Transfer week...I've been called as a TRAINER

Magandang araw pamilya ko!

On Sunday night I received a call from President Revillo. He has called me as a TRAINER! When he told me this, I didn't know what to say haha. My heart was beating too fast. This calling is a big responsibility.  It still feels surreal but tomorrow I will officially be training a new missionary! I'm excited for this opportunity and I'm grateful for the trust that President Revillo has in me. I think I'm the most excited to share with my anak the things that my trainer (Elder Santiago- who is going home- he finished his mission ) taught me! 

My companion, Elder Barrientos is transferring. I'm so grateful for these past 6 weeks I've had to work with him. He's been my favorite companion so far in my mission. Many, many memories of him and I as a companionship here in Cogeo. I will never forget the laughs, the struggles, the disappointments, the fun times, the joyous times etc. The one thing that he has taught me, not through his words, but through actions is love. He has served me in so many different ways this past transfer. Unfortunately, I haven't appreciated it, or shown that same love for him as much as I should have. But that's a lesson that I've learned and I'll always be grateful for. Because of the love that Elder Barrientos has shown to me, I've realized how much I need to change and be better. I'm excited to love and serve my anak (trainee).

Our area is still struggling. I continue to figure out what Heavenly Fathers plan for me is dito sa Cogeo. This past week we found 2 new investigators who I'm really excited for. brother June Barreno, lives with Sister Vilma (she's a member but less active). It's been good- we've taught them 3 times so far. It's like 2 birds with 1 stone- rescuing a less active and baptizing her husband. We extended a baptism date for May 28 and I believe he can be ready by then. We don't know if they have any problems but this next week we'll find out. Potential siya talaga. 

Also brother Ronnie- he's been prepared for sure. He's ready for the gospel; this is his time. 

Brother Nick (our special 2) is really frustrating us. We told him on Saturday after a powerful lesson that we would pick him up for church and then Sunday morning he texts us and bails. We gave him a "do or die" lesson yesterday. So he has 1 more chance.

Brother Ervin is also not really progressing. We heard he has a Law of Chastity problem. He makes a lot of excuses too. I'm not sure about May 14. But this week we'll really find out.

The Ortiz family (recent converts) are awesome. Long story short, their faithfulness and trust in the Lord is absolutely incredible. They experience so many trials (this week they had no electricity or water) but they remain strong in the gospel. It's humbling to know how blessed we are, even as missionaries. Seeing these people here struggle day to day with money to feed their kids is humbling talaga.

Well family, I hope you are all doing well.  Just continue to pray for my area. I miss y'all and love y'all so much! 

I love my calling as a missionary! :)

Love,

Elder Johnson

Week 5 Cogeo

Magandang tanghali po!

I'm so grateful to be serving here in the PQCM as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! I feel so blessed to be a servant of the Lord and share this wonderful gospel with these amazing people here. 

This week unfortunately wasn't the best. We continue to struggle in our day to day work. It seemed like we got punted over 100 times this week. The thing I love about missionary work is that every day is different and there are ups and downs everyday.  Although there are more downs usually, I look for the joyous experiences each day. This week we had a few...which outweigh the bad days/experiences/disappointments by a ton. We have a progressing investigator!! Brother Ervin came to church and was able to listen to the prophet and apostles speak. He told us that he believes that Thomas S. Monson is the true living prophet on the earth today. We are excited for Brother Ervin. He continues to develop, exercising his faith in Jesus Christ. We are now preparing him for baptism on May 14!

We continue to find new investigators, and this week we found some potentials for sure. Another thing that I've come to absolutely love is to find! The chance to meet someone, get to know them, and teach them the restored gospel is awesome.

The experiences that I'm having here in my mission are changing my life. Each day I grow to a knowledge of my Savior and his love for me and us all. It's fun to see that I can communicate pretty well in Tagalog now and talk to the cute little kids that yell at me and say, "Hey JOE!" haha. I love the Filipino people. Their hospitality is inspiring. They are the most kind and Christlike people. To be serving among them is a blessing, and I continue every day to strive and find that one "person or family" that is waiting for me. I know that day will come and I'm so excited for it.

What an inspiring, spirit-filled weekend we had, to watch and listen to the prophet and apostles of the Lord. I could write for days the things I learned and loved from our leaders during General conference, but I'll share with y'all some quotes that touched my heart.

