FACE THE FUTURE WITH FAITH

FAMILY!!!!

 

Hey everyone, so I'll start out by saying that I'm super DUPER happy right now for some odd reason!  I think just hearing how much the Lord is blessing my family and how happy everyone is in my home town just lifts my spirits and puts a smile on my face! haha.

 

So, it turns out that my companion was texting one of the members in the ward during the night and then erasing the messages so I didn't see them...but we found out about it and he got taken out of the area...everything was super quick and crazy, but I have a new companion right now, Elder Lopez!  He is also from Mexico...Hidalgo, and he was just a zone leader pretty recently so he's a hard worker...it feels so good to have a companion who is willing to work and who wants to help the Lord fulfill His purposes and promises here upon the earth! 'Super stoked! haha.  Anyway, that's what happened with my comp...pretty wild week.

 

Anyway, Rosario is moving a little slow right now...while we are walking very fast trying to help the people here make the committment to be baptized and receive all the blessings that the Lord has prepared for them!  We really are..."expanding our horizons"....trying to look for new ways to help this area to progress!  Some of the activities that we had went well for one week and then after that, the members stopped coming and everything we had going just fell from under us...there truly is opposition in ALL things! haha. It is truly a battle field out here with Satan and his followers, but we know that when we keep our eye single to the glory of God...we will NEVER lose in the end!  I receive a lot of comfort in that, because sometimes it seems like no matter what we do...nothing works! haha.  But.....by small and simple things! I know we will see the fruits of our labors soon!  I'm glad that I started out my mission in the one of the hardest area of the mission that we have....don't know if you knew that, but this area is known for being pretty tough....because I am learing EVERYTHING here!  I will be able to leave this area with all the knowledge of how to deal with every single situation that comes to me...obviously other areas have other challenges, but I know that I will be prepared!  The Lord is shaping me in so many ways right now that sometimes it's hard to keep up with myself! haha.

 

We are going to continue to work hard here in good ole´ Rosario and pray that we can see Miracles here and continue to progress!  I am absolutely loving my mission and I'm so excited for what the future holds in store for me!  Remember to always face the future with Faith and with a perfect hope in Jesus Christ and His atonement!  We recive all blessings through His grace...and it is when we are doing what He asks us to do that His grace is sufficient for us!

 

I love you all!

 

Love Elder Johnson

PATIENCE MY SON...PATIENCE

family family famzzily,

 

Sooo, things are going well here....my companion is "dying" a little bit right now because he only has 20 days left in the mission...it's honestly been pretty tough this week! We are still working, but the work is just SLOW!  A lot of times, he makes up some weird random excuse of why we need to stop and rest...and sometimes I get super angry inside but I have to remember that I need to have patience and that the Lord wants me to learn something from every experiece we have! Don't get me wrong...I'm LOVING the work more than anything, but I know that we can make that extra effort, make that extra sacrifice and just have that extra bit of Faith!  The Lord blesses us so much when we are willing to sacrifice everything we have to build His kingdom here upon the earth!  I was actually reading "Our Heritage" these past couple weeks and really pondering on the Pioneers and the sacrifices that they made and the unbelievable faith that they had in the Lord!  They went through more than I can imagine and were time and time again blessed with the greatest outpourings of the Spirit and some of the most miraculous manifestations of the Reality of our Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ and the infinite love that they have for us!  I feel like the Lord is asking us to make the same kinds of sacrifices, but in a modern form...something maybe as simple as sacrificing "worldly activities" on the Sabbath Day or talking with the people that we associate with every single day about the true and everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ!  Whatever the sacrifice may be...it will be well worth it!  I love one part in Our Heritage when it talks about a man, who had crossed the plains with his family by handcart and was sitting in on a conversation in which people were persecuting the Church Leaders for letting people travel that far with the little provisions that they had....this man tried to hold back his anger but finally it just came out and he stood up and with great power and conviction tells how much he had gone through and that to this very day he does not regret one bit of it...the reason being because through the hardships that he had to face and the struggles that they went through brought them to know their One and True God and that no sacrifice was too great to compare with the opportunity that he had to recieve the manifestation and conviction that he had to know the God lives and loves us!!  It's a whole lot better in the book and I would recommend that you read it, because it helped me so much to understand what God asks of us and what He will put us through to become the person He wants us to be!!  Anyway, this week has been a week of PATIENCE and my patience just about ran out...haha.  But I really have learned a lot and I am continuing to learn!  I pray that I will be humble enough to submit myself to any chastening that the Lord sees fit to inflict upon me!  We live, we learn, and we progress until we are made perfect beings in the eyes of the Lord...I love this work and I love the Lord more than anything!  That is what keeps me going, that is what gives me the desire to obedient, that is what gives me the willingness and humility to repent...is the Love that I have for my Father in Heaven and His son Jesus Christ!!  I love you all and I am soo glad to hear that all is well in the life of my FAMILY!!  Party of the year....WHAATTT????? haha

