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:

Valparaiso! - June 29, 2015

This week was great! Not much out of the ordinary, lots of great lessons we had with the help of the members here. Man i dont know what to write i know stuff happened this week but ill pay more attention this week to write some juicy stories next week! Thanks everyone for the love and support!

We Stayed! - June 22, 2015

This week was great! We started the week off with a family night at the bishops house and two of our investigators went and we made little ´´missionary name tags´´ that had the name of the church and the person and each person had a question that made part of the restoration message and went around answering them and in the end we said ´´ you guys just taught the first lesson all by yourselves so now go do it for a friend! ´´ and everyone there got a pamphlet to give to someone and pass us their contact info! It was super fun.

I realized that my dad, brother, and I are all ´´Elder Johnston´´ its pretty sweet, keepin the family name! An elder in our district went home because it was the end of his mission and it was tough to say goodbye to him he was here when i got here in Brazil and hes super nice and funny his name is Elder Laurentino.

One of our investigators who had gone to church and accepted a baptismal date but then after wasnt answering our calls and never was home was on the street and after like 3 weeks of not being in contact with him we found him! His car was stolen and his cellphone was in the car along with some other things and thats why he wasnt answering and it was hard to find him but after 3 weeks we finally got to talk to him! Man it was great, hes coming with us to a family night tonight at a members house! So that was a mini miracle of the week.

Yesterday a married couple who are both return missionaries and another return missionary in our ward had a division with us and we went to go teach and preach and do what missionaries do! It was ´´just power´´ as brazilians would say, 5 missionary/return missionaries out to go spread the gospel, it was as if we were the Avengers of the missionary work here in Valparaiso, we marked 3 baptismal dates! So that was super great

I never thought things like this would bring me such happiness but its amazing what the gospel of Jesus Christ does to a person, honestly ive never been happier in my life, sure i miss home sometimes and my fam and friends all you guys but i know that this work is the work of Jesus Christ our savior, and I know that we need to help other people know that this gospel has been restored to its fullness again on the earth!

Thanks for everything guys, have an awesome week!

Photos
On the roof of an apartment where we had a bar ba que with a member and his neighbors and then taught the restoration!
At the transfer i met with all my old companions it was so great to see them again!