Monday, December 30, 2013

Happy New Year.....

The power has gone off twice already while I´ve been emailing and all I´ve been doing is trying to load some pictures on to send them to you. We can´t get it to work, I´m sorry. I´ll send some next week, I will try very hard to do so anyway. 

It was so nice to be able to see you all! Grandma, I´m sorry I couldn't wait to talk to you at dinner, I wish I would've been able to. As our porteño Elder Fiabane would say it would be ¨legit.¨ You´re all amazing and I love you all so much.  

We had a great Christmas. It was hot and snowless, but we had a good one. Spent lunch with the Flía Sayas which was amazing and we couldn't eat it all. Pizza Empanadas and surprisingly good chicken. then on to the Duartes to talk to my amazing family, We had dinner with them the night before, that was also really really good. They don´t get too excited about it until the day of, the people down here, and if they decorate it looks like someone in the states who was too lazy to take it down from the year before. 

Work this week has been tough, yesterday was an adventure and a half and Hermana Allred and I had the most awkward of moments SO MANY TIMES! they just kept coming. We walked for at least three hours strait looking for new people because all of our investigators were dropped or had dropped us the week before. Dogs almost ate us, people opened their doors right before we clapped/knocked, some guy talked our ears off about nothing important, we got rejected by a 10 year old, and chased by a cloud of these crazy huge bugs.

So this country is really fun. We had a power outage in the middle of our writing, and we don´t get a ton of time to do anything cause of the stupid ciesta and the freakin heat. We've been a little on edge with Argentina these days. Especially on p-day, we look forward to it so much cause we get to write and hear from everyone, but it ends up being so stressful cause EVERYONE IS CLOSED FROM 1-6! This would never happen in the states.

Well, I wany to tell Aunt Laura, Aunt Karol, Shelby Jorgensen, Taner Spalding, and Trevor Carter a Happy Birthday. 

Love you all and I´ll have to tell ya´ll more about what´s going on later. Keep Safe, pretty please.

I´m excited to hear from you all again next week. 
Love Hermana A. Johansen

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

pictures :)





Thank you to President Heyman for posting pictures from the mission's Christmas party on his blog. Hermana Johansen is in the front row on the far right at the end.

Merry Christmas!

So I get to talk to you all tomorrow :) and I get to email for a little bit today!! Surprise to me!!

I got my package yesterday. I could've gotten it on my Birthday, but I´m not going to say much about that, poor Hermana Healey would feel so bad. None the less I´m going to open it tomorrow. I've waited this long I can wait till tomorrow. 

News about transfers! I´m still in Bella Vista but I am in Bella Vista 1 instead of 2. Hermana Amanda Allred from SLC is my comp and we are HLCs together. Hermana Healey took over my old area and is working with Hermana Peterson from Twin Falls Idaho and has served in Washington waiting for her Visa for six months. Hermana Lund is over in Reconquista and I highly doubt that I spelled her area right but she is now working as an HLC with Hermana Gimenez de Buenos Aires. We worked in a trio Hermana Allred, Healey and I form Thursday until yesterday.It´s been fun, it´s been really hot, and we´re in the coldest spot in our mission. It´s supposed to be up to 105 on Sunday, and the Air in the apt wasn't working. Turns out all we needed to do was clean the filter. So I did that and we all froze :) I couldn't be happier. 

The Christmas party was a blast and you will never guess who I saw! First off I met someone who knows Steven! Her name´s Hermana Fullmer. She lived in Creek Side, was in his ward and is studying to be a kindergarten teacher. She´s shorter than me and has very pretty red hair and light coloured eyes. She said she talked to him once and he didn't remember who she was, so don´t sweat it if you don´t recognize her description. I told her that he still probably thought she was a sweet girl. SECOND!! I FOUND ELDER COATS!! Actually he came and found me, which was interesting, but I guess when you have four days in a foreign country you´d be happy to see almost anyone form high school. He looks so very different! He´s doing well though and has a good trainer and will be working in Saenz Peña, Chaco which is where my old comp Hna Hernandez is working still as an HLC. 

I really don´t remember much of what happened much this last week. We were working in both areas and I was learning new streets and meeting new faces. I met our investigator Van...... and her family, they have a really interesting story. The Hermanas prayed that day to find someone who needed the Gospel ¨That day¨ and they met them. Turns out that day a friend of theirs had died. But they've come a long way and want to change so much. Van...... has even full out quit smoking. Their family´s cute and I´m excited to work with them.

