There Can be Miracles and Taylor Swift

¡Hola Gente! It has been a fantastic week. It's funny how regardless
of how long or difficult a week may have felt, by the time P-day rolls
around, I can't help but count my blessings and realize how much the
Lord has helped us in the past week. But that being said, this week
flew by! Not to mention the month of Mayo. I can't believe it's about
to be June! So, now for the week:

Lesson # 1: the scriptures have the answers to everything.
We have seen many miracles from using the words of God rather than our
own. I'll just give one example. Tuesday we met with out investigator
Ingrid who has been praying about a baptismal date. She is still
praying and hasn't officially decided yet, but we talked all about the
Plan of Salvation. She has a good Biblical background so she had some
questions about our stance on the Fall of Adan and Eva. We went to 2
Nefi 2 and she was amazed at how well the scriptures explained it and
answered a lot of questions she has had. This week in general we've
been focusing a lot on using the scriptures to answer our
investigators and members questions.

Lesson # 2: "Where two or three are gathered in my name, behold I will
be in the midst of them"
For whatever reason this scripture has come up multiple times this
past week, and it has been proved very true. We had Zone Conference on
Thursday. It was our last one with the Cooke's and we learned so much.
Ingrid and her son Jorge also came to church! They loved it! She said
she just felt the difference of being in a church, and we testified
yet again of the feelings of the Holy Ghost. It also has proven true
for many of the lessons we have had. It's funny how we normally meet
people in groups of three, us two and them. And this week it has been
proven again and again, that the spirit is always there. We found an
awesome new investigator last night named Erik who was referred to us
by a member in one of the English wards. He is a really intelligent
guy and was asking all the right questions, which thankfully we were
able to answer for him. We are really excited to meet with him later
this week.

Lesson # 3: I apparently look like Taylor Swift.
The ward clerk and his girlfriend spent all of 3rd hour last Sunday
pulling up pictures of T-Swift and telling me I looked just like her.
I am convinced that a large number of Hispanics think any white girl
with curly hair is identical to Taylor Swift.

Other cool miracles that don't quite fit in a category but are worth
mentioning:
Oneyda is doing awesome! She wants to learn how to have FHE with her
family. Also we got to meet with her younger brother who is a member
of the church and is now coming to church again! Her husband was also
there for both lessons, and she told him how much she loves this
church. Neat.
Christian is also doing great. He has been able to overcome his
challenges with drinking and is now doing even better than before. He
 attributes it to prayer and scripture study.
Our investigator Carmen, who told us she didn't want to meet anymore,
is now letting us come over tonight to answer some of her questions.
We are praying all goes well.

Well this is a much longer email than I anticipated, so I don't blame
you for not reading it all. I hope you all have had a great week, and
continue to do so this coming week. Les quiero y les invito que pueden
encontrar los Milagros en su vida diaria esta semana. Yo sé que esta
iglesia es la iglesia de Jesucristo restaurada en la tierra hoy y que
somos dirigidos por un profeta viviente que fue llamado por Dios.
Testificó de esto en el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen.

Hermana Yonson

Grab Your Shovel

I'm not really sure where this week has gone, or the past nine months
really. Time does fly when you are having fun, and when you add on
that being extremely busy, the time goes by real quick! I'm still not
really sure what happened this week. It wasn't one of the best weeks
we've had,  but it was definitely an improvement from last week
because we were able to work in our area every single day of the week!
On another note, it has been raining here for about the past month,
but not the fun down-pouring kind of rain, just the drizzling kind
that makes everything wet and cold but not too exciting. So that has
been fun, thankfully I love the rain and I've always thought the East
looks gorgeous in weather like this because of all the trees. There's
always a positive side, but I will not be upset when the warm weather
starts again and people are outside.
As far as miracles go for this past week, C came to church!
After a long struggle with drinking, he finally got his footing and is
returning slowly but surely. You can already see such a difference in
his face, and his attitude. We've also been trying to work with his
sister in law to help her return back to church. It's been over 10
years since she has been, but she came to the Visitors Center last
night, so we're working with her little by little.
We also got a lot of difficult questions this week, mostly about
church history and things that our investigators had read online. A
word of caution to everyone, never search for things about the church
on random websites. It will always leave you confused and with a very
skewed perspective. But thankfully we were able to focus their efforts
on the Book of Mormon, and that when we have that testimony in place,
we cannot fall.
And for a very interesting thing I learned this week from this less
active hermano we are working with. We were talking about faith with
their family, and he was talking about how faith is one of those
things that everyone will claim they have, but very few will take
action on it. As a missionary, I can testify that is true, but what he
said after is what really stuck out to me. He said that he has often
heard the phrase from others that if we have faith we can move mountains.
But so many of us will just stand there next to the mountain, tell it
to move, and then be horribly disappointed when nothing happens.
Perhaps the example of moving mountains with our faith does not imply
that the mountain will do whatever we want. Roughly translated, he
said, "how do we move mountains? Shovel by shovel. The faith part is
that we don't give up shoveling because we know that with our
diligence, and the help of Lord to give us the strength and energy,
that mountain will move." This gave me an entirely new perspective on
faith. If we want to move mountains, let us roll up our sleeves, grab
a shovel, and get to work, trusting that God will give us the capacity
to accomplish the impossible.
Yo quiero testificar que yo sé que este evangelio es verdadero. Que
esta es la única iglesia con la plenitud del evangelio de Jesucristo.
Que no vas a encontrar la felicidad eterna en ninguna otra lugar o
doctrina. Testifico que Jesucristo vive, que tenemos un Padre
Celestial quien nos ama. Le agradezco a El que tengo la oportunidad de
retirar de El y Su evangelio perfecto cada día a las personas que lo
necesitan. Les quiero a cada uno de ustedes y yo sé que esta obra es
la obra de la salvación. Sigan adelante mis amigos.

