Leftovers in a microwave

Bom Dia a todos,

This week is the week of Natal! I cant believe it. It came so fast! I am excited to see what great miracles happen as we are the hands of christ this christmas.

We had  a great activity of christmas as a zone this week. President and Sister Mathews visited us and we had some great trainings and some great food. If you saw the picture we had a ton of food leftover but sister mathews only had one ziploc bag... so she asked the elders if they wanted it.. but they didnt SO... we took it :) We shared with the other two sisters as well but we also got a microwave for christmas so that was a blessing we had to heat up our leftover food in a microwave. I was having a lot of fun that day heating up a lot of things. The microwave was a great addition to our house. 

But enough about that. The training Sister Mathews gave was incredible. We talked about how we are the hands of Christ this Christmas. In Helama 14:3 i think it talks about the signs of Christºs birth... the light! The light is still shining and in it is in all of us. We are the light that shines in the darkness and we are the examples. What a great calling. And our theme for this christmas is how we are the hands of christ. So we were challenged to find someone to serve this christmas and think of what christ would do to serve them. More than just cookies on the doorstep... So we have been thinking and thinking. I am still thinking actually. But i know when it comes i will do it! I am excited to keep looking for opportunities to be the Hands of my Savior this christmas and serve. In his earthly ministry he served.. all he did was think of others. And he didnt just attend to peoples physical needs, but also their emotional needs. I have been trying to look into the eyes of the people we teach and see what it is they need from the Savior and how they can accept His gospel. Christmas is a great time... but we can do this always :) i hope being His hands is a theme for life.

So this week we found Nycarlos! He is the son of an elderly lady who comes to church every week. She lives kinda long that we have to take a hiache (those van things that all little kids are scared of when they are little) to get to their house. But she still always goes to church no matter the cost. wow! So we got to teach her son and he is great. He is super excited for his baptism and he is progressing nicely.

So about the baptism we were supposed to have... Flavio! Flavio broke our heart this week. He marked at 3 in the afternoon and we brought our secret weapon member and everything... but as we knock on the door we hear someone in the kitchen... but they wouldnt open the door. So he was home, he just wouldnt open the door. We were sad. But then yesterday he called to apologize and talking about how he has not been honest with us about the commandments and is not ready to be baptized but he wants to change so we will begin talking to him again this week . HIs sister who is less active is great and held a family night this week. We got some yummy kus kus... i need to make kus kus for you all when i get back. BEST thing ever! :) and you can only make it with a special thing called a kuskuseira or a bind... so i bought one... hehe.. but i left it in praia so no kush kush for right now. 

Anyway that is the sad story of flavio but now its happy because he has desire. And that is what matters. If we have the desire we can overcome anything. 

Next is we found this great lady miriam. She has a octopus doily in her house that she made. We love her. She is constantly talking to herself. haha She brought us a lot of joy the night we taught her. She accepted coming to church but we think she thinks we invited her to another church... so we need to follow up with that. 

Another is Maria Louisa. We stopped by last night after night church... it was great just that she was super sad about a son that she doesnt know where he is. But we comforted her with the gospel of Jesus Christ and she ended up accepting a date. Her children laugh at us everytime we come over, but Maria is really coming around. I love teaching elderly people. They have so many experiecnes that we can help them apply to the gospel.

Well thats it. Have a happy christmas. I will talk to you all next week. And with my fam fam on Christmas! I hope you all have great stories for me and i would like you all to have a question prepared--- aaron and micah principally. 

Love

Sister Johnson 

He is not here, He is risen!

Dear Family,

Well... 

Great week. haha this week i learned what hope means. I kind of failed to have hope this week. We are going through a rough patch on the mission right now. We are teaching really well i feel like the spirit is testifying of the truths of the gospel as we teach and then when that moment comes to invite... They reject! It is super annoying. I am starting to dread the invite but that should not be because we are here to INVITE others to come to Christ. So i am learning on how i need to hope for these things not seen. And that is faith... and also i need charity to have that faith. So little did i know setting a goal of having more hope this month i would be tested with my faith and also my charity... which for me is about patience. 

But for one thing.. Remember Flavio. The guy who didnt want to let us in and then let us in. Yeah well he was doing GREAT. Until we couldnt find him all week. Then we get a break up text on like thursday saying he loves us and the church but he cant continue. NO. Well we have both learned that we cant just let someone break it off with a text.. we had to go see him in person. But then he was avoiding us and we never saw him home. BUT do not fear. Yesterday we passed by and the door was open so we walked on in :) And we saw Flavio! It was a great conversation. he opened up about how his godparents from the catholic church are really giving him a hard time about being baptized in another church. So he said he cant do it. We talked a lot about faith... his preparation ... And in the end we told him he needs to read the book of mormon and know its true... because with that.. nothing can stop him.

I have a lot of HOPE he will come through this week and be baptized on the 26th.

