Service=Cake

Hello! How are you all?? I hope you had a FANTASTIC week! We certainly did out here in sunny California :) really though, it's super sunny and I love it. I have a lovely watch tan line now ;)

So! Monday was good--P day. Always fun! And Tuesday! Tuesday was good too. We got to go look for lots of people, most of whom weren't home. Bummer. But we got to teach two of our investigators with baptismal dates: Kaylah and Vicenta. They're both doing so well and are definitely going to be baptized shortly :) then we had a service project!! Some people we do service for on Wednesdays asked us to come wash dishes after a meeting they were having. They gave us dinner and it was a lot of fun :) we had some of the elders there with us as well. And when we left they fave us an entire leftover bundt cake!! Dang! It was so yummy though ;) Then Wednesday we did our normal service helping at the food pantry. I really like helping out there :) it feels good. And that evening after eating with the familia Salcedo (they always feed us Wednesday nights--they're one of our only dinners we get) we had our correlation meeting. We took the cake with us to share and it was a lot of fun :) Thursday was district meeting. Our building was closed for cleaning so we had to go clear down to the stake center in East LA (shoutout to my home and my homies down there!) Our zone leaders came too and brought us cake <3 can't ever have too much cake.
Sunday was stake conference and I got to see Hernandez and everyone from my old ward again!!! :) it was so much fun to see them all. I miss them a lot already. But it was a really good conference. Our mission president spoke, and we had Elder Rafael Pino of the Quorum of the Seventy speak as well. I got to talk to him afterwards for a little bit and he's super cool :)

I learned a whole lot this week about a whole lot of tings. I learned that I LOVE Pasadena and would totally not mind living here for some amount of time after the mission. I learned after talking to a random dude on the bus that we, as missionaries, are the ones Heavenly Father uses to answer peoples' prayers or meet their needs a lot of the time. I never really realized that before... I also learned that He really is continually watching over us. The world isn't always a very safe or friendly place. But as we serve Him, He will keep us safe. Especially us as missionaries :)

Anyways, I encourage you all to keep reading the scriptures (if you're not, do it! You're missing out) and look for the hand of the Lord in your lives. I promise you'll see it so much more than you ever did :)

-Hermanita Johnson

Pioneer Children Walked and Walked and Walked and Walked...

Hello everybody!!
My goodness what a week... So much change and whatnot. Ay! So now I'm here in Pasadena and first off, it is GORGEOUS here! So many trees and it's so green <3 It's been kinda cold though, but that's alright.
Pasadena is different for quite a few reasons....
     1) There are fewer people walking around to contact (which is how we found most of our new investigators in Bel 1.)
     2) There are fewer people who speak Spanish
     3) Um, it's HUGE?? Bel 1 is literally a mile across...
     4) So much walking!

Wells and I!

It's okay though :) so we have some pretty cool investigators right now! We have Vicenta, a sweet lady in her early 40s, who's getting baptized March 6. Then there's Moises who's 13 and is getting baptized the 28th of this month (what up!). And then we have Kaylah who's 11 and will be baptized later in March!!! I'm really excited to see how all of that will play out :)
In other words, it rained a lot on us, we gave service at a food pantry (apparently a weekly thing we do), we got CHEESECAKE (awwww yaaaassss!), a guy paid for our lunch randomly at In N Out (which I've missed greatly), and I realized the annoying parrots that are literally everywhere here sounds EXACTLY like Fawkes the Phoenix from Harry Potter. I'm convinced it's literally the same sound. We also got to teach Sunday school! Not my favorite thing to do, but it wasn't too bad :)
This area will be a big change from my last one, but something I learned is that, no matter where we are or what's going on, no matter how hard it is, the Lord will prepare the way for us as long as we put in our effort. Miracles happen, even if they're little ones :)

-Hermanita Johnson

Adios East LA!

