Dear Mom,

Hey!!! They didn’t change me! Or my companion! Or any Elder in my district! The only change that happened was now our Zone Leader (the guy I report to) is Elder Trejo, who just finished his turn as assistant. So I’m hoping he whips me into shape. He’s pretty much a boss, from what I’ve heard, so I’m pretty excited. It’s always nice to have somebody pushing you. Honestly. I would not have said that, I think, a year ago. Gosh I love the mission. It’s such a special time of life.

Well, a pretty cool thing happened this week. First of all, it was one of those weeks where we lost like two complete days to travel (first, we had a zone conference on Wednesday and had to go to Oaxaca. Second, we had a baptismal interview on Friday and had to go to Tlaxiaco). So we were kind of crunched in our time to meet our goals and whatnot, especial since we wanted to increase the number of baptismal dates we had. But then, God sent us a tiny miracle.

See, there’s this girl named Andrea. She’s the granddaughter of the Relief Society President.  Andrea has wanted to get baptized for a long time now (she’s 21, by the way). She’s heard all of the missionary lessons a couple of times and has been to Church plenty of times. She’s studying in Puebla, and so when she’s out there, she actively goes to Institute. Problem is, she’s here every weekend and so has to get baptized here, which means dealing with her not so supportive family. We’ve actually only taught her once in my entire time here in Huajuapan. My comp had already explained to me the situation. So we showed up and just read chapter 24 of Mosiah, which is the chapter where the people of Alma have to use their patience in order to overcome their lamanite taskmasters. We talked about what she could do to overcome the person who was telling her that she couldn’t obey the commandments of God and how in the end, the right thing to do will always be the right thing to do, even if somebody gets upset at us for doing it. We taught this lesson a couple of weeks ago.

This last week, however, Andrea calls us to tell us that she’s decided to get baptized, no matter what others say.  She wants to get baptized in like two weeks. I’m excited. I hope she stays firm in her decision. Because, honestly, it’s true. Sometimes, it’s not going to be convenient to  keep the commandments. Sometimes, somebody is going to get upset if we do keep the commandments. That’s how good Satan is. He incites the hearts of the children of men to wrath against the good things of God. But all that wrath doesn’t change the fact that we have to keep the commandments. At least God won’t be mad at us. He will bless us during and after our periods of trial. We’ve just got to trust in Him. I love how God works. It’s so perfect.

I'll be praying for Tyrel this week. I hope everything continues to do well up there. I'm perfectly happy down here. See you in 2 years!

Love,

Elder Johnson

The first Baptism!

We baptized somebody! And it was my comps first baptism ever! I was very happy for him. It went spectacularly well, from our viewpoint. A bunch of members came, including some inactive member and a non-member came! We'll start teaching him on Tuesday. We had a good while changing activity as well. We brought a bunch of pictures and paintings of Christ and we had the members write their testimonies and messages to ___________. It was very spiritual, from our standpoint. The problem is________ has decided to get in the way. Her grandmother said that if she got baptized she was going to disown her as a granddaughter and her mother threatened to kick her out of the house. The only way she managed to stay there is that she is the only one of the family that has a paying job, so kicking her out would mean not having money. THat's it. It wasn't love, or family ties that kept ___________ in that house. It was money. I don't understand how the world can be so blighted and wrong sometimes. THat family doesn't even go to the Catholic Church, yet the fact that _________ got baptized in a different Church is so offensive to TRADITION that all love was forgotten. I hope __________ will be a good example for her family. They can change with time.

 On Wednesday, we should be going to the temple, which is going to be a blessing after being a hassle. We almost don't have time for the six hour drive and whatnot. We might have to go down on Tuesday night, which means we'll miss a ton of work time. I do not like that idea. I'd much rather just get up early so that we can save time. But we'll see. I'll have to talk to my comp about it all. I had an interesting situation with my comp the other day. He got super, super stressed - because of the baptism, because of divisions, because of giving a talk, because of the upcoming changes - and he almost couldn't work. He stopped sleeping, he started having nosebleeds, headaches, etc. He was down and depressed. This was a problem because I honestly don't know how to deal with stress. I'm not a stressed person. I don't generate stress well. So I didn't know how to help him. Luckily, God blessed us a lot, and sent me some revelation, and now we're all good. He feels a lot better and we should be able to work this week with little distraction. I'm excited for that. You learn how to do a lot new things on the mission, I can tell you that.

They Church is true. God wrote the Book of Mormon and it is, above anything, a testament of Jesus Christ, of His divinity and reality. I love it, I love Him, and I love the mission. I'll see you next week!

Clean Sidewalks

Tlaxiaco, the other area in my district, baptized on Saturday. So now it's our turn. We should be baptizing __________ on Saturday. Only one problem: COPPEL IS THE DEVIL!!  Coppel, for our non-mexican readers, is a big store like unto Best Buy or something like that. We know five inactive members, including the first counselor in the Bishopric, who only don't go to Church because Coppel makes them work on Sundays. And _____________ just got a job there. And she didn't go to Church on Sunday. I'm REALLY worried. Especially because when we saw her this week she said that she had gotten her answer from God and she looked really happy. I don't want her to have this trial. But I guess it's not really about what I want, is it? It's about what the Lord wants. My job is just to support and help _______________ in whatever way I can. Let's all have faith that we can figure this out.

Other than that, this was like the first week where we didn't have any major blows to our work schedule - no divisions, no baptismal interviews, no sick days, nothing (actually, on Sunday, my comp did get sick, but it was just because he ate really spicy food really fast to end a fast and he hasn't gotten used to spicy food yet. So it wasn't like a sick sick. Just a temporary sick). We just got to work. We actually had to do divisions as well, but I was in charge of planning them and not the Zone Leaders so they went a lot smoother and wasted less time. I got to work with Elder Teig. He's a good elder with like 13 months in the mission. He's from Utah and is the youngest of nine children, and he looks like he's about eight. He just got that baby face still. He's kind of quiet, but he's a really hard worker and he gets along well with people, so he should be fine. I just hope his comp helps him with Spanish.

Funny thing happened to me this week, actually on Monday after I had already written you. We were walking in the street and here, in Mexico, just so you know, it is common to clean the sidewalk (yup) with a bucket of soapy water and a broom. We saw some lady doing that, but she appeared to be taking a break, since she was just sort of zoning off staring at the street with the bucket of soapy water in her hands. We, without thinking, kept walking. Right as I crossed her path, she turned and threw the bucket of water with all her might. I got drenched. I stood there in shock for like 10 seconds. She stood there in shock for like 15. THen, I just laughed and kept walking. I mean, what else was I going to do, get mad? It was accidental and there was nothing we could do about it at that point anyway. She, however, thought differently. She got mad at me for walking on the public sidewalk and for being in the way of her errantly thrown bucket of water. Yeah, I don't quite get that either. Luckily, some nice ladies who saw the whole thing backed me up and told me that bucket lady was a little bit insane for getting mad. I just thought the whole thing was pretty funny.

Just so you know, Huajuapan has the world's coolest mormon old ladies ever. THe Hermana Matamoros is like 80 and she just tells it like it is. SHe's a boss. The Hermana Morales is 70 and she gracefully planches testigos de Jehovah on a weekly basis (no, don't do that, show them love, say the laughing missionaries. But she just keeps on planching). And I have no idea how old the Hermana Chabelita is, but she's sweeter that boiled granola bar (which, for those of you outside the world of Taggart, David, and Spencer, BGB is a camping dish composed of granola bars, water, all remaining honey, and about 40 metric tons of sugar). I want to be one of them when I grow up.

