August 25, 2014-Tena Maloto Be

Well this week was a very sad week because I learned on Monday that I had to leave by Tuesday so I only had one day to say goodbye to the wonderful people in Manandona. But on the bright side I will be able to see my branch missionary from Manandona in 1 transfer when he comes here on his mission.

This week was a crazy week though. We had to cram into a taxi brus again with 4 big missionaries on 3 seats in a van. It is one of the worst things ever but I guess we did survive it and what does not kill you makes you stronger right? We got to the office later that day and headed straight into our areas of tana that we will be serving in.

Well my area is 67ha and it is the middle of the city. It is a great area to work but the worst to live in. We have many rivers running through our area that have poop and a lot of trash. I will try to get a picture of one for you guys one of these days. Also it always smells like a out house wherever you walk. Some good news for now is that right now I do not have any hills to walk up to. The bad news is that when the rainy season comes all of the trash, poop and water will run right into my area. I also have had many wonderful oppurtunities to ride in taxi be's all of the time. These beautiful things are just like taxi bruses but have no limit on how many people they put in them. Also I am a little to big for them so I get to smash my legs in the seats in front of me.

Also our hosue looks like one of the poop rivers in 67ha. But me and one of the other 3 missionaries living in the house got the kitchen and the room with the toilet clean, and it only took like 5 hours. However the great part about my area is that our branch has many return missionaries. We have them for our ward missionaries and our ward mission leader. So hopefully with there help we can get all of the wonderful people that are in 67ha and are ready to hear the gosple to hear the gosple. We also have a beautiful church building here that is 4 stories tall and is just like an american church. I think that this area can be one of the greatest areas in the mission after me and the lord are done here. Well I hope that you are all doing good and have a great week. Love you all!!!

Love,
Elder Johnson

Also hopefully these are my pictures on the computer. But one of them is me and Elder Bowler at the sign of Manandona right before I left there and the other is the view from our Balcany so you guys can see that Tana is a huge city. It is a lot like a New York but no sky scrapers. There is constant traffic and also always a bunch of people on the streets.

August 18, 2014- Soizante Sept or 67 ha!!

Soixante Sept or 67 in french is the area that I will be working in next. It is Tana which the big city in Madagascar. It is also the dirtiest area in Madagascar that is in the whole area. Also I have been told it is the first or second most dirty area that you can serve in. They said that India might have one place that is dirtier but who knows. I am super excitied to go there and hopefully the work is going good there.

My new companion is going to be a Malagasy whos name is elder Anjamanganoro. He has somewhere between 1-3 transfers left in his mission but I will update you guys more on him next week when I get to meet him. 

Aza kivy fa tsy nantaneraka ho resy ianaon

I really love this quote it means don't be sad you were not born to loose. I know this is such a true quote we were all born that we can conqure anything. Well have a great week all of you. I have to go pack!!! Love you all!!!

Love,
Elder Johnson

August 11, 2014-Famadiana

This week has been a crazy week so I will just share a little bit of the things that me and my companion did. We did our service project again. Which is the worst thing ever because Malagasy tools are rediculous but it was fun to do with our members. We also went to a Famadiana or a turning over of the bones.

The Famadiana is just a huge party for the ansestors but now since there is christianity it is pretty much an excuse to have a huge party. It was super fun but all the people here feed me and my companion like three times within 3 hours which was the worst thing ever. For the Famadiana we had to walk up to the Fasana and then they opened the grave and pulled out the old bones. We then had to carry it to the other Fasana like a mile away. It was pretty fun but we had to carry the coffin which was not on the top of my list to do. Then they put on new cloth to the coffin and put they guy in the new Fasana. It was a pretty interesting look into Malagasy culture.

We also have had three branch missionaries get mission calls and the one I always work with is coming to Madagascar. Maybe I will get to be his trainer if I am really luck.

