Its rainy season

Dear Family!

Sorry i surprised so many people by writing so early! We usually dont send that early but we had to come back so yeah... dont panic i am still alive. And no transfers is next week! Its going to be exciting. i just hope i stay here with my companion! I am not ready for change... but just as i say this when we are comfortable that is usually when things change. And me and my comp are getting really comfortable... So we shall see!

So this week was awesome. I will first discuss the baptism of jocy!!!!!!! yayayyay. she is awesome. we found her about the first few weeks i was here but she worked SO much so we couldnt teach her So then one day she shows up at church and she is with one of our recent converts. She said the only thing keeping her from going was because she didnt think she had clothes to wear. She thought she had to be dressed like a sister. But the member assured her she could wear pants. So i think usually the doubt is not doctrinal when people dont go to church... it is social! So we need to remember that. That is why you members at home are SO important to the work! But jocy showed up and turns out she was in holidays for work.... so we taught her in 2 weeks and she wanted to be baptized so bad. She is super awesome. We had a little set back when she had to be interviewed by our mission president but i learned something huge in that experience. She was interviewed by him and after she explained how the weight she had for SO many years because of one mistake that she did had made her feel guilty every single morning she woke up. But then after the interview she expressed how she didnt think about it as a weight anymore. She had repented. Repentance cleans and purifies! I realized the power of repentance.. and the power of the atonement which makes it all possible! I hope we can all recognize the importance of the Atonement and power in it. I wanted to tell her after words how great our mission president was and how he helped her feel like that... but then i ended up saying how great Christ is and how he helped her feel like that. It is true. It is all because of him.

So she was baptized and it was great... refer to pics

Then we had a great week really! Super success. We had studies with the sisters and made goals with them. These studies was an idea of our mission and we decided to do them. Best idea ever. We got to make some goals and follow up with some goals. The sisters are super excited to work and i think we are going to make these mini goals into Zone goals next month! As long as the sister love them. I think they will.. they are more plans than goals.. the goal is to increase new investigators and date marks for baptism! And we have some awesome plans to do that but i wont expalin to you all because a lot of you would not understand... just imagine that we dont have computers in cabo verde... or i pods or i pads or whatever so we made our weekly planner page into an i pad sheet. hahaha anyway we are cool!

BUT yeah....i found a verse. 1 nephi 13:37. Endure to the end... but how?? how i ask you all? By sharing our beliefs! We have been teaching the friends of our recent converts and they have become super solid! They have the opportunity to share their beliefs with friends and family and they recognize how they actually know even more that this is true! Missionary work is how we become more converted. Try it out... it works! i love you all and i hope you can be missionaries!

Oh and it is rainy season. which means... wet feet... constantly. So yesterday we walked out of our house and had to cross a mini river to get to the other side of the road. and we followed this mini river all the way down to our area... our area is down unfortunately so we had to cross a BIG river as we got down. haha we went the wrong way and had to cross a ditch full of water.. ugh. but i didnt get too wet. I just laugh that i am actually here... in africa... getting ridiculously wet because they dont have ways to control this water... and i am a little scared that some crocodile is just going to pop out... hahah just kidding... i dont think we have those... i pray! guess we will find out.

hope i have legs next week.

Love you all

Sister Johnson

Baptism of Dayanne

Dear Familia,

Well... cant remember what i wanted to write about today. 

So i will just probably blabber on but i hope all is well with all the world. 

This week we had the baptism of Dayanne. She is super hilarious as you can probably tell in the photos. I really love hearing about her story. She is an 18 year old and living with a member. The member is kind of worrying us though. We hope dayanne will be a good force of strength to her. Dayanne was born in another country i believe... forgot which.... but her mom is cabo verdian and her dad is of this other country. But they both were not able to take care of her so she was sent back to cabo verde to live with her grandparents. They both died when she was 14 and since then she has been on her own. She said something that i love though... she said along the way she has always found people that care for her. She has a great story.

