Winchester 12/19/16

Exchanges!

 Greetings! 

Last week, Sister Israelsen asked me a question, "What's Lord of the Rings about?" My answer has turned into a week long story telling session. We've made it to the Return of the King, and still going strong. Now Sister Iz calls everything her precious, speaks in third person, and adds ssss on the end of words. I cannot undo what I have done. Haha.

This week, we helped out a lot at an elementary school library. The adorable librarian was putting on a Polar Express activity for the kiddies, including reading the book, serving hot chocolate, and giving everyone a bell. The kids absolutely loved it. They gave us hugs and stuff and it was so cute!

We exchanged the Lex North Sisters this week. I got to be with Sister Kerr, who has only been out for a few weeks! It felt kind of like white wash training again, leading out in Winchester and such. 

We were driving past this neighborhood and Sister Iz saw this cute family outside so we pulled over and jumped out. An idea popped in my head to show them the Light the World video. Next thing we knew, we had six little kids gathered around us, eagerly watching the video. It struck me as I was watching the kids watch Christ how I need to emulate Christ's example and be truly kind to others and see them as my brothers and sisters. 

We read the story about the woman who had the issue of blood in Relief Society yesterday. It struck me this time...when she touched him and a "virtue" left him, which means "strength" in Greek. So SHE was healed instantly, but at the cost of strength from Christ. I've always kind of assumed Christ had innate powers to heal people when he was on the earth, and powers to heal us now. But that power doesn't work like a magic trick. You can't get something from nothing. The source of Christ's power is the agony and pain of the Atonement. So every time you and I are healed, whether it's physically, mentally, emotionally...it comes at a heavy price. A price paid in Gethsemane and Calvary. I am so grateful for that.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!

Love, 

Sister J

Being a true Kentuckian with our recent convert

 This video describes us daily.  If you keep watching you can see me throwing an exercise ball at her haha!

Winchester 12/12/16

We did sidewalk chalk with a member who does photography. It was so fun!

Hey hey!

This week consisted of 12 hours of meetings. Whew! We had MLC on Tuesday which was AMAZING. I was expecting it to be a big training by President and the Assistants, but it was very much a council. Sister Iz and I were saying a council is the best teaching/learning environment because you get to participate instead of just being talked at. 

Had my first exchange on Thursday! I went to Lexington with Sister Lee. It was so much fun and I learned a lot. 

An Elder at MLC is in the same ward as Elder Bednar's son, and Elder Bednar himself came for Thanksgiving. He met with the missionaries and one of them asked him how to have motivation with missionary work. Elder Bednar told him that motivation is selfish, worldly, and short-lived. DESIRE is what we should be seeking. He then advised to study the BOM and look for agency. So this week I've been studying agency and it's fascinating. Our goal is to become like God, who is in complete control of himself and everything around Him. So we need to strive to be a creator of circumstances instead of a creature of circumstances. And remember, agency wouldn't be possible without the atonement.

So for a long time I've been trying to figure out how to become a master teacher. And I realized this week that in order to become a good teacher, I need to help others become agents instead of objects. Instead of trying to force people into my own mind process that I feel they need to know, I need to create an environment where I can tap into everyone's mind processes. So they can come to their OWN conclusion, and not just be told something is important. It's much much more powerful that way. 

A sister in our zone shared an experience she had pondering about worship in the temple. She always thought of worship as prayer and was confused since prayer seems to be a fairly small part of what happens in the temple. Moses 1:39 popped into her mind, "This is my work and my glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." Then she received this revelation: "The highest form of WORSHIP is EMULATION." So when we go to the temple or to church or when someone tells us to worship God....we aren't simply praying to God or praising Him. We're becoming like Him. And we do that through ordinances. 

Haha sorry it's a bit preachy this week! I tell more about adventures next week.

Love ya!

Sister Johns

Sent from my iPad

Watching the light the world video at a recent converts house in 3D!!

Exchanges! Sister Lee is the closest to the camera.

Winchester 12/5/16

Greetings!

This week was fantastic! I absolutely love Winchester already. I've missed Kentucky accents and horse farms. Plus everyone here has an obsession with Ale-8 a type of soda that originated here. The ward is pretty big, and extremely helpful! The town is probably one of the bigger places in the mission other than Lexington and Louisville.

Sister Israelsen is fabulous. She does amazing Miranda impersonations, owns a pair of Olaf footie pajamas, and makes me laugh a lot! She's on her last two transfers so we'll almost definitely be together for the next three months. I'm so excited!

