One thing you learn quick about Tijuana is that there are a lot of interesting characters. While contacting 3 guys outside there house one of them started talking to us in pretty poor Spanish with a Russian accent. I didn't really remember what he said, all I could think of is how hilarious a Russian accent in Spanish is. He gave us his spiel about religion, world affairs and god while waving his cigarette. It was kind of funny. I tried asking were he was from but he just said Somalia. He was white, bald with blue eyes.
Today is Elder Miguel's birthday. He is turning 21. I am going to see if we can try and do something cool for it.
He also revealed to me that this is actually his last transfer. He didn't want to tell members so that when ever we saw them they would all be ¨oh Elder Miguel you only have 2 weeks left¨ and keep reminding him about it. I am really going to miss him. I hope that we meet up at BYU.
A big item of news here is about the Batman movie starting, at a premiere a man came with a AK-47 and killed a bunch of people. Some people here in Mexico are really superstitious. they now claim that it is cursed.A bit of news gossip here. People here are also talking about the Olympics.
Okay the good stuff. Investigators. Guadalupe and Waldemar came to church, they are not able to get baptized right now. When we taught them the lay de castidad (chasity) they told us they had been married by the catholic church but they are not registered as married according to the government. So we need to get them legally married. It kind of just reminded me with the Gutierrez family how we lost them over that. I think we will be able to have better luck this time.
We also met a cool new family of 3. Nanny and Luis.The mom and dad both are young parents and have lived most of there live in the United States. The husband still works there. We gave them the first lesson. It was the first time I gave the lesson of the restoration in English, it is kind of hard to switch back. But it was good we got them baptismal dates. they didn't come to church but I still think that we can work with them and bring them to church.
This week we have been working a lot more with members, visiting them and trying to get references. They are great people but sometime when they say don't know people it can get hard. Sometimes we will say a name of a person they know who isn't a member but they will say things like ¨oh she wouldn't be interested she is catholic.¨ I usually respond by saying ¨we are in Mexico, everyone is catholic!¨ but we have gotten some good leads. We are reactivating this teenager named Kevin and his family. Kevin keeps coming to church by himself and we would like to get his family active too.
we also have interviews with the president too. Looking forward to that.
Love Elder Micah Johnson
Monday, July 30, 2012
July 16th
I missed putting this letter up but it has a really fun story in it I thought might be fun to read so here you go......
Well this week has been interesting...sadly we have lost a lot of investigators. They didn't go to church. But whats cool is that a new person named Guadalupe and her husband showed up to church and they want us to come over to teach them. Very cool.
One of the investigators we went to get after sacrament meeting, she said she would show up but didn't. When we got to her street we saw her sister at the gate and she let us in. When we got to the house we talked with Susana (investigator) she said that the reason she didn't come was that her sister (the one we just talked too) had tried to turn the boiler on this morning but accidental got half her face burnt and burned off part of her hair and eyebrows. We told ¨But we just talked to your sister and her face is fine¨ but even though we caught her in the lie she kept going on about it. She stuck too it. So we dropped her after that. Another investigator told us she would come to church if we got her a ride. We arranged the ride but when the members went to go pick her up she lied and said¨didnt the missionaries tell you, I told them I wouldn't be able to go anymore¨ dang we dropped her too.
One guy we have found this past week named Mario didn't go to church this week either. But we are still going to work on him this week since we just started with him. But we taught him the word of wisdom and I think that might be what turned him off. In the lesson he admitted to having problems with drugs, alcohol ( a lot), smoking, coffee and tea. I kind of wanted to point out to him that he would have more money for food if he didn't use this stuff. (he is homeless). We are going to keep working with him. But we are back to the drawing board. Oh and the American investigator, Shana, we have talked wants to have lessons with us but his wife is a hard core catholic and does not like talking to us at all. We still get to talk to Shana a couple times, very nice guy. His adopted kids are actually his brothers kids that he legally adopted after his brother and sister in law went to prison for robbing a house. The kids seem interested too.
Okay cool experiences this week, one day me and Miguel were heading home, both of us were hungry and all we had in the house was eggs. I said that I could really go for some tacos and literally 5 seconds after I said that a black car pulled up next to us. He lowered his window gave me 200 pesos and just said¨go buy some tacos¨ and drove off. I had never seen the guy in my life. It was very cool.
We ran into evangelical Christian's from Texas and California a couple time this week they were here building a church. During one of the times we ran into them I was with my zone leader Elder Anderson. they asked us to share a bit of our beliefs about what makes us different from other religions. This was a bit harder to do in English but we talked about the restoration of the church and the book of Mormon. I think they were a little intrigued but they began to share there beliefs about how they thought it didn't matter what religion you were just as long as you accept Jesus as your savior. One of them gave me a new Gideons pocket bible, I later just put in a cupboard. While I was talking to one of there members who use to be a Mormon before joining there congregation, the rest of the group had a pray with Anderson were they sort of ambushed him praying for the salvation of ¨his lost soul¨ He was a little annoyed by that later, I thought it was kind of funny. But we didn't realize that they were recording it on camera till after it was said and done. So if you see a Video on youtube called ¨10 day missionaries save LDS missionary¨ that's him.