I tried to give you some new pictures. Let's see if you get them. The one with my comp in front of the map is the picture of the batman drawing he did for me. That's right, that sucker is mine. Guess what's going up amidst all the jazz decorations in my future room? That baby.

I don't know if I've told you all this but I love the mission. When I'm walking and talking with my comp, I just get this happy feeling. The mission is honestly the best thing that ever happened to me. I don't want it to end any time soon. If we (especially me) could all just do things the way the Lord want them to be done, we would just be happy. The Lord has a perfect plan of happiness. If this is what we really want, why don't we follow it?

Anyways, sorry about the box price change. Honestly, though, thinking about it, you've probably only got one more box to send between now and next year, so it shouldn't affect you too much. Then again, I think I read that part of your email thinking pesos and not dollars. AS for DAniel, I'm glad to hear he is getting better. I'm also glad to know that Lora is using this trial to strengthen her faith and not weaken it. That's really what trials are for, the strengthening of our faith. There are many trials, and many things that I don't understand, but we should never, ever use them as an excuse to not do what the Lord wants. If we do, we are just denying ourselves the good part of a hard trial. 

Love you all. I love God and I love His commandments. The Church is true. Don't doubt that. I'll see you in a year!

Elder Johnson

So I started off the week super excited, ready to meet goals and work my butt off and just be a missionary and everything went super well until about Wednesday when my comp literally couldn't speak at all (he communicated with through only the Spirit and written messages) and felt like his bones were in the process of shattering. So we did the only logical thing and tried to work. Kidding! That was Thursday morning when he still felt the same way, but on Wednesday morning, we went to the doctor and he essentially said that we had to rest the whole day. So we did, with Hermana Leyva's permission. I got really bored because, unfortunately, we are too pilas right now. The house was clean. The area book was organized and updated, and I couldn't leave. I got bored. So, like I said, on Thursday we tried to go work even though my comp couldn't speak still and still felt like tiny little creatures were constantly taking jack hammers to his bones. It didn't really work out, so we ending up resting AGAIN, under the Hermana Leyva's stict orders. I went crazy and starting just jabbering about anything that came to my head, dancing to Motab, and playing basketball in our tiny house with 6 and a half foot ceilings and no hoop. Somehow, a midst all that, my comp slept. 

Point is, we lost two entire days of work, so that was kind of a bummer. On the plus side, I learned how to properly give someone a shot in the butt. I learned how not to hit the some-crazy-latin-name nerve that will cause you legs to go to sleep for a month and I learned about the four quadrants that every cheek has and I learn how to stab myself in the finger with the needle while practicing on a lime. It's was a good experience. I guess there's a silver lining in everything.

Just so you know, we did put a baptismal date with (insert name here). She's super pilas. We gave her a Book of Mormon with the simple assignment to read just 2 Nephi 31 and she tried to read from 1 Nephi 1 to 2 Nephi 31 in ONE DAY! And she almost succeeded! She soooo wants to get baptized. We have to tell her no, you cannot get baptized until you receive a firm answer from God. All the members already love her. She's going to be a great convert. Honestly, thinking it about it, the Lord doesn't want me to do anything. He doesn't want me to find new investigators because that's the member's job. He doesn't want me to convince investigators because that's the Spirit's job. He doesn't want me to bring the investigators to Church because that's the investigator's job. I do nothing! I just cite things from Preach My Gospel and receive all the credit! The world is going mad!

Anyways, I want to tell you the coolest experience I had this week. So, we currently have a commission from our President to go and search out the people who were baptized in the Church but then stopped coming to Church to help those people become active again. We have to visit 8-10 people like that a week and in order to know who those people are, we ask the Bishop for a list. This last week, the first name on the list was Armando. We decided to visit him on our first work day of the week (Tuesday). 

We called him on Tuesday to see if we could come because he lives rather far away (like fifteen minutes in taxi) and we didn't want to travel all that way only to find that nobody was home. Hence, the foresight to call before. See, I do learn things in the mission. Anyways, he didn't answer, so we ditched the plan of visiting him and decided to do other things. But, later that same day, I felt an impression that I needed to visit him. I kept thinking about it and for some reason, it just became more and more important to me, until it got to the point where I had to call him again. This time, he answered. He said he wasn't home and that his wife said she was gonna go on some errands. He told that we could pass by though, if we wanted to. He would tell his wife just to stay home for a bit.

So off we went, to go visit his wife and not really knowing why, but feeling that it was pretty important. We got there and there she was. She answered the door normally enough and presented us to a friend who was there visiting her. We exchanged the customary pleasantries like "Hi, how are you?" and as soon as we asked her "how are you?" she burst into tears, sobbing. Apparently, somebody had just jacked their pick up truck and it had some important documents in it that she needed to pay a debt and now she didn't know what to do and she had prayed to God for help and lo and behold, we want to come visit her out of the blue. She asked for a blessing from the priesthood, for comfort and guidance. I had the privilege of giving it to her. We then spent the next hour talking about the purpose of trials in this life and sharing scriptures of comfort. She was positively beaming by the end of our visit and constantly reaffirming to us of the reality of God and the truth that He always answers prayers of faith (things, of course, that we, the missionaries, already knew, but reaffirm she did anyway). It was a wonderful experience. I've had many miracles in my life, but it's different to be on the other end of a miracle. I like it when God uses me to answer prayers. Nothing like it in the world. And then my companion got sick.

Life is just good in the mission right now. I have no complaints about anything (actually, I am kind of hungry right now....but wait, an investigator gave me a mango!). I don't really want to leave ever. It took me a lot longer than Taggart to reach that point, I think, but I officially able to say sincerely that I don't want the mission to end. I like it too much. So I'll see you in a year, I guess, if I have to.

Tell Jordan I say hi and then make fun of him a bit for me. Just for old time's sake. I'm sorry it is cold and dangerous. I sweat all the time out here. The only difference between winter and summer is that it is dryer in the winter. I hate having dry hands. But I like being warm. I think I will die my first winter when I get back because now I think that 60 degrees is "cold." What has Oaxaca done to me? Have a great week and I'll talk to you later!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Still a Jedi

****I had given Riley a little bit of a hard time about the quality of his letters lately.  The first paragraph is his response.*****


I am sorry that I appear disinterested/disrespectful/disengaged/something else that begins with "dis." That would be my bad. Let me tell you the truth: I blame it on my quickly worsening English. I don't think I know how to read anymore, I just misspelled the word English 7(!) times, and when I try to speak, a weird, alien mix of gibberish spews out of my mouth like a poisonous vomit. So that's why my letters are bad. Also, I have been trying to reduce my time in the internet so that I have more time to visit and teach. Don't worry, I think I've found our limit though. MY comp is ready to kill me because I scheduled citas at 3:30, 4:30 and 6 today. Ooops. Can't disrespect the missionary's Sabbath day. So my emails will be better in the future.

