Two of our investigators!

May 26, 2014

they are hilarious!!! the one on the bike is Jose! Please pray for him he is trying to stop drinking coffee! and the one in green is 100 years old!! matias! he is HILARIOUS!!!!!!! and i usually cant understand him (he has all his teeth but he talks funny... haha) he finally accepted a fecha this week!!! most of his family are baptized (his grandson is Jhojan- he is getting baptized this next week!!!!) but he always says "soy catlico!" and that he has already been baptized! but this week we were teaching Jhojan lesson 3 about the gospel of Jesucristo and how we need to be baptized like he was, at an age where we know what we are doing, have a desire to repent and be clean from sin, and with lots of water! he slowly started realizing that he wasn't baptized with those things and he accepted fecha! but he needs prayers too cuz he has trouble waking up early to go to church! Dont we all! but he is 100...

Creepy Leaf Bug!

Attack of the Bugs!

Yes, I can Tan!!

Spider!

Coconut 'Sushi'

Well this week was eventful!

May 19, 2014

I never know where to start!! and my ability to spell gets worse every week ( and there is no english spell check) so i hope you can figure out what i am about to write!


Well we had divisions again this week (with the sister training leaders) and i got to stay in my area and work with hna. Boitel! she is so funny! she is from the domican republic and has the coolest accent! we had lots of fun and saw lots of miricles!


Oh but the sad news this week... our district leader was transfered and is now a zone leader in another area! he was great and as much as he drove us crazy we really loved him and missed him ots this week.


we had a Zone conference this week.. kind of... we were all eating waiting for President and then they told us it was cancled... which was sad cuz i was actually really excited. but then we had the chance to go visit a family that we havent seen in a long time and they were so happy to see us! thats been happening a lot.. our area is so big and we still havent figured out how to keep in contact with everyone every week and so when we finally go visit old investigators they always say "oh! what a miricle!" so thats a good sign right! haha


We saw lots of miricles this week but the best happened on tuesday.  We were walking to a cita and saw one of our less active members (he is so so nice!) and we confirmed our cita with him and then he said his nephew wants us to teach him! and asked if it would be okay if he could come to the lesson. of course we said yes and were thrilled! His name is Johan and he is 12. he is the smartest 12 year old i have ever met and he knows soooo much about the church already (hes been 8 times!). needless to say we had an amazing lesson with him and when we challenged him to baptisim he said yes and yes to a fecha! and his uncle said his mom already gave permission!!! it was incredible! and the next cita was awsome and he knew everything from the folleto by heart! and he said he prayed about the book of mormon and he knows its true! He told us he wants to go on a mission and when i asked him why he said its because he made a promise with Jesus. this young boy is amazing.  and of course he came to church on sunday and all the young men love him! oh and his uncle who was less active is so great to! he comes to church every week now and this week he wore a white shirt, tie and slacks!! and he got the aaronic priesthood! and when i told Johan that means his uncle can baptise him he smiled so big and you could just see the joy in his heart! This is why i am here! for people and families like them who are changing their lives for eternity! I am just so excited! and its all beacuse we met his uncle and he started coming back to church after like 9 years of inactivity!


Oh and with the same family! their dad/ grandpa is very catholic and i am pretty sure he is 100 years old... his licenes says 84 but his nieghboor told us that its a false birthday so that he can still drive... hahaha oh mexico. But he really doesnt seemlike he is 100. he is crazy and we love him and we gave him a book of mormon and a folleto about the plan of salvation and when we had our 2nd lesson with Johan we saw the book and folleto with the glasses of the grandpa on top! and the follet was open! he had been reading without us even reminding him! and he told us he read the whole thing and he was reading the BOM ch. we left him to read too! I hope he gets baptised cuz all his children are members but not him! he is hilarious too and i never understand a word he says hahaha.


