| From: | Victoria Paige Johnson (victoria.johnson@myldsmail.net) This sender is in your safe list. |
| Sent: | Mon 6/23/14 1:23 PM |
| To: | Lexi Johnson (papaversatiny@hotmail.com) |
There
are 4 kinds of missionaries. 1) Missionaries that aren't obedient or
dedicated and sometimes don't make it through the mission. 2)
Missionaries that just do enough to stay and skate by. 3) missionaries
who are obedient because they know they need to be obedient. 4)
missionaries who are obedient because they love the people, love the
lord, and want to be fully consecrated to his work. It's impossible to
be a #4 missionary all the time, but when we are---miracles happen. We
see people change, and we see ourselves change. That's the kind of
missionary I hope to be, and strive to be. And some days are hard. Some
days I only wake up because I know I have to. But most days, I love
getting up, I love pressing forward through the heat, and I love
teaching people. I hope that I get to see others change, and I hope that
in the process I am able to change. I hope that I can be more like our
dear Savior, Jesus Christ. But man, I have a long way to go.
Some crazy
things happened this week. We are grateful to have our two week
missionary! It's fun to have someone with that new-missionary fire. This
experience of being with someone who doesn't know very much about
missionary work is so good for both Sister Nash and I, if we ever get
the opportunity to train someone.
Julia, our
wonderful and favorite investigator, moved to Lucerne Valley. She is
such a champion and pressing forward and exercising her faith. She got
kicked out of the house she was staying at, and she had to move in with
her daughter. Fortunately we are able to pass her off to the
missionaries in Lucerne. She went to church there yesterday and loved
the ward. She was so excited because they were going to buy her a dress
so she could wear one to church! She also told us that she signed up to
help clean the church building. I thought that was really sweet of her!
She was crying and hugging us when we had our last lesson with her,
asking us over and over again if we would be at her baptism. We of
course will be. We wouldn't miss it for the world. She kept asking "Will
you forget about me??" and we are like, "Heck to the NO!" She is
forever in my heart.
This week we
got a bunch of people's life problems dumped on us. Peeps like to tell
us their life problems because they know we won't judge them. That's the
truth. But it stinkin hurts my heart. All we can do is teach correct
principles and let them govern themselves though... which I guess is a
lot like being a parent. It kind of weighs down emotionally on Sis Nash
and I. But it's okay, because the Savior helps us through it.
So one of our
investigators, Roxy, she is friends with the recently activated less
active, Ashley. So anyways. Roxy has taken the lessons a couple times
before in a different ward. She hasn't been baptized because she is
afraid of the water and also because her mom is really anti. BUT. This
past week she got kicked out of her house. Which is so sad. But
fortunately it was just the Lord preparing the way for Roxy to be
baptized. So at church on Sunday, I was sitting next to Ashley and Roxy
during Relief Society and Roxy says, "Well.... the church is my family
now. I guess it's time to get baptized." I WAS LIKE WHATTTTTT WOAHHHHHH.
Holla at that. Miracle within that difficulty for sure.
Another Less
active that we have been working on, Sister Mays, came to church on
Sunday!!!! She's also been reading the Book of Mormon pretty heavily.
it's awesome. She is the one that we invited to be baptized and she
responded with "WEllllll I've already been baptized in Sacramento... In
the Mormon church!!!" hahaha so she finally came to church! She is old,
and fell asleep during sacrament meeting.... but that's okay. She stayed
for all three hours! Seeing all the less actives coming back to church
makes my heart sing with joy! It's such a tender experience to see them
partake of the sacrament and renew their baptismal covenants.
OH ALSO,
craziest thing, we found 4 lost members this week. Those are people who
are members but who's records aren't in the ward and no one knows they
are there. It's pretty awesome to see the Lord lead us to random people.
But in reality, they aren't random people... To Him, they are His
precious children who have previously made covenants with him. We also
have been tracting this specific apartment building, and it's crazy full
of the nicest people. We usually don't get many new investigators from
tracting, or many appointments from it. But in this apartment complex we
found a lost member, and three different people who invited us back for
lessons. One of them is Steve, and he has some Mormon family. He called
us after we left our card on his door, and wants to make some changes
in his life. He is super cool, just has a lot of things to overcome. But
the miracle of the gospel in our lives is that we are about to overcome
anything with the precious help of our dear Savior.
Well, there's a really long email that I hope you enjoy!!!! Can you believe that it's almost July??
I hope that everyone has a rocking day.
Peace and Blessings.
IZ U GOOD. IZ U OKAY. CUZ I WANTED TO NO.
Sister Johnson
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