We had a Baptism

Dear familia e amigos...

WE HAD A BATISMO!!!!! Be ready for the pictures. Ok so i know i mentioned last week we would have a baptism... but during the week i was getting super worried if it would actually happen. but it did and i am so happy. This story is a good one so i hope you all enjoy... Ok here it goes!

So you know Aritson. We found him because we had been teaching his mother and his sister is a member. He was tough to get a hold of though because he doensºt have a telephone number and he lives in 2 different houses. and he may be out of town a lot because he has these horses in another area that he goes and works with. So he is a tough one. But let me begin with last monday.

So last monday we meet with him and his mom that night and have a pretty good lesson. He is still super excited to be baptized. Then comes tuesday.... haha So we had this ward Christmas party that we invited him to and then after the party we were going to have a lesson with him. Well he didnºt come to the christmas party. 

*Quick note about the christmas party... hahahahaha... ok so we walk in and there is this music playing. Not christmas music at all. haha So if anyone asks if they have christmas music in cabo verde. I think it is limited to the hymns and the regular music we listen to everyday. It was pretty funny. We were there for the spiritual part of the party though thank goodness. We saw the little nativity they did.... well i think it was a nativity. You know how good as it gets. But donºt worry Aunt angie and Trey... there were joseph's shooting guns.

Anyway back to Aritson. So we donºt find him tuesday. then comes wednesday. WE also do not find him. If any lessons fell through we tried looking for him but still couldnºt find him. at this point we were pretty worried. We left a note at his house though and said to meet us at our lesson the next day at three. So then comes Thursday. CHRISTMAS. we had a great breakfast... a great weekly planning.. a great lunch of some oreintal rice you will soon see. haha and then we went to our lesson with him at the chapple that was supposed to be at 3... WEll there was no one at the chapple.

So then we couldnºt decide where to go looking for him. So we decided to pray like good missionaries do. haha. But in all seriousness it was good. We prayed to know what house to go to and find him. Before the prayer i was feeling going to his house that was across the ribera. After the pray i didnºt feel any different. Sister zimbelman said "lets walk" So we started walking. I was just praying we would find. him. And then sister zimbelman said... " is that him" Right as we were about to cross the ribera we saw him coming up the road!!! We were soooo excited. If we had gone to his other house we would have gone the opposite direction and totally missed him. It was definitely inspired we found him. 

but the story doesnt stop there. Friday was his interview at 12 with the district leaders. WEll he didnt show up. Luckily the elders live forever away on the other side of the island and didnt have a bus ride until 430 that afternoon. So we were kind of praying our lesson after lunch might fall through so we could find him... (i mean not really praying but you know) it did. so we searched. WE found him just in time for the elder to interview him. He passed :) apparently he completely forgot about the interview...

Well it doesnºt stop there. Baptism. No one was there on time. haha but aritson. So we called around to find keys to the baptismal clothes. We finally find keys. But there are NO clothes. the elders had taken them to their area for a baptism a few weeks before and not returned them... i donºt know how we didnºt have any clothes but we didnt. we finally decide to do the best thing yet... CALL the bishop. hahah

Luckily our bishop is amazing and he has this secret stash of white clothing. So we finally get the clothes like 30 to 40 minutes late but that is ok. And then.... he was baptized and confirmed yesterday on sunday! YESSSSSSS

You canºt really have a normal bapstimal story on the mission. I dont think there is such a thing as a perfect baptism.

But anyway the baptism changed Aritson. Really. He was totally different sunday night when we had a lesson with him. He was soooo willing to learn. I think it surprised him how he felt different. He had a testimony before the baptism but he never showed total excitement. But yesterday he was humbled and willing to listen instead of trying to show us his knowledge he wanted to learn. I think that is thanks to the Holy Ghost. What a gift. The holy ghost is the real teacher. And i am so grateful for that. 

I know this church is true! I love you all so much. Something i studied this week in the book of mormon was in 1 nephi 10:17 and 11:1... Nefi had this desire to know the things of his father so he searched diligently. Then in 11:1... he sat and pondered. Then the spirit taught him. I have noticed that i study study study and then pray pray pray... and get up and go or study some more. This is good and all but i havenºt taken the time to ponder. In the introduction to the book of mormon it invites the world to read, PONDER; and ask god in the name of jesus christ if these things are true. Ponder is a big part of it i think. I have seen the change it makes in my studies as i choose to sit and ponder what i am learning. the spirit can really speak to us this way. And i have had the time to really remember my Savior. I love this opportunity and fact that i feel the spirit testify to me everytime i testify of the savior that he is our redeemer and through him we can return to live with god again.

This church is true ya'll... Fica fiche. (stay cool)

Ohhh and christmas... i loved speaking to my family but i have to say one of the members gave us something special... Coca Cola!!!! I donºt know what the rules are on that with us drinking it and stuff but anyway... yeah best present second to family and finding aritson was drinking Coke. I am becoming like dad....

