Week 13- Member Missionaries and Missionaries For Real

Whew another week gone by. I have to be honest- i have no idea what to write about this week because it was just so awesome. But ill do my best. 

On Wednesday we had a lesson with Karina and Noe and Alexa and the rest of the family. One of the counselors to our mission president, President Aguiar came with us to this lesson. This family has been so committed to moving forward and progressing in the Gospel. They havent missed a Sunday of church in 5 weeks and we went into the lesson feeling like we were going to teach the restauration and president aguiar started out with a really cool object lesson and Hermana Barrios and I looked at eachother and said, we need to teach the plan of salvation instead and invite them to be baptized. well we taught them the plan and invited to be baptized. and at the end of the lesson Noe basically said that he would do anything to have his family be together for forever. And so Karina, Noe, and Alexa all committed to be baptized! We are so excited for them.

This week has been kind of crazy because Ismael Alba, a boy from the Branch returned from his mission in Brazil. Not many missionaries go out here and so it was a really big deal and basically like a week long celebration. He got home on Friday and there was a huge party with food and posters and all of that but it was so cool. Everybody was so proud of him and he is so nice. But the coolest thing was that on Sunday, his little sister was getting baptized with two other 8 year old girls. And here when someone is baptized basically the whole branch comes out to support and congratulate. and we invited Karina and her family to come. Well Ismael was baptizing his little sister and you could just feel the power in that room and the beauty of that baptism. I have not been to a baptize for many years, I cant even remember the last one that I have been to. And I forgot what that feels like. Afterwards, Ismael just hugged her and gave her a kiss and that was when it really hit home that this work of salvation and eternal families is so, so important. And I guess that I must not have been the only person that felt that spirit in that room because afterwards I was talking with Alexa and she said I want to be baptized! She said that she felt so much peace and that her family had noticed how much she had changed in the past few weeks and about how good she felt and this whole change has only happened in 5 weeks. This Gospel is real-and it does work. I definitely have a testimony of that. We hope to have that family picking a date this week. they are amazing. And right after that, a little girl who is 8 years old came to us and said that she wanted to be baptized- her friend was one of the girls who had been baptized. So hopefully we can start teaching that family this week. And after that a 15 year old said that she wanted to start taking the lessons as well. So that baptism had some real power to it.

This week the best thing that I learned about God is that even if we are ungrateful and imperfect, he will continue to give blessings to those that you are working with because even if you dont deserve it, the other people do. 

The work is good, God is too.

Hermana J

Week 12- Car Keys and Puddles

It's been another week in life as a missionary. How crazy. This week passed the fastest of all. But it has been fun and busy. 

The investigators have been so amazing and all seem to love coming to church because for the past few weeks they have come pretty faithfully. OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE THESE PEOPLE. So Miguel is the 19 year old we are teaching and he is look so so so commited. And this week he really opened up and started asking questions but the best part is is that he didnt understand what faith was and he definitely answered his own question because he has the most faith out of any person ever. He is great. We are also teaching a family and they have a 13 year old daughter named Alexa. And she is a really special person. But the first week that her family came to church she stayed in the car and me and Hma Barrios went out to the car to get her and she did come in and just told me she didnt like church at all and didnt feel comfortable and yesterday we were talking and she told me that she felt really happy there and that she felt super comfortable and then she was also talking to me about a person who got baptized not too long ago that hasnt been coming to church and she is like I tired to get him to come to church but I will invite him to FHE tomorrow! I am seriously amazed at how solid these people are and their desire. 

So we had a pretty ridiculously kind of funny day on Saturday. We were in Amity at a lesson with Gustavo and when we went to leave we were going to give Gustavo cupcakes for his little brothers birthday and my comp put her bag in the car and then shut the door and gave Gustavo the cupcakes then we went to say bye and she goes to open the door and goes um OH NO. Somehow she locked the doors on accident so we were there locked out of our car, on the rainiest day of the winter. ha well then I tried to look for the phone so that we could call the District Leader and we couldnt find that so we just assumed it was in the car with the keys. So Gustavo called the DL's and they came and couldnt get the door open so we had to call the mission office and have them bring us the spare keys. So all in all we waited for 3 hours, 1 hour of that in the rain before our investigator saw us outside and took us in haha. Well when we finally got the door open we still couldnt find the phone and we looked and looked and couldnt find anything. So we said a little prayer and we both knew, the phone was definitely in the ditch filled with water next to where the car was parked. So Hma. Barrios held one hand and i fished around the water with the other- and out came our phone that had soaked for about 4 hours. So there was that. It wouldnt have been so bad if it wasnt transfer weeked because President kept trying to call us because my comp was called as a Sister TRaining Leader and we didnt even know until Sunday at church! haha well win some you lose some. 

