December 29, 2014

 Skyping with Elder Johnson on Christmas Day!

Christmas party for the McAllen Texas Mission

Hey Kimbo!!
It was so great getting to see you this week and talk to all of you guys! Yeah the Searle’s are great, she grew up down in Mexico but then ended up in Utah because of her dads work and met her husband who was very less active at the time then missionaries found them and she got baptized and have a lot of the same story of you and dad actually! They are a super cool family. Yeah we ended up eating 4 times on Christmas day, all after 2 in the afternoon and each meal was huge with desert and everything! haha It was a lot of fun though. Yeah I got the package from Brooke. That was super nice of her to send me that. Sounds like New Years should be a lot of fun with all of them. I have Christmas cards I want you to give to all of them and yes I know they are late but ni modo! So I will get those sent out today. We had a fun week, we went out caroling to a lot of our members, and the sisters in my district made a lot of sweets so that we could give our members something when we sang on their door step. The members loved that, but caroling can be pretty awkward!! haha And we had a breakfast Christmas morning at the church and I and the zone leaders cooked up tons of eggs and pancakes for the whole Zone then we went and started eating at members houses at 2 and that is pretty much all we did the rest of the day!! We went to five different members houses and each one of them fed us, 4 of them fed us a huge meal! That was pretty much our Christmas though! Then I had to talk in our Spanish ward yesterday and then right after the bishop came and asked if we could teach the gospel principles class also so it was a pretty busy day at church. This week for New Years is actually the only time we get to ever watch a movie on the mission!! On New Years night since we can’t be out on the streets, we are all going to a church and watching Frozen!!!! I am so excited!! So that should be a lot of fun but other than that we won’t be doing a whole lot. Things are going good here and I cant believe how fast time is going right now! I am loving my mission and I am loving the changes it is making in my life. I know I will be the big biggest convert of my mission. I hope you guys had a great Christmas! It was so great to see all of you and be safe this week!! I love you!!

Love, Elder Johnson

December 25, 2014

It was so fun to visit with our wonderful missionary yesterday on Christmas. 

He is loving his mission and is doing very well!  We are so proud of him! 

December 22, 2014

Hi Kimbo

How are you doing?? I am doing great, things here with Elder Eisenhut have been going great. We have been having a lot of fun together, especially with a lot of the members here and our investigators. We have found 17 new investigators the last two weeks!! We also have a lot of really cool members in our area which makes things a lot of fun. We only have one English active member in our area, they are the Searl’s and are a super cool family. We will be skyping from their house on Thursday, it will probably be around 4ish maybe a little earlier or a little later but we aren’t for sure because we are waiting for the Searl’s to respond right now. I am in the McAllen Zone, which covers McAllen till Mercedes and everything between. I am really close to McAllen right now and we go to church for our English ward where the mission office is and that is where we have all of our district meetings and what not. Right now because there are a lot of missionaries coming in so we have been having workshops like every day to help improve teaching skills, so I have to give a few training’s every week for 2 hours a piece which has been a lot of work but they have been going good. The Sisters in my district have been having a lot of problems lately, well they have been doing good but just haven’t been bringing any people to church and haven’t been finding any new investigators so I have had to get on them quite a bit because I cant stand a lazy missionary and I am worried they might be getting a little floja. But I will be fixing that!! The Christmas party was a lot of fun, Elder Shumway is in Edinburg right now which is just like a half hour away so we had the Christmas party with them, each zone makes a skit to do during it and they were all so dang funny. Look up Prancercizing, on Youtube, that is what I did during the skit with a few other elders;) Then they do a white elephant exchange which was fun too, I didn’t get anything good but it was still fun!! That is funny about Brock and the elves on the Heber Creeper, what else have you guys been up to?? What has baby Brockles been doing? How is he liking basketball?? We don’t have a whole lot of plans for this week, we are going to have a breakfast with the zone on Christmas morning, then hopefully we can fill up our schedules with members after that because if not we just have to work like normal. Other than that we don’t have a whole lot of plans. I got the packages and I will open the one with the X on it on Christmas eve then the other one on Christmas morning!! What is Brock wanting from Santa?? What are you and dad wanting from santa? Well any other questions for me Kimbo??? I am so excited to get to see you guys and talk to you guys here in just a few days!! I will have just 45 minutes just so you guys know, I wish I had longer but President has said just 45 minutes. I can’t wait to see you, I love you Kimbo!!!!

December 15, 2014

Hey Kimbo how are you doing?? How is everything going there at home? Sounds like you are staying busy between church, work and this lady you are taking care of! Yes that is very normal for ladies to pull out all of their remedies!! Haha they have all sorts of funny ideas of how we get sick and things to do to help you feel better, I think they might help but who knows sometimes! What did she have to get surgery on? How long will she be staying here in the US?? You guys need to get some missionaries over there, or bring her to church or something:) Things here are going good, I am loving the new truck I am driving and things are going good here! We have found tons of new people to teach this last week, we found twelve new investigators and two really cool families. I really hope these families will continue to accept the gospel in their life because they could be such cool families to add to the cool Spanish ward here. I have to say I love Spanish members a lot more than English members for the most part, pretty much every single Spanish member is illegal here in the valley and are all converts and the best part is that they love feeding missionaries:) We have a lot of cool Spanish members in our area so we get fed just about every night by someone from the Spanish ward. It is amazing how most of these people will live in a tiny little shack or little trailer but are so willing the feed the missionaries so much and do anything for the missionaries. That is something that I have seen a lot here in the valley, there are so many strong members that are just trying to make it day to day, but when it comes to doing something for the missionaries, they will do just about anything. They love the missionaries so much because that is how they got introduced into the gospel and they love the church so much. Things with my new comp are going great, he is very young in the mission, he is starting his third transfer but things have been going great with him. I am teaching him quite a bit of Spanish and he is learning it really well. We have been working really well together and the members are starting to love us. We actually had a really cool experience this last week, we went and found a family that has been sealed in the temple and everything but is very less active. We sat down and found out why they stopped coming to church three years ago, then we talked about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ with them and the dad started crying and then yesterday the entire family showed up to church. It was the first time in over three years that the whole family had come all together! They are a very cool family, just needed a little jacking from the Spirit and sure hope they continue to come each week!! Anyways I hope you have a great week Kimbo, I am soooo excited to skype you here in a little over a week!!! I love you!!!
Love, Elder Johnson

