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
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment