SISTER SARAH JOHNSON...Time For a New Companion...

Well, my companion left yesterday, and it made me very sad. But I'm so excited for her to go see her family and all. Sister Barnes was just the best, and I'm so grateful that I got to be her only trainee, because now she's gonna send me stuff. :) Yay! Haha

Something funny I realized this week is that I'm pretty sure Spokane has more squirrels than birds. Every morning I wake up to squirrels chirping? screaming? growling? Idk squirrels do something and they're pretty vocal about it. So fun fact for you guys! 

We also got chewed out by an old air force veteran the other day. He started yelling at us about how he's a warrior for Christ and how other Christians call us "Morons". Ha ha, like I haven't heard that one before :P. It was kind of weird, since he approached us and then tried to talk regular conversation with us and tell us how we need to be careful out there. I meet so many interesting people being a missionary, it's pretty adventurous. 

Oh! We finished the Book of Mormon the other day! And guess what?? We got our 40 baptism goal!! Miracles do happen! :D The mission is pretty excited today, since the news finally broke out. We got 40 baptisms exactly. So crazy, right? I love that I've already read the book all the way through on my mission, because this time there were lots of new things I learned and noticed. Like when Ammon, after his mission, gets so excited to see his brothers that he passes out. Look it up - Alma 27:17. Hopefully i'm not quite that happy when I get home, that would be embarrassing... Or  when Giddianhi, the Gadianton robber leader writes this super long, super bold letter to Lachoneus, the Nephite leader, and says something like "Yo, we're going to take away all your freedom because we're gangster. So you should just give up now." and Lachoneus is "exceedingly astonished, because of the boldness of Giddianhi demanding the possession of the land". Can you imagine Lachoneus just being like, "Wait, what?" (3 Nephi 3:1-11) See? the scriptures can be funny, haha. 

Church yesterday included a missionary presentation for the entire ward, featuring me and sister Barnes. It went super well, and the Bishop backed us up. He said something like "As bishop, I hold the keys to missionary work, and we're going to get this engine started", and the ward was really receptive. It's going to be really amazing to see how the Lord gets his work going here, and I'm excited to be a missionary in this area. The ward is so supportive and kind. I'm only a little nervous about taking over the area for the next little bit. I know Heavenly Father will support us though, and everything will work out. As Sister Barnes used to say, "You can't mess up the Lord's work, as long as you're working". :)

Speaking of Sister Barnes, my new trainer is Sister Whitehead! I'll meet her tomorrow morning :). She's only been out maybe one transfer more than I have, so we'll both be learning :). I'm excited to meet her, I hear she's really nice.

I love all of you! :) Until next week,

Sister Johnson

SISTER SARAH JOHNSON...One month down!

Hello again! :)

I survived my first whole month on my mission! We celebrated on Saturday with pizza with some of the other sisters in our zone. I'm grateful to be here! Sometimes it feels like just yesterday I was entering the MTC, and sometimes it feels like that was 27 years ago. But we've been busy finding people and teaching, which makes the days move by quickly :).

So funniest quote of the week goes to the guy with the family taking a walk who was raised Jehovah's Witness. He said his mom thought that "Dinosaurs were put here on Earth by demons to confuse us". Haha, we have definitely had a good laugh about that since then.

We've done a lot of "inspired tracting" this week, where we pray about certain sections in our area, and pick a quadrant based on both of our impressions. It's been amazing! Almost every time, Sis. Barnes and I get the same thought or quadrant. We found one potential investigator, Tim, who already has a Book of Mormon and is trying to quit alcohol. And we found a less active member, Lorie, who just moved to Spokane and has wanted to go to church, but is too shy to go without knowing anyone. She said she's been wanting the missionaries to stop by, but she was too shy to call them or talk to them first on the street. We're going to see her later today, and we're excited to get to know her and help her to meet some of the other members :). It's amazing how Heavenly Father directs us to those who are looking for something more! That's probably the biggest thing I've learned this week, is that He really does all the convincing and the preparing of these good people, and our job is simply to be guides so they know where to find more truth in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I realized that it's not my job to argue with anyone or prove how the gospel is true, because Heavenly Father is preparing people who are ready to learn and accept the gospel on their own, who aren't out to just argue or tear the missionaries down. I'm just here to help people find where they want to go for themselves, and it's awesome! :)

Oh! We got to go to the temple on Friday! It was so beautiful and peaceful, and I'm glad we got to go :). The Spokane temple is so tiny though! The church building next to it is probably bigger than the temple is (though I think Angel Moroni stands just a little taller than the steeple). I think it's cute :).