As far as not having much to report, it's the result of two principal factors: my journal writing has died since I decided to become an area book master. After all the effort I put into being organized(!) and filling that baby out, I'm exhausted and don't write in my journal. Therefore, I don't remember the cool experiences I had during the week. Sorry. The other factor is that missionary life has just become normal. I'm officially an old person in the mission now. The Pres called me out in a conference we had on Tuesday as one of those "about to return home." I'm hoping it's just an honest mistake. Where was I when the world council official decided that seven months equated no time at all? I would have definitely voted against that movement.

Okay, now, about BYU because I think we received revelation at the same time that maybe it is time to start thinking about college. Again. As far as what you sent me, I have no current plans about where to live.  Also, I need you to start investigating when my class registration date is. I will end up doing that in the mission when that comes up. I've already got Pres's permission (he asked me about it. Probably because I'm "about to return home." Sheesh). 

I hope that answers your questions. I'm shocked to hear about Daniel. I'll keep him in my prayers. It's weird when tragedies like that happen. I just met a missionary who has fourteen months in the mission. His brother died two months ago. I can't imagine. There's another one who's dad died during the mission. I won't lie, I'd probably go home if that were the case for me. It's a testament to the faith and testimony of these two missionaries that they are still here and still working. The Lord truly sends us His Comforter in these terrible times. He is the only one who can do that. And, as I ofter ask my investigators, what in the world does a Comforter do? He comforts, in a way that the world cannot (See John14:26-27). I hope he gets better.

Okay, on to mission related stuff. Kidding! First, I want Cody's email address. I'd like to see how he's doing. Alright, no more false starts. This week we traveled....a lot. I was in a van traveling through windy mountain roads for a grand total of 18 hours this week. I lost two entire days of work to traveling, first traveling to the conference on Tuesday, then traveling to Tlaxiaco to do a baptismal interview. In the mean time, I also did divisions with the zone leaders and worked a LOT with the members, as the Pres has indicated. It's been good. We've shared President Uchtdorf's "The Joy of the Priesthood" talk a lot in order to remind the active members that they have to stay active, stay encouraged, and stay working, no matter what type of ward you are in. It's really worked well. We also met a super prepared investigator.  Her cousin is a member who lives in California. He's going to be serving a mission in Salt Lake City soon. Supposedly, she promised him that she'd be a member before he got back. So far, so good. She's already been to Church three times, the last one coming by herself, and participates in class. She's really cool. I think we are going to put a baptismal date with her today. It's funny, but I've learned more than anything else in the mission that the Lord prepares people. He doesn't want me to prepare people, just like He doesn't want me to convince people. He is going to prepare people. He is going to convince people. I just have to be His mouthpiece. 

Not all prepared people start out super pilas though. Some need patience and time. All need love. You can tell if somebody is prepared or not by their willingness to keep their commitments. It won't be easy, but if they keep their commitments, they are prepared. I love God.

I was almost bit by a dog again this week. As I was l leaving the bishop's house, his dog broke the chain. I made a sick Indiana Jones type move and dodged him while shutting the door in his face. So yup, in case you were wondering, I am still a Jedi.

Guys, I am out of words. Just so you know, lose yourselves in service. It's such a joy. I don't know how to describe it, but worries, pains, and stress go away when you serve, especially when you serve in the way of the Lord. So do it. Do something nice. Go out of your way. Break the routine. Plan something for FHE centered on service. It truly makes you happy.

I guess I'll see you in a year. "About to return home" my butt. Peace out,

Once again...

Dear fam fam,

I am once again a district leader. President changed me instead of my comp who already had three changes in the area (he's going on his fourth now) and he sent me to Huajapam de Leon. It's a city (i think....it may be a pueblo) that is super far away from EVERYTHING! Seriously, three hours from Oaxaca and three hours from the other missionaries. Nobody is close. My companion and I are literally by ourselves. I am SO excited! I love it when the Lord just leaves me alone and let's me be the best missionary I can be. 

By the way, my companion's name is Elder Babb. Despite his English sounding last name, he is actually from Costa Rica, which brings the total number of my companions' nationalities to 7. I have almost had more companions from outside the U.S and Mexico (6) than from inside (7). Elder Babb seems really cool. He only has two weeks in the mission, so I'm training again too. He speaks English because his grandpa is from England, but we're speaking mostly Spanish so that I can improve my now defunct second language. 8 weeks with a Canadian will do that to you. Gosh I loved Elder Piereder though. He was a fun guy. 

Anyways, so we did have four baptisms last week. It was a crazy day on Saturday. First, we had three baptisms in Miahuatlan. We went to this BEAUTIFUL river with the world's cleanest water (yes, believe it or not, the world's cleanest water is, in fact, found in Mexico. You just have to go high up to the mountains to find it) and baptized Pedro and his two kids. We also brought an entire family of investigators to come see it and our recent convert, José Santiago, bore his testimony about his own conversion. I was so happy I almost died/jumped into the river to go swimming. Luckily, I resisted the urge. The best part, though, was that after the baptism, as custom, I invited every to go congratulate the newly baptized people. This they did, but I almost started crying when, unprovoked, Felipa, Pedro's wife who has not been baptized, came up and gave Pedro the world's biggest and happiest hug (also found in Mexico.)

Then, with the bishopric member in tow, we rushed to Ejutla for our fourth and final baptism. It was of a 10 year old kid named Daniel, the child of a reactivating family. It was short and sweet. The father, a tough, silent sort of man who absolutely loves the Gospel, baptized him in a tank of water. His older brother, Carlos, 16 years old, bore his testimony. Afterword's, Carlos confessed to us that he was actually fasting that day. We are proud of him and his little brother.

I think the best part of last week though might have been Sunday. After the four confirmations (that took a little bit of time), we had fast and testimony meeting. Although the most pilas family of the branch wasn't there, we went overtime. Carlos bore his testimony again and did a great job. The biggest surprise was when Pedro, recently baptized, shy, and soft-spoken, rose up to bear his testimony near the end. He explained how he is coming to see this not just as a good church but as the only true Church and that he knows that his baptism was the best decision he ever made. It was beautiful. I was sitting at the piano (I play piano in sacrament meeting now, by the way. Those lessons didn't go to waste afterall!) and I had to hid my face for a bit. It was to shiny and happy and I think I might have distracted the congregation.

Well, I got a package from the Greenhalgh's. I love that family. I just barely opened it, but I already love it. They gave me Star Wars candy. It's pretty ridiculously awesome. I send them a very grateful thank you. I love you all too and I guess I'll see you in a year or so!

Love,

Elder Johnson 

I got my boxes!

Dear mom,

I'm trying to send you photos to make up for not giving you the decent package update you deserved. This computer is just being really slow. To be fair, I realized well before your email (Thursday, to be precise) that is was very possible that I had forgotten to give you a definitive update on the wonderful packages you sent me. Yes, I have. Yes, I have already decorated our room (I will send you pictures a different week - for some reason, I have not taken them yet). So you'll only get zero total pictures in this email. Sorry, my bad. Anyways, Merry Christmas to all! We just had our annual Christmas Conference, where president told us to get good desires, the hermana Leyva made hand puppets to convince us to be obedient (they worked!), and we learned about the work of Salvation. Do you have that in Minnesota? It seems pretty cool. It essentially means that members do a lot more work now, which I am so excited to do after the miss. Minnesota won't know what hit it. 

