Alicia! 6-24-13 Brentwood, TN

Hello!!!! How is everyone doing?! I loved your emails! You are always so good at writing... IT makes such a big difference! I love knowing that I have the support and love of such an amazing family. And it sounds like miracles are happening back home! And I had the same feeling watching the fireside last night. Wasn't that incredible?! Missionary work is changing and the Lord is hastening his work! I took a lot of notes... Mostly because we don't have a ward mission leader right now... haha!

 

But the ward is great! I LOVE Bellevue! I always forget to mention one of the most magical parts of Tennessee... the lightning bugs! Oh my gosh! It is just like Princess and the Frog! Except even better in the sense that it is real! We are part-time bike, part-time car. I probably will be needing to buy a bike soon... who knows. I have been getting away with borrowing them from everyone so I might be able to keep that up ;) But this week we were on bikes. It is SO green here and wherever it is green the lightning bugs are there like crazy! It is like twinkling, magical Christmas lights on the green grass... Oh I love it! It is getting really hot here though... I have been drinking water like crazy trying to stay hydrated and not get sick. We have done well so far. I am really tan now too haha! I need to take more pictures... Sorry Mom...

 

This week we experienced a miracle. I was a bit stressed about biking full-time in the heat, but it turned out to be really fun. We sweat like crazy though :) Missionaries drenched in sweat trying to knock doors! I wouldn't turn that away ;) Anyways, we had to have an emergency exchange on Thursday (I had only spent two full work days in the new area). I was needed with a Spanish-speaking sister for a couple of days due to illness and the like. So, I spent two days in the Spanish area (my Spanish is really sad... I sat there and smiled a lot) while my companion biked the new area and tried to find investigators. And find they did! They found M! M has been searching for the truth and accepted the Book of Mormon. The next day we went back and taught him most of the first lesson. We had to overcome some objections and concerns- but the Spirit was brought into the lesson and it changed everything. That evening he attended a baptism. We were able to give him a tour through the church afterwards. The Spirit was incredibly powerful.... I have not had a lesson that powerful in a long time! It was amazing! His understanding was opened because of the Spirit and he soaked up everything we taught like a sponge. We are going to commit him to baptism tonight :) This is the Lord's work! I am so grateful to be a part of it and to experience the joy of inviting others to come unto Christ.

 

I am really excited to continue working in this area. I am praying that nothing will change at transfers... this is the last week of the transfer... but you just never know.

 

Oh! So we moved into the Elders old apartment. It was... Disgusting. To say the least. We spent three and half hours cleaning it on Tuesday after we moved in on Monday. Yuck! I think my favorite part is the cockroach slayer... They have a rubber spatula on the wall that has been used to murder those fantastic creatures. Even better, we had a cockroach running across the floor yesterday. Yay! I am getting used to them though. A lot of the trailers out here have cockroaches in them. You just grin and bear it. I ate shrimp and fish too! Turns out they aren't as bad as they used to be ;) Look how much I have grown in 7 months! Haha!

 

Hey! I love you all so much! Have a wonderful week and keep being the best ever! The gospel is true!

 

Love you always!

Sister Alicia Johnson

Alicia! 6-17-2013 Brentwood, TN

YES!!!! Great emails this week!!! Oh my gosh! I just got so excited for my wonderful family and all of their adventures! It sounds like Jackson Hole was just wonderful! Plus the picture of Daddy and Jare* is sooo precious! I want a copy of that to carry with me. Then I could show everyone how blessed I am with the best family ever. Oooh... And the cute one of Jare and Taryn**... You two are just totes adorbs! haha :) Hahaha and Dad I just look forward to receiving my ripped apart Ensign ;) You are the best :)

 

****** SPECIAL INSERT ******* DADDY!!!!! Happy Father's Day!!! I am so sorry that I am a horrible daughter and didn't remember it! Why is it that Father's Day always gets neglected while Mother's Day gets a huge shebang!? I am going to write you your own email. Because I love you :)

 

