July 2016

I only have a few minutes to email because we awent down to Howth, Ireland this P-day so sorry if this email isn't as detailed as it can be.

Also HEY EVERYONE!

So yes I'm in DUBLIN IRELAND! I'm so pumped that my first area is in Ireland. I went through 3 countries in 1 day to get here, Scotland, Northern Ireland and now Ireland. We took at bus at 10:30am to the ferry and it was like a 3.5 hour drive and I thought I was going to puke. In the seat behind us were these REALLY Irish men and we some how struck up a conversation that we brought teaching the gospel into it. I was thinking wow I wonder if teaching the gospel to strangers will be that easy. NOPE. Anyway I'll get to that later... I finally arrived in the flat at like 9:15pm, we were late :( 

72 Tolka vale, 

Finglas road, 

Dublin 11 Ireland

You can send letters to this address if you want to

It's the yellowish apartment building behind me in the picture I'll send

So my companion is the lovely Sister Stein, she's from the Netherlands. The missionaries I meet people are from America, Australia, England, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, New Zealand and I'm sorry but I forgot the rest. When we arrived in Edinburgh Scotland I was exhausted, the mission home is amazing though. It's seems like a 100 years old or something like that. The ceilings, furniture, style is beautiful, and I really felt like I was in Europe, I should've taken photos for you but I'll do it when I come back in 17 months.  We tried to climb Pratt's hill but they said a serious 'incident' happened so we went some where else near by, Edinbrugh is so pretty! Scotland from what I've seen is gorgeous. I hope I can serve there sometime.

Anyway when they announced that my companion was Sister Stein it felts so right, it does feel a bit awkward still spending 24/7 with a Sister I don't know at all really and it's just us two a lot of the time.  

How's mission life? Not too bad actually, amazingly my first companion wants to run with me so we spend the first 30 mins in the morning running together. So nice to run outside...

It's kinda stressful trying to find new investigators because we only have one right now and we don't have any referrals. I really want to work on trying to get the members more involved with missionary work because trying to find people on the street willing to talk to us is hard. A lot of people make the excuse I'm busy, I've never been rejected so many times in a day in my life. I think I'm taking it well... Dad and Mum I know how you feel, kinda. Trying to find people to teach as really made me impressed with Converts to the church, they are definitely the elect of God's people. We taught this very un-active lady the other day, and I'm saying taught very loosely. And she straight up told us that she didn't want to change, she doesn't believe that she sins, she just makes choices, and all she wants is to hear about God and feel his love. It made me realize how different our church is, we require action in the church. You can't be forgiven of your sins and utilize the atonement unless you do some thing about it. Look up the Bible dictionary definition of repentance if you have time. Basically Repentance is a change of heart you much turn away from the sin and have no desire to do it. Repentance with the covenant of baptism and the partaking of the sacrament allows us to change into a better person. 

The mission life is kinda stressful, because of the numbers and such. But we do Baptize in the Scotland/Ireland, last month they had 40 baptisms and this year 167 total so far, the goal this year is to get 360 baptisms!

I'm excited to get some people to the font! The area of Dublin we're in is really poor, I think most of Ireland have really bad economy and everyone is struggling finding work. The members in the ward have such a personality it's fantastic! We had testimony meeting this Sunday and it was interesting the mix of people. I couldn't bare my testimony so they asked me to give a talk next Sunday. exciting... We have 4 Elders in my area and they are funny. We went down to Howth together and walked down a trail to a little pebble beach and we were like every where. It felt so nice to wear normal clothes and not have to try to talk to everyone we passed. It started to rain for the first time since I've been here, but it went away after 2 hours and the rest of the day was so HOT. One of the Elders said that he felt like he was walking in hell. 

That's all I can think about saying right now, it's been an overwhelming crazy week but I still LOVE being a missionary. I like trying to talk to people, walking around all day, praying all the time and talking about the Gospel 24/7. Ireland is super humid, and not very green where I am because it's very much a city, the buildings are all really old and low. There is a very mixed culture, I've spoken to more Brazilians than Irish in the streets and some people from all over Africa. So many people can't speak English well, I wish I knew Portuguese or French or basically any other language as well. 

LOVE YOU ALL

Sister Johnson

Enjoy the photo's I took this week, the mountains across from the ocean is on the Isle of Aayran 

and the Sister Sharky makes a giant Yorkshire Pudding with some meat she cooked in the slow cooker during stake Conference. Basically the food they make for the missionaries is Potatos, Carrots, other veg and some kind of meat, like Sunday roast everyday.  

