Bike Week

Friends and Family:

MLC (Missionary Leadership Counsel) was this week up in lubbock... We took the 3 and 1/2 hour drive and carpooled with the ZL's from Odessa. It was a long and boring drive haha. We drove through Odessa on the way up, and I think that Odessa is the ugliest place on Earth. From the outskirts of Odessa/midland, all you can see are pumpjacks... as far as you can see, just a sparse forest of running pumpjacks. It's kinda crazy how many there are. 

Anyway, we drove up to lubbock, spent the night with some Lubbock ZL's (One of them was Elder Sork, a past comp of mine) and then met at the stake center to play zone leader basketball. It's a tradition that was started before my time, where all the zone leaders (the morning of MLC) play a game of basketball. It's usually a ton of fun... however this time went a little different... Someone invited the STL's (Sister Training Leaders) to the game. All of these sisters walked in, and we ended up including them. It was funny to see how upset some of the Elders got that sisters got invited. 

The actual meeting itself was really good! It's kinda stressful tbh... after we receive the instruction, it's our job to get it out to the rest of the mission... We'll be instructing at a zone training in a few weeks to get all of the instructions out. It's always good to go to MLC... lots of old friends, and it's always super uplifting... After the meeting, we filled our truck with supplies, and headed back home. 

One of the things they instructed about was miles. Every month EVER we've been over on our miles that Salt Lake has allotted us as a mission. Entonces, the mission is cracking down hardcore on our miles. We're going from 5 cars and 8500 miles in our zone to 6 cars and 7500 miles in the zone. It's our job to measure the distances for meetings and disperse the miles to the areas how they're needed. It's super stressful. I'm going to be bald when I come back home I swear. 

Because of the cut back on miles, Elder Lund and I decided to set a good example for our zone and take a #BIKEWEEK! Usually Thursdays we take bike day and leave the truck parked all day, but this week, we're not using our truck once! It'll be interesting... We'll see how it goes!

Service in this zone has gone up like crazy. We've been emphasizing it a ton as mission leaders in general, and specifically in this zone. We need to be getting at least 10 hours a week, and our zone has been averaging 10.3 per companionship. It's been a lot of fun, and it really has affected our other key indicators in a positive way. We've found more people to teach, and got more members involved. It's been a blessing. We usually help out at meals on wheels once a week, volunteer at the senior center... or do service on one of the member's farms out here. We have a friend named June at the nursing home who we go visit. June is blind, and has been cramped up in the nursing home for over 3 years... poor lady. We go visit her, and bring her news from the outside world haha she loves it. 

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but THANK YOU very much for all of the Christmas packages and cards, and even emails. I got a lot from y'all, and it was much appreciated. Thank you. 

Well, that's all folks, I'll let ya know how bike week goes. 

Have a blessed week, 

Elder Johnson