El fin

HOOOOOLA!!!!

Welp, my time has come and gone. It is crazy, I can't even believe it. But this past week has been amazing, just exactly how a mission should end. The best part was Miguel. On Wednesday night we had a temple trip planned with Miguel and his member friend Pablo. Before we went we prayed about what we should teach him and we received an impression to talk about the family and how as he comes unto Christ he will be helping his family. We did that by using 1 Nephi 8 about when Lehi partook of the fruit and then he desired so badly that his family could partake as well. When we got there, the temple grounds were closed but we parked across the street and walked over did our lesson right outside the temple grounds. We started by explaining what the temple was and then we went into the lesson that we had planned. It was AMAZING!!!!! Seriously, the spirit was sooo strong. I have never seen Miguel or Pablo look so happy. They were both very close to tears almost the entire time. To be honest, at this point I can't really remember everything that was said. We finished the lesson, stared at the temple for a long time basking in the spirit, and then we took pictures. It was the most fun, most spiritual night of my mission. Such a good way to end. Miguel said that that is the happiest he has been since he has come to the United States and he really wants to go to the temple now. :)

Then, Sunday night I had the opportunity to lead the choir in a missionary fireside one last time. It was an unexpected performance, but it was super awesome. I will miss this mission.

I love you all and I am sooooo excited to see you all! Nos vemos en 2 dias!!

Hermana Johnson

Temple Trip with Pablo and Miguel

Wow, time flies

HOLA!!!!!

 

Wow, time flies when you are about to go home from your mission! Seriously, this week may have been the fastest week of my mission. That may have been because I spent about 4 days of it out of my area...but it was an awesome week! We did these things called 24s (I think I told you about it last week) where half the mission does a huge exchange for one day and at the end of it we had a big testimony meeting about all the miracles that happened on the exchange. It was super fun! I got to go back to the San Clemente YSA ward, my greenie area!! It was awesome. I was able to see a lot of the people that I taught, and I set up an appointment to see Shannon Brady, one of the recent converts that was baptized while I was there, this week before I leave! It was a very successful exchange :)

This week we feel like Miguel made a lot of progress! He didn't come to church, but we had some really good lessons. This week he will most likely be coming to a baptism and then we are going to take him up to the Newport Temple!!! I am suuuper excited about that. Our goal is to have a baptismal date with him by the end of this week, I really hope we can do that!!

Oh another super awesome thing that happened this week is that they are going to be starting the temple classes again in our ward! Sarai Cervantes (the mom of Kimberly-one of the people that was baptized while I was here) has been waiting for those classes for a while so she can go into the temple! I am sooo excited for her!

AAAAHHHHH!!!! This is my last full week in the field!! I honestly couldn't really tell you what I feel like right now. Some days I'm super excited and other days I am really sad, and other times I am just super anxious to see you all!

Les quiero bastante y nos vemos pronto!

La Hermana Johnson

HOLA!!!!

Buenos Dias!

 

Pues, this week was crazy! We had so many service projects which is something we haven't done a ton of, so it was super fun! We helped this lady move and then we helped set up for the Pioneer Day 5K. It was super fun! A lot of our members ran it and then later that day we had a stake BBQ with pioneer games and music and everything. Soo fun!

LUIS GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!! He was somebody that me and my companions found when I was in San Clemente who was golden. He was the one that said that he had been waiting for something like this for a while. So cool. I taught him for a couple weeks and then I left, but he just got baptized yesterday and I was able to speak at his baptism! It was a tender mercy.

Well I don't have much time today, but I love you all soooo much and I'm super excited to see you again in 2 weeks!

Adios!

Hermana Johnson

CORO!!!!

HOLA!!!!!

Man, this week was crazy. It was awesome!!! So for those who saw on Facebook, our choir had the coolest opportunity ever to sing with the Nashville Tribute Band this week, twice!! It was awesome. It was cool because we invited a lot of people and there was a pretty good turn out of people, both members and non-members. At first, I'll be honest, I was a little apprehensive because their music is so different than what we are used to singing as a choir. But it was awesome because as we were practicing with the band, the main guy, John Deere, stopped us and said something like this, "I hope you all understand what we are doing here. There are a whole group of people out there who can't or don't understand the gospel in sacrament meeting, there are a lot of people who don't go to sacrament meeting, there are a lot of people who can't get the importance of this message another way, so we need to go out there and get them!" (It was something like that) But it hit me, that even those this was a very different way to proselyte, it was still a way to do it. There were a ton of non-members there and the way they did the program included a whole bunch of teaching about the gospel, especially Joseph Smith and it was pretty powerful. Such a cool experience.

Then on Sunday, we had the chance to sing in another Sacrament meeting. It was the last choir performance that I will be a part of before I leave. :( It went super well. Haha it was crazy, cause I was praying for the spirit to be there so that people (I was thinking mostly about the missionaries) would be able to come unto Christ and use his Atonement more in the things they are struggling with. Let me tell you, God answers prayers. As I stood up to conduct "I Believe in Christ" I looked into all of the missionaries eyes as we started singing, and I just started sobbing. Haha, the spirit was there, it was great. Later during the meeting I looked up at the time and it was 12:30...sacrament meeting had gone way over and we still had one more song to sing. The problem though was that I was supposed to be in my ward giving a talk at that exact moment! I had a mini heart attack. No worries, we figured it out and I got to my ward just in time to give my talk. I don't know what my deal was that day, but at the end of my talk I started crying again! I think it hit me that I am going home in 3 weeks, haha. AH!

Miguel came to church!!!!!!! WAHOO!!! Keep praying for him to receive an answer!! We also received some awesome referrals this week, so we are excited about that too!

I love you all and I will see you soon!

Hermana Johnson

p.s. One of the many things that happen on a mission that you never thought would happen. As we were standing on the street talking to a member, dressed in our skirts like normal, someone yelled from across the street, "Hey! Are you guys a gang?!" haha it was hilarious. I was crying from laughter...which really isn't that surprising. :)

Intercambios

Buenos Dias!!

