October 4, 2010

Subject: Hello there

Hey family,

Sorry I don't meet as many crazy people anymore pa. I think it was just that my first area was surrounded by chemical plants so everyone had mutated just a little bit. It was also where they sent all the people who had only been in the country for a week so it made for some interesting times. I actually stopped drinking the water while I was there out of fear of getting the borough eye which looks something like the lazy eye from Fival Goes West, just permanent.

To be honest my first 2 areas were outside Middleborough and Hull which go back and forth each year for being voted the worst place to live in England. Now I'm in York which is full of rich people, tourists and chinks, there’s actually a royal entrance to the city where you drive through a giant stone archway. It’s where the queen would go if she was visiting. So anyways, less interesting people.

We did meet Lloyd this week. That was fun. We were visiting someone at York, St. Johns, one of the two universities in our area, the one where everyone who's just going to university to get drunk goes. We’ve been teaching people there during freshers week which has been interesting. Anyways we started talking to Lloyd while waiting for one of our appointments. He came up to us, his parents aren't religious but he's Roman Catholic, studying theology. Knew a lot about what we share, very respectful, had a lot of respect for what we did, knew his bible really well. But while he talked with us he was also organizing all the parties, telling people where to take the alcohol, smoking , and someone had dropped of a stack of porn for him to put up. I thought it was pretty funny. He said we could come talk to him any Wednesday except this one because he was organizing a rave. He’s a good man. He lets us into the blocks of flats all the time and looks after us. I just thought it was funny that someone could be religious and also in charge of all the parties on campus. That’s the closest thing I've got to a crazy person and he's pretty normal.

Conference was really good. I watched a lot of it in Chinese but the parts I saw were really good. We had 11 people come which was exciting but not as many as we'd hoped this week though. We need to get people baptized because our ward currently has no converts since they all went home but we have a lot of good people. We’re teaching Jessica, she's a student from China who's doing a masters in English. We met her on the street and she took a taxi to the church to meet with us. She couldn't find the church but felt really strongly that she needed to go so she got out of the taxi and started asking around for it. She'd already looked up what we believed on the internet and had a lot of questions which is impressive for someone who doesn't know who god is. Later in the week we took her to a members home and afterwards she commented on the light in their eyes and said how she hadn't seen it in people from other church’s so she's great. I think she thinks we gave her alcohol though the members had slur in wine glasses and she commented on how she doesn't drink very much. I didn't realize it till afterwards though. Oh well I’m sure we’ll hear about it when we teach the word of wisdom.

I did get a new duvet so I'm sorted. I'm glad everything is going well. We got a new missionary in the flat. I cut his hair. I don't think he was happy. I remember when I got my first haircut, good times. I also think he objects to the fact that we leave the bathroom door open but when you've got 4 missionaries with one bathroom it's got to be done, he'll learn. How’s school going for everyone? Has dad in shape for skiing when I get back yet? Things are going great I love it. Thanks for all you do. The Church Is True.

Elder Cody Scott Johnson