Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon

Hello Family!

So many great things happened this week:) Yesterday our little chapel was turned into a food distribution center as we put together the Bishop Storehouse food orders for members in our Newburgh Stake. The organization was amazing, and it was so fun to be a part of! Me and Sister Ho were in charge of bagging and weighing the fruits and vegetables to match each order. I loved it!

We have two sweet members, Sister Caraway and her daughter Lizzie (15), that we call every night and read family scriptures with them. We had a Family Home Evening with them about having effective scripture study cause they wanted to be better at that. Using Preach My Gospel ch. 2 we read a few ideas and they picked two things they wanted to try. That night they started their own scripture study journal. Sister Caraway writes just one of two things she gets out of our scripture study and then Lizzie tries visualizing what we read and draws a picture of it cause she's an artist. It's small and simple, but it made me and Sister Ho so happy! 

Sister Ho is so funny! Oh my goodness. All the english "rules" that get broken and the letters that you don't actually pronounce in a word, why? I even get confused when I try to explain something because there's always an expection. Anyways, She's helping me so much and I love her:) Heavenly Father is really helping me overcome my struggle to communicate with people because I have to communicate with her so she understands, and cause there's no one else in our apartment and no other sisters in our Zone! Just us two:) But we get along great and she's helping me communicate a lot so it's perfect! Tip from her: If it bugs you, talk about it. If you don't want to talk about it, don't let it bug you!:)

The greatest and most repeated lesson I have learned on my mission is that Joseph Smith really did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and he was called by God to be a prophet. The fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth though him, and the Book of Mormon is the word of God and was translated by the power of God. I know that and I love that:) We had Zone Conference this week and it really strengthened my testimony of Joseph Smith and the Restoration. I love Joseph Smith and his diligence, faith, and trust. He wanted to know so badly which church was true and where he should go. He searched for so long and trusted the promise James 1:5 gives. He was so sincere and unwavering in his attempt to pray and know. He wasn't expecting to be called as a prophet of God, he was only 14! He boldly went through his life completely confident and with full trust in God. I love Joseph Smith and I am grateful for him. Every blessing and every good thing in my life, all that I love and have become, has been possible because of him, because of the Restoration of the Church of Jesus Christ in these latter-days. 

Our fast and testimony meeting on Sunday was powerful as well as members from our cute little branch got up and bore their testimonies, all of them being about the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. The last testimony was by Grandma Weed who is basically the Mom of our branch and was one of the first members here in New Paltz. She got up and said, "Imagine searching for something for 20 years, not knowing what it is. . . This is it." She held up her old, worn out blue Book of Mormon with the Angel Moroni on it and said with tears in her eyes, "The Book of Mormon means everything to me." I love our branch:) 

I love our Heavenly Father and His perfect plan, and I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the true church restored on the earth. I love you all!

Love, Sister Johnson