24 June 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was awesome. The best week since February. Why?

We taught her for the first time on Monday and she was on date for July 6th. On Thursday we invited her to move it to June 29th. She said no since they would be out of town and suggested....that Saturday! So in two days we organized the entire baptism and invited everyone. She had been to church before for quite some time. It was a great turnout and the first in the ward for 10 months. The work is picking up with the Hermanas having one next week (who lives in our area...), and us in two weeks again with someone else. 

So that was definitely the highlite. But there were other things that made the week great as well! 

A dog bit me this week. We were walking over to someone and this dog got loose and ran straight at me. It was a 1 year old chihuahua that couldn't get its mouth around my shoelace if it had wanted to so no damage was done. Regardless it made talking to the person a little difficult since I was busy kicking it off me with my foot... In that same conversation her 13 year old daughter came out and said, "I LOVE your eyes Elder....Johnson!" It was a really weird OYM.

We moved this week. The night before transfers at 10pm they called us and said, "Pack your bags, you're moving down near Queen Creek!" I sat there for a second in silence thinking to the Queen Creek zone and Gilbert mission but he clarified and said Queen Creek Road. So we stayed up till 12am packing our bags and moved everything that next morning. They said we'd stay in the Chandler zone.

But that didn't happen either. At transfers they split all the zones and opened 4 or 5 new zones as well as made all the new zones for the Gilbert mission. We are now in the "Gilbert West" zone despite the fact that we live in a different part of Chandler still. They're going to rename the zone on July 1st when the mission split takes affect to either the Gilbert zone or the Ray Zone. I'm hoping for the latter. We still cover the same ward and same area (thank goodness) so we cover two zones now. 

Transfers was CRAAAAZZZYYYYYY. 240 missionaries in that room all singing Called to Serve was pretty sweet. It was the last chance I had to see some of the great people I've met as the Tempe mission gets split into the Scottsdale, Gilbert, and Mesa missions. Bittersweet. Luckily my whole MTC district is staying together in the Tempe Mission. We thought we'd take a picture to commemorate. 

Happy as always.

The mission actually got Jeep Compasses, not Grand Cherokees, for the missionaries in the mountains. They're pretty cool.

Speaking of cool, I got to see some of the old members from Yuma at transfers! It was awesome! Brother Borgerson and Brother Allen were both there giving rides and it was great to see and talk to them again. I told them I'd be back there next February. Apparently the work has slowed quite a bit down there.

Does anyone in the DC South mission know Elder Payne? He's best friends with Elder Janis, our roommate.

I ripped my first shirt this week. We walked up some steps to visit someone and my shirt caught on the window. It ripped about a 7" hole along the left sleeve. I was pretty bummed at first then I went back to look at the corner and realized that if my arm had been 1/2" closer it would have cut my arm open pretty deep. That window was super sharp. Blessings in disguise...

The apartment we live in right now has one room. There are four of us there. There was some miss communication somewhere and now we're sleeping on the worst beds in the world. We're moving next week on July 1st... So, after June 26th you can send letters to this address:1889 W Queen Creek Rd #1115, Chandler AZ 85248. We have a private lake we can't use. 

Anyway, because our apartment is so small (we have two chairs) we put our desks outside on the patio and study there. It's miserable since it's so hot. I'm not unpacking. We've moved 3 times now since May and once more next week. 4 times in 7 weeks... Ridiculous. We joke about how they just move us to clean up the apartments.

We got some time to spend with the missionaries in the Mesa zone at transfers to talk about iPads and iPhones in missionary work. As we saw in that stellar broadcast last night they're upping the amount of technology in missionary work. In Mesa zone, every missionary has a personal iPad Mini and each companionship has an iPhone 5. It's super sleek. They're also given permission on Faceboook to "proselyte on Facebook." They are even allowed to be friends with family. 

This week someone asked us what we were doing there. I felt the situation was right so I quoted Paul (more or less) and said, "we're here to help you repent and be baptized!" I was a little nervous about what they would say but they just said, "hm, ok" and walked away. 

I was reflecting on the last year I've had here with President Howes. I was also thinking about my first interview with him that I wrote about in my first few weeks. I remember not liking what he told me. But I realized that that first interview changed my entire mission for the better. Looking back on it that was the single most trans formative event in my entire mission and all I had to do to realize it was humble myself. I'm so grateful for the time I've had to learn from President and Sister Howes and will miss them both dearly. They have less than a week left.

I found an Ensign from the June 1976 issue and read an awesome section in the "I Have a Question" section about rebellions. Informative.

I'm approaching 3rd Nephi in the Book of Mormon. We have a week left to finish it. From the last 300 or so pages what has struck out to me is the major difference between the Lamanites and the Nephites. I think it's obviously connected to their faith in God but it's a bit deeper than that answer. I've come to see that the principle difference between the two is the capacity to forgive. The lamanites hold grudges for centuries and it consumes them whereas, for the most part, the Nephites learn to forgive and forget and as a result they're, for the most part, blessed. Good life lesson there.

I've filled my first journal!

And now for the elephant in the room...the broadcast last night! I hope everyone watched it. And for those who didn't, go to lds.org right now and watch it. I was hoping for some huge announcement which never came but nonetheless it was awesome! They re-stated what has always been said but also showed how to do it. I think my favorite part was Elder Anderson's. Unfortunately not many in the spanish ward went and we're pretty sad about that but we'll take what we learned and teach the members. If any ward can implement it, the Ray 5th ward can!

