Last Change

What's up everybody!  I had a pretty good week, not too much went down.  I had to go to Trujillo on Monday and we didn't get back until Wednesday due to our training, my doctor's appointment and traveling.  Everything went good.  The doctor told me that I have to rest but we all know that he's out of his mind and that ain't happening!  I got out of him what I wanted, which was that I will be fine to wait until I get home to get everything taken care of, so yeah--I got the green light to go ham in my LAST CHANGE in the mission!  It's pretty crazy, honestly, today I officially start my last change and I'm ready to go ham.  Yesterday were the changes and everything here in Casma is basically staying the same which I'm very happy about.  Entering into this change, I have a lot of goals that I want to reach before I finish my mission.  I know I can reach them!  We are teaching a family that is super sick and some other people that are pretty solid.  So, we will see how all of that goes in this change.

Anyways, I honestly don't have too much to report today, other than I am super pumped to talk to you guys on Monday!  It will be a bitter sweet call.  I am looking forward to it.  I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.  I know Christ lives.  I love the Christmas spirit and the blessings that we have during this time!

I love you all, have a good, safe week!

Love,
Elder Johnsoncito

Some of his email to Denise:

I am super excited to Skype with everyone next week.  I am pumped to see Kaden.  He is a stud.  My home, Elder Amosa, went home today.  Pretty crazy!  He is the man, he lives in the Provo area.  He is Samoan and was one of my main homies here in the mission.  Crazy to think that I am next, ahhhhh.  Today we got permission to watch Elf--that was weird seeing a movie.  I can honestly say I don't have too much desire to go home and watch movies and stuff.  I'm thankful for that.  I have goals to just keep waking up early and taking advantage of my time and making good use of it.  We will see how that goes.  I love you, Mom!  I can't wait to see you next week!

CHEEEEEEHOOOOOOOOO!
Elder Johnson

"I'll Be Home for Christmas" NOT!

Hey everybody, I hope that you all had a good week.  My week was honestly pretty slow.  We are in the process of strengthening the members so that they can fellowship and take care of our investigators.  It is a process, but we are making some progress.  My companion and I are becoming homies with all of the members and little by little we are seeing progress in the branch.  About a month ago there were 15 to 20 at church for Sacrament meeting but now we are having about 40 to 50 attend which is really good for us to see.  As I said, it is a process, but we are seeing blessings from visiting the members.

So earlier this week, I had a little scare.  For about two months, I have been having some problems with the surgery that I had before I came on my mission.  The scar from the surgery has been giving me problems lately and has been super swollen and has made everything pretty uncomfortable.  On Tuesday, the scar burst open from being too swollen so instantly the song, "I'll be home for Christmas, you can count on me" came into my mind.  Honestly, I was pretty stressed that I would have to miss out on my last transfer here on the mission and come home next week, but luckily I talked to the area doctor and she told me that everything would be fine and that I can wait and finish my mission before I get everything taken care of.  I am actually going to Trujillo tomorrow to go to a training with my companion and while I'm there, I'm going to go to the doctor to get some medicine and get everything taken care of.

This cholo is still alive and I'm gonna mob until the end!  Nothing really went down this week.  I'm gonna go ball up in soccer today for p day.  My nickname is the Wall of Trump because I don't let any of the latinos score any goals!  I have become an animal as a goalie because I can't kick the ball due to ingrown toenails.  ha ha--I hope you all have a good week!

Love you guys,

Elder Johnson

#IluminaElMundo

Hey everybody!  I had a pretty good week, not too much went down but I was still able to learn a lot which is always a blessing.  I feel really grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ this Christmas season.  I know He lives and that He loves me and all of you.

