Barcelona Mission: (Hospitalet) Week-18 2013

     ----- Last Message From Barcelona; Parents leaving 3/18 to Pick up Laura -----

 

Dear Family,

What a week. It has been wonderful. We have been seeing many miracles, one of which is our fecha Ana who will be baptized this weekend! She is from Uruguay about 30 years old. Her parents are less active members of the church, which is sad because even her father served a mission in Brazil. When she was a young girl, her grandma would take her to church and tell her all about the Mormon church. Her grandma died when she was about 8 years old.

Ana became friends with a less active member named Cecilia. Hermana Rivera and I helped Cecilia and her family become reactivated in the church and we helped their 8 year old son be baptized last month (Xavi). Cecilia invited Ana and her husband Manuel to the baptism. It was such a spiritual service. Ana felt the Spirit so strongly. She started coming to church. She asked for a Book of Mormon. She has been reading it and even marking it up. She knows it is true. We invited her to be baptized on the 16th and she immediately said yes. She told us that it was her time and that we were her missionaries that needed to help her make the next step. She is nervous but so excited for her baptism. After every lesson she shares what she learns with her husband. (He can never meet with us). He told her that she seemed different and that she seemed happier lately.  She explained to him the Plan of Salvation. He asked what he had to do to be with her forever! It was amazing. Ana bore her testimony to him and he wants to learn about the gospel as well. She will be baptized this Sunday night, the 17th as well as an 8 year old son of a recent convert. Our Ward is so excited!!

So many baptisms.

Ana will be confirmed in Sacrament meeting on the 24th and Dad and Mom will be able to see it with me.

Pabel and Evelyn are two other investigators who are incredibly prepared. They will finally be married on March 21^st.  Their baptism is on Sunday the 24th after church at 1:30pm (Dad and Mom you can see them get baptized!!) and they will both be confirmed the following Sunday the 31st in Sacrament meeting.

I am so blessed to be in this area for my last area in the mission. It has been WONDERFUL. Full of miracles-the most amount of powerful miracles I have ever had in the mission. Saving the best for last. It truly has been amazing in every single way. Every day brings new miracles big and small. This is the Lord´s work and I am so glad that I get to serve him until the very end of my time...and what a blessing that my parents can witness the baptisms and confirmations of these wonderful people that hold such a special place in my heart. WOW. Is all I can say. I am so blessed.

Thank you for your love and support. I cannot say thank you enough.

Love, Hermana Johnson

Laura, Roy (new member), Hermana Rivera enjoying the Mediteranean on P-Day

Hermana Johnson in Barcelona on her last P-Day

 

Barcelona Mission: (Hospitalet) Week-17 2013

Dear Family,

I am feeling a lot better so don´t worry about me. Thank you for your prayers and support.
This week was good. Hard and long and full of work! We were challenged by our Zone Leader to achieve the Standards of Excellence and so that was what we were working towards and we got it! 

1 baptism (Roy)

12 lessons with member
3 people with fechas bautismales
6 new investigators
6 investigators at church

It was tough and I am exhausted! But it worked out really well and we acheived all of those goals and even received more than what we planned for. It was a week full of miracles. 

The biggest miracle was that on Sunday Roy got confirmed, received the Priesthood, and received his first calling-Gospel Principles class President-where he welcomes the class, asks someone to give a prayer, takes roll, and closes the class asking someone to give a prayer. He was so excited and so happy to be up there and to participate.

The next huge miracle was during Sacrament meeting. Here is what I wrote in my journal: "How exciting! So many investigators in church today-ALL friends of the members. Roy came and has a calling to welcome the people in the Gospel Principles class. He was confirmed and received the Holy Ghost to accompany him forever. And on top of that he received the Aaronic Priesthood. Then they called up and gave the baptismal certificates to everyone whom Hermana Rivera and I have helped get baptized. Lupe, Fausta, Xavi and Roy. It was incredible to see that these people are now members and that their lives are forever changed! Heavenly Father let us be instruments in His hands so that we could help save these peoples´ lives and in return they have forever changed mine! What a blessing and a privilege that I have to be a missionary here-to be serving in this Ward with my companion-helping teach her how to do missionary work. We have seen so many miracles and today was such a great day!"

It was so special to see all of them walk up with big smiles on their faces. We had a lot of investigators in Sacrament meeting and they are all friends of members, which is a miracle. It was fast and testimony meeting. I knew that I needed to bear my testimony because it would be my last chance to do it in a Fast and Testimony meeting in the mission. I was so happy. Right after me, Roy got up and bore his testimony. I think everyone in the congregation was crying. After that everyone bore their testimonies about missionary work and/or baptisms. The Ward has really come together with all of the excitement of the baptisms. We have 4 new fechas that are very solid.

Pabel and Evelyn will get married the 21st and baptized and confirmed the 24th. They are from Honduras. They are incredible and counting down the days until they can finally be baptized. They  have been waiting for so long!

Ana is a friend of Xavi and his family that we helped reactivate. They are all from Uruguay. Ana´s parents are less active and she never got baptized. She is so ready now and prepared. She said that her whole life she has been praying to know when it would be her turn/when she would  be prepared to be baptized and maybe help all of her family get back to church. In the first lesson we invited her to be baptized on March 16th and she accepted it saying that she knew that that was her fecha.  We just need to start teaching her husband. He says that he wants to be with her forever-to be sealed in the temple. He asked what it would take to get there. That´s when we come in and teach him and prepare him for baptism! Exciting!

