GLEN WAVERLEY - Week 14 - January 29, 2017

WOW I can't believe I have been out for 3 months! Where does time go?!

This week has gone by soo fast. So we have been teaching Christy and I love her so much. We were able to teach her this week about repentance and during our lesson I was seriously overwhelmed with the spirit! I am so excited and she is supposed to be getting baptized in February and hope that everything continues to work out!

On Friday Elder Neilsen from the 70 came and spoke to us. It was incredible. I learned so much and he is hilarious so it was awesome! 

This week me and Sister Guan got locked out of our flat for almost 3 hours. We left the keys inside our flat and the Zone Leaders (who have the extra set of keys) weren't answering their phone. After studying and taking a nap in the car, we decided to try to find a way to get into our flat. Long story short, we found that our kitchen window was open a little and so we broke down the screen and unscrewed the latch so we could open it more and were able to climb in. We now make sure to check that we have the keys BEFORE we leave our flat.

On Saturday I was trying to ride a penny board I think it is called? A tiny skateboard? But I was doing pretty well and then the board hit a crack.. The skateboard stopped but my body didn't so I completely ate it. Nice. I now have a nice scrape and bruise on my leg and my elbow, but what makes it worse is that it happened in front of the four elders that serve in the same area and ward as us, so they all saw and now make fun of me so much. I see them almost everyday and I don't think I will ever live it down. 

Sister Guan thinks that I am really mean and that I kill too many bugs because whenever I see a spider or weird bug in our flat, of course I'll kill it. So this week she said that I need to have more love, so there is a spider that now lives in our bathtub because she won't let me kill it. I see it every time I go into the bathroom and I hate it. But I have named him Russell and he has become our friend.. oh my goodness.

This morning to start our P-Day we hiked the 1000 steps! It was a killer hike but it was so beautiful and so much fun. Sister Guan and I were dying but it was so fun to be able to see Australia and while we were going up, we actually saw a baby kangaroo! It was eating like 2 feet away from us so that was really cool :)

I love being a missionary so much! It is a constant rollercoaster everyday, but it is the best thing I have ever done. I have learned so much the past 3 months and am so grateful that I get to spend the next 15 months here in Australia! 

LOVE YOU ALL!

xoxo 

Sister Johnson

Our friend - Russell

Trying to "Break in" to the flat

There is always time for a quick manicure

Ouch - silly penny board

1,000 Step Kokoda Memorial Walk (1,000 Steps)
Australian solider followed the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea in WW II

Saw a small kangaroo just having a snack along our 1,000 step walk

Did the famous Tim Tam Slam - Yummy!

What Sister Johnson does when she doesn't want to do her weekly planning

English class every Saturday morning

Missionaries from the ward and Ward Mission Leaders doing
mission correlation.

GLEN WAVERLEY - Week 13 - January 22, 2017

This week I saw my MTC buddy and eternal bff Sister Cahoon! Such a blessing!! We had Golden Review and all the new missionaries had a meeting with President Vidmar to talk about the first 4 weeks in the field. It was so fun to be back with her for a couple hours and to catch up. I LOVE HER.

I ALSO WENT TO THE CITY THIS WEEK! I’m serving about 45 outside of the city.  I went on exchanges with the STL's and got to serve in the City for a day and to see what it is like there. It was so exciting and so different from where I am serving now. I also got to meet a lot of the missionaries that are in the city! It is so crazy because in Glen Waverley where I serve now, we only see one other companionship of Elders and we don't even see them every day, but in the city you see so many missionaries! So awesome.

So we are still teaching our investigator Christy, and she still has a baptismal date for February 4th and is still super keen about it! So I am praying that everything will work out. She is seriously so cute and I have grown to love her so much. 

Sundays are awesome, our sacrament meeting is in English so that is nice. Then Sunday school and Relief Society are in Chinese. I love it so much. I am starting to understand Sunday school. yesterday I knew what they were talking about! and yay!!!

Not much else happened this week. We have been spending a lot of time door knocking and door knocking is pretty rough. BUT it has been pretty cool being able to meet so many different people and talk to them. I honestly love being a missionary :) I also LOVE being in Australia!

Thanks for the incredible examples you all are to me! Have a good week and I am praying for all of you.

xoxo, 

Sister Johnson

Sister Cahoon and I at the Melbourne Temple - Together again
even if it was only for a couple of hours

Sister Guan and I at the Temple

The nice Elders dropped off a Costco hotdog for me.
Thinking of you Dad

The sign says Brekky which means Breakfast because
everything is shortened here.

