Week 23 ~ October 21, 2013

Hi everyone!! Another transfer has come on gone. Lots of changes around the mission but not for me! I am staying right were I am in Colbert, WA and I am going to be here with my same companion Sister Stratton. Sister Stratton is excited we are both staying here. We have a few investigators that make it easy to stay for them. A couple fast Sunday's ago we were encouraged by our Zone Leaders to pray and fast to find a prepared family that is ready to hear the message of the gospel. Well guess what! We found ours! They are the Bradeen's. The mom is a less active member and they have two young kids. I have talked about them before I think but the mom's parents are members and have just started going back to church. They plan on going through the temple in the next few months :) perfect example for their children. We are so excited because we contacted them a few months back. all the way back in August but haven't been able to go over to their home until this past week and we hit it off so great with both the mom and the dad! Apparently my boyish attributes come in handy with cool people. He loved that I rode a dirtbike he was asking me all about it and stuff like that. I love it when I can connect with people like that. I also bore testimony about how my dad joined the church when he was 16 and how his decision to do that has blessed MY life so much! I told him how my family is special because of my uncles decisions and how my dad could have easily been just like his brothers but decided to join the church and it was the best thing he could have ever done for me in my life today. I asked him if being baptized and joining the church is something that he would want and he said yes. He just wants to do the best thing for his family. He doesn't have much of a religious backround at all so its going to be just a fresh start for everyone. Its a miracle!!! I love it when I can bless families like that. So that has been just a small portion of our week. I love being a missionary!! The Church is true the Book is blue and Jesus is the Christ!! I love you all and pray for you all often! Keep me in your prayers! I need all I can get ;)

Love ya!

Sister Tori Johnson

Week 22 ~ October 14, 2013

Well i got in trouble for not writing a long letter so i suppose i should do a long one today!! well  monday i was able to go on exchanges with our sister training leader i love sister hood so much! she is the cutest thing ever! she is a southern bell she is so cute i loved being on exchanges with her! but needless to say i was excited to get back to my own area! we were able to see so many people. we have a few investigators who are learning and are very interested in what we are teaching them. we have about 5 good investigators who seem pretty solid! Thursday was insane though! my mission president thought it was a good idea for us to have a night specifically set aside to do tons of missionary work. were were given like a week and a half to set up appointments starting at 5 and then 6:30, 7, 7:30, 8, 8:30 it was not fun! that is not enough time in between each lesson! we were in a rush all night in panic mode! it stunk! never again will i do that! but friday was awesome! we had a lesson with one of our investigators Chris. His wife just died not too long ago but i think that i have told you guys about him before but we had a good lesson with him on the plan of salvation and how we are here to have happiness and joy and our trials are in our lives so that we are able to gain experience and be better from them. he is definitely looking for the truth but we will see if he grabs ahold of it and runs with it. he is so great though and he has so much potential! saturday was the best day ever! we did so much service and helped out this lady who has cancer and cant rake up her pine needles so we raked them and ended up with 15 bags of pine needles and pine cones! those pine cones are not jsut any pine cones though! sister Stratton called them killer coneys because they were SO SHARP!!!! i was amazed at how painful they were!! so we had to gingerly put them in the trash bags! but it was so awesome i was in my jeans most of the day and so that was a treat! this week has been so great though we have seen so many miracles here in washington! the tree's are beautiful too and idk everything is just so great right now and i am so happy and i am doing well and i have the best family and friends at home and it is just the best time to be a missionary here in spokane! i love you all and hope all is going well!

Love Sister Tori Johnson!

Week 21 ~ October 7, 2013

Sorry everyone i was being lazy this week and didnt feel like writing a long email! sorry but i am doing good and everything is going good i love you all and miss you all!!

Week 20 ~ September 31, 2013

Alright everyone So the nice warm weather has come to an official end.... :( I am getting really nervous for winter. I have been stocking up on every warm thing I can find in the store so we will see how well I am doing in a couple months haha but this past week has been really great! we were able to talk to so many people even with the weather getting a little bit chilly people have still been outside working a lot. The biggest excitement this week was with our investigator his name is Davey Chavarria haha you have to roll the double rr good and strong. he is kind of a weirdo but I am starting to love him a lot. haha he is a very interesting guy. he retired from the military about 5 years ago and then now his new job is like a broker or something he was saying what he did but it didn't really make sense to me so I just kind of zoned that one out. oops not a good missionary. but oh well. SOOO that's not the point. He's an interesting fellow and so I didn't really have much faith in him progressing and putting forth much effort into learning about the gospel but as of now he is the most progressing investigator this area has had in a long time!! well since I got here which is like 4 months ago! But we had a lesson with him Monday and it went really good and the me and sister Stratton stopped by his house on Friday to chat with him really quick and we invited him to a baptism on Saturday but he wasn't able to go to that BUT we were talking about church and he was asking all kinds of questions on where it was and when it started so we were like hey come to church!!! (Heavenly Father has to throw things in our face for us to recognize them sometimes) but then we were thinking like hey he should go on a church tour before he comes to church and so Saturday night we took him on a tour and it was so great! other than the wedding reception going on at the same time..... >:[ haha its okay though we still felt the spirit so strong and then sunday afternoon he was there at church!! he had the coolest suit ever! it was like army green wool with blue plaid on it! it was seriously so cool! and then he got swarmed by everyone at the church who knew he was coming! poor guy he is a little more reserved so that might have been a little much for him but that is okay I think he felt welcomed but he stayed for two hours and he was there and it was just super awesome!!! we have another appointment with him on Wednesday so we will see what he says about church.  but I have repented a lot for this but out of all of our investigators he is the one I had the least amount of faith in and he is just so awesome!! he got a Book of Mormon from one of his XO's in the military 23 years ago and he has never read it before but he is reading it now! :) it is so exciting to see people start to accept the gospel. he says that he has never gotten an answer from heavenly father before and so he doesn't think that god will answer his prayer but we know that he will. :) well that's all the excitement over here in Colbert WA I want you all to know how much I love the Lord and how grateful I am for all of you and your support! I Love you!

