Howdy!

On October 24, 2011 Elder Johnson wrote:

Well, this week we had some adventures, going out to Ixcuinquitlapilco and teaching Roque with his uncle who was so drunk. We had a good time talking to him, and had to use a lot of patience, but I definitely love that guy. I hope he will someday come to church with Roque. Poor Roque can't get baptized for a little while because he has some personal problems. However, he said that the girl he is dating wants to meet us and learn about the church.

We are having a great time teaching Mariana also. She is so motivated to go to the temple, and goes to every church activity, sometimes she is there more than the 'active members". As soon as we can get her (almost) husband's papers ready, we will get them married and her baptized. her suegros (parents-in-law) are really supportive. They are coming back to church and becoming active again, hopefully they continue on that path.

We helped a lady in our branch get reactivated this week! We found her knocking doors and the Lord told Elder Hille to go to a different house, so we went, not knowing anyone lived there from the church. She has two daughters who are jimilas (twins) and are 15, Noemi and Magali, a son who is 4ish, Gustavo, and a little daughter, Mayrenne. Oh, and her name is Adriana. Her husband died a few years ago, and she kind of felt overwhelmed and went inactive. We helped her to get her garden into shape and we taught her and helped her to feel the spirit again. She offered a wonderful closing prayer at one of our visits, and thanked Heavenly Father for sending "angels" to help her get back on the right path. Lots and lots of missionaries have gone there to visit her with no success, but she came to church! We were sooooooooooo happy and the rama (branch) was thrilled to see her there again. Please keep them in your prayers.

This week will be a busy week of finding more people (we always have trouble with that) and getting them to come to church. I hope we will be able to do that!! I love you all and am so thankful for all your support!

Love:

Elder Johnson

From Michelle:

I was unable to post last week, so the following is Iver's letter from last Monday...great things have happened since then, as you have just read!

On October 17, 2011 Elder Johnson wrote:

Friends and Family:

Well, this week was good. We were not able to get anyone to go to church (not one!) but please continue to pray for our investigators, they really reALLY REALLY benefit from your prayers there at home. We have been struggling to find new people to teach, but yesterday we had a miracle!!! We went to visit an investigator (her name is Mariana) she told us two weeks ago that she was NOT going to get baptized because she did not want to get married. When we were in her house she told us "we have been talking a lot and, we want to get married so I can be baptized." We had a family home evening with the branch I am in, and our relief society president talked about eternal marriage, and how we can be together as a family forever through going to the temple.

Espero que puedo ayudarla a tomar la decision a ser bautizado. Seria muy bueno.

Les quiero mucho!

Elder Johsnon

Howdy!

On October 10, 2011 Elder Johnson wrote:

Friends and Family and All Those Other Wonderful People:

Hello, greetings from Mexico! I hope you are all well!

This week we were able to bring a man named Roque to church. He loves church and loves the feeling that there is there. He is passing through some hard times because he left the U.S. and he can't go back because he doesn't have papers. He is sad because he can't see his kids that live in Ohio. He is struggling but will keep going to church. There he knows he can find peace and the guidance he needs. Please pray for him.

This week we will be working really hard trying to find people to teach so we can have a baptism this month. I hope we can find the people God has prepared.

I loved hearing the prophet announce new temples, what a blessing they are in our life! I hope I get back in time to go to the dedication of the Fort Collins temple, and it would be cool to go the the new Star Valley, WY temple. I heard that there is great fishing up there (which is another thing I really miss right now). President Call has announced that we are going to go to the temple as a mission the first week in November! I hope I get to go on the 5th, that would be an excellent way to celebrate my dad's birthday.

This past week I have been trying really hard to be motivated. Sometimes that is hard in the mission, but I think I am succeeding. Trying to find new people to go to church is hard, but here we go!! I think that bringing Roque to church really helped. I hope we can find the people that God has prepared. Elder Hille and I read in the Book of Mormon that God sends angels to prepare the hearts of the children of men so that they will be able to recognize the truth of what we teach.

I hope you all receive the Ensign or Liahona. This month's issue is super special. It is all about the Book of Mormon. I hope you read the issue, and take the Prophet of the Living God's challenge of reading or rereading the Book of Mormon. Heaven knows I will.

I love you all!!

Elder Iver Johnson

Howdy!

On October 3, 2011 Elder Johnson wrote:

?Que honda mis cuates?

What a weekend! Wow! What a conference! I hope you all study all of these talks and put their precepts to practice!

This week we are having changes, and my companero has been moved up to a district leader. That's right, Elder Hille is a district leader. It is always fun to be with a leader in the mission. He is now responsible for making our district meetings and for reporting all of our numbers to the zone leaders. We are excited about his new responsibilities.

We were unable to bring anyone to conference this weekend :( and we are sad about that. We found a few new people last week, Georgina and Mari Luisa. They each accepted the first lesson really well, and we are going to go back to visit them very soon. We hope they won't be busy this next week so they can go to church with us.

I love you all!

Elder Iver Johnson

From Michelle: If any of Iver's friends are interested in reading or watching the general conference talks he is referring to, you can do that at lds.org.

Howdy!

On September 26, 2011 Elder Johnson wrote:

Hello friends and family!