This week I was also made the "designated driver" in my companionship, so I get to drive us around on Sunday-Wednesday (until the other sisters take our car). It's really fun to be driving again. Except the mission cars have a little box on the window, it's like a prison bracelet. It basically yells at you whenever you go too fast, or accelerate too fast, or do anything too fast. And if you get yelled at too many times, you get "black dotted" and you don't get to drive the rest of your mission. SO! I'm definitely trying to stay within the rules of car usage here, haha. It's an adventure.

Anyways! I love you all! :)

Love,

Sister Johnson

SISTER JOHNSON - Arrived in Spokane on Monday 8/1...

Made it to the mission area, yay! President and Sister Dymock are super nice, and I'm excited to get to know them. Also all the people who got here with us are great! And I'm excited to meet my still anonymous trainer tomorrow.

The trek to the train station was rough, since I didn't intend to take a train, the trax, and a walk with 3 suitcases to get to the plane. But it was exciting anyways!

First thing we did when we got to Spokane was to go "fear-busting", where experienced missionaries take out the newbies for an hour to talk to people. I can't remember my nice sister's name, but we placed a Book of Mormon and some pamphlets and it was really fun actually. :)

Anyways, we're staying at some members' homes tonight, but they're still anonymous too. I'm anxious to get started, and I'm hopeful everything will be awesome!

Love you! :)

Sister Johnson

Mailing Address:

Sister Sarah Johnson

820 S. Pine Rd. Ste 101

Spokane Valley, WA 99206-5595

SISTER JOHNSON - Her Last P-Day in the MTC...

Wow! So this week was super weird! 

Friday was good except apparently our Elders pretended to snort Tide laundry detergent the night before, and our Branch President chastised them because another district told him they were really snorting it. Haha they're always into something, it's a wonder they've all made it this far sometimes. 

Pioneer day was really awesome! We had a concert devotional with the Nashville Tribute Band, and it was wonderful to actually hear loud, peppy music for a change. The MTC doesn't technically allow music besides opening and closing hymns, but here was this crazy night to make us all feel better. They sang really awesome songs, and I cried during "Hardest Thing I Ever Loved to Do", "American Dream" and "Candles". If you need some inspiration, those are good ones! After the devotional, there are all these movies you can go watch, like the Restoration or talks or whatever. We decided to watch Legacy because it was Pioneer Day, and Sis. Young had never seen it. It almost felt like being home watching movies on Sunday night, except 100 Elders laughed or cheered every time ANY flirting happened in the movie, haha.

Most of the week was kind of weird though, because one of our Elders has been seriously talking about going home all week, and it was really worrying us. He finally left on Tuesday, and we were very sad to see him go. That's our 2nd Elder from our district who's gone home. Wednesday was better though, because we all got back to work and weren't so focused on making him feel as comfortable as possible. We have been able to move forward and study harder knowing that this is important work and we need to put our whole hearts into it. 

Like I touched on last week, I've been trying super hard to learn how to love people even when I don't know them very well. It's been a struggle to feel pressure to help people, but to also not have time to really know their story so I can assess how to help. But during Tuesday Night's devotional, I had this impression that it doesn't matter what people's pasts are, because I'll never be able to understand all the varied and complicated stories people have. Instead, this work is about people's futures, and the hope that Christ can give each of them as they learn to apply it to their own pasts. It helped me to relax about sharing something so personal with people I don't even know, because I know Heavenly Father knows them, and if they're ready to change then the Spirit will help them understand. Still learning how to apply that impression to my teaching, it's a slow learning process. But I'm pumped to try! 

