GLEN WAVERLEY - Week 21 - March 19, 2017

Another great week here in Australia!

So as for transfers, I am moving!!! I am being transferred to Moorabbin and will be serving with Sister Li who's from China. We will actually be doubling into the area and will now be apart of the City Zone. I am sad to say goodbye to my 2 amazing companions, but am excited to see what this next transfer brings.  Moorabbin is less than 5 miles from Port Phillips Bay.  

          This week because I am being transferred, we had to say goodbye to Brother and Sister 
          Wilson. They are the couple that had us over for dinner EVERY Sunday night. They
          are seriously so great. I have so many memories with them and will truly miss them. We
          gave Sister Wilson a stuffed animal Chicken that we found because she is the sister that
          has chickens as pets. I love her not so much the chicken but I do love her. We took some
          "family" pictures as she called them because she would call us her family. They are
          amazing. Goodbyes are so sad, but I am so grateful for the chance that I got to know them
          and learn from them.

On Saturday our 10 year old investigator, Jamie, got baptized!! It was such a special day and one that I will always remember. Being able to teach him (he is amazing and actually taught us more than we taught him) and help him enter the waters of Baptism was incredible. His mom who isn't a member was able to come and it was a really special experience and the Spirit was so strong so I hope it will help soften her heart. I know Jamie will be a great example to his mom and one day he might help her enter the waters as well! Also our Zone Leaders, Elder Wheeler & Elder Wiser did a musical number at the baptism! The Spirit they brought when they sang was so special. 

This week we had the opportunity to do a session at the Melbourne Temple! It was such a blessing and during our temple session I actually had a really neat experience. This week was the last week of the transfer and I have been pretty nervous to see what happens with this new transfer. I have been praying all week and while I was in the temple I was really praying that I would be able to feel my sisters with me and feel comfort and peace about this next transfer. I was in the Celestial room in the Temple and as I was praying for help and strength, the words came to my mind "we are here" and I knew without a doubt in my mind that it was my sisters. The feeling of comfort and peace was so familiar. I am so grateful for the power of prayer and the times when the veil is thin and I can feel my sisters close to me.

This morning we had Sister's P-day with our STL's and the sisters in our area! We actually woke up at 3 am and drove down to Phillips Island to watch the sunrise. It was a 2 hour drive to get there, but it was super fun and so beautiful. We saw heaps of kangaroos and some penguins which was cool! It was awesome to be able to see a little of the Melbourne area and being able to see & smell the ocean made me super happy. We watched the sunrise and had a short but powerful testimony meeting. Then we got breakfast and made the 2 hour road trip back. On the way home, the 4 sisters in my car were so tired they all crashed and slept the entire 2 hours. Good thing I had the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to keep me company and to keep me awake :) 

I am excited to see what this transfer brings and to continue to grow and learn. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary right now and to be able to serve the Lord. I truly know that Heavenly Father is aware of each of His children and He has a specific plan for each of us. 

well that is about it for the week.

I love you all and thanks for the support <3

have a good week!

xoxo,

Sister Johnson

张姐妹

Goodbye to the my awesome companions - Sister Guan and
Sister Dobberfuhl

New Area - Moorabbin

Goodbye to the Brother and Sister Wilson and their
CHICKENS!!

Baptism of cute Jamie

Trip to Phillips Island- YES it was still dark
when we got there.  Sister Cehajic

Cute Baby Penguins 

I love the smell of Salt Water

I love Australia

Kangaroo Crossing.  Don't mind us

Sisters all fell asleep as I drove home - just me
and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

GLEN WAVERLEY - Week 20 - March 13, 2017

I am emailing on Tuesday this week because yesterday was Labor Day here in Australia! All the libraries were closed so our emailing got pushed back to today. :)

This week has been great and we have seen so many miracles!

Last Monday we had our Zone P-day and it was so much fun. We played a couple games of laser tag and then played ping pong and had a BBQ. I love my zone so much and we are all really close which is awesome. :) also my ping pong skills are getting better since I have been on my mission so that's cool.

BIG NEWS! Our investigator Jamie is getting baptized on Saturday!! So there is a part member family in our ward - the Jee Family - where the dad has been a member for a couple years but the mom has always been very against the church. After countless prayers and fasting, Sister Jee has had a change of heart this week and said we can start teaching their 3 kids. We met with them and were able to set a baptismal date for their 10 year old son Jamie! He has been wanting to get baptized for 3 years and is soo excited and so ready!! Such a miracle to see the power of prayer and fasting this week. 

