Hola Mom! I can’t believe I hit my 6 month mark this week, the first quarter is already done! This week has been good, we weren’t able to baptize anybody, but we found lots of new investigators, and got some really good referrals. This has been the best week with my companion; we’ve gotten along pretty well. We have transfers tomorrow though, and I’ll be staying here in Texcoco and my comp is leaving. Another missionary, I don’t know who yet, will come here and finish training me. I’ll miss my companion, but I’m definitely excited to get somebody new at the same time. It was my comps birthday this week so one of the families gave us tres leches cake, and we went to Burger King for breakfast that day. I haven’t been very good at all about writing in my journal, but that’s my goal for this new cambio to try and write in it every day. We can see the smoke from the volcano right now, but it’s pretty far away from us and it hasn’t affected anything here. I still haven’t bought a new suit yet, I took the money out though because hopefully I can go to the District to buy one next week. I haven’t heard anything about talking to you guys for Mothers day, I’ll try and find out this week and let you know. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to call you on the Saturday before or not. That’s way cool Jared and Davian have a new baby boy, tell them congrats for me. Let me know if you get the pics of the pyramids and everything. I’ve been storing all of the pictures so far on my USB, and if I can’t get a hard drive, I’ll just buy another USB, they’re pretty cheap. Don’t worry about sending me the package, There’s nothing I need right now, and I still haven’t gotten the first one you sent. I’ll let you know if I’m going to Skype or call you next week. I have no idea how it works here. Has anything exciting happened lately? Keep me updated; it’s fun to hear what everybody else is up to. I got to run, thanks for everything Mom! I love you! Elder Johnson

April 23, 2012

Hey Mom, This week started out really good, we got a text message Monday night from a former investigator, L that told us he wanted to get baptized, so this week we worked hard with him, and also with M and A, the couple that we took to get married a couple weeks ago. We baptized all 3 of them on Saturday night it was great. I baptized M, and my companion baptized the other 2. M and his wife couldn’t come to church the next day because he had to work as a firefighter, but I confirmed L in Sacrament meeting, and confirmed another lady that we baptized 2 weeks ago as well. My Spanish is getting better; the hardest part right now is my accent. Sometimes people don’t understand me and it’s frustrating because I don’t want to talk anymore when they don’t understand me. We have transfers coming up a week from today, and I would love to get a different companion, but we have no idea what’s going to happen. My companion and I work really well and have had lots of success, we’re tied for the most baptisms in the zone this transfer, he’s just so bossy and commands me to do everything its driving me crazy. So our activity to the volcanoes got cancelled because one of them is smoking and they think its going to erupt soon. So instead of going fishing we went to the pyramids of Teotihuacan instead. They were really cool and I bought some cool souvenirs and took some cool pictures. The bad thing is that it took almost the whole day and now I don’t have time to email hardly at all. Tell Connor and Brock sorry, I’ll email them next week. We might have more time tonight but I don’t know so just in case I don’t get a chance to write them. I still haven’t gotten your package yet, but I did get the letter from Grandma with some money in it. Thanks for sending all the pictures of everything, its great to see what everybody’s up to. Grandma looks amazing too, I don’t know if I’m going to recognize her! Thanks for everything mom, sorry I don’t have very much time this week, but hopefully I’ll have more next week. I love you! Hasta luego Elder Johnson

