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-