Ooook! GUESS WHAT?!? Guess how many weeks I have been in Greenhills? Hahaha! Don't worry! Just 10! Guess who is getting transferred again? Haha! Yep! That's right! Little miss me! I am getting transferred to the Bellevue ward- which happens to be the ward right next to the one I am in. They had some visas come in and some visa-waiters left. So they had to do some shuffling. BUT I get to stay with my amazingly wonderful companion Sister Munafo!!! YAYAYAY!!!! I almost cried with joy because I love her and I don't want to lose my favorite companion at 4 weeks like last time. So with transfers coming up in 2 weeks, I am going to guess that I will be staying put with my companion. Yes! But, the Lord has a way of shaking the tree (once you finally get to tree status). It is really funny because we had made a LOT of progress with the ward, our area book exploded with lessons and investigators and we were finding people left and right. So. We got moved. Haha! Great huh? I love missionary work!

 

This week I went on exchanges to the YSA branch area. Oh man. I am so grateful to be in a family ward! It is cool working with young single adults but they hardly have any investigators-because where do you find them?! One blessing I had was the opportunity to go to institute. We were studying Elder Robert D. Hales. He is pretty inspirational. Back to the shaking tree thing- I got the metaphor from one of his talks. He talked about whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies. He doesn't qualify us first. So if we feel like we can't do something, it is probably because we really can't! Cool, huh? So we will begin as acorns. We will be put in a hard situation that we think we can't handle. But, with time and experience, the acorn will grow and flourish. It will become large and strong. It will become an oak tree. Then, after we are comfortable, the Lord will shake our trunk. The oak tree will drop an acorn and we start all over. What a blessing that the Lord continually gives us opportunities to grow. Can I tell you a secret though? Just because we get shaken doesn't mean our faith has to be shaken. As a matter of fact, if we are firm in our faith and humbly submit to the will of the Lord, no amount of shaking will rock our worlds. We CAN trust that the Lord knows what he is doing. And it is a lot easier to trust his will rather than our own. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't plan for the future, but don't be surprised if the Lord has something else in store for us.

 

I am learning a lot here on my mission. I am learning a lot about people and about life. I am learning a lot about faith and about the gospel. I really love it! There has been a shift within me. I loved my mission before, but I wake up excited everyday to share the gospel with others. I can already picture myself as an awkward RM! Yes! And my responsibilities seem to have grown immensely. As the Lord continues to put his trust in his servants and we in return trust in him, our capacity grows.

 

I love powerful Spiritual experiences as well. This week we had a meeting with our District. I have felt over and over that we just need to have more powerful spiritual experiences in our meetings to help us in our work. I was able to do a training on prayer. After the training, we all went of into individual rooms and took the time to pray and pour out our hearts to God. We took about 15 minutes. Then we did a roleplay of a church tour. The power in that building was indescribable. Especially the chapel. I will never look at the chapel the same. It is truly a dedicated room where sacred ordinances are performed. And the power of personal prayer- WOW! If there is nothing else I learned on my mission, I am SO grateful that I learned how to communicate with my Heavenly Father. It has wrought within me a mighty change. I am truly a new person every time I humbly submit to my Father. I just wish that everyone could understand that power.

 

My wonderful family, I hope that your trees have been shaken and that God is giving you opportunities to grow. And I implore you, get on your knees. We CAN'T do it! But the Lord can. I pray that you are all doing well. I love you so much! Have an incredible week!

 

LOVE YOU ALWAYS!!!

Sister Alicia Johnson

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Alicia! 6-10-13 Brentwood, TN

Hello!!! How is the family doing?! Thanks for your emails! You are all amazing!

 

So I guess I will start with technical stuff while I am thinking about it. I am no longer a Facebook Missionary. After attempting (kind of) to like Facebook and be a successful missionary with it, I decided it really wasn't for me. I don't know why I thought I would like it when I don't even like Facebook anyways! So I reactivated my old account and you can just keep updating it and using it like you did before. Is there any way that I could get a copy of the General Conference ensign for my own personal use? I love Conference! Speaking of conference, their is a worldwide leadership broadcast that is happening live on June 23. They have invited all of the missionaries around the world and all the ward councils! I imagine there will be some great insights as to how the work is going to move forward. Exciting!

