From the Johnsons

Hello hello!

 

Happy belated thanksgiving to YOU! Ours was great fun! We had a waffle breakfast with the Elders and Sisters in the morning, played a couple hours of basketball, and then we started going to dinner! We went to Bishops house for a bit and then we went to a family's house in the ward that have 9 kids, the youngest being 14. That was fun :) they have a missionary out right now so they felt happy to have us. then we played a couple more hours of basketball with them after that, haha! We felt good and exercised that day, and very sore the next. Hehe. It was a great day!

 

Also, if you see Paul again soon, tell him I met his cousin Elder Taggert! He was initially really confused why I was talking to him, haha.

 

Hello, ex-Elder Seibach! Haha. There's a guy in the ward here who just got home from his mission to Chile, but he was... I forget. But he can't have been in the same mission since he only just got home four weeks ago. In other news, senior missionary? are me and Craig the only missionaries out now? O_o

 

Yes, transfers are this week! I have no idea what's going to happen. I'm hoping to stay, but we never know. As of now I adore my companion so I want her to stay. Basically everything can just keep going the way they're going. 

 

As far Christmas, I thought of two more! A Hoops&Yoyo panic button, and rechargeable batteries! I'm not allowed any other books than what I have... but music is always a welcomed change. We listen to a lot when we're driving to the other side of the stake for meetings x_x.

 

So this week we had a super awesome lesson with our investigator Veronica. She's been taught by missionaries for a long time (since Feb.) and she wants to be baptized, but can't until she gets married and all that. It's a tricky situation. But we were teaching her about the priesthood and everything, and it was a really strong, great lesson. The cool part was at the end, though - she said, "My ancestors are telling me to get them sealed. How would I be able to go about doing that?" So we had a brief lesson on the temple (she's been taught it before; we'll go over it in depth again this week) and the member we brought with us said their mom was super into family history and would be able to help her with that! So this week she's going to prepare names and we're going to see if we can't go and help with all that :3 It'll be sweet! And then they can help with the softening of hearts, hooah!

 

Also this week we picked up 3 new investigators! Hooray! We visited a part-member family and they said they'd be willing to learn more about the church since they're looking at trying to incorporate more of God in their lives. Yay! They're the Schweig family :)

 

ALSO, we were able to commit Barton to baptism! Hooray! He struggles with smoking right now, and in the lesson we were asking him about committing to quit and he went on and on about not wanting to break promises, so logically (to me) I asked, "So what's the difference between a promise and a goal?" and all at once he, his wife, and my companion went, "..... huh!" It was pretty funny. But then we committed him to the goal of Feb. 9th. Yay!

 

Those were the highlights this week, and I can't think of much else that's going on. There were a lot of people gone this week, so it was harder to catch/find people. But it is what it is. One of the companionships in our zone scheduled a baptism this last weekend and found that to be true, so they asked my companionship to sing (well, me to sing, Sister Ripplinger to play piano). It was fun! Able to use my talents and things after all :P 

 

Yep. Good times! Not much else, and I've got to get scooting soon. Hope all's well out there! Good on the 60°, it's been like that for the whole of November. I keep thinking it'll get colder, but most people are saying it won't. Oh, that's what I need! My black coat, if it's around - I can't find a light jacket I like, so if you could just ship that out, that'd be great. (in the Christmas box would be fine; I've gotten a few sweaters at Ross to help last me. and it won't get much colder than this, I'm told. so I'm hopeful.)

 

I love you all!! Thank you for your prayers, both for me and our investigators! <3.

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

Sister Nelson and District

" 'We believe that man must be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression.' Except for me, cos I'm Adam." <- kid who graduated from primary last week

 

So basically Sister Ripplinger and I are having the best time ever here in Loomis! Remember how I was telling you about Stephanie and her awesomesauce lesson a couple weeks back? Did I ever tell you about what she thought about it? If I have, disregard my redundant-ness. Basically the way Stephanie described it was the spirit was so strong it was messing with her vision, and the lights were doing weird things and she described the whole experience as "electric". Her husband Scott said he felt the spirit so strongly it felt like there was an extra person in the room. It was incredible! And in our lesson this last week, she said she's ready to be baptized!!!!!! WOOO! She hasn't set a date yet, since her husband's a less-active member and she wants him to baptize her, but that'll come along soon, I just know it! So we're really excited for them and looking forward to what Heavenly Father has in store for them, b/c obviously there are great things coming for them!

