Goats Sleeping Behind My Eyes... (& Ethan's Baptism Video)

So another week has come and pass down here in good 'ol ala Soledade!!!  This week was rather a disappointment though.  We tried to do some things different this week and it seemed like we were really busy the whole week, but nothing just ended up working out for us.  This next week should be pretty sick though, we've got a baptism lined up and we're working on ways to work with the members so everything should go over well this week.

Keyword: should.

Really though nothing too interesting happened this week, it was your normal, every day, week in Brazil.  People called us names, threatened us, oh and my personal favorite, told me that I had "Goats sleeping behind my eyes," you may ask me, Élder Johnson, what does it mean to have "Goats sleeping behind your eyes?"  Well, your guess is as good as mine. 

Well yeah, that's really about it, I don't have anything interesting to tell you all.  Sorry this week was such a disappointment, next week will have some better stuff for sure, so until next week!

-Élder Johnson

 ** Hi, this is Elder Johnson's mother.  A couple of weeks ago Elder Johnson's younger brother Ethan was baptized into the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I asked our missionary son if he would write a special talk for Ethan that we could read at his baptism so he could be part of this special day.  Instead of writing a talk he received permission to make a video of his talk and then sent it to us to play during the baptism program.  (This is soooo Tanner.  Why write a talk when you can make a video.)  Elder Johnson wanted to keep this a surprise from me and I didn't know about it until I saw his video being played at Ethan's baptism.  There were lots of good tears and smiles and it made the day even more special.  It was nice to have our missionary son, who is in Brazil finding those searching for the gospel, to play a part in his brother's baptism who has become a member of the church Elder Johnson is serving.  We wanted to share Elder Johnson's special message and let him know how proud we are of him.  Love my son.  (P.S. you might have to turn up your volume to hear it better.) **

Elder Johnson's video playing at his brother Ethan's baptism.

Our family on Ethan's baptism day.  We even brought "Flat Tanner" so he could be part of the occasion.

Pascóa

Another week has come and gone here in the beautiful land of Sergipe.  So I guess I'll start off with what we did for Pday today.  Today we went to....

The Zoo!

Yeah, THE ZOO!!!!!!  A few weeks ago we asked a member what were some cool things to do down here in Aracaju and he said there was this zoo here that was pretty cool.  We were a little taken a back because we didn't even know that they had zoos down here in the north east, and guess what the best part is.... it’s free!!!!  There is one catch to the zoo though, it's open every day of the week except one, can you guess which day it isn't open?

Monday...

Missionaries have always tried to go to the zoo, but alas it is always closed for maintenance on Mondays, BUT, today is Tiradentes, a holiday for the Brazilian patriot Tiradentes, who helped lead a rebellion against the Portuguese in the state of Minas Gerais and was hanged to death, but because of what he did Brazil eventually gained its independence (one of the members of our ward is a history teacher.)  So what does that all mean to me?  That the zoo is open for only one Monday a year and it just so happens to be on Tiradentes (thank you Tiradentes) so we took our opportunity and went.  The zoo was pretty cool.  It ain’t no Hogle Zoo, but it'll do. 

 They did have some pretty interesting looking animals that you just don't have in the states.  They also had this pretty neat chairlift that you could ride over the top of the mountain but it was 14 Reais, so we decided not to. 

So we had the baptism for our good friend João this week.  He's been going to church for about six years and nobody knew he wasn’t baptized.  Well he was baptized on Saturday, so now everything is all good.  He wanted me to baptize him, which I was honored to do and now he's like our best friend.

We also got a golden referral this past week.  This lady has a son on a mission and at first didn't like anything about the church.  Now she said she just felt like she should start reading the Book of Mormon and now will be getting baptized this Saturday.  She said it was probably because of her son's prayers.  Needless to say he's very happy, she's very happy, and we're very happy.  #hapyness4dayz   The only people who probably aren't too happy are the missionary Elders we got the referral from.  They were teaching her, but then she moved into our ward, which is about two houses out of their area.  That's pretty rough man.

