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.
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