December 12, 2011 email is like half working

so yeah the library has yet to update the internet browsers on thier computers so my email is like half working so sry if this email dosnt get through. so yeah this weekkkkk.... once again not a lot really happened cause we are just tracting every day now (we renamed it "looking up" but its the same deal) so each day we selected a zone in our area and went to a less active members house, former investigator, or a potential investigators house and knocked, then we do 2 doors to the right and left then do 5 across the street and move onto the next adress.

So its been very interesting this week to see who has been accepting to us and who has not. The sisters gave us one of their investigators cause he had some complications with the ward that he is currently attending and the president didnt want the sisters mixed up in the mess and so now we have him. his name is edward and he has a very interesting point of view in life. he has the mindset that everyone has malicious intentions against him and we are trying to figure out how to soften this mans heart so he can let the gospel in. hes not very trusting either which makes me even wonder why he even lets us teach him. like i said a very interesting guy.

we had the ward christmas talent show and elder kiniknini and meyers sang with elder jones and i and we sang angels we have heard on high.

it was really good for how last minute it was and that we only practiced once (lol) but it was a really good party.

last week we also had an oportunity to meet with jamarie who elder jones baptized and i taught a lot. he is having some troubles geting rid of his old life style and way of thinking that he had back in trinidad and starting to learn to become self reliant. we had a lesson on motivation and was very different than any other lesson that i have ever taught before simply cause it had more to do with temporal life than spiritual life. he is awesome and it has been really good for both of us that we have been able to teach him.

jamarie is in a interesting circumsatnce in that his neighbors below him are members (the fackrells who are a really strong family) and above him is his step sister and her family who are starting to come back to church. it is a cool mini culture of mormons in this one building. it also makes it really easy to have lessons cause we just go from one house to the next and we can help them all with something in their lives.

so yeah im out of time but im looking forward to christmas and being able to talk with all of you. mom i think you guys said that you wanted to have a conference call with grandma? can you send me some more info on that??

thanks to everyone for the letters and support. have a great week!!!

-elder johnson-

Dec. 5, 2011

Hey everyone

well this email might be a little short and sorry if i wont be responding to everyones emails this week cause today was a little hecktic. we are having a food cook off this pday with the rest of the zone. i attempted to make cinamon rolls which turned out fine until i let them rise overnight which ended up having them fall and then they were bricks... :( so yeah kinda sad....

but yeah this week has come and gone and elder jones and i are still having some trouble finding investigators to work with. we found another family this week to work with to get them to come back to church and thier name is the rowley family. we are trying to get some of the members involed too which is the main focus of our senior couple as well. we are trying to revive the home teaching program here cause less than 10% of the members do it each month.

the metelus family are doing great and have started to come back on a consistant basis and i think that they will be getting callings soon :) also we are going to visit them tonight and im totally going to give a lesson with a rubiks cube. you would be suprised on how much a like it is compared to faith.

that nasty stomach pain that i had a couple of weeks ago had just magically stopped one day which is like i said REALLY WIERD cause nothing has hurt like that more in my life. i really dont think it was acid reflux or heart burn cause now i can eat anything i want now. when it was hurting i couldnt even swallow my own spit. it was really bad but i will be enjoying all the baked goods that the zone made today.

i did get the package with all the christmas decorations in it and elder jones and i are having a jolly ol time feeling the spirit of christmas. there really isnt much more happening other than the fact that it has been kinda a sad week of being rejected. it is more sad to see that peoples hearts have changed about the chruch and how i know of the blessings that can come to them if they just listen.

also the christmas devotional was BOMB yesterday. if you didnt get to watch it look it up so you can see what im talking about. also there is a new church production out of the life of christ and it looks really well put together. again im sorry for how short this is but everyone has started eating :O

thanks alot and ill try to keep you up to date with everything. thanks!!!!!!

-Elder Johnson-

Nov. 28, 2011

well im not going to lie but i want to rip my stomach out of me. two weeks ago i got a pain in my chest every time i ate and i called the mission nurse who said she cant do anything about it unless the pain lasts for more than a week. well here i am two weeks later and it has started up again and its starting to affect my sleep now. this time around its been hurting for 5 days now and we suspect that its anything from a stomach ulcer to heartburn to indegestion. ive been taking ibeprophan and pepto bismal but then switched to pepto and tylonol. now would be the time to laugh at my rancid spelling hhahaha. but yeah thats the main thing that we have been dealing with cause its killing me to eat and it happened RIGHT after thanskgiving so i think it could be linked to that.... w/e it will end this week

ANYWAY....... the work is....slow. we have been in a rebuilding stage ever since i was companions with elder jones (again) and so last week we gave our investigators one last try but once again none showed up to church even though Marie Nicholas said she was coming and so we have made the unfortunate decision to drop everyone and start anew.

last week we met with the senior couple with the name of the Rhoners and we found out that there is a TON of less active work to do so im glad for the people that we are able to meet with in the ward and help them stay active and for the less actives that actually let us in thier homes. one family in particular is super awesome. the dad is named clark and the mom is evan and they are working on coming back and we are having fhe with them today. they came for the past two weeks and i think they are making it a good habit.

we are keeping one investigator who is named jean mosiahs and we met with him yesterday and he is progressing and coming to church with his brother. we are hoping that his brother remains a positive influence on him cause he has mixed himself up with the wrong crowd it seems like. this "crowd" was over there last night and they were absolutely stunned that a white boy could speak Creole. i asked them "havent you ever seen a white haitian" and they were like no...... ahahah this week i was called "hatian" by one the members named Fre Dolci who i met the first day here and he is super cool and loves it when i speak creole with him.

thanksgiving was great. first we went with some other elders from staton island to play football by prospect park and it was super fun!! after that we realized that we were really sore and that we would be hurting the next day haha and it did...really bad. but that only effected us for like 1 day which was really funny durring our weekly planning. after football we went to sister clarks house who is the primary president and ate...a ton... which i found out later probably triggered this nasty pain that i have in my chest... but it was some really good cookin thats for sure.

a lot of people that were at the dinner were haitian but they didnt speak any creole at all!! that was wierd and also the fact that some one pointed out that i was the only white guy there but i was more haitian than others lol. there also were some interesting black jokes that definately suprised me but im not going to go into that.....hehe...

anyway not much else has happened with elder jones and i. we are trying really hard to find some one to teach but the people we talk to arent very interested. we are branching out this week and trying some new things and goals. ill tell you how they go next week. but yeah the only people we are REALLY working with are jean mosiahs, a lady named nicole thomas who we see like once a week, and clark and evans family.

i hope that everyone enjoys my pictures and i send my card home so there should be tons more coming. thanks a lot and have a great week everyone :) 

-Elder Johnson-

Nov. 21, 2011

Well howdy yall,

this week has been another exciting week in the life of this missionary. the main event of the week was the ward thanksgiving dinner that we had on saturday. it was the most participation that ive seen out of the ward and it turned out great for everyone that came. this week we saw a new family that is less active and that said that they wanted us to come back. they are clarke and evan. evan is the daughter of sister brewster and jamarie is the step son of sister brewster as well. if thats not confusing enough they live right next to each other and a new family named fakrell just moved into the floor below thiers. its super cool that all these lds families live in the same building and that it makes visiting everyone easier.

we also went all the way out to canarsie this week and saw a less active lady who saw the missionaries in manhattan and wanted them to visit her home. canarsie is a good hour away for us on bus and is on the edge of our area. so we have visited her at least two other times that she said was ok and she was busy those times so we were about to drop her if she wasnt there this last time. it was pretty cool though to see how open she was to coming back to church. super cool lady and her family arent members either so we are going to try to work with them next transfer.

I want to explain the pictures that im sending cause i just realized that i dont take a lot of pictures when we are out about in the week but usually on pday so im making a goal this next transfer to take pictures of our investigators and the ward members. the eplanations are as follows:

1) there is a sale at mcdonalds for 2 bigmacs for $5 so of course we had to get 4 of em.

