Week.... something =p
Hello everyone!!!!! i hope you all have had amazing weeks!
This week was really good!!! it wasnt as eventful as others but it was still really good!!!! i dont really have much time to write today though so this is going to be brief.
so this week i had devisions again! i get to go on deevisions a lot because my companion is the district leader. i really liked where i went and i love divisions. i get to see how other groups of missionaries teach and steal there good teaching techniques and use them in my lessons =p we didnt really teach a bunch, most of the day was contacting, but we did teach a brand new investigator and i commited her to read the BOM, go to church, pray, and be baptised all in one lesson so that was cool!
yesterday we had about 51 people at church. that might not seem like a lot bot my first week here we had about 34. we are finding a lot of people that are interested in the church. we are also working with a lot of less actives and helping them assist the church.
today i had my first transfer meeting... kind of. we really just said goodbye to a bunch of people that are going home in a special change to get home in time for school... i think thats what it was. but it was cool seeing them. we watched videos of them from the first couple weeks here and the last. its crazy how much people change!!! it was way cool though!
I love you all!!!! im sorry i dont have more time. the transfer meeting took a long time. i just want you to all know im doing really well and i love the work! i love this church and i love the gospel!!! I know this church is true. i know that joseph smith was and is a prophet. i love you all! please have blessed weeks!!!
elder johnson =)
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
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Monday, August 18, 2014
July 18, 2014
| what a week!!! |
| my trainer me and the other person my trainer trained ( dad and brother) |
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| my trainer me and the other person my trainer trained ( dad and brother) |
Hello everyone!!! this week has been so amazing. seriously the best week ever. here is why:
the first reason is i truly felt like a tool in the hands of god. i went on splits this week (friday) with the leaders of the zone. their area is really interesting. if you ever get a chance look up the history of La Victoria in chile. but anyway the moment i felt like a tool in the lords hands was when i was teaching a retension family (a family who was baptized pretty recently). from what i understand this family really has been having problems. the 2 year old boy has asburgers (?) and has a lot of emotional problems. well he was fighing with his mom. she was at one point married to a really bad guy and he beat the little boy. they had no idea he had a mental illness then and were really hard him. and the 10 year old boy has a hard time forgetting that. well he was mad at her and he kept bringing up the past and sh ewas trying to tell him that she was changing her life. she has since then joined the church and comnpletely changed her life. but the boy couldnt see that. the house was in complete diserray. the elder i was with was trying really hard to calm everyoner down. he was teaching them out of the scrips but nothing seemed to work. then i opened my mouth and promptings from the spirit just started pouring out. i talked about charity and forgivness and how when we show these attributers we are acting like christ. well they were instantly calmed and i challenged them to serve eachother when they are upset with one another. we left after that and while we left they werte hugging and crying and apologizing. it was awesome- so that was one thing.
another was the service project we did earlier that morning. we rebuilt a house for a new convert. he was living like a dog. seriously he as living with dead rats all over the place. his family was making him live in basically a shed so we fixed up a new place for him to live. that was cool.
and then the next day i had my first baptism in the field. i was lucky enough to baptize gilbert isais diaz toro. it was amazing. i was kind of nervouse but when it all went down the spirit was so strong. that being said, that is not why i will rember that event for forever.. the events before that are why i wil remebr it =p so we were filling up the faunt and it was going by really slowly. seiously in about 3 hours we had filled up about 1.5 feet of the faunt... so we had to use the fire hose to fill up the faunt. well.... the hose had holes in it. so when we turned it on the church flooded. yes we flooded the church so for about an hour we swept water out of the building. it was so crazy. it was hilarious!!! there was watert everywhere. everyone was freaking out but i couldnt help but crack up. i felt bad because our bishop looked so stressed but i thought it was funny. we got everything cleaned up though so it was all good. and the baptism was awesome!!
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| elder balarezo, gilbert, rosa and i!! |
it was such a good week!!! i know that this gospel is true and that the worth of every soul is great in the sight of god. i felt that this week. seriously he loves us so much!! i know that this is the only true church in the world. i know that we have the priesthood and the ability to make covenants with god. i know go loves everyone and is so happy when we repent and come to him.
thank you for all of your messages of encouragment. they have helped so much. i love you all and hope you have blessed weeks.
