I am so happy I made the decision to come on a mission

Good morning my American people!

As you may have noticed, it is Monday, again.  Last night while walking home, I mentioned something to Elder Hanson.  Most people do not like Mondays.  I know that I did not when I was in school, but now Monday's are my favorite!

When I signed onto my email, there were 2 emails that I loved in particular. In the emails it announced some mission calls.  Since ladies go first, Natalie Winkel is going to the Netherlands/ Belgium mission in January.  Then my best friend whom I have known about half my life, Noah Leavitt, will be going to North Carolina - also in January. I can not express how excited I am for them.  Missions are hard, but AWESOME!

Sad to announce, the other Elder Johnson is being transferred out of our area into another.  He has been a great help to me through his humor.  Elder Hanson and Elder Johnson are really good at improv.  I have gotten some HILARIOUS videos and watch them when I feel down.  One that they did on Friday night was talking like old men.  I laughed so hard my sides hurt.  I am sad he is leaving, but on the on the bright side, we are getting a Ghanaian in our apartment.  For our transfer news, we got together as a district on Saturday night to have some dinner - cookies (packaged), and soda. Elder Hanson and I were of course very late.  When the District Leader and his companion called us when they arrived at the apartment, we were a hour walk plus away.  I am going to miss Elder Johnson and Elder 'Atu' Ake, they are so funny.  But, Elder Atu's companion Elder Pohahau is pregnant!  That is mission talk for, he is training and will not receive his son until Wednesday. Also we got to watch "Meet the Mormons" that night as well.

On Sunday at church we had a "Missionary Sunday."  All 4 of us Elders and our Ward Mission Leader were in charge of everything. Elder Hanson and Johnson gave talks in Sacrament meeting, We sang a special hymn,  I had a solo - scary stuff.  Then I had to teach Gospel Principles class, which was actually not bad since I was prepared and well.. I teach people everyday.  We were all exhausted.  I decided to lay down for 10 minutes.  It turned into a much needed hour nap.  On Saturday we had church building cleaning  -_-  We have to do it every Saturday every other month. It actually is not that bad, just have to get up earlier to do it.

I'll just close my eyes for a few....

I do not remember much of what happened this past week, and I do not have my planner to refer back to, but I learned a couple good lessons this week.  One is doing things with a happy heart and without complaining.  On Thursday after our weekly planning session (about 10am-1pm) we had a phone call from our Ward Mission Leader, Brother Moore, asking us to go get a manual for Sunday, which was not bad until he told us were we had to go - Palmlands to a members house.  It is a 70 minute walk to get there alone. Which meant we would be waiting almost 3 hours more until we had lunch (planned to eat out with Elder Johnson to eat fu fu). In my mind, I wanted to complain, say no, but it would make things miserable.  The other lesson is to keep going even when you want to stop.  Last night we had planned to just walk around and go see members of the church.  After our first lesson, the power went out in the city (usually does randomly) and then it started to rain.  It was getting late, I wanted to just head back home, but my companion told me we were going to meet with Kingsley.  So, we walked to his house.  He was not home.  Surely we were going to go back home now... NOPE.  We ended up going to see Jon, who I mentioned before is really sick and weak.  When I first met him, I had tears in my eyes, and was humbled.  Him and his mom love when we come to share a message with him.  Jon told us, when we walked in, he feels stronger, has energy to talk and read.  I love that guy.  

I am so happy I made the decision to come on a mission.  I have learned so much already. My testimony of the church has grown so much stronger.  Prayer. Prayer. Prayer. so so so so important,. as well as scripture study.  I thought one hour of personal study in the morning was too much to study the scriptures.  Now it is just too short. So much to learn in these two years. Hope I can learn all I need to :)

 Until Next week,

 Elder Johnson