24 October 2012

Helloo!

 

So this week has been the first week without the married couple in the office, though to be honest, it´s about the same, on my part at least. The airport, was.... normal, we´ve already driven there about 5 times, so it wasn´t anything super exciting. It was weird though to see them go. I didn´t drive though, I am still working on the second gear of a manual car, so it will be awhile before I do anything as dangerous as that.

That´s kind of weird that Dillon will be home shortly. I guess that it feels like he has been out for awhile, though it will still seem weird to think that he will be home in a month. It´s also weird that I have 10 months already, it definitely seems like I am still new in the mission.

 

That´s awesome that there are so many more people applying for missions, it will be great to be able to have so many more people working here. There are a lot of small areas that struggle in the branches, and they could really some people to help them get things straight. It will also be weird that everyone that is coming is going to be so young, it will make me feel even older than i do right now. Hopefully I can figure out how to teach missionaries better, so that when I need to teach a new missionary I´ll be able to do it.

 

The Madrid MTC actually doesn´t have a whole lot of space, however, if the current visa wait continues, then the Americans probably will just be going straight to the field when they get here, so they won´t need a ton of space in the MTC for them there. But if they do start needing more space, then they are going to need to extend the building, or find a new one.

 

Halloween is pretty small (in Spain) right now, but it´s getting bigger. There are more people that do it every year, so eventually it will be a big holiday. And that´s probably it as for October holidays.

 

So, we´ve had a few more opportunities to teach, as for right now we kind of need to set a schedule for when we need to leave the office, and when we´re going to need to be in the office.

 

Right now we are in a small ward. Which isn´t too bad.

 

I ate something new today, though I don´t know what it was. It was kind of like a flour roll/tortilla with syrup or something on top, it wasn´t too bad. The lady that gave them to us said that they are a traditional Christmas food.

 

I´ll ask about the newsletter, though I know that there is a mission page, if you didn´t already know about that.

 

So, I have my cord, though I forgot it in my backpack in the car ... sorry, eventually you´ll get some pictures. I have some decent ones in the old part of a Spanish city called Toledo. They have a ton of sword shops there and also a lot of old buildings, so you´ll get those eventually.

 

As for pictures from you, I don´t really have any preferences about the topics of the pictures. I would just say that as long as they include someone in the family, they´re good. It doesn´t really matter if it´s something that they do every day.

Well, I´m afraid that that´s all the time that I have today, unfortunately we really need to get going if we want to have enough time to do everything else that we need to do today, Sorry that you didn´t really get a long letter this week.

 

Until next week,

 

Elder Johnson

17 Oct 2012

Hellooo!

 

So this week was an average week in the office. So basically we have spent the mornings and afternoons in the office, and afterward we have had all the lessons. Also this week there was el día de la hispanidad, which basically means that everyone has a party to celebrate that they are Latin American. So we had a nice activity in the church where several people did some dances from their country, and afterwards we all ate food from the countries represented.

 

So unfortunately that is basically the most exciting thing that has happened this week.

 

Tomorrow the married couple missionaries that Elder Forsythe and I are taking over for are going to be leaving, So we´ll be driving to the airport to drop them off nice and early in the morning.

 

Well, we also don´t really have p-days anymore, usually they are spent with dealing with problems that other people have. So, from now on, i can expect to have a little less time to write each week, unfortunately...

 

The riots in Spain don´t really affect us, at all. We usually hear about them from the president or from some members or investigators. But outside of that they haven´t had any impact on us at all. I am pretty sure that they only take place in the center of Madrid, where it isn´t exactly the most efficient place for missionary work. So there shouldn´t be any problems that involve us.

 

It is pretty cool that the age limit has been changed, it´s also kind of weird at the same time. We should be getting a ton of new missionaries which will be really exciting, and also it should be really good for the mission. The only thing though, is that now I am going to feel really old compared to all the new missionaries. It will be a little weird at first in that perspective, but other than that I think that it will be really exciting. Also I need to learn how to train all these people coming in, If there are a mountain of people coming in, then there is going to be a mountain of training that is going to need to get done too.

 

Well Happy Birthday to Arya! Hopefully she enjoyed the circus, and actually i still do remember a part of the circus in Texas, and the one in Oklahoma. Hopefully she´s enjoying all her new gifts, and hopefully they can satisfy her until Christmas.

 

Well, to be honest there isn´t much to say about the fall in Spain, yet. The weather is cooler, it´s down to sweater weather in the mornings, and in the afternoons it´s just wonderful. But other than that the only thing different is that the grass is growing. The leaves are all the same color, and the is only a slightly bit more cloudy.

