July 15, 2013

F-A-M-I-L-Y: mine is forever!

Hey hey, it sounds like every one had a fun, busy week! just like mine! don't be mad, I forgot my camera cord so I can't send pics today but I will send double next week! so it will be a treat! Things here in south Florida are going fantastic! it rains every day! we try to stay dry for about 5 min and then we give in and get soaked for the day! its supposed to rain all this week too! I'm just going to start to wear a garbage bag for a dress! we had to go to the ER last week... don't freak out everything is fine! Sister Tuia had a growth growing on her eye and no where else was open so they sent us to the ER. it was really boring and a typical dr visit. we sat there for an hour and a half, the dr comes in and says, " oh ya that is weird, I will give you some eye drops for it but you need to go to the eye dr." and then he walked away. i about died i couldn't believe it. but it was to be expected. last pday we went and ate on the beach with Ariana and her sister Cristina! it was a lot of fun and a beautiful day for sure! (pics will come next week).

As i Iwas studying in Enos this week I realized the great importance for me to step up my game! I too get stuck into ruts sometimes and don't even realize it! verse 12 really stood out to me and helped me to know of what i need to do to become better " and it came to pass that after i had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: i will grant unto thee according to thy desires because of thy faith." From this verse i found three areas i need to improve on 1. Prayer 2. Faith and 3. diligence. I know that as i do this, that the Lord will bless me with the righteous desires of my Heart and that is to brings others unto him through faith, repentance and baptism. I am excited for this week! there are many things that i need to APPLY to become a better representative of Jesus Christ and i am ready to repent and make the changes!
One of the miracles i saw this week was when we were able to meet with a less active part member family and to see evidences of repentance. we taught a lesson on the sabbath day and they all committed to coming to church. the father has been less active for years now. he really opened up during the lesson. we were excited that he accepted to come to church but it really showed as we were walking out the door he said, "sisters, when are you coming back? this sat at 7 works..." we were so happy! he showed a desire to make changes! although their family was not at church yesterday, we know that their is great potential in helping this family become active as well as helping the mother to be baptized!

I cant believe that July is almost half way done! I don't understand how time is going so fast! its a love hate deal. Jake leaves really soon on his mission! I am so proud of him! talking to him each week has really been a blessing for the both of us! We are super close now! Jake is my best friend! He's going to serve a fantastic mission and I am so happy for him! love him every min until he leaves. its what he needs! be patient with him! I'm going to spoil him all I can while he is in the MTC  because i don't think we will be able to send too much to Mexico. Life to me feels like one big dream. Ever since i graduated HS its gone so fast and so much happens! with all that being said though oh how grateful i am for my family, friends and the gospel! my life is so amazing! and i want to share it with everyone! i hope that you have a great week! i know you have a fun one planned! i look forward to hearing about it next week! I love you all forever!

xoxoxo love sister brooke johnson

July 8, 2013

1. mini golf

2. mike and Ariana right before his baptism

3. happy 4th of July. me with sister bean on exchanges

4. raccoon at golf course

hello lovely family,

 

Its been an amazing week. Let me share with you what I can remember as of right now:

 

MIRACLES are every where every day. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to serve. Sister Tuai and I had the great opportunity to see a loved one enter the waters of baptism on Saturday. Mike is incredible! He is 24 so really he should be taught by YSA but we got special permission for many reasons to be able to teach him. Clearly it is what the Lord wanted. We consider him our older brother. He works at a vet place with dogs every day and hates it haha but its a job. He is the youngest in his family. His parents didn't support him in being baptized at all. It was very hard on him. He has become a best friend for sure. He also proposed on Friday night to Ariana who we LOVE! She has been less active for quite a while but Mike has brought her back. Its amazing. She lives in Arizona though and will be leaving Friday to go back. That's another sealing Sister Tuai and I will be able to go to :) Teaching Mike has been a great experience and has helped me to greater understand the atonement. His baptism was one of the most spiritual baptismal services I have ever been to. You could just feel the approval of our Heavenly Father with the decision he had made to be baptized and confirmed. He shared his testimony and with tears streaming down his face he expressed how gratifying it felt to be baptized. He shared his journey in preparing for baptism and how much it has changed his life. On Sunday, he also bore his testimony! it was amazing! He brings the spirit so powerfully with him where ever he goes! What a blessing it is to be a part of such experiences! We also had two of our investigators show up for the baptism that we weren't expecting to come! That was the cherry on top! It was a beautiful day one I will never forget. After the baptism Ariana's family from Arizona who came just for the baptism took us out to lunch to BJs. It was really yummy. I hadn't had that good of strawberry lemon aid for a long time.