On Tuesday night, we had a lesson with Fiona and Tina again. It was such a beautiful night and they live pretty close to our flat, so we decided to walk to their house instead of drive. It was so nice to walk and get fresh air.. but mistakes were made and lessons were learned. Our flat keys are on car keys and since we didn't drive I didn't think to bring the car keys. Well walking home after an awesome lesson, we quickly learned that we didn't have the keys to get into our flat. We called the Zone Leaders because they had the extra set of keys and long story short we didn't end up getting into our flat until almost 11 pm. Luckily it was a nice night & we made the best of it and took some fun pictures while waiting outside. :)

We had a dinner with our recent convert KaiKai this week and we made dumplings! Super fun to make them and we seriously ate soo many. We probably all ate at least 30 dumplings each. No regrets haha

During our district meeting this week I was feeling a little discouraged as I realized the language isn't coming as fast as I would like. I was practicing role playing with Elder Wheeler, one of my zone leaders, and it was awesome! He shared with me Alma 17:10-11 and it was exactly what I needed to hear. I have learned so much about patience this week and know that even though I may not be fluent in Chinese right now (or anywhere near fluent) the Lord will help me and that the language will come :)

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission in Melbourne and to be learning Chinese. I love this Gospel so much and know without a doubt in my mind that it is true. Thank you for the support and love this week. I love you all!

xoxo,

Sister Johnson

张姐妹

Alyssa's Companions make a "Heart" for her to
show her their love??

Most Chinese only use knives like these
Our investos Tina

Selfie for the week - just hanging' out in the church on Sunday

A friend of a friend went over to Melbourne for business.
We were able to send Alyssa a care package for free.
This is one of her favorite treats from a bakery down the street.

Laser tag for Zone P-day 

Locked out of the flat AGAIN.   Just waiting around.  So sad

Making homemade dumplings

Go Sisters Go!!

Yummy Dumplings!!

GLEN WAVERLEY - Week 19 - March 5, 2017

This week has felt super long.. but still great :)

We had Golden Review for Sister Dobberfuhl and it was so fun. Even though I am technically not the golden anymore.. I still learned so much. I loved something that Elder Olan (one of the AP's) said. We were talking about faith and he said "Faith is not to change the will of the Father, but to give us the strength to act". I think this is so true because when finding or teaching, it is easy to forget that everyone has their own agency and they have to accept this message for themselves! 

We had interviews with President Vidmar this week and oh my goodness I love him so much. He is awesome and I am so blessed to have him as my mission president. :)

Tuesday was a day of unfortunate events for us. Sister Dobberfuhl woke up with an upset stomach and was feeling pretty crappy all day.  Then we had district meeting and we were half way there when Sister Guan realised she didn't have on her name tag. So we turned around and ran home real quick to grab it. She was running out the door and somehow tripped and fell down our front steps and twisted her ankle!! We grabbed the bag of frozen veggies and iced it for a couple minutes but then quickly were off to our meeting. Oh goodness. Then I had an allergic reaction to something and my whole face swelled up and was really itchy & irritated. Super weird and we don't really know what it was but it was red and swollen all day Tuesday and most of Wednesday. But my awesome district leader gave me some weird Chinese cream and it seemed to help so #blessed.

This week we had a lesson with our investigators Fiona and Tina and it was amazing! Fiona has been an investigator for 2 years, and Tina is her cousin. Tina just got here from China to stay with Fiona and her family, and she doesn't really know anything about the Church. So we have been able to teach them! Fiona has a super strong testimony but just doesn't feel ready to be baptised (yet..) so she often helps and testifies when we teach Tina. This week in our lesson we were talking about how God loves us and will help us in our trails. Fiona was testifying and shared the quote from The Pursuit of Happyness "Don't move this mountain that is in front of me, just give me the strength to climb it". I really liked that and it was such a powerful moment in our lesson. The Spirit was so strong that I just couldn't hold back the tears. I know that the Lord will help us and give us the strength to get through our trials if we ask Him. Most of the time on my mission I have asked Heavenly Father to just make it easier and to take away my trials and hard times. But Fiona reminded me that our trials are actually to help us and they shape us into who we are. I am so grateful for the trails I have had in my life that have gotten me to where I am today. This week as I have been praying for the strength to endure, I have felt power beyond my own and I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. I am so grateful to have a Loving Heavenly Father.

Thank you for the prayers and support you all show me. I say it all the time, but I honestly wouldn't be here without all of you.

LOVE YOU ALL! Have a good week and be safe.

xoxo, 

张姐妹

Sister Johnson

Shout out to my Grandma Dorothy Johnson in Texas

Building a shoe rack - my face is red from an allergic reaction.

Weird Chinese medicine to help the reaction - it worked.

A nice lady gives us fruit, oats and cookies every week.
The fruit and cookies are always gone, but the
oats are building up - we need some RECIPES!!

Love driving on these crazy roads in Melbourne, good thing
I'm not driving a stick shift.

Beautiful Summer Sunset
I love Australia.

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