Family

Dear Familia,

I read a great talk today about how we are all part of the family of the lord! it was from conference from april! We FINALLY got the liahona for that month. yayaya! hah it is beautiful and i am super excited to read it... although it is all in portuguese it will just be great language study :) But yeah... for this cause i just said dear family because we are all family and i love you all. Even though i think some of you are busy.. i have been getting less and less emails. i think that is how the mission goes. but just know i do love you all and whatever difficulty you are passing through, know that the lord loves you and that we are children of god. and we are here to be like him... and he is perfect. so his hope for us is to be perfect!

So this week i will do a day by day looking through my planner trying to remember what really even happened. haha. so here we go.

Segunda feira- monday: it was pday. i emailed you guys... i got some time to do my hair. i have some sweat awesome braids now. but still no pics. sorry. next week. and then we taught 5 whole lessons. which is super hard on pday but we did it! i was pretty happy with that day :)

terca feira- tuesday: another day of miracles. We showed up to the house of one of the people who is trying to get married and they are going strong. family council and prayer and reading the book of mormon together really helps! But then today we passed by and we were going to pay for their marriage... because the mission can do that here now... and they got in a fight yesterday. ugh... they are so up and down! and we asked.. how long have you been together... 5 years.. and have you had hard times... yes.. then what does a paper that says you are married and keeping a commandment really change! Ugh... like if you live with someone forever... basically married... what does marriage change. i guess it changes a lot because it is super hard for people here to do it. the funny thing is that they will talk about it today and change their mind tomorrow. i just can see that satan is really trying to make them not get married and putting their minds through all sorts of problems. but we really focused on how the gospel of jesus christ will help them have a strong marriage always. So i hope they recognize that and use the principles we have taught them to have faith in the lord and what he has planned for them.

 anyway.. also terca feira we were with Sister Mathews.. the Presidents wife! she walked around and taught with us. portuguese is hard for her, but she is amazing. we were teaching another couple who wnats to get married and she bore a great testimony of her marriage and i think it helped them see it is possible. i love listening to sister mathews testimony. she is amazing. She also gave us a reference that day that turned into a miracle.. but i will touch on that later.

quarta -- wednesday. 

Normal day. We had a meeting with the zone leaders and district leaders. our zone is doing good and achieving our goal of baptisms this month. it really is a miracle. we just need to be better as a mision i think of getting people to church! i think this will be my mission question. HOW CAN WE GET PESQUISADORES NA IGREJA.

Quinta-- thursday.

i had my first division as sister training leader. It was a littler... weird. because the sister i did it with is siter gates and she is about to go home. this is her last transfer but still during the transfer she said she learned a lot. she actually told me she was a little discouraged being with me because she said she still has so much to work on. but i told her something that i think i needed to hear too... is that the lord sent us to these areas because there is someone here who needs us.. and the lord trusts us to be who we are and do our best. he will do the rest. i know this is true!!! 

Sexta feira- friday

We had a meeting with our whole zone! i called it the faca meeting. haha but it was a faca of love. haha but really we went in that meeting and watched a lot of a talk elder holland gave at the mtc. I learned a lot! i wish i got that at the mtc. but i know i need to be a better teacher. Elder holland talked about the importance of our studies. i always thought we got up in the morning and excersized and took a shower because we cant get fat... NO... haha it is because we need to prepare to recieve revelation through our studies. and also the importance of comp study as well. These people deserve my best! so i need to learn to be a better teacher and a more consecrated missionary! but it was great. oh and a faca is like a lecture... haha

sabado. 

Tons of lessons... super tires.

domingo

Great day at church and amazing day of ward council. our ward is amazing! haha and we finally got the 1st and 2nd councilor in the bishopric. but also this day was the 21st! and 21 is my favorite number and something great always happens on the 21 of june. last year i was stuck in a cave! But this year we contacted that reference of sister mathews and it is a inacitve family of like 12 people! all baptized and were preparing to go the temple. i dont know what happened but we got there yesterday and they treated us like queens and said they just needed the sisters to show up and they want to come back to church. i dont know their needs still.. but they have a great desire to change. all of them... almost all.. were just gathered in thier living room and we were sitting together talking about how the restauration changed their lives. i cant wait to see them all come back. we also talked about how one can make the difference. i think the young daughter is ready to make the change the most but i know her example will be a great difference for the family.

ok so isso.. love you all!

maybe one more thing... i Know this stuff is true. i know that as we keep the commandments we are blessed even at times we have to go through hard times, but it is for our growth.

Sister Johnson

In the spirit world

Dear Familia,

First off.... MY companion is hilarious!!!! We have laughed so many times and already had some amazing experiences together. she is just what i need at this time in my mission. i am amazed. haha sister coelho. it means rabbit. but the funny thing is she doesnt like vegetables... so i am the one who eats the carrots for her. She speaks english super well. So she is helping me a lot with portuguese. she is getting me to speak like a portuguesa and not a braziliara. so that is exciting! they have super formal amazing accents.

