February 29, 2016 - Racing Outhouses

Hello everyone!

So this week was exciting...... I got sick. It was nothing to serious,
it was just miserable. But then on Sunday, the zone leaders gave me
a blessing and right after my nose cleared and I could breathe! It was
so amazing and today I feel so so so much better! The power of the
priesthood is real everyone!

So the Iditarod is starting this week! (Dog sled races) but because it
has been so warm they had to truck snow in from the North Pole... It
is kind of funny. It got up to 45ish degrees yesterday! Utah stole all
of Alaska's snow!

This week there has been a fur rendezvous going on. It is a festival
where they bring fair rides, they sell cool fur things at booths,
there is food everywhere and they had this thing where they raced home
made outhouses.... It was quite funny to watch. I guess it is a
tradition, but I'm not sure where it came from. The outhouse named
the Mormon Battalion won! Represent!!! We got to talk to a lot of
random people which is always fun. And we got to talk to a lot of
drunk people as well.... There was one in particular who offered us
weed. Of course we said no and politely left.... But he was quite
persistent. We offered him a Book of Mormon and he lost interest. That
my friends is the power of the gospel.



Anyways I love you all so much! Make good choices and have a good day!
I love hearing from all of you!
Sister Johnson

February 22, 2016 - Weird food

Hey everyone!

So this week has been weird and sad all at the same time. It is sad
because all of our investigators broke up with us!!! I thought we were
doing so good and everything but then they just stopped contacting us
and we could never get ahold of them, and even when we did schedule a
lesson they wouldn't always show up! I guess it could be because most
of them don't have phones, or cars, or homes... One of my favorite
investigators, Maranda, disappeared. It broke my heart! She has so
much potential, so so much. But I just don't know what to do to help
her. A very wise lady whom we help feed the homeless and the shelter
could tell my companion and I were troubled so she hugged us both and
just said give it to the Lord. She is part of another religion, of
which i can't remember, but I love her so much! She calls us her
daughters, it is awesome.

So Saturday was my click day, meaning I have been out an entire month
now. Don't ask me why they call it that, my companion doesn't even
know so we just roll with it. But on Saturday we got to do service at
a Lutherine church where they fed the homeless like a feast! There was
crab, ribs, potatoes, and really good expensive stuff like that. Then
there was weird stuff like moose links, raccoon, rabbit, and something
else that looked funny but I can't remember what it was called. I was
serving food as they would come by, some tried to come by twice, we
had to tell them no cuz there were a lot of people to feed. One of
these people in particular tried to come through, she was deaf and
talked in sign language. The lady next to me told her she couldn't
come by for seconds. To this the deaf lady got angry then looked at
me, called me ugly and said I was going to Hell. It was quite
exciting.... But on the up side I got to eat moose, rabbit, raccoon,
crab legs,  and something else that tasted like chicken but wasn't
chicken! So that was exciting!

Then after that service we went to a baptism for some of our elders.
At the baptism, the girl getting baptized had a sister there who was
really really drunk. She was yelling and running around.... The elders
were stressed, but it was definitely something I had never experienced
before.

So that was my week! I love you all!

Sis. Johnson

February 15, 2015 - Cute Samoan Babies

So happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you all enjoyed it!

I got to help at the homeless shelter again which was amazing! Those
people are awesome! One of the guys that works there
was interested in reading the Book of Mormon, so we gave him one
and he agreed to meet with us this Friday so I am super excited about
that!

This week was kind of slow... We had so many appointments
scheduled but most of them fell through so that was really depressing.
It happened like all week. It was sad. So then we got to go tracting,
but no one was home or they just didn't want to talk to us. Then
we lost our phone... Which was really bad! (Keep in mind that most of
this actually happened in one day) but then on Sunday we found it so
that was good. It had fallen out of the car into a snow bank on base
(I think I forgot to mention That the military base is in our area) so
that was good that we got that back.

Samoan babies are so cute!!! There is a Samoan ward in the stake and
on Sunday there was a general stake broadcast where we got to hear
from our leaders from Salt Lake. And there was this mom and her baby
sitting in front of me. He had the chubbiest cheeks ever!!! Don't
worry, I didn't touch him 😩 but I still made him laugh😍 none of our
investigators came to that either... 😒

Anyways, I know this email is probably all over the place. Hopefully
you all can understand some of what I said. I love you all! Make
good choices, choose the right, remember who you are and what you
stand for!

