tennis pros

January 27, 2020

hey yall!

this week has been super busy but i honestly don't remember much, so bear with me haha. 

• we had our district p-day with robert and the zone leaders! it was a dang good time and i am quite terrible at tennis

• we met with our friend pam again, and she is so funny. she gave us these cute himalayan salt lamps just for fun, and they are a nice addition to our desks haha

• pat has been doing really good! she has been keeping commitments and has been praying to know if it is true! her son, a member, has been really good at answering her questions and helping her to progress

• we did a ton of finding this week and knocking on doors! we didn't have a ton of luck until last night! we were running into some unhappy people and as we walked up to a door, i said a prayer to myself to give us someone who was ready. we met the sweetest girl named sunshine! she was so sweet and so open to meeting again. then at the next door we met this really sweet guy named mike! he was in a rut and said he knew he needed God in his life again. he was shocked that we weren't charging for our book of mormon and that we were willing to give it for free! we are meeting with both of them this week and are so hyped to see them!

• sister newenswander put me on the spot when they said they needed musical numbers so i played piano for the follow up meeting and now i have to play at zone conference this week i’m lucky tho, we convinced the zone leaders to get us ben and jerry's for my playing the piano at zone conference lol

we had the follow up meeting for the new missionaries and it was such a bomb meeting. God has done SO much in our behalf. He allowed us to leave His presence to come to earth. He sent his son to earth to suffer, bleed, and die for us. He provided us with families to learn and grow. He gave us this beautiful earth to live. He has to stand by and allow us to choose whether or not to follow him. He gives us trials to help us grow. He loves us. i am grateful i get to serve Him and give everything i have to him. i love the saying, "do you love God? if you do, you will...." all we do should be centered around that. being fully consecrated to Him is the biggest act of love we can give to Him.

riana.johnson@missionary.org

Sister Johnson

195 Memorial Dr Apt B 21

Sturgis, MI 49091

SUSAN

January 20, 2020

hey friends!

breaking news!! Sue was baptized on Saturday and it was the best day ever! she was so excited and nervous but it was so powerful. 

we have our district pday today so I only have a minute to write about the week but here's the highlights:

 ☼ Sue got baptized! our mission president was able come support her too which was really cool. so much of her family was there and there was so much love for her. she told us she felt so good after she was confirmed and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. 

sue!!

da font

☼ we visited with the Corners and shared a message with them but after they gave us some really cool stones! if any of y’all know how to make rings out of little gems hmu :)

 ☼ we had an awesome lesson with our friend Pat! she is the mother of a member but has some interesting ideas about religion. we were able to share the restoration with her and the spirit was strong!

 ☼ we found some awesome people this week too! one guy we found when we first were looking for his wife. she had shown interest several months before but hadn’t been contacted in a while. we found out that she had passed away and he was left to take care of his family on his own. we got to share the plan of salvation with him and that was so sweet. there is so much peace knowing that we can be with our families forever. 

quick thought: 1 nephi 22:25 says, "And he gathereth his children from the four quarters of the earth; and he numbered his sheep, and they know him; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd; and he shall feed his sheep, and in him they shall find pasture."

alma 5:60 tells us that "now I say unto you that the good shepherd doth call after you; and if you will hearken unto his voice he will bring you into his fold, and ye are his sheep; and she commandeth you that ye suffer no ravenous wolf to enter among you that ye may not be destroyed"

Our Savior is calling out to us, and wants us in his fold. Will you heed His voice?

♥Sister Johnson 

  

it was my 8 month so we treated ourselves to some ice cream and got matchy journals

snow!

freezing my tail off at the lake

sister newey was a dental assistant and came in clutch to get this flosser out from under my crown lol

yardy know the book is blue and the church is true

riana.johnson@missionary.org

Sister Johnson

195 Memorial Dr Apt B 21

Sturgis, MI 49091

library cat

January 13, 2020

guess what guys?!

sue is getting baptized on SATURDAY! we are beyond excited for her and she can't wait either! everyone keep her in your prayers this week as she prepares for this big day :)

• we have been meeting with sue every day and she is doing so good. God's love for her just emanates and you can feel her sweet spirit. she is so ready and we cannot wait!!

