Alicia! 3-25-13 Bowling Green, KY

HEY!

Can you say, "Oh my! Adorable!" I got Jare and Taryn's invitation this week... Man they are so cute! I love them both very much! I am so excited for them :) And I am excited that I will be having a niece when I get home! ;) I love the picture you sent too, Mom. Wow, we have a great family!

(OF NOTE: No one's pregnant and no plans for a baby so far. Alicia's being silly here and teasing them.) Now on with the letter!!

Dad, that story about Ma Wesche is amazing. As soon as I sent my email last week, I realized I hadn't said a thing about her. I love her so much! She is such an amazing person and that trek experience was absolutely unforgettable. Even after trek, she was so sweet. She would always ask how I was doing and she even wrote me a sweet card out of the blue. I hope she knows how much she will be missed and dearly she is loved. I am so glad that Elder Holland could be there to comfort their family right when they needed him. Apostles are amazing! President McKee is pretty much the equivalent of an apostle. They love so deeply and individually- just like the Savior. It makes me set my expectations pretty high for a future spouse. He better be like an apostle! Haha :) Anyways, please give my love to Pa Wesche. I love them both dearly. Amazing people.

Today I got emails from friends! I got so excited that I quickly wrote some of them back, but it distracted me a little bit. Hopefully I have enough time for a good email to y'all! First off, this week has been amazing. We had interviews with President McKee. I can't wait for you all to meet him. He is seriously the most amazing person. I am so blessed to be a missionary under his care. He has so much love for everyone. He is strong and faithful. Every time he opens his mouth the Spirit is so strong. It is great. We had a good interview. We talked about the potential for the area I am in. Bowling Green has a LOT of potential. President McKee's vision for this area is that it will be the highest baptizing in the entire mission. I don't even question why I am here- the Lord has a purpose and we are beginning to find very prepared people. The vision of the South (baptizing hundreds and thousands, tens of thousands- in your day you will see a million members of the church in the South) is coming to pass. And missionaries that are diligent, obedient and full of charity are the key to bringing about this hastening of the work. I feel honored and privileged to be here right now.

I have been seeing immense growth within myself- and I want to keep growing. I want to become the absolute best missionary I can be. I was able to read a talk about a missionary who went on a 40 day fast to truly consecrate himself to the work of the Lord. After 40 days, he was a completely different person. He gave his will to the Lord and many miracles came to pass because of it. They saw 16 baptisms in 4 months. This is the vision I have for myself. And it is beginning right now- with our investigator, D.

D is getting baptized this week! She is so committed. Every time we talk to her, she bears witness of the things that we teach. She feels the Spirit and knows she is doing the right thing. She is morally strong. She is amazing. I am so excited to keep working with her. Man! How cool is that? And we found her only three weeks ago! Yesterday, we were also talking to her brother. We told her family that D is getting baptized. They said she already had been baptized and didn't need to be baptized again. We explained that she felt it was right and was following the Spirit. It would bless all of their lives. Her brother started asking more questions. He said he wanted to learn more. Every time we came over, he felt something in his chest. We testified that that feeling was the Spirit. It would testify of truth. The things we share are the truth and baptism is part of that. He is receptive as well. We are so excited for D and her whole family!

Also, two weeks ago, Sister T and I found another miracle investigator. We went to visit a less-active and he wasn't home. We started to tract the area without much success. We were about to leave and right then a car pulled up. We went over to talk to the two guys that stepped out of their car. We testified boldy and talked about an eternal perspective. The things we teach will bless you beyond what you know right now. J's mom is a member. 15 years ago, J took the missionary lessons- but never joined the church. J gave us his phone number. For a week we tried calling with no success. Then, last Sunday, we tried again. He texted us, "Who is this?" We invited him to church and to the YSA FHE on Monday. He came to FHE. He came to Institute that Wednesday. He reads everything we ask him to in the Book of Mormon. The YSA Sister Missionaries set a baptismal date with him for April 13th! Yesterday, he went to church and said that he felt more strength than he had ever felt in his life! Oh my gosh! The gospel is changing him! And because we were in the right place at the right time, we were blessed with the opportunity to find him! Mom! Dad! Can you feel the power of that Spirit?! He is an absolute miracle! Every time I think about J, the Spirit washes over me. I am so blessed to be a part of this work....

