Dec 29 - Galveston

Hey family and friends!

Thank you so much for the wonderful packages and cards! You really helped me have a extra special Christmas away from home! Christmas on the mission was actually very neat. I really am starting to feel of the true spirit of Christmas. I got to have a chance to reflect on the greatest Christmas gift of all, and the was from our Heavenly Father. He sent his son Jesus Christ to the earth, to live and walk with us and to be our greatest example. He Atoned for our sins and took upon him all our sins and sicknesses and pains and afflictions of every kind. My favorite verse about the Atonement is in The Book of Mormon in Alma 7:11-13. I am grateful for Christ and how he loved me and all of you so much that he did this great act of love for us so we can have the chance to live with him and our Heavenly Father again one day.

I love all of you so much and thanks for all that you all do! I only have a few minutes left so sorry if this is short. The college where we usually email is closed until Jan 11 and this library only lets us email for 30 mins. But, I hope you all had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year! Make some new year goals and try to achieve them!

-Elder Johnson

Here are some pictures from Elder Johnson's first Christmas in the mission field

Dec 21 - Galveston

Hello Family and friends!

This week was a kind of slow week because of transfers. We had to say a lot of goodbyes and a lot of hellos. Elder Roberts moved to the inner Houston area, so he is now down in the city. My new companion's name is Elder Christiansen and he is from Blanding UT. He has 2 transfers left in his mission. He likes to play the guitar and the cool thing with him is that he was my zone leader but now he is my companion too, so I am learning a lot from him everyday. We have gone on a lot of exchanges with each other before, so for the past couple of days it has felt like one big exchange. I went and introduced him to a couple of the members and our investigators and half of them have met him before so it was pretty funny. They were all anticipating a new face and then they saw him and were like oh hey. I think I have met you before. We have been riding our bikes hard this week and it's pretty funny because my new companion has been in a car for a long time, so we come home and lays down because he is really tired. I hope I stay on a bike so I can stay in shape.

We really want to work with OYMing (opening your mouth, talking to people) so we thought of a plan. At every district meeting we would total up the total OYM's for the companionship and whomever had the most OYMs would get a trophy. Our trophy is a stuffed animal that we found in the closet (a camel), and he is called Olly the OYMing camel and he is pretty cool. So, if you were to win the trophy, you would get to add something to Olly. This week we won, so we gave him a neck tie. I got the idea to add something to him from Boy Scouts back in the day, because I remember at Boy Scout camp if we were the cleanest, we got a big stick or some sort of trophy and our troop would get to add something to it. So, we are doing that with Olly.

The OYMing helps a lot because we have a lot of new potential investigators and this week is going to be an awesome week. We want to extend 3 baptismal dates to people and try to OYM 10 people each every day. So, that's 20 people a day, every day. So, by the end of the week that would be 140 different people. Pretty wild huh!

We had a cool missionary fireside this week and Elder Roberts was in charge of it so when he got transfered it all fell into my hands. Not only that, but our ward mission leader went out of town so it really was all in my hands. A member in League City named Chad Neth came down, and he is a professional singer. He has a couple of songs on the EFY CD's and has done some songs with Michael Mclean. Anyways, he came down to do a musical fireside. It was really good and I had fun making the final preparations! He is a really cool guy and he sings a cool missionary song on the 2006 EFY CD. I had a lot of fun learning how to plan a fireside and I have an extra special appreciation for all the people that planned the firesides growing up, because I realize now how much work it takes! So thanks!

I think one of the things that a lot of people miss while on their missions is ESPN and the big games! We went to a resteraunt on friday for a district lunch and all of us were glued to the TV to get the latest new on the sporting world. It looks like the Lakers are still doing well, so that's good!

I want to say thanks to all the ward members and all my friends and family for writing me all these letters! I am kind of getting behind with writing letters because I have been getting so many, so I will get them out as soon as possible! But I really love hearing how everyone is doing!!

Thanks so much! See y'all soon!

Elder Johnson

A Picture!

Steven and his friend Tyler at the MTC

I found this picture of Steven on Facebook and thought you all would like to see a picture of him.

Dec 14 - Galveston

Hey family and friends!