Lourdes, who is from Bolivia is a friend of Nora, the first counselor in the Relief Society President,  has been to a baptism. One day she wasn´t feeling good and so Nora suggested that she receive a blessing of health from a few members. We all went into a room, explained what a blessing was and she then received it. It was beautiful and the Spirit really affected her. Afterwards she told us that she wanted to be baptized. She asked what she had to do to be baptized and so we encouraged her to attend church and then we would see when she could get baptized.

Thanks for your encouragement and love.

Love,
Hermana Johnson

Barcelona Mission: (Hospitalet) Week-16 2013

Dear Family,

We were teaching Roy just about everyday preparing him for his baptism, but something bad happened on Wednesday. He called to tell us to come to his house. We were thinking all kinds of things.  He told us that at  5 in the morning they heard pounding on the door. They were about to call the police thinking that it was robbers until the door actually came off the hinges and fell to the floor and in rushed the police. They grabbed his brother and then left. His family was very shaken up. His brother for a long time had been in a gang and was involved with selling drugs. He had left that life for the past year or so but it caught up to him. Roy said that that same morning 22 other houses in Hospitalet were broken into by the police.

His family was really stuggling and didn´t know when they would be able to visit his brother in jail. I felt impressed to share my favorite scripture in 1 Ne. 17:13 telling him that Christ will be his light and guide him to know what to do, but that he needed to keep the commandments (aka get baptized). I felt a strong impression to ask him if he wanted a Priesthood blessing for comfort. He said yes without knowing what it was.

Later that night, Elder Olson and Elder Shumway accompanied us to Roy´s home and visited with him and his parents for the first time. Elder Olson was inspired and knew exactly what to say to start the visit and to explain what a blessing was. Roy said the first prayer, Elder Olson shared a scripture and then gave Roy an incredible blessing, telling him that he needed to move forward with his decision that he has made to get baptized. Then Roy talked to his very Catholic father and asked Elder Olson if he could give a blessing to his father as well. The father´s blessing was long and powerful! Talking about how he needed to do the right thing for his family and be the example for them. Then the father left. His mother (an atheist) then received a blessing. Multiple times Elder Olson told her that God exists and that He loves her very much and is proud of her as a mother. It was INCREDIBLE. Everyone in the room was crying. We shared another scripture, then got down on our knees and asked the mother to say the closing prayer. She almost did it and then asked Roy to, but he insisted that she should try but in the end he said it. Then I felt impressed to ask the mother again to try and say a prayer. She tried and felt the Spirit so strong that her tears held her back from finishing. She was so overhwelmed and the feeling in the room was incredible. The spirit was so powerful and good. One of the most powerful moments in my entire mission.

When we visited Roy the next day he said after we left the night before he said a prayer and they slept well. He said that his father finally accepted that this was a good church, but maybe not necessarily different from other churches. Roy said the blessing affected his mom bastante.  We brought a member to the visit and she followed the Spirit and asked Roy if he was keeping his ´promise. He had a smile on his face and said that he knew he HAD to get baptized if he were to receive the help of the Lord during these difficult times in his family.

Saturday morning he came alone for his baptism. After us praying all week and him praying all week for his family to be there, they didn´t come. He told us that he had also been praying the week prior for his brother to be directed onto the right path in life. He told us that he believed that this was the answer to his prayer, how his brother could shape up and be more open to receiving the gospel, as well as his family. He had such a good attitude about it all.

At his baptismal service he was in tears during the first hymn-his favorite which was "La Oracion del Profeta." He has such a strong testimony that Joseph Smith was a Prophet. His baptism was so special. Afterwards he kept thanking us for everything we had done for him. He said he felt so tired. I felt impressed to share with him that after the First Vision Joseph Smith was also exhausted, overcome with the Spirit. He started crying and said that he also was overcome with the Spirit. It was incredible.

Saturday night we received a phone call from Roy informing us that the first visit to see his brother in the jail was Sunday morning at 9:45am.  Unfortunately, he didn´t make it to Sacrament Meeting to be confirmed so will be confirmed next week.  Everyone in the Ward was asking for him, which is great that everyone cares!! His new Ward family. He was very excited to attend the musical fireside that night and felt a strong spirit there, especially when he listened to Elder Archibald´s testimony. Afterwards he talked to Elder Archibald and told him that he feels like they have met before. Elder Archibald said the same about him. Then Elder Archibald handed him a brand new triple scripture combination. Roy was in tears and speechless. He kept hugging his new scriptures, was SO EXCITED to have them. He asked Elder Archibald how he knew that he needed one. Elder Archibald said that he just felt that he needed to bring it to the fireside...

Wonderful MIRACLES are happening and people are prepared! I think it is because Hermana Rivera and I have been so obedient!  I've learned that EXACT obedience brings miracles. I feel so blessed.

We are so excited to have the Elders in our Ward with us and the Ward members are also.. We have multiple citas set up with the 4 of us and we are contacting like crazy. We are helping each other out and working very well and hard together. We are very focused in the work and helping the wonderful people in this wonderful Ward.

We visited our sweet family who are just getting back into activity in the church. Cecilia has been helping us with visits and her husband Javier loves having us over and reminiscing about his mission in Arcadia, California. It is so exciting to see them active now with callings. And our new member( their son) Xavi is busy memorizing the Articles of Faith. We were helping him memorize the other day. And when the family wasn´t looking, Hna Rivera washed the dishes and I put sticky notes all around their home. Xavi had so much fun finding all of them after we left. Cecilia was crying the next day as she told us that she was so touched that we wrote those. I put notes like "you are amazing" "thank you for your examples and for your love" "families can be together forever" "keep reading and praying everyday as a family" and then "our goal to be sealed in the temple!" It really touched the family and they put the notes in their front room on display so they can look at them everyday. They told us that they have been reading the scriptures and praying as a family EVERDAY! And that Cecilia does FHEs on Mondays and they are always so excited to do them! It is so exciting to see this family be active in the church! They are amazing. They are good examples for others and good motivation for us to keep working with other less active families. And Cecilia has two friends that went to the baptism that she gave Book of Mormons to. They are excited to come to church next Sunday.