We also played basketball (our zone placed second despite being the shortest) and broke piñatas. It was a good Christmas Conference, though I wish Pres would've let us watch a good 'ole Christmas movie. Seriously, would, "It's a Wonderful Life" really damage our spirituality? That's probably why he's the President and I'm not. This week in total was fun, if not as productive as I would have wanted, though that wasn't necessarily our fault. We did divisions on Tuesday (I went to Ocotlan with Elder Ramos, the shortest missionary in the missionary who happéns to be from, get ready for it, Oaxaca! Go figure!), which is like an hour away. Lots of travel time. We went to the temple on Wednesday. Did I ever tell you that temple trips are becoming a neccesity for me? Cuz they are. Gosh I love that place. But that's two hours away, so more time lost. Then, the Christmas conference, also two hours away. To top it all off, I got sick on Sunday (I'm better now), so we didn't work too much. Luckily, this week looks pretty clear, so we'll get some good work in.

Honestly, all we've got on the schedule is a baptism and a family home evening night for the branch, and they both occur on Saturday. José  is finally getting baptized. His work occasionally gets in the way, but we had a super cool lesson with him on Friday. He's heard all the lessons, so we were struggling to think up what to teach him. We finally decided on lesson five, generally taught after baptism. We were going to teach the temple and family history part of that lesson. Right after we said the prayer, his phone rang. It was his wife, who he is separated from. Apparently they didn't have a happy relationship due to some bad decisions-making by him, which is something he is and has changed. Anyways, ever since he starting taking the gospel seriously, things have been getting better with his wife. This instance was such a case. After the phone call, he told us, "She never calls me in the afternoon." Then he got this super huge smile and said, "I love it when she calls me." Let's hear it for the Gospel blessing families! Looks like Christ is the answer! Hooray! Anyways, he's super stoked for his baptism, as is the branch, and he's also super stoked for family history, and he makes me super stoked too. It's a good thing we've got going.

By the way, we are changing the phone call to 7pm on the 24th. We will be doing skype. We have already found an internet cafe with skype that will be open on the 24th. HOpe that works.

I'm going to write Taggart and Colton their own special emails. I need to go, but have a wonderful Christmas! I'll write Tyrel next week too (is he really going to be nineteen? And how old is Aubrey, I can't seem to remember anymore). Love you all! See you in a year!

Love,

Elder Johnson

"The mom is coughing"

December is exhausting. There's just so much to do: Christmas Party on the 15th, temple trip on the 12th, Christmas Choir on the sixteenth, a baptism somewhere in there, plus all my normal missionary duties. And I have to somehow do it all while wearing a Santa Hat. I just don't know how I will manage.

I had another great week, just so you know. Things are really working out out here in Miahuatlan (not the prettiest place I've ever been to, but the coldest, which is perfect for this time of year). We keep getting people to Church, despite the logistics. This week, a man named Miguel came, the father of a large family of people who are all interested in the Church. We have a family home evening with them like every week. They are super cool, so I hope to baptized like five people sometime soon, all from that family. As for the other large family that is progressing, the hermano Pedro keeps going to Church. He now has three weeks in a row going to Church and seems a lot more comfortable there. People call him by his first name now, which is also a sign of progress. I think he would easily accept a baptismal date at this point, but we want to baptize him with his entire family and they are not quite at his level yet. Also, a little unbaptized ten year old from a less active family came. We are working with the entire family and they are doing well. We are going to really start teaching the kid, Daniel, this Friday, which, coincidentally enough, is when his mom is having a C-section. We helped her husband  not only go to Church, but also give her a blessing for the operation. The both seemed really happy afterwords. It made me smile.

More progress on the horizon as well: the branch organization presidencies did their jobs!!! We've been giving like weekly training meetings on how to organize and run home/visiting teaching programs. We left the assignments with the relief society and elders quorum presidents to create the teaching companionship's and assign each companionship to less active families to visit. They did it. Now we have to communicate it to the rest of the ward. If this actually gets off the ground, it's gonna be a pretty cool legacy to leave as a missionary. Ejutla will be like one of three ward/branches that actually does visiting/home teaching. I'm pretty excited about it.

So, cool thing: Elder Piereder is super into science fiction fantasy stuff, like me! Okay, so I fell off the wagon a bit in recent years, but he's getting me excited about it all over again. We decided to write a story together yesterday. It's already in the works. It will be positively EPIC! And super high-school! I'm SO excited about it. I haven't goofed off in such an appropriate way since going Halloween caroling four years ago. My life is awesome, I might add.

Umm, I'm trying to think of a cool experience that I had this week. I had a ton, but they are all in my journal, which is at my house, which is not where I am. I do remember a sad thing: the other day, while walking through a festival in honor of the Virgen of Juquila (they literally celebrate December 8th more than December 25th. I AM NOT JOKING), we saw one of those fun carnival games where you shoot at various things with toy pistols. In this game, you shot at various scenes set up using toys and dolls. The sad part was that one of these scenes was called "Table Dance Barbie" and it was a bunch of barbies dressed like hookers pole dancing. This game was marketed to kids. The world makes me very, very sad.

I have to counter that with a good story, I think. THere was that time when we went to go look for somebody, but instead we stumbled upon a college kid who wasn't sure he believed in God. Ooops, I just told the entire story. Better, I think, the one about Georgina, the mother of that unbaptized kid I was talking about (Daniel).  Sometimes it seems like she absolutely loves us and then the next day it seems like our visit is the worst thing in the world. So, on Friday, when we went to visit her (we had an appointment!), it wasn't really a surprise that she, without even coming to the door, told us that she was busy and that we should come back on another day. We were about to turn and leave when I remembered that she had asked for a blessing a week earlier and that we carried oil with us this time. I reminded her about it. She came to the door and asked if we could kind of sort of maybe just give her a quick blessing right then. We happily obliged. After giving the blessing, this was when she revealed to us the information about the emergency C-section and whatnot and all her worries and fears about that. So, we taught her a lesson and reminded her to pray and to remember that Christ knows exactly what she's dealing with and that He is willing to help and capable of helping. Then she asked us to teach her unbaptized son, but we honestly didn't have time at that point. But then, her teenage son asked for a blessing. We gave him one. Then her ten year old. We gave him one. The Spirit was very strong in that house when we left. I hope we can reactivate them all.

Well, about the Christmas phone call. We're looking to do it on the 24th at around 4 or 4:30. We are looking to do Skype again. Let me know if that works. Other than that, just remember: Church is true and I love you all. Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Johnson

A very cool week

I like it here, in Miahuatlan. First, I was a little hesitant, hearing about the problems bringing people to church and about the lack of baptisms, but now that I've gotten to know it, I really quite like it. Yeah, there are some logistical problems, but God makes up for it by providing us with some truly spectacular experiences and people. It's a fun place. But, I'm just gonna get business out of the way first: The two packages have arrived, but I haven't gotten them yet. They are with my zone leaders, who should bring them to me tomorrow, I hope. So don't worry about that. Also, just so you know, my comp and I are looking to do Christmas phone calls on the 25th this year. That's about it for business.

On to the cool stuff. 

