October 25, 2016 - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Hellooooo down There!!!!

Sssoooo story time! Yesterday we were Tracting, and there was this cool looking big older type house, it was a bit intimidating. But like the champs we are we marched up to that front door and knocked. As we passed the huge front window out of the corner of my eye I could see someone standing in the window with their hands on their hips staring us down, probs to intimidate us so we wouldn't go to the door. (And if you know me and Windows and people staring and things you know that it's not a good mix) but we ignored him and pretended we didnt see him (or her, but I'm guessing it was a dude) and I'm praying in my head like a mad woman! Anyways we knock on the door.... and wait..... then we hear people running and we look over to the big window (the window sticks out a bit and has two smaller windows on each side of it) so we can see into the front room and these three teenage girls try to sneak under the windows and hide out of our sight t so they can still watch us.... awkward... so to make it less awkward I smiled and waved at them cuz we could totally see them. Well that just made them try to hide harder. Clearly they weren't interested so we are about to turn around and leave when the door opens and there is this tall older man in the door way. Well now we can see in much better, and this house seriously reminded
me of the pride and prejudice house that the main character lives in (I've only seen that movie a few times so don't ask how I remember). To add to it there were like 6 girls from all ages and two little boys all looking at us from around the wall. Anyways this man has this very thick Russian accent so I'm not sure how much he understood what we were saying. But it was a funny conversation. He kept saying I had more then one mom (don't worry mom I made sure to clarify that for him!)and that we were polygamists and that he would become a Mormon when he was in the mood to have another wife. It was sure interesting. He said we could come back, but we probs won't cuz they weren't interested at all! But it was sure funny!

Anyways we also met with our red investigators this week and invited them to be baptized! One of them said yes and is praying for a date, the other two said they wanted to but they want to learn more first so yay! Super exciting! Maybe she will get baptized on my bday, that would be cool! 

So thought for the week comes from this cool quote hanging on our kitchen wall! It says "sometimes when things are falling apart they may actually be falling into place!" The lord has a plan for all of us! Those bumps we go through in life are all apart of that plan. It may seem like the end of the world now, but the lord can see the
bigger picture and that is why we need to trust him, have faith in him, and keep moving forward. Sis. Lake says this cool quote a lot "pray when things are going well so you have a foundation when they are not." Let Christ hold you up and lift your burdens. That is what he is there for, so trust him. The atonement is real you guys. It is
so real! And this church is so true!
I love you all so much!
Sis. Johnson
😊



P.s. While you guys were enjoying warm weather, guess what I was
doing........ 6 inches for the first snow fall of the season!
#craziness

October 17, 2016 - Wind, lights, and stuff

So hello!

This week was pretty good! Sis. Lake and I have been going through our less active lists and trying to visit them and we are asking everyone for referrals! Well when we remember to that is lol.

We also have 3 investigators! They are the best! I can't remember if I have mentioned them yet but they are the children of one of the newest converts in the ward. Her 3 kids are 17, 14, and 11. Their dad isn't interested quite yet but we are getting there :) all of them but one came to church on Sunday! It is so exciting!

So guess what!?!? I almost didn't get to email today cuz our power was out! For the past 3 days we have been having these super bad wind storms, they have been knocking trees and everything over and there has been dust and rocks flying around and it is all just so crazy! But anyways, we woke up to no power this morning for like 3 hours, it was awesome! So we lit candles and had a candle lit breakfast of fruit snacks and cold oatmeal cuz we didn't want to open the fridge to preserve the coolness in there for all the food!

Also exciting things happened this week! I finally saw the northern lights! Sis. Lake and I go running every morning and Wednesday morning after our run, (by now it's like 6:40 and super dark) we make it back
to our apartment and we look up and the borealis lights are out and they were dancing and there was green and purple, it was really cool! The pic doesn't do them justice, but it's all I got :)

October 10, 2016 - Heyo!!!

Hello everyone!!!!

