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

Sturgis it is!

August 27, 2019

Hello everyone!

It has been an awesome week and we had transfers! Sister Nuttall is staying in Midland and I'm down in Sturgis now! My new companion is Sister Jacob's and she is the sweetest! We came out together and are pink washing! Crazy stuff going on here.

Here are some highlights from the week: 

• We have been meeting with the Bushre family every night and it has been such a blessing to see them grow! They are so amazing and were so hard to leave!

• Our ward campout was on Friday and it was a so fun! Any place with s’mores is a place I want to be.

• Our carbon monoxide detector went off around 10:15pm on Tuesday so we had to go stay at the other sisters’ apartment. Grateful to be alive and well! 

• We got our transfer calls and cried I was so sad to leave Midland and Sister Nuttall but I know that Sturgis is where I need to be! 

• With the help of our ward, we got the Bushre's a nice set of new scriptures! They loved it and were so excited to bring them to church!

Something that has really stuck with me this week was 2 Nephi 10:23 which says: "Therefore, cheer up your hearts, and remember that ye are free to act for yourselves- to choose the way of everlasting death or the way of eternal live." Since the foundation of the Earth, we were given the gift of agency. This allowed us to choose to follow our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ by coming to Earth. This gift also allows us to decide if we are willing to follow our Savior in our thoughts and actions. Every day we make choices that affect us so we must be willing to use our agency to help and lift others and become more Christlike. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to be a missionary and to share this wonderful gospel with the people around me! 

Love you all!

♡Sister Johnson

riana.johnson@missionary.org