How is it going?! It feels like it has been a loong week. We have been blessed with high winds and rain this week! I kind of like it when it rains though because the thunder is really loud and it sounds pretty cool. One of the things that is cool about Texas is the sky. There are no mountains so the sky looks huge!

This week is transfer week and my companion Elder Roberts is getting transferred. It is sad but exciting at the same time because we have become great friends but I am excited to see who my new companion is going to be and I get to have more responsibility. I think I will grow a lot this transfer and Elder Roberts said this transfer coming up is going to be one of my favorites because I will grow a lot.

Also two missionaries are going home this week! Elder Stack and Sister Campbell. They were both awesome missionaries and I know they will be blessed for the rest of their lives for their service here in Houston! I still have about 19 months till that happens haha.

We have a couple of investigators so things are not looking to dim here, and we have been trying to keep OYMing and that seems to help. I really feel like I have changed into a better person so far in my mission. I think one thing that I want to keep trying to do when I get home is to continue to read an hour a day in my scriptures. It is one of my favorite things to do and I love to learn more and more every day. I need to get going now though and I want to say thanks to everyone that has been supporting me and praying for me y'all rock!!
-Elder Johnson

Dec 7 - Galveston

Dear Family and friends,

This week was I guess you would call it interesting. I can't really remember anything amazing that happened. My retarded companion got me to start buying basketball cards and its something fun to do on a P-day. But I opened a pack of cards and I pulled out a Jrue holiday rookie card. Yes, I did score 18 points on him in high school. I started freaking out that he is in the NBA and has a basketball card haha.

Friday was another pretty cool day, we had district meeting and we read a thing called President's Notes, which is a letter from the president to the missionaries. Sometimes in the President's Notes he puts in a quote from a missionary about their week. So far since I have been there, he has quoted 2 different missionaries, and this week he quoted a part from my letter, so I am one of 2 missionaries that he has quoted. Sorry if I sound like I'm bragging, but it was just cool.

Then, later that day, we were one exchanges with the zone leaders, so I got to go up to League City and guess what happened. Yup, it snowed. I thought I was going to get away from that stuff. Especially because I am super far south, but I was wrong. So, I got to see what zone leaders got to do sometimes, and we went to a couple of baptisimal interviews and stuff like that. So, I would say that I am happy being a missionary who gets to work a lot and does not have to spend time going to interveiws instead of working. Even though it is cool and all. I guess you could say I am content with where I am right now :)

Some of you have been wondering what I would want for chirstmas and stuff. I'll make it easy for you. A Walmart or Target gift card is a great gift because then you don't have to send out a huge package. Speaking of Christmas, on Sunday we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and man that Mormon Tabernacle Choir is amazing! The other thing that was pretty cool was that it was Fast Sunday and I had the chance to go and listen to the people in the ward and branch share their testimonies. The branch impressed me because there were like 17 people who wanted to share their testimonies. It was really cool and I have never seen anything like that. The one thing that I have noticed was how much a ward is like a family. People are so nice and really help each other out. I am thankful for ward families, and the comfort and blessing it is to go to church every week! Umm, I don't really know what else to write in this letter so let me know if you want to know anything specific for the next letter!
Love y'all a lot!

-Elder Johnson

NOTE: Steve send this letter out a week late. He forgot to send it off...

Nov 30 - Galveston

Dear family and friends,

Happy Thanksgiving!!!! I am sorry but I only have 10 mintues left to write this weekly letter. This week was a week that consisted of talking to a lot of people and eating, and eating, and eating.Thanksgiving was a very cool day and probably one of my favorite things that we did was going to serve food for the Salvation Army. I don't remember doing this ever in my life and it was a really neat experience. I got the chance to bring big plates of food to people and sit down and talk to them for a while. I met a Laker fan who loved Kobe and a guy who had been all over California before. I also met a couple of people from Minnesota! It was a very cool experience and I want to do that again next year!

