La Ultima Carta!!!

Hi fam and friends!

AAAAHHHHHHH.

I can't believe a whole year and a half (minus 1 week) has gone by. That is just insane. This is my last letter home! Next preparation day will be spent on the airplane!

So let's see updates from last week. I got to go to Hospitalet for a couple days and be with Hermana Read again! That was fun. It felt like I had never left haha. But I loved that. I got to see Shirley and another woman I had taught named Virginia who's getting baptized! Also I ate papusas (I think that's how you spell it) which are now my new favorite food that I've had on the mission. It's like arepas but El Salvador style. Big big fan.

ALSO MIRACLE OF FASTING!!!!!!!!!!!! We fasted with Danny this week because she's doing so so so well and wants to be baptized (Raquel also) sooo bad but they can't until they can get out of their job on Sunday. So we fasted with her so that something would come up to make it possible. Friday-saturday fast. Sunday she texted us "YA NO VOY A TRABAJAR LOS FINES DE SEMANA" ("I'm not going to work weekends!!!!!") Wowowowowowow huge, fast miracle. 2 weeks and they're baptized! I love them so much. They have so much faith and so many desires. It's amazing. I'm so excited!!!

Also yesterday we did the "Fill the World with the Book of Mormon" presentation for our ward in Vilafranca that I had also done in Hospitalet. They LOVED it. In the middle, we gave them 3 minutes to sit in silence and pray to have a name come to mind of someone that they could share a Book of Mormon with. They were so excited and tons of people come up to us afterwords crying because they had a spiritual experience and made plans to share their Book of Mormon. I love it.

So yeah it's been a very good week. This next week I've made plans for every single day to live it to the fullest. Every day we have something special and creative planned in our efforts to find people. I'm so excited. I'll let you know how they go :))

Wow I just feel so blessed. I've had such a special mission. I was blessed to serve in 4 areas (Palma de Mallorca, Catarroja, L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, and Vilafranca del Penedés) and with 10 different companions. I've learned too many things to count, but here's a few things I've been thinking about:
I learned about the power of the atonement
I learned how to use the gospel of Jesus Christ
I learned how to ponder the scriptures and be taught by the spirit
I learned how to recognize and trust in the voice of the spirit
I learned to see miracles
I learned how I want my future family and home to be
I've learned who I am and have grown in confidence of who I can still become
I learned how to be a member of Christ's church for the rest of my life and how to be a missionary for the rest of my life

There are priceless moments that make up all of these amazing lessons. I have had the best companions in the entire world (I'm convinced of it ;)) and have learned to love and work hard with each of them. And we have seen so many miracles together.

I have been blessed to see my special friends make covenants with Heavenly father and enter into the waters of baptism. Every single one of them is a huge miracle. I am so so beyond grateful for the amazing experience that the mission has been. I'm grateful that it isn't the end, it's the MTC for life. :) I love my savior, I've felt so close to Him. I know without a doubt that this is the true church, the ONLY way to receive exaltation and to live with God again. Joseph Smith was a prophet and through him, Christ restored His church. I know that's true. I have dedicated a year and a half to help others also know that that's true, and have seen it change lives. I love missionary work.

D&C 15:6 And now, behold, I say unto you, that the thing which will be of the most worth unto you will be to declare repentance unto this people, that you may bring souls unto me, that you may rest with them in the kingdom of my Father. Amen

SO TRUE!!!!!! :))

I love you all so much! Thanks for a year and a half of reading my letters hahaha
Love!
Hermana Johnson

Vinegar Watermelon

Que tal!

Wowowow well the time is ticking! What a weird concept haha. I officially have 1 preparation day left, 2 Sundays left, and a lot more work to do. I love the mission. I'm so happy over here

As far as news from me. I'm thriving. I literally love Vilafranca so much. This week my companion celebrated 9 months in the mission (halfway) so we had a party with watermelon and crepes (instead of French toast). It was so fun. Until the watermelon ended up tasting like vinegar.... So that was enough of that we just enjoyed our crepes.