22 Missionaries in the back of a van. I guess it's safe!

April 16, 2012

Hey Mom, I’m glad to hear you had a good time in Cali. This week it was really hard to find anybody home because it’s their spring break right now, and it seems like everybody is gone. We had 2 people we wanted to baptize but the guy is still struggling to leave tobacco, and his wife still hasn’t prayed, but they came to our stake conference and we’re hoping to baptize them this coming week. I made them promise they would get baptized if I ate a pikin pepper, and I did so they really better come through. We’ve been working a lot with M and A; they’re the same couple we took to get married a couple of weeks ago. M is one of my best friends here. He’s a firefighter and way cool; he went with us to el Distrito last week. I went on exchanges with the zone leaders this week and they are way cool. I’m finally starting to meet the other missionaries and make friends with them and that really helps a lot. The food has been pretty good this week, and we even went to Burger King for the first time. I ate a taco of cow tongue from a street vendor just to try it, but it was actually pretty good. This week was Stake Conference, and our mission president spoke and kind of grilled all the members that they need to help us, the missionaries, more, it was pretty funny. That’s great that Brother Garcia is coming down here, more peanut butter would be great, an external hard drive for all my pictures, and other documents that people give us about church stuff. I’ll think of more stuff and let you know next week too. Tell him thanks a whole lot. The address you gave me is right; I think it’s the same one I sent you? The secretaries are only there until 1pm, so he probably needs to take it to them before then. Well we’re headed to go eat pizza with some members now. Thanks so much for everything, I love you! The Elder Johnson

April 9, 2012

Hey Mom So this week we have worked really, really hard and it has paid off. We had 4 baptisms yesterday, a couple in their 50`s, and their son and his wife. We also confirmed the boy that I baptized 2 weeks ago. I’m emailing you from the Federal District right now, it’s the capital of Mexico and it’s so big. We visited all the cool sites here with 2 of our investigators, and I got some really cool pictures, but I still don’t have my cable with me so I’ll email you the pictures next week. This week the people here have been pretty crazy. Starting this last Friday they had a holiday every day of the week until yesterday. They were marching in the streets with crosses and everything, and in one part of Mexico City they actually nail a real person on a cross, but we aren’t allowed to go and see that. They did fireworks until 5 in the morning Saturday night too, it was hard to sleep. They don’t celebrate Easter here, just Passover. The good thing is now all the celebration is over. It was way hard to find new people during the holidays because nobody was in their houses. I didn’t feel this last earthquake; it must not have hit Texcoco very hard. This week we married a couple, and after they took us to a Chinese buffet. If you think the buffets in the US are sketchy, you should see the one we ate at here in Mexico City! It actually was pretty good though, you know I love Chinese! I met Elder Pemberton just for a minute a couple weeks ago at a meeting. He recognized me first and told me his dad was my seminary teacher. I’ll probably have my companion for 8 more weeks because he is my trainer. He’s a good missionary. I’ve learned a lot how to be patient and humble. It sounds like you guys are having fun on all of your trips. I’m jealous you guys got to go to Disneyland! Let me know how the high school does this week. I still haven’t got the package yet, the other elder from the US have told me it takes anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks, so there’s still a little time for me to get it. I’ll let you know. Don’t send me anything else though until I get the first one. I’m probably going to buy a new suit the first week of May. Sorry I don’t have lots of time to talk, we have to go back to Texcoco which is an hour away for a meeting tonight. I love you! Elder Johnson

¡Hola! It sounds like everybody is going to be busy for a couple of weeks. What part of California is the baseball tournament? Are you going to do anything fun there? The highlight of this week was definitely Conference. We missed the Saturday morning session because we had to help with a baptismal service for another missionary in our district, but we watched every other session. I watched part of it in Spanish, and part in English too because the stake center we were at had it on English for all the gringo missionaries in a little room. I could understand most of it in Spanish, but its just way better to be able to hear their actual voices and everything. It was a great time, and we ate a ton both days. I learned a ton too from everybody on how I can be a both a better missionary and a better person. This week we didn’t baptize, but we took a couple to the judge to get married, and they and another couple should get baptized this week. I still haven’t got the package yet, but tomorrow I have to go to the mission office to renew my Visa or something, so hopefully I should get it then. I’ll let you know. Today we went and hiked to some ruins that have baptismal fonts built in them. It was amazing, I’m sure they have to be from the Nephites. Thanks for sending the pictures too, it's good to see what everybody’s up to. Send me some from the trips this week too. Let me know how everything goes! My stomach is getting better, I think my intestines will have callous’s when I get home. I’ve been living off the peanut butter that you sent me for Christmas. By the way I think I’m going to buy a new suit next month. Thanks for everything, I love you! El Elder Johnson