This week we also did service at an alpaca farm. :) Joe Baker and I took lots of pictures with the alpaca :)

 My amazing family and all others who read this email, the gospel is true! When the principles of the gospel are applied to your life, they change you. They change you for the better to become more like our Savior Jesus Christ. I love him so much. He has blessed my life so much! The Atonement is real. It continues to work miracles in my life every single day. I love this restored gospel. I am grateful that Easter is this week. We have the opportunity to reflect upon His infinite sacrifice for us. It is real. It is incredible. It is life changing.

I love you all and pray you have a wonderful week! God bless :)

Love, Sister Alicia Johnson

Alicia! 3-18-13 Bowling Green, KY

Here's a note from a family in Kentucky:

Dear Bro and Sister Johnson, Just to let you know how much we enjoy having your daughter in our area.  She and her Companion Sister Thulasidass have been having dinner with on Sundays.  Our daughter Shalee is leaving for the MTC April 3 for LA, CA.  We currently have a daughter serving in San Diego.  Shalee is one of the many missionaries taking advantage of the lowered age.  Next sunday we are singing in Sacrament meeting and Sis. Johnson will be playing for us.  The Sisters are very busy with inactives and bringing investigators to church.  You should be proud. The young man is a friend of our daughters.  He is deaf so dinner was very animated.  He served his mission in New York. Thank you for sharing her with us. The Harrison Family   

                       

    

And, from Alicia:                  

Hello, hello everyone!!!

How was everyone's week?! From the emails, it sounds like everyone is doing great! There is so much going on and all very good, exciting things :) I love that! I love your emails so much and I am so glad that I have such an amazing family who looks out for me! Y'all are the absolute best ever!!! (You should try y'all sometime. Turns out it is easier to just conform in the end ;))

Guess who is here with me?! Joe Baker!!! I have taken more pictures because Joe is so photogenic. Man, I sure love him! He really isn't a very obedient missionary though... he hangs out in an apartment with girls, he always sleeps in and he doesn't actually leave the apartment very much.... naughty, naughty Joe! That is probably why he isn't seeing much success as far as missionary work goes. We are working on it though. He watches me study. So that's good ;) I love Joe Baker!!! I'm sorry you miss him, Mel. Once he sees the world a little bit, I will send him back to you. He needs some Bar-T-5 pictures, you know? I love his little missionary outfit though. I just love him. 

I am so excited for the wedding and for Italy and all of your adventures coming up! Dad and Mom, it sounds like the trip you planned will be so fun! I hope that someday I will get to go to. And Hawaii!!! What?! I bet it is almost as great as Kentucky ;)

So today has been fun. You know how on pdays you have like a million things you need to get done? Well, it was raining and lightning like crazy this morning and it knocked out the power for like 45 minutes... the power on all of the streets and at the Walmart. Bad news. I needed a haircut real bad too so after waiting half an hour to get it cut, it took another hour to actually cut it (yay for thick hair!). So it is now 1:40pm and pday is half over. Plus we have to get an oil change in our car. There is just so much to do all of the time!!

Besides that, this week has been really super stellar. We have been seeing miracles like crazy all of a sudden!! My companion and I still have major differences... we both get frustrated with each other... but the Lord is blessing us for working through it- and I truly do love her. "Pray with all energy of heart" for the gift of charity. That is what I have to do. It is cool to see the growth within myself. It seems that it is more apparent this week for some reason. 4 weeks ago, I could hardly cope. I didn't know how to handle the situation. I didn't know how to love my companion. I didn't know how to love the area. Then, after mighty prayer and continued diligence, I have seen within myself a love develop for this area that is so immense. And my companion, I love her too. You know how they say I love you, but I don't have to like you? I think that can apply to missionary work. And relationships in general. President McKee taught at a training that we must love all people, but we don't have to love their behavior. That is the truth. Sister Thulasidass is a very wonderful person. She is very giving and loving. Our personalities are just incredibly different! I have come to peace with it and have enjoyed that peace this week.

And, like I said, there have been so many miracles!! It is great! We had three baptismal dates set for March 30th. We have run into some problems with two of them, but D is ready to go! It is so exciting! She is progressing beautifully. She accepts the commitments. She has been reading from the Book of Mormon- and every time she does she feels the Spirit. She came to church yesterday. She doesn't have any Word of Wisdom problems- she is a true miracle!