So also a lot of other investigators have been avoiding us. And others have that great excuse of TIME. I know that if something really means something to us we will make the time for it. So we just have to keep testifying of how it really will change peoples lives. I am so grateful for this gospel and how it has changed my life. :) 

Another great surprise we had this week was on friday we hosted a cabo verdian sister who will go to serve in brasil. We went to get her from the airport and she stayed with us for a few hours. She did a great job of testifying. She was a lot of fun! She will be a great missionary.. she even made us cake.

I had a division with sister Lee. She is the one in the picture by sister kohlert. She is my granddaughter on the mission. She is great too. She speaks the language SO well. I was super impressed for her only being her 3 weeks. She is from Idaho and knows one of the missionaries i knew in the MTC. Super small world. haha

Next is that it is good to know our success is measured by our obedience, our love and if we are feeling the spirit. Because our numbers have struggled. I feel like we are passing through some difficulties because a lot of people are focused on the material side of christmas... they are worried about working enough so they can buy presents for their kids or to have a big christmas dinner. Instead of thinking of our savior jesus christ. Being a missionary i see this in a big way.. everyone just wants to talk after the holidays. But think.. this is the time to actually give our will to the Lord. He gave everything for us. I hope we can all remember, truly remember that christ died for us.. and as the scripture says "he is not here, he is risen" He LIVES. I know this is christs work and he is working hard during this season. Let us open our hearts even more to hear and understand better this great message. Knowledge is an attribute of God. Let us seek this knowledge and understanding this Christmas.

I love you all. 

Christmas tree out of trash bags

Doing laundry

Sister Johnson

Book of Muhammad

Dear Family

Great week great week! Too many hilarious experiences. And some very spiritual experiences as well. This week we had Mission Leadership Council... So let me start with what happened last monday

Monday

It was a great pDay and we find out our airplane to Praia was leaving at 1030 then it was 12 and then when we actually got there.... it didnt leave until like 130. So that was a very tiring night. I left the house at 1030 and said goodbye to my comp.. got in the taxi and went to the airport... then one of the elders left his passport at home so we went back... and then came back.. and then waited and waited until the airplane got there. And then once i got to Praia at the sisters house they werent waking up to the buzzer because the power was out... So we called. Turns out we called the wrong number about 10 times. Sorry to whoever that was... And then we had to call the APs to call then and finally they open the door. haha But anyway i didnt sleep at all that night. The foam pad was not doing it for me. But then i wake up and get ready for council which started for us at 730 am to prestar contas... give accounting! I was a walking zombie. But then all of the sudden I got a lot of energy! The spirit does great things. Then the next day we got back to Sal at 930 pm and i got to sleep!

Tuesday

That was the day of council i just described... hah

But i got a lot of exhortations from the spirit on this day. I feel like i am not doing my job as a missionary to the full ability i could. I feel like i have lost some faith. But on this day i really got some good ideas and ways on how i could be better and it was an answer to prayers. We talked a lot about studies and how to be a preach my gospel missionary and also how ot recieve revelation through prayers. We need to help our investigators be agents and act for themselves! We are helping them realize how they can recieve answers to prayers! We all can pray to our heavenly father and get answers :) i love it! He is waiting to answer if we just ask.

Wednesday

Normal day! We found a family and also a less active family. This family is great btw... The son is edimilson. And he loves soccer so we automatically connected with the sports thing. Turns out he was very good and super active in church.. but then he blew out his knew and couldnt go professional like he wanted. And now they dont go to church... I heard about this from sister park after the visit and i am super excited to help this family. I feel like i can totally relate to him! We did a practice for them today because we will teach them today and i remembered how when i tore my acl in college the things that helped me survive were trusting that the lord has a plan bigger for me than i have for myself. I cant wait to share this with them! Trust in the lord. Alma 38:5

Thursday

I gave training in zone meeting on chapter 2 in Pmg.. it was great

Friday

Normal day... Here is where the subject comes in.. We found a guy who speaks english. His name is Lucky. We are teaching him... but he is kind of confused about religions so he like to learn about all of them. So we get to his house and see about 10 bibles laying around... And after the first lesson we invite him to read the book of mormon... But he said he already read the book of muhammad... And we said mormon... and he said Yes the book of muhammad.. and we said no Book of mormon...

To say the least we tried... but i think he still thinks its called the book of muhammad. haha Great day.

Saturday

also great... we had a family night and we watched the savior is born video and the spirit was so strong! 

sunday!

Super awesome because we had a family night and we taught the children how to sing La na judeu onde cristo nasceu... i think its far far away on judeas planes or something in english! We used hand signals and the kids loved it! 