 

A few more details on the baptism we had the previous week. We taught German for about 5 weeks. He is from Mexico and speaks little English. Sister tuai who is amazing at Spanish taught most of the lessons. I did what I could. Between his broken English and my broken Spanish we are able to communicate haha. It took so long for him to be baptized because he was living her without ID. So he had to apply for a new visa. Then he had to have his mom whos in Mexico find his birth certificate to send it. After he received both of those things( it took about two weeks) we had to their marriage license (one week process) then they were finally able to be married! He is going to be a great priesthood holder! He is working on the Ft Lauderdale temple right now and we keep telling him that in a year he can be sealed there! He says its beautiful on the inside. He is actually doing the tile in the bathrooms dad. I thought you might find that interesting :)

 

 Now Sister Tuai and I are trying to find more people here. Both the baptisms we have had have been from members. That goes to show the importance of member missionary work. We have a different family feeding us almost every night this month. That's a huge blessing. They also buy us things for our pantry so we are getting well taken care of in this area. Its been a great blessing. There is an Olive Garden right across the street and I still haven't gone! I will sometime soon its my fav so I have to. I still have a meal left of the card dad sent for my birthday. :)

 

Working with all the sisters in our group of sisters can be overwhelming at times. We have a companionship that is really struggling at this time and it gets pretty intense at times. I'm learning a lot from them and have been blessed with the ability to offer council.

 

This past p-day we went mini golfing it was a lot of fun. There were raccoons running all over the course it was random haha. Today we are going to Hollywood Beach with Mike and Ariana for lunch I am looking forward to it. We have another busy week with meetings and trainings. The weeks are just going by way too fast. I cant even keep up with everything. I appreciate hearing from all of your wether its email or mail. its so good to hear whats going on and how every things going. I would love to hear another mission story when you get the time dad! I love those. Well I have to get going we have lots to do today! I love you all so so so much! I look forward to writing next week! I keep you all in my prayers daily! Talk to you soon!

 

with all my love xoxoxoxox

sister johnson

 

July 2, 2013

1. Helping Alicia get ready for the baptism- so fun

2. Me and Sister Tuai, my wonderful comp

3. Temple! I cant wait to go again! 

4.  Sis Sablon and I at specialized training.  It was fun to see all of the sister that are up north!  I miss serving

     with all of them!  It was one big reunion!

5. Baptism- German was so happy! he is always smiling! he is one of the happiest people i have ever met. 

   

6.  Wedding - it turned out so well!  There was so much help from the ward members!  They put together

     all of the decorations and the food!  We are very grateful for their service!

7.  Cutting the cake!  Yay!

8.  my cute rain coat in use its been raining all the time here now

Don't like not having a lot of time to e-mail. I am sorry I was unable to email a lot of info today but thank you so much for your emails mom and dad! It is so good to hear from you both! I want to share with you some pics from the wedding and baptism! It was one of the greatest blessings I've seen on my mission!

i love you so much!

xoxox sis brooke johnson

June 24, 2013

1.  Lunch with the sisters

2.  German and his family!

Hey Johnson Family,

Another week come and gone. Where does time go? I always wonder- it just keeps going, stopping for nothing. That can be bitter sweet sometimes. It sounds like everyone had a wonderful week! Its summer! every day it goes more humid and hott here! man I just melt each day! Its been 100+ each day this past week! ya I know its hard to believe but its true! I had a great week this past week- I learned many many lessons!

