June 20, 2016 - 5 months!

Hello all!

I guess it still gets warm.

Angela says they use some interesting terminology up north:)

I hope you all had a great Father's Day! I know mine was interesting! It was our first Sunday in my new area (the Fairbanks 5 Ward) so my companion and I have been trying to get to know our Ward and everything. Plus we taught relief society! They put us to work right away!  It was super exciting! Our bishop looks like he's 20 so that was really weird, but I think he's actually older then that but idk.
Haha it just weirded me out to have a bishop so young! Especially coming from Inlet View!

Angela thinks this ladle is abnormally large.

She said, "It's as big as my head!"

This week we have mostly been working on meeting everyone! We already have two people on date! The sisters before us were amazing! So we are just trying to prepare them for the baptisms. One of them is in 2 weeks, and neither of us have ever had a baptism before so we are trying to figure out what we are supposed to be doing! Haha it's a good time!

Her District

We also got to do this awesome service where we dug a gigantic hole! Yeah, we are building a root cellar so our entire zone was digging a hole and it was a deep hole. The sisters were in he hole digging and filling up buckets and the elders lifted the buckets out of the hole and dumped it out the. Sent it back down to be refilled. It was awesome! I got so dirty! I loved it! We did this for like 5 hours! At around 4:30 Sis. Jackson and I had to call an appointment to reschedule cuz we were filthy and we weren't going to make it back. So we went to the truck to get our phone and the back left tire was completely flat! It looked like it had been popped on the road up there. So ya, we definitely weren't going anywhere. So all of us were try to figure out how to get the spare off the bottom of the truck. It took a long time, but we eventually figured it out. After 2 hours and 6 missionaries we finally changed the tire. It was super funny!

 

 

I love you all so much! Make good choices. I know this church is true. That is why I am here. The gospel blesses families and by living it and following Christ the lord will bless and protect them.
I love you family and friends!

 

The Zone

Sis. Johnson

June 12, 2016 - Transfers, and Sister Johnson is in ...

I'm running out of ideas for a subject line, well actually I ran out awhile ago if you can't tell 🙃

So life is great here on the mission! We just got transfer calls! I am finally leaving my place of birth here on the mission and heading out to Fairbanks! Sis. Jackson (a sister who came out with me) and I will be white washing the 5th ward (white washing means that they are taking both missionaries out and putting bran new ones in) and by brand new ones I mean almost 5 months new. We both still don't really know what we are doing, but that's fine. The lord has awesome things in store, I'm super excited to be apart of it!

We got to go to the temple! It was my last time, for a really long time cuz they only have one in all of Alaska and I was privileged enough to serve the first part of my mission near it. It's so cute and
small too! It's adorable!

We also got to go in changes with the stls this week! I went with sister Grieve in the ocean view area of southern anchorage, it was actually really cool, she is such an amazing missionary!  I learned so
much.

I have been reading the Book of Mormon since being out here, as I read I almost feel like it is as if it is for the first time. So many different things stick out to me that hadn't before. I have read it a
few times in my life so as I'm reading I'm always like "how have I not noticed this before?" It is because this is the word of God, it is how he speaks with us and guides us. The things that stick out to you now, are because He knows your needs and wants at this time and he will help guide you through the Book of Mormon. I love this book so so so much! As I have been reading I have been putting myself in their shoes, as a new missionary so much has struck me that never has before. I want to invite you all to try it! As you read simplify and apply it to yourself. It will help and mean so much more to you. I love this gospel and I know that it is true! The Book of Mormon is the word of God and it does help us with the simplest things in life!

Anyways I love and miss you all! Keep being awesome! Make good choices! And remember who you are!

Love,
Sis. Johnson  🤗

June 6, 2016 - Miracles happened this week

Hello my support team!
So we are still finding and finding and finding. And seeing very little success from it. We only have 5 people in our whole area book, which is a little messed up cuz I am in one of biggest cities in
Alaska. But that's how it is. So we find all the day long. I have met some of the strangest, coolest, weirdest, scariest, funniest people just from this week.