At the musical fireside on Sunday, I sang with 3 other girls the "Olive Tree" song again. Hermana Rivera recorded it on her camera. I will have to get it from her somehow. It was really good. Getting the hang of performing that song. Brings back memories of when Dad and Kristen sang it...cried a little.

Something incredible was a blessing that I received from Elder Olson  2 Sundays ago. I barely made it to church because of not feeling well and wanted a blessing.  I knew he wouldn´t be at the church until that afternoon. Then he came out of the elevator as we were going in!  An answer to my prayer. When he gave me the blessing he said my body would be healed of pain. As soon as he said that the pain went away and I was fine for the rest of the day. The power of Priesthood is real. I know it with all my heart and I'm feeling better each day.

Our area has now been divided into 2 small areas.(The Elders in one and us in the other). It has been an interesting and wonderful transition. The Lord moves forward His work and His missionaries really are His servants. I have felt His loving hands leading and guiding me...physically up hills (Hospitalet is all up and down hills and narrow roads) and spiritually. I am so grateful to be worthy to feel the Spirit and be able to follow its promptings. It has been an incredible month. I couldn´t have asked for a more amazing last few weeks of my mission. It has been MIRACULOUS. Literally.

Thank you, again for your support and love.

You are in my prayers. I know with all my heart that this church is true. I know with all my heart that Christ is our Savior and that if we let Him into our hearts, He will change our lives. Let Him into your heart more fully. Give more of your heart to Him. Give up those things that you´re holding on to. Give it ALL to Him.

Love,
Hermana Johnson

Barcelona Mission: (Hospitalet) Week-15 2013

This week was a great week with lots of lessons with members! We are doing really well over here and seeing many miracles like usual. Love being a missionary!

Our miracle, Roy is still doing well. He told us that he went to Institute on Friday night and on the way home he asked some members how they got their testimonies and how they knew that the church was true. He listened to their stories and told us one during our lesson. Then he asked Hermana Rivera, the member, and I about our stories. We shared them with him and he was so excited to share his story with us. He said that before when we first met him he knew the church was true, that Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Book of Mormon is true. But he said he was lacking something and he didn´t know what. Then he said that after watching the Restoration video with us on Wednesday (it was amazing!!  He was crying so hard and without words...he said it changed his perspective on everything), he then told us that in this moment he FELT that everything was true. He testified to us that he knew and felt that Joseph Smith was a prophet, that the Book of Mormon is true, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints is the true church, and even that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today. IT WAS AMAZING. He knew that he had to be baptized this Saturday on the 23rd. He, personally, approached everyone from our Ward and invited them to his baptism. He is so excited and so prepared. He asked us to pray and maybe even fast that his parents will go to his baptism on Saturday. His Mom is atheist and his Dad is Catholic. He says that he has been reading aloud in the Book of Mormon to his Mom, praying that her heart will soften and accept the church.

Above all he can't wait to go on a mission. He accompanied us on our preparation day trip with the Elders and he told us that being with all of the Elders made him even more excited to serve a mission. He is incredible and the most prepared person I have ever taught on my mission.

What a testimony to all of us the difference between knowing that something is true and feeling that something is true. When we have those two testimonies we become truly converted. This is what we want for everyone-to be truly converted in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are all excited for him to be baptized...especially the ward to see another baptism so soon! This excitement is contagious and we have a few other members that are bringing their friends to church. It has been wonderful to be a part of this great work and to feel this excitement!!!

Love,
Hermana Johnson

Barcelona Mission: (Hospitalet) Week-14 2013

Our miracle this week out of many was with our fecha Roy.

I told Roy´s story last week about how a couple years ago, he didn´t even believe in God and how now he wants to get baptized and serve a mission. He is 18 years old and is incredible! We taught him Lesson 3, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and it was amazing. He said that we have a way of teaching that really just applies to him and his needs. He said that he knows that we were the missionaries that needed to teach him. We testified to him that it was the Spirit who was touching his heart. He came to church yesterday for the first time in Hospitalet Barrio 1st Ward.  He showed up early, dressed in a suit and tie. Almost all of the members introduced themselves to him. We asked him how the first hour went in Priesthood and he said he sat on the front row and for the first time, he shared his conversion story. (He had only told us, the other Sisters from Barcelona, his friend Josias, and his girlfriend about his first real experience with prayer and how he came to know that God exists). He was so happy to be there. Later, during the sacrament he had his head bowed and his eyes closed. He told us later that he was praying hard to God. He left the church meetings content with how everything went.

Hermana Rivera and I went up to the third floor for consejo. About 30 minutes later, we were still outside in the hallway waiting for the meeting to start and we see Roy coming towards us. Out of breath he told us "Hermanas, I have been looking for you. I forgot to pay my tithing! Where are the envelopes and who do I need to talk to?" Hermana Rivera and I were so shocked we didn´t know what to say. Then we started laughing a little and said "Roy, you actually don´t have to pay tithing until after you´re baptized." He stood there and thought for a moment and then asked us "But can I still pay it? I want to." We were shocked still, and got an envelope and ushered him into the Bishop´s office. We told Ramon that Roy wanted to pay his tithing and then we closed the door. The two of them were in there for about 5-10 minutes (seemed like forever). Roy came out with a huge smile on his face and with the yellow copy from the tithing slips. He proudly said, "I paid fast offerings."

