Green Bay Part 1. Green Bay 5/14/18

Hello everyone!!

Happy belated Mother's Day to all the mother's out there!! I looooooooooved talking to family. :)

Green Bay is soooo green! It is so fun! I am excited to get to know the area! 

Funny story of the week: So I get to GB on Wednesday and my poor companion got sick....we attempted to do missionary work like normal, BUT we ended up in our apartment for the next 3 days. My poor companion! She got better by Mother's Day though! Blessings!!

On Saturday we helped out with a women's stake conference! There was a run and we directed everyone. Fun stuff! 

Racine goodbyes!

Mosiah 4:20--I read this the other day and loved it. It was a good reminder to me of how merciful and loving our Heavenly Father is to each and every one of us. He knows you personally and hears every single prayer. He is also all knowing and works according to what we need--even if we don't always recognize that at the time. 

Anyways, love you all!

Sister Johns

1. Sister Gorder!

2. Javier our investigator haha...

3. Alex, Katelyn, and little Makenzy!

4.  Monica! another investigator

You are one lucky cricket! Racine 5/7/18

Dear lovely people,

SO Sunday we got the transfer text that told us who is leaving and who is staying....I"M LEAVING!! AH! I am so sad. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaand I'm going to Green Bay! And I'm also becoming a Sister Training Leader. Kinda freaking out about that. I don't know who's idea that was...might not be the best idea they've ever had haha. We'll see how this goes! But I had a funny conversation with the Bishop's wife on Sunday. She's from Alabama and still has the southern accent ha.

Sister Riley: So I heard that you are leaving us!

Me: Yeah! I'm so sad to leave!!

Sister Riley: How long have you been here? 

Me: 7 months...

Sister Riley: Well, not to be rude or anything but...it's about time!

Haha, she's great. But it was so sad to say good bye to so many friends!! I love them all!! Racine ward no matter how quirky is the best. :) The worst part about it is leaving sister Gorder. I love her so much! I had to go up and share my testimony because it was fast and testimony meeting this last Sunday. Sister Gorder told me that as soon as I went up sister Bruette (who was sitting in from of us) turned around and said, "She's leaving isn't she!" Then sister Gorder and she started to cry! AH! To make matters worse they sang God Be With Your Till We Meet Again for the closing song in sacrament meeting. Seriously?? All three of us just lost it and were crying. I love these people.

But anyways, this week was a bit rough not going to lie (cause I'm a missionary;). We both were stressed about transfers...we knew that we were going to have to split. One of our investigators told us that she isn't interested in meeting with us anymore. That broke our hearts! I love her so much! But I have confidence in the Lord that He knows her. He has a plan for her and will continue to lead her where she needs to be. Even though it may take a while. 

We did have interviews with President and Sister Williams. They are just the cutest. I love them. President Williams is a wonderufl mission president. He is very understanding even when you break down during your interview. He was able to help me see beyond my own weaknesses and see how, through Christ, I can change. I know that Jesus Christ has the power to cleanse us and change us to become better than we ever could on our own. 

On a lighter note, we had a really touching lesson with our investigator named Ethia. We talked about the word of wisdom. She has been going through a hard time and asked us about what chapters in The Book of Mormon could help her. It was amazing because she hasn't really been reading the Book of Mormon at all lately. It is so awesome to see the Lord working in these peoples' lives. He truly cares about each of us. Don't ever think otherwise!

We had a cool fireside Sunday evening. President and Sister Williams spoke to us as well as our new ward mission leader. All the missionaries in the 3 wards that meet there sang as sisters in zion/we'll bring the world his truth. IT was so fun! I believe that it did inspire the members. They don't know how powerful they are in bringing people closer to Christ! I know that if you love the gospel out loud, pray for missionary opportunities (and look for them), and invite others to come unto Christ, that you can be the means to helping brings your friends, acquaintances, and loved ones closer to Christ. 

Doctrine & Covenants 18

 15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

Also about the random subject line...it is just one the many things that show that sister Gorder and I are very unified haha. We were talking and said this line at the exact same time. It made me laugh...so you're welcome. :)

Have an amazing week! Don't forget to laugh!

Love,

Sister Johns

Johnathan, we are teaching them and his mom Ethia​

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​Essence, Mckayla, and friend. Ethia's other kids​

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​Sista Gorder in her natural environment :)​

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​The Lees! I love them. ​

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​Sadie! She's so cute. ​

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​The Briggs...​

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​We went to Kewpees with the other missionaries for lunch today​

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"I love pocket sized missionaries!" Racine 4/30/18

Dear lovely people,

So this is Sister Gorder's email...she is more detailed than I am haha. So enjoy! ( changed a few things)

Monday: We went to Texas Roadhouse with Sister Smith, man I am so blessed to go there so much. There rolls are literally the best. We had a lesson with the Clayton's (Oliver is our recent convert) and invited the other 3 members of their family to be baptized. His two younger brothers Kaden and Averie want to be baptized, his mom on the other hand we will see. But, I am so excited for them, it will be so good. Also, Oliver got the Priesthood this Sunday!! It was so cool!

