New things are wonderful!

Hello Family!

Exciting news of the week... I ate dinner with Oliver Cowdrey from the Restoration movie last Monday! Also Hyrum Smith in The Work and The Glory. Basically the Inwood 1st Ward is the most talented ward with lots of acting, singing, and musical performers! So we ate dinner with the Woods and he is in a lot of church movies. The Woods are also known to all the missionaries for their dinner challenges. Either they ask a hard question and you have to answer, or tell them something they don't know about a gospel topic. But their challenge on Monday was really fun. Teach a family home evening using legos, the scriptures, and keep the kids involved. So... we pondered for a bit and the spirit brought to my remembrance that I had just read about Nephi building a boat and going to the Promise Land that morning, so we sang Nephi's courage for the opening song and then read and reenacted the story. We had little people, tools to build a big boat (the lego bucket), big blue crashing waves (blue lego buckets), and animals when they got to the promised land:) The best part about these little Lego people was when Nephi prayed after being tied up. The little boy was acting out Nephi so we were like, okay Caleb, make Nephi pray! And he goes "but he can't fold his arms!" Haha! The little Lego guy couldn't fold his arms or kneel down haha;)

Also even bigger exciting new of the week... (drum roll)... the missionary schedule has been changed along with our key indicators! Woah! So nightly planning is now in the morning, and some other things with when our studies are is different:) More opportunities to rearrange our schedules and do whatbis best for us which is great, and to help us leave at 10:00. With the key indicators it's down to only 4 that we report on - baptized and confirmed, those with a baptism date, those that attended Sacrament meeting, and new investigators. So it's very exciting and makes things a little different which is fun!

The Book of Mormon is the greatest book in the whole world full of wonderful knowledge! I've had some of the most direct and inspirational responses to my questions as I read the Book of Mormon. I've started from the beginning again and try to always pray before about a question and read with that question in mind, and even though I've read the beginning a thousand times, there's still new things I've been able to learn! It's amazing! You should try it:)

We have a cute new less active member that we're working with named Brenda. Two weeks ago she texted us randomly and asked if she could meet with us. The sisters before had tried to contact her a bunch but never had success, but now she's ready and she reached out to us! She really wants to come back. She joined when she was about 16 (now she's in her early 20's), but hasn't come for a long time so she's excited to start all over and learn everything again. She knows it will be hard, but she knows that it will be worth it!! I love her already and I'm excited to help her come back:)

We also had a great lesson with a guy named Franklin last night. He seems really prepared! We took him to the church and had a great lesson. He knows a lot about the Bible and he's really excited to get into the Book of Mormon. We taught him the Restoration and he loved it! He was so interested in the organization of the church with prophets and leaders and how it's the same as when Christ came. He's really interested and just kept saying amen and agreeing with what we taught him. He's super great! He even wanted to come out and teach with us afterwards! He was like, I don't know much about the Book of Mormon yet, but I know a lot about the Bible so I could help you teach, and I can learn from you! Haha! 

It's been a great week! I'm in love with our ward, I'm grateful for all the new people we've been able to work with, I'm grateful for the inspired organization and the wonderful leaders of the church, I'm grateful for the Book of Mormon and its endless amounts of instruction and guidance. I love being a missionary and I hope it never ends as I become truly converted here so that I can be a missionary back home as well! The church is true and I love you!

Love, Sister Johnson