Meanwhile, while Roy was in the office with Ramon, we met the Stake President in the hallway. I got the impression to tell him what just happened with Roy. He asked us if he had a fecha bautismal and we told him it was for February 23rd.  He told us that was quite a miracle and he asked if Roy was still around so he could meet him. He walked down the hall and talked to Roy for a while. Then Roy left with us to go to the metro. He was so happy! I have never had this experience in my entire mission-what a miracle! We hadn´t even taught him about tithing and he wanted to pay it. He will be an incredible member and missionary someday.

We are working hard and seeing miracles every day.  We are contacting and receive plently of referrals every day, but a lot of times they are wrong numbers or the people are just too busy working all day. Elder Huaman our District Leader challenged us this morning to pray and fast and try to think of something different to do. So we are going to take this challenge and figure something out. I have high hopes and faith and the Lord will bless us and we continue to work hard and rely on him.

Love,
Hermana Johnson

 

Barcelona Mission: (Hospitalet) Week-13 2013

Tue, Feb 5, 2013 3:55 am

Here's an overview on our work in our area:

We continue to see SO many miracles every day!  And it is so great to not be half deaf anymore!! Because of my good recovery I am trying to work as hard as ever to show my gratitude to Heavenly Father for helping me recover so quickly.

We had 21 lessons last week with almost half of them being lessons with less active members and the lessons with member are mostly with family members of less active members. It has been amazing working with the less actives. They just want to be loved and cared about. They just want people to notice them and talk to them. A lot of them have been forgotten because of all the recent changes in our Ward. We are still waiting for a new Bishop to be called and the Ward is still recovering from all of the big families that have recently moved back to their own countries (mostly all last summer, including the Bishop and his family).  The members that are active continue to be strong and faithful. We finally have gotten into almost all of their homes, with the exception of a couple. If they don´t sign our food calendar, we approach them personally and if they say they have no time, we stop by their house anyway during random times of the day. It has really worked to our advantage and we have begun to make wonderful relationships. Plus, a few brownies deliveries also helped out. J

Our baptisms:

We are working on getting both Fausta and her daughter Cristina to the temple. Cristina has one daughter 20 years old; who is an atheist...We are trying to talk to her about the gospel....not going well yet. And she has one son, Daniel who is 7 years old. He will be 8 this year and we are working on preparing him for baptism by first trying to get him used to going to Primary. His name is Daniel and he wants to go on a mission someday!
It has been so exciting to see this family progress. Cristina gave us the information of almost all of her less active siblings who live in Spain. Lots of work for us to do!

Lupe's husband Nelson is attending church now and they are preparing to go to the temple, J but they are moving back to Peru in March...darn. The church needs them here in Spain...but they are amazing. They just bought leather bound, tabbed triples and Bibles. When they opened them up they acted like children opening presents on Christmas! They were so excited and started crying. Nelson even kissed his book! I have never seen anything like that! It was amazing to me. How blessed we are to have the scriptures in our life. They are so sacred and should be treated as such-not thrown around, or on the floor, or stepped on, etc. They are letters from Heavenly Father specifically written to us. Nelson and Lupe are amazing examples and have the most incredible faith. They are doing so well and now have visiting teachers and home teachers. :)

Xavi, originally from Uruguay, (his Dad served a mission in Arcadia, California) is doing great. We want to visit his siblings who also live in our area with their families. Xavi´s Dad was inactive for years, but he finally became worthy to baptize his son! He now is the 2nd Counselor in the Sunday School Presidency!!! :) Xavi´s Mom and her family are all members of the church. They all live in Uruguay still. She is now reactivated and is Secretary in the Relief Society!!! Both the parents received their callings this last Sunday. The baptism was beautiful-probably the most spiritual one I have been to in the mission. It was incredible. Xavi´s Mom invited her friends and wants to get them to listen to us! When I first started in Hospitalet First Ward this family was one of the first that I met. We visited them almost every week and now they are all active and they all bore their testimonies in Sacrament meeting on Sunday and the Dad even said that they are working on going to the temple now to be sealed as a family!!!! WOW!!! Talk about miracles! They all bore their testimonies in the baptismal service, also Sunday night. It was beautiful. Everyone was in tears. More than half of the Ward attended the baptism and the Primary children sang a song. Hermana Rivera and I were privileged to give the talks about baptism and the Holy Ghost.
Xavi is an incredible child and is 8 years old. He has the most faith I have seen in a child. It is because of him that I really came to understand the commandment to become as little children-submissive, meek, humble, etc. He is so intelligent and so willing to learn. He just wants his family to be happy and he wants to go to the temple someday with them. He encourages his parents to go to church. He reminds them that they need to sing hymns together and read their scriptures together and pray together every day! He is a very loving child with strong desires to be a missionary someday as well! He has changed my life with his example and testimony. He is incredible and it has been a blessing to teach him. He will reactivate his whole family-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...I know it. I am excited to see where this family will go and to see all the miracles that will happen thanks to Xavi.

We had another amazing miracle...We have 3 fechas!

Pabel and Evelyn finally can be baptized! They are from Honduras. They have one daughter who they are trying to bring here to Spain this year. Evelyn´s parents are members and her little brother is going on a mission to the Dominican Republic!  Evelyn´s sister lives here and wants to be baptized but works all day every day. Her husband is arriving here to Spain the end of this month and we have plans to teach him! Pabel is the only one who knows about the church in his family. Pabel and Evelyn have been like members of the church for about a year or two now.  They will get married on March 21st and baptized on March 23rd, and confirmed on March 24th. The whole Ward is planning a celebration. Everyone is excited and anxious for them to finally be true baptized members of the Church. They are faithful and even participate in every class. They have assignments instead of callings. I feel blessed to be the missionary that can see them get baptized because every missionary has taught them. We see them once a week for a Family Night and they always want us to invite investigators so they can help us teach them! They are amazing.

