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

Another Letter from Nicaragua

Tell Mom I’m sorry but I’m only going to write one letter to the both of you. I just don’t have time! 45 minutes is not enough time to write to everyone I want.

Ok... now for what is happening here...

Tuesday we did a division and I was with Elder Canizales. He reminds me of Elder Neel. I think he is from Guatemala. Only Spanish. We walked and contacted a bunch of people and he stayed the night.

Wednesday the Pres. called and said we couldn’t leave the house. So we waited and stayed in the house, I read all day, until around 3, when Elder Sauceda returned.

Thursday, I don’t remember.

Friday we walked to another part of our area called Cuidadela. Its far. But, on the way, Elder Sauceda and I kept being chased by a drunk guy. It was a little scary, cause it was in the middle of nowhere, but really funny. He caught up with us and started asking us questions about the church and trying to bible bash with us. There are a lot of drunk guys here.

Saturday I had my first baptism. I have pictures but I forgot my chord to plug into the computer so I will try to send a picture next week, hopefully. He is a little kid named Oscar. It was fun. Afterwards our district invited all the neighbor kids to a soccer game and Elder Sauceda asked who wants to be baptized! We got thirty references for families. Loco.

This week we have ten baptisms lined up. I hope they work out. The Spanish is coming along I guess. I understand what each conversation is about and where its going, but when someone asks me a question I am lost. I understand the topic and sort of what they are asking but its hard. And I can’t speak worth monkey. Hopefully soon. I keep trying and praying.

Yep. I would have to say the thing I miss most of all is a working warm shower. Nolan and Nick used to complain about our bathroom... HAHAHAHA! They would freak if they saw ours. I don’t think its ever been washed, and I wouldn’t even try. I might turn into a mutant if I did.

Oh yeah! The night Canizales was here, there was a HUGE scorpion above my bed! It was like the size of my hand! I got a picture. Canizales killed it with his shoe. Freaky.

Today the Pres. cancelled P-Day. We are only allowed to email and write. Its crazy. Its cause he has a goal to get a thousand baptisms this month. I think that’s a huge problem with this mission. Everyone is worried about baptisms and not focusing on what happens after. As soon as I can communicate, I’m going to work on that. I want to make sure the members are truly committed. I don’t want baptisms if they don’t count for anything. And that’s a big thing here. Yeesh. Especially with Sauceda. He is a baptism freak. He really doesn’t care about the inactive members. I really want to speak Spanish...

Cambios, changes, are halfway through January. I only get a few more weeks with Sauceda. Sad huh! He thinks I’m going to be transferred to the office or become an AP before the end of his mission. Ha. Yikes. I don’t want to drive. Its nuts here.

Anywho, I’m gonna go. Much love and be good!

Elder Johnson

PS- I think I said that the little kid is my friend was Jorge or something in my last letter. Just to make sure, his name is Jose Luis. And his family feeds me too much. Yikes...

Elder Johnson

Nicaragua, Managua Mission

How to Send Mail to Elder Johnson

The easiest way is to send a letter to him via POUCH MAIL. There are some rules to follow. All letters must be written on a single page (front and back is fine). You cannont include anything in the envelope other than the letter (no photos, money, etc.). Photos can be printed on the page with the letter, but that's the only way to send them through this service. To send a letter by POUCH MAIL, send your letter to the following address:

Elder Nathanial Johnson
Nicaragua Managua Mission
PO Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

To send letters (photos, packages, etc.) straight to the mission home, use this address:

Elder Nathanial Johnson
Nicaragua Managua Mission
De la Retonda del Periodista
150 vrs. al Sur Ofiplaza Suite 725
Managua, C. A.
NICARAGUA

However you do it, please send lots of letters! You know how much missionaries love letters...

First Letter from Nicaragua

Subject: Re: Letter from HOME
From: "Nathanial Johnson"
To: bertjohnson@cox.net
Date: Mon, 10 Dec 2007 21:32:07 +0000

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!

I don’t even know where to stinking start. Lets start with this.... it has been an insanely tiring, exciting, freaky, weird, confusing, and out of the ordinary week.

We left the MTC Wednesday, waking up at 2 am, and flew from Utah to Chicago. The Utah flight was delayed and then the flight from Chicago to Miami was delayed. We missed our flight to Nicaragua by literally like 2 minutes. It stunk.

So we called the MTC and they called the Miami mission president and we stayed there for the night, which was pretty kewl. We ended up leaving the next morning at 7, got on the plane around 11ish and flew to Nicaragua. Walking onto that plane was the weirdest thing in my life! I sat next to some crazy Nicaraguan girl that spent most of her life in Miami and kept telling me how I was going to get robbed and stuff. Yeah. But she did give me gum! Hehe!

Anyways, we got off the plane and went through a billion checkouts and junk and then we met the President and the office elders and ate lunch with them at some fancy Italian restaurant. Normal so far. Mostly.

Nicaragua is going through a lot of political stuff right now. Along with that there are a lot of people who are missing arms and legs and stuff and are poor because of the civil war they had twentyish years ago. Its pretty sad.

The office elders dropped off the other three elders in my group onto buses to travel to their assigned areas, after we had interviews with the Pres. Then I went with the office elders to eat dinner at some lady’s house, which was snazzi. We ate, can you guess... rice and beans. And chicken. Yeah. Woot!

