A Study of Alma

Wellllllllllllllll this week has been kind of dull here. We are focusing more on "the rescue" and it is paying off. We had a ward conference this sunday and we doubled the attendance of the ward... Yeah, I'd say that our work paid off too. But we have had difficulty meeting with our investigators this week so the work has slowed down.

Other than that, I am having an absolute blast here. I am loving the area, the ward, and my companion. He needs a reminder to chill and laugh every now and then but I have laughed so much more this transfer than last transfer. It has been a nice change. Also, Sister Cabral has told us to complete studies of Alma 5, 41-42, and then 43-63. It is quite a lot of reading, but I am doing a study of Alma 41 and 42 right now and I am learning so much. President Cabral told us that if we truly understand the lessons in these two chapters, all difficulties in our life will seem small. Sure, these chapters help us gain an eternal perspective, but the lessons are still the same. The hardest part about these studies are that they have to be written in portuguese.

Speaking of Portuguese, I am understanding more and speaking more fluidly. Speaking English is actually hard. I speak a mix of English and Portuguese when I try to speak English. So, as hard as the Portuguese is, I am more comfortable speaking Portuguese than I am speaking English... Coming home will be strange for sure :D

I love Elder Thurgood. We work, we laugh, we joke, we teach. It is like Elder Netane all over again. We talk a lot of Portuguese and are both learning a lot.

I don't wear my glasses a ton here. I dont have a ton of headaches for some reason. Usually if I get a headache, I wear them but when it goes away, i take them off. Elder Lopes nailed me in the face with that football you guys sent last transfer and they got bent just a little. But it is all good!

We had a meeting with pres and sis Cabral this week and Sis Cabral talked to me for 20 mins about Andrew. I am actually super excited to see him!

Mothers Day is so close! I think it is next transfer. But I am already on week 21 of the mission and i only have 83 left... That is actually scary to me! I feel like I should have more time than that! IT is just motivation to work harder. But dont expect very good English during that call... Writing is so much easier than speaking it.

We might have a baptism this week (fingers crossed) and another two next week. We are working our hardest and are coming home exhausted. I love the mission. I love the work. I love the challenge. I love the person I am now.

Elder Wiscombe (American) got a football and a basketball sent to him so all the Americans in our zone played some American sports this morning... so refreshing. Elder Thurgood and I rocked our America socks too :D

I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Johnson

My First Baptism!

Family,

It sure sounds like you guys are having a hectic time there in VA... Snow, dad giving birth, Imagine Dragons, doing amazing on tests... The blessings (except not the kidney stone haha) are raining down from heaven! 

Well this week in Brazil is Carnaval which basically means ´´when the sun goes down, the clothes come off´´. It is basically a giant beach party and everyone from Sao Paulo comes here because of the beaches... So, we have a 6pm curfew. SIX PM. We have had to do this since friday and will have to do it until this thursday. Needless to say, the work has been very slow and to use the words of my companion: This place is Babylon.

Speaking of my companion.... He is getting transferred tomorrow! So is Elder Lopes so it is just Elder Rocha and I holding down the fort here. I will find out who my new companion is tomorrow but everyone thinks I am going to train, which I do NOT feel prepared to do. My language skills have increased dramatically this week. Though my vocab is still limited, I can form sentences and when I speak english with some of the other Americans, it is HARD. I say portuguese words instead of english words... I AM SO EXCITED TO NOT BE ABLE TO SPEAK ENGLISH!! All is well on the language front. I have got heavyweight patience now... HA estou brincando!

But here is the surprise:

FRIDAY WAS MY FIRST BAPTISM! The funny thing is, she wasn´t our investigator. She was Lopes and Rocha´s investigator but she chose me to baptize her! I taught Antõnia 2 times on exchanges with Lopes and I hardly could speak! I was so stunned when she said that she wanted me to baptize her... I am still shocked honestly... I will send a picture later! But how cool is that?! My first baptism was on Day 123, which I think is pretty cool too.

Anyways, I hope all is well and you guys are enjoying the cold weather because I am dreading coming home to cold weather!

Have a good one!

Elder Johnson

The Roller-Coaster That Is A Mission

Yeah, this week was hard. The beginning of the week was the worst. It all revolves around the language. It has been a particular struggle. Almost the entire ward thinks I can´t understand a thing, which is super fun. But therein lies my problem. I had been studying portuguese so that I could have conversations with the elders and other people. On thursday I only studied vocab for the lessons and both the lessons and the conversations went better. Though, it is still hard. I can´t really understand anyone. I know that I was called here to speak Portuguese but that doesn´t mean that makes it any easier. I realize that I have only been here for a very short time but when you can´t understand anyone and you hardly have an idea about what is going on, the days pass by very slowly and it honestly feels like I´ve been here forever. And with that, able to understand people. 

Besides the difficulties, Brazil is a beautiful place. Everything is just gorgeous. I have seen some of the most stunning landscapes and had some of the best food I´ve ever had. Today we went to a waterfall up in Bertioga with some other missionaries. It was sooooooo awesome. We took a bus, a boat, and a train just to get to the trail. From there we hiked through the jungle to a waterfall! 

