Sister Johnson goes to Arkansas!

Hi everyone! I hope y'all had an incredible Christmas. I did. It was definitely weird not be home and for there to be no snow on Christmas, but this week was awesome. First, the funniest, strangest thing that I have ever experienced happened this week. On Christmas Eve, we were going around delivering Christmas cookies to some of our friends. About a month ago we met this dear old lady named Marcie, and we decided to take some cookies to her. Sister Johnson has incredibly good intentions, but she is also new to this whole driving in Harrison, AR thing and is terrible at directions. So, we go up to knock on the door, and this old man walks out. We ask if Marcie is there, and he looks really confused and says, "My wife?" We're like, yeah. So we go in, talk to this old guy we don't know. I'm confused at this point because I was pretty sure Marcie didn't have a husband. Then, this old lady (the guy's wife) comes in, and she is definitely  not  Marci...

Merry Christmas everyone! This week has been crazy, but, of course, it has also been awesome. The worst part of everything is that Sister Brown left me on Thursday. She's a missionary leader up in Fordland, Missouri now. She taught me how to be a missionary, and we had so, so much fun together. We both cried a lot, but I'm happy for her. And now I have Sister Kershaw!! Wow, wow, wow, she is incredible. She is fresh from the missionary training center and ready to work hard and learn all the things. I've already made her do zumba with me, and she said she'll go running with me, so I already know this transfer is going to be incredible. :)  I love Sister Kershaw, but training a new missionary is stressful. She doesn't know any of the people yet and has no experience as a missionary. Plus, I'm the driver, which is definitely a bad idea. (So many terrible parking jobs already!) I have never felt so inadequate in my life. The scriptures have helped me o...

Wow, this week flew by! So much Christmas cheer and lighting the world, it's ridiculous.  First, I have some wild news. Sister Brown is leaving me! She's going to be transferred to Missouri!! She has taught me SO much, and we've laughed a lot. I will miss her heaps. But, I am excited for my new companion. I will be training a new missionary right out of the MTC! I am excited but also very stressed because I still don't know what I'm doing, so pray for me and my new sister...  Anyway, this week was all about Christmas. I went caroling with the youth at senior centers, wrapped so many presents for angel tree, played the piano at our ward Christmas party, and talked to so many people about Jesus Christ and why His birth is such a big deal. We have this nativity video called The Christ Child that we show to all our friends that has helped me put into perspective all this Christmas craziness. Bible scholars from a lot of different religions got together to make...

Merry Christmas! This week has been a little crazy--so much traveling! And so much Christmas festivities. I love the Christmas season. Sister Brown and I spent a few days in Springfield, Missouri, this week. We had interviews with our mission president and then stayed for exchanges with some more experienced sister missionaries. It was really fun. A definite highlight was that we got to go to the Nativity. It's this big event they have in Springfield every year with a live nativity, incredible performers, and a ton of nativities set up from all over the world. There were also lots of different charities there that people could sign up to volunteer at. It was really cool to see everything and to talk to lots of people. When we finally got back to Harrison, we went straight to a thrift store we volunteer at. They had us decorate a giant Christmas tree! Yesterday, we went up to Branson, Missouri, and were in an adoration parade. We got to give out a lot of Light the Wor...

Happy December!!! I am SO excited for this Christmas season. One thing I'm super excited about is this program called Light the World. In the Book of Mormon (3 Nephi 18:24), Christ tells us to, "Hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up--that which ye have seen me do." That's the whole idea of the program. Christ is the light of the world, and we hold up that light this Christmas by doing things He would do. Part of the program is a service calendar of something you can do every day of December to light the world. Today's is to share on social media about someone who gives Christlike service. I decided to start here by telling y'all about some people who offered me Christlike service this week. 1. Sister Jelderks This week was wild. Saturday night we found out that Sister Jelderks was being transferred to Fayetteville the  next day ! She packed like crazy, we took her to Springfield, and now we ar...

Hello everyone! I miss y'all. I have been studying hope a lot lately. Hope is trusting the Lord enough that you can go forward in life confident and happy because you know He'll take care of you. It's the blessing of following Christ. It's how we can have faith and keep going and even have joy even when things are rubbish. Last Sunday a lady in my ward died. We went to her funeral Thursday. Seeing her husband breaks my heart. It all makes my heart hurt. There were speakers at the funeral and friends talking to her family, and I kept wondering what you could say in a situation like this. What could possibly help with such a tragedy? Then I realized that I  do  know. The answer is Jesus Christ. Because of Him, this husband will see his wife again. They can be together forever. And in the meantime, Christ can comfort him like no one else can. Because of Christ there is hope. It's amazing when I am able to connect things I've always believed to real life and s...

