Malolelei!

That's how you say hello in Tongan. Wha- not Malagasy? Yep, because my amazing new companion named Elder Piutau is Tongan! He is from Hawaii. I love him lots and I can't wait for another great 6 weeks with him.

I have been called to be the district leader for the 2nd time. I love the district that I get to lead, and I have definitely felt the lord's hand in helping me to become the leader that he wants me to become.

Yesterday while I was studying during personal study, I came across a scripture in alma chapter 5 about being stripped of pride and envy. It brought me to reflect upon my works upon the earth. Had my works been works of righteousness? Had I tried my very best to keep the commandments? Have I been the missionary that God has called me to be? Moreover, that brought me to the word Salvation. What does salvation mean? Some say that salvation is something when you just believe in Jesus Christ. Others say that you cannot obtain it save it be by immortal acts. Overall, the answers vary, but the one and only true thing that stands tall and erect about Salvation is Jesus Christ, our savior and friend from the beginning. When I think of his amazing face and those loving eyes, words could feign describe the feelings of love and gratitude for my savior. I know that I have not been totally obedient, I know that I am not perfect, I know that I still have a long way to go, but He makes all the difference. The root word for Salvation, at least for me, is Salvage. When you salvage something, you pick up the pieces of a broken or lost thing and make something better of it. A parable came into my mind as I was pondering this thing. I will try my best to put it into scripture format and as close to the saviors wording as possible.

A certain man was a painter of portraits, and he made a painting made with his finest oils and colors, which caused him much labor of 2 months to finish. And when his work was finished, he received much applaud of men, for he was an talented man. And when all this was done and the night grew near, he retired to his bed above in his house to sleep, because of his much labor on his work of beauty. Until at the third watch of the night (and the rain beat sore upon his house), a plunderer cast a rock at the painter's window, seeking to find riches of gold and myrrh, but found none and left with haste to the town. At the sound of his window the painter ran down to see that which was done, and when he saw, he wept sore, for he loved that which he had labored to bring, and by reason of the plunderer was the painting gravely shriveled and blurred. And when the people saw which was done, they were sorry, for they were great followers of the painter. Then the painter took that which had not been marred by the drops of the rain, and rent it from that which had been marred. And the painter took that part of the painting which had been preserved, which part had been the finest of his hand and sewed it to white cloth which was of the same width of the piece. Then the painter restored that painting to its former beauty, yea, even greater than the latter. And for 6 months he labored to restore that which had been lost. And when his work was finished, he received more applaud than that of the first, for he had become a painter of great fame, yea, even to the borders of the sea. And when the people from round about came to behold the workmanship of salvation, they did rejoice and praise him and gave hi many gifts; and thus we see that the work of redemption cometh by restitution, yea, even by faith and hope that that which is lost for a season can and will be restored through the Holy One of Israel.

I love you all. Have a great week. Love Salvation!

Elder Johnson

Come what may, and love it!

As time has no ending, and as sometimes it goes by very quickly, I unfortunately have little time in the cyber today. I got to go to a little going away party in the forest for my companion that is now called Brother Randrianarison. We had a blast there, but I don't think my body was entirely happy with that decision; I got a headache and 2nd degree burns down my neck  But it was so amazing to see the love that the members in the Tanambao branch had for this home bound Elder. I know that he worked very very hard in this area and that he will be blessed in all things for his amazing work. I love him so much and I was more than sad to let my favorite companion in the mission go. I will for sure be visiting him when I return to Madagascar later in the future.

On Saturday, the Taolagnaro District had a get together, with the main aim to inform people about the truthfulness of the Prophet Joseph Smith. The front of the room was packed with little kids and before the Joseph Smith video (which we were planning to show), they were a little bit rowdy. But, as the music started and the video caught their attention, I could tell from the brightness in their eyes and in the way they were looking at the screen that their sweet, innocent little minds were really being instructed about this crucial truth. It brought an extraordinary emotion inside of me that day, and after the video was done, I could tell that spirit had spoken to them and they understood the video. 

Those little children helped to set a great example for me that day. I have noticed that sometimes when I am asked to do something out of my comfort zone, I sometimes let myself feel that I deserve better than that. However, as many times after that experience as I have felt that selfish emotion, I have always called myself to ponder the great example the little children set to me that day of sitting still and paying close attention. Joseph B Wirthlin gave a fantastic talk about enjoying life and enduring through trials. I strongly encourage all to listen to or read that talk.

