Katie's Mission - Carrollwood - Transfer 10

Carrollwood - Week 58 - August 24, 2020

GOOD THINGS

Companion: Sister Anderson (and Sister Rothwell)

A L O H A ! The first week of the transfer is already gone.. it has been a ride that's for sure. SO BUSY & SO MANY GOOD THINGS.

First of all, my new companion is Sister Anderson and WOW I love her. She's from Washington and she is the oldest of 6 kids. She's super fun and a fantastic missionary, we are getting along great. (PLUS she went to BYU tooo LETS GO)

We also had Sister Rothwell stay with us for a few days! She's one of the sisters who was originally assigned to Hawaii and she finally gets to go!! She is the absolute cutest and Carrollwood was so lucky to have her for a week. WE LOVE YOU SISTER ROTHWELL HAVE FUN IN HONOLULU!

The week started off slower but it has just been gaining speed until now we feel like are area books and our brains are going to explode but SO MANY GOOD THINGS. 

▪︎we had transfers which was way sad but fun to see all my buddies. COLORADO FRIENDS.. I saw elder Kelley and we got a picture! also.. we had a car swap & the assistants took the batmobile from us just sayin!

▪︎there was a RECENT CONVERT lesson/party with Victoria, Ivan, Karina, Heynar, Seve, and Bishop and wow just put all the best people in one room and it is the best!! We are going to do it every week.

▪︎we had 4 lessons with Shanda, Simon, and Fatima!! They are doing so well and are willing to put in the work and meet at the church as much as possible to prepare for their baptism on Monday! Ahh we can't wait!

▪︎we stopped by a self-referral Clara who hadn't been answering but we met her and she had accidentally put her number in wrong & she is soo ready to have lessons! I told her we help people get baptized and she asked if she can do that!

▪︎We stopped by met Heynar's mom who is SOO sweet! The hermanas are going to start teaching her. Right place at the right time!

▪︎a lady named joyce called us out of the blue asking what kind of services we offer.. she said she loved talking with us and wants to meet and have lessons.. we still don't know how she got our number but WE LOVE JOYCE!

God is so good and we have been seeing miracle after miracle and having tons of fun with the work. Being a missionary is the coolest, that's for sure!!

We shared this quote with the sisters in our zone.. "Experience has taught me that if we, like President Monson, exercise our faith and look to God for help, we will not be overwhelmed with the burdens of life. We will not feel incapable of doing what we are called to do or need to do. We will be strengthened, and our lives will be filled with peace and joy. We will come to realize that most of what we worry about is not of eternal significance—and if it is, the Lord will help us. But we must have the faith to look up and the courage to follow His direction." -Elder Carl B. Cook

I know if we, instead of looking down or around, LOOK UP to God, we will find the peace, direction, and answers we need to overcome our challenges!!

LOVE Y'ALL♡

Sister Johnson 

We also went shopping at the international mall today with our lovely office sistas, Sister Hyde and Sister Waters((:

Carrollwood - Week 59 - August 31, 2020

YOU MAY RESCUE, YOU MAY SAVE

Companion: Sister Anderson

Hey friends!! Hope it's been a good week! This week was absolutely crazy for us, Sister Anderson and I have been go go go and I almost skipped pday and thought today was Tuesday! Today we went to Lettuce Lake Park with all of the sisters. It is a park right by USF with boardwalks and trails known for having tons of gators. We saw 2 and it started pouring.

Update.. Shanda and the kids have really been going through it and so we are pausing on their baptism dates. Please pray for them! They have such a strong desire to be baptized.

This week was amazing because we had ZONE CONFERENCE & MLC with ELDER HAMILTON of the 70! *que hamilton broadway music. It was on zoom but we loved it and got so many ideas! Elder Hamilton had so much wisdom and answered so many questions for us. He talked a lot about how to improve social media and also using family history in the work! Here are some more of my notes:

•focus on the TEMPLE, lifelong converts

•bear pure testimony

•we are #helpers

•help others be self reliant and gain their own testimonies

•we are the lower lights

•"you may rescue, you may save"

•God's timing

•its not about us, it's about Him

•"did you make the covenant, did you keep the covenant?"

•use all the tools in our toolbox

ALSO Carrollwood is the best ward evvverrr and we had a fireside from a famous photographer/painter.. Eva Timothy.. her story is so cool! She grew up in Bulgaria and always wanted to come to America and find a church. She studied English for a long time and then they put missionaries in Bulgaria and she had the courage to talk to some elders she saw! The thing that stood out to her about the church is that it is a church of LOVE. She did not feel judged, she only felt love and acceptance and she was so excited! Here are some of the things she talked to us about:

•PRAY & DREAM

•follow your dreams and pray for them.. God wants to help you make them happen

•now is the time to use our gifts & talents.. God gave them to us for a reason!

