HELLO FROM BRASIL!!!
Well this week was great! Today we had an intense game of tennis with one of our investigators named Leonardo. He is the principal of 3 English schools around here called FISK. An American guy owns this school. Leonardo heard us talking English on the street and stopped and started talking English with us. He asked if we would stop by his school because in order to learn a language you need to speak it so he wanted the people in his schools to speak with Americans who speak well and give them the opportunity. Its great because they always ask about the church so we get to talk to them about that. We taught him the first lesson a few days back and gave him a Book of Mormon. He asked for one in English. This guy speaks better English than we do because he doesn’t speak a lot of slang so he uses very big words. He invited us to go play tennis with him. Being a baseball player and golfer tennis is very difficult for me because I tend to hit the ball as hard as I possibly can every time. By the end game my hits were untouchable. Haha!! He was a catholic for 10 years and left because he didn’t agree with the doctrine that they teach so he has been looking for somewhere to go since. I think he will love it here! We have already baptized an Michelangelo, if Leonardo is baptized all we need is Raphael, and Donatello and we have baptized all 4 of the ninja turtles! Just a little fun fact. Haha.
Mission conference was pretty awesome! President Didier, the president of the Brazil area was there. He gave a great training on how to teach the restoration of the gospel better.
Last Sunday we got to church and President Saul, the branch president, came up and asked me to speak in church. I had to say yes but during the next two hours, (in brazil you go priesthood, Sunday school, the sacrament meeting), I was writing a talk. I got up and didn’t even use the words and was able to go on for my five minutes. I spoke on Nossas testemunhas. Our testimonies. That’s talk number two.
Two more weeks until transfers! I don’t know what is going to happen. If I do get a new companion or go to a new place I hope to get a brasilian companion. That way I will forget speaking English and just speak portuges every day. That would help a lot with the language!
Well….I must bid farewell until next Wednesday but I leave you with love and appreciation for all of your help!
-Elder Jeffrey Johnson
March 18, 2009
March 4, 2009
Update on Jeff
Jeff is doing well and was able to baptize a man on Saturday. He is doing well with the language. He understands that he has been spoiled with his first apartment with it being brand spanking new. He has been informed that the rest of the mission is not like this. He had the opportunity to have the experience 0f finding a worm in his food when he ate at a members home and was sick for a few days, but has since recovered. He told us he stole the worm and took it back to his apartment to take pictures. Hopefully he set it free :)
I must say as his mom, what an awesome young man and I sure love him!
770ml of acai, Yum! Mission Pics
Image out of apartment
Out back of apartment
Traffic on bridge that crosses the bay in Rio de Janeiro
Van ride after Mission Conference
Bridge that crosses the bay in Rio de JaneiroFebruary 26, 2009
The True Brazilian Experience- 25 Feb. 2009
DAD,
Hey if Mom is reading over your shoulder, or anything, you may want to read this later. It's an experience that I had yesterday and it may be a little intense for Mom to hear but you can be the judge of that and tell her if you feel she can handle it.
We had lunch in Tanguá, a city next to Rio Bonito. After lunch, we had to go back to the highway to grab a bus to take us back to Rio Bonito. We were waiting on the side of the road for a while because the buses were running late because of carnival. Up the road we could see three people on bikes riding down towards us. Eventually when they got down to us I could see that it was 3 kids and they were all only wearing underwear. Well two of them were only wearing underwear and the other kid had clothes on. The kid with clothes on passed by us and the next kid in line came up to me and asked for my phone. I said I didn’t have one. He then grabbed my hand to look at the watch I had on. I thought he was just a Brazilian with bad manners trying to see what time it was, but the next thing I know he says his friend behind him, (the other kid in the underwear), had a gun and would shoot us if we didn’t give them everything. I tried to pull my hand away but he grabbed the watch and ripped it right off my wrist. At this point I realized we were being robbed! I looked at the kid who they said had the gun and he had his hand inside his backpack and pointing it at us like he had a gun. When I resisted with the watch he got all animated like he was going to shoot or something. I didn’t think he had a gun but the consequences would have been greater than losing a watch-- if he did have a gun. Elder Myers gave them our cell phone and then they asked for mine. I said I didn’t have one but they didn’t believe me. I kept telling them I didn’t but that just made them more and more mad. I started emptying my pockets, opened my scripture bag and showed them I didn’t have anything. They then believed me. They then rode away with our stuff as the kid with "the gun" pointed it as us until they were a ways away. At this point I was just thinking that I almost died! I'm still not sure if he had a gun or not. I was scared for a little bit but then I just got angry that I didn’t fight back or something. And also angry that Brazilians would do something so dumb as to hold up two missionaries at gun point and take a phone and rip a watch off my arm.
Well, they say that you haven’t had the true Brazilian experience until you have been held up, so I guess that I've now had the true experience. I'm fine now, just a little suspicious about everyone around me but I'm sure that that will pass. Once again, you can tell mom and the family if you feel they can handle it. But I know ill be safe because I have the name of Jesus Christ on my shirt at all times.
Love You!
-Jeff
Hey if Mom is reading over your shoulder, or anything, you may want to read this later. It's an experience that I had yesterday and it may be a little intense for Mom to hear but you can be the judge of that and tell her if you feel she can handle it.
