December 30, 2009

Subject: Howdy

Hey there. I do kind of feel like I’ve already said everything I could possibly say on Christmas; but It was real good talking to you and I'll see if I can come up with anything else.

My companion’s a Star he's been out for like 17 months. He's the only member of the church in his family. He's like 25 and he basically sold everything he owned to come on a mission; so he doesn't actually know where he is going to go home to, which is pretty intense. His parents aren't religious at all and his two brothers are Christian but not supportive. I guess one of them used to teach an anti Mormon class. So it's pretty crazy. It makes me realize how lucky I am to have all the support that I have.

I'm also getting pretty good at teaching in Chinese. I still have no idea what’s being said but I just teach what I feel like when he stops talking and it seems to tie in. They don't understand me half the time anyways. We still teach many African and English people so it’s usually just a couple of appointments a week that I get to feel absolutely useless in. It's fun though.

In my mind the conversations are going a lot different than they actually are. A lot of times I'll stop people and start talking to them and then he'll come over and take over in Chinese and in my mind things are going well, then we'll walk away without a phone number or address and I'm really confused. It’s a lot of fun.

Things have been really different around here with Christmas. The place is empty and our teaching pool is out of town but things are still going alright. I feel like I haven't done missionary work in a while. There have been a lot of breaks. We baptized 420 people as a mission this year which is a big step up from 310 last year so that’s pretty exciting.

After talking on the phone, I was thinking how much I miss all the interesting people I used to teach. Uni students are great and all; they’re just all very stereotypical and apparently their lives are far too busy for me to understand. We took a member out teaching with us the other day and one of our investigators was complaining about his schedule and the member pretty much rebuked him. We taught one person for a few minutes and we were talking about the missionary schedule and he very seriously informed us that he lives basically the same schedule. He woke up at like 11, then he only had an hour or so to eat, then he studied for the rest of the day. It was hard for him to find the time to exercise and nap in there so I can see how our lives are similar. It’s fun though.

I don't really have much to say. People kept telling me about all the stuff the ward gives you for Christmas and how you have enough chocolate and stuff to last the rest of the year and about how you eat like 3 meals on Christmas. We had 1 meal and got a chocolate orange each. It didn't bother me but what I found funny is that it's the ward I'm in now that kept telling me how spoiled the missionaries are at Christmas. I found it funny.

I don't know if you were still planning on sending me that iPod, but it would be really great if you did. Mine doesn't actually have much MoTab on it. Come Thou Fount would be good and Show Time and any good Christmas music and conference talks or whatever you think. Also they make mini Preach My Gospels which would be really great because I have a lot of books and not a lot of space. No rush. It's not really a big deal. Just a thought. Thank you all. You’re all amazing. It was great to hear from you. Love you all. The Church Is True.

Elder Cody Scott Johnson