June 25th, 2013 - The Work is on Fire!

This last week has been amazing!! We have had so many blessings and miracles and I know the Lord is watching over us and guiding us the whole time.

On Thursday we had our first Zone conference and it was AMAZING!!! Our mission president and his wife both spoke to us and gave us lots of good advice and spiritual nourishment, then we had lunch and played a jeopardy game. They split us off into some workshops and taught us about intensifying and simplifying our lessons, good ways to find people and how to plan you time most effectively. The whole thing was awesome and the Spirit was so amazingly strong all day. The conference lasted over 7 hours but it didn't feel long at all. By the end, I was left wanting more! I got to see some of my friends from my MTC district which was awesome!

At the end of the conference, our mission president spoke to us and told us that he has a tumor and is going in for surgery in the next few weeks to get it removed which is so scary and crazy, plus they are splitting mission next week so we are slightly few in numbers for right now, and they said that right now we have about 130 missionaries still in our mission and by December of this year, there should be about 250 missionaries in our mission! It's insane because the work is booming so much and so many people are ready and willing to accept the gospel over here that they are responding and strengthening the Lord's army.

By December they will have a set of Elders and Sisters in each area which is unheard of. It will be difficult because we will have to coordinate and cooperate but it will also be so awesome because there are going to be so many blessings and miracles and new members because of it!! You add that with the awesome leadership meeting last night where they talked a ton about member missionary work and getting the entire church involved with the missionary effort!! They said countless times how missionary work ad spreading the gospel is one of the most important responsibilities for all members of the church right now!!

I don't know how many of you got to watch the broadcast last night but it was pretty amazing! They had so many incredible talks and changes made! I can't believe they announced that now missionaries will have access to the internet on a daily basis to use for missionary work. All missionaries will be using, email, lds.org, mormon.org, blogs and Facebook to speed up the work and find more investigators effectively. They are allowing the use of technology in the hopes of keeping up with the world and finding more effective ways to spread the gospel and find people to teach then tracting and knocking on doors all day long. Which I don't mind at all! :)

They also announced that there will be missionaries stationed at each chapel throughout the week to give chapel tours and keep the chapels open to any visitors who are interested! They made some pretty big changes and it is so exciting to be a part of the guinea pigs and the beginning of all these changes!! I love this work so much and I know that Heavenly Father is blessing Sister Mitchell and I constantly for our handwork, dedication and obedience to Him!!

We have had so many miracles this week but I will just share the top four. Firstly, we found a couple, Paul and Karen Tipple, just sitting on their front porch while we were tracting and they agreed to listen to us. They were quite interested and agreed to a return appointment and even invited us over for dinner this Saturday. We were teaching them and suddenly Paul stops and says "Now tell me why after ignoring and rejecting so many elders year after year, I decided to listen to you ladies and let you teach me?" And bore my testimony that God knows and loves him and knows his heart. Heavenly Father has been preparing him and knew he was ready to accept the gospel and He sent us over to provide that opportunity for them! It was so amazing and he agreed with me and asked specifically for a Book of Mormon to read.

Ok, second miracle, the other day, we had prayed for 2 new investigators and the first two people we talked to were both interested and we set up return appointments! Heavenly Father blessed us immediately and it was awesome. One of the ladies was Melinda and at first she was pretty standoffish and said she keeps her religion private but a few second later she was like an open book and told us everything! We jumped right into the Plan of Salvation lesson and she was very interested and said she has been looking for a religion and believes a lot of the same things we do! I am so excited to see where that goes with her!

Third miracle was on Saturday afternoon. We met with our progressing investigator, Kyle, for the second time and taught him the plan of Salvation. We brought a member with us, Sister Mathews, and she was perfect because she is a convert to the church and could relate a lot better to him than Sister Mitchell and I could. We taught him and the Spirit was so strong. He said he kept getting the chills and at one point even started tearing up. We let him know that that was the Spirit filling him up and testifying of the truthfulness of this gospel and what we were teaching him. We extended the baptismal date of August 10th and he accepted! We are meeting with him this Saturday and he promised to come to church on Sunday! He is already working on breaking his bad habits of gambling, and drinking and he is really trying hard to do what is right. I am so excited to work with him and I think he will be ready sooner and we will be able to move his baptismal date up a bit! I am so excited to see where this goes and I know Heavenly Father is blessing both him and us and it is truly amazing!

