March 12, 2012

well apparently no one got my computer science reference last week but i guess ill just be a lonely nerd... but yes this weeek.....

as for the events that transpired this week nothing really out of the ordinary happened. but on friday i did have the opportunity to go on exchanges with one of our fine zone leaders elder parry who is companions with elder last. so elder last and i switched. but the thing is i went to far rockaway (yes its kinda far away) and was at the ZLs pad for a whole day. so elder last likes to live his lifestyle the COMPLETE opposite as me so it was kinda difficult to eat almost nothing and live in an immaculate germ free environment for a whole day. but as soon as i got back i ate my steak so i lived. that day was pretty much filled with appointments with people that solely spoke spanish so i just kinda sat there like a bump on a log...

but yeah as for the more exciting news we found a couple of more investigators in the family of sister pierre. bother her sister's mother in law and her two nieces were interested. the mother in law came to church and said that she would be back in two weeks. she was super nice and excited to come. i hope that we can meet with her on tuesday and give her a bible and have a restoration lesson with her as well. to know a little bit more about sister peirre she is haitian and speaks no english so it was a little difficult for her to move out to long island where almost everyone speaks english and she cant find a job. but she is a spiritual giant and i have come to love her in the previous weeks. as for the neices rose and fabian they come down everytime we go to sister pierres to teach her english and they both are asking good questions. rose is reading daughters of our kindgdom which is a new book about the relief society.

also some thing new that happened this week is that i found a free pair of aviators!!! that just so happened to be of the RayBan brand.... tender mercy of the lord?? but yeah the pictures attached show those. also in the pictures are some at the PMG bowl with my mission president and the hosts in some rediculous collored suits.

also this week we are planning to go to the temple with sister pierre, brother alex, and a recent convert steve. it should all go well and im super excited to see these people enter into the lords house and partake of the blessings within. they will only be doing baptisms but it still is really speacial for them and im going to try to make it as such by the best of my ablilities. sorry but thats all the time i have for today cause we have a zone activity at a state park but talk to yall next week!!!

-elder johnson

March 5, 2012

so you get meda super awesome points if you understand the subject line to this email. NO CHEATING!!! dont use the internet to find out. anyway so ill mix things up and explain the pictures first and talk about this week later. so the first one is the bedroom of the son of our branch president. it reminded me of home. my favorite part about this picture is the fact that it ends RIGHT at the door haha. the next one is a broken exit sign we found but then i attached a plug to it and now it lights up. we will be hanging it up as soon as we figure out how to. p days are so fun.... the next one is elder hunter who is one of my pad mates. he went to dixie state before he came on his mission and is from utah... dont remember where. it all looks the same anyway.

so yes my week wasnt particularly exciting but we did happen to have a SUPER nice family just plop right into our laps. a member called us and said that one of his coworkers was asking questions about the church and so he invited us to come over and we have had two meetings with them and it has been REALLY well apparently. i say it like that cause they speak spanish... and i dont. so the whole time we went over i just kinda sat there. i picked up that they were agreeing to a lot of things cause they said "claro kue si" a lot which means i agree or something like that.

our other investigators arent look so hot but i did send some members out to call them and reach out to them cause that has seemed to work here in the past. this week will be a lot different as we are going to find new people and follow up on some potential investigators. one of them in particular came to church last week and hasnt returned our calls or messages until yesterday when she said that she was depressed and found that something was missing in her life and didnt really feel it at church. part of the problem was that she slipped in and then out and that the subject that was being talked about in sacrament was the word of wisdom in the old testiment. which led to the explanation of the mosaic law and ALL the animals that they couldnt eat and HOW they ALL HAD to be prepared. anyway so i got to testify to this lady via text message about the love our savior has for each and one of us and how us as missionaries loved her and wanted to help her find that happiness that she was looking for. she said we could call this week but didnt really agree to meet with us. so hopefully i can persuade her to just meet with us one and see how it goes.

another person that we are trying to meet with is the daughter of a really less active member becuase of really bad medical problems. but his room mate is a recent convert and is really cool. like really cool. so he is trying to help us help this family and introduce the daughter to the gospel even though it sounds like she is being a rebellious teenager. it really is hard to see how families fall apart out here and how fragile life really is. sometimes its really hard to understand what people are going through especially if it has never happened to me but the thing that i have really found out that works is love. and if people dont have that family that can support that then the ward does.

as for today we will be going to queens to a "preach my gospel bowl" no one knows the details but the mission president said the winner gets to go to the temple with their zone. my district actually isnt participating but we will spectate as the freeport district from our zone represents us. it should be very interesting. a gym with the whole mission in it having one on one combat about preach my gospel. nothing in the history of new york has sounded more blood thirsty than this!

so yeah thats about it for this week. i feel like im running out of stuff to say so some one ask me a question or two.....

thanks to everyone that sends me mail via web but ill respond to the kind that comes in letter format as well. :-)

good luck and until next time my friends !!!

-elder johnson