The minute we became companions, I knew we would see a lot of miracles together!

This week I got my new companion, Sister Driscoll! She's from Idaho and she has a potato farm! Of course... ㅋㅋㅋ She is the sweetest, most hard working person ever. The minute we became companions, I knew we would see a lot of miracles together. And we did! 

In her last ward, she got a referral from a member that lives in our area. When she got the referral, the member said to not mention anything about church and to take things slowly. So we met the referral and the first thing she asked us was when our church was! She said that people told her it would be good if her oldest boy went to church since he's a little wild, so when we called she said it was the perfect opportunity! She also just moved to the area and so she wanted to meet more friends. On Sunday she ended up coming to church but sadly she left right after it had ended. She told us she felt confused and awkward, but hopefully we can pick her up as an investigator so we can explain more things to her.

We also went to find some less active's houses and we were able to get inside all the apartments we visited! It was all in an area that I had never been in either, but the apartments we were trying to find magically appeared. We were being led by the spirit without a doubt!

We also made our own little Thanksgiving dinner. Mashed potatoes, random meat that we had in the freezer, vegetables and fruit! We had a little feast! So on that note, here are some things to be thankful for as a missionary:

-a good companion (especially when they're Caucasian! We get so many great reactions when people realize my comp can speak Korean! It's priceless.)

-when people open their doors

-meal appointments!   

-the prayers we receive

-when we get referrals    

-progressing investigators!

-the constant companion of the Holy Ghost and the ability to always feel His love

There are so many things to be thankful for. I hope everyone's Thanksgiving was superb!

Have a wonderful week(:  

  Sister Johnson

She is going to be my first caucasian companion! People won't ignore us!

 We got transfer calls on Sunday morning instead of Saturday night because the mission president wasn't finished with them. So we anxiously waited while we took the fastest showers in history. 

Sister Carter is going to be with Sister Kelly and my new companion is going to be Sister Driscoll! She's from Idaho. That's about all I know about her. We're friends on the fb though! We found each other on the "many are called... but few are chosen" fb page. I'm excited to be her companion! She's going to be my first Caucasian companion! People won't ignore us on the streets now! Everyone wants to talk to the American.

 Anyway since Sister Carter is leaving, we have so many appointments to go to! Yesterday we were RUNNING everywhere and had to stuff our faces. We got lots of love from the members though(: I'm so happy to be staying in this ward! They really are the best ward ^^

Love y'all! Sister Johnson

PICS: Korean folk village! they were filming tv show.

It truly was a miracle that we were able to meet this family!

We went ice skating last Monday for pday and I got to play with Sister Gooch! 

After p-day we hurried back to our area for an appointment. 

A few weeks ago while sticker boarding, I gave an english flyer out to a stopped car at an intersection. And guess what? She is now our newest investigator! She's mostly english interest but her family is so ready to receive the gospel. They just don't know it yet.

 Her husband was a fighter pilot and passed away some time ago so now she's raising her kids by herself. They are such good children too! While we were talking with her, the kids were just sitting on the couch next to each other, quietly reading books. Sister Carter and I have never seen that in Korean children before.

 They're usually so wild and crazy! Haha plus they're way fluent in English and I don't know what we're going to teach them cause they're already so good! But anyway. It truly was a miracle that we were able to meet this family. I have a great feeling about them(:

Have a wonderful week!

Sister Johnson

They were doing all the work! PLUS one of them wanted a Book of Mormon.

This week was pretty eventful. 

I'll just cover some of the things we did. We went sticker boarding and made friends! These middle school girls decided they wanted to help us and so they got people to come over and put stickers on the board and even gave out flyers for us. They were the best!

 I didn't even have to do anything. They were doing all the work! PLUS one of them wanted a Book of Mormon. Where did these girls come from?? It was magical.

This week we also realized we might have to drop our one solid investigator :( She isn't progressing at all and she's been meeting with the missionaries for two years now. Her daughter is learning violin and her violin teacher at school told her that if she comes to her church then shell teach more lessons and that shell be able to perform in front of the congregation…

 So now our investigator is attending another church because she got roped into it! It's so devastating... We don't know what to do about this situation! It's so sad to think that we'll have to drop them because we are in LOVE with their family..

Hope all of you have a magical Pepero holiday! (stick cracker things with chocolate! It's on November 11)

Love,

Sister Johnson

Pics: Our sticker boarding friends and Su won Zone!

I'm in this 2 min video! click to watch. 

( she is in the beginning of the photo on the left side booth handing out treats then around 40 sec & at the end in the front left corner )

http://lds.or.kr/%EC%88%98%EC%9B%90-%ED%99%94%EC%84%B1-%EB%AC%B8%ED%99%94%EC%A0%9C-%EA%B0%80%EC%A1%B1-%EC%97%AD%EC%82%AC-%EC%A0%84%EC%8B%9C%ED%9A%8C

She's going to start her papers & turn them in when she gets back to America!!!

Okay how awesome is my ward? For the Halloween party (that took MONTHS of preparation) all the kids brought their nonmember friends! Our investigator came and she even brought a friend! The ward members were ALL over introducing themselves to them and making sure they were always being talked with. It might have been a little 부담 (pressure/burden).. But the members are awesome! 

At the party there were more nonmembers than members! What a great turn out(: We had a monster drawing contest, cardboard cutouts of a princess and pirate that kids could stick their faces in, a mummy race, trick-or-treating and a haunted house! The haunted house was a big hit. Some kids said it wasn't scary.. Only because they had their phones out to light the way!

