Happy Birthday

From a letter to Mom: Oh ya! Tell Aunt Melissa I thought she was already 40. Wait maybe you shouldn't. Yes do, at least I'll get a letter! Mwah Ha Ha! Love Ya, Andy

Elder J the English Teacher??

Da Famalam! This week has been long, training takes a lot of thinking! And Spanish is murder on the brain. I try not to laugh too much... We have had some cool experiences this week. My new Comp is Elder Warr from Holiday UT. He went to Olympus High. He actually knows Jarred from football. (note from typist : Jarred coached Olympus Football two years ago while he was going to the U) He is best buds with a guy who played LaX for Olympus and BYU, Teddy Ferin, who is a really good player. My kid is a red head and he is working really hard on Spanish. In a few months he'll loosen up. (: kid means greenie Companion in mission lingo) I would hate to be born here! (: born means first area) He didn't show it but I overheard him telling someone it was scary here. I have been talking a lot and forget to let him talk. I'm used to Elders just jumping in. He doesn't know how yet. We are working really hard. With Elder Valenzuela, he never spoke English so with any English people I just go! I'll figure it all out soon too! I teach English classes two times a week alone because Elder Mackrory transferred to East Long I. We were practicing the preterite - past tense- and the last person in the class came up. He knows really good English and wanted to conjugate his own word. This was his sentence "The boss bedded his secretary." Hmmm.... I try to look at it this way, it's somewhat of an improvement from " I have black s___" when I wanted, Tengo la camisa negra "I have the black shirt." This is one crazy world. (smiley face) Last week was a real tough one. We have been finding for 7 weeks and I was getting pretty low. And to top it off 0/3 of our investigators, who we were positive would, didn't come to church. I have no idea how but I somehow was rejuvenated after talking to a lady who basically said I'll accept Hell, I don't want to try. I felt like what she said would hit her hard later. I know it will. Just testifying that God does live rejuvenates us so much! Now as I look back I realize all the small miracles last week to keep my spirits up. (Oh, and on top of all this, I was sick) We had some mail mix-ups and it caused all my mail to come last week. I had like 10 letters from people! And I had some big awakenings about, well "life". Why the family needs to work how God wants, and especially the marriage aspect! That same girl said, "you can't stay in love forever" and I said "yes you can". She said"you can't teach me how to love." Then some members, who are newlyweds studying out here, walked by and said "yes they can, listen to them!" It doesn't matter how much we know about God's plan, whats important is how much we obey the commandments and love our families. So you guys, I LOVE YA! I'm all better, mental and physical. I am looking forward to reaching our goals of; 1 new baptismal commit 1 new Investigator in Church 15 lessons 4 lessons to our baptism commit It's not easy but they are going to change our mission. Change isn't easy. We find it's very much a climb, but we keep the mental image of the view of the horizon from the top in our minds. And we love what we do. Love you all! Elder Johnson P.S. You should read True to the Faith. I like it a lot!

Pictures from the Mission

New Companion

Hi Fam, Well I got news for this transfer. I'm losing my Comp and getting a kid! Yes, I'm training. It should be fun and interesting. We will find out! Our branch right now is in a state of "reconstruction" if you will. I am absolutely amazed at how many people aren't coming to Church only because of gossip. So we are truckin' along trying to change directions. I am getting used to the city, I think I like it here. Three medical students moved in near us with their wives. It's kind of cool, we can be walking around and then feel them by us. They pop out so bad! Makes me feel not so weird. Although the shirt and tie don't exactly hide us... Ha Ha. I really love the diversity here. I always wonder about missionaries in other countries, we are all over the world! Every day we meet members and investigators from all over the world. I try to remember that they all have an idea of who we are. One thing that is different from the island is that there is always something going down in the city. Always something to laugh at! I really love my camera. I think I have an eye for photography. I'm sorry this letter is short. What do you want me to write? Not much happens, actually a lot happens and I just can't remember or if I do, it's a ton of little stuff I don't want to write. So let me know. Love ya'll! Andy