We love that ward. Last night we had dinner with the Bishop and his family. Ahhhh, they're the best. They made a chocolate cake for me and a Key Lime pie for Elder Diaz. They have such great love for the gospel and last night it felt like we were home again. Such a great family and such great leadership for the ward. We're so blessed to serve with them.

Last night someone threatened to call the cops on me. Some people just ignore us when we speak to them and pretend we're not there. I don't like that so I usually stand there in silence with them waiting for them to tell me something. This person said nothing and then when I stood there in silence for a bit she said, "I'm going to call the cops on you if you don't leave!" 

We also talked with someone last night who told us right away that she wasn't interested. I said, "do you know what we share with people?" She said no and I asked her, "How can you not be interested if we don't know what we do?" She laughed and we invited her to visit mormon.org then headed off when she said she had to go.

We set our baptismal goal for 3 in the month of July. Bring it on.

Thanks Susie, Tanan, Eric, Will, Mom, and Sister Hines for the great letters!

Thank you all so much for being so supportive! 

Con mucho amor,

Elder Johnson

27 May 2013

I thought I could cut my hair pretty well. It's not that hard, right? In the clipper box I was looking for a 1/2" size but only found 3/8ths. There's barely a difference there, right?

Wrong. I'm bald! I've never had such short hair!

Me confidently cutting it:

And realizing that I had no hair:

[I am having trouble saving these pictures as jpgs. . . they only give me the option of html text from his email and they don't show up on the blog when I copy and paste his letter from my email.  Any suggestions?

The really ironic thing about this is that I (his mom) always cut his hair.  When he was in high school, one time I grabbed the buzzer without realizing that it didn't have the attachment and I went to work on the top of his head.  He never forgave me for that very short strip of hair that had to grow out.  So, it makes me smile a bit to know that he did it to himself.]

What makes matters worse is that we have interviews on Wednesday and I'm bald.

...

We are officially moved into our new apartment. They stopped by this week and told us that we're moving this morning so we have spent the last few days taking some of our lunch hour moving some things and a 2 hour blitz this morning with 6 missionaries carrying heavy things and beds over. Our NEW ADDRESS is 1287 N Alma School Rd #149, Chandler, AZ, 85224. We are in the same complex just on the other side in a two bedroom for when new missionaries come in.

I never thought I would say this...but I love beans.

The highlight of this week was the leadership meeting on Wednesday. Brother Watson (global director of proselyting) and President Donaldson (Mission President of the District 2 DVD, comp of Watson) came by to give our mission a training.

A major theme was how to maintain success in the first months of having a new mission president. He spoke on how stats almost always drop when a new mission president comes in and to avoid that we need to "stick to what we know and do what the new guy says." They stressed that a lot, especially since the Tempe mission is the highest baptizing in the south west. We'll see what happens when our mission gets cut into all the surrounding missions.

But that's not all they talked about. One of the districts in the Mesa zone is getting a shiny new toy, called an iPad. They're piloting "Electronic Area Books" in our mission in one of our zones. Instead of a giant binder with tons of papers, each companionship there will get an iPad for one purpose and with one app: Area Book. I don't know all the details, I only know that Chandler was supposed to pilot them originally then we got dropped :( Pretty exciting eh? Apparently only 2% of the worlds missionaries (65,000) update their area books every night.) I believe it.

But that's not all! We learned some cool things about our mission. Originally we were told our mission wouldn't gain any zones - only lose. Well, turns out we're picking up 2 zones from the Phoenix mission - downtown phoenix - and 36 new missionaries from there. Crazy! Apparently it's super Hispanic. Woo!

And he mentioned a cool number. Ready? By July of 2013, sister missionaries will make up 21% of the missionary force. Yeah, that's a big number... but by July of next year it will be 50%.

 

Crazy!

But it gets better! They also announced a global broadcast that the church will be doing on June 23rd. The First Presidency, the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, the Quorums of 70, and new mission presidents will be attending and it will be opened for the whole world to see. They said that the first presidency used the word, "historic," which they never use. They said it will change the course of missionary work forever and it will be all about member missionary work. They said that President Monson will be always remembered as the missionary work prophet and the announcement in October and this should cement that. Apparently Elder Nelson commented that the gathering of Israel will be even more miraculous than Moses bringing the children of Israel through the wilderness. Oh, and "this [a broadcast like this] has never been done in the history of the church before."

It was an 8 hour meeting and I left wanting more.

But moving on...

For planning morning on Friday I brought a bunch of chilis (Chil de Arboles)  to the church. The whole zone plans together and almost everyone ate one. I remember when that was me...

I saw another Delorean this week. And a Maserati.

We've been struggling to make miles work. We have 600 per month but at the start, the other Elders at 800 and drove as such. Then we got cut to 650 then cut to 600. We use our car to drive to meetings, church, and dinners and we still use more than we can everyday. I've made some phone calls, worked my connections, and hopefully we'll get some more haha. It's an 18 mile round trip to church and to meetings during the week and we only have enough for 15 per day.

This past week we went over to one of our trailer parks, Sunshine Valley, to visit some people. It was Saturday morning. As soon as we got inside we looked around and the Jehovah's Witnesses were everywhere! Dozens of them! They avoided us like the plague which was ok because I didn't bring my bible.

This past week the mission got a shipment of 2013 Chevy Cruzes. We're crossing our fingers that we get one since our car is a 2010 Corolla. The 2013 Corollas have touch screens for media interface but no GPS. The missionaries in the mountains get Jeep Grand Cherokees.

Gmail locked me out of my account for refreshing it too much (like it did the night I waited for my BYU admission letter) and the draft missed two paragraphs but we're out of time so this will have to do.

