June 21, 2010

Subject: Congratulations

Hey there. So I forgot my address again. I'm sure I'll remember before I get transferred. Happy Father’s Day. Does that count as my gift? I'll bring you home a present when I come home or something. Seriously though, thanks dad for all that you do. You’re amazing and I love you. Happy Father’s Day.

I was telling someone the other day that the great thing about being a missionary is that you never forget important events. You can only email once a week so it's not your fault you don't congratulate them on the day and someone always sends you an email about it so its all good.

Hey so did you manage to find that picture of me with a beard when we were boating? I'm working hard to prove that I was normal back home and that I'm older than 15.

Okay so we were knocking the other day and this black man with a dew rag comes out and asks what we’re doing. My companion said something about what we were sharing and he started cussing and telling us what crap it was and yelling that god isn't there and the only time we'll see Christ is when we’re dead (which I think is true doctrine, don't know if he realized that though.)

Anyways so he told us to get off his property which we did since he lived in terrace housing and didn't actually have a property. Then we said we were going to go talk to someone else and he started yelling about how no one was interested and how that door was his uncle and another was his cousin. After he finished telling us how inbred he was, he started yelling at us to get off his street.

My companion was good and walked away. I thought it was hilarious so I stayed there and kept talking to him and asked if I could help him with anything. Surprisingly this made him angrier. Go figure. And he got off his porch to yell at me and he was shorter than me. That’s sad, so I spent awhile trying to shake his hand which made him puff out his chest and act like he was going to come at me. Finally I repented and decided to leave but I was laughing as I left so he chased after me. Anyways I think you would have had to be there but it was funny. There are no gangster people in England. They don't even have guns. The only people that are actually scary people love missionaries so no worries.

So on a positive spiritual note, Debbie and Garret are getting baptized on Saturday and they’re super excited. Debbie’s told everyone. She used to be in the Salvation Army so she'll be my first convert that was active in their church before they got baptized. Then on Sunday we had a lady named Clair Peartree (real name) come to church. She had been messing around on you tube and came across a video about Joseph Smith. She felt it related to her cause she had the same questions, went on the internet and learned more, felt that everything applied to her, went to the family history center and said she wanted to learn more; so they called us and gave us her details.

We tried to call her but couldn't get a hold of her but she called us Sunday morning to apologize for missing our calls and say she was on her way to church and would we be there to meet her. Fetching Epic. It was really exciting. Church went well. A lot of our people fell through but we still had six of them there. Less then we'd hoped but ok. We should have quite a few baptisms coming up and everyone I left in Harrogate is getting baptized. Peter got baptized on Thursday and Helaina will get baptized this Saturday. It’s exciting.

You should really get the boat out already. That made me feel good that other people put on weight on their mission. My companion bet a member he could lose 2 stone before he goes home so I might start exercising more, maybe. Well I'm out of ideas. Love you all. Happy Father’s Day. The Church Is True.

Elder Cody Scott Johnson