I love this time of year even though it´s hard to tell that it´s Christmas. Estamos buscando por milagros. I know this gospel is true and was established by Christ himself, and that he was born for a reason, and that reason is us. I will be forever grateful and never be able to fully express how grateful I am for Him and all he´s done for us. 

Love you all! Take care and keep safe. Go play in the snow for me!

Merry Christmas!
Hermana A. Johansen

Monday, December 16, 2013

¿20?

Guess who got a Hamáka for her birthday!!!             

I did :) 

Hermana Lund and I were checking out a little store in our area that looks very american, and I thought I saw a little throw blanket in there that I wanted to get so we made sure to go in and check it out today, the blanket wasn't what I´d expected, but we were looking around and in a little basket in the corner Hermana Lund found my Hammock!! I can´t hang it up in my house or anything but if I'm ever able to I'll give it a shot for sure.

I don´t know where I´ll be going or if I´ll be staying until tomorrow night. If I´m staying we have hopes to either talk from the church or from the Duarte´s computer. I keep trying to think of what time would work the best for everyone so I can get all of you together. We went to our regular cyber today and it was closed! We were all so very scared and I had to try so hard not to cry. It would've been the worst if it were a surprise holiday today and everything was closed. 

We've been on Operation: Save the Rama all week, I can´t tell you more than that but it was very exciting, I've never felt more like I was a super agent on a secret mission to save the world before in my life. Other than that the Vargas family is still so amazing. Beti is still coming to church every week, and the girls come with her. Cat...... was having a hard day and looked really sad. She didn't really want to come to primary, but I gave her a hug and let her sit by me all day. She got feeling better and participated in class. 

What is there to talk about that happened this week? Well if all else fails I could tell y'all in a week :) By the way, right in the middle of writing if all else fails everything failed! when it gets really hot here all the power kicks off. We all kinda spazzed for a second. The story of our lives! 

I've got letters coming to people, but they´re going to be late for Christmas, so please don't think that I've forgotten about you! I just am really bad at writing and the post office going on strike doesn't help much either :)

Love you all!! Have a wonderful week and a Merry Christmas!

Hermana A Johansen

Just a couple days left of being a teenager! What better way to spend it than by being a missionary :)

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

My shoes are wet :) AND SO WERE CAT...... AND LUNA!

Today estamos en Corrientes Capital. We got here to work with Hermana Lund´s visa stuff and we lost our bus and have to wait 5 hours to get back to Bella Vista which is two hours away. So We get to go on an adventure today! And here is the only place that I know of where I can buy a Hamaka. I´m so excited! I´m actually just really happy that we get to write today, that´s what I was most worried about. 

Our baptisms went very well. They were successfully baptized and confirmed this weekend. They are very quiet children, they weren't exactly jumping off the walls excited, but for them they were fairly animated :) Hermana Lund and I were so stressed out about it all week, but that´s just how things are when there are baptisms, and were sad to not see their dad there when he said he would be. They were so cute though, and were so happy. Hermana Sayas has to be the best Primary Pres ever, she tried to hard to be sure that all the girls felt welcome and knew that someone really cared about them and the choice they made. 

Transfers are coming up soon! and we don´t talk about them. one: they´re on my birthday, two: we don´t want to be separated!

Jessi!! oh my goodness! I´m so excited for this little boy! I love your conejo! I love those pictures! Especially the one with dad and the girls. 

I´m trying to send letters for Christmas to family and friends, but there is a bit of a dilemma, the post office has been on strike for a good while, and if they get to you it´ll be late. Sorry about that, but it´s more important that they get to ya :)

Love you all! 
Hermana A Johansen

Monday, December 2, 2013

My effects please . . . and my hat

So, hay algunos noticias de este semana:

el Primero:
 Flía ¨malagas¨ Turns out their name is really VARGAS! We were just going by what we heard and didn´t know any different until we started filling out the baptismal records for the girls.  ooops :)

El secundo: 
So I thought yesterday that I was getting so good at dodging
things no less than two hours later Hermana Lund freaked out about something I was right behind her looking at the ground expecting to see something not to step in but no! I look up just in time to smack my nose right in to a metal bar. Somethings never change. I do have a slight mark, but nothing impressive. 

