Katie's Mission - Apollo Beach - Transfer 1
Apollo Beach - Week 4 - August 12, 2019
Welcome to Paradise!
Companion: Sister Bingham
Hi all! Man this week was crazy. It was my first week in the mission field so a lot happened.
On Wednesday, our group of 14 missionaries travelled all day and finally landed at 6:30 fl time. We were pretty shocked by the humidity haha. Our mission president, President and Sister Hollingsworth are FANTASTIC. They were waiting for us at the airport and they are the cutest. They kept saying, "Welcome to paradise!" They just got here 6 weeks ago but everyone loves them. That night the new sisters slept at the mission home and Sister Hollingsworth made us breakfast in the morning. She is seriously so cute. Both of them are so committed to the gospel and making sure we maintain the high standard of obedience and love that is already here. It's a great mission with hard working missionaries and you can tell they already love us and will help us with anything. Then we all met up at the church to have orientation and meet our trainers!
My trainer is Sister Bingham!! She is from Utah and has been out for like 14 months so she will be home by Christmas. She is so awesome and obedient and likes to jam to church music in the car.
We are serving in the Apollo Beach ward in the Brandon zone! It was quite the shock at first. Planning & studying & walking & biking & finding & everything definitely took some getting used to. We do a mix of walking, biking, and driving. In the morning we workout right away then get ready, eat breakfast, plan for the day, and do personal study for an hour. We do comp study for an hour and a half (bcs I'm in training) sometime during the day. I miss being around a ton of missionaries and I'm having major separation anxiety from Sister Hurley (rip) but I am excited to serve here! I know there are people here for Sister Bingham and I to teach.
And guess what!! We are already teaching two people who want to be baptized yay! The first one is AB. He is an older man who is trying to change and has so much faith that God will help him. Sis Bingham was already teaching him and his baptism is set for August 31 but we might need to move it back so we can finish all the lessons. The second one is Luis. We overheard him asking the bishop at church what he needed to do to be baptized and we were like whaaaaat. Apparently he has been living with one of the members and is super prepared he asked us for a crash course right then and there. Hes been to church twice now. Wow what a miracle. Sister Bingham was like btw people don't usually walk up to you at church and ask to be baptized haha. The Lord definitely does all the work. We are so grateful because we have been working super hard but haven't had many people to teach. Also on Sunday we did a come follow me study session with a bunch of old people in the ward and it was fun haha they crack me up.
Well I am sweating like crazy but haven't seen any gators yet lol. But I love it here and am learning so much. God is definitely giving me strength I could not do this by myself. :)
florida things...
firetrucks are yellow here
really pretty sunsets
there are actually signs on the road to warn from old people on golf carts haha
everyday there is rain and thunderstorms
lots of mosquitos, we have to wear pants every day except Sunday
it is so so humid but I love it
peace and love
Sister Johnson
Apollo Beach - Week 5 - August 19, 2019
SHE PRAZ
Companion: Sister Bingham
Y'all know what week it is! Taylor Swift's new album comes out this week obviously so go listen to it for me lol. This week was an exciting one for sure and I am starting to get a hang of all this missionary stuff. It's tiring but so fun. I LOVE missionary work!! The best part is teaching people! The spirit is always so strong and it is so rewarding to see people progress and see how the gospel changes their life! Also I hit my ONE MONTH on Saturday so I'd say I'm pretty experienced now. Ha.
I experienced my first tornado warning/thunderstorm this week. It was pretty stormy one day so we stayed inside all morning and got a bunch of stuff done. It stopped for a while so we finally decided to head outside on our bikes (you know where this is going) right when we get to our destination our zone leader calls us and says we need to get inside because of a tornado warning. So we bike home as fast as we can and it starts pouring rain. I was SOAKED within seconds and could barely see so I just tried to follow the blob that was Sister Bingham home. So that was super exciting.
Also it is like a full on jungle over here! You look to the side of the road and expect Tarzan to come swinging out of the trees it is crazy.
Progressing people...
AB - we moved his date back to September 14th so he is more prepared but he is doing great! Sometimes he calls us and just tells stories about his day for like 30 minutes no joke. Sometimes I forget I am on the phone lol. But he started out the week telling us he wanted to punch Satan and ended it saying that he has so much faith in God and the adversary can't touch him. Really cool.
Luis - being baptized this Saturday!! We taught him a bunch this week and we invited him to be baptized in a few weeks maybe and he's like I know you prayed about it but can we do it sooner? We are like YA. It is cool because he is really good friends with these 3 couples in our stake and they have all been great examples for the past three years and taken him in. They share powerful testimonies and experiences as we teach which is such a blessing. Luis says everything we teach him helps him understand why they live the way they do and why they have made such an impact on him. It just confirms that the way he has already been living for the past couple years is right. He is so prepared.
