October 3, 2011 - Conference!

We had a good week down here. We found a lot of new investigators this week so that was great! The sector was pretty much dead when I got here. But now we have found some more people to work with! So we are excited. We just have to get the help of the people in the ward, and we will just be dandy!

 Conference was great! I got a bunch of notes! All of the gringos watched it upstairs in English. So we were all eating snacks while we were watching! haha But I loved it! We had an investigator go and it was her first one and she loved it to! We are going to baptize her this weekend. But she is going to get baptized in Curico because that is where she has been going to church.

 I liked the one talk from the second counselor in the Sunday School presidency. He talked about how we need to fix the way we teach so that the Spirit can teach through us. It was great, it is the one thing we are always trying to work on here. We are always trying to become more efficient in our teaching with the Spirit. We teach investigators not lessons is the saying! But it goes along with any calling in the church. We have learned that it is the Spirit who teaches not us. And it is the Spirit that converts the member or the investigator. It was an awesome talk.

  This week we were contacting in this apartment complex area. And we walked by some steps to go up and there was a dog under them barking at us. So we had to jump up the steps so it couldn’t bite our feet! Then we ran up and the dog ran up and I slammed the gate shut! haha it was way close! Then we walked up and found out that it was the wrong stairs! haha so we knocked anyways and they didn’t listen. Then I asked the lady to help us with the dog and she walked down and we walked. Then we went to the next steps, and knocked and we talked to the lady we needed to talk to, then we looked and saw that the dog was sleeping, and we walked down with an eye on the dog, then it woke up! haha So I started to run! haha and the dog started chasing us and barking and I was like uh oh! Its Kobe time! but the dog stopped! it was crazy! I know without a doubt that the Lord was watching over us two missionaries that day.

  Today for P Day we cleaned the house a little bit, then we went and took our suits to get dry cleaned, then we played soccer with our district, then we went to McDonalds! haha I ate a Big Mac, then we came here to internet, we still gotta go buy food for the week! It has been a fun P Day!

 But I’m looking forward to this week. We really gotta find and focus on the people that want to listen to us and follow the example of Jesus Christ. It’s gonna be a great week here in Cancha Rayada Talca!

   les quiero,

                  Elder Johnson

September 26, 2011 - New Week New Sector!

Another week and a new sector! We had a good week Elder Pitti and I! We are planning on having a baptism this Saturday before conference! The sector that I am in now is a big one. Just about as big as my first sector I was in in Curico! So we do a lot of walking! It’s hot now to! We are kind of in the desert here. So we can spend most of the day in just a shirt! No more umbrellas or jackets! haha
  The ward I’m in is great we get a lot of help from them. We have found a lot of new investigators this week so that is great! We are hoping to find more this week since we will have more time. The girl who we are going to baptize on Saturday goes to church in Curico were I was. haha so that’s pretty funny!
  On Saturday we went to this house to teach a lesson, and we were inside talking to them, and all of a sudden the power went out in all of Chile!  it was crazy! So we waited outside for a little bit, then we left, and we went to this reference that we got from a family. And we knocked on the door and she came outside and it was this old lady. It was pitch black you couldn’t see anything but she let us in. And we taught her about baptism and the Holy Ghost by candle light, and she committed to the 22nd of October, and she committed to going to church the next day! She can barely walk it hurts her legs real bad but she came to all of church! that was a miracle, she really felt the Spirit she is a trooper. She liked all of it too!   So that was one of the coolest things that happened here so far.
 Today for P Day the Talca Centro Zone and Elder Daines, Elder Chilcote and Elder Pitti and I from our zone we all went to the Cerro de La Virgen to fly volantines! They are kites. It took about 45 minutes walking through the city, and a little bit walking up the hill, it was really cool! I meant to take pictures but the brand new batteries that I bought this morning somehow died right when I put them in the camera! haha just my luck. But the kites that they use here are old fashioned it is just a couple of wood sticks and tissue paper But somehow it works and they fly them like 300 feet in the air! Only one Elder was able to get his to go high, there wasn’t that much wind though either. but it still was way fun! I got mine kind of going but only like 30 feet. But it was a fun activity!
 I also did a mini combi this week with Elder Daines. He is the Zone Leader here we were both in Curico my first 3 combios so that is pretty cool. But I came to their sector, and worked there for the day. it was fun we found a couple new investigators, and taught a couple lessons. The other zone leaders from Talca Centro live there to. Elder Glass and Elder Zepeda. They are cool, we played basketball in the morning on Friday.
  But that’s about it, we had a good week! Loving it here! Elder Pitti and I are keeping the Lords work moving here in Cancha Rayada!
            Thanks for the prayers and the support!
      les quiero,
                      Elder Johnson

Elder Pitti & I

September 19, 2011 - Cancha Rayada!