Thanks for the letters Mom, Eric, Dad, Will, and Katie! 

I'll try to write everyone back but we're moving things around our new apartment and lots to do!

With love

EJ

20 May 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

"What are you doing to have so much success?"

Those are my favorite words to hear in a phone call. On Sunday night we got a phone call congratulating us on keeping the zone afloat this week.

I think 'success week' doesn't really do it all justice. We unfortunately had someone fall of date, no baptisms, no one progressing, but in all other aspects we've had a miracle week. 

It started last Wednesday. Monday and Tuesday were decent days teaching a moderate amount of lessons, but Wednesday was when it all fell into place. We had planned to go visit some formers in the morning and then some other formers later in the morning with a member family. We had no luck on our own from 10-11am that morning and went back to meet up with the member family. With them we visited a former investigator family who all had a baptismal date that then disappeared..  Well, they're still missing. When we were piling back into the car to head home I felt that we had to go knock on a different door - one that we hadn't knocked on who we knew was a former investigator. We drove over to the trailer, knocked, and she answered in tears. One of her sons is in jail and they have been struggling for a long time. She was taught two years ago by two different elders and wasn't ready at the time. She said that she always saw other missionaries walking past her trailer but never to it. We sat down with her and talked about trials and overcoming them and committed her to a baptismal date then and there! It was cool to be guided to someone who was finally ready to accept the gospel. Unfortunately she's the one who fell off date, but that's a different story. We were pushing for a 2 week baptism but will probably change that and head towards the 15th of June instead of the 1st. We are meeting with her and her husband tonight to talk with them about the church and our role as missionaries. They have a lot of potential.

Another great potential came from an idea from district meeting. The training was on making lists of contacts with people - not necessarily people that are interested, but just a list of EVERYONE they know. After that we pray over the names and sit in silence as the person marks each name they feel prompted to mark. Then they call them and invite them to sit down with us to meet. Well, we implemented that this week to resounding success. We got 5 referrals from one family and 10 from another (still waiting for their addresses.) The first person called her friend and set up a lesson right then and there. We stopped by on Saturday to teach her friend and had a nice chat and invited her to church. Well, she showed up to church with her family of five in tow as well! Woooooo! It was cool to see them participate and take the sacrament as a family. We have another appointment with them tonight and we are going to extend all a baptismal date for probably June 15th as well.

Our Bishop pulled us aside and thanked us yesterday - this was the first time they had had investigators in church for "months." The members did an awesome job introducing themselves and talking with the investigator family. We did a lot of background coordinating as well to let people know they would come but even those we didn't talk to reached out. Success.

We have been working with someone who had a baptismal date for the 11th of May but cancelled just before. I wrote briefly about her last week. We met with her once this week with another member family and had an awesome lesson about setting examples. The parents testified about how they sometimes had to encourage (or pull) their kids to church when they were younger but how it always paid off. They had a daughter there who shared her testimony about her grateful she was for her parents doing that to her. It was pretty tender. Anyway, we knelt in prayer afterwards and told her to tell her kids why church is important to her to see if they'll go with her to church.

They didn't go :( We'll keep working with them though.

It's hot! Ahhhh. Air temperature is bad but hot air, that just kills you. We got cut 50 miles for some reason and we're biking over 10 miles a day. Speaking of, my "cyclometer" speed rating often jumps from like 2 to 14 when I'm maintaining a constant pace and then it will just go to zero after some time. Anyone know why? Readjusting it temporarily fixes it but then it gets out of place again. Very frustrating.

We went to the reservation this week to do some baptismal interview. I'm pretty sure that was the first time I've been on a complete reservation before. It was a bit...different. The chapel was...different too haha. Dirt roads, everything was dead, it was a different world. We spoke with the senior couple who covers the reservation and they told us about some of their challenges, specifically about how there is no word for "commitment" in Pima and no one is willing to firmly commit.

On Monday we had a pretty cool experience. We had a referral for a trailer that ended up not existing. As we went to the car a member pulled up and gave us a super solid referral that we will be visiting sometime this week. A family that moved from CA and wants to go to our church. In the right place at the right time! What's that saying? Be where you ought to be when you ought to be there doing what you ought to be doing.

I think one of the highlights this week was biking around town and OYMing this family. After the lesson all five of them accepted a baptismal date but all five of them are for the English missionaries. 

We got news yesterday that we're moving out of our apartment next week instead of in 3 weeks. Ugh, there's so much to do before then... Good news is that we'll be in a two bedroom, bad news is that means that there will be four missionaries which is often too much fun.

We found a pet ferret this week? One of the neighbors is watching over it until someone claims it.

We were in a trailer park talking with some people and some kids challenged us to a game of knockout. I told them that if we won they would have to listen to us for a few minutes. I won. Now we have a bunch of potential families to visit! 

One of the priests in the ward offered to make us wood pens this week and laser inscribe them with whatever we want. I asked him to make, "Elder Johnson - Arizona Tempe Mission" and then on the other side, "Barrio Ray 5 - Chandler, AZ" He'll be using cherry wood and they look sweet!

Thanks for the letters Natalia, Jamie, Jeff R, Mom, Dad, and Grandma and Grandpa J!

Its been a good week and we have a good one to come! 

PS: If you find the turtle let them know!

With love,

Elder Johnson

13 May 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

 

It was fun to Skype home yesterday! Especially being able to talk to you guys back home and having Mark skyped on a laptop at the same time...never done that before!

So I guess the big news is that .01% of the time I'm wrong and am not staying in Queen Creek. I was 99.99% sure I was staying haha. 