 

loves, hugs, and kisses from Mexico!! <3 haha

 

Elder Johnson

 

p.s.  there are a few photos....hope you get them! and the hand is all clean and doing well!  I'm back up and working hard!

 

NO QUITA LA VISTA!

Querido familia!

 

Soo...sorry for not writing this past week! I feel super bad that we havent had ANY time to write! I'm not kidding when I say that sometimes our Pdays are more hectic that the normal days...we are moving from one place to another constantly and almost never have time to rest! haha. but no worries...everything is good here in Rosario! So I'm not sure if I told you exactly where Rosario is....its just below Mazatlan...we are basically the farthest south you can go in the mission!  Let me know if that helps you find me...haha. also, the package arrived last week! We had a zone conference so the zone leaders were able to bring my "bundle of love" to me with the oh so sweet.....SOUR PATCH KIDS! So stoked on that, I knew you wouldnt forget! haha. I'm not kidding when I say that I have the coolest Mom in the whole world....I was listening to the recordings of everyone and I remember when you said "now we're back to the original grind" LOVE IT!! haha. But from the voice recordings, it sounds like everyone is doing great and love love lovin life! and if I didnt mention, I love the package! haha.

 

I have news.......................that I dont think you are going to like.....................I had a pretty bad accident with my hand! We were cleaning the church on Saturday before Sunday so that it looked all spifffy and nice and I was grabbing some things that we store up on a shelf...and I had to stand on a chair to grab them, and there was a fan right above that I didnt see.....and I fell off the chair and my hand flew up into the fan and cut me up pretty bad!! and if you didnt know, the fans here are metal.....ouch! haha. One of the cuts I have went all the way to bone and damaged a ligament....I lost quite a bit of blood and while we were trying to wash it up and get it wrapped up I almost passed out on the floor but my companion caught me and they gave me a priesthood blessing right there and I felt SOO much better! It was actually a really cool experience and my faith was strengthened in the priesthood power that we hold every single day and can use in whatever moment IF we are living worthy to use our power that God has given us! But dont worry...everything is fine now! all I'm gonna have is some sweet scars to always remind me of my mission! haha. Gotta be positive!

 

I CANT BELIVE I'M AN UNCLE!!! I'm so excited its unreal! I loved the pictures, he looks like a healthy little boy! I cant wait to meet him! Its hard not to think too much about that day because I really cant wait! haha. Keep sending sweet pics of the little stud!

 

So about the work...I was reading the part of Andrews letter that you sent to me and it sounds like we are having very similair experiences with our investigators! We are still struggling with getting our investigators to church....but I am trying hard to not let it get me down too much, I am always finding reasons to absolutely LOVE my mission and all the blessings that Lord has given me! I really do LOVE my mission and am forever grateful that the Lord has made it possible that I be here in this moment serving Him through serving His children!! I have really learned to realize how to use the specific gifts that God has blessed me with to help this work move forward in the way the Lord would have it move forward! I have learned a lot about myself and I have seen my talents surface as I labor in this marvelous and wonderous work! right now, we are focusing a lot on the members and building a strong foundation in the branch here, and we have seen a a lot of success! By small and simple things are great things brought to pass...I love that counsel and I have seen the truthfulness of it over and over again while working in this branch! My comp is struggling pretty bad right now to finish his mission strong and every day I try to help him and excite him but a lot of the time, he refuses counsel from anyone....its been pretty tough, but I need to keep my desire to work and my desire to be obedient and I know the Lord will continue to bless me and continue to help my companion! NO QUITA LA VISTA!!!! (dont lose the vision!) I cant lose my vision of what I know the Lord wants me to become and what He wants this mission to accomplish! I love what Andrew said about how he is glad it is not easy....it takes a lot of humility to fully submit our will to the Lords and accept the "hard times"....but the "hard times" are also the most opportune momentes the Lord has given us to LEARN and to GROW!! We need to bear our trials with a spirit of gratitude and humility, and look for what the Lord is wanting us to learn through the experiences that we are given! the Lord knows what He wants us to become and He is going to provide every opportunity for us to become the person that He would have us be...we just need to accept His will!

