Training Week 8 - Exploring the Island

Hey, 

This week was a lot better! It hasn't been bad here, but the last few have been slooooww. We've been working really hard though, and it showed this week. We found more new investigators this week than I have any other week of my mission. 3 of them are already progressing well. We have 2 that I am really excited for. The first guy is from Cuba. He's really cool. We started talking to him in a parking lot because he had a Disney World hoodie on, turns out he lived in Florida for a while. The second is a woman that lives on the other side of the island. We've met with her twice already and she's really cool. She gave me a cool soccer key chain.

So Elder Uchtdorf did a training recently for missionaries on how to work better with members of the church. It was awesome. We watched it this week and it was really inspiring. We are working on teaching a perfect lesson in 4 minutes so that we can just stop by and share something with them even if time might be an issue. The goal is to be in and out in like 10-15 minutes. This way we can get to know them and gain their trust better. So far it is going well. We already received a referral from it this week.

Today we went on a pretty cool hike. It's in our area, just really high up the mountain. It was beautiful though. It really reminded me of the Uintahs. We were up there for about 5 hours, so we got lots of pictures. We only went with the 6 of us from our district though, Santa Cruz didn't come today. 

Later tonight we are doing some service with a member from England. She is so cool. Idk if I have talked about her before, but we eat with her every week. We are going to help her clean her house(mansion) first, then we will have a family home evening with them. They are going to teach me how to make a Spanish tortilla. I'm finally going to learn!!!! 

That is so crazy that Dad spoke on that topic yesterday! I didn't even know he was speaking. Me and Elder Rogers stayed up until like 2 am talking about that last night. I don't know how we got on the topic, but at one point it just hit him. Looking back he was really surprised how much he has changed in the last 3 months. He didn't like it at first, he still wants to be the person he was when he left. After he said that I started thinking about it a lot. To some degree I still want to be the same. But I don't know how I can serve a successful mission and not come home a different person. 

Both me and Elder Rogers are super excited for the world cup updates. We were drooling this morning with the champion's league pictures. You're the best for sending those. Love you guys, 

Elder Johnson

Training Week 7 - Boring Week

Hey guys,

Sorry about last week. It was a super short, last minute email. I think I mentioned in the call that we took Elder Brasher to the airport on Sunday. After that we were in a trio with Elder Jefferies until Monday night. So we got up early Monday and met the Hermanas at the Market. After that we grabbed lunch and played risk all day. Here's the thing though, we were busy, but not so busy I couldn't write. I just don't know what to write anymore, especially after talking last week. I've been here almost 5 months and things are starting to blend together. I'll think of some good stuff though.

Things are good here. Me and Elder Rogers get along super well. I have noticed a pattern with all of my companions that I have 2 transfers with. The first few weeks we are getting used to each other, then weeks 5 and 6 are a little harder because we start to get sick of each other (makes sense since we're within sight and sound of each other 24/7). After that though, we always start to blend into one person. We always get past the things that are annoying and we start to pick up each other's little habits. We noticed this week that we reached that point. We're NSYNC now.... Jaja

I kinda started freaking out this week. I've realized that the last 5 months have flown by, so the next 5 weeks will feel like nothing. I'm not ready to leave yet. I've been thinking a lot about last citas, last Pdays, all that stuff. I hit my 10 month mark in my mission this week, too. I'm seriously freaking out about how fast time is just disappearing. 

I loved hearing about the temple celebration this week. I wasn't able to open the link, it was blocked. But I'm watching lds.org for the video. I'm excited to see it. I really enjoyed dad's email about the vacation last weekend. I might live in paradise right now, but it's still long workdays. A weekend vacation sounds pretty good to me. 