GLEN WAVERLEY - Week 12 - January 15, 2017

WE GOT A CAR THIS WEEK!! So usually you aren't allowed to drive until you are done with training, so the first 12 weeks, but on Friday President Vidmar gave us a car and said I was good to drive! WHAT???? Driving over here is nuts. It messed with my brain because everything is backwards. So driving on the left side feels wrong but I am getting used to it. The hardest thing for me is the blinker.  In Australia the blinker and the windshield wipers switches are on the other side, so I go to hit the blinker and accidentally hit the windshield wipers. It is so hard to get used to it being on the opposite side than in America.. haha Sister Guan laughs and laughs when I do it because I do it at least 10 times a day. :) Also there are NO stop signs here.. just give way signs so you have to watch where the cars are going and that was a little scary. Lastly, NO ONE SPEEDS HERE. There are no cops on the road, but there are cameras everywhere so if  you speed they will take a picture and send a ticket in the mail. It is nuts. So you have to go the exact speed or you will get a ticket. SO nuts!!

So this week we taught more lessons and it is going really well! I am starting to feel more comfortable in lessons - still don't understand everything yet -  but I am loving teaching. So amazing!

The weather is still crazy and it goes from one day being super cold and raining, then the next being hot and sunny. I wore the same shoes 2 days in a row, and now have a pretty ugly tan line on my feet so that is cool.. lol. But the Mosquitos here are crazy. I have counted and I have 31 bites. No joke. I am pretty sure I am getting eaten alive.. so SOS send help. 

We had dinner with a lady this week (picture attached) and she made fun of me the whole time and said she hates my accent. She said that I need to sound Australian so the whole dinner when I would talk she would correct my English words to make me sound more Australian. She is hilarious!! I love her. She always gives me treats at church now because she is afraid that I am not getting enough candy and such so oh boy. She is so cute. 

This week has been pretty good and went by so fast. Last p-day we had a Zone P-Day and it was SO FUN. We did lazer tag, ping pong, air hockey and fooseball. It was seriously a blast and I love my zone! There are only 1 other sister companionship, so there are a lot of elders. They are all awesome and fun though so it's good. I'll attach a picture of our zone :) it has everyone except the AP's, they couldn't be there so they aren't in the picture. 

I am heartbroken to hear about Sister Shirley Gibson passing away, but I am so comforted to know about the Plan of Salvation and to know that we will see her again. She's an incredible and inspired woman and truly changed my life. I miss her so much and I'll miss her kissing my cheeks, but am so grateful I was able to know her and learn from her. I will always remember going to her house and visiting with her and President Gibson just hours before I went into the MTC and started this wonderful adventure.  

I am so grateful that I am in Australia! I love being a missionary and learning Chinese. The language is so hard and I really have to be patient, but I love it so much. I have learned so much about Jesus Christ this week and I am so grateful that I get to be His full time Representative for the next 18 months.

Love you all!! Hope you all have a great week!

xoxo,

Sister Johnson

Zone P-Day

Sister Brotherton from the Ward who is trying to help me sound more Australian????
 I don't think it's going to work

Don't ask what's in it until I'm done eating.

Little octopus anyone??  Yum

Yes I ate it all!!

The Bird food we ate last week.

Liking this street.

She is never far away.  This street is right by our church, I get to see it every Sunday.

So glad I have so much help from the other side.  I need all the help I can get.

GLEN WAVERLEY - Week 11 - January 8, 2017

What is up my family & friends?!

This week has been pretty crazy and super busy. I am seriously starting to love it here!! 

So first I realized that last week I didn't tell you anything about my companion and her conversion story. It is really cool :) So she is 23 and she is from China. She was baptized 2 years ago. Her family used to be Buddhist and then her dad had a friend who was LDS and told them about the church. He started to read the Bible and Book of Mormon and were really interested. So after reading and talking to his friend a little, they went to Hong Kong and were taught all the lessons, and were baptized that same day!!! SO crazy! She is awesome!

Anyways, this week I taught my first lesson!! Ok well I didn't say much because holy cow my companion and our investigator Icy speak soo fast. I just sat there and laughed a little because I understood only a few words. So it was very humbling and I know that I have a lot to learn. BUT we taught another investigator on Saturday after we taught English class and because I am a new golden, at the end of the lesson I had to invite her to be baptized.. and she said YES!!! I was so happy! It was such a powerful lesson and I honestly understood so much more than the lesson on Friday. Such a blessing.

So we GQ (talking to people on the street) for hours and hours everyday. It is the middle of summer here so we are out in the sun for so long and it is a little brutal. But it is so fun because there are Asians everywhere here! I was so afraid that I would never speak Chinese when I got here.. but holy cow I was wrong!! Seriously I see more Asian people than Australian people.. ahah so I love it. 

