"God becomes stronger in your weakened vessel" 4/9/18 Racine

Dear everyone,

So April showers brings May flowers right? Well in Wisconsin's case it's April snow ..and I'm not sure what that brings! Haha, but it's great. It got up to 40 one day and we were like whoo HOO! It's so warm! Haha, I'm conditioning to the weather here. :)

But This week..Hmmm what even happened...

Well Monday night we got some bad news. We've been teaching with lady named Ethia and her kids for a while now. She really love God and wants her kids to know for themselves. But this lesson we read from the Book of Mormon about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. She told us that she is content with the church she is at right now...although she wants to b baptized again. So she said she'd talk to her pastor. SOOO yeahhh. We encouraged her to pray to Heavenly Father and ask Him what she should do. BUT we also had dinner with this awesome couple in our ward. She is a solid member, but he is not. He is super kind though. So that was fun.

Tuesday we stopped by a new move in and she let us right in! I love it when people do that! So it was fun to talk to her. We also had a lesson with Alex and Katelyn. Katelyn's brother and wife joined the lesson as well! They are the best haha, So funny. We taught about missionary work! So that was exciting. 

We met with a lady named Sue on Wednesday. She worked in a place that sisters in Muskego volunteer at. But she lives in Racine! She loves sister Gorder (sister Gorder used to serve in Muskego). She is from Germany and is Lutheran, but said she'd read our pamphlet. So we'll see what happens! We had dinner with the cutest young couple Wednesday night! They have 2 little girls. :) 

Oh boy so Thursday we helped a lady dust her house. Ha. She is so cute, but she collects a LOT of stuff. And so dusting was fun haha. She also has 3 cats in her apartment. She's awesome. Oh and sister Gorder hit her 1 year mark! Whoo hoo!

Friday we had an awesome lesson with a lady named Barb. She was a Bible referral, and has been sick for the past little while. She had a lot of questions. Also cool story: So we had some time before we went to dinner. So sister Gorder said that she wanted to tract a certain street. So we did and had no luck. But one house right after we knocked it the lady come home. SO we decided to knock again. And we found this cute lady named Helen! So that's was awesome. 

Saturday we helped sister Main clean her kitchen. It's always spotless so I don't know why she has us clean it! But it was fun. We made tater-tots for dinner. :)

Sunday was wonderful! I love Sundays. Sunday evening we invited our investigators to go to a fireside where Jabari Parker was going to be speaking! So that's was exciting. He and other speakers talked about how we can overcome adversity. No, I didn't get a picture with him. But he's like a foot and a half taller than me....so yeah. One thing I liked that he said was, "embrace the struggle." It's often from our trials that we learn the most. 

So it's been a week! One thing I loved is a lady in Church said, "God becomes stronger in your weakened vessel." As we give our hearts to God that's when we become strong. It's only through Christ that we can heal the gap that is between us and Heavenly Father. 

Hope that you all have an awesome week! Spread kindness around like confetti!

Love you!

Sister Johns

So this is the Grovers. We love them! They are moving to Washington sadly...they will be greatly missed!

We love the lake!

Also my face when it snows in April...

SO I forgot to say who Jabari Parker is for all of you who are like me and had no idea who he was. He's a basket ball player for the Milwaukee Bucks. ;)

Happy Easter! 4/2/18 Racine

Hello dear lovely people!

Happy Easter! I hope that you were all able to enjoy a lovely Easter Sunday. I know we certainly did. 

So crazy story of the week: We went to a lesson with our investigator Lindsay this week. We were running low on miles..whoops. So we asked our Relief Society president to give us a ride--she is good friends with Lindsay. Aaaand she was kind enough to pick us up. So we get there and talked outside for a while--while her 3 dogs calmed down. Then we go inside...to a disaster. The whole house was filled with smoke! And the stove was ON with what used to be a pizza box on top of it. It was only a bunch of burnt flakes now. Lindsay freaked out and sister Tracy (thank GOODNESS she was there) calmed her down and well as the would be fire. We just ran around trying to open as many windows as we could haha. So apparently we have an amazing RS pres that can fight fires as well as mend broken hearts. But all's well that ends well, right? AND Lindsay has her BABY on Saturday!!! SO exciting!!

Funny story of the week: SO we went to teach our investigator Gloria this week. She is the cute old black lady with no teeth haha. We love her. :) So we got there and she was in her bath robe and invited us in. She explained that she has been having some medical problems and got some new medication (I think anyways...it was difficult to understand her). So we tried to teach our lesson we had prepared. But her eyes just wouldn't stay opened. So she just talked to us with her eyes closed haha. At one point she's like I need tooth picks to keep my eyes opened! Her words were slurring and I swear that she fell asleep during our closing prayer haha. We just sat there for a sec then left haha! We gave her a hug before we left. So I think she was awake for that! Too funny. We were just trying hard not to laugh. She's so cute!

Best part of the week: General Conference!! Oh I hope that all of you took the chance to watch at least part of general conference. If you didn't, PLEASE watch it. It was sooo good and made my heart so happy. :) We were looking forward to it all week, and we definitely needed something uplifting by the end of the week. We got to watch the first session at the church with all the other missionaries--only one other member came haha. And also our investigator Monica came! She is a little apprehensive of new things. But we had told her to come with questions and concerns and they would be answered. Afterwards she told us that she was glad she came and that she did have some of her concerns addressed. That made me so happy! We love her. :) 

So this is Ella. We became friends when she came over to the Briggs house one time. I started playing with her and now we are best friends apparently. She runs up to me whenever she sees me and gives me a hug. ​

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​So this picture by the lake haha. We were walking by the lake and met this lady and started talking with her. She was super nice! So we asked her to take our picture. :) ​

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​The Briggs got us stuff to decorate eggs! They are the best. So we had fun with them. :)​

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I am so thankful for the matchless gift of God's Divine Son. Easter is truly the most important date in history. It is because of Him and what happened on on Easter that we can all find life--physically and spiritually. Because Jesus Christ rose again we can shout Hosanna to His name. One thing that stuck out to me as I was reading the Easter story: 

11 ¶ But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,

12 And seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.

13 And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.

14 And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.

15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.

16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.

 

The sorrow Mary must've felt sitting by the sepluchre turned to complete joy when she realized who it was that called her name. Would we recognize the voice of the Lord if He called our name? How would we react? I believe that He does call our name and has many times. We need only to recognize that voice. I hope that we can all more clearly recognize and heed His voice as we press on in the work of the Lord. 

Love you all!

Sister Johns