Transfer news is I am staying for another Transfer in Taolagnaro and I will be getting an Elder Piutau from Hawaii! Very excited to meet him.

OK! Have a fantastic week everyone!

Elder Johnson

 Thumbs up!

 I love how David always has his thumbs up!  

 Yes, there are pine trees in Mada!

 I'm not quite sure how much David has grown on his mission, but he left at six foot and looks to completely tower over these people. Thumb ups!

 Life is good as a missionary when you are loved this much by the children!

David's favorite companion is going home, but they'll be brothers forever!

General Conference in the Bishop's Office

My dear friends!

I have seen this last week just whiz by like a fast ball. I am very happy to say that I have no apparent health issues (and definitely no pain), and I can only give credit to all of your diligent prayers on my behalf, which I thank all of you deeply for. Your prayers have been a large part of my inspiration to help others, on top of the other teachings and lessons that I have received during this time in my life.

I had a humbling experience happen this past Thursday. Mother nature has been cranking up the temperature here in Madagascar and everyday this week, I have come back to the apartment with white shirts screaming to be put in the washer after a full day of sweating bullets. As we came to our last appointment on Thursday evening, I was parched. I gave some money to our member help to run to a nearby episserie and grab my favorite malagasy beverage: Bonbon anglais. He came back with my ice-cold drink and I was running my hands through my hair and wiping off sweat and getting ready to relax a little and sit down (and at this time we were at the house of our last appointment). I twisted off the cap and downed some bonbon anglais. It tasted great! It tastes like bubble gum, hence the french word bonbon which means candy. As I was about to take another drink, a little boy who had kinda been harassing some of the people there, came up to me and started saying ''giligiliky kely azafady?'' which means ''little drink please?'' At first I was skeptical, but I remembered a scripture that I had read that morning from the new testament which said something the lines of ''If you shall give one of these little ones a drink, ye shall in nowise lose your reward'' With that in mind, I wanted to give the kid some of my drink, so I gave him my little bottle and he took off with it. He drank just a little bit of it and continued to harass some of the people there by offering it to someone and then running away from them. That is a pretty frowned-upon thing to do in Africa, so I wanted to teach him a simple lesson about being polite and considerate. As he was going around (he is around 5 or 6 years old) I walked up to him and took the bottle from him, and I walked back to the spot I was at.

He didn't like that at all, and so he started to wail crying.

It made me feel really, really sad to see him like that, because let's face it: he's a kid that probably doesn't have a lot and having a really nice drink like that is probably a very scarce chance for him, and me taking it away probably didn't make it better to take the drink back. Who takes a drink from a small African kid? Hello Elder Johnson 5 minutes ago? I sat there with the drink half disgusted at myself and half-heart torn for the now drink less kid that was now crying, living in poverty. I felt pretty yucky after sitting there for a while, so I walked up to him and coaxed him into calming down a little bit. I told him, ''If you won't be naughty again, I will give you this drink so that you won't be thirsty anymore, but you have to be a good boy, ok?'' He nodded his sweet little head and I gave him the drink again. I didn't see him taunt anyone again after that, which helped me to feel better after that.

Over the past few days, I have had time to reflect on that experience and what that means to me. To this day, I still feel bad to a degree about taking the drink. Then it hit me that I got a real-life tangible parable of the pride cycle. The people ask for something, God gives it, the people don't use it right, God takes it back, the people suffer and humble themselves and repent, and God gives it back again. I now know to a degree the pain that God feels when He has to take something away to help us repent. He doesn't want to take good thing away from us, nor can he take promised blessings away. But when people are continually wicked, He only has one clear option to help them get back to Him: Chastisement. This helped me personally to understand how important it is to be humble and how important it is to thank God for the blessings that He gives so freely for us. That is the invitation I extend to all of you, to always pray for every blessing that you receive and follow God's words! My promise I can give is that God will shower blessings both physical and spiritual when we keep his Commandment and thank Him for His blessings.

