My Last Real Letter

This might be a short one because we are not going to have much time considering that we spent most of our P-Day at Monte Alban. Don't worry, I took a lot of pictures. I also got REALLY sunburned. Like, really badly. Like, I look like sebastian from the Little Mermaid. I will not send you the pictures right now first of all because I will be home in like 10 days. Second of all, I do not want to lose the pictures that I have left to a computer virus in a shady Oaxaquen internet. And third of all, because most computers do not accept the memory stick (not card) that I have been using since I lost my last memory card. Actually, those are pretty much the reason why I haven't sent you pictures this entire year, just so you know. 

This week went by pretty well. We are setting the base so that Nochixtlan just explodes after I leave. The next elders are going to be baptizing a ton. Like, a ton. They've got at least four easy baptism, people that will stay active. We should be setting the dates with most of them this week. I will continue in that effort all of this week. It's weird, though, putting citas for after my mission. It's also weird that people have already started to say goodbye to me. My branch president did that, though I think it was partly because he just wanted to see the last of me. We don't see eye to eye on missionary matters. He wants to baptize people as soon as possible. I like waiting a little bit until they really have testimonies of things. But he won't have to put up with me for very much longer.

 I am really happy about my release time. I knew Pres. Naatjes would understand. He used to be a young men's president in Lakeville. He gets young men. 

Also, that Tyrel story was really, really cool. I plan on sharing that with quite a few people this week. It just goes to show what God will do to bless us. He really looks out for each and every one of His individual children. Big testimonio booster there.

Well, I've already got to go. I probably won't write you too much next week. But I do love you and I'll see you in two years!

Love,

Elder Johnson

P.S. Wish dad luck on the boundary waters trip for me

Denied Again

So, they denied me for Monte Alban again. I have asked to go twice now. The first time I asked to go when I had crappy numbers. The second time I asked to go I had spectacular numbers. Either way, they just don't want me to go to Oaxaca's most famous tourist site before the end of my mission.

I guess I am exaggerating. THey technically did give me permission to go....I just have to wait until next week. Why? Who knows. But I will go one of these days. THe only problem is that I was totally expecting to go today. And when you mentally prepare for the last major trip of your mission while cancelling all other fun plans like playing basketball with those jovenes and then, at 6:45 in the morning it all changes, you are left with a giant void. Me quede con las ganas. I want to be doing something super fun right now. Instead, I plan on enjoying my extra time to deep clean the house.

Oh well, at least it was a spectacular week. We worked hard and hit all of our normas de excelencia for the first time since my La Hacienda days (THat's like a year to ten months ago), including the ten new investigators norma. We had a fun time on Sunday trying to achieve that one. WE left church with nine new investigators. WE had like three or four real plans for finding at least one more. And, what do you know? They all fell. And in the process, we had to walk. A lot.

So there we were at 6:30pm, tired, depleted, and out of ideas. We thought up a few more desperation attempts for the new investigator and we set off to go find them. ON they way, though, my comp, Elder Christensen, begins to talk to me about submitting to the will of God and suggested that perhaps we weren't supposed to find the new investigator. He asked me if I felt like there was anybody that we really needed to go visit.

Well. I was honest with him. I just felt tired, but I was open for anything. He half-heartedly suggested visiting the young men's president, which we promptly set off to do. We were DEAD TIRED by this point. I want to stress that. On the way to Fidel's house, I talked with my comp about Elder Bednar's "Just try to be a good boy" MTC talk. The point of that was to suggest that if neither of us felt a particularly strong prompting to do anything, than what we had to do was just try to do as much good as possible and not worrying about things so much. That made not finding Fidel home a little bit easier to swallow.

Without further ado, we began to drag our dead carcasses to some reference's house who we had not found at home in four weeks in the half-vain attempt to find one more new investigator.  We found two. I love it when God puts our patience and faith and diligence on trial. I learn so much :)

We also put a baptismal date on Sunday, but it's for after the seventh and it's with a little eight year old girl who moved in with a very active family for an indefinite period of time. Essentially, it is a gift from God for my comp. I'm just happy to be working and to be able to be a good missionary for my last couple of weeks. It's been a fun ride and I hope to enjoy until the end. 

ANyways I love you guys. I will see you in two years...uh, two weeks. Wow.

Love,

Elder Johnson

WebRep

Special Changed for the Last Time

So, some interesting things happened to me recently. First of all, I had to pass through what I think will be the last special changes of my mission. Elder Price got raised to mayor again and I am now with Elder Christensen, a great Elder from Utah who is on the third change of his mission. Just so you know, in his first change he was with an Elder who was going home, his second change he was with an Elder from my generation (about to go home) and now he is with me and I am going home. Poor guy. It's tough to kill your comp, from what I've heard. He's pretty much had to do it three times already. Luckily, that means he has great practice at helping his comp work at a really hard pace. Which is exactly what I want. Let me explain to you why.

I have always wanted to end my mission well. One of the few things I still remember from my mission prep class in BYU is when Prof. Bott explained how the end of a mission can be a springboard or a diving board from the rest of your life. YOu can end your mission lazy and relaxed and you will return home lazy and relaxed and accomplish very little of your goals, hopes and dreams for life. That would be the diving board. Or, you can end your mission working like a fool and crashing to bed exhausted every night just worrying about the goals you haven't achieved and essentially be a Mormon maniac that nobody in their right mind would want to try to emulate and when you get home, you have too much energy, time, and restlessness to not go out and do something productive. I want to be productive when I get home. So I have always been working and I have not stopped. Which brings me to the added motivation the mission just gave me.

They just offered a porsche to the hardest working elder who is going home.

I'm kidding.

No, what happened is that they doubted me. My numbers, in Nochixtlan, have not been that great. It is not because I have not been working. In fact, I have rededicated myself to little things like planning, updating the area book, verifying commitments, etc. We just haven't had good numbers because we dropped all the investigators that told us that they weren't really interested in investigating a Church, stopped counting semi-Gospel conversations as lessons (as previous elders did), and started actually trying to work with the active and less active members of the ward. But now the leaders see bad numbers next to the name of a missionary who has 23 months and immediately think DEAD. I am not dead. I am not complaining; I have been a leader for 16 months in this mission and I understand how hard it is to see the real story when you just have a slate of numbers to base yourself off of. I just don't like being doubted. ANd, luckily (or perhaps purposefully), Pres just gave me a really hard working young companion. I am very happy about this.

