Aliyah's Baptism

This past week has probably been the busiest time of my mission by far! We had MLC, an exchange in Pierre, a Zone Training Meeting, and a baptism, but I wouldn't have it any other way! 

 Our Zone Training Meeting turned out so good.  Sister Wittwer was on fire up there and I really feel like we reached all the missionaries. We taught this one part on treating the missionaries with respect because even in the mission there can be hurt feelings and clicks and such, and we THREW DOWN!  I really felt like Heavenly Father helped us say what he wanted.

Saturday we had our BAPTISM, just like you! It was really neat thinking that we had a baptism on the same day.  I wish you could have been there to witness it because it was incredible! I was so excited for Aliyah and I think it really got her Dad excited to be baptized too.  I absolutely love that family and seeing them all talk about their goal of going to the temple was so spiritual.  But, as always, something goes wrong with the font.  Right before the actual ordinance was about to happen we checked the font and it was probably only a little higher than her knees and FREEZING!!! It was too late to really do anything, so she just had to bend her knees and freeze ("Stop rhyming. I mean it!" "Anybody want a peanut?").  So in my talk about baptism I mentioned that Aliyah had set four goals: pray every night, read her scriptures each night, get baptized, and be close her family.  After, the Bishop got up to welcome her to the ward and told her that if she kept to those goals her whole life she would be happy. BUT, then he said "If everyone just tattooed those four goals on the palm of their hand, it would be a much better world."  And he just went off on getting this tattoo.  My mission President was there, the Assistants, and all the missionaries serving in Rapid...oh my goodness it was so embarrassing but so funny. You have got to love members sometimes.  After the baptism we sent the AP's a text and asked if it is now approved to get tattoo's?  They said, "Yeah, we are all going to the parlor Monday to get them!"

 

 I absolutely love
Aliyah and I am so
happy she has made
this important 
decision!

Missionary Miracles

Dear Family,

 

This week has just flown by and I feel like I was emailing you yesterday. 

We have a baptism coming up this Saturday too and we are really excited! Aliyah is basically all ready to go and she is counting down the days.  This week we re-taught the word of wisdom and followed up to see how she was doing and her Dad(Junior) sat in while we taught the lesson.  When we came over then at the end of the week, the Mom(Jessica) told us he had quit drinking coffee right after we left and hasn't had any since.  He is quiet and keeps to himself, but is starting to sit in more and more.  In our last lesson with them this week we invited him to say a prayer at the end.  He seemed nervous, but he gave a simple, yet heart felt prayer.  It was cute and at the end when he couldn't remember what to say, Aliyah whispered to him to say, "Thank you for for telling us to not go shopping on Sundays, and thank you for the bread and water. In the name of Jesus Christ Amen."  Even though he is quiet and slowly coming around, we are excited! He came to church for the second week in a row and it was great! I think seeing his daughter get baptized this weekend will make him want this more.

 

 Well I hope you all have a good week and know how much I love each of you.

 

Love,

Sister Johnson

BYU - Here I Come!!!

Goodness I have been trying not to think about BYU all week, then on Sunday, one senior young woman came up and told me she didn't get into BYU. She told me that they had one of their largest amount of applicants this year. I didn't know her grades or anything, but she seemed like she would be a really good student! The whole rest of the day I was preparing myself for bad news...I thought for sure I wasn't going to get in. IT IS A MIRACLE...no joke. I really do not know how I got in. Well...probably because my stinkin' awesome sister applied for me! Thank you Brookie!

Tender Thoughts - March 18, 2014

 This week I have just had this renewed desire to be a better missionary.  I want so badly to be everything the Lord expects of me.  If Heavenly Father is anything like Mom and Dad, then I know he has high expectation for me.  He wants me to reach my full potential, He wants me to be successful, and He wants me to be happy.  I just want to make sure I do everything I can to talk to the people He is preparing to hear the gospel.

A sister gave me some advice this week that I feel is so true! Not just for missionaries, but for everyone! She said "Five minutes of awkward is well worth eternal salvation."  There are many awkward moments when inviting people to learn of the gospel, but the end result is worth it in the end.  I wish I would have applied this more at the beginning of my mission.

Well I look forward to this new week and hope that the people that we teach will be receptive to the gospel.  I believe that bringing people to this church, to Christ, is a righteous desire, and God wants us to succeed in that.  I love you all.