I also love one of our teachers, Sis. Mitchell. She's so good at helping us see where we can improve, but without treating us like highschool kids or like we're stupid. I want to be like her when I grow up, haha. She talked to us about how we can ask faith building questions instead of just yes or no, or one answer questions. It's challenging, but I've also seen really amazing results when I actually listen to people's answers and figure out how to build off of those with more thought provoking questions. 

Anyways! All is well here, we're excited to get out of the MTC and get out in our areas. We have to be ready to go by 3:30am on Monday, and then we'll all trek down to the airport where we'll fly to Spokane at like 8. There are 21 missionaries flying with us! 6 sisters and 15 Elders I believe. I've met some of them, and we're hoping we get to sit kind of near each other on the plane. We'll probably all sleep though, let's be honest. At least the mission president will let us stay at the mission home that night, so we can look presentable when we meet our trainers on Tuesday! Haha

I love you all! Thank you for all the prayers and the thoughts! :)

Love,

Sister Johnson

ELDER MATTHEW LEBARON...Clouds, Ashes and Korean Food...

This week I saw clouds for the first time, after being in the field
for about a month, it was pretty cool, and the shade was nice. I'm not
exactly sure if they were clouds, or if it was just the crazy amounts
of smoke that has been coming from foothills that are north of my
area. The next day, when me and my companion came outside, our bikes
were covered in ash. I've never seen ash fall from the sky like it has
the last couple of days. Also, getting ash in your eyes is horrible,
it happened several times throughout the day as we rode our bikes down
the street.

I don't know who told me that the weather was going to be cool and
nice all year, because it has been hotter than Satans butt crack out
here. When we were riding our bikes by the bank 2 days ago, the
thermometer said it was 108 degrees, now that's messed up. I know what
you're thinking especially if anyone in Arizona is reading this, 108
really isn't that bad, but if you have to ride your bike around all
day, ooohhhh how the game changes, I remember when I used to think 120
was bad, as I sat in my house turning up the AC. My companion keeps
telling me that it's fine, and that we're fine, but this is the
opposite of fine my friend, but I would actually take the heat over my
bike breaking into a million pieces on the daily. It's actually been
kind of cool, knowing that yes, the heat is horrible, but I'm going to
be enjoying this weather soon enough, and all of you can take pictures
of your snow while I cruse around town riding on nothing but sunshine,
looking at the Pom trees and soaking in those Cali vibes. Apparently
it doesn't start cooling down here until November, the hottest month
is in September ? What how, I don't believe it, but i have a horrible
feeling that it's true.

The ward that I am currently in is a pretty good sized ward. It
reminds me of my ward in Utah, but sometimes I think that we are some
branch in Africa because of how much they rely on the missionaries.
Last week me and my companion taught gospel principals, elders quorum,
and my companion also spoke in sacrament meeting. Welcome to the Elder
Low and LeBaron show. Elder low kept complaining that he had to talk
and I didn't what a chump I thought, but surely as it always does, the
tables turned, and this week I was assigned to speak in church. I
pretty much forgot about my talk until the night before Sunday,
luckily I was able to revive one of my old talks that I left in my
scripture bag. When we arrived at church there was only one other
person assigned to talk, it was this old man that I have never seen
before, He had to have been at least 80 years old, at that moment, I
knew that I was going to be speaking for more than 15 minutes. I held
my breathe as the old man talked for 5 minutes and ended his talk...
"You got to be joking me right know" I thought, so I stood and looked
at the clock, the odds were not in my favor, I remembered elder low
complaining about 15 minutes. Some how, I don't know how, but I spoke
for 40 minutes ending perfectly on time for sacrament meeting to end.
I have been given a gift, to be able to talk for long amounts of time
without interruption, I sat and pondered the use of this gift, and yet
I could not find a good use for this outside of church talks. The
bishop stood and enthusiastically shook my hand. " you did it Elder
LeBaron, I'm not sure how but you did." What can I say I guess I'm
just a miracle worker, also I hope I don't have to talk again for this
transfer.

