I Finished a Journal

Heyo Palios!

Where has this transfer gone?? We get transfer calls this following Sunday, and it is crazzyyy. Ha I'm a real missionary now; time is just goin.

This week! Happy week! Lotsa lessons fell through, soo that is Always just bummy. But! Our hours were still good and we still had great times.

Miracle of the Week: We were knockin some doors, I wasn't really feeling it, so I was kinda moseying about the neighborhood, naming all the cats (they have buckets of cats in IJmuiden) when all of a sudden, Goody, Snow Stick (a cat that is the color of snow and sticks; he's a pal), and I found ourselves in a house! A lovely middle-aged woman let us in from the windy wind and we got to talk about our favorite thing: God :) It was emotional for her, as we told her that God is a man (she wasn't fond of the idea) but she listened intently to the story of Joseph Smith and the Restoration, and said that it would make sense to get baptized if these things were true. Wabam, RAD dropped! And when her 16-year old daughter walked in to find her mother talking to 2 weird darling young girls...haha she actually ended up thinking that we are the coolest thing ever, learning Dutch and walking around talking to people for a year and a half, and she wants us to come back sometime. Good times, good times.

Happy Thought of the Week: Two days later, on this same street, we were finishing out the doors on the street and these two adorable 6-year old girls asked what we were doing. We told them that we were telling people about God. And they said they believed in God too! (though one's parents had just said they didn't...) So they told us about being best friends and living in IJmuiden and breaking their arm and sang us a song about God...la la la :) And then they decided we should get back to work, and that they better come with us. So they would run ahead, flip the mail flap (that's how they would "knock" the door) and run behind us until we were done, then run to the next door and do the same thing. We became tracting buddies, and it made me oh so happy. :) I'll bet they will Always remember tracting with the missionaries.

Spring is coming! I see tulip buds! Ah Holland. I finished my first mission journal this week and hit 5 months. Mm being a missionary is good. Love to you all back in 'Merica!

Liefs,

Zuster Johanson

Mission Life

Whelp, pretty normal week here in IJmuiden. Goody and I reached our proselyting hour goal, so that was great! We are just happy and like having fun conversations with people and being our little selves.

For Valentines, us and the Haarlem elders made dinner for our friend Kim. It was great! I will never get to have a Valentines Day like that again.

Yesterday, Goody played "This is the Christ" and I gave a testimony (was supposed to be a talk, they told me to cut it down to testimony; second time that I haven't given this talk I've written now). It was a good meeting. I think they need more musical numbers here. We are going to work on that.

Time is going by super fast every day, so that's crazy and maybe also nice.

Our zone went ice skating today! Haha we were all such funny Americans. I never even fell down!

The work is coming, and it's awesome. Sometimes crazy things work out in ways you never expect, and if you put the work in, you Always see more miracles.

Merry week to you all and to all a good day!

Love,

Zuster Johanson

Loves to Everyone

Hey Friends,

Guess what. Sometimes people let you in, too! This week, Sister Goodman and I got really excited about getting more proselyting hours. We were so enthused, that we jumped outside and went to contact out a neighborhood before our appointment that night. Well, then our appointment fell through. So we were looking at an extra two hours of contacting time, and it was not a warm day. But yay, we love to contact! So we were about to finish out a street, and then we knocked on the door of this lovely elderly woman. As we talked, she had much to share about faith and our conversation became lengthy. Then she asked, 'Would you like to come in? You can hang your coats up and come sit down." Wowie! Zingers! Crazy stuff! She told us  many many many stories, but in between her breaths, we crammed in the Restoration, and it was awesome. She's not sure about the Book of Mormon, but maybe she'll get curious and read it anyway. But, if our appointment had never fallen through, we never would have found her. God is so smart.

I have a good story to share with you. We had dinner at Sister Reijpert's the other night, and I asked about her conversion story: When she was in her 20's, she was staying with a friend and one day, the missionaries came to the door. When Sister Reijpert asked who it was, her friend told her that it was two young men, wearing long coats and hats. Well, and who were they? "De Mormonen! Laat hun niet binnen, hoor! Ze brengen de duivel aan je thuis and dansen op de tafel!" (The Mormons! Don't let them in! They bring the devil in your house and dance on your table!) Sister Reipert heard a little voice in her say, "Don't believe that. It's not true." (phew, one more point for the Spirit!)

  A couple weeks/months later, her father told her that two young men had come to their door. They were wearing long coats and hats, and they were from the Mormon church. Sister Reipert couldn't believe it! She asked, "En hebben ze op de tafel gedansd?" (And did they dance on the table??) Her father thought she was crazy. In the end, they were baptized. Yay for missionaries! Hahaha I just thought that was a great Mormon missionary story to add to the rumors we hear bout us.