In the end, though, it doesn't really matter what anybody thinks as long as I return from the mission satisfied with what I've done and what I've learned. Mission politics are not for me anymore. The mission is a wonderful experience, meant to be encapsulated and reviewed consistently for the course of your entire life. THe mission has been a blessing and well, there's not much else to do except try to remember all of the lessons that I have learned and try to apply them as best I can for the next four weeks. Yup, four more emails left. That's scary.

As for investigators go, not much has happened except we learned that Mitzi is actually 8 and not nine, which means her baptism is the ward's job and not ours. That's fine, as long as she gets baptized and her family stays active. WE are going to keep going with them, but more to make sure that their testimonies are strong than to baptize their little daughter.

Well, I don't have much left to say. I love you all and I'll see you soon!

Elder Johnson

Well, I'm Old

I turn 23 months old on Wednesday. People can sniff my oldness. I don't know what to do about it. I have no future in the mission. Life is weird. But it goes on. Honestly, not much has happened for me. Carlos got confirmed, we have a little girl that should get baptized soon, my comp, Elder Price, threw up for the first time in his mission on Thursday, we still need new investigators, and we played a sweet game of pickup basketball with  some random old guys today at the Deportiva. That's pretty much my life right now. I don't know why I don't have much to report on today. I feel like more things should be happening, but they aren't. I guess I'm all calm now after Taggart's wedding too.

So, I guess I'll fill up space by helping you with your talk/lesson. First advice: Look up things by President Monson. If anybody has the right idea of what duty is and means, it is the prophet. I can remember several wonderful talks by him on the subject. He will be a much better source than I am. Anyways, personally, I feel like duty is an underrated topic. It takes a truly great man or woman to accept the unglorifying nature of duty. Duty to me is what is expected of you. If you do it, you will not receive praise or adulation. You will be doing it just because, well, it's your duty. Many people have other motives for their actions: success, glory, praise, acceptance. Duty brings none of that. In fact, the only thing I know about duty is that you will be reprimanded for failing to fulfill it. But, in and of itself, duty is a great thing. I think it is best captured by a piece dad sent me. It is the story of a young soldier who, during a battle, asks permission from his officer to go rescue a wounded friend. The officer grants it, but says "There's no point. He is already dead and you most likely will to if you go." Regardless, the young man goes and rescues his friend. By the time he makes it back to his commanding officer, his friend had already died and he was badly wounded. The officer says, "I told you there was no point in going." The young man replies, "There was a point. When I got there, my friend looked at me and said, 'I knew you would come for me.`"

That's duty to me. I love it, I need to learn how to do it more. You just do what you are supposed to do. It has a lot to do with the principle of self-discipline, which I lack. But, you got to love it :)

Anyways, I've got to get going. I'll see you soon!
Love,

Elder Johnson

Taggart's Married!

So, I'm super happy for Taggart!!!!!! He's married, in the temple, and he's going to live across the street from me. I have a lot of plans of crashing at my brother's house when I need to do homework and my apartment is too loud. It's going to be great. I hope he's ready for that cuz I have no plans of asking permission. It sounded like a beautiful albeit busy week. I would have loved to be there. I still have yet to attend a mormon wedding, but I'm happier that he's married in the time that he wanted to be married. And he only lost the ring twice. That's quite an accomplishment.

OUr family is growing up, I think. I'm coming home from my mission soon, Colton is a full-fledged teenager, Aubrey is living by herself, independent, and writing a book, Tyrel can cuddle with little girls (that's so weird - I need to see the pictures), and Taggart is married. We are an old family. But we will always be a family. We will always be willing to sacrifice for each other and always be wanting to be with each other. AS old as we get, we will not forget quickly of years playing pretend in a dark basement, of standing at the top of the stairs on Christmas, of looking for little boys lost at the state Fair, of weird music and fashion tastes, of trademark Johnson sarcasm or any of the like things. We are a family. We love it and we support it. I do not have any plans of leaving anybody behind in this life trip, be it you, Tyrel, Aubrey, Colton or anybody.

 

If there is anything I have learned on the mission, it's that I love my family. What an exceptional caste of misfits and oddballs! My family truly is incredible, by my standards and the world's. We are close knit. We are capable. We are intelligent, likeable, and, over all, decent people. We make respectable decision and quietly do admirable things, all the while neither asking for nor receiving the deserved attention. Aubrey's academic excellence, Taggart's bravery on his mission, Dad's prolonged time-sacrifice for us, Mom's capability for running a full time therapy program, Tyrel's advancement in society, and Colton's growth as a person with little to no fanfare are just a few of the things that makes me marvel as to why God let me be in this family. I love you all and I am happy that it just got a little bigger with the addition of Amber. I hope she got my email.

ANyways, we had some good and bad things in this week. Good thing: we baptized somebody. Carlos is a solid man who has changed his life completely over the course of the last few years. I was completely shocked when I first heard that he used to have a lot of bad habits. Now he is a respectable, good member of the Church that paid a full tithe before his baptism. His wife cried with happiness on Sunday. Bad news: Carlos was one of our very few investigators. We taught only three lessons to investigators all of last week. We made up for it by teaching a remarkable number of lessons to members, but we need new investigators and fast. Good News: we may have reactivated Efren, Carlos's inactive Sunday. Let me tell you, I have had some spiritual lessons during my mission, but this one is certainly top three. I have tried several times to describe it with words, but I have failed. So I will just let you know that Efren went to Church on Sunday and we should be baptizing his nine year old daughter some time next month.

But that's about it with me. My last officials changes passed and I am still with Elder Price and still in NOchixtlan. That really surprised us because we both thought that Elder PRice would get raised, but hey, I'm fine with it because he is a good and capable Elder. I still haven't gotten my package yet. I guess I'll see you all in a bit. Have a great week!
Love,

Elder Johnson

Nochixtlan

I have big news: that is the official spelling of my new area. And that's about all I know about it. We have been lost for about a week. My comp, Elder Price, had a grand total of 11 days to get to know the area before I showed up. That's not a lot of time to get to know an entire city and a big ole branch (like 120 active members!). So we have been trying to find a lot of houses by following strange directions. Let me give you a blow by blow on how we found our comida on my first day there:

1. Walk until you find a field of dirt with a trail cutting through it.

2. Take that trail.

3. Walk until you find a white bridge.

4. Cross it.

5. Walk until you find a giant gate with absolutely nothing behind that will probably take you to Narnia if enter it

6. Follow the road until you find the house with the food in it

I don't know how we found it either, but find it we did. All in all, it's been a fun week. We were able to find a lot of new investigators (they may have been old ones, we don't know, but to us they are new) and just generally establish a base for this work for the next couple of weeks. The really cool thing about NOchixtlan is that they just opened a new chapel two weeks ago and they had this giant open doors activity that gave us a bunch of references. Unfortunately, we haven't known the city well enough to contact any of those references. But, on Sunday, our SUPER PILAS ward mission leader, Angel (super pilas means he's the first ward mission leader that actually does his job) got appointments for us with pretty much all of those investigators and AND the members who know them. I love Angel and we should have a bunch of work this week thanks to him.