Also this week was "A Semana Santa" which included "Sexta-feira do paixão", "A Pascóa",  "Domingo de Ramos", "Sabado de Aleiluia", and "Quinta-Feira da Ceia", or just to put it a lot simpler, Easter.  Since Brazil is mainly a Catholic nation, there are quite a bit of Catholic Easter traditions.  Traditions like little parades the Catholic Church puts on throughout the week and nobody can eat meat, only fish.  Apparently that's kind of an unforgivable thing to do.  We asked for meat at this restaurant the other day and the waitress just kind of gave us this unbelieving kind of look.  The holiday basically starts on Thursday and that's when all other businesses shut down and everyone gets out of school.  Which means just a lot of loud music in the road, drinking, and partying, like usual.

I did take the time this week to study a lot about the Atonement.  I reread the Atonement chapters in the book “Jesus the Christ”, and I took a lot of time to ponder the Atonement.  It's amazing to really think about what Jesus went through.  I think we really get an appreciation for the Atonement when we really feel it working in our lives, to feel that the Atonement has actually made me a better person.  And that "Starting Today" we can rewrite who we are, become a better person, and not have to continue being what we once were.  We all have an eternal potential and "Because of Him" we can become something much greater than what me think we are right now.  That even though this life will be filled with imperfection, pain, disappointment, that people may fail us, human and mortal weakness may prevail every now and then, and we of course will fall short from time to time, but because Jesus conquered death and took upon every pain and dreadful thing anyone has ever done, we can become something more.  We can one day be forever with those we love.  We can one day become something absolutely amazing because of what Jesus did for us.  I highly doubt that there's a more beautiful idea out there than the true meaning of Atonement.  I'm thankful for what Jesus did for me and I've seen this gift work miracles in other people and in myself.  He's done so much for me and for that I will be forever thankful.

Well that's it for this week.  Easter was great down here and all is well.  Hope you all have a great week!!

-Élder Johnson e Johnson's

It's Good To Be In Brazil.

Puppy.  What more do you want?

Well we got the transfer call and it looks like I'm staying in Soledade with Elder Coon for another transfer.  I'm excited, this last transfer was pretty legit and it ended very well if I do say so myself.

So on Saturday we had the baptism for our investigator Clécia and it was awesome!!  Before her baptism she managed to read the entire Book of Mormon all the way through and is currently in Alma.  She also got to read the whole Gospel Principles manual.  Before her baptism she got up and bore her testimony on repentance and it was just amazing.  The next day she came to church all happy and I had the privilege to confirm her.  She had a lot of her family come to the baptism and they had a bunch of questions afterwards so we'll see how it goes with them.  All in all everyone was just super happy and it was a great success.

To celebrate our day of extreme happiness, we added even more happiness to the equation by buying Açaí.  Açaí is probably one of the greatest things known to mankind.  It's this fruit they take from the Amazon and they freeze to ridiculously cold temperatures.  They then add a bunch of stuff like nuts, strawberries, pineapple, bananas, and granola, which makes it probably one of the tastiest things in the whole wide world.  You can't help but just smile while you eat it.  You take a bite and just smile from ear to ear.  The stuff gets you amped too, with its natural energy and what not, you just feel like you're on top of the world and that you can do just about anything.

Açai is the purple stuff.

Lasagna is also super good down here; Brazilian lasagna is way better than American lasagna.  In the states when you get lasagna, you think, "Oh that's cool, I like lasagna."  Here, when you get lasagna, you think "YYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!"  You get all excited, it occupies your thoughts, and gets you all excited until you eat it.

So some funny things this week:

I became a plumber this week.  Our drain got backed up a bit so we had to find a way to unclog it.  We used The Most Sophisticated Brazilian Missionary Plumbing Tool we had with us, a wire coat hanger, and I went to work.  It was a pretty easy fix.  For some reason what appeared to be the stick to a tootsie pop got stuck in our shower drain, which makes no sense because tootsie pops don't exist down here.  All in all I saved the day and I'm so great and a hero and what not now.

Members of the church down here know a thing or two about English that they've learned from missionaries or companions on the mission.  Everyone knows words like:  Crazy and Freaking.  The other day I heard someone say, "Holy Cow" and I just about died of laughter.  I've never heard that one down here before.

