Week 39- Bus Stop Maria

So basically I have to start this off with a crazy funny miracle story from this week. We were headed to knock on the door of an old investigator we found in the Area Book named Tony. But on our way there we saw a man standing outside of his house so we started to talk with him, his name is Cory. Cory did NOT want to talk with us haha so we kept on walking a little farther but then we saw this cute little family walking and we decided we needed to go talk to them but right as we turned around they turned the corner right by where Cory lived so we awkwardly walked back and the family was just about to get in their car and definitely didn't want to talk with us. But we still needed to get to Tony's house but we didn't want to walk by Cory's house for the third time. So i said hey don't worry about it, we will just walk around the block through the other side. We were on exchanges so my companion Hermana Hedges told me, Oh my goodness we are never going to get to this guys house! And I said hey dont worry about it, I bet that if we have faith we are going to walk around this corner and someone is going to be standing on this block who we need to talk to. (totally joking) Well we turned the corner and a boy was standing there wearing a bright yellow work vest, goggles, and a hard hat. Talk about screaming come talk to me. We talked to him but then he said that he had already bought himself a book of mormon and that sometimes he saw the missionaries. We were so confused but then he asked us if we would like to meet him mom. We of course said yes and it turns out....they are less active members!!!! Who hadn't been to church in months and months and she hadn't transferred her records so no one knew about her. We talked with her for about an hour and she let us know her preoccupations and everything. Her son who has mild autism told us that he hadn't been baptized because Jesus already saved a spot for him...that was really cute :)  But we were able to give the other missionaries her information so the ward knows that she is there. Literally God has to have a sense of humor- and has to have his hand in everything. So we continued on to Tony's house- who wasnt there haha but then we saw a hispanic woman sitting at a bus stop with a young boy and we stopped to talk with her. Her name is, of course, Maria and we had a good little talk with her but right as we were getting to the good stuff the bus came, so as she was running to catch the bus we asked her if we could have her number and so she shouted it at us as she was running- got it just in the nick of time haha! :) 

We had an amazing lesson with Juvenal and Maria this week. We got them to come to the chapel for a church tour and we had the ward mission leader there. We taught them the Gospel of Jesus Christ in front of the baptismal font and then we invited them to be baptized. and they said YES! ahhh. And Maria said she was going to talk with her boss about getting Sunday's off so she can come to church. When we were in the chapel talking about Christ it was a feeling unlike any other. My heart started to beat so fast and I felt filled with a love that was stronger than almost anything I had ever felt before. I loved them so so so much in that moment- and I knew what God saw them as- their true potential. He sees a lot in us!!!  Well Sunday rolled around and neither of them showed up to church- getting people to church is probably the hardest task in the world. But they didn't answer their phones so we were really worried but they called us today and said that they were sorry- they had to both go to work unexpectedly but we have a lesson with them tomorrow so pray for that! I get so nervous. haha 

Bishop called on Wednesday and asked me to give a talk on the third article of faith in church- I was pretty nervous (why do I always get the Atonement as a topic lol) but lots of people said I did good, and then right after gave me advice on how to correct my spanish. #humbled. :) Defintely could have been worse! 

I guess the last interesting thing that happened this week is that we were in a lesson with the two best people last night, Rafael and Lucinda and I totally got the hiccups so bad! Like those loud, painful ones and they would not stop. And every time I would hiccup they would laugh and laugh and laugh. It really was so funny! The struggle is real. 

Well I love y'all. Still trying to look for more people to teach because we don't have too many but it's going! 

