OUR MISSIONARIES: SISTER SARAH JOHNSON - 4/17

Lots of good things happened this week :).

On Monday we got to play Hockey as a zone for the last pday before everyone left for other zones. That was so much fun! Except Elder Rapier hit me in the knee with the puck (from the other side of the room) and then I was pretty much out of the game.... haha Elder Marinos drew an illustration of me, it'll be included later.

Also this week, the tripan split up, and Sis Cheney is now 2nd training non other than Sister Allen, from good ole Mesa, Az! It's been fun having the new sister, especially because she's fantastic and I knew her from home. So she knows all the people involved in the stories I tell from home. Good times :D.

Tuesday we had a lesson with Ezra, where we finally talked about something other than the Plan of Salvation. We talked about the Restoration of the Gospel and what that means... it was a rough lesson only because Ezra is looking more for a logical philosophical kind of view at the Gospel instead of seeking to feel and understand the truth. We have an elder in our district now who had taught Ezra back in Coeur d'Alene, and he gave us a new perspective on the situation, so we're excited to figure out how to help Ezra progress better. The work rolls forward!

On Wednesday we got to eat dinner with the Tunnell family in Potlatch! They were super nice :) and made us really good Greek food. They also had a banjo!!! And they let us pick on it a little bit. Again, I will definitely be learning the banjo when I get home. I think my calling in life is to rock at the banjo. Get ready, world!

Thursday.... Thursday we had a lesson with Jim. But he had a friend over and I'm pretty sure that the friend being over kept Jim from reigning in the comments and the curses like he usually does. Bummer. Also he missed church this week we're pretty sure (weren't in Potlatch for church, but we didn't hear from the members that he came, so we're assuming he didn't :( ) so we'll have to move his baptism back a couple of weeks. Sad. :(

But Friday was fantastic! We had our district meeting, and the new district is cool :). Got a couple of new elders. Also, I played Elder Brunt at air hockey, and after he beat me the first game, I made a bet with him on the second game, that loser had to make cookies for the winner. Elders will do anything for a cookie bribe. And then I promptly destroyed him, he didn't even get one point. So we played a third game, "double or nothing", and I beat him at that too. Ha! It pays off to go to Peter Piper Pizza every week and play air hockey with Dad. Double chocolate chip cookies are coming our way! :D

Later on Friday we had a lesson with Isabeau where she was actually really nice and receptive to us! It made me really happy to see that she's ready to learn again. And we all left the meeting smiling, and there's a lot of hope for the future with her. :). After that we went to the YSA bishopric dinner, where they fed us all prime rib and baked potatos. Man alive, was it good! Haven't had a steak that good in 9 months.... We grabbed a couple of the extras and brought them over to the elders, because they also haven't had a steak that good in quite a while.

Saturday we worked on the horse farm, Orphan Acres, again. But this time we shovelled out stalls. It was fun, except this huge sorority came the same day and it was awkward because they obviously didn't want to talk to us. Thank goodness we had the Pullman sisters to be on our team. Then we at least didn't feel lonely and awkward. Just awkward.

And then on Saturday the Paradise Ridge elders had a baptism too! We got to take Isabeau to it; she likes coming to all the baptisms. It was fun to have her there. Right after the baptism we had Zone Kickoff, which rocked! Sister Mitchell and I gave a fun training on companionship unity, and how to make communication less scary and ideas for building a friendship. And the zone leaders gave an amazing training on how to build zone unity, and we made some fabulous goals! So every week we'll add a goal and build the zone up. This week we're praying every day for the members to have opportunities to be missionaries too :), the week after we'll start doing one act of random service for our companionships every day (but I mean, it's good to start that now too, so we kind of did), then we'll do district service once a week, and then we'll do a zone service project the 4th week. It's cool, I'm excited :). This zone is the best.

Easter was great! Church was great! I really felt it this year. I feel like I've taken Easter for granted my whole life. But watching John recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost, and to sing the Easter songs just did my soul some good. And we were invited to dinner with the Cox family in Quail Run! I ate with them on Christmas..... I've been here forever..... but it was amazing! They're so cute and kind to us, and we got to show them the #PrinceofPeace Easter video from the church. I love that video, everyone go watch it, ok? We also got to go looking for the YSA less active members.... and definitely crashed some Easter parties that way. Awkward. One lady let us into her house so she could package some cheesecake to go for us, which was really sweet of her! But her entire family stopped talking to stare at us in the entry way. Lets just say, the cheesecake was aaaaaalmost not worth the awkward vibes.... haha.

Anyways.... that was pretty much it. I love you all! :)

Sister Johnson

Here's my injury illustration.