April 29, 2013

Hey Mom! It sounds like everything is going great. Tell Brock I know exactly how he feels I’ve lived like that for about 15 months in Mexico now! Today we just relaxed and went and ate some giant hamburgers and we even found Dr Pepper at a store before that. We 3 gringos were pumped! This week we had 2 other baptisms. Micaela and her son in law Karim both got baptized. They´re family members of the Lugo family, one of the most active and faithful families in the ward. They´re both awesome converts, Karim actually even gave the opening prayer in sacrament meeting 2 weeks ago, even though he wasn´t even a member at that time and during the testimony last month he shared his testimony with everybody saying that before he didn´t really believe in God, but through the Church has come to know that He lives and loves us. Micaela´s nephew who´s 19 years old and getting ready to go on a mission got to baptize them, I was so happy it was perfect to get him excited to go on a mission. The baptismal service was so big that we had to have the service in the sacrament room and then go into where the baptismal font is and watch the baptism like standing room only style. The primary kids all sang too and another elder played the piano for them and everything it was honestly the best most spiritual baptismal service I’ve ever seen most of the members were crying and everything. This week has been yet another crazy busy week, I did divisions 2 days with another elder from district and then did like 6 baptismal interviews this week for other elders. My district right now is one of the best districts in the mission I’m so thankful for all the success the Lord is giving us. My comp and I get along so great and we´re working so hard. Hey I took out money the other day, not to buy anything in specific, just because the money I had from the mission ran out so I needed dinero for transport and everything. I can’t think of anything special for Brother Garcia to bring me. Tell him thanks so much for bringing me another package. Ask him where he lived I want to see if I’m anywhere close. My area is part of the state of Mexico but we´re right on the edge and 2 of the areas in my district are part of the Federal District, we´re right in the middle of everything here in La Perla! Here we got lots of gangsters, drugs and baptisms! I hope you have a great week, thanks for everything I love you and can’t wait to talk to you guys in a couple weeks! Elder Johnson Baptism of Micaela and Karim Gangsters! Sleepover. Eating giant hamburgers!

April 22, 2013

Hey Mom! Ya sorry I forgot to tell you I sent a package for you guys with somebody that lives in Payson. Sorry it wasn't anything really big I just met the sister on Sunday at church and she told me that she was leaving early Tuesday morning to go back to Utah and she asked if there was anything she could deliver for me. I just grabbed a couple things I had accumulated. The barrel is a gift from a family in Texcoco, ha do you like how they spelled my name? I bought the jewelry at a tianguis (flea market) like a couple months ago and I put the sticker notes in there at that time to remember what they were made out of. Sorry it wasn’t anything too grand but did you like my packaging job? I couldn’t find a box and didn’t have any time so I just taped the crap out of a bread bag. Life is going so good in La Perla right now. We baptized again this week and have another person who should be getting baptized next Sunday as well. Our bishop is awesome and he even always rocks a Dallas Cowboys jersey too; I love him. The members here are all working really good and helping us out quite a bit. Elder Torres and I are working super well together and we have a ton of fun too. Things are still pretty stressful with training and still opening the area and all of the district leader stuff but I’m really pretty happy with everything. And today we even went to eat at Chili’s, ya it was like heaven I felt like I was in the US for an hour the TV was even in English!! The sister we baptized this week is golden. I actually contacted her in the street a little over 2 weeks ago and I invited her to a take a tour of our church the next day. We contact quite a few people and sadly the majority aren’t always there when we go to visit them but anyways, Sister Edith is way different. We went to take her to the church the day after and she was all ready to go and everything. While we were there we talked about the sacrament and everything and then showed her the baptismal font and she accepted the baptism very well. The next day we went to teach her the restoration and when we got to the part when I showed her the Book of Mormon she told me she already had the book. I just thought she was confused with another book so I asked her if she could go and get it and she brought book a legit Libro de Mormon¡! She then told us she had met the missionaries 2 years ago but couldn’t get baptized because she had to leave town and then lost contact with them. I am so thankful that the Holy Ghost guided me to her and that she could finally make the covenant she has needed for so long. I still don’t know anything about the Mothers day call but I’ll let you know when I do. I never really go to know him very well but that’s way cool you got to see Elder Hunter. Thanks for always writing me mom, and don’t feel bad about the long letter at all, actually the longer the better I love hearing about everything going on from seagulls pooping on you to Con and Brock going Beast Mode on the baseball field. Have a great week I love you! Con Amor Elder Johnson Baptism of Sister Edith Eating at Chili's

April 15, 2013

Hola Mom! Ha the story about the carp cracked me up, that definitely sounds worth it even though they had to run and everything. That’s way cool Quentin L Cook is going to visiting our stake too, what a coincidence! This week went really good for us. We had 2 baptisms yesterday, Josue David and his mom Angelica. Josue is 14 year old kid that’s been going to church with a friend since February. He´s one of the best converts I’ve ever seen and I’m sure he´ll be a future missionary, he already wants to serve a mission and everything. His mom Angelica is also really special. She´s been telling us every time that we see her that she´s been feeling a peace and joy that she hasn´t ever felt before. She also has been able to quit smoking, an addiction that she has had for a really, really long time. They both shared their testimonies in their baptismal service yesterday and it was one of the coolest experiences I’ve ever had on the mission- the Spirit was so strong and to be able to see the changes they´ve made, I don’t want to sound gay, but I cried a little bit too. Everything here in the ward is really progressing. There are more people in sacrament meeting than ever before, we´re going to have another baptism next week, and the bishopric is awesome and most of the members here are thrilled to have missionaries again. My comp and I get along great, he´s one of the best companions I’ve ever had. So this week I’ll be doing divisions a couple days with some other elders from my district, and my comp is sad that I’m leaving him it’s pretty funny. Everything is going really good, I feel like I’m still becoming a better missionary every day, I love seeing the progression. I hope you guys have a great week, I love you so much! Elder Tyler Freaking Johnson The Moto Taxi Dinner with a member Tianguis (like a flea market) Baptism

