Week 10

suSo I took out 80 something dollars the other day. It is to avoid fees with the ATM. The fees are like 6 bucks a time. So I took out 80 and that should last me a while. I will try and make it last. I dont want to be burden. I am going to by a really nice case for my Book of Mormon. It is leather and has pictures drawn into it if you want. I am going to get the 1st vision on the front and Garden of Gethsemane on the back. I sent a letter last week. I tried to send one this week to Rick but they wouldnt take it because it wasnt in an envelope. So I hope that my letter I sent last week gets there. I didnt put a return address so hopefully it does. I will be buying envelopes tomorrow because we didnt get the opportunity to shop today. We were up at the CCM again with the Doctor. My comp had a ingrown toenail so he had to get it out. Was kinda fun to watch. It was also fun to go there because all the Elders and Sisters who had been in the CCM for two weeks when I left I got to talk to them for a little bit. Kinda like a rockstar because everyone is asking how it is and stuff. haha. But they are leaving tomorrow which is awesome.

This week was pretty good. WE actually got 20 lessons! woooo! We almost didnt because everything was falling yesterday. EVERYTHING. We barely got 2. I thought I was cursed for a second. I really wish I was fluent already. It would make this so much better. Oh well I am learning. I still have alot of fun with our investigators and less actives. Who needs to talk to funny right?

So one day this week we did divisions with another companionship because my comp is district leader. It was fun because the one I was with was super crazy kinda like me. So we had alot of fun. And I get to go to the other sectors because I dont really know our secotrs that well. So I got to meet some new people that were really fun. The funny part though is this Elder heas 9 months in the mission and the families were saying that my spanish is better. I kinda felt bad. Haha but I still cant understand anything. And alot of the times I get lost in translating. Sometimes my spanish just flies out of my mouth. I think it is when the spirit is really strong my spanish feels better. 

I like that Book of Mormon idea. I love reading the Book of Mormon right now. I like it more then the Bible for sure. But I gotta learn the Bible too. Ill be reading the BoM in spanish during language study. The stories just come alive now. It is weird. And I thirst for spiritual things now. I want to just keep reading.  I just apply the stories to my life so much easier now.

One thing though is I am really staring to like like talking about deep doctrine and stuff. Because on divisions me and the Elder talked alot about cool stuff. The Gospel is just so amazing! Why didnt I notice it earlier? Im jsut glad I did. And I hope I can help many others see that.

Thanks for all the Updates. I love hearing about everything! Thanks for loving me enough to write me! I need to get better with writing letters though.

Love Elder Justin Johnson

 

Week 9

Wow another week! And i forgot my camera.... WHY? Seriously! So this week was actually really good! I feel much better which is nice so I can work the whole time! I hate being sick though because I feel like such a burden to my companion when I am. We get along really well though. I love that he is obedient and wants to work. It makes it easy for me. I will probabaly have a hard when I get a companion that doesnt want to work as hard. Because I dont really like to bring up problems and get in fights with people. But wen that happens I will have the Lords help to get through it and help my future companion be better.

I really love hearing about everything! Thanks for writing me every week! I hope my messages are fine. Sometimes i just cannot remeber what to write about. I sent a letter though! I wrote some over a couple days about some stories and investigators we have. I love the people here and I love my sector. I hope I can stay here a while like my companion has. At the end of my training he will have 7 months in the sector. Ugh I am so sorry i forgot to bring my camera. I am not sure if the wifi thing works. I havent tried because my area is just really poor and no wifi. Most the people dont even have consistent internet. They only pay for it by the Gig.

Wow today I just feel really good! super happy for like no reason. We have two appointments later which is cool because i stilll havent met one of them completely because she is always home alone. And we cannot enter and teach. But her brother will be there. He recently was reactivated and hopefully we can help her out. She feels condemned apparently cause she has a kid and is pregnant outside of marriage. I hope we can help her see how special she is. And how loved she is by our Father in Heaven. 

This week we decided to teah a couple of our investigators and menos activos about Family History. Because we just got the pamphlets. And we were hoping it would motivate a couple to get to the temple. Oh how wrong we were. Oh my goodness all of them would say they dont know there dad or they dont like there parents and want nothing to do with them. The lessons just didnt go very well everytime.