Con Amor

Hermana Johnson

These little garden statues are found all over Salem

Rafael and Lucinda - the Hiccup family

 Home

Week 38- Love and Charity

So coming here to North Salem has been a fun, challenging, exciting, frustrating, testing, happy time. We have spent a lot of time with trying to find people and have not done a whole lot of teaching. I love to find, it is pretty awesome and there is a process we usually call SAM. When you are contacting for the first time it will usually be a Super Awkward Moment, Super Awesome Moment, or a Super Awesome Miracle. And something that I didn't realize is that a Super Awesome Moment can turn into a Super Awesome Miracle just a few days later. We saw a family walking down the street and we whipped around and ran to talk to them. But when we got there they did NOT want to talk with us (super awkward moment) and we headed back to where we were parked and I had already gotten in the car when Hermana Tuisaula saw a man and a woman walking down the street. I was feeling pretty defeated at this point, it had been a long day but Hermana T comes and knocks on my window and says Lets Go! So we headed on over to talk with them. They introduced themselves as Maria and Juvenal but Juvenal did not say much at all. They said they were on their way to the store so we just talked for a minute and asked if we could come by and visit another day. Juvenal spoke up and literally told us "I live by that tree over there." haha so we didn't think much of it and we went our separate ways. A few days later when we had no one else to really go visit and it was getting a bit later we decided to go find the house by that tree. We passed by where he told us and low and behold, outside of the house sat Maria and Juvenal. When they saw us they began to laugh so we were not expecting good things but we sat down and began to talk with them and Juvenal told us that the other day we had met he assumed we already knew his wife because we were so friendly and happy so that's why he didn't say anything but then when we walked away he asked her how we knew each other and she said she didn't. So he told her well why didn't we invite them to walk with us?! So I guess he really did like us. Well at the lesson he told us that he had been thinking about us that day and asked his wife if she really thought it was a coincidence that we met on the street that day. And then this big old burly man began to cry. And told us that he felt his heart was far from God and all he wanted was the truth and to know where he was supposed to be. Then he asked us "So now I am ready. Tell me where I am supposed to go." Then WE started to cry because we hadn't taught someone in 4 days! And this man was so humble and kind and God let us witness a miracle. We taught him and his wife the entire Restoration. It took about two hours because they were so intent and wanted details and had really great questions. We gave them a Book of Mormon and they promised to read and at the end of the lesson he held the Book of Mormon in his hands and said, "I feel like this is the start of something." We cried a little more together. We taught him a few days later and really recovered the Book of Mormon because he had a lot of questions and yesterday when we drove past his house- he was outside reading the BOOK OF MORMON. We passed by again 45 minutes later and he was STILL reading the BOOK OF MORMON. I know that he is going to get the answer that he is looking for because God has promised us that all we need is that real intent. We have another lesson with them tonight. Pray for Juvenal! We love him so so so so much. (It also can't hurt to maybe pray for ourselves, again, if the Book of Mormon is true. We don't build a lasting testimony in one event.)

Finally something spiritual. Yesterday in Gospel Principles we talked about Charity and how it is important that we have it and what it is but also about the fact that we cant have charity for others until we have charity for ourselves. We cannot share the good news of what Christ has done for us unless we put his Atonement into practice in our own lives. We cannot love others when we don't love ourselves and we cant tell others that Christ loves them if we haven't tasted of his love ourselves. So lets all repent haha so that we can except when others repent but also so that we can feel clean and whole and healed through the Atonement and our Savior.

Love you bunches. 

Hermana Johnson

Week 37- Whoa Transfers

Ok well since I got four emails from mom insisting I write a good email this week I hope this is better than the sentence from last week. :) 

This week was ABSOLUTELY insane. So yes, I did get ripped away from my home again and I think I am going to wait until next week to tell you where I am....

haha I am just joking you. I was transferred to North Salem but in kind of a weird situation. So I am officially a "step-mom" because I am training a new missionary but she has already received her first six weeks training by another missionary so I am just here to finish her last six weeks of training. But it is pretty crazy because she is asking ME questions about Spanish lol so surreal. And we are opening up a new area. Which is weird because it is technically an old area- it is just the neglected parts of 3 other areas basically. It is pretty funny though because last week I remember telling Hermana Meise that if we just had less people to work with we could focus more on them but I think I should have just stayed quiet because we now have 3 investigators. hahaha And it was a little last minute the decision so we have come into the area without a phone, car, or apartment so we are piggy backing off the other Hermana's that we live with that did my companions first 6 weeks of training. Dad- you will probably like this: we have done a LOT of tracting :) hahaha I probably have lost 10 pounds since I left McMinnville a week ago! My companion is literally so cool. I got a POLYNESIAN! Her name is Hermana Tuisaula (two- E- ssss- ow-la) originally from Hawaii but came on her mission from Alaska. For those of you who know Trevyan- she is a lot like her. Full of energy, not afraid to just open her mouth whether she knows the Spanish or not and literally sooooo funny. I haven't stopped laughing since I got here. Plus her clothes are so cute! (the important things right?) All in all you should probably pray for us because I have no idea what I am supposed to be doing and I am supposed to be the leader. :) It is also a little weird to be here because we are serving in the only Spanish ward in the mission. It is so much bigger and put together than McMinnville and I had to learn the word bishop in Spanish! 

