Lasagna!

Its been a while since I have been in an elevator..... (more than 13 months!)

VOLLEYBALL!

Stud.

 

This is Elder Calero. We wait for the bus here every morning.

 

 LASAGNA! This is also Hermana Tony who has been helping us out a lot lately.

¡BUENAS TARDES!

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! thats so CRAZY!!!!!!! my bro, my dear brosef, is engaged!!!!!!! wow. That means he is going to be married. I am really happy for them, I haven´t had the chance to get to know Angela very well but she seems like a wonderful person. Wont them getting married make her my sister-in-law? I´ve never had a sister-in-law before. That is so exciting! I am really excited. I feel a little sad though that I won´t get to be there for the wedding. I would love to know more about Angela if you could maybe write a little biography about her or something. Thats a nice looking ring as well. good stuff.

Well, it is impossible for me to adequately describe how fast this past week went by. I feel like I just wrote to you guys yesterday, or even earlier today. It was a craaaaazy busy week, like usual. Monday morning we had to get up early and go with President Jordan to the airport so that I could make sure everything went well with the Elder going home early for health reasons. He was able to board the airplane and leave so that was great. Then it was our zones turn to go to the beach (we can go one time a change if we have permission from president) so President took us to meet up with our zone but then we all ended up getting a free ride from him to the beach. We brought a volleyball net and poles and we were able to set it up by digging holes in the sand for the poles. It was REALLY fun to play beach volleyball.

Then on Tuesday we had a nice meeting with our new Ward Mission Leader. His name is Ladyslou (I have no idea how to spell it correctly) and he just got back from his mission a month ago. He is the brother of Cinthya that baptized her last change. They live in the house that is literally the farthest away possible from our house. After the meeting, we were on our way to have a nice lesson with Socorro and hermana Tony, when an Elder called us and told us that we needed to go all the way to the other side of Tampico to pay for his doctors appointment (my companion is supposed to do it when Sister Jordan isnt in Tampico). We had to cancel our appointments and then take a bunch of route taxis and buses to get to the hospital and pay for the appointment. We were a little annoyed that they hadnt given us a little more notice like they were supposed to. I also got a letter from James Salmon! It was nice to hear how he is doing in his mission.

Wednesday, Hermana Tony made us LASAGNIA! It was her first time ever making it but it was still really tasty.

Thursday was pretty normal, except that we visited to Hermano Martín who is the atheist that I think I have already told you about. He is super smart, read the book of mormon in a week, and is super interesting. Problem is that he doesnt believe in having faith and is pretty certain that God doesnt exist. We had a long chat with him but it just went in circles. It is amazing how important the basic principle of faith is. He even said that he felt happier when he did have faith but now he has rational expectations but lives without hope. Its a litte sad but we did our best to explain, testify, and invite him to at least have the desire to believe like it says in Alma 32.

Friday was really interesting. We got to have an appointment with Key (an investigator) and we got to know her a little better. She has a lot of faith in God, but we can tell that it will be hard for her to understand the great apostasy and need for a restoration, but we are planning on going over that next week so we´ll see how it goes. We then had a wonderful appointment with the Villanueva family. They are the family that has really started to become a lot more active in the church since we started visiting. The father lives and works over near the capital of Mexico, but he was there on Friday so we got to know him a little bit. I really enjoyed seeing the family together, there was a very different spirit in the house. Then we ran over to a family home evening with Hermana Tony and her less active family members BUT Hermana Tony really pulled through for us and invited Socorro (The investigator that we couldnt visit on Tuesday because of the hospital thing) as well as her husband. We had a really good discussion on the importance of having works with our faith. After that we took a taxi over to the mission home (the taxi driver ended up being a member so he drove us for free!) because last night 6 american elders came ot our mission. The were waiting in the MTC for almost two weeks to get their visas and they just barely got them. We ate some tacos in the mission home, and then we took three of them to come over to our apartment to stay the night. They are pretty cool. Its really fun to see how Mexico is so different and foreign to them because it reminds me of how I felt when I first arrived in Mexico. They also told me that there is a Halo 4 now haha.

This morning we did some stuff to train them a little bit, and I got their visa papers all typed up. We dont really know what we are going to do with them all for the next week. I think the assistants dont want to do many changes this next week becasue it is going to be crazy with Elder De Hoyos coming and the change is going to end in a week so they might wait a whole week until they put them with their real trainers. They might be staying the night again and a couple of them might be hanging with us tomorrow. Its kind of stolen our P-day again and we already know that we aren´t going to have much of a p-day next week because it is the p-day before changes which means there is tons of stuff to do. Its fine though, If anything, I was much less tired this past week than any week I have had in the offices. I know that the Lord is blessing us with strength and energy to be able to meet the demands that are placed upon us.

I want to tell you a little bit more about my companion. His name is Elder Calero and he is pretty cool. He is from Nicaragua and has about 8 months on the mission (my first companion that has less time than I do). He is reeealy smart and has been doing really well as the financial secretary. He is really chill and doesnt pick fights or get mad or anything so thats really great. He speaks English pretty well but I have a hard time motivating him to practice with me because he feels embarressed if he messes up. It is a little different being the senior companion because a little more responsibilty falls on my shoulders and I have to lead more. It feels really wierd after having been junior companion for the first 13 months of my mission which I didnt always enjoy so much. It taught me to be a better follower though. Technically I have been a Co Senior companion when I had 9 months but that doesnt mean much if you have less time than your companion.

Tell Joav that I love him and that I wish him well on his mission. I´ll probably send a letter his way if I ever have time to write letters again. Tell Andy that I am doing well and that I really miss sharing my Jamba Juice with him. Thats great that you were able to get an appointment at the Childrens hospital to get Abbys teeth taken care of. I imagine that her cavity in her molar probably really bothered her alot so hopefully she will be more tranquilo now that its taken care of. Hey I really miss all of you a lot and I want you to know that I really love each and every one of you. I really do hope and pray that our Heavenly Father will bless you guys and guild you guys to happiness. If you havent been reading your scriptures then I want you to slap your hand for me and start doing it everyday. Our mission has just started a reading schedule for the Book of Mormon this week and we are all going to finish it in mid-May. We are highlighting references to Jesus Christ, His teachings, and His attributes. I cannot imagine living without the spirit and blessings that I recieve daily from reading in the scriptures every day. Saying that you dont have time isn´t an excuse. Everyone has 24 hours every day that they fill with various different activities that they choose to do based on the importance of the activity and the personal preference of the person. If you dont read your scriptures, it means that you mistakenly think that other things you are doing are more important or you just dont want to. I wish I had more understood this principle growing up and so thats why I am sharing that little insight with you guys in case you havent realized it either and want to change.

I love y´all and I hope you have an awesome week! oh and I have had major cravings to play guitar the past couple weeks (I had to get rid of my acoustic because there is now a rule that we cant have guitars) so I hope that you guys are taking good care of my guitars and amp.

con amor,

Elder Johns