"Be humble, without being compelled to be humble." - Steven E. Snow

"Jesus Christ is the greatest leader, because he was the greatest follower." So to be a great leader I have to be a great follower. True leadership is the commitment to follow Jesus Christ! 

"Choices determine our destiny." - Thomas S. Monson

"Bring the gospel from your head, to your heart."- Bonnie L. Oscarson

"Our faith should influence the way we live!" - Dieter F. Uchtdorf

"Heavenly Father doesn't make it easy, but He does make it possible!"

" The Lord blesses those who want to improve!" - Jeffrey R. Holland

I know that this church is true, and I love this work. That's all for this week family. I love you all!

Love, 

Elder Johnson

Week 4 Cogeo

Kumusta po pamilya ko!

As this week was coming to an end, Elder Barrientos and I were feeling as if we had another unsuccessful week with our investigators. Our special 2 are wala na and we thought that we were going to have 0 at church again. This past week we've done what the mission wants us to- focus on 50% reactivation and 50% baptizing. Although we know we aren't going to have a baptism for April, we are keeping the faith for May. On Sunday, a miracle occurred. As we were greeting the members of the ward, 3 of our investigators walked into the chapel! The Villamor family (they are a referral from brother Galang and we had not even taught them yet!!) We taught them yesterday after church and they are super potential. Their only problem is that they are not married. And then the other investigator- Sister Isabelle (the girl we dropped, but she came to church and told us that she wants to continue to be taught!).

But family, that wasn't even the miracle, this was; to our surprise, 4 of our Less Active families attended church! Elder Barrientos and I turned to each other and almost cried talaga. It was the sweetest feeling I've had since being on my mission. We felt the spirit so strong and knew that our companionship fast and prayers were answered. Although we've been pleading with Heavenly Father for progressing investigators, I think God has a different plan for us - to help the less active families become active in the Cogeo ward. I have a firm testimony that God answers prayers. Maybe not in the way the you think, but he hears and answers our prayers according to our faith! 

I want to share with you some of the things I learned about FAITH in my studies this week. Having faith in Jesus Christ means relying completely on Him in everything we do! It is an ASSURANCE of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. We express our faith by our actions- the way we live! The Lord will work miracles if we pray in faith, study the scriptures every day and be diligent in everything we do (especially missionary work).  Keeping the commandments and being exactly obedient brings miracles. I know this is true, and I know that as I continue to trust in my Savior Jesus Christ, I'll be blessed and this area will progress!

That's all for this week family, I miss and love you all! 

Ill send pictures :)

Love,

Elder Johnson

Week 3 Cogeo

Hi Family,

This week has flown by. Not only this week but the past 7 months being in the mission field! I'm looking at the calendar and it's almost April!

It was a pretty normal week here in Cogeo.  Just the continuous grind of missionary work. 

On Thursday I had an exchange with the DL's anak- elder Esurim. He's still in his 12 weeks program and so I had the opportunity to lead in his area (bagong nayon). It was an awesome exchange. We taught many powerful lessons that went so well. It's the best feeling leaving a lesson and feeling so spiritually in tune, knowing that I did all I could in the lesson to help the investigator. Here's a cool story: we taught these 2 guys that are less active. As soon as we started talking and getting to know each other it seemed like we knew each other before.  It was weird, I've never connected with anyone like I did with these 2 brothers so far in my mission. I really felt like they were my brothers, and I was talking to them like my best friends- truly concerned for them and wanting to help them. I learned a lot from this exchange.  I'm really excited to hopefully train one day. It's a lot of fun working with younger missionaries. 

This week I studied Humility. The past couple weeks I've really noticed that my Tagalog is improving, and also my teaching skills.  Because of this, pride has snuck up on me a little bit.  As I was reading in the BoM I was quickly humbled when I read Mosiah 2: 23-25 when King Benjamin tells the people not to boast- we are always indebted to God and are as of the dust. 

Elder Barrientos and I have gotten a little bit discouraged with our situation right now. We have zero progressing investigators, and it seems like everything negative that could happen to our investigators is happening. One of our special 2 left for good, back to his province. And our other investigators simple are just not progressing. We've been working our tails off trying to find new investigators and to help our area. We've introduced the family mission plan to the members to try and get them involved and to receive referrals. It's even harder when we have zero members that are willing to work with us. I don't know what else to do. We're trying our absolute best to be exactly obedient, but our area is still struggling really bad right now. I know this is part of Heavenly Father's plan for us but it's really frustrating. I haven't had the opportunity to baptize someone in over 4 months or see the progression of an investigator. 

