siempre dad

Buenas tardes a todos!!
What a struggle of a week! Haha not really. It was pretty good, just with some interesting moments thrown in there.
For one, a member took us to eat Japanese food! So good! Mexican food is awesome but ya need a break every once in a while... Also Elder Gavaret of the Seventy came and spoke to us for our mission tour on Friday! It was super cool and he taught us lots of awesome stuff. Also I finally got roped into speaking for sacrament meeting :P bleh. I made it halfway through without having to, which was nice ;) I honestly don't remember 90% of what I spoke about since I didn't actually use the notes I prepared... Whoopsies!

Anyway, I just wanna share a 'sperience I had this week with y'all. So we got locked out of our house...again. Our zone leaders came to help but nothing we tried worked (including having another elder teach us how to pick locks over the phone, which now in hindsight was a pointless idea). Finally we realized there was a ladder on the roof of the parking garage-type thinger and we could probably use it to get through the second story window of our apartment and get in. We were literally gonna break into our own apartment. It was the only thing we could think of, so we went for it. We were about two seconds away from climbing up that thing when the manager guy with the spare keys got home. Maybe it was a coincidence. I dunno. But I learned a lot about what I'mma call the "Abraham and Isaac principle": sometimes you gotta act on faith and really be willing to go all the way (and then START TO) before the Lord sends the help ya need to make things go a lot smoother. Anyway, that was fun. We didn't end up breaking into our own place. And then we found the keys sitting on the couch where I guess I left them.... Whoops!
Anyway, it was a good week and I learned I love the song "Give Said the Little Stream" in Spanish. It's fun ;) that's where my subject line comes from. It means "always give" but we just laugh every time because all we can think is "always dad"

Ciao
-Hermanita Johnson

#bendecida

Good morning Starshine, the earth says "Hello!'
How are all of you lovely people?? I hope all's well and life is happy :) I know mine is!!
This week was great! First off, I LOVE MY NEW COMP! Hna Scott is super cute and we get along great. We gon' do good things here in Pasadena :)

This week was lots and lots of finding. We no longer have any really solid investigators since we just baptized the last of them. So we lookin' for new ones! It's been a little rough but we know we'll find people who are ready :)
On Wednesday though we met a Chinese lady who speaks Spanish?? That was cool. For the most part we can't really communicate with the chinitos which is a bummer because they're so cute! But it was cool to talk to her a little. Then on Friday we had a branch activity of watching "Conozca a los Mormones" (or Meet the Mormons for all y'all who don't habla español)!! That was a lot of fun :) we got to help make all the food for it and whatnot. Lots of people came which was great, and it was fun to take a little break :) I love this branch so much though. The people here are fantastic and you can't not love them!! They just make me so happy!!! :)
Saturday we did service for a menos activo again. Got to pull lots of weeds. It reminded me of a lot of past family home evening "activities" ;) (Mom and Dad, weeding is NOT a good activity). Also our ward mission leader brought us THAI FOOD for dinner! Dang it was so good! I've missed food like that... All we get here is, like, Mexican food ;)

But really, life is good and I love being here :) I love being in a position to see the miracles that happen in our lives and others' lives. I feel so blessed to be able to see peoples' lives improve and watch their faith grow. We confirmed the 4 kids from last week yesterday and I was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of love I felt for them, for the Gospel, and or my Heavenly Father who I know is always watching out for each of us because He loves us.

I hope you all have a good week and I hope you can look for little opportunities to serve others and help them feel of their Father's love for them :)

-Hermanita Johnson

Bautismos y Traslados

This week was AWESOME and SUPER stressful. I loved it :)
The absolute highlight of the week was yesterday: we baptized 4 kids!!! 2 were ours, Jennifer and Andrew. He's 9, she's 10 and they're both amazing kids :) Andrew just barely got permission from his dad to be baptized. And somehow no one had realized that Jennifer wasn't baptized when she turned 8... We learned this on Tuesday. So between then and yesterday, we had to teach her all the lessons, since that's required for baptism. So, we got all 4 kids together (just as a review for the other 3) and we taught EVERY missionary lesson in just under 2 hours... That was craziness!! Luckily she basically knew it all already from having come to church every day for like her whole life. But yes, 10/10 would not recommend! Don't try to teach distracted, fidgety kids that much in one night. Anyway, the other two baptisms were Dael (10) and Diego (8). They're brothers :) the rest of their family was baptized a few years ago. Dael chose not to at the time, wanting to figure it out for himself. And Diego just turned 8 :) Elder Clark (one of the ones they kicked out of the area a few weeks ago) was able to get special permission to come back and baptize Dael because he's the one who really helped him understand the importance of baptism. It was awesome and we were all so happy!! It was so amazing and beautiful to see these kids be able to make this covenant with their Heavenly Father--especially because I know each of them understood why it was important and they each really had a sincere desire to do it :) most of them cried and I did too. I really think it was one of the happiest moments of my life thus far. And I love this gospel!! And being a missionary is the absolute best :) sorry, but I'm never coming home. I'mma do this the rest of my life ;) nah, I wish.