I don't really have pictures this week, and I'm not sure what else to talk about, so I'm gonna stop writing now. I hope you guys have a good week. Talk to you later :) 

Elder Johnson

Ps. The email is labeled boring week because it was boring. Oh, and I forgot to talk about aquarius! I had that with lunch today. It's basically Spanish Gatorade, but I like it. But yeah, that's all. Hasta luego

Training Week 6 - Transfers and Mother's Day Calls

Hey,

We had a crazy day today! We went to the African market this morning. Dad would have loved it. I'll go back and buy him something. Lots of spices and sauces. After that we grabbed some subway and headed back to the chapel to play risk with the Santa Cruz Hermanas. We played 2 games and I dominated both. ;) 

So I uploaded a few pictures. The cool one is of me holding a parrot. We found a guy on the street and while we taught him the restoration his pet parrot landed by us and he let me hold him. That was cool. 

Don't worry about the car situation. We will get it figured out. The biggest thing is just making sure elder Rogers handles it ok. I'll tell you more next week!

Love you guys! It was fun talking yesterday!

Josh 

Fun things we talked about on Mother's Day:

Transfers were this week (Elder Roger's has another 6 weeks of training so Josh isn't being transferred)

The Canary Islands will still be part of the Madrid Mission after the mission consolidation (July 1)

The car is still in the shop for a while (might be totalled)

Josh called from the church in Santa Cruz

He loves the islands and the people there! They play soccer every Saturday with ward members.

There are over 3000 members but only 280ish that are active. The missionaries reach out to inactive members. The new Ministering program has helped a lot. 

There are times when no one plays the piano at church so Josh and Elder Rogers are learning to play some of the Hymns so that they can play at church. They practice and are learning together.

Josh sings in the ward choir and has had a solo.

It has been close to 77° every day since Josh got to Puerto in January. The weather couldn't be more perfect. 

He says he is comfortable with the language and has finally figured out how to be sarcastic in Spanish. 😉 He ended our call with a special Mother's Day message to me in Spanish. 

Training Week 5 - I hate cars pt. 2

Hey guys,

Sorry for the short email last week. It was a busy day. We are in Puerto for pday again today. We went to a new cliff/Beach area. I've been looking at it for a while and it was even better than I expected. Then we went to the Vietnamese place. It's a 3 minute walk from our piso and it's really good. Elder Rogers got the chicken Sautee Bahn mi, and I got vermicelli noodles with langostines. That was one of the best meals I've had here.

We've noticed that our investigators aren't progressing as well as we would like this transfer. I think part of it is the fact that we are training. We are both learning a lot as we go and we probably make a ton of mistakes. But I think we are going to change some things and try to improve it a little quicker. We are going to explore some new areas this week, and we are working with the members more. Tuesday we had a little miracle with the members. The story is kinda long, but I'll just give you the short version. We organized a ward activity and 2 families came. So I got pretty frustrated and went and talked to the counselors in the bishopric. At first it seemed like a bad idea, but now we are going to have 2 activities per week and they are in charge of inviting people. It worked out pretty well. I think these activities will help the ward a lot.

OK, this is pretty cool. I think I told you guys that I taught myself how to whistle a while ago. I was pretty happy with that, but this week I tried something new. I have a theory that our abilities are all enhanced on the mission. A lot of it has to do with the spirit. But I sat down at a piano the other day and I figured out how to play most of the star wars theme song! That's pretty cool, right?! Piano isn't that hard. So after church yesterday Elder Rogers helped me, and now I can play the right hand on "Press Forward, Saints." I also figured out how to read the music. So I'm going to keep practicing and see what happens. I've never been good at that stuff. 

Unfortunately we had a small setback on Thursday. Well, not super small. As we were pulling out of the church parking lot Elder Rogers hit a post. I'll upload some pictures. We were fine, but it did some decent damage. The wheel was bent, tire popped, door dented, and chasis dented/bent. So tonight we are going to find out how much it will cost. The church has insurance so it's all covered, but that scared me. Sadly we lost all of our citas that day and we will probably not have the car for a while. Hopefully it isn't in the shop too long. Good news is I figured out how to change a tire. That's the first time I've ever done that.

