¡Soy Mexicano!

 ¡Soy Mexicano!

There were tons of people at the stake event for Sep. 15th!

Hey Hey Hey!

This week flew by really fast! It is hard to believe that it is already the last week of the transfer, I feel like I just left my first area not that long ago, but ive already been here for 5 weeks!

In our last District meeting I planned and directed it and it was kinda fun. We practiced How to Start Teaching. It reminded me a little bit of the MTC because I had to plan our District Meetings when I was the District Leader.

We were passing by where Dulce lives early this week and there she was! It turns out thatshe wasnt able to get enough money to make the trip and so she is going to be staying her indefinately until she figures out what she is going to do. It is a little sad because it means she wasnt able to get her pension,but it also means that we have the opportunity to keep teaching her. She is progressing but fairly slowly. We set the date of her baptism for the 22nd of September, but she still isnt at the point where she is really converted and keeps making small excuses. She is really great and I am sure that as we can help her to grow her faith in Jesus Christ she will be more ready.

We did exchanges this week which is when the District Leader does a swap with one of us. He came here to our area and Elder Soto, my companion, went to the District Leaders area. It was kinda fun to be with the District Leader in my area because I got to be more in charge and it was a good test to see if I really knew the area or not. afterwards we got together and went to a nice taco stand and I ate the most delicious taco, and it was only $14!!! I had to get two.

The 15th of September is Mexican Independance day which is alot like our 4th of July. The ward had a large stake activity on Friday night with dancing and singing and alot of foodto celeberate. Tamales are pretty popular here. A tamale is like a little burrito but you make it by putting corn stuff around whatever type of tamale you want to make (you can put vegetables, different meats, and chiles) and you fold it in a corn husk or in a banana leaf and heat it up for a long time. They are fairly good, but it depends alot on what type it is. But yeah there were tons of people and Guadelupe came! It was really great to see her there becasue it was a really good atmosphere for her to get to know some of the members better. Then on Saturday, the actual 15th of September, we had to return to our apartment at 7:30 because aparrently there is a lot of drinking that goes on. To celebrate, the people do lots of partys and we heard about a fireworks show somewhere. and at 11:00 everyone was supposed to shout ¡Viva Mexico! We went to bed at 10:30, but the fireworks in the distance woke me up at 11 so I did a little Mexican shout, but not loud enough to wake up my companion.

It has been an interesting week. We still havent been seeing alot of progression with our investigators. They are progressing but very slowly. My companion has been having a really hard time this past week as well. He is really feeling stressed out that we havent been having a ton of success with our investigators and he has been here for almost 4.5 months and he is ready to leave. If you could maybe mention him in your prayers tonight that he will be able to feel a little happier it would be much appreciated.

Sounds like Abby had a splendid birthday! That MOD pizza place sounds pretty delicious. I am also glad that Kelsey is enjoying college but she didnt reply to my email so hopefully she will soon. Is Kaitlyn getting my emails? I have been sending some to her but she doesnt respond so I dont know if they are appearing in her junk or if she just never checks (I have been sending them to kaitlynjohns(at)hotmail.com).

That is so awesome that you guys are getting involved in la obra misional! (missionary work)

Members have a really important role in helping investigators feel welcome in the church and become a part of the social aspect of the church so that they can have  help reamining active after baptism.

Well this is the last week of the exchange which is always the most difficult. I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you are all reading your scriptures!

con amor,

Elder Johns

No Stairway to Heaven

Hey!

I dont feel like I have much to write about for this week. Everything has been going good with Dulce and we thought for sure she would pass the interveiw, but when we had her baptisimal interview on Saturday she didnt pass  because she said that she still wasnt sure that she wanted to get baptized. We are going to keep working with her to help her with the doubts she hasnt shared with us yet.

Things have been going pretty well with an investigator that we found last week. She still hasnt read the Book of Mormon,  but she came to church with her mother and her daughter. Her daughter, Abril, really really liked church, especially the second hour when she was with the other kids (she is 7 years old). Apparently her mother was baptized in the 1950´s or something, but became less-active fairly soon afterwards. This investigator, Guadelupe, has a baptisimal date for the 22 so we are really excited that she came to church this week.

I have been trying to learn some hynms on the guitar (haha Im staying away from Led Zeppelin). I am trying to make a cool instrumental guitar rendition of Called to Serve. That is so crazy that Jeff Walton is back! I really wish I could talk to him or see him, I bet that he has changed a lot. This week both Colin Spear and Zander Sawyer are going to be entering the MTC! I am really excited for them.

