Week 42- Russian Baptist Missionaries

This was a really great week. It's the end of the transfer and one of the hermanas who lives with us, Hermana Aubrey, is going home this week. She is one of my Sister Training Leaders. She is so sweet and I am going to miss her so much. Hermana Meise is also going home. Basically most of the mission is. This is the biggest transfer in OSM history- 1/3 of the mission will be new missionaries 1/3 will be training those new missionaries and 1/3 is basically the rest of the Spanish missionaries because there are not many Spanish missionaries coming in. President keeps saying that the way that these new missionaries are trained and accepted into the mission will change everything-basically the destiny of the mission. It is true though-these new missionaries don't know anything about being a missionary and we are the only ones who can teach them. If we mess up, generations will suffer! Am I sounding a little panicky? Probably. Haha mostly just because all the Hermanas who came in with me are now the oldest Spanish sisters in the mission except for one who came in a few transfers before us! What if we mess them up?! We have no idea what we are doing!!! :) :) we were just talking the other day about how we are a bunch of kids running around trying to do adult things :) good thing the Lord qualifies the called.

On Monday I was on exchanges with Hermana Aubrey and we went to visit Maggie- the less active who we found by accident tracting out our little trailer park. We have been visiting for about a month or so now and we just go by on Monday nights- talk about things and share a message and invite her to do things. You know, missionary stuff. Well when we first started meeting with her you could tell she had been down and out for awhile. You could feel it when you walked in her home and honestly she didn't have much hope. She had been through a lot and told us that she had lost her faith- she felt that Christ had abandoned her. So she quit praying for fear that he wouldn't answer her prayers and that she would be even more disappointed. It was so sad especially since she has a 4 year old daughter named Zoe who is the cutessssst thing in the world (except Isaac). Well you could definitely see some change happening in the past couple weeks as she began to pray again and read the scriptures. Last week we invited her to fast. When we walked into her house on Monday the entire atmosphere of the house was completely different. Then she began to tell us that she had fasted and that she had received a promotion at work that she had been hoping for for a long time, she had found a house to buy that was near to Zoe's dad so she could see him more, and the most important part is that she felt GOD ANSWERED HER PRAYERS!!! It was just one of the many blessing this transfer to see a change happen so drastic in just 6 weeks. Isn't it crazy how fast God comes back when we ask Him to?

A little bit later in the week the funniest thing happened. We had  like 20 minutes left before we needed to be home and we decided to go visit an old investigator from the area book. She lives in a small circle where it is near impossible to find parking so we parked in front of a house at the end of the circle and two girls were standing outside of the house we had parked in front of. We got out and asked them if it was OK if we parked there for like 20 minutes. They said it was fine and then asked us what we were doing. Then we started telling them all about missionary life and everything. Then they were like, "oh my gosh! We are missionaries too! Come in!" We were so confused but you know we were going to go in that house :) so we headed on in and it turns out that they were Russian Baptist Missionaries who had done missionary work in Mexico, all around the U.S., Ukraine and everything! Haha two of the girls were born in Russia and didn't move here until they were 8, one had just arrived from Ukraine, and the other one was born here but her parents came from Russia. We met the parents of the two from Russia and they only spoke Russian. I was thinking about Lindsay the whole time! Anyways they asked us if they could sing us some Christian songs and one was in English and one in Russian and they were actually really good. We talked with them for a while about beliefs and everything and one of the girls said, "I just really love getting together with other Christians, it seems like we all just lift each other up." I think it's so interesting, how much Christ brings people together. He does bring happiness and love to those who believe on Him. It is so contagious. Something I have also found out is that now because I know Spanish I expect to be able to understand every foreign language and I actually don't at all. Dang it.

Really the best part of the week happened yesterday- we got to go to the temple :) and guess who came? Juvenal! Yayyyyy. And also a recently re-activated family that we have been working with who are planning on going to the temple to be sealed at the end of this year. They have been members for over 10 years and I guess it is finally just their time. But it was so great. We talked all about families and prophets and also about what happens in the temple. At one point Hermana Tuisaula asked Juvenal how he was liking it and he started to cry. He told us that he was going to go in one day because he could only imagine how beautiful it is inside. We rode in a different car than him and he rode with the ward mission leader who told us that on the way Juvenal was bearing his testimony. I love him so so much. Keep his wife Maria in your prayers though. She is a little more skeptical and I know it's really hard for Juvenal. He wants her to love it like he does. I am grateful for temples though and the fact that God loves us enough that this isn't the end, that families are forever, that death has no victory. I have to share what probably everyone know is my favorite scripture.

