Transfers

Hey, 

Elder Jäger is gone!! I'll talk more about that in a sec, but I know you guys will be curious who my new comp is... All I know is that his name is Elder Stulen and he is from Norway. His train will arrive around 9:00 tonight so I'll know more in next week's email. He was serving in the islands so he had to fly to Madrid and then catch a train up here. Elder Jäger is going to Alcalá de Henares. That is the city we went to in the ccm that is famous for Don Quixote. 

We had Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday after district meeting. We kinda laughed at Elder Jäger the whole time. We cooked for an hour tuesday night and an hour during mediodía on Wednesday, and the whole time was just chaos. For us that was normal, that's thanksgiving. But elder Jäger didn't understand why we liked it so much. In the end we cooked 7 turkey filets, 3 packages of gravy plus drippings, 2 packages of stuffing plus the extra bread we added, and 15 potatoes for 4 of us. We didn't have leftovers... but we did have a Thanksgiving hangover. 

Since we knew this would be Elder Jäger's last week here, we had tons of dinner appointments. We just texted everyone we have ever met here and we ended up pretty busy. That means this week was all aboutfood. Thursday night we met with our hippie investigator. The one with the naked prayer circles. I'm not really sure how to describe that night. We went up to the 4th floor of his art shop and built a fire. We cooked a bunch of blood sausage and hairy pig skin, then we all held hands and did a prayer circle. I don't know why that skin stuff is so popular here but I really hate it. The food wasn't good. I don't know what else to say about the rest of the night. Let's just say it all started with them telling us that the fire has more energy if we all take our clothes off. We won't be going back anymore. Oh yeah, they gave elder Jäger a cool stone statue thing they found on a spiritual trip to Perú. I was super jealous of that. The only other thing worth mentioning as far as food goes is that we found a Chinese restaurant. We ate there Friday for lunch. That's the first real Asian food I've had since July. I really missed that. 

President Pack changed the rules on music a little for Christmas. We can listen to non-hymn Christmas songs as long as they are Christ-centered. So since I didn't have any of those Elder Tribbett in my districtshared some songs with me over Bluetooth. I have about 1,100 songs now. Thats really nice with how much we drive. Most of it is allowed, hymns or good Christmas stuff, but some of it will be for later. Lots of Disney music, piano guys, star wars music... Yeah. Really good stuff.

I think there was more I wanted to email about, but I can't remember what it was so maybe next week.

Until next week, 

Elder Johnson 

Thanksgiving Dinner

Josh and Elder Jäger eating the German Apple pancakes we sent in the last package.

Christmas Lights

Hey,

I can't believe it's already been another week. We have been super busy again and time just flies. I just realized last night that this week I will hit 4 months. I never even realized I had hit 3 months. I've been a little distracted. I miss you guys, especially now in this time of year with Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I'm really enjoying where I am right now too. The mission is such a special experience. Everyday I'm learning and changing. I've got to tell you all about zone conference. It was super cool.

So Monday night we went to the main square in León and did a little Christmas choir thing. I know I'm not the best at singing but I still try. I've learned to try since I've been here. But I got volunteered to be the one that leaves the choir to talk to people so I didn't have to suffer. (I was never suffering, I think they just told me that so I wouldn't sing anymore) At first that brought down my confidence a little, at least with singing, but the rest of the night was huge confidence builder. I had some solid conversations with people and got some phone numbers for the Elders in León. 2 of them are even investigators already. So that was cool. I like feeling like I can do something. That night all the Elders from the zone slept in the león piso. We had 16 of us, someone said it was a mission record. I wouldnt be surprised. I was lucky enough to have a mattress, but I think one Elder tried the barney technique and slept in the bathtub because we were out of room. Funny thing about the mattress, it said Bilbao mission 1999 on the backside, so it's at least that old. But we have heard a lot about the Bilbao mission this week and everyone thinks it's super cool that Cari served there. Anyways, that was a super crazy night. We ordered a massive delivery of kebab and had a feast.