Yesterday, I went on a split with Elder Lopes and the Bishop´s wife to visit one of her friends. Before we could give her the message, she burst in to tears and told us that she had been praying about what she should do to better follow Christ. She had gone to church that morning and felt nothing. But she came back and prayed some more and she said that she just needed to wait. Then we came to her door with a message about Christ. We got a return appointment and everything so it is super exciting! Also, Elder Oliveira and I might have a baptism soon! We are so close to baptizing a mom and her daughter but the mom needs to marry her ´´husband´´ first. Marriage licenses are super expensive here but they are willing to sacrifice it to be baptized! The husband is a less active member so the ward is really excited to have a new family!

You don´t have to worry about me eating well. The members here set us up! You´d think that after two straight weeks of beans and rice that I would be sick of it but I love it! We had a Brazilian BBQ on saturday with the Bishop´s family and it was heavenly! Nutella is super cheap here (3 american dollars) and cereal is super expensive (about 8 american dollars). Needless to say, my morning diet has changed a lot.

I´ll try to send some pictures here soon. The computers are just really slow.

This week:

1. our bus got hit by the same car twice in 10 seconds. Almost led to a fight between the drivers

2. I´ve seen more doggy love than I care to ever see ever again

3. I got watery cement thrown on me from a roof of a house. It was an accident but cement nonetheless.

4. Brazilians can´t catch to save their lives but are all beast at ping-pong

5. I am refered to as Gringo, Branco (white in portuguese), Americano, or just plain Elder

6. Conversations got so much easier to understand once I figured out that the word ´´cara´´ (pronounced cada) is the portuguese word for dude

7. The bishop´s wife knows how to pick locks of gates and unlock cars with a hanger. She saw my face and said ´´Está Brasil´´ (it´s brazil).

8. You might live in a favela but you have satellite TV and subwoofers and speakers in your car that fill up the whole trunk. And you blast it all night. 

9. only in Brazil do all the men wear speedoes and all the women are 300lbs and in bikinis.

10. our neighbor opened the door to his apartment in the nude. No one knocked on it, he just thought he needed to open the door. I did not need him to open the door.

Love yall and enjoy the snow!

Elder Johnson

Brazil: Week 1

Well this place is nuts. Too much has happened that can fit in this email. Since arriving i´ve had some of the best food i´ve ever had, sweat more than I ever have, hardly have drank enough, seen the worst poverty ever, seen the most humble people, been treated with unrivaled kindness, and have been so loved I can not adequately describe it. 

The people here have nothing. literally nothing. We had lunch (the big meal here) with the ward mission leader´s family. His son´s prized possession was 2 stacks of business cards. Every store he goes in, he gets a card. He handled it with more care than a mom does a newborn. BAM, humbled. I´ve had people who live in shacks give us glasses of cold water, that they save for weeks to buy. We work in the favelas (slums/shanty towns) and the people there are so humble. There is an investigator family here that I just love. They have an 7 year old daughter that calls me her american. Yesterday we had lunch with a member family and a couple nonmembers and there was a little boy who was 9 or 10 who realized that I couldn´t speak well and can only really understand when people talk slowly. So, that´s what he did. It wasn´t insulting but rather caring. He wanted me to feel like a part of the group. He showed me the greatest example of including others. we live right by the church building (one block south) with 2 other elders. one of them, elder lopes, is so awesome. He has really helped me a ton. My comp speaks no english so yes, this has been a long week.

My birthday  was the greatest one i´ve ever had. We spent all day in the favela, teaching people. We teach the first lesson every single day. It was so hot but i´m not sunburned (actually getting a tan WHADDUP). at night there was a concert here so the bus ride home took almost an hour instead of the usual 20 mins. But we got off a stop early and walked right past our street. I asked elder olivera what we were doing and he said that we were going to stop at a members house real quick. it was pretty late so i was like ummmmm okay. When we got to their tiny cramped apartment, the lights were off and there was a cake with candles there. The other elders had set this up during the day (easy to do when you can´t understand the freaking language haha) and they were there with this young family. it was a surprise party! Needless to say, I was speechless! I had mentioned that the 25th was my birthday my first day here and they remembered. In broken english, elder lopes asked me, ´´Did you think that we forgot your birthday?´´ This family had nothing, lived in a slum, and they made me a huge birthday cake. How many times can one be humbled in one week?!?!?!?!

I love it here. Slowly I am understanding more but it is coming very slowly. I get stared at a lot because I am the only american people have seen in a long time. Elder Goldade is in my district so that rocks. But I´m so happy to be here and i have nothing to complain about. my area doesn´t have any mosquitos so I´m still alive! Though, i wouldn´t mind some snow.

I´m super sorry about the short call. my flight out of tucson was delayed taking off. I´m pretty pissed about that. I hope you guys aren´t too upset at me. 

I´m doing really well here but the language is extremely hard for me. It´ll come in time. Oh, my 3 month anniversary is in 3 days! Isn´t that nuts?

