4 April 2012

Dear Family

Paul has been lobbying that I take Econ something... I don't think that's a needed class? I'm not too excited about taking an unneeded class since the last time I did that, even though it was really interesting, the rest of the students were all seniors and juniors, which kind of whipped me a little. haha

I did get the shoes! They are really light weight! Thanks!! I got them 2 weeks ago too.. I just kept forgetting to put that in here. Did the insoles get sent too?

This week was CONFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so awesome. We enjoyed every single one of the 5 sessions. It was SO cool to listen to those people, to see how their talks worked together on themes, and to hear their passion for the Work.

As you will see in the pictures, I have gotten a Christmas letter! it went all the way to Thailand from the Simmons before getting here. That was cool. Thanks Simmons!

We had a success on the invitation to go to conference of about 1% haha. The good thing is that we invited tons and tons of people. It blows my mind that it was that low though... We shall have to improve that. There is a possibility that quite a few people came that we didn't see though, there were lots and lots of people in the stake center (our chapel is the stake center!) Sunday in the morning, the whole chapel, and the whole cultural room (like a gym) and two more rooms were filled. We watched it in the secretary’s room for lack of TVs.

After one session Saturday, we stopped by an investigator’s home. We talked about her reading of the Book of Mormon, and invited her to be baptized. We were a little late so went running to be able to make it to the conference on time. Running, we passed two big dogs, who decided to make a perfect moment from the Best Two Years [a movie about LDS missionaries] and followed us chasing and barking. Haha. They never bite.. they just like to make noise. One fell on his face though when he decided to bark very close to my leg and I jumped away while running.

Wow. The March Liahona said we should go to conference with a specific question in mind, so I decided to do it. I went Saturday in the morning, and it was answered with such clarity that I was stunned. In the afternoon, I decided to keep looking for answers to the same, and was guided even more. In the Priesthood session, I decided to go with another question. Almost every talk gave part of the answer. Sunday I went with another question, and my questions kept being answered! I was really worried between the sessions of Sunday. I felt a specific impression about a problem we have here in our area... and went to the afternoon session of conference. Almost all the talks gave answers to that question too! I received a specific and direct guide in every single session of the conference. There truly is a God in Israel, who hears our prayers and answers them. All of them.

One great talk was by Elder Hallstrom, who came here with Elder Oaks half a year back. Pretty profound the idea of being active in the church and not in the gospel.

But they were really all great.

I sent a picture with Misty because the Dear Elder that grandma sent me had a question about why it’s the white city. One of the reasons is that the volcano (active I think) is often covered with snow, also, since the volcano has a special type of rock that is used often in the construction of homes. The rock is cut into large bricks that are 20 by 40 by 20 centimeters I think. They are often piled upon each other without mortar and covered with a tin roof in the poorer places. The rock is white/grey and not very dense - so the large bricks are easily handled.

Here, Palm Sunday is a pretty big celebration. I remember something in primary as a kid, but not much. Anyway, at 6:30 we started to hear people walking by and someone singing with a loudspeaker. We looked out some 10 minutes later when it didn't stop, and we saw a HUGE procession of people. Hundreds and hundreds of people must have passed us. We just saw the end of the procession. I think they were heading to the highest hill by our area that is topped by a cross. So that's an interesting fact.

We gotta run early today!

Love Elder Johnson

P.S. Let us study with much care the conference talks!