MOORABBIN - Week 32 - June 7, 2017

Quick shout out to my amazing companion Sister Fong because today is her 6 month mark on her mission. you go girl.

Well this week has been super long and a little rough. All of our investigators have their finals right now so they are too busy to meet. it has been discouraging that we haven't been able to meet with them, but it has given us time to GQ and meet new people so I guess that is cool. Also this week we have been GQing by Monash Campus, and it is awesome because we are lucky and usually run into our investigators who have been dodging our calls. haha they can run.. but they can't hide!

This week we had a lesson with our new investigator Wu. She is an older lady, probably in her 40's (which is super exciting because all our investigators are usually students so it is exciting to teach someone who isn't!!) but the lesson didn't go too well. It turns out that I am not fluent in Chinese yet and Sister Fong and I stumbled through the entire lesson. The lesson was actually a train wreck, but she wants us to come back and teach her again later this week! (miracle!!!!) We will defiantly need to review because I'm pretty sure we taught her that the Holy Ghost is your soul, that we vote the prophet in, the prophet maybe get paid and is maybe the pope...? BUT it was a learning experience and I am glad because it has really pushed me to study Chinese more intensely and work even harder.

This is the last week of the transfer and I am excited to see what happens. I hope to stay here in Moorabbin (with Sister Fong because I love her!!!) and we do have some pretty keen investos that we are will finally be able to meet with this week! :) But whatever happens I know that it will be for the best. The Lord truly knows what we need to grow and become the person He wants us to be. I love this work.

Missions are a rollercoaster of emotions and it is crazy how fast it goes from a high to a low. I truly love it though and I am grateful for the lows where I am forced to rely on my Savior Jesus Christ. 

I love you all and I am so grateful for your support, prayers and love.

have a good week.

xoxo,

张姐妹

Sister Johnson

Great Mother's Day Call

Year Supply of Tim Tams - she has a new favorite treat

They got Tim Tams from their Zone Leaders
for finding 5 new investigators to teach last week.
Elder Young and Elder Feigleson

Her Favorite Candy Ever.

MOORABBIN - Week 31 - May 31, 2017

Man this week has been so long. It’s been over a week since the last p-day and wow it’s been long. but it has been so good and so many miracles. 

  

This week we got our goal of 5 new investigators and it was truly a miracle. Right now all of our investigators are doing their finals so NO ONE wants to meet which is super frustrating. BUT by some miracle we were able to find 5 new people to start teaching this week :):) also bonus is now we get tim-tams from our zone leaders because earlier in the week they said if we got our goal of 5 new investigators this week.. they would get us tim-tams. SO WIN WIN. 

We had interviews with President Vidmar this week and he is such an awesome man. He always knows exactly what to say to help and encourage me. I love talking to him and learning from him! He is inspirational and it is amazing how close he is to the Lord. He is the best example!

Saturday was really special! We did a zone fast from Friday night to Saturday night and holy cow I don't think I have seen such instant blessings come from fasting as I have this week. Our zone was fasting to have more success, find more people to teach and for the investigators we have right now. IT WAS AWESOME. Sister Fong and I were really focused on fasting to find new people to teach and to help our area. On Saturday night it was pretty cold so we were planning on staying in our flat and doing calls and studies, but we both felt that we needed to GQ. We went out and were walking around and I was pretty discouraged. It seemed that no one wanted to talk to us and I was so cold and just wanted to go home. I said a prayer and told Heavenly Father that "I am cold but that I am going to try my best to GQ" and then asked Him to "bless me that I might help someone tonight". Well that simple prayer was answered not once, but TWICE in the 2 hours we were GQing.

#1: I was walking around and I ran into our investigator Victor who I GQ'd into a couple weeks ago, but he has been so busy we have only been able to meet with him once. We talked and holy cow he is amazing. I talked to him on the street for a while about school and what he has been up to but ended talking more about Jesus Christ. It was a great conversation as I testified of our Savior and His love for all of us. Right before he left he said to me, "I am honored to have seen you. I feel so much better and you really helped me tonight."

#2: I started talking to this guy on the street, Kevin. We were talking about school and random things, and then he really opened up to me about his work and his life. Through his tears, he told me about how much he is struggling, feeling so alone and with his work and said, "do you think religion can help me?" with tears in my eyes I was able to testify about how this gospel can help & bless his life and teach him about prayer. It was so amazing. After this incredible street lesson, I didn't think it could get any better, but as he was leaving he said to me, "Thank you so much for talking to me. You really helped me so much tonight." I can't even begin to express how grateful I was to Heavenly Father for answering my prayer not once but twice with almost the exact same wording as my initial prayer. I know that Heavenly Father truly does hear every single one of our prayers.

