Tay’s Email

October 18^th 2010

Email/Week #29

FAM-
Beautiful fall day I am sure.. it is nice and toasty here! Mom said there was a touch of snow on the mountains today... I miss their beauty for sure! Mom, I enjoy writing you by hand each week, it is the least I feel I can do for you while I am here. I was teaching a family this week and we ended up discussing patience in the family...I used the example of how I wasn’t always patient with you went you would ask about the computer and now I regret it with all of my heart...I want to apologize to you for that, and to everyone else with whom I wasn't always patient... I am trying to practice it here, I will return better. Dad I know you are hard at work . . . probably flying right now, I love you for that. I envision you with your little digital book and miniature classes (that go around the neck of course) and I am filled with gratitude for what you do. I told your shark joke this week... about the man who sews his arm back on wrong... it was a success : ) Does everyone remember that chicken joke Dad used to tell? . . .with the towel? He would roll it up and in the end he would make a chicken?? I told that one too...success..again.. : ) We discussed our parents forms of punishment this week and I told about how dad used to BOOT us hahahaha... Can anyone imagine dad doing that again? I would like to apologize for all the times I made you wanna boot me... for every door I slammed...And I will fix that whole I punched in the wall when I come home alright? Deal. Hales thanks so much for the pics...LOVED them...RUDY IS FATTTT! I think about you every time I see the ANCIENT chairs they use here to cut hair. I will try and get a picture if I can . . we aren't allowed to take pictures on normal days so it is tough! CUNKIN PARVING! I laughed out loud hahaha... woops. I expect to see a Brazilian flag or my FACE in a pumpkin! Hales thanks for the picture of the house! I have yet to see your studio! PS. . if you have time to take one of my moto that’d be sweet. . . or I think it might be with Justin lindorf.. nvm! 7 months without hearing your voices! My love for all of you grows everyday. Love- Elder Johnson

PS mom I just looked at the picture of the house and you look great! : )
PPS. Dad I want to see your new booky thing, and Barrett and Jeanine your new carsies! (Mom spilled the beans about the paint)

ALL-
A week has gone by since I sat in this Chair,
I'm a little bit browner with a little less hair
It can fall out if it wants, I won't complain
I have no chance, its over, end of game
don't know why I wrote a poem, but I hope you liked it
If not, lets pretend it wasnt me who typed it

ALRIGHTY. This week was AWESOME. I learned bunches and had a few new experiences. We were able to baptize a wonderful family - Maria fabricia and fernanda. They are awesome. Maria is 100 ready to do whatever is necessary to put her life more in tune with God's will. About the baptism...everything went wrong. The Ward mission Leader showed up an hour late so we waited at the gate forEVER... then we had to fill up the baptismal font... when we opened the door it was ALL yellow, had a cricket and also a friendly lizard waiting to greet us. Elder Stocking and I got to work really fast. We cleaned it out and got it filling up. We spent the next 20 minutes carrying bucket after bucket into the font to fill it up... we also connected a house with a faucet in the chapel...wherever there was water, we found it. When we finished the font, we realized that we didn't have anyone there in church clothes to be a witness... Elder stocking and I put on jumpsuits and gave our church clothes to the Ward mission leader and another young man there. I laughed the whole time... You have to laugh, getting frustrated doesn't help right? In the end, I fibbed, everything didn't go wrong. It was truly a wonderful meeting, I was able to play a piano piece to try and bring the spirit after the mad rush for water, and even though there was one member who sang along (alone) the whole time, I am very thankful for the power of music in bringing the spirit. They received the spirit this week and they are smiling more than ever. . . I love seeing miracles everyday.
Sunday we had two more baptisms...one that we had planned... and one investigator that told us last minute she wanted to be baptized... she had the interview and we were able to baptize her that day. One was a baptism that came from a member reference... the other was from an inspired contact that we made a while back with those two old women playing dominos. . . The Lord continues His mysterious works neh?

I was VERY impressed by the way the Lord helped us accomplish our goals this week. We did the work and he made it possible for us to reach our goals.. including our investigator that wanted to be baptized last minute. Set worthy goals, go to work, and the Lord will do the rest... that was the lesson learned this week. We were also able to break the attendance record here in our branch, 104 people in sacrament meeting. . . everyone was stoked, particularly us for missionaries. Seeing the church grow in this remote area of the vinyard has been amazing... it will be hard to leave this area and all of the friends I have made here.

We put together mutual this week and had a great message and activity about who we are and the plan of salvation. We taught, and afterwards we all grabbed chalk and drew the plan of salvation in the parking lot... everyone had a blast. I was very impressed with the message that was shared... about the importance of remembering who we are. As we remember who we are, ALL of the simple things of the gospel become natural re sequences . . . the desire to pray and talk with our Father, to read and study his words, to spend the Sabbath in His house, and serve His children, our brothers, around us. In the Pearl of Great Price the Devil tried to make Moses forget who he was saying "Son of man" . . . I love His response... that to me was more or less like this... "Who are you to tempt me? I am a child of God, all powerful, omnipotent, all loving..." You can read His exact words... but you get the idea. He has no power against us... we are children of the Almighty God! Just take a quiet minute and think about that and then ask yourself as well if there is anyone around you that doesn't really understand that... then give them the chance to hear it. Send the missionaries. Time is up... I wrote A novel because I had time... woops.

Love to all - Elder Johnson