Pre Christmas

Hi guys,

We tried lots of new things this week. Mission life really is pretty fun even when the work isn't going well.

We went to McDonald's to use the wifi the other day and just messaged random people on Facebook. It was pretty easy. I just looked at people in my area and sent them a friend request. At first it seemed weird, but when you think about it we do the same on the street. We've been trying to find someone to play soccer with, but there isn't ever anybody playing this time of year. So I just messaged the goalie for Zamoras team and asked if we could play sometime... Guess what we did on Tuesday :) We met him and all of his buddies (the team) at a court and played a real game. I got absolutely smoked and it just reminded me that I'm still not really in shape. But it was really fun. It's been a long time since I've played at that intensity. I kinda miss it. So since that worked we tried again and I talked to a guy from California that played basketball in California. He's super cool. He just moved here this week and doesn't speak any Spanish, so I'm hoping we can help him with that. Other than that we're still trying to teach someone. I've only taught 1 lesson with Elder Stulen so far. We had 2 lessons fall through this week so we're hoping this next week we can get something going.

We had intercambios in Salamanca Thursday and Friday. The four of us went to the branch presidents house for dinner Thursday night, wow that was good. They made papusas for us. It was pretty much a Christmas party. We had tons of food and Christmas music and they invited like half the branch. It was awesome to get to know everybody better. The last time we did something like that in Salamanca I couldn't talk to anyone,this time was completely different. Elder Tribett is training right now too, and it's cool cause I was in the same spot as his companion only a few weeks ago. It's fun to see the progress. We are going to Valladolid again for Intercambios with the zone leaders on Wednesday. I'm excited to actually see the city this time. 

I'm really not feeling as motivated to write a ton today since we will talk next week. Umm, yeah. See you soon

Josh

Christmas in Coruña

Hey,

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas here! Zone conference was awesome. It looks like you saw some pictures of the caroling. I can't remember exactly what your post said, but I thought I would mention that we made the front page of the newspaper with that activity. It was a big newspaper, too. La Voz de Galicia (The Voice of Galicia) is really popular all over northern Spain. We only had a 3 hour pday because we had to practice for it, but it was totally worth it. People were completely dumbfounded. I was the one that broke off from the group to go talk to people again, and all of the old people just kept saying they had never seen anything like that in their lives. We had a huge crowd and we even had a bunch of people jump in to sing with us.

I think one of the worst/best parts of the weekend will make you laugh. We stayed in the Marriott AC hotel on Thursday night, and I think that made me more homesick than anything yet. There isn't much that is similar to home here in Zamora, but Marriott never changes. We were in the exact same room me and dad always stay in. It was like I was home. Weird right? (and yeah, I know I sound spoiled right now) Friday we finally had the conference. It was only a few hours long so we could have a Christmas party, but it was really good. We basically studied a talk given by Tad R. Callister that he gave in the provo mtc. It was really good.

The Christmas party was pretty good. The senior couple from up north really took care of us. They cooked an awesome dinner; ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, tons of vegetables, actual rolls, tons of dessert. It was awesome. Then we played minute to win it games and had some Christmas trivia games. The white elephant was actually pretty good too. I got Danish battleship. As far as I can tell it's the same. Since we had both zones it was pretty chaotic though. We had 50+ presents in the pile. After that we opened our letters from the first presidency and our presents from you guys and the Packs.

It was pretty cool having a pile of 3 packages there for me. I set up the tree from the ward in our piso and put all of the wrapped gifts under it. I'm thinking I will wait until Christmas to open anything unless there is something I will want beforehand. Just let me know if there is and how to figure out which one it is. Me and Elder Tribett had fun going through all of the ornaments and reading everything from the ward. And I loved all the letters from the cousins. Oh yeah, since I've been talking about Christmas this whole time, I should let you know. We have been working on the plans for the Skype call. We will have access to the chapel in Benavente and we can use their wifi, or we may go down to Salamanca so we can hang out with the district. If that's the case we would probably call from a members house or burger King.

Quick update on the area. The baptism didn't happen Saturday. We haven't taught her in 2 weeks. It's hard to even text her at this point. We haven't found a new investigator in 4 or 5 weeks. Feels like forever. Every day that we were in Zamora this week we went out and knocked doors or talked to people on the street for 6+ hours straight. That's all I've got for this week. Zamora is tough right now. 

As far as other news goes. I put a bunch of new photos in the Google drive. Hopefully they worked. I went and bought my coat today. It's pretty sweet. I should be warm this winter. It snowed in Zamora while we were up north. It's crazy how cold it got. The week before we left we didn't see the sun at all because it was so foggy. It didn't even get above 30°. I think I will call the guy for the Real Madrid jersey soon. I'm pretty excited for that.

That's all for this week. Love you guys,

Elder Johnson

Vacation

Hey guys,

Its been a week and a half since I last emailed. It feels like we do the exact same thing everyday right now but at the same time a ton has changed this transfer. I had no idea how much could change with a new companion.

So first, we have had some changes with the area. We only have 1 investigator now, it's the one we were supposed to baptize Saturday. She's not ready though, so we pushed it back to the 23. Other than that we spend 4-7 hours everyday out on the street contacting. It's been pretty rough. Zamora isn't super big so we have had a few times where we talk to the same person 2 or 3 times in one day. The other problem is that it hasn't gotten above 30° in a few days so no one is outside. We are basically in the same spot right now as when they opened the area this last spring. It does sound like we're moving to Benavente soon. We will be reopening that area. I'm excited but nervous. We don't really have anything to start with so we'll see how it goes.

We have zone conference tomorrow. So right now we are making the 4 hour drive north to A Coruña. I'm really excited. I've heard that it's actually going to be green up there and they don't have sheep everywhere.We're going to spend our pday together as a zone so I think we're going to play some beach soccer and volleyball and then go caroling tonight. It should be cool cause we have 2 zones together. It should be over 50 missionaries. That's a good sized choir in the street. Oh, we're staying in a Meriott tonight. Yeah, nice huh. Idk what happened there. Last thing, Galicia is beautiful and this feels like a real vacation.

Talk to you soon since I have pday again Monday.

Josh