Well This will probably be my last week in Manandona which is sad but right now we are really focussing on the members trying to get them to be strong. I hope that you all have a great week and keep up the good work at home. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Johnson

August 04, 2014

Well this week was a pretty crazy week to say the least. On monday me and my companion went out to teach one of our less active members without a branch missionary. However on the path we got chased by some dogs so on the way back we decided to take a path that we both did not know that well. Then the fog rolled in and it started to rain way hard. So me and my companion may have gotten lost on a mountain side for 30 minutes. That is what happens when you forget your flash light at home. But that best thing about it is we were probably 30 feet from the car and we just could not see it. So as we were stumbling around in the dark we found some house and the guy in the house lead us back to the car. It was a very interesting monday.

We also had a baptism on Saturday which was an amazing thing. I got to help another child of god come closer to him. I baptized the little girl while my companion baptized the two others. Well sorry that I don't have a lot of time this week because we have a zone activity in a couple of minutes but I hope that you all have a great week and enjoy the last few weeks of summer. Love you all!!!

Love,

Elder Johnson

P.S the photos are of the baptism and the only fastfood that I have seen in country.

July 28, 2014-Hey

Well I hope that you are all doing well. I am doing great because hopefully in a couple days we will have some more money. We saved as much money as we could to repay for the car getting broken into and I lived off of 40 Dollars for the month which was pretty rough. This week has been a very successful week without us working many hours because my companion has been sick. Well he is not super sick but we think he has a worm so he has been taking the worm pills so that hopefully we can get him good to go. 

Well for the crazy story of the week we watched a taxi brus/15 seater van get in a crash. It was not bad at all but the funny part about it was it was a church group so of course they said they crashed because there was a devil in the car so we got to watch 20 people perform a exirsisum which was kinda interesting. 

We have our investigators ready for baptism on this Saturday which is super exciting. There will be 3 of them being baptized hopefully. It was amazing to watch how they have changed and how they want to come unto christ.

Today we went and hiked another waterfall which was super great. Well I hope that you are all doing great and enjoy your summer.

Love,

Elder Johnson
The pictures are of me driving or maybe just sitting in the mission presidents car, and my beautiful hiking clothes since I don't have any shoes since they have been stolen. But it has been a great week!!! Love you all!!!

July 21, 2014-Wedding Bells

Well this week was a great week. We were able to get a lot done but the best part of the week was the wedding. Malagasy wedding are way funny. They have the bride talk her parents and the groom talk to his parents. Then the guy marrying them asks them a question and they see if they have the same answer. It was pretty great and then you do a parade through the street back to the place that you are going to have the party and then you eat so much food you feel like you are back in America. Well it was pretty great to say the least but the best part of it is hopefully they will be ready to be baptized on August 2nd. 

We also went and built bricks today which is some really hard work. But you get to do some great things with it like smash the mud with your feet. But my favorite is you get to wild a sword and slam it into the mud as hard as you can. Well maybe Ill get some pictures of it if I get to make bricks again. Well I hope that you are all doing well and that you are all enjoying your summer.

Love,

Elder Johnson

Cute! 

July 14, 2014-Hello

This week was a lot better of week because nothing got stolen this week. I also was able to clear the Virus off of my camera as well so I can send some more pictures again. Things are going great here with the teaching of the gosple. We have one family that is progressing very well towards baptism they are going to get married on july 18th and then keep moving on to the baptism hopefully on the august 2nd. 

We also have a little girl that is going to get baptized hopefully with them. She is there niece and she has been doing way good. She struggles a lot with talking to white people because she is super shy but she has started to do a lot better. Hopefully things here will turn a lot more normal. 

The pictures for the week are my branch missionary. It has started to get super cold here. You know in the 70s and 60s durning the day and like 40s at night and morning. The other picture is people working in the rice paties.

July 07, 2014-Stolen!!!!

