November 25, 2013
Dear Friends and Family,
This transfer has been crazy so far... I trained hermana Warner and
we ended that transfer with a baptismal date and I cried when I had to
say goodbye to her. She is my favorite companion and I am going to ask
the president if I can be companions with her again my last transfer out
here. Transfers was probably one of the hardest. I am training and it
is pretty crazy. I got a greenie straight from the Mexico MTC. It is
going to be an interesting 6 weeks but we will get along thanks to
patience I had to learn on my mission. We get along pretty well. I got a
new companion Hermana Millington. She loves music more than I do... I
didn't think that was possible.... anyways we are working together on
helping out the primary for the primary program coming up. Apparently I
have developed a slight southern accent. Hermana Millington keeps
telling me she is jealous I have a slight southern accent... I didn't
realize I even had an accent. YAY!!!
We got 3 baptismal dates this
week and the work is taking off in Memphis. Crazy story. We were on
bikes this week and we had to stop by an investigators house and meet
with her because she has a baptismal date and as soon as you set a date
satan works extra hard on these people. It was freezing cold outside and
there was a freeze warning that night and the work must go on so we
biked a few miles to their house and just prayed that she would be
home... we got there and it just so happened her husband who wasn't too
fond of us opened the door and let us in. We taught him and he actually
had some pretty good questions for us. Small tender mercy there.
Also
this week we had gotten a little discouraged and all of a sudden we
decided to stop at a referral's house. We stopped there and we actually
ended up going to the wrong house. We knew as soon as this blonde girl
answered the door that we had the wrong house. We told her we were
missionaries and gave our little door approach and told her how we had
felt prompted to stop by this house... she got a huge smile and in the
south here its usually when they start laughing and you know they aren't
interested. She just laughed and said: "I'm actually mormon and I'm the
babysitter. You definitely had a prompting because this family is less
active. We had found a less active family that even the english elders
in that area had no idea about. We had to refer them over because they
were english speaking but it was such an amazing thing to see how the
lord helps us out when we are doing our best.
A mission es muy deficil
but according to the talk: "Missionary Work and the Atonement" by
Jeffrey R. Holland which I encourage all of you to read it says that
salvation is not easy. It was never easy for Christ as he was suffering
for each of us and carrying our cross. How can we expect it to be easy?
Salavtion requires a part of your soul and if you are only doing things
half heartedly than you my friend need to change. Christ walked the path
so we don't have to walk it alone. He paid for the ticket and if we
don't walk over to him and get it it does us no good. In my hardest
times on my mission and when I am asking why this is so hard I have to
remind myself that there is another greater person that asked that same
thing as he was suffering for all of our sins. I feel comfort knowing
that I have Christ here along side me helping me in my time of need. I
don't have to go through this alone. I know that God has called me to be
here right now and Christ is going to help me every step of the way.
I love you all and hope y'all are doing great. Just remember this holiday season to give thanks for all we have been blessed with. There are a lot of people even in our own country that haven't been blessed as much as we have. Take this opportunity to turn outward and serve other people like Christ did. I know that this gospel changes lives and I have seen that the past 5 months.
~Hermana Larissa Johnson