ELDER JOHNSON'S FIRST EARTHQUAKE!

Hey Mom! ¡Temblor! That’s how you say earthquake in Spanish; I learned that word this week. We were in our house and I was actually on my knees praying when it happened and the room started moving and I thought wow I really am sick. The room kept moving though, and I looked at my water bottle and all the water in it was moving too, so I knew something was up. My comp was outside washing his clothes, and I yelled for him and when I went out there I could hear everybody in the street screaming. It only lasted for about 45 seconds though and I heard that there weren’t any deaths but a bridge collapsed somewhere. It felt pretty weird, and it’s all people have been talking about this last week. I’m fine though, there’s definitely nothing to be worried about! This week we have been working way hard. We’ve been walking up to 20km per (12.5 miles)per day and found 14 new investigators this week! I baptized an 8 year old kid yesterday too, M. It was a way cool experience. His mom cried and everything. His parent’s can’t be baptized yet because they aren’t married, but we’ve been working really hard with them too. I promised them I would buy them a wedding cake if they get married because they’re still not sure if they want to do it. Ok and now to answer your questions: Pueblos are just little Mexican Towns and we cover 4 or 5 of them. There are a couple thousand people that live in each one. We live in Texcoco which is a pretty big city, and the Centro de Texcoco has lots of stores and everything in it. My feet are a little sore but fine and I can actually get really nice shoes here for cheap. There are Zapaterias (shoe stores) everywhere. I think lots of the shoes from the companies in the US are made here in Mexico. Our house is made of cement, and it has one bedroom and another little room that we use as a closet. We don’t have a microwave or an oven, but we have a fridge and a little stove thing, kind of like a really ghetto electric camp chef. Our house doesn’t have heat or AC, but it feels pretty comfortable in there most of the time. We have a fan too for when it gets really hot. I have plenty of blankets and everything for night time. I learned how to do my laundry by hand the other day, I only washed my socks though and then today we went to a member’s house to do the rest of our laundry. There are little convenient stores everywhere, and we’re not too far from Wal-Mart either. I´ve been eating tons of peanut butter sandwiches and Maria´s cookies. On Mother’s day it sounds like we’re going to be able to Skype, but I have no idea how that works yet. See if you can figure out how that works please. Anyways we’ve got to go to a zone meeting, so I have to go for now. Thanks so much for everything Mom, I love you! Elder Johnson

¡Hola! How was St George? Where did you guys stay? Who did Connor room with? Did he get to play at all? I’m glad to hear that Brock did so well, what a stud. Did you drive the new car down to St George? Thanks for sending the pictures too, it’s good to see what’s going on! That’s way cool you were able to read through the Ensign and learn from the last General Conference, I’ve been doing the same too! It’s crazy how much we can learn from those guys! The Update on Mexico: So this week definitely wasn’t our most successful. We weren’t able to teach very many lessons and we didn’t baptize anybody either. My stomach is still a little sick, and I had a cold this week too, but its better now. I was able to work everyday though, but we didn’t teach very many lessons mostly because the people are never home. I ate some cow stomach soup, and bit into a taco to a nice piece of hairy pig snout too! I’m already so sick of Mexican food! There’s a McDonalds and a Burger King here though, I’m going to make sure that we eat there a couple times this week. I gave 2 talks in Spanish yesterday, and I didn’t know that I was going to give either one. Somebody didn’t show up in Sacrament so they asked me to speak right then, and it was way cool that I was able to just talk in Spanish. I’m excited for this upcoming week. Our area is the biggest area in the mission, and we’ve been trying to find lots of new people in different pueblos. We should be able to baptize somebody this week too. I’m excited for conference coming up too, I think we’ll be watching it at the stake center. I’ve only seen 2 elders that I know from the MTC, I don’t think the rest of them even know that I’m here in Mexico yet. We had transfers today, but I’m staying in my same area because I’m still being trained. Thanks for keeping me updated on everything, sorry this letter is so short, I don’t have very much time today. ¡Hasta Luego! I love you! Elder Johnson

FIRST WEEK IN MEXICO!

