Christmas Music and Holiday Traffic

Well, happy late Thanksgiving!! I hope you all stuffed your faces like
we did. (Mom you're going to have a hissy fit cause I didn't take a
single picture so I apologize). So the beginning of the week was just
a pretty average week. A little slow, a lot of tracting, but we found
some solid new people to teach so shout out for new investigators!
Then Thanksgiving was on Thursday and, man, holidays on a mission are
weird. Hna. Acosta and I thought we were going to have a ton of down
time for studying, making food, and all that fun good stuff, because
we had a service activity in the morning and then didn't have dinner
until 7, but some prayers were answered and we were actually only at
our apartment for about 30 minutes the entire day. I love the members
in this ward and how much they love and care for the missionaries.
They are so concerned about our well being and it's such a blessing to
serve with them. We had dinner with 3 different families and then of
course everyone gives you their leftovers so let's just say we have A
LOT of food haha. Well Festival of Lights starts tomorrow, and we'll
be helping out in the Visitors Center 3 nights every week, which is
going to be a ton of fun. Not only do we get to feel the Spirit that
is there, but the Visitors Center has a goal to receive 2000 referrals
this month from the Festival. It'll be an amazing thing to be a part
of. Well, in other exciting news, Denora, the mom of Rene, our recent
convert, came to the Visitors Center with her two sons and we taught
her about the Plan of Salvation (God's plan for each of us in this
life). She said that she wants to enter into the temple someday, and
that she would like to be baptized!! Heavenly Father truly prepares
people to receive His gospel and I am so excited to see her receive
those blessings in her home.

In other news, I finished the Book of Mormon this morning, for the
last time in English for a while because I'll be reading in Spanish
from now on. I just want to add my testimony to so many others than I
know that the Book of Mormon is true. It is the word of God and it is
the most true book of any on this earth. Through it and the Bible we
have the fullness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that God lives
and that His Son, Jesus Christ, suffered and died so that each one of
us can, through Him, gain peace in this life and in the life to come.
He is my Loving Older Brother, and He is my Savior. Yo sé que El vive.
Y sé que el Libro de Mormón trae más a una vida de una persona que
cualquier otra cosa. Esta es la iglesia verdadera. Y digo esto en el
nombre de Jesucristo.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! Enjoy the Christmas
season and remember the reason that we have all that we do. Hasta la
próxima semana!

Hermana Johnson

Where Did November Go?

Familia y amigos!

Not gonna lie, this has definitely been one of my longer weeks on a
mission. Hna Acosta and I are both in agreement there. It's been a
great week, just long. So I guess I'll start off with, I hit my 3
month mark this week!! Also, last P-Day we had a taco party at our
apartment, and the rest of this week has just been full of good food.
We had pupusas twice this week, so I'm a happy missionary. (Pupusas
are this El Salvadorean food. It's like a really thick tortilla
filled with cheese and pork and has all these toppings...sooo good).


So probably one of my favorite experiences from this week, and my
mission in general, happened on Friday night. We had an activity with
the youth where we went on splits with them to a members home to teach
the Restoration. So there were 3 young women and 2 of them are
sisters, who speak zero English, are super shy, and have only been
members of the church for a year. Of course Hna. Acosta put me with
them hahaha. Then we went to a house where the parents are active
members, but the kids aren't. So the lesson had even more sentido. On
top of that, the kids of the family really only speak English. Talk
about language barriers haha. So I was pretty nervous. I've never
taught a lesson on my own, and especially not in both English and
Spanish, so I said multiple prayers in the car. We got into the lesson
and it was the mom and two of her kids who usually never come
downstairs when the missionaries are there. Right away blessings. The
two sisters have amazing testimonies and I feel so blessed that I got
to hear them bear their testimonies, and then hear the thoughts and
testimonies of the family as well. The lesson went great, and I felt
so blessed to have been given the ability by my Heavenly Father to do
something both way out of my comfort zone and my skill level. The
power of prayer is real!