The weather is pretty crazy here. One day it is raining and cold and the next day it is super hot and humid. It is nuts... but the past couple days have been super hot. We are super blessed though because we have AC in our flat so when we get home we turn it on full blast :)

Sunday was crazy. We got invited to a members house for dinner (the members in our ward are super nice and we have 2 or 3 dinners a week with them.. so YAY) but we don't have a car so we have to use the busses and such and it is always an adventure. But on Sunday we had to take the bus and a tram to the members home. So we were getting off the tram and my companion got off, and I was right behind her trying to scan my card (you have to scan your bus card when you get on and off) but it wasn't working and all of the sudden the doors closed and the tram started going! So I was now stranded on this tram in a place I didn't know all by myself.. so I got off on the next stop and started running up the hill back to the previous stop where Sister Guan got off. It was so hot so I was sweating like crazy. But I got back to the other stop and found Sister Guan and we just laughed. We were super lost and had to walk around forever trying to find the house and we had to ask this nice man for directions, but we got there. I was so sweaty and nasty by time we finally got there.. so we get inside and there is no AC so I pretty much never stopped sweating. The cute couple are super healthy and I am pretty sure I ate bird food for dinner. It was hilarious because it was this weird bird food bread stuff you would dip in this mushed up carrot dip - yum. There was no taste and it was so hard to swallow. I took a picture of it but I forgot to bring my camera today.. so I will send pictures next week. But it was so nasty. 

So I thought that the evening couldn't get much worse but oh boy was I wrong. So most families have cats or dogs as house pets, but this family had CHICKENS. For those of you who don't know, I am terrified of Chickens. They had these huge chickens walking around the house and I was crying inside the whole evening. It was the strangest dinner I have ever had.. what a night. 

Sorry no pictures this week because I don't have my camera.. :( But yeah this week has been good and I love Melbourne and I love my companion! 

Thank you so much for the prayers and all the emails! They have helped so much as the transition from the MTC to the mission was a little rough. But I love you all and am soo grateful for you! I hope you all have a great week!

xoxo,

Sister Johnson

GLEN WAVERLEY - Week 10 - January 2, 2017

HOLY COW WHAT THE HECK. 

I made it to Australia and it's been pretty good! :) They call us GOLDENS  instead of greenies here and I love it. The first few days have been pretty rough not going to lie. Everything is so different here than in America. 

It has been pretty funny trying to talk to my trainer the past couple days because I don't know Chinese very well and she doesn't know English very well. But we have figured it out and we get along really well. She has already taught me so much and I love her!

I found out that there are 4 areas where Chinese sisters serve in Melbourne. Most of the Chinese serve in the City (that is where Sister Cahoon is and I miss her a ton), but I am serving in an area called Glen Waverley. We live in this cute little house and I am obsessed. My companion and I are the only Chinese Sisters in this area. I am super grateful to be serving here! It turns out that our church building is the same building as our mission office so we are super close to President Vidmar and that is so comforting. He has helped me so much transition here and start to make this place my new home. I absolutely love my mission president and his wife! They are sooo great and so inspired.  

Being a Chinese missionary in Melbourne is pretty slow right now because all of our investigators have gone back to China until March. So we do A TON OF CONTACTING. They call it GQ (golden question) here and we do it for hours everyday. I am honestly so grateful to my MTC teachers for having us practice contacting while at the MTC. I know that I usually complained when we would do it in class, but I am so grateful now. 

Me and my companion have a car.. but it stays at the mission office because my companion can't drive. To be able to drive here, you have to pass a driving test with someone from the mission office and you have to be here for at least a transfer. My cute companion Sister Guan didn't pass the driving test, so we walk everywhere and we take the bus. It has been ok though because the weather has been pretty nice.  We live in a cute little house and regular neighborhood.

Everyone here is so nice and so excited when I speak the few Chinese words that I know! They are so funny :) I have seen a couple spiders here, but nothing too crazy. BUT I have seen a Kangaroo!! I was pumped.

Well there really isn't much more to write because it has been pretty slow here with investigators and such. But I know I am going to love it here! The homesickness and anxiety have been a little hard as I have been transitioning but I have learned so much about Jesus Christ and God's love and about Faith. I am so loved and watched over and know that I can do all things through Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH 

I appreciate the prayers! :) 

Have a great week!!

xoxo,

Sister Johnson

Sister Johnson and her Trainer Sister Guan

The cute house they live in

Big Enough Kitchen for sure

Study Area - Hopefully that Mandarin is sinking in 

Church Building