April 27, 2015

Hi Mommy, how are you doing?? I didn’t end up eating hardly any of that cake that we were given, because we still get fed a few times each night so when we get home I am not hungry at all!! We ended up giving a lot of it to other missionaries and throwing a lot of it away. So the armadillo that we ate... it actually didn’t taste too bad, but that is because it was full of chile, like peppers chile, so we couldn’t really taste the meat all that well, but it didn’t taste awful! I just had to ask after because I hadn’t ever tasted anything like that before so I knew it was something different and sure enough it was road kill possum!! haha I told Elder Eisenhut the story of Bernice after we ate that and he though that was pretty funny! I can’t believe Mothers Day is already coming up again! I will only talk with you one more time after that before I come home, and that is really close to when I will be heading back!! Yeah I will get to skype, I didn’t even realize how soon it was, so we have no idea where we will be doing it at! Sounds like Ty has a heck of a drive ahead of him, what is he going to do in the car for that long? How much money does he plan on making over the summer? That is cool that he has those other guys under him so that he will make money based off of their sales, how did he get into all of that? I can’t believe those two are engaged (Brady & Paisley)!! It is so weird to hear that people my age are getting married and engaged and what not! I cant imagine Granny on that phone.. sounds like a disaster!! hahahah oh Mom, I can’t stop laughing about Dad finding his present!! I don’t think he will ever get a present that he doesn’t find early!! I was just thinking about everything else that he has found in the past! Haha that gave me a good laugh. Well anyways, This week was super good, yesterday we had a baptism of a kid that we have been working with for a long time, his mom really wants to get baptized also but cant because she lives with a guy that she isn’t married to, and he doesn’t want to get married so she won’t be able to get baptized till they get married or she stops living with him. They are a super cool family and it was great getting to baptize him. Also on Saturday we had a baptism of a sweet little girl, her family just recently moved here from Mexico and we found them and got them going back to church finally and she got baptized on Saturday morning. I was on an exchange this last Thursday and we went to a members house and he has a sword hanging on his wall with a masonic symbol on it and I was like, are you a mason? And he told us he was and started telling us about masonry and said he is going to get us a tour of the mason lodge, I have learned a lot about masonry here on my mission just from all the books I have read so I really hope we get to have a tour of the mason lodge soon! This last week was pretty boring though, I cant think of a whole lot to tell you.. I imagine I will be in this area for a couple more weeks then on like the 18th we have changes and I am pretty sure I will be getting shipped out of this area. But Thanks so much for all the pics you sent to me Kimbo... I LOVE receiving pictures and seeing what’s going on!! I hope you have a great week though, I love you!!
Love, Elder Johnson

April 20, 2015

Elder Johnson turned 20 and WOW-he got spoiled!!!

 Well I though it would be best if I just sent out an email about my birthday and all the crazy stuff. So, Saturday morning I woke up to my companion jumping on my bed singing happy birthday to me, then he made me orange rolls because I have told him before how much I love them.. Then he gave me a Despicable Me shirt that he bought for me and a tie, then I opened the package from the fam and it was great! It was really good to get new English scripts because the only English scripts I have are the ones I got when I was 8 yrs old and had tons of random markings in them but now I will be able to do what I want with them so I can find everything! Then just had a pretty normal morning with the studies then went out to work like usual and found a pretty cool lady and first went to a members house and they made us lunch, but you won’t believe what they fed us.. it was armadillo! But not just any armadillo, but an armadillo that they found on the side of the freeway!! It was a freakin road kill! She didn’t tell us anything, but after we got done eating I asked her, so what was that? And that is when she told us the story of how they got it... We are still alive I guess! But then we set a baptismal date with a different lady, then we went over to the fiesta that the members here threw for me. It was amazing seeing how much they did for it even though they have a hard time paying for the little tiny camp trailer that they all live in each month. There were like 5 or 6 families there at the party and we had hamburgesas mexicanas y salchichas. Then we played soccer there in the dirt field, then I opened the presents the gave me and got cologne and socks and belts and stuff like that, then we did cake, they bought like 3 cakes and did what they call a "mordida" which is when they slam your head in the cake so I did that and then we did the pinata that was a big baseball. My comp was standing on top of their trailer and the dad of one of the families was standing on top of their car and that is how they hung up the pinata, I will send pics.. I hit it first blind folded and they were swinging the pinata so hard and it just kept smashing me, then all the little kids hit it till it broke. It was definitely a Mexican party and it was so much fun doing all of that with the members here. The cool thing is, that pretty much all the families that came have been baptized in the last year!! The members here are super amazing and I am so grateful for the time I have been here to make such good relationships with them. Then after that, another family had a party for me and we had what’s called a "carne" which is just a bunch of meat basically and they had a cake for me also! Then last night another family had a party for me and had a cake for me too!! Then another family brought us a cake for my birthday last night also! We have soooo much food and cake in our apartment right now.. it is crazy!! It was a great birthday though, I am so glad I got to spend it here in the area I am in! But that was basically my day on Saturday!!