So my comp's name is Elder Price. He is my fourth comp from Arizona (Edwards, Ellsworth, Piña were the first three) and he has 18 months in the mission.  He's a pretty cool guy, pretty chill with most things, a very capable missionary, and happy to be really working again (his comp that just got changed for me is Elder Crook, who will be finishing his mission in two weeks). We should get along just fine, though I bet they change him in the normal changes (two weeks from now).

Hey, just a quick thing: I want Amber's email address so that I can mail her before she marries my brother. I want to send a quick congrats and a vote of confidence from me. Also, my cards are activated, but I have taken anything out yet. I will probs be doing that today though. 

As far as big name investigators we have down here, we just put a baptismal date with this guy named Carlos. All members of his family are members of the Church. He wanted to come to his own decision and it appears that he has. He should be baptized in two weeks time.

So, I've got to go, but I love you all and I hope that weddings and therapy go well. Just so you know mom, I know it's really hard for you right now and I will be praying for you, but don't let this stuff get you down. Tyrel will come through; so will therapy. The wedding will go great. The best thing you can do to help with both of those situations is just get a good nights sleep. Relax and deep breaths. YOu'll be fine. I love you!

Love,

Elder Johnson

P.S. I got my travel plans today. I will be in the Minneapolis airport at 9:24pm on August 7th. I have layovers in houston and Chicago. I don't want to think about it.

Money Problems

So, I have a problem. I got my new credit cards (please tell dad to activate them ASAP) and then, thinking about it, I decided not to be wise with my money for the last two months of my mission because, dang it, I want to enjoy tacos and tlayudas and mexican hamburgers and gorditas while I still can. So I immediately went out and bought 350 pesos worth of food. As soon as I got done putting it into the refrigerator, my zone leader calls me to tell me that I got special changed to NOchixtlan (sp?). So, an Elder Crook will be coming to Huajuapan with 350 pesos of food waiting for him while I will have to go spend more money grocery shopping. So that bothered me quite a bit.

It also bothers me that there are changing me now that we are starting to baptize here in Huajuapan. Right now, as a district, we have 7 baptismal dates. 6 are people that I have personally taught and found. 5 of those I am super confident will actually get baptized this month. I will be at none of those baptisms, including the one this weekend. I'm disappointed. 

Plus, everything else is going well here too. We broke the record for attendance to sacrament meeting with 77 people in their chairs. If we keep this up (we have three weeks of over 60 people in sacrament meeting), we will get the stake to expand our tiny chapel. We are activating families, baptizing, and helping and I feel good about it. But now I'm changed. I will go from Sangerman, a super cool comp I got along really well with, plus Elder Yamberla and Elder Cody, two really good Elders living in my house, to someone new.

But I am going to try to have a good attitude. This should be my last area and at least I have nine weeks there to try to get something happening. 9 weeks is plenty of time to baptize a couple of people. I will also get to be the district leader of Tlaxiaco again, so I already know Elder Teig and his comp. My zone leader who I will report too might be Elder Edwards, who is my friend from the beginning of my mission. And, tonight, I will gorge on the ice cream I bought, which will make me happy. So it's not all bad news. 

I almost cried reading about Tyrel's choir concert because it's true: almost nobody outside of the family recognizes how much time, work, and tears were needed to allow tyrel, for a couple of hours, be a normal boy doing a normal thing in a normal place. There was no blue fairy for our Pinocchio. We just sanded away the wood until we started seeing some skin. And as far as summer plans go, I have every intention of taking Tyrel and Colton out to Wisconsin Dells for a weekend when I get back. YOu can tell them about it. I will not be taking you or dad or Taggart or Aubrey, unfortunately. 

Well, I need to get going. I look forward to starting this last phase of my mission and I love you all and hope you keep it up. See you in two years!

Elder Johnson

Being Reflective

Mom, I would really really love to write you quite a long email this week, but I don't have the time. We went and played basketball today (my first time in 8 months!) and I don't have as much time as I generally do. But we'll see what I accomplish in 10 minutes. Please excuse the spelling errors.

Anyways, it was a tough week for me. Not because anything incredibly bad happened, but it's tough. We have no investigators because all of our investigators that we had were on the other side of the division. ANd, as of right now, we have no surprises coming out of the woodwork. WE are visiting a lot of less actives and members and seeing the success there (more on that later), but as far as investigators go, we are struggling. And what really makes matters worse is the fact that I can see the end of the mission.

I'm not counting, but I realized today that I only have 10 weeks left. Ten. That's it. That's a hard fact to ignore. I wake up in the morning and I can feel the air on my face and it feels like Minnesota air and I tell myself, "forget about it - you've got a long time before your there again" and then I realize it's a lie. It's not that long at all. I'm not trunky, per se, but it is hard to focus sometimes. Especially when you are not running from appointment to appointment. When I am teaching or having a successful day, I do not think about the big Omega. It's when I am walking, looking for old investigators or imaginary references, when suddenly, strongly invade the thoughts about what I will do in three months. That's why I want more work. Because I need these last three months to be something spectacular.

The reason I say that is that I reflect on my mission and I see change. I have become a more patient and tolerant person. I have learned how to open up more and I have learned how to care about other people more. I have learned how to work hard and how to study. But I haven't learned enough. I am still impatient and I still turn into a little kid again every time I am around a dominant personality. I still think about myself way too often and I still like to sit around too often and do nothing. THese things have to change. And these are the only two years (pardon, three months) of my life when I am specially commissioned by the Lord to develop these qualities. In no other era will I be so helped by some many positive influences. THere will be no other moment of my life when it is so easy to keep the commandments of God and therefore in no other moment will it be so easy to be guided by the Spirit. I need to use this time wisely and I feel like I need more time. This is something I've learned from my Elder's quorum president in my first area and subsequently from my mission president. I haven't been quite as polished as I would have liked. And that's my fault.

