biking pros

September 30, 2019

hey yall!

busy busy here in Stugis

• so first off—our cute girl Alida is on date for baptism! we are so pumped for her and she is even more excited too! 

• we had trade-offs in Kalamazoo which was so fun! I got to be with my grandma (my trainer’s trainer) Sister Tupou and she is the funniest person alive. 

trade-offs!!

• we also had zone conference in Grand Rapids which was so awesome. there was so many awesome things taught and I definitely recognized a lot of things I could improve and apply to my work. 

love sister jacobs♥

the district lol

most importantly- we got chipotle

• something super cool we talked about at zone conference was the feast of the trumpets. in the Jewish community it is yearly holiday originating back to ancient times and they celebrate to await the day of the gathering of Israel. what is super cool is that in 1827, when Joseph Smith had finally received the gold plates, it took place was on September 22nd, the day of the Feast of the Trumpets. the Book of Mormon is the sign given that Israel is being gathered, and that the gospel has been restored. I know that was no coincidence, that Joseph Smith didn't fake finding the plates that day, but that God does fulfill his prophecies. I know undoubtedly that Joseph Smith DID translate the Book of Mormon, that no man could have written such a book but it is the word of God. it was given to us to add to our witness of Jesus Christ and gives us the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I also know God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, so why would God not call a Prophet in our day to lead, guide and defend us.

• we got bikes at zone conference! 4 1/2 months of waiting we finally got them and we were so excited to ride them. we looked at the forecast, it said cloudy all day so we decided to bike to our service then to the church to do some planning. little did we know it started POURING and we had a 30 minute bike ride back home. that was a good time. me and sister Jacob's just laugh about it but you can bet we'll be more aware of the weather

bikes pre-rain

bikes post-rain

• our friends dave and debbie aren't progressing a whole lot so we are working with them to really focus on commitments and their purpose. we're sad too because they are snowbirds so they'll be leaving in a few weeks to South Carolina and we hope they will be willing to meet with missionaries there. 

• we also had an awesome meeting in Lansing with 3 stakes in our mission and the entire focus was member centered—missionary supported—missionary work. Elder DeVries, who is in our area seventy, spoke and gave a lot of good guidance on working with ward councils to truly love and welcome members and friends alike. even more fun, we got to go with our favorite family, the Wierschkies. 

this cute lake right by our apartment

This week I read about the brother of Jared. This story is so powerful in that he had more faith than anyone in years, enough that the veil was lifted. Because he needed light on his boat, and knew that the only way he could receive that light was the power of God, he prayed and asked God to light the stones. On one hand, he could have easily said "God, I want you to do the work and figure out how I can have light on this ship," but that isn't what he did. He went to an exceedingly high mountain to get special stones of molten rock. When we want to receive an answer to our prayers, we have to be willing to put forth the effort and act. Because of his faith, he saw the Lord, and he did light the stones. It says in Ether 3:19 "He could not be kept from beholding within the veil... and he had faith no longer, for he knew, nothing doubting." As we pray with faith, act, and live as God has asked, we cannot just have faith but have a true knowledge.

PLEASE WATCH CONFERENCE THIS WEEK! I can promise that if you seek earnestly to learn from the teachings, you will receive guidance that will strengthen and bless your life. The speakers, our Prophet, his Apostles, and the General Authorities have been prayerfully seeking what will help us in what we struggle with. 

Hope y'all have a great week!

Love,

Sister Johnson

195 Memorial Dr Apt B 21

Sturgis, MI 49091

sister jacob's mom sent us cute halloween hats

JJ

September 23, 2019

hey y'all!

sturgis is doin’ good but it’s been a little uneventful here haha here’s my week

• we taught our friends Dave and Debbie again and they are a hoot. they really have a desire to grow closer to Jesus Christ and it has been awesome to help them do that!

• we did some service for our favorite family and got tons of raspberries out of it. fair deal if you ask me

• President Nelson gave a BYU devotional that was so bomb! go watch it!

• me and Sister Jacobs gave talks this sunday about Jesus Christ and it was so awesome. I love Jesus and talking to people about him. 

• i literally love sister jacobs- she is seriously the cutest and i am so grateful to be here with her. and everyone calls us JJ :)

• we also had this recent convert in our ward text us and tell us that her daughter wants to be baptized! we could not be more excited for her and that we teach the gospel to her! 

• we had a lesson over facebook messenger which was so cool! technology is such a blessing and is here to further God's work.

• there was a massive warning down here in Southwestern Michigan for EEE, a mosquito borne disease that has a 66% survival rate so that was scary. grateful that God is watching out for us and we were able to avoid that.

