Life

Dear Dad and Mom

THANK YOU SOOOO much for what you have done for me. I'm working SOO hard, it brings me to tears at night sometimes, but I have been blessed and know alot. we are speaking our language %100
right now before we leave. holy cow dad I only have 3 weeks left :S its going to be worth it though. I have pictures to send I hope you got my letter. I also sent moms package off. I know things are tight but if you want a set of Ukrainian scriptures with names engraved I can do it for like 12 bucks. or the t-shirt. you will have to have mom send you pictures. we get huge discounts on the things here being missionaries. dont worry dad I wont come home, I may not want to after being there for so long :D miss you guys though. being right at the foot of the wasatch I always think of home when I look at the mountains.  oh hey guess who came to our divotional??? ELDER HOLLAND!!!!! he RARELY comes to the MTC I was so stoked to listen to him. also this week in our Zone leaders meeting with the branch presidency they asked me while we were talking " oh by the way we cant be here today so you will be the presiding authority, and we need you to teach priesthood! ............(my reaction) ooooookay I was SOO caught off gaurd but I guess with the church just kind of begining in ukraine, things like this happen. missionaries are called to be branch president, just made me think of my patriarical blessing again... crazy week. still trying to work with my companion. tough, my teachers say I have alot of patience that he still lives in his own teenage world. also been kind of a tough week though what with Taleya leaving today. well hey I do get to call you in the airport when I leave I wanted to let you know that. so try to be with everyone when I do. whats your phone number by the way??? I cant remember it. Love you dad gotta email mom... you know how she gets :D
Elder Johnson

Stories for Mom same day!!!  :D

lol a few more funny times this week, Elder Angerhofer and Elder Wilson were teaching there progressive investigator this week. the investigator told him that he had already been baptized, and instead of trying to tell him the importance of THIS baptism, he very boldly tried to say that that baptizm was invalid. and what it translated out to say was your batptizm was handicapped hahaha man I love it! those elders are awesome! Our investigator is doing AMAZING! well one of them. He has come to church, read the book, prayed and this week we are comitting him to be baptized, he just has to stop living with his girlfriend lol yeah that will be fun :D yeah... darn I will have to check my journal and write you about the week because I only remember a few things.... I didn't get any mail from you this week... OOOOOOHHH GUESS WHAT?! I wrote grandma and commited her to go to church! guess what she did!? haha she wrote back and said she did, I'm going to commit her to read this week in addition to going to church, I got a really bad feeling last week about her, there isn't all the time in the world for her to lolly gag around I KNOW grandpa wants to be with her in the eternities! so we need to git her into shape to spiritualy lol I hope it helps, I Also have a letter for skyler!  but I do not know his address, kinda "throwing down the gaunlet" but I feel like it will be good. so I will write again today. miss you hope all is well!  Love you mom hope you like your gift. p.s. give me the heads up when you want me to start sending tapes.
Elder Johnson.

