The Weeks are Rolling like Days

The twin daughters of Nayla

Evolution of man...

tacos del TROMPO

HEY

Wow the weeks are just rolling by like days now, I hope this isnt a wont be a trend for the rest of my life or I will super old really soon.

I really dont have much time becasue we need to go and do our studies. We went to a super cool musuem about stars and planets and stuff. We got Presidents permission to change our pday to tesday so that we could go and it was suuuuper awesome. I learned a ton about astronomy in my senior year of highschool but I kinda never thought about it agian afterwards. going through th emusuem reminded me of just how cool stars and galaxy formations and stuff like that is. It really is amazing all that our Heavenly Father has made for us and the power that he has.

After we went and ate some tacos del trompo (my favorite mexican food) and it was super good. Some places arent good to eat at but if it looks safe then it usually is. opening up food stands infront of houses is pretty usual here, I am thinking about taking that tradition to teh states but the governemnt will probably take me out.

On wednesday I had a division with the one of the zone leaders, Elder Rodas, which was fun. unfortunately Rosario and jorge ran into another problem with obtaining the divorce paper so we had to put off their baptism date again. They were getting kinda frusterated and kinds started to go off track but we had a good lesson with them and they are committed again. WE NEED TO GET THEM MARRIED ALREADY! It will happen, they are for sure going to be very faithful members after their baptism

Nayla prayed about the book of mormon and said she knows its true because right after she prayed, a couple stopped by to buy some food to eat and then they started talking and the man testified to her that he knows the church is true. She is progressing really well but she dlept in and didnt go to church on Sunday so we might wait a litttle more just to make sure she is really ready.

Thanks for sending the package! I am sure that it will come this time. I just got a letter from Joav and it was good to hear that he is doing fine and enjoying the mission. aw man, I am sad I wont be there at the wedding. If you could make a paper cut out of my head or something like that to be there that would be awesome, serisously.

I did get the email from Kaitlyn, That is soooo awesome! I am really excited for her! I am running out of time so I will make sure to write here a really good letter next week!

I love you all,

Elder Johns

Looking forward to a baptism

Hello,

This past week was pretty good, we had interviews with President Jordan on Tuesday. It was great to get to see him and get to talk to him. He was pretty tired when it was finally my turn because I was one of the last three after interviewing two whole zones. While we were waiting we saw some videos by Elder Bednar about the Spirit and it was pretty cool. We also saw a bunch of videos from the church leadership training about using preisthood to bless families. We also got to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and it tasted sooo good because it has been a long time since I have eaten a god PB and J.

I did an exchange with Elder Martinez this week. Although his name and appearance seem otherwise, he is actually from Oklahoma, but his dad is Mexican. He is pretty cool and we had a good time working together. He only has 8 months on the mission (He has the most time in our district besides me which means we have a really young district).

Jorge and Rosario have attained their divorce paper and should be getting married sometime this week! They are really excited and are already sharing the gospel with their relatives. Some realtives of theirs that we know are going to be getting baptized on the 22 but they live in a different ward.

Nayla is progressing really well, I dont remember if I said or not last time that she moved into her own place now and is getting it all fixed up really nice. She is going to start a buisniss in which she will sell tamales, snow cones, and stuff like that infront of her house. We have aslo been teacher Naylas mom, but she isnt as gung hoe about getting baptized but she likes to listen and learn.

Sounds like things have been pretty busy for you guys over there. ahh thats crazy that the wedding is soo close. good job colin on getting his seminary pin! If I remember correctly I got my pin every year as well, but I only memorized the scriptures long enough to pass them off and now I dont remember alot of them.

I gotta go!

I love you!

Elder Johns

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 

Two steps forward, one step back

Mi familia amada,

Hey! so I`ve got some news for y`all about getting to call you guys for Mothers Day. Good news: We will get to use skype. Bad news: We have rather limited options about when we can do it. President told us that we can either do it on the 10th (friday) or on Sunday BUT we have to be all done with our calls by 12pm (Tampico time) so that we can head out to work. Pretty lame but at least we get to use skype. So those are the two options that I have and we can find a way to get either to work so just let me know when works best for you guys. It is sounding like Sunday might be a little tough for you guys so I really hope you all can on friday. It is possible that we would need to do it as early as 10ish if my comp has to do it friday as well, but he believes that he will be doing it on sunday. so please let me know after you have figured out what to do.

Its going to be my last call home! That is soooo crazy. Time is literally flying by and I feel a little scared that its all of a sudden just going to end and I will have to wait until all my future children have grown up and moved out so that I can serve a mission with my future wife. I have had dreams before where my mission has ended and I am back home and I always feel really sad.

It was a tougher week this week because we were trying to find new investigators but we havent had much success with that. But somehow we ended up with a fairly big number of lessons with a member presente and the assistants were wanting to know if our ward could support another companionship so I am a little scared that they are going to split our area and we are going to have to share this promised land with others which would be kinda lame becasue then we wouldnt be able to visit the elders in the other part of the area but it would be fun to work close to another companionship-

Training hasnt been very difficult after having been in the offices with my last companion. I had never been so exhausted in all of my life as I was during those few changes because I was getting sick alot and my companion wasnt helping out alot with the responsibiliteis in the area. Elder Martinez is really awesome as well. He is learning everything pretty fast but a lot of everything is still on my shoulders because there is still alot that he hasnt learned yet. I actually have had the problem of not putting enough responsibility on him so that he can learn, but I have made some plans that will help me to put more of the load on him so that he can learn. I really enjoy training him because he is humble, wants to be obedient, and works hard. He speaks English really well but I am helping him to learn it even better. He is also helping me to better my spanish because he tells me when I say stuff incorrectly. I can feel that my English is getting worse because it is harder for me to put sentences together when I am speaking in english. 

Mari, who we have been teaching along with jorge and rosario (she is the hermana of Jorge), didnt go to church last week or this week and it seems like she is slowly backtracking a little which has been a little upsetting o see. we have determined that it is because her husband isnt really excited about her wanting to join the church and he doesnt really support her very much. We taught a very direct and straightforward lesson to all of them about sanctify el dia de reposo and go to church but she didnt go to church so that was a little frusterating. Rosario and jorge are doing really well but they still havent made any solid plans about their marriage but we cant really tell them to just get married already but we will talk a little more about it this week

Vicente made some progress but also backtracked a little bit. At the beginning he told us that he didnt really believe in God but has started to since we`ve started teaching him. We taught them the law of chastity a week ago and she and her less active girlfriend finally split up but it was more of her choice to do it because she wants to prepare to get sealed to her family. They didnt want to get married so splitting up was what they decided to do. The parents of his girlfriend detest him so we cant continue to teach him there, and apparently vicentes mom is mad at his girlfriend and the church becasue they split up so we probs cant teach him there either. He now he is saying that he doesnt believe in God again but he keeps reading, praying, and going to church (even after they  broke up) so there is still hope for him to develop more faith.

ahhh there is never enough time to write but that is what i have for yall this week. Super cool to hear that Anna got a mission call. I heard that Bonnie also got a call to Brasil and on of my friends from college just sent me a letter that said she is in brazil serving a mission. Now kaitlyn and Kelsey..........

Thats cool that you all ran a 5k, I remember running 5k`s when I did cross country. They were pretty tough but I rember that after finishing your body just feels uber awesome.

Have a great week everyone!

con amor,

Elder Johns