The missionary meeting last night was incredible! I am glad you were able to go mom! One of the things that stood out to me was when Pres Packer said,"The greatest teaching is done by a mother..." that is so true! thank you mom for all that you have taught me throughout the years! As well as all that you continue to share with me! I love you mom! at the meeting last night I got to see Santi and Matt! Matt told me that he started his papers yesterday! What a tender moment to see a recent convert progressing so quickly! Matt has incredible desires and he is going to be a solid missionary! I am excited for him! Sacrament meeting was so loud yesterday! There are at least 5 women in our ward who are prego and there are so many families with young kids! They are running every where! I love it! it just makes it a little but difficult on our older investigators but that's okay! ha. We had a lot of miracles yesterday! In the morning we went out to knock on doors and help our investigators get ready for church! to make sure they were up and going! We hadn't seen one of our investigators since Thurs. We stopped by every day and called every day-no response. so we were a little bummed about that but we went there Sunday morning anyways... he wasn't there and didn't answer his phone. So we kept going to all the others. When we got to the church, and walked into sacrament meeting, he was sitting on the back row! He came! and we hadn't seen him for four days! It was such a blessing to see him there! after church he said he felt calm and that he is coming next Sunday! We are going over today to solidify his baptism date! Another miracle was when we found our that our investigator German got his birth certificate in the mail! what a blessing! It came all the way from Mexico! we are planning a wedding and a baptism for him on this Friday! We pray that everything will continue to work out for them! This family is going through a lot and they deserve to have the gospel in their lives! He came to church in a full on suit! He looked great! What a wonderful priesthood holder he will be!

Sister Tuai and I have been playing tennis every morning! Well trying to haha we don't really know how to play we just hit it back and forth! There is a court right by our apartment and so we asked some members if we could barrow their ball and racket! Its been a lot of fun and a great way to get the day started! I got a letter from Sami Newman this past week! The sweetest thing ever! I am going to write her back today! Haile also sent me a letter and in it she included a letter I had written her in 7th grade... I laughed so hard! all I talked about was how cute boys were and basketball. so hilarious! I love that girl.

On exchanges this past week I went to Miami again. I drove in down town Miami. and let me tell you, it was wild! It is def as crazy as everyone says it is! I loved it though! It is ghetto and I love the ghetto! People there are much more humble and they are way cool! I miss serving in a ghetto area some times! I will have to send you a pic of the area I work in now. Its like working in Alpine Utah, big nice pretty houses. I do love this area too and the ward it so much fun!

This past week I have been humbled! I was really struggling this week for a lot of reasons I suppose! I finally asked Heavenly Father to show me my weakness... yesterday as the day went on I realized that what I need to work on right now is being patient. I have been a little stressed, frustrated, and all of the feelings that come from the natural man. So God showed me what I needed to work on! I had a wonderful study about patience yesterday that opened my eyes and that I feel like will help me obtain the Christlike attribute of patience. The sons of Mosiah are a perfect example. They exercised much patience! and because of it they were able to see great success which is found in Alma 26! One of my all time favorite chapters in the book of Mormon!

Over all things are going really well! Next week is transfers so I wont e-mail until Tues! I'm tell you time is going by so fast! Its almost July! It sounds like you are all enjoying the Star Valley sun and pool! Jacob just told me that Kiersten is getting married! wohoo! that's the last of my single girl friends! :) fun stuff! I am happy for her! They are adorable together! I'm a little sad I'm missing her wedding but that's okay! They all will get to come to mine which is exciting!

fam fam I hope you have a great week! I love you all so much! You are the best family ever! I am so grateful for each one of you for so many reasons! I hope you enjoy the pics! take care and keep the faith! I will talk to you next Tues!

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE YOU! sis johnson

June 17, 2013

1. Sis Megos daughters (she is the one dating our investigator)

2. Exchange with Sis Price she is from Rigby, Idaho and she was the first 19 year old sis in our mission

3. This is the family that showed up on Sunday! what a miracle!

Family,

Well, it sounds like you all had a great week! that's always good for me to hear :) my hives have gotten a lot better. I take a Zyrtec every night and I hardly ever  get them now- its rare when I do! Your hair looks great mom and Bri! I am happy that Shine was able to do that for you! She loved doing your hair! I love that pic that you sent! Three of my favorite people! the other pics you sent this week were fun too! All the boys are almost taller than dad! They all look so big and different! Jordan has changed the most I think! I have a lot of fun things to share with all of you this week!

