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
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