In other news, Hna Wells got transferred, so I have a new companion! She's from Missouri and her name's Hna Scott. Hermanas Scott and Johnson takin over Pasadena! ;) haha I'm really excited. She seems great and I think we'll get along super well.

I hope you're all doing well and that you're all happy :) the Gospel makes me so happy and I hope you guys feel that too :) stick with it, eve, when it's hard. I promise it's worth it!!!

-Hermanita Johnson

Holiday Week!

What a fun week! We had Star Wars day (not officially a holiday, I know), Cinco de Mayo (not even an American holiday but whatever), and Mother's Day all together! :) It was awesome. I love holidays. It's an excuse to celebrate and make cake ;)

So let's see... Some of the highlights of the week include, but are not limited to, the following experiences:
I met the SWEETEST lady in the WORLD. Her name is Juanita and I LOVE her. Oh my goodness. She's just so so sweet and so happy and faithful even though she's had a lot of trials recently. We also had some random members of the Tongan ward give us dinner on the way to a lesson which was SUCH a blessing because we didn't actually have time to get dinner that night and it was making us both grumpy. #tendermercies. We also found out one of our investigators, Andrew, who just turned 9, got permission from his parents to be baptized!!! :D His grandma and older sisters are members and he's just been waiting for his parents to give the OK. So that'll happen this coming Sunday!!! Super exciting :) Then on Cinco de Mayo I got to wear my excessively Mexican dress again and it was awesome ;) nuff said. Also. I had the BEST steak of my mission life that a member cooked for us and DANG. I miss food like that... so yummy! Then on Friday we spent a lot of the day doing service for a member! We mainly helped clean up her yard by pulling weeds and cleaning up rotten lemons and whatnot (because everyone has fruit trees and they just have more fruit than they know what to do with). It was fun though :) and on Saturday I saw Rapunzel!! Seriously! :D yeah... we were in a CVS and she was wandering down the aisles... Not a clue why XD Made me wish I could just wander around in my Cinderella dress ;) except funny joke it won't fit anymore (that's not funny actually.... that's sad).

Then on Sunday I got to talk to my family!!! HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! :) I am SO Grateful for all the amazing mothers in my life (whether they're my own mom or someone else's!) Mothers are hands down the coolest people on earth. Where would we be without you all??? Nah, but for real, I'm so grateful for all you mothers out there. I know it's not always easy--I mean, I have a hard rough time just taking care of myself out here! But know that you're loved and appreciated by SO many! :)

-Hermanita Johnson

Everything the Light Touches is Ours

What a week!!! It was real long, but also short at the same time.
We spent a lot of the week figuring out this new area of ours and my goodness it's huge!!! I feel like everything is just ours.... It's awesome ;) and not nearly as stressful as it seemed before. So life is good! We got to get to know quite a few of the members who we now cover, so that was fun! One taught us how to make tacos (like legitimate Mexican ones. And they're delicious!!!) and some weird but yummy soup. Fideo soup, anyone? But yeah, she's sweet and totally hilarious! She speaks in Spanglish 80% of the time, which is great.
We got to eat with a few other members this week and holy goodness I didn't realize I miss Mexican food so much!! I NEVER thought I'd ever say that ;) but going from an area where I'm fed dinner every night by members to cooking for myself, it's got me craving that Mexican goodness.
Also like 4 times this week random members from the English wards in the area stopped us and asked if we needed a ride. What a tender mercy!!! I strongly encourage all of you to be that person for the starving/hot/sweaty/exhausted missionaries you see wandering around if you possibly can. We appreciate it SO much!!!
Saturday we had exchanges with the sister trainers and it was great! Those two are adorable and always a lot of fun to be around. I can learn lots from them :) one thing in particular I learned this time is that boba is super gross. If you don't know what it is (like I didn't) google it. It's become super huge out here and EVERYONE is obsessed. Crazies ;) it's nasty.

If you notice, we're both Hna Johnson ;) Wells forgot hers

Anyway, the work is good even when it's hard. It's a real blessing to be here in such a unique position. Being able to serve others so fully and just leave everything else behind... it's nice :) anyways, I encourage you all to find a way to serve someone else this week, even if it's something real little. I know service always brings blessings and it makes us happier too :)

-Hermanita Johnson