Week 17!

Week 17! Christmas is in less than 2 weeks WOW time is flying.

Fun fact about Sister Avery... she played the saxophone in marching band and was also the drum major. I want her to play careless whisper but she didn't bring her sax with her:(

We started off the week with a PDAY HIKE how fun... didn't think there was any elevation change at all here in west Texas but some elders found a hike. Got a bunch of cactus pricker things stuck in my leg whoops buuuut it was fun!

I had exchanges Tuesday-Wednesday! Hopped on over to Shadow Hills with Sister Beesley and Sister Williams and it was awesome. It was Sister Williams last full week in the mission last week so she was going OFF with the finding and teaching it was crazy awesome. We had a couple funny lessons, one of which with a drunk shirtless guy who kept calling us pretty and saying that he was "Pentecostal and Baptist and Mormon and Baptist." An icon:,) We also went to bahama bucks cause it was free sno day!

All of our big lessons punched this week AGAIN holy that's the worst part of being a missionary; getting all excited about someone progressing and then they ghost you for weeks:,) myyyy favorite.

We had zone conference on Friday! Talked a lot about faith in Jesus Christ and how to better invite our friends to keep commitments. I also got to play a musical number for it!

Saturday was our ward Christmas party! We had a really good turn out so it was fun when we sang carols and santa came to see the kids.

Sister Avery and I decided we want to make an effort to schedule in finding time every day without fail because we need some fresh, prepared people to teach. Please pray that we can get some:,)

As for spiritual thought, I have been pluggin along in the Book of Mormon, trying to trad it cover to cover. I'm in Mosiah at the moment and I just finished the story about Abinadi. I've always liked it BUT I realized something cool about it this week.

Abinadi went to preach once, got kicked out, and didn't come back for 2 years! Then when he came back again, the king still didn't like what he had to say, Alma was the only one who made any stand because of what he said, and Abinadi was killed soon after.

My takeaway is that, first, Abinadi is persistent. He still came back to preach to the king even though he was still treated so poorly. Second, he never got to see the fruits of his labors, which must've been hard because he knew he was going to die because of what he was saying. If anything, he must've seen Alma stand up for him and then run out thinking "well I got one but I don't know what he's gonna do about it so this was a waste."

I see this all the time in missionary work! I take time to talk to people or we teach a lesson and then get ghosted after. Yall see it all the time when you do something nice for someone and they don't acknowledge or when you try and share the gospel and things get weird. BUT YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT SEEDS YOUR PLANTING! You never know the impact you are having! Later in the next couple chapters, it says that Alma baptized those who would listen and they "numbered 450 souls." No effort is wasted, no kindness disregarded. Keep being a light! Keep serving! Keep sharing what you believe!

Love yall so much! I pray for you! Let me know if there's anything I can do to help you:)

Sister Sage Johns

People to pray for:

Lamont, Matthew, Doug, Crystal, John,

Email:

sage.johns@missionary.org

Address:

5824 4th St #1407

Lubbock TX 79416

Pictures:

1. The CUTEST BABY

2. ghetto mirror selfie