October 10, 2011

Dear Family,

Thank you so much for the letter. It is always good to hear from home. If there ever was something that we never lacked in the house, it would have to be reading material. There was always a plethora of choices and options. I on the other hand have had to make do with the Ensign, Jesus the Christ, Our Heritage, and a few other books (scriptures included). Don´t feel too bad, I really enjoy them. That is really wonderful that Dad received a permanent job. A scripture that is found in D&C (121 I think) comes to mind where it says that every blessing comes on account of the commandment that it was based. It is like you said, the Lord is waiting to bless us when we put forth the effort and obey his commandments.

Well, as for me and my week,...

One of the things that really comes to mind when I think about the activities of this week would be the fact that I ate a Habanero pepper. Yep. That is right. For all of you who do not know what this pepper is like, well I´ll tell you. It is hot. After eating this small pepper I then spent the next half hour of my life dowsing my mouth with water, limes, and everything else that I could get my hands on. I felt like crying, but I could not for the fact that all of my tears were leaving my body in the form of saliva. Sorry, that was a bit graphic, but it really affected me.

Also, we finally fixed up the bikes that we have in our area. Just about everything that could go wrong with a bike, went wrong with mine. But it is okay, because they work now, and I really enjoy using them. They really are a blessing, because we have a part in our area where we do not usually go because it is so far away, but now we can bike there in a half hour. The only thing is, my legs are hating me. You´d think "hey, I´m a runner, I can do this easy". NOT. I have never been so sore in my entire mission. But I love it.

We got the opportunity to baptize as a District this past Saturday. We baptized a nice Sister in our area whose name is Alma Jimenez Lancon, and the other Elders baptized the daughter off a non active family. It was a great baptismal service. And at the end, the lady we baptized stood up and basically told her children that they should get baptized too, because it was such a wonderful experience. We have been teaching the whole family, but the mom was the only one who could be baptized because the others have not been able to go to the church, and her husband drinks a LOT of beer. He is a great guy though. He helped me fix my bike this week. It kind of broke while we were riding, and we stopped by, and he was like "here, let me take a look at that" and he just fixed it. Also, Alma has a daughter, Gabi, who is seventeen years old, she has two children, and to top it all off, she has been married since she was 13. Sometimes the world is just so crazy. Jackie is going to turn 12 this December right?

Well, I love you all, and I am so so super grateful for this opportunity that I have to serve a mission. I love the Lord, and I love you all.

Love, Elder Johnson