around so they could watch. He would start, “Alright…go to the wall.” “Daaaaaad…noooooo (said in a very whiney teenager voice)” “It’s the wall or the belt.” They shot to the wall.
“Repeat after me”
“Oh my gosh (rolled eyes)”
He starts in a deep, provoking voice, “Hello wall.”
“Hello wall,” the punished kid would say in a small, embarrassed voice.
He would then say, “It’s me again.”
“It’s me again” Meanwhile the other siblings are rolling around on the floor laughing.
Gruff-father-whose-having-way-too-much-fun voice: “I’m back…”
I-can’t-believe-I’m-doing-this voice:“I’m back”
Then the climax “Cause I’ve been Bad!!!”
Kid would sigh and in a little bitty itty voice, “Cause I’ve been bad…” Other kids would erupt into more laughter. He did it to them well into their teens, but she said they have a recording of her when she was only three.
“Hello Wall.”
“He-woa wah” (in a cute little guilty voice).
“It’s me again.” “It me again.”
“I’m back.”
“I back.”
“Cause I’ve been bad.”
“Cause I be bad.”
Well I love you all! Hope your having a fabulous day. Thanks for your prayers and support! Until next week.
sj
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Mon, Jul 13, 2009
This week started off right with a quadruple-zone dodge ball tournament. I hate dodge ball, but I got to see my trainer Sister Davenport!!! So we talked for a bit and that was cool. We had a member from our ward drive us up there. Her name is Sister Partridge (Her son is Edward Partridge the 7th. If Edward Partridge the 1st was a king, then Edward Partridge the 7th would be his successor…hmmm, random analogy…but it really wasn’t an analogy, I was just trying to illustrate the direct lineage—okay, I ‘m done). She and her husband are very nice to us and help us out a lot. She is a recent convert of 4 years so she loves sister missionaries cause we were the ones who found her. I like being a missionary cause everything good that preceding missionaries have done gets passed down to you…on the other hand anything bad other missionaries do gets passed on as well).
On Tuesday we got a sad phone call from Corina who is a woman we found last week. We had an incredible lesson with her and she knew it was something she wanted in her life, but her husband came home later and was very offended that she had let us in. She called to tell us that because of her husband she doesn’t want to continue lessons. Sad day. But we have to respect her and her husband so all we can do is pray that someday her husband will be willing to listen.
On Wednesday we spent half the day driving around San Antonio after our district meeting to pay for Sister Kleisler’s ticket that she got last transfer. As a result of all that, I am now the driver to protect her from getting another ticket. Yay! I get to drive the big black truck! Well it’s actually a small gray pickup, but it’s still cool. We had our new member lessons that night with a bunch of recent converts and investigators in the ward. We had Brother Silvester give a lesson on prophets, but apparently the Spirit had other plans. Brother Silvester tried to talk about prophets, but he ended up talking mostly about the atonement of Christ. The things he taught that night were exactly what these converts and investigators needed to hear. He didn’t realize how perfect his teaching was cause he knew nothing about the challenges and struggles of the people in the room, but we did. As missionaries, people feel comfortable telling us all their life stories, so when we heard Brother Silvester say something we’d casually glance to the person we knew it would apply to. It was so cool.
On Thursday we planned an amazing lesson to get Toby excited about his baptism. He’s still sweet and kind, but we’ve been able to tell a difference in him since he talked to his mom about being baptized. He lost the fire. When we saw him for this lesson he had started reading the book of mormon again and so his light started to return. We had the lesson at the church. When they walked into the gym we had set up a bunch of play tents (from nursery) and we acted out the story of Ammon the missionary complete with costumes, weapons, stuffed animals, and of course a fake arm. Toby and his brothers loved it. It was fun and he seemed his normal, happy self when it was over.
Friday was a finding day…bleck. We didn’t find any one.
Saturday was another finding day…bleck. We contacted a referral, but that was it. I had this brillante idea to get in service clothes and drive around the town and find people who were doing yard work or who were moving and pull over and offer to help them out. It would have been a great idea except for the fact that it was 108 degrees with 3000% humidity! Okay the humidity is an exaggeration, but it was hot. No one in their right mind should have been outside on that Saturday afternoon. Well, we learned our lesson and wasted a bunch of miles. :) Then we had a lesson with Toby again to make final preparations for his baptism.
