Spirit Week

Dear Mom,

I'm sorry, I confess: I wrote colton first. And now I don't have much time. But I am trying to send you the first pictures of my area that you will have seen as a sort of peace offering! Please forgive me! I'll try to be vivid while writing about my week as well because, to be perfectly honest, it's been a pretty good week.

So the rainy season continues. It doesn't sound like it's been as bad here as it is there. The thing is, here, it is always drizzling. And my companion, from honduras, always seems to be cold because of it. I'm fine. I love it. It reminds me of Minnesota rain, which I sorely miss (after a year in Utah and a year in Oaxaca, I need me a good ole thunderstorm or Tornado). By the way, just so you don't freak out hearing it from some other place, apparently a hurrican hit the coast of Oaxaca, but I'm a long way from the coast of Oaxaca and only heard about it from the news updates that arrive from my cell phone. Regardless, all the missionaries are safe. So don't you worry. This is much like the Earthquake that I didn't feel - I'm either REALLY oblivious in my missionary bubble or God doesn't want me to die. I think it's both.

Despite the rain (we kept working, only coming home early twice because of rain and my companion feeling sick - where I promptly beat him many times in the Monopoly deal card game that he bought), we had a really good week. Several really good, really Spiritual lessons, the most powerful being that which we had with Isai. Isai is the brother of a pretty awesome convert. He's twenty two years old, speaks really fast, fixates on weird things (if killing bugs is against the 10 commandments, for example), and is my project. I want him to get baptize. I want him to have a testimony. Because he wants to have a testimony. He nearly yelled at me once when I thanked him for being patient with us because he insisted that us coming here was a blessing. He just wants to do the right things, even if he's not very good at it. Problem is, he hasn't been progressing. He seems to have a special mental block for prayer. He almost never does it by himself. So we decided to get back to basics and teach him the Plan of Salvation. It turned into a rocking lesson. We talked about everything, answered doubts, and most importantly, followed the Spirit. Everyone felt it. His sister was in tears. My companion was in tears. I was feeling more reverent than I had in months. It was just one of those times when you know, without a single doubt in your mind, that God is and that He created a perfect plan for us. Perfect in every sense of the word. I couldn't even begin to deny the truthfulness of the Gospel in that moment. It got me on the right track, to say the least. I learned, above all, that I need to stop talking so much and needed to let the Spirit talk a bit. I can't teach MY lessons. I have to let Him teach HIS lessons. So that's what I tried to do.

And it has, relatively, worked. We taught another great plan of salvation lesson with a 29 year old lawyer. He actually started to make a diagram of the Plan as we spoke, under his own free will. With an inactive family and an investigator, we taught the Restoration, focusing specifically on Prophets and the blessing of having a modern-day prophet. We made some good headway with them, though they are still far from Activity. But it's been a great spiritual week. I've been humbled by the power of the Spirit. He really does know a lot more than me. Sometimes, I like to think that I'm pretty smart. I`m not. God is much, much smarter and really always teaching me things I should know. If I ever got around to listening to Him on a consistent basis, I think I'd live a pretty good life. 

The only problem with the week was this: despite the fact that a cool reference showed up to Church, Navith, our scheduled baptism for this week, did not. And she could have. Sounds like she just didn't want to. So we need to talk to her a little bit more and will probably be postponing the date again. That's a bummer, but I'm done just baptizing. I want to start converting. That's my goal. Because converts are awesome. THey have awesome testimonies. I want a testimony like that. Boy oh boy, do I have some work to do.

Okay, really, Mom, I don't need much in my year package. Just memories, music, and fruit certs. Spèaking of music, tell dad to put, really, ALL disney on that mp3 that he might be sending me as well as "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley and all of Israel Ka'amiole (I butchered that, didn't I?) as well. These are things that are permitted. Presidente might be pretty strict in some things, but he likes good music, so I'm fine.