On Pioneer Day me and elder low had the opportunity to come and attend
a stake picnic and talk to some of investigators, it was kinda cool
seeing all the kids having fun, and all of the families that attended.
It reminded me of when I lived in Utah, and all of the crazy
celebrations that happen. We had to catch the bus, because it was so
far out of our area. We locked up our bikes and off we went. The
picnic was great, and everyone had fun. We had a member take us home
and off we went to our next appointment. After our appointment, I
realized that we had left our bikes on the other side of town. I don't
know how familiar you are with Southern California, but things tend to
go missing pretty quickly around here if you're not careful. There
wasn't anyway that we could get our bikes in time before curfew. At
our last lesson we ended up having to run home, I don't know how long
that run was, but all I know is that it was a little foggy. I don't
know if you know this, but I hate running... I hate it. Also, running
in proselyting clothes is not a good time. We ended up being late but
I know that God knows that we tired our best as I cried  my way home.
I'm not sure if it was sweat or tears running down my face, but all I
do know is that i wanted to die, I have not ran that far in a long
time. When we got home I kept praying that our bikes wouldn't get
stolen, we called a member and he checked on them for us. He Called
back and said that he could pick us up so that we could get them, he
didn't think that they would last through the night. We got permission
from our zone leaders and they allowed to go out after curfew and pick
them up, we were able to get back before 10:30 and somehow our bikes
didn't get stolen after being out on the street for 6 hours. I have
learned that although bikes have many different gears, and speeds, I
have one, and that one speed is walking. I am so grateful for bikes,
so so grateful for bikes.

Yesterday we had a dinner appointment with a Korean woman named Julia
and her husband. We have tried for weeks to get a return appointment
with her, she is so sweet and cuts our hair for free, she is one of
the nicest Asian woman I have ever met. I don't know how but me and
elder low always find people that speak poor English, it's funny being
called to and English mission when most of the people you teach don't
even speak it all that well. At the dinner Julia made us authentic
Korean food, and it was amazing, and apparently it's super healthy,
there are some weird fish stuff that we ate, but other than that I
would definitely have that again. After dinner we taught her about God
and his purpose, some of the very basic fundamentals. The spirit was
so strong, something that I haven't felt for awhile. She ate up
everything that we were saying and smiled the whole lesson. At the
conclusion of our discussion, we asked her if she was comfortable
praying, she hesitantly offered a prayer in Korean, I don't know what
was said in that prayer but my heart was touched, and I knew that
everyone in the room was receiving a personal witness of prayer, and
the love that Heavenly Father has for us as individuals. Her husband
is a less active member, but through that lesson he has begun to trust
us more and has become more anxiously engaged in helping us prepare
Julia for baptism. The spirit works in incredible ways, I know that
this church is true. It blesses families, and it helps individuals
receive real answers from God. I hope everyone has had a good week,
follow your dreams, strive for excellence, and go pet a puppy.

Love, Elder LeBaron

SISTER SARAH JOHNSON... Her first real letter....

So the first day at the MTC everyone sleeps so well, because we've all cried all day. And the second day at the MTC is the WORST because you study for a solid 8 hours and you don't get your prep-day and no exercise block. BUT! Once you hit Friday things start getting better! Like exercise is super nice, and it helps us stay sane. My companion, Sis. Young loves to play volleyball, so we do that most days. But another sister in my district, Sis. Litchford likes to run with me, and that has been awesome! I'm so proud of my 9 minute mile now, and my 3 minute plank. I have never appreciated exercise so much as I do here. 

My district is super funny! We have 6 elders and 4 sisters, and we spend a lot of time laughing together. But it's also been amazing to hear from their experiences and know that they are growing as much as you feel you're growing! I feel like the Atonement is something we've often talked about being for sins, and healing from that. But I'm learning that it's so much more than that! The Atonement allows us to change, any change, so that we can become more like our Savior. There's no way some of the things that have been said with our MTC investigators have come from my head. The Lord knows what he's doing here, and it's amazing to be a part of this. 

