Howdy

From Michelle:

Before anything else, I would like to express my gratitude to all of Iver's friends and family. Thank you for your letters of love and encouragement to him. Thank you for your prayers in his behalf. And thank you for your donations to his mission fund. Corbin and I do not know who you are, but we are eternally thankful.

First, some excerpts from a great letter we received on Friday (9-24-10):

Dad and Mom:

...Fresh corn tortillas, spanish rice, carne asada, green salsa made with fresh peppers, black beans, and a squirt of lime makes my tummy happy, while we sit at the table, discussing why it's necessary to have a prophet in these days. The rain thumbing and falling, from skies dark and stormy, with peaks of the sun through the cracks in between the clouds.

I just thought I'd write you and let you know how much I appreciate you writing me letters and telling me you love me and are proud of me. It makes me really happy to know that I do that. It gives me a bit more motivation, makes me happy. Keep them coming please, they really do mean so much to me....

P.S. It's 10:00 p.m. now. I just got a call telling me I was not going to East Wenatchee, but to Othello. I'm now going to be in a trio with the zone leaders. Hmmm...we'll see how this goes. I love you!

And on Monday, Sept. 27 Elder Johnson wrote:

Hello Family and Friends:

This week was interesting. For those of you who do not know, I was transferred at the last second to Othello where I am in a tripanionship with Elders Gleed (from Hawaii) and Tapia (from Chiuahuah Mexico), who are zone leaders. What does that make me? Not really anything. Elder Tapia is cool and really nice and seems to like having me around. Elder Gleed is pretty swell as well, but doesn't like having a "mini zone leader" in his companionship, solely based on the fact that I have only been out in the field for two transfers and they have been out for close to twenty months. So sometimes it's frustrating, but I'm working hard and trying to be happy, and do my best to support them and help them to the best of my ability.

I was typing my email to my (mission) president this morning and I was working on it for 40 minutes and it got deleted, so I had to type it out again, so I didn't have a huge amount of time to type THIS one.

But I love you! I'm working to be happy and starting to succeed! Thanks for the letters and support!

I love you!

Elder Johnson

East Wenatchee

First, a note from Iver's mom:

PLEASE MAIL HIM A LETTER, all of you who love Iver!! A happy encouraging one!! He really needs your love and support right now!! The address listed here on the blog is the one you should use. Please also remember him and that visa in your prayers, if you would.

Now, on Monday, Sept. 20, Elder Johnson wrote

Hola Familia y Amigos:

So, I'm being transferred. I'm going off to East Wenatchee, which is a good 50 miles away from where I am right now. I don't remember my new companion's name. It's something with an "S". We'll be in the Spanish Branch up there. It's going to be difficult leaving Elder Arcia. I had been given some advise from Elder Christenson in the quorum of the seventy, about getting settled in and going to work, and right when I get around to doing that, I get transferred. Dang. I do not know what my new address is, but if you keep sending the mail to the mission office, they'll get it to me somehow.

We ran into this guy named Antonio this week who is going through treatment for tuberculosis. We have to teach him outside because he can't be inside his sister's house without a mask, and even then he has to stay in his own room. He is really excited about learning, because he can't work right now (he can't be in public for the duration of his treatment, which also means he can't be baptized for awhile, and can't go to church for a few months...) and has nothing else to do. We also ran into a lady named Leticia who is an inactive member, and is inactive because something funky went on between her ex-husband and someone in the congregation, to the effect of her being seriously offended and hurt, and hasn't been back since. She needs a lot of love and patience on the part of Elder Arcia, and his next companion.

Please don't hesitate to send me letters, even if it just says: WE LOVE YOU on it. I devour those letters, and they really will help me, especially over the next few weeks.

I love you all!

Elder Iver Johnson

Howdy!

On September 13, 2010 Elder Johnson wrote:

Familia y Amigos:

A few things I have learned being on a mission:

1. Dogs are of the Devil. Their sole purpose in life is to stop missionaries from spreading the Gospel. I've never kicked a dog before my mission.