A picture of most of our sector

We had a good week, it was hard to teach a lot because it was the biggest holiday in Chile this week! It was there Independence Day this weekend. The last 2 nights our neighbors had music blasting till 5 in the morning! It was crazy! they go all out here! We ate a lot of empanadas and soda! haha
  Our ward had a ward party and Elder Wixom and I we dressed up like Huasos! Those are Chilean cowboys! haha I took and old blanket we had in the house and I cut it into a poncho to wear and I bought a Huaso hat for 1.500 pesos, like 3 bucks! We took pictures as Huasos in District class and everybody gave me a hard time because  my poncho looked like carpet! But I thought it was sweet looking! haha And everyone thought we were pretty cool at the ward party! We had P Day on Saturday and are allowed to write a little bit today on Monday.
 For Pday we went up to the hills with a couple youth to go cut some branches that they use to decorate, they have like yellow flowers on them, that was pretty cool. Then after we caught a bus to Tome and we played Ultimate Frisbee with the zone on the beach! Then after we came back to our sector and we played soccer with a couple of little kids, one is Juan who we baptized and the other was Juampi the son of Bernarda who we are working with right now.
  Bernarda is doing great! She is one of our best investigators. She has strengthened her testimony a lot. On Friday we stopped by her house to teach her and we asked her how she was doing. We talked to her, and we read a couple of scriptures to strengthen her faith and to keep her going, the spirit was so strong there. Now she is happy she feels way better and is excited to be baptized with her son Juampi in a couple weeks! So we are way excited about that!
 On Friday we had a Zone Conference in Concepcion, and Elder Richards of the 70 came! He talked to us about The Holy Ghost and how it does everything, and that how we need to become better teachers, and teach more simply. It was great he is just full of the Spirit and Faith. He is great, I got a bunch of notes from that conference! And it pumped us up to work harder and to have faith in the Lord and the miracles that he can work through us. It was great.
  And this morning we received transfers, and I’m going to Talca! haha into one sector and off to another! It’s called Cancha Rayada! My companion is named Elder Piti, he’s from Panama! haha I’m stoked he is starting his 3rd transfer, so we are both a little new it’s gonna be great! So today I said bye to everyone at the ward party, and they were all sad to see me go after being here for one transfer, they all thought Elder Wixom was leaving because he has been here for 6 months! But Elder Wixom is going to be District Leader and Train here! He’s excited! He’s a stud of a missionary, I’ve learned a lot from him.
  And since they all found out I was leaving the Bishop had me come up on the stage and say bye then everyone started shouting "baile baile baile"! So they made me put on the poncho and hat and I danced the Cueca! haha it was pretty funny. I didn’t know what I was doing up there haha it’s a real cool dance though! It’s what the Chilean cowboys dance. It looks like what the Roosters do when they try to get the attention of a hen, it’s really cool.
  That was our week pretty much! Haha a lot of music and culture, and the Gospel! You can’t beat that!
  I love you guys and thanks for everything, and especially the prayers! Tell Grandpa J Feliz Cumpleaños from Chile y que espero que loscumpla sus años feliz!
  con mucho cariño,
                             Elder Johnson

Me at the beach in Tome!

September 12, 2011 - Sunny Days in the land of the Huasos!

Elder Wixom and I we had a great week, we taught some lessons did a lot of contacts and we baptized 2 people! It was great. One of them has been going to church for a year and a half without being baptized! So it was a relief to finally see them get baptized and to receive the Holy Ghost.  After much prayer and fasting the Lord performed a miracle and now there is a new member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!   Now we are working with the rest of the family.  They are a great family.  We had some Churri Panes the other day, and after the baptism we went over there and they had a bunch of chips cake, and some hotdogs that were cut up and meat. In Chile they give you a fork and you stab a little piece of meat and dip it in mustard or Aji and eat it! haha. It was good and they gave us 2 emapanadas too!
  This weekend in Chile is their Independence Day. The 18th So that’s Sunday so that can’t have parties on that day, so Saturday they are having a party at 5 at the church they are going to eat a bunch of stuff and do some things, then on Monday morning they are going to go back to the church to dance the Cueca, and have breakfast and they have games for the little kids. The Cueca is a real cool dance, it’s what the Huasos dance it’s supposed to be like a Rooster trying to catch the attention of the hen its super cool!
 And all of the kids have these little tops that they throw on the ground and a lot of kids fly kites. They are called voluntines in Spanish, and they fight them in the air and they try to cut the cord of the other persons kite!  It’s pretty sweet.
  Today for our PDay we went to Tome and we played some Ultimate Frisbee! And football! It was pretty cool! There was this dog running around trying to grab the frisbee and he would take our feet out as he ran by. haha it was funny, and then after we went to this little restaurant t and had a Churrasco. It’s like a hamburger but with just avocado, tomatoe, I got an egg, and some shredded meat. They are super good!
 The weather has been pretty nice, it is kind of hot today so it’s great! After 9 months of winter it’s about time the heat comes! haha
  But we are really stoked about our sector we have a lot of help from the ward, and the Lord puts people in our way to teach and help bring them closer to Him
  I know that God has a made a Plan for every single one of us, and he wants us to be happy while we are here on this earth. And that’s why The Gospel was restored through Joseph Smith by Jesus Christ who is the head of His church today. I’m grateful for this gospel and the blessings and the blessings will keep coming as long as we obey our covenants and keep all of the commandments.

