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