Sis. Johnson
😊

February 8, 2016 - I saw a moose!

Hello Family and Friends!!

Well I made it to Alaska in one piece! I am right now serving in the Anchorage North ward. We cover a huge area! And all of it is just one ward, and it still isn't even near as big as the ward at home! It is so crazy! We have to share this ward with some Elders because of how much ground the ward boundaries cover. And it is a city, so there are lots of people living there, they are just in active or not members. It is really nice to have a team... Not that I would know what it is like otherwise... but ya! My companion is Sis. Rose. She is so nice, we get along great!!!

So Anchorage is really pretty, at least from what I can see. It is a city so I can't see much of nature or anything but the mountains are super pretty and I catch glimpses of the ocean on the opposite side of the mountains every once in awhile.

There are a lot of homeless people here. On Saturday we were able to help out at Beans Café (in other words the soup kitchen). They are super nice people. I handed out my first book of Mormon to one of the helpers there! I was helping him with the dishes and he seemed interested enough. But I couldn't tell if he was interested because my companion and I were girls, or if it was because he was actually interested. Sis. Rose said we will schedule an appointment with him and teach him one lesson then we will tell him the Elders will be teaching him now, just to see if he is still interested.

I saw my first moose on Friday!!! We went to go visit the relief society president so that I could meet her and so that we could go with her to drop some jam off at her neighbors house, who isn't a member. And across the street from her house was a mama moose and her year old baby. We didn't know if we should get out of the car or not. We eventually did and it ignored us. Sis. Gorman (the relief society president) met us in the drive way, and we headed over there with her husband tagging along behind us. (One of their hobbies is they have a band. I thought that was pretty cool!) After we visited for a little bit we went back to the car and just chatted for a little bit, when I look over Sis. Gorman's shoulder and I see mama moose headed straight for us. Sis. Gorman said that if their hump is big then that means they are mad... And that hump was big!

    When Sis. Gorman noticed the moose, she said we should probably run. So we hid behind a tree in their yard. The moose scared us away so that it could eat the bushes in their yard. So we snuck into the house. The only problem now is that our car was stuck in between mama moose and baby moose.... So the Gorman's had us sneak out back where they had a car in a little ally way and they drove us around where we were right next to the car. We had to sneak in through the passenger side because mama moose was right outside the driver side door!!! It was so cool! I felt like a ninja! I tried to take a picture of the moose when we were in the car but my flash went off so all you can see is the window and my reflection. Kind of lame. But now every time Sis. Gorman sees me she asks if I have seen any moose. Which I haven't yet :(

Anyways love you all!!!

Sister Johnson

February 2, 2016 - She has arrived

We were able to talk to Angela for about ten minutes around 6am Tuesday morning. It's always hard to hang up. I received this text and photo while she was in route:
"I was your missionary's MTC teacher and I wanted to let you know what a fabulous group of kids you have. They were so charitable and teachable. They really will do incredible work in the mission field. They asked me to send you a pic so here you go smile emoticon we sent them off this morning to their missions. Thanks for loving and supporting them. I was amazed by their progress everyday. You should be proud."

She just looks so happy! Later in the day I received an email from her saying she has arrived and another photo. Seriously, best day ever!



She arrived in Alaska on February 2, 2016!

January 29, 2016

Hey everyone!!!

Thank you so much for all of the emails!!!! I love hearing from all of you and hearing from home!!! So I will be leaving the MTC soon!!!! YAY!!! I fly  out to Alaska this Tuesday!!! At like 3:30 in the morning!!! We were told we should be landing in Alaska by noonish. But we will see!!!

 

My investigators are doing so great!!! I can't really remember what I said in the last email, and I don't have time to look, but just in case I didn't tell you, their names are Joan and Elsie. Joan is coming along so well! She has progressed so much and we challenged her to be baptised. She agreed but only if we teach her more about the commitment she will be making. And of course we had no objections to that!!! Elsie on the other hand is coming a bit slower. She knows all about what we are teaching her so it is more about a review. Right now we are just trying to help her believe the Book of Mormon is another Testament of Christ. She grew up Christian and she is married to a mormon and she is going to BYU so she has had her fill. She is reading and praying the Book of MOrmon, so now we are simply waiting for an answer. We are trying to help her do other things, like go to church with her husband, because that is probably why she hasn't received and answer yet. 

Anyways life is great here! next time you hear from me I will be in Alaska!!!! Love you all!!!

Sister Johnson