Merry Christmas!

Hey,

This will probably be a long one, just so you know. This was easily the busiest week of my mission. We did not have anywhere near enough time to do everything we wanted/needed to. We were up an hour earlier than normal everyday, and we got back at least an hour late to piso every night. It's OK, we didn't break any rules to do it (kinda), but it was a lot of work.

Tuesday we had mission council. That was awesome! It was a great example of how perfect the church really is. Each of the 30 missionaries came with a prepared list of things to discuss (needs of the zone, problems, successes, rule changes) as well as the Busseys. Then from 9am to 5pm we were all sitting in a giant circle and we just discussed each topic. It's cool because even though there were a lot of different opinions and ideas, we never once had an argument or hurt feelings. In the end everyone always agrees on what to do. It was a pretty spiritual day.

Then we had zone conference on Thursday. That one was LONG, but good. It started at 9am and ended at 7pm. It was a normal zone conference until 3, then we ate and celebrated Christmas. We did a zone white elephant game. I got a set of Buddha statue things. We also did a big talent show with all 4 Madrid zones. I got the packages on Tuesday! They were awesome! Thank you so much.

This week we weren't in our area much. Each day we worked in another area from the zone. We did the thing where we set up a table and the banner of #LightTheWorld and contacted people. It worked out really well. We were able to get to know the zone a lot better and figure out what we need to work on. We saw a ton of success too. We got a lot of numbers. I also did my first baptismal interview. That was really cool. We did that on Monday and then she was baptized this Saturday. We had a few friends come to the baptism as well. In fact, all 3 of the friends that came now have baptismal dates themselves. We have one for Feb. 2, another for January 26, and possibly another this week. That came out of nowhere. The special sacrament meeting was a success yesterday. We had 7 friends come to church, and a few of them brought their families. 

Yesterday was Christmas Eve, and even though it was mostly a work day, the world shut down so our normal work was pretty ineffective. We did our weekly planning in the morning, and then we went and played soccer. That was definitely my favorite way to contact. There were 4 teams and we just rotated through every 2 goals. There was a Japanese team, a Spanish team, a Latino team, and a French team. They put us on the French team. We did alright against the 2 Spanish speaking teams, but the Japanese team killed everybody. It was super fun though. Pday started at 6, but we still had some work to do. We decided to make it fun though. We had a meeting with the sister training leaders to do some stuff for the zone, but instead of doing it in the church, we went to the center of Madrid. We were in Sol, it's a massive downtown area. We made a video to pump up the zone to reach our goals for December. We found all the people that were dressed up weird (like Jack Sparrow, a minion, Mickey Mouse, and Pikachu) and we had them each say a phrase and then we put them all together at the end. It was pretty fun. Then we had an eating appointment at 9. It was a good night.

So far we have no plans today. We haven't had time to plan anything all week. I think we're about to call a bunch of missionaries and organize a little game of soccer/volleyball. We'll be ready for the call at 5:30 today.

I'm pretty sure I still forgot a bunch of stuff, but that's all I can remember. Love you guys! Merry Christmas!

Elder Johnson

The view from our piso (we can see the temple outside our window)

We are soooooo busy!

Hey, 

So you said you're trying to wrap your head around what my new area is like.. I'll try to describe the changes a little. The area itself is really different. We use the metro and buses a lot. We contact a lot in the metro. It's pretty easy down there because nobody can leave. 😂 We have a ton of members so it's hard to get to know all of them. We have about 300 active members and around 250 in sacrament meeting every week. It feels like a bigger ward than ours at home. We are going to eat with members every day this week (except for the days with meetings). 

Speaking of meetings, the mission has changed a lot this week. We are super, super busy. This week we are going to be in our own area for about 24-36 hours depending on travel time. Tomorrow we have mission leadership council in San Sebastián (north of Madrid). That's going to be from 8 to 5 and then we have interviews with President until 8 and by the time we make it back to our area it'll be late. Wednesday we have a meeting with the district leaders in our zone, ward correlation, and we are going to contact with our district using the light the world poster. Thursday we will have zone conference from 10 to 7. It's a special Christmas one. We are in charge of planning the games. It's really fun being involved in that. We're combining with 3 other zones too, so it's gonna be huge. After the conference we are going to another area in our zone to work with another district. We are going to do mini exchanges with all the missionaries in our zone this week. So we're starting that on Thursday. Friday we will be in our area for the morning, but we have a few baptismal interviews in the afternoon and then we are working with another district in their area again. Saturday we will be in our area until about 7pm, we're going to the center of Madrid to work with the last district. That's just a quick summary of our week. Even with all of that, we will need to fit in at leat 10 appointments and find some new friends to teach. 

