Last Email...

Hey!

I guess this is the last real email. I'm sure I'll send one next week, but it's gonna be weird. So this week was great. We had zone conference on Tuesday, but we were in Tenerife from Sunday night to Wednesday morning. It was a crazy few days. Monday we did the hike and played soccer, then that night we went out to the streets of la laguna and contacted with the members of the ward. I went on splits with a few members and we worked together and then for the last 45 minutes we just talked. It was super fun to catch up with them. It was also weird because the last time I talked to them I didn't know Spanish so communication was very limited. After we finished up I was in charge of rounding up all the missionaries and getting them home since I know the area, but it was a mess trying to track down 14 missionaries wandering the streets. Everyone finally made it home around midnight. 

Tuesday I had my last zone conference. It was a really good one. I learned a lot, both for the mission and for what comes next. We talked a lot about the importance of doing the small and simple things like reading the book of Mormon daily, saying our prayers, and going to church every week. It was interesting too because the focus was not on getting our investigators to do it, president invited us personally to do it. I really liked it. At the end of the conference right before the final hymn president got up and gave a 5 minute pump up speech. He started by asking me and the 4 other missionaries in the zone that are going home to stand up. He then said that we were losing 30+ missionaries, a lot of mission leadership, and we'll be closing 10 areas in the next 2 months. We then put a PowerPoint up with pictures from the movie "300." We read the story of Gideon in judges, and he said "Gideon only needed 300 to defeat the midianites, Madrid only needs 150. (because that's how many missionaries we have left) Will you be one?" It was super cool and I wish I could be involved with the things that are happening soon in the mission. We then sang the mission hymn and I said the closing prayer. It was a rough time for those of us going home. It's said to think I won't have another zone conference for at least 40 years.. 

That night after the conference we helped the AP's clean up and then we grabbed a taxi to Puerto de la cruz! Man it was so nice to be back. We did a little exchange so elder Backstein went with elder Maxwell and I went with elder Johnson. We passed by a few members houses but nobody was home. As we were walking down the street we ran into Jonathan and melania though! They invited us to come over and eat with them and it was awesome! We just talked all night. Then at the end of the night they drove us back to our piso in Santa Cruz. It was great to see them again. 

The work here in Fuerteventura is picking up fast. We are seeing a ton of miracles. This week we got 24 referrals from members. That's an incredible number...like so good that our district doesn't believe us. We have the branches support and they are excited to work so I think there will be some miracles here soon. It's too bad that I have to leave now that things are going so well. 

Today we went up to the northern part of the island to pick up the Elders  from Lanzarote. We have exchanges tomorrow. Then José, a member, took us to 8 small villages throughout the island as well as some big sand dunes. It was super pretty. He also works as a tour guide so we learned a lot about the history of the island. 

My schedule for the last week is gonna be crazy. I'm flying to Madrid either Saturday night or Sunday after church and then from there I will have Sunday and Monday free to visit members. Then on Tuesday I will have a temple session in the morning, then my interview with President, and then the final celebration in the mission home. I think we'll have dinner and a testimony meeting. Then Wednesday morning we'll have breakfast and go to the airport. Until I leave the islands though, we're gonna be working hard trying to take advantage of the help from the members. I will let you know next week how it goes. Sorry the email is so long, but I had a lot to say and it still didn't all fit. 

Love you, 

Elder Johnson

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 

Last transfer 🙃

Hey, 

So this was probably the craziest transfer weekend of my mission. I'm not even sure where to start... Well, they closed our area. The sisters will stay in the ward but there won't be elders. So elder Jemmett is going to Madrid, and I am going back to the canary Islands! My new island is called Fuerteventura. There is only one Companionship on the island, so we might be a little lonely Jaja, but it's gonna be crazy. The big twist is that we are "whitewashing" it, meaning my new companion has never been there either. His name is Elder Backstein. He was trained by elder batty and is in the same group as elder Jemmett, so he's young in the mission. When we arrive tomorrow we will find the bishops house and get the keys to our apartment and then we will start to explore from there. This is gonna be an adventure for the next few weeks. 

We just grabbed a 3 hour bus to malaga and tonight around 8 I'll grab a train to Sevilla. I'm gonna spend the night there and then my flight leaves from Sevilla tomorrow around 2 I think. From there I'm not sure if I wfly directly to my island or if I'll go to a bigger one and then grab a boat to my island. I guess we'll see. I'm super excited though! 

The last two weeks here have been interesting. We worked really hard, but it was as if the lord was preparing the area to close. All of our friends moved away or stopped answering us, and all of our member appointments failed for dumb reasons. We just couldn't get anything going. It's OK though. Friday we did have a little miracle. Antonia, an investigator of 32 years, asked us a lot of questions about baptism in a lesson and as we answered we were pretty direct with her. The rest of her family are members but they can't be sealed because she isn't a member, so after we talked about that we decided to be a little bold and we asked her to be baptized. She was hesitant, but in the end she was excited to set the date for June 8. I really hope she gets baptized. We also found a family during my exchange with Elder Kohlström on Monday that has 2 kids above 8 that aren't baptized yet because the parents were inactive when they were that age. The sisters should baptize them this month. It's hard to leave it all behind after being here only 6 weeks and seeing these miracles this week, but it will be just as cool in the islands. 

I should also mentoon that Elder Johnson is the new AP, so that's super fun. I'll be seeing him at zone conference now and probably staying in his piso before I go home. Sadly I am leaving Elder Kohlström this transfer though. I'll see them all soon enough though when we're all home. I should have wifi on and off during this bus ride so we can chat. 

Love you, 

Elder Johnson

El Castillo de Santo Carolina and the death meeting...

Hey,

We didn't have to travel as much this week so we had a lot more time to work. We did have to go to Granada on Thursday for my death meeting (they changed the name to 'my continuing mission' this transfer), but that was it. Next week we'll go out there for district council on Wednesday and we're hopefully gonna buy some bikes. We requested them a few weeks ago so we can spend less time traveling since there is no public transportation here. We'll be the second area in the mission with bikes. I'm a little worried they're gonna make us wear nasty, yellow, reflective vests though.

The death meeting was super good though. It was about three hours long, which sucks, but the Mayberrys were in charge of it. They're tons of fun. They talked a lot about self reliance and what life will be like when we get home since we won't be high school students anymore. Some of the tasks they gave us were interesting. We had to make a 1 year plan, 5 year plan, and they challenged us to do certain things when we get home like move out of our parents house asap, go on a date or two our first week home, and go to the temple weekly. The talked a lot about bursting the mission bubble as quickly as possible. It was a good meeting and I took good notes that I can look at again in 6 weeks. 

We did something special this week to find more people to teach as a mission. On Wednesday we had a special district council and planned out tons of ideas to find new friends. Then on Thursday the entire mission and all wards with missionaries In them fasted. Then on Saturday we didn't plan any appointments, we just planned lots of finding activities like street contacting, Facebook finding, street contacting again using a big poster and table, and playing soccer with friends and members. It was really good. We found a few new friends from it that have huge potential. 

Today was super fun! We hiked up to the castle. It took us about 3 hours to get there, but it was totally worth it. The pictures are awesome. We had the whole district come out. This is probably one of the most fun districts I've been a part of. I'm not sure what else we can see now. I think the cathedral is the last thing. Anyways, love you

Elder Johnson