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