April 25, 2011

April 18, 2011

 DUde! you guys are going to Leo Carillo! what!!!! its a full moon right now so whenever i look at it i think of night surfing! haha thats not good! Thats great that kayla got her braces off! i remember when i got mine off it was funny! i bet you look like a princess! Hows everything else going? school work, swim practice, scouts. Felicitaciones lil sis for getting your medallion! youll remember that for the rest of your life, and youll be looking back on it for guidance and inspiration later on good job! so do you get your name on the wall now to!

 You guys are lucky that its hot there. its freezing here and winter hasnt even really started yet. I can see the Andes mountains everyday, but they are way off in the distance. the are beautiful, they have like some snow on them. Our zone is in like a big valley. we have the Andes on one side way over there, and then some little mountains right next to the ocean on the other. its about a two hour bus ride to the Andes or the ocean so were right in the middle. The town im in is Curico. They have nice cars and stuff, and they have a supermarket that is walmart, but the Chilean version. its kind of like if you drove through a run down town is what it looks like. but the inside of peoples house are usually really nice, theyll have painted walls and pictures and statues. They just try to cram in as much houses as they can so they are kind of small. yesterday for lunch we had to drive out of town and go to the compo. Its just were they have all of the vineyards and other fields. it was pretty cool looking. We had papas fritas and some steak strips that h cooked it was pretty good. They dont really have any weird food here its all pretty normal. They have these things called Completos. its a bread bun with a hotdog, then they put diced tomatoes palta (avacodoa in chileean words) and some mayonnaise and mustard. the one ive had the hotdog was cold and kind of nasty but i got a little feeling that theyve got potential if they are warm.

 This last week has been pretty tough. my companion is a zone leader so he has to go to interviews for baptisms once in a while or some meetings. so in the mean time we go trackting,and i cant really say anything in spanish, and they speak way fast so its hard to understand them. so i kind of just stand there and smile but ive gotten alot better at understanding and speaking. But weve got a couple of investigators, and they just havent been able to make it to church or they are never home. so its trying my patience and faith. it was tough, but like youve said we have trials and we learn from them. but i still love it! its great! but we did have this one kid come to church, we havent taught him and he showed up! his name is Sebastian! so that was a little miracle or a big miracle you could say. so well probably teach him this week.

  Last week we had a capacitacion with the zone below us Talca and Talca cntro they are like a 1:15 minute bus ride away. we got taught some stuff like how to study better, and what our purpose is and how we can make this new program work in our wards. it was pretty cool! and then we had 2 big macs and fries for lunch! haha Talca the city has a McDonalds.

 But everything is going great i love this work with all  my heart and am excited to learn more, and be the missionary the Lord wants me to be.

 I hope you guys got that package that  i sent, and tell tyler to hang some of those posters up they are sweet! only if he wants.

 O and we usually have a huge lunch that a member prepares and a little dinner and breakfast, so after lunch after we eat the soup, some tomatoes with oil, and then either some noodles or meat and potatoes i feel really fat! haha its crazy but its nice that they make it for us, but sometimes they are to nice if you know what im sayin!

 and we dont have a washer or anything so a sister from the ward does, we take our laundry over and she washes it and we come back a little bit later so thats kind of nice haha, i know you guys are gonna make fun of me for that!

         I love you guys! say your prayers and read the scriptures they are true!

P.s i hope Leo Carillo was awesome! that is one of my favorite vacations besides Baja! haha. and thanks for reminding me of it!

                                                                           Love, 

                                                                                  Elder Johnson

April 11, 2011

April 4, 2011
Today is the day Elder Johnson flew to Concepcion Chile

April 11, 2011

Hows  it going Johnson familia!

    Chile is great! the  people are nice and theres dogs running everywhere! we take collectivos if we have to go somewhere out of walking distance. they are like a little <<<toyota corolla thats stick shift all the cars here are stick shift. I saw an Audi like the one in Ironman the other day. They are pretty much like America. they have a Chevrolet dealership. they have about the same cars but a little bit different shape and name. We dont really eat breakfast here or dinner. we go to a members house or menos activo miembro and they feed

us. My first day i went to the bishops house for lunch and we had like this spinach onion chicken thing  cake, tomatoes lettuce. it was good. they always have postre after which is desert. at the bishops house we had flan. it has a weird texture something that our not used to. for other lunches ive had soup with like rice, potatoes,carrots and some meet, or a bean soup they all are really good. My trainer is <Elder Gil (heel) he’s  from Bolivia. He speaks  english pretty good. he’s sweet he’s a great teacher and ive learned alot from him. weve taught a couple of lessons each day. We have one lady committed to baptism on the 23. But they speak way fast here its like nothing youve ever heard!  you know they soccer game announcers who speak fast on the radio? thats how the speak. they dont say S´s and they just speak way fast, i cant understand anything really! haha but ive gotten better. and speaking it is going good. we played futbol today at the church they have a basketball court in the back,and goals under the hoops. it was fun. They have paved roads but everythng is dusty and dirty. But im loving it! the weather is good its kind of like home. its overcast in the morning, and in the afternoon its warmer. My first area is in Curico its 5 hours north of Concepcion. i had to take a 5 hour bus ride after the  plan ride from concepcion to curico. it was sweet. we got our trainers, and did our passports in Concepcion, and had lunch with all the new missionaries and their trainers.

