December 30, 2013
Dear Family and Friends,
Here are pictures of our district... I think this is the first time
I had seen Elder Davidson smile.... good old zone leaders. And the
other picture is of us and the spanish elders in our area and Perezs on
Christmas.
This week has been extremely rough and interesting. I think the
Lord has a sense of humor. We received a referral from Hermana
Millington's neighbor back home and we went to visit them.... it is so
amazing what the spirit does in a lesson. We prepared a lesson and knew
that once we got into the house our lesson plan was going to go out the
window... in order for the spirit to direct us we needed to do our part
and plan a lesson and be willing to change. We did just that... we
planned on teaching about the spirit and we got in there and ended up
teaching about the book of mormon and it was neat to see how he received
a witness it was true while we were there. He testified to us and
paused for a second and then told us he knew it was true.
I have seen the gospel change people's lives. Literally we are
working with a family who the parents were about to get divorced and the
oldest son was getting in fights at school everyday and I have seen the
gospel literally change their lives. The oldest son wants to be
baptized and go to the temple. It has been amazing to see all of them
gain a testimony. I want nothing more than to see that family be sealed
in the temple.
We saw some pretty sketchy stuff happen in Memphis this week. We
were sitting in our car about to pray and go into a lesson when I see
these puppies run across the street and hear this car speeding by.
I almost screamed thinking I was going to watch one of these puppies get
hit. This happened about 3 times and we were about to go pick up the
puppies and put them back in their yard when this lady who almost hits
them gets out of her car, .... goes up to the puppies..... and steals
one and runs back to her car and speeds away.... what is the world
coming to??? Me and Hermana Millington were completely speechless and I
am pretty sure she went into shock. Even puppies aren't safe. One thing I
have learned from living in Memphis is hide your kids, hide your wife,
and most importantly hide your puppies or they might get stolen
(ATTENTION: SHANNON AND JASON).
Another funny story.. We were going to teach another lesson and we
get out of our car and this little boy is right by us and hops off his
bike and looks like he is going to cry. We ask him what is wrong and he
says: "If I don't find a bathroom soon I am going to pee myself."
We pretty much couldn't resist smiling and I had to turn away as I
started laughing... he was dead serious though!!! He went over to this
bush and I seriously thought he was going to pee in some random bush on
someones front lawn. All the things you see in Memphis.... I'm
definitely not in Utah anymore.
What would you tell me if I told you we saw a drug deal go down as
we were in Bartlett (this really nice city in Tennessee) and we see
someone go out and bury something in the garden and then we see the
pizza man drive up and go grab something out of the garden.... Pretty
sure there is some sketchy stuff going down here in Tennessee. The
elders were surprised we had gone this long without seeing a
drug deal.... so glad I am a sister missionary and not an elder.
So on Christmas we went to the Perez's and got to skype our
families. We went caroling with them afterward and I guess people don't
go caroling even in the nice parts of Tennessee. Some lady asked if she
needed to give us a donation... all of us missionaries had a pretty good
laugh about that. I guess caroling is only a Utah thing.... no wonder
people were giving us weird looks.
We are working hard with a lot of the less actives and we had a
break through with one of them. We aren't sure why they don't want
anything to do with the church but we stopped by anyway and taught them a
lesson. You can't help people if you aren't testifying to them. We have
a lot of amazing families that I have learned to love and we have been
trying so very hard to get them to keep commitments. Both families have
been to church and I think before we continue on we need to review the
book of mormon and help them continue to develop that testimony of it.
One thing I have learned is you can't teach what you don't know so I
have decided to read the book of mormon in 30 days and this transfer I
am going to read the entire book of mormon in spanish. The prophet
promised that if you read the book in your mission language you will
know the language by the time you finish. I figured to better help my
investigators I need to be able to more effectively talk to them.
This
week has been a very rough week and it ended with all 10 of our
investigators that we were certain were going to come to church not
showing up... it was very frustrating but we took it as a sign that we
are going to start 2014 out with getting all 10 of them to church. We
actually received a referral that Lord had already told us about. We had
a lot success this week and with success comes a lot of opposition as
well. Hermana Millington and I are determined not to let this opposition
get us down. We are going to try even harder and make even more
progress. The harder you try the more power you have against the
adversary.
This Christmas season was one of the very best I have had. We went
around caroling and visited quite a few of our former investigators or
investigators we had put on pause. Although we had a lot of people tell
us they didn't have time and they were spending time with family we did
find a few of those saints out there who let us into their homes and
even gave us food and tamales… (my favorite). I learned a very
precious lesson this Christmas. I learned that us as missionaries are
representatives of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We went around on Christmas eve and Christmas declaring the good tidings of great joy and people rejected us and said they didn't have time. It made me realize how Christ must have felt when he was declaring the good news and they rejected him. It made me realize that a lot of people don't know what the true meaning of Christmas is. It made me appreciate those wonderful people that let us into their homes and sing for them and share a short message. I gained so much respect and love for the savior this Christmas season and this is something I am going to keep with me for the rest of my life.
We went around on Christmas eve and Christmas declaring the good tidings of great joy and people rejected us and said they didn't have time. It made me realize how Christ must have felt when he was declaring the good news and they rejected him. It made me realize that a lot of people don't know what the true meaning of Christmas is. It made me appreciate those wonderful people that let us into their homes and sing for them and share a short message. I gained so much respect and love for the savior this Christmas season and this is something I am going to keep with me for the rest of my life.
~Hermana Larissa Johnson