Olá!

A lot happened this week. I will get right into it talking about my birthday last week. After I had email time I and my companion bought ice cream and soda and we made some root beer floats, but with Guaraná which is a different soda that they have here. We also played some chess and had a nice relaxing day. After, we went out to work. We had a little bit of time until our investigator so we walked around to contact people on the street. We passed by the restaurant where our investigator Sabrina works. Her boss was out front which gave us a great opportunity to talk to him. We offered our help as he was loading stuff into his car and as we were talking to him a drunk guy came up to us wanting to talk about the word of God. It gave us a great opportunity to talk about why were are here as missionaries and what we believe. We were able to talk about all of this in front of Sabrina's boss. The drunk guy also said that he loves our work and that we are great young men who are trying to help others. After, the boss seemed to change a little bit. The next couple of days he was a lot more friendly with us and also with Sabrina. He also is allowing her to have one Sunday off every month, so she is going to be able to be baptized! We are working with her on finding a new job to be able to go every week, but it truly is a miracle that he changed slightly and is allowing her to have a little bit of time. With faith, I know that we will find a new job for her, or maybe he will be softened even more and allow her to go to church every week.

After we talked with the drunk guy and Sabrina's boss we went to Sabrina's house where her family surprised me with a birthday cake! It was a fun night and a great birthday. The next couple of days were pretty normal. We had divisions which were good. It was the first division I had where I stayed in my área. The next day we had interviews with the mission president. They were great. I love talking to him. He is a great man who truly is called of God. I am glad that I have such a great mission president. That night we went to our apartment and discovered that we didn't have our keys. We called who we had visited, but no one had the keys and it was super late so we had to hurry over to the apartment of other missionaries to spend the night. We had15 minutes until we needed to be in their house. It is almost impossible to get there in 15 minutes, but there is a member who lives close by and we stopped by and luckily he was there and drove us to the other house, or else we would have been running to catch a bus at night to get there in time. I am very grateful for members here. haha. We spent the night with the other missionaries and in the morning called someone to open our apartment and make new keys. Definitely a crazy night, but it all ended well.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. We are still working on finding new people a lot, but the work is speeding up. I have been thinking a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It truly is a miracle how we can change ourselves and become more like Christ. He knows exactly what we are going through, and while things are not always easy, they are always possible with His help. He can heal any wound and change any heart. He didn't come to cure the healthy and I am not here to teach the wise. We look for the humble, the sick, and the wounded. They are the ones who will truly change and feel the true power of Christ in their lives. We all have things we can change and I know that we can when we accept and choose to follow our Redeemer and Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for Him in my life.

I love you all! Thank you for everything!

Elder Johnson