 

Sounds like everything is just peachy back at home! I am jealous you will be able to go visit Mel in Jackson this weekend! I sprayed some bug spray on myself the other day and thought of summer and camping in the mountains. It was very nostalgic... I think I just might end up there again after the mission.

 

That is exciting about Trek! Our ward is having Trek this week. I loved Trek so much! Totally changed my life. Also there is a Nauvoo Pagent coming up in July. I want to do that too. I am going to have quite the bucket list of things to do when I get home.

 

This week was good. Things are changing in the ward. I am changing a lot too. I have become WAY more bold than I used to be. It is an empowering feeling. I can feel the fire and passion and I just want to see the ward get involved! We have some that are working very diligently on finding and setting up appointments for us to teach at. We are teaching a returning member and her nonmember boyfriend. In the past three weeks they have made astounding progress and I know that it is due to the members that are involved. We have been teaching in their home and the Spirit there is absolutely incredible! The lessons are so focused on the power of the Savior and it has led K and M to really start searching and reading from the Book of Mormon. I know that the Book of Mormon is true. It holds the key to the converting Spirit. Once people recognize that power, they will want to make changes in their lives to live in harmony with the restored gospel. M was saying that she hadn't read her Book of Mormon for two days and she could FEEL the difference. Once we open the book with K in the room, he can't stop reading it. There is such a power in that book! The promise of drawing nearer to God is so real and the peace is indescribable. K is working towards baptism- and he will be a strong member of the church. I am grateful for member-missionaries.

 

We also got to go to a Bible Study yesterday with another one of our investigators, Robert. That was quite the experience. There were about 7 of us in this little room. We were studying a chapter from Isaiah and having a doctrinal discussion on what is contained in that chapter. Many of the things that were taught were right on. They were true and correct doctrinally. There just seems to be a lack of understanding in HOW to apply the principles and doctrines of the gospel. Isn't that incredible? The Bible teaches us the what and why, then the Lord provided the HOW with the Book of Mormon. Needless to say, we were bold and shared some verses from the Book of Mormon with the study group. They really enjoyed it and we were able to give out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon while we were there.

 

The Bible belt is SO interesting. And what is particularly interesting is the fact that most everyone we talk to accepts and believes our message- they just don't act on it. Oh man! And we are teaching some incredibly hilarious people! There is this older lady that LOVES to talk our ear off. It is so hard to get a word in edgewise sometimes and so we are trying to learn the art of tactfully cutting people off. It is great! A skill in life I never thought I would need. ;) People here are just so friendly! They love to talk and particularly they love to talk about Jesus. We are still praying to find the person who will be baptized in June. We need to find that person who is searching for truth and willing to act upon the truth they hear. The Lord will help us- I know he will! Everyone else seems to have a solid baptismal date- except for us at the moment... I am not discouraged because I know that a large part of my purpose in this area is getting the members involved. I can see that once the members are actively finding people, the number of convert baptisms will increase dramatically. There is hope!

 

The work is still moving forward :) I still love my companion. And I still know that the gospel is true. I was reading back through my old study journals and some of the entries in my regular journal too. I have seen many miracles since I have been out here. Do you remember when President Hanks said that there was one person specifically that I came on my mission for? That has been a driving force for working hard and becoming the best I can be. I know that that person is very special- I love them very much. I am grateful to be serving.

 

I love you all! Have a good week and enjoy Jackson!!!

 

LOVE YOU LOTS!!

Sister Alicia Johnson the Tennessee Nashville Missionary

Alicia! 6-3-13 Brentwood, TN

!Hola Familia! ?How do you like my Portuguese? It is getting pretty good, huh? :) What a beaut! I know about four words: Sisterina (little Sister), Cim (Yes), Ciao (Goodbye), and Salvacao (Salvation). I am pretty sure that I can take on any new Portuguese investigators at this point. :) Cim, Salvacao!!!

