Hey family,
so i am not going to write that much this week because i will talk to you in two days, and if i tell you everything that happened now, i will have nothing to say on christmas. it was a good week, but still not very christmasy. it has rained three days straight here which has helped a lot with the temperature. things are going really well. we have a baptism scheduled this week for Joan but i will tell you more about that later. actually, i will tell you more about everything in two days so i am going to stop writing. i love you all and hope you have a great christmas eve and christmas.
Love, Elder Johnson
And an addendum written by Angeli, Mark's older sister...
Talking to Mark on Christmas was the highlight of my Christmas this year! I know that we all loved it - it made him seem not so far away. Our parents cried... they live for news from their baby boy (who am I kidding - we all do! Mark brings the party to our family)! Mark sounds like he is doing awesome. I could definitely hear the homesickness in his voice, but he sounded optimistic and grateful to be serving the people of the Dominican Republic. We called him at about 10am Vegas time, which I believe was about 2pm in the DR. He and three other missionaries were hanging out at the church building calling their families, and didn't have much of a time restriction. So... we ended up talking to Mark for nearly 3 1/2 hours! None of us knew that Mark could talk so long!!! Half way through the conversation, our phone card ran out, so we had to restock it and call him back. He talked about everything from his investigators,to daily life and culture in the Dominican Republic. To follow up with the French Haitian family that they "Santa Claused", it didn't go as they had planned. I guess no one was very grateful and it was kind of awkward. But they did pass on a Book of Mormon. And you never know. The gospel is all about planting seeds of truth and kindness. Mark is a wonderful example to me, and I could not be prouder of him and the choice that he has made to sacrifice two years of his life and serve the Lord for a cause that I know to be true. He is one amazing kid and we are all lucky to be a part of his life. Feliz Navidad Marky!
Friday, December 25, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
French, Anyone?
Hey Everyone,
This was a good week, not too exciting but good. On Saturday, we had a couple of hours free without any appointments, so we decided to walk our entire area, because we have never done that before, and try to find a good family to teach. in the non-city party of our area we found this little dirt road that led into the forest so we decided to walk down it to see what was there. after a couple of minutes we found a ranch so we talked to the guys for a little while and then kept walking. After about 25 more minutes on this road without seeing anyone, we found a little clearing with about 5 houses in it. we walked in the middle and started looking around to see if anyone was there. we saw this little Haitian boy about 8 years old, so we waved to him and smiled. he immediately ran for his house and said something in french. we then started to see more heads poke out from behind some bushes. i think they thought two white men from the government had come to take away their houses. we walked closer to show them that we were friendly. we saw this old lady who had a really deformed left arm, one of the worst i have ever seen. we talked with her because she knew spanish and then one by one the other people started coming over to see what we had to say. the other family members just spoke french so we used the little french we know and then just talked to the old lady in spanish. it was just one big Haitian family that lived there. we talked for a few minutes and told them who we were, but we had to leave because the sun was setting and we wanted to see where we were going to get back home. while walking back, my comp and i had an idea to do something for them for christmas. we have been looking for a family to do something for and that was them. we are going to go back Christmas eve with candy and toys for all of the kids in our santa hats and bring a book of mormon in french and something else for the adults. i know it wont be much but we are excited to do it because we are pretty sure they havent ever had a christmas before seeing as how poor they were.
Yesterday, we had a big zone conference with 3 zones together. it was a great talk about the importance of Christmas and Christ and His Atonement. it lasted about 4 hours but it was good to bring the true spirit of christmas. after the conference, they gave all of us lunch and then our district put on a special musical number for everyone. the presidents wife asked us to do it just two days before so we didn´t have too much time to practice but it turned out really well. me and another guy played the guitar, another played the piano, and the others sang. Of course the last song we played was feliz navidad. i think one of the senior couples sent mom the pictures so ask her for them. we also had our interviews with the president this week which went really well as always. he always has a smile and advise to give us. it was a good spiritually boosting week for us.
besides that we just did a lot of teaching this week. Joan is still progressing really good and still has his baptismal date for the 26th. No one else really seems to be progressing, but we found a couple of new investigators this week that seem like they have potential.
well thats about it for this week. my first call home is just 9 days away. have a great week.
Love Elder Johnson
This was a good week, not too exciting but good. On Saturday, we had a couple of hours free without any appointments, so we decided to walk our entire area, because we have never done that before, and try to find a good family to teach. in the non-city party of our area we found this little dirt road that led into the forest so we decided to walk down it to see what was there. after a couple of minutes we found a ranch so we talked to the guys for a little while and then kept walking. After about 25 more minutes on this road without seeing anyone, we found a little clearing with about 5 houses in it. we walked in the middle and started looking around to see if anyone was there. we saw this little Haitian boy about 8 years old, so we waved to him and smiled. he immediately ran for his house and said something in french. we then started to see more heads poke out from behind some bushes. i think they thought two white men from the government had come to take away their houses. we walked closer to show them that we were friendly. we saw this old lady who had a really deformed left arm, one of the worst i have ever seen. we talked with her because she knew spanish and then one by one the other people started coming over to see what we had to say. the other family members just spoke french so we used the little french we know and then just talked to the old lady in spanish. it was just one big Haitian family that lived there. we talked for a few minutes and told them who we were, but we had to leave because the sun was setting and we wanted to see where we were going to get back home. while walking back, my comp and i had an idea to do something for them for christmas. we have been looking for a family to do something for and that was them. we are going to go back Christmas eve with candy and toys for all of the kids in our santa hats and bring a book of mormon in french and something else for the adults. i know it wont be much but we are excited to do it because we are pretty sure they havent ever had a christmas before seeing as how poor they were.
Yesterday, we had a big zone conference with 3 zones together. it was a great talk about the importance of Christmas and Christ and His Atonement. it lasted about 4 hours but it was good to bring the true spirit of christmas. after the conference, they gave all of us lunch and then our district put on a special musical number for everyone. the presidents wife asked us to do it just two days before so we didn´t have too much time to practice but it turned out really well. me and another guy played the guitar, another played the piano, and the others sang. Of course the last song we played was feliz navidad. i think one of the senior couples sent mom the pictures so ask her for them. we also had our interviews with the president this week which went really well as always. he always has a smile and advise to give us. it was a good spiritually boosting week for us.
besides that we just did a lot of teaching this week. Joan is still progressing really good and still has his baptismal date for the 26th. No one else really seems to be progressing, but we found a couple of new investigators this week that seem like they have potential.
well thats about it for this week. my first call home is just 9 days away. have a great week.
Love Elder Johnson
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Banana Bread and Buckets
Dear Everyone,
Once again i had a very good week, although not much really happened. it just kind of went by and now its p-day again. The only rough part of the week was that we had to drop about 5 of our investigators because we have taught them everything and they still haven´t gone to church or kept the commitments. the only investigator that we really have progressing is Joan. He even went to us to the Christmas 1st presidency message because he wanted to hear the prophet. although, i am getting a little nervous as christmas gets closer because he baptismal date is the day after christmas and and christmas is a really big drinking day here and i know he will be around people (aka his mom) who will be drinking. But if he has a testimony, he should be able to get through the holidays and baptized.
The Christmas fireside was amazing. the prophet sounds so strong. that whole hour just flew by for our of all. I wish it would have kept going on forever. I really think Joan liked it too.
My comp and i are still getting along great. The best part about working with him is that we have the Spirit with us. A lot of times we will be in a lesson and just feel like we should teach something else than what we had planned and we are able to do it effectively. We just seem to click together. Also, we both have been missing some homemade cooking at this time of the year so we have been doing a lot of cooking, which has mainly just been banana bread, brownies, and cookies.
Its weird that it is Christmas time because it doesn´t seem like it at all. you will see some little lights here and there, and a little tree in some people´s houses but thats about it. i know we shouldn´t be focused on the material things of christmas, but it is nice when it actually feels like christmas though. We are doing good though, we are still healthy and alive.
Anyways, that is about all i can think of to write. like i said not a lot happened this week. The other day i got really scared because i dropped the mission cell phone in a bucket of water on accident but it still works...for now. Sorry that it was kind of a random email this week. hopefully i will have more to say next week. have a good week, i love you all.
Elder johnson
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Thanksgiving in the DR
hey everyone,
This was a great week. There wasn´t too many exciting things that happened, it was just really good working hard with someone who wants to work and someone who i really get along with. the second day of this transfer we even got 9 lessons in one day which was a record for me. i know its not about numbers, but it was just nice to be busy. Right now, we are getting rid of some of our investigators that don´t seem to be progressing and getting a new batch of people to work with, especially less active members. in our area, there are about 500 members, and only about 100 of them are active, so we have a LOT of work to do.
We actually had an amazing thanksgiving feast. one of the other elders cooked a turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, garlic bread, and a cheesecake. there were 8 of us there and we ate pretty much all of it. of course it wasn´t as good as yours, mom, but it was pretty close. This week, my comp and i bought a little Christmas tree and some lights, but that is pretty much all of the Christmas decorations we bought seeing as how neither of us have that much money. One of the best things about this companionship is that he knows how to bake and has a lot of recipes for cakes and brownies. i have learned how to do a lot (well not a lot but enough) of cooking here so i cook and he bakes. we have a feeling that we are going to get fat this transfer so we started running in the mornings too.
The best news that i have is that a couple of days ago we found out that Elder Bednar is coming to speak to us in January. This will be the second time that i will have heard him speak live in the mission, but the first time was with 2000 other missionaries. this time it will be with about 70 or less. I have heard some talks by him where he pretty much chewed some missionaries out for not being obedient, and i have also heard talks where he is really funny and just has a good time with the missionaries, hopefully it will be the latter in January.
Being Senior comp is cool, but not that much different. the only real change is that i get the cell phone and i get to set the pace, but my comp is on the same pace as me so it works out good. I thought i would have a little trouble with the Spanish without someone to rely on but i haven´t had any trouble with it so far.
As far as our investigators go that are really progressing, we just have the two. we had to drop the 11 year old girl because her mom didn´t give us permission to baptize her. we have an appointment to return and teach her mom so hopefully she can feel the spirit and change her mind. The other two are still progressing and we have two baptisms planned for them this transfer which should go through unless Satan tries to be a (fill in word here) and gets into their hearts.
Well that's about all i have to say for this week. it was a very good week and hopefully this next one will be better. have a great week. i love you... a lot!
Elder Johnson
This was a great week. There wasn´t too many exciting things that happened, it was just really good working hard with someone who wants to work and someone who i really get along with. the second day of this transfer we even got 9 lessons in one day which was a record for me. i know its not about numbers, but it was just nice to be busy. Right now, we are getting rid of some of our investigators that don´t seem to be progressing and getting a new batch of people to work with, especially less active members. in our area, there are about 500 members, and only about 100 of them are active, so we have a LOT of work to do.