So I heard a new rumor about the Mormon missionaries down here, which is "The Mormons are here to suck peoples blood."  That was a new one.  I'm adding that to my list of crazy things people say about us, which includes:

• The Mormons are here to eat in people's houses.
• The Mormons are werewolves.
• The Mormons kidnap virgins and keep them as prisoners in our churches.
• The Mormons are a cult.
• The Mormons don't worship Jesus.  People tell me that while they look at my name tag that says "A igreja de JESUS CRISTO dos santos dos últimos dias."
• And my personal favorite:  The Mormons are here to kidnap people, bring them to America, and sell their organs on the black market.
• And now the new edition:  The Mormons are here to suck people’s blood.

Yeah, us Mormons are pretty crazy.  There was also some guy who wanted to Bible bash with us while I was on a division and resorted to just telling us a bunch of other crazy stuff.  In the end he said God told him to date his cousin so we just left him there.

Well, overall this was a pretty sick week.  We should be having another baptism this week, which was actually a surprise. This lady in our ward came up to us and asked us if we could baptize her fiancée who was been going to church for over five years.  Nobody knew that he wasn't baptized yet, so we should be getting a free baptism this week!  Pretty great huh?

Well I'm glad you're all great back home.  Sounds like Ethan's baptism was a hit.  I heard the speaker you guys had did a really great job or somethin’.  (FYI: Tanner made a surprise video that his family played at his brother’s Ethan’s baptism and it was great!).  Congratulations Ethan and congratulations Ryan for performing the baptism.  Anyways have a great week everyone and I'll talk to you all next week.

It's good to be in Brazil.

-Élder Johnson e Johnson's

Brazil

Churrasco & Tereré

Almoço  (lunch)

Oh Conference

Someone who excitedly painted JESUS! on their sidewalk.

Oh conference, aren't you just the best.

This marks my third general conference on the mission.  It was pretty cool, I was a little sad that they didn't announce any new temples, but I guess it makes sense that they want to finish making all the temples that they already have announced first.  Conference is a lot of time spent at the church; we were there for about 6 hours on Saturday.  Down here we always watch conference in Portuguese so we can stay with our investigators.  I liked the talk by Elder Henry B. Eyring, especially the part where he welcomed anyone who was invited by the missionaries, our investigator looked over at us and said "Hey!  He's talking to me!"

Our investigator is just the best, we should be having her baptism this Saturday, which is exciting.  She went to all 5 sessions of conference, even the women's meeting.  She's already read the Book of Mormon all the way through once and is on her second read; mind you we've only been teaching her for about 3 weeks.  She has however, been one of the most challenging investigators in the sense that I may not have all the answers to her questions.  Like the other day she read this scripture:  Genesis 6:4

 4 There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare to them, the same became mighty men which were of old men of renown.

She had the following questions:

1.  What does the phrase "sons of God" mean ( e.g. angels or people) and what's the difference between them and "the daughters of man?"

2.  Where do giants fit into this scripture and what was their relationship with the sons of god and the daughters of man?

For those of you who don't know, there is no section in Preach My Gospel that gives a thorough explanation as to what this scripture means, so I was la bit caught off guard but I came up with a sufficient answer.  Anyone who can give the correct answer gets 10 Reais.

So we're hoping everything goes well for this Saturday.

It was also cool to hear that our mission President Gonzaga was called to be an Area Seventy!!  Way to go President!  

Really that's about it for this week, we'll be preparing our investigator for her baptism and we should end the transfer on a high note.  That's it for this week.  Until next week!!!!

Elder Johnson

Mungunzá, which is corn, coconut milk, with sugar on top, it's really really good.

Some little girl asked us to draw her a picture, so this is what we drew.

We Went to Church

I know, it's a startling fact, we missionaries went to church this week.  Well the thing is we went to another person's church.  We have this one investigator who we were teaching who goes to another church.  She, one day told us, that she wouldn't be able to visit our church because her pastor said she couldn't because we are a cult, we don't have doctrine, we worship images (apparently having a paintings of Jesus Christ is a sin) and that we sell people's organs, you know the usual normal stuff people say about us.  My companion and I didn't think that was very nice of him to be saying such untrue things about us so we came up with a deal, we’d go visit her church and she'd come and visit ours!  Does that sound like a very hard exchange?  I think not!!  We also wanted to go and talk with the pastor to clear up some nasty little rumors about us and to be overall respectful.  So we went for about half an hour and talked a bit with the pastor and he said she was free to do as she pleased.  He, however, still didn't say very nice things about us to our face, but we were very respectful to him.  In the end our investigator didn't end up coming to church, which really hurt my feelings.  She still believed everything the pastor said and wouldn't listen to us or anything we tried to tell her.  All in all it was pretty interesting experience.

