Winchester 1/23/17

Volunteering at an elementary school library!

She wanted a picture with this mailbox.  She's weird.  =)

"Tea" party. Mm, yes, yes, indeed. Quite spendid.

Dinner with some wardlings

Heyyy,

Here's a list of notable things that happened this week:

• Had a tea party with a lady in our ward in her house that was built in the 1800s. We shared a lesson and then sat back for the inevitable Story of How We Met, written by Jane Austen (according to her I'm sure;). It was a tale of young love when she and her husband were in high school, heartbreak, and ended with her yelling at him about it in front of an entire YSA dance seven years later, and somehow it must have worked out because here we are and they have four kids.
• Ran around town looking for service opportunities. Our reasoning is that most kingdom building/prepared/elect people will be at work during the morning and afternoon, so we should use that time visiting members and doing service. We're going to be volunteering at a historical museum, a food pantry/thrift store thing, and a homeless shelter. 
• Had interviews with President and Sister Brough. They asked me about how things are with Sister Israelsen and I told them she beats me up. They didn't seem to concerned. I guess they've learned not to take me too seriously.  
• Exchanges with Morehead--its sooo pretty up there. I saw mountains! And by mountains I mean small hills with trees on them. There's a college there, so we worked on ways to utilize YSA opportunities better. 
• We also had a lesson with a recent convert who is an absolute NUT. Halfway through it, her two kiddies ran out and started terrorizing us and the cats...with absolutely no clothes on whatsoever.
  Then the scene went something like this: *banging noises in the back room*

       Recent convert: oh. That's our third child no one ever sees. Would you like to meet him? *smiles creepily

       Sister Johns: Did the voices in your head tell you that?

        Haha it was funny!

• Got invited warmly into the home of a cute young couple who are very very well versed in the Bible, have read the Book of Mormon, and think we're probably going to a very bad place for a very long time. He had a loooot of concerns about Mormonism. We just tried to understand where he was coming from and help him understand us a little better. It made me realize that it's time for us not just to LIVE our faith, but be able to articulate and defend it. The way to do that is by understanding other religions. Not just their doctrine, but their lingo. Throwing out phrases like Atonement, sacrament, stake conference, wards, bishops, etc isn't effective. Then we have to understand our doctrine and why it is that way. One of the most common questions out here is "what is the difference between your faith and my faith?" What would you say to that? 
  Have a good one!Sister Kristen Johns

Winchester 1/16/17

Hellerrr how are din? (As we say in the GKLM)

This week was bombin!

So. Incredibly. Busy. I feel like we ran around like chickens every day this week! 

We have been meeting with this very sweet lady who reminds me of the jail keeper's daughter on Wind in the Willows ha! She has a two year old son who rules the house. His hair curly and shoulder length. Halfway through our lesson she grabbed him with a hair-tie in hand and he violently tried to squirm away from her. After a struggle (in which he somehow pulled her onto the ground and started giggling like crazy), he emerged with a tiny little man bun. We died.

So yeah. We decided lessons via FB messenger are the most effective way to teach her.;)

Before Christmas, we stopped by this young family in our ward and they told us about their next door neighbor who they've been sharing the gospel with. They've been out of town for the past few weeks, so this week we decided to stop by them again. As we were driving over, the wife called us to tell us about their neighbor. We started laughing and said we were like two minutes away from her house. When we got there, they told us how they had their neighbor over for FHE and he LOVED it! He requested to come to another and this time to please invite the sister missionaries. We're having FHE with them tonight! 

This week I've been thinking a lot about what it means to be a messenger. We watched Elder and Sister Bednar's Face to Face event they did a few months ago he told about his experience as an Apostale. He often finds himself in a very specific area in the world for the purpose of delivering a very specific message to a very specific person. That's what we are as missionaries. Many people are operating under the most knowledge and light they have now and are waiting, searching for more. When they see us, they won't see us as "two young adults who want me to be Mormon," but as two representatives of the Savior with a very important message from Him. 

God has given me a lot of hope lately. I feel very strongly that the past seven months or so of 'drought' are going to be over soon. 

Love you all!

Sister Johns

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Winchester 1/9/17

We contact people at Walmart when it's 17 degrees outside

Crepes

MLC

MLC Shenanigans

Trying to distract three stir crazy children with iPad while I tried to teach their mom. #Teamwork

Pizza with the district after Zone Meeting in Lexington

My my, this week has been somethin' else!

First of all, I have to say something about Kentuckians and winter weather. Someone spits on the road and all scraping and salting vehicles are dispatched! School is cancelled! Everyone goes to Walmart and buys all the bread, milk, and eggs! Hahaha it's a wee bit ridiculous I'd say. Jokes aside, it really has been super duper cold this week. Takes me back to the Iowa days when we'd walk to school and feel our tears freeze to our faces (only slightly exaggerating). Hand warmers and fleece lined leggings are wonderful things.

We had another MLC this week. We talked about a transfer fast that the mission is doing. Everyone is really seeking inspiration from God to know what they need to give up that is stopping them from having the spirit as their constant companion. So far it's been really amazing to see my desires change.

Our investigator from Nigeria is now being taught by the YSA elders in Lexington. We are focusing on helping members come up with their own missionary plan for the year.

Transfers this week! Sis Iz and I are staying together! It's crazy to think this is her last transfer. Our zone got pretty switched around so that's fun.