February 13, 2017

I just past my 9 month mark on Saturday! Whoop Whoop! Now I have barely less than 9 months left of my mission. It feels super exhausting to get this far and I hope that the next bit would be easier. I hope that I can accomplish a lot more in these next 9 months than what I've done so far. This last week was really difficult. We did over 30 hours of finding in the streets and knocking on doors. And didn't have much success in lessons, we taught another old man named Patrick. He was really strange and still wants us to meet up with him again, we'll see how it goes. Graham has taken another step back because he hasn't been honest to us about how he feels about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, he tells us that he was only telling us that he believes those things to keep the peace????? Why would he want to join a church so badly if he doesn't think that it's true? I have no idea... We really tried to tell him repeatedly since the very first time we met him that be believe that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of God and the Book of Mormon is the word of God and he's said nothing about it. Sister Lawson and I also tells him to pray about these things and to read the Book of Mormon. Graham even tells us that he's read the Book of Mormon when he can't even tell me that it's about. He forgets things so easily and we remind him constantly but he isn't progressing of making any effort to do anything on his own. He might be a waste of time, Sister Lawson and I are considering just seeing him every month now. 

Sorry for the brief email this week, it's just been a really cold long week. Enjoy the photo's I took this week, the mountains across from the ocean is on the Isl of Aayran and the Sister Sharky makes a giant Yorkshire Pudding with some meat she cooked in the slow cooker during stake Conference. Basically the food they make for the missionaries is Potatos, Carrots, other veg and some kind of meat, like Sunday roast everyday.  

February 6th, 2017

Hello!

So next time I email I would've hit my 9 MONTH mark, half way through. Goodness, it feels like I've been on my mission forever now. That's okay though I'm glad I still have a lot of time left to make a difference and if I did have less than 9 months left I would be really sad because I have so much more I need to improve, change and some how make a impact. This week has felt unusually long because it's been filled with a lot of ups and downs. On Monday we went to a ton of different places to grocery shop because we can, and didn't actually need to buy any food because we get a dinner appointment every night. After resting in the flat I felt an ich to run, for exercise everyday we have a bike in the flat and I cycle for an hour in the evenings, morning exercise I do sit-ups, push-ups, lunges and squats. Just in case if you wanted to know... So we went to Barassie  earlier and I ran laps along the beach while Sister Lawson wrote letters. 

Tuesday was a day full of GQing (Stopping and talking to people on the streets) and members bought us lunch at a restaurant called the Treehouse. And then that evening we taught Aairon, the 10 year old boy with Sister Cairns. Aairon suprisingly knew alot of the stuff because he remembered us teaching him about it before! He seems to be actually learning and remembering the stuff we are teaching him. I'm so happy for him and know that he'll be ready to be baptized soon.

Wednesday Sister Lawson had her foot checked again and has more exercises to do on her foot.  We taught Cameron with Jack, Cameron is a guy we met on the street last week and he's super nice. He loves his family so much and always looks after the younger children. While we were teaching him he was very intereactive in asking questions and putting in his own input and understanding, it was very refreashing. Cameron is only 17 but will be turning 18 this month. 

Jack also helped us teach Daniel, another young guy. Sister Lawson has been teaching him for a few months now and we don't know what more we can do to help him progress. He's struggling to keep a lot of the commandments like the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom, this coming week we are going to have the Bishop help us teach him. Does anyone have a suggestion on what we can do to help him move forward?

Thursday was ALL SCOTLAND!!! We had to wake up at 4 am to take the train to Edinburgh, which is always a pain. But besides from that is was a good day, Elder Johnson from the Seventy came and spoke to us about the Broadcast, instead of him giving a talk for an hour. He asked us missionaries questions and had those who put up their hand stand up answering it. I both liked it an disliked it, some of the comments/discussions went on forever about the exact some thing. But it was amazing to hear the testimonies and knowledge some of these missionaries had. We talked about how Success is actually a gift, we cannot earn success. In Missionary work and life we sometimes say to God, Okay if I do this then you will do this. But that's not how it's suppose to work, we should do all that we must and have faith that God understands our sacrifice and loves us. I've been working on a lot lately having trust in God, I have a really tough time trusting people and Heavenly Father as well. I know that this is a flaw I have and I must try my best to understand that my Heavenly Father does love me and knows me. As a result I need to trust him to do what's best for me. It's not a matter of not holding on and letting him catch me when I fall. But knowing that if I don't make it up that he's right there behind me ready to hold on to me if anything happens and not have that great fear looming over me. 