First of all, I knew to tell you about José Santiage. Coolest guy ever. He is 26 years old and a soldier, but only the most intelligent, thoughtful soldier you'll ever meet. He lives here by himself on the base because his wife refuses to come live with him for some of the past things he's done. So, obviously he needed to make some changes in his life. Enter the missionaries (not us). They contact him in a restaurant and he listens mostly because he likes to talk with people. They give him a Book of Mormon, and he accepts, but only because his mom taught him to always accept books in order to learn more. He started to read and slowly but surely found a testimony. He should be getting baptized on the 22. Now for the story. 

I don't really know him that well. He's always just be super cool and super thoughtful. He talks to everybody, participates in lessons, whether we are teaching him or not, and goes out of his way to come lessons so that we don't have to cross into the military base. Anyways, so we began a kinda confused and random lesson with him (we hadn't planned it well and he's listened to everything like twice). I started talking about enduring to the end at some point and I was explaining how he needed to continue progressing after baptism through things like the priesthood and the temple. I felt inspired to open up to Matthew 5:48, which reads, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect." I explained how that was kinda of the goal of this earthly life. He sat there, thinking for a little bit after I said that. Then he began to talk.

He explained to us that a while ago, he had been on the Internet researching the Mormons (never a good idea, right?). He had found an, um, unfavorable website that said the Mormons were bad because they compare themselves to God. It even had a Book of Mormon quote to back it up. Luckily, José recognized this as an anti-Mormon site, but thought, "Well, what if they're right?" He decided to verify the Book of Mormon quote, which he quickly found to be 100% false. Still, the doubt stuck with him. Do Mormons believe they should be like God here on earth? Because that's  weird, he thought. He carried that doubt with him for months. But then, right then, in that random, poorly planned lesson, we had somehow, miraculously resolved it for him. We were like the two bumbling idiots that found the treasure chest by accident. Thank goodness God wants this man to get baptized. Because, for heaven's sake, there was Jesus Christ saying, as clear as day, and in the Bible too, that we need to be perfect. So we better be trying, right?

It was just cool. He gets it (the it being the gospel). He said, "I don't know why, but I just feel happy right now." That made me feel good, which is pretty much how I feel recently. 

Another little success story requires a little bit of explanation. We live in a town called Miahuatlan. Maihuatlan is about 45 minutes away from another town called Ejutla, which is where we go to church. To get there, you have to ride these little vans called Suburbans that charge 25 pesos a person. Miahuatlan is very poor. These people need severe help with their faith. For all these reasons and more, it has been incredibly difficult to get investigators to church, until this week. What happened was we've been working with a family of four for awhile. The father of the family  used to be a drunk. A violent drunk. This caused nasty problems with his wife. They now do not live together, but are also not divorced. They just don't get along well, although the father has completely reformed. That means that whatever he wants to do, his wife immediately does not want to do it as some form of crazy vindicitive psychological revenge. The father  wants to go to church because it is helping him to change; that means his wife does not. It kinda sucks. The miracle, is that after weeks and weeks of talking to them about obedience to the commandments and inviting them to Church, all four came on Sunday, plus José Santiago, which means we had five legit investigators at Church on Sunday. And they participated more than the members.

Anyways, love you all. I keep praying for Uncle Russ. I hope everything gets white soon. See you in a year!

Love,

Elder Johnson

P.S. Noche de Hogar mean family home evening. Sorry

Things for which I am Thankful

This is an edited version, folks!

 I love this time of season. It brings me back to eight years old again. It also gives me ganas to buy stuff. So if I draw out my personal money this month, just know that it is being used towards Christmas and birthday gifts to myself. My gosh, I'm self-centered, aren't I? I'll try to make up for it by sending you my REAL thankful list, now that I've been able to read all of yours (except for dad's). By the by, they made me cry again. Good going.
Anyways,

1. The Atonement - I am so thankful for this. I believe in Christ. I believe He lived a perfect life.  He made it possible that I might be forgiven. At times, I think I understand it. Then, at other times, I think, "Why would a teacher pass me on my failed test just because my classmate got a perfect?" I think God just loves us too much. He wants every single one of us to become something that we cannot vision nor comprehend. We cannot see it, therefore we do not trust it, therefore we fight against it and put our will in front of His, but it all comes back to the Atonement. Truly, it was the reconciliation between us and God. I am so grateful for it. He loves us, He wants us to love others so that we might feel more love. We, especially me, have some much work to do in learning to live the Christlike life.

2. The Book of Mormon - I have not read it enough recently. I have now read it at least two times in two different languages and I don't get it. It makes me a better person, yet it neither thinks nor acts. It is simpler, yet more profound than all other books. I feel like I have all the stories and scriptures memorized, yet if I read it, I make better decision throughout the day. There is a power in that Book, a divinity that we cannot comprehend, and it is only another example of God's love and understanding for us. If all people read the Book of Mormon, we would not have the problems that we have in the world today. How can anybody say that it doesn't come from God?

3. People Willing to Listen - Getting in a house, whatever house, gives me a chance to do what I love doing: share the Gospel of Happiness with people who are remarkably far away from their potential. I love people willing share a few minutes with me. I don't want much, though they give me water and food and other things sometimes. I just want their time to deliver my message and my invitation to come unto Christ. I am blessed when God entrusts me with one of His precious and valuable children. I do not fully understand my responsibility for if I did, I would certainly be a lot more afraid of it.

4. People Willing to Change - They are few and far between. I am not talking, anymore, about people willing to listen with their ears. There are many of those. Turns out, there are quite a few people in this world willing to be respectful and cordial to tie-wearing strangers. However, there are very few loving and humble enough to listen with their hearts, to truly search out God. We are all so stuck in our ways, yet we know from the scriptures that God's ways are not our ways. Why won't we change then? Therefore, I am thankful for all the people better than me who are willing to listen and to change. Those who stop drinking, who quit drugs, who serve, who love, who take time that they've never taken before for God, those are the people better than me, regardless of their currently religion. I love people willing to change.

5. President - President is not the most compassionate of men. There have been many times when I have gone to him in my mission seeking comfort and instead only gotten the cold, hard truth. It has left me feeling bitter and abandoned sometimes, resentful and angry, but then, after that moment has passed, it leaves me feeling edified. He teaches me. He teaches me to own up to my actions and decisions and to not shift the blame to anybody else. He teaches me to truly repent and invites to do this essential step in my salvation. He has never lied to me, he has never been anything but constant. He has not altered in his stance against immature and unprepared missionaries. He, like the Lord, demands righteous missionaries and because of that stance, I am a far better missionary today than I would have been if I had been left to my own devices. I am thankful as well to the Hermana Leyva, who, honestly, is a cartoon character come to life. She has a Disney princess sized waist, way to much make-up and often makes me laugh, but she cares. She loves as a mother should. She is the yin to President's yang. Together, they are the perfect super team. I hope their son the best as he prepares for his mission in the states. He's a darn good basketball player, by the way.

13. Good Examples - I have many of them. My aforementioned family is the biggest of these examples, but I have others. I have prophets and apostles to guide me, both ancient and modern. Could we really find a better example of Christ-like, selfless service than Thomas Spencer Monson? It's ridiculous how few people there are in this world who know he exists. Watch "On the Lord's Errand" please. It really is an excellent movie. I would also like to mention here missionaries like Elder Day, Elder Gibbons, Elder Bridgeraj and Elder Edwards who are missionaries that really understand what sacrifice is and how to truly serve. Also, I have my friends from BYU like EJ, Shep, Tay-Tay and the gang, who just do their best and don't worry about the rest. I need this many examples in my life. 