I love Christmas season... it doesnt quite feel like christmas... but I know that there are people here who want to know why christ was born. And we have teh answers. It was to save each one of us. He chose us. And we choose him each time we go to church and take the sacrament and each day of our lives we live worthily of this. I am so grateful for my savior. I love the people here. I love my companion. And i love my savior. :)

Sister Johnson

Here's the scoop: cutting board, pantry and baptism

Dear Family,

Ola! So my companion and i have been laughing about the subject of this email for a while now... it may not make any sense to you all... but it is hilarious. one of those inside jokes. But anyway. let me expalin rapido... fastly... that we have a cutting board in our house that i found today going through all the garbage.. there is a thing with missions... you get transferred and you always end up doing a HUGE cleaning job... ugh... but now it is over and its great. But anyway we found this great wooden cutting board that i am super excited to cut my bread with every morning. You all should be happy for me. Also we had this pantry that was full of dust and gunk... but NOW... its a beautiful full pantry. Well not full... it just has the typical missionary amount of food... nothing cough cough... but at least we have a pantry now. And the last but not least... WE HAD A BAPTISM!

Wooo hooo. 

So i came into this one for sure. It only makes sense. i left 3 potential baptisms so i came into one.... its kinda fair. But Maribelle is great and she is like having 3 baptisms anyway! She is 16 and super excited about the gospel. Her testimony made me so happy. She said she knows the book of mormon is true...those words... for a missionary... are the greatest! She truly has been reading that book so well and has been praying and asking god and she said she knew. Also it was great because her mom came to the baptism. Her mom is an investigator too but she had a date for the 5th and still has not been to church for 2 weeks so she will have to prepare a little more. we will work with her. But Maribelle is awesome and i am so excited to see her progression.

I have been in the repentance process of having very low expections for my new area. But let me tell you... It has been a week of miracles. This area i incredible!!!!! Sister Park... my awesome new comp... is amazing. she has so much faith! We are both working on hope this month and i have seen that i need to be more optimistic about the future it is so bright. We have so many potential here. We met 2  new investigators this week. Hamilton and Flavio and they both came to church this week. The story of hamilton was great... because we were walking down the street and he saw us... Now when people see us they automatically get this fear inside that we will stop and talk to them... So they walk a little faster or pretend they dont see us.... its great. But anyway he was different because when he saw us he slowed down a little bit... expecting us to talk to him. But.... WE DIDNT. haha we kept walking. Awkward. But then just seconds after that we felt the need to turn around and immedietly we turned around and he was just there waiting for it. haha it was great. And then flavio is awesome too... He answered the door and he said he did not want to talk... but we insisted. The part that did it is when we testifed of jesus christ and HIS church when he finally gave in and let us in. 

I am so grateful  for this work. Because it is truly the lords. I have seen that especially here in little Sal... we are super blessed because the LOrd NEEDS people here. And we are just being instruments in finding them. he is doing his work.

Well that is it for the week. super fun and funny. thanksgiving consisted of chicken, masked potatos and soup gravy because it wouldnt thicken and we had 30 minutes to cook it.... oh and dad youll love this one. WE made HOMEMADE CORN BREAD. it was amazing. super great thanksgiving. i am thankful fo rall of you. hahaha cheesy

love Sister Johnson 

Sal means salt

Ola Familia,

So yesterday was transfers... and i left the beautiful and dirty city of Praia and was sent by the lord to the beautiful and clean island of Sal. Its smells so good hear... What people say really is true! But haha anyway yes... i was transferred. I knew it was coming. And i think the whole mission could have guessed i would come to sal... it was too obvious. But i am sister Leader here on this island now with Sister Park. she was in my house about a transfer ago so we know each other very well. She is such a hard worker and a great missionary. she is in her 5th transfer and is from utah. But yeah... this zone is super tiny compared to praia but it will be great. I am the only sister training leader here so i dont have a comp to counsel\vent  with on those things, but it will be fine. I have Heavenly Father.

But yeah... That is a depressing thought about tranfers so we will pause with that. I will talk about things more interesting like for example what miracle and devastations happened this week! It was truly an amazing week. 

So last week as i might have said in my letter we did a covenant to stay in the same area... well it obviously didnt work but anyway it was a great way to show our faith. We decided to leave early on Pday which was crazy awesome and super hard at the same time... hah and also we didnt go back home for lunch but we ate on the road and it was great because we didnt have to hike the 2 hills going back home more than we needed to! But we spent much less time preparing lunch and much more time teaching and contacting and sharing the gospel. In results of this we were super exhausted... but the Spirit of the Lord is powerful and we made it through each day and i went to bed at night knowing.. without a doubt we did all that we could that day. I truly love that feeling and i love being with consecrated missionary companions that always are looking for ways to be better. 

But anyway this whole week we were preparing Fernando to be baptized. He had been taught by the sisters before but what had happened was that he was not prepared in his eyes. Well when we went by to contact him the other week he said he was ready now. So we prepare him the whole week for baptism. we even gave  our last lesson on friday night  at 8h45 which is like the latest it could have been to make sure nothing happened... but then on saturday we show up at the baptism and he is not there. It was nothing like him.. so we call and he said that there was an accident and that his neice died in an accident and he went to the funeral out of town and could not get back in time... We were devasted. to say the least i was not a happy person! WHY! 