This week I have done a lot of thinking about God and the relationship that we have with him. The words of the song Come Thou Fount have played over and over again, "Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love, Take my heart Oh take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above." I think it is amazing that we have the opportunity to have a relationship with someone so much bigger than us and how much we are prone to wander. How much we take advantage of the privlege. This week I have come to realize how blessed we are. We were in a lesson with a single mom and two young girls. Gustavo was with us and asked one of the young girls if she knew who God was. She said no. And he told her to kneel down and he would show her. So we all knelt and he said a prayer. I dont know how profound that moment was for that little girl but I do know how profound it was for me. We need to use that gift of communication taht he has given us. I know that with all my heart. 

The last cutest thing ever this week, a 5 year old told me that she saw an angel that told her that one day she was going to be a missionary and teach people good things. This is a good work. 

"God gave us the gift of life, we owe God our best performance." -Del Smith

Nos vemos

Hma Johnson

Me, disappointed at loosing Sister Barrios

Week 11-Cake Babies and Exchanges

Well family. Another week down here in good ole Oregon. You know when you are in the real world and you have Christmas and everything and then like after the new years you are like everything is so boring? Well I have been waiting for that but it just wont come. Especially because a lot of Latinos celebrate January 6th. I dont know if Aunt Pam remembers but I remember when I was little she bought a cake with a baby hidden in it and I got the baby and I was so excited- I still have that baby! Well I found out what that was all about this week because my comp and I have eaten about a total of 8 "Roscas" which is this huge bread thing and I hate bread more than anything now haha but whoever gets the baby has to be the one to make Tamales for the next party. Out of the millions of pieces of bread we ate, I only got the baby once. But I hope I dont have to make Tamales because I have a feeling no one will want to eat them. Because cooking is hard. 

This week was such a good one because we got to go on exchanges for my first time... and before it I was pretty much like I hate exchanges, i know it because I just love my comp so much and there is nothing she cant teach me so I dont want to do it. Well God put me in my place because Exchanges were pretty much the absolute best. Of course I missed Barrios but it was a night full of just stunning things. First off I was with Sister Christiansen here in MAC. And she is an English speaking missionary and we dont teach in English. So fresh out for the first time I was really obligated to listen to what these people were saying because I had to translate for her. And all the people that we went to see understood English but just couldnt speak it so I couldnt just like make something up because they would have totally known that I was lying. And somehow, I understood and could respond but the bigger miracle is what happens when you actually, really listen to what a person is saying. The love comes so quickly for these people and their lives and their struggles. And you start to care and want to help so much. It starts to make you realize what is so awesome about missionary work. There is one woman named Cony who has two kids and her husband is in Mexico and cant come back right now. Money is scarce and she is so tired because she works and works. The missionaries have tried to teach many times long before I got here. The progress is slow and sometimes nonexistent. Well while I was translating I started to feel a love for her that surprised me because frankly, before I had never really focused on her because I was always playing with her kids or just not really intent. And then when I was the only person that she could count on in that moment to speak to her and teach her, I think that I had the opportunity to feel just a small amount of the love that Jesus Christ has for her. And it brought tears to my eyes and when I told her of the love that Jesus Christ must have for her she began to cry too. She is an amazing woman and I hope that she finds peace in this Gospel. The funny thing about exchanges is that we were driving down this road and I was just telling Sister C that we dont walk around that part at night because a lot of homeless people live around there and it is dangerous. We passed a man walking on that VERY street and she goes, Pull over we need to tlak to him!" I was like have you not been listening to me at all?!? haha so we got out and tlaked to a man named Phillip. He looked a little sketch if you ask me but it turns out that he is an aerospace engineer who has been to 54 deifferent countries. we talked to him and set up an appointment and then a few minutes later we got a call from the elders saying they had just pulled over and talked to a guy because they had felt like they needed to and they said his name was phillip and that he had said that it must be missionary night. haha such a cool thing. I am mostly just glad we didnt get jumped. 

