Pre Christmas

Hi guys,

We tried lots of new things this week. Mission life really is pretty fun even when the work isn't going well.

We went to McDonald's to use the wifi the other day and just messaged random people on Facebook. It was pretty easy. I just looked at people in my area and sent them a friend request. At first it seemed weird, but when you think about it we do the same on the street. We've been trying to find someone to play soccer with, but there isn't ever anybody playing this time of year. So I just messaged the goalie for Zamoras team and asked if we could play sometime... Guess what we did on Tuesday :) We met him and all of his buddies (the team) at a court and played a real game. I got absolutely smoked and it just reminded me that I'm still not really in shape. But it was really fun. It's been a long time since I've played at that intensity. I kinda miss it. So since that worked we tried again and I talked to a guy from California that played basketball in California. He's super cool. He just moved here this week and doesn't speak any Spanish, so I'm hoping we can help him with that. Other than that we're still trying to teach someone. I've only taught 1 lesson with Elder Stulen so far. We had 2 lessons fall through this week so we're hoping this next week we can get something going.

We had intercambios in Salamanca Thursday and Friday. The four of us went to the branch presidents house for dinner Thursday night, wow that was good. They made papusas for us. It was pretty much a Christmas party. We had tons of food and Christmas music and they invited like half the branch. It was awesome to get to know everybody better. The last time we did something like that in Salamanca I couldn't talk to anyone,this time was completely different. Elder Tribett is training right now too, and it's cool cause I was in the same spot as his companion only a few weeks ago. It's fun to see the progress. We are going to Valladolid again for Intercambios with the zone leaders on Wednesday. I'm excited to actually see the city this time. 

I'm really not feeling as motivated to write a ton today since we will talk next week. Umm, yeah. See you soon

Josh

Christmas in Coruña

Hey,

It's starting to look a lot like Christmas here! Zone conference was awesome. It looks like you saw some pictures of the caroling. I can't remember exactly what your post said, but I thought I would mention that we made the front page of the newspaper with that activity. It was a big newspaper, too. La Voz de Galicia (The Voice of Galicia) is really popular all over northern Spain. We only had a 3 hour pday because we had to practice for it, but it was totally worth it. People were completely dumbfounded. I was the one that broke off from the group to go talk to people again, and all of the old people just kept saying they had never seen anything like that in their lives. We had a huge crowd and we even had a bunch of people jump in to sing with us.

I think one of the worst/best parts of the weekend will make you laugh. We stayed in the Marriott AC hotel on Thursday night, and I think that made me more homesick than anything yet. There isn't much that is similar to home here in Zamora, but Marriott never changes. We were in the exact same room me and dad always stay in. It was like I was home. Weird right? (and yeah, I know I sound spoiled right now) Friday we finally had the conference. It was only a few hours long so we could have a Christmas party, but it was really good. We basically studied a talk given by Tad R. Callister that he gave in the provo mtc. It was really good.

The Christmas party was pretty good. The senior couple from up north really took care of us. They cooked an awesome dinner; ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, tons of vegetables, actual rolls, tons of dessert. It was awesome. Then we played minute to win it games and had some Christmas trivia games. The white elephant was actually pretty good too. I got Danish battleship. As far as I can tell it's the same. Since we had both zones it was pretty chaotic though. We had 50+ presents in the pile. After that we opened our letters from the first presidency and our presents from you guys and the Packs.

It was pretty cool having a pile of 3 packages there for me. I set up the tree from the ward in our piso and put all of the wrapped gifts under it. I'm thinking I will wait until Christmas to open anything unless there is something I will want beforehand. Just let me know if there is and how to figure out which one it is. Me and Elder Tribett had fun going through all of the ornaments and reading everything from the ward. And I loved all the letters from the cousins. Oh yeah, since I've been talking about Christmas this whole time, I should let you know. We have been working on the plans for the Skype call. We will have access to the chapel in Benavente and we can use their wifi, or we may go down to Salamanca so we can hang out with the district. If that's the case we would probably call from a members house or burger King.

Quick update on the area. The baptism didn't happen Saturday. We haven't taught her in 2 weeks. It's hard to even text her at this point. We haven't found a new investigator in 4 or 5 weeks. Feels like forever. Every day that we were in Zamora this week we went out and knocked doors or talked to people on the street for 6+ hours straight. That's all I've got for this week. Zamora is tough right now. 

As far as other news goes. I put a bunch of new photos in the Google drive. Hopefully they worked. I went and bought my coat today. It's pretty sweet. I should be warm this winter. It snowed in Zamora while we were up north. It's crazy how cold it got. The week before we left we didn't see the sun at all because it was so foggy. It didn't even get above 30°. I think I will call the guy for the Real Madrid jersey soon. I'm pretty excited for that.