Love

Sister Johnson

Baptism

 

Meeting Aritson

 

Week of miracles

Ola familia,

This week I will label as the week of miracles. haha... mainly because we found some people who are really prepared for the gospel in their lives. Yesterday was hard though because none of the people we taught who were super prepared came to church... so i think.. WHAT are we doing wrong??? After church sister Zimbelman and i talked about it. We thought that we are working as hard as we can so we cant get discouraged with ourselves or be too disappointed in ourselves. As we talked about it though we had some good thoughts about how we can do better. 

One of those thoughts were talking about the importance of church in our lessons. this week we did a lot of talking about the importance of partaking the sacrament and keeping the sabbath day holy. i thought we did a good job of getting across that our investigators needed to go to church. Then sunday comes and we see only a few of our investigators. I love the ones who did come, but the ones that did not come... it really hurt not to see them there. So as we talked about how we can do better we thought about the reasons that these people are missing church. The ones that are prepared said the reason they didnt come was because they accidentally slept in.. or something crazy came up. I see now that Satan is working so hard not to let these people come to church. He is having crazy things come up or making them sleep in. So sister zimbelman and i thought about discussing this with our investigators. Letting them know that now they have made this great decision to be baptized it wont always be easy... something will always come up. But they have to make the decision now to go to church and push through adversity. We had one lesson last night where we had to tell our investigator he couldnºt get baptized this week because he didnºt go to church. he seemed really upset about it. I realized that we need to let them know the importance of church and help them realize the effort it will take to go and also give them the confidence to be able to do it. 

Yesterday was a little depressing because they didnt come to church. But i will try to focus on the miracles that really did happen this week. For example, we have been praying for someone who will be ready for baptism. We had one person in mind but he doesnºt have a phone and last week we didnºt even know where he lived. We just kept praying to find him. And the end of last week... we found him. It is amazing how the spirit works. Because we had a lesson with his younger brother that night, the brother is Romario and the one who we were praying for is ARitson. Anyway the lesson before Romarios fell through. We were going to just go to our plano alternativo  but we decided to go early to our lesson with romario. And what do you know... it wasnºt him who was there... it was Aritson! The guy who is ready for this message. We were so excited to see him. And he was about to walk out the door. With minutes to spare... the Lord led us to the one who was ready. I just love this. We were able to have a quick 20 minute, but powerful lesson with him. And we recommitted him to baptism. :) I was beyond happy this day. And in all honesty when i think back to moments like this nothing really can get us down. We just have to remember all the good times during times that may be more difficult than others.

Another miracle i just love is last week... remember how we emailed super later than usuall? well it turns out is for a reason. We were pretty upset the place we email at closed on us.. so we were all complaining about it how we had to email super late... haha well we ate our words. because right after we get done emailing we see a member with his friend. We contact the friend and set up a date to meet with him... his name is Stephen... stephen has investigated the church before... Well at the time i thought nothing of it until we had a lesson with stephen. It was so powerful!!!! he committed to pray about the book of mormon and we set a date for baptism! He just had big eyes the whole time during the lesson and we could just see the spirit working on him. And it is even better that he is a reference from a member because he automatically has a great friend in the church. So we meet with him again today and i am super excited. So even when something you THINK isnºt supposed to happen.. happens... it really is supposed to happen with the Lord. he puts us where we need to be or puts people where we are. I have really seen that this week.

Love you all so much. 

Sister JOhnson

Love

Sister Johnson

Barco

Fast Ferry

Pres and Sister Matthews

Fast Ferry JK

Worlds smallest banana

Ok so this week was great

Ola!

Ok so this week was great! I only have like 20 minutes to email at this time because this place closes but i will email back a little later in the day. probably in like 3 hours... for those of you reading this in real time.

But for those of you who arenºt here is my weekly update.

So this week was good. a lot of lessons were falling through in the beginning of the week which was hard to cope with. we were so excited for all these investigators and we could never meet with them. but one thing i really noticed was every time we had something fall through i felt like we were where we were supposed to be and we were able to talk to someone else we needed to talk to us. 

