Russ email 5/28/2010

Well as you all know I am still here in the MTC just chillin waiting for my VISA to come. We still haven't heard anything about them so we are in the dark. We are getting switched into a new zone tommorow, so we will have a completely different schedule. They were going to make us move residence halls, but not anymore, we get to stay where we are thank goodness! The new district that we will be in has 3 other elders that are going to Mexico that have been delayed for 3 more weeks than us. They are really funny, I know we'll enjoy each others company.

Nothing much has happen this week. D. Todd Christofferson came and gave the devotional on Tuesday. It was the 3rd General Authority that I have heard talk here. It's been awesome!

Well, I'll keep you all as updated as I can on the visa situation.

Love, Elder Johnson #2

Niles G. Johnson-- The 6th Grade Graduate

After many years of diligent work in grade school, Niles graduated from the Lakeview Elementary 6th Grade on 26 May 2010.

Jeff email 5/24/2010

So you all want the happenings on the mission right.. well here they are.

I will share a cool experience that I had this past week. We have been teaching a 91 year old blind woman for a few weeks now. It's always fun to teach her because she has a million stories that she likes to tell us. We had asked her to pray about the message and ask if it was true..... that's where the cool part starts....a few days later we went there to follow up on her. She shared with us a cool experience. She said that she had a dream.. she was entering into the church and she saw a bunch of people. They were behind a wall that went up to about their belly buttons and they were all putting on ''white clothing''. They were all putting it on at a very fast pace she said. She then said that a tall, dark haired young man came up to her... grabbed her by the hand and began to lead her somewhere. They were both in white clothing. and then....she woke up she said. I don't want to try and interpret the dream but I think you could tell why I was so excited about it.. keep in mind this lady is blind and has never seen me. Let's get this lady in the water!!!!

Today I just bought 10 kites... let me explain. In Brazil everyone buys kites and they put this liquid on the strings that when it dries it becomes sharp and it can cut the strings of other kites. At around 2 o'clock in the afternoon there are hundreds of kites in the air. Today with my 10 kites I have one goal.. that goal is to cut down at least one kite before they cut all ten! Is it possible???? I don't know... but we will find out next week.

Sure do love you guys!!!
Elder Johnson

Russ email 5/21/2010

So, this past week has been very interesting. All that we have been doing all day everyday is teaching lessons. We currently have 7 progressing investigators(teachers) and teach about 9 lessons a day. We have only been having about an hour of class everyday, so not very much.

Me, Elder Despain, and Elder Wynn are in a tripanionship now. We are the only ones in our district left so our class room is rather empty. I like it cause its a lot more quite now and less distracting, I get a whole lot more done.

The Spanish is still coming along great. I don't really have any problems when teaching any of the lessons in Spanish, so I think I'm doing pretty good so far, but I'll probably get to Mexico and not know anything cause they talk so fast.

We still haven't heard a single thing about our visa's, so we're just chillin here, it's a waiting game.

I hope all is well with you all and love you all!

love Elder Johnson #2

House Spring 2010

Rain water solution

Miniture Lilac bush. Love it!
Should only grow to be 6 feet at the most.
Climbing flowers (Clematis)

Finally finished the flower beds in front of house.

After many hours of hard work by Todd, the back yard is looking awesome and is ready for sprinklers, sod and a vegetable garden.

Russ email 5/14/2010

Hey everyone.

As you all know I have been delayed in my journey to getting to Mexico, so I wont be flying out on Monday and I have no clue when. I guess its just more time to become even more amazing in Spanish...haha :).

This week was pretty good. I finished the Book of Mormon last week, I think I forgot to say that last week. I got so much out of it reading it with the intent of learning from reading it. I haven't decided if I'm going to read Jesus the Christ next or read the Book of Mormon in Spanish, we'll see tho.

Nothing else too exciting happened this week, oh, except for the devotional Elder Jeffrey R. Holland gave (When we spoke to Russ on the phone on Thursday he mentioned that the talk was about continuing on with living the gospel and staying strong after the mission). It was the most amazing talk I have ever heard! I felt the spirit stronger during that meeting than probably ever before. It kinda makes me sad to think that I'll probably never hear another talk like that again seeing as it was in the MTC.

Well, I hope all is going well with you all. I'll try and keep you updated on my travel plans.

Love,

Elder Johnson #2

Jeff email 5/3/2010

Hola Hermano Elder Johnson. Yo esto mucho feliz para tener te ouvido. Yo ensinei uno muchaco que habla espanhol. Yo endiendi que elle hablou para me. Buenes suertes com tu visto! te amo!

I totally just made that all up and I'm pretty sure that it is good Spanish for someone that hasn't ever really studied. I taught a guy from Peru last week and he spok in only Spanish and I was totally able to understand almost everything and with my broken Spanish I could teach him pretty well. It was really a good picker upper on the fact that I will be able to speak with
Russell when he returns. I just need to get a little studying down with el espanol.

This week was crazy cool! I did 220 contacts this week alone. (because still my comp doesnt feel like helping much). You would think that with all these contacts I would have found tons and tons of elects. Out of these 220 there is one elect that will be baptized next week, and the funny thing is....he contacted me.

We are commanded as missionaries to work dilligently and with all our heart might mind and strength and I am happy to say that I have been (excuse the language) working my behind off! The thing is... next week I am going to baptize a guy that didn't come from my labours because he contacted me. I got to thinking, we work to find people to baptize but I feel this week, I was working to show to the Lord that I deserved someone to baptize. This has become a testimony to me. My work and dilligence may not bring baptisms in its self, but in a whole it will bring baptisms because I am proving to the Lord that I deserve these people! His name is Sergio and he is very excited. He was taught by Sister missionaries about 20 years ago and he liked them alot but for some reason never was baptised. Last week when we were entering the church with him he said... the prodigal son returns to his father's house. I thought it was amazing.

So this week I'm going to call home. Sorry Russell you wont be there but just think about it this way.. youre going to call home in no time and I'll be there to hablar contigo there!

love you all!!!

untill Sunday

Elder Johnson #1