We have another investigator (he is the nieghboor of the miricle family) (calle pios is just read to recive the word!) and he is also hilarious! he reminds me of uncle lee! and he LOVES us! but like daughters (unlike most of the men here...) so its awesome! and he is really into obedience and so the other day we taught his the word of wisdom cuz he sells cofee beans... and he is only worried cuz he knows it will be hard to stop but he wants to!! and he wants to get ride of his coffee and sell something else! because he knows that once you know about a commandment and then break it its way worse! he is amazing! please pray for him!


ahh this week was great and i love this gosple! i love and miss you all so much!


vayan con dios!
-Hermana Johnson

Lizard or Snake?

Out in the Wilderness!

Look for the Big White Church...

Pictures!

May 12, 2014

Too Rich for a Missionary!

Rain!

Where's Perry?

Alma 38-42

May 5, 2014

this week was normal... well normal for mexico! Nothing really exciting or life changing happened this week. I was sick (with who knows what... i had no energy and my whole body hurt.. but im okay now!) So i read a lot in alma and learned a lot!! Something i learned was in alma 38 when alma the younger is talking to his son about when the lord sent an angel to him to stop him from leading people away from the church and how he was in such agony suffering in his sins and as soon as he cried unto the lord Jesus Christ from mercy he felt peace in his soul. but not until he cried out for the Lord! He is ready and waiting for us we just have to turn to him and access his infinite atonement! Thats just so awesome! I love our Lord and his marvolous work! We are meant to be happy and have peace and joy in this life! and we can find all of that when we turn to the Savior! regardless of the situation we can always find peace in him.  He knows the way because he is the way! The more I come to know Him and understand his atonement the more i want to share it!



The elders gave me a blessing the second day of my mysteious illness and i prayed before the blessings for some specific answers (just like you do mom) and i think the fact that i understood the blessing (it was in spanish) was an answer in and of itself! the main thing was just to clear my head and DONT WORRY! haha so thats what i am trying to do. ive gotten a lot better at that. Mexico is one big slap in the face of perspective! but in a good way! I LOVE IT!


Well i really didnt have anything cool or crazy happen this week so i shall send lots of photos!


Con Mucho Amor!!
-hermana Johnson
p.s. okay this pic is from last week... we were walking and we see this woman with a lizard on here sweater just chillin on her shoulder and i make a double atke and say "es Suyo!?" (is it yours!?) and she turned in horror to see her hitchhicker! she had no idea!!! so naturally we took him off her and adopoted him for the afternoon. well me and hno noe. my companion was not too happy about our little friend haha.

Lizard from Last Week!

Baptism

My Mexican Grandma

Laundry

Mucho exito este semana!!

April 28, 2014

Well kind of... our "numbers" show lots of succes but you never know here haha. so we broke or record of 25 nuevos this week we had 27 news. and over 80 lessons taught in all! We had splits with the Sister Trainning Leaders this week on tuesday and i was really worried cuz i didnt feel like i could be without my companion/ dictionary... but i was pleseantly surprised when it happened to be one of my most favorite days in the mission!


Friday the elders (we share our ward with two elders) had a baptism! it was so wonderful! the spirit was so strong and it was reafirming to see exactly why we are here! we get to help people make convenents with God! OUR ETERNAL FATHER! there is nothing sweeter.


I had a cool experience saturday when we made a goal to contact 8 reference (people that other people tell us to go visit). Well i learned that if you plan your day around contacting references the Lord helps you to meet all your goals! we had the most succesful day ever all because of references! we didnt even find everyone we planned to contact but the Lord blessed us for doing everything in our power and we met our goal of 8 contacts spot on! it was crazy.


So after having one of if not the best week of my mission we had a rough day sunday.  Only 2 of the 10 or so people we invited and "commited" to come to church came and one of them is less active (which is awesome cuz he is changing and coming unto christ!) but it was a bit sad to only have one investigator in church when we tried to do all we could to have lots of people this week.  We gave talks in sacrament and it was terrifying but fun.  after everyone said they could understand everything i said and that it was beautiful! so thats a good sign! cuz sometimes i will be talking in spanish and a little kid will say "can you speak in spanish please i dont understand english" so there's that. haha but esta bien... the gift of tounges really is real. little by little things become more clear and the spirit is easier to recognize and i am able to speak. the interpretation of tounges... now that is a whole different story...  that is what i need haha.  We got premission to participate in the Stake chior (dad i wish you could have been there) and i had a blast with the bishops wife singing saprano... when we first got there there were about 10 altos and no sapranos... they all said USTED PUEDE! so for the first 10 mins i was terrified i would be singing the saprano line solo.. but no one is ever on time here so needless to say many more people arrived and i did not have to sing solo.