This week, we had a multizone Conference in Chimbote which was really good.  President Rios is awesome.  I look up to him so much.  He is one of the best examples to me because he is all in and has such a great desire to share the gospel with everybody.  In the meeting, he started everything out by talking about older generations and how back in the day they used to baptize way more than they do now.  He asked the question, Why?  Everybody was saying what they thought and then President went on to say that it's because we are in the fulfillment of times, we are in the last days and the world is becoming more and more wicked daily.  It made me realize how important this work truly is and how all of us have the responsibility to help others come unto Christ.  Obviously, President wasn't saying we can't baptize but what he was saying is that the signs are clearer today than they have ever been before in the history of the earth that we are in the last days.

I wanted to tell you guys this so that it can be a motivation for you to LightTheWorld this Christmas season.  Trust in the Lord.  Have faith in Him by watching the videos and doing the activities that have been released by the church.  It is an opportunity to have less and love more, as President Uchtdorf said last night in the Christmas Devotional.

To close, I just want to share a scripture that has been on my mind this week, it says:

But, behold, faith cometh not by signs, but signs follow those that believe.

It is my testimony that by acting on our faith, God will bless us with signs that He lies.  You can come to know Him personally and what better way than doing His will this Christmas season by lighting the world with Christ's love that is infinite.  I love my Savior and am going to do my part to share this gospel and light with those who don't have it this Christmas season.

I love you guys and hope that you all have a good week!

Elder Johnson
#IluminaElMundo

Happy Thanksgiving

What's up everybody?  I hope that you all had a good week with the fam and a good time pounding some turkey.  I guess that you could say that I got close to eating turkey.  I will let you all guess what that is.  The only thing that I gotta say is that I have eaten that 2 times and I about threw up both times.  It was absolutely disgusting, pero bueeeeeno caballero no mas (but good gentlemen no more).  I couldn't do anything about it.  I hope that you all had a good weekend.

"Turkey"--Bull Testicles (Ceviche)

This week for me was very busy.  I was busy traveling the whole time and didn't have much time to proselyte or anything.  I had to go to a place called San Jacinto which is an hour away from my area to do a baptismal interview.  That place is the hood!  It's in the middle of absolutely nowhere, but it was a good experience.  I felt the spirit so strong as I was able to feel the spirit of this convert's testimony.  After that, I took advantage of the time to do an interchange with a new missionary who is serving there and brought him to my area.  We went ham and got some big things done in little time.  We invited this guy to be baptized on the 8th of December and I feel solid about it.  Pray for Victor Raul so he can obtain a testimony.

After that, I had a surprise trip to the temple.  We went with our branch and it was awesome.  We chilled in the temple all day long and actually I just dedicated my time in the baptistry.  I actually got to baptize in the baptistry and it was a very spiritual experience.  I was very happy to have been able to go to the temple.  I also got to see my old ward in Trujillo at the temple, I was very happy to see everyone.

This week was awesome.  I am very thankful to be a missionary.  I love this work and the people in Peru.  I love you guys and pray that you have a good week.  Don't forget the #ILUMINAeIMUNDO starts this week...do what the church has provided to be able to feel the beautiful Christmas spirit.

Love you guys,
Elder Johnson

RUSIA 2018

What's up everybody?  I hope that you all had a good week.  I had a good week.  Not too much went down.  we focused a lot on working with the members this week.  I am serving in a branch and for the past month there have been about 15-20 people going to Sacrament meeting.  It has been pretty stressful so we are focusing a lot on the members and strengthening them.  The mission leader and the two counselors to the Branch President are less active so it makes things kind of stressful.  I know I am here for a reason and my companion and I are going to make things happen.

The atmosphere here for the Peru game was unreal.  The people here are absolutely crazy!  Because they won they had a holiday basically and nobody went to work (because they were too drunk ha ha), it was awesome.  It will be good to see my boys in the World Cup in Russia.

Aside from that, this week was super chill.  I was able to learn a lot and reflect on all of the things that I have learned in my mission.  I am grateful for the change that has taken place in me and in my life.  I love the gospel and the light and joy it brings into my life.  I love you guys and hope you have a good week.