On Sunday…Toby got baptized!!!!! And Clarissa got confirmed!!!!! We actually didn’t get to watch his actual baptism cause…all spare you the details but just know that baptisms are crazy and something always has to go wrong…but the adversary can’t win!!! Even though it wasn’t picture perfect and stuff happened that we didn’t plan on, Toby still got baptized!!!!! Toby’s mom was there and she seemed pretty uncomfortable at first. She was annoyed that we told her she couldn’t take pictures of the actual baptism. But by the end she was smiling and happy for Toby. The ward was really awesome at fellowshipping her. Brother and Sister Silvester took her around the church on a tour and everyone was very complementary of Toby (cause he’s awesome) and they were complementary of her for raising such a fine young man. All in all, it ended up being an awesome baptism.
Clarissa loved her confirmation, but it was a sad day for her as well. Gary was supposed to come and be there for it, but he got drunk the night before and said a lot of things to her that hurt her feelings. She realized that he wasn’t ready to change yet and that she was going to have to move on in the gospel without him. She’s going to have to find an apartment and job and everything cause she knows they won’t get married for a while. As missionaries we get to watch things like this. We can’t counsel her on these kinds of matters, all we can do is tell her to pray and read scriptures and find out what the Lord wants her to do.
I was thinking about Gary and how sad it was that he’s given up on progressing in the gospel. We had some incredible spiritual experiences with him and his family. He witnessed spiritual expression that some people wait their whole life to receive, but don’t. How could he turn his back on those things? I have a living example now of Laman and Lemuel denying the faith after seeing an angel. Poor guy. But I realized that as cool as the experiences have been, they are pointless unless your heart understands their significance.
I’ve noticed that since I’ve been on a mission I’ve witnessed a lot more spiritual experiences. At first I thought that it was because of the work I’m involved in. I just thought that missionary has more spiritual stuff than other areas of life such as school, work, and family. But now I’m learning that that’s not true. The difference is not the work I am involved with. The difference is me. The Lord has been around this whole time leading and directing his children through Angels and the Spirit. It’s all around me all the time, but since I’ve been on my mission, I’ve paid more attention and caught more experiences that otherwise may have just passed by without notice. All the experiences I’ve had haven’t been huge fireworks and loud noises. They’ve been very subtle and quiet yet incredibly profound moments that come and go without pomp. I just notice now because I’m aware of the needs of these people and what their lives and challenges entail. I pray for this people a thousand times during the day. I am studying and searching for God’s hand in my life as well as in my investigators and now I’m seeing it. I can’t help but see it because I’m actually looking for it. My days are long and filled with drudgery and boredom and then suddenly a small speckle of light breaks through all of that and if I wasn’t consciously looking for it I’d miss it.
We meet a lot of return missionaries who have gone inactive or fallen away from the church. And since I’ve been out I’ve been trying to figure out how they could fall away after all the miracles I’m sure they had seen on their missions. But it’s probably because they stopped looking or they forgot how…or maybe something else, I don’t know.
Well, I’m done rambling. Thank you for your prayers and emails and letters! I love you all! Talk to ya later!
Sister Johnson
This week started off right with a quadruple-zone dodge ball tournament. I hate dodge ball, but I got to see my trainer Sister Davenport!!! So we talked for a bit and that was cool. We had a member from our ward drive us up there. Her name is Sister Partridge (Her son is Edward Partridge the 7th. If Edward Partridge the 1st was a king, then Edward Partridge the 7th would be his successor…hmmm, random analogy…but it really wasn’t an analogy, I was just trying to illustrate the direct lineage—okay, I ‘m done). She and her husband are very nice to us and help us out a lot. She is a recent convert of 4 years so she loves sister missionaries cause we were the ones who found her. I like being a missionary cause everything good that preceding missionaries have done gets passed down to you…on the other hand anything bad other missionaries do gets passed on as well).
On Tuesday we got a sad phone call from Corina who is a woman we found last week. We had an incredible lesson with her and she knew it was something she wanted in her life, but her husband came home later and was very offended that she had let us in. She called to tell us that because of her husband she doesn’t want to continue lessons. Sad day. But we have to respect her and her husband so all we can do is pray that someday her husband will be willing to listen.
On Wednesday we spent half the day driving around San Antonio after our district meeting to pay for Sister Kleisler’s ticket that she got last transfer. As a result of all that, I am now the driver to protect her from getting another ticket. Yay! I get to drive the big black truck! Well it’s actually a small gray pickup, but it’s still cool. We had our new member lessons that night with a bunch of recent converts and investigators in the ward. We had Brother Silvester give a lesson on prophets, but apparently the Spirit had other plans. Brother Silvester tried to talk about prophets, but he ended up talking mostly about the atonement of Christ. The things he taught that night were exactly what these converts and investigators needed to hear. He didn’t realize how perfect his teaching was cause he knew nothing about the challenges and struggles of the people in the room, but we did. As missionaries, people feel comfortable telling us all their life stories, so when we heard Brother Silvester say something we’d casually glance to the person we knew it would apply to. It was so cool.
