October 24, 2015

Well here is a little of what went on this last week, Tuesday my comp and I had a meeting with President Maluenda for a few hours and he gave us about 200 things to do before Elder Dube arrived at 9 O'clock Tuesday night. So all day Tuesday we were running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get everything done for President. Then Tuesday night Elder Dube (of the Seventy) arrived and then first thing Wednesday morning we had a meeting with Elder Dube, his wife, and President Maluenda and his wife. It was such a cool meeting, and it was really cool to see how much our mission president and Elder Dube trusted us because they asked us to be involved in a lot of things I never thought we would get to be involved in. We discussed the needs of the mission in that meeting and then planned out the rest of the week with those two and their wives. Then Wednesday afternoon we had meeting with all of the Zone Leaders in the mission along with President and Elder Dube. We then took the two couples around to a few different apartments and we then had a companionship study with President and Elder dube with a set of sister missionaries which was really cool. Thursday morning we had a meeting with all the missionaries here in the southern part of the mission which is about 100 missionaries and my companion and I conducted the meeting for Elder Dube and we got to work a lot with him and help him during all of his meetings which was a lot of fun, it made us nervous a lot but it was a very cool experience. So we had that meeting pretty much all day on Thursday, then Friday we drove up to Corpus with him and had the same meeting pretty much with him but for all of the missionaries in the northern part of the mission. Then during lunch on Friday, he asked us to take his wife to the airport for him, so I got to drive his wife to the airport about 30 min away so we had a pretty fun chat with her about their lives which was really neat being that they are both from Zimbabwe. Then we returned to the meeting in Corpus, and after the meeting got over just my comp and I got to have a cool little meeting with just Elder Dube where we just discussed things about the mission. He gave us counsel for our life and then after that we drove him to the airport. Sorry I skipped over all the little details because there was a lot that happened but it was a really fun, crazy week. I learned so much and I am super grateful that I got to work really closely with a general authority for a week. It was an experience I wont ever forget!! Elder Dube was so full of energy all the time and was so funny! I thought he was a big guy, but when he walked in to our office he was a pretty small little guy but was a big voice! He kept us laughing though and we had a great time with him!! Other than working with him, that is all we did all week! The days before that we just did a lot of preparation with him coming in to town! Things here are going great though, I have only taught one lesson all week with all the time we spent with the mission pres and Elder Dube, but we are teaching a family of four right now and they are amazing. It is a mom, dad, and two kids and when we stopped by Wednesday night, they had made dinner for us and they had already found the gospel library ap on their I pads and they were just sitting there waiting for us! We taught them about the book of Mormon and the dad asked us when we brought it up if it is a book that comes from the painting of Jesus coming to the Americas that he saw at church on Sunday and my comp and I just looked at each other and just said "SI!" and started laughing because we were so amazed that he had put it all together on his own. They are a wonderful family and we are super excited for them!! So things here are going great, I think I have slept a total of like 20 hours this week and put over 1000 miles on our truck but I am loving every minute of it! But this is just a little of what is going on down here!! I hope you all have a great week!!
Love, Elder Johnson

