Sturgis it is!

August 27, 2019

Hello everyone!

It has been an awesome week and we had transfers! Sister Nuttall is staying in Midland and I'm down in Sturgis now! My new companion is Sister Jacob's and she is the sweetest! We came out together and are pink washing! Crazy stuff going on here.

Here are some highlights from the week: 

• We have been meeting with the Bushre family every night and it has been such a blessing to see them grow! They are so amazing and were so hard to leave!

• Our ward campout was on Friday and it was a so fun! Any place with s’mores is a place I want to be.

• Our carbon monoxide detector went off around 10:15pm on Tuesday so we had to go stay at the other sisters’ apartment. Grateful to be alive and well! 

• We got our transfer calls and cried I was so sad to leave Midland and Sister Nuttall but I know that Sturgis is where I need to be! 

• With the help of our ward, we got the Bushre's a nice set of new scriptures! They loved it and were so excited to bring them to church!

Something that has really stuck with me this week was 2 Nephi 10:23 which says: "Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves- to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal live." Since the foundation of the Earth, we were given the gift of agency. This allowed us to choose to follow our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ by coming to Earth. This gift also allows us to decide if we are willing to follow our Savior in our thoughts and actions. Every day we make choices that affect us so we must be willing to use our agency to help and lift others and become more Christlike. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to be a missionary and to share this wonderful gospel with the people around me! 

Love you all!

♡Sister Johnson

riana.johnson@missionary.org

Too Many Burgers

August 19, 2019

Hi friends,

• We were fed an outrageous amount of burgers this week. 5 different burger dinners. Grateful to be fed but I need a break from burgers for a while. 

• Last Monday night we had dinner and a lesson with the Bushre family and we provided the root beer floats. It was SO much fun and we love them a whole lot. They also made a kitty pool full of cornstarch and water which combines into a ball when you're moving and squishing it but liquefies  when you release it...highly recommend. 

• We had trade-offs where we switch companions for a day and it was fun but sad because I missed Sister Nuttall lol. 

• We also had Zone Conference which is when a bunch of missionaries in our area get  together and do some training and learn from our mission leaders. It was really spiritual and uplifting...loved it. We sang a song with our district called 'He sent His Son', here are some of the words...

"How could the Father tell the world of love and tenderness?

He sent his Son, a newborn babe, with peace and holiness.

How could the Father show the world the pathway we should go?

He sent his Son to walk with men on earth, that we may know.

How could the Father tell the world of sacrifice, of death?

He sent his Son to die for us and rise with living breath." 

I love this song and the message it conveys. It's beautiful simplicity tells us so much about God's love for each of us. He gave His son to show us the way and to give us an example to follow. Everything God does for us is out of love. 

• Sister Nuttall and I also did a musical number in church on Sunday. I played the flute, Sister Nuttall sang, and Sister James (a member of our ward) played the piano. It went really well and we were so happy we got to do it :)

• Today we went with the missionaries in our area to a place called Dow Gardens and walked around the beautiful gardens and fun sights. 

• Last thing we got to do this week was go to the funeral of a sweet women we would visit and help with her house. She was not a member of the church but she believed in Jesus Christ and always appreciated our service and kindness. She knew the importance of our work. Her passing was quite sudden, but the last visit we had with her she had me and Sister Nuttall play and sing hallelujah on the piano 3 times, which I'm grateful we got to do for her before she passed away. 

• I know that this is Christ's church and that I am doing His work. I believe that Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and I know that He was and is a prophet of God, called to restore the fullness of the gospel. I love this gospel and the joy it constantly brings me. It's amazing being able to see that joy spread to the people we meet with. 

I love you all & hope you have a fantastic week :)

♡Sister Johnson

P.S. my p-day next week will be on Tuesday (that gives you all a whole extra day to email me!)

Sister Riana Johnson

2201 Ashman St

Apt #2

Midland, MI  48640

riana.johnson@missionary.org

Food is the solution to every problem

August 12, 2019

Hello hello,

This week was a rough one compared to the amazing weeks we've previously been having. 

We've seen the amazing family we're teaching experience trial after trial in a seemingly never ending cycle.

