This week was very long

Dear Family,

This week was very long... i feel like its been a decade since i last wrote. Sometimes weeks pass by super fast... sometimes super slow. But i guess its because i have so many things that happened that i feel like its been forever. 

I will start with how this week i had a division with my other daughter sister Kohlert. It was a great time and she came to my area and really blessed us. She gave us some references as we went a long the day and turns out they are gold! So we marked 4 baptism dates :) We will continue to follow up with them. The next part that was great is that we had the oppurtunity to see Antonio in the road during the division. We were waiting for another investigator to meet us up at a place and as we waited and waited i didnt know if we should leave and come back or what... but we just waited and it turned out well because we saw antonio after he had disappeared the whole week. So we were able to ask him how he feels about baptism. he expressed he doesnt feel ready or the answer he wants... We talked to him in those small moments and i dont really know how but at the end he decided he wanted to be baptized on the 30th and he has been firm in that date ever since. We have had a hard time teaching him because of his work schedule but saturday night we saw him and got to explain the importance of committments and ever since then we have taught him each night preparing him for the 30th. So i know all will work out! We also have seen the branch make great changes and the branch president called today and said they have EVERYTHING planned.... this never has happened to me before... ever. So i was super happy. They are turning things around here in Sal. NOw we just got to teach antonio :) pray that all goes well.

Next is that we were able to participate in the wordly broadcast to all the missionaries of some great trainings. We saw apostles teach us and other leaders! It was a great opportunity! :) I learned a lot... and this is why i made this subject because i realized our huge purpose is to teach repentance! People do not understand how to repent... But if we all understood repentance and forgiveness we would have a lot less inactive members of the church. And also they will be prepeared to be baptized and continue in their conversion in the church. Wow! So as i sat there i thought about how we can teach repentance better and i thought about HOW we repent... and one part is important... we pray. So i made a goal to teach our investigators how to pray! They know the steps but they can really truly develop this relationship with our heavenly father through prayer... so when they become members of the church and have those difficult times they have their father in heaven to turn to! I love the power of prayer. I have learned a lot about prayer this week.

this week has been hard. We have had a lot of amazing experiences but teaching a new missionary is definitely a struggle. So i have learned a lot about prayer. And how we can follow the spirit throughout the day. As we ask Heavenly father for things to happen in prayer... especially as a missionary... i see how he will work with me as well. We pray in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. It is so powerful. We are promising the Lord we will do something. And he will help us..

So our prayers can be so simple. I need to focus more as i pray and this week i have seen miracles through prayer. As my family has expressed to me through their letters! Wow... amazing how we grow together.

Anyway i think this is all. Love you all. :) 

Oh also had a great interview with president mathews! It is amazing how the spirit teaches in every moment!

Love Sister Johnson

I simply remember my favorite things

Dear Family,

Soooo... This week was well... as i said in the subject: full of singing hymns and songs to make me feel happy. I have never knocked so many doors in my life. Like for example.. our mission is not like a door knocking mission... hardly ever. But this week i have knocked more than double the number of doors i have ever knocked in my whole mission entirely... Oh the pain! But i gained a lot of character and learned so many great lessons :)

One lesson.. is that when we make a goal of charity for the month that means we are telling heavenly father we want to work on ALL the attributes of christ together in one. so this week i learned a lot of patience. And this next week i already see i will learn a lot of humility.

haha but those are the sad part of the week... let me tell you about my favorite parts of the week to make us all more happy!!!

One is that i got to be with this awesome mini missionary. she was so excited to learn and grow. She made some great goals with me about reading her scriptures everyday and saying her prayers. It is amazing how the simple things really bring about great things. She also want to start going back to school and she felt the spirit really strong this week and in the end although i thought it was a lousy experience for her because this week we walked a lot... she said she didnt want it to end. Wow... that touched my heart big time.

Next is that Nycarlos... that recent convert got the priesthood on sunday and also gave a great talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. He is also ahead of me in reading the Book of mormon and looks like he will beat me. I love how into it he is and it really shows true conversion. 

another great thing is we marked a baptismal date with a man from guinea bissao.. he is here for work and far from family but has been to church 3 times in a row and never stops... haha he loves going to church but his work schedule has been hard for us to meet with him. So we finally got to speak with him yesterday about the commandment and he is excited to prepare for baptism and ask god for answers. He is taking the book of mormon to work and i love that he is not ashamed of it as well. He is proud of his beliefs! 

Next is that we got to work with a lot of members this week and they testifed just perfectly.. i am super impressed with the testimonies of recent converts and how simply and powerful they can be. I saw how each person we taught the members were perfect for that person. so although mostly all our lessons fell through.. we found a person that needed the tesimony of that member at that time. I love how the Lord works.

i do know this is His work. I know that if we put our trust in him we can have peace. I LOVED the class in relief society this week on peace. christ gives us peace. that is such a great blessing. And not peace that we are just sitting at home with no worries.. hakuna matata.. no. Peace during the rough times we can feel that the will of god is taking place and we can grow. I am so grateful for the time i have to grow on the mission. I love my Savior. I love my heavenly father. Keep up the great work family and friends. I love you all. 

Sister Johnson 

My Mini Missionary

Mini Missionary

The airport struggle

Dear Family,

so this week passed by like a dream.. i am not sure what really happened but let me go day by day to describe. hahaha

Monday- Great day, i got my hair braided and we taught some great lessons with a member who is preparing to go on a mission! 

