Wow. I have been in the mission for 8 weeks! What? It's crazy and I love it. Our area is still super hard. We are on our bikes ALL day trying to contact people. Not a lot of missionaries have been in our area before, so we're trying to mostly meet members and kind of try to get to know them better. But it's hard because most of them have moved or are inactive and about 90% of the houses we go to no one answers. Even if they're home! It's so annoying. So yeah, the work is really hard and we are having a really hard time finding investigators and people to teach. So sometimes it gets super discouraging especially when its 115 degrees outside!! But i love my bike. We have so much fun riding our bikes everywhere! Also, bikes are very dangerous. My companion literally almost got hit by a car! I seriously thought for sure this car was going to hit her. It was the scariest thing of my life! But it didn't and she's alive still.
Okay also, funny story. We were crossing the street one time and my comp was in front of me and she went up on the curb thing and almost fell because there was this really big bump thing right before it. and I'm laughing because that is so embarrassing because all these cars are here ya know. Okay well I go over it too and completely fall! Guys!!! it was the most embarrassing thing of my life! I don't even know how it happened! Like I did not expect this bump to be this big! But next thing I know I literally screamed like a little girl and I'm tripping over my bike. And my companion just kept biking away! It was a really funny moment. Hahaha I just think about it all the time and laugh. I have the BEST farmers tan in the whole entire world. It's awesome! and an awesome watch tan and shoe tan. I am going to be so dark when I get home!
I am loving my companion. I am so glad she is my trainer! We have so much fun together, I swear we are the exact same person! And everyone thinks we are twins because we are these two white girls with blonde hair and blue eyes. It's awesome.
So last Monday we had three appointments, and we were able to get an member to come with us so we were super stoked about that. WELL, every single one we went to no one answered. No one! Then we went to some other people that could maybe be investigators. Still no one answered. So I was super discouraged because that happens with almost all of our appointments. But whatevs. But then the member we had with us had two referrals that we could maybe stop by. So we went by them both. They are both families and they both invited us to come back! So that was super awesome because we would not have been able to meet them if our appointments fell through. Although later we found out from a member that one of the families is from the FLDS chruch. So awesome! But that's kind of a long story.
So we have been meeting with Reymundo almost every day this week. It's really good that he wants to keep meeting with us. But he has a really big problem with the Book Of Mormon. He LOVES to read the Bible, he's read it his whole life. But he doesn't like the Book Of Mormon because it is too clear from him. I know, right? Like what? He likes to read the Bible because it makes him think and ponder about stuff. So that is a problem that we are really confused about because we don't really know what to do. But we actually shifted our area a little bit so he's not our investigator anymore. Good thing. Maybe the other missionaries will know what to do!
Our area is kind of separated into two areas now. Most of our area is actually in Phoenix. So it's like a 20 minute bike ride from one part to the other. But good thing. WE ARE MOVING THIS WEEK. It will be so nice to actually live in our area instead of 20 minutes out of it! But the bad thing is we lose our car. So then we will have to bike literally everywhere we go. But at least we will be getting lots of exercise!
So yeah, we do use Facebook. Which I'm like, ehh not sure how much I like it. It's really cool, but it just gets some getting used to I guess. We had to go through and delete EVERYTHING that we have ever posted on Facebook. It took so long. It literally took me 3 days! And I was reminded of how weird I used to be back in the day. It was really funny reading all my posts hahah. But yeah anways, a guy from england posted on my fb? what idk. I haven't been on for a couple days! But thats cool! I am in AZ and I can teach a guy in England! Awesome. Another great thing here is that we have Ipads. So it's so nice! we don't have to carry around anything at all! I have all my scriptures english and spanish on it and everything i could possibly need. It's also really cool because we can play videos. So i like the ipad part!
Spanish is coming along alright I think! It's hard because i cannot understand anything at all! I can kind of follow along a little bit with what people are saying, but for the most part no, not really. It's really hard to pay attention too. Like I am really bad at listening i realized. Actually no, I've always known I was bad at listening, but I get so distracted in lessons! Because I have no idea what is going on. So I have to do this face that looks like I'm very interested and I know what is going on. I'm gettin pretty good at it!
Anyways, Even though most of the time It is really hard and sometimes really discouraging, the Lord is blessing us so much! Really. Every single day we see at least one little miracle that has helped us. Maybe even if it's only that we didn't die from heat exhaustion. Hahaha anyways. Love you all!!
Hermana Johnson
Hermana, I want to thank you for this blog post and your mission. It is so inspirational. What I admire most is your drive and unwillingness to give up! Cycling in Arizona is no easy task so keeping a positive attitude can go a long ways. Continue to stay focused on your mission and faith.
ReplyDeleteTyron Tanaka @ Low And Canata