John Denney who plays for the Miami dolphin football team is in our ward! cool right? I thought the boys might like that one! He is really nice! I talked to him before I even knew who he was and then when I found out I was pretty excited! I invited someone to be baptized in Spanish! That was a big moment for me! I am trying to learn but its hard! I know Jake will do great with is because he is called to serve Spanish speaking! Also that's all he will be around so he will pick it up fast! Yesterday Sis Tuai and I got to church about 10min early and NO one was there.. we were a little confused but we set our stuff on the back bench so that we could see all the ward and continue to try to figure out who is who.  About 5 min before the meeting started everyone started walking in. There was an old women who walked up to the bench where we had our stuff and she said, "who's stuff is on my bench? this is where me and my family sit!" I started laughing and told Sis Tuai to go grab our stuff! It was so funny I couldn't believe that she actually kicked us off her bench. We went to a member home the other day and she has a quilting business! prob the only one in Florida haha. I asked her if she had heard of Linda Taylor and she said of course I have! I told her I know her and that shes my neighbor back home! I told the member she should come visit us sometime! She is working on a really cool quilt right now. Its called 100 wishes. But I guess all of the friends and family members send one block of material with there wish on a card then when you look at the quilt you go to a little book that is also made and see the wish that someone made for you! I thought it was cute! a lot of the places where we were are gated so we usually bike in. but yesterday we didn't have our bikes and we needed to get in through the gate. we pulled up and started (one by one) to go through the 5 members we knew in that area. none of them were answering their phones but about on the 4th person to call the guard at the gate said, "you basically know everyone I will just let you in" it was awesome haha. So know we are just going to start naming names to get into places! biking is good it just takes up so much time some times because I am def not a speed biker ha. We at dinner at the Funn's home yesterday it was yummy! We had pork and corn on the cob watermelon and lemon  bars! they are such a cool family! Our ward is awesome. Its like a ward from back home and I am growing to LOVE it! I cant tell you have fast the weeks are going by for me. Because we go on two exchanges a week the weeks are just gone gone gone! i went down to Miami last week! that was a good time. There are so many people down there! traffic is always crazy and everyone is every where! i hope i get to serve there i think it would be a lot of fun! we are currently waiting for our investigator to get his birth certificate from Mexico so that we can have a wedding on fri or sat and then get him baptized! we are praying for miracles! he is engaged to a member and we love their family so much! they are awesome! it was his birthday this week so we bought him a cake and had a party for him! they make the best food too! everything on the grill! mmmmm...

we saw a huge miracles this week! we have been working with a family since we got to the area. we leave commitments with them and they keep them but they weren't coming to church so we weren't sure what to do. this past week we decided not to go and see them. we still called them to invite them to church but they didn't answer. as sister tuai and i were sitting in church guess who walks in...! they did! we hadn't even left a voicemail when we had called! it was such a blessing to see them there! they really enjoyed service and were participating a lot during Sunday school. they family has been though so much lately and they really need the RESTORED gospel in their lives. they lost their granddaughter and are having to take care of their great granddaughter. i know that them coming on Sunday really strengthen my testimony. everything is done on the Lords time! We also had another investigator show up! we found him knocking on doors! I cant even explain the joy that comes to me when i see others coming unto Christ! its the best! Sister Tuai and I are doing great. i am learning so much from her. she brings things to my attention that I didn't even know were things I needed to work on. It goes to show how important communication is no matter what. if she hadn't of told me I wouldn't have been able to change and she still would of been frustrated with me! Wow where would I be with out my mission?!

Thank you so much for the opportunity to serve. This is honestly the best thing that I could ever do (besides having a family someday). I love my mission with all my heart! and I love my family with all my heart too! I hope you all have a fun week! The garden will start to grow and that will be fun to watch!

love love love sister brooke johnson

June 3, 2013

Family,

I love seeing all of the pictures that you send! Everyone is looking great and happy which is what I like to see! Everyone is getting married, getting married, getting married! I am happy for all of them and I love to see their progression! I am glad you were all able to go to Hailee's wedding! It sounds like it was a good experience for her! I miss the temple so much! I cant wait to go again! Oh how sweet that will be! Thank you for the e-mails mom and dad. I love hearing from you and how you are doing! This past week flew by! going on two exchanges a week makes it go by even faster! We didn't go fishing last week but we are today! I am excited! Hopefully I catch something fun! Last week when we were biking and walking we got caught in a HUGE rain storm. There were flash flood warnings. It was crazy. We saw the lightening so we went to a investigators home and we were there for a bit until the storm died down enough for us to go back out and make out way back to the car. We were soaked- I will send pics. I went on an exchange this week with a sister from Australia. It was a lot of fun! I loved her accent! (on a side note my favorite REO speed wagon song is playing right now in the background! "keep on loving you" what a tender mercy haha) anyways.... I learned so much from this sister. She has been saving for her mission for three years. She is really dedicated and I know that she is going to change so many lives out here! Her family is from Samoa and she is so pretty! Exchanges are a blast! They take a lot but its so worth it! We ate dinner with members last night and that was so special! I love working with ward members and getting to know them. our goal here is to really lift and elevate the ward so that they can do the same for others! We also want to gain their trust because a lot of them have non member friends and family so we know that a lot of our work and success lies within the members.

