10-27-14 It's 76 degrees and I'm cold!

Yes, another week has passed. I´m not sure how, but I feel like the days seem to be longer than the weeks.

 

This week was great; I focused almost completely on missionary work with minimal emergencies in the Branch and a semi-successful activity of the movie "The Testaments". 

 

We found 7 positive families this week. That makes me so pumped. The bad thing is not even one of them came to church. We are desperately searching this town for men who will contribute to this Branch here. We need the help of the priesthood. And men who can lead. I Have faith that we will find them. And we are doing everything possible to make sure our acts are demonstrating our faith.

 

The bad thing is that missionary focus is coming to an end with the Tithing Decleraciones. This is looking like a monster chore. Interviewing all the people who have donated and asking for a donation, registering it on paper and on the computer. The good thing is my new comp, Elder Lopez, is super awesome and helping more than I had hoped he would or could. It´s amazing how the Lord blesses our lives.

 

This month in the District we have put a goal of baptizing 20 people and 4 families. That means 10 and 2 from every companionship. (Yes, we are a huge district of 2 companionships) (there was a little sarcasm in the prior remark.)

 

To finish I just got to tell you guys I am dying of cold. Right now it´s like 76 degrees and I have a sweater on. I think I’m going crazy. But it sure feels colder. Hoping the blazing sun comes back soon.

 

I thought of one question yesterday that was inspiring to me. I asked myself. ¨In what ways in my life am I not appreciating the Atonement?" Yesterday I realized one of the worst ways of not appreciating the atonement is not taking the Sacrament.... Then I got fired up and we changed the whole focus of church yesterday on the sacrament. I feel like I needed to understand it better. How can we appreciate the atonement more? Why?

 

Elder Johnson

We got to meet Hermana Nielsen!

Sean sent me an email telling me that a sister in his district was coming home to Nibley on Thursday (This was Monday, the 13th). He said he was going to send a package with a USB with photos on it! I was super excited! That same day, Drew got a new boss who moved to Utah from Arizona. They were talking and she noticed his map of Honduras and said her niece was serving there. Come to find out, they are one and the same! She was coming home Thursday and reporting her mission Sunday. She gave us the time and place.

Sunday came and Drew and I went to Nibley to hear her speak. She did an amazing job! I loved listening to her stories about the people in Honduras and their faith, and I love her accent. She also talked about her District Leader that got made a branch president. She said that after two weeks, she could see a definite change in him. He was scared and unsure at first, but the Lord qualified him and he was wearing the mantle placed on him. Yes, I cried.

We went and talked to her afterwards and met her mom, who I actually knew! Her daughter that is Angela's age took dance years ago when I helped with Marianne's dance company. This same daughter also runs cross-country with Ang. What a small world! They invited us to the luncheon they were having after church, so we went back to our ward and finished teaching, then got the girls and went back to Nibley. She had a computer that was going through a slideshow of some of her photos, and yes, Sean was in several of them. She came and talked to us to explain some of them. It was so wonderful, being with someone who had just been in the same place that he was. Kind of silly, I know, but I had to hug her.

She gave us the package and the girls all had to touch it because he had just touched it less than a week before. See, we're all silly! He sent soccer jerseys for Drew and I, some I love Otoro t-shirts, a bag from Honduras, bracelets for the girls, and some keychains and magnets - and the best! A USB and letters. The photos are all from the first year of his mission except for a couple, but there are even videos on it! So we got to hear his voice!

Here's a link where you can view what he sent:
http://cmpadmin.zenfolio.com/p346020676

It was all just what this momma needed.

Shauna

10-20-14 A new companion

Yup another week done and gone filled with a ton of meetings and traveling. Just the way I like em... not, but shoot they are necesary evils I believe.

This week was Changes and my companion has now left. He´s in a place called Talanga. 

My new companion is from Guatemala. He is my eighth Latino Companion... I´m not going to remember English when this is all through. Good thing computers can help me relearn real fast. jaja that´s the only way these emails are semi understandable. With my new companion, we have now attained full access to everything in the branch like program wise. It´s super wierd having people ask me for permision for things... haha I just say yes cause if someone is deciding to do something without me asking them to, GO MAN! I will give you whatever it is you want. haha

My new companion got here on Wednesday and I gave him the tour of his new calling as a Secretary of the Branch. He was like a fish in water. Very intelligent and always ready, I feel like we are going to have alot of success. Now I just got to remeber how it is to work as a team instead of just a dictator. Nothing against my old companion, he just needed someone to tell him what to do and when to do it. Super great guy, super great missionary. I believe the mission will help him develop alot of initiative.

These are photos from awhile back that we got on a USB drive.

