Barcelona Mission: (Zaragoza) Week-14 2012

We are doing really well here in Zaragoza and are busy with a lot of work with a lot of great investigators. One miracle story that happened this week was very special for at least me personally.  Two weeks ago while sitting on a bus, a man told me he was an inactive member of the church. We set up a cita with him. He took us to the warehouse where he lives off of the freeway. It was a big yard with a lot of open land. He began to tell us his conversion story and shared with us his favorite scripture. It was found in Doctrina y Convenios and it talked about how angels are sent to help gather the lost ones. He said he was lost and needed to find his way back. It was incredible and we sang a song and shared some scriptures. He was very active in the Church back in Colombia over ten years ago and was even the Elder´s Quorum President! Our main message to him was that God loves him. He said he was supposed to meet a friend on the day that I sat next to him on the bus. He said he was supposed to get off at a different stop but then saw us come on. He said a prayer that one of the five of us would choose to sit next to him.  With tears in my eyes I let him know that it wasn´t by chance that we met and that this is his time to come back to Church. The members need him and he needs the members. I have really gained a testimony of the power of prayer and of our individual worth in the eyes of our Heavenly Father. He loves each of us so much and is always watching over us. He answers our prayers, always.

I love my companions and I admire them in so many ways. Hermana Yabeta´s conversion story is amazing and her testimony about specific doctrinal points always touches my heart. She is an incredible girl. Hermana Reeder is so good at supporting her companions. One thing I have noticed that she always does, is backs up what one of us is saying. For example, "Como mi companera ha dicho..." This is a huge example for both of us. We love each other!

We have two fechas:
Engracia from Angola, Africa, whose first language is Portuguese. She is around 50 years old and has two children (and I think some others that she never talks about). One daughter took her own life 5 years ago and the other is living in Barcelona. It´s interesting because Engracia talked to Sister Missionaries 9 years ago but it didn´t go anywhere. Now here she is so ready and prepared to be baptized on August 3rd. She has come so far and we are so excited for her! She is the one who walked into the Church on a Saturday and luckily Bro.and Sis. Church(our senior couple) were there to invite her to Church the next day. What a miracle!

Manuel is from Nicaragua and has a lot of faith and a strong desire to learn more. He is around 45 years old and has three children that live with his "wife" (they are not married) who all live in Nicaragua. He sends money to them and talks with them often. His fecha is for August 4th.

John, a recent convert, is doing great. He was the one who kept commenting in our Gospel Principles class. He's been a great missionary and helped his friend, Pius, get baptized. We are trying to find Pius at the moment...he has disappeared and we are actually pretty worried for him.

I really love our new Mission President and his wife and didn't want them to leave Zaragoza! I can tell they have a lot of love for us Missionaries and they have such strong testimonies.  President Pace is tall 6´4 and has big hands that envelope your hand, when he shakes your hand. His pointer finger on his left hand is crooked at the end...from playing volleyball!!! We talked about volleyball in my interview and he related it to the Mission. He brainstormed all of the lessons that I have learned from being on sports teams that are now helping me as a Missionary. He related the healing of my hand to the healing power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was a great interview with him and he wants to support us in any way he can. His wife is amazing and we took her home with us and made her lunch. Then she went out with us to our lesson with Engracia. She is trying so hard to learn Spanish and is doing well. She cries everytime she bears her testimony-it is so powerful. They both are amazing and are angels sent from God. I love them so much already and am so happy that I will get to know them better the next 8 months of my life. I cried when they left the chapel because it was so wonderful to have them here. J

There is so much to tell you but so little time because I need to get off so Hermana Yabeta can get on (she wasn´t able to get a library card so she has to sit here and wait to use our time slots).

I tried Paella for the first time and really liked it. We ate it with one of my favorite families...whose daughter is going to the San Jose California Mission!

Glad to hear Dawn is hanging in there with her broken elbow, and I'm sending her birthday card today.

I love you and have to go!!! I pray for you every day. I know with all my heart that this Church is true and that prayer is so powerful so we need to pray every day! It has changed my life.

Love,

Laura

Laura & companions with new Mission President Mark Pace and wife (Anne Marie).  Their first meeting in Zaragoza.

