This has been a short week! Due to P-Day being late last week. I feel like not much has happened since then either! So this will be a short email with the hightlights. Delia has a baptismal date! Feb 26! she picked it herself=] It's her sister's birthday snd she KNOWS she can not be smoking by then. We're very excited for her. Except the chances that both of us will still be here are slim. Stupid transfers! IN a few weeks.
We've been meeting with Marisa Ramos a lot (we have to say her last name because we teach quite a few marisa) and lupes tambien! She is so curious and wants to know what's right for her children! We've also been teaching her in Spanish lately because we bring a sister in the ward over who only speaks spanish. It's been a good chance for me to pranctice but sometimes I still don't know what's going on. We spent lots of time again just going through our area book and searching for former investigatores etc. and we have a few appoitmenets set up for next week! Our days are cut in half next week due to training! Finally! This week will be most excellent. At church the talks were all on the HOly Ghost and I've been studying a lot about it as well. He is always with us and we just need to listen to hear what we need to do. It's amazing how much the Holy Ghost helps us in even the little things in life. Take time every day to hear what he has to say to you I LOVE you all!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
January 11
Sister Zaldivar and I made it through transfers=] Still in Chula Vista in the English Ward at the Stake Center. This ward is incredible. I'll start with highlights and then low lights.
Pamela got baptized yesterday! It was an amazing baptism. She had a ton of family there and a lot of the ward was there to support her. She is an incredible and strong woman. And Gary baptized her! We had an FHE with them on Monday to practice the baptism and it was really cute. And she got the Holy Ghost right after the baptism because Stake Conference is next week. I'm so glad that I could meet her and be part of her life.
OK so now onto the low lights.
Two of our investigators go their 3 day notices last week=[ (eviction) One of which was Vanessa who was a star! She moved to Santee with her mom for a little bit and is still being baptized next week. This strengthened her faith and she is being so optimistic about everything. The other investigator is Delia. Who has been going to church for forever now but has never been asked if she wanted to be baptized. But she has to move out by Tuesday, I believe. Times are tough down her in Chula! But the people are strong and optimistic. I don't know if I could handle it! I'm still doing great. I love being a missionary. I don't think there is anything better! (and on a side note. we went to the zoo today!) I love you all! Continue to pray-Heavenly Father hears our prayers and he answers them as well.
Pamela got baptized yesterday! It was an amazing baptism. She had a ton of family there and a lot of the ward was there to support her. She is an incredible and strong woman. And Gary baptized her! We had an FHE with them on Monday to practice the baptism and it was really cute. And she got the Holy Ghost right after the baptism because Stake Conference is next week. I'm so glad that I could meet her and be part of her life.
OK so now onto the low lights.
Two of our investigators go their 3 day notices last week=[ (eviction) One of which was Vanessa who was a star! She moved to Santee with her mom for a little bit and is still being baptized next week. This strengthened her faith and she is being so optimistic about everything. The other investigator is Delia. Who has been going to church for forever now but has never been asked if she wanted to be baptized. But she has to move out by Tuesday, I believe. Times are tough down her in Chula! But the people are strong and optimistic. I don't know if I could handle it! I'm still doing great. I love being a missionary. I don't think there is anything better! (and on a side note. we went to the zoo today!) I love you all! Continue to pray-Heavenly Father hears our prayers and he answers them as well.
December 28
My companion keeps telling me that transfers aren't this crazy and that I'm lucky I'm learning all of these lessons in my first transfer rather than later on! I t makes for a very interesting first transfer.
I know I talked to you 3 days ago, but it already feels like a lifetime. So much happens. Most importantly, Gary got baptized yesterday! His wife did not but is still planning on Jan 31 for her baptism. This week will be SO HARD on him because he has to wait a WHOLE week without receiving the Holy Ghost. The baptism itself was awesome. Yesterday we played our flute/piano duet in sacrament and it was also great.
I don't know if I said this the other day but we got to pick our colors for our dresses for the Mormon Battalion. I picked green and blue. It is so close! This is our last week of the transfer! On Christmas day President asked us to know dorrs. This was the first time I had done this. He said we would find 2 types of people at home; families who are happy, and people who are alone. We found a third type, Jehovah Witness. We spoke with her for quite a while and hopefully we'll be meeting with her next week. My mind goes blank during email time and I think That's all that happened this week. Christmas was great. Our investigatores are doing great. What mroe is there to say!
I know I talked to you 3 days ago, but it already feels like a lifetime. So much happens. Most importantly, Gary got baptized yesterday! His wife did not but is still planning on Jan 31 for her baptism. This week will be SO HARD on him because he has to wait a WHOLE week without receiving the Holy Ghost. The baptism itself was awesome. Yesterday we played our flute/piano duet in sacrament and it was also great.