• sister neuenswander and I spent a lot of time knocking this week and we met some awesome people! we are going to meet with some of them this coming week so we will keep y'all updated

• we actually met with pam again! she was the one who called and dropped us a few weeks back. she is so sweet and really has a desire to learn. we discussed the book of mormon with her and she said she feels peace from it. we are excited to see how she moves forward from here. bonus she just gave us a ton of her mom’s old clothes which was super funny but a good time haha

• we went to this well known amish grocery that is far from our apartment for the first time. It's called yoders and had BOMB donuts. 

yoders!!

• we haven't met with robert this week but he is still reading and coming to church. he's at the point where he can't progress so we just encourage him and pray the Lord will help him understand. 

• sister neuenswander and I have really been working to improve our teaching and finding so we have been really unified in all that we do. i love how when we set goals and involve the Lord in what we so, we are so blessed!

facemasks

• we had an ice storm on Saturday night so they cancelled the second hour of church which was better than most of michigan that cancelled church altogether. luckily, sister neuenswander still got to speak and it was awesome. i am so blessed to have her!

• we went to the library for a lesson and there was just a cat chillin. he was super cute and chill so we stayed and pet him a good while. pics included of course

cat that was just sleeping in the library

we took tons of pics so be proud

sister neuenswanders 1 month celebration with f'reals

idek

still don’t know

another selfie for kicks and giggles

love y’all

sister johnson

riana.johnson@missionary.org

Sister Johnson

195 Memorial Dr Apt B 21

Sturgis, MI 49091

Neuenswhat??

January 6, 2020

hey hey!

this week was awesome and I got to pick up my new companion, straight from the mtc! her name is Sister Neuenswander and she is SO cute. I love her already. she is from Pleasant Grove, Utah and she loves canes and drake. it truly was meant to be. here’s a little about the week:

♥ I got to spend some of the week with Sister Schulties in Battle Creek while we waited for our new missionaries! we had a cool little miracle on new year’s eve. we had just gotten out of a lesson and it was 8:30pm and we were deciding what to do with our last 30 minutes. Sister Brennan always taught us that 8pm-9pm is miracle hour so we had faith that we would have a miracle. we went and knocked on some doors and we met this sweet, sweet woman named Rosie. she had been going through a lot of hard struggles that she shared with us and had just gotten off work. after visiting with her for a half hour, we set up a time to meet later. it was just a little reminder for me that when you have faith that you will have a miracle, you will!

sister schulties :)

♥ we picked up our new missionaries in Lansing on Thursday which was a ton of fun! it was really sad, they traveled all day and didn't get to bed until midnight so they were all so tired. such a highlight tho, we got jesus chicken (chick-fil-a) on our way home. what a blessing.

we took like no pictures so here’s this from the first day!

♥ we visited with Sue and she is doing so great. she has had a lot of health issues recently and they figured out what the cause was so now she is back to herself! she is seriously my favorite and cannot wait to be baptized next Saturday.

♥ this week was really hard on Robert, especially some of the things he has read. we met with him and discussed it to help but he said he needs time to process. we had to take him off date but we will keep trying to help him.

Something really neat that I learned about while studying was who the Book of Mormon was written for. The title page of the Book of Mormon, written by Moroni says that "Wherefore, it is an abridgement of the record of the people of Nephi, and also of the Lamanites—Written to the Lamanites." These powerful words were written for those who were wicked and rejected Christ throughout the Book of Mormon. Mormon 7 talks a little more about that. It begins with how they need to "know that ye are of the house of Israel", "know that ye must come unto repentance", and "know that ye must believe in Jesus Christ, that he is the Son of God". It shows that no matter what sins they may have committed before, they—like any other ancient group in the America's at that time, will be able to return to live with our Heavenly Father when they repent and are baptized. There is no limitation to who is allowed what. While the Lamanites lived thousands of years ago, this principle is still applicable to us now. We have never gone too far from the reaching love of our Savior and His atonement for our sins. There is always hope. 

thanks for reading and the continued love and support I get from all of you! 

sister johnson

riana.johnson@missionary.org

Sister Johnson

195 Memorial Dr Apt B 21

Sturgis, MI 49091