Hey! How is everyone doing? Things are ok. Training isn't too bad. Sister Hansen is pretty awesome and we've had a good week together. We've mostly just been putting our area book on our iPads which takes forever. It's really hot and humid here. I feel like I'm always sweaty and sticky it's gross!
Last Pday we played sports at a park and it was pouring rain but it was so fun. We played volleyball and ultimate frisbee. There was a cute little playground at the park too so we got some fun pics on it. After we went to the park we went back to our branch building with all the missionaries played apples to apples. That's such a fun game! Then we had FHE with the branch and we made magnets as a service project for a company called Meals on Wheels and watched Meet the Mormons. I love FHE with the branch. Today for Pday we hiked Mt Nittany again but it was way better this time since everything is so green. We got lost for a little bit though so it took forever but it was fun to be out and active. Tonight for FHE we are going to play board games with everyone which should be way fun. We're trying to get more Chinese investigators so one of our members is going to bring mahjong and inviting a bunch of his friends so that should be fun. I don't think I've ever played legit mahjong before so we'll see how it goes 😁
Tuesday we taught a lesson with a guy named Krishna. He is from India and is studying petroleum engineering so he's pretty smart. He had a lot of good questions about who God is and how you come to know him so we taught him about faith and prayer and scripture study. He said he's too busy right now with school and looking for work so he doesn't have time to meet with us or pursue anything right now. We were sad to hear that but we left him with a Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet
so hopefully he reads from those and has the desire to meet with us again. Also that night we saw fireflies! That's the first time I've ever seen one before. We all thought that they were fake and didn't really exist cause they're not a thing in the west. Haha they were so cool though. A couple of the Elders caught some and put them in a jar
in their apartment for a couple days. They actually stayed alive but after 3 days they decided to let them go.
At institute this Wednesday we studied Moses 5 and about Cain and Abel. We talked about our attitude in offering sacrifices like taking the sacrament. We talked about how it doesn't really matter what we eat or drink when taking the sacrament but that it's more about our inward commitment to change and renew our covenants. It was pretty rebuking but that's what the Atonement is for right haha I'm gonna work hard to be prepared for the sacrament this week 😊
Nothing too special or out of the ordinary happened on Thursday. We did service at St Andrews again for Community Cafe. And then afterwards we went to a members house who works at a grocery store called Wegmans. They had a lot of extra food from the store that was about to expire so they gave a ton of food to all the missionaries in the area. The members in this area are seriously so awesome! Oh wait I
remember something that was out of the ordinary for Thursday. We went tracting for the first time ever haha. We had some extra time and the Elders were bugging us cause we've never been before so they took us to an apartment complex and told us to knock till we talk. So we knocked 3 doors and was able to talk to a girl from China who already has a Christian church she attends here. She wasn't interested in
meeting with us but it wasn't too bad to tract so it was nice to get the first time out of the way. Maybe we'll be better at doing it this summer. We'll see...
Friday we had a dinner appointment with the Gardner family. They are the BEST! We were supposed to have dinner with them on Thursday but then Sister Gardner realized she had a meeting that night so she rescheduled it to Friday but the Elders already had an appointment Friday night so the Sisters all went on Friday and then they're going
to have us over again this Tuesday so we can all be there. They take such good care of us. We love them so much!
This weekend was stake conference so Saturday evening we went to the adult session which is always really good. It was in Altoona which is about an hour away from us. That's so weird to me to have to travel that far for stake conference! It's pretty normal though. Some people even had to travel 2 hours away. Crazy!!! 😯 It was all about how the Ward councils help the work progress. Elder Steven Snow from the
quorum of the 70 came for our stake conference. He's really cool! He works as the churches historian so he talked to us a lot about what he and the church has been working on within that last little while. They're working to digitize all the journals, newspapers, pictures and stuff of the prophets of the church. He also told us that they're working on a church history site in Harmony, PA where the priesthood
was restored to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. I wish I could see that! I also learned that they dedicated the Payson, UT temple this week. It's SO pretty! And the new Provo temple is going to be open in January. I'm sad I'm missing that.
Sunday for stake conference they talked a lot about families and that we need to strengthen our family relationships. They said that we can do this by centering our homes on the gospel. There were some good tips for raising a good family that'll be useful for the future 😊
This week we have zone conference where we'll talk more about getting Facebook and FaceTime and Skype and all the rules and guidelines for that so we'll be getting all that stuff within the next couple weeks. We'll see how that goes. This Saturday will be Sister Hansen's first click day so that'll be exciting and then next week will be my fourth.
