May 19, 2019 La Carlota

Maayong agaaa!!! kamusta kamo? what a crazy week. the coolest part was that on Friday, Elder Renlund of the Quorum of the 12 came to our mission!! We got to shake his hand and talk with him and it was so so cool. I learned a TON and am so thankful for that opportunity. 

lots of crazy things happned this week-

-when Elder Renlund was here, we sat in an air conditioned room for about 8 hours. And i just about died. I could barely even take notes cause my hands went completely numb and I started legit shivering during the closing song. it was SO cold. moral of the story is im supposed to go home in december in the middle of winter, and i can't even handle being in air con for half a day. send some prayers that i wont die when i get home

-found a mouse in our house this week. but we bought a mouse trap and caught it!! so our house is now mouse free and we are happy sisters once again

-met the cutest old man ever who is bed ridden and is supposed to pass away pretty soon. But all he wanted was to hear about Christ before he dies. it was super special and really makes me realize whats important in life

-stepped in a sewer this week. it was disgusting. my entire foot was just covered in gross things. but we were right across the street from one of the people we were teaching so we stopped by their house to see if we could take some water to wash off my foot, and this man comes out with a bucket and a rag sits me down and starts cleaning my feet for me! And no matter how  many times i told him i could  do it, he insisted that he wanted to help me. it was so so nice. and then he dried my shoes for me and everything. i love the philippines. people are just so quick to look out for each other and help each other. I think we have lots to learn from this country.

its been a really good week though. a  year ago today i gave my farewell talk in church ;) crazy how fast time flies.

love you all and miss yoU!! have a good week!!

sister johnson

Family- 

Monday- monday was fun. we had an early curfew still so we played some book of mormon battles card game and ate oreo pancakes. it was fun

Tuesday- tuesday was crazy. we had district council in the morning! the zone leader had me and sis singleton role play and solve concerns. and then we went to lunch and headed to bacolod for sister nanlabi's doctor appointment!! we left around 1 and stopped in the office to see the new mission nurse! she just got here last week. sister tenny. shes funny. served in tonga as a mission nurse  back in 2010 too. and then we went to the docotr for our appointmetn at 3. and then we literally sat there until 7 pm when they finally let us in. it was sooo long. and then the doctor talked to us and said she wants to do an MRI to see the problem, but prescribed her a bunch of pain killers. so we left with a request for an MRI. and then we still were supposed to have a 6 pm curfew so the AP's came and picked us up and drove us to the bus terminal which was nice. and then we got home at about 9:30. it was an exhausting day. 

Wednesday- wednesday was good! we had a full day of work which was good. the first goodnews- we bought a mouse trap finally. like last sunday we discoveredthat we have a mouse living inour house. which really just disgusts me and makes me want to throw up. :) but God sure knows our limits because from the time they found out that it was living here to the time it was caught in the mouse trap and  thrown outside, i never saw it once!! i was always either showering orin thebathroom orin the other room. so all is well. but we woke up thursday morning andit was stuck in the glue trap and they got rid of it!! so all is well and hes gone. also we set up her MRI appointment,and then we got a callfrom the new mission nurse a couple hours later and said that the church discourages MRI'sapparently so we werent given permission to go through with it. i was so frustrated. all they prescribed to her was pain meds which she hasbeen taking this wholetime and it hasnt done a single thing. the nurse said she is starting a "mental therapy program" with her where shes gonna call her every day and help her manage her stress. even sister nanlabi thinks its a little ridiculous. her plan is just to get an MRI when she gets home. she only has 4 months left. but it just seems a little ridiculous to me that nobody else wants to know why shes been having these horrible headaches twice a week for 9 months. while we were on the phone with the nurse she was curled up on the couch crying and throwing up cause it hurt so bad and the nurse was just like "she needsto stop stressing!" i was very frustrated by the end of it all. it just makes me so sad for her! and we end up taking like a day off of work every week cause she cant walk shes so weak and from the pain. i liked it better when we didnt have a mission nurse yet and the sumagpao's just let me make all the medical decisions for sisterhopkins. i just feel like they don't understnad what is actually going on. and i also feel like there is a reason why we were made companions again and part of it is that i know all about her headaches even from when we were together in old sagay. so i just feel responsible too to helpher. and its hard if they wont do it on the mission, sister nanlabi's fam will have to pay for an MRI which are so expensive here. and her dad passed away a few years ago so its just her mom working and they dont have tons of extra money. i was just very frustrated. 

thursday- today was a sad day too. i realizedtoday that i dont know where my journal is. i hadn't written in a bit and i finally sat down to get myself caught up in my journal and realized i hadnt seen it in a while. and looked all over the houes and didnt see it anywhere. so i texted all the places that ive slept in lately for exchanges or meetings and they said i didn'tleave it anywehre there either. so i haveno idea where it is. i only have like 5 pages left of it too. so its from my 3rd transfer in the field until now. literally half or more of my mission. ive cried like 6 times about it probably. im so so sad! i dont know where the heck it could be. so add that to your prayers.    