That's why I appreciate your thoughts. I've heard that Elder Holland talk a lot, but it is great to hear about it again, especially considering that I will be baptizing a little girl this Saturday of a woman I have worked really hard to keep active. I need to keep my mission for the rest of my life. And although I am afraid of normal life, I am not afraid of not being able to adjust to it. I am afraid of adjusting too much to it. I remember when Taggart came home and Aubrey and I took it upon ourselves to normalize him. I remember him protesting about not wanting to be "normal." I get that. I do not want to be the person I was before the mission. I want to get up on time (maybe not 6:30, but by 8 at the very least), I want to study hard, I want to work hard, I want to focus (one of my weakest areas), I want to love others more than I love myself. 

I appreciate every single moment of my mission. Perhaps I haven't enjoyed every moment, but I appreciate them. I certainly feel like I know a lot better who I am now than before the mission. I am more confident that I will achieve my goals. And I feel like my priorities have been rearranged a little bit, which I needed. 

Tell dad I really appreciated his email. Obedience is something I learned a long time ago, but I needed that reminder now. This is the time when the little things start becoming hard. I need exact obedience now exactly like I needed it when I started the mission. 

So my cool inactive story will have to wait. I will tell you next week. Just remind me please. By the way, a package has arrived for me, it's just sitting in the mission offices. I do not know if it is from you or another person, but it is there. I am excited for TAggart, though everybody here asks me, "why doesn't he just wait a month a half for you?" I would have love to have been there, but it's better that he gets married now. Just make sure I get a video of his reception of something. I've never been to a sealing before. I'm also glad that Aubrey is safe. I've had to answer a lot of questions about her too. Love you all and I'll see you in two years!

Love,

Elder Johnson

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A Fresh Start

I feel good this week. For a lot of reasons. First of all, it's nice just to have something different. I love Elder Babb and I plan to stay in contact with him after the mission, but every once and awhile, a missionary just needs a change. And I got one. So that's fresh. I also got a fresh start with the members. Elder Babb had a certain style - he likes to laugh and joke and play and have fun, which is fine as long as the other missionary keeps it in check long enough to do the necessary, like teach and invite. It had to be me that did that. But now, I get  to just sort of be myself, which is very nice. Plus, with a smaller area, I can visit more families more regularly instead of spending half of my day running from appointment to appointment. 

There's really not much to report this week. We looked for new investigators all week because, well, I planned poorly. What happened is I had to make the division for my new area. I had to do it based on where the members lived. And I did a great job with that. there are 12 families of members on each side and 10 families that give us food on each side. The problem is, nearly ALL our former investigators are on the other side. We had three investigators on our side to start the transfer. One has moved back to the US. The other has moved to Juxtlahuaca. And the third just got into a terrible car accident and will be going to Oaxaca for further medical attention. We are left with nothing. But on we go looking, 

because I am just happy to be able to leave the house and go talk with people about the Gospel. it's a good thing. 

We did have some small miracles. When of the former investigators we found still has baptism on his mind. That's a great sign. Another miracle is the family of five investigators who contacted us about an hour after we started our fast for new investigators. That one was pretty incredible. And they seem pretty golden (the dampener on this one is that that family actually lives in the other area so they are not going to be our investigators anyway. But it will help Huajuapan 2). The Lord is real, the Church is true, and this is a wonderful work. I truly love it these days and I'm terrified of life without it. My testimony has gotten so much stronger during my mission and well, I just don't want to live without the rules and the president and the companions and the investigators and the Spirit and the calling and the everything. But all things come to an end.....I don't have to worry about that for two more years at least. 

Alright, I've got to go. I love you all.

Love ya!

Elder Johnson

I just talked to you!

Well, I'm really just going to report on a couple of things this week. First of all, I'm still in Huajuapan. I officially have more time in this area than in whatever other area in my whole mission. The difference is, I am no longer companions with Elder Babb. He's in Oaxaca now. My new comp is named Elder San German. I don't really know much about him considering that I haven't even met him yet. He'll be arriving at like 7 today. But, even after he shows up, I still won't be heading back to Huajuapan because I'm going to wait until Tuesday. The reason is that they are reopening Huajuapan 2. So I'm going to be living in a house with four missionaries again. The other two missionaries are named Elder Yamberla and a brand new American missionary. THey haven't given us his name yet. So, it should be fun. At least it's actually something different.

The other thing that I have to report is that I have to explain why I don't appear in the Hermana Leyva's mother's day movie. It's because I didn't have time to take the photo. I was in a special district leader meeting and then, before that meeting even ended, I went to do my district meeting so I didn't get the chance. I am not left out because the Hermana Leyva doesn't love me. IN fact, she called me to lecture me on the importance of being in the photos. I am not in the movie because I am stupid, in short. My bad.

But I did want to wish you a happy mother's day. I love you very much and I appreciate what you do for me week after week.   I know I can always count on you, I know that you'll always love me, and I know that you will always help me do smart things and impede me from doing stupid things. Thanks for being a wonderful mother. 

Well, that's all I have to report. I love you all and I'll see you in two years!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Cockroach Killer

So I've invented a fun sport that only involves two people. First, let me explain why this is necessary: I am in Huajuapan. Huajuapan is far away from everything. So I do not have the luxury of being able to play basketball or soccer with other missionaries on Mondays. And, considering that there is only one young man, I can't really play basketball or soccer with them either. I am without sports. And I miss sports. So, the Cockroach killing competition has been created! Every night, hundreds of nocturnal cockroaches invade our patio and the game is that each missionary gets one long, skinny pole as his weapon. He then has fifteen minutes to kill as many cockroaches as he can. The one who kills the most gets to take a cold shower first. It's a great game.

I should mention, by the way, that I have officially received word that Huajuapan 2 is going to opened in this next transfer (i.e. next week). That means I'm going to be living in a house of four again and that my district is going to be bigger. Also, it means that almost certainly I am going to stay in Huajuapan next transfer. I am really beginning to think that I might end my mission here. It is very possible.

