Week 16

WHAT A WEEK!!!!!

To start, WHAT A DAY!!!! Literally today we had one of my favorite preparation days ever. We went to Marine Land!!!!! Hahaha it was so fun. It's just this aquarium type place with dolphin, seal, and parrot shows. And flamingos and penguins and all types of fish. And it's on the most beautiful part of this island so when we were watching the dolphin show, the ocean was literally just right behind it. I love. So that was super fun. Also I got to take a picture next to a parrot who was just chillin on a branch. I love Mallorca haha.

Also this week was the happiest because our good friend Lander got baptized!!!!! I haven't said much about him because Hermanas Nelson and Barlow taught him, but he's tight with all the missionaries. He's already helped us teach two lessons actually. He's soooo good and is talking about wanting to serve a mission now!!! He's seriously great. He LOVES the missionaries and he LOVES the church. He's 21 years old and lives alone here (he just moved to Spain from Peru 2 months ago) and so he's always free and loves to hangout with us. Literally last Sunday he spent 9 hours at the church going to two different branches and then just chillin with people. Love that kid.

Also update on Alex! Unfortunately he wasn't able to come to church yesterday so we have to push back his baptism again. One day he'll get to be baptized hahaha. God's time. :)

Also this week (on Friday) Hermana Barlow and I got to be together for a day!!!! We call it an "intercambio" when we switch companions for a day. It's super fun. But oh my goodness we were amazed at how far our Spanish has come. Both of us came to the mission together so neither of us are good at Spanish yet, but it has come a LONG way. So that was super fun to see. We can talk to people! How great is that!

So anyways while we were together we found two new people who want us to teach them! One of them is from Nigeria!!! Let me tell you. There is a BIG Nigerian inflluence here and they all speak English! They're the GREATEST people on this planet I LOVE them. So we're super excited to get to teach her I love her already. :)) Her name's Esther too how cute is that!

From my studies this week I've been focusing on our purpose in life and have found some interesting scriptures that really kind of narrow it down to two things. Our purpose is to repent and serve God (Alma 12:24 and another scripture that I can't remember right now that I'll write down and tell you next week). Something that has really changed on my mission is my perspective of the word "repent." To repent means to change. We are imperfect beings who are trying to be better day by day in order to be the type of people who can live with God. So obviously, us being imperfect, we need to change. So we literally need to be repenting daily. We have to change our little habits that keep us from progressing and becoming like Jesus Christ. Love!!!!

So yeah life is good it's been a solid week. I'm continuing to love it over here. Truly couldn't be happier:)) Also I love seeing pictures and hearing about what's going on at home! Congrats to all of you that are graduating soon!!!!! How exciting!!!! And all of you people who are about to leave on your missions (I love you all btw), you're in my prayers and I'm so excited for you!!!!!

I love and miss you all!!!!!

Love,

Hermana Johnson

Week 15 Unabashedly ALL IN!

Hola mis amigos y mi familia!

Phew so many things happened this week. To start, we're SUPER excited for Alex who is working towards baptism!!!! So in our church, before someone gets baptized they have an interview with a church or mission leader just to make sure that they have a testimony and they're committed to keep the commandments and follow God. 

So yesterday we had a mock interview with Alex just to get him familiar with the questions so he wouldn't be nervous for the real interview. And he answered them all PERFECTLY! He told us that he thinks it's "maravillosa" that we have a prophet and "it's so great that he recieves revelation for us." And he told us that he has seen such a change in him. He feels so happy now. And he knows it's the gospel that has brought him peace in his life. I can't believe how changed he is. He has quit smoking, drinking, and when we brought up the law of chastity, even said "don't worry, I'm married to God until I actually get married" which was funny haha but in all honesty he is a completely changed person and it's a miracle to see that change take place. He's amazing. So we're super excited for him. :))

Also yesterday and Monday we had interviews with our mission president and Zone Conference! So all of the island missionaries (since there're 3 islands) came on over to Palma and we got a good 10 hours of solid instruction from our mission leaders. One of the lessons that I LOVED was about being obedient because that's just how your heart and personality is. They said "Be unabashably ALL IN." We have commandments, we have a knowledge of what is right and what is wrong, and a lot of times the reason we chose the wrong is because of peer pressure. So I love the word "unabashably" because at that point we are being like Christ and following His example of being a lighthouse on a hill. We won't give into peer pressure and do things that we know we shouldn't be doing because we remember who we are and our purpose in helping others to see the light.

