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
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
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
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