Chandler is a lot different than anywhere I have ever served. Yuma and Queen Creek had more farm fields than people it seemed. Our address is 1287 N Alma School Rd #174, Chandler, AZ, 85224

On Sunday night we were awaiting our transfer calls and as I wrote last week, they never came. Monday afternoon before the calls Elder Lanier and Sawyer called to say goodbye and told me I would enjoy this next few transfers, whatever that meant. That night as we were waiting around the house waiting for transfer calls President Howes called and asked me to be trainer among some other assignments. I was pretty nervous. Later that night the Zone Leaders called and said I was leaving (President Howes doesn't tell us if we're staying or leaving) which meant that I would whitewash train - just like how I started my mission down in Yuma. Whew I was pretty stressed out for that!

At transfer meeting we found out that five visa waiter Elders came in. Elder Myler was there as well as some other people I've gotten to know. "the Argentine" was slated to come in for 3 or 4 transfers but never came in due to visa problems. Everyone was fighting to get to train him since he is a native speaker haha. Anyway, long story short, I am training Elder Diaz, "the Argentine," and am having a great time. He is super energetic and very prepared to be a missionary. Already I've learned lots from him. I also realized that Elder Diaz is the first 18 year old spanish missionary here! Also the first one to come in for 3-4 transfers.

The rest of the transfer meeting was crazy. President Howes chose this past meeting to make all the changes for the mission split. All the missionaries in the valley/phoenix area were invited and told to bring all area books. They then changed just about everyone's wards, moved apartments, split zones and moved districts. Cars were swapped and taken away for some and weird changes were made to boundaries. They've moved districts from one zone to another zone now. I can't imagine prepping a mission for a split haha. I guess that's an accomplishment though, eh?

When we first got to our apartment, I walked in the door but was very very confused when I saw a TV that was on and a computer. I looked around a bit then realized I had walked into someone else's apartment! I quickly ran out of the apartment and opened the door next door (?) and walked into ours. Unlike in Yuma, it was clean and everything was put away. Lots of food too!

So far we have been speaking tons of Spanish. I talk to him purely in spanish and he talks to me in English. I help him with his English and he helps me with my Spanish, kind of like with Elder Valdez but I'm trying not to be as lazy and am speaking more Spanish this time. I've already seen tons of improvement in just six days!

We cover the Spanish ward here. It was probably the most energetic ward I've ever been in! The Bishop is from Bar(th)elona Spain and has the very unique accent. He is an awesome guy and very very energetic with a young family. The ward had us stand up in sacrament meeting to introduce us, in Sunday school, and gospel principles. Never had that happen before! There hasn't been a baptism in the ward since September (when Elder Myler was here) but we're going to change that. Having a native speaker in a Spanish ward makes a HUGE difference. Not to mention there are seven 'Diaz' families in the Spanish ward haha

I was flipping through the Ensign and saw a picture of someone familiar ..Jim Kabbani!? Ensign from Oct 2008. Cool story!

Finding our way around Chandler has been an adventure. Someone in a ward that we don't cover offered to give us a ride around Chandler to show us all the streets and whatnot so we did that our first night. We drove over 30 miles and it was super super helpful. The roads are relatively easy to understand.

We found out that we're getting moved into a bigger apartment next month. It seems like every time I unpack I get told I'm moving.

We've been biking a lot. In Yuma I had 1,000 miles per month, in Queen Creek I had 1,100 per month and here we get 650. The area is a lot smaller but the Elders before used a lot of miles at the start so we bike 15 or so miles every day. It's hot, too...

The chapel for our ward is nine miles away which doesn't help too much. 18 mile round trip before lunch time on Sundays.

Elders quorum on Sunday was pretty funny. The lesson was all about being a good husband - we sat there awkwardly. It felt like a marriage prep class. 

We have one investigator in our area that was on date before that fell off. She was supposed to get baptized on the 11th but called the Elders and told her that she didn't want to on the 5th. We went by and visited her and found out that the problem is that she works a lot and rarely gets to see her kids. Her kids don't want to go to church and she won't go unless they go. So we're working with the Young Women's leaders to get the daughter interested and involved. The woman is very prepared and has a strong testimony but won't commit without the daughter. Usually the kids aren't the set back. 

Our district goes down to the Native American reservation. I'll be doing like 6 baptismal interviews down there on Wednesday and Thursday haha. In our district is a senior couple of who cover the reservation. They're on fire! Really nice senior couple, lots of energy, and a good sense of humor. Our district has no other Elders, just two Spanish sisters, the senior couple, and us. 

The Spanish work in Chandler is "legendary." I've heard about this ward and area my whole mission. We see more Hispanics in one day than I did in 3 months in Queen Creek. We have been busy talking with people and orienting ourselves. Chandler is full of apartment complexes (not vertical ones) and trailer parks. Perfect! 

Driving down the main street is a pretty nice experience, visually, but as soon as you turn off of it things change pretty rapidly. Imagine my surprise when I saw this Ferrari!

I had almost the worst OYM of my mission but luckily saved myself. We went up to talk to someone on the street and asked her algunas questions. She responded that she wasn't interested. I offered to give her a card and she said, "I wouldn't be able to read it anyway!" I assumed she was blind and started to say, "Well if you see us and need anything..." but stopped myself at, "if you s-" Whew. To my defense, her guide dog didn't have one of the typical leashes and she didn't have a cane and was out with her kids. Disaster avoided! 

Anyway, we're in a good place doing good work in a good ward. Life is good.

Thanks for the letters: Andra and Grandpa and Grandma J!

