AUSTRALIA - Week 9 - December 28, 2016

Sister Johnson travelled to Australia with 27 missionaries.  20 Elders and 7 Sisters.  Most were breaking off in New Zealand to go to other missions but 7 of them went on to the Australia, Melbourne Mission.  In San Francisco the Samoan Elders were all singing church songs to the airport travelers.  One elder's aunt worked in the SF airport; she was there and ordered a bunch of pizza and soda for them before they headed over on their long flight over the Pacific. 
-  Nikky Johnson (#proudmomma)

From Sister Johnson on December 29th 
I MADE IT TO AUSTRALIA!!! HOLY COW!

Ok, so yes the flight was super long, with stops in San Francisco and New Zealand, but I made it to Australia safely! Wahoo!!  I met my mission president (Peter Vidmar and his wife) and absolutely LOVE IT HERE!!! 

My companion is Sister Guan, she is from China.. don't remember where. So yes she speaks fluent Mandarin and her English is...idk.  I am super excited because I know that I am going to learn soooo much right away!!!!

We got here and it was SUPER HOT! The hottest day in a long time they said. It is summer here so that makes sense. But then it started raining really hard and our church building has flooded. It has been a pretty crazy day here and it is only day 1. I am exhausted and can't wait to go home and unpack and get to know my cute companion. 

I am so grateful for everyone and their prayers! Just know that I am happy and I am safe!! :) I love you all!!!!

Love,

Sister Johnson

Christmas Day at the MTC

Last Picture of District B

IN AUSTRALIA - 

Mission President Peter Vidmar and his wife Sister Vidmar

MTC - Week 8 - December 21, 2016

GOOD NEWS EVERYONE! I GOT MY FLIGHT PLANS!!!!!

I am officially headed to Australia Tuesday December 27!

SLC—San Francisco is 2 hours and 8 min

SF—New Zealand is 12 hours and 50 min

NZ--Melbourne is 4 hours and 5 minutes.

so we have over 19 hours of flying time, not including our layovers...  hahah including our

layovers it is over 30 hours of traveling. 

This week has been a little crazy! It is been pretty nuts because this is our final week before we all leave... but it's been a pretty good week. I've cried a lot... I guess nothing has changed.

This week on Sunday I spoke in our Sacrament meeting! So in the MTC you have to prepare a talk every week on the assigned topic, and then in Sacrament meeting they call up 2 people to talk. You never know if you are talking or not until they announce it over the pulpit. This week they called me up.. so that was cool. Oh and did I mention that the talk has to be in Chinese?!?

Sunday night devotional was super good! Piano Guys came!!! They were so great. The four of them all took a couple minutes and talked to us and testified and it was so powerful. Then they played a couple songs for us and holy cow! Sooo good. I am blown away by the devotionals here at the MTC. They do such a great job and get some amazing people to come talk to us! 

Hey mom thanks so much for sending those Christmas headbands.. Cahoon and I LOVE them. We may or may not have done a 20 minute photo shoot wearing them one night. We were laughing soo hard and it was so much fun. And I know that we will definitely wear them all day on Christmas so everyone in the MTC should be pumped! :)

Our zone was able to help clean the Temple today! We cleaned for 3.5 hours today.. so that was long but it was a cool thing to be able to do. We all got there and we got to wear white scrubs and our tennis shoes. We all looked way good (haha)

All the sisters from our zone went and started with cleaning the crystal from the chandeliers in the Celestial Room. It was super cool and HOLY COW THERE WAS A LOT OF CRYSTAL. But it was so pretty. But wow the temple is incredible.

Then everyone had different jobs, but we all went and cleaned the bride's room and I had to vacuum all the furniture. It took forever because there are a lot of benches and chairs. After I was done with that, I had to clean out all the fake flower bouquets with a tiny paintbrush.. they really go all out in the Temple. It was super cool to be able to help clean such a special and beautiful building.

Because I am leaving this week, I have been looking back to when I first got to the MTC (2 months ago..) and it is incredible to see how much I have grown. I still don't really know Chinese very well, but I have learned so much about myself and about my Savior Jesus Christ. I have gained such a powerful testimony while I have been here. I know that Jesus Christ lives. He knows us and He loves us more than we can comprehend. He was the only one that could go through what He did, and He did it so that He can help us and succor us. He performed His miraculous Atonement for each and everyone one of us personally. Through this we don't ever have to feel alone. I am on a mission because I know these things are true and I love my Savior. I can't wait to share this message of love and hope with everyone in Melbourne Australia.

I hope you all have a great week and a very Merry Christmas!!

LOVE YOU ALL

xoxo,

张姐妹

Sister Johnson

My Visa came through.  Flight Plans!!!

