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