Converting Columbus: January 2014

January 27th, 2014 - Hello!!

Hello Hello everyone!!

I hope you all had a fabulous week and are staying warm and safe, we are definitely trying to! :)

Quote of the Week

"All through my life the counsel to depend on prayer has been prized above almost any other advice I have received. It has become an integral part of me-an anchor, a constant source of strength, and the basis of my knowledge of things divine. Though reverses come, in prayer we can find reassurance, for God will speak peace to the soul. That peace, the Spirit of serenity, is life's greatest blessing!!"-Ezra Taft Benson!!

Prayer is awesome and without we would be nowhere! :)

Sorry so short, I am about to be kicked off! I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!! Things are great here and I will share more next week!! :)

Love always, Sister Britni Johnson :)

January 21st, 2013

Hello everyone!!

I hope you all had a fabulous week!! We did but I am having trouble thawing out from the Popsicle I have been for the last few weeks!! We are supposed to have another really cold week and I do have to admit, I could do without it! :)

Scripture of the Week

"And Christ said: if you have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is is expedient in me."

-Moroni 7:33,

I am definitely learning a lot about faith lately, Heavenly Father may be preparing blessings for us and people for us to teach but until we have the faith and prepare ourselves to receive it, we are not ready!

Quote of the Week

"All men have their fears, but those who face their fears with dignity, have courage as well." -Elder Dallin H.

Oaks It is OK to have fears, we are all human and we all have them, the important things is to face our fears and do it dignity and confidence that you can overcome those fears with the Lord's help!

Miracle of the Week

Our miracle this week was a woman named Joy Allen! We met her in Mt. Sterling which is a small town in our area that we are making an effort to visit more. She let us in and asked about ourselves. She was fascinated with what we do as missionaries and even said she wishes she could do it too.

We taught her a wonderful first lesson and left her with a Book of Mormon and a chapter to read. She was very excited about reading and said we came at the perfect time. Her and her 13 year old daughter have had a lot of questions lately and she hopes we might be able to answer them!!! I can't wait to see what happens!

I am short on time this week but I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week!!

Talk to you again soon!!

Love always, Sister Britni Johnson :)

January 13th, 2013

Hello mi familia!!!

I wasn't transferred!! I am still in Madison Lake and will be for at least 6 more weeks=half my mission :) I really do love it though!! Things are great and they are warmer which is good! I didn't die in the cold this last week! :)

Quote of the Week
"She walked not in the borrowed light of others, but faced the morning unafraid and invincible."

This quote is talking about Emma Smith but I love it because this is exactly how I want to be and I feel like I am slowly learning how to be more unafraid and invincible facing each new day and conquering it!! :)

Scripture of the Week
I forgot to bring my Book of Mormon so I will just put the reference.
Ether 3:4, specific prayers=specific blessings!

I know the Lord will provide!! :)

This week was crazy!! It was very cold but we were blessed and I have learned to be grateful for 20 degree weather. Yesterday was 35 and it felt like 65 to me! :)

Highlight of the Week
Saturday, we went down to a village (not big enough to be considered a town) called South Solon that has maybe 400 people in it, one stoplight and absolutely no business or stores or anything. But it has a pots office! :) So we went to tract a few streets and we tracted almost the entire town in like 2 1/2 hours. I loved it though because everything was so crazy and run down but all the people were incredibly nice and when we ran across a normal person, I would straight up ask them how they ended up living in a place like South Solon. It was way fun and I am excited to go back on Thursday and visit a few people that we met that are fairly interested and said we could come back!!

We are just enjoying ourselves and staying strong!! I am happy to still be here in Madison Lake because this feels more like home to me now because I have been here so long and this is all I have known on the mission!

I love the members and I absolutely LOVE missionary work! Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are with me every step of the way and they will strengthen and guide through everything!!

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! :)

Love always Sister Britni Johnson :)

a less active member's daughter, my new best friend Laurelai! :)

our awesome collage wall in our apartment :)

January 6th - Happy New Year!!

Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I hope you are all wonderful and staying warm!

First off, a NEW ADDRESS has been posted to the address page!

This last week was pretty great!! We had some way fun exchanges and had our interviews with our mission president! It was really good to talk to him and it was kind of funny because in the middle of our interview, he says" Sister Johnson, in the most loving way possible, Get over it!' And it was really quite funny because that was exactly what I needed to hear and it helped so much!

Quote of the Week

"He doesn't prevent broken hearts, he heals them through each other."

I love this quote because although it was talking specifically about visiting teaching, it applies to so many different aspects of our life. It is the reason we have family, friends, companions, coworkers, neighbors, ward members and everything!! It is to help us help each other and through helping each other, we help ourselves!