Zone conference on Tuesday was inspiring as always. We always learn so much about how we can improve our area. The second half was all training on the Christmas initiative "#lighttheworld." Christmas is going to make the work so much easier. We are planning an activity right now with all of the members in Salamanca and Benavente. we're going to get everyone together and have the members singing Christmas songs while the four of us talk to everyone. We're even going to wrap books of mormon to look like presents and give those out. We put up Christmas lights in our piso today. They hang from the entrance, all the way down the hall, into the dining room, and into the living room. We went pretty hard. 

Thursday was Elder Jäger's birthday. They stuff from the package was a good start to celebrate. Then tried that cheesecake recipe. That was really easy and we both liked it. It definitely isn't healthy though. We tried making Squash soup for lunch the way an investigator did... it didn't really work. We ended up with garlic soup. I'll attach a picture though. Other than that we were busy, we had 3 lessons scheduled. So we're going to finish celebrating Wednesday with Thanksgiving dinner and a birthday cake. All of our investigators and the members in Benavente love American desserts so far. We made peach cobbler on Friday and had a picnic at the sacrament park with some investigators, then yesterday we took a cheesecake to Benavente and had that for dessert. And then this Thursday I'm taking peach cobbler to have them try it. They agreed to give me a recipe if I give them one. Winning. 

I don't think I told you guys last week. We were in Salamanca for sacrament meeting and I guess whoever was supposed to speak didn't show up. So the branch president got up and said I was going to speak. That was fun. I had to fill 15 minutes with absolutely nothing prepared. That's hard enough in english. The good thing is I've gotten really familiar with the gospel over the last few months so I could just talk without having to think too much. Then yesterday I gave my 9th talk. I'm getting pretty good at these now. All I did to prepare was read the talk you sent me. After that I just got up and talked about that. I think it sounds a lot better when you're not just reading from a paper. I talked to Elder Barreles, one of the AP's, on tuesday. He said we should try getting a hotel room for sacrament meeting on sunday. He was in the same situation in the Canaries a few months ago. So we're trying to get permission from president for that. 

That package was sooo good last week. The ties are awesome. It's nice to switch it up. 5 of the ties I brought aren't allowed. The stuffing was crushed to powder, but I'm going to try to salvage what I can. I'll send pictures of the dinner next week. I also need to send pictures of Benavente. It's so beautiful there. It's all palm trees and green grass, but then they decorate the city like crazy for Christmas. Salamanca is the same way. Tons of decorations. I was thinking about it this week and I really have gotten everything I asked for. I'm in a crazy area, it's like a third world country sometimes, but then there's palm trees everywhere. Friday was even 75 degrees. 

That temperature is kinda fake though. It was one warm day. Saturday was 45 degrees. I went and bought gloves, a scarf, and a beanie today. I'll buy a coat if I need it next week. We'll see what happens with transfers. 

The pictures are 1. caroling picture 2. zone conference 3. Squash 4. messing around on the sheep farm.

Well, I think thats everything. Talk to you next week.

Josh

LEÓN!

Hey guys,

Its been another crazy week. Today is super busy too. We drove up to León for zone conference tomorrow and we're just going to spend the night in the elders piso here. Best P-day yet. We played soccer for like 4 hours this morning with the whole zone and now we're playing risk. I'm writing this in between turns so it might not be the best email.

I kind of complained last week and I shouldn't have done that. Everytime things get hard, that's when the miracles come. I should have known that before. This week we really went hard in the streets and we found a few people we could teach. We have 1 new investigator in Benavente and we have actually set a baptism date for December 9. She's progressing super fast and I really feel like this one is going to happen. We have already taught 4 of the 5 lessons, so we're almost done. (everything is broken up into 5 lessons, but the fourth lesson takes about 10 times to teach.) super cool that she is progressing so fast.

Erin asked about elder Jäger. It's almost certain that he will leave next transfer. It would be kinda weird for him to stay in Zamora for 7 months. We have a lot planed for our last 2 weeks though. We have a pretty solid bucket list right now. I think next week we're going to decorate the piso with some Christmas stuff.

 

I got the package already! The entire zone knows I'm spoiled now. You guys are awesome. I got the card. Oh boy. Elder Jäger loves the package. He says that one thing is pretty legit, so nice job. You nailed it. Where did those ties come from? I'm excited to switch it up a little.