Well this week was a pretty rough week. To start off my companion went up to Tana to attend the funeral for Elder Palmer. So I got stuck here in Antsirabe sick. Then after that on Tuesday I had to walk way far with a branch missionary to go to teach. Also I realized that I got a virus on my SD card so my camera will not be working the best. But Wednesday was the worst part of the week. I woke up Wednesday to go out to the car to find that it had been broken into. The robber stole some money that was in the car, my licence, my companions camera, my extra sd card, and our car battery. Then I realized that one of the Elders never locked the gate and the people also stole my running shoes. That was a pretty poopy way to start off the week. Also I don't think I can drive anymore so my companion is not to happy about that. 

However teaching this week was by far the best week that I have had in country. The language continues to get better and better. Well that is at least what I think so hopefully that is true. We also were able to teach a lot of new people that we have never been able to teach. We are hopefully going to have a couple baptisms in august is the set goal right now. They are going to be married on the 18th and then we they should be ready for baptism. We are doing great here and we got transfer news on Sunday and I will be staying one more transfer at least so that is great news. We also have Elder Te'e from my group in the MTC coming down to live in our house so that is also super exciting for me. 

Well I hope that you all had a wonder fourth of July and I am sorry that there are no pictures this week due to me not having any SD cards that work but hopefully I will get this one fixed by the end of today and be able to use it on next monday. I love you all and you are all in my prayers. Have a splended week.

Love,

Elder Johnson

June 30, 2014

This week has gone by super fast. We struggled a couple days to catch a lot of people because of the 26th holiday. It was actually a really great day. Well actually here they start there holidays a day before. In other places they have fireworks but here they just pretty much set the mountain on fire with a bunch of huge bond fires. On the 26th we went out to Besoa which was good because they did not have any parties there and we just went and were actually able to teach there. We came home and that is a picture of what the road was like at night. Just a bunch of people walking in the road but thank heavens it was not my day to drive so I did not have to do to much driving. 

We also taught a new investigator who actually is super awesome. They actually had read the pamphlet which we gave them which is the first time that I have ever seen that happen here. They are super smart and were be chased by the Dahalo before they came to Manandona. The Dahalo is a bunch of theives and murders. Also it is possible they were a member of the Dahalo but they seem nice enough.

I also went to walk with Lolona and here child to church. This is the lady that I baptized and she has to walk all the way to Ibity. It was really great and it was pretty fun but it is a pretty hard path to walk. It also was super cold. Probably like 45° which is freezing here. I am going to die when I have to go home. Well I am not feeling the best today so I will leave my email there. I hope that you all have a great week. 

Love,

Elder Johnson

June 23, 2014

Hey it is a crazy week with birthdays and I just wanted to wish Grandma Joe and Grandma Judy a happy birthday!!! You two don't look a day over 29. I also wanted to wish you a happy Birthday Bryce!!! 

This week has been a pretty crazy week. The zone leaders went on their road trip again so we were left without a car again. Man was that a rough week. We had to bike to Ibity one day. It is a sand road and of course it starts pouring rain as we were headed up there. It resulted in us getting up there pretty late and not catching anyone and having to head home. Luckly though a truck stopped for us and we just road in the back of it all the way to antsirabe. Man I do love hitch hiking. 

The world cup is pretty crazy here. They don't party like all of the world does but they all do watch it so we get caught up on the latest scores all of the time. However on the 26th is the biggest holiday in Madagascar. It is there independace day and I bet it will make for a bunch of wonderful stories. We already have been invited to 4 peoples parties so it sounds like not a lot of work will be getting done that day. We will try to teach but will probably just try to contanct people at the parties. Also it will make for one of the worst days of driving ever but we will make sure to have somebody record a video of how angry I get. HAHA Well I hope that you are all doing well. Have a great week!!!

Love,

Elder Johnson

June 02, 2014

This week has been a way crazy week. On Tuesday morning we got the lovely oppurtunity for me and another missionary to get up at4am to go drop off all the people leaving home at the bus stop. It was pretty much the worst thing ever having to wake up that early and it made for a super long day of work after that. On Wednesday we went out with one of the three elders that were still here and went and worked his area. It was super awesome to go out there and the picture is of us teaching out there. There were just like 50 people around listening to him teach. It was a really awesome experance to see. 

