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.)