Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It's been such an amazing week with my new companion Elder Montera!

We've started this transfer out on fire let me tell y'all!

In just a few days with Elder Montera we've already been blessed with miracles and incredible spiritual experiences!

I want to share with y'all the way my view/approach on teaching has changed dramatically. I'm so grateful that I get to learn from my companion. Even though I've been in the mission for while now and I understand the principles of missionary work and what it takes to be successful, I've truly, like it has sunk into my heart just this week, what it takes to teach people not lessons. I've been able to watch and learn from the way my companion teaches. It's really helped me talaga. The statement of "you must KNOW the person, in order to teach them" has been made clear to me. I've been a good teacher, a good missionary, successful, etc, but these past few days I've recognized the things I must improve in order to be extraordinary. It starts with knowing the people I teach/talk to.

My companion made sister Estioco (less active) cry during the lesson. It was absolutely beautiful to watch how using the Book of Mormon applies to anyone's life situation. The verse he shared was perfect (Jacob 2:8) and she felt the spirit, I felt the spirit, we all felt Heavenly Father's love.

In another lesson to a less active family (Balbene family.. actually part-member) we used the Book of Mormon and helped them feel the the joy that they once felt dati when they used to come to church. And guess what? They came yesterday for the first time in over 5 months.

I could share with you all the powerful lessons that we had this week, but it's just too long, too many haha. I've felt a difference in the work. The phrase of "teaching by the spirit" has also been made clear to me. Like just now sunk in.  It's weird the differences I've felt this week, but I believe this will change my mission.

We are pumped up right now with our area, the zone, everything. I haven't been this excited in a while to be honest.

We had 12 investigators at church on Sunday. Grabe sobrang masaya. The Lord blesses us. We've been patient these past 2 transfers and now here comes the heaps of miracles.

I love my mission talaga, there are no words to describe-just joy. I can't believe it's taken me this long on my mission to realize the importance of the Spirit. To actually recognize it, and to teach people and know who they are, but the Lord is merciful and has helped me more than I recognize.

Love,

Elder Johnson

Pasig Week 12

Maligayang araw!

Maganda talaga ang linggo namin dito sa Pasig!

Elder Vergara and I were the most excited to give our workshop during zone training on Tuesday because of the topic that the AP's have been focusing on- Consecration! It went so well. Just talking about it gets me fired up to be a better representative of Jesus Christ. We as the zone leaders have committed ourselves to leave everything on the altar of sacrifice, to repent, to change our nature and we committed the zone to do the same! It's the most difficult thing, especially realizing that I'm far from consecration, but it's so rewarding when we as missionaries strive and try our best. Like Elder Holland said, "God blesses people who try."

I've come to realize, especially this past week, that everyone has agency to choose what's right and wrong. I cannot force them. The only thing I can do is be the example by helping, inspiring, uplifting and blessing them.

Saturday was one of the best days of my mission. We were able to take the Manuel family to the temple and do baptisms for the dead with them! They were so excited to enter and to experience the joy inside the house of the Lord. it was perfect, and they loved it. Next year they'll be able to enter and be sealed as a family!

      We came straight from the temple to the chapel for the baptism of sister Leonila Sagrados! It was so great.  She said in her testimony that she "cant even express her happiness." She was confirmed on Sunday and hopefully we can get her and Sister Gutierrez (less active dati and who referred Leonila to us) to the temple to do baptisms for the dead as well!

Only good things are happening to us here in our area. Our Young Men president is so masipag it's crazy. He's given us so many referrals and the YM program in our ward has exploded with new faces, friends of recent converts, etc. It's so awesome. We were able to teach them this week, and 3 of the YM want to be baptized asap haha. So we're striving for December. We are hoping to teach their whole family and get their family to church, not just the young men. Please pray that we can have success and get these families progressing!

It's transfer week pala, my companion Elder Vergara is transferring. My new companion is Elder Montera! I know him and he's a stud missionary so I'm excited for this transfer to get to lead with him.

Iyan lang po

Mahal ko kayo,

Elder Johnson

Miracle Week

Family!