During our fast, Sister Fong and I really tried to focus on praying as a companionship more often. We decided we were going to pray every 15 minutes as a companionship, so that ended up being over 50 prayers. It was honestly insane how close we were to the Spirit and how much our companionship was strengthened. 

On Sunday after church it was REALLY cold (like no joke I wanted to cry it was so cold, but I knew if I cried my tears would freeze to my face!!) but Sister Fong and I were determined to go out and GQ. We wanted to try and find new people and were praying for a miracle that somehow we would be able to find 2 new investigators. WELL PRAYER IS REAL and we were both able to teach a street lesson and set up times to meet again! I shared a short message on the street with William, and then yesterday we met with him again and he is SO PREPARED. He has great questions and has a real desire which is great! I am so excited to continue meeting with him and teaching him. He is awesome :)

This week has been amazing. I have seen so many answers to my prayers and have been able to feel more than once God's love for me and for the people I am teaching. Heavenly Father is so aware of all of us and what we need. I am so beyond grateful for this gospel in my life and for the opportunity to be a missionary. 

I love you all.

Have a good week!!

xoxo,

张姐妹

Sister Johnson

Favorite Cereal ever.

Sisters' Breakfast

Selfie for the Week - "Look Mom what I can
do with my eyelashes"

Out GQing in the Fall weather

 My (Alyssa's) Chinese name is zhang. Sister Fong's is fang.
So we always call our companionship the zhang fang.
So when we saw this license plate we about died. It is meant for us! :)

Holy Moly, some big leaves in Australia

MOORABBIN - Week 30 - May 21, 2017

Family and friendsss!

Well first off I need to tell you all that President Vidmar CHANGED OUR P-DAYS TO WEDNESDAYS from now on. This will allow us to break up our week so that we can work harder every day. It will be a little weird but I think that it will really help us not lose motivation towards the end of each week :)

This week we found 2 new investigators and it is a miracle because they are both soo keen! We met with Yi (one of our new investigators) earlier this week and he was so curious about the Gospel. He knows almost nothing so we are teaching from the ground up, which is so fun and actually really nice. During our first lesson we introduced baptism and talked a little about it. We told him that Aleita (sister Cahoon's investigator) was getting baptized on Saturday and then he asked us if he could go and watch!! Like ok this has never happened before. Usually we are the ones asking people (begging them sometimes haha) to come and see a baptism but HE ASKED US! so that was awesome!

He came to the baptism and he LOVED it. He said that he felt super good and could feel peace. He said he felt super awesome and could feel the Holy Ghost!! So amazing. Then on the train on the way home we were talking to this girl, and Yi was pretty much telling her all about our church! He was telling her about missionary work and what we do. Sister Fong and I were seriously blown away! He is amazing and we hope we can continue to work with him and help him!

Also this week on Friday night, things got crazy. hahah Sister Fong and I had just finished our companion prayer and I had just gotten into bed when we heard this super weird and really scary noise coming from our living room. Turns out that our heater is suuuuuper old and even though IT WAS COMPLETELY OFF it was making this loud noise. we thought it was going to explode. long story short because our heater is a gas heater we were a little freaked out and called our zone leaders at 11pm. They couldn't figure out what it would be and they called around to some of the other elders who had lived in our flat previously to see if this had happened before. They then finally got back to us and we all felt that it would be better if we stayed the night at another flat because we were all a little worried about what was going on. The zone leaders told us to grab our stuff real quick and after a few phone calls said we could go to the Waverley Sisters' flat for the night. We grabbed our stuff and left to the Waverley sisters' flat right after midnight.

When we got to the flat we realized we didn't bring a few things. We had forgotten towels for our shower, didn't have our toiletries, I didn't bring shoes and Sister Fong didn't bring a shirt for the next day. BUT when we were panicked and were grabbing our things to leave, I made sure to grab the Weet-Bix (yummy cereal) and Sister Fong grabbed her Patriarchal blessing. We made sure to grab what was really important in case our flat exploded and our stuff was lost. #nice. The people from the office came to look at it and they are going to have someone come to check it out and such. but yeah we just can't really use our heater because kinda weird. but yeah they said it is safe but just feels unsafe. they are also looking for a new flat for us. so hopefully in a couple weeks we will be able to move! Yeah so we don't have a washer. We don't have a heater. our water heater sometimes does a mini blow up thing and smells like smoke. yeah I don't know where we live. But  I am happy:) and love being a missionary.

Well yeah that was pretty much our week summed up :) It is has been pretty good and defiantly a little crazy. but I think that is just what a mission is. I have learned a lot about prayer this week as I have been trying to make my personal prayers and our companion prayers more meaningful. When we ask the Lord for help and we ask Him for specific things, He really will answer us and help us out. He will and does answer our prayers EVERY time. 

I love you all and I miss you!

