Hi everyone! Family! Guess what! Yesterday marked eight months that I have been out! I don't know if you are keeping track... but I only have half my mission left... It is going WAY too fast! Especially this week in particular. Last night I was writing in my journal and I couldn't believe how much happened this week. I love missionary work! It is so exciting and thrilling and fun!
I am grateful for your emails :) I know I may not always respond to everything that is in them but I LOVE reading them and hearing about all of the going-ons back home. It sounds like there are a lot of changes happening as far as the house is concerned. Good changes too! I won't even recognize the place when I get back! That is crazy! I will miss the tree a lot... But it will be ok. One thing about change- you always adjust way more quickly than you could anticipate. Want to know something crazy?? I have been with Sister Munafo for 8 weeks now. The longest I have had a companion. And I have been in Bellevue for a month! Wow!
This week was incredible! We had a zone conference on Tuesday to get to know President Anderson and get some trainings. It is definitely different. I sure miss the McKee family. They had just such a warm and bright presence. But President and Sister Anderson are great. We have a Mission Leader Council this week and Interviews so I will be getting to know him a LOT better.
So the weather here is pretty weird. And also it sounds like we live in a jungle. I am pretty sure they are cicadas- they make all these crazy noises at night. It is really cool! Coupled with the warm air, the trees and the lightning bugs. I always feel like I am either at Disneyland or in the jungle. I love it! But I also really miss the mountains... They are in my blood. Nothing beats summers in the mountains :)
What I was saying about the weather- it feels like the Lord is really looking out for us. It hasn't been horrifically hot and when it is we always somehow have the car.On Wednesday we were on our bikes all day. That evening we went to institute with some members. This freak lightning storm came out of nowhere and we went driving right through it. The lightning struck a pole right next to our car as we were going by! It was crazy! Then it was this crazy downpour that stopped after about an hour. Weird stuff. Not like Utah.
We had a training on Thursday and set a goal to focus on getting 5 new contacts a day. This has pushed us to talk to more people and to be more courageous in opening our mouths. We have seen lots of miracles from it. Suddenly, this place is like Bowling Green. We have found all these different ethnicities of people that don't speak English. Our teaching pool is changing dramatically and it is really exciting! We visited this guy from Nigeria who blessed that Sister Munafo would have 30 children! He is great!
M has dropped off the face of the earth... We think he slipped back into some habits and is now embarrassed or overthinking things or something... We send texts with scriptures and he will say thanks- but he won't let us visit to figure out what is going on. I am sure it is just timing. He is in the Lord's hands.
We are working with a lot of different people on the scale of progression. This week we found a former investigator that had been visited by missionaries about 6 years ago. 6 years ago, this woman was undergoing some problems in her family and some health issues. The Elders showed up at her door on a particular day when she greatly needed them. They didn't push her into anything but they prayed with her. They kept checking on her and praying with her. Miracles began to happen in her life. She knew it was because of the missionaries. Slowly, they drifted out of her life. And now, this past week, we showed up at her door right when she needed another prayer. And more importantly, she is SEARCHING for TRUTH!!! "As they see their church veering off to the right or to the left of those basic teachings they will begin to search for truth." We challenged her to read from the Book of Mormon again- to take another look at it. We will be meeting with her again this week. Miracles are going to happen!
We are also teaching this Vietnamese man with a member who speaks Chinese. I am really grateful for return missionaries.
This gospel is true. It is really amazing! It changes lives! I love it and I am so grateful to be serving and giving my all. I love you my wonderful family! Have a great week!!!
Love you lots!
Sister Alicia Johnson
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