There are still days where it feels really overwhelming and I get tired of sitting and studying and talking to people. The expectation to be amazing gets kind of scary. But there's a little tug on my heart that keeps saying "Hold out! There's going to be amazing things ahead of you, just wait it out" and that has been the biggest comfort to me. I think everyone feels that - we all wonder if it would just be easier to go home. There's something incredible ahead of us though! And that makes us all hold on until tomorrow, or until Sunday, or until P-day, or until exercise time. There's always something better ahead. :)

OH! And Elder Bednar came to our Sunday night devotional! It was so great! He talked about how we can come to love others the way our Heavenly Father loves them, to help them see in themselves the goodness they don't know how to recognize for themselves yet. I loved that devotional. There's something really exciting about getting to have a Question-and-Answer session with an apostle. 

Something funny this week was that our elders, when they got to their dorm, found pictures of some girl that a previous elder had left behind. They named her Trish and she became kind of a mascot for them? Until another elder in our zone came by and chewed out our District Leader and ripped the pictures up. They've been so upset about the loss of Trish for 3 days now, hahaha. Every time she gets brought up, all the boys yell "Nooooo Trish!!" and cry. It's so great, we're going crazy here. Stupid things are becoming funnier. Like watching Nacho Libre at 3am. Except it's always 3am, and it's always Nacho Libre, and it's still funny. 

Anyways! I hope you're all doing so well! I love you! 

Love, Sister Johnson

SARAH'S FIRST NOTE HOME...Received Friday July 15th...

MOOOOOMMM! :D And Ron and Jacob and Oscar too of course! :D

I love you guys so much! The MTC is good, the food is good, the study time is long but good, and my companion is super sweet and so great and I love her! Her name is Sis. Young, and we get along good so far (you know, for less than 48 hours). We're already teaching an investigator (who's our teacher role playing someone from her own mission). It's very stressful but I know the Spirit is there even when I can't find the right kind of words to help her feel the Spirit too. We awkwardly opened her door the first lesson because we weren't sure it was the right classroom, and she stayed in character so well that she looked at us like we were crazies trying to get into her house. So our first meeting was definitely awkward. But It was good! We'll get to teach her every day that we're here I think, so she'll be a "progressing investigator", We're nervous but we're also excited to try the real missionary thing. :)

I sent a tiny letter in the mail today! So that'll come. But also if a package is coming sometime I would love to get my skull candy ear phones, because turns out we can use them >.<. Haha

I love you! :D I miss being home sometimes, but mostly it still feels like a week at EFY or something, so it hasn't really freaked me out yet. They say we just need to make it to Monday and we'll be fine with the crazy schedule. But already 6:30 comes and we all groan. I sleep so solid that I wake up exactly where I fell asleep, that's how tired I am. But it's good! "Little growth is found in a comfort zone, and little comfort is found in a growth zone". :)

I have to go write my Branch President now! LOVE YOU! 

Love,

Sister Johnson

OH! And Pday is Thursday! :D

JACOB...

Well...Jacob's is back home.  I have heard that the MTC is tough.  They get up every morning at 6:00 and from there they go and go and go until it is time to go to bed where they crash exhausted in their beds.  It is a grueling routine for anyone, but some people can deal with the stress of it better than others. It is even more difficult when it is a foreign speaking mission.  Then they stay in the MTC for 2 months and try to teach the language well enough to get a start.  Jacob says from day one they spoke only Japanese to him.  Also, you have to be with your companion 24/7...so there is never time to be alone and regroup.  Unfortunately, all of this created a stressful situation for Jacob and he was unable to continue.  It happens.

Jacob is considered a returned missionary, having been honorably released, and when asked where he served he says...the MTC. (If anyone presses further, he explains in more detail.) In the short time he was there, lessons were learned and friendships were formed.  It is enough. So Jacob is moving on.  He did what he needed to do, which was be willing to serve an honorable mission.  He feels good with the decision to just move on and we are supportive of his decision. We are super proud of him for trying. He is enrolled at Mesa Community College on a scholarship and he is working on getting a job.