I will talk to you next Wednesday! :)

have a good week.

xoxo,

张姐妹

Sister Johnson

 love, Sister Johnson and Sister Fong

 even better jumping picture. oh yes

Sister Fong and I made a pizza and it was so good

 I got a yummy crepe - in front of the City Library

Sister Fong put a leaf in my braid when we were GQ and thought it was super cool. 
She wanted me to wear it for the rest of the day.. haha yeah no.
It is getting to be Fall here.  Here comes the cooler weather.

MOORABBIN - Week 29 - May 14, 2017

Well first off, Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there! I look up to all of you and am forever grateful for your love and support. and HAPPY MOTHERS DAY TO MY MOM!! I wouldn't be here if it weren't for you (well quite literally...) but thanks for being my best friend.

This week was quite a long and a little discouraging week. A couple of our investigators dropped us this week which is always so hard. It is hard to not get discouraged when our keen investigators have to drop us and no longer want to talk to us. but it is ok. I am confident that they will come back, just when the timing is right.

Finals are coming up at the universities here, so the rest of our investigators have been pretty busy. It has been a bummer that we haven't been able to meet with them but they are all still doing really good :) ... I hope... haha

Sister Fong and I have set some goals for this transfer and have decided to really work hard and give our all. Even though we haven't been able to see many of the results right away, we have seen miracles this week! 

One miracle was that while we were GQ (side note from Nikky - I asked her what GQ was and it is Golden Question, it used to be referred to as tracking.  They ask the Golden Question - would you like to hear more about Jesus Christ and his plan for you?)  - this week, we got 46 new numbers!  Most of them can't meet until after finals in June, but it was amazing that we were able to find so many prepared people who are willing to meet and learn more.

Skyping home and talking to my family today was a miracle and one of the highlights of the week! I miss you all so much!!

I love being a missionary. I know there is no where else I would rather be right now in my life. I have never felt such happiness in my life, even on weeks that are not so good. I love being in Australia and love (well sort of love) speaking Chinese. 

I miss you & love you all.

Have a good week!

xoxo,

张姐妹

Sister Johnson

Feels Like Home

She Loves Rootbeer, first time she found it in Australia

Zone Picture with President and Sister Vidmar
Maroondah Zone

Best Mother's Day gift ever.  She looked so good
and sounded great.

MOORABBIN - Week 28 - May 7, 2017

Hey family & friends!

Wow so yes I know that last week I told you all that this transfer I would continue serving in Moorabbin with Sister Li, but we got a call the night before transfer day and found out that Sister Li was actually being transferred!! President Vidmar found out last minute that a Chinese Sister was coming and pulled Sister Li to another area to train her. My new companion is SISTER FONG from American Fork Utah! She is the cutest and we get along great!  She even know a family who are friends of ours - small world.

This week, having an American companion has been a huge blessing. I have only been out for a transfer longer than she has so neither of us are fluent in Chinese (..yet). So teaching and doing phone calls this week has been super scary. During our lessons I have prayed SO intensely that I would be able to understand our investigators and know what they are saying. AND every single one of our lessons this week, I truly relied on the Spirit to help me out and wow the GIFT OF TONGUES IS REAL. It is amazing that during our lessons, somehow I am able to understand what is being said and I am able to answer their questions! 

We made a goal as a companionship to really work hard this week to get more investigators and hopefully set some baptismal dates. I am really excited to get out and work with Sister Fong. I have already seen some miracles working with her and I can't wait to see more this week. 

I am so grateful for the gospel in my life. I am so grateful to be a missionary! I love you all and most of all I am so grateful for your constant love and support. This church is true! 

oh and I CANNOT WAIT TO SKYPE HOME THIS WEEK.

xoxo,

张姐妹

Sister Johnson

New Campion - Sister Fong from the next town over
American Fork

Sister Fong hit her 5 months - good reason to order Pizza

Cupcakes of their District Leader's Birthday and
they frosted the cupcakes while on the train.

Melbourne at Night

MOORABBIN - Week 27 - April 30, 2017

Wow what a week I have had! This week has honestly been a week of miracles!!

I hit my 6 month mark this week and oh my goodness where does time go? 

Also today is the first day of a new transfer! I am staying in Moorabbin with Sister Li. :)

So last pday we had our zone p-day and we went to Brighton Beach. We were able to walk along the beach, take heaps of pictures and see all the famous colored houses on the beach. SO FUN! I love my MCC (Melbourne City Chinese) zone family.

This week our investigator JEFF GOT BAPTIZED!! Holy cow I can't even tell you how amazing he is! Right after he got baptized he bore his testimony and oh my goodness he is so strong. He talked about how the church feels like a second home to him and how he always feels so welcome. I know this is true from personal experience so hearing him also testify of it made me happier than I know how to write. Also at the baptism me and my MTC companion Sister Cahoon sang "I Know that my Redeemer Lives" (yes this makes 2 baptisms that I have sang at.. I know you are surprised mom.. so am I...) but wow when we were singing the Spirit was overwhelming. It was something I will never forget and I am so grateful I was able to sing along side my best friend Sister Cahoon.

