Week Two: Easter Time

Tuesday, April 2, 2013 8:45 am

Hello Everyone,

Again thank you SOOOO much for all the letters you send to me. They are one of my favorite things about a mission. Every evening our District Leader hand out the letters to whoever got them and whenever I get one I am just so happy. I love hearing about everyone and the support that you guys send me. It seriously means so much to me. Oh!!! Happy Birthday Grandma!!! Sorry I missed it. I bet you're looking great :).Mom, everything that you sent me is working wonderfully thank you. So I don't think I told you guys about my district last week. I have 12 people in my district. there are 5 sisters and 7 elders. We are such a tight district already and we are working hard (if not unfocused and loud at times). There is me and my comp: Elder Plothow. He loves basketball and to whistle music. Like he is always whistling and sometimes it is too much but honestly since there is very little music here I enjoy it. He is like 6 inches taller than me, he is the tallest elder and I am the shortest elder (of course). He is so cool though and he goes to choir with me. He loves Brother Eggett too. (Oh mom, tell Brother Eggett hi for me and that he has been such a wonderful example to me. He is amazing too). Next are Elders Clark and Clawson, our roommates. I actually shouldn't call them roommates. We are all so tight that we have like a quadruple companionship going on. Elder Clawson is from Texas and is actually speaking Cambodian in the Long Beach Cali mission. He did track like you Cutler, the 400, 4x1 too. He was like a low 48 second 400 m runner. Fast. He is quite in class but is so funny when its just us four. Yeah. His comp is Elder Clark. Clark is from Cali and sounds like he came from a well to do fam. Left a car, man cave, pool, girl, etc behind for the mission. He and Clawson are so funny they keep me and Plothow laughing all the time. Clark has grown so much since I have met him and it is crazy what he has done. He gave his first blessing on Monday and us 4 were in the circle. So proud of him. His testimony has grown so much and it has strengthened mine as well. Then there are Elders Whitney, Garrow, and Anthony. Anthony loves basketball and gets updates on the NCAA tourney (what are they bytheway?). Whitney is from Provo, lives like a block away. And Garrow is from NY not city though. Was in the Hill Cumora Pageant for 9 years now. So i saw him in it like 3 or 4 summers ago when I went on the Church History Tour. They all are a trio of companions and I love them. They all love Avatar the Last Airbender and we sometimes talk about it cuz we all love it. The sisters are Homer and Hartley, and then the trio McQuivey, Orton, and Melton. I don't know them that well. Just that Sister Hartley loves fanta and that Cambodia lives on Fanta. Literally. Number one soda there. Also, Sister Homer is super good at the language already. (So are Garrow and Whitney). They all have great memories. Yep. That is my wonderful district.

My teachers are locruu Mickelson and locruu Thomas. Locruu Thomas (locruu means teacher in Cambodian) was our first "investigator" Boon Somnop (closest spelling with English alphabet). They seriously care about us so much and have strengthened my testimony like no other. I love them. Mickelson is always always smiling and Thomas understands us and how we have grown with teaching him. We taught him 4 times before he became our teacher. Anyway I love them both.This week has gone by so fast it feels. Literally after my first few days this one has blown by. The language is still hard but it is coming. We started learning script, the actual writing of the squiggleys, and have started to learn to read them. It is CRAZY!!!! when I come home I will have my own secret language :D. It is starting to become enjoyable now to learn the language. But honestly, If i could choose what to study i would definitely do the Book of Mormon. I love it so much. I read so much of it this week and AHHH i just love it. It is the most true book in the world. I have felt the Spirit so much by reading it. This past week i read about the Stripling Warriors and Captain Moroni. I know that I have the mother of a Stripling Warrior as my own mom. I know that :). Love you mom. One little detail about Captain Moroni that I thought was funny was, He has a temper. I mean in one part of the BoM it says that He was angry with the Lamanites and the next thing it says is something like, he commanded his men to slaughter them. So don't mess with Captain Moroni and liberty and religion. I almost felt bad for the Lamanites. But I seriously love the Book of Mormon so much. It is so fun and enjoyable and i learn so much.

So this week was Easter. We thought an apostle was going to come to talk to us but it was actually Bishop Causse (he's from France with the whole accent and everything. SO cool) and his wife. They taught about the Savior but I didn't actually get the most out of that. What I got the most out of was actually the sacrament meeting. It was combined... 3,000 missionaries taking it all at the same time!!! Never had they done that before. It was just like the Savior feeding the thousands with loaves of bread and fish. It was so cool. It reminded me of the huge sacrament meeting going to happen with the Savior before his second coming at Adam Ondi Aamen (spelling?). The spirit was definitely there and we in the choir sang the Lord is My Shepherd. It was great. Sundays p.s. are the best day of the week along with P-day. So after meetings on Sundays we go on a temple walk and take pictures and just enjoy the weather. It was great. We had a devotional that evening and Sister Sheri Dew spoke to us. She has definitely been the best speaker here by far. She taught about how the Savior is not our last chance, he is our ONLY chance. I know that to be true. She knows it too. She has never been married and she HATES it but she also has grown so close to the Savior and knows that he is looking out for her. It was amazing. Later, we watched a talk of Elder Bednar teaching how to recognize the spirit. He said quit worrying about it. If it is something good then just do it. Every good thing comes from the spirit and more often then not you will not know if it is the spirit till after you do what you felt. it helped me soooo much because i was worried about that.

I love this work and this mission i am on. It is so hard but the letters, the people, and the Lord pull me through it. I know that He loves me and that He Lives. He is the way. I am here to share this message to everyone who will listen. I love it so much. I miss you all but I know that God is with you. I love you all so much. Until next time, may God be with you.

Love,

Elder Johnson