July 1, 2009 MTC Time

Some last minute snuggles with Friends and Family

before entering the MTC

 Such loving sisters...

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WEDNESDAY JULY 1st, 12:00 noon

sniff sniff... my son is leaving...

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One last GQ pose

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Ben ate some of Aunt Carri's homemade bread,

but his nerves were starting to take over...

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JC Penny catalogue proof

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ah...

those Johnson MEN

        Elder Johnson and Grandma Matthews

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 Leaving the Provo Home for the MTC

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Ben will miss ALL........but one unknowing feline :)

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AT THE MTC

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Johnsons at the MTC 7.1.09

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    The phone handoff......you must let go now Ben

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Just one last thing Elder...

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one last hug

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Lots of lovin from some sweet sisters...

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         One more hug--

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   Driving up

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    Ben's escort, Elder Cobb - a friend from BYU

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K...one more hug and that's all

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Elder Johnson on his way...

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Til We Meet Again.........

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LIFE IN THE MTC

Ben with his MTC companions

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District

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Zone

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Ben with Elder Norris...who looks 12 and knows it :)

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Having some fun with special effects

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Chips and Cheese from mom

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all gone :)

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p-day

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prayer callouses

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Finding life's analogies - just one of Ben's gifts

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Elder Johnson's sweet study spot

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That's the patriotic spirit!

(milk, powerade, and tissue)

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lovin the stance Ben

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Bringing home Pets...

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Meet Taan and Allie Font--an Elder's best friends

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Working at the Call Center

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Top Gun

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YEAH!!!  Travel Itinerary...FINALLY!

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I love you travel papers  :)

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Benny and Ky-Ky...Serving with Honor

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Ben and his MTC Branch Presidency

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Eastward and Onward to New Jersey...

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IN NEW JERSEY

1st area:  West New York, New Jersey

01/09 -

Ben's First Letters from New Jersey came one week after he arrived:

Hello everyone :)

I'm here!  My first real-life missionary contact was a security guard in the airport.  He asked us who we were and Elder Call (one of the AP's) and I chatted with him for several minutes about the church, gave him a pass-along card and were on our way.  But it was so cool cuz he came up to US and was way curious.  It all started not even minutes after de-boarding the plane.  Right after that we went to the "Fear Bust".  All the new missionaries (13 of us) hopped in a van with the AP's and Pres. and Sister Bahr and went to down-town Newark where we met up with other missionaries.  We paired off and went contacting right then.  Most of the contacts were African-American and I loved it. One contact was running late and we SERIOUSLY Vaughn-Johnson-strided it 6-8 blocks with her and talked about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon.   What a sweet start.  I love getting out there and actually doing the work finally.  Oh ya, right when we met for the Fear-buster, I saw someone getting arrested...like within seconds of being in Newark I saw a bust.   Pretty cool.

Now, it has been just about one week in the field and it has been awesome :) ...My area is West New York, New Jersey. Only blocks 60-70 ....you should google earth it and see the small area i walk every day. And cuz its so small we dont have a car, just walking.

The population is soooo hispanic it blows my mind, i basically dont feel like im in the US except for the fact that the NYC skyline is right across the river. Hearing english is a rarety, even with music being blasted out of the windows of passing cars. Its truly like a whole new world, its crazy.

My trainer's name is Elder Davis, from some smaller town in Utah near Ogden. He is awesome. Finally feelin like things are basically normal-ish so things are startin to cruise...only thing is the super speed spanish people speak here is super hard to understand. but with time all will be goin well :)

As for the ward im in we have several hundred members but only about 100 of them are active so we are doing a lot of work with les actives as well as new investigators (some of which are members of the same household, which is super sweet). Everyone is super nice and super willing to help out the new elder from california with his spanish and getting his bearings. Most of the people in the ward and in the area cant really speak english well so it basically isn't an option to speak with the exception of a few random and rare moments. ....or when they are just trying to help me out because i cant understand a lot of what's going on :)

As for the work this first week it has been busy... Taking time off to go grab a meal is a rare occurance, but we're so caught up in everything that food doesn't even come to mind. So far Elder Davis does most of the teaching becuase it is hard for me to respond to the lightning fast speaking of those that we teach, but when i can, i offer what i can. Doing door approaches in spanish is a bit of an adventure at this point lol, but im likin it a lot. Its all way fun. Just on Sunday we were knocking some doors on 61st Street and taught an awesome lesson to Jessica (an Ecuadorian who doesn't know a ton of spanish, so the lesson was in english =D). She is an amazing new investigator pretty much...and I totally thought of Hermana Lambson when she brought her dog outside to her portch for the lesson. ...her dog is an American Pit Bull that she rescued after it had been trained to be a fight dog when it was young... but he was super timid and nice :) but basically there is sooo much potential with her in these upcoming weeks, we talked about basically what Mormons were as well as the Plan of Salvation/Why we are here on earth. It was way sweet and an awesome find while knocking, she was so willing to just sit and talk (which was super refreshing).

We are also teaching Cira (this one IS in spanish lol) and we just set a baptismal date on sunday with her :) Sept. 26th. She has been taught 3 times by the elders and i have been there for 2 of them. The lessons have been awesome and she seems to have so much love for her Heavenly Father as well as the Holy Ghost. And the awesome thing with that is her husband, and mother in law are both inactive members and all of them are becoming increasingly motivated to become an eternal family...so as things seem to be progressing, Cira will be baptized and her family will (hopefully) become active in the church again. Its super exciting...Those are basically the two highlights of the week, but there has been lots more to it than just that, obviously. I am seemingly constantly exhausted, but that is only a sign of working hard.

I live in a lil apartment with my comp and the Zone Leaders Elders Gove and Taylor. They are both awesome elders. And the rest of the elders in our district  are just a few blocks away... All 6 of us are spanish speaking and attend the same ward. For exercise in the mornings we generally go jogging or play mini-soccer at the gym in the church building.

Anyways there will be more correspondance to come...I'm still kinda getting a feel for everything that Missionary Work is. My head is still kinda spinning but the rate at which it spins is getting slower and slower as time goes on.

I love you all and you have all been such a help to getting me to be where I am today.

Hasta Luego :)

-Elder Johnson