Tuesday- Also a miracle day. We got to go to our favorite place which is Palmeira! :) We went with a member who has family there and she showed us some spots to teach and gave some great references. We had a great day.

Wednesday- We only had half the day because i went to Praia in the afternoon and Sister Park stayed here in Sal with some of the other sisters. In praia i got to do some Divisions in my old area. It was amazing because i got to teach a Recent Convert who got baptized the week i left. She was super excited to see me... you all remember Arlinda. Yeah well she is doing just GREAT. she is reading the book of mormon, going to church, and she even got a job :) She is really progressing. it was a great blessing to see the differences she is making in her life spiritually. I love progress. anyway i loved that day walking in my old area and seeing familiar faces. We saw a member who always taught with us.. her name is Teresa. she was happy to see me as well and said that i shouldnt go back to sal that i needed to ask the bishop if i could stay in Tira Chapeu.. she is such a funny old lady. i told her that its not the bishop who decides... it is the lord. She said she would ask the Lord if i could stay and apparently she prayed super hard... because... well just wait for it.

Thursday- We had mission leadership council. it was a great council We got some new leaders in the mix and they have really great ideas and opinions. It is good to see the mission going forward. We talked about some of the things we can do better :) also Sister Mathews gave a lesson on the Plan of Salvation. She had asked us to think of questions and send them to her so we all prepared these questions and i had all my questions answered. it is amazing how the spirit works through people. So the Plan is amazing! but i thought i was leaving today to go back to sal.. but because teresa prayed i didnt leave. haha so i got to do divisions in my old area again and see teresa again! hahaha she thought she would keep praying too because.. well just wait. 

Friday- So today i was supposed to leave in the early morning. So i get up early.. at like 2:30... go to the airport and once we get there we see no plane... nothing. So it turns out the plane was delayed until 6 o clock that night. so we return to praia AGAIN... And i stay with the other sisters and do just another division in my old area..and guess what... i see teresa. Haha the sisters marked a family night in her house and i told her that this time i would not come back FOR REAL and that i wouldnt be at the family night... teresa just nods her head and says... ok sure. haha but luckily that night i got to Sal... BUT because of the holidays i guess the airplance place is struggling because they lost my luggage :(((

Saturday.. We make very many trips back to the airport ot find my luggage and luckily they finally get my luggage back to Sal in the afternoon. 

Sunday- I wanted a normal day yesterday but turns out we got the transfer call and I am staying in Sal. I will be training a new sister from Portugal or Brazil.. we are not sure yet. i am super pumped for a native speaker again. But she wont come until we dont really know because she is in the MTC so i am with a Mini missionary right now. Her name is Sister Gomes. she is a member here in Sal so she will babysit me for the next week. I will still be Sister Training Leader as well... Training and sister training leader.. so much training! its good because i need it.

ok i love you all. These email wasnt that spiritual sorry. Just crazy life of sister johnson in cabo verde. But i know that Christ is my Savior. I learned this even more this week with our discussion on the plan of salvation. We have our agency and we need to choose to be obedient to show our love and gratitude to our savior. I love you all.

Sister Johnson

Family game night

Christmas

Dear Family,

This week was christmas how you all know... Speaking to my family was a great highlight... i realized how much i love them and that they all actually love me because they said they missd me :) Thanks to all my siblings and my great parents for teaching me the pure love of christ. I miss you guys too. 

This week i saw some awesome... No words can describe the awesomeness of this week. So i will try to tell you all the stories. First was on tuesday.. So we have this golden area called Palmeira... we have to take a hiache to it. But when we were coming back on tuesday i forgot my planner in the hiache. it was devasting and it was already 8 pm when i noticed. And they stop working at about 8 or 8 30... so also we promissed our recent convert we would se eher sing at the branch christmas party... also we had one more appointment to go to before we went in for the night. All three things important... 

So we follow the spirit and just pray the lord would help all things work out. We decided that we would just go see if my planner was at the hiache station. So we walk back and just as we got there the hiache owner drives by and luckily has the keys to the hiache we road in and luckily it is in espargos and didnt stop in palmeira for the night... coincidence? i think not! The lord is so good to us. So we get our planner. as we walk back we decide if we have time to see her sing and go get a lessons... as we walk back we get a text from the elders saying she has started singing.. so we run! And we make it back just in time to see her performance... after she is done we still have 15 minutes to get another lesson in... so we walk to our investigators house and it was perfect becasue she was going through a hard time with her children and we came just in time to comfort her! Heavenly father did some miracles that night.

Next was wednesday when we had our own branch christmas party. and a family showed up that we are teaching as a surprise! It was great to see them and they were so happy to b ein church. They are the brother and sister in law of Nycarlos who will be baptized this saturday! We are super excited for him... did i tell you he had dreads.. and now they are cut and he also took out all his peircings! He is progressing so well and so ready for baptism this week. We are excited!! 

Next is Christmas day was amazing. We were not expecting to get a lot of our goals...BUT we ended up showing the christmas video the church put out to everyone we could and got a lot of new investigators. Next was the day after christmas.. Saturday.. we taught a whopping 9 lessons and also recent converts so like 11 lessons and we were so happy! I love being happy on the mission and seeing these miracles. Finally all the work put into december was paid off :) people do maybe actually feel something during christmas. haha

But I would just like to say that this week we got to testify of the Savior many times. I feel like that is really our purpose. To help others see that christ is their savior and redeemer and through faith and repentance they come unto him. I was blessed to see my own testimony of the Savior increase. 

love 

Sister Johnson

Christmas tradition

Golden Rod Egg