Wednesday, October 7, 2020

October 5th, 2020

 To all my dear friends and loved ones,


Thank you so much for joining me on this exciting ride and adventure. I love and appreciate everyone of you and I am so grateful for the support you have given me as I've been out here. My mission hasn't been the easiest thing, but I have loved it so much. I'm so grateful I have been able to come out here and to help others learn more about Christ and learn more about Him myself.

This last week was so good. I loved conference, as I always do. We had some people who we hope to teach who watched it as well, which was so exciting. We are meeting one of them this week to have lunch with her and discuss it.

I loved hearing about how we should be unified with others and love everyone. "In a world where you can be anything, be kind." I think that is one of the greatest things and how we can change the world is by one small act of kindness at a time.

We did some fun service this week packing snack packs for kids at a food pantry. We also did the horses again, where I so gracefully twisted my ankle as I prepped, not even jumping yet, to hop over a fence. Its healing pretty okay now, so it's nothing bad, but it definitely didn't feel nice.

We kept doing visits this week and have been contacting lots of people in our area book. We've had some good conversations from that.

I love you all so much.

Adieu,
Sister Savannah Johanson






Friday, October 2, 2020

September 28th, 2020

 Well hello everyone!


Its was kind of a weird week. It feels like not too much happened. But, I'll do my best.

We did, at least tried, to do a lot of finding this week. We've been contacting people from area Book, calling, writing letters and leaving them at their doors, making goodies, and such. It was pretty interesting. We haven't seen any results from it yet, but hopefully.

We've done A LOT of walking. I don't my shoes are gonna last. We don't live in our area, so it takes 10 minutes to get out of our apartment area before we can start getting to where we wanna go.

Jerry is doing good. He's a little overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time. But he's been taken good care of and he's gonna stay solid, so at least we have that.

Sister Higley went to the temple this week. Woohoo! Sister Chand and I stayed and we had an exchange and went to some appointments together. It was kind of weird, but it was fun.

I've been studying about the plan of salvation this week and it really helps me put into perpetual all of the things that happen in this life. I've learned more about the Atonement and it has become more real to me and I'm able to love this gospel even more, if that's possible.

I love you! Have a good week!

Love,
Sister Savannah Johanson



Sunday, September 27, 2020

September 21st, 2020

 Well, good afternoon folks,

(Or whatever time of day it is for you)

Busy, busy week here. But at the same time, not too much to report. We did a lot of visiting families in the ward this week, which was really good. We have a goal of meeting 10 families each week and sharing a message with them. It's been really nice as I've started to actually meet people who live in the ward😂.

We started Jerry's new member lessons this week, which has been good. We also celebrated his birthday with him, as well as some members who invited us and him. He is very popular in the ward, so the members just love to shower him with attention and love.

Funny story. It's kinda short, but on Saturday, we had planned on seeing a less active and had planned to be there 30 minutes to an hour. Well, about an hour before we are supposed to come over, he texts and wants us to come a half hour earlier and stay for 2 hours. And to eat dinner with him outside (He wanted us to come at 3pm😅). Problem was that we had a dinner and teaching appointment right after and were busy before, so we could only do the one hour. But, he still wanted to feed us. So what do we do? We eat 2 meals in a row, that's what we do. I was soooooo full. I was hoping I wouldn't have to do that again on my mission (yes. Unfortunately, this has happened before. A couple times) I could barely bring myself to eat anything the next day.

Heavenly Father loves us all so much. Even when we don't think He does, or we forget, or when we do something wrong. He still loves us. And He has a plan that is going to make everything work out. I've been worrying about a lot of things lately, but I just have to remember that whatever happens is going to be better than anything I could have ever imagined.

I love you so so so much!!!!

Love,
Sister Savannah Johanson



Sunday, September 20, 2020

September 14th, 2020

 Hi Friends!


Oh, it's been a beautiful week!!! Jerry was baptized on Saturday and it was so wonderful. There were so many people who loved him who were there, and overall, he seems pretty happy. Now we just gotta start getting him working towards the temple!!

There was a lot of fun stuff that happened this week. We had a photoshoot on Wednesday with some missionaries in our stake. We needed some updates stuff for our Facebook page, so we recruited one of the wonderful members in our ward to come and take some family pictures of us. Sister Higley coordinated (sort of. Elders aren't the best listeners) the outfits.

We've had some service and we have been baking zucchini bread for members and people we are teaching. We also gave some to our neighbors, who we are making friends with. There is a lady who lives above us with the cutest little boy ever! He says hi whenever we walk past.

We heart attacked our apartment building, leaving little notes and our names on our doors. People have definitely noticed and seem to like it. One lady sneakily dropped off a present at our door thanking us, as she had had a rough day and felt so blessed when she came home to see our encouraging thoughts.

One night, we had just randomly gone outside our apartment and started talking with this one girl and ended up having an impromptu bible Study with her. She loves the Savior and has been wanting to go to church. We are hoping we can keep meeting with her.