December 8, 2014

Hey Kimbo, How are you doing?? That story about that lady and her daughter is sooo cool!!! That sounds like such an amazing experience and you guys are going to bless her life so much!! I definitely have the coolest family and makes me so happy to read a story like that!! I hope she has a great Christmas now, you will have to keep me updated with how everything goes with that! Well I am now in a place called Alamo, it is very close to McAllen, it is really just a suburb of McAllen so we actually go to church in the building where out mission office is and the Presidents family is in our English ward. I am the district leader over 4 sister missionaries, so I am what they call a Relief society president;) My area is super big, we cover Alamo, San Juan and Pharr. They are 3 smaller cities but I get to drive a brand new truck too though:) My Comp is Elder Eisenhut, he is from Southern California, he is super new in the mission also, he has been in the mission for about 4 months and he is a pretty cool guy. He was actually in Edinburg here before so we are doing what is called a white wash because we are both new to the area and so everything has been a little bit different this last week! We just had a list of names of members and a map when we got here so we have been just trying to find all the members and get to know them. We have a lot of super cool members here in our area, the Spanish Ward is a strong ward and we have a lot of cool members in our area that are in that ward. I am going to be getting fed a lot more than I was in my last area, so I am hoping to put on some more weight:) I don’t think that will be to big of a problem though! haha Things are going good though, I feel like I haven’t had a second to sit down and relax at all because some of the sisters in my district are having problems and so they are always calling and needing help. I have to do follow ups every other night just to see how the areas are doing and usually should take like 15 minutes a piece but they have been taking about a half our a piece so I am on the phone for like an hour every night with them trying to help them figure out things in their area! Its all good though, they are great sister missionaries and I think will start figuring things out and pick things up soon. Not much has happened this last week though other than me getting moved down here close to McAllen and getting a new comp! Things are going good though and I am loving my mission!! I am almost to 10 months which is crazy for me to think about, time is flying!! Sorry I don’t have much more to say, I will say more next week! Have a great week Mommy, I love you!!
Love, Elder Johnson

December 1, 2014

Hey Kimbo,
How are you doing?? How is everything going? How was Thanksgiving this last week? Yeah I think I have gotten all of the packages then, thanks so much for everything you have sent Mommy!! I really do appreciate everything. I am sorry I have been so bad at getting a letter out to you, I have to drive a lot on P days going up to Laredo and back from Zapata and that is when all the other elders write their letters so I haven’t had the time to write at all. Hope in my new area I will have the time to do that! That is crazy about the dodge ball tournament!! That thing is always so crazy every year, that is the same team we played in the championship last year, I think that is why it was so much fun to beat them! haha What did Ty do different to get thrown out? When I get back we will have to go and beat them again to humble that team a little bit..;) Yeah, So I found out yesterday that I will be leaving Zapata already, I though I would be staying for sure because my companion has been here a lot longer than I have but I will be taking off first thing in the morning. I still have no idea where it is I will be going but I sure am going to miss Zapata. On Friday I got a call from the mission president telling me that I have been called to be a new district leader, so I am excited for that. I had to go all the way down to McAllen on Saturday morning for a training with the President and the other elders that were called to be district leaders. I was super surprised to get that call on Friday because usually District leaders are called a lot later in the mission, in the meeting on Saturday the next youngest missionary was still way over his year mark so I am a little nervous but I am excited too. I imagine that is the main reason why I am leaving my area again. Yesterday was great, it was a great way to end my last Sunday here in Zaptata. We had 5 baptisms!! Me and my comp had 5 and the other companionship here had 2 so we dunked 7 people in the lake yesterday! We are still waiting for the guy to pay his probation, and there is actually another guy that is the boyfriend of a girl I baptized yesterday that is on probation but wanted to get baptized so badly yesterday.. he was crying on Saturday night because he wanted to be baptized so badly.. it was super tough, but he made me promise that I would come back when he get off of probation here in a year and baptize him. It was a very cool Sunday and a great way to go out. I am excited to hear where I am going but a little nervous too! Thanksgiving, we had a lunch up in Laredo, a branch puts on a lunch for the missionaries every year, so we went to that then got back home and ate with a family that was recently baptized, the V family and that night S (our recent convert) wanted to take us out to the steakhouse but we found out it was closed.. So we had a great Thanksgiving here, I was hoping to stay here for Christmas but I am getting shipped out!!! Anyways that’s a little of what went on this week.. I will let you know where I am next week! Thanks so much for everything Kimbo, be safe and know I love you so much!! Have a great week!!
Love, Elder Johnson

November 24, 2014

Laredo South Zone

 

 

 

Hey Kimbo,
How are you doing?? Ah man Judy promised us she would just send that video of us to you guys through a message! She said she wouldn’t post it for everyone to see! haha Yeah I have gotten one of Gmas packages and I got your little treat the other day, thank you for that!! I now have a couple sweaters so I should be doing great. I have like 5 pairs of pants so I am doing okay with them right now too. Yeah 34 x 34 is the right size now because I have put on a little weight:) I am at 184 right now, I weighed the other day because we had to get our flu shots. I haven’t seen Elder Shumway hardly at all since I left him which has kinda sucked, just here and there like twice. I think since I left him but we still stay in touch. He will be going home here in May and he told me he is going to come meet you guys when he gets home and he is going to meet up with you guys the day I get home at the airport! haha Well Ty has moved on now.. has he said why?? I haven’t heard from him in a while so I have no idea what is going through his head.. Man sounds like the Christmas tree wasn’t any fun!! There wasn’t any adventure to it!! That is always the fun part!! When I get home we will be going back up into the mtns to get the tree:) Yesterday was pretty fun, we went to J’s (recent Convert) and we set up their Christmas tree with them, and she fed us and then we made Ginger bread houses! She told us she has a stocking for each of us and that she is getting us all Christmas presents, she is such a cool lady and such a strong convert. She is so worried about transfers coming up though because its almost certain that at least one of us four here in Zapata will get transferred out. So she said she might be having a Christmas day with us before transfers because she wants it to be with us 4. I hope I stay mainly so I can spend Christmas morning with her and her family! We don’t have tons of members here in little Zapata but we have some of the coolest recent converts that we have baptized since I have been here. My first week in church here in Zapata in the apartment we had 8 people in church, that is including 4 missionaries and a senior missionary couple but these last few weeks we have been right around 40. It has been so cool seeing the church grow here in this little town. We were supposed to be having a baptism this last week but we are still waiting for our investigator to pay his probation off. Because he cant be on probation to be baptized and when we were teaching him he told us his probation officer said he can get off as soon as he pays $350. So hopefully he gets that paid this week so we can dunk him before transfers. Also we had a crazy storm this last week!! We were outside a little trailer teaching a lesson under this big mesquite tree and it started to rain so we decided to move to the other side of the trailer under a car port thing then all of the sudden the wind picked up and it started hailing, the hail was the size of like a quarter, I think that is the hardest I have ever seen wind blow in my life. Come to find out there were hurricane warnings and they thought it was going to be a hurricane for a while, anyways that big tree we were sitting under snapped and fell right where we were sitting and smashed the little trailer of our investigators pretty badly! Come to find out that there were a couple trailers in that area that had been blown over and there were trees laying all of the streets, so it took us a while to finally get out of that Medina area. So that was pretty exciting! haha but Everything is going good and we have another transfer coming up this next week so I will let you know what is going on next week! I love you Kimbo, espero que tenga una buena semana!!


