Sunshine & More Miracles

Bonjour family and friends!!

This week we were contacting and we met a really cool lady from Russia. At first she wasn't very interested, but we kept talking to her and she became a little more opened. We talked with her a lot about why we are here on earth and where we are going. At the end we said a prayer with her and afterwards she looked up at us and said, "That was beautiful. I could feel some type of energy or something in the words you said." We explained to her that it was what we call "the spirit", which is a gift that God has given to us for multiple reasons; but one reason is to help us know that He is there and He hears our prayers. We invited her to try praying that night on her own and we were able to testify that we know from our own experiences that God will be listening to her prayer.  I love this following quote on prayer..."Pray to the Lord with the expectation of answers. … The trouble with most of our prayers is that we give them as if we were picking up the telephone and ordering groceries--we place our order and hang up. We need to meditate, contemplate, think of what we are praying about and for and then speak to the Lord as one man speaketh to another. “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord..” Heavenly Father does answer our prayers, we just need to make sure we are doing our part in order to receive the answers.  

After 6 months as companions.. I guess I have no choice but to love this girl!

We also had a lesson with a lady in our ward who is a return missionary but hasn't been "active" in the church for a long time. We decided that we would just share a scripture with her. We decided to share one our our favorites! Alma 5:26 "And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?" We were a little worried that this scripture would be a little too direct for her, but it actually ended up being just what she needed! She started opening up to us about how she remembers that she used to feel the joy the comes from the gospel but now she says she feels like she, "goes to church empty, and comes home empty as well." We talked her about how we can't expect church to be the only thing that refills us spiritually for the week. There are things that we need to do daily to feel of this joy and that will help us be better spiritually prepared for church. I think everyone can remember a time in their lives when they have just gone through the motions of going to church and didn't feel like they were getting much of it. Like always, the Lord expects us to do our part and spiritually prepare ourselves to have a spiritual experience at church. If all we do for our spirituality is go to church on Sunday, that will never be enough. If we truly want to feel of the joy that comes from being converted, we must make a conscious effort everyday. We invited her to start by something simple. We asked her to start saying family prayers every night and promised her that as she does the "little things" she would start feeling that same joy that she used to feel. 

Luxembourg Sunsets

This week we had a lesson get cancelled, so we decided to go knock on some doors instead. We only had knocked on a couple doors when we had a lady invite us in! We sat down, drank herbal tea, ate chocolate and bore testimony of the Restoration of the gospel. It was absolutely amazing! I love when something doesn't work out, Heavenly Father always has something better in store. When she invited us in she told us she was only "interested" in discussing. We were able to "discuss" for about one hour and clear up some misunderstandings she had about our church. She listened really intently and asked good questions. At the end, she was still not necessarily "interested" in learning more, but she said something to us that was really interesting. She said, "When I invited you in, I didn't invite you in to learn more about Christ. I invited you in to learn more about you, but I think you have a little bit of Christ in you, and because of that, maybe I have learned a little more about Him." 

Wow, I feel so blessed to be a missionary!! Church is true. Have a great week!! 

Love, Sœur Johnson 

"Count your many blessings"

Bonjour family and friends!!

This week was full of amazing learning experiences and life lessons. Here are just a couple from this week!

On Monday we had a rendezvous with a new family we are teaching that are from Syria. We met them in the park a couple weeks ago and they agreed to meet with us again. They are a Christian family and they are some of the most faith filled people I have ever met. They have two kids and both parents have master degrees in biochemical engineering. They had to leave their country because it was getting too dangerous for their kids. They told us some of their personal experiences and it was shocking to hear firsthand about some of the experiences they have lived through. The mom told us about how she didn't have anything for her kids to eat and so she went out grocery shopping. She stopped to buy milk and right after she left, bombs were dropped on the milk shop. She still hadn't gotten food for her family, so she stayed out and went to a different store to buy the rest of the things. Another time, she was sitting on her patio with her two kids and enjoying the sunny day. She said she felt a distinct impression that she should go inside. She took her kids inside and a couple minutes later, bombs exploded in her backyard and on her porch. We literally just sat there and had no idea what to say. She just kept saying how grateful she is and how she knows that God has protected her family. The day after our lesson she actually had an operation on her ear because it has been damaged from all the loud explosions she has been around. Her family was sooo amazing! We walked out of her house realizing that we are so so blessed and feeling bad for anytime that we have ever complained about things being hard! This family definitely taught me some life lessons that I will never forget. It was quite the start to our week!

