26 December 2012

*Email received today from President Scott Taylor of the Spain Madrid Mission


 Dear Brother and Sister Johnson,

It is a pleasure to inform you that we have called your son, Elder Johnson, to serve as a district leader in the Madrid 2, 4 y Alco. This position carries with it increased leadership responsibility. The District Leader is to set an example for the other missionaries in his district through his study of the scriptures and the gospel, obedience and hard work, proselyting skills and other aspects of missionary work. Elder Johnson will be responsible for planning and conducting weekly District Meetings, and in supervising, teaching and inspiring the other missionaries. He will also interview baptismal candidates, which requires spiritual sensitivity and maturity.


This assignment is in addition to his regular proselyting responsibilities. We have confidence in Elder Johnson's abilities and know that this will give him opportunities for growth as well as to strengthen those he serves.  You can be proud of your son. We enjoy working with such a fine Elder in this great work.

May God's choicest blessings be with you and your family as you support your son in his missionary service in the Spain Madrid Mission.

Sincerely,

President Scott T. Jackson Spain Madrid Mission

25 December 2012

 Merry Christmas to US!!!!!!!

Talon's mom here - we got to have a nice conversation with our missionary on Christmas day.

He is doing well.  He looks great.  He smiled a lot and loves the work.

He even got his Christmas package in time!

There were a couple of technology snags, however.

For the first 10 minutes we could hear him, but he couldn't hear us.

After getting some headphones, he called back.

Then, our new internet (we switched 2 days ago) kept going out repeatedly and ending the calls,

or putting them on hold.

During one of the outages, Elder Johnson got to Skype his brother in AZ.

This is how we felt about the internet by the end.

It was so good to talk to him!

He was able to have two investigators get baptized on Saturday.

They are making a huge sacrifice to join the church.

It is a couple that has not been married, but living together - and the legal paperwork for their marriage may take up to 6 months.

They have chosen to live apart rather than wait to be baptized.

That is a testimony.

We loved every bit of talking with our son/brother.

Until Mother's Day, Elder Johnson.

19 December 2012

Hello!

So last week and this week have been ridiculously crazy ... again. So last week we ended up being able to find a piso (miraculously). We found a really nice one, but that wasn´t going to be available until January, but, a day later, we received a call from the person who showed us the piso, and he said that there was one that was equal that would be available that day. So we quickly picked out a time to see it, and we were able to look at it Saturday morning, my companion wrote up the contract that afternoon, and we bought it Tuesday morning, Then we quickly put in the furniture and set it up just an hour before the new Hermanas got there. But, in order to do that, we drove to and from the suburb ( about 1 hour round trip) about five times, to switch cars, pick up materials and furniture, and finally we were able to get it all ready and set up. It´s a really nice piso, and the Hermanas are really lucky to be able to get a bunch of new things for their pisos, the other pisos all got old things put into theirs.

But because of all the travelling and setting up we were pretty beat last night. I completely lost consciousness last night. However, I´m still pretty tired today. I´ll try to sleep when Elder Winkelkotter practices driving today. I pretty much have a stick car down, but the problem is that I always get super nervous when i´m driving in Spain, so they decided that it would be in the best interest of our health ( and for our hygiene) if he drives.

So also, thanks for the mission pages, they are awesome!! I really enjoyed reading them.

So I did end up getting my package. I got a slip on my birthday that said that I needed to pick it up in Customs. We didn´t have time on Friday (because it is only open for about 5 hours a day, in the morning). So I picked it up Monday morning, right before we picked up my new and next companion, Elder Winkelkotter.

So thanks a ton for the package, it´s great!!

So Elder Forsythe is still here. Since he is the Executive Secretary for the mission and the President, he has to train Elder Winkelkotter so that the mission doesn´t fall apart. So I still get to be with him for two more weeks.

So my Spanish isn´t perfect, but I definitely fell like my accent has improved a ton. I think that now that the chaos has settled down a little, that hopefully I can pick up my Spanish studies again.

So I had something eventful happen on Monday, we were unpacking the car full of furniture on Monday night, and I was closing the door of the van, and smashed the head of Elder Laubaugh... It turned out that it was a pretty nasty gash, he had to get some stitches from President, and there is still a puddle of blood on the ground. The worst part would probably have to be that it was the first time that I had seen Elder Laubaugh for about 5 months. Soo.. it was my welcome back to Madrid for him ... Oops. He took it like a champ though, he was super nice and calm about everything. He´s awesome! (here´s a picture of that, it has a sister and an Elder that went home yesterday, (I also interrupted their last night in Spain with this) and the President´s daughter, and Elder Winkelkotter in front of the Christmas Tree).

So here´s a picture of our bishop and almost all of his family (his other daughter is taking the picture) They´re a German family that also have lived in several locations, including Japan.

 And also here´s the cooked rabbit. (you can even see the eyeballs!). and it´s not burnt, it´s just the large amount of spices that they put on it.

 So thanks for everything! and until next week!

Elder Johnson

12 December 2012

Hello!

