Sister Riana Johnson: Life as a Michiganary: All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

December 16, 2019

Hey hey y'all,

what a wonderful time of year! I love that we all get to use this season to remember the greatest gift given, and to love others as Christ loves us.

• sue is still my favorite person alive. She has so much faith and has been working so hard to learn. She has been studying come follow me, reading the Book of Mormon, and listening to general conference talks every day. Every time we visit, she ends up teaching us. She could not be more ready for her baptism next Saturday! We are SO excited for her and she's just as excited too.

• if you couldn't tell by the title... I lost a tooth this week . More specifically, I lost a crown haha. Sister Nelson's grandma sent us homemade caramels and I had to get in on that. Then a few bites in I was asking her if maybe some sugar crystalized and that was this weird white thing that was in the carmel. Then we thought maybe her grandma's tooth fell in when she was making it. It wasn't until I went for more food that I bit down and realized my crown had come off and it didn't feel very good . No worries everyone, I will be going to the dentist soon, haha.

my little crown, sadly not made of jewels or gold

• right after that incident, we went to the church for a special community event. Our ward got together with the community to have a choir to sing christmas hymns. It was so powerful and the majority of the people in the choir and those in the audience were not of our faith. It was called "For unto us a Child is Born". It was a very spirit filled meeting as we came together to worship Jesus Christ. We had a great turn out and so many people were glad to come join us in our shared belief in Jesus Christ. Afterwards, they had several tables of nativities from all around the world that you could go around and look at. Bonus, there was an insane amount of cookies.

• we also got to visit with Robert again. He had several tennis lessons on Sunday so he couldn't come to church but said that will be changing this week so he can come more. We talked about baptism and some of the requirements so we moved his date to January 18th. He decided that so on the 19th, his birthday, he can receive the gift of the Holy Ghost! So cool. He has just been soaking up the Book of Mormon and has so many questions. I swear he knows more than we do.

• we got the saddest news last night. We were visiting with Alida and her mom and they told us that they could no longer stay in their home. The shelter they were in before didn't hold up their end of the contract to help with their rent so they are leaving to stay in Portage with Alida's sister tomorrow. It's hard because there isn't anything we or the church can do and they are leaving our area so we'll just have to hope they will do ok in Portage and that they won't get lost! We had just made Alida a little case for her scriptures and we all matched so we took a picture but boy were we sad.

the cutest girl alive, alida with our matching scripture cases

• we had zone conference this week and it did not disappoint. We had to be in Grand Rapids by 9am so we had to leave before 6:30. The Battle Creek district (my district) was actually picked on to do a lot of demonstrations and it was fun. It is always so powerful to learn from our leaders and recognizing the ways that I could improve in my missionary efforts.

zone conference!

Something really cool we talked about at Zone Conference is signs. The sign that was given for Christ's birth was a star- Matt 2:9. The Wisemen were watchful and knew what was to come. Samuel the Lamanite also talked about the sign of Christ’s birth- Hel 14:3-6. These prophecies were given to the people to prepare them for the coming of Christ. In our day, there is so much commotion that we are not looking for signs prophesied about concerning Christ in these modern days. Doctrine and Covenants 35:8 tell us that when we believe, we shall see signs. Is your faith strong enough to recognize the signs? Will you be ready for Him to come again?

Also, this Sunday is a special Sunday as we come to worship Christ. I invite you all to find a Church of Jesus Christ near you to come join us to worship our Savior and remember the true meaning of Christmas.

https://www.comeuntochrist.org/light-the-world/christmas-worship-service