Con mucho amor,

EJ

25 February 2013

Dear Family and Friends,

On Sunday night of last week I got the transfer call and let you guys know that P-Day. My last few days in Yuma were awesome; we got to visit some recent converts and say goodbye and I got to be with Elder Sawyer and Elder Valdez.

I rush packed that last night to get everything ready to go. With the car filled and packed with six missionaries and luggage, we headed out of Yuma at 7am and arrived at the mission home just before 10 am. On the drive up we saw a bunch of cops FLYING past our car. When we caught up 10 minutes later we saw them running at illegal immigrants on the train tracks. Quite the sight. Don't see that everyday.

All the missionaries in the entire mission were called in to that transfer meeting. I was expecting that we all got chastised but it turns out it was quite different news. Turns out that the Arizona Tempe mission is getting split into the Arizona Scottsdale mission, the Arizona Gilbert mission, and the Arizona Tempe mission. All the missionaries in these areas will be getting new mission calls in the coming weeks and there is a very good chance that I could be serving in the Mesa, Phoenix, Gilbert, Tempe, Scottsdale, or even a California mission. Rumors floating around are that the Yuma area will get put into a California mission. Big news! This goes into effect July 1. I'll keep everyone updated.

Anyway, that big announcement was made and also all the big announcements about transfers. I waited and waited and waited and didn't hear my name until just about the end. I was transferred to Tempe. I went from the furthest from the mission home to the closest haha. I didn't do anything, I promise! 

Tempe is pretty cool. It's a lot different from Yuma. Tons of people, big college town with all those ups and downs. It has a hugely different feel from Yuma but I'm learning to love it. The work is a lot different as well. We taught 15 lessons this week, half of what we taught in Yuma on a good week. We spend all our time in trailer parks and small apartments. It's hard to find new investigators and the teaching pool of the area I came into was basically nonexistent. 

We spent the week working hard to find people and only found one person. We also did two days in a row of fasting. That was pretty exhausting. The first day was with an investigator and her family that she could make it to Church (get off work) and the second day was with an Elder who was diagnosed with cancer and sent home. The whole mission fasted for him. We're hoping for the best. Though the investigator didn't make it to church that day it was cool to see them all fasting and practicing their faith. Theyll be at church next week. It was pretty exhausting. 

I was starting to get used to Tempe and just finished unpacking yesterday. And then....at 9:40 pm our cellphone rang. President Howes was on the phone. He asked Elder Harder (my companion) and I to go somewhere quiet and put him on speakerphone. We did. The first thing he did was apologize and then said that I was getting transferred somewhere else to replace someone who just went home. Four days into my new area and I'm already getting moved! I've packed more in the last 4 days than the lats 7 months! But I'm happy to go wherever. Elder Lanier called that night from the office and told me to be there at 11:30 am toady (in an hour or so). He wouldn't tell me where I was going, just that it was "the complete opposite of Yuma!" That means I'm either going back to Yuma (to open up a new area in Somerton), to Gilbert, or to the Mountains/Show Low area. I got some more out of them when they said that they have to lose their P-Day as well which means I might be going somewhere far away like Yuma or Show Low. But we will see, I'm willing to go wherever. I'll send a letter home when I get settled with my new address but until then, keep using the mission home one! (1871 E. Del Rio Drive, Tempe AZ 85282)

If I go back to Yuma I'll be happy since it's Yuma but I was so excited to go to the temple. We aren't allowed to go in Yuma since it's too far away. Show Low can go to the Gila Valley and everyone else goes to Mesa. With the upcoming mission split, there's still a chance I can serve in Arizona and not have a temple in my area.

Church on sunday was interesting too. Here in Tempe they have a spanish ward, not a branch. There were quite a few people at church on sunday which was cool. I was a little disappointed to see that most people speak English and will try to speak English with me if I let them. They teach the youth classes in English as well.

But that was the big news. I didn't do anything to get emergency transferred haha.

The other big news is that it snowed here! We were bringing all our stuff into our apartment and it started hailing and snowing for 2 minutes. The apartment is/was so nice, probably the nicest in the mission from what I'm told. Too bad I'm getting kicked out of it. It even has "Valet Trash," haha. Some guy with a giant "trash cape" runs from floor to floor picking up trash between a certain time and takes it to the dumpster.

Rewinding back to Yuma for a second. The Elders that Elder Sawyer and I replaced in Yuma had a recent convert who just hit her year mark as a member and also just got her mission call. Guess where she's going? DC South! Keep your eyes open for an Hermana Sevilla. She's spanish speaking. Small world.

On the drive to dinner one night we passed a giant field with the most intense RC Airplane airport I've ever seen. Runway, grandstands, you name it. There were three planes flying around and they were pretty big. One was a zaggi and the other was a piper cub.  

Other big news of the week! For the first time in 6 months I haven't had Eggos for breakfast! Who knew that brown sugar and maple oatmeal was so filling and good...Pretty cheap, too! I'll probably live off of Pop Tarts and Oatmeal for the next 6 months and then find something else to eat, probably Eggos haha.

Thanks Grandpa J, Eric, Will, Mom, and Natalia for the letters! I hope I'll have time to write everyone today but it just depends on where I get transferred to.

Anyway, I need to get ready to get transferred somewhere. Thank you all for your continued support! 

With love, 

Elder Johnson

Pics: saying goodbye with Elder Sawyer and Valdez.

3 December 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

 

I turn 5 months in two days. Time flies.