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

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April 13, 2015

Hey Mommy how are you doing? What have you guys been up to this last week? That is good to hear that you guys got together with Kevin and Marie’s family, and also Todd and all them, how are they all doing? That is cool about the Payson temple, when is it going to open? It looks like it is a really cool looking temple, I am excited to be able to go there when I get home!! I wish I could go to the temple here. I have learned so much here on my mission and I am excited to go to the temple because I will understand everything a lot better now. That is something I have come to learn to love here on my mission, I love deeper doctrine and just learning about things that are going to happen and that happened back when we were up in heaven with our heavenly father! That is crazy to hear about Morgan!! The Beast is going to end up being a model! You will have to keep me updated with that! That would be crazy if she was modeling for Louis Vuitton!!! I am not really sure what I am going to do for my Bday on Saturday, I know I am going to get PLENTY of food from the members, we already have 3 set meal appointments with members and they are all getting me a cake and having a party for me! haha so I am sure I am going to get plenty of cake and way too much food! The members here are great and my comp and I have gotten really close to a lot of them because we have been here for so long. Yesterday a family we started working with in January finally got baptized! It is a family that goes to the English ward so with the changes we had to give them to the English elders, but we have still gone by to teach them quite a bit and they ended up getting baptized. The mom is a member, just a less active member, but her kids hadn’t ever been baptized and there have been so many missionaries work with them and try to baptized them and finally we got to baptize them yesterday. The mom is the niece of Karl Malone, like that is legit, she first knew who the missionaries were from when she was staying with uncle Karl up in Utah when he was playing because the missionaries used to come teach him when she was staying with him. Now she is a single mom with 6 little kids. One of them is deaf also, so I did the baptismal interview with her on her I-pad and it was a really cool experience. 4 of them got baptized and I got asked to baptize 2 of them, my comp baptized one of them and one of the other elders that we gave them to baptized the last one. I will send you pics next week of them all. We also had 2 other baptisms in the ward we work in also, one on Saturday night and another on Sunday, so I have been doing tons of baptismal interviews which are always really cool experiences! Other than that there wasn’t a whole lot that happened this last week! We are always super busy with all the area we cover now, which is a good thing though. Sorry it is kind of a boring email, it will be better next week! Have a great week mommy, I love you!!
Love, Tu hijo

April 6, 2015

 Elder Eisenhut and me

 The Cavazos family at General Conference

 Wiffle ball with the Cavazon children

 Oops, I threw the keys in the dumpster.  I found them though!!

Hola Kimbo, how is Vegas so far? What are your guys' plans to do there? Sounds like you guys are having a good time so far. How long are you guys going to stay there? I gave the wiffle ball bat to their family and they were really excited, they love baseball and they have had a lot of fun with that, so thanks for sending me that! They loved the hats too, Maria said that that is something that they have always wanted to get their kids but just can’t ever get the money to buy them for their kids, so they were super happy when we gave the hats to them. This last weekend we watched conference at the church with a bunch of the members and it was great, I really love conference here on the mission. I am not sure why I feel like it is so much better on the mission but I really enjoy watching it and learning from it here. On Saturday we watched the first session then went and got ice cream between sessions and then went and got dinner with some of the other elders after the second session then went back to the priesthood session. On Sunday between sessions a member made all the missionaries a big lunch and we all ate there together so that was good too:) We got transfers this morning and found out the Elder Eisenhut and I will be staying together for our 4th transfer together here in McAllen. I am glad I like him because 4 transfers would be hard with someone I don’t like! I really do like change though, I like mixing things up on the mission and not a whole lot changed here, I have one new sister in my district and that is the only thing that changed. Hopefully she doesn’t bring in any problems because things are going pretty good with the sisters as of right now. Let’s just pray it stays like that!! This last Friday a lady in the ward invited us over to show us how to cook a bunch of Mexican food and make some good salsa to put on flautas so I will be able to cook up a mean Mexican dinner when I get home;) Also this last week, we went up to a college campus and walked around and talked to a bunch of peeps because two of the sisters in my district work with the ward of the young single adults, so a lot of their work is done there on the campus. It was really weird to walk around and talk to a bunch of kids our age, and be around people that are in college. We found some cool people though that the sisters will be working with now because they were struggling a little bit. Other than that, this week has seemed like it has just flown by... I can’t believe it is already April and almost my birfday again! I aint gonna be a teenager anymore! haha But I hope you guys have a lot of fun in Vegas, keep sending me lots of pictures, I love seeing what is going on!! Be safe! I love you!

Love, Tu hijo mas fuerte y mas guapo (Your stronger and more handsome son)