•there are no coincidences

•the gospel is so perfect and so exciting

•the Savior is truly always with us

one last miracle(: we stopped by the sweetest self-referral named Natasha. She was home and started crying telling us she wants to get closer to God she just doesn't know how! We are so excited to teach her and her family this week. I know there are people out there who want to find the gospel, but know not where to find it. We are the Lord's instruments/the lower lights and need to be ready to guide those who are lost to the lighthouse and our Heavenly Father.

Love y'all!

Sister Johnson 

Carrollwood - Week 60 - September 7, 2020

LAUGH

Companion: Sister Anderson

How is it already September?? This week was great as usual! We had 2 exchanges which was super fun.

1: I went back to New Tampa with Sister Smith! She is just amazing and I learn so much from her. I don't know if yall remember him but we got to teach MELVIN THE LEGEND. && elder Briggs joined in our lesson, my fav senior couple that went home. We miss you Briggs!!

2: Hermana Griffin who has been out 2 weeks came to Carrollwood with me for the day! We had so much fun. We taught a nice grandpa named Al over video call about the Restoration and the spirit was so strong as Hermana Griffin testified of the first vision! Go Al! 

The rest of this week has been filled with making and scheduling Facebook posts, reminding the zone about their posts, inviting companionships to create posts, cookie deliveries, contacting members, stopping by formers, planning out exchanges, meeting with recent converts, the good stuff! We also got a BRAND NEW CAR, drove it off the lot and everything. No more rental:,(

In our weekly sisters comp study, the YSA sisters shared quotes from the talk Come What May and Love It! We talked about how we should laugh through the hard times and have a positive attitude.

"The next time you’re tempted to groan, you might try to laugh instead. It will extend your life and make the lives of all those around you more enjoyable."

We talked about things that have made us laugh recently.. like the interesting videos the elders submit for us to post on the page #spiritualspice  OR  trying to call our friend only to realize it had already gone to voicemail.. she is going to get a 2 minute message of me saying "hi! is this christina?" and a bunch of beeping aka me trying to press all the buttons.🤦‍♀️ I know it doesn't take a lot to entertain us but even though life can get hard or doesn't go the way we think it will, we can trust that God has a plan and we can still laugh and find joy doing His work. :)

Keep finding those tender mercies and funny (aka "weak") moments in your day. Let me know if you have a good one!!

Sister Johnson 

Carrollwood - Week 61 - September 14, 2020

SNAKES AND SPRINKLES

Companion: Sister Anderson

Ahh this transfer is going by way too fast only 2 weeks left!! Everyday I wake up and freak out that this transfer is flying by ah.

Okay this week we worked so hard and tried to spend every spare minute finding and helping the members. I believe in the power of prayer so thank you so much for your prayers and this area could really use them right now:) We did see some beautiful tender mercies!

After stopping by a million friends and members, we met a mom named lindsey with 2 cute kiddos who aren't baptized and have been taught in the past! They are ages 11 and 7, a girl and a boy.. (same as kaidan and krisley??) They are the cutest family that absolutely loves painting together AND they own a cat, a rabbit, a snake, and a bearded dragon. Sister Anderson and I almost fell over when Audra came out holding a snake. Lately some things have happened that have helped them be prepared and excited to have lessons with us! What a sweet miracle.

We have been getting several self-referrals who are kind of hard to get in contact with. Debbie has texted back a couple times about how excited she is to learn from us and become a "mormon" but she is never home when we stop by! Pray for us to get ahold of her !!

Benjamin is this super cool older guy who wants help understanding the scriptures because there are so many interpretations! He's awesome. We can help you Benjamin!!

We also went on 2 more exchanges this week woohoo.. Sister Farley came to Carrollwood with me for one day!! and then I went with Sister Wilson to be a social media specialist for a day!! We are learning so much.. so much trial and error. Hoping to get ads on the page soon so we can find more people

I love the tampa sistas!! today we went exploring in South Tampa 10/10 would reccomend. They had the cutest stores & restaurants & even a Sprinkles cupcakes shop *if you know you know. Trying to enjoy tampa while I'm still here

Even though the area is hard right now, we are finding SO MUCH JOY being missionaries. Reminds me of my favorite quote from President Nelson! "That’s it! Saints can be happy under every circumstance. We can feel joy even while having a bad day, a bad week, or even a bad year! My dear brothers and sisters, the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives." I love this. S/O happy birthday President Nelson! I'm so grateful to have a living prophet

Love you all!!