Scripture of the Week

"But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes, we are healed."-Mosiah 14:5

Just a great scripture for thought to keep our minds and our hearts focused on Christ and his sacrifice and love for us!! :)

This week was great! I think the biggest highlight was the fact that a woman we are teaching was kicked out of her house with her six kids but that same day, they were able to find an apartment in our apartment complex and we helped them move everything so we definitely softened their hearts with service and I am so excited to start teaching them! Her husband is a little bit more hesitant towards learning due to the fact that his mother is insane and forced religion down his throat his whole life but Paulette and her daughter Melissa are both interested so we will just start with them. Plus it is super convenient that they live so close now!!

So this coming week is a little stressful. First off, for the fact that it is currently -8 degrees with a windchill of -15 and tomorrow it is supposed to be down to -15 degrees with a windchill of up to -40!! I can't even comprehend that, the very thought just makes me want to cry!! But I know I will be blessed for my hard work and dedication. They have cancelled all the schools but our mission president wants us out talking to people as they are holed up in their houses. So us and the mailmen are the only crazy ones that will be out in this freezing weather!! Fortunately I have been so blessed by family members sending me such warm things that I think I will be good! :)

Really quick moment of stupidity for the week:
Sister Hyer and I decided to go wash our car on Tuesday because we ran out of time Monday. So Tuesday morning, we go out and go to the manual car wash where you wash the car yourself because our car is filthy and that is cheaper. So we go and start the water and I sprayed the whole car, then we go to grab the brush and scrub it and all the water is frozen all over our car. We didn't realize that it was less than 20 degrees out. So we had to scrape all our windows just to drive over to the vacuum thing and at least try to clean out the inside of our car be cause the outside was a fail. But it made for a good laugh and I definitely learned my lesson about washing the car in the winter!! :)

Anyways, this Thursday is transfers so we will just have to wait and see what happens! The longer I stay here, the harder it gets to leave. Especially because I love Sister Hyer so much and secretly panic at the thought of leaving but we will just see!

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers!! I love you all and hope this new year brings you many blessings and fun times!!

Love always, Sis. Britni Johnson :)

shoveling snow for 4 1/2 hours just to serve people :)

working hard, shampooing vicki's carpets :)

Zumba!!

December 24th 2013 - Merry Christmas!

Hello everyone!!

Happy New Year!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!! I know I did. It was so nice to be able to call and skype this year!! :)

Quote of the Week

"The church isn't a museum for saints, it is a hospital for sinners."

This is so true! So many people think they can only come to church when they are perfect and no longer sin, the thing is that the reason we need church is to repent and become perfect!

Scripture of the Week

"And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions."

This week I have been studying a lot about patience and I came across this scripture. It really helped me because I know that Heavenly Father will ease my burdens because he loves me but he also does it so that I can strengthen my faith and share that faith building experience with those around me. We are showing our gratitude when we share our experiences and witnesses of the truth with all those around us!

This week was a little bit crazy!! We had so much going on but it was wonderful! On Tuesday we had a district fun day where we went to see some lights, did some yoga/zumba with a member of our branch and then went to another member's house for a Christmas Eve party. On Christmas we had a wonderful time opening presents!! Thanks so much to everyone for all the gifts and cards! I was so blessed this year! Then we spent the day taking cookies to people and caroling to spread Christmas cheer!! I also got to go to downtown Columbus for my first time ever, we are on an exchange with the sisters that cover that area.

We had such a fun time but it was weird to be around so many people because I have been out in the country in the tiny town of London for 7 months now! Last bit of news, next week is transfers again and I can't believe it!! Time is going by so fast and it stresses me out a little bit! I am kind of sad because I am afraid I might get transferred and I really don't want to because I love Sister Hyer so much and we have tons of fun together!!

Miracle of the Week

We knocked on the door of a guy named Anthony on Monday. He was super nice and we had a really great chat. We set up to go back the next day but that night he texted us and said he had spent a lot of time on mormon.org and everyone on there looked so beautiful and he didn't think he would fit in because he has a lot of tattoos and stuff. We addressed his concerns and assured him he would be welcome. So we set up to meet with him on Saturday and so we did and it was awesome!! We taught the restoration and taught alot about Joseph Smith!

He is quite a talker so the lesson was a little long but we left him with a restoration DVD and we are meeting with him again tonight! I guess the biggest part of the miracle is that when we first met him, he said he has just been so lost and confused because there are so many churches out there and so he just kind of gave up! So Sister Hyer jumped on that and compared him to Joseph Smith when he was having the same questions and concerns. We are super excited about Anthony because he is a cute little old man that is almost 60 but he is so friendly and ready! We will see what happens tonight!

I love you all and I will talk to you again next week!! Make it a great week!! :) Stay strong and keep the faith!!!

Love always, Sister Britni Johnson :)