For example... one day we had the bishop teaching with us. which was great. One thing we are really trying to work on as a companionship is really use the members more. my 12 weeks booklet really emphasized working with the members last week. this is so huge and so important. they really are the way that the work is going to go forward. so it was a big plus having the bishop sacrifice sometime to teach with us. So we had this lesson with a recent convert. but he wasnºt there... so as we were walking to our alternative appointment the bishop asked if we could stop at another less actives house. they are an old couple we had just met a day before. they have work every sunday so they do not go to church. this is a problem for a lot of the people here. but this couple has a goal to go to the temple so they need to make sure they are going to church and partaking of the sacrament. so anyway they were home and we ended up having a lesson with them...

now i will pause the story there as i talk about what we did before this lesson. WE had a district meeting. and in this district meeting we talked about the importance of revelation through church attendence and how we teach people how important church attendence really is! so we did some practices and learned a lot from them...

well now back to the story... we walk into the lesson with the less active couple and we end up teaching almost the same exact lesson we had practiced in district meeting a few hours before. it went so well. and guess what is even better... they still had excuses about work and things when we left.. but this sunday.. THEY WERE IN CHURCH. TOGETHER. not just the wife. this really made me feel so great. and they stayed for all three meetings. i hope the spirit sparked a change in them.

something i have learned is church attendance and partaking of the sacrament, more importantly, is soooooo important. and we need to do a better job as missionaries of getting this importance across to our members and our investigators. i have been amazed at how much stronger i feel the spirit and how much stronger i appreciate the atonement of Jesus Christ when i take the sacrament on my mission. i really do feel the forgiving power and also the enabling power of the atonement. And also something super cool is the sacrament is renewing the covenants we make at baptism. so it is like baptism all over again. 

I would call this week the rescue because we talked to a lot of less active members and met with a lot of them. if we could just get the less actives back to church we would have a ward so big we would need to split! And one way to do this is by sharing the importance of the sacrament and having them remember how they felt when they were baptized and that they can feel this SAME renewal as they partake of the sacrament. i just love this fact.

I love you all.

So glad to hear bama won... and also i am SOOOO sorry Whitney.. i mean sister johnson 2... and Dad about your birthdays. I promise i remembered... but then happen to forget while i emailed. so HAPPY BIRTHDAY to both of you. I love you both so much :)

love

sister johnson

The Fast Boat

Dogs are everywhere

We killed Sister Barros

Aunties made apple pies for Kiana and her companion

Love my companion

Ok so what a week,

First off. I just love my companion. She is so patient with me and so kind and loving. Like obviously i cant speak the language super well... obviously... but she has been a saint in allowing me and making me speak in the lessons. and she is so patient with what i say and allows me to make mistakes but also is so patient when i ask for help. the goal this week was to let me take the lead in teaching the restoration... so that was good. haha especially that we had sooo many first lessons this week. 

so the restoration... after this week passed i looked at my companion and i was a little discouraged and told her i didnºt know if i had learned anything about teaching the restoration or if i had gotten any better at it. she then asked if i felt like i could teach the restoration in english... i said yes. because i really do... and then she said: then you know how to teach it. it is just the language limiting you know and you will learn it little by little. it will come. that helped me a lot because i was discouraged about not getting any better at teaching lessons. but i think a good indicator is if i feel i can do it in english then i must be getting better at it. 

ok so my companion is really great with awesome advice all the time. we have become friends now.. which i told her is bad because now we talk non stop and sometimes talk through the night... haha so we are working on exact obedience and really trying to get our studies in even if we have all sorts of stories to tell. haha sister zimbleman is great.

so best experience this week... was JOSE AND DIRLIN. they are investigator family. a really beautiful family with a boy and 2 girls. we talked to them about the book of mormon in the beginning of the week and one day while we were walking to go exercise we saw jose at work reading the book of mormon. he had a big huge smile on his face. he was so happy. and then the lesson we had the next day was incredible. we talked to them about keeping the law of chastity and they told us they knew the book of mormon was true. they had a smile on their faces the whole entire lesson. both of them. and i could literally see the change in their lives. incredible.

so i know the book of mormon can change lives. it really can. it is incredible to see. the book of mormon is the evidence we have today that we have a living prophet... that we have personal revelation and that we DO have the church of jesus christ on the earth today. it is His church and he leads and guides it through a living prophet. i love this. and the proof and evidence is the book of mormon. it testifies of chirst and we can get closer to christ by reading it. and i know it is true.

the second great thing that happened was a funny experience... it wasnºt funny at the time though. so we have these doors that automatically lock when you close them. and so if you dont have the key.. you canºt just walk back in and get it... so one morning we left the key in the apartment... i had my key but it wasnt working because they other key was in the other side of the door. so we prayed and prayed for a miracle. all the windows were closed... there was no way to get back in. while we were praying though i felt that this experience wasnt going to be for us. it was for whoever we would meet in the process. we ended up making a lot of contacts that morning that we would not usually see because in the mornings we are always studying. and we happen to meet a carpenter. and he miraculously opened our door... with some handy work. so we talked to him a bit... gave him a pamphlet and picked a day to meet with him and his family. the lesson ended up falling through. but i hope we find him again. but i know whoever we met that morning or talked to or invited needed to happen. all things happen for a reason. so although we were really upset about our door... it isnºt about us... it is about the people

i love it in santo antao. this place is great. i really love the people. they are so beautiful. but i have decided i am in the rock climbing area... we climb this like cliff thing to get from one zone to another... it is pretty exotic. i will have to take a picture of it. but it makes me laugh because this place really is not america. haha and i am climbing rocks to get to people... how cool is that??

i love you all

sister johnson

What a week

The beautiful Primeria-they had a primary program

Dear familia e amigos...

