July 24, 2017

Hello Everyone, 

This week was a roller coaster, we had some fun times and some depressing moments. We've been having a tough time finding new people to teach and some of our investigators couldn't meet with us. We also had fun in between the hard times so it really helped us keep going. I'm really enjoying serving Sister Wayne, it some how always surprises me how different companions are and makes me appreciate the variety of human beings. She's cheerful, giggly, american and has a lot of faith. On Monday we went to the mall, to just look around what's there and grab some stuff. Now that I'm writing this I've realized I did email at the end of P-day... So that night we went finding in city centre and chapped. When we were chapping we knocked on a door of a lonely old woman, she started being really nice talking about happy things and God... then things went wrong and she started telling the story of the morning she found one of her sons dead. It was very detailed and made me feel nausea afterwards. Scottish people just tell you everything and anything. I would love to visit her again, but I'm not sure if we should. 

On Tuesday we had District meeting on Accountability, I think that accountability is a skill that every missionary that serves well, will most definitely gain on their mission. I believe that before my mission I struggled with being accountable to myself and God, I needed others to account to. I need to just get used to being self-accountable. Our Investigator Ryan B. gave us Australian Ginger Beer which was pretty cool. We also taught Ian twice this week! The second time we took him to the church and showed him around the church with Katie. I think he needs to change the reason why he's meeting with us, at first I think he was more sincere but now it's just to collect knowledge. I have a testimony that the reason why you read the Book of Mormon has a big impact on what you get from it; If you read the Book of Mormon to gain knowledge you'll get that; If you read it for understanding of God, you'll receive that; if you read to know whether it's truly the word of God, you will find out if it is or not. 

The assistant ward mission leader is now offically our Ward Mission Leader now! Brother Clark has been a big help and his family had us over for dinner on Tuesday. The mum made a mac n' cheese with sweet potato, I've been obsessed with sweet potato for a whole two months now. I eat sweet potato 3 or 4 times a week. I found out that sweet potato is jam packed with so many nutrients and has low calories. (Just in case you wanted to know) My mum loves Jamie Oliver, he's a uk chief but now the new thing is a woman named Nigella Lawson. It's one of her recipes. On Wednesday we went to Amanda and Sarah's again for lunch, it was kinda funny because the Dog Molly gets screamed at for the first 10 minutes of the appointment. But also sad, poor dog. Amanda's name actually sounds pretty close to mine, she has the middle name Jean as well. Amanda Jean, Miranda Jean... I've met so many people with the same middle name as me on my mission. Sorry now I'm just Gabbing. (It's a scottish term for talking about random things) 

On Thursday we got a call from a wonderful member Sister Mair, she wasn't doing anything that morning and was wondering if we need any help. So we went GQing with her, eventually we had an on the spot lesson with a man named Douglas. Friday tons of appointments cancelled, it was pretty rough. We taught Ian that night at the church. On the way home he walked with us off the bus in the city centre we went past a druggie man. I said Good night to the druggie when he was saying gibberish to us, and then the man flipped out. He started insulting us and then Ian stepped in. There was an aggressive atmosphere but you could tell the druggie was completely high, nothing happened except the casualty of Ian getting juice on his coat. Nothing would've probably happened if Ian wasn't there, we hardly ever get stuff like this happening. 

Saturday was fun, it was the pipe band championships. So there was pipe bands playing up and down high street from 10:30 till 4:30.  It seems like marching band in high school culture to me. In the pipe bands it seemed to be a mix variety of organizations and groups, most of the bands had a mix between young and old people. It was so cool to listen to so many band playing and marching. We also saw some of our friends that day too. Church on Sunday was pretty good, we went into a ctr class and told the children about missionary work. The Cunninghams had us over for dinner and we had a good time catching to them. 

Not sure what we are doing today but I'm excited to go on an adventure! Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their summer.

