November 7, 2016 - Wacky Week? Day? Idk

Hello everyone!

So craziness has happened this week..... well more like yesterday lol. So it was a very typical Sunday, just like any Sunday. We go to Ward Council, we squeeze in an hour of studies, we go to church. You know, the norm. When we get inside the church we pick a seat and start visiting with some of the ward members already there. Then RG walks in, now RG is a less active who we have been visiting with, almost on a weekly basis. She hasn't been to church in years! It was awesome to see her! She sat with us. Then DD walks in. Another less active that we have been working with. Then Sis.G  walks in, ANOTHER less active lady we have been working with! And Sis.G hasn't been to church for at least 40 years!!! And then ML and his son walk in! (Out investigator and upstairs neighbor). Sis. Lake and I are just baffled! Tickled pink! Jumping for joy! And they all said they had a great experience. And the testimonies born by the ward were so powerful! The spirit was super strong.

After sacrament meeting a few of them left. Sis.G stayed though, so we were on our way to show her where the gospel principles class was when Sis. Hafen (one of our ward members) pulls us aside and asks us to sub for like 5 min for a teacher who needed to be set a part to her new calling. So we take Sis.G to the gospel principles class and leave her in the trusting hands of our ward missionary leader. While in there I see a bunch of other families who don't normally come or who only come occasionally. It was awesome!

Anyways, then we go teach this Sunday school class. It was a class of four crazy 17 year old teenage boys. Sis. Lake took the reigns on that one and she did fantastic! We taught them on the importance of testimonies. And committed them all to read preach my gospel three times a week (we had to compromise from everyday). And what was supposed to be only 5 minutes turned into all of Sunday School! But for not planning anything it went pretty well. Then we dashed out of there to go find Sis. G to show her where Relief Society is but we were stopped by Sis. B and she asked us to come into YW to talk about missionary work for the first 10 min of class. We said yes but we needed to go find Sis.G so we said we would be in there asap.

Well, by then the Sunday School class is empty so we speed walk to Relief Society where some of our awesome members took Sis.G. She was well taken care of. Then we go to YW and share this awesome thought about missionary work. Again without preparing anything. But the Lord was definitely in charge so of course it turned out pretty good.

Now on our way back to Relief Society we are once again stopped by Bro. G who had brought a friend  to church named J. We didn't notice him in sacrament meeting but if we had made it to gospel principles we would have seen him. So we finally got to meet J And J had sssoooo many questions. We exchanged digits and set up an appointment to meet with him so we could answer all of his questions. He was super excited to be there and kept explaining how glad he was that he came. He kept saying that the church has a good feeling about it and how much he loved Sunday School and how he didn't know there was a premortal life and what the Holy Ghost was. He is super cool and we are super excited to begin teaching him!

Then  we finally made it to Relief Society where we missed the beginning of the lesson but Sis.G was very content so all was well! But ya, best day of church ever!!! 

But you guys, you must understand, none of that would have ever happened without the help from the ward members! This ward is awesome! The power of prayer and hard work and faith is so powerful! The Lord is definitely  guiding, directing, and inspiring this work. He knows who is ready. And he knows what to do to help them! I'm feeling your prayers up here in good ole Alaska! So keep them coming! I have no doubt that those prayers are what helped us have so many people at church yesterday so thank you all so very much! I know without a shadow of a doubt that this church is true! It's not a belief anymore, it is knowledge. I know that as we live the principles and standards and commandments of the church it will bless your life! Cuz it has truly blessed mine! Anyways I love you all! And hope you all had a great week!
Love
Sis. Johnson

P.s. Oh and my wallet got stolen... which is a bummer, but also good cuz I needed a new temple recommend anyways, I accidentally washed my last one lol

😊

October 31, 2016 - Happy Halloween

Heellloooo!!!!!

Happy Halloween everyone!!!!! Hope you all are dressed modestly, warmly, and stay safe on this freakishly scary Halloween night :D (emphasis on modestly cuz that's most important!;D)

So this week was great, like every week lol :) Sis. Lake and I are still finding and tracting and saving the world! But this week was different! We were blessed with this sudden wave of service! Everyday this week we were able to do some service for someone. Now you guys need to understand, service opportunities in the Alaska Anchorage
Mission are almost as rare as baptisms, they are cherished just as much as baptisms. It's like finally finding the needle in the hay stack! So it was wonderful!

We were able to help the local food bank up here in Wasilla move into a new storage unit. And they gave us pizza so that was a nice bonus! But they have here two giant freezers that are on wheels that were in this storage closet. But the door frame was lower then normal and the wheels on the freezers made them too tall. So we spent most of the time taking off all six of the wheels to push the freezer two feet through the door, then put the wheels back on. It took forever! But it was fun and there was pizza and it was service, so there is no complaining here!

We also got to help one of our less active members paint her dog house and tear down some trees in her back yard. This lady is so cool! For the past year she has been building a house in her backyard. Now it's not a big house, but it is a house her daughter will be living in. The best part is she built it all from the knowledge of YouTube! Like what???? It's awesome! We get to help paint when they get around to buying the paint.

And then we got to hang some Christmas lights for one of our potential investigators. She is awesome! She is neighbors with a member of our Ward who is a blind and deaf and a three time world champion bull rider. We visit him everyday. Right now we are helping him make theses Christmas list thingies. For a blind and deaf man he sure knows his way around! He carves things and uses power tools and stuff. It makes me nervous every time, but he has been doing it for a while and hasn't lost any limbs yet, so there is nothing we can do to stop him. But these two are by far some of my favorites people lol :)

We met with one of our investigators and her siblings this week and talked about some of the commandments. She made the decision to be baptized on November 11 at 5 pm. So that is super duper exciting! She is excited too, and I know her choice will help her two siblings decide on what they need to do. I love that family. And this Ward. Memory Lake is the best!

So tonight for Halloween we have to be in by 7 pm, so no trick or treating for me :( lol but our Ward is having a trunk or treat (which I think is a great idea cuz no one in their right mind would go down any of those drive ways!) and one of our potential investigators and a few of our part member families said they would go, so we are going to make the scene for like 30 min before we have to go in.

Anyways I hope all is well in Zion! Make good choices, choose the right! Always remember and know that Heavenly Father loves each and everyone of you!!! And he made it possible for you to improve and be better than you were yesterday. Do whatever you put your minds to! I love you all!

😊Sis. Johnson

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