That's all for this week. Love you guys,

Elder Johnson

Vacation

Hey guys,

Its been a week and a half since I last emailed. It feels like we do the exact same thing everyday right now but at the same time a ton has changed this transfer. I had no idea how much could change with a new companion.

So first, we have had some changes with the area. We only have 1 investigator now, it's the one we were supposed to baptize Saturday. She's not ready though, so we pushed it back to the 23. Other than that we spend 4-7 hours everyday out on the street contacting. It's been pretty rough. Zamora isn't super big so we have had a few times where we talk to the same person 2 or 3 times in one day. The other problem is that it hasn't gotten above 30° in a few days so no one is outside. We are basically in the same spot right now as when they opened the area this last spring. It does sound like we're moving to Benavente soon. We will be reopening that area. I'm excited but nervous. We don't really have anything to start with so we'll see how it goes.

We have zone conference tomorrow. So right now we are making the 4 hour drive north to A Coruña. I'm really excited. I've heard that it's actually going to be green up there and they don't have sheep everywhere.We're going to spend our pday together as a zone so I think we're going to play some beach soccer and volleyball and then go caroling tonight. It should be cool cause we have 2 zones together. It should be over 50 missionaries. That's a good sized choir in the street. Oh, we're staying in a Meriott tonight. Yeah, nice huh. Idk what happened there. Last thing, Galicia is beautiful and this feels like a real vacation.

Talk to you soon since I have pday again Monday.

Josh

Transfers

Hey, 

Elder Jäger is gone!! I'll talk more about that in a sec, but I know you guys will be curious who my new comp is... All I know is that his name is Elder Stulen and he is from Norway. His train will arrive around 9:00 tonight so I'll know more in next week's email. He was serving in the islands so he had to fly to Madrid and then catch a train up here. Elder Jäger is going to Alcalá de Henares. That is the city we went to in the ccm that is famous for Don Quixote. 

We had Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday after district meeting. We kinda laughed at Elder Jäger the whole time. We cooked for an hour tuesday night and an hour during mediodía on Wednesday, and the whole time was just chaos. For us that was normal, that's thanksgiving. But elder Jäger didn't understand why we liked it so much. In the end we cooked 7 turkey filets, 3 packages of gravy plus drippings, 2 packages of stuffing plus the extra bread we added, and 15 potatoes for 4 of us. We didn't have leftovers... but we did have a Thanksgiving hangover. 

Since we knew this would be Elder Jäger's last week here, we had tons of dinner appointments. We just texted everyone we have ever met here and we ended up pretty busy. That means this week was all aboutfood. Thursday night we met with our hippie investigator. The one with the naked prayer circles. I'm not really sure how to describe that night. We went up to the 4th floor of his art shop and built a fire. We cooked a bunch of blood sausage and hairy pig skin, then we all held hands and did a prayer circle. I don't know why that skin stuff is so popular here but I really hate it. The food wasn't good. I don't know what else to say about the rest of the night. Let's just say it all started with them telling us that the fire has more energy if we all take our clothes off. We won't be going back anymore. Oh yeah, they gave elder Jäger a cool stone statue thing they found on a spiritual trip to Perú. I was super jealous of that. The only other thing worth mentioning as far as food goes is that we found a Chinese restaurant. We ate there Friday for lunch. That's the first real Asian food I've had since July. I really missed that. 

President Pack changed the rules on music a little for Christmas. We can listen to non-hymn Christmas songs as long as they are Christ-centered. So since I didn't have any of those Elder Tribbett in my districtshared some songs with me over Bluetooth. I have about 1,100 songs now. Thats really nice with how much we drive. Most of it is allowed, hymns or good Christmas stuff, but some of it will be for later. Lots of Disney music, piano guys, star wars music... Yeah. Really good stuff.

I think there was more I wanted to email about, but I can't remember what it was so maybe next week.

Until next week, 

Elder Johnson 

Thanksgiving Dinner

Josh and Elder Jäger eating the German Apple pancakes we sent in the last package.

Christmas Lights

Hey,

I can't believe it's already been another week. We have been super busy again and time just flies. I just realized last night that this week I will hit 4 months. I never even realized I had hit 3 months. I've been a little distracted. I miss you guys, especially now in this time of year with Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I'm really enjoying where I am right now too. The mission is such a special experience. Everyday I'm learning and changing. I've got to tell you all about zone conference. It was super cool.

