26 Sept 2012

Dear familia,

 

So this week has been roughly the same as the last week, though now we know where we live and we know where the church is, and we also have key to both and the key to the office. But, basically we´ve just been contacting for the entire week, and we had a few appointments. But we did get to know some members at church, and there was also a talent show too. I´ll send a picture of it, but one of the other Elders ended up brushing Elder Forsythe´s teeth and got toothpaste all over his mouth. It was pretty funny.

 

So there are currently four other Elders in Alcobendas/San Sebastian de los Reyes, so we´re not alone here which is good. Also, the office is in our area, so it´s only a half an hour walk to the church and to our house. So it´s not too bad right now. We´re going to get a car when the missionary couple leaves, so that will also be pretty nice.

 

So we came to do internet right after playing basketball, so I forgot my card reader again, sorry.

 

So the anchovies weren´t too bad, but for some reason they put on a mountain of salt, so that was basically the bad part about those. And, no, they did not make me feel any better at all. So I got kidnapped because I thought that the member was taking me to the church, but he took me to the emergency room, even though we already knew that it was a lack of sugar that I had. So I didn´t really want to go, but he took me anyway. My mission president wasn´t too worried once they found out what it was that I had. We only talked with his wife, but she seemed pretty calm with everything.

 

So Elder Forsythe is from Texas, he knows a lot of the same people as president does for some reason, he really likes football, he entered the field at about 6.3 and 300 lbs, but now he is down to about 260. He does p90x almost every morning. He speaks Spanish pretty well, though he would like an accent from Andalusia ( they basically cut out all the "s"´s and replace them with a small "th"). He went to Snow College in Utah for a year before the mission, he wants to now go to BYU i think. He has a younger brother who is bigger than him. He is the oldest of 3 if I am not mistaken. He is half Hawaiian, for is father. And he is surprised that I am from Oklahoma and I don´t know how to drive a stick shift. ( almost all the cars in Europe are stick shifts, so I am going to have to learn if I plan on driving our car). But that is basically a brief overview about my companion. No I did not know him before, though I had heard a lot about him from the members in B3 and B9 because he was there for a long time in the start of his mission.

 

I´ll get those pictures for you and hopefully i´ll send them next week.

 

So I am the mission historian, with some mission secretary duties. So I am in charge of the references, the cars, sending letters to the families, the weekly newsletter of the mission, certificates for people leaving and new packets for people coming in, ordering supplies and plaques, and writing a report about everything that happened during the year, at the end of the year.

 

So, also, the president has been thinking about keeping Elders in the office and putting the new older couple out in the field or something, so, I could be here for the next six months or so.

 

Well, I think that´s about all that´s happened lately, my old companion misses me of course, and I feel like I don´t really know my new companion yet. We´re getting to know the area, and my English is getting worse, when i talk now, I have left out all the consonants at some points. So, we´ll see how that is when i get back.

 

Well, I think that´s about it for this week,

 

Until next week, and hopefully Rhett gets (his mission call) somewhere almost as good as Spain.

 

Elder Johnson

19 Sept 2012

Surprise!!! I am now in the office!?

So we had a surprise transfer on Monday and me and Elder Forsythe got shipped to work in the office. Elder Wilson ( who is now an AP if i didn´t say so earlier) called me up Friday morning and told me that i was going to be leaving B3 that Monday. Soo all those letters that just got sent will probably be taking a little while to get to me since they won´t exactly be coming to me anymore. For the future letters you can just send them to the office, i am basically there every single day so i´ll see them when they come.

 

 

So basically me and Elder Forsythe ( who is a giant of a man, he played left tackle in football, and he is from Texas, where I suppose that everything is bigger), he is almost done with his mission, he only has 3 months left, which means that I am probably going to kill him this December. It´s kind of funny though because when he is sitting at his computer, he kind of reminds me of Mr. Incredible in his cubicle.

 

 

So basically we are going to be in the office until the next married couple comes in from the states. We currently are replacing a married couple that is going to head out in a month. So, we had to come to the office a little bit early in order to get trained in all the things that we need to do. The next married couple is waiting on their visas of course, so they´ll probably be coming this December.

 

 

So from what i have heard Vanessa is doing pretty good, she is probably going to be baptized in the beginning of October because she needs to come to church a lot more. But basically, Elder Berthon said that they had a lesson with her that was really good. And i am hoping right now that i will be able to go and visit b3 again when she gets baptized.

 

 

So basically Elder Forsythe and I are opening up a new area here. There are currently four other Elders working here, however, we are not inheriting anything from them. So as of right now, we are here in Alcobendas/ San Sebastian de los Reyes starting from scratch. The first day here was pretty funny too because we were walking around the area without any idea of where we were or where we lived, with a phone that really wasn´t ours, without keys to the house ( if we even knew where it was) and without anyone to teach. So basically we were joking and saying that we were some third and fourth wheels, basically without a purpose ( but not really). But as for now, we are going to be contacting... quite a bit....

