Great experiences

Dear Family,

So many great experiences this week. I really enjoyed all the great things I learned and it was a little hard to endure to the end...but we did it and we reached a lot of our goals!!! We set a goal to get the standard of excellance this week for member present lessons. We have been without a ward mission leader for more than a month now and without him it has been quite difficult to plan well with members. So we had to really crack down and work hard. But we went to our most powerful resource... RECENT CONVERTS! They did a fantastic job and we made our goal. This week we have mission leadership council and also multi zone conference so it will be crazy! BUT next week our goal is to break the record of lessons taught in one week! I love goals. But yes about it being super crazy this week.. We have a MISSION TOUR. I am super excited. We are receiving Elder Dykes from the seventy. I am super excited to meet him and hear from him and receive some great spiritual upliftance. I also was asked last week to be one of 3 missionaries from the zone to be interviewed by Elder dykes about HOW the Atonement of Jesus Christ has effected, or is effecting my Testimony! What an inspired question. I have been really pondering and thinking about this... and to say the least i am super nervous. haha but i know the spirit will guide my words and it will be fine. But i have learned a lot about two words.. The atonement and testimony. 

I felt like i needed to understand better two words to answer that question. Atonement and Testimony. I studied some about testimony today and found that there is a basic to our testimony and then we can build on those basics. And also that we have to act to grow this testimony. The atonement helps us act. The atonement to me is love. It is pure love of christ that he could endure through the suffering for all of us. I love the atonement and i am so grateful for the love i am learning to have for the people i serve. At first i just wanted to come to the mission to learn for myself. But i see as i apply the atonement the only way to get a better testimony is to serve others. Christ constantly looked outward. We must also look outward to develop our testimonies. I love this gospel. 

Anyway this week we have been talking to a lot of people we live in one zone of our area. One night we go to teach someone else in the zone but they were not there.. we then walk over to the other side of road where we had other investigators and we see they are smoking, knowing the word of wisdom we were pretty sad. They all looked very guilty and we asked if we could share a message with them. They said yes and we shared the message of the atonement. We talked about how they have the opportunity to repent and how they need to make a decision in their lives. it was super powerful. They all committed to come to church and asked that we pass by and go with them. I felt the spirit... but then sunday comes and none of them are in their houses when we pass by to go to church! I love agency. It is a great gift... I just wish sometimes people would use their agency in a better way. But we will pass by this week and help them understand better the importance of going to church. But the other person in that zone has a smoking problem as well and wants to stop sooo bad. So he has committed to walking around with a book of mormon in his hand and every time he has the desire he has to read first. I love the power of the book of mormon and i am excited to see what happens. i will keep everyone posted.

I guess i cant really remember any cool stories now...but they really did happen. I think they were mostly with my studies and our practices in companion study and how we feel we are being taught a lot of things about how to help our investigators. Now we just need to have faith that it will happen and that they will use thier agency to chose the right! I love you all.

Also This week as well we will be more diligent. We are doing a covenant that if we can stay together one more transfer we will not come back for lunch but instead pack a lunch each day and also that we will leave at 5 pm on preparation days. We have started the lunch thing and it is working wonderfully. we live so far away from our area that we just dont want to have to come back to the house...so we arent. and we walk and walk and find more people to teach this way. and dont have to walk home and waste an hour! but we will start today with pday stuff and hopefully get what we wish which is the blessings of staying together for christmas. Haha... but the Lords will be done 

Love

Sister Johnson

Do you know God?

Dear Family,

This weeks email will be about a few tiny experiences that i had this week that i just have to share with you all. The subject line is my favorite story so i will save it until the end.

But first a funny story. Dont get mad... just love the people but this one just made me really laugh. So yesterday we left the house and made the trek to our area. As we were almost to the house of our appointment there was a few men walking in our direction. They didnt look very happy so i tried to go off to the side of the road to avoid them... but i didnt do it fast enough because one of them sticks out his foot as i am passing by and trips me. yeah.. odd. But instead of getting mad i was actually quite pleased that i didnt fall on my face and i caught myself. My comp just looks back and then looks at me and asks, ^did he just trip you.^ and i was like ^yeah^... haha but it happens you know. So we just kept walking and laughing about it the whole day. What a random thing. 

But moving on... You know how it was halloween on saturday. Well it seemed to last a really long time here. Because on sunday after church we saw a bunch of people in masks still. We asked them why they are still dressed up and they said it was because it is halloween... We were like ^no that was yesterday.^ Well. I think they were all a little confused. So i will be interested to see if we still have people dressed up today but i hope not. 