2) we played zombies again in the parkslope building (stake center) and a member let us barrow some sweet nerf guns >:)

3) and the third one is us eating some classic new york chinese takeout. mmm

there is also some more big news in the new york newyork south mission:

elder campbell is going to the outskirts of long island to open up a new creole area

yeah pretty crazy i know right? so my next companion will most likely be just elder jones alone. sorry no crazy quartet companionship or a trio. just elder jones ahah. also im officially done training so im not a trainee anymore. just a junior companion. elder jones and i decided that this area really needs a baptism and that we have set a goal to get 2 baptisms. elder jones also told me that he wants to create a language study plan so he can start learning creole really well. also he said that if we get risk (or borrow it from the zone leaders) he would play with me one day (yesssssssss). he didnt believe me that i once played with my 6 year old sister and that she beat me one time....actually steam rolled me. grats emma

anyway im running out of time for this week. also i might be sending home a list of some chirstmas gift ideas. nothing serious but just some silly stuff (like sending my texas flag which is not so silly btw) so yeah everyone have a great week and hopefully we wil stop by a post office this week so i can send my card for REAL....

until next time my friends,

-Elder Johnson-

Nov. 14, 2011

so this week was same old same old except for that we met some more very interesting people. the first one is this lady from jamacia her name escapes me at this moment but that the sisters met on the street. she asked the sisters to come over and help clean up her place. well we soon realize that this lady is kinda a hoarder, meaning that she keeps all mail with her name on it to prevent identity theft. so we went over there and realize that she is kinda an alchoholic and that this task for us to clean her place would take much more than 2 hours and really took closer to 3. we actually didnt clean anything but moved stuff out of boxes, into bags, and put it back where it was found cause she had a really hard time of letting things go. it was a verry interesting expirience with a very interesting person.

the next interesting person of the week is sister tish. sister tish had moved around from midwood to east newyork and back again and she wanted to see the elders so we went over. lets just say that she is 100% pure newyorker and she has the funniest personality that i have ever met before in my life. she gave us a fine feast of papa johns pizza and she likes "busting peoples chops." she is such a good member i can tell and we are going to give her a blessing today for a surgery that she is getting.

more news for our ward is that we got a senior couple this past week and they are AWESOME. this ward is in such need of good supportive members and the roners are here to save the day. the wards here in newyork are very different than what ive seen and only about 10 people actually fufill thier callings and do hometeaching. everyone is nice and friendly and wants to help out but no one has the time nor patience. its kinda sad to see a ward in this condition where the bishop is expected to do ALOT so a ton of our effort has just been helping out members and keeping people active.

this week we met two people that are so ready for the gospel. one is named nicole and she med the zone leaders by a bus stop and said that she was interested about going to church. we went over to her place and realized that she is so ready and prepared by the hand of the Lord. she has a two year old son and just needs a family that i think the ward can give to her.

the next one is a haitian teenager named jean (just like the rest of all the haitians) and his dad is very supportive of the church but he works for ups and never has the time to be home or come to church. jean is so smart and knows the answer to all of our questions so i really hope that we can meet with him on a regular basis and be able to baptize him in the upcomming month.

thanksgiving is still kinda up for grabs but i think we will attend the ward dinner that is being arranged. thanks for sending me stuff and i havent really gotten anything from anyone this week but im writing some letters today. props to everyone for having dinner with an investigator cause it really shows how people of the church really are when they show kindness like that. props to tyler for getting higher than me on the ACT, and more props to sophie for reading the BOM in 90 days, and emma i cant believe you couldnt wait 2 more weeks for your brithday. just dont turn into a minecraft addict haha.

have a great week everyone and ill send my card this week so everyone can see my mission!!

Elder Johnson

Dinner Appointments or DA's

anyway so this week was a little slow cause we actually had DA's. what was that elder johnson? someone fed you?? thats right the ward really showed the love that i knew was there. terry williams, sister deniston, and listra all fed us awesome food from trinidad, jamaca and jerk chicken. it was awesome and made shopping easy this week cause i didnt eat alot of my own food haha.

this week for our investigators was really interesting cause it was kinda like a reconstruction week where we got in contact again with all our investigators and had to combine our pools back to gether now that elder jean is in jamaica. he is doing fine there and even called some of our investigators before he left and said good bye to them.

we had this really interesting expirience on saturday where (once again) a crazy guy stopped and started talking about how only the first 5 books of the bible are true but hes not islamic. he really had his facts messed up but as we were thinking there i really was kinda mad that we were stopping to talk to this guy cause convorsations like that always end up with people mad and it turns into an argument real fast which does NOT invite the spirit.

well elder cambpell was really feeding the fire with this guy and i was just sitting there ready to bear my testimony and end the whole nasty thing, but then another guy came up and asked if we taught about joseph smith. i said why yes we do and i could emidiately see the sincerity in his face when he asked that he had some questions about religion and that he was searching for answers that no other religion could provide for him. i got his info and he really told me that we wanted to stop by and i dont think he really thaught that we would but i told him its what we do all day haha.

so im glad that something came out of a convorsation with a crazy man cause they are starting to get kinda rediculous. oh well se la vi.

some thing really cool that happened too was that yeserday was fast and testimony meeting and i bore witness that the lord really helps us with our desires and i explained how i really wanted to learn kreol and that how the mtc was really challenging for me to be in there for 9 weeks but i tried really hard and prayed alot for help. i then testified in kreol and said amen. when i started walking off someone in the back yelled "great job!!" hahaha. all the haitians came up to me after ward and said how well i spoke.

elder campbell and i understood like 95% of what was said at sunday school too and we were so happy for that too. my croele is getting better and im still trying really hard to understand and speak better each day.

thats pretty much it for this week and untill next time my friends 

-elder johnson-

Back to a Threesome

wellllllllll today on the weekly missionary report alot of things happened. a lot that i will probably have trouble remembering.... first off the most exciting news is that elder jean has left the companionship. he was really sad to go and we were sad to see him go to. we really have grown to love these people that we are working with and its going to be alot harder without a native speaker now. elder campbell and i have made some big plans to get our kreol going faster now. we have pretty much determined that we can do really well with gospel related discussions but its all the other kind that are giving us problems as well as talking with someone who has more french in thier vocab than kreol.

this last week the creole sunday school class had me say the prayer and after i was done they aplauded for me. i guess my creole is improving haha. yesterday they called on us again to describe the armor of god but i totally dont know how to say any suit of armor pieces in creole they still loved us though haha.

saturday it snowed. yes it snowed. it was relly shocking to all of the old elders here and for the new ones as well. i got out all my snow stuff and i was a toasty marshmellow. thanks mom for all the good clothes :) anyway so now that there are 3 of us now we moved the beds together and the two top bunks make a queen sized bed which is really awesome by the way.

also on saturday we had a ward halloween party for the memebers to bring thier friends to the church but because it snowed we only had like 15 people show up. our less actives came and vinia even braught her friend that we know. we had a chilli contest, costume contest, and we even turned the primary room into a haunted house/trick or treat place thing. it was fun but kinda disappointing cause not a lot of people came.

our investigators are doing good but no one is coming to church. we invite everyone we see and teach but no one comes. i feel like we are going to have to spoon feed some of them at first and call them each day of the week and then in the morning on suday to wake them up, and then go pick them up for church. usually its one or the other but we are really going to have to try hard to get people there.

so today for pday we have to be in by 6 o clock but pday ends at 6 so we pretty much have a whole day of pday so we will be playing monopoly and carving pumpkins for our zone activity. we played a little bit of yatzee too which was really stress releaving with getting everything ready for elder jean to leave as well as rearranging the pad to get our studying quarters in order as well.

im currently reading jesus the christ for personal study and then in companion study we tell about what we did for personal study. since ive been reading this a little everyday we call my little tidbit of JET (James E Talmage) "The JET Report" its got a cool jingle to it and sponsors too. its really amazing how this book has opened my mind and answered some questions that investigators have given me. it has also shown me how the things i learned in my New testiment class at BYU fit in to the rest of the bible and Christ's life.

anyway thats all i have time for now but i really appreciate all the things you guys are sending me and for the pictures in the emails too. its wierd but i think pictures just add that little "spice" that letters have to them. im looking for a cord for my camera so i can send a couple of pictures each week but its looking like ill just send my card home cause i dont have the patience nor time to search for one.

thanks everyone have a great week!!!!

