I REALLY DO LOVE THIS WORK.

Family. WHAT UP!!

Hey hey hey! So this week has been pretty wild! haha. Sometimes the offices just swamp us with stuff to do and it's kinda hard to get out and work, but we try our best! I actually got a little bit sick this week and had to go to the hospital for a little bit.....but now everything is perfect 100% =). haha. But this week was actually really good, we were able to see miracles and meet a lot of new people!

So I totally forgot to tell you last week the coolest miracle of ALL TIME!!! I really can't believe that I forgot, but thats ok. So do you remember Ricardo?? HE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!! It was the wildest thing that's ever happened to me! So I remember that I put in my letter when Claire got baptized that we brought a few of our investigators to her baptism....Ricardo was one of them, and he liked it so much that he told us afterward that he wanted to be baptized the NEXT DAY!!!  We couldnt believe it at all....so we were running around doing so many things to get ready for the baptism, and it was stake conference the next day...so it was just super wild! But then, we had everything ready and they announced the baptism in the conference! We had his baptism at 4 oclock and there was actually quite a few people that came to his baptism!! But basically it was just the coolest thing to see that the spirit touched his heart so much that he wanted to be baptized in that same moment!! So yeah, that was pretty gnarly! haha.

Also, this week we got to talk a lot with Dulce and her husband Ricardo! They are super excited to come to church this week...we actually invited Dulce to an activity with the Relief Society and she was really excited to go and get to know a little bit more about the church and the members! We haven't actually gotten a chance to see if she went or not because the activity was yesterday night and we didn't go....but we'll see tonight if she went!!  We are hoping a lot that they will come to church this week and be able to feel the spirit!

So right now we actually had a pretty cool experience with the new elders that just got here. So today is our preparation day and the new elders are here with us today, so I decided that I was gonna put a couple of them to work! haha. So we left the offices for half and hour and contacted! We were walking down the street and I asked one of them where we should go and he pointed in one direction so we went....the first person we saw, we contacted! We talked for a solid 15 minutes and the elders were able to testify that this is the true church....and we got him to commit to come to church with us this Sunday!! He lives super close to the church so we are going to pass by his house in the morning so we can all go together! Who knows what will happen, but I know that the spirit was definitely with us and really strong when the elders testified about the church and the gospel!

So I got to go right now, but I love you all and I'm so grateful for each and every one of you!

Elder Johnson

SOLID WEEK!

Soo......WHATS UP FAMILY!

I'm so glad to hear that everything is going well with the move! and I hear that my new room is getting a little bit of use before I get there! haha. Anyway, thats cool that you got to know a little bit of the ward. By the way, I know almost every single one of the elders that you mentioned! haha. They are all super solid guys who I'm sure are all progressing a ton and learning a lot in the mission....because that really is what happens out here....we learn sooo much and I can't even describe how much I have progressed as a person!  I'm really excited to be able to see everyone when we're all back and just see the difference that the mission has made in everyone! But that day is still far off and I've got a lot more progressing and work to do! haha.  It's so cool to think that I've had a year in the mission and how much I've grown as a person and I still have another year to progress even more! EXCITING stuff! 

So we've got news here in the offices....Elder Running got changed out of the offices and Elder Nordfelt came in! I'll be training him to be the new Financial Secretary, so thats pretty cool, but I'm gonna miss Elder Running...he's a cool guy!  Elder Nordfelt and I are the district leaders now here in the offices so I'm excited to learn a lot of new things and try to help the elders in my district be the best missionaries that they can be! Other than that, the offices are treatin me well....I've finally got basically everything down now....just in time to leave and pass it off to Elder Nordfelt! haha. Does that always happen in life or is that just here in the mission?? Just when you get comfortable with something....everything changes!! haha. 

