August 29, 2016 - #Alaska

Hey everyone!

So this week was pretty good! We have continued on for our search for
investigators, and we have seen a few miracles from it!

Miracle 1: we went to visit a less active. As we
were talking with him this lady kept walking by (he rents one of his
rooms out to her) and she asked quite a lot of questions. So then we
left and then came back and she joined us for a lesson. We told her
all about the plan of salvation. She was quite excited.... The only
down side is she was drunk.... So I'm not sure how much she remembers.
Then we went over yesterday and Scott got a blessing from his awesome
home teachers, and she was able to sit in and watch how it was done.
We were able to teach her a little bit about the priesthood. She said
after that she felt like crying, but cuz she was happy. We explained
that what she was feeling was the spirit. So that was pretty cool!

Miracle 2: we were walking to one of our members houses, the
retired bull rider who is deaf and blind and so far my favorite. As we
were walking a mail car passed by us, then it stopped and we met up
with it and the mail man inside talked with us, and asked when we were
coming over. We were a bit shocked and didn't really know what to do
cuz this kind of thing never happens. So we were like ya we can come
by tonight! But it turned out he lived in another zone so we had to
refer him to some elders. They tried him but he wasn't home so
hopefully they will be able to get a hold of him!

Miracle 3: we were at dinner last night with 2 more of my favorite
people, sis. Lorenz and sis. Blackburn. They are two older single
ladies who have been friends forever. They are so funny! But the
message we shared was on the Book of Mormon and we invited them to
give one away to someone. Well before we left their house sis. Lorenz
already had a lesson set up for us! Like what! It's great!
Unfortunately he too is out of our area so we will see what happens,
but the lord is slowly waking up the area! And whether in memory lake
or not, these people are taking steps to come closer to Christ which
is the most important thing to do!

Anyways I love you all! Hope you all are doing well!

Sis. Johnson
P.s. Oh and I cut my hair.... So that was fun... :)

August 22, 2016 - Heyo!

Hello friends from the lower 48!!!

So my week was pretty good! Not much different then last week! We are
still working on finding investigators and looking for opportunities
to serve!  We go tracting and contacting every day! Have I mentioned
how much I love tracting??? It is the best thing in the whole entire
world! We have seen some miracles from our efforts though! They are very
small but they are totally there!

First miracle is we finally have some potential investigators, meaning
we will potentially be teaching them hopefully sometime in the near
future, which means they said we could come back. So that was awesome!
We plan to return this week and get all the blessings allowing for them
as they learn about the gospel!

The church is true you guys! This work I have been so privileged to be
a part of is all under the control of our Heavenly Father! He directs
it, we simply do his will and as we show our efforts and continually
seek those whom he has prepared, we will find them! We just need to
keep looking. The guidance from the above is so real! There is no
such thing as coincidences! Especially on a mission!

I love you all! And miss you lots!

Love,
Sis. Johnson

P.s. Oh ya, we stacked all of this wood! It only took four hours. But
it was the biggest tender mercy ever!

August 15, 2016 - 7 months out!

Hi friends!

So this week was super exciting! We are still a bit low on investigators so we have been finding and tracting and stuff all the week long. So once again I say to you all, be nice to the poor people who knock on your doors, it is a terrifying job! 

Anyways, Sis. McGraw and I first went down this road called bull moose road (typical Alaskan road names are the best! There is also a grizzly road, grey wolf road, and musk ox road, and there are some that are called this road and that road. Not even kidding!) The people on this road are interesting! As we were tracting down it with no success we decided to turn back. On our way back we walked passed this trail that lead deeper into the woods. And believe it or not it was my companion's idea to go down the trail, not mine! Of course I didn't argue, so off we go and it went deeper and deeper..... It was a very long trail. We didn't make it to the end before Sis. McGraw said we should turn around lol. Sorry, nothing exciting happened to us on the trail to report on, I just thought it was exciting that we went on the trail in the first place haha :)

This story is a bit more exciting! So we were tracting and we tracted into a member and he gave us a referral. He wrote his testimony in a Book of Mormon and so off we went to give it to this lady. As we were walking up to the door their dogs were barking at us in the window and the owner was standing in the window. She was shaking her head at us and gestured for us to go away..... Then she opens the window and said if we didn't leave she would sick her dogs on us and they would eat us...........So that was exciting. Later we told huethe member what
happened, so he went by and told us to go back. So we went back! We had to deliver this book! Apparently it was the referral's mom who didn't like us, but we were still able to get her the book so it worked out :). Then we found out she is 20 and belongs in the ysa... So we have to give her to the ysa elders :( so that was an awesome bummer!

Anyways I love you all! I hope life and everything is going well for you all :)

Sis. Johnson :)

August 8, 2016 - Obedience is the key!

Alright everyone pay close attention! I have things to say! 

So first of all, I serviced my first week white washing. Wahoo! Big accomplishment! We have finally met many of the people in the ward which is great. Our bishop is the bomb.com!!! He loves his ward and has been so helpful, even though he was in Logan (as in my home, Logan
UT), during it all. He called and we had good discussions. Now that he is back from Babylon we have coordinated much and it is awesome! This week we have tracted a lot! We still are quite dry in the investigator department (prayers would be wonderful! 

