Hello to all of Sister Kleisler’s family and friends.
This is Sister Johnson, her companion. I’ve decided to write her group email today. It was a surprise for me that we were going to be comps again. Sister Kleisler does this thing on transfer night where she calls up all the sisters and finds out if they are getting transferred or not. She creates a transfer tree and then by logical deduction she calculates where everyone is getting transferred to and who their companions will be and so forth. She’s usually pretty accurate. So she calls me and Sister Dodge down in Pleasanton and I tell her I’m getting transferred and then I asked her if she knew who my new companion was going to be. She totally knew we were going to be companions again, but of course she wasn’t going to ruin the surprise, “Oh…I think you’re going with Sister Byrne. Yep, she needs a companion so I’m pretty sure that who you’re going with.” So then for the rest of the time before transfers I thought that I was going to be sister Byrne’s companion and I told everyone that because rarely is Sister Kleisler wrong…So the day of transfers comes…AND…Sister Dodge is super sick—I mean super sick. So we ended up missing the transfer meeting because there was no way we were going to get up to transfer meeting which is an hour away by 8am in the morning. Nope, not going to happen. So we sat at home and waited to go up for the 2nd transfer meeting when Sister Dodge’s companion would be coming down from Austin. So there Sister Kleisler is at transfer meeting and she knows she’s getting me, but I’m no where to be found. The AP’s do the call outs, “And in the Encino Park area we have Sister Kleisler AND……………” AP’s always have to add in this dramatic pause so Sister Kleisler broke the suspense and said, “She’s not here.” I can just see Elder Delio’s jaw drop, “How do you know who your companion is? You always know!” “Yep.”
So Sister Kleisler had to wait for me until 3pm when the next transfer meeting would be. The only problem being that all the Sisters left so she was stuck without a companion. So she went to the office and helped the senior couples with stuff and then when the time came she got a ride back over to the church. During this time I couldn’t handle the suspense so I called the AP’s and asked them who my new companion would be. I guess it was their turn to spoil the surprise. “Who do you think your new companion is?” “I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking you.” “Guess.” Ugh. Elder Hunt always make you guess. “No, just tell me.” “Okay, okay. I’ll give you a hint: it will be a reunion.” “Uhhhhhh…..Sister Kleisler?” “Yep” “No way…whoa” I could go more into my verbal response but it would have just a babbled mess of the words “awesome” and “cool.” My vocabulary has decreased substantially since I’ve been out here.
Anyways, on with this very exciting story…So sister Dodge and I pull into the Church parking lot and Sister jumps out of the car filled with Elders and does her strut over to me and yells, “Are you ready for this?!” I smile, “Yep” Sister Kleisler clarified,“Dude, We’re companions!!!” “I know.” “How do you know? Who told you? Someone’s going down!” So thus it was—united once again. The AP’s came up and shook our hands, “The Dynamic Duo reunited at last.”
For the next few days we were like giggling school girls: We had so much to get caught up on and we stayed up each night talking and talking. It was so cool to teach together again. We taught Elsa who is not a member and who is living with her less active boyfriend. We tried to commit her to baptism in December but there are obviously some lifestyle changes she’ll have to make. She wasn’t against the idea, but it’s a pretty big decision so we’ll see what happens. But the lesson itself was really neat. The spirit was there and Sister Kleisler and I went back and forth pretty seamlessly. Its was cool. We also taught the Oakley family this week. They were sick for two weeks apparently and it has really dampened their flame. We will still work with them, but we’re going to have to do something to rekindle the fire that I guess they used to have. I finally met Emylie which was cool. One of the neatest things about coming here is to see how much the members and the investigators love Sister Kleisler. They just love her. She’s got a real talent of making people feel special and successful and people are attracted to that. A huge chunk of the ward is giving out Book of Mormons because Sister Kleisler and Sister Davenport told them to…getting members to hand out Book of Mormons is not an easy task unless you have mad people skills. It’s neat.
The other night we ran into a guy out in a parking lot. He chatted with him for a bit. I told him a little bit about the history of the church and our basic beliefs. He was kinda if-y and it didn’t really like seem like he was going to be super interested. But then Sister Kleisler jumped in and bore a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. She taught a little about where it came from and then told him her own personal feelings about it. That was the turning point in the conversation. Suddenly he let us set an appointment with him. We brought Papa Smith to the appointment and it went really well. John, the investigator, told us that he wasn’t really interested in what we were talking about the night before, “But I was intrigued with what you said about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.” As he said that he pointed to Sister Kleisler because he was obviously referring to her testimony the night before. It was cool. Who knows what will happen, but it’s just one more instance where testimony penetrates and touches a soul more than bare facts ever will.
So guess what happened to Sister Davenport? Well according to Sister Kleisler, Sister Davenport was going to be transferred up to Austin to serve in a Spanish area in South Austin. Well, she was right about the Austin part, but instead of getting sent to the Spanish area, she was sent back to her very first area on the mission. She was in that area for 6 months before and that’s actually the same area that her and I served in when she trained me almost a year ago. So by the end of her mission she will have served in the Anderson Mill area for 9 MONTHS! Crazy.
Anyways, there’s not much else to report on. Life is beautiful, not always easy, but beautiful. I love serving with Sister Kleisler because she has touched and strengthened so many people out here with her love, her endurance, her child-like wonder, and her ever-increasing faith. Nothing gets in the way of her love for the Savior—even if it means plowing through heck and back.
She loves you all...a lot,
Sister Johnson
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