June 17, 2013

My Comp and Me in a MotoTaxi

Service Project at the Stake Center

Baptism of Jonathan

Dearest Mother of Mine, It sounds you guys had a fun weekend, baseball in Richfield, Elder Cook and Father’s Day all sound awesome. That’s great Brocks team won the tournament, I’m sure they were happy. It’s amazing how fast missionary work is growing, an Area 70, Elder Abraham Martinez came to our Stake Conference yesterday and he talked about missionary work and called all the mission age people to the front and talked about how we should all help them to get on a mission as well and then we all sang Called to Serve. It was really neat, and it sounds like Elder Cook talked about missionary work as well, I love it! This week Jonathan, who´s 11, got baptized. He´s really cool and actually lived in the US for a couple years and likes to speak English with me. We had the 1st counselor of the bishopric baptize him it was really cool because it was the first person he´s ever baptized he was really excited and thankful for the opportunity. The work is still going great, the Lord is blessing us so much. I think I might have changes next week, but they don’t tell us for sure until Sunday. I love the area I’m in and everything is going so well here right now, but I’m not going to lie I’m kind of ready for a change of scenery, so either way will be fine if I have changes or not. On Saturday night I was lying in bed, not asleep just lying there, and I heard a weird sound, something like a drum. I realized it was my bed banging against the wall. After I felt really dizzy and all of sudden I realized it was an earthquake. I jumped and hurried and got dressed and yelled at my companion who had just gotten done showering to get dressed too. We went outside and soon after the sister we live with came outside too. We saw on the news that it was a 6.0 earthquake, not giant but pretty big. It was the biggest one I’ve ever felt, even bigger than the one last March. Nothing happened here, no buildings fell or anything, everything’s fine. It was kind of cool to feel another earthquake though! Okay everybody so I forgot to tell you guys last week, but we´re going to do the D & C countdown. What happens is, we all read one section of the Doctrine and Covenants every day, and when we get done, I´ll be home! So I did the math and today we should all read section 4, it started on Friday so we´ll have to all catch up a little bit. So every day we all read one section, for example tomorrow we should all read section 5, Wednesday, section 6 and so on. And when everybody finishes Doctrine and Covenants, I’ll get home the next day. Sound good? Ok and as missionaries we always make commitments with the people so, family do you all commit to reading one section of the Doctrine and Covenants every day? Thanks family, I love you! Thanks so much for everything mom I love you and have been praying for you. How has your jaw been feeling? I hope you have a great week, keep me updated with everything and I want to hear about the picnic/ fishing trip tonight! Love Elder Johnson

June 10, 2013

Baptism of Cesar and Juan

Trying to stay on a crowded bus!

Hey mom! How’s everything going? Wow it sounds like it’s super-hot there right now so I’m glad here to avoid the heat. It hasn’t rained too much this week but it’s been overcast a lot of days and we´ve really loved the weather. A baseball tournament in Richfield Utah? That sounds so tight I wish I could go! Where are you guys going to stay at? Well here’s the scoop on La Perla this week... This week Cesar and Juan got baptized. Cesar is 12 years and Juan is 10, they´re grandkids of an active member of our ward and their dad is actually a member too but hasn´t been to church in years. I first met them the first time I was here in La Perla, like last November. We´ve been working with them for a long time, and it was such a great experience to see them get baptized yesterday. Their uncle who’s an ex missionary came from another state to baptize them and told us he was super grateful for the work we have done with his family. The baptismal service was so big that we did it in the sacrament room and my companion and their uncle did a special musical number it was really cool. I was thinking about singing in the musical number too but I wanted to be humble and not steal the show with my angel voice so I just let them do it... Ya some things never change I still can’t sing worth beans but ya the baptism was really cool. Lately we´ve had a goal as a mission that each companionship should be helping to activate 2 less active members that are mission aged and help them to prepare to serve a mission. It’s been really cool; one of the members we´ve been helping has reactivated and is going to church every week and took his earrings out and everything. He´s been talking with the bishop about how to start his mission papers and everything. One of the ways we´ve been working with them is doing divisions and actually going out and teaching with them. I love doing divisions with them its way fun to really get to know them and work with them and we as missionaries can put 2 appointments at every hour and as a result we can visit more people and have more lessons. There are 3 members from our ward that we have been working with that are getting their papers and going to the doctor and everything. It´s so cool to know that they´ll be able to help so many more people as well. I hope you get feeling all the way better soon mom, I’m sorry I’ll be praying for you this week. Thanks so much for all that you do for me, I know that if it wasn´t for all your help I wouldn’t be here right now doing what I love. Have a fantastic week I love you! Elder Johnson

