First Two Weeks of July
July 6, 2015
This week I've really been
working on asking inspired questions. It's scary and really hard, but I'm
getting better at it. I just want to jump in and teach all I know about
whatever we're talking about but I'm learning to wait and think and ask good
questions that get them thinking and that bring the Spirit. Kimi, an
investigator, had me sing for her. I sang Savior, Redeemer of My Soul and
she loved it. We had a really, really spiritual lesson. She is
determined to come back to church and get back on the wagon. She was
doing so well about a month ago apparently, but she has a lot of bad examples
in her life. But she was so sure that she would come to church but then
she didn't. It just broke my heart. But I was so excited to see
Tony, Ripeka, and Aunty Kei there. It's amazing how much of my happiness
comes from if people come to church or not.
But I am REALLY loving this
ward. We have a lot of amazing, amazing people. We took Ripeka and
her cousin Roudy to the Relief Society clothing swap/cupcake decorating
extravaganza and it was so much fun. I loved just having fun and talking
to people. I really love the Young Women in our ward and I'm meeting more
people every week. We had the funnest dinner appointment this week.
It was this family from Poland. I can't spell their name but phonetically
it sounds like Vill etch koze. Anyway, we just so much fun with them and
everyone I reminded them so much of their daughter Ania. She was cute and
round and enthusiastic! She had a coin collection she was dying to show
us and she wants me to teach her to sing. We just had a great time.
Our ward council is an
army! Everyone is so willing to serve and help. They are such good
people. Brother Tichborne, the ward mission leader, calls us his captains
and we call him captain. He always talks about how we're in a spiritual
war and how we're on the front lines. He is so intense but I like him a
lot. He is Mauri and is related to, or at least knows, EVERYONE.
I still love studying in the
morning! Personal study is never, ever long enough. I just want it
to keep going which really surprises me. When you feast on the gospel,
you don't want to stop.
We sang at another fireside
this week. I love singing with Sister Aldridge. She hasn't been a
big singer in the past, but she is really good. I think it's helping her
confidence to sing with someone else. She sings the melody and I do high
and low harmony. We sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer to the tune of Come
Thou Fount for the Restoration fireside at the Visitor Center. Sister
Hawkins at the VC played for us and it was wonderful. SO many people said they
loved it. I was so fun. I'm so glad I brought that sheet music from
home. I just wish I had more.
Thanks SOOOO much for your
letters. They are pretty much the best highlight of my life!
I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!
Sister Johnson
July 12, 2015
This whole week I've dived
into a quest to become like Christ. I've read talks and scriptures and
prayed a lot to learn how to be the best disciple and servant I can possibly
be. My weaknesses and my shortcomings sometimes seem so big, like I'll
never overcome them. It's really true that when we come to God he shows
unto us our weaknesses (Ether 12:27). But it's good that I'm coming to
Christ. I just need to trust the Lord to make up the difference as I keep
working on my weaknesses. But I've also studied a lot about the
strengthening, enabling power of the atonement. The Lord is always there
for us and it's when we feel unworthy that the Lord wants us to come unto him
the most. He knows the whole plan for our lives and for us through the eternities.
We have the potential to be so much more than we can ever imagine and that only
comes from submitting our will to the Lord. Only when we lose ourselves
in the gospel and work of Jesus Christ will we find ourselves again. I've
learned that I can still have the assurance that God is pleased with me even
when I'm not perfect, because He just cares about the direction that we're
going.
Here are more random things :We met a guy on the street wearing no
shoes. We talked to him and he was eating potato chips. He said,
"It's hard for me to talk. I have no teeth and I'm trying to eat
potato chips." Well, he had a fair point. :p Also, there are
no stop signs in New Zealand . . . like maybe three in all of Hamilton.
It's so great. There are just "give way" signs. I love
it. Also, my hair is curlier and frizzier here. And it's always
cold in the winter. It's not freezing but it's cold outside and it's
always cold inside. We've finally figured out how to stay warm at night.
We wear socks, sweats, sweatshirts, I have two big blankets, and we shut the
door and leave our little heater on all night. Also, apparently, it's
very important to put your silverware all together when you are finished
eating. I didn't do that at one of our dinner appointments and the lady
feeding us said it was "quite rude". But she likes me anyway so
it's alright. I just need to remember that in the future. Haha!