Hello, hello! I miss y'all. This week was absolutely incredible. I LOVE being a missionary. I'll tell you about some of the highlights. 1. Miracle! So, the first 7 weeks or so of my mission I really wanted to find someone new to start teaching. We talk with everyone and try to share the good news we have, but no one ever wanted to learn more! It was hard. Then, wonder of wonder, miracle of miracles, this week we started teaching 2 people! I have been praying so hard for this. And it happened! Heavenly Father does answer prayers. I'll keep you updated on how meeting with them more goes. :) 2. Bold invitations Last week my companions and I got priesthood blessings from our bishopric. In our blessings, all three of our blessings said to be bold. So, we've been working on that... We had some awesome lessons this week and were able to be bold in inviting people to do things to bring them closer to Christ. Nothing makes me happier than people having enough fai...

Good morning! I am officially in a trio. 😊😀☺   (My new thing is to put 3 face emojis in texts and area book and such since there are now 3 of us. I hope you enjoy.) This week has been very exciting--different than usual but quality. We had a lot of driving. We went up to Branson 3 days this week (45 minute drive) and to Bentonville on another day (2 hour drive). I'll tell you about some of our adventures. 1st trip to Branson: Stake P-day Last Monday we had p-day with a lot of other missionaries. We played some basketball and games. The highlight was we played Settlers of Catan!! I was so excited. I won. :) All of us new missionaries got together in Bentonville for a training on Tuesday. I got to see my sisters from my MTC district! I was so happy. It was the weirdest thing to be with both Sister Brown and Sister Fowler (my 2 companions) at once. Very happy though. I'll send pictures. I learned so much about being a missionary and just a...

Happy Halloween!!! Happy NEVADA day! I sang the NV state song for Sister Brown in honor of my home. I'm sure she appreciated that. :) This week was crazy fun. We have a goal of having 62 quality conversations with nonmembers a week (not counting people we're teaching). It's great fun to talk to so many new people, but we sometimes struggle getting that many. This week we had 84 quality conversations!!! We celebrated Halloween hard.  Tuesday I held a tarantula!! A member had it, and I have no fear. I didn't even die, so that's good.  Sister Flippo (one of our INCREDIBLE ward missionaries) gave us Halloween headbands. Mine had spiders. :) We had a party with Sister Flippo stapling pictures of Jesus with our number on the back to candy.  Then, Thursday, we went to a big extravaganza to give out the candy. So fun. Trump was there! People here love that guy. I'll send a picture.  The best part of everything was Halloween morning. We helped at ...

Good morning! This week has been quality. So many different things happened. I love people and I love Jesus Christ, so I have the perfect job! I'm having a hard time deciding what to write about... I'll tell you the highlights of this week. 1. Gene gave us cake and ice cream! I was so happy. It was yummy. I love meeting with him. We shared a talk by President Nelson, which was a big step for him. He is so humble and really wanting to learn, just taking it slow. He is such an example to me of following Christ. He has a cross collection and reads the scriptures every night. He sends scriptures to all his friends and puts in on facebook. I wanted to always stay truly committed to Jesus Christ. 2. We had a Book of Mormon study with Alyssa! Okay, I LOVE Alyssa. She is 26 and so fun to talk to and be around. She knows a lot about the gospel and has so many questions. She is really interested in learning, and we had good talks. I'm excited to keep meeting with her and hope...

Good morning! I miss y'all. So, funny story. I spoke in church this Sunday. It went pretty well, but apparently the microphone was broken, so no one could actually hear me which was unfortunate. But, the funny thing was that on the program, it had my name as "Sister Missionary Johnson." It's a powerful feeling to have your name be missionary. :D I  love  being a missionary, but it is a lot different than I expected. So, I'm going to tell you some of my duties as Sister Missionary Johnson. 1. Spider killer Sister Brown, my perfect companion, is such a city girl. And so, I am the designated spider killer. We actually have a lot of them. :/ I am quite fearless though, so no worries. I'll send a picture. 2. Pallet painter We got to go to a wedding this week!! This awesome couple we have been teaching got married, and it was so happy. Such a beautiful wedding. Loving them and loving to serve people as we do, we offered to help. They responded by ...

Hello, hello! It has been an awesome, busy week. I have loved it. I got lots of presents this week. I'll tell you about them. :) 1. Birthday cake! We do a lot of ministering as missionaries, visiting all types of people and helping them to come closer to Christ. It is one of my favorite things to do. We visit this dear member named Sister Dunn every once in a while. She isn't able to make it to church very often, but she is the sweetest. We happened to come the day after her birthday, and she had this beautiful chocolate cake from her daughter. We sang to her and had cake with her. She told us she had been dreading eating it on her own, so she was so happy for us to be there. We had gone a different day than we had planned for originally, and I know that when we came was directed by the Spirit so we could bring her some joy. 2. Bible On that same trip, we visited Gene. We have been having Book of Mormon study with him and talking about things. He gave me a beautifu...