Investigators are better than alligators :)

Hello my wonderful family!

This week was so so great! Our investigators are awesome and im going to update you on lots of them and tell you some stories about them today:) The email title... Alligators was the only thing I could think of that rhymes with investigators haha! But the weather is cooling down which is nice! And transfers will be this week on Tuesday, so it will be exciting, different, and nerve-wracking to see what happens! :) :/ :D But whatever happens will be great:)

We have the cutest investigator named Krystal. She's been the Elders investigator for a while but they passed her off to us. She has a baptism date which we're so excited for!! She's also super pregnant and is due on October 4th. We've taught her a few lessons, but the other night we were able to teach her AND her husband! They're married and so cute and the spirit was so wonderful in that lesson. We didnt know he would be there for the lesson, but what we had planned for Krystal ended up being perfect for him! The spirit was able to guide the lesson and we taught about how scripture study and pray can help us come closer to Heavenly Father and closer to each other as a family. They were so supportive of each other and so cute! 

So two Fridays ago we were on our way home at night and we met a guy on the street named Jose. The next Sunday he came to church which was so crazy and awesome! We've taught him a little and he came to church again this Sunday which was our fast and testimony meeting. But what was so cool is that HE BORE HIS TESTIMONY!!! What?! After a few people had gone up he just stood up and walked up there haha! Me and Sister Bongolto looked at each other and we were a little nervous at first cause he usually talks a lot in our lessons, but his testimony was short and sweet. He did great! And he even talked about his two beautiful angels, Sister Bongolto and Sister Johnson (as he points to us in the congregation haha!) who brought him to the true church. It was awesome haha!

We had a great lesson with our investigator Shanessa. She's been an investigator for a while, so we had just had a nice lesson to try to understand her concerns and expectations. I had asked about her expectations and she was saying she knows she can do better, but she can't be healed. We all have sicknesses that can be improved but can't be healed because we're human. I said "Shanessa, the church is kind of like a hospital. We all have our sicknesses and weaknesses, but I promise you that you CAN be healed. Through Jesus Christ you can be completely healed..." and then after a little pause she said "Then I need to get to the hospital fast." We can all be healed. The gospel of Jesus Christ is for everyone and no matter what our weaknesses are, we can all be healed:)

GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEK!! Wahoo!! We're about to receive guidance for the next 6 months of our lives! What I plan to do, and what I invite you to do is imagine you're standing with Heavenly Father. If you were standing with Him, what would you ask him? Write it down, and take that question or questions to conference!:)

I love you so much! Thanks for all the love, prayers, and support! Make it a great week:)

Love, Sister Johnson

Have JOY!!:)

Hello Family!

I love you all and I'm glad you're all safe! Thanks for all the prayers and love:) Yes there was a bomb in lower Manhattan, but we're at the top so we're happy and safe! I'm sad there were people injured though:( It's crazy that things like that happen here, sometimes I forget I'm in New York! But we're safe and protected and I'm still a happy missionary:)

Now that summer is over and everyone is back for school and work, the busses and trains and everything are so busy! I've now experienced what it's like to really need to shove yourself in a train haha! This week I feel like I passed some baby test of being a New Yorker! So we were on a super packed bus and we all had to move to the back to fit everyone in. I ended up getting trapped in the middle of the isle and I had nothing to grab on to except for the Book of Mormon I was holding in my hands haha! All the seats, poles, and handles were covered or too far away to hold on to, so... I just kind of stood in a little power stance, knees kind of bent, weight on the balls of my feet, and I made it to the next stop without losing my balance haha! The real challenge would be doing that on a subway though!

One thing I've really been trying to think about and work on is becoming who God wants me to be. I want to change and I want to be better, but sometimes it's hard to even know where to start! I remembered President Monson's talk last conference about choices and how if we don't know where we want to go it doesn't matter which path we take. It's the same with our lives. If we don't know who we want to become, it doesn't matter where we start or if we start in our process of change! I came across a verse in the Book of Mormon that I liked for this, 2 Nephi 1:23. It says "Awake, Sister Johnson (put your name here), put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound..." Wake up! It's a new day:) We need to shake off what's keeping us from progressing. Shake off what we don't want to become, what we're not happy with, and put on the armor of righteousness. 

I learned a profound but simple truth this week! The greatest and only way to have real JOY is to love Jesus, Others, and then Yourself. We can't put our life in any other order. We can't love ourselves, then others, then Jesus. That's YOJ. That doesn't make sense! We must put Jesus Christ first in our lives. Have your eyes focused on your goal, have your heart focused on Christ. He should be the center of our lives and who we are. Next we should turn out and focus on others. It can be hard to focus on others when there's so much that we need to do for ourselves every day, but I realized this week, we are never NOT going to be busy! Life is never going to slow down so that we have time to do everything else we want to do! We need to make time to serve others! Even if it's just a minute or two to send a text to a friend who might need it, give someone a call, write a little note. And then we still need to take time for ourselves! Because without yourself it's just JO. (Who's Jo?) Take time to love yourself, personally evaluate what you need to do to be happy and do it! These three things are our two greatest commandments! 