In Hanover, one of the sisters organized the area into a really cool number system and it made life so much easier! So I've been working on making a number system here. We've also been working with members a ton and doing a lot of service this week for the Light the World initiative. We don't really have any investigators right now ha, but that's going to change!

This next week we're having a meeting with all the leadership in the mission called MLC. We're driving to Louisville tonight because Sister Brough needs the STLs help decorating the mission home. Then we'll stay the night there! There is SO much to do all the time, so I'm happy staying super busy:).

I really liked the Christmas devotional last night, especially the talk about the accepting God's gift of the Holy Ghost. I've been studying the BOM and looking for when it talk about covenants. Basically, Christ has this promise of eternal life that He is willing and able to give us. It's just a question of whether we're willing to give up ourselves and let Him change us.

Have a great week!

Sister Johns

Made some stir fry!

My beautiful map

Christmas parade

Hanover 11/28/16

Dear people,

Wowwwww. It's been an INSANE week!

Firstly, Hanover exploded! In a good way. The last few weeks have slowed to a crawl and we've had a hard time finding anyone. But this week, we picked up 4 new incredibly prepared investigators, several with families. Our professor is coming to church regularly which is a miracle! We even got a couple people to come all the way to Louisville to the missionary fireside last night. What makes me so happy is the ward is starting to catch the fire. Sister Shepherd and I brought up the idea of having a "missionary moment" every Sunday before RS and Priesthood. Members are getting invested in our investigators and they're initiating their own ways to find prepared people! It does my heart good!

Something CLICKED with Sister Shepherd this week. She is on fire and I'm so proud of her! I got a tiny glimpse of what Heavenly Father feels when we progress. Just seeing how far Sister Shepherd has come and all the changes that have taken place. 

Thanksgiving was fab! It consisted of eating and sleeping and playing the piano and singing and more eating and sleeping. I could have used a rousing game of football buuuut...white handbook;)

Alright now for the moment y'all have been waiting for! Transfer calls came Saturday. I'm going to Winchester, KY as a Sister Training Leader! Ahhh! Sister Shepherd had to coax me out from fetal position under the table after we got off the phone with President. I'm so scared and so excited at the same time!! 

Love you all!

Sister Johns

Thanksgiving

Hanover 11/21/16

Hey all!
We are extremely tight on miles this month (again), so when we heard
that Friday was going to be the last warm day for a while, we set out
for a trek across Hanover and didn't touch the car all day. Broke
several records, including talking with 40 people and walking 13.7
miles. Saturday, it dropped down to the low 40s and we did some
service at the Restore and our professor's yard.

Zone Conference was this week as well! They taught a lot about using
the Book of Mormon more. I used to see meetings and trainings as nice
things to go to and feel the spirit. I think I always saw church
meetings at home that way. But they're more than that--they are
opportunities to listen to a specific message God needs you to hear,
and they are an opportunity for us to more fully become saturated with
the Atonement by repenting. We want our investigators to progress and
repent--but how can we expect them to if we are not progressing and
repenting? So take every correction--however painful it may
be--gratefully, and see it as a chance to progress. And remember, when
we progress we feel joy.

So Sister Shepherd hates dogs and has an affinity for cats. And you
know how I feel about cats. I mean, I renamed our cat Lucifer for
heaven's sake. It was funny because every time we've been confronted
by a dog, Sister Shepherd yells "SIT!" at it (even if it's running
full speed towards us) while I pet it, and every time a cat has
approached us I kindly ask it to leave while trying not to let it
touch me as she plays with it. But we've been becoming more reconciled
as time goes on. She even played with a dog yesterday! And I even let
a cat rub its hair all over my tights!

Hanover 11/14/16

A letter of advice from a wised-up missionary:

1. If you pass a drunk man in the street, resist the urge to drunk-tip him. Also DO NOT contact him. He might chase you down a dark street to show you the tattoo of a cross on his face and scare the wits out of your companion.
2. If you are adventuring in the unexplored territory of your area, make sure the disgruntled lady you contact knows you are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You may just find yourself on the neighborhood Crime Watch as "two girls with long hair in dresses talking about Jesus."
3. If you decide to do service at the local Restore, ALWAYS get Mexican food from the taco truck. Always a good idea. Yes. Just do it. 
4. When your district leader turns a delicate shade of green right in the middle of district meeting, don't try to catch him (remember, white handbook). Just yell at someone to grab a chair and try not to faint yourself. (Tip: it's always nice to have the mission nurse in your district).
5. When you fry some bacon for your companion, make sure to turn the heat down and remind her to watch it before you get in the shower. You may step out of said shower to a hazy apartment, a disabled smoke detector, and a irritated companion.