Hermana Johnson

We went and saw Einstein in DC last Pday

 Ladders

Probably the Busiest Week of My Mission

Well this has been one eventful week. Sometimes I wish Heavenly Father
could give me a warning before weeks like this so I can prepare
myself. On Tuesday we got a call from President saying that we are
moving apartments...in 2 hours. So pack up all of our things and get ready
to head out. I think I can now empathize just a little more with the
pioneras. So all day Tuesday and all day Wednesday we spent packing,
moving, and then moving some more. Missionary apartments are always a
lot of work to move out of and into, because they have the weirdest
arrangement of furniture and so you have to take out the old broken
stuff and move in the new stuff. Needless to say, I now know exactly
how much can fit in the back of a Corolla. So we are now in a
temporary apartment in Langley Park (the elders area that president
doesn't let us proselyte in) for 2.5 weeks and will be moving back to
our area at the end of this transfer. Lots of fun haha! The hardest
part about moving is that Tuesdays and Wednesdays are our busiest
days and the days that our investigators normally meet with us so we
were only able to see one of them this week. We definitely saw the
affects of that when none of them came to church this Sunday. It just
goes to show how important frequent contact is with these people who
are at such a pivotal stage in their conversion to the gospel.
Thankfully our phone has helped us quite a bit to at least touch base
with them a couple times throughout the week. Thank you technology!
On a brighter side, we got to meet with a less active family that had
kind of dropped us a few months ago, and the mom, who we thought was
done hearing from us, kept talking about how badly she has been
wanting to come back to church! Now we just need to get her husband on
the same page.
Balmore also got to go to the temple to participate in baptisms for
the dead for the first time, an ordinance where we are baptized as
proxies and in the name of those who have passed away without the
chance to accept the gospel. He loved it and it was so exciting to see
him get to experience the temple and the peace that you feel that.
Another happy note is that our recent convert, is doing a
lot better. He has been struggling a lot lately and hasn't been to
church in almost 2 months. He had told us about 2 weeks ago that he
just didn't anticipate seeing any changes in his situation soon so we
should stop trying, but this week he has finally come around! He has
starting putting in his part of praying and reading the scriptures.
It's awesome to see not just the forgiveness part of the atonement,
but the eternally important power it gives us to change our thoughts,
behaviors and actions. While he still did not come to church this
week, he came to an event called Why I Believe at the Visitors Center
last night. Baby steps!
Other than that, not too much new. I've had a nice cold the past
couple days which have made me sound like a man, so that's been
exciting. I hope everything is going well at home. I'm thankful that
Heavenly Father has really put me out of my comfort zone this past
week. It helps me to stretch and grow in way that I really would not
have had to previously. The gospel is all about helping us change for
the better, and I know every trial we have in this life is intended to
help us do exactly that. Yo sé que este evangelio es la verdad. Que
tenemos un amoroso Padre Celestial y un hermano quien sufrió y murió
para nosotros. Estoy tan agredecida por ser misionera aquí. Hasta la
próxima semana!

Hermana Yonson

Balmore at the temple

 Cool rainbow we saw going down the freeway.