Love, Elder Johnson

 

 

 

November 17, 2104

Hey Mommy, how are you doing?? It has been pretty chilly down here in Zapata lately, but that's all good! I went to buy some sweaters today at Ross but it was so packed with people we just left. Hopefully I can get some sweaters this next week. I got your letter this last week with your conversion story, thank you so much for sending me that. I loved reading through it!! For thanksgiving, J already invited us to go eat with her and also one other little family of less actives have invited us over to eat also, so we should have somewhere to eat it looks like! M should be getting baptized this next week, he should be paying his probation tomorrow. Things here are going pretty good, it has been getting really cold here which I wasn't expecting, it has been down in the 40s a few days and with the wind it has made it real cold. So riding the bikes around all day has been a little miserable, but we have been finding people like crazy these last couple weeks. I think we found a new investigator to teach just about every day this last week which has been cool. We will be having another baptism in the lake this weekend, we have been baptizing like crazy down here in the lake which has been awesome. S, our recent convert got the Aaronic priesthood this last week which was super cool, so we have 2 active people in the church that have the priesthood now!! We also got a new senior couple down here too! They are senior missionaries from Arizona, she was born and raised in Peru though. They are pretty cool. They are the Strong’s and I think should help a lot down here to have a couple to help us out. It looks like I will be conducting the meetings now at church, because the couple that would come down from Laredo on Sundays, the husband could speak good Spanish but now with this new couple the husband doesn't speak a word of Spanish so it will be a little different! So during a lesson with some investigators this last week in a place in Zapata called Medina (lets just say its kinda a rough place) we were teaching them about the Book of Mormon outside of their trailer, then all of the sudden we have a cop come walking through our lesson then we look up and there are a bunch of policemen that are coming running down the street and the next thing we know there are police all around us! We had one that came over and told us what was going on and it comes out that the guy we had set up a lesson with for the very next day is a fugitive and had just wrecked his car into someone, but because he was already running from the cops just hurried and drove to his house and was hiding in the field somewhere right next to his trailer, so that cops came chasing him and were looking for him in his house in the field next to his house and they found them. But it was pretty exciting! We couldn't leave for a little bit but then they let us take off. We never know what’s going to happen there in Medina! haha. But we know we will always be protected here and we don't ever worry. Other than that I cant think of anything to exciting that happened this week. Thanks so much for sending me a little something, I always love getting a letter or something from my mommy!! I hope you have a great week! I love you!

Love, Tu mas guapo hijo

November 10, 2014

Hi Mommy!!!

How is everything going? What are you up to? Sounds like you have been pretty busy lately.. Do you have some time to relax this week or another crazy week like usual? Sounds like St George was fun, Brooke told me she saw ya and that she always loves it when you come down! Thanks so much for sending me your conversion story, I was actually going to ask you to send that to me so thanks so much!  How did Brock do today at tryouts? I hope he doesn't stress himself out to much so that he can play well, tryouts were always stressful but there is a time you have to get rid of that stress and just have fun and play so I hope he is able to do that!! Things here are going good, we had the pool baptism on Saturday of a lady named R who is the nicest sweetest lady. She has a niece that is a member so when she saw us in Zapata she stopped us one day and asked us to come out to her house because she lives out on a big ranch and so we have been going out there and she is such a strong member already. She got baptized Saturday and confirmed yesterday. Also I baptized A yesterday in the Lake!! My first time baptizing in the lake! I have always made my comp do our baptisms because he is young in the mission and hasn't baptized anyone before I came but he has baptized the last two people we have baptized and so I did this one. It was a very cool experience and a very different experience outside of a font! We walked out on the boat dock and I dunked him. I will send some pics of that. We should have another baptism of A’s friend M this next week if he gets off of probation within the next few days. There is so much work to do here in Zapata and our group on Sundays has been growing very quickly. I love it down here in Zapata, there are few members, but there are some awesome recent converts!! Transfers are the 2nd of Dec so I will find out around then if I go or stay. I imagine I will stay, especially with how the work has been going, my comp could easily get transferred also which would mean I would stay. But I hope you have a great week Kimbo, I love hearing from you and I love hearing about what you are up to and what’s going on up there. Espero que tenga una Buena semana! Te Amo!

Love, Elder Johnson

November 3, 2014

Elder Johnson is very fortunate to have a wonderful family that takes great care of him and his fellow missionaries.  They are always feeding those hungry boys!!

 

Hey Kimbo! 