-Elder Johnson-

haha i just moved my chair and it made this REALLY loud sound in the library..

hey everyone,

well another week has come and gone and it seems like just yesterday that i was sitting in my usual spot here in the Brooklyn library writing out the details of my life. this week was not particuarily different but none the less we worked hard and we are all pooped out.

this weeks main focus was on finding people cause as ive previously said we are fresh out of investigators. weve been knocking on doors for the past three days now and everyone has given us the excuse from not speaking english (which is really quite silly cause our companionship speaks spanish, haitian creole, and english) to people saying that the head of the household is not home.

we have made contact with some people including this guy named daniel that has a real desire to know more about the gospel. other than that people have been just saying how they have already been converted or that they are the anti-Christ (yes that actually did happen in our street sweep). the only person that we are talking with on a regular basis and that is progressing is a lady by the name of Marie Nicholas. she is soooo close to baptism that we are already picking out some clothes for her. she just needs to finish hearing about the commandments that she is already keeping and commit to them, and then have a baptismial interview.

emma asked this week about how many people that ive baptized so far and to tell the truth i havent actually gotten in the water yet but my companions and i have reactivated Terry williams who is like a mission mother who is always feeding us and asking to give us stuff. We have also helped reactivate a hatian girl named vinia who loves to feed us too and has a firey attitude haha. the last person is jamarie brewster who i helped teach all the lessons but he got baptized the first week in my second transfer so i didnt get to participate in the baptisimal service either.

the first thing in preach my gospel is about how a successfull missionary is not measured by numbers or goals but about how hard we work and if we complete our purpose (invite people to come unto christ by helping them recieve the restored gospel through faith in jesus christ, repentance, batpism, recieving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end.)

so far i can see that by the amount of energy that i have at the end of the day i would say that we are working to maximum capacity.

this last weekend i forgot to say but our zone leaders' investigators julio and shannon had thier wedding in the chappel and then thier baptism on sunday with thier son anthony. it was pretty amazing and the missionaries got to sing love at home for them in the intermediate hym.

well i have to go and time is low. i hope sophie got my package and sorry that i forgot about tyler's brithday.. (happy birthday T) and thanks kayla for the music but i have yet to get some cds or a cd player lol. so yeah thanks for the package this week to and for all the letters that i got too. have a great week everyone!!!

-Elder Johnson-

Brooklyn, Brooklyn, Brooklyn

SOOO this week was the first week that I have like been in an official companionship. its just me and elder jean BUT elder Campbell and elder Jones are still living with us and we all do comp study together. so its been a real different expierience when you have no idea how to work and then there is no one there to tell you either. its like walking around like a chicken does with his head cut off and then preaching the gospel while all of this is happening. im sure it doesnt actually look like that but it sure feels like it.

so because we have split our area just like our companionship we have litterally no one to teach once again.... Like i said last week the Dure family is looking pretty bleak and could use all the help in the world. this is pretty much due to the fact that they dont speak english very well and so they cant get a job easy. and they are all living together so their kids are all there together but during the day they are all out and so they have trouble for finding people to watch their kids. its really complicated and there is nothing the church can do for them so we are just checking up on them for now until everything gets less crazy.

we did however have a baptism this week!!! Jamarie finished being taught by elder Jones and Campbell and was baptized yesterday. it was a great expirience and he was baptized with another kid in the primary named tyson who the zls taught. Elder jones baptized him and will be confirmed by his neighbor kyle next week. it was a great day and probably wont happen for at least another 3 weeks for us cause we are pretty much starting over.

we did find one new girl named ruth who has lived in the states for about 4 or 5 months now i think. we went over to her place to teach and her cousin showed some real good honest intrest so we are going to visit them next week and see if they read and we will commit them to baptism. ruths husband was there and asked why we have to go to chruch cause we can pray in our homes and then ruths cousin raphiel started preaching to him. real funny that we didnt have to answer the question and that it resolved itself but yeah good expireience.

the other person we found is named smitty. he is shirlie dure's friend that she braught last week and he seems real interested and we will do the same thing for him this week. thats pretty much it for the people we are teaching. we walked soooo much this past week cause we are trying to find people to teach which requires some walking.

i got 5 min left so ill just end with saying that president nelson changed the music policy so now we can listen to anything that has soft lyrics and invites the spirit with no romantic lyrics. i have yet to figure out what this means but send me some instrumental music and ill love you forever....

anyway thats all for this week see ya!!!!

-Elder Johnson

i feel like my journal entries are repeating

so two weeks ago its seemed like everything collapsed on us. we lost contact with two of our investigators and our baptisms that we thought we set had more setbacks. this week things repaired them selves. we dropped in on shirlie who is part of the Dure family. she had been sick or not home all the week before so when she saw us her face just lit up. she is still meeting with us but she cant come to church still cause of work :(

the other sisters we havent met with either cause they have found a new english class that can help them with thier GED too but its for 7 hours a day. so they cant come to church and cant meet with us at all. the rest of the family is hard to meet with too cause of the father that is there most of the day too. we are trying so hard to get in there and they have come to far just to be too busy to meet with us. kinda frustrating.

we also found last week a guy named emanuel who had a baptismal date before we started meeting with him. we came in and could see that he still has a really strong interest. its pretty promising that he will progress especially since he dosnt work on sundays. our less actives this past week were on fire though. we were able to meet with terry and vinia each and they both fed us. they said they were going to come to church but both of them had things that came up at the last second.

we also did a street sweep which is where we set up a booth on the street and talk to everyone about the church. from what everyone said about other street sweeps that they did this one was really successful. i had some success with talking to people but also met some very interesting people, and the other elders in my zone set me up with some great experiences too.

first off sister valentine pointed out a man that was walking away from us and she said that she thought he would understand better in creole. so elder jean and i ran after him but before we could open our mouths he started screaming that mormons were from the devil in perfect english. we didnt even speak to him in creole and then another guy came up and said he would pray for us and for us to stop our demon worship. we came back and sister valentine asked us if he spoke better in creole with a huge grin on her face... sigh....

after that i came to a realization that most haitian people are really friendly and even if they dont agree with you they will still take a pass along card and say have a nice day. after meeting alot of haitian people i started talking to a jamacan guy. i gave him a pass along card and started talking about the BOM. he took the card ripped it up RIGHT in front of me and walked off. i really not starting to like bob marley and his "carpe diem" theology. bottom line was that we got a lot of names for the sisters and for the spanish elders.

the cops here are really funny. every time we pass them they always say to stay safe and to not stay out late too long. this is really funny cause the only people that bother us are homeless people asking for money that we dont have. we pass jahovahs witnesses everyday in like mobs of em and im glad that we have yet to have a colission with em.

EXCITING NEWS: my first transfer is over and im going to be paired ONLY with elder JEAN. elder jones will be living with us too and he will be a district leader and work with elder campbell, my mtc companion, who will also be living with us (yay). so for the past two days we have been running around getting ready for next transfer which includes putting up a new bunkbed, dresser, and desk, all while moving all our stuff around.

sister valentine is moving out of our district which is sad cause she was super fun and made things going. it seems like the sisters find the craziest people to teach. they brought a mental guy to church who will probably start stalking them and the district leaders said he wasnt accountable so he couldnt be baptized. it was a VERY interesting church meeting.

jamarie is still being baptized on the 16th so that is super exciting and he is really ready for it. after him though we are going to have to work really hard to find some more people cause everyone else is not progressing :( things looked really promising but now not so much now. anyway it was a really good transfer and we will still work hard next trasfer as well.

have a great week!!