Happy Valentimes this week! Hope you all experience lots of love, particularly from Heavenly Father, and share it with everyone around you. I love you!

Love,

Zuster Johanson

First day together! Squinty faces!

Christmas morning! And don't I look it..

Our Christmas breakfast cake hahaha (no cupcake pans)

Christmas in Belgium

Have Faith

Dear Pals,

Well, it keeps looking up here in IJmuiden as Sister Goodman and I have one spiritual experience after another. Here's a quick update on our people:

   M.: She's a member, and she's super cool, and we just gotta get her back to church!

   C.: She accepted the invitation to be baptized! Sister Adams (my sister training leader) and I taught her and M. the Restoration, and it went fantastically. She's looking really positive.

   J.: We taught her about the sabbath day, haha and she absolutely loves the idea of a day where you just do nothing! Still haven't got her church though, so hopefully this week.

    E.: Didn't have a lesson this week; fell through.

    L.: Still looking for her!!!

We spent a lot of time with members this week, which I think will actually really help with the missionary work. If we can just get the members here to have faith in the potential of the Church here and believe that miracles can really happen, even in the Netherlands, I think the growth will be excellently exponential. They are such good people and so dedicated to the Lord, they just need to exercise their faith so that they can see the amazing results of it.

Funny moment of the week: Goodman and I were out street contacting one night, and we stopped these two young men and asked them why they think we're here on earth. The reply of the first: "To party!!" Haha so I asked what he thinks happens after this life. "Continue with the partying!" Ah the young Dutch generation. :) But then we had an awesome conversation and it was probably one of my favorite contacts yet! Ah so fun being a missionary.

Yay February! Happy Groundhog Day! I hope spring is coming very very soon. Love you all!

Liefs,

Zuster Johanson

Elder Silva (with cookie), Crowson (in back), Wombeldorf (new district leader), Nielsen (old district leader), Reynolds (old district leader), Bonney (zone leader), Shaw (Haarlem with us), Hunter, Price, Goody Goodman and I, and Elder Pouwer (old zone leader)

I'm Not Here for the Glamour

Dear Pals,

Last week of January! It's Always so nice when January is almost over. It was not my most favorite week, as I don't feel like we really accomplished much because so many of our appointments fell through, but we still saw some pretty neat things.

Updates of the People:

   L.-Still haven't found her. Been on a scavenger hunt that just leads from one place to the next.

   J.-Didn't get her to church, only had one lesson, hopefully this week we can solidify her understanding of some commandments

   E.-She wants to be baptized! But church is too early (haha the plight of our mission)

   T.-Our miracle of the week! She basically just handed her soul to us. She sat next to us while we waited for a train, mentioned the biting cold, and we began talking about the weather. (ha it works!) Somehow, that gracefully led into an intense gospel discussion that lasted through the entire train ride! She is a beautiful person, and when we got to the station, she gave us her information and said we could come by next Tuesday to talk some more. Woo hoo! Sister Goodman and I just happy laughed for the rest of the night.

   M. (and daughter)-We were supposed to have an appointment, but she forgot and we caught her on her way out. She told us to go on in and chat with her daughter a bit, so we did, and long enough so that M. came back. Guess what. We think she was actually baptized 40 years ago! Where has this woman been hiding!? So we have another appointment this week, and her 28-year old daughter said she's going listen in as well. Yay people!

I don't think I've ever smelled so much like smoke as I have this week. But someone (general authority?) once said that he wished that the entire sacrament meeting smelled like smoke, because that means there are sinners in church who are making a change. So I can tolerate a little smoke smell on my coat if that means that someone is coming closer to Christ.

   Another realization this week, as I was reading PMG, it tells us that all God asks of us missionaries is that we "ask, seek, and knock." This is of course figuratively, referring to the numerous times in the scriptures that we are instructed to do these things, but as a missionary, how literal this is too! All we do is ask people to come to Christ, we seek them out, and we actually knock on their doors. We are dressed in such a way that we don't stand out in the fashion world, we live humbly with only what is absolutely necessary, and we spend all our time trying (oh we are not perfect at this) to help other people. We are literally representing Christ. We are trying to do His work the way that He would; it's not glamorous or cool, it's very simple and humble. That's why missionaries have to be pure and clean before they come. You can't represent Christ if you can't emmanate His spirit.

  Anyway, thoughts from a third-transfer missionary. :) Hope all is well with you, and that the spirit is strong in your lives.

Much love from Nederland,

Zuster Johanson

My Apartment

Haarlem

Sister Clement and I on my first day

Bikes. Normal site here

My old district

Heaven Smiled on IJmuiden

Heya Pals!

And suddenly, there are actually things to tell.

After an entire transfer of knocking doors and having 1 1/2 investigators which weren't even in our city, things are finally happening in IJmuiden!

