Sunday, September 27, 2015

Awesome week! - September 21, 2015

Elder George is my comp now hes so awesome! Super funny and already speaks Portuguese very well! I am amazed at how much he has learned in such little time. Right now we are in a trio here in Jardim Ingá with Elder Kenneth as our district leader its a blast! Yesterday Gabriella and Uelton were baptized and Elder George performed the oridance for Gabriella! We played soccer today and everything has just been good here. Thanks for the emails everyone!



Elder Johnston...Trainando! - September 14, 2015

This week was great and sad at the same time. My comp Elder Almeida finished his mission and went home to Rio Grande Do Sul! Hes a great dude Im going to miss him alot. Also I am going to train a new missionary! His name is Elder George from the states Im not sure where yet. Tomorrow is when Im going to meet him. Im super excited! Thanks everyone for everything I wont send photos this week because this computer is full of viruses. Love you all!

Baptism Week! - August 31, 2015

Francisco and his family were baptized! Wooh!! Also Christina and her grandson Ricardo, and Pedro the brother of a recent convert. The other companioship had one baptism as well so that made a grand total of nine baptisms on Sunday! It was so great the meeting and ordinances were just full of the spirit. The mission president President Lundgren and his wife Sister Lundgren came to the baptisms to watch and support it was so great! In Enos theres a scripture I think its verse 27 which practically tells us that preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ brings us more joy than anything else in the world and I know this to be true because everything here is just temporary. Thanks to Christ and God´s plan for our happiness, we can be together with our families forever and thats why we need to tell people how! Its through the simple steps of the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

     Not much else to report this week, thanks everyone for the emails and I hope you all know how much God loves you each and every one. Stay close to him no matter what, in times of hardships and the good times. Love you all!



















August 24, 2015

No email, just photos





Jardim Inga - August 3, 2015

New area! Jardim Inga, and new companion, Elder B. Almeida. Were both new to the area, the president took out the last companionship here so were pretty much starting from zero! Its going to be great I´m super excited.

      There was a conference of the mission it was great. Here are some of the last pictures I took with the members of Valparaiso, so sad to leave them on a whim like that! There was an activity in the ward of water balloon volleyball that was fun to watch we of course didnt participate. Also one of my mission buddies Elder Milsap finished his mission. We had a lot of splits this week with the young men of the ward.








July 27, 2015

No email, just photos:







July 20, 2015

This week 7 of our investigators went to church! That was definitely the highlight of the week for me it was so great to see all these people seeking God and making an effort to get to church! We had a zone meeting it was super great, very inspirational.

One day we went to a investigators house and they had company over but invited us in gave us food and all of their family was there like cousins and uncles so we left a message with everyone, got some addresses and numbers and now we have a lot of people to teach! This kind of stuff would never happen in the U.S., they just let us in on their family party without batting an eye Brazilians are so awesome!

My Mother sent me a package it was full of goodies including an awesome shirt form Greece!

We saw a motor cycle accident but the guy was okay his tire just poped and he slid like 50 feet on the asphalt but had a lot of thick clothing on so he was alright phew

Well thats pretty much it, thanks everyone have an awesome week!




I'm just going to start writing- July 13, 2015

Hey everyone! This week was great, a little miracle that happened this last week is that after lunch, we asked the members if there was anyone to visit closeby and they pointed out a persons house that they had stopped coming to church so we went there and started talking with the family everyone has already been baptized and one of the boys his name is Abel was preparing for a mission but stopped going to church because of work and school and when we went that day he had Dengue which is a fever transmitted by mosquitos which is super painful. Anyways we left a message with them got to know them more, and on Sunday Abel and his two brothers went to church after like years of not going! He told us that after we left he took a nap and when he woke up the Denque was gone and he was cured! So he thanked us alot for visiting him and he acredits the visit to his curing.

A member here got his call to Provo Utah! Hes awesome his name is Pedro, and he always goes on splits with us so when Elder Bond and I get back were going to go on splits with him! This time he will be the missionary and the lessons will be in English!

Everyone has got the kite fever, this time of year apparently the weather is perfect to fly kites, there are always like 30 kids flying them in the streets and fields its pretty funny because the thug-adolescents who are like 20 years old are flying kites side by side with the little kids, everyone has a kid in them! They always say to each other ´´vamos voar pó!´´ Or ´´ Lets fly dude!´´´

The other day a bird pooped on Elder Bond´s head.

We were ´´street contacting´´ as some would say and a lady stopped us asked us if we were Mormon we said yes and then she invited us in to her house to give a blessing to her husband, we did and then marked to come back she has a Book of Mormon already and said ´´I love reading that book its so good!´´

When we were going to a members house to do some visits with him a random car drove by and someone shouted at us ´´GO HOME!`` in english too so we just started laughing uncontrolably and gave a thumbs up to the guy and he laughed and did the same it was hillarious! People here are so nice even this guy he was just messing around with us

Seriously the hardest part about the mission is thinking of the people that I could have helped/taught/invited to church before I came here, we dont have to go to foreign lands to teach the gospel, I honestly feel so sad with these regrets, but I know that helping these people here in Valparaiso I will children of God the true meaning of this life. Everyone reading this, go visit a friend that needs your help, especially if they have already come to know of the truth but have fallen away from it. Like this Abel that I talked about, he just needed a visit and an invite and now hes preparing for his mission!! Don´t have these same regrets I have!

Thank you everyone for the emails have an awesome week!


Pics
A mac dough close to home
A huge pot of ´´Feijoada´´ soooo yummy!
Futebol de verdade


July 6, 2015

No email, but some photos: