Alicia in TN! 12-17-12 Smyrna, TN

                                                           
Hi Mom, Dad and family :)

I hope that I can cover everything and really fill you in on what has been going on here. I am serving in the Rock Springs Area in Smyrna Tennessee. It is an amazing area full of very prepared people. Before I tell you about this week there is something I want to share. It is called "A Vision of the South"

"Make no small plans: They have no magic to stir men's Souls." This is the vision I have for the South. I believe that one day the South will baptize more people into the church than all other English-speaking missions in the world together. There are great hosts of marvelous Baptists, members of the Church of Christ, Methodists, and Catholics who are honorable people, and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christs and love him. As they see their church veering off to the right or to the left of those basic teachings, they will begin to search for truth; and as pivotal teachers come into the church and have influence, we will see the time when we will baptize hundreds and thousands, tens of thousands, in your day we will see a million members of the church in the South. There will be temples plural in the South States. What a great call you have to serve with these marvelous people. The missionaries love the South. We are making great strides and expect to continue." -Spencer W. Kimball and Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone

My companion, Sister Thatcher, and I recite this vision every morning. I believe it to be true. Nowhere on earth are people more ready and willing to talk about Jesus Christ and stand and pray with you on the street. We taught 32 lessons this week. A lesson consists of teaching some principle or doctrine of the gospel and usually ends with a prayer. Everyday, I get on my knees. Everyday, I realize more and more that this is not my work. This is the work of the Lord. It is the most difficult and gratifying work. My faith has grown immensely. And we have seen many miracles. 

The first couple of days I was here were spent near our wonderful mission president, President McKee. Sister McKee has been in the hospital for about a month now. She had a stroke and has died about three times. They were able to revive her each time. She was in a coma for a couple of weeks. The day I got my companion (Wednesday), she was pulled off the respirator. She is on it half the time now. President McKee is the strongest, happiest, most humble person I have ever met. When we got to the airport on Monday, our bags didn't come for until an hour and a half after. We spent that time contacting in the airport. We handed out all of our pass-along cards and Book of Mormons. I was able to teach a lady right there in the airport (even if I didn't realize it was a lesson at the time). Because of Sister McKee being in the ICU, we stayed at a members house that night. We had the transfer meeting the next day and I was assigned to be with Sister Thatcher. 

Sister Thatcher has been in the mission field for 12 weeks. "Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies." She is the perfect trainer for me. We have done nothing but work, work, work. She is so humble, especially as we are both so brand new. We are on our knees offering prayers all of the time. It takes great faith to talk to everyone we meet. But we have had the blessing of finding several families right on the street we live on and the Spirit has guided our footsteps to former investigators who are ready now to receive our message. We are constantly teaching, constantly finding. Sister Thatcher is from Homedale Idaho. She says all of the time that the she is so grateful that I came pretrained.... I don't know how much of that is true, but I am grateful for the experiences before my mission that really helped me learn to listen to the Spirit. Because of the large number of missionaries that we are getting (we are getting 10 more sisters next transfer and will have 100 by July) I know that I will be training in either 6 weeks or 12 weeks. So we are preparing already for that. 

There have been many experiences this week.. I don't even know where to begin. One was very specific for me. We have a book that has former investigators in it. I was looking through it to find potential investigators. The second page in, I started reading their names and information and the Spirit hit me like a wall. I marked them and kept looking. I kept going back to that page and every time the Spirit buzzed through me. We went to go find the family. We started talking with RR. We talked about her experience with missionaries before. I told her that we had been very specifically prompted to come to her. She started to get teary-eyed and explained that they were not well-off financially. We set up a return appointment and we talked to the ward about helping them out with Christmas. I have a very strong feeling that this family is golden. They are ready to hear the gospel. 

We taught another lady, CH, last night. I was able to extend the commitment to be baptized. She will be ready in a few weeks. We had a baptism set for Friday for a 10-year old girl, CC. Her mother is Catholic and divorced. Her father is a less-active member. The sisters have been teaching them for a while and CC was ready for baptism. 24 hours before, however, the mother withdrew her permission. This has turned out to be a great blessing as the Spirit witnessed to us that the reason was so that Brother C would have the opportunity to baptize C himself. 

These are just a couple of things that have been going on. The work is rolling forth and it is incredible. I am really grateful for your emails and your support. Yes, my p-day is on Monday :) and I don't really have a time limit on how long I can write. It sounds as if there is a lot going on at home. I love hearing from you. I really miss my family a lot. I love you all so much. The weather is definitely different here than at home. We probably won't see snow. It does get cold, but it has only been really cold a couple of nights. It doesn't really feel too different other than it feels like there should be snow since it is Christmas time. We are in an amazing ward. They really have the spirit of missionary work. As far as mail goes, just send it to the mission office address that you already have. They have told us that that really is the best way to do it and it will only delay letters for a day. They are especially good about making sure that packages get to us. A camera card would be great to have! Or a flash drive. Then I can just send you all of my pictures once my camera is full. I am really excited to hear that the Hobbit was good :) I look forward to seeing it in 17 months :)  It's exciting to hear about your mission experiences around Christmas time. It sounds like it should be really good here too. In fact, we more than get to call, we get to SKYPE!!! For a whole hour I think :) I will let you know more as it gets closer. My companion looks like she is wrapping up. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your prayers and love. I am so grateful for my relationship with my Savior in knowing that not only does he never leave me alone, but he is always with you. Please pray for Sister McKee. I love the McKee's and we want them in our mission. I hope I covered everything. Just know that I appreciate so much the time you spend in writing to me. I love you so much. I pray for y'all :)

Love always,
Sister Alicia Johnson