Dear Family and
Friends,
I love the temple! Today is P-day and at the last minute, we
found out that we could go to the temple. Iit has been closed for cleaning and
this is the first day it opened. We
really wanted to go so we woke up happy and worked hard on finding a ride. We barely made it to the 8 A.M. session. We were the last ones in there.
It was probably the best session I have ever
been in so far. I was focused and my
mind was opened to many ideas and thoughts.
I was sitting in there thinking about how many of the prophets have been
in the same room that I was in. It was
an incredible sight and feeling. Then
when the session was about to start, I was thinking about all of the people who
we are teaching and who just got baptized.
I really want to be in the temple with them and share this joy someday.
:) The temple is beautiful: everything
about it. Missionary work and families
are great. The history of the church and the restored church on the earth is
great. Life is great and we are so
blessed!
Right now we are in the Family History Center
in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building by Temple Square. Have you ever stopped to read all of the
signs around Temple Square? They're
wonderful. I saw an engraving on the wall outside with faces sticking out and
it says: The Book of Mormon – Another
Testament of Jesus Christ. Unto All Nations.
Then it lists the different languages for the words "The Book of Mormon"....." El
Libro de Mormon", etc.. :)
The Book of Mormon is wonderful. I wish I read it more before my mission. I look forward to personal study every
morning so I can read, mark, and write a little more about my thoughts. I try to apply it to my life and also like
reading about the good examples of past prophets. We are so lucky to have this
book. I know it's the word of God.
The power of prayer is so great. This week I
heard wonderful prayers spoken by people of all ages. One investigator named
Marcos, who is 10 years old, is amazing.
He wants his family to be happy and to do the right things. His parents
don't like going to church. They take him but always leave after Sacrament
meeting. At the beginning of last week,
Hermana Magdaleno and I were teaching him more about baptism (he's a little
scared of the whole concept). When we were about to leave we asked him if he
could say the closing prayer. All of his
family were sitting at the table but had not been paying attention to us the
whole time. He shyly asked us if we
could say the prayer with all of his family.
We thought: Of course! Why hadn't we thought of that? It definitely was a humbling experience for
Hermana Magdaleno and me. We waited for
them to quiet down. They realized how
important it was to Marcos and finally stopped talking and then he got
shy! Hermana Magdaleno helped him say it
and it was so sweet. "Thank you for the Mormon ladies who came over to my
house to teach me." It was such an
incredible example to us and his family. Can they see how important this is to him? Hopefully their hearts will soften soon.
Later on during the week, Hermana Harris and
I went to Marcos'. We switch
companionships every two days, and we taught him that we all lived with
Heavenly Father before this earth life. We lived as spirits and then we were
born and now live on earth in our human bodies.
I used my glove as an example – spirit=hand; glove=body). He had a lot of questions. He offered to say the prayer at the end. While we were bowing our heads and waiting,
Marcos said: "Wait, can I ask you a question? What do I call you guys? Like sisters?
…because we are all God's children and all?" We smiled and I said " You can call us
sister missionaries." Then he
prayed: "Thanks for sending these sister missionaries to teach me. Thank
you that I lived with you before as a spirit and now that I am on the earth so
I can grow and learn and experience things. Thanks for the chance to explore
the world and discover new things."
It warmed my heart and I felt joy, feeling that little children are so
important. We need to become like little
children and open up our hearts and minds and have a desire to learn more. We need to be kind to everyone and realize
that making seemingly little mistakes (like Marcos' example of tripping his
little sister) is not okay and we should have the desire (like Marcos does) to
receive forgiveness and be clean.
We've had the opportunity to teach a lot of
children lately. Last Saturday an 8 year
old girl named Destiny was baptized. Her
Dad's in jail and has been for a while!
Her Mom's been raising the kids on her own and tries really hard to get
them to church. Destiny is adorable and
smart! (The other 8 year old we're
teaching is Maya). Destiny's baptism was
great! We even got Marcos' Mom to take
him and stay to watch it, so that he could see what it was like. I had the wonderful opportunity to play the
piano again (really wish I practiced more before my mission....). Destiny was
so happy and afterwards we were invited to her house for homemade tamales.
I have been there every time to teach Maya (the
rotation has just worked out that way). Her sweet Abuelita still surprises me
by making popcorn on the stove when we come.... love it :) I got this great idea that we should help
Maya make a book!! She has a hard time
remembering things that we have taught her.
So we bought her a flowery spiral notebook, stickers, scissors and
glue. We cut out pictures from old
Ensign church magazines and from pamphlets that we pass out. Then we had her glue pictures of things we've
already taught/talked about, such as Joseph Smith, The First Vision, Jesus
Christ, The Book of Mormon, Prayer, etc...
We had her write the words in Spanish and in English on each page next
to each picture. Joseph Smith Jose
Smith, The First Vision La Primera Vision, etc.
Then had her write down a sentence about each subject: Joseph Smith. "He talked to God and Jesus." (Book of Mormon) "Tells about God and Jesus." …simple sentences that she created. It has helped thinking of basic gospel object
lessons in simple terms. Her faith is strong and her prayers are sweet (just
like Marcos'). It's been a blessing and
a great experience teaching her.
Eduardo is still doing great. He is so happy and told everyone he knows
that he's getting baptized on Feb 25th!
It's really been a joy teaching him and we are amazed by how much he
knows already. He's spiritually in tune.
Please pray with your families-brings power,
unity and blessings! I love you all!
Love,
Hermana Johnson
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