Also big miracle of the week!!! Yesterday we met with Margareta. She's from Romania, her boyfriend's a member, and has been coming to church for the past few months, reading the Book of Mormon, but has never made the decision to be baptized. Yesterday we met with her and just talked about her progression and what she thinks about everything AND SHE TOLD US SHE RECIEVED AN ANSWER THAT THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE!!!!!!! So that's HUGE and she's pumped to be baptized!!! Miracles.

Also this week I had an interview with President Galli! He's really good I liked it a lot. Mostly he just told me how sad he is that I'm going home so soon hahaha. But he'll be a great president. He has a lot of great ideas and I like how much he involves the missionaries in his plan making. So that was great.

Also yesterday it DUMPED rain. And my companion and I had forgotten umbrellas. Luckily, when it started we were eating lunch with Maria Dolores (a 60 yr old espanola) and she was so funny and was like "I'm not letting you leave! You can't go out in that! I'm serious!" and then we just laughed and she laughed (but did actually try really hard to get us to stay) but of course missionary work in the rain is just part of the fun! So we left and then were able to have that miracle of Margareta. :) 

Life is so good. I feel so blessed. God is good to us. :)

I love you all so much!!! Have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Johnson

1. The new capilla in Vilafranca! It's ALMOST ready for us to start meeting there!!!!

2. Pics at the mission home ya sabes

3. LOOK AT HOW CUTE SHE IS WITH HER CREPE AWWW 9 MONTHS!!!!!!!

4. The view from our busride from Vilafranca to Vilanova. I love love love love the cute little pueblos on the hills. Spain is my favorite place.

Mas Gelato

Hey fam and friends!

Well the countdown is officially starting (for everyone except me- I'm still in denial). I got my flight plans this week and everything. So ya know. That's news haha. Broma I'm excited to see you all :)))

Well let's see updates from me this week. We went to the huerto again! This time I remembered to take pictures. They rewarded us with Colombian empanadas (I love that stuff) and homemade lemonade. The BEST.

ALSO crazy story. So remember Danny and Raquel? Well. They are still working out the problem with Danny's job that makes it so she can't go to church on Sundays. So to ask for help, Hermana Turner and I fasted so that they would be able to come yesterday. THAT LITERAL SAME NIGHT THAT WE FASTED THEY TEXTED US AND TOLD US THEY WERE COMING!!!!!!!!!!! She had found a substitute for herself and made her Sunday free. It was like a direct, fast response to our fast and a lot of prayers. Huge huge huge miracle. Now we need her to find a permanent substitute but we know it's possible. Everything's been so perfect.

Also María Dolores, a 60 yr old woman that we're teaching has now come to church 2 weeks in a row and told us that she knows it's the true church! That's a miracle because she's been meeting with missionaries for like 7 months now and is FINALLY progressing. Milagros!

ALSO SONIA AND ÁNGEL HOY MARRIED ON FRIDAY!!!!!!! We got to help decorate and set up and then they came and she had the cutest dress and awww. It was the happiest thing in the entire world. And best part, Angel can get baptized! Everyone was talking about eternal families and how they can prepare to go to the temple together and he's pumped! So that's very very very exciting. We're pumped to help him out with that one :)))

Let's see what else. I'm taking advantage of EVERY opportunity that we have to eat gelato. So today we went to Amorinos. Love that place. Highly recommended.

Oh also interesting story about Vilafranca. We are currently waiting on the new chapel to be completely finished so we can start meeting there. For now, we're in a temporary place called a bajos (I don't know what it'd be in English) and it has no A.C. and the children are dying of heat so they decided to make church only 1 hour instead of 3. Interesting. I'll send a picture of the new capilla we're so excited!

Also yesterday a family invited us over to eat with them and they live in a HOUSE!!!!! It was the first time in over a year that I've been in a real actual house. Everyone everyone everyone lives in apartments. But not this family! A house! So that was exciting.