Me and Elder Miguel continue to get along great he is my new favorite companion
Love Elder Micah Johnson
Well this week has been interesting...sadly we have lost a lot of investigators. They didn't go to church. But whats cool is that a new person named Guadalupe and her husband showed up to church and they want us to come over to teach them. Very cool.
One of the investigators we went to get after sacrament meeting, she said she would show up but didn't. When we got to her street we saw her sister at the gate and she let us in. When we got to the house we talked with Susana (investigator) she said that the reason she didn't come was that her sister (the one we just talked too) had tried to turn the boiler on this morning but accidental got half her face burnt and burned off part of her hair and eyebrows. We told ¨But we just talked to your sister and her face is fine¨ but even though we caught her in the lie she kept going on about it. She stuck too it. So we dropped her after that. Another investigator told us she would come to church if we got her a ride. We arranged the ride but when the members went to go pick her up she lied and said¨didnt the missionaries tell you, I told them I wouldn't be able to go anymore¨ dang we dropped her too.
One guy we have found this past week named Mario didn't go to church this week either. But we are still going to work on him this week since we just started with him. But we taught him the word of wisdom and I think that might be what turned him off. In the lesson he admitted to having problems with drugs, alcohol ( a lot), smoking, coffee and tea. I kind of wanted to point out to him that he would have more money for food if he didn't use this stuff. (he is homeless). We are going to keep working with him. But we are back to the drawing board. Oh and the American investigator, Shana, we have talked wants to have lessons with us but his wife is a hard core catholic and does not like talking to us at all. We still get to talk to Shana a couple times, very nice guy. His adopted kids are actually his brothers kids that he legally adopted after his brother and sister in law went to prison for robbing a house. The kids seem interested too.
Okay cool experiences this week, one day me and Miguel were heading home, both of us were hungry and all we had in the house was eggs. I said that I could really go for some tacos and literally 5 seconds after I said that a black car pulled up next to us. He lowered his window gave me 200 pesos and just said¨go buy some tacos¨ and drove off. I had never seen the guy in my life. It was very cool.
We ran into evangelical Christian's from Texas and California a couple time this week they were here building a church. During one of the times we ran into them I was with my zone leader Elder Anderson. they asked us to share a bit of our beliefs about what makes us different from other religions. This was a bit harder to do in English but we talked about the restoration of the church and the book of Mormon. I think they were a little intrigued but they began to share there beliefs about how they thought it didn't matter what religion you were just as long as you accept Jesus as your savior. One of them gave me a new Gideons pocket bible, I later just put in a cupboard. While I was talking to one of there members who use to be a Mormon before joining there congregation, the rest of the group had a pray with Anderson were they sort of ambushed him praying for the salvation of ¨his lost soul¨ He was a little annoyed by that later, I thought it was kind of funny. But we didn't realize that they were recording it on camera till after it was said and done. So if you see a Video on youtube called ¨10 day missionaries save LDS missionary¨ that's him.
Me and Elder Miguel continue to get along great he is my new favorite companion
Love Elder Micah Johnson
Monday, July 9, 2012
July 9 2012cOOO
Drum roll please...The Church will officially begin construction on the Tijuana Mexico temple August 18th. I had heard rumors about for the past week and this past Sunday they officially announced it in church. I hope I will still be here when they open the temple.
This week has been the best. A lot of interesting experiences. Elder Miguel is a excellent companion, one of the best. He is very spiritual and has great insights, he also knows how to teach very well. We have already found new investigators and people to teach. Tuesday when we left to go start working we actually ran into one of our neighbors who live on the bottom floor, he is from the United States but came over here to escape the high prices and to marry his wife. He has three adopted kids from his brother that he takes care of. We talked a bit and started talking about families and how much he likes traditional family values. We came back the next day and shared a short message on the importance of family values. We gave him a family proclamation and we shared the video of ¨Together Forever¨ Its a little bit difficult to teach them, The dad and 3 of his adopted kids only speak English and his wife only speaks Spanish. I don't know how that happened. But they seem to understand each other pretty well. A great experience.
That same day we went to go search for a less active member, we accidentally went to the wrong house but before we could knock on the door, their pit bull jumped out from her dark den and started attacking my companion, it bit his knee. Before I could do anything the owner heard the noise and came out of the house and got the dog off. We left and went to a members house to inspect the damage a bit, One of the members went to go to the same house to confront them about the dog but they didn't answer. The members gave us a ride to the doctors and we got him some medicine. The wound is not grave but he had a big bruise.
