As Black as a White Man Can Feel - Last MTC Letter - Aug. 23

Well here i am and i have found myself in the bowels of the basement of 1M. This week was good at some points and bad at others but ill start at the begining.

We started at the trc and the lesson went really well and i can tell im learning more and more cause im able to pick up more and more what the fluent speakers are saying. we taught about the role of the spirit and this helped alot cause alot of our lessons over the next week would revolve around this. funny how things just work out like that... anyway so we taught a 30 min lesson but we had 35 min in the room with jacob and jeff, two frequent commers to the trc. after we taught the talked about their missions in haiti and how is was really crazy there. they said thier zone leader got stabed by his companion and some other missionaries got kidnapped. so im REALLY glad im not going to haiti. they also said the haitian missionaries are really teritorial and they always have to have control. they said recieving death threats by senior companions if you woke them up on time was normal.  None of us are going to haiti though cause the mission is closed to palongys (white people in tongan). Rasmussen is going to fort lauderdale florida and elser olsky and Stegal are going to tampa florida. speaking of which the tongans are leaving today. its sad to see them leave but they have deserved to leave cause they have been here two weeks more than us. now that they have left that means our distrit is like the model district now so that means the presidancy will be breathing down our necks and steal our room for leadership meetings. it dosnt REALLY matter cause elder campbell and i are only here for another week but its still nerve racking.

Our teaching has gotten so much better. our focus in class has switched less from the language to more focus on teaching. it was funny cause yesterday fre jean (the only haitian teacher) toook a whole hour in class to practice teaching with the three other elders in my district. it was funny cause he said we had 5 min of prep time and then campbell and i would teach for real, but instead he took a little detour to help the other elders with teaching, which they desperately needed. campbells and my lessons flow like a waterfall. they are so much better than before and the language is almost never a problem for me now.

yester day fre jean used some wierd sayings that i cant even remember and i gave him the wierdest look and he gave me one back. it was wierd cause in direct translation he said "are you working fire" which i was totally lost but it meant "are you warmed up?" i laughed cause it was a saying that made sense but didnt at the same time. he just called me a greenie and we moved on lol. the new haitian proverb for this week which i thought everryone would like is

"si bab komrad boule, ou kouri mete pa ou nan dlo"

which means if your friends beard is on fire you should go get yours wet. another one:

"yon dwet pa manje kalamarou"

which means a single finger cant eat ochra. (the green vegitable that we eat in couscous) its means like "alot of hands make quick work" kinda thing.

i used some of these in some of my lessons this week and i felt as black as a white man could in creole.

thanks for the package that you sent mom and i loved everything you put in there. ill most likely be calling home on next monday but be ready cause its going to be pretty early in the morning. im sad that sophie has already taken over my phone and i hope that nothing else will come to the valuables that i left behind.

so this week i have 200 note cards that im going to finish this week before i leave. its 27 words a day which is a little less than what ive been doing but im doing alot of other stuff in my scriptures so im staying really busy. my allergies have been acting up but i also think its cause im getting sick again so bottom line is i really dont know why my voice is changing pitches at 9:30 every night and i have LOADS of snot but im taking some meds so hopefully it goes away when i get to NYC. sad story is that i have to get my hair cut this week so everyone pray for the barber and that he doesnt make me look like an old man.

anyway thats it for this week and ill call home on next monday probably. thanks for everything everyone is sending and for all the mail!! talk to you guys later!!

-elder johnson-

p.s. thanks mom for the addresses and dont let sophie get crazy on my phone.

p.s. dont send me any letters past saturday cause they will probably not get to me. just wait till i give you my NY address

Photos of the MTC

Zach and his companion Elder Campbell

Part of Zach's district at the Provo Temple.

Zach with his Haitian Creole teachers, (left to right) Fre Pixton, Fre Nelson and Fre Jean.

Flowing like a waterfall

well this week was verry interesting. some days were a totall sucess while others were a total flop. like saturday. i accidentally took 2 antihistamine without knowing that it knocks you out so i had THE hardest time staying awake during pst that day. we also had two sub teachers that day cause for some reason everyone decided to go out of town that week end, and the subs were from the tongan and samoan classes so they taught like tongans and somoans, which means that they didnt do as much teaching as they did talking. i also had no motivation to even study so it was really hard to stay focused.

sunday was a complete opposite story though cause we had this awesome devotional and i did so much vocab and scripture study and church had alot of really good speakers. then yesterday all of our teachers came back so we had really good lessons and we actually did some teaching. the teaching that we did do was awesome and the creole flowed like a waterfall. our teacher also told us a story about how he saved his friends life over the weekend. he was at his family reunion and had a prompting to call his friend from haiti. the guy had just moved to NY and his apartment got robbed and he lost all of his paperwork for his job and citizenship. he got fired cause he lost all of it and he was seriously considering suicide. Fre Jean called though and he wasnt going to at first cause it was 1 am in NY when he called but he said he just listened for about 40 min and just cause he listened and bore his testimony about trials his friend came up with the solution on his own and decided to join the army.

