Cuenca Season 2 - Episode 4

Hey guys,

Last week was absolutely crazy. That pday was super busy. I can't remember if I wrote very much, or anything good, but it's been a good couple of weeks. We had exchanges last Monday and Tuesday with the zone leaders. It was really cool. We had some good lessons. I also figured out why there are no pisos with 6 elders in the mission. It would be way too much fun and nothing would get done. I have a ton of story's just from the weekend that we were there. I wrote them in my journal though. I think they will be better told next summer rather than through email. There's a lot of those stories. 

We went to lunch with a senior couple this week. The Mayberrys came on Friday to do a piso check. They wanted to see if we clean and what we need to replace or fix. We did well. We clean a lot. They took us to an American restaurant though. It was really good, but not American portions. I'll leave it at that. Today the elders from our district are here. We have exchanges tomorrow. The hermanas are coming out in bus and we're all going on a hike today and then I'll show them old Cuenca. I'll send lots of pictures. I am happy to be with missionaries these last 2 weeks. I miss it when I'm in these areas. Sometimes I like speaking English and having a little fun on pdays. 

So we were put in a really sucky situation by the mission office this week. They ordered us a new chair for our piso, but then we had to pay in cash when they delivered it. They called us 15 minutes before to tell us about it, so we ran to an atm to get money. We each had to pull out quite a bit of personal money and mission money to cover it. They are reimbursing it, but we were pretty mad about the situation. We had to skip grocery shopping for a week, but it's all good. I lit up the office. We were on the phone with them a bunch and it ended wellish. I don't think they'll do that again and I'm pretty sure were gonna be spoiled out here for a while. That's what happened with the 60€ though. 

We went to the fair on Saturday night with some members and then we met some investigators there after. It was pretty cool. It felt pretty home-ish. They had lots of attractions and food stands. Unfortunately the food was fair food. I got a baked potato with shredded ham and some weird tomato sauce. I won't get that again. We're gonna go look around more tonight though. Elder Batty wants to snag a few soccer jerseys from the tents there. They have them super cheap, like 5-20€. We'll see what we can find. 

I uploaded pictures of the soccer game last week. Some hermanas took them at some point during the game. I didn't even know about them until this weekend. Today we are with the district here in Cuenca. I'm gonna show everybody old Cuenca and the hike I went on with Elder Jordan. I'll upload pictures later.

Elder Batty is district leader. And the technology thing did affect us, but not our email. I have just been without area book or daily planner for a week. We're making it work though. 

I'll be on later today, we are waiting for the district to get here so I thought I would take advantage and write a little. Talk to you soon, 

Elder Johnson

{I emailed and asked Josh about his shirt as soon as these pictures uploaded. His response: " ..there's some guy here that makes them for all the missionaries. It has my name, soy mormon, Cuenckers, and I've been cuencked. Pretty cool, right?"}

Cuenca Season 2 - Episode 3

Hey guys,

This week was a ton of fun! We had zone conference, zone pday, rain, and a bunch of miracles. We have been traveling a ton this week. It's 3 hours each way everytime we go to madrid and we made the trip twice this week. That's a lot of time on the bus, and not a lot of time in our area, but we still saw some cool things here this week.

Tuesday we didn't have any appointments planned and we were both dreading going to the tree to contact for 6 hours, but it went really well. Right as we left piso his guy ran up to us and asked us why he always saw us in the street. We taught him the Restoration and we have a follow up appointment Wednesday. Then we were exploring a new area and ran into two guys about our age. They were speaking English. The first one is from Botswana and the other is from Ethiopia/South Africa. They were in our area because they had just arrived that day to play soccer for UB Conquense, the pro team from Cuenca. We're gonna teach them Spanish and they're interested in the gospel. Super cool.

Friday we had zone conference. It was a good one. It was our first real one with the Busseys. It was insanely different, but really good. I learned a lot. We talked about a lot of the new rules they have made and other changes in the mission. Then the Busseys talked about repentance and went pretty deep on it. Afterwards I got my packages from the office. Those were awesome. The bag is great, it has a ton of space but isn't too big. They other was really good too. All the candy is awesome. I already ate all of the hi-chews, and that magazine is awesome. I was not expecting it, but it's the coolest thing ever.