The other fecha is a miracle. His name is Roy and is 18 years old from Venezuela. His girlfriend is a member who goes to the Barcelona First Ward. Just a year or two ago Roy didn´t even believe in God. He shared with us a special experience that he had. He said sometimes he would say kind of a prayer to himself,  but he didn´t know if there was a God until one day he had a distinct impression that someone was listening to him and that he wasn´t alone. He met his girlfriend and they started dating and she started bringing him to church with her and to JAS activities. He loved the people and made friends quickly. The missionaries started teaching him, but he told us it just wasn´t his time yet. A few months passed by and he told the Sister missionaries in the First Ward that he was ready to receive the missionaries again. They taught him the first lesson and then he decided he needed to meet the missionaries in the Hospitalet Ward that he should be attending. We met him yesterday and taught him the Plan of Salvation. I have never explained the Plan of Salvation in such depth before in my entire mission. He was hungering for the truth. He just wanted more and more answers. He told us that he has doubts but that he doesn´t know what his doubts are until the missionaries answer them and he realizes that they are no longer doubts. It was amazing teaching him. He told us that he wants to do this for himself and not for his girlfriend. He wants to serve a mission someday! He is getting baptized the 23rd of February.

People are prepared! We need to find them! We have been contacting a lot. Getting lots of referrals and working hard! We are being the most obedient that we can and we love the work. The 12 weeks program is also helping us a ton and we are learning a lot every day.

Love,
Laura

Barcelona Mission: (Hospitalet) Week-12 2013

This week was wild! It is so great to have Hermana Jorgensen in our piso with us. She is wonderful and such an example to me. I love her so much. Her companion, Hermana Barrera is great as well. Of course, my companion, Hermana Rivera is amazing also! We are still working very well together.  I am so grateful for the patience and love of my companion. She is great. Starting Thursday we have been working hard even though our numbers do not show it. We helped Hermana Jorgensen a little before she met her companion. I showed her around her area a little bit and we went with her to a couple of citas. I gave her my best advice and the elders and all of us discussed the people in her area. We have just a couple more citas together but mostly she is on her own and kicking off well. She has such a good attitude. I look up to her a lot. I am so excited for her to work in that ward because the members are amazing! I know that once she gets the hang of it, everything will work out and they will see success!

Meanwhile, our area has been waiting for us! We have been canceling citas because of being sick and then because the other Hermanas came. We finally got back into our area Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday. It was booming. We were running from house to house and contacting anyone and everyone on the way. It was wonderful to be up and working again. My companion and I were so excited and we saw so many miracles. This week is packed with citas, we hope to get to all of them in time. Not to mention all of the referrals we have been receiving that we need to contact. We have so much work to do, it is so exciting! I continue to take the medication prescribed  by the doctor and I hope to have a working right ear soon, so that I could even better the work here in our area. We are so blessed. There is so much to do!

A miracle was when we were left with some space in our day and we decided to stop by a referral named Delia. We had a lesson 0 with her and it went very well, but then she fired on the next visit and didn´t answer our phone calls. We thought to visit her because we were in the area. We rang her bell and no one answered. A man came out of the building so we decided to enter and maybe leave a note on her door. We went to the third floor and knocked her door. She didn´t answer. Hermana Rivera started writing the note and I started praying to decide which door to knock first (Delia´s neighbors). A man left one door and quickly walked away. That left 2 doors to knock. I started praying again and as soon as I walked up to a door, Delia opened her door in a towel. She ushered us to come in. This was like 10 minutes after we knocked her door. She told us that she was in the shower and felt that she should check the door even though so much time had passed. She was so happy to see us and asked where we have been. She couldn´t wait to say a prayer and we had to set up another cita so that we could get to our next visit with some members. It was just a little miracle showing us that Heavenly Father answers our prayers and that Delia needs to be baptized!

We are working hard and we are happy to do it! Thanks for your encouragement and love. We have a lot to catch up on for 12 weeks because we were both sick, but at least we are doing it and now we are in sync with the rest of the mission. There are people waiting to get baptized in our area and we will find them!

Hope you are doing well. I love you all. The time is going by so fast! I am trying to enjoy every minute! Keep reading  your scriptures and praying every day. It´s the difference between night and day when you do and don´t read.

Love, Laura

Barcelona Mission: (Hospitalet) Week-11 2013

This week was a great one with two amazing baptisms! We were so blessed to have met these two wonderful women and to have the chance to help them enter the waters of baptism in our 4th week in a new area not knowing anyone! What a blessing and what a miracle! It ended up being a beautiful baptismal service, maybe the most spiritual one that I have had on my mission!

So here is Fausta´s story:
Her daughter and some other of her children were baptized when they were teenagers while they all lived in Peru. I don´t remember how they met the missionaries, but Fausta always told them I don´t have time to learn from the missionaries and I don´t have time to be baptized. She always let her children go to church and encouraged it. It sounds like her daughter, Cristina (the one that we know), would go by herself as the other children became less active. Cristina went off to study at a university in Peru and still attended a ward and even received her endowments, but then fell inactive as well over time. Cristina then moved to Spain six years ago and her mother would travel and visit her every once in a while. Cristina decided that she needed to change her life and find the church here in Hospitalet. She found it on her own and Hermana Farrell had set up a visit with her. Amongst all the changes, Hermana Farrell never had the chance to visit with her but was able to remember to pass on Cristina´s name to me.