Love, Sister Tori Johnson

Week 19 ~ September 23,2013

Well i am feeling lazy today so just a fair warning this is going to be a short email. its cloudy and rainy here in spokane! beautiful weather but it is getting a little bit chilly and i am a little worried because everyone says that the last few winters have been mild winters and that they are all due for a doozy :/ i am definitely terrified for my life!! So this email i thought i would give you a little idea of what my days are like. So I wake up every morning at 6:30 on the dot! I usually mosey out of bed say a prayer then try and exercise. Ask my mom I hate exercising that early in the morning so it usually isnt the greatest work out then at 7:00 I shower and i get ready. i have learned to be ready within 45 minutes. most the time i am too lazy to get too ready so i end up looking like a scrub everyday. i dont care though. my hair has gotten a lot more curl to it since i have been up here though. thats a bonus of the humidity. then i cook breakfast and get dressed and then starting at 8:00 i have a whole hour to do my personal study time. right now i am trying to power through the book of mormon and i have been marking it up like crazy. a month ago i ordered these miniature book of mormons so i have been working on marking it up before Christmas so I can send it to someone for christmas. I am at the end of 2 Nephi so I should easily be able to get it done before the holidays. Then me and sister statton do an hour of companionship study (not my favorite thing to do in the world) we plan lessons that we are going to have later on that day and then if we have extra time we usually read a talk on the atonement or something like that. im the boss so i tell her whats up. haha okay im not really that tough. then depending on the day we go out and start talking to people at 10:00 in the morning or we have lunch or we go to the library to get on the church websites and do some studying that way. i like getting on the computers because the internet videos are so great!!! my favorite one right now is http://www.mormonchannel.org/our-heavenly-fathers-plan?v=1834798902001 its a good one :) then we are out knocking on doors until 9:00 at night. its hard going over to peoples houses at 8:30 especially when they have little kids. so thats been our biggest struggle lately but its all good :) then at 9:00 we plan for tomorrow where we write down people that we want to see the next day and then we usually get done with that at 9:30 and so the rest of the night we have to unwind and write in our journals everyday is different between 10 am to 9 at night because we are able to talk to so many different people. i love being able to share my testimony with them and maybe they will feel the spirit telling them something and maybe they wont take a second thought on it . but i love being out here! tomorrow is my official 5 month mark!! CRAZY!!!!! seems like i just got out here in the field like 2 weeks ago. i have learned so much and i cant believe how much closer i am to my savior!! i love it and i love all of you! hope all is going well. you are all in my prayers! 

Love Sister Tori Johnson

Week 18 ~ September 16, 2013

So this week we were able to do a lot. Me and Sister Stratton are getting along much better now. we had a little hiccup but we are back in business! I dont know if I mentioned this before but for the last 1.5 months and the next 1.5 months we are studying the atonement of Jesus Christ. Such an amazing blessing the atonement is!! By studying it I have been able to change my whole perspective on life and who God is and who Jesus Christ is. Literally changed my whole life. If anyone wants the materials I have found just ask and its yours! But anyway to get to the point we have an investigator who is so great. She has been taught for 2.5 years off and on. She has heard everything but its never really sunk in so we started teaching her about 2 months ago and so we had to figure out what was holding her back from becoming a member. She didnt understand the Atonement and she didnt understand why she needed Jesus Christ. Perfect because we have been studying that very topic like crazy for the past month and a half! we have loaded information on her and she has been taking it well. She is such a special person in my eyes and Heavenly Fathers. I love her so much and so tonight we are going to invite her to be baptized and set a date for her to work for. I truely believe that she is ready and that heavenly father is so excited. She had dinner at a friends house on saturday with a member in a different ward but she was able to get a blessing because she has had a lot of health problems and the elders that were there having dinner with them said that she was crying by the end and just had such a strong spiritual experience. I am so grateful to have access to the priesthood of God anytime i need it. At home and out here. There is such a powerful thing about getting a blessing. Its directly from Heavenly Father, how could it not be amazing! Umm I dont know what else happened this week. I forget everything that happens. I write in my Journal every night though so I can look back later on it. Too much to remember. I love you guys so much and pray for you all everyday! Have fun and be Safe!

