Elder Josh Johnson - Spain Madrid Mission: Training Week #2

Hey guys,

We finally went on another hike today. I feel like I write my emails from the bus every week lately. I'll have to send some good pictures later. So, this week we tried a TON of new things.

I'm sure you already noticed Facebook. We decided we are going to make a bigger effort to take advantage of it. It's actually kinda funny how we started the challenge. We were watching some training videos for new missionaries, and there was a clip of Elder Bednar speaking. He was talking about how the Lord is furthering His work through technology. It was actually that same quote that's on the first picture I posted. But when I heard it, I got the impression that we should do that challenge everyone did a while ago. You guys know me, I ABSOLUTELY HATE THAT STUFF. And I'll admit, I tried to ignore it, but it kept coming back and I remembered the discussion we had right before I was set apart. We talked about how we shouldn't hesitate, when an impression comes, just act. So here we are, and what do you know, it's actually been a huge success already. It took off in our ward already. That was a little miracle this week.

That wasn't the only miracle this week, in fact, greenie miracles are real things. We had a lot of time for street contacting this week, but no success. At least not at first. But like Elder Taylor said in general conference, "God sanctifies the most difficult days." I truly believe that no effort is wasted, all that time that we put in this week paid off in the end. Saturday we were in the streets for about 3 hours and no one would talk to us. I was pretty frustrated so I totally turned and knocked on a nearby door, cause why not. They answered and we were able to teach them the first lesson. We'll be going back Thursday to teach them again. So we knocked on their neighbors door, we taught them the plan of salvation and were going back tomorrow morning. We found and taught 4 new people within 2 hours. We were cruising. That was a big relief this week.

Next greenie miracle... we only cooked for ourselves 1 time this week. We had lunch appointments everyday. We ate homemade pizza, Moroccan food, Indian food, tacos, and a stir-fry. It was a good week as far as food goes. We took the taco seasoning and kool-aid you sent me to Jonathan's and had lunch with them. That reminded me of home way too much.

We made some good progress in training this week. I realized when I first left the MTC that I just didn't know the lessons well enough, and I think it's the same for most new missionaries. I mean, I knewabout how the church was restored, I basically knew the plan of salvation. But in order to actually teach these things, you need to know it inside out. So when I noticed that Elder Rogers was in the same situation this week, we went and bought these big posterthings and made some giant blueprints of the lessons. It seemed like too much effort at first, but it helped a ton and we are teaching a lot better together now. The other big progress we made was in spanish. I think this week has probably been a little harder for him, but it's all worth it in the end. We haven't spoken English since Wednesday morning. Well, almost. From 11:00 to 11:30 at night we speak English because sometimes it's nice to be able to express yourself. But other than that it's all Spanish, all the time. This made the biggest difference in my training, so why not do it now, right?

Me and the other Elder Johnson are the only ones left from the group that went to loro parque a while ago. Everyone is pushing pretty hard to go again next week. We'll see what happens. It was amazing, but I would rather do something else with my time and money since I've already done it. We'll figure it out though. If we don't do it we will do another hike. I guess either way you will get good pictures.

OK, here is the part where I answer all of your questions... But first, thank you so much for all of those pictures. Me and Elder Rogers were drooling all week. We saw the Man City celebrations at a bar the other night. That was sad to see. And dude!! You almost came to Madrid! What the heck?!? That would be soooo cool. I have loved all of the little things you send me. Even the weird things are always fun. Even the tuna has been useful, that's always my lunch when we go on hikes. I took pictures of the kkk stuff for Easter. It didn't freak me out or anything, but it is pretty wack. It makes it pretty clear that apostasy is a very real thing. But yeah, that's a longer email.

Watch for pictures.

Love you guys,

Elder Johnson