That is awesome that Kelsey is starting College! She will love it. All of my friends that went to BYU-I really enjoyed it. I hope Colins first week at Eastlake goes well for him and that he has lots of friends in his classes.

Sorry this email was kinda short, this past week was kinda slow and it is hard for me to think of stuff to say about it. I am really happy that everything is going well for all of you and that life is exciting. I hope you all have a wonderful week!

con amor,

Elder Johns

Baptisms in Valles!

One of the members made a Piñata sized Elder Soto!

Mi compañero, Elder Soto, y yo.

Alan and Esteban!

Hey Hey Hey!

This past week was pretty great! On Saturday night we had the baptism of Alan and his brother Esteban! It was pretty crazy getting the baptisimal service planned out during the week, but it went well, besides starting a little late. The baptisimal service also included an 8 year old from our ward and a baptism of some other Elders from a different ward, so there were 4 people in total who got baptized. The room was packed! It was really great. Altough I do not really know Alan or Esteban really well, I really love them and I am so happy that they have decided to take this step in their lives. The church has really changed them. Just like 5 months ago they were rather rebellious. They came to know the church because their mother had a friend of hers invite Alan and Esteban to church so that they could learn to be a little less rebellious. And now they have really changed, they have had a true change of heart and are ready to follow the example of Christ until the end of their lives.

I think I mentioned Dulce in my last email. She is progressing really well and is really excited about the gospel. We set a baptisimal date with her for the 8th of September! She went to the baptism of Alan and Esteban and to church on Sunday. She is really prepared and I am so glad to have the opportunity of teaching her.

Thursday morning we had a Zone Conference. It was fairly good, I learned alot and I really felt like the spirit taught me what I need to do to become a better missionary. It was the first zone conference that we have had with President Jordan. They are still learning everything and I am truly amazed at their ability to handle all of the challenges and tasks being thrown at them. I would think twice before I accepted to be a Mission President in Mexico.

After I sent my last email, I decided that I wanted to buy a guitar for my birthday, so we found a nice music store and I found a wonderful acoustic guitar for a fairly good price. I also got a really cool tuner that clips on to the end of the guitar where the strings are and it measures the vibrations of the strings to tune and it is super fast and easy. The first 3 strings are nylon instead of metal, but it is a really good guitar for teh price I found it at. It is black and slick, I´ll take a picture this week and send it next time. It has been a great help for me to feel a little more relaxed and not so uptight all the time. I am learning hymns and it is really fun. I am thinking that I will be able to use it during baptisimal services.

We got together as a District Saturday morning and helped somone move in another ward. It was kinda fun to help someone move, I feel like I did that a lot back home and it has been a while since I have gotten to do it. Afterwards the sister cooked us some delicious meat. 

Apparently, a disease went around that killed a ton of the chickens that were used for laying eggs so the price of eggs has gone up to a ridiculous price when it used to be at a very cheap price so that families with very little money would buy a lot of eggs for their protein. I bought a bunch a little while ago before the prices shot up, but they might be my last eggs for a while.

I remember going to go and see the wrecked ship in Orgeon when I was little! That was a really long time ago. I also remember how beautiful Sea Side Orgeon is. Ryan and I went there I think for cross country to run a course when I was in 9th grade. I have heard of the famous maple bars with bacon from Portland! I have never eaten one before, but I would like to try one some day. That is great that Jeff Walton is back! and James Salmon is leaving this Wednesday, Maybe he´ll run into Tucker and Carlin. 

I really love you all and I am so glad that you all had a great vacation in Orgeon. I will have 8 months in the mission tomorrow, which seems to me to be so little, but it is a third of the mission which seems crazy. I hope you all have a great last week of the best month of them all, and that you can all get through the crazy transition from lazy summer days to the tiring grind of studies. ¡hasta luego!

con amor,

Elder Johns

First Week in Valles

¡Hola!

So I just had my first week in my second area! It is really something to suddenly leave everything in an instant and be thrust into a new place and not know anything, it reminds me a little bit of when I first came to Mexico. I dont know the area super well yet, but now I have met our investigators and some of the members.

We have two investigators named Alan and Esteban. We finished teaching them the commandments this week and they had their baptisimal interview. They are going to get baptized this week! I dont really know them super well but I am so excited for them. They really love the church. Alan is 15 and Esteban is 13. Alan went to EFY and he really enjoyed it and now he says he wants to be a missionary. They both really enjoy the church and the youth programs, and are already making friends in the church.

We have another investigator named Dulce. She is a little older and she knows a lot about the Bible. She really likes the Book of Mormon, but we have had a difficult time getting her to pray and ask our Heavenly Father if it is true or not. We ended up having her do the prayer during on of our visits and she said that she felt good and wanted to keep listening to us. 