Love, Sister Tori Johnson

Kellogg Family

Hi Tami

We just spent an hour with these two beautiful sisters.  It is a joy to have Sister Johnson in our home and we tried to remind her of you tonight with breakfast for dinner.  She is a beautiful young lady and you have much to be proud of.  Thank you for sharing her with the north Spokane stake, she is doing a fabulous job. 

Julie Kellogg and family

Week 17 ~ September 9, 2013

Another Transfer come and gone! only 9 more to go! Time seems to be flying by! it is pretty crazy how fast everything is going! Things here are going great I have one more transfer with my companion Sister Stratton. Heavenly Father is trying to teach me to love people from Utah. Its taking more than 6 weeks i guess haha but yeah we are having too much success together to separate us now. But our area has been blowing up and i am looking forward to staying to serve with these people another 6 weeks at least! So this past weekend we had stake conference and we were able to attend the priesthood session, the adult session, and the regular session a broadcast for that. Our stake president here is very dedicated and he asked the question why is Heavenly Father hastening his work so much now? and that has been my question for a while now and his answer for it has really stuck with me and has taken a lot of my thoughts. He said maybe he isnt just hastening it for other people but for ourselves now too. Satan is working so much harder to destroy our families and tear them apart and will do anything to get one person at a time in our families, so maybe he is sending more and more missionaries out to help strengthen us as individuals as well. He stressed that our testimonies of His gospel are not set in stone that they can slowly deteriorate. Pretty scary I know!!! But he said that praying to our Heavenly Father every single day and night will help us to keep our testimonies strong. Satan is doing everything he possibly can to drag us down. I hate the thought of that but its true. He is working twice as hard to get us! So another thing the people here were counseled to do as families here is to ALWAYS have family prayer, family home evening, and family council to help strengthen the bond of the kids and their parents. I love those three things and know that those three things can help our families stay stronger and more united to help protect us from the fiery darts of Satan. It literally breaks my heart to think of the people who are struggling to stay strong in their faith and are sinking into satan's grasp. Satan does have so much power but I can promise each of you that you can over come anything that satan throws at you especially with the help and the strength of our Savior Jesus Christ. Sometimes its hard to read and pray everyday, there seems to be better things to do but not doing them is way too risky to fall into Satan. I hate Satan so much but I know it is part of Heavenly Fathers plan for us to show how strong we really are and how we can resist him. He is there to help us and won't ever leave us alone. Sooooo thats what I learned at stake conference. I loved it! I can honestly say that the hastening of the work of the Lord has saved me. I dont think I would have ever been able to come this close to my Heavenly Father and Savior if it weren't for coming out on my mission. I feel so blessed and think i am getting more out of this than anyone i have come in contact with! I beg all of you to continually do the things that will bring you closer to God. This world is too wicked to trust anything other than God and His gospel. I love all of you so much! and pray for you all continually. 

Love Sister Tori Johnson

This is my family away from you guys! This is the Bastians the three little girls are all triplets and i love them so much they are the cutest things i love them! and the mom is so great!!

Week 16 ~ September 4, 2013

This week has been CRAZY!!!! well sorry its so late in the week but P-Day was switched to wednesday this week so yeah. Not my fault! anyway we have been so busy this week! we picked up a new investigator this week and we have been eating with a bunch of members and they are giving us people to go knock on their doors and its just been so awesome!  So one house that some members told us to knock on i guess his daughter has gone to girls camp a few times and so we knocked on his door and he talked to us a while and we gave him a book of mormon and it was awesome! he was curious about what our church teaches his daughter at girls camp! but i guess everyone at his church got mad that he let his daughter come to a camp with the mormons and he told them to all mind their own business and that he can do whatever he wants with his family haha i was impressed :) but he was super kind! its nice to have some support from the members! they have started working with us quite well!! makes it much easier! okay so we use to have a rule where we could only eat with members on weekends and they changed the rules so we could eat with them every night now. (not so good on my waist! i cant pick what i eat and what i dont eat now so i have started gaining weight and it sucks) thats besides the point so it all goes through our ward mission leader but we have to keep telling him not to schedule us dinners this week because we have dinner appointments with investigators!! they are all offering to feed us and so we tell our wml that we have better plans we have only eaten with a member once this week because of the holiday it was hard to get a non member to feed us :) this area is starting to explode its almost stressful cause we cant see everyone we want to. but it has been so good. i have a family here that i absolutely love! they are the bastians they have triplet girls they are the cutest things in the whole entire world!! they are 8 years old and they just love us and we just love them i promised them when i get off my mission that i will come up here and take them snowboarding they will be 9 years old so we can get them started off early. i am so excited for that. its starting to get cooler and cooler here at night and the days are getting shorter and shorter. they say that in the winter at 4:00PM it will be dark already i am not looking forward to that at all! thats going to be so hard visiting people up until 9:00/ but its going to be all alright. im not too worried about it but it will be an inconvenience. other than the fact that we have no time spare time to breath anymore its going great! i love being busy. Transfer calls are on sunday though!! so i am getting scared i will tell you on monday whether i am staying in colbert another transfer or if i am on my way to another area its exciting but scary at the same time. Transfers are always the most stressful things out here! i love being a missionary! Heavenly Father is helping me out in every way and I feel his love and support constantly every day!! Jesus Christ is my best friend is with me every second of the day. I am so blessed to have this opportunity to serve my Father in Heaven at this time and I am even more blessed to have the support from all of you!

