Monday, July 27, 2009
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Hey family,
OK you got the picture from President Newman but you didn't get my letter yet? Maybe he just emailed that one and is sending the letters later. Ok guess what! I got here in Florida my first day and we went over to President's house and everything for dinner and a little bit of training and stuff. The training he has us doing here is way different than what we learned in the MTC. It's so bold and forward I was a little skeptical at first but it really works it's so cool! Actually yesterday I committed someone to be baptized on August 9th. We're going back to teach her this week but she said she would so this could be my first baptism already! Our Mission Pres is really inspired with this method he has. But anyway back to my first night here. We were training and stuff and the President took us back one by one for an interview. I was the last one to go and so I go back there and he started telling me about the work he was doing and how we are opening a new branch up here pretty soon that is Spanish speaking. He also told me that a lot of the guys get up here and are switched to Spanish. I told him that if he needs me to switch in a few months I would love to! He looked at me and said, "Actually I need you now Elder." So yeah I'm speaking Spanish now! Well, trying at least. It's tough but I'm really excited. I'm getting pretty good at the door approach in Spanish already but it's really hard just talking to people about regular stuff and a lot of the people in the ward are Mexican and only speak Spanish. So I know what dad was telling me about being totally lost for the first couple of months out here but it's coming and I'll get it eventually.
My companion is Elder Black. He has been out for almost a year. He's like me and was asked to switch over to speaking Spanish but he had a few months of English before. He's from Paige Arizona so I'm pretty sure he knows what Lake Powell looks like ;) He's great and he's teaching me a lot. Ok yeah I did try to call you on Wednesday but I had to call collect again and it said that your number didn't accept collect calls so sorry. But I talked to everyone at home. Everyone told me you went boating but nobody said anything about Lake Powell! I'm so jealous! The pictures are really cool though and that's awesome that you found where we carved our names. Stupid people really just need to mind their own business it's ridiculous.
I really love the missionary work out here! It's so much fun even the bad stuff. Like we've already had a guy where we walk up to his trailer (most people live in trailers here) and we heard people talking in there but as soon as we knocked on the door they all went really quiet. I just laughed and said pretty loud, gee I wish the people inside would open the door! But they just stayed quiet. It's pretty funny what people will do so they don't have to talk to us. One person said, "No tengo tiempo estoy comiendo!" So we said, "No tiene tiempo por Dios? Como es mas importante comida o Dios?" and he slammed the door in our face. But when we do talk to them it's awesome! The spirit is always so strong and they can feel it and they know it's true even though a lot of the Catholics and stubborn crazy Pentecostals will fight with us for a while. It's so much fun! And we have some really cool investigators already and a few baptismal dates set and we're expecting at least one more pretty soon.
Ok pictures... I printed some off in the MTC and I can mail those ones or I think I can load them onto this computer and email them but that might take a long time this computer is kinda slow. So maybe I should just do the two memory card thing but I only have one so I need another one. I think I put them in the white drawer under my desk in my room. As far as a bike goes I don't need one right now we have a car. I'm not sure if all of the Spanish missions here have a car but I'll let you know if I need a bike ever. So things are going great here. I love the area, the weather, just everything. I know I'm in Florida but sometimes I feel like I'm in South America or something because it looks kinda like a jungle and everyone is speaking Spanish. It's way sweet! But yeah I love it and I'm having a great time. Oh and if you need to send me stuff don't send it to the mission home because I won't see it for like 4-6 weeks send it to:
Elder Aaron Johnson
603 Magnolia Avenue
Crescent City, FL 32112
And pass the message onto Stacey and Nan and everyone else and tell them if they sent me something and I haven't replied I'm sorry I just don't have it yet. I love you all and thanks for the stories and the pictures!
Love,
Elder Johnson
OK you got the picture from President Newman but you didn't get my letter yet? Maybe he just emailed that one and is sending the letters later. Ok guess what! I got here in Florida my first day and we went over to President's house and everything for dinner and a little bit of training and stuff. The training he has us doing here is way different than what we learned in the MTC. It's so bold and forward I was a little skeptical at first but it really works it's so cool! Actually yesterday I committed someone to be baptized on August 9th. We're going back to teach her this week but she said she would so this could be my first baptism already! Our Mission Pres is really inspired with this method he has. But anyway back to my first night here. We were training and stuff and the President took us back one by one for an interview. I was the last one to go and so I go back there and he started telling me about the work he was doing and how we are opening a new branch up here pretty soon that is Spanish speaking. He also told me that a lot of the guys get up here and are switched to Spanish. I told him that if he needs me to switch in a few months I would love to! He looked at me and said, "Actually I need you now Elder." So yeah I'm speaking Spanish now! Well, trying at least. It's tough but I'm really excited. I'm getting pretty good at the door approach in Spanish already but it's really hard just talking to people about regular stuff and a lot of the people in the ward are Mexican and only speak Spanish. So I know what dad was telling me about being totally lost for the first couple of months out here but it's coming and I'll get it eventually.
My companion is Elder Black. He has been out for almost a year. He's like me and was asked to switch over to speaking Spanish but he had a few months of English before. He's from Paige Arizona so I'm pretty sure he knows what Lake Powell looks like ;) He's great and he's teaching me a lot. Ok yeah I did try to call you on Wednesday but I had to call collect again and it said that your number didn't accept collect calls so sorry. But I talked to everyone at home. Everyone told me you went boating but nobody said anything about Lake Powell! I'm so jealous! The pictures are really cool though and that's awesome that you found where we carved our names. Stupid people really just need to mind their own business it's ridiculous.
I really love the missionary work out here! It's so much fun even the bad stuff. Like we've already had a guy where we walk up to his trailer (most people live in trailers here) and we heard people talking in there but as soon as we knocked on the door they all went really quiet. I just laughed and said pretty loud, gee I wish the people inside would open the door! But they just stayed quiet. It's pretty funny what people will do so they don't have to talk to us. One person said, "No tengo tiempo estoy comiendo!" So we said, "No tiene tiempo por Dios? Como es mas importante comida o Dios?" and he slammed the door in our face. But when we do talk to them it's awesome! The spirit is always so strong and they can feel it and they know it's true even though a lot of the Catholics and stubborn crazy Pentecostals will fight with us for a while. It's so much fun! And we have some really cool investigators already and a few baptismal dates set and we're expecting at least one more pretty soon.
Ok pictures... I printed some off in the MTC and I can mail those ones or I think I can load them onto this computer and email them but that might take a long time this computer is kinda slow. So maybe I should just do the two memory card thing but I only have one so I need another one. I think I put them in the white drawer under my desk in my room. As far as a bike goes I don't need one right now we have a car. I'm not sure if all of the Spanish missions here have a car but I'll let you know if I need a bike ever. So things are going great here. I love the area, the weather, just everything. I know I'm in Florida but sometimes I feel like I'm in South America or something because it looks kinda like a jungle and everyone is speaking Spanish. It's way sweet! But yeah I love it and I'm having a great time. Oh and if you need to send me stuff don't send it to the mission home because I won't see it for like 4-6 weeks send it to:
Elder Aaron Johnson
603 Magnolia Avenue
Crescent City, FL 32112
And pass the message onto Stacey and Nan and everyone else and tell them if they sent me something and I haven't replied I'm sorry I just don't have it yet. I love you all and thanks for the stories and the pictures!
Love,
Elder Johnson
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Called to Serve
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