What a week! I have decided that sundays are the hardest on the mission. mostly because it is judgement day. it is where we see what investigators will actually come to church... and yesterday we did not have the numbers we were hoping for. it was a big let down for me and kind of discouraging. i felt like we werenºt doing enough through out the week to help these people realize how important it is to come to church. i have noticed the small and simple things really do bring great things to pass. for example, when investigators stop reading their scriptures or stop saying their prayers we can tell a big difference in them and in their progress. the same is when they choose not to go to church. i feel like we start way back at square one. but i have to keep positive and realize these people have thier agency. and i need to keep doing the best i can do.

this week i would say the highlight was the zone conference. the food was the best... haha just kidding. the spiritual feast was really the best! We talked about the mission goal... which is mcvp. mission cabo verde praia. so first we have being master teachers... then we have c is consecrated missionaries. i love talking about consecrated missionaries. this was my goal to learn how to be one before my mission and i have learned that on my mission it is a process. but the zone conference was really helpful. we talked about our agency and our will. our agency is the one thing that is really all ours. and the goal is to learn how to give it to god. we read a quote that said giving up our agency is really the one surrender that is actually a victory. i love this. i decided to learn how to better give my will all to the lord and what he wants me to do day to day and what he wants me to be. and it wont be losing anything i will be gaining so much. this is also a process. but it excites me to. the fact that we can truly give our will to god. it is exciting.

so after the zone conference we had to take the barco.. ship... back to our island... but the only one left was the fast ferry. mom... i am so sorry but you will probably never be able to come to santo antao.. the only way is to get here by boat and on the fast ferry imagine being on a rollercoaster... or that ship ride at lagoon... for 30 minutes. Never again!!!!!!!!!! i even get sick on the regular barco... but the fast ferry was... well death. the two other sisters with us were vomitting the whole time. sorry for the details... i never actually threw up but man... i had a headache so bad the whole time and felt like i might. my companion and the district leader came out the best... our district leader was ready for more... we begged for him never to make us take that again... it was rough. but back to happy things...

i think my favorite part of the week was finding domingas and her boyfriend bemvindos... they are great. the day we saw them bemvindos was in a bad mood... or just really sad. we told him that our message can help him through difficult times. and his face kinda lit up and he got kinda hopeful. so we set a time to meet with them. come to find out domingas is actually a member. hasnºt gone to church in 20 years. she sat in the lesson and we talked about the restoration. bemvindos said he would study it out. he seemed pretty sincere about it to. and during the lesson domingas wasnºt really into it... but after the lesson we marked to talk to them again and sister zimbleman quietly asked domingas if she would help us teach her boyfriend. that was an inspired question. domingas got really animated. and she got super excited to help out. i think she just needed to know she was needed. she doesnºt want to feely needy.. but that fact that we need her really changed her attitude. and come to find out this sunday a member knows her really well and has been asking her to come back to church for years. she has been planting the seed and now she is prepared to make that step again in her life. i am really excited for them in the coming weeks!

this week sister zimbelman and i made some goals for the companionship. we talked about a lot of ideas and a lot of things we wanted to improve on and i think by doing this we got pretty overwhelmed. today we talked about how we are actually going to accomplish these goals. making goals has always been a struggle for me. i feel like when i make goals i never complete them. so then i get discouraged and just decide not to make them in the first place. because i always want to improve on so many things i always want to make so many goals... and then i get discouraged. but today sister zimbelman suggested that we make a list of what we want to do as a companionship... this list may get long. but then we will prayerfully pick the one thing we want to do better and make a goal with that one thing. i learned again that by small and simple things great things are brought to pass. it is always little by little.

 

i am loving santo antao with all my heart. i have definitely found loving the people is easy. but the hard part comes when i try to find the best way to serve them. so my goal this week is to also find ways to better serve the people. so when we teach the doctrine they will have open hearts and want to listen to us. and for the members, want to help us in this great work. we need to members in this work. for one, they understand creole better than i do. and they know the people here and where they live, what they like to do. i noticed this week that investigator families opened way up when we had a member present that they knew really well. so we need members, but we also need members who are friends with these people. and that is another reason why references are super important as well. we will have a built in member friend right there. i hope to better learn how to use the members in this work and work with them and help them get excited about the amazing spirit that comes when we teach the gospel and help others come unto christ.

