Santiago Bernabeú Stadium

Hey,

We had another good week here in B6. We had intercambios with the APs on Wednesday, so that was fun to change it up. It's our only intercambio where we work in someone else's area. I was with Elder Maxwell this time. We had a few appointments, got Chinese food for lunch, and we contacted a bunch in the street. 

Juan is doing super well. We have taught him almost everything now. His baptism is looking pretty sure for this weekend so that will be awesome. He is really excited for it. We're still working with Milagros, but she's been hard to meet with lately. She got a second job.

In my other areas it's been super hard to get people to come to a one-time soccer activity. The most we ever have is like 10 people. We just started inviting members to do our morning exercise with us by playing soccer at 7am, and we already had a bigger turnout. We have been doing it all week and we have 10-12 people coming. It's pretty nice to wakeup and go play soccer with a bunch of Spaniards everyday.

Our Family Home Evening activity we do in the church every week was tons of fun this week. We had a little competition with Santi, our ward mission leader. If we got 40 people there (we had 8 last week) we could fill balloons with anything we want and throw them at him, but if we got less he throws balloons at us. Luckily, we had exactly 40 people come so we will be filling balloons with eggs and flan soon. It was a good activity though. There was a good message shared and then we played volleyball in the gym. We also made a ton of brownies.

Today we're going to the Santiago Bernabeu! It's Real Madrid's stadium. I'm super excited. We're gonna do the tour. I'll make sure to take tons of pictures. Sorry for the lame email. It doesn't feel like it was a boring week, but as I look back to write about it I'm drawing a blank.

Love you,

Elder Johnson

Santiago Bernebéu Stadium 

Elder Johnson and Elder Rogers

Elder Johnson and Elder Goodman 

Temple Square in Spring 

Johnson & Johnson with Katty

Johnson ~ Goodman ~ Johnson

I went for a swim this week

Hey,

We had quite the week. We weren't really able to do much proselyting because we had mission leadership council, zone conference, and Katty's baptism, but we were really blessed this week. So I'll just run you through it in that order. Leadership council was awesome. It was probably my favorite one yet. We had some really good discussions and it's really cool to be a part of. President had some stuff happening that he had to take care of, but even though he wasn't there for part of it the council just kept going.

Zone conference was a really, really good one. We made some changes based on the suggestions president Johnson gave us. They also gave us a lot more time for our training than they have in the past. We had about an hour to teach the zone whatever we wanted and I loved it. I'm not kidding, public speaking is one of my favorite things I have learned on the mission. It's so much fun. Our part went well and everybody liked it so I think it was a success.

 I'm debating whether or not I want to explain Katty's baptism to you in a voice recording or if I want to take the time to write it out... First of all, it was nice to get in the water. That was really cool. The baptism started off well. She came on time. We had all the clothes ready. The font was full. Then we found out the ward we share the building with was having a party to celebrate the anniversary of the Relief Society. They planned on using the entire building. They had different activities planned in each room. We talked to them for like 20 minutes and eventually got a room to do the talks and stuff. About 5 minutes in they started blasting music on the intercom and refused to turn it off, so we listened to Muse, Greenday, ACDC, and Maroon 5 during the baptism. After the talks we were supposed to do the baptism, but when I got in the font the water only reached mid-shin. The drain wasn't plugged all the way. So everybody went back to the other room and sang hymns while our ward mission leader and I waited in the font. We finally filled it up and she came back in 20 minutes later. Right before I dunked her the Bruno Mars song ended and it went quiet. Right as she came up the Black Eyed Peas came on. It was the weirdest thing ever. She was confirmed yesterday by Elder Koppe and she is officially a member!

Also, we met this guy Juan last week and he's gonna get baptized next week. He's from Peru and has been investigating for 8 years. His whole family are members. After moving here he decided it was time to make the change and take the step. It's gonna be awesome.