But anyway that tristeza is over... we saw him sunday night and he will be baptized this week. and we will pray no accidents happen. I know it is super sad for him and his family but as well it just is sad he needs to wait a whole week to recieve the blessings of the gospel. Perspective changes a little bit. 

But anyways... Other pictures i have sent. One is papa johnson. he always calls me his daughter and it is great. i love speaking with him... haha super catholic thought and a little senial. 

Well i know a tone of great things happened... but um i cant remember. I can remember how great i felt though.  Oh and another photo is of arlinda and she is also getting baptized this next week. She is so awesome. We went to the stake preseidents house yesterday for a family night and what the wife told us is that she always felt like she should invite arlinda to church but never did.... and then one day she showed up with us. Wow... follow those promptings  always.  Because then it gives us missionary less work to do. But anyway i just love arlinda. she is seeking the truth so diligently . she was super sick last week and needed ot get a baptismal interview and still got up and ready to have one.

I will miss praia.... its like america compared to sal. hahha  because we dont have water here and have to wash clothes by hand or take bucket showers and carry water from the elderes house to ours so that we can drink.... i will gain muscles i hope.

Pray for me.

sister Johnson

The moment you all have been waiting for...

Dear Family,

I dont have enough time to even right a fraction of what great things happened this week. Miracles without end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So i will start with the story of our baptism this week because you all got pictures, but now you need the story behind it!

So bianca is her name! She is a doll. Remember Claudia who got baptized 2 weeks ago.. Yeah they are like best friends. So what happened was Bianca sat in on ALL the lessons with her friend Claudia. But she never showed much interest. But when she came to the baptism about 2 weeks ago she got super excited to be baptized too.. Even beyond that she got super excited to serve a mission. haha WOW. So after claudias baptism we started focusing on her and reviewing all the lessons and she was solid! Well this week we had a lot of divisions because we hosted all the sister leaders on all the islands in our house... crazy stuff. But we were on divisions on monday night when i got the bad news that bianca did not want to get baptized anymore! I was super sad and a little angry that i wasnt there.... But she said that she wants to wait until december because it was the month of chirsts birth and that is when her boyfriend will be in town and he will be able to see her... all sorts of excuses. But the sisters just invited her to pray and ask Heavenly Father. So on Wednesday the miracles happened. We just walk into the lesson with Bianca and ask to start with a prayer... I didnt know what to say so we just pray and we wait... and we wait... and we wait.. and then Bianca says. ^Sister, dont worry, i will get baptized... On the 14th. I know it is the right thing to do.^ I just looked at my comp in awe. The lord is truly doing his work. We had a Leadership council and then Zone conference and only could speak with her on the phone... but it wasnt our words that changed her. The spirit of the Lord answered her prayers and her doubts.

Then the day of baptism was also a little crazy too. She comes with a lot of fear on her face. She told us that she didnt know if she will be able to live this gospel... So we had about 5 minutes before her baptism and she almost bailed out... but we talked about the gospel and how it is a circle. a lot of people picture baptism as the end... it is just the beginning. It is the beginning to a life as a disciple of Christ. So we reminded her of repentance. At the end of the baptism she gives her testimony of the gospel and how it is a circle... faith, repentance, baptism, the sacrament, the gift of the holy ghost... and MORE FAITH. i was a proud little missionary hearing those words come out of her mouth. She will be a great missionary one day. 

So other miracles... I FINALLY realized what it means to have the Lord go before us and behind us and the right hand and on the left and all that... i think its D and C 84.88 But anyway... The lord truly prepares people. We have an old man... (my dream is to baptize an old person) getting baptized this week. He just said to us... Sisters.. i think i am prepared this week. Soooo happy. He has been going through a lot because his girlfriend for about 20 years left him. He is reading and praying and came to church and he knows what he wants. It is super fun to teach him because he participates so much. I am excited.. his name is fernando. But yeah... the Lord is before us. I have started to say in contacts... ^we have a message from the Lord for you.^and it is true! they feel as if the lord answered their prayers with us and we can see it in their eyes. so many people are prepared as we have the faith to find.

Ok so the interview with elder dyches was incredible... something cool is that he took a picture of my feet because i have really bad tan lines and he thought it was awesome. so now i can say a general authority took a picture of my feet. Also he examined my planner and i got an A+ woot woot! He and his Wife truly answered a lot of my questions i had about how to become a better missionary and about challenges i am having on a mission. I am sooo excited to get to work and resolve these problems and find others to resolve. Progress rocks! haha But Also during the interview he asked amazing inspired quesitons that truly helped me think of what i feel about my savior. I know he lives. 

So many other amazing things...but as i said. i cant put it into words. haha But i am pretty sure miracles are going to keep coming.

