06-22-15 This is it!

Two Scriptures:

2 Timoteo 4:7- He peleado la buena batalla, he acabado la carrera, he guardado la feI

(I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith:)

 

3 Juan 13-14: yo tenia muchas cosas que escribirte, pero no quiero escribirtelas con tinta y pluma, porque espero verte en breve, y hablaremos cara a cara.
(I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee: but I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face...)

 

 

Amor y paz

6-15-15 I hope to keep the Lord close in my life.

Well... I had my last interview with my mission president today. It´s the famous last interview and it was really good. I feel like he trusts me a lot and he told me that he has always trusted me a lot. He said that he had always sent me so far away so that I could take care of everyone really far away and that I was an excellent missionary. President Fortuna hasn´t been very known to give a lot of compliments but geez, I felt like he sure was sugaring me up. haha When really I was pretty much a normal missionary who tried my best and did what I was told. 

Other than that this week has been a flurry of trying to help disobedient missionaries and rebellious investigators who don't seem to be letting the spirit into their lives. We are trying to help them.

My companion is probably the quietest companion that I have ever had and at first he doesn't seem very funny but.... he really is in his own quiet way.. haha It´s always a good time in the mission. 

I really love the mission and well I love feeling close to the Lord. I hope to enjoy that closeness for the rest of my life.

06-08-15 Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world

I testify that Jesus is the Christ. The Savior and Redeemer of the world. He lives. Sometimes I take these truths for granted, a lot of the time I don't  appreciate just how important that is. 

What would have happened if Christ had failed? Just a theoretical question. I suppose we say that all of humanity would be lost for forever... But I often forget to apply that to me. That means I would be lost without hope to recover or fix my mistakes, to be stained over and over and over again and never to be washed. But not just me but my parents, my sisters, my cousins, my aunts and uncles and even my grandparents who are nearly perfect would all be lost. My future children would enter this world without hope. Because we learn that Christ's atonement pays for the sins of the innocent, but if he had never been able to realize that atonement they would be lost, yet we do have a hope, and it is a possible option that God has given us. He only asked the impossible of THE BEST, the One who fulfilled the Impossible. Isn't that awesome?

 

Christ did the Impossible, He was PERFECT, and this allowed him to make the great sacrifice of himself for me. He had success, He won this game, and all I have to do to be a winner as well is meet his requirements to be part of his team. Basically, obey for the love that we have towards him.

Those are the kinds of things that have been passing through my mind these days. We learn that this is the heart of the gospel, and everything else in the church is an appendage to the truth that my older brother and Savior has beaten sin and death. When we learn more about this extraordinary event, the more we love God, the more we love God the more we learn to love His children, our brothers and sisters.

I would say the best part about the gospel for me is that we are allowed to fix our mistakes. God wants me  to repent always. I'm allowed to be a 'work in progress' and I must continue to progress. 

Well yeah, idk where that came from but just typed what I felt. Um, this week was a good week. My companion is great, we had a baptism this week of a young women who needs help from God and is already healing. 

This ward is awesome, they give us a lot of food. I have now eaten the traditional mondongo soup like 8 or 9 times, (it's cow stomach soup) so that's cool. emm

I love this work. And I hope to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord.

sorry for my spelling, I only speak spanglish.

em yeah, great to hear from you guys and I love you a lot.

Hope you have a good week.

Paz y amor, 

Elder Johnson

06-01-15 Music for the soul

Well, there goes another week. It´s crazy how fast the time is going by. Today I´m stoked because we get to play soccer.... so just letting you guys know, I´ve only played soccer 22 times on in my mission. This will be my last time..... it's things like that, that just keep hitting me. The bad part is my companion doesn´t like soccer.... oh well haha I gotta play so I don´t go crazy. I never got to play last month, so it´s overdue.

 

 

Now that that´s been said, thanks everyone for letting me vent.

Anyways this week we  had a baptism of a young women who had a very traumatic dealing with abuse from older cousins. She's only 14 years but she looks like she could be 18 or 19. It really is surprising how common that is here. The bad thing is yesterday she was going to be confirmed but her aunt died, so she had to go to the funeral. They have like some crazy law here where the family has to be buried in less than 12 hours and usually the faster the better. So they did the long march and cries and then she couldn´t come to church.... so bummer. We´ll keep working with her. she´s had a tough life and is ready for the gospel.
 

Other than that I have come to acknowledge I cannot eat the amount that I used to. I get full really fast with very little food and well the members are so nice and give a lot of food. When I started the mission I wouldn't have had any problem downing all of the food and soups and all the little juices they buy us, but now, I suffer trying to eat everything they give us and my companion is no help, eating even less than me. haha kinda sad. It sure makes me feel old. haha but I look at it positive. That means I don´t have to use a lot of money on food, or.. it means I use the same amount of food but higher quality. haha.
 

Also this week we sang alot and I´m realizing just how powerful the hymns are. There was a fireside with a 70 and we had the opportunity to be in the choir. And later I was part of a quartet where we sang "Nearer my God to thee", And emmm idk the translation "brillan rayos de clemencia.") I sang bass on "Nearer my God to thee", and tenor on "Brillan rayos"... I do enjoy music and I love how fast and strong the spirit comes when you sing them.
 