i hope i never leave here... like in alma 17:23... i want to stay here... perhaps until the day i die.. die in the mission at least :) hahaha i have been studying alma 17. what a great chapter for missionaries. today i learned i need to be patient in my afflications. and then the lord will make me an instrument in his hands. 17:11 i think... patience. :)

Love~
Sister Johnson

First Week in Cape Verde

Kiana in Cape Verde

Houses in Cape Verde

Baptism


ola familia and amigos

the first week in the mission... it was great! my trainer is amazing. she said she was just like me when she came out on the mission so we relate well to a lot of things. 

my biggest problem right now tho... THE LANGUAGE.... This stuff is sooooo  not portuguese. i am in Santo antao, porto novo area and they speak creole here more than any other area... i have no idea what is going on... i thought creole would be super similar but it really is not. it is completely different. so i am trying to be super patient and positive. this way i wont know what anyone is saying for a while but once i get portuguese down i can understand creole and not have problems later in the mission if i get transferred to a place of much creole.

so i have needed to rely on the spirit a lot here.

the first thing i would say i need to improve on is that i need to be more direct with the baptism invite. i have invited a few people in all our lessons and i notice they look at me and either don´t understand what i am saying or do not realize it was actually a question for them to answer. sister zimberman then has to step in and help me out. but i think the highlight of my week was yesterday when we taught a menos ativo and her family. she has 8 children but only 3 or 4 live with her. there were 3 of her kids there last night and 1 friend of the older boy. they were speaking so much creole i did not get anything out of it. but after a few minutes i realized sister zimberman said something about scriptures to the mom and about reading just a verse everyday. so i thought to share a scripture with them and ask them how they felt. it took me a few moments to have the courage to actually say something. i was going to keep my mouth shut and wait until i really knew what was going on... but then i knew i would regret it if i didnt say anything. so i did and after we read the scripture, ether 12:4, we asked them how they felt. and they all said good. the one little boy said he felt something in his heart. and my comp asked if it was good or bad. and he said good. he had tears in his eyes and i was amazed at the strong spirit.  we asked them to describe that feeling and we talked about the holy ghost. i think paulina (the menos ativo) realized that she can just read a verse a day and still feel the spirit. she does not have to read the whole book of mormon in one day to feel the spirit. so i think that was good. even though i had no idea what was being said i know they felt the holy ghost like i did.

Church yesterday was good... i think it was amazing. i mean i felt the spirit even when i didnt understand much. but i was asked to bare my testimony so i did and i mostly expressed my love for the people. i really do love them. these people are so strong and have strong spirits. they are soooo humble, but confident in what they have. 

basically everyone looks like me... so i thought they would all assume i was cabo verdian... well i was wrong. they all know i am american or something else. i do not know how. they must know once i start speaking that i am not from there.

but the people are great. a lot of members are willing to go out with us. they are all so young. the average age of members here is super young. i think it is in the 20s. 

so what are some cools things about cabo verde... they have cobblestone streets everywhere so it is super hard for me to walk. so running in the mornings outside is out of the picture. but we walk to the chapel and run around the little parking lot. that is pretty fun. the food... not like the mtc but i am getting used to cereal.. haha.. and spaghetti... umm what else? yes it is africa, but it is not the normal africa. people have concrete houses and keep them nice. the funny thing is they build their houses and if they do not have enough money to finish them they just do not finish them... so there are a lot of houses, a lot a lot a lot of houses, that aren´t finished and just sit there waiting to be finished. but i think it makes this place beautiful. 

in the area i am in we can see the mountains and the ocean at all times. it is super cool. and we can see the other island across the way. right now it is 11 almost 12 o clock so idk what that means the time difference is. 5 hours maybe?

Well that is about it. i love it here. i just need to be patient with the language and love the people and serve them. i think i am still in that new missionary daze that people get into. i have this glazed over look in my eyes i know it... but all is well. the lord is on my side and this is what keeps me going. read the scriptures, even one verse can change peoples lives

i love you all so so much

tchao!

Sister johnson

Made it!

ola familia.

I made it to praia last night and what a day. We got through the airport... a couple of them didnt get bag but i got my bag. i have gotten my companion and the area i am going to. I am going to santa antao island and porto novo city. My comp is Sister Zimberman i think it is spelled like that. She is from Utah..

i will fly to sao vincente and then i will take a boat to my island. look it up... haha it is cool. i am very excited. very tired right now but cant wait to get to work

we are at the pres house. 

talk to you on pday~

love you

On her way to Cape Verde!

Dear Family and Friends,

It is the time! Can you believe it?? I leave for Cabo Verde tomorrow!!!!! My excitement is off the roof.... Wow. I am going from winter to summer in just a few hours. 

So I am excited for that. I know it will be a long flight but that means I have a long time to practice my missionary skills and talk to everyone. I can't wait to talk to people... real people. Not just missionaries. 