Haha so yeah, it's been a WEEK, lemme tell ya! The wonderful things that happened was we had an amazing lesson with our professor and he came to sacrament meeting!! Also, our little Russian girl is getting baptized next month! Something I've been studying lately is JOY! One of Satan's best tools is keeping us in a state of unhappiness. We have joy when we understand how merciful, loving, and powerful God is. Remember, you can do anything if you're happy. Satan's got no chance:)

Love you,

Sister Johns 

Hanover 11/7/16

Greetings!

Highlights, Inserts, and Epiphanies:

• Halloween, we went hiking (again) with Madison Elders and our sister training leaders from Charlestown. I'll send a picture. I climbed the rock face we're standing on in the picture. And then Dad, you sent that email about respecting gravity that night haha. I guess it was the spirit?;) We weren't allowed to be out and about in the evening, so we got to have a night in. 
• Experienced something the kids call a hump day?! That means that I'm supposedly halfway done with my mission? Que??
• We had interviews with President and Sister Brough on Wednesday! He also did a training on talking with EVERYONE and always being in finding mode. He demonstrated his reaction when missionaries say they have an on/off switch for finding--it's called the dying cockroach. He laid on the ground with his feet and arms in the air and floundered around. Haha!  It was so helpful to talk one on one with President. He is an absolute six year old sometimes, but is incredibly spiritually powerful, and I gained a testimony that he is the right President for me and this mission.
• Met a lady who moved here a few months ago. She wanted us to come and help her unpack. So we spent an hour in her clothes closets (plural) which looked like Goodwill threw up in there. Ha! The random service you do for complete strangers!
• There is an absolutely wonderful family who moved here from Russia a few years ago and joined the church. The husband and wife were baptized last December, but they've been waiting for their 13 year old daughter to be baptized until they get sealed. Their daughter wasn't interested in baptism at all when I first got here. But this week, her mom told us that she wants to get baptized next month!!! Families are what it's all about!!
• The nurse we're teaching is progressing really well, and is excited to get baptized on the 20th. It's amazing to see how Christ is changing her heart as she gains more faith in Him. 
• My whole mission I've been trying to figure out what makes a successful missionary. And how to measure that. I've been learning that the measure of my success as a missionary is equal to the measure of my conversion to Christ.

Have a fab week!

Sister Johns

Zone Meeting 

Hiking on Halloween

Little climbing... :)

Exchanges

Exchanges

Hanover 10/31/16

Oh hey there.

Firstly, went hiking with Brother Kinman and the Madison Elders on Monday. It was so much fun! Highlights included scrambling up a rock face to see a waterfall and Brother Kinman falling into the creek. Ha! 

Tuesday, we volunteered at the Senior Center. We talked to the people in charge and they put us right to work teaching a "Bible Study with a bit of Book of Mormon thrown in" to a pile of sweet old people. We're so sneaky;)

Exchanges on Wednesday! Got to spend some time in Charlestown while Sister Shepherd led out in Hanover. I sat in on a meeting for STLs and ZLs and DLs which made me feel like a big kid. I learned a lot about how leaders who have a vision and are kind are SO much more powerful than leaders who criticize in the name of helping you do better. 

I've always thought of it like this: you can be an awesome missionary AND have fun while you're doing it! But I learned this week that in order to be a good missionary I need to have fun, be myself, have joy. My purpose is directly in line with God's purpose: to bring to pass immortality and eternal life to His children. Basically, God's purpose is to help us become perfectly joyful as He is. I've discovered that the Spirit works with me so much more easily when I'm happy and having fun. 

Saturday, we volunteered with the Elders at Habitat for Humanity. We were moving random junk from a massive warehouse to garbage bins. The manager who was directing us was hilarious. He's a shorter man with facial hair and earrings who grew up half Catholic and half Jewish (Cashew, as he put it) and would seriously make the best Shylock. He told us all these stories about his crazy Catholic Aunt Jenny, who spent six months talking to and feeding her "pet cricket" and never knew that it was a malfunctioning smoke detector. I died.

Yesterday we contacted this lady in front of a less active's house. One of the little girls from the less active family came running out and saw my Book of Mormon and got so excited. "I have a book just like that but I don't know where it is!" She grabbed it and started flipping through it eagerly even though she's too young to read at all. She wanted the book so badly and kept asking me for it. I told her it was a special book and if she took good care of it and promised to read it, she could have it. Aaaaand that's my weakness for adorable four year olds.;)

Work harder!

Sistah J

Hanover 10/24/16

Dear family and friends,

We had an amazing mission wide conference two weeks ago and Elder
Stevenson and Elder Uceda came. It was so cool to meet them! Elder
Stevenson talked about the story of Peter and Cornelius and how we
need to think of how to find "our Cornelius" (aka the person God has
prepared).