Other than that, life has been pretty normal. The usual. Working hard. We had 9, thats right 9, investigators at church. I wish that yall could meet every single one of them because each are unique in a certain way and fabulous. 

Our district is also pretty small now because two elders went home this week. That is just about the saddest thing ever. Especially because we are all friends and this work is hard but when missionaries go home early is just kinda makes you want to cry a little bit. 

Thats all I guess.

Oh wait I lied! I have a big surprise for dad- you are gonna be so jealous. Hermana WEst got us tickets the the Aerospace Museum today and it was totally rad. I will send pics. 

Loves! 

Hma J

Sister Barrios, Gustavo, and Sister Johnson

Week 10- Pack Your Suitcases and Flickering Candles

Well it is so amazing what you can do in 1 day when you arent on Pinterest. ha but really. 

This week was absolutely the craziest. Of course it was New Years and we keep doing the same things but you wake up and you go to bed and everything in between is just a huge blur. But it is so great to be with the best people with so many different cultures. One investigator from Columbia was telling us about New Years in Columbia because Latinos celebrate it huge but she said that everyone would pack their suitcases and put like their swimsuits and sunglasses and then walk around the neighborhood and tell everyone goodbye because the New Year is like going on a trip! haha so funny. She did it here too, I wonder what the neighbors thought. 

This has been a crazy spiritual week, honest. First off one of our investigators got a Hernia on CHristmas Eve so we went to visit her and she couldnt even get up or anything so we asked her if she would like to recieve a blessing. And she said she would so the Elders came over to her house as well as Gustavo ( the one you met at Christmas Ma and Dad) and it was the first time Gustavo gave a blessing since he got his Priesthood and afterwards Maria said that she felt hot all over from the inside. And we were like THAT IS THE SPIRIT!!! It was so awesome. WE have high hopes for her. Anyways after MAria, it seemed like just about everyone we knew started getting sick one way or another. Miguel, a super great investigator went to the hospital for dehydration and didnt tell us and walked to our appointment a few hours after he got released! That just tells you how awesome he is. And a girl from the ward, Cathy got the flu at Boot CAmp last week because she is going into the Navy and then it turned into Pneumonia so we spent a little time in the hospital last night so her mom could get something to eat. She is a trooper, and graduated even with the flu the whole time. That is kinda the spirit that all the members have. There is a family that all but one daughter who we are taching now got baptized last year and they are the most amazing family ever. Their conversion is just amazing. But I talked to them like for real and it was so weird to know what they were saying! woot woot. But they are amazing. 

There is this really really really amazing family that we are teaching right now. The grandma is a member but the family isnt. And we were preparing a lesson for them the other morning but we were trying to like practice it out and nothing was coming! Like both my companion and I could not find the words to say. It was so surreal. And so we were like, we are not supposed to teach this. And so we went into the lesson knowing we wanted to talk about how the Gospel Blesses FAmilies but not much else. And what happened was sp crazy. I started crying because there is a teenage girl who connected really well with me and I have so much hope for her. She has so much potential and is so special and I was telling her mom this because I felt like I needed to and the Spirit was SO crazy strong. They are a very special family and I know they have so much in their future. 

Other than that we ran into a lady smoking on the street and she was talking to us about how she is looking for a Church and about how she would love to talk with us. So we are going to jump oon that haha

And finally I guess this was just a crying week because Gustavo who is a member that was baptized by the first spanish sister missionaries in this area last year announced that he was going on a mission in testimony meeting yesterday. He is the strongest person I know and his faith is a huge example for us. 

Funniest things this week: Me trying to bear my testimony in Spanish because I told Gustavo I would if he did. My comp started laughing because she was translating for the English speakers. hahaha and we were in a meeting the other day and one of the other elders who hasnt been out very long either was trying to explain and investigtor and says "ella es un como (she is a, like)  uhhh flickering candle" and we all started laughing and he was like "you know, she burns so bright and then a little wind comes along and it just flickers away!" I dont know if that is as funny in writing as it was in person, but we died laughing. And the last funniest thing was we went over to dinner at a members and a bunch of kids were playing in the living room and we asked waht they were doing and they had a bunch of monopoly money and were throwing it in the air and said, "we are making it rain!" kids these days. 

Thats all family. I love you. 

Hermana J