Obedience brings blessings. Oshkosh 7/10/17

Sister Webb and I have matching shirts

Hello all!

This week flew by! It was a super good week though. It began with going to the little zoo here in Oshkosh with some other missionaries around here. They have some pretty exotic animals here...Llamas and sheep, how neat, right?! Haha, it was funny. Cute zoo. But this week I definitely saw how seeking to be obedient and just doing the things you're supposed to do brings blessings. 

-For the Fourth of July we had a ward activity in the morning. We watched people canoe, kayak, and slackline haha. But the ward is awesome! Love them. 

-We realized that there was one place people were going to be on the 4th--and that was at the festival, "sawdust days." basically a ton of vendors, food tents, and ride and about a million people. Perfect place for missionaries, right? So that was exciting. 

-We had exchanges with our sister training leaders this week. They are awesome. I learned a lot from sister Oborn--she is an amazing missionary. It was after exchanges that I really tried to make obedience my quest. We have a quote that President likes, "When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that very moment God endows us with His power." So true. 

-We had an awesome lesson with our investigator, Ed. He is a stubborn old  man, who is actually super funny. It was amazing to be in unity with sister Webb and teach him the importance of the Book of Mormon. That Book really does have power. He ended up coming to church this week, so that was exciting!

-We finally had a sit down lesson with Angela this week. She is this wonderful black lady. When we got there she was super upset with her daughter. She couldn't go shopping for her meat for the 4th of July until late. So she vented to us. She was all like, "if I don't get my ribs..I'm gunna cut her up and put HER on the grill." Man. She's awesome. 

-Saturday was the loooooongest day ever. We woke up super early to get to the farmers market and set up our family history booth. We spend a good majority of the evening the night before preparing. ANd it was a success! We talked to a LOT of people. Turns out people are super interested in their family history. They are being influenced by the Spirit of Elijah and don't even know it. So if you haven't looked at your family tree in a while...take a look at it today. :)

-Miracle on Sunday: SO we once got a headquarter referral for this Spanish speaking guy. We stopped by and he canceled our return appointment. But the Spanish Elders some how came across him and felt impressed to hand him over to us. We were confused, but thought we'd just stop by to see if he'd changed his mind or something. He hadn't. So we were walking back to our car and passed by this black guy who, in response to our approach, said something like yeah my day would be better if I quit drinking and smoking. We were both like WAIT! So we stopped him and started talking to him. It turned into a 15 minute long talk where we vented about how he wanted to find God and nurture his faith, but the world is so tempting. He wants to find a church who believes that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are 3 separate beings. He said a lot of things and we just couldn't believe it. I wanted to give him the fullness of the gospel so badly. I wanted to tell him that we have the truth and we are the answer to your prayers! He recognized that as we started talking and agreed to meet with us again. It was a miracle. All the things that happened to make that meeting possible...it was God progressing His work. Sister Webb and I freaked out the whole way home haha. 

Anyways, it was a good week! We are excited to see what adventures this week brings. The Church is true, the book is blue. It is amazing to be a missionary--an instrument in the hand of the Lord. Alma 29:9-10 

I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

10 And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me.

Don't forget to laugh today! Hope everyone has a blessed week. 

love,

Sister Brianna Johns

PS We also got to go to a baseball game today! :)

Dinner on the 4th wasn't super healthy haha

A package that the Waukesha sisters sent us

Then P-day today we went to a base ball game!

Oshkosh 7/3/17

Dear lovely people,

Happy early Fourth of July! There have been a few super patriotic people (or just people like explosions and loud noises)  here who have set off fireworks these past couple of nights. It's been lovely to fall asleep listening to that haha. This week has gone by pretty fast. I'm finally starting to get used to missionary time--the days are long but the weeks are short. We had quite a few adventures, met some really wonderful people, and I learned several valuable lessons.

SO, lessons learned:

1. Never challenge a mosquito...ever. It will win everytime. We spend the week dancing on porches trying to avoid them haha. No wonder people didn't want to answer their doors!

2. Don't turn down the wrong way on a one way street...old men are prone to stopping their vehicles in the road to tell you it is a one way street. Never turns out well. But you'll be glad to note that we did find the apartment building that we were searching for! 

3. Never try to be a "sneaky missionary" and coax old, straight forward ladies into taking a temple prep class they've ALREADY taken. They will tell you how they feel, "don't try to persuade me, sisters. I will get very angry." On a side note, sister Rice is a wonderful lady. She did ask us to run to the store to buy her some milk though...unfortunately we had to get to an appointment...

4. NEVER accidentally invite the socially awkward YSA guy to a ward activity...it won't end well. You and your companion will have to kindly explain that you are actually busy for the next 18 months doing missionary work. Aaaand you might be forced to take the looong way home when you realize he is following you home. Poor YSA sisters haha!

5. Always make backup plans for everything...ALWAYS. Even the solid members will cancel occasionally.

6. Halloween is actually a very beneficial to missionaries. Our ward mission leader, Brother Roby, was able to discover the neighborhoods that are very friendly (trick of treating there...). So mom, there is some good that comes from Halloween haha. 

7. Praying specifically for something is very powerful. We were tracting and decided to pray before we got out specifically for an investigator--very specifically. We then went on our way and did our best to follow the Spirit to know what we should say. The Lord answered our prayer and we were able to find that specific lady.

