1. ricardo on left, matt on right
2. christopher on the left, was baptized into our branch but he was baptized on the same day as his mom
3 & 4. safety first
Family :)
We go to Nova State University (a collage campus) to email. We use the library there and its about a ten min drive from our house, so not too bad. The new temple that is being built is about 15 min from our house. I haven't seen it lately because we don't really have people out there to visit. I am hoping to see it soon though. I haven't seen Sis Andrus yet I miss her so much. The mission is having a Christmas party on Thursday from 11-3 and I will be able to see her there! I am looking forward to it! We are taking white elephant gifts. I am filling an old pill bottle with m&ms and writing on the outside "mission stress reliever" Sis Holyan is buying donuts and saying on it "donut forget to pray" haha we are nerds. It will be a lot of fun though and I will tell you all about it next week. We have a new roomie! The other sister is training now. I can't believe that there snow there. I don't even know what that is anymore ha. The other day I was dying of heat! It was 90 on Wed! that is unreal! last week i decorated 3 planners for some elders haha the asked me to so i did. they turned out really good! I will have to send one of my old ones home so you can see it! its about the only crafty thing i get to do out here. We biked 8 miles one day this week. It wasn't bad at all and I really enjoyed it. Other than it was super hott but that's normal. One of my recent converts is going to the temple for the first time this week. I am so excited for him. He will be the first of my recent converts to go do baptisms for the dead!
Things here are going very well! It doesn't feel much like Christmas yet but I am very happy and at peace. We were able to have 3 baptisms yesterday! It was such a miracle! We are truly blessed. I would like to share the story behind one of them that got baptized.
We met Ricardo three weeks ago from yesterday. It was a Sunday night and we were out knocking on doors. It was getting close to the end of our harvest and we were walking up the stairs to knock on two doors upstairs. No one answered. As we walked down the stairs, we noticed that one of the doors were open so we started walking over to it and Ricardo walked outside. We blessed him and his uncle and they both immediately accepted baptism. We set return apts and were excited about the baptism date that we had gotten. When we returned to see him later on that week he said that he had been thinking about baptism and that it really was something that he wanted to do. We continued to teach him and he came to church that Sunday. He loved and said he felt at peace. We continued to see him this past week. He had his interview on Friday and everything went very well. He came out excited for his baptism and couldn't wait! We saw him again on Saturday and he had talked to some people and had felt unsure about his baptism. we testified and reviewed verses from 2 Nephi 31. At the end of the lesson he was back on track! Sunday came around and he was again excited for his baptism. During Sunday school we had a small testimony meeting and to my surprise, he got up! he shared a powerful testimony about how he had been talking with his friend last Sunday night and his friend was telling him that he needed to go to church. he had also been having dreams about being with people at church. Only a few min later after he had gotten off the phone with his friend, he felt prompted to step outside. and there Sister Holyan and I were. As he shared this the spirit testified to me that Heavenly Father truly is preparing his children to receive the gospel and that we were sent to that area that night for a reason and that reason was to find Ricardo. His baptismal service was beautiful and the spirit was very strong. A few hours after his baptism he send us a text that said, "I feel so good right now, thank you very much for that opportunity." I couldn't help but to thank my Heavenly Father for allowing me to be able to meet Ricardo and help him receive the blessings that Heavenly Father has been waiting to give him for so many years.
I was reading in the scriptures this morning in Alma 4 where it is talking about Alma's desire to go preach unto his brethren who had fallen away. In verse four it states,"seeing no way that he might reclaim them save it were in bearing down in pure testimony against them." This verse made me think about the experience we had with Ricardo. On Saturday night he was being tempted and was beginning to doubt. As we shared pure testimony with him, the spirit was again able to testify to him that this is what he needed to do and that he knew it! it brought to his remembrance of the feelings he had received after we left the harvest prayer and after he had attended church.
Johnsons, i love you and i appreciate all that you do for me! you are the best family ever! The mission is the best gift i have ever been given. I wouldn't be out here if it weren't for your love and support. thank you for helping me to be out here and have all of these wonderful, life changing, experiences! i am glad you got my Christmas package! i hope everyone likes what i got them! i cant wait to see everyone on Christmas day! that is going to be the best! i hope you all have a great week! i love love love you and will talk to you soon!
xoxoxoxox
Sister Johnson
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