   Its great here in Chile! wouldnt trade it for anything!

Love,

Elder Johnson

March 30, 2011

I land in LAX at 850 on Monday, and then we have a 7 hour layover, and then we fly to Santiago for like 14hrs., andd then a little flight to concepcion. So im pretty excited were all about to leave here! time flys by. ive learned alot, and grew alot to. My testimony has grown of the BookOf Mormon alot to. I love it so much and i dont think i can go a day without not reading it that would be hard. Theres so much in it to learn!

 So if you can ship a wind breaker type jacket in one a couple of days to here or tell grandma to buy one that will be great. just for when i am trackting so i can have a light little wind breaker to throw on if it starts to rain or something. but if you cant dont worry about i can probably find one in Chile they probably have some sweet stuff. no duda en mi mente. I dont know if ive told you this but the people in Chile speak the fastest spanish, they take out the S in words and cut off syllables so its pretty crazy. I have one of my friends from here already there and he said he cant understand them really, and he taught some guy while sittting on a bucket, and to put two sheets down on your bed because there is flees.

 So its gona be a great time all the people down there are waiting to here about the gospel, and the Lord is preparing them for me. Its gonna be awesome.

 Today i go to the temple at 12:20 for a session, and on sunday i go at like 3 to walk around and take pictures at the temple.

 Im pretty excited for conferencia general! its gonna be great, im sure itll be different now that im here. ill concentrate alot more, and im excited what they have to talk to us about. Pres. Monson probably has something important to say! so be listening closely!

Ill probably call you guys around 930ish or 10ish in the morning on Monday. if you guys want to talk. i have like 7 hours so there while be plenty of time. So ill talk to you then i hope ive told you all the things you wanted to know.

          I love you guys! Hold to the Rod!
Love,
Elder Johnson

                                  

March 23, 2011

Not much has gone on I love reading the Book of Mormon I get to read it everyday and everyday I learn something new.  I like to read about the trials the Nephites or Lamanites go through.  Then they get humbled or something or a prophet or missionary will come and tell them to repent and listen to his words.  It's the same story every time, and it's been that way for thousands of years.  This gospel hasn't changed one bit and it is TRUE!  That's why we are here though.  We have to teach people the doctrine of Christ.  Our purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them received the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.  So we have to do that by helping them read the Book of Mormon and feeling the light of Christ and telling them that it is true.  We only have like 12 days left time went by fast here I got an email from someone from mission it wasn't the Mission President though.  He said not to let anybody take your bags for you when you arrive in Santiago because they'll just take them and my friend that just went to Vina then Del Mar Chile said he doesn't understand the people and he taught a guy while sitting on a bucket!  haha that will be sweet!  So I was looking at a map of the world and I saw that our mission is like the third or fourth most southern mission in the world.  There's Orsorno Chile where there is penguins and some parts of it touch Antarctica and Concepcion South, and maybe one in Australia or New Zealand.  I don't think they have any missions in Antarctica though pretty sweet.  We started teaching the plan of salvation in espanol.  It's pretty cool.  I still got a lot to learn I am probably gonna get shut down in Spanish when I get to Chile but it's alright I'm excited to learn and get better.  There is this teacher here who went to Chile he said some stuff in Spanish for us so I guess the people in Chile talk really fast and they cut out the letter d and certain words so they can speak fast it was pretty crazy and he said they eat a lot of tomatoes so I guess I gotta start liking them.  A lot of good times in here though it goes by fast one day it's Sunday and we're going to Priesthood meeting and then the next time you blink it's Thursday.  Time flies but I guess it because we are always working.  It makes it go faster.  We study for 3 hours everyday, and have a couple classes so you're always doing something.  I just wish I actually in Chile teaching a real person or something not a fellow missionary or something but it's good though.  It's good practice though I know if we didn't do these practices we would have no clue what we are doing here.

Love,

Elder Johnson

March 16, 2011

This week we strived to do in class concerning the Spanish aspect.  We've tried to learn more for our TRC task.  We have to talk about familias en espanol.  Ask if we can help them move, and show them how to pray and ask them to pray.  So we've been studying a lot lately.  It's good.  We try to speak only Spanish at lunch.  Me and Elder Dotson did some tutoring today for Spanish with two separate teachers. Hermano Arnast taught us about ser and estar and Hermano Russell taught us how to make good plans for studying stuff about our investigators, and how to translate sentences that pertain to things that we have to say.  Today it rained a little bit.  Tomorrow is fresh Friday so we just wear slacks and a sweet tie.

My team in the March Madness Tournament won our two games.  I have Elder Hatch and Elder Oberg.  Elder Oberg can shoot 3's all day and Elder Hatch is a good point guard.  It was a good time for everyone in our Zone.

Elder Cooper just got a nerf b-ball hoop so we shoot for prayer.  It's pretty fun and we play pig sometimes.  It's fun.

Elder Dotson my companero is pretty funny we always quote movies we are a lot alike.  Tomorrow morning and on P day we do ab ripper X and P90X.  It's pretty fun.  Tomorrow morning we have gym at 7:30 and for breakfast I get a pizza bagel.  They are delicious.  The other day they had bratwurst it was delicious.  Sorry this is all sporadic I am just trying to get you guys a letter.  I love you all!

Love,

Elder Johnson