Keep your eyes to the Son, and everything else will fall into the shadows.

Hey there pals! What a week! Are yall tired? I am

It's been a really good week! The week of meetings. But the great thing about this week is that even though we had lots of meetings, we were still able to go out and teach and find a lot. Which is always really good because when I get trapped inside all day I get really mopey. I asked Sister Hill if that would wear off when I go home. Just having to go out and share the gospel otherwise I feel lummy. Hopefully it does somewhat but not to the effect of taking the pressure off to share the gospel. I hope that stays.

We met lots of cool people this week, had some cool experiences. But it was all trumped when President called and told me I was getting transferred. You would think that since I have been here forever it wouldn't have been a surprise but yet it was. I am leaving Spartanburg to go whitewash train somewhere in a distant land. I don't know where yet, I find out tomorrow so I'll let yall know next week :) but I am excited! As well as sad, I was convinced I was going to die here. All of my Hmongs will just get baptized without me here. Allen didn't even show me his headspin :/ although, we went to have a lesson with Bao and Seng on Friday and they showed us a video of all 3 of the Lor brothers doing breakdancing. While we were watching it a giant black cockroach crawled next to me on the couch. I tried to shove it off but it crawled behind sister Hill. So all of us besides Sister Hill ran into the kitchen. She stood up and it just is crawling down her back. Man oh man, I think we all had a heart attack. She just swatted her body til it flew into the kitchen and Seng kicked into the other room. Fun fun times. It's bug country over here. Hate that. We also found a bunch of baby cockroaches crawling all over our bedroom floor. Bleh. Luckily leaving that apartment before I have to find the momma.

So that's my fun story of the week.

The work is so good in South Carolina. Who would've thought that it would just be the best place on earth? I'm excited for all the things in store the next several weeks. I hope you all are doing well and continue seeing miracles in your own lives. God is just such a good Father who wants to give good gifts. I'm glad I'm able to see them in my life and lives of those around me. Being a missionary is just the greatest! Hope you all have a good week!

Love ya!

Sister Johanson

A positive anything is worth more than a negative nothing.

You know, I'm not exactly sure what that title means, but it sounds like it could be profound..?

I hope you all have had a great week and are enjoying the wonderful fall weather. It's been really nice the past week due to the hurricane on the coast. Us upper state people only benefit from the hurricanes, which sounds really shallow to say (was that a pun?). But we're all safe and dry and everything is ok. Hope tay han is surviving down in Florida? Prayers are definitely needed though for the residents of SC as well as the other places Matthew hit.

But the work is going really well as always. Continuing forward, which is what we like here. Our friends Allen and Chue are cleared to baptize their family members at the of the month. Allen will be ordained to be a priest either next sunday or the following. Woo hoo!!

Highlights of the week include: food. Got fed legit, the fanciest meal I've ever eaten in my entire existence. We were fed lobster, lamb, and greek salad for dinner on Wednesday. Holy cow, I felt so fancy. And then yesterday the Hmong people invited us over for a party and they just know how to eat. We had fried chicken, meatloaf, lasagna, yummy noodle stuff, complete with 6 different kinds of cake. (6 different people had birthdays recently, they all have to have their own cake!)

Other than that, I'm just still excited to be a missionary. Does it ever get old? No it doesn't! Never! That's not saying there aren't things that I won't miss when I go home but being a missionary and teaching the gospel is just the most rewarding thing you will ever do. We're just line in line with God. Our purposes are the same! Hope yall heard Elder Oaks and Anderson's talk at conference last week. Time to get on with member missionary work ;)

How many times have you heard that from a missionary.

But I really I hope yall know how much I love you and appreciate you. Oh oh!! I forgot! Jannie finally got enough money so her partner can get divorced, they can get married and she can get baptized! Woo hoo! Haha good stuff.

Anyways, I hope you each have a good week and try to find a miracle in each day. Even if it's small, but God is constantly pouring out good gifts on His children. When we take time to recognize them, He will give us even more.

Have a good week!

(this email is kinda long!! :D)

sorry these ones are kinda blurry, our picture taker wasn't so hot

He Lives!

Hey everyone!