 

That poorly exposed picture is of my Yuma district before transfers. 3 of those 8 are gone. From left to right, they are: Elder Sawyer, Elder Boyd, Elder Berriman, Elder Johnson (Me), Elder Lanier, Elder Mackay, Sister Drake, Sister Thompson. Elder Boyd got called to Show Low and I heard that in transfer meeting, when he heard it, he got up and started singing, "I'm dreaming of a white christmas" until President Howes told him to stop. Sad I missed it!

 

Transfers were this past week. Because every companionship in Yuma went through a change, 6 of the 8 missionaries had to go to transfer meetings in Tempe. As a result, Elder Mackay and I were the only ones who stayed in Yuma. We covered the entire stake for the day. The only missionaries in all of Yuma (Yuma to Heider). But that was just for like 8 hours. Because we had no lessons set up that day and the entire district was gone, the Zone Leaders challenged us to get 80 OYMs, or 80 street contacts. We accepted that challenge. And did it. It was ridiculous haha. Every. single. person we saw we talked to. We only got like 3 lessons out of it too. And since that was the end of the month of November, we had only 20 miles left in the car so we walked all day. By all day I mean from 8am to 6pm. By the end we easily had walked over 10 miles. Anyway, the zone leaders now owe each of us a tub of bluebell ice cream. I'm going to cash in for some Dutch Chocolate. That stuff is heavenly.

 

All the new missionaries and the returning one from training meetings got back at 6pm that night. My new companion is Elder Valdez. He's from Quintana Roo, Mexico, just below Cancun. He has only been speaking English for as long as he has been on his mission which is 8 months. We're a pretty young companionship. There are only 3 native speaking missionaries in the mission so I got lucky. My Spanish is going to get really good this transfer and his English is going to get better too. We're trying to only speak our mission language so he speaking English, me speaking only Spanish. The language barrier has presented some interesting problems so we're working through that. Our month baptism goal is 3.

 

And that goal got off to an unfortunate start. We had one baptism on date for the 1st of December but due to Word of Wisdom problems got pushed back. Hopefully we can get him excited again and get him on date for next week or the following.

 

And we had one investigator who wasn't progressing but now will absolutely not be progressing for at least 8 years. Let's just say a gun and 12 bullets were involved. No one died (I think). He got bailed out and came to church though!.....People were coming up to us and telling us about it at church. Since we get no access to the news, we had no idea.

 

Elder Valdez and my first night out turned a little intense. We went to talk to this guy who came over and just starting calling us out for every single thing you can imagine. He was a super scriptorian and before we decided to leave he said, "and next time you guys come back, memorize more scriptures!" I wanted to say that it's not about having memorized scriptures, it's about how you feel and act. He went on about how we need to celebrate passover and how the 2nd coming was in 1948. I read to him the one part of (book of) Revelation that I actually understand about the two prophets being killed and he couldn't respond. Bible bashing doesn't get you anywhere though so we just bore testimony and left. Nothing else you can do to in that scenario.

 

As I said last week, I got transferred a couple blocks away and out of my sweet old apartment. The one we're living in now is worse. Way worse. Half the size, really dirty, and missing lots of things. Even our door is broken. The apartment office said it would be $125 to fix it and the mission OK'd it so all we need to do is let the apartment complex know it's ok'd.

 

This has been a pretty stressful week. Since there are now 6 Spanish missionaries in the Spanish branch (compared to the previous 4), we had to split the areas. The zone leaders got all my old investigators and I got a new ward. So this transfer I'm 1/2 white washing. A new Spanish area, a new English ward, and the same other English ward. I don't cover the YSA branch anymore. But it has been hard to start from scratch (again) and try to build it up. Hopefully we can have as much success as I did last transfer with Sawyer.

 

Speaking of the YSA branch...drama! At Church yesterday, we were studying in the foyer and saw the branch president's wife run out of the chapel and grab the branch president and rush him inside. They looked pretty scared. So naturally I followed them. One of the members was non-responsive and looked like he was passed out. A couple of seconds later, he just collapsed. Chaos. His fiance's nose started bleeding and she fainted from fear. The member who was non-responsive was out for 1-3 minutes. I think the only way he could have been safer would to have been in a hospital. Eight marines, 2 EMTs, and a nurse are in the YSA branch. Not to mention a doctor was in the hallway. The firetruck/ambulance showed up and got him conscious again after a bit. It had happened to him 3 times before. He didn't want to go to the hospital for certain reasons but they eventually convinced him. As the EMTs walked out, one of the members said, "and you guys  thought you weren't going to church today!" That relieved a lot of the built up stress haha.

 

Saw another meteor this week! Not half the size or the coolness of the last one but it was pretty cool. They're pretty easy to see when there are no clouds or trees.

 

We met a man this week who started anti-ing us the second we said hi. Before we left, he said, "you guys are just a little cooler than Jehovah's Witnesses." I guess the people here don't really like them. Or us.

 

Polyester ties were banned this week. President Howes said missionaries were getting out of control with the styling. So sad. Now I have 60 ties that I can't wear. If I can find a box I'll probably be sending 1-2 boxes of ties home. There are some sweet ones and some hideous ones. Get excited. It mostly just affected the Spanish missionaries since for some reason Spanish missionaries tend to wear more polys than English missionaries.

 

I got a tiwi card! AKA I have permission to drive. Since Elder Valdez is from Mexico, his home license isn't recognized. We drive a 2011 Corolla. I have to stoop waaaayyy down to get into it. Not a huge fan but it gets sweet gas mileage. It's no swaggerwagon though. The first day in it I accidentally sat on my sunglasses and broke them. Bien triste [very sad].

