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

05.26.2014 Email

Hola familia y amigos!! Te amo todas mucho! (idk if thats right so don't judge if it's wrong)

   Anyways. Yes, I got to Arizona safely. I love it!! We actually almost missed our flight but that is a very long story and i don't have time to tell it so lo siento! 

   The first night we stayed with a family in the ward and then we met our companions the next morning! I was way scared to meet my companion, her name is Hermana Thomas. But she is so awesome, like seriously i love her so much! I am so glad she is my companion. We are exactly alike i swear, we have so much fun together. Also, she knows Mckenzie Mortensen because she went to Springville High for two years. Small world! 

   So our area is actually in Tempe, but we are living in Mesa, not exactly sure why. It's super weird, and we are a biking area, sad i know:(  So every single morning we have to strap up our bikes on the car and drive all the way over there, then unstrap them and ride our bikes, then strap them back up. It's super annoying and we are really bad at it so it's takes us like literally 30 minutes. Not even kidding. It's actually really funny, i can just imagine what other people are thinking as they drive by and see these to girls struggling SO bad to get their bikes up. And no one stops and helps! Also, i poked a hole in my skirt, the first day! because one of the bikes got caught on it. But i think we've pretty much gotten it down now. It takes us about 15 minutes now. Not bad!

   So this area we are in is a new area they just split, so we are basically white washing. We know a few members from the ward, and there are a couple investigators in this area, but we have been knocking on A LOT of doors. That's basically what we do every day. But its okay because it really hasn't been that hot yet, and a lot of people are really nice and give us water. It's the best!

   My first night out we had dinner with some members, and my companion made me share the spiritual thought! I was dying and i hope they could understand what i was saying because on top of barely knowing spanish my heart was like beating out of my chest. But my comp makes me speak spanish all the time! ALWAYS!!. We speak spanish all the time and it is so hard! But it's weird, everyone here loves white girls that can't speak spanish. Not kidding! I have said so many freaking prayers guys. Every single type of anything where there is a prayer involved they choose me to say the prayer.I guess they just like listening to me speak because they think it's funny! Thats what my comp said. So awesome. 

   But we do have one investigator-- kind of. His name is Reymundo, and I have a really good feeling about him. I think he will eventually get baptized! We met with him and pretty much just talked about faith and why its important to act on faith. And he totally agreed with everything we were saying, he was like teaching us even! He also said that he loves meeting with us and people from our church because we are always so nice and happy, and he wants that for himself! We invited him to this baptism that one of the other missionaries had, he went and he loved it! He wants us to come by every day to teach him. The only problem is he has a hard time getting to church. which is really sad. But he's really our only investigator at the moment.

   We have eaten some awesome meals though--kinda. We ate at this members house on saturday. Super nice people. They gave us enchiladas. And they were pretty good, but super hot,  and they gave us SO much. Seriously guys I don't think I have ever eaten so much in my entire life! And about half way through the meal I ran out of meat and i didn't want to grab more so I just decided I would eat the plain tortillas. Well big mistake, that was the part that was hot! So i was basically just killing myself! And for the drink they had horchata. which is so deliciously yummy I was so excited. Okay well, because the food was so extremely hot I could not stop drinking. Guys, i drank literally 6 glasses of this horchata. SIX! and i was telling myself it was ok because i could just fill up on that, and i had to because my mouth was so on fire! So i finally finished my meal and i was so stuffed I swear i couldn't talk or it would all come back up. Well THEN they bring out ice cream! They gave us these big bowls of ice cream. All i'm gonna say is that it was a miracle that I ate it all. Seriously don't know how I did. I was so full for the next entire day!

But yeah, everything is going good so far. I love it!

          I got Taylor's package when I got here and my companion was dying because she thought it was so               cute. 

Well, I love you all!

Hermana Johnson :)

05.15.2014 Pictures

My Companion Hermana Dodge, Me and Hermana Greenhaughl. She's going to Tempe, AZ too!

Awesome stone head.

Tempe Arizona

Wait? What? The Equator?

05.15.2014 Email

So this is my LAST week here in the CCM and I am dying! I am way excited to leave but for reals it is going to be so scary. It is also going to be really hard leaving my companion and all of my friends I made here, I already know I am gonna be cryin my eyes out. Last week went by so fast, and so has this week too, I can't believe it is already my pday. I leave in 4 days! It's so crazy! This week is also sad because we have to say bye to all of our investigators. I know that sounds stupid because like they aren't real, but it's weird how we have gotten to know them as an investigator. We already had our last lesson with Eduardo and it was awesome. For sure one of the best lessons we have ever taught. We basically just read the scriptures with him and both bore our testimonies because he's ''getting baptized'' in like 2 days. And at the end we asked him to bear his testimony and the spirit was SO strong. It was awesome. I'm really gonna miss teaching him. Last night we had TRC and we taught two investigators. It was so much fun. I was really nervous at first, but as we started teaching it was really great. The second girl we taught about the Book of Mormon and church, and we almost committed her to baptism. ALMOST. haha we were so proud of ourselves and then we found out that she was actually a member. And it for real ruined my whole entire day! I thought we actually had a real investigator! But i guess is was a good learning experience. I guess we were supposed to teach three investigators last night though, but me and my companion take so long teaching people! I don't even know why though, because i feel like we only take like 15 or 20 minutes, but apparently we take way long. It's seriously a problem.