Thankful

Dear Mom and Dad,
Thank you for the email and dad thanks for the Dear Elder. I'm writing everyone today awsell, well you and those whom sent letters. Taleya is sick??? hmmm yeah that parasite scenario is possible. ... but I'm no doctor. thats horrible! I'll email her and let her know I'm thinking about her, I put her name in the temple today, I just felt worried about her and that I should.  please dont worry about the money, I am frying my brain with how much I have commited myself to studying and getting this language down. on the 12 is when we do SYL for the next two years (speak your language) kind of worried but we can carry on conversations easily between our district. we got our new district in this last week. I like being able to serve so many Elders as a Zone leader. I sent you a mother's day card I hoped you like it. I came up with it all by myself :D yeah my account is in the whole but dont worry, I'm working hard and I know that the blessing will be coming in for you all and me. I have some interesting stories about the Ukraine and there beliefs, I have to get used to wearing my CTR ring on the left hand. I guess right hand means your married. :S who knew, whenever a black cat crosses your path you wait until someone else crosses or you hold onto a button on you clothing as you walk lol there was a missionary around mothers day last year who was in Ukraine and was jumped by a mob there, a letter from his mom fell out as they were beating on him, the letter talked about the persicution of the saints, all types they had to go through. she also said in the letter that he would have to go through some aswell well long story short the leader of there mob read this and stepped out, said he couldn't do this anymore, knowing he was hurting a disciple of Jesus Christ. kind of a cool story. oh last year there was a Ukrainian man who went at this Elder with a razor blade and his companion broke his hand on the mans face because of how many times he hit him and then totally "spartan kicked him" off the bus lol  yeah but those are my interesting stories for the week... atleast the ones that would make sense to you, there are some Language ones but I only have 10 minutes so I'll send it in a letter. I love you both so much and mom I still have your package waiting for you :D I cant wait to get out there OHHHH did you send my immunization records yet??? if not PLEASE do. I love you both so much...  dad I'm so glad the job is starting to pump on all cylinders, I cant thank you and mom both enough for the person you both helped mold me into, yes mom I have learned from you both so much and it has proved itself thus far, My companion and I still have some problems but I'm trying to be better about it... however I think it takes two to tengo, I pray for it often. well I'm runnin low and want to Email Taleya, cant wait till the feild where I get an hour to email home YES! :D love you
Elder Johnson

Mission and Life

Holy COW! ok I'm going to print off your email and respond in a letter because I cant put the Ukrainian Characters in the email well maybe let me know if you can see this. ф я ч д о ю б р к з й I mean I'm going to send the letter anyways! wow I thought you were going to be in the Florida Longer  I have a mothers day package for you but no money to send it. And I'm afraid they have taken out the 12 dollars and sent my account in the whole because I dont really have ANY money in it any more :S but as soon as you send it I will send you your mothers day gift lol kind of an odd little exchange anyways I'm sorry mom I'll look at your email first next week but just know you will be my biggest letter :D love you I'll send you the letter today you should get it in a couple days love you
Elder Johnson

MTC Living :D

Well update for Elder Johnson,
Easter Sunday was good, Elder Wilson and Elder Angerhofer had packages on them that said do not open till Easter so they had this grande Idea that we would hide them in the Dorm so on Easter morning they could have there Easter Hunt! it was fun. I Enjoyed the Dear Elders, those were unexpected but always GREAT to get! I think its about 4 days for a letter to get from the MTC to Colorado. I sent some and hope you got them. THank you for the package! I do have some pictures getting developed and I will send them home soon! there pretty fuunny. My new Companion Elder Kuczak is Canadian, we tease him about that sometimes, He is a bit younger than I so he has not "fully matured" and tests my patience every now and then, he has a habit of showing off alot.... irritating some times.oh and about the Computer, we need the CD to install it, I tried doing it before I left and it told me I couldn't download and that we need the CD to install the software. Thank you for the money, I have some essentials that I have been needing and can finally get them, for the immunization record you will have to get it from the doctors office in Pagosa I think and then send it my way. I'll send the address in the next letter. yeah the belt is really important, no I dont have 100 in cash, and.....hmmm trying to think of the other questions. when I remember i will put them in the letters today.  Conference was really great, for our priesthood session we had a musical number before we brought it up on the big screen, I'm trying out this thursday to see if I can sing for a divotional or something.  Oh Taleya I have something that will perk up your day! the other morning before Gym we were waiting in line to eat and I met a Brit from London, and guess what language he is speaking??? "como esta?" (british Accent) lol way funny! I also have a picture that you will be very proud of me for. I'm going to write a letter today in Ukrainian in but using English Words, I'll send the alpahbet to so you can have fun with that. Dad has written me a few time on Dear Elder, its good to hear from him and to know how he is doing, have dad read this aswell. we had a funny story in Class the other day, we all have been working our tails off to try and learn the language and Elder Wilson is not fond of learning the letters, infact he struggles a little bit with it. So the teacher had a riddle for us to solve and needed a number, so elder wilson said ok 46. "no no no in ukrianian"she says.. Elder Wilson "ok Tre" (three) I guess it was had to be there thing but saying bigger numbers is kind of tough. I loved all your letters, and when you talk to the Evans tell them how much those goodies they sent me saved my trash! lol we are going to be pro's at this by the time Chris leaves for his mission, did you guys watch conference? what were your favorite parts? so yeah what the heck I'm losing weight!!!! I lost two pounds yesterday and I'm eating like crazy, work out day and night! i'm confused! well I dont have much longer but I'm writing back to letters today to!  I miss you guys so much and I'll be sending pictures your way! its gonna be AWESOME! (jack black "konfu panda" keep writing please! perks up my days!
Love you
      Elder Johnson