We actually had an amazing thanksgiving feast. one of the other elders cooked a turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, garlic bread, and a cheesecake. there were 8 of us there and we ate pretty much all of it. of course it wasn´t as good as yours, mom, but it was pretty close. This week, my comp and i bought a little Christmas tree and some lights, but that is pretty much all of the Christmas decorations we bought seeing as how neither of us have that much money. One of the best things about this companionship is that he knows how to bake and has a lot of recipes for cakes and brownies. i have learned how to do a lot (well not a lot but enough) of cooking here so i cook and he bakes. we have a feeling that we are going to get fat this transfer so we started running in the mornings too.
The best news that i have is that a couple of days ago we found out that Elder Bednar is coming to speak to us in January. This will be the second time that i will have heard him speak live in the mission, but the first time was with 2000 other missionaries. this time it will be with about 70 or less. I have heard some talks by him where he pretty much chewed some missionaries out for not being obedient, and i have also heard talks where he is really funny and just has a good time with the missionaries, hopefully it will be the latter in January.
Being Senior comp is cool, but not that much different. the only real change is that i get the cell phone and i get to set the pace, but my comp is on the same pace as me so it works out good. I thought i would have a little trouble with the Spanish without someone to rely on but i haven´t had any trouble with it so far.
As far as our investigators go that are really progressing, we just have the two. we had to drop the 11 year old girl because her mom didn´t give us permission to baptize her. we have an appointment to return and teach her mom so hopefully she can feel the spirit and change her mind. The other two are still progressing and we have two baptisms planned for them this transfer which should go through unless Satan tries to be a (fill in word here) and gets into their hearts.
Well that's about all i have to say for this week. it was a very good week and hopefully this next one will be better. have a great week. i love you... a lot!
Elder Johnson
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Christmas Came Early - I Have a New Companion!
hey everyone,
This has been an amazing couple of days. at the end of last week i was getting really nervous that me and my comp would stay together for another transfer and we would be stuck together for thanksgiving, christmas, and new years. i did a lot of fasting and praying (not that he would go, but that the best thing for me would happen whether that be he stays or go and that i would be able to handle him if he stayed). Monday morning, the Lord answered my prayers. The monday before wednesday transfers in our district meeting we find out who stays and who goes. that morning morning before the meeting the president calls those people who are going up. i wasn´t expecting a call because i only have 6 months and my comp didn´t go up until he has a year and 1 in the mission. Lo and behold i got the call to go up to senior comp. i was really shocked and nervous because i am still really new but at the same time i was really happy because i knew i would get a different comp. in the meeting i found out that my comp is another american, Elder Holmes, who is in my zone. he is a really cool guy and i am so excited to work with him, especially during the holiday season. its a little weird because he is in the group behind me so i only have six more weeks than him in the mission so my spanish will really be put to the test. almost all of the americans in my group got moved to senior comp this transfer because we have all been learning spanish good and are ready for it. I really hope the Lord knows what he is doing on this one. Elder Holmes came this morning and we have gotton along great today. i have a feeling that this transfer is going to fly by.
Last sunday, me and another american in my group who is in the same ward sang in sacrament meeting. i know i can´t sing that good but it turned out really good. after, they asked us to be in the ward choir (mainly because there are only 3 men there and no one else wants too). As far as thanksgiving goes, i´m not sure what we are going to do. one of the Elders in our ward is an amazing cook and wants to cook a turkey and some potatoes this year so hopefully that will happen. besides that it will just be another working day.
Funny side note, out of the 8 people in our district, i am the 3rd oldest with 6 months. we have a VERY young district but we have a lot of desire to work so we will see what happens. Besides that i don´t have too much to say. my old comp is on the other side of the mission and i am still in cienfuegos with my new comp.
We were supposed to have a baptism this saturday with our 16 year old, but his mom said know because he wasn´t putting into practice the things we are teaching him. The kid says he is ready but the mom says no and since he is under 18 we have to go with the mom´s decision. of course i want to wait until he is ready too but we will keep working with him and hopefully baptise him sometime this transfer. Anyways, thats all i have to say for this week. i am still safe and healthy and i hope you all have a great thanksgiving.
Love Elder Johnson
This has been an amazing couple of days. at the end of last week i was getting really nervous that me and my comp would stay together for another transfer and we would be stuck together for thanksgiving, christmas, and new years. i did a lot of fasting and praying (not that he would go, but that the best thing for me would happen whether that be he stays or go and that i would be able to handle him if he stayed). Monday morning, the Lord answered my prayers. The monday before wednesday transfers in our district meeting we find out who stays and who goes. that morning morning before the meeting the president calls those people who are going up. i wasn´t expecting a call because i only have 6 months and my comp didn´t go up until he has a year and 1 in the mission. Lo and behold i got the call to go up to senior comp. i was really shocked and nervous because i am still really new but at the same time i was really happy because i knew i would get a different comp. in the meeting i found out that my comp is another american, Elder Holmes, who is in my zone. he is a really cool guy and i am so excited to work with him, especially during the holiday season. its a little weird because he is in the group behind me so i only have six more weeks than him in the mission so my spanish will really be put to the test. almost all of the americans in my group got moved to senior comp this transfer because we have all been learning spanish good and are ready for it. I really hope the Lord knows what he is doing on this one. Elder Holmes came this morning and we have gotton along great today. i have a feeling that this transfer is going to fly by.
Last sunday, me and another american in my group who is in the same ward sang in sacrament meeting. i know i can´t sing that good but it turned out really good. after, they asked us to be in the ward choir (mainly because there are only 3 men there and no one else wants too). As far as thanksgiving goes, i´m not sure what we are going to do. one of the Elders in our ward is an amazing cook and wants to cook a turkey and some potatoes this year so hopefully that will happen. besides that it will just be another working day.
Funny side note, out of the 8 people in our district, i am the 3rd oldest with 6 months. we have a VERY young district but we have a lot of desire to work so we will see what happens. Besides that i don´t have too much to say. my old comp is on the other side of the mission and i am still in cienfuegos with my new comp.
We were supposed to have a baptism this saturday with our 16 year old, but his mom said know because he wasn´t putting into practice the things we are teaching him. The kid says he is ready but the mom says no and since he is under 18 we have to go with the mom´s decision. of course i want to wait until he is ready too but we will keep working with him and hopefully baptise him sometime this transfer. Anyways, thats all i have to say for this week. i am still safe and healthy and i hope you all have a great thanksgiving.
Love Elder Johnson
Monday, November 23, 2009
Six Month Mark! I'm 1/4 There!
Hey everyone,
So i am sorry but this week wasn´t as interesting as last week. i did not get robbed, shot, stabbed, or hit by a car, so the rest of this letter will be pretty boring. Last Saturday, we had another flash flood. This time, however, we were on the other side of the area where there is only dirt roads and it is at the bottom of everything. we had to go home about an hour early because there was nothing we could do. we only had one more lesson of the day and it was even farther down the hill. The water wasn´t as deep but it was pretty much all mud. unfortunately, i wore my other shoes that i didn´t wear in the first flood so now both of them are kind of gross, but all is well. On the positive side of things, my comp and i put 3 baptismal dates for 3 different investigators we are teaching and put a marriage date with another couple we are teaching. our investigators with the baptismal date are a 27 year old guy named Joan that i talked about last week, a 16 year old kid named Jean Carlos, and a 12 year old girl named Trini. They all seem really interested so hopefully we everything will go as planned and they will be baptized next transer but i don´t want to jinx myself.
This is the last p day of the transfer. on Monday we find out who goes and who stays (if anyone does). I´m not going to lie, i want my comp to get transferred somewhere else, but if he stays i know that it is for the best and will help me in the long wrong.
I hit 6 months in 2 days which is exciting. i probably won´t do anything to celebrate, just go out and teach. the time has gone by super fast for me but at the same time it has been kind of long (mainly just this transfer has been long).
I know that i told you (mom) that i wanted a family baptised for christmas. there is a young woman in our ward who is the only member in her family and really wants her parents to be members so she can be part of an eternal family. we started teaching her parents a couple of weeks ago. the seem some what interested but i am not sure about how interested. the mom is Catholic, which is a big problem for us here because most of them have the motto "my grandparents were Catholic, my parents were Catholic, i am Catholic, and i will die a Catholic." we will see if we can break them though.
That is about all that i have to say for this week, so enjoy life and i love you all.
Elder Johnson
So i am sorry but this week wasn´t as interesting as last week. i did not get robbed, shot, stabbed, or hit by a car, so the rest of this letter will be pretty boring. Last Saturday, we had another flash flood. This time, however, we were on the other side of the area where there is only dirt roads and it is at the bottom of everything. we had to go home about an hour early because there was nothing we could do. we only had one more lesson of the day and it was even farther down the hill. The water wasn´t as deep but it was pretty much all mud. unfortunately, i wore my other shoes that i didn´t wear in the first flood so now both of them are kind of gross, but all is well. On the positive side of things, my comp and i put 3 baptismal dates for 3 different investigators we are teaching and put a marriage date with another couple we are teaching. our investigators with the baptismal date are a 27 year old guy named Joan that i talked about last week, a 16 year old kid named Jean Carlos, and a 12 year old girl named Trini. They all seem really interested so hopefully we everything will go as planned and they will be baptized next transer but i don´t want to jinx myself.
This is the last p day of the transfer. on Monday we find out who goes and who stays (if anyone does). I´m not going to lie, i want my comp to get transferred somewhere else, but if he stays i know that it is for the best and will help me in the long wrong.
I hit 6 months in 2 days which is exciting. i probably won´t do anything to celebrate, just go out and teach. the time has gone by super fast for me but at the same time it has been kind of long (mainly just this transfer has been long).
I know that i told you (mom) that i wanted a family baptised for christmas. there is a young woman in our ward who is the only member in her family and really wants her parents to be members so she can be part of an eternal family. we started teaching her parents a couple of weeks ago. the seem some what interested but i am not sure about how interested. the mom is Catholic, which is a big problem for us here because most of them have the motto "my grandparents were Catholic, my parents were Catholic, i am Catholic, and i will die a Catholic." we will see if we can break them though.
That is about all that i have to say for this week, so enjoy life and i love you all.
Elder Johnson
We got Robbed!!!
Hey everyone,
So this has been a crazy and difficult week. it all started last thursday, when someone broke into our house and stole my guitar, cd player, speakers, fan, my toiletry kit with my razor and everything, and some stuff of my comps. however, he did the leave the most important things that i have, my pictures and camera, my scriptures, and my glove. it was just really annoying and now its really quiet in the house without music. he did leave all of my church cds though so i just have to by a new cd player. We called the office and they came over but they couldn´t really do anything or reimburse anything that was stolen. they just bought a new more durable lock.
the next day, all of our appointments fired on us except for one so we only got one lesson all day which has been a first in the mission for me. we also found out that Etcel, our investigator that was practically mormon and just had to go to church one more time to be baptized, moved because he didn´t have money to pay rent and now we don´t know where he is. also, we are teaching this other investigator, but one of the guys in our ward told us that his mom is a witch. it has just been kind of a stressful week with all of that and then my comp is still crazy and was getting on my nerves. Although, i have learned to have a lot of patience this week. on the bright side of the week, we had a really good zone conference and we had 4 investigators at church (which has been the most this transfer). One of our investigators, Joan, has really seemed to like the gospel. he has already gone to church twice and always seems really interested in the lessons. the rule for us is that we have to teach him a couple of more lessons and he has to go to church one more time and then he can be baptised so hopefully we will be able to do that either this transfer or next.
