TRANSFERS & MORE PICTURES

May 10, 2010

Well hello again everyone... This week has been pretty awesome. Something about calling home is just a lil special considering it happens only 2x a year. It was a day maker... needless to say ...and I really loved talking with my family. Its funny how it was hardly even a priority before the mish, but now I totally love it. Its interesting how priorities change in the field :)

But what is crazy to think is that it still woulda been a great week even without the magical phone call home...no offense of course fam. For one it was a very well fed week =D ...which helps me stay cheap...and I'm all about that. (Alec has trained me well ;) lol). But there was one night where our landlady, who works at a school cafeteria I'm pretty sure, gave us a giant bag of frozen meatballs and a bunch of breaded chicken too. She gives us stuff every once in a while so it is always a nice treat. So she came down to our apartment and asked us to come upstairs to grab it...and as we were on our way back down to our apt. we had a random, totally inactive member from West New York (outside of my old area...I had never seen him before North Newark actually. He works as a delivery guy for some chicken place and gives us rides every once in a blue moon [aka a total of 2 times in my 3 months here in north newark so far]) pull up and say "elderes!" ...he motioned towards the car and proceeded to pull out a giant bag of food from the place he works at (tons of rice, fries, chicken and platanos maduros...which are way good btw). $13 worth of food...I dunno if he got it for free or paid but it was quite the treat. so basically we got like tons of food within like 2 minutes. Cuz it was on the way down from the landlady that we got the platter of deliciousness. it was wild...not to mention a total rare occasion. But hey, I wont lie, I was a big fan of the feast =D

In other kinda crazy news someone tried breaking into our apartment the other night lol. ...It was kinda wild but he was seen and bolted before anything really happened. I'll admit it kinda freaked me out though. But don't worry mom...i'll be otay. It just makes for good stories right? It really wasn't that big of a deal...just pretty freaky for a few minutes.

In even more crazy news... I am going to be training this upcoming transfer (which starts tomorrow). It is pretty crazy to think. Especially considering I feel like i just got to the mission not too long ago. Apparently the Lord thinks I have some sage wisdom to impart to some brand new missionary...I still feel like I'm just gettin the hang of this whole missionary thing. I do have to say I am very pumped for the opportunity. Like very very excited. Partially for the Sister Bahr breakfast I will be getting tomorrow morning :) ...Whats kinda crazy is that there is only one spanish missionary that is coming into the field this transfer... So the Assistants to the President already know who my companion will be. They are really excited about him. ...as am I. They have been able to read up on him and kinda get to know a lil bit about my future hijo. I am stoked to train. I just hope I can do what the Lord wants of me to mold this young missionary into the missionary he will become.

Well I'm kinda all out of crazy news... Kinda bummer news is that the Fam Charriz...who have a baptismal date for the 23rd this month...aren't legally married. So that could put some hold on their date. But we have asked them to think about married...talk about it with each other and with God. So we'll see how it goes. They'll still get baptized (I don't have any doubt of that), it may just take a little more time.

Hope everyone had a great mothers day...and that you all will have a great rest of the week.

Love,
Elder Johnson

IT'S STILL COLDD-D-D IN JERSEY.......

My lovely neighborhood....

medical advice...

Hiking in the beautiful & cold Jersey countryside

-ridiculous competition-

Wonderful members :)

Counting my Blessings one by one...

Homemade Papusas...my family is now hooked too!

Happy Birthday Elder J

May 3, 2010

Well hello everyone!

First off, this week has been pretty sweet. One of the big reasons was cuz of my awesome family who sent me some pretty awesome birthday gifts which I very much so enjoyed/am still enjoying :) ...and yes, I recently turned 20...that just sounds a ton older than 19. where the freak did the time go???

anyways, I actually went on exchanges into the Portuguese area this last week...Its crazy how I could just talk in spanish and they'd all just talk in port. and we'd all understand. It was pretty weird considering that a few months ago I hardly could understand spanish but now I can do pretty decent with spanish and port. ...kinda just a cool lil tid bit =D

also I had a way cool experience with some guy I contacted named Jose. My companion was on the phone and we were waiting outside of our next appointment's house when I had the thought, no doubt prompting from the Spirit, go talk to him. (him being some older guy sweeping in his front yard). So I did and asked if he needed help or anything. and like always he declined...I dunno what it is with hispanics and not accepting help lol...but then I just started chatting with him. And oh my goodness, never have I met anyone with such ridiculous theories... he blames homosexuality in the world today on adam and eve. and says that kain and able must have been homosexuals becuase there were no women...among other ridiculous and slightly offensive things. And I was just like wow...why would I get the feeling to come talk to this guy? ...By this time Elder Pascual was off the phone and we were trying to see if he would at all be interested in our message. He had said that he believed in God but not churches because every church is doing such wrong things (citing the recent catholic debacle). Which seemed like a glimmer of hope...so we explained a little bit about the apostasy and how the truth has again been restored, but he really wasn't paying much attention or listening all that intently and was still hung up on his ridiculous theories. saying that he believed in God and Jesus Chrsit but didn't believe in church...even though he agreed that Christ established only 1 true church, he thought that the churches now are doing bad things so they cannot be it (we even read him 4th Nephi 1:26-27 to support his theory, but still it didn't do much). So it was pretty evident that he prolly wasn't going anywhere...but why the impression to talk to him? He was rambling on about something ridiculous when I felt to say, "If you truly believed in Christ you would search for His one true church" ...I didn't think it, and often I do think of things to say to shut people up, but it was something I felt. No doubt an impression from the Spirit yet again. So I said it...like very strongly. He stopped talking... More feelings of what to say came to mind... "There is something missing in your life...you know there is. We are here to bring you what is missing" (well all of that is paraphrased cuz it was in spanish but its all close enough). He asked us to come by and gave us his address and number. ...just like that. It was crazy, cuz it wasn't the mind of Elder Johnson at work. Rather it was simply letting the Spirit dictate what I was supposed to say. It was pretty epic.

Lots of random funny stuff happened throughout the week...some really really drunk, shirtless guy last night started talking to us...tony is his name, but they call him blue apparently, because of his eyes...and started saying how we're alright...then began to cry...and said well I dont wanna get all emotional but you guys are alright with me. ...super random, super funny, super weird.

We also have this lady who doesn't want us to visit her husband anymore and lies to us regularly...we saw Hercules (the husband) in the doorway to the house last night, so we decided to stop by and try to talk with him (haven't been able to for weeks now thanks to his mrs. =/) ...as we're walking up to the door she is sitting outside on the steps and proceeds to say, he's not home...so I said oh but we just saw him like 2 seconds ago...then she says, he's sleeping...remember we had just seen him standing in the doorway?...then she said, he wouldn't understand the message...and also that he's not interested (which is not what he told us 3 days prior) ....so I kinda laughed and asked which of the 4 was it. She just got mad and said he's not interested again. So I called her out and said thats a lie because a couple days ago he told us he was. ...needless to say she wasn't a fan of that... I think she is my least favorite ecuadorian lady i've met lol. ...gotta love them crazy ladies right? lol

Familia Charriz (the awesome Colombians) are doing great for anyone who remembers them...they are set to be baptized the 23 of this month :) ...im excited. They are super awesome and really seem to just enjoy when we are at their home and enjoy church. Why cant they all be like the familia charriz???

anyways hope that is a decent update of this last week...there are always so many things throughout the week that I think oh that'll be fun/funny to mention. But by the time I'm actually at the computer I cant remember like any of them =/ I hope everyone is doing great though...and I dunno about all of you, but I am certainly ready for them May flowers :)


Love,
Elder Johnson