President Nelson's devotional was awesome. He talked about 5 truths—you are sons and daughters of God, truth is truth, God's loves us with a perfect love, Christ appoints Prophets and Apostles, and you can learn for yourself through the spirit. I won't spoil too much of it for you all—you should go and watch it.

But most importantly he asked us to do three things after his devotional. Pray and ask to know if he and the Apostles are appointed by the Lord, ask if they receive revelation on this or other matters, and ask if the 5 truths he talked about are true. We are not asked to blindly follow and accept. Our Prophet said not to take his word for it, but to seek to know if it is true for ourselves.

I am grateful for the witness I have that President Nelson is a Prophet of God. He leads and guides this church in the latter-day. I invite each of you to watch it and do as he has invited—pray and seek to know if it is true.  

Love ya’s

Sister Johnson

195 Memorial Dr Apt B 21

Sturgis, MI 49091

tornadoes and birthdays!

September 16, 2019

this week was awesome( and we didn't even get pulled over)

cute sister jacobs

• we had interviews with our president and it was so awesome! i was able to get a ton of direction for what i can do to be a better missionary. 

•me and sister jacobs hit our 4 month yesterday and we made some gluten free brownies which were bomb!

we turned 4 :)

• there was a tornado at 2am the other night that woke us up! it was crazy but so funny

• our cute friend Kaitlin gave her farewell this week and we are so sad! she has been the best to bring around with us! florida is so lucky!

kaitlin aka the cutest future missionary

• we also got to watch the face to face for young adults and it was so good! everyone needs to watch that. i am so grateful to have living prophets and apostles in our day to give us guidance. 

• we got to teach Rick this week which was so powerful! the spirit was so strong and he has been progressing so well!

• there are lakes literally everywhere and it is so cool 

lake

• quick shout out to my cute trainer who turned 20 this week! love you sister nuttall 

• we also got a referral from the Portland, Oregon Temple Visitors Center and he and his wife were so awesome! they really want to come closer to Jesus Christ and its been so exciting. 

• we also had our district p-day last monday which was lots of fun! we went bowling and played some tennis which was a good time! elder denison backed the car into a pole which was too funny.

our district

This week I was able to read 3 Nephi 11 and it was so powerful. There is so much power in knowing that Christ had each person in the multitude come and feel the palms of His hands so they can testify that He did died for us, and was risen again. I am SO grateful that although Christ didn't appear to me, He engraved me upon the palms of His hands. He bore MY sins, My sorrows, MY trials. He is my Savior, and my Redeemer. I am honored to be a representative of Him to share His gospel with His children. 

Love y’all and hope you have a great week!

♡Sister Johnson

195 Memorial Dr Apt B 21

Sturgis, MI 49091

we got a ticket🤯👮‍♂️🚘

September 9, 2019

Hey y’all! It’s been such a fun week! 

• We were able to pick up 10 new people with week! So crazy but our area is white and ready to harvest!

• We did a lot of finding through potentials and formers and we had a lot of success. We met this sweet woman named Amber who could not wait for us to come back and share more with her and her family! So awesome!

• We got to go to Sister Jacob's baptism in Grand Rapids on Saturday for Marquita! It was so amazing to see how she has grown in her faith and chose to make that covenant with God. Seriously the cutest woman alive and I'm so grateful I got to meet her!

• A couple weeks ago I smashed my finger in a car door and during church yesterday my fingernail just fell right off. That was a fun little surprise in sacrament haha.

• We got to meet with our friend Rick again last night and it was so spiritually uplifting. He has endured so much but has been so prepared for the gospel. It’s so wonderful being able to share God's plan of happiness for each one of us and that we can one day be with our families for eternity. 

• Sister Jacobs got pulled over this week for running a red light. she actually got a warning from the police, haha—sorry for the click bait but—it was the funniest thing and we are going to be safer drivers from now on haha!

• We have also been working with a lot of returning members which is so amazing! So many people have different struggles they each face and reasons for why they chose to stop coming to church, but everyone can find strength in the Book of Mormon. We have been building that foundation with them and it is so amazing to see that change within them, because when the Book of Mormon is true, everything falls into place. Again, I plead with each of you to read it! It is for EVERYONE! It was written specifically for us in our time and is here to bless our lives in whatever trials we face. 

