Alicia! 2-3-14 Franklin, TN

Hi Friends!

I love you!! Thanks for your emails this week :) I love them! It sounds like you had so many much adventures in paradise. Little fishie bites :) I am so glad you had fun! And how neat that you get to teach primary! That is the calling that I aspire to have. I don't think I can handle much more than the basics. We keep ending up in the gospel doctrine class and my brain can't handle it. I love the basics and gospel principles is SO basic! It is awesome. Primary is even better :) 

I know I shouldn't focus on this- but it feels like I am so close to the end! It is crazy... It is so bittersweet! We are almost down to 2 hands for how many weeks I have left. It is really good for me though. It is helping to push me at the end right when I need it. It is helping me to be more bold realizing that this time is not going to last forever. It also makes the challenges of whitewashing with a part-time car VERY bearable.

So this area has been open for years. BUT it has been elders for a really, really long time. There was an elder that was here over a year ago that did some amazing work here (Elder Barton), but since that time the elders hardly touched the area book and weren't even really working with investigators. The few that we have met so far are not even investigators! They straight up told us that they just liked having the company of the missionaries and wouldn't ever change or even read the Book of Mormon. That was a bit disheartening. So we are pretty much opening up this area. And we have another apartment to clean. Yay! Haha!

I feel very optimistic, however. The ward is really awesome. We just have some work to do to help them become more missionary-minded and available to help us. This week we don't have a car so that is going to be very interesting. Our area is really big and full of nice houses. Guess we will be tracting in some of the richest neighborhoods in Tennessee!

The other good thing is that I have an awesome companion. She is from Roosevelt Utah. She went to the University of Utah for a semester before she came out. She comes from a family of 8 kids and is the 7th missionary with a younger brother also preparing to go on a mission. VERY cool. Her head is on straight. She is willing to work. She knows the lessons. AND we get along!!! She prayed me to be her companion too :) She said she had prayed for a trainer who had been out for a while and knew what they were doing. Well, I don't know if I really know what I am doing but all the trainers at transfers have only been out for a little bit. I was the oldest trainer in the room. I looked around and wondered "what am I doing in here...?" Her prayer is the reason I am here. I am grateful for that. I am so blessed to be able to end my mission with her in the Nashville area again. It feels like coming home before I go home. I have already been able to see some of the members from the Bellevue area and we are around the office missionaries and President and Sister Andersen. It is awesome. I feel so blessed!

So- now we need to make miracles happen. This week we mostly got out and tried to meet the members. We received a bunch of referrals. But we need investigators! Will you please keep Sister Gillespie and I in your prayers and pray that we can find people to teach?? Please and thank you!!

I love you all! I am so grateful for this amazing work and for my opportunity to serve in Nashville Tennessee. I love my mission. It has changed me for the better. I have learned so much about life and people and prayer and the gospel and everything. I know that the Lord has a plan for everyone. I know He lives. I know He loves us. We are in a very special time when there are so many opportunities to share our knowledge of the gospel with those that we know and those we meet. And sharing the gospel brings so many blessings! I love it! I love this work.

I hope you have a great week! 

Love you always, 

Sister Alicia Johnson