Divisions

Ola Familia e amigos,

I hope everyones week was good! My week was... uplifting. Yeah.. uplifting. Let me start with the divisions we had this week. So we had divisions with the sister training leaders. They are on the island of Sal because we do not have sister training leaders here in santo antao and we also dont have them in sao vicente... so they came a long way to do divisions but it was meant to be. haha One of them is Sister Spolador. She is from Brazil. She did the split with me. So I wasnt super worrried but then i realized i would have no choice but to speak portuguese. So sister spolador is cool. We are like twins. Her first area was also Santo antao so she knew all the members and a lot of the same people! I could just feel her excitement and love for the people here. 

So it turns out creole isnºt portuguese! haha duhh.. but it was good to actually know this for sure. I could understand a lot of what sister spolador was saying. She started out speaking slow to me... but by the end of the day she was flying and we had a good old time. So it was a huge confidence builder to see the Lord is truly helping me with this language. Although i do not understand the creole that great i can understand portuguese. The talking is still not great... but Sister spolador was very complimentive and said i was doing fine. :) Now my goal is to understand creole. And i have added faith that the Lord will help me. He already has so much so i need to stop being so negative about my language skills... so i will stop being negative. 

P.S i heard a secret that nobody understands the creole until they become senior companion anyway.. hahaha... jk... but really. 

Also i think this makes it so i can be super simple and focus on the things that i need to focus on. :) By simple things great things are brought to pass. 

So other things i learned from sister Spolador is how to listen! Wow she is so patient and listens so well. She always uses something people say to highlight a truth of the gospel. it is incredible! i love how she did that. That is my goal.. to be able to listen and then use what people know to add more and give them more. I love a quote by Elder Holland that i think every missionary knows but basically he says we need to listen to these people and what they say will always highlight a truth of the restored gospel.. and then we will agree and then offer more! These people NEED what we have. I learned that this week too... also with sister spolador.. She has a strong testimony of what we do have and that everyone needs it. I think about the Gift of the Holy Ghost. WE need this gift to get us throught this life. We need it to direct us, to guide us, and in a lot of times COMFORT us. I am beyond grateful for this gift. And i hope i can always Remember my savior and be worthy to have this gift with me always. Like the sacrament prayer states.

I think the highlight of my week was yesterday we had a lot of less actives in church! It was so great to see people there who already had this great gospel in their life and realize they need it again. We talked to a lot of less actives this week. Basically we just invited a lot of them and a good amount showed up. I love when people keep their commitments! :) And the spirit was so strong yesterday in church. The peace we feel after the sacrament is incredible.

Oh and one more thing... President and sister mathews were on our island this week and gave a training. It was on the Restoration! Sister mathews gave a little pop quiz.. Who were the first missionaries of this dispensation... Who was the first investigator? 

There were other questions but i liked these best... Heavenly father and Jesus Christ were the first missionaries and Joseph Smith the first Investigator. I would love to be like the first missionaries some day :) But our challenge as a mission now is to get to the point and give them the proof. Which is get to the first vision and give them the book of mormon! I have seen the lessons change when we focus on the first vision, book of mormon and how they can know for themselves. We can really have a conversation and feel the spirit so strong when we focus on the points :) 

Love you all!

Sister Johnson

My cool hair

Sister Spolodor

Sister Leader

idea to get more references

Frustrating week

Dear everyone!

Well this week was a frustrating one... had to say it! MEMBERS! If you are a member of this church and reading this now you need to find a way to help the missionaries if you arenºt already! Ok glad i got that out... 

I know i am being hypocritical because i didnt help the missionaries as much as i could have before my mission... But it is soooo crucial. Members AND missionaries have to work together to bring this work to pass! So let me go on my rant about this week and then i will say some positive stuff...

So this week we had this plan to teach 4 members for 30 minutes this week. Just to get to know them and get them excited about inviting friends to church. We really wanted to show them that they have one person in their life who is ready for the gospel. Through prayer and through searching they can find them! Everyone here is a convert. So they all have friends but the also ALL have family. People they really really love and care about. So we had this idea... We talk to the ward mission leader about this idea and he says he will mark members to teach with us. So we call him the day before to make sure he marked with them and he said no one wants to meet with us... wait what? for 30 minutes. Just to get to know them and share a small message to get them excited.. no one?

I love the fact that our ward is so young... but i do not like that fact that our ward is so young. Because they are so excited to learn and grow and share what they know but the organization and the will to actually get things done just isnt there...

But anyway i just know the way to get the ward moving is really through the members. Obviously. But the trick is finding the best way to use them. A lot of them say.. when can we teach with you. Which is great... But we want the question to be "when can you come teach my friends... my mom, my dad" We dont want it to be just a random member in the lesson to meet a statistic.. we really want members who love the people in front of them.

I think the biggest challenge this week was Anna. I am sure i mentioned her before. She had a baptismal date. But then her Book of mormon was locked in a room for a week and she didnt read and now she really doesnt want to change her life or anything. And we dont know what her fear is or what really happened. One thing she did tell us though is that she fears being a member of this church and then not staying firm in the church. This is a understandable fear. It is hard to become a convert and completely change your life...

