Week 5

OK guys,

I found a 5 guys today. That was pretty awesome. It was the most expensive burger EVER!!!! but it was worth it. We also checked out the Nike store, zara, and the Real Madrid store. I saw the Champions league trophy, they had it to the top level of the RM store. We also picked up our residency cards. Now I don't need to carry around my passport anymore. We finally got to an area with palm trees today. I knew they had them here, but the area around the temple is actually pretty ugly. 

So this week's most interesting experience was at the park. The last few weeks have been a little rough. Between weeks 1 and 2 I gave out 7 books and had some great conversations, but then the next 2 weeks were not good. No one talked to us at all. We even got yelled at a few times. I don't think I ever really talked about the bad part, cause I don't want to focus on the negative, but it happened. This Saturday was awesome though. One of our big focuses here is seeing the hand of the lord in our lives. Its crazy how obvious it is when you're looking for it. So as soon as we got on the metro, me and Elder Benedict started to tear it up. We approached 7 people over 3 hours, and every single one was a great conversation. 4 of them took a book of Mormon, and we got 3 referrals. I know that that wasn't us though, because we had no idea what we were saying. The first guy we talked to went off in Spanish for like 5 minutes and neither one of us understood what he was saying. All we got were the words "God and bad." Somehow Elder Benedict thought of a verse he read in Helamen that morning, so we shared that with him. Then the guy changed his mood completely and had us sit down with him. We talked for about 15 minutes and then he asked if he could keep the book of mormon. I've never seen someone so excited to take a book before. I know that these people were prepared to hear what we had to share, because we couldn't have done that on our own. That experience is making me really excited for the field. I was kinda nervous cause my spanish isn't where I want it to be, but now I'm realizing that that doesn't matter.

It looks like I will be able to send you a quick email on Monday to let you know I'm leaving the MTC. I won't know where I'm going yet, but I do know I leave for the mission home at 9 on Tuesday morning. I have an interview with President pack Sunday afternoon. I guess he just comes to the MTC to meet us. We have a pretty cool group here. We had a surprise meeting yesterday with pres. packer, and he thinks a lot of us. We were all really surprised. He and some of the teachers compared us to a group in south america. He said there was one transfer down there that took an area with bad numbers, and within 2 years just blew the country out of the water. Spain has really bad numbers right now. Like we average a little under 1 lesson per day per companionship, but he is really optimistic. The cool thing is that you could tell this isn't something he tells everybody. this was a special case. 

The teachers here think you guys are the coolest. The soccer updates are killer. I've heard near is killing it at PSG. And I knew MU would finally win the title again as soon as I left. I'm kinda planning on them having 2 good years and then right when I get home mourinho will drive them into the ground and leave. It's awesome hearing about all the soccer guys. I'm not surprised that Leo is playing futsal, and that makes sense that Josh is playing in guatemala. I saw he was down there all summer. 

The weather has been awesome here this week. Monday we had one of the craziest rain storms I've ever seen. The MTC got messed up from the lightning. The electricity was down for a minute an the laundry rooms are all useless now. They're fixing them soon though. The elevator also broke. 

I'm glad someone is moving into my room. that was too much space being wasted down there. When I get to the field I'll try to send the girls something for their rooms. Souvenirs here are super cheap. The rats are going to love Erin now.I miss those guys and I loved the pictures. 

I have heard about the terrorist attacks and the hurricane. One of the hermanas in my district is from Houston so they have been keeping her up to date. 

I have done a few more haircuts now. I have some little kid scissors and a comb. One of the guys bought an actual kit with a buzzer thingy that he let's me use. I think it'd the funniest thing, cause I never once said I could cut hair. they just asked me to try and it worked out. I have even done some real hairstyles too. Not just buzzcuts. 

I got the video of us singing. I'm just not sure how to get it to you. I set up a Google drive and added aimeebjer@msn and @gmail. so let me know if you can access that. It would make it really easy to share pics and videos. I also haven't seen a package yet. Hopefully it didn't get lost. Ill keep checking though. 

