Aleoko maty toy izay!

Manahoana!

This is my week....

-Tuesday We went out and taught a girl named miora the first lesson and we had such a great time talking about joseph smith and te first vision. She had some great questions to ask. We also taught lalaina who came to church for te first time last sunday.

-On wednesday I went on a split with Elder Hjorth again on another exchange to Ampitatafika and got a big cut on my hand from falling down a hill. Owchie! It is better now, though. We taught some great lessons that day as well and I was able to get to know Elder Hjorth better as well.

-On thursday We had a general authority come and give us a talk. Elder Palmer of the Seventy and Sister Hartness of the Primary General Presidency. It was a great experience! She taught some great things about the power of children hymns and how it is so important to teach children that we are children of god.

-On friday we went and did another spiritual message with liandry and taught about D&C 3. We must always keep the commandments of god in order to be full protected. we had another great dinner appointment with Soeur Holley.

-Saturday came and we taught english class as usual. A lot of stuff fell through that was already planned for, but we were able to teach the most important lesson to one of our investigators on date. That was such a great blessing.

Aleoko maty toy izay literally translates to, "I would rather die like that if...". It is an expression to the similarity of "I have no choice but to..." For example, one could say, "Aleoko maty toy izay tsy raharahako" Which means "I had no choice but not to care" But literally translates to, "I would rather die like that it wasn't my business." Weird, huh?

Love you all!

Elder Johnson

Week 3

Hello everyone!

I am going to start doing a little more shorter emails but I will still give as much info about the week as possible, This past week went really well. We found 4 new people to teach. That was really exciting for us. We gave nearly 3 priesthood blessings to someone last Wednesday. That was a really neat experience.

-On Tuesday we went and visited hairy and taught him about the plan of salvation. He is doing good we just need him to get to church and then we can pu him on date. We had to go and watch some safety videos at the cyber that day because our mission president wants us to finish them by the end of the month.

-Wednesday we went out and gave a whole bunch of priesthood blessings. They all went well and they turned out to be really great teaching opportunities.

-On Thursday we went out and had district meeting. we ate out afterwards and then went out to work. If i remember correctly, we went out and taught a spiritual thought to a member named jasmine. We asked her for advice on some things and we got some great advice!

-On Friday we did some weekly planning and had the same dinner appointment with Sr. Holley. She is really nice and she has my mom's name! I bet you all already knew that XD

-Saturday was English class and we were able to teach some good English. I learned and progressed a whole lot on my Malagasy skills as I asked for speaking tips from those I was teaching.

Here are some pictures that I took last week. 

Love you all!

Elder Johnson

New Beginnings

Hello everyone!

This past week has been one of the greatest on my entire mission! then again, I guess every week on my mission is one of the best on my mission XD but anyways, I will get to what happened this week

-On tuesday Elder Webb Leavitt and I went out and did some work. We went to a man named hiary. He is a really great guy who is looking into getting baptised. We are really encouraging him to come and to partake of salvation. we also went and visited other people's house, but not a lot of programs went through that day, which was ok. We got a lot of setting up done.

-On wednesday Elder Leavitt and I started working together. It was a really great time. He is such a great companion to be with. We spent a lot of time getting shopping done for him because he still didn't have food yet. That took a lot of our day up, but we had some great talks on our way back. He is from Las Vegas, Nevada. If anyone knows any leavitts from las vegas, let me know.

-On Thursday, Elder Webb left Itaosy and started his work in Ambohipo. I started Elder Leavitt on the work of Itaosy. He is a really hard worker. We were out up until around 8. we watched the safety zone videos about missionary safety. They have informed me a lot more about how we can't just be careless about our circumstances. We have to be safe.

-Friday mainly consisted of our soiree with Sr Holley and weekly planning. I found out that night that Elder Leavitt loves to play the piano. He is really good, and has been playing since he was 8 years old.

-On saturday we had regular english class and lunch afterwards. We had a startling event happen close to our house. We had a pig house catch on fire and there were people screaming and crying and waiting for people to douse the fire. I grabbed rice pots and trash bins and filled them up with water. They helped to put out the water. As I saw the smoke rising from the burning house, I heard a sorrowful sigh from behind me, and when I turned around I saw nothing. I knew that I had heard an angel sigh, and it really was an angel since I felt like it was from the spirit. It was a testament to me that god really does look to us when we are undergoing afflictions. He knows our pain. We are not alone. We had a baptism in the ward afterwards. It went well, and the new convert is a very commited young man.

I just feel inpressed to tell you all that I have been doing good. The mission is by no means easy, and it is not for the feeble of heart. It is not whimsical, it isn't frivolitous, and it isn't a light subject. It is a foreordained duty. It is a privilege. It is a gift from god. He has entrusted me with these things, the most valuable of them all being his children. I have been called of him to gather his children. Now that is no small thing, I love the mission. The language is good. The people are amazing. The work is glorious.

I love you all so much! God bless all,

Loholona (Elder) Johnson

Beginning of 8th transfer (Halfway transfer)

Hello all again! I have been meaning to tell you all that this transfer that has commenced today marks my 8th transfer out on a mission (which includes the MTC). Guess what this means? I am nearly halfway done with my mission. I hit my yearmark in July, but I am coming home sometime in June of 2020 and at the earliest, the late days of may. I cannot help but feel all of the arms of support that have held me up from day one. You all have done so much for me in order for me to come this far. God bless you all for your amazing love and charity for all of the prayers and love and support that you send daily my way. To all I say Thank you. Unfortunately I forgot to bring my planner which would have told me what had happened the week before, so I won't be able to say what happened on tuesday wednesday or thursday< I can say what I remember from those day is that I got a lot of teaching done, I wrote in my journal a lot, and I walked and talked and ate a lot :) On friday I went on an exchange with the zone leaders. I got to go with Elders Leishman and Knudsen. They are both really cool elders and they really like to push the limits on malagasy speaking. I was told that I would do a lot of the teaching those days, which I was ok with because I already feel comfortable with the language. Appearently, they were impressed. I took the advice that they had to offer me, which I was more than happy to accept. On saturday I went on ANOTHER exchange with elder Hjorth. He is a really new elder from idaho and he is super duper nice. I had something crazy happen to us on our exchange, though. We were visiting a member and her neighbor (who was very drunk) decided to start chasing us and telling us that our teachings were false. We ran away from him and hid for a while. Eventually, he found us and started preaching against us again, but I told him to go home, and so he did. That night we got our transfer news and I am staying in Itaosy, but Elder Webb is leaving and going to Ambohipo with an Elder Hekking. I am staying with an Elder named Elder Leavitt. I am already good friends with him so this transfer will be a blast! I am really going to miss elder Webb though. We had a great time together and I hope that he will have a great time in ambohipo. I love you all so much and I know that you all must be getting tired of the same old ending of me ending it off without somethings spiritual to top it off, so today I am just going to bear a very simple testimony of miracles. I have seen countless miracles on my mission in whatever form they take, they have all been put in my path to learn from them and to strive to understand god better. I know that miracles are only wrought about through faith, obedience, and wisdom. I know that not only preisthood holders can perfom miracles, but anyone can. Miracles before the mission came to me through a smile in the school hall or a friend who asked me how I was doing though social media or on the phone. It helped me through the darkest times of my life. I leave that testimony with you and invite you all to perform miracles to those who need it. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. With love, Elder David Johnson ReplyReply allForward