Leftovers in a microwave

Bom Dia a todos,

This week is the week of Natal! I cant believe it. It came so fast! I am excited to see what great miracles happen as we are the hands of christ this christmas.

We had  a great activity of christmas as a zone this week. President and Sister Mathews visited us and we had some great trainings and some great food. If you saw the picture we had a ton of food leftover but sister mathews only had one ziploc bag... so she asked the elders if they wanted it.. but they didnt SO... we took it :) We shared with the other two sisters as well but we also got a microwave for christmas so that was a blessing we had to heat up our leftover food in a microwave. I was having a lot of fun that day heating up a lot of things. The microwave was a great addition to our house. 

But enough about that. The training Sister Mathews gave was incredible. We talked about how we are the hands of Christ this Christmas. In Helama 14:3 i think it talks about the signs of Christºs birth... the light! The light is still shining and in it is in all of us. We are the light that shines in the darkness and we are the examples. What a great calling. And our theme for this christmas is how we are the hands of christ. So we were challenged to find someone to serve this christmas and think of what christ would do to serve them. More than just cookies on the doorstep... So we have been thinking and thinking. I am still thinking actually. But i know when it comes i will do it! I am excited to keep looking for opportunities to be the Hands of my Savior this christmas and serve. In his earthly ministry he served.. all he did was think of others. And he didnt just attend to peoples physical needs, but also their emotional needs. I have been trying to look into the eyes of the people we teach and see what it is they need from the Savior and how they can accept His gospel. Christmas is a great time... but we can do this always :) i hope being His hands is a theme for life.

So this week we found Nycarlos! He is the son of an elderly lady who comes to church every week. She lives kinda long that we have to take a hiache (those van things that all little kids are scared of when they are little) to get to their house. But she still always goes to church no matter the cost. wow! So we got to teach her son and he is great. He is super excited for his baptism and he is progressing nicely.

So about the baptism we were supposed to have... Flavio! Flavio broke our heart this week. He marked at 3 in the afternoon and we brought our secret weapon member and everything... but as we knock on the door we hear someone in the kitchen... but they wouldnt open the door. So he was home, he just wouldnt open the door. We were sad. But then yesterday he called to apologize and talking about how he has not been honest with us about the commandments and is not ready to be baptized but he wants to change so we will begin talking to him again this week . HIs sister who is less active is great and held a family night this week. We got some yummy kus kus... i need to make kus kus for you all when i get back. BEST thing ever! :) and you can only make it with a special thing called a kuskuseira or a bind... so i bought one... hehe.. but i left it in praia so no kush kush for right now. 

Anyway that is the sad story of flavio but now its happy because he has desire. And that is what matters. If we have the desire we can overcome anything. 

Next is we found this great lady miriam. She has a octopus doily in her house that she made. We love her. She is constantly talking to herself. haha She brought us a lot of joy the night we taught her. She accepted coming to church but we think she thinks we invited her to another church... so we need to follow up with that. 

Another is Maria Louisa. We stopped by last night after night church... it was great just that she was super sad about a son that she doesnt know where he is. But we comforted her with the gospel of Jesus Christ and she ended up accepting a date. Her children laugh at us everytime we come over, but Maria is really coming around. I love teaching elderly people. They have so many experiecnes that we can help them apply to the gospel.

Well thats it. Have a happy christmas. I will talk to you all next week. And with my fam fam on Christmas! I hope you all have great stories for me and i would like you all to have a question prepared--- aaron and micah principally. 

Love

Sister Johnson 

He is not here, He is risen!

Dear Family,

Well... 

Great week. haha this week i learned what hope means. I kind of failed to have hope this week. We are going through a rough patch on the mission right now. We are teaching really well i feel like the spirit is testifying of the truths of the gospel as we teach and then when that moment comes to invite... They reject! It is super annoying. I am starting to dread the invite but that should not be because we are here to INVITE others to come to Christ. So i am learning on how i need to hope for these things not seen. And that is faith... and also i need charity to have that faith. So little did i know setting a goal of having more hope this month i would be tested with my faith and also my charity... which for me is about patience. 

