Here Come the Miracles

Dear family,

I forgot to thank you for the Valentine´s day package- the heart attack was wonderful, and I appreciated every note I received. I hope you got my valentine´s envelope with the I owe you´s. I´ll try to respond to the people who I received letters from recently- Anne, Kari and their families. James, I´m still waiting for those months of letters you´ve been promising me :)

This week has been incredible- even more so than preaching the everlasting gospel of Christ to a Muslim hut village in the middle of a Spanish forest. I didn´t think it was possible either.

Hna. Nielsen is awesome. A little bit hippy in a good way- we get along really well- we were friends since the MTC and have wanted to be companions since then. She´s a hard worker and teaches well. And is just really cool.

Anyway, 2 weeks ago, we still didn´t see much fruit from our efforts, but we kept working because we knew the miracles would come. Most people rejected me contacting, and a lot of times I wondered what good it was, but at the end of that week, I contacted a middle aged spaniard and almost immediately began teaching about the plan of salvation- we set up an appointment for the 21st. Incredibly, he didn´t fail us- moreover, he was waiting outside the door for us- we taught him and his sister with her 4 children, and they all want us to continue teaching- they love us already, and we love them. They´re too poor to take the bus, and the church is an hour away, so only JoseAngel could come to church, but he loved it and I´m hoping we can miraculously find more members to help us take them to church. As we taught him the plan of salvation more in depth in our second lesson with him, and we testified of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, he began to cry, and told us that our words touched his heart. He has a baptismal date for the 22 of March.

A lot of our investigators accepted baptismal dates this week- two others are women we found through that 14 year old boy Kevin that contacted us a while ago. They are friends of the family, and were reluctant to let us in at first, but once we started teaching, we invited the Spirit, and they both love the message and also are preparing to be baptized the 22. Their names are Juliet and Cristina. Juliet is really intelligent- knows the scriptures and really listens and comprehends all we teach, but a little slow... it´s hard to explain, you´d have to know her. Cristina is so prepared- she asks all the right questions in the lessons and keeps her commitments.

Adrieli is doing well. Leo less so.

We´ve seen many more miracles than that, but this letter is already waxing long, so I´ll leave it at this for now. I have simply loved being a missionary this week- I love it more and more as time goes on. When I read in the new testament about Paul and all of the early saints´ missionary efforts, as well as those in the times of the restoration, I¨m astounded that I have been given the blessing of running the same race, fighting for the same cause, preaching the same salvation. I don´t want it to end. Shall we not go on in so great a cause?

I know that this is the work of the Lord. That Joseph Smith restored the full truths of the gospel as a prophet of God. That Christ is our Savior, and suffered for, knows, and loves each person on this earth. He alone has the power to save each of us and wants us to return to live with Him. I know it, and I will not deny it. I testify of this in the name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love, Hna. Johnson