So she was already taught all the lessons by the elders in another island but never got baptized there. We found this out a lot later in the lessons and couldnt beleive she was so brillant all the time with her answers... but we finally figured out why. because she already received the lessons hahaha. But she is great and gave a powerful and simple testimony of the BOOK of mormon and the prophet (she was having problems knowing if Thomas S Monson was a prophet prior to the interview) and she also bore testimony of the savior. Like a true member! haha but i am excited to have her teach with us and be a missionary.

I would say that was the miracle of the week. 

But also some awesome thing i learned and understood about our purpose this week.

We have been studying and thinking a lot about how we can be more BOLD! We need to be better and more powerful teachers. So we have been finding all sorts of scriptures and phrases in preach my gospel that get us excited. We sent these to the sisters this week in our zone and we hope they get excited as well. we are seeing that sometimes things go wrong and we just let it happen... BUT NO. We are represenatitives of Jesus Christ. We have the best calling in the world to really PREACH the gospel and use the power of the spirit! We can see miracles. I hope we have given some fire into the sisters heart. because in reality... THIS IS PRAIA. haha 

So with my purpose i wrote down i wanted to share D and C 112 5 and D and C 88 81.... i cant remember why. Look those up and let me know.

But as we were studying we came across a lot of baptism verses... my comp has quoted John 3 5 everyday before studies. Baptism is where we do a powerful promise we that make with god and we need it to progress! And we need the sacrament to progress as well. A lot of times i thought about the sacrament during lessons this week and we focused on that. OUr church time changed and a lot of members missed the sacrament this week. We really need to help them see it is essecial to take it. i love the sacrament and how i can truly think of my savior and his life! His life is such an example to all of us. I love my savior and i hope i can become more like him each day. 

sorry this letter is so small... haha well not too small.. but you know. 

One thing funny is my companion tried to be cool and fell down the stairs in our apartment this week.. but she is a trooper and we are still good. hahahaah AND we ran home yesterday and little bit and i dont know what was wrong with the dogs in praia but EVERYONE barked at us as we walked by.... it was soooo weird. i do not like dogs. only jasper. 

I love you all

Baptism!

Sister Johnson 

 

Asked if he needed to bring soap:)

Dear familia,

So what a great great week... and a very interesting one full of humbling experiences. I am learning to be more careful with how i make christlike attributes my goal... this month is humility and wow. We are seeing experiences full of humble.

So this week we had the baptism of micael!!!! It was awesome. now you have to say his name right... it is not mickael like we say in america... it is Mi-kae (like sky)- elll. Ok glad we got that figured out. So he is a pesquisador ( investigator) we have been teaching for a bit. He is an area book find... the area book actually works.... haha but we found him one day during weekly planning as i was in a bad mood and needed to take a minute and make zuccuni bread for lunch... so we used our time wisely as i made zuccini bread... my comp read out names in the area book. and we both felt good about micael!! Well it worked out.. micael AND the zuccuini bread. haha so we taught him and he came to church no problem and became an instant celebrity. he has a great personality and a lot of the ward members like him. So instant integration! But yeah... his baptism was an interesting one. He got a random job the night before his baptism.. which is like a milagre... but at the same time we didnt get to teach him. So we were praying that he wouldnt work the next day. When we found him the next morning he said he wasnt working that day or sunday! YES! So that was a huge relief. well... also with micael he is very VERY forgetful with the time... like it is VERY. So we reminded him a lot of times he needed to be at the baptism an hour early. Well... 30 minutes before he was no where in sight... and of course he doesnt have a phone that was working. Soooo you know what we had to do... RUN!

Yes... sister coelho and i ran to his house and he was about to leave.. asking what time it was... Well we told him very nicely that it was already time for his baptism so we had to run there. Good thing he is a soccer player. So we ran to the baptism! And just saying --- i won! hahahaha i beat a cabo verdian soccer player! But when we showed up we got him to change clothes and took a quick picture and i was asked to lead the music as i was drenched in sweat. One experience i will always remember.

I think for all of those who are reading just need to understand one thing about Cabo Verde... All the missionaries who serve here understand how it is... but no one else can truly understand how it is. it is like we have a secret and we just cant explain or tell anyone about it. haha i have really seen amazing things in this mission and met amazing people!