Here in the city we don´t get to do as much service as i did in my first area which is kind of lame but it gives us more time to proselyte and teach lessons so it´s still a win win situation.
This morning for a zone activity we got to play basketball for a couple of hours. Dominicans may be good at baseball, but they are definitely lacking in their basketball skills. i was the only american playing so it was a little rough but still fun and good exercise.
Besides that, nothing i don´t have too much more to say. it has rained the past 3 days but really lightly so there weren´t any flash floods, just a LOT of smelly mud to walk through. It has also cooled down a little bit but not enough. everyone here thinks its so much colder though and i have seen a number of people in sweatshirts and jackets.
The work is still going good here, there is a lot of people to teach and a lot of people waiting to be taught. the ward is still going good as well, although i am pretty sure they are getting tired of my comp and want him to go next transfer as well, but i will find out in 12 what is going to happen. i hope everything is going well for all of you and you are enjoying the holiday season.
Love Elder Johnson
So this has been a crazy and difficult week. it all started last thursday, when someone broke into our house and stole my guitar, cd player, speakers, fan, my toiletry kit with my razor and everything, and some stuff of my comps. however, he did the leave the most important things that i have, my pictures and camera, my scriptures, and my glove. it was just really annoying and now its really quiet in the house without music. he did leave all of my church cds though so i just have to by a new cd player. We called the office and they came over but they couldn´t really do anything or reimburse anything that was stolen. they just bought a new more durable lock.
the next day, all of our appointments fired on us except for one so we only got one lesson all day which has been a first in the mission for me. we also found out that Etcel, our investigator that was practically mormon and just had to go to church one more time to be baptized, moved because he didn´t have money to pay rent and now we don´t know where he is. also, we are teaching this other investigator, but one of the guys in our ward told us that his mom is a witch. it has just been kind of a stressful week with all of that and then my comp is still crazy and was getting on my nerves. Although, i have learned to have a lot of patience this week. on the bright side of the week, we had a really good zone conference and we had 4 investigators at church (which has been the most this transfer). One of our investigators, Joan, has really seemed to like the gospel. he has already gone to church twice and always seems really interested in the lessons. the rule for us is that we have to teach him a couple of more lessons and he has to go to church one more time and then he can be baptised so hopefully we will be able to do that either this transfer or next.
Here in the city we don´t get to do as much service as i did in my first area which is kind of lame but it gives us more time to proselyte and teach lessons so it´s still a win win situation.
This morning for a zone activity we got to play basketball for a couple of hours. Dominicans may be good at baseball, but they are definitely lacking in their basketball skills. i was the only american playing so it was a little rough but still fun and good exercise.
Besides that, nothing i don´t have too much more to say. it has rained the past 3 days but really lightly so there weren´t any flash floods, just a LOT of smelly mud to walk through. It has also cooled down a little bit but not enough. everyone here thinks its so much colder though and i have seen a number of people in sweatshirts and jackets.
The work is still going good here, there is a lot of people to teach and a lot of people waiting to be taught. the ward is still going good as well, although i am pretty sure they are getting tired of my comp and want him to go next transfer as well, but i will find out in 12 what is going to happen. i hope everything is going well for all of you and you are enjoying the holiday season.
Love Elder Johnson
El Gigante Blanco Survives his first Flash Flood
Hey family,
So this week has been a little better but its still a struggle. i kind of took over this week because i didn´t want it to be a repeat of 7 lessons last week. this week we were able to get 22 lessons with 22 new investigators so we were definitely keeping busy. yesterday, my comp thanked me for pushing him harder this week because he has been really lethargic lately and hasn´t wanted to work. He still drives me crazy because he never stops talking (especially about his girlfriend) but i can get over that if we actually have work to do.
I am starting to get used to this new area. there are only two things that i really don´t like about it. the first is the river that runs through the area. it is definitely the worst smelling thing i have ever smelled in my life. everyone just throws their garbage in their because they are too lazy to walk to the dumpster. we have to walk by it about 5 times a day and every time i feel like i need to throw up. the other thing i can´t stand are the kids here. i love american kids but dominicans are a different story. whenever we walk down the street they just start walking by me and call me a giant. at first i didn´t mind but now its just annoying. i just let them know that i am normal size and they are all midgets, so now whenever i see them i walk by them and tell them how short they are.
Last Thursday we were in a lesson and it started to rain. when we finished the lesson it had only been raining for about 5 minutes and we had a meeting at the church so we thought we could make it to the church no problem and just be a little wet. once we left it started to rain a lot harder, and withing 5 more minutes of walking the dirt road turning into a really fast river with water up to my knees. the area we are in is all at the bottom of the hill so all the water comes our way. we knew we couldn´t make it to the church because it was at the top of the hill so we decided to go home because we were already drenched and it would be impossible to teach a lesson because everyone has tin roofs and when it rains hard its so loud that you can´t hear yourself talk. after 20 min or so we were almost home, we just had one more main road to cross. little did we know that this road was the biggest of all the rivers. there were abandoned cars turned sideways with water almost up to the windshield. we started hiking uphill a little bit to see if there was a calmer spot that we could cross. we finally found a spot that wasn´t too bad but we still need the help of a car, a pole, and a couple of men to help us cross. dominicans hate rain by the way so they just thought mormons are even more crazy.
On saturday morning we were doing service at an innactive members house. next door to them were a funeral service for someone who was killed by the police the day before. he was a really bad man that has robbed and killed people so the police decided to return the favor. aparently they have a 5 strike system. once someone has five strikes the police come and look for you... murder is an automatic 5 strikes.
right now we have a couple of interesting investigators. there is this guy named Etcel (who we actually haven´t taught yet). he contacted us on the street last friday and said he is looking for God and wants us to come teach him. he said he already had all of the missionary lessons before but now he needs to rethink his life and if he wants to get baptised in our church because he is Evangelical now. we put an appointment with him on saturday and invited him to church sunday. he wasn´t at his house on saturday but he showed up to church. he told us in church that he is reading the Book of Mormon, Jesus the Christ, the House of the Lord, the Articles of Faith, and the Miracle of Forgivness. he has a really interest for the church and loves reading about our faith. after church he said he really like it and he is going to tell his other church that he isn´t going there anymore. we just have to repass all the lessons and once he goes to church 2 more times we will baptize him. right now it seems a little too good to be true and that something is wrong but we will see. also, in church we were talking about the law of chastity. Etcel raised his hand to make a comment and actually said the F word in english (he knows perfect english) and explained it stands for fornicating under the something of the king. i don´t remember all of what he said, i guess it was just the first time that i heard that word in church and was a little shocked. another one of our investigators is named Manny who is this gangster kid the moved from the DR to New York when he was 3 and just moved back again, so he knows english better than spanish. we began teaching him the other day and we teach him in english but its too hard for us. we can only teach in spanish because thats how we learned and i haven´t taught in english for 5 months. it was probably the worst lesson i have had just because it was so choppy. we would teach in spanish in our minds and then translate to english when we spoke but it didn´t work. we might just have to switch to complete spanish. there is also this innactive member who we went to visit. when we went there, the husband said they decided to switch churches because ours doesn´t have any strength. when we asked him what he means, he said for a while there have been demons in his house and members of our church weren´t able to get rid of them, but then he went to another church and they came and got rid of them that day. even though he has been a member for 12 years he just wants to leave. my comp got a little defensive but after a while we left. we asked the president what to do and he told us to do nothing and leave him for the bishop to deal with because we shouldn´t waste our time with him when there are plenty of other people we could be teaching. the bishop also told us that he has never had a testimony of the church which makes sense.
anyways, thats about all i have to say for this week. i havent had to beat up my comp yet but we will see about next week. hope you all are doing good.
Love, Elder Johnson
So this week has been a little better but its still a struggle. i kind of took over this week because i didn´t want it to be a repeat of 7 lessons last week. this week we were able to get 22 lessons with 22 new investigators so we were definitely keeping busy. yesterday, my comp thanked me for pushing him harder this week because he has been really lethargic lately and hasn´t wanted to work. He still drives me crazy because he never stops talking (especially about his girlfriend) but i can get over that if we actually have work to do.
I am starting to get used to this new area. there are only two things that i really don´t like about it. the first is the river that runs through the area. it is definitely the worst smelling thing i have ever smelled in my life. everyone just throws their garbage in their because they are too lazy to walk to the dumpster. we have to walk by it about 5 times a day and every time i feel like i need to throw up. the other thing i can´t stand are the kids here. i love american kids but dominicans are a different story. whenever we walk down the street they just start walking by me and call me a giant. at first i didn´t mind but now its just annoying. i just let them know that i am normal size and they are all midgets, so now whenever i see them i walk by them and tell them how short they are.
Last Thursday we were in a lesson and it started to rain. when we finished the lesson it had only been raining for about 5 minutes and we had a meeting at the church so we thought we could make it to the church no problem and just be a little wet. once we left it started to rain a lot harder, and withing 5 more minutes of walking the dirt road turning into a really fast river with water up to my knees. the area we are in is all at the bottom of the hill so all the water comes our way. we knew we couldn´t make it to the church because it was at the top of the hill so we decided to go home because we were already drenched and it would be impossible to teach a lesson because everyone has tin roofs and when it rains hard its so loud that you can´t hear yourself talk. after 20 min or so we were almost home, we just had one more main road to cross. little did we know that this road was the biggest of all the rivers. there were abandoned cars turned sideways with water almost up to the windshield. we started hiking uphill a little bit to see if there was a calmer spot that we could cross. we finally found a spot that wasn´t too bad but we still need the help of a car, a pole, and a couple of men to help us cross. dominicans hate rain by the way so they just thought mormons are even more crazy.
On saturday morning we were doing service at an innactive members house. next door to them were a funeral service for someone who was killed by the police the day before. he was a really bad man that has robbed and killed people so the police decided to return the favor. aparently they have a 5 strike system. once someone has five strikes the police come and look for you... murder is an automatic 5 strikes.
right now we have a couple of interesting investigators. there is this guy named Etcel (who we actually haven´t taught yet). he contacted us on the street last friday and said he is looking for God and wants us to come teach him. he said he already had all of the missionary lessons before but now he needs to rethink his life and if he wants to get baptised in our church because he is Evangelical now. we put an appointment with him on saturday and invited him to church sunday. he wasn´t at his house on saturday but he showed up to church. he told us in church that he is reading the Book of Mormon, Jesus the Christ, the House of the Lord, the Articles of Faith, and the Miracle of Forgivness. he has a really interest for the church and loves reading about our faith. after church he said he really like it and he is going to tell his other church that he isn´t going there anymore. we just have to repass all the lessons and once he goes to church 2 more times we will baptize him. right now it seems a little too good to be true and that something is wrong but we will see. also, in church we were talking about the law of chastity. Etcel raised his hand to make a comment and actually said the F word in english (he knows perfect english) and explained it stands for fornicating under the something of the king. i don´t remember all of what he said, i guess it was just the first time that i heard that word in church and was a little shocked. another one of our investigators is named Manny who is this gangster kid the moved from the DR to New York when he was 3 and just moved back again, so he knows english better than spanish. we began teaching him the other day and we teach him in english but its too hard for us. we can only teach in spanish because thats how we learned and i haven´t taught in english for 5 months. it was probably the worst lesson i have had just because it was so choppy. we would teach in spanish in our minds and then translate to english when we spoke but it didn´t work. we might just have to switch to complete spanish. there is also this innactive member who we went to visit. when we went there, the husband said they decided to switch churches because ours doesn´t have any strength. when we asked him what he means, he said for a while there have been demons in his house and members of our church weren´t able to get rid of them, but then he went to another church and they came and got rid of them that day. even though he has been a member for 12 years he just wants to leave. my comp got a little defensive but after a while we left. we asked the president what to do and he told us to do nothing and leave him for the bishop to deal with because we shouldn´t waste our time with him when there are plenty of other people we could be teaching. the bishop also told us that he has never had a testimony of the church which makes sense.
anyways, thats about all i have to say for this week. i havent had to beat up my comp yet but we will see about next week. hope you all are doing good.