K, I'm gonna go to the temple now. talk to ya monday. Keep the emails coming, 

Elder Johnson 

Week 4

Hey Guys,

So Sunday was definitely the highlight of my week. It was a long and busy day, but it was awesome. To start it off, I spoke in sacrament meeting. The focus this week was chapter 5 of Preach My Gospel which is the role of the book of mormon. So my talk was basically a five minute testimony. After our church meetings and lunch we had a devotional from president packer. He taught the plan of salvation using only verses from the Book of Mormon, so that was a really interesting one. I took some good notes cause I feel like that might be useful later. Right after we finished the devotional, we had a little introducion with all of the new elders and hermanas. There are elders from New Zealand, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, and the United States, and there are hermanas from Albania, Ukraine, Italy, the United States, and Serbia. We have a lot of diversity here now. After the intro we did something really cool. I'm sure you remember how emotional and spiritual it was when I was set apart. We kinda topped that here. The hermana from Serbia had a complicated situation, and wasn't able to be set apart before she got here. So we had a mini testimony meeting and then President Packer set her apart. Afterwards there was a lot of crying and bro hugs, but we got it together after a few minutes. The hermanas spent about 15 minutes hugging though. That was a crazy spiritual atmosphere.

I started talking to some of the guys that are going to Ukraine, and one of them thinks Dad will know some of his family. He is actually from Minsk. His name is Elder Makarov, an here are the names he gave me: Oleg Makarov, Vitaly Smirnov, Andrey Kovalev, Sergy Zubovich, Michail Davidik, and Uriu Ustin. The spelling might be weird since he was using a different alphabet. He is awesome though. I'm going to try to get a video of us singing called to serve in all 5 languages this sunday for you guys. We have english, spanish, italian, russian, and portuguese now.

This week has been interesting. A few of my odd talents have come in really useful. I am now the CCM barber. So I know you guys always thought it was funny how much work I put into my hair, but just this week I cut 3 guys' hair, and I'll be doing at least one more tonight. I'll have to figure out a way to get you some pictures. The second thing is even better though. On tuesday, We were playing soccer. We had a lot of guys playing that hadn't played before we got here. So the game was a little rough and I decided to sit out for the last 20 minutes. Right after that, Hermano Pregnolato and Elder Jones went in on a hard tackle and both ended up hurt. Elder Jones ended up dislocating his shoulder. So we got him back to the President, and he ended up putting it back in place right then. Somehow he knew that I had experience with physical therapy, so I've been taking care of him for the last couple of days. Who would have thought that a month into my CCM stay I would be cutting hair and doing physical therapy.

I kinda forgot about that concert. When we were talking about it, it seemed so far away. Time has flown by lately. It looks like it was a party though. It's crazy that the girls have already started school. I would make a joke about how happy I am that I'm done, but I spend 14 hours a day in a classroom here. This is extreme school where you only study one thing. Mr. Van did that same thing for us our first week. Emma will definately love that class as long as she doesn't mind being covered in clay all day. I'm glad Erin is liking Matheson. I can't believe she's in Jr. High.

Emma, this paragraph is for you. It sounds like your patriarchal blessing was SUPER specific. That's really cool. I think that it's awesome that it says you'll go on a mission. If I were you, I would start thinking about it and preparing now. It's definately the hardest thing I have ever done, but it's also the most rewarding. If you think about it, you could leave less than a year after I get home.

So you guys have mentioned food a few times in your emails, and It's kinda killing me. The food here has gotten soooooooooooooooooooooo bad!!! Hermano Rodriguez saw the pictures that you sent me of the spanish food in NY. He said it looked legit. He wasdrooling. They dont have any good candy here, so if you guys ever want to make my day just send a little care package with twizzlers. :) 

I did get your email with the blessing. That was awesome. I also got the girls camp letters. We went to the Prada Museum today. It was really cool and my kind of thing, but it was hard to enjoy with 75 bored missionaries following me around complaining. 

Tell grandma and grandpa I have been getting their emails and I'm loving them. I will email them next week. I just suck at time management when it comes to these things. I talk too much. 