 

Well, to be honest that´s about all the time that I have right now, So until next week,

 

Elder Johnson

10 October 2012

Hello!

 

For p-day we went to a town in the middle of nowhere, however it used to be a small castle, and now there are a bunch of sword shops there and also a bunch of old buildings. It was pretty cool, once i finally bring my camera cord you´ll get to see all the pictures that i´ve taken. Eventually...

 

So this week has been a little bit better, {meaning more time for teaching} at the end of last week we started to have more time to contact and to have lessons, so now we should be able to get a little bit more of the work done. So something exciting that happened this week (other than general conference) was that after one of the sessions we had a lesson with a couple. The girlfriend is Mormon, but was less active for a while, but her boyfriend is not, though he has been coming to church for a very long time. Anyway, we had a lesson with them and proposed a baptismal date for the end of November because he regrettably has had a problem with the word of wisdom for a few years. However, he knows that the church is true and he enjoys coming and hearing all the spiritual messages. So yesterday night, we went to meet with him at his apartment and we gave him a plan to follow, that will allow him to completely overcome his problems. So the part that was really exciting about that lesson was near the end of the lesson when we gave him the promise, that if he trusted in God and completely obeyed with the steps that we had given him, then he be completely free in less than a month. It was amazing to be able to see the light that lit up in his eyes when we told him that he could stop and then later get baptized. It is really amazing how the faith that people have in Christ is able to make them happy and completely change they´re lives. If we all follow through the steps that we have been given.

 

So I have not taken any stick driving lessons, though maybe one day we´ll get it done, though first we have to find the time.

 

Well, unfortunately we don´t exactly have a whole lot of time right now, so maybe I can send a longer message next week, Sorry.

 

Hasta luego,

 

Elder Johnson

3 October 2012

Helloo!

 

So this week has been a festive week in the office (not really), so basically all of last week we were in the office until about 6 or 7 at night, and then we usually had a lesson or two afterwards.This week we started with transfers, so basically we went to the transfer meeting, then ran out the building to drop off a missionary at the airport because he was going to the Canary Islands, then afterward we went to the office for an hour, then ran to the airport again to pick up a future missionary because the mtc couldn´t do it, we then dropped him off at the temple and then ran back to the office, later we had a lesson with Fran. He is from Cameroon, Africa, right now he lives in the homeless shelter, but he seems pretty good, he appears to be genuinely interested in what we have to say and he also brings his notepad to all of our lessons. We recently set a baptismal date for the 27 of October, which is kind of close, but he said that with God, that we can make it. Afterwards we met some members that are really cool, the wife is pretty active (in energy) and wants everyone else in the ward to have the same excitement about the missionaries and the church. They got me pretty excited too, because unfortunately not all of the members want to help out the others, and unfortunately some people don´t even want to help the missionaries. However, it´s always pretty exciting when we can find members that always want to help the others as well as non-members.

 

Anyway, yesterday we had a crazy day, we started with going to the mission home to take an inventory of the supply closets there, then we sent some packages (which ended up taking half an hour), which of course made us late to pick up a missionary ending his mission at the temple. So we quickly drove there, found out that he had just gone into his interview with the stake president three minutes before (and his train was going to leave in half an hour, with a 15 minute drive to the station). So we quickly ran out of the temple square with the Elder after his meeting, and drove very franticly ( I don´t remember how to spell that) to the station, he ended up making it with 6 minutes before it left. Then afterwards, we went to the office, then we had to pick up all the new missionaries up from the mission home and take them to the Temple to get their companions. They (of course) were late too, so we drove them down to the temple amidst complaints in English, Spanish, and maybe some French, as to the poor quality of the driving ( it was a manual 8 passenger van, with a poor first gear, and in traffic, so it really wasn´t that bad of driving). Afterwards, we waited at the meeting and then drove over to a piso to steal a desk and mattress for another companionship that had just been put into a trio. Afterwards, we ended up having to cancel our appointment in order to go to the office and finish the newsletter for tomorrow. Soo, despite the fact that we did not end up having to drive some other elders to the train station at 10 at night, we still had a crazy day of driving.

 

Well, that´s basically the run down of what happened these past two days. It is definitely a different type of work that we do here in the office, and there is a ton of stuff that has to get done. Soo, welcome to the office...

 

So there have been some letters that have been sent to the MTC and not to the mission office, so just so everyone knows the mission office is at the street Calle Fuerteventura, 4, 2 8-B. San Sebastian de los Reyes, Madrid, España, 28703.

 

Well, I believe that that´s about all that I have to say right now, so ...

 

Until next week,

 

Elder Johnson