07.07.2014 Email

How is goin familia?? Sorry I got supes lazy with the subject this week. Plus I'm in a hurry okay? So this week was so awesome! I am going to be typing like crazy fast in order to get everything that happened this week! So don't hate on my spelling.

First thing first.  BED BUGS!!. Who even knew bed bugs were still a thing right? Well let me tell you. THEY ARE. They are real living creatures that will eat you alive, that live in your beds, that are scary and will haunt you at night. It's a true story. We got bed bugs this week and it was terrible! We had to put literally everything we own in garbage bags and move all of our furniture to the middle of the room so people could come spray. But wait that is not even the worst part. We have to put everything capable of going in the drier, in the drier because that is what kills bed bugs, THEN we still have to keep all of our stuff in garbage bags for about another two weeks apparently until dogs can come smell our house! There are so many bags and stuff everywhere because we have nothing to do with them!! You can definitely say I have increased anxiety every time we go home. I have never wanted to clean so bad! 

On a cool note. There was a freaking haboob this week guys. idk if i spelled that right but thats how it sounds so thats all that's important. A HABOOB!! Me and my companion were so excited because neither of us have ever experienced one before. YAY. The only problem was that we had a meeting to get to that night so we had two choices. We could either stay home and watch the storm from inside our messy cluttery house OR we could conquer the storm and make it to our meeting. Well of course we are going to choose to conquer the storm. It looked so cool in the sky so we are stopping to take pictures and everything, then we'd stop and admire how cool the sky is or how close it was getting to us every two seconds. Okay well we didn't realize that the storm could totally conquer US. So half way to our meeting we had to stop and hide out inside a CVS store for like an hour waiting for a ride. It was so cool though! I have never seen so much dirt in my life and I have never tasted or smelled so much dirt either! (pictures included).

So I just wanted to say, THANK YOU SO MUCH to Julie and Karlie for sending me an awesome 4th of July package!! I was so confused why I had this huge package waiting for me. Then when we opened it we were like WHAT!?! It was an awesome 4th of July! so thanks! We decorated our apartment with all these cute 4th of July stuff and we had a little miniature party that night. We were constrained to our apartment at 5 o'clock that night. So you can say we partayyed all night long. (missionary style obvs.) (and only until 10:30).

I lOVE AMERICA.

Okay this week I have had two very, VERY scary encounters with spiders. First, IN MY BED. right? Like bed bugs aren't enough! I was making my bed in the morning and when I pulled my covers up there was this little spider running across! gross! I probably slept with it all night. and just think if I would not have made my bed that morning. I will always make my bed in the morning from now on!

Second, We were getting in the car to go somewhere and as I got in the back seat I was leaning down to pick something up of the ground and I see this little white thing hangin in front of my face. I kind of thought that maybe it was just fuz or something so I kind of looked at it while it was still 2.5 centimeters away from my face. THEN i realized it was a spider dangling in front of my face! Okay not kidding, I have absolutely no idea how I jumped over my companion on the other side of the car, but i did. I guess what they say is true. I do have ninja reflexes. 

 Most of the time when we are eating at members houses I don't really know what is going on with the conversation, but I have really mastered the smile and nod thing. The other day we were eating and the members asked if any of us wanted more beans. But i don't know the word for beans so I didn't know what they were asking! My companion says, (in spanish) "Oh my companion loves beans! She wants some more!" Then they turn to me and say,  ya? So I look at my companion and shes nodding so I say,  "si?" then they come back with this HUGE bowl of beans. i was so mad. It was a really sad night.

Funny story number 2: Awhile ago when I was like very first new, we would see if we could help people in anyway and my companion started telling people that I love cleaning bathrooms and that I'm really good at it. But i didn't know that's what she was saying! So of course I agree with her. Then i realized what was happening and it was really funny. But now everyone in my district says that, so now I'm known as the missionary that loves cleaning bathrooms!  My mom taught me well!!

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06.30.2014 Email

WOW. This week is transfers whoo! Okay it's really not that exciting. Everyone is basically staying the same in our zone. But it's good because our zone is awesome. 

