Howdy!

On December 27, 2010, Elder Johnson wrote:

Family and Friends:

Well, this weekend has been full of pizza, fireworks, lots of drunk people, and very little teaching (it's hard to teach drunk people, and lots and lots of people are not home at this time of year). My companion and I have been struggling to find people home. They are all out visiting their moms for the holiday.

This week was a great week to start off with, we found some great people (all of whom were not home at the end of the week) and were teaching a lot. Then Christmas Eve hit. People disappeared. I learned that the people here stay up all night on Christmas Eve. You could venture as far as to say that it is more important than the actual Christmas Day to them. They party and dance and drink (don't drink, kids. And don't do drugs, either) and the next day they are near-to-dead. However, we had a miracle happen on Sunday; we had someone come to church! It was really awesome! He even told us that he prayed about Joseph Smith, and felt a warmness in his chest! We are excited to be teaching him and his wife. Their names are Fabiola and Cristobal.

We were able this week to visit with some of the members here (they stay up all night, too, but they don't drink), and to share a little bit of Christmas with them.

My companion and I are doing well, at times he disagrees with me (usually about what bus to take, I'm usually right, I've been here longer than he has!), but we are doing well finding and teaching. I have been doing a lot more teaching with him! My Spanish is getting to be good. Getting there.

I love you all! I hope you have a good rest of the year, and a good start to the next one!

Elder Johnson
A note from Michelle:

It was so wonderful to talk with Iver on the phone on Christmas Day! He laughed a lot, which was just what we needed to hear! He is so happy and doing very well. He had a hard time with his English at the beginning of the call, really out of practice! Instead of saying yes, he always said, "si!"

Many people sent him Christmas packages, but only one made it in time for Christmas...Kevin saved the day!! He will have lots of goodies there soon, another Christmas!

He told us that even though he really doesn't like it, MENUDO (soup made from cow stomach) is his favorite thing to be fed because it is one of the things that doesn't make him sick! On Christmas day, a wonderful woman in his ward made him hamburgers, and he was quite thrilled! He has had enough of street tacos.

Iver has asked us to assist him in praying and fasting for him to find those who might be seeking for the gospel in their lives. We invite all of his friends and family to join us!

Yay!!! Love this boy with all of my heart!!!

Howdy!

On Monday, December 20, 2010, Elder Johnson wrote:

Well, I'll tell you something funny. Here in Queretaro, we must be like a month behind you guys or something. I had no idea that Olive was going to be baptized! I knew she was meeting with the missionaries, from the letters I have been receiving...from like three weeks ago...But, hey! That's great news! Congrats Olive! I want to write you a letter but we don't have a "post office" here. I'm sorry. Just know I have been praying so much for you!

This week was kind of frustrating. Here in Queretaro everyone has a time called "vacations" where they all take off for a couple weeks to go visit their moms in the little pueblitos all around the country. Guess what all our investigators did this week? Yup. So lots of knocking on doors that no one is behind. Other than that, my new companion Elder Contreras and I are getting along very well. He's got a great personality that is helping me be happy more. He's a good hard worker and ready to take on our area. Hopefully we will have a baptism this transfer. That would be good. Yup.

Well this week is Christmas! We are goint to our Bishop's house on Christmas to make our phone calls. I'll be making mine around 7:00. We are going to have you call if that's possible. We'll get there and give you a call to make sure you have the number, and have you call back. I'm sorry about that, but it costs a bunch of money to call from here, which I just don't have. All is in order. All is calm. All is bright! We will only have 40 minutes to talk, so remember that. I am going to have to shut it down right at 40 minutes, OK? 40 Minutes. Groovy.

I hope you all are doing so great! Merry Christmas!

I love you!

Elder Johnson

A side note from Iver's mommy :)...

Since Iver did not include any pictures in this email, I wanted to include one of Olive's very special baptism day! Iver loves this dear friend so much, and is overjoyed at her joining the church! And we love and adore her, too!!

Howdy!

On Monday, December 13 Elder Johnson wrote:

Hello Family and Friends!

Well this week is going to be difficult. It's the first time I have ever taken over an area, so it will shake things up a bit. It will show me how much I remember concerning investigators, Spanish, and member's names and addresses.

It's interesting being here around Christmas time. Most of the families have a tree and such, but what takes the cake are the nativity sets that they have. I've seen some that take up the whole front yard. Honestly, I don't know where they keep those things in the off-season. Yesterday was the birthday of the Virgin of Guadalupe. There were fireworks all night and hootin' and hollerin' until the wee hours of the morning. I find this funny because most people have no idea where Guadalupe is or how the belief in her (the virgin) came to be. It reminds me of a scripture in the Book of Mormon where someone (I don't remember who or where it is and I don't have one close to look it up) is talking about convincing the Lamanites of the wicked traditions of their fathers, and such. It feels a lot like what we're trying to do.

I don't have much else to say right now. I think that's because of the lack of sleep from last night.

I hope you are all well! I love you! Thank you for your prayers on my behalf!

Elder Johnson

On Monday, December 7, 2010 Elder Johnson wrote:

Family and Friends:

Hello! I hope you are all doing well! My companion wanted to visit with the president today, so we went down to the city (two weeks in a row for me), and found my package waiting for me in the offices! Thanks mommy and dad for the treats and the love! I appreciate it! Also thanks for the letters! It's fun getting letters from the 8th of October, ha ha. Thank you all for thinking and praying for me around Thanksgiving time!

Sad news on the baptism front. The couple was supposed to get married, but we found out the night before that they didn't have all the paperwork done, which sucks. So they couldn't get baptized. I hope we can help them do that here in the next two weeks or so. I'm feeling some big responsibility this coming week because it's almost 100% positive that Elder Larranaga is being transferred (he's been here for about six months) and it's a lot of responsibility to take over an area. Our ward mission leader is also being released this next week, so that means I have to make friends with the new one (whoever it is) fast, fast, fast. It's not gonna be easy.

We are working with another couple named Manuel y Alma. They were studying before with the Jehovah's Witnesses, but feel more comfortable going to our church. They are so excited to be baptized, and we were able to teach them 5 out of the last 7 nights. We had a great lesson with them and a member who bore a powerful testimony of the power of prayer in conversion. I echo that testimony. If you haven't prayed, do it.

I had a good interview/conversation with president today. We talked a lot about obedience, and how to have joy in the mission. He gave me a lot of good points and things to try and to work on. I also was able to watch as he received revelation for the mission. It was pretty cool. You could see it in his countenance. He also told me about how some of the missionaries who came with me (and were delayed in other missions) are having a hard time letting go of their last missions. It's hard to hear that, because THIS is their mission, not the other one. It's hard for them to let go. It was difficult for me at first, but I'm working my butt off to try and change that (doin' pretty good so far) and he knows that! He told me also that the mission is the one place you are pushed to your absolute limit and farther than you have ever been pushed before. Amen and amen. "Now is the time to prove what you are made of. Satan's got your back against the wall. Are you going to throw in the towel? Are you going to run? Are you going to fight?!" I have a great mission president and I soak in his counsel every time he speaks.

I love you all! I hope you are well! Happy December!

Elder Iver Johnson