-Elder Johnson-

The toilet is white

Sak Pase!

so we are at the library again. the more i look around and see what people have here it makes me realize how well i had it off in mckinney. even looking at the library makes me gratefull for the one back home... it also makes me wish that i used it more back home too.

not much has happened in the missionary work here. last week durring one of our lessons after english class Marie-Francois braught a friend with her. this is super great but she is trying to prepare for baptism this next week and so we are going to have to teach her a lot of commandments in the next week that hopefully she wont have any problems with. the reason why her friend was such a problem was that he asked a lot of the same questions and once again our member that was present talked for WAY to long about why we dont pray to joseph smith. all i would have said in response to that question would be like "no we dont. did you not hear the opening prayer?" but Guerby the member there talked for about 30 min about it. bottom line the lesson had nothing to do about the gospel of Jesus Christ, which was the plan for the evening.

after that little shin-dig we got a nice lesson afterward from our trainer about everything we did wrong. it was really frustrating cause i feel like i explained everything right but then elder jean redid everything i said like they didnt understand. that was really the highlight of the week cause i view it as a turning point that our companionship is taking. our other investigator jamarie has on the other hand THE BEST lessons that we have ever given. they are in english so i think thats why they go a little better.

hes super awesome and has been doing everything that we have asked him to do. its totally messing with my mind cause i thought we would baptize the Dure family long ago but things keep getting pushed back and they have yet to develope a pattern of comming to church. i think jamarie is going to get baptized before them and we have been teaching the Dures for 3 weeks more than him.

well thats all the madness that has been happening with our investigators. besides that i have some good news that our toilet is WHITE. crazy huh? like i said before our pad was NASTY when we got there. we did deep cleaning last tuesday and everything is WHITE. its beautiful. i told elder jones that he could eat his dinner off the toilet seat cuase it was that clean but he didnt take my offer.

i have responded to everyones mail that i recieved last week (woah) so you should all be getting it in a few days. we are going to Coney Island today. its not an actual island but an amusement park that is on the boardwalk. its the origonal location where Nathan's hotdog stand started so ill be tasting some authentic newyork food in about a half hour.

so im not going to talk much about conference other than that i stayed awake for the first time in my life. one of the district leaders investigators showed up and he even showed to the priesthood meeting. all i can say is that if that dosnt get him baptized i dont know what will. it was really strong and kinda gave us a ilttle breather which was much needed after dealing with all the people that we teach with and who we teach.

thanks for all the mail and mom keep sending my friends emails. TYLER NEEDS TO RESPOND.

love you all and have a great week :)

A bit more...

we went on splits on friday. it really wasnt that exciting except that my district leader elder kiser had this INTENSE conversation about God with a couple of muslim guys that stopped us in a car. it was in the pouring rain and elder kiser didnt give up. elder jean and i just held the umbrella while he testified of Christ being the son of God and how joseph smith was the prophet who restored the gospel. i did some more studying about some old testiment stuff cause i figured im going to get asked one of those questions one of these days so i might as well be prepared for it. so i thought that was pretty cool how much my district leader knew about the muslim faith and how much he knows too. that is all.


once again,


Elder Johnson

Another week of interesting people

Well not a lot happened this week, just a bunch of interesting people that we met. Last monday for pday we played zombie capture the flag which was super awesome and super hard to play even though we were only playing against one zombie. also last pday i realized how pricey NYC is and how over priced food is. wonder bread is 4$ and milk is 4.79$. what a rip. anyway i guess thats what you get for wanting to live in a city that 18 million other people want to live in. for the zone activity i made a quiche that was OK. and that is being generous. being on a missionary budget i didnt put that much bacon in it and no ham so it was pretty much spinich. it was SUPER healthy haha. this week im going to make chicken lime soup and that should be yummy.

the people we met with and taught were a little different this week. We taught the Dure family who are the haitian family that we found two weeks ago. its hard to teach them cause they all have different schedules and their father doesnt let us come into their house without being completely distracting and drives the spirit away. we are now on the thrid lesson for two of the sisters marie-francois and marie-carmel. the third sister shirlie has been taught the fourth lesson and is pretty much ready for baptism except that she has to get sundays off and come to church. the rest of the family, which is the mother susane and the brothers philip and alex, is still on the plan of salvation.

The second person we tried to meet with is Emmanuel jean. Everyone here has the name jean or marie in their name. its REALLY confusing when you look down your contact list and thats all you have written. haha. Emmanuel has yet to meet with us but is really interested and works a lot, just like the rest of NYC. we met his friend at the door and she wouldnt even tell us her name cause she was so against us. it was really funny after though cause as soon as elder jean and i (mostly elder jean) spoke in creole she opened up and told us her name. we even saw her the next day and she stopped us and talked to us. people are really funny here ahah.

The third person we are teaching is Jamarie. Hes from Trinidad and is 11. his step mom loves church and has been a member for years. she started to bring jamarie to church and he wants to get taught the lessons. apparently hes afraid of water but i think we can fix that pretty easily ahah. we helped his mom clean out her place so she could start renting the bottom floor of it. the guy that is moving in is lds and an rm and hes even a musician. i think he will be great for teaching and his family sounds super awesome. jamaries mom's (sis brewster) daughter works at the chase bank where we get cash from our cards from. shes kinda inactive but we come by and see her every couple of days when we need cash. she usually sees us first and stops to say hi.

Ive met some pretty interesting people like i said this week. First there was Evet who was a referal that was in the area book. we stopped by her house to find that she had broken her leg in two places and had no insurance cause shes right off the plane from haiti. her son wasnt paying for much help and she said he only works two hours a week. kinda was a touchy subject for her neighbors that were in her house cause i think they think that hes a lazy bum that ditched his mom when she needed a lot of help. we really dont know what to do with her but just to visit and teach her. we were going to talk to the bishop about if there is someone that we can put her in contact with that could help her. we know that we arent supposed to solicit the welfare program of the church so we were just looking for a way for her to get some insurance or a green card or somehting. sad story and we really want to help but there is almost nothing that we can do that will help her directly.

Another person we met on the bus yesterday noticed that we were missionaries for the church and asked about us. i confirmed what he said and asked if he was ever interested. he shook his head no so i gave him a pass along card. upon receiving this he picked up his phone and dialed the number on it to get a free book of mormon. he was speaking english so its not like there was a language barrier like there usually is but w/e... we were going to get his address and phone number either way haha.

anyway thats all for this week. thanks for the mail. i got a lot of letters this week that i will try to respond too. btw it takes about 5-7 days for mail to get to me from Texas. so yeah. oh yeah and send me some pictures on whats happening at home! ill see if i can locate a card reader so i can send some home too. have a great week everyone!!!

