September 29, 2008

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Changes...

As usual, good news and horrible news...

Good news, I had changes. That’s right, I have finally left Lezcano...

BAD news........ I’ve been promoted....

IM ZONE LEADER!

I know, I don’t know why either. Ha-ha! I freaked. That’s a huge boulder just placed on my weak shoulders. But hey, its a chance to grow, learn, change, sweat and bleed more, cry, love, hate, and see the letters in the zone before everyone else. I get to talk with the president like three times a week... that scares the crap out of me. Ha! I have more respect and fear for that man than any other person living on the earth.

Im good though. I feel like its a challenge and its opened my eyes. I feel renewed and full of energy. I’m in Leon, supposed to be the hottest area in all of Nicaragua.

My comp is Elder Martinez from Honduras. He’s really cool and he is a great master teacher. But he doesn’t let me teach much. He is so focused sometimes he forgets I’m there. That’s good though. I’m learning a lot from him.

The house is kewl. I’m bucket bathing again. The shower doesn’t work. But the best news I got is Elder Haddock that came with me from the MTC is here!!!! I’m his ZL! Yea! I love that kid.

No one else that came with me has bumped up. Haddock and Bean are still DLs and Barnes is only senior comp. I feel humbled and confused, but I guess the Lord knows what he’s doing... I don’t, but that’s ok.

The foods good. I love the members and its only been a few days. We have organized a sweet battalion of like forty members to help us bring people to church. It’s awesome and working! I expect to be here in this position a long time....

Its changed everything about the mission. Suddenly things are more realistic and I feel better. I hate the idea of being a leader and I always have, but I’m here to serve and I will serve well.

I received the grandma and grandpa package a long time ago. Didn’t I ask you like a month ago to thank them for me? If not, thank them. I loved it and so did my comp. It was gone within the hour! I LOVE YOU GM AND GP!

I love you all. Know that I am doing better and getting in line. I feel so much better here....
And I only have a year left. Hehe! LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Elder Johnson
Nicaragua, Managua Mission

HEY!
WHAT! NICK GOT HIS CALL! HES GOING WHERE! WHAT!?
Uhhhhhhhhhh... freak! Man! What!? My revelation was fake! You aint gonna go to Spain!? Washington it is... AWESOME!!!! You are gonna go to the kewlest temple in the world! ( Other than California ) Man... what news. I dunno how to handle it! I feel great! I got great news from my family, twice (I received your letter from that lost week in dearelder), letters from all my friends, and changes are tomorrow! YAYAYAAY! IM sure to go this time. YAYAYAY!
New bishopric? Wow! Things are gonna be wierd when I get back.
Tell Aaron I will gladly put in 100 dollars for a good 100 cream sodas for our cream soda bladder exploding wearing green and blue NA party when I get back.... but he has to bring the music. hehe!
Nononono... I was with Elder Guillen, a missionary from Nicaragua. He left for Peru last Tuesday. So I got stuck with Elder Lascarez from Costa Rica who is working in the area next to mine cause he had a nica comp that left too. So we are working together in two areas. Its hard. But fun!
I got the letter from Thomas. Thanks!
Hmmmm... news? Not really. I have been running area from area like always doing interviews and not having time to get anything done! Ive learned so much here.
Nick, you are gonna do SO great! Im working hard on buying stuff to send it in a package. Ill do it before you head out so you can get the letter I wrote you!
Tell Chandler and Thomas to get working so they can be the next to get their calls.
MAN! Im so excited! Im gonna be freaking out the rest of the week!
Love you all!
Elder Johnson
Elder Johnson
Nicaragua, Managua Mission

Hey Family!

Dont you worry... Im good. I still havent received the letters from last week but maybe I will in DEARELDER in the weeks to come. That wonderful site seems more sure than myldsmail. Thank you Nicaragua.Thank you for writing this week. Now, lemme do a quick ketchup on whats goin on... thats right, I said ketchup. I miss ketchup.