How is everything going?? How has your week been? What have you been up to? I can’t believe that story about Jason... That is unbelievable.. I feel so bad for the kid, I really like Jason a lot and that is too bad that this thing has gotten so dang big. I hope he realizes that it is still just a football game and that it is nothing more. You will have to keep me updated with everything with that, I hope he is doing okay now. Oh yeah, we just call her J, she is such a cool lady. She has us come over like twice a week and always likes to feed us or do something for us. She has three kids that are so funny. She really wants to go to the temple but wants the Salt Lake temple to be the first she goes to. I keep telling her I want her to come up to meet you because she is so funny, she has a personality a lot like you, she can be a smart aleck sometimes but it’s always a lot of fun there. She got baptized a little over a month ago now I believe and she is super solid in the church. I did the clappy thing and I told her that you guys think I look retarded when I do that and she agreed but told me that in Spanish, she called me malito, ask Ty what that means!;) I told her you would probably kill me if I showed her that so she said she would have to tell you about it then! Well of course something happened to Sherwin, how in the world did he get that thing so stuck?? That is such a funny story though!! I can’t imagine how hard Dad was laughing, I probably wouldn’t have been able to breathe from laughing so hard if I would have been there! Daddy is getting old, he needs to be careful with those hips that he has. Things have been going super good here, we should be having another laketism this Sunday! We are going to baptize a guy named A, he actually looks super white which is weird for down here but he is from Mexico somewhere. He is a super cool guy and told us he will get baptized if he feels the same feelings he felt when he was in Korea with the army at some church. He has come to church and cried both times, he said this is the first time he has had those feelings since Korea which is super cool. I will be baptizing him in the lake this Sunday it sounds like which should be super cool. Other than that we haven’t had anything to crazy happen this week, on Halloween we went over to our recent converts house, J, and she fed us some chicken but we had to be back home by 6 that night because things get pretty crazy here on holidays. Us 4 went back to the apartment and we played poker the rest of the night with cookies, and to play we all had to put in a tie and the winner got all the ties, and of course guess who got the ties... I did! haha it was a lot of fun, that’s all we did all night because the game took forever but it was a lot of fun though. The next night S, the guy we baptized two weeks ago took us out to the steakhouse again here in Zapata! He got us 22oz steaks there and wanted to see if we could eat it all. Of course I put that thing down like nothing! It was a big ol steak though! This week was a fun week, it went by super quick but things are going good here in Zapata. There is so much work to be done here and so many people interested in the Gospel here. Things are a little different here but I have loved this little town. Well Kimbo, I hope you have a great week, thanks for keeping me updated on everything. Be safe and have fun in St George! Make sure Daddy spoils you! I love you!

Love, Elder Johnson 

October 27, 2014

Hey Kimbo!!!
How are you doing? How has everything been going there at home?  haha Yeah I couldn't remember if I had told you we had gotten a building or not, well it is a funeral home and we have made it kinda into a place we can hold church. We have had too many people at church lately so they had to hury and do something about it and got us that building. What has Elder Duerst said about me on that blog so that I have some dirt on him! haha No he is a great kid and a hard worker, he struggles with the language but is learning more each day. You are quite the witch Kimbo... I always knew you were a witch... haha I am just teasing!! I really couldn't ask for a better mom, I always tell stories here to other missionaries about how funny you are, like we met a girl the other day that was named Bernice!!! I thought only my armadillo had that name! I didn't think it was even a real name... so after we stopped talking about her I had to tell Duerst all about Bernice the boy armadillo.  That is cool about the pic with the baptism in the lake, S. is doing great and he bought us 4 missionaries these super nice Winchester knives and he is carving our names into them also which should be super cool! He also gave me a pair of brass knuckles yesterday too!! haha He is such a boss and he took us out to a steak house here in Zapata also. He has been doing so much for us since he has been baptized and he hasn't missed church in a while either. He is such a strong convert. This week went by super fast and I cant even remember many things that happened. One of our investigators was drinking one night and had taken way too many of these anxiety pill he has to take and almost overdosed, we were with him from like 7 till 9 one night because he wanted to commit suicide and kept driving around the block and he was super drunk. We finally got him home and calmed him down and had to talk to him for a couple hours and talked him out of committing suicide which was good then when he walked off I stole the keys out of his car and we fell asleep in the side yard of the trailer. His parents got in a fight with him so he ran off and abused his medication and started drinking, but you bet we had the "Word of Wisdom" lesson with him first thing the next day. He came to church yesterday and really liked it and promised us he wouldn't touch another beer again. He has changed a lot and is turning into a super solid investigator, the only problem is that he doesn't get off of probation for almost another year so he can't get baptized until then which really stinks.. he is changing his life around and we told him that if he did these things to come closer to God that he would find a job, and tomorrow he is now starting a new job which was so cool to see happen like that!! We had 37 people at church yesterday which is the most Zapata has had since missionaries have been back here and more than has been here at church here as far as records go back which was cool to see! So things are going good here and the work has been going great lately! I hope everything is going great for you Kimbo!! I love you and miss you! I can't believe how fast this time is flying, it is kinda freaking me out!! Have a great week Mommy!!
Love, Elder Johnson

October 20, 2104

Hey Kimbo, How is everything going today? What have you been up to all week? That is good to hear that Aaron Duffin is going on a mission, I was worried about what he was going to do. Jeez bout time Jason pops the question!! It is so weird to me that people are getting married!! Sounds like Colt has been doing pretty good, he says the team sucks but has been having a lot of fun though. Of course Kev has that tag but chose football instead! haha hopefully he kills a deer still!. What has Dad been up to lately? I am glad he got out fishing, what have you and Brock been up to lately to keep him entertained? I am glad you will be getting your car back, did you have to pay for anything with that since it wasn't your fault? Sounds like the witch party should be fun! Send me some pics of you being a witch!! Do you know what Kade has been up to? Things here are going good still, found out I will be staying here in Zapata with Elder Duerst again this next transfer, we had the baptism of Simon this last week, he is the tattoo artist guy I have been telling you about. We had a great baptism and I confirmed him yesterday at church. He has completely changed his life around which has been super cool to see. And he now really wants the priesthood which is what we need here in Zapata. So the guy I casted the demon out of like started tearing up the other day when he was thanking us for coming over and teaching him, and he just told us how much he loves it when we come over because he feels like he has changed so much and wants us to teach a bunch of his friends now too because they told him they want us to come talk to them now too. So everything with going over there and using our priesthood one night turned out really cool. We had over 30 people at church yesterday which is the most that there has ever been since this area opened a few months ago! We had quite a few less actives at church and also lots of investigators. I had to talk and then teach the lesson of course but it was a super good Sunday here in Zapata. Things are going great here and I am glad I get to stay here at least for another transfer because I know there is so much work to be done here and so many people that need the gospel in their life! I hope you have a great week Kimbo, I love you and miss you! Be safe with everything!!!