Friday was a really crazy busy day. Through out last week when ever we scheduled an appointment with less actives we said Friday will be good. So now we have 4 appointments all over town to get too. In the morning we saw Graham. For the whole of this last week, he's been getting really annoyed at us and sent really rude responses. He emailed our Ward Mission Leader that he no longer wants any contact with members of the Church and wants nothing to do with the Church. On Thursday night he called us and says that he want to talk to us in person because we deserved to know? It's fine, I still confused but I'm not going to hold anything against him. He wants to change his date to March 4th... his choice to move it back again. We then went to Sister Burn's house (a less active) for lunch and we had a really spiritual discussion over reading the scriptures with her. She is really progressing in the gospel and read quite a few chapters since last week. Sister Burns even had a moment when she prayed for comfort this week and felt the Holy Ghost tell her everything is going to be okay. I'm so happy to see her moving forward and changing!! Afterwards we had our companion study in the Library. I liked it so much better than in the morning or at night. We also went to the Tuesdale's home Moraag and Nan. Moraag is Nan's daughter and is struggling healthwise. It's really sad to see both of them being so unwell, missionaries has visited them often in the past. Sister Lawson shared a really powerful testimony and the sweet spirit filled the room. I hope that as we visit them more and talk about the goal of the temple, they'll have an increase desire to go to the temple.

We attempted to go to Sister O'Pray's home that night but took the wrong route and spent forever on the bus...

Saturday, I felt impressed to buy flowers for Isabel Kerr. When I gave them to her at our lunch appointment she was so happy about it! She doesn't have a husband and hasn't received flowers in a long time. I'm glad she loved them. Any advice to people, give a lady flowers and you'll make her day!! We then helped Betty another single sister Paint more of her flat again for just a little bit, but she really appreciated the help. 

Sister Kerr and her daughter made it to Church on Sunday which was AWESOME!!

Hope everyone is doing well!!

Sister Johnson

January 30th 2017

Good Day!! 

Well, what to say about this week. We did ALOT of finding, the muscles on my legs felt sore at the end of every day this week. I mean we tore up the pavements all over Ayr, talking to people and then chapping some houses past the college. I think it was a great start to the transfer, and I hope that our sacrifice and hard work results in some blessings.

Soon P-day last week Sister Lawson wanted to go to some charity shops to find some clothes, I just kinda bored but it's all right. I hope that maybe today we can do something interesting, but it takes forever to go somewhere and there aren't any missionaries nearby that we can do activities with. We had a lesson with John and it fell through AGAIN, so the night we spent GQing on the streets.

Tuesday, we usually start out day walking to the college and university trying to catch some students who are arriving late to their class. The walk is pretty nice because there's a trail that runs beside the college and behind the college is the university, next to the trail is the river. Across the bank on the river, however, this morning was two boys drinking and throwing sticks into the water.... It wasn't even lunch yet.

Once we had our lunch we decided to chap some of the houses that are past the college and started knocking. The first door we knocked on was a really nice catholic woman and she spoke to us a while about life where we are from. The next few houses were people saying they're too busy and then a few we don't believe in that stuff. We got to this abandoned-looking home... We knocked and waited a moment, talking to each other. Suddenly the door opened slowly to a little crack and the man that opened the door exclaimed Oh My ***!! he jumped back as if he was shocked that someone who knocked on the door was there. He peered through the crack in the door again and looked at me, he couldn't see Sister Lawson because she was next to me and the door wasn't opened wide enough. The man had a bald head and curly black hair on the sides of his head. He smelt terrible. We told him that we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and were sharing a message about the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked to him about prophets and basically taught the Restoration to him. He talked so much about the strangest things, like the Germans, Italians, Arabs, and Jews. He said to us that Jesus was a part of the Aryan Race and had blonde hair and blue eyes. And Said that in his world the only flag flying over the white house was the Union Jack, he spoke about Empire and stuff like that. In the middle of the conversation, his neighbor walked up to his own home and as the neighbor did so the man hid further in him home and peeped at his neighbor silently until he went inside. Then the man returned to his stream of words and ideas, In between it all I was trying to teach him the Restoration, in the end, we gave him the pamphlet and he stared at it like a child being given a new toy. He flicked through the pages commenting and admiring the different pictures, calling out what different races the men looked like in the pictures. After Several attempts to have him be quite enough for us to say a prayer, we eventually succeeded. I don't know if I want to go back again, but it was certainly an experience. We had a successful Co-ordination meeting this week and was able to make some decisions, ideas about what we can do.

Wednesday Had a lesson with Graham and Sister Cairns went with us, she was such a good joint teach and we talked to him about Temples and Family history. He wanted at the lesson to be baptized next week, I don't feel too sure about it, though. Sister Lawson had her Physico Appointment afterward, because her foot has been bothering her forever. They gave her a few stretches and stuff to do to help, she needs to come back next week to get checked on again. Our Mission President felt the need to come down and visit us. He took us out to lunch and spoke to us for a bit. He also checked out our flat because we have a few problems with it and the landlord is being very slack with us. President said that Sister Lawson and I will be staying together in Ayr for another transfer, I will try my best to make this transfer better than the last.

