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