 

We had a pretty cool experience yesterday with an OYM. We were walking down a street and I felt like we should knock on a door. No one answered. We turned around and saw a family sitting on their "yard" (it was all dirt.) so we went and talked to them. Turns out they're all really really interested in family history. They're going to the family history center at the church building this week. Hopefully they'll start listening to us and learn about the church

 

So the week after I get transferred out of my old area, that family we were teaching decide to get baptized. Ahhjhhhhh. At least I'll still be in Yuma to see it. Apparently they kept asking Elder Sawyer why we got split up and if it happened because we did something wrong. [If you're not aware, missionaries regularly receive transfers to work in different areas or with different missionaries.  Just part of the mission culture]. Good times.

 

I was reading a bit about resurrection this morning. Christ was the very first one to get resurrected, right? He, obviously, had lots of faith! It's kind of like someone telling you to jump off a cliff and saying you won't get hurt. You do it because you trust the person, but the fall down would be terrifying. I had never really thought about it like that before.

 

What causes languages to change over time?

 

Thanks Camie, Sister Hines, Alex, Sister Christensen, Cassie, and family for the letters this week! Awesome to hear from all of you!

 

Love you all so much, merry almost Christmas,

Elder Johnson

10 September 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

I caught the 3:10 to Yuma!more on that in a bit, though.

Two things: I don't speak Spanish and it is really hot.

My Address:
Elder Paul Johnson
1600 W 12th Street
#3422
Yuma, AZ 85365

What a crazy few days it has been! Left the MTC at 5am, plane left at 8, and landed at 10. On the plane, I fell asleep for the first ~20 or so minutes then woke up to find Elder Jacobsen talking to the guy next to him. I was in the aisle. The guy, named Mark, was a grad student at ASU studying communications. I butted into the conversation and we had a great discussion about communication, our plans for the future, and what missions are. It was a very relaxed conversation and flowed well.

Once we landed, we were quickly scurried up by the mission presidents, assistants, and his wife. We all somehow squished into two MAVs (Mormon Assault Vehicles - long vans) and went on our way towards the mission home. Luckily, it was only a 20 minute drive. Once there, we unpacked some things and threw it into a room in the Church. We had a short brunch where we got to meet people and talked for a bit. They split us up into two groups: one that went and OYM'd (Open Your Mouth, contacting random people on the street) and one that was interviewed and did a short orientation. We were in that second group. Interviews were nice and short. After that, Elder Myler and I were dropped in a random trailer park and told to go pass out some copies of the Book of Mormon and talk to people -- in Spanish. We were still companions because we had not received our companions for the field yet. We walked around and talked to some people. Our first contact...words cannot describe how bad it was. We walked up to a woman cutting Cactus for dinner and tried to talk. Words didn't really come out. She just sat there laughing. It was way too awkward. We opened to a scripture, gave her the book, and just left. After that, they slowly got better.

The rest of the day were meetings with the staff and whatnot. We had dinner at a members house, taco salad, and then we dispersed to spend the night with a member. We all stayed in the Tempe area. The one who Elders Jacobsen, Myler, and I stayed at were awesome and very welcoming. We talked a bit and then fell asleep at 8. It had been a long day. Since they did not tell us where we were going or who our new companions were, we were all dying that night. The next day was the day!

We woke up at 5:45 to get ready and then left to the church to have the transfer meeting at 7:15. Once there, we talked a bit with the misison president and his wife about things I can't remember but were doubtlessly important. You could sense the excitement in the room. They moved us into the chapel after 2 hours of meetings to meet our trainers and learn where we were going. When we walked in, all the trainers (companions that help introduce new missionaries to the area) were sitting on the far left side of the room. We were told to sit on the far right. One by one, President Howes, the mission president, read off a name of the trainer, a name of the trainee (us), and the area they would be serving. Lets see if I can remember: Elder Jacobsen is in Skyline, Elder Myler is in Chandler, and... I can't remember where the Hermanas are. Woops. They read everyone's name off and eventually I was sitting by myself on the right. They had saved me for last. I was dying, but, naturally kept a cool face, yo. I heard my name, my trainers name (Elder Sawyer, 16 months in, form Meridian, ID), and then Yuma! I had been saying that if there was one place I wanted to serve, it was in Yuma. Yuma is the border zone. Then they said we were whitewashing into Yuma.

Whitewashing means that they take both the missionaries who were there out and put two new ones in. They do it to put a breath of fresh air into the area if it is struggling a bit. Whitewashing and training means that both he and I have no idea what we are doing here haha. The first couple days we spent ~6 hours planning and looking through the Area Books. It was hard. Furthermore, when we walked into our apartment, it was a mess. They had had a "party" the night before. Lots of things were on the ground, there were burnt papers (?!), and more. Mom, if you thought MY room was bad... We spent 3 hours a couple days ago cleaning out one room and found 3 garbage bags full worth of trash. We have a lot to do today. There are also cockroaches and bed bugs have come back. I haven't seen any bed bugs yet...Mmhmmmmm

Our apartment is nice, size wise. We have a sweet view (I forgot my camera in our room...I'll have pictures next week..) of a trailer park and then the desert right after it followed by some grande mountains. Ooh, and a small canal/stream/river!

