April 26, 2010

Subject: Better

Here we go. Let’s see if I can do any better this week. You’re actually lucky because we were able to get on the computer at the chapel to email because it costs 75 p to email at the library and both me and my companion are completely broke. We had 75 p between us, so it would have been short. He had travel reimbursements to send in, so I lent him money until he got reimbursed and sent in my own reimbursements. But we never got reimbursed, so no money; but it's almost a new month, no worries, and I was able to email.

Let’s see what’s happened in the last few weeks. Tell Sandra she did a fantastic job emailing last week. Thank you. Grandpa bought a security system from a door to door salesman? My heart has certainly been softened against door to door sales since beginning my mission. I might not ever buy anything but I’ll certainly get them some juice. We had a security system in our flat in Leeds. Apparently I’m much sneakier than Caleb because I got by it all the time. It was a game me and my companion used to play. You could crawl passed it, you could also run really fast upstairs to get passed it. One day I got really bold and just casually walked passed it. That’s safety and security. It’s okay though. It's not like anyone ever tried to break into our flat.

So Joey’s dating Timber-Kaie? I know her a little bit. Aaron Howard knows her and her little brother better than I do.

The ash has finally cleared so people are flying again. It was pretty crazy for awhile. Our ward was pretty sparse. Our ward mission leader spent two days on a bus to get home from Europe. People have apparently been scalping chunnel tickets and the volcano could still erupt again. I think mission news is entirely based on what people tell you on the street and a lot of people are nuts so you get some good stories.

Elder Thomas and I tried to fix a washing machine this week. We failed, but I did get to do some landscaping. I got to get a yard ready for grass. I didn't fail at that. Elder Thomas and I are staying together for another 6 weeks which means another 6 weeks of him trying to convince me snowblading isn't as bad as I think it is. I doubt he'll win that one. I'm still not even comfortable with skis that are shorter than me, let alone ice skates.

This email has jumped around a lot and will continue to do so because I'm tired and sentence structure and organizational skill are completely gone. My eyes are actually closed right now so it might even be worse than I think. Just look at it as a puzzle that you get figure out. Fun for you.

I got a letter from Candace. If you see her, tell her thanks and that I've written most of a letter back and will hopefully, someday, send it. Also tell Katrina that I've got a letter I started writing her around here somewhere. I haven't forgotten. Letter writing is just really hard.

Missionary work. Charlotte got baptized. Charlotte is Judy's daughter. I sent a picture. It was amazing. Judy is doing so well. She's becoming such a solid member. This is the longest I’ve ever gotten to stay in the area with one of my recent converts. The others have all moved or I've moved. It's great. Charlotte is 16 and loves young women’s. We had a lot of other people scheduled for baptism but they dropped off but this week we found a mother and daughter from Lithuania. I met them a while ago. Elder Thomas tried to talk to them on the street and they rejected him and then I went to talk to them not knowing he just had and managed to get their address. We went by and while we were waiting at the door, Elder Thomas leaned on the post and got paint all over his jacket. She let us in and spent like 50 minutes cleaning the paint off of Elder Thomas’s jacket with butter (I can’t believe it’s not butter actually, did you know that works?) His jacket looks as good as new. The mother, Luida, speaks very little English so we set up a time to come back when the daughter was home from school. We went back at 4:00 that evening and she fed us tea and the nine year old daughter translated. They came to church and accepted the invitation to be baptized. Miracles. I'm loving it here. I'm excited to be in this area for what looks like another two transfers. There’s so much to do.

I'm glad everything is well there. Sorry I didn't send better pictures. I didn't remember what I’d sent before. If you could send me what you had on people with disabilities. Also if you come across any talks on either the atonement or missionary work by any old prophets or apostles, send those. I have the ones while I’ve been alive. I'd appreciate it. I'll take more pictures. Hope this is better than the last email. I think I might be becoming dyslexic (is that possible and is not being able to spell the word a sign of dyslexia?) I'm glad grandpa is doing better. Thank you all. Love you. I know the church is true.

Elder Cody Scott Johnson