If any of you were worried about us and eating food on Thanksgiving, you shouldn't. Guess how many Thanksgiving dinners we had lined up. Yup, 7. Luckily a couple of people cancelled and one of the members just had us over to play games instead of eating so we ended up eating about one Thanksgiving breakfast and three dinners. Let's just say I was very, very full. My problem was not eating bad food, my problem was that all the food was sooo good, but I could not eat as much as I wanted to. It was one of those times that I wish I had the superpower that I could just eat forever! :)

The other thing we did this week was working on talking with more people on the streets. It's called opening your mouth (or OYMing). We have standards of excellence, basically goals that we have to be better missionaries. And one of the goals is to get 10 OYMs each day. So, 20 as a companionship. Elder Roberts and I really wanted to do this but it is pretty hard to do, even when you're on a bike! We devised a plan and made a deal. The deal was that if either of us did the 10 OYM's per day the other person would buy bluebell icecream for the other person. Bluebell icecream is the best and we love it so it helped us to be motivated. Well, we both did it so it's basically like buying bluebell for ourselves. Haha. Well, it was really fun to do that and it helped us find a couple of new people to teach and one of the people that we talked to wants to get baptized; so we will see how that goes!

I have to get going, I went a little over 10 minutes! Thanks for all the letters and the support!!!
-Elder Johnson

November 16, 2009

Hey all you people out there!

It's the moment you have all been waiting for. It's time to here what happened in this weeks episode of Galveston Texas Dun Dun DUUUUNNNN.
We finally made our comeback week! On Monday we got three dates (baptism dates). Two of the dates are a married couple and they are planning on December 6th, and the another man is planning on that date too. It was a rough week last week but through prayer and relying on faith and the Lord we made it out and now we barley have time to do anything. I go home, write in my journal and sleep cuz im am tired! The rest of the week on Thursday we helped a family in the ward move and they are really awesome!

We have been trying really hard to work with the members in the ward. We have made an area book and we are visiting the members and teaching the restoration to them, and our commitment is to invite a friend or family over for family home evening and we can teach them a lesson. It's going great! We have gotten three referrals from it so far!

Umm on Saturday we took a lady to the church that has a baptismal date and she brought a friend of hers and her sister. While we were at the church we taught them part of the restoration and extended to them dates and they said yes! So that's five dates by the end of the week. I know the Lord has everything to do with it!

We finished our final preparations for the zone activity and its going to be awesome...except it is raining today!!!!!! Ughhhh so know we have to do everything inside the church!! Shoot!

I am sorry that this letter was short this week but we have to get going and set up for the activity and its raining so ill talk to ya all later next week!

-Elder Steven Johnson!

Nov 9 - Galveston

This week we have been doing some damage control. By damage control I mean trying to get out of our slump. We have had a couple of new ideas. Well, a new idea. It has been really hard to get referrals from members, so we thought of a plan to help our district get referrals. It's nothing new, but I think it's going to work. We made member area books and went through the ward list and found all the members in our area. And now we are visiting one member a day and teaching them different preach my gospel principles and taking a picture of the family to put in the area book so when a new elder comes into the area they can know who the family is and what we have been working on with them so the member and missionary relationship stays and it doesn't leave once the elder they like leaves. Also we are extending small commitments to them like praying for opportunities to bear their testimonies and such. Elder Roberts and I feel really good about this and I have a feeling that it's going to work.

I also went on exchanges with the zone leaders again, and this time I took them around Galveston. We worked all day and by the time we got home that night the zone leader laid down on the bed and said he was exhausted; so that was another good thing :) hahaha. Those car elders need to ride their bikes more.

Elder Roberts and I are also in charge of the zone activity this transfer and it's going to be awesome. We made the ultimate relay race. It starts off with four companionships having a chest with a padlock over it. They will receive a first clue for the key to open the padlock that says "In this pie your next clue lies." They will have to find a capsule in their cream pie. The capsule then contains another clue that says to "Go to the freezer and take a cube, you will know what to do take it to stage three." They will find a Rubik's cube in the freezer (almost all the elders know how to do a Rubik's cube). Stage 3: They go into a room and it's covered with colored dots and on the back of four dots there are four different bike lock combos. So, they get the combo and go to stage 4. Stage 4: the bikes are locked up and the tires is out and deflated. So they have to change the tire and ride the bike to stage 5. Stage 5: they go into the gym and have to make a basket from a mark on the floor. In stage 6, they go to another room and there are four boxes covered in tape and seran wrap stuff and they have to open the box. In the box, there is stuff for stage 7. Stage 7: they take the marshmellows in the box and put them in their mouth and have to tell the person in stage 7 that is blindfolded that the clue is in front of them in the jello. The blindfolded person has to use their face to get the clue out of the jello, which leads them to the paper that has scriptures and the number of word for example John 4:6 13th word so they have to write down the 13th word. It then spells "Find the key, it's in room 3." So, the go to room 3 and there are hundreds of balloons in there, and in the balloons are keys so they have to pop the balloons and get the key for their padlock. The key unlocks a chest full of prizes and stuff. Then after this awesome relay race is a barbeque. So it's going to be awesome!