Zone Conference

This week we also went to Nancy for interviews with our Mission President and Zone Conference. We didn't want to make the trip back to Luxembourg, so we stayed in a cute little town named Toul with one of my old companions! It was so fun to do missionary work together again. They introduced us to a couple members and there was one in particular that really touched me. Her name is Sandy. When she was 15 she had a tumor on the front of her brain and when they took it out, she lost her sight and went blind. Then they found a tumor on the back of her brain and had to take it out. Afterwards, she lost feeling in her legs and was put in a wheelchair. I can't even imagine how hard that must have been. The most amazing part is that she has the sweetest testimony. She said, "I know that God will not ever give me a trial too hard for me to handle." The spirit filled the room and once again, I felt very humbled. She reminded me of something I know to be true, but have often times forgotten. He knows us perfectly and personally, so therefore He knows our capabilities and strength. He will not let us suffer through more than is for our benefit.

Morning adventures on the roof in toul!

Both of these experiences reminded me when Nephi said,"I did look unto my God, and I did praise him all the day long; and I did not murmur against the Lord because of mine afflictions." (1 Nephi 18:16) They both have every reason to complain and be bitter but they chose to trust in the Lord and focus on the blessings they do have. What incredible examples! If they can do it, we can do it. It is true that life can be really hard and we don't often have control of the things that happen to us. However, we can always choose how we react. We can be bitter and angry, or just like Sandy said, we can trust that "God would never give us a trial too hard for us too handle." That doesn't mean the trial won't still be hard, but it gives us hope and courage that we have the strength to get through it. The experiences I have had throughout my mission and in particular Luxembourg, have really humbled me and helped me to be much more grateful. Everything that I am and I have is because of a loving Heavenly Father. I truly feel "eternally indebted" to Him. Giving him 18 months of my life is nothing in compared to what He has given me. I am really "counting my many blessings" this week!

Let us all choose to be a little more grateful this week! Church is true.

Love, Sœur Johnson

Warm weather & Happy Missionaries

Bonjour family and friends!!

We had a busy busy week. Which is always a great thing as a missionary because that means things are going well!! The sun has finally come out and I couldn't be happier. I don't have a lot of time to write today, so instead I wanted to just share a poem. I had a friend send it to me when she was on her mission.

district meeting in Metz, France!

 I have been thinking a lot about refining ourselves and becoming the person that Heavenly Father wants us to be. My mission has helped me realize that we always have things we can work on and change about ourselves. We should always be trying to progress and become better people. We need to learn to purify of lives and take out the things that are preventing us from really reaching our full potential. This poem made me think about what I need to change..

"If Jesus came to your house to spend a day or two - 

If He came unexpectedly, I wonder what you'd do. 

Oh, I know you'd give your nicest room to such an honored Guest, 

And all the food you'd serve to Him would be the very best,

And you would keep assuring Him you're glad to have him there - 

That serving Him in your own home is joy beyond compare.

But when you saw Him coming, would you meet Him at the door 

With arms outstretched in welcome to your heavenly Visitor? 

Or would you have to change your clothes before you let Him in? 

Or hide some magazines and put the Bible where they'd been? 

Would you turn off the radio and hope He hadn't heard? 

And wish you hadn't uttered that last, loud, hasty word?

Would you hide your worldly music and put some hymn books out? 

Could you let Jesus walk right in, or would you rush about? 

And I wonder - if the Savior spent a day or two with you, 

Would you go right on doing the things you always do? 

Would you go right on saying the things you always say? 

Would life for you continue as it does from day to day?

Would your family conversation keep up it's usual pace? 

And would you find it hard each meal to say a table grace? 

Would you sing the songs you always sing, and read the books you read, 

And let Him know the things on which your mind and spirit feed? 

Would you take Jesus with you everywhere you'd planned to go? 

Or would you, maybe, change your plans for just a day or so?

Would you be glad to have Him meet your very closest friends? 

Or would you hope they'd stay away until His visit ends? 

Would you be glad to have Him stay forever on and on? 

Or would you sigh with great relief when He at last was gone? 

It might be interesting to know the things that you would do 

If Jesus Christ in person came to spend some time with you."

taking a picture with Germany! 4 countries in 24 hours... not too shabby! (We didn't actually go to Germany, but taking a picture is basically the same thing right?!)

Church is true. I hope everyone has a wonderful week!!

Love, Soeur Johnson

The Gospel blesses families!!

Bonjour family and friends!! 

