Thanks for Praying

We had a really great week here.  It really is too bad that I couldn’t be here longer, because this is the best area I’ve ever been in.  We are one of four companionships in Miramar, which makes ward council meetings kind of crazy, but the ward is just great (hence the four companionships).  It was also a very rewarding Sunday.  All of the companionships were able to bring new people in, so they had to open up the overflow.  Great time.

Guido Castilla has made some real great progress this week.  Since we taught him the Restoration this week, he has been all set for the 7th.  I thought he would be a tough cookie.  A Catholic, retired Marine, but a real softie in the end.  The next time we came over, we saw that he had a made a cover for his Book of Mormon and had read up till 1 Nephi 3.  He went to a church tour with us on Friday, even though he was sick, and then came on Sunday with his brother who’s visiting from Puno (that’s basically the moon).  We were explaining who he was to the ward council after church, but they were all confused because he already seemed like a member to them.  He’s a real natural.

We were also finally able to visit Margarita Mendoza this week as well.  She was found during a ward activity to visit less actives, and the group accidentally knocked her door instead of her neighbor (who is also a less active).  She just moved here and was baptized as a little girl, but her children are not members and she wants to come back.  Funny how that works sometimes.  Her son Rodrigo is also getting baptized on the 7th.

Victor and Cassandra are still doing their wedding papers.  They are making me bite my nails, but it looks like they will get baptized on the 7th as well instead of the 31st.

We also had some great experiences with new people this week that I think Elder Harrop’s going to have to baptize.  Samuel (who is a Lamanite, as he will find out) came to church from our invitation last week, but didn’t stay the whole hour. But this week, we taught him, and, when we went into his house, we saw this crazy historical library, primarily about Peruvian history.  He is a professional Peruvian historian.  He actually taught us more about Peruvian history in ten minutes than what I was able to learn in my two years. So, from my impressive deductive skills, I asked, “Do you like to read?”  I know—that’s why they pay me the big bucks.  He said yes, and we explained to him a little about the Book of Mormon and told him to add it to his collection.  He was actually excited.  He flipped through the pages and then said, “Ok, give me 3 days to read it.”  Our jaws just dropped.  That’ll be a first for me.  Too bad he works till late, because we will only see him next weekend.  But I’m excited for that too.

We are trying to get better in our ten finding ways so that it’s well established in this area by the time I leave.  We are having some fun with that, like knocking doors just to ask if we can sweep their porch.  But we’ll get better this week.

Don’t worry.  I'll get trunky later on.  Love you all!

Elder Johnson 

These are from a service project we had this week with the district.  The guy in the green is the other Elder Johnson in the ward.  (I told the ward that he's Elder Johnson flaco [skinny] and that I'm Elder Johnson guapo [handsome], so they can differentiate us now.)  The first picture was just kind of funny, because with the giant metal sticks that we were picking the hill with, I imitated Gandalff, saying, "You shall not pass!" and when I hit it in, it bounced onto my head.  Classy.  But the scab is gone now.