Other than that, our adventure for this week is we had kinda lost the key of the chapel, the miracle is we now have the keys through divine intervention. 

haha Another story for another time.

I love you all 

Paz y amor

Elder Johnson

10-13-14 Changes

So... how ya´ll doin? Bad... Shoot that´s not the typical response, I was just asking to be polite Geez.

I feel like this situation happens alot in society... anyways

This week had it´s ups and had it´s downs. Ups we found a family super postive and prepared by the Lord. Downs, well changes are this Wednesday and 3 of the missionaries from the zone are leaving to their homes, one of which lives like 5 min from my house by Little Wonders. Hna. Nielson. Kinda a distraction knowing that she is gonna be in my Town in less than 72 hours.. geez. The other bummer is that I am sick.. Just a cold but it's a cold that you don´t know whether to rest it out, or just ignore it and keep working. So when in doubt, work it out. Yeah that' my saying that I just made up. 

To be honest I don´t really remember much of what happened this week, we saw miracles, we blessed some people, some people blessed us, and we now have food in the house... (was that hard to follow?) Sorry it´s just honestly, I don´t remember any specifics and it doesn´t help that I haven´t been able to look past my nose this week cause I just don´t feel good.

One thing I know is it is raining. Alot. Like at least everyday and in a village where only one street is partiallly paved That rain causes alot of chaos and it makes my shoes super muddy, they are taking a pretty hard hit (the shoes that is).

Let's talk about changes, since I can´t remember much of the past we´ll look to the future. In this Mission changes (also known as transfers in other parts of the world) happen every 6 weeks on Wednesday (pretty sure it´s like that in all parts of the world). I love changes meetings. The way they do it here is no one knows who has changes until the day before, or Tuesday (normally in the night). Tuesday the zone leaders get a call from the assistants with a list of everyone who has changes, they then call the district leaders and the district leaders tell the companionships. Everyone on the Changes list has to go to a certain chapel in Tegucigalpa at 9:00 with their luggage and a good spirit.

In the meeting Pres. Fortuna talks, introduces the new missionaries, and gives the farewell to the old missionaries. The ones finishing each have like 5 min. to give advice to everyone who is staying and bear their testimonies, and in the end the most important part is the SLIDESHOW. This is the slideshow with the area name, the companionship in the area and the callings. (District leader, Zone Leader, Trainers, etc. etc.) This is the moment where you find out where you are going, who is your new companion and if you are recieving a calling. Pretty intense and brings out some good reactions.

Like I said, this happens every 6 weeks. But the goal of the changes is to have the lowest amount of missionaries possible present. So for that reason I´ve only been to 4 of these meetings my entire mission. Now that you guys have an idea about the excitment of changes I'll just say I hope I get to go to this meeting. I don´t want changes, I just want to go to the meeting. haha

Anyways now you understand a little bit more how my life as a missionary is. Thanks for reading, keep strong. 

Love you, paz y amor, Elder Johnson

A day late - 10-7-2014 - Pinata time!

Well I gotta start this email explaining that I´m writing today because yesterday we did not have time to write.... I´ll tell you why later on.

I love being a missionary mom:)

 

Can I just start by saying how freaking cool Conference is. Geez Those people are so inspiring and elevating. I want to be like them when I grow up. I liked so many talks but one that struck was from the priesthood session (I was only allowed to watch it as Branch president because here the missionaries aren´t allowed to see it, just read it.) The talk was Elder Uchtdorf.... He basically talked about self accountability. I loved it. 

I also loved the language thing, It was even cooler to realize I now speak two languages. haha. Conference was also fun this year because everything went smoothly here. We had like 6 hours without any tech problem in our building. And on Sunday just a minor problem when the breaker flipped. But we realized what the problem was and fixed in minimal time (Inspiration from God. I´m not exactly tech savvy.)

So we got to the chapel on Saturday at 7:00 to set everything up for the 8:00 retransmision of General Women's Conference, then the normal sessions - they brought us lunch ( french toast made by the sister missionaries) and Dinner (eggs and rice, and of course, beans) We left at 8:00 pm. Good day, but bad for missionary work.

Sunday about the same, but we left the building for lunch and we left at 5:00 because there wasn´t preisthood session.

Monday we left early with three pinatas for a zone activity. The pinatas are for three missionaries that finish this week. It was all a secret, so we left early so nobody would know. Then we helped the Texan zone leader make hamburgers.... We didn't really know how to do it but we needed 40 of them so.... they turned out all right :) haha

 

After that we met with the zone, ate the hamburgers, and then went to go play soccer. We finished with a flour fight and breaking the pinatas. Super good, but the bad thing is there was no time to do anything else. haha oh well

Alls well that ends well. 

Love you guys keep up the Faith.

Paz y amor

Elder Johnson