2 Months Down! (Whaaaaat??)

What a week!! It's been great! :)
On Monday we hung out with the zone and it was great :) I got kinda down and homesick, it it didn't last too long. We went to see a member, Hna Landaverde, and it was a great lesson :) I think it helped me more than it helped her. #inspiration It was awesome. We also had pink break! So neat! And it rained some more :) enough to even need my umbrella. Woooow ;)

Tuesday we had a picnic! It was a lot of fun :) and I decided I need to go to Alaska. Yep. It was really hot, but it's all good. We helped one of our investigators download Skype so we can talk to him while he's in Mexico visiting family. He's going to be baptized this Sunday hopefully! :)

Wednesday was also excessively hot. The elders got a parking ticket and then locked their stuff int eh church on accident, so we had to go save them. Pobrecitos ;) oh, we also were talking to this group of kids and this random dude came over and was being annoying, trying to convince them we were lying. Rude, right??

Then Thursday we had a great district meeting and got giant donuts after! :) and then I had my first door slammed in my face. We just laughed it off :) that kind of thing doesn't happen to much to us.

Friday was a blessed day--I got my iPad! So nice, so convenient ;) But getting that and setting it up took up most of the day. However, I did voluntarily eat avocado and I didn't die ;) I still don't love it, but at least I can eat it now. We also met this super cook kid, se llama Refugio, who committed to baptism!! :D This kid is so prepared, he really is. I'm so excited to continue teaching him!

Saturday we had lunch with a weird dude from my mission mom's old area. He's apparently in love with her so it was pretty awkward... We don't be having lunch with him again. But we had dinner with the Tzaraxes and that was infinitely better. I love their kids so much! Especially Amber, their daughter. She's adorable and I love playing with her when we go over.

So yeah. The work is good and I love seeing people truly understand what we teach :) even though Spanish is still a struggle, it's not so discouraging anymore. It's helping me rely on the Spirit and the Savior more. There's a Mormon message called "The Refiner's Fire" that I've watched a lot this week. I encourage you all to watch it! The Lord is definitely trying me right now to help me be better, so I know He won't let me get too overwhelmed :)

Love y'all!
-Hermanita Johnson

¡¡Bienvenidos a California!!

First off: I ATE BEANS AND KIND OF LIKED IT!! :D #tendermercy

So I made it! And man what a week it's been. Lots to tell! On Tuesday they got us from the airport and hauled us to Arcadia where they learned us all the things about riding bikes and driving and safety and all the boring things like that. Presidente Villanueva is the mission president and he's super cool :) he's great. And my companion!! My mom's name is Hna Evanson and she's super awesome. She's from Minnesota and has roughly 3 months left on her mission. And I'm her first kiddo :) Also up until Friday we were in a trio! Our third companion was Hna Luau from Samoa and she was hilarious and adorable :) Being in a trio was fun, but now she's back on her island. We didn't do much my first night here though. We had dinner with a member and I had no clue what was happening. Lots of Spanish.

Our house is itty bitty. We live in number 1029 1/2, which I think is hilarious! It makes me happy :) but yeah, it's teeny. All good though :) we have everything we really need here and I don't have to shower with a bucket.

Wednesday! Our first lesson included the law of chastity. That was great. Yeah... it's rough here because I can speak Spanish pretty well, but I don't understand a lick of what they say to me. Sooo that'll just take time and practice I guess. We had dinner with a sweet old member named Hna Enriquez. She's got a really interesting life story (apparently--I didn't understand a word of it). But I also had a raspado! It's like Mexican shaved ice kind of. It was yummy :) 

Thursday I met my district! There're only 4 of us. Our district leader, Elder Ricks, is Superman, so that's neat. And then there's Elder Penrod. He's only been out a month longer than I have. Also I ate beans!!! And they weren't awful! I was so proud of myself (if you can't tell). Also we got to go to the LA temple and visitor's center with one of our investigators, Rodolfo. It was super neat and I really loved it! The LA temple's so gorgeous and it's HUGE. It was a really neat experience for all of us. There's also a brand new Nike store here in East LA and it's super neat :) we got to check it out today and we love it. Also it rained! YAY! Cali needs the rain so many...

Friday we had to get up at 3 AM to take Hna Luau to the airport. Bleh. I slept in the car the whole way there and back (of course). It was really cloudy all day, but we spent a lot of it doing weekly planning. weekly planning takes FOREVER. We taught the Restoration too and even though I didn't understand anything, I was still able to help teach it, so that's good :) Oh, and I learned today that I'm in the most dangerous area of the mission that hermanas go to! :D neat huh? Apparently there haven't been two white hermanas together here in a very very long time... We do have to go in an hour early every night though and also we have to use the car after 4. I don't feel in danger though :)

Saturday was a whole lot of contacting because the investigators they had before I got there weren't progressing for the most part, so we have to drop a lot of them. But I had my first street taco and it was SO YUMMY!! I'm in love <3 and it even had guacamole on it. My goodness what's happening to me?? ;)

Sunday was hard. I wanted to take a nap so badly but couldn't :( darn. We had dinner with the Tzarax family. They're from Guatemala and they're adorable and they're all so so tiny. I love them :) Oh, and Rodolfo came to church! Yay! It was great :)

The work is hard and it's confusing and I don't understand Spanish at all, but it's okay :) I'm learning to love the people and I'm figuring out how to do all this. But the Lord is with me. I know that :)

Hope you're all doing well. I know I am :)

-Hermanita Johnson

Farewell CCM

Hola!! This week was a really great one and I'm glad I'll be leaving the CCM on such a high note. Our elders all left this morning, which was very hard on my and Hna Garner since we've gotten all so close. It just doesn't feel quite right being here without the rest of our little familia. But está bien :) I know I'll see 'em again and things'll be good. And tomorrow I'll be in CALI!!! Whaaat? Crazy stuff!

Hopefully I'll be able to send y'all a better update next week.

Be strong, sí se puede :)

-Hermanita Johnson

¡Conferencia!

Goodness me this week was so great!!! :)
So for starters, Wednesday was so awesome. So we're not really allowed to listen to music at all here at the CCM, which is a real bummer, but we were able to on Wednesday! Our substitute teacher (Hna Arnaud was sick) let us watch a neat little video of all the temples in Utah and then as we worked he played nice quiet music in the background for us. Ah I loved it so much! Also our sub, Hno
Martinez, was so cool! I really like the way he taught. It was a super good lesson. And then on Wednesday too the CCM director's wife bought me cupcakes from the tienda! It was because I let her cut in front of me in the line. She's sweet and her kids (3 little boys) are super adorable. I love it!

Thursday was awesome too!  Think I set a record because I got 4 packages! What?! They may or may not have all been from my mother, but hey, it was awesome. My elders hated it... until they saw that they were full of snacks for the conference weekend :) Also it's getting warmer! :D I LOVE not being freezing cold and having to steal other peoples' jackets! This is the kind of weather I was hoping for, and now I finally have it :) Then me and Hna Garner also taught a really awesome lesson to Nancy, one of our investigators!! It just went so well. We definitely taught through the Spirit the entire time. So great :)

Friday was my one-month mark! So crazy! We started off the day with Krispy Kreme donuts which was so great :) and then we taught another awesome lesson to our other investigator, Joana :) I love it so many! Good stuff, good stuff.

Then Saturday and Sunday was GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! I have never been more excited or loved conference more than I did this time! My goodness there was so much good stuff! I took a bunch of my snacks to share and ended up sharing with a few other districts aside from my own. They were all so happy :) it was great. Sharing makes me happy. I think from Saturday my favorite talks were Pres. Uchtdorf's, Elder Hales's, and Elder Holland's. Holland's especially :) Made me miss my momma though! Also it made me cry. Sheesh it was awesome though. I also really liked Pres. Uchtdorf's talk from the women's session. We watched that Saturday night while the elders had Priesthood session. Oh and I made some new friends :) there are two other hermanas in another district that are going to Arcadia too! So we talked and ate donuts and had a great time :)

Sunday was awesome too. More gorgeous weather and more sweet talks. From Sunday's sessions I really like Pres. Monson's, Pres. Nelson's, and Elder Haynie's talks :) For lunch we sat with our new hermana friends and our elders told us we were traitors. They took it back when I told them that traitors don't share their snacks ;) On Sunday we had also had a lot of free time, which I really enjoyed :) and after dinner we got to watch "How Rare a Possession." It's about an Italian dude! And the Book of Mormon! It made me realize how grateful and how blessed I am to have the Book of Mormon and to have a solid testimony of it :)

Monday was good :) our new hermana friends ate dinner with us this time. Their elders were "deeply offended," as they put it, until we shared my double stuff Oreos with them. Then they were okay with it ;) sharing treats is great. We also taught another sweet lesson, and we had our final service project for while we're here. It was fun :)

I can't believe I'll be on my way to Cali this time next week.... Crazy stuff! Because of that I don't know when I'll get to email next, but hey, it'll be neat when I finally get to!

Love y'all!
-Hermanita Johnson