Angel Birthday Boy!

December 8, 2014

I'm old now.  My bunions have been aching ever since I turned 21.  Well, not really, but I must say, I had some good birthday presents this week:

First, Ricardo accepted a baptismal date for the 3rd of November.  He's a great guy that I feel like I contacted forever ago.  Really, months ago.  We were really sad, Elder Feller and I, when we were never able to get a hold of him.  But I gave him a call two weeks ago out of nowhere, and he told us to come by.  He's the one that lived in Virginia for a long time and got addicted to sunflower seeds when he was there.  He gives us sunflower seeds every time we stop by.  Anyway, we had a really sweet lesson about the Book of Mormon, and he mentioned that he felt really good about everything we were teaching, even though he had a hard time explaining it.  I’m really glad that we now have a good hold of a really busy guy.

Second, Sister Archibald’s cookies.  Wow.

Third, the Christmas fireside was great for two reasons: 

1.  Jean, our convert from a few months ago, went to the fireside in a suit with his member girlfriend who lives in the center of Lima.  He isn’t telling us anything, but that boy has found his exaltation.

2.  Our gringo showed up!  Bill must be the only man in Los Olivos that can’t speak a lick of Spanish, and we just so happened to contact him last Sunday.  Just to explain a bit about him, he lives here because he married a Peruvian, he's in his fifties, has a mustache, is a Baptist, and teaches English in San Isidro.  He’s just the last person I would have expected to meet here, but there we go.  We weren't able to get the chance to teach him yet for his work schedule, but he did mention last week that he sees the MoTab Christmas devotional every year, so we just had to invite him.  He was more just reading lips during the whole thing rather than translating, but he did pretty well.  I started cracking up when President Eyring was giving the story about the lady that moved to Nevada.  Right when he said that someone knocked on her door, he turned to me and said, "Avon!"  It was a good time, and he offered even to be Santa in the ward Christmas party.  That would just be a blast.

The Quiñones family got a good Sabbath day lesson this week. They had a last minute thing, but I am just certain about this week!  Dante even said he wants to quit soccer.  I love that Dante.

Anyway, it was my birthday on Friday, so the district is going to do the lunch buffet in Telepizza again.  Because I'm worth it, ok! ...The diet starts tomorrow.

Love you all!

Elder Johnson

 [This photo was sent to us by another missionary who works in the office.  It was a surprise for us, and apparently a surprise for Dalton as well.  Anyway, here is Dalton's explanation of this photo:]

Ok, honestly, sometimes I dance in the offices while we are listening to churchy music.  That picture was honestly from this morning, though I didn’t think he would send it out.  But yeah, I actually dance in the offices a lot.  And when there are sisters in the offices, I go into a closet where the sisters can’t see, only the office missionaries can see me, and I start dancing.  But it’s church approved!

 Dalton said:  "Check it out!  I found my full name!"