12/01/2014

Okay. Hmmm where to start with my week?

My motto for the holiday season on the mission: "Go big or go home.... OR GO HOME BIG." #missionarylife #gohomebig #pieandcakeandcookies #hitthegym hahahahahahahaah oh man, are hashtags still big and rocking it??

YSA ward is still awesome. Still going strong. But it's also weird....
Can I just say how annoying/hilarious/weird/amusing it is to hear about who is dating who, who's engaged, all that jazz in the singles ward? two people walk in holding hands and everyone *gasp*... or there's drama between friends and they sit on opposite sides of the chapel. hahhahahahah oh man. So happy I am a missionary and none of this matters to me. The YSA's do worry me though... Many are stuck in the "YOLO" highschool phase or they're stuck in the "I don't care it's whatever" phase. even lots of return missionaries... makes me sad. Neither of these mind sets are right..... Now is the time to prepare to meet God!  We need to act! not react. We need to be creators of circumstance, not creature of circumstances. YSA's have it good-- they just don't know it. So a word of caution from Sister Johnson... If you are in a YSA ward: Do your home and visiting teaching. Exercise your priesthood. Go out with the missionaries.. If you are too busy to do that.. do it anyways. baahahahahaah. Invite the missionaries to teach you how to share the gospel with others. Stop gossipping. Stop judging others. Stop judging a book by it's cover. Get to know others in your ward! Be their shoulder to cry on! Go to the activities and support those who aer putting them on. Be the person you want to become and eventually it will stick... You must act. You must help usher in the return of the Savior. Stop growing beards. Stop dressing like a hobo. Be modest. Remember you are a spiritual life guard for those around you!!!! Walk tall. Remember who you are..... Don't wait until later... DO IT NOW.

Okay.. I'll stop ranting... YSA's you're awesome. You rock. you do more than you know. And I do recognize that. But don't get stuck. keep moving forward!!!! now is the time to act.

So! For Thanksgiving! That was a hard day to find things to do in the singles ward.... Usually we would make cookies and write cards and drop by and visit all the widows and old people who are underappreciated if we were in a family ward on a holiday.... BUT WE AREN'T. hahaha everyone had lives and things to do. So we had a thanksgiving lunch at the Fitisimanu family! they are Samoan. So cool!!!! Later on in the day we pulled over into a parking lot and prayed for a miracle and for someone to give our cookies we made to.... Then we looked up and saw a cute old random lady. So we got out of our car and gave her cookies and told her about the new He is the Gift video! Then later we were in a neighborhood and saw a guy walking that looked pretty sad, so we did the same fo him! twas pretty cool. I like talking to people, and what a special and humbling day for us. Heavenly Father truly does answer our prayers.

PS. HE IS THE GIFT VIDEO. WATCH IT NOW. go to
christmas.mormon.org

the church is going hard and advertising this video like crazy. Huge banners on Youtube will be promoting it. AND A HUGE bill board in Times Square for this whole month.

So... go ahead and share this video on FB and insta and Twitter and whatever the junk else social media there is. AND remember that Christmas is all about Christ. He is the gift!!! So.. IF I could make a request for Christmas. I'm not really in need of anything. Instead of gifts or whatever just sacrifice and give to Christ. Share the gospel. Share this video. Serve. Think of Christ often. And then for a wonderful little something, I would love if you all could write down your testimony and give it to me :) it would be something I would cherish forever!!! :) Thankkkk youuuuu. :)

I went on exchanges with Ssiter Fa'alolo this week!!! THIS TIME sister Smoot (my companion) went to the other area and I stayed in our area by myself without her!!! well not by myself, cause sister Fa'alolo was there... But let's be real. We got so lost. SO LOST. I am still praying for a sense of direction. Exchanges were fun though!!! Sis Fa'alolo and I were in the MTC at the same time, so we had a blast together. She is a great missionary. And her awesome Austrailian accent made me happy.

This Sunday Sister Smoot and I and Elder Kirkham spoke in Sacrament meeting. (Elder Kirkham and Elder Porter are our ward mates. They are Zone Leaders over a different Zone. BTW elder kirkham is from Wasilla AK! cool huh! yay for alaska!) I spoke on the Restoration, E Kirkham spoke on the Plan of Salvationa and Sis Smoot spoke on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Of course, we teach those lessons every day. But it was a hard talk to prepare for... since I was talking to peeps my age. We wanted to apply everything we said to them and their lives.  I drew the inspiration form my talk from a fav quote of mine from Elder Anderson of the 12... He said "Spiritual questions deserve spiritual answers."  That's one of the many things that the first vision can teach us... I also talked about the blessings of the restoration mentioned in True to the Faith, "As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, you can receive blessings that were absent from the earth for almost 2,000 years." WHAT THE WHATTTTTT. anyways. We pretty much have complete access to eternal life because of the restoration of the gospel. Baptism, the holy ghost, the temples, family history, the scriptures, modern day revelation, the prophet, better understanding of the atonement. Alllllll because we have perfect and wonderful truths restored. YAYYAYAYA. We have everything we need to be guided and prepared for the second coming of the Savior. I'm so pumped about that.

After we spoke, this member in the audience came up to us sooooo excited. While we were speaking, she text her friend and asked her if she wanted to take the lesssons and her friend said yes!!!!! How cool. She this is a girl that is acting and making a difference. Sharing the gospel. Made me so happy!

I could go on and on. Good things happening everywhere. I didn't even get a chance to talk about the people we are teaching. HAHAHAHAHA woooopssssssss. ANYWAYS. I love you! Thank you all for the birthday wishes.  Thank you for the prayers. Thank you for the love. HAVE A GOOD WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK.

LOVE LOVE LOVE

Sister Johnson