I finally got my new companion on Thursday. It took him forever to get out here because the Taxi brus driver was not the most talented one we have seen. His name is Elder Bowler and he is from Las Vegas. He is a way cool guy and he is already super good at the language. I also found out that I don't have to redue the training program which is super awesome. All I have to do is just get better at the language and teaching which is super nice. 

We went out to teach friday and he got the lovely chance to bike out to our area. Needless to say he was not the biggest fan of biking 20km on the world's worst bike but he didn't complain to much. We went and taught one of the people out there and they actually have started to remember some of the stuff that we have been teaching them. It is really hard for people out here to remember because they don't have any education at all but they do learn. 

Fast sunday was a pretty brutal day without having any food and having to make sure you are still working the whole time. We finally made it home and just our luck the stove ran out of gas while we were cooking our food. So we got to drive to the other house to finish cooking our food. It has been a pretty crazy week but I am so happy to have a new companion who can help me become a better missionary and also someone that can actually speak the language. Plus we are going to get this area out here going. Well I hope you all have a great week!!!

Love,

Elder Johnson

June 16, 2014- Walking to Church

Yesterday we were able to walk to the church with are members which was super awesome. They live in the most beautiful area that they get to walk through but it is definitely a very long walk. We made it up there very late there so we were only able to catch our less active Melchizedek priesthood holder. It was a very long walk probably about two hours and man this old guy walked so fast. Then we stopped at another house and got to pick up another old guy. Those two were both over 60 years old and they could pretty much out run the two of us. We also had to cross two rivers with our members and the water was so cold. It was about knee deep and a pretty wide river. It amazed me how diligent our members have to be to be able to walk of that way.

We also were able to teach a lot this week and we have started to find new people to teach since my companion can actually speak this language. I have gotten a lot better recently at the language and hopefully some day I will be fluent. The two pictures are of an irrigation patch that we saw while we were walking and also us walking on the rice patties. Well I hope that you all have a great week!!!

Love

Elder Johnson

June 09, 2014-Hey hey hey

 This week was a super crazy week. To begin with we had an elder come up to antsirabe because he was feeling sick. He came up because he was having bad headaches and he was starting to see double vision. So he came up here and we gave him a blessing and then sent him up to Tana to go get further doctor help. They did a MRI or a Cat scan there and sent him straight to south africa because it turned out that he had had a brain anurisum. However when he got to south africa they had him do another scan and the doctor said a miracle had happened. Some how the bleeding had stopped and the burst had healed itself. Also most of the blood from before had just disappered. Well I think we all know what happened there and they said he might be heading back out to Madagascar in a little bit so hopefully that will happen. 

However with this amazing expierence it made it a little bit more difficult to teach because our truck was the abulence running him from city to city so we had to bike most of the time. We still were able to teach okay but not as much as we hoped for so maybe next week things will not go completely crazy. This week though my body finally got caught up with the food. On Friday night I spent the whole night "Double Dragoning" is what the elders call it here so maybe I lost a little bit of wait. Also it was kind of nice because there was a huge wedding right by our house that night so I ended up getting to hear music the whole night. 

Saturday though was a pretty hard day just from not feeling 100% but we did have another baptism. It was a wounderful expirence to help another person come closer to christ. I hope that you are all doing well and having a wonderful summer. Love you all!!!!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Here is a picture with me and Elder Bowler with all of our branch missionaries and the other is us and one of the best resturants in town!!!

May 26, 2014-ROAD TRIP!!!!!