 The rest of the kids said it was so scary and most of them cried.. Some kids couldn't even get through the haunted house.. ㅋㅋ Our investigator's kids wanted us to go through with them. They were definitely crying and we had to PULL them through. We even had to turn on the lights so they could see everything.. 

After they got through they said it wasn't scary and they wanted to go again! So the second time through one of the girls just said everything wasn't scary and that it was 못생기다 (ugly)... But she was still terrified! We had so many good scares and we even used our investigators doll for the haunted house.

In our mission our goal is to have 10 lessons a week. Whether it's an actual investigator lesson or member practice lessons. So we set up an appointment with one of the YSA and in return we helped her with English so she could test into BYU. We started right off the bat with the lessons and she played as an investigator.

 The lesson went really well and she actually started asking questions of her own about prayer and receiving answers. She started opening up and she told us about the hardships in her life and how she used to be suicidal. But she found the church and she told us how the church and the friends she made in the church had saved her life. She told us how she is so thankful for the gospel and how it gives her hope. 

It was a very powerful experience and through practicing missionary lessons with members she was able to open up and we could really get to know her and that we had helped her and that we need to continue helping her. Moral of the story, member practice lessons aren't just for practicing!

So remember that BYU student that's in my ward who decided she was going to go on a mission? Well this week she said she's going to start her papers and for sure turn them in when she gets back to America!!! I'm so excited for her. She'll probably come to Korea on her mission. She's got Korean blood in her!

Have a great week!  

Sister Johnson

Pics: TEMPLE! There are four questionably Asian sisters in the picture. A half Chinese/white, a half Korean/white, a full Korean from New Zealand, a full Korean from Utah and Sister Jacobson..

A pic of some of my dongi(:  (MTC Members)

We picked a spot & literally 10 seconds after another church plants themselves right next to us. with treats!

We went sticker boarding with the elders for our english class and we picked a spot and literally 10 seconds after we set up our stuff, another church plants themselves right next to us. With treats! Whaaaaaat.  

One of their 전도사(proselyting person..?) came up to me and read my name tag with disgust and I asked him if he heard of our church before and he said, "Well I just barely read your tag, didn't I?" 

 We definitely moved to another area far from them and we actually got a better spot! We had a ton of success. If you ever need to go proselyting, I highly suggest doing it in front of Baskin Robbins on a Saturday afternoon! The next day we actually had someone call us looking for more information. WOOHOO! Sticker boarding actually works!

ZONE CONFERENCE! 

We learned more about feeling the Holy Ghost, making goals and finding by the Spirit. This was probably the best zone conference I've ever been to. Here are the key things I learned:

-We need to remember the miracles the Lord has already given us.

-We are missionaries, so we are teachers. But during personal study, we are the learners.

-Remember that your confidence and faith should be in Christ, not yourself... Satan may take away our self-confidence, but he can't take away our belief of Christ. Whenever we feel like we cannot do something, we must always remember that this work is His work and because it's His work, there is nothing we cannot do.

Also, if you all have not seen the General Women's Broadcast, you should watch these adorable Korean children singing(: 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/music/2014/10?lang=eng&cid=email-shared

Have a great week!

 Sister Johnson.

We had stake singing conference & won cutting boards & ramen, It's what i've always wanted!

Suwon stake did this huge stake singing conference where all the wards sing two songs and get prizes! We started practicing songs months ago.. and our ward chose songs sung by Mormon Tabernacle Choir... Gotta go big or go home, right? Since I'm in the same stake as my last area, Anseong, I got to see some of the members! 

When I saw them they asked me to sing with them, especially since I practiced with them a few times before I left. I was more than happy to! Our choir only had ten people in it and half of them were missionaries.. But it went really well and it was so special that I got to sing with them(: Then I sang with the YSA in our ward. After that, there was another ward that chose one of the same songs as Gokbanjeong.. That was awkward.. It was then our turn to go next and we killed it! All those months of practice paid off.. We were better than the other ward.. Shh.. I've really learned to be humble on my mission.. ㅋㅋㅋ Just kidding! 

Everyone seriously sounded so good and guess what? We were all winners! We won cutting boards and ramen, It's what I've always wanted! Oh and then the missionaries sang the EFY Medley. I went up 4 times.. Everyone kept asking me which ward I actually served in.. Haha I proudly sang with both my ward and branch.

We've been deciding if we should drop our investigator that said God was a baby. We didn't set our usual appointment with her this week but she texted us and asked if we were meeting. I suddenly got a strong feeling that we should meet with her but my companion wasn't really sure about it. So we ended up meeting her and there wasn't anything special about that appointment, but afterwards I was just happy because I had followed that prompting. Maybe she'll actually read the scriptures we gave her and maybe she'll want to get baptized..??(:

Also my family went on a cruise and I prayed for their safety. Apparently one of the other cruise boats near them got a disease.. The power of prayer works! They didn't get a disease! Okay I'm so ridiculous I know. Sorry for those who have to read my emails.

Have a great week!

Sister Johnson

PICS: Sister Carter chopping my split ends... My hair has gotten really bad but none of us trust Koreans to cut our hair because another sister did it and she ended up looking like Paul Revere..

 Next pic is me and some lovely Anseong members!!! I missed them.