But with the subject heading... Micael was asking what he needed to bring.. flip flops.. towel.. and all that stuff.. so we told him and then we did a review of what he was going to bring and he couldnt remember about the towel and asked if he needed soap. hahaha it was super funny. I think we will teach the atonement better on how we are cleaned through Christs atonement and not by soap. :)

The rest of the week was good too. Except for a lot of miscommuncation and some embarrassement that i wont write about in the general email. But we had Leadership Council this week on tuesday and then Zone conference! I learned A LOT. Mostly we focused on the gospel of Jesus Christ. But what i learned is that we can not truly have faith unless we repent. Faith is action! So if we dont not repent we do not have faith! We need to have faith and repent and be baptized and recieve the holy ghost... and what is the fifth step? I usually would say endure to the end... but this week i realized it really is to have more faith.. and then the 6th step is to repent. Repentance every single day! And promissing to keep the commandments every day and then  the 7th is to take the sacrament and formally promise to take the sacrament and then the 8th step is we receive MORE of the spirit... and then... We have more FAITH! I love the gospel of jesus christ. It is a cycle that we live each day. And i just want to say that i have also seen the importance of ALWAYS having the spirit to be with us. What a promise it really is. The spirit does more than we think it does each day. it is literally purifying our souls and our hearts so that we can have that change as it describes in Mosiah 5:2. i love the gift of the holy ghost that allows me to see the world how it is and allows me to know when the truth is spoken and recieve answers from my heavenly father! I love this gospel and i know as we make it a pattern of our lives we will always progress.

Sister Johnson... Oh and PS... i am sister johnson... not hermana johnson. that is spanish. and sister in portuguese is irma... but because that is the name of some saints in the catholic church or something we go by sister here. ok just making that clear. LOVE YOU

SISTER johnson

Whitney is home and Johnson returns

Dear Family

I have gotten a lot of emails about how whitney gets home today. That is super weird and i am having a hard time that i cant be there to give her the biggest hug after mom gives her the biggest hug... and also how i cant cry my head off because i havent seen her in forever. But... I am doing better things! haha I just feel kind of bad for her actually. That this whole experience just ended. But i am happy for her and wow!! Her last email i just read today really touched me. Whit, i hope i can be as amazing as you one day. you really are such a great example and you truly served with all your heart, might, mind, and strength... and as you said... Your mission has just begun :)

So i know everyone is super excited about whitney, but if you have a tiny bit of time to read this email i would appreciate it. haha just kidding.

So this week was good! We had a baptism marked... she was the 17 year old daughter of a less active we are working with... BUT her mom just sent her off to another island. Fogo. So we show up to her house to teach her one of the last lessons and she is gone. that was a little heart breaking for both of us. And after we had a lesson with Other less actives... A mom and her son... and at the beginning it was really rough... i think we were kinda taking it out on them because we were so upset. But in the end we finally forgot ourselves and the lesson was super powerful and the best part... Yesterday they BOTH came to church and a lot of the members really welcomed them back and i think they are on the path to reactivation! This moment just really showed me how the lord is doing his work. The 17 year old daughter... Cladmara.. was super prepared from what we saw and we were so excited for her, but the lord has other plans in her life. She returns in september and if i am still here we will definitely start teaching her again!

The rest of the week was full of little miracles. Lots of things fell through. I dont think we had a day where we even taught someone during the time they were marked but we just taught who was prepared and we had a lot of new investigators! This week was also super tiring... we had 2 divisions. I am not sure why... BUT divisions are super super tiring. The sisters are great but it is like added pressure to be on your best day! haha but we had great divisions this week. I really see how the sisters and working so hard and the different ways they teach and how i can get better. I ended up making goals with the sisters after divisions so now we are going to follow up with each other. We talked about how we really need to look outward as we serve. we are seeing our weaknesses all the time as we serve and come closer to Christ.. but if we focus on others we can see how weaknesses work themselves out and become strengths!