I really do like it here- it has definitely been the most challenging week I have had as a missionary. We are starting from the very bottom and building up. I have spent nine months praying and studying but in the past week I think I have gotten closer to my father in heaven than I have ever been before. Not necessarily just because I am in need but because I am painfully aware of my inability to do this without him. I don't know what this ward needs, or the members, or the investigators, or my bright and loving little trainee. I really don't know. But I do know that God knows. He has not left any of us alone in this mortal journey. He unfolds little truths to us. He loves us. He guides us. He tests us. And I need Him. We all do. I love Him so much. And shoot I am like OBSESSED with Preach My Gospel because it really knows what it is talking about. 

Good and cool stories. We were tracting out this trailer park a few days ago and we had just said we were going to knock on 3 more doors when a woman came out of her trailer and was like HEY WHERE ARE YOU GOING! We came back and just told her we were walking around and then she told us that she used to go to our church in Woodburn...and that she had been sealed in the temple. At first I thought that maybe she was joking or crazy or something because sometimes people say stuff like that but she gave us her name and told us we could come back. Well we called Woodburn and said we met Maggie and it turns out that she really did and that she had left a few months ago without warning. It was so lucky to find her! Then as we were walking out this lady shouted at us and said HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! So we went over and started talking with her. Her name is Patricia and she is really the studliest woman. haha But she said well do you wanna read the bible or something and we said...what we would really like to do is read the Book of Mormon. And she thought that was just the best thing in the world. So we read the bible with her and she introduced us to her kids and invited us to her birthday party. Then she told me that I looked like her cat because it had blonde fur and blue eyes. Maybe I should be offended haha. 

Other than that we have just been talking to everyone we see. I ran a poor 13 year old down on the street and got nervous so I told him. "Today we have a prophet and God wants you to know about it. Can we have your address??" lol so embarrassing but he said yes so maybe i should take that approach more often. Hermana Tuisaula felt prompted to talk to another young man sitting down so we parked the car and walked up to him. Usually the young Hispanics here can speak english so Hermana T said How are you? And he said No hablo ingles. We were like Perfect neither do we!!!! Anyways turns out he has only been here for 15 days and is only staying for 3 months. Can you believe how amazing that timing is?!? If you say God doesnt have a plan for every one of our lives you're crazy :) 

I. Love. You. So. Much.

Really I am so grateful for everything that each of you have done for me. 

Con Amor,

Hermana Johnson 

Ward missions leaders family. The game was on so one pic is us all
watching the tv when a goal was made right as my comp took the pic

Week 36- Ya me voy

Well this will probably be a pretty short email today because I am....getting transferred. *tears* Not really but I love love McMinnville and it has been a good ride but I am ready for the change of scenery. But today we are eating 6 times because everyone wants to do farewell feeds which is going pretty good for us. We have already had 2 of them. I already know where I am going and who my companion is because President told me but I am going to make you wait anxiously until next week when I am really there. 

As for good things that happened this week...I went on a really good exchange in Forest Grove and is was full of crazy spiritual experiences. It started with a less active mom of two boys who left the church when she was 18 and doesnt believe in anything now- not even the bible. But the reasons that she had for leaving were some of the same things I struggled with back in the day. She asked a really good question about why if God was so good and loving why would he just not let us have our families for forever without doing anything. That really made me think and then I started thinking would God really love us at all if he forced us to be with them forever- if we didnt choose them. God gave us our agency and it is the best gift in the world. Everything we receive, we choose so that we can be happy for real. We choose it all. 

Our apartment blew up so we had some apartment inspectors come over and they found an old air conditioner that we thought was a washing machine from the 60s so we have air conditioning! 

Thats all I have time for. Fourth was good!