Alicia! 12-23-13 Oak Grove, TN/Ft Campbell, KY

HEY!!!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS THIS WEEK!!! Haha! I love you all! I did the math last night. Kind of freaked me out a little bit. I only have 17 pdays after this one... Whoa right?! Getting down to the line here! It is funny too how even after this much time being out, I still feel like I am constantly having to adjust to the work. I love it though. I really do :) Dad! You are so right about stupid sugar! The last week or two I was SUPER moody and I finally chalked it up to sleep, diet, exercise and water quality. So I bought some good filtered water, went to bed earlier and stopped eating sugar. Needless to say, I feel LOADS better! Airborne has been helping to. I have kicked out a cough before it even had a chance! I was a bit worried for a minute there... the weather here was literally starting to kill me. I could feel the effects of symptoms that seemed like SAD. So I was wondering if there was a way to get some of that Vitamin D? Or whatever the sun vitamin is? I miss that shiny, bright happy guy up in the sky a lot! We have had some absolutely crazy weather here too! The other night we were out visiting a less-active family when all of a sudden the wind started blowing like crazy and it started this vicious downpour! It turned into a tornado watch... it was really scary. But we survived without any problem. See?! An email to prove it! I am excited for summer again someday... Sunlight is my bestest friend! 

You are really probably not curious about all that random stuff I just told you. I just had to tell you! CHRISTMAS!!! First, I am glad the tradition lives and you watched the Magic Christmas Tree. I was telling my companion about that delightful flick the other day! Watch it again for me will ya? :) Love that movie! Second, skyping!!! Yay! We will be Skyping from the senior couples computers in the Fort Campbell area. I don't know if they have that Google video stuff...? I know they have Skype for sure! I am worried it would take a bit of time to get it all set up? I don't know! Maybe we will have a chance to call first to make it all happen. We get to call for 45 minutes and it works best for us to call at 4:30 our time and 3:30 your time. Hopefully that works for y'all! 

I am glad Mel made it home ok! I love her :)

Let's see here... this week was a bit of a rollercoaster. As is life I suppose. I have a really great companion, we are just different. And I have learned that I have a hard time being around some people for extended periods of time. I have to learn to overcome this over and over again because everyone is SO different. She is very sweet and very patient though and I am learning to accept her for exactly who she is. We are going to have a great Christmas :) 

Liz is doing great! I love that chica! She was confirmed on Tuesday. It was really powerful- as everything is with that wonderful girl! The picture I sent home is her husband and 2 kids. They are in the process of a divorce right now- which is why we haven't really been teaching them all together. The baptism was only the 2nd time we had met her husband. He needs the gospel for sure though! Everyone does... They left on Friday morning for New York and we won't see them again until after January 5th. Which is pretty much the story of EVERYONE who lives here! Military people are asked to try to take their leave around the holidays. So there are only a few families around for Christmas. Thankfully, now we have a car so we can go all over the Hopkinsville ward and not worry about Fort Campbell too much- unlike Thanksgiving where we got stranded. In fact, we have a BUNCH of families that want us to come over and see them so that is exciting :) We will have breakfast with the Stake President and his family, presents, visits with more families, skyping, dinner with the Brock family, second dinner with the Carlisle family- it will be heaps of fun! 

We found another really neat investigator! She was supposed to come to church two sundays ago but she got lost. She said she ended up in the middle of nowhere in this scary place that looked like a storage shed. There was a sign outside that talked about devil-worship. She freaked out and drove off realizing that that wasn't the right place... oh opposition! Anyways, she still really wants to come so we are mapquesting it for her this time :) Kelly is her name. She is awesome! 