Enjoy the cold weather!! miss you guys a ton!

Love you guys, 

Elder Johnson

Week 8: East Tucson

Merry Christmas!

It's weird to say that because it doesn't feel like Christmas here. We don't have any christmas music at the apartment so it's pretty much Jack Johnson all the time. I love it though. I'm not focused on the presents. I'm focused on what we can give the people here. We had our investigator come to church and she is super excited to be baptized. Her husband.... not so happy about that. But all is well here. The ward here is absolutely great!

Okay CRAZY STORY TIME! For the first truly weird story of my mission, I have a great one. So Wednesday was exchanges day and one of our Zone Leaders, Elder Ginn, came to be with me for the day. Yeah, I had been in this area for 10 days and had to take a ZL around... Lame I know. Anyways, we walk past this bus stop and Ginn starts talking to this black lady about God. She asks if we believe in the "High Power". I asked, "Like God? The Creator?" And she says "Yeah, the one who created us all"  Ginn, the trooper he is, says "Yeah we believe in God, do you?"

She stares us in the eyes, and says, calmly: "That is who I am."

I was stunned. How could I have been ready for that answer?!

Ginn says, "Okay, well, why do you think that?" This Lady just walks between us and down the sidewalk away from us, without saying a word. WHAT. THE. HECK.

I said, "Ginn... Did she just say she was the Creator?" He just replied "Yep!" and started laughing so hard. It was so funny!

Crazy Tucson huh? I love it here though. Success in our area is hard to come by but we will be rewarded for our efforts in some way!  My comp is awesome! He has become one of my greatest friends! I love him to death and we work well together!

As far as Christmas goes, we get an hour phone call or we can skype. I don't know if you guys have a skype account or not but I'm not sure if I'll be able to skype so I would just expect a call. It'll be a good day here.

And for mail, when you send it through the Post Office to the mission office, they can forward it to me so if my address changes or anything they can get it to where I really am. But my address is on El Toro Circle in Tucson. It is the View Apartments on the corner of Wrightstown and Pantano. That's all I really know (haha).

Last night was the ward christmas party and we got there way early. So Elder Daniel started playing Christmas hymns and I had my portuguese hymnal so I was singing along in my almost-native tongue (JUST KIDDING). Well the Bishop hears me sing "O little town of Bethlehem"  in Portuguese and then adds us in the program. He got done sharing his message and then he says, "I'd like to invite Elder Johnson to come up and sing OLTOB in Portuguese in front of everyone. It sounded so beautiful earlier, I would just love to hear it again" My jaw freaking dropped! Bishop Rustand is awesome but I'm never singing in his presence again!

My nickname here in the mission is Jack Johnson haha because i can play a bunch of his songs and people like it (haha). Have a merry christmas everyone! I can't wait to call!

Love you tons,

Elder Johnson

Week #2

Hey Mom!

I thought I would send you a quick note now before i do laundry later. Yes, we have 5 gym periods a week. Four Square here is the most intense game ever. So many SC Top 10 plays happen. It is awesome!

Thanks so much for finishing up all that stuff for me. I'm kinda disappointed I didnt get it done before I left. I know you have enough on your plate! I hope you are feeling better about school! The Portuguese is coming along a bit better now. Pretty much we study vocab and phrases for each lesson we teach and learn about the grammar and the "why" behind it later. We have six hours of class instruction plus 3 hours of personal/companion/language/additional study per day. What really stinks is that our class room doesn't have a window so the class hours are rough.

But today is the big tuesday night devotional! Everyone here is super excited because tonight Apostle L. Tom Perry is speaking to us! I'll be in the same room as an APOSTLE OF THE LORD! It will be great and I'll tell you all about it next week!

Thanks for all the dear elder letters. they are so amazing to get. Though some guys in my district haven't gotten any but they are all okay about it. 

This will be the only time I ask for something but could you send a couple pairs of sunday and white socks? I have enough but just barely :) Also, if we have any extra CortiBalm could you send that too? this USU chapstick i brought is weak sauce :) 

Thanks for all you do! I'm so glad you are my mom! I truly am lucky!

I feel like a different person. I've never spent so much time in the scriptures and Elder Bednar's talk last week that we watched was a true life changer. I can't remember if I told you or not but I started the BoM over when I got here and I'm already on Alma 57 :D It has been so incredible to start reading with a prayer to ask Heavenly Father (Pai Celestial in portuguese) to help you with a question. Every time I have done that, a scripture has stuck out tome that has answered me. Personal revelation is real!

Word on the street is that Salt Lake isn't going to be calling any American missionaries to Brazil until visas start coming. It is incredibly hard to get them now. Usually Districts of 12 elders will get one or two visas. Two guys from our district got theirs and left last week. It is a rumor but we it comes from elders who got emails from their mission presidents about it. Who knows! If i'm meant to get a brazil visa then I'll get it!

Anyways, have a good week and I'll be talking to ya soon!

Love, 

Elder Johnson

p.s. hymn 100, Nearer My God To Thee, is my new favorite hymn. Verses 2 and 5 are so relevant right now. I sing it all the time!