Anyway, we found a couple new people this week named Dulce and Ricardo! They are a pretty young couple, and they are both way cool!  We found them walking down the street one day and Ricardo was working on his car so we offered our help and we started to talk and he actually had a couple of questions for us. We made an appointment to go back to his house and teach them! So we went to their house one day...it was actually the store they have out front of their house and met Ducle...she is way cool, we talked with her a little bit and she also had a couple of questions for us! We actually talked for a pretty long time about a lot of random things, but then we began to teach her a little bit about the restoration and she seemed way interested...I got a SUPER strong feeling that I should give her a Book of Mormon...the words came to my mind...."give her a Book of Mormon, she WILL read it!" so I took out a Book of Mormon from my backpack and started to explain it a little bit. I gave it to her and she started to flip through its pages and just seemed super interested!  I know that she felt the spirit when she had the Book of Mormon in her hands....it was one of those "I need to read this" moments!  It was super cool to see the spirit work in her heart in that moment!  But anyway, we went back the next day to see if she had read and she had already read through 1 Nephi 8!  I know its not one of those "my investigator read the whole Book of Mormon in one day" experiences...haha....but it was still super super cool to see that the prompting that I had from the Holy Ghost to give her a Book of Mormon was REAL, and it happened! Our next appointment with her is tomorrow so well see what happens from here on out, but we need a lot of prayers for her and her husband! 

But eveything is going super well here in MEXICO!  We are super excited to get out and work and see miracles!  The Holy Spirit really does whisper to us, we just always have to be ready to recieve it!  The Holy Ghost will teach us all things if we let him teach us!  Be humble and be teachable, always receptive to those little whisperings of the spirit leading us in the direction that we need to go!! 

I love you all, and I hope that all is well! keep safe and know that I love you! 

Elder Johnson

SO HAPPY FOR CLAIRE

hello hello hello!! 

So this week was SUPER AWESOME!  I'm seriously super stoked right now!  It honestly has been a tough week but a great one....don't know how that works out, but it does!  I just feel like after a week where you just work super hard and even though it was tough...in the end, everything was so worth it and you see the fruits of your hard work! anywayzzz.....CLAIRE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! whoooohooooo!  It was soo awesome!  I put some pictures of the baptism so that you can see!  There was a super good turn out of members that came and supported Claire and Kebnahul!  We felt the spirit so strong in the baptismal service!  I think one of the coolest parts of the whole thing was that we asked Claires mom to bear her testimony and she was super super nervous at first when we asked her to do it, but then she told us that she would and so we were super excited because we knew that it would be awesome for Claire to hear her mom bear her testimony...and even cooler if it was in SPANISH!! haha. So we were in the baptismal service and it came time for her to give her testimony and she looked really nervous at first, but then when she started, it went super well...then she started to get emotional and you could really just feel the love that she has for her daughter!  I'm sure it was an awesome experience for the 2 of them!!  But then everything else just went super well!  There were no porblems and even a couple of investigators from the other elders came and had an awesome experience being able to see a baptism for the first time!  There really is a special spirit when the ordenances of God are performed...thats why it is soo important that our investigators come to church and have the opportunity to partake of the sacrament and really feel the spirit that is in the room!  It basically makes all difference!  I always think back on my younger days before the mission and how they always asked us to invite people to come to church with us, but I never really wanted to do it....errr....haha....well now I understand why it is so important that we give people the opportunity to come and see! Just like Jesus always said..."come and see" John 1:39.  But overall, the baptism was awesome and I can't even tell you how happy Claire was afterward! She was just bouncing off the walls and now she cant stop talking about being a missionary someday!! hahaha. Shes an awesome girl who is going to help a lot of people! 

Also, Wilian is doing super well!  We have been visiting him to check how he is doing with the cigarettes and he is improving a ton! Even though sometimes he slips up I can really see that he wants to change! I'm sure its not as easy as I think it is....we just really have to love him and help him keep progressing and building his faith in Christ! I have found that that really is the best way to help people overcome addictions of any type, is help them build their faith in Christ because everything we do is based on our love for Him and for God!  I'm so glad to see that he continues to progress and we are doing everything we can to help him on his path to the waters of baptism!! STUHOOKED!! 