 

Also something cool that happened yesterday: in this stake they like to have open houses at the chapels to try to introduce people to them (and to get them to feel the spirit, obviously). They have them four times a year and rotate around to all the different buildings. This time it was at our building, but it wasn't publicized a lot so there were some people... but mostly members. it was a nice evening regardless, but at the very end I notice in front of us one of the stake presidency sitting with one of his friends. After the tour of the building there was a musical number, a conversion story shared, and more music. We talked to this man once everything was done, and we learned that he lives down the street from us and just moved in! In the conversation we asked him what his favorite part of the evening was, and he said he enjoyed the pictures of Christ that were all over the building. (That was his 9-yr old's favorite part too.) But then he said, "I just really like that it's so comfortable here, like I feel like I'm at home." We thought it was so cooooool! So we're trying to have his friend invite him to take the lessons, since he's been to lots of church events over the years. Miracle!!

 

On a funny note, Sister Ripplinger and I were describing traits we liked in each other. Later I was mentioning that I would describe myself as loyal, and she said, "I can see that! You're loyal like a........ loincloth." She didn't put a lot of thought into it, but that's okay cos I thought it was hysterical :)

 

Also, zone conference was this week! Wooohooo! We talked a lot about preparing for the new missionaries coming in, and I'm basically destined to train. *brick'd* We also started this cool thing, we're all taking a challenge to read the Book of Mormon in 85 days (that's how long it took to be translated). I started Thursday, and I'm already in 2 Nephi! Isaiah is hard though. We're going through and marking all references to Christ, anything he says (as himself or through his prophets), his attributes, and doctrines and principles in the Book of Mormon (I'm counting that as faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end). It's really really great so far! I'd recommend it :D

 

Also we talked about a new thing you'll probably hear about - mormon.org/Christmas! It won't launch until the 26th, but keep it bookmarked cos it'll be cool! There'll be e-cards you can send, you can share feelings about christmas, you can get free christmas songs from the MoTab, and a couple other things I can't remember right now! but that'd be a great missionary tool, so check it out as soon as it's up, okay? :)

 

Hope all's well with you! I didn't get an email so ¯\[°_O]/¯ but know that I love you and pray for you always! Pray for missionary experiences, invite everyone!! The work is hastening and we better not be the ones caught sitting on our hands, that's for sure!

 

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

Sister Nelson and Sister Ripplinger

So this week we're emailing from a place in town (the member owns a business and said we could come use the compys here yay!) but it's got Windows 8 on it and I'm totally lost. O_o Go figure. Leave the world for 5 months and you're left in the dark. Bah!

 

Aww, meet the Mormons! I'm glad it went well; did the missionaries gain a lot of people to teach from it? I hope so! Missionaries with no one to teach is the worst. Have you invited anyone to have the missionaries meet them and teach them? It's not as scary as it seems, that's what I've learned.

 

This week we have a zone conference! It's with us and the missionaries in two other stakes. I think it's in preparation for the new missionaries coming in. We're expecting the biggest waves in January and February. Should be good times! I'm pretty sure I'll train and I really don't want to, but ack. The Lord knows what he's doing, I guess.

 

I don't have a lot of time today, but I'll share something cool that happened this week! We've been really focusing on finding new people to teach (even though we have lots to do, we're always supposed to be looking for more to teach!), and this week a lady called us and said she was marrying a non-member and moving into the ward. She said that he could be interested in being taught, and he's a really nice guy! He understands a little about who we are and what we know, but there's always room to learn (even for us who've been taught from the get-go)! So it was really interesting that practically fell in our lap. Also, she's friends with a lot of band people around here... so guess who's on the hunt for a bassoon again :) We're thinking a musical thing with me and my companion maybe, since she can play the piano. Huzzah! I'll take pictures this time :P

 

Anyway I love you all and I pray for you daily! <3 <3

 

LOVELOVELOVE,

Sister Nelson

Hellooooo!

