HOLA!!!!!

Man the mission is just the best time ever. This week has been so good. Honeslty I love my area so much. It's literally called the "land of miracels" and I see why.

 this week we found a FAMILY!!!!!! It was actually a miracle. So at 9:58pm on our way back to piso (we have to be in there at 10) I had the feeling that we needed to contact this girl who was waiting to cross the street. So we did it and she's a 17 yr old from the DR. And we set up a visit. And then we went to the visit and turns out her WHOLE family was there (5 children!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and so we taught them all! The mom was super busy cleaning and doing things so she didn't get to sit down and listen super well, but all good. And then we showed the baptism video of jesus christ getting baptized and all these cute children gathered around and it was adorable and then we invited them to be baptized and the three oldests (the only ones above the age of 8) were like "si" "si" and the 17 yr old said "si" AAAHHHHH it was amazing. They're amazing. So we're so excited about them. Happy happy happy.

We're also teaching another man named Francisco also from the DR. He's funny. We taught him about the restoration and joseph smith and it was honestly amazing. The spirit was SO strong and he literally said "you've left me without words." And he said he knows it's true and he wants to get baptized and has a fecha and is ready to tell his boss that he can't work on Sundays so that he can get baptized. He's amazing. It was so beautifiul.That whole lesson the spirit was just confirming real hard to all of us that the church is true. Real life Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Chrsit. And real life the priesthood authority is on the earth again so that we can do things like baptism in the same way as Jesus Chrsit. Amazing.

Let's see what else. Oh yeah today we went to parque wuell!!!!!!!! It's that beautiful place that gaudi made with all the colorful tiles and things. It's amazing. We just went ham and photoshooted it real hard. Also we went to the sagrada familia to see if they'd let us in for free (apparently there are some workers that let you in free if you're part of a religious group) but no luck today. Next week. It was still fun to be on the outside. Ah man I loved it. Love it love it love it. Barcelona is a dream city. Couldn't be happier honestly.

So yeah really couldn't ask for a better life. Oh also crazy news! The malaga mission is no more (starting on July 1!). We're about to inherit like 80 new missioanreis and we're getting Elche, Cartagena, and the Canary Islands as part of our mission!!!!!!!! SOOOO pumped!!!!!!!! So yeah that's probably the craziest news ever. 

Well fam life is good. Keep being amazing and doing good things and always chose the right and if you're old enough to go on a mission stop messing around and just do it because it's the best thing EVER. 

So much love!!

Love you!

Hermana Johnson

First reactions to Hospitaliet

 Hey hey hey! Week 1 in my new area! I LOVE being so close to Barcelona. Love love love it. Today we went to a place called The Bunkers. It's like a lil mountain thing that we hiked up to see the view of all of Barcelona. You see the sagrada familia, la rambla, the big bullet building thing, Montjuic, and the ocean (which leads right to Mallorca!). BEAUTIFUL. I love it here.

This week we did a lot of member visiting to get to know them. Literally ate at least 2 times every single day this week in the house of members. Which means a lot of rice. But it's so yummy I'm a big fan haha.

Also, city missionary work is a lil different than those lil pueblos that I was in before. We do a LOT more street contacting and a lot more walking and less door knocking. Which is fun i love street contacting. And I don't know what it is about this place, but almost everyone says yes! I feel like it's such a lil blessing to have been sent here. It's called the land of miracles and I feel like I've already seen so many tender mercies. Heavenly Father takes care of His children!

Probably the happiest thing from this week was meeting Rita! She's getting married so she can get baptized on the 27th! She's literally perfect and has so much faith and loves the church and the gospel and knows it's true and is sharing it with her family. So exciting!

Also I came to a realization this week that the world needs to have a better understanding of what exactly is the book of Mormon. I realized that, before my mission, I didn't even fully understand what it was. (Claro, I LOVED it and knew it was true, but I didn't have it clicked in my brain the simplicity of it). It's literally just a record (like the bible) of people (in the Americas) who lived (durinf thr time of thr people in the bible) and listened to prophets and made mistakes sometimes and were righteous and had spiritual experiences. Nothing scary. Nothing bad. Just that simple. And we literally come to know God better by reading it. We see how He works with His sons and daughters. Ah I love it. It's such a good book. Read it! And tell people what it is and where it came from!

I love missionary work! I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Johnson

 Hi hi!

Wow mama that sounds crazy. Sounds like you're doing amazing things over there! You famous mom!

Well I'm doing well. I'm homesick for Catarroja. I keep thinking I see people from there in the streets and have to remind myself that I'm not there. Or I see the train go by and have major flashbacks and have to remind myself that it's a different train. Really kind of depressing actually haha. But I couldn't ask for a better place to be sent to. It's gold over here. People are SUPER poor, more than I've ever seen in my life I think, and they're all cute and Latino and accept the gospel! 

This week we did a lot of member visiting because we're trying to focus on finding through members and getting referalls. Which has been fun, the members are amazing. I've eaten so much rice in the last week though haha. I love it. Rice and chicken has become one of my favorite meals. Who knew that would ever happen! Haha it's so good. But anyways they're great. And love so well. 

And we have an investigator getting baptized! She's actually the same situation as Denisse who I taught in catarroja. She's the Brazilian who's been being taught for over and year and would get baptized today if she was married. Rita is in the same situation BUT she is talking to someone TODAY so she can get married before the 27th and be baptized on the 27th! And it's actually going to happen! They've talked to each other and they've figured it all out! So I'm so excited for that. She's great. I feel like that's a little tender mercy from heavenly father.

