Stake Conference

We had stake conference this last Sunday, it was televised from salt lake city and Dallin H. Oaks spoke but it was translated into Spanish and I honestly had no idea of what he said. This was also due to that some investigators came in the middle of it (which i am very thankful for) and we were running around helping them to find seat and giving Book of Mormons.

A new investiagor we got is named Luiz, he was baptized but never confirmed. weird. We need to check with the president to see what we need to do. But he might have to get rebaptized and confirmed. But he told us that he wanted to get baptized and confirmed.

Sadly we talked to Gracia and she told us the reason that she did not come to church was that she went to the catholic church and wants to stay there. We talked to her for a bit. I told her that we cared about her and we here to teach her because we know how much the gospel can bless her life. I think that got to her a bit but she still wanted to stay with her church. I consider teaching her a learning experience. Looking back I wish I had focused more on receiving an answer to know if what we say is true. But I felt alright leaving, I felt that maybe in the future some missionaries will see her name in the area book and come and visit her and she will come to church.

We are also teaching Fernando who seems ready for the gospel.

We are also teaching a guy named Eduardo who is very open to the gospel. But I hope its for the right reasons and not just because his girlfriend is a member.

Last Monday we went and climbed a mountain, its called cerro colorado. I don't know if i sent a picture of it but it has the Jesucristo es el senor, on it. I was the first to get to the top and then Elder Mann (our zone leader) came and asked "you were a boy scout weren't you?" "yep". Afterwards we went and got some Chinese food, it tasted a bit different then what I had before but was delicious. It was a lot of fun. I forgot my camera but I will send pictures soon.

Yesterday was the last day of transfers. Elder Mayo is staying here and training a new missionary, his old companion Elder Minqueiz is going some where different. Elder Mann is going to Mexicali (probably spelt that wrong). My friend Elder Benson got called to somewhere else. I hope we will be in the same district again. His old companion elder Del Angel is done with his mission and going home.

Love Micah Johnson

commitments

Hey guys! I hope everything is going well. Heard Utah finally got snow, very cool.

Well...to be honest our entire district has been having a rough go at it. Me and Elder Guevara invited 8 people to attend church again but just like last week none of the people came. I don't know but we try to keep spirits high. Salvador has stopped visiting with us altogether but we passed by him and gave him an English copy of the Book of Mormon (prefers English to Spanish). Our investigator Nancy has up and left. We stopped by to visit and the door was open and everything in the house is gone.

Gracia has a baptismal date. We are really happy by that, but she is not keeping the commitments. I feel like she isn't listening to us. She keeps telling us about problems and difficulties in her life and we try to keep telling her how the gospel can help her but she still doesn't do the things she needs to do. I think I'm starting to understand how Christ feels when people wont do what they are suppose to even though its to help them. Right now we are trying to find some more investigators through working with the ward which has been a great success we have received tons of references to go on. This week I have also been starting to take the lead a bit more in teaching lessons, I think I'm starting to get a bit better but at the first attempts I get really flustered especially after I say something and they said they cant understand my Spanish luckily Elder Guevara is with me to help.

The ward continues to be great, they tell me that my Spanish has really improved. I hope that's true and that they are not just being nice. Our district had an interview with President Carreon, all went well. Many of the families ask us to come over and visit them which is always nice. I also received the package that you sent with the ear plugs, pictures and the debit card. I desperately needed those ear plugs, I woke up one night and thought we were being attacked by a screaming Banshee, nope just my companion snoring. I show this one family we keep visiting a lot an old picture of our family where I have long side burns. They said I looked like Elvis. I also got that along with some mail from my friends including Blake's letter and letters that were sent to me while in the MTC.

