GLEN WAVERLEY - Week 18 - February 26, 2017

Officially hit my 4 months mark this week! It is still crazy that time is going so fast here! I will be home before you know it mom! :)

This week has been great! Like I said last week, the members and investigators here are amazing and we had a feed every day this week. One of the feeds this week was with Sister Zhu. She is a recent convert and is preparing to go on a senior mission! She is amazing. She took us to a restaurant that was a hot pot buffet. SO GOOD. We all ate soo much and then after she ate she said she had some food for us to take home with us! SHE BOUGHT US 200 DUMPLINGS! holy cow she is amazing.. and now we have enough dumplings to last us the rest of the year. haha

I got to do exchanges this week with our STLs! This transfer our STL's are English sister missionaries so I got to do a day of missionary work all in English! So I had the opportunity to go to Dandenong to serve with Sister Karoi & Sister Manosig (they are in a trio this transfer as well) for a day! It was really fun! I have to admit it was a little weird teaching in English, but it was a really great experience and I learned so much. I love the STL's! 

We don't have many investigators right now.  It's hard with them because they are all in China for holiday. but we are trying. :) I have a feeling good things are going start happening.  Oh you asked and we are in Maroondah Zone, we are called the Mighty Maroondah.

This week at one of our feeds with our investigators Fiona & Tina, they fed us and we ate 1000 year old egg! It is pretty popular and HOLY COW IT WAS NASTY. A dark black egg that smells pretty gross. Happy I tried it, but definitely won't be eating it again anytime soon. Also tried chicken feet again.. and yeah still don't really know how to eat it. man. RIP my body.

Sister Dobberfuhl was trying to do laundry this week, and somehow something went wrong and she flooded our flat. Water was everywhere. Our whole flat is wood and tile so water just spread so fast. It was hilarious! It took us almost 2 hours to clean it all up, but it was awesome.

I am soo grateful for my companions! They are honestly so amazing. I am so blessed and we get along really well. This transfer has been so much fun and I have learned so much from both Sister Guan and Sister Dobberfuhl!

Sorry not much time to write this week. But I love you all! Thank you for the payers and constant support. I have the best family & friends!!!

Have a good week! 

xoxo,

Sister Johnson

张姐妹

Exchanges with English speaking Sisters Karoi and Manosig 

1,000 year old egg  - gross

Not Mom's scrambled eggs for sure!

Just having a chicken foot or two for dinner

Big plate of Chicken Feet - yum

Our Missionary - Loving Australia

GLEN WAVERLEY - Week 17 - February 19, 2017

We have had such a busy week! I am so grateful because I have learned so much this week!

On Tuesday we were privileged to have the head of the missionary department and the head of the church advertisement and their crew come to visit our mission. It was very cool to meet them and learn from them! They talked to us and told us that right now the church is spending more money on the Australia Melbourne Mission than any other mission in the world. This is such an important time for this mission (because of the Book of Mormon musical is here in Melbourne) and it is so cool to think that I was called to be here and serve here at this specific time. So special! It defiantly gave us a push to do better and to work harder!

This week we were able to do service for the Wilsons (the couple that feeds us every Sunday night). We went over there on Friday and helped her in her yard, shovelling compost and weeding.  Super fun to be able to help her and show our appreciation for feeding us every week!

We got a parking ticket this week. We were parked in a free 2 hour parking, but totally forgot about it and so our car was parked there for 2 hours and 20 minutes. When we got to our car the police had already ticketed our car and it was a fine of 78$!!! dang. I love Australia...

On Saturday we were able to help one of our less actives paint her house. Her name is Ivy and she is hilarious. We thought that maybe we would help her paint a wall or 2, but she had us paint her ENTIRE house! she lives in a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom huge house! We painted for 5 hours and we didn't even finish! Haha so we will help her finish later this week.

I FOUND CREPES THIS WEEK. for those of you who don't know.. crepes are my FAVORITE! So I was PUMPED when I found a place that sells crepes! Of course I got one and it was soo good (not as good as John and Naomi's crepes) but I was happy. 

We tried Kangaroo this week! We got Kangaroo burgers and they were actually pretty good. Didn't taste too different from a regular burger so it was yummy.

So I have a friend (Victoria Mikkelson) who is serving in Oakland California in the Temple Visitors Center! We got a text yesterday from the church about a referral in our area! IT WAS FROM SISTER MIKKELSON! She gave us the referral and sent me a little message with it! It was honestly such a small tender mercy to hear from her! So crazy cool and man I love the Lord's work and I am so grateful I get to be apart of it!

The ward and our investigators here are awesome! We are soo blessed and we have a feed EVERY NIGHT THIS WEEK!! and actually 2 on Thursday! So excited. They are soo great and really take care of us (so don't worry mom - we definitely aren't hungry!)

Thank you for the prayers and love. I love you all and would not be here without all of you!

Have a good week!

xoxo,

Sister Johnson

张姐妹

Doing the Dab with an investigator at the Melbourne Temple - That's okay, right?

The train station in Melbourne.  All the advertising the church
is doing with the Book of Mormon Play in town.

"Here's your rake Sister Johnson, come join us."

"My companions hard at work and I'm taking pictures."
But it is important to document these things.