This week was a week of
miracles. I wrote all the miracles I could remember from the week in my
journal last night and there were two pages full! A huge miracle is when
we really teach by the spirit. We have one investigator who was prepared
to drop us completely at our lesson on Wednesday. When she was expressing
her concerns about all these crazy problems with the church I had no idea at
all what to say, but then it just came to me in the very moment that I needed
it. It was so cool! We asked lots of questions to get her to
consider her testimony and we told her that all her questions can be traced
back to the question if Joseph Smith is a prophet or not. She realized
that she didn't know the answer so she agreed to pray and ask if Joseph Smith
was a prophet and said we could come back. Then, even though she hadn't
been to church, she had talked to the bishop. She said, "I've heard
a rumor, Sister Johnson, that you can sing." They wanted me to sing
so I sang Savior Redeemer of My Soul and I think she really, really felt the
spirit. It felt so good to help her through music. God was
definitely guiding that lesson.
We had
exchanges and it was SO fun! Send the best picture to everyone if you can. :)
Thanks so much! But Sister Falepapalangi came with me. She's from
Nevada too! She's from Reno and went to UNR and she was a TOTAL party. We
took pictures by the Nevada St. sign. It's super close to our
house. How fun is that. We had the best time together. This
is of me and her.
We set someone new to
baptism. She is a sweet, eleven year old girl named Shekainah. We
met her at a less active's house. She is friends with their kids.
But she had TONS of really good questions. She's never learned anything
at all about Jesus or church or anything and she just wants to know. As
soon as she found out about baptism she wanted to get baptized! We wanted
to go to church and wet got the awesome Polish family to give her a ride.
She is now best friends with their daughter, Ania, and she loved church.
She comes from a pretty rough home life and she is just so good. I can
just see the light of Christ in her.
Also, we are helping three
investigators stop smoking with the 15 step program. They are doing so
well. Ripeka wants to get baptized so badly and stopping is so hard for
her, but she gave us all of her tobacco (they roll their own cigarettes here)
and has stopped completely the last two days. We bought her some candy to
suck on. She's such a trooper. And we found out that she's only one
month older than me, so that was exciting.
Another miracle was with
Margaret's partner Huani. He has been very uninterested and unfriendly to
the church since the beginning, but Margaret wants to get baptized so much and
he doesn't want to marry her. Well Brother Tichborne came over to give
Margaret a blessing to help her stop smoking and resist Satan and he got talking
to Huani. Brother Tichborne is a spiritual giant and he's not afraid to
be bold. He told Huani how the gospel correlates so much to Maori culture
and how we need to seal our families together. Most of what he said was
in Maori so I didn't understand, but I did understand the spirit! Huani's
heart was softened hard core and he even agreed to let Brother Tichborne give
him a blessing as well. Dad, you would LOVE Brother Tichborne. He's
really intense and really great. Guess what else, Dad? I finally
got a referral from a dinner appointment! I was so excited. We've
been studying a lot about working with members and we will get lots more.
We want to challenge them to give Books of Mormon to their friends in the next
two weeks. We did our first challenge to a recent convert last
night.
Another miracle happened on
Saturday. We still didn't have any new investigators for the week and we
wanted three so we tracked a ton! Except we tracked a SUPER rich
neighborhood because that's where our referral was. We had NO success
there so we tried some other, normal streets. We tracked for two hours
with nothing! Well the last two houses of the two streets we tracked
listened to us and said we could come back. The very, very last house let
us in and was so nice to us. It was a girl named Sarah who works at
Hobbiton, so that was exciting. :) She was so open and awesome and is
excited to hear more. The Lord really does take care of us. Then we
were walking back to our car, a lady came out of one of the houses that no one
had answered at. She said, "I'm a less active. I've been
hoping missionaries would come by. Can you come visit me next
Thursday?" How awesome is that? Also, because we tracked all day
Saturday, we ended up talking to 132 people this week!
Finally, in Sunday School at
church another recent convert, this really elderly guy that everyone loves
named Victor, was commenting. The Elders were teaching (we switch off
every week with them) and Victor was telling how keeping the Word of Wisdom had
blessed his life recently. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, he grabbed
his stomach and started moaning and shaking and freaking out. Immediately
Brother Tichborne called the ambulance and the Elders gave him a
blessing. The ambulance came and took him away. They asked if he
wanted anyone to go with him. He said, "That Tongan man!"
He meant one of the Elders. So the Elders went with him. We haven't
heard yet, but we think he's ok and that he had appendicitis. It was just
a miracle that it had happened at church when we were all around to help.
He lives alone and it was just amazing that he could immediately get a blessing
and also that all the less actives and recent converts could see the priesthood
in action.
Oh! This is important
family! Go to the New Zealand Temple Visitor Center facebook page.
There are pictures of us on there! :)
Anyway, I just know the
church is true. If you look for miracles in your life, you will find
them!
LOTS OF LOVE,
Sister Clarissa Johnson
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