I love the mission. I love talking to people. I love the way it makes me grow. I'm learning so much. Also I love my companion she's the best (tomorrow we celebrate her 9 months! Shh don't tell her I'm making her french toast #bestcompanionever)

I love you all so much!
Love,
Hermana Johnson

1. THE BODA

2. GELATO

3. EL HUERTO

4. A big paella type thing that wasn't paella (I can't remember what they called it). It had octopus and oysters. Then my companion had an allergic reaccion because she can't eat oysters hahaha

Happy Bday Dad and GO USA

HOLAA!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU'RE THE BEST DAD IN THE WHOLE WORLD!!!!!!!!

Wow happy 4th of July!!!!! We celebrated America day over here by turning our "Noche de Barrio" ("ward night"-an activity that we have every Wednesday) into a 4th of July party. So of course, we wore red, white, and blue and contacted everyone we saw who was also wearing any of the above. It was great. To the activity we brought watermelon, we made zucchini bread, and the Elders brought lemonade. Also we blew up a confetti canon. We thought it was great. The Spaniards enjoyed watching us think it was great haha.

ALSO our ward has a "huerto" (garden, orchard thing) and on Saturday morning we went and cleared out weeds!! I finally got to have the typical missionary service project experience of pulling weeds!!!! Mom and Dad you trained me well. 

ALSO OKAY GET READY THIS IS THE BEST THING YOU'RE EVER GOING TO HEAR!!!!!!! We just saw the BIGGEST miracle of probably my whole mission. And there are a lot of little details that make it the miracle that it is, so I'll do the short story and then make a list of all the amazing things that happened to make it possible. But. Here is the story of Danny and Raquel:

So on Friday as we were leaving the train station, we contacted those two, they didn't have time, we left them one of our cards, they left, we left, thought nothing else. Then on Monday we get a text from church headquarters. Someone had contacted the church through mormon.org and wanted missionaries to come teach them to help them find God. So we called the number and went over. TURNS OUT it's the two women (the mom and her daughter) that we had contacted earlier that week!! We explained a little bit more of who we are and mentioned baptism and the restoration a little bit and at the MENTION of the word baptism, Danny looked at Raquel and asked her if she wants to get baptized. She said yes. And then Danny told us she's getting baptized too. We were SHOCKED. So we told them what it will take to prepare and recieve a testimony and all the things they'll have to do, we explained how the baptismal services are, they even asked what time it will be at haha. BUT THE BEST PART IS...we told them when we have church and Danny was like "oh no we just accepted work on Sat and Sun!" (at this moment my heart about died) but then looked at her daughter and said "well, we'll drop it! We have to go to church." I CRIED. I literally sat there in the lesson and cried. They're amazing. Literally the biggest miracle of my entire life I am so so so grateful for them and to Heavenly Father for putting them in our path. HUGE miracle.

Now, if you're interested, all the little things that had to have happened in order for that to have been possible:

1. The other appointment we had for Monday night cancelled on us (and we had to have called them on Monday because on Tuesday they wouldn't have been able to meet)

2. I had hurt my back but had made the decision to keep working through it

3. Our backup plan for the first appointment that we had planned was to help the elders move into their new piso but THEIR WATCH BROKE so they missed their train, leaving us with free time which led us to contact the reference

4. The first time we contacted them on the street, my companion and I were almost running because we were running very late, but we both felt that we had to contact them. I remember literally having a lil fight with myself about whether or not to stop them and then remembered that we had decided to act on all spiritual promptings. THANK GOODNESS we decided to contact them

5. They're at a point right now where they have A LOT of free time and can meet whenever and can come to activities and are trying to fortify their relationship. The timing is perfect

So yeah that's the craziest most happiest thing that happened this week. I'm a happy missionary. :)) 

Also we met our new mission president and his wife this week. They're amazing. Really so far not anything is going to change so that's good. It was fun because we met as three zones so I had 4 of my past companions there with me. It was good to see them again I love those people:) 

Wow the mission is the best time ever. Sorry this email is so long hahaha but ya know I'm just thriving and loving every second. I love it!!!!!

