July 15, 2013

Hey Mom! Sorry today has been a little crazy. This morning Elder Ostler and I had to hurry and wash our clothes and he got all packed up super-fast so we could have time to go the center, and get back before 4. You see my comp had special changes today and we had to go at 4:00 to meet with President and some other elders to do the changes. My comp had changes because he´s going home in a couple of weeks and I received Elder Robinson as my new comp. I still don’t know him too well yet but he’s from Star Valley, Wyoming seems to be a pretty cool guy. I´m actually training him to be zone leader, before he was district leader in the South mission. He knows who Elder Stevens is. The thing that’ll be kind of hard is that I don’t really know the area too well yet, and so we´ll probably get lost a couple of times in the streets this week ha ha. This week went really well for us, we were blessed to be able to baptize a family of 4 people. They were a golden family and are already starting to share the gospel with their other family members as well. Their baptism was really cool! The Bishop and 2 priests baptized them so the priests could get excited for missionary work. This week we also did lots of service. On Saturday we started painting house at 7:30 am and didn’t stop painting until 2:30 in the afternoon. It was pretty fun to be able to serve some of the members here, but we were super dirty after. I was actually painting the bottom of the wall and bent down and touched my head to the wet paint, and ya I painted a big glob of my hair bright blue it was great. Don’t worry it came out with paint thinner after though. So today I don’t have too much time to write because we still have to do a couple things and we have an appointment here in a little bit. That’s weird about the letter last week, but I’m glad you got it even though it was late. Tell Brother Garcia I’m right by the Metro Pantitlan (its pronounced Panteetlahn) and he´ll know right where I’m at. Thanks so much for everything mom, I love you have a great week! Elder Johnson

July 8, 2013

Baptism of Paula

Zone Conference

Baptism of David, Lorenzo and Margarita

Missionary from Dominican Republic

Hey Mom! Wow, what are you gonna do for a week without Dad and Brock? Are you and Con gonna do anything to celebrate? The firework story is super funny, man I miss the 4th of July. I actually almost forgot about it until about 4pm that day and told my comp happy 4th of July. It was kinda lame they didn’t do anything to celebrate, you would think we were in a different country or something! So to answer your questions; yes the training went surprisingly well, my comp and I stayed up until midnight practicing the night before. But ya it went really well and we met and trained the new zone and district leaders from Paraiso and Oriental, they’re the zones that were from the south mission. They all knew Elder Austin Stevens and he told them to look for me and tell me ‘hi’ for him. Our house is nicer than the last one, but we don’t have an oven, and actually I’ve never had one in any of the houses I’ve lived in here. The members here are really nice too. The area isn´t actually the prettiest place I’ve seen here but I like it and there’s lots of work to do here. This week we baptized 4 people. Paula, a 16 year old teenager got baptized on Thursday and then on Saturday David, Lorenzo, and his 8 year old daughter Margarita got baptized. The fact that Lorenzo and Margarita got baptized is honestly a miracle. Lorenzo is blind and has had a super hard life. His sister is a member and she´s the one that gave us the reference to work with him. Every time we talk with him he always vents with us and shares experience he´s had in his life. Anyways, he was progressing really well and had gone to church a couple times and everything and he had his baptismal interview on Wednesday and during his interview he got super mad and came storming out and told us he wasn’t getting baptized anymore and that his daughter wouldn’t be getting baptized either. My comp and I tried to talk to him but he didn’t want anything to do with us. We didn’t know what to do so we started a fast. 2 days later we passed by with him and he had a complete change of heart and told us he was committed and that his daughter and he wanted to get baptized. After we left the lesson I asked my comp what had happened to change him and the only thing he told me was God. And he´s so right God gave us that miracle through our diligence and faith as we were fasting. I have gained a very strong testimony of fasting on the mission and have been able to see miracles because of it. Ya, I am closer to offices now, but usually the problem hasn’t been getting the packages from the offices to me, but it’s been more that the packages take forever to get to the office. Its definitely better to send them with Brother Garcia if you can but if you can’t, it should still get here fine in normal mail just seal it up with tape pretty good. You guys are right on track in the Doctrine and Covenants. Keep up the good work! Thank you so much for everything mom I love you and have a great week! Oh and really fast I forgot to tell you thank you so much for the CTR rings. We gave one to Margarita after her baptism and she absolutely loved it and wore it to church yesterday during her confirmation. They help so much to excite the kids, you´re awesome mom! Well, have a good week! Love you! Elder Johnson

July 1, 2013

¡Hola mamá! Wow I’m surprised you already knew I’m zone leader! Ya Brayan aka Aldo is a really good friend of mine from my last stake La Perla. But yes, now I’m in the Pantitlan zone as zone leader. We´re still in the same city of Nezahualcoyotl, about 25 minutes from my last area, but we´re even closer to downtown Distrito Federal and everything now. The Mexico City airport is super close from here, my zone actually borders it, and airplanes fly over all the time. It freaks me out to think I’ll be on one of those in 4 months! My new companion is Elder Ostler, he´s such a stud. He´s from Salt Lake, went to Cottonwood high and goes home in about 5 weeks. My life has been insanely busy this week. I´m having to learn my new area and get to know the members here, do divisions with the district leaders and help the other missionaries, do baptismal interviews. We´ve gone to the offices twice in the last week, and report to President and the asistentes. Oh yeah we baptized a sister on Saturday and then I confirmed her gave a 10 minute talk in church yesterday. And last night we received all the reports of the districts from our zone and then gave a little class and talked about goals with everybody. Being so busy, the time goes by super-fast. This week we have leadership council with all the leaders from the mission, and Presidente actually chose my companion and I to give a training to everybody. I´m kind of nervous but I’ll let you know how it goes. I´m not sure what pics they put on Facebook of me. Send them to me so I can tell you who put them on and everything. Don’t worry mom I promise I’m eating enough, I really eat too much. I gotta get rid of my stubborn belly fat before I get home. My comp and I are gonna start to run in the mornings and do P90X. Yep, you´re exactly right yesterday we read section 17 and today is the 18th section. Make sure Connor and brock are reading too. That’s crazy Riley and Taylor are home and that Josh gets home this week. Hey pass me Phil´s email if you can, I want to congratulate him. Well I gotta run thanks for the long letter and keeping me updated on everything, I love you mom. You´re the best in the whole world. Have great week!! Elder Johnson