The pics are of my district and the ammon district. We do everything together.

September 5 is coming fast. I'm nervous and excited at the same time. I guess a lot of the trainers are South American. Next week I can email you guys twice. Once on P-day and once on saturday to update you on my first area. I'm loving all the emails even if I don't respond to all of them. Keep them coming. 

Talk to you next week,

Elder Johnson

Week 3

Hey,

      So this one will be a little shorter today. We had some problems with our excursion.

     

      We had a crazy day. We went to a town called Alcala Herenesa. It was a really cool little town known for one thing, I guess the author of Don Quijote lived there. The whole city had statues of him and souvenir shops where you could buy windmills and donkeys. I got some spanish horchata, which is really different. On our way back somebody jumped in front of the train, so we got stuck for a while. The train ride was supposed to be about 30 minutes, but we ended up taking an hour on a bus and half an hour on the metro to get back to the CCM. It's been an adventure. We definately got a taste of the real spain today.

      This saturday was a rough one at the park. We were only able to talk to one couple. Everyone else ran from us. After 3 hours of being told no we decided we would just try to explore the park. We found these bridges that remind me of tarzans treehouse in disneyland, thenwe found a cool gated area that was like a flower maze. We got stuck in there for a while. It was a long, discouraging day, but I know there will be more of those. We just made it fun towards the end. Sundays are my favorite day of the week. We have more time for personal study, then we have 2 devotionals, church, and choir practice. I know you guys are going to laugh because I never would have said this before, but the best part of the day is when we sing in front of the temple. Every sunday, all 60 of us go downstairs to the steps in front of the temple, and we sing hymns in 3 different languages. While we're doing that the teachers stop people that pass by and offer to give them a tour of the temple grounds. 

      We have had 10 brazilians with us for the last 3 weeks, but they all left on tuesday because they're native speakers. So they're in Cape Verde and Lisbon now. But monday night was the most exciting, stressful night ever. We are all really excited, but we also realized how fast time is going by now, and that's gonna be us in no time. IDK if I'm ready for that yet. I mentioned earlier that we sing in different languages, one of them was portuguese. I know called to serve in portuguese by heart now. In fact, I probably learned way more portuguese than I ever needed to since I'm in spain. Dad's gonna love this. We're replacing portuguese with russian this week. The replacements came in tuesday night, and we have 14 russian speakers, 2 are natives.  They're all going to the Ukraine. So sunday night we will sing called to serve in russian, but thats gonna be tough cause I dont know how to read the lyrics.

      We watched a provo devotional from Elder Holland on thursday, and I think that was a turning point for everybody here. I'm not going to be able to do it justice in this short amount of time, but I wanted to share at least a little bit. He told a story about his son in law who is a heart surgeon. He said he had to do 20 years of school before he actually performed his first surgery. And even after all of that school, he didnt feel ready, and his patient's family was nervous. It is a lot of pressure, but really if he messed up, there is a life after earth for that patient. Everything would be OK. That surgeon had 20 years of school and all that pressure for one part of a bigger plan, but we have 6 weeks to prepare for the salvation of the people of spain. I think we all realized what were really doing here. This is kind of a big deal. The overall mood of the CCM has shifted this week, and It's pretty awesome. 

     I'll send you more next week. This has been a week full of spiritual experiences, but I dont want to hurry and cram them in since I only had 12 minutes to write this. I want to hear more about emma's blessing, Mom's talk and sheridan's farewell. Dad, how is the new(ish) job? And I cant remember when school starts, but the girls need to keep me updated. I got the fedex package on tuesday, so that worked pretty well. I did get the pics of my long hair. Thank you for that. Everyone loved those. 

Talk to you next week, 

Josh

Week 2

Hey guys!