Well... now that i think about it... i have talked to one real person while here at the MTC. She is a lady named Leah. She comes to the MTC to get taught. She is so amazing. I will send a picture hopefully. But she is not of our faith. But it has been amazing talking with her and seeing the similarities that we have and what we believe in together. 

This last week was great. I expected it to be not great because everyone was so ready to leave and not "enduring to the end." But surprisingly we really did a good job of learning all we could until the last second... I am still trying to learn all i can. :) 

We had a last testimony meeting as a District on Sunday before people started departing. And I didn't really know what to say... I was just listening and taking it all in and then all of the sudden it was my turn to stand up. I usually think about what I am going to say before hand... But this time i didn't. I was a little nervous but then it just came to me. I then bore my testimony on the truth that Joseph Smith is a true prophet. In all honesty i think that testimony was for me more than it was for anyone else. The promise that your testimony grows when you share it is truly real.

The first week in my mission i remember listening to general conference and hearing how important it will be to gain our own strong testimony of Joseph Smith as a profet. I got a little discouraged because i thought to myself that i didn't feel i had a rock solid testimony about it. And i felt bad that i will be going to Cape Verde... and Telling all people about the message of the restauration and i don't have a sure testimony of joseph smith. So my goal for the MTC was to gain one. And finally on the last sunday i stood up and i bore testimony of it. And i think that is when it finally clicked. I referenced Doctrine and Covenants 6:22. The one that talks about casting your mind upon the night when you knew for a surety that something was true. Doubts will come... But i need to always remember the times in my life when the spirit was soooo strong i couldn't deny that This church has the fullness of the gospel. And that made it clear to me that i already knew joseph smith was a true profet... I knew... I just needed to remind myself and stand up and bare testimony of it with a strong firm statement. And so i bare my testimony to you all now that i know Joseph smith was a true profet. He restored Christ's church again upon the earth. he gave his whole life to this church and this gospel and i know he saw Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in the grove of trees. I know all this to be true.

I know this gospel is true. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ upon this earth. I love it. So much. And tomorrow i will be in the world and i will be a representative of him among so many people. I hope i can live up to this calling. I am so grateful for the opportunity to declare this gospel. 

I love you all so so so so much. Sorry this email isn't so detailed. I had a great week. Next week will be full of crazy adventures i am sure. 

Love

Sister Johnson.

Last week in MTC!

Ola Familia e amigos,

Ok so what a week. I feel like i say this every week but it is true. What a week. Ok so at the beginning of this week we... well i had a tough time. Sister Megan Eliason went home for medical reasons. WE haven't heard from her yet but i hope to hear from her this week. I mean it all just happened so fast. All of the sudden it was night time and we find out she was leaving at 4 in the morning. What an emotional rollarcoaster. And also that day we find out an elder in our district was also going home. Complete surprise. It was family issues. But i really had to take a step back and think about why i am here. What is my purpose. As a district we went to the top floor of our building and looked out at the Provo Temple. Temples are the goal WE want ALL families to be together for eternity and that is why i am here. Days are tough but it is all for a bigger purpose. I am so grateful for Dad and how he sent a quote "This life was designed to be a test-- a test to determine if we want to be a part of the kingdom of God more than we want anything else." That was by Sheri Dew. Speaking of her she came this week with Sister Nelson (Russell M Nelson's wife). Sister Nelson spoke to us. But Sheri Dew let us sing a new hymn that was created. It was so beautiful!!!

But anyway our purpose is to invite others to come unto christ. That is it... right there. Speaking of devotionals we had Rosemary M. Wixom talk to us last week. EEkk super cool. her main question was "What think ye of Christ." From Matthew 22:42. she then gave us 3 subquestions... a) how do i know Him. b) How do i follow him. c) how do i love others like he loved. And i really think about How i know my savior. I have been studying his life lately. Mainly his last week before he was crucified. Because i want my last week in the MTC to be like his. He never ever stopped teaching and loving and ministering even when he knew it was almost over. Our Savior is the PERFECT example. I want to dedicate all my time to His work. It can be hard sometimes . We have to give up our personal fishing nets. Like Peter did... 

I love elder Hollands words as he described what the Savior might have said to Peter and the Disciples. "I need Disciples, and i Need them Forever." How are we being disciples of Christ? May i suggest one way to help those of you at home. Sister Nelson mentioned dedicating our life to HIm. IN everything we do... haha even our sleep! She also said dedicating our time on Mobile Devices to him. and all electronics. If we dedicate our time on technology to him it is the best filter that we can have. All our time is God's. So if we are spending too much time playing games or watching pointless videos maybe we can change that and do things that will uplift and inspire others. All we do should be to progress the kingdom of God here on Earth... Just a suggestion but invite all of you to try it this week especially. Try only going on social media to dedicate that time to God and uplift and inspire. 