There are so many blessings and amazing things going on. I hope y'all are seeing them too! J love you!

Love,
Sister Savannah Johanson

















Friday, September 11, 2020

September 7th, 2020

 Wow Friends!


Oh my goodness, this was a busy week! When you are training someone, you have loads more stuff you have to get done and we for some reason have a bunch of other stuff too.

Okay! First off, fun new thing, we've started doing chalk every night. We have been trying to talk to people more and we always see these kids playing in this parking lot near the apartments, so we decided to do something that would let us be out there and try talking to people. It took a couple nights, but eventually the kids came up and talked to us and now we are bestie pals with them! Their parents also made friends with us and it was pretty cool and fun. The kids are SOOO cute.

We had service at a food pantry, which was so fun! I love that kind of service. It was a drive by sort of thing, so our job was to put together the stuff on a table for the people to drive up and grab it. I felt like I was back in Arkansas. Since I've gotten to Bentonville, I've felt like I was back in Utah, cuz it's so similar. But I was able to feel like I was back in my mission environment.

We slowly started getting to know the ward more, which is nice. It's so weird not knowing anyone and having to slowly figure out who people are. It usually takes a minute anyway, but now it's a little longer. But we've gotten to know some awesome people. This ward is so amazing! I love them so much!

Jerry is all set for his baptism! He had his interview, which he did great at. He was sweating buckets about that bit, but he did just fine. Now we wait for the big day on Saturday.

I've been learning about hope this week and what that means. The tricky thing about hope is that it's so similar to faith and they are so closely related that we sometimes think they are the same thing, when in all actuality, they aren't. Faith is knowing God and Christ and trusting who they are and acting with little to no understanding besides knowing that God will take care of it. Hope is trusting God and Christ when we can't do anything and we don't know what's ahead. Hope is related to a brighter future and hoping, believing that what we give Him to work with will be made enough through Him. At least that is how I like to see it.

I love you all! Until next time, adieu!

Love,
Sister Savannah Johanson




















Monday, August 31, 2020

August 31st, 2020

 Hey you guys!!!


Well, first things first. Exciting news! There are now 3 of us! We just got Sister Chand Thursday and she is a peach! She lived in West Valley City, Utah for a year before her mission, but she grew up in Fiji! She speaks really good English, but she also knows Hindi and Fijian. She so funny and it's going to be a party of a transfer.

We had some good service this week. We were able to go to Samaritan and help organizing food and making snack packs. We are hoping to keep finding new opportunities to serve around and help.

Jerry is doing so amazing! We've started putting the program together for his baptism and he is patiently waiting for the big day. He's just so ready and I'm so excited!

We had the opportunity to meet with someone who has been talking with some missionaries virtually. We learned that she is outside our area, so we referred her to the Centerton 2nd elders, but we were able to have a good conversation with her and talk about a lot of things pertaining to the gospel.

Sydney, our recent convert, is doing well. She has recently been moved into the YSA ward and is taking institute. We were able to meet with her this week and introduce her to the missionaries in the YSA ward, which went really well.

We continue forward with finding, using Facebook as our biggest tool. We've had some amazing conversations and interactions with people and been able to help some people in many different ways.

Something new coming up! Our mission is starting an initiative called Be One. Similar to Light the World, there will be a calendar of simple things to do each day to help everyone who participates be one with God, their family, and their community. I'm excited be a part of it, even if it's just for a little bit. It starts on September 1st.

I've been going back and reading some of my old journals! Oh my goodness, guys, was I a silly goose who didn't know anything! I've changed so much since than and have learned so much! I've noticed I've become a lot less of a perfectionist and how as long as I'm doing my best, Heavenly Father will take care of the rest.

I hope you all are doing good. To you I say, adieu!

Love,
Sister Savannah Johanson




Monday, August 24, 2020

August 24th, 2020

 Hey Everybody!


It's been a good week! First off, with transfers, Sister Higley and I are staying AND we are getting a trainee! So that will be exciting for my last transfer.

We did lots of service this week. We took down a wire fence, which took a long time, but it was fun! I got to see some of the members from Centerton 1st, which was nice. We also painted a fence. And we helped at the horse place again. We organized the groundskeeper's shed and washed his truck, but I enjoyed it.

We've been walking a lot and biking because we are low on miles. Thankfully the weather has been nice. I've enjoyed being more active and moving about.

We are trying some new finding stuff. We are painting some Book of Mormons and stuff and we are gonna put on marketplace. We hope to see some results from that.

The people we are teaching are doing amazing! I just love them so much! I love seeing how the Spirit works on them and how much God is in their lives and helping them. I just love them so much! I live this gospel and how much it has helped me and changed me. I love my Heavenly Father and my Savior, Jesus Christ.

I love you all!

Love,
Sister Savannah Johanson