October 30, 2013 Elder Johnson is HOME!!!

It was such a great day when Elder Johnson returned home from faithfully serving his mission to Mexico City. There was a huge group at the airport to welcome him home. We are so thankful for great family and friends who support us in all we do!! Welcome Home Elder Johnson!! Patiently waiting for Elder Johnson to arrive.

Elder Johnson on the escalator!

Mommy and Daddy have missed this boy!

Such great friends!!

Elder Johnson's 1st companion in the MTC, Elder Scott

Elder Johnson's first meal in America after 2 years, Outback sure tastes great!

WELCOME HOME ELDER JOHNSON!!

October 29, 2013 Last Post Before Returning Home

Hey Mom! So Ím almost all ready to go tomorrow, just have to finish packing. I just wanted to write you real fast and thank you for everything yoúve done for me, and especially in these last 2 years. Mom I honestly wouldn’t have made it without you. Thanks for always writing me and keeping me updated and for also taking care of all my stuff while Íve been gone like school and everything. I cant wait to see you tomorrow its gonna be crazy, it’s the day Íve been thinking about for 2 years. I love you and am so happy and thankful yoúre my mom!! Love you! Elder Johnson

October 17, 2013

Playing squash on P-day

Matching ties for General Conference

Restaurant named after my momma!

We made 500 sandwiches for Zone Conference!

Someone's pet iguana!

Palace of the Arts

Trip on the Metro

Hey Mom! That’s cool Brock gets to go to the temple for the first time tomorrow. He hasn’t written me in a while, tell him to write me and tell me how it goes. Let me know how Con and Dad are doing in Canada, and all the fun stuff you do while they`re not home! So on Monday we didn’t have a P day once again because in the morning we went and supervised a zone meeting and then after we had our weekly meeting with President to talk about the whole mission, and then after that we made the calendar and planned all the big things for November. Afterwards President bought us hamburgers and we ate really fast and then went to the airport with him to drop off a sister from Ecuador who has some problems with her visa, but will come back in a few days. We also picked up a Mexican elder who had to go home for a couple of weeks to resolve his US residency for when finishes the mission in a year. When we were on the way home from the airport in Presidents car, I had fallen asleep and President told the other elders they were going to scare me, so he counted down on his fingers and they all screamed at the top of their lungs and ya of course it scared the crap out of me and I jumped out of my chair. Everybody got a pretty good kick out of it and they were laughing their heads off. We´re working with really cool family of 4 right now who is a referral from another family who got baptized like 4 months ago. 2 weeks ago we gave them a guided visit or "tour" of the church, teaching them about the commandment to keep the Sabbath day, the sacrament, the baptismal font, and we taught them about all the organizations and activities the church has to offer. The couple has a teenage girl and boy that is primary aged so they really liked how the church has things for each of them. This last Sunday they came to church and really liked it. Last night we had a family home evening with them. At the FHE they invited their extended family that are members, some from our ward and some from another stake, and they also invited one of their sisters that is not member who lives by them and also their nephew and niece that aren’t members. It was way cool, there were a ton of people there and we taught a really cool message to everybody and then played some funny games with them. They loved it and we`re going to teach them again tomorrow. They`re already reading the Book of Mormon and love to learn, they ask lots of questions and really have the desire to change. At first they told us they were Catholic and didn’t really seem very open to change and learning more but that has changed a ton since we first met them. I literally cannot believe I’ll be home in 2 weeks, the time has gone by so incredibly fast. I`m trying my hardest right now to buckle down and focus on this last little bit of time I have as a missionary, even though it’s hard, so that I can go home with no regrets. I love you mom thank you so much for helping to give me this opportunity to serve the Lords and for all the support you`ve given me these last 2 years. Love you!! Elder Johnson

September 25, 2013

A nice pig head that was for sale at the grocery store,

Today is the 15th of September, Mexico’s Independence Day. We didn’t really get to celebrate because we’ve been here in the offices all night.

For Mexican Independence Day, it’s a lot like the 4th of July, fireworks and lots of food and get togethers and stuff like that. Here in the Center, they do a concert and then the President of Mexico comes out and they all do a big yell saying “Viva Mexico!” and stuff like that.