it was a really sweet story to hear how he listened to the spirt and it was for a really good reason. we have been trying to use the spirit better in our lessons and i can tell that it helps so much especially when you know the language haha. i didnt keep my goal very well this week and i didnt even come close to doubling my vocabulary. but i did learn the fist vision in creole and i think my understanding for some topics including the lessons has grown alot.

good news my companion still knows everyone in this place and i still only know 4 people. but i did get to see breyton and parker and i took some pictures with them. ok and speaking of friends i have some NEW assignments!!!! 1) i still need MCKAY JOHSON's email or mailing address. his mom was supossed to email me or someone was supposed to call or something. anyway bottom line it didnt get to me. his parents phone number should be in one of my earlier emails. 2) some one in the johnson house needs to look up on my phone for AARON PAINTER's number and call/text him my address or ask for his or something cause i want to know how he is.

thats it for the assignments for this week and thanks to everyone who has been doing these little things for me. they mean alot and help out alot even if it seams that they arent that big of a deal. CAUSE THEY ARE to a missionary in the mtc. some elders that are going to mongolia just got here and they are here for 12 weeks. i think i would jump the fence if i was here that long. two weeks seems like so far away and i cant wait till im acutually going REAL missionary work.

this weeks elder spotlight goes to Elder Olchewsky. i think thats how its spelled but its pronounced ol' chef skii. hes from midville utah and he is a SUPER NERD like me!!! before sundays devotional we talked about everything from computer games to computer progamming and ive decided im going to HAVE to see him after i come home cause he is awesome. his mom sends him huge boxes of cookies every week and im getting fat from them cause he is super nice too. hes always offering everyone mints and has everything in office max from a to z in his back pack. he is the ultimate eagle scout and he shows it.

the temple was good this week and we ATE in the temple. who knew there was a cafeteria in it right? i had a bread bowl soup with clam showder. it was a nice and greatly needed break from the nasty cafeteria food that we eat all the time. OHHH MYYY. ok so i had a spinich salad with rasberries in it like last week, it was actually good and i like it but it gave me THE WORST gass i have ever had in my life. seriously i farted once every ten minutes after dinner till i fell asleep that night. it was horrible.

thanks to everyone that send mail this week and i hope everyone got mine too. i havent checked mail today but im going to soon after laundry. anyway thats pretty much it for this week and i hope everyone has a good week this week too!!

-elder johnson-

3 Weeks Left in Spiritual Prison (or in other words, week 5 in the MTC)

HEY FANMI MWEN!!!!

So im trying to respond to everyone who sent me mail within the past two weeks but there are alot of you so im going to try my best! Well parker is finally here so thats good that it takes him only 3000 miles to respond to one of my letters haha. Well there are some funny language stories for you: first its that while in the middle of some lessons ive said the COMPLETELY wrong thing like saying satan instead of "tann sa". i was trying to say thank you for the this time we have, but i said thank you for satan we have. my teacher burst out laughing in the middle of the prayer while i was totally confused haha.

I also said "pete" instead of "pedi" so the gospel farted in the world instead of the gospel was lost from the world. it was a real hoot to hear all the jokes after that one. One day my teacher asked us what mwa ment and i automaticaly said "it means me!" in reaction to that fre jean takes off his glasses, looks at me in disapointment and says "welcome to haiti my friend". i said what it ment in french haha.

i broke my bottle today cause i set it on the paper towel despencer and it fell and broke but my companion suplied me with another one so that was a tradgety averted. we held a funeral service for it which lasted about 3 seconds from me carrying it to the garbage. heres a shout out to my mom for sending me a BUTT CUSHION!!!!!!!!! its sweet and i will never be uncomfortable again in class. THANKS!!!

on friday when i was running my mile, elder zajak and elder corder stoped me and said if i wanted to do a buddy carry with them. i said yeah sure whats a buddy carry? elder zajak then picked me up and ran a lap with me while he fireman carried me. he said it was a real work out and thanks for the help haha.

the last story is the funniest i think. the last 5 hours of our day on saturday consists of language study, a 3 hour pst block , and going to the tall lab. This is all done in the class and we were really tired and so we decided to spend the last hour outside to wake us up. elder rasmussen then went to this tree and started meowing at it. we all thought he was going crazy but then he look up at it and started saying there was a cat up there. we all knew he was pulling our leg but about 50+ elders running to gym believed him. everyone that passed by look up too and were concerned about the imaginary cat that was up in the tree. some people even claimed to see it but then none of us could keep our cool and busted out laughing. we had the whole zone in on it and was a great way to relieve stress and woke us all up from a long day.

anyway today we went to the temple and did inititories again. elder rasmussen and i went to a different session, or more like we didnt change fast enough out of inititories, so we went to one by ourselves. it was kinda different cause we were by ourselves in a corner of the celestial room and the spirit was so strong it could have lifted me up out of my chair. its amazing to be inside the house of the Lord and going there every week strengthens my testimony so much. every time i go i always get an answer to my prayers which is also why i look forward going there everyday.

