28 Feb—Houston

Hey family and friends-

Things this week were pretty good. We had a new couple come to church, and they liked it a lot. I had this fever/cold thing this week, and I got to go and buy some meds. But we still went out to work. We have been having a mission-wide training every Thursday, and it has been really helpful for me to see and be reminded of the basic things that I can do to help my area and investigators. One of them being having kneeling prayers at the end of the lesson. Another one being the importance of teaching the Book of Mormon, and praying to know it's true in a very basic and simple form so that the investigators could understand and feel comfortable reading and praying on their own.

Elder Scavo and I are still putting our shoulders to the wheel and pushing on! It is very interesting to see how the gospel is the source to happiness. Everyday I am shocked on how it is just one way to fix all your problems. Granted that you will still have little scuffles here and there, but man I cant believe all the 16-17 pregnant girls that walk around my area, and all the drugs and drunk people there are in the world. I tell you one thing that if I didn't already know, I know now that those things don't make someone happy. And to all those people who say weed isn't addicting, let me be the one to tell you that it is. Man that stuff keeps so many people away from the gospel and away from happiness. I am grateful for a mission because I get to see the results of different choices that people make. I get to see which choices bring happiness and blessings.

That's it! until next week!

-Elder Johnson

22 Feb—Houston

Hello everyone!

This week was a busy week for Elder Scavo and I. We only saw each other for three days. We did a two-day exchange with Elder Bunch on Tuesday and Wednesday. Elder Taukei'aho and Elder Bunch came up to Houston 8 with me, and we got to talk a little bit more about how to own your district and goals, and how to gain respect from people through service. He said he learned a lot from it, and I hope he gets to put it into practice.

On Sat, we got to go on an exchange with the Assistants, I was with Elder Bellome, and it was a good day. I was glad to go with him because I didn't really feel like I knew anything about him, so we had the chance to go and build a relationship. He is a nice guy, and we had a good day.
Then on Sunday, we did a blitz with Elder Kump and Elder Banks because they were having a rough week with their numbers; so that was a good experience, and we were able to help them get their goals. It has been going great this week.

The night after the training meeting was really cool. We went to have a lesson with la familia Torres, and we watched the restoration movie with them, and taught them about the Book of Mormon and about praying to know if this stuff is true. They accepted baptismal dates for the 19th of March. So, the trainings worked out great. Then we also had a lesson with the ward mission leader after that.

I love you all very much, you are the best family I could ever have. Have a great week!
Elder Johnson

Valentine's Day 2011—Houston

Hey family!

CONGRATS CHERYL AND TYLER WITH THE BABY GIRL! THAT IS SO AWESOME!!!! Man, that is so crazy. I am so excited and happy that I don't even know what to say!!! Well, actually I do know what I have to say. Y'all better slow down. By the time I get married, and have kids, all their cousins will be like 4 to 8 years older than them. It is so crazy how the family has just been growing really fast. Now it's what, the Johnson family of 15? Dang.

This week was really great. We found a couple of families, and gave one family a date, and we hope to give another family a date tonight. I really am grateful for the chance I have to serve in this Zone and area another transfer. I feel like I am just starting to understand how to lead, serve and correct with love. The missionaries in the zone are all just totally awesome and good people. We got some really good missionaries in the zone

O yea, feliz Dia de San Valentin! This holiday is always lame. Especially this year, because I didn't wake up with the funny heart boxers that mom always gives me. Well, I guess I don't really need those. Maybe I'll stick with pajama bottoms. Elder Scavo and I went to the ward Valentine's day party with some investigators. It was pretty weird as missionaries. I was talking to Hermano Benitez, and he said this is my girlfriend, and he pointed to his plate of food. Then he asked if I had one, and I said no I ate mine already. I hope you get the joke haha.

On Sunday, I was sitting in the chapel looking around, and I was pretty sad because a lot of the kids I have baptized here, are already less active now. During the sacrament, I was pleading with Heavenly Father for a miracle, and for some of the recent converts to come to church. We called some before church and no one answered. Then right after the sacrament, Amada and her two sons that were baptized walked in and sat by us. She brought her niece and she said. Did you call me earlier today? I said yes I did, and she goes aww thank you soo much. She is the nicest lady ever. I hope she gets baptized.