Well, love you all. I'm gonna try to get some real letters off these weeks in the mail, so that'll be my week long project. Love you all and see you in 2 years!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Rainy Season

So it's that time of the week again. Time to hear from Elder Johnson! Yeah! Right? Okay, not so much, but I certainly enjoy it. So let's start with the most surprising fact of the week. There we were, in our nice, two story apartment, waking up on Saturday morning like whatever other morning of he week on the second floor of said apartment. I was trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes when I saw something in the window of our bedroom. THe window looked into the hallway. Inside the house. It was a dog. Now, I'm still  not sure exactly how that dog apparated into our house, but I do know that I have neither the patience or the permission to raise a dog in our house. So we had to get rid of it (it belonged to the neighbors, as one would figure, and now live on the roof, where it barks at us as we do our laundry). It was a fun surprise, I won't lie.

This week has been about training Elder Varela. He is such a new missionary. He gets nervous really easily and any time I give him a part of the lesson to teach, he doesn't really ask the investigator questions or teach. He just kind of testifies. It's great, he got an awesome testimony, but I want him to, you know, teach a little bit more during the lessons. And we've tried to work on that. Unfortunately, when I show him how to do something in companionship study or something like that, he seems to think that he has to do it exactly like me. THat is very not true. I'm not a very good missionary and he should be following the spirit's direction. We´re working on it though. With time, the guy's gonna be great. I mean, he pronounces his double r's like a boss.

My memory card is not working, so I will not be able to send you pictures as I promised. This is mildly concerning. But I'll get it worked out, don't you fret yourself. Anyway, well everything in Fortin kind of stayed the same this week and we didn't have much progress. But we've received some great looking references and we should be in for a big week in the first week of a new transfer. I feel like I have to kick myself into gear again, like I've gotten a little too content for a certain level of focus and work that is a bit underneath what I would call my best. I'll be better this week though. I've only got two years to be my best and I really want to learn how to do it. Well, thank you for all your support (though I haven't gotten your package yet mom). I love you all and hope to hear from you next week. Peace out yall.

Love,

Elder Johnson

Elder Varela

I didn't tell you his name because I hadn't gotten him yet. I actually wrote that last letter while in a threesome with the Elders from Violetas (Two rather friendly guys, Elder Guzman and Elder Maldonado, if you have to ask). Elder Varela is my second child in the mission. He is from Honduras (which I didn't know until I met him - Dang Elder Garcia lied to me) and he's a good kid. He had a REALLY good time in the MTC and he just wants to do the right thing. He's not the clearest of teachers, nor is he the most of assertive of personalities, but with the Holy Ghost's help, he's gonna be a fine missionary. My job is to teach him English.

See, the mission has this really big focuse on Spanish speakers learning English. I think it comes from the First Presidency. So every Spanish speaker gets handed a packet of English where they learn to say things like,"Good Morning, Bishop" and I have to somehow take that and their complete inability to differentiate between t's and d's and somehow make them fluent English speakers. I actually love it. It's so fun to be walking in the rain and then hear from someplace behind a very poorly pronounced version of, "I Know that My Redeemer Lives," which is Elder Varela's favorite hymn. He's awesome. 

Anyway, this week, we put a baptismal date with Navith, Itamar's fourteen year old cousin. She's a little hippie-ish (she greets me with peace signs and listens to Bob Marley and wears peace and love shirts), but she's pretty excited about the Gospel  these days. I think we are just gonna baptize that family one by one. Next up: Saul, the sixteen year old brother of Itamar who just needs to stop taking tests and then he'll be as good as gold. I hope. Lots of hope these days around here. I like it. I just hope that I have enough hope for the bathroom. It's disgusting in there. Got to clean it.

Anyways, I don't have any hugely funny or spiritual stories this week for you. I did manage to convince our ward mission leader to finally put in his papers. He's pretty excited to go serve a mission these days. I've got the real transfers coming up next Monday, so I'll let you know what happens. I'm pretty sure Elder Varela and I are staying put. Remember: I want Kumi Greenhalgh's and Mary's email addresses in order to be able to thank them for boxes and letters. Love you all. Hope it's all swell for summer. I love summer. I miss minnesota summers. Although here in oaxaca, summer is the rainy season, which I also love, so life is just good all around.