Love, Elder Johnson
Fried Chicken and Burning Tires
Hey family,
This week wasn´t has crazy as last week, so i´m sorry if this letter is pretty boring. Halloween was pretty much a blur for us. at lunch we went over to another Elder´s house and i made rice with corn and fried chicken (yes that is right i actually cooked and it was good) and then we ate a cake that one of the other elders made. besides that it was just a normal day with teaching the gospel. Etcel, the guy who swore in church last week, was at church this Sunday an hour early. we even had a ¨spiritual breakfast¨ on saturday at 6 in the morning and he was there. He even bore his testimony about the Book of Mormon in sacrament meeting. at first i was really nervous because i knew what happened last time he talked. he actually gave a really nice testimony. so far he has read the Book of Mormon 5 times and has 37 other books by the Church. He loves the church but we still haven´t taught him yet. we have passed by his house probably once a day and he is never home. He is the perfect golden investigator but something still feels a little wrong with him. hopefully we will actually be able to find him in his house to start teaching him.
There is a guy in our ward who is leaving for his mission tomorrow, so lately he has been going out with all of the missionaries to see how the mission life is and start teaching. it will be sad to see him go because he is a really great member here. we also have two part member families that we are teaching. in one of them, only one 16 year old boy is the nonmember but he seems to be progressing and i think he will be baptized in a couple of weeks. in the other family, the only member is a 17 year old girl and she wants her parents to become members so they can be an eternal family. we just started teaching them so i´m not sure how interested they are right now but we will see. as far as that, is has just been a normal flash flood free week. Last night we saw a lady get hit by a car while we were walking to an appointment. everyone rushed over to her, but she didn´t seem too hurt, maybe a broken foot but nothing major. we were already late for our appointment so we just let them deal with it. there was also a small riot in one of the neighborhoods in our area. when they riot they just burn big tires in the middle of the street. we asked them why they were rioting and they said there wasn´t any water. we told them we were sorry and kept on walking.
I do not have anything more to say so i hope you all had a great holiday and have a great week. love you
Elder Johnson
This week wasn´t has crazy as last week, so i´m sorry if this letter is pretty boring. Halloween was pretty much a blur for us. at lunch we went over to another Elder´s house and i made rice with corn and fried chicken (yes that is right i actually cooked and it was good) and then we ate a cake that one of the other elders made. besides that it was just a normal day with teaching the gospel. Etcel, the guy who swore in church last week, was at church this Sunday an hour early. we even had a ¨spiritual breakfast¨ on saturday at 6 in the morning and he was there. He even bore his testimony about the Book of Mormon in sacrament meeting. at first i was really nervous because i knew what happened last time he talked. he actually gave a really nice testimony. so far he has read the Book of Mormon 5 times and has 37 other books by the Church. He loves the church but we still haven´t taught him yet. we have passed by his house probably once a day and he is never home. He is the perfect golden investigator but something still feels a little wrong with him. hopefully we will actually be able to find him in his house to start teaching him.
There is a guy in our ward who is leaving for his mission tomorrow, so lately he has been going out with all of the missionaries to see how the mission life is and start teaching. it will be sad to see him go because he is a really great member here. we also have two part member families that we are teaching. in one of them, only one 16 year old boy is the nonmember but he seems to be progressing and i think he will be baptized in a couple of weeks. in the other family, the only member is a 17 year old girl and she wants her parents to become members so they can be an eternal family. we just started teaching them so i´m not sure how interested they are right now but we will see. as far as that, is has just been a normal flash flood free week. Last night we saw a lady get hit by a car while we were walking to an appointment. everyone rushed over to her, but she didn´t seem too hurt, maybe a broken foot but nothing major. we were already late for our appointment so we just let them deal with it. there was also a small riot in one of the neighborhoods in our area. when they riot they just burn big tires in the middle of the street. we asked them why they were rioting and they said there wasn´t any water. we told them we were sorry and kept on walking.
I do not have anything more to say so i hope you all had a great holiday and have a great week. love you
Elder Johnson
New Companion = New Challenge!
hey everyone,
so to tell you the truth, this was one of the longest weeks i have had in the mission. i like the area and the ward seems really good but my comp is crazy! He is always talking and trying to one up me in everything. he is also impatient and kind of rude to people. i can already tell that this is going to be a long transfer. There is one super market that almost all of the missionaries go for pday and when i told them who my comp was they just said they were sorry and good luck. the biggest problem there is in this companionship is that i don´t feel the spirit when we teach which makes it really hard. i know its probably not the best thing to vent like this but i can´t help it. lets just say that i have been doing a lot of praying for patients lately. i talked to my old comp today and he has been having the same problems with his new comp so at least i´m not the only one. anyways, enough bad talking about my comp. the area that i´m in is exactly what you think the ghetto in a third world country would be like. there is just run down houses everywhere. where ever there is a 30 by 30 square foot of land, there is a house. there is also a bunch of run down walls and little alley ways. the good thing about it is that there are a lot of people. la cienaga really didn´t have that many people but now there is a whole new batch of people to teach. the apartment we have is REALLY small. i don´t think its even half the size of my old one. the good thing about this apartment though is that there is running water all the time. its freezing cold but at least we have it. the light situation is about the same as in the old area too. they actually have a ward here instead of a branch and we have an actual church building instead of just a house. they also have a couple of pianos so i have been practicing a lot more lately. this sunday i got to bless the sacrament which was the first time i did it in spanish, and they asked me to bear my testimony. unfortunately, there is no one here to fix our meals so we have to do it ourselves. that pretty much means that i eat cereal and sandwiches and every now and then i will make some soup or pasta. there are only two missionaries in our apartment but 4 in the ward, and one of the others (who is a dominican) is a really good cook and is going to show me how to make a bunch of dominican food. i was hoping to stay in my old area at least one transfer longer but the Lord knows best. i have talked with the missionaries who took our place in la cienaga and they said alejandro is doing great. he got a calling last week and bore a really powerful testimony in church about how this gospel has changed his life, so he is still doing good. i know one of the missionaries that took our place and he is a great guy so i´m not really worried about anything there. anyways, there really isn´t anything else that happened this week. just getting acquainted to the area and trying to not kill my comp. hopefully this next week i will have something more positive to say. the mission is still great and i love doing the work everyday. hope you all have a great week.
Love Elder Johnson
so to tell you the truth, this was one of the longest weeks i have had in the mission. i like the area and the ward seems really good but my comp is crazy! He is always talking and trying to one up me in everything. he is also impatient and kind of rude to people. i can already tell that this is going to be a long transfer. There is one super market that almost all of the missionaries go for pday and when i told them who my comp was they just said they were sorry and good luck. the biggest problem there is in this companionship is that i don´t feel the spirit when we teach which makes it really hard. i know its probably not the best thing to vent like this but i can´t help it. lets just say that i have been doing a lot of praying for patients lately. i talked to my old comp today and he has been having the same problems with his new comp so at least i´m not the only one. anyways, enough bad talking about my comp. the area that i´m in is exactly what you think the ghetto in a third world country would be like. there is just run down houses everywhere. where ever there is a 30 by 30 square foot of land, there is a house. there is also a bunch of run down walls and little alley ways. the good thing about it is that there are a lot of people. la cienaga really didn´t have that many people but now there is a whole new batch of people to teach. the apartment we have is REALLY small. i don´t think its even half the size of my old one. the good thing about this apartment though is that there is running water all the time. its freezing cold but at least we have it. the light situation is about the same as in the old area too. they actually have a ward here instead of a branch and we have an actual church building instead of just a house. they also have a couple of pianos so i have been practicing a lot more lately. this sunday i got to bless the sacrament which was the first time i did it in spanish, and they asked me to bear my testimony. unfortunately, there is no one here to fix our meals so we have to do it ourselves. that pretty much means that i eat cereal and sandwiches and every now and then i will make some soup or pasta. there are only two missionaries in our apartment but 4 in the ward, and one of the others (who is a dominican) is a really good cook and is going to show me how to make a bunch of dominican food. i was hoping to stay in my old area at least one transfer longer but the Lord knows best. i have talked with the missionaries who took our place in la cienaga and they said alejandro is doing great. he got a calling last week and bore a really powerful testimony in church about how this gospel has changed his life, so he is still doing good. i know one of the missionaries that took our place and he is a great guy so i´m not really worried about anything there. anyways, there really isn´t anything else that happened this week. just getting acquainted to the area and trying to not kill my comp. hopefully this next week i will have something more positive to say. the mission is still great and i love doing the work everyday. hope you all have a great week.
Love Elder Johnson
The only size 14 shoes on the island...
These are a couple of pictures that Mark sent to his sister, Angeli. Anyone who truly knows Mark knows that he is particular about his style. As a missionary, there is only so much one can do with fashion to stand out. But our little Marky Mark does not fail to disappoint - he has expressed himself by designing his own pair of shoes. He said that the only pair of size 14 shoes he could find on the island were plain white "old man shoes", so he drew on them to reflect his family and Dominican pride. Love it. Typical Mark. :)
First Transfer to the City of Cien Fuegos
Everyone,
This week was a crazy week. i know that last week we weren´t going to baptize Alejandro, but we did. we have never asked him straight up if he has been gambling, we were just assuming, so we asked him. he told us that he hasn´t gone in over a month and then he bore his testimony to us about the church and how grateful he was for us. we definitely felt the Spirit and knew that he was ready. since he has only gone to church 2 times we called president to see if we could still baptize him. he said if we felt good about it then it was fine with him, and we felt good about it. We arrived at the church half an hour earlier and Alejandro was already there just sitting by himself reading a hymn book. he knew what time the baptism was, he just wanted to go an hour earlier to get ready. The other two missionaries had 6 people baptized on the same day too. a family of 5 and a brother of the husband, so all in all there was 7. The best part about it was that i got to baptize Alejandro. He knew that i hadn´t baptized anyone myself in the mission so he wanted me to be his first. It was really an amazing experience. At first i was a little nervous because about half of the ward was there and President Lee and his wife showed up too, but all went smoothly. The only sad part of it was that no one from his family came to support him and there was a ¨families can be together forever¨ theme because of the other family that was baptized. We promised him though that if he would continue in the church faithfully he and his family would be blessed. Hopefully they will accept the gospel at some time in their life. the next day on Sunday, he along with one of the men received the priesthood and the other one will receive it next week. i know that he will be a great leader in the church and will help the branch a lot. The president of the branch said that they are trying to find some land to build a chapel which will be really nice because the house we are using now is getting to small for all of the members. there are usually 70 to 80 members that come each week and the most we have had since i have been there is 96, so they are close to becoming a ward.
