5,4,3

Dear family,

Well... I will stay in Sal for my last transfer!!!! 5 transfers in santo antao... 4 in praia... and now 3 in sal. 5,4,3... where will be the 2 and the 1... i am not sure. But we will see what life holds for me! Last week i have to admit i was quite depressed thinking i would stay in the same area and not get to know another island or area... BUT today i am super happy and actually super blessed to finish my mission how i always wanted... i remember what i always said in the beginning. That i want to finish my mission training a native portuguese speaking and only have 3 areas... hahaha looks like i got my wish to the point! :) 

This week has been full of miracles and i testify of the power of the priesthood in our lives. We were asked yesterday in our relief society lesson about what are some great benefits to living in this dispensation... Even though we have some crazy trials... WE have the PRIESTHOOD. We have the power to do saving ordinances and make covenants with our father in heaven that bring miraculous blessings :) We are so blessed. I am so blessed because this week a priesthood blessing really changed everything. 

i wont go into a lot of details but i did ask our zone leader for a blessing this week of comfort and counsel. And i recieved some great council and felt the spirit in the sweetest way. This blessing also gave me courage to walk without seeing and have faith in the Lords plan for me. This week i had to walk a lot without seeing and i believe i will continue to do this. I think i always liked to be in control of everything in my life.. it is quite hard not to be in control. And on the mission there are so many things you cant control. So i have really learned i much worry about the things i can control and trust fully in the lord and his work. and exercise faith in him.

So on thursday my companion and i had a great companionship study. we happened to pick a very inspired activity in preach my gospel that we both needed. We read in john 15 together and this chapter mentioned love... i realized the perfect question i needed to ask my companion... i asked her how she shows her love... And then i got more specific and asked how she shows her love for her family. And during our conversation i realized that we both needed to look at each other as the savior sees us. and we do that serving. I expressed to her some experiences i have had in the past few weeks and how in the beginning it was very hard to serve her... but then i began having fun doing it and now i see her how the savior sees her and i love her. i asked her to start to do the same... a little selfish invite... but guess what.. IT WORKED :) And we both began opening up... i told her how i was exactly like her at the beginning of my mission... Poor sister zimbelman. haha And how i did not like companionship study... i hated it actually. and how i did certain things that she does but how it wasnt fun. and once i decided to change i had a great time! And then my companion also opened up and expressed some of her difficulties and i kind of just laughed  and said... "its normal" and i think she needed to realize that shes not alone in her feelings. haha. 

So now my companion is the best thing that has ever happened to cabo verde :) Well we still are working through things but we are getting there and we trust each other.. i think one thing is incredible... the spirit guides us in all we do. I did not know what to say or do for a while... but i just remembered all the things i have learned on my mission and i just opened my mouth and the words came. 

We need to always be worthy of this spirit. The holy ghost is one of our most precious gifts on the earth today. And we partake of the sacrament each week to remember our covenants with our heavenly father and recieve more of this spirit. I am so grateful for the sacrament. We can truly be healed, cleansed, purified because of the Atonement of jesus christ and we must remember him always and formally promise this as we take the sacrament. I testify that as we keep the sabbath day holy we can see great differences in our sacrament experience. 

We have been working with a young lady to be baptized this week and i think all will go through smoothly! We have found a new family in Palmeira (paradise) and also a new investigator there that seems super interested. So we will be making some good useful trips to palmeira this week with hopes they all come to church on sunday :) and then get baptized in march! haha Love you all.

Sister Johnson 

Not My Will, But Thine Be Done

Ola Familia,

So this week I went to Praia for the leadership council. It was incredible and it was something i needed a lot. We talked about how to be a leader. And i repented a lot of how i need to be a better leader. The theme of the council was our focuses for the month of february. It was about the doctrine of jesus christ! Wow :) it was so inspiring. I learned about how important it is that we teach the WHY. How many times as a kid did i ask Why mom... but why dad... haha we all do this as kids. If we just walked into the house of an investigator and began teaching the law of chastity they would ask... why. Well this is why we dont just start with that. we give them the plan of salvation. and the gospel of jesus christ and we teach them WHY. Because we all want to return and live with our heavenly father and become like him. We all want eternal life. 

I learned that this applys to all circumstances... not just investigators. Many times with my companions i will say How we need to do things... and they will just do it. But sometimes they even ask why and dont want to do things the way i have been taught to do them. So then i realized i had forgotten to teach the why. Why i am obedient. Why we do things the way we do. And so that was my goal this week. We cant just skip the why. It is a valuable lesson with children as well. haha... so i will apply this in my life FOREVER. I hope my kids always want to be obedient though. I was such an obedient child... right mom and dad?? So i think i will be blessed ;)

But anyway this week.. well.. I learned a lot about the atonement of jesus christ. The way i have learned more about it is applying it even more than i have before. I have learned the TRUE significance of the words... Not my will, But thine be done. I thought i knew the significance... i thought i understood. But this week it has been even more evident what these words mean. 