Elder Johnson

Flood Service

Ok well im at the public library so i have limited time to type today. so ill see what i can muster up in 30 min.

this week we were called to serve to help new jersey recover from the hurricane irene. they also got flooded again last week so the damage there was alot andit was kinda sad to see everything and everyone and the state they were in. the first time we went it was a wednessday. we went with our zone in the mission and met up with the elders in new jersey. the houses we did then werent really that bad but still effected. the first house we helped out was this guy in his 50s and he had a dodge viper and then his wife pulled up in a bmw z4 and THEN he drove away in his ford f350 with a full cab.

it was kinda wierd serving someone who was well off but still his basement was flooded out and all the walls had to be replaced. we ripped out the wood 2x4s that were holding up his walls and that was pretty much it. the next house we needed to wear masks cause of the mold that had started to grow from the water. it was 2 weeks past the flooding so add that with sitting water and thats what it looked like. anyway they ran out of masks so i didnt get one and they didnt want me to go in the house cuase i could have gotten sick. so i just kinda sat outside like a bump on a log cause they had nothing for me to do, i talked with them a little and made em smile so at least i was helping their spirits.

the next day we went was on saturday and this day we went with the ward. there were only two people who went on the bus with us cause everyone else drove their own vehicles. so we only worked with the ones on our bus. it was kinda sad that we only worked with only two members cause we were hoping to get to know the ward better but it was all good cause we got 2 referrals off of them and they said they wanted to help come teaching. it was a small but needed testimony that alot of help comes from the ward that is much needed.

so the first house we went to was this guy who was about 70 and his house was RIGHT by the river that flooded... so everything from like 6 feet up and under was destroyed and needed to be replaced. it was so sad cause he was sleeping in his car cause he had no where else to stay. his house was BAD. everything had mold on it and worst of all he had a hobby of fiddeling around with electronics so we hauled a bunch of computer equipement out and i just about died. the poor guys kitchen was even worse. good thing that the sister missionaries took care of it though cause i couldnt even breathe neer the kitchen. anyway we had the task of removing his carpet and move stuff out to throw out. i wanted to do more but there wereother people that needed help just as bad.

we did a short job of removing some dry wall for his neighbor after that. it was fun cause we got to remove whole walls with nothing but a crowbar and a hammer. verry fun for 19 year old guys. after that short work we went to another neighbor down the street and moved everything out of his place to the couches to dressers. we then TORE DOWN a shak that had floated into his yard. that was sooo tiring.

i have 5 min left :O our investigators are going well. they showed up to church and are keeping commitments. i think we will baptize one this next sunday and two next sunday. these are all in the same haitian family we found last week. we have a lot of people to see that were referred to us but the service toook alot of our time last week. so pretty much we have a lot of potential and just need to hit the pavement hard. oh and i made a kiech that is gunna be eaten today by our district. ill tell you how it goes. and we FINALLY mopped our place and so its clean!! yay!!! anyway love you all and write me some more!!!!!!!!! 

elder Johnson

At the Mission Home

This is Zach at the NY-New York South mission home with Pres. and Sis. Nelson.  Doesn't he look great?

In the Concrete Jungle

sak pase!!!!!!

well this week was particularly exciting. our prayers were finally answered!! we found a family of 18 haitians. 8 of which are of baptism age. they all committed and we are super excited for them. unfortunately their father is really catholic and is really against us being in their home so we have to teach outside. the first lesson we had in the house the dad cussed us out in creole and was particularly mad at me cause i was white. that sounds really racist but thats how it is. they have a lot of feelings like that for the french who they rebelled against so i can understand if hes still feeling like that but i dont think he realizes that im from texas...... oh well.

the other thing that went not so well with the first visit was the fact that we brought another sister in the ward that was haitian so she could talk with them. she kinda stirred the pot with him cause she has a REALLY strong testimony and isnt afraid to share it lets just say. the last not so good thing that happened was that they didnt show up for church this past week. we checked on them right after but they werent home. they are all so receptive so i think this is just a fluke in their schedule.

besides that family we really dont have many people to teach. my trainer was sorta "blinded" into the area which means he wasnt familiar with the people that were last being taught that were in the area book. so we went through all the potential investigators last week and found out who was interested and who wasnt. we have a couple of people to visit this next week though. one speaks french and another is a haitian lady who said to call before we stopped by. not much but something. so this next week we are going to be doing a lot of finding days.

my mom is so cool. not my maternal mother sherry johnson but my mission mom. its just more mission lingo that your dad is your trainer and your mom is the sister missionary who is the oldest sister in the district. and then from that you have grandparents and great uncles and all sorts of relationships. its kinda cool cause you automatically have friends when you get here. anyway sister basset is my mom. she has baby whipes, hand sanitizer, chapstick, and even granola bars on her all the time. its pretty funny cause she acts like everyones mom haha. dont get my wrong that i still love my real mom. especially cause she gave me this super cool quilt that glows in the dark haha.

anyway this week for pday we are going to play dodgeball again. last time was so fun and i was somewhat good at it. yesterday was 9/11 too. so for a commemoration to the event, new york had two giant spotlights shine up in the air. we went over by the brooklyn bridge as a district at the end of the day and took some pictures of it. hopefully they will show up well on my camera but it was pretty cool to see it in the sky with the bridge too.

haha one last story, so i totally got shut out on saturday twice. the first time we were looking up a former investigator. it was my turn to lead for the day so i knocked on all doors, led us around on where to go, and did all the talking. well we knocked on this guys door and he opened it up. i told him we were looking for "Basil" and that we were missionaries and wanted to talk to him. the guy just said "ah ok" and shut the door never to be seen again. even after we knocked again. the second time we were calling everyone on our list to see who we could meet for the next week and i did the same thing explaining that we had a message about jesus christ that we wanted to share as well. well this one guy didnt even day anything after "hello" after which i heard a distinct hang up sound. we all started laughing but we still kept calling others too.

anyway thats all for this week and hope that everyone back home and that is on their missions are doing fine. im praying for everyone in haitian and appreciate all the mail i keep getting. keep it up!!!

love,

Elder Johnson

Here in the Big Apple

HEY EVERYONE!!!! ITS YOUR FAVORITE MISSIONARY AGAIN!!!


Well i finally got here. NYC is totally weird. weird as in ive never experienced anything like it before.


to start the story off where i last left you guys the last week at the mtc was pretty different considering that i would be soon approaching a time that i had long been waiting for. we did our normal routine but with a few extra classes and in field orientation. they were all really inspiring but nothing compared to what ive felt so far. finally it was monday and 4 am and we headed to the air port. we got on ok BUT one of my suitcases was over by one pound!! but the lady who checked my bags served in NY South too so she let it slide. first perk for being an elder of the Lord haha.


on the plane ride i sat next to an older guy and a guy in his 30s. the young guy was coming back from a fishing trip and was jewish by descent but not by religion. so the way he explained it he pretty much gave up on God and was not going back. So after talking with the atheist i talked to the other guy. he explained that he doesn't believe in anything he cant explain with numbers or cant see. so i figured he believed in Scientology because he was from italy and explained that alot of people believed that from where he was from.


so after no success i just shot the breeze with them and got off the plane. first thing i noticed about new york is that there are crazy drivers here. like REALLY crazy drivers. they somehow drive defensively and extremely aggressively at the same time. my companion likes to just walk out in the street and try to cross where he is. I swear that he will get hit one day but he is convinced that he will be save. i tried to explain what kayla explained to me that God still lets us use our agency so he will still let us do something stupid. SO bottom line is im not playing in traffic.


the first night we stayed at the mission home that had no power from the hurricane so that was interesting to use flash lights and candles. the first day we went out and contacted people. it was then that i realized that everyone and anyone lives in new york. you have every color of the rainbow on the street and it seems like no one speaks english either cause everyone is always talking in a different language and alot of things are written in a different language.


the next day we went to the transfer meeting. the night before and on the plane ride i found out that there were two other missionaries from haiti that would be going to new york as well. at the transfer meeting i found out that i would be serving with a native haitian elder jean, and with elder jones our trainer who is from Kentucky. after the transfer meeting i found out that we didnt have a car.... and me and elder jean had about 3 pieces of luggage to carry all the way to brooklyn from queens. it was about a 40 min walk WITH a train ride so we were more than ready to get to our PAD (missionary term for residence). so we finally get to our pad and elder jones doesn't seem all that excited while we are walking there. i realized once we got there that the place is old... and no one has lived in it for a while. not only that but over the course of the next week the most white people i saw in one day was 6. so yeah i live in the ghetto in a ghetto house and i pretty much love it.


its so much better than anything i could get at the mtc and it has AC (we got a new one two days ago and it has a remote!!!! exciting i know) and it has a shower so i really have nothing to complain about. yesterday we went over to the ASL and english missionaries pad and theirs is a thousand times nicer. i was kinda jealous but i knew that what we have is more than enough for us to sufficiently live.


the first day we were there we realized we didnt have any food either. so we kinda went like 12 hours with out food cause we didnt have time the night we got there to go out so yeah that was very interesting... the people im teaching mostly speak english. the ones we teach in creole elder jean usually teaches most of it cause i can barely understand what everyone is saying and because of their crazy accent. it was the same case with sunday school. the sister that taught talked SO FAST. anyway elder jean teaches me for an hour straight each day and we talk constantly everyday.


we have 4 investigators and no baptismal dates but we are working on that. well thats all for this week but ill try to write some individual letters today as well. thanks so much for all the mail and emails. if you are going to send me a letter send it to the mission office address which is


85-69 60 drive
Elmhurst NY 11373


they will forward it to my pad so just send everything there and not worry about when i have transfers or what not. SEND ME SOME LETTERS PLZ!!!! :)
have a great week everyone!!!!!