This week we did a ton of travel. We went back and forth from Madrid twice, and we're here now. I am starting to hate buses. We're coming up on 18 hours in 1 week. Today for pday we had a zone sports day. We played soccer for a few hours, then basketball for 5 minutes (perks of having a bunch of south Americans here), then volleyball for a few hours. We ordered papa John's pizza somewhere in there too. I really liked it though.

I can't believe summer is over and the girls are back in school. That went by so fast. It looked like a really fun one though. You guys sent tons of good fotos. 

Oh yeah, quick question for dad. I talked to the Ukrainian Hermana for a minute on Friday, she's from cherkassy or something. Did you serve around there? Or do you know the area? Anyways, that's everything. Have a gest week. Love you, 

Elder Johnson

Cuenca Season 2, Episode 2

Hey, 

We had a fun first week of the transfer. The last 6 weeks were pretty slow, but this week we found a lot of stuff to keep us busy. We met with every member in the first 3 days, and president Fernando came with us a few times. 

We have zone conference on friday. I'm pretty sure I will get the packages this time... I've been bugging the office for a while. I am excited to have my first real zone conference in Madrid. They combine all the zones, so we should have like 100 missionaries there. Last transfer was different because the Busseys just introduced themselves. 

Elder Batty is a fun guy. I learned a little more about him this week. He's playing football at BYU when we get home, and as far as I can tell he's gonna be good. He's a huge guy. He's got 4 or 5 inches on me, but a good 60 or 70 pounds as well. All muscle. My morning workouts just got a lot more intense. We went to a mall today and bought new knives, pans, and a wok. He wants to open his own restaurant when he gets home, and you know I like to cook, so this is gonna be fun. He's been in the mission for 1 year. We get along really well. He thinks we will be together for 3 transfers. That would be a long time, but it would be fun. 

We got more big news this week. The north is going to the Barcelona mission. Im not sure exactly where the border will be, but I think Zamora and above is gone. It's pretty crazy how many changes we have seen. They redid all of the zones this transfer, and they mixed up just about every companionship. Almost everybody has 1 Madrid missionary, and 1 Málaga missionary. I'm going to meet a lot of new people at zone conference. 

Dude! All these pictures of the hive have got me and Elder Batty feeling a little trunky (homesick). But in a good way. The bunkhouse is looking good. I would kill for a weekend up there. I can't wait to do that when I get home. And don't stop sending pictures because I said that. We're thinking of buying a cheap BBQ. We found one for 10€ and we have a small balcony. We just need permission from our landlord. If we get it though, we're going to top dad's cedar smoked salmon. 

I'll be on for the next little bit if you have any questions for me. 

Love you guys,

Elder Johnson

(more from our questions:

The visits with the members were fun. We ate a lot. There were a few weird ones cause we had to deal with some problems. They just got a little heated inbetween the BP and the other members. It was productive though. I had fun introducing elder Batty to everyone and listening to each one of them make a comment about how big he was.

We had a chill pday. There's no stress since we'll be together for a while. We just cleaned and did that shopping. We took about 2 hours and made a bomb stir fry for lunch. We spent like 30€ just on vegetables this week. It's pretty awesome.)

Cuenca Season Two

Hey guys,

We had transfers this weekend. Elder Jordan is leaving. He's going to Lanzarote. He's got an entire island to himself. We didn't have a ton of success together, but he was probably the most fun companion I had. We are hanging out in Madrid today. I'll pick up my new companion in an hour. I am SUPER excited for him. I've heard really good things. He was in the Provo mtc while I was in Madrid, so he has the same amount of time in the mission as me. He is coming from Cádiz in the Málaga mission. He's like 6 foot 5 and plays football at byu or something. He's from Payson, Utah, and that's all I know. His name is Elder Batty. 

Today is just a travel day. I'll pick him up and head straight to Cuenca. I didn't get the packages. I won't get those until zone conference. The travel was a little chaotic since everyone is moving in between missions so they could get the packages before I had to leave. 

This week we had a bunch of eating appointments since elder Jordan is leaving. That was fun. A member bought us papa John's. That was cool. It's been a long time since I've had something so American. I also got some mate from a missionary that's going home today. It's a big bag that should last me a while. 

Sorry it was a quick email, but I might be on later and we can talk. Love you guys. 

Elder Johnson