Tuesday: We went to Pizza Tuesday as usual. (I love that tradition) Then we went to district meeting and talked about how we could get along with our companions and what we do when there are issues within the companionship. Sister Gorder and I are like the same person, so we don't really have to worry about that. We get along really well. We went to Infusino's with the Milner's for dinner and wow. They give you so much food.I couldn't eat the whole thing and Brother Briggs had my leftovers the next day...haha. 

Wednesday: We were finally able to meet with Javier! We haven't been able to teach him in a long time because he switched jobs and shifts. He now works 3rd shift and so he is tired all the time and never has time to meet because he literally goes to work, sleeps and then goes to work again. He really hates it. He said that it pays good but the hours are terrible. I don't blame him.  We had dinner at the Hansen's house and they only have two of their kids living at home: Sean and Maddie, they are twins and they are hilarious! They had to call random numbers for a class of theirs to break a social norm and they showed them to us. They kept talking and talking, telling us story after story and it was so funny. It was a jolly good time. Then we had a lesson with Alex and Katelyn and Alex wanted to learn more about ministering and how he could be a better "member missionary" and he's not even a member yet. He wants to share the gospel with his parents, but he doesn't know how, so we are going to be helping him with that. I told them that they should role play, Katelyn knows his mom well enough.

Thursday: It was Brittney's birthday, so we made some chocolate rolo cookies to bring her. She loved them!! Then, she asked if we wanted to walk with her to pick her daughter up from school. So, we went with her and her friend was waiting in her car outside waiting for her son as well and Brittney walks up and says, "Would you like to learn more about the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?" in response she says, "Do I have to?" We told her no and she said, "Good, because I've heard it lots of times." It was kind of funny. We volunteer at Salvation Army sometimes and they had a dinner in honor of the volunteers that they invited us too and I was like, "This must be how our investigators feel when they come to church." We felt a little misplaced, we were in a room full of Catholics and we were the only Mormons there...it was strange. They had a prayer before the food and they didn't even bless it. I thought that was interesting, but oh well. You do you. 

Friday: Weekly Planning....we stopped by this guy who ordered a Book of Mormon from mormon.org. He wasn't home, but later in the day he sent us a text that said this: "Please do not call or stop by unannounced that is very disrespectful all I wanted was just the book after I read it then I can contact you so please do not come over here anymore in Jesus name amen" Well...okay then. We only wanted to give you the book that you ordered so that you could read it and then contact us....whatever. It's okay. Then we had a lesson with Ethia and her kids made us quesadilla's while we were there. They were so good! Essence brought out her Barbie dolls and sister Gorder did there hair. She said, *gasp* "I'm never taking these out." She liked the hair do's she did.  She is so cute. 

Saturday: Lindsay had a baby blessing in her home for Elijah since her mom was in town and had to leave that day, they didn't do it on Sunday. It went really well and he is a very mellow and happy baby. We met with Gloria and taught her the restoration using cups and she couldn't get over the fact that President Nelson does not come to the church building to speak to us. Then she asks, "Is this a cult?" Lol. No. We met with a guy named John that Sister Ludlow and sister Gorder knocked into on exchanges last week and he is so cool! He is an older black guy who last week told us that he had some Mormon roommates that used to live upstairs and that he told them, "You don't convert me and I won't convert you." I was a little nervous for his lesson, but it went really well. He told us that those Mormons moved out about a year ago and before they did they told him, "One day they will come knocking on your door and you won't know who they are." Well, we came. He is a lot more open about it now. He told us that he would change religions if that is what God wants him to do, he is going to be reading the Book of Mormon and I am super excited for him! Lol. Brother Briggs made us dinner. He made green mac and cheese. I mean it looked really good until he put the blended vegetables on top....he told us it was "hulk food" Sister Briggs was giving a blessing on the food and said, "We pray that this food will be tasteful..." then she started to laugh and said, "I'm sorry Heavenly Father" I couldn't help but laugh after she said amen. She just said what we were all thinking. It wasn't all that great...but, oh well. Brother Briggs can have the leftovers. 

Sunday: Church is my favorite part of the week<3 I can't say it enough. It is the one place where the spirit is always there and you feel at peace. It is so great! I love being able to charge my spiritual batteries. We had a linger longer after church and the theme for it was "ethnic foods" so we pretty much just had a lot of mexican food, which I love! It was good! We have a missionary fireside this upcoming Sunday and our district is going to be singing at it, so we all went to the church later that night and practiced. I'm really excited for it. 

Also, super funny....Brother Briggs, I love Brother Briggs...Sister Briggs was telling him that he needed to get ready for church and that he was being slow. He said, "I'm supposed to be slow moving, I'm a guy."

Anyways, it was a good week!! Don't forget to laugh. :)

Sister Johns

We are fishers of...MEN. Racine 4/23/18

Kenosha District

Dear Everyone,

Hola hola! Well spring has finally arrived! Well at least we are hoping. Unlike last week with snow and ice we have sunshine and 60 degree weather. Whoo HOO! So glad. :) This week was kinda crazy, but what week isn't in mission life haha.

Cool story. So one day a few weeks ago we were getting gas somewhere and met this guy. He was just leaving but we started a conversation and found out he knew some Mormons growing up. He was super nice but wouldn't set up a time to meet with us. He works at the gas station and so told us to just stop by sometime. Tuesday we were in need of gas and found ourselves at the same gas station. We weren't planning on going in, but needed to to get a receipt. So we saw him of course, his name is Raymond. He kindly got us some drinks (we had to tell him we don't drink coffee) with out charging us. And we talked. He wasn't super interested in hearing about the Book of Mormon, he liked preaching to us. He'd say something then be like, can I hear a community? I think he might've been expecting us to repeat after him? Not sure on that one haha. But he did tell us he knew that we were going to stop by that day. Kinda neat!

We got to see Lindsay this week for the first time in forever! She is doing well now and so is her baby boy, Elijah. He is so tiny and cute! And her 3 dogs love him haha. 

Funny stuff. We got to help a lady in our ward move. She is just moving within Racine. SO she had to take several trips back and forth between her house and her new house. So we got a work out carrying boxes and all sorts of things up and down the stairs (she lived in the up stairs of a house). Funny story. So the one day we helped her it just wasn't the best day. It was one of those days where everything fell through and no some seemed to be home. We just had told each other that we both woke up and felt that it was going to be one of those days. So we are packing up this lady's book shelf and find a book called: Maybe Today. So we open in and the first page says something like: maybe today the sun came up as it always does and you woke up just as you always do. But you knew that it was going to be one of those days. HA. We laughed pretty hard at it. 

Another funny story. So Saturday we went on exchanges with our sister training leaders. I got to go to Muskego with sister Valle and sister Hendrickson (they are in a trio). First time in about 3 transfers that I've left Racine! So that was weird. But at one point we are driving and sister Valle (who is driving) lets out a blood curdling scream. I about had a heart attack and I look over to see sister Valle leaning super close to me trying to get away from...a lady bug (it might've been a Japanese beetle, not sure). But due to my desire to live and not have her crash the car I had to lean over over the window and sweep it outside. So great. 

So during district meeting this week we talked a lot about finding. We need to perfect our finding skills because we won't be able to teach anyone of help anyone to be baptized if we can't first find them. So we had to roll play in front of everyone a door approach. The Hermanas get up and theirs went something like this:

*knock knock knock*

Elder Earnest posing on a potential investigator: "Who is it?"

Hermanas: "We are the sister missionaries. Do you like to fish?"

"No."

Long pause...

hermanas: "Well, we do! We are fishers of men! And we would like to share with you a message about Jesus Christ."

SO afterwards the Elder Clark (the senior missionary) said that maybe the hermanas shouldn't be going around saying that...especially in Racine. Could give a bad impression ya know? Hahaha, we laughed pretty hard about that. Good stuff. 

SO yeah, hope that this email isn't too random haha. It was a pretty good week. We were able to talk to a lot more people because the weather is warming up! Yay! One thing I loved this week was talking to Alex and Katelyn. They are truly sincerely trying to come closer to Christ by making Him the center of their lives. This requires change and isn't easy. But it is worth it. I love seeing the change between people when we first meet them and when they finally get baptized. Alex isn't there yet, but he is close! One thing I have been thinking about is how powerful love is. When you open your heart to feel the love that Christ and Heavenly Father has, your heart changes. You have a desire to follow Him more in your life. I know this because I have felt that and it has started to change my desires and actions. How can you receive and emulate Christ's love more in your life? Ponder over that and I'd love to hear what you think about it!

Keep on keeping on!

