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