Parking Ticket - forgot to move the car.  Oops

Painting a whole house

Wow that's one BIG crepe - her favorite thing in the world

Kangaroo Patty

A member has chickens living in her house as pets.
Alyssa is deathly afraid of chickens, she wanted to show us
she is doing all kinds of new things on her mission.

Her companion actually held the chickens - "No way, Mom

I wasn't going to hold the chicken even if my life depended on it."

GLEN WAVERLEY - Week 16 - February 12, 2017

This week has seriously gone by soo fast! But it has been such a good week! :)

I am now in a trio-companionship.  Our new companion is Sister Dobberfuhl! She is from Japan and went to high school in California! She attended BYU for 3 years as well! She is an angel. We get along really well and I have already learned so much from her! I am really excited to see what this transfer brings!

I got to spend a day with Sister Cahoon right before she was transferred to Tasmania! She spent the day and slept over at our flat that night. It was so fun to see her and spend time with her before she left to Tas. We had a feed that night, so after we ate we shared a message with the members and I started crying when I heard Sister Cahoon share her testimony. It instantly brought back so many good memories of the MTC!  It was so fun to be with her again! I am praying that we will be able to serve together again..

On Wednesday we were able to spend most of the day in the City! Sister Guan had a doctor’s appointment and it was in the City and we ended up being there for almost the entire day! It was so fun to go and experience the City again. It was really hot (38 degrees – that is 100 degrees for us Americans) and so we were super sweaty the whole day but it was so fun!

We had a HUGE Chinese New Year Party that our ward put together and it was awesome! We had heaps of missionaries there and so many of our investigators were able to come! It was awesome. There were Chinese games, things to dress up in and take pictures and Chinese performances. It was such a great night! (the day we had it was also my half birthday so that was cool.. I am officially 19 and a half!)

This week I had a cool experience that was an answer to my prayers! I have been praying that I will be able to share my testimony more and this week, and while walking down the street a man (about 60 years old..) came up to me and asked "do I look drunk?" So I of course said "oh no, you look fine" (but he actually was super drunk.. haha) we then started talking and I was able to tell him about our church and he kept asking me questions like how I knew about this and how I knew this was true. It was exciting because I was able to testify to him and I was able to do it in English which was really special. I got his information and referred him to the English Elders!

It was really cool to see an answer to so many of my prayers! I know that God hears and answers all of our prayers. I am so grateful to have a loving Heavenly Father who knows me and has a plan for me. This week has been a little harder, but I am so grateful to know that Heavenly Father is aware of me and my trials and that He is willing to help me if I let Him. 

I love you all and I am so grateful for you and for all the prayers. They honestly help so much! Thank you! Have a good week!

xoxo, 

Sister Johnson

New companion - Sister Dobberfuhl from Japan

China New Year Ward Party

Nice Shoes Alyssa, hope you don't have to walk too far!

Holy Moly - Huge Celery

Selfie

Lookin' Good

Recent Convert - Britney

GLEN WAVERLEY - Week 15 - February 5, 2017

TRANSFER WEEK!

So I found out that I am staying in Glen Waverley with Sister Guan (YES!) but WE ARE GETTING A NEW GOLDEN (new sister coming to the mission field)! So we are training this transfer! Yeah crazy stuff. I am super excited to help train a new sister, I mean I don't really know what is going on myself because I have only been here for 6 weeks, but I am excited. She comes in on Thursday this week!

Other than that, this week has been pretty regular here in Glen Waverley. All of our investigators are in China because of the Chinese New Year, so we have been doing a lot of finding this week. Talking to people on the street and door knocking is getting better and better every day so I am glad! Most of the Chinese people are so nice and are so surprised when I can talk to them in Chinese! It is the best!

This morning we went to the City for a sister's breakfast with our STL's before they leave this week. SO fun to go to the City and I got to see Sister Cahoon again so that is always such a blessing!

Also side note, we had flat inspections this week so we were deep cleaning and Sister Guan killed our spider friend Russell!!! I went into the bathroom and he was gone! I asked Sister Guan about it and she said she sucked him up with the vacuum... she told me not to worry, because he is probably happier now. I was so surprised. haha she is the funniest!

We had a huge Hot Pot Lunch this week with some investigators and the missionaries in our ward and it was so fun!  We were able to share a message and give investigators a chapel tour so it was awesome!

Also, I was reading the recent conference talk from Elder M. Russell Ballard – “To Whom Shall We Go?”  (October 2016)) and everyone should go read it! It is amazing! :)

I love you all and I am so grateful for you! Thank you for the prayers, the emails and the love. I would not be here if it weren't for all of you, so THANK YOU! 

xoxo,

Sister Johnson

PS  I love the new words I’ve picked up here in Australia, but throw in trying to translate these into Mandarin, my poor brain is ALL CONFUSED - HELP:

note = cash

trolley = shopping cart

flat = apartment

uni = university / college

they say "all goods" for everything. like thanks, no problem and everything else. they say "heaps" all the time and "keen" so it’s funny.

Also, they don't say bathroom. they say toilet. So I say "do you know where the bathroom is" and they look at me all weird so you have to say "do you know where the toilet is" haha which makes me laugh.

and the worst one is they all say 

HOW ARE YOU GOING? and it is so hard for me to say.. sounds so awkward, how about “How are you?” or “How are you doing?”

HOT POT Lunch 

Highland is never far from my thoughts.  YAY!!

"I LOVE being a MISSIONARY"