Here is a picture of elder jager with his Christmas, and a few of me in Benavente. 

(Elder Jäger with his treats from us!) 

Week 15 - Chicken Hearts and Sleepovers

Hey,

This week flew by. We were so busy. It was one of those weeks where we had so much good, and a ton of bad, but you don't really notice the bad until the end cause you're focused on the good. 

Miracle/Spiritual Highlight: OK, so found an older couple in the area book this week and decided to go visit them. It showed that they are members, but not active. So when we got out there we had a spiritual thought prepared and just planned on getting to know them. They were so happy to see us though. It turns out they want to try to go to church, but they haven't been able to because of health issues. They thought they had to drive an hour and a half to valladolid. They had no idea about our new Zamora group. They're solid though, awesome testimonies. So we shared our spiritual thought and then asked them if we could do anything for them, and she asked for a blessing for her health issues. We talked about it for a minute and asked if he would like to give the blessing, but he said he couldn't because he didn't have the priesthood anymore. We were really confused by that, but it turns out he felt really guilty about not going to church for the last little while. We talked about it for a while and in the end he decided he would give her the blessing. Afterwards the spirit was really stong, and it was very emotional. I can't really describe it. But imagine what it would be like when you have a burden like that lifted off of your shoulders. It was obvious that had been bothering him for a while. And for her it was emotional too. She was just crying and crying and thanking us. But really we hadn't done much. So after all of that he asked me to give him a blessing. That was my first blessing in spanish. I've given one in english, and anointed the oil in spanish a few times, but this one scared me. It was so cool though. We're going back this week to see them again.  

Food: Hmmmm, food... yeah it was a good food week. Tuesday we went to a dominican investigators house. (He's awesome, he lived in New York for like 10 years so his English is perfect.) He was cooking when we got there, so he offered us a plate. I wish I had a picture of elder Jagers face. It was just a big plate of rice with chicken hearts and onions. Im glad I've tried that before cause it would have been pretty scary. I loved it though, I probably ate 40 hearts. Then the next day we went to "Mark's" new place and had a BBQ. They always feed us so much. I ate like 3 steaks, 1 chicken breast, and 3 sausages. Plus salads. I thought I was going to throw up. Im pretty sure they think they get extra blessings when they feed us a lot. 

The Rest: Yeah, so I mentioned that there was bad... we basically lost every investigator this week and our hopes of a church group here fell apart. We haven't found any new investigators in 2 weeks. Oh yeah, we had a baptism scheduled for Nov. 25, and that's already canceled. :) 

We were either dropped by the investigators throughout the week, or we had to drop them because they weren't progressing anymore. That one kind happened gradually. And yes that includes the "second mom" I had mentioned. We are actually passing by tonight to let her know. She has ditched us 4 times this week though, so we don't really have another option. Our church group happened pretty fast. "Mark" and his family moved too far away so they're part of Salamanca now, our member family moved to England, and we have no investigators. Cool right. So yeah, that's gone. The lady that I told you guys about that split from from her boyfriend had a little miracle this week, and blew it. She had some things happen at work that allowed her to come to the meeting yesterday, and she called us super excited, but then she never showed up. Nobody did. We haven't heard from her still. I'm hoping everything is ok, but we will have to move the date back that we set for the 25th cause she needs to come to church 3 times. 

We did have lots of fun though. Wednesday we were at "Mark's" new house and we helped him paint. We had the Salamanca elders come help us, so we slept in Salamanca Tuesday night and then had a mini roadtrip Wednesday morning. Then we had Intercambios Thursday and Friday with the Zone leaders. Valladolid is awesome. It's massive compared to Zamora. I was with elder Douglas, elder Jagers old companion. We had tons of fun. I think it's super cool that Cari served there. With all of that we had 2 Sleepovers this week, that's super fun. 

We didn't do anything fun today, just cleaned and took a nap. I am honestly just exhausted. I don't really have pictures because of that though. I think I can send some from last week that I wasnt able to send at first. 

Love,

Josh

elder jager isn't trying to flip off the camera, I promise. That picture is in valladolid. the next picture is our church/park. It's just pretty. I forgot to mention that we came home to our piso building being on fire on wednesday. theres the view from our piso.