Well I survived my first transfer here in Pennsylvania! Man that's so crazy! It's been really great and I've learned a lot. Transfers are tomorrow and there are a lot of changes that are being made. Just within our zone the changes are crazy. One missionary from every companionship within our zone (except for Sister Jones and I because I am still training) is being transferred. That's a huge change! So we're excited to see all the new people and see what's in store for our zone. We're sad to see some go but we know it's for the best.
This week has been a good one. It went by so much faster than last week. I'm not really sure why but ya it just flew by. Monday we emailed and then afterwards we went to lunch at Chickfila and then shopping at Ulta and Plato's Closet. We went back to the apartment for a bit and then decided it would be fun to go to Target too so we got the bus all figured out and then walked out and forgot if we had to take the VN or the NV. So we asked one of the bus drivers that stopped at our stop and he said to stay on that side of the road and take the VN. So we did and it came and then ended up going in the opposite direction but we thought it went in a loop and that we'd eventually get there so we waited. It ended up taking us like 30 mins and we got to downtown and still wasn't even close to Target and we had a lesson within an hour so Sister Jones and I got off the bus and the other Sisters that we were with didn't have anything so they stayed on. The funny thing is, is that the bus didn't even end up going to Target so the other Sisters just ended up right back at our apartment after an hour long bus ride. Oh well haha we might try it again today but get the right bus this time haha. When Sister Jones and I got off the bus we decided to go look at Penn State stuff since we had time before our lesson. We got some postcards but decided to keep looking around for shirts to see what the best deal was. Then we walked to our branch building for our lesson. It was with our investigator named Raisa who we haven't seen for almost a month cause she's been out of town and sick. So since it had been so long we just decided to review the Restoration with her. It was a good review and she liked it. She came to FHE with us afterwards where we went geocaching at a local park. It was supposed to be a 6 step geocache but we never found the second step so we just ended up playing Frisbee and hanging out instead.
Tuesday we did Forums at the library on campus. Forums are our only opportunity we have to proselyte on campus so that and Friday are our biggest times where we can find people to teach. We found us some good potentials. Afterwards we went to the church house to call potential investigators from previous forums but didn't have any success there. Then we had dinner. There is a senior couple who makes food for the branch on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it's always so good so we do dinner there! On Tuesdays after dinner we go to institute. We learned about symbolism in the scriptures and how we can use our resources to figure out what they mean. We have an awesome institute teacher. He's been teaching for a very long time so he really knows his stuff about the gospel.
Wednesday we had zone training in the morning. We focused on the power of the Holy Ghost in conversion. It was cool to learn more about that and how we need the Holy Ghost in order to teach and learn or else we might as well not teach because it is only by the power of the Holy Ghost that we can gain a testimony of these things. We also had a lesson with Loveday that day. We taught her more about the Priesthood and the two different offices and their roles within the church. She is now working on getting a temple recommend to be able to go and do baptisms for the dead so we are really excited for her and are helping her with that. She also just got a calling as the Chinese Gospel Principles teacher so we'll be helping her prep lessons each week. She is the best! That night we had dinner at the Gardener's house. She is the best cook. She loves trying new recipes so she knows what's good and what's not cause she's always trying new things. We always look forward to dinner at their house.
Thursday we did service at the Community Cafe. We love going there and helping them prep meals for the community. It's a fun way to get involved with others. We meet lots of cool people through this. We also had a lesson with Yuchen that night. It was his last lesson before baptism so we just went over how he's feeling about it and how that was all going to work out. We also talked to him about the 10 commandments. He's such a cool guy. We have only been teaching him for about 6 weeks. His progress he's made has been a lot and it has been fast. We were nervous about it and weren't quite sure if he was ready but after hearing his testimony we felt he was ready.