The missionary work is good. I don't really know what to say. This week was rough. We have no dates, but we have found 6 new investigators. We have been working hard and knocking a lot of doors. Also riding our bikes around and talking to the people on the streets. I got my first complement that my Spanish is good from a guy that was cooking a barbeque and gave us some food. He was really nice but sadly wasn't interested. The biggest challenge is waking up on time. Both of us struggle with that but we have been getting good at it :) I had no problem with this at the MTC, but I guess after riding bikes all day you get pretty tired.

I really like reading my scriptures for an hour everyday and I always learn something new. I hope I can keep that habit up when I get home. And also waking up. I realized how much of the day I waste when I sleep in and how I dont miss out on much when I go to bed at 10 because all the stupid things happen at night time anyway. Well, I hope everyone feels better that is sick and I miss you all!!!

-Elder Johnson

Here are some pictures from the Zone activity

November 2 - Galveston

Hey family/ friends how is everything?

This week was pretty wild. So, as you know last weekend I broke my bike, and it turns out that it really wasn't as broken as I thought! it just needed a screw and that was it! Woohoo. The derailer was hanging funny so we thought I broke it. But I did get a tune up because the brakes were bad and the bike was all squeaky but now it runs as smooth as butter.

So I was on this little blue rental bike that had no shocks and the seat couldnt be raised without usuing a wrench and it had tiny skinny tires and the bike was so old that I hand to push this lever up to go into the different gears so I could petal normal and didn't have to peddle really fast to go a normal speed. So that was not very fun and we had that bike for 3 days and I went at least 300 blocks on that dumb little bike. But hey, it was a blessing because I didn't have to walk.

Then this weekend it was biker weekend and apparently 100,000 bikers came to Galveston, and guess where we went over the weekend... that's right, we got shipped off the island and stayed with the other Elders in our district in Texas City! Woohoo. It was fun, we went on splits with them and I got to knock on Johnson Street with Elder Stack. No one on Johnson street listened to us and I got a lot of doors slammed in my face, but other than that it was cool to be Elder Johnson knocking on Johnson street :).

Saturday was Halloween and we went to the Hons house because we either had to be at a member's home or our home at 6:00pm. So, we went to the Hons and they fed us some grilled cheese sandwhiches and soup and it was delicious. They also made us Butterfinger milkshakes and those were great! We brought settlers of Catan and played a few games. I won 2 of them Elder Roberts won one and Elder Stack won one. It was fun.

Today was transfers, and everyone in my district is staying except for Sister Hammar. She is going into her 3rd transfer and is training someone! crazy so that is exciting because most of our district gets to stay. Next transfer two of the missionaries in my district and going home! crazy. and Elder Stack is going to go down to Sister Jackson's Homecoming and he is going to meet Mom and Dad! woaaaaa werid!! My comapnion got a 1 transfer extension and that is cool so he doesn't go home until March.

Well, I hope everything is going well! I love you all!
-Elder Steven Johnson

p.s Steve asked me to remind his friends that he is not supposed to email friends, just his family, thanks!

19 October - Galveston

Hey family and friends!

Well this week was an average week. The best thing about this week was the awesome weather!!! It felt like California and it was about 75 and wasn't humid at all :). One thing I like about the good weather are the people are a lot nicer to us when it is a nice day outside. We were riding on our bikes and a guy was like God Bless you guys. it was really nice.

