Week 41: 01/27/14

Well Hello!!!

Okay. Ready for some mission drama? Antonio is getting married, to Gabby. In 2 weeks. Dah!!! I'm super excited for them!! Also super worried for Antonio that if he doesn't get baptized now he never will!!! We tried to have a lesson with him on Thursday night (which was freezing and rainy and ... probably not as cold as Utah but still... we're on bikes here people.) and ... he didn't show up. BUT! We did share a little message with the Rivera family that showed up to teach him with us... and they are super cool! It was just a little scripture but the Spirit was so strong. (D&C 6:33-37... definitely a favorite). Anyway, Antonio has work off the week before he gets married so I'm praying super hard if we should like- visit him every day and let this thing happen or what. We'll see. Dah. So nervous.

Well, transfer calls this morning. Hermana Dorian is getting transferred! She was really sad, but she says it's time. She was like "I'm sad cuz I feel like all these miracles are about to happen in this area and I'm leaving!!" I really am trying to like- have as much faith as is possible for miracles cuz they so are going to happen but only in a response to faith!!!!! I hope I get a new companion that is like- okay. Faith. Workin hard. Workin together. Let's make this happen. It's totally going to happen.

Praying for it to happen!

Also, I'm in the war chapters of the Book of Mormon! They are so cool!!! Helaman is awesome. Just saying. I've learned so much about Christlike leadership and about trusting in God and strengthening our weaknesses with the Lord's help. So if you ever get to the war chapters, don't skip them. They really are awesome!

Okay. So. I'm trying to think about what happened this week versus last week. We taught Sylvia, the 18 year old with a kinda strange boyfriend and the cutest son ever. We're also teaching her brother-in-law, Alex, who's 12. He is SO funny. He reminds me so much of Brant, and he totally wants to be baptized. He even came to church this last sunday! Anyway, I love Sylvia. She's like- she just gets it. Every time we leave them with a scriptures she's just like "I read what you guys left me last night and I totally get it. It answered so many of my questions." and we teach her and she's like "That makes so much sense!" It's just people likeher that make everything so worth it. That just get it and just love it the way I love it. I'm like "I love this stuff!" and it makes me excited when other people do too. Her biggest hurdle I think will be telling her husband that she wants all this. And convincing him to marry her for it. Noooot too excited about that but we'll see.

Gloria, aka "Super Mom" LOVES the Book of Mormon. She made us read it to her with her kids. Which was crazy cuz they're all off the walls crazy ADD. We left her with 3 Nefi 27 because she loves how we pray in Christ's name and the name of our church. She just is already friends with like- 3 ladies in our ward and seriously feels like a member. She's just really involved in her other church which makes her feel close to Christ, and I think doesn't see kinda the connection of how changing her religion would bring her more close to Christ? I'm not sure but she's my favorite ever. Seriously the nicest most patient women I've ever met and would be the best member in the world. There are just too many miracles that have happened for this not to work out. Praying super hard!!!

I get a new companion on Wednesday! And I get to take over the area!! I'm really nervous!! But I know it will be okay, cuz the Lord wants these people to know Him. I love you so much!! I know that the Church is true, and as we put our trust in the Lord, He'll deliver us! We might get a few battle wounds, but we'll always come out on top.

LOVE YOU!
Hermana Johnson

PS funny thing that happened: We taught this lady who is SUPER Cool named Neyne, she lives across the sidewalk from one of our recent converts so she's seen us all the time. Anyway, we taught her the Restauration and asked her to be baptized. She said yes!! And then Hermana Dorian extends a date... for the 29th of February!!! HAHAHAhaha. I was sitting there like- oh gosh, what do I do!? And Neyne goes "Hmm... wait..." I'm holding my breath... "What day of the week is that? Sunday?" Haha. She totally didn't catch it. Super funny.

