Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Blog Time!

Blog time!
Hello again!

It is warming up out here in the Bronx. It's been pretty nice out, but I'm not going to lie, I am worried for the summer! haha and I'm from Arizona. However, I hear the humidity is killer.
This week has been rather eventful! 
Thursday
When we woke up we found a dead mouse that had drowned in a pan in our sink. That was pretty gross! lol. Later that day we got to go pick up couches from an investigator-the family who is working towards a baptismal date, because they were getting rid of two perfectly good couches. We got to ride in the truck over to their apartment. When we were back at our apartment some of the other missionaries came over to help us unload them and get them up stairs in our building.  It's rather amazing to see how people maneuver in the city when it comes to furniture and such. This was the first day the weather started to brighten up. When we were arranging the couches in our apartment on the fourth floor we had the windows open and a glorious breeze danced through the room. That was the same time the APs (assistant to the president) brought the mail from the Mission home to our zone. I got two letters from some amazing boys in my life! lol I was pleased to finally hear from Ethan and Tristan since getting to New York. I also had two packages from my family. One consisted of fruit snacks with a card from my nephew! The other had some delicious home made cookies and letters from my parents! It was such a wonderful day. Later that day we had an apartment inspection and we passed :) It was by a couple who has a calling supporting our mission president (the Denisons) and they are the best! Afterwards they gave us a ride to our appointment to the family we are teaching (who have a baptism date). That family has been pretty busy and have not been keeping their commitments, thus they're not progressing.

Funny Story!
So Thursday night/Friday morning I got up to use the bathroom. When I was sitting there I saw something creepy run past my feet along the wall! It ran back and forth a few times quickly, I jumped up and yelled "Oh my gosh!" My companion and one other sister who had been up talking in the other room heard me. My companion came over to the door and asked if I was ok. I said, "There is a mouse in here and no toilet paper!" Hahah she got me some toilet paper and I fled from the bathroom feeling very jumpy.  I sat in the other room and talked to the other sisters for a little bit before I decided I really needed to use the bathroom so I could go back to sleep.
We decided to have a mouse hunt! Sister Vanderdose, one of my new heroes, led the brigade! Sister T. kept psyching me out and tricking me into thinking it was right by me and I would jump! After much distress on my bladder and sanity Sister V. caught the mouse! It was an adventure to say the least. I was able to relieve my bladder and return to my peaceful slumbers :)

Saturday
we spent most of the day tracting.  We actually had a Muslim family let us into their apartment. Not so much because they were interested in hearing our message, but because the mom decided she liked us. She made us some delicious home made lemonade. Following that she made us some noodles with veggies on top. We were hungry and in no position to turn down food. lol. Meanwhile we talked to her daughter who was our age. Later when here son got home from school he joined us and he was fascinating to talk to. He knows like 5 languages and plays cricket. He's a really awesome guy and he seemed very interested in what we did as missionaries. They taught us some phrases in Bengali (from Bangladesh). It was interesting learning about their culture and customs.  At the end of our visit the son gave us a Quran and we gave him a Book of Mormon :)

Another Funny Story!
Saturday before we left the house we were doing our companion study.  We had been studying in Preach My Gospel where it talks about How to Begin Teaching. We had really focused on the suggestions and how we can apply them in our missionary efforts.  We discussed how important the last bullet point was and how we wanted to internalize it. Later when I was saying the closing prayer I asked Heavenly Father to help us "take the bullet to heart!" My companion and I started laughing hysterical! It took us a few minutes to recover and continue with the prayer ;)

Sunday we did a lot of contacting after church. Our investigators did not come even though they promised they would. We are really trying to increase our teaching pool of people so we have things to do during the week. When I first came in this area it was not really moving forward (at least in my companionship-some of the other missionaries have investigators). However, we've been working really hard the last few weeks to really turn things around in our area. The start of this week is when I've really seen those blessings start to come forward!

Monday we had Zone Meeting and a District meeting where we set our new goals for April and followed up with how our goals were coming.  It was a really good meeting because we were all feeling motivated and excited to do the work! We set some positive goals, especially in our companionship, and we've noticed the Lord has been blessing us big time!
Monday we really felt the Lord bless us tremendously! We had a lot of success in one of the buildings we tracted and we left there with three set appointments! We've also been getting a ton of referrals for the Spanish elders! It's a little ridiculous how many Spanish speaking people there are here. A lot of them are from the Dominican Republic.  I'm going to try and pick up some Spanish here because it's definitely beneficial. As we contact, when we run into Spanish speaking people Sister T. knows just enough to say that we're missionaries, she doesn't know very much Spanish but would it be ok if the Spanish missionaries came back to share a message about Jesus Christ. If they say yes, which most of them do, she'll write down their info and we'll give it to the Elders. It's interesting how open the Spanish people are. Most of the white people are very closed minded lol.
We had dinner in the park feeling so blessed!

Tuesday we were suppose to have an appointment early in the day but it fell through. We went to the park we were at the night before and played on the swings! It was so cool because the city surrounded us. When I was swinging I saw planes, trains, and automobiles! It was so amazing to feel so free while being in the midst of a crazy/busy city. The city didn't seem so big when I was on the swings.  After that we had an appointment with a woman who was a referral and that was an incredible experience! She's totally been prepared by the Lord and we are looking forward to working with her and her family! Well my time is running short, but know that the Lord is in control of all things. He loves all of us so much! If we are patient and work with his time frame the blessings are endless. In the meantime we must bare our afflictions with patience like the people in Alma.

I'm so thankful the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored on this earth! I am thankful for living prophets today and am so stoked for General Conference.

Peace and Blessin's PEACE and Blessings!
Love
Sister Johnson

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