Yesterday was actually mother's day here in Spain. So.... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!! Here is a little quote from an Elder Holland talk, "To all of our mothers everywhere, past, present, or future, I say, “Thank you. Thank you for giving birth, for shaping souls, for forming character, and for demonstrating the pure love of Christ.” “Thank you for your crucial role in fulfilling the purposes of eternity.” To all mothers in every circumstance, including those who struggle—and all will—I say, “Be peaceful. Believe in God and yourself. You are doing better than you think you are. In fact, you are saviors on Mount Zion, and like the Master you follow, your love ‘never faileth.’ ” I can pay no higher tribute to anyone. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

Love you, 

Elder Johnson

Zone Conference 

Training Week 4 - Interviews

Hey,

This was a super fun week. We have zone conference tomorrow so the entire zone came to Puerto for Pday. Most of them went to loro parque, but I'm kind of playing tour guide with the other group. It was pretty fun but I'm exhausted. This will be a pretty short email.

We did the "Puerto Tour" today where we walk along the coast, eat Chinese, and hang out on the Rocky beach. It was cool because it was a whole new group of missionaries. I had my interview with President yesterday. That was different than the ones I've had before. We pretty much just talked about Elder Rogers and how I can help him more. I also got permission to call the Benavente branch because their building burned down recently. That still makes me pretty sad but I can't wait to talk to them again.

We made some awesome progress with some less active members this week. Pedro hasn't been to church in more than a year but he came yesterday. I'll send a picture of that. We also have seen numbers go way up with me and Elder Rogers. We are finding almost twice as many investigators per week as me and elder Tiebing. That really surprised me. Our Intercambios went well this week. I was with Elder Johnson and we had a ton of fun. That kid is awesome. We would definitely be good friends outside of the mission.

I think thats all I have this week. Thanks for your emails and I'll email you more next week.

Love you,

Elder Johnson

{me, Pedro, Elder Rogers}

I'rn Bru

{Johnson & Johnson}
... we made fun of the picture on FB ...

Training Week 3 - Loro Parque Part II

Hey guys,

I'm emailing you a little early today because we are going to be at Loro Parque again all day. I'm super excited though, we're going with all elders today. The hermanas are going with Hermana Pack next week so they didn't want to go today. I'll send lots of pictures again, but let me tell you about the week.

So to begin the week we did some service with a member here in Puerto. She has a garden that's on a cliff/the ocean. It's pretty sick. So we helped her pull everything out and plant new stuff. It was really nice to switch it up and have a few hours of yardwork. That morning was crazy though. We messed up when we were scheduling appointments. We were supposed to help her from 9 to 2, but we scheduled a teaching appointment at 11 on the other side of the island. Long story short, we skipped breakfast and showed up early, then we drove to the cita and changed clothes in the car, they didn't answer, then we changed on the way back and worked in the garden until lunch. It was exhausting but totally worth it.

We are continuing with #SweepTheEarth this week. It's actually not as bad as I thought, and I like the effect it's having on the ward. We actually got it going and we have a bunch of people participating. I don't know what effect it would have at home, but I think it would be cool if you guys tried it. I think it would be fun hearing those things from you guys.

We had intercambios/exchanges this Thursday. I was with Elder Hinckley. It was kinda weird because he's from my CCM group. After training for the last few weeks it was a big change in how the work was. I felt like we were pros. It was a good intercambio though and I learned a lot. It may have been the best one of my mission. We had a really good lesson that night. It was one of those where the spirit was overwhelming, and when I was testifying I could really feel the power. In the end, he accepted a baptismal date and it was a cool lesson to be a part of.

I think this is the first week since I have been in Tenerife that we haven't had a lesson with Jonathan. It was really weird. It might be a good thing though. We have become really good friends and you know I talk a lot. I'm finally to the point where my Spanish doesn't limit me on that, so we have had some visits go a little long with him because we were talking the whole time. He reminds me A LOT of dad. It's crazy. We were talking about the possibility of me going to the temple with them next year. If I'm still in Madrid, I think I would be able to go with them. They are going to be sealed in February. I'm so excited for them. They've also mentioned that they want to come to both me and Elder Tiebings weddings. That would be crazy.