 

 

So, i forgot my camera cords, so maybe next time you can get some pictures from me.

 

 

Also, i didn´t have time to eat breakfast Sunday, and i gave a talk. So basically i follow Caleb´s and Breanna´s example and passed out. However, i din´t fall down, i somehow almost made it back to my seat unconscious, before i hit a seat, and then afterwards ( to be brief) i sat down, ate some candy (to bring the sugar level back up) and then a member fed me sugared milk and crackers and then i got kidnapped and taken to the emergency room ( that was annoying). Before finally being taken home, eating some anchovies and drinking peach juice. And then starting a rather busy day of goodbyes and last lessons ( I didn´t feel like staying home all day, I had more important things to do).
 

Well, I think that´s about it. I am going to be sending a package home because I have too many things right now, and some of the things I am not going to be using during my mission.
 

I´ll probably be buying that sword after at least a month, though maybe a more, I was thinking about doing it today, however, with the surprise transfers, it didn´t exactly work out too well...
 

Well, I think that´s about it for right now. I am going to be getting a car sometime in the future, and we´re going to be looking for another family to baptize here in Alcobendas.
 

And, i haven´t yet used the bidet, though when i run out of toilet paper i might have to get desperate.
 

Until next week,
 

love,
 

Elder Johnson

12 September 2012

Hola!

So this week we had a little bit of an adventure. This Sunday, as we were getting ready for church we realized that there were droplets of water coming from the ceiling in the bathroom. Within 20 minutes those droplets had turned into 3 steady streams of water coming from the ceiling in three different places and some droplets starting on other parts of the ceiling, And we had water coming from the roof in the kitchen and water in the living room. Soo, Me and Elder Perkins ( the zone leader and companion of Elder Rodriguez stayed behind to deal with the water problem and Elder Rodriguez and Elder Berthon went to church to find the investigators there. Soo, me and Elder Perkins dealt with the water and when the pond in the bathroom started to flow into the bedrooms we decided that we should probably see if there was someone that could help us. So we tried our neighbor upstairs but nobody answered, though we did hear a sound that was similar to a fire hose going off. So we made some phone calls to our dueño and tried to find the building president ( but he unfortunately was sleeping) sooo we cut the water for the entire building.... Later we talked with the president and everything. Now we have some insurance people that are coming and looking at the damage. Our neighbors upstairs turned out to be in vacation 8 hours away, and left a faucet on or something broke, we're not quite sure which. But that´s what happened this week that was really exciting or at least somewhat of a big event. Now half of the ceiling is yellow and some paint is missing, but it was somewhat of an adventure.

 

 

So also this week we extended a baptismal date to an Ecuadorian named Vanessa. And, she said that she would like to get baptized!! She came that Sunday to church to see how it is. And she really enjoyed it!. So she is looking at a date for the end of this month, for the 22. It´s going to be pretty exciting. Hopefully we can help her and some other people to the blessing of baptism.

Well, sounds like everyone is doing good and is enjoying their new found activities. Hopefully they can continue to enjoy the next year of school and hopefully the girls can keep up with their new found geniuses.

 

So i am doing pretty good, i think i have a sever lack of sleep though because i feel tired all the time and i am starting to feel somewhat uncomfortable in the stomach and head. Unfortunately i am also almost out of vitamins, but only send some more if you have a bunch of stuff to send, i don´t want you paying 50 dollars for just two bottles. And, the money could probably be used to pay for other things. I don´t have any allergies that i know of. I actually haven´t had any allergies for the past few years, so those don´t really worry me. As for US food, i would love a gallon of almost chemical free milk.... but, that would probably spoil in the trip, so don´t worry about that. Those peanut butters were pretty good and they funcioned well too, though next time i might send a big jar, just for the size/amount ratio, because the big jar would have a lot more peanut butter for the amount of space it takes up. Nonetheless, i thoroughly enjoyed the peanut butter cups and they are pretty fun to use too.

My clothes still fit, my jeans are the only things that don´t, and i also have some shorts that are only usable for bed now, but other than that they all still fit. I have a few new ties, Now i probably have about 15 or 20, so that´s definitely a little bit better. And yes, there is also a dry cleaner that isn´t too far away

I am also still getting along well with Elder Berthon, he is rather funny at times, it´s rather strange that in about 3 weeks i could be with someone else in a completely different place. I rather hope that it is just as good as B3. I would actually rather enjoy B3 for 4 more months, I don´t think that it would honestly be that bad.Though at the end i could probably walk our area blindfolded.

Well. that´s about all the time i have right now

hopefully you have enjoyed this amazing and wholesome letter, though i can´t make any promises in the spelling or grammar, sorry. With a native companion Spanish is starting to feel a little bit more natural than English.

I included some pictures of the fiasco that came to pass in the Bathroom.

Well, until next week,

Tell the kids that i miss them too ( and you too of course, though talking to yourself might be an activity somewhat odd, so don't say it to yourself out loud)

Ciao,

Elder Johnson

5 September 2012

Hello!