Love, Elder Johnson

October 13, 2014

Hi Mommy!! That is weird to hear that it is 36 degrees up there the other morning, because yesterday it was still in the mid 90s when we were on the bikes all day! Yeah sorry I didn't really wanna worry you about the accident but nothing to bad happened, he hit us pretty dang hard but we were fine in the car. So you don't have to pay for what happened to your car right? Since you weren't at fault. Jeezo that is a lot of money jen has to pay for her car! You guys need to see the meet the Mormons video, we had to drive up to Corpus, it is like a 3 hour drive last week to the Stake Center and we all got to see the movie. It is super good and it will definitely help others understand us better, because something I have come to find out is that the majority of the people that have heard of Mormons think we are crazy, most think we have tons of wives or just all sorts of weird stuff. So go see it when you can! The demon story was kinda crazy, I haven't experienced anything ever like that before in my life! That is funny about the Christmas tree, but you don't have any new memories from this year’s Christmas tree so when I get home we will definitely be back to going up the canyon to get them again.  What is Ty going to Cali for? Is that where that kid is from?  That is cool that Nae is going to do that Pageant, I hope she does well! I’m not sure what she is going to do for her talent.. But I am sure it will go well! Today we just went and dug for some ties and get some super expensive new ties for a dollar a piece, then ate lunch at Little Caesars then we are going to go play basketball a little later today, we have to stay at the Zone Leaders apartment every Monday night because it is an hour back down to our apartment after P day ends at 6 and we have to be back up here first thing in the morning for district meeting so we sleep on the ground in the ZLs apartment and work in their area every Monday night.  I have to drive back and forth from Zapata to Laredo almost every day because we are having the special trainings all month and we have them 5 times a week so I am getting sick of driving a couple hours in the car every day.  Things have been going pretty good here in Zapata, that thug tattoo artist is getting dunked tomorrow! We are baptizing him tomorrow night in the lake at like 6 o’clock so that should be super cool! He has been in prison for a long time and now lives in a little tiny camp trailer out in the middle of nowhere but he has been loving what we have been teaching him and told me when I get home from my mission he wants to take a Harley ride up to Utah and see the Salt Lake temple! He also said he will take me to his buddy’s ranch down here too to shoot a pig! But it has to be with a bow he said because he isn't allowed to be around guns for the rest of his life! ha-ha Last night we had a carne which just explains South Texas to the T!! It is just a bunch of cuts of meat thrown on a BBQ with Elote, (Corn with Mayo) and a bunch of chili. I think south Texas is the only place that has Carne/BBQs like this! But we had that Carne with a couple that the wife is a recent convert here in Zapata and her husband that is getting baptized soon. They love the Cowboys and the husband told me that he is going to get me a Cowboys tie soon! ha-ha but things are going good here and transfers will be coming up here next week again! I am pretty positive I will be staying here but you never know what is going to happen! I hope you have a great week Kimbo! I love you so much and before long we will be talking to each other through Skype for Christmas! I can’t believe how fast time is going here on the mission! Have a great week!
Love, Tu mas guapo chamaco

October 6, 2014

 

 

Hey Kimbo, how are you doing?? I am so glad that you are okay and that everything from the crash went okay! I don't know if I ever told you but in my last area I also got in a car wreck... ha-ha a guy smashed us from behind on a freeway when we had to hurry and stop because the car in front of us and the car behind us hit is pretty good but we were fine. I am so glad you are okay though and also that Jenn and all the girls are okay too!! Don't be getting in anymore crashes Kimbo. That is too bad Haley got engaged, I love Elder Perkins and I am living with his comp that he had when she broke up with him too. Thanks so much for sending me the emails too, I wanted to write them and see how they are doing. We had conference here in Zapata and it was pretty interesting! We watched it over a lap top because we wanted to give the investigators and the members here the opportunity to watch conference for the first time because usually the missionaries just go up to Laredo when they have been here before. So we watched all of the sessions through a laptop. We met an investigator this week that is awesome. He was in Prison for 10 years and is a tattoo artist here in Zapata but really wants to change his life because he has been in a couple motorcycle accidents that he shouldn’t be alive from. Just a couple weeks ago he hit a boar on his bike going 65 and he was thrown have his bike just wearing a t shirt and no helmet and is still living and came away from the wreck with just a broken arm and road rash that covered a lot of his body. He came to conference and we will be baptizing him here in not too long and is a super cool guy. He loves skulls and he gave me a skull knife of his the other day and wants be to come back down after the mish to hunt hogs with him on his buddies ranch. He is an awesome guy, a little on the rough side, but is loving everything with the gospel. I also had the opportunity to "cast out a demon" last night, we got a call from some random guy that we just gave our number to a while ago asking us to come over to his cousins house right now so we headed over there on our bikes to find out that his cousin had been seeing things in his room and hasn't slept in three days and he just looked like a mess. He couldn't stop shaking and had a hard time just talking to us. As a cat was walking down the hallway while they were telling us about this, when the cat walked past the room, it jumped super badly and flew out of the hallway and we knew something was there. People think that demon things aren't real but it’s crazy to know that they really do exist. I went into the room of his with my comp and the worst feeling came over us as we walked in and I used the Melchizedek priesthood and blessed the room/house and at the start of the prayer I felt one of the weirdest feelings I have ever had during a prayer, and it was kind of scary, then half way through my prayer everything went super calm and you could tell that something had left. It was one of the most intense experiences I have had in a long time and I just know that the Priesthood is legit and is the authority of God. Conference was great and I learned so much during it, conference is so much better on the mission for some reason! I hope you have a great week Kimbo and I hope you get your car back!! I love you!
Love, Tu Oso:) 

September 29, 2014

 Our "laketism" in Lake Zapata!

Hey Kimbo!!
I did get the little package the other day, thanks so much!! I found out I can get about any size of package here where I am staying for the future, so you don't need to send it to the mission office unless it is closer to transfers. My toe is doing well, it is sensitive a little when you touch it but mainly it is just one ugly toe!! It has been raining a ton here in Zapata, this is the rainiest time of the year and of course we don't get to use the car here so we get pretty wet most of the time! For general conference it sounds like we will be huddled around a laptop listening to it all weekend from what we have heard so far! Things here in Zapata are going good, we had another baptism in the lake this last week! It is a really cool experience having baptisms in a lake and this is the only place here on the mission that we baptize in a lake! So the family we found last week that are super cool, we found out that they aren't married so we started talking to them about getting married and they were super down till we found out that they are still both married to their other spouses that both live in Mexico. They have recently crossed the border to get here of course and so they can’t get divorced... They would have to swim back across the border, get divorced, then swim back up and get married then they could get baptized. It was super sad to hear that because they can’t get baptized unless they are married so we are going to try to baptized their kids and hopefully in the future they will get all that figured out so that they can get baptized also. They are a super cool family and have kids of the ages 12 8 and 4 so hopefully we can baptize the two oldest kids. We have found a lot of random members also in the area that we didn't have record of, that have moved here from Mexico or something which is kind of cool because they are usually lost after they cross the river till missionaries run into them and we have ran into quite a few here in Zapata. Things are going good though, this area is super different because we are over an hour away from everything and there are like no active members we meet with or work with like the other areas all have and our area is just super ghetto and super interesting! We are supposed to try to get out of a big part of our area around 8ish because it can get pretty rough when its dark, but usually the homies in that area always give us a yell or a peace sign which is pretty cool. I hope you have a great week Kimbo! I love you so much!