So this week went as follows...
Monday- we had PDAY, I wrote you all, I cut my hair, took a shower, slept a little, ordered pizza, and then our bishop and Hermano Falabella invited us to play ping pong in church, so we did. It was fun.
Tuesday- we worked hard.
Wednesday- we had interviews with the President from 6 am to 5 pm. ALL DAY LONG! There were a lot of elders talking to the president for like an hour. Me and my comp got ours done in three minutes. It was fun. Then that night we had a meeting with our bishop.
Thursday- we started the morning with weekly planning and then in the evening we went to work when suddenly the mission office called saying that my comp, Elder Guillen, is ready to leave for Peru this wednesday if we can find certain papers he needs. So all night long we were working with that.
Friday- we continued working with that. All morning we ran ALL OVER Managua to find his papers. It was an adventure which included us talking our way into touching the heart of a police captain so he could give us a police record of my comp the same day. It was quite intersesting. In the evening we ran everywhere with the ZL´s doing interviews.
Saturday- we tried saving our baptisms but it didnt work. Then we went to the baptisms of my district. (I will explain what happened shortly)
Sunday- church and we had a snazzi meeting with the stake about missionary work. AND.... Augusto got called as our Ward Mission Leader! SWEET!!!!
So that was my week. And here I am again, starting a new one! We had to baptisms set up this week. We went searching for one but she hid for like four hours and there was nothing we could do. Maybe this week. I just gotta talk to her and I know she will do it. I have truly seen the power Satan here in Nicaragua. If there is one thing I have learned here, its how he works and how to beat him. Hes a tricky and overly DANGEROUS fellow.
Our other nearly baptized friend was Ricardo. This kid is smart. He knows everything but he goes to another church. We watched the Restoration dvd with him and I bore my testimony and he was crying. He knows its true. So we had the zl´s try to get him to get baptized but he wants to stay in his apostate church. Its sad. He could have been a great missionary and leader of the church. Now he is going to be a pastor of the evangelical church. Satan works hard.
Missionaries are LITERALLY soldiers fighting everyday to save people from eternal darkness. I have sweated, bled, cried, and worked to save these people. But man, sometimes I feel like I am facing something so big and strong, I need to work a lot on my faith. Thats what I have been lacking. I used to think I had a lot of faith, I misunderstood the meaning of faith.
Send me the info on Nicks call as fast as you get it!
Im still voting for Spain or Nicaragua.
I wanna vote! Send me info on everything. I dunno whats going on with that stinkin country.
Well familyface, I love you and enjoy hearing from you. Tell my deadbeat silent friends to write me on DEARELDER at least. That goes for my bros too.
I promise I will send a package soon. Im looking for more snazzi stuff to put in it!
Next tuesday are changes, how quick, right? Im heading out of Lezcano! PLEASE DONT CALL ME AS ZL!!!!
haha!
Love and crackers!
Elder Johnson
PS- These are some fotos. The one with the three of us is the future First Presidency. You will see that pic in the next conference Liahona. Hehe! Good ole Falabella
Elder Johnson
Nicaragua, Managua Mission

Letter from Nicaragua on September 8, 2008

I think I'm gonna freak! This is the first week no one, not even my family, has written me...
I wrote you last week, you received it right? Im hoping you didn't not write me as punishment for a letter you didnt receive that I sent?

Maybe you are all just busy...

Anywho, whatever. Im forgiving. And patient. And a little bit hungry at the moment. So... lemme give you a grand detailed newsclip of the junk that has been going on here.

I'm with my new Nica son, Elder Guillen. He is very excited to be a missionary. I love the wide variety of strange comps the Lord sends me. It sure makes me handle people well. Im really hating this computer. It is doing some weird things on me.

I baptized Saturday. His name is Eddy. He is super poor and super humble and has a bunch of sicknesses. Man, I have learned so much here. Hey, brothers... dont follow my bad example. Be a better missionary than I am being. I had that meeting with Elder Clarke from the 70 last week and I made a choice to make my second year in the mission kick trash. Too bad I hadn't made that decision the first year. I would blame it on my horrible trainer, Sauceda, but I'm not gonna. I had excuses. The people here give me enough of them as it is. I aint gonna make the same mistake!

So I am sorta dissapointed that no one has written me. Seriously, I'm gonna be depressed the rest of the day. I heard that the family and friends stop writing you once you reach the midpoint of your mission, but i told the others that that would be impossible with my family. They love me! Prove me honest.

So we were fasting yesterday and had a great temptation. Suddenly a ton of memories of mom´s homemade cooking jumped in my head. Lasagna, Spaghetti, cinnamon rolls, cookies.... pizza! I went nuts.

We found some great people this week that are all ready for the water. One is Benjamin. He is some guy that was walking down his sidewalk and found the book of mormon in the gutter, missing the front pages and cover. It was opened to the picture of Christ visiting the Americas and caught his interest. In two days he finished second Nephi and saw us walking down the street. He called us over and we started teaching him. Now he is finishing Alma. He would be baptized this Saturday, but he has two problems... he isnt married and he smokes. So we are working on that.

Well, Im heading out. I hope you write me back soon! I dont wanna freak out again next week.

Love you,

Elder Johnson