Sister Johnson

Feeling the LOVE

Family,

I felt really loved this week as I received so many valentines packages and cards! Janae and Brooke's Valentines were both so funny.  I should have taken a picture to show each of you.  Brooke, I have that picture of Estee sitting on my study desk and Janae your families is on the wall.  Every time I look at them I get a good laugh.

For Valentines day we heart attacked all of our less-active members and investigator's doors.  It was pretty exciting, especially when we got caught because we were being too loud.  It was an adventure, but the best part was Sister Wittwer, she is just so sweet.  She was freaking out the whole time.  I asked her if this was the most daring/rebellious thing she has ever done.  She told me "No!" I then asked if she had ever been toilet papering.  She said she went once, but she just couldn't do it.  So she just stood there while all her friends toilet papered someone...ha ha.  So heart attacking someone's house was a big deal! Then she said "Well, one time I did dye a red steak in the back of my hair!!" Ha ha I about died.  She is too sweet.

This week has been full of planning for Zone Conference with the Zone Leaders.  We have a thirty minute training to give on the importance of the Book of Mormon.  I'm excited because we found a wooden arch a member has to demonstrate the Book of Mormon as the keystone of our religion.  It will go well, but I am excited to be done with it.

We volunteer at this small old folks home every week and we play domino's with the residents.  There is this old couple, Marie and Bob, that are still "with it" and they are so much fun.  This past week Bob was waiting for us and he had prepared a card trick for us.  He told me I had to show him one this week....any suggestions?  It's interesting to me though, the experiences I am having.  I know for a fact before my mission I would have never volunteered at an old folks home.  That to me would have been a waste of time.  I would have been dragging to do it, but now I do it every week for an hour or two and I know that it makes their day and mine too! I may not be teaching them the gospel, but I am helping.  I love to see them every week and I know I wouldn't have experiences like this if it weren't for my mission.

This week we got to see Aliyah, eleven year old, who is on date for March 8th.  She is so excited.  When we went over she told us that she had set some goals: Pray every night, spend time with her family together, go to church every week, and be baptized.  Kids know how to keep things simple.  I think she is going to be the one to pave the way for her family to come back to church.  Later during the week we stopped by and Dakota, 22 years old, and they had just watched the Restoration video right before we came over.  Dakota was just beaming as soon as we got there.  She told us all about the movie. She said "That John guy (Joseph Smith) prayed and then Jesus and His son appeared to him."  It was cute.  We obviously clarified some things, but the whole night her eyes were just fixed on us an she was taking in every word.  As I asked her to be baptized, I didn't even get it out of my mouth before she said "Yes!"  The spirit was incredibly strong and I felt so much joy.  We committed her to March 29 and then church of course.  There are going to be some challenges before she can be baptized, especially with living the law of chastity, but we'll take it one step at a time.  Her and Aliyah both came to church and loved it!  We were really excited for them.

Last funny story, so Sunday Sister Wittwer played the violin for the musical number.  I had to sit by the piano player to turn the pages for her.  She played this ridiculously hard piano part.  After, one of the members came up to me and told me I played so well....ha ha I told her it takes some practice to learn how to turn the pages at the perfect time! 

Well it was a good week and I am looking forward to another.  I hope all of you have a good week too! Love you!

Syd

I love Sister Ransom

 So without many investigators we did a lot of tracting this week.  There has been a push in our district for contacts so we have been working hard to talk to everyone.  Sister Ransom kept picking all the places to tract and after street after street of just rejection and rude people...we couldn't stop laughing because it seemed every road she picked was awful! We joked and I told her from now on I am picking the places to tract!  I am so so grateful for my companion who is so laid back and patient and lets the little things go.  She is so easy to be with that is for sure.  She is getting pretty trunky though.  She has two weeks, can you blame her?  I have learned so much and I will miss her.

Sister Ransom and I went on our morning run.  Janae would be so proud of us.  I didn't know you could legitimately freeze like this!  I kept looking over at her and at first I thought, "Why did she put mascara on this early?"  I realized it was ice…and then her hair got white too.  I had to take this picture!

Sister Ransom and I - these moves never get old!

Mission Leadership Council

     Zone Leaders, Sister Trianing Leaders and President and Sister Anderson

     I got to see Sister Wear at MLC!  She was my companion in Pipestone.