im still going strong on 35 words a day and thanks to everyone that believes in me. we taught the second half of the second lesson yesterday in creole and it was so hard. everyone butchered it and we made our investigators really confused. its a huge lesson with alot of new things that people never have heard of before so its the hardest to teach. its a make it or break it lesson for alot of people so we are trying really hard to get a teaching strategy going. i can testify really good in creole now cause i can feel the spirit testifying to me of what im saying. its not so much about the language now but about using the spirit. the lessons are still a little choppy but we are working hard on them.

thanks so much for all the things every one is sending and for all the mail. it brings so much excitment to the same four walls and just helps the day move along. thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts. they help so much and im praying in creole for you too! everything here from the devotionals to the food are an answer to my prayers and im thankfull for all of it, even if the food nearlly kills us everyday. i love everyone so much and i have really come to understand the role of my family and my love that i have for them since i have came here. Na wai!

avek lamou,

Elde Johnson

Week 4, A Week of New Firsts

 WHEWWWW ok well this week was a week of new starts. I ran a mile yesterday and on Sunday I shined my shoes for the first time. also today I had my first whole apple since I've been here. It feels good to feel tired from running and from eating apples but I still have to do this whole missionary thing ontop of this. Well, anyway the mail room had some disaster or something like that and so I didn't get some of your mail till like Thursday. So yeah sorry I didn't write cause I figured I could address all your concerns like this one:

Kayla said I didn't indent enough so here ya go:

this

one

is for

kayla

:)

     Today we went early for the temple which was a really smart idea cause we did inititories, did a session, had lunch, and it was only 1 o' clock. I feel like this is that "God's speed" all of you are talking about. I also got this Haitian shirt with the Haitian flag and with the population and stuff on it. I figured I could get a nyc one while I was there so I didn't special order it from the mtc. The language is going great. This week I'm going to try and double the amount of knowledge I have in Haitian. I've started praying in Haitian and our class is speaking it 75% of the time now in class. I'm trying to get my district to speak during meals but I don't think they like that idea very much.

     I want to give a shout out to kayla for sending me PICTURES and SWEETROLLS (I have yet to get them but they are on their way) and for my mom for making me a BUTT CUSHION. This will definitely make my week. Nothing really outrageous or crazy happened other than I'm still trying to do 35 words a day in Haitian and unfortunately I think its taking a toll on my English spelling. It's phonetic so you spell what you hear or say. I LOVE IT. I can spell EVERYTHING just by hearing someone say it. Our progressive investigator is going well I think.

       We just challenged him to read the first 7 chapters of first Nephi in a week so I hope he does it. He has kept all commitments before so I think he will do this one as well. I want to move onto the third lesson but Elder Campbell doesn't know enough vocab to teach it he says. I'm going to kick his butt this week cause it's hindering our ablility to teach when he is asking me for a word every sentence.         We have trc tomorrow which is where we teach someone else who actually KNOWS the language and who isn't our teacher. We will teach lesson 2 in Creole but I know that really well so it shouldn't be a problem.

     Grats to Mitch for mastering guns for the fourth time and for his new found ablility for becoming a misterfix it (welcome to the club). Kayla said that Katherine got engaged and I've been looking for her fiance (a french word that means the same thing in creole as it does english) but its hard to find a brother Wanket. : / Good luck for Kayla and Mitch to find jobs and I'm praying in Creole for you!!

uhhhhhh well OH well I just remembered a NEW (nouvo) Haitian proverb told to us yesterday by brother Nelson one of our teachers. it goes like so:

     woch nan dlo pa konnen doule woch nan soley.

It translates to the rock in the water doesn't know the pain of the rock in the sun. Meaning that we shouldn't juidge others for what they have cause we don't know their problems. Also that everyone has different trials and some that may seem easy to us may be hard for them. This last Sunday's devotional was about love. I've really taken this to heart and I've really tried working on charity and loving everyone more and judging less. It's kinda hard but I've found that being sourounded by the spirit really helps to accomplish it. I've been praying hard for this along with doubling my knowledge about Creole. I know that with my faith and the power of the Lord anything is possible to accomplish.

     My teacher Brother Pixton told us that some one in our mission would try to fast for 40 days and 40 nights and that this was STUPID and I know this is impossible and something that only Christ could accomplish but I'm really trying to push my boundaries with learning, eating, exercising, and teaching. I hope and pray everyday that I can acomplish these goals. Anyway can't wait to hear from you again.  I'm going to try and get some pictures printed for some of you guys (I still have room for like 300 pics so I won't send my card home yet). Thanks so much for all the prayers and thoughts and I can see all of them at work in this sacred place that I can't wait to get out of. My teachers are an awesome (onfom!) influence on me and I love the way they teach us every day. Any way times up so I can't wait to hear from you this next week!!

Elder Johnson

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.)