So one cool thing about my area is that it's super close to my first area so I get to see members from Siqueira Campos all of the time.  It's been cool seeing everyone at conferences and everything.  They all say that my Portuguese has gotten a lot better.

So one thing we did that was pretty different is that we did this pretty cool family home evening with members and investigators where we made American Pancakes!!!  They were nice and thick and I felt I was going to die of pure sugary American happiness.  The actual lesson we taught went over well too.  I had the kids draw a replica of my ID badge and we talked about the importance of authority.

This was an interesting food week too.  I ate something called Acarajé, which is some food from Bahia where they fry some dough made out of beans in a ton of oil and you eat it with shrimp and something called Caruru.  It was really really healthy.  I also ate Arraia or as it translates to Ray, like Manta Ray.  I thought the lady who gave it to us was lying, but it turned out to really be a Manta Ray.  It was pretty good I guess, they cooked it with coconut milk and what not.  I also had TACOS!!!!! I know, exotic ain't it?  Well to a Mexican food starved missionary it sure is.  It was so good.  I was so happy.  One of the members learned how to make it from companions he had on his mission and had a packet of taco seasoning.  #tearsofhappiness

Well other than that that's about all of the interesting things that happened this week.  We've got General Conference coming up which should be pretty cool, I'm sure excited.  Before the mission I never got excited over things like General Conference, but I now I just get amped for Conference!!!!!  Anyways, I'll talk with you all next week.

Adeus, 

-Élder Johnson

P.S.  We saw this really weird dog this week.  It couldn't bark, it's owner just told it to make Santa noises and it would just basically scream.  The dog was blind so it kept slamming its head into the wall and furniture and made it really difficult to concentrate on our lesson.

The Cure for the Common Cold

Well this week marks 1 year that I have officially lived in another country.  It's weird to think that I haven't been in the good old land of pancakes, guns, and the smell of freedom for a whole year.

Brazilian Super Man

So this week I had to retire one of my pairs of shoes because they officially died on me, I think the picture I send will say enough.

So this week the stake was preparing for stake conference and they wanted a ton of people there.  So in order to get a ton of people, the stake decided to hold open houses all week and put a ward in charge of each day at the stake center.  We covered a whole day and we showed people around the church, we showed them important things like the sacrament hall, the FHC, the baptismal font, and the elevator!!!  We had quite a few people come through and we had so many people at stake conference they had to transmit it to other rooms in the building.

Our Church

So for those of you who do not know, my companion is kind of a musical prodigy of some sort, he's really good at the trumpet and piano.  Some of the members invited him to play music at their sons wedding and so we used this as an opportunity to do a service project.  I of course do not have as much musical talent as my companion so I just took pictures and video the whole time.  The wedding went over well and my companion got lots of complements from everyone.

All shall be married by my hand.

We're teaching this one lady who read the whole Book of Mormon in one week.  She's really cool and as of right now is living basically all of the commandments; she's even married which is really surprising.  The only challenge now is to get her to come to church and commit to a baptismal date.

We also received a golden referral from the sisters.  They recently baptized this lady and she gave us the referral for her niece.  Her niece came to church, accepted a date, and cried during our lesson.  The spirit was super strong and was just an over all amazing experience.

In other news I got to do a really Brazilian thing the other day.  I got to mix cement on the street with a shovel!!!!  It was really fun, we asked these guys if we could help and we just got to work.  So if any of you need anyone to mix cement on the side of the road, you know who to call.

So when we arrived in our house a few weeks ago, it was rather filthy, and filled with all sorts of hullabaloo.  One of which, was this little ceramic horse that we just found in one of our rooms.  We threw it out the other day and in no less than 5 minutes latter somebody had picked it out of the garbage and claimed it as his own.  He just sat on the sidewalk for about 20 minutes petting the horse and playing with the little guy.

