Noche de Barrio

Buen dìa,

Sounds like you had a pretty good vacation and could do some amazing hikes and see some amazing sights. I could use a vacation like that, I am getting pretty worn out down here.

This week I did my first exchange. An exchange is where we change companions for a day and I go to the area of the missionary and we work in their area for the day. I was with Elder Macias. He is pretty knew (is on his third change = less than 6 months) so he is still learning alot about how to teach well. He is mexican and I am pretty sure he is from the city of Chiuahuah. It was fun to get to see their area and get to know Elder Macias better. It was also good for my companion to get the chance to be completely in charge of our area for a day without me there to be able to back him up.

On friday night we had a Noche de Barrio which is when our ward has an activity to meet up at the church and bring food, listen to a message, and then eat food and talk one to another. IT was cool because it was all planned and put together by us, the ward mission leader, and the ward missionaries. We are going to be doing one every two weeks so that less active members and investigators can get to know the members better. IT is hard for them to really get to know the mebmers on sunday because there really isnt time between the classes. It should help us out alot in finding new investigators as well because we encourage the members to bring their friends.

Jorge and Rosario are progressing really well still. They should be getting the divorce paper they have been waiting for for so long and finally be able to get married this week. Their baptisimal date is on teh 15th of June. We are really excited for them and it has been really fun to get to teach them.

We also have another progressing investigator that is doing really well and her name is Nayla. Origionally she lived in another ward so we couldnt teach her but she just recently moved into our ward bounderies so we can teach her. Her story is a little sad because her husband was killed recently and now she is a widow with two twin toddler girls. She has been coming to church alot and she really likes it. We should be setting a baptisimal date with her this week.

Um just whatever you want to send is fine. I like sweets and AA batteries. If you can get your hands on an EFY disc for 2012 I would love love love to have it!

thanks for the great email and for all the support you give me!

con amor,

Elder Johns

Mordida, mordida, mordida!

¡Feliz cumpliaños!

Happy birthday Dad, Kaitlyn, and Kelsey! If you were here in Mexico, they would sing a really long dull song that is their equivalent to the happy birthday song and then they would all shout ¡Mordida, mordida, mordida! and then shove your face in the cake. It is a tradition that they always do here to celebrate birthdays. (mordida means bite so they are telling you to take a bite of the cake with just your mouth).

It was a pretty good week, alot of plans still fell through but we still had fairly good success. I got to give the district meeting class on wednesday which was a lot of fun.

On friday night I I and all the other district leaders and zone leaders in Victoria went to Tampico to stay the night because we had a trainning in the morning on Saturday. It is way more humid in Tampico so I am really glad that I am in Victoria. The training was really nice, it was really focused on teaching with the spirit and we learned about alot of things that we need to do before and during the lessons that will invite the spirit to be there with us.

There werent any packages for me so I guess the package you sent me got eaten by the mail man.

Nothing really new has happened, I have to do calls every night to check how my district is doing and so they can tell me that they are safe in their houses. Our district is pretty cool jbut we have alot of new missionaries taht dont have alot of experience. Its only me, my comp, and 4 other missionaries. I think they are going to put another 2 missionaries in my ward though becasue we need to find another apartment in our area.

Thats so awesome that your company is doing so well Dad. I hope you and mom are enjoying your time in Hawaii. Dont forget to put on sunscreen or youll get sunburned.

Nos vemos!

Elder Johns

The curse of week 6

Hey!

I really enjoyed getting to talk with all of you on Friday (Mexican Mothers Day) over skype! I forgot how beautiful my family is. Colin is getting too tall and should slouch a little more so that we can keep things in their proper order of me being the tallest. Thanks for getting everything set up for the call and doing face time with Kaitlyn, Ryan, and Angela so that I could talk to them as well. sorry if I spoke poor english, it is hard to switch right to english after talking in Spanish for so long.

This week was a little slower than normal as far as work goes but that is the curse of week 6, and it was also because everyone was visiting their mothers so we couldnt find them in their homes. We are starting a new change today and I am really excited because it is going to be a really good change. I also get to be the District Leader which is exciting. I havent been a district leader before but I am excited to learn how to do it well and serve my district. I will be in charge of planning and giving teh district meetings according to the needs of my district, all them every night to see how their day went, reporting to the Zone Leaders, and reporting numbers and stuff like that. I am excited!

We didnt see Rosario or Jorge very much this week, but they are progressing well. They should be getting married this week and then baptized on the 25th! They are super excited and I am really happy for them. Before they knew the gospel their relationship wasnt the happiest and they argued alot, but as soon as they started putting in practice the gospel they noticed a huge difference in their quality of life and happiness and so they are really on their way to becoming converted. They are going to be the example to their families and we are hoping that their families will follow their example as well.

This is going to be my second change with Elder MArtinez and it should be my last so I will probably be making him take the lead more to the point where for the last week or two he is taking the lead in everything and I can relax and let him do all the work (haha not really but I am supposed to prepare him so that he is capable of trainning directly after this change but that doesnt mean that he will train but its possible).

We havent had very much success with getting alot of less active members to go to church, it might be time that we make more of an effort to find less active members that are more ready to become active again.

Have fun in Hawaii, I get weather like that every day (except its not as enjoyable walking around in a dress shirt and tie)

con amor,

Elder Johns

Divisions with the twins

Some gentlemen that help us out with the missionary work in our ward. Yes they are twins.

HEY hey HeY

This week went by fast, we are now on week six of the change so I will have about another  7 more weeks with elder martinez. I am afraid that they are going to switch  me though but lets hope they dont because I am loving it here and I  would be quite satisfied with staying here until the end of my mission.

On monday night we took a bus to Tampico, stayed the night, and went to a training for trainers and new missionaries. I enjoyed it and it was fun to get to stay the night with the assistants and see everyone in the meeting. I really enjoyed getting to see alot of other missionaries back when I was secretary and it is something that I have missed.

We havent been doing very good with finding new investigators but  we worked extra hard at it this week and we were able to find 6 and they seem like pretty good investigators.

On saturday we did divisions with the twins in our wardsso that we could teach more lessons and visit more people. we didnt do it for very long but we are planning on doing it for an entire day which would be suuuuuper awesome becasue then we could visit a ton of people.

We found out that Mari isnt married which suprised us alot because she had never said anything. She talked with her husband and she said that he said that it would be fine.

ahhhh the ciber is about to close me out. Iwill call youguys on friday at 8 0 clock your time

goodbye i lvoe you!!!!

Elder Johns