Elder Johnson

As Black as a White Man Can Feel - Last MTC Letter - Aug. 23

Well here i am and i have found myself in the bowels of the basement of 1M. This week was good at some points and bad at others but ill start at the begining.

We started at the trc and the lesson went really well and i can tell im learning more and more cause im able to pick up more and more what the fluent speakers are saying. we taught about the role of the spirit and this helped alot cause alot of our lessons over the next week would revolve around this. funny how things just work out like that... anyway so we taught a 30 min lesson but we had 35 min in the room with jacob and jeff, two frequent commers to the trc. after we taught the talked about their missions in haiti and how is was really crazy there. they said thier zone leader got stabed by his companion and some other missionaries got kidnapped. so im REALLY glad im not going to haiti. they also said the haitian missionaries are really teritorial and they always have to have control. they said recieving death threats by senior companions if you woke them up on time was normal.  None of us are going to haiti though cause the mission is closed to palongys (white people in tongan). Rasmussen is going to fort lauderdale florida and elser olsky and Stegal are going to tampa florida. speaking of which the tongans are leaving today. its sad to see them leave but they have deserved to leave cause they have been here two weeks more than us. now that they have left that means our distrit is like the model district now so that means the presidancy will be breathing down our necks and steal our room for leadership meetings. it dosnt REALLY matter cause elder campbell and i are only here for another week but its still nerve racking.

Our teaching has gotten so much better. our focus in class has switched less from the language to more focus on teaching. it was funny cause yesterday fre jean (the only haitian teacher) toook a whole hour in class to practice teaching with the three other elders in my district. it was funny cause he said we had 5 min of prep time and then campbell and i would teach for real, but instead he took a little detour to help the other elders with teaching, which they desperately needed. campbells and my lessons flow like a waterfall. they are so much better than before and the language is almost never a problem for me now.

yester day fre jean used some wierd sayings that i cant even remember and i gave him the wierdest look and he gave me one back. it was wierd cause in direct translation he said "are you working fire" which i was totally lost but it meant "are you warmed up?" i laughed cause it was a saying that made sense but didnt at the same time. he just called me a greenie and we moved on lol. the new haitian proverb for this week which i thought everryone would like is

"si bab komrad boule, ou kouri mete pa ou nan dlo"

which means if your friends beard is on fire you should go get yours wet. another one:

"yon dwet pa manje kalamarou"

which means a single finger cant eat ochra. (the green vegitable that we eat in couscous) its means like "alot of hands make quick work" kinda thing.

i used some of these in some of my lessons this week and i felt as black as a white man could in creole.

thanks for the package that you sent mom and i loved everything you put in there. ill most likely be calling home on next monday but be ready cause its going to be pretty early in the morning. im sad that sophie has already taken over my phone and i hope that nothing else will come to the valuables that i left behind.

so this week i have 200 note cards that im going to finish this week before i leave. its 27 words a day which is a little less than what ive been doing but im doing alot of other stuff in my scriptures so im staying really busy. my allergies have been acting up but i also think its cause im getting sick again so bottom line is i really dont know why my voice is changing pitches at 9:30 every night and i have LOADS of snot but im taking some meds so hopefully it goes away when i get to NYC. sad story is that i have to get my hair cut this week so everyone pray for the barber and that he doesnt make me look like an old man.

anyway thats it for this week and ill call home on next monday probably. thanks for everything everyone is sending and for all the mail!! talk to you guys later!!

-elder johnson-

p.s. thanks mom for the addresses and dont let sophie get crazy on my phone.

p.s. dont send me any letters past saturday cause they will probably not get to me. just wait till i give you my NY address

Photos of the MTC

Zach and his companion Elder Campbell

Part of Zach's district at the Provo Temple.

Zach with his Haitian Creole teachers, (left to right) Fre Pixton, Fre Nelson and Fre Jean.

Flowing like a waterfall

well this week was verry interesting. some days were a totall sucess while others were a total flop. like saturday. i accidentally took 2 antihistamine without knowing that it knocks you out so i had THE hardest time staying awake during pst that day. we also had two sub teachers that day cause for some reason everyone decided to go out of town that week end, and the subs were from the tongan and samoan classes so they taught like tongans and somoans, which means that they didnt do as much teaching as they did talking. i also had no motivation to even study so it was really hard to stay focused.

sunday was a complete opposite story though cause we had this awesome devotional and i did so much vocab and scripture study and church had alot of really good speakers. then yesterday all of our teachers came back so we had really good lessons and we actually did some teaching. the teaching that we did do was awesome and the creole flowed like a waterfall. our teacher also told us a story about how he saved his friends life over the weekend. he was at his family reunion and had a prompting to call his friend from haiti. the guy had just moved to NY and his apartment got robbed and he lost all of his paperwork for his job and citizenship. he got fired cause he lost all of it and he was seriously considering suicide. Fre Jean called though and he wasnt going to at first cause it was 1 am in NY when he called but he said he just listened for about 40 min and just cause he listened and bore his testimony about trials his friend came up with the solution on his own and decided to join the army.

it was a really sweet story to hear how he listened to the spirt and it was for a really good reason. we have been trying to use the spirit better in our lessons and i can tell that it helps so much especially when you know the language haha. i didnt keep my goal very well this week and i didnt even come close to doubling my vocabulary. but i did learn the fist vision in creole and i think my understanding for some topics including the lessons has grown alot.

good news my companion still knows everyone in this place and i still only know 4 people. but i did get to see breyton and parker and i took some pictures with them. ok and speaking of friends i have some NEW assignments!!!! 1) i still need MCKAY JOHSON's email or mailing address. his mom was supossed to email me or someone was supposed to call or something. anyway bottom line it didnt get to me. his parents phone number should be in one of my earlier emails. 2) some one in the johnson house needs to look up on my phone for AARON PAINTER's number and call/text him my address or ask for his or something cause i want to know how he is.

thats it for the assignments for this week and thanks to everyone who has been doing these little things for me. they mean alot and help out alot even if it seams that they arent that big of a deal. CAUSE THEY ARE to a missionary in the mtc. some elders that are going to mongolia just got here and they are here for 12 weeks. i think i would jump the fence if i was here that long. two weeks seems like so far away and i cant wait till im acutually going REAL missionary work.

this weeks elder spotlight goes to Elder Olchewsky. i think thats how its spelled but its pronounced ol' chef skii. hes from midville utah and he is a SUPER NERD like me!!! before sundays devotional we talked about everything from computer games to computer progamming and ive decided im going to HAVE to see him after i come home cause he is awesome. his mom sends him huge boxes of cookies every week and im getting fat from them cause he is super nice too. hes always offering everyone mints and has everything in office max from a to z in his back pack. he is the ultimate eagle scout and he shows it.

the temple was good this week and we ATE in the temple. who knew there was a cafeteria in it right? i had a bread bowl soup with clam showder. it was a nice and greatly needed break from the nasty cafeteria food that we eat all the time. OHHH MYYY. ok so i had a spinich salad with rasberries in it like last week, it was actually good and i like it but it gave me THE WORST gass i have ever had in my life. seriously i farted once every ten minutes after dinner till i fell asleep that night. it was horrible.

thanks to everyone that send mail this week and i hope everyone got mine too. i havent checked mail today but im going to soon after laundry. anyway thats pretty much it for this week and i hope everyone has a good week this week too!!