We also had some cool experiences finding people this week. The Lord truly helps us meet our goals! One night we prayed to find two people together to meet our goal and walking down the street are the two high schoolers. We showed them a Because of Him video and they loved it and said we could come back! We also met these 5 siblings who were on a walk and wanted to learn more. It was fun to talk to some kids my siblings ages! Hopefully we are able to teach them.
For my Avengers friends... during one of our lessons, this kid turned on End Game in the other room and it was so distracting I was like yeah fat Thor!! And my companion hasn't even seen it yet so she was trying not to listen haha. Too funny.
Everyone here has a dog! If you know me you know I'm not a huge fan (sorry) and neither is Sister Bingham so you can imagine our shock when like 7 tiny dogs come barreling out of this house and chase us on our bikes! And then this BIG dog comes and chases us too! Scary stuff.
There is a cute stop on the way home with all this fresh fruit- we got mangos and cherries and they were DELICIOUS.
We met this one lady and we asked her if she believed in Christ and she said in a great accent "look at my license plate" and it just says SHE PRAZ. So that's my spiritual thought for the week everybody go pray like this woman haha. #goals
I am praying for you all from home! I definitely think about you all the time!! God loves you! The church is true!
Sister Johnson
Apollo Beach - Week 6 - August 26, 2019
MIRACLES
Companion: Sister Bingham
Hey fam!! We had a baptism this week for Luis so that was super exciting! And stressful because we had to make the programs, clean the font, catch the creepy salamander that was in the front (which was a terrible experience really), fill up the font, etc. The font was all filled at the beginning but when it was time for him to go in the font, it had drained a bunch! But he got under and it worked out okay, just about gave me a heart attack. Luis had a great experience though and thinks of this as his first step, which is so true. There is so much more to learn and SO much in store for all of us after baptism. It's amazing.
Fasting literally brings miracles! We fasted for someone who would be prepared to be baptized in September and then we went to church and a girl named MIRACLE said she wants to be baptized! Her sister is a recent convert. She is awesome so maybe she will be baptized in September:)
Also had my first zone conference this week which was FANTASTIC. I love the mission president and all the missionaries here!!
Gotta go but the gospel is amazing and fits together soo perfectly. We are so blessed. Jesus Christ is our Savior and we can overcome our weaknesses and trials through Him!
Love you all!
Sister Johnson
Apollo Beach - Week 7 - September 2, 2019
Truth Bombs
Companion: Sister Bingham
Hello!! I guess the big news for the week is Hurricane Dorian. Everyone in Florida is preparing for the storm, which has been a common excuse to not meet with us:/ All of the gas stations are empty and the water is sold out at all stores. People get scared. It is awesome that we have a prophet to tell us to be prepared! All the missionaries were prepared to evacuate but the storm isn't even coming this way anymore so we should be good. Maybe we'll just get more wind/clouds which will actually be so nice. (It's HOT!)
Luis is doing great and he received the priesthood yesterday! He also went out with the elders in our district for a day which was awesome. Seriously though the family who introduced him to the church are the best examples. They have just loved him and welcomed him into their home. He says they dropped "truth bombs" for years and never pushed it but invited him to church and activities and had faith that he would come when he was ready. Well he has been living the standards for the past few years and he was soo ready and now is like the strongest member of the ward. So go drop some truth bombs people!
As for everyone else.. we've met tons of awesome people but they are super flaky and we've had a hard time getting/keeping return appointments. But we made some fun posters that have helped us have cool conversations with people. And we set up a booth at the community college here and found lots of young people. So we are praying they will respond to us and keep their appointments!
We've also been bashed a lot in the past couple weeks. We get so many people telling us to be open minded and hand us their books or tell us (yell at us) we are of the devil. Haha it just strengthens my testimony though the gospel is so real!!
There is a recent convert in our ward named Margarita. She's a single mom of three and has had some hard trials but such a strong commitment to follow God. She has made mistakes as we all do but sees miracles when she turns back to the Savior. It is really cool to see how her prayers are answered through huge expenses being paid and the missionaries who baptized her calling at just the right time etc. She really has her priorities right. She reads scriptures with her boys every night and her 7 year old LOVES his scriptures. He was reading to us when we were at their house and it was the cutest thing I ever did see.
Fun fact: this is a very Spanish area and there are lotss of people named Tony and Maria so I always have West Side Story stuck in my head haha. But really if anyone knows how to learn Spanish overnight please let me know.
Also our AC went out for a good while so we slept on the kitchen floor for like 5 nights and we almost died of heat. But it's fixed!!
I have been studying the Restoration a lot and reading Saints (GO READ SAINTS) which has been awesome. The Book of Mormon is TRUE!!! I love it and it is cool to show people how it can answer life's questions and help us learn about Christ! My companion is the best because she always says, "and that is just another testimony to me that this church is true" about everything! Classic Sister Bingham. But it is so true -we have so much proof that God LOVES us and He has a plan.
(s/o to all my friends at byu. have an awesome first week!!!)