2. It's really hard to talk to little old black ladies.

3. It's good to make friends with everyone around harvest time!

4. The Mexican way of eating corn (boiled with mayonnaise, queso fresco, and hot sauce) is really good.

5. If you wave at people in cars, and you are wearing mission clothes, about 50% wave back, and about 5% wave with the middle finger.

6. Why did I bring P-Day clothes?

My branch is called the Moses Lake Ninth Branch, it covers all of Moses Lake. We have six missionaries in total working in our branch. There are about 100 or so people who come every week to church, not all of which are members. It's good, but we don't get very many dinners out of it. We had a dinner this week with our branch's second counselor's family. His wife made this soup that was incredible. It was simply elbow pasta with chicken broth and tomato soup, and when you eat it you put in some sour cream. I'm telling you...to die for. I was excited when my companion told me they eat that a lot in Mexico.

This week we had the hardest time finding new investigators. We tracted almost everywhere, it seemed, and to no avail. We're working on things we can do this week to do better. We are still teaching that guy named Juan. He came to church yesterday! That's the first time since the missionaries contacted him almost a year ago! He also had one of his best friends (who is a member) move into the branch, who has the same desire to get him baptized! Sweet! We had a lady drop us this week. We set up an appointment and when we got there, she had put a note on the door that said she couldn't talk to us any more and that she "is Catholic, and nothing more." It was kind of like those couple times in my life where I was broken up with through a letter, ha ha...She'll come around. She's just denying what she felt.

Next week is transfers. Sweet. So if you decide to send me a letter after Tuesday or so, send it to the mission office, they'll be able to track me down. Most of the other guys who were re-assigned were sent back to the MTC after one transfer so they could sign all their visa stuff, and burn rubber to Mexico. Needless to say...high hopes, but IF it does happen, it'll be hard to leave my investigators.

Well, I love you guys! I hope you are doing good!

Elder Iver Johnson

Howdy!

On September 7, 2010 Elder Johnson wrote:

Dear Family and All You Other Folks:

So there is a sister in my branch who is from Aurora Colorado and who used to live in Castle Pines. She was in Grandma J's seminary class and is friends with Lindsay. Her name is Sister Naylor, and she's pretty cool. I guess. Yup.

This week we have been working with a Couple who's names are Julio and Bianca, they have a lot of questions and we are teaching them to pray and ask God to know if our answers are true. Bianca told us yesterday that it was either our church or the Jehova's Witnesses' church she wanted to join, but she needed to know for sure which one. Unfortunately: 1. we can only invite her to pray, she has to actually do it (which is hard for some odd reason) and 2. Her and Julio are not married, but they have two (really cute) little kids. So the law of Chastity lesson is going to be fun.... We are also teaching a Lady named Blanca who came to church last week, and told us to come visit her. She is looking for a church because she wants to have a family in a little while and wants a church for them to grow up in. We have a member who went through the same thing and wants to have a lesson with her in his house with his family, which will be great (If we could get into contact with her)! We are also working with Sandra and Felipe, who investigated the church before but didn't have time to keep on with it, but have a little more time now. We committed them to read the Introduction of the Book of Mormon and to pray.

My companion and I are having a good time together. He reminds me a lot of Mohamed (I don't know if you ever met him... he was a friend of Kevin and I. He lives in Sudan where he is going to school). Except elder Arcia is from Mexico (via Texas) and not Black. Ha ha. We had a great conversation about time last week (when no one wanted to answer the door) I'm sure you would have loved it, Dad.

I don't know if I told you, but Elder Glover came to Spokane with the rest of us. He actually got assigned to an area right next to mine, and he lives right across the hallway in the basement we live in. He's a great kid and a hard worker, and I'm excited I have the opportunity to work by him everyday.

I was reading in Alma 27 about Ammon's happiness at seeing his brothers after years and years of missionarry work. I have been praying a lot to feel that joy, even a little bit of it. It's hard work! Joy doesn't just come from asking for it. Joy comes from being thankful, willing, searching. Joy comes from seeing some one smile or even smiling at them if they yell at you. hard work.

Well it's time to wrap up. I love you! I pray for you!

Elder Iver Johnson