Laura & Spanish member after opening mission call to San Jose, California

Laura and Hermana Reeder and "mini" Missionary from Brazil Hermana Yebeta at El Pilar - Basilica

Barcelona Mission: (Zaragoza) Week-13 2012

This was a good week, though a little wild just because of having five girls in one piso. We also did a few intercambios this weekend, taking advantage of the opportunity to learn from each other and to work together with one another. We had many little miracle stories this week between the five of us.

One of the miracles was when I sat down on the bus next to this man.  We had been contacting hard and walking around all day in the heat. I was a little tired to say the least. But it was neat because this man said hello to me and smiled. He then told me that he was a member but not active. He started telling me about his situation and how he has been not active for 10 years!  He told me that he lives here by himself and that two weeks ago, he just started to read his Principios del Evangelio book every night to prepare to come back to church. His main reason for not coming this last Sunday, even though we invited him was that he didn´t know anyone there anymore. It was just really neat that he contacted me!  That never happens so it was great. We bore testimony to him of God´s love and he was so grateful to hear our testimonies. It was a really neat experience-one of the many little miracles that happened this last week.

I love my companion Hermana Reeder SO much. She is wonderful and has such a strong testimony and sincerely cares about the people around her. She likes to laugh things off which helps me a TON. When we are struggling and things aren´t going well, we just laugh for no reason but rather just to relieve the stress. It´s fun and it really helps us move on from the trial we are facing. I really enjoy being with her.

We also have a new companion, Hermana Yabeta. She is wonderful and we are so blessed to have her with us. She does really well at contacting and has energy and animo which helps motivate us and she´s a great example in many aspects. She is often found studying the Libro de Mormon in her down time. So happy she is with us!

Our fechas are:
-Jorge de Colombia. He has some family in Ecuador and some family here. His baptismal date is for this Saturday and he has asked our amazing Ward Mission Leader, Sergio, to baptize him. He is around 45 years old.

-Manuel de Nicaragua. He doesn´t have family here and his pareja and hijos live in Nicaragua. .His fecha is for this Sunday because he needs to go to church twice. He has a big heart and loves learning. He is also around 45 years old.

-Engracia de Angola, Africa. She is amazing and we love her so much. We often go visit her because she lives alone and lost a daughter five or so years ago. She has enormous faith.  She is around 40 years old and her fecha is for the 4th of August.

Our most recent convert is Pius de Nigeria, Africa. His wife and children are living in a pueblo near Pamplona. One of his children is sick so I know that he is very worried about this so because of that we haven´t been able to get in contact with him all week and he didn´t come to church. :(

We are trying our hardest here. There are a lot of things we can do better and that we need to repent of. But overall, we are doing well and loving having our mini Missionary. I love being here and my hand is practically back to normal-coloring and all. The skin is slowly growing back. It doesn´t hurt anymore and I just make sure to put a lot of sunscreen on it and drink a lot of water! I always have a water bottle with me. It has been great to have the help of all of these other Hermanas for our area.

It is VERY HOT here and we try to keep cool.  I love being here and we have lots of baptisms coming up. Still love and appreciate the mail from everyone and the e-mails...thanks Uncle Bruce.

I'm still always praying for you and hoping you are doing well.

Love,
Hermana Johnson

Sister Missionaries, Sis Church (Sr. Missionary)
At church with Engracia from Africa who is getting baptized in August and a member,
Laura from Agentina

Sister Missionaries on P-Day

Barcelona Mission: (Zaragoza) Week-12 2012

Hi! I miss you a lot. Sorry this week is going to be a short e-mail as well. A lot of things have been happening. It was great that Pius got baptized last week! We are working towards other baptisms this week.

It is great to have the other two Sisters here helping out our area.  Hermana Cozzolino is from Argentina but has been living in the Canary Islands the past 10 years. She is great – I love her!  Hermana Walker is fun too!  We are doing really well together.  They will be leaving the 16th to go back to Pamplona.

Got a call from the ayudante (assistant) and he informed us that we will be having a mini Missionary coming this week to join Hermana Reeder and I-so we will be in a trio-my first trio!  She is coming from the Vitoria Stake --- the area northwest of us, close to Sea of Biscay.  I don't know her name or much about her...she is probably 18 or 19 years old and will be staying with us for about 2 months.  We have to train her because she has no MTC experience and no setting apart.  It will be interesting, and we don´t even know when she is coming; if it is today or tomorrow or sometime this week.  We are kind of stressing about it because we have a busy week but we will see what happens.