October 19,2015

Hi Kimbo, how are you doin?? Sounds like mommy could just party this whole last week and nobody would know! haha What did you end up doing all week then? I hope you had time to curl up with a blanky and read a book! Hey I have learned to love to read!! So when I get home that is something I will do with you now! Before the mish I hated anything to do with reading! You need to read the book, The First 2,000 years, written by Skousen. It is a super good book, it is a doctrinal book for the church but it is super good! Or before that you need to read, The Infinite Atonement or The Great Apostasy. They are all super good books I have read here on the mission that I have loved a lot! Thanks for ordering the patriarchal blessings, and hey you guys can’t just lose those! You need to study those consistently! Brock wrote me about Sage, that is super sad!! And super scary!! Its good to hear that he is doing better and that he will be okay.. Tell Brock to always use his head!! I remember coach Kunzler. He was pretty cool. That is good to hear that Brockles is a hard worker, how has he been doing lately? What has he been up to? Sorry I don’t have much time to write, pres just called and is sending us to Corpus right now to pick up a missionary that is going home in the morning for medical reasons, but this last week was crazy as usual but it was super good. We had a meeting with a zone on Tues., another on Wed, another on Thurs. then we came back home on Friday, then Saturday we had to head up to Laredo to do some things for pres and we got home at 1 pm on Sunday from Laredo and our church starts at 1 so it was pretty crazy! We found a super cool family this last week, the mom dad and two of the kids came to church yesterday and today we set up dinner with them at bishops house so that should be great!! We are super excited for them. We are just trying to keep up with them with all the time we are gone on the road but they are doing super good! Yesterday we baptized a 15 yr old boy named Oscar, he was a kid that missionaries had worked with in the past for a long time, and this last week we had a super good lesson with him and we committed him to be baptized on Sunday and he got baptized! This next week we should be baptizing another lady and her daughter so hopefully all goes well. Things here are going good though, this week is when Elder Dube comes down so it should be a crazy week because we will be taking him to tour the mission and work with him to do some training and basically just do anything he asks us to do. I am excited to get to work with him a lot this week! It will be him, Pres Maluenda and my comp and I working together quite a bit so that should be super cool! Anyways, I hope you have a great week mommy, I love you!!

October 14, 2015

Baptism of beautiful Olgalita!

 

 

October 12, 2015

Hi Mommy How are ya?? Yeah the libraries might be closed, but we email in the mission office since we work here all morning on Mondays. My Sunday was good, on Sundays we are usually inside the church for about 10 or so hours with meetings and what not. We have to go to meetings with Pres, or meet with stake presidents or bishops sometimes, but Sundays are always super busy that is for sure!! So dad is heading to Florida for work then? And then he is going to go do some fishing with Sherwin also?? That sounds like a fun trip for him! I would love a little treat for Halloween! This last week we traveled for almost 700 miles so we spend plenty of time in the truck and having a little something to snack on is always nice! Did you get the pictures I sent on Saturday? Mommy, you fell down again!!??? I don’t know if you should even leave the house without a little helmet on!;) You cant keep falling down though!! I guess some more zumba or exercise would help you with your balance! I already told dad I think, that I am going to whip you and him into shape at the gym when I get home!! I want you guys as healthy and here with me as long as possible!! Sounds like the work situation is pretty crazy! Just do whatever makes you happy!! Our P days are pretty weird as the APs because we have like half a P day Saturday and another half Monday, and when you are in a zone there is always a zone activity where you get together as a zone and play basketball or soccer or something but we don’t belong to a zone so we just bounce from zone to zone usually on P days going to a different zone each P day to do their activity with them. Today we didn’t go to any of the activities though because we had too much to do here in the office, because the rest of the week we are going to be gone. Last week I didn’t sleep in my own bed from Tuesday till Saturday night and this week will be about the same!! Things are going great though!! Yeah I read my Patriarchal blessing a ton and it is really cool how much I have been able to get out of it being that it is such a short Pat Blessing. Also, something Pres Maluenda mentioned is that he received a lot of guidance through reading his parents patriarchal blessings, so I want to see if you and dad would be okay with me reading yours? And if you are, if you guys would send them to me? My comp just got his parents and he has really enjoyed reading them and said its super cool to see how the things that are said in their blessings apply to him. But only if you guys are okay with that, I would love to though! Anyways, I hope you have a great week mommy, I love you!!

 Well this morning on our way back from Laredo, we stopped at Falcon Lake (where we baptized when I was in Zapata) and took some pictures. We are in the US and the land on the other side is Mexico! There is a line down the middle of the lake that divides the US and Mexico.

 Okay so the picture of us and all the stuff in our truck was us with few sisters we were taking up to Laredo, it started pouring so we had to put the stuff that couldn't get wet inside and the sisters were a little squished!

  I got pretty tired during conference and I couldn't stay awake long enough to finish writing a sentence! I would write like two words then fall asleep, then two more then fall asleep! I thought my notes looked pretty funny!

