Elder Johnson's Journey: Senior Week

HEY,

Guess what happened this week??? At 3 AM Wednesday morning I woke up. And then I puked. I went back to bed for about an hour and then guess what? I woke up and puked. I went back to bed for an hour and guess what? I puked. The pattern repeated the rest of the morning and then came the diarrhea. IT WAS THE LONGEST, MOST BORING DAY OF MY ENTIRE LIFE. I'd rather go knocking for 13 hours STRAIGHT than SIT IN A STINKY MISSIONARY APARTMENT ALL DAY. It kinda sucked. My trainee thought I was dying. He ran into the bathroom like, WAT!? Haha later on he got sick too, and then another missionary in my zone. So we all sat in an apartment together while the rest of the missionaries got to go #PREACH.

Wanna hear about our investigators real quick? Okay good.

Mel Flores: Mel is a man of few words. He is also quite blind. He had to special order him a Book of Mormon that is as big as my AP Biology Textbook. HUGE. He has three daughters. Sam Kim, and Celeste. Sam is Deaf, which makes teaching a little complicated. Celeste is only 14, but understands the most. We are hoping to set bap. dates with the whole fam here soon. They are so sweet. Elder Lake and I had a cool experience with them while sharing the first vision. Everyone felt the spirit, and we talked about who the spirit is/how we get answers to prayers etc... really cool family

Latasha: Haha LATASHA, her drunk husband and 16 zillion kids (that was an exaggeration... she's got like 7) are all doing good. We haven't been able to meet with her lately. Her kids answer the door, and swarm us, asking for Jesus pictures (It was a HUGE mistake to give them one the first time we went over) and then usually the husband stumbles outside from the backroom, threatens to beat the kids as they flee from the drunken giant of a man, and then he mumbles to us, "Latasha aint home. She wa finna go to ersisters." That's happened like 3 times. We'll keep trying her.

Peter Andrade: PETER IS SICK! He was reading the BOM BEFORE we even found him. He is a 50 year old Latino man, and LOVES his bible. He has like 10 different translations, including the 'Share Jesus Without Fear' version. JK, I don't know if he has that one, but he does have a lot. Anyways, he has been absolutely loving the lessons. He likes to praise the Lord too. At random times. We'll be on the phone with him, and in the middle of a conversation, he'll burst into worship and prayer. He also ends most of his sentences with amen lol.

We brought him to stake conference this weekend, and he sat with a member. Elder Lake and I were busily ushering, so we didn't get to talk to him until the end of the meeting. When we got up to meet him and the member he was sitting with, both of them were crying, and talking about the temple. Peter stood up and quickly shook our hands, and vocally praised the lord. He was so excited about the meeting, he looked at Elder Lake, and said,"GIVE ME A HUG" and bear hugged my comp. It was the cutest thing ever.

So those are our GATORS.

So, I hear Donald Trump is running for president lol... Poor America. Feel free to send me quotes or memes of him. I'm sure twitter is full of them.

This week starts #SeniorWeek for Elder Lake. This is the part of his training where he leads EVERYTHING. Planning, lessons, finding, EVERYTHING. Pray for him, haha he's super nervous, but it will also grow a ton. He's doing really good. We don't have really anything in common, but I have never loved somebody this much for being with them for just 11 weeks. CRAZY. I feel like a dad. And A mom. Like, you know when your mom told you that you weren't allowed to hang out with THAT ONE FRIEND anymore because she said that every time you hang out with them, you come back home and talk back, or start misbehaving like your friend? Yah, I do that with Elder Lake. He hangs out with this one Elder at District meeting, and he starts talking back to me and misbehaving when we get back to the apartment. I say things all the time to him and then I think... woah, my mom/dad said that to me at least 1 million times. Haha it's so weird.

This Tuesday will be my twentieth district meeting taught. It will be on the higher law, and how the mission needs to move from carnal commandments to a spiritual/celestial law. I've learned sooo much from being a DL. It's crazy. One thing I've learned a lot about is summarized in a quote by Joseph Smith: "All things we teach as missionaries are only appendages to that great atonement wrought by the Savior." That is SO true. If it's not about Jesus, I don't teach it.

Well, gotta get going, I LOVE y'all and appreciate the letters/emails/packages. Thank you for the support.