Johnson & Johnson

Alright this week was super good! Elder Johnson and I have been working super well together and have been able to see some super cool miracles. But there were some awesome things that happened this week...

1. So today we were driving around with the AP's looking for some nice sales on suits and we were stopped at a red light and then we looked around and realized we were completely surrounded by taxis.... and when the light turned green nobody moved... and that's when we realized that all the taxi drivers are on strike😂 we just sat there surrounded by taxis for like 20 minutes until the cops came and started giving out tickets. Then they all got out of there super fast!

2. So we got a reference from the hermanas named Daniel and he's pretty great! He should be getting baptized this Saturday so we are hyped! He's 42 and from Peru. We are praying a lot and he's a beast.

3. So we are teaching a girl named Katya and she is really Adventist and loves to fight with us even though she already knows our message is true. But we had a lesson with her yesterday and we were prepared for her to just start trying to destroy us but it actually went really well! We were able to help her realize that all her questions relate to whether Joseph Smith was a prophet or not! So that went really well😎

4. We went to the temple on Friday. We got to participate in the recent convert day. Yaiza was baptized a few months ago, so we went and did baptisms for the dead with her. Elder Johnson and I were witnesses and I did confirmations. It was really cool. I did a bunch of confirmations with Yaiza, and then a few more for Elder Johnson. I uploaded some pictures, and I wore the fancy suit.

But yeah, this week was super fun. I had more bad luck with clothes, it's fine though. I got that new suit with intentions of not touching it until I get home.... But then I put on my old suit to go to church yesterday and it tore........ I was super mad. That's what I get for having a piso find suit. My last watch battery died as well, so I went and put a new battery in one of them so I'll have a watch until the end of the mission. As far as the suit goes, I went to 3 shops and it looks like my Grey one is dead, and my American ones are between 40 and 50 euros to alter because they're just gonna be massive changes. They will have to change the suit entirely. That not worth it, so I'm just gonna leave it. I'm gonna see if I can find a piso find suit this week, but if not I would just need to wear my new suit. It's OK though. Thank you so much for sending that package! You're the best. That's the last one you need to send. After this I can wait, I'll be home soon enough. Anyways, love you! 

Elder Johnson

Elder Johnson ¤ Yaiza ¤ Elder Johnson 

Elder Johnson ¤ Yaiza ¤ Elder Johnson 

Trio part 2 and Transfers

Hey, 

We had a really good week! It was our last week with Elder Koppe as our "official" companion. He is super fun. I really enjoyed having two companions. Elder Johnson and I talk a lot anyways, but wth Elder Koppe it's been out of control. I love it. 

We met with Milagros and Katty this week. We planned on setting the baptismal date with them, but right as we started the lesson Katty told us she liked listening to us but she promised her grandma (who died about 20 years ago) that she will never leave the catholic church. Elder Koppe got super scared when he heard that and looked at me and elder johnson as if he was asking if we should still teach about baptism. Elder Johnson kinda paused, so he looked at me and I just nodded my head. We continued, and we invited both of them to be baptized on Feb. 8. With a little persistence they accepted. They came to church yesterday and we are doing a family home evening tonight, so they are doing well. 👍

We also had transfers this week. That was probably the most stressful part of being a zone leader yet. We were organizing travel plans and sleeping assignments from about 10:30 on Saturday until 4:00. We ended up missing our lunch appointment, but it was all good. Me and Elder Johnson are staying together for at least 6 more weeks. I'm super pumped. It's been a while since I've done 2 transfers with a companion and more than 2 in an area. It's almost certain I'll be here at least until April. 

We played sand volleyball for a few hours. I'm probably not gonna do that again for awhile. We played barefoot and now my feet hurt cause they're frozen. We also went to a mall so Elder Johnson could find a suit. He didn't though, so we're gonna keep searching. We also ate at a place called Rodilla, it's like Rodizio Grill. Unlimited meat. It was expensive, but worth it. 

How is Come, Follow Me going? We don't get time to study it in the mission. We're using it with friends, but I don't know a ton about it yet. Let me know.. 

This week will be busy. We will have more Intercambios, 4 meetings, and a training for zone leaders. We will still do some missionary work, I promise. But yeah, we'll talk more next week. Sorry I don't have as much time to write anymore. 

Love you. Bye

Elder Johnson

P.S.

I forgot to mention that the area president, Elder Johnson, is coming to do a mission tour in a month. He's also coming to Concilio (mission leadership council). It's gonna be cool to get to know him a little.

Elder Johnson

Trio...Cuenca...Suit...

Hey,

I have a ton to write about this week, but not much time. I'm sitting in Sol, the main square in Madrid. It's super cool here. I love the big city feel and all the stores here. Shopping is definitely an addiction of mine. I'll get to that later though.

The first big thing is that we are in a trio right now. Elder Koppe from the Netherlands is my second companion here. He's doing a pilot mission in the temple right now. He applied for a normal, full time proselyting mission and they called him there. Since the temple is closed right now, he is with us though. He's a good missionary. It's kinda weird though. It's hard to teach with three people. It just throws off the rythm. It's also awkward sometimes cause we have to take a phone call or do something zone leader related and he can't be involved. He always has to leave the room.

We had a family home evening in the house of some members on Monday. We invited a few friends, and our friends brought their wives and kids with them. We ended up with about 25 people there. It went really well, and afterwards we had the parents of both families tell us they want to be baptized. We are all really excited for them! The closest to baptism so far are Milagros and her daughter Katty. They're awesome. They are actually the ones that taught us how to make ceviche a few weeks ago.

