Turkey and Bibles :) Racine 11/27/17

Dear fam,

Happy belated Thanksgiving! I loved having the opportunity this week to remember all the blessings that I have been given. What a wonderful time to ponder on how good God is. Thanksgiving definitely needs it's own time--Christmas-lovers need to calm down just a bit. ;) Our Thanksgiving was wonderful! We had a fun day. I got to meet my twin who is only 9 years old--got to take family photos with her and her siblings haha. So funny. She's the granddaughter of a member here in our ward. The member everytime she saw me would tell me about Sophie and how we look so alike. We had some wonderful Thanksgiving dinners with members. So good! 

Funny story of the week! So we went to contact a lady we had met a few months before. We get to the house and the door is open, but the glass door is still shut. We could see a little black girl sitting on the couch. Then this little boy (5 or 6) sees us and starts coming to open the door. But we doesn't just walk he dances us to the door. At first we didn't realize what he was doing..then we see him dabbing and whipping to the door haha. He kept doing that even after he let us in! So funny. We were able to talk to his mom so that was good.

Also, I got to have my own personal Pilates (sp?) class...coached by brother Briggs. Man. Should've been there. But we were just exercising and he comes over and commands (he doesn't really ask) me to start doing these exercises. So funny! Sister Eadie was the supervisor haha. 

So we received several referrals from headquaters this week. One lady we've been trying to meet with wanted a Bible. We finally got to meet with her. While we were there her son showed up. Turns out he was the other Bible referral we received and talked to over the phone! They didn't know they had both requested Bibles. Coincidence? I think not.

We had an awesome lesson with Javier this week in a member's home. We discussed the importance of sacrament and baptism. We ended up also talking about Joseph Smith and telling his story. There is something special about talking and testifying of Joseph Smith. He really did take his question about which church to join to Heavenly Father. And he truly saw God and his Son Jesus Christ. What a powerful lesson. The Spirit was there as the member prayed and pleaded with Heavenly Father to help Javier receive his own witness that the Book of Mormon is true. I know that we all can receive that witness as we take Moroni's (the last prophet in the Book of Mormon) promise to heart. Take the chance to read and apply what you find in Moroni 10:3-5. 

I love being part of the Lord's work. It is truly amazing to see Him furthering His work here in Racine. Thank you for all your prayers and support. Have a blessed week!

Sister Johns

Oh also it was 60 degrees out on Thanksgiving! Woot WOOT!

Also, I hit my half way mark this week--9 months this week! Kinda scary. But I celebrated with ice cream. :)

Also, don't know if I told you or not. But in our last district we had an exercise challenge for the month of November--or at least until transfers. Sooo I won. Don't know how. But that explains the t-shirt. :)

White buffaloes and merry Christmas? Racine 11/20/17

Dear all,

So it was a suspenseful week waiting to hear what our future would be like for the next 6 weeks. Buuuuuut..sister Eadie and I are staying in Racine! Woot woot! So glad. This next transfer will be steller, I can feel it. Meanwhile however, this week we had some adventures. 

We had an interesting lesson with our investigator Javier. He has learned about several different religions. He loves to think and needs to know everything. He really wants to understand thoroughly The Book of Mormon. He also has a sincere desire to know the truth. This week we learned that he thought we didn't ever really do anything bad...haha NOT TRUE. So we set his mind as ease about that. He also said he's waiting for his answer...and thought that maybe it would come in the form of a white buffalo (he has some Native American background). We weren't sure if he was joking or not on that one haha. He's awesome. 

-So we have amazing people we are working with. Lindsey is one. She is making so many changes to her life right not, because of her future family. A sister in the ward has really taken her under her wing--which has been wonderful. We had a really sweet moment at church during Gospel Principles class. We were talking about the Lord's law of health/the word of wisdom. She opened up and realated how in her family there is a culture of breaking that law. She has started to break that line however. She is a very courageous woman! We are so excited to help her on her journey.

We had to take our car into the shop again for a bit this week. And when we went in the guy checking us in was like, Oh! Sister Jones! I remember you! Haha, it was pretty funny. We came in just last week too. So we talked to him for a bit and gave him our card. Haha, there are opportunities everywhere to do good. :) During our wait we made a trek to Panera for dinner. :) SOOO good.

We had exchanges this week! Only for the day though, because transfers are a day early. So we learned about our fate Saturday morning. Sister Wise is an amazing missionary! 