But for one thing.. Remember Flavio. The guy who didnt want to let us in and then let us in. Yeah well he was doing GREAT. Until we couldnt find him all week. Then we get a break up text on like thursday saying he loves us and the church but he cant continue. NO. Well we have both learned that we cant just let someone break it off with a text.. we had to go see him in person. But then he was avoiding us and we never saw him home. BUT do not fear. Yesterday we passed by and the door was open so we walked on in :) And we saw Flavio! It was a great conversation. he opened up about how his godparents from the catholic church are really giving him a hard time about being baptized in another church. So he said he cant do it. We talked a lot about faith... his preparation ... And in the end we told him he needs to read the book of mormon and know its true... because with that.. nothing can stop him.

I have a lot of HOPE he will come through this week and be baptized on the 26th.

So also a lot of other investigators have been avoiding us. And others have that great excuse of TIME. I know that if something really means something to us we will make the time for it. So we just have to keep testifying of how it really will change peoples lives. I am so grateful for this gospel and how it has changed my life. :) 

Another great surprise we had this week was on friday we hosted a cabo verdian sister who will go to serve in brasil. We went to get her from the airport and she stayed with us for a few hours. She did a great job of testifying. She was a lot of fun! She will be a great missionary.. she even made us cake.

I had a division with sister Lee. She is the one in the picture by sister kohlert. She is my granddaughter on the mission. She is great too. She speaks the language SO well. I was super impressed for her only being her 3 weeks. She is from Idaho and knows one of the missionaries i knew in the MTC. Super small world. haha

Next is that it is good to know our success is measured by our obedience, our love and if we are feeling the spirit. Because our numbers have struggled. I feel like we are passing through some difficulties because a lot of people are focused on the material side of christmas... they are worried about working enough so they can buy presents for their kids or to have a big christmas dinner. Instead of thinking of our savior jesus christ. Being a missionary i see this in a big way.. everyone just wants to talk after the holidays. But think.. this is the time to actually give our will to the Lord. He gave everything for us. I hope we can all remember, truly remember that christ died for us.. and as the scripture says "he is not here, he is risen" He LIVES. I know this is christs work and he is working hard during this season. Let us open our hearts even more to hear and understand better this great message. Knowledge is an attribute of God. Let us seek this knowledge and understanding this Christmas.

I love you all. 

Christmas tree out of trash bags

Doing laundry

Sister Johnson

Book of Muhammad

Dear Family

Great week great week! Too many hilarious experiences. And some very spiritual experiences as well. This week we had Mission Leadership Council... So let me start with what happened last monday

Monday

It was a great pDay and we find out our airplane to Praia was leaving at 1030 then it was 12 and then when we actually got there.... it didnt leave until like 130. So that was a very tiring night. I left the house at 1030 and said goodbye to my comp.. got in the taxi and went to the airport... then one of the elders left his passport at home so we went back... and then came back.. and then waited and waited until the airplane got there. And then once i got to Praia at the sisters house they werent waking up to the buzzer because the power was out... So we called. Turns out we called the wrong number about 10 times. Sorry to whoever that was... And then we had to call the APs to call then and finally they open the door. haha But anyway i didnt sleep at all that night. The foam pad was not doing it for me. But then i wake up and get ready for council which started for us at 730 am to prestar contas... give accounting! I was a walking zombie. But then all of the sudden I got a lot of energy! The spirit does great things. Then the next day we got back to Sal at 930 pm and i got to sleep!

Tuesday

That was the day of council i just described... hah

But i got a lot of exhortations from the spirit on this day. I feel like i am not doing my job as a missionary to the full ability i could. I feel like i have lost some faith. But on this day i really got some good ideas and ways on how i could be better and it was an answer to prayers. We talked a lot about studies and how to be a preach my gospel missionary and also how ot recieve revelation through prayers. We need to help our investigators be agents and act for themselves! We are helping them realize how they can recieve answers to prayers! We all can pray to our heavenly father and get answers :) i love it! He is waiting to answer if we just ask.

