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