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