And hermana Dow is great. She's so Canadian haha it's hilarious. And she's so nice. She's actually literally Erin Denton. In every way. Which is perfect, the perfect companion. We aren't quite best friends yet, but we'll get there. We get along super easily, we're both very easy going so decisions are hard to be made haha but she's an amazing missionary. 

Also this week we called all the ckmaonjonships of hermanas in our zone and talked to them. There's one whose number are SUPER bad and apparently they have a "bad area". So they're our focus right now. It's kinda interesting being on this side of everything. The zone leaders called us Saturday night and were like "How are the hermanas in the zone?" And we just went companionship by companionship and told them all the details of their lives. Kinda weird. Not really sure yet the purpose of all these things. And it makes me wonder what's been said about me my whole mission... interesting. But eh whatevs. 

What else. OH I LOVE being so close to barcelona. We're literally 10 minutes away. People consider this Barcelona. So today we went shopping on the Ramblas (where the tourist attack happened) and went to the bunkers which is a mountain thing where you can see the view of all of Barcelona. Amazing. I love love love Barcelona. Love it. So that's happy.

This week we have a family home evening in the mission home! President does one every month where all the missionaries who live within an hour of the mission home can bring an investigator and enjoy a family home evening in the mission home! So I'm PUMPED!

Well that's all I've got I think. I love you people!!!

enjoy a family home evening in the mission home! So I'm PUMPED!

Well that's all I've got I think. I love you people!!!

Third Area Hospitaliet

Hola de Hospitalet!!!!

Hahaha the funniest thing ever was everyone in Catarroja's reactions when I told them where I was getting transferred to. Hospitalet is right next to Barcelona, the heart of Catalunya. And Catalunya is doing this weird thing where they want to separate from Spain. But they're the only ones who are a fan of the idea. The rest of Spain thinks they're just so silly. But anyways everyone was like "ahh you're going to need your passport! You're going to a different country!" And then they gave me good advice and made sure I knew that "no matter what those Catallans say, Spain is Spain and Catalunya is part of Spain". So. Good to know haha.

But ah man this has been the saddest past couple days of my life. I just went from house to house saying goodbye to everyone and just crying my eyes out. Angela (my cute pink haired friend who got baptized a couples months ago) started crying saying bye to me and then got mad at me because I'm the second person in 35 years that's made her cry haha. Broke my heart but aah man I love her so much. I've never been in a place where I just felt so much LOVE for and by so many people. My heart's going to explode.

Oh also fun thing that happened this week is the Día de los Reyes! It's a Spaniard holiday that's basically their version of Christmas. But they also celebrate Christmas so really it's just twice the gifts. But they have a fun cake tradition where there's hidden wise men in the cake and if you get the peace with the Wiseman you're the king! The members gave us cute gifts too. Super happy.

Also this week we did another intercambio (a companion switch for a day) and I was in Valencia with Hermana Harris! We met a man from Nigeria who gave me a Nigerian name. It means "God is good." So that's fun.

But anyways here I am in Hospitalet. My companion's super cute-her name's Hermana Dow and she's from Canada! I had actually already met her before so it was nice to not have to feel so nervous about getting assigned to someone I know nothing about. She's great.

Something that's fun with transfers is you start seeing miracles of people showing up after months of not seeing them or finding a lot of new people that you know God has been preparing for the new companion. It's so interesting. I know we're sent where we're sent for the people that live there and God puts us in their paths and them in ours for a reason. I love it!

So there ya have it! More details to come as I start to get to know this new place! Exciting!

So much love!
Hermana Johnson

Saying goodbye

Feliz Ano Novo!

Wow 2018 here we are!!!!

Spain has this fun tradition where at midnight on NYE when all the church bell gongs go off you have to eat a grape with every one of the 12 gongs. So you end up eating 12 grapes super fast. BUT sad day we missed it! I don't know how...we were all pumped and ready with our grapes, sitting out on our balcony. But somehow the gongs never went off. So we just ate our grapes. Good times haha.

Also yesterday was such a happy day. The members here just take good care of us and I literally just went from birthday party to birthday party and ate a lot of cake a blew out a lot of candles. It was so happy and cute. Literally cried at one point at all the love. I never want to leave:(

Speaking of leaving...the next time I write I'll be in a completely different part of Spain!!!!!!! I'm getting transferred! (No idea where yet, they don't tell us until 3 days before). But that'll be exciting I'll get to go see a new place and meet new people. Super sad to leave, but new adventures, it's good.

As far as missionary work, it's been kinda hard to meet with people this week. Everyone's SUPER busy and keep telling us that they can't see us until after all the holidays are over. Makes sense, but ay ay ay. Brutal. But actually me and Hermana Vance have been going to a new part of our area that we really never worked in before and it's GOLD! The people are so nice and we've seen a lot of people with interest over there. So that's always exciting. Also my companion invited someone from Nigeria to be baptized over the phone and he said yes. So that's fun too haha. 

Life is so good. I've been praying and thinking about goals that I want to put for this upcoming year. I've decided that I'm going to be better at loving everything. I'm going to love every single day of the mission and I'm going to love all the people and love myself and focus on love and charity. Trying to be more like Christ. Goals are so good.

Well I love you all so much!!!! Happy new year!!!!!

Love,

Hermana Johnson

birthday picture!

we went on a ferris wheel today! This is a pic from the top!

party and Manoli and Pepe's house!