This is the Lord's work

Hey Family!! 

So many things happen in one week it's crazy! But I tried to write down my favorite experiences so I can tell them to you! One random fact... I've seen 12 broken fire hydrants since I've been here in Harlem haha! 

We had a "The Best Two Years" moment this week! Remember in the movie when Elder (I can't remember his name and I've been trying to remember all week! The new Elder) decided to fast and Elder Roger's wasn't very excited. Then he asks Elder Roger's where they should go after a while and they go to the grocery store and meet the guy and then the new Elder is like, how did you know to come here? And Elder Roger's says "indigestion" and the other Elder says "Inspiration?!" Yep that happened! We had to stop at the church to grab something and then we were really hungry so we decided just to go get food then and just stay out later rather than go home earlier. So we got our food and went back to the church to eat it. As soon as we got to the church two guys came that wanted a tour of the church. So we went to the different floors and talked about the church and the gospel and the diferent pictures there. Then we ended at the chapel and it was so peaceful and you could feel the spirit. They were so surprised that there wasn't a cross anywhere! They looked all over and once they were sure there was no cross anywhere I said "The reason we don't have a cross is because we don't focus on His death. Instead we celebrate that He lives! That He rose again so that we can live with God again." It was so simple but the spirit was so strong. We felt it and they felt it. I know the Savior lives:) So when we sat down to eat after they left we were like, "indigestion? No... inspiration!"

It's crazy how much I hum and sing hymns. Me and Sister Bongolto pretty much have a playlist programmed into our heads. Brightly Beams our Father's mercy, What was witnessed in the heavens (I don't even know that song we just hum it haha), the ice cream truck song (there are a thousand ice cream trucks that play the same song all day!), and the spirit of God. Oh and Let us rejoice! It's great:)

I had my first zone conference yesterday and it was AMAZING!!:) President and Sister Smith are amazing! We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon and let me tell you, it's true! It is so true! I love the Book of Mormon so much and there is so much we can learn from it every single day! So read it! Every single day! We talked so much about how this is God's work. It's all in His hands but he uses us as His hands to give us the chance to experience and help in his work. I can't even explain all the thoughts, feelings, and impressions from the spirit I received yesterday but it was powerful. And the spirit said to me as I sat and looked at all the wonderful missionaries there, "How lucky are we?" How lucky are we to be here as servants of the Lord in His work. I love it so much. I am so far from perfect and it's humbling to see how many redos Heavenly Father gives me every single day. But with His help I can do it and I can do my best:)

Also, Joseph Smith is my hero. Always has been and always will be, but I figured out more of why! He had the courage to do anything the Lord asked, yet he had the humility to know it was God's work and he couldn't do it without Him.

Cool Experience!  So we tried to knock on a referrals door but she wasn't there so we prayed to know if we should stay and tract or go. We felt good about either so we decided to go but as we were walking out I had pulled out the Book of Mormon for a little extra guidance and the verse I read said "... I remained, with the remainder of my army, in that same place where we had first pitched our tents..." and at the same time Sister Bongolto had a hard time opening the second door to get out so we were both like, maybe we should stay, let's say a prayer. We were stuck between the two doors so we could either leave or we needed someone who lived there to come and unlock the door (they lock once they close). We said a prayer and as soon as we finished someone came home to the apartment building. So we stayed! We walked to the 5th floor and said a prayer to find a family because we knew we were here for a reason. We said amen and a young boy and his dad walked out the door. We talked to the mom who was there and shared the Restoration with her. Haha what?! It was crazy to see the timing and the miracle of finding this family. This really is God's work and I am so honored and blessed to be a part of it! 

I love you all so much! Make it a great week and don't forget to read from the Book of Mormon every single day!:)

Love, Sister Johnson

P-day at The Met with Sister Bongolto!
We had a party at The Met. We would pose like the paintings and the statues and it was hilarious haha!
Here are two of the best ones:)

 Me and Sister Bongolto's turn haha! There could not have been a better statue for the two of us;)

Sister Terry and Sister Roper modeling wonderfully this picture of a creepy lady and a weirded out lady haha!
I love them!

I survived my first crazy rainstorm while out proselyting! Wahoo for rain!