Called To Serve!!! Ukraine Mission

Hello Mom,
Sorry tuesday is our P-day and I FINALLY get to write. I'm just going to send one big email so if you can tell everyone or forward it to them... I only have a half hour and only  24 min left AHHHHHH! so day one! I wanted to come home, I missed you all SOOO much! really bad home sick! we had a type of orientation meeting at the start... there was probably about 6 or 700 new missionaries the same day I came in. The president went around and asked where people were from and we would just stand up if it was our state or country. Only four from colorado ... :( not really representing lol. but there were some from mexico, Scotland, Japan, holland, .... everywhere, then he finally called Utah and three fourths the freakin stadium stands up! lol REDICULOUS! well things are so much better, I can now, greet, read, pray, and teach in Ukrainian. My russian is proving usefull. as my district of now 4 elders are the only ones speaking Ukrainian in the entire MTC, everyone else is russian. Our teacher calls it the enemy language lol so I get a marker thrown at me if I speak russian in class, I am the district leader of our very small district, which makes it easier to look after..... my very first companion went home yesterday........ WAY tough, after our Mission conference sunday it was about being worthy to be a missionary, I guess it hit home. He had some issues, and had to get them taken care of, our whol district felt sick..... Him and I were the only two in our residence  the rest of my district was in another room, it took 2 days to find out if he could stay, and if he couldn't he was going to be deployed to Iraq, (army) I gave him a blessing of comfort the last night, reported it to my branch presidency. A counsler came and spoke to him and I alone. told me later to not let him leave my site, not only being a companion but a district leader, he said "I dont know if he is suicidal, we just want someone to let him know their there" so I did, I missed lunch and dinner yesterday, waiting outside Pres. Creg's office. his parents did finally come, and he went home. I gave him that knife of mine I brought as a reminder to come back and serve. That the knife was not only a reminder but I gave it a representation as the gospel, it is beautiful, peircing, and if you let it, it will take care of you. he starting crying, we all hope to see him or hear from him again. it was really tough. his experience made not only me but my district start looking at our ownselves and our ownworthyness, we talked about it and I think we are all ok. Our Zone leaders are russian speaking they came and wanted to see how we were doing, the two languages are interesting, we can understand russian (excluding what I know of russian) but the russians cant understand us. its WAY weird, because the languages are kind of similar. so the russians going to the Ukraine come to us for help with ukrainian. lol oh ok YOU NEED TO WRITE!!!!!! everyone in the last 6 days have gotten letters but me... my box number is 116 so with the address I gave you be sure to put that on there! HURRY it up would ya! lol I've got a funny picture to send you all when I get one. oh and I need my medical records for immunization. I got stuck with the h1n1 virus. mandatory here so they can give the vaccine afterwards... well she stuck me once to give me a shot and she NAILED the nerve "I was like.... ouch" no big deal then she sticks me with another shot differenct spot SAME NERVE! OUCH! lol "i have never done that before" she says lol well I miss and love you all, oh my old companion was Elder richardson... you know the guy from sandy. my new companion is elder kuczak he is the "senoir" companion and I'm the district leader. we are all new so it helps... well I have to go I have little time! but please write. yes those are the chords, I do need the belt, and if you can I am going to need some money at one point.... garments kind of crippled me but I got them. I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOO MUCH! oh taleya there is an elder here that just cracks me up! haha you would like him he is like a cowboy nolan lol  Elder Wilson. well dopobachinyou (ukr) lol LOVE YOU!
Ctareeshena Johnson ( Elder) :D