This week I got to read about the 2,000 stripling warriors and it was so inspiring.  These young men had never fought in a battle before and only had the knowledge they got from their mothers. In Alma 56, Helaman is talking to these young men saying, "Therefore what say ye, my sons, will you go against them to battle?" When I read this, I was thinking about the battles and challenges we all are faced with every day. Many times, God gives us these challenges to help us grow and allow us to exercise our faith. The question for us is, will go to against them to battle and face those challenges with trust that God will deliver you? The scripture then goes on to say that "never had I seen so great courage, nay, not amongst all the Nephites," and in response they said, "Father, behold our God is with us, and he will not suffer that we shall fall; then let us go forth ... Now they never had fought yet they did not fear death; and they did think more upon the liberty of their fathers than they did upon their lives; yea, they had been taught by their mothers, that if they did not doubt, God would deliver them." As these untrained, inexperienced teenagers went up to battle without any training, they did not fear because they knew God would deliver them. We must trust God in everything that we do, then we have no need to fear what is to come. 

Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a great week!

♡Sister Johnson

195 Memorial Dr Apt B 21

Sturgis, MI 49091

Miracle after Miracle

September 2, 2019

Hey y​'​all this week has been crazy and awesome so I'll get right to it!

• ​Our area is awesome! It's a little tough because the previous missionaries weren't teaching anyone and had knocked all of Sturgis in the past 6 months, but we have found so many tender mercies and miracles here. We also cover a large area with several cities as well as some of Indiana! There are some amazing people here.

Cones, of course, why not?

• We had a miracle happen when we were down in Shipshewana, Indiana last p-day! We went to this place to get our missionary tags engraved, but there was a wait of over an hour so we decided to drop by some people in that area. We met Chrissie and had a walk-in lesson with her! She told us about how she used to be Amish and was now understanding how God is there for her. She is so awesome and has been so prepared!

• Our ward is so great! We have been fed almost every meal—lunch and dinner this past week and we have some for everyday this week!

• This super kind member, Sister Wierschkie, had us over and gave us a ton the food she grows in her garden! We seriously haven't had to buy any food and bonus we eat healthy now, hahaha.

• Sister Jacobs is seriously the best and loves Mexican food! We have been cooking up some bomb food.

Bomb Mexican Food

• The Bushre's baptism was on Friday and we asked just about every single member in our ward if they could take us to Midland and no one could. It was very stressful and we had no idea how we'd get there. President Brennan gave us special permission to drive the 3 hours to Midland and stay the night in my old apartment!

• So Friday we got to go to their baptism! It was so powerful to see the hand God has played in this family's life to prepare them for this! The spirit was SO strong and every person in that room could feel it. I know that Heavenly Father is so pleased with their decision to follow Jesus Christ and I'm eternally grateful that I could have seen them grow along the way.

Bushre Family Baptism

• Sister Nuttall and I sang a musical number and so we got there early to practice with Sister James. Afterward she told us how we are exactly where we need to be and I needed to hear that. I could not agree more. I love Midland, and I always will, but I know Sturgis is exactly where I need to be.

• After we drove back, we stayed in Three Rivers and did finding there all day, and we were able to pick up three new friends! It’s amazing to see the people the Lord will put in our paths!

Three Rivers has a little bridge that's not the tridge but it'll do

• Okay funny story—Sister Jacobs is gluten intolerant and they had special bread to give her for the sacrament. Little did I know that when the young man stuck out the tray in front of me, it was the special gluten free bread and I grabbed one. He walked right away before Sister Jacobs could get one and she ended up not taking the sacrament. We were DYING and I felt SO bad! No worries, though, they blessed some after church so she could take the sacrament.

• Yesterday we had such a miracle! We had all night planned to stop by potentials and formers and everyone we had met was either not home or not interested. That was until we met Rick! He was the last person we stopped by that night, and he told us about how he had just decided to look for a new church earlier that day. His wife recently passed away and he said he knows that she sent us to him to share about the gospel. The spirit was so strong and I knew that we were just instruments in God’s hands in finding Rick! 

So this week I had a lot of different emotions and feelings and I was really praying for comfort and guidance. That next morning, I was reading Alma 29 and I swear Alma had written this for me at this exact moment. A chapter that had never really stuck out to me before was speaking right to me. I was so overcome with the spirit and honestly very humbled. I know that God truly does answer our prayers. He is aware of us in every situation we are in. It was another testament to me as well that the Book of Mormon is here for each and every one of us. It was written for us in our time to bless us and bring us comfort amidst trials. I plead with each of you to read it. Find comfort and strength in it. It is the word of God and we are SO blessed to have it on the earth today.

I hope you all have a great week! Love yas!

Sister Johnson

Also forgot to put last week but the total dogs for last transfer was a whopping 532 dogs.

The lady at the engraving place thought I wanted March instead of May so I guess I served for 21 months.

Missionary Tag -- Correction Mar. should say May