Sister Emily A. Johnson's Mission Blog!: March 27th

Hello family and friends,

I have been inspired by Sister Awerkamp. I'm attempting to write this week without my regular format of days. We will see how this goes!

In the pictures I'm attaching check out last weeks adventure to the city! I ran into Brendan my recent convert on the train on our way down to Times Sq.(no picture with me-sorry)

Later at the Lincoln Center chapel (temple) I ran into McClain and other friends of Luke's from the Baby Cute Boys! SMALL WORLD!

Then there is a picture of the group of us that went to the city in front of a cool statue that said Love. I don't know why we have it in NY since the original is in Philli but I'm not complaining! It's fun to take pictures by. We went to the Rockefeller center to see our relief society president's daughter perform in an ice skating showcase of choreographer It was awesome! The piece she was in did a really cool modern piece to a song by FUN (a band I like). It was awesome!

Easter Sunday was really special =) I was asked by someone in our branch to speak for 5-7 minutes in the combined third hour about Christ and I definitely felt the spirit take over! I bore a strong testimony about the blessings available to us because of what our Savior did. I testified about our responsibility to keep the commandments and soften our hearts (being humble and submissive like children) so that we can be changed through grace and the atonement of Jesus Christ. That way we can be the people the Lord knows we can become. We can be confident in the presence of God one day =)

For Easter dinner the Hippen family (one of the greatest families ever known to missionaries) fed us a delicious meal and let us be apart of their Easter Egg Hunt! They take good care of us.

This has been a busy week and we're doing a lot of work to strengthen the less active members of our branch. We are also teaching two people that are friends or coworkers with Brother Johnson from our branch. Member referrals is the best way to go when it comes to missionary work. Please think about who you know that you can invite to meet with the missionaries!

Tuesdays we go to a member's home to help here with service. I think I mentioned this before but they are remolding their house and so we get to help with construction! We love it. This week we painted primer on over 30 boards that Sister Awerkamp and one of our members sanded last week.

The bummer of Tuesday was that Sister Awerkamp and I got a parking ticket because our meter expired when we were at lunch with some elders. We would have been fine on time but they were late. It costs $50! Ouch...

We're going to split it. Some silver lining to Tuesday is when we were walking to Buffalo Wild Wings (for lunch) we were walking against some INTENSE WINDS! It normally wouldn't be a silver lining but it was so ridiculous we were laughing and bent over holding our skirts down. We looked ridiculous!

Today we went to the temple. On our way there the train was running a little slow and we were worried about making it there on time. This man named Richard who was sitting next to me started talking to me and we ended up talking to him all about the gospel! When Dalley commented on how we might not make it there on time Richard made some comment about how maybe the reason it was delayed was so that we could teach him about God. I told him I absolutely believed that and that God works in mysterious ways. He is from Brooklyn and has Italian heritage. He seemed very receptive and open. He has a restoration pamphlet and information about the church website and information about general conference. He said he sees missionaries everyday in Brooklyn. He's going to talk to them the next time he sees them. I was grateful to be able to share so much with him in the time we spent on the train. When we got to the temple we were about 10 minutes too late to go to a session so we performed initiatories instead. I was able to feel the spirit very strong when we were there. It was cool. Mostly I was pondering some things in the near future. Also I got to see the bridesroom and the sealing rooms. In the sealing room I felt the spirit even stronger! I look forward to the very special day when I will be there (in AZ) for my own wedding!

After the temple Sister Awerkamp's boyfriend's parents were in town and we got permission for them to take us out to eat. It was us and the two Spanish sisters that we live with. We went to a really nice bakery/cafe near the temple. I had a delicious grilled chicken and mozzarella open sandwich with basil pesto sauce and a Belgium brownie =)

We had forgot our phone in our apartment today when we went down to the city so we were late to our appointment. She made us a ton of spaghetti! She sent us down to a 99c store to but some Tupperware lol. While we were in there we talked to two women about the church! One of them asked if we were Christian. Then she specified to Mormon. I told her yes! She said we looked like one because of what we were wearing and how we carried our self. I said that's good because we're missionaries so we should look like it. We didn't get much on her story except she wants us to pray for her. I think she's going through some hard times. We did get her phone number and are hoping to set something up to see her this next week. Her name is Mel.

After leaving the member's apartment with two containers FULL of spaghetti we went to look up another person that we were trying to get in contact with. There was NO WHERE to park! So we decided we'd have to come back another time when we had a better plan of people we could see in that area. I was so out of it and tired from the day. Without realizing it I guess we ran a red light. Shortly after we got pulled over by undercover cops! Yes indeed. So we get pulled over by undercover cops and they asked us if we were lost.

I said no we were just distracted, we've had a long day. I began to ramble about how we were looking for where to turn in at the mail box (as a visual marker of our apartment) because the GPS showed it on the map really close. Meanwhile mind you we are two white girls in Yonkers and I'm wearing a ring pop! We also have church music playing in the car (I'm not sure if they could hear it). They were standing on each side of the car (at each of our windows) When they found out we lived here they were surprised! They were even more surprised that we needed a GPS to get home! I started to explain that we're missionaries for our church and how we go visit people and that's why we were using the gps Luckily, shortly after I said that we were missionaries he said, "Don't worry about it, Have a good night!" What a blessing!

I suppose that is a blessing when you are on the Lord's errand! lol

Sister McAllister is on the phone right now talking to her 9 yr old grand daughter. It's her birthday so she was telling her what was coming in the mail. She said, "It is MoNey HoNeY!" It cracked me up!

Well things seem to keep getting more crazy the longer I am in Yonkers! haha.

I hope you are preparing for the spiritual feast that awaits us this weekend! =) Also, transfers are coming up in two weeks. I will keep you posted on what happens.

I love you very much.

Thank you for your love and support.

Sincerely,

Sister Emily Johnson

Pictures

The first one is Nini beating her pinata!