 

I was going to say something cool to start this letter off but I forgot already. ¯\[°_O]/¯ I did remember that I wanted to tell you I'm gonna need another journal by Christmas! Do you remember the purple one I ended up getting at the lds bookstore, mom? I like the scriptures at the bottom of the pages, that's a nice touch. It's been weird how some days it matches up with my life, too. Definitely strange, but nice.

 

Oh! I meant to ask you, didn't I ask for an absentee a few months ago? I'm sad I didn't get it... :(

 

I feel like it's been ages since I emailed .___. There has been soooo much happening this week! but first, to your preguntas!

 

P-day! Some days we play basketball (kinda; the boys don't know how to play with girls XD), or just shooting games on that front. Sometimes we play volleyball, sometimes we do scatterball (which is a kind of dodgeball, but all-for-one type deal) but lately we haven't been doing that so much cos nobody likes it much anymore. Too many Elders being crazy and hitting the Sisters in the head. On accident, of course, but... still. One week we had a nerf-war! We bought a couple boxes of those extra-dart packs and cut up some PVC pipe and used them as blow-darts. It was fun :D I liked watching more than playing, per usual. Haha!

 

Halloween- It was cool, I guess. In by 6, and it was a good night cos since we live at a house there was plenty of stuff going on all night :) It was good. Plenty of Harry Potter-ites still, which made my soul happy. Squee!

 

We didn't really get to sleep in on Sunday...... we have meetings at 7am, so we have to get up at 5:30. It's a little unfair, if you ask me. We already don't sleep a lot. But it is what it is... we're just more cranky on Sunday nights. *brick'd*

 

Huzzah for inviting people to the fireside! When is that? Has the ward council thought about doing a chapel tour? That's another good way to get people to the church! It's amazing how much spirit can be felt in the chapel even when there's nothing actually happening at the time. That's why I think it's a powerful experience. We're having one here in a couple weeks! The stake here does it quarterly, rotating around all the different buildings the stake uses. It's a neat concept.

 

I haven't done anything about my teeth still; with transfers that happened and then AWESOME things that picked up, and then with me getting sick this weekend... it slipped my mind. I'll have to call and ask, though!

 

C'mon, NHL. Get it together, dudes! (Also. Kane? Switzerland? Is that really the only place that would take him? typical).

 

SO. This week was basically awesome! One particular experience we've been raving about all week so I better share it. This investigator's name is Stephanie and her husband is a less-active named Scott. Missionaries have been teaching there for... threeish months, and we were hoping to invite her to be baptized and have Scott prepare to be worthy to baptize her. We found out the day before, though, that the stake president (Pres Perez) had asked if he could come along with us. We got super excited and couldn't help but think that everything was falling into our favor and lesson would just go perfect and awesome!

The lesson took a bit of a different twist than we thought it would (we just ended up focusing on one thing more than we thought) and Pres. Perez was SO awesome. As expected the spirit was incredible (S. Ripplinger noted that I later said it was a "nuclear bomb of spirit") and we had a really powerful lesson about God's love, and also about how Bishops and stake Presidents are stewards of the Lord and also represent Him in the areas in which they serve. It was just reaally really great and we couldn't've asked for better.

We didn't find out until yesterday that before the lesson, Stephanie had told Scott she didn't wanna take the lessons anymore because they were being presented as more informational than spiritual. Now it's a total 180° switch and she's excited for us to come back this week!

 

IT BLEW OUR MIIIIIIIINDS! There is nooo way any of that happened to be coincidence. Everything lined up just right because it needed to. Heavenly Father loves all His children and wants them to be able to have the opportunity to learn the truth and the way - and He knew that she's able and willing and CLOSE to making that commitment. It was SO huge for us to be able to see that intimate working of God in those circumstances.

 

Anyway I don't have much time left so I just wanted to share that awesome experience with you! I know your prayers helped with that for sure! Thank you for all that you do to help me and missionaries everywhereee :)

 

I LOVE LOVE LOOOVE all of you! <3

 

Sister Nelson <3