As far as transfers go, both me and my comp were transferred out of our area. i got transferred to a place just 15 minutes down the road called cien fuegos and my comp got transferred to la vega which is on the other side of the mission. i was kind of hoping to stay in my area at least one transfer longer especially since alejandro just got baptized but i know everything happens for a reason here. I´ve only been in my area a couple of hours but it is completely different. first of all its in the city so there really isn´t dirt roads and huts, just run down apartments. when i told everyone where i was going, the first thing they told me is that there is a lot of corruption and drugs there so we´ll see how things turn out. my new comp is another american, which was a little disappointment because a dominican would help me learn spanish so much faster. i don´t know much about him except that he is 5 ft 8 and from arizona. i´m not sure what kind of missionary he is like either but i will find out really quick. Anyways, thats about all that happened this week. just a lot of packing and saying goodbye to people. Hope you all have a good week and i will let you know how my new area turns out. love you.
Elder Johnson
Thursday, October 8, 2009
General Conference, Moths, and Centipedes
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Everyone,
So i guess the biggest thing that i have to talk about this week is conference...amazing! we were able to watch all 10 hours live and in english in the stake center which was only about a half an hour away. all of the talks were amazing, Holland of course... I also really liked Anderson´s about repentance and Nielson´s about missionary work. Maybe its because i am a missionary but it seemed like conference went by so fast. each session seemed like it was 10 min long. in between the two sessions on sunday, my comp and i had the opportunity to go to the hospital and give two children a blessing that had gotten Dengue. That has kind of been a problem here for a bunch of little kids, but it was a great experience. we are going to go by again today to see how they are doing. None of our investigators went to conference which was a little disappointing again because there were so many talks that would have helped many of them. Later that night we went to see why Alejandro didn´t go. he told us he went twice but he got mixed up on the hours and went when nobody was there and his phone had died so he couldn´t call us. he explained in detail the church so we know he actually tried to go. i felt really bad though because there were some great talks for him. He still has a lot of desire to join the church and is doing everything he is supposed to (except the whole gambling thing) so hopefully he will be ready for baptism in a couple of weeks. His family has been having some problems lately so he is really hoping that his 3 daughters (who are a little rebellious) take an interest in the church and start going.
Lately, we have been having a little problem with bat size moths in our house. we found a solution though. we have a ceiling fan with a light so we turn on. the moths fly around the light and eventually they fly a little to high and hit the fan. it might be a little brutal but they are annoying and are always in our things. they have to die some day. we also found a huge centipede right outside our house that was about 8 inches long and an inch thick. if they bite you its suppose to be a really sharp pain for a couple of days, but none of us have been bit yet.
One of the other missionaries that lives with us goes home next wednesday which has not been to best thing to help us from getting trunky. Besides that everything is great though. this saturday we have 6 (maybe 7) baptisms planned. well, there are the other missionaries but we are all in the same ward so we are going too. the parents of this family just got married last week so now they can get baptized.
I don´t have anymore to say, i´m just taking the DR one day at a time. Have a great week, love you all.
Elder Johnson
I Hate Hiking.
Hey family,
So this was kind of a long week. everything was fine until sunday. none of our investigators or the other missionaries investigators we live with didn't come to church. last week we had 12 between the two of us and this week we didn't have any. i knew that most of ours wouldn't come but alejandro (the one with the baptism date) was a surprise because he has progressing so much and we saw him an hour before church and he said that he was coming. we went over to his house to see what happened and his wife said that he went to the cock fights all day. when we asked him about it later he just said that he had an errand to do with his brother, so i'm not sure what we are going to do. we will probably have to postpone his baptism until he stops gambling. it was really disappointing when we found out because he has been doing so good and is really excited about being a member, but if he isn't ready there is nothing we can do about it. there is still a chance that he will be baptized the 10th but we'll see.
This morning we climbed up a mountain that is near our area with a member in our ward and some of his family and friends. it kind of just reminded me how much i hate hiking. it took 5 hours to go up and down (3 1/2 hrs straight up and 1 1/2 hrs down), but the whole time we were picking fruit and eating it and we came back with 4 backpacks full of oranges so it was worth it...maybe.
My spanish is coming along though. i understand about 80% of what people say so i can communicate with most of the people. my trainer is almost positively leaving next transfer in two weeks so i'll probably get a Dominican comp then which will help me a lot.
Anyways, we got back really late from the mountain and we have an appointment pretty soon so i don't have too much time to write, i'll try to tell all of you more next week. have a great week, love you.
Elder Johnson
So this was kind of a long week. everything was fine until sunday. none of our investigators or the other missionaries investigators we live with didn't come to church. last week we had 12 between the two of us and this week we didn't have any. i knew that most of ours wouldn't come but alejandro (the one with the baptism date) was a surprise because he has progressing so much and we saw him an hour before church and he said that he was coming. we went over to his house to see what happened and his wife said that he went to the cock fights all day. when we asked him about it later he just said that he had an errand to do with his brother, so i'm not sure what we are going to do. we will probably have to postpone his baptism until he stops gambling. it was really disappointing when we found out because he has been doing so good and is really excited about being a member, but if he isn't ready there is nothing we can do about it. there is still a chance that he will be baptized the 10th but we'll see.
This morning we climbed up a mountain that is near our area with a member in our ward and some of his family and friends. it kind of just reminded me how much i hate hiking. it took 5 hours to go up and down (3 1/2 hrs straight up and 1 1/2 hrs down), but the whole time we were picking fruit and eating it and we came back with 4 backpacks full of oranges so it was worth it...maybe.
My spanish is coming along though. i understand about 80% of what people say so i can communicate with most of the people. my trainer is almost positively leaving next transfer in two weeks so i'll probably get a Dominican comp then which will help me a lot.
Anyways, we got back really late from the mountain and we have an appointment pretty soon so i don't have too much time to write, i'll try to tell all of you more next week. have a great week, love you.
Elder Johnson
Investigator or Rap Artist?
Family,
This week went by so fast so i really don´t know what to write about. Last p day in the evening some guy picked us up to give us a ride. he was white (which is really rare here). he had a scottish accent but he said he has lived all over the united states. when then started talking a little bit about religion. he said he respected our church but his religion was quantum physics and then he told us he was God... by that time we were where we needed to be so we got out. i wish we would have had more time to talk to him and hear his reasoning for why he is God.
This Sunday was really good. before church, we went and picked up our investigator who has a baptismal date. i told us he really liked it and he participated and the class after sacrament meeting. he really understands the importance of the church and has a strong desire to get baptized. he left after the second hour which was kind of good because during the third hour we had some crazy guy teach the lesson who think Joseph Smith wrote the Constitution. Our ¨golden investigator¨ never showed up to church which wasn´t too big of a surprise.
There is a 16 year old we are teaching, but he doesn´t look like your typical investigator. he has piercings all over and always wears chains, but he has been really receptive to our messages. one time he even called his mom and told her that she needs to hear our message. well, we haven´t seen him in about 2 weeks. when we went back he had a huge life size picture of him and his brother like on the cover of a rap album.. they won some contest and 350,000 pesos (which is only $10,000) but here it goes a long way. He still loves our messages and says he wants to come to church, but i think he is on his way to becoming the next big thing to hit the DR.
as far as the rest of our investigators go, they aren´t really doing anything. a lot of them like our messages but they really don´t want to do anything about it. it´s too hard to keep the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. we are about to get rid of a lot of them and find a whole new batch of people to teach.
I didn´t get to play baseball this wednesday because we went to the monument here. its a big building that gives the history of how the DR got its independence and its on a hill which looks over the entire city which was pretty cool.
It´s still as hot and humid as ever here, but the work is going great. next week we are going to put a couple of more floors in and paint a house or two. anyways, that's about all i have to say for this week. have a great week.
Love, Elder Johnson
This week went by so fast so i really don´t know what to write about. Last p day in the evening some guy picked us up to give us a ride. he was white (which is really rare here). he had a scottish accent but he said he has lived all over the united states. when then started talking a little bit about religion. he said he respected our church but his religion was quantum physics and then he told us he was God... by that time we were where we needed to be so we got out. i wish we would have had more time to talk to him and hear his reasoning for why he is God.
This Sunday was really good. before church, we went and picked up our investigator who has a baptismal date. i told us he really liked it and he participated and the class after sacrament meeting. he really understands the importance of the church and has a strong desire to get baptized. he left after the second hour which was kind of good because during the third hour we had some crazy guy teach the lesson who think Joseph Smith wrote the Constitution. Our ¨golden investigator¨ never showed up to church which wasn´t too big of a surprise.
There is a 16 year old we are teaching, but he doesn´t look like your typical investigator. he has piercings all over and always wears chains, but he has been really receptive to our messages. one time he even called his mom and told her that she needs to hear our message. well, we haven´t seen him in about 2 weeks. when we went back he had a huge life size picture of him and his brother like on the cover of a rap album.. they won some contest and 350,000 pesos (which is only $10,000) but here it goes a long way. He still loves our messages and says he wants to come to church, but i think he is on his way to becoming the next big thing to hit the DR.
as far as the rest of our investigators go, they aren´t really doing anything. a lot of them like our messages but they really don´t want to do anything about it. it´s too hard to keep the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. we are about to get rid of a lot of them and find a whole new batch of people to teach.
I didn´t get to play baseball this wednesday because we went to the monument here. its a big building that gives the history of how the DR got its independence and its on a hill which looks over the entire city which was pretty cool.
It´s still as hot and humid as ever here, but the work is going great. next week we are going to put a couple of more floors in and paint a house or two. anyways, that's about all i have to say for this week. have a great week.
Love, Elder Johnson
Boy Still Knows How to Throw a Ball :)
Hey family, so i had another good week this week. the highlight of my week was playing baseball. there is a team here of 16 to 18 year old who play on wednesday morning that we played with. we played for a couple of hours which was such a nice break from our regular routine. some of the kids we played with were really good. they had a scout there watching the pitchers throw some pins. unfortunately, they didn´t let me throw a pin. i don´t know if i could have even if i wanted to. i was so excited to play i warmed up a little too fast so my arm is definitely going to feel it this week, but it was worth it. after we played, the coach asked me to play on another team he formed but the only play on saturday and sunday so i told him i couldn´t.
A couple of days ago we were on tv. last pday we saw some guy with a camera recording us as we walked. then a couple of days later a member on the other side of the island called and said she saw us on t.v. she also said that the show she was watching was on things people fear...