Tuesday morning, Sister Shepherd and I decided to study the story in
Acts 10. We discussed how we could be better at acting on spiritual
promptings, even if they seem counter-intuitive. The morning's
activities didn't take as long as we planned, so we had about 20
minutes before our next appointment. The thought came to me to stop by
a former investigator. We drove there and she wasn't home, so we got
back in the car and headed off. As I was driving, I recognized a young
man outside his house--we had taught him an unsuccessful lesson 2
months ago and had never gotten a return appointment. I stopped the
car and we ran to knock on his door. He looked shocked when he saw us,
hastily asked us to sit down, and told us he's had the worst 24 hours
in his life and had been praying desperately for help and direction.
He said, "I blew y'all off last time. But it's amazing that you all
showed up here today. I'm taking this as my sign." He wants to be
baptized!  God knows where the Cornelius' live and He's willing to
guide us to them--we just have to include God in His work.

The rest of this week's highlights include frolicking through the
state park on P day (Sister Shepherd skipping down the path and Sister
Johns veering off the path to climb things), and helping a part member
family haul branches down into their forest kind of like lumberjacks.

Have a great week!
Sister Johns


Sent from my iPad

Hanover 10/17/16

Dearest people,

Can I just say how much I love being missionary? I think I'm just going to do this for the rest of my life, sooo.:)

Being in Hanover for the past 4 1/2 months has been really challenging for me. It was a dead area when we got here, plus being trained by a new missionary (haha). The first two months were spent basically scouring every inch of Hanover, looking for new neighborhoods, uncharted streets. Any place that could possibly have human life, preferably human life that didn't "already have a church." 

In Shepherdsville, I remember a few distinct times when I felt like we were at a low point and all things were failing. Every single time, Heavenly Father made something happen--something mind blowingly and blatantly miraculous. That didn't happened here. We hit low point after low point. I learned a bit of Bednar's insight that sometimes we need faith NOT to be healed.

Our mission has made a massive push to baptize monthly. Heavenly Father needed us not to have faith that we'll baptize every month, but faith in Jesus Christ and His ability to change us into the missionaries who can effectively find, teach, and baptize every month. So we've been working hard, trying to change and become better, setting higher goals, praying earnestly, and expecting miracles. More fully experiencing the Atonement of Christ. And miracles have come. It's taken weeks and weeks of labor and struggle and prayer--Christ patiently and painstakingly showing me...that it's me that needs to change. I'm the one who needs my heart to be broken and changed and prepared. As soon as we allow the Savior's quickening, healing, expanding, strengthening, chastening power in our hearts...miracles do happen.

I love you all,

Sister Johns

District pic! Plus zone leaders on the right. They called Saturday and
told us the "transfer news" that Hanover was closing and our new areas
and companions. Gave us a heart attack! We need to get them back...😏

Temple

Hanover 10/12/16

Hey lovely people!
It's been SUCH a good week! It's been kind of a drop week... We were
dropped by and dropped seven people. Here's an excerpt from my
journal:
I had an epiphany tonight as I was praying. God is absolutely
miraculous. He directed us so exactly today--we were right where we
needed to be and the people God prepared were there too. He is
perfectly capable of carrying out His plans. He just needs His two
imperfect stewards to listen and obey Him. We need to be where He
wants us to be when He needs us and saying what He wants us to say. We
are representing Christ, who ALWAYS does His Father's will. Baptism or
no baptism, when I leave this area, I want to be able to say I
finished the work God sent me here to do.

Random Inserts:
-Sister Shepherd taught one of our investigator's four year old
daughters to pray and it was the sweetest thing ever.
-We drove all the way to Evansville yesterday with the Assistants for
the new missionary training. It was SO much fun! Missionaries have
nothing to do so we end up having he weirdest sense of humor haha. We
laughed the whole time, it was great.
-We were walking down a road in Madison minding our own business when
we heard this angelic music blasting the whole street. We thought we
were being translated or something until we realized...the Elders were
driving down the road with music on and windows open. Haha.
-Got asked out by a guy with a daughter this week. Once he found out
that wasn't allowed he told us he'd wait for ten months until I'm off
my mission. Awesome sauce.

Have a wonderful week!
Sister Johns

Zone family meeting

Sister's Conference

Eating lunch in Madison

Random country road!

Hanover 10/3/16

Dearest people,

What a week! We had a Sister's Conference in Louisville on my birthday
so that was fabulous! I got sang to multiple times, got to see the
lovely Sister Vaughn, and got to eat Cafe Rio for the first time this
year! Thank you for all your birthday wishes!