Other than that, this week we taught 30 lessons and got 10 new investigators! Cool, huh?! A less-active couple has come to church two times in a row. The members are feeding us almost every night now. We are talking to so many people! We had a miracle last night as well. About a week and a half ago we went to a less-active's home. They weren't there so we decided to stay and work the area. We started knocking doors and after about 10 minutes with no success we headed to the car to leave. Right as we were climbing in, a car pulled up about 4 houses down. We took that as our opportunity and went over there to talk to them. It was two guys probably mid-20s. We started talking to them and found out that one has had the missionary lessons before and that his mom and brother are members. We happened to be there at a point in his life when he is feeling like it might be something he needs. We were able to give him a Book of Mormon and got his phone number. We tried to call several times during the week with no success... my companion decided to call him again yesterday. He answered back with a text. He is wanting to start going to church! What?! This morning it hit me. I feel so blessed to be a part of these people's lives and to see the changes that they are making. This is life changing! He will have the blessing of eventually being able to be sealed to his family in the temple. And I KNOW that his family has been praying for him. It is an absolute miracle!

We have talked to so many people. Whenever we tract or contact, we find that there has already been seeds planted and people have been prepared left and right. Now is the time to harvest. We expect to see many more baptisms in the next few weeks. In fact, one of the Assistants to the President was here this week and he told us that President McKee's vision is that Bowling Green with be the highest baptizing district in the mission.... What?! Awesome!! I get to be a part of that! And the Spirit has truly been working through me this week. How long have I been out on a mission? It is finally starting to click! I am turning into someone who will be weird when they get home! Yay! Haha :) During lunch and dinner- whenever I have free time, I read the Book of Mormon. When you dedicate everything, ALL that you have to the Lord, he sees fit to strengthen and bless you. And the most beautiful thing is the peace in my heart. Every day I enjoy my mission more. Every day I feel blessed with the peace that the Savior and the Spirit bring. I am becoming the missionary I want to be and that is making me SO happy :)

After all is said and done, I know that none of this would be possible without the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We read Helaman 5:12 to many people: "And now, my sons [and daughters], remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo because of the rock upon which ye are built; which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

I testify that if we build our foundation upon our Savior Jesus Christ, we will be able to withstand any storm that can come our way. The Lord will stand with us as we obey His word and do what he asks. And what is it that he asks? He asks that we pray. He asks that we feast upon his word. He asks that we attend church. Simple as that. "By very small means doth the Lord confound the wise and bringeth about the salvation of many souls". I have seen the blessings in my own life. I have seen these simple principles change the lives of those around me. This is a gospel of truth. I love it. I am so blessed to be a missionary at this time. I am so blessed to have the wonderful family I do that taught me in the ways of truth and righteousness. You are going to see a different person when I get home- a person who is better and striving to be more like the Savior. I can't even believe it! The Lord knows us personally. He loves each of us individually.

I pray that you all have an amazing week. I love you all so much! Thank you for being you :) You are always in my prayers :)

LOL (lots of love),

Yours truly,

Sister Alicia Johnson

Alicia! 3-11-13 Bowling Green, KY

To My Wonderful, Amazing Family Whom I Love Dearly,

Hello! It is I! The missionary in Bowling Green Kentucky! It turns out that you are all still pretty fantastic :) I loved the emails this week! Haha! You are the best :) It is nice to be able to get a laugh and a little bit of catch-up through your emails about life on Facebook. There is so much going on! It's great! And I love that everyone is progressing and that life is moving forward. It is amazing how time works. The past few weeks I thought I was going to die. I was struggling SO much with my companion and learning to adjust to this area. But, through the glorious process and gift of time, I feel so much better able to cope. I have changed immensely in just a few weeks time. And I am sincerely grateful for it each and every day. I have found that that is truly one of the ways the Lord works in just time passing. At least, every experience I have had with healing and the Atonement came mostly because of it. It is really hard to explain how it works. I just know that it is a gift and a blessing. It is part of this mortal experience to help us become more like our Savior to one day be with him in Eternities- with no concept of time. Crazy! Kind of blows your mind! Anyways, I am really happy today :) Yay!