I thank you all so much for your love and your prayers and for all that you all have done on my behalf. I thank God every night for all of the prayers given on my behalf. I thank Him for all things that have been given to me and to all people. Thank you for all of the emails; This mission can get awful lonely without emails.

I love you all! If there are any questions about the area I serve in or about my mission or Madagascar in general, please send me an email.

Love,

Elder Johnson

First Email in Malagasy! Email voalohany miteny gasy è!

Hello everyone!

The week that has gone has been a great one. I hope that this past conference was an spiritually inspiring one (I heard lots of good things about it). 

Amongst the many great things that have happened this week was another 2 baptisms! I baptised Sr Claudine and Elder Randrianarison Baptised Sr. Angeline. It was a great experience! We have enjoyed teaching and learning with those 2 sisters. They have shown a lot of faith during their first few lessons and beyond. I am so grateful that they have made it this far and that they have made a amazing coventant with our Father in Heaven to always keep his son's name in mind.

Something that I have noticed was that the Malagasy version of the song ''Hallelujah'' has a very different meaning from the english meaning. In english it talks about the fall of King David, while in Malagasy the verses are built as a prayer! And it's not only just for that song, but that same principle goes for every song that goes from english to malagasy. even in the hymnbook in malagasy has a slightly different yet spiritual meaning that is beautiful and special.

Last saturday, I got sick again...yay XD. Needless to say, I am better now and I am so grateful for the body that I have. The body is the temple of our spirits, and that is a very special thing indeed! One of my favorite scriptures to share with those who struggle with the word of wisdom is the one written by paul saying, ''Know ye now that ye are not your own?'' Leave it up to the New testament prophets to always lay down the law.

I hope that this past week was good and I will be praying for all of you this coming week!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Salama Daholo è!

Tena Nahafinaritra ny Andavan-andro izay lasa teo. Manantena aho fa ny fihaonambe teo dia fiahonambe izay nanentana ara-panahy (efa reko zavatra maro mikasika 'lay izy aho).

Anisan'ireo zavatra maro sy tsara izay zava-nitranga nandritra ny andavan-andro teo ireo dia ny batisa 2! Nanao batisan'i Sr Claudine aho ary Elder Randrianarison kosa dia nanao batisan'i Sr. Angeline. Traikefa tsara be izany teo! Nankafy ny fampiranarana sy ny fianarana niaraka tamin'izy ireo Anabavy roa. Niseho finoana lehibe izy ireo nandritra ny lesona Voalohany ary mihoatra izany. Tena feno fankasitrahana aho fa efa tonga hatramin'izao ary efa natao fankempihavanana mahatalanjona niaraka tamin'ny Raintsika any an-danitra ary hitandrina ny anaran'ny zanany ao an'tsainy.

Zavatra iray izay hitako dia ny version malagasy amin'ny hira ''Hallelujah'' dia manana dikany samihafa mihitsy noho ny dikany anglais. Amin'ny teny anglais, dia mikasika ny fahalavoan'i Davida Mpanjaka, fa amin'ny teny gasy kosa dia namboaran'ny adininy ohatra ny vavaka! Ary tsy ohatra izany ho an'izany hira izany fistony, fa ampiasaina izany fitsipika mitoby izany ho an'ny hira tsirairay avy izay miditra avy anglais ao amin'ny gasy. Na dia ao amin'ny Bokin'ny Fihirana miteny gasy aza dia manana dikany somary samihafa fa ara-panahy kosa izay kanto ary manokana.

Narary indray tamin'ny sabotsy aho...Oe XD Na dia izany aza, salama tsara aho izao ary feno fankasitrahana aho noho ny vatana izay ananako. Tempolin'ny fanahintsika ny vatantsika, ary zavatra manokana izany tokoa! Soratra masina anankiray izay Te-hazaraiko indrindra rehefa misy naman'ny fiangonana izay mitolona amin'ny tenin'ny fahendrena dia lay soratra masina nosoratan'i paoly hoe ,''angaha tsy fantatrareo fa tsy ny tenanareo ianareo?'' Avelao ny mpaminany avy ny testamenta vaovao mba hametraka ny lalàna.

Manantena aho fa ny andavan-andro ho anareo teo dia tsara ary hivavaka ho anareo tsirairay avy aho!

Am-pitiavana,

Elder Johnson