Elder Johnson

How Do You Know You Know?

Hey everybody, I hope you all had a good week.  My week was awesome.  I got my new companion, his name is Elder Chova and is from Bolivia Santa Cruz.  He is 25 years old and we are out here mobbing.  There is definitely a difference between a 18 and a 25 year old ha ha!  He is super mature and I have found that it helps us work a lot more diligently.  He is a stud though.  I feel bad though, while he was in the MTC, his mom passed away so straight out of the gate he has to rely so firmly on the Atonement of Christ.  It is difficult, but I admire him and am learning a lot.

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures today.  I don't have a cord for my camera but next week, I will hit it up!  Anyways, I actually had an awesome experience on Tuesday when I went to Trujillo to pick up my new companion.  In the morning, we had a little training with Presidente Rios and the assistants and after we went and ate lunch in this rich part of town in Californa.  To my surprise, I found two GRINGAZOS!  I found two American dudes eating there and so I took advantage of the opportunity and contacted them.  I can honestly say that I sounded absolutely ridiculous trying to testify and teach in English, ha ha, but I am confident that the Spirit was there.  I talked to these two guys, Spencer and Joe and they happened to be missionaries for a Christian church.  I testified to them about the Book of Mormon.  I just explained what the Book of Mormon is and testified of its truth and how it would bless their lives.  They seemed to be super interested and had a bunch of basic questions that the church and Book of Mormon has answers to.  So, long story short, I was able to answer all of their questions and before I had to go, Joe said to me, "I don't want to offend you, but I know that the Book of Mormon isn't true and that all that we need to know is the Bible, but I would like to say a prayer right now and ask God to manifest it's truth to us....so he offered a prayer and I left but after that I just thought about that experience---I thought to myself, how could he possibly say that the Book of Mormon isn't true, if he hasn't ever attempted to read it?  How could he say that HE KNOWS!  I learned a great lesson that day.  We have a gift and that gift is the spirit that can manifest ALL truth.  We can have an experience with a celestial being that manifests all truth known to mankind.  I know the Book of Mormon is true.  I KNOW because the Spirit has manifested it to me.  I invite you all to read the Book of Mormon and act on the celestial invitation in the introduction.  I know if we apply the steps to obtain a testimony and if we humble ourselves we WILL receive a testimony.

My testimony is the biggest blessing and will bless my life forever.  I love the gospel and the blessing I have to invite others to come unto Christ.

I love you guys and hope that you have a good week and remember PORQUE YO CREO EN TI, VAMOS VAMOS PERU! (Peru is playing to go to the World Cup this week)

Elder Johnson

Still Small Voice

Hey everybody!  I hope and pray that you all had a good week  I had a good week, it was honestly pretty slow, not too much went down.  I said goodbye to Elder Hernandez the other day.  He was a stud.  I had so much fun with him and he taught me so much.  It really prepared me for this next change and I am super motivated to continue working.  I am super motivated to give everything I have in this training and help others come unto Christ.  I feel really confident and ready to put into practice all that I have learned on my mission.  I honestly am super excited and humbled to be able to train starting this week.  I will pick up my new companion tomorrow.

So, this week, I learned one of the most valuable lessons of my whole mission.  I had an experience, I'm not going to go into too much detail, but all I can say is that I KNOW that God communicates to us if we are worthy and willing to HEAR Him.  I had an experience on Friday, where I felt a prompting that was so subtle but so clear at the same time.  I was able to witness one of the greatest miracles, tender mercies of my life.

That experience reminded me of Amulek in the Book of Mormon when he said that he had been called a lot of times, but he didn't want to hear.  I have set a goal to act on every prompting that I feel because I know through obedience to those whisperings--some of the greatest miracles happen.  I invite you all to HEAR our Father in Heaven and act according to the heavenly guidance that He gives us.

I love you all and pray that you have a good week.

Elder Johnson