Sister Johns

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​Baby Elijah!​

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​The Maybe Today book hahahaha​

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​Brielle, she's the daughter of an awesome member. This is her "pretty pose"​

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​ON exchanges we met this sweet member named Claudia. I've met her before with sister Gorder. She can't speak very well, but she has a huge heart! And she'd super sassy.​

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​PS So last week I said that brother Briggs had to go to the ER. I forgot to say that he came home that day and all was well. He just had to recover from the tests. SO all is well! No worries!

It's like a portable Jesus! Racine 4/16/18

Dear everyone,

Hello from Wisconsin! This week crazy things happened. But also a lot of good things!

SO 

Monday we had a dinner appointment with a family who lives in the north of town. But they had a TON of road construction going on...so it took FOREVER to get there. And we almost died...but we didn't! God always looks after us. We made it safly home. :)

Tuesday we had the awesomest lesson with a lady named Rachelle. We met her last week and set up an appointment in the morning. So we went and she greeted us hesitantly. But she let us in and said so, I'm kinda hesitant to let ya'll in...and we just paused not sure of what to say. But then she's like but I guess you gusy must be nervous and anxious too, so come in and sit down. She is so nice! She is baptist, but a seeker of truth. We had a good talk about God's love. She got really excited when we gave her the Book of Mormon. And she is excited to learn more! I love her already. :) After that we volunteered at the Salvation Army. We packed red plastic bags with food for kids. Best part was at the end when we were tying them. ONe black guy was getting tired, but when he saw us come to help he's like, oh! I feel it already. I'm not sick of red bags no more. Now all I see is the blood of Jesus! Haha, it was pretty funny. Good stuff. We went finding and met Rita! 

Wednesday crazy stuff happened. SO brother Briggs had to get up early to get some CAT scans done. When he got home he had lunch before sister Briggs left for work. But we was NOT his normal self. He was so quiet and kept saying how he felt weird. So we went to lay down. But he started sweating and throwing up and all this stuff. We had no idea what was wrong with him! So sister Briggs rushed him to the ER! We felt like we needed to help them somehow, so we cleaned their house for them. It was definitely needed for us--I love giving service where we can!  We got to stop by a lady who just had a baby and help her clean her house as well! We also had a good lesson with Ethia. We walk in and see her daughter (14) and her son (1) passed out on top of each other on the kitchen floor. Haha! But we taught her the 10 commandments with the little hand sygnals. The 9th was her favorite...thou shalt not bear false witness. Sister Gorder holds up 10 fingers and says, I'm holding up 9 fingers, right? It took her a while to get it, but when she did she busts up laughing! It was pretty great. We also got to go to youth night at the church! They were supposed to be learning a primary song in Spanish...but no one who spoke Spanish turned up...whoops! So we ended up playing games with them. 

Thursday we had a lesson with Monica. She had several questions about the chapter she read in the Book of Mormon. so it was fun to answer them and help her see how the chapter applied to her personally. Isn't the Book of Mormon great?

Friday we had zone conference! It was so good. We learned a LOT about how to use mobile phones...which we are going to be getting in May. SO WEIRD! We still haven't gotten over that. Our lessons both canceled--including Alex.. His girlfriend Katelyn's mom is in the hospital and not doing well. She had a procedure that didn't go well. So they've been visiting her a lot. So we've been praying for a lot this week. But good news came on Wednesday and she is on the mend! We met a super nice black lady who is less active. 

Saturday was cold and wet and windy! But we tried to go finding. We had a lesson with Rita who we found earlier! We also had 20 minutes to go finding before dinner. So we knock into this lady named Stacy. She was stand offf ish at first, but she let us in for a bit. And as we talked to her she said, it's kinda crazy that you guys knocked on my door. I've been having a really rough week and you come to talk to me about Jesus. So neat! Miracles. :) So Saturday night we had stake conference! IT was soooo good. But it was raining ice...or slush or something. So the drive back was super fun. But before we left we helped everyone we could scrape all the ice off their windshields. WE made it home safely though!! So glad!

Sunday we got a call from our leaders. They siad due to the weather we were allowed to go to stake conference (it was broadcast at our building) and them go directly home. We couldn't go anywhere! So we finished our weekly planning and had dinner with the Briggs. Fun stuff!

So when we had our lesson with Ethia we got talking about the Bible. .She is listening to it and was intrigued by the tabernacle. She said, "it's like a portable Jesus!" It was really funny. I also thought that it was neat. We all can have the Spirit with us if we choose. in the Doctrine and Covenants 45:32 "But my disciples shall stand in holy places, and shall not be moved;" We can make wherever we go a holy place. I love the phrase what would Jesus do? As we remember Him in all we do we will have the Spirit to guide us more in our daily lives. 

Have a blessed week!

Sister Johns