I Love you all!

Love, Sister Tori Johnson

P.S. if any of you send me mail send it to 

820 S Pines Rd St 101

Spokane Valley, WA 99206 

(Be sure to put my first name on the envelope there are like 5 sister Johnson's)

Blueberry Game

okay tasia you know that game we played where we ate the sour blue berries and we tried to pick to sourest one for each other haha well me and sister stratton played that game but we pulled out our cameras and would take pictures of each other hahahaha i was laughing so hard last night!

Week 15 ~ August 19, 2013

well this week as been one heck of a week!!! so awesome! me and sister Stratton are on fire!! so the week before last we got like 9 lessons the whole entire week and then just in two days (thursday and friday) we were able to get 10 lessons!! all week we were able to get 18 lessons!! we wanted to get 20 so bad but we got stuck in peoples houses too long. probably our fault but its hard when people love you to be like op sorry we have been here for 10 minutes so we have to go! but it was okay. this week is going to be LEGIT! we have our sights set high!! so to follow up with Mike, the guy who had all the problems with joseph smith, so we saw him on friday and he still had a lot of questions aparently he was really busy and didnt get to very much of the book of mormon. :( we shared a mormon message with him that will knock you off your feet though!! Mormonchannel.org and then search Testimony of the Book of Mormon. its a talk from elder holland and i tell you what the spirit is so strong everytime i watch that one! i watch it kind of a lot because i love it so much! so we had him watch that and he was impressed by it and said well thats what they say about the apostles that if it was blasphamy they wouldnt have died for the cause. so i hope so badly that he will jsut read the dang thing! he is searching so hard for truth and wants to know it so badly and he has it just sitting in his bookshelf! he just needs to pull it down and read it. but i am being as patient as i can haha one thing i have learned really well in this area is patience. i feel like an old grandma in patience level because nothing bothers me too badly anymore. thats good right? anyway umm we had 11 less active lessons and those people all drive me nuts casue im like seriously you dont go to church because someone said something bad to you like 30 years ago!!! get over it and get your butt back to church! your salvation is on the line! i am trying really hard to be patient with those people. they drive me nuts though. so we talk about the atonement and how much the savior loves them and how much he forgives them and that they should forgive those people too. i sound tough on here but i am really not that tough haha. i went to the doctor earlier this week too cause my throat has been so sore so we have been trying to figure out whats up with it. not strep, not mono, so dr condon said its probably a type of heart burn...? idk so i have been taking tons of that type of medicine but it hasnt gotten any better and its been like 5 days so he said to go back in 2 weeks so we will see what he says. i still can work just as hard so its not holding me back at all its just kind of an annoyance. all is well though. dont worry about me! umm every 3 months we have what is called zone conference where they gather 3 differnt zones together and have a big meeting. this one was SO spiritual!!! we talked a lot about the atonement how yes it is for redeming but it is also for enabling us to be able to do things that we couldnt normally do. there are tons of examples in the book of mormon like in 1 nephi 7:17 and 18 they are good! nephi is tied up on the boat and they are about to sink and his brothers are planning his death and then he prays according to his faith if God will give him the strength to loose the bands on his wrists and ankles. you know how we always say that heavenly father doesnt give us anything that we cant handle. i think i might have to argue that statement. i think heavenly father gives us a lot that we cant handle so that we learn to turn to Him and rely on the atonement for the strength to be able to overcome that challenge. that way we can increase our faith in him. well thats my testimony for the week. We can ALL do hard things but only with the atonement of our savior Jesus Christ can we accomplish what our Heavenly Father wants us to. I love you all so much! turn to the savior for everything! All you have to do is ask!  

Love, Sister Tori Johnson

P.S. the solo pic is of me at a members house the one with sister stratton is one where we are waiting for the doctor in his room :) haha we take lots of goofy pics!

this is sister barnes she is like one of my favorites in our ward she is so sweet!!

Week 14 ~ August 12, 2013

Sorry guys i was too lazy last week to make a big email i got in trouble though so i am doing it now haha but oh my goodness last week was awesome!!!! well i dont know where to start last week was great!! i cant even remember too much of it but what i do remember is that i had to eat salmon for dinner...... yuck!!! not a fan! me and sister stratton both dont like fish and so then neither one of us ate very much that night and so we were both so hungry as soon as we walked out the door! haha it was so funny as soon as we got in the car we looked at each other and said umm im still hungry the funny part was litteraly the day before we were talking about how much we hate fish and then sister stratton said she especially hates salmon ahaha thats what we get huh :) and then last night we had a lesson with the bishops wife's dad!! and you will never believe it.... He is a retired MINISTER!!! yeah talk about intimidating!! oh my gosh i went into that lesson so scared and so humble haha okay it was scary for MANY reasons first off he is an old minister... he went to college for the bible and knows it back and forth and could out quote the bible than me ANY day!!!! so scary! plus it was with the bishop sitting right there! it was scary cause he is the head guy who is over me! in the ward at least, then it is his wifes DAD so then i felt like we had to be perfect for her and THEN they have a son who just got back from a mission a month ago who knows exactly what we are doing all the time and knows what we are suppose to be doing so he could have been analysing our every move and would know if we took a breath at the wrong time. needless to say all we had going for us that lesson was to have the spirit with us and thats what we tried to do... we prayed SO hard to just have the spirit with us and i could you not that lesson, the spirit was SOOOOOO strong and it was amazing! i loved it. i think it went well. he wouldnt comit to anything but sister rogers and bishop rogers said that we did a good job and she was really grateful for what we taught and the spirit that was felt. it was the best. i had a good week other than the salmon i might start claiming im alergic to ALL fish, except for shrimp haha only cocktail though :) anyway i love and miss you guys like crazy! be safe and have fun im praying for all of you!

