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.

Obedience

Kiana and her friend Megan at MTC together, called to serve in same mission!

Dear Familia e amigos,

First off sorry for all the photos... i had to get them all out. But i have lots more. And plus we can only send 3 photos each email. It is kind of rough...

Anyway to be honest this week was tough. Last tuesday i had withdrawals coming off the email. But don't worry i only stayed on for an hour. Exact obedience. 100 % obedience is a process. I though for sure i would come in the mission field and never even be tempted to break any rules or ever be late for anything. I was wrong. Just like everything in life, exact obedience takes practice. there is a no gum rule at the Mtc and i love gum. So i knew i would have to give that up... But it was hard when i knew i had bad breath while i was fasting and some elders (who will not be named) offered me some gum. Haha... I didn't take it. Even though it was hard. And also having a companion... it is hard to be on time. When one of you gets ready super early the other seems to always be running late. 

But as a districto we made a goal to be at the classroom at 7 and start with a song a the prayer. The past few days it has just been my companion and i and the two other sisters. So we sing sisters in zion and have a prayer. haha... hopefully the elders will catch on. At least we made the goal though. Now we must follow up.

Goal setting is also something i am learning a lot about. Its tough. We need to make specific and attainable goals. So during daily and weekly planning we try and put specifics on things. For example: my comp and i made a goal to learn 30 words a day and 10 phrases a day. and hopefully try and memorize a scripture every day. but that one has been a little hard and unrealistic. Because now we are teaching an investigator every day. Planning and setting goals is my hardest thing. I love to be organized but i have learned i am not as organized as i thought. It is hard sometimes to decide what you want to study and what you want to work on. There are only so many hours in one day!!!!!

This week i read in 3 nephi. I wanted to learn more about Christ and his attributes and how we can become more like him. In 3 nephi 11 i love how it points out how important it is for us to always be in situations to hear the lords voice. especially as missionaries. At first the people didn't understand the voice of the lord,. Why? Because they were "conversing" as it says in vs 2. But in vs 5 it says they opened thier "ears and their eyes were toward heaven." In vs 6 they understood the voice!!! That was amazing. As a missionary i am set apart to be in the world but not of the world. I am set apart from the vain and crude and vulgar things of the world as it says in PMG page 7 or so. If i am always conversing loudly or laughing with my fellow men aka my District... i won't be able to hear or understand the lord's voice when it speaks to me. I need to have time to ponder. And don't we all. Pondering and quiet personal study is what is getting me through the MTC. the opportunity i have to listen to the voice of the lord is truly amazing. 

the language is a process. Precept by precept. Last week we taught Lucus for the thrid time and hadn't even invited him to baptism. bad. So when we talked to him he told us he could feel the spirit when we were with him. But when we left he couldn't. I had an impression to tell him if he is baptized and receives the gift of the Holy ghost he can be worhty to hear it always. But we were planning on teaching him about faith... so i didn't tell him that. Plus i was scared about the language. That was not faith. And i repented. 

I know the lord is helping me and i can't do this without him. I need to be better at letting him in and not yielding to my selfish desires or even my fears of the language. 

I need to have full confiacia (trust) in him.

I love you all! Stay amazing. And I hope meet the Mormon's was a success. Go watch it.

Roll Tide'

Love Sister Johnson

Kiana's first letter!

Ola Familia!

The MTC experience has been up... and down. Wow. What an adventure. to answer Dad's question, It has been nothing like I expected. I guess I expected to take it slow, learning day by day the little things in portuguese and for it to be just like school. But its not like that at all. We have a class in the morning with a teacher and that class is mainly language study. But after that we have hours and hours of study time without a teacher. And as Irmaou (brother) staples says, "That is where the magic happens." That is true though. That time is when i have noticed the spirit can teach me the most..

To go off topic for a second i have the BEST district in the MTC. We are all so close and they truly have amazing testimonies. surprisingly Sister Eliason (megan) is not in my district. But she is in my zone. We see each other often but don't talk too much. But of course we play basketball together and show everyone how it is done. I introduced my self to the zone and told them i played basketball but that i was "better at it than sister eliason" everyone laughed and now I have to prove it haha. But i also have the BEST companion too. What in the world would i do without her. Her name is Sister WEaver. She is the most patient and kind loving soul ever. she really was put with me for a reason. When i get frustrated she is always right there to calm me down and tell me everything is giong to be ok. We both have strengths and weaknesses. And the best part is my weaknesses are her strenghts. I am bad at patience and loving all... but she has basically mastered those two qualities. It is great to be with her. We really balance each other out. 

Oh Ohhhh... and on thursday i got assigned as the Sister District Training Leader. It is only for about 3 weeks but it has been amazing learning the responsibilities. And after getting that opportunity i have come to love the sisters in my district even more. And my companion is going to Portugal. Not cabo verde. there are 5 sisters in the whole mtc right now going to cabo verde and only 1 elder. hahaah poor guy. he calls me sister basket. (basketball.)

So moving on. We had our first investigator on Friday (sexta-feira) His name is Lucus! He is so kind and patient with us. He doesn't beleive there is evidence of a god, but he wants to. so that is a start. In our first lesson we decided to talk to him about praying and feeling the spirit. We gave him a book of mormon and some scriptures to read and asked him to pray about them. He said he would. I cried like a babay when i bore my testimony. It is amazing how i can feel the spirit in a different language. at that moment i knew that it is truly the spirit that teaches and NOT me. The spirit can touch him and help him understand even wehn he doens't understand a word i am saying. 

Funny story tho... during the lesson i was trying to compare Lucus's own fathers love with the love of his heavenly father. so after i said that i was going to tell him that Heavenly Father loves him... But instead i accidentally told Lucus that Heavenly Fahter loves Lucus' Dad.... I didn't realize i did that until after the lesson. But oh well

The lesson went well until the very end when we didnt' know how to set up our next appt and when we couldn't figure out how to say goodbye or pleasure to meet you in a good way. so we kept dragging on and on and on. finally he asked to meet with us again... bless him hahaha

But General conference was amazing!!!! I learned so much. Honestly though i think i learned too much. There is so much to digest about it. But i think the theme i gained from it was that we need to truly come to know our savior and Learn OF him not just ABOUT him. He is our perfect example on how to live a perfect life. And i also got out that i need to stop looking at myself and look outward toward others. This mission isn't about me. It is about the people i will serve. And i need to lose myself in the work and then... only then... will i find myself. I hope we can all take this into account. 

Last thing, I watched the General Women's meeting as well and focus of that was on temples. I encourage everyone to strive to obtain a worthy temple recommend and attend the temple often. There are so many blessings that come through that. I can't wait to go to the temple this afternoon. i have been waiting for this Pday specifically for that purpose... and maybe to email my family! 

I also wanted to say that the Atonement is amazing. It creates an enabling power! Sometimes i get discouraged because i will think of alll the things i need to repent of and use the atonement for. But it is also there to enable us to do better. I can't complete this mission on my own. But i can with the power of the atonement. It is so real and infinite and eternal! I know this is long. I love you all. keep the prophet in your prayers.

Sister Johnson. 

 

 

Kiana is now in the MTC!