 This was a lady that we just recently baptized, and this was a lunch we had at a members house. If you can see I am sitting on a little step stool, and my comp is in a little hannah montana chair! This lady that fed us, doesn't just feed us but, stuffs us!! She doesn't let us say no after just 2 plates of food and makes us keep eating and makes us just about throw up every time!! haha

October 5, 2015

Hi Kimbo!!
It’s all good, my P day is both Saturday and Monday, we have like a half P day both days, but I will usually email just once and usually it will be Saturday but sometimes on Monday just depends on the week. I watched general conference at the church, it was super good!! How did you guys like it? Yeah, you could tell Pres Monson was struggling a little bit.. I hope he makes it to next conference at least!! That is funny about Izzy with the sock!! I can’t believe she had that sock with her for so long!! Man, Izzy is chiflada (crazy)!! She better not ever get tubby! You guys gotta keep her in shape! That is crazy about the title company, if you could choose an option which would you choose?? I like the part with you owning some of it!! Then we can make it huge and get rich!;) It would be a good little investment though.. Keep me updated with all that! That is funny and sad about what happened in front of Kay's house!! Something I have learned on the mish, is when things go bad to just keep a good attitude. Pres talks a lot about controlling our agency, which is something so simple but so hard at the same time! He talks about how it all comes down to just simple choices we take every day, like when something little happens or something doesn’t go our way, just making the simple decision to have a good attitude makes a huge difference. That is something I have learned on the mish, because there are a lot of things that don’t go our way and I have learned to just keep a good attitude about everything and it has helped me a lot!! And it also helps those around you also that may be going through the same thing. Things here are going great, I am starting to get accustomed to the tiredness which is good! Yeah so this last week, since I am here in McAllen again, I was able to baptize Olgita! I baptized her family when I was here like 6 months ago and she just turned 8 and they were waiting for me to come back to baptize her so when I get here she got baptized!! It was super great to see the Cavasos and Olga and her fam! I love those families a lot!! Yeah I am still going to the gym every morning from 5 till 7 and it is great! I am going to whip you and dad into shape when I get home! I see such a big difference in the days I work out and the days I don’t in the morning, at start you are tired when you work out in the mornings, but after a week or so you feel great every day if you get a good workout in the morning! That is why it is part of the missionary schedule! My goal is to be a solid 200 by the time I go home, right now I am at 191 so I have 9 more lbs to go! I am doing great though, super busy, tons of work but I am loving it all! We will be road tripping like all week this week and the next, then the week after we have mission tour where a general authority comes down and we take him to tour the mission so that should be fun! I hope you have a great week mommy, I love you!!
Love, Elder Johnson

　
　
　

October 3, 2015

Well I am emailing today just for a little bit, but I didn’t get any emails so I thought I would just send one out to let y’all know what’s going on down here! I will email again on Monday, but just for a short time since I am emailing right now. So I would love to hear from you before then!! This last week just flew by and I cant believe its already the end of the week.. We had a meeting with all the zone leaders this last week with President and sister Maluenda, and the joke around here has been when Pres Maluenda is going to receive the call the be made the new apostle this weekend! haha But for reals a lot of us are pretty certain he will get that call someday!! It is super amazing getting to work so close with him and I am really enjoying it a lot!! These next few weeks we will be traveling pretty much every day, this month is when President does interviews with all the missionaries, so we go to all the zones in the mission and pres does personal interviews with each missionary and in the mean time my comp and I give training's to all the other missionaries till they all have had an interview with him and we usually start at 8am and we will finish around 5 or 6pm each day... So my comp and I will be giving oodles of training's these next few weeks! Then at the end of the month we have the mission tour, where a general authority comes down and we will have one big meeting with him with all the missionaries here closer to the border and another with all the missionaries up in the northern part of the mission and the cool part is that we are the ones that drive the general authority around for those few days he will be here so we are super pumped for that!! We are hoping its an apostle or someone cool because then we will get many hours of one on one time with him!! But things here are going great, life is crazy but I am loving it!! I hope you have a great week!!
Love, Elder Johnson