Love, Sister Johnson

Week 13 ~ August 5, 2013

One of the girls that Tori lived with had her grandfather pass away.  She considered it similar to the Relief Society taking in a meal and took all the girls out to Olive Garden using her "magic card".  I am pretty sure it helped the Sister feel better :)

Week 12 ~ July 29, 2013

well i am staying in the same area for this next transfer but we moved to a different house im excited for the change! i liked living on the farm before but it was so inconvenient!!! so now we moved more by the city so its a lot better. the lady that owns the house is in our ward our house still isnt in our ward but we are in her rental house in spokane. its like a block away from the library two away from walmart and the same amout out of our area as the last house so i will be much ahppier with this one! well i just got a video from tasia of family home evening last week and well i can tell you that my week wasnt that exciting! haha that sounds like you guys are having fun and doing great though! so last week there was a family in my ward who was moving to idaho and they have been packing up and getting things ready but me and my comp woudl go over there and help a lot but i lvoe this family so much! they just got baptized less than a year ago so they are all still pretty new to the whole mormon thing but their dad is def and so he would stay home and take care of the kids while the mom would work and so these kids have never been told to be quiet. and i will tell you what... these kids are CRAZY they got kicked out of their lastt church cause the kids were so insane! it is so funny i will send a picture i ahve with the family but i was so sad to see them leave! but i am training a girl that has been out for six weeks i pick her up tomorrow. pretty insane .... haha but i feel honored to be trusted with one of these new girls and i am super excited to meet her!! i am not nervous at all which is a little weird i might have a humbling experience soon haha but i hear she is nice and happy and bubbly person! this is going to be so much fun! we need to get this area progressing it hasnt had much going on for a while. its crazy how much i love my new companion and i dont even know who she is i havent seen her face yet :) its so exciting we got a new home a new comp a new start and we are going to work hard!! i love it! but other than that there hasnt been much going on this week! I am doing well and i am so greatful for the love and support from all of you!

Love sister Johnson

Week 11 ~ July 22, 2013

So it was another great week to be a missionary! we made goals and made them this week!!! that is always exciting! haha but we rode our bikes.... A LOT last week! like every day but honestly im not complaing cause i have gained SIX LBS since i got out here! super lame its not going to last! i make my comp ride all the time she probably hates it but she wont speak up and say she doesnt want to do it so im like welp if your not going to speak up then we are going to keep doing it. i love it though cause then we get to talk to a lot more people and then i dont feel so bad everytime i get a soda :/ haha we live right by a gas station so that is definitely becoming one of my weaknesses. i love root beer. i really want one right now but i wasnt going to get one today. anyway just so i can have the backs of the missionaries where ever you guys are, dont ever get mad and yell at them!! we had that happen to us and it seriously made me so sad!! me and my comp both were like torn apart from being yelled at by someone in our ward! we went over to their house to do service for them. so we knocked on their door no answer but they were expecting us and we could hear them inside so we rang the door bell and one of the kids let us in and i heard the kid go down the hallway and say that the sister missionaries were here so i just assumed it was to his mom. so we go in and the bathroom was right in the entry way so we changed our clothes really fast so that they wouldnt have to wait on us but then when we were done we stood there in the hallway like where the heck are the parents and then one of the kids wanted to show sister mcdonald a game he was playing and so she went over and was looking at it and i guess it was right by the parents doorway and then when the dad came out she was right there and was taken back i guess and so he was like rushing out the door and our car was parked in the way so we had to go out and move it and then after he leaves we go outside and start helping his wife and then he calls her and wants to talk to us and so we are on the phone have no idea what is going on but he is telling us that he feels like we invaded his privacy cause we just walked into his house without being invited in and then we stood right outside his door easdropping on his private conversation he was having with his wife (we didnt even know he was there we didnt hear anything) and then just went on and on and made us feel like crap! but it wasnt our fault so we were like what the heck! i wanted to argue with him so bad but i was just like no he already hates us we dont need to make it worse so i just let him talk all his anger out on us and then it sucked really bad! haha so lesson to this story... missionaries are fragile humans too dont be mean to them! so on saturday me and sister mcdonald got blessings and that really lifted our spirits back up. thank goodness for the priesthood!! i love it! haha but idk other than bike riding and getting yelled at that was about my week. we had a few lessons that went really great and i got tons of letters!! thanks guys! but umm idk it was a good week! anyway i love you all and appreciate everything you do for me!

