Sunday, October 4, 2015

I choose to laugh

Dear family,
This week was a great one!! i think the highlight of my week was yesterday we got to see the general womens conference and even better they have the translation into portuguese from portugal so it is SO much easier to understand than that brazil stuff... nasty. haha but i was happy and i understand pretty much all of it. Except the end with Elder Uctdorfs parable... i was a little confused but i will read it and i hope all will make sense. But i learned a lot last night and had a lot of answers to my prayers.. also we went with one of our recent converts Jocy.. who is just doing amazing. she is the teacher of the youth class now and she just loves it. Another recent convert went as well.. Du and it was great to see her. she is in the primary now so we dont interact a lot during church. hahaha but they both talked about how the children say they cant wear pants to church so we are going to have to lend over some skirts! They were laughing about it, but we are going to get some skirts to them ASAP. I love cabo verde.
Anyway so what i learned last night was a lot of things. I learned about our divine nature and how as we discover more about our divine nature it will give us more desire to help others! Wow service and helping others is truly the key to life. I think as we remember more about who we really are we will want to help those around us with more desire! I also learned how i can be grateful for my trials! This past month i would say has been the hardest of my mission so far... but i have learned to be truly grateful. And instead of ask why.. and if this is really all i have to pass through to become what He wants me to become. Thy will not mine be done. I have learned a lot more about that scripture. I also learned that it is the way we look at the path that will help us in our life. We can choose to see it with darkness and thorns... or see it with a bright blue and green path! I choose the green and blue and the beautiful scenery. But at times it is hard to choose this... i hope we can all learn to be better at having faith to see it this way.
So some of the sad part this week... remember ernesto? well we had the feeling we needed to work with him again this week and we passed by and it seemed he really changed. he was reading the book of mormon and saying how he could be baptized this week so we marked the date and he had the interview.. we passed by the day of baptism and apparently he was too sick to go. We know that there was a lot of other things that were impeding him... he said he was not prepared. Which is just sad! Because faith.. is not to have a perfect knowledge...or be perfectly prepared.. it is to have a hope in things we do not see, which are true! He was so determined that one day he will be perfectly prepared... we assured him that day wont come, we need to take a step of faith! And we also recieve no witness until after the trial of our faith! This week he passed up this opportunity but i hope in the future he can realize the blessings he can recieve.
But we also found another new investigator. one night we were walking home and a lady called out.. SISTER. i felt super bad because i had no idea who she was... but thats ok because she said we dont know each other but she talked to missionaries in Fogo a few years ago but she was a minor and her mother would not let her get baptized. she said she is able to make her own decision now and she wants to be baptized. we are super excited. tender mercy! But i couldnt help thinking that in a few years that will be aisha... i hope she has the courage to call out to the sisters as well.
Hmm.. what else. oh yeah. Today i have a special request for all of you who read this... I want to be able to better promise blessings to my investigators so that the gospel will really touch them in a special and indiviual way. So i was thinking of the blessings that  i have recieved from living the commandments... but i think i have already ran out of good ideas. SO the request is... Can you send me an email next week... well before next week so i can get it next week... haha and explain what blessings you have recieved from living a certain commandment.
So for example it can be any commandment... tithing... law of fasting, following the prophet, not stealing, going to church, reading the scriptures, keeping the sabbath day holy, taking the sacrament.. there are many. So be creative and think of a commandment and then say what specific blessings you have recieved. this will help me to share more personal experiences during teaching and also promise more specific blessings. And help you all see the blessings as well! We should always be grateful.
Thanks a bunch! I will let you know if i used your experience in a lesson and if the person is getting baptized. haha
oh that is another commandment.. did you know. Baptism and confirmation.
I think the biggest blessings i have recieved from all the commandments is feeling the Holy Ghost. It truly is a guide and a comfortor. We see the world in a different way and we are able to recognize who we are. I love you all. Stay awesome! :)
Sister Johnson

It means love and union


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