AS far as this week goes, there's not much to report. It was kind of a tough week. We spent four out of seven days in the house because Elder Babb got some type of Laryngitis (a throat infection, because I think I spelled "laryngitis" wrong). I got bored, Elder babb got better, and we are out and about today. it's a good thing. I'm looking forward to putting a baptismal date with rolando and his family this week. It's kind of my goal. I love it when I am teaching complete families. Everything seems brighter. The family is the goal of the gospel and this is one special family. I feel like we are doing good there. So I'm pretty excited.

I'm also happy to hear about Tyrel's progress. It'll be nice to get the happier, more tolerant version of Tyrel when I get back. That's the one I remember the best anyway. I'm also excited for Taggart's wedding. I'm betting he chose the temple. Happy anniversary and I hope you know how much I appreciate your thirty years of marriage. In this world, it's really quite remarkable that a couple can stay together for thirty years. The stability it has provided me has allowed me to escape most of the emotion damages that afflict other adolescents. That's a big blessing. I've never had to ponder divorce, or witness horrific fights, or believe that an eternal marriage is impossible. Also, you two have been a great example for me. Service towards each other, genuine love, patience, understanding, tolerance of faults, and selflessness are some of the things I've learned from you. So thank you very much for that.

Anyways, I've got to get going, but I love you both and I love you all. I'll see you in 2 years!

Love,

Elder Johnson

P.S. To what mission specifically is Ellen going? I bet I have a friend or two that's there right now. Or that's already come back (wow). Tell her I'm proud of her and that this will be a great decision that will change the rest of her life.

Not Drinking on my 21 Birthday

So I didn't do much for my 21st birthday. I spoke with the hermana leyva, who is perhaps the sweetest person on the face of the planet. I don't know how she has the patience to talk to all the missionaries that pass through this mission for three years on their birthdays and tell them about their specific qualities that make them special. She truly is a wonderful woman and an example to me. I'm glad pres has Hermana leyva. They make a good team. She took away the sting of having to review area books all day for your birthday. On the bright side, my zone leaders invited  me to eat Chinese food with them after word, so that was pretty delicious.

In approximately 3-5 months my mission illusion bubble will burst and I will have all of those school stresses and pressures for the first time in two years. I'm scared. But I'm trying not to think about it. The problem is, somebody told me on Wednesday that the new limit for staying in an area is now five changes. I have three changes here in Huajuapan already. I have two changes left in my mission. Do the math.....I think I'm in my last area. That scares me a lot.

By the way, Another thing I want to do when I am home is go to the Guthrie. YOur little piece about plays reminded me of that. Can you check what plays are going to be in town in August? Please? Can you also remind me what temple Taggart is going to be married in? I don't know if you already told me that, but for the life of me I can't remember anyway. I'd like to know.

I laughed out loud at the Grandma story. She's the coolest woman ever I think.

Anyways, I really liked what you said about delivering your entire life to God. It's hard. It's hard to put personal things aside, like grudges, comfort zones, pet peeves, self-pity, "me" time, etc. And being a disciple doesn't mean you have to give up all of these things all of the time. We do not have to be monks. But hey, we certainly can do more. We can go out of our way on the way home from work to visit a less active. We can bust out of our comfort zone and teach a lesson or invite a friend to church. We can forgive somebody when they do something that's honestly not a big deal without even telling that person we were ever mad in the first place. We can change how we talk, what we do, and how we do it. That's what being a disciple is for me. If more people were willing to do those things, we would have a lot brighter world. Christ got it right.

So I guess I'll tell you a little bit about my week. I had a pretty normal birthday. I did get my package (on my birthday, actually). Sunday was a great day again - seven investigators and 8 less actives came, meaning that the missionaries brought fifteen people to Church. Also, on Sunday, we went to eat with the family we have been teaching. WE had plans to invite them to baptism, but instead, Rolando, the father of the family and the one we have been the most worried about, leaned over to us before the meal and said, "hey, I invited my entire family to come eat with us today. I did it because I want you to start teaching them." So instead of inviting Rolando to baptism, we taught his two brothers and their wives, and his sister. It was a pleasant surprise.

The other big thing this week was that my comp and I finally worked out our differences. Don't get me wrong; I love my comp. We had such a great start to our companionship. Problem was, we have never had a comp for more than eight weeks. We are now in week 17. The honeymoon was over, I guess. We had started to get defensive, closed off, and the fun died. It was bothering me. We had a lot of talks that got close to the subject, but never actually breached it. So it never got resolved. Until one night, when, finally, I said it directly what I was feeling and we worked it out. Just by letting each other know what we were really thinking and feeling and why, we've gotten over it. We are back in the first transfer mode, which is the happy, bubbily transfer. I think that might have really helped our success this week too.

Well, I've got to go. I love you all and I'll be praying for you. Keep it up and I'll see you in two years!

Love,

Elder Johnson

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Rushed for Time

Okay, I had to fill out a bunch forms for the mission today, so I kind of got held behind in my email writing, but I'll try to fill you all in on what's happening in sunny Huajuapan (gosh I wish it would rain). First of all, President is determined to ruin my birthday. I was planning on putting some very important baptismal dates that day and then having a lovely dinner and cake with a family that I love from the ward, but no, President wants us in Oaxaca so that we can go to a bunch of meetings all day and spend the rest of my now precious money traveling. By the way, about the money thing: I would love to have my debit cards back, but I also realize that it probably won't be worth it since I only have like three and a half months left. But you might not get any souvenirs if I don't get those debit cards and if they keep in Huajuapan for the rest of my mission which could actually happen. So be ye warned. 

I am not really that sorry that it is still snowing. I am trying really hard to be sorry, honest! But it's not working. As I take my cold showers at night trying to scrub off the sweat of yet another incredibly hot day, I think, with hope in my eyes, "Maybe, oh maybe, that snow will last until August." That would be incredible. So I'll swap you any day now. You guys can come and get sunburned every day and I'll go and enjoy the fresh snow. It will be a good trade, I think. BOth sides will leave happier.

Okay, so this was a hard week work wise considering that we had to use one and a half days traveling to Oaxaca and then another half day trying to do divisions and crazy stuff like that. This week looks like it will be similar. The good thing is that we had another Miracle Sunday. 7 whole people (as opposed to half people) went to Church on Sunday, our record for Huajuapan. Probably is, only two of them are progressing. One is a new girl that we met on Saturday and the rest of her family came too, although they are already members. But, as I've been taught, reactivated inactive families is just as important as baptizing new ones, so let's go Huajuapan. I love this ward. It is small, and funny, and really really old,  but they are special people. They are zealous in their love of the gospel and they have distinctive personalities and testimonies. I truly love them. I could totally end my mission here.

