January 17, 2009

Thanks for the snow globe? We've all decided that you send the weirdest packages and letters. So far I've gotten copies of other letters, a map, a paper snow globe, and two bottles of Gatorade. Really. And let’s not forget the shoelaces; but I really do appreciate getting stuff in the mail.

Anyways, Elder Farnsypants is doing a lot better. Our room’s getting along a lot better. My new companion gets mad at me if I forget to say Elder, but it’s a lot to say just to get someone’s attention, so I tend to forget. My new companion, I’m in a group of three now -- I think I mentioned that, is from a turkey farm; and I find it hard not to laugh or make jokes about that. I think he would get offended but there is nothing serious about a turkey. Anyways, I think he looks down on us city folk because we don't have his farm know how. But turkey?! Really?! That’s hilarious. I am thinking about tracing my hand and turning it into a turkey to give to him before I leave so we'll see how that goes.

Like I said our room is getting along a lot better now. But something about the food here seems to make people incredibly gassy, so it does reek pretty bad. So to take care of that, we stole all the fans from the other rooms. Ours has 6 now so it’s like an ice cube at night which is amazing.
I really need to start going to bed earlier, but there’s so much to do here. Last night I hid in the drawer under someone’s bed and my roommates hid in the closets. They found my roommates pretty fast, but they still jumped a little. Then I sat there whispering their names from under the bed for another 20 minutes and they got pretty freaked out. It went so well we did it to the Germans but they started badmouthing Americans while we were there, but we still scared them.

The next night we put mattresses in front of everyone’s doors and built an obstacle course in the hall. We've also been doing a lot of doorbell ditching, but I think it might have to stop now. We got a new mission president so we'll see. Last night we saw how many people Elder Cabellero (the Chilean Swede?) could carry on his back. The answer is five. He's huge. I guess he played for Sweden’s national football team.

Elder Waggerson still threatens to crush me and that’s keeping me awake. Anyways the teachers here are amazing and I'm really depressed that I’m going to have to leave here soon and won't be able to learn from them anymore. But Brother Spencer is pretty small so I think I'll try to take him with me. Oh the new MTC president looks just like the guy with black hair from grumpy old men. Also my new companion says that we have to stop talking about going to the bathroom so no more baptizing Lamanites. I was doing pretty good at that too.

On a more serious note, we went tracting on Thursday and that was pretty intense. We got a lot of doors slammed in our face and we got called some mean names but one guy said he'd love to have the missionaries come back some time so that was cool. My one companion kind of dominated the conversation so I focused on street contacts so I could get a chance to talk. Eventually we ended up knocking for like an hour without a single door even opening. So we prayed about where we should try and went to an out of the way street and started knocking. No one answered but the street that had been crowded got really empty, so I decided to talk to the next person I saw and we found several people in a row that were willing to listen and have missionaries come to their house. We even gave out a Book of Mormon then we went back to the street where we were supposed to meet and no one would talk to us again. So it was super cool experience.

Then later that night one of the Germans asked my companion if he thought he had the gift of healing and if he had the faith to heal and asked for a blessing for his back. I got to participate in that and you could totally feel the spirit. My comp. felt prompted to bless his whole mission and his life afterwards and he says his back is doing better now.

I've been staying awake through devotionals by drawing pokemon and its been working pretty well. I’m pretty terrified to leave the MTC and start being a missionary for realsies, but I’m excited too. Ok so the thing I asked for was a water bottle. It’s called a camelback betterbottle. I just want a average sized one with a normal lid not the bite valve one. The only water bottle I have is the crappy little plastic one they gave me and it’s dying. I'm pretty sure there is bleach in the water here. The health guy told us that we should bleach our fruit before eating it but that just seems wrong. But then he also gave me a giant rubber band and said it would keep me in shape. He's old.

Also tell dad it's confusing when he sends e-mails from your account. I thought you had e-mailed me before and after your movie and I was a little ashamed. And tell Sandra thanks for the stickers. The Farns still won't wear them but the rest of us do. And Kasey, I don't know if you can send movie clips but I doubt it. Thanks for forwarding the letter from Kendall. I can't believe he suddenly sent me a Christmas card. I spent forever trying to figure out who K. T. Nelson was. Tell Caleb to stay small. I need to be bigger than someone. It’s good for my ego. I'll try to mail home pictures on my next p-day but it might be a while away because I ship out on Tuesday. Thanks for the letters. I love you all and I'll try to write a letter soon. Church is True

Elder Cody Scott Johnson