This week I got the lovely chance to go on a road trip because I still have not got my companion so I had to go out with the zoneleaders. We went to ambostra which is the wood working place of Madagascar. It was super awesome. After that we went to Finaraonsoa to go see how the elders down there were doing. The city there is super awesome but pretty interesting. The giant statue that I sent a picture of is the back side of mary and baby jesus that sits on a hill for everyone to see. It was pretty interesting to say the least. The picture of the giant city is also of Finanaransoa. The only problem the elders have down there is a group of people called the dahalo. Pretty much they just will rob you of your cows and then kill you. So the elders right now have had a curfew but the elders said they have walked past them a couple times and they just leave them alone. The road trip was super fun but the drive is the worst thing ever. It is super curvy through all of the mountains and the worst thing is that there is more pot holes then asfault. I also could barely see the road with all the fog so it was a pretty fun adventure. When we all got back to our house we were feeling pretty sick. 

The big news for the week is that I finally should be getting a new companion this week. I cannot wait for him to come because I have heard he is pretty good and Malagasy and then he can do all the work. It was pretty cool though having me and my branch missionary under the stars walking on rice pattys with the reflection of the stars on them and just me and him in the middle of no where though. I really have learned to start loving the Malagasy people. Well I hope that you all have a great week and I talk to you more next week.

Love

Elder Johnson

May 19, 2014-Crazy Week

This week has been a super crazy week with all the things that have gone down here. I was super happy that I was able to call home even after the difficulties with power outages and with the meetings with our mission president. It was super great being able to call home. This week I have been floating around a bunch though. I still do not have a new companion and I don't think that I will get one for like ten days at least until transfers. So I have been working in a lot of areas that I don't know but that is okay. I also got to go eat at a super cool members house but the food was not the best food that I have ever ate. I got to have a nice giant chuck of pig fat with the skin and the hairs still on it. That was so gross. Also our oven has not been cooking well so me and one of the other elders bought some sharbon and cooked with that. Sharbon is just like charcoal and we took our oven outside and cooked like that. It cooked so much better but it took a lot of work.

I got to work my area a couple times this week and we got to take a nice long bike ride to one of our members house for a baptism interview. It was all worth it though because she passed but it is like riding up Y mountain to get to her house on all sand rodes. I was able to baptize her which was super awesome and a great expierence. It was weird though having to baptize her and her daughter in a knee deep river since it has not rained for a while but that is okay. It was such a great expierence and the lady cannot wait for us missionaries to walk with her to church one day with her four kids. She walks it every sunday and it takes her about 3 hours to get there. She is so diligent and I am so happy that I was able to baptize her. I hope that you all have a great week and I love you all. 

Love
Elder Johnson

May 05, 2014- I met Pascow

This week was one of the craziest weeks ever. It started off with three of our missionaries living in our house going up to Tana to talk to president. They got a call from president on Tuesday morning at like 7 am telling them they were heading up at 8:30. So that was super crazy. My companion Elder Carrus, Elder Smithson and our zone leader were the three that went up. So that day was a interesting day and three of us got the lovely chance to go out on splits since we were the last three left at the house. So hopefully it all went well. 

I also found out that Elder Carrus is going to be going home because of health reasons on Friday. So I have not recieved any news on me but I might be going up to Tana with him or doing who knows what. He is going up to Tana on thursday is what he was told so far but any of those things could change whenever president can get him a flight to go home. So hopefully I will get some news soon what is going to be happening with me and my area. This mission is also super struggling on missionaries right now. I think we have a total of 72 but on this next transfer it will be going down to like 65 so who knows what they plan to do with me and my area.

The car clutch also went out on me this week while I was driving to Manandona yesterday. So we got the lovely oppurtunity to walk to church. It was about a two hour walk from where our car died and then we had to walk home early to go make sure we could get it back home. The car also could not go fast at all on the way home and every time I had to slow down I thought I was not going to get the car going. However we were able to get the car home and hopefully it will get fixed soon. I get to drive the blue berry for a couple days just until the elders who drive that car get back from Tana. 
Work in Manandona has been going pretty slow this week. It is hard to keep elder Carrus moving somedays but we are suppose to have two baptisms on the tenth but we have district conference that day so hopefully on the 17th. I also might get to baptize one of them since I will be the old companion here hopefully!!! We also had a less active member tell us he wants us to teach one of his friends. That would be super great if we can teach him and maybe get his friend to start coming to church.

