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.)

Week 1 in the Missionary Training Center

 Family!


So this week was really crazy. I guess I should start with day one. I woke up at grandmas house and went to eat breakfast at iHop and got some delicious pancakes and eggs. The lewis's and the becks came in support and we had a blast talking and taking some last pictures before we set out. We then headed to the provo temple to take some more formal ones. Most of them were just jessie and i and grandma and grandpa. Sorry if there are lots of typos but i think you will be able to syfer them. I only have 30 min so ill try to write as much as possible with my AWSOME 60 wpm.


Well at them temple everyone thought that jessie was my girlfriend or something cause we took a lot together and she was being her embarrassing self as usual ; ) then we got into the car and proceded to enter the MTC. We got out and i gave grandma and grandpa one last hug, then i had to tell the elders that were there that jessie was my cousin and that i was going to give her  a hug lol.


I then proceded to give them my general information and get my id then went to drop my stuff at the room i was staying at. After that i went to the classroom that i would be spending 6 hours a day in and met my companion Elder Campbell. He is way awesome and even though we like completely different things we are able to teach so effectively especially with the spirit that we are both able to use. After we got a short orientation from our teacher Fre Jean (fre means brother in Haitian) we went to the main administration building to get a more formal one from the MTC president. I saw breyton and alex godfrey there and some other elders i know from byu.


After that we went to dinner and i saw alex lewis for just a short time, just enough for him to spew something out in spanish and for me to say "hi and stania says hi as well." After dinner it was time to head back to our room and get ready for bed. We got up there and met the other two elders that were going to be rooming with us. There were three elders there, one who introduced himself as elder peck and said to ignore the one next to him who was a 4 foot chinese elder who only says "god loves you " in chinese.  Elder peck said he didn't know why but that his translator helped him around
(the third elder in the room) we were kinda suprised by the chinese elder but said nice to meet you regardless and went to get a drink from the vending machines. After we got back to the room elder peck said to check the closet for a present from our zone. I opened the closet expecting to find a package but instead the short chinese elder pops out and starts screaming.  He runs to the door then TAKES HIS LEFT LEG OFF, and waves it in the air at some random missionary in the hall, and then chases the poor elder down the hall. Elder peck turns to us and says "wow you should see the look on your guys's faces. welcome to the mtc" of course the whole thing was a joke and we were then introduced to elder crookston, the one legged elder from idaho (he actually doesnt speak any chinese, just english) we went to bed and talked a lot in bed.


The next day was our first day of class and the first day i realized that this place is a place of the lord. I feel the spirit everyday and i know i'm getting closer to the lord because of it. I have never before had such a desire to learn anything like this before. I want to learn haitian so badly and im working so hard to do so. Its wierd cause
there are tons of sisters here and i think that elder campbell gets a little distracted sometimes lol. Yesterday i was able to sit in to listen to elder campbells patrearichel (idk) blessing. It was amazing to hear the promises that were given to him and what the lord had in plan for him.


I hope you guys got my letter about shorts and t-shirts cause i need them BAD (about 3 of each). also if i could ask a favor and if one of you (probably mom) call mckay johnson's parents and get his mission address and send it to me that would be awesome. his parents are in grandma and grandpa johnson's ward. i think if you call them they can tell you what it is. thanksssss. also thanks
for the pictures cause its really cool to share family and stories with the elders here. iTs a great strength to hear such things that build each elder up.


We are speaking more haitian everyday. fre jean told us that we would be teaching fully in haitian by friday but i doubt that will go well. I'm getting the language the fastest out of everyone in my district but its still very hard. THey all think im a genious or something cause i'm always studying. it may sound suprising but like i said be fore thats all i am thinking about. Anyway my 30 min is up and OH i would like alex lewis's mtc address and breyton's as well and kaylas email and new address. OH and grandma and grandpa johnson address. i hope that you get all of that and sorry again about my poor typing but i have to hurry. Ill send another letter home but thanks alot for all the support and prayers. its going great up here and i would not want to be anywhere but here right now. See ya for
now!!!!


elder johnson

I Will Go, I Will Do...

Zach was set apart as a full time missionary tonight by Pres. Little, a counselor in our Stake Presidency. He received a powerful blessing and a blessing for his family while he is serving. We came home and played some games, ate ice cream and watched fireworks. What a great send off!