Friday we did service for one of the members of the Bellfonte ward (that's just one of the family wards within the area). The dad of the family found out that he had cancer back in December. He ended up going to the Huntsman Cancer Center in Utah and his family came with. Their house here in PA has been empty since and they decided that they should just make the move permanent to UT while he was still going through treatments and because their family lives there so he flew to PA for the weekend and packed up the whole entire house in one day and cleaned and moved out the next day. It was a huge move so all the missionaries in the area helped out and a lot of the ward members came too. It was a huge thing to pull off in a day but we did it. I think it's so cool that the church teaches to serve. We couldn't have done it without the help and support of the members and I know the family felt truly blessed with all the help that came. We also did Forums that afternoon and then went to the Hawkin's house for dinner. They are a cute newlywed couple. Well idk how newlywed, but she is pregnant with their first child. It was fun to be there with them. That night we played the movie Meet the Mormons at our branch building. A lot of the branch members came and brought nonmember friends too. It was so cool to watch it with everyone. For those of you who haven't seen it or don't know what it is, it's a documentary about Mormons and how we live our everyday lives with the extra strength of the Lord and His gospel. It has such a great Spirit and everyone loved it. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. I know it's in store at Walmart and it's on demand and I think the church is trying to make it available on Netflix. If you have seen it, share it with those who haven't.
Saturday was a big day for us. We sat down in the morning to weekly plan and got 20 minutes into it and got a call from President Johnson. He asked to speak with me and told me that he had to give me some bad news that my Grandma Johnson had passed away. It was really sad to hear but I knew it was coming soon. I got to call my dad and talk with him about it for a little bit which was nice. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of the Plan of Salvation and to know that she is in a better place now and that I will be able to see her again someday. I am happy for her to be reunited with her husband once again. The Johnson family are in my prayers and I hope all of you are doing ok. After I talked to my family for a bit, we had to go do correlation with our branch mission leader. So that's when we coordinate our efforts with the branch to let them know who we're teaching, what we're teaching, how things are going for us as missionaries, and how they can help us out in our efforts. It's so nice to be able to do that and be on the same page with the branch as we are all working together to bring souls unto Christ. We went to dinner at the Green's house that evening. They have a cute family. We love going to family's houses for dinner since we don't get to see very many kids or families on a daily basis since we mostly work with the college students.
That night we had Yuchen's baptism and it was amazing! It started off so crazy and chaotic though! So the baptism was at 7pm. We got a text from Yuchen at 5:30 saying he was out biking with one of the members of the branch (Jamie) and that they were just going to bike there so he didn't need a ride anymore. We had told them originally to be there around 6pm to make sure everything was ready and so we could find baptism clothes for them that fit and everything. Jamie (the guy he was biking with) is notorious for being late so we were a little worried but we had faith that things would work out. We got to the church around 6 after our dinner with the Greens and Yuchen and Jamie showed up a couple minutes later. Yuchen had thought that they were going back to his dorm before the baptism though so he showed up in his biking clothes and cleats and didn't have a change of clothes or a towel or anything. So we had to scramble to get him church clothes and shoes and everything. At the same time this is all happening we found out the the person who was baptizing Yuchen (Li) was nowhere to be found. Li was supposed to be at the branch building at 6 so that someone could pick him up and give him a ride to the chapel where we were doing the baptism but he wasn't there. Apparently there was a miscommunication and Li thought that he was getting picked up at his apartment instead. So the member rushed over to get him but there was a lot of traffic because there was a PSU football game that night so there was lots of traffic with that. So we had no idea how long that would take. So ya were trying to figure this all out and set up for the baptism and everything. Things finally came together though. Li showed up around 6:50 and we got Yuchen some clothes around that time to. So they hurried and changed and all was well after that. The baptism started about 15mins late but it was so great. We had Loveday give one of the talks who just got baptized last week. It made me cry cause it was so good. It is so cool to see her progress and how much she has grown. Man it was good.
Sunday we had Yuchen's confirmation. It was a cool day. We were able to see a lot of progress from the first sunday that we were there. Two of our most recent converts were there and two of our less actives were there, one of which even blessed the sacrament so that was cool. It is cool to see the change the gospel makes in people's lives and how happier they are because of it. I am so blessed to be apart of this work and I can't wait to see what's in store for me for the next 12 transfers.