Well this week has been a crazy week and hopefully all of you guys are safe and doing well. I hope that you all have an awesome week. Love you all.

Love,

Elder Johnson

P.S the pictures are me with Pascow and also what happens while the missionaries are at general conference. 

April 28, 2014- Sick Week

This week was a pretty crazy week with everything going on over this week. We were not able to teach nearly as much as most weeks because we had so much going on. My companion has been pretty sick and it sounds like he is going to be switching missions pretty soon because he says his body is not made for this mission. Hopefully wherever he goes he will love and enjoy it there. Because of this he does not know exactly when it is going to happen he just knows that it is going to happen. Hopefully though he can make it to the end of the transfer and finish up as my trainer. 

We went to Besoa again on Thursday and it was a super crazy day. To start out with they wanted to watch a church movie so we had to bring up chairs like every time we go there. We had to bring up the worlds biggest fattest TV. which I got the lovely oppurtunity to carry all the way from the car to the church. We also brought some speakers, some gas for the generator, all the cords and the DVD players. It was a pretty hard time to get up there. After we made it, we found out that we actually had to go get some oil. So I had to drive all the way back to Manandona to go buy some oil. It was the worst thing in the world. On the way though I totally hit a chicken going like 80km and totally destroyed the front plastic of the car. Needless to say I was not to happy about that and headed back to Besoa. We got up there and everything started to run but it turned out we had to have the remote to get the DVD player to start so I had to go back to Manandona agian. There though one of our members was able to fix the plastic thank heavens. There is still a pretty big dent but nothing like there was before. We finally got up there and we could not get our DVD to work so we ended up just letting them watch music videos since the guy with the generator had the disc. It was a pretty rough day but it was still great to go up to Besoa and have them be so happy just to have us try. Next week we are going up there before church and we are going to make the 3 hour walk with the members all the way to Manandona to go to the church with them and hopefully bring a bunch of the less actives.

I finally though on Saturday and Sunday was able to watch conference. I was not actually able to watch the Saturday sessions because my companion was sick again so I stayed home and cleaned up the house. It was not to bad because they gave me the second session of conference disc so I watched that and I had already watched the first session. I also got to go to priesthood and all of the Sunday session. I totally loved conference though. It was so amazing and I loved all of the messages that they had to share. I really liked the priesthood session (Even though it was super wierd not being by Pops and the Bros) where they talked about how to use smart phones and internet wisely since that is a big problem here in madagascar since all the technology our members have are their cell phones. If you have not had a chance to watch conference I would encourage you all to do so. I love you all and have a great week.

Love
Elder Johnson

The pictures of this week. The first one is just me with the two branch missionaries on a super cool path. The next one is a kid riding a ombi (cow) directing the other ombis with his whip. It's also super cool they have a whip language and maybe someday I will be fluent at it and malagasy. The last one is my favorite family that I get to teach. I really love teaching the lady next to me with the super big smile who is holding the kid. She is always super interested when we go and super happy to see us which is a rarety out here because they are all so shy. She also is one of the few people that understands my Malagasy.

April 21, 2014- Happy Easter

This week has been super stressful while due to my companion being super sick. I went out three days by myself which is super sketchy because I still can't speak the language that well but I do get to teach with the worlds best branch missionaries ever. They know how to help me so much and they are so great at teaching. The thing that I have started to get while I am speaking is a thing called White mouth. This is when you say everthing right but they still don't understand you. Then a Malagasy says it the same way with the same exact words and it makes sense. It is the worst thing ever. This week we taught a bunch of lessons too compared to what we normally do so that added to the excitment. 

We went out to Besoa again this week and we had a little devotional with them. It was one of the saddest things ever because they were so happy that we came out so they could open up there church. They sweep the floor every week even though the church is never used just to make sure if it does get opened back up that the church will be ready. As soon as we sat down they also all started to sing to let everyone know that the church was open. They are some of the most faithful memebers out there. Then they all came to church on sunday making the three hour walk to chuch.