All I ask for you family is to pray for my area. I know we'll be blessed as long as we continue to work hard and do what we can. I'm just patiently waiting for these blessings to come haha. A highlight of this week was that 2 less active families that we taught came to church! I was so happy to see them walk into the chapel doors and feel of the spirit in the house of lord. 

I know that Joseph Smith is a true prophet of God and that the church of Jesus Christ was restored through him! 

Sige po, until next week family, ingat palagi!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Week 2 in Cogeo

Magandang buhay!

Another wonderful week here in the Philippines as a full time missionary! 

On Tuesday was my first zone training with my new zone (Antipolo)! I love my zone leaders Elder Dickens and Elder Galia. They gave a great workshop about the inspired teaching cycle. It's been a common theme for the Philippines Quezon City mission- becoming the tools for the spirit to use by teaching effectively and with power and authority! PMG says- effective teaching can be hard and takes great effort on the part of each companionship. Elder Barrientos and I have been applying this cycle and our lessons have been very powerful. We have been able to teach according to the needs of our investigators and give them a commitment to act. 

Wednesday was Zone Conference with 3 other zones at the Aurora chapel.  I know I always say this but I always look forward to trainings and conferences to be able to learn from President and from my leaders! I was so happy when I walked into the chapel and saw my MTC companion Elder Sanft! Man it was great catching up with him. I love that elder. Sana one day we'll become companions again haha.

 

There are many things that the spirit taught me at the conference but one thing I learned that I'll share with y'all is that becoming a consecrated missionary means leaving everything on the altar of sacrifice and giving my whole soul to the Lord! (Omni 1:26). I had the opportunity at the conference to bear my testimony in front of the zones.  It was so awesome.  After we watched the video of the Jeffrey R. Holland's inspiring talk about the atonement and missionary work, President Revillo chose a few of us to bear testimony of the Savior. 

On Thursday Elder Rawson (TA) worked with us.  Exchanges are my absolute favorite thing ever talaga.  The evaluation especially.  It gives us the chance to discuss what we did well during the day/lessons and what we can improve on.  It really humbles me knowing I have so much to learn and that really I am nothing without my Heavenly Father and his son Jesus Christ.  In one of the lessons to one of our progressing investigators, Brother Arnel, we were focusing on the Atonement. We realized in our evaluation how hard it really is to teach about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Elder Rawson explained that we have to continue to truly come to understand our Savior's Atonement and apply it in our lives every day! I'm so grateful for this mission, my time to serve the Lord for 2 years and to come to know him better every single day. 

I also learned that I as a missionary must help the investigator understand the WHY and then teach them the HOW? (example: repentance). 

Elder Barrientos and I continue to find those people that the Lord has prepared for us here in Cogeo.  I had a cool experience this week when I felt a prompting from the spirit to stop and go back to talk to this guy. We taught him right away and he told us that he believed that Joseph Smith is a true prophet. He's a golden investigator talaga! Hopefully he'll continue to progress because as of right now we don't have any progressing investigators. Every area that I've been in so far in my mission it's been like this, like starting over finding new investigators! But we're staying positive and we know that we can baptize in April and May. 

That's all for this week family. I feel your prayers and I appreciate your love and support. All I ask is that you continue to pray for this area and my investigators so that we can have some progressing investigators. I'm doing well. The language is getting better but is still frustrating. Love y'all. Talk to y'all next week! 

P.S. Today we got to attend the Manila Temple and do a session! It was so wonderful. I love the house of the Lord. It was exactly what I needed- it had been 4 months! 

Also.. I got an allergic reaction this week... I'm not sure from what but it was pretty bad haha. I have red dots all over my body.. and I'm talkin like my whole body.. and it itches.. like crazy! haha but it's all good:) the life of a missionary in the Philippines :)

Love, 

Elder Johnson

Emergency transferred ako sa Antipolo Zone- COGEO A

Hey Family! 

I received a call from one of the AP's on Monday night as my district and I were doing service for a member. I was shocked at what he said to me. "Elder Johnson you are getting emergency transferred to Antipolo Zone- Cogeo A." many questions rushed through my head and I was just really confused. I didn't even know what ET even meant. All I knew was to pack my bags and that I was leaving the next morning. It was hard saying goodbye even though I had only been in QC for a week and a half. I loved my companion and the members. I wasnt ready to leave- I just got there! 