I have always wanted to be obedient to the mission rules and do what i am asked with joy. But i want nothing more to be transferred back to Praia and spend my last transfer there :) But what i have decided is whatever comes... i will love it. I know i can probably ask my heavenly father to send me where i want to be. he loves me enough. But i know i will go where i need to go. And i have decided that instead of having fear and anxiety about where i will spend my last transfer i will enjoy the will of the lord. he knows me better and will help me become exactly what i need to become. :) 

I love you all. Have a wonderful week. And i thank you all for the inspiring words of encouragement i have recieved! 

Fica Dreto

Baptism of Antonio

Plane ride from Praia

Serve companion with love

Dear Family,

note. This is more personal than usual and i dont have much time because i am in Praia for mission leadership conference so i am sending it to the family and you can decide what to put in the general email. But thank you all for your kind words of comfort and strength. i will work to apply what you all have learned in the past to what i am going through right now to be happy and successful. but truly i love you all and thanks SO much!!!!

this week i do not have pictures but i will send them next week. We had the great opportunity to baptize antonio this week!!!! yayaya He is someone i believe has been little spoken about so i will tell a bit about him now. 

antonio is from Guinea bissao... i love baptizing people from other countries in africa that dont have missionaries right now because you see how the lord is truly doing his great and eternal work. Antonio moved her about 8 years ago i think for work. he left all his family in guinea. he works here in sal as a car driver for those tourist who go to santa maria. we found him as a contact. It was quite funny because when i and sister park contacted him about 2 and a half months ago he had a bracelet that said his name... so instead of asking i just noticed the bracelet and said ªAntonio.. you are a child of godª My comp looked at me all weird and wondered how i knew... i decided to mess around with her and say it was inspiration and i have no idea how that name was just put in my head.... it was great for a while hahahaha but i finallytold her eventually how i knew. But anyway as we contacted him he told us the wrong zone of where he lived by accident and we gave him as a referral to the other missionaries. well it took them some good time to finally contact him but after about a month they did and they gave him back to us as a referral with having taught him the first lesson saying as we usually do that HE IS GOLD. So we teach him and he comes to church every single week. And his work schedule was super difficult so we had to move the date back to a farther day... but it worked out and hes baptized.

On the day of his interview this week i was on a division and we went to our paradise on the other side of the island.. Palmeira. Well we got into a lesson with some ex jehovah witnesses who read the book of mormon and i think looked up some anti mormon things and we eventually had to just escape from the lesson because we were SUPER late for the interview. So we wait and wait for a car to take us back and our phone... DIES. so better yet we have no way to contact antonio and tell him to wait for us... anyway... we just pray. so we get to the chapel and the elders are there... but no antonio. and no way to call him. So we do some good investigating all the seminary kids to see if they have the same charger for our phone. one did! BUT it didnt work for some reason. we then remember the president of the branch is upstairs and we run to him... and he has the same phone and the charger works!!! as the phone is coming back to life... right in the moment... antonio CALLS. and better yet... HE is at the chapel. we get SO excited. it was truly a miracle because before hand he said how he had work at night and it had to be in the hour... but somehow the lord softened his bosses heart and it all worked out.

Ok enough stories... the real reason i am writing you all

So yes. My mission is at a rough point. I feel like waking up each morning is just hoping i wont be degraded by my companion and that she will be in a good mood and not judge my portuguese or my way of teaching or ignore me when i ask questions. I pray a lot... a lot. But anyway on friday we had a good companionship inventory and it was nice. i got told i am a dictator and i am a power hungry leader... so i stopped offering to help or give suggestions to my companion and things have been better. Its like the apostasy... when the people reject the prophet and guide.. the lord takes him away.. when the companion rejects your guidance.. you take away for some time until they are ready for the Restoration. But anyway.... its been rough.

On sunday i was feeling down and my companion was sleeping... i couldnt get her to do much so i told her she had 20 minutes... during this time i read glorious conference talks. As i read what lack i yet... i felt the spirit SUPER strong. Strong to ask the question. I silently told myself i would and that i hoped as i knelted down to pray the inspired question to ask my heavenly father would come to me and i would understand the answer perfectly... so after i read the talk i knelt down to pray. I asked in a quiet voice... What can i do to be happy.

I then waited for the answer and a few thoughts entered into my mind.... I began praying in a quiet voice again and said to heavenly father... I felt that i need to Serve my companion.. WITH JOY and clean the dishes. As i said clean the dishes i laughed... a good good laugh. Me and heavenly father. i dont think anyone else will understand the moment we had but my soul felt full of joy and relief. i know my father in heaven loves me and that he is constantly looking to help us and guide us. he knows what i need at this time even when it is just clean the dishes. and he knows how to make me laugh and just be happy. I got up and cleaned the dishes and felt better.

My companion has not changed. But i  know i have been serving her a lot. she doesnt notice of course.. but i have. the thing that lacked was the joy doing it. i will serve with a attitude of ingratitude... but now i am trying to serve with joy. 

I love you all and thank you for all you do for me

SIster Johnson 

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