I'll send some pictures later today. And can you tell me when mothers day is? I have no idea, I just know its close. Love you, 

Elder Johnson

Training Week #2 - We Speak Spanish

Hey guys,

We finally went on another hike today. I feel like I write my emails from the bus every week lately. I'll have to send some good pictures later. So, this week we tried a TON of new things.

I'm sure you already noticed Facebook. We decided we are going to make a bigger effort to take advantage of it. It's actually kinda funny how we started the challenge. We were watching some training videos for new missionaries, and there was a clip of Elder Bednar speaking. He was talking about how the Lord is furthering His work through technology. It was actually that same quote that's on the first picture I posted. But when I heard it, I got the impression that we should do that challenge everyone did a while ago. You guys know me, I ABSOLUTELY HATE THAT STUFF. And I'll admit, I tried to ignore it, but it kept coming back and I remembered the discussion we had right before I was set apart. We talked about how we shouldn't hesitate, when an impression comes, just act. So here we are, and what do you know, it's actually been a huge success already. It took off in our ward already. That was a little miracle this week.

That wasn't the only miracle this week, in fact, greenie miracles are real things. We had a lot of time for street contacting this week, but no success. At least not at first. But like Elder Taylor said in general conference, "God sanctifies the most difficult days." I truly believe that no effort is wasted, all that time that we put in this week paid off in the end. Saturday we were in the streets for about 3 hours and no one would talk to us. I was pretty frustrated so I totally turned and knocked on a nearby door, cause why not. They answered and we were able to teach them the first lesson. We'll be going back Thursday to teach them again. So we knocked on their neighbors door, we taught them the plan of salvation and were going back tomorrow morning. We found and taught 4 new people within 2 hours. We were cruising. That was a big relief this week.

Next greenie miracle... we only cooked for ourselves 1 time this week. We had lunch appointments everyday. We ate homemade pizza, Moroccan food, Indian food, tacos, and a stir-fry. It was a good week as far as food goes. We took the taco seasoning and kool-aid you sent me to Jonathan's and had lunch with them. That reminded me of home way too much.

We made some good progress in training this week. I realized when I first left the MTC that I just didn't know the lessons well enough, and I think it's the same for most new missionaries. I mean, I knewabout how the church was restored, I basically knew the plan of salvation. But in order to actually teach these things, you need to know it inside out. So when I noticed that Elder Rogers was in the same situation this week, we went and bought these big posterthings and made some giant blueprints of the lessons. It seemed like too much effort at first, but it helped a ton and we are teaching a lot better together now. The other big progress we made was in spanish. I think this week has probably been a little harder for him, but it's all worth it in the end. We haven't spoken English since Wednesday morning. Well, almost. From 11:00 to 11:30 at night we speak English because sometimes it's nice to be able to express yourself. But other than that it's all Spanish, all the time. This made the biggest difference in my training, so why not do it now, right?

Me and the other Elder Johnson are the only ones left from the group that went to loro parque a while ago. Everyone is pushing pretty hard to go again next week. We'll see what happens. It was amazing, but I would rather do something else with my time and money since I've already done it. We'll figure it out though. If we don't do it we will do another hike. I guess either way you will get good pictures.

OK, here is the part where I answer all of your questions... But first, thank you so much for all of those pictures. Me and Elder Rogers were drooling all week. We saw the Man City celebrations at a bar the other night. That was sad to see. And dude!! You almost came to Madrid! What the heck?!? That would be soooo cool. I have loved all of the little things you send me. Even the weird things are always fun. Even the tuna has been useful, that's always my lunch when we go on hikes. I took pictures of the kkk stuff for Easter. It didn't freak me out or anything, but it is pretty wack. It makes it pretty clear that apostasy is a very real thing. But yeah, that's a longer email. 

Watch for pictures.

Love you guys,

Elder Johnson

WhatsApp profile pic

Today's hike (Tiede)

Another awkward picture. 😂

The Plan of Salvation with Jonathan