Winchester 3/27/17

Dear people,

Been thinking a lot this week about repentance. It was President's training in ZC. The Bible was originally written in Hebrew, and "Repent" in Hebrew is Shule--"turn away." Later, it was translated to Greek, and "Repent" in Greek is Metaneoeo--"change" "from inside." Next, the Bible was translated to Latin, and that's where the problem came. The word repent was translated in Latin as Poenitere--"punishment, penitent." We often incorrectly associate repentance with suffering, pain, and confession. Those are elements that occur when we SIN, but repentance is simply change. And change is progression and progression is joy.

Went to Morehead this week! Got to spend some time with a sister who I actually knew in my Greek Lit class at BYU.
Small world!

Worked at this theater they're renovating downtown and met some cool people. 

Helped our librarian get a display case ready! Yay for art!

Good week! We've been focusing on members a ton lately and this week we've done a lot more personal finding. It's so cool to see how God can put us at the right place at the right time to find the one He needs us to touch.

Love you!
Sister Kristen Johns

Winchester 3/20/17

Dear people,

Another fab week in the beautiful town of Winchester in the great state of Kentucky in the United States of America, God bless it!

Exchanges this week were really good. I got to go to Paris again! This lady we stopped by almost had a heart attack in the middle of the lesson so that was pretty freaky. Had a really good talk with the hermana I was with. After the exchange, Sister Endemann and I were talking about how it went and both of us realized how inspired it was, the little things that happened in that 24 hours that needed to happen to help those two sisters. 

So I have never been to Golden Corral in my life. But last transfer we ended up going a couple of times because members took us. It's your classic greasy all-you-can-stuff-your-face-with place, but southern style. Which means like twice as greasy. I had vowed never to set foot in the place again, but some members took us Saturday night. Which would have been fine, except we had ward Coordination at Frisches for breakfast, and another member took us out to eat for lunch (a little hole in the wall place that has hot browns yay). So we were greased OUT by the time we were done for the day! At this point we were vowing never to eat out again in our whole lives. Sunday, a sister in the ward invited us over to eat the next day. She said, "It doesn't matter when you come, we're just going out anyways. Probably Golden Corral." For three whole seconds, I honestly thought she was joking. 

 We have a cute little family in the ward who has been working with their neighbor for several months--he comes by their house multiple times a week and they study the Book of Mormon together. He's eating it up, but not quite willing to act on it yet. We had the idea to come to their meeting and invite Sandy! It went so well. She shared her brand new testimony and it seemed to really touch him. 

*drumroll please

Sandy got baptized!! It was absolutely lovely. How can you tell if someone is ready for baptism? It's repentance, which is another word for change. Sandy has changed so much. She was positively beaming all day. Looking back on her conversion process, I've seen how patient and tender Heavenly Father has been with her. She's like a little girl reunited with her dad. All that we do as members of the church is to help God's children realize who they are and who they have always been--sons and daughters of God. Sandy invited several members of her family and we invited our friends we work with at the heritage museum. Altogether 12 non members came!!

Love you all,

Sister Kristen Johns

Her spirit animal!

Yay! Sandy was baptized!

Winchester 3/13/17

Going to miss my Boettchers!

Reunited with the old crew

Sandy meets the Temple!

Hi friends and family!

Another day by day weekly:)

Monday: Had a photo shoot by some cool artsy murals downtown! I'll eventually get them from off my camera so you can  see them. Yes yes quite lovely. We also went to Goodwill and picked outfits for each other ha! I dressed Sis E like an old lady and she dressed me like a three year old. A member in the ward owns a punching bag in their basement and we mayyyy or may not have gone over and punched the heck out of it. Teehee.

Tuesday: MLC alllllll day. Highlights include Elder Grossman telling us about how he threw some food at a squirrel on Angel's Landing and made it plummet to its death and Sister Endemann laughing so hard she spit a noodle out at him during lunch. 

Wednesday: Had a lesson with a lady who met with missionaries a year ago or so. She pounded us with so many deep questions our brains hurt afterward. Had a really good dinner and lesson with Sandy at a members house! She is so happy happy.

Thursday: We helped our librarian and worked on our training about how to work with members for Zone Meeting. 

Friday: Had Zone Meeting in Lexington! We had an early meeting with the DLs and ZLs. Our training went pretty well I think. Everyone is getting pumped up to work with members. It's the way to GO! After the meeting, we grabbed all our sisters and took them to a Mongolian grill! It's been so long since Ive been to a place like that! Then we went to anoooother meeting (STL training) with the Assistants. Went home and attempted to weekly plan. Sooo brain dead by the end. We had dinner with some members and I dont even know what happened hahaha. 

