3 October 2011

Climbing a mountain near Camana on P-day

Some kind of fruit cooked in banana leaves

Is that the chicken for dinner in a few minutes?

A Peruvian woman's kitchen

Dear Family!

AAAHHHHH CONFERENCE! I love conference and am thinking about buying all the conference DVDs when I get back, but that’s beside the point. This conference was so great. One of my favorite talks was the one of the Book of Mormon !¡(all sorts of Book of Mormon references in the morning of Sunday, no?). I have a goal to finish El Libro De Mormon for the fourth time in the mission next week, and read it more in this my second half [of the mission]. It really is so good. I finally fixed my spanish triple combination so I can read it now. It broke right after I got to the field. Remember I asked for suggestions? A book repairer put rubber cement on it for 2 soles... haha. At least I think it’s rubber cement.

As always after the tenth hour of conference we were pretty amazed and all and a little sad it will be 6 more months till the next. Seeing Elder Oaks I thought: “Hey, I shook his hand a month ago!”

I also really liked the Young Women’s President’s talk [Sister Elaine Dalton]... I think that would be so great if it can be fully implemented this half year, and we might be teaching some of those things (and not just to fathers of daughters). I was just so happy to hear the choirs and hear the prophets. I learned a lot about how to come closer to Christ. Something I will be working on a lot right now.

I don’t remember if I said it last week, but what I would like most is an SD card to USB converter, something cheapisimo but that I can use to be self-reliant for Christmas.

Eric, how’s spanish class?? When I get back we are going to be able to speak so well! And talk about Paul without his knowing haha. But not really. Practica con la mama le va a ayudar muchisimo! Una semana yo hacia practica con mama y fue lo maximo! [Practice with mom.  It will help you so much.  One week, I practiced with mom and it was best!]

Y’all asked about my health. I am very high of health. I feel very blessed by the promises I have made and trying to keep them dutifully.

I found out the name of those so amazing socks I talked about: they are called Goldtoe.

I’m gunna [going to] email the church today, there is a translation error in Preach My Gospel! Almost sure they know but just in case. Page 169 says lea instead of le in the second paragraph (of course in the spanish version)

So this week we were in reunions [meetings] all the time. We went to a last minute multizone meeting, which was soo, sooo, soo amazing. The president really is incredibly spiritual. He called us hard to repentance telling us: There are some things that you do that are not ok, for example....... . Then, we talked about understanding that we have been called by prophecy to be representatives of Jesus Christ, and given the authority to do so. We talked about how the mission was worth whatever the cost, and heard from four missionaries who are doing miracles in their areas. They are in the same branch, and last month this branch had almost 30 baptisms, with 40 scheduled for October. Hearing them was a wake up call and extremely amazing. We also talked about how that ultimate and supreme teacher is the spirit, and that teaching is more than just talking and telling things, which we also heard in conference from the Sunday School Counselor in his great talk. And basically it was so, so good. The president knows how to tell us what we need to change very, very directly and with love so we really get we need to change it.

Elder Holland’s talk was pretty intense, no? I hope the Young Men’s leaders do some follow up on that. "just enough to singe ya" haha. Somehow, we need all the young men to understand the Aaronic Priesthood. Why didn’t we collect fast offerings? Can we? That talk was a great basis for Branch Presidents and Bishops to work off of.

Well that’s all the extended time I’ve got.

Love

Elder Johnson