I love Sister Munafo. I can't believe it has been another week. Time just flies around here when you have an awesome companion that makes life fun! Plus, she is super focused on the work. We are constantly working on improving our teaching and how we do missionary work. It is really cool. I am feeling a difference within myself as well. It is finally becoming more natural to walk up to random people and share the gospel. I am grateful for that. Also, responsibility seems to be a bit easier to manage than I used to think it was. I keep shouldering responsibility and somehow my capacity to manage it continues to grow. The Lord has blessed me with so many opportunities to grow and a vision of how this work can be accomplished.

Yesterday was probably one of the greatest miracles I have seen in this area the whole time I have been here. Our Relief Society President and her first counselor have been our greatest support team for the missionary effort. Sister F devoted her entire lesson to the importance of members getting involved in the work. She told them that it is the member's job to find- and the missionary's job to teach. She also talked about a Press Conference that took place in between conference sessions when the announcement for the age-change was made. Elder Holland talked about the fact that only the 12 apostles and the first presidency knew about the change. NO ONE ELSE knew! This means that everyone was thrown off guard and preparations had to be made quickly. He said that this made him giddy.

Her first counselor then stood up and talked about the hastening of the work. But it is so much MORE than a hastening of the work- it is a hastening of the Lord's coming. If you want to see the signs of the times, look at what the Lord is doing with missionary work. Israel is literally being gathered before our eyes. Things are changing! And the Lord is inviting each one of us to catch the wave and to see the vision! What more can we do?? We need to be inviting EVERYONE to hear the gospel! How can we know if they are prepared if we never invite?

I am so grateful that you sent me that book: The Power of Everyday Missionaries. I recommend that everyone read it. It tells us the why and HOW to talk to our friends, neighbors and acquaintances about the church. A promised blessing quote:

"Far from putting the kingdom out of balance, if our ward and stake leaders were to focus on leading their members to share the gospel, many of the other problems that fester in our hearts and homes, and in our wards and stakes, would resolve themselves through the blessings that come from accepting the call that God has given each of us to be missionaries."

Also, have you felt a lack of the Spirit at all? The author of the book talked about how his church duties became just that- duties. There was no need for the spirit in the functions he was performing. So, he decided to be actively involved in missionary work again. "But in becoming an active missionary again, I had essentially repositioned myself onto the front lines in the war against Satan over the souls of men. This meant that I needed the Spirit with me everyday."

The Lord has called each of us to share this blessed message of the Restored Gospel with the world. And he has promised his help every step of the way.

"Most of us fear failure. Once we have realized that we succeed as member missionaries when we invite people to learn and accept the truth, much of that fear that kept us from sharing the gospel vanishes. We give them the opportunity to exercise their free agency. Some will use that agency to accept the gospel. Others will not, and that's fine. We succeed when we invite."

The members of the Green Hills ward got fired up at this call. We have a full dinner calendar and a nearly full exchange calendar this week. We have members setting up appointments for us. Things are beginning to change. I am SO excited to be serving at this time to be instrumental in helping those around me to catch the vision.

We will be baptizing this month. Our mission has a goal of 100 baptisms for the month of June. That is one baptism per companionship. I am excited to see this happen. It is really interesting who we have been teaching. Most of them are Methodist- which I would say is the closest to the LDS faith- and are quite content where they are at. And then there are the very intellectual that miss the mark on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They even question sincere testimony... it is very interesting. I hope that you will pray for our investigators. Will you pray for the baptism that we will have on June 29th?

I love you all so much. I am so grateful for the love and support that I feel from you. I am very blessed with an amazing family who is just good to the core. Thank you for your example. Thank you for your emails and your testimony each week. I love and pray for you. Have an amazing week!!!

Love you always,

Sister Alicia Johnson