The work continues to move forward! I am grateful for my call as a missionary. I cannot believe how quickly time moves and that I am getting so close to the end. I know though, that this experience has taught me SO much about the Atonement, about my Savior Jesus Christ and about myself. I know that I am a daughter of a loving Father in Heaven who knows me and cares about me. I am sincerely grateful for the opportunity to be out at this Christmas time to be able to share the blessings of the restored gospel with so many of God's beloved children. Miracles keep happening. Even though this area is one of the most challenging that I have served in, somehow we continue to find and teach prepared people. We have been out tracting a LOT and we have found several new, prepared investigators this way and also some less-active, part-member families. We are going to have a great transfer full of miracles! Let's pray for more baptisms!! :)

I love you all so much! I am so excited for Wednesday!!!! You have no idea :) 7 months is a long time to go without seeing your beautiful faces :)

LOVE YOU LOTS!!! Be safe!

Merry Christmas!

I love you always,

Sister Alicia Johnson

Alicia! 12-16-13 Oak Grove, TN/Ft Campbell, KY

Man! I was a bit trunky last Monday... That is the rollercoaster of life, I think. One minute you feel not so great. Then you have a good cry and everything turns out ok. Tuesday morning, I just got it all out. I wasn't sure I could go out and work but I did it anyways. The amazing thing- everyone we talked to was super nice. We taught some great lessons. Especially this one girl named Kelly. She was going to come to church yesterday- but she accidentally went to the wrong church :( But she said us coming to her was an answer to a prayer! She really seems amazing. We are excited. There are blessings that come from tracting in the cold! 

Plus, this week we had a baptism!!! Liz got baptized on Saturday morning. It was seriously the most beautiful baptism I have ever seen. I have not met anyone so prepared. I don't know if you remember- but when I was set apart, President Hanks talked about me coming to Tennessee for one very specific person. I know it is Liz. She is amazing. She was born June 1991 so we are only about 10 or so days apart. Her grandparents live in Brigham City Utah. She is looking at programs at Utah State and wants to move out there. Pretty much she is guaranteed to be a part of my life forever. And that is why I think she is it. Plus, she is just amazing. I love her sweet children. I just love her!!! She got baptized in a white dress and seriously looked like an angel. Her little 2 year old was throwing a fit... So after coming out, she was dripping wet, carrying her little girl and smiling at herself in the mirror. It was the most beautiful thing... I just can't believe that I got to be apart of it... Unfortunately, though, she got really sick Saturday night and couldn't get confirmed on Sunday. So we are going over there Tuesday to have her be confirmed and then she is headed to upstate New York where home is for the holidays. AND while she is on her trip she is going to visit Palmyra! I am really glad I got to go right before I came out. I could let her know how AWESOME it is there!!! Gosh, I just love her.... I feel so blessed. 

So you are probably wanting to know about transfers... Well... ok. I am staying here for another 6 weeks with Sister Roberts! Happy sad! I do love trying new areas and this area is pretty challenging- but we are finally getting the flow of it. Miracles are happening. And so it will be nice to finish some work here. It will also be nice to stay where we know some people for the holidays. That would be ten times more difficult to be with a new companion in a new area. But I will be blessed to be with people I have grown to love. So that is good. AND we have a place to skype on Christmas. Our mission president wanted us to do it during dinner so it will probably be within the time-frame of 4:00-6:00pm. We will talk to the members and figure out for sure times and I will let you know next week. :)

I promise I am not trunky today! It is getting really weird though... I only have three transfers left. We had a zone breakfast this morning and I was the oldest missionary other than those that are leaving this transfer... weird!!! It is ok though :) It doesn't really feel real so that's good! HEY!! Hopefully we are getting a car this week! Did I tell you how many layers I wear so I don't die?! I wear, hem hem, my underclothing (obviously), an undershirt, another shirt, a sweater, a puffy coat, my long coat, tights, leggings, socks, boots, a hat, a scarf (sometimes two) and gloves!! I despise humid cold.... grrrr...... But I am going to keep going! And drink lots of orange juice and airborne so I don't get sick! 