Dad-at first I really felt frustrated by that, we were not being as effective as I wanted because of our people living so far away from each other. But we are starting to run into more people by street contacting which has been great and improving. It turns out with the bikes that they were only for elder Mayo and his Companion Elder Minquiz. But I went on splits with Elder Minquiez and I got to try the bikes, we sure got to our appointments a lot faster and on time. I'm sorry I'm still trying to work on figuring out our address. We live in a neighbor hood filled with these pink apartment buildings. That probably doesn't help. sorry. I will get it soon. I will probably be with Elder Guevara for another transfer. Training lasts for 12 weeks, and every six weeks is a transfer, so probably be here for two transfers.  Mom- Sadly no, they are not keeping  the commitments. I think one of the problems is that I have not been teaching by the spirit as much as I should have. Do you and dad have any advice on following the spirit? Or with getting investigators to keep commitments?  In order to find people me and elder Guevara are thinking of starting a class at church to teach English. A lot of people are asking if we would do that. Sounds like fun.

Love Elder Micah Johnson

ps. The bible in Spanish has the book of Micah spelt like this: Miqueas (me-kay-us)  cool.

 

feliz anos!

I hope you guys had a great new year. My new year was a bit like my Christmas, I woke up and did everything I usually do then at around 12 go "oh its 2012...cool." When writing in my journal I thought a lot about the past year, last year at this time I was in my last year of high school. Feels like a life time ago. In the night it felt like a war zone, fireworks and gun shots all night and people shouting.

This week we got 3 new investigators. The first Nancy already has a baptismal date but she has to either marry the guy she is with or leave him, probably leave him, she hates the guy. While going to visit her, she left us a note saying that she had gone to visit her son, but we street contacted the guy next to us which is how we got are next two investigators, Salvador and Mary. I went up and started talking in Spanish when he stoped me and told me that he spoke English. It turned out his brother is a member of our ward, both Salvador and his brother Juan lived in the United States for most of their lives but Juan was deported and Salvador decided to come back to Mexico before getting deported. Both of them have been, in there words, In The System, prison for most of their lives. They don't say what for. He expressed that he wanted to make changes in his life, he told of his heroin addiction which makes me nervous. Most missionaries who teach drug addicts describe them as eternal investigators and that they don't keep commitments. I hope that with him and his girlfriend its different. Unfortunately we invited Nancy, Salvador, Mary to church but none of them showed up. dang.

Another piece of sad news for us in our zone is that one of the missionaries went home, Elder Vicab, I had gone splits with him a little while before and he seemed fine. This week I went on splits with an elder in my district from Canada he has been in the same area for 6 transfers and hopes that at the end of this transfer he gets to go somewhere else. Then I went on splits with one of the zone leaders, Elder Mann, sadly I got us lost many times. oops. With Elder Benson from Canada we saw the sight were the temple is going to be, right now its just an empty lot. While I was with him tracting a drunk came and thought I was Brigham Young and that Elder Benson was Joseph Smith. Very funny.

This week about a 150 people from Utah came, they were a group called homes with out boarders. They gave out clothing and built some houses for people. I didn't know any of them since most were from Orem but a couple of them that were getting ready for missions came with us to teach which was a good experience for them.

With Gracie and Santo, our other investigators, they are not making real progress, their not praying or coming to church so I hope they change and keep our commitments or we might need to stop coming by.

Love Elder Johnson

Lydia-The people here are a lot nicer then those in America. I really like talking with them. I like talking to people in Spanish too, they tell me that for only being here for 4 weeks my Spanish is getting really good. I hope that's true and that they are not just being nice.

Dad-Well just as long as the cougars don't go to the championship bowl game or a really big one while I'm gone, I'm good. how did Jimmer do in his first game? The Olympics starting soon? How is Mitt doing? Sorry a lot of worldly questions. I think your Spanish was right I understood it all. Your right about the differences in the Spanish too.

Mom-you should get something really cool. I know you guys asked for my address, idk, ill try to get it as soon as i can. How goes teaching? Grandma and Grandpa-there is really no snow? here its very hot, I'm sweating. Keep the letters up, tell Adam congrats from me, Ashley too.