I'm gonna steal a spiritual thought from a friend of mine in Tonga
(thanks Sis. Pinnock!). She said that the Lord doesn't call us because
it's logical. It is not logical for me to be here, speaking Spanish.
It isn't logical. That applies to so many of our other callings as
well. The Lord never calls us because it is logical, He calls us
because He knows what we can accomplish through
His Atonement. We each have callings in this life, and if we turn
ourselves and dedicate our work to Him, He can do far more with it
than we ever could. I know this to be true.
Pasen buenas semanas! Les quiero mucho! Y gracias por todo que hagan!

Hermana Johnson

Siempre Aprendiendo (Always Learning)

Well this week has been a week of lessons. Lots of lessons. The new
transfer started and so like we both expected, Hermana Acosta and I
are together for another transfer. We are both super excited to
work our tails off and see just now much we can help the area pick up
again before the Festival of Lights starts here at the Temple Visitor's
Center. It's gonna be exciting just to see how many miracles the next
2-3 weeks will bring. So like the subject says, this week I have
learned so much. We had 3 really rough lessons that taught me so much.
It's funny how much more we learn from the difficult experiences, but
I guess that's why they're there, so we can learn.

So I'll tell you about the first one. We have been meeting with this
girl who was baptized into the church as a niña, but she hasn't been
to church for a long time. We've always just barely missed her when
we've tried to meet with her, but this time we finally had an
appointment and she was really excited! So we sit down and start
talking to her about what the previous Elders had talked to her about,
why she hasn't been to church, etc. And she was super open with us.
She has such a strong testimony of our Savior and the role He has in
her life, but she just really struggles with believing in prophets and
the Book of Mormon. We extended the invitation to her to really read
it, and pray about it. Because really, what better answer can you get
than one from Heavenly Father himself? But she pushed it aside and
said she was happy with what she had, and then breaks it to us that
she is being baptized into another church. My heart just broke. She
has the truth and the path to eternal happiness right in front of her,
but she can't see it yet. I know Hna. Acosta and I tried our very best
in that lesson. The Spirit was speaking so strongly through us, but it
just wasn't enough for her.

It's hard to leave those kind of lessons, but you learn so much about
how agency works. Our Heavenly Father always knows what is best for
us, and that is this gospel, but He still allows us to make our own
choices, no matter how much they hurt Him. He loves us so dearly that
He sent His Only Begotten Son, Jesucristo, to the world. And
Jesucristo loves us so much that He suffered not just for our sins,
but for our trials, our sickness, and our afflictions. He knows how we
feel every second of the day. I testify that He lives, and that He
really did overcome our pains and sins on that day in the Garden of
Gethsemane and on the cross. He overcame physical death when He was
resurrected on the third day so that we can one day live with Him
again if we follow His gospel and endure to end. I love Him. Yo sé que
El vive. Él es todo.

Hermana Bree

P.S. Also there is a video that I want you to go watch. It makes me cry every time, and I want you to watch it in Spanish because for me it has so much power in that language. It is called Gracias a Él  from mormon.org.

 (And here is the English version for non-Spanish speakers)

And finally, pictures!!

The gorgeous temple

I found O'Fallon Street!

Daylight Savings Throws Everything Off

 So it's been a transfer (6weeks) which is crazy to think. I've already
been out for about 3 months, which seems so short compared to 18 but
considering how fast it went by I'm amazed. So me and Hermana Acosta
are staying together and we're staying in this area which I am really
excited about. I love this ward and the people that we are working
with, and the idea of moving areas is just really depressing and it's
only been one transfer! I can't imagine how some of the other
missionaries feel that get moved after 6 months or so. But we will find
out on Wednesday whether or not we will for sure be in the Visitors
Center, but since it's Christmas time, we are about 97% sure we will
be. It's crazy how quickly Christmas is coming up and it definitely
doesn't feel like it here in this very odd 70 degree weather. But
anyways, we've taught the restoration a lot this week which has been
great because I've been working on and praying to improve my teaching
skills this coming transfer. But there's been one thing that has
really stood out to me as we've been teaching these lessons. It
doesn't matter how much they feel the Spirit in the lessons, or how
much sense it makes in their head. If they don't take the time to
really read the Book of Mormon and pray about its truthfulness for
themselves, they'll never become converted to the gospel. The same
goes for members of the church. The only way that we will really stay
on track is by doing those little things. I've realized so much since
being on a mission where I invite people to do that every single day,
how much more it would have helped me back through those more
difficult times before being a missionary. So here is my challenge, if
you aren't already, begin reading the Book of Mormon every single
night and praying sincerely morning and night. They are such simple
things that make the world of a difference.

