Dear Family and Friends,
I AM STAYING HERE IN MEMPHIS!!!! :) Everyone kept saying don't ask
about transfers because anyone who knows anything isn't going to tell
and you can't change what President has already decided. I decided to
take that challenge and wrote President and told him why I want to stay
here in Memphis and he found me at specialized training and told me he
is keeping me here. I wrote President probably one of the most sincere
emails I had ever sent and he actually ended up sharing it in
specialized training and centered all of the meeting on what I said in
my email to him. I guess I must have said something inspiring.
This week before I knew I was staying here we decided to go to
Jerry's Sno Cones once more and sign the "Before I die..." wall behind
it. It is way more exciting than signing the wall at Graceland. Here
are the pictures for this week. The first picture is with Robyn. The
Branch Presidents daughter who is getting ready to leave on a mission in
January.... we are getting her ready for Brazil.
The next one is what
me and Hermana Warner decided we want to do before we die. We took up
the whole column... oops.
The next one is my district this transfer...
the sisters always leave before pictures. The next one is JOHNSON
street. Hermana Warner was thrown when I randomly pulled over and got
out of the car.
The next picture is my zone and then the last is me and
Sister Winn.
We went on exchanges this week and I went to
Midtown/Frayser (which is the sketchiest part of Memphis) with Sister
Winn but it was really fun because I got to go english speaking... I
can't teach in english for the life of me. After 5 months of only
praying and teaching in spanish I was really struggling to pray in
english. In Frayser the mission car got keyed (rough neighborhood) but
what can you do. Exchanges were really fun and there was a freeze
warning that night... I'm definitely not in Utah anymore.
I am so excited to stay here in Memphis. Memphis is where they
send the best missionaries here.... maybe that is a little bit prideful
but President really needs the best in Memphis to help it succeed. Here
in Memphis I have been extremely blessed. We saw a miracle this week and
it wasn't what I expected in the slightest!!! We had moved to this new
area in Bartlett, Tennessee and we were working with this less active
family in the sketchiest part of Memphis. The mom actually answered the
door with a knife in her hand and for some reason we weren't scared. She
was HARDCORE baptist. She was baptized into our church only because she
liked the elders. We went on exchanges with teh sister training leader
and went to visit her for the first time and it ended up being a bible
bash... one of the worst bible bashes I have been in... we were about to
never go back and I just kept getting the feeling that we needed to go
back... just one more time. I didn't know why... she had made up her
mind and she wasn't going to change anytime down the road. We went back
and I full on planned on sharing on these bible bashing scriptures and
before we went inside I just prayed that we would be able to say what
she needed to hear. We went inside and I just testified to her and she
was completely silent!!! I left her completely speechless. I felt the
spirit and I was expecting to go in there speak my peace and leave and
never look back... but that wasn't the Lords plan.
After I testified I
had the feeling that we needed to go back... the elders started to work
with her husband and they got him coming back to church. After that
lesson everytime we went back she was actually happy to see us. This
sunday for the first time in years the entire family came back to
church. We had a member go pick up the dad for church and the mom came
out and asked if there was room for the entire family........ NEVER IN A
MILLION YEARS did I ever expect to see them all at church....
missionary after missionary told us not to waste our time with them and
even the members where skeptical. We saw an amazing miracle there when
we saw them walk into sacrament meeting my jaw dropped.... they were the
last people I expected to see at church. I should have trusted the Lord
more. I am so glad I followed that prompting to go back and teach her.
We now are reteaching the lessons and we are hoping to baptize their
oldest son.... MIRACLES really do happen!!! When everyone told us we
couldn't make a difference with that family.... we DID!!! God really
does work miracles... we just need to be in the right place at the right
time and I am honored to be an instrument in the Lord's hands...
serving a mission has brought me so much joy. I love the mission and I
can't believe I have almost been out here for 6 months. It has really
flown by and I don't want to waste another minute so I guess I need to
get back to work.
~Hermana Larissa Johnson