 

So this past week has gone by way too fast! It was a great week though. For the 4th of July we had a mission conference from like 3 until 9, it was awesome! We played games as a mission, and then were able to watch the new movie "The Son of God". It was super fun to watch it together as a mission. Then afterwards the choir sang and President shared his testimony of the Savior. It was really powerful. We sang Dad's version of My Hands!! (this song that President and Sister Orgill absolutely love because they used to sing it at the PCC) They loved it! Sister Orgill came up to me in tears afterwards and said, "Can we please make that a regular one that you sing?" Haha, so thanks dad. We also sang This is the Christ and Go Ye Messengers, kind of classic songs that our choir always sings. But it was really powerful that night, probably the best time that we have ever sung This is the Christ. Oh, and Sister Bergau was there! That probably doesn't mean anything, but she is a missionary who was here before and has been home for a while. She had a really big impact on my mission so it was really cool to see her again.

Also this week I was able to go on an exchange with one of the sisters in the mission. I don't know if I told you all last week, but I have been given the opportunity this transfer to go on a couple exchanges with different sisters around the mission. Wow, I learned so much from this sister. I learned that if we think our trials are hard, they aren't. Someone else is ALWAYS going through something harder. But no matter how hard everything is, you can still be happy. She had such a glow and a light about her and she made everyone around her happy. It was really quite an amazing exchange.

So pray for Miguel!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He didn't come to church yesterday, but we are still working with him. We are planning on fasting this week and we are going to invite him to be baptized again on the 20th of July so help us out with your prayers! haha thanks! He is such a good person, he just needs his answer. Oh, this week we played soccer with him (he was almost on the professional team of Honduras before he hurt himself) and a couple other members. It was sooo fun! He was really good :)

Les quiero bastante!! Que tengan buena semana! Nos vemos en 1 mes! (See you in a month.....ah!!!)

Con amor,

Hermana Johnson

El Ultimo

HOLA!!!!!

Como estan todos?! Pues....tomorrow is transfers and it is my last transfer! Ah!!!

Yep, missions officially go by faster than anything else in the world. Crazily enough, I am getting transferred again for my last transfer! Super weird, everyone thought I would die in my area cause I was just put here, but for some reason I had a feeling that I would be leaving. So it didn't come as a huge shock to me. We'll see what happens to me though, there aren't too many places for me to go!

So this week was awesome. Our investigator Luis is so golden! He has been reading everything and praying and he agreed to come to church yesterday! Unluckily it was stake conference and he couldn't come in the morning so he will come next week. But we were able to give him a tour of the church instead of him going to church and the spirit was suuuper strong. It was AWESOME!!! He didn't want to leave the chapel. He still wants to be baptized on July 20th so pray for him!!

Also this week was super busy with choir things because....we recorded all of our songs! It was crazy. It was actually a really awesome experience. I was kind of worried because we did 11 songs in one day and were there from 11-6. There are almost 90 missionaries in the choir and they had to be singing and quiet for that long...yeah I was scared. And it was my job, along with 2 other Elders, to be in charge of the whole thing. But I prayed a lot, and it went really well. The choir was actually very focused, and it ended up being a very unifying and spiritual experience. There was a couple times as we were singing that I got choked up because the spirit was so strong. At the end an Elder said, "If you want to unify a mission, record an album." Haha, it was so true. 

Oh! And we just found out that the Nashville Tribute Band is coming to our mission and they are putting on a concert for the surrounding stakes and they want our choir to sing with them!!! Soooo crazy!! The choir is ecstatic. :)

Anyways, I hope you are all having a great week!

Hermana Johnson

Pues...

HOLA!!!!

 

This has been a great week. I feel like so many things happened. First of all we did these things called 24s. We had half of the mission meet in the morning on Wednesday and we essentially had like a mini transfer meeting. It was a mission-wide exchange were we all were assigned a new companion for one day and then the next day we met again to exchange back and we had a testimony meeting about all the miracles that we saw on our exchange. At first I was a little apprehesive, but it ended up being awesome! An English sister came with me and Hna Whipple, it was super fun. We had a window of heaven and I was praying the whole time that we would teach somebody that had questions, that the sister we were with would see a miracle because I knew that she needed some uplifting in her life at the time. Man, I prayed that whole window and no one came...until the very end. This guy (his name is Elias) who we had seen running earlier came past us and we asked him if we could share a quick message with him. He said sure, and as we began teaching the spirit instantly came. Then for the first vision I turned to our English companion and she said the first vision. Wow, it was the most powerful experience I have had with the first vision. She was choked up and there was no doubt that he felt the spirit. Then we asked him if we could come by and share more, and he was super excited about it. It was amazing. The look of amazement and gratitude on the face of the sister that shared the first vision was priceless. Needless to say, it was a great exchange.

Oh yeah, and actually on that same exchange we contacted this other person named Luis. It was a normal contact but he said we could come by in a couple days. Last night we taught him for the first time. WOW!!!! He is sooo golden! As we shared the restoration he told us that he has always been confused why there so many religions when there is only one God and that he just keeps telling God sorry he doesn't come to church because he doesn't know which one is true. He stopped drinking a year ago, he is looking for a way to come closer to God and a way to have more friends who don't want to drink and stuff. As we shared the first vision he was like, "Si, lo creo. Muchas personas no lo creen, dicen que no podria ser verdadero, pero si lo creo." (Yeah, I believe it. A lot of people don't believe that, they say that it couldn't be true, but yes I believe it.) It was amazing, I was in shock the whole time. He is amazing!! He accepted baptism for July 20th!

And one more miracle that happened this week. NETI CAME TO CHURCH!!!! Wahoo!!! It was awesome. We had a really good lesson with her with one of our members and I think it helped her out a ton. Oh, and when she was at church everybody came up to her and welcomed her, which was super awesome. And she knew a couple of the people there too! Pray for her to keep progressing! This week has been full of miracles, there have even been more. But let me tell you, hard work pays off!

