Week 2

Hey family, I have a lot to cover so I will try to write fast

Its hard to believe that I have been at the MTC for 2 weeks, time here is starting to go by pretty fast. Im sorry if I make any grammer or spelling mistakes, last night my roommates had to leave at two in the morning to leave for the Dominican Republic so I didnt get much sleep last night.

One of the best things is Wednesday and meeting all the knew missionaries, we had 6 move in on our floor who are going to Georgia and Armenia, and I thought Spanish was hard, we have also met a lot of missionaries going to  Korea, Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Dad asked me to tell you about some of the devotionals we had. Last sunday was my favorite, his name was brother Atkins and he worked for the church as a lawyer and used to be parterns at one of the worlds biggest law firms and went to Columbia University. What he spole about the most was the Churchs campaign to open up religious freedom in other countries, mainly eastern Europe. It was amazing to see how when ever a law was put into place that would severly stop church growth or missionary effort with in the country a loophole came out that was used so the church could stay. What was suprising to me was how much religious freedom was under threat from other religions or De facto state Religion. In 1997 due to pressure from the Russian Orthodox church one of the laws was that in order to do missionary work you had to be a registered church in Russia for at least 50 years back during the Soviet era. Through some miracle the church has been allowed to continue efforts in Russia.

The language is starting to come along I think. We are still teaching ""investigators"" the gospel in spanish which helps a lot. Except the last time my companion was a bit frustrated because we went completley off lesson because the investigator started to demand evidence about  Joseph Smith . With a mix of some spanglish we were able to testify that the evidence was in the book of Mormon and that if he Read and prayed about it he would know it is true. I felt pretty good about it afterwards but my companion Elder Doria was still a litte mad. But I cant help but feel that if I were an investigator I would have the same questions.

We also practiced teaching people who were already members. Thats a bit difficult since they already know a lot about the church. Afterwards we did an amazing work shop about teaching people not lessons, by getting to actually know the person and their needs, so we didnt teach a lesson but just focused on asking questions. We went around talking to people about life, religion, and trials and such. For them it was an audition to become actual investigator so some of the stories I heard probably werent true but there is going to be some body out there who has the same problems and trials.

I found out I cant send pictures to you over email but there is a place to go get them developed and I will mail them to you.

Love Elder Micah Johnson

Dad-Congrats on winning the Grid Picks! Tell Mark Congrats for winning the election.

Mom-Thank you for the snacks! I shared some of my M&Ms with my district but not those cookies. I ate half of them the first day I got them :) also thank you for the scripture.

Mariah-I can respond to your emails but I can only respond once a week. Keep sending me emails though they make me smile. Congrats for playing on La Roca. Now I have figured out that means rock. I probably should have guessed that. Getting grounded sucks. How mad were mom and dad? Keep me posted on the soccer and school.

Lydia-I miss you too :( I love you  so so so so so so much as well :) look forward to getting to chat with you on Christmas. Thank you for all the prayers.

Shumway-thank you for the letters I have greatly enjoyed the uplifting message

Friends-thanks for the letters, keep me posted :)