We met this woman, Gerde, while knocking doors a couple weeks back, and this week, we taught her and her husband the first lesson. They are great investigators, and super interested in The Book of Mormon and what we believe. Her husband, Richard, is incredibly smart and has studied religion extensively. He actually started telling us about the great apostasy and translation of the bible! They are busy and hard to make appointments with, but we plan to keep working with them, and hopefully their three teenagers as well. Baptizin families, oh ya.

Frank is our miracle referral. One day, we knocked out a couple Streets, and left with little "success." The following p-day, I got an email from the AP's, which was a forward of an email from this young man Frank. He said that two young women had knocked on his door, and he had sent them away, but thinking about it later, he wondered what they could offer him and was interested in learning more. Holy cats! When we went to look him up, we did not even recognize him. He told us that he hadn't even accepted a card, he had just sent us away. Then he asked if there was something he could read to learn more or something, so wham, we whipped a BVM and made an appointment with him this week! Who knew that knocking doors actually works? Even with the grumpy ones! :D

Lindsey no longer lives with Jenny, and that is tragic, and we have no contact with her. I am determined to find her this week. She can not get lost.

However, now Jenny is much more responsive and happy and so we are hoping to seriously start teaching her. We will see how that goes this week.

Eli keeps falling through with appointments. Darngit.

Transfers came and went and I'm still in IJmuiden with Sister Goodman. Luckily, we really like each other and it's not even raining today, so we like IJmuiden pretty well too. I can't even imagine what's in store for this transfer, but I guess I have hopeful anticipation and will just work on my patience a bit.

Hope January is treating you all well! January Always seemed so long and tiresome and you just try to stay motivated and get through winter. Hang in there, it's almost February.

Love and peace from the Netherlands,

Zuster Johanson

Just Get the Holidays Outta Here and On With the Work

Hello! Greetings, from IJmuiden in 2015.

New Years here is crazy. Us missionaries had to stay inside our apartment from 4pm on. Fireworks. They are everywhere, they are big, and they are scary. But also really cool. So that was interesting. We bought earplugs so we could actually sleep on New Years Eve. One of our better ideas yet.

We ate with dear Sister Sunrise, a lovely funny little Thai woman, on New Years day. She was so excited to make us Thai food, because Elder Shaw told her that he grew up on Thai food and loves it. So the rest of us got to experience the fiery sensations of sticky rice and Thai salad for an entire evening. You eat it with your fingers, and oh snap, is it spicy. Haha missionary eating adventures.

I'm actually glad the holidays are over so that missionary work can be normal again!

Speaking of which, I don't know precisely what it seems that I do out here, but I'm concerned the perception may be slightly skewed. This isn't The District, and it's not The Best Two Years, and it's not a stateside mission or a South American mission. It is Europe, and it is entirely different from any other mission in ways that I never expected. We were watching a bit of The District this week, and I was looking at those missionaries in total awe. It's nothing like my mission haha! We don't even look like that! They make sister missionaries seem so perfect and put together, and the elders seem so solemn and mature. Not so in Nederland! Our hair is Always windblown and our cheeks are red and we often look 20 pounds overweight with all our layers. We knock lots and lots of doors because we don't have investigators, and sometimes I don't even get halfway through my sentence before the door shuts. We work with Elders frequently, and our relationsips with each other are fun and friendly. We are still young kids, and sometimes it is very evident in our behavior, and many of us are often ridiculously immature. Our mission is somewhat chill, compared to stateside, but it's because we are obedient missionaries and our mission hasn't had many problems with it's missionaries. We spend a crazy amount of time travelling, whether on bikes or buses or trains, because there just isn't enough work in one concentrated area. Teaching in another language just isn't the same as teaching in English, and lessons are often quite scattered and incontinuous.

But, this is my mission. And I love it. Each mission has it's struggles and unique trials that it puts missionaries through, but they are all amazing. I guess I just don't want everyone thinking that I'm the perfectly put together, pretty, peppy sister missionary that is so often portratyed by other sisters in other missions. I'm really just my normal self, and the work here is pretty slow. But that doesn't make me any less of a missionary or my mission any less of a mission. I may only bring one person to Christ, and that person may be myself, but if I can even accomplish that, then this is worth it. A mission is so worth it.

I am really excited that this is my only full year as a missionary. There are so many things to look forward to, and I have absolutely no idea what is in store for me. It is both terrifying and thrilling. :) I hope you all have solid new year resolutions that the Lord can use to help you become who He wants you to be and to bring you closer to Him. That is Always the most important (as I am beginning to see as one of His missionaries). I love you and am so grateful for your support. It means the world to me.

Liefs,

Sister Johanson

This was almost like a pep talk to myself...sorry bout that. Go missionary work!