     This week hasnt been as eventful, but it has definately been just as crazy. We are spending around 12 hours a day in the classroom. My Spanish is getting so much better. I'm to the point now where I can have a basic conversation. I can understand just about anything our teachers say, but im still struggling to talk back to them. Ill figure it out quick though. They only teach in Spanish now, and we are supposed to use everything we know. Everyone here probably looks pretty dumb speaking spanglish all the time, but it really helps. Our teachers dress up as fake investigators everyday and we teach them. Tomorrow will be our last day with this investigator, but she has committed to be baptized already. Starting next week we will meet with 2 investigators everyday. It's really cool that we are able to teach the lessons right from the beginning. 

     The park was awesome on Saturday. My companion was the other Elder Johnson. It turns out I played against him a few years ago. He played for the d1 strikers team. We talked to some polish guys for a while. They didn't really want anything to do with the church, but I wasn't going to turn down a chance to practice Spanish. They were trying to hitchhike their way from Casablanca to Barcelona. We mostly just talked about Madrid since we were both new to the city. Right before we went back to meet up with the group we found this kid named Ruben, and we ended up talking to him for 35 minutes. We were late but it was worth it. He was 18 and spoke English. That was really exciting until he said it was entertaining to listen to us struggle in Spanish. He wanted to know why we were in Spain and how long we would be here. After we explained a little he was pretty interested and we were able to explain the restoration. I memorized the first vision in Spanish so I used that. In the end we got his phone number and he took a book of mormon. That conversation was definitely the highlight of my week. At the end of the day we gave out 4 books of Mormon and got 2 referrals. We sang again. And this week we had tons of people listening. Our group of 60 missionaries gave out 47 books in 3 hours. I've decided that if you go to retiro park on a Saturday morning, youre either a member or you will be baptized later that month.

     So today we went to a mall for our activity. Its funny how I thought I was so prepared, but there are still so many little things that I needed. I bought some shoes for soccer, a water bottle, and some soccer shorts. The shorts I brought didnt work because they are see through with gaments and we arent aloud to wear anything else to workout. The shorts I Bought were some cheap $3 things. Theyre great. I dont have very many pictures because we were just in a mall all day.

   I haven't been able to open any of the files you've been sending. They're all blocked. I can open any Google files or pdfs though. We're all pretty bored with the CCM already. It's hard being stuck on the 5th floor of an apartment building all the time. We switch between basketball and soccer everyday, and the basketball days are killing me. Basketball itself is fine, but it's inside. So we'll go 48 hours without ever leaving the building. Soccer has been so fun though. Playing with Los terribles was the best mission prep ever. I've been killing it here. And don't worry about me getting hurt. We still do real workouts everyday and I take it easy with soccer.

     Can you email me some pics of my long hair? No one believes me about that. And the teachers are already making me cut my hair. Keep the soccer updates coming. People here take that seriously so its been nice to know whats going on. 

      I attached some pictures of my district with the president and some pictures of the stuff I bought. Here are 3 more from last week, too. 

Erin,

      That's awesome that you're going to see the Provo MTC. We watch a lot of their devotionals. That MTC is a lot bigger though, we only have 3 floors. The first one has around 8 classrooms, the second one is our bedrooms (they call them habitats), and the top one is the cafeteria. There are probably 15 teachers and we have 60 missionaries. Next week 10 Portuguese missionaries are leaving and were getting 20 Russian/Ukrainian missionaries. We usually do 4 hours of Spanish grammar/vocab in the morning. And then at night we plan our lessons for our investigators and study the book of mormon in Spanish. It doesn't really feel like church all the time. I mean, we're talking about the gospel, but it's different. I've realized that over time the food is getting worse. It started out good but now they're trying to make it American. We have had fried chicken twice this week and it's only Thursday. Yesterday was pretty good though, we had a Spanish tortilla thing for breakfast and grilled shrimp and rice with mystery meat for lunch. Dinner is really small here. Like last night we just had zucchini and bread.

Talk to you guys next week, 

Josh

Me with President and Sister Packer

The Nephi District

Me and my companion, Elder Jarvies

Week 1

Hey guys. 

So this has been a crazy week. We all decided that we got here a month ago. Im really not sure where to start. 