This week Elder Roberts and I have been working on the end of our area in Galveston so that means going on our bikes to 48th street and back so we ride around all day and it isnt so bad anymore. Before I would be super tired when we got home but now it's all good!

And to answer some questions for people. It is just me and Elder Roberts in our apartment and we are the only Elders on the island. There are two sister missionaries that take the other half of the island. So, we have plenty to do everyday. There are 2 other Elders in our district and they work on the mainland, and my companion is the district leader.

We have been working with a lot of people and we invited them all the church and they all said they would come. We were really excited because we have been working with them for about 3 weeks and they haven't been to church once. So, Sat night we called them all to make sure they were still coming and they said yes. On sunday morning, Tanya came and Joshua who was a recent convert. So we waited for the other two families and they didn't come. So, this week we need to tell them that they need to come to church or we have to stop teaching them, because, to be honest, they can't really progress anymore unless they come to church and they have had 3 weeks and each week we have gotten them rides and they still don't come. So, it's time to move on, which is sad because I really like these families, but there are many more people just waiting for us to teach them.

On Sat, we were out trying to find some new investigators and we came across this old school that they converted into apartments. So, we decided to knock some of the doors inside. When we went in it felt like we were in the main hall at school and we could just picture the bell ringing and a ton of little kids running around. My companion (the smart guy he is) looks around and then says really loud THIS IS GHETTO. I turned around and was like you are an idiot man, because it was so loud. And so we kind of laughed because I don't think anyone heard it. We found one new investigator there and 5 others throughout the week. I really like being a missionary and thanks to everyone for sending me letters :)

Today is P day and also the zone activity and we are playing basketball and volleyball and board games so it's time to bust out my skills :p i have been talking to much smack about ball to some of the elders so i have to back it up today haha. I know pride is bad, so I'm working on it, but any way thanks for everything and I love you all!
-Edler Johnson

12 Oct - Galveston

Dear family and friends,

Howdy y'all, how y'all doing? That is what people talk like here. Well, not everyone, but a lot of people. This week was pretty good, we tried to do a lot of work, and were pretty successful but we had a few set backs. Elder Roberts had 4 flat tires on his bike this week. So, that was annoying and we had to call people to get a tube because the Walmart is out of our area. So, there were 3 days when we actually had to go walking around the place which was nice but we weren't able to make it to all the apointments that we wanted to go to because they were too far away.

Then, one day it started to rain, and when I say rain it was like a waterfall. and guess what? We got on our bikes and did work! Wooohooo! Elder Roberts didn't have a rain jacket, so I figured hey, if he is going to suffer without one I might as well join him! So, we went out in our short sleeve shirts and got super drenched! It was fun, and we bagged our planners and scriptures up so they wouldnt get wet. It was really fun they only bad thing was our shoes got really wet. When we got home, I took my shoe off and turned it over and a bunch of water fell out of my shoe. They are ok now though, so all is well. I think the best thing about the rain was it was nice and cool so we didn't have to deal with the heat as much this week.

I don't know if I told you last week but Elder Roberts was hugged by a drunk guy with his shirt off last week and that was funny. I was lucky that I wasn't hugged, I learned to keep my distance.

This Sunday was really cool. The three people we baptized over the past two weeks received the Holy Ghost, and I gave one of them the Holy Ghost, which was cool. The mother and the daughter were baptized in 17 days and the other lady, their friend, was baptized in 16 days so I taught them all a lot of things so it was really neat to see people change their lives so quickly, they truely were golden investigators. I also had the chance to share my testimony in the English ward but the spanish branch didn't have fast and testimony meeting this week so I have to wait untill next month. That was pretty much my week this week.

There are a few things that I really like about Texas so far, they aren't in any particular order.

#1 The icecream is really good. There is this brand called Bluebell icecream and it spanks any other icecream's butt. This one flavor blueberry cheesecake is really good and it has actual big chunks of cheesecake in it. It's really yummy.

#2 We have superstar people in our wards. They are hard working people and help us out a lot and come and help us teach which is really cool and they feed us a lot so thanks!!!.

#3 The food here is good. They have all different kinds of food here. So far, I really have grown to love barbaque it is good and I love it.

