4th of July

Hey Mom,
so HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!! and no the missionaies are the only people who do anything here, and it consists of wearing a  patriotic tie. my first Holiday every outisde of the US. so yeah wow I'm glad things are starting to look up! its good to hear all of the good news. sounds busy but it sounds good. I'll keep all those people in my prayers and the family as you prep to move. yeah I told dad about coming to get me and some need to knows. its a long time away but just take into consideration not just your passports but you visa's for the country. they take some time to get in to. also the currency. it just went back  down to 8 gryvan for 1 dollar so you come here with $1000 its 8000 gryvan. which is quite alot here. we only live on $37 a week. kinda of funny how it works. and then transportation once we get here. public is easy to take but its hot, they have a superstition that if you open the windows that it will cause of a draft (obviously!) and that then everyone will get sick! so it gets hot but there way cheap. I think it would be like 25 cents in U.S. dollars. Anyway! So the work here is just exploding! I have my first baptism this weekend! Valentina is her name! very sweet old lady. she got up and bore her testimony yesterday which was awesome for all of our other investigators there! I have been memorizing the baptismal prayer so I can say it write. and then have to find out her full name which will be an adventure in itself! after this baptism we have 3 more next week! wow! I think that we should have a temple going up every transfer! everyone is way stoked for "the day of open doors" as it translates here, aka open house. its been an intersting week. had my bed sheets get burnt by cigaretts as they were hanging out to dry. Ask dad about that one. also missing a few things, we got tricked into talking to a j-dub aka Jehovah's witness! he stopped us on the street and kinda told us he was interested so we set up a meeting the following day. I didn't catch this but I guess right off My comp asked him what religion he was. he responded that it wasn't important. and I guess, Elder Johnson told me after that he knew right off who he was. well at the begining of the "discussion" I didn't know he was a Jdub and I was have a hard time understanding because he was speaking surgic (Ukrainian Russian mixed) but it was SO amazing! I got a prompting!!!!!! kind of random but it said " Satan will also put people in you path that would distract you from those who would here the truth" word for word I remember it so Clearly. I dwelled on that and then really started trying to listen in on what was being said. I then got another prompting after I started to understand that he was trying to find fault in the Book of Mormon and with what we said. I remembered the book of Alma when Amulek is teaching and some of his words reigned true in my head as he spoke to the lawyers who were trying to find fault in his words. he said to them "you are trying to lay traps and snares to catch the holy ones of Israel" by this time I had a way bad feeling! Elder Johnson looks at me and in English says lets go... I agreed. just after that he says "you need to address God by his name" OH MY GOODNESS! those are the words of a Jdub! thats when I figured it out. I got kind of contentious! because he persisted to teach us! and in D&C 43:15 it states that we are not sent forth to be taugh, but to teach the children of men that which God puts into our hands. and in 16 " you are to be taught from on high" I thought wow if we were not missionaries and people looking for the truth and you told us that by calling God by his sons name will allow us to be saved, where would our salvation lie then? the actions he does in his life will hang over his head on judgment day for leading the Children of men astray! I was so fired up! but none the less I guess thats missionary life! so yeah we had a couple of other experiences where people persisted to say that what they knew was true. here they pray to Icons alot. people sell these cards with apostles and prophets on them. I call em Pokemon cards "gotta catch em all!" its good though Im always sizing people up, making sure if the drunk ones get crazy we can either take em or get out quick! I'm way excited for the baptisms coming up I finally feel like I'm remembering the language! but yeah thank you for your prayers, everytime I get and feel promptings like that I can always justify that I am here, and worthy to be! that I have the holy ghost and the ability to have my Heavenly Father Direct my actions! My heal has been really hurting me though lately. I dont know what it is. we went tracting yesterday from 4 till 8:30 and it was killing. but it only started doing that a few days ago. like the begining of the week. its weird but If its suppose to teach me something I'm all for it! well I'm going to email dad now I have some pics for you to. OH and yeah so my camera got rid of ALL of my pictures before Ukraine. and the first ones in Ukraine. I am so angry! I dont know what happend butthey are no longer there! AUG! stupid Camera!  I love you all and hope all is well. Enjoy the pics
Elder Johnson (the younger)