But one thing i loved that my district leader said was that baptism isnt the end, we always have the sacrament to renew our covenants every week. The atonement is ALWAYS there for us to use if we use it. Christºs sacrifice for us is there for us to change and be better. Baptism isnºt for perfect people. It isnºt for us to be baptized and never sin again. It is for us to show our faith that we are willing to follow christ and be a witness of him at all times. And by showing that faith and making that step we then get the gift of the Holy Ghost to guide us for the rest of our lives! This constant gift will always be there as we are worthy. As long as we are willing and desire to be a witness and try try try we are showing our faith. And the atonement is always there if we fall. Always. I love this fact with all my heart. We can get back up and keep moving because our Savior loved us so much and made that possible. We can also change with the atonement. We can become different people. Change our NATURE. the atonement is amazing. And i cant wait to teach Anna about this great blessing even more.

Another thing about changing nature is that i have been studying charity lately. This is one goal of mine. Developing charity. What great love this is. As i study this more i will fill you in on it but for now i know i have a lot to work on.

Know that i love the members here to! 

And i love you all!

Sister Johnson

What a great week...sort of

Dear everyone,

What a great week.. sort of. So let me tell the great baptism story of Marlene. It isnºt as epic as the others we have had but it is pretty great. So marlene is amazing. She is fabulous. She is like my younger sister i never had. I love her so much! She is 15 years old. The first time we met her was my first day here actually. My first lesson. We had a lesson about the restoration and the book of mormon on the street and she excepted a date to be baptized. But then she disappeared. since she is 15 she has to go to church 5 times before she can be baptized. So then the week of her date marked for baptism we see her and she comes up to us and says... " i am so excited for my baptism this week"...

Well she hadnt been to church soo... we had to break the news to her and tell her she had to go to church 5 times before baptism. Well after that she was determined. She showed up at church and we started teaching her again. This time with her mother. Her mom is a great lady but she really didnt like us at first. i dont think she trusted us. Plus she is super catholic. So we taught her but she wasnt into it. We set another date with marlene though! The mom eventually stopped meeting with us... she still didnt like us until one day we decided to buy a sweet treat from her little store. It is called a doce de leite... hmmm hmm good. We made sure to compliment her a million times... after that she loves us. haha

Anyway so we teach marlene and she soaks up everything. her mind is a sponge. and she studies so hard. She is already in mosiah in the book of mormon! And she has started personal progress. The bishop trusts her enough that next week.. one week after baptism,.. she is giving a talk! haha so cool. But yeah she is solid. So obviously there had to be all sorts of things stopping her from getting baptized.

She was supposed to have her interview with the elders on friday. But we went to sao vicente on friday for a zone meeting.. ugh..

PS I HATE THE BARCO--- The boat we take to sao vicente... i just pray we only have to do that once a month. haha but anyway back to the story...

So we are sitting on the barco waiting to leave and the elders call and ask if it has left yet.. we get a little worried.. 5 minutes later we leave.. without the elders. haha they missed to barco. So we have to replan everything. It turns out they didnt have a barco that night either like they usually do. So they had to wait until the next day to catch a boat. So they finally arrive on our island and marlene has school until 1 hour before her baptism. But we find her and tell her she needs to have the interview at the church right after school. haha So she has the interview and passes. :) And gets baptized! Only the ward mission leader was 30 minutes late because we think he forgot what time it was supposed to be at.. but it is all good because it happened and it was great!

So that is the story of marlene. solid...

This week was good i guess. A little hard though really. We have this awesome investigator who was supposed to get baptized this past week but she missed church yesterday. and now she said she doesnt want to get baptized. She KNOWS it is true. but she has some fear.

We havent been able to get her to tell us what it is. But it makes me sad.. because she can say with all her heart she knows it is true... but then she wont take the necessary steps to really follow christ. I have learned that people have their agency. I hate agency. haha But we all have it.

We alll have the ability to know the truthfullness of the gospel too. Through honest searching. The people we are trying to find and teach here are people who want to change their lives and people who are willing to search. Because this message will change their lives and they will have to keep commitments to do it. But the blessing are beyond imagination when we do. The blessings are what give me so much happiness in teaching. because i know that if the person if front of me will keep the commitments they will feel a difference. This gospel brings so much joy, safety and security. I love it. And the holy ghost is truly a comfortor. :)

I hope everyone has a great week! And family in utah!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH for the christmas letters. I recieved them this week and i read them and teared up a little. it is so great to hear from you. I love you all. I hope you all are feeling the blessings of the gospel and putting trust in the Lord. It really is because of ALL my family that i am here and i am who i am. So a part of each of you is in Cabo Verde... and the people love you ;) haha

Fica bem

Sister Johnson

 

 

New Years

 The food on New years was for real at the Bishops house!