Happy Mother's Day: We Chopped our Hair

 Feliz día mamá to all the mothers out there! Both to my physical
mother and all of you who have adopted me throughout the years, you
are all the greatest. Little did I know, Mother's Day is about the
second biggest holiday in the Hispanic community complete with your
entire extended family and a good carne asada. Needless to say I ate
way more than I should have yesterday. All in all this week has been
awesome. Obviously I got to Skype home, so I would definitely list
that as one of the highlights from this week! I loved seeing your
faces, and am glad to know that all is going well. You are all still
complete goons.
Other events from this week include getting our hair chopped by our
relief society president. My thin, dry hair is a mystery to these
Latina beauties haha. I'm still getting used to it. We also have seen
a bunch of little miracles, if there is such a thing, this past week.
I think one of my favorite moments from this week was with Oneyda. She
is still my favorite human being and now makes fun of me relentlessly.
But we taught a solid lesson about keeping the Sabbath day holy this
week and she and Alex agreed to keep it despite this Sunday being
Mother's Day. Then Saturday night, her brother who is a member who
doesn't come to church very often asked us for the time for church and
then told us he didn't think Oneyda wasn't coming to church. We then
couldn't get a hold of her that morning, so we had kind of lost hope
of her coming. Then about half way through sacrament meeting, I turn
around and she just smiles at me from a couple rows back. I have to
say seeing people make the decision coming to church brings the
happiest joy because I know that's just the beginning step. When we
are willing to act in faith to do the little things, the bigger things
just come naturally. I love you all and hope you have had a wonderful
week and continue doing so. Yo sé que está iglesia trae una felicidad
que ninguna otra cosa puede traer. Estoy muy feliz ser miembro de esta
iglesia y les invito que si se sienten que hacen falta de algo en su
vida, de hablar con los misioneros. Su mensaje puede cambiar su vida
completamente. Les quiero muchísimo! Hasta la próxima semana mi gente,

Hermana Johnson

And now some photos!

I found a kitty!

Carne Asada!!  New favorite food.

Skype: you weirdos

My comp and I

Paz os Doy

I feel that the time p-day comes around I feel so overwhelmingly
blessed. There is no greater joy and peace than that that comes from
filling your life with the needs of others. Hna Rivas and I have seen
so many blessings from the Lord this past week, it really just isn't
even fair jaja. Starting off with just basic info, we have transfers
this week! Thankfully, Hna Rivas and I are staying together!! She is
an incredible missionary and I am so excited to be able to work with
her in an area I love for at least another 6 weeks. But now onto cool
stories (well cool to me) from this past week!
Carmen, one of our newer investigators, came to church!  She always asked good questions and was actually reading the Book of
Mormon so we kept up with her. This past weekend we taught her about
the Plan of Salvation, and it was the most amazing lesson. I feel like
everyone has that one thing that just clicks with them when they are
learning about the gospel and that's how this lesson went. There were
tears, it all just made sense to her, it was awesome. Than she came to
church!
Then on our way home from church yesterday we were driving past
Oneyda's apartment and I just felt like we should go to see her. She
wasn't at church and had canceled our appointment this week, so it had
been a week since we'd seen her last. I tried to talk myself out of it
since she's not a fan of surprise visits and told myself we could just
call her when we got home. Thankfully, Heavenly Father is extremely
patient and so yet again I felt like we needed to go. So we took a
U-turn and headed over. We caught them right in the middle of heading
out to Alex's soccer game, but Oneyda was SO happy to see us! It's
honestly the happiest I've ever seen her to see us, including lessons.
She thanked us repeatedly for coming and even offered to give us
lasagna (real love right there). Plus she texted us later on, which
never happens, thanking us for coming by and being so persistent. It
is absolutely amazing to see the difference in her. Just a few months
ago she wanted nothing to do with the gospel, and now she is reading
the Book of Mormon and looking for an answer for herself. I love her
so much.
Oh also quickly, Maria committed to being baptized in June! We are so
excited to be working with her towards that goal!
This week I have gotten to be able to really see this difference in
myself since being on a mission. Sometimes I think we need a little
help to be able to see those kinds of things, and so I feel blessed
that the Holy Ghost kind of opened up my mind a little. I think the
most substantial difference has been evident in my prayers. I realized
this past week that my prayers are about 90% about other people. I
feel like I can't even focus on myself anymore because I have so many
people that I love that need so much. I know that true happiness
really is looking outside of yourself and letting others have a place
in your heart. I love being a missionary. I go to bed smiling every
night just knowing how much our Heavenly Father loves each one of us.
Les quiero mucho y espero que tengan una buena semana! Sigan adelante
mi familia!

Hna Jonnson

Zone photo

 One of my favorite babies, Biseida!