I love being a missionary, I love this gospel, I know it is true!! Transfers are next week and it is my last one... :( I have 7 more weeks to see plenty of miracles, I am so excited!!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Johnson 

La mision

Hola!!

Sorry I don't have much time today so my letter will be short. This week has been great. We were able to find 5 new investigators and we were finally able to find Concha, the mom of one my less-active recent converts and teach her again! We have a couple people who are just about to start progressing, it is super exciting!

So I spend a lot of time out of my area for exchanges and its awesome because everytime I get to go on an exchange I end up either in my old area or my old ward! So I see all the people up in Mission Viejo! The other day I got to see Liz again, Sarai and Kimberly, Hna Mosqueira, oh and then I got to go to their stake conference so I acually got to see essentially the whole ward. Those names may not even ring a bell to you, but know that they are all super awesome and that I miss them a lot. Sarai Cervantes taught me how to make enchiladas and tinga! My goal is to write down how to make all the super good mexican meals that we eat all the time so i can learn how to make them when I go home. :) You should all be excited!

Anyways, pray a ton for Neti and her family, Concha, and Michaela!! These are our investigators that we are working with the most right now.

So our mission is doing a mission wide basketball tournament right now. All the Elders formed teams within their zones and they are up in Irvine playing against each other. Haha, President is all for it, its hilarious. I'll write next week and tell you if anyone gets hurt...I will be surprised if it didn't happen.

Les quiero!! Que tengan buena semana!

Hermana Johnson

La Obra Misional

HOLA!!!

So this week was a pretty normal week, nothing super duper crazy happened, but it was still full of good missionary work! A couple nights ago we got a call from Hna Garcia saying that she wouldn't be able to have a party for her son like she had planned because of some issues that had come up, but we knew that she was super sad. So we went to the store, bought her a cake, then got some balloons and candy. Her son really wanted a piñata, so we stuck candy in the balloons and blew them up! best make-shift piñatas ever! Then we went over to their house and threw her son a party, it was super fun! The best part though was afterwards when we all got in a huge cake fight! I'll have to send you some pictures, I had cake all over my eye and in my hair and everything. It was great cause we didn't even have time to go home afterward before our next lesson, so we were just cake-ifyed the whole night! :)

Another cool thing we did was sing at a wedding for St Mary's Episcopal Church. That was super fun too! We have sang at her church before, and she absolutely loves us, so she invited us to come and sing at her daughter's wedding. But what we did was stand outside her church, on the streets of Laguna Beach, and formed a tunnel and sang "There is Sunshine in my Soul Today" as all the people from the wedding walked in between us. Then we walked with them for a while and waved goodbye as they went off to the wedding reception. It was short, but still really cool.

Did I tell you about Neti? I don't remember these things. Well, Neti is a former investigator of mine, from the first time I served here. Her whole family are members essentially, but for some reason she isn't. She was a referral about a year ago from her sister-in-law, but she didn't really progress. But now we have started teaching her again and I really think that she has potential to progress! Prayers for her would be awesome because she is going through some really hard things right now!

Anyways, I love you all. This gospel is true, I absolutely love being a missionary, anyone and everyone should do it. :) Hasta luego!!

Hermana Johnson

Bautismo!!!

HOLA!!

 

Well my computer hasn't been working so I have hardly any time left, but the highlight of the week was Noel's baptism and then Lulu's the next day! Noel was our baptism, well I taught him like 3 times before he got baptized. It was actually a pretty stressful, but it ended up pretty good! Then Lulu was someone that I found and taught once, then I passed her off to the other Hermanas in Mission Viejo, and she just barely got baptized! She is so awesome! So it was a really good weekend. Noel's sister came to church also and she might come again next week, so we are really excited about that too!

Sorry for the super short letter, I am doing awesome and I am loving San Clemente!

Que se banen! :) (that is what one of our investigators always tells us when we leave, haha. It means essentially that I hope that you take a bath! Anyways, les quiero bastante!

Hermana Johnson

Los Traslados!

HOLA!!

 

So I am back in San Clemente, the prettiest place in the world! I forgot how much I missed being right by the ocean, running on the beach trail every morning, seeing surfers running down the road in their wet suits to go to the beach, and best of all sitting out on our balcony at night looking over the ocean. It is so relaxing. So all in all, I love being back. It has been so awesome to see the Garcia family again, I missed them, and all the other members in the ward. The first time I was in this ward we weren't allowed to visit members outside of our area to eat dinner with them, (and there are only about 3 actives members in our area...) but now we are! So I am really excited about that too cause I will be able to meet all the members now!

I am companions again with Hermana Johnson! Haha its pretty fun, and we are also companions with another sister, Hermana Whipple. It has been really fun! The best part is that we have a baptism this Saturday! Hermana Johnson and Froelich were teaching him (Noel) for a while and he is getting baptized this week! I am super excited about it, he is really prepared and ready.

Well I don't have much time today, but I love you all and I miss you. Something I read in a talk this morning said, "All I do is ask, and the Lord answers." I hope we are all striving to have the kind of faith where we know without a doubt that the Lord will answer us if we ask will sincerity and full purpose of heart. Les quiero! Que tenga buena semana!

Hermana Johnson

Mother's Day

HOLA...otra vez!! :)

 

It was so good to talk to everyone yesterday! I think the thing that shocked me the most was how deep your voice is Caleb!! You are going to be so big by the time I come home!

For those who did not hear yesterday, after 9 months of staying in the same area I am finally getting transfered! Well, I wouldn't say finally cause I am actually really sad. I have come to love this ward soooo much! Both my English ward and the Spanish ward. Luckily our mission is tiny, and there are only 2 spanish wards so I will be close and I will still probably see everyone a lot. Joys of the Irvine mission. :)

So this past week we had some awesome progress with Miguel! We had a couple really powerful lessons with him with members there and then we invited him to our ward mother's day activity. We weren't sure if he was going to come cause he didn't seem super excited about it, but he came! It was a super fun activity. The Elders quorum planned it and they made dinner for all the women. They hired a mariachi singer to come perform for an hour while we ate. Then different people went up and sang, or read poems, or did other cool things that was all focused on mothers. Miguel loved it! He helped the men serve all the women and just became a part of the ward. It was super awesome to see.

