Dec. 26, 2011

hey everyone i know i just talked to you guys but i thought ide talk more about the last week in my life. so yeah yesterday and the day before where just awesome cause of all the christmas festivaties. yesterday the whole mission went to the mission office in queens and we had a christmas devotional and everyone and thier zones sang for the whole mission. our zone leader and the spanish district leader both had really great solos that ended the night in a very special spirit that i will never forget. during the conference we went and ate lunch provided by the mission in the gym and then we all got to see the christmas slide show and all got to sit on santas lap (photo attached) also we went to grand central station which is another picture and the last is elder jones with his new hair cut that makes him look like will smith.

this last week was really shot cause friday we did weekly planning, saturday was the conferance, and yesterday was christmas. i did go on exchanges with elder meyers who i this awsome elder from st. george utah and is going home in like 2 months which is scary. alot of the elders in my zone that i have worked with are going home soon which is scary cause they are really great leaders to us and have been a really greay help to us in this work.

like i said in my phone call home we are getting ready for edward to be baptized on the first of january and we are all hoping that he sticks with it. he siad one of his reasons for joining the church was to get married and he asked if this was a good reason to be pursuing baptism. we then went through the baptisimal questions and found that he understood what it really ment to be baptized and that he was ready to take upon him the name of christ. this is pretty exciting cause the sisters have been working with him for a good 3 transfers now and finally he is ready.

other than that we are working hard with jean mosias but he still says that he doesnt feel ready to become baptized and we found out that he really dosnt remember alot about what we have been talking about which im sure is due to the fact that he juked us for about 2 weeks. i called his dad and asked him about being baptized and it seemed like his father really didnt care or just was not very concerned for the salvation of his son. either way i think thier lives would be very different if they had a parental figure in thier lives. once again when we visited there was a thug looking guy sitting on the couch (there is a different one every time) and he was introduced as brad's friend which is jeans brother.

so yeah this week ive been able to see how much these peoples lives differ than mine and how blessed i am to be raised in a stable home with a stable family and where everything dosnt revolve around money.

christmas here was very different as i saw some people just treat the day as a normal day. people also used the term happy holidays which kinda bugged me cause i felt like it just made the special occasion seem less as important as it really is. and it really didnt help with all the grumpy jewish people that get surprisingly REALLY offended if you say merry christmas to them. so yeah also all the missionaries in our ward sang in sacrament and elder jones and i were treated to a traditional christmas breakfast called "pepper pot and bread" which is ox tail that is really seasoned well and cooked with burt sugar and served with bread. it was a very different christmas for me but ended really good with a call home and then visiting tery williams' house for dinner.

thanks to everyone for the gifts and ill try to get some thankyous sent in the mail... but idk if i can promise anything.

have a great week everyone and a a happy new year!!!!!!!!

-elder johnson