It has been another great week here in Luxembourg. This week we had a really good lesson with Melanie (the lady we met at the grocery store.) We taught her the restoration and she actually knew everything we were going to talk about because she had already looked it up on the internet.. yikes. We answered some of her questions and cleared up some misconceptions. At the end, we invited her to be baptized and she said yes! We are excited to keep helping her progress and grow her testimony of the restored gospel. She was a total miracle!
We had a lesson with one of our investigators but when we showed up, she wasn't there. So Instead, we decided to go knock on some doors in the neighborhood right next to hers. The second door we knocked on was golden! We started talking with the lady who lived there and come to find out, she has actually read the Book of Mormon, twice!! She was a professor of religion and has a friend in the states who is member. She was actually at home that day because she happened to be sick. We talked with her for a minute and talked about the Book of Mormon. There are a lot of things she doesn't understand. She invited us to come back next week and talk with her more! When we left her house I thought, "how does someone read the Book of Mormon TWICE and feel nothing?!" Then I remembered the promise the prophet Moroni gives us at the end of the Book of Mormon. "I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost."  We are promised to know for ourselves if the Book of Mormon is really the word of God if we ask with a sincere heart; in other words, honestly wanting to know. We also need to have real intent; in other words, we are willing to act upon and accept the answer we receive. Even though this lady has read the Book of Mormon twice, in two different languages, she will not necessarily receive her own testimony of the divinity of the Book of Mormon because she hasn't read it with the actual desire to know if it is true. I think she has read it out of more curiosity and wanting to gain more knowledge. I really do know that Moroni's promise is true, anybody who reads the Book of Mormon with a sincere heart and real intent will receive a confirmation that is truly is the word of God. I have seen this promise fulfilled in my life and in many lives of the people around me.

This week we had a lesson with a new amie named Andrea! She was actually found by my old companion in Brussels a couple weeks ago but she lives here in Luxembourg. They gave us her number and we were able to set up a rendezvous. Since we don't have a building, we have to use the homes of our members to teach our amis because it's still too cold to have a lesson outside. It's usually not that big of a deal because we know the person before. In this case, we had never met her! My companion and I didn't really think about how we were inviting a complete stranger into a members home until just a couple minutes before... So then of course we both start freaking out thinking that we might be inviting a crazy person into their home! I sometimes wonder how funny it probably is for Heavenly Father to watch us freak out and stress out for no reason. A couple minutes later, this really classy lady in a business suit, with a box of chocolates comes walking up! It was Andrea. She is originally from Hungary but she is working in Luxembourg as a banker. She was such an awesome lady. We went up and had an amazing rendezvous with our members and her. Apparently, her dad died in the past year and it has been really hard. Our member actually had both of her parents pass away before she was 21 and so she was able to bear a really strong testimony. We were planning on talking about the restoration but we never got past the second principle of "gospel blesses families" because we literally talked about it for 45 minutes. It was interesting because that is something that we usually spend just a couple minutes on. At the end of the lesson, she said, "Wow I really needed that." I have never had a lesson quite like that but it was a good reminder of the importance to teach people not just lessons. She left with a renewed motivation to improve the relationships she has with her family members! That's not at all what we originally were planning on teaching, but Heavenly Father knew her needs a lot better than we did!

Love, Sœur Johnson

God of Miracles!

Bonjour family and friends!!

Wow this week was full of miracles. It all started off Monday night when the person that we had a lesson with didn't show up. We decided to go out contacting instead but there wasn't very many people out. We had fifteen minutes before our train came and we really wanted to find someone. We decided to say a prayer to ask Heavenly Father to help lead us to someone that would listen. We continued walking and I had this really little feeling that we should walk back the way we came. I questioned it for a minute because there wasn't anybody walking around where we were before. We decided to follow the impression anyways and we ended up seeing someone on the other side of the street. We both started crossing the street at the same time but we didn't want to not talk with her and so we contacted her in the middle of street! She was a little confused at first but after she realized who we were she kept listening. She was Portuguese and so she didn't speak very much french. We gave her a brochure we had in Portuguese and then tried to explain the best we could why we were there. She let us say a prayer with her and afterwards she looked up and said, in her broken french, "I really needed that!" She was so cute.

Luxembourg American Cemetery!!

The week gets better.. A couple weeks ago we received an email from the church referral saying that there was someone who had requested to be visited by the missionaries in our area. We got in contact with the person and set up a rendezvous. His name is Elson and he is originally from Brazil. He has a Masters degree in finance and has been in Luxembourg for 3 years working for a Brazilian bank. We talked with him a little bit about his religious background. He said that he feels like there has to be more to life than working, eating and sleeping. In other words, he is trying to find purpose to life. He said he researched our church and really liked that we try to teach really similar teachings to Jesus Christ. While we were teaching him he was just soaking everything in! He was really trying to listen and understand. He came to church on Sunday and we couldn't have been more happy. He reminds of a scripture found in Doctrine and Covenants,"And ye are called to bring to pass the gathering of mine elect; for mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts;."  He is someone that is truly "searching." He is by far the most prepared person I have ever met on my mission. I truly believe he is one of the elect that has been prepared to hear the restored gospel!