But funny story, last night we stayed up until like 12 o'clock waiting for our zone leaders to call us AND THEY FORGOT. We are really tired today.

Last monday we went to this place called Guadalupe. It was really cool! There's a bunch of little Mexican stores with all this cool stuff, my companion got a pink mexican dress she calls her Mumu. She wears it all the time its awesome. Also our whole zone went bowling on Pday, it was so fun! i forgot how good I am at bowling.. ;) jk!  But I actually won both times, I'm pretty sure.

Anyways, this week was a really interesting weeks with contacts. VERY interesting. All i'm gonna say is there are some weird people here in Arizona guys!

We ride our bikes everywhere and i honestly have so much fun! Like thinking about how hot it is and riding bikes just sounds horrible. But I actually love it! By the time we get home every night we are both so dead. Sleeping has seriously never felt so awesome before! So on saturday my companion got a flat tire on her bike. Luckily we were at a church building, except it was locked! So we had to sit outside and wait for  three hours for someone to come and help us! It was a big bummer. We missed two of our lessons! But I got to work on my tan, so that's good.

Well, we aren't really going by to see Jesus as much anymore because he hasn't been keeping any of his commitments. It is really frustrating! I think this week will be better though, we are going to try really hard to find some new investigators! We are still seeing Blanca and a few other people, and they are doing great! 

Spanish is going pretty good as well. We are doing this thing in our apartment with the two other sisters where we can't speak any English inside. It is so hard! and if we do speak English, we have to pay 25 cents. I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but for reals. I am losing all my money!! 

Now today with all the money we are going to go buy brownies or something amazing, probs brownies.  

But it actually is helping a lot! I can actually speak some  words other than just gospel stuff! I also learned that for my entire mission so far whenever I have been meaning to say "authority" in Spanish I say "auditorium".. and my companion just now remembered to tell me this! 

06.23.2014 Email

Como estannn familia? espero que esten muy, MUY bien!!!

Arizona is doing so awesome right now. I am dying because of the heat... sometimes a little worried of maybe getting a heat stroke but it's okay because I haven't gotten one yet! But for reals, please someone remind me why i was so excited to come to 115 degree weather. WHY? no se. 

This was a really sad week because we lost our car! We have been riding around on our bikes all the days and it is horrible and amazing at the same time. On one hand it is so hard because it is hot and I am all sweaty and gross and i have basically given up any hope of what my hair and face look like. But on the OTHER hand, I am getting super tan and might end up coming home Mexican. 

Not that much different has happened this week than last week though! We are still having a hard time getting any of our investigators to start progressing. We spend almost all day sometimes just trying to track our investigators down!! They must know we're coming and all go on vacation for a couple days, AT THE SAME TIME. Super frustrating. Blanca and Manuel are still super good though. We helped Blanca this week finish cleaning up their yard and getting ready for their sons birthday party. I love being over at their house! Blanca is so cute and so nice and their whole family is super awesome! Their kids are like for real, CRAZY. But really cute so it's okay. We're hoping we will be able to take them to the visitors center this week and talk about eternal families, hopefully they will realize the importance of being married in the temple! 

So I know every week I have like this crazy story about cops and stuff. But I SWEAR it's true! Crazy stuff happens to us all the time! So this week our district leader told us of these "really awesome apartments" that are "really PACKED with Spanish work" that we should go to. So we were thinking yay, awesome we'll go! So we go. Okay turns out there is like absolutely no Spanish work at all there. Every single door we knocked spoke english. So we're like awesome, thanks Elder! Then we knock on this one door and this lady opens it like super fast and we're like hi we're missionaries from the church, etc. then she's says, sorry this is a model home and I'm in the middle of a tour right now. (super awkward and also she was super rude) so we go to the next door and were about to knock but then the lady comes out and shuts the door and she starts yelling at us! Guys i am not kidding you like she was so freaking mad and I don't know why, like we are just trying to share the love ya know? But long story short she told us we better get out or she will call the cops on us and they will arrest us! Like are you serious woman, the cops are not going to arrest two 20 year old mormon missionaries for knocking doors! Anyways, thats my cop story this week. I know it's really not that exciting because no one actually did get arrest and there was no drugs and no one died. (BUT i was thinking, that would be really cool to get arrested on your mission right? Especially if all you were doing was knocking on doors) 