So this week we had some pretty fun stuff happen. It was Elder Berthon´s birthday on the first of the month, so to celebrate it Elder Rodriguez made him hunt for his toys, and smashed an egg on his head (i guess it´s something that they do in Colombia). And then Elder Perkins cooked him some brownies and that´s basically it. For his birthday he got a figurine of Woody and Jessie from Toy Story.

So also yesterday i celebrated my 8 months in the mission (and Elder Berthon too, he entered in the same day that i did). I celebrated it by remembering today and announcing it to Elder Berthon. To be honest we didn´t do anything to celebrate.

So I have a picture of Elder Berthon is in there with a cowboy hat, celebrating his birthday. Also there is Elder Rodriguez, Elder Perkins, and Elder Berthon attacking the brownie. The BBQ that we did today, and a picture of someone that you all love.

 (Can't straighten this one.  Don't know why, it's straight in my photo gallery and from the download.

Just turn your head to the side.)

(This is Maya G.  She/he is a family joke that made its way in a package to Talon.

He keeps sharing the love by sending the picture back.)

So today for p-day we went to the church and had a BBQ with a bunch of other missionaries. It wasn´t actually that exciting because it was half organized the day before, but basically we went there and ate some food and talked to some people. The meat was especially delicious.

So sorry that there are only 4 pictures there, unfortunately with my new camera the pictures take up a lot more memory so I can´t send as many.

And the picture of your favorite person in the world didn´t happen to show up well on the computer. On the camera it looks a lot better.

So that´s basically it for the week. Everyone is starting to come back, but they are also starting to work... Soo we´ll see if we can help them.

So something exciting that happened this week is that we were in a lesson with an inactive member. We were going to eat with her mother and brother, however the mother has health problems and therefore had to go to the hospital that day. Anyway, we had that appointment and during the appointment Elder Berthon was testifying and at the end of the lesson the daughter was saying that she realized how much she pain she had caused her mother ( because although her mother is less active too, she wants to do the right things and she want her children to do the right things too). The next day her mother said that the daughter wanted to go with the relief society to clean the church... Sooo it looks like she is starting to get reactivated. Its really exciting because she has basically wanted nothing to do with the church, but now it appears that she is starting to open back up. Soo hopefully we can help her.

Well, i think that´s about it, good luck with school. And keep Bremen learning and maybe he can be a child genius in a few years. Enjoy the old/new washers. Also, it appears that the ward wants a cafeteria lady out of you (just try no to get fat and grouchy please).

So until next week. It´ll come like tomorrow (the time goes by way to fast, the hours fly by like minutes, it´s rather ridiculous)

Well, hasta luego.

Elder Johnson.

29 August 2012

Hello,

So this week has been the second to last week of vacations, so then the streets will one again be filled with the people of Madrid and then the work here and the baptisms will start to pick up a little bit more.

So I bought a camera this morning, so this next week i´ll start to send some more pictures. The camera seems pretty good, its a Nikon, it cost 99 euros, so in dollars it´s about 130-ish. However, the salesman said that the camera actually costs about 130 euros, which would be about 160-ish dollars. So it´s not too bad. it seems like a pretty good camera. It takes some rather good pictures, when it wants. But i´ll get better with it in a few weeks or so.

So we don´t have labor day, but what we do have is every single catholic celebration or day as a holiday, as well as a few more that Madrid wants to have. To be honest i don´t know why they have most of them, but they do have a lot, i don´t know when they all are, but they are somewhat frequent too.

So if i said that there were going to be changes in three weeks, i am afraid that i don´t remember what they would be, the next transfers will be in 5 weeks though. But i have forgotten if there will be any before then.

So, i don´t think that we have much else to say about this week. Were adjusting little by little to how the other teaches and how we can work better together. However, unfortunately there haven´t been a whole lot of things that were out of the normal or especially exciting this past week. This is probably the last transfer that i have here in Barrio 3, because the new president doesn´t like to have missionaries in an area for more than 6 months and i will have been here for 7 and a half. Soo, i can assume that this is my last 6 weeks in this area. But we´ll see what happens.

So in this next week and a half we should be setting up some baptismal dates. We have some good investigators that have been a little bit busy lately, but soon their schedules should be opening up.

So i am also teaching my companion a little bit of English because he would like to know it better. He also knows Catalan, which is a dialect of Spanish only spoken in the Barcelona area. And from what i have heard, he is pretty talented with the guitar. And the songs he knows on the piano are pretty good too. He also likes to draw and he is pretty funny too. Hopefully with his help, and the help of Elder Rodriguez (who lives with us) I will be able to get rid of this American accent that i have. It´s rather annoying to have too because i have to worry about if the people understood me after every single phrase that i say.

Well, i think that´s about all that i have to say right now, until next week, sorry, unfortunately i don't have as many stories to tell, so it´s a letter a little bit shorter, hopefully next week.

love,

Elder Johnson