March 17, 2019 Santa Fe

maayong aga!! kamusta gid kamo? 

i cant believe we're done with another week. so so wild. this one may have been the fastest in my whole mission. a week from today is transfer day!! this time next week i'll most likely be in a new area with a new companion! ill miss the trio life. its a good time. but i really am gonna miss sta fe. its defintely been an adventure but there are some people here who i just really love. its been 6 months here! so crazy.

but this week was a good one! the highlights-

-went to go see my favorite woman in the world this week- Josephina Casabuena. she is 96 years old and SO FUNNY. as soon as she saw me, she just said "GINDAMGO TA KA" which means i had a dream about you hahaha and then instead of elaberating she just started singing. basically imagine a 96 year old woman belting out songs with all her heart. we thought she might literally fall over and die cause she was getting so into these songs. after about 20 minutes of singing, this other woman just starts clapping in the middle and says "thank you tapos na" which basically means we're done. it was so funny i love filipinos. 

-went looking for this family that had just moved into a new area, and we asked a few people for help if they knew them. then this cute old grandpa got right up and started walking around with us asking people if they knew them. and for 30 minutes straight he just kept going and wouldn't give up. after everyone we passed he'd say "im just guiding them" and it was so nice. people in this country are so selfless and willing to go to such lengths to help people that they don't even know. i love this place

-had a brown out (which is what they call blackouts here) which meant no electricity and we alljust about died. we don't have ac here but we always have our electric fans going at full blast. but lemme tell ya. we all ended up laying on the ground dying it was so hot. i thought it was the last day of my life. appreciate your winter over there cause ive never been hotter in my entire life :)

but life is good! Cherry was baptized on Saturday! She is the cutest 19 year old girl ever. It was so special. She stood up afterwards and said how excited she is to serve a mission and raise her family in the church. shes got some rough trials in her life and she said she just has a much larger perspective now that she understands the gospel. I am so grateful for the role that Christ has played in my life, and for the opportunity to turn to Him in trials and challenges. 

I was reading in Matthew 8 and 9 this week and there was a couple things that I really loved. In Matthew 8:23-24 it is about when Christ calmed the sea, and then in Matthew 9:20-23 about when this woman with an issue of blood touched Christ's robes. Ithink it is really coolto see that as soon as they involved Christ in their trials, they immediately had relief. Even this woman who had an issue of blood for 12 years!! As soon as she involved Christ, she was okay. I think this totally applies to us as well. Obviously all of our trials and problems are not just going to completely dissapear, but we will immediately see relief in our lives, and will be given strength so we're better equipped to handle them.  

I totally believe that is true! We learn the most from our hard experiences. I wouldn't trade any of my experiences here on my mission for the world. I've learned so much about how to rely on Christ and be happy doing the will of the Lord. Life is good :)

Have a good week everyone!! Love you all!!

Sister Johnson