My new companion, Hermana Rivera, and I went to visit her and in the first visit we met Cristina, her atheist teenage daughter and boyfriend, Cristina´s son (who is 7 years old), and Cristina´s mom, Fausta. We did a lesson 0 to get to know Cristina and hear her story. She thought we were there to visit her and help reactivate her but as soon as we found out Fausta wasn´t baptized I knew we had to invite her in that first visit. I nudged my companion and told her that she had to do the invitation like we practiced during our studies. She asked Fausta to be baptized and Fausta said no. She said maybe with time.  We gave her a Book of Mormon, unsure if she knew how to read or not and she accepted it. The second visit I felt again that we needed to invite her to be baptized. I nudged my companion and reluctantly she invited Fausta to be baptized. This time she said yes! But she didn´t want to put a date yet. I talked to Cristina and told her of our purpose and that we wanted to help her mom be baptized if she would like to do it.

Cristina was overwhelmed with joy. In the third visit, a week after we first met this family I asked Fausta to be baptized on the 26th of February. She said yes! Thanks to Cristina talking to her and Fausta reading the Book of Mormon, Fausta finally had received her answer that it was her time to be baptized. As we started teaching her we realized the importance of simple and powerful lessons. Fausta can´t sit there for a long time and she does not have a good memory so we had to adapt our teaching. Thanks again to Cristina she learned everything she needed to learn in order to be ready for her baptismal interview. We ended up moving forward the date because Cristina has to work the 26th and so Fausta was totally prepared to be baptized even a week earlier than her original fecha. It was a miracle the change in attitude that she had as we visited her.

In the baptismal service, Cristina gave the talk about the Holy Ghost. It was neat how she started crying and finally told her mom that it was her time. It was her turn to be baptized and she wasn´t too busy and she had to be in Spain for this reason...to finally be baptized in the true church of Jesus Christ. It was wonderful to see the family come together during these times and to see Cristina´s faith and testimony reappear as she received all of the lessons again and became newly converted in the gospel after so many years. AMAZING.

It was a wonderful baptismal service of Fausta and Lupe. We were truly blessed to have taught them. It was so easy! They were so prepared and so easily did they accept all of the commitments and teachings. They didn´t really have questions and they constantly bore their testimonies to us. It was incredible. My new companion´s first two baptisms in the mission and the first two baptisms of the year in this new area/ward that we are still white washing. The ward says that we are angels. It´s been wonderful to make our reputation with the people so quickly and to have them trust us as their missionaries.

Changes are happening throughout the world with the increased number of missionaries-elders and sisters.

Pte Pace received special permission to have the two day sisters conference to prepare the sisters in the mission to train. The day after the conference ended over 10 missionaries finally received their visas to enter Spain and enter the Barcelona mission. Over half of these missionaries are sisters! How exciting.

I received a phone call from Pres Pace today informing me that Hermana Jorgensen (!) is coming to Hospitalet tomorrow and will pick up her new companion that she will train on Thursday. So she will be white washing and training (like me) in Hospitalet Barrio 2 (the ward that I served in with Hermana Walker). I am so excited for her to come and to help her get to know the area! After those last two baptisms we now have few people to teach and will need to focus on finding new investigators. Luckily, this will give me the time to show Hermana Jorgensen her new area and to introduce her to some of the members that I quickly learned to love during the months of November and December. I am so excited to live with her again and I am excited that she will be in that ward. :)

Pres also informed me that 3 new sisters are coming from the states this week and 7 elders. Next week 4 elders from the states are coming. The following week (the normal transfer week) 7 sisters are coming in!!!! And 2 elders. How exciting! So many sister missionaries! Right now we have 23 sisters in our mission. 3 are going home Feb 5th. And then 5 of us are going home March 20th. But how exciting that almost every sister in the mission will be training a new sister missionary from the states!! The work is moving forward and it is so great to be apart of it.

As far as my companion and I we will stay together through March. We are a great team and I love her so much. Slowly, she is learning a little more English every day and she is always helping me with my Spanish, which is wonderful. Besides the fact that we are both sick, we still have a lot of energy and enthusiasm to work! There is a lot to be done in this ward and I predict that in the near future they might either put a set of elders in this ward to work with us or maybe another set of hermanas. Pte Pace says that almost every ward/branch in the mission will soon have 4 sets of missionaries-Hermanas and Elders. How exciting that we can help move the work forward!

Please, be a member missionary. Support the missionaries, invite them into your homes, and trust them with your nonmember friends. We all have the desire to serve the Lord but the missionaries cannot do it on their own. Help join us and join the missionary force! :) It is an exciting work and the Lord´s hands are in every detail.

I love you and I love this gospel. Live it! Love it! Have a good week.

Love,
Hermana Johnson

Barcelona Mission: (Hospitalet) Week-10 2013

This last week went by so fast! Time is going by so fast!

We have mostly been working with our two fechas that we have and preparing for their baptism this weekend. We are so excited for them! Especially my companion-it being her first two baptisms in the mission! It has been a breeze to teach these two women because they are so prepared.

Fausta is about 65-70 years old and is scared about being put under the water. We brought a member with us to teach the lesson, which we don´t usually do, (her daughter is always there to help us teach). In fact this was a miracle story in itself! The member´s name is Ruben and he called us the other day and asked us why we haven´t called him yet to use him in visits. We apologized (this is not the first time this has happened...we are still trying to get to know the Ward so we haven´t been calling as many members to help us out yet). Good thing he called us! We invited him to come out with us to teach our two fechas that night. MIRACLE. He is from Peru. Fausta is from Peru. The same part of Peru. Fausta had a cleaner in her house for many years in Peru and it turns out the cleaner´s son worked with Ruben for 14 years in Peru!  Plus, Ruben speaks Ketchuwua just like Fausta so he was able to help us teach her the principles. Then, she decided she wants him to baptize her and he resolved all of her doubts and fears about being baptized. It was perfect!!!
As a side note, the daughter, Cristina, has been  trying to find her records back in Peru because she has been less active for many years. She mentioned to Ruben that she tried emailing someone in Peru to ask about her records. Turns out her and Ruben were in the same Stake!!! Ruben is still friends with the Stake President and offered to contact him for her! It was such a coincidence.  Cristina was worried that if she couldn´t find her records, she might have to be rebaptized; which she was willing to do if she had to. She also received her endowments. Lately she has been trying to come back to full activity in the church. She wants to be a better example for her atheist daughter and her 7 year old son who wants to get baptized this year. This family is really progressing!!