We also had dinner yesterday with a sweet lady in our ward. She invited us over to decorate her tree. So happy Christmas?

So scripture though of the week. For institute this week we read and discussed 2 Nephi 9. Is describes Resurrection and other things. One verse really stuck out to me though. 

14 Wherefore, we shall have a perfect knowledge of all our guilt, and our uncleanness, and our nakedness; and the righteous shall have a perfect knowledge of their enjoyment, and their righteousness, being clothed with purity, yea, even with the robe of righteousness.

Jacob is saying that after we are resurrected that we will have a perfect remembrance of our uncleanness and enjoyment. In order to remember our "enjoyment"  we need to actually enjoy this life! We know that we all make mistakes. And those mistake create feelings of guilt and shame. But through the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can be forgiven and become clean--our guilt can be swept away and we can have peace and joy. What a beautiful message and hope! This also means that we must forgive ourselves. If Heavenly Father can forgive us, then shouldn't we also forgive ourselves? I know that there is peace, hope, and joy that can be found as we repent daily. I am so thankful for the matchless give of God's Divine Son. I hope that this week we can remember that and be a little more kind to those around us. :)

Have a blessed and thankful week!

Sister Johns

First snow... Racine 11/13/17

Dear all,

What a week! 

SO this week we were trying to bring more members out with us to lessons. Something I was reminded of was how amazing members are! You can make a world of difference in the life of someone who is learning more about the church. It was great to see how members were able to friendship and help those we are teaching.

We met with this one lady this week who is newly married and starting a family. She is so wonderful! We brought a member with us and that made the visit so awesome. We  are trying to help families here see how easy it is to do missionary work. COming out with us to a lesson is so helpful! When you share your testimony at a lesson it is so powerful. Also praying for missionary experiences really does help. The Lord will bless you with them when He sees fit.

We  saw Felicia this week and she is still awesome. We talked about families. It was the smoothest Law of Chastity lesson I've ever taught haha. She loves it! 

We were able to help Jason (a recent convert who is married to a member)clean his house. His wife is in the hospital with a new baby. He has been super Dad and taken care of all the kids while going to work full time. He's awesome!

We went to a Christmad parade this weekend! A ton of people showed up! It was awesome. PRetty cold though.

Oh! it snowed this week too.

Thursday we had a CRAZY day. SO busy! Which is good. But we came to the end of our day and realized that we hadn't had a ton of time for personal study. So we called the member we were going to have dinner with and asked if we could come crash and have personal study before dinner. She was super nice and said yes of course. But lesson learned: never start the day without reading the scriptures. The scriptures light our path and guide us daily. Make time for them. :)

Have a blessed week!

Sister Johns

PS the white board picture was drawn by our 9 year old investigator Dieana. :)

And we found a ton f geese in the field by our house! SO many!

Tea with the queen. Racine 11/6/17

Hello dear lovely people!

This week was awesome. So many good things! So many crazy things! It's always an adventure as a missionary. :)

First off, we were asked by this sweet old British lady in our ward to help her with her garden. We did work last week for her. This week we planted bulbs for her. It waas so fun! It was a bit chilly, so when we went inside she said why don't we warm up with some tea! She is from England originally, so she collects tea cups. Sooo...we got to have tea (don't worry dad, it was herbal) with Pamela! It was the funnest thing. 

Felicia is awesome. Every time we get to teach her I leave so so happy! She loves what we have taught her so far. She is like a child, she absorbs everything and loves it. She told us that she is starting to make changes in her life--which she was surprised at! She told us she talks to her family a little bit nicer, things that usually bother her don't anymore, and she finds herself talking about what we've taught her a lot  more! She is sooo wonderful. Love her. 

So we met with a lady named Lindsey this week. She was on our ward list, but we found out that she hasn't been baptized. She is super nice. We chatted with her and she related to us her desire to start coming back to church--she remembered going when she was younger. So wonderful to find and meet with her! 

SO we had dinner with the craziest black family this week. They have a couple teenage daughters who are awesome. They give all the sisters "black girl names." So I have been christened Breniqua (sp??). 