Anyways, this week we had Zone Conference! It was really good! I loved it all. My mission president is seriously the sickest mission president ever guys. I'm sorry but if you're on a mission and you think your mission president is the best ever, i hate to tell you but you are wrong! Our president is totally going to be a prophet someday, I'm just telling you now! So the work is definitely hastening right now. It's crazy how fast the church is growing and how many missionaries there are! Guess what, they are running out of room in the MTC's, so they are starting this new test thing with a few missions (ours being one of them) where they have a mentor come and teach you IN YOUR HOUSE everything you need to know before you leave for your mission. crazy huh? (and actually idk if I'm supposed to say that so... you didn't hear that from me.) But really, This work is so awesome, there are so many people coming on missions, there are so many ways to hear about and learn about our church, and there are so many people getting baptized! This is definitely the work of God. I am so glad that I am able to be a missionary right now! I know this church is true! and I am so glad to be sharing it with people here in Arizona!! 

06.16.2014 Pictures

Me ans Sister Chowen

Me and Sister Thomas

06.16.2014 Email

   This week was such a great week!! Probably one of the best ones yet! and it went by the fastest too. I know you are all probably thinking, like wow! she says that every single week, but I'm not kidding you. I can't believe how fast the weeks go!! It's insane. But anyways, we did do lots of service this week, and it is actually pretty fun! Sometimes I dread it because it is SO HOT outside. But, it's nice helping people and watering dirt is pretty fun I guess.

  We did exchanges with the sister training leaders Tuesday and Wednesday. I was like really scared, don't know why. But it was really fun. I stayed with Sister Chowen, she is English speaking and in the YCA ward. I was so excited to be able to speak English again!! It was really nice. It was so weird, I could actually understand what was going on and I could actually express myself. It was really great. But the craziest thing ever happened! So we were walking out of their apartment to leave for a lesson and we see a bunch of cops walking around with these HUGE guns. Really, i don't know what kind of guns they are kay,  but they were really big. Like they had to carry them with two hands. Kay so really big, right? Then we were like what the heck! weird! So we get back from our lesson and they are still out there and there's like a gazillion cop cars in the parking lot. So we go inside and we are eating then we hear this really loud bang, and we thought it was a gun shot! So we run to the window to see what is going on and there is a SWAT team standing outside the building across from us and one of the guys has a mega phone thing and is talking into it telling this guy to come out of his apartment! So we brought our food in that room and started watching for awhile. But nothing really happened, then they sent the SWAT team up the stairs into this persons apartment!! Crazy huh! But then we had to go because we had another lesson, so we never saw what happened. But when we were walking out we were talking to these guys and they said someone had a bunch of illegal drugs or something and he was threatening to kill himself! and that loud noise we heard was a flash grenade. So then that night we switch back so I don't ever really hear anything more. But then a couple days later I saw Sister Chowen and apparently there was a paper on everyones door the next morning saying that one of their fellow neighbors had died! The guy died!! Ca-razy.

  So yeah, thats like the only exciting thing that happen to me this week. Except for the fact that I AM EATING SO MUCH FOOD. Oh my gosh guys I am not kidding you. I swear I have never eaten so much food in my entire life! I know I am probably just being a really huge baby about it. But i can't handle it! We constantly are being fed by members, which is really nice. The members in my ward are all super super nice, we have a great ward!

   Me and my companion had to teach the lesson in the Gospel Principals class this week. I was so terrified i was freaking out. We taught about the gift of the Holy Ghost, and it actually went pretty well! I basically just bore my testimony over and over again. Haha the spirit was definitely there!