Yesterday was awesome because for some reason i could understand almost everything. I was talking back and forth. Got closer to some people instead of sitting there quietly and bearing my testimony. My spanish is improving suprisingly fast. I usually slack off a little during language study and get distracted which i am working on fixing. It is just hard to study for 4 hours a day sometimes. I usually just read Preach my Gospel in spanish because now I can understand it completely other then a couple words here and there. I call it my book of the Gift of Tongues. Because everyone is like wow you spanish is really good. How many years did you do in school? And i never actually did a full year. I just struggled really bad at the start though. But with the help of our Heavenly Father and constantly praying for help it helps out alot. 

My testimony on prayer is growing alot. I pray for everything now. Even small things. Like we were in a lesson with the other Elders like a week ago and i had the hiccups and it was distracting and I didnt want to distract from the spirit. So i said a small prayer and my hiccups literally stopped completly. It is crazy. Probabaly sounds kinds dumb. But little things like this help build a testimony. 

Mother, I love hearing about everthing! really I do. and thank you so much for helping me get out here. You always said I was going to serve a mission. And here I am! Thank you for having the Faith in me. I am so glad I made this decision. I am sorry for being really difficult for a while! 

Dad, What you up to? Hows the Jeep? ;) Thank you for Everthing! Thanks for being and Awesome dad! I miss you! 

Thank you again for everything All. I am lucky to have all of you! You have always been great examples! I hope my letters are interesting to read!

Love 

Elder Justin Johnson

Week 8

Hello all!

This week flew by!! probably cause 2 and a half of the days i was sleeping in bed because i got really sick! Yep i actualyl got a really bad Ulcer. It was not fun but i think that it is mostley gone now. So we had to go back up the the CCM and see the Doctor. The President and his wife drove us which was really nice cause i was in quite a bit of pain. So i got to see some of the people i got to know just before i left and it was kinda fun. Told them a couple of stories. and everyone is super interested in them because they are dieing to leave the CCM. haha Hopefully this week we can have nothing go wrong and actually get a decent amount of lessons. We were on track that i had to ruin it...

So tomorow we will be inviting an entire family to be baptized. Two of them have wanted to be baptized for a while but we need the Dad to be baptized to with the family. They are super nice and i hope they all except! I love these people. They are super fun but sometimes a little too nice. They just hand you food. SOOOO MUCH FOOD. And they put oil in everything. And they drink so much soda. mainly Coca Cola. I love when we dont get offered food. I feel so sick sometimes after eating. Im wondering if the Ulcer was from the food? The doctor said probably from stress but honestly i feel fine. I feel happy all the time. So if it is from the food that would be nice then i can have an excuse not to eat.

Wow it is really hard to remeber what we did during the week. They are just so many faces and walking i cant remember.and half the week i was sick in bed.

I though i told you about my comp last week. Maybe that was to Rick. So my comp is Elder Hoose. He is from New York like my missions President. He is really awesome. He is obededient and wants to work hard all the time. I am glad that i got him. I am going to learn alot from him.

Anyways I wish i couldve wrote more. But this week seemed very uneventful. I Need to take more pictures and i will be sending letters out next week! So much to do! I love You all and thank you so much for the support!
Love Elder Justin Johnson.

Week 7

Hey!

Why no email? Thats fine. So this week has been really awesome. I have learned alot and apparently my spanish is alot better then most other new missionaries. I guess our District in the CCM where just really good. The only problem is i can not understand them. THey speak so fast. And there is a decent amount of words that are only in Chile. They alos say my accent is really good so all i need to work on is learning more and having the ability to be able to understand. Though we fasted this Sunday and one of the Things i fasted for was the ability to understand more. And i already feel like i can understand more. My testimonyis growing everyday in things that i didnt have a testimony in before.

I started reading the New Testament this week also because I had an interview with the MIssion President and he said i want a Christian if i havent read the bible and that i probabaly wouldnt be put into any leadership positions in my mission if i havent read them.

This week we had 16 lessons which i less then we should have. The standard for excellence is 20. But we defiently worked as hard as we could. We just had two days where no one was home or they where busy. So we walked a ton and did contacting. So this next week i hope is better and we can get into peoples houses.
My area is awesome. It is defintely alot different here. There is trash and dogs everywhere. The houses are small but some people know how to make there house look really nice while others are not kept very well.

