January 2, 2015

Better late than never :)

Hey everyone! i hope you all had really good weeks =) mine was really awesome. Happy 2015 =)




so sorry this is coming so late this week. let me explain why =p so monday we had to go to santiago. that is like a 2 hour trip there and a 2 hour trip back. we left my houseat 4:50 because we had to be in santiago in one of the churches at 7:30. we had the chance to do what the mission callls the Visa run. when i got to the church they gave me a list of dirctions and just told me to go... so we went. I had to go all over the part of santiago Called Republica to find all of aply far and recieve all of the government documents that i needed to get my visa. so we were there all day. we got back to our sector at 6:30. we were a little late but we got back as quickly as we could. so yeah that was moneday.




on the way hjome from santiago monday night we got a phone call from our zone leaders and they said that we were going to have a conference with all of the mission and our president the next day guess where it was. yup in santiago again... but it was in a part about 2.5 hours away. we didnt have to be there until 9 30 though so we gat to sleep in another hour =p haha but the meeting was very good. if anyone felt homesick after there skype calls before the skype calls they sure didnt after because we recieved a beating (with love) in the reunion. it was really good though. the bad part was that we dfidnt get back until really late so we didnt have much time to work. the next 2 days we couldnt write again because of the new years parties. almost everywhere was closed. so that brings us to today.




so yeah i had a really good week this week and i had an amazing christmas too =) i hope you all did too!




2014 was the best year of my life. i had the oppertunity to make the best desision of my life and i am living the consequences of that decisin right now and i couldnt be more happy. the amout of growth that i have experienced this year was crazy. that all being said though i know for a fact that tjis next year is going to be even better. it will be difficult at times and there will be many trials but i know that through these trials we will have the chance to be humbled and get to know god. i am, very greatful for all of the trials that i have had in my life. withought these trials i would never be the man i am today and without the trials ive had i would never be able to help these people here know god. thank you for all of your support and the love that you have all sent me this year, it really does help.




I hope that you all remeber that if we truly are converted this year it will be the best year we have ever had no matter what happens. i love you ALL! Have a good new year =)




Elder Johnson



(Declan's friend Katie had a girl named Monica reach out to her on Instagram from San Antonio, Chile. She spent Christmas with Declan (she is to the right of him in the first picture) and sent her a bunch of pictures of Declan's Christmas. I love them! Here they are:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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December 22, 2014

Merry Christmas!

Hello all! i hope that you all had a fantastic week this week and i hope that you all have a fantastic week planned. needless too say i am super exited for my week. it will be awesome here =) from what i understand the christmas traditions are really pretty much the same here and in the states. i havent heard anyhing else.




so i have a ton of pics to send but still don thave a card reader to send pics so i cant send them... sorry im workig on it =p

This week was really good. it was a really spiritual week. i felt the spirit really strongly in a good amount of the lessons we had this week. ill ave my mom post on my blog what she did for us this cambio with the 25 days of christmas but i can honestly say that from that great idea she had we saw all kinds of miracles. it was so awesome. the peoples hearts here are really softening at this point in time. christmas is a time for miracles and we are sure seeing them here in santiago west mission. we had over 660 baptisms tis year and we saw an increase of more than 1000 people going to church every sunday in the asistance of the wards this year too. its been crazy.

i know that we are doing the lord work here and he really is blessing us so much. i hope that you all have amazing weeks this week and i hope you all have the chance to see christmas miracles




merry christmas!




elder johnson.

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December 21, 2014- Mom's Christmas Notes

This is Declan's first Christmas away from us. Declan loves Christmas. He still gets us up at 4 in the morning to see what Santa has brought. We can't set the presents out too early because curiosity finally gets the best of him and he will eventually break down and open them and then rewrap them. I have had to resort to hiding things at friends because he finds hidden presents, even in the attic. So when I thought about Declan being away for Christmas I must admit that at first I was a little worried. How on earth would he get any excitement out of the season? How would I spoil him or make him feel special? Would he be homesick? But the more and more I thought about it the more excited I became for him to have a Christmas that centered on the real reason for the season and the opportunity for him to give of himself. The more I though about it the more I knew that he would be just as excited to serve this season as he had been to open gifts every other Christmas, and I knew it would be ok. I did, however, want to be able to send him a few things, so I decided to continue a tradition I started few years back that we call the Christmas elf. Every day in December leading up to Christmas the Christmas elf leaves my kids a little treat. I decided that I would send him a box with some treats for his companion and him to enjoy. As I started putting it together, however, I really felt strongly that what Declan would enjoy even more would be things he could share with the people he was serving there. I decided to scale my treats for him and his companion back to little ziplock bags of treats each day, and include something special that they could seek out and share with someone. It was a lot of fun to come up with some ideas and enlist the help of others to help me get creative. When I sent off the box I told Declan that the gifts were marked with which day they were to be opened and that they were only opened on that day. I also reminded him that he was a missionary so not only was Santa watching, but God was watching closely also. Well, I learned through his friend Katie that when he got his package his companion and him ended up opening ALL of the packages in one night! I guess even a mission doesn't change some things! I hope that this package has been a fun way for him to share something with others as he has been able to celebrate the birth of the Savior during the holiday season. It was fun for me to get to dedicate that much time to thinking about Declan and what he is doing, during the holiday.

 

 

 

 

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