Good-bye MTC and Hello Australia

Australia here we come - December 27th.  

Sister Cahoon and Sister Johnson

MTC - Week 7 - December 14, 2016

I am starting to get super sad because holy cow we actually leave really soon. I am getting super sad because I already know it is going to be super hard saying goodbye to my district and teachers and friends here at the MTC. They are my family here. On Monday night one of our teachers had like a little goodbye session thing. He is getting married on Saturday so he said goodbye in case he doesn't see us before we leave because of his wedding and Christmas. He bore his testimony to us and told us stories of his mission and how excited he is for us to go on our missions. It was incredible. The spirit that was there was UN-EXPLAINABLE. When the Spirit hit me, it was like I was being run over with a car. I haven't really felt the Spirit so strong before...holy cow. But yeah. When we were having that little goodbye thing, while he was testifying and talking to us almost all of us were sobbing. Then after Brother Russell (the one who was saying goodbye) testified to us, my fav teacher Brother Gomez also testified to us. Wow the waterworks really came for us when he talked to us. He was saying that "even though you are nervous and such to leave, “DON'T YOU DARE THINK THAT YOU AREN'T GOOD ENOUGH OR THAT YOU AREN'T ADEQUATE TO DO THIS. You are good enough to do this because the spirit that is here right now testifies to that. I know that God believes in you because he has blessed you to have a member of the Godhead with you right now. You will ALWAYS have his help." That wasn't exactly what he said but you know you get the point. It was insane because when Brother Russell was talking about his mission I was feeling a little scared because I felt a big responsibility and I felt a little inadequate. But then Brother Gomez talked to us and it was exactly what I needed to hear. AHH IT WAS INCREDIBLE. The teachers here have seriously changed my mission, and honestly my life. They have helped me soo much. I would NOT still be here if it wasn't for them. Their testimonies and love have helped more than I can express.

Sorry that was such a long story.. it was just so crazy cool that I wanted to share it with you. But yeah I already know that I am going to be sobbing for the next 2 weeks straight because it is finally feeling real that we are going to leave. :( but I am also so excited to get out of here. It is hard to explain how many emotions and feelings I have right now.. ahah but yeah our district is soo close. like closer than most. We have had our ups and downs and that has really brought us closer together. They are my family here and I am so grateful that God put them in my district. There was a reason that we were all together. It is amazing how we have been able to see that first hand. I know that I needed each of these 7 people in my life and I am soo grateful. 

This week has taught me so much. I have been very selfish thinking about myself and how I am sick. I have been trying to be more Christlike and I was reading Preach my Gospel and soon felt very guilty and now I am trying to not think so much about myself. I am trying to honestly lose myself and serve the Lord 100%! I have learned soo much.

I am seriously so happy that I have been given this opportunity to go on a mission. I know that this is one of the hardest things that I have ever done, but it has been one of the coolest and best things I have done. I have been soo rewarded so far. I can't even imagine how many blessings will come in the next 16 months!!!

weird thing.. On Monday we had an Iranian CEO come and visit our class. He is from Virginia University and he is studying how people learn and Dyslexia? It was weird because he doesn't have anything to do with the church and we weren't really allowed to try and tell him about it? I don't even know why he was in Utah actually.. haha the whole thing was super weird. So yeah they came in and our class had to stand the whole time he was with us, but he didn't know Mandarin so we got to talk to him a little in English so that was nice. But yeah he had his body guards with him, the president of the MTC and a couple of men. It was really random.. I don't really understand what just happened. 

Elder Holland came and I just bawled the ENTIRE devo. He was amazing. We were all blown away... like wow. sooooo great. Best day ever!!!!!

Sister Cahoon and I just got asked to help with People and my Purpose. People and my Purpose is demonstrating how to teach to the new missionaries that just got here today! It is going to be good but we have to teach an investigator in front of a group of 100 missionaries IN ENGLISH so that will be hard. I haven't ever taught a lesson in English.. hahah I honestly wish it was in Chinese instead. that would be easier. hahahah wish us luck!!

Fast Forward a few Hours…

Hey, I am back on. Teaching the People and my Purpose was really cool and I actually learned a lot.  I have seen how much I have improved too. It is soo awesome. I know you probably aren't on right now so that is cool.  But I just wanted to say hi and that I love and miss you so much. mom I love, love being a missionary. I have been complaining so much lately because I am homesick and it has been so hard, but I just want you to know how much I honestly love being a representative of Jesus Christ. It has been such an amazing experience and it has taught me so much. I am forever grateful... so thank you for helping me get here and get to this point. love you forever.

Sister Johnson

张姐妹

Having fun on the weekly Temple Walk

Yummy Gingerbread cookies from Marrianne Asay