SISTER SARAH JOHNSON - 3/27 - Hello again! :)

This week had a couple of really crazy things happen! Here it goes! 

So on Monday we found out that there isn't anyone that feels right for President to bring down for Sister Cheney to be companions with right now.... so we are in a tripan until the end of the transfer! We were so excited, because it's been so much fun! But then we realized how difficult it was going to be to take over the Pullman YSA in addition to our own YSA and Potlatch.... and we had a little bit of anxiety over it. And then I had some revelation! I was reading the next day in Alma 58, where Helaman realizes that he isn't going to have enough men to fight the Lamanites. And he doesn't have enough provisions to feed them all either. But then he says! : 

9 And now the cause of these our embarrassments, or the cause why they did not send more strength unto us, we knew not; therefore we were grieved and also filled with fear, lest by any means the judgments of God should come upon our land, to our overthrow and utter destruction.
10 Therefore we did pour out our souls in prayer to God, that he would strengthen us and deliver us out of the hands of our enemies, yea, and also give us strength that we might retain our cities, and our lands, and our possessions, for the support of our people.
11 Yea, and it came to pass that the Lord our God did visit us with assurances that he would deliver us; yea, insomuch that he did speak peace to our souls, and did grant unto us great faith, and did cause us that we should hope for our deliverance in him.
12 And we did take courage with our small force which we had received, and were fixed with a determination to conquer our enemies, and to maintain our lands, and our possessions, and our wives, and our children, and the cause of our liberty.

And it just hit me, that even though we don't have enough "men" to take over all this area. And we don't have enough "provisions" to take care of everything, we will be ok, and we will come off conquerors if we will trust God, and "pour out our souls in prayer". And you know what? It worked this week! And we had a lot of good times :). 

John is still on-date and excited to be baptized on April 8th! We're trying to work it out that he'll be able to come to conference with us, and see a baptism that the elders are holding this weekend. He wants to go, so hopefully it all works out! He was in a really bad living situation, and we let bishop know, and within 24 hours John was moved out and put in a motel until they can get him into a new place to live. Our bishop rocks! We're so glad that John is in a safer place now. That was another miracle this week. 

We also got to go to the temple! It was an incredible experience! I have missed being there, and I'm really glad I got to go with my good friends Sis Mitchell and Sis Cheney. They're the best. We got to drive up with the Sisters from Grangeville too, so it was a party. But they begged us to eat at Cafe Rio, and it destroyed my intestines, and Sis Cheney's and Sis Mitchell's. We will not be eating there ever again. It's a miracle I didn't die. :P 

And ok here's the weirdest coincidence/miracle of my life! So there's this kid, Josh, that I saw up on the "ward family" board at the institute. I totally remembered him from the Falcon Hill ward way back in the day, and I thought it was way cool that I recognized him and now was serving in his ward in Moscow of all places. But then he didn't come to church ever, and I realized he was less active, and I really wanted to contact him and see how he was doing. We just didn't get around to it. So fastforward to the end of week 4 of 6 in the transfer, and it's fast Sunday. I sat there forever, feeling not a whole lot, when I felt impressed to share my Alma 58 experience. We just bore our testimonies 3 weeks ago, and I definitely didn't want to go again. And Sis Mitchell definitely didn't' want to go again either, and so I almost didn't. But I pulled out my scriptures and made the long walk to the pulpit, where I told everyone that sometimes our trials seems overwhelming, and we don't have enough resources to combat them. But with God, we can always have courage and come off conquerors. And then, lo and behold, in the audience is Josh! Like 2nd row! It was the craziest coincidence ever, and I would never have known about it if I hadn't gotten up to bear my testimony. We talked to him after sacrament and it was a really neat experience, and he's a really good guy who just got caught up in school and is trying to make a comeback to church. It made me so excited :)). I just love being a missionary. 