I don't know if I said this the other day but we got to pick our colors for our dresses for the Mormon Battalion. I picked green and blue. It is so close! This is our last week of the transfer! On Christmas day President asked us to know dorrs. This was the first time I had done this. He said we would find 2 types of people at home; families who are happy, and people who are alone. We found a third type, Jehovah Witness. We spoke with her for quite a while and hopefully we'll be meeting with her next week. My mind goes blank during email time and I think That's all that happened this week. Christmas was great. Our investigatores are doing great. What mroe is there to say!
Monday, February 8, 2010
December 21
It's hard to believe that Christmas is in four days. It is just oo beautiful! We have our mission Christmas party on Wednesday so maybe that's when it will feel like Christmas...
This week has been good, like always. We are still preparing Pamela and Gary for baptism next Sunday. Pamela came down with pneumonia yesterday but is still gung-ho. The bought their quads last week and are showing them off to everyone. They are going to be awesome members. They already sacrifice so much time and effort to the church!
We're meeting with a young mom with 2 children as well. She does everything for her children and wants them to have faith and hope so that's where we come in. She took her children to the primary activity on Saturday after we had met with her 2 times. We're excited about her progress. Her children are going to Chile for 2 weeks (who isn't in Chile!) so hopefull we can really work with her. It's amazing how fast people's lives change when they accept Christ and let Him into their lives.
This may be selfish of me but ever since I've been on my mission my life has gotten so much better and all I've done is started praying a whole lot more and reading from the Book of Mormon. It really is the little things that build us up.
We're also meeting with a less active named Shannon. She moved from Tennessee after husband died to here and has 3 little girls and a 17 year old son. She is struggling so much and we knwo thtat if she is doing those little things that her life will get better. Her children are so cute. We gave them a Christmas basket with all of our goodies that we got in the last week because we are not eating chocolate still! (Marisa and her companion gave up chocolate to support some investigators who were giving up drinking) She was so grateful for it.
In other news: we got fitted for our pioneer costumes this week. Training is the last week of Jan and we start tours Jan 30th! I'm so excited. It's six hours in the visitor center and 6 hours proselyting in our areas.
The members of Chula Vista are just fantastic. On Thursday I will have been out in the field for a MONTh. craziness. Time is going fast on this end.
I love you all and I'll speak to you on Christmas!
This week has been good, like always. We are still preparing Pamela and Gary for baptism next Sunday. Pamela came down with pneumonia yesterday but is still gung-ho. The bought their quads last week and are showing them off to everyone. They are going to be awesome members. They already sacrifice so much time and effort to the church!
We're meeting with a young mom with 2 children as well. She does everything for her children and wants them to have faith and hope so that's where we come in. She took her children to the primary activity on Saturday after we had met with her 2 times. We're excited about her progress. Her children are going to Chile for 2 weeks (who isn't in Chile!) so hopefull we can really work with her. It's amazing how fast people's lives change when they accept Christ and let Him into their lives.
This may be selfish of me but ever since I've been on my mission my life has gotten so much better and all I've done is started praying a whole lot more and reading from the Book of Mormon. It really is the little things that build us up.
We're also meeting with a less active named Shannon. She moved from Tennessee after husband died to here and has 3 little girls and a 17 year old son. She is struggling so much and we knwo thtat if she is doing those little things that her life will get better. Her children are so cute. We gave them a Christmas basket with all of our goodies that we got in the last week because we are not eating chocolate still! (Marisa and her companion gave up chocolate to support some investigators who were giving up drinking) She was so grateful for it.
In other news: we got fitted for our pioneer costumes this week. Training is the last week of Jan and we start tours Jan 30th! I'm so excited. It's six hours in the visitor center and 6 hours proselyting in our areas.
The members of Chula Vista are just fantastic. On Thursday I will have been out in the field for a MONTh. craziness. Time is going fast on this end.
I love you all and I'll speak to you on Christmas!
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
December 14
This week was a real challenge for me because I was "senior companion for 3 days with another sister who had been out the same amount of time. I saw why this had to happen for many reasons. I needed to see that I could do it. That I do have things worthwhile to say and that when I follow the Lord, I do get things done. I was so worried about planning and filling the day but when it came down to it, it was fine. I need to put my trust in the Lord so much more than I am now. It is so critical as a missionary. I was also driving which stresses me out the most. These are not New Hampshire roads!