I love you all!!!!

Love,

Hermana Johnson

1. HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!

2. My cute companion:)) Plaza Catalunya

3. My cute companion again because I love her

4. I HIT 17 MONTHS ON SATURDAY SO WE CELEBRATED BY BUYING CREPES!!!

5. The district! In Plaza Catalunya!

quick update

Wow all of Southlake is on vacation!!!! That's crazy!!! 

Well crazy things with the new mission President! He is going to visit a zone every single day of this week. That poor man. And he wants to have 2 minute interviews with every single missionary. No idea how he plans on doing that because we all know it's impossible to have a 2 minute interview. But he seems amazing so we're excited. He comes here to Barcelona on Thursday. So exciting! 

He didn't call a leadership meeting but I'm sure they'll have concilio this month. It would be smart. Crazy things! And currently 2 of our zone leaders are over there in Malaga and 2 of their zone leaders got sent to our mission. The rest they haven't mixed yet. 

So there were actually less investigators in the area than I thought there were principally. But that's okay because we got right to work and we now have 4 people on date and met with 5 new people this week. So it's building back up fast! It's an amazing area. And I LOVE hermana Turner. She's in the group right behind Hermana Vance. She reminds me a lot of her and I feel like how I felt with her and with hermana Sperry as well. We get along super well and have fun and both work hard. She's great. She has a testimony, is emotionally healthy haha. She's also the oldest of 6 kids! She's from Ogden and went to Utah state for a year before coming out. I Love her. I decided I want her to marry Jed haha

Villafranca With Her. Turner

 Wowowow first day in my last area in my last transfer! I got transferred to Vilafranca! This is my 4th area, my 10th companion...wow crazy stuff.

But oh my goodness I'm PUMPED to be with Hermana Turner (from Utah!). And I LOVE love love my area. Honestly I couldn't be in a better situation. And I'm excited to work and use every SECOND that I have left. Such a blessing to be a missionary.

This week was amazing! And crazy! We saw the baptism of Shirley which was such a miracle. Her story:

She's a lil 10 yr old who we've been teaching ever since I got here. Months ago, she was ready to be baptized but the week of her baptism, her parents didn't give her permission. So the elders started teaching her parents and we kept meeting with her and Rita (her grandma) who will also be baptized very soon. She's so smart and so mature. She read the Book of Mormon every single day. Came to church alone most weeks. She was so prepared. So finally a couple weeks ago my companion and I decided to go over the baptism interview questions with her to show her that she's ready. She knew EVERYTHING and shared her sweet testimony. The spirit was so strong. And it was perfect because she was able to show her parents that she met the qualifications set by God for baptism. And they gave her permission! She was baptized on Saturday June 23 with 6 other people who had been preparing and were ready to enter into the waters of baptism. Such a blessing.

Also this week I said goodbye to a lot of people in preparation to leave Hospitalet.:( it's the worst. We get "the call" telling us if we leave or not and who our companion will be on Saturday night and then on the following Sunday and Monday we set things up with people back to back to say goodbye. I have so much love for these people. 

Also this weekend was San Juan! Basically it's where everyone in Spain goes crazy and goes to the beach and does a lantern thing and fireworks and just has a great time. So that was fun. There's also little popper firework things that kids throw at the ground. They pop really really really loudly when they hit. It's like a gunshot. The worst. So I'm glad that's over haha 

So yeah life is soooo good. The mission is the greatest thing EVER! I love sharing the gospel. It just makes so much sense and it gives me so much joy seeing other people learn and recognize the truths of the restored church. Such a blessing.

I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Johnson

1. Bautismo!

2. Shirley and Rita

3. Last lunch with the district!

4. I love my companion I'm going to miss her!

Some interesting details

So this transfer is crazy because we officially have 2 new zones from the Malaga mission, but no one moves around and they don't start to mix us until August 7. Except for 2 zone leaders who trade places and one hermana from Malaga is coming to be hermana Read's companion! So she's very excited about that. 