So this week has started to get pretty crazy, and we don´t even have a ton of missionaries in yet. So one of the pisos outside of Madrid has an infestation of cockroaches, and it´s pretty old anyway. So we have been trying to get a good piso for them. We found one that was really good, but it turns out that the lady works for a company that is overly tight about everything, so in the end, they won´t accept our money. Anyway, we finally found another piso that would work, and we were going to be trying to sign the contract today, but it turns out that the bank is being rather ridiculous, so we´ll see about how things will play out. So we´ve been running around all morning today to try to get that worked out.

We were supposed to go to the temple today with the rest of the missionaries in Madrid, but that didn´t work out either.

So we also have to find a new piso for some Hermanas that are going to be coming in (we have 6 sisters and 2 elders coming in this next week. (transfers got changed to next Monday, Surprise!!) So we´ve also been trying to find a good place for them to live. Hopefully we´ll find a place before too long, because it wouldn´t really be good if they had to live in the street.

So this Friday is my Birthday (that´s weird). In Spain they don´t do anything special that I know of, I know that in Colombia that they do the same thing as they do in Honduras though. I haven´t gotten the package yet, but it should be coming any day now.

 I am plenty warm, I am actually a little too warm at night usually, and the jacket that we bought before the mission is really good, so with the jacket I almost don´t even feel the cold.

Well, the mission isn´t really decided yet about what we´re going to do with all the new missionaries. For right now the incoming missionary rate is about normal, and it´ll stay that way until the May transfer, and then we´ll receive about 30 (about triple the normal) so with all the greenies from before, we're basically just planning on having a ton of people training. Actually, with this transfer, we´ll have about half of the Hermanas training! We also have about 15 people waiting for their visas, so we could expect them any day, and we actually probably won´t know about them until the day before or so. But as for right now they are waiting for their visas in other missions in the States.

So this morning I was also looking up the mission year history that I´m going to have to do, and I saw that nothing has been inserted in there since I came in (what fun!) So these next few weeks are going to be pretty crazy, since I also need to send out about 40 packets and letters. (yay for the office!!)

As of right now we have about 80 or 90 missionaries, and with all those coming in we might have around 200!

We have about 16 Sisters and 65 Elders right now. (roughly estimated).

The most common thing that I eat now is probably sandwiches in the office. And outside of that it would have to be hot dogs. (pretty boring)

There are four of us Elders in the office (the financial secretary, the secretary, and the executive secretary, and then the Historian) and the AP´s are also in here on Mondays.

We see President Mondays, and then maybe once or twice more during the week.

I feel like the testimony that I have most received would have to be in the recognizing that there is a blessing that we can receive for obeying every one of the commandments, rules, guidelines, etc.

I think that I miss not being able to enjoy all the gag gifts that everyone gives to each other (giving presents to each other).

Well, time to go back to the bank, so until next week.

(and Christmas day has been made our p.day, so I´ll skype you sometime when you´ll be awake.

Elder Talon Johnson

 

* (Sent in a second quick email) - Something that I forgot to mention: Last Saturday we went to visit an investigator that we have. His only problem is that he is still a bit Catholic and that he is hesitant to seperate himself from his girfriend. But, last Saturday we went to his apartment, and he said that he wants to get baptized this Saturday! We can´t make it work out for this Saturday, but him and his girfriend are going ot get baptized on the 22nd!!

Miracles are posible, even in Spain.

Hasta Luego,

Elder Johnson

5 December 2012

Hello!

 

Happy Birthday Dad!!! (sorry I didn´t say it earlier, I forgot to put it in my letter, and then remembered it Saturday).

 

So I believe that I failed to mention, but we had a member of the Seventy: Kent F. Richards, come to our mission and give a tour. So last Thursday I had the opportunity of listening to him with our zone. He had a great message about not over complicating the lessons and of becoming better teachers. It was really good, and allowed me to think about the parts of my teaching that may end up only distracting the investigators.

 

Also, last Sunday, we had a two stake conference where Elder Richards divided the stakes! So now there are three stakes in Madrid! We are still in the East Stake, but half of our old stake has gone to the new stake of the Madrid Central Stake. I was able to see almost all of the converts there that I had baptized, which was really cool. It may have been a once in a lifetime event.

 

We were not able to watch the Christmas Devotional, but maybe for a p-day or something I will.

 

My companion actually goes home next month, barely. He goes home the 3rd. Which is honestly a small disappointment, He misses Christmas and New Years in the States, Which aren´t as big here in Spain, and he goes home right before Reyes, which is huge here in Spain. So it´s a little bit of a bummer. Elder Wilson actually has about 5 months or so left. So he still has a little bit at least before he goes home. I can´t really believe it that I am so old, I definitely don´t feel that old in the mission right now.

 

I´ll look for nativity sets, I saw a store the other day that had some, but I don´t know if they have any that are especially from Spain.

 

 

 

So missionary work is one of the most important, meaningful, and eternal things that you can do in your life. The entire reason for missionaries is to allow other people to be with their families forever, as well as to be allowed to enter the presence of God. Without missionary work, no one would know the truth and the values and civility of man would degrade to the state of non-exsistence. If there is not missionary work, man cannot receive the blessings of Heaven because that man has no idea of what the commandments of the Lord are. It is through missionary work that the Lord can carry his love to his children. Without missionary work, God´s children cannot come to a knowledge of his truth. Missionary work is something that can be done every day, with every person that we see. So it´s really important

 

Well, that´s about it for now,

 

Until next week

 

Elder Johnson