Hello everyone!!

So I heard that Tyler got his call, I can´t hardly believe it, everyone is growing up so fast and it´s also cool that he´s going to Mexico, when he returns nobody is going to understand either of us. So my area is getting a little bit better, we have found a lot of new investigators, we will also keep looking for more because I'm not sure these families will stay with us. We really have a big area, so we still need to search from top to bottom. We will hopefully have a baptism this week, the family we have been working with is getting married this week, so then we can get them baptized. So I have received a new companion and his name is Elder Vargas, he is from here, and yes I am training him. He is also waiting for his visa to go to Mexico but he is not going to the same mission as Tyler. So I heard that the Hermosillo mission is a really cool place to be, it is not as hot over there like it is here, LUCKY!! So I heard Ethan is getting surgery, doesn´t sound like much fun, but if he endures through these trials, God will bless him more than he can imagine. I have been really seeing the blessing in my life, if you just do what the Lord asks, even through trials, He promises that His love and watch over us will never cease, so count your blessings! So it looks like Dad and Daniel didn´t get drawn this year, they wouldn´t have gotten anything anyways because I mean without me, their luck wouldn't be any good anyways! hahaha!! So that´s all I really have for this week. You are all in my prayers, please send my love to everyone. Till next week! :)

Love Elder Johnson

Dear Family

Hey, how are things going? Everything here is going ok. My area is kind of dead right now, we don`t have anybody! No body really wants to talk to us, we are constantly searching for new investigators but no one has the desire to learn more about the gospel. I`m pretty sure it is a trial of my faith, but I can defiantly let you know right now that with out a doubt I will not stop searching this area until I find every person that the Lord wants me to find, because the Lord defiantly prepares his people, we just need to do our job and find those people. I constantly pray everyday to find those individuals or find someone that is prepared, I know that one day that will happen! I will just continue to keep searching until it does. So we are still working on one family, they just need to get married so we can baptize them, that`s basically who we have, we will just keep our heads up and keep looking. Elder Moran is doing great, he is great example to me. He speaks to the people in a great way, but it seems like we are constantly having to improve our self's in some way, but what missionary doesn`t. He hasn´t left let, we were fixing things today for his visa so he could leave this week or next week. There is a chance he wont leave until the end of the change. We won`t really know until we get a call letting us know when his date is. So I read a letter by President Glazier today and one of the missionary wrote in this particular letter. I liked everything he talked about, he talked about skills and abilities, and how they are not important in the mission. He even expressed to us that he wasn`t skillful at all, but how he was called to do the very best he could do and not to worry about who is better at what or who is better at something than you! Something he said has really struck me, he quoted from Elder Amado, "We all know that the Lord could be a way better missionary than we can, so really why did the Lord call me on a mission?" I thought about it, and I thought about the words of that missionary! I was called to do my very best and to invite people to come unto Christ, regardless of my talents or abilities! I have faith that we will find those who are looking for us. Maybe you can take this talk and apply it to your self's in a way that you may be struggling. Well I`m going to close for now, I send my love and prayers out to everyone, till next week.

Love Elder Johnson

Dear Family,

How is everything going at home? It´s going super great here, the training is definitely difficult, my companion Elder Moran will actually leave this Wednesday to his real mission. His visa came in so we will see what the president will do with me. So I think I'm definitely going through a trail right now, in my area there is nobody that wants to talk to us. We hardly had any lessons this week, but yet we are on our feet everyday hitting the roads and knocking on doors, but it´s ok, as long as I'm doing everything I'm supposed to, Heavenly Father won´t leave me. So I heard Chile had a 8.8 earthquake there, so we are stepping up really hard on our kits and what not because you never know who is next. That´s good to here that grandma is doing a little better, we never know what the Lord ahs in store for us. So this last week we had what is called "semana santa", it´s a week where everybody remembers what Jesus did for us in his life, they watch movies about the life of Christ, they even did something on Saturday which was cool. They closed off most of the streets in our city Arce so they could draw designs in the streets about Jesus, they had a ton of groups doing it, it was kind of cool. Then right at 6:30 all of sudden it started to storm and rain super hard, but there was no cloud in sight before. Just thinking about the storm made me think of how powerful the storm must have been when Jesus died, we know that a lot of things were destroyed. It´s kind of funny what dad said about training someone, because it´s true! What the greenies learn from their trainer, they LEARN EVERYTHING, they basically become you, so just think of another latino Gavin running around here! hahahaha! Oh and I received a letter from my mission president saying DO NOT update my FACEBOOK any more because they´re having a lot of problems with Elders in the mission using them, and they can´t tell which ones are doing it, so really don´t worry about it, it will be there after my mission. So what is Misha doing for mesa public schools? How's the weather there, oh wait I know that questioned, Hot!!!! hahaah! It´s ok, it´s hot here all year, so I have 16 more months left of hot weather! Well I'm glad everybody is doing good, I love you all, remember that God has given us weaknesses for a reason, to come closer to Him. Send my love to the Grandparents.

