Thankful to be in Cabedelo!

Monday, December 17, 2012

So we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving Day here in Brazil but I celebrated by listing 100 things I’m grateful for.  I’ve started doing this all the time now during some long, hot days, and it really works!  Thinking of all the blessings I have makes me want to serve others more.  I’ve been given so much, that I am happy to share this gospel with others.  I am only here for 18 months, and I hope I can learn Portuguese well enough to be able to express to these people how much I love Jesus Christ and His gospel.  The people here were promised that they would hear the gospel in their own language.  Então... this is what I´m doing, and it is such an honor.

This week was amazing.  One day started out not too good at first when one of our lunches fell through.  We have to pay Reals$ 5 to travel there and back and so we were bummed when the lady wasn´t answering the door.  We went to the house of another member but they weren´t their either. What a bummer!  Before returning home to eat we decided to stop by the house of a menos ativo.  She was painting and too busy to hear our message but she told us to visit her daughter who lived next door.  It was hot and we were hungry--but my companion wanted to visit this reference first.  Ok... let´s visit one last person.  

It turned out to be the greatest visit ever! The lady was super welcoming, her house was clean and she totally wanted to learn about the gospel.  And she is a cook for the people on the boat! Lunch was delicious! We totally talked to her and her 18 year old daughter  about how when we are following the Savior and God’s commandments in all things we are always exactly where the Lord wants us to be.  There is nothing that isn´t guided by him when we´re doing what´s right.  And when something goes wrong it´s either to for us to encontrar or help a person who needs our message/our light or some sort of learning experience we needed to have ourselves.

Cabedelo really is a beautiful port town.  Since I’m new here I still see something new and different that is different than in the United States.  This week I saw (and heard) a Volkswagen Bug truck with big speakers driving through the town announcing someone’s death and giving their obituary over the loudspeakers.

At one house we visited, the girls were watching Barbie pop star.  They sang the songs “Girls just want to have fun”  and “Perfect Day” in Portuguese :) it was really fun to hear it in their language :)

Love you sooooo much!  Thank you all for everything,  Love, Sister Johnson

I´m happy being a missionary and planting seeds of the gospel!  It´s so much more fun to think about how I'm doing good by being a representative of Jesus Christ, bearing testimony, saying prayers, doing service.  I love teaching people to do Family Nights, and how to grow closer to Christ.  And when people are ready to hear more, give them more.  But I always try to share what I have by testifying of what I believe in wherever I go.  I will do that more eu testifico!!! vou fazer isso! 

Irmão husband of Irmã played Sudoku with me!  Or well I taught him!  It was awesome!  They´re the older (60 or 70) year old couple that has us over every Sunday night-but we pass by a lot more than that.  I love them.  They told me and my companion, if anybody says that you´re invited over for Christmas Eve dinner, say that you have another commitment.  Todo mundo está na casa deles todos os domingos :) eu amo o la.  Onde eu sinto o mais amor. I made brownies for everyone Sunday night--it was really fun. 

There are many beautiful horses and donkeys roaming wild.

Also, next week is our mission Natal!!! (Natal means Christmas)  I´m so excited!  We´ll get to pick up more letters again! :) 

Tchau ! Tchau! I miss you like crazy, sempre!!!

Juntos Para Sempre!

We showed the video "Juntos Para Sempre" which means "Together Forever" to a family we are teaching, and it made me homesick for the United States and my family!  But while watching it, I also realized more my purpose for being out here.  Leaving our families for a short time, to help others be Juntos Para Sempre!

For Noite Familiar (Family Night) I taught a family how to play our Johnson game, Headbands!  We used clothespins to stick the cards on peoples heads.  It's still really hard for me to speak Portuguese, but I'm able to get across more and more each day.  It's super hot here - 90 degrees with high humidity, and the many mosquito bites are itchy, but then there's fun things like, sugar from real sugar cane - like the Bamboo.  You cut off a piece and drink the juices, Yum!

We encountered many people this week who were ready to hear the gospel.  One lady already had a Book of Mormon and when we entered her house she had a "pass a long card" in one of her picture frames.  Another man/boy (around 23 I think) rode up on his motor scooter and asked if we were from "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."  He asked tons of questions because he had looked us up on Mormon.org!  Another man said he was Catholic and has felt there's "something missing in his life."   When we taught him about Joseph Smith's first vision, and he cried when we sang Joseph Smith's first prayer. 

One man that we have been teaching finally got baptized!  He comes to church and likes the restoration story and reads the Book of Mormon.  When we invited him to pray, he said he wanted to get baptized!  We invited him to get baptized on Sunday, and he counted on his fingers: 1,2,3,4,5 days...Ok!  So on the baptismal day, we forgot we had to clean the baptismal font.  So we ran over early, cleaned it and filled it up with buckets of water.  It usually takes 3 hours to fill and we only had 1.5 hours.  But nos consequimos!!!