Saturday and Sunday evening I had a really neat opportunity. And Thursday too :) I was invited to do a special musical number for Christmas Zone Conference on Thursday. I stood up there, all by myself and sang Oh Holy Night acapella! Then, I had the opportunity for half an hour on Saturday and half an hour on Sunday to sing and play the piano at an event called the Festival of the Nativity. It was really really really fun. I think I love performing and singing and stuff! My companion got some of it recorded so I will try to attach it at some point. 

Missionary work is great! I love it :) It is also the hardest thing I have ever done- but I am growing and that is what matters. I love you all so much!!! 

You know what, I have a really good feeling about staying at home for the summer. I think I am going to do that. I would love to do the job that Zach has for me and I will see if there are other things I can do as well. I would be happy to do all sorts of random things really. Babysitting, painting, piano lessons, something! I think something great will happen! I don't know what though haha :) It just feels better than the BarT5. I will pray on it though. 

I love you all so much! Oh, last thing- I got your Christmas package! I love you!

Love, Sister Alicia Johnson

Alicia! 12-9-13 Oak Grove, TN/Ft Campbell, KY

Ok, so to start.... oh life! Thanks for finding out all that info about school and work and housing and stuff. I don't have any requests as far as roommates... luck of the draw this first semester back. Yay! If it is possible, request an upper level apt (no basement) and not the buildings on the bottom- they are in a different ward. So it would be the buildings that are closer to campus. 

As far as job stuff goes, I think doing afterschool stuff would be awesome! I just need a place to stay... If you could, ask Zach to talk to his friend and see what the process is like to nanny. Last summer I was looking into it as well and they did have some openings for nannies in Logan- so that might be a possibility as well. I just don't really know what would happen with paying for somewhere to live? I think a good nanny job mostly has to do with networking and knowing who you are dealing with. If it means a set job I will do the Bar T5. Let me know what you find out! Please and thank you :)

What else...? Why does my brain think I am coming home tomorrow...? We are on the last week of the transfer. It has been a pretty trying week. It is really interesting because at the beginning of my mission I told myself that the fire would never die! I would want to do this forever and ever! Well... After tracting in ice and freezing cold weather, I was reconsidering that this week. It has been a tricky week to keep my mind and heart excited to go knock doors again. 

I need to continue to count my blessings though. Liz is rocking and ready to get baptized! We are planning and preparing for that this coming Saturday. We have our second Family Home Evening on post tonight. We had a miracle day with 12 lessons on Tuesday! But the rest of the week was kind of weird. 

The weather started to get really bad on Thursday evening. Friday we stayed in all day due to ice rain. Saturday I was fighting really hard about tracting so we got to do service on post instead- which was awesome! We are finally starting to see progress in some of the investigators that we have had to find on our own. But things are good. I just don't really like the cold... and I think it is very largely impacting my mood :(

We are getting excited for Christmas activities though. We have a Christmas Zone Conference on Thursday. They asked me to do a musical number. I am excited about that :) We also get to do white elephant! No set times about calling home for Christmas yet. Let me know your schedule when you can so we can start figuring that out as well. 

Well, life is humming along. Still moving forward and doing the best I can. Keep me in your prayers.... My heart and mind need some kicking to get back into gear. Maybe transfers will help with that? Guess we will know by Saturday. 

I sure love you all! Have a great week :)

LOVE Always,

Sister Alicia Johnson

Alicia! 12-2-13 Oak Grove, TN/Ft Campbell, KY

Hey there! 

I am always so happy to hear from you all every week! You are just the best and I love you all dearly! This week I have had a LOT of emails to respond to- so I hope that this email is good. 

I can hardly believe that it is December already. I have been out for over a year... and i will be home in about 5 months. I can hardly believe it. The sign in Walmart said that Christmas is only 23 days away!?! WHAT?! I love Christmas!!! Speaking of which- I listen to those Christmas CDs all the time! I love them immensely. Thank you so much for sending them! And I DID get the boots finally! They are great! I wore them once and it wasn't a super cold day all of sudden so they made my feet EXTRA toasty! So now they are special occasion, cold and wet weather boots :)

Congrats with the new job Mom! We don't know much about Christmas yet. Usually they let us work around our family so I don't think we will have any problems getting it all worked out :) No stress! Just let me know what times will work for you and we will get it figured out. 

