25 April 2012

So this past week I can´t say was exactly the best, almost every single lesson that we had was canceled on us (when we got to their apartment of course). So our backup plans came in handy a lot during this past week. However, we also had a baptism this past week which is really exciting. If I haven´t said it before, it was for a small girl, 9 years old. Her family is less active which is why it took an extra year before she was baptized. However, hopefully her baptism will help to reactivate her family. So that might have to be the best thng that happened this week. Our next baptism is scheduled for the 5th ( if I remember correctly) and the one after that (for an awesome family, that I believe I have mentioned in some of my previous letters) is the week after that.

So I guess I forgot to tell you, but that golden contact turned out to be in barrio 9, so we don´t exactly get to teach them. Which is rather a dissapointment, to find a miracle and not be able to teach them. However, at least we got to leave them the baptismal invitation and teach them one lesson.

So also this week I finally received Papa´s letters! That was pretty exciting. So apparently they only give the letters that are sent to the mission home whenever they have someone go down to our area and then remember to bring it with them. So this week we had interviews with the mission president and he brought them down. And I was pretty excited when I received about 6 letters.

So something interesting I ate, though I did not enjoy it at all. It's called Quaker, it consists of a small bit of oatmeal at the bottom of a drink of milk and hot water. I am really glad that I wasn´t openly gagging because the familia is really great. But other than that I haven´t exactly eaten anything exotic ( like cow tongue). Of course the food here is different, but it isn´t anything to be really excited about. Maybe for next week though.

So for my meals on a usual day ( and without being fed by members) consists of either cereal ( kind of like a rice crispie flakes) or eggs, bacon and toast; and then a pear and yogurt. For lunch (at about 2-4) It would be either a sandwich, small frozen pizza, canned beans and meat or frozen pasta with tomato sauce. And dinner (about 10:45) consists of the same things that I might have for lunch, but of course it isn´t going to be the same thing for the same day.

So the reason that I didn´t have much food last week is because we were in a little bit of a hurry, and I didn´t think that I would need much because I had some left over from last week.

 

 So Mother's Day is the second Sunday of May right? It's the first week in May in Spain, but we will be calling during the second week. That is going to be an exciting day.

So today I will be going to buy more ties, if I have time, unfortunately some have gotten rather dirty so they are less desirable to wear...

So my address here is:

Calle de la Oca 2 3b

Madrid 28025

España

Well do the right things, because doing what you should be doing is the only thing that is going to bring happiness for an eternity. And it is the only thing that is going to bring peace and joy in this life right now.

Well, until next week,

love,

Elder Johnson

18 April 2012

So I talked with my companion a little about sending pictures and it turns out that I can´t.... sorry, I guess that these computers just can´t do it. So maybe in my next area, hopefully.

Well thank you for your letters again. It´s great to hear about how you guys are doing there.

 

So this past week has been pretty exciting, and these upcoming weeks should be pretty good as well. We have a baptism for a 9 year old girl this Saturday, unfortunately there is a ward activity so its basically only the youth and young single adults that can make it. But its the only time that the mom can do it. Unfortunately the family is inactive right now, but hopefully this baptism will help them out.

So also, we found a less active family that is great. The mother is too old to do much on her own, but we have been visiting her and her kids, so hopefully we can help them out too. We talked about having a barbecue with them so that should be pretty fun and we should be able to get to know them much better with that. However, we know that at least some of the family has faith. The daughter was there for one of the visits and we asked her to say the closing prayer, and during the prayer she started crying, so hopefully with the spirit we can bring this family back.

Also, we have another family that we are teaching, they aren´t yet members, but they are awesome, last week the father was teaching their 5 year old daughter how to pray when it was her turn to pray. So that was pretty exciting to see. We have a baptismal date with them which was really awesome, I can´t wait to see them get baptized! It´s going to be a lot of work with helping some of the family members want to get baptized, but in the end it is going to super exciting.

So also this week, I survived on 9 euros of food for the entire week ( about $15). However, I would definitely not suggest it to anyone. All you get to eat is tomato sauce pasta, eggs, cereal, and sandwiches for the entire week. Soo this week I am definitely going to be spending a little bit more.

So today isn´t much of a p day for me and my companion, we have had an appointment at 12, and will be having some more at 5, 6, and 7. (p day is designated to end at 7). It´s not too bad, but when it starts to get hard to do the things that need to get done, i think that it is a little excessive.. However, today I think that it should be fine. We still have a little bit of time to do everything.

So I´ll look for that package, unfortunately I haven´t received a letter from papa for about 2 weeks, and the last one was at least 2 weeks old ... so it could be a little bit, but I´ll let you know when it comes. And also, for all future regular mail to me, I think it might be better to send straight to my address, because there is one elder in our piso (my previous companion) who receives letters almost every day, so his letters are getting through on time. But I don´t have the address with me right now so I´ll try to get that for you next week.

So, I finally realized that I have been missing you guys, I am really excited to see all of you on mother´s day, and it was really great to see those pictures and these letters. So thank you.

Well, I don´t have much time left, but enjoy it in the states, I can´t wait until I can walk in a real house again, pisos are definitely not even close to as enjoyable.

Pues, yo creo que eso es todo por esta semana, si tenéis algunas preguntas escribidlas. Entonces Papa dijó que mi español es bueno, pero aqui está un poco de la espñol que puedo hablar entonces vosotros pueden saber por su mismo como bueno mi español es.