Week 40: 01/20/14

Okay, so I have like- no time but I don't even know what to say but this week was amazing.
So. Once upon a time we went on exchanges!! Guess who I was with- Hermana Ricks! Aka Nia Aka my roommate from college. Oh my goodness it was so fun. Except... we stayed up waaaay too late the night before and ended up being super groggy the next day. But we did make jalapeño hot dogs which were delicious.
Anyway, while I was on exchanges my area blew up!! Well, our area blew up like- this whole week- we found 10 new people, where the usual is like 2 or 3 in our mission. There's a scripture in D&C that says: Open your mouths and they will be filled, and you shall be laden with sheaves on your backs. Or, talk to everyone, and you'll be given families! Mom, that's exactly what happened!! It has been amazing.
So first of all, we OYM'd (That's "Open your Mouth" aka street contacting) this family a few weeks back, we were biking visiting some formers and I just remember praying that one of them would be someone prepared. I'm just like "Can I have enough faith to ask you for this??" And we get to the house, and there was a padlock on the door. Which means someone had moved out. And I was like "Man!!" But had a feeling like- its okay. Prayer of faith always proceeds miracles. So we walk down the stairs and there was this cute family there- just leaving. Mom, the mom looked just like you. We call it "the mom look" just those people that have so much light in their eyes that would do anything for their kids just out of pure love for them. So we talked to them. And they were so nice!!! I was like "I think I'm a bit TOO attached to this family." ANYWAY long story short, they finally got to meet with them when I was on exchanges!!! And they are THE BEST! They have 3 little kids, just like our family. Strong Baptists, which I just think means they would be amazing members of the church. SO legit. They came to the chapel and we taught them the Restoration this week and they just loved it! The mom was like "What do I do? I have these commitments in my other church." We're like "Pray about it!!!" She's like- okay if this is meant to be- God will provide a way. Dah!!! I wish I had time to tell you how cool she is!
And then they ran into a former investigator Sylvia. President told us a while back to prayerfully pray about our former investigators and the Lord would lead us to people that had been prepared. So I did it! And Sylvia definitely stood out to me! Hna Dorian was like "Nah, we taught them and they didn't have any real intent." So you know, I was like "Oh okay." But ney! She finds us!! She's 18 with a kid looking to change her life. She's SO cool. Just super legit and I just feel like- so comfortable around her, same with Gloria "the mom". We were teaching her and she was like "I just have this burning question: If God is so good, then like- why do bad things happen? Why does He let Satan do all these bad things??" And I was like Dah! The Book of Mormon answers that question!!! So we shared with her 2 Nephi 2:11 and such as. She was like "Wow, I've had that question for a long time, and that just answered my question." Right!? Cuz the book of Mormon in the BOM-b.
Sorry this was short and kinda out of place. But!!! I just love this work! It's seriously the work of the Lord, and I'm so glad he calls us in our weaknesses so that we realize that we really can't do it without His help. He literally is the Head of this church, and there is no way I could deny that because I've felt His power work through me with strength I didn't know I had. I know anytime we feel weak or incapable or misunderstood, we can turn to Him in prayer and He will give us the strength beyond our own. I know that as we do all we can to please Him, we will have peace in our hearts. I love you guys!! Thank you for being such an amazing family. I feel so incredibly blessed.
LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU!!
Hermana Johnson

HALF WAY!!! Week 39: 01/14/14

Hello!!!!!


This week!!! Wow, what a week!!!


So! Saturday and Sunday Elder Nelson came!!! Of the 12! It. Was. Awesome. Oh my goodness I wish I could describe it. Saturday night he talked about member missionary work, and if that doesn't get people pumped, I don't know what will. He had like- all the misisonaries from Houston 2 go up, including my old roommate Hermana Ricks and like- asked them how the ward was helping them out. Talk about nerve racking. He also said something I thought was pretty cool. He's like- there's only two big promises in the scriptures from the Lord that haven't been fulfilled yet. 1. The great Gathering of Isreal. and 2. The second coming. Seriously, that's all that's left! And here we are on the front battles, gathering Isreal! It's so awesome!!! Both the members and the missionaries. Because the Lord has to fufill the promises He's made to our Fathers. Dah. I just feel so blessed to be here in Houston. This big cultural mixing block. We actually just went out to eat today at this random Italian restaurant. And our waitress there was from Kazikstan! She's like "what organization do ya'll belong to?" So we told her and she was like "Oh. The only thing that I've heard about the Mormon's is that they have this huge database for family history." Well looky who had a familysearch.orgpassalong card in her bookbag. This girl. (It was in Spanish, but you know. The websites the same) Anyway, she comes back like 2 minutes later with her Ipad and was like "How do you do this?" hahah. She already had it started up. Spirit of Elijah! So cool.


