January 30, 2012

Well, this week was amazing I felt like  a servant of the Lord working in His hands and I feel Him shaping and forming me, as much as I let Him.  I’m trying to give my life to Him but it’s harder than it seems at times, even in the mission.  It was a spiritual week with tons of stuff that happened.
     I’ll start out by saying the baptism didn’t work out like we all had planned because Chamuko is a devil…means the devil is a devil, haha!!!
I hate him so much.  We had it all planned, ready to go but at the last minute our two buses we had rented, called and said the buses broke down and we couldn’t use them…. Seeing that the people here don’t just have the money to fork over to go there, we just did it in the church and it was normal.  The mission president didn’t come and neither did the apostle.  It’s okay because it was still amazing.
     So, Saturday we had a baptism of 9 people and it was amazing.  I truly felt how the Lord has helped me change this place!!!!!  I got there Saturday and there were kids playing outside and programs going on and young men and young women activities and a huge baptismal service…I said now it is like a ward in the states…I swear we have changed this place to be just like a ward in the states and my president said they are now going to make this branch a stake center!!!!!  I’m so happy for them.  I love the people here and they all love me and I feel like it’s my home.  I had strange feelings like I never want to leave this place, I just love it so much.
     Then the baptism…the only thing we need now to be like Americans are things like running water…we didn’t have water…so I  called the fire department for a line of water and they came and filled the baptismal font for us!!!    INSPIRATION !!!!  It was sick.  Then I baptized like third in line.  I baptized a mom and two kids, then went and changed my clothes and when I got out…THEY WERE STILL BAPTIZING!!!!   That’s how many baptisms we had…
     The confirmations the next day took 40 minutes in sacrament meeting.  It was such a great experience.  I confirmed them as well.  I loved every second.  One kid who wanted nothing to do in the church, I let baptize his cousin and now he wants to go on a mission….  I know that I am giving a small part of my life to the Lord but it is so worth it and I know that even though it is small it is affecting this place.
   That’s amazing about the temple  and I’m positive we were doing it at the same time!!  That is how the spirit works… it testifies of the truth of all things.  What an amazing experience.
     Now about my tooth…  My tooth kept falling out and I just couldn’t handle it any more because walking and talking with my branch president one day and it literally flew out of my mouth!!  But being athletic still I bobbled it caught it in the middle of the street if you can imagine that!  It was bad so he took me to a dentist.  The mission said…oh we don’t cover for things like this you should have done this before… which I did!  So I was so scared because it is a dentist…IN MEXICO!!!  Mom I swear if you knew what I have been through you would die!
     I walked in an explained it to the dentist…”I just need you to glue it back in.”  This man was racist to start…and with a cuss word every other word  like a hick says…”this is the worst piece of crap I have ever seen and you need to tell your dentist he doesn’t know anything and I would beat the crap out of him if I knew who he was.  He doesn’t know anything about this!!!!!!” And went on and on for like 20 minutes about how in the states they charge you by how long you talk to them and not the work and that we suck  I finally said….”PUT THE TOOTH IN MY MOUTH AND GLUE IT!  I’M ALREADY PISSED DON’T MAKIE IT WORSE!!!!  So he did it!  I was so mad but all he did was shove a bunch of glue…who knows it could have been Elmer’s glue for all I know, and now I don’t bite down straight and it looks like I have white stuff on my tooth.  Haha  SOOOO BAD I AM SO MAD…It’s fine though I’m over it…
     I helped my branch president get organized this week by drawing lines with a permanent marker on a white board and organizing his callings, recent converts, inactives,  the youth and new baptisms for 6 months.  It isn’t finished yet but we are getting there.
     Thanks dad for reading my letter to the young men.  I wrote that a long time ago, back in my first area and just found it in my binder.  I forgot to send it and so that is from when I was back in Coatzacoalcos.   I hope the young men liked it and are doing well.  I hope they take the words to their hearts .
     Our President gave us a powerful conference this week.  He said something that is so true.  How is it that we can sometimes go to a sacrament meeting and all of us can see the same thing or hear the same words but we don’t all get the message or feel the spirit like we should.  A prophet said that we should leave the sacrament meeting every time with tears running down our face. haha How amazing   Why is it that we can’t feel that every time?  And have a spiritual experience every Sunday like that…something I have learned to do on my mission.  I will tell you later more about that.
 I hope all is going really well over there in Fallon.  I saw it was like 30 degrees there, I wish I was there!
Well, I love you all.  Be safe and happy!
Love Elder Johnston