Ok so enough with the funny stories. Now for the good stuff! This week i had a great interview with my president of the mission. It was super inspiring. I learned a lot and got more excited about my purpose. I asked after the interview, my presidents wife, what she does to endure to the end. Her answer was great. She said that we have to give it all to the Lord. We have to leave it all in his hands. With every calling that we might have, being a mom, a dad, a mission president, a missionary, a primary president, whatever it may be... we will see that we need to leave it to the Lord and do his will. I loved that answer. I want to increase my trust in the Lord and leave it to him while doing my very very best to continue. And that can be discouraging haha.. because we are SO far away from where we can and need to be, But guess what! That is why we have the spirit. We have the Holy ghost to give us a hug and let us know we are doing a great job and also give us more desire to do even better and not make us dwell on how far we are but help us to do things one by one and get better and better. 

So this week we also had the great baptism of our investigator Claudia. Her sister decided last minute not to get baptized. It was super sad.... super sad. BUT then i realized that i need to be grateful for what we do have. A daughter of god just got baptized and gained a chance to enter into the reino celestial! The celestial kingdom. WHAT BLESSING. So we decided to be grateful instead of sad.... Yay! Choosing to be grateful makes things so much for happy.

Last but not least. Sooo we were at the house of a new investigator who has a million neices and nephews. they were all messing with us and our hair and faces and everything the whole lessons but it was fine. Toward the end i put my hand on the table and the little girl.. i think she is like 6 or 7 puts her hand on my hand and looks me in the eyes and ask, ^Do you know God^ i almost cried. She was asking if we knew heavenly father. and i thought about the answer for a minute... Yes. I do. I do know who my Heavenly Father is and he knows me. It is my goal to come to know him even more and more. And these people just want to get to know him as well. We have been talking a lot about the BOM this week because me and my comp will give a training to the zone tomorrow about it. And we saw how it is truly through the book of mormon that we get this Vertical relationship with our heavenly father. that and prayer. I do know him and he know me. I love you all! thanks for all you do for me and the prayers.

Love sister Johnson 

Will we go to battle?

Ok this will be quick,

I cant really think of what happened this week... Just that i had a division and my area is crazy awesome! But ok let me think...

monday. Pday was awesome we went to socapeda where all they have is awesome africa things and i got some stuff. i love this place. I saw a tshirt that says africa power and i think i might need to go back and buy it. haha

tuesday. We had a great district meeting with our district leader who got emergency transferred to the island of maio. he is training and its just him and his companion in maio. Super awesome! White wash!

wednesday. We got a new district leader who is also training and white washing. Great changes. We are excited for the zone this month we are seeing some great miracles.

thursay. We are doing a division with the other sisters. Their area is SUPER big... well i mean its not like the biggest but i was walking a lot more than i was used to. haha but it was cool because we got to talk to a family who was really interested. His wife didnt want to sit with us but then we invited super nicely and finally she did and we shared the restoration with them. they both committed to read and pray! i am excited for the sisters to have such a great family! i hope they progress. We also miraculously got our goal that day even when nothing really happened until after 6. there can be miracles! always!

Friday. I am back in my area again and it was nice... there was just a lot of wild things going on and it was hard to get a lesson but again.. nothing happened until 6 and we still got our goal! yay! Heavenly Father is super great.

Saturday. We took our investigators to a baptismal service and they loved it. now they want to serve missions. haha but first they need to be baptized. So we are working with them for this week. they are sisters and then the other is a friend. but the friend wont be baptized until november. she still need to be taught a lot of things! But they are great and we hope they can do it. the other goal we had for saturday fell through... again. She is going through a lot of doubts and worried that if after baptism she might break a commandment. But that is the joy of repentance right?? Yes! We all get to repent so we are working with her on that. I know repentance is realy. we just have to take the first steps.

Ok so Sunday. We also saw miracles because nothing happened until after 6! hahaha wow. so i am learning hard core patience and patience in trying to follow the holy ghost to know where to go and not get discouraged during the day when nothing seems to go thorugh. i know that it is always possible to get our goals even when we have to patient for them to happen.

And today is a great monday! I studied the stripling warriors today and how helaman asks them, Therefore what say ye my sons, will we go to battle? i love that question. i think of it being the question from our Lord and Savior for each of us each day. Will we go to battle. And as we are like these stripling warriors.. and obey with exactness and have FAITH we will not perish. i love the scriptures and i love this gospel. it is our game plan... I know that as we live the gospel we will have happiness and peace and recieve all our blessings of eternal life in the world to come

Love sister johnson

Lets get ready to rumble

Dear family,

YESSS! We had a baptism this week. I am sooooo happy. Djony finally made it to the waters of baptism... So he is someone we have been teaching since like august. He was a reference from a recent convert-- Micael.. who we baptized in august and they live together. So each time we went to teach Micael we taught djony. Djony was a little bit slower. he progressed super fast and then went off the face of the earth and we dont know why. About a few weeks ago we found him and started teaching him again... Actually it was when i got to go on a division with sister Coelho when she was here for leadership conference... We ended up teaching about the atonement and he changed completely. he stopped trying to disappear and we got to reteach him a lot of things. So yeah long story short he was baptized on saturday and confirmedsunday. We got a new bishop this past week in our ward and he already marked an interview with him so i hope him and micael can help each other. We are also talking to their other friend, Samora who has a date for the 7 of November. Its awesome how things work out. Friends help friends. This is a pure example of one by one. The lord truly is doing his work.