Soooo transfers... It finally happened. I have been transferred, kicked out of my own home. So see ya later Bel 1, I'm headed out to Pasadena! This new area seems really great and I'm excited to see how this goes :) the El Molino area is ginormous though and I'm gonna be walking a TON because we don't have a car and we can't bike here (too dangerous with the roads and the crazy drivers here). It'll be good though. My new companion, Hna Wells, is super cute :) I think we'll be real good friends.

Gonna miss this girl :')

Anyway, this week was good but went by so fast. We spent a lot of it teaching these two investigators: Ubaldo and Victorino. They're amazing and it's been so cool to see them start to change. They'll both be baptized the beginning of next month :) I'm really excited for them! Also Nora and Tonya. They're both just the sweetest and I love them so much! It's gonna be hard to leave them :/ but it's all good. I know they're in good hands with Hernandez and I know there will be people here that I'll come to love just as much :)

So I don't have tons of time (plus I'm lazy) so I'll end real quick with what I learned this week :) I was reading a talk called "Fear Not; I Am with Thee" from the April 2014 general conference. There's a quote that I love that says "the Gospel is not weight; it is wings." The Gospel doesn't weigh us down or keep us from being free and happy. The Gospel is what makes us free and happy. The Gospel helps us rise above the trials and troubles in life and truly lifts us higher than we could go on our own. And so when times get tough, we need to stick with the Gospel more than ever and rely on our Savior. And when we do, we'll be able to fly :)

-Hermanita Johnson

Twins & Octopuses

This week went by super fast and I had some mind-blowing experiences that make this week hard to remember ;) ha but really, I left my journal at the house, so I don't remember a whole lot of what happened. 

Tuesday we had to take our car in to get fixed (we didn't crash or anything, no worries) and we got lost of the freeway for a lil bit... Ay. On Wednesday the elders came to fix Hna Hernandez's bike cut it was busted. Thursday was rather uneventful but then on Friday we had like the greatest zone meeting EVER. We had this talked called "The Challenge to Become" by Elder Oaks. SO good! Y'all should look it up. Anyways, me and Hna Hernandez got some twinner skirts and we were twinsies for the meeting :) so cute! Haha but then on Saturday I had to eat OCTOPUS??? An investigator gave us some tostadas and I didn't realize what was on them until it was too late... It was soooo gross and rubbery and nasty.... But I didn't puke, so that's a plus. Sunday was a gorgeous day. It was sunny and like 80 degrees... :) so perfect! (Hope y'all are enjoying regular February weather at home.) We also had a lot of members come out with us for lessons which was really great. We love when we have their help :)

So a thing I learned this week from that talk by Elder Oaks. One thing he says is that what really counts is not just what we do in our lives, but what we become. What really counts is that we act in a way that changes us so that, by the end, we are more like Christ, our perfect Example. And something else that really stuck with me that he said: "charity is something one becomes." It's repeated acts of kindness and love that lead us to really being charitable. It's a way of life, not just something we have. So! That's what I learned this lovely week!

-Hermanita Johnson

90 Hundred Cops

Hola hola!!
Cómo están?? This last week was super crazy! It was good though :) it went by suuuuper fast. For starters, Rafael got confirmed!!! Yay! :D Monday night we met this neat lady named Mercedes and she's really interested :) we also met a lady who's gonna teach us how to sew (better). Also we became "homegirls" according to an investigator who said in a closing prayer "Thank you for sending my homegirls to me."

Wednesday we had interview with Presidente! He's so great and we just love him. Thursday we had a good district meeting and then we got hamburgers for dinner!!! AHHHH. I haven't had a good burger in SOOO long. Friday we saw like a jillion cops everywhere, blocking off streets and whatnot. We don't have a clue what happened... Then we also had exchanges and I got to go to the area next to ours with Hna Diaz. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot from her :) I like Bel 1 better though. We met some really neat people while I was there. Sunday it rained a TON. Ay.

A little thought for this week: in Proverbs 16 there's a verse (can't remember which) that just says "whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he." When we trust in the Lord, there's no reason to fear and we can just be happy :) yep.

-Hermanita Güerita (means blondie)