I've been studying the Sacrament. and prayer..... Two very important privileges that God has given us.

Well I love you all. Wishing you the best.
 

 Amor y paz,

Elder Johnson

5-18-15 I'm not in a Pueblo anymore

Well this week flew by. Yes, I had changes. I am now in the city really close to the airport, as well as the temple. It´s really weird to hear so much noise like all the time. The other night I couldn't{t sleep at like 3 in the morning. I got up and we have a deck in our apartment outside, we live on top of a restaurant, so I went out to go look at the stars and from so much light pollution I couldn't see the stars, and there were people outside and cars honking already, and I watched an airplane land instead. I think that´s when it really hit me that I am not in a peublo anymore.

My new apartment

 My new area is like 4 neighborhoods, called los laureles, my new companion is Elder Huanca from la paz Bolivia, he has 20 months in the mission, and is excited to go home. I´m in a WARD. Yeah, and like a functional ward. It´s super weird. With like a bishop and high priest and they don´t like depend on us, so that's something I´m not used to. haha

We have great investigators, two of them are teaching really interesting dialects from different Honduran indian tribes and cultures. One is called Misquito and the other is called Garifona. Which is pretty legit, I hope to be able to communicate before I leave. I sure won't be fluent but shoot, it sure is interesting.

Right now we have one baptism this weekend and 3 for next week and from there we only have 4 right now for June, we are working to find a family before I leave.

I feel rather limited in freedom. Before I was like doing my own thing how I wanted and I feel like the Lord partly sent me to the city to learn how to work with others and more than anything to humble me. haha Ironic right, but wellll God s perfect. I´m really excited for this weekends baptism. Also on Wednesday we´re going to the temple so... thats cool too. haha

I don't really know what else to say so with that I´ll be closing

Elder Johnson

Paz y amor

5-11-15 Musho Esfuerzo

Well I have transfers, I'm leaving my beloved Epseranza Zone. I've been here for over a year and I feel like I know it really well. I've given it a lot of effort and dedicated many hours of walking, sweating, praying, and thinking. A few tears have been shed, I have repented several times, and learned a great amount of lessons. The people here are so great, I can honestly without reserve say that I love them, even the poor drunk guys on the street that always seem to know English. From the hot to the cold, the dry to the extremely wet, I am so so grateful that God saw it fit to send me here and learn a thing or two.

Well now I'm going to a new area with a new companion, I'm gonna miss Elder Luquez, the monkey who punched me in  the nose and who I admire very much for his humility. I hope I may be like him in that way.

Really this week it was great to talk to the mother for mother's day, and well, I love those guys.

This week I was in our areas technically  3 days, Monday, Tuesday and Sunday. On Tuesday we had some baptisms and then I left Wednesday to do interchanges and just went from town to town after that. Elder Luquez doesn't like to travel a lot so I always seem to do the interchanges that are far away. hahaha funny kid.

 

We also had a conference with president with just  zones. He talked about Faith. He shared the scripture Alma :10 and talked about the musho esfuerzo... I think it's like much striving...??? idk but it was really good. I love President Fortuna, I think I would like to get to know him better but idk how or when but I really admire him. 

All in all, this week was really good, really busy, and really motivating. I want to give the Lord my all. I hope to be better each day.

amor y paz

Elder Johnson

5-4-15 We are like the wind...

Welcome May. I feel like this month came like a punch in the face. All of the sudden. haha

My favorite tacos in the world! Cow's Tongue.

This week passed by really fast. Changes are coming on the 12 of April and it's pretty probable that I'm going to be leaving the Esperanza.

 

The Zone

 

Other than that we have a baptism of two chavalos (guys) tomorrow at 2 and then we have a family that's programmed for the 24 so, really we've had quite a bit of success here in the Esperanza. Well at least in baptisms. It's really interesting what role we play in the mission. We come and we go, really thinking in the worldly sense it doesn't really make sense to send workers to the same places but always rotating. Because if they always stayed in one place they would have more relation and more trust in that place and thinking logically, doesn't that mean that they would be able to make a larger impact?? welll no. We act like the wind or the storms that come and go. Sometimes we bring a lot of dust and make a large impact on one place and other times we simply change little things that allow the missionaries that follow us to make that difference. I used to think that it depended on one type of missionary. But really I realize that if an area is having success it is thanks to the 4 or 5 missionaries who were there before. I always used to think, I want to be that difference maker, I want to be the impact." But now I know that really it's not us. It's something  that I knew in word but I didn't understand in deeds. 

Well enough of that, this week we made another house, it rained a ton, and we had a zone meeting that was kinda like without faith, and well, we are just trying so hard to help our missoinaries. I feel like I'm learning a little what it's like to be a parent. In that you can counsel, punish, uplift in a thousand ways, but in the end the "kids"make their own decisions and you can't do anything but stand on the sidelines and always be ready to help when they ask. It's tough, I sure hope my parents forgive me for all that stress I must have given. Because  honestly, I feel like the worst part is after you say all that you say, waiting to see what they DO. haha it's suspenseful and stressful. This week we have a full schedule traveling to the 3 districts to make sure all is well and well, Jesus de Otoro, my second home, is dead right now and we're going to go on Wednesday to see why, and see if we can help. 

 

Building houses

Thanks for everything my friends.

Paz y amor, Elder johnson