We have a number of other investigators but things are still a little crazy and I dont remember a whole lot.

This are is very different from my last area. We have the "centro" in our area which is where all of the large stores are. It is always really busy and there are tons of people. Our area is also very large though so we have other areas where it is just houses and there arent many people. It smells absolutely wonderful here! In my last area there was a Pemex (petrolium processing plant) near our house and it was constantly pumping out pollution but here the air feels super clean in comparison. Our apartment is also a lot nicer than it was in my last area. We have an air conditioning unit in our room!!!!!!! It is so strange to get cold, we turn it on blast during the night and the room gets freezing. The apartment was a little messy when I got here but I have fixed it up a bit. It also doesnt feel as hot here as it did in Madero. It is a lot less humid here, but my companion also tells me that this is the time of year where it is a little cooler than what it is like during May through July.

My companion, Elder Soto, is really great. he really knows his stuff when it comes to teaching and he is really good with the investigators. He also speaks really good english because he lived in Las Vegas for 2 years. We get along well.

I gave a talk last sunday about missionary work. They called us in the morning so I didnt really have any time to prepare so I just gave a generic talk but I think it went well.

Taking care of all those kids sounds pretty fun. I bet you are pretty excited to see Ryan in Portland. He is probably headed off to BYU for school pretty soon.

I love you all and I hope you are all enjoying your last weeks of August!

con amor,

Elder Johns

Pizza Pringles and Then a Transfer

PIZZA PRINGLES!!!!

 Waiting with some Elders in the bus station in Valles

Hey everyone!

 

Well I have a bunch to write but basically no time at all. I had a great birthday yesterday, I actually got the package on Saturday so I had presents! and my world got blown away when I saw that I had THREE cans of PIZZA PRINGLES!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you so much for the treats, letters, and toy thing. Also thank you very much for the money that was deposited in my account from Grandpa and you guys. It was a little strange having my birthday during the mission, and the package really helped me to feel loved. Alot of the members told me happy birthday during church and that was also nice. I didnt get any cakes because the refigerator of the members who were going to make me a cake broke, but someone we taught gave me a mango! Thank you toeveryone that sent me happy birthday wishes, I feel your love and I am very apreciative of your support!

 

I got transferred to a new area today!!! They told me last night so I packed up all my stuff today, said goodbye to a few people, and went to the bus station where I took a bus for a couple hours to my new area. I dont remember what my new area is called, but we are in a city that is named Valles. It is known for being the hottest place in the mission, but I hear that we just passed to hottest time of the year and it should be a little cooler from here on out. My companion is named Elder Soto and he told me he has more than a year on the mission.

 

It is very strange to leave an area that I have been in for 4.5 months and be suddenly thrust into a new area with a new companion. I feel just a little overwhelmed at the moment, but I am grateful for the opportunity to grow. It is also pretty exciting to be in a new area.

 

It sounds like everything is going well for you guys. Thats crazy that James will be leaving so soon.

 

I have to go now but I love you all so much and I miss ya´ll like the dickens!

 

con amor,

 

Elder Johns

A Buzzcut and a Birthday

We dont have grills here so we use what ever we can find. This is Hermano Cruz cooking us some delicious carne asada.

A member had a white rabbit lying around. It had evil red eyes.

This is our Zone. La Zona Ampliación.

I borrowed the guitar from a kid that lives below us. It felt real good to strum some chords.

¡Buenas Tardes!

 

Hey! its been (almost) another week! I got a buzz cut on accident on our P-day last week after we wrote emails. It looks even worse in real life than it does in the pictures haha. I mistakenly asked for size 1 on the sides and size 1.5 on the top, and I found out that means that you almost dont have any hair afterwards. I have always wanted to get a buzz cut becasue James would always get buzz cuts but I never had the guts. Now that I know what its like Im never going to do it again. I feel a little cooler though which was nice because this past week was especially hot.

 

I dont really have anything positive to say about our investigators, we are going to be starting with a clean slate.

 

We have been working with some menos activos (less-active) this past week. We met once with Hermana Gloriah and she brought her son to church yesterday! Her son went to EFY 2 weeks ago (it was the first time they have had an EFY here in this area and alot of menos activos youth) and he even brought a friend along to EFY. He also brought his friend to church and we met him and have an appointment to teach him in the house of the member. He is really interested in learning because he really enjoyed EFY.

 

I dont really know what else to say, the last part of this past week was really tough but now Im through it.