Sister Johnson

Carrollwood - Week 62 - September 21, 2020

BEAN BOOZLED AND DRIVE THROUGH PART 2

Companion: Sister Anderson

Hey y'all! Our week has been incredible and ah theres only 1 week left in the transfer where has the time gone??

We have seen some serious miracles this week!

•Shanda got back in contact with us!!! We had a lesson on prayer with them yesterday & Fatima is doing so good with her prayers

•We had another Carrollwood ward zoom call sacrament meeting on Sunday (p.s. I have said the closing prayer for every single week so everyone always expects to see me) we texted the link to every single one of our friends.. no one got back to us but 2 OF OUR NEW FRIENDS JOINED. We love you Bernae & Lindakay! They loved hearing Bishop's talk and we can't wait for our lessons with them this week!

•the YSA sisters called a former who actually has kids and lives in our area so we have a lesson set up for tomorrow!

•and so many more. God is good.

We went on exchange with the famous SISTER WATERS & SISTER HYDE aka the best office sisters ever. We doubled up on Carrollwood and stopped by so many members and friends! It was amazing. It was literally Sister Waters faith that got 2 people to join for church.. i was worried no one had contacted us at all but she said don't worry 2 people are going to join! 

If you know my family, you know we celebrate 100 days till Christmas ever Sept 16 and guess what? We got the whole tampa zone in on it !! Everyone was wearing red & green and we all had Christmas treats after district council.

Funny story.. we have to come prepared with a scripture about a certain principle for district council and our district leader makes us do bean boozled (eat super nasty jelly beans) if we get the same scripture as someone else!

So throwback to last week our district leader was late and I convinced everyone to do the same scripture as a joke.. which was actually really funny because our district leaders companion had actually chosen the same scripture as us! Whoops. To pay for this, he made all 7 of us do bean boozled this week... & heres the thing, this bean boozled is all melted and super old so needless to say, my district wasn't thrilled with me but it was hilarious. 

We also had another DRIVE-THRU DEVOTIONAL PT 2!!! It was 4 hours of us yelling at cars on the street & so much fun. Our zone became so much more unified as we taught people in their cars and handed out cookies and lemonade. Even a FedEx truck drove through. Success! We found lots of awesome people for YSA and New Tampa((:

Life in Carrollwood is so good and we have wonderful friends just starting to progress and Facebook is about to take off! Sister Anderson and I love being missionaries! Thank you for all the prayers, we really feel them! Love you all!

Sister Johnson

Carrollwood - Week 63 - September 28, 2020

FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOREVER

Companion: Sister Anderson

Hey y'all! You will literally never guess! Its transfers again and I'm STAYING IN CARROLLWOOD.. I feel like I have been saying that for months. I'm so happy to be staying in Tampa with my bestie Sister Anderson !! We are gonna get so much done this transfer.

This week has been AWESOME. One thing we discovered we can do is VIRTUAL SALT LAKE TEMPLE/CONFERENCE CENTER TOURS! So we have set up so many of those with our members and recent converts. They are so good. The temple square sisters show you a bunch of temple square, the tabernacle, the conference center, the Christus, and the temple under construction through zoom. They have been so good at connecting with our members and bearing testimony. So cool and the spirit is amazing! You can feel the power of the temple through technology. So now I have a bunch of best friends serving in temple square hahah!!

We had exchanges and I got to go back to social media land with Sister Smith love her!! It was the best & we got some great ideas.

I also have the best news ever.. WE HAD IN PERSON CHURCH FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOREVER! There was masks and gloves and no singing out loud but oh my goodness it made me soo so happy to sit in the chapel with the Carrollwood ward. The spirit was so strong. Shanda and Fatima are back and better than ever and they made it a priority to come to church. It was wonderful! And funniest thing, bishop forgot to assign the closing prayer so he just calls on me AGAIN in the middle of the meeting haha(:

I have learned so much from Bishop Patel and here are some of his words of wisdom from the week..

•2 kinds of prayers.. asking for what we need or asking what we can do to change it. 2nd is better

•ministering should help them have a spiritual experience, not teach a lesson

•think outside the box

•ammon principle: he just went in and served in whatever way they needed! teaching followed the love

•you're progressing on your mission as if each day was a Sunday so you are growing 10.5 years. Getting way more out than you put in.

•be real!

•Some missionaries love to produce, some missionaries love to love. We want the ones who love to love. They emulate how we can minister to our neighbors.

Our transfer theme is LOVE THE PEOPLE & FOLLOW THE SPIRIT. Our motivation for everything we do should essentially be our love for God!

Just wanted to share one last scripture, my new fav! Alma 26:37

Now my brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen.

I know that God knows exactly where each one of us is at and He doesn't forget about anyone. He is MINDFUL.

Love you guys!!

Sister J