Anyway, the stake conference!!!! Saturday night I went and shook his hand!! Whoot!!!! He looked at my name tag and said "Sister Johnson, how are you?" Good!!! So cool!!! And I was with Hna Martinez and she was crying and she's like "tell him you helped my husband!!!" So I sheepishly was like "Uh... I helped her husband be baptized." and she's burst out "27 years!!!" Miracle. He said "Well, if anyone can do it it's these two." Looking at me and Hna Dorian. Well... pretty close. Hna Dorian and I do mish work pretty well together. I mean, at least I think so. Anyway. Super cool we got to meet him!!! He was so great. Sunday he had all the primary kids stand up and sing "Soy un hijo de Dios" or "I'm a child of God" it was so powerful!!! Oh my goodness. And then at the end he was like "I want to make this a memorable experience, so with your faith, I'm going to speak in a language that's not my own." And he spoke in perfect Spanish!!!! It was So AWESOME. I mean, I think he learned it on his mission but he's 92 years old and his brain is like- probably not the freshest ever. So cool.


Miracle of yesterday. We were going to see a potential and on the other side of the parking lot I could feel this guy staring at us. And I got the strongest impression to talk to him. Now, k, let me just tell you, we're in Houston, and sometimes like- I mean, we're totally safe all the time and I haven't not felt safe ever, but generally we avoid just talking to men because sometimes it turns out a liiiittle weird. So I'm like- we can't just go talk to him, what if he's crazy? So I just said a little prayer in my head: "Heavenly Father, if we need to talk to this guy, please let him talk to us." So we walk by and Hna Dorian says hi and then I ask him what he's doing and ... well, he pretty much started talking to us!! He's like "I have a question for you guys!!! What motivates you to learn Spanish?" So we told him about what we did and how we got A LOT of help from Heavenly Father, and we just kinda talked to him. Well guess what? It turns out he had been baptized 15 years earlier in Guatemala! Yeah! And he was looking to go back to church. A miracle. I was like "Ohmygoshdidthatjusthappen?" It just is a testimony builder to me how much the Lord cares about his lost sheep. Really, he'll do anything, leave the 99 and go and find the one.


Also, we pass these guys that hold up signs everyday for businesses and we're like their best friends.. I mean, we don't really talk but we always say hi. Yesterday we passed one of them on our bikes and stopped and talked to him. He's like "Man, you guys are so faithful in what you're doing. You don't think people notice you or your sacrifices but they do. What do you guys do anyway??" So we shared with him what we do! And we bore super powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon, and said, "Would you like a copy of that Book?" He was like "I was just going to ask you that." It was so awesome! You could just see his eyes light up as we testified to him of faith and repentance and the Book of Mormon. So we told him we'd go give him one one of these days when we pass by him (we only carry around Spanish BoMs).


Janie's boyfriend stayed for a lesson. I od'nt know why, but I feel such a connection to him. He's like- drunk half the time, but I think there's a man that's really broken and has had a hard life somewhere in there, and I think he's looking for something more. I don't think he likes who he is or what he's doing right now. So we taught them about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and testified that through Christ we can become renewed. Man, this gospel is so amazing!! Seriously! I love it! It changes lives!!! I think it's going to take him a long time, but - it'll be worth it!!!


Antonio pretty much told us he wants to wait to get a new job before he gets baptized (cuz he wants a calling- hahah. He's so cool.) But he doesn't want to get a new job until school is over... in may. *face palm* I don't know what to do about that kid. He just needs a spiritual slap in the face!!! I really do think like- once he really feels it he'll go for it even though he won't be perfect. We'll see.