We experienced a miracle week here in Pasig! The Lord blessed us in so many ways its been incredible!

On Monday we taught our recent convert family (Manuel family) about baptisms for the dead...because of course it was "the day of the dead" lol. Get it? But anyways, it was so perfect because this week the Manila Temple opens back up and we have planned to take them on a temple tour and do temple work this next Saturday! We are going to rent a jeepney and bring some investigators too. We're super excited!

Tuesday we visited a less active family (Aneban family) and we were able to figure out their concern and really help them feel the Spirit.  The miracle here was that Sister Aneban came to church and also brought her neighbors who aren't members! They are interested and willing to learn about how the Gospel blesses families!

On Wednesday we had our Pasig zone interviews! I always look forward to my interviews with President. He's so awesome, and I'm so grateful for him. It was successful. We and the AP's also gave some training. Our workshop focused on helping investigators keep commitments and how to follow up effectively. It went really well. We introduced a new way to help investigators remember and keep their commitments. This is something Elder Vergara and I have felt our zone is struggling with and will really help them to have progressing investigators. We also mentioned how we as missionaries must keep all the commitments from our leaders and apply it to our work, because that's the chance we have to repent! Our zone is getting hot, we can feel it.

Our responsibilities as zone leaders took us away from the work a lot this week especially on Thursday where we had to drive the couple missionaries around to every apartment and do apartments checks. Oh and by the way we had the cleanest apartment in the zone...we got a perfect score :) I think my experience with cleaning the gym before my mission prepared me for this haha.

MLC on Friday was powerful and inspiring! We discussed about becoming a consecrated missionary! Man it was awesome!! I know the things I must change in order to truly be consecrated- it's laying everything on the altar! I'm so excited I can't even tell y'all! This is what we as the leaders must do in order to change the culture of the PQCM. That's out focus right now.. casualness is the gateway to disobedience! It's changing our nature! That's the key to consecration and it'll come by surrendering to God and  giving it all these last 10 months. I couldn't be happier, thinking, praying, and fasting for the welfare of my brothers and sisters here in the Philippines. 

Miracles this week:

10 investigators at church! (the members and especially the YMP are starting to produce)

Sister Leonila will be baptized on Saturday! Her bleeding stopped and she's so ready!! :)

My companion and I had a powerful lesson with one of our progressing investigators sister Margerie (part member family). She cried during the lesson when we asked her if she believed our message was true and what she was feeling. We need your prayers though because her parents don't want her to be baptized.

I loved this week, and I love my mission. This work is true!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Undas

Happy Halloween!

It's been a busy Preparation day and a pretty normal week family, so I'll keep this letter short :)

On Tuesday I really strove to have a successful and effective exchange with one of the district leaders in my zone (Elder Almasin). With the guidance of the Spirit we had such an awesome day of work and we both became better missionaries. As a leader in the Pasig zone and representative of Jesus Christ I've really been focusing personally on leading like the Savior. I felt the Lord's hand during my exchange as I truly felt love towards Elder Almasin and wanted to him to succeed. It made me so happy when I learned in my follow-up call a few days later that he had applied the things he learned from our exchange and how he thanked me for the things I inspired him with. I'm grateful for my mission.  There's no other place where we can just focus on developing Christlike attributes and help these wonderful people live His Gospel.

I had a spiritual experience with the Priesthood this week where I had the opportunity to bless one of the sisters in my zone. She's suffering with depression so I didn't know what I was supposed to say. But the blessing was from Heavenly Father, I testify it was.

Nothing much has changed with the area of me and my companion Elder Vergara. Leonila will be baptized in November, most likely the 12th. She's so awesome. It's been incredible to be a part of her conversion. Her testimony is so strong! It's the best feeling when an investigator expresses to you how grateful she is for us and the Gospel of Jesus Christ we helped bring to her life. She's so happy, she glows for real haha. The trial is, she has bleeding problems so we need your prayers family!

It's been nice this week getting new potential investigators from the members! We are staying faithful here in Pasig and still visiting the members, introducing Preach My Gospel with them. It's been effective, just a little process. But success will come!

