Hanover 8/29/16

Greetings!

We started the week off right by hiking hither and yon through the
local state park. We went with our mission nurse and her husband and a
set of elders in the district. They didn't anticipate bringing a four
year old hiking! I may or may not have climbed everything in
sight...;)

Set up an appointment with a man who told us to come back in an hour.
We approached his house at the set time to find a contentious drug
bust going on. For some reason appointments with the police override
appointments with missionaries?!

Had a colorful encounter with a lady who prayed over us in tongues.
I'm just going to have to wait and tell that story in person haha.

We found a man this week who had no concept of God whatsoever. As we
testified of the simple truth that God is literally our Father, I
could see the recognition stirring. He was full of wonder. When he
prayed for the first time in his life the spirit was so powerful. He
instantly recognized it too. When Jesus commands us to "become as a
little child," and to be "born again," He is reminding us of our
relationship with God--as a child to our Father. To have wonder and
awe and gratitude and love and forgiveness. Because when we see our
Father again we will be, "no more a stranger or a guest, but like a
child at home."

Have a blessed week!
Sister Johns

Hanover 8/22/16

Oh hey there!

The past few months, we've been teaching a professor who teaches at
the college here. He's Catholic, and told us initially that he wasn't
planning on changing. A month ago, we started from square one and
taught the doctrine of the Godhead. It sort of blew his mind. Then we
invited him to pray to Heavenly Father in the name of Christ. He then
had to cancel our appointments for the next few weeks, and when we
finally met with him we expected to be dropping the guy. He told us
he's been feeling so much closer to God, and he attributed it to the
fact that he's been thinking of them as separate Beings. We're really
excited about him!

We scheduled a lesson with him at the church building in Madison and
asked a lady in the ward to drive us there and join us in the lesson.
We waited for 15 minutes for her at our designated meeting place. No
one showed. We drove to her house. No one was there. We called her 17+
times with no answer. Our professor didn't answer his phone either. I
was callin' some people A-DOLTS when he called us back and said, "I'll
be at the church in five!" So I booked it to Madison while Sister
Vaughn frantically called every human in the ward directory with two X
chromosomes. We finally got a hold of the YW president who was
miraculously free in that 30 minute time frame. The spirit in the
lesson was so powerful. God makes miracles happen!

The Gospel is incredibly simple. We are children of a living and
loving Father and we want to be like Him. Our older brother, Jesus
Christ, made a way for us to come home. It's through loving God and
making promises with Him that we let that merciful power into our
lives. We come to relearn who our Father is when we make those
promises. We come to realize once more that those around us are our
brothers and sisters. We promise our Father we'll always rely on our
older Brother's help and He promises us a foretaste of home--the Holy
Ghost. The more we hear and speak that "tongue of angels," the more
comfortable we're going to be when we come home. We're part of this
Church now because we promised Father we'd share the truth with our
brothers and sisters. So let's remind them of who they are and why
they're here and where they can go!

Love you!
Sister Johns

Hanover 8/15/16

Hey people people!

This week EXPLODED.

Firstly, we went to a fairly recent convert's house to help her clean
it. All I have to say is the best tool to clean that house is
kerosene.

Facebook is helping us out a ton! Especially since our two-month late
discovery that we do, in fact, have wifi in our apartment. Since our
apartment is usually a no-bar worm hole devoid of service, this was
awesome news! We've since had an amazing lesson with this lady who
normally can't meet in person, but has agreed to meet with us via
video chat on messenger.

Saturday, our whole zone was invited to participate in a missionary
themed stake primary activity. Sister Vaughn and I and two other
sisters were assigned to talk about health and exercise part of
missionary life. We had those little girls doing wall sits and push
ups and I think I'm good for exercise for the next week! It was so
much fun though.

When the elders bring their 12 year old investigator to church, be
prepared in Gospel Essentials class to be bombarded with questions
like, "How could Adam have kids, he doesn't have a RIB?!"

As missionaries, we recite "our purpose" on a regular basis: To invite
others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel
through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism,
receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.
Ultimately, our purpose is to invite and help other people access the
atonement of Jesus Christ. In the area of Hanover, we are the only two
people authorized to help others fully access Christ's healing,
redemptive, and enabling power.

Have a fabulous week!
Sister Johns

Hanover 8/8/16

Dear lovely people,

So yeah, I probably should've mentioned...we have Facebook now! We had
a massive training on it and we're really excited about how this is
going to help us with finding and teaching. So, I'm supposedly going
to be posting inspirational stuff, but not communicating with others
unless it's gospel related.

Sometimes it takes a lot of failure to realize you need to change some
things. This week, we've been trying to get more creative. We
researched some service opportunities, we're in the process of
starting a scripture study class, and are working with the Elders to
become more unified with the ward. A lot of good things are coming out
of the woodwork! One of our investigators we've been struggling to
contact, just moved into an apartment about two minutes away from
ours. We also taught a Hispanic man in a broken combination of our
languages last night. It was amazing how much more powerful a lesson
can be when it's simple like that.

We have several less active women we are working with who have a hard
time with the other women in the ward for whatever reason. Sister
Vaughn and I talked together about how we could help Relief Society be
more unified. We had a golden opportunity yesterday to teach RS and we
got permission to have class in a large classroom instead of the
chapel. We had everyone sit in a circle and invited discussion. There
was so much more love and vulnerability and safety in that room.

Something I've been pondering a lot about is why church is so
important--what's the doctrine? I was studying in John 20 when it says
"the disciples were assembled" on the first day of the week. They were
at church. What happened? Christ appeared to them and everyone was
able to see and hear and know that it was the Savior. Everyone except
Thomas, who didn't believe what the others told him. It wasn't until a
week later when they were again assembled that Thomas could know for
himself. When we come to church and partake of the emblems of Christ's
sacrifice, we can know for ourselves who Christ is.

Have a great week!
Sister Johns

Hanover 8/1/16

Dear family and friends,

This week's report is mainly random inserts:

1) We have a friendly neighborhood skunk named Flower that we have to avoid every time we come in at night who occasionally engages in midnight fights with the dogs. Mmm

2) We got caught in a downpour several miles away from the apartment and came in looking like drowned rats. Drrrrrenched and I mean drrrrrenched;)

3) We were told to stop by a house of a 'rude' neighbor. The lady marched up to our vehicle, barked at us to get off her property right now and proceeded to tell me exactly how to back up and don't I dare drive on the lawn. Haha.

4) You know you've tracked too much when you have a dream one of the APs is instructing you and your companion on the proper way to ring a doorbell.

God answers prayers. Sometimes the answer is no. God performs miracles. Sometimes His timing is different than ours. God has the power to deliver us. Sometimes that deliverance isn't instantaneous. 

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego boldly assert to one of the most powerful men of the time, that their God would deliver them against all odds. Because God is powerful. Then they say three words that may sound like they are doubting God. Maybe a little insecure about that power, or unsure of the fact that they are on the winning team. "But if not..." 

 In reality, these three men are showing their sheer faith--faith against all odds, even if God Himself chooses not to save us. Because true discipleship is yielding our will to God's will. Even when it's painful, even when it burns. Even when deliverance doesn't happen until the last possible second.  I know that Christ is merciful and powerful and long-suffering and that He always keeps His promises. And God's side always wins.

"The church is true, the book is blue, and Jesus is a Mormon." 

Have a blessed week,

Sister Johns