I LOVE EVERYTHING!:)) Life is good, the church is true, and being a missionary is the greatest thing in the entire world. I hope all of you who are maybe thinking about serving a mission will decide that you need to go. Because there's no way you'll regret it if you do. I love the gospel and I love my Savior and the opportunity that I have to serve Him. 

I love you all and miss you tons! Give me stories on your lives!:))

Love,

Hermana Johnson

Pictures:

1. My zone! I love these people:)

2. This is basically the center of everything that we do in our area. We even teach in there sometimes! And it's absolutely GORGEOUS right now so here's a pic:)))

Week 14 On the Islands

HOLA HOLA!!!!

Yay what a happy week! I got to skype home and see my cute family-I love those people. Happy mothers day to all you cutie moms :))

Oh man this week. So to start, ALEX IS GETTING BAPTIZED ON MAY 27!!!!! For real this time haha. There's such a change in him that this time I really know it'll happen. So in those two weeks where we had lost him, he started smoking again and was out partying every night and then ended up not being able to find work and didn't have food or anything. Life kind of went downhill for him and he felt embarrassed so that's why he didn't call us. But then he finally did and when we met with him we had a  big conversation about what the gospel will mean for his life and the changes that he will have to make. And he committed to change! And he committed to be baptized! So we're super excited for him. :)

ALSO Alex took us to his taekwando class hahaha that was the best time of my life-literally still sore haha. It was so fun though. Who knew my first taekwando class would be in Spain! We made friends will all the people in his class and invited them to our english classes that we teach and they were super interested in why two Americans were there doing taekwando as missionaries. So we had good talks haha. 

ALSO!!!!!! So remember Ricardo who got baptized a couple weeks ago? Alright get ready for this. So one of his miracles was that in the exact same week that we found him, he was in the process of moving out and not living with his girlfriend anymore. So that was great that we didn't have to deal with that haha. Her name's Arancha and she does not like us haha. So we decided we'd change that, and we went to her house and dropped off cookies for her and actually ended up talking to her for an hour! It was just a casual conversation that led to gospel topics. She was super nice, we didn't push anything though. BUT THEN GUESS WHAT HAPPENED!!!! SHE WENT TO SEE RICARDO AND TOLD HIM THAT SHE LIKED US AND WE WERE DIFFERENT THAN SHE THOUGHT AND THEY TALKED AND NOW THEY'RE GOING TO GET MARRIED AND SHE WANTS TO GET BAPTIZED TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We just found that out today and we are literally DYING of happiness at this moment. So we're going to teach her this week:)))

Also the other greatest thing this week was our branch had a BBQ! I don't know why, but that was the most fun thing literally ever. There were TONS of people there, we had investigators there, less actives came, it was a huge success.  And it was so fun for me to walk around and talk to everyone! That was my first moment where I left Hermana Sperry and we each were talking to different people and I was able to have conversations in Spanish!!!!!! I still don't understand EVERYTHING, but I pick up enough that I can figure out what people are saying. It was so good haha I felt so good.

It's been a really great week. :) I love being a missionary and I love the things I'm learning. Some of my favorite times have been the hours that I get to study the gospel and discuss it with others. The gospel of Jesus Christ is perfect and it's for everyone. No matter who you are, what your life has been like, what experiences you've had, what you've done, the gospel is for you. Because God wants all of his children to return to him, he's given us a way to do it! And thanks to the gospel, we know exactly what we need to do to be worthy to return to him. So keep doing what you're doing and read the scriptures and pray and repent daily:))) I love you all!

I love and miss everyone. I hope all is going super well and you all had the happiest mothers day:)) 

Love!

Hermana Johnson

Week Thirteen on the Islands

Hola hola hola!!!!

What a week! First, DELFIN!!!! He's an older man from Ecuador who has only been living in Spain for a few months. We contacted him on the street and met with him for the first time this week! He apparently had been meeting with the missionaries while in Ecuador so he knew a lot of what we were talking about already. But something we really emphasized was that families can be together forever because he had lost his son and his dad. So he loved that and we explained that we need to be baptized in order to recieve the fullness of blessings that Heavenly Father has to offer. SO HE'S GETTING BAPTIZED!! May 27 get ready!!!!! He's so great. He loves it all and just soaks it in. Also it's kinda funny cause in Spanish, Delfin literally means dolphin. So we're baptizing a dolphin hahaha. I love!!!!

Also remember the Romanian family that we're teaching? THEY WANT TO COME TO CHURCH THIS SUNDAY!!!! Which is a HUGE step for them and it means they're starting to want to act on the things we're telling them which means the spirit is working on them! So that's super great and we're so excited about them. :)

Also guess who's back and is wanting to get baptized?? ALEX! Not much to say about him, but we'll see what's been holding him back from talking to us and why all of a sudden he's interested again. Updates to come haha.