Thursday

That morning we watched the Missionary Broadcast, it was so inspiring. I really enjoyed the messages shared to us and the changes to the schedule is very interesting. We have 30mins extra time in the morning and 30 mins extra in the evening, I don't know how our mission is going to do the schedule, but I guess we'll find out this coming week at All Scotland. Guess what the rest of the day installed? you got it GQing!

Friday, Taught a guy named Andrew, who is doing research of his own into the Church. After the lesson with him, he's been texting us Anti-Mormon stuff, telling us that our faith is wrong and he was sent to help us know that. He asks us questions about Joseph Smith and the Bible vs. Book of Mormon and we answer his questions but the way the Anti-Mormon literature presents the information is so miss leading and out of context that none of our answers are good enough for him. We won't let us met up with him in person again and content now to be done with us. I run into this sort of junk for most of my mission. I know when people start reading it if they don't walk up the steps but instead try to skip some most of the time they fall and get confused. There would be so much more baptisms in this stuff wasn't online, yes people have the right to know a different point of view but it's like propaganda and not presented in a clear factual way, information and facts get manipulated by interpretation. None of the things I've learned from the anti-Mormon literature has weakened my faith because I know that the Church is true, from God is the only way be can understand and know these things of the Spirit.

Saturday did the usual and also got to help a member Paint her house. She's a single woman that lives alone. I painted her ceiling and it was pretty relaxing to just focus on one thing.

Sunday, I think it was one of the best Sunday of my mission, the church service was pretty good. During most of it I was texting Andrew a paper that a member gave me of his research to support the argument. But at the same time, I listened to the lessons, the first hour was about home and visiting teaching and the second about Joseph Smith his younger years, and the last was a really good sacrament meeting. After church we went GQing along the beach, it was an unusually sunny day. We spoke to two people for a really long time and it was really nice. Then had the Donaldson's (members in our ward) Brother Donaldson made a curry and they invited a less-active friend of their's to dinner and we had a good time getting to know her and will be visiting her and her family later next week.

Hope Everyone is doing well!

Pictures are of the crazy man's house, and of the river that we GQ along near the college and university

January 23, 2017 Ary, Scotland

Hiya!!

So this week has been quite slow, thankfully the weather hasn't been that bad. Graham finally told his wife about the baptism even though we've been telling him to talk to her about it for weeks! She was not happy that he was getting baptized, she convinced him that he's rushing it and needs to wait a few more weeks/months before he can be baptized. Thankfully he's still able to join the church eventually. We had Sister's Conference this week which was awesome!! I got to see all of the Sisters in the mission for the first time ever, Sister Fisher, Six and Sly my MTC Buddies were there and it was the first time I've seen Sister Sly for months I feel like. The workshops and talks in the Conference were all really beneficial for Sisters and I got to learn some new things that I can apply to my work. We talked about our identity of Royal Daughters of a Heavenly Father, Communication Skills, Healthy Eating, Confidence, Exercise, Get-to-Know-you Games, and Women of the Restoration.  I met some sisters I've never seen before and say hello to sisters I've served around.😃 This week we also taught an investigator named Daniel this week who Sister Lawson and Sister Kim were teaching. He's now also looking into the Catholic Church that he's a baptized member of, 😒because the Sisters were teaching him about God. But he loves what we're teaching him and says it's improving his life since they first started teaching him.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to find anyone new to teach...😿 this week. Sister Kerr, the mother of the less-active family, she went to church!!! YAY!!! She's wonderful, on Saturday we went over just to teach her but instead, she fed us dinner and told us she already arranged for a ride to church. And after church, she asked us what day we're coming over for a meal this next week. Hahaha!! 😆 I love her, hopefully, next week we can see her 18-year-old daughter at church as well. Most of my mission I've hated working with fewer actives, but she's awesome and her family has so much potential. Sunday night Sister Sharky came out with us again and taught Aairon (10-year-old boy) about the Plan of Salvation. It went well, hopefully soon his mum will let him have a date set. 

This week has no other magic in it to mention, I think the real lesson I've learnt this week was inside myself. That we can change who we are isn't set in stone. To believe that you can't change or you refuse to change is to deny the Plan of Salvation. If we couldn't change then the whole reason why we were sent to earth was for naught. I'm trying to ask my Heavenly Father what I must change within myself in order to become who he wants me to be and help in apply the Atonement to make that change happen.

Hope everyone is doing well, I heard in the street that studies show that the third Monday of January is the lowest point of the year for most people. Not sure how true that is... If you're happy or not feeling too bad then you're better off than a lot of people apparently. If you do feel down, know that there is always hope and happiness around the corner.

Sister Miranda Johnson,

Ayr Ward Scotland January 2017

Our lovely missionary sisters joined us for Sunday lunch after church. Sister Lawson & Sister Johnson.