Welcome Home Elder Jacob Johnson!  We missed you!!  

MATTHEW - HEADED TO CALI!

What a week! It's almost impossible to remember everything that has happened! I'm getting really pumped to be out of the MTC. I'm just crossing my fingers that I'll get an awesome trainer. I can't even imagine how things are going to be in the field. I'm not sure how they simulate things so well, but all I can tell you is that the spirit is real, the people I teach or interact with may not be genuine investigators but the spirit is. When you testify of truth, it can touch anyone's heart. The Gospel of Jesus Christ can help anyone in this world, it doesn't matter how long you have been apart of this church, I have seen the investigators in the MTC change because of the truths that we teach. Many of my experiences at the MTC have been very humbling, I can not rely on myself in the least bit, missionaries do not teach people, the spirit does, I don't think that's something that I really recognized before becoming a missionary. Today we were role playing with our teacher. She was a less active that was lesbian, man let me tell you they really challenge you here. it's all about that roller coaster you ride everyday when you are out here, to say the least, things did not get well with our lesbian friend, haha.

I can't believe that I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 3, but I'm really excited to get out of here. The MTC has taught me so much, but it really gets to you. I have made some of the best friends of my life in the last 3 weeks here, I can't believe how lucky I am to have had such an awesome district. It feels as if I have known them for a life time, it just goes to show what you can do when you have the same goal as someone else.

2 days ago we went on exchanges to get a feel for other peoples teaching styles, and it was an adventure. I was put with Elder Nicholson, and he's the weird guy in our district, there will always be a weird guy in the district, there's no escaping that.  He has some sort of social anxiety or something, I haven't quite been able to put my finger on it. He kinda smells funny, and he never lies, which makes things interesting for sure with how brutally honest he is. As we were teaching I couldn't help but laugh at how he explained simple gospel principles, his face is always emotionless, and you can never tell if he's joking or not. We were inviting our investigator to come to church, and she responded that the only reason she would feel hesitant to coming is that someone in the relief society had offended her, without skipping a beat Elder Nicholson points to me and said "believe me I know exactly what it's like when you don't get along with people in the church." haha, jeez what a goon, he honestly hates me, but I have made it my goal to love the crap out of that guy. He takes things so literally all the time so it was hard learning to adjust the way I communicate with him. Luckily that was only for one day and soon enough I was reunited with my trio. I was talking to Elder Nicholson's companion and he informed me that he had only see him shower once in the whole three weeks, all I can say is I'm glad that I haven't had to deal with that. I would have stripped that guy down butt naked and thrown him the shower. companionships are awesome because you are literally with them all them time, and I'm pretty sure everyone in our district has gotten into some fights, it's funny to me to see what some of the missionaries will fight about, sometimes you just gotta let people get wild. At the end of the day everyone loves each other and I love being in the district that I'm in, luckily for me the trio hasn't gotten into any serious disagreements.

about a week ago, the senior district before us came and bestowed upon us the "Monson cookies." Apparently about 6 months ago one of Thomas S. Monson's grandsons was in the MTC, and he received cookies hand delivered by the prophet himself, we have those very cookies in our residence as I write this email. We are the 20th generation of district 43 to have the Monson cookies. I'm not sure how these cookies have survived this long honestly, they are solid rocks, but still smell as fresh as every with how much sugar is in them.  We hide them in blanket sheets above one of the closets, and it still puzzles me how no one checks the blankets when we have room inspections.

One of the TRC's that we were teaching this week might not be a member, all of the TRC's are required to make an account on Mormon.org if they are a member and we couldn't find hers, which is way cool. We committed her to baptism and I have never felt the spirit that strongly in any other lesson, so if it's true that she isn't a member that would be incredible, and I'm super excited to find out, they normally send you an email you you help one of the TRC's get baptized.

Well, here I come California! Thank you guys for all of the letters and support I love all of you!
Remember to say your prayers and read your scriptures, it really does make a difference!

--
Elder LeBaron