June 3, 2013

Baptism of Jesus and Catya Taco Guy! We got locked out of our house! Saying Good Bye to Elder Harrison! Rainy season in Mexico ¡Buenas noches mama! What’s new in Utah? I`m so glad you`re mouth is starting to feel better, I hope you get feeling 100% soon. That’s still so hard for me to believe that schools out, I miss summer! Summer here means lots and lots of rain, and it’s definitely been that way this week. On Saturday night it rained harder than I’ve ever seen in my life, and we happened to be quite a long way away from our house when it really started. We decided to just go running through it instead of waiting and we were honestly the only people in the streets, I’m sure everybody else was just thinking "crazy Mormons". We got super super soaked, actually I think I would have been drier if I would have just jumped into a swimming pool. It was really cool though when we were on the way to an appointment during the crazy rain storm a lady stopped by in a car and gave us a ride. She wasn`t even a member but has 2 kids that are members in another ward. She was super nice and gave us a towel and an umbrella. It was such a tender mercy of the Lord to have her pass by us at that time. So this week we didn’t have a baptism for the first time in 8 weeks, it was kind of sad. We`ve really been spoiled with having baptisms every week and it was weird this week to not have one. We worked super super hard though, and we`ll be having 2 baptisms on Sunday and then the Saturday after that as well. The kids that we`re teaching right now that are supposed to get baptized next Saturday are really cool. They lived in Texas with their dad before but now they live with their grandma and have been here in Mexico only since January. I was on divisions with another gringo Saturday morning and we gave them a tour of the church in English. It was so weird and incredibly hard for me to do. They speak Spanish perfectly too so I think I’m just going to speak that to them. It’s so much easier for me to talk about the Gospel and everything else in Spanish than in English. Mom, I hope you have a great week. Time is honestly going by so so fast I can’t believe it. Thanks for sending all the pics of everybody and for always writing me and keeping me updated with everything. I love you and hope you have a great week and get feeling better! Love Elder Johnson

May 27, 2013

Hola Momma! Wow I can’t believe that Con is a graduated and working man now and that Brock is a teenager, time is going by super-fast! It sounds like ya`ll have had a pretty fun week with baseball, graduation, and all the big parties and stuff. This week has gone really good for us, but the rainy season is definitely here! It has poured almost every day this week. I honestly love going hard in the rain it’s fun for me and it doesn`t feel so hot outside. Ya the Elder Johnson that came from the 70 is the same one that came and visited us a couple months ago. Actually there’s a new Elder Johnson from Arizona that just got to our mission as well, and guess what his first name is? Tyler. Ya Elder Tyler Johnson too, but we all really know who The Elder Tyler Johnson is right? So anyways if you can put my middle name on things when you send them to me just to avoid any confusion but if you send me something without my middle name it’s not too big of a deal either. Life in La Perla is still going really good. We baptized a husband and wife yesterday, and have been blessed to now have baptized people for 7 weeks straight. The Lord honestly has bless us so much and I love sitting in church on Sundays and seeing how the ward has grown and keeps growing. I`ve been working so hard and I love seeing the fruits of our labors. Time is going by super-fast, every week flies right by because I spend half the time on divisions, sleeping in other missionary’s houses, doing interviews, going to meetings. It’s awesome, I love this work! This week we had a meeting for all the elders who are currently training and our companions. President asked all of us how many we had baptized and my companion and I had the most and President used us as an example for everybody. I`m not saying it’s a contest with the numbers or anything but it felt so good to be recognized for our work and know that I`m an example. The people that got baptized this week were super golden. Jesus and Catya are a couple that were living together but weren’t married. Catya`s mom got baptized in another ward a little while ago and that is what sparked their interest. We`ve been visiting and teaching them a lot and they have received everything muy bien. We taught them the law of chastity and the next day they got married so they could get baptized. They`re so awesome and open to do whatever God wants of them. They got baptized yesterday and the brother is already going to an interview with the bishop tomorrow so he can get the priesthood next Sunday. I forgot it was Memorial Day, I’m glad you guys could go to the cemetery and remember our family members with flowers and everything. I hope you have a great week, keep me updated on all how summers going and everything else. I love you! The Elder Tyler Johnson

