June 17, 2103
Hey there,
Loved seeing the pictures of Kory's graduation and temple trip. Wish I could have been there...
This week was full of miracles and kinda some discouraging moments as well.
Chuckie (Brother Lauck now) is doing so well. He has a baptism date! The members have been inviting him over for dinner at their homes and ahh he is doing great. He said, "We have church on Sunday (on Fathers day), right?" I said, yes of course! And he said, "Good, more the reason to go, for your Heavenly Father." I had never thought of it like that, but he's doing great.
Did you know that Randy Nunley grew up in the ward I am serving in?
Sister Christiansen and Farmer's old companion came to the Johnson home. She just got home from Carlsbad mission.
The guy who came to church and had already read the Book of Mormon is still coming. We found out he is not in our boundaries, but he only wants US to teach him... so we might get permission. Not sure... pretty complicated.
We had a lot of appointments cancel this week, but at the beginning of this week we had tornado warnings, so we had to cancel our plans and go home. It was kinda fun because it was the biggest storm I have ever seen! I was counting the seconds between the lightening flashes and it was about every 1, 2 and 3 seconds. The thunder was loud all night. I guess I was sleeping weird because Sister Joseph said I was sleep talking a lot and that I yelled at her for getting up in the middle of the night, asking where she was going and was saying a lot of numbers? Idk ha.
We went out biking and you know the big dog from the movie, Sandlot? An English Mastiff. Well, we saw so many of those big things and then we see two wolf looking dogs and they just stared at us as we were walking up to this house. I said, "Sister Joseph, I'm kinda scared." Then out comes 7 more dogs and we keep walking to the door and the dogs start coming at us so fast! I tried to hide behind Sister Joseph, but that didn't work too well and they attacked both of us. I was cracking up at the horrified look on Sister Joseph's face and she kept knocking on the door saying, "Please open, please just open!" while they were jumping on us. I guess you had to be there, but it was pretty intense.
We also got to go to a Strawberry festival. There were roller coasters and cool things to buy. It's the biggest event they have in these small towns. Ever. It reminded me of the swap meet/ Knotts. It was so fun. We were with a senior couple, and they had the DJ right next to us as we were serving Strawberry Shortcakes. They were playing all my favorite country songs, plus YMCA and all this fun music. I kinda felt bad for singing along to everything... we couldn't help it :)
As we walked back from the loud festival to Kirtland the spirit instantly came back when we stepped foot on the grounds. It was like coming back into another world. It's so peaceful in Kirtland.
To have that spirit with us after we are baptized is really such a blessing. I forget sometimes how much of a blessing that really is. If you think about it, we have a member of the GODHEAD with us. To guide us, direct, comfort, inspire, help us discern between certain things. I really figured out this week how to really listen to the spirit and to figure out what the people I am teaching don't understand or what they need to hear.
I was in the teaching room in Kirtlland and other sisters were yelling, "someone is on the phone for Kelsi". I was confused on who would be calling me and I didn't remember calling anyone who needed to call me back. I picked up the phone and it was a girl named, Lillian. She is from London, England. She was really shy and so I just got to know her for a few minutes and mentioned that I am a missionary and I get to share a unique message with other people. We talked for about 20 minutes and about half way through... I felt prompted to share about Uncle Mike and how I know I will get to see him again :) and how it was really hard on us, but knowing that we will see him again is such a blessing. She opened up immediately after that. She told me her 12 year old little sister just died from cancer. She asked how I knew that there is life after this? I ended up setting up an appointment to call her the next day. We called back and taught her about the Restoration. She is so interested and said she wants to know more and more. She had a lot of questions. She really wanted us to call her back again soon and didn't want to wait until the following week. She is so cute! We can't wait to talk to her again. :)
I'm really so grateful to be somewhere where I can utilize the history, the examples and spirit that's in Kirtland. We are able to help uplift and inspire those people who come to the Johnson Home and Kirtland. We also had a family with four boys come to the Johnson Home. The four boys are all preparing for missions. The boys really listened and wanted to be there. Their parents told me that I had looked familiar to them. They said that they knew that we had seen each other before and it was planned that I would take their family and boys on tour to help encourage/inspire them to go on missions. They started to cry and it made me cry. They kept saying, "Thank you, thank you". I love, love these sacred homes and the spirit that is there to testify of truth!
Elder Sorensen (our sites director) talked to us about his little girl. He said that one night he was walking by her room and he heard talking. He said he thought to himself... "that's weird, I didn't know there was a sleepover going on tonight". So he opened the door and saw that he was wrong. He saw his little girl kneeling next to her bed and talking to Heavenly Father. He said she was talking to Him as if He were her friend. He started to choke up and told us to always keep that relationship with our Father in Heaven. He is not only our father, but our friend. "As you make a habit of approaching God in prayer, you will come to know Him and draw ever nearer to Him".
Just like we are to talk to our Heavenly Father, we also get to talk to our earthly father. I love my earthly father. He has taught me so much... taught me how to work, how to think "logically", how to always do my best, taught me how to love and just helped mold me into the person I am today. I love him this <-> much :) I hope you had a Happy Father's Day.... I love you more than you know and Heavenly Father loves you beyond comprehension as well.
I hope you all have a great week and remember, what a blessing it is to have the spirit with us constantly. May we do all that we can to keep it with us.
Love you! xoxo
Sister Johnson
Whatever is worrying you right now, forget about it, take a deep breath and trust in God.
“God is eagerly waiting for the chance to answer your prayers and fulfill your dreams, just as he always has. But he can't if you don't pray, and he can't if you don't dream. In short, he can't if you don't believe.” ― Jeffrey R. Holland
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