Dear Family,

Well, this week was really great, but also quite interesting. Here is what happened.
Throughout the whole week we worked on making sure that Donnie would still be getting baptized on Saturday. The only day they could get married was Thursday and Wednesday night when we went to see them, Donnie was pretty discouraged with Melissa and her attitude about getting married. We did have a good lesson and with the help of one of the members, we got everything settled down. Donnie and Melissa did get married on Thursday.

Friday, we had our Zone Conference. It was really good, and we had really great training. In my interview with President Summerhays, he told me that I would be transferred next week (that means this Wednesday, the 23rd of July). He told me that, as of then, I would be going to Tallahassee and serve on the FSU campus. But, he still wasn't sure about everything. All he knew was that I would be leaving. So, it came as quite a shock to those in the Zone when President Summerhays made a comment about my fate in Andalusia, especially to the Elders in my district. But, at the end of Zone Conference, there was a surprise for me. Sister Mickelson was there! It was so good to see her. Her dad has a convention in Orlando this week, so Sister Mickelson and her parents came a week early and spent time in the areas where she served. It was so good to see her. I really loved serving with her.

After Zone Conference we raced home so that Donnie could be interviewed for his baptism. His interview took two hours! But, Donnie likes to talk, so I'm not really that surprised. On Saturday, Sister Mickelson came with us to some teaching appointments that we had. It was like old times being with her. And, that evening we had Donnie's baptism. It went well, and Melissa even came. I'm glad she did and I hope she felt the Spirit there. Of course, after the baptism I had to tell the members that I would be leaving Andalusia. It was really hard to have to tell them. I feel like I am leaving home all over again. And, yes, there have been tears shed and many more will be shed over the next couple of days.

That was all of the excitement for last week, but not the end of the excitement. This morning President Summerhays called and told me I'm not going to campus, but that I am going to Geneva. Not only am I going to Geneva, but I am also opening the area after not having missionaries there for 10 years and I am also training a new missionary named Sister Hancock. Needless to say, I am very overwhelmed. It is like I am reliving the beginning of my mission all over again. It will definitely be a big learning experience. President Summerhays did assure me that he would go with us to make the transition smooth. When we were talking, he said that it was like when Sister Chadwick came here and he was trying so hard to remember who came with her. When I told him it was me, he laughed and said that I get to do it all over again. I told him that I had secretly wished that I wouldn't have to do that becuase it would be so hard, to which he said I never should have thought that because the Lord knew I was thinking it. He also said that he would stay in our area long enough so that I wouldn't want to run away. I guess we'll see how things go. I'll let you know how everything is next week. We will be living with some members and apparently the members are very excited to have missionaries and are very willing to help us. That will be good.

I spent some time thinking about the Lord's timing the last little while, even before I knew I would be transferred and also before my mission. This transfer has just helped me come to some conclusions. The Lord very well has a work for each of us to do where we live. In the Allred Bugle, Mom, you wrote "Joanna is still in Andalusia, as of right now....Apparently there is something for her to do there." I'm not surprised at all that right after Donnie got baptized I am being transferred. My work to do here in Andalusia was to help Donnie come into the fold of God. And, now it is done. I know that our family had to move to Wisconsin so that Casie would come to learn about the gospel and also be baptized. And, it isn't any surprise that four months after Mt. Vernon became a ward that we moved. The Lord's timing is perfect. And, when He has a specific work for us to do He makes sure that we are there to do it and then He moves us on to the next thing He has for us to do. Those were my thoughts recently.

I love you all! I'll let you know more about my new assignment next week.

Love, Joanna

Dear Family,

This week hopefully will go better with email than last week. Before I forget, there are several things that I have been meaning to write about, but always forget. Have you met any of the following missionaries in the your mission: Sisters Lee, Kao'nohi, and Morris or Elders Gibbons and Thomas? My companion in Troy was in their district in the MTC. Also, the last YSA newsletter I got from Sister Noble said that Amanda Merrill moved to Antigo (I can't remember), but is she the one that you had invited over to our house a while ago? She was in my freshman ward at BYU and we ate lunch together sometimes. She knew Keely better than me. Do you know any of the areas where Grandpa Allred served on his mission? And, is Garrett in Alabama by now. We were going to kind of a remote part of our area one day this week, and as I was driving I was thinking about how he could be serving in one of the branches that borders Andalusia. How cool would that be?