Friday- what a crazy day. i shook hands with an apostle today!!! we woke up adn did our personal study and got ready to go, and then left at 10 am!! we had to go to talisay which is farther up north than bacolod. it took like 3 tricycle rides, 2 jeepney rides and 2 bus ridesto get there but we finally did at like 1:15. the whole mission was there it was crazy. it was so many people. we sat in the cultural hall waiting for him to get there in a huge picture formation thing so when he walked in they could just sit down and take the pic and then we could move to the chapel. so we sang hymns for a loong time. and then they finlaly got there! and we were singing we thank thee oh god for a prophet when they got there and walked in. and then we took the picture adn then we each got to shake their hands!! it was elder cook of the seventy and elder schmoot from the area presidency too and alll of their wives. and now elder renlund knows my name adn that im from dallas. it was really cool. and then they started the meeting. all  3 of the men and their wives spoke. it was really awesome. elder renlund said he had 3 messages that the Lord sent him to give. the first, thank you. he told us how thankful he and the Lord is that we are out here doing this. and second, we are called of God. and he told stories of assigning missionaries and how he knows for a complete surety that we are each not just called by man, but that God chose our missions. and then third, that mission presidents are called of God. he told the story of when they assigned President Sumagpao. it was cool. and then he talked about working with stake and ward leaders and how our purpose is to build up the church. and how we need to work with them in order to do that. his wife was awesome too. she talked abotu comittments and how to extend them and prepare for eevery commitmetn we extend and about how we have to tie everything back to the doctrine. it was really good. the only downfall is that my hands went completelly numb and i was legit shivering the entire meeting cause of the air con. so it got way hard to take notes halfway through. but it was good. he promised like 15 apostolic blessings at the end it was so so cool. and they all promised that we'd see miracles in our work because of this day. and then we left and got macdo on the way home. and didnt' get home until 9:30. and then went straight to bed. 

saturday- today was such a good day. so many miracles! basically we have been teaching this woman named Rose for almost 2 months now. her son is on a missioN! but he isthe only member in their family. we've been praying so hard that she'd just open her heart. she told us that she is listening to us outof respect cause herson tells her that people hide from him and stuff. but she'll pray about the things we teach and shes read from thebook of mormon but hadlike 0 desire to do anyting about it and kept saying she wasn't getting an answerto hervprayer. and  shes like dying. she needs open heart surgery but can't affort it so shes just gonna die one of these days. we were just like wake up woman. but lasttime we taught a whole loesson on the holy ghost. we asked her what kind of answer she was expecting to recieve and she said to see an angel or a dream or to see Christ. so we were like well thats why shes not getting an answer hahah. so we taugt her all abbout the holy ghost. and then we went back today adn followed up about her prayer and she felt the spirit!!!! and we invited her to church and she committed to go!! and then she said the closing prayer and jsut cried! and now shes gonna get baptizedi canfeel it. im so excited for er. then right as we left that lesson we were talking about how amazing that lesson was and how big of a miracle that her heart jsut completely changed. we invited her to church last time and she told us no cause she ddint wanna get indoctrinated. sheh already had her own beliefs. and now it was like the complete opposite! and as we are talking abotu all this and celebrating, i literally stpe in a sewer and my entire foot gets sumberged in disgusting things. but then the people we are teachign next door came and this man literally brought out a bucket and washed  my feet for me and dried them and my shoes and it was so sweet. so all is well

sunday- rose went to church! we're way excitedf for her. and for her son whos on a mission. thats gotta be the happest thing ever to know that your mom went to church for the first time. then wehad our lunchappointment. this man named fred from santa fe came allthe way to La Carlota to go to church, to tell me that he got baptized!! me and sis bize and baczuk started teaching him. i transfered about halfway through allt he lessons and stuff. and he waslike " i just want to thank you for everything that you did forme and i want you to know i was baptized 3 weeks ago!!" it was super sweet he was so excited. sothat was fun. and then that afternoon we visited one of the members in the ward who wanted us to stop by at his house. he explained that his dad is super old and dyign but he really wants himto be baptized before he dies. so we went inside to meet him. he is like 86 years old annd completely bedj ridden. cant walk at all. but is surprisingly liike aware of what we were saying. all his kids were like gathered around him fanning him and feeding himand they were all just crying as we taught him. we just arent' sure what we can do to help them thoguh. cause i dont really know how hes gonna be able to get to church or fulfill any of the requirements for baptism. we'll see. it was super cute he just held our hands and cried about how thankful he was that we camme to visit him and share about Christ. it was good. 

monday- woke up at 5 am this mornign and headedto Bacolod!! we're gonna print pics and email in a  nice place and impumped. 

its been a good week thougyh. pray that ill find my journal. im super sad about it. but tomorrow we're trainign in 2 different districts. its abotu integrity in the work and only focusingo n pleasing God. it doesnt matter what everyone else thinks of us an dwe dont have to be the best at teaching or have the most baptisms, but our goal is to please God! i think it will be good im excited. i think its what the sisters need too. a lot of them are struggling. so im excited.  

but i love you all have a good week!!