General Conference was excellent. We watched Saturday's sessions with
this awesome family in the ward. They have an elaborate point system
akin to march madness and complete with a trophy for the winner. It
was intense!

In Mormon's well-read discourse on love, he exhorts us to "have
charity." I've always read that as we need to be loving towards each
other and God. Elder Holland expounds, “The greater definition of ‘the
pure love of Christ,’ however, is not what we as Christians try but
largely fail to demonstrate toward others but rather what Christ
totally succeeded in demonstrating toward us. True charity has been
known only once. It is shown perfectly and purely in Christ’s
unfailing, ultimate, and atoning love for us...It is that charity--his
pure love for us--without which we would be nothing, hopeless, of all
men and women most miserable. Truly, those found possessed of the
blessings of his love at the last day--the Atonement, the
Resurrection, eternal life, eternal promise--surely it shall be well
with them." So how do we "have charity?" Becoming saturated with the
infinite love of Christ's Atonement.

After reading how ESSENTIAL charity is, the question is usually, "How
do we GET that?" Mormon explains that too, "wherefore...pray unto the
Father will all the energy of heart that ye may be filled with this
love..." I've always read that, "pray really hard for charity and God
will give it to you." This week I read it differently. Although it's
important to pray FOR charity, it's potentially even more important to
PRAY. Pray to our literal Father with our hearts. Talk to Him, listen
to Him, counsel with Him. As we do that, we will more fully understand
who He is, and who we are, and who those around us are. As we
comprehend the love our Father has for us, we will be filled with that
love and become like Him.

Love,
Sister Johns

Hanover 9/26/16

Hey there!

So we had some MIRACLES this week!

1) One night, we had to talk to a few more people to reach our TWE
(talk with everyone) goal. The one place in Hanover that actually has
people is the gas station. Because everyone needs gas. And massive
styrofoam cups of soda. Anyways, it was Sister Shepherd's turn and she
approached this car with a couple college students who weren't
interested. We asked if they had any buddies who would be. One of the
guys gave us the name and number of one of his friends. We texted this
guy assuming he was probably atheist and would think we were prank
texting him (what happened last time we got a referral like this). The
kid however, seemed super excited, asked if we could meet in a few
days, and asked which friend we got his number from so he could thank
him. We met with this guy, and he is absolutely gold.

2) We were planning one night, and had about an hour of time in
between activities that we weren't sure what to do with. So the next
morning we prayed and asked for inspiration to know where to go during
that time. Sister Shepherd had the idea to contact this potential who
didn't have a real address. I tried not to question which spirit she
was listening to...haha kidding, I was like LETS DO IT! So at that
time we went to the road the potential was supposedly on and started
looking. We saw this older gentleman out by his car so we started
talking to him. It was interesting because he had met with
missionaries before, but we could tell he felt the spirit as we were
talking...and he decided to act on it this time and meet with us.
Turns out, he's related to this potential we were looking for! We had
a really good lesson with him and he felt and recognized the spirit
very powerfully.

Someone told me an awesome analogy this week. When Christ performed
the atonement for us he gave us each a donut. If eaten, this donut
would allow us to reach eternal life and live with our Heavenly Father
again. The atonement is the center of the plan, so without Christ and
the donut provided, there is no other way to reach eternal life. We in
no way can EARN the donut, but we do CHOOSE to eat it or not.
In the scriptures we are instructed to eat the donut, which represents
the gospel of Jesus Christ: having faith in Christ and his atonement,
repenting of our sins, being baptized by priesthood authority,
receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. We must
do all of these things in order to eat the donut or we are just
holding it.
When people say we must only confess Christ to be saved, it is like
holding the donut and giving thanks to Christ that he gave you the
donut, AND THEN NOT EATING THE DONUT. So many people worship the
donut, wear it on necklaces, have pictures of it in their house, read
about the donut, praise the donut, but don't ever actually eat it.
They are spiritually hungry and they don't even know it!
As members of Christ's church we are spiritually full because not only
have we eaten the donut, but we eat a new one every week when we
partake of the sacrament.
We are surrounded by those who have been told that just recognizing
that they have a donut is enough to get them into heaven, which is
partially true, they will still receive the free gift of immortality,
but it will not get them eternal life. It is our responsibility to
show others that they can eat the donut, so that they too can be
spiritually full and receive eternal life.

Have a blessed week!
Sister Johns

P-Day, doing laundry at a member's home, writing a letter

Had ward coordination in the middle of the woods. Best ward mission leader everrrrr

exchanges with the sister training leaders!