A lot has happened, but at the same time it feels like pday was 3 days ago! Crazy. Anyhoo hears a few highlights of my week in Hawaiiii
I went on exchanges with sister Liu on Tuesday, and at first I was like "agh you're putting 2 trainees together?!" Then I quickly realized it was no big deal. We're pros We met with a member in our ward, had TC and VC shifts, and she's more of a pro than I am! We talked to everyone, and hope that they left feeling spiritually uplifted!
It's pretty cool living in a house where almost everyone can speak Mandarin! But when sister Lee and Liu get into deeper conversations it makes me realize just how bad my Chinese is haha.
Elder Bednar has asked that us missionaries read and study 4 specific talks of his prior to seeing him (that's tomorrow aghhh). Something new I've learned from studying one of his talks, learning by faith is that there are 3 elements of faith:
1. Assurance of things hope for (this refers to the future)
2. Evidence of things not seen (past)
3. It's a principle of action (present)
There's so much to learn about something as simple as faith just from these 4 talks alone! One of the quotes I love from this talk is "True faith is focused in and on the Lord Jesus Christ, and always leads to action." Sometimes it can be easy to forget that we have to do anything after we pray in faith. For example I'll pray to find someoneto teach, and I have faith that it will happen, but when I meet with someone and don't ask them if they would like to learn more, or bear my testimony, thats not putting my faith into action. And that's something I'm trying to be better at. Being bold, and putting that faith into action!
I've seen quite a few small miracles this week. One that I'm thankful for in particular was when me and sister Fernsten just started our VC shift (we talked about finding Chinese people at the VC just prior to shift) and just as we started walking up the steps we met a couple! They asked if I spoke Chinese. Turns out they were from Chongqing (where my family lived) so it was a blessing to be able to talk with them.
Sister Fernsten is a great trainer btw! She's really helped me see miracles in every situation. Sometimes I'll be like "Oh that was cool." and she'll be like "See that? Miracle!!" So referring back to my last email, miracles are miracles no matter how small!
Almost every night me and sister Liu will play guitar and ukulele (thank you dad!!). It's really fun, and often brings the spirit into the home!
All the sisters in the VC are singing joy to the world for the Christmas devotional coming up, so I've been teaching sister Liu and sister Fernsten how to play it on the uke. They're picking it up real quick! So proud of them!
Sorry this email was kinda all over the place haha, till next week everyone!!
-Johnson 姐妹
Some peecturez:
1. Palm trees and flowers. Bootiful.
2. We got acai twice this week! I think I'm addicted..
3. Our favorite Elders dropped off Capri Suns!!
4 insanely huge hibiscus
5. Me and sister Liu on exchanges!
6. Our adorable blue house!
7. Us in front of it lol
8 a gigantic snail on temple grounds! It looked bigger in person..