On a typical day, we teach about 38 to 40 lessons. So yes, we are busy workers here. We wake up at 6:30 and go to bed at 10:30 and we just work and talk to as many people as we can and teach a lot of lessons. My Spanish is alright, its hard to really progress a lot in Spanish here because we teach a lot in English because there are more English people on the island. But I've been trying to learn 15 new verbs a day so that is helping. But I'm excited to go to a total Spanish area so I can really start practicing. Well, I love you all and have a good week!

-Elder steve Johnson

p.s If you send a package send it to the mission office and if you send letters you can either send it to my apartment or to the mission office so I will get them because people might steal them if they are in front of my door all day.

*You can find Steven's current address on the top right of the blog :)

5 October - Galveston

Hey Dad how are you doing? Wasn't conference amazing????? I really liked that talk in the priesthood session about how to grow a better relationship with your father. I thought that was very good. I think we have a pretty good relationship. :)

Well anyway, here is what has been going on this week in Galveston.

Well, this week was a great adventure here in Galveston. I will first talk about Walmart. So, last Monday we went to Walmart to go shopping for food with some of the other Elders from Texas City. While we were walking through the store, a lady came up to us and was like HEY I KNOW YOU. Let's just say she was a little crazy. She was like do you remember me? And none of us knew her. She started talking to Elder Moline, and she looked at his tie and said ooooo you have pretty colors on your tie, I like It! And she looked at Elder Stack and said you have a nice tie too, and she look at me and said you have a nice tie too, and then she looked at my companion and said yours... it's ok. And then she said but you have a chin! And grabbed my companion (Elder Roberts) chin and shook it back and forth. It was sooo funny. Then she found out he was a twin and he was the baby in his family. So, she suddenly grabbed Elder Roberts in a biiiiig hug and Elder Roberts says Oh my Gosh serveral times, and she is patting his back and is going lower and lower and lower unitl you here Elder Roberts go "OH MY GOSH"! it was funny. He pushes her off and gives her a card and says, alright, call this number if you need us, have a good day. And we go around the corner and ask what the problem was and he said SHE SPANKED ME MAN! And we all started laughing so hard hahahah. So, that was a funny thing at Walmart.

So, this week we did the usual, rode our bikes around town, and taught people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It was pretty cool and we are teaching a lot of cool people. On wednesday, we had interveiws with the Mission President, President Saylin, and that was really good, and I had a good time talking with him about the mission. He said I had a really good week last week with the 2 baptisms and all the lessons we taught and to keep working hard. My hand is doing better and all my 30 mosquito bites are gone so that's all good.

Umm, we taught a guy and he started just being mean and telling us how my religion was wrong and that I didn't have the Holy Ghost because when I was baptized I didn't come out speaking another language. I was confused but it's ok, I still like the guy.

Also on Wednesday, we went on mission exchanges. It was cool, I stayed in Galveston and Elder Roberts went to Texas City. So, I was very nervous because I had to show Elder Moline around and take him to all our appointments. We made it to all the appointments so that was very good, and I am very glad that Elder Moline can speak Spanish because we taught a Spanish family, and they talk so fast and I have a very hard time understanding them. I just bore my testimony and said a little bit here and there. We brought a member from the Spanish branch with us and he really helped a lot with answering questions and bearing testimony.

Saturday was a cool day. It was Gerneral Conference!!! We had the oppertunity to listen to the Prophet and Apostles talk for 6 hours. And I listened and took notes on all of the talks. It was realllly good. I never knew how good conference was until my mission. haha

Sunday was awesome. We had a very busy sunday. we showed up at the church and listened to more General Conference for 2 hours. Then at 1pm, we set up tables because we had a big potluck with the Spanish branch and got to eat a bunch of yummy mexican food. I love mexican food!!! Then after that, we had.......another baptism! Yay! We baptized a lady named Katherine and she was baptized in 16 days after we met her, pretty neat! I had the opportunity to give a talk on the Holy Ghost and after the Baptism the Bishop's wife came up to me and asked me if that was the first talk at a baptism I had ever given and I said yes and she said it was very good! You're going to be a great missionary! That really made me feel good because sometimes I get discouraged because being a missionary is a lot of hard work! We also talked to a family and committed them to stop smoking.