Until next week.. ingat! Have a fun Halloween over there in the states.. I'll be celebrating Day of the Dead here in the Philippines! 

P.S. I joined the mission choir!! We are performing on December 4 and we practice weekly. It's so fun! I got the tenor part..I gotta share my talents kasi ;)

Love,

Elder Johnson

Pasig Week 8

Dear family,

Its been an unique week, full of service! :)

I don't know if I've told y'all about the Manuel family (recent converts here in Pasig). They're so awesome and literally the nicest and most humble people I've ever met! We have FHE (Family Home Evening) at their house every week and it's such a wonderful activity that we as members get to participate in.  It brings the family together and strengthens testimonies. For us as missionaries it's a perfect opportunity to invite non member friends to hear our message of Jesus Christ and His restored gospel. I've seen the blessings come from FHE and we've gained new investigators because of it.  So I challenge y'all to have FHE weekly! and invite your friends!

On Tuesday I had an exchange with one of our District Leaders, Elder Binhaon. The day was interesting to say the least.  It started out well, the lessons were on and off, but then he got sick and threw up so the rest of the night was not as planned and we weren't able to have a successful evaluation. I wish I could just redo the day haha. But oh well, it's time to just move on. Heavenly Father keeps testing how I will respond to delays and things not going my way, because this week I got a little frustrated at my other DL who is having a difficult time with his district and with leading. So I've been working real hard on being patient and loving him like Christ. I continue to have the question come into my mind, "Do the missionaries in my bahay, and zone feel my love?" This is something I'm really striving to improve because I'm far from perfect.

Unexpectedly we found ourselves at Aurora chapel doing service most of Wednesday and Thursday. It was cool though, I really enjoyed serving in a different way than just teaching. We carried heavy boxes of food and packed canned goods for the parts of the Philippines that have been hit by the typhoons. It was definitely a successful service project :)

Saturday was a throwback day for me haha. We had the opportunity to do MTC exchanges! So if y'all remember last year at this time when I was in Manila MTC for a few days I went out and worked with one of the missionaries in the Manila mission. Ya well that's what I got to participate in again! This time, I was the old guy in the mission draggin around 2 new white boys from Utah serving in the Bacolod mission haha. Our experience was awesome!! At first I asked them what they wanted to accomplish and what were their goals for the quick 2 hour exchange. Their response was one I'll never forget.."I just want to help these people and help them feel the Spirit." What a simple yet amazing response from an excited missionary ready to serve the Lord. It brought back memories of what I felt last year and my excitement to just go out and help these wonderful people! I really felt the spirit and I learned so much from these 2 Elders. All I desire is to help the people come unto Christ and help them feel the Holy Ghost! 

Our area is struggling pa rin.. it's starting to get really frustrating looking up our board of baptisms and seeing no projection for October and a weak 1 lang for November. The Lord expects more from us here. Elder Vergara and I are just figuring out what else we can do to reach weekly baptisms.  For now it's just prayer and fasting for miracles. 

Ingat po kayo palagi! 

Mahal ko kayo,

Elder Johnson 

Pasig Week 8

Kumusta!

Oh how great this work is! 

My companion and I Elder Vergara prepared our workshop on Monday night and really relied on the Spirit to guide us the whole way. We prayed with more faith and felt confident in the Lords promise that "if you are prepared, ye shall not fear!" 

Zone training came and we were so excited! The Sister Training Leaders in our zone gave a little workshop first about teaching repentance to our investigators.  It was awesome and set the stage for our workshop to our Pasig zone! We focused on one of the steps of the inspired teaching cycle: listening, observing, and discerning. The focus was to help the missionaries become effective teachers. How? By LOVING our investigators. It's all about love and charity. Anyway, we believe that the zone felt the spirit and I'm just so grateful for the promise of Heavenly Father gives in the sacrament prayer.."the spirit shall always be with you."