Love Sister Tori Johnson

Week 10 ~ July 15, 2013

This was sort of a slow week but it was still a good one. we had a trainers meeting on thursday which was soooo good!!! i learned so much. i love going to meetings cause those are where you get spiritually uplifted and then the rest of the time week its like you use what you learned so much. then  on friday i had a doctors appointment. i have had strep throat which isnt really slowing me down too much i just have been more tired. which isnt really that fun and then so wait let me back up on thursday night president mullen callled us and said that sister McDonald's Grandfather passed away and that he was sorry and stuff and she was really close to her grandpa and so she was really sad and i didnt know what to do. Im not very good at being simpathetic so i tried my best and so then with my doctors appointment in the city on friday i had to pick up a perscription at walmart and when we got there it wasnt ready so i was like lets go out to dinner so we went to five guys cause it was just right there so i (well my dad) bought us some burgers and fries and then cold stone was just right there too so we went and i bought her ice cream too. thats kinda like the relief society bringing dinners right? well anyway i tried my best and thats all i knew how to do so i did it and so she was really greatful and i think it helped us bond a little more. she is a really sensitive person so i have to be SUPER careful what i say to her. but i think that showed her that i loved her. so we ate and she was smiling and laughing and then we went and got my prescription and so by the time we got back to our area it was like 6 because the doctors took so long and we were like ugh fine i guess we will get back to work! and then well it was good. my companion is doing really well. she doesnt seem like its bothering her too bad. im like walking on pins and needles everyday though. she is a trooper though. so only 2 more weeks of this transfer. i like have no idea what is going to happen next transfer. i am so scared to train although i feel like i had to train sister mcdonald this transfer. she knew very minimal things so i have had to try and help her without telling her how to be better cause everytime i do that she gets all butt hurt. haha anyway i am learning charity. which in my opinion is the hardest characteristic of christ to obtain but definitely the  most important!

I had to talk in church yesterday. My knees were shaking the whole time!! I hate talking in church! but anyway i read part of a talk by elder holland Because of your Faith. (really good talk) but i read the last part where he tells of when he served a mission and that he had to sell things and save up for a really long time because his was a really expensive mission and that when he got back his parents were leaving on their missions and that he was really worried cause he didnt know what to do. so anyway he goes to the local bank and asks how much money is in his account and the retailer says that all of it was in there that his parents paid for every bit of his mission and that elder holland had no idea that his folks were doing that. his dad had not bought any new shirts or ties for two years and his mom had picked up a job at a grocery store to help pay for it too. every time i think of that i think of the family i have back at home. You guys, and every sacrifice and inconvenience you are making for me and i really do appreciate it. never the less i was crying the whole time i was giving my talk and stuff... Lame!! but anyway i also spoke on the character of christ and how Jesus loves us so much! In the MTC i was able to go to a talk by pres. Bednar called the character of Christ.,... seriously best talk i have ever listened to and its an MTC exclusive... LAME!! but anyway it was so good cause he was just telling us that we need to look at other people and not even look at ourselves when it comes to needs. He said that Jesus always turned outward and that the natural man looks inward. what do i need what can i do to be happier. he says that we have to look outward. he said something like where when we are only focused on what others need is when we find ourselves. which he says it way more powerfully than i ever could but i really makes you take a step back and think like wo i need to be better. i need to be more like Jesus and stop being so self centered. I am working on Charity,, one step at a time :) haha but anyway i love you all so much and hope everything is going well. read elder hollands talk "because of your faith" its from me to you! Love you to the moon and stars!!

Love Sister Johnson

Week 9 ~ July 8, 2013

Hey guys!!

so this week has been much better!! we have been visiting lots and lots of active members! we had a training last friday that we have been using with our members a lot! we go and we tell them that they need to invite their friends and then i always show them the video of teren and brandon! :) it makes me smile every time i watch it and we watch it like 2 to 3 times a day :) i love it so much! i love where i came from and what we do there! brandon looks so cool in the video haha and then there is that big group picture of us all and im in there and i want to point myself out so bad but i just keep quiet. i do however tell them that thats my cousin teren and my friend brandon :) haha all of the members love it though. so we saw the most incredible most miraculous miracle i have ever seen! Okay so our area is pretty large. so we have our map of our area color coated. so we planned for yellow in the morning and blue in the evening and then we had specific people in those colors we were going to see. but things just kept happening where we like stalled time a lot and we still had yellow people to visit. so we were there in the evening as well. there was a former investigator who lived in yellow that we decided to go see. so we were heading down his road and i could you not we both had a stupper of thought and drove right past his house so we said okay we will try this other family real quick then head back. so we did. no answer. so we turn around and go back to the formers house his name is chris. so we drive up and him and his daughter are sitting on a deck thing upstairs and so they see us pull up and then they walk to the edge and tell us that their wife/mom is about to die from cancer and that they have been at the hospital all day and that they are just taking a breather and are about to go back. the whole time he was talking i just kept getting this thought share a scripture with them share a scripture with them. so i asked if we could jsut share a scripture really fast and they said yes they couldnt say no to that! so i was like crap what the heck am i suppose to share witht hem so i was panicing and then i got 2 nephi 4: 21 so i read that one and its about nephi and after his dad dies he says that he feels gods love upto the consuiming of my flesh so i am like okay perfect. so i share that one. and then the girl asks for one from the bible too. im like crap i dont know the bible at all!! thats next on my reading list btw but anyway so i knew i had some scriptures marked from seminary and so i was frantically looking through trying to find a highlighted one that would be good for them so i thought i had a decent one and then the girl asks me if my scriptures was only the BOM  and i was like oh no this half is the bible and this half is the book of mormon and guess what. Heavenly Father didnt want me to share that scripture cause i accidentally CLOSED the whole bible and lost the scripture and so then back to square one of frantically searching threw my bible for a scriptures and then i opened up to John 3 (or 4 i dont remember) Verse 16 thru 17 that says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son ........ and Chris says, "thats neat, i was just thinking of that scripture" oh man! my comp didnt help me out at all BTW she just left it up to me to try and figure something out! but i was like oh my gosh this is nuts so we left and so we were talking a little bit,  and he shared something that will always stick with me. i knew this before but it was such a testimony builder for me. he said something like that God will always be with us no matter what. and we can always feel his love. he said that when we dont feel his love its not because he isnt there its becasue we arent doing our part to feel his love and we arent reaching out to him. I loved that. they taught me way more than i  could have ever taught me cuase they are all so calm about her death. they knew that she was going to be alright and that things would be okay. i was so nervous cause i have never had anyone close to me die. well grandma bufa but she was old and ready to die so i dont really ahve much experience with it. but i do know that this life isnt the end and that God's plan for us is way more perfect and magnificent than we could ever understand. it was a good week. we had low numbers but that was a miracle that will always stick with me. and i know that God set our day up perfectly and put obsticals in our paths so that we would be there at that time in that moment. cause they werent at their house very long but we just happened to show up when they were just taking a breather. nope thats not me thats God right there!