There were so many miracles this week! it reminded me of a quote from the movie Signs (go watch it, because I can't and I wish I could). it goes:

"People break down into two groups. Then when they experience something lucky, group number one sees it as more than luck, more than a coincidence. They see it as a sign. Evidence that there is someone up there watching out for them. Group number two, sees it as just pure luck. A happy turn of chance. I'm sure that people in group number two are looking at those fourteen lights in a very suspicious way. For them, this situation is a 50-50. Could be bad, could be good. But deep down, they feel that whatever happens, they're on their own. And that, fills them with fear. Yeah, there are those people. But there's a whole lot of people in the group number one. When they see those fourteen lights, they're looking at a miracle. And deep down, they feel that whatever's going to happen, there'll be someone there to help them. And that fills them with hope. So what you have to ask yourself is what kind of person are you. Are you the kind that sees signs, sees miracles? Or do you believe that people just get lucky. Or, look at the question this way. Is it possible, that there are no coincidences?"

There are no coincidences! Heavenly Father has a plan for each and every one of his Children, and it's beautiful! And I get to watch so many of His miracles so personally, and it is changing my life. I hope you are all taking time to recognize the little miracles in the everyday things, because I promise they are there. 

I love you all! Have a fabulous week :)). 

Love,

Sister Johnson

Here's a pic or two from getting Thai food with the ladies today! 

And a whole load of temple trip pics! Enjoy! :D 

ELDER MATTHEW LEBARON - 3/27 - Woodside ward dead

I have some time to write this week, but there wasn't a lot that
happened this week.

Elder Mitchell got sick for 2 days. It was horrible. He couldn't eat
anything without throwing up. Staying in the pad was awful. I don't
know how some elders stay in the pad for a week plus with their sick
comp, ugh that would be my worst nightmare. I pretty watched every
video and church movie I had on my iPad twice. And slept until I
couldn't sleep anymore. What a week. We have been trying to pick up
investigators, and maaaan, what a joke haha. All the people we talked
to didn't want to set up a return appointment. (Which is essential for
them to become a new investigator) but you know, I'm pretty positive.
I love this area, I know things will pick back up again. Glendora has
nothing on the woodside ward. Our ward is on fire, the bishop is on
fire. And if anything I've found a lot of success out this area, and a
lot of satisfaction.

We babysat this old guy in our ward for 3 hours this week. He is bed
ridden, and so he always has to be watched, but the family can't
afford a nurse to be there all the time to be there. It was so weird.
We sat there for 3 hours and did nothing. There has never been a time
in my mission where my job was to just sit there, and perhaps do CPR
if necessary. The ward couldn't get anyone to cover the 3 hour shift
so we went. So weird, what a weird day.

Other than that nothing too exciting or humorous happened this week.
I'll make up for it next week, hopefully. Anyways I hope everyone has
a great week!

Elder LeBaron

SISTER SARAH JOHNSON - 3/20 - Hey Guys :)

This week we had Sis Cheney still, and it was fantastic! We love having her around with us, and it's been fun trying to cover her area and both of ours. But.... then Sis Cheney got bronchitis.... and all our work halted for a good part of the week. We still managed to have adventures though! And in the meantime, we've decided we are going to start a hipster band, and I'm going to learn how to play the Banjo. And Sis Mitchell is going to learn the harmonica. We're going to be fabulous. 

Tuesday was interviews with President and Sis Dymock :). I love those people. President did a "walk and talk" interview, where we just walked a few laps around the gym and talked. I actually liked that a lot better, because it was way less pressure. President asked me what I was working on and if I was happy in the work, and I told him I'm learning how to love working hard, and how to be diligent. And most days I'm so happy, but not always in the work. Haha it was a good discussion. President is the best. And Sis Dymock went through our planners with us, and just talked about whatever with us. We ended up talking about how to eat healthy.... which has been a long time struggle. It was all good! :)

Then we had zone conference the rest of Tuesday, so President gave us a lot of training about how to use Preach my Gospel better, and how to work with Ward Councils better. It was really good to hear some more direction on :). And Sis Dymock gave us some easy recipes that we can use for our 30 min lunches, and I'm pumped to try them! 