I think the reason you couldn't find my companion is because I spelled his name wrong. It's actually Zach Jarvies. He is district leader so I have been going to the meetings and stuff with him. This is his first time leaving Colorado/Utah. I kinda took him out of his comfort zone and explore the area a little yesterday. We went to the supermarket and I bought a bag to use while Im in the CCM.

When I signed up for Rosetta stone I selected a 3 month subscription, so I don't think you need to cancel it. But it might be good to check the website. Spanish is hard, but I think I might figure it out by the time I'm coming home. So we're just doing the thing where we prepare a talk every week, and then they just choose someone to talk randomly. So I didn't talk last week but I might soon. Its crazy how much progress Ive already made with spanish. We cant speak any English until noon everyday, and obviously any time we leave the building.

Our schedules are packed here. We get up at 6:30 every morning and then we go to breakfast at 7. Daily planning is at 7:30 and personal study is at 8:00. We usually have class from 9 to 1 and then we eat lunch, go back to class from 2 to 5. 5 to 6 is for physical activity. We played basketball once, which was actually kind of fun, but we usually play soccer. My district is full of soccer players. Elder Jones won state cup in Wyoming this year, and elder Davis won in Colorado. One of our teachers played for atletico Madrid when he was younger. We go to this place called the pit to play. It looks like the dirt fields kids were playing on in the brazil world cup, except it is basically in a big cage. Anyway, back to the schedule, we have dinner at 6:30 and then we go to class from 7:30 to 9, and we have to be in bed with lights out at 10:30.

We get one hour to write emails on p-days, but we can read them anytime. Like I read the ones you sent me right away. Im not really sure what I want to do for the big list of emails. I dont know what to say to everybody.

They told us to tell you that if you want to send a package now, you should send it to the mission home. By the time it makes it through customs I'll be in the field. I think Amazon prime should be fine to send to the ccm though. I had to buy some more socks because the CCM president doesnt think interesting socks are mission appropriate, but the teachers told me to hold on to the fun ones because president Pack is more lenient.

Saturday was a ton of fun at Retiro Park. We get different companions every week for this, so I was with Elder Coulibaly from portugal. We got on the metro at 9am and tried to talk to everybody we saw on the way there. We were able to give one guy a Book of Mormon, and one the teachers that went with us got a picture of me handing it to the guy and they have the pic on the wall here now. So thats pretty cool. Once we got there we talked to people until 12 and then we went and sang by a big fountain. This is what you saw on the facebook page. Me and elder coulibaly broke off from the group and gave out 2 more books. That park makes every other park Ive ever been to look stupid, even central park wasnt as cool. 

Today we went to the royal palace, and its probably 10 times the size of the scottish one, if not bigger. I got some really cool pictures that I will attach. The one that im in isnt very good, but I figured you might fly over here and kill me if I didnt send you at least one with me in it. We couldnt go inside but we went around the gardens. Next we went to a cathdral, and it was massive. I didnt take any pictures because i was so focused on exploring everything. Im going to try to get some from everybody else though. It was a lot like the one we went to in England. Then we grabbed some gellato and hiked up to an egyptian temple. The city reminds me of London. The buildings are very similar. KFC and Wendys are huge here, and McDelivery is a thing. 

I also attached a picture we took on the bus from the airport to the CCM. Its not the best but I thought you might want it. Next week Ill have a picture of me with Presidente Packer and Hermana Packer(CCM president and wife). We took some pictures with our district but they ended up weird because everyone is scared to get anywhere near the sisters. Ill send those next week too. During our orientation the president sent the hermanas into the hallway and told all of the guys that if he even thought we were flirting, he would dropkick us to cambodia (his words not mine). He spent 20 minutes talking about that so he seems pretty serious. 

We went to the temple last thursday, which was awesome. Its easily the prettiest one Ive seen. Its alot bigger than I thought. The spire is as tall as the CCM, which is 7 stories. were going again later today. 

I do like the soccer updates, we talk about it a lot here. People take that stuff seriously. I heard the neymar thing happened and that the U.S. won the gold cup. 

Ok. Im running out of time, but I want to know how your NY trip went, and Ill be watching for the emails fom the girls. 

Talk to you next week