October 14, 2013
Dear Family and Friends,
It is crazy being a senior companion. At first I was terrified and had about 16 hours notice beforehand. We got Hermana Smith all packed up and sent off to Arkansas... then there was 2.... Me and Hermana Warner and suddenly I got to drive the new 2013 Chevy Cruze and I was suddenly in charge of everything... It was kind of weird. For the first time in the past 6 weeks me and Hermana Warner didn't feel stressed. We could actually enjoy our mission like I did when I was in Olive Branch. We were so worried about our language skills but the Lord certainly does qualify whom he calls. I experienced that this week. Our language skills significantly increased and we can communicate with our investigators and for the most part understand what they are saying... unless they are cuban then we just nod our heads and smile.
Also we went to this
GORGEOUS house in Eads, TN that had a lake, a guest house built out of
their old barn, an orchard and it is this huge typical southern
property. A member was having a barbecue and inviting all the people
that have worked on his property and just so happened most of them are
mexican and speak spanish so the Klepko's invited us over to get to know
the people and talk to them about the gospel in spanish. This was an
AMAZING experience. We got there and as people come in we start speaking
to them in spanish and the looks we got were pretty hilarious....
everyone doesn''t expect a white girl to speak spanish. We talked to a
few people and although the few people we talked to were from Guatemala
and are really hard to understand I seriously experienced el don de
lenguas (the gift of tongues) I was able to talk to these people for at
least 30 minutes in all spanish and understand every word they were
saying. It was soooo INCREDIBLE!! I didn't even realize I was speaking
in spanish until the english elders came over and started speaking to us
in english and I had to switch over to english. It was the coolest
experience.
The Lord definitely has qualified me to be a trainer. He has
significantly improved my spanish and my ability to understand. The
Lord gave me that little glimpse of what spanish can be like for me if I
really keep working at it. I can still understand bits and pieces oif
what people are saying but when we get in there and teach a lesson I can
suddenly understand what they are saying I can speak in spanish.... not
fluently but just enough to help them feel the spirit. Being a trainer
isn't so hard... I don't know why I was so scared.
Hermana Warner is
awesome!!!! We are a lot alike and we have a ton of fun on the mission
but we still work hard. I just got to get her ready to train next
transfer. President told us they are getting 5 new spanish speaking
sisters next transfer so all the spanish speaking sisters are going to
be training.... training isn't so bad but the Lord has gradually been
preparing me. Just when you think you can't do it the Lord encourages
you and you accept the challenge and then the next transfer it gets just
a bit harder. First transfer it was hard adjusting not only to the heat
but to being in the field. The next transfer was hard because I had
never worked so hard in my life and I have never had to learn so much
patience in my life and this transfer I am training and have to solely
rely on my spanish skills and the members to help my investigators
progress and then next transfer I am training a greenie and probably
leaving Memphis and opening a new area since I helped open Bartlett.
This week was crazy. I felt prompted to go and talk to an less
active we had met with a few weeks ago and almost got into a bible bash
with. She doesn't believe in the book of mormon and I just felt the
prompting to go back and I thought to myself why in the world would we
go back when she didn't hear a word we said. We went back and I prayed
that we would share what needed to be shared with her. She opened the
door holding a knife... I guess that is what you do when you live in the
triangle in Memphis.... one of the highest crime rates in the country.
Anyways we all looked at each other like and thought to ourselves...
what if she doesn't like what we have to say... Anyways she put the
knife away and told us to sit down and I just shared a bunch of
scriptures that I didn't plan on sharing and I just testified. I was
expecting it to be a bible bash and her to yell at us. As I testified
she was absolutely speechless!! She LOVED to argue the last time we met
with her and now she was SPEECHLESS!!!!
I felt the spirit during that
lesson. Even though it was just me talking pretty much the whole time. I
even got the impression that we need to keep going back to visit her.
Everyone in the ward and all the members told us to not even waste our
time with her because she won't even listen. I know that just because I
followed the prompting we were able to touch her heart. It was fall
break and her kids were home and were drawing as we were talking to
their mom. She told us the previous time that they hate our church and
don't want to go and when we left her kids gave us the pictures they
drew and one of the boys is dyslexic and handed me a picture that says
"I love church" on it and gave me a hug. I cried. Even if she didn't
feel the spirit, her children did. I hung that picture up on our fridge
and I probably am going to frame it and take it home with me. Probably
one of the most precious moments in my mission.
Love,
~Hermana Larissa Johnson