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