So for me i thought about how i can change one thing in my life to better serve my Savior? I thought about it and i think the hardest thing for me is probably the thing i need to work on first. I have noticed a have problems getting frustrated and impatient very easily. I just want to say out loud "Get thee hence Satan." But then I just get even more mad that i am even mad... It is a struggle. But i have realized this frustration stems from one thing... it is pride. Let me explain.

When i think of a lesson or a scripture or a good idea, I get really happy and excited for the lesson. But when, say my companion or someone else thinks of an idea i look for ways to change it and find things about it i don't like. I don't know why i do this. I am like Tamone off of Lion King... always trying to change Pumba's ideas... haha But in all honesty it needs to stop. I find it hard for my to compliment others on their successes or spiritual growth. idk.. It isn't good though. So i have decided to try and be better. Not get so jealous or angry when someone thinks of a better idea than me. It isn't because the spirit wasn't working with me, we just are both growing together. So yeah... i need to be more sincere and complimentive and swallow my pride!

In closing i learned in 3 Nephi 15 something cool about personal revelation and recieiving and understanding what the Spirit is trying to teach us. REad it. the people in jerusalem didn't understand what the Lord was telling them about other sheep because of their unbelief and iniquity. Believing and having faith are two things i have been trying to study because i have encountered an investigator who struggles with the concept of faith. Faith in Jesus Christ is so important. and blessed are those who believe and have not seen! More blessed are they even... that is a scripture i just don't know where.... sorry i am learning. Love you all!

OHHHH and I AM GOING TO CABO VERDE NEXT TUESDAY. I will send you the flight plans mom and dad. But i got my visa all is good to go and i am out of here next week. I am beyond pumped. :) 

Love 

Sister Johnson

2 more weeks

Ola familia and amigos,

This week oh man. I only have 2 more weeks here at the MTC. and it is a little crazy to think that. I am super excited to go. But i will Endure to the End and learn all that i can. I hope i go straight to Cabo Verde but I  understand if i get reassigned. It will be weird preaching the gospel in english though if i do. Portuguese has been all we could use. I told my companion yesterday i have a hard time saying Jesus Christ in english because in portuguese the S sounds different. Anyway i must admit it is nice having english speaking problems. Maybe this language will actually come after all. 

This week we got to hear from Elder Godoy of the Seventy. He spoke portuguese in this last general conference. he is a beast!!! Such a hilarious guy. He talked to us about the advice he would give his kid when they go off on a mission. So he told us what that was. And it was Alma 26:22.

What a verse. So it gives us 4 things we need to do to be awesome missionaries. 1. Repent. 2. Pray continually. 3. Bring forth good works. and 4. Have FAITH. he goes through the process of each one and says how if we repent we can be a good missionary... and return home worthy if that is all we want. Then he said but if we pray continually we can really help people and look outward like the savior. We can turn into great missionaries. Then if we bring forth good works we can be even better. And then if we have FAITH we can have the two promises listed in this verse as well. and one is that we may know the mysteries of God. And this is personal revelation. We will know what to do when to do it and what to say and how to say it. And then the second promise is the one i love the best... We can bring thousands... THOUSANDS to the knowledge of the truth. 

My companion and i have been talking a lot about faith and becoming consecrated missionaries. I let her read that talk. We have been discussing it and trying to change our lives so that we can be consecrated. We even have key words for when we get discouraged or don't have faith. And one is that "we have never run a sprint we regret." Like in basketball how we hate sprints but we always do them and never regret doing them.... Because they benefit us. So when we are tired of studying or just wanna close our eyes for a bit and doze off.. we can't! Because we are on the Lord's time and we won't ever embark on study time we regret. I won't ever read a scripture i wish i didn't read... haha 

So along with that i have been studying the Christlike Attributes. Wow. What a chapter in Preach My gospel. I am glad dad is studying those. They are amazing. I think we all need to do a better job at that. It tells us at the end to pick an attribute... study it... and then do stuff in our lives to change. I picked the attribute of diligence for a few weeks. I think that is one i need to work on the most right now. I have also made it a plan that i read D and C 4:2 every day so that i can really evaluate myself and think about how i have served God with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. And in doing that i can stand blameless before god at the last day. That is a great promise.

So a little about our investigators this week... We have one that is really uneducated. Like a child. haha So we had this great idea to teach him as a child. We used some props. Like they do in primary. We got an apple and a seed and taught him about faith and how it starts out like a seed. it went well. I saw his eyes lit up as he kind of understood. The only problem is we ask good questions... teach... but then when it comes to invite our invitation becomes unclear and not specific. We are really trying to do better at inviting. That is such an important part of teaching. WE need to invite them to do something so that they can come unto christ. And we are teaching people... not lessons. So we need to make sure that person in front of us... they are the most important and the invitation needs to be specific to them. 

