Elder Gong mission tour :)

Hello Family!

Sorry I forgot to tell you our P-Day would be on Wednesday this week, but this week was jam packed with amazing things so here it goes!

On Thursday we had our Zone Conference and the most amazing thing I learned was that Christ truly will take what we have and make more of it. When He was feeding the 5,000 all the apostles could bring him were 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. He didn't say "This is all you have?! Do you see how many people there are? Why didn't you plan better? Geez..." No! He said "Perfect! I'll make it more." Then when he again fed the 5,000 and they brought him 7 loaves, "Perfect that's great! Let's make more." With the Brother of Jared, "I have these stones..." "Perfect! Let's make light!" If we bring what we have He will make it more:)

These last few days we had Elder and Sister Gong of the Seventy join us for a mission tour! It was so amazing and we could truly feel of His love, President Monson's love, and our Heavenly Father's love through him:) I had a great experience that strengthened my testimony that God truly does call men to lead His restored church today. Elder Gong is called of God:) Sunday night was his first night with us. As he came he met us all by districts. I had 3 questions that I brought to the devotional. We were asked to read his conference talk "Always Remember Him" from last year while we sat in our districts in the gym and waited for him to meet us. As I read it I received answers to all 3 of my questions FROM HIM before he even talked to us! It was amazing! Then to shake His hand and meet him was powerful!:)

The next day on Monday we had a wonderful Zone Conference with Elder and Sister Gong. And then the next day we had our Missionary Leadership Council Meeting with him as well. Now here is an amazing mission miracle - so when I first got to the mission in July, we had just set a mission goal in June of getting 30 baptisms a month for 3 consecutive months. We tried, prayed, and worked hard, and we finally reached our goal!!! These last 3 Months were it:) December - 39 January - 30 February - 31 souls. 100 souls entered the waters of Baptism in the last 3 months. The Lord has roughly doubled our average from before, and we're just beginning to do this work His way! We're just beginning to use ward lists, do daily contact, promise blessings. All these things! We talked about how if we continue to improve on the small and simple things he will bless us even more. We're revving it in 1st gear still. It's time to shift up a gear:) We have now set a goal as a mission to achieve 50-50-50:) It will take increased effort on the simple things, but I know that as we have faith not fear, we can accomplish this goal. It's not our goal, it's from above:) Great things are happening here in the New York, New York North mission and I'm so so blessed to be here at this time.

I love my Heavenly Father and I love being a part of His work! We're all a part of His work as we magnify our church callings, let the light of Christ in us shine, and love those around us. If we do the Lord's work, He will do ours!:)

Love, Sister Johnson