Here are some pictures of the missionaries with the Mariachi singer and also me saying bye to one of the families in the Mission Viejo ward! I love you all and I know that this gospel is true!

Que tenga buena semana!

Hermana Johnson

Milagros

So before I forget. Here is a link to be able to look at our updated facebook page, it has a bunch of pictures of our mission! I still haven't seen it cause we don't have facebook yet, but I'm sure it is super awesome cause Sister Orgill did it! :) 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/CAIrvineMission

 

This week was awesome! We had a miracle. I told you a little bit about our new investigator Miguel. Well this past week we saw him 4 times and each time we brought our recent convert friend who is awesome everytime. Miguel is a miracle. The last time we taught him was on Saturday night. We read the scriptures with him and we invited him to come to church. He said he couldn't come because he had a different commitment that he couldn't miss. Our member friend bore his testimony about the importance of church, I bore my testimony, and the spirit was strong. But he still didn't commit to go. So we committed him to go the next week. Then we all showed up at church yesterday, fasting, and right before we begin Relief Society (our ward is backwards, so Relief Society is 2nd and Sacrament Meeting is last) Pablo, the member friend, came up to us and told us the Miguel was there!! He just showed up at church without telling us!! We were sooooo happy! And the fast and testimony meeting was super good as well. Then to top it off, Pablo invited Miguel down to San Juan with him and they spent the entire Sunday afternoon together. We were so happy. It was a huge testimony builder for me. I have been praying fervently to bring someone into the church and my prayer was answered, and I know that it will be answered many more times in the remainder of my mission.

 

Random funny fact. I can't speak English anymore. Lately I have been messing my words up, saying things that don't make any sense in English, or just in the middle of an English sentence I will throw in a spanish word...it is pretty funny actually. I'll try to improve before Sunday so that you all won't notice. :)

 

I love you! I miss you all and I will talk to you in a week! Remember that the Lord truly does answer our prayers. The Lord's work is hastening and we all have the opportunity to be a part of it. Take part in it!

 

Con amor,

Hermana Johnson

p.s. FELICITACIONES CLINT AND RACHEL!!!

El amor de Dios

Hola!!

This week we found a couple new investigators, which was much needed so it was awesome! We found one of them in a Window and his name is Miguel. He is 23 and from Honduras and he just got here. He was going to be a professional soccer player until he hurt his back...so cool. Well not the back part. But he is super prepared and super awesome. He is reading the Book of Mormon and so far has liked it. So we are reeally excited about him!

Also in our English ward there is a less-active who we finally found after like 3 months of looking, and she is awesome! She essentially has lost her testimony, but is suuuper open to learning more and gaining it back and her husband said that he might want to start going to church even though he doesn't like organized religion! That family has a ton of potential and I am really excited to start working with them!

This week the thing I have learned a lot about the power of love and prayer. I have always had the desire to truly love people and it has always been something that I have strived to do. But this past week I was able to truly understand in a deeper way how much God loves us and understand more fully why God was able to sacrifice his only Begotten Son for us. I had a spiritual witness that the only way we will be able to receive the type of love that God has, is if we are consistently and persistently praying for it. So that is my challenge for you today, that you don't forget to consistently and persistently pray for love!

Sorry I don't have much time, but I love you all and I am praying for you!

Hermana Johnson

Woah

Hola!!

This week was absolutely fantastic. We have had a ton of success with the less-actives in our ward. There are a ton of them! But our investigator pool is beginning to dwindle, so that isn't quite as good! Iris moved to Santa Ana :( but we are working on setting her up with missionaries up there!
But these past 3 days have been amazing! We had the amazing opportunity to have a conference with Elder Niel L Andersen!! It was AWESOME!!! What was even cooler was that I had the opportunity, along with 8 other members of the mission, to sing for him and for all 400 other missionaries! I actually played the piano and we sang "Bright Beams", your song dad. It went super duper well. President Orgill said that he was blown away with how good it sounded. So AWESOME!! The actual meeting was amazing as well. He talked a lot about the power of bearing, a simple and true testimony. And how important honesty is as we bear that testimony. If we are bearing testimony of something that we don't actually fully believe then the spirit can't and won't come. But as we spend the time to gain a strong and powerful testimony and then bear it powerfully about the Atonement, then that is when the spirit will come and touch the lives of those around us. It was super awesome.
Then the next day was Easter. This was a really special Easter. We had a choir performance where we invited all of our investigators, less-actives, members and their friends to come and join us in celebrating the resurrection of the Savior. It was absolutely amazing. We sang 8 songs, but two of which were "This is the Christ" and "I Believe in Christ", the same versions that the Mormon Tabernacle choir sings. The spirit was so strong, possibly one of the strongest times that I have felt it. Many people came up to me afterwards expressing the impact that the night had on them. That night I received my own witness that God does answer prayers, that he knows us individually, and that he will grant unto us our desires as we pray persistently and with faith.

My testimony is grower stronger and stronger every day. I have a very strong testimony and knowledge that God loves each and every one of us individually and perfectly. That we too can feel that deep of love for all those around us as we pray and ask for it, as we serve those around us, and as we strive to live more and more like Christ. I love this gospel, I know it is true with all of my heart, and I absolutely love sharing it on a daily basis with those around me. One thing Elder Andersen urged us to do when he was here was to write down all the names of the apostles, then to write about what they talked about this past conference, and then to go back and restudy each of their talks, and then write what you are doing right now to follow the counsel that they gave us. That is my goal for these upcoming weeks, and I would urge you all to do the same. I love you!!

Hermana Johnson

El espiritu de sacrificio

HOLA!!!!!

