Hey Mom,
Things here in the exotic Boise Idaho mission are going quite swell. We've done lots of tracting this week, and I've learned a couple of things during that time: 1- Lots of people in trailers and apartments like to smoke weed 2- The old people here are really super nice or super mean, there is no in between and 3- People here love Boise State, and you can use that to start a conversation with anybody! The members here are still feeding us a ton, and if I don’t go to Mexico soon I'm going to get fat. Still haven’t heard anything about the Visa, we got some more Mexico Visa waiters this week too. We've found quite a few potential investigators this week, and we have two pretty solid investigators, but both couples live together and they're not married, so they can’t be baptized until they do that. Pretty much everybody we talk to is illegal too, so in order to get married they have to go to Oregon to do it because it's illegal to get married if you’re an illegal in Idaho. This week it snowed a ton on Wednesday I think, and we were on our way to a new missionary meeting, and another elder freaking wrecked our corolla into pole. It was pretty funny because I wasn’t driving. We also had zone conference this week too, it was pretty good. President Cannon is a stud. P day was pretty fun today. First I bought some sweet plaid and striped socks, and a new paisley tie. Then we went and played basketball with a bunch of other elders. After that we went to the Cabela’s in Boise and wandered around it was pretty cool, but it’s smaller than the one in Utah. I saw Connors first paycheck and black eye; tell him I'm proud that he's finally a working man. It sounds like you had a good stake conference. It's way cool that Jarrett and Jason have been so good to Brock, they're studs. I love it here, and I can’t wait until I actually can understand Spanish so that I can contribute more to lessons. The people here are so nice, and I learn so much everyday. Thanks so much for everything. I got to run, we're doing a FHE for a family tonight. Hasta Luego!

I love you!
Elder Johnson

Elder Johnson at Cabela's in Boise!

Hey Mom
This week has been really fun, but we haven't been able to teach too many people. We found the first week I was here that almost all of the investigators that we had were actually out of our area, (we call it poaching) so we had to hand them off to the Boise Spanish Elders. We've done quite a bit of tracting this week in other trailer parks and have found a couple of potential investigators. I still usually have no idea what’s going on in Spanish so I just nod my head and smile most of the time. Still no word on the Visa. I could leave tomorrow or in 2 months. The videos you sent me wont work on the computers we've been using at the church, but hopefully we'll email somewhere else next time so I can watch them. The pictures work though and I've been able to see all of them.

One day this week we went and did service on a ranch- Mexican style. It was way pretty fun we put up a fence and stuff like that. The Mexican guy we were working for gave us these Serrano peppers to try during lunch, and it was so hot I started crying and everything I couldn’t help it. I downed 2 Pepsi’s and it was still burning, I don’t know what I'm going to do in Mexico! We still have dinner appointments every night, usually the foods pretty good.

Have fun in Loa that sounds way fun. Keep me updated on how everybody's doing in basketball and everything. The address for the mission home should be the best one; I think they forward everything to us. Make sure you put my full name on it though, there’s more than one Elder Johnson. I'll try to send you some pictures and videos.

I really do love what I'm doing, it's been quite the adventure already, and I've learned and grown so much. Thanks for everything!

Elder Johnson

It looks chilly in Boise!

Lots of geese in Boise!

Christmas Eve in the MTC with Elder Olson

Christmas Eve with two of his best friends, Elder Olson and Elder Kemp

Happy New Year from the MTC!

LOVING IT IN BOISE!!