Week 8 ~ July 1, 2013

Hi guys.

Another week of being a missionary!! Its been really slow in my area still. we are still trying to find people to teach. our ward mission leader insists that we go through all the members and share a quick message with each of them. so all the active and less active members we ahve seen a lot of. its nice though cause in kinda keeps us busy... but then our numbers are always really low!! which is alright i guess. im starting to like my comp more and more. it takes a lot of patience but i love her. ummm idk not much happened this week. we went to girls camp which was pretty fun. it switched things up and then we talked to a recent RM (girl) and she told some funny stories!! haha she went to brazil but she had to wait for her visa and so she served in salt lake for a while. she didnt really get along with her companion at all and they got in a big ol fight in the car and she threw something at her comp while they were driving and so then her comp called the mission president and she got to stay with them for a day and a half. no comp or nothing! she got to chill and hang out go to a family dinner and eat with everyone and just relax for a couple days. i was laughing so hard when she told me that. i loved it. i do have to admit i am quite impressed with myself. i have become quite the typer lately now that i am on a time limit as to how many people i can email in an hour and a half and so i have become very speedy :) but anyway umm i am learning a lot out here. i have been called unto repentance many times in the past week. i need to change and grow a lot before i can become what the lord wants me to be. i am trying my best though. i love serving and i love the people i meet. i just wish we had investigators to teach. that is the only bummer but we will get them if we keep working hard. the lord promises blessings with obedience and hard work and i am doing my very best and thats all he asks! but the church is true! the book of mormon is the word of God. if people would just read it they could know for themselves. i get frustrated really bad sometimes when people dont even give it a chance. its like come on! all we are doing is asking you to read it and ask God and they can know for themselves they dont have to believe us. they just have to believe God. But its not my work, its Gods work so I shouldnt get frustrated. haha I love all of you and hope you have a good week! Take care and dont forget to read and pray everynight ;)

Love Sister Johnson

Week 7 ~ June 24, 2013

Sooooo its been a long hard week and im glad its over with!! Even though it was hard physically I dont think i have ever been this excited to be a missionary!!!! ITS A GREAT TIME TO BE A MISSIONARY!!!! I love serving the lord and i really do love it more and more each day!! it is such an honor to be out here preaching HIS gospel! even though it is really hard i know that i will be blessed soon! I was able to watch the broadcast last night and well... i got to watching it on a members iphone for the first half and then an ipad the second half. they had some technical difficulties but i will tell you what, whenever they said that we will be using internet and technology i was so excited!! they said with in the year the missions will all have the stuff and guess what... i still have 16 months left so this girl will be a technology using missionary. its going to move the work along so much more i know it!! tracting has a 0% affectiveness. trust me. i know i have been doing it for 3 days straight! but i am so greatful for the broadcast cause i feel like it will help the members work harder. the missionaries are literally nothing without the members we have no success!! So everyone, you better step up your a game cause the lord isnt hastening his work for no reason! everyone needs to hear the gospel. EVERYONE and its YOUR job to find people for the missionaries to teach. not our job to find them. so step up to the plate. i am giggling inside right now cause Jake is going home in a transfer and he will be missing out on all the fun!! HA! thats what he gets for rubbing the new boat thing in my face for the past month haha. so you guys dont have to worry... he will get a heart felt letter from me telling him how much he will wish he was a missionary still while he is on the boat cause this work is incredible!! And thats the truth!! The area is a little slow though. the sisters before i got here had found zero new investigators for weeks and so we have one person to teach and she is like basically baptized already so its like lame!! we are working hard thoguh so we will figure something out. members will just have to help us find people to teach :) that makes me so excited. we have an amazing ward mission leader too. and good members!! its going to be great. last week we were going around meeting a lot of the families too and we have been trying to get them thinking of what they can do to help the work move forward. its so amazing i just want to have an ipad already :) i hope we get those cause with the college kids we would go to the institute and show mormon messages with them and they loved them!! now we can just whip them out whenever we want. i hope im not dreaming too big when it comes to the whole ipad thing. i know in washington dc mission they have them already. lucky ducks!! that would be awesome! but its hard work out here. but good work, the LORDS work. i learned that i am nothing without my savior! literally nothing. i cant do anything without him right by my side.

