April 14, 2013

Hola Kimbo,
This week has been pretty good, I am so glad that you guys got my letters. My Mission President made me promise him that I would write a hand written letter to my mom at a minimum of once a month but he would like me to send a couple. He said to tell you all hello for him too. I haven’t gotten a letter from you yet. When did you send it? I did get those packages today though because we had to stop by the office to drop off a receipt. DO I have to wait to open them? haha I will so that I have something to look forward to:) I never got the cookies you sent, I got the Easter package and I think the other one is my birthday package because it is heavier. Yeah my companion is great and we get along really well. What did his mom say to dad when she called? She works at the hospital, did dad know who she was when she called? Yes last P-day we BBQ’d our chicken that we killed:) It was tough because it was a rooster and not a hen, and it was an old rooster so that is why she told us to kill it. The meat was tough but good though!
The teaching is going okay. We went on exchange this week and I was with Elder Embley’s companion, Elder Wasden. He is a nice kid and has been out a transfer longer than me. He can’t speak the language very well though, we were on bikes all day and covered a lot of area, but when we stopped to ask an old guy if he knew where someone lived, I asked him if he had ever had the opportunity to meet with missionaries before and he told me he had not so I asked if we could sit down with him. We sat down and taught him the first lesson, but then Wasden and Embly went back to his house yesterday because he wanted to meet with us again, but since he isn’t in my area I don’t get to meet with him again. They set a baptismal date with him and everything. Really cool how just talking with people you can find them that are in need of our message. We have taught that family of five just one other time and we might have to drop them because they are really catholic still and think we believe in the same thing.. we have a hard time making appointments with them too. Last night at 8:55 we stopped by a house that was having a BBQ and started just talking to them and they all wanted to sit and listen to us. So we had a first lesson with two families that both have 4 kids under 16. They both really want us to come back and teach them which is awesome. The family that was just there for the BBQ lives on a ranch that is like 5 miles from that house so I am excited to go out there tomorrow! There are no cities where we work though, they are called colonias but they are just scattered trailers and shacks that have people living in them and a lot of them have goats and horses just tied up to the stop sign or in their front yard. Super interesting and funny. All the houses start out as like a camp trailer then they all start building on from there! I will send you some pics of what I mean, they are super funny!
Yeah this definitely does not feel like the US though. I feel like I am in a foreign country here.
That is so awesome to hear about Josey!!!! I am so happy for her!! I will definitely email her and I will write a letter and send it to their house! I am constantly praying for people like Colt and Gus to make the decision to serve and for my friends to make good decisions. That is so great to hear about Josey.
 Bo, I know you will do great with the relief society! That does sound kinda scary though.. I think I would way rather be here talking to people I don’t even know than being in relief society! haha You will do great though, you always do amazing in whatever people as you to do. If you need any ideas for lessons or something of that sort just let me know and i will try to help ya:)
That is to bad about Brocks team, how has he been doing? Has he been happy with everything. I am glad he liked that letter, I wrote some things in there that I thought he would need, because I think about him a lot and wonder how he is doing so I hope the things I put in that letter help him. I am glad he is working hard, he has always worked hard and I know it will pay off if he keeps pushing.  I haven’t been blowing my call lately because I feel bad if I wake them up here because I actually like them!
I feel so old that I am turning 19! Those things you just said about my fast feet and singing the star spangled banner just made me laugh. I was such a gomer;) Thanks so much Kimbo, I hope you have a great week! I love and miss you mommy.
Love, Elder Johnson