Love Elder Johnson

Dear FAM.
So how are things going? This week has been a good week for me, we are working really hard over here. Well it looks like I will be here in the city Arce for 3 more months, because the Lord and President Glazier feel that I should train one of the new missionaries coming in to El Salvador. They promise me that it will be a learning and growing experience, and so far I believe that to be true, because of the many things I have already learned and how the Lord really does bless lives. I´m super excited and can´t wait for this experience, as it starts to dawn on me, my training went by so fast, I believe this training will go by even faster, as I´ve been told. After this training I will almost have a year, Wow!! Only when the time starts quickly moving is when you don´t want it to. This mission is seriously passing too fast, but man I have seen the blessings that have come with it. Well all is well here in my area, we are working with 3 families right now, one of them we are actually still working on marriage papers. I actually thought we were done, this paper thing will never end! Another family we´re working on, we just talked to them yesterday about families being sealed in the temple, and they really loved the idea of that. One of them is already a member, but the husband is not, we are starting to prepare him for baptism. The last family we´re working on is a super great family. They have so much faith, especially after the trail that they have had in their lives. Right before the wife was baptized she had a baby, along with that, the husband almost lost his finger, the baby that they have gets sick a lot, but they still want to be baptized when everything settles down. What a blessing it is to see the great faith that they have. That´s really good to hear that everything going great over there, sounds like Bishop Ellsworth and his wife are excited to leave on their mission. Well I love you all, I have a lot to do and a lot ahead of me. Remember to say your prayers and read the scriptures. I will see the new missionary Wednesday, I will make sure that he feels welcome in the mission, hahhahaa! Seriously though, please keep me in your prayers, because really I have never ever trained anyone in my life, well except at Nielsen's, but that´s different! :)

Love Elder Johnson

Hello everyone, what´s happening? So everything is going great here, we are working with a few families. With one of the families we are just getting all of the paper work done for a divorce and then to get them married, that has been super hard to accomplish. That kind of paper work takes forever to get because there is always something that seems to go wrong, but in the end it is all worth it. We are also working with another family, they are all members of the church except the father, he seems really interested, his wife is an active member of the church, so that will help us out a lot with him and his need to understand the church. The cookies I received were super good, they were actually still fresh to my surprise, and they weren´t even smashed or nothing. It sounds like everyone is doing super good. It has been super hot here, but I guess I´m already used to it in a way. The only problem is here A/C doesn´t exist, when it´s hot everyone is killing to have even the smallest fan, oh well I will be fine I guess. So I don´t know if it´s true yet, but president Glazier wants me to train this next change, my companion told me, but it doesn´t mean that it will come true, I´m excited and nervous at the same time. I´ve never led an area or train any one so it will be a neat experience and also a growing experience for me. I can´t believe conference is almost here, it really just seemed like it wasn´t to long ago, but I´m super excited for it! I always love hearing what the talks are about, you always will learn something new and the best thing is actually applying those things we hear to our life. We always see the promised blessings if we do so. So I can´t believe mom seems to want to watch over me, it does seem kind of creepy! :) I´ve been out on my mission for almost 8 months mother, how can you still be worrying about me? I hope that when I get home you don´t kill me with your hugs and kisses! hahaha. So this week we have the privilege of hearing a talk by Elder Amado, one of the Seventy's, we will be getting pictures and get to greet him personally, so that will be a cool experience. I can´t wait to hear what he has to say. Well you are all in my prayers. Pray always and read the scriptures, always seek to receive revelations to help you endure to the end. I love you all.

Love Elder Johnson

Hey!!!! I'm glad to here everything is going good. I HAVE RECEIVED THE PACKAGE, You may send the ACTIVATION CODE!!!!! Yea I really did enjoy all of the food you sent. Me and my companion have already eaten all of the cookies, they were super good, my companion really loved them, he couldn´t stop eating them. So everything here is going super great, not much has really happened this past week because we are dealing with people trying to get divorce papers, and trying to get marriage papers, so we´ve been practically all over El Salvador. I'm still climbing hills all over the place! There getting much easier for me, everyone that I'm with seems to have a hard time with the hills, thanks to all of those hikes I did in Young men's. :) So for the past couple of days I've had an infection in my stomach, its because of the food I had at a members house! That's the only unfortunate thing about being here in El Salvador, you never know if you are eating bad food! Yet its strange, I can say it´s one of the best things I have ever eaten in my entire life! That stinks that Arizona is getting hot again, but that´s not news to me. Here in El Salvador it´s been the same, hot all of the time, but yet sometimes it can be nice. I haven´t seen rain in a real long time, maybe that will change. My Spanish is going alright, I really need to fix my grammar, it is super bad, but some say it takes a long time for that to come. Well I love you all, nothing has really happened this week. Tell Grandma Johnson that I love her and I pray that she will get better. Tell Grandpa J. and Grandma and Grandpa W. that I love them, and that they are in my prayers also. Till next week,

Love Elder Johnson

Hello everyone, how are things going for you all? Everything here is going great, we were supposed to have a baptism this week, but it just didn´t seem to happen, don´t worry, we will work with him. So far I´m loving my companion a lot, he the same personality like me, so you can just imagine how our companionship is, hahaha, but we are working very hard, we have to really work over time now, because we have a lot of less actives, and I mean a lot, our count for people who attend is super low, so we are working super hard to visit less actives along with teaching our investigators, so this area will be a challenge for me, but I believe I can handle it, I love working anyway, nothing is better than doing missionary work. So I´m still on my first pair of shoes, hahaha, I have already had them repaired once, it only cost about three dollars to repair here, I plan to keep these shoes going for at least until I have one year in the mission, but I don´t think they will make it, they are already looking pretty ugly. Oh and one thing, I didn´t say that your old enough yet to serve a mission, I just asked how your preparing, one thing I suggest is "preach my gospel", because believe it or not, every mission uses it, and besides, that´s a really good way to help develop your teaching skills, etc. and the list goes on! Well I´m glad to hear everyone is doing good, I wish everyone could realize how much happiness they would have if they just forget everything from the world, and I´m not saying that to make anyone mad or say it to be smart, I´m saying it because of the joy I feel, and how much happier I have felt, by putting the things of the world away, it reminds me of a scripture in the Book of Mormon, Dad and Steven should know this one, I will say the short version because I only know it in Spanish, "Wickedness was never happiness". My spanish is getting better, but I need to fix my grammar because it is terrible, I never really noticed it before, but I guess that´s the learning part. Well I love you all, I want to hear how everyone is doing?

Love Elder Johnson