More tender mercies!!!!

 Hey Family!

Can't wait to tell you about all the awesome things that the Lord has done for me and Sister Alvine recently....

1.) Tender mercy - the library is less busy today! So I have more time to email! Woot! But I still look forward to getting your snail mail letter

2.) Tender mercy - right after I had those few bad days, I got your packages and mail from you and dad and it totally cheered me up. I almost cried when I got Phyllis, I couldn't put her down, and she is my snuggle buddy at night. Who knew that a teddy bear would make such a huge difference for a 23 year old haha. Thank you thank you thank you for being there for me right when I needed you the most! And Sister Alvine started crying when she got the necklace you sent. And you keep sending her things that she needs - stamps, chap stick, she says you are inspired! She goes back to temple square right before thanksgiving and she'll be there until April, so if yall do a ski trip, you should totally go to temple square and see her. She wants to meet you so bad and she said she would give yall a tour of the square! Just a thought :)

3.) We did an experiment on Saturday that turned out super cool. I have been feeling suuuuuper tired lately and I've had to take a 60-90 minute nap every day which isn't obedient and I've felt really bad but I thought I needed it. But then I read in Mosiah 24 about how the people were strengthened to bear their burdens with ease, and so I did an experiment - I prayed and asked the Lord for strength to be able to keep the mission schedule like it says (you have an hour brake for lunch and an hour break for dinner but I was taking way more than that) and I would skip my nap that day. And guess what???? It was an amazing day! We taught and served so many people! Seriously, it might've been one of my favorite days on the mission.

4.) Sister Alvine continues to be a huge blessing in my life. She has this awesome ability to laugh whenever something goes wrong. I, on the other hand, usually get mad or frustrated or upset, but after working with her for two weeks, and I am finding that I am starting to laugh too instead of getting mad. for example, yesterday we were biking home from church and I had groceries that members had given us strapped to the back of my bike plus my heavy purse over my shoulder and my purse shifted and the weight shift caused me to lose my balance and me and my bike fell right over in the parking lot as I was trying to ride home. And you know what I did? I shocked myself and just laughed. And then when we got home, the grocery sack with all our food in it totally ripped apart and everything fell on the ground, and at first I was mad and just like, ugh, what else is going to go wrong, but then I realized that angels had probably held that bag together and not let it rip until we were home, how awesome is that? Seriously, being a missionary is so great.

5.) Ok, so I've been struggling to love the elders in my district because they are kind of punks, so we decided that we would try to find ways to serve them. And so one day we made little posters with the reasons why they rock and sneakliy taped them to their doors and ran away. And guess what! Elder  S, the one I have the hardest time with (he seems to not really like Sisters and I don't really like much about him, but don't worry, Sister Alvine is helping me see the good in him) he has been a lot friendlier to us and supportive and generally nice. Who knew? And I feel more understanding towards him too, which is awesome sauce. Service truly works miracles!

So yeah, life is great. I could go on and on, but I'm going to spread the love around and share stories with all the family today. I'm full of happiness that comes from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it's awesome. Thanks for letting me come, and thanks for raising me in such a way that I would stay once I got out here.

Love you forever and ever!

-Johanna