On tuesday we committed 2 peopel to baptism. I think I told you about them last week. Husband and wife-the husband left her because he didn't like the thought of her joining the church but here they both are now being baptized on Dec 27. They have been fantastic and essentially "golden" investigators. There are so many miracles happening in this mission and this is one of them. The husband read the 1st book of Nephi in one night. The biggest difference that convinced him that this was the church was that we had dinner with some other members that night. And they said some things to him which made him realize that this HAD to be the only true church on the earth. IMPORTANCE OF MEMBERS, RIGHT THERE. Well that was the highlight of my week and I can't get my mind off of it!
San Diego is fanTASTIC. I love being here. It's tough sometimes, but it's the only way to grow!
I love you!
On tuesday we committed 2 peopel to baptism. I think I told you about them last week. Husband and wife-the husband left her because he didn't like the thought of her joining the church but here they both are now being baptized on Dec 27. They have been fantastic and essentially "golden" investigators. There are so many miracles happening in this mission and this is one of them. The husband read the 1st book of Nephi in one night. The biggest difference that convinced him that this was the church was that we had dinner with some other members that night. And they said some things to him which made him realize that this HAD to be the only true church on the earth. IMPORTANCE OF MEMBERS, RIGHT THERE. Well that was the highlight of my week and I can't get my mind off of it!
San Diego is fanTASTIC. I love being here. It's tough sometimes, but it's the only way to grow!
I love you!
December 7
It has been an insane week. I guess I shouldn't have expected anything to be normal here because my MTC was so crazy and my first week here was crazy. But this past week we had MTE-missionary training exchange. We went to different areas and trained them to be better "preach my gospel" missionaries. We had training in the morning and then told our people in the afternoons with them. So I was way up north (haha, our mission is so small north to south) and I can't think of what the area is called right now. So I was with two other Sisters. It was really neat to go to their appointments to see how they did everything (begin teaching, material, commitments, working with members, etc) and I probably learned more than they did. We are really just focusing on reviewing our work with the question "did we fulfill our purpose" and with that we become better missionaries.
OH OH OH OH. But on the way there the first day it was at 8am so it was really heavy traffic and we go rear-ended! Yup. First full week in the mission and an accident already. We were all OK just our back bumper go hurt. And the bik. Which meant that I didn't have to bike last week! Like I thought I was going to have to. It was a blessing in disguise for me =] So that was Tues-Thurs.
We're doing it again this week but only my companion is training. So I'm still in our area with another companion for the week. AKA I am senior companion! After two weeks! heavely Father trusts me a lot! I am really nervous and then realize it's selfish to be nervous and that He will take care of it if I put my trust in Him. I have learned how important it is to pray and kneel every morning. He blesses us so much more when we are doing the little things.
we met an awesome lady this week who has so much potential and has the desire. We're excited to teach her more. I would like to say my Spanish is improving but I don't think it is! But my understanding is improving which is half the battle.
We also had a cool experience with a newly convert family. We were going to teach her neighbor and she wasn't home so we just went to their house. It was in Spanish so I didn't understand much and just played with the 2 year old. But apparently they had been fighting and were not planning on coming to church the next day so it was not by chance that we were there that night to tell them how important it is to go to church and to fast for peace in the hom the next day. The Lord put us there for sure.
Oh, and another cool thing. My companion, Sister Zaldivar, was in Abby's district in the MTC! Small world huh! Well that is all I think! Thank you for your prayers and support. It makes a huge difference knowing I have those things with me all the time =]
love love.
Hermana Johnson
OH OH OH OH. But on the way there the first day it was at 8am so it was really heavy traffic and we go rear-ended! Yup. First full week in the mission and an accident already. We were all OK just our back bumper go hurt. And the bik. Which meant that I didn't have to bike last week! Like I thought I was going to have to. It was a blessing in disguise for me =] So that was Tues-Thurs.
We're doing it again this week but only my companion is training. So I'm still in our area with another companion for the week. AKA I am senior companion! After two weeks! heavely Father trusts me a lot! I am really nervous and then realize it's selfish to be nervous and that He will take care of it if I put my trust in Him. I have learned how important it is to pray and kneel every morning. He blesses us so much more when we are doing the little things.
we met an awesome lady this week who has so much potential and has the desire. We're excited to teach her more. I would like to say my Spanish is improving but I don't think it is! But my understanding is improving which is half the battle.
We also had a cool experience with a newly convert family. We were going to teach her neighbor and she wasn't home so we just went to their house. It was in Spanish so I didn't understand much and just played with the 2 year old. But apparently they had been fighting and were not planning on coming to church the next day so it was not by chance that we were there that night to tell them how important it is to go to church and to fast for peace in the hom the next day. The Lord put us there for sure.