Sister Johnson

Interview with Elder Dyches

Dear Families,

I was delighted to have had the opportunity to meet with several missionaries during our recent mission tour just 3 days ago in the Cape Verde Praia Mission.  This companionship is just doing outstanding, exercising great faith and diligence in fulfilling their purpose each and every day.  These Sister Trainer Leaders   are excellent leaders and truly lead by example and love.  They both have a special light they radiate to all.  These sisters both got matching shoes just for the Mission Leadership Council; how can you tell?

I thank you deeply for your personal faith and support of this great work, as you “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men”.

All the very Best,

 

Elder Timothy J. Dyches

Europe Area Presidency, Second Counselor

tim.dyches@ldschurch.org

Great experiences

Dear Family,

So many great experiences this week. I really enjoyed all the great things I learned and it was a little hard to endure to the end...but we did it and we reached a lot of our goals!!! We set a goal to get the standard of excellance this week for member present lessons. We have been without a ward mission leader for more than a month now and without him it has been quite difficult to plan well with members. So we had to really crack down and work hard. But we went to our most powerful resource... RECENT CONVERTS! They did a fantastic job and we made our goal. This week we have mission leadership council and also multi zone conference so it will be crazy! BUT next week our goal is to break the record of lessons taught in one week! I love goals. But yes about it being super crazy this week.. We have a MISSION TOUR. I am super excited. We are receiving Elder Dykes from the seventy. I am super excited to meet him and hear from him and receive some great spiritual upliftance. I also was asked last week to be one of 3 missionaries from the zone to be interviewed by Elder dykes about HOW the Atonement of Jesus Christ has effected, or is effecting my Testimony! What an inspired question. I have been really pondering and thinking about this... and to say the least i am super nervous. haha but i know the spirit will guide my words and it will be fine. But i have learned a lot about two words.. The atonement and testimony. 

I felt like i needed to understand better two words to answer that question. Atonement and Testimony. I studied some about testimony today and found that there is a basic to our testimony and then we can build on those basics. And also that we have to act to grow this testimony. The atonement helps us act. The atonement to me is love. It is pure love of christ that he could endure through the suffering for all of us. I love the atonement and i am so grateful for the love i am learning to have for the people i serve. At first i just wanted to come to the mission to learn for myself. But i see as i apply the atonement the only way to get a better testimony is to serve others. Christ constantly looked outward. We must also look outward to develop our testimonies. I love this gospel. 

Anyway this week we have been talking to a lot of people we live in one zone of our area. One night we go to teach someone else in the zone but they were not there.. we then walk over to the other side of road where we had other investigators and we see they are smoking, knowing the word of wisdom we were pretty sad. They all looked very guilty and we asked if we could share a message with them. They said yes and we shared the message of the atonement. We talked about how they have the opportunity to repent and how they need to make a decision in their lives. it was super powerful. They all committed to come to church and asked that we pass by and go with them. I felt the spirit... but then sunday comes and none of them are in their houses when we pass by to go to church! I love agency. It is a great gift... I just wish sometimes people would use their agency in a better way. But we will pass by this week and help them understand better the importance of going to church. But the other person in that zone has a smoking problem as well and wants to stop sooo bad. So he has committed to walking around with a book of mormon in his hand and every time he has the desire he has to read first. I love the power of the book of mormon and i am excited to see what happens. i will keep everyone posted.

I guess i cant really remember any cool stories now...but they really did happen. I think they were mostly with my studies and our practices in companion study and how we feel we are being taught a lot of things about how to help our investigators. Now we just need to have faith that it will happen and that they will use thier agency to chose the right! I love you all.

Also This week as well we will be more diligent. We are doing a covenant that if we can stay together one more transfer we will not come back for lunch but instead pack a lunch each day and also that we will leave at 5 pm on preparation days. We have started the lunch thing and it is working wonderfully. we live so far away from our area that we just dont want to have to come back to the house...so we arent. and we walk and walk and find more people to teach this way. and dont have to walk home and waste an hour! but we will start today with pday stuff and hopefully get what we wish which is the blessings of staying together for christmas. Haha... but the Lords will be done 

Love

Sister Johnson

Do you know God?

Dear Family,

This weeks email will be about a few tiny experiences that i had this week that i just have to share with you all. The subject line is my favorite story so i will save it until the end.

But first a funny story. Dont get mad... just love the people but this one just made me really laugh. So yesterday we left the house and made the trek to our area. As we were almost to the house of our appointment there was a few men walking in our direction. They didnt look very happy so i tried to go off to the side of the road to avoid them... but i didnt do it fast enough because one of them sticks out his foot as i am passing by and trips me. yeah.. odd. But instead of getting mad i was actually quite pleased that i didnt fall on my face and i caught myself. My comp just looks back and then looks at me and asks, ^did he just trip you.^ and i was like ^yeah^... haha but it happens you know. So we just kept walking and laughing about it the whole day. What a random thing. 