This week was awesome. One of the highlights of the week was choir. I haven't talked about choir for a while, don't worry it has still been happening. This past week we had 2 performances that were really awesome. The first one was at Ragnar. So theres is this really famous race called the Ragnar that passes through here where hundreds-thousands of people run in teams from Huntington Beach down to San Diego. There are 15 people on a team (I think) and each one of them runs a certain amount and then they relay it off to the next person while the rest of the team drives to the next stopping point. Well one of the stopping points was one of the church buildings right next to where we live. When the team gets to the stopping point, they have about 30-45 minutes where they just sit around waiting until their runner arrives. So we went all out and turned it into a missionary opportunity. We had missionaries there giving tours of the building, giving out waterbottles with a bunch of info on it, and then they asked the choir to "be practicing" in the chapel so that the spirit would be really strong as the church tours were going on. It was really cool. I have no idea what kind of response came out of it because most of the people who came for the church tours aren't even from around here, but the spirit was soooo strong and I know that those who did the church tours felt the spirit. It built my testimony a ton, it is amazing the power that you feel as you watch 80 missionaries sing for an hour without talking and bearing their testimonies to those who came in.
Another really cool experience we had was last night. We were invited to sing at an interfaith conference in Irvine. We sang Called to Serve and oh boy was it powerful. I could hardly sing cause I was smiling so big. The room erupted (remember it is interfaith) into clapping and cheering afterwards. And I met one of Dad's friends (companions?) from his mission there! He is the stake president in Irvine and he gave a talk where he talked about his mission. As soon as he said where he served and when I was determined to talk to him, and sure enough they served in Santiago together! It was really cool!!

Enough about choir. This week we picked up an awesome new investigator! So her name is Rocio. We contacted a girl in the street and she told us where she lived and said we could stop by, so we did and it was a false address. But that's ok cause we ran into Rocio! She just came from Mexico a month ago and she just happened to have taken the missionary discussians down there for almost 3 years! She went to church and everything for a lot of it. But she didn't get baptized cause her husband lived in the US and she lived in Mexico and she didn't want to do it without his permission. Well, now they are living together. :) We have only had one lesson with her but we are super excited!!
Also Iris has been progressing pretty well. She wants to get baptized!! The only problem is that she needs to go to the singles ward...really its not a problem cause it is going to be so good for her, but we wont be teaching her anymore. But KEEP PRAYING for her because she is elect and is really struggling and she needs and wants the gospel in her life!

Oh yeah one more thing. I have been thinking and studying a lot about sacrifice lately and the power and spirit that come from it. The idea of sacrifice is to help us truly learn how to use the power of the Atonement to give up things that are difficult and rely heavily on the atonement. We have started a 40 day fast, where we (me and my companions) prayed and fasted about 10 things that we should give up and for these next 40 days we are not doing them. I am suuuper excited!! I know that through this the spirit will be stronger in our lessons, our testimonies will grow and miracles will happen. I challenge you all to sacrifice something in your life, to study the power that comes from the law of sacrifice and then sacrifice something that is "poking at your spirit", something that is stopping you from having the spirit more fully in your life. (one of the things I'm sacrificing is cracking my knuckles...so I may need some additional prayers, haha)

Anyways, I love you all, I miss you and I know that this gospel is true! Keep tuned next week for some excited news! :)

Les quiero!
Hermana Johnson

La conferencia!

HOLA!!

I love conference!! This year was really good! I wanted so badly for there to be another day, it always comes and goes so quickly. But my favorite talks were by President Monson and by President Uchtdorf. It really hit me a lot this conference about how much they talked about love and the importance of loving others with a Christ-like love and not a worldly love. And then in President Uchtdorf's talk about the importance of being a grateful person all the time whether or not things are going how you would want them to go. That is something that will change you! Something we have been doing a lot in our lessons with people is committing them to say a grateful prayer. We usually give them a life-saver and they have to put it in their mouths as they begin to pray and without biting on the life-saver they have to pray saying only things that they are grateful for until the life saver is gone. It is really cool, i did it and found that you literally feel a difference after the prayer is over than you did before, you are happier. So I invite you all to do the same. (you can pray for longer than the life-saver, it really isn't that long :D) I promise you, that if you say those types of prayers everyday then you will look at life differently, you will begin to develop that attitude of gratitude that President Uchtdorf was talking about!

Well transfers came and went! I stayed here as did Hermana Roos! And Hermana Velarde, the very first hermana that I trained, joined us in our companionship!! It has been really awesome, Hermana Velarde brought exactly what we needed into this companionship. And we have all gotten along really well. Luckily, Hermana Bullough is still in our ward, so we have seen her almost every single day since we have not been companions, haha. The joys of serving a spanish mission in Irvine, CA. I am really excited for this transfer, I am going to learn so much from the companionship!

We had an awesome lesson with our investigator Iris this week about the Book of Mormon. She is really excited to read it and to see if this will help her out in her life! Oh and we also found a new awesome investigator this week named Evelyn. She was someone we contacted on the street who pretty much set up an appointment with us. When we went over there, we taught her the restoration and as we got to the first vision she began to cry. She said she felt something really strong in her chest that she had never felt before. She said that many missionaries from different churches had come over, but that she had never experienced this. We invited her to be baptized and at first she said that she wanted to learn more, that she had already been baptized, etc. But then we invited her to pray and ask God if she should get baptized, and she actually did it! In her prayer she asked the specific question, then we waited in silence for a while and at the end of the silence with tears in her eyes she said, "Yes, he said yes." It was CRAZY!!! Miracles do happen! I love this work, I love the gospel, I know it is true with all my heart, and I am so grateful for the chance I have to serve him full-time and to enjoy the blessings of the gospel in its fullest. Remember to do the grateful prayer and I would love to hear about everyone's studies as they talked about it general conference!! I love you all!!

Con amor,
La Hermana Johnson

Los Traslados...

Pues, transfers have come again! It is crazy how quickly time flies on the mission. I usually like transfers, but this time not so much. I am staying here, again!! This will be my 6th transfer here, which means I will have spent nearly half my mission in this area if I leave next transfer. But Hna Bullough is leaving. Luckily we are pretty sure she is going to be staying in our ward, which means we will see her about 3 times a week, if not more. But that is a lot different than 24/7. I don't know if I have told you about how amazing our companionship is right now. The relationship we have gained, all 3 of us, is unbelievable. I could not be more grateful for the friendships that we gained and for the many things I have learned from both of my companions. It's a good thing we are all going to live super close to each other after our missions, cause then you all can meet them too!!