Last weekend, there was supposed to be a national riot. the people want more electricity (even though the little they are getting they are stealing). the day before it was supposed to happen it was canceled because there was supposed to be a big tropical storms. so there wasn´t a riot and the storms never came. this was a blessing because there were a number of baptisms in the mission that weekend and they probably would have been canceled if there was a riot or even a big storm. the Lord really knows what He doing.
So there is an old investigator in our area named Ramon. he has a lot of problems. his family left him because he is an alcoholic and now is drinks more because he is depressed. last week we went to visit him to see how he was doing. when we walked into his apartment we could tell he was drunk again so we told him we would come back another time. then he broke out in tears and started saying how nobody loves him and his is all alone in the world. we tried to comfort him a little and talk about Jesus and how He is always there but then we remembered that he would probably forget the whole conversation the next day so we kind of just left. we saw ramon a couple of days later (drunk of course) sitting outside of his house with a newly purchased machete in his hand. he told us that he was going to kill someone. we really didn´t know what to do so we asked if we could see his machete and then we hid it behind his dresser in his house. now we don´t know how to tell him that we hid his machete.
As far as the people we are teaching goes, they don´t want to come to church. we are teaching about 17 different people and the past 3 weeks none of them have come to church. the one with the baptism date had a good excuse, but we told him we are going to come to his house and pick him up for church which he thought was a good idea. he really has progressed a lot over the past couple of weeks. his date is the 10th of october right now so hopefully that will go through. also, the other day we were making some contacts. we knocked on a house and the guy that lived there told us to come in before we even told him who we were. he said that he is confused because there are so many churches in the world but he wants to find the Lord. we started talking about the restoration and in the middle of it he told us he was coming to church this sunday. its seems almost a little too good to be true, but we will find out on sunday.
I don´t have too much more to say. i still love the mission and i don´t want to come home, at least not yet. have a great week. love you all
Elder Johnson
A couple of days ago we were on tv. last pday we saw some guy with a camera recording us as we walked. then a couple of days later a member on the other side of the island called and said she saw us on t.v. she also said that the show she was watching was on things people fear...
Last weekend, there was supposed to be a national riot. the people want more electricity (even though the little they are getting they are stealing). the day before it was supposed to happen it was canceled because there was supposed to be a big tropical storms. so there wasn´t a riot and the storms never came. this was a blessing because there were a number of baptisms in the mission that weekend and they probably would have been canceled if there was a riot or even a big storm. the Lord really knows what He doing.
So there is an old investigator in our area named Ramon. he has a lot of problems. his family left him because he is an alcoholic and now is drinks more because he is depressed. last week we went to visit him to see how he was doing. when we walked into his apartment we could tell he was drunk again so we told him we would come back another time. then he broke out in tears and started saying how nobody loves him and his is all alone in the world. we tried to comfort him a little and talk about Jesus and how He is always there but then we remembered that he would probably forget the whole conversation the next day so we kind of just left. we saw ramon a couple of days later (drunk of course) sitting outside of his house with a newly purchased machete in his hand. he told us that he was going to kill someone. we really didn´t know what to do so we asked if we could see his machete and then we hid it behind his dresser in his house. now we don´t know how to tell him that we hid his machete.
As far as the people we are teaching goes, they don´t want to come to church. we are teaching about 17 different people and the past 3 weeks none of them have come to church. the one with the baptism date had a good excuse, but we told him we are going to come to his house and pick him up for church which he thought was a good idea. he really has progressed a lot over the past couple of weeks. his date is the 10th of october right now so hopefully that will go through. also, the other day we were making some contacts. we knocked on a house and the guy that lived there told us to come in before we even told him who we were. he said that he is confused because there are so many churches in the world but he wants to find the Lord. we started talking about the restoration and in the middle of it he told us he was coming to church this sunday. its seems almost a little too good to be true, but we will find out on sunday.
I don´t have too much more to say. i still love the mission and i don´t want to come home, at least not yet. have a great week. love you all
Elder Johnson
Thursday, September 3, 2009
I Get to Play Baseball!!!
hey family,
this week was pretty much the same. we did get another baptismal date for an investigator we are teaching which i am really excited about. we were teaching his wife for a while, and at the time he didn't live with her so we never taught him. a couple of weeks ago he moved back in so we started teaching him. he has really progressed and has a ton of desire to learn more. we need more priesthood holders in the branch and i really think he can help the church. his wife doesn't have the same desire though. she loves our messages but she is a die hard evangelical and doesn't want to change. we asked her to be baptized and she said she was already baptized. she doesn't understand that the authority was taken from the earth and restored through joseph smith and that the person who baptized her didn't have that authority. we are going to keep teaching her so hopefully she will understand and have the desire to be baptized.
oh yeah, its already christmas here. last week i saw my first christmas tree in the stores. they don't have halloween or thanksgiving here, so the next big holiday is christmas. my comp told me its really different though. people just get together christmas eve, eat dinner, and then get drunk. thats it...
the other day, we walking home around 9 at night, and we saw a couple cars just stop in the middle of the road and a bunch of people run out and over to some houses that were on the side of the road. when we asked what was going on, they said that they saw a thief trying to break into a house. they don't just call the police like in america, they take matters into their own hands. first they find the person, and then they beat them. this actually made me feel a lot safer because if someone ever tries to rob us, he won't get away if there are any people in sight!
today were transfers, i thought for sure that my comp was going to go because he already has 7 1/2 months here, but he's staying which i was really happy about. one of the other missionaries in our house only has 1 transfer left so it will be interesting to watch him get ready to go home. the language is coming little by little. hopefully by the end of this transfer i will be able to understand most of what people are saying. i feel like i'm just rambling on but there is not too much more to say so i am going to keep rambling on. in my personal study this week i came across a scripture in Psalms 37:37. i looked up my name in the topical guide and i found this scripture so i think you will like it. anyways, that's about all i have to say. i will try to send some more pictures of the area. have a great week, love you!
Love, Elder Johnson
P.S. i forgot to tell you, today i am going to play baseball for the first time so i'm super excited. they know that i play baseball so they have been asking me to play for a while and i finally have a free morning. also, mom, you asked about my p-days. i wake up a 6:30 and do a little scripture study, then we go to the city and buy stuff we need, then we go back home and eat the food we bought and relax until 6 when we have to go back out and teach. sorry if i am not more descriptive but that really is all that we do. the only thing that changes is the stores we go to every week. oh yeah. HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM and DAD!!! i was actually talking with my comp about the cheesecake factory this week so i am really jealous. the pictures that i sent with this email is the baseball field that jose reyes built for the kids in Palmar Arriba which is right next to our area. in the other picture, the little shack at the bottom is a church. its really a little shack with plastic chairs. the huge yellow mansion on the mountain is the home of the pastor of that church. he also has another one that even bigger being built a little ways away. i wonder where all of the money the members are paying goes?...
Love you
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Cement Floors and Mission Pics
Hey family,
The only thing that there really is to talk about here is the baptism we had this week. the other missionaries we live with had one too so it was a double baptism. it was really a great experience, like the other one. i think my favorite part of all of it is the next day when they are confirmed a member and receive the Holy Ghost, that's when i feel the Spirit the strongest. we baptized another little girl that was 13, and was the cousin of the first baptism i had. the other missionaries baptized a 16 year boy, who the next day was confirmed, received a calling, and received the Aaronic Priesthood. if you can't already tell, there is a need for male priesthood holders in our brach. Last Sunday, i also gave a talk but it was pretty easy seeing is how that is what we do all day, give little talks about the gospel.
The spanish is coming little by little. seeing as there are only americans in our house, we always speak english which doesn't help me but whenever we leave the house, i only speak spanish (usually). understanding is the hardest part for me. i can pretty much say what i want but i can't understand what they say back.
This last saturday, we put a concrete floor in for a family that is kind of investigating the church. well, we as missionaries didn't put the floor in, we mixed the concrete and other people of the ward who actually new what they were doing put the floor in. its amazing what this family was living in. it was just a little one room hut made of wood and a dirt floor. it was hard work, but the family was very appreciative and offered us breakfast because it was all they could offer. also, earlier this week, we cleared a lot for a family to plant some fruit trees. we cleared the whole lot with our machetes and it only took 3 hours. its amazing how much a person can sweat working in the sun for 3 hours with 90% humidity. nothing on your body is dry. and since you sweat so much, you never have to go to the bathroom which means you can work longer. its a win win situation.
oh yeah, the people here are amazed with my little lantern and how bright it is. there are used to using candles for light, not LED's. They love playing with all of our "american" toys. honestly, i don't really have too much more to say or any cool stories so i am just going to send pictures instead because a picture is worth a thousand words and i don't have time to write a couple of thousand more words. anyways, i love you all!
Love, Elder Johnson
Friday, August 21, 2009
Electricity > Candle Light
Family,
I´m not gonna lie, i really don´t have to much to talk about this week. the most exciting thing that happened was on monday when one of the general authority from the 70 came and talked to us for a couple of hours. the best part was that he was a gringo so i could understand all of his spanish. he talked a lot about establishing the church and how we need more priesthood holders. it was a really good meeting with a strong spirit. the other big thing that happened this week was that we got our inverser fixed so we have light all of the time. its not powerful so run the washer or the fridge, but at least we don´t have to study by candle light anymore. this sunday, we had stake conference, and our mission president gave a talk. he talked about missionary work and then had all of the missionaries stand up. of course, everyone in the building just looked at me with big eyes like i was a freak, but i´m used to it by now. i am still waiting for the time when i find a door that i can walk through without ducking, i haven´t found one yet. well, i thought the spiders we see everywhere in our house are big, but then i saw 3 huge tarrantulas last week, at least they weren´t in our house. i think i am over the spider thing too, they are just annoying.
as far as teaching goes, its the same. we teach all day long, the people love our messages, but then they don´t change because it is too hard. the lady we are teaching that has a date has been living with a guy so we talked about marriage with them. they decided to get married which we were really happy about, but then we found out she is already married to another guy. its a lot more money to get a divorce, so they just moved out and don´t bother each other. now we have to get her divorced, married to this guy she is living with, and then baptized. i´m kinda thinking that its not gonna happen but we´ll see.
other than that, i really don´t have too much more to say. i met a guy who claims to be 109 years old, and the soup i had today had chicken´s feet in it. besides that, just doing to Lord´s work everyday. anyways, have a great week.