Wednesday

Normal day! We found a family and also a less active family. This family is great btw... The son is edimilson. And he loves soccer so we automatically connected with the sports thing. Turns out he was very good and super active in church.. but then he blew out his knew and couldnt go professional like he wanted. And now they dont go to church... I heard about this from sister park after the visit and i am super excited to help this family. I feel like i can totally relate to him! We did a practice for them today because we will teach them today and i remembered how when i tore my acl in college the things that helped me survive were trusting that the lord has a plan bigger for me than i have for myself. I cant wait to share this with them! Trust in the lord. Alma 38:5

Thursday

I gave training in zone meeting on chapter 2 in Pmg.. it was great

Friday

Normal day... Here is where the subject comes in.. We found a guy who speaks english. His name is Lucky. We are teaching him... but he is kind of confused about religions so he like to learn about all of them. So we get to his house and see about 10 bibles laying around... And after the first lesson we invite him to read the book of mormon... But he said he already read the book of muhammad... And we said mormon... and he said Yes the book of muhammad.. and we said no Book of mormon...

To say the least we tried... but i think he still thinks its called the book of muhammad. haha Great day.

Saturday

also great... we had a family night and we watched the savior is born video and the spirit was so strong! 

sunday!

Super awesome because we had a family night and we taught the children how to sing La na judeu onde cristo nasceu... i think its far far away on judeas planes or something in english! We used hand signals and the kids loved it! 

I love Christmas season... it doesnt quite feel like christmas... but I know that there are people here who want to know why christ was born. And we have teh answers. It was to save each one of us. He chose us. And we choose him each time we go to church and take the sacrament and each day of our lives we live worthily of this. I am so grateful for my savior. I love the people here. I love my companion. And i love my savior. :)

Sister Johnson

Here's the scoop: cutting board, pantry and baptism

Dear Family,

Ola! So my companion and i have been laughing about the subject of this email for a while now... it may not make any sense to you all... but it is hilarious. one of those inside jokes. But anyway. let me expalin rapido... fastly... that we have a cutting board in our house that i found today going through all the garbage.. there is a thing with missions... you get transferred and you always end up doing a HUGE cleaning job... ugh... but now it is over and its great. But anyway we found this great wooden cutting board that i am super excited to cut my bread with every morning. You all should be happy for me. Also we had this pantry that was full of dust and gunk... but NOW... its a beautiful full pantry. Well not full... it just has the typical missionary amount of food... nothing cough cough... but at least we have a pantry now. And the last but not least... WE HAD A BAPTISM!

Wooo hooo. 

So i came into this one for sure. It only makes sense. i left 3 potential baptisms so i came into one.... its kinda fair. But Maribelle is great and she is like having 3 baptisms anyway! She is 16 and super excited about the gospel. Her testimony made me so happy. She said she knows the book of mormon is true...those words... for a missionary... are the greatest! She truly has been reading that book so well and has been praying and asking god and she said she knew. Also it was great because her mom came to the baptism. Her mom is an investigator too but she had a date for the 5th and still has not been to church for 2 weeks so she will have to prepare a little more. we will work with her. But Maribelle is awesome and i am so excited to see her progression.

I have been in the repentance process of having very low expections for my new area. But let me tell you... It has been a week of miracles. This area i incredible!!!!! Sister Park... my awesome new comp... is amazing. she has so much faith! We are both working on hope this month and i have seen that i need to be more optimistic about the future it is so bright. We have so many potential here. We met 2  new investigators this week. Hamilton and Flavio and they both came to church this week. The story of hamilton was great... because we were walking down the street and he saw us... Now when people see us they automatically get this fear inside that we will stop and talk to them... So they walk a little faster or pretend they dont see us.... its great. But anyway he was different because when he saw us he slowed down a little bit... expecting us to talk to him. But.... WE DIDNT. haha we kept walking. Awkward. But then just seconds after that we felt the need to turn around and immedietly we turned around and he was just there waiting for it. haha it was great. And then flavio is awesome too... He answered the door and he said he did not want to talk... but we insisted. The part that did it is when we testifed of jesus christ and HIS church when he finally gave in and let us in. 