Easter was one of the worst days ever. It is probably the biggest holiday out here. They have a huge party in the town that we live in of Antsirabe and everyone from Manandona goes up there to go to the party. This left very few people to teach and everyone else there was either at there own church because it was easter or had been partying and was passed out on the ground outside. It was a pretty difficult day to teach. We also finished the day by heading home and having a wonderful meal of Romin noodles. What a great day. Good thing we can go and buy more food today. It has been hard to get new investigators but as you can see from our members we have the best members in the world. I also get to watch General conference this week which is super exciting and I can't wait for it. Have a great week everyone and happy Easter. 

Love

Elder Johnson

April 14, 2014-

This week was so crazy of a week. We did not get to watch general conference. I guess that we are watching it on the 26, and 27 in Malagasy so hopefully I will be able to at least understand part of it. 

So we started off the week by going out to work on tuesday. It was the craziest thing ever. You know how some missionaries have to work in rain and snow. Well last week I got to work in a cyclone and this week on Tuesday I got to work in a locus storm. It was one of the craziest things that I have ever seen. The coolest thing about it was all the people that paid tithing did not have there fields touched. The Locus got pushed away and were not able to eat any of it. I guess tithing is not just fire insurance but also pests. 

On Wednesday we got to continue to deal with the locus because we were working in another part of our area called ibity. It is so awesome to teach out there because the people are so diligent that come to church. They have to walk some where between 3-5 hours so that they can make it to church. One of our investigators right now walks with her 3 kids the walk. It was super awesome to see how diligent she was. 

On Thursday the Locus were at our house which is like 20km from Manandona. Man those things will never go away. Jeez well we had a crazy morning with all of those things flying around and went out to Besoa which is our other area that we also work in. We taught a women who's child died like two weeks ago. She seemed to be doing well and she also has made the 3 hour walk to church two weeks in a row. These people are so amazing that they have enough faith to walk so far to get to church.

On Friday we did a split with our one zone leader because the other one is already transfered because he is going to the top of the island. So we went with him to Saradroa. It is a super awesome branch. You know the church is right by two houses. Ya just two but they get about 100 people a week to come to church who just have to walk super far to get there. I got the lovely oppurtunity of eating there too. The people brought out the normal rice which was super soggy. Not the best rice ever and I also got some nice chicken head on my plate too. That was super gross but I guess it could have been worse, but probably not.

Saturday my companion was sick from the food that we ate so I had the lovely opputunity to go on splits with a mini. A Mini is just a branch missionary. So I got to go to teach for a whole day in Manandona to five lessons to people that could not speak any english. It was pretty rough but I know that I was getting some help from some where. Hopefully it was good, and the people that I taught were able to feel the spirt. I really am happy that I have a trainer that can understand what is going on and speak to all of the people for me. HAHA

Sunday was another wierd day because someone died in Manandona. It was one of the craziest things ever because someone had died, and they had the funeral on sunday. Our church attendance that was at 150 a couple weeks ago was at 86 because of this funeral. It was also pretty hard to find people to teach because of the funeral which I guess goes on all day but what can you do. We did do a lot better of finding more people to teach though this week. 

I hope that you all have a wonderful week and I love you all.

Love

Elder Johnson

Here is it raining and the locus.

April 7, 2014- Remember y Camera!!!

This week has been not to crazy of a week. We did not have a car for much of this week which sucked again really bad having to bike 20km one way on the worlds worst bikes. Also my companion got a call from the mission president saying that he cannot drive anymore due to his two accidents. Yep so that means I get to drive everywhere all of the time. I am a little more use to driving but it still sucks because people love to walk out in front of your car all of the time. So hopefully I will drive safe and not have any problems with anyone.