Oh, and another cool thing. My companion, Sister Zaldivar, was in Abby's district in the MTC! Small world huh! Well that is all I think! Thank you for your prayers and support. It makes a huge difference knowing I have those things with me all the time =]
love love.
Hermana Johnson
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
November 30- I'M IN SAN DIEGO!
I honestly don't even know where to begin. I can't believe I haven't been here even a week; it seems like a lifetime! So I'll try to start from the beginning. After the letter I wrote to you.
Wednesday another sister and I went with two other sisters just for the holidays. Transfers were on Friday this week so they could still be with their wards for the holiday season. Wednesday we taught quite a few lessons and about half are in spanish. I understood enough to know what was happening but not enough that I felt like I could respond. They had 2 children getting baptized that Saturday so it was just doing last minute things that whole week.
Thursday was Thanksgiving! two people in the ward asked to have us over so we split 2 and 2 and so we covered both grounds without getting too full =] We still taught and visited people that day. Never a break!
And then Friday was transfers! And it turned out that the other sister and I were staying with these 2 sisters...but now we had our own companions.
SO! My companion's name is Sister Zaldivar. She is originally from Argentina, but has lived in Utah since she was 6. But her Spanish is perfect because her parents speak it all the time. You know how I was telling you how they just made new PMG (Preach My Gospel) videos? Well these 2 sisters were the only sisters in the whole thing! They stopped filming last week. So they have a lot of experience with missionary work. I am in very good hands and I'm so glad President put me with them!
We all live in the same aparment (Sister Voyles and Sister Ruiz) and it's great fun. Oh, and I'm in Chula Vista (my first area!!) There are 4 wards and a branch in this area but we cover the ward. It's English speaking but still a lot of Spanish people go. There's a whole Gospel Doctrine class just in Spanish. So about half of my appointments are in Spanish. It's Good. Easing into it=]
So already I have 2 baptisms! haha. Mark (9) and Jenny (12) their mom is not a member so we're going to start working with her a lot more now that the kids are baptized. The ward is amazing at missionary work; always giving referrals and stuff. Maybe you should start thinking of some people so I can talk about my home ward being just as good at missionary work. It really is so important. they know the people in the area better than we do obviously so their referrals are more promising and such. So we're busy all day with appts and it is awesome. And it RAINED the other day, which is quite rare for San Diego so I was very happy. We are right on the border pretty much. I see TJ everday (Tijuana). The work is great here. I am happy every single day. I LOVE YOU!
Wednesday another sister and I went with two other sisters just for the holidays. Transfers were on Friday this week so they could still be with their wards for the holiday season. Wednesday we taught quite a few lessons and about half are in spanish. I understood enough to know what was happening but not enough that I felt like I could respond. They had 2 children getting baptized that Saturday so it was just doing last minute things that whole week.
Thursday was Thanksgiving! two people in the ward asked to have us over so we split 2 and 2 and so we covered both grounds without getting too full =] We still taught and visited people that day. Never a break!
And then Friday was transfers! And it turned out that the other sister and I were staying with these 2 sisters...but now we had our own companions.
SO! My companion's name is Sister Zaldivar. She is originally from Argentina, but has lived in Utah since she was 6. But her Spanish is perfect because her parents speak it all the time. You know how I was telling you how they just made new PMG (Preach My Gospel) videos? Well these 2 sisters were the only sisters in the whole thing! They stopped filming last week. So they have a lot of experience with missionary work. I am in very good hands and I'm so glad President put me with them!
We all live in the same aparment (Sister Voyles and Sister Ruiz) and it's great fun. Oh, and I'm in Chula Vista (my first area!!) There are 4 wards and a branch in this area but we cover the ward. It's English speaking but still a lot of Spanish people go. There's a whole Gospel Doctrine class just in Spanish. So about half of my appointments are in Spanish. It's Good. Easing into it=]
So already I have 2 baptisms! haha. Mark (9) and Jenny (12) their mom is not a member so we're going to start working with her a lot more now that the kids are baptized. The ward is amazing at missionary work; always giving referrals and stuff. Maybe you should start thinking of some people so I can talk about my home ward being just as good at missionary work. It really is so important. they know the people in the area better than we do obviously so their referrals are more promising and such. So we're busy all day with appts and it is awesome. And it RAINED the other day, which is quite rare for San Diego so I was very happy. We are right on the border pretty much. I see TJ everday (Tijuana). The work is great here. I am happy every single day. I LOVE YOU!
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