 

Pues hasta la proxima semana,

Elder Johnson

11 April 2012

I was able to witness my first baptism in
this area. It was for an investigator of the hermanas in my ward, but
it was still really great. The man, Fabricio, is a really great man
and hopefully we can get him to help out a lot, because though I don't
know him very well, the other missionaries think that he would be a
great ward missionary.

Also, we were able to get another baptismal
date (though unfortunately for the other elders in the ward right
next to us). This person is a miracle and a pure golden investigator
(in Europe!?). Yesterday we received his number, and had an
appointment with him (the first with him because we didn´t know what
ward he was in). And he really wants to get baptized, his wife is a
nonmember, but when he was talking to us and we gave him a baptismal
date he was so excited that he was legitimately crying. Unfortunately
I can´t put how excited I as in this letter, but this is possible a
once in a lifetime opportunity and an amazing one at that.
So also, this past week was the semana santa, therefore, we were not
able to get many meetings with people because they were all on
vacations. (Spain has a ridiculous amount of vacations, so if you
don´t like to work a lot, come to Spain). And, since it was also
raining there wasn´t a whole lot of people to contact on the street,
therefore we spent about a day and a half in the area book finding
possible people that we could help.
So unfortunately I haven´t been able to continue the letters for you
guys that I started, unfortunately we are always busy with
appointments and cleaning every week, so I wouldn´t exactly be
expecting them soon.

So today I gave myself a haircut, it isn´t terrible, but it is rather
bland and standard. I didn´t do a bad job at it either, I only
missed a spot on the back of my head (even though I cut that part a
few times) and I almost forgot my bangs.

Also, for cooking, I haven´t exactly made that much, we don´t have a
ton of time in the day to cook, so its basically cereal, eggs,
microwavable pasta and tomato sauce, and sandwiches. We cleaned a
small foreman grill today though ( it was absolutely vile) so maybe I
can cook some other small things soon.

For Easter, there was only the semana santa, that I know of. Though
every week we have a family home evening with a Romanian familia, and
in Romania they take the colored eggs and hit the tops and then the
bottoms together, and whichever doesn´t crack is the winner. MY egg
destroyed all the others ( by the way, they were hard boiled) except
for 3 which were already destroyed (though one of the Armenians gave
me the egg, so it wan´t exactly me choosing it). It was pretty fun
until it fell out of the fridge and cracked ( the winner is also
supposed to save the egg for the next year to see if it will win).


So mothers day is right around the corner and I will be able to skype
you guys, but I will be doing it about 8 here, so about 2 your
time. Just so you know and can be ready, because I don´t know if I can
get another chance if you aren´t there. Also, mothers day I will have
about 4 months in the mission, which is really close to 6 months. The
time is going so fast here, in no time I will be coming home which is
rather exciting and disappointing at the same time.

Well I need to go to our lesson,

So until next week,

Love,
Elder Johnson

4 April 2012

So another week has gone by, and an interesting one at that. This week I got to experience my first huelga (riot/protest). It wasn´t violent where I was, but I hear that at the center of Madrid there are quite a few fights that break out. Because of that there was a severely limited amount of transportation so we had to cancel two of our appointments because we wouldn´t have been able to get back on time for them, also, we had two appointments cancel on us, so I can´t exactly say that I enjoy the huelgas very much.

 

Also, we had General Conference this week, and I was able to watch most of the sessions in English, so that was pretty exciting. However, also because of that we couldn´t really do much work, since the stake center isn´t in our area, nor could we return for appointments during the day because it is too far away. But nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I look forward to reading through my notes.

 

So Sorry, but I haven´t yet completed the letters, I actually, haven´t gotten any farther with them, soo at this rate it could be awhile. I hope to get the sent out right after I get the box from your package, then I will send the letters and also, maybe some neopolitanas ( a delicious combination of a crescent-like bread and european chocolate).

 

So also, today we got a maybe baptismal date, the investigador (Litman) is ready and has a testimony of the Book of Mormon (and therefore the rest of the gospel). However he is really hesitant about being baptized, he said something along the lines that he is afraid that once he goes into the military that he is going to "fall". Also I would have to say that my favorite investigator(s) is a family of 4, and the wife´s sister. They are an awesome family and want to know and understand what we are teaching them. The only one that is a little hesitant is their 16 year old son because his grandma is very Catholic and he really loves her, so he is a little timid about changing faiths. However, I am sure that if he does his best to know if what we teach him is from God or not, he will receive his answer about the truthfullness of the gospel.

 

So Madrid weather is like Utah, only a little warmer. It is basically a desert-like area, though it will still have precipitation. Right now it is raining and I hear that it rains a lot in the spring.

Transfers are every 6 weeks, approximately, though I will be with my trainer for 3 months, since he is my Trainer. I don´t really know how long companionships stay together.

Elder Wilson is great, I just had a companionship exchange, in which I learned that he is one of the more obedient and hard working missionaries here.

As a missionary my favorite thing is to find people (when contacting) that are really great and I just absolutely woud Love to teach and help them, it happens every once and awhile, though not all accept to meet with us.

My favortite dish of Spain, right now, since I haven´t tried a whole lot. would have to be Napolitanas, though I kind of want to try a complete Spain meal here. However, I am not sure about when that will happen while I am in the South American side of the city.

I don´t know which talk (from conference) is my favorite, I will have to go back through them and let you know next week.

So I don´t have much more time.  Until Next week,

Love,

Elder Johnson