The bugs still love me so much here. The fleas have gone down a bit but this week I had a nice run in with an African flea. That sucked super bad but I got it all taken care of. However we did get our house sprayed the other day. The other missionaries said it will help for about two days and then we will have them all back again but oh well. The only bite you when you are super new I am told.

We did not get to watch general conference yet this week. I think we get to watch them maybe on thursday and friday this week or maybe it is the week after, but we are watching them on the worlds worst tv and sound system so hopefully we can actually see it.

Cooking still sucks as always but we went to an american meeting this week. It was great to understand people but some of them offered us how to learn how to cook in Madagascar because one of them has a Malagasy wife which is super great. I also have been loving the smoothies so much since I can buy a kilo of bananas and a kilo of pares for 50 cents. It is a hard life some days here. Haha I am doing great. We also got a program set so hopefully we will teach a bunch of lessons this week and start to get things moving again in Manandona. We also had the first couple investigators to come to church in like a year so that is some really good news. I hope you are all doing well.

Love

Elder Johnson
Here is the picture of the Baptism in the River and the lovely toilet I get to use when I am in Manandona. So if any of you are having a "crappy" day hopefully it is a little better.

March 30, 2014- Bike Rides and Baptisms

This week has been a way crazy week. We got the lovely oppurtunity to bike 3 out of the 7 days because the zone leaders had our car those days. It was the worst. I think in those three days I biked like 100 kilometers on the worlds worst bikes. Those seats have no padding at all. It was still super fun though. One night I hit a cat while I was biking because you can't see anything. Then to go back up the giant hill we caught a ride with a semi. It is the best thing ever. You just have to catch it and hold on to the back of it and it will do all of the work for you. But it still is pretty sketchy holding onto that.

I also did splits this week for the baptismal interview. That was pretty cool. I was with Elder Razazaroahavana who is a native from Madagascar. He is alright at english which meant we just talked in Malagasy really only. I also got my first real chance to try some native food with him. We ate at a hotely which they say we shouldn't but everyone does, and later that night we ate with some members. The only thing that made me to nervous was I accidently drank some pump water... Lets just hope I didn't catch some nice worms but everyone says if I am not sick by now I should be good. I don't think that I will try that again.

We also had a baptism this week. It was super great and also way cool. Since we don't have a baptismal font we just go out into a river and baptise the people out there. It was super awesome because our ward missionary got to baptise him and it was his grandpa. It was an awesome spiritual expierence. Well I hope that you all have a wonderful week.

Love

Elder Johnson

P.S 

I forgot my camera so I will send pictures of the baptism home next week unless we stop back in here today.

(I'm going to add the pictures in here:)

March 24, 2014- The Week of Death

This week was a rough week for my body. It has been hard to adjust to all of the new changes. My mortal enemies are the fleas here. They love me. I have learned that I would rather have mosqitoes then fleas. I have so many bites but I think that I have won the battle. I put all of my stuff in permethrine to kill all of those suckers. HAHA So hopefully they will start to leave me alone. It is not that bad that though. Just pretty itchy.

This week with one of our investigators we got him to stop chewing tabaco!!! So hopefully on saturday will be my first baptism if everything goes right. This guy is the coolest old man ever. He told us that he needs to learn 3 times a week a little bit ago so that we can have know everything that he needs to know for baptism.

We had zone conference that was really great this week. I learned a bunch of this that I can do to be a better missionary and we also got free food from the mission president's wife and the senior couples. It was the best meal of my life because I did not have to cook it. Power has been going crazy here lately. I am in one of the best areas for power and we are lucky if we have enough power to keep the light on and we don't have any power to microwave at night so always do that in the morning. Cooking here is very different and difficult. We do not have anything to messure with and you cannot cook anything on an exact tempature, but everyone does love my cooking. If you can call it that. 

Today for Pday we went and to a lake called lake tratriva. (chachEva) It is so blue and is so awesome. You cannot tell that much in the pictures because it was super cloudy today. That was pretty lame but I can always go up there again. Also today my companion scaraped up the truck super bad. