Watch Out For Food that Stares

Merry Christmas y'all! And a happy new year! :)

This week was super great :) for one, Rafael is doing so well! He's interested in family history and wants to go to the temple visitor's center with us! :) he also wants us to talk to his nephew, so yeah! His baptism will be this coming Sunday and we couldn't possibly be happier! We also met a less active member who knows Italian because her husband was Italian! So I got to talk to her a little bit in Italian and it was fun :) she's super cool. Then Wednesday was Christmas Adam and someone fed us fish tacos... :P ew. But then Christmas Eve we got 4 dinners in a row! Ay! We had to change into stretchier skirts after #2 and we felt so so fat afterwards..... The last dinner we were given was suuuuper gross. IT HAD EYES, OKAY? It was all this gross shrimp in a spicy soup, and yes, it was like, a WHOLE shrimp. Thankfully, because we have to be in at 8 every night, we didn't have time to stay and it eat. And that, my friends, was a tender mercy and a Christmas miracle ;) but we were also fed lots of tamales and it was awesome :)
Then, CHRISTMAS!! :) I loved it! All my presents were also acceptable for a 5-year-old ;) think Legos and princess pjs. It made me happy though, and that's what counts :) then that night we had pozole (its' like a soup with chicken usually and hominy) with a member and the elders. It's a super Mexican Christmas tradition apparently, and it's really yummy :) And then the next day we got to help a member clean out her house a little. And Rafael came to church again. He's perfect.

So something I learned the week: I found this really neat scripture. In English it says "and the Holy Ghost giveth me authority that I should speak these things, and deny them not." But in the beautiful español it says "no retenerlas" instead of deny them not, but it more literally translates to "withhold them not." Made me think a lot... We've been blessed with this knowledge of the Gospel and when we choose to withhold the things we learn instead of share them, it's kind of like denying them, or denying that we have that knowledge, since it's meant to be shared. So, my challenge for you all is to share what you know with someone this week :) I know bringing up the Gospel in conversations is a little awkward at first sometimes, but you never know who might need to hear what you have to share :) Also make New Years resolutions! it's a good idea. And I encourage all of you to have one of your resolutions be to read the BoM all the way through this year :)

-Hermanita Johnson

¡Feliz Navidad Muchachos!

Another week down in LA with no snow! Woo! It's so weird not having snow this time of year.... I miss it. But it's all good!
So first off, I finally filled up a journal all the way! Literally for the first time in my life... Milestone! ;) And I made my most favorite waffles ever, which made me (and my tummy) so so happy :) especially when we got home at the end of the night and the whole house just smelled life waffles... Yummm. We also met some great less active members this week, and we're gonna help em come back to church :)
It rained a ton this week too. Ay. But I ate the most yummy hot dog of my life (because good food can counteract any crappy weather). It was wrapped in bacon, with mayo, mustard, ketchup, and caramelized onions on top! Sounds kinda weird, but it's delicious. Also, family history is way neat. After messing around on the family search app the other night, I found out I'm related to a queen of Italy?? Super cool! Then Thursday morning we found a disgustingly huge cockroach in our house. Hernandez hit is with a shoe and the head popped off... Ew. And then we came home for dinner and found a bunch of ants eating the hear.... So gross. But whatever. We met some really neat people this week, one of whom invited us over for Christmas :)

So then Saturday! We had a mission-wide Christmas party!! It was a TON of fun! We sang, ate yummy food, had PIÑATAS (I got to hit one it was awesome), and they gave us COSTCO CHOCOLATE CAKE. Biggest tender mercy of my life, I swear. But it was such an amazing day :) and to top it off, a member gave us a whole pie after that!

So yeah, I wanna wish you al a very merry Christmas :) and I love you all!
-Hermanita Johnson

There's Nothing More Important Than Being Festive

Twas a great week in which I came to realize that white Christmases here are nonexistent. Bummer.
Anywho! Tuesday was good, though rather uneventful, and so was Wednesday (my half birthday!). One of the hermanos in the ward let me borrow his GUITAR to practice for the ward Christmas party and I had to give it back Wednesday night :( I very much did not want to. And now I really wanna get myself a guitar.... Oh whale. We also met a cool dude named Shadow (yes that's his real name) on Wednesday and he seems pretty interested in learning more!
Thursday was pretty slow and Friday was FREEZING. Holy cow. California isn't supposed to be this cold ;) however we had zone conference, which was neat :) the 2 Spanish zones on this side of the mission got together and we learned so many things. Twas good. And after that was dinner with Hna Landaverde, who's cooking is seriously so good <3

Then Saturday was the ward Christmas party and I got to wear my excessively Mexican dress!!! We got to help set it all up and such #yayservice. So we had a big dinner and then all the different...programs? Not sure the word for it. Like, the Relief Society, primary, the high priests, young men, young women, and then us missionaries all performed a thing! I played guitar for us and we sang the First Noel :) But all in different languages. So Elder Ricks sang a verse in Spanish, Elder Burrenatu in English, I sang in Italian, and Hna Hernandez sang in Korean! It was a lot of fun and everyone really liked it :) then I got to play from the high priests too for a couple of songs they sang.
Then yesterday Rafael came to church and Hna Hernandez spoke. It was good :) and last night we got to walk around in the most rain LA's seen since I got here. But a member gave us arroz con leche, which helped keep the cold at bay :)
Some things I learned this week: for one, in Alma 44 Moroni is preparing his armies to battle Zerahemnah and Zerahemnah says it's only the breastplates and shields they have that made Moroni's army stronger. But really, there are two things that made them successful. 1) being prepared. To win the battle of life we need to be prepared with our own "breastplates" and "shields" that will help us resist temptation. And 2) we also need the Lord's help. Moroni's army was righteous, so they had God on their side. If we're lacking either of those two things, we won't be able to stand against the temptations and crap the world/Satan throws at us.
I also learned this week that missionary work isn't something you can do and still be sad or frustrated or angry. The Gospel is all about love and when we do ALL that we can to do what is right, it's not possible to stay down for long. Because even in our hardest, darkest times, righteousness brings peace and happiness. :) the sadness we feel that brings us down doesn't come from Heavenly Father.

So yeah :) that was my week! I hope you're all doing well and remembering to read the Book of Mormon!

-Hermanita Johnson

Feliz Diciembre!

So we started off the week with exchanges!!! Guess who my companion for the day was? HNA EVANSON! :D It was so great and we had a lot of fun! It was good being with my momma again :) Also I've been here for 3 months now! What??? Time's already flying by...
Anyway, this week I lost my hobo sweater :( so sad. BUT! On Thursday we had a zone meeting and I got to take a public bus for the first time in me life! Wasn't even hard or scary ;) the zone meeting was really good though and we learned a lot. Then on the way back we met this random Santa guy who yelled "FELIZ NAVIDAD MUCHACHAS! YO SOY SANTA HOMIE." It was hilarious.

Then. Milagro! Rafael, the Peruvian guy we've been teaching, called us and told us that his brother, who had stage 2 cancer of some sort, had just gone to the doctor and didn't have anything anymore. It was so cool! It was so neat to hear about that and see how it impacted Rafael's testimony :) the gospel is so great! Anywho, then on Saturday we had a super dope lesson with a new investigator named Antonio about the Book of Mormon! And he accepted that invitation to be baptized :) we're so happy! Then we also had some people feed us and they gave us cake :) seriously we never get dessert here, so such a blessing. So then Sunday was amazing. Rafael came to church and during testimony meeting he leaned over and asked if he could go up there to. We said yes, and so he did. And he talked about the milagro with his brother and his testimony of prayer. It was so neat :)

So a spiritual thing for the week, I want to share one of my favorite scriptures with y'all. It's Alma 37:44-45. It talks about how following the Gospel is easy and simple. It really is :) the Gospel is beautifully simple and simply beautiful. I love how beautiful and simple the scriptures are and how plain they are to understand. Also there's a new Mormon message called "A Savior is Born" that I'd encourage you all to watch! It's a good reminder of why we celebrate Christmas. I know it's easy to get caught up in everything--all the presents and the lights and whatnot. But if it weren't for our Savior, none of Heavenly Father's plan would be possible. God sending Christ, His Son, was the greatest gift any of us will ever have been given. So I hope you'll all take a little extra time this Christmas season to remember Him :)

Love you all,
-Hermanita Johnson