 

I love love love the work and I love love love you all! remember...NO QUITA LA VISTA!

 

con amor,

 

Elder Johnson

SOBRINITO!!

hey hey hey fam,

 

First of all, sorry i didnt get to write yesterday...we were super busy ALL day! im still in Rosario with the same companion, Elder Mendez...but we got a new elder here and he got here super late and it was just crazy for a while! but anyway...thats why i didnt write.

 

second, IM GONNA HAVE A SOBRINO TODAY!!!!! im so excited its unbelievable!!! and by the way Jess...love the bib! haha. i cant wait to see pictures of the little guy...or "not so little guy" as it sounds! haha. GOOD LUCK JESS, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! and Cam...FELICIDADES!! love you man.

 

 also, thats soo cool that you got to talk to Elder Ball!! hes the man, i really love him so much! im definitely gonna have to go see him after the mission and i cant wait! if you get a chance to talk to him again...just let him know that im grateful for everything that he taught me and that i love him! haha.

 

so about the work here in Rosario...it is definitely work! haha. we have a lot of investigators that we are teaching right now, but none of them are completing with their committments...its super hard when they say they feel that its true, but just dont do anything about it...we are going to continue to help them but at the same time, we need to find new people to teach so we are going to be working a lot in that also! i know the Lord has chosen people for us in each of our areas, its just a matter of being in tune with the Spirit enough and really give your will to the Lord, and then He guides us to the people that we need to find! i have been praying super hard that we will find new investigators who are ready to hear that Gospel and that really want to follow Jesus Christ and his example for all of us! we need to have a deep and unwavering love for God and His Son Jesus Christ and a true desire to live all of the commandments that He has given us and "then is His grace sufficient for you" Moroni 7:48. I have studied that verse a lot and what "his grace" truly is and how we can achieve it in our lives! i wont write everything i have learned...solely due to the time i have on this wonderful computer device in which i write this email to you all....but i will invite you to read and to study about this, because it truly has changed my outlook on not only this work, but on life in general!! Grace for Grace...Grace to Grace...Love it! haha.

 

anyway, the Branch here is growing a lot and making steps to becoming a strong branch and we hope eventually a WARD!! we are working with the members a lot here and really trying to build a strong base in which we can then build off of! we have a really awesome activity planned for this Saturday in which we are going to all meet in the church on saturday (members and missionaries) and we are going to train the members on how to contact someone or on just how to talk to someone about the Gospel...then we're going to go with the members to visit less active members or investigators that live withing the area of this branch and try to animate them to come to church with us! it may seem like something small but we are really trying to help the members become involved in this branch and in the missionary work here in Rosario...because right now, we dont have too much support from the members here! haha. we are hoping that we will be able to strengthen the testimony of the members and help animate others at the same time! we truly find the greatest joy when we are in the service of our one and only true God! by small and simple things are great things brought to pass...and by very small means, the Lord bringeth to pass the salvation of MANY souls!! we are relying on that promise!

 

 i love this work so much and i love you all more than you know! im sooooo excited to see pics of my little nephew!! Love you Jess! please stay strong as a family and help eachother through any hard thing that comes with the struggles of life...just remember that a home build upon the principles of the Gospel and obedience to those principles is a home of happiness and peace!! stay close to the Lord!

 

i love you all so much!

 

Elder Johnson