April 8, 2013

Hey mom, It looks like you guys had way fun in California and even though the team’s didn’t do very good I’m glad to hear that Connor and Brock did and that everybody had a good time. The pics are way cool too thank you. I loved general conference this week, I was able to receive answers to lots of questions I had and it was great to be able to hear the messages in English as well. I understand everything just fine, but there’s nothing quite like hearing the real voices of the apostles and prophets. My favorite talks were from L. Tom Perry and Jeffrey R. Holland as well and I also really liked Quentin L. Cook´s talk about peace. He told us 3 weeks ago when he came here that his conference talk was going to be about that. I did miss the majority of the first session on Saturday because I was doing a baptismal interview but I think I’m going to try to watch it online. We had some investigators come to the stake center on both Saturday and Sunday to see the conference and we gave them a tour of everything and taught them about the baptismal font and as they saw the font they felt the Spirit really strong and have the desire to be baptized. Both of them have a baptismal date for this coming Sunday and we´re really excited for them. So as you already know, I’m back in La Perla. The new bishop here is awesome and is an ex missionary so he knows what’s up when it comes to missionary work. The members have all been so excited to see me again it’s been pretty fun. Also, on Monday night at 10:40 I got a call saying that I was going to be training again, and so on Tuesday I received my second son, Elder Torres from Sonora. He´s way cool and so excited to work. We get along great and have been working like Negros this week. He was actually in California for a couple months and played minor league professional soccer for the Chivas USA. We went and played soccer today and I was playing goalie and took a shot so hard on me that it about took my head off. Let’s just say he pretty much schooled all of us. We´ve been really busy today with a meeting, playing soccer, washing 3 weeks’ worth of clothes and teaching a lesson, so sorry the letters going to be kind of short. I hope you have a great week mom, I love you and miss you, but I can’t believe that I only have 1 more conference left and then I’ll be home that some month! It’s really kind of freaking me out! Take care and keep me updated on everything, I love hearing about all that’s going on. I love you! Elder Johnson My two sons Playing soccer General Conference

April 1, 2013

¡¡Hola Mommy!! Wow I’m pretty jealous you guys are in California right now. Knott`s Berry Farm’s sounds way cool, and I remember we went to Universal Studios one time when I was little but the only thing I can remember is the Back to the Future ride, so we got to go to both those places again when I get back. Keep me updated on the trip and how Connor and the Dons do. Everything was surprisingly calm this week with it being semana santa ("holy week" or Easter week) and everything, we were able to work all of the days. So last night we had a sleepover in one of the other leader`s houses and there were like 8 of us and only 3 mattresses. I was one of the lucky ones who got a mattress, I woke up first this morning and was walking around and kept finding elders all over the house sleeping on the floor, and even sleeping on chairs, it was pretty funny I wish I had pics of everybody. We went and bought tacos as well, all of us gringos got pretty sick after, but I’ve seemed to recover pretty fast today. Actually today we went to a family`s house and had a legit barbecue. It was the first time I’ve eaten wings since I was in Boise it was awesome. This week we had 2 different baptisms. On Saturday Adela got baptized. She`s an older lady that I’ve known for quite a while. She`s studied with the Jehovah`s Witness for 3 years and for that very reason has had a bunch of doubts and lots of the times after we would teach her something the JWs would visit her and tell her that wasn’t true and teach her something different. We`ve been working a ton with her and she even had a dream about her dad in spirit world and I think that’s what really helped her to finally make the decision to get baptized. She`s known the church is true for a long time but just wouldn’t commit because of everything the other people told her, but I know that God helped us out and gave her a strong answer as to which is the only true church of Jesus Christ. We also had another baptism yesterday morning. Roberto, Columba`s brother got baptized. He also received his answer in a dream! He had a dream 2 weeks ago that he was running in a muddy river and the river was muddy because he told us he had been drinking and doing other bad things and felt really bad, and after meeting us had the same dream but this time he was running in a river with clean water and felt peaceful. I know they`re both going to be awesome converts and both are really into the Book of Mormon and everything. Our zone La Perla broke a record this month. We had 69 baptisms in March, the most a single zone has ever had in one month in the history of this mission! It’s such a great feeling to be able to see the fruits of all of our labor. We`ve been working like crazy and every companionship in our zone contributed to fulfilling our goal. We just all need to remember to be humble now, even though we`re all so proud of what the Lord was able to do as we were instruments in his hands. So President called me on Thursday and told me he was a special assignment for me. He wants me to go back to my old area La Perla and open it back up, and be the new district leader for the other wards over there as well. I told him that I would do it. Though I’m sad to be leaving Xochitenco and my son Elder Rivera, I really am excited to be able to go back to La Perla, the members there miss the missionaries a ton, and they just got a new bishop who actually called our President and asked him to put missionaries back in that ward. I don’t know who my comp will be, I’ll find out tomorrow and I’ll let you know all the details next week. Tomorrow I have to be in the changes meeting at noon. I`ll still be in the same zone though and lots of my friends from here don’t have changes this cycle so it will be fun to still be with them and everything. Well I got to go say goodbye to a couple families and then start packing. Packing has come to be the worst part of the mission for me! I hope you have a great time in California, keep sending me pics and updates on everything. Happy Easter as well, I too am so thankful for our Savior and the triumph he had over both the physical and spiritual death and to be able to know of His Infinite Atonement. I love you! Elder Johnson Our Sleep Over