Shall the Youth of Zion Falter?

NO! (In answer to the subject)

Hello!  

Unfortunately, the youth of Zion, Sister Johnson, faltered pretty badly this week.  On Tuesday I was miserable.  I had to hold my head perfectly upright and still and it was still throbbing.  My throat hurt, I was coughing violently, and my ears hurt.  I knew that the over the counter stuff from the clinic wasn't enough and that I needed an antibiotic.  So I finally went to a good doctor and he said, "You have a sinus infection.  You need an antibiotic."  I had never been happier!

Well, it didn't get better all week!  I was MISERABLE all the way through Friday and it was awful because we have all these great investigators and couldn't go teach them.  I just wanted to get better for the baptism on Saturday so much!  On top of being sick, we were carless.  They had to take our car to fix the scrapes we made on Monday.  So that was rough because we live at the very far edge of our big area.  Thursday afternoon we called about a million members and none of them could give us a ride to the chapel to make the baptism program and go to MCM.  In an ambitious moment, I decided that even though I was sick, we would walk to the 9 kilometers to the church.  Well, it was not the best choice and I had to keep telling Sister Urgel to slow down.  It took us an hour and a half.  So I felt pretty proud of myself that in spite of everything we were there with a filled out progress record and a baptism program. 

We pressed forward!  And even though everything seemed to go wrong, I organized the baptism with Bishop and it all worked out.  And guess what?  The baptism was wonderful . . . and I was healthy.  It was such a beautiful, sacred experience for me and everyone there.  I just could feel God's amazing love for Auntie Kei.  Ripeka is getting operated on right now and she was really, really doing poorly, but she managed to be there and so did Leanna and the girls.  Elder Swan from the Visitor Center spoke and did such a great job.  Then Sister Urgel and I sang "Savior Redeemer of My Soul" because Auntie Kei had requested it.  It was so nice.  

Afterward, we were all spoiled by Auntie Kei's boil-up.  Oh, she is good!

Then this Sunday was the long awaited musical number.  The Hamilton East and Claudeland missionaries sang together in both wards (at 9 and 1 o'clock).  I don't know if I've mentioned it in my emails before but we have been working on it for weeks.  I played the piano and sang. It was a hard song for me to play, but I got it perfect by the end and it sounded good.  It was really fun and so many amazing ward members told me how much they liked it.  I just love Hamilton East!  

And now, tribute to my AMAZING companion!  Because she learning English, she can't do a lot of the phone calling/organizing/talking to people although she is practicing and getting better.  But she is still just the best.  She took care of me this whole week and made me hot water lemon tea for my throat.  She did all the dishes and is just great.  We always make each other laugh.  We are so different but we are just the dream team.  I love her so very much! I'm glad she was the companion I had when I got sick.  She is so good.

But I've learned a couple things this week.  I've learned that Satan is powerful but God is way more powerful.  I learned to accept service: lemon tea, lots of rides, people checking up to see if I was ok, help with the baptism.  I learned patience . . . again.  It's a good lesson for me.  And I relearned that God loves us all so, so, so much . . . even when we make mistakes and scrape cars and get sick.  There is always another chance and He is always there for us.  I'm so grateful that God trusted me to be one of the missionaries to teach Auntie Kei, such a super, special one of his daughters.  I will never forget this crazy week.  

I'm just so glad to be healthy.  We are getting our car back today at four.  And we are going to go hard in that missionary work.

I love you all!

Kia Kaha,

Sister Clarissa Johnson