I hope all of you are doing well!
Love, Sister Kayla Johnson
This week has been a good one. It went by so much faster than last week. I'm not really sure why but ya it just flew by. Monday we emailed and then afterwards we went to lunch at Chickfila and then shopping at Ulta and Plato's Closet. We went back to the apartment for a bit and then decided it would be fun to go to Target too so we got the bus all figured out and then walked out and forgot if we had to take the VN or the NV. So we asked one of the bus drivers that stopped at our stop and he said to stay on that side of the road and take the VN. So we did and it came and then ended up going in the opposite direction but we thought it went in a loop and that we'd eventually get there so we waited. It ended up taking us like 30 mins and we got to downtown and still wasn't even close to Target and we had a lesson within an hour so Sister Jones and I got off the bus and the other Sisters that we were with didn't have anything so they stayed on. The funny thing is, is that the bus didn't even end up going to Target so the other Sisters just ended up right back at our apartment after an hour long bus ride. Oh well haha we might try it again today but get the right bus this time haha. When Sister Jones and I got off the bus we decided to go look at Penn State stuff since we had time before our lesson. We got some postcards but decided to keep looking around for shirts to see what the best deal was. Then we walked to our branch building for our lesson. It was with our investigator named Raisa who we haven't seen for almost a month cause she's been out of town and sick. So since it had been so long we just decided to review the Restoration with her. It was a good review and she liked it. She came to FHE with us afterwards where we went geocaching at a local park. It was supposed to be a 6 step geocache but we never found the second step so we just ended up playing Frisbee and hanging out instead.
Tuesday we did Forums at the library on campus. Forums are our only opportunity we have to proselyte on campus so that and Friday are our biggest times where we can find people to teach. We found us some good potentials. Afterwards we went to the church house to call potential investigators from previous forums but didn't have any success there. Then we had dinner. There is a senior couple who makes food for the branch on Tuesdays and Thursdays and it's always so good so we do dinner there! On Tuesdays after dinner we go to institute. We learned about symbolism in the scriptures and how we can use our resources to figure out what they mean. We have an awesome institute teacher. He's been teaching for a very long time so he really knows his stuff about the gospel.
Wednesday we had zone training in the morning. We focused on the power of the Holy Ghost in conversion. It was cool to learn more about that and how we need the Holy Ghost in order to teach and learn or else we might as well not teach because it is only by the power of the Holy Ghost that we can gain a testimony of these things. We also had a lesson with Loveday that day. We taught her more about the Priesthood and the two different offices and their roles within the church. She is now working on getting a temple recommend to be able to go and do baptisms for the dead so we are really excited for her and are helping her with that. She also just got a calling as the Chinese Gospel Principles teacher so we'll be helping her prep lessons each week. She is the best! That night we had dinner at the Gardener's house. She is the best cook. She loves trying new recipes so she knows what's good and what's not cause she's always trying new things. We always look forward to dinner at their house.
Thursday we did service at the Community Cafe. We love going there and helping them prep meals for the community. It's a fun way to get involved with others. We meet lots of cool people through this. We also had a lesson with Yuchen that night. It was his last lesson before baptism so we just went over how he's feeling about it and how that was all going to work out. We also talked to him about the 10 commandments. He's such a cool guy. We have only been teaching him for about 6 weeks. His progress he's made has been a lot and it has been fast. We were nervous about it and weren't quite sure if he was ready but after hearing his testimony we felt he was ready.