So...story time! I'll share a spiritual experience from earlier this
week. We have an investigator named Clara who we've been teaching
since my second day out here. She is preparing to be baptized at the
end of this month and she is just amazing. So we were talking with her
about the word of wisdom (no alcohol, drugs, coffee or tea), but we had
the feeling to ask her about her testimony of Jose Smith and the Libro
de Mormon. So we asked her what she could remember about Joseph Smith,
and she admitted that she couldn't remember much. Then she looked us
in the eyes and said, but I know he was a prophet. Man we got up and
hugged her right there. It was a prayer answered. We don't need to
have a perfect knowledge of all things as Alma says. We just need that
little seed of faith that grows and grows.

Thank you for all of the letters and all of support. I love you all
and I hope you find the hand of our Heavenly Father in your life this
week. It's always there! Les quiero!

Hermana Bree

A delicious ice cream cookie we ate!

The Mystery of the Lost Emails - Solved!

* From Mom:

I had been wondering for two months why I was never receiving the emails Hermana Bree made reference to in some of her letters home. She mentioned that the president would contact me about her iPad and general rules, etc.  Finally, this week, we discovered that the mission had my email entered incorrectly so, although the information was being sent, it never came to me.  I had the emails forwarded and discovered three terrific pictures of Hermana Bree on her first days in the DC North Mission.  Two upon her arrival at the DC temple with President and Sister Cooke and with her arriving group.  The next is a picture with her trainer, Hermana Acosta the next morning. 

This message came from the mission office:
Thank you for letting us borrow your sweet daughter. She is doing great here in the mission.
She is a wonderful missionary and she works hard. She is also progressing well in the language. Chao! 

Hooray for surprise pictures and missing emails!

The Week Everyone Moved to Guatemala

So it's been another beautiful week here on the East Coast. The trees
are still gorgeous and missionary work is still going great. We had
one of our investigators come to church this past Sunday so that was
awesome. He just tells us all the time that it's all makes
sense and is wonderful. So we are counting our blessings with him! We
spent a lot of this week visiting members who were on the ward records
but no one had seen in a while, so our week wasn't great as far as
numbers go, but we found out that a lot of those people had moved, and
even got a few potential people to teach next week! One of those was a
woman named Digna. Man, she is a powerhouse! She has 6 kids all under
the age of 10 and just sitting in her house was a pleasure. You could
tell how much love her kids have for her and vice versa. We talked
with her a little about the important role that we, as women, have in
this life, and we are very excited to see her later this week.  We
also had the privilege of meeting a dear friend of one of our members
this week. The member is one of the strongest members in our ward, and
they are close friends from childhood. The friend has had the
missionaries over many times in the past and lives right next to the
temple in Guatemala, but is not a member of the church. We shared a
video and message with her that really touched her and she said she is
going to look for the missionaries when she returns to Guatemala this
week. Also to continue our theme, Alex, one of our strongest
potentials moved to Guatemala unannounced....we received a phone call
from him explaining that he was leaving to Guatemala and would not be
returning. A little bit of a shock, but I know that if he has a desire
to continue learning the words of Christ, he will be led to find the
truth once again.
So this week my testimony that has really grown a lot is that the
gospel is for everyone, but everyone is also different. There were
many experiences where I realized sometimes it's just that one phrase,
that one scripture or that once video that really touches people and
awakens them to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Look for those
opportunities to be that person that touches someone's life. It's
amazing what the Spirit will guide us to do if we are willing to
listen. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is
the same church that Jesus Christ established in His life. I know that
the gospel of Jesus Christ are the only way that we can become and
obtain all that our Father in Heaven has prepared for us. El nos ama.
Se que Jesucristo vive. El es mi luz y mi vida. Estoy agradecida por
Su sacrificio cada dia.
Have a great week! Vayan con Dios!

Hermana Johnson

The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, our P-Day trip with the
mission president's wife, Sister Cooke. I felt right at home!