Then they drove me to my house... actually its more like a room... and I met Elder Sauceda, from Honduras. He is super kewl. He only speaks Spanish so I have to listen really hard to understand. Yeah.

Our house is about the size of Nevins room. There is no running water. We have a small fridge that barely works. I have to take a shower by dumping cold water on my head with a bucket. Eeeek! And......... there are chickens in the backyard. AH!

Its been fun though! I’m having a blast. At times I miss the normality of AZ, compared to here anyway, but its snazzi.

Friday I woke up early with Elder Sauceda and we went to teach some lady who was to be baptized the next day. We had a whole lesson, I only taught a little bit, but it turns out her baptism fell through. She couldn’t be baptized because she had a lot of kids and wasn’t married, or something like that. Its nearly impossible to understand what is going on when you don’t speak Spanish. AH!

However... on the bright side, I have some friends! Later on in the night on Friday we visited, I think his name is Hermano Meneses... or Barrio Mitch?... I dunno. Anyways, he is really poor and lives in a house made of stone, without a roof... but he has three little kids who are my new best friends. The oldest is ten. I think her name is Jennifer. The second is seven, named Gloria. And the son is named Juan. He is super kewl. They are probably the only people I understand, other than Elder Sauceda. They help me learn Spanish and I help them learn English. Oh yeah! I’m helping teach English lessons in the church! Its super fun.

The area I am in is called Tipitapa. Its the most dangerous and poorest area in Nicaragua. This week they have been having a celebrating about the virgin Mary, which is really annoying to the members... and me. There are fireworks going off like every two seconds. Firecrackers, fireworks, gunshots... ack! And lots of drunk people. I’ve talked to three so far, who think they know English. Its ridiculous.

So I am only one of two Elders in Tipitapa that are from the US. Everyone else is Latino.

As for the food, its ok. Elder Sauceda was surprised. He said I am learning quick and speak better Spanish and understand better than his other companions. Even though I really have barely any idea what is going on most of the time. Its really hard when someone asks me questions. Oh yeah! The food.... um, they have weird bananas here. Its not like ours. They taste nasty, the texture is really gross, but its pretty good when its cooked. They dry it too. Ew. Lots of rice and beans. Chicken. Elder Sauceda said they also have iguana and horse and cat and stuff, but I haven’t eaten that yet. I hope not to....

I haven’t done any service projects yet. People are really busy with their Mary Holiday, I think it is called Policimo. I dunno.

I barely catch the names of anything around here. The kids here are either really nice or really annoying. Most of them are nice. But the mean ones call you names. I don’t remember how to say it, whatever.

The office elders said that I looked like a mooso, which is Spanish is flirt. Ha! I laughed. Ya gotta be careful around here though. The girls love white people. Everyone on the street looks at me as I walk by... yeesh! Its nuts. The men are either really nice or really mean too. Its kinda how the whole country is. Really poor or really rich. Really nice or really mean. No middle ground.

Elder Sauceda was telling me about his last companion he was training, Elder Dahl. He said he was really racist and used to call him offensive names. That ticked me off when I heard it, fo sho. He said Elder Dahl used to complain a lot and run off without him and flirt with the girls and even cut himself. The president sent him home after three weeks. Elder Sauceda said he was really glad to find out I was normal. Ha! Ha! Normal. That’s funny. At least more normal than Dahl. Dummy.

But seriously, its kewl here. Super different. Big culture shock. The Spanish will come, I hope. The members keep saying it will. Man, they feed me a lot. I am never hungry. I’ve eaten it all though and don’t have a problem with it, except the bananas. I haven’t gotten sick yet either, like all the other gringos. Hoo ha! They drink a lot of Fanta.

I hate chickens, but they are everywhere here. Oh yeah! Yesterday we saw two drunk guys fighting. This place is nuts.

I’m really want to talk to the people and help Sauceda with his teaching, but I cant speak! I can barely understand! Its such a stinking barricade! Its definitely what I need most, the gift of tongues. Its impossible to get around without it.

Monday is P-Day and I get 45 mins to email. The money is weird. Its called chordos. 100 dollars is 1870 chordos, I think. Its confusing.

There are a lot of people here, and a lot more kids than in the US. The houses are small and aren’t really houses at all. Seriously. Its sad. No air conditioning anywhere but here in the email station, which is amazing right now. The heat aint so bad. Its like AZ, just less sun... surprisingly. Its a little humid, but it will get worse around march and way bad in August. Super!

Oh yeah, I lead music on Sundays too. No piano, just a cd player. And no one can sing. No one. Serious. Its crazy. I think someday I may come back and teach English and choir. Wow.

Well, yeah. Pray for me. I need it. This place is nuts, but I am glad to be here. I couldn’t imagine leaving, not with people like little Juan and his family left in the dust without the gospel. Its humbling.

Well, adios. Wish me luck and health and Spanish and stuff.

With love!
Elder Johnson

PS- you will get a kick out of this dad. There is this guy named Enye. He is missing two front teeth. But Elder Sauceda calls him Sindi, like Cindy... because sin dientes. Sin-di. hehehe!