Sister Johnson
Apollo Beach - Week 8 - September 9, 2019
MO FAITH
Companion: Sister Bingham
Hey hey!!
License plate story of the week: We were asking this dude if he had faith and he goes "look at my license plate" MO FAITH
This week was kinda slow if I'm being honest because we didn’t have any official lessons! I get soo invested in the people we meet and try so hard to meet with them but they won't put in the effort and just aren't prepared sometimes so we gotta let them go for now. But we were able to have some awesome conversations with people and we have a lot of people on the radar so that it good. We just gotta have faith because God is aware of this area and is preparing people. Nowhere to go but up!
This week we did have SPECIALIZED TRAINING which was amazing. It was in Tampa and went all day long. So fun to see President and Sister Hollingsworth as usual! It was cool because there were some random friends at the church after training asking lots of questions and we got to teach alongside Sister Hollingsworth:)
The best part of the day was switching companions and finding on USF campus. It is actually way nice. I was with Sister Merrit and there were soo many people to talk to since school just started so that was fun. BYU plays USF in a few weeks and I will be soo close to the game haha. We also got Chick-fil-A even though Sister Merritt has one in her area and eats there like 3 times a week. Ha! It was SO FUN though. Hope I serve in YSA someday.
We helped two people move this week. One of the families had a tiny dog who peed on me and the dad kept laughing at me saying it looked like I peed my pants so that was fun.. lol.
Theres a part member family in our ward who just moved in. The husband is not a member but we taught him the first lesson last week and he has been reading the Book of Mormon! On Sunday he said he wouldn't mind being baptized! And we wouldn't mind baptizing him!! So we are going over this week to teach more. It makes his wife sooo happy. Plus they make the best food. So it's a win win win!
I know Emily and Megan will appreciate this.. one of the elders photoshopped our faces onto a picture of The Office so I guess that's our district picture this transfer haha. Oh my.
In Come Follow Me a couples weeks ago we studied 1 Corinthians 14:33 which says "God is not the author of confusion, but of peace." Confusion and fear is not from God. He gives us hope and peace. I love that God is the solution to our problems, he doesn't give us the problems! He loves us and wants to help us. He knows EXACTLY where we are at and what WE need. He is a God of details and he hasn't forgotten us:)
Have an awesome week y'all!
Sister Johnson
Apollo Beach - Week 9 - September 16, 2019
BOM EXPERIMENT
Companion: Sister Bingham
The drought is over!! Haha this week was awesome. We met and taught lots of cool people and God helped us meet our goals.
- We prayed one day to have a lesson with someone whether someone on our list of people to stop by or someone else. And one lady (who we hadn't planned to stop by) texted us and said we could come over to share our message! Her husband and baby were there too and we had a great restoration lesson with them!
- We were passing by one of our friends one day and they were in their garage playing pool and invited us to play and said we could teach them a lesson. So we did!! And let me tell you God helped us with our pool skills because it was actually a pretty close game. And they offered to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon if we won.. which we didn't but they promised to read anyway.
- On Sunday night we still needed to find 2 new people to meet our goal for the week. As we were about to head back we saw two people in the distance and we were like God sent us 2 new people.. but it was actually a family of 4! And we taught them about the Book of Mormon and they agreed to meet this week! God loves us.
- There is this one couple from South Africa we met who we have been trying to catch at home for weeks. We went over there and the wife was home! She said it is lucky we caught her because she is usually gone at that time. She invited us right in and her house is soo cute and filled with cute signs and trinkets it was adorable. We taught her the first lesson and she basically agreed with everything and told us she believed us and we did a great job haha. Hopefully we can help her understand that this is a unique message and she needs to pray about it lol but it went well!
On Wednesday we did the BOOK OF MORMON EXPERIMENT! Apparently our mission is a pilot mission for doing the Book of Mormon experiment but we got permission to do it at the community college campus with our whole district. It was amazing! THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE! We got 137 people to read a page of the Book of Mormon! We just asked them to read a page of this religious text and write their opinion. They didn't know it was from the Book of Mormon but they all loved their page! Lots of people said it applied perfectly to their life! It is so cool that you can learn so much and find so many references to God and Jesus Chist on every page of the Book of Mormon. We were able to tell some people more about the Book of Mormon and met with them the next day to give it to them. The cool thing is when you do the Book of Mormon experiment, you have to be yourself. You wear normal clothes (no nametag) and go by your first name. When the elders first got there they were like "hey Emily, hey Katie" and it totally threw me off haha.
Also just got transfer calls and we are staying here to finish my training but our whole district got destroyed. We have all helped people move together and taught Luis together and played soccer every preparation day so we are super sad. But we are excited for the new missionaries coming to the area. We also found out Sister Bingham and I are now on car share so we will be biking half the transfer which will be fun lol.
Well one thing I love about the gospel is we can always change and become better because of Jesus Christ! There is always more to learn and we can always try to be more Christlike. Let's all try a little harder to be a little better this week :)
Sister Johnson
