HalfWay

Halfway through the transfer, halfway through the mission!

Somebody get me a snack, cuz that is just crazy.

Well, Assen is crazy. Love it, but what da heck is going on. Luckily, I got the best companion ever, and we are just slowly falling into weirdness together. It happens when you go through weird things together :)

Zone training was great! President and Sister Robinson leave in two weeks. I will miss them. :( They have done wonders for the mission. I love them, and am so grateful for everything they have done. We talked about...missionary work. Just keep moving forward.

Welp, look for the little things in life, for therein, you will find God. He's not in thunder or lightning He's in the small gentle whisper of peace. :) (that's in the bible somewhere) And know that I will be looking for the little things right along with you.

Love and stroop wafels,

Sister Johanson

Neverlands

Hello Friends, from the Neverlands.

It finally got warm this week! Sunny sun! But good heavens, what a ridiculous week.

We got locked out of our apartment for a good day or so. We spent most of the night awake, then went to Appeldoorn (another city) to sleep with some other sister missionaries, and ended up in our apartment with the help of a locksmith around 3:00 the next day.

Why on earth did that happen??

Maybe it's so we could meet our wonderful neighbors, who we are now friends with and brought brownies to. Maybe it's so that Sister Harris could have a good gospel discussion with a man from Dubais on the train on the way back from Appeldoorn. Maybe it's so we would just learn that we can't control everything and only God knows all. Maybe it's so we could spend time getting to know each other and learning to just laugh at everything, no matter our circumstances. Who knows :) We totally didn't even cry the whole time. But I have never loved an apartment more than I love being inside that apartment now.

Wonder of the week: We decided to bike contact one morning on our way home to lunch. The second person we talked to was a darker man walking with a young woman and an old woman in a wheelchair. He told us that his girlfriend (walking with him) is here visiting, but she's Muslim and has been wanting to become Christian, would it be okay if she came and sat in our church or something? And we said: Yes. Yes, that would be just fine. :) We also share a book about Jesus Christ... And inside, we said: HOLY CATS WHAT IS THIS LIFE THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO US IN OUR WHOLE ENTIRE LIVES. Praying for a lesson with them this week. :)

Some Utahns came to church! Darling family, the mom was Dutch. Man, I just love Utahns. So glad to be here, but I really do love America, and Utah Mormons.

Sister Harris is a lot like Ali. :) I love Ali. So I love Sister Harris. :) We go running and eat weird meals and laugh a lot together. 

Welp, that's all folks. Enjoy your summer vacations. :)

Love from 

Sister Johanson

Back to the Neverlands

Welp. They kicked me out of Belgium. It's funny, cuz when I got to Belgium, I missed the Netherlands, but now I'm here and I miss Beligum. :( Ah emotionally-attached missionaries.

But! This seems like a great area. My new comp, Sister Harris, is very cute and fun and we get along swell. We are excited to really get the work here going. My first two days were some of the busiest on my mission; we had so many appointments! But I know not every day will be like that, and we will have plenty of time to find some new people. My favorite pastime. ;) The branch here is very friendly and welcoming, and very easy for me to love. They all think I sound Belgian, which is hilarious cuz everyone in Belgium thought I sounded Dutch. I'm taking it as a compliment. We got to go see the temple the other day! We went with a couple investigators, and it was incredible. It got me excited to go to the temple! So hopefully it got them a little more excited, too. One was a part-member family, so that was really neat. I really love them already.

I had a dream that we had to save The Book of Mormon from some bad guys on Christmas Eve, and then we would save the world. Kinda like missionary work, I thought.

That's the jist of my week. Hope you're all well, and enjoying summer! Loves from Neverlands!

Love,

Sister Dressa

Goodbye Belgium

Hallo Friends

Darn it. My feelings were right. I am leaving Belgium! :( I am so sad. But, I know that my next area will be great. Assen, in the Netherlands, with Sister Harris. Another little city! They seem to be my friends. Ah, I will miss Lokeren so much. I loved serving here, and love the people and the ward here, and man, I saw some amazing miracles this transfer! We have 5 people that want to get baptized! And now I am leaving. But, I know that this ward wiill take care of the new people, and that the work will continue to be amazing and go forward. 

Belgium is one of the best things that ever happened to me. I've seen miracles in this city, and I've seen the change in myself. 

This week we worked with the "singing elders" and it was a blast. Music is such a powerful tool of the Spirit. It touches people in a way that nothing else can. I love watching it, and I love experiencing it. 