But moving on... You know how it was halloween on saturday. Well it seemed to last a really long time here. Because on sunday after church we saw a bunch of people in masks still. We asked them why they are still dressed up and they said it was because it is halloween... We were like ^no that was yesterday.^ Well. I think they were all a little confused. So i will be interested to see if we still have people dressed up today but i hope not. 

Ok so enough with the funny stories. Now for the good stuff! This week i had a great interview with my president of the mission. It was super inspiring. I learned a lot and got more excited about my purpose. I asked after the interview, my presidents wife, what she does to endure to the end. Her answer was great. She said that we have to give it all to the Lord. We have to leave it all in his hands. With every calling that we might have, being a mom, a dad, a mission president, a missionary, a primary president, whatever it may be... we will see that we need to leave it to the Lord and do his will. I loved that answer. I want to increase my trust in the Lord and leave it to him while doing my very very best to continue. And that can be discouraging haha.. because we are SO far away from where we can and need to be, But guess what! That is why we have the spirit. We have the Holy ghost to give us a hug and let us know we are doing a great job and also give us more desire to do even better and not make us dwell on how far we are but help us to do things one by one and get better and better. 

So this week we also had the great baptism of our investigator Claudia. Her sister decided last minute not to get baptized. It was super sad.... super sad. BUT then i realized that i need to be grateful for what we do have. A daughter of god just got baptized and gained a chance to enter into the reino celestial! The celestial kingdom. WHAT BLESSING. So we decided to be grateful instead of sad.... Yay! Choosing to be grateful makes things so much for happy.

Last but not least. Sooo we were at the house of a new investigator who has a million neices and nephews. they were all messing with us and our hair and faces and everything the whole lessons but it was fine. Toward the end i put my hand on the table and the little girl.. i think she is like 6 or 7 puts her hand on my hand and looks me in the eyes and ask, ^Do you know God^ i almost cried. She was asking if we knew heavenly father. and i thought about the answer for a minute... Yes. I do. I do know who my Heavenly Father is and he knows me. It is my goal to come to know him even more and more. And these people just want to get to know him as well. We have been talking a lot about the BOM this week because me and my comp will give a training to the zone tomorrow about it. And we saw how it is truly through the book of mormon that we get this Vertical relationship with our heavenly father. that and prayer. I do know him and he know me. I love you all! thanks for all you do for me and the prayers.

Love sister Johnson 

Will we go to battle?

Ok this will be quick,

I cant really think of what happened this week... Just that i had a division and my area is crazy awesome! But ok let me think...

monday. Pday was awesome we went to socapeda where all they have is awesome africa things and i got some stuff. i love this place. I saw a tshirt that says africa power and i think i might need to go back and buy it. haha

tuesday. We had a great district meeting with our district leader who got emergency transferred to the island of maio. he is training and its just him and his companion in maio. Super awesome! White wash!

wednesday. We got a new district leader who is also training and white washing. Great changes. We are excited for the zone this month we are seeing some great miracles.

thursay. We are doing a division with the other sisters. Their area is SUPER big... well i mean its not like the biggest but i was walking a lot more than i was used to. haha but it was cool because we got to talk to a family who was really interested. His wife didnt want to sit with us but then we invited super nicely and finally she did and we shared the restoration with them. they both committed to read and pray! i am excited for the sisters to have such a great family! i hope they progress. We also miraculously got our goal that day even when nothing really happened until after 6. there can be miracles! always!

Friday. I am back in my area again and it was nice... there was just a lot of wild things going on and it was hard to get a lesson but again.. nothing happened until 6 and we still got our goal! yay! Heavenly Father is super great.

Saturday. We took our investigators to a baptismal service and they loved it. now they want to serve missions. haha but first they need to be baptized. So we are working with them for this week. they are sisters and then the other is a friend. but the friend wont be baptized until november. she still need to be taught a lot of things! But they are great and we hope they can do it. the other goal we had for saturday fell through... again. She is going through a lot of doubts and worried that if after baptism she might break a commandment. But that is the joy of repentance right?? Yes! We all get to repent so we are working with her on that. I know repentance is realy. we just have to take the first steps.

Ok so Sunday. We also saw miracles because nothing happened until after 6! hahaha wow. so i am learning hard core patience and patience in trying to follow the holy ghost to know where to go and not get discouraged during the day when nothing seems to go thorugh. i know that it is always possible to get our goals even when we have to patient for them to happen.