On Wednesday we had a "new leaders training meeting." This was the first time PQCM has done this, and it was absolutely amazing! The objective was to train us as the leaders how to be successful in our callings. I'll share with you the thoughts given from President and Sister Koster to us:

*In order to achieve a new goal, we need to change what we're doing, do something new! *

*Be a spiritual blessing to the missionaries in my zone- how should they feel after they talk with me?*

*Leave my calling better than I found it, be a better person, train those DL's to become a better ZL than I ever was! *

 

The spirit taught me many more things as well, in order to become an effective leader. One thing that I'll never forget is just what I mentioned kanina. Do I really love every missionary in my zone? Do I love my investigators? How do the missionaries in Pasig feel after they talk with me? Am I inspiring, blessing and uplifting them? I've reflected on that and I know that charity is an attribute that can only be obtained just like Moroni said, through prayer and through the mercy and grace of Jesus Christ.

Elder Vergara and I are doing well.  We are still constantly striving to make our area the model area. Heavenly Father is testing us with patience for sure. He's also trying our faith.

The Apid family (one of our progressing investigators who really understood the doctrine) just told us yesterday that they are moving out of our area. The Sta. Ana family was progressing but now we are seeing no progression at all. Rolly has problems with his sins and keeps telling us that he can't turn away from it because he wont survive.

 

So that's the frustrating part haha. But we have so much positive coming our way! Leonila came to church so her baptism will be on November 5! And yesterday we had 3 miracle investigators come to church so we are excited!

It really all comes down to faith. I've really come to know that on my mission...have faith!

Well, I love y'all and thanks for your prayers. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Pasig Week 7

Family! :)

I'm so grateful for this week that I had talaga. It's been such a spiritual, motivational, and inspiring week here for me. Because of the Missionary Leadership Council, and General Conference, I'm back on track ready to conquer anything the Lord places before me.

I'm also so grateful for my companionship that I have with Elder Vergara. As missionaries, and companionships, we must have the spirit to be with us. If it's nonexistent, we cannot do this work.  With both of us noticing our need to change, we were able to communicate and discuss what we must do in order to be powerful and unified. We are so excited for this transfer and it's already off to a hot start!

On Friday we had the monthly MLC with President Koster and all the leaders in the mission. This was my second one so I knew what to expect and how to prepare.  Man this meeting was powerful let me tell ya! The spirit is undeniable and it wouldn't be the same without our wonderful mission President and his wife. From the start, they bring a sense of fire and excitement that gets us (as the leaders) pumped up and ready to inspire our zone. President Koster wants changes in this mission, not just the usual average baptisms every month. Heavenly Father has high expectations and it is our responsibility to carry out the work! Our zone training workshop tomorrow is gonna be sick.  The zone will feel the spirit and hopefully catch the desire and vision of what we can accomplish. Please pray for me and my companion as we prepare our workshop! salamat :)

Quotes i loved from MLC from our leaders: "There's nothing better than what I am doing which is 'Declaring Repentance!'" (D&C 15 and 16)

"Be excited, go out to teach and baptize!"

"I am successful when I feel the spirit in my work and desire the salvation of others."

"Keep going, don't stop, don't ever give up"

"Listen differently, with my heart, not just my ears"

" Gods plan is eternal, not everything will be accomplished in these 2 years."

I couldn't have been more excited to watch General conference! It was awesome! 

I bear testimony that Thomas S. Monson is our living and true prophet on this earth and that this church is Christ's true church. I felt it, and I know it to be true.  How lucky we are to have this Gospel that brings us JOY! Do we feel that joy now?

I could write for days about the things that I loved from conference, but I'll just share a few:

"Pray with your heart, not just your lips."

"Have Faith in Jesus Christ!"

"If we read the Book of Mormon every day, we will never go astray...it's impossible!! We will be converted to the Restored Gospel."

Are y'all reading the Book of Mormon daily? Do you exercise your faith in your Savior Jesus Christ? Do you have joy even in the midst of your trials? Are you praying with your heart?

Ponder those questions :)...because I did! 

I love y'all and I'll talk to y'all next week!

Love,

Elder Johnson