well our time outside the church was not so good and we had hardly any success and lots of rejection.  we ran into one of our investigators with two HUGE bottles of beer... that was cool. NOT. and by the end of the day i was not feeling all that great.  And after about 30 mins of letting myself feel like i wasnt doing any good and wo is me i had a thought about Joseph Smith and the early days of the church and what it was like for them. that striaghtened me right out and i mad the goal to be more positive and to try and truly recive all things with gratitude [d&c 79:19] so needless to say i am doing much better and i am excited for another wonderful week and another transfer in this area!


Con amor!
Hermana Johnson
Alma 37:40-46
2 Nephi 26:23-25

Level 7.2 earthqaukes, lots of rain and guamuchil!

March 21, 2014

well what a week! on friday we had an earthquake! that was exciting! so there we are in our house and my comp was about to share what she learned during her personal study and then the door was shaking and then the whole house and floor.. it was really weird. we stood up and my comp said a prayer and then it was over. we went to see if our nieghboors were okay or if they had electricity. they didnt and the informed us that the celular line was out.. then not 5 mins after the EQ we heard a knock on the door.. "QUIEN ES!?" and they said "santa claus" our loving ward mission leader... hno Noe. His mama (Sarai) was scared and of course she needed to know that her misioneras were okay.  all was well.  it was cool cuz it gave us something to talk about with the people in the streets and teach them about the goodness of God.  that day was sooo hot and at night it rained and stormed. so naturally my comp was terrified of the possibility that we might need to up and leave our house cuz of the storm... it was just rain and thunder and lightening ya know the normal stuff. but she said "hermana we are in mexico! we dont know!" so she stayed up and but on jeans and a sweater tenis shoes her name tag and all! and then packed caned food, first aid supplies, scriptures, water and who know what else in a backpack. I told her "we are going to have a lot of work to do in the morning putting all this stuff back away... needless to say nothing happened. i slept in pjs and she slept in her name tag... yep we are defs opposites in all things hahaha. it made for a funny night though so i guess it was worth the lack of sleep.


so earlier in the week we were with the bishops daughter (hna. Diana) and we found Guamuchil trees!  they are this weird fruit here and i dont know if i should w}be eating them straight off the trees but i havent gotten sick yet sooo pray for me! haha well we had a fun time trying to get the fruit and its not funny now but it was funny climbing up the dirt piles to reach the red fruit!


hmm i dont really know what else to talk about... yesterday at church the bishop was saying something about how it was a special day and then i looked at my comp and said "is today easter!?" welll then i got sad cuz i always make food for you all (family) on easter. i hope you survived without me. my class (i taught gosple priciples) was pretty awkward cuz we didnt have very many people there... (this week was sloooowww cuz its Semana Sena so everyone is on vacation!) but i surrvived... but only to get assigned a TALK!!! ugh please pray for me! i am speaking on La Obra Misional (missionary work) so that should be easy... oh wait its in spanish hahaha m vida! but its okay. im trying not to freak out.


Im still going strong in my little (not so little) area here in Chilpancingo! I love you and miss you and pray for you many times a day! Read Either 12!


con amor-
hermana Johnson

La vida de Mxico (gotta love it)

March 14, 2014

Well I don't really know where to start! i just read lots of emails and Hna. Tidwell wrote the perfect description of the public transportation here. "They like to drive as if they are in a real-life version of the game Grand Theft Auto. But then i realized that it is ok but they have tons of crosses and jesus stickers and signs that say ``Jesus protect us``. its kind of like car insurance..but cheaper"  i could not have said it better.  this is no exageration hahahaha.  and i love it!