And today is a great monday! I studied the stripling warriors today and how helaman asks them, Therefore what say ye my sons, will we go to battle? i love that question. i think of it being the question from our Lord and Savior for each of us each day. Will we go to battle. And as we are like these stripling warriors.. and obey with exactness and have FAITH we will not perish. i love the scriptures and i love this gospel. it is our game plan... I know that as we live the gospel we will have happiness and peace and recieve all our blessings of eternal life in the world to come

Love sister johnson

Lets get ready to rumble

Dear family,

YESSS! We had a baptism this week. I am sooooo happy. Djony finally made it to the waters of baptism... So he is someone we have been teaching since like august. He was a reference from a recent convert-- Micael.. who we baptized in august and they live together. So each time we went to teach Micael we taught djony. Djony was a little bit slower. he progressed super fast and then went off the face of the earth and we dont know why. About a few weeks ago we found him and started teaching him again... Actually it was when i got to go on a division with sister Coelho when she was here for leadership conference... We ended up teaching about the atonement and he changed completely. he stopped trying to disappear and we got to reteach him a lot of things. So yeah long story short he was baptized on saturday and confirmedsunday. We got a new bishop this past week in our ward and he already marked an interview with him so i hope him and micael can help each other. We are also talking to their other friend, Samora who has a date for the 7 of November. Its awesome how things work out. Friends help friends. This is a pure example of one by one. The lord truly is doing his work.

Any way what else happened... umm Me and my comp are having a great time together and the work is really starting to get going! We have a baptism this week that was supposed to be last week but in her interview she was completely honest and said she didnt know that jospeh smith was a prophet. So... yeah! We worked on that. The lesson we had with her when she finally decided to be baptized was a great one... we found out what she needed. She needed to know that baptism was only one part... Getting the gift of the holy ghost is what completes baptism! We testified of the gift of the holy ghost. She said "i am starting to see the world in a different way" and we said " that is the spirit." It is truly incredible how the spirit teaches us and helps us to see the world in a different way. We can be warned and truly guided.

I think a funny story about this week is during companion study we realized that this month is halloween. We discussed quickly what we were going to be... My comp said that this halloween she will be a missionary. I thought for a second and said " i think i will try being just a member of the church this year" my comp got all serious and said "Wow sister... that will be a SCARY costume." Just to let you all know... we have decided that there should be no such thing as a member. We call everyone missionaries now. It makes it more fun. And every member a missionary right?! woot woot. 

I love this gospel. Sorry this email is short. I want to reply to people more personally. There isnt a lot of stuff for all of you generally. Just that i hope you all are being missionaries because if you look for your own salvation... you wont find it.. if you lose yourselves in this work that is when you will find it. Exortation from sister johnson. Stop being selfish and get to work people!

Sister Johnson

Djony made it to baptism

Transfers Wooo

A wedding

Dear Family!!!

Well yesterday was transfers for those of who you didnt know... which is everyone i think. i think its always a surprise to you all but it is for me too. Well i got a new companion! She is Sister Dorgan! She is from utah...we lived in the same house for these past 3 transfers and she just got changed to my area as sister leader with me and her companion went to Sal with sister Zimbelman. her old area will be white washed by a sister who was in the island of brava and who served with me in santo antao! haha i think its funny. i know and have spent a good amount of time with almost every sister on the mission until now! And the only one i didnt know will come to serve in praia so we will get to know each other well. It is just great! I love our little cabo verde mission. but anyway sister zimbelman is lucky she gets to end her mission.. die.. in the area that she started.. was born in! That is super cool and she will  be with my daughter.. the sister i trained.. sister kohlert in sal. They will do miracles together. I will be with sister dorgan and basically we will have the time of our lives. I am not sure if we have stopped laughing since last night! But we will get to work because we got some work to do.

Monday.. was a crazy day as we recieved a bunch of sisters to our house for council. and we planned our training alllll day... we tried with many failed attempts to use a talk from general conference but finally it worked...we learned a lot of patience on that day.

tuesday... we had an AMAZING counsel! We gave our training and i think it went very well and then we made some great changes and goals to the mission. And we are going to start ponderizing and memorizing a scripture as a mission and also our goals for baptism are going up and our daily goals just got a great increase! We are working! haha i was super impressed by the zone leaders in mindelo and how they decided to cut out some common missionary break times to work harder. I was inspired and now me and my comp are going to use our time even more efficiently! No more long lunches. Quick and easy and out.

Sister mathews gave a great training on the laws and ordinances and how the pattern in the scriptures is ask... recieve... conversion... SHARE. we need to share what we recieve and help our investigators do the same.

wednesday.. we had zone meeting and transmitted all the information we learned the day before. We gave another training which i think was better than the first! And we got inspired by our leaders to do even better! This zone is awesome.

thursday... we had a normal day... finally.

friday... weekly planning... i was in a terrible mood. i dont know why but finally at the end we had comp inventory and like always sister zimbelman inspired me and i got over my anger! I think sometimes i want to show my love for these people so bad... but then we love them so much we get SOO mad when they dont complete committments. it is a constant battle. But i am seeing that we need to see the people in the eyes of our heavenly parents! Like said in the testimony of Elder Renlund

saturday.. normal... kind of. 

sunday... we got the transfer call! woot woot. And we got to teach some great people and had an amazing family night in the house of a less actie. She is so great!!! She invited all her friends.