We have started also working with a less active member. This is the family I showed how to fold the American flag. They invited us over on the 5th for breakfast which was delicious. It also included something I had not seen for the length of my mission, Root Beer. It was so good. He is a good guy, he use to be a missionary here in Tijuana when they first opened the mission here. We are going to continue to work with and hopefully get him back to church.
We have found new investigators 2 sisters and her friend. Luz, Sandra and Susana. We only were able to get Sandra to church and it was only for the final hours of relief society but I think she had a good time and will tell the others about it. This next week I think they will all come.
We also got a reference we taught. The dad is almost atheist and kind of attacked us by asking us difficult questions that were hard to answer. I need to get better with situations like that. We got him committed to pray though so I think if he sincerely does it he will start to grow more in tuned with the spirit. The family as a whole have a lot of questions about God.
This week we have had 16 lessons that is insanely good and whats even better is that instead of us contacting people, others are contacting us in the street.
Love Elder Micah Johnson
Mom-we sure are tearing it up, if we keep this up Riberas del Bosque will be translated like Enouch. Already our relationship with members has improved dramatically. They were shocked and surprised that I was still here and not Elder Rico. But most of them say that they are glad I am still here and he is gone. Elder Miguel is from Coconut Creek he lives literally 5 minutes from Coral Springs. His ward is called The Coconut creek ward also. He says that you can give him the information of Craig and Cindy if you want. When he returns home in 6 months they will be in the same stake. He use to live in Coral springs too.
Dad-please do send me one of the ties from Missionary mall. A lot of missionaries are jealous that I have such good ties for free. Sounds like it was a smaller 4th of July. Not much happened here. Did you guys still buy fireworks. His dad is from Gutamala and his mom is from El Salvador. He grew up in his home speaking spanish. He was born in Los angeles. We have a lot in common.
Love Elder Johnson
This week has been the best. A lot of interesting experiences. Elder Miguel is a excellent companion, one of the best. He is very spiritual and has great insights, he also knows how to teach very well. We have already found new investigators and people to teach. Tuesday when we left to go start working we actually ran into one of our neighbors who live on the bottom floor, he is from the United States but came over here to escape the high prices and to marry his wife. He has three adopted kids from his brother that he takes care of. We talked a bit and started talking about families and how much he likes traditional family values. We came back the next day and shared a short message on the importance of family values. We gave him a family proclamation and we shared the video of ¨Together Forever¨ Its a little bit difficult to teach them, The dad and 3 of his adopted kids only speak English and his wife only speaks Spanish. I don't know how that happened. But they seem to understand each other pretty well. A great experience.
That same day we went to go search for a less active member, we accidentally went to the wrong house but before we could knock on the door, their pit bull jumped out from her dark den and started attacking my companion, it bit his knee. Before I could do anything the owner heard the noise and came out of the house and got the dog off. We left and went to a members house to inspect the damage a bit, One of the members went to go to the same house to confront them about the dog but they didn't answer. The members gave us a ride to the doctors and we got him some medicine. The wound is not grave but he had a big bruise.
We have started also working with a less active member. This is the family I showed how to fold the American flag. They invited us over on the 5th for breakfast which was delicious. It also included something I had not seen for the length of my mission, Root Beer. It was so good. He is a good guy, he use to be a missionary here in Tijuana when they first opened the mission here. We are going to continue to work with and hopefully get him back to church.
We have found new investigators 2 sisters and her friend. Luz, Sandra and Susana. We only were able to get Sandra to church and it was only for the final hours of relief society but I think she had a good time and will tell the others about it. This next week I think they will all come.
We also got a reference we taught. The dad is almost atheist and kind of attacked us by asking us difficult questions that were hard to answer. I need to get better with situations like that. We got him committed to pray though so I think if he sincerely does it he will start to grow more in tuned with the spirit. The family as a whole have a lot of questions about God.
This week we have had 16 lessons that is insanely good and whats even better is that instead of us contacting people, others are contacting us in the street.
Love Elder Micah Johnson
Mom-we sure are tearing it up, if we keep this up Riberas del Bosque will be translated like Enouch. Already our relationship with members has improved dramatically. They were shocked and surprised that I was still here and not Elder Rico. But most of them say that they are glad I am still here and he is gone. Elder Miguel is from Coconut Creek he lives literally 5 minutes from Coral Springs. His ward is called The Coconut creek ward also. He says that you can give him the information of Craig and Cindy if you want. When he returns home in 6 months they will be in the same stake. He use to live in Coral springs too.
Dad-please do send me one of the ties from Missionary mall. A lot of missionaries are jealous that I have such good ties for free. Sounds like it was a smaller 4th of July. Not much happened here. Did you guys still buy fireworks. His dad is from Gutamala and his mom is from El Salvador. He grew up in his home speaking spanish. He was born in Los angeles. We have a lot in common.
Love Elder Johnson
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