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| lunch on my 2 moth aniversery!!! 8/18/2014 |
love elder johnson
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| my new haircut and mission photo |
Friday, August 15, 2014
Monday, July 11, 2014
One more done! it sure did fly!!!
wow i can believe it is already pday again... that went by soooo quickly! i feel like i blink and my week is already gone!
sooooo this week had some pretty big highs and some lows too... but i loved every moment of it. first off i just want to say congratulations to margo and jim. i am so happy yall were able to make it to the temple and seal your family together for eternity. that is the reason i am out here. to help famileis do exactly that.
soo this week. hmmmm. where to start. ok so in chile all heating in the house runs on gas. well we ran out of gas. that means we had no hot water or heater in our house. we didnt have gas for about 10 days. those 10 days just happened to be the coldest 10 days ive had since ive been here =p it was sooo cold and crazy! we showered with water we boiled in an electric tea pot. it was pretty funny. about 2 days ago we got gas back! so we were all extremely thankful and happy. and it only cost us $300 =p
so we taught abouth 40 lessons this week. we got 8 new investigators. it was pretty awesome! we had about 4 inverstigators at church with us and an inactive man named paul with us too. it was nice. we have two sets of missionaries in our ward. this week the missionaries brought 1/6 of the people who were attending sacrament. there is a ton of work to do here. we have about 35 active people in the ward. our area has about 1000... yes 1000 inactive members. so yeah a lot of work. the other missionaries are about the same. it is really hard. chileans are stubborn =p they dont like to change their ways =p so yeah it is hard. one of my favorite people we teach is inactive. he has been a membor for about a year and he is pretty inactive. it breaks my heart but all we can do is keep providing him with spiritual experiences that will strengthen his testimoney. he loves to help us teach so hopefully that will help a little. its just hard with everyone. we have one awesome investigator named osvaldo. we thought he was gonna be super easy. he is just prepared. he believes everything we teach and he prays and reads every day. hes awesome. well we saw him again after church yesterday... he could barely walk straight. he was drunk... he went straight from sacrament to the bar so we are gonna have to help him with that =p its all hard but so worth it.
right now we are really trying to provide members with spitçritual experiences that will revamp their testimoney.... we do a lot of fhes. we are also trying to help guide our leaders in the right direction. our bishop is really excited (thats the best word in english i can think of =p) to have baptisms buttttt he wants to baptize children. only children. not their families too. so we have to help him a little get things back on track there =p and our ward mission leader is inactive so we have to help him too. its a lot of work but we are doing it.
this week has been so amazing though. there have been times where i have felt the spirit so strongly prompting me to say something. and when i say it it is so powerful and in perfect spanish! but after i say it im back to my broken spanish =p haha its pretty funny. but the spirit is amazing. it is so powerful. i love being a tool in the lords hands.
alrightr i have very little time left so i will tell you all about my new favorite scripture hero. I love the book of Enos. it is very short but sooo powerful. i have spent the last 2 or 3 days studying it in personal study. its so amazing. first off he had so much faith. he prayed so hard. he describes his prayer as a fight multiple times. he prays sooo hard. and for a long time. all day. he prayed so hard that the lord forgave him instantly. he also had enough faith that he could hear the lords voice. but the impressive thing is that the first thought that came to his head after he had been forgivem was that he hopes the lamanites can be forgiven too. his first thoughts were for his worst enemies. he wanted them to have the same oppertunities he did. he loved them so much. he even covenanted with the lord to save their race and the records of his people so one day they could be brought to god. that is crazy to me. i am trying to live my life like him. when i get frusterated with someone im trying to think of enos and the way he would react. it has helped a lot.
i know this church is true and i know that with the help of god we have the power to do all. i love this gospel. and i love you all!
have a blessed week!
LOVE ELDER JOHNSON
wow i can believe it is already pday again... that went by soooo quickly! i feel like i blink and my week is already gone!
sooooo this week had some pretty big highs and some lows too... but i loved every moment of it. first off i just want to say congratulations to margo and jim. i am so happy yall were able to make it to the temple and seal your family together for eternity. that is the reason i am out here. to help famileis do exactly that.
soo this week. hmmmm. where to start. ok so in chile all heating in the house runs on gas. well we ran out of gas. that means we had no hot water or heater in our house. we didnt have gas for about 10 days. those 10 days just happened to be the coldest 10 days ive had since ive been here =p it was sooo cold and crazy! we showered with water we boiled in an electric tea pot. it was pretty funny. about 2 days ago we got gas back! so we were all extremely thankful and happy. and it only cost us $300 =p
so we taught abouth 40 lessons this week. we got 8 new investigators. it was pretty awesome! we had about 4 inverstigators at church with us and an inactive man named paul with us too. it was nice. we have two sets of missionaries in our ward. this week the missionaries brought 1/6 of the people who were attending sacrament. there is a ton of work to do here. we have about 35 active people in the ward. our area has about 1000... yes 1000 inactive members. so yeah a lot of work. the other missionaries are about the same. it is really hard. chileans are stubborn =p they dont like to change their ways =p so yeah it is hard. one of my favorite people we teach is inactive. he has been a membor for about a year and he is pretty inactive. it breaks my heart but all we can do is keep providing him with spiritual experiences that will strengthen his testimoney. he loves to help us teach so hopefully that will help a little. its just hard with everyone. we have one awesome investigator named osvaldo. we thought he was gonna be super easy. he is just prepared. he believes everything we teach and he prays and reads every day. hes awesome. well we saw him again after church yesterday... he could barely walk straight. he was drunk... he went straight from sacrament to the bar so we are gonna have to help him with that =p its all hard but so worth it.
