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