Well, I've already got to go. I hope you have a great week and I hope Amber and Taggart  finish the semester well. I'll pray that Tyrel accepts the snow and....what do you know, it's raining now. I love God :)

See you in two years!

Love,

ELder Johnson

Sunday Miracles

This week was tough; I won't lie. Work was really slow. I don't really know what happened, but we could not find our investigators. It didn't help that we ran out of credit on our phone and so could only call missionaries. A long time ago, President cut the credit he put on the missionaries´phones in order to cut down on the amount of time the missionaries we talking to their girlfriends (the mission has changed alot since then). Recently, however, all missionaries who work hard run out of minutes because we are talking to the members so much. WE organize appointments, verify references, invite people to activities, etc. So we've run out of credit a week early for the past two weeks. And it makes work REALLY hard. But that wasn't the sole cause of the problems. The members here are being super pilas, but we need to do something to save our investigator pool. They were a bunch of other things that slowed us down - I did divisions on Tuesday (although two people we contacted in Tlaxiaco ended up being the only investigators that went to Church for them), my comp got sick saturday and Sunday, etc, etc.

On the bright side, we did see several miracles for our hard work on Sunday. First of all, more people went to Church on Sunday than on whatever other Sunday during my time in Huajuapan: 58. A lot of them were less actives who we have been visiting. Maybe our work with the investigators hasn't been paying off, but we are doing great at helping the members. Also, =========== got confirmed. she also brought her brother, who is really interested in getting baptized as well but who is under 18 and therefore needs permission from his dad to start talking to us. We're working on that. Also, the members are getting a lot better at helping each other out. We are really starting to see some real love and communication between everybody. It makes me happy. 

Then, I have a cool story to tell. So, last monday, my comp and I were walking through the park to go wash our clothes. We heard a whisper, "those are the Mormons" and so we stopped to see who had commented. It was a middle aged man, about forty-ish. We greeted him in our natural friendly manner and asked him how he knew the missionaries. He told us that he had formerly been a member of our Church. We happily informed us that he still was a member of our Church. He assured us that he wasn't. We asked him why he wasn't. He then began to cite the Bible and tell us that Joseph Smith made it up and that the leaders of the Church have a blood pact to keep the lie going...........................Needless to say, I wasn't sure how to respond. I could do what a lot of missionaries here do and whip out my Bible to "prove" him wrong. I could just let it die there and not respond, like my comp clearly wanted to do. But there were people watching us and I didn't want us to think that this man had "beat" us so I felt like I had to say something. So I bore my testimony. I didn't say much, just that I had heard similar doubt before, that I had had similar doubts before, but that God had answered all my questions through the Holy Ghost. And then we left. We forgot about it and we forgot about him.

Well, that man showed up to Church on Sunday. He was very humble. He said he was just trying to follow where the Lord was leading him and said that he had originally left the Church for job issues, not for Biblical questions. He was an active participant in the classes. He was positive. It was amazing to see the power of a testimony. The prophet got it right in the Priesthood Session of conference: teach the truth through testimony. I didn't do anything, yet the Lord blessed me. I love Him.

Well, I love you all too.  Life is a good thing and there is always time to do the most important things. If you feel stressed, simplify things. Do what my friend Reinaldo is doing right now and cut some unnecessary things out of you lives to make more time for service and for God. You will feel happier and sleep better. Say your prayers, but say real prayers, where you talk to God about ALL of your doubts and worries. Read the scriptures. And remember: family, Church, and service are the most important things.  Stay happy, stay positive. I love you all and I'll see you in two years!

Love,

Elder Johnson

General Conference is a Miracle

Dear Mom,

I love prophets and apostles. Talking with my comp over the weekend, I really have come to think that the mission changes the way that you see and attend general Conference. We come to understand why it's so important that we have prophets because we teach it everyday. and then, every word of that conference stops being just good advice from old men, but rather a message from God prepared specifically for this time period and for these people. It's also amazing experiencing General conference in another country. The Church is a lot different down here. Not the teaching or the organization or the ordinances, which are sacred things that you cannot change, but rather the way the members carry out the church is different. The bishops do not have time to do be like American bishops because they work Monday-Saturday from 7am to 8:30pm in order to support their son who is on a mission. Members do not have cars to go do their home teaching visits. And then there are the cultural barriers which "prevent" the members from truly understanding the importance or significance of several church doctrines. So it's very different. But one of the things that I love about General Conference is that it breaks all cultural barriers. Everybody "gets it." The prophets truly are inspired by God to preach to the world. Their messages are addressed to everyone and everyone can apply the principles learned in General Conference, regardless of their situation.

I mention this because we had a really cool experience yesterday (actually several, but more on that later). We have this family in our ward. It's a single mother of two daughters, one who's about 20 and the other of 10. The twenty year old has her own baby who's already six, lovingly deemed the Gûera. They are a great family, active and caring members of the ward. They LOVE the missionaries. In fact, most missionaries practically live in that house. We don't go so much because we don't have that much time, but we try to visit them consistently because we love them and dang it, they need the gospel too. So, on Sunday, we went to visit them and we decided to do a review of General Conference (duh). As the mother began to share with us her favorite conference talk, I believe it was the D. Todd Christofferson talk about redemption, the daughter said "NO, shh, that's the one I wanted to share." They both had been touched by the same talk and at the same time, they realized that it was revelation specific to the problems they are experiencing in the family. We honestly didn't teach anything in this visit. They taught, the spirit taught, and the prophets kept talking. They told us about their challenges . THey have had and have a lot of them. Much more than our family. But both mom and daughter already wanted to set goals to get better and to begin truly forgiving the people that have hurt them. It was a touching example of how the Spirit touches the hearts of people and causes them to be more Christlike.

