July 16, 2012

So its been another great week on the mission! i am so happy and loving life as a missionary! the lord blesses me daily and gives me the strength to share his gospel! so this email i though i would answer the questions I've been getting and to clue you in on my life. I live at an apt complex called the Paragon and it is located in Plantation. If you look on a map, my area covers Davie, Plantation, Pembroke Pines, Weston, Hollywood, Hollidale and Fort Lauderdale. Its a fairly big area and we do a lot of driving. I am about 10-15 min away from the beach but... this week I saw the ocean and the beach for about 5 min! A recent convert lives on the beach pretty much. We can only listen to MOTAB in the car. And we have been listening to the Christmas one David Artchulta! its so great. We listen to it all day every day. mom you will have to let me know how his new cd is! i cant wait for you to get it! i can print pictures but its hard to get around to it on some pdays cuz we have a lot to get done. i cant print the emails that you send cuz we use the computers at a library... sorry. thank you so much for all of the fun packages that you have been sending!  Nothing like getting mail and packages on the mission! my friends are all doing so good!  What kind of bike did Jared get? Is it brand new? I need details ha. but thats awesome that he got a new bike! Exercising is so hard to do here! We bike for about 30 min in the morning! but its so hot here that its a killer ha. We get mail everyday but its goes to the office first and then to us so its kinda crazy and we randomly get things but everything does eventually get to us! i created a profile on mormon.org! so you can check that out if you want! its just under brooke, fort lauderdale florida. and then you will see my picture and info! we only have an hour to read and emial back. we first have to read presidents email and respond to him. then we can do family. so i usually have 30 min to read and write back to you.  I do miss the moutains. its so flat here! We don't ever eat dinner at members houses because we are in a YSA ward. and of course they are starving college students. so we always cook for ourselves. which is fine! i dont mind! i am slowly learning spanish from my lovely companion. i can bear testimony and carry a really small convo in spanish! kinda fun! i am now working on how to pray in spanish.... there are palm trees and tropical flowers every where. its crazy to think that this is where i will be living for 18 months! time is just flying though and i love being a missionary.

i love reading the BOM. i cant seem to put the book down. i am understanding a lot of what i read and becuase i read it everyday it is really like reading from a story book. i love it! dad thank you for the verses that you suggested to read. i actually just read all of ether 12 yesterday. i was studying about the grace of God and that all things are made possible through the atonement of Christ. i love ether 12! its an amazing chapter. i was actually in the MTC when the 110 new presidents were there! and i was in class when the apostales were teaching the new presidents! the day i left the MTC, L Tom Perry talked at the devotional that night and 10 of the apostales were sitting on the stand! i am so sad i missed that! but thats okay :) my first baptism, Madeline, is making so much progress. we went and read from the BOM with her the other day and the spirit was so strong. she offered the closing prayer and I started to cry. she said "thank you Lord for sending me my friends that have helped me changed my life." In that moment I was reminded of what I am doing here. i am making eternal friends and helping them follow the example of Christ. which helps them make changes in their lives. i love madeline. and her life is changed forever. she is an elect daughter of God and sister andrus and i feel blessed to be able to share the gospel with her. i know that this is where i am supposed to be. when i am having a bummer day i just think about when i was set apart and when pres allred said "for this purpose you were born" I know that I have been called by the prophet of God to share glad tiding with the people here in Florida. It is my honor to find those who the Lord has prepared! I hope you all have a great week! I look forward to hearing from you as always. I love you all so much that i dont even know how to express it in writing. enjoy going out on the boat for me please :) and sitting by the pool! all that fun stuff!!

love love love, sister Johnson

p.s. president includes things that we write him in his letter each week for all of the other missionaries to see. and when i got her my comp said to make it a goal to have on of my stories in presidents email! and ... this week, one of my stories was in him email!! yahoo! this is what pres included in his email....

“Earlier this week we went to an apartment complex to visit a person we had blessed. On the way to his apartment door we saw a guy walking by. And so I said hi and knew that my companion would stop him so that we could talk to him… he stopped and was just looking at us. As my companion and I looked up … we immediately walked over to him, got to know him a little bit and asked if we could bless him. The spirit was there and we invited him to be baptized. He said yes I will and he committed to July 15. He said that he had been talking with his friends about baptism and that it was something he had been wanting to do. I learned from that experience that we have to always be ready to approach someone. To drop whatever we are doing and run to the children that Heavenly Father has prepared for us to teach.”

also because our zone reached a goal that we had set, we get to go to native village today. So I will be holding an alligator! i am super excited!

pictures: i caught a lizzard. we went with the assistants to a brizilian grill. hannah a member of the ward came out with us one day and she showed us the beach. we open a coco nut and the milk is pretty good! until next week fam! i love you!