Tenerife!

Hey,

This week was fun. I kind of had my eyes opened this week. I think we expect to see more fruits from the amount of work we do and we forget that we are starting from zero in this area. On our exchanges with the zone leaders this week I realized we have as much work or more than most of the zone right now. Even if I haven't recognized it, we have definitely been blessed this transfer. We found 3 new friends this week that were all member referrals. They are super solid. Monica moved here from Bolivia this week and she is living with a less active member, and Julian is the husband of that less active member. Maria is the wife of another less active member in the south. We had an amazing lesson with Monica and Julian on Friday night. As elder Backstein shared the first vision they were both crying and then they came to church yesterday as well. 

Tomorrow I have my last zone conference. Appropriately they asked me to say the closing prayer. So in the next eight days I will have my last zone conference, last district meeting, last exchange, last Sunday in my area, and last pday. This is a sad time.. I mentioned about 2 months ago that I started getting lots of emails again, but they have stopped now. I think everyone is just waiting until I get home. I have gotten hardly anything over the last 3 weeks jaja

It's great to be back in Tenerife! We did a hike today that was super pretty. I forgot how green this island is. Afterwards we went to the church and played some soccer and it was a great game because we only had 2 Americans. The rest were spaniards or south Americans. Anyways, it was a fun day. I'll be on hangouts today or you want to do a call I should be free. 

Love you guys, 

Elder Johnson 

We are in Gran Canaria

Hey,

We had another busy week with lots of travel and time in the streets. The work is interesting here. We are finding new friends to teach, but we never get a second lesson. We meet them in the street or in a grocery store, then we meet with them once, and then they fall off the face of the island. We worked hard this week though and we found 2 new friends. 

We flew to Madrid on Wednesday afternoon to pick up Elder Backsteins residency card. We left at 4pm and arrived at 1am due to some layovers and delays. We had to hop islands a little before making the big flight. Thursday morning we got up really early and got the card and then we had to hurry to the airport to catch a plane at 12. It was a really quick turn around and honestly poorly planned by the office. We arrived at the airport at 11:50 and they wouldn't let us on the plane ecause they had filled our seats. We called the office and they panicked and then we panicked. We prayed. Then a lady at the gate told us to run to another gate across the airport because there was another flight with seats. It was a miracle. Also, the airport is massive, it was a 15 minute run to the next gate. 

We have zone conference next week in Tenerife. We just got our tickets and we are flying out on Sunday night and coming back on Wednesday, so I talked to the APs and I got permission to go to Puerto and visit members on Monday and Tuesday night. I'm super excited to visit everyone. It's been hard moving areas so often because I don't ever feel like I get to know the people as well, but it really is a blessing to visit my old areas like this. I was in B6 this week, Cuenca a few months ago, Sevilla 3 weeks ago, and now Puerto. 

Today we are in Gran Canaria (another island) on exchanges with the zone leaders. We'll be here until tomorrow night. Pday was lame. We spent half of the day waiting on the other elders and then we went to a pueblo to get lunch. Not worth it. But it's all good. We're on a bus now heading to their apartment. 

Love you guys,

Elder Johnson 

Happy Birthday!!!

Hey, 

Happy birthday!!! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'll call you today once you get on the road and we can talk a little. That activity/call yesterday was super cool. I wish I wouldn't have missed the second half. It's OK though, I'm sure there will be more opportunities once I get home. Elder Backstein and I were talking all night about how bad we are at English. I mean, I can talk to my comp or to you guys fine, but I just say things that make no sense and the words don't come to my head like they should. It was kinda hard yesterday to express myself and testify convincingly like I can in Spanish. 

This week was loooooooong. We spent a lot of time in the street contacting everybody we saw and passing by the houses of old investigators. Most days we were in the sun for over 6 hours and walked more than 15 Km. We got fried on Monday and then we were sick all week so we bought some fancy sunblock and big sombreros. I'm sure you saw them on Facebook. If not, I'll upload some pictures right now. 

We found people to teach though! We found 3 friends this week that are already progressing well. One is from Cuba, one from Venezuela, and the last one is from Colombia. We are going to be eating some good food! :) Gleisy (Venezuela) and Victor (Colombia) are a couple that have been here for 2 months and can't find a church here that is similar to the one in their country, so we're helping them find it... we've had 3 lessons with them already and they are really interested. I think would be baptized within 2 weeks honestly, but they're not married and they live together so that will get in the way a little. 

Our exchanges in Lanzarote were a crazy experience. The Elderes are having a tough time so it was a tough one in that sense. The island is absolutely beautiful though. I posted some pictures on Facebook and I'll probably post more. The boat was pretty cool. I've been on a million bus rides and airplanes but the boat was new. We saw some flying fish on the way. I was with Elder Serrano on the intercambio. He's from Honduras and he was jealous that I know how to make pupusas and baleadas because he doesn't know how to. If we get a chance I'm gonna make it for him.

Today was pretty lame. The members couldn't do anything and the buses are complicated so we had to stay here in Puerto. We played some risk and went to a Canarian restaurant. Tonight we're going up north to a Pueblo called Corralejo. It's a really pretty place. This week we're also visiting Tetir and Gran Tarajal. You'll have to look up pictures of the pueblos. Each one is so different. We're also going to Madrid  on Wednesday. We'll come home the next day and then leave again to go to Gran Canaria on Monday for exchanges with the Zone Leaders. That's 6 flights total. Anyways, we'll talk soon.

Love you, 

Elder Johnson 

Adventures of fuerteventura week 1

Hey,

What a week! I have been surprised by just about everything here. The island looks pretty in the pictures with all the beaches and sand dunes, but we are living in Africa. Apparently we're only 60 miles away from the Sahara. We have been getting hit with sandstorms this week so it's been super hot and windy. Most of the people we see in our neighborhood are Africans as well. That makes it a little harder because they arent exactly from the Christian part of Africa. 

Our flight to get here was delayed by 4 hours on Tuesday and then when we got here we didn't have a phone or keys so it was a little difficult the first day. We wandered around until we found our apartment and a little market. We eventually got our phone and stuff from a member and we were able to drop our stuff off in piso and hit the streets for an hour. This has been the longest week of my mission by far. 

The elders that were here for the last few transfers both finished their mission at the same time and they honestly could not have been trunkier towards the end. When we arrived we found out that they had not texted or called an investigator in about a month and they did pday stuff almost everyday. So we're starting from scratch. I love the challenge for my last transfer though. It's a ton of fun and it will be amazing to see some progress here. 

Today we played basketball and paddle with a member. It was pretty fun. Next week we're gonna play tennis. I actually really like it. It's a fun sport and I don't think I would break my hips or knees top bad playing it. Emma's pictures look awesome! I'm jealous that she can go to the beach. It's so close but so far right now. I'll be on the chat so we can talk. Love you, 

Elder Johnson