I love you all and miss you a lot. Things are going well here, and I have been kind of sick and staying in a lot this week, but thankfully we have the other two Sisters here so the work is moving forward.  It is hot here!

I love you all so much I know that this gospel is true.  Press forward. I love you all and pray for you always.

All my love,
Laura

Two companionships outside a new Peggy Sue's Diner

Barcelona Mission: (Zaragoza) Week-11 2012

I hurt my left hand(long story, tell you later) so I'm typing with one hand so this will be short, sorry.....

First of all, the Paces, our new Mission President and wife are wonderful!  I love them already!  They are younger and have great spirits.  It will be a dramatic change from the Hinckleys in many ways but we are excited!! .  Hermana Pace wants to go out with us sometime while we do our lessons, which will be nice.

Second of all, we had a baptism!!!!  Pius Osamuyimen Odia from Nigeria. He was wonderful and it was great. I will tell you more about it someday.

Third of all, I love being here in Zaragoza and I love the members and we will be having a lot more baptisms soon I believe. J

Fourth of all, it is the running of the bulls festival in Pomplona these next 10 days so the Hermanas serving there are staying with us here in Zaragoza. They are coming tomorrow so we will for sure give them work to do and are grateful for the help.

Fifth, I loved all the emails I got last week. Thanks Uncle Bruce.

Again, I hope all is well with you. I love and pray for you always.

I know my Redeemer lives and that He suffered for us individually and He knows how we feel when we are in pain. He knows how to help us in whatever way we need his help. I am so grateful for Him and love Him so much.

Have a good week.

Love, Laura

Laura with companion Hna. Reeder on her 22nd Birthday.

Spain flag given to Laura by the Elders for her Birthday

Laura celebrating her birthday at the Senior Missionary couple's home in Zaragoza, Spain

Celebrating birthday with the Wolfart Familyy home in Zaragoza

Pius (from Africa) baptism - by Laura

John Crecent convert as of April 2012 next to Hna. Reeder

Laura's District - last picture with Pres. Clark Hinckley and wife before they get released.

Barcelona Mission: (Zaragoza) Week-10 2012

What a wild week this last week and wild week to come up this week.  Life is sure exciting and I am just trying to take it one day at a time!  I have so much to tell you and so little time-like usual, but a lot more things going on. It sure is a wonderful life being a missionary here in the great Spain Barcelona Mission.

Monday – We went to the pueblo with Abel and Maria Jesus.  It seems like a decade ago!

Tuesday – Hermana Reeder woke up with a weird kind of reaction on her skin.  It´s a super long story. We also went over to our dueno´s house (landlord) and we made his daughter Natalia her very first smoothie. She got her wisdom teeth pulled to finish her mission papers (!) and we surprised her with her very first smoothie. She loved it!

Wednesday – We called up Abel and he met us at the clinic where his wife, Maria Jesus, works to get an appointment with the doctor for Hermana Reeder.  We also had many lessons throughout these days. We have so many lessons every day. We are so busy-I LOVE IT! I love being busy and teaching these amazing people --- super big bummer though, because our AMAZING investigator, Angela, is moving to a pueblo this week. L  We are SO sad. The thing is; the pueblo is still in our area.  If you look at a map of Zaragoza the line dividing the 2 branches is oddly positioned because it is not quite down the middle of the city.  So we sisters have the huge area with like 6 pueblos all ranging from an hour to 2 hours bus rides, and then the elders have the other branch and the 4 of them have tiny areas. It’s super interesting the way it is set up; with 4 elders in the first branch and us 2 sisters in the second branch.  So Angela is still in our area.  If we wanted to we could go out to the pueblo to teach her, but we are not sure yet what we should do.