My other cool Sunday experience was that I got my first Mormon.org reference! So the Church launched this website a LONG time ago with the intention of using it to share the gospel more efficiently. With the time I've been giving to explore, I had come to realize that it is a rather effective online missionary. Problem is, I had never, ever seen nor heard of results of this website. It looked great and contained great resources for investigators, but I had never seen an investigator actually begin to talk to the missionaries because of this site. Yesterday changed all that. AS I was finishing a lesson with a less active member of the ward, I received a phone call from an unknown number. I answered. It was a girl named Haley, speaking English. It didn't sound like very good English, so I assumed that it was what it normally is, somebody who just wants to practice their English with the missionaries. And when that is the case, it means that the pseudo-English speakers will not understand my English because I speak quickly. So I continued speaking in Spanish and she continued in English. After about a minute and a half of not understanding each other, she finally said, "I'm sorry, I really don't understand much Spanish." That's when I finally learned that she had contacted us through mormon.org and was actually interested in listening to the Gospel. Fifteen minutes later, we were in a nearby park, talking with her and she pretty much told me that she loves the Church and that she wants to know more. She's already read up to Alma 32 in the Book of Mormon. She seems super pilas.

So Sunday was a good day, essentially, what with Conference and all. I, personally, loved Elder L. Tom Perry's talk. Oh, I should mention that I had to watch this entire conference in Spanish. In my previous three conferences during the mission, I watched in ENglish, in a special little room filled with English missionaries. This time, I stayed in my ward instead of going to Oaxaca in order to save time and money. So I was consigned to Spanish, but it was still good. I just missed a good part of Elder Holland's emotion. But back to L. Tom Perry. It was a wonderful talk on Obedience and lIberty. I love that he said that liberty is happiness and eternal life. Those are the two things we want more than anything and the only way to get them is through obedience to God's laws. Essentially, L. Tom Perry said that true liberty is the ability to choose whatever consequences we want and not what the world thinks, which is choose whatever actions we want. You couple this talk with the Prophets talk on obedience and it's a powerful one two punch of truth against the youth culture of today.

Also, and this makes me feel old and disconnected from the world, I was alarmed by how many authorities told us to disconnect from our electronic devices. Maybe I was blind to it, maybe it was because I lived without a laptop and an Iphone, but I didn't think the world was so lost in virtual reality 20 months ago. Obviously, it's a major problem now. It's a big enough dilemma that God felt He had to repeat this counsel many times in general conference. And now that I think about it, I just taught a lesson with a less active family and while they weren't reading scriptures or answering question, the two oldest children were glued to their phones. It's a shame that they didn't go to conference. It makes me glad that Dad is such a wise man. I specifically remember an instance when we were coming back from some family outing and all of us kids plugged in our headphones immediately and Dad got a little angry because we didn't want to talk about what we had just done or at the very least listen to music with the rest of the family. I remember that he told me that when I plug in to my ipod, I was denying myself opportunities to reflect, meditate, and grow from the experiences I have. It's very good advice that I didn't understand then, but that I think I understand a little better now.

Anyways, just so you know (this is a long email) =========== got baptized last monday! Yay! And her dad went and her two brothers and now we just have to get her confirmed this Sunday. I will be waiting patiently for my last box of the mission and, well, I hope you are all great. I'll see you in two!

Love,

Elder Johnson

The Little Mermaid

Dear Mother,

I just realized this week that our house doesn't have any fans. It sucks. Straight up. It's stopping me from sleeping at night it's so hot. And no previous missionaries have bothered to tell the secretaries that we don't have fans. I hope to get this problem fixed as soon as possible. In other news, we had changes yesterday. NOt that you'd notice, here in Huajuapan. I am still with Elder Babb (It's a good thing I love this kid - before this I didn't even know it was possible to be with the same companion for more that two transfers) and I am still in Huajuapan. Elder Teig still has to report to me. The only "changes" I have are that I will now report to an Elder Humphries instead of Elder Rivas and that Elder Teig's companion is now Elder Sanchez instead of Elder Romero. While I love my area and my comp, I'm a little worried. I have a tendency to get bored of routines and I have a tendency to fall into routines. This is not a good combination, especially since this is the first time since the beginning of my mission that I've had to stay in the same area for three transfers and the first time ever that I've been with the same companion for three transfers. I'm going to need a lot of help staying focused and motivated.

Anyways, ================== has not gotten baptized, but that should happen today or tomorrow. I'm not that worried about her. SHe's cool and excited about it. SHe'll get baptized, it just might take a little longer than we wanted. But that's what patience is for! :) We tried to do an activity on Saturday. It went......okay. The good part was that ALL of our youth showed up, including an investigator. The bad part was that our teacher who had volunteered to teach us capoeira (brasilian dance/matial art mix) didn't show up. OOps. So we played charades instead. Of course, the super strict bishops wife showed up to teach seminary right as I was trying to convince everyday to guess "The Little Mermaid" without words. I will let your imaginations do the work.

I am very much looking forward to general conference on Saturday. It will be a great way for me to start the change right. It will allow me to set goals and to teach investigators. It will be, as it always is, a spiritual feast. I can't believe I used to sleep through it. I love General conference with all my heart might mind and strength. I especially look forward to reinforcing my testimony of the Prophet. Honestly, every time we listen to President Monson talk, we should get on our knees afterwords and ask God if he really is the prophet. I promise it will be a good boost to your testimony. WE all need to be reminded every once and a while.

Well, I signed up for classes on Friday. I'll send you my schedule in a later email. Essentially, I took dad's advice and will not study all of my remaining required generals in this semester. I took Aubrey's advice and took a reading series class which is just go and listen to famous authors read their works every Friday for an hour. It's a one credit class. I took Taggart's advice and took Spanish 321. All in all, it seems like a pretty good schedule to me: not to hard to start off with, but filled with chances to progress. I should also have time to find a job. I just hope I can find a job that I like.

Well, I've got to go. I love you all and I look forward to seeing you sometime in the distant future. See you in 2!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Perfectly Timed Conference

Let me tell you, sometimes, they just perfectly plan some things in the mission. I was falling into habits and routines again (not bad ones, but habits and routines nonetheless). Habits are kind of bad here. If you aren't trying constantly to improve, than you are not being the missionary you should be. Right as that starting happening to me, they went and did a special multi-zone conference with a seventy. Now I'm a happy, healthy, oriented, missionary full of good goals. I love the mission. It keeps me moving. And it makes me a little scared to go home when I won't have so many people trying to make me better. I'm going to be in charge of me in a few short (years) and I'm not sure I'm ready for it yet. I've got to make good use of these last couple of (years). 

So we got to listen to Sister and Elder Martinez. They both gave really good talks about having a good attitude and about asking for references. Essentially, as a mission, we seem to have accepted the lie that if we couldn't knock doors, we can't find new investigators. WE need to do better than that and start to ask for more references, but with the right attitude too. We have to remind people of the  joy of the gospel and the power of the Spirit in conversion. It's a good message and I look forward to putting it in practice every day this week in every lesson. That's the goal, at least.