So first of all to calm my mother's curiosity, she so graciously reminded me that I forgot to explain myself in the chicken picture a few weeks back. So we were eating dinner at one of the funniest ladie's house in the ward. She has a chicken coop and someone tricked her into having 3 roosters. She only wanted one, so she asked us to get rid of them. So we did :) Then that night the elders made us teriyaki chicken.... and it was pretty good :) 

This family has 3 teenage boys, they are super fun! One of the boys (he's 14) actually learned something in school and wanted to show his family by using the missionaries. It was terrifying! I was super surprised! Not what he said would happen! 😊

So this week was super exciting! We were trying to contact a lot of our less active members, there was one in particular we went to go try to see, mostly to find out if they even still live there. We go to this one house with a huge drive way. We start walking up the drive way when this dog comes out of nowhere and starts barking and growling at us, naturally we stop. The owner comes out (this older lady) and starts telling the dog to stop barking and to calm down, he doesn't listen.  So she gives up and starts yelling at us to not come any closer.... so we go back to the car, but that dang dog followed us all the way down snapping at our heels. It was great.

Also something that was exciting that happened this week was President Robinson told Sis. Lake and I not to knock on doors with no trespassing signs..... he said it is too dangerous for us and for the church.... the only problem is everyone in our area has a no trespassing sign... so that takes away at least 2/3 of our area we can't go to. That makes missionary work a bit more complicated. But this just means the Ward is going to have to step it up a little bit more. So it is probably a blessing in disguise. I hope all of you know how vitally important members are to missionary work! We can't do anything without you! Reach out to your missionaries, go to lessons with them! They need you! Ya, it is awkward and uncomfortable! But as I have begun to say since training, embrace the awkward!!! And always remember, there is no growth in a comfort zone and there is no comfort in a growth zone!

Anyways I hope you are all doing well! Keep being awesome!!! I love you all!

Sis. Johnson

POEMS BY VAUGHN J. FEATHERSTONE 

The Champion 

The average runner runs until
The breath in him is gone,
But the champion has the iron will That makes him carry on. 

For rest the average runner begs When limp his muscles grow,
But the champion runs on leaden legs. His courage makes him go. 

The average man’s complacent when He’s done his best to score,
But the champion does his best and then He does a little more. 

I feel this poem basically sums up life. Do we want to be champions? It is completely your choice. God gave you agency to become who you WOULD LIKE to become, even though he knows full well who you CAN become! Strive to be a champion in all things!!!! I love you all so much!

P.s. Also shout out to my sister Bailey and all my other xc friends! 
😊#claudwouldappreciatethis

October 3, 2016 - Conference is the best!

Hello everyone!!!!

This sums up mine and Sister Lake's relationship

So story time!!! We were looking at our Ward roster and we realized there were lots of people we didn't know! So we knelt down and said a prayer and looked at the Ward roster again and the name Groff stood out to to us. So we made plans to go visit her and see who she is. 

On our journeys to her home we were driving down this nicely paved road for like 10 min in the middle of the forest having a good ole time, jamming to some Motab, when we turned down this gravelly dirt, off roading road. We travel down this road for a good 15 min, then we turn down another road, for another 10 min and to add to this foreshadowing it started to rain! So now we are just super worried as to where we were going and who this person was and why we were going out in the middle of no where. Needless to say we were very worried. Finally we pulled up to this sign that said Groff. Under the sign is this dirt road that leads into the forest, and across the road is a gate that says no trespassing, gun signs and beware of dog signs. So I'm just thinking, is this a good idea? This seems like a very dangerous situation, do I want to put myself and my brand new missionary companion in a bad situation! Well we parked the car and went and stood at the gate for a good 5 min trying to decide what to do. From the gate we could see lots of broken down cars and metal run down things throughout the over growth of the yard. We still couldn't see a house anywhere and it was harder to see all the other things
with the limited light we had. Well we said a prayer and I decided to push forward. So we crept around the gate and started walking down this long road. Suddenly these dogs start barking all over the place! We were about
half way from the gate and this clearing up a head but we stopped cold turkey! Sis. Lake had had enough and I wasn't far behind so we turn back and start walking to the gate when we hear this lady yell from behind! She called out for us to wait. We turn and this older lady comes hobbling out of the clearing. It was sis. Groff, she was super nice and agreed to listen to us. Prayer is real everyone! Follow those promptings and have faith! it seems scarey in the moment, but it is worth it in the end!!!

Some of my favorite kids! So cute!

That is something that really stood out to me that we need to have faith, the Saturday session talked a lot about prayer, prayer is real everyone! The second you say "Heavenly Father" your father is zeroed in on you, listening, just trust him!

I love you all!!!
Sis. Johnson

This is sister training meeting! We were all blinded, but had a great time