Love, Elder Johnson

September 22, 2014

Hey Kimbo, How are you doing?? How is everything going up there in SF? Jeez looks like Ty and this chick are getting kinda serious!! haha That is good that her family likes to hunt. :) I can’t believe that baby Brockles is wearing my number out on the field, I have so many memories and so many games from that field and that jersey. I have missed baseball quite a bit here on the mission and I think I am going to try to play somewhere when I get home. I might have to use my home card a time or two more this month because at that Dollar General things like milk and what not is super expensive and that is the only place we have to shop down there in Zapata. But thanks so mucho for keeping an eye on that for me!! I am glad you guys got that package, there wasn't anything to special in it but there is a cool little store down here that a guy has ran for like 50 years and he had some pretty cool stuff in it and that’s where I got some of the stuff, the calendar I got when I was down in Mexico though. The Tuachan sounds like it was a lot of fun! You know how much I love plays and all so shoot thanks for going without me ;) Sounds like St George was pretty calm but pretty fun though!  Yeah Brooke has been really good about writing me and it’s always good to hear from her. Things here are going good in this little town! We met a super cool family this week and the dad of the family is a smart guy and asked us about the priesthood and really wants it for his family he told us! They are super cool and they are what Zapata needs down here! We had like 20 people in church this last week, and that is like the most Zapata has had since missionaries have been here which is super exciting! We also had a baptism this last Thursday! We have been working with a less active family and they have come back to church and they had an 8 year old boy that we baptized. His family is so cool, but the dad of the family got deported a few years ago and that's when they stopped going to church. There are 5 kids in the family and when we pull up on our bikes they always yell "The Mormons are here!!" and come out and give us a hug! They are all under 15 but there are two little girls one is 4 the other 10 and they are the cutest little girls and just hug us all the time which is hard because we can’t really hug them back as missionaries!! But they are a fun family that is coming back to church! I have some awesome pics of the baptism in the lake from Thursday but this computer that I am using today I can’t send pics from it so I will send them next week, they asked me to do the baptism but I asked them if my comp could do it because he hasn't baptized anyone yet so he did it and I have some really cool pics of it all because the baptism was right at sunset in the lake! I will send the pics next week if I can. Other than that there isn't a whole lot new down in this little ghetto town! I hope everything is going great for you Kimbo!! I love hearing from you and love reading and hearing what you are up to!! I love you mommy!
Love, Elder Johnson

September 15, 2014

Hey Kimbo

How is everything going?? Things down here are going pretty good, yeah we don’t get fed ever down here by the members but randomly when we ride our bikes people will yell at us to stop by and eat some bbq with them which is usually some kind of fish or something super different but it is always better than nothing specially when we are riding our bikes around all day! Sounds like Ty is spending tons of time with this Ashley, must mean he actually likes her! That is good to hear! What does she like to do? What’s her family like?:) Sounds like he is with her just about every night, I am glad mommy likes her too because that is the only way she is going to be able to stay around! haha That is super sad to hear about KK and his diabetes, how did they find out? Was he just getting sick a lot or what?  Sounds like going to St George with the Olson’s and Ballantyne’s should be a lot of fun! Things here have been going pretty good, we have found a lot of people to teach here and I think that it will grow really quickly here soon in Zapata. We have found a lot of new people this week that have really good desires and want to change their life. It has rained like crazy down here the last few days and have been flash flood warnings like every day and so people think we are crazy riding our bike around all day in it! We can’t use our car so we just ride in the rain and by the time we have been getting home we dump water out of our shoes and are just soaked to the bone. But Saturday night we were at a lesson with an investigator and we were leaving and I went to throw my leg up to get on my bike.... and I ripped a huge hole in the back of my pants... yeah I shredded that pair of pants!! And I was trying to feel how big it was as I was riding, my back and my hands were super wet because it was still pouring still and my one hand that was on the handle bars and my hand slipped off the handle bars and I went face first over the handle bars and crashed pretty good and there was like an inch of water cover all the streets here because it rained so much during the day so when I crashed I made a big splash too of course and scraped up my elbows and hands pretty good, so I rode back with bloody hands and elbows and a huge ripe in my pants! haha Let’s just say it was an interesting night! Things are going good here though and we had a baptism in the lake yesterday! I will send pics it was super cool! Super different though!! He was an illegal of course and there are cameras all over the lake because that is the border! But I got to go so I hope you have a great day mommy! I love you!!

September 8, 2014

Kimbo!!!!! How is everything going Mommy? What have you been up to all week?? I just sat here and laughed when I read that you and Jenny went and spied on Ty and his party!! I remembered you guys always were able to find me and Colt no matter where the heck we were somehow! You guys would show up and whatever party we were at even if we didn't tell you!! haha I would act like you guys were dumb.. But really I always thought it was super funny though!! You are so funny, I love that you guys still have fun even if you guys are kinda old;)  Man, the dove a que, that is always so fun! I ate some habanero peppers the other day too!! So tell Lyndsay to quit his belly aching! haha they were so hot.. But after a couple hours my mouth cooled off! Well this week was good... but sooo different! We had church yesterday in the apartment next to ours, and it was fast and testimony meeting but after us 4 Elders share our testimony and the rest of the 2 members share their testimony we still have plenty of time for the rest of our first hour! So I had to give a talk and then also teach the whole lesson the next hour! There were our two active members there and we brought 7 investigators to church which was more than there has ever been down here which was super cool! SO the little apartment was pretty full actually! My comp can’t speak a word of Spanish so the lesson at church I had to teach the whole thing and the lesson we teach I have to say everything and then translate to him what is going on. And wow let me tell you a little more about church.  So we have one active member that speaks only Spanish and one active that speaks only English and our investigators were about half and half, so each week we sing our hymns in both languages!! It is the most hideous sounding song you would ever here! They are the same song but in different languages and I literally starting laughing during the opening hymn! We teach in Tex-Mex, I would teach all in Spanish and then say basically everything in English right after so that all could understand! So I am getting good at speaking them both I guess!! haha We have to drive an hour north to email and we played basketball today with our zone, and we are staying the night at the zone leaders apartment because every Tuesday we have our district meetings here and we don't want to drive back down and have to come back up in the morning! We shop at a Dollar General down in Zapata for our groceries so it isn't real expensive but let’s just say there isn't a real variety in food! haha but it’s all good! I use your conversion story a lot while I teach and talk to members because they ask us a lot if our parents grew up in the gospel too, and they all love hearing your story and about how you two went to the temple and everything!! The gospel is amazing and I absolutely love seeing the change it brings to people’s lives. The family I baptized in Brownsville, I found them the first week I was there and baptized them the last week I was there, I was definitely sent there for a reason. The gospel is changing that family’s life so much and it is so amazing to be able to see that change. Well I hope you have a great week Mommy!! I love you so much!!
Love, Elder Johnson