Hey Everybody! My first week in Mexico has been very interesting. On Tuesday I took a taxi from the mission office to Texcoco where I live and met my trainer, Elder Ovando. Just the 2 of us live in a little cement house. We have hot water for showers, but we have to buy separate water to drink. We don’t have a little maid like I was hoping, and we’re pretty poor. We get about the same amount of money (equivalent in pesos) every week that I got in Boise, but we have to spend a lot of it on transportation every day. Most of our work isn’t in the actual city of Texcoco, but in the pueblos that are around it. Every day we take a combination of combi, taxi, and autobus rides to get to our appointments. The people here act like they’ve never seen a white person before, I get stared at a lot, and I get called a wero a lot, which means white boy. We study until noon, then usually have an appointment with somebody, eat a meal with a member around 2 and then work the rest of the night until 9:30pm. Its weird here; there are only really 2 meals, breakfast, and la comida which translates to "the food" so I’m not exactly sure if it’s lunch or dinner. The food has been pretty good from the members, but I’ve been sick ever since about my third day here. It’s fine though because I’m still able to work, I’m mostly just sick in the nights and in the mornings. Don’t worry at all though, I’m getting better and I’ve heard that it happens to all of the Americans their first couple of weeks here. My companion is a really good missionary, and has taught me a lot already. He doesn’t speak any English at all, so it’s hard for us to communicate very well sometimes, but it’s good for me because I’ve learned a lot more Spanish now. The work here is amazing; the goal here is for each companionship to baptize every week. We’re teaching lots of different people, and it’s kind of hard because I don’t really know them yet. We had zone conference this week and it was pretty much all about how to get more baptisms. Speaking of baptisms, I baptized my first person on Saturday! I baptized Patricia, a lady about 40 years old. I didn’t really know her very well at all, but it was a way cool experience. I’m mad I didn’t have my camera with me, but another missionary took pictures and I’ll try to get those from him this week. We’re also supposed to have another baptism this week on Sunday; I’ll let you know how that goes. Today for P day it’s been pretty boring, we just went to Wal-Mart and cleaned the house and that’s about it. The message I sent last week didn’t get lost in cyberspace, I really sent it that late because we had been busy all day but from now on I should always email earlier. They don’t do daylight savings here, so it’s about 3pm here right now. That’s terrible that Connor and Brock are both hurt, are they able to still play? Thanks for sending a package; I’ll let you know when I get it. I got an email from Kalin and it sounds like he’s doing really well in Ukraine. Keep me updated on what you hear about Dallin too. I’m emailing at an internet cafe but it’s free for us because a member owns it. Anyways I’ve got to run for now; I’ll talk to you next week! I love you! Elder Johnson

Hey Mom! I like the new car, it looks very nice! Where did you get it? Did you trade in the Pathfinder? So things here in Mexico are great. I still don’t know what I’m doing half the time, but I just follow my companions. We’ve been riding the metro, combis, and walking everywhere! I’ve walked more here in 2 days than I ever did in Boise. The aeropuerto in Mexico was big, but the secretaries found me okay, they were waiting at the exit for me. I’m still with the secretaries for now, but I’m going to meet my trainer tomorrow, his name is Elder Ovando, and he’s from another part of Mexico. One of the secretaries from Alabama told me that Elder Ovando doesn’t speak a lick of English, so it will be interesting at first. The area I’m going to be serving in is in a city called Texcoco, and it is in the state of Mexico. I was wrong, I thought that all the areas of my mission are in Mexico City, or Distrito Federal, but I guess only 1 of the 7 zones is actually in Distrito Federal. The rest of the areas are pretty close, but in Mexico state. I’ve been in DF the last couple of days though, and it is by far the biggest place I’ve ever been in. I ate my first taco al pastor and torta al pastor from a street vendor a couple of days ago, and they are some of the best things I’ve ever eaten in my life. So far most of the food has been okay from the members, and I haven’t been very sick at all. We’ve been teaching people who live in little square houses with cement walls, and cement floors. I’m already so thankful for everything that we have in US. I’ve used quite a few pesos already; most of the things here are so cheap its way cool. Today for our zone activity we went a fun center in the middle of Mexico City and to get there we had to take the metro, a mexibus and a combi, it took like 2 hours just to get there and it was actually in the Mexico City East boundaries, but it was way cool. We ice skated, minigolfed, went bowling, did a couple carnival ride things, and stuff like that. When we went bowling somebody told the guy my name was Johnson so he typed in the computer like Yonson. Most people have a hard time pronouncing my name it’s hilarious. I also went to Wal-Mart tonight too, it’s a little different than it is in America, but more similar than I thought it was going to be. Anyways I need to go get my stuff ready to move to another place tomorrow, I’ll let you know how everything goes. I love you! Elder Johnson PS the computer I’m using in the mission office has a Spanish keyboard and it’s hard to use punctuation and stuff, that’s why this letter might look kinda weird.

Elder Johnson ice skating in Mexico City

Elder Johnson at the Metro Station

Elder Yonson bowling

Elder Johnson looking a little nervous!

ELDER JOHNSON IS IN MEXICO!!

Hola! WOW!!!! I am definitely not in Idaho anymore. I arrived here safely, and the secretaries picked me up from the airport, Elder Manazanarres and Elder Ruiz, both from other parts of Mexico. They live here at the mission office and I will be staying with them until Monday when I meet my companion. I’ve already ridden the metro (subway), eaten legit Mexican food, and tried some of the candy they have here. It’s really humid here and 70 to 80 degrees. The streets here are crazy; it will be a miracle if I make it my whole mission without getting hit by a car. They sell everything here; it’s kind of like the Chinatown we went to in New York on steroids. They have all the movies that are in theaters now in America for sale in Spanish, and stuff like that. The buildings here are all so big too, but the places where people live are little. There are houses on top of each other I can’t really describe it its really weird how all the buildings are set up. I met with the mission president, Presidente Morales, for like an hour today, and he is an awesome guy, even though I didn’t quite understand everything he told me in Spanish. It’s definitely going to be an adventure here! The address for the mission office is: Mexico Mexico City Southeast Mission Avenida Del Taller No. 540 Colonia Jardin Balbuena Delgacion Venustiano Carranza Distrito Federal CP15900 Mexico There are some packages here for missionaries that have been sent from the US and they look like they got here ok. Some of them had a couple Jesus stickers on them, and some of them did not, I’m not sure if it matters either way. There’s nothing that I can think of that I need yet, they seem so far to have everything I will need down here. Anyways I got to go, but I will talk to you again on Monday! I love you! Elder Johnson

Last dinner in Boise!

Mission home in Mexico City

Someplace in Mexico City