14. The Utah Jazz - They are my pride and joy. I would choose them above everything except for my family and the gospel. That includes all girls, food, technology, and star wars. I miss them dearly. The world is not the same without them. I get why everything else is denied to a missionary, but couldn't they just let me have my Jazz updates. I swear I wouldn't ask for anything more.

15. No Worries - On the mission, I just worry about talking to people. At home, I would worry about careers, family, girlfriend, friends, influences, money, making an impact, resumé, job, temptations, food, rent, where I live, what I study, classes, teachers, how much sleep I get, etc. I am thankful I worry for nothing for two whole years of my life.

16. The Mission - It is such a blessing to be here. I am learning everyday, growing everyday, and being tried by fire everyday. Surprisingly, I have made it halfway through without giving up. That is a blessing. Nobody else I knew before the mission really has done what I have done. I have direction and vision in my life. I have confidence in my God. I need nothing else. Nobody from my highschool can say the same. I should not be bragging about this, but I can't resist. My Church has taught me more than your church and it's because of the mission. I am thankful for every person I've met, every convert that I have, every member who has given me food, and every second of this experience. I love the mission.

17. Mexican Culture - It's fun. It's weird. It's foreign to me still. They worship virgins, love visits, make great food. They are simple, real, intelligent, incredible people. They are soooooo hard working. They make cool clothes. They eat a lot of fruit. I want to keep some of this with me when I have to go back there.

18. Patience - I do not have much of it, but I am grateful for all I have. Mostly, though, I am grateful that other people have it. My mom, my dad, my siblings, my president, my companions, and, most importantly, My God. They have not given up to me. I am very thankful for patience.

19. The Holy Ghost - I drive him away a ridiculous amount, yet he always comes back to gently guide me and counsel me. I could not have accomplished what I have accomplished in my mission without him. He is the way my Father communicates with me. He makes me feel good. That's more than I could every ask for right there. Most of all, when he is with me, I know I am doing alright, for if I weren't, he would be gone. It's good to have that guide.

20. The Light of Christ -  I always have hope. We can always do better, always climb out of the hole that we dug, and always get back to Christ. I am grateful for that.

Well, that's it for this year. I've got to go do a Noche de Hogar. We need to start establishing skype details for the Christmas phone call. Love you all and see you in a year!
Elder Johnson

A Political Rant

I can be pretty dumb sometimes. News flash, I know, but I would like to reinforce that common knowledge. I am pretty dumb. Why? I have now served over a year as a full-time missionary and for some reason I think that NOW is a good time to start staying up late. After three consecutive nights of midnight or later bedtimes, I was pretty much exhausted on Sunday. Good thing today is P-day. I wasn't even doing anything important - talking to my comp, writing letters, reading newspapers, etc. I just stayed up late. I will NOT be doing that again this week. I repent; wickedness truly never was happiness.

Anyways, it was kind of a normal week for me. We put four new baptismal dates (all for the 24th), but only two of them I feel confident about. Not that confident, but kind of confident. Good at the very least. We have a new rule in the mission where every missionary has to invite somebody to be baptized every day. Not every companionship, but every missionary. I love it. It used to be so hard for me to bring up baptism in the first lesson. Now I just walk up to people and say, "Hey we`re your local missionaries and we're her to baptize you in the true Church of Jesus Christ!" And the surprising part is that people are just like, "Okay, I'm cool with that." Works like a charm.

So we've mostly been inviting people to baptism. Elizabeth, an investigator who had been dropped by the previous missionaries now has a date. She pretty much got there by herself. After explaining why it was necessary that we have a true Church here on the earth in the first lesson, she's been pretty stellar. She dropped coffee by herself when her non-Mormon friend told her that Mormons don't drink coffee before we even taught her the Word of Wisdom. So, on Saturday, after we brought her to a lesson with Leydi (it was a fun, joint lesson for a recent convert and a progressing investigator), we started talking. We asked her if she was still praying to know if the Church was true. She said yes. We asked her how she felt. She said yes, which, as you might have noticed, is not your typical response to the question, "how do you feel?" So we asked her, "yes what?" And she said, "Yes, I'm going to get baptized." So we put the baptismal date. It was super easy and the highlight of my week (although going to Jalapa for the second time on divisions was fun too).

I also had to make a quick trip to Oaxaca on Wednesday (quick being ten hours there and back in a bus). Don't exactly know what happened, but I had to go do visa stuff again. It was a pretty routine thing, but the best part was seeing some of my old generation buddies. Elder Graves is still just as happy as ever. I love that guy.

I really can't comment much about the election since I'm not there and no longer have an informed political opinion, but let me tell you what I think: I think you are over-reacting. While it may be true that Obama is changing quite a few things and it is possible that the wrong man won, I guarantee that I will not be returning to a socialist country. The fact that Obama won again neither surprises me nor makes me worry for the state of the common American's psyche. This was, from what I heard, an incredibly close race. And, just so you know, the incumbent almost always wins when he decides to run again. In the entire history of the United States, in only two occasions when the incumbent has decided to run for a second term has he lost. 2 occasions!!! That's incredible! Mom, I don't think Romney lost to Socialist America. I think Romney lost to inertia. That's why we still use window's computers instead of a Mac in our family, why Andy Reid is still coaching the Eagles, and why Oaxacans think that constructed houses out of large pieces of aluminum is a viable option for a family. It's hard to change the direction of a large group of people. And the larger the group of people, the more likely they are to stay the same. That's why Romney lost. And that's why Obama's not going to change as much as you think.

Let's think about this: In his first four years in office, Obama changed some things. He pulled us out of Iraq and Afghanistan. He changed the healthcare system. Gay Pride has taken a step forward. And so forth. But has he really changed that much? We're still in wars. What's the difference between Libya and Afghanistan? 

Healthcare is still expensive, but our family can still afford it. And it still works - ask Aunt Kris if you want proof of  that.  As far as Gay pride goes, well, the states may change the laws, but God won't. And in the end, most guys are still gonna like girls. They are far too pretty for that not to be the case. So don't overreact mom. We are a nation of more than 300 million people that don't change that much. Obama's not even solely in charge of the government. In the words of Winston Churchill, no single man or women can "hurt they world. They can't even seriously distress her."

Keep paying those taxes, putting America on your Thanksgiving thankful list, buying those groceries, and casting that ballot. Life will go on. Democracy is here to stay. I guarantee that I will change more lives in my two years than Obama will in his eight. Just think about that.

Love you, love the Church, love the commandments, love prayer. I love this mission. It has taught me so much. 

See you in a Year!

Elder Johnson 

Cockroaches in the font

That's right, we're baptizing again! I don't know how long it's been exactly since there has been a baptism in Tehua, but when started to fill up the font, two cockroaches, a ton of centipedes, and a bunch of other fun critters crawled up out of the drain. And then, thanks to our bishop not really supporting us, we had to clean those buggers up by hand. Which we did. But the baptism went wonderfully and Leydi seems happy with it all, which is the most important thing.

