pray for midland!

May 25, 2020

hello all!!

there was very disheartening news this week that my beloved midland faced some major flooding due to two dams breaking. they are dealing with some serious clean up and devastation. whether or not you belong to the same faith as me, please pray for midland and the people involved! 

The Tridge BEFORE flooding

The Tridge AFTER flooding

it has been so wonderful to see all of michigan rally around and support them. they even cancelled our virtual church service to encourage people to go help up in midland!

• other news for this week, the michigan stay-at-home order was extended to JUNE 12TH! so more time to spend inside working. 

• besides this sad news, we have been so blessed!  we had a new friend named erin and she is getting baptized on june 13th!!! she was being taught by the elders in our ward but they found out she actually lives in the williamston area, which we cover! we are SO SO excited for her. she is facing a lot of opposition to keep her from getting baptized but she has such a strong testimony that she won't let anything stop her!

• we got to have virtual exchanges with the sisters in our zone this week!! it was so much fun and so good to see how everyone is handling isolation! we have seriously have the best sisters in the mission. 

      

Exchanges!!!

i have been studying about the power of God's love and how it can change our lives. here is a quote that really hit me this morning:

“His pure love instantly moves across time and 

space, reaches down, and pulls us up from the

depths of any tumultuous sea of darkness, sin, 

sorrow, death, or despair we may find ourselves

in and brings us into the light and life and love

of eternity.”

there is absolutely NO depth, NO darkness, NO despair, NO sin, NO death that is beyond the reach of the Savior's love and sacrifice. He knows and loves you!

with love and prayers,

sister johnson

our district

Some of my favorite pictures from my time in midland♡ 

riana.johnson@missionary.org

Sister Johnson

500 W Lake Lansing Rd Apt B 16

East Lansing, MI 48823-1479

might be older but idk about wiser

May 18, 2020

HI HI! 

another wonderful week here in the promised land. as you can tell by the title, i turned 20 this week?! so crazy. i still feel like a twelve year old. here are some of the highlights :)

• we had a really great lesson with our friend ryan this week. he has been struggling to feel and recognize the spirit so we had the abels join and our mission president and his wife. it was so powerful. we read and discussed moroni 7 and matthew 7. he shared how he feels the book of mormon has been the cause of so much struggle in his life. he on the other hand told us that he knows that those who choose to follow God will not have it easy. keep ryan in your prayers! i have a lot of hope for him.

• we also had a few first lessons with some new friends! we met with our friend walt and he is super cool. we also had a lesson with john, someone who was formerly taught. this area is so so great and we are teaching like crazy!!

• random miracle! we were calling people in our area book last night and had a long and confusing call with one of our friends named mike. during this call, we got a buzz for someone to come into our apartment and we were super confused, but let the guy in. sister nielsen was still on the phone, so i answered the door and he handed us a ton of food. we were super confused especially being that it was the sabbath so we didn’t order anything. the guy handed me a receipt to sign and after i told him we didn’t order it, he pointed at the receipt to sign. so being the 12 year old that i am, i signed it and he left. my companion was still talking to mike and we decided to run to get the guy, but he was already on his way out of the parking lot. there was no information on the receipt except a phone number, so we called it and the person who’s actual order it was answered, haha! she lived in D16 and we are B16. long story short we itl'd her and are hopeful for her!

• we had our mission leadership council on tuesday (my birthday) and so we had to be on a zoom meeting from 10am till almost 5pm. haha, i love technology, but i am excited to not be sitting in front of a screen!! the meeting was great and everyone sang to me with the mic's all unmuted. it was chaotic but a fun time!

me on the bday for fun

my homies- hannah and emily were so kind to send some yummy cookies. love them.

also sister brennan made me a little cake! she is the cutest and i am going to cry when they leave in july!

we had a special meeting last friday with elders gay, haynie, and devries of the seventy. it was all about how we can find hope in this time of isolation and especially in the work that we do. elder gay told the story of how president hinckley had felt like he wasn't accomplishing anything on his mission and that he was wasting his family's money. his dad responded with, "Forget yourself and go to work." elder hinkley at the time went in to their upper room and got on his knees and covenanted with Heavenly Father that he would forget himself and get to work. that event changed his mission and his life. then fast forward to several years ago, president hinckley's wife passed and he really struggled with that and if he could really handle all that he was dealing with. while on a trip to europe, he went back to the same apartment from when he was a missionary and made that same promise to Heavenly Father that he would forget himself and get to work. i know that even the prophet struggles like each of us do, but that there is hope in the promises we make to our Heavenly Father.

thank you for all your love and support!!! have a blessed week♡♡ 

sister johnson

also story for the ether 12:4 quote. we are working with the sweetest member who has been struggling with the virus a lot. we read ether 12 with her and she said that from that day on, she reads it every day and that verse 4 brings her so much peace. so we wanted to make her a cute little quote reminder :)

also it is my good good pal's birthday tomorrow- sister nelson!! send her all your love

riana.johnson@missionary.org

Sister Johnson

500 W Lake Lansing Rd Apt B 16

East Lansing, MI 48823-1479

one year???