Our other investigator made me mad yesterday... i know... not Christlike. I was sooooo frustrated while preparing the lesson for him. He is stubborn and says he feels good but doens't know for certain and all sorts of doubts. I just want to throw a book of Mormon at him... Which is bad. so i won't. But I really was upset. I felt satan pushing my buttons. I don't know why i let it go on so long. I started making all sorts of excuses to why i was mad... my poor companion. But Heavenly Father was so patient with me and he is so forgiving. I finally was able to swallow some pride about the whole day and just get it out and ask for forgiveness and change. Our lesson yesterday ended up going very well... not great... could always be better. But we are getting there i can feel it. 

I love you all so much. I know this church is true. I know we have a Savior Jesus Christ and his Atonement is real. We can be forgiven for all that mistakes, big and small, that we make and i am so grateful for this. Repentance is real. Em nome de Jesus Cristo, Amem.

Love 

Sister Johnson :)

Down Hill Slope

Dear Familia e amigos,

Eu te amo! This week has been much better than last week! Incredibly better. So we have this investigator who is named Guilherme. did i mention him. Well he is a firm catolica and his wife has been learning from the missionaries and wants to be baptized. So he decided to take some discussions. At first he wouldn't even let us in the door. haha. But we somehow said enough at the doorstep for him to let us in. Our first few lessons were good. We asked a lot of questions just to see where he was at. We discovered he finds it very difficult to believe there are modern profetas today. He said that Christ was the greatest teacher and all we need is the bible. These are all great concerns and at first i was worried because he is such an intelligent guy and thinks very logically about everything. So bascially i bore my testimony on how i wasn't very educated like he was, but i knew this gospel was true because i had felt it and the Holy Ghost testified. It was powerful but afterwords i wasn't sure he felt what i felt. Anyway...

Our next lesson we shared with him Eph 4:11-14 about how we need profetas today. "until we all come to the unity of the faith." That pertains to now this day. not just in bible times. we also shared with him Matt 7:15-20 about how "by their fruits ye shall know them." We testified of Joseph Smith and my companion recited the first vision perfectly in portuguese and then we told him the Book of Mormon is the Fruits of Joseph smith. The book of mormon is the key to gaining a knowledge of the truth. We invited him to read Moroni 10 and he said he would. That lesson was powerful so for our next lesson i was SURE he would said he recieved an answer and that he wanted to be baptized but couldn't because his family or something. 

so we prepared a lesson about having the courage to follow the Lord even if your family doesn't agree with your choice. The lord will help you through it.... WELL... he didn't recieve his answer. He still said he has difficulty beleiving it is true. So at that moment i had no idea what to do. But I know the spirit honors preperation so i prayed and prayed silently the spirit would guide the rest of the lesson. And he did.... Wow..

So during the opening prayer i felt we just needed to stick with the lesson plan. So we did. Just put it into a different perspective. We used the example of Nephi in 1 nefi 2:4, 16. How nefi had to gain his own testimony about leaving all his possessions and friends. In verse 16 he prays and cries unto the Lord for HIS OWN ANSWER. He seeks out that knowledge. We simply read these verses to Guilherme and it was incredible to see the light bulb. I asked guilherme how he can know.. even though it is difficult for him to believe like it was difficult for nefi's family to leave.. how can he know for himself. He shook his head and smiled and said "I understand..." Or "entende" We asked him to pray and he said he would. Wow... the spirit led that lesson allll the wayyyyy. I love how that can happen. 

I didn't really think it could happen with me! But it did and I know now we all need to prepare but always let the spirit guide. 

I also learned a lot about Baptismal covenants this week. Thank you dad for always asking me "am i keeping my covenants" I understand what that means now. And i invite you all to reread what it says in Mosiah 18 about our baptismal covenants. And work harder to really follow them. Similar to Elder Hollands talk.. are we comforting the poor and the needy? It is so important and i think we all can do more to help our communities and those around us. 

I am on the down hill slope now. Crazy! We said good bye to our ZL's this morning. They got reassigned because they didn't have thier Brazil visas. But we sang a little spiritual rap for them that some of my sister helped me make up. It was super funny. Dad are you proud of me? I am following in the footsteps. haha but everyone loved it. And also a shout out to Micah for his bday! Hope it was a good one. I love you. also a shout out to Holzaphels for the cinnamon rolls. My district and I LOVE them. thank you!!!

Love Sister Johnson 

'Hard as things seem today, they will be better in the next day if we choose to serve the Lord THIS day."

"Unto the least of these..."

1 Corinthians 15:10 is my new mission motto

Convidar as pessoas achegaraem-se a Cristo. Nosso proposito por vive.