I got everyone's letters!! They came on the perfect day, it made me soooo happy!! Clint I can't believe you are getting married so soon! Your wedding invitation was adorable!

We had a really cool experience this week. There is an Elder in our mission named Elder Tenefski. I don't actually know the whole story, but he is a convert-the first in his family. And just a couple days ago his dad got baptized!! And he, and his family, flew in from Nevada and Elder Tenefski got to baptize him! It was crazy, the spirit was so strong and there were sooo many people there. Me and my companions were invited to sing in an octet at the baptism so we were lucky and got to go. It was cool because his whole non-member family was there and afterwards Elder Tenefski bore a powerful testimony pleading for his family to take the missionary discussions. So cool.

As for our investigators: I don't remember if I told you about Iris or not. Just in case, she's awesome! We contacted her in the street and had a lesson with her this week. She is searching for the gospel right now. She needs a change in her life, she is going through some really hard things and has a true desire to come closer to god right now. Pray for her to be able to listen to conference and to be able to continue meeting with us!!!

Well, I love you all, again thank you for the package! Espero que todo este bien alli!!
Hermana Johnson

Benito Flores

HOLA!!!

This week was super good! It started out with St Patricks Day!! We definitely bought some xl lucky t-shirts and showed up to our zone activity with green mustaches that Hna Bullough's sister sent us. :) I'll send some pictures, it was really fun!

Then we also got to march in a parade this week as part of the mormon batallion!! All the sisters wore dresses and the elders got these cool mormon batallion shirt thingies, but somehow our zone didn't get the memo that the sisters were supposed to wear dresses.....so we dressed up like men!! It was really fun actually, I felt (and looked) like a little boy. Oh especially because we were one of the last groups there and the only sizes of shirts left were 3XL...it was awesome! The funny part is that me and my companions didn't actually end up marching in the parade. We got there, dressed up, took a bunch of pictures, practiced marching like men, realized that it was going to take way longer than we were thinking, and decided to leave. :) Haha, we got the pictures though, that was the most important part.

Ok, but the most important thing that happened this week was BENITO'S BAPTISM!!!!!!! I was sooo excited about that. If you are allowed to choose favorite investigators he would definitely be one of them. We taught him for about 4 or 5 months before we passed him off to the elders to teach. He was always laughing and smiling and I was so happy that he finally decided to get baptized.

Well I love you all and I hope that you are doing fantastic!! Transfers are coming up next week but I am pretty sure I will be staying here. I could infact stay here for the rest of my mission! :)

Con muchisimo amor,
La Hermana Johnson

Benito and the Elders that we passed him off to, and Jose Saavedra, his member friend that invited him to take the discussions. He is ALWAYS smiling and laughing like that.

The Sisters that taught him before his baptism. Classic Benito face.

Benito with Jose Saavedra, who baptized him.

Us 4 after his baptism.

Me and my companions after we sang at the women's conference with Sister Bonnie Parkins. We sang at the church right next to the temple so we got to take pictures afterwards!

Antonia's baptism with her two kids! So cute!!

St. Patty's Day!

Mormon Battalion Parade

Wahoo!!

ALOHA!!!!!

..........ANTONIA SE BAUTIZO!!!!! Wahoo!! It was a very good baptism. The spirit was strong and she really has changed and has a glow about her. She is already beginning to be a missionary and is reaching out to one of her friends who is struggling! She has been trying to get her to go to church for a while now. So exciting! Also we found out this week that Benito is going to be baptized for sure next Sunday at 6!!! That is super duper crazy cause he keeps disappearing before his baptismal date, but he is finally solid and he has changed as well!

You will never believe what happened. So I am sitting at MLC, a meeting for all the leaders in the mission, and we are spending some time discussing how we can improve our mission. As I am sitting in deep thought, the door in front of me opens and in pops a head full of red, curly hair. All of a sudden I see someone jumping up and down in soccer shorts and waving at me. AUTUMN AND KISER WERE IN IRVINE!!!!!!!!!! What?! I didn't even know they were coming to California, let alone, how did they find me?! That was one of the only days in the whole transfer that I would have been in Irvine at the mission office, and they happened to show up right when our meeting was ending. My jaw dropped to the floor when I saw them, I really wish someone was videotaping it! I couldn't even focus the rest of the meeting! So after the meeting ended I went to go find them and as I was walking outside, I hear someone yell my name. Hermana Garner was in California too! (although I knew she was there) Then she parked and Tabby, my recent convert from the YSA Ward, starts sprinting towards me. So I am searching for Autumn, then Hna Garner and Tabby start running towards me, and then all of a sudden Sister Drinkwater spots Autumn and I start running towards her. It was crazy, it could have been put in a movie and erred in theaters. But yeah, then I got to talk to all of them all at the same time for about 30 minutes! It was soooo fun! I honestly think God wanted us to run into to eachother because that was way too coincidental.

This week the sisters in the choir sang at a Women's Conference in Newport where Sister Bonnie Parkins spoke to us. It was AMAZING!!! When we sang the spirit was sooo strong and I could feel the power of our callings pouring through us, and then after as we listened to Bonnie Parkins speak, the spirit was even stronger and stronger. in this meeting I received a strong desire to do the Lord's work in the Lord's way. To be the person that he would have me be. I understood the importance of my calling and I can see all those that are dwindling in unbelief and I feel even deeper than I have before on my mission the importance of preaching the gospel to those who will receive it. I love my calling, and I hope to never stop preaching the gospel to those around me. I love you all and thank you for your support and prayers! Andre, I am SOOOOOOOOO excited for you!!! You are going to be soo awesome!! This is the best calling in the world.

Love,
Hermana Johnson 

.......BAUTISMO!!!!

HOLA!!!