Any way what else happened... umm Me and my comp are having a great time together and the work is really starting to get going! We have a baptism this week that was supposed to be last week but in her interview she was completely honest and said she didnt know that jospeh smith was a prophet. So... yeah! We worked on that. The lesson we had with her when she finally decided to be baptized was a great one... we found out what she needed. She needed to know that baptism was only one part... Getting the gift of the holy ghost is what completes baptism! We testified of the gift of the holy ghost. She said "i am starting to see the world in a different way" and we said " that is the spirit." It is truly incredible how the spirit teaches us and helps us to see the world in a different way. We can be warned and truly guided.

I think a funny story about this week is during companion study we realized that this month is halloween. We discussed quickly what we were going to be... My comp said that this halloween she will be a missionary. I thought for a second and said " i think i will try being just a member of the church this year" my comp got all serious and said "Wow sister... that will be a SCARY costume." Just to let you all know... we have decided that there should be no such thing as a member. We call everyone missionaries now. It makes it more fun. And every member a missionary right?! woot woot. 

I love this gospel. Sorry this email is short. I want to reply to people more personally. There isnt a lot of stuff for all of you generally. Just that i hope you all are being missionaries because if you look for your own salvation... you wont find it.. if you lose yourselves in this work that is when you will find it. Exortation from sister johnson. Stop being selfish and get to work people!

Sister Johnson

Djony made it to baptism

Transfers Wooo

A wedding

Dear Family!!!

Well yesterday was transfers for those of who you didnt know... which is everyone i think. i think its always a surprise to you all but it is for me too. Well i got a new companion! She is Sister Dorgan! She is from utah...we lived in the same house for these past 3 transfers and she just got changed to my area as sister leader with me and her companion went to Sal with sister Zimbelman. her old area will be white washed by a sister who was in the island of brava and who served with me in santo antao! haha i think its funny. i know and have spent a good amount of time with almost every sister on the mission until now! And the only one i didnt know will come to serve in praia so we will get to know each other well. It is just great! I love our little cabo verde mission. but anyway sister zimbelman is lucky she gets to end her mission.. die.. in the area that she started.. was born in! That is super cool and she will  be with my daughter.. the sister i trained.. sister kohlert in sal. They will do miracles together. I will be with sister dorgan and basically we will have the time of our lives. I am not sure if we have stopped laughing since last night! But we will get to work because we got some work to do.

Monday.. was a crazy day as we recieved a bunch of sisters to our house for council. and we planned our training alllll day... we tried with many failed attempts to use a talk from general conference but finally it worked...we learned a lot of patience on that day.

tuesday... we had an AMAZING counsel! We gave our training and i think it went very well and then we made some great changes and goals to the mission. And we are going to start ponderizing and memorizing a scripture as a mission and also our goals for baptism are going up and our daily goals just got a great increase! We are working! haha i was super impressed by the zone leaders in mindelo and how they decided to cut out some common missionary break times to work harder. I was inspired and now me and my comp are going to use our time even more efficiently! No more long lunches. Quick and easy and out.

Sister mathews gave a great training on the laws and ordinances and how the pattern in the scriptures is ask... recieve... conversion... SHARE. we need to share what we recieve and help our investigators do the same.

wednesday.. we had zone meeting and transmitted all the information we learned the day before. We gave another training which i think was better than the first! And we got inspired by our leaders to do even better! This zone is awesome.

thursday... we had a normal day... finally.

friday... weekly planning... i was in a terrible mood. i dont know why but finally at the end we had comp inventory and like always sister zimbelman inspired me and i got over my anger! I think sometimes i want to show my love for these people so bad... but then we love them so much we get SOO mad when they dont complete committments. it is a constant battle. But i am seeing that we need to see the people in the eyes of our heavenly parents! Like said in the testimony of Elder Renlund

saturday.. normal... kind of. 

sunday... we got the transfer call! woot woot. And we got to teach some great people and had an amazing family night in the house of a less actie. She is so great!!! She invited all her friends.