Baptism has been a big focus this month in our zone. Like, my second week here, the zone leaders asked me to make some goals for my district. One of the goals that I made was to invite somebody to baptism every day. As I was explaining this to Elder Day (a chill, former snow boarder from Utah - we did divisions on Tuesday (which would have gone great had I not gotten so lost)) over the phone, I heard, "Holy crap, are you serious?" I panicked and thought I had set a goal that was too high and immediately tried to justify my decision. But after I calmed down a bit, Elder Day explained that the reason for his surprise was that he and his comp, in a revelation filled planning session the night before, had thought up the same goal for the zone. So it became doubly important. And now we are inviting everybody we meet to baptism. We haven't seen the upswing in dates yet, but I think that will come this week. Either way, it's been fun to overcome nerves and start just telling people the moment you enter a house, "Hey, we're your missionaries and we are here to prepare you for baptism in the Church of Jesus Christ!" It actually works out a lot better than you think.

Another thing that has contributed to the baptismal invitation craze was a multi-zone conference we had on Thursday. Elder Alonso from the seventy came. He is the second counselor in the Area Presidency of Mexico and he, before being a general authority, lived in Oaxaca for eight years. He was really cool and really funny and taught us a lot about inviting people to get baptized and asking for references as well as the light of Christ. He talked about how when we are disobedient, the Spirit leaves us. So what motivates us to repent and get the Spirit back? It is certainly not the Spirit because that has left us. It is certainly not ourselves because we are natural men and inclined to sin. It is the light of Christ, or, in other words, the emergency light the turns on in a building after the rest of the lights have shut off due to loss of power. We always, therefore, have an impulse to do good. It doesn't matter who we are, what we know, or what we have done, the light of Christ will always motivate us to do good. That is why we can't just give up after committing a sin, small or large. We will always have something influencing us for the good. Thank Goodness Christ does so much or I would be really lost.

Another fun story from the week. The same day that we returned from the Conference in Juchitan, we were going to an appointment when we saw somebody we recognized on the side of the road. It turns out that it was Raquel, a girl who had been baptized like a year ago but who had never got confirmed. We went over to say hi to her like good, friendly missionaries do. That's when she hid her face.

I first thought it was a joke, like, "Oh, here come the missionaries, let me hide my face and play 'if I can't see them, they can't see me.'" Then, when she refused to uncover her face after good -natured cajoling, I thought she was legitimately embarrassed to be seen with missionaries in public and this was her defense mechanism. It was then when I realized that the truth was that she was crying and she did not want us to see her.

So we talked with her. We listed. We sang her Christmas hymns to cheer her up, right there on the street corner. She stopped crying. She started laughing. She said she would pray. We helped her home. She promised to go to Church. It was one of those times when I just felt like a missionary. When you change your plans and sacrifice your own agenda just to help somebody who is obviously in need, you feel like a missionary. And it is a great feeling. Then I said hi to a Jehovah's witness who had the misfortune to knock our door. He now has a Book of Mormon. I love life.

Love,

Elder Johnson

"Life in Tehua" or"tormenting goats"

Dear Mom,

You make life in Minnesota seem so cool. By the by, still haven't gotten your halloween box because I am in the middle of nowhere. I look forward to receiving it sometime next week.  I look forward to a great Christmas box as well.(Wink, wink, nudge, nudge).  (Kidding, I am no longer that self centered.    I don't need/want anything.  Except for baptisms.  Can  you box that up?) Also, the giant storm thing sounds cool. Cool as in the sense of interesting, not as "cool that a bunch people are going to lose their homes and possessions because of this." That part certainly is not cool. But it is interesting the timing  and proportion of all this. Also, I am excited that Tyrel is doing so well. I personally think he is just behaving nicely because he knows Santa is watching. And maybe because all of us need a holiday break every once and awhile, including Tyrel. 

Anyway, back to Tehua. Things are really good out here and I don't know why. We had a miraculous nine people come to church on Sunday, which means we should be putting some baptismal dates this week. I don't really get it; I don't feel like I'm doing anything different, but yet I'm having a lot more success. We are teaching more members, finding new investigators, bringing people to Church, and working better with the members. I think it's my companion. He's pretty cool and he works really hard. Here are some highlights from my week: I did divisions twice. First with Jalapa, a beautiful town with a cooler climate, a resevoir, broad boulevards, and nice, humble people. I love it there. I want to live there. Especially if I was living with Elder Cruz, who is the nicest, humblest, coolest Poblano I've ever met (unfortunately, they special changed him the next day). Then, on Friday, I did divisions with Gueingola and Elder Allegretti, a former comp from my time in the trio in la Hacienda. 

I had a little revelation today. I was sitting in the bus on the way to Salina Cruz to go buy my weekly food (we have to travel a half hour by bus just to find a decent supermarket - and then another 30 minutes back in the bus with all our food) and suddenly I thought: if I continue the mission at this pace, I will leave with no regrets. I need to keep working hard, trying to meet goals, get up on time, and try to be positive, and I will go home content with what I did and what I gave. I think that's the important part - if we feel happy with what we gave to the Lord. I haven't been the perfect missionary at times. But I've tried to be a good missionary and I've tried to keep that to a minimum. So now I just need to do it for another year.

My week was great, in short. We also had a day of special changes where everybody in the district except for me was affected by it, yet I had to spend half my day in the ADO, waiting for new missionaries, doing my duty as a district leader. That's another thing I've been meditating a lot on recently. My duty as a leader. I've got a ton of time being a district leader, so I think it's about time I shape up. Plus, I read an awesome Liahona issue that talked about the importance of duty, using Christ and President Monson as examples. Essentially, what's hardest for me is considering the success of the elders in my district my successes and the failures of the elders my failures. I have to edify them and take care of them just as much as I do for myself. And it's hard enough to take care of me. But the Lord and President Leyva have asked that I expand my capacity, so I guess that's what I have to do.

This email is a little all over the place. I think it's time to stop. Some man is tormenting goats near us. Oaxaca is weird. Gotta love it. See you in a year!

Love,

Happy 25th Birthday!

Dear Mom,

I am a terrible son. Somehow, I can remember the birthdays of all of my siblings, but not of my parents. I am sorry. But, better late than never and I hope you had a very very happy 25th birthday and I hope everybody properly celebrated your existence by bottling tomatoes, washing dishes before putting them in the dish washer, and yelling at poor, confused chickens. I think it should have been an international holiday where even missionaries get a break. Because we need a break. It is hot down here in Tehua.

All right, I will do my best to tell you about Tehua. There is honestly not that much to say. It is certainly poor and very hot and looks about as in ill-repair as the rest of Oaxaca, which means quite a bit of ill-repair. No women have heckled me like that, but I have gotten some "mmm, sexy guerro" comments (guerro is a person with not black hair and not brown eyes) and I am teaching an unusual amount of women. Out of our like 30 total investigators, approximately 25 of them are women. It's kind of weird. We just don't meet guys that often. Anyways, I do really like the house I live in. It is big and spacious and has two floors and a lot of water so I don't worry about running out that much. Elder Carrasco is cool too. He likes toy story, roasted chickens, shirts with pinstripes, and working. We taught 17 lessons this week, which was pretty fun. I look forward to this transfer. We should be having a baptism in like two weeks of an 11 year old named Leydi. She's really cool and really into the church. I hope we can get more of her family to start going too. 

Tehua, by the way, is famous for having a giant statue of a woman at its entrance that was designed to look like the tin man's girlfriend. That's about it.