Love you guys,

Elder Johnson 

Week 1 - Elder Goodman

Hey, 

This week was crazy, but it was super fun. We are going to start an even crazier week tomorrow. So Tuesday morning we got up early and went to the big train station in Southern Madrid to drop off elder Johnson. It was kinda sad. He's another one of my favorite companions. We saw a lot of success together and we had a ton of fun. After he left I got pretty busy. I was constantly on the phone with somebody that was lost or had a problem. Being travel coordinator is not fun. I bounced around a bunch making sure everyone had a companion until about 2:00 and then elder Hamilton and I went to the other big train station in Northern Madrid to grab our new companions. Élder Goodman came in around 2:30 and we grabbed some lunch. From there we headed back to B6 and life continued like normal.

 

Our week was pretty full of meetings, just like the beginning of every transfer. Élder Goodman seems a little tired. It's gonna take a minute to adjust to the lifestyle of a zone leader in temple Square. That being said I am a little more tired than normal since I'm doing a little extra. This coming week we have leadership council and zone conference. I'm super excited for our portion of zone conference. We always have about 30 minutes to an hour to do a zone training and I love it. I have loved public speaking situations lately.

 

Katty passed her baptismal interview with flying colors on Saturday night. She is so awesome. We started by asking her how to make ceviche and her telling us she's catholic and not changing, but now she goes to institute 2x per week, 2 FHEs, and we meet with her 2x every week. She's in the church 6 or 7 times a week. I can't wait for Saturday. Milagros will have her interview tomorrow night. She should be fine :)

Lunch with Katty and Milagros

Also, we found our next baptism! During the transfer chaos on Tuesday I got a call from the elders quorum president. There is a guy that just moved here from Peru about 3 weeks ago and he's asking if the missionaries can baptize him. His wife has been a member for like 20 years and his kids are also baptized. He just never wanted to do it even though he goes to church every Sunday. I'll keep you updated on the progress, but things are looking good. 

Today we are playing basketball with all the zone leaders and APs since we have the council tomorrow. I haven't changed, I still don't like basketball, but I feel bad if my companion can't play so we always come. Idk what else were gonna do today, but we'll see. We might go get our suits tailored. Oh yeah, I made my decision and I told President this morning. I'm not going to extend. I've thought about it a lot and I feel like that's the right option. But yeah, it's a longer email. I'll be on for a minute today. Let me know if you want to talk.

Love,

Elder Johnson 

The District
(with Elder Johnson before transfers)

Lots of Changes...

Hey,

Sorry you had a hard week. Hopefully everyone starts feeling better soon. We were dying when we read about the Jonas Brothers.. 😂 Are they still with Disney? We had a busy week as well. In fact, we have Transfers tomorrow.

Katty and Milagros are doing super well! We had an appointment with Katty on Friday night. She has kinda stalled for the last few weeks, so we decided not to talk about baptism, but focus more on temples. So we taught a lesson about eternal families and temples and she was super into it. In the end she asked how she could go to the temple, and we told her baptism is the first step. Her feelings towards baptism changed a lot in that lesson and she asked us if we would baptize her. We planned the baptism for the 16. The next day we ate with them in Elder Koppe's apartment. Milagros was there this time and we invited her to be baptized with her daughter. They will both be baptized next Saturday. I'm super excited for them.

Yesterday was nuts. We had 4 eating citas so Elder Johnson could say goodbye to everyone. He leaves tomorrow to go to Sevilla. He's gonna be Zone Leader down there. My new companion is Elder Goodman. He was in the MTC with me and he's another redhead. I'll be training him as a Zone Leader. We took a lot of pictures yesterday though. I'm really gonna miss this ward when I leave. The people here are awesome.

We aren't doing much today. We're gonna go eat with some members at 2:30, but other than that we have no plans. Tonight we're gonna play soccer with some friends and members and then we'll have a family home evening. I'm sure we'll talk later today.

Love,

Elder Johnson

(Josh has been sick for a couple of months and found out this week that he has asthma. The doctor he saw said it could be allergy related or adult onset asthma. Either way, he is being treated and feeling much better.)

These are pictures of some people from the ward in Barrio 6 that Josh LOVES and spends a lot of time with. They took a lot of pictures this week of friends from the ward since Elder Johnson is being transferred. 

Padilla Family selphie

The Jóvenes Family

With Adriana

With Daniel

With Rebecca

With the Benítez Family 

With the Garcìa Family

With the Padilla Family

With the Yucra Family

with Valentina and Adriana

with Santi