Next off... our house. they girls in my house are super great too. they know how to cook really well and are super supportive when i tried to experient this week and make something cabo verdian.... i didnt turn out great but they all suffered through and ate it! And no worries... i have already cleaned to kitchen as my first project of cleaning the house. it is a wonderland in there now. i think next project is the laundry room but we will see.

haha but we had amazing number this week. Mainly with teaching A LOT of lessons and getting A LOT of references. we contacted 23 this week and still have more to go! So we are super excited about that. that is one thing my comp is teaching me... ask for references. everyone knows at least one perosn who is ready for the gospel so it has been good to ask and recieve haha

Ok so next is The sister training leader responsibilities. Whitney gave me some great advice... i need to love them and show them we care. then they can open up to us and tell us what they need. We have amazing sisters here in praia. They are all different with different trials but i am amazed by their power and strength. So i think mostly they will be teaching me. but one thing we really want to focus on is showing them our love. we start divisions this week and we want to invite them all to focus on the restauration and also this new thing we have is 10 3 3 1. it is 10 contacts a day, 3 lessons a day, 3 recieved references and 1 lesson taught in the house of a member. when we got this challenge from president i was a little worried.... i dont think i really have ever taught many lessons in a members house. so i didnt think that would happen. BUT... faith is huge because i have seen it happen each day. it really is beneficial working with the recent converts who have family members in their house interested and getting other members involved really strengthens the ward.

Our bishop by the way is awesome. i felt like i was in america in word counsel yesterday! they really got it together. Now we have to be prepared when we walk into that meeting to be able to tell the ward what we need. haha

The next thing is about our pesq.. investigators. SO.... haha i have never had so many people cry in lessons! hah but it is all good. So we are trying realy hard to help these two families get married. they are both a mom and a dad with one kid and the moms are pregnant. Maybe this is the reason for the tears... idk. But they were both all set and ready for marriage...well at least it was on the agenda... last week. but at the end of this week both of the women told us in tears they didnt want to marry the guy and that they want to leave. What. So we testified on the importance of families a lot. And that with marriage the key is to draw closer to god and remember that they both have the same goals on the things that matter. maybe one is really bad at washing the dishes, but at least they both have the same goal to get to the temple. So that was a trial. i was about to tell the women to just leave and make it on their own.. women power... haha but really we need to work out our problems together. they both have so much time living together.. marriage isnt that different. and with the church and the gospel, the home will be a heaven on earth. i am so grateful for my parents and the example they have set. i use you two as an example in my lessons to help people see that it is possible to have a happy marriage!

So i put the subject as in the spirit world because that is our saying for...we are out of it. hahaah so we have been in the spirit world a lot!

Some funny stories. My great roomies made a basketball hoop for me.. see pic. i cried of joy.

next is that i got my hair done! the person who was going to do it wasnt at home when we passed by.. but like when a lesson falls through you go to plan b. and when plan b falls through you go to contacts! so we contacted some people in the street to do my hair. it was great.

Love you all!

Sister Johnson

Transfers

Heyooo,

Oh my goodness! So yall.. idk what just happened but... i am in PRAIA. I left paradise :( i am SOOOO sad to leave santo antao. That place was ON POINT for reallll. I am super sad to be leaving it. Sister Kohlert will do great work there with her new companion. a weird thing though.. they took out the elders and put the sisters there. So sister kohlert will basically white wash my old area with her new companion. It is funny. her new comp is the one i switched with really. i am with her old comp... SISTER COELHO... She is portuguesa and speaks english like a boss. i hope my portuguese will get like hecka better. it BETTER. haha i will esforcar. So also just a little detail.. Sister coelho is sister training leader... so yes. that means that i am a sister training leader now.

UMMMM yeah... i know right. Sister Training Leader... question mark.

So like let me tell the story. So like saturday we were at the church after a zone meeting we had and we get this call from president. he taks to sister kohlert and she gives me the sign that says ^sister j... youre gone^so i knew it was coming. i was basically crying on the phone to president. So then he said you will be going to praia and your companion will be sister training leader... So here i am thinking cool. she will be sister training leader and i will just be here companion! haha i didnt get the point that i was sister training leader.

so i go to praia and everything and then i get in the bus with the Assitents and they are telling me how cool it is that i will be doing trainings in zone meettings and all that. so i was like what (question mark) And then they were like yeah... and i was like i thought only my companion was sister training leader. well they told me that was not true. i then realized... oh crap. hahaha so that is cool! Didnt really know but know and i am scared out of my skirt to be honest.

But it will be fine.

The sad part is we left sergio and irene. Ohhh my goodness sergio was not good that day... he was pretty drunk so i dont think he remembered much. but then my dear irene was bawling. then i couldnt hold it in and started crying a lot too. they are going to be fine with the other sisters but that was hard to leave such an amazing family who are going to be all i white... temple white one day!

But the ward gave a great goodbye. they all seem to love me a lot more that i am leaving... hahaha just kidding. kinda... but i do love all of them and we had great times.

The new advetures in praia have began. there is such a steriotype about praia. it is where people get robbed and it is where people get burnt by the hot sun... and all sorts of terrible things. hahaha but all the people who serve here love it and i know i will. i was so against it. but i know we are going to do great things and get these numbers up. i was honestly super super surprised about the number difference.... like i was in the PROMISED LAND. haha but everyone says here is the promised land but in reality i was in the true promised land. but no worries. me and sister coelho are going to make this the promised land. even with our extra duties. being sister leader in praia is like assitent to the president sister... hahahah it is so funny. but apparently we get a lot of surprises. and you all know i am NO good with surprised. i loved being succluded in my little island and now i am with all the action. i am going to have to keep the patience and keep the focus and stay obedient and you know... all the good stuff. but prayers are going to be so needed right now. i know the atonement is real. i know i have felt so much peace while i even feel like outside of myself. but all will work out. uncomfortablness is like what gives us chance to change.

happy anniversary mommy and daddy. i love you!

Love Sister johnson