 I love you guys thanks for your prayers and love! 

les quiero, Elder Johnson

                

September 5, 2011 - Spring is Almost in the air!

 We had a good week. We taught a lot of lessons. We went on splits last night with a couple guys in our ward so we could catch up on our lessons. So that was cool. Our ward gives us a lot of support so that is great.
  We are planning on baptizing two people this week!  We are hoping to baptize a girl who has been going to church for about a year and a half and still hasn’t been baptized. She has had some trouble with her family supporting her. But we have worked hard on getting her to pray and fast for it. So we are looking forward to seeing her get baptized!
 We found this one lady who lives in front of a couple we’ve taught. We have taught her about the Restoration of the Church, and about the Book of Mormon. She is real interested and likes to read!  We are hoping to baptize her in a couple of weeks along with her son. She even came to church yesterday and liked it! She just wants to learn about the Book of Mormon and the Bible. So that is great!
 It rained a couple of days here, but winter is slowly coming to a stop so we are excited to start heading into summer! The Chilean Independence day is on the 18th of September so everyone is getting ready for that! All of the wards have big parties and they dance and eat a lot of food! I heard that Chile pretty much shuts down for a couple of days! haha
 But that’s about it, pray for our investigators that they can receive their answers to help them be able to enter in the waters of baptism! Thanks for everything that you guys do. I am lucky to have family and friends like you guys who support me and the work of the Lord.
 Have a good week!

                         les quiero,
                             Elder Johnson

August 29, 2011

We’ve had rain! Haha Luckily the Chilean winter is coming to an end. The Chileans say that if you survive August you’ll live another year haha. Because one moment it’s sunny and then it pours. That happened to us the other day, we were contacting and it started pouring and we didn’t have our rain gear haha.......rookie mistake!
But we had a good week. We reached all of our goals for our lessons and contacts. We have been working really hard with the mom of 2 who just got baptized. She just needs that little extra ounce of faith and she’ll be baptized. We have been over to her house every day to check on her. And we tell her niece to help her out. 
  Yesterday we had Stake Conference and all 4 of our contacts came so that was cool. There were some good talks. Our Bishop spoke and he talked about the importance of The Sabbath Day. And why it is important to go to church to renew our covenants we made at baptism, and to remember the things that Jesus Christ did for us. It was a great talk.
  But the bummer was that it was pouring yesterday, and no one likes to go outside in the rain. So we had a couple more investigators committed to coming to church but the rain scared them away. So that stunk. But we have at least 1 baptism coming up in the next couple of weeks.
 We have been teaching a husband and wife and the other day when we taught them we committed the husband to pray to see if he needed to be baptized and to see if Joseph Smith was a prophet. And we came back a couple of days later to teach them but they were busy but we asked if he prayed and he said ya! But he hasn’t received his answer yet, so we told him he will need to be patient and keep reading! So that was cool!
  Today for P Day we took a bus up to Tome to play soccer. It was fun! Their chapel just got refurbished, and they got a new soccer court in the back. The court is painted green and the lines are different colors, and it has break away rims for basketball. It is pretty high tech. But since it had been raining the court was wet so we swept it off a little bit and so it was slippery and everybody was slipping all over the place. One of the Elders who was in the same district as me in the MTC is in that sector and he was there, and he flew across the court like Superman after he slipped it was pretty funny.