She came to the investigator fireside that we had, and it was wonderful. She loved it. We had 45 people that showed up, and 14 investigators. It was really great. I had the chance to conduct it. It is always a scary experience conducting in Spanish. But I was happy for the growing experience. Things are going well here!

Well I thank you all for all the love and support you show me. I hope you all have a great week!
-Elder Johnson

31 Jan—Houston

Hello family and friends,

Well, hmm... There isn't much to say about this week besides our baptism. We had another baptism! DJ got baptized and it was a good experience.

I guess for new updates. We hit our 18 month mark, and that means four more transfers left; which isn't a lot of time, which means we need to plan harder, study harder, and find faster. We get transfers in a week, and I am assuming that this time I will be getting transferred because I have been here for six months. Then the time will really go by fast! Which is not exactly what we need here. If they open up China, I would totally go; that would be so cool.

I don't really know what else to say. The weather here is pretty cool. it hasn't been that cold this week, and it hasn't rained a lot either; so I am happy about that. We will see if it stays like this. The members here are really nice and they all cook really good food. We have one member who is one of our buddies, and he makes cake so we get to eat a lot of cake.

Wow! This letter is lame, sorry about that haha. Maybe y'all can shoot some questions in your next email, and then I will be able to answer them and write a good letter. Thanks!

-Elder Johnson

Steven and comp. with DJ

Steven and his trainer

24 Jan—Houston

Hey family and friends,

Well, this week was really cool. We had the coolest zone activity ever, which consisted of 500 balloons, 1100 dots and a cool chair maze. We basically did a big relay race thing, and it was a lot of fun. My trainer and I did one of those for the zone when I was back in Galveston; so it was a lot easier to do it the second time.

We had two confirmations this last Sunday, and it was great. Max and Steven were confirmed, and we are still teaching their mother and older brother. They are really cool, and the mom really likes us a lot. She is happy that her sons were able to be baptized. They are from Honduras. That is the cool thing about serving here in Houston; we get to meet people from all over the place like Honduras, Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Peru. It is great and it is cool to hear the different accents.

We are going to have a baptism this Saturday. DJ our 10 year old buddy is going to be baptized. It is really cool. He was a referral from his aunt. His mom is less active but has been coming to church the past couple of weeks, and we love that family a lot! They are great and she cooks some really good Mexican rice!

Elder Scavo is a really good companion, his mom served her mission in Italy. He lives in Palmdale, and wants to go to BYU when he gets back. He is just going to go home and stay with his mom for a little bit.

I guess other news, I hit the year and a half mark. This is really crazy that my mission is going by fast, and there is still so much work to do here. I wish the time would slow down a bit. The worst part about it all is that I am probably getting transferred, and then the time is really going to go by fast, because that always happens when you go to a new area!

Well see ya later here are some pictures.

-Elder Johnson.

18 January 2011—Houston

Hello family and friends,

This week I decided to bring my camera. So, I can upload some more photos. This weekend was really busy, and a lot of things happened. Let's start with the good stuff. We had two baptisms on Sunday. Max and Steven Martinez. They are awesome kids, and were a member referral. Jorge Benitez was the person who gave us the referral, and he did an awesome job fellowshipping these two boys. We are still teaching their mom and older brother. The kids were so ready to be baptized. When the mom said ok, they jumped for joy; and now they are telling their mother that they want to be missionaries in the future. So cool! Also Jacob and Niko were able to be confirmed today, so that was big news. I was really happy for them.

Time for the crazy story. We went outside on Saturday morning to get into our car, and we couldn't find it. We looked around for a little bit, and we then realized that our car was towed. DANG! We went to the office and the lady wasn't very nice. She just gave us a paper with the car photo and the phone number of the tow place. So, then we had to spend the day with Elder Rodgers to get the car back. We had to notarize a paper, and that took a couple of hours out of the day. When we got it all ready to take the car out, the lady told us the license plate was wrong. We told her to write the cars plate number down, and she gave it to us and it was the same plate number. Then she tells us we filled the paper out wrong, because we couldn't give ourselves permission to take out our own car. So, we couldn't get the car out the first day.

