FINALLY PICS OF BEN (sent from Elder Davis' mom) Hey Benny - I waaant your camera card for Christmassss!

Ben with his beloved Trainer, Elder Davis
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Elder Davis' last letter to his mom about Ben--
break out the tissue ladies

Elder Johnson.... where to begin! he is so great and the best companion i have had so far, he ALWAYS has a smile on his face and is never discouraged even though he doesnt understand the language fully and when i offer him to teach sometimes he isnt quite sure where to start but he bears such a bold and noble testimony and i can feel the spirit as we teach and testify with unity--it is so amazing!!! I only hope that i can be as a good of an example as he has been to me these past weeks. I have found it so easy to get into the groove of doing "missionary things" and not following the spirit. Everytime this seems to happen though, Elder Johnson comes up with an idea that i dont like--but i know we need to do, and then we do it, and MIRACLES HAPPEN!  it is so great to be being trained even though i am the trainer.



First Baptism in WNY

Service

just a man...but what an Elder...!

Monday Nov. 30, 2009
Hey everyone =D

Hope everyone's thanksgiving went spectacularly mine was quite sweet. It was the 1st full day that i had with my new companion, Elder Alldredge...yes Elder Davis got transfered- off to zone leader actually. And it was a really productive day, well more productive than i expected for the dia de pavo (what most people say for Thanksgiving cuz dia de accion de gracias is a bit of a mouthful). We had an awesome 1pm lunch appointment with the Bautista family (who are great cooks might I add). I was super excited to see what they had in store for us and they had some turkey noodle soup to start, followed by some stuffed turkey breast and a venezualan dish called pan con jamon (bread with ham) where its all cooked inside the really tasty bread and is super delicious. It was sweet and we shared a thought there. Then we had an appointment with a referral....I gotta be honest I figured he accidently told us we could come by on thursday, but he was there! As was his daughter. We taught both William and Erika about the plan of salvation and when we finished up we asked if they had any questions (kinda like always). And William asked where he could learn more! I got soooooooo excited to tell him all about church, which they ended up coming to, and the Book of Mormon. Which, as i explained, are the reasons why we know everything that we do about the gospel of Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation. It was sweet. The night ended with going to eat with the Huacon family... It was way good. A huge bowl of rice, a bunch of turkey, some really good gunk stuff which had turkey, walnuts and a myriad of other things and something that was deep fried and way good. She gave us a bunch to take home too. It was waay sweet.

We had a missionary fireside--basically a christmas music fireside where all the missionaries sing and there are a few talks. It went over really well, but it was off in Morristown (about an hour away) so it kinda knocked out our whole sunday night from teaching, but that's alright. It was a great activity and I'm super excited for the 13th when our next fireside will be in Union City and all of our investigators and Ward members will be able to go =D ....It is crazy to think that Christmas is coming up. It'll be here before we know it. And I'm sure you've all got GIANT boxes that you are just waiting to mail me ;)

Well I think that basically does it for the noteworthy portion of my week... Elders Alldredge and Westover are the new Elders in my appartment. It is weird not having Elders Davis and Gove...   Elder Westover is actually from the Bay Area up in North Cali and knows Josh Rojas (my roommate back off at college) apparently. I dont know Elder Westover's first name but apparently they'd play some basketball or something together here and there back in the day. Small world right?!?

Have a great week everyone!

Till next time,
Elder Johnson

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