Matthew 22:37-39
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Love Jesus Christ, love Others, and love Yourself. You can't love others as yourself if you don't love yourself in the first place!

So, have JOY!! I love you and the Lord loves you! Make it a great week and stay safe:)

Love, Sister Johnson

Me and Sister Bongolto

This is my map of the busses we take! I'm still trying to figure it out, but now I don't think I'll get lost anymore:)

We had a rainy day and we got to wear our rain jackets!!

Natural History Museum for some P-Day fun!

Book of Mormon

Hello Family!!

First exciting news of the week! As a mission we are doing a 100 Day Book of Mormon reading challenge and it's the best thing ever! We're only on Day 7, but I've learned so many new things from the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon really is for us and it can answer our questions. One thing I noticed was in 1 Nephi 11 it talk about Jesus Christ. Every time it talks about him, He's in action. He was going forth among the children of men (v.24), he went forth and was baptized (v.27), he went forth ministering unto the people(v.28), he was going forth among the children of men(v.31). Jesus Christ always WENT FORTH to the children of men. Always in action. He didn't stay there and make people come to Him, but He went forth to them. We can be more Christlike by going forth and helping others! Be anxiously engaged in a good cause!:)

So, funny story of the week!! Haha this is so good! Me and Sister Bongolto were crying cause we were laughing so hard! So we ride the busses everywhere, and we were in line to get on the bus. We were next and for some reason the door started closing! Sister Bongolto tried to stop it so she stuck out her hands out but they kept closing. We thought it would be like a sensor and open again like an elevator door when you stop it. But it didn't... so her hands, well more like her fingers and her metro card, were stuck in the door with her metro card sticking out on the inside haha! Both hands! And she goes "I'm stuuuck!" I thought at first it would open but it didn't so then I was like, what if it cuts off her fingers! I said "are you stuck?!" and I tried to help her pull her hands out haha! The bus driver opened the door and we got in, and then he just looked at us and didn't even say anything to us haha! We went to the back and we couldn't stop laughing about it haha! What if he drove away with her hands stuck? Haha! Maybe you just have to be there? But it was super funny:)

Yesterday we taught a powerful Restoration lesson and the Spirit really testified to me that its true! The Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ is for each one of us. No matter who we are, where we are, what we're struggling with or succeeding at. God has followed a pattern of love by calling prophets to teach us how to live with Him again and be happy! Nothing will take away God's love for us, and that's why He appeared to Joseph Smith with Jesus Christ and they called Him to be a prophet. I know it's true! And I know it's true because I know the Book of Mormon is true! 

Make it a great week! And make it an even better week by reading from the Book of Mormon every day!:) Wahoo! I love you guys!

Love, Sister Johnson

Counsel with the Lord :)

Hello Family!

Merry Christmas!! Haha just kidding;) But Sister Bongolto taught me that once we hit the -ber months (September, October, November, December) it's Christmas in the Phillipines and they start celebrating! Wahoo! 

This week was so good! I don't even have like five big lessons I learned in the week or anything, it was just a really successful and good week! We met one awesome lady who is struggling with some health issues and we were able to call up our elders and set a time for them to come with us to give her a priesthood blessing. It was so wonderful and I'm so grateful for the priesthood power, the power of God, that we're able to use and enjoy here on the earth!

We had a baptism in our ward this week! Yay!! Sister Bongolto and her previous companion were actually the ones to find Michael, but the Elders have been teaching him! He's so amazing and it's so cool to see the change that's been able to happen with him even just in these last two months that I've known him. He is amazing and we're so proud of him and excited for him:) He's a great new addition to our ward. The Spirit and the light of a new convert is so precious and amazing as they enter into the fold of God through the gate of baptism! I loved being at his baptism and couldn't stop smiling!

Funny story:) We got an investigator from the Spanish Elders in our mission. She's this sweet old lady who wants to come closer to Christ and strengthen her faith. We showed her the video of Jesus Christ being baptized and the whole 3 minute video she was whispering "yes. yes... Yes! Oh yes." Haha! It was so cute and so funny, but she definitely loved it and felt the Spirit:)

We had a less active member teach us a really cool analogy about our loving Heavenly Father. We're here in a maze, and He's looking at us from above. We may think we know where we're going, but ultimately he has a plan for us. We may turn one way and find a dead end. He may close one door in our life, but he always opens another. No matter which way we turn, we can get going in the right direction again because of Jesus Christ. We can counsel with the Lord to understand which direction he wants us to go so we don't keep running into walls. There's always a way and He will help us make it to where we need to be because he sees the whole picture. I know if we counsel with the Lord He will help us see how we can improve and what we need to do to become better.

I love you all! Thanks for your support and love!
"Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good." -Alma 37:37

Love, Sister Johnson

p.s. I saw Esther!! Wahoo!! We got to eat lunch together, catch up a bit, and then we went to the church inside the temple and shared a quick message about Jesus Christ's role in God's plan for us! It was so fun to see her! 

Matching outfits:)

We had a picnic at the projects;)

We met with Esther!!

Best Trainer Ever Award!

The Baptism!!