Thanksgiving Week

Happy Thanksgiving! This week for Thanksgiving we got up, studied, and went to pick up the Other elders in Ft. Stockton. They live in a traveling trailer on the other side of town that doesn't have a heater, and their electricity rarely works. We picked them up and brought them to our apartment. I baked some cornbread and they chilled. Towards the evening, Elder Garey and I packed up for MLC, and then went and had dinner, then supper with two of the member families here. The dinner was with the Escobars, a Mexican family that speaks mostly Spanish. Afterwards, we went to supper at the church where another member family, the Coxes, had a dinner set up. It was a typical Thanksgiving dinner with Ham and Turkey. Super good. Super full. After the dinner, we ditched the other Elders and drove to MLC.

We drove up to Odessa, and carpooled with the Zone Leaders from Odessa, up to MLC. I got to stay the night with Elder Sork (my last comp) and MIJO! (Elder Walker ) who is still in training. We had a ton of fun, and even played basketball the next morning with all the zone leaders across the mission who had gathered together in prep for the Missionary Leadership Counsel. The Meeting was good. We had some sweet instructions from the Heaps and a returned missionary too, who was traveling through for Thanksgiving. We are all preparing for the Zone Training coming up, where the Zone Leaders relay the same general message to their respective zones across the mission. It's be fun. I get STOKED to instruct to missionaries. You can use words like Priesthood, and Apostasy, and ask them questions that they actually think about and respond to. Whole different ball game as compared to teaching investigators.

We got back to Odessa later Friday night and got stuck in an ice storm, so we ate ate Wingstop (a member owns it so we eat free) and then stayed the night with our friends in Odessa. Unfortunately, I got a call the next morning from Elder Sork. He told me that we had left our truck keys in Lubbock, so he would be driving down with one of the assistants. We did a quick conference call with our zone Friday morning, and then got our keys from Elder Sork and Elder Stringham (the assistant). They took us out to eat and then we took off back to our area.  Crazy Crazy Weekend. 

We did some service this week. We dug trenches for our Branch President Hinckson in his backyard. We're building a pen for his pigs and baby goats that he bought. He has all sorts of animals. He raises rabbits, and he's having us kill a few of them for him next week. He's a character. We also did some awkward service for the old folks home. We try to get in and play piano for them, but none of them like us lol. They sit at their table and play uno while we play, and whisper to each other about us in Spanish, quiet and fast enough that I can't understand them. When they've had enough they always say, "Now that's enough. You can leave now." and then remind us that we can't play uno with them haha they're so grumpy!

I spoke in sacrament meeting this week about the Spirit of Thanksgiving. I realized that I don't know how to teach about anything besides the atonement and the restoration, so I taught about being grateful for those things haha. It went well.

We also got a sneak peak at MLC of the new Christmas initiative! The church has put out a new video and a new website at christmas.mormon.org. They did a great job putting it together. This will be our main source of new investigators for the next month.

That's about all I have time for. Time is going quick, and I'm learning a ton. Love y'all! HAve a blessed week,

Elder Johnson