More growing experiences occurred this week! Friday was the temple trip. That was amazing. I love the temple SO much! After the session was over and we were sitting in the Celestial room, I thought about my family and about my Savior. I thought about the many ways that I need to change and improve and become better. I prayed and prayed and prayed for peace. And it came. I was able to sit in stillness with the Spirit for a time. It was beautiful. There is no place on earth like the temple. I love being able to think about the promises that I have made with God and the blessings that come from living a righteous life. I love being able to serve someone who cannot serve themselves and allow them the opportunity to accept the saving ordinances in their lives. I love that when you walk out of the temple you are literally endowed with power. You feel stronger and much more able to cope with the hardships of life. I wish I could go to the temple every week.... I am definitely going to make it a goal when I get home. And I challenge each of you to make it a higher priority in your life. It will strengthen and bless you so much! And you can do it for me since I can't go every week ;)

NEWS!! They changed one of the mission rules! We can now email anyone- family and friends and recent converts! Cool, huh? Not that it will make much of a difference for me... I feel like I can only get one good email out anyways. But let people know. If they feel like that is easier than writing a letter, cool. I'll take it ;)

                                                  EMAIL ADDRESS: aliciaj@myldsmail.net

I had my first real heartbreak this week.... So a couple of weeks back we found A and R- a mother and daughter from Nepal. We have been teaching them a couple times a week and they are so humble and receptive. In fact, R asked to be baptized into our church the first day we met her! She is so sweet and man I just love them so much! Well, the other day we went over there again. A's brother came over to talk to us. He is the pastor in the New Life Church for the Nepali people (who all happen to be in the same family). We talked with him for about half an hour and tried to teach him about the Restoration. When all was said and done, he kindly asked that we stop visiting the Nepali families- they already believe in Jesus. They have already been baptized. Go find someone that doesn't know Jesus.... My heart literally broke in two.... These two are so amazing and I truly had grown to love them so much. We asked if we could pray with them before we left. I couldn't stop crying.... I don't know if A understood completely. She seemed unsure of why I was so upset. We told them we loved them and had to leave. R has the Book of Mormon. She loved reading it. She is only 10 years old so you never know... in the course of her life perhaps she will come across some missionaries again and be able to have the opportunity to truly learn about the Book of Mormon and the restored gospel. I hope and pray that is the case. They are in the Lord's hands...

When one door closes, another one opens. This week we had a zone meeting. Our zone set some goals for baptisms this month. I have not truly had much success as far as finding super solid, progressing investigators who make it to baptism. Well... MIRACLE! This week we set 3 baptismal dates! It is a family from Bosnia! There are probably about 7-8 people that live in this house. We found them tracting. When we knocked on the door, we talked to D and gave her a Book of Mormon. We committed her to read the Introduction. We kept trying to go back and see her throughout the week and could never get a hold of her. The night after zone meeting, we tried her door again. She let us in and ran and grabbed the Book of Mormon. We asked if she had read and what she thought of it. She had read. She said, "It felt like the Lord was sitting with me. It was so uplifting and inspiring!" It was incredible! We read to her about baptism and committed her to being baptized on March 30th. She accepted! The next day we went back. Her sister-in-law asked if she could listen. We gave the first lesson. When we said the first vision, they both said they got goosebumps! They felt the Spirit! We committed M to be baptized on the same day. The next time we committed S to be baptized. And last night we gave M's husband a Book of Mormon. He had many questions and was very receptive as well. I am just in awe... We will be baptizing their whole family! We just have to get them to church.... and we have to fight through any opposition. But I know that the Lord will provide a way. We have been working SO hard and the Lord blesses us for our obedience. I know that we will see much success this month. :)

So that is the big news and the stories for the week. There is so much that goes on each and every day but it is the little moments and the small blessings that make the biggest difference and changes in my own life. I am growing to love these people and this area very much. There have been many powerful, spiritual moments in this past week. It is incredible. I know it is in large part because of the sacrifices that we are making as a family. Thank you for allowing me this privilege and opportunity to serve. Thank you for supporting me and loving me through all of the hard times and all of the easy ones too. You have taught me so much and my life has been incredibly blessed because of you. I pray that you will all have an amazing week!

I love you so much!

Love,

Sister Alicia Johnson - Bowling Green Kentucky

PS Hey! I actually took pictures this week! But... this computer doesn't have anywhere for me to put my card into the computer... I need a card reader I guess... Drat it all! I'm sorry... :( I got a letter from Mom and Mel this week :) No package yet... Maybe it will come today?! That would be sweet! I love you bunches and bunches! Have an amazing week! I am going to actually write some letters today so hopefully I can get a few out to you family ;) Love you much!

                                                  

Alicia! 3-4-13 Bowlin' Green, KY

FAMILY!!!!