WE SAW SHIRLEY GET BAPTIZED! On Saturday 7 people got baptized. Night of white! So beautiful. And she was so cute and after she got baptized she had so much energy and was running around and being so lovey dovey and holding our hands and hugging us and it was just so cute. It was obvious that she felt the spirit and she was feeling the love. I loved seeing it. She's the cutest lil bby. And she wants to serve a mission! It's still 9 years away but she's very mature and very smart. And strong. She'll do it!

My new district is so fun. It's us 4 missionaries serving in Vilafranca and then a companionship of elders serving in Martorell. They just closed the hermana area in Martorell so we're the only hermanas. We've got an elder from Colombia, one from Ecuador, and one from Austria. And then the other one's from California. And my companion's from Utah! Super fun

I had my exit interview with president! It wasn't quite what I thought it would be. It was still amazing, but I imagined a discussion type thing where we talk about plans and set goals. He didn't do that (which now that I think about it it could be because I still have so much time left) and instead just kind of gave me an hour long lecture thing with a lot of advice. About half of it was spent on marriage and finding a husband. He went through a list of 13 things that my husband has to be or have otherwise i cant marry him. Very good haha. But yeah i enjoyed it. Everyone was worried I'd leave trunky but I didn't so that's good!

Hi Lil Missionary Sister

AWWWW my cute lil sister cutie. Wow I browsed the pics and first of all, yOU'RE GORGEOUS HOLY GOODNESS

and second of all, your camera is AMAZING!!! Dang girl!

Wow Sarah bby you're my favorite. Are you having so much fun?? I've been reading over your emails to the padres and things. Sounds like you're having a blast, the language is a lil tough (but coming), and a Somoan companion is a blast (and a lil different). Wow you're so perfect. I bet the MTC is so fun with all the BYU friends. You'll probably be friends forever. They're officially off limits for future marriage prospects cause...mission...lock your heart...BUT they'll be friends for life. That's one of my favorite thigns. You just make your best friends ever on the mission.

What are preparation days like? What do you do?

Well it's been a great week over here. We had zone conference which was heaven (and sad because it's the Daytons last one (my mission president and wife)) and then also MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!! A 9 yr old girl we've been teaching IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!! Her Grandma would get baptized with her but the grandma (Rita) is waiting to find an apartment so she can move out and not live with her boyfriend. The classic. I hope that won't be a huge problem in the Philippines but ay ay ay here in Spain no one gets married. Law of chastity out the window. Geez. But anyways. IT'S A HUGE MIRACLE!!!!!!

Other reason is because transfers are this next week! So we'll get the call this Saturday and then I'm outta here next Tuesday! I have NO IDEA where I'll be going but at that point I'll have 6 weeks left of my mission. 1 transfer left. Crazy. But it's such a blessing that Shirley's getting baptized because that means that after 6 whole months of working and working and working I get to see a baptism before I go. :))) Such a blessing. Heavenly Father loves us. :)

And today preparation day was so fun. We woke up at 4 AM (HA I WIN!;)) and went to the bunkers which has a beautiful view of all of Barcelona (and Hospitalet). And we went to Montjuic and took tons of pics. Happy happy day.

The mission's the best. I just love you so much Sarah bby I'm so exciting that you're having so much fun and just loving it. You're so amazing. Do you feel like your english is getting worse? I remember thinking that. I feel like I learned Spanglish and now can't speak english or spanish really, but what comes out the most naturally is straight up spanglish haha. it's a fun time.

Well Sarah bby I love you so much!!!! 

I hope you have the best week ever and eat yummy american food for me. :)))

I love you and am so amazed by how incredible you are. The best missionary in the entire world. Also you make me laugh and I appreciate that. You've got funny stories ha :))

Love you
Love,

Mandi

1. montjuic

2. bunkers with the gang (we all 4 live together. one of them is from Chile!)

3. chapa pics sabes

4. Shirley!

5. at zone conference we took a "wow we were all in the same district 6 months ago let's take a picture!" picture. :)