Then after zone conference was stake reports, where my comps and I, and the zone leaders met with President Dymock and the stake presidency to talk about the needs of the stake and stuff. It's always so fascinating to be a part of that meeting, and to be able to help wherever we're needed. 

And then... we had Get to It Tuesday! It's the last one that we were allowed to play in... because President said it's not appropriate for us to actually do the playing. So that was really sad. But we had fun playing marshmallow dodgeball for the last time with all the youth. :) 

Pretty much we stayed inside the rest of the week, because we took Sis Cheney to urgent care, and they said if she didn't rest she wouldn't get better. We had to almost strap that girl down to keep her inside though. We all got a little bit of cabin fever. We did get to watercolor! Haha we had a lot of fun with that, way to go Sis Cheney for bringing paint :). 

We also got to see John a couple of times this week. He's so excited to be baptized, and it's contagious how happy he is. I love being able to teach him. And our ward mission leader, Tyler, rocks and picks him up for everything. It's just a fantastic set up! 

Yesterday we finally made it out to Potlatch again! And they had branch conference, and I learned a couple of things. One was that church shouldn't be or feel like a social club, but a hospital. And the other thing was that spiritual truth can't just be poured into someone, especially if they're not looking for it. Spiritual truth comes over time, through our struggles and through our diligent search for it. It was good for me to remember, because I realized that I often like to just explain and share everything I know with some of our investigators, and it's not effective because they're not also searching for the truth on their own. I can't force anyone to understand, no matter how much I want to share. It taught me to slow down and remember to teach others to search for answers, so they can find their own answers in the future, instead of just telling them the answers every time they ask a question. That's my new focus! :) 

We got so much food on Sunday too! We had the Potlatch "linger longer" after the meetings, and they sent us home with like 5 boxes of food, and 1/4th of a cherry pie. And then President Gardner and his family had us over for dinner again :) they're absolutely the neatest people out here. Sis Cheney was so happy she got to meet them. They fed us Hawaiian haystacks, and they were fabulous. 

Oh! And sometime this week we took a roadtrip to try to find a less active member way out in St. John, Washington with the Pullman YSA ward mission leader and Victoria, our YSA friend. He gave us the wrong address, so we drove like, 3 hours for nothing, but it's ok! We found a funny road! I'll attach a pic :). 

It's been a good time! I hope you all have had a fantastic week too :). Onward and upward! 

Love you all!

Sister Johnson :)

Here are pictures!

I forgot to tell you, I found Celeste Renard and Mrs. Renard and her family at Walmart last Monday!

It was super great! 

Also Trunkey Rd. What what?

And Sis Mitchell water painted a galactic Harry Potter and now he's our apartment mascot. 

ELDER MATTHEW LEBARON - 3/20 - Blessings

Okay, I'm the worst. 

Sorry this is going to be a short email, but I wanted to share with you guys a really cool experience I had this week! We stopped by a woman in our ward, she asked if we could give her a blessing of healing. After she started telling us some crazy stuff. She eventually told us that she cheated on her husband. Being a missionary is crazy, I'm only 19 I don't know how to deal with this kind of stuff. But I was amazed at how I knew exactly what to do, thinking of the situation now, I should have been terrified. I have never felt the spirit so strong in my life, it felt as if words just came out of my mouth without even trying, but not just any words, the right words. I promised her things and as soon as the words left my mouth I felt the Holy Ghost testify that what I was saying was true. I have never really felt like I have ever gotten a super strong overwhelming answer for myself before. But it is incredible to see how when God needs you to help his children you can get strong overwhelming answers for them. It was the first time where I knew without a doubt that I was speaking by the spirit. Everyone was crying, it was such an amazing experience. I love being a missionary. I love it. I love being able to help people when they feel like there is no one out there. I'm grateful to be able to be that person that God sends when people need someone. 

Other than that, we don't have any investigators, we got 0 numbers this weeks, but we are still working hard. Keep on keeping on!

Elder LeBaron