right now we are really trying to provide members with spitçritual experiences that will revamp their testimoney.... we do a lot of fhes. we are also trying to help guide our leaders in the right direction. our bishop is really excited (thats the best word in english i can think of =p) to have baptisms buttttt he wants to baptize children. only children. not their families too. so we have to help him a little get things back on track there =p and our ward mission leader is inactive so we have to help him too. its a lot of work but we are doing it.
this week has been so amazing though. there have been times where i have felt the spirit so strongly prompting me to say something. and when i say it it is so powerful and in perfect spanish! but after i say it im back to my broken spanish =p haha its pretty funny. but the spirit is amazing. it is so powerful. i love being a tool in the lords hands.
alrightr i have very little time left so i will tell you all about my new favorite scripture hero. I love the book of Enos. it is very short but sooo powerful. i have spent the last 2 or 3 days studying it in personal study. its so amazing. first off he had so much faith. he prayed so hard. he describes his prayer as a fight multiple times. he prays sooo hard. and for a long time. all day. he prayed so hard that the lord forgave him instantly. he also had enough faith that he could hear the lords voice. but the impressive thing is that the first thought that came to his head after he had been forgivem was that he hopes the lamanites can be forgiven too. his first thoughts were for his worst enemies. he wanted them to have the same oppertunities he did. he loved them so much. he even covenanted with the lord to save their race and the records of his people so one day they could be brought to god. that is crazy to me. i am trying to live my life like him. when i get frusterated with someone im trying to think of enos and the way he would react. it has helped a lot.
i know this church is true and i know that with the help of god we have the power to do all. i love this gospel. and i love you all!
have a blessed week!
LOVE ELDER JOHNSON
Thursday, August 7, 2014
August 4, 2014
I made it through week one!!!
Hello everyone!!!
how are you all? i am awesome!!! i have so much to say!!
first i have some buisness. send all letters and packagaes to my mission home. i will have my mom pu the address into the blog. and when you send packages only send them through usps. it is a lot more reliable and easier for my mission president. lable the ackage as mission supplies. nothing else if you do that is is a lot more likely to get to me.
ok now that is out of the way. I am great! i love it here so mich. i am in the ochagavia zone in my mission. it is the most ghetto but it is good =p my area is called diagonal. the people here are so nice. life is just simple here. i wish you all could see it. i cant use my camera in the streets. if i did that id get robbed =p but yeah its just simple. most people work from little shops in their house. its really cool. i love it.
i love the food here. we eat a lot of hot dogs, mashed potatoes, rice, and we drink a ton of coke. seriously a ton of coke. have you ever seen a 4 liter thing of coke? i have. i didnt even know they exist!!!! i also love to drink echo and matte. echo is like coffee but made from wheat and matte is a drink made from herbs. they are both big here wit he people and missionaries =p
my companion is awesome. his name is elder balarezo. he is from peru. he lived in italy for a long time though so he says his italian is better than his spanish =p he speaks really good spanish italian (im assuming) and english. i like him a lot.
so some of you might have seen my picture i took with my new companion and notyiced that my hair is really short... well there is a story behind that. in the ccm i was the designated barber. one night one of the elders tried to cut his own hair and it looked terrible... so i fixed it and it looked pretty good so i was n chargen of haircuts. i cut elder mertz hair one night and then the next i cut elder ballards. after each haircut i got better and better so i decided i could give mysel a haircut... i went and did the sides. they were pretty good. i had another elder clean them up for me (elder allen) i then cut the top. it was going pretty well for a while... but then i messed up. i accidently trimmed the front way short... like way sghort. i was using clippers so i have no idea how it got so short but it did. so yeah i was sad. i had to take my hair down to a 4 on the top to get it all even. i learned 2 lessons, 1 never cut your own hair, and 2 i look terrible with short hair =p
i love being out here. i love teaching too. it is kind of hard though. i have a really hard time understanding chileans. they talk really fast and mumble. im never 100% sure if what i am saying is a reply to what they just said =p im getting better though. im always exhausted by the end of the day because i have to translate in my head but its getting easier each day.
so yes i am in the mist ghetto zone in the west. my area isnt the worst but it is one of the worst. I loeve it though. i have never once felt in danger. the lord is prtecting me. the people who live here in the flite (what they call the ghetto <i probably spelt it way wrong>) are all so humble. they are pretty easy to teach. they know the truth once they hear it.