So we have the best district leaders EVER!  Every night that Elder Leon calls us he uses different voices plays a little bit of Mo Tab Christmas music and pretends that it´s him and Elder Fiabani singing it because he knows how much we love it. We are all cleaning the font today after our p-day and our lesson with the Flía Vargas. That Font is SO DIRTY! It hasn't been used in months and the last person to use it didn't drain it. The waters green and I´d swear a small jungle has grown out of it. We would have the option of using the river if it wasn't so dangerous. 

Cat.... is so cute! She will offer to say the prayer at the end of Primary or a lesson and asks us for help. I was helping her at the end of the lesson the other day asked her what she was thankful for and she said that she was thankful for her baptism. So Perfect!

I´m glad everyone had a good thanksgiving. We were in Goya with the Zone and our senior couple made us a full out Thanksgiving dinner for us and we got our t-shirts with my drawing on the front! I´ll send photos soon. 

I can´t believe it´s Diciembre, ya! Man! So crazy. Thanks mom for pointing out how i´m not gonna be a teenager anymore. I´m so excited to be able to talk to everyone so soon. How´s Jessie feeling? Are the girls excited to have a little brother?

Love you Mom, Dad, Steven, Sabrina and Kevin, and everyone else!

Hermana A. Johansen

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA LEE!!!

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Vamos hacer la cosa! . . . mañana!

So story goes as follows. Argentina has ridiculous holidays and they
all just happen to pop up on Mondays when we need to write and then
everything is closed and we don´t get to, it nearly killed us
yesterday.

Anyway. Consejo changed to today and I get to write while waiting for
the bus to go back to Bella Vista. But the meeting changed because
Pres. Heyman was invited to go fishing with the stake pres of
Resistencia. I don´t blame him, fishing´s fun, the stake pres is a
rather fine fellow and it´s President Heyman's birthday today so he can do
what ever he wants :) I told him about the cousin of ours that served
with his son, and justo he´s going to talk to him tonight to see if
they know each other. AND are we related to a Kent Johansen from Provo?
President said that he knows him and said that he was distantly related to
me. He´s a Johansen so surprise surprise.

Alright so this week was ridiculous, and all four of us have never
been more insulted more often or more deeply in our lives. The rama
has been going crazy this week and they all think their drowning in
their life jackets cause their chins are getting wet. I´ll have to give
more descriptions on this when I get home, but some people need to
grow up and realize that this work is bigger than them, they need to
make a good place for our investigators to go especially since it´s
their rama and we won´t be there forever. There are still some very
good people here who help us out very much, but recovery work is never
fun. But things with the Flia Malagas is amazing. Beti delt with the
drama on Sunday in a way that was so amazing, we had a lesson with her
about the atonement and it seemed like the drama in Relief society
didn't even faze her. I don´t know exactly what happened in that
class cause Hermana Lund and I are all in Primary, so we´re in the most
protected area of the rama! It´s the best! Cat.... and Loo.... are
prepping for baptism on the 7th of Diciembre, and what better way to
remember Pearl Harbor than to have a baptism to remember the love of
our Savior.

Grandma Lee! We met a guy from Africa! He lives in our area and is
here for work. We met him looking for a less active member. It was the
coolest thing to know, always is when you run into someone not from
Argentina, and you know that the only way you have to communicate is in
a language that you´re both learning. But it was amazing and I thought
of you. I've seen him around and have made it my personal goal to meet
this guy cause he really is so different from everyone else here, and
when you see someone who is different, they really do look different
and you have to ask where their from. Speaking of, and I forgot to
write about this a couple weeks ago, we had a Palestinian in the
Elder´s area who said that he needed four lessons left until Baptism.
We had to ask President. about it, and he said that due to possible safety
issues they couldn't teach him, but it was really cool cause him and
his girlfriend came to Noche de Rama. It was really funny cause the
Elders found out he lived on a street that was in all of our areas and
narrowed it down to the two streets and it was the boundary of the
other sisters and the Elders. They were SO competitive over who´s area
he was in because it was to be decided by the street he lived on.

Well. I love you all! So excited to talk to you in less than a month.
And crazy thought!!! -Cumplé 9 MESES MAÑANA!

Until next week!
Hermana A. Johansen