So the majority of our work is Less or non actives. The lessons are alot different then those with investigators. And that is all we learnded how to teach in the CCM. Though some of our Less non actives are like investigators because they dont know ANYTHING. It is a mess down here with alot of the people where baptized. Some really should have not been baptized. WE have alot of work to fixit. But that is why i am here. So far my favorite less is the parabole of the Prodigal son. Because i can relate well with it and share my experience and it just feels really strong.

My trainer is Elder Hoose. He is awesome likes to be obedient and a hard worker. Which is exactly what i wanted. He is from New York. I am sure we will have alot of fun.

I hope this next week we can get in with more of our investigators. We a a decent amount but we just have not been able to.

I am truly grateful to be down here. I feel peacefull all the time and just feel happy. I love sharing my experiences with them and i hope we can help as many as possible to feel that same happiness that we have in our lives. I hope all is going well. I love you all!

Love

Elder Justin Johnson

In the field

Hey Everyone!

I finally made it out of the CCM! It is actually real. So my zone is el Bosque and i am in el pino ward. It is alot different then where i was at. Anyways this last week has been fun and i have learned alot. I am so happy to finally be in the field. Today we have a couple of lessons! and then we will go visit the Bishop! pI have my trainer he is super cool Elder Hoose. I am excited to learn from him. He has only been in the field for 8 months and i am his first trainee.

I hope all is going well! My mission president is super cool! Ill write more next week! im only writing for a second to say i made it here! 

Love 

Elder Justin Johnson

Week 6

Hey! 

This week was another fast week and a great one! We got noew teachers that speak almost no English and it is so fun trying to communicate with them sometimes. It really helps listening to the spanish to get used to hearing it. These teachers are just so funny! It was definetly good to get some new teachers. We have six which is twice as many. Because there are like no missionaries here. Only 25 i think in the entire CCM. It is so weird. It is so small here i am glad i didnt have to go to provo.

This sunday was our first sunday in all spanish and it went alright. i couldnt really understand the translated devotional from last tuesday in the Devotional at provo. But funny thing is Elder Virga the guy that knows Taylor say her in the video when they where singing. I probabaly  wouldve notcied but i didnt think about it. I hope she is doing ok with that language!

This week we also got to do some street contacting and we actually got this guy named Isaacs information and he seemed interested because we talked for a while. He actually knew english better but i would only talk to him in spanish because i need as much practice as i can get. Only one more week and i will finally be in the field! I like it here at the CCM but it gets kinda tiring just sitting down learnig all day everyday. I have come so far i feel. I can teach decently in spanish but i am sure that i make a decent amoount of grammar mistakes. As long as they get what i am saying! One of the lessons we had with an investigator had to be lead by the spirit. Because neither my companion or i could understand what she was reallly saying But after the lesson we said we couldnt understand her and our teacher who was the investigator said we replied perfectly for everything. It was interesting. I thought my companion understood but i guess he didnt either.

Haha Idaho just sounds weird. Where at in Idaho? Im not sure i would want to live there. I guess i can think about it. I mean i am going to go to BYU Idaho when i am going home and that will be fun. Just keep me updated on all that stuff.

So next week i wont be able to email cause i think the day we are supposed to have p day is the transfer day and we have a ton of stuff to do. So the next email you get will be about my first week in the field! Hopefully i have some cool stories for you guys!

I am so excited for the field though. And this week we get to get our buss cards and go proselite in a park somewhere for an hour or so. It will be interesting but i am excited. Also we get to go on splits with missionaries that have been in  the field for half the day. Super excited!

I feel like there isnt much to talk about sometimes when i am writing because it is really repetive here.

Ya i still want work out bands. ive been doing push ups and situps but bands would be nice. Unless you guys have already sent the package. 

So there are these really amazing scripture cases that i can get i am not completely sure how yet but they are leather and you have them custom made and you can get som really cool scirpture story pictures on them. Ill get a picture of some and send them to you. The only down side is is they are 50 bucks. So im not sure i will get them.

So this week has also been a little weird. I feel like i have forgotten what it is like to be home. My mind just feels so clear it is crazy. I like having a schedule and doing stuff. It is just awesome. Ive only been here 5 weeks and i feel like i would be alot different in terms of motivation. These two years are going to be life changing and i can tell. I cant wait to be bringing happiness i feel into the lives of other. i hope i can use my story and my experience with being truly converted to the gospel. I feel like that is why i was called here. I am noticing more things that the Lords hands have been apart of in my life before i was even converted. He was always there. I know he was. I didnt notice it when it happened but i remember hearing something in my thoughts that would be someting like you are going to go back. I dont know what the exact words where but it is cool to think about. I am definetly supposed to be here now. Things just worked out so well for the Lords hand not to be in it. Once i am in the field i am going to try to lose myself and be the best representative of Jesus Christ that i can be. These peoples Eternity is in my hands.