We had exchanges in Cuenca this week! I was in heaven. I haven't been home sick in a long time, but I was really Area sick. We met with almost all of the members there, so about 3 families. It was a good thing too, the current missionaries aren't meeting with them. It was fun though.

Today we did our zone pday. We had to plan a lot for it. We went all out. It was worth it though, everyone had a good time and we didn't have any injuries. We did a zone Olympics. The highlight was some nasty shakes we made. We put hot dogs, mustard, chocolate milk, tomatoes, and gummy bears in the blender and then everybody had to drink it. 3 people threw up... It was awesome. We also went to Sol today. I bought a super fancy, good looking, tailored, European, slim fit, blue with a funky pattern suit!! It looks super good. We cleaned up on the sales. It's a two pant suit as well so it should last longer. All for 80€. 😊 I am proud. My companions bought shoes, belts and ties as well. I controlled myself. Jaja

So yeah, that's my week. There was more to write about, but those are the highlights. Love you! 

Elder Johnson

Baptism #3

Hey,

It hasn't been very long since I last emailed you, but a lot has happened. Right after pday on Wednesday we met up with the APs for exchanges. It was really good. I learned a lot. We had a few lessons and we spent a lot of time contacting in the street. We finished that exchange thursday night and started another one with the elders from Barrio 2 Friday at lunch. The second one was also really good, but it wasn't the same.

 

Friday morning was Gabriela's BAPTISM! It was really cool. She wanted a private baptism. So only the two of us, her and her mom, and the first counselor in the bishopric came. She asked me to speak in the baptism and confirm her. It was pretty cool. I was a little nervous to do the confirmation. I don't really have a lot of experience doing that and we had 300 members in church on Sunday. It worked out well though and it was a cool experience.

Elder Johnson, Gabriela, Elder Johnson
(January 4, 2019)

Saturday we went to Barrio 2 after exchanges so we could do a baptismal Interview. I really enjoy doing interviews. This time it was a 10 year old kid though. I really need to work on having patience with kids. He was all over the place and the interview took forever. In the end he passed though and his baptism is scheduled for Saturday.

 

The new schedule didn't really affect us too much this week. I think our attendance was about the same. It's hard to tell though because there are so many members to keep track of. I like the chedule though. It gives us an extra hour to work everyday.

 

I'm writing this email in the Prado Museum today. I love this part of town. We're in the center of Madrid. All the buildings are big and/or old. Elder Johnson is not a big city guy though. He likes the smaller areas and he's super intimidated here. The art in the museum is good. They're celebrating 200 years since the museum was opened. They have a few special exhibits that are cool. I feel bad cause I am making my companion wait while I read everything again. My companions always hate going to museums with me.

 Love you, 

Elder Johnson

Happy New Year!

Hey,

Sorry I didn't write on Monday, we had zone temple day today. It is so nice to be in Madrid. We did a session at 8am this morning. It was a very special one. I can't really say anything even though I really want to. All I'll say is that it is cool seeing all the inspired changes in the church, and if you haven't been to the temple in the last week, you should really go as soon as possible. ;) After the session we played volleyball with the zone. It was really fun. We have a fun zone.

 

We did exchanges with the Elders from Barrio 5 this week. It was pretty fun. We saw lots of success contacting. Our lessons weren't the greatest, but we still learned a lot. I'm really enjoying being zone leader. We still find ways to do all of the normal missionary work, but then we just add on more time with other missionaries. We added it up and we did about 15 hours of after hours work for the zone this week. We have exchanges with the APs tonight after pday. We'll finish those tomorrow night and then start another exchange with the elders from Barrio 2 on Friday afternoon. You're gonna hear a lot about exchanges from now on.

 

We have a baptismal interview set up for 9pm tonight with Gabriela. Her baptism is scheduled for Friday at 10am. She is awesome. I can't remember if I already explained her story. She has been an investigator for 2 years. She never wanted to talk about baptism. About 6 weeks ago she finally accepted a baptismal date of February 2. A few weeks later she wanted to drop it though. We taught her twice my first week. Elder Johnson and I have developed a really good relationship with her though and she finally told us what was holding her back. We talked about it and after about a week she called us and asked if we could meet that same day. That was last week. We did end up meeting. She asked to move the baptism to this Friday. Once she passes the interview we'll have to plan everything while we're on exchanges... I'm also going to speak in the baptism. That should be easy though. Pray for her this week. She could use the extra blessings :)

 

New years was super fun. I absolutely love this ward. It feels like I'm actually in a normal church. New years eve we had 5 appointments. We ate in the last one. The family is awesome. I actually had a family home evening in their house on an exchange about 5 months ago. We ate turkey, potatoes, fancy Spanish ham and chorizo, fish soup, duck, and a ton of ice cream. Then they invited us over again on new years. We had hot chocolate and churros. They were all dead though 😂 they have 3 kids between 14 and 19 and none of them got home before 8am. They were partying hard in the stake dance... We also had 4 appointments yesterday. We found another new friend named Rommel. He's from pero and has only been here for 3 months. The spirit was very strong in the lesson and he accepted the invitation to be baptized. We'll see how he does.

 

Awesome snapchat pictures! And that video is wack 😂 happy new years and love you, 

Elder Johnson