Even the normal days are insanely busy now. We normally start work at about 7:15 and we end at 11:00. Before this area I always had time in the morning and at night to cook and do whatever I needed to do. It's not like that here. Every night we get back to piso and we are busy until the end of the night. Sometimes we have to make calls to missionaries, sometimes to investigators. Other times we have numbers to do or lessons to report. We are so busy. 

We have been blessed though. This week we had 3 or 4 appointments every day and we found 9 new friends. My mission record was 5 before this week. We went crazy talking to people. Elder Johnson is a pretty outgoing kid so it's pretty fun contacting together. We fasted yesterday with a friend named Jesus. He's trying to quit smoking. He is progressing really well so once he stops baptism is very possible. Tomorrow we are going to fast again with some members. Since we're so busy here, I think I'm just gonna fast all the time so we can get the extra blessings. 

That Thai food looks bomb! Both Elder Johnsons here love Thai food so if you find a restaurant we will definitely find it. Everything will go fine with Emma's surgery today. I'm sure this morning is just gonna be chaos. Let me know how everything goes. I'll be watching my email. Oh, and don't be nerveso...

Love you, 

Elder Johnson

#IluminaElMundo Week 2 - On the Move

Hey,

This week was nuts. The first half of the week isn't even worth mentioning, but Thursday and on was insane. Thursday night I got a call from President. I was transfered. The crazy thing is that I moved earlier than the rest of the mission. He called at 10pm on Thursday and I moved early Saturday morning. I've been here in Barrio 6 since then. I'm not only in a ward now, I'm in the biggest ward in SPAIN! My area is also temple Square! This area is the promised land. I'm super excited to be here.

I'm also excited about my new companion.. I don't know if you remember the other Elder Johnson from the islands, but he's my new comp. He's one of my best friends in the mission so this is gonna be legen... Wait for it... Dary!!! Unfortunately we have the same name. It's been a big hit with the ward so far though. They will never forget this companionship.

The reason I came up here early is because I'm zone leader now and I had to replace the guy that is the new AP. This transfer is gonna be a ton of fun. I'm in my old district. We're gonna have lots of meetings and exchanges. One of the coolest parts is that I will be doing exchanges in CUENCA!!

¡¡¡¡¡HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ERIN AND DAD!!!!! I hope this week is awesome for you guys! Send me pictures of the Thai food.

Yes, I miss Puerto. I will always miss Puerto. It is cold here. It was 77° when I left Sevilla. It's cold here. I almost died when I got off the train. Speaking of Puerto though... Jonathan should be coming up to the temple in January/February and I'm here now to go with him. I'm also gonna get my package next Tuesday in mission leadership council. That worked out well.

Love you guys,

Elder Johnson

Christmastime in Sevilla:

With Adilia

#IluminaElMundo Week 1 - Worldwide Service Day

Hey, 

Christmas season officially started in Dos Hermanas Friday night. They lit all of the lights around the city and the big Christmas tree near the town hall. We didn't see it because we were in an appointment, but it was fun to go outside and see some lights. This city is decorated a lot better than Zamora was last year. 

To start off December, we had the #LightTheWorld day of service on Saturday. We tried really hard to make it a good turnout, but the ward just wasn't interested. In the end the two of us worked with an organization called ONG. We spent the entire morning loading a big crate full of clothing, diapers, and food to send to Perú. It was really cool. We met some awesome people that volunteer there, and we are going back this week to see if we can work with them more. Even though we failed with the ward, it was a success for us. 

Tuesday we had intercambios with the zone leaders. I was with Elder Bates this time. Hes pretty cool. We had a pretty normal day, but 2 things happened that made it fun. One, I forgot my tablet in Dos Hermanas and we had time set aside to post on facebook. That got complicated. B, we had an appointment with a lady that walked in during district meeting last week and asked if someone could teach her about the church. She was awesome. As I shared the first vision, she started to cry and kept saying "that's true, that's true." We set a baptismal date with her and if everything goes as planned she will be baptized the 15 of December. Very soon. Sadly I won't even be able to go to the baptism because it's not my district. 

I think I forgot to give the sad news about Adilia last week. There were issues with the contract at her new job, and she ended up losing it. Luckily, her old job took her back, but she is not going to be able to attend church until January. That means her baptism will be February at the soonest. 

Transfers are next week. We'll see if there are changes in our companionship. I think it's about 50/50. They changed the way it works. If one of us leaves, it will be on Tuesday now rather than Monday. That way we have time to pack on Monday. I'll let you know what happens. 

Today we just went to Alcalá de Guadaíra to hang out in the church with our district. We could go to Sevilla so there weren't many options. We played uno, pase 10, and ping pong. We're heading back to Dos Hermanas right now so I can get my hair cut. It's a pretty chill pday, but it was fun. 

Love you, 

Elder Johnson

Christmas in Dos Hermanas 

This is a picture from October that Elder Birnbaumer sent me.