-elder johnson-

3 Weeks Left in Spiritual Prison (or in other words, week 5 in the MTC)

HEY FANMI MWEN!!!!

So im trying to respond to everyone who sent me mail within the past two weeks but there are alot of you so im going to try my best! Well parker is finally here so thats good that it takes him only 3000 miles to respond to one of my letters haha. Well there are some funny language stories for you: first its that while in the middle of some lessons ive said the COMPLETELY wrong thing like saying satan instead of "tann sa". i was trying to say thank you for the this time we have, but i said thank you for satan we have. my teacher burst out laughing in the middle of the prayer while i was totally confused haha.

I also said "pete" instead of "pedi" so the gospel farted in the world instead of the gospel was lost from the world. it was a real hoot to hear all the jokes after that one. One day my teacher asked us what mwa ment and i automaticaly said "it means me!" in reaction to that fre jean takes off his glasses, looks at me in disapointment and says "welcome to haiti my friend". i said what it ment in french haha.

i broke my bottle today cause i set it on the paper towel despencer and it fell and broke but my companion suplied me with another one so that was a tradgety averted. we held a funeral service for it which lasted about 3 seconds from me carrying it to the garbage. heres a shout out to my mom for sending me a BUTT CUSHION!!!!!!!!! its sweet and i will never be uncomfortable again in class. THANKS!!!

on friday when i was running my mile, elder zajak and elder corder stoped me and said if i wanted to do a buddy carry with them. i said yeah sure whats a buddy carry? elder zajak then picked me up and ran a lap with me while he fireman carried me. he said it was a real work out and thanks for the help haha.

the last story is the funniest i think. the last 5 hours of our day on saturday consists of language study, a 3 hour pst block , and going to the tall lab. This is all done in the class and we were really tired and so we decided to spend the last hour outside to wake us up. elder rasmussen then went to this tree and started meowing at it. we all thought he was going crazy but then he look up at it and started saying there was a cat up there. we all knew he was pulling our leg but about 50+ elders running to gym believed him. everyone that passed by look up too and were concerned about the imaginary cat that was up in the tree. some people even claimed to see it but then none of us could keep our cool and busted out laughing. we had the whole zone in on it and was a great way to relieve stress and woke us all up from a long day.

anyway today we went to the temple and did inititories again. elder rasmussen and i went to a different session, or more like we didnt change fast enough out of inititories, so we went to one by ourselves. it was kinda different cause we were by ourselves in a corner of the celestial room and the spirit was so strong it could have lifted me up out of my chair. its amazing to be inside the house of the Lord and going there every week strengthens my testimony so much. every time i go i always get an answer to my prayers which is also why i look forward going there everyday.

im still going strong on 35 words a day and thanks to everyone that believes in me. we taught the second half of the second lesson yesterday in creole and it was so hard. everyone butchered it and we made our investigators really confused. its a huge lesson with alot of new things that people never have heard of before so its the hardest to teach. its a make it or break it lesson for alot of people so we are trying really hard to get a teaching strategy going. i can testify really good in creole now cause i can feel the spirit testifying to me of what im saying. its not so much about the language now but about using the spirit. the lessons are still a little choppy but we are working hard on them.

thanks so much for all the things every one is sending and for all the mail. it brings so much excitment to the same four walls and just helps the day move along. thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts. they help so much and im praying in creole for you too! everything here from the devotionals to the food are an answer to my prayers and im thankfull for all of it, even if the food nearlly kills us everyday. i love everyone so much and i have really come to understand the role of my family and my love that i have for them since i have came here. Na wai!

avek lamou,

Elde Johnson

Week 4, A Week of New Firsts

 WHEWWWW ok well this week was a week of new starts. I ran a mile yesterday and on Sunday I shined my shoes for the first time. also today I had my first whole apple since I've been here. It feels good to feel tired from running and from eating apples but I still have to do this whole missionary thing ontop of this. Well, anyway the mail room had some disaster or something like that and so I didn't get some of your mail till like Thursday. So yeah sorry I didn't write cause I figured I could address all your concerns like this one:

Kayla said I didn't indent enough so here ya go:

this

one

is for

kayla

:)

     Today we went early for the temple which was a really smart idea cause we did inititories, did a session, had lunch, and it was only 1 o' clock. I feel like this is that "God's speed" all of you are talking about. I also got this Haitian shirt with the Haitian flag and with the population and stuff on it. I figured I could get a nyc one while I was there so I didn't special order it from the mtc. The language is going great. This week I'm going to try and double the amount of knowledge I have in Haitian. I've started praying in Haitian and our class is speaking it 75% of the time now in class. I'm trying to get my district to speak during meals but I don't think they like that idea very much.

     I want to give a shout out to kayla for sending me PICTURES and SWEETROLLS (I have yet to get them but they are on their way) and for my mom for making me a BUTT CUSHION. This will definitely make my week. Nothing really outrageous or crazy happened other than I'm still trying to do 35 words a day in Haitian and unfortunately I think its taking a toll on my English spelling. It's phonetic so you spell what you hear or say. I LOVE IT. I can spell EVERYTHING just by hearing someone say it. Our progressive investigator is going well I think.

       We just challenged him to read the first 7 chapters of first Nephi in a week so I hope he does it. He has kept all commitments before so I think he will do this one as well. I want to move onto the third lesson but Elder Campbell doesn't know enough vocab to teach it he says. I'm going to kick his butt this week cause it's hindering our ablility to teach when he is asking me for a word every sentence.         We have trc tomorrow which is where we teach someone else who actually KNOWS the language and who isn't our teacher. We will teach lesson 2 in Creole but I know that really well so it shouldn't be a problem.

     Grats to Mitch for mastering guns for the fourth time and for his new found ablility for becoming a misterfix it (welcome to the club). Kayla said that Katherine got engaged and I've been looking for her fiance (a french word that means the same thing in creole as it does english) but its hard to find a brother Wanket. : / Good luck for Kayla and Mitch to find jobs and I'm praying in Creole for you!!

uhhhhhh well OH well I just remembered a NEW (nouvo) Haitian proverb told to us yesterday by brother Nelson one of our teachers. it goes like so:

     woch nan dlo pa konnen doule woch nan soley.

It translates to the rock in the water doesn't know the pain of the rock in the sun. Meaning that we shouldn't juidge others for what they have cause we don't know their problems. Also that everyone has different trials and some that may seem easy to us may be hard for them. This last Sunday's devotional was about love. I've really taken this to heart and I've really tried working on charity and loving everyone more and judging less. It's kinda hard but I've found that being sourounded by the spirit really helps to accomplish it. I've been praying hard for this along with doubling my knowledge about Creole. I know that with my faith and the power of the Lord anything is possible to accomplish.

     My teacher Brother Pixton told us that some one in our mission would try to fast for 40 days and 40 nights and that this was STUPID and I know this is impossible and something that only Christ could accomplish but I'm really trying to push my boundaries with learning, eating, exercising, and teaching. I hope and pray everyday that I can acomplish these goals. Anyway can't wait to hear from you again.  I'm going to try and get some pictures printed for some of you guys (I still have room for like 300 pics so I won't send my card home yet). Thanks so much for all the prayers and thoughts and I can see all of them at work in this sacred place that I can't wait to get out of. My teachers are an awesome (onfom!) influence on me and I love the way they teach us every day. Any way times up so I can't wait to hear from you this next week!!