8. Black people are the BEST. I finally met our one investigator, Angela, who has been sick these past couple of weeks. She was a headquarter referral and really wants to learn more about the Book of Mormon. We shared a section in 3 Nephi 27;15-16. It really brought the Spirit in as we testified that God know her individually and wants her to learn of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. She wouldn't let us help her shampoo her carpet, but we said a prayer with her--she was mumbling amen while we prayed...it was awesome haha. 

So that was this weeks adventures! One the best parts about being a missionary is that you get to meet sooooo many wonderful and amazing people--regardless of the faith, there are some amazing people out here in Wisconsin. Here's my missionary plug for the week: please, take every opportunity to meet people of other Faiths. Expand your circle of friends. As members and missionaries work together to invite people to come and see, miracles will happen. 

Love you all!

Sister Brianna Johns

Picture this week: So we found saw a car this week from Utah and just about went crazy haha. We had to take a picture of it. :)

Oshkosh 6/26/17

Hey hey hey!

Wisconsin is soooo indecisive (I guess we have that in common). It couldn't decide if it was going to be sunny or cloudy or rainy...so it alternated approximately every hour of the day haha. But we thoroughly enjoyed the cool weather! This week we started to see the fruits of our labors from the past two weeks of basically non-stop finding. We were able to find a lot of new investigators and actually meet with a few past gators. We have been focusing on setting high goals and doing everything we can to achieve those goals--a lot of prayer has been involved. And, as sister Oborn (our sister training leader) says, "set crazy high goals and expect to achieve them." We expected too and were not too far off. Amazing how the Lord furthers His work through imperfect vessels. 

HIGHLIGHTS!

-Monday we spent the day at a park slacklining with the district. It was sooo fun to get back on the line! Sister Oborn was a natural at it.

-Tuesday sister Webb and I were feeling really adventurous and decided we were going to try to get a lot of investigators that day--with the Lord's assistance of course. Aaaand we met our goal! It truly was a miracle that we were able to meet so many wonderful people. Ended up though that we passed several over--including an adorable family of girls--to the Spanish elders in Neenah. Apparently we found the few Hispanics in Oshkosh!

-Wednesday we met with an investigator named Jason. We met at the library and sadly we weren't able to bring a member with us. So we just walked in and found a quiet place to talk. It struck me how strange this meeting must be to him--or anyone really! This older gentleman is coming to meet with a few young girls to learn more about religion. It made me think about how God uses our weaknesses to show forth His power--so true! But the lesson went really well. He had questions and sincerely agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. 

-Thursday we had zone conference--it was soooo good! It was like all the missionaries were coming in from the wilderness to an oasis haha. 

-SO this ward is really amazing. There are so many solid families who are willing to sacrifice so much of their time and efforts to helping the missionaries and other people in the ward. They are sooo wonderful. And there are so many cute families too. I love getting to eat dinner and visit with them during the week. Not getting to hold babies is a little rough, not gunna lie. But we are obedient!

-At correlation with our ward mission leader...

Sister Webb: We found this awesome guy named Jason this week who seems to be super interested!

Me: and he seems to be fairly well, off...like he has a car!

WML and wife: What?! He has a car? And a job? He's showing commitment??

Apparently people out here don't enjoying driving a lot...or at least not everyone is fortunate enough to have a vehicle. So a lot of the less active members don't have cars. It was just funny haha. 

-We had exchanges with our sister training leaders this week and boy did I learn a lot. It was so good to see how they do missionary work--I have something to go off of now as sister Webb and I work in Oshkosh. We aren't just fumbling along trying new things haha, which is good too haha. I got to go to an apologetics class for a bit too...

-Saturday and Sunday were crazy! We spend the day running around to appointments that usually fell through and planning for the week in our car haha. 

-Sunday night we met with David, who has been going to church in Fond Du Lac. He is sooo ready to be baptized, he just needs to learn a bit more--why he can't get baptized tomorrow haha. He smokes and drinks coffee so we talked to him about the Word of Wisdom. It was so neat to see his real intent. The member we brought with us was also wonderful! We prayed as a comp about a baptismal date and decided on July 22. But sister Webb though it would be neat to have him pray about his own date. So he did and finally decided on (DRUM ROLL) July 22! It was sooo neat! We are super pumped for him. 

So sorry for the novel haha, but it really was an adventure this week so I had to share. :) My favorite tid-bit from zone conference was about being a consecrated missionary. As I've been out on my mission I tend to get caught up and overwhelmed by all the things I should be doing but am not and all the things I'm doing but shouldn't (I am sure some people can relate, right?). I wish I was more obedient, more cheerful, less fearful, ect. I need to be giving my ALL to the Lord, right? But if consecration is a tree, those are the branches. And we don't water branches, do we? We water the roots. SO the root of consecration is a love for the Savior. As long as we are nurturing that love (and not focusing on all the things we aren't doing), we will begin to do those things that will make us a consecrated person. We will want to give our all to the Lord. I also think that this comes by focusing on other people, not what we want. 

Again, sorry for the novel! I just love sharing things that I have learned throughout the week.

Anyways, hope that this week is full of adventures and sunshine. :)

Love,

Sister Brianna Johns