I'm going to do this email a little different than normal because I am low on time. I will tell you about the pics I am sending :)

I love you with all my heart! You are the best family ever. I know Heavenly Father knew exactly what I needed and you are my family FOREVER. What a blessing in which I am so grateful for! I hope you all have a fun last week of school, work and all that jazz! I miss you bunches!

love love love always, sis brooke johnson

xoxoxoxoxoxo

1. Sis Rameriz is a less active member who has been going through a lot of trials and challenges lately. Sis Tuai and I have offered her some service, we helped clean for a bit, and we visit her every week to see if there is anything that we can help with. We are also teaching her parents about the gospel right now. We pray that they will act upon their faith and prepare to be baptized!

2. Sis Aisa she is so much fun. We had a lot of similarities. She is the oldest and has 3 brothers and 1 sister who is adopted! She worked so hard to be here! It makes me even more grateful for all I have been given. She said when I come to visit her that we can play sand volleyball and just "chill" ausy style ha.

3. Sis Rodgers is a new sister as well. We had a great time. We went and got Cold Stone at the end of the night to top it off! I look forward to seeing her grow through her mission and become who she came here to be

4. This is right before the rain storm came. We were already soaked because it was raining. Then it really came down. I love my bike! It is so comfy and helps me get where I need to be!

May 28, 2013

Family,

Well another week come and gone. This week has been really busy for me! New area, new companion, and new responsibilities as a Sister Training Leader. The area is mostly gated so we get to walk or bike into communities to work. So far, so good! We haven't been kicked out yet! The elders that were here about 6 months ago got kicked out of a few, we are doing our best to make sure that doesn't happen! Sister Tuia is incredible! She has a great love for the Savior and a strong desire to work. She is the oldest in her family as well. Her brother is serving in Texas and they get home at the same time in Nov. this year. She is from Cali (right by Disneyland) but her parents are both from Tonga. She's going to teach me how to dance! yaya! as far as sister training leader goes,  I feel an incredibly great responsibility and have wondered why the Lord has called me out of all the 54 sisters in the mission to fulfill this role. I know that I need to push out the fear and have faith in my Savior Jesus Christ who is mighty to save! Sis Tuai and I are over 16 sisters and we are expected to create a vision, goals, plans, and account for and with these sisters. We are on exchanges twice a week and call each companionship twice a week as well. It is a lot, but some how, we will do it. I know that in the strength of the Lord I can do all things! I love my mission with all my heart and I want to do all that I can to fulfill his work! I know that I need to put on the armor of God and press forward with faith. "Awake, my sons(daughter); put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound and forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust." This is one of the many things that I will do to fulfill Gods will. Is put on the WHOLE armor of God. 

I am trying to think of a story I could share there are so many that when I come to write one, they all slip my mind. We saw a lot of blessings this week. We are opening a super nice, rich area but I feel like because we both have come in with a lot of faith that we are going to be able to see many many miracles. We were able to pray with 21 people in 4 days! That's quite a bit especially for this area.  The girl we knocked into who accepted baptism led to a blessing for us. We went back to see her then next day and met her mother. Who come to find out is actually a member and has been less active for a long long time. She is a single mother of 6 kids. She needs the gospel. She needs the atonement. We are working with her family now, trying to get her active and trying to help the daughter become a member. They live 4 blocks down from the church which is nice for them. The trick is helping them see why they need to be there! 

We got fed by a the senior couple that's from Idaho Falls. The Ellis's. They fed us home made chicken pot pie, corn on the cob, jello, and apple crisp. You think i was happy? um YES! :) its nice still being close to the office! I love being spoiled! I forgot my camera at home so I will have to send some more pics next week these are a few from Sis Tuais camera!

 

It has been getting in the 100s here. So hottttttt!!

 

I hope you all have an amazing week! I love you so much! I miss you and pray for you! Talk to you next week!

xoxoxo love sister johnson