So yeah this week we are helping two people prepare for baptism. I wil share the story of one this week because it was an awesome miracle. So we had a great zone meeting on wednesday and our AP who is from cabo verde talked about his story of conversion and it was incredible. He just a practice on how to figure out the doubts of our investigators by asking questions and turns out the practice was his story. He was an investigator of gold but never went to church because his mom would kick him out of the house... well he read 1 nephi 3 verse 7 and decided to go to church! what faith! But the thing is that same day we go and teach our investigator who is gold.. but had a doubt about baptism. she had the SAME problem. her parents will disown her if she gets baptized. We used 1 nephi 3:7 and she started crying. she knows what she needs to do. there is so much power in practices. we were so prepared for her because we had just practiced. i know in each phase of our lives we can practice for things ahead of time and the spirit will truly bring to our minds in that moment what we need. this is why we NEED to study and pray each and everyday to be prepared.

love you all

sister johnson

What a week...I feel a little overwhelmed

Dear Family,

A small chunch of what i wrote to my mission presidente this week:

What a week! I feel a little overwhelmed. I dont know if you knew but i get really worried and stressed every time i am asked to give a training. I thought i would blow up from stress our first zone meeting, but then i got through it. And then when we were asked to give a mini training last missionary leadership council... i also thought i would blow up and i got through it. And now we must give a full training this months leadership council... i think i am actually going to blow up. But i guess i will get through it. haha i think Heavenly Father just kind of laughs at how he is stretching us to our limits and helps us grow. He had a great sense of humor this week with all the things that went wrong. But we made it through. I loved conference. It was a great way to remember how simple and purê the gospel is! I got to remember to simplify. And also really feel the strength of the spirit in my life. I love the gift of the Holy Ghost. I am so grateful for the companionship of the holy ghost. because also this week i felt like i got reminded of some little things i have done in the past and i got all worried and stressed about how imperfect i am and how i may not be worthy. I talked with sister zimbelman about these feelings and she gave amazing advice and counsel. What a blessing it is to have companions and also how truly divinely chosen they are. She helped me understand the atonement even more clearly in my life. She said how if we repent our sins they are not going to go half away. Even if our sins be as dark as Scarlet they should be as White as snow. There is not pink people... what a blessing it is to have repentance. i am so grateful for the atonement and so blessed to use it. i have Always felt the spirit in my mission and i know that even though satan at times tries to make us feel as if we are unworthy my heavenly father has forgiven my sins. I love repentance and i see now that it is a process and a blessing! We should not feel scared or discouraged about repentance but truly aleiviated and blessed to be able to participate in this essential process that My Savior made possible.

that is the miracle of the week.

I felt like i should share that experience with my loved ones. Repentance brings joy.

But things really did go interesting this week. i wouldnt say completely wrong... but interesting. So first.

Monday-- Miracles. We were getting my hair done and it didnt go as fast as we had hoped but we still reached our goal for the day and saw people being put in our path.

Tuesday--We get asked to give training in leadership council on how to begin teaching. We laughed pretty hard throughout the day because our goal for the month is to develop knowledge. Heavenly father took that into account and we see what happens. We thought about changing our goal after that but we will continue with Faith and courage to develop this atribute. haha.

Wednesday-- We had a great meeting with the zone leaders and the district leaders about some goals we want to set for next month in our zone. The month of october is going to be a great month! We are focusing on teaching people not lessons. I love this principle. It is a constant goal of all of us but this month we will learn some new tricks!

Thursday-- We had a great division... I ran to the beach with one of the sisters and ran back. it was great and difficult. But beautiful! The sister i did divisions with is in her 2nd transfer and doing a great job. she is getting the language down and setting goals like a boss!

Friday--Great day.. cant remember what happened.

Saturday-- Conference! We get asked to do a interview with the public relations coordinator of Cabo Verde! And we have some great people at conference and made some great cookies.

Sunday-- We get punished for making the cookies on saturday because we ran out of gás on sunday.... right in the middle of making the noodles for our awesome tuna caserole... so what do we do... we grab everything in our kitchen and we make our way to the others sisters house and make our food there which makes us late for everything but thats ok because we still happen to make it in time for conference!!!! And we do that interview with the lady and take modeling fotos of us teaching investigators on the street and all sorts of great things. i will let you all know if i ever see the article... it will be in portuguese but maybe i will send it to you.

We have a investiagator who has a bar. she is doing really well and seeking to find a desire to get baptized. right now she is super worried. because of a catholic Family. but we are seeing that she is changing. she also started looking for another job so that she does not have to work in a bar! the gospel changes people! I hope she can find a job. we are praying super hard and hoping she will also find a way to go back to school! Our investigators have so much potential... they just have so many problems as well. But we are trying to find a way to help them see that as week keep the commandments we are blessed beyond measure!! Thanks for all your stories on keeping commandments. Super powerful. I cried. I love you all and keep striving! I learned in conference about how we are truly needed to be better! We need to be seeking exaltation! I love you all

Tchao..

Sister Johnson

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