So Monday night we went to the main square in León and did a little Christmas choir thing. I know I'm not the best at singing but I still try. I've learned to try since I've been here. But I got volunteered to be the one that leaves the choir to talk to people so I didn't have to suffer. (I was never suffering, I think they just told me that so I wouldn't sing anymore) At first that brought down my confidence a little, at least with singing, but the rest of the night was huge confidence builder. I had some solid conversations with people and got some phone numbers for the Elders in León. 2 of them are even investigators already. So that was cool. I like feeling like I can do something. That night all the Elders from the zone slept in the león piso. We had 16 of us, someone said it was a mission record. I wouldnt be surprised. I was lucky enough to have a mattress, but I think one Elder tried the barney technique and slept in the bathtub because we were out of room. Funny thing about the mattress, it said Bilbao mission 1999 on the backside, so it's at least that old. But we have heard a lot about the Bilbao mission this week and everyone thinks it's super cool that Cari served there. Anyways, that was a super crazy night. We ordered a massive delivery of kebab and had a feast.

Zone conference on Tuesday was inspiring as always. We always learn so much about how we can improve our area. The second half was all training on the Christmas initiative "#lighttheworld." Christmas is going to make the work so much easier. We are planning an activity right now with all of the members in Salamanca and Benavente. we're going to get everyone together and have the members singing Christmas songs while the four of us talk to everyone. We're even going to wrap books of mormon to look like presents and give those out. We put up Christmas lights in our piso today. They hang from the entrance, all the way down the hall, into the dining room, and into the living room. We went pretty hard. 

Thursday was Elder Jäger's birthday. They stuff from the package was a good start to celebrate. Then tried that cheesecake recipe. That was really easy and we both liked it. It definitely isn't healthy though. We tried making Squash soup for lunch the way an investigator did... it didn't really work. We ended up with garlic soup. I'll attach a picture though. Other than that we were busy, we had 3 lessons scheduled. So we're going to finish celebrating Wednesday with Thanksgiving dinner and a birthday cake. All of our investigators and the members in Benavente love American desserts so far. We made peach cobbler on Friday and had a picnic at the sacrament park with some investigators, then yesterday we took a cheesecake to Benavente and had that for dessert. And then this Thursday I'm taking peach cobbler to have them try it. They agreed to give me a recipe if I give them one. Winning. 

I don't think I told you guys last week. We were in Salamanca for sacrament meeting and I guess whoever was supposed to speak didn't show up. So the branch president got up and said I was going to speak. That was fun. I had to fill 15 minutes with absolutely nothing prepared. That's hard enough in english. The good thing is I've gotten really familiar with the gospel over the last few months so I could just talk without having to think too much. Then yesterday I gave my 9th talk. I'm getting pretty good at these now. All I did to prepare was read the talk you sent me. After that I just got up and talked about that. I think it sounds a lot better when you're not just reading from a paper. I talked to Elder Barreles, one of the AP's, on tuesday. He said we should try getting a hotel room for sacrament meeting on sunday. He was in the same situation in the Canaries a few months ago. So we're trying to get permission from president for that. 

That package was sooo good last week. The ties are awesome. It's nice to switch it up. 5 of the ties I brought aren't allowed. The stuffing was crushed to powder, but I'm going to try to salvage what I can. I'll send pictures of the dinner next week. I also need to send pictures of Benavente. It's so beautiful there. It's all palm trees and green grass, but then they decorate the city like crazy for Christmas. Salamanca is the same way. Tons of decorations. I was thinking about it this week and I really have gotten everything I asked for. I'm in a crazy area, it's like a third world country sometimes, but then there's palm trees everywhere. Friday was even 75 degrees. 

That temperature is kinda fake though. It was one warm day. Saturday was 45 degrees. I went and bought gloves, a scarf, and a beanie today. I'll buy a coat if I need it next week. We'll see what happens with transfers. 

The pictures are 1. caroling picture 2. zone conference 3. Squash 4. messing around on the sheep farm.

Well, I think thats everything. Talk to you next week.

Josh

LEÓN!

Hey guys,

Its been another crazy week. Today is super busy too. We drove up to León for zone conference tomorrow and we're just going to spend the night in the elders piso here. Best P-day yet. We played soccer for like 4 hours this morning with the whole zone and now we're playing risk. I'm writing this in between turns so it might not be the best email.

I kind of complained last week and I shouldn't have done that. Everytime things get hard, that's when the miracles come. I should have known that before. This week we really went hard in the streets and we found a few people we could teach. We have 1 new investigator in Benavente and we have actually set a baptism date for December 9. She's progressing super fast and I really feel like this one is going to happen. We have already taught 4 of the 5 lessons, so we're almost done. (everything is broken up into 5 lessons, but the fourth lesson takes about 10 times to teach.) super cool that she is progressing so fast.