May 11, 2020

hi hi!!

it has been a busy day so i will make it quick, but lots of fun goin’ on here in lansing!

• we said goodbye to the one and only sister cook!! i love that girl to death and she is gonna do great in battle creek.

bye bye sister cook :'(

• we had a temporary companion for a few hours! sister martin was just completing her mission and needed a place to stay for the night. we were blessed with the privilege to spend that time with her and learn from her! she is great. 

sister martin!

• we also had a good lesson with our friend kevin! he is great and has made reading the book of mormon a part of his daily routine. he is out of town for the next week, but was still able to join for church via zoom! technology is so cool.

• on Sunday, we fasted with our friend ryan and a couple in our ward, the abels. ryan has been struggling to find answers for a very long time so we all fasted on his behalf to help him recognize answers! we met with him on Sunday, and he is hopeful to find an answer! pray for him!

also in honor of it being almost a year since i left on my mission, i want to let each of you know that this work is truly God's work. i could not imagine how close i have come to my Savior as i have been helping others to see His light. He is the Prince of Peace and our Advocate. i love Him! there is no place i would rather be (even in isolation) than in michigan sharing the gospel!

and happy mother’s day to all! i was lucky enough to call and see my whole family. i love them! and especially my dogs! scroll down to see one of the best parts of the call

the whole fam of dogs!! if you love me you will email me dog pics :)

god bless you all!

sister johnson

@ the capital w/one of my fav books

how i feel/look every morning when we go for runs

east lansing!

the og's

riana.johnson@missionary.org

Sister Johnson

500 W Lake Lansing Rd Apt B 16

East Lansing, MI 48823-1479

how has it been a week already??

May 4, 2020

hey hey!

the week has flown by again. the stay-at-home order has been extended until may 29^th, so we are looking forward to that! we have been so busy with meetings and lessons. it is so cool. also it is transfer week, and we are sadly losing sister cook. she is wonderful, and i wish i got more than three weeks with her! i am lucky i get to stay here with sister nielsen though! here are highlights:

one of our final sleepovers as a trio :'(

• DAVID! such a cool guy. so we had our first lesson with him two weeks ago and it was great! sadly, work kept getting in the way so we weren't able to meet with him until last night. in our lesson, he kept asking about baptism and how he could feel ready to be baptized. we ended up throwing our plan for the lesson out the door and taught him about the gospel of Jesus Christ. he really wants to know what God wants him to do, and we put him on date to be baptized the end of June! the lesson was very spirit led and the members we had that came were so wonderful in helping him understand baptism and its importance. so so cool!!

me and sister cook love nutty buddies so we celebrated putting david on date with some.

• we had a really cool lesson with our friend Kevin! he has been keeping his commitments so well and loves coming to our church services. we taught about the law of chastity this week and he said it wouldn't be easy to live, but that he could do it! the Lord has prepared him so much to come to this point.

• our friend ryan is doing good! he still has a lot of things he is struggling to find answers to. we were able to discuss with him how we feel and recognize the spirit. we also taught about fasting, and we are going to fast with him on sunday to help him find answers!

• because we are covering the lansing and williamston areas, we had the opportunity to speak in both of the ward's zoom devotionals! we spoke in one about how the restoration points us to the Savior! and it really does. everything that has come through Joseph Smith and our prophets, centers around the truth that God is our Father, and Christ is our Redeemer! we also got to share with the williamston area about our facebook page! such good stuff.

• we had an amazing book of mormon class this week! it was the best one we have had since i have been here. we followed the counsel of president gentile, of the mission presidency and created a powerpoint to help engage those on the call. it was really fun and we had many people reach out to us after and said that they found answers from that! i love how the spirit works like that.

we had a really powerful mission devotional last night. the plan was for president vidmar to join us in our devotional from california over zoom but due to health reasons, he couldn't. we had a testimony meeting and it was so powerful. each testimony born was from the spirit and a pure testimony. i felt so much peace as each one sharing their knowledge of our Savior. i would like to take this opportunity to bear my testimony to each of you. i know that Jesus Christ lives. He is the Savior of the world and the only name given under heaven that a man can be saved. He paid the price for sin and suffered pain beyond anything we will ever know in this life, because He loves us. i love Him, and i love my Father in Heaven, and i leave this with you in the name of His Beloved Son, Jesus Christ, amen.

my two favorite people on the earth!! i love the brennans.

lansing state capital!

the art district again!

update on my goose friends: they hang out outside our apartment everyday. so blessed

funny story. sister nielsen does not enjoy the geese as i do and was not a fan of the one seen in this image. during our prayer to start contacting, he tried to jump up on the table next to her and flapped his wings. it was too funny. he's really friendly--good intentions i'm sure.

have a wonderful week!

sister johnson

riana.johnson@missionary.org

Sister Johnson

500 W Lake Lansing Rd Apt B 16

East Lansing, MI 48823-1479