Did you all just love General Conference! Ah I just loved it so much! I don't know if it was just because I'm a missionary or what but I just feel like they chose almost all of their topics out of preach my gospel. Just focused so directly on the basic doctrines of the church: restoration, plan of salvation, gospel of Jesus Christ. Man oh man. It was really neat because the whole time I just kept getting feelings like, "You know this is true!" and I felt like I could just be up there with them. Just the fact that they all knew of their testimony and were able to declare it to the world. I just feel that way. I know my testimony is sure and I know this gospel is true! It was cool just to feel like I was on the same team as the general authorities. That these aren't things that just the missionaries are going out and teaching, this is what the apostles and Prophet of the Lord is teaching. We teach the same things! Because that's what is going to help us the most :)

It was a good week, full of lots of exchanges. I didn't really get to be in my area a whole lot this week so it was interesting. Still good. I love the sisters, I just learn so much!

Got to be with my greenie again, Sister Smith. Love that lady!

I hope you are all feeling the joy that comes from living the gospel. When everything else seems to be going wrong, we can rejoice in the fact that we have the restored gospel of Jesus Christ filling our lives.

Love you all! Hope you have a good week!!

Sister Johanson

Pictures! Me and sister smith, evidence of sister hill's and my grocery list each week, my failed attempt at hootenanny's in the south.

They turned out last conference I don't know what happened :(

Our problems are temporary, God is eternal.

Hello my loyal subjects! I hope everyone's week was really, really good!

Mine was fun :) You don't always get lots of those on your mission but it really just was a fun week. We had zone conference on Thursday, ah it was so good. I just love missionary meetings. There is nothing like them. All the missionaries coming together to learn and be taught by the spirit, united with one purpose: to bring souls to Christ.

Also, that evening we went out to Outback Steakhouse with a less active family in our ward. That was my first time eating there, holy cow. I think I ate 2 days worth of food in that meal. We had some good bread to start us off, followed by an appetizer, entrée, and 3 desserts! Man oh man. But..it was good. So that's all that really matters right? Ha just kidding. Won't be doing that again.

The rest of the week was really good, we had Bao's baptism on Saturday! Oh it was so good :) Her husband baptized her and they were just so great. A lot of their family came so the entire room was filled! They also brought some tasty homemade egg rolls for us to snack on afterward. But they just looked so happy. One of the coolest parts about it was that Seng's brothers and cousins were just watching it all and taking it in, and telling their wives to pay attention because that would be them next. Allen and Elizabeth got married this week so Allen should be able to baptize Elizabeth next month :) ah families. Ha I told Elizabeth a while ago that I wanted Allen to teach me how to do a head spin, because she told us he knew how to do one. So at the baptism I played the piano, and afterwards Allen came up to me and said he thought I played the piano really good and he told me that if I taught him how to play the piano he would teach me how to do a head spin. Haha so just be ready for that when I come home.

One of the family's little boys had a birthday party yesterday so we went and ate some fuh. It's an Asian noodle soup. It's pretty good. You just have noodles and broth and then just add a bunch of meats and vegetables to it. So I just started throwing stuff in and unknowingly stuck a handful of jalapenos in it. My mouth just started burning a few bites in, and I just started stealing everybody's water around me. But, I still enjoyed it despite the spiciness.

Ah I just love being a missionary! I loved the Women's session Saturday night and how they taught all about the doctrine of Christ and faith. It's so amazing what we have. We have a tendency as humans to see all the things going wrong in the world and our lives and get discouraged and depressed. But we don't need to be. Because we live in the fullness of times! The gospel has been restored to the earth and we have the power of the atonement to work in our lives! We have the gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for it and for the power of the spirit. Thanks everybody for all of your support. I love y'all so much!

Hope you have a blessed week!

Sister Johanson

What, pictures?!

Peoples opinions do not change the mind or essence of God.

Hey there! Short email sorry!

This week has been grand! We are still staying busy as ever. This next week will be just as packed! We have zone conference and exchanges, and womens session and Bao's baptism! We are now starting the procession of the Hmong village baptisms. More to come in the future :D

Um...as usual my mind just draws a blank. It's always so hard to remember the things we did because every week is so different!! But they are also all the same. So by the end of your mission your weeks just don't seem to vary very much. Unless you really go back and look at all the things you have done.