Hey Mom! This has been a pretty hectic weekend. On Sunday we went to church and were planning to have a baptism in our church, but there was no gas for the water heater so we had to go to the Stake Center and we had the baptism after church. After the baptism we got all of our stuff ready and went to the offices to start receiving reports. After we got to the offices we realized we had forgotten the papers in our houses that had all the changes on them, and so in order to finish doing everything for all the changes and in order to be able to advise those that had changes we had to go all the way back to our house again. After receiving all the reports we made a summary for President and then reported the numbers to Salt Lake on the computer. Later we called all the zone leaders to tell them who in their zones had changes, but that’s all we tell them and they don’t know where theyìre going until the meeting on Tuesday. Anyways then we went on to make a list of all the changes, by area and what missionaries were going to be there. We ended up going to bed at about 1:00 am that night. The next morning President picked us up at 5:50 am to go to the new MTC here and pick up the new Latino misioneros. There were 5 elders and 3 sisters. We got back to the offices and ate a little breakfast and then started training them on everything about the mission. We finished training them at about 2 and then we ate carne asadas here in the offices, they were way good. After that all the Americans got here, there 19 of them in total! They ate first and then started their training. And they didn’t know hardly know any Spanish at all so after President talked to them a little bit with the English he knows and then he just told me to train them alone on everything! President started to interview them one by one and my comp doesn’t really know any English so he left to do something else and I was there alone. We ended at 9:00pm. By the end of the day I was so sick of hearing my own voice! On Tuesday morning we got up at about 6am to be all ready to go with all the new missionaries at 7: 30. A bus came and picked them and all their luggage up. My comp went in the bus with them and I went alone with President to the Stake Center where the changes meeting was. We split up again, my comp with the Latinos and me with the gringos and we talked about the plan of salvation and how to teach it. At noon the changes started and all the misioneros that had changes were there. After the changes meeting we went to office with president and all the elders that were going home the next day (today). When President had interviewed them all we went to his house where his wife had made dinner for everybody. We all ate dinner and then came back to the offices and slept, and then the next morning my companion and I took them to the airport where us and President said bye to them and that was it. We got back to our house that afternoon and took a little nap and then went out and worked like a normal. We did divisions for one day, and the week went by super-fast because I was in my own area for so little time. We just got back from Wal-Mart. I drove the mission car. I hate driving in Mexico City, the traffic is worse than New York. We had one zone conference today with 2 zones and we have one tomorrow and then one more on Friday. Sorry for not writing you guys until today, it’s been a crazy week as you can see, but I love you mom and am so thankful for all you do for me! Love Elder Johnson

So as you know when you train an elder, they’re considered your "son" in the mission. Here’s a shot with all my offspring. Elder Rivera-my firstborn son, Elder Torres my son, Elder Lowell my grandson, Elder Manzanares my grandson, and Elder Sandstrom my great grandson.

September 13, 2013

Hey Mom! That is so awesome Jayce got baptized, I got the pictures and everything. Tell him congrats for me, I’ll be sure to talk to him myself when I get home. I told President Morales my cousin got baptized and he was really happy for him as well. So sorry for not writing very much last week and for writing late this week as well. We´ve been super busy lately with the transfers coming up next week, the leadership council last Friday, and our area flooded, and we baptized a brother on Sunday as well! So on Friday we had the leadership council. It was really good I learned a lot, my comp and I gave a training about the plan of salvation and it went really well too. It was in another stake about 20 minutes from our area. We grabbed a taxi to go home and the taxi couldn’t get to the colony where we live, he left us about a mile from our house because the traffic was absolutely ridiculous. Anyways, we went walking and noticed there was quite a bit of water on the streets but the sidewalks were still dry, and because we were in our suits we didn’t want to get wet so we were being really careful. After walking about a block, we realized that everything was flooded towards our house, and there was no way we were going to be able to get home dry. We started walking in the water and a little while later the water was up past my knees. I felt like I was duck hunting, wading in water, except the water here is uglier! It was really dirty black water that smelled terrible. We passed by a couple members on the way home and saw that the water was flooding pretty much all of the houses. We hurried and went home and left our backpacks and put on some old clothes to go and help everybody. We were carrying sand bags, blocking off doors, taking water out of the houses with buckets and everything like that until 1 in the morning! I was walking in the street and saw an 8 year old girl walking in the middle of the street, the water up to past her waist all alone. She was barefoot too so I picked her up and carried her to her house, helped her dry off and then gave her a blanket to get warm. It was sad, her parents weren’t negligent, just too busy trying to save the stuff in their house, and I felt bad for them too. Their fridge broke and the all the girls school books and their dressers and everything got wet. It was a really sad scene everywhere in our colony, a guy died really close in a spot where we had been like 30 minutes before because a power line fell and electrocuted him. We were busy cleaning and helping people here from Friday until Sunday, the majority is all cleaned up now though and things are getting back to normal. On Sunday, we just had a 1 hour sacrament meeting and then after all the members went to serve those who had been affected by the floods, it was really cool and ended up being a missionary activity because we got several references from serving people who weren’t members. After all this we still had a baptism on Sunday night. Mariano got baptized in the stake center, and another recent convert actually baptized him. I joked with him before and asked him if he wanted to just get baptized in the street instead of having to all the way to the church. We´ve been helping him and his family a lot since the flood and have really gained their confidence and now we´re teaching his sister and brother in law. Mariano has changed a ton and has been an example to his family as well and his baptism was really special, after getting baptized he came back and hugged his sister for long time and they cried together. They had had lots of family problems but both have felt the peace that comes from the Holy Ghost in the last couple of weeks. Well I got to run, thanks so much mom, can’t believe that in only 7 weeks we´ll be seeing each other! It’s freaking me out I don’t want to stop being a missionary, but it´ll be great to get home and apply everything I’ve learned and I can’t wait to see my family either. I love you mom have a great week!!!!! Love Elder Johnson

The leadership council on Friday, the zone leaders in the back and the sisters and APs in front with President & Sister Morales.