So preparation day today was SUPER fun! We hiked in the 90 degree (it felt like) weather to a cave! It was a beautiful hike and the cave was amazing. It didn't go in super deep, but it was still fun to explore down in there. Good times in Spain!

My favorite thing this week though was yesterday. So every morning we have a couple hours that we get to dedicate to studying the scriptures and the gospel. I LOVE that time. An hour for personal study and then an hour to study with our companion. 

So yesterday I was actually in a trio because H Sperry had to be in Barcelona for meetings and we did our companionship study with one of the members who is about to leave on her mission. And it was just SO GOOD! I learned so much and I LOVED having that time with the four of us just discussing things that we learned in personal study and having all these different perspectives. I loved iit. 

So one thing I learned was from a conference talk by Elder Scott from the Oct 2001 conf called "The Power of a Strong Testimony." It talks about how we can know if we have a strong testimony, how we know what things we're weak in, and how to strengthen our testimony. Super useful I loved it. He said that in order for our testimonies to guide us to make correct decisions, we must allow the truths of the gospel to become our character. YES SO GOOD!!!! I totally believe that. I totally believe that as a direct result of working hard to be obedient and growing our faith is having a personality that naturally chooses the right. And since that's our goal, why not do the things necessary to make that a part of who we are? I love.

Such happy times:))) The spanish is coming along amazingly fast. I love speaking spanish and I love trying to understand people and have conversations. It's like a game for me to try to see how much I can pick up. I just love it. I can see so much improvement. Happy happy!

I love you all TONS and miss you!!!!

Love,

Hermana Johnson

Week Twelve

Hola amigos y familia!!!!

This week was a SOLID week. We got invited to members' houses 3 TIMES this week to eat with them. So far I haven't had to eat anything scary so that's good. It's all been delicious:))

Also update on Ricardo, he got the Priesthood on Sunday! Woo!!!! Such a happy thing. He was thrilled. We actually saw him on the streets a few days ago too and we stopped to talk to him for a little bit and he told us that everything about his life is so much better since being baptized. He said the world looks more beautiful, his business is taking off, he found a new apartment to live in, literally everything good that could happen in a person's life is happening to him right now. And he's so good, he totally recognizes that he's being blessed by God and that all those things come from God. Ah man, gotta love him.

So this week was transfers which is something that happens every 6 weeks on the mission where things change around. You could get a new companion, you could get sent to a new area, or nothing could change. For me, nothing changed which I'm really happy about. :) So Hermana Sperry and I made goals for this upcoming transfer and put together what we call our "altar of sacrifice" where we basically just wrote down all the things that we could do better to be more obedient to the mission rules and we made a plan for a better way to include Heavenly Father in our work and all the decisions we make. It's gonna be good we're super excited about it and are already seeing miracles!

Speaking of which, MIRACLE!!!!!! TODAY! Alex (the hombre who was supposed to get baptized, whose phone died, who we lost contact with) CALLED US TODAY!!!! We had about given up on ever seeing him again, but he apologized over and over again and asked if we could meet with him tonight!!!! Such a miracle. And I totally attribute it to Hermana Sperry and I's altar of sacrifice. Blessings right there.

Also there's this ADORABLE family that we're teaching right now from Romania! They speak English (woo!) and they're literally goals. They're all gorgeous and they LOVE the gospel! We gave them a Book of Mormon this week and they had us write a note in it and sign it for them and it was so sweet the way they held it. They were so grateful and thanked us over and over and over again and told us that it meant so much to them that we'd give them a Book of Mormon. I love! They're super sweet I love them! So we will see what happens with them. :)

This week I was thinking a lot about the Plan of Salvation. It's one of those things that gives us SO much hope in this life. We know where we were before we were born, we know why we're on this earth, and we know what happens after we die. How comforting is it to know that when we lose loved ones, we know that we will see them again in heaven! One of my favorite things to tell people is that our families can be together for the eternities, not just "until death do us part." Thank goodness for that. Because our heavenly father loves us so much, we came to earth in families, and we get to be in heaven with our families too! I am so grateful for this gospel and for the knowledge that I have through this gospel.

And I love you all so much!!!! Feliz dia de las madres (in Spain, mothers day is this Sunday!) 

Love!

Hermana Johnson

pictures: I didn't take a ton of pics this week or today since our preparation day today was mostly just walking around different shops and such, but we did buy flowers so, claro, we took pics haha. Also my companion and I are obsessed with besitos. They're heaven. So there you have it! Haha