June 23, 2019 La Carlota

maayong agaaa

woo tapos na ang isa pa ka semana!! dasig gid 

its been a good week! done with week 1 of the transfer! 

the highlights-

-saw a huge snake get run over in the road. it was big and blue and green and probably poisonous and all sorts of fun things

-a baby chicken hopped in my lap and sat there for a whole 30 min lesson. 

-focused on finding this week! we found 44 new people to teach! I'm way excited for them and we've already seen miracles cause of it!!

 

But there were a couple really cool experiences this week too. At church on sunday a woman was speaking and she said (in ilonggo) "My life is not perfect and I have trials, but I am happy because of this gospel." And i realized thats totally the point of this whole mission thing. Teaching about Christ is not gonna make anybodys life suddenly become free of trials and hardships, but it helps us to be happy anyways. Thats what I love about this gospel. We always have a reason to be happy, no matter what else is going on in our lives. 

Then we taught this cute family that I just love a couple times this week. When we went last monday, the mom just cried to us about the changes she has seen in her family since we've been going to their house. She said her and her husband don't fight anymore and he's stopped drinking (before we even told him too) and the whole atmospere has changed in their home. They pray together as a family and read the scriptures together as a family every day. Thats the happiest part of what I'm doing over here! Seeing the change in these people we are teaching is so so special. We totally can become way better, happier versions of ourselves because of Christ and His gospel and church!

I love being a missionary!! It is the best thing I could have ever done. I love this country and love getting to live here among these people. 

I love you all and miss you! Have a good week!!

Sister Johnson

ps no pics but i found my camera charger so expect some good ones next week :))

Family

hello!! what a week! the first weeks of the transfer are always crazy. but its been a good one. 

monday- after i hung up last week, i got ready for the day and then we went to the terminal to pick up sister regacho! we got there when they told us to but turns out she had been waiting for an hour hahah whoops. then we dropped off her stuff, went grocery shopping, and ate lunch. then we emailed! it was pouring rain which was fun. then we came home and i did laundry and s regacho unpacked and then we went out to work! i was kinda nervous cause we went to our cute family who we love (the one with the pregnant wife and sick grandpa) and sis nanlabi and i are super tight with them. and they were super sad when they found out she transferred. it was sad. but she cried to us about the differences that shes seen in her kids and her husband since weve been visiting them. she told us how much theyve changed. and since her and her husband have started reading the book of mormon together, they don't fight anymore. it was really awesome. its just always kinda sad wit htransfers cause me adn sis nanlabi have all these awesome memories with this family and now they kinda have to start the whole thing over with sister regacho. its okay though. shes awesome. she isnt as outgoing and funny as sister nanlabi so our lessons are a little less fun. but she is really awesome at teaching and works super hard. so thats really all that matters. 

tuesday- district council! with our new district! we set goals as a district to help our zone. cause our zone is struggling. we're gonna all work in one area for like 3 hours once a week to help each others areas. it will be good. and then they went over email rules. turns out calling on my own SD cardmay not be allowed. im not actually sure though cause i know president gave people permission to do it so thats why i bought one. but im gonna ask him to double check. cause i cant use ours to call internationally cause its alrady registered to our load. the phones here are really complicated. but we'll see. also we can only call every other week now again. but then we went to lunch and then to work!! we found 13 new people to teach! it was a good day. and it was smart finding too. we found part members and less actives and they automatically have support from members. so it was really good. im excited for them. s regacho loves the work which im thankful for. 

wednesday- this was a good day. i was super tired on wednesday. im not sure why. but we taught 7 lessons that day which was good. i really love our area. its a good one.lots of progressing peopel that im super excited about. 

thursday- woo!! the other sisters woke up at 5:30 to take sister nanlabi to bacolod for the trainers meeting! but since we all sleep in the living room now, that means we all woke up at 5:30! they came and built bunk beds for us. so that was early. but then we had a good day! sister nanlabi's trainee is so cute. and sis nanlabi is so happy that she gets her first filipina companion!! it was so funny. but its fun. today we wetn and visited rodrigo and mae, our recent converts.and then we're teaching mimi, Rodrigo's daughter. shes like 45 and has a cute little girl. shes awesome and goes to church every sunday and believes its all true. we're just waiting for her to get married. but while we were at their house, they chopped open a cocunut from their tree adn handed us each a cocunut and a straw and i felt so tropical. there are still some tiems that it hits me and i realize that im in the philippines. kinda cool. i like the island life.   

Friday- yay today was a good day. we did a baptisimal interview review for sister rose. she'll be baptized saturday. shes so awesome. her entire countenance these days has changed. shes so happy now. shes got a hard  life. but shes happy now even though its hard. blessings of the gospel. and her son is on a mission!! i cant even imagine the joy hes probabaly feeling. so so cool. 

saturday- today was a good day! we taught 8 lessons. and we're hoping we have lots of people show up to church on sunday. we've been inviting everyone. it poured rain today. it was so fun. we went hiking through the mud. i love when it rains. rainy sesasons started so it usually rains like every afternoon. sometimes every other day. its the best. but saturday morning we went to go find this man named mario, cause he drove us on a tricycle and said we could teach him so we were trying to find his house and we tag balayed this one house (in the philippines you dont knock on doors you just stand outside their door and say "tagbalay" and they open the door.) but anyways we tag balayed this house to ask if they knew anyone named mario. and as soon as they saw us before we even asked our question they told us to come inside and gave us drinks and fans and just started talking with us. literally these people who have no idea who we are. this is kinda common too. poeple inthis country are so loving. and then we taught them! a whole family. and the dad told us to come back next time and share more. so that was cool. totally not an accident that we met them. another thing ive realized is that all our really progressing people are the ones who are converted to the bom. a lot of them were taught book of mormon as the first lesson or are reading it every day. and then they go to church and pray and know its all true because of the book of mormon. its really cool actually. the book of mormon has power. 

sunday- today was a weird day. only 2 people came to church. last week we had 10. i was super dissapointed. a lot of them are sick. so thats part of it. but it was sad. and then all our appointments were falling through which never happens. it was just a weird day. but we found 44 new people to teach this week! so that was good. theres a few really good potentials in there. im excited for them.