So yeah this week we are helping two people prepare for baptism. I wil share the story of one this week because it was an awesome miracle. So we had a great zone meeting on wednesday and our AP who is from cabo verde talked about his story of conversion and it was incredible. He just a practice on how to figure out the doubts of our investigators by asking questions and turns out the practice was his story. He was an investigator of gold but never went to church because his mom would kick him out of the house... well he read 1 nephi 3 verse 7 and decided to go to church! what faith! But the thing is that same day we go and teach our investigator who is gold.. but had a doubt about baptism. she had the SAME problem. her parents will disown her if she gets baptized. We used 1 nephi 3:7 and she started crying. she knows what she needs to do. there is so much power in practices. we were so prepared for her because we had just practiced. i know in each phase of our lives we can practice for things ahead of time and the spirit will truly bring to our minds in that moment what we need. this is why we NEED to study and pray each and everyday to be prepared.

love you all

sister johnson

What a week...I feel a little overwhelmed

Dear Family,

A small chunch of what i wrote to my mission presidente this week:

What a week! I feel a little overwhelmed. I dont know if you knew but i get really worried and stressed every time i am asked to give a training. I thought i would blow up from stress our first zone meeting, but then i got through it. And then when we were asked to give a mini training last missionary leadership council... i also thought i would blow up and i got through it. And now we must give a full training this months leadership council... i think i am actually going to blow up. But i guess i will get through it. haha i think Heavenly Father just kind of laughs at how he is stretching us to our limits and helps us grow. He had a great sense of humor this week with all the things that went wrong. But we made it through. I loved conference. It was a great way to remember how simple and purê the gospel is! I got to remember to simplify. And also really feel the strength of the spirit in my life. I love the gift of the Holy Ghost. I am so grateful for the companionship of the holy ghost. because also this week i felt like i got reminded of some little things i have done in the past and i got all worried and stressed about how imperfect i am and how i may not be worthy. I talked with sister zimbelman about these feelings and she gave amazing advice and counsel. What a blessing it is to have companions and also how truly divinely chosen they are. She helped me understand the atonement even more clearly in my life. She said how if we repent our sins they are not going to go half away. Even if our sins be as dark as Scarlet they should be as White as snow. There is not pink people... what a blessing it is to have repentance. i am so grateful for the atonement and so blessed to use it. i have Always felt the spirit in my mission and i know that even though satan at times tries to make us feel as if we are unworthy my heavenly father has forgiven my sins. I love repentance and i see now that it is a process and a blessing! We should not feel scared or discouraged about repentance but truly aleiviated and blessed to be able to participate in this essential process that My Savior made possible.

that is the miracle of the week.

I felt like i should share that experience with my loved ones. Repentance brings joy.

But things really did go interesting this week. i wouldnt say completely wrong... but interesting. So first.

Monday-- Miracles. We were getting my hair done and it didnt go as fast as we had hoped but we still reached our goal for the day and saw people being put in our path.

Tuesday--We get asked to give training in leadership council on how to begin teaching. We laughed pretty hard throughout the day because our goal for the month is to develop knowledge. Heavenly father took that into account and we see what happens. We thought about changing our goal after that but we will continue with Faith and courage to develop this atribute. haha.

Wednesday-- We had a great meeting with the zone leaders and the district leaders about some goals we want to set for next month in our zone. The month of october is going to be a great month! We are focusing on teaching people not lessons. I love this principle. It is a constant goal of all of us but this month we will learn some new tricks!

Thursday-- We had a great division... I ran to the beach with one of the sisters and ran back. it was great and difficult. But beautiful! The sister i did divisions with is in her 2nd transfer and doing a great job. she is getting the language down and setting goals like a boss!

Friday--Great day.. cant remember what happened.

Saturday-- Conference! We get asked to do a interview with the public relations coordinator of Cabo Verde! And we have some great people at conference and made some great cookies.

Sunday-- We get punished for making the cookies on saturday because we ran out of gás on sunday.... right in the middle of making the noodles for our awesome tuna caserole... so what do we do... we grab everything in our kitchen and we make our way to the others sisters house and make our food there which makes us late for everything but thats ok because we still happen to make it in time for conference!!!! And we do that interview with the lady and take modeling fotos of us teaching investigators on the street and all sorts of great things. i will let you all know if i ever see the article... it will be in portuguese but maybe i will send it to you.

We have a investiagator who has a bar. she is doing really well and seeking to find a desire to get baptized. right now she is super worried. because of a catholic Family. but we are seeing that she is changing. she also started looking for another job so that she does not have to work in a bar! the gospel changes people! I hope she can find a job. we are praying super hard and hoping she will also find a way to go back to school! Our investigators have so much potential... they just have so many problems as well. But we are trying to find a way to help them see that as week keep the commandments we are blessed beyond measure!! Thanks for all your stories on keeping commandments. Super powerful. I cried. I love you all and keep striving! I learned in conference about how we are truly needed to be better! We need to be seeking exaltation! I love you all

Tchao..

Sister Johnson