The next day we filled it out, and she finally let us get the car. Man all in all it cost about $259.63 what a rip! Well, this is how it got towed. When Elder Richards was here he got in a small accident, and so the mission took the car to fix the little bump in the upper right corner of the car. So, we didn't know our complex had parking permits; so we didn't take the stickers off the car, and put it into the Toyota that we got to drive around for a bit. Three weeks later we get towed. Horrible!

Back to the good news, we planned out a cool zone activity, and I will bring pictures next week. It is like the one my trainer and I planned out, but better. Well, you all have a great day!

-Elder Johnson

Elder Johnson in his apartment

Christmas zone activity

Brian and Jamie

Max and Steven Martinez

Elder Scavo and Elder Johnson

6 January 2011—Houston

Family and friends,

This week was really exciting, and crazy. Well, I guess I will start with this: Elder Richards went to League City, English speaking; and my new companion is Elder Scavo. He was my friend from my MTC district. AWESOME! 2nd companion from the MTC group in a row, and it is way tight. He is from Cali, Palmdale and we get along great. At transfer meeting, it is was dumping rain, and I was so glad that I wasn't getting transferred, because none of my stuff got wet. But it was definitely an adventure.

The next day we had a couple of lessons, and we taught one of our investigator named Felix. We got him to smash his bong. It was so legit. The best part about it all was that it was all him; he dumped the water out, it stunk, and was nasty looking. And we were like see what's in your body? And the he set it on the ground, and put on his shoes and BOOM bye bye bong! I just got a flash back of when I was in 6th grade and had a billabong shirt that was green, and it said bong across the front, and I finally understand why one of Cheryl's or Kelly's friends started laughing at me and took a picture with me in my shirt.

Then on Friday, we had district meeting, and later a lesson, and on the way to our lesson we walked by an apartment and there was a lot of people around it, and that's when we saw what they were all looking at. The apartment had two huge holes in the front windows and then we hear a woman start to scream. NO NO. We ask the man next to us. Que Paso (What's happening)? and he said No se (I don't know). And so no one knew what was going on. Elder Scavo and I were getting ready to take action. I have always wanted to use some of my ninja moves like the flying missionary and my mega punch, but suddenly a speaker flies through the other window and the man comes out. Everyone ran away, except for Elder Scavo and I, and he looks at us, blood running down his forehead between the eyes and then turns around and pics up the speaker he previously had thrown and throws it through the remaining window. and walks away. Then you here the woman scream, and she comes running out, don't leave me, don't do it. What??! I told myself you want that guy to stay. Well, all I have to say is that's the life in H-Town. Pretty legit.

Sat we ate some tamales, and I am pretty sure they were bad tamales, because at 10:30 at night, I had the sudden urge to poop my pants, and I finally had the chance to feel how dad felt on his mission, the Montezuma's revenge. But to top it off, at 11:30pm, I started throwing up. I felt horrible, I told Elder Scavo, if this is how it feels to die, I don't want to. And I was finally able to sleep at 2:30am. Then I stayed home from church the next day, because I was very sick and still had to use the bathroom all the time. Then after church, Elder Scavo comes home and starts to have to same problem of the runs. Then at 11:30 that night, he threw up just like me. It always comes at night. And so we were sick dogs last weekend. It wasn't fun. I have a picture, I will have to show you. I look like death, and Elder Scavo was white as a ghost. It was a great growing time.

I also had the chance to go on exchanges with a new missionary named Elder Taki'aho, a 6'4 350 pound Tongan stud. He is so tight and was going to play football in college, but decided to go on a mission instead. He is way cool, and we had a good time. I am tired of typing, so I'll end the letter here.

Well, I hope that you all have a great week.

-Elder Johnson