Thanks so much for your emails Mom and Dad and family and everyone! I love you all very, very much. I am incredibly blessed with the support I have. Incredibly blessed!
Yes! I did get your Easter package! And I LOVE it! I can send you some pictures now too ;) That long skirt is super, duper cute :) Thank goodness they let us look cute out here- I try to take advantage of that as much as possible. And all that delicious chocolate.. mmmm... :) The Lord has given me a faster metabolism while I am serving, I think. Or I guess I hope ;) I eat whatever I want and look pretty much the same! Yay! Plus, sometimes I eat ice cream without any problems. Cool :)
So! Yes! We had a baptism! D was baptized on Saturday then confirmed on Sunday. The baptism was beautiful. So many tiny, amazing moments... Oh man. I love it so much! The sound of the font running, the Restoration video, the talk on baptism, the music and the light in D's eyes. It was truly wonderful to be a part of it. I got to see it through from start to finish! And I found her! It is truly a miracle. This work is incredible. It is not without opposition though... Sunday I almost had a heart attack. D works nights at McDonalds. So from 10pm-6am. Well, we showed up to wake her up and help her get ready and she said, "I'm sorry. I only slept an hour. I can't go." I know we looked panicked at that moment... What do you say? What do you do? Um... you have to get confirmed today, D! Baptism is incomplete without it. "Sorry I am so tired I can't go..." No!!!!! I prayed and prayed. "D, if the Savior walked in the room right now and said that coming to church today was the only way to salvation, what would you say to him? Would you tell him you are too tired?" She thankfully got ready, came to church and was confirmed a member of the church and her blessing was truly beautiful.
It made me think about the sacrifices we make for salvation. Elder Holland said, "Salvation is not a cheap experience." We must work and it WON'T be easy. Was it easy for the Savior? No. What makes us think that it will be easy for us? As a missionary you learn a great deal about the Savior and the sacrifices he made. What sacrifices are we willing to make as members of His church....? What more can we do....?
We had another miracle this week! I think I mentioned last week about C. We met her at the ward chili cookoff a week ago from Friday. We taught her this week and set a baptism date with her for April 13th. Then we taught her again before D's baptism. While we were teaching the Spirit bore POWERFUL witness that she is READY for baptism. We moved the date up and she is getting baptized this Saturday after the second session of General Conference. We had to teach her Word of Wisdom- she is a smoker. We committed her to stop smoking. She received a priesthood blessing and she said she felt something inside her working and she got a funny taste in her mouth. She won't ever smoke again. Amazing! The Lord can do amazing things through our faith. He is real. He loves us. This is HIS work. I love it! I am grateful to be a part of it. I love you all so much!
This next week will be transfers (April 9th). I have no idea what is going to happen yet. Just a heads up!
Love you! Enjoy the wedding! Congrats Jare and Taryn!
LOVE YOU
Sister Alicia Johnson
PS So I kind of got cut off during my emailing.... my hour on the computer was up. But I got another half an hour so I am going to send you all some pictures! Yay yay yay! You finally get to see me after four months of nada!!! :) I am happy too :)
These are pics from MTC, first companion, second companion and third companion. PS my camera card is pretty much all filled up so I will send you my pics soon :) Then you can see ALL of them! Yay! I took probably a million in the MTC.... what can I say? I loved it there!
This is a shout out to my main man Joe Baker! Oh the places you'll go... :) I love you family!
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