  Tomorrow we have interviews with the President! And the Zone Leaders told us that we have to do a weekly planning session with the President tomorrow! So that’s gonna be cool.
  Elder Wixom and I are just trying to keep the missionary work here in Valle Hermoso working. We are blessed because we have a lot of returned missionaries in our ward and members who are willing to go out with us, so that helps out a lot with lessons. And we even have a couple that do their assignments we give them to visit investigators of ours. So it’s great!
   We are praying that one of our investigators will soon want to be baptized hopefully it will open the eyes of her husband to, and her daughter. If that happens that will be great! A whole family would be baptized!   The dad is a super nice guy he always gives us stuff to eat, and he’s seen the changes that his family has made.  We are getting closer and closer every week with them. They are a great family! They are one of the great miracles that I have seen on my mission, and I Know the Lord is helping out with this work.
  But everything is going good, it has rained the last couple of days but it hasn’t stopped us. We are blessed here, Heavenly Father is definitely watching over us.
  I hope you guys have a good last couple weeks of summer, and that they are hot ones! haha Love you guys thanks for your support and love!
   Chauuu!
                              les quiero,
                                               Elder Johnson

August 22, 2011

 We had a good week. We had two baptisms! Josefa and her cousin Juan! It was a marvelous miracle! Elder Wixom and Elder Cockrell were already teaching them before I got here.  Josefa  really felt the Spirit. Then this week on Tuesday we taught her, then we gave her a For the Strength of the youth pamphlet to read.  She always read the stuff that we gave her to read, and Juan would read all of the pamphlets to! So we baptized them on Saturday night, and Sunday we confirmed them! Heavenly father really does prepare His children to receive the restored Gospel. Now we just have to get Juan’s mom baptized. Her name is Raquel. Joesefa lives with them. Racquel is Joesefas aunt. But she is on her way to getting baptized!

  This week it stopped raining for like the past 4 or 5 days. On Saturday it was actually pretty hot. We were doing contacts on top of this hill in our sector and we were sweating pretty good. We struggle a little bit with reaching all of our numbers because of the baptisms, but otherwise we did good. Throughout the week a couple of appointments fell, and none of our investigators came to church accept for Raquel Juan’s mom. Juan is 9 by the way and Josefa is 19.

  On Thursday I went on a mini exchange with Elder Ojeda. He’s from Campeche, Mexico. He is 2 exchanges younger than me. He’s really cool. He finished college before he came out so he’s 26 years old. He’s a great missionary. I worked in their sector, it’s called Lirquen. Right next to a port. Their house is at the top of a hill, and they have puppies that live under the house! haha Elder Pulver who I was with in Curico told me a lot about Lirquen because he was there. But it wasn’t as bad as I thought. We had a couple of appointments at the top of this hill, and we had to walk up stairs for 10 minutes. I was sweating like crazy! Haha We taught a lady up there, and then we had a Family Night with 2 new converts, then we had to hustle down the stairs to hike up another hill on the other side of their sector to teach a girl. So I got my workout in for that day it was nice. Then in the morning Elder Ojeda fried some Longenesa, it’s like chorizo, and some eggs. It was cool, then when we were studying he gave me these Mexican peanuts that they cook with honey so it’s like a bar of peanuts with honey coating. It was good it’s called palanquetas! They were good. Then we took a bus back and switched.

  Yesterday after church the family that was supposed to do our lunch couldn’t so we went to another family’s house and we had a bowl of rice beans and.........liver soup! haha it actually was that bad it was good.

  Today for P-Day our zone got to go bowling in the mall that is in Talcahuano. The mall is in the Concepcion South Mission. So it was a special day! We got to go because the mission went over the goal of baptisms for the month. And after we got to eat in the food court. Elder Wixom and I we bought two medium pizzas from Pizza Hut and ate them! haha it was good. They also have Dunken Donuts,  KFC and McDonalds. I guess that one of the converts that Elder Wixom has brings us Dunken Donuts so im gonna wait for that! But it was cool we had a good time as a zone at the bowling alley.

   On Saturday we had an appointment with a guy that lives right next to the ocean. His name is Juan.  He’s cool, he speaks English and he always reads the stuff that we leave with him in The Book of Mormon. We just got to get him to pray and start taking bigger steps for his baptism! He’s perfect though. He’s real nice he gave us a Sprite and some cookies. And when we were walking down there was kids swimming in the water because it was a hot day, and they were jumping off of the rocks, but I heard that tomorrow it is going to start raining again so that stinks, but when there’s rain that means that people will stay in their house and we will be able to get in to teach them!

  And on Wednesday during District Class all of a sudden it started hailing! Then a couple flashes of Lightning! It was crazy! Then Thursday at 3 in the morning it started hailing again! And it was pounding on the glass, and I was shocked that it didn’t break the windows!

  Yesterday was president Monson’s birthday to I think. I told Juan that he became a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on the Prophets birthday! He was pretty excited.

  But that’s about it for his email. A pretty normal week, just teaching lessons and talking to people in the street. We are doing everything we can to spread The Gospel!

     les quiero,

                        Elder Johnson