December 6, 2010

Subject:  Point to me

Hey Family,

 Okay, don't judge me, but I was trying to copy pictures from someone else’s camera to my own and I accidently hit delete all so the good news is I have a lot less pictures to show you when I get home, oops. Also I believe we have won the war against the bed bug.  We got sprayed again and they went to town spraying us down and since then no bites so that’s a victory for us. 

I'm sorry to hear about dad’s car.  That sucks, but the good news is that now when he brings up things that I've hit, I will always win because I've never totaled a car. I'm sure that will cheer him up.

It just keeps snowing here.  It's getting ridiculis (so spelled wrong.) I have been in a lot of snowball fights and I have tackled Elder Shen in the snow a few times. It's crazy how comfortable you become in a suit on your mission. We had a meeting in Leeds on Thursday but because of the snow, they asked us all to come in the night before. We had some important appointments that night so I bartered with the assistant.  They wanted us to leave for leads at 4 I wanted to leave at 9:15, we compromised at 7:45.  By compromised I mean we said that’s the earliest we would leave. Anyways, we expected to be the last ones there but we were the first. We drove there in like 45 min.  No problem.  Turns out because of the snow, it had taken everyone else 4-5 hours to drive there. We’ve been really blessed because the snow hasn't affected us very much.  A few meetings have been canceled and I've had to push Elder Shen a few times but that’s just because of poor driving, but other than that it's been all right.

This last weekend has been an absolute miracle.  We had 5 people pass there interview for baptism, 2 of them had to separate though, and we've been freaking out about that for a while.  They were willing to do it, they just didn't know how; but on Sunday one of them found a friend she could stay with so they're great. We have 2 other people that are completely prepared for baptism.  They just have some concerns with parents but hopefully they'll have their interviews tomorrow. Then I was freaking out because I didn't think we had anyone coming to church. But we ended up having 15 investigators there and 9 of them came to Leeds that night for a fireside at the mission home.  It was incredible. People were talking to some of our investigators about their baptism at the fireside and Belinda, an investigator who we just found this week, came up and asked when we were going to baptize her. So she's now scheduled for the 6th of January. She’s absolutely amazing.  We were teaching her for the first time the other day and she asked if we were allowed to drink we said no and she was like oh I used to drink before today’ and committed herself not to drink anymore. So it's been exciting. I would sacrifice a goat in gratitude if I could.

We have more meetings in Leeds this week. I really don't want to go. I've asked if I can stay home.  We'll see if they let me. You all are not getting very good Christmas presents so I apologize. I just don't know what to get. England’s pretty much the same as America.  If you would just all collect spoons like Cliff it would be easy. I got him a soup ladle.

That’s amazing that Kasey got her patriarchal blessing.  Dibbs reading it when I get home. I never thought I would be so grateful for mine.

I just don't have anything to say to you. My English is getting worse still. Chinese people don't have a word for he and she so Elder Shen will tell a story and be like he went down the street he walked passed the store and she turned left.  Its very confusing. But now I’ve started doing it. Can you find out if Taiwan is a province of China for me. Cheers. How’s everyone doing? Tell Kasey to get her license. I hope dad gets feeling better. I've been sick but not as bad as him. He sounds like how I was last Christmas. I had to walk out on a district meeting I was doing. This time though I have been given lots of Chinese medicine.  It tastes like poop, vanilla and lamb turds (Grandma Moultrie) and I think I'm breaking the word of wisdom when I take it. Anyways I love you all for reals.  Hope everything is going well. The Church Is True.

Elder Cody Scott Johnson