Fiesta

HOLAAA!!!!

Well this week's been so happy. I have the cutest companion in the whole world I love her. We have so many goals and are working so hard to get this place up and running. It's the best.

Today we went to Tibidabo again!!! Super fun. It's starting to get pACKED with tourists. Wow. Turns out the best time to visit Barcelona is February/March. WAAAYYY less people. I love love love this place.

Also fun story about Ernest!!!! We met with him for the first time this week. He's just the most pure, humble person I've ever met. He's so prepared to accept the gospel it's amazing. It was actually kinda funny, we went to visit him and his brother Samuel and they totally thought we were literal angels sent from heaven. So we explained that we are not, that we are actually alive, but that a prophet of God called us to be missionaries and preach the gospel. They're so funny haha. We had a good time. But it's beautiful how close to the spirit they both are. They LOVE the Book of Mormon and we're so excited to see them progress even more! 

Also lately I've been working on my "personal life statement" and I know I already wrote about it , but I'm having so much fun creating what I hope my life to be and making goals to get there. I feel like Heavenly Father is helping me see my potential and is giving me so many good ideas for goals to make and things to do. It's amazing. I recommend it to you all. 

Well life is good the mission is the best thing EVER and I hope you all had the greatest week!

Love you!

Love,

Hermana Johnson

fiestaaa

 

Santi Jordi

HOLAAAA!!!!

This email has potential to be very long I feel like I have so many stories from this week. That's how you know it's been a good week:))

FIRST. I got fed guatita. Which is cow intestine (I think). An Ecuador thing apparently. Pictures to come. Spiky bumby things and everything. Chewy. Interesting. Culture!!!

ALSO fun story that happened. So Hermana Bodden and I were trying to figure out what to do with ourselves since we find so many people who seem great and love everything we teach them but then never progress or keep their commitments. SO we had a reevaluating talk and we've bumped up our goal to now talk about baptism with every person that we stop on the street. (Thanks for the idea mama<3). So we got super pumped, said a prayer, and then got to work and THE FIRST PERSON WE CONTACTED was actually drunk and dirty and smelled like alcohol. So we started talking to him and in the first few seconds he told us that he's an alcoholic, believes in God, and wants to quit drinking. How perfect is that. So we explained to him that if he quits drinking with God's help, it's possible and that he can be baptized and start his life over completely clean. He LOVED it. We're so excited to meet with him and help him out!!!! Miracles.

ALSO yesterday was Sant Jordi!!!! It's Catalunya holiday where all day men give out roses and women give out lil books. I'm not really sure why they do it but it's cute. So we took full advantage of that tradition and set up a table infront of the church to give out Books of Mormon! All of us missionaries took shifts and us 4 in the 3 hours that we were there gave out 75 Books of Mormon. And I have so many happy miracle stories from that too oh my goodness. 

1. First off it's just so amazing to be able to explain the Book of Mormon to people who had never heard of it before (or had heard of it, but didn't understand what it was). After understanding what the Book of Mormon is and what's inside of it, it just makes so much sense that it's the word of God and was written by prophets and testifies of Christ. I love it so much. The best book. READ IT!!!!!

2. I MET MONICA!!! So there was a super cute Colombian woman chillin right outside the church on her phone so I went up to her and started to talk to her to give her a Book of Mormon. And when I mentioned the church, she turned around all surprised and was like "oh woah I stopped right infornt of a church!" and then continued to tell me that she had just moved here and was looking for a church and that she knows that God put her right there at that moment to be able to talk to me and learn more about our church. She's coming this Sunday and is going to meet with the missionaries to learn more! Miracle!!!

OKAY AND THE BIGGEST MIRACLE OF THE ENTIRE WEEK GET READY!!!!!!!