 

Oh my goodness golly! You have already made my day ONE HUNDRED TIMES! In fact, you probably made my whole week. How do I love my family.... dearly, dearly, dearly. What would I do without you? I probably would be the saddest little kid you ever did see. But here I am! Happy, happy, happy! And I miss y'all so very much! I love reading 6 emails from my Mom and my Dad and my sister named Melanie :)

 

I am not sick anymore! No more flu bug to bug me! (Do you remember that song "She eats pie in front of me! Then she hugs me, then she bugs me!"? I do. It reminds me of the flu bug.) So the story goes I was out ALL day on Monday. Most of the day on Tuesday. And I went to bed early on Wednesday. I didn't eat very much at all for those three days. Thursday my appetite slowly started coming back. And now I am hungry ALL OF THE TIME! I could eat for days! And everything sounds appealing... Mmmmm... pancakes, scones, muffins, chicken, chips, tacos, kiwis, chocolate, pie, ice cream.... It is a good thing I live in America where all of those nutrious foods are in abundance! In fact, people around here eat even more of an abundance of those healthful delights! Typical southern meal: cornbread, corn, mashed potatoes, fried chicken and a large serving of some delicious dessert. Talk about nutritious! Oh! Or you get the member's favorite meal to feed the missionaries: spaghetti. Mmmmm.... I am so sick of spaghetti....

 

The weather around here has been quite different this week. Last week it was nice and sunny and warm. This week it snowed for three days.... Guh. It would be ok if we didn't have to be out walking in it all of the time. It is the cold humidity that everyone told us about. Yay! I am getting cabin fever too, Dad. I REALLY want spring to come. Everyone says missionary gets a LOT easier when it is warm because everyone sits outside on their porch.

 

This city isn't really like a TALL city like NYC. Or even SLC. It is all spread out. It takes like half an hour to get from each end of Bowling Green. That makes missionary work fun too. We pretty much end up in the same three spots over and over and over again (because they are close). They are areas with lower income apartments. And there are TONS of people in them. There is always someone outside to talk to- even in the snow. And, incredibly enough, many of them still have not talked to missionaries before.

 

Last week I think I mentioned a couple of the people we are teaching. We are teaching two families right now- one from Nepal and one from Bhurma. Their English is very basic and simple so we are teaching very basically and simply. It stretches you to think like that- to explain the gospel in way they can understand. We have to start from the very beginning too. Yesterday we taught the godhead. And it took half an hour! It is good though. They are really great people. Cute, young families that are very humble. It is amazing because they believe in Jesus- and yet they don't know really anything about him! Or the Bible even. R is my absolute favorite though. The miracle will be seeing her (she is 10) and her mom get baptized this transfer. We are facing a lot of opposition from family members who attend the local baptist church that picks them up with their big buses.... guh... Which, btw, someone put me on a list there. They called us and asked how I liked it when I attended! Great, huh?! Reminds me of Mary Kay or something... :)

 

Oh what else! The challenges of missionary work are still very real. I think I am getting to a point though where I am almost comfortable with this area and my companion. We don't really have a lot in common so it can be very difficult. I am a lot more quiet than I would like to be.... and it isn't as easy to laugh and have fun with her. We are still learning though. A few more weeks and we could be there with the Lord's help. The members of the ward are starting to help a little bit here and there. That's good. Trust is building. Now we just need solid investigators! We are really great at contacting people, but getting an actual lesson with them has been very tough. Onward, ever onward!

 

GUESS WHAT!!! We have a temple trip this Friday. :) Hip hip hooray! I get to go to the Nashville Temple! (Did you know it is pronounced Nashvole? Truth. And it is pronounced Bowlin Green. No g at the end- ok?) We invited a college student named Sam who is Muslim to come to FHE tonight. Cool! So many diverse peoples! The Elders in our area work with Swahili speaking people. We meet with one of the girls sometimes. Just a big, beautiful melting pot of diversity. You know the best part? THE GOSPEL IS FOR EVERYONE!!! So even though they don't have a Bhurmese Book of Mormon or a Nepali Book of Mormon, the gospel still covers their needs. They just don't know it yet. Hopefully we can be the teachers we need to be and help them recognize that.

 

Well, I feel like I just rambled for the last hour. I hope you enjoyed it! I miss you all and love you all very, very much! I am excited for the wedding coming up! How great! And Mel gets to be in a bridesmaid dress!!! Dream come true for her! Yay! Say yes to the dress! I hope you all get to ride motorcycles this week. I love you! The gospel is true!

 

Love for always,

Sister Alicia Johnson

 

PS~ I am making it a goal to carry my camera around. I have like a hundred pictures from the MTC... but that is the MTC. I think I have 10 out in the field... Hehe.... I will work on it.