Sis. Christian and I were getting a little bit flustered from all of the lack of success that was happening especially with all of the finding we do all day. So one day we were in the car and thinking who we should see. We were going through our former investigators list when the name Amelia Zimmerman stuck out to us. We decided to go find her. We drove to some apartments and knocked
on the door. Apparently Amelia had moved a long time ago. Feeling bummed we were walking back to the car in the rain (it was even that dramatic and everything!) and we hear someone call out to us. And that is when we met Ryan. He was just getting out of his truck. He's this cool huge black man in the army (he jumps out of planes for a living! Like what?!?!) Anyways we went over to talk to him and he said he wanted to take the lessons and he specifically asked for a Book of Mormon! (Like what? This never happens! I was in a daze this whole time, probably looking creepily lovingly at this man for talking to us!) he said he wanted to learn more and asked if we were available right then to teach him. Of course we were, but we needed someone else with us so that we could go inside his house. And we couldn't do it outside cuz it's raining. So we scheduled to see him the next day with 2 brothers from our ward. It was the most spiritual lesson on the restoration I had ever had. And he just accepted all of it! Soaked it in like a sponge! He accept the invitation to be baptized! He even came to church on Sunday and had already read 1 Nephi! (Like what!?!?)

But then..... We found out that he didn't live in our area...... So we had to give him to some sisters who were actually over his area. It was honestly like a punch in the gut. But those sisters are going to do an amazing job, and is was a testimony builder to me that the lord does look out for all of his children. If we hadn't gone looking for Amelia we never would have  met him. And it  would have taken that much longer for him to find the church. I know that he will do amazing. And I was privileged enough to play a part and for that I will be forever grateful.

This church is so true you guys! The lord knows everything and he does direct and lead our lives. He will always be there!

May 30, 2016 - Crazy week!

CRAZINESS HAPPENED THIS WEEK!!!

So Tuesday we had one lesson... you know what that means??? We went finding all the day long! Tracting and oyming and talking to strangers, and strange people. But a miracle happened!!! In one of the areas we were tracting in, door after door we went and then finally one opened. This cute little lady opened up the door to us and asked us to come back tomorrow. 

So on Wednesday we went back!!! She was so super interested in the Book of Mormon it was crazy! And she is all there! so that's a plus. She said she was going to study it very thoroughly and compare it to the Bible. So we pointed out the footnotes and how those could help her. It was amazing!! 

 

Then on Thursday we had this amazing lesson with another investigator. She is from the Dominican Republic and she is 15. She is living with a less active family in the ward, her aunt. They asked us to teach her so we have been. This last lesson we had it at the church. We gave her a church tour and I know she felt the spirit! It was a great lesson.

 

We also got a new ward mission leader. He is so super passionate about his new calling, I can tell he is going to do amazing! There have been a few changes in the ward council, and us and the elders we are working with both feel that something big is about to happen in the ward, I just hope I get to stay long enough to witness it!

 

The elders and us are getting along much better now. We actually are working as a team which has really helped the work progress. (I probs forgot to mention that I shared a ward with some elders and they are very much anit- sisters, but they are doing much better once they realized that it was getting in the way of the work, we are doing much better now!!! :D)

 

So exciting story of the week: yesterday we were given a list of prospective elders to visit (less active men whom bishop would like to bring back and pass the sacrament) We felt inspired to visit one. We go over to his house and knock. no answer. We knock again. no answer. I was ready to turn around and leave, but good ole Sis. Christian is very persistent. So she knocks for a third time. Finally the door opens. And there in the doorway is this lady with a shaved head and piercings all over the place. Sis. Christian smiles and says hi, but before we could get another word out she says no and slams the door. We are a bit confused as to what just happened. I started to turn around when the door opened again, which startled me so I fell off the porch. But then the lady proceeded to be angry we were at her house and said don't pound on my door on a Sunday afternoon.... I think she was having a rough day. 

 

Anyways that's my week! I love and miss you all!!! 

Sister Johnson