Love,

Elder Johnson

Boom! Special Changed

Family....and all,
So, big news this week: They changed my companion! I'm still in Fortin (thank goodness), but President is up to his old tricks. This is like the fourth "special" changes of the transfer (special changes are any other changes that President makes during a transfer that aren't the changes to begin and end a transfer). It seems like President has increased his efforts in the personal war against Gadi missionaries (gadi refers to gadianton, of Book of Mormon fame). He's changing them and lowering them and breaking up bad companionships like nobody's business. In our zone alone (not an especially gadi zone, but we get affected because good missionaries sometimes get sent to be baby sitters to gadi missionaries....or the gadis get sent here to be baby sat), we've lost a zone leader, two new missionaries, and now my companion. It's kinda weird. The good news is that I will not have to baby sit. In fact, I will get to train again, which I love doing. I will be training a Guatemalen, so that will be interesting. I'm gonna develop a strange accent, I think. Should be fun. Though I'll miss Elder Ellsworth. He's my buddy, which, coincedentally enough, is a word he got me to start using. Cool guy. Great missionary. Really got along with him.

Anyways, other good news: Itamar got baptized! And confirmed! And married in the temple! Kidding! Two out of three! Sometimes I get carried away! But she's awesome, so no (what is spanish doing to me? To try to spell the word "no", I first wrote "now" and then "know" and then I completely panicked and wrote "knwo.") doubt one day she will get married in the temple. Maybe with Elder Jimenez, for whom I had to call President twice so that he could come and do her baptism. Talking to President is not that fun sometimes. I always feel like I'm doing something wrong around him, even if I'm not, much the same way I felt everytime I passed a police officer in my car. Also he speaks really fast and sometimes I don't understand him on the phone. No, I do know (whew! one try) spanish just fine. It's just that I sometimes had problems understanding English speakers on the phone before English and now I have to do it in my second language. It's not fun.

But baptisms are, especially since we did it in conjunction with the baptism of an eight year old kid and his parents brought pizza and cake for us. Also, the zone leaders brought one of their investigators with the promise that we were all going to play soccer with him. So we did. And that was fun until I cut my lip open on Elder Bassets head. So now I am not kissable. Shoot. Not like that's a desirable attribute on your mission anyways, but I did lose it. 

On Tuesday we had a multi-zone conference with President and we spent the hours of 9:30am to 7:30pm sitting in a chapel in our suits learning how to follow the rules, repent of rule breaking, and use the power of the atonement in our lives. President is pretty hardcore sometimes. So is Bruce R. McKonkie, who shared his testimony of Christ and the atonemont with us (thank you modern technology) in that conference two weeks before he died. It was pretty much the coolest thing ever. I had never seen it before. Blew me away. I want to repent of sins I havent even committed right now. Just to get closer to Christ. It was pretty awesome. One of those things that pleasantly reminds you that this is the true Church of Christ. Essentially, it comes down to this: the mission is hard sometimes. You really do miss some things, especially the people and companionships you left behind. But in the Mission, you make the most important companionship so much stronger, that of you and Christ. It lifts you and emboldens you. You may feel alone, but you never feel quite weak. It puts everything in your power to make things change, whether you want to change yourself, change your life, or change somebody else's life. One thing I have learned over the course of my mission is this: There are two types of things in this world: those that act and those that are acted upon (2 Nephi 2:14) and Christ's atonement gives us power to act and to change (2 Nephi 2:26). Therefore, as we grow closer to Christ, we grow closer to our potential to become who we want to be. There are many that say, "I can't do it because I don't know how." This is somebody who has to be acted upon, taught, in order to grow. Others say, "I won't because nobody else will." This is somebody who has to be acted upon, accompanied, in order to achieve. And still other say, "I don't want to do it because I'm scared." Again, this is somebody who has to be acted upon, led, in order to be who they can be. Christ's atonement teaches us to learn for ourselves through prayer and study, teaches us that failing is okay as long as we try again. Christ's atonement teaches us that we will never be alone as long as we keep ourselves clean, that we will not be abandoned except if we abandon Him. Christ's atonement teaches banishes fear and gives us the strength to make weak things become strong. I am so grateful that I do not have to wait for any human on this planet in order to become the Son of God that I want to be. I just need to change myself and use the help the Christ so graciously gave me. It is a precious gift.

I know the church is true. I'm doing awesome here in Fortin. Love you all and I look forward to hearing from you next week (the last Monday before the REAL changes).
Love,
Elder Johnson