😊

Sister Johnson,

24, July 2017

24 July, 2017

July 17, 2017

Hello, 

I don't even know what to say about this week, it's gone by really quickly. We were able to meet with a lot of the people we met up with last week, which means we are keeping our investigators.  Saw Adam, the polish man that wants to find a wife. We had to teach him pretty rushed so we just talked about the 10 commandments, we use hand signals to teach them. I can proudly say that I keep all 10 commandments! And also mean it because I actually know all of them. It was funny though when we were going through them because Adam says he has them memorized but he's either missing one or adding one because we had different  commandments per number. It made him frustrated, he's from a Catholic Background. 

We also saw Odila, the lady that's in Spiritual School. She gave us one of her books, I skimmed through a lot of it and found it to be a lot of made up stuff. They have a thing called Aquarian Gospel. And I think it's an additional scripture for them, but some person wrote it and  it has added stories to the bible ones about Jesus. Not about anything else but added events to the bible stories. I don't know too much from what I read, the book also contained poems and stories that people wrote. And explains 'symbolism' of Christmas. If you're curious look it up and let me know what you find. I'm pretty sure that if Odila thinks this stuff is inspired, the Book of Mormon will blow her mind when she starts reading it. 

We also taught Ryan, Stewart and Colin this week. Nothing much more to say about them, things progressing slowly. We have a new friend now named Ian, he's looking into a church that he likes. Sister Wayne found him. 

Did a lot of street contacting this week, but not much has come from it. Sister Wayne has a huge mission age gap compared to my other companions. She's only been out for 4 months, but is still really boss. Sister Wayne is sweet and works pretty hard. I'm hopeful that we will eventually find a lot of success together. 

For P-day today we went to Barrhead mall, drank Boost Juice Smoothies (Australian Brand) and ate Krispy Creme donuts (American Brand); best of both worlds, just like me. This last week was starting to warm up actually, we've had some rain and wind but it feels warmer. I felt too hot on Saturday, but it didn't even hit 20 degrees Celsius (68 degrees for Americans) I think I'm adapted for the climate now. 

I got the pictures from Last, Last P-day's adventure now.

Sorry I don't have any interesting stories to share about this week.

Hope everyone is doing okay,

Hello everyone, 

Nothing much to say about this week. We did a lot of finding this week, have three new people we taught this week. On Monday we had P-day at Greenock for a few hours. Greenock is a town that Sister Paxman and Sister Allen are serving in, it's a pretty cute little port town with a lot of interesting churches. We taught a Polish man named Redick on Monday as well, he met missionaries awhile ago but hasn't been free untill now to meet up. He was really cool to teach, Redick's Family of course is Roman Catholic but he's atheist but loves Jesus. Another Polish man we taught this week is Adam, he's not a cool as Redick. We brought a recent convert Linsey to teach with us. Bad idea, he only wanted to meet with us because he wanted to meet with some Beautiful Ladies. Adam really wants to get married and have a family, he's about 36... We were all 10 years or more younger than him. He texted us a few hours after the lesson and said, "There was no God in the lesson...No hugs, no numbers...I don't want Sisters I already have sister, they give me better advice than the Pope. I'm just going to get drunk tonight. I just came because I wanted to meet some beautiful women." Sister Ligertwood and I, weren't that disappointed when he texted us. You could just tell in the lesson he wasn't interested in God. We taught a young man named Ryan this week and he just came because he said he had nothing better to do. But by the end of the lesson he accepted a Baptism date. It would we cool if he comes next week to another lesson.We also taught Stewart, our druggy friend who likes to study the Book of Mormon.
So on Saturdays Paisley is trying to have a festival every week till August. A little too much in my opinion... This week they had a SMA shot festival, no one really knows what that is. Basically there was music everywhere, and a mini parade. The ward had a garden party on Saturday as well, Colin an investigator of ours came was well. It was lots of fun. Colin had a date for this coming Friday but he won't make it, he's having alot of stuff going on right now since it's the beginning of the summer. This coming week is the last week Sister Ligertwood and I will be together most likely. Moves call is already coming up on Saturday, where did the time go?!?!

On Tuesday AND Thursday we were just walking around not hurting any one and we saw a Seagull TWICE eating a pigeon. The first time the Pigeon was still flapping he's wings trying to excape whilst the gull was eating his flesh!!

Hope you all are doing well,

Sister Johnson