I love hearing everything from you guys! And keep up the letter! they are awesome to get during the week!

I love You all and miss you all! Good Luck with everything!

Love Elder Justin Johnson

Week 5

Hey!

Im actually doing suprisingly good! Yesterday i was just thinking and i was wondering how i have almost no stress. The spirit is truly a comforter. I wish i had more experiences with the spirit in my life. I need to get more in tune with the spirit. Or just recognize what the spirit tells me.

It is funny that you asked about dreams. Send a couple on email and a couple in the mail. cause the mail does take a while to get here. I have had some interesting ones that kinda made one day hard. Ill tell you about one of them. I dont know how to explain it but there was some dark think floating around and it flew at me and it would just hold me down and it was hard to break free. But once i did i felt free. I dont know how to explain it. But that night i also prayed that i would be able to get past some off the stuff of my past that keeps coming to mind.. Because there is alot of time to just think here and sometimes my mind wanders alot. And it is really distracting. But i think i am doing alot better. 

What i mean by my District need work is a couple of the Elders just talk so much crap behind peoples back and it can be reeally frustrating. And something just isnt right about our district. One of our teaches pulled me out of class this week and talked to me for a while about how i can try and help the district become close to God. Apparently i am one of the anchors in my District.  I hope i can help them. I be parying alot because we only have 2 more weeks. My companion has still been having alot of problems. It is highly likely he wont be able to serve the full 2 years. I feel so bad. I hope he can get through it. They just wont give him the medicine he needs for IDK why. But he has had the issues and they probably should have been sorted out before but was not able to be done.

If you havent sent it yet make sure on the music player or whatever there is ALOT of just gospel music or classical music. And of course Lindsey Stirling.

So these last 2 weeks have just flown by. Like So fast. It is awesome though becasue it can get really repetetive here. The days are long but the weeks are short.  Only 2 weeks then i will be in the FIELD! That is just so crazy! Yesterday we tried to do some street contacting outside the CCM. Lets just say REJECTED. Haha like 7 times. We didnt even get to talk to anyone. Oh well it was fun. 

Move to Idoaho? Why? that just seems weird. I guess St. Anthony is really close! I was going to move there anyways. Well not move there but go to school at BYU Idaho. St. Anthony is like 30 minutes away from BYU. So i think that would be super fun to take a quad up with me. haha idk that is a while away! It is funny i have only been here a week and i already have a good idea what i want to do when i get back. 

What else was this week.... Oh ya i bought a cool hand made bag and some hand made gloves for like 15 bucks. I feel so bad for spending money out here it is so weird. Everyone else in my district just blows money everywhere. Its funny. I will try to spend as little as i can. This week i am going to be buying some body wash, deoderent, fash wash because my face gets oily here cause of the humidity, and some sweat pants! I totally for get to bring sweats. I hope that is fine if i get some!

I am so glad that i have this oppurtunity to be out here! Thank you so much for the help. This has been the best decision i have made in my life. I miss you and and Love you all sooo much!

James good luck with the new schooling and get done with it! Just keep up the motivation while doing the online school. It can  be tough but i know you can do it. Stay an example to all your friends and recognize the spirit in you life. That it something that i wish i couldve been worthy for more. The companionship of the spirit is so comforting. Pray for everything and always give thanks to everything our Father in heaven blesses us with. 

Zanna good luck with school and all the extra things you do like piano and singing. I wish i wouldve stuck with piano. Stay an example to all your friends and always strive for more.

All of you keep up the good work of studying the scripture and preach my gospel. Such a blessing ins our live to have these tools.

All of you study 1 nephi 13. This chapter is amazingly cool. Read the summary of it then read very carefully. It is about Christopher Columbos and the pilgrims after him. These thing where revealed to nephi way before they actually happend. Verses i think 17 to 20 talk about the revolutionary war. And how we only won because the power of god. This is incredible. You may already knw about it but i didnt. Look up a study guide for that chapter too if you want.

Anyways again i love you all and miss you so much!

Love Elder Justin Johnson