Well this week was a good one! We were able to bring Poli and his wife Leticia to church again, and their daughters Martha and Norma. Now we only need to help them get their other two daughters to church, Roci (Rosi) and Ana. They are a little older and because of that, a little more hesitant to go to church. Please pray for them. We were also able to bring a man named Geronimo to church. He is getting over an addiction to tobacco, and is really impressed with the church. We asked him how he felt about being baptized, and he replied, "Hay que hacer lo" (I have to do it). We are excited about helping him do that!

This coming week we will be able to go watch the General Conference. I hope you are all preparing yourselves for that! I hope you are praying a lot and writing down any questions that come to your head, because they will be answered if you do that. I am so excited to hear the conference!

I love you all very much!!

Elder Johnson

Howdy!

On September 19 Elder Johnson wrote:

THIS WEEK WAS WONDERFUL! Ivon and her brother Luis were able to be baptized, and we were able to help Poli and his wife Leticia and their daughter Martha go to church! We were happy also when we had inspiration to go all the way out to Ixcuinquitlapilco (about an hour bus ride) where we found a family, Judith, Janet and Laura who are excited to go to church, and hopefully they will this next week!

We had a couple adventures this week, one when we came home and found a lizard on our counter. He is cool. We named him Steve. He lives outside under our boiler, but somehow broke in while we were gone. We also have a little bird that we named Buddy that sleeps by our door. I haven't taken a picture, because it's always dark when we see him, we only ever see him when we come home to sleep. We had another adventure when I had to go to the bathroom really, really bad and we were in the middle of nowhere. There was only a corn field, and so...Well the work goes on. Hopefully this week we will have some success!

I love you all!

Elder Johnson

P.S. My sister sent me a great scripture. Read it. Mosiah 7:33: But if ye will turn to the Lord with full purpose of heart, and put your trust in Him, and serve Him with all diligence of mind, if ye do this, He will, according to His own will and pleasure, deliver you out of bondage.

Last Monday, Elder Johnson sent us personal letters. Included was his testimony:

"On my mission I have learned so many things, especially how much God and our Savior Jesus Christ do for us. I love to see families blessed by the gospel, become happier and more united. I am so happy I chose to serve a mission. I know that I am involved with the most important work that has ever existed. I know that I am bringing eternal happiness to others and myself! How wonderful the Lord is! How right are His ways!"

Howdy!

On September 5, Elder Johnson wrote:

Well, this week was a long one, but boy are we happy! We were able to bring three new people to church this week: Martha, Ivon, and Luis, and also Marcela (who already went). We should start the baptizing ball a rollin' here soon!

This week we moved. We used to live in the pueblo of Gerrero, but now we live in the pueblo of San Juan Tepa, and live right by the chapel where our branch meets. It's not as pretty on this side of our area, however, it is a lot closer to where we have more work. It is, however, a lot darker here.

We sure do eat a lot in this area. A lot of nopales and a lot of chicken. They cook better out here, though, so I don't complain. We had to chase a big, old spider out of our new house, but other than that no bugs. I am having a good time getting to know the people here. All the little kids like to talk to me. They always ask me silly questions.

I have been studying a lot in the Book of Mormon lately. I really feel close to those missionaries in those stories. After all, I'm teaching the same thing to the children of the people they taught. It is cool to be a part of the ancient prophesies of bringing the fullness of the gospel to these people once again. It is wonderful to have such a great calling and to do what I do!

I love you all so much!

Elder Iver Johnson

P.S. Picture: Me and a baby cow. It really wanted to bite me.

Howdy!

On August 29, 2011 Elder Johnson wrote:

Friends and Family:

Well, this week was really wonderful, as a matter of fact it was a good week, not because we had much success, but because my companion and I have been teaching really well. We have the spirit as our third companion! Woot woot! We are currently teaching a man named Geronimo and his mom, Consuelo. They are really wonderful, but unfortunately did not come to church. I hope they progress! We have a girl in our ward who is trying to help one of her friends Ivon come to church and be baptized. As it turns out, Ivon and her family are all interested and have accepted our visits to their house. We have our first appointment today. We are also teaching another Consuelo who has three kids and lives with a member. We are helping her to come to church and him to come back to church. He is kind of stubborn, but I think he will come back, eventually.

We have to work with the members a lot here. They are our way to find new people to baptize. We do a lot of service and a lot of helping people. The other day we helped a lady in our ward move a big pile of dirt from one end of her yard to the other. It was good service. We have also washed a lot of dishes and helped clean houses and yards. We are starting to get some references and it should be really good.

One of the members in our ward invited us to a barbacoa, which is when they kill a lamb and cook it in the ground and then invite all the neighborhood over to eat it. We did it differently. They cooked their three turkeys that they had, which was really yummy. They killed them right there (we weren't there for that...) and put them in the pit. We helped gather firewood with the member's non-member boyfriend. There are some rumors going around that he's going to pop the question soon, so we have to work fast and help him get baptized so they can be sealed in the temple at some point.

Today we went hiking in the Mexican Jungle. It was cool and we had a lot of fun. We saw some streams that were clean water (I haven't seen clean water flowing for so long!) and some cool rocks and stuff. It was great to be outdoors and to get to see a different part of Mexico.

I love you all!

Elder Iver Johnson