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

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