They got news about the car today... They are totaling it :( I ruined it... :( Our bodies are fine. No major repercussions. Walking around too much carrying my bag kind of wears on my back, but I do stretches everyday and that helps a lot. We should be getting a new car soonish though hopefully.

I am glad that Thanksgiving was fun for you all! This was an interesting Thanksgiving for us here. Being on post is so different! We were supposed to do member visits all day but because we didn't have a car and we have to be with members at all times on post, we kept getting stuck places and weren't overly productive. We walked an hour to go see a member in Oak Grove... and didn't make it before our ride picked us up for lunch. I love turkey though :) And pumpkin pie :) So we had about 4 lessons that day. Not as good as Christmas last year... 

So to make up for it, the next day we set a goal of teaching 10 lessons. We taught 11! We tracted all. Day. Long. It was a bit exhausting. But we did see many miracles from our efforts. We taught a hispanic man and his two daughters. They gave us Mexican food and horchata! That was a miracle :) Plus, the gospel is really going to help them. We were happy to find him. 

Yesterday was absolutely amazing. It started off kind of rough. I was just frustrated and being dumb. So I prayed that Heavenly Father would help me to find the good in this area and find a reason to stay at it and love it. While sitting in sacrament meeting, a family walked in and the Spirit poured over me. I wanted to cry. I DO love the people here. And I am starting to build relationships and make attachments to them. 

I also had a cool insight during gospel principles. We were talking about temples and family history. The Spirit washed over me again and I realized that every effort we make is being watched by those on the other side of the veil. As a missionary on earth, the lessons and people we teach, impacts the work that is being done on the other side. I had never realized that before.

Last night, we had a lesson with Liz. Liz is our miracle investigator. We met her about a week ago when we decided to do a member visit. This member happens to be moving in about two weeks and she said she felt like Liz needed to meet us. We went over to her home and taught her about the Atonement and the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Spirit was strong. We set a return appointment and invited her to our FHE. We a Family Home Evening on post! It was very successful! We had 4 active families, a less-active family, a part-member family and an investigator there! It was cool. We made hand-turkeys and did fun kid stuff :) Anyways, Liz came to that and had a great time. She also came to church. Then we had our second lesson with her. 

She told us that she has been searching for a way to have more peace in her life. She wanted to know how to do it. We taught her, more in-depth, about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the role of the Holy Ghost. We then shifted gears and taught her the Restoration. After we had finished teaching, we paused. I asked her, "Liz, do you believe that this is true?" She said, "Yes, yes I do." Then she proceeded to tell us that after we left the first time, she had said something aloud- like a prayer to God. She said she felt a hand on her shoulder and peace filled her. We all started to cry. I asked, "Liz, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God?" She nodded. We sat in silence as the Spirit filled the room with an extraterrestrial force. God loves Liz SO much! She is VERY special. A choice spirit and daughter of our Heavenly Father. We set a baptismal date with her for December 14th. We will be having a white Christmas this year. 

I am so grateful for the opportunities that Heavenly Father has given me on my mission. I have been pondering about all of the lives that the Lord has allowed me to be a part of. I was thinking last night of all of their names and faces. I could see them all dressed in white, standing together in the bright hallways of heaven. Liz, Cheryl, James, Jon, Jenn, Briana, Corey, Denisa, Hal, Cindy, Sister Phelps, Sister Lawrence, the Driskills, Sister Brewer, the Leckies, Kevin, Miranda, the Brocks, all of my family, all of my friends... they are all numbered and counted in heaven. All of them are known. Every single person that I have been able to meet has been sent here for a purpose. God's purposes are great. I am so grateful. So grateful. 

The work of salvation is a beautiful thing. I hope that I never forget. I hope that none of us forget. This is what life is all about. 

I love you all so much. I am very grateful for you. 

Love you always, 

Sister Alicia Johnson