the ward is small. there are like 1000 members in the records for the area and like 30 are active. so yeah there is a lot of reactivation work. but there are also a lot of people here who havent ever been a member of the church. we teach a huge mix of both. right now we have about 6 investigators with baptism dates. hopefully we will have more next week! my first baptism is the 16 th =)
i just want to end the letter with a testimoney. i know this church is true. with all my heart. i know it can change lives. i have seen it already in my investigators and myself. it really can. i love the book of mormon. i love reading it and studying it. i love missionary work. there are so many good people in the world even in scary places. there is a way to everyones heart, it is our duty to find that way.
i love you all! hae a good week for me! i cant wait to hear from you all! have a blessed week!
love, elder johnson
Hello everyone!!!
first i have some buisness. send all letters and packagaes to my mission home. i will have my mom pu the address into the blog. and when you send packages only send them through usps. it is a lot more reliable and easier for my mission president. lable the ackage as mission supplies. nothing else if you do that is is a lot more likely to get to me.
ok now that is out of the way. I am great! i love it here so mich. i am in the ochagavia zone in my mission. it is the most ghetto but it is good =p my area is called diagonal. the people here are so nice. life is just simple here. i wish you all could see it. i cant use my camera in the streets. if i did that id get robbed =p but yeah its just simple. most people work from little shops in their house. its really cool. i love it.
i love the food here. we eat a lot of hot dogs, mashed potatoes, rice, and we drink a ton of coke. seriously a ton of coke. have you ever seen a 4 liter thing of coke? i have. i didnt even know they exist!!!! i also love to drink echo and matte. echo is like coffee but made from wheat and matte is a drink made from herbs. they are both big here wit he people and missionaries =p
my companion is awesome. his name is elder balarezo. he is from peru. he lived in italy for a long time though so he says his italian is better than his spanish =p he speaks really good spanish italian (im assuming) and english. i like him a lot.
so some of you might have seen my picture i took with my new companion and notyiced that my hair is really short... well there is a story behind that. in the ccm i was the designated barber. one night one of the elders tried to cut his own hair and it looked terrible... so i fixed it and it looked pretty good so i was n chargen of haircuts. i cut elder mertz hair one night and then the next i cut elder ballards. after each haircut i got better and better so i decided i could give mysel a haircut... i went and did the sides. they were pretty good. i had another elder clean them up for me (elder allen) i then cut the top. it was going pretty well for a while... but then i messed up. i accidently trimmed the front way short... like way sghort. i was using clippers so i have no idea how it got so short but it did. so yeah i was sad. i had to take my hair down to a 4 on the top to get it all even. i learned 2 lessons, 1 never cut your own hair, and 2 i look terrible with short hair =p
i love being out here. i love teaching too. it is kind of hard though. i have a really hard time understanding chileans. they talk really fast and mumble. im never 100% sure if what i am saying is a reply to what they just said =p im getting better though. im always exhausted by the end of the day because i have to translate in my head but its getting easier each day.
so yes i am in the mist ghetto zone in the west. my area isnt the worst but it is one of the worst. I loeve it though. i have never once felt in danger. the lord is prtecting me. the people who live here in the flite (what they call the ghetto <i probably spelt it way wrong>) are all so humble. they are pretty easy to teach. they know the truth once they hear it.
the ward is small. there are like 1000 members in the records for the area and like 30 are active. so yeah there is a lot of reactivation work. but there are also a lot of people here who havent ever been a member of the church. we teach a huge mix of both. right now we have about 6 investigators with baptism dates. hopefully we will have more next week! my first baptism is the 16 th =)
i just want to end the letter with a testimoney. i know this church is true. with all my heart. i know it can change lives. i have seen it already in my investigators and myself. it really can. i love the book of mormon. i love reading it and studying it. i love missionary work. there are so many good people in the world even in scary places. there is a way to everyones heart, it is our duty to find that way.
i love you all! hae a good week for me! i cant wait to hear from you all! have a blessed week!
love, elder johnson
(Here are a few extras that Declan shared in some other notes:)
i am currently in a persons house/store typing!!
i am awesome!! i love it out here!!! the people live such a simple life. everyone is so nice. i love my companion. im getting the language, slowly. its amazing!!!
in the field my pday is 6 hours. i have as many hours from that 6 to write as i want.
(About his hair:) haha its weird =p i dont like it too much but it works for here. ive never seen myself with hair this short so it was a shocker =p
(When asked if he was tall out there, and told that in his picture there was something about his companion that reminded his dad and mom of his good friend Nic Mower)
haha yeah im kind of tall. not relly though. my companion is peruvian. and his name is nicolas!
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