Now, on to the week. This week we recommited George to be baptized on August 16th. The Branch President came with us, and he gave George a blessing to help him quit his smoking. However, he wasn't there for our appointment on Saturday and didn't come to Church again this week. He says that he still wants to get baptized and we talked about how he needs to prepare for baptism by coming to Church and quiting his smoking. I think their might be some of his friends that are getting to him a little bit.

We also finally set a baptismal date with Brenda. She is getting baptized on the 23 August. At first she was a little hesitant about setting a date, but she did it. Then the next day when we went and saw her, she said for sure she needed to be baptized and join the Church. Her daughter, Zabe, who went to girl's camp this past week, also said that she wanted to be baptized, too! We haven't set a baptismal date with her yet, but we are planning to set one. Zabe loved Girl's Camp and everyone loved her. After seeing the change that came over her from going to Camp and also hearing some stories from members here, I have seen how important it is to invite people to go to Church activities. I'm going to try and do better with that after my mission.

Donnie is preparing for his baptism this Saturday. He and Melissa are getting married on Thursday. When we saw him on Saturday he said that he needed to do this and get it done. I'm glad that he is realizing that he needs to do this. Melissa isn't ready to get baptized. I hope Donnie's example will help her see that she really wants to be baptized as well so they can go to the temple. Everything is set for his baptism. After so many months of preparation and work and prayers it is finally going to happen. I think this is a little bit of how the Lord must feel when one of His children finally realizes the truth of the restored gospel and makes the commitments to be baptized and then go to the temple.

This week we had another good turn out at Church. Donnie was there, as well as Brenda and her two daughters. Randy and his daughter and one son were at Church. Allison was at home with their other son who was sick. It was really good having them there and they all enjoyed it. Seeing the Church full on Sundays is a very exciting thing. If our rate of progress continues we are going to need a larger building soon. I know that is what people here have been waiting for for years.

It sounds like y'all had a good week. I can't believe that we are half-way through July and soon everyone will be going back to school. Yesterday we were visiting this lady and she asked how long I had been here. When I told her, she said "Oh, almost a year." It is hard to believe that after one more transfer I will have been on my mission for a year! And, to think that Andalusia will be where I served for two-thirds of my mission! I don't believe I'll be transferred next week. President Summerhays said he would let me know well in advance before I left Andalusia and he hasn't said anything yet.

Well, I should probably go. We have an early appointment kind of far away this evening. And, we need to clean the car for car checks. I'm not going to miss that at all.

I love you all! Thanks for your prayers and support!
Love, Joanna

Well, I just deleted the email I wrote, and I don't feel like retyping it. We had a really slow week this week and it was hard. I'm glad you all enjoyed Alaska. Who all went? I don't think many people could afford to go. We'll have to do it when everyone can go :) Oh and about my phone, you can go ahead and end it. I can get a new one when I come home. I didn't like the phone anyway. Just make sure Janet doesn't break anything else of mine (ie ROGER). But, here are some pictures. It rained and we got soaked. I love you! Love, Joanna

Dear Family,

SO, Friday we were driving to do our service and I remembered that you were flying to Alaska the next day. Maybe when I get home from my mission I can go on lots of fun trips like that ;)

Well, we had a good week. Zone Conference weeks are always good, except for the early morning. We talked about how we are going to improve the culture of our mission. President Summerhays started out by showing us the Tradition, Spirit, Honor video about the BYU football team transitioning between Gary Crouton and Bronco Mendenhall. It was really good, not just the movie part, but what it talked about creating a culture of good things. We are working on creating our culture here in the Florida Tallahassee Mission and I know it will help us see great miracles. We are already witnessing some of those miracles here in Andalusia.

This week we found lots of new investigators. I'm not sure how many will progress, but it was a miracle. Two of those are Cody and Carly. I am the most excited about Cody and Carly. It seemed like they were the most interested. They were going to come to Church, but they didn't show up. We haven't seen them since we last taught them, so I'm hoping they weren't quite sure where the Church was or their Mom didn't get them to Church. Cody had such a sincere prayer to know what the Lord wanted him to do and Carly at first wasn't even interested in learning anything. I am really excited about them. We are going to see them again this Wednesday. Another investigator and his family were at Church this Sunday for the second time. They love it and say that the things they have learned from the Gospel Principles book makes sense. I love to hear people say that, because that is how I feel about the gospel. It makes sense. I was reading in Jesus the Christ a while ago about the great apostasy and it was so confusing what people were doing to change the doctrine. I am so grateful for the restoration. I know it's true! I had some time this week to reflect on life and how I came to be where I am. The Lord has everything worked out perfectly. I know that I never would have been here if little simple things hadn't happened. I guess that is how things are for all of us.