The entire city of Aracaju has been trying to figure out how to cure my cold this week.  This week I did indeed get a cold and it got treated how sickness usually gets treated, which means everyone immediately becomes a doctor.  A lot of the methods come from the Interior, which means these household remedies have probably been used for generations and /or people just make it up and somehow they can cure anything from the flu to cancer.  These were the following remedies that were suggested for me:

lime juice

this weird honey spray thing, which actually worked quite well

this pineapple honey mixture that a member gave to me

this weird tea a member made out some plant

lime mixed with garlic and cinnamon

(I didn't really want to try the last one)

The honey pineapple potion.

So this week has gone over pretty well.  All is well here in Soledade!!!!  So I'm going to go make some cement, until next time!!!

Élder Johnson

The Center has a selection of really great hats.

Elder Coon & I

The Future of the Church

This dog is named Ricky Martin and his mom's name is Shakira.

So we've had a very fascinating week this week.  The week started off simply enough with the usual routine: talk with some people, teach some lessons, go to meetings and what not, you know, the usual stuff.  We did however have something rather interesting happen though.  We gave the Book of Mormon to one of our investigators the other day.  She told us she likes to read and planned on reading the Book of Mormon.  We in turn thought that would mean she would read the introduction or something like that before our next visit.  However by noon the next morning, she had read until 2 Nephi 17, which is a rather substantial amount of the Book Mormon.  We were in turn shocked that she read that much.  Guess she really does like to read.

We also had another person we gave the Book of Mormon to on the road last week.  She said she had a lot of questions and wanted to know more about the church.  We left a Book of Mormon with her and we had quite a few difficulties trying to get a hold of her the whole week.  We did in fact run into her yesterday and she had read until The Book of Ether.  That far in one week!!!!  We really wanted to teach her but we couldn't, (that's for a later story in this email.)  She said she had lots of questions and specifically asked us about baptism.  Which never happens so we were really happy of course.

So yesterday the stake president called all of us missionaries over to the stake center along with a bunch of the youth that wanted to serve missions.  Stake conference is next week and they're trying to make it a very memorable conference so they've been trying to get a ton of people there.  He had all of the missionaries in the zone come over, gave them lists of less actives and other people that they wanted to reactivate and/or baptize.  They then sent my companion and I out with a band of about 6 young men from another ward who wanted to serve missions.

And so the adventure began......

If you didn't already know, 16-year-old young men can be kind of a rowdy bunch, especially if you get them together in large groups.  It was also looking like it was going to rain and everyone forgot an umbrella.  They young men of course, thought they knew what was the right thing to do and where to go so we naturally had an adventure.  We talked with drunk people, got lost, found empty houses, and even found an investigator who read until Ether,  (we thought it would be a little strange to teach her with about 6 boisterous youth.)  When it started to rain, the boys fled for shelter while I was looking for the right road.  Some lady called them all over to hide in her house and we ended up having a very nice chat with her.  When the rain stopped, we headed out, only for the rain to start up again 30 seconds later.  The road then turned into a small river with water levels that went a little bit past my ankles.  We of course were fearless, but our small band of the future of the church didn't want to trek through the water.  They said it would get them wet and that it was mixed with sewer water.  Excuses.  So when a car drove by and gave us a small wave everyone jumped to higher ground.  I jumped on some ladies' window and was clinging onto the iron bars.  The lady looked more concerned about the rising water levels rather then the fact there was some strange Mormon guy on top of her windows.  We the fearless trekked back to the church and everyone said we looked a little wet.  I say it's the look of an adventure.

Some other interesting things that happened this week:

I got to try Chocolate Caseiro, our homemade chocolate, which was made from the Cacau Tree the day before in one of our member’s backyard.  It was probably the best thing in the world and it was so strong.

Chocolate Caseira com leite condensado em cima.

I also got to see something called a Manguezal, which is suppose to be one of the most complex ecosystems in the world.  Apparently biologists would fight to the death to take samples of one of them and Elder Coon and I just ended up taking pictures with it.  It really just looked like a bunch of trees in the middle of the water but apparently to Biologists it's one of the most interesting things in the world.

Me and the Manguezal

Well that's about it for now, to respond to your questions mom:

I'm good.

Really.

Really, I’m really good.

My new area and companion are pretty cool.

Yes I like it here.

Really mom I'm fine.

Well that's it for now, the rain is starting to pick up down here and my area is notorious for having the roads become rivers, like up to my belt size rivers.  

Naturally I'm pretty excited.

-Elder Johnson