So we had two earthquakes this week. TWO! One was in the middle of the night and I heard the loud sirens going off and I was so confused so I just went back to sleep haha. Then like 5 seconds later my bed was shaking so rapidly! and i was so annoyed because I thought it was my companion shaking our bunks. I seriously didn't realize until the morning that it was an earthquake. it was so crazy. the other one happened right after I finished emailing last week, we all had to run out to the panic circles again! I thought that one was bigger than the one we had a few weeks ago. There was water in the gutters from the rain and it was swishing around like crazy! But apparently it was smaller. I dunno, but it's just crazy that we have had three earthquakes in like four weeks! 

So this week was great because Mothers Day on Sunday! It was really great seeing you guys. And I just want to apologize now for basically crying through out the whole entire thing.. i had all this stuff I was planning on talking about and then as soon as we started talking I completely forgot what i was going to tell you guys. So lo siento! But i do get to email you guys again in a few days and in the airport. So I can talk to you guys then! Sunday, don't worry I did not have to say the opening prayer again in sacrament meeting, but i did have to give a 5 minute talk! i had to talk about Joseph Smith and the restoration. It was so nerve racking! My heart was seriously like beating out of my chest, but I did it completely in español! it was more like 3 1/2 minutes though, but still! I'm pretty proud of myself.

The devotionals on sunday were super great. We listened to Dallin H. Oaks talk and I don't know if it was just because it was right after skyping with our families, but everyone was super emotional. Well most people, not my companion though because of course she never cries. But it was a really great talk about missionary work. I also had to lead the music later that night when everyone met. it's super sad because every sunday night they have a presentation thing for all the districts leaving and then at the end everyone sings God Be With You 'Til We Meet Again and all the people leaving just cry because they are so sad. But after that, We had a little meeting with our district outside and we all just talked about what we liked from the devotionals and the movie. and soon it turned in to everyone crying and telling each other how much we love each other. Haha it was really funny. But yeah wow, Sunday was just a really emotional day. 

So lately a bunch of us go play sand volleyball during gym, and it is seriously so fun. Like the time goes by way fast, and it makes me sad that we only have a few more days playing and being with everyone! I really am going to miss it so bad guys. And not trying to brag or anything, but I have gotten really good at volleyball. Like really good. haha but something super sad/funny that happened this week was one time we were eating lunch and the windows were open, and a bird flew in and was flying around. and everyone kind of saw it and was watching it then it flew right into the window and died! Like it literally just smacked and fell to the floor. Seriously, funniest thing I have seen in forever. 

This week the Elders found a spider in their house. Okay if you get super grossed out by spiders then maybe skip over this part because it is seriously so gross. Like I basically died when I saw the pictures. they found it in their shower.. i know right? Like how would you like to be in that situation? They took a picture with one of their hands next to it and it was literally just a little bit smaller than the palm of his hand! So I'm like super terrified now to shower and sleep in my bed. It's horrible.

But our district is singing Come Unto Christ on Sunday night. You know the night where everyone cries? So yeah, wish us luck. But at first it was really bad and I was really worried that we would not get it down, but it is actually coming along pretty good now. I am actually really excited to sing it, it is going to be SO pretty. Especially since we are singing it in español, everything is so much prettier in español. But we have like our tryout things for it tomorrow, so today we are practicing it for like 4 hours to get it good. I hope that someway i can have someone record it so that you guys can hear it. It'll be awesome! 

So I know I leave in like 4 days, but I seriously am so worried that I do not know spanish well enough yet! I don't feel like I am prepared enough to leave! i have gotten a lot better at spanish and obviously i know a lot more now than i did when I got here, but right when i think I kind of have it we learn something new that just completely confuses my mind like crazy. I don't even know english very well, I just speak it ya know? And now I have to learn all this grammar with spanish and wow it's hard. Also, I was going to bear my testimony with you guys on skype on sunday too soo yeah sorry about that. I think I am getting spanish a little better than my companion though, she struggles a little but more than I do. But she is really good at hearing and understanding people speak spanish, which is what I am really bad at. So we just work really well together. She listens and I speak. haha most of the time in lessons I end up completely translating for her what to say. It's awesome. It's really weird to think that I can speak spanish though. Like sometimes I think about it and i'm just like wait what? Did i actually just teach a whole lesson en solo español?? 

Anyways, I love you all! An awesome scripture this week I found: Mathew 22:36-39

And an inspirational thought:

''Our only concern should be to do better than we did yesterday. Step by step is the law of growth. God does not expect the acorn to be a mighty oak before it has been a sapling.'' -George E. Carpenter

So basically, Just try your hardest to be better everyday. heavenly father can't ask for anything else from us if we are trying to be the best that can!

y en el nombre de Jesucristo, amen. :)

Love, Hermana Johnson