Como estan todos?!
2 awesome things happened this week. First of all, Antonia is getting baptized on Saturday for sure!! She had her baptismal interview yesterday and passed!!! It has been so cool to see her change so quickly. Last time we were teaching her it was almost like pulling teeth, but this time she really wants to change and she wants to be that example for her family, for her kids. So she even is fine with giving up coffee!!! That was a problem last time...The lord truely works miracles though.

A couple days ago we were walking over to this place where we always are and we ran into a girl named Iris. We start talking to her and she asked us where we went to church. Then she goes on to tell us that she was talking to one of her friends at school and they happened to start talking about church stuff. She asked him if he had ever received an answer to a prayer and he said, well yeah actually this week me and my friend had been praying that we would be able to talk to one of our friends about Jesus and here we are! (so we still don't know if this friend of hers is mormon, but that sounds pretty mormon to me, haha) She thought that was the coolest thing ever. He invited her to church and she was super duper excited to go. (she should have gone yesterday) And then she was like, and right now actually I was just getting home from work and walking to my house, but for some reason I stopped for like 10 seconds or so cause I couldn't remember if I locked my car or not and I finally decided to turn around and check. If I hadn't of done that, I would have never run into you guys! Then she went on to explain that she wanted a change in her life, she just felt like everytime she went into her house she was exhausted and had no energy cause there is no happiness there, so we testified that what we teach would give her that peace. Then we asked her where she lived. Come to find out that we have already contacted her dad and he was super interested, and I have already taught her mom 3 times and she was super interested but for some reason there was something holding her back. It was crazy!! The Lord is trying to tell us that their family needs us or something!! We have a lesson with her tonight at 6, pray that the spirit will be soooo strong!! We are really excited about it!

Funny story. So a couple nights ago I was on exchanges and I wasn't in my area, so when we exchanged back, the sister that was with my companions told me that our bishop had called and asked me to give a talk in the baptism the next day (the Elders had a baptism). I was like ok yeah I can do that, that's a little weird that the bishop would ask me that, but cool I can do that. So the next day I was in church and I had been asked to fill in for the pianist for sacrament meeting. So as I was finishing playing prelude and the bishop got up to start the meeting and glanced down at the program. There I saw....Dirscursante, de la Hermana Johnson....wuf. I looked up at Hna Whipple and Johnson, the other Hermanas in the ward with my mouth dropped and they were just laughing at me! We had missunderstood and I had to give a talk in church!!! So I spent the time of the sacrament preparing a talk on the Atonement and gave it about 5 minutes later. Haha, the joys of being a missionary! It reminded me of the very first time was supposed to give a talk as a 12 year old and I had forgotten. At least this time I didn't have to walk up to the bishop in front of everyone and tell him that I had forgotten about it. :) Anyways, I love you all! I miss you, and I hope you have a great week!!

Con amor,
La Hermana Johnson 

Milagros

Hola a todos!!!

MIRACLE WEEK!!! This week was awesome! So remember how I said last week that we had a goal to teach 40 lessons this week? Did i tell you last week that I was super apprehensive at first about that goal? Well...we got 42 lessons this wekk!! Man and do miracles happen when you work hard. Teresa, Natalie, Antonia, and a new investigator Henry all came to church this week!!! We had 4 investigators at church and we now have 4 baptismal dates! It was crazy. Antonia is going to be baptized on March 15th!! I am really excited, this week we plan to get 40 lessons again and we plan to get more and more baptismal dates. Oh and Benito is going to get baptized too!!!! Remember him? Yeah, we passed him off to the elders and he should be getting baptized this next week! I am super excited about that. Antonia is doing pretty well, she is a lot more set on her baptismal date this time than she was last time. Teresa and Natalie came to church!!!! I just had to say that again because we have been waiting for that for like 6 months...Thanks for all the prayers!

I went on exchanges with a sister in the mission and we didnt' have a car. So we walked for 3 hours straight! It was crazy cause I felt like an actual missionary, or at least what i thought a missionary would be like on a mission before I became one. But then I came to Irvine, California and realized that I would never, ever walk on my mission. Haha, it was very refreshing though.

Here is a little taste of Spanish work: (written by my companion)

We went to have dinner at a member’s house and she was telling and showing us all the ants that have now infested her kitchen. There were tons on the oven overhang right above the pot of food we ate out of. I won’t scar you with the terrible details, but I’m pretty sure I had unplanned added protein (the ants) in my food that meal. Good thing my body always needs more protein! In another members house (we were thankfully not eating at the time) she has a cat that has fleas. Also it loves to be on the dinner table that we were all sitting around. We would put it on the ground and it’d just jump right back up. It kept running back and forth on the table and randomly twitching. It kind of looked like it was dancing and there were a few times we thought it was going to attack us, but it was just twitching again. Each time it twitched and jumped back on the table fleas (probably 5-10 or even more!) and huge spit droplets would fling off it and onto us! This might sound a little exaggerated but my companions can testify that this is literally what happened. I feel really bad for the cat, but man oh man by the end of the lesson I was itching everywhere from seeing the fleas, and a little wet from the spit. At one point it jumped at Hemana Bullough she yelled and jumped back. But the cat was just twitching and it drooled all over her! We get to eat with this sweet lady at the end of the month and we’re all hoping by that point the cat will have been de-flead.....yup that happened. It was disgusting.

Anyways I love you all!
Hermana Johnson

Cool things!!