I got a letter from Casie last week. I was completely amazed by her testimony! She is one of those recent converts that all missionaries want to have. I know we were supposed to move to Wausau so that she could learn about the restored gospel. Another sign of Heavenly Father's perfect plan.

We had a really good southern meal Saturday. We had beans (not green beans like we are used to, but the part inside the beans. I can't remember what they call them), squash, fried okra, cornbread, and tomatoes. We were going to have watermelon, but we ran out of time and had to get to our next appointment. It was SO good! I had been waiting for a meal like this for a long time.

One more thing before I go. It is a very small world here in the Church. We were over at Donnie and Melissa's Saturday, and Donnie had the July Ensign on his table. I asked him if I could look at it and as I was thumbing through I saw the article about how the Church magazines are created. I, of course, was intrigued because I know Uncle Randall works with the Church magazines and so I looked to see if he was in any pictures. Sure enough, there he was! and, last night I was going through the Church Newses that we got from Zone Conference and I turned the page in one of them and there was Heidi Beck! Small world. I view it as a tender mercy to still have some connection to the rest of the world. Well, I love you all! Have fun in Alaska and take lots of pictures and get me a good souvenir. Maybe we can get some pictures taken this week. I'm sure we'll have something fun to document.

Love, Joanna

Hello family and friends,

We are supposed to get our brakes fixed today, and I thought I would have to handwrite this week's letter, but we haven't gotten the authorization to get anything done yet. So, for everyone's enjoyment, here is the weekly email.

We had a really good week. We had so many people at Church yesterday. That is one of the hardest things that we have faced. But, yesterday we had two of our investigators and their families there! I'm hoping that we'll be able to teach all of their families. One family really loved it and the mom said that she would love to come to enrichment meeting this week. She would just have to get the dad to watch the kids.

This week I realized that Satan works in the craziest ways to stop or distract people from learning about the gospel and progressing towards getting baptized. The first instance starts with the desire to get married. Donnie and Melissa said that they wanted to just get married at the court house and even talked about doing it this last Tuesday. It was almost a for sure thing, so when we went to our appointment with them on Wednesday, we asked them if anything exciting had happened the day before. They said no, and Donnie told us that something had come up to stop them from getting married. I was horrified and every reason why started running through my mind. Donnie told us that the probate judge here in town, which is the one they have to see to get married, got arrested for embezzlement and was in jail. So, there was no probate judge. Luckily, there has been a new one appointed, so they can still go see the judge and get married. The second case was a little bit worse. One of our investigators who is making great progress found out last week that their family was going to get evicted this next week. Because of hospitalizations and disabilities which have made it hard to pay rent, they are several months behind and have no way to pay rent. It has been really hard on them. Satan works so hard to stop people from enjoying the blessings of the gospel. It is so frustrating. In 1 Nephi 22:15, it talks about how Satan will be bound and have no more power over us and that will come by our righteousness. It would be so great if that could happen now. It would make missionary work so much easier.

I also, once again this week, was reminded that I have the greatest family in the world. Yesterday we were teaching one of our investigators who has been feeling pretty upset about her family. I was thinking about our family and how everyone talks about how perfect our family is, and I realized that it is pretty good. I was feeling a little discouraged because how can I sympathize with people who come from crappy family situations when mine has been so great? I'm not sure yet, but I'm not going to complain. Seeing how hard it is to raise a righteous family today, I am reassured that it is still possible. Even though we have our moments, it is still possible to raise a righteous family. So, thanks Mom and Dad. Oh, yesterday we also spent a little bit of the afternoon with an elderly relative of some members and played Rummikub. I felt like I was at home playing games on Sunday. And, the good news is--I won three of the games! I would feel worse, but I hear that she is a really competitive player, so I gave her a run for her money.

We are having Zone Conference this week. I'm looking forward to it. Even though we have to leave our apartment before we would normally get up, it is great to receive the strength and training that President Summerhays and our Zone Leaders have for us. It will be great!

Yesterday I spoke in Sacrament meeting again. After Church, we were talking with the branch mission leader and he was surprised to realize that I had been here for over half my mission. And the branch president said that I could probably claim residency and vote and maybe even run for office. WOuldn't that be exciting? I could have filled in for the probate judge while she was still in jail.

Well, it sounds like everything is good at home. I love the picture of Afton. I'm so glad I have a cute niece I can brag about. I hope she knows that I'm her favorite aunt.

Well, I guess that is it. It was a little bit cooler this week and rained, which made me really happy. We'll see what happens this week.

I love you all!

Love, Joanna