  So we are still meeting with the less active's wife, Blanca, but we haven't seen her husband since they came to church last Sunday! I guess he works a lot, and mostly on Sunday too so that's a bummer. But I really like teaching her! She is super nice and her kids are so cute. The oldest one is two and he calls me 'yonson' its quite adorable. I think we can definitely get them coming back to church soon! So keep them in your prayers!!

  We have had this kid named Jesus on date for baptism for so long, but he will never come to church! It is so frustrating because he says he wants to get baptized, but then he won't come to church! But now his date fell through because he has to come to church twice before he gets baptized. So hopefully we can get him back on date.

  We have been doing really good lately with getting referrals and finding people. Which is a huge blessing in our area! We have met some super awesome people who are super prepared and really need the gospel in there lives!! So I'm sure we will be baptizing all of Tempe by the end of this transfer!!

  It has been WAY hot here. For reals. But it's okay because we have had a car for a while which has been so nice. Its actually really hard having bikes in the area we are in because originally they made our area the smallest area so we could be on bikes.But then we kind of had to change the areas a little and our area is so big now! It's just as big as the other sisters with a car. Except WE ARE ON BIKES. So it is really hard. Tomorrow we give the car up so we will be strictly on bikes. YAYYYY. Wish us luck.

  I have realized that there seriously are so many nice people in the world! People are always just saying hi to us because we are sisters and talking to us. Last monday when we were shopping at this grocery store we were about to leave because everything was super expensive, but then this guy came up and gave us each $15 gift cards to the store! How nice, right? Then the other day we went to get slurpees and when we were about to pay the manager wouldn't let us! he just said it was on him today. And he's not even a member! So it was really cool. I am so grateful for all the small blessing we receive every day! 

  This morning my companions sisters friends grandma (I know, right?) took us to lunch! We went to Panda Express. It was SO YUMMY. I haven't had Chinese food in forever. She is seriously the nicest lady ever, she doesn't even know us! Then after she took like a gazillion pictures of us to send to family. It was really cute.

Anyways, I love you all so much!! 
Also, hope everything is good with my family this week cause didn't hear from anything of them... thanks guys!!
Con amor, 
Hermana Johnson :)

06.09.2014 Email

THE TIME IS GOING BY SO FAST.

Wait!  what?  I am almost in the double digits guys. I can't believe it! This past week especially flew by! I have been out exactly two months from today. It is so weird to think about. But this week has been super super good. LOTS of miracles happened i can't believe it! I would tell you all of them but for reals it would take way too long!

We have found a couple new investigators. Which is really good, i think they will be awesome! Last monday night me and my companion got lost on our bikes, but then we decided we should start contacting that area and we ended up finding this lady who seemed pretty interested, she has her own church she goes to but she really liked our message. but we haven't been back yet to meet with her again, hopefully this week! 

We went by a less actives house to see how he was doing, but only his wife was there. So we talked with her for awhile, we found out that she has actually met with the missionaries a lot before and she is pretty interested. Then we were talking with some other missionaries about her and they said she wants to get baptized but they aren't married and her husband (the less active) doesn't want to get married and doesn't want her going to church. So then,  we were thinking crap. But we taught her a second time about the Plan of Salvation, and she loves it. They have two little boys and they are seriously the cutest kids ever!  We invited her to church and she said maybe, but she'd have to see.