Something that gets drilled into our brains as missionaries is OUR PURPOSE. (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). We recite it every meeting, but there are many many missionaries who don't seem to GET it. They're disobedient, they're not happy, they are distracted. OR they're the other extreme which I think is almost as bad--they're robotic, obsessed with nitty-gritty obedience, judgmental and boring! The best thing is this: if you truly can internalize your purpose you can at once be yourself and be a powerful missionary. Here's the catch: you only truly internalize your purpose of helping others access the Atonement when you access the Atonement yourself and become converted. 

Love,

Sister Johns

Winchester 1/2/17

Dear people,

Happy 2017! We tried our best to stay up...but failed. Oh well;)

Firstly, our neighbor who moved here from Nigeria is doing amazingly! All of our lessons have been super spirit driven and his desire is increasing so much. He technically is YSA, so we skyped the Zone Leaders (who are over UK singles) into our lesson on Saturday. He'll most likely be taught by them during the week, and come to church with us on weekends. Its incredible to me how God literally prepared him for the past year until he was humble enough, then had him move in for a couple of weeks RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the sister missionaries! Ha!

We had a couple sisters in our zone who are struggling with some things, so Sis Iz and I felt like we should have another exchange with them. I went to Lexington this time. The sister expressed to me how hard it is to work the area because they get stuck in black hole areas (lots of return appointments, no commitment keeping) and they are in a car share so they walk a lot. I suggested we bike to the nicer neighborhoods and go exploring. So we packed a dinner, pumped up our bikes and set off on an adventure! I was on this super gimpy bike with very poor gears and weird brakes. It was kinda scary to ride in the city, but SO much fun. We found some prepared people who have cars and jobs! It was a really good exchange. Sis Iz and I talked all the way home on how we can help those sisters and our conclusion was they need to feel LOVED. I feel like that's the solution to a lot of problems. 

Later that day, we found ourselves in a very sketchy part of town (for Winchester standards, so not that bad, don't worry) looking up a referral. We ran into a lady who told us we were sent here from God and ushered us in her house. She gave us her life story, tragedy after tragedy. We just listened. After she was done, we prayed with her and she gave us both hugs. Both of us got a little emotional too. It was a very sweet moment. At the end of the day, we both came home and collapsed. Missions are taxing...emotionally, physically, and spiritually. But its a manifestation of Christ's enabling power that He can work though little 18-21 year old young adults to perform His work.

New Years Eve, we ate food and played games at a member's house. I started to feel sick Saturday and all day yesterday was kinda feverish and nauseous. Sister Iz wasn't feeling very well either and so we actually left church early. Its my first time being legitimately sick on my mission, and thats a miracle ha! I feel loads better today. 

Have a lovely week!!

Sister Johns

Exchanges! Mod Pizza. It's like a Subway for pizza.  Isn't that brilliant?

A bit of a long day Thursday was. Haha!

We pretended it was midnight around 10. Zzzzzz....

We ran out of miles for the month We had a conversation about it with a couple in our ward. Haha!

Winchester 12/26/16

Hello!

Happy post Christmas!  This week has been insane and fantastic. 

First, we had a Zone Conference, set up by our lovely and extroverted mission president and wife... festivities included an ugly sweater contest, minute to win it games, and spastically competitive missionaries because this is the one thing a year they get to be competitive about ha! 

We exchanged with the Hermanas in Lexington. On the exchange (I stayed in Winchester again) we met a man who is living in our neighbor's duplex while he's away and set up an appointment with him. 

The next day, Sister Israelsen and I met with him. He moved here a few years ago from Nigeria for school. We honestly haven't really taught any lessons the past few weeks, but we've been studying a lot and preparing to teach. Something we've been focusing on is taking a leaf out of Elder Bednar's book and not giving someone an answer when they ask a question, but giving them tools to reach their own conclusion and be agents. There was a really cool moment in this lesson where he asked a sincere question--How can I know what God wants me to do? Instead of answering, we showed him a scripture (2 Nephi 32:5) and he pondered on it. His conclusion? "I guess I need to be baptized again, huh?" That's something we never could have helped him to understand with simply talking and explaining. 

That night, we both went to Paris and stayed with the Hermanas to blitz their area. It was fun to try to understand Spanish ha! It made me realize how much harder Hermanas have to work to find Hispanics. 

Christmas Eve, we spent with this absolutely wonderful family in our ward. It was so nice to feel at home. I want my future family and house to feel like home to any stranger who comes in there. 

Martinelli's!

Christmas Eve with the Morks!

Christmas was wonderful! We got up early (teehee) to open presents under our Charlie Brown tree, then walked to church with our neighbor! He came with us afterwards to another family in our ward for games. They are CRAZY, lemme tell ya. The mom is super type A and snarky, the dad is a goofball, and then they have triplets who are a combination of those two qualities. Not to mention the grandpa who everyone teases, and the grandma who embodies a Red personality. 

Sister Israelsen and I decided to show them how to play Scum. Words cannot describe the chaos, yelling, name-calling and teasing that ensued. The older ladies threw down Aces right and left, and crowns and cylinders of shame were made for the king, queen, and scum. They could possibly still be playing currently, actually. 

King and Bottom Scum.

Calling home was awesome! It was so refreshing to talk with everyone. Thank you thank you for all the sweet gifts and notes. They mean a lot. I feel very spoiled haha!

Love you lots!

Sister Johns

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