So Hermana Bodden and I were in the church Sunday night working on our big Libro de Mormon board things and in walked a couple who had just moved here like 3 days ago. The wife is a member but the husband isn't and he literally was like "I'm ready to get baptized, when can I recieve the lessons?" WHAAATT THAT NEVER HAPPENS WHAT WHAT WHAT!!!!!! We literally about died. He's planning on moving to Hospitalet so we're praying we can start teaching him soon. BUT WOWOWOWOWOW. Huge miracle. God sometimes just sends us people who are prepared right then and there and it's just the biggest blessing. I feel so grateful.

So yeah really a great week. I love the mission. I love being so close to the spirit and I love studying the scriptures, I love the Book of Mormon, and I love this church. I know it's the true church. There's no way I'd be able to tell people multiple times a day that I know it's the true church if I wasn't 100% sure of it. 

I love you all so much!!!

Love,

Hermana Johnson

 

ALSO

Well I just love you people! Yesterday was the best day of my whole mission. One of them. But I just had the best joy feelings giving out Books of Mormon. And we all just split up and talked to people on our own and I made so many cute friends and wow I just loved it.

Also the guatita that we were fed was the worst experience of my life. So disgusting. But here I am I survived haha

 

1. Guatita. (if you look closely you can see the bumpy spikey things)

2. WE GOT YUMMY FLOWER GELATO!!!!!!

3. Us making big LdM boards for Sant Jordi

4. Giving out Books of Mormon!!!

5. They had little things like this on EVERY corner where people could buy roses to give out for Sant Jordi. Super cute. 

Salting Trampoline Park

All good. I got to read them, just some of mine that I had sent last week never sent and then did automatically the second I got back on wifi! So all good. :)

MY COMPANION IS SO CUTE I LOVE HER SO MUCH OH MY GOODNESS!!!!!!!!!!!! I couldn't be happier actually. She's an AMAZING missionary. Like I'd go as far to say that she's probably one of the absolute best in the entire mission. And she works at a FAST pace which I LOVE because it's my same pace!!!!! I don't feel AT ALL like I'm dragging her behind or she gets distracted or anything like that! She works hard, fast, and is the same as me and doesn't like to waste time and take food breaks! (although we sometimes do grab a yummy snack thing when we have to do area book or calls or soemthing). But even that! It's all productive! Every single thing we do! Ah I love her so much. And she's totally here to baptize. There's no messing around. She invites EVERYONE to be baptized which is so perfect and exactly what I needed and this area needs. Yeah I'm amazed by her I love her. And she's super fun to be around. Life is good. I'm happy. I have the spirit. AHHH the best

 

 HOLLAAA!!!!

Well "salting" is the name of the TRAMPOLINE PARK we went to today!!! Every transfer we do a "zone activity" (which is where all the missionaries serving around this area get together and do something together). So today we went to a trampoline park. And the name's funny because "saltar" is "to jump" in Spanish and it's called Salting. So like major spanglish. Good times. But yeah that was super fun. I'm gonna be very sore tomorrow but here we are.

Wow what a happy week!!! This week was just FULL of miracles. My companion and I have put a renewed effort to make sure we are inviting people to be baptized in the first visit that we have with them. AND WOW IT'S AMAZING!!!!! I think Heavenly Father is blessing us with more people to teach because of it. Real life.

FOR EXAMPLE THE MOST AMAZING THING HAPPENED THIS WEEK!! So I was with Hermana Lenzinger because we did an intercambio and she came to Hospitalet. We were leaving piso, about to do passbys, and the name of Sonia came to my head. She is someone who Hermana Dow and I had found about 3 months ago and hadn't ever been able to meet with. We honestly had probably tried to pass by her too many times and had eventually decided to focus on other people. But her name came to mind and I thought "why not, we can at least try." So we went to her house and rang the timbre and the opened the door! And let us right in! And we got to teach a beautiful lesson on the restoration and she accepted a fecha and is preparing for baptism!!!!!!! It was amazing. God works in amazing ways. The fact that He trusted us enough to tell us to go to her and that that was the ONE TIME out of the 5 or 6 other times that we had tried to get in that she let us in...MIRACLE. She's amazing. Also Dominican. My favorite people.