The wonderfully big rainbow of Harlem:) Harlem is the BEST!

Us soaking wet after running through the rain to one of our investigators apartments.

Fireflies :)

Hey Family! 

I officially survived my first week in Harlem! Wahoo!

So remember when me, Crissy, and Dad went on a hike and they were sweating a lot and they asked how I wasn't sweating and I said "well I'm sweating a little around the edges" to make them feel better? Yeah... here I sweat a lot, everywhere, all the time, everyday! Haha! Some days aren't too bad, but I understand the whole humidity thing now:)

One exciting adventure of the week was that me and Sister Bongolto got STUCK IN AN ELEVATOR!!! Yeah. There was another lady there and the elevator door was going super slow so she pushed it and forced it shut and then it jammed... so we were stuck in there for a good ten minutes. The lady then kept pushing all the buttons and tried to force it open. My mind flashed to Tower of Terror at Disneyland and I was bracing myself for the drop seeing that we were on the 19TH FLOOR!! But then it magically started working and we were saved and all was well again:)

I had my first Sunday here which was so nice! Going to church felt like going home:) And I realized I'm at church the exact same time as you guys! I have it at 11:00 which is 9:00 for you:) So I felt like you were there with me singing the hymns and enjoying the sacrament like we always do:)

I had my first invitation to be baptized this week! Her name is Sheena and she has two cute little kids. She is so sweet and I'm so excited for her to be baptized! At the end of our lesson I was asking her the baptism question how we always practice, but all I was able to say was "Sheena, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by..." and then she said yes she wanted to be baptized! So we set a date for August 27! We'll be teaching her tomorrow so I'll keep you updated! I was so so happy that she wants to and I really felt like I was fulfilling my purpose of inviting others to come unto Christ:)

Another thing I learned this week is that there is no time for negative thoughts! That is Satan, so get him out of there! There's no time for Him. I learned this the first day with Willie last week when he told me to keep my faith strong and don't give up. Then I learned it the next night as we were walking home. It was only my second night in Harlem and we were heading home at the end of the night so it was kind of dark. I decided I didn't like night time in Harlem. I could like everything else about Harlem, but I didn't like night time. The second I decided that, Heavenly Father sent me a firefly:) And I LOVE fireflies!! The rest of the walk home I spotted lots of fireflies and I knew that was Heavenly Father's way of telling me to get those negative thoughts out of my head. I'm on His time not Satan's time or my time. There are still times when it's hard to stay positive and get those negative thoughts out, but it's possible because of our Savior and his Atonement:) 

I'm grateful for this time I have to be on the Lord's time. There are ups and downs just like everyday life, but keep your chin up! Keep your faith strong and get those negative thoughts out of there!

I love you and the Lord loves you! Have a great day and don't forget to pray:)

Love, Sister Johnson

Picture 1-3. P-day at Central Park last week

 Me, Sister Roper, Sister Terry, Sister Bongolto on the bus

 A nice view:)

I'm in New York!!

Me and my new NY companion, Sister Bongolto! :)

District Selfies

Me and my host, Sister John

Me and Hermana Klein

Sisters in my room and zone

Famous map picture

Hey Family!!

I made it! I'm here in New York!! My trainer's name is Sister Bongolto (Bon-goal-toe) and she is from the Philippines! And guess where I'm serving... the Manhattan Central zone! I'm in Harlem, and so far it's a party:)

Okay back up a bit. My last few days in the MTC were so great! I'm really going to miss my crazy district and my amazing teachers. I got to use my new flute that mom sent in our district farewell musical number in sacrament. We sang Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. My district sure are troopers for helping put it together:) Elder Hall played piano and Elder Smith played violin on one verse and we all sang. It was really fun:)

President and Sister Smith are seriously the best! I love them and their family! We had dinner and a testimony meeting with all the new missionaries which was so amazing! I'm so lucky to be here:) Also the mission home is so cute and there's a church right next to it where we have all our meetings And there are sooo many trees in White Plains and other more upstate areas of New York. 

