SISTER SARAH JOHNSON...A Tough Week...

Hello everybody! :)

So this week... was in all honesty kind of tough. And I think it was a combination of not getting to study enough, and all of our plans going wonky at the same time. Haha but at least we survived it and we're anxious for the next week!

One of the weird things that happened was that our Iraqi family was supposed to leave for Iraq on Wednesday so they could see their families for a few months and renew their Iraqi passports. They've been here for 3 years and can apply for citizenship next year, but their passports have to be current for that to happen. Unfortunately, their airplane tickets had the English translated name spellings on them (matching their refugee documents), and the airport threw a fit when it didn't match their Iraqi passports (because it's the Arabic spelling), and suddenly they were calling us in a panic from their home because they missed their flight. We helped them cancel their flights, and it was a really sad morning for all of us.

Oh and one of the scary/funny moments from last week! So we had our back door open while we did nightly planning (so air could come in- we have no AC) and I heard one footstep crunch on the rocks outside our door (but couldn't see anything because it was so dark and our screen and blinds hide everything) and I literally leaped across the room, slammed and locked the sliding door, and fell halfway down before I saw this tall man in a white shirt come to the door. My companion was on the phone with President, and yelled "PRESIDENT THERE"S A MAN AT OUR DOOR" and we were both in full fledged fight-or-flight mode before I could yell "WAIT WAIT, IT"S JUST ELDER MONSON!" Turns out it was just the zone leaders bringing us some handouts to pass out on Sunday, but man alive were we terrified. Haha I was almost crying trying to talk to them after that. I told them to come to the front door next time, and Sister Barnes and I had a good laugh about it the rest of the night. Good times.

Rick last week was having some anxiety about being baptized, and it worried us. He was having a hard time committing to tithing, which is understandable. He knows it's from God, and he knows God takes care of people, but it's a scary leap of faith to suddenly lose 10% of your income. We taught him about fasting, and we all decided to fast the next day so that Rick would feel good about tithing and be able to go forward with faith. And the next day he felt so much better! He passed his baptismal interview :) so now we're on the home stretch for his baptism this Saturday! The Lord provides, and fasting works!

I'm so grateful to be here in Spokane. The longer I'm here, the more I know that I was sent to the right place. My brother Matt said in his email, "I'm starting to realize that weird things just happen to you as a missionary, I'm not sure if it's because you are out on the streets more, you interact with a lot of different people, or maybe people in California are just crazy," and that's exactly how it feels sometimes. Haha sometimes it's all you can do to just brush off people's meanness and move forward with faith. But I know that it's the Lord's work and he's protecting us :). I love the Gospel, and I love all of you!

Love,

Sister Johnson