God bless America

The week got even better... On Pday, we were at the grocery store and we were at the checkout. We were talking with the checkout lady and right before we left she asked us if we had a card because she would love to come to church. We weren't even talking to her about the fact that we were missionaries but she asked anyways! We were definitely pleasantly surprised. A couple days later she ACTUALLY ended up calling us (doesn't happen very often) and told us that she would really like to come to church and would like us to teach her if that was possible for us. We set up a rendezvous for the next day and had an incredible lesson with her! She is originally from Cameroon but has lived in Germany for the last 20 years and has been searching for a church ever since. She says she can feel something is missing in her life because hasn't made Christ a priority. We ended up finding out that she has family members who are members in Paris! She has two kids that are 15 & 11 and she wants us to teach them as well. She was so excited to learn and we are looking forward to seeing her again this week!

The best part is, those are only just some of the miracles that we saw this past week! There were many more but if I make my email any longer, I don't think anybody is going to want to read it :) So I will save the rest for next week! This week we also had transfers. To our surprise, Soeur Brown and I are staying together for another transfer! By the end of these 6 weeks, Soeur Brown and I will have spent 6 months as companions. That is 1/3 of our missions! Obviously, we must have a lot to learn from each other.

This week was full of so many miracles. Like Moroni says, "my beloved brethren, have miracles ceased? Behold I say unto you, Nay;"(Moroni 7:29) "For behold, I am God; and I am a God of miracles; and I will show unto the world that I am the same yesterday, today, and forever; and I work not among the children of men save it be according to their faith." (2 Nephi 27) Miracles happen! I am grateful I have the opportunity to witness all of them here in Luxembourg. I am excited for the many more to come. L'église est vrai. Have a wonderful week! 

Love, Sœur Johnson

A Valentine's Miracle

Bonjour family and friends!!

This week started off by going to Paris to do exchanges with our sister training leaders! They are both amazing missionaries and good friends. In the past, when I have gone to Paris, we have had meetings and I have never actually been able to really hit the streets of Paris and go contacting. This time we were able to go out and share our testimonies with the people of Paris! There are so many people everywhere and everyone is super busy. It is quite different than Luxembourg! We spent Valentine's Day, in the "City of love", trying to spread the Savior's love. It will definitely be a Valentine's Day that I will always remember. I went out contacting with Sœur Marshall and we had such a cool miracle together. 

Enjoying the view of Paris!!

We started off by praying to know where to go. We both felt that we should go down the same road and so we went! We walked down the road for a little bit but everyone that we talked with wasn't interested. Then we looked ahead of us and didn't even see anyone on the road. We were like, "We just walked down the only road in Paris without people!" We decided to keep going though because we both felt that was the street we needed to go down. A couple minutes later we walked by a restaurant and saw a super cute, young french girl just standing there, obviously waiting for her Valentine's date! We decided to start talking with her and she ended up being so receptive! Soeur Marshall started testifying about the restoration and this girl listened really intently. She actually seemed genuinely interested and she asked us a lot of great questions. Her date ended up coming when we were still talking with her but he stood behind us and waited patiently until we finished talking and had said a prayer together. The spirit is always so strong when talking about the restoration. There is no doubt that she was who we needed to find that night! Hopefully, they will be able to see her again. Finding that one person, always makes it easy to forget about all the people that said no before. It also was a good reminder that if we receive spiritual promptings or answers, we should make sure to have patience and trust that it is what Heavenly Father wants us to do. If we would have turned around, we would have never had this awesome miracle! President Monson has a great quote about acting on promptings, "In the performance of our responsibilities, I have learned that when we heed a silent prompting and act upon it without delay, our Heavenly Father will guide our footsteps and bless our lives and the lives of others. I know of no experience more sweet or feeling more precious than to heed a prompting only to discover that the Lord has answered another person’s prayer through you.” We were definitely guided to speak with her that night!

