May 28, 2012

Dear Family, Hello, how is everything going at home? I sure hope it is just great. What is the weather like? You know what it is like down here? HORRIBLE! It is so hot. Here, I will give you a little example of the heat that we suffer through. Today, we realized that some members had a thermometer in their house. Upon a brief inspection, we came to the realization that there was a Celsius/Fahrenheit button. After we had changed it, the thermometer read 97 degrees. We were inside the house... Then we had the brilliant idea to take it outside. It started to change, and just kept increasing until it reached a good 112 degrees. We put out our clothes to dry on the line, and when we had finished putting up all of the clothes, the ones that we had hung up first were almost dry... At night, when we return to the house, it is like walking into an oven, because the house just sits there all day in the sun, heating up like a big microwave box. Does that not just sound so lovely. We are at the end of May, just starting June. They say that the worst heat is in August... wahhhhahahaha. I guess that I get to suffer now, since I lived in the glory the year past. So you want to hear about one of the funny experiences of this week. This Tuesday we had a Family Home Evening with a less active member, and her husband. Usually that would be great, and we could count on the member to support us and help us in parts of the lesson. This lesson did happen like that. In place of helping us out, it almost seemed as if she was hindering us. She began to ask us right off about polygamy, and about how many wives Joseph Smith had. Imagine that? Here we were explaining about how the families can be together forever, and then she brings that up. Then she sat there told us for five minutes that God did not have a body. She did not seem to understand the concept that we are made in the image and likeness of God. All in all, her husband was more prepared than she was, and despite all of those little problems, it turned out okay. We have another appointment with them today at 6:30. Oh, and you want to hear some really awesome BIG news. This ward has just set apart 15 ward missionaries. 5 for each different area. This is really going to help us move the work along. I am super excited for this. We have begun to involve them in the work being done with the new members, and slowly we will start to involve them with our progressing investigators. I cannot believe it. Benjamin will be home. 2 years... It is incredible. You will have to tell him that I love him and that I miss him. So this week we were really blessed to find many new families, and we are super excited to start working with them. Some are references from members, and other we found in the area book. All of them are really friendly. Me and Elder Kunz are super animated to work together this next companion. Elder Kunz has to be an angel or something. Not just anybody can put up with me for such a great amount of time. I really have learned so much from him. He has been greatly blessed, and has been blessing me. I am very lucky to have this opportunity. Well, we were looking into a talk given by the Elder Uchdorf. I don’t know what it is called in English, because it was in Spanish, but I do believe that it is called "To Be". or something like that. I would urge you all to read it. There are many great messages that we can obtain from it. I love you all so much. I love this time that I have to serve the Lord. I know this church is true. When the Spirit testifies, there is nothing more beautiful to feel. I love this Gospel, and the comfort that it gives to me. I pray for you all often. Love Elder Johnson