Then, a few nights later we were riding our bikes on this random street doing some contacting, but it was getting late so we started heading to our car. Then we drove past this house and I really felt like we should contact it, but I thought, no cause its pretty late and we will probably be late getting home, but I was feeling really strong about it.  So I told my companion and we turned around and parked our bikes in their driveway. When we were walking up we saw little kid bikes and we were so excited, yay its a family! We knock on the door and this guy we have never seen before opens the door and he says,"oh hey! Come on in!"  and we were seriously so confused. We were like what? THEN i saw the less active guy's wife sitting on the couch with a baby and we realized we had come to their house! It was the weirdest thing, neither of us recognized their house at all! So they invited us in and we talked with them a little bit. The husband's mom was there so we met her, and they told us about how her boyfriend was in jail. They were SO happy we had stopped by, they said we were an answer to their prayers because missionaries prayers get answered a lot faster. So they asked us to pray for the guy's mom's boyfriend. We shard with them a spiritual thought then we invited them to come to church on Sunday. They kind of hesitated and said maybe. But we called back Saturday night to see if we could stop by on Sunday and talk with them and they told us they had decided to go to church! We were seriously so happy! Then the next day in sacrament meeting we were waiting waiting waiting for them and they never came. We were so sad, because if they come late and aren't there for the sacrament we can't count it as a time at church. So we sang the sacrament song and they still weren't there, then there was a little bit of time after we stopped singing when the boys were still preparing the sacrament. And I was prayin so hard that they would come! Then we turned around and they were walking in! RIGHT before they started the sacrament prayer. It was the very last second that they could have come and they did! It was really cool. We were super worried about the less active husband being a problem, but I don't know what those other missionaries are talking about, because he is so cool. I really think we can get them to start coming to church again! 

This morning we went over to their house and helped the wife clean up their yard because they are having a bday party for one of their little boys. It was SO HOT. and at first when my companion told me that we were doing service on our pday I was like,  are you serious??? it's our only free day! But it turned out to be super fun, and we really got to know her better! Then after she took us to eat lunch at Wendy's. She is super nice! Actually gross/scary story while we were doing service. I was moving this big thing of shingles in their backyard which was really really heavy, and I picked it up and put it on this wheely thing. Then I felt something crawling on my leg and I was like what the heck. I look down, and it was this HUGE thing. I don't even know what it was. But I swear to you it was the size of like three quarts and it had super long legs. I freaked out!!! Well, I soon realized .2 seconds later, that I was standing in a whole pile of them! Gross right?? My companion was laughing and I ran so fast over to her seriously almost crying. She said they were spiders and I really almost starting crying. I guess they were crickets or something? I dunno, I don't think we really figured out what they were, but the lady said they wouldn't hurt us. But still GROSS right?

Also, a couple weeks ago we were trying to find this member named Gonzalo who lived in Phoenix. So we went to his house and his daughter was there. Apparently he doesn't live there anymore. But we talked with his daughter for awhile. At the end we asked if there was anything we could do for her and she said to pray for her brother, because I guess he stopped going to church and is a little bit off the path. So we said we would. Then flash forward to a few days ago, we were contacting in Tempe at an apartment complex knocking random doors, and guess who we found! This Gonzalo guys son! and the girls brother! he was pretty nice, and we talked with him for a little bit and invited him back to church. We went by last night again and we met his roommate, who is a less active too. So hopefully we can get them to start coming to church again! 

But yeah, our week has been really good. We have actually had a lot of appointments fall through which is really annoying. But hey, that's the mission I guess! Riding our bikes everywhere is so fun! Kind of. Ugh it is so extremely hot, but I guess it really isn't that bad. This week we moved into our new apartment. YAY!!!! I am SO EXCITED. We took all morning friday to pack up our stuff and take it to the new apartment. Our new apartment is SO NICE. I'm not even kidding we are being so spoiled living here! It is really nice especially compared to our old apartment which had cockroaches everywhere! Well I actually only saw one, but apparently they were really bad before I got there. Apparently. But so yeah!!

This week has been packed full of little miracle and finding people. I'm trying to find a miracle that has happened every single day. And I totally have been able to. I've realized that even when our plans don't go the way we had planned, that other things, better, little things always happen. Every time we get lost or an appointment drops, me and my companion ask each other why we are here, or why Heavenly Father brought us here, then we start contacting and trying to find someone in that area that might be the reason we are there. It's awesome and we are definitely being blessed every day!

06.02.2014 Email

Wow. I have been in the mission for 8 weeks! What? It's crazy and I love it. Our area is still super hard. We are on our bikes ALL day trying to contact people. Not a lot of missionaries have been in our area before, so we're trying to mostly meet members and kind of try to get to know them better. But it's hard because most of them have moved or are inactive and about 90% of the houses we go to no one answers. Even if they're home! It's so annoying. So yeah, the work is really hard and we are having a really hard time finding investigators and people to teach. So sometimes it gets super discouraging especially when its 115 degrees outside!! But i love my bike. We have so much fun riding our bikes everywhere! Also, bikes are very dangerous. My companion literally almost got hit by a car! I seriously thought for sure this car was going to hit her. It was the scariest thing of my life! But it didn't and she's alive still.