Celebrating 15 months as missionaries

We had another amazing experience. We were in Metz, France for district meeting and we were heading back to Luxembourg. We were waiting for our train and the person standing next to us turn toward us and said, "Are you mormons?" We started talking with her and we learned that she actually lives in Lille, France (my first area) and she has a cousin that is member in California. She told us the conversion story of her cousin. She said the missionaries came to her house to teach her dad but her cousin was there and ended up listening too. Her dad stop taking lessons from the missionaries but her cousin continued and was eventually baptized. We talked a little bit more and asked why they were all the way in Metz, France if they lived in Lille. We found out that they were actually in Metz for a funeral because one of their family members died. They were at the train station because they were getting on the train to go to the funeral service. She then started to ask us questions about what we believe about death and if there is an after life. We pulled out the Book of Mormon and read Alma 40:11 to explain what happens after death. When they saw the Book of Mormon they said, "Hey we have one of those at our house!" We were able to testify that families are forever and that they would see their loved one again. We were in the middle of a crazy train station but the spirit was so strong. Tears flowed to her eyes as we testified and there is no doubt that she felt the spirit as well. We got so caught up in talking that we didn't even notice that the train was actually 20 Minutes late! If the train wouldn't have been late, we wouldn't have had the opportunity to teach them a little bit about the plan of salvation. What a tender mercy! I love those moments where it is so obvious that the Lord's hand is in our work.

Every week I find more and more reasons to be grateful. Heavenly Father has been really good to me! Church is true. Have a great week! 

Love, Sœur Johnson

There are People Prepared!!

Bonjour family and friends!!

I had another wonderful week here in Luxembourg! Here are just a couple highlights..

We saw our ami Francisca this week. She was the one we had the really cool lesson with about feeling the spirit. She works so much and so it's hard to find time to have a lesson with her. She works from 8:00am to 1:00pm and then comes home to make lunch and dinner for her kids. Afterwards, she goes back to work at 4:00pm-10:00pm! We really wanted to see her and so we asked if we could have a lesson. She was super busy but she let us come anyway. She only had 20 Minutes  She told us that it always important to make time for a God. If you don't have time, it is not a priority. If Heavenly Father is a priority, you will always find time for Him. There might be other things that don't get accomplished such as cleaning the house, watching a tv show, spending as much time with friends etc.

Vianden, Luxembourg

We had such a cool experience this week!  We had a lesson that got cancelled and so we decided that we would go knock on doors in the same area instead. We realized that we had a member who actually lived in the same neighborhood as well. We have been really wanting to get members more involved in a missionary work and so we thought this would be a great opportunity! We decided that we would start at their house and ask them if they knew anybody in their neighborhood that would be receptive to the gospel and afterwards go knock on doors. So we did just that! We stopped by their house and told them we were going to go knock on doors in their neighborhood but we needed their help! The 13 year old got wide eyed and said, "You want to find someone in THIS neighborhood?!" He wasn't very convinced that people in his neighborhood would be receptive but we told him to have some faith..haha. We asked them if they would say a prayer with us so that we could find someone that would be ready to hear the gospel. We knelt with Sister Mputu and her 6 kids in their living room. Sister Mputu prayed that we would be able to be lead to the people that have been prepared to hear the gospel and that we would say something that would touch them. As she was praying the spirit filled the room. It made me think of a quote I read a couple weeks ago by Boyd K. Packer, "There are few things more powerful than the faithful prayers of a righteous mother." After her prayer we had so much motivation to go out and talk to anyone and everyone! We could literally feel in our hearts that there was somebody ready. She didn't know any people that she felt were ready for the gospel but she did have a particular neighborhood that came to her mind and she suggested we go there.

On our way to knock on doors.. Just casually strolling by this castle that someone actually lives in #luxembourgprobs

We went to the neighborhood she suggested and started knocking on doors! There were a lot of cute young families that lived in this neighborhood. We talked to a couple families who didn't have time because they had to pick their kids up from school but they suggested we come back again another time. The real miracle came when we knocked on one of the last doors in the neighborhood! This cute young mother came to the door and we introduced ourselves. We started talking with her and then she started asking a lot of questions. That is always a good sign because that shows they are genuinely interested! We got into a conversation about the plan of salvation and how we know families can live together forever. She started crying and began to tell us about her son who had to get a brain operation when he was 5 months old. She said that during this time she just held tight to her beliefs in God and just had to trust in him. She told us about how it made her priorities change in life and that now her family always comes first. The spirit was so strong and we knew without a doubt that this was the lady that Heavenly Father had prepared for us. Our conversation got cut short because she had to take her kids back to school but she told us to come back next week! We told our member and her family about our experiences and they were so excited. They said, "We kept praying for you, even after you left!" This week I'm especially grateful for the direction of the spirit and the chance I have to see Heavenly Father work miracles through those who are worthy of his direction. L'église est vrai! Have a wonderful week.

Love, Soeur Johnson