Elder Noah Johnson

Monday March 12, 2018
German Pancakes

Hello from sunny Gandía! This week was a fun one! I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the snow in Utah (while it lasts...). Love y'all

Martes: Today we had district meeting here in Gandía and it was fun as always! I love our district and Elder Jones always gives hype lessons so I love it! Then we had an intercambio today and Elder Cruz stayed in Gandía with me! He is from Brazil and already speaks Spanish like a beast (he's in his training)! But we had a lot of fun and did a whole lot of contacting haha.

Jueves: We started off today with weekly planning which was long as usual, but then we went and had lunch with Elder Viñas (an ex 70) which was great! He such a good man with amazing stories and advice! Then we went and did some contacting and had a lot of fun talking to the people in the streets! At 8 we had a meeting with Wuilmer and Anahir. We ended up talking a bit about how we can strengthen the ward and got some pretty good ideas together! Then we had our visit tonight with Ana María and Maricela and talked about prayer. The spirit was so strong it was amazing! It's amazing how the small and simple principles of the gospel pagan bring the spirit super fuerte!

Viernes: This morning we had a phone call with Ruben which went very well! He has incredible faith and we asked him to be baptized! He said he would be when he receives an answer but we weren't really able to set a specific date to help him work towards. #prayforhim! Then we had our visit with Nasko and Desi which was amazing as well! Their faith has grown so much and its incredible to watch the gospel work a change in their lives! Also we went and visited a chica named Claudia tonight! But since there wasn't another man in her house, we ended up teaching her the restoration from her doorway which was fun!

Sábado: This morning we had a visit with Brayan and Dayana! Brayan really is super open to what we say, he just doesn't want to get baptized yet because he's afraid he won't be perfect after his baptismal... bueno, no one is. We're working with him on that. Also today is Hermana Orr's birthday so we made her German pancakes and sang happy birthday which was fun haha! Then we contacted and knocked doors all day! I LOVE IT!! Nah, but its not too bad.

Domingo: This morning, 5 of our investigators came to church! And we were also blessed to see a ton of our investigators in the streets today And talk with them and see how they are doing! Tonight we had a visit with a man from Ecuador (like my companion) named Francisco! We had a solid discussion with him and at the end he just thanked us for being his friends and listening to him. #bepeoplenotrobots! I love the people here. Tonight we sang in the ward choir and we sang "Más cerca Dios de Ti" and I felt the spirit more strongly than I have in my entire mission. It's amazing how a song can bring the spirit so fuerte! I know God lives!!

Love you all and hope you're all enjoying life and living like Larry.

Elder Johnson

Family Letter Excerpt:

Hey guys how are you all doing? This week was good! It was kind of weird just cause Elder Cantos has been under the weather so we've been taking everything kinda slow which was needed... except I don't like to go slow! Haha. But I think it's made me realize to look for the little things more instead of just running in between buildings and contacts. It's helped me to really ask in my mind who I NEED to talk to, and not who I WANT to talk to. This week has made me realize that really the spirit should guide us in all that we do, and I think that's something I've been missing some days. I've realized that when we take time to listen/feel what we gotta do, God will direct us even if we don't realize that he's directing us! We had a couple visits this week with people that we weren't planning on visiting but we showed up at the perfect time because we felt like we needed to pass by them! We also have found old/new/progressing investigators in the streets every day just by taking a couple seconds to think about where we should go. The Lord really does direct us when we seek His guidance.

But bruh. Could someone send me the roster of the Utah Jazz?? I wanna know how they're doing so well!

Haha, but anyways, I love you guys. Hope all is well in Utah and that you get more snow too!

Love,

Elder Johnson

To the Mama - in answer to some of my questions:

Hello mother dear!

I wasn't able to get a picture of Miguel this week because he wasn't able to meet on Friday! But the next time we meet with him, I'll get a pic for you. He does not have a family (a lot of middle aged people in spain aren't married, it's different) but he's a super good man and I love him haha.

And mate isn't too bad, I really just like it for the culture! Like you see a South American person on the street and if they're from Argentina, Paraguay or Uruguay you can say the word "mate" and instantly be friends so it's super nice haha.

This week was actually not bad with leading the area. I feel like I'm learning how to juggle everyone and their different needs and situations and learning how to plan visits and stuff too which is super good haha. I'm sure that'll be helpful after the mission too.

The haircut from Nasko didn't go too bad haha, I have pictures of him doing it that I will send in my group email. He told us that he and his wife actually worked in a barber shop back in Bulgaria and he definitely knew what he was doing haha. Nevertheless, I was terrified to have a big Bulgarian man going to town on my head with some shears hahaha.

The woman who passed out is doing great actually! She was just really stressed and hadn't slept in a couple days so I think it finally just got to her. But we gave her a blessing and the paramedics gave her something to help her sleep so I think she's doing well!

Faith is an interesting subject haha. I've been studying it a lot lately. I love the quotes that you sent and I'll do some studies of my own and let you know what I learn