Yuma is hot. Hot. Hot. If you leave a water bottle on the ground it melts. If you leave a CD case on the dashboard, it melts. It is dry, too. Luckily, we've had two days of showers and awesomeeeeeeee thunder storms. Thunder that shakes houses, lightning that is everywhere. Anyway, they give missionaries a car down here (we drive a swagger wagon. Dodge van, can't remember name) a car and give 1000 miles a week. We bike once a week (picked up bike, by the way. thanks!). They say being sent to Yuma is like banishment. We don't get to go to a temple even though we're close to San Diego, we don't get Dear Elders often, we don't get to go to mission meetings, it's really really really hot. It doesn't really feel like the US here. Lots and lots of trailer parks and Mexicans. The city isn't tall and the landscape is quite literally a desert. There are stray dogs, chickens and roosters running around the streets. The poverty is unbelievable yet the people are so welcoming. More on that in a bit... Just real quick, Yuma is large geographically but few people. There are only 4 companionships here, one of which are the Zone Leaders (ZLs).

I made it through the entire MTC without ironing once. On our first day, I started ironing but Elder Sawyer told me that there's a dryer on our balcony. Never ironing my shirt again!

I've joked about how it rains when I leave or go places. It rained for 3 days before we left the MTC, it rained when I got here! Move over Schumacher,there's a new rain master in town. [Schumacher is an F-1 car racer who must have the rain follow him too.]

Food. We eat at a members home 6 nights a week. We've had Pizza, Beans, Shrimp/Cervichi and ALMOST Menudo. I think I'm going to die in Yuma. I eat it but every time it almost comes up. Of everything we've eaten, I'd say Pizza is the best but I wouldn't go out of my way to eat it still. Cervichi is the devil. Bane of my existence. It's like shrimp and..other stuff, I don't even know what. We ate at this one members' house. It was a trailer without a table and a tiny couch and two chairs. The Sisters in the area eat with us so we stuffed in. There was room for the two sisters and Elder Sawyer and me sitting near each other, no more. She fed us cold Cervichi. I ate about half and while the host stepped out to grab something, Elder Sawyer, like a boss, switched plates with me. He ended up eating mine, a Sisters, and his own. Como un jefe [like the boss]. Did I mention it was cold? Straight out of the fridge. They didn't have power in their trailer. Their willingness to help out was humbling though. Menudo is what I'm most scared to eat. It is the stomach lining of cow in a soup.

But first, let me explain the last two days. We have given five blessings in 1.5 days. For some reason everyone has been asking recently. Two have been in English, three in Spanish. Elder Sawyer takes those ones. They take a lot of time out of our day since three were at the Hospital (2 year old girl had top lip bitten off by Dog, needs surgery, older less active woman asked, and  third was a woman who wanted one also) Let me preface the story with this: I've been praying a lot for my taste buds to just die for 2 years. On the way out to our dinner apt I was saying a prayer in my heart that the food would be spaghetti or something. As we are driving out, a huge storm comes in. We're talking 40+ mph winds, rain, LOTS of lightning, and sand! (There are lots of dust storms here, like hundreds of feet tall walls of dust coming at you. Waiting to get a picture of one...). Anyway, we're driving there and then we see power go out everywhere. Since the desert is flat, you can see everything. We pull up to the house and they said since the power went out, they couldn't cook the Menudo and instead had to order Pizza. I've never been so happy to eat Pizza in my life. Little blessings like that keep you going. I doubt that will work for two years, but we'll see. I think between my prayers and the willingness to give so many blessings, we got a little one in return.

While we were in the hospital, a nurse asked us to go visit a woman who just got transferred in. As we were walking in, a Border Patrol dude/agent/guy stopped us and said, "Who are you and what are you doing with my convict?" He was pretty intense about it. we told him our business and he let us go. Inside we learned (Or Elder Sawyer did. Remember, I can't speak Spanish) that she had been in a group coming across the border illegally and the coyote left her behind in the desert to die. US Border Patrol found her and saved her. I can't imagine knowing that I am about to die and being alone in 110 degree weather. It's kind of crazy how close we are to all the action. Unfortunately we're not ON the border (That's the San Luis district, we're in Yuma, ~15 miles north) but we see everyone coming through the Yuma hospital.

We cover three wards for our mission area. An English, a Spanish Branch, and a Young Singles Adult. Not sure why that last one since they usually send ZLs  [Zone Leaders] there but we have it. The English branch is pretty large, the YSA [Young Single Adults] has about 25 and the Spanish branch has about 40. It seems dead. I leaned over to Sawyer and mentioned that and he said, "We're here to save it."

In the 6 days we've been here, we've taught 3 lessons, 2 of which were yesterday. Everyone listens but no one follows up. Must be a cultural thing. Most people are really nice.

But some aren't. We were walking around this one trailer park and went up to these guys. Lots of tats, cigarettes. They were angry with us and told us that we were in their gang zone. We mentioned what we were doing and they lightened up. Intense stuff. One group had a shotgun pulled on them. I love Yuma!

Selective poverty is also clear. Nice cars, nice phones, but living in a tiny powerless trailer. Sad.

Lots of homes have solar cells. Makes sense. It's so bright... I'ma need to find me some shades.

For one of our investigators, we're teaching him to read. That officially starts tomorrow. Never taught anyone to read before...especially in a language I barely speak.

I should clarify a bit. I understand about 25% of what people say but since they mumble and talk so quick I can barely get that. I can usually speak relatively well for being so 'young.'

That's all I have time for, expect some sweet pictures of a dust tornado thing, rain storms, a gross spider, desert landscape, and more.

Thanks Tori, Natalia, and Doug for letters and brownies! Quick note on Dear Elders: since I'm in Yuma, I get Dear Elders once every 3-4 weeks. We're 3.5 hours from the mission home which is where they go.

 What causes time to slow near a blackhole? Can someone look up the etymology of Apostle and Apostasy and tell me why the words are so similar?

"It's so hot up in dis club that I ain't got no shoes on"

With love,
Elder Johnson