More Food!

 sabio-- cute little 13 year old always at church but cant get baptized because his parents wont let him

Mission Selfie

 My favorite baby in cabo verde!! Ba Bella!!!!!! love her. she is soooo cute and perfect

Baptism of Rivi!!!!!!!

More photos

Rivi

 She is getting baptized this week :) it is marlene!

Dear familia e amigos!

This week was THE TRUTH! It was full of miracles and fun and adventures. So let me begin with the miracle. 

Soooo tuesday i think it was. Tuesday was a great day. So idk if i mentioned this but we had this investigator. His name is Rivi. He wanted super bad to get baptized and he has all the lessons but he really wanted his best friend, Stivan, to baptize him. But sadly stivan is not going to be back in town until next week. So we had a goal for him to get baptized on the 3rd... yesterday... but then we decided since he really wanted Stivan to baptize him he could get baptized on the 17th. So last week at Aritsonºs baptism we were talking to Rivi and saying how "this will be you in 2 weeks." He looked all sad and said... "21 days" And then i said. " well you could get baptized on the 3rd but Stivan wont be able to baptize you." And thought about it for a minute and said "yeah"... then that conversation was over. So then the next day we were passing Rivi on the way to another appointment. WE get talking about when we are going to meet with him next and all that stuff... We discovered Stivan would be back before we thought. So we asked him if he would like to get baptized on the 10th.. and then he said the best thing ever... "Or i could get baptized ont he 3rd and Clovis (another one of his buddies) can baptize me!" ummmmm SURE YOU CAN!! hahahaha it was soooo great! 

SO then we meet with him... reteach all the lessons this week and he got baptized... on the 3 of january and recieved the Holy ghost yesterday! It was so great. It showed he really wanted to get baptized because he was willing to get baptized by someone else instead of his best friend. After the baptism they asked him to bare his testimony. He had tears in his eyes... Rivi is the type of guy who jokes around a lot.. it was soo great to see him filled with the spirit and having tears in his eyes. And then after he recieved the holy ghost he has this HUGE smile on his face. Solid. Moments like this is what missionaries live for! I really learned how important it is to set goals too. Because during weekly planning the week before we were thinking of who could be a baptism of Faith this week and couldnºt think of anyone.. then Rivi popped into our heads and we just wrote him down. And it turns out he really was prepared. The Lord knows even when we dont!

Ok so for the other great things... NEW YEARS! Ok so something about new years in cabo verde... oh my goodness they know how to party here. For real. So we go to bed on New years eve with this loud music next to our house... i am thinking at least by midnight we should be good... at least. Well boy was i wrong. I woke up at 4 a.m. to Gongham style... i dont know how to spell it but i know you all know this song. And they were screaming and yelling. hahaha anyway this isnºt it. When i finally can go back to sleep i wake up again to our alarm... and guess what... the party was still going. The party went until about 7:30 when we returned from our exercise. Haha they can party here. And they dont leave all the festivities for just new years eve. They also have a new years party too. So two days in a row of all night partying. 

Well i thought this was just the other people and not the members... haha no. The members had an even better party. They went from 11 pm until 9 am and they played futbal starting at 12... I have to come back to cabo verde for a new years eve party someday! OH and the bishop fed us for new years lunch! phenomenal... refer to the pictures. and no this time i did not have coke.

Ok so back to spiritual stuff. We have an investigator named Anna. i might have mentioned her. She is amazing. And finally this week she commited to baptism! Incredible!!! Her family is super catolica so she is really worried about what they will think. But we had this lesson with her about the book of mormon. It was powerful. We asked her to ask God if it was true. She didnºt do it when we came back to follow up with her the next lesson.... That was rough. I think she was afraid of getting an answer. So then we start baring our testimonies and the spirit was super strong... sister zimbelman asks her if she would say a prayer right then and there and ask god about the book of mormon. She said yes without hestiation. WE knelt down and her prayer was simple but so powerful. She paused after she asked the question. The pause was so powerful and i knew she got her answer right then. It was amazing i could not stop smiling. She finally closes her prayer after some silence and we ask her about it.... She got her answer. She still had doubts about getting baptized though... but the rest of the lesson was truly guided by the spirit because we worked through her doubts. She really understood that this church has the authority. And that we werenºt trying to take away the truths she already had but add to them. She felt much much better and commited to baptism! it was phenomenal. It is amazing to see the change in people. A year ago she said she didnt beleive in god until she started praying. now she prays everyday and her prayers are so powerful! 

The third miracle is Marlene. She is amazing. She is the one who does all the extra studying and stuff from the pamphlets and is super far in the book of mormon. We had a lesson about the law of chastity this week. She had a few earrings in her ear. We talked about modesty and immedietly she asked to go to the bathroom to take out her earrings. This right here is true repentance. Once she knew... she had no desire to do wrong. only a desire to do right. 

I love seeing the way the spirit works in people. The HOly ghost is the true teacher and i know this to be true. Thank goodness too. Because most of the time i know i make soo many mistakes but someone the message gets across and they feel the truth. 

I love you family! this week was amazing! Keep up the missionary work at home. Hastening :)

Love Sister JOhnson