That is all for this week. Ok, tot ziens! :)

Love,

Sister Johanson

Happy Birthday! To Myself :)

Whoa, I'm 21. And my 21st year will basically be a missionary year. Too bad the drinking age here is like, 18. Not even anything exciting about 21.

It was such a happy morning! Sister Hanny made me breakfast in bed. I always wanted breakfast in bed. :) She's the cutest. And today we are gonna go to Ieper (world war 1 site) with lots of missionaries! Party!

Gah already last week of the transfer. What have we done..?

We had zone conference this week, and it was fantastic. We watched a documentary on The Book of Mormon, and several religious professors and language professors talked about how undeniably true and accurate and literarily awesome the book is. It was awesome! Definitely excited to be an English major and study this stuff. (*nerd*) 

We also got to see the "Singing Elders" performance, and it's incredible. They tour the mission and perform a program about well, the gospel, and it's really powerful and is doing amazing things in the mission. I'm excited to work with them in our area.

You know one thing that I've really learned about on my mission? You can be friends with anybody. You just kinda gotta pick your battles. We have mandatory companionship inventory every week, and I've really never had a bad one, because you realize what is worth bringing up and what is not. Sister Hanny and I are Super Different, but because we both want to work hard and be friends, we keep that most important in our relationship, and anything else just kinda falls by the wayside. I think you would all tell me to remember this for marriage. ;) 

Okay, that's all for this week. Hope you are all excited for summer, cuz I am! :)

Love from Lokeren!

Sister Johanson

Love from the Waffle Place

Good Morning, America!

Well, Mothers Day was certainly grand. :) I love my mom. I hope she had a nice day. 

What's funny is how non-trunky it made me! It's nice when you realize how normal missionary life is for you, and you can talk to your beloved little family, and then just go right back to being a missionary. I could stay in Belgium for long times. :)

Speaking of Belgium....5 baptismal dates! Woot woot! Train full of gospel comin round the corner. Of course we are praying like crazy that they will all go through, and soon, but God knows what His children need. I'm just thrilled to be seeing some results! Yeesh, it's been rough.

On other topics of interest: It's sunny today! And warm. News in Belgium.

We have lots of spiders. Big yucky ones. Sister Hanny is really good at attacking them with her stick. I got a great video, complete with girlish screams. :) 

And another thing, I really like talking to young kids. They are just the coolest. And at first, they think you are all weird cuz you wear a skirt and a namebadge and you talk all funny, but then they realize, hey, these girls are just normal kids too! And then it's great fun. We just seemed to contact a lot of young adults this week, and we may not have got appointments or anything, but just talking to them I think is pretty good missionary work. One day they'll realize that Mormonism is totally the new hipster thing. Like, nobody's Mormon, but everybody's becoming Mormon. Swag.

Okay, I love you all lots! Thanks for loving me back. :) That's all that Sister Dressa's really need. Have a beautiful week!

Love,

Zuster Johanson

Brugge

Statue that Michaelangelo carved.

This is just a really pretty open park in Lokeren.

May the 4th be with you

Goede Morgen!

Welp. Nother so-so week here in Belgium. You know how missions are hard? Ya, apparently that is true. This week was just frustrating with dropping people and people dropping us and not getting any appointments and getting lost while biking and just lots of stress. And my testimony really just got tested this week. I feel like I've been constantly bombarded with people telling me that I'm wrong, that it's dangerous to have so much faith in something, that I should be looking for the truth. I don't need to look for the truth; I've already done that! That is why I left my family and personal life behind to come to this country and try to talk about the gospel in Dutch for a year and a half. THIS IS THE TRUE CHURCH. THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS AND THE BOOK OF MORMON ARE OF GOD AND THEY ARE TRUE.

Ok, on a side note, we did see some good little miracles, because those always always come, even when people are trying to tear your testimony to shreds. This ward never ceases to amaze me. Their testimonies are bright, and they love missionary work. Sister Hanny and I did talk to some cool people, and that always just makes you feel better.

 Also, I realized this week that God is taking care of me. Sometimes, missionaries get lonely. You realize -usually after the big adjustment phase your first 4 transfers- that you are, wow, alone in a foreign country. It's like the little kid in Disneyland who reaches for someone's hand and then looks up and realizes it's not their mom. And you just get sad. So you learn that you have to talk to God, and that since you have given up some small things for Him, He has to help you through this. If you don't talk to Him, you just stay lonely and it gets hard. But if you ask Him to show you His love for you, then He does. And it gets better. :)

Hopefully I can give some better info in my emails soon. I love you and wish you a happy May and lovely Mothers Day. :)

Love,

Sister Johanson