This was my week!

As you are aware I wasn't able to email you completely yesterday. Emails are important for missionaries because you get to connect with family and friends as well as articulate what you are experiencing in the mission field. 

Next transfer I will begin writing my mission experience. As missionaries when you reach the end of your mission you write a "mission experience", or in other words a paper about how the mission has shaped you. It's a very broad topic lol. 

Anyhow I will fill you in!

Remember last week when I couldn't remember what else Matt Holland invited us to RISE UP to do? Well I took some notes to be able to tell you now! =)

It is his invitation to all of us! Rise up: physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, etc. The church is here to help us.

Education

-The Lord wants us to train our minds

-Lord needs us to gain all the education we can

-The more education we have, the more opportunities we'll have

 Hope
-When we are trying to Rise Up practice the principle of hope

-Sometimes hope is all you have

Trust the Lord

-We have the Lord's power at our disposal

-I don't remember fully what he said about this but in essence I think it was to continue to serve the Lord and trust in Him

Summary of his thoughts

Take our mortal experience, 
give it to God.

Do our part,

take the initiative

Our life will be blessed!

He wants us to become just like Him.

We had a really awesome lesson with a member referral named Sanna! She is from Finland. She is here as an Au Pair (I'm not sure how to spell it, but a nanny more or less) and we stopped by after our interviews with our mission president on Friday. The parents weren't there and she let us in. She's a very sweet girl! The spirit was definitely there as we taught her. Sister Ngosha asked, "If God were here right now what would you ask Him?" After pondering for a moment she said, "I don't know...maybe ask Him if He has a plan for me?" It was awesome!!! We told her that He did =)
We taught the first point in the plan of salvation (that we having a loving Heavenly Father and that we lived with Him before we came to earth). She found it fascinating. In her country people don't generally talk about religious beliefs.  We had such a great lesson and we invited her to read the rest of the pamphlet. We knew she needed to put the kids to bed soon. We were inviting her to say the closing prayer but she wasn't sure. We discused how to pray. Right about then we heard in the other room the kids say, "MOM!" We all just looked at each other as our muscles tensed. With out thinking I said, "Do you want us to sneak out the front door?!" Sanna nodded her head and we quickly rushed to the door. With a brief exchange of "I'll call you!" and "Ok" we were on our way! Luckily we had parked across the road! It was soooo funny. We laughed the whole drive home!

Sunday was Father's Day!  Happy Father's Day Dad! I sent you a letter that would have been a few days late but should have been there by now.

Monday we got to teach Lilly, a recent convert, about family history. I felt the spirit so strong! It was awesome! That night at Family Home evening it was missionary focus. About ten people spoke of their missions, what they were like, the culture of the church in that area. We had quite the international bunch! Everyone shared their testimony in the language they spoke. We heard some Norwegian, Greek, Philipeano, Japanese (our bishop), Portuguese, English (but instead of being redundant Jared sang his mission song!), and Polish!

Tuesday was awesome! We got to help our member Keri Bryant (the one who I sent a picture of her house) pack because they are moving in one week. She is such an awesome person =) She served a mission in France and Belgium. We helped wrap up a lot of breakable lamps in bubble wrap! Over time her style has changed and she likes a lot of modern design in decorating her house. She gave us a few cute things that she didn't need to say thank you for our help! I got to pick out a pillow case and an ornament she got on sale at a design store =)  She also took us to get lunch and then frozen yogurt! Sister Ngosha had never had frozen yogurt. Later in our car she couldn't finish hers. I asked her why not. She didn't realize we were going to buy some because our member wasn't so she thought we were going to eat just samples lol

Well I had a few more thoughts but I need to run! I love you and I hope you are doing well. Thank you for your wonderful examples to me.

Love,

Sister Emily Johnson