The church is so true. I love the beginning of transfers because everyone focuses on goals. And one thing I've been working on that I now have the goal to finish is my "personal life statement." It's basically a document that I create for myself (with the help of Heavenly Father) about what will happen with my life and who I want to be, what I want to do, things that like. Hermana Dayton did a presentation on it and there's steps to follow and everything. If anyone's interested, I'll send it to you because it IS AMAZING. I Having plans and goals for ourselves is so huge.

Also we had stake conference this weekend and a member of the seventy came to talk! IT WAS SO GOOD!!!! He talked about how to keep the youth active in the church and talked about how it doesn't matter how close of friends the group is or how much time they spend together. If they aren't having spiritual experiences, that friendship isn't enough to get them on missions or married in the temple. It was super interesting I loved it.

So that's my week! The best time ever!!!!!!

I love the mission and love how perfect the gospel is. 

Also I love you all!

Have the best week ever and tell Sarah and Audrey happy birthday for me!:)))

Love,

Hermana Johnson

Domincans Everywhere

Hola friends!!!!

Well the most exciting thing about this week is probably my ADORABLE new companion!!!!!!! She's half from Puerto Rico and half from the Dominican Republic but she grew up in Philadelphia! But still knows Spanish perfectly so it's so fun-she's helping me so much. I loooove her. Companions make such a difference in missionary work and I'm so lucky that I got such a good one. :) 

It has been fun to see how many people from the Dominican Republic have been popping up this week though. We've met TONS. And it's so cute watching my companion get all excited about her "gente" (people). Interesting how God puts people in our lives. Love it.

Hm what else. We had an amazing lesson yesterday! Enrique's wife and daughter are members of the church, he goes to church sometimes, and always has the missionaries over, but has never been baptized. So we went yesterday and talked about how to recieve answers from God and specifically told him that he needs to ask (pray), seek (study), and knock (act). We promised him hardcore blessings including that he WILL recieve an answer. And then we invited him to be baptized once he recieves an answer and the spirit was SOOO strong. His wife was crying and everything. BUT THE BEST PART!!!!! We invited him to be baptized on April 28 which just HAPPENS to be his wife's birthday AND (wait for it...) we told him that on April 28, 2019 (his wife's birthday) they can go to the temple and be sealed together as a family for time and all eternity!!!!!!!! (For those of you who are curious about what that means, details at the end of the email). Miracles. The mission is the best.

Also today was such a fun day. We went to Plaza Catalunya and the Rambla in Barcelona and shopped and went back to the huge fruit market. It was so much fun. Pictures to come. :)

I looove the mission! Also I loved general conference! The spirit was so strong when we all got to sustain President Nelson as God's new prophet. I know he was called of God and I know that Heavenly Father hasn't left us in these days without a guide. I'm so grateful for the prophet.

I love you all so much!!!!

Love,

Mandi

Ps- thank you so much to all of you who emailed me last week. It was seriously the nicest surprise to open my email and see so many emails. I read every single one and was so grateful even though I didn't have time to respond-I hope you all know that your emails mean the world to me. :)

ALSO temple for time and all eternity explanation!!!! So we believe in our church that when we are "sealed" in the temple, it's a marriage ceremony that is done for time and all eternity instead of "till death do us part" and we truly real life will be able to live with our families as a family unit after this life. It's one of the biggest blessings of the gospel and we're excited that Enrique will be able to participate in those blessings. :)

Okay pictures!!!

1. look at how adorable my companion is I love her

2. we went back to the yummy fruit market place haha and look all 5 of us live together we have so much fun!

3. there's a slide that you slide down to get into Sephora. The best thing ever haha. Also a cute girl from Galicia did my makeup. :)) 

4. THE LOVE!!!!!