So with the subject today.. Johnson returned. The funny story of the week is we have this recent convert... Teresa. she is an old lady and she is such a missionary. I dont think she really understands exactly what we say all the time, but she sure understands the spirit. She is super strong. So we teach in her house a lot and pass by everyday and she has these two puppies. So we decided to call the more black one Johnson and the whiter one Coelho (my companion). And teresa didnt want to call them that but we just kept calling them that. haha and then she gave in and started calling them that too. So during a division when sister coelho and i were seperated someone came and stole Johnson!!!! It was super super sad!! it was funny because i was in another area so it just made sense, but it was sad that Johnson the puppy got stolen. So then after 2 days of hoping i gave up hope that Johnson would ever get home. BUT! Yesterday we came to teresas house and she was laughing and smiling and we saw Johnson sleeping on the porch! hahaha we were SOOO happy!

So then we had a lesson with a less active at teresas house.. and we used the analogy of how johnson left, but then johnson came back and how she can come back too! It was super great. But i know that if we leave or make mistakes for example, we can always return!

Also erika and vitor... UGH! Still no date for marriage. But today it is really going to happen... for real this time. haha. But sorry this email is super not spritual... Tomorrow is leadership conference and we have all the sisters coming from all the other islands and it is just a little crazy. i cant really think about what happened this week... but i love you all and i know this gospel is true!! I know that my savior lives and loves me. He lives and he guides his work and his church today. So anything is possible!

Sister Johnson

Miracles can happen...when you believe

Dear Family,

I love you all! thanks for your inspiring emails each week. i find a lot of strength in them! This week was full of smiles and laughs! I have felt a lot of joy this week. Mostly it came from Du! i dont think i have talked a lot about her but i did send a picture. So Du was a reference from a investigator that we are teaching. She has been coming to a lot of our lessons with her friend and accepted to do all the commitments but we didnt really follow up with her because we were focused on her friend. it turns out that she had been keeping every single commitment... reading the book of mormon, living the law of chastity, the word of wisdom and not drinking coffee... for 2 whole weeks and we didnt even know it! She came to church for the second time and we decided that her friend was kinda holding her back... so we taught Du by herself and felt that we needed to invite her to be baptized that week! She was super surprised but had her mind opened for sure. Her biggest worry was that her family is super catholic. her daughters even help out the padre every week in church. So i could see how it would be a huge test of faith. But she showed a lot of faith and said that she would pray about it.

The next day we show up with a member who had similar difficulties... power of members!!!! And she shared her testimony very powerfully about how none of her family has chosen to follow her example for 20 years but how she still goes strong and loves them and knows it is the right decision. This helped a lot and du said that she would get baptized this week! And she was!!! It was great to see the change in her as we taught her all the lessons. The good thing is she is super super intelligent and understood everything! The bishopric is already thinking of a calling for her! And now we have to help her daughters...

her daughters have been very interesting. They act like they dont want to listen but then they wil ask to see a verse in the book of mormon or whisper silently in the back... haha i think they are about to change. WE are going to bring book of mormons for each of them!

So update with erika and vitor! A whole lot changed this week. Erika started opening up about how something weird happened with her neighbors and how she was really preoccupied about that. but i think she is ready to forgive. They got their identification cards worked out and now we just need to mark the day of marriage! We are hoping  miracle will happen and this week they can be baptized. We will see. Their phone is not working and they keep going out of our area to the in laws house!!!! ugh! haha so they just need to come on back home so we can teach the gospel! :)

We also had a division with some of the sisters that are doing good... kinda struggling with doing contacts! i have seen how christlike attributes take over when we let them and we talk about things in a way that will edify and not destroy! I have learned a lot and changed in that way. I love divisions too because we get to see a different way people teach and present things in simple and understandable terms! i love how the sister i was with explained the restoration! i want to study and get better about teaching that great and powerful good news!

Well.. i think that is all i have for now! I made some food this week that was super delicious... it was with lobster. haha i think maybe i am finally learning how to cook. you all can be proud. my next thing to master is to make fish! fish is just sooooo good. I am sorry mom... but you have to learn to love it! :)

Love Sister Johnson

Baptism of Du