On Thursday we planned an amazing lesson to get Toby excited about his baptism. He’s still sweet and kind, but we’ve been able to tell a difference in him since he talked to his mom about being baptized. He lost the fire. When we saw him for this lesson he had started reading the book of mormon again and so his light started to return. We had the lesson at the church. When they walked into the gym we had set up a bunch of play tents (from nursery) and we acted out the story of Ammon the missionary complete with costumes, weapons, stuffed animals, and of course a fake arm. Toby and his brothers loved it. It was fun and he seemed his normal, happy self when it was over.
Friday was a finding day…bleck. We didn’t find any one.
Saturday was another finding day…bleck. We contacted a referral, but that was it. I had this brillante idea to get in service clothes and drive around the town and find people who were doing yard work or who were moving and pull over and offer to help them out. It would have been a great idea except for the fact that it was 108 degrees with 3000% humidity! Okay the humidity is an exaggeration, but it was hot. No one in their right mind should have been outside on that Saturday afternoon. Well, we learned our lesson and wasted a bunch of miles. :) Then we had a lesson with Toby again to make final preparations for his baptism.
On Sunday…Toby got baptized!!!!! And Clarissa got confirmed!!!!! We actually didn’t get to watch his actual baptism cause…all spare you the details but just know that baptisms are crazy and something always has to go wrong…but the adversary can’t win!!! Even though it wasn’t picture perfect and stuff happened that we didn’t plan on, Toby still got baptized!!!!! Toby’s mom was there and she seemed pretty uncomfortable at first. She was annoyed that we told her she couldn’t take pictures of the actual baptism. But by the end she was smiling and happy for Toby. The ward was really awesome at fellowshipping her. Brother and Sister Silvester took her around the church on a tour and everyone was very complementary of Toby (cause he’s awesome) and they were complementary of her for raising such a fine young man. All in all, it ended up being an awesome baptism.
Clarissa loved her confirmation, but it was a sad day for her as well. Gary was supposed to come and be there for it, but he got drunk the night before and said a lot of things to her that hurt her feelings. She realized that he wasn’t ready to change yet and that she was going to have to move on in the gospel without him. She’s going to have to find an apartment and job and everything cause she knows they won’t get married for a while. As missionaries we get to watch things like this. We can’t counsel her on these kinds of matters, all we can do is tell her to pray and read scriptures and find out what the Lord wants her to do.
I was thinking about Gary and how sad it was that he’s given up on progressing in the gospel. We had some incredible spiritual experiences with him and his family. He witnessed spiritual expression that some people wait their whole life to receive, but don’t. How could he turn his back on those things? I have a living example now of Laman and Lemuel denying the faith after seeing an angel. Poor guy. But I realized that as cool as the experiences have been, they are pointless unless your heart understands their significance.
I’ve noticed that since I’ve been on a mission I’ve witnessed a lot more spiritual experiences. At first I thought that it was because of the work I’m involved in. I just thought that missionary has more spiritual stuff than other areas of life such as school, work, and family. But now I’m learning that that’s not true. The difference is not the work I am involved with. The difference is me. The Lord has been around this whole time leading and directing his children through Angels and the Spirit. It’s all around me all the time, but since I’ve been on my mission, I’ve paid more attention and caught more experiences that otherwise may have just passed by without notice. All the experiences I’ve had haven’t been huge fireworks and loud noises. They’ve been very subtle and quiet yet incredibly profound moments that come and go without pomp. I just notice now because I’m aware of the needs of these people and what their lives and challenges entail. I pray for this people a thousand times during the day. I am studying and searching for God’s hand in my life as well as in my investigators and now I’m seeing it. I can’t help but see it because I’m actually looking for it. My days are long and filled with drudgery and boredom and then suddenly a small speckle of light breaks through all of that and if I wasn’t consciously looking for it I’d miss it.
We meet a lot of return missionaries who have gone inactive or fallen away from the church. And since I’ve been out I’ve been trying to figure out how they could fall away after all the miracles I’m sure they had seen on their missions. But it’s probably because they stopped looking or they forgot how…or maybe something else, I don’t know.
Well, I’m done rambling. Thank you for your prayers and emails and letters! I love you all! Talk to ya later!
Sister Johnson
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