Now you need to understand something very important. Alaskan houses are sketch! They are buried in two acres of woods and their driveways are forever long. There was this one house where we had to climb down a hill covered in trees on a dirt road out in he middle of nowhere with broken cars and other things lining the road, with these huge dogs guarding it and big dark windows. And there were signs along the road saying no trespassing or soliciting. And other signs that talk about guns and stuff and beware of dog signs and things. And the house was this cabin type thing with HUGE brooding dark windows, so whoever lived there could see us coming from a mile away. Needless to say I was terrified. But onward we went..... With my amazing companion dragging me behind her, we went to this house and met the most amazingly kind, super duper nice, very open man who took our number and said he wanted to learn more and stuff! Holy cow! Did not see that coming. And his dog who looks terrifyingly mean is actually this huge fuzz ball. Because of this experience I am now a witness that even though we are scared to death to follow the spirit, it is so super duper important for us to follow through, cuz we never know what will happen.

Also I had this awesome epiphany yesterday! We were at a dinner appointment and we were talking about our life on earth being a test. I imagine it to be like a math test. As we are taking the test there are problems we struggle with and choices of answers we don'talways know the answer to. We pick wrong answers, we might get
confused while trying to work out the problem. In life we were sent here to be tested. We are not perfect, we don't know the answers to all of life's questions. We might get confused as to why things are happening to us and what is right and what is wrong. We won't get every choice or decision right. Well, in school my math teacher would have us go over all the answers we got wrong and try to figure out the right answer. And sometimes,
even going over it again and again I still would get the answer wrong in the test. We have trials so we can continually learn and grow, even after we have gone through it time and time again, we may still make the wrong choice. But just like how we learn more about math and what is right and what is wrong, in life we learn and gain experience as to what will bring us true joy and real happiness and what will mess up our lives and cause us to start over. Jesus Christ suffered so that we can start over. He is the teacher, the prophets are the tutors. We have been given by the prophets study materials and study guides to help us get more and more of those questions right. Really what it boils down to is obedience. The test of is life is obedience. As we follow the Lords teachings and listen to what the prophets have to say, we have a chance at Acing this test! I know that this is true! I have seen it time and time again out here. We have been given commandments to help us be happy.

Sorry it was so long today, for those of you who finished reading this all the way to the bottom, good job! I hope you take something from it. I know it is true! I love you all! And hope you are safe!

Love,
Sis. Johnson :D

Oh ya, we also got to go to the temple! That was pretty awesome! :)
this is my new zone!

August 1, 2016 - Wasilla!

Hellooooo!
😊Im in wasilla now! Sis. McGraw and I are white washing memory lake. We got a new phone, car, and apartment and a new area book and everything is new! So we have no information other then what the elders have told us who had the Ward before we got here. It's super exciting.... But it also means we have no investigators. We decided to get to know the Ward and work through the Ward to get some referrals. That's the  plan so far. And it has worked pretty good.

The first few days after getting unpacked and things we went out and visited a bunch of people! So we had met quite a few people before Sunday even came around! So that was great! One of the people we went to see was a man who is a hitchhiker that is currently living in a school bus..... The elders told us to go see him cuz he is super solid and curious and has lots of questions. Of course we can't say no to questions, so off we go. We drove quite a ways into the forest (Wasilla is full of trees) and it was cloudy so it was pretty dark for Alaska in August, and it 8pm... Sketch right? But we had to meet him! So we are driving and driving and we turn and this clearing opens up and there is this nicer house with this random school bus sitting in the yard..... Not quite what I was expecting. Smoke was coming out of the bus so we knew he was home, so awkwardly we knock on the bus door. He was very nice and wanted a Book of Mormon. So that was exciting!

So I have decided that if I were to ever move to Alaska it would most likely be Wasilla! Cuz Wasilla has both mountains and trees. It's like a bowl full of trees. Mountains on all sides with trees everywhere. People who live here are basically forest hermits, my future ;) and the best part is on the side of the roads there are dirt trails for
dirt biking and four wheeling! People ride them everywhere! It is normal to ride them down the road to your friend jimmys home! It would be weird to walk cuz jimmy would live like 5 miles away! And instead of riding a bicycle they ride four wheelers, it is great! And everyone has dogs and land. For missionaries it's a pain cuz the house is buried behind trees and so we can't see the house number like at all, and they train their dogs to guard their houses (cuz people out here don't normally want to be found). But ya, and it's not to far from the temple, maybe like a 45 min drive. But I love it here! And the Ward is super awesome! It's great! But ya that's about where I'm at right now!

I love you all and hope you are all safe and enjoying the end of summer!

Opposition in all things" - Dallin h oaks April 2016
(This is a really awesome talk! Read it! It will change your life!) I
know this church is true you guys! If you don't know it then try to,
if you do know it then help those who are seeking. We are here to
learn and grow and help those around us. I love you all so much!

Sis. Johnson :)