Ok, fourth and last miracle of the week. Yesterday, Sister Mitchell and I spoke in church and the Spirit was so strong. Everyone there could feel and I loved every second of that sacrament meeting. After sacrament, the Branch President came up to us and told us that this couple had showed up for church that weren't members and asked us if they were our investigators. We told them no and so he told us to go introduce ourselves. We did and their names were Derek and Destiny. They are both 17 and Destiny told us she Googled the church address and time and just decided to show up. A few months ago, she met a friend in Iowa who was Mormon and so she asked him about it. He told her a little bit and she was interested and downloaded the scriptures onto her iPhone.

She lives in our area here and told us she has been reading the Book of Mormon for the last few months and noticed a big difference in her life. She decided she wanted to come to church and she asked us if we could teach her! We were blown away because rarely do investigators seek out the missionaries and request to be taught. She quickly made friends with some of the young women and we set up a meeting with here and her boyfriend tomorrow! I am so excited and can't wait to solidify her faith and testimony and guide her towards baptism. The awesome thing is that she told one of the young women that she is ready to baptized, she just didn't want us to think she was crazy right off the bat! The whole experience was so miraculous and humbling! She is an amazing girl and she is basically converting herself and hardly even needs us. I am so thrilled to be able to see her grow and progress and I know that she will do amazing things and that Heavenly Father has been preparing and guiding her.!! I am so truly blessed to be a part of this amazing work and making a difference in other people's lives.

So the other day, I got a letter from someone in Elder Nelson's ward who had heard his mom's testimony when she mentioned me in it about my email about the blessing I got in the MTC. This man's name is Larry and his letter was so sweet. He told me about his conversion story and how the work and dedication of two sister missionaries impacted his life and his family's. He told me each of his kids and grand-kids and all the things they had done in the church and the fact that most of them are still active and strong in the church all because of that one conversion those sister helped take place.

He just told me how grateful he is at my decision to serve and how many people I will impact and influence through guidance of our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and how amazing missionary work really is!!! The letter was so sweet but it was also accompanied by a card with a photo on it that he had taken himself and it was beautiful. It was of a river in Idaho that is close to his house. And he also sent a 20 dollar check which was so unexpected but sweet of him! A total stranger made my whole day and I am so grateful for that and for the strength and motivation it gave me. I am more than ready to teach God's children and spread the gospel all the world!!! :)

Lastly I wanted to say that the only people I have received letters or packages from for the last 2 1/2 weeks are strangers or people that I hardly know. I have gotten one from a friend's parent and a few emails from some friends but I would love to get more!! My companion averages 2-3 letters a day and 2 packages a week! I am not trying to sound like I am mad but I would just love to hear from all of you! I want to know how life is going and I would love more letters or emails or anything!!!! :)

The following is a list of stuff that I would love if anyone did want to send me a package:

• CDs - any church music like motab, EFY, hymns or pretty much anything you would find at Seagull Book- I only have one CD
• chocolate or treats/snacks
• sticky notes-I use so many sticky notes it's amazing!
• stickers or stationary
• letters or cards
• and lastly I would LOVE pictures!! I didn't bring any with me because I didn't think about it so I have nothing to remember anyone by and I am already starting to forget what people look like! :(

My address is: 1078 Claudia Drive Apt. E London OH, 43140

But you could also send stuff to mission home which is: 19 Clairedan Dr., Powell OH 43065 and they will make sure it gets to me!!

I love you all so much and I miss you! I am loving my mission and I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord and be involved in such great and marvelous work at such an incredible time!!! I know this church is true and this is the only true and everlasting gospel!!!! :)

A flower Sister Mitchell and I made out of Sticky notes with comforting scriptures for one of the Sisters in our ward whose younger sister died earlier this week

The beautiful clouds yesterday

One of the members was nice enough to lend me some sheets because Braden never sent me the package with my bedding in it! I don't mind though because I love Little Mermaid! :)

June 17th, 2013 - London!!-My first week!!

Hey all!

So my new city that I live in is London Ohio! It's pretty great. The area is called Madison Lake and the branch is tiny. It's not even big enough to be called a ward. To be a ward they have to average 95 members attending each week and they currently average 80-85. So our first goal is to help the branch become a ward!