When we teach people about the Plan of Salvation, we teach that the Fall of Adam and Eve is a good thing, that it is and always was part of God's plan for us to come to earth and experience mortality. But for us to gain experience and make choices in this life there has to be opposition in all things. Without the bad days we wouldn't appreciate the good, without the sorrow we couldn't know joy, and without trials we wouldn't be able to enjoy God's blessings. It's become a simple truth I've seen while serving a mission that while these people we are teaching grow to understand, love, and accept the true gospel of Jesus Christ, the adversary tries equally hard to push them to abandon their efforts to strengthen their faith. He will do all he can to stop people from finding the truth, and the easiest way to do that is to put as many obstacles in our way as possible. This family is strong and we know they have the faith to get through these trials, but that doesn't make it easier watching them go through so much and not being able to do anything to help.

On another, more happy note... Sister James and her daughter, Nicole, took us out to ice cream and we were late for curfew because we just had too much fun with them. 

We also got free root beer floats at A&W because it was national root beer floats day... what a time to be alive.

We're broke but we somehow still end up eating wayyyy too many ice cream cones. 

Sorry all the positives of the week include food lol 

We bought lemonade from some cute kids

Thanks for all the love and prayers, I'm sending them your way as well :)
♡ Sister Johnson

p.s. gave Sister Nuttall a haircut 

double p.s. dog & cats this week:

65 dogs and 9 cats

♡Sister Johnson

Sister Riana Johnson

2201 Ashman St

Apt #2

Midland, MI  48640

riana.johnson@missionary.org

Apparently we are good people

August 5, 2019

Great week y'all...

• First of all, the cutest fam in our ward took us blueberry picking today and it was SO MUCH FUN. Love them. And we got fresh berries wassup.

Blueberry picking

• Sister Nuttall started counting cats too so here is the roundup:
-204 dogs and 14 cats. it was a great week for dogs

• Ate tons of cones again, no surprise there

• Ants have infested our apartment and we cannot get rid of them...pray for us.

• This weekend was Riverdays here in Midland at the tridge. Don't even really know what this is but there's a live band and tons of food trucks and they have a hot air balloon competition where 28 balloons are just up in the air and it's a blast. There are THOUSANDS of people there so we got to talk to lots of nice souls. 

 

• We drew God's plan of LOVE (plan of salvation) @ the tridge in chalk SO large and were able to explain it to a few people at Riverdays which was awesome! But it only lasted about 36 hours and someone power-hosed it off the sidewalk...sadness. But while we were drawing it, this great guy Keith comes up to us and is all, " I like what you're writing! Can I give you two American flags?" To which we of course responded yes and he goes "I like to give flags to good people". BEST guy, made our day :) 

God's Plan of Love

• Sister Nuttall and I cooked in a crockpot for the first time this week, went great! Everyone is encouraged to send us crockpot recipes lol

• The Elders in our ward called us one day while they were at taco bell and asked if we wanted freezes...when do we not want freezes? So they got us some, bless their souls. 

• We also took our 90 year old neighbor, Ken, to Riverdays on Saturday and we got ice cream together. Sweetest guy, loves to dance, so he just went up in front of everyone by the singer and danced, great man. Kept us laughing all day :)

Ice Cream with Ken

• Ran 3 times...no further comments

• As I read in Jacob in the Book of Mormon this week, a story known as the allegory of the olive trees really stood out to me. It talks about the Lord of the vineyard, who represents our Savior Jesus Christ, and the olive trees that He puts so much time and effort into representing all of us. Throughout the chapter, the Lord says no less than 15 times, "it grieveth me that I should lose this tree", showing how deeply He loves and cares for us. When the trees produce bad fruit, even after all the effort the Lord puts in, the scripture says " the Lord of the vineyard wept, and said unto the servant: What could I have done more for my vineyard?" I love this parable because it so clearly demonstrates our Savior's and Heavenly Father's love for us. They love us perfectly and endlessly. We are never too far to feel that love. They will give all they can to help us return to them, they weep with us when we fail and rejoice with us when we do good. They will NEVER give up on us, don't give up on them. :)

I love you all lots
♡Sister Johnson

Sister Riana Johnson

2201 Ashman St

Apt #2

Midland, MI  48640

riana.johnson@missionary.org