Well this week on Wednesday we got a phone call from our district leader "Tomorrow you and your compaion are going to Cuernavaca" so thats what we did! we left thrusday night and then stayed in the mission office and had a big training with all the new missionaries and their trainers.  The night at the office was really fun and i talked to one of the office elders for a long time all in spanish! it was awesome! he knew some english so if i didnt know a word or how to congegate a word he could help me or he understood what i meant haha. but i was surprised at how fun and easy it was to have a normal conversation with someone in spanish! we talked about just random stuff and it was all spanish! these other native sisters talked with us to. they missionaries are so great here! they are all so loving and fun! the next day at the training meeting i got to see all my MTC sisters! (minus my comp LAKIN rockin it in MESA!!) the best part was riding in the taxi on our way back to the offices cuz our driver was soooo nice and we had such a nice talk with him about the church and the camandments of god! he loved us and gave his info so that the missionaries in cuer could teach him! The people here are so special! i love them all so much! people are always willing (almost always) to talk about God And JesuCristo.


well this week we saw lots of progress with our investigators! they are trusting us more and some are even our friends now! its great! the members are amazing and yesterday someone was always waiting to bear their testimony! so we didnt have to! hahaha cuz all the members did! the spirit was so strong and i understood almost everything! we had a good gosple principles class this week too! it was FULL of new members and investigators! it was great! my comp taught and i have to teach next week... pray for me! i am pretty nervous but i know the Bishops wife will help me and so will the other missionaries and our ward mission leader... so really i have no reason to be worried haha.


oh last week! i got to play a guitar!! it was awesome! but my fingers hurt after only 2 songs... im gonna have a lot of work to do when i get home.. oh well! Vale la pena! it was cool thought to sing and play guitar again.  everyone loves music here so i sing a lot.. the Bishops wife hna Sarai wants me to sing for her all the time hahaha


So some of the best moments are when we are working with our ward mission leader hno Noe! he is hilarious and has become our best friend. So last week he acompanied us after conference and i convinced them (him and my comp) to take a different rout around this big sports place and it was kind of sketchy but i convinced them to trust me... hahaha it was just really hilarious and we saw lots of cows and climbed over some rocks and tripped a lot and laughed even more haha.  we had a lesson with this old lady that is always outside on a certain street and i said something to her and she got this look on her face as if i came out of nowhere and she looked at me and said something about me being a gringa and my red hair and that i was beautiful.. haha i dont think old people understand me when i speak... i had two people tell me this week that its funny when i speak... hahaha oh well! im trying! oh so the funniest "cat call" of the week was this man who walked past us and in a hilarious mexican accent said (in english) "youre so beautiful baby" haha they always say stuff to me in english! oh and the other day this old man was drunk and sitting on the ground while we were trying to buy something and he was like "WHATS YOUR NAME WHATS YOUR NAME!" Chica escucha me!" haha Oh my gosh so yesterday we needed more contacts and so as a joke i challenged hno. Noe to contact someone with a pamphlet about tithing.... so what does he do.... he contacts a boy of about 11 years and teaches him about tithing! haha it was crazy and hilarious and super awkward but he did it! and then my comp taught this little boy (also 11 years old) about the law of chasity.  Hno Noe almost lost it and i had to try so hard not to laugh. but as funny as it was it was cool to see how you really can teach about any of gods commandments at any time and they all relate to the great love He has for us.


well on a serious note. this week during testimony meeting i felt the spirit tell me that i was important to the Lord and his work.. this touched me because i was feeling overwhelmed and like i couldn't do this.  we had just had a conference in cuer and i felt like a bad missionary because im not doing everything perfectly (which is crazy cuz that stuff takes time) but still i wasn't feeling all that important and the Lord let me know that i am. that he needs all his Children to come together to participate in the work of salvation! this work is not ours. its His. but he needs us to come forward with all we have and work to help save his children.  I love this work, i love being a missionary, i love serving here in mexico.  Thank you for everything. i love you all so much.


Until next week!
-Hermana Johnson

My Crazy District

The View

I Love the Doors Here!

My Hermanas

What My Days Look Like!

They Have Kinder Here!