Sister Sarah Johnson: Have JOY!!:)

Hello Family!

I love you all and I'm glad you're all safe! Thanks for all the prayers and love:) Yes there was a bomb in lower Manhattan, but we're at the top so we're happy and safe! I'm sad there were people injured though:( It's crazy that things like that happen here, sometimes I forget I'm in New York! But we're safe and protected and I'm still a happy missionary:)

Now that summer is over and everyone is back for school and work, the busses and trains and everything are so busy! I've now experienced what it's like to really need to shove yourself in a train haha! This week I feel like I passed some baby test of being a New Yorker! So we were on a super packed bus and we all had to move to the back to fit everyone in. I ended up getting trapped in the middle of the isle and I had nothing to grab on to except for the Book of Mormon I was holding in my hands haha! All the seats, poles, and handles were covered or too far away to hold on to, so... I just kind of stood in a little power stance, knees kind of bent, weight on the balls of my feet, and I made it to the next stop without losing my balance haha! The real challenge would be doing that on a subway though!

One thing I've really been trying to think about and work on is becoming who God wants me to be. I want to change and I want to be better, but sometimes it's hard to even know where to start! I remembered President Monson's talk last conference about choices and how if we don't know where we want to go it doesn't matter which path we take. It's the same with our lives. If we don't know who we want to become, it doesn't matter where we start or if we start in our process of change! I came across a verse in the Book of Mormon that I liked for this, 2 Nephi 1:23. It says "Awake, Sister Johnson (put your name here), put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound..." Wake up! It's a new day:) We need to shake off what's keeping us from progressing. Shake off what we don't want to become, what we're not happy with, and put on the armor of righteousness.

I learned a profound but simple truth this week! The greatest and only way to have real JOY is to love Jesus, Others, and then Yourself. We can't put our life in any other order. We can't love ourselves, then others, then Jesus. That's YOJ. That doesn't make sense! We must put Jesus Christ first in our lives. Have your eyes focused on your goal, have your heart focused on Christ. He should be the center of our lives and who we are. Next we should turn out and focus on others. It can be hard to focus on others when there's so much that we need to do for ourselves every day, but I realized this week, we are never NOT going to be busy! Life is never going to slow down so that we have time to do everything else we want to do! We need to make time to serve others! Even if it's just a minute or two to send a text to a friend who might need it, give someone a call, write a little note. And then we still need to take time for ourselves! Because without yourself it's just JO. (Who's Jo?) Take time to love yourself, personally evaluate what you need to do to be happy and do it! These three things are our two greatest commandments!

Matthew 22:37-39
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Love Jesus Christ, love Others, and love Yourself. You can't love others as yourself if you don't love yourself in the first place!

So, have JOY!! I love you and the Lord loves you! Make it a great week and stay safe:)

Love, Sister Johnson