To try to keep dry we put bags on our feet but ya well it didn’t work that good. I called them "poor man’s waders".

These pics are from yesterday (Sunday) we only had 1 hour of church and then went to give service to members and non-members. In one of the pics I’m with a guy from the government, he thought I was the leader of everybody because I was wearing the Mormon helping hands vest and when he found out I’m from the US he wanted to talk to me and asked to take a picture with me!

So the flood happened while we were in another stake center and when we got home the whole colony where we live was flooded and the taxi couldn’t even make it to our house so we got out and had to walk. It stunk because I was in my suit and nice shoes.

These pics are from my cell phone. There were helicopters with spotlights flying around. A guy died 2 blocks from where we were, a power cable fell on him. Pretty ugly stuff...

This is the morning after the big flood.

Our baptism this week, Mariano got baptized. We all did the marshmallow face to be funny.

August 20, 2013

We went to the monument of revolution and these are some pics of there. Actually while we were there we went up a tower thing they have and there is a glass elevator and when we started going up my comp and I both got so scared. It was hilarious. We were both sweating and neither one said a word, I’ve always hated heights.

This is of one of the virgins, and it’s made completely out of colored wood chips they glued to the street.

I ran into this barbwire today while I was walking so I thought I’d take a pic real fast, it kind of cut my ear!

Hey Mom! So sorry for writing you so late, its because we´ve been pretty busy the last couple of days. We went to the airport at 6:30 in the morning yesterday to get a new sister, and then we had to train her afterwards on several things that we do in our mission. After that we updated some files in the office and then went to one of the zone´s meetings to talk to all the elders and sisters. Everything is going really good, I’m just worried about our own area right now because we don’t have very many investigators that we´re teaching. We´re going to work super hard this week so we can start having more success in our own area as well. My companion and I get along great, and we have lots of unity which is great because it shows when we´re training new missionaries and teaching investigators. It´ll be really cool to be able to see David Garcia this week, my comp and I are excited to go eat somewhere. The time is going by too fast though. I just can’t believe that my time left in the mission is so short, and did I say that time is going by too fast? I love missionary work and have no doubt that this is the work of the Lord, and the work of Salvation. It’s so worth leaving home for a couple of years so that other people can be together as families for eternity. I love you mom, thanks for everything you always do for me, have an excellent week! Love Elder Johnson

August 13, 2013

Saying Good-bye to some of our Elders

Drinking horchata-it is so good!

A cool museum that we visited.

¡Hola mamà! How’s everybody doing? Well I had changes and I’m actually the new Assistant to the President!! It’s really cool! There are lots of benefits, like my cell phone is touch screen and has a camera, I can drive the mission car and my comp and I can go pretty much where want to, we don’t have to ask permission, the other missionaries have to ask us ha ha! No, but really it’s been really crazy, we have lots of extra work to do but it’s fun and being super busy the time goes by really fast. Yesterday we took some elders to the airport to say bye and today we were with President the whole morning and went to rent a house for a new area that they´re opening. Things are going great here. This week was pretty crazy busy too. On Tuesday well we had the changes meeting and we took all my luggage to our house in my area and then we went to President’s house to eat dinner with him and his family and all the elders who were going home. Then that night we went out to eat tacos with all the Elders going home and said goodbye to everybody. On Wednesday we went to leave some elders at the airport, and then on Thursday morning President showed up at our house and we studied with him and then went to get a contract signed for a house in a new area for some elders and then my comp went back to the offices to get all the things for the new house while I stayed and helped them move their luggage to the house as well. And we`ve just done things like that pretty much the whole week and tried to work and teach the members and investigators in between. It’s been pretty hectic but I like it a lot. On Sundays after going to church and eating, we go to the offices of the mission to receive reports from the zone leaders and then make some reports for President. That night we sleep in the offices where we have our own room and bathroom, but our house where we usually live is in our area. On Monday morning we have a meeting with President to talk about how the mission is doing in general and new things that we`re going to apply as a mission and just things like that. After that we have our P-day as normal until 6pm and then at 7 we went to one of the zones meetings that is struggling to talk to all of the elders and try to get them pumped for the work. My comp and I get along super well, we`ve been friends for a long time and neither one of us can believe that we`re actually comps now. He’s from Aguascalientes, Mexico and goes home in January. I can’t believe I’ve been on the mission for so long now, actually I was talking to one of the secretaries yesterday and he told me he`s going to buy my plane ticket this week to go home. Crazy huh it freaks me out!! Well Mom I got to run plan a training for tomorrow. We`re going to train the zone and district leaders in a mission leadership meeting. I love you, thanks for everything. Elder Johnson