Yesterday (Tuesday) was my first day here in Harlem. We went to so many different project buildings which are really tall buildings full of small apartments. We knocked on a lot of doors and met some investigators. When we first got to Harlem I was feeling really overwhelmed, nervous, terrified, really hot (humidity is real), and I had no idea what we were doing. The first door we knocked on they opened and said their grandpa (the investigator) wasn't there. We turned and then there he was walking down the hall to the door which was a miracle! He let us in and it was such a blessing to me. We sat and talked to him about the Atonement and Jesus Christ. Then he kept telling me, You can do this! Don't give up. Every day we wake up because of Him. He protects us. He strengthens us. You can do this! Keep strong faith. Willie was my miracle of the day. I needed that encouragement so much and Heavenly Father sent it to me:)

Oh fun fact about tracting in the project buildings... you don't get doors slammed in your face! Because they don't even open the doors. They just look through their peep hole and yell through  the door haha! 

So far so good:) I'm excited to be here. It's going to be difficult and it will push me out of my comfort zone every day, but it will be so good! 

I love you so much! Thanks for everything!

Love, Sister Johnson

Happy 4th of July!!

Lizzie's convert Sister Nawaia!!! She recognized me because I look like the Sister Johnson she knew:) I was so happy to meet her and see a little piece of Lizzie's mission now that I'm Sister Johnson:)

Two other sisters, Sister Page and Sister Smyer, that are the cutest and so sweet! I love them!

Me and Sister Muhlestein celebrating the 4th of July!

Hello!!

Happy 4th of July!! Best Holiday ever! (Besides Christmas). We actually celebrated the 2nd of July this year instead of the 4th... but it was still fun! We got to watch the Stadium of Fire fireworks from the MTC parking lot. There was kind of a giant building in the way though. They said there would be little ones and then there would be the big ones and we'd see those so we just needed to be patient, but it kind of seemed like they were all behind the building... So they were over and I was like, wait what I didn't even see them! But it was really fun and I'm so glad they let us relax and watch them:) I'm so grateful for the freedom that we have and for this wonderful country we live in. We needed our freedom and our religious freedom for this gospel to even come forth. The timing of everything is so amazing, and God is so good to us.

This last Wednesday there were 24 new missionaries that came into our zone so Me and Sister Muhlestein and our Zone Leaders got to welcome them and show them around. Today though there are 34 new missionaries coming! So we'll be busy tonight! When we came to the MTC a long two weeks ago, there were only 11 new missionaries in our zone. So 34 is going to be exciting!:) I love being a Sister Training Leader with Sister Muhlestein! It's fun to get to know everyone and see from her example how to love others and help them feel welcome.

I've learned so much this week, but something that really stuck out to me was something my teacher Sister Johnson taught me. It's about never giving up - with investigators, or goals, or friends, or anything. She said that the Savior can't turn nothing into something. Even if what we're doing seems like it's making things worse and not helping at all, the Atonement can turn bad things to good. But He can't turn nothing into something good. So never give up. Do your best to help others and to come closer to Christ, because even if feels like it's not doing anything right now, Christ can make it into something good. 

On Sunday we watched a talk by Elder Holland called Missionaries are Forever. (I think that's what it's called). I wish I could tell you everything about it, but there's too much good stuff! Basically it was about how this mission will change my life forever if we let it. It's going to stretch me and push me, but man's extremity is God's opportunity. When we push ourselves to the very edge, that's when God can take over and make up the rest. This mission is now my life and my home. This is my time to be Heavenly Father's helper and Elder Holland said don't you dare waste these 18 months, so I'm not going to! It's going to be tough, but the happy, sad, good, bad, rainy, and sunny days will all become part of my soul and who I am. The reason it's hard is because Salvation is not a cheap experience. Why should it be easy for us if it wasn't easy for Him? The road to Salvation goes through Gethsemane so as disciples and followers of Christ we all have to expect some time in Gethsemane. We need to have a taste of what Gethsemane was like so that we can all carry that message and that hope to others. 

We are all missionaries. Even if we're not all in the same mission, we're on the same mission:) This gospel can change our lives, and it can help others change their lives. Come unto Christ and live by example so that others may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven:) (3 Ne. 12:16).

I love you all! Have a fabulous week:)

Love, Sister Johnson