Lupe is the other fecha. She is SO prepared and has been the easiest to teach on my mission. She is so great. So another miracle. We took Ruben with us to that visit also. Turns out they are also from the same area and Ruben knows people related to Lupe´s husband. It is such a small world! Lupe also asked Ruben to baptized her, because her husband, unfortunately can't do it.. But he is recently coming back to the church, though. It is just amazing that all these people were brought here to Spain at this time to meet each other and help each other into the Gospel, and that my companion and I could be apart of it. The hands of the Lord are in every aspect of His work.

More miracles happened this week. Sunday we had a wonderful consejo de barrio! The Bishopric gave us just about the whole time to go over our informes.  The leaders in the Ward were pleasantly surprised with all of our work that we had done with the less actives in the Ward...people that they had been trying to get a hold of and had lost contact with.  It was wonderful! I have never been to a more successful consejo de barrio in my whole mission...not even in Salt Lake. The Bishopric continually expressed their gratitude for our work and they expressed their complete support. It was perfect. We were able to give information needed for every auxiliary organization and they were able to help us in many ways as well. It was just like a District video!

When Hermanas Dalton and Oslund from Valencia stayed with us, we also saw miracles Monday night when they helped us work in our area and gave so much helpful information about some of the recent converts who are now less active. They were also able to visit with some people that we have not been able to contact. It was wonderful.

Ruben once again helped make miracles happen as he suggested that we try to visit a less active family that Hermana Rivera and I have been trying to contact. He said why don´t we just stop by to see if they are home? So we did and I asked Miriam, who lived there if we could just talk for a quick ten minutes. She let us in!!!! A miracle. She even gave us some hot chocolate...definitely a plus on a coooold night. We shared a scripture, set up a return appointment, met her children (one who is not baptized and is of baptismal age!), and then as soon as we almost started to end the lesson her husband walked in the door. It was great meeting him and seeing the look on his face when he saw the missionaries in his home...definitely confused. Hermana Goodman, Ruben, and I gave our  testimonies and I asked if we could pray. Miriam of course said yes and I asked if we could kneel. The whole family was shocked, especially her husband, as we all knelt on the floor in a circle and I offered the prayer. IT WAS WONDERFUL!! We thanked Ruben for his help and ran home to make it before 10:00pm planning. I called Miriam´s Mom, who is an active member and told her about visitng Miriam. She started crying over the phone and couldn´t stop thanking us. She offered to help us with anything at all. She told me that she loved me at the end of the conversation. It was AMAZING. What a blessing it is to be a missionary and have the opportunity to help families come together and be strengthened in the Gospel.

During a three day conference, I gave a short presentation on what I have learned on my mission. I spoke about Charity. I will have to tell you about it sometime. It was an amazing conference and an amazing experience. But for some reason after my presentation I kept shivering as if I was cold. (It was around 12 P.M.)
Hermana and Pte Pace gave me blankets and a heating pad. I fell asleep on their bed and didn´t wake up until 6 P.M.!  I was so sad because I missed Hermana Jorgensen's presentation (my last companoin in Zaragoza). They gave my companion and I a ride home and I went right to sleep until morning. I am feeling a lot better now. And the great food the Elders brought over helped. Now we are running to an appointment.

Hope you are doing well. I love you a lot.

Love,  Laura

Barcelona Mission: (Hospitalet) Week-09 2013

We are doing well here in Hospitalet.  We really have been focusing on finding more investigators. It is a focus in our companionship study and we have been making goals of numbers of contacts that we would like to do each day. Some days are tougher than others but I am so grateful for the enthusiasm of my companion and for her motivation. This week was a little tough for us because we had many citas set up-almost every hour of everyday. Yet, 80% fired on us and we found ourselves struggling. We did back up plans, (not the best that we should have done), and we did make a lot of phone calls. We have been trying to focus on getting to know the members of our ward still. Yesterday we set up a food calendar for the members to sign up to feed us for this month. It didn´t have as much success as we thought it would. We do have citas to eat and we will call those members ahead of time to confirm. We have specific plans to help this week go more smoothly and successfully. Some of these goals that we have come up with are these:

-Be more obedient and diligent in our studies, planning, and prayers.
-Call the day before and/or the morning of to reconfirm our citas planned.
-Make at least two back up plans for every hour of everyday.
-Contact more and give more powerful testimony to the truths that we know.
-We want to make some 3x5 cards with the metro stops/areas of our area and make a list of the people-members, recent converts, less actives, investigators, and antiguos- on each card, so that if all of our citas fire we have a list of places to go and people to visit. This will help us make our back up plans.

These are a few of our goals and plans that we have created. We know that if we have the faith necessary we can help the mission complete our new goal of 20 baptisms per week. We know this is possible and we want to be a part of it!

My companion is incredible. Hermana Rivera is actually who I needed in my life. She is such a good example to me and she is so excited about the work! She gets sad when we don´t do our best. This helps us to try harder to do our best at all times. It has been such a pleasure working together with her. I don´t feel like I am alone in tackling this new area. We each give 50/50 to this companionship and it´s wonderful.

