4 July 2012

Hola,

So today I have six months in the mision. It´s a little strange to think that now a quarter of my mission is already over. It passes by soo quickly! I almost can´t believe it. Yesterday was the 3rd the month, but I still feel like I have only been out in the field for a month or two, but really it´s about 3 months.

Well, I still don´t know if I am going to get transferred next week, I´ll find out this Friday if I am staying or going. I kind of think that I will be staying here, but we´ll see what really happens.

So this past Sunday Spain somehow won the euro cup 4 to nothing. And Spain was really really excited about it. We heard the honking and gunshots and horns and yelling in the street until we fell asleep. They also set off some fireworks to celebrate. Spain is really crazy about soccer here. It´s just too bad that they aren´t quite that excited about religion. Unfortunately Spain, although it is catholic, is a whole lot more religious in soccer than they are in church. So people have actually joked that it is a religion here. Which could be part way true.

So this past Friday we had a visit with a reference from our neighbor ward, barrio 9. And it turns out that she is golden! She really felt the spirit in our first lesson and loved church. She also lives really close to our family that we just baptized. It´s kind of funny, because we have a lot of good investigators in that street, and the street´s name : Valle de Oro. Valley of Gold for those that can´t understand. It´s kind of funny, and cool. So we set a baptismal date with her, unfortunately not until August though, because she has to go north to help he sister with some things in 2 weeks and she isnt´t going to return until about August. But, it is really exciting because she is an amazing investigator. Unfortunately not everyone recognizes the spirit like she does, and not everyone can recognize that it is the spirit that is testifying to them. I rally hope that her trip to the north doesn´t do anything bad, because unfortunately a lot of people go on vacations or they leave for a week, and then they get lost and we can´t contact them or they don´t want to get baptized anymore. Unfortunately it´s rather disappointing.

So this morning we went to the temple, and were rather surprised when we realized that the session was in Portuguese. It was also pretty cool, because we could understand almost every word. But it was a little bit of a surprise for us that it wasn´t a Spanish session and nor did we receive headphones. It turned out well, but it was a little funny/ confusing at first.

So I haven´t met President Jackson yet I think he is visiting the district meetings one at a time, and has yet to come to us. I´ve only heard good things about him though. So I expect that he will be pretty good.

That´s really exciting to hear about Willy and Jeff. I actually didn´t think Willy was that old, but I guess he really is... Also, it´s pretty cool that he gets to speak another language, it´s a little difficult at some times because I know that I can help the people so much more if I was talking in English, but in the end I think that it will pay off really well.

So I´ll look for the package, though I probably won´t receive it until the secretaries or the president comes to my area. But it will be exciting to see the pictures and have another gag gift on my desk.

Well, I need to write to Papa now, so until next week.

Ciao

Elder Johnson