Subject: He was only a pawn in the game

My Emails are shorter because we actually do things on p-days now, not just watch movies and email for an hour and a half. Sorry.

You made me a pointy hat? Thanks for the spiral hats. I thought you said that the spiral pattern was too hard. They look really cool though. My companion tried super hard to be excited about his hats and to wear them. He told me several times how good you were at knitting and stared at the hat for like an hour trying to decide if he could wear it or not, but in the end the colors were just to Eastery and the pattern tended to look a lot like little ducks and flowers. I don't know if that’s what it was supposed to be or not. But my hats turned out great. I think stripes are definitely the best idea.

I’m glad to hear that Caleb’s hair is so long and luxurious. Don't let him cut it until I get home. Thanks for the shorts. I sort of shrunk the pair I took out with me and they were a little shorter than I wanted to be wearing around. And despite selling really good dress clothes, England’s other clothes are super gay. They wear a lot of capris and track bottoms. It’s disgusting.

Do we really have filtered water now? I hate filtered water. It tastes like poo. Kind of like the water over here except I think the water over here is giving me cancer. I do live next to a giant chemical plant and I've definitely breathed in a lot of fumes.

Anyways it’s going to be another shorter email today. That way you'll have more questions come Sunday. We did have two baptisms on Saturday. Lisa, who I baptized and confirmed. She's amazing. She has made a total turn around. The first time we went over she laughed the whole time because she thought everything we were saying was ridiculous. And Don, who has cerebral palsy. It took 4 people to baptize him. We drained most of the water out of the font and then I carried him down and held him. Elder Kohler held his feet under the water, another member held his back and Bro Seymour said the prayer. Then I plugged his nose and we dunked him. Had to do it twice, though, because no one held his hands under. It was an alright baptism. We didn't even have a piano player. There were only the six people that were necessary there, and I had to fight to get the bishop to come.

I'm pretty sure our ward hates us. Elder Kohler says it’s worse than any ward or branch that he's been in. But the ward is convinced that they are Zion on earth and constantly tell us how lucky we are to serve here and then talk about how much we must get fed, which we don't. There are like two families that feed us each week and Bro Seymour’s had cancer so that leaves one family. The rest just talk about how well we get fed.

Our ward mission leader just complains about everyone else but doesn't do anything himself. He'll always ask what we need him to do to help, then usually explains why he doesn't need to worry about it. I still love it here, it's just frustrating because the work is going the best it’s been in a long time in the area and it could be going so much better if the ward would just help or at least not fight against us.

The problem is they think their ward is so perfect. I just don't think they care about getting new people. They complain all the time because the last couple of people baptized were poor and a little weird and ask for better people and we have been finding really normal people like Lisa, who blends in. You'd think she's been a ward member forever. She's middle class and could be a really strong member, but no one even acknowledges her. So all they’re getting is drunks and homeless people from now on. We even had a lady bare here testimony against member missionary work because we found, taught, and baptized her friend with zero involvement from her.

Anyways, I have to complain to someone and everyone else around here is in the ward so there you go. But I am still really enjoying myself and things are going well. We have another baptism scheduled for the 16th. Unfortunately he couldn't come to church on Sunday because he was distracting the police while his girlfriend snuck out the back window. And Shepard’s daughter is still getting baptized so all is well. Anyways, that’s all. If you have any questions, ask me when I call. Thanks for all the emails. Dad sent the most this week, case anyone cares.

Love you all, church is true.

Elder Cody Scott Johnson