Thursday – We were at the Church´s house at 7:30am to jump in their car and drive to Lleida for our last Zone Conference with Pres. Hinckley and his wife. The drive was nice-I slept the whole way; even up to the arrival when the next thing I know, an elder is opening my door for me in the parking lot at the church – (haha). It was a wonderful conference. We received spiritual direction in the morning and then had a luncheon with everyone (they all sang Happy Birthday to me J ).  Then the second hour was very neat because the President told us all about the transition of mission presidents.  He told us that as soon as they get to the train station to pick up President Pace and his wife, President Hinckley will give him the cell phone and that will be the official release of Pres. Hinckley as mission president and the official start of President Pace´s mission. Then he went on to tell other details about that first day and about his experience with his first week or so as mission president. It was SO interesting to hear about it! They are sad to leave, but ready (in my opinion).  Both Pres. Hinckley and his wife were teary eyed often during our conference. It was bitter sweet. It was also neat because President informed us that the only thing Pres. Pace knows about us is that we are the perfect, most amazing missionaries in the world.  The President then encouraged us to really think about that statement and to consider making adjustments in our lives so that we could fulfill that standard. He asked us to think about things we could do better and things we needed to improve so that we could become the perfect missionaries that we want to be and that Pres. Pace thinks we are. I really liked that and it really made me think a lot. I am not the perfect missionary and there is SO many things I need to improve in my life. I am going to take him up on that offer. J  I am excited to work a little harder and to be a little better.

Friday – MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was really a good day. Hermana Reeder is great. I love her so much and am so happy that she is my companion. So I woke up and walked around the piso and there were happy birthday signs around. Then later on when we went to visit our fecha, Pius, I lost my chapa (nametag) somewhere.  It just randomly fell off. I was SO sad especially because I had stickers on the back from members/memories of Salt Lake City. We looked around a tiny bit but it was nowhere to be found. (…wait until what happened on Sunday). Then we went to the church and the sweet elders in my district surprised me (Hermana Reeder´s plan). Elder Reeder received a package from his mom a while ago with funfetti cake mix and frosting in it. THAT IS MY FAVORITE CAKE. I always ask for funfetti/confetti cake for my birthday every year. Elder Reeder surprised me and made it for me!!! It was wonderful!!! It was a little taste of home and it felt familiar. That made my birthday GREAT! :) The Elders got me a Spain flag and Hermana Reeder got me a cute necklace. It was fun. Afterwards we went to a members´ home (Carla and Ignacio) and she surprised me with pizza (that´s my favorite food!). It was wonderful. Then we went to the park and good old Chicho (Raul) and Rodrigo and Juan Pablo treated me to some ice cream. Raul got me a bouquet of silk red roses.  (haha) it was very sweet. It was a great day.

Saturday – Was a busy day. People still were wishing me happy birthday and that night we ate with the amazing Wolfart family who surprised me with an Oreo cake (I love Oreos!!!). Also, our amazing dueno (landlord), Antonio, found out it was my birthday and in our kitchen was chocolates and cherries (haha) just what we need-more cherries! But it was wonderful. Everyone was so sweet. Saturday night we sprinted back to the Wolfart´s house (it was pretty late at night) so Hermana Reeder could talk to her family to tell her about her reaction that is going on. I met her sweet family on Skype and they called my parents! They were so nice to offer to call them to talk about me.

Sunday – Was a busy day. EVERY SUNDAY IS BUSY. We went to the first ward which was great. Then Hermana Church invited us over for a birthday lunch for me in between church sessions. It was a wonderful meal: Homemade macaroni and cheese and lots of vegetables and carrot cake. It was so good! Hermana Church is a cancer survivor! I looked up to her before, but now so much more. She is incredible!!! I feel blessed for the opportunity I have to get to know them.

Then we went to church and it was ...interesting (haha). Our fecha came! Pius came and they announced his baptism this week! He is getting baptized on Saturday at 7pm. J J  It was so exciting. Then Hermana Reeder and I taught Gospel Principles class.  It was wild (haha) because we were teaching back and forth from English to Spanish because there were a lot of Africans visiting. It reminded me of the good old days at the Chinese Branch. J  Anyway, it worked out well in the end. 

 ALL of the Africans attacked us afterwards with compliments. One member, Michael, said ¨Hermana Johnson if you don´t do this again next week I am going to talk to the President, because it was WONDERFUL.¨ He kept saying that over and over again. Then we had consejo after church (ward council). Hermana Reeder and I were at the edge of our chairs determined to get a word in, and we had success! We were very much a part of the meeting and it is so exciting that the branch president can count on us!!  It was actually a miracle. J

Also, another miracle happened. Blass told me that Friday him and Cleopatra were walking near Gran Casa (the big mall that we live near) and Cleopatra found my chapa on the ground!!!!!!  My nametag was saved!!! It was a little miracle which I was SO grateful for. J

That was the week!
This week will also be wild because we will be preparing Pius for baptism AND because we are going to Barcelona Friday night and spending the night in the little piso in Hospitalet.