Also this weekend we were able to participate in a mini mission! We had two 16 year old sisters with us for the weekend to see how missionary work is and what you do as a missionary! Sister McFadden and Sister Hope served with Sister Li and I and it was so fun! They are both so cute and were so brave! When I was 16 there is no way I would have gone up to someone on the street and started talking to them. They both taught me so much and it was awesome to be able to learn from them.

Last night we had a fireside at the end of the mini mission experience and during the fireside the Spirit was so powerful and I think I really felt/realized for the first time that there is NO WHERE ELSE I would rather be right now than serving the Lord here in Melbourne. This week I have felt true happiness and joy that comes from being a missionary. There are SO many days on a mission that are discouraging and hard, but weeks like this week are what make all the hard days worth it. I wouldn't trade my mission experience for anything.

It is starting to get soo cold here in Melbourne! For some reason when I got my mission call to Australia I thought I wouldn't have a winter & wouldn't ever be cold.. but boy was I wrong. It is only fall here and it is already pretty cold. I don't know what I am going to do in a couple months when it is actually winter! but THANK YOU MOM for making me bring so many tights! I know I said I would never wear them, but thank you for packing them for me anyways because they have SAVED ME this week. 

This week has been absolutely amazing and I have witnessed so many miracles with our investigators and in our area! I have been able to see the Lord's hand so many times in this area and this past transfer. I am excited to be able to stay in Moorabbin and continue to learn from Sister Li. The Lord knows us all personally and knows what we need in order to grow, learn and become more like Him. I love being a missionary!

I love you all! Thank you for the continued love, support and prayers. I would not be here without all of you.  Have a good week!

xoxo,

张姐妹

Sister Johnson

Alyssa Loves the Beach, and being a
Missionary too of course!!

At Brighton Beach with Sister Li

Companion Sister Li from China

Cute Beach Shacks on Brighton Beach

Investigator Jeff on his Special Baptism Day

English Mini Missions with Sister McFadden
and Sister Hope from the Ward

Getting a bit nippy in Melbourne - oh boy
and it's only Fall there.  You wouldn't
know she was born and raised in Utah and
went to school in Rexburg, but she does hate the cold.

MOORABBIN - Week 26 - April 24, 2017

Hello my family and friends!

Well not going to lie this week has been pretty tough. But even though this hasn't been the best week, it is so amazing that we were able to see so many miracles! 

This week 2 of our investigators told us that they are no longer interested and dropped us. That was hard because I know that both of them could really use the gospel in their lives! But we just have to trust in God's timing and hopefully we will be able to help them in a couple months?

Also we did a lot of GQing this week and no one seemed to be interested. It was hard and this week we were rejected soo many times. nice.

Also, a lot of our investigators right now have really strong accents. Even my companion Sister Li (who is a native from China!!) has a hard time in lessons trying to understand what they are saying. That is super discouraging and has made me very aware that I am not as fluent in Chinese as I would like.

MIRACLE OF THIS WEEK was my old investigator Tina from Glenn Waverly got baptised on Saturday! I was able to attend and it was so special! Sister Dobberfuhl and I, along with 2 Elders sang 'A Child's Prayer' at the baptism and it was an experience never to be forgotten. Yes for all of you back home this may come as a surprise because before my mission I NEVER would have done this, but Tina asked and I just couldn't say no. As we were singing I looked out and saw Fiona (Tina's cousin who is investigating as well) was sobbing. The Spirit was SO strong in that moment and I was barely able to keep it together and not lose it on the stand. I am so excited and this just might have been what Fiona needed to finally make the next step and be baptised too. Tina's baptism truly was soo special

Other happy news, our investigator Jeff is getting baptised this week and I am so excited for him. He is honestly amazing! This week he was talking to Sister Li and I and shared his amazing testimony. He was telling us that he went out with his friends and they went to a bar and all his friends were encouraging him to drink, but he thought of us! He then went on to say that even though his friends laughed at him and thought he was lame and weird for not drinking, he couldn't stop thinking about us and what we have taught him. He has such a strong testimony and is such an amazing example to me. I can't wait for his baptism this Saturday!

This week has been a little harder than usual. But, I am so grateful to be a Chinese missionary because it has forced me to truly rely on Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. I have prayed so much this past week and because of it now have such a special relationship with my Father in Heaven and for that I am forever grateful.

I am so blessed.

I love you all. Thank you for the constant support and love. 

xoxo

张姐妹

Sister Johnson

Investigator Tina on the day of
her BAPTISM!!

Investigator Jeff with Mission President Vidmar

after an interview

All the Missionaries assigned to the Mandarin

Branch in Melbourne.  Singing in Church.