Love, Elder Johnson
I´m not gonna lie, i really don´t have to much to talk about this week. the most exciting thing that happened was on monday when one of the general authority from the 70 came and talked to us for a couple of hours. the best part was that he was a gringo so i could understand all of his spanish. he talked a lot about establishing the church and how we need more priesthood holders. it was a really good meeting with a strong spirit. the other big thing that happened this week was that we got our inverser fixed so we have light all of the time. its not powerful so run the washer or the fridge, but at least we don´t have to study by candle light anymore. this sunday, we had stake conference, and our mission president gave a talk. he talked about missionary work and then had all of the missionaries stand up. of course, everyone in the building just looked at me with big eyes like i was a freak, but i´m used to it by now. i am still waiting for the time when i find a door that i can walk through without ducking, i haven´t found one yet. well, i thought the spiders we see everywhere in our house are big, but then i saw 3 huge tarrantulas last week, at least they weren´t in our house. i think i am over the spider thing too, they are just annoying.
as far as teaching goes, its the same. we teach all day long, the people love our messages, but then they don´t change because it is too hard. the lady we are teaching that has a date has been living with a guy so we talked about marriage with them. they decided to get married which we were really happy about, but then we found out she is already married to another guy. its a lot more money to get a divorce, so they just moved out and don´t bother each other. now we have to get her divorced, married to this guy she is living with, and then baptized. i´m kinda thinking that its not gonna happen but we´ll see.
other than that, i really don´t have too much more to say. i met a guy who claims to be 109 years old, and the soup i had today had chicken´s feet in it. besides that, just doing to Lord´s work everyday. anyways, have a great week.
Love, Elder Johnson
"Gracias a Dios!"
Hey family,
i had another great week this week, although not as exciting as last week. On Sunday, i had to give the entire lesson in the principles of the gospel lesson. only 3 weeks in the field and they already have me giving 45 minute long lessons and i have a talk in church next week. i am either doing something right, or my spanish is so bad that they want to give me as much practice as possible so they can understand me. i can really see the Lord's help though because when i left the mtc, i could barely make a contact in the street. i haven't had to eat any crazy foods this week but who knows for next week. my old comp from the mtc told me he has already eaten chicken necks and other parts of the chicken i didn't know were edible. for one of our service project this week, we went to clear out an area for a house, but when we got there, we found that the area had a lot of wasps. for the first 20 minutes, we would cut a branch or two and then run away, so we weren't getting much done. then one of the neighbors came over to help us. he was this 70 year old man who could barely walk. he had his cane in one hand and his machete in the other. he told us how he wasn't scared of bees. he walked right in the middle of them and then started chopping (he was also talking to the bees the whole time). he practically cleared the whole area, and then he almost passed out after from all the work. he was a champ. other than that there wasn't too much that happened this week. we gave the law of chastity talk with our investigator with a baptism date and her "boyfriend". it was my first time giving it to a couple, usually its just a single mother or something. my comp is a champ though. he pretty much just that God hates people or break the law of chastity and that you are going to hell if you don't repent. hopefully she can put aside of her temptations and get baptized in 4 weeks but we will see.
it is true what they say that you can't teach without the spirit. sometimes its really hard to have it because they love to play loud music here (they still play michael jackson here 24/7). those lessons always don't go as good as the ones when it is quiet. we taught one lady this week who used to be a very active evangelical. we we taught her there was an evangelical meeting in the street right outside of her house. at these meetings, all they do is blast loud music and scream "gracias a Dios". we could barely here each other so we couldn't give a lesson. instead we read some scriptures how the Spirit comes in a still small voice, so we pretty much disproved everything they were doing, it was pretty cool.
besides that i don't have too much more to say, i hope everything is going well for all of you. love you!
Love, Elder Johnson
i had another great week this week, although not as exciting as last week. On Sunday, i had to give the entire lesson in the principles of the gospel lesson. only 3 weeks in the field and they already have me giving 45 minute long lessons and i have a talk in church next week. i am either doing something right, or my spanish is so bad that they want to give me as much practice as possible so they can understand me. i can really see the Lord's help though because when i left the mtc, i could barely make a contact in the street. i haven't had to eat any crazy foods this week but who knows for next week. my old comp from the mtc told me he has already eaten chicken necks and other parts of the chicken i didn't know were edible. for one of our service project this week, we went to clear out an area for a house, but when we got there, we found that the area had a lot of wasps. for the first 20 minutes, we would cut a branch or two and then run away, so we weren't getting much done. then one of the neighbors came over to help us. he was this 70 year old man who could barely walk. he had his cane in one hand and his machete in the other. he told us how he wasn't scared of bees. he walked right in the middle of them and then started chopping (he was also talking to the bees the whole time). he practically cleared the whole area, and then he almost passed out after from all the work. he was a champ. other than that there wasn't too much that happened this week. we gave the law of chastity talk with our investigator with a baptism date and her "boyfriend". it was my first time giving it to a couple, usually its just a single mother or something. my comp is a champ though. he pretty much just that God hates people or break the law of chastity and that you are going to hell if you don't repent. hopefully she can put aside of her temptations and get baptized in 4 weeks but we will see.
it is true what they say that you can't teach without the spirit. sometimes its really hard to have it because they love to play loud music here (they still play michael jackson here 24/7). those lessons always don't go as good as the ones when it is quiet. we taught one lady this week who used to be a very active evangelical. we we taught her there was an evangelical meeting in the street right outside of her house. at these meetings, all they do is blast loud music and scream "gracias a Dios". we could barely here each other so we couldn't give a lesson. instead we read some scriptures how the Spirit comes in a still small voice, so we pretty much disproved everything they were doing, it was pretty cool.
besides that i don't have too much more to say, i hope everything is going well for all of you. love you!
Love, Elder Johnson
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Pigs Feet and Goat Guts
Hey family, i had another crazy week with a bunch of new experiences. The first thing is what i had for dinner these past two days. on Sunday we got invited to a members house and they fed us pigs feet. it was basically just fat but i ate it all because it is bad manners if you leave any. the next day, an inactive member we are teaching gave us some goat intestine to eat. that was actually really good, it was one of my favorite meals that i have had here from a member. she cooked it in a spicy sauce and added potatoes and carrots so it was kind of like a beef stew with goat guts instead of beef. also, where ever we go, we take the public transportation cars because we don't have bikes or cars. since there is no traffic laws here and the drivers want to make as much money as they can, we successfully fit 9 people into a cab (granted 2 of them were about 12 or so). i also saw a family of 6 on a motorcycle. cars are expensive here so they just pile everyone on a motorcycle and don't worry about it.
We had our first baptism this Saturday. we only had one because the other one's dad didn't give her permission to get baptized. we found out yesterday that her dad isn't married to her mom and he doesn't even live here so he technically isn't her guardian so we are going to baptize her this next Saturday or the week after. i love loop holes. the baptism went really well though, my comp baptized her which was special because that we the first one that he was able to baptize. every other time someone else has baptized them. me and another missionary sang for the service which was nice because everyone here is horrible at singing so we actually sounded pretty good. This last week i got my first baptism date. we started teaching this lady two days after i got here and on the 3rd lesson we asked her to be baptized on the 5th of September and she said yes. we just found out that she has a drinking problem so hopefully she can overcome it soon. she loves our lessons though and has a desire to learn.
Every morning from 9 thirty to 12 we do service, usually for an investigator or a person in the ward. on Saturday we helped build a house and we have another house to start building next week. there is always service to do here but i like it and the people are very appreciative. the only thing that i am not a big fan of here is the spiders. the last two days in our house we have found 2 spiders as big as my palm. the other missionaries in our house thought it would be funny to leave a dead one on my chair because i told them how much i hated them. it wasn't that funny... i threatened them with my 2ft long machete so it all worked out.
The biggest problem we have here with investigators and inactive members is people don't get married here. it cost too much to get married so they just live together but then they can't get baptized. we eventually have to drop them because they can only progress to a certain point and then it is either move out and get baptized or don't. i also learned this week that you can get pregnant at 13. there is a girl in our ward who got baptized a long time ago. she is 16 with a 2 year old and she will have another one in about a month. i can't tell you how many 15 and 16 years olds i have seen pregnant here in only 2 weeks. its really sad but that is just how things are here.
To answer your question, yes lunch is the big meal here. usually we just have a really small breakfast and dinner and then a huge lunch (usually just rice, beans, and chicken everyday). we have a 2.5 hour break in the middle of the day because that is when everyone is sleeping and the work is not productive so we go and eat and then study for the rest of the time. They have cereal here but it tastes a little weird and the American brands are really expensive so we just by the native stuff. i think the thing i miss the most is milk. they have milk here but it is not milk. it tastes really sweet and a little sour. (i know you can't send milk though so don't try, i will live with it). the members here are really nice. they give us some references but most of them we have to find on our own. there is just a little rama (branch) with about 70 people here in La Cienaga. we have church in a little house. their church here is a little different. they still do all the same things that we do but they might throw a pitch for a new food or product someone is making and they like to ramble on a lot. that's just the way they are though. we have a little washer (if you could call it a washer) to wash our clothes. its pretty much a tub that you fill with water and soap then put your clothes in and it spins around. the dryer is the same thing without the water and soap. it just spins the clothes so we have to hang them up for a while after. there used to be sister missionaries in our zone but not any more. there is a couple companionships in Santiago but not too many. yes i have to use the mosquito nets every night. we sleep with all of the windows open because it gets too hot if we don't and we would get eaten alive if we didn't have the nets. its not that bad though. Yes i'm pretty sure that you can send me pictures through email. i am going to by a chord for my camera sometime and see if i can send you some pictures as well. The only thing that i might need in a little bit is a good pair of work gloves. they don't have those here and since we do service everyday for a couple of hours (except sunday and wednesday) i am always getting blisters.
Oh, the other thing i was going to tell you about was the ward party we had at the chappel the other day. when i saw ward party i actaully mean a party. they had about a 2 minute spiriual thought and then the michael jackson impressionist came out and they had another performer come and sing. after that everyone started to some salsa dancing. i was definitely not expecting that. besides that i don't think i have too much more to say. i still love it here and the work that i am doing. i hope you all are doing good and i will write you next week . love you!
Love, Elder Johnson
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Culture Shock and Machetes
Hey family,
This has probably been the most crazy week of my life. i don't even know where to start. first of all, im in La Cienaga (i spelled it wrong the other time). also, the address for packages is:
Elder Mark Johnson
8013
11010 N. W. 30th street STE 104
Miami, FL 33172-5032
and my address for letters is (you can send letters and pictures in envelopes with this one):
Elder Mark Johnson
8013
PO Box 025725
Miami, FL 33102-5725
Anyways, i experienced a lot of firsts this week. last week during my very first lesson in the field, the lady we were teaching started breast feeding her 3 year old in the middle of it without covering up. i guess thats not that uncommon of a thing here. i guess i just have to get used to that. Also, this week was the first time i woke up to roosters which is not as exciting as it seems. we have electricity in our house about once every 2 or 3 days so most of the time we are studying and cooking by candle or my lantern. also, we have water sometimes and sometime we don't, but it is all cold so for showers we fill up a bucket with the water when we have it and then use a cup to scoop it out and pour it on us every morning. it is definitely a little different living standards than in the states. for food, we make breakfast and dinner and then we pay a lady in the ward to make us lunches. most of the time it is cereal and peanut butter and jelly but the milk here isn't really milk so the cereal tastes a little funny. the people in our area are really poor. most of them live in a little 2 or 3 room house made of cement or 2x4's with a tin roof. they are so kind here though and humble. they make the best of what they have and move on. one of the lessons we taught this week was under a little covering made of palm tree leaves and trees. there were chickens and dogs running around our feet and a mule and goat behind us making noises. during that lesson i wondered how in the world did i get here... The spanish is still really hard to understand here since they only say just the first half of the words pretty much but i do understand when they call me a white giant (which happens a lot). Yesterday was a big day in my life. it was the day that i bought by first machete! they sell them everywhere here and they are only like 4 US dollars. we only had about 17 lessons this first week because our area is so big and we only walk so if we go to someones house and they aren't there its about a 10-20 minute walk to our next appointments house. the two people we are baptizing this week are 2 girls (12 and 13 years old) they family used to be inactive and then they all became active again so i am excited for that. i don't know what more to tell you, just a whole bunch of walking and teaching. oh and by the way, my old email account that you sent me emails to won't allow me to delete the emails (i am not that stupid Ang) so just keep sending them to this one.
i also really like my trainer. at first i wasn't to sure about him but he's a good worker and knows how to relate to the people and teach them. i don't think i am going to write individaul emails this week because i don't have time but i will try to do that next week. i think i am ok for now with food and stuff so you don't really have to send me anything. I hope you have finally stopped crying in public since i have left but if you haven't then i don't know what to tell you. just a short 22 months until i am home again. love all of you and hope you are doing well.