September 3, 2014

Look how white!!!!! Now the Baptisms will be at the lake!!

Hey Mommy how is it going?? How is everything at home?? Jeez it is so crazy to hear about people my age getting married! haha Im not that old! How did you like the Happy sumo, did you try any sushi? What has the family been up to lately? Well sorry I didn’t email yesterday, I actually got transferred out of Brownsville already and I got moved to a little place in the middle of nowhere!! I am in a place called Zapata, it is in the middle if freakin nowhere. We are about an hour away from any other civilization, it is like an hour south of Laredo. They just barely put missionaries in here last transfer and there are just two companionships here in the little town. There are a total of 3 active members in the area right now.. yes I said 3:) and the church service on Sunday are held in the apartment next door to where we live because the church owns it too. We do the talks, and teach gospel principles and also teach another lesson at the end that counts for priesthood and relief society. They still do all 3 hours and it is all in Spanish and we do absolutely everything:) Also since there is no type of church building here, we baptize in Zapata lake!! We are having a baptism (or a laketism) this Sunday! I will get to baptize a kid out in the lake on Sunday! This place is just crazy.. and to make it all better I got a call last week before I found out where I was being transferred and I found out that I was training too! I went straight from being jr comp because I am still young in the mission and Pres called me and gave me the assignment to be a trainer so I am here in the middle of no where with a brand new missionary that doesn’t know two words of Spanish... I am super excited!! I had a meeting last week with pres because he has a meeting with all the new District leaders and zone leaders before transfers and I didn’t know hardly anyone at the meeting because they were all like 18 months into their mission and then there is me and I was younger than all them by like a year in the mission.. But it was a super good meeting and President Maluenda gives the best training on missionary work. So I have a new area, and a brand new missionary now so things have changed a little bit here! Things are going good though, we have to drive for like an hour and a half every up to Laredo and an hour and a half back for you district meeting every week so I will be doing a lot of driving. That is the only time we can use our car though, other than that we just ride the bikes like crazy all over this little town! Oh and this last Sunday we baptized so many people!! We baptized that family of four I told you about and one other kid, and there were two other elders that we lived with in Brownsville that baptized a family too so it was such a cool baptism! The family I baptized was so cool and they made me promise them I would write them letters and everything and I got to baptize 3 of the 4 of them and my comp baptized one of the boys of the family. We had a great baptismal service with them then I got shipped outa there:( It was kinda sad when I found out I was leaving but I really felt like I got sent to Brownsville just for the reason of that family then I got sent out! I hope you have a great week! I love you Kimbo!

Love, Elder Bear

August 25, 2014

Elder Johnson teaching a Knight!

 

Hey Kimbo!!!
How is everything going?? Man sounds like all sorts of stuff is going on at home! So who is Ty living with now? Where is he living? Send me some pics of this chick he is dating so that I can see whether I approve of her or not! haha And jeez if she is willing to get him some arrows, tell her to get him some XT Hunters 400 spine arrows:) Jeez it is so weird hearing about people getting married that are my age.. Lexi, Mac and I am sure there will be many more soon! That is too bad that Elder Perkins got written off, I am sure that was pretty tough on him. I have only seen him one time since we got here in March. He is a great kid and I really like him, but I haven't been around him like at all since we have been in the field. Wow I cant believe you and Daddy have been married for 24 years!! Happy anniversary!!! What are you guys going to do for your trip in November? I hope he is taking you to do something to spoil you soon!! Man Ty is getting freaking old too! 22 that seems so old to me for some reason. I will have to ask him about this muchacha he is dating and try to see if he will spill the beans and tell me if he really likes her or not. Is she a cute girl? Or does mommy just like her because she is bubbly?;) So was the Yard sale for Jarrett and Jenna to raise money for them and the medical bills they have now? I’m so glad she pulled through. It would kill me to hear something so sad like that happen to such a great kid. Selective obedience sounds like it is a great topic for a lesson and I am sure there is a lot to learn from that in your lesson yesterday. Obedience is definitely one of the biggest things we learn here on the mission. Pres Maluenda is huge on obedience and this is such an obedient mission down here. Pres Maluenda just so you know will probably be an apostle some day. That guy is soo inspired and I swear when you have interviews with that guy Jesus is standing behind you holding flip cards for him because he will ask you a question about the one thing you need or the one thing you are a little disobedient about or something and it is just mind blowing every time. Anyways, we had two families of 4 at church yesterday!! The one family is the family that we are going to baptize this next Sunday, the other family we met on Saturday when we were just walking down the road and he went to get in is car and I just yelled "Hola Buenas Tardes" and then it led into a lesson later that night and said he had some Mormon friends in Utah but hadn't ever been invited to church before so he came and brought his family too, he has two girls one 14 and one 16 and his wife. We had fasted Saturday because we hadn't had much success all week and then we found them and another lady that is going to be baptized in two weeks and one other guy that we have started teaching now! I have gained such a strong testimony about fasting lately and the power behind it. I am yet to have fasted during the mission and not see a miracle happen during my fast. Things down here are going good though, it has been hard dealing with my comp a little bit but I have just been trying to be an example for him and he has been changing a being better lately. He is listening to music on Youtube right now which is a no no... so we might have to talk about that but he is getting better slowly and he told me the other day that he will try changing for me because I haven't been on his back but just been being an example for him. Next week is transfers because Pres Maluenda has a meeting the next week so this transfer is a 5 week transfer and the next transfer will be a 7 week transfer to get us back on track. I hope you have a great week kimbo, I love you so much and I will try getting a letter sent out to you today. Sorry I have been really bad with sending letters lately!

