August 3, 2009

Subject: It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Wow, dad’s old. Anyways thanks for the emails. I'm glad you guys are actually going boating and that Kasey actually tried to get up. That’s some serious progress.

I have taken pictures and there are even some sitting in an envelope waiting to see if I ever get around to buying stamps. So someday. Think of how much more exciting it will be when I get off the plane if you haven't even seen a picture of me for two years. I'm only thinking about you.

Things are going well here. We didn't have the best week last week. We struggled to find new investigators but it was alright. We still have a few people were teaching so that’s going well. We did find out that Shawn, one of our scheduled investigators, can't be baptized because he is on methadone. He used to be a heroine addict but he said he had been off it for ten years so we figured he would be off of methadone by now. But he is only two years into a five year course. He was pretty upset when we told him he couldn't be baptized. But we convinced him to continue coming to church and just be patient. He went to the doctor the next day and told him he needed to be off methadone so he could be baptized the doctor told him he shouldn't just quit taking the stuff but cut his treatment down from 3 years to a year and a half. So that’s good. Our other investigators are making slow but steady progress. So things are going good here. Transfers are in a week so maybe I'll be moving. We'll see. It would be nice just because Beverley's a small town and I've talked to a lot of people.

I took enough vitamin C that I overcame my swine flu. Are they making a big deal about it there? We've been told by the area authority that we are no longer to shake hands and there signs posted all over church saying no hand shaking. It was pretty interesting. Half the people tried to make up ridiculous gestures to do instead of handshaking and the other half made a point of shaking every hand they possibly could. It's pretty much impossible not to shake hands with people as a missionary so I just ignore it. Bishops also have the ability to cancel church and anyone who appears sick should be politely told to leave. So it's been a lot of fun.

I'm still not sure I understand the difference between swine flu and regular flu. We've had 4 cases of suspected swine flu in our ward. They refuse to test for it over here so you just decide for yourself if you have swine flu and then they quarantine you and put you on tamiflu. Nobody actual knows if they've had swine flu or not. They all seem to have very different symptoms but they've all been told its swine flu. The whole thing seems pretty messed up to me.

Thanks for the pencils. They work out great but did you really ship me a pencil sharpener? You should probably adopt the wakeboarding repair man. It would be almost like having me there. We've got the same name. He just comes with a nicer boat so really it would be a trade up.

I'm really having a mental breakdown right now and can't think of what I wanted to say. It's totally not fair that my friends are going wakeboarding on my boat without me but that’s okay. Love you all. Thanks for everything that you do. You’re amazing. The church is true.

Elder Cody Scott Johnson