This week I learned so much about the love from our Heavenly Father and about the Atonement. That Christ literally suffered for all our pains and afflictions as well as our sins. It doesn't matter if the pain comes from not being good enough, not feeling like we're as good as we should be, from our sins, from being misunderstood, from being cast out or feeling alone, it doesn't even matter. The reason why we felt the pain isn't conditional on if Christ felt it or not. He feels it, He knows it all, and He chose to do that so that when we suffer, we don't have to do it alone. That no matter how deep our wounds, the Lord has one to match it, and can suffer with us through it. I am so grateful for Him. Grateful for His love for not only me, but for every single person. I think that's why sharing this message is so important, through all the difficulties of life, you literally don't have to battle them alone. How wonderful is our message!


Love you :) Have a great week!


Hermana Johnson

Week 38: 01/06/14

Mom Mom Mom!!!
This week was great! What'd we do for New Year's Eve? SLEPT!!! We went to the temple, which was wonderful! BUT... this sista only got like 5 hours of sleep so it was a little fuzzy, but it's always so great and I always learn so much! It's like the temple is designed to teach you exactly what you need to know. The Spirit is there so strongly! Can't wait til ya'll can come with me :)
Yeah, so we were SUPER tired from getting up at 4:45, but we went shopping and I may have went a little crazy, but new year new clothes right? I got this aqua cardigan and I noticed Hermana Dorian got the same one and I was like- you better not be wearing that to zone conference on Friday. She was like "I sure am." And I was like "well... I am too." Welp, we totally matched to zone conference! We thought we were super funny and erryone just looked at us weird. But it was kinda hilarious. We're like "If the Elders can match, why can't we??"
Transfers are in like- 3 weeks. I'm 99.9% sure Hna Dorian is leaving and I'm taking over the area. A LITTLE nervous but I'm just praying that the Lord will just teach me what I need to know these next few weeks.
Miracle of the week: The boyfriend of Janie, our awesome "eterna-gator", who's like almost always drunk, came to church this sunday! I turned around in sacrament meeting and there he was! With Janie and the girls. I was like - Whaaaa??? It was seriously a miracle. He's super cool and quiet when he's not drunk. We may or may not be a bit too excited about it "Ohmygosh what if he joins the church and they can be an eternal family!?" But you know, the Lord works in mysterious ways.
Oh my gosh, other miracle of the week. I was looking through our area book and found this page called "Former potentials" aka people that were like "Sure! We'll listen!" But then they never got a hold of them again. ANYWAY, we decided to go try them. We knocked on this door, and this 13 year old kid answers and was like super cool! I could hear Dora the Explorer on his tv and was like "Are you watching Dora?" He's like "I'm bored okay!!" Hahah. So we left him a restaration pamplet so he wouldn't be so "bored." Another day we came back and taught him the restauration! And he was like "Did you guys know that they took parts out of the bible?" we're like YEAH! And we showed him a scripture in the book of Mormon where it talks about that. Then we invited him to be baptized when he knew these things were true. He looked at us straight in the eye, and said "Yes, I will." Dahh! It was so cool! Such a tender mercy. he's so awesome. The thing is... found out we actually have to have permission from his parents to teach him, so we're praying to have them find us at home.
Hermana Moreno's home!!!! She's the member who's brother was sick in Utah. She's back and her brother is getting better. His bishop actually called her and we had to translate from english to spanish which was really hard but super fun.
It's been a pretty good week! I'm definitely in a "I wish I was better than I am" mode right now, which is never good. I guess something I've learned on my mission or have tried to learn is to be patient and just grow in the way and at the speed the Lord wants me to. And I know that the Lord blesses those that wait.
The church is true!!! The Book of Mormon is the best book in the world! I know that the Savior loves us no matter what. And I'm so grateful for Him and His sacrifice.
Love you all!!!
Hermana Johnson