Hey Mom!
Soooo I got here on Wednesday and the mission president picked us up at the airport. We then went to mission office and met our companions and everything. I have 2 companions right now, my trainer, Elder Padgett who's from Winter Haven, Florida, and then Elder Olivera from Peru. The first thing we did was go and eat at Mongolian BBQ, and then went straight to work. They're both really good elders and have taught me a lot. We live in the basement of a smaller house, with 2 English elders. One of the English elders is from Alberta Canada and he hunts moose. He said that he would be my hunter host in Canada if I ever need one! (Dad will know what that means)
The Spanish elders all get cars, because we only teach Spanish people, so our areas are really big. I live in Meridian, which is right next to Boise, and we're over their Spanish branch. My area is called Meridian Spanish. Our area is really big, and covers 7 regular English stakes. We find and teach almost all of our investigators in trailer parks around here, and most of them are Mexicans which helps me to learn because all of the Spanish countries have such different accents. The people here are really nice, but I can hardly understand everything. THEY TALK SO FREAKING FAST! They probably think I'm a dope because I talk like such a gringo, and when they ask me a question usually one of my companions has to translate it for me. We haven't taught very many lessons yet, so I haven't really had a good opportunity to try teaching in Spanish but we're going to be tracting in a new area tomorrow and supposedly they're going to make me contact some people all by myself! It'll be good for me to learn though.
The members of our branch are so awesome. We have a dinner appointment
every night with a family. They feed us so much, I'm gonna start getting fat if I'm not careful. On Friday, it was the day of Rosca de Reyes, which is a big holiday in Mexico. This is the day when kids get presents, and they're celebrating the 3 kings that visited Jesus. One of the families in our branch had like 20 of the missionaries over and they fed all of us a huge dinner. They fed us a soup called posole, and then it's tradition to eat this bread called rosca after. The bread has dolls in it, and whoever gets one of them has to make tamales for everybody. Speaking of tamales, one of the people we were teaching gave us a whole bunch of home made tamales to eat one night. Another night at a dinner appointment, we were with a guy that married a girl from Argentina, and they gave us this drink called mata. It's kind of a like a tea, and it was honestly one of the worst things I've ever tasted in my life. You pass the mata around the dinner table and everybody talks while you drink it. Well my turn came and I took a big swig of it, and it was everything I could do to not puke. The lady from Argentina was watching me and I told her that it was okay, so then I had to pretend to take another drink of it. Luckily that drink is more of a South American thing, and so I won't have to deal with it in Mexico. I've eaten lots of Mexican food the last couple of days, and most of it has been really good. Today for P day we went to this cool indoor astro turf arena to play soccer with a bunch of other missionaries. The manager is a member so they let us in for free. We went to Wal-Mart today and did our grocery shopping, and then went to the Nike outlet for a little bit. I bought a sweet Boise State shirt too. Tonight we're going to Outback, because Elder Padgett has a gift card. On Saturday after our zone meeting, there were like 12 of us
that went to eat at Olive Garden after, and as we were getting ready to
pay, the waitress came over and said that somebody had paid our whole bill of like $144, but the people that did it wouldn't let her tell us until they left, so we couldn't even say thanks. They say the Boise Mission is like a country club, because we're so well taken care of.
The weather here isn't really that cold, and I'll be fine with the clothes that I have. There are so many freaking geese here, honestly everywhere I look I see flocks flying, and we'll just be driving by somewhere and I'll see a bunch just sitting off the road.
That's way cool that Connor finally got a job; tell him I'm proud of him! The best place to send anything is to the mission office, and I think they forward it to us. The address is:

1111 South Cole Road
Boise, Idaho
83709

I still haven’t heard anything about my Visa, but I really like it here so I'm not too worried about it. My P days will always be Mondays here. Thanks so much for everything! I really do love what I'm doing. I hope that everything's going well for everybody!
I love you!

GOOD BYE, MTC!

Hola Mom!
How's everybody doing? Have Connor and Brock gone back to school yet?
What did they do for New Year's? Our old bishop, Kelly Mills and his wife spoke to us last night and they did a great job. His wife was way funny. He's over all of the international MTC's in the world. Things here are going pretty good, today I'm going to do laundry and start packing all of my stuff up. I'm sick with a cough right now which is pretty lame because I haven't been sick my whole time here until of course right before I leave for the field. I'm also actually going to miss the MTC, and I'm kind of nervous to leave it. On New Year's Eve we stayed up until midnight and shot off a bunch of poppers, but then we were in bed at 12:05. As soon as I find out what my address is in Idaho, I'll let you know. I actually traded an elder the Mountain Dew you sent me a couple weeks ago for a pair of gloves to stay warm in Boise, so no need to send me any. Every night a bunch of elders on my floor go around and trade ties and it's pretty fun, and then last night one elder really wanted my Mountain Dew (it's all about supply in demand at the MTC), so I gave it to him for a sweet pair of leather dress gloves. They're kind of like what James Bond would wear. They have thinsulate in them so they'll be perfect for Idaho. My new roommates are really cool. One is from Tropic, Utah and he has a ranch on the Paunsagaunt! They own a bunch of private land with deer on it and he told me if I ever get a tag down there he would let me hunt it! My other roommate is really cool too, he's from Atlanta, Georgia and his dad owns Liberty Title. Have you ever heard of them? I guess they have offices in 48 states. The mail room is closed today for New Year's so I'll send everything home on Tuesday. I'll email you when I'm done packing and tell you how many boxes are at Postmart. The branch presidency told me that I can call you from the airport in SLC, but I'm not sure how much time I'll have. I sent you my travel plans and a letter on Saturday, hopefully you'll get them before I leave. I don't think you guys need to send me anything before I go to Boise, the only thing that I would like is a scarf, but I can just buy one when I get there. Thanks so much for everything.
Te amo!
Elder Johnson