ALOHA!!!....that is how we start every meeting here in Irvine California. I guess that's what happens when your President was the president of the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii for 16 years. :)

This week was awesome! I don't know if I mentioned anything about the Evening of Music in any of my other letters, but it was this past Saturday, the 22nd. It was sooooo cool!! Pretty much one of the Senior couples in the mission put together this concert for us so that we could invite all our investigators to come hear us sing, and so that members could invite their non-member friends and have them come to the church and feel of the spirit. It turned out really well, we weren't sure how many we were supposed to expect, but we ended up filled the entire stake center. There was about 700 people there! And at least a couple hundred of them were non-members. It was AWESOME!!! Afterwards we had an open house so that people could go check out the church building and everything too, I am not sure how that went cause after the concert I was talking to a whole bunch of people. But it was super cool because I felt so calm and confident conducting and the spirit was really, really powerful. Oh and they put the whole thing in the newspaper. So me and Elder Risk along with President Orgill got our picture taken and I had to speak about the choir in the paper too! Crazy. It was Elder Risk's final hurrah before he left for his house, in fact I think he is on the plane right now heading back home. I am really excited for the challenge to be the head and solo director right now. At times it is super overwhelming, but I have received many witnesses that this is my calling and that I will be successful at it as long as I use the Lord in every part of the calling. So let the journey begin. :)

Another cool thing that happened...so you remember Antonia? Yeah, she kind of fell of the radar, she was about to get baptized and then her family got in the way and she stopped talking to us. Well....she came to church yesterday!!!! We were soooooo excited!!! She wants us to come over tomorrow and teach her! I am super excited because we had a spiritual confirmation that we were going to baptize her so we haven't stopped praying for her, and it paid off!

Oh yeah, yesterday we also sang at St. Mary's Episcopalian Church! It was super cool, the preacher heard us at an Interfaith thing that we sang at and wanted us to go to her church to sing. Something really interesting happened that grew my testimony a lot. The church was gorgeous and the accoustacs were amazing, and the choir sang fairly well. But the spirit wasn't super strong like it usually is when we sing, it was strong, don't get me wrong, but it was just different. It was a testimony to me of the truthfulness of our church. It was just super cool to feel the difference between the night before, when the spirit was overpowering, and then that morning.

And one last thing.....I was called to be the sister training leader over the Spanish sisters in the mission! I am really excited about it. It means that I kind of fulfill the role of a Zone Leaders but only for the Spanish sisters. It is going to be super fun, I get to go on exchanges with all the spanish sisters...which is awesome cause I have been companions with all of them except for 2 :)

Anyways, I love you all and I hope you have a great week!! We have some awesome goals set this week to teach 40 lessons so pray suuuuuper duuuper hard that we will be able to reach that and find those that are searching for us to teach them the gospel!!

Con amor,
Hermana Johnson

A Story

HOLA!!!!

Well let me start by telling you a story. Once upon a time 3 sister missionaries were weekly planning and realized that this could possibly be the last week that they were together (because transfers were coming up in a week) and that they really wanted to work really hard this last week and teach a lot of lessons, be exactly obedient, and see miracles happen. So they prayed and made a promise to God that they would be exactly obedient this upcoming week so that that could happen. Then the next day one of the sisters said "oh man, you know what else we should do for our last week together? We should all dye our hair!!" The other 2 missionaries replied, "What a great idea?! That sounds like so much fun!" So off they went with their day talking about what their new hair color would look like and about how much fun p-day was going to be.

Then Monday arrives, and they decided that they should probably get a hair cut too because their hair was getting a little unhealthy. So they call up a member and went over to her house so start off their super exciting day. They only needed a trim so they figured it wouldn't take a super long time...1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours later they are STILL there!! The trims turned into hair cuts that not really any of them wanted. And p-days are only so long and they had some important hair-dying business to do! But they shrugged it off, ran home ate, emailed their families, bought the super expensive 8 dollar boxes of hair dye and walmart, and began the process. Immediately before they started, they all had a sinking feeling in their stomach warning them that what they were about to do was possibly not the greatest idea, but hey, it was going to be fun! So all 3 ignored the feeling. They started with a sister named Hermana Bullough, she was going to be going blonde. The other 2 sisters worked as fast as they could to get all the dye in her hair as possible because they only had like an hour and half till they had an appointment. As they were putting the dye in, she read the box. "As you turn to ash blonde you will find that it will help get rid of the red tones in the hair, etc." Oh no, she thought, why would it say that? My hair is going to be red!! The other 2 quickly responded and calmed her telling her that that was ridiculous, her was going to be a very pretty blonde. She was calmed and then it was time for the other sister.

This sister's name was Hermana Johnson. Now Hermana Johnson chose to go darker. So with very little time left the other sisters quickly put the brown dye in her virgin blonde hair. Although she was nervous, she was excited to see what the outcome would be. After both these sisters went there was not time to do the 3rd sisters hair, but they decided that they would finish with hers the next p-day. So excitedly and nervously they both took showers and started getting ready, for they had an appointment in about 20 min with an investigator. They got out of the shower, blow dryed their hair, and did everything they could to keep the tears from coming out. Hermana Bullough had an orange halo on the top of her hair, and hermana Johnson's hair was BLACK-an emo looking black!! AHHH!!!! What were they supposed to do?! They had to leave! Oh, they had an idea...Sister Drinkwater, a professional hair person who just happened to be serving in their mission. The phone call went something like this, "Sister Drinkwater, we need help! Hna Bullough has orange hair and Hna Johnson's hair is brown!" Her response, "You are all DEAD!! You dyed your hair?! Oh man, this calls for an emergency sleep over...I'll be there at 9:00" So then they cleaned themselves up, did what they could with their hair, and left for their appointments...although they did get their a little bit late. So much for the exact obedience thing, haha. They came back that night and sister Drinkwater came over to save the day.

Yep, that's how our week went. It was actually super funny. It was a good lesson on listening to the spirit, if we all had of payed attention to the super duper strong impression we all had to not dye our hair, it would have saved us a lot of trouble. :) So that is the lesson for the week, the spirit is working, make sure you listen.

Despite all that, our hair actually turned out really well after Sister Drinkwater fixed it up a bit. I'll send some pictures so you can all see. I have brown hair!! Besides that our week was actually very good. We repented for not being exactly obedient and we ended up teaching 31 lessons with almost all members! It was crazy, we are going to see a lot of success with helping our members invite their friends to be taught, we are really excited!

Well transfers are this week, there are no changes for us which is AWESOME!!! We were sooooooo excited when we found that out. I love you all and I hope you are having an amazing week!
Con amor,
Hermana Johnson