January 2, 2012

Dear Family,

So, how was your New Years? I hope that it was unbelievably memorable. Mine sure was. I´ll let ya´ll in on what went down here.

So Elder Soto and I were really struggling this New Years, trying to teach people. It really was hard, because everyone was occupied making food, or they were leaving and going out to parties. So in place of trying to teach the people, we came up with a great idea. SINGING! Woohoo! I really just love that. So we would show up the houses and instead of asking if we could share a message with the people, we asked them if we could sing a song (Hymns of the Church... of course) to invite the Spirit into their homes for the new year. With the concept of little to no commitment on their time, they were thrilled at the prospect. It really paid off. We spent the night singing hymns, and sharing brief scriptures. We got a ton of references, and the best of all, is we got to eat in a Christian party. There is a story for you. We showed up to a house, and asked them if we could sing. They gladly accepted our invitation, and invited us in. We entered and sang. It was great. Then afterwards, they invited us to eat with them. Fried meat in tortillas of Harina (flour,.. I think) with a little bit of salsa. It literally was a little bit of something really good. They then commenced to sing alabanzas (rock style hymns). I think that our little song inspired the rock star within them. It was really great. Then at the end, they asked me if I could offer a prayer. I gladly accepted. (I think that they always pick me, to see if I can actually speak Spanish or not... Haha) As I was offering the prayer, I heard them muttering something like "Halleluiah" and "Amen". It definitely was a new thing for me.

Well, the night ended great. We had permission from President to return to the house at 10:30 that night. We spent the night in the house of some members, the Hno and Hna Monroy (leader mission). That was quite fun. It was really funny because the family had also invited the Zone Leaders to come. We then had a ride to the door of our house (that is for a reason that I will explain later) where we then went to bed at 11:00. Super late. The reason for the need of a chauffeur is because on New Years, everyone and their dog was shooting guns up into the air. Bullets kill you know,... even stray ones.

Well, we also had a great lesson with our family of women. We invited the Hna Soto with us to teach the Hnas Erika Laura and Dolores. The spirit was super strong, and the Hna Soto was able to testify, and also gain the confidence of them. She was able to relieve some of their doubts about the church.

Well, I love you all so much. Life is great here in Mexico. The weather has started to heat up. I think it has reached the 80´s, but I wouldn´t know. I love this work. There is nothing better. I love you guys so much, and I hope the best for all of you. One year to go... Wow time passes by so fast. Thank you so much for your support.

With a lot of Love,
Elder Johnson