I guess this week you just get to know that I'm excited to be a missionary! This is the best work on earth and the best place to do it! I hope you guys have been striving to do missionary work in your lives. Simply because I know that life can be stressful and I know that it can be hard and so missionary work will just bring you some of the best blessings and the fastest and easiest to recognize. I love you guys! I hope you have a great week!!

Love Sister Johanson

ps. I'll try to improve on my emailing next week.

God wants full custody, not weekend visits

Hey everybody! Another short email this week but you should know that I am doing great!! The work here in Spartanburg has never been finer. Neither has it been in South Caroliner.

First week taking over the other sisters area, was pretty good. Not too stressful. Oh! We got to teach my recent convert John Williams this week. No worries, he is still my favorite human ever. They are doing solid and we just unloaded on him all the things he needs to work towards: Melchezedik priesthood, patriarchal blessing, temple baptisms, temple sealing etc... Luckily he was just stoked about it all.

Yesterday we had a linger longer at church, all thanks to the ward missionary department. Just got to eat plenty of food after church and talk with members, which is just my favorite thing ever. As well as we got plenty of leftovers so that's always a plus.

This week we visited a less active family and we talked about the importance of the atonement. And one of the family members said, "Without it all of this is pointless" and it just struck a cord with me. Because it is so true. Like one..or several of the general authorities have said. Everything in our church is centered on the atonement of Jesus Christ, everything else is just appendages to it. The plan of salvation is only possible because of the atonement and so our very existence would be pointless if we didn't have the atonement. And I came to the conclusion that our lives are meaningless if we aren't using the atonement in our lives everyday, and the reverse of that is: our lives are the most meaningful when we use the atonement in our lives every day. I've seen that so much on my mission as I've learned more about how to use it each and every day. And I just feel like I'm accomplishing my purpose here in life when I'm using it to overcome my shortcomings and weaknesses and faults and to repent of all my mistakes. I am just grateful to have the gospel in my life so that I can use it.

Love you all! Hope you have another fantastic week!

Sister Johanson

Does life stink? Well God has a pew for you.

Hi everybody! This week has been cracy! Sooo much going on. It's okay tho, craziness is fun while it lasts. And now it is over and I'm glad of that. 

We are again the only set of missionaries in the Spartanburg 2 Ward. So it'll be an adjustment to again be taking over the other area. But it will be fun. I am excited because now I get to teach my recent convert John Williams again! Yay :) 

Transfers are this week but guess what? I am staying in Spartanburg with Sister Hill. Going strong. It's good because we are planning on seeing some major miracles the next few months so we have to stay together for that to happen. We started teaching some more families in the Mong family so that's been cool. Everybody is getting set on the idea of getting sealed in the Oakland temple in a year. Sister Hill and I are stoked because then we can just road trip out to Cali and go see all of the Lor family get sealed in the temple. Will definitely be the best day ever. Will most likely be more excited for that than my own wedding day ;) 

Today's email is gonna be short. But something that I have been doing lately is studying all the talks given by Pres. Monson since he has been the prophet. I got the idea from some talk I was reading a few weeks ago. It talked about the different role each of the prophets have played in the church and what they have taught us. I also read a talk the other day that said that the most important counsel and scripture for us to study is that of our current prophets most recent address. So I've been trying to read all of his talks since 2008 and highlight the different themes found throughout. And I just love Thomas S. Monson. He has really taught us all about having an attitude of gratitude and being grateful for our blessings and for our lives. He has taught us how to be happy throughout our lives, because that's what this life was made for. God wants us to find joy in the small miracles and moments that happen throughout each day and each week and each year.

Quote from Pres Monson: "If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues." 

That is probably the biggest thing I have learned to cultivate from being with Sister Hill. She is such a good example of that. I'm so happy to be with her for another transfer in Spartanburg. Ah! So many  miracles coming. Woo hoo! 

Love you guys! Hope you have a great week! Keep your chins up! Life is grand :) 

Sister Johanson