Oh, by the way....this last Sunday was the craziest day of my life! Our first sacrament meeting ends at 11 oclock and the next one starts at 12....we wanted to go look for a couple of our investigators in between and go to church together! So we left at around 11:15 and its about 10-15 min away so we left RUNNING!  Literally we were running through the streets to go find our investigators and we couldnt find anyone.....they were all out of their houses.....BUMMER!  So we ran back to church and got there and Ricardo was in church just chillin!  I know that the Lord blessed us that day because we really did put in the effort! He is progressing super well and is super stoked for his baptism this week! WHOOO!! 

Basically a solid week! I love ya fam, you really mean the world to me and I'm so grateful for each and every one of you! 

LOVE YOU!!!!!

Elder Johnson

WHAT!!

m' fam.

WHAT UP!! ok, so im pretty sure i can start talking about the move more on my emails now because im pretty sure that everyone knows by now....considering that you re already in the other house! haha. but i wasnt sure if you wanted me talking about it...or if it was kind of like a down low type thing. haha. but THATS SO CRAZY!! my family is in another house! ill never see my other room again, thats kinda wierd. but im super super happy for everyone, no joke. and i glad to hear that everything went well with the move and that there werent any problems. but anyway, im happy for you.

so this week was super busy, but it was a solid week! so i dont know if you remember too much about Mariana....we were teaching her about a month ago and she was the coolest person i had ever met but then just fell off the face of the earth....well she just came back from her vacation in the "off the face of the earth"! we were out in our area one day, and we were walking to another appointment we had and my phone starts to ring so i look to see who it is, and i see that it was MARIANA!! WHATT!!!! i was so happy to see that she was calling that i almost forgot to answer the phone! haha. but i talked to her for about a minute and she told me that she had been working a ton, but that she misses going to the church on Sundays....then she tells us that she wants to go to church this sunday and that she still wants to be baptized!!!!! NO....WAY!! it really was like a miracle had just fell from heaven...haha. but i was just super happy because she is one of the coolest people ive ever met on my mission! so were going to be going with her tonight to talk with her again and teach her family! we are hoping that she will be baptized on the 10th of this month! so pray for her and for Luis Angel (her husband)! 

Wilian is doing super well, we went and taught the Word of Wisdom to him and he had been smoking but we put some goals with him so that he can quit and leave it behind, and he is doing super well! hasnt smoked since!! ZAAAA! so were really excited for him! its really cool to see someone who just barely heard about the gospel and just starts to make all these changes in their life and really start to repent, you can just feel and see the difference in them! but the only bad part is....he had to go to his house this week for some paper work for school so he hasnt been here for a few days...but im sure the Lord has been taking of him in this time when we havent been able to see him! we were going to have his baptismal interview yesterday but he wasnt home so were going to try to go tonight to see if we can find him and then we can plan the baptismal service for after the church so that everyone is there and they can all support him! that would be super cool, so we shooting for that today! PRAY FOR HIM! but basically hes doing really well and im way stoked to be able to teach him! ive actually been thinking a lot about that lately...how the Lord really trusts me enough to teach His children and help them to be converted to His gospel! its a buig responsibility and sometimes you dont feel good enough, but then when we are working, i really can feel that He is with us!  but we really have to pay the price to be able to have the Lord with us...."And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." John 8:29. if we are always following Christ, and always doing the things that God asks of us, He will never leave us alone!! what a promise, we can literally have God with us at all times! 

so basically, things are going well right now! we have a few baptisms planned for these upsoming weeks so we need to work a lot harder! because a baptism isnt a baptism....until they are baptized! haha. trust me, lots of things can happen in the days leading up to the baptism! ha. 

but i love you all, im happy for you and im glad that you are all happy! STOKED!!!!

Elder Johnson