I am so grateful  for this work. Because it is truly the lords. I have seen that especially here in little Sal... we are super blessed because the LOrd NEEDS people here. And we are just being instruments in finding them. he is doing his work.

Well that is it for the week. super fun and funny. thanksgiving consisted of chicken, masked potatos and soup gravy because it wouldnt thicken and we had 30 minutes to cook it.... oh and dad youll love this one. WE made HOMEMADE CORN BREAD. it was amazing. super great thanksgiving. i am thankful fo rall of you. hahaha cheesy

love Sister Johnson 

Sal means salt

Ola Familia,

So yesterday was transfers... and i left the beautiful and dirty city of Praia and was sent by the lord to the beautiful and clean island of Sal. Its smells so good hear... What people say really is true! But haha anyway yes... i was transferred. I knew it was coming. And i think the whole mission could have guessed i would come to sal... it was too obvious. But i am sister Leader here on this island now with Sister Park. she was in my house about a transfer ago so we know each other very well. She is such a hard worker and a great missionary. she is in her 5th transfer and is from utah. But yeah... this zone is super tiny compared to praia but it will be great. I am the only sister training leader here so i dont have a comp to counsel\vent  with on those things, but it will be fine. I have Heavenly Father.

But yeah... That is a depressing thought about tranfers so we will pause with that. I will talk about things more interesting like for example what miracle and devastations happened this week! It was truly an amazing week. 

So last week as i might have said in my letter we did a covenant to stay in the same area... well it obviously didnt work but anyway it was a great way to show our faith. We decided to leave early on Pday which was crazy awesome and super hard at the same time... hah and also we didnt go back home for lunch but we ate on the road and it was great because we didnt have to hike the 2 hills going back home more than we needed to! But we spent much less time preparing lunch and much more time teaching and contacting and sharing the gospel. In results of this we were super exhausted... but the Spirit of the Lord is powerful and we made it through each day and i went to bed at night knowing.. without a doubt we did all that we could that day. I truly love that feeling and i love being with consecrated missionary companions that always are looking for ways to be better. 

But anyway this whole week we were preparing Fernando to be baptized. He had been taught by the sisters before but what had happened was that he was not prepared in his eyes. Well when we went by to contact him the other week he said he was ready now. So we prepare him the whole week for baptism. we even gave  our last lesson on friday night  at 8h45 which is like the latest it could have been to make sure nothing happened... but then on saturday we show up at the baptism and he is not there. It was nothing like him.. so we call and he said that there was an accident and that his neice died in an accident and he went to the funeral out of town and could not get back in time... We were devasted. to say the least i was not a happy person! WHY! 

But anyway that tristeza is over... we saw him sunday night and he will be baptized this week. and we will pray no accidents happen. I know it is super sad for him and his family but as well it just is sad he needs to wait a whole week to recieve the blessings of the gospel. Perspective changes a little bit. 

But anyways... Other pictures i have sent. One is papa johnson. he always calls me his daughter and it is great. i love speaking with him... haha super catholic thought and a little senial. 

Well i know a tone of great things happened... but um i cant remember. I can remember how great i felt though.  Oh and another photo is of arlinda and she is also getting baptized this next week. She is so awesome. We went to the stake preseidents house yesterday for a family night and what the wife told us is that she always felt like she should invite arlinda to church but never did.... and then one day she showed up with us. Wow... follow those promptings  always.  Because then it gives us missionary less work to do. But anyway i just love arlinda. she is seeking the truth so diligently . she was super sick last week and needed ot get a baptismal interview and still got up and ready to have one.

I will miss praia.... its like america compared to sal. hahha  because we dont have water here and have to wash clothes by hand or take bucket showers and carry water from the elderes house to ours so that we can drink.... i will gain muscles i hope.

Pray for me.

sister Johnson

The moment you all have been waiting for...

Dear Family,

I dont have enough time to even right a fraction of what great things happened this week. Miracles without end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So i will start with the story of our baptism this week because you all got pictures, but now you need the story behind it!