We had stake conference this week! So on Saturday we drove up to Milwaukee with the Spanish sisters in the branch here in Racine. We went early and had dinner at Kopps--just about the best place to eat a burger. We were stuffed afterwards. Conference was very good! The stake president spoke about missionary work--so you can imagine how excited all the missionaries were. He felt very passionately about his message. We have an obligation to spread the gospel. This can happen as we exercise our faith. 

Ether 12:12 "For if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith."

God will do miracles among us as we exercise our faith. He gave us three things we can do to share the gospel as we live our lives. 1 live the gospel out loud. 2?. 3 invite people to come unto Christ (success is in invitations remember. And every small invitation counts!). I would invite you to ponder this and decided what you can do share the light and truth that you have. 

Also funny moment of the week. After conference we were all talking when sister Eadie started to act like she had had a bunch of sugar...we were both wonderful why when we saw the time--it was already 9:15! Conference ended a little later than we thought haha. So that was fun. 

Anyways, hope that your week is adventurous and blessed! 

Sister Johns

Happy Halloween! Racine 10/31/17

Dear fam,

Yes I am alive and well. No worries. :) We had interviews with President yesterday, so we rearranged our week. District meeting was yesterday and P-day is today! It was a great week! But we did have a freak snow/slush moment--it was JUST a moment--yesterday while we were driving. We both freaked out. But now sister Eadie is in full Christmas mode..she's already pulled out the Christmas music haha. 

-Tuesday we had exchanged with the STLs! I got to stay in Racine and take over. And guess what?? I didn't get lost at all. :) We visited with a part member family. Sister Byers is coming back to church and she is awesome. Her kids are soooo cute. Their little boy loves to sit by me and read the Book of Mormon. #sistermissionaryperks We also had dinner with the Davis' in our ward. We started teaching their granddaughter who is nine. She is awesome and knows her stuff! She's been coming to church, but hasn't been baptized yet. It was quite the day!

-Wednesday we got to help in the food pantry. It consisted of sorting food and also listening to the kind old lady in charge of the place. We learned that she used to be a college math teacher! It is so fun to meet so many fun and different people. We had an awesome dinner appointment with a returning less active couple. Sister Lee is awesome. We showed the video from lds.org Because of Him (if you haven't ever watched this, do! ). It brought the Spirit very strongly into their home. Brother Lee, who hasn't been very involved at church yet almost got emotional. It was amazing to see how remembering what Jesus Christ has done for us can soften heart and bring hope into lives.

-Thursday we had an awesome lesson with Felicia! She is wonderful. We invited her daughter to join us--she's 17. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ. we loves what we have taught her and is even sharing it with her family! She hasn't quite yet come to that knowledge for herself yet though. She came to church this week though! It was the primary program and she loved it. :)

-We helped a couple of old ladies in our ward with their garden. One lady, sister Umhoefer, is originally from England and she said we were going to "put her garden to bed." It was fun to get my hands dirty for once! She lives in an apartment building but there are little garden boxes in the back...she has 5 of them and probably will take over another next year! Reminded me of you Dad haha. ;)

-Miracle of the week!! We were able to get in contact with Ethia! For some reason we have not been able to get in contact with her and her family for a long time. We stopped by on Friday and they told us we could have a lesson the next day. We were able to teach their whole family the restoration using the short Joseph Smith video. It was so fun! Their kids (they have 4) are so well behaved. We are so excited to have them come to church next week. 

-Funny Halloween moment: we were knocking doors on Sunday when we got mistook for trick or treaters! We weren't aware that the cities around here take turn for Halloween! 

-Oh and apparently I'm the "scariest" companion sister Eadie has had. We have been scaring people a lot recently. On accident! Today is was brother Briggs (whoom we live with). We came home and just about jumped off the couch haha. I guess we are just really quiet...or sneaky?

So yeah, it was a whirlwind of a week! It has been an awesome week. We are excited for the people we are working with. I've been reading the New Testiment recently and this week I read about the sermon on the mount in Luke. A couple verses stuck out to me:

27 ¶ But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,

28 Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

I thought about how Christ is coming and teaching the people. The things he is saying are different than what they have been observing to do. He is helping them to become as He is--not just do good things. I also thought of the musical Les Mis. Because of the one kind act that the priest did (gave his silver away and let Jean Val Jean go free), Jean Val Jean turned his whole life around. You never know what a kind act will do. I hope that we can all remember Christ's love for each one of us and be a little more kind this week.

Love you!

Sister Johns

Fruit from home!