My comp has been a little difficult. way harder than my last one. she doesnt make any decisions and she doesnt know and of her ward. like literally no one. and i am getting mad cause she has been here 6 weeks longer than i have, how could she not know anyone!! it makes me mad and she is a terribel driver. i am scared every time i get in the car. its a little ridiculous. we can switch drivers soon though we just have to call the mission office. umm idk we met a less active family this week and we talked about the restoration a little bit and about the priesthood and how important it is to go to church. they are a super nice family and they are really like cool people i wish the gospel was stronger in their lives though. cause really everyone needs it. this is Gods church, not ours. and so i bore testimony of the priesthood how it can raise people from the dead. and stuff like that. i have seen its miracles in my life. I love the priesthood so much. and even though only the men can hold it, we have just as much access to it as the men. so they are no way better than us. but anyway. im excited to be  a missionary but i do wish i had more people to teach. heavenly father is making me work really hard and learn lots of patience. but i love you all!! Take care!

Love, Sister Tori Johnson

Note from Tabitha:

I asked Tori to send us pictures...I told her that we are all DYING to see more pictures from her.  

This was her response:

i cant send pictures anymore cause well i lost my cord to my camera moving.. and my charger and my camera case but i do have my camera still :) but i guess i do need new one of those!!! by battery is a Cannon NB-8L 3.6V idk if that makes sense but thats what it says hahaha i love yoou so much!

Note from Tabitha:

I will get it all sent out to her so that we can see her!!!  And...I'm not surprised one bit!!

Week 6 ~ June 17, 2013

So 6 weeks is now said and done!!! kinda weird i know! haha as much as that drug on while it was happening, it seemed like i just got to the field last week!!!

So this past week has been a long one! Lots of ups and downs. Tuesday stands out more because we were having a good day lesson wise and we were able to see a lot of success, but the whole day I was down and wasn't really having a good day. So 6:00 came around and Sister Judd was feeling the same way I was too I guess cause I looked at here and said, "I want a blessing" she said that she had been thinking the same thing and was trying to think of who could give us a blessing. I said a man in our wards name and she said yes. We called him up and he was completely willing to give us one. (hes the sweetest thing!!) so we met at the members house  and he gave the most simple sweetest blessing I have ever gotten. He just said that although times are hard you will make it through and what really had been bothering me he nailed it!! He said, "Your friends and family at home love and care about you, and the people here do to." I knew that I had people that cared about me, its just nice to hear it from God. That's the best feeling. God telling us things through blessings. I love the priesthood with all my heart. The priesthood power is the exact same power Jesus had when he was raising people from the dead and helping the blind see and healing the sick. I always knew that too but it just kind of hit me and put it into a better perspective for me. I love this gospel.

So that was the beginning of the week. The most recent drama happened last night.... TRANSFER CALLS!!!!!!! Sister Judd has been on pins and needles this whole week and so when our district leader called he was not gentle about the information at all!! He was like sister Judd your staying in cheney and training, sister johnson your going to colbert and your going to be co senior companion with sister Macdonald. She came out the same week as i did so we are going to be training each other. its a little weird and different but they have to do it because there are so many sisters coming out right now! Its amazing how many people are answering to the call to serve!! the Lord is hastening his work so much!! Its a wonderful time to be a missionary!!! So i will be getting a new address its:

16904 N Day Mt. Spokane Rd

Meed, WA 99021

so i will be living in a members basement with two other sisters. 4 girls in one house. its going to be fun.... NOT!!! haha they said the houses with four missionaries are harder because they are a lot more rowdy but it will be fun. i hate the sun in the mornings so im glad we are in a basement. haha heavenly father loves me so much! 

I'm most sad to be leaving our investigators..... I loved them so much and they were progressing so nicely i am so sad that i have to leave them and they are all out of town so i cant even say good bye to them!!!! its devastating!! I would sent you guys pictures from last week but my camera and the computer dont like each other. the camera is not being recognized so sorry!! i want to send pictures so bad!! but that is just how it goes i guess. 

So funny story today hahaha we had to go do "fear busting" with the brand new missionaries. thats just where they go tracting for the first time and well as most of you know i dont have the best memory in the world.. and so we got to the place where we were all meeting which is 30 minutes away from our house and i look down. NO NAMETAG!!!! im terrible at remembering it!!! i always forget it so a sister had an extra one in her back pack of her name so she let me use it so right now i am sister Guyer hahaha  but i am so mad i forgot my nametag i dont know how that even happens but such is life haha

 anyway i love all of you and i hope your week is going great!!Love, Sister Tori Guyer ;)