It was kind of hard to adjust to missionary life and I am tired all the time and I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ and blessing me constantly with strength, courage and focus. We have already met a lot of the members and they are so amazing. We have been fed dinner every night since getting here and we have dinner set up every night except Mondays for the next month straight! I am pretty sure I will be gaining a little bit of weight!

So the first night we were here we got to go see Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Columbus and it was amazing! I fell asleep for a bit because I had been up since 2 AM that morning but it was still so great.

My companion/trainer is Sister Mitchell and I love her to death! She is so fun and loving and she is training me well. We were doubled into the area which means we took the place of the Elders so she doesn't know the are and neither do I so at first it will be a little slow but we already found 2 new investigators and we are teaching one tonight. And we have a few investigators the elders were working with. We have also met some Less Active and Part Member families and I think we will have some success there. Anyway, Life is great! I love being a missionary and I love praying and reading the scriptures more than ever. And having the Spirit so strong all the time and being able to see blessings everywhere throughout my life. The apartment is pretty nice and we are both excited about today because it is P-day so we get to clean the apartment finally and get some food and stuff.

So quick story, in my last email I talked about getting a blessing from one of the Elders in my MTC district, Elder Nelson. Well he had talked to me after the blessing and was prompted to tell me a little bit about his mom and it touched me so much and gave me alot of hope. So he asked me to email some pictures to his mom and while I did that, I just told her a little bit about what her son had done for me and how her story had helped me so much. So she emailed him bakc last week and told him about my email and said that I had touched her in my email and she decided to get up in their ward on fast sunday and bear her testimony about it. Then someone in their ward afterwards commented on it and said he is so grateful for sister missionaries because they were the ones that got him active and sealed to his fmaily in the temple. So elder Nelson told me this and it just made me so happy because here I was just trying to let her know how much she helped me but in turn I ended up helping her and influencing people around her that I have never met. It was such a cool experience and I realized that that is just the beginning of what my mission will be like. I will be helping and influencing people for and with Christ and the Spirit in ways that I may never know but it is so exciting to think about. It makes me so happy.

Another fun story is that in the last 2-3 days multiple people, usually younger girls, will come up to Sister Mitchell and I and say that we are beautiful. It was kind of weird at first but I realized that we are beautiful because we have the light of Christ and the glow of the Spirit and it really does show and people can see it wherever we go. It makes me so happy to hear that now because I know that I have so much power within from God to make a difference and influence people to repent and come unto Christ. I have blessed with the ability to see everyone how God sees them. To constantly feel the love he has for them and feel love that I have growing for them and it is just so amazing! I love getting to know people and spreading the gospel.

So we have already done quite a bit of tracting and such which is hard because alot of people don't want to listen and it's pretty scary being on our end too. But i have learned to have courage and do everything I can to provide that opportunity for them to learn the gospel because that really is all I can do. Also we heard about this big worldwide leadership training being broadcast next Sunday and we have heard rumors and hints about more changes being made and technology being applied more into missionary work. I am so excited to learn and grow more and be in the middle of all these changes. I is such an exciting time to be on a mission and I love everything about spreading this gospel and teaching God's children. I am so blessed to be a part of the hastening of the Lord's work and be a part of the army of God in bringing His children back to Him!!!

So I just want to close with my testimony that I know with every fiber of my being that this church is true! That Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love each and every one of us and all they want is for us to return to them. I know that I am a servant of God and I am right where I am supposed to be. I know that I personally am being blessed so much by serving a mission and that my family and friends are being blessed as well. I know that I have the light of Christ, The Spirit of God and the power of faith and miracles within me. I know I can do anything the Lord asks and He will be with me every step of the way throughout my life. I know the Book o Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was and is a prophet of God! I know that Christ lived, died for me and lives again as a resurrected being and the true Son of God. I know that I love this gospel, my Savior and Redeemer and my Father in Heaven. I don't know where I would be without and I am so glad I will never have to find out. I love being on a mission and serving the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength!! This church is true and the Gospel is full and everlasting!!

I love each and everyone of you! I miss you all so much and pray for you every night! I can't wait to come home but I am more than happy to be out here now and I will make the most of my mission!!! Talk to you next week!!