Saturday: Crazy day! Our stake was having a temple trip and Sandy wanted to go. So we got a ride up there and let her enjoy it. We planned her baptism, had a lesson, reviewed her interview questions, ordered pizza, walked outside the temple, took pictures, and even sat in the waiting room for a few minutes. It was so special to be there with her.

Sunday: I love being companions with Sister Endemann. She's really helping me open up and be myself more. Being vulnerable is NOT one of my favorite things, but she makes me do it. For example, this man was chainsawing huge branches in his front lawn when we pulled up. We offered to help and I wasn't surprised when he said no--no one ever does let two girls in dresses help with manual labor for some reason, although they will laugh at you. That did not faze Sis E. She just marched over there and started hauling wood. There was nothing the guy could do, so there we went! I want to be more courageous like that:)

Love you!

Sister Kristen Johns 

Sent from my iPad

Goodwill part 1

Goodwill part 2

A member in the ward owns a punching bag in their basement and we mayyyy or may not have gone over and punched the heck out of it. Teehee.

Photos from recent P-day

Winchester 3/6/17

Hey!

I learned so much this week! Aside from I can't beat a Samoan in a pillow fight...;)

This email will be mainly about our investigator, Sandy. We've been meeting with her for several months. A month before I got to Winchester, the sisters contacted her outside her house. She wasn't very interested, but numbers where exchanged and here wasn't any contact for several weeks. 

Then she texted the missionaries out of the blue, "I don't know if you remember me..." They met with her once and had a really good first lesson. Then she dropped off the face of the planet due to work etc.

Sister Israelsen and I kept feeling like we should keep trying her. One day she was home and we stopped by and caught up with everything that was happening in her life.  We started teaching the lessons again. 

Something that was such a powerful realization to her is that God is our actual Father who is perfect, loving, all-knowing. It's been amazing to see Sandy go from pushing God away, to lighting up every time we talk about that Father-daughter relationship. The past few weeks, she's stagnated a little bit and we were trying to figure out her concern. Friday night, we met with her and brought a member. The sister that we brought did most of the teaching and testified so powerfully of Christ's and Heavenly Father's love. The spirit was so thick and Sandy was touched, something clicked. 

Now she's asking us about when she can get baptized, and doing her own studies on different topics she's learning at church. She's coming to our ward temple trip next Saturday as well! 

Something that clicked for me this week is how the healing, cleansing, enabling, guiding, refining powers of the Atonement are unlocked and unleashed in our lives through the Spirit. When God promises us we can always have His Spirit to be with us, He is promising us we can access the powers of the Atonement. No wonder the spirit is so important in conversion! 

Have a wonderful week,

Sister Kristen Johns

Interviews

Our new friends from volunteering at the library

We were well fed this week.  Too well.

Winchester 2/27/17

Dear people,

We went to Natural Bridge with the Paris Hermanas last Monday! It was very happy happy last hurrah for Sister Israelsen. 

Tuesday, we drove to Louisville with a new sister in the ward who's starting to homeschool her kids TJed style, so needless to say we had lots to talk about. Picked up the one and only Sistaaaa Endemann!! I absolutely love her already. She and I play basketball in the mornings and she brought a rice maker and we act like four year olds all the time except when we're being very mature. Yes yes. I know she is an STL at this time for a reason, because there was some kind of crazy stuff that went down with a few of our sisters this week and I have no earthly clue how I would've handled it without her. 

Something that I've experienced a lot on my mission and a little before is trying to help people who are struggling emotionally. It brings me so much joy to help people who hurt and who are confused find just a little bit of light to make it through. That has  always required me to be strong emotionally and spiritually. Sometimes that's so difficult because for whatever reason, I tend to FEEL not only my own pain, but other people's pain. I remember breaking down in my first few weeks, probably to the bewilderment of my trainer, when we had investigators who were hurting. I've always wondered WHY on EARTH do I need to feel that soul-wrenching, heart-shattering pain FOR someone else? How does that help them that I'm torn up for them? What purpose does that serve? This week, it hit me.  

"And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind...

And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities..." 

Someone infinitely greater than all of us experienced an unimaginable amount of pain. Physical pain yes. Cancer and broken bones and childbirth. But also what is sometimes harder to heal--mental anguish, emotional agony. WHY on EARTH did Christ do that? 

The answer I pondered this week is one word: Understanding. 

"That his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities."

(Alma 7:11-12)

Understanding, not in theory, but in experience. According to the flesh. So He could know how to heal us. I have experienced the physical and spiritual healing of the Atonement. I have also experienced Christ healing me mentally and emotionally. And I'm so grateful for that!

Love,

Sister Johns