We also got a little advanced news on the changes that we will have next week. President announced in the conference that we will be opening all the areas that he has closed recently, including Huajuapan 2. That means that Elder Babb and I will probably stay here one more change, but not as companions and that they'll send us two new missionaries. It should be fun. I'm excited for it.

I'm very solid on my August 7th return date. Count on it. What I don't know is what time I will be home on the seventh. I could get home in the afternoon. I could get home at like 11:30 at night on the seventh. Who knows. I don't really want to know anyways. I'm glad you are feeling better though Mom. And I knew you weren't trunky for me since the moment I heard about a wedding. It's kind of a big deal. We haven't had a wedding in the immediate family ever. We have had a return missionary. 2+2=4 mom :)

The transition for Tyrel is scaring me mom. I don't know how this is going to go. I just imagine him doing something super boring like building pickle boxes and that idea doesn't please me. I want to know what happens to him, but I only want to know the good things. 

========== did NOT get baptized because she had finals in Tehuacan until today. WE should be baptizing her on like thursday or friday this week. Finally. she might even get baptized on the same day that Alex gets baptized.

Well, I've got to go. I'll tell you how my classes go next week. And changes. Love you!

Elder Johnson

Busy as Mall of America on Black Friday

I also hope you get better mom. I don't like it when you are sick. You keep working even though you shouldn't. But, that's the life of a mom, right? My comp's been half sick for like two weeks now. We've gone to the doctor twice and put ourselves on a diet in order to help him, but we are still in the process of getting better. Hopefully, he gets better this week so that we can work on achieving our norms of excellence.

That's a big thing for us right now, norms of excellence. President established this system a long time ago where every three months, we, the missionaries, established "norms" that we strive to achieve for three key indicators (baptismal dates, investigators in sacrament meeting, and lessons with a member). The problem is, he wasn't quite clear in exactly what he wanted to achieve with these normas, so the missionaries, of course, immediately confused the concept of a norma with the concepts of a goal. A norma, to be clear, is something that we achieve on a weekly basis. It is the MINIMUM. A goal, is something you put to raise your sight and your production. It is the MAXIMUM of what you believe you can achieve. Finally, this past week, they clarified everything. Now we have to achieve our norms on a weekly basis. It's a tough, but valuable change. The norms are going to start to mean something for us now.

We didn't have the baptism we wanted this week, but that was just because the dad of ================== wants to go and he can't until the 23rd. The dad, by the way, is the non-member who was sort of blocking the path for the last three years. We graciously changed the date for him, even though that means that our 23rd is going ot be as busy as the Mall of America on Black Friday. On the 23rd, we also happen to have a conference with a seventy (Elder Martinez) in Oaxaca. Three hourse away from Huajuapan. That means on the 23rd, we will be listening to a conference until like 2, then we'll have to jump straight on a bus to go to Huajuapan so that we can be there by 7, which is when the baptism is supposed to start, and maybe sometime in there we'll have time to eat. I hope.

Well, I love you all. You'll do great in your new calling mom. I'll see you in two years!

Love,

Elder Johnson

I'm working myself to death!

I think I'm slowly (e.g. quickly) killing my companion. We work a lot. We work hard. We are out in the streets during the hottest part of the day looking for new investigators, finishing our planning session at 10:20 at night, and leaving the house at 9 in the morning because that's the only time when a lot of our investigators can see us. It's really, really tiring, but really, really gratifying. It's nice to see when God starts blessing your efforts. Honestly, one day we did everything to find new investigators: we contacted everybody we talked to or who talked to us, we asked for references from a bunch of people, we tried to contact a bunch of references that we had received, everything and we still didn't find a new investigators. Then, at 8:30 at night, we stopped by to chat with a family of members. Only one of the daughters was home.  This daughter,  just so you know, is sixteen. Without even asking her, she suddenly blurted out, "Oh, hey, I've got a reference for you." The Lord just blesses our efforts sometimes. I love Him.

============== is still on track to get baptized this Saturday. She's very excited about it. She's more Mormon than I am, I think. That's a good sign. She honestly doesn't like not being Mormon. She likes keeping the commandments, going to Church, and doing good things. I'm proud of her. She'll be a good member of the Church as long as she doesn't marry a non-member like half the female member of Huajuapan have done. That's just not a good practice, by the way.

We went and used my comp's talents today in the morning. He's an artist (I'm pretty sure some of his work is on the mission facebook page by now) and so we went and painted somebody's house. It was fun. I just got to paint the base (green) and he painted pictures and wrote letters. It was actually relaxing (what have I become?!) but it killed our morning. Then, when we were writing our emails, the internet went out and so that's why this is coming so late in the day. Just so you know.

We had a really cool stake conference on Sunday. We had to travel all the way to Oaxaca, three hours each way, but it was worth the trip. First of all, I got to see some of my converts from La Hacienda. They are still doing well and are still more active than most of that ward. It's so gratifying to see people actually understand, feel, and apply the gospel. I love it. Then, I got to listen to two apostles speak to the people of Mexico. Elder Bednar gave a really powerful talk about repentance. The general theme was that members of the Church are not really doing it well. They are denying themselves the blessings of repentance by making it a memorized, wrote sort of tradition as opposed to a heartfelt, real, healing process. Even a full confession can be incomplete if it is not accompanied by heartfelt regret and a dependence on the Savior's power. His two main points were: 1. Repentance requires a Savior and 2. Repentance demands a humble heart (or something like that, I didn't take notes). It was very, very good and it reminded me that I need to repent everyday. 

Then, Elder Richard G. Scott spoke and it was a very touching message. Quite a few people started crying during it. He spoke about the sanctity of women. He spoke about how young women are denying themselves the divine gifts of their femininity  He spoke about how we need to remind women how important they are, how precious they are, how perfect they are. He said that the woman is God's most divine creation and noted that only after creating the woman, God pronounced the Creation both finished and Good. He spoke about the family, about how woman should seek to have a family and that no man is complete without the woman. It was an incredibly inspired message for the masculine inclined culture of Mexico. It was actually just a wonderful talk in total. I hope he gives it in the General Conference.  Tell Tyrel that I love him. I'll see him in five months. For the rest of you, see you in two years!

Love,

Elder Johnson