Love you all,

~Sister Britni Johnson~

June 7th, 2013 - MTC

Hello to all,

So last Sunday was Fast Sunday which started out way good. We had sacrament at 7:30 A.M. (and I thought 9:00 was bad :)). Then we had some personal study time and headed over to Mission Conference which is kind of like Stake Conference. The MTC presidency and their wives spoke. It was amazing. The music was so beautiful, and the message was great. There were some powerful talks on Jesus Christ, mission work, and the usual. Then we had some more personal study time and a meeting. Then we spent like 2 hours outside studying and at first the sun felt really good but then I got way some burned and a little heat exhaustion. On Sundays they give all the missionaries an hour to take a walk around the temple and take pictures. I loved it but by that point it had 22 hours since I had last eaten and I admit I have never done a full 24 hour fast! We didn't have dinner until 6:20 so the last hour and a half before dinner just about killed me. I had a headache and I was so tired.

    After dinner I felt great, and then we had a devotional where the President of the Seventy came to speak to us. His talk was so powerful. He was talking about how as members we have the tendency to bring Christ to our level when trying to draw near to Him. People spend too much time humanizing Christ and yes He is like us ut He is still a God and He is our Savior and Redeemer. No ordinary man could have done what He did and I am so eternally grateful for His sacrifice and The Sacrifice of the Father to send Him down just for us. After the devotional we went to watch Legacy and some of the elders had never seen it! I could practically quote the entire movie! So Monday was good but pretty much the same as all the other days.      

    I also found out that I have a little admirer I guess you could call it? His name is Elder Thompson and we met him while playing volleyball up in the sand pits. He remembered me right off the bat and now everytime he ses anyone from our district he doesnt really acknowledge them but he always shows up and talks to me. I swear he is stalking me or something! I'm kidding but it is kind of annoying because the elders are constantly teasing me about it. They are worse than any of my brothers were to me about boys. 

    Anyway so we have had the opportunity to teach some mock investigators and it is still so scary each time but it is getting easier. We have gotten used to organizing our thoughts and preparing our lessons. We have learned and are still transitioning from teaching lessons and worrying about our teaching skills to teaching the investigators and worrying all about how they are doing and what they are feeling. My companion and I have gotten better at inviting the Spirit into the room and helping the investigators acknowledge the thoughts and feelings they get when having an experience.

    So the food here is amazing, maybe a little too amazing because I eat so much for not really exercising much and sitting around in a classroom and I am pretty sure I have gained weight. It is hard when they have fruit, meals, sides and desserts every single meal especially when I don't really know how I am going to be eating in the field so I want to take advantage of this food right now.

    Yesterday we had In-Field Orientation which is basically 9 hours of straight learning, training and studying. I thought it would be hard but it really wasn't. It was all so interesting and I was amazied and the amount of information I was able to retain during that amount of time! It was so great tho because they focused all on what it will be like in the mission field and how to more fully prepare us as we get ready to leave next week. I am kind of bummed about leaving tho because it is so fun here. My district is like a big family and I get along so well with everyone. It is so great here at the MTC and I just know it is going to be hard in the mission field but at the same time I am ready for it and I know I can do it!! It'll be great.

     So this morning I had a blessing. Two of the elders in our district, Elders Nelson and Erickson, gave it to me. Elder Nelson was the one asked to do it and it was actually his first blessing. He did so well and it was such an amazing experience and I felt the Spirit so strong. Elder Nelson thanked me for the experience because he was grateful for the practice and the power he felt. It was so great. And then on the way back from the temple, he shared a story with me that was prompted by the Spirit. He told me about his mom and the situations she grew up with and althought alot of it is different, some of it is the same and she felt alot of the same things that I feel right now. It was really nice because then he listened to me talk for a little bit and just told me about how much he loves his mom and how great she is and that I remind him of his mom. It was such a good experience and it really helped, I am so glad that he listened to that prompting of the Spirit because it helped me so much.

       So next Wednesday is when we fly out to Ohio, we leave the MTC here at 4 AM and fly out from the SLC airport around 7:10 am. I can make a call from the airport at 1:00 P.M. during our layover in Atlanta but that is atlanta time so I don't know what time it would be in UT. You guys can look it up!Anyways, I am almost out of time, I love you and miss you all so much and I love being a missionary!!!! The Church is true!!!

Love always, Sister Johnson