Love, Elder Johnson

August 18, 2014

Hey Kimbo how is everything going? Sounds like that fireside was pretty good, I am glad Brockles went to that with you! We ask those questions almost every time we knock on a door or talk with someone. We do it to kinda see what their background is like to find a need and to teach to the need. Jeez that thing about Jenna is crazy.. That is so sad, my heart dropped when I was reading it because I thought she actually had passed away till I got to the end. I hope everything is going okay with her now, I will definitely keep them in my prayers. Will she always have to keep that pace maker thing in her? Like will this thing be a lifelong thing? I am glad Brocks party went well, I am sure he was happy that everything went well and he had lots of kids over. What all did they do? Just a BBQ and then a movie on the projector? I got some pics of the bow hunt, looks like it was a success! Ha-ha Who is Colt going to stay with down at Dixie? Do you know what his plans are at all? He emailed me for a little bit but I haven’t heard from him for like the past month. I can’t believe school is starting already!! Time is going by so fast!! I can’t believe I have already been gone 6 months! We are still working with the Conde family, the fam of 6 and things are going well for them, the husband isn’t as interested as the wife and is quite as solid, but we were teaching them about the plan of salvation the other day and the wife started asking us about temples and about be sealed to your family. So we explained to her how all that works and when you can go to the temple, then she asked the question what if just the wife wants to be sealed in the temple with her family, can she do that? And we were just like freak.. She is thinking about what would happen if her husband doesn’t want that. We explained that and how the husband and she would be sealed together in the temple with her children. So then she was like okay well I need to have a sit down with my husband then! haha She is such a cool lady and wants to go to the temple pretty badly!! So hopefully the dad of the fam will soften his heart and we can help him understand the importance of the things we teach them. I also confirmed Kimberly, the daughter of this family, yesterday which is something I haven’t done in Spanish yet and it went great. Things are going pretty good here, this area is super hard to find people willing to listen to us and I have had a couple doors actually slammed in my face. Just last night was one of the hardest slams I have had so far! haha she chucked the door from a ways back and all I had said was "Buenas tardes" then she said don’t say anythings and boom!! haha its all good though. I burnt a tie earlier this week, it is what you do at your 6 month mark here, then at your year mark you burn a shirt then your sister mark you burn a pair of pants and at your 2 year mark a suit!! It is a pretty fun tradition they do down here. Other than that not a whole lot has been going on this week. We aren’t having too much success right now but we do have a boss family are teaching right now. Well I hope you have a great week Kimbo, I love you so much!!  Sorry I don’t have much to write today but I will send some pics!

 

Love, tu misionero mas guapo

August 11, 2104

How is everything going? Well to start with the letter thing from Brooke... I have no idea what the heck that was? I know there is an Elder Pedersen but I have never met him. He is living with my last comp from what I hear so he must have gotten the address off of the letter that she sent when I left and my last comp had seen a pic of her so that is probably why he said he knew what she looked like or something? I haven't ever met the kid though and from what I hear he is a weirdo and always does this kind of stuff. I guess he has gotten elders girlfriends email from letters in the mail and will try to start writing them without his comp even knowing? Weird dude.. Anyways the deck looks awesome! And something else that caught my eye in those pictures is a big bath tub under the patio? I am sure Brockles is excited for this party he is going to have? Hopefully he doesn't get caught making out on the side of the house again! hahaha Send me lots of pictures though of the party and everything! I did see the yellow door, it is pretty yellow if you ask me!;) No it all looks good! Everything is getting changed up it sounds like at home! That is super cool to hear about Nick getting baptized, but what the freak is the deal with the missionaries? What were they doing? Something Elder Shumway and I came to a conclusion with is, Elders from UT always get sent outside of UT because they know how things work, people from other little places that go on missions get sent to UT so that they can see how things are supposed to be done and then when they return home they can try to run things like they should be ran. But that case sounds like it is just common sense, I sure hope they get jacked for that by someone because that is ridiculous. 
Well this week though was pretty good, we are having a super hard time finding new people to teach here in Brownsville though, our area isn't by our apartments, that area is super nice but that is actually the area of the Elders we live with. Our area is more towards the border, there are some nice areas and some pretty ghetto. Not many people are willing to listen to us here, one house we knocked on this older guy opened the door and says "WHY YOU HIT MY DOOR? I DON’T LIKE YOU!" then BOOM, shut the door, it was kinda funny though because the guy had a super strong accent and he said that in English. I did baptize a 14 yr old girl yesterday though that was supposed to be baptized a few weeks ago then backed out, so when I got here I told my comp I wanted to go back to her and we talked to her and then yesterday we had a great baptism for her! Also her mom has come to church with her the last two weeks and the whole family (family of 6) came to  church yesterday. After the baptism we sat down in the church with the whole family and talked to them about being baptized and now they have a date to all be baptized on the 31st of Aug. I am super excited for this family, they are what we call "temple builders" because they have a huge house and are very well off so when they pay tithing they will be "building temples!!" They are a cool family and I hope everything goes well with them these next few weeks. Things with my comp are alright, he is just a disobedient missionary at times and gets mad when we try to talk to him about it or anything. But who cares, I just tell him anyways because I don't really see us being really good pals when we get home;) Well the only other thing I can think of that happened this week is I was on exchanges with our District leader Elder Latanzio, he is from Argentina. and we were just driving down a road and we got this impression to stop and knock on this random door, it is the only door we knocked on the whole street and he came out and was like “dudes what’s up?” and told us the night before he had talked to his Gma saying he needs God more in his life and he steps out where he can look and see the sky and looks up and says “well thanks God for sending me my answer!” We just looked at each other and were like no way! We sat down with him and had a great lesson with him and he wants to get baptized on the 31st of Aug also. It was in Elder Latanzios area though and on Saturday that guy fed them and had another lesson with them and everything. Awesome guy and it was an awesome experience. But I hope every I hope you have a great week Kimbo, and I hope everything is going great? Anything new going on at home? I will write you a letter today and try to get it sent out, love you Mommy!
Love, Elder Johnson