Week 37: 01/01/14

Hey mom!!!!
So did I tell you, after I got of the phone, Gabby was like "You have a lot of love in your family." I'm like- right! We are the best! Forever!!! I love you guys, it was so great to see you.
Christmas was pretty good, we went and visited with Paula, a single lady in our area, she's really cute. We played uno and I totally lost. It was all I could do to convince Hermana Dorian to play, but we did in the end!! I love me my card games ;) Then after that we had dinner with this other family in our ward. Actually we ate dinner and they sat in the other room and chilled but it was fine :) That morning we made a big breakfast for the 8 missionaries in my ward and some other people in our ward. Twas delicious! Then we sang christmas songs. It was great.
Thursday night<x-apple-data-detectors://0> we saw Antonio. He was like- "I want to be sure. I'm going to pick my baptismal date." Which is fine! He's trying so hard to find the truth, it's a little discouraging though cuz it's like- we don't know when he's going to be baptized and hopefully he doesn't wait til next year or til he knows everything about the church to do it. I don't know- if ya'll could just pray for him so that he'll receive and answer and be able to recognize his answer about the restauration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That would be great. I just don't know what more we can do for him but just pray. He's totally all in the Lord's hands, and I know that the Lord will help him receive his answer.
So for Hermana Dorian's birthday! I cooked her breakfast while she was in the shower (I mean, I make a mean scrambled egg) and then I posted ugly pictures of her inside all our cabinets and in the fridge. I'm seriously probably the best companion ever. Haha. She had a great birthday, we got fed, Janie's girls gave us both presents (Yes!) and La Hermana Paula (The one who's house we called from) got her flowers and cake, and then we had even MORE cake at Irais's house. I was like- going to die I was so full. But it was a lot of fun. :)
We definitely had my first bible bash! Whoot!!! I can hold my own. Just kidding, we went with Hermana Paula to see this one guy and his roommate was there and Hermana Paula invited him to listen. We taught the plan of salvation, and after we talked about Premortal life he's like "Well, where does it say that in the bible?" So we showed him, and then he's like "well I interpret it like this..." And like from then on every principle was like "I think this. I think that." And we'd show him a scripture, or testified or whatever, and then he'd just go off again. Hermana Dorian was suuuper frustrated. Me too. But I mean, it was fine, just his poor roommate who we went to teach couldn't feel the Spirit cuz his roommate tried to dominate the conversation the whole time. Super frustrating. But it wasn't that bad. After that, the Lord gave us a tender mercy and we got to teach a family! The mom's name is Sylvia and she's got 4 beautiful little girls. They all speak english too, but I'm not sure I like teaching in english. I'm not used to it!! They were cool. We're seeing them tomorrow, and I hope it goes well!
Oh my gosh. Okay so yesterday. Man, tender mercies exist! We went to this apartment complex that we had a bunch of potentials, and NO ONE WOULD ANSWER. We heard like a thousand people at home, but no one would answer. So we went and tried one of our Less Actives, Carmen. She's SO funny. Hilarious. Anyway, she's kinda just one of those- doesn't have her priorities straight kind of less actives. She's got a little kid named Steve, who's seriously just like Brant. Just one of those one-of-a-kind sweet/hilarious kids. He's 7. We taught them about the baptismal covenant. And Carmen just kinda took over and taught her son about how wonderful baptism is and what we do and why we do it. The Spirit was so strong. It just made me realize how wonderful it is to have a mother teach her kids. It's just how it's meant to be. And Steve is seriously one of those "noble and great ones" that loves the things of God. After we taught a little, Hna Dorian and Carmen started talking about something and Steve turns to me and says "Will you tell me more about what you were just talking about?" Man, that's how I feel about the gospel, too. It was seriously one of the most tender experiences ever.
Did I tell you!? Elder Neilson is coming to my stake! On the 11th. I'm SO EXCITED!!!
The Church is true. God answers prayers, and He is guiding us every single day. I know that He's helped me in more occasions than I can count. I know my Savior lives, and is the perfect example for each and every one of us. He knows our burdens, and He knows how to strengthen us. And in His strength, we can do all things.
I Love You!
Hermana Johnson