Monday, November 9, 2009
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5:08 PM
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That's really comforting about the whole raising the bar thing. This mission, is ridiculous! We're the FJM! We have a goal of 1050 baptisms this year, in July we had 117 baptisms, in August we had 130 something. The MTC actually just had someone come down to have President Newman make a training video on some of the things we do here, the AP's give us ridiculous goals like teaching 200 lessons a week and we run between houses when we tract and it's just a lot of stuff we do that is crazy and I did not expect. I think writing off everyone is part of the "raising the bar" as well. Honestly, I still don't understand it and it was/is really hard for me to do. I just hope that sooner or later I will understand why I had to do it and be able to see the blessings from it.
Yeah we have eight missionaries in one ward. It's definitely different than Utah for sure! We just have a bigger area to cover for one ward I guess. And then on top of that the Spanish missionaries overlap a few of the English missionaries areas so it works out. Haha Small Frey (pronounced like fry) is basically the coolest kid ever. He's 18 years old but he looks like he's 14 so that's fun, and he is so excited to go on a mission! He comes to every Zone Conference and transfer meeting with us, he goes on trade offs with us all the time, he just can't get enough of it. Plus on top of that he just is great friends with all the missionaries. He comes over to our apartment almost every other night and just hangs out with us after we plan and stuff. He actually called me this morning just to tell me a story about Elder Black. It's really cool, for me at least, because I didn't ever go on trade offs with the Elders. I didn't even know or see any of our Elders in Utah or Arizona. I wish I would have now, it's gotta be great preparation for him. But anyway, that's Small Frey.
I'm so glad that Space Camp and PTC was good for you. And I'm glad you didn't get shot by the creepy guy too. I knew PTC wouldn't be bad for you, from what Grandma tells me all the kids in your class love you so why would their parents have anything to complain about?
I'm so excited for Stacey! That's way sweet that we'll get home at the same time! I really want to know where she's going, maybe you should tell her to email me so she can tell me. Maybe that would be weird though, I don't know I just want to know where she's going. Grandma Nettie sent me a package! She sent me all kinds of Orange stuff like Cheetos and Reese's and even some orange cough drops. Tell her I said thank you so much! I loved it, especially the sunflower seeds! It's just fun to get mail sometimes, it doesn't matter what's in it it's just fun. I'm not saying I want mail like every week but if you guys wanted to send stuff every once in a while that would be good and I'll tell you if I need anything that I can't get here. But I do need my coat. I hear that it gets really cold here and humid cold is really different and weird so yeah I need my coat pretty soon.
Oh my gosh I almost forgot! We had a baptism yesterday! So last Saturday, we went down to Flemming Island with the ZL and President Newman so they could talk to some Haitians that live there. It's kinda a far way away and we didn't have a lot of miles so we bummed a ride with them to go tract there. So while they were talking to the Haitians we talked to all the Hispanics there. The Haitians turned out to be pretty lame but we found a guy named Gerardo that said we could come back. So we went back to teach him and we found out that he has a really bad drinking problem and he was drunk when we talked to him. He wanted to change so bad though. He told us that he usually drinks 36 beers a day and it's a really really big problem! He's been hit by two cars while he's been drunk, he gets beat up by his friends, his wife was wondering if she should leave him, just all kinds of trouble because of it. We taught him and his wife and gave them a Book of Mormon and they've been reading and praying and he hasn't had one drink since! So we taught them all week and his wife decided that she wants to get baptized! President Newman had to interview her because she had an abortion when she was like 20 (she's 60 something now) so he came and talked to her and made sure she was good to go. So she got baptized yesterday and I confirmed her in Spanish (which was not great, not bad, but not great)! Gerardo still needs a little bit more time but he's planning to get baptized next weekend! So yeah, that was sweet! :) President and Sister Newman came to the baptism, which has never happened to me before, so that was awesome!
So yeah, good times! I love you!
Elder Johnson
Yeah we have eight missionaries in one ward. It's definitely different than Utah for sure! We just have a bigger area to cover for one ward I guess. And then on top of that the Spanish missionaries overlap a few of the English missionaries areas so it works out. Haha Small Frey (pronounced like fry) is basically the coolest kid ever. He's 18 years old but he looks like he's 14 so that's fun, and he is so excited to go on a mission! He comes to every Zone Conference and transfer meeting with us, he goes on trade offs with us all the time, he just can't get enough of it. Plus on top of that he just is great friends with all the missionaries. He comes over to our apartment almost every other night and just hangs out with us after we plan and stuff. He actually called me this morning just to tell me a story about Elder Black. It's really cool, for me at least, because I didn't ever go on trade offs with the Elders. I didn't even know or see any of our Elders in Utah or Arizona. I wish I would have now, it's gotta be great preparation for him. But anyway, that's Small Frey.
I'm so glad that Space Camp and PTC was good for you. And I'm glad you didn't get shot by the creepy guy too. I knew PTC wouldn't be bad for you, from what Grandma tells me all the kids in your class love you so why would their parents have anything to complain about?
I'm so excited for Stacey! That's way sweet that we'll get home at the same time! I really want to know where she's going, maybe you should tell her to email me so she can tell me. Maybe that would be weird though, I don't know I just want to know where she's going. Grandma Nettie sent me a package! She sent me all kinds of Orange stuff like Cheetos and Reese's and even some orange cough drops. Tell her I said thank you so much! I loved it, especially the sunflower seeds! It's just fun to get mail sometimes, it doesn't matter what's in it it's just fun. I'm not saying I want mail like every week but if you guys wanted to send stuff every once in a while that would be good and I'll tell you if I need anything that I can't get here. But I do need my coat. I hear that it gets really cold here and humid cold is really different and weird so yeah I need my coat pretty soon.
Oh my gosh I almost forgot! We had a baptism yesterday! So last Saturday, we went down to Flemming Island with the ZL and President Newman so they could talk to some Haitians that live there. It's kinda a far way away and we didn't have a lot of miles so we bummed a ride with them to go tract there. So while they were talking to the Haitians we talked to all the Hispanics there. The Haitians turned out to be pretty lame but we found a guy named Gerardo that said we could come back. So we went back to teach him and we found out that he has a really bad drinking problem and he was drunk when we talked to him. He wanted to change so bad though. He told us that he usually drinks 36 beers a day and it's a really really big problem! He's been hit by two cars while he's been drunk, he gets beat up by his friends, his wife was wondering if she should leave him, just all kinds of trouble because of it. We taught him and his wife and gave them a Book of Mormon and they've been reading and praying and he hasn't had one drink since! So we taught them all week and his wife decided that she wants to get baptized! President Newman had to interview her because she had an abortion when she was like 20 (she's 60 something now) so he came and talked to her and made sure she was good to go. So she got baptized yesterday and I confirmed her in Spanish (which was not great, not bad, but not great)! Gerardo still needs a little bit more time but he's planning to get baptized next weekend! So yeah, that was sweet! :) President and Sister Newman came to the baptism, which has never happened to me before, so that was awesome!
So yeah, good times! I love you!
Elder Johnson
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