May 20, 2013

HEY MOMMY!! This morning we went to one of the stake centers from our mission to hear Elder Halstrom, of the presidency of the 70 and his wife speak to us. Also Elder Johnson from the 70 and our Presidente Morales and his wife spoke to us as well. It was part of an 11 day tour of Mexico that Elder Halstrom, Elder Holland and Elder Christofferson are doing. It was really cool and he spoke to us about repentance, and how we can all be better at something, and then gave us time to ask him questions about the work. We went together as a zone to the conference, as it was about an hour away from our area in a bus that we rented. The work is still going great here in La Perla. This week a couple got married on Friday that we have been teaching and they both got baptized yesterday. Luis and Sofia are the parents of 2 kids that got baptized 1 and 2 weeks ago. It was so great to see them come together as a family, and see the changes that they have made. My companion baptized the mom and the dad asked me to baptize him. I know that this is exactly what the Lord wants, He wants the families to be together and hopefully they can do everything they need to be able to enter the temple and be sealed in 1 year. I´ll send you the pictures next week because my camera died and the pics are only my comps camera. Yesterday at church was a great day. Karim, a convert that we baptized about 4 weeks ago blessed the sacrament and David, a 14 year old kid that we baptized about 6 weeks ago gave a talk in church. The Spirit was so strong and I felt so great and content to be able to see both of them participating and progressing in the Gospel. So the drama with my poor toe continues. My toe was still really hurting me these last couple of weeks so I went to the doctor on Friday and the doctor first just tried to take my ingrown toenail out again without anesthesia, but it was pretty infected and was hurting me like crazy, so for the first time in my whole life I asked the doctor for a shot!!!! And the crazy thing is he said he couldn’t give it to me because he´s restricted to give them to elders. I was super worried but after like 5 minutes of begging him to numb my toe he gave me two shots and took the ingrown toenail out. Don’t worry I have it all on video I was screaming and everything, but I’m all good now. Mom I hope you get feeling better really soon, I’ll be praying for you every day. Thank you so much for all the support and for always writing me and remembering me. Have a great week I love you!!! Elder Johnson

May 13, 2013

Hey mom! So sorry I was kinda wrong I don’t really have a whole lot of time to write today because we went bowling and ate at Chilies and Dairy Queen. I absolutely loved seeing you guys yesterday. It was so great to be able to talk about everything and I`m glad that everything is going so well. Please keep sending me updates on Con and Brock`s baseball and everything else. Oh ya I`m with Elder Harrison right now and his mom said the same thing too about how you guys already talked and she saw the pictures of us you sent to her and everything. I`m sorry you have to work today but I hope you have a great day of work, I`ll send you pics next week, there’s lots I wanna send I just don’t have the time right now. I love you have a great week, and happy mothers day again. You`re the best mommy ever! Love Elder Johnson

May6, 2013

Hey Mommy! So this week’s letter is going to be a little short because I’ll be talking with you guys on Sunday, and we don’t have a whole lot of time either because we went to downtown Distrito Federal today. The prom pics are way cool it looks like a fun group. Things are going awesome right now. We had another baptism yesterday. Adriana, a 14 year old girl got baptized. She`s the only member from her family but her mom and little brothers came to church the day she got baptized and we`ve been teaching them as well. We did a really cool family home evening with her whole family and the member family that gave us their reference on Saturday night. We watched Mormon message with them and talked about forgiveness and then played a couple of games. It’s awesome to see that because of Adriana the whole family is getting excited now and learning more about the gospel. I had one downer this week. On Thursday I went to a doctor to get an ingrown toenail cut out. It hurt like a mother and they didn’t give me anything to numb it once again. I was literally screaming and punching the cement wall because it hurt so badly. I`m so done with Mexican healthcare... But the good thing is it feels all better now and it`s not bothering me at all. Today we went to downtown Mexico City it was way fun. 6 of us went and we met a couple of other elders there. We mostly just went around like tourists seeing some of the sites here. I sent you a couple pics. The craziest part was on the way home, it was rush hour and the metro was so full, the first 2 times the metro passed by we couldn’t even fit. We actually tried to the second time and the other people pushed us out and the door closed on me! That’s why I had to teach all the other elders to "box out" it was hilarious. It was crazy we finally got on after and we couldn’t even move, I got a little claustrophobic and there’s not really any air conditioner it was like a sauna in there with so many people. I would have loved to have a picture of that but I couldn’t even reach into my pocket to grab my camera because we were all so crammed in there. I can’t wait to talk to you guys on Sunday, its freaking me out that it’s the last time I’ll talk to you before I get home and talk to ya`ll in person! We`ll be fine mom don’t worry, we`ll just go home in taxi or something. I have to call you guys that late because as DL I have a meeting every Sunday afternoon so my son is going to talk to his family earlier with another elder and then I and another DL are going to go call our mommies. I honestly love what I’m doing and am so grateful to be a tool in the Lord`s hands. I know this church is true and that God loves us and through Christ`s atonement we can be clean and have the peace and joy that we`re all looking for. Have a great week I love you! Elder Johnson Me teaching the Elders to "box out" on the Metro The Elder's "boxing out"! Trompo-this is what the tacos are made of, it is so good but I'm not sure what it is! A Cathedral in DF A Museum in DF King Nezahualcoyotl