Despite our harder days this week, the Lord did bless us with some miracles. Hermana Rivera is sharing an incredible one about this less active family that we are working with. I will share one about a reference that we received from Elder Cerqueira. He contacted a Romanian woman who lives in our area. We called her, set up a visit, and she fired on us. We called and set a visit with another reference for a different day but she also fired on us. She happened to live right next to the Romanian woman and Hermana Rivera thought to try contacting Delia another time. We rang the bell and she let us in. We knocked on her door and she let us right in. Hermana Rivera was amazing at starting up Lesson 0 and getting to know Delia and a little about her family. It was incredible the friendship that immediately was formed. This woman, Delia, is amazing. She has so much faith in the Lord and she has so many miracle stories that she told us from her life. She was beaming with happiness talking about her Savior, Jesus Christ. She assists a 7th Day Adventist Romanian church near Sagrada Familia. She goes to church every Saturday but she is really interested in getting to know more about our church, and she hasn´t heard really anything about it before. We gave her a Book of Mormon in Spanish but told her that we would get one in her language to which excitedly responded. We have high hopes for her and can´t wait to see her again.

Our two fechas Lupe and Fausta are incredible! Lupe is amazing! I just want to be like her someday. She says the most intensely personal and special prayers I have ever heard. Whenever she prays I think of the words broken heart and contrite spirit. She really has a broken heart and is always ready and willing to learn and a contrite spirit. She is so humble and special. Her husband is a less active member now returning to church. Seeing them together is a delight because they love each other so much. He bore testimony of the sealing power in the temple and how he can´t wait to get sealed to her. He says that he knows now is her time to get baptized and that her heart is so ready to accept the gospel. Every commitment we ask Lupe to do she has already done and received her answer-pray about Joseph Smith being a prophet, pray about the First Vision, pray about the Book of Mormon, pray about the Plan of Salvation, repent from sins, etc. She is so prepared. I have never met anyone so prepared in my whole mission. Hermana Rivera and I are definitely blessed with this wonderful opportunity to teach her. She is incredible.

We are excited and ready to start a new and better week. We already have the week full of citas with members, recent converts, investigators, and less actives. So this week we will be focusing on back up plans so that we try to avoid as much as possible what happened last week.

Love,
Hermana Johnson

Barcelona Mission: (Hospitalet) Week-08 2012

Dear Family,

We went to the Christmas/ New Year’s open house at the Mission President´s home. It was so wonderful to be in their decorated home and we got a less active family and an investigator to go. We had good American food, which was wonderful!  Hermana Eyre played her violin, Hermana Robinson played her flute, and Hermana Pace played the piano. It was beautiful to be there and the Spirit was so strong. I got a lot of pictures and videos. When we were leaving Pres. Pace yells out my name to come back up the stairs. He said "I didn´t get to say goodbye to you yet." Then he said, "Does your family know how much of an amazing missionary you are?" Then he pointed at my companion and my investigator and he says "You have a really good influence on the future of this mission and on the future of this church with these people right here." "I love you and keep working hard and Merry Christmas."  What a nice thing to say.

This has been a week full of miracles that is for sure! Hermana Rivera, is wonderful and we are doing great together-having fun and working hard. At the end of each day we have been discussing the miracles that we have seen throughout the day. Saturday and Sunday were both wonderful days full of miracles.

We have been working with an investigator named Xavi who is 23 years old. He has been visiting with the missionaries since February. His dad is a very less active member and his mom and sister are not interested in the church. He has a lot of doubts and struggles that he is dealing with. He has been reading in the Book of Mormon and the Doctrine and Covenants. He has met with plenty of Elders and Sisters and comes to church every Sunday and to every activity and to English class. His second home is the chapel. You will often find him there if he is not at school or at work. He wants to get baptized very badly but knows that Satan will attack him harder after baptism. He knows the importance of the covenants made at baptism and does not want to risk breaking them. He watched the videos and listened to the words of the prophet and apostles on the church website. He read articles. When we saw him at English class on Saturday morning, it was the happiest I have ever seen him. He said that those have changed his life and feels that he can be baptized in January. His prayers are more sincere. He says he better understands his purpose and his life. We'll see what happens.

Our week is full of citas with members, recent converts, and our two fechas that we now have!  A lady named Lupe wants to get baptized on January 12th. She is amazing and SO PREPARED.

The other fecha is Fausta. She is probably around 70 years old and living with her less active daughter who is now coming back to church. They are from Peru. We learned that we have to teach her VERY simply or else she will not understand. This is challenging my companion a lot, because she loves to talk. But it is perfect to simplify things and to really put Elder Richard´s counsel to practice-simple yet powerful lessons. She has been to church and likes it a lot. She also has been reading the Book of Mormon slowly.  Her daughter, Cristina is so excited for her mom to finally be baptized on January 24th. She told her, "Mami, finally there is nothing to hold you back for more years. This is your time."

We have been doing a lot of the 12 weeks, a lot of the activities, and a lot of watching the District videos. We love doing it because it is so informational and helpful. We have been working on Lesson 0-"How to Begin Teaching" and Lesson 1 "The Restoration."  My companion loved the video of the "Purpose of Missionaries with the Robles Family"-their story and them making it to the temple (my temple in San Diego!) in the end. It was a sweet experience watching it and that is really our goal-to help these people make it to the temple.

After our lessons with people throughout the day, we have been evaluating ourselves to help us realize what we can improve and what we did well. This has really been helping us better ourselves and knowing what we can do to help the investigators more.

Happy New Year!

Love, Laura