Sister Riana Johnson: Life as a Michiganary: the promised land

April 27, 2020

hello!

twas a wonderful week again here in lansing. we have come to decide that lansing really is the promised land. we have had so many miracles here and so many people who are really progressing! it is such a blessing to see the Lord further his work even in these circumstances. here's some highlights:

• most importantly, we got chick-fil-a this week. it was so good. we brought it to a lake in the williamston area called lake lansing. so fun.

chick-fil-a♡♡

• we also just had a big miracle right now! while typing this email we got a phone call from our friend jasper. so to preface, earlier this week we had a lesson with her over the phone. she was very upset and was very contentious. that broke our hearts, because she had been progressing really well. fast forward to right now, she called and said she feels deeply sorry for what she said and would like to meet again. i love the atonement of Jesus Christ that allows for true healing, true forgiveness, and true peace.

• we got to teach our friend ryan this week. the lesson started out great and he then shared a lot of his struggles and concerns with the church. through no fault of our own, our phone shut off and kicked us off of the lesson. we quickly ran out to our car which has wifi and called on one of the other phones. it turned out that he was able to really connect with the members who were also on the phone call while we were not there. it turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise as a result of a technical issue.

• we also taught our friend kevin this week and it was really cool! we were following up on his reading and he read almost all of 1 nephi! when we asked if he had been praying while he was reading, he said, "No, I haven’t." we were crushed. he then said, "That would be too hard to pray and read at the same time. I have been praying before and after I read." he cracks us up. he is progressing so well and we are really excited for him.

• we had zone conference this week which was really different! we had it over zoom and me and my companion did a training on finding! it was a lot of fun and a little scary, but it worked out. Sister Brennan gave an amazing training about covenants as well. she spoke about many instances in history when people were patiently waiting for the opportunity to be baptized. how hard that must've been! she talked more about how when we love more, we are willing to sacrifice more. it made me ponder, what am i willing to sacrifice because of my love for God? ponder that for yourself. what are you willing to sacrifice because you love God?

us with the jackson sisters!

• we got to teach our friend sister collier-spruel this week! she was a member referral and is currently in a phd program at msu. she is so cool and so smart. she has been very engaged in our lessons and has so many powerful insights and questions about what we teach! we are so excited to teach her the gospel of Jesus Christ this week. stay tuned!

• another miracle! so the lansing stake area has a facebook page (which you should all check out and like!) and we were recording videos of us around the lansing area. in our area notes, there was a place marked at a "graffiti bridge" and we figured we would check it out and record a video. while in our car, right before getting out, we got a phone call. the call was from a number we had never seen, and it was silent on the other end for the entirety of the call. we then discovered it was a member whom we have never contacted and is not actively participating in the church. we thought that was so weird and the minute we hung up the phone, a train zoomed past us silently. it was very clear to us that the Lord was keeping us from going on to the tracks for that video. i felt deeply as well, that so often, Heavenly Father has a purpose in everything in our lives. Many times we cannot recognize that it is help (a strange phone call keeping us from going on to the train tracks) but that He is so aware of our lives. i kept thinking to myself, what would have pushed this member to call us? what if we had not answered? what if we had not been obedient and receptive to the spirit? i know the Lord is watching over us. He is so aware and i am so grateful.