Love, Elder Johnson
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Welcome to La Cienaga!!
Hey family, i am finally here. there are so many things to say i don't know where to start. we took a 2 hour bus ride to Santiago and the mission president and a bunch of the other missionaries met us there. i love President Lee. he was so excited for us and the work that we are going to do. after we got there, he took us to our house and we ate pizza! even though is was budget pizza and some just had corn on it, it was amazing. then we had a little meeting where he gave us all of the rules and then we did interviews. i think the best thing about yesterday was dinner. we grilled steaks, hot dogs, hamburgers, and pork chops. i had one of each. i knew we would not eat this good for the next 22 months so i took advantage of it.
It is so pretty here. it is way more greener , has mountains, and is cooler than santo domingo. My first area is la cienega in the north part of santiago. it is this little town practically in the middle of the forest. if you look out my back window, all you see is green, mountains, and cows. i love it though. i think today i have finally grasped the fact that i am on a mission. i like my trainer so far, he has been out a year and five months but he seems like he is a hard worker but i will find out more when we start teaching. he also said that he has two baptisms scheduled for next week so i am really excited about that.
I accidentally left my packet with my address at our house so i can't give it to you yet but i will definitely give it to you next week. i also sent you a letter in the mail yesterday with a picture of me with my mission president and his wife and one with all of the missionaries that came with us to Santiago. It has also rained here for the past couple of days which i have really enjoyed. it makes it just a little bit cooler.
I don't have too much more to say about Santiago, but i did have a really cool experience this last Sunday. for the past couple of sundays, the elders in our district would go to the temple and read on the steps for an hour or two. usually i just bring Jesus the Christ, my english scriptures or my Preach my Gospel, but this time i felt i should bring my soft copy of a spanish book of mormon that we give to investigators. i really didn't know why i should bring it i guess i thought i could just read in it for a little bit and practice my spanish. about a half an hour of reading, a car pulled up and a family came out. i talked to the dad and could tell that he wasn't mormon but he wanted to bring his family to the temple and walk around. i told him that that was fine . once he started walking around the temple i had a strong impression to give him that book of mormon i brought. i waited until he came back around and talked to him a little about our church, gave him the book and asked him to read 3 Nefi 11, and then testified about how it has helped me and my family to be closer together and how it could help his family too. i don't know if anything will happen with him or even if he will read but i am really glad that i got to have that experience.
I love you all and hope you are having a good week.
Love, Elder Johnson
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Last Week in the DR MTC!
Hey family, the next time i email you i will be in the field. i can't believe the time is already here for me to leave. i can't wait to leave and at the same time i am not prepared at all (mainly because i can't speak spanish). I am not gonna lie i am a little disappointed in all of you. i leave for a couple of months and you have already replaced me with one and a half babies (it will be 2 babies in march). and also this cruise to alaska?... you are taking all of the good trips when i am gone. i am not complaining though because i get to eat rice and beans everyday. i really like it here though don't think that i want to come home at all.
There really isn't too much that happened to me this week to talk about. i finally got rejected at the university. i went up to a group of guys and one asked us if we had any money or food. i said no and then he told us to leave and wouldn't listen to us. i was a little disappointed but i need to get used to being rejected. Also when we went to the university, we talked to some guy doing his homework. we gave him a reference sheet to fill out and when he put his head down to write on it, there was a little lizard about an inch long just hanging out on his head. there are lizards everywhere here if i haven't told you already. we didn't tell him about it because we didn't know how to say lizard in spanish and we thought if we did he might get occupied with it and forget about the reference sheet so we thought he could just find out for himself after we left.
Also, every sunday we watch an apostle devotional that was given at the provo mtc. the one they showed was 2 weeks after we left. There were 8 apostles and a big number of 70 there as well because they were training all of the new mission presidents. i was a little disappointed i wasn't there when it happened but it was still really cool to watch. Elder Holland gave the talk which was amazing. it was a serious talk rather than a funny one but i still really enjoyed it. He talked about teaching with the Spirit and basically forbid us to teach if we didn't have the Spirit. at the end of the devotional, he quoted the story of the angels coming down and ministering unto the people of the Americas (i think it is Helamen 5: 45-48 but i am not sure because i don't have my notes with me right now). He then told us welcome to the work of angels because those angels were us. it was really cool to be called an angel by an apostle of the Lord.
To answer some of you question:
no i didn't do anything for the 4th of July. it was just a regular day of studying and class, but we did get 2 chocolate chip cookies at lunch (even though we get them once a week anyways it was still a good surprise).
I haven't really had any problems with mosquitoes here yet but i am sure it will be a little different when i get out into the field.
i got a little sick from the food for about a day but everyone does when they come here because it is a completely different diet than what we have in the states. some of the stuff is pretty weird tasting but overall it is not too bad.
we do our laundry just like you do in the states. we have washers and driers but again i don't know if that will change when i get to Santiago.\
i really don't know any of the details about tuesday when i leave except that i am leaving by bus. i don't know where i will stay the first night or if i will get right to work when i arrive. i think my p-day is on wednesday though but i am not entirely sure.
i am about out of time so i have to go but i will tell you all about the rest when i can email you again next week. take care i love all of you!
Love, Elder Johnson
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Just Another Week on a Spanish Keyboard...
Hey family, sorry if i haven't been responding personally to all of you, there are about 60 missionaries here and only about 15 computers so we can't go over the time too much. anyways, i had another great week like always. teaching at the university was good again, not any really good stories this time, just talked to a bunch of people, handed out a book of Mormon, and testified. I can't believe i am going to the field a week from tuesday. i am super nervous but also really excited to do the Lord's work everyday. there was one guy that we talked to at the university for about 15-20 minutes. i probably understood about a dozen words which kinda killed my confidence, but i am getting a little better. i didn't know what to say because i couldn't understand him so every time there was a little break i just testified again because that is pretty much the only thing i really know how to say in spanish.
This sunday, we watching a devotional from the mtc in Provo with president Uchdorf. it was an amazing talk. Even though all of it was really good, there was one part that was really cool. He read D&C 90:11 and told us that we, as missionaries, were fulfilling that prophecy that it talks about. read that scripture and think of missionary work when you do. he also talked about how were basically had the same responsibility as him, to be a disciple of Christ and preach the Gospel to everyone. I have heard that before but it was a little different hearing it from a member of the first Presidency. i absolutely love this work. i haven't had it too hard lately but i am sure the hard times will come, but i know the Lord will be with us.
Anyways, i hope everything is going well for everyone, keep me posted on the family. FYI, my punctuation is so bad in these emails because i am using a spanish keyboard and its a little harder to type with. Love Ya!
Love, Elder Johnson
Thursday, July 2, 2009
These Beds Are Made For Midgets!
Hello again. This has been a very good week. probably the fastest week so far on my mission. i don´t have too much time to write this email so sorry if it isn´t that long. just a little about my week, sunday we have about a three hour break to do whatever we want. my companion and i went to the temple and just sat there and studied for about an hour and a half. then some missionaries in the field came and brought some investigators with them to show them the temple. they then had a little spiritual tesitmony meeting about the temple which i was able to be a part of. even though i couldn´t understand the words they were saying, i could understand the Spirit that they were teaching with. i could feel all of the missionary´s love for those investigators as well as for the temple. by the time it was over, it was 30 min past our dinner time so the president was a little worried but he was ok with it since we were with investigators. also, i had a cool experience on Tuesday when i went to the University. my companion and i had talked to two people and then were just walking around, then a group of about 10 guys called us over. we were expecting them to ask what we were doing but instead they asked how we felt about the death of Michael Jackson. we said we didn´t really care about it because we are here to do the Lords work. (they love Michael Jackson here by the way). they then asked to here our message which was really cool, we didn´t even have to ask if we could share it. we started sharing our message, but every couple of minutes more of their friends would show up and start talking to them. everytime, they hushed them and said to be quiet because we are listening to Mormons. by the time we were finished (which was a half an hour later), there were about 18 or so of them. we handed out a couple pamphlets and gave them a book of mormon. some said they would call but i don´t have too high of hopes that they will. it was just fun to teach with a crowd of guys in their mid 20´s. We also went to the store on Tuesday to buy anything we needed. it was like a Wallmart imposer store but it was still really nice to get out. Also, this week the Haitians left and we got 30 Latinos today so its pretty crowded. this will only help with our spanish though. I also forgot to tell you how small the bed that i sleep in is. it is about 6ft. if you remember, i am 6´6¨and with my pillow, that gives me even less room. they are bunk beds with a head and foot board so i can´t hand my feet off of the edge. i either have to curl up in a ball or sleep sideways with my fell hangin off of the side. its really fun you should try it sometime! Now to answer some of your questions you have asked me...i have my hour of personal study and an hour of comp study in the morning and then usually during MDT (missionary directed time) i have another hour of so when i am not teaching. No we don´t go hit the streets everyday. just the one time a week at the university. we get to talk to some people when we do our service once a week but not to many.for the past 3 weeks we have had two to a room but now that there are more missionaries we have 4 to a room.we have AC in the mtc here and i haven´t really been anywhere else so i don´t know.we play basketball outside in the parking lot. they have 3 run down hoops that we play on.i hope i will have an opportunity to play a little baseball. it might just be 30 min or so on P day but we´ll see. They don´t give us any money here. everything is really provided right now but i don´t know how much i will get when i am out in the field.there are a couple of natives that i have talked to here that speak a little bit of english and a couple who are fluent in it. a lot of them want to learn so they like to try to talk with us sometimes in english but 90 percent of the time it is spanish. the water at the mtc here has a filter so we can drink out of the focet but it is really gross. there is a water cooler in our hall that we just fill up water bottles with. my spanish is coming along, it is still really hard though. i think right now i can talk better than i can hear it because it is all jumbled together.Hope that answers all your questions. let me know if you have anymore.
Love, Elder Johnson
P.S. mom, i spent 2,331.15 at the store the other day hope that´s ok. (that would be about 66 dollars in america. the exchange rate is 35 pesos to 1 dollar). love ya!
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