Friday we did service for one of the members of the Bellfonte ward (that's just one of the family wards within the area). The dad of the family found out that he had cancer back in December. He ended up going to the Huntsman Cancer Center in Utah and his family came with. Their house here in PA has been empty since and they decided that they should just make the move permanent to UT while he was still going through treatments and because their family lives there so he flew to PA for the weekend and packed up the whole entire house in one day and cleaned and moved out the next day. It was a huge move so all the missionaries in the area helped out and a lot of the ward members came too. It was a huge thing to pull off in a day but we did it. I think it's so cool that the church teaches to serve. We couldn't have done it without the help and support of the members and I know the family felt truly blessed with all the help that came. We also did Forums that afternoon and then went to the Hawkin's house for dinner. They are a cute newlywed couple. Well idk how newlywed, but she is pregnant with their first child. It was fun to be there with them. That night we played the movie Meet the Mormons at our branch building. A lot of the branch members came and brought nonmember friends too. It was so cool to watch it with everyone. For those of you who haven't seen it or don't know what it is, it's a documentary about Mormons and how we live our everyday lives with the extra strength of the Lord and His gospel. It has such a great Spirit and everyone loved it. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. I know it's in store at Walmart and it's on demand and I think the church is trying to make it available on Netflix. If you have seen it, share it with those who haven't.
Saturday was a big day for us. We sat down in the morning to weekly plan and got 20 minutes into it and got a call from President Johnson. He asked to speak with me and told me that he had to give me some bad news that my Grandma Johnson had passed away. It was really sad to hear but I knew it was coming soon. I got to call my dad and talk with him about it for a little bit which was nice. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have of the Plan of Salvation and to know that she is in a better place now and that I will be able to see her again someday. I am happy for her to be reunited with her husband once again. The Johnson family are in my prayers and I hope all of you are doing ok. After I talked to my family for a bit, we had to go do correlation with our branch mission leader. So that's when we coordinate our efforts with the branch to let them know who we're teaching, what we're teaching, how things are going for us as missionaries, and how they can help us out in our efforts. It's so nice to be able to do that and be on the same page with the branch as we are all working together to bring souls unto Christ. We went to dinner at the Green's house that evening. They have a cute family. We love going to family's houses for dinner since we don't get to see very many kids or families on a daily basis since we mostly work with the college students.
That night we had Yuchen's baptism and it was amazing! It started off so crazy and chaotic though! So the baptism was at 7pm. We got a text from Yuchen at 5:30 saying he was out biking with one of the members of the branch (Jamie) and that they were just going to bike there so he didn't need a ride anymore. We had told them originally to be there around 6pm to make sure everything was ready and so we could find baptism clothes for them that fit and everything. Jamie (the guy he was biking with) is notorious for being late so we were a little worried but we had faith that things would work out. We got to the church around 6 after our dinner with the Greens and Yuchen and Jamie showed up a couple minutes later. Yuchen had thought that they were going back to his dorm before the baptism though so he showed up in his biking clothes and cleats and didn't have a change of clothes or a towel or anything. So we had to scramble to get him church clothes and shoes and everything. At the same time this is all happening we found out the the person who was baptizing Yuchen (Li) was nowhere to be found. Li was supposed to be at the branch building at 6 so that someone could pick him up and give him a ride to the chapel where we were doing the baptism but he wasn't there. Apparently there was a miscommunication and Li thought that he was getting picked up at his apartment instead. So the member rushed over to get him but there was a lot of traffic because there was a PSU football game that night so there was lots of traffic with that. So we had no idea how long that would take. So ya were trying to figure this all out and set up for the baptism and everything. Things finally came together though. Li showed up around 6:50 and we got Yuchen some clothes around that time to. So they hurried and changed and all was well after that. The baptism started about 15mins late but it was so great. We had Loveday give one of the talks who just got baptized last week. It made me cry cause it was so good. It is so cool to see her progress and how much she has grown. Man it was good.
Sunday we had Yuchen's confirmation. It was a cool day. We were able to see a lot of progress from the first sunday that we were there. Two of our most recent converts were there and two of our less actives were there, one of which even blessed the sacrament so that was cool. It is cool to see the change the gospel makes in people's lives and how happier they are because of it. I am so blessed to be apart of this work and I can't wait to see what's in store for me for the next 12 transfers.
I hope all of you are doing well!
Love, Sister Kayla Johnson