Elder Johnson

Week 3 Crazy Busy

hey everyone!!

wow those pictures mom sent me are sweet. Im jealous of tylers ability to scare grandma with his driving expertice. im glad that everyone had fun in utah! first off i need jessies address cause i need to send her a letter (send me a letter so it gets to me faster!!). thx!!! anyway today was crazy buisy. you would think that because it is a pday that it would be a little more relaxed but the provo temple was soooooo busy. all the lockers were taken and all the seats in our session were filled. also down here in the laundy room is a madhouse as well. all of the washers are being used and there are lines forming to use them. iTS SO CRAZY!! anyway one of the new elders in my zone that are speaking english played hockey with brian, troy and robby. his name is elder hazledine so someone should tell them that i met them. 

We have these things in the mtc called a progressive investigator and its where we teach one of our teachers who is acting like an investigator. we teaching them about twice a week and the teacher remains the same person. so we challenged our guy, ruby, to baptism and my campanion got mad at me cause he thought it was too early but instead we learned of some of his concerns about the church and what we need to do to get him to join. at first i thought early challenges were too pushing but they have their purposes and alot of the time its a challenge to get baptized when they come to know that the church is true. its interesting and im finding myself working very hard to learn the lesson and reading in the scriptures for ruby, even though he is a made up character. anyway we did some mini lessons with the french district and they have been here for 7 weeks so they were blowing us out of the water with their massive amount of french that they used. i was able to hold a basic convorsation with them but its still a pretty different language. haha oh and i could barely understand what mom sent me. my response is 'yes im tired of being here?' 

One of the elders in my zone, elder jenkins, is this really big guy who is really funny is like our dad almost. anyway he says the food starts to taste the same and he thinks there is a conspericy where all food is made out of the same gray goop but it is just molded into whatever they please. i started to realize this so im getting more salads and staying away from the meat that tastes all the same. i saw josh davies and took a picture with him. hes been here for two weeks now and im kinda jealous that hes leaving. im learning alot but staring at the same four walls everyday is kinda overdone at some times. 

one of our teachers names is Fre Jean, fre meaning brother. hes from haiti and is going to byu for his education. he taught us this dance the other day and said we can get into any door if we sing it. he also taught us this proverb: "petit petit zanko a fe niche li" which means little by little the bird builds h is nest. it means that you get thinks slowly and you need to have patience to earn them. i can do the sencond lesson in creole now, which is alot better than most of the elders who are all still reading off thier books and things while i do it mostly from memory. it was cool cause i wrote down this scripture in 2 nephi about baptism my immersion and our progressive investigator asked about it and i whipped it out like i had totally planned for it. it was super cool how the spirit acts and i can see heavenly father answering my prayers every day. i set a goal that i need to learn 35 words a day and ive done it now for about 5 days now (exclusing sundays and pdays). i was able to do my weekly interview with my teacher all in creole and i told him my goal and thought it was pretty ambitious but i figured it takes me 40 min to memorize 35 words and about 40 to make the flash cards. so i pretty much and studying them for an hour and a half. im also making a list of frequently asked questions about the gospel and during my personal study time im writing down scritpures that answer those questions. thats pretty much what im studying outside of class. 

One of my zone leaders is this huge tongan guy who could probably lay me flat but he is super nice. i got locked out of the building somehow last night and it was a miricle that he was with me cause he knew exactly what to do to get back in (namely throw rocks at a window that had their lights on). it was pretty funny and he told me some ghost stories to make the experience alot better. anyway the last thing i want to metion is to SEND ME SOME MAIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! kayla is pretty religious about sending me stuff but i havent gotten anything for about 5 days now. ( i might be exagurating but thats what it feels like.) 

oh and the last story i want to tell is that yesterday while at gym we were playing volley ball as usual except one of the elders kicked the balll and it hit the ceiling and a tile fell down and just about killed another elder. i can see the lords hand in protecting us here, even from ourselves lol. any way my time is up and i hope everyone has a great week!!




N'a wai!!

(see ya)


Elder Zachary Johnson

Week 2! Meet my District.

Allo fami!!

Well this week went by really fast. the first week that you are here all the other elders tell you that you can make it throughout all the mtc if you can make it to sunday. This was true for me but i say that the first p-day is the hump. It still feels like the first week and we have already taught the first lesson in haitian twice. i guess there was some debate about my old room mate Elder crookston and yes he was of chinese decent and was from idaho and only had one leg. He had a slight accent even though his first language was english. My companion is elder campbell and he is pretty much as hispanic you can get without actually being hispanic. hes 50% hispanic and doens speak alot of spanish but is really proud of his decent and talks alot about it. He went to uvu for a year and was in a multicultural dancing group so he likes to dance too. He likes basketball, xbox, and is studying for a medical psycology degree. oh and hes from provo. I think we are the polar oposite when it comes to opinions but we get along great and both are working hard. 

This past week there was a bug that got around in our district and i got it for the past two days but i survived. Elder olchewfsky (idk how to spell it) is the district doctor and has ever drug from a to z and has a closet full of office suplies so he is the best eagle scout and is prepared for everthing. He is from a little town in northern utah and is nerdier than me if you can only imagine. there are two others in our district as well. one is elder stegal who is a convert of only 4 months ago and he is now serving a missino. he if from arazona and his family only says they love each other to thier mom, granma, and sister. i think this is a little wierd that none of the men in their family say i love you but thats just how it is for them. he said the first thing he noticed in the church was that everyone loved eachother and he liked it. he has two brothers in the marines and are in iraq and afganistan. the last but not least is elder rassmusen. he is really funny and has tons of gass all the time. thank goodness there isnt a sister in our district cause this kid would kill her the first day she would be with us. He is from northern utah as well and has these really dorky glasses as well, but hes really funny so it matches his personality.

yesterday was the first day the gym was opened and i made a pact that i would not play or become associated at alll with basketball so i was automatically attracted to the indoor volleyball net. now imagine little zach with not much athletic ability playing indoor volleyball with a bunch of huge tongan guys in his district. they are all halarious but really scary at the same time. so while we are playing volleyball, this huge polynesian guy goes up close to the net to hit it on my side. so i jump and stick my hands up to block it but i jumped to high and the guy spikes the ball straight into my face. everyone busts up laughing and i was glad my un athleticsism paid off for something. the guys who hit me lives next door to me and is from texas so it wasnt a big deal to eather of us cause we knew each other. it was just really funny in the end. 

there is thing in tongan culture called kipoe. people who eat food or who hide food are called this and are severly beaten when caught doing this. so in order to get used to this weird culture ritual the tongan district is implementing this in thier class room. so everytime they get a package they stick it in the middle of the room and HAS to share with everyone. so one polynesian guy found one of the many packages that elder rassmussen gets that is like 5 pounds of nothing but candy. the poly guy then grabs the box and brings it out in the hall and screams "KIEPOE!!!!" the box was empty in seconds. it was so funny too cause elder rassmussen knew that if he resisted he would get a beating. so i have a request that if you send me packages with food, make sure there is just a medium amount of food in it haha. this week has come and gone really fast and im looking forward to learning the second lesson well enough to teach it. Thanks everyone for all the addresses and for the thoughts and prayers. it helps alot and gives everyone here the strength to get through the long hours of class and studying. thanks alot and see ya next week!


Elder Johnson

(ps oh and i forgot to tell you about our cool greeting. everyone in our zone uses it and is really cool. when ever you see some one you say "Sak pase?" (pronounced with a french accent like sock pass eh? which means "whats up") and the other person says "m'ba boule!" ("ma bool eh" or "im on fire!!") you get points for greeting each other with it this week and ill expect a report by next weeks email session.)