 Okay also, funny story. We were crossing the street one time and my comp was in front of me and she went up on the curb thing and almost fell because there was this really big bump thing right before it. and I'm  laughing because that is so embarrassing because all these cars are here ya know. Okay well I go over it too and completely fall! Guys!!! it was the most embarrassing thing of my life! I don't even know how it happened! Like I did not expect this bump to be this big! But next thing I know I literally screamed like a little girl and I'm  tripping over my bike. And my companion just kept biking away! It was a really funny moment. Hahaha I just think about it all the time and laugh. I have the BEST farmers tan in the whole entire world. It's awesome! and an awesome watch tan and shoe tan. I am going to be so dark when I get home!

I am loving my companion. I am so glad she is my trainer! We have so much fun together, I swear we are the exact same person! And everyone thinks we are twins because we are these two white girls with blonde hair and blue eyes. It's awesome.

So last Monday we had three appointments, and we were able to get an member to come with us so we were super stoked about that. WELL, every single one we went to no one answered. No one! Then we went to some other people that could maybe be investigators. Still no one answered. So I was super discouraged because that happens with almost all of our appointments. But whatevs. But then the member we had with us had two referrals that we could maybe stop by. So we went by them both. They are both families and they both invited us to come back! So that was super awesome because we would not have been able to meet them if our appointments fell through. Although later we found out from a member that one of the families is from the FLDS chruch. So awesome! But that's kind of a long story. 

So we have been meeting with Reymundo almost every day this week. It's really good that he wants to keep meeting with us. But he has a really big problem with the Book Of Mormon. He LOVES to read the Bible, he's read it his whole life. But he doesn't like the Book Of Mormon because it is too clear from him. I know, right? Like what? He likes to read the Bible because it makes him think and ponder about stuff. So that is a problem that we are really confused about because we don't really know what to do. But we actually shifted our area a little bit so he's not our investigator anymore. Good thing. Maybe the other missionaries will know what to do!

Our area is kind of separated into two areas now.  Most of our area is actually in Phoenix. So it's like a 20 minute bike ride from one part to the other. But good thing. WE ARE MOVING THIS WEEK. It will be so nice to actually live in our area instead of 20 minutes out of it! But the bad thing is we lose our car. So then we will have to bike literally everywhere we go. But at least we will be getting lots of exercise!   

So yeah, we do use Facebook. Which I'm like, ehh not sure how much I like it. It's really cool, but it just gets some getting used to I guess. We had to go through and delete EVERYTHING that we have ever posted on Facebook. It took so long. It literally took me  3 days! And I was reminded of how weird I used to be back in the day. It was really funny reading all my posts hahah. But yeah anways, a guy from england posted on my fb? what idk. I haven't been on for a couple days! But thats cool! I am in AZ and I can teach a guy in England! Awesome. Another great thing here is that we have Ipads. So it's so nice! we don't have to carry around anything at all! I have all my scriptures english and spanish on it and everything i could possibly need. It's also really cool because we can play videos. So i like the ipad part! 

Spanish is coming along alright I think! It's hard because i cannot understand anything at all! I can kind of follow along a little bit with what people are saying, but for the most part no, not really. It's really hard to pay attention too. Like I am really bad at listening i realized. Actually no, I've always known I was bad at listening, but I get so distracted in lessons! Because I have no idea what is going on. So I have to do this face that looks like I'm very interested and I know what is going on. I'm gettin pretty good at it!

Anyways, Even though most of the time It is really hard and sometimes really discouraging, the Lord is blessing us so much! Really. Every single day we see at least one little miracle that has helped us. Maybe even if it's only that we didn't die from heat exhaustion. Hahaha anyways. Love you all!!

Hermana Johnson