Man that's crazy! I hope everyone's week has been good!
Love you all,
Sister Kayla Johnson
Last Pday we played sports at a park and it was pouring rain but it was so fun. We played volleyball and ultimate frisbee. There was a cute little playground at the park too so we got some fun pics on it. After we went to the park we went back to our branch building with all the missionaries played apples to apples. That's such a fun game! Then we had FHE with the branch and we made magnets as a service project for a company called Meals on Wheels and watched Meet the Mormons. I love FHE with the branch. Today for Pday we hiked Mt Nittany again but it was way better this time since everything is so green. We got lost for a little bit though so it took forever but it was fun to be out and active. Tonight for FHE we are going to play board games with everyone which should be way fun. We're trying to get more Chinese investigators so one of our members is going to bring mahjong and inviting a bunch of his friends so that should be fun. I don't think I've ever played legit mahjong before so we'll see how it goes 😁
Tuesday we taught a lesson with a guy named Krishna. He is from India and is studying petroleum engineering so he's pretty smart. He had a lot of good questions about who God is and how you come to know him so we taught him about faith and prayer and scripture study. He said he's too busy right now with school and looking for work so he doesn't have time to meet with us or pursue anything right now. We were sad to hear that but we left him with a Book of Mormon and a restoration pamphlet
so hopefully he reads from those and has the desire to meet with us again. Also that night we saw fireflies! That's the first time I've ever seen one before. We all thought that they were fake and didn't really exist cause they're not a thing in the west. Haha they were so cool though. A couple of the Elders caught some and put them in a jar
in their apartment for a couple days. They actually stayed alive but after 3 days they decided to let them go.
At institute this Wednesday we studied Moses 5 and about Cain and Abel. We talked about our attitude in offering sacrifices like taking the sacrament. We talked about how it doesn't really matter what we eat or drink when taking the sacrament but that it's more about our inward commitment to change and renew our covenants. It was pretty rebuking but that's what the Atonement is for right haha I'm gonna work hard to be prepared for the sacrament this week 😊
Nothing too special or out of the ordinary happened on Thursday. We did service at St Andrews again for Community Cafe. And then afterwards we went to a members house who works at a grocery store called Wegmans. They had a lot of extra food from the store that was about to expire so they gave a ton of food to all the missionaries in the area. The members in this area are seriously so awesome! Oh wait I
remember something that was out of the ordinary for Thursday. We went tracting for the first time ever haha. We had some extra time and the Elders were bugging us cause we've never been before so they took us to an apartment complex and told us to knock till we talk. So we knocked 3 doors and was able to talk to a girl from China who already has a Christian church she attends here. She wasn't interested in
meeting with us but it wasn't too bad to tract so it was nice to get the first time out of the way. Maybe we'll be better at doing it this summer. We'll see...
Friday we had a dinner appointment with the Gardner family. They are the BEST! We were supposed to have dinner with them on Thursday but then Sister Gardner realized she had a meeting that night so she rescheduled it to Friday but the Elders already had an appointment Friday night so the Sisters all went on Friday and then they're going
to have us over again this Tuesday so we can all be there. They take such good care of us. We love them so much!
This weekend was stake conference so Saturday evening we went to the adult session which is always really good. It was in Altoona which is about an hour away from us. That's so weird to me to have to travel that far for stake conference! It's pretty normal though. Some people even had to travel 2 hours away. Crazy!!! 😯 It was all about how the Ward councils help the work progress. Elder Steven Snow from the
quorum of the 70 came for our stake conference. He's really cool! He works as the churches historian so he talked to us a lot about what he and the church has been working on within that last little while. They're working to digitize all the journals, newspapers, pictures and stuff of the prophets of the church. He also told us that they're working on a church history site in Harmony, PA where the priesthood
was restored to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery. I wish I could see that! I also learned that they dedicated the Payson, UT temple this week. It's SO pretty! And the new Provo temple is going to be open in January. I'm sad I'm missing that.
Sunday for stake conference they talked a lot about families and that we need to strengthen our family relationships. They said that we can do this by centering our homes on the gospel. There were some good tips for raising a good family that'll be useful for the future 😊
This week we have zone conference where we'll talk more about getting Facebook and FaceTime and Skype and all the rules and guidelines for that so we'll be getting all that stuff within the next couple weeks. We'll see how that goes. This Saturday will be Sister Hansen's first click day so that'll be exciting and then next week will be my fourth.
Man that's crazy! I hope everyone's week has been good!
Love you all,
Sister Kayla Johnson