 

Only 6 days until my birthday! I am pretty excited. I am going to be 20! I only have 6 days left of my teenage years, but I already feel like an adult. I told some members and an hermana is going to make me some delicious mole (chicken with a sauce that is soooooo delicous, kinda chocolaty but not very sweet and a little spicy) and some guacamole. And her daughter is going to make me a cake! Yeah they have cakes here, and they are probably better on average here becasue Mexico is crazy about their pan (bread).

 

On our p-days we usually get about an hour of free time after all is done, and I usually write letters as my way to relax. I just got a new shipment of mail so Im going to be busy. The cambio is almost over, it ends on teh 13th. I have a feeling that I am going to be going to a new area since ive been here for 4.5 months and this is my first area.

 

I dont have any more time to write but it sounds like you all hada great time in Idaho and Utah. Have you all done any othre trips this summer?

 

I love yall and I hope yall have a great week!

 

Elder Johns

Missing the MTC and hamburgers

I also forgot to mention, but Aide went out with us for a day to our appointments. We were pretty suprised that she wanted to go with us especially becasue she is pretty shy, but she told us she wanted to see what we do all day.

I helped to clean the tail end of a micro (bus).

Hey Hey family!

 

Sorry this ones a few days late, we wanted to go to the temple this week so we changes our preparation day to Wednesday, but then we found out that the Temple is closed until the 13! I guess they announced it during sacrament meeting, but I was busy explaining to Ernesto who the people are that sit up infront of the congregation and my companion didnt hear.

 

We had interviews with President Jordan on Tuesday last week! It was awesome getting to meet him and talk with him. He really gave me some good advice to help me to rise to the next level and I could really feel the love that he has for each one of us. He is a little more calm than President Call was but he leaves an immpression just as powerful. I really enjoyed it. So far he hasnt made any big changes, just that we are going to start setting goals monthly instead of for the cambio (4 weeks instead of 6 weeks).

 

Apparently the area Seventies of Mexico have selected our mission, along with some other missions in mexico, to try a different approach to do missionary work. Now, instead of contacting from dawn until dusk, we are supposed to work almost strictly with members and less active/inactive members. We are supposed to teach all the lessons to menos activos and encourage them to become active again, and also to invite others to come listen to us. And with the active members we are supposed to teach them the restoration and get them to invite friends to listen to us either in the house of the member or in the chapel. There are supposedly 500 inactive members in our area so I think we are going to be pretty busy (really there are probably less because people move alot, but we have also found inactive members that have moved here that arent in our records). I am really excited to try out this out.

 

Last week we watched the Joseph Smith movie with Karina and her family to help them to understand a little more about prophets. Things have been going pretty well with them. They havent been doing super well with reading or going to church, but we had a good talk with them this week when we taught them the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. They all drink alot of coffee, but Karina said that she was going to stop buying it in order to follow the Word of Wisdom. Aide doesnt really want to give up coffee, but she will come around. Unfortunately we have a little problem with the Law of Chastity for Rosa becasue her boyfriend lives with her, but right now he is working for the navy and wont get back until September. She doesnt know what she wants to do yet, but she cant talk to him until September.

 

Ernesto was our only investigator that came to church this week, but he seemed to enjoy it but it went a little long (1 hour and 45 minutes!) because the Bishop had the youth bear their testimonies becasue they all went to the very first EFY for this area. He only stayed for sacrament meeting before he had to go. He hasnt been there when we have passed by this week so we dont really know whats going on with him.

 

We started teaching a a bunch of kids last week. it was a referral from a member, and basically the mother wants us to teach her kids about church stuff so that they will have a love of god and be better people. We are also teaching her, but we focus on the kids. It reminds me alot of my old job working with kids at the YMCA pool. They dont pay attention very well so you have to teach differently and its kinda nice to have a change and be forced to teach more simply.

 

Things have been pretty much the same with my new companion. Its interesting to live with another person from another culture, but it requires a little more patience sometimes. We get along well and I am really happy becasue of that. I cant believe that we have already been together for over a month! July flew by so fast. and now my birthday is less than 2 weeks away!

 

Thats great that Carlin is heading out soon, he will be there at the MTC at the same time as Tucker! I really miss the MTC. It was really hard for me at first but it gets easier. Would you please send me Tucker´s Mailing address for the MTC? I wanna send him some encouragement and maybe I can give him som good advice that could help him out.

 

Those hamburgers look absolutely delicious. I havent had a good hamburger in forever. I hope Colin is having a good time at EFY right now and is learning how to chat it up with the ladies.

 

I cant really think of anything else to say, so I love you all and I hope you enjoy the best month of the year! (its the best because it has my birthday)

 

con amor,

 

Elder Johns