In the AP's car on the way to my new area, President Revillo (my mission President) called me. Sinabi niya sa akin, "Elder Johnson I'm sorry that I had to pull you from your new area, but I need you to do something in Cogeo." He continued on telling me that the Elders that were there were being pasaway and "acting as tourists." He said that there was a lack of spirit and that he needed me to go and be an example to my new companion and kabahays. He told me that this was an opportunity to lead by example, as senior companion. When I heard these words from him I was thinking to myself, "Wow this is a big responsibility". I had no idea the situation I was going into. All I knew is that I needed to lead by example. 

As I arrived to Cogeo, I met my companion- Elder Barrientos. I'm not supposed to talk about negative things to you about my companion or the work but let's just say I wasn't impressed at first. As I got to know him he told me about his past and that he was disobedient, but that he wanted to change. I was relieved when those words came out of his mouth. It's been great getting to know him. He's a really cool guy.  I like him a lot. 

We got right to work of course! We work really well together. Elder Barrientos has been in the mission for 18 months now so he knows what he should be doing. We had a baptism on Saturday and also one planned for March 26. But besides that, we have kunti lang mga investigator. I love my new area- I'm back in the Province :). It's beautiful. We proselyte up in the bundok (mountains). We basically hike everyday haha. But the potential here is incredible! There are so many houses and families. The problem here in Cogeo is less actives. There are so many! It's crazy sad. I'm going to reactivate all of them! 

This weekend we had stake conference. President Revillo reminded us to strive to truly understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I'll share with y'all a little something I learned in my personal study that increased my understanding and appreciation of my Savior Jesus Christ. I was reading in True to the Faith.  Jesus Christ lived a perfect, sinless life. He was free from the demands of Justice, He had the power of Redemption, He was the ONLY one who could pay the debt for those who repent! I know that Jesus Christ is the center of everything. I'm grateful to represent him and to strive to become like him everyday. This church is true and I know it.

My challenge ako para sa inyo lahat.. my family- study the Atonement of Jesus Christ and gain a better understanding of his sacrifice for you. Apply His Atonement everyday. I know that as we do this, we will feel peace and joy. This gospel is true.

I hope you all have a great week. Love y'all!

Love,

Elder Johnson

First Week in My Second Area- Quezon City 4B

Kumusta po,

Well I have successfully completed my first full week in my new area in Quezon City. Man it's like a whole different mission compared to my last area in Sablayan. I'm actually in the city- maraming cars, people, pollution, and it's always cloudy. It's a different kind of poor here too. It's hard to explain but in some areas it's like walking through narrow alleys and some of the houses are so tiny that I have to put my legs outside haha. I really do like it here though- the members are so awesome.  They feed us a lot haha. My bishop is great, and I'm in a ward! It's a change for sure, but I'm loving it.

 

This week has still be stressful for me. The work here is really hard, like it's tough. The most difficult part for me has been trying to lead the planning- where to find, and just adjusting to this change. But at the same time, I've learned a lot and I almost have the area memorized. Having kunti lang investigators is sometimes discouraging, especially at night time when we don't know who to plan for, but the work is progressing here. We had one investigator at church yesterday and he's really interested - he's just slightly weird haha. Our other investigators have potential, but the most important thing that I've decided to do is to continue to FIND. My area needs new investigators and the best way for us to succeed is through the members! Member referrals are key! And the members here are so willing to help us, so I'm excited to continue building a relationship with all of them and strengthen their faith in Jesus Christ! 

This week have really enjoyed being a trainer. I absolutely love it! The things that I've learned from Elder Santiago I've applied my training to my anak- Elder Petilla. I know I don't know everything, but I feel as if I know my purpose as a missionary and I know how missionary work is supposed to go. My companion Elder Petilla expressed to me his struggles and weaknesses. He's so awesome. I look up to him talaga- he's the most Christlike person ever. It's crazy. I've been able to really help him and understand his challenges, because I was in his shoes just a few months ago. I know this transfer will be great with him. We will accomplish great things with the help of the Lord! I love this work family, and I really am grateful to be a part of it. I know Heavenly Father has a plan for this area and I'm excited to be here and watch it grow as I put my trust and faith in my Savior Jesus Christ. 

Thanks for all the prayers, I love and miss you all. Ingat po kayo palagi! 

Love,

Elder Johnson

 We did some family history work with members this week.