Other than that, it's hot. I'm tired. I'm going to lose weight sweating so much. My district is pretty cool too. Elder Cruz is the mayor (senior) in Jalapa and he's super pilas (awesome in a church sense). His comp is Elder Beulieau (the bear, like in Jungle book) who is new and who is huge (physically) and who I like a lot. He's friendly. 

Anyways, I've got to get going soon. Love you lots and love the whole fam. Tell Colton hi for me. See you in a year!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Hello from Timbucktu

So they changed me. That's the big news. Honestly, I wasn't really expecting it. I thought (hoped) I would be staying in my area one more transfer but president kiboshed that by sending me to Tehuantepec. It's a small place (not like a pueblo small, but like not at all big. Bigger than Puerto Angel, but our house is bigger than Puerto Angel too) and it's five hours from the city. So your package will never see me! Kidding! I think!

Anyways, I don't have much time to write this week, thanks to the changes and the long bus ride. I just want to talk about blessings. I receive a lot of blessings and last week it got to the point where I felt like I didn't deserve them. God was blessing me with new investigators left and right and helping my investigators to progress as well. I felt like I was failing Him, like I wasn't working hard enough or obeying strict enough. All I know is that there is a law irrevocably decreed in heaven upon which all blessings are predicated and I am determined to obey that law here in my new area. I want my new area to be as cool as my last area. La hacienda really was just becoming super pilas. We just found a super sweet new investigator named Jeny who had already been to general conference and church, who understood things, who asked question, and who had real, genuine interest. Also, a bunch of new investigators went to church and I was teaching like at least three other lessons and a lesson with a member per day. We were finally starting to see the benefits of all our previous hardwork when President had to go and mess it up by sending me to Tehuantepec.

Anyways, my new companion's name is Elder Carrasco. He is from Sinaloa Mexico and has 13 months in the mission.  I don't have any worries about him. I just have worries about dealing with the heat again. The itsmo is always hot and I'm in the center of the itsmo. I hope I make it. Anyways, love you all. Excited to hear about Colton and sister missionaries and Tambert. See you in a year!

Love,
Elder Johnosn

******Everyone notice that Riley has been in Mexico so long that he's even forgotten how to spell his own last name!*************************

My LIfe Has Changed Forever

So, as you might have already figured out, my life has changed dramatically recently. President Monson recently announced that all male missionaries can leave on the missions at 18 and all female missionaries can leave when they are 19. He said that being the prophet of God, inspired, and with the intention to save more souls than ever before in an increasingly perverse world. He also said it, I'm sure, without even bothering to consider the social impacts it was gonna have on BYU. Think about it! The guys won't be a big deal. All it means is that there are going to be a lot less freshmen guys living in the dorms these days. I mean, it's weird for return missionaries to live in the dorms and it will be weird for 19 or 20 year old pre-missionaries to be at BYU considering all of the "So when are you going on the mission?" questions they are bound to get. So I don't know how that will work out, but it will be a little different. The big difference will come with the girls. Before, girls were going to BYU with the idea that they were gonna be there for three years. Three years is enough time to get married, in the BYU world. It's certainly enough time to find a serious boyfriend. Three years, if you are motivated and driven, is enough time to graduate from your major or find a career. One year, simply put, is not. A TON of BYU girls will now be serving missions, which I have a sneaking suspicion was the Lord's intention. And who does that leave the return missionaries to date? Well, if you are me, none. Because I just so happen to come back just in time for these new limits to take full effect. This next year, the last of my mission, will be a year of adjustment and preparation. People will still be getting used to the idea. They will already have plans, already have signed up for classes, already have started classes, and most of them will not have the will power or the mindset to just throw all those plans and classes out the window in the first moment. Things don't change that fast. But, after a year of adjustment and preparation, all of those Utah high school seniors will have been able to change their plans and their mindsets. Girls will arrive at BYU with the same mindset that many men used to arrive at BYU with: I'm here to have fun, get a start on my career, and prepare for my mission. And it will change the social world. As my house companion Elder Allegretti bluntly stated, I'm scared of change. 

Anyways, other than those fears, I think it's a great thing. I'm really excited to see what the new dynamic mission will be like by the time Colton gets there (for what it's worth (it's really his decision), I think he should take advantage of the 18 thing), the mission is gonna to be a lot more mixed. It's not going to be 95% elders and 5% hermanas and seniors. It's going to be a lot more mixed, probably still a majority of Elders, though. A lot of different talents, challenges, and changes. It's going to be, dare I say it, a modern mission. I think it will be really cool. And, after the announcement, we just had a ballin' conference. Sorry, mom, you missed the best part. Priesthood Session rocked my world. President Monson just dominated the last talk. I got so amped to just share my testimony after that and be a good person. There is a really good way to know that he is a Prophet of God, and I think Moroni said it best. Whatever persuades us to do good, whatever is uplifting, or edifying, whatever brings the Spirit into our lives, that is from God. President Monson does that. He doesn't need to expound doctrine like a scholar. He doesn't need social life changing announcement. He just needs to be the good person that he is and do what he does best: bring the Spirit. I love him so much. 

Anyways, what I gathered, overall, from this conference, is that we need to be worried about spiritual apathy. The talks, while they very much were directed at non-members, were also directed to us.  The basic, come unto Christ, faith, repentance, baptism thing aren't things that we, as members, have already done. They are things we need to do. I feel that we are spiritually apathetic in this day and age. Perhaps you and dad no because you are smarter, wiser people than us, but really, my generation. Justification has become so easy. Words speak louder than actions. We all just want to get along, so I better not do or say anything that could offend anyone. What I mean is that we are not in danger of being Cain; we are in danger of being sophisticated neutrals. How do we stop that? Getting back to basic and helping, boldly, our spiritual apathetic counterparts to do the same. We have had too many deep doctrine debates that have numbed the simple, quiet power of a prompting of the Spirit. The mind trumps the heart in nearly all people, myself included. We need to get a testimony by feeling the Spirit and become converted. This isn't a complicated thing. God works still as He did before cellphones and internet, before archeology, before universities, before reading. He works through the Spirit and while that may be boring, it is perfect. It is undeniable and distinct. We need to wake up and become Spiritual sensitive people, all of us, members and non-members, and feel the strength of a testimony that comes through the Spirit. It will help us with our very modern problems and lives, if we only let it. That's what I got overall. I'm so excited for the liahona. 

Anyways, transfers are coming up next week. I think I might stay, but it'll be fun to see if I go somewhere. Still working, looking for that next baptism. I do have a request for my next package. I don't want to justify my actions, but, just to explain, recently I went a little crazy. Maybe I hit my head. Maybe the truck actually did more that scrape my elbow. Maybe I haven't slept enough. But, suddenly and unexpectedly, I have found myself in a charitable mood. I have given away a yo-yo, an umbrella, all of my pens, all of my hangers, an empty journal, and, most importantly, 5 or six of my best ties. While I don't need or want replacements for the other things, I would like to have a full complement of ties. Just so you know that that is becoming a priority.

Love you all. Times they are a-changing. See you in a year (by the by, on Wednesday of last week I officially had spent an entire year of my life living in Mexico. How many people my age can say that they've lived in Mexico for a year by themselves? Neat, huh?)!

Love,

Elder Johnson