"And if Christ had not risen from the dead, or have broken the bands of death that the grave should have no victory, and that death should have no sting, there could have been no resurrection. But there is a resurrection, therefore the grave hath no victory, and the sting of death is swallowed up in Christ.
He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death. Even this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruption shall put on incorruption..." Mosiah 16:7-10

I love y'all so much :) have a good week!
Hermana Johnson

 the gargoyle house

Chicharones (dried pig skin) that we are eating 

Week 41- Come To Churchhhh

It was a really good week here in the OSM. I think sometimes I sit down to write every week and I don't know what to say because I feel like we do the same things week after week. But really I think that is just me forgetting that every miracle, no matter how small, is still a miracle. And each day as a missionary is a blessing. 

We have been teaching a few young guys that are here working in Oregon for the summer but they are originally from California. They go home in two weeks and we will hopefully get the missionaries over there on their way. But we had a really great lesson with them this week. Their names are Joel and Armando. Armando has a new daughter and doesn't believe at all really in God but especially in an after life. Joel is a little bit more of a believer. We began to teach the Plan of Salvation to them and when we began to tell them that ya, there is life after death and even more important that there is a place prepared for all of God's children not just Heaven and then Fire and Brimstone, Joel began to smile from ear to ear. And he said, " I am not scared anymore." And Armando didn't say too much. But we invited them to pray and ask if really all the things we taught them were true and I know that if Armando really does do that, he won't be scared anymore as well. When Joel finally found the truth that really God loves us and takes care of us, it was a sweet moment. How scary it must have been for him all this time thinking that he could only look forward to eternal torment. God loves us a lot, and I know that he wouldn't want any of us to suffer eternally for our mistakes. It's just not Him. He loves us too much. 

Juvenal came to church yesterday for the first time and he said he LOVED it!!!! :) :) Literally we love him SOOO MUCH! 

Other than that I was reading this really cool scripture this week and have been thinking a lot about it and just wanted to share it with you. I love this scripture so much. He helps us conquer anything this world throws at us. 

Psalms 23 

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Sorry I don't have much else to write about this week but I love y'all so much :)

Hermana Johnson

Week 40- God has a sense of humor, I think?

Welp this week has been interesting. We have done TONS of finding because we don't really have tons of people to teach. I am going to use a quote from one of my friends to sum this up "So long story short I love tracting about as much as I love cockroaches. I hate cockroaches."

haha I just thought that was really clever of her. I don't really hate it THAT bad but it definitely becomes pretty torturous after the 4th day. 

The reason for the title is because my long and arduous battle with parking lots continues as I totally backed into a car in a parking lot of an apartment yesterday. (sorry dad) buuuut I am only sharing this with the world because God gave us a great miracle out of a tragic situation. We were knocking the doors of the apartment complex to find the owner of the other car to exchange information. Well when we finally found the owner it was a really sweet middle aged mexicana (really had to stretch the spanish vocab to find out insurance info) but as we were sorting everything out she asked us if we were the people that could help her find peace in her life. She even said, "That's what you do isn't it?" And we were sort of surprised but said yes! thats exactly what we do. We got to share with her a little bit of the plan of salvation when she shared with us that her son had been killed in Mexico only about 3 years ago and then we set up a lesson to come see her next Sunday. She was super understanding and willing to listen. So we were grateful for the rainbow after the rain. 

This week our investigator Apryl excepted a baptismal date of August 29th. she is 17 years old and so funny and sassy. Plus her hair is sooooo long and beautiful. she will definitely have to put it back for the baptism or she will have to go under a million times- i dont think they will get all the hair under :) 

Juvenal and Maria are still doing awesome! I love them so much. We taught them the Word of Wisdom and they were like, Well of course we will live it. Can we just talk more about the Book of Mormon? We know that's the important part haha! Then Juvenal called last night and asked us if we were still good for the lesson today and if he needed to read anything more than the chapter and pamphlet we left him haha. they are so great. Maria has been progressing a little slower but she has finally started reading the Book of Mormon as well so we are seeing good things :)

I love you all so much! 

Talk to you next week, hermana Johnson

Halfway dinner

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!