Increase Faith

Dear Familia!

So i blame myself... we made a goal (sister coelho and i) to increase our faith and our hope this month. What a bad... i mean great... idea! haha but this week for sure tested our faith! First i will start with the amazing news i recieved during the week...

do you remember SERGIO AND IRENE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THEY GOT MARRIED AND BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I kind of count this as my baptism.. and marriage... so you can say that i had 2 marriages this past week! But yeah. so yeah. Sergio and irene got married on friday and BOTH of them got baptized. this means they are not using cafe or alcohol or nothing and that they are going to prepare to go to the temple. i am SO beyond happy. I was SO sad to leave but i am so happy the sisters there helped them reach there goal and that they made this promise with heavenly father. Wow... this is truly the work of the lord. i hope you all remember all the crazy stories and updates we had with them! Good work Sister kohlert and sister cardoso and sister mendes! haha

But yeah so zaza and patrick... i will do a day by day update of what happened with them.

monday- as you know all was going GREAT!

tuesday- We recieve news that we are going to do a musical number at the wedding. no problem. haha just my comp cant sing and she only plays piano.. Sister johnson SOLO. hahahaha

wednesday- still great... just that we go to zazas house and its the day before the wedding and she talks about some strike that is going on at the marriage place. Umm what? But then she said that the strike will all be cleared up by the next day. No problem... yeah right

thursday- The day of the wedding. So i wake up.. get ready in cute clothes and super pumped to go to the wedding and take many pictures. We leave a little late so we have to take a taxi... and they arent super expensive but not cheap either. so we take a taxi there and show up. We see something happening outside but dont thing anything of it. We walk in the place and ask about where the marriage will be and they say "no marriages today... there is a strike. so no one is working today!" WHAT!!!! So we go back outside.. (funny thing is the strike is being filmed and apparently we were on television... a member told us.) But anyway we call zaza and she says it will happen at 2 pm.... oops. So we have to do a lot of planning and re marking and then we go back home. i think we were both a little upset. But the whole time i was thinking.. HOW. i mean it is the day of the marriage...we already passed through a lot.. WHY one more thing. but it tested my patience. so finally 2 comes and despite my lack of faith that it wouldnt happen... the wedding happened. We see zaza and patrick and we listen to the vows and it was great! Then we go to the church to have a little ceremony... where sister johnson would be asked to sing.. this part is funny.

So we get there and the elders have helped a lot with bringing the food and everything. so they are there at the church. so we ask them if they want to sing. They say sure. We just needed one more lady to sing with me so i wouldnt be overpowered.... umm... well there was no members there. but i asked this lady who said she sings that she can do it with me. she seemed very confident and i do a quick teaching of families are forever... forgot the name of that song in english. But yeah. So just as we start the bishop is conducting and says that we will sing uma familia tenho sim to start the ceremony. so... there goes our practice. we have to quickly change to love at home.... oh no. I will just say... the lady tried... but... it was the most embarrassing moment of my life. but i dont think any cabo verdians noticed. hahahahaha

So then on friday- all good. except zaza gets SUPER sick and cant come to her interview. so we had to go to her house. she was basically sweating up a storm with some fever.

but she was interviewed.

Saturday- I woke up excited for the baptism... and with faith that nothing bad would happen. but obviously not enough faith. The tank to the baptism fonte BROKE! what! So we get that call one hour before... so we go there and try to get everything figured out. we left so fast we forgot clothes... so we had to go back to our house to get clothes. and then we got permission to go to the ocean... but then with 5 minutes before we start the meeting... the zone leaders call saying they got some guys to go fill up the tank and all with be good in 20 minutes. so althoug the baptism started one hour late... it happened and it was SO beautiful!

sunday- She was late to church.. but got confirmed! all is good! hahaha

OH so dad asked about patrick. he was a less active. so no he was not baptized again but he is on the path to repentance. great family!!

Love you all sooooo much. this work is real. hahaha even with the ups and the downs i love it- and i know i am strengthening my faith.

Just let me say one thing though... We need Sabbath day pamphlets. We have law of chastity and word of wisdom but the day of the lord is super important! haha i hope one day maybe we will have those things!

Love Sister Johnson

Zaza and Patrick!!!!

My awesome comp