Erin asked about elder Jäger. It's almost certain that he will leave next transfer. It would be kinda weird for him to stay in Zamora for 7 months. We have a lot planed for our last 2 weeks though. We have a pretty solid bucket list right now. I think next week we're going to decorate the piso with some Christmas stuff.

 

I got the package already! The entire zone knows I'm spoiled now. You guys are awesome. I got the card. Oh boy. Elder Jäger loves the package. He says that one thing is pretty legit, so nice job. You nailed it. Where did those ties come from? I'm excited to switch it up a little.

Here is a picture of elder jager with his Christmas, and a few of me in Benavente. 

(Elder Jäger with his treats from us!) 

Week 15 - Chicken Hearts and Sleepovers

Hey,

This week flew by. We were so busy. It was one of those weeks where we had so much good, and a ton of bad, but you don't really notice the bad until the end cause you're focused on the good. 

Miracle/Spiritual Highlight: OK, so found an older couple in the area book this week and decided to go visit them. It showed that they are members, but not active. So when we got out there we had a spiritual thought prepared and just planned on getting to know them. They were so happy to see us though. It turns out they want to try to go to church, but they haven't been able to because of health issues. They thought they had to drive an hour and a half to valladolid. They had no idea about our new Zamora group. They're solid though, awesome testimonies. So we shared our spiritual thought and then asked them if we could do anything for them, and she asked for a blessing for her health issues. We talked about it for a minute and asked if he would like to give the blessing, but he said he couldn't because he didn't have the priesthood anymore. We were really confused by that, but it turns out he felt really guilty about not going to church for the last little while. We talked about it for a while and in the end he decided he would give her the blessing. Afterwards the spirit was really stong, and it was very emotional. I can't really describe it. But imagine what it would be like when you have a burden like that lifted off of your shoulders. It was obvious that had been bothering him for a while. And for her it was emotional too. She was just crying and crying and thanking us. But really we hadn't done much. So after all of that he asked me to give him a blessing. That was my first blessing in spanish. I've given one in english, and anointed the oil in spanish a few times, but this one scared me. It was so cool though. We're going back this week to see them again.  

Food: Hmmmm, food... yeah it was a good food week. Tuesday we went to a dominican investigators house. (He's awesome, he lived in New York for like 10 years so his English is perfect.) He was cooking when we got there, so he offered us a plate. I wish I had a picture of elder Jagers face. It was just a big plate of rice with chicken hearts and onions. Im glad I've tried that before cause it would have been pretty scary. I loved it though, I probably ate 40 hearts. Then the next day we went to "Mark's" new place and had a BBQ. They always feed us so much. I ate like 3 steaks, 1 chicken breast, and 3 sausages. Plus salads. I thought I was going to throw up. Im pretty sure they think they get extra blessings when they feed us a lot. 

The Rest: Yeah, so I mentioned that there was bad... we basically lost every investigator this week and our hopes of a church group here fell apart. We haven't found any new investigators in 2 weeks. Oh yeah, we had a baptism scheduled for Nov. 25, and that's already canceled. :) 

We were either dropped by the investigators throughout the week, or we had to drop them because they weren't progressing anymore. That one kind happened gradually. And yes that includes the "second mom" I had mentioned. We are actually passing by tonight to let her know. She has ditched us 4 times this week though, so we don't really have another option. Our church group happened pretty fast. "Mark" and his family moved too far away so they're part of Salamanca now, our member family moved to England, and we have no investigators. Cool right. So yeah, that's gone. The lady that I told you guys about that split from from her boyfriend had a little miracle this week, and blew it. She had some things happen at work that allowed her to come to the meeting yesterday, and she called us super excited, but then she never showed up. Nobody did. We haven't heard from her still. I'm hoping everything is ok, but we will have to move the date back that we set for the 25th cause she needs to come to church 3 times. 

We did have lots of fun though. Wednesday we were at "Mark's" new house and we helped him paint. We had the Salamanca elders come help us, so we slept in Salamanca Tuesday night and then had a mini roadtrip Wednesday morning. Then we had Intercambios Thursday and Friday with the Zone leaders. Valladolid is awesome. It's massive compared to Zamora. I was with elder Douglas, elder Jagers old companion. We had tons of fun. I think it's super cool that Cari served there. With all of that we had 2 Sleepovers this week, that's super fun. 

We didn't do anything fun today, just cleaned and took a nap. I am honestly just exhausted. I don't really have pictures because of that though. I think I can send some from last week that I wasnt able to send at first. 

Love,

Josh

elder jager isn't trying to flip off the camera, I promise. That picture is in valladolid. the next picture is our church/park. It's just pretty. I forgot to mention that we came home to our piso building being on fire on wednesday. theres the view from our piso.