We had lunch in Tanguá, a city next to Rio Bonito. After lunch, we had to go back to the highway to grab a bus to take us back to Rio Bonito. We were waiting on the side of the road for a while because the buses were running late because of carnival. Up the road we could see three people on bikes riding down towards us. Eventually when they got down to us I could see that it was 3 kids and they were all only wearing underwear. Well two of them were only wearing underwear and the other kid had clothes on. The kid with clothes on passed by us and the next kid in line came up to me and asked for my phone. I said I didn’t have one. He then grabbed my hand to look at the watch I had on. I thought he was just a Brazilian with bad manners trying to see what time it was, but the next thing I know he says his friend behind him, (the other kid in the underwear), had a gun and would shoot us if we didn’t give them everything. I tried to pull my hand away but he grabbed the watch and ripped it right off my wrist. At this point I realized we were being robbed! I looked at the kid who they said had the gun and he had his hand inside his backpack and pointing it at us like he had a gun. When I resisted with the watch he got all animated like he was going to shoot or something. I didn’t think he had a gun but the consequences would have been greater than losing a watch-- if he did have a gun. Elder Myers gave them our cell phone and then they asked for mine. I said I didn’t have one but they didn’t believe me. I kept telling them I didn’t but that just made them more and more mad. I started emptying my pockets, opened my scripture bag and showed them I didn’t have anything. They then believed me. They then rode away with our stuff as the kid with "the gun" pointed it as us until they were a ways away. At this point I was just thinking that I almost died! I'm still not sure if he had a gun or not. I was scared for a little bit but then I just got angry that I didn’t fight back or something. And also angry that Brazilians would do something so dumb as to hold up two missionaries at gun point and take a phone and rip a watch off my arm.
Well, they say that you haven’t had the true Brazilian experience until you have been held up, so I guess that I've now had the true experience. I'm fine now, just a little suspicious about everyone around me but I'm sure that that will pass. Once again, you can tell mom and the family if you feel they can handle it. But I know ill be safe because I have the name of Jesus Christ on my shirt at all times.
Love You!
-Jeff
February 22, 2009
Dear family,
Things are going pretty good out here. Carnival has started so we basicaly stay in our house studying the entire day because there are only drunks and bad things happening on the streets at all times. Every morning when we go out there is like a foot of garbage everywhere from carnival. It ends next Thursday, I think, so I think Im going to get the entire Book of Mormon done in that time.
We finally have a baptism marked! But let me tell you about this guy. On Sunday all the members went out and did contacts before church with us inviting everyone to come to the branch for Sunday meetings. There was one man that came. He came in saying that he was overcome by evil spirits and couldn’t go on until he had them removed. The man is an x- spiritist, which is a religion where they look for demons and that kind of stuff all the time. The branch president gave him a blessing and he said he was ok. We then gave him part of the first lesson. Half way through the lesson he told us about a dream he had had a few days earlier. He had a dream that a lady had come up to him on the street and had an important message to tell him and the lady in his dream was the lady that actually talked to him on the street that day. The man is full of stories like that. So we went to his house yesterday to teach him and when we walked in we noticed that he had painted the words JESUS on everything that he owned. As soon as we walked in he said that when he moved in the house was infested with demons so he said the only way to get them out was by doing that. He then told us that if you tape a New Testament to the windows that demons can't enter into your house. I then noticed that there were New Testaments taped to his windows. The man is crazy but he is going to be baptized on March first, Sunday after church! I'm way excited. We're trying to teach him that if he looks for demons he will find them because they are out there. But if he looks for the light of Christ those things won't bother him because the light of Christ and evil cannot abide in the same place.
Well dad, happy birthday! Hope today goes good for you and you get everything that your heart desires.!!
Hope everything is going good for all of you! And have a good week!
I love you all!
-Jeffrey Todd Johnson
Things are going pretty good out here. Carnival has started so we basicaly stay in our house studying the entire day because there are only drunks and bad things happening on the streets at all times. Every morning when we go out there is like a foot of garbage everywhere from carnival. It ends next Thursday, I think, so I think Im going to get the entire Book of Mormon done in that time.
We finally have a baptism marked! But let me tell you about this guy. On Sunday all the members went out and did contacts before church with us inviting everyone to come to the branch for Sunday meetings. There was one man that came. He came in saying that he was overcome by evil spirits and couldn’t go on until he had them removed. The man is an x- spiritist, which is a religion where they look for demons and that kind of stuff all the time. The branch president gave him a blessing and he said he was ok. We then gave him part of the first lesson. Half way through the lesson he told us about a dream he had had a few days earlier. He had a dream that a lady had come up to him on the street and had an important message to tell him and the lady in his dream was the lady that actually talked to him on the street that day. The man is full of stories like that. So we went to his house yesterday to teach him and when we walked in we noticed that he had painted the words JESUS on everything that he owned. As soon as we walked in he said that when he moved in the house was infested with demons so he said the only way to get them out was by doing that. He then told us that if you tape a New Testament to the windows that demons can't enter into your house. I then noticed that there were New Testaments taped to his windows. The man is crazy but he is going to be baptized on March first, Sunday after church! I'm way excited. We're trying to teach him that if he looks for demons he will find them because they are out there. But if he looks for the light of Christ those things won't bother him because the light of Christ and evil cannot abide in the same place.
Well dad, happy birthday! Hope today goes good for you and you get everything that your heart desires.!!
Hope everything is going good for all of you! And have a good week!
I love you all!
-Jeffrey Todd Johnson
February 3, 2009
03 Feb. 2009- A Mob of Runners
While out on my run today on Center Street near the boat harbor, I looked up and saw a large group of runners coming towards me. They were all taking up all of the Westbound lane that I was running in and I had to move over to the Eastbound side so as not to get run over. They must have been from BYU. Their pace was probably 2-3 times faster that what I was doing. Of course, I'm probably twice their age.
February 1, 2009
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