But I have to go and get some groceries! Bye!!!
-Elder Johnson

28 September - Galvaston

Well, I am in Houston. Who wants to guess where my first area is??? Galveston baby!!!! Yea thats right it is the island right off the coast of houston. Its is pretty awesome. My address there is:

Elder Steven Johnson

102 Strand Street #30

Galveston, TX 77550

Well, a lot has been going on the past couple of weeks. We woke up early Tuesday morning at 4:45am, and got to the airport. I got to call Mom and Dad and Kim at 7:00am California time and that was nice. On the airplane, I sat next to another Elder so I took a good nap. We got to Houston and met the mission president. Then we went in a big van with the president's assistents and they took us to a church and there were elders there waiting for us to take us "running" (Running is when you go aorund and you try to talk to as many people as you can). So, my runner took me to a place called Glendale Park and apparently it's a really rough area. One of the more dangerous parts in the mission, but we went and taught people and it was fun.

Then, we went to the mission home and met the mission president's family. They made us some enchiladas and it was yummy. Then, I got interveiwed by the mission president and got to know him and he is a really cool guy and I like him a lot. He also has a very nice family.

Then, we slept over at a zone elders' house; well, me, Elder Breeze and 2 more elders did. And guess what one of his name is? Elder Mike Jones, and he knows Cheryl and Tyler crazy!!! So we had a good time talking and stuff. In the morning, we found out who our trainers were and where we were going. My trainer's name is Elder Roberts, and he is a twin, and his twin is in the same mission as us! He is a big NBA fan and his favorite team is the Houston Rockets. But he still has respect for the Lakers, so that's good. He is 6'0 and is from Nor Cal (Manteca to be exact).

My first day out in the mission field was cool. We went around on our bikes and I met some people. We also got to teach some people and we ate at some members' home, the Stouts. They are really nice. Then we went home and I unpacked and we talked and planned. It was a really fun day.

The 2nd day, we had a district meeting and I met the missionaries in our district. There are 2 other elders and 2 sisters. Me, Elder Roberts, Elder Stack, Elder Moline, Sister Hammar, and Sister Campbell. We have the power squad district and we are doing some good work. After the meeting, we ate at Subway and then split up and started teaching the word to people. While we were riding the bikes, I hopped up onto a curb and almost fell. Then, I was riding pretty fast to catch up and I was like, Elder Roberts that was a close one. I almost fell, and then 1 minute later I hit a ditch in the sidewalk and flew over my handle bars and ate some pavement. I didn't get seriously injured, but my right hand got cut up on my palm. Then we ate dinner at another member's house, the Sheffields. They like to cook and they tried a new dish out and it was really good!

We get dinner every night from members here which is awesome! Sunday came around and we go to the English ward and Spanish branch. This is the only area where we get to teach in English and Spanish. So, the Spanish branch was cool and they talk really fast. They also cook us food after church, and it was really goooooood! I only could stay in the Spanish branch sacrament meeting for the 1st talk because guess what? We had 2 baptisms we had to get ready for! We baptized a lady named Tammy and her daughter Sara! There was also a lady named Amis that is Chinese and she is moving to Malaysia. So I got lucky being "born" in Galveston where we had some baptisms the first week I was here. :)

Later that night, we went over to a man's house named Mike Garcia, and he cooked us some salmon and it was sooo goood. Sorry Mom, it beats any that I had back home :) We took him with us to do some door knocking and the first door we knock the people answer and right away say come in come in. And they were from El Salvador and we taught them the 1st lesson right there and I told them the 1st vision in Spanish and we have a return appointment with them this week and I am really excited. We also met some other people from Mexico and there where tons of mosquitos and I have a ton of mosquito bites on my right arm; like 30. I don't know what's up with those. They just like my sweet personality ;) Hahahaha, well anyway. I love it here and I am having a blast and learning a lot. And this week has been super busy! But I have to go and I love you all!!!
-Elder Johnson

p.s. My email time is not timed anymore but we are only allowed to email for 1 hour. So you can send me emails. If you want to send me pictures, put them in Word and then I can see them. And I am only allowed to email family. Sorry friends, but you can still write me letters!!:)

Pictures from the MTC