So bianca is her name! She is a doll. Remember Claudia who got baptized 2 weeks ago.. Yeah they are like best friends. So what happened was Bianca sat in on ALL the lessons with her friend Claudia. But she never showed much interest. But when she came to the baptism about 2 weeks ago she got super excited to be baptized too.. Even beyond that she got super excited to serve a mission. haha WOW. So after claudias baptism we started focusing on her and reviewing all the lessons and she was solid! Well this week we had a lot of divisions because we hosted all the sister leaders on all the islands in our house... crazy stuff. But we were on divisions on monday night when i got the bad news that bianca did not want to get baptized anymore! I was super sad and a little angry that i wasnt there.... But she said that she wants to wait until december because it was the month of chirsts birth and that is when her boyfriend will be in town and he will be able to see her... all sorts of excuses. But the sisters just invited her to pray and ask Heavenly Father. So on Wednesday the miracles happened. We just walk into the lesson with Bianca and ask to start with a prayer... I didnt know what to say so we just pray and we wait... and we wait... and we wait.. and then Bianca says. ^Sister, dont worry, i will get baptized... On the 14th. I know it is the right thing to do.^ I just looked at my comp in awe. The lord is truly doing his work. We had a Leadership council and then Zone conference and only could speak with her on the phone... but it wasnt our words that changed her. The spirit of the Lord answered her prayers and her doubts.

Then the day of baptism was also a little crazy too. She comes with a lot of fear on her face. She told us that she didnt know if she will be able to live this gospel... So we had about 5 minutes before her baptism and she almost bailed out... but we talked about the gospel and how it is a circle. a lot of people picture baptism as the end... it is just the beginning. It is the beginning to a life as a disciple of Christ. So we reminded her of repentance. At the end of the baptism she gives her testimony of the gospel and how it is a circle... faith, repentance, baptism, the sacrament, the gift of the holy ghost... and MORE FAITH. i was a proud little missionary hearing those words come out of her mouth. She will be a great missionary one day. 

So other miracles... I FINALLY realized what it means to have the Lord go before us and behind us and the right hand and on the left and all that... i think its D and C 84.88 But anyway... The lord truly prepares people. We have an old man... (my dream is to baptize an old person) getting baptized this week. He just said to us... Sisters.. i think i am prepared this week. Soooo happy. He has been going through a lot because his girlfriend for about 20 years left him. He is reading and praying and came to church and he knows what he wants. It is super fun to teach him because he participates so much. I am excited.. his name is fernando. But yeah... the Lord is before us. I have started to say in contacts... ^we have a message from the Lord for you.^and it is true! they feel as if the lord answered their prayers with us and we can see it in their eyes. so many people are prepared as we have the faith to find.

Ok so the interview with elder dyches was incredible... something cool is that he took a picture of my feet because i have really bad tan lines and he thought it was awesome. so now i can say a general authority took a picture of my feet. Also he examined my planner and i got an A+ woot woot! He and his Wife truly answered a lot of my questions i had about how to become a better missionary and about challenges i am having on a mission. I am sooo excited to get to work and resolve these problems and find others to resolve. Progress rocks! haha But Also during the interview he asked amazing inspired quesitons that truly helped me think of what i feel about my savior. I know he lives. 

So many other amazing things...but as i said. i cant put it into words. haha But i am pretty sure miracles are going to keep coming.

Sister Johnson

Interview with Elder Dyches

Dear Families,

I was delighted to have had the opportunity to meet with several missionaries during our recent mission tour just 3 days ago in the Cape Verde Praia Mission.  This companionship is just doing outstanding, exercising great faith and diligence in fulfilling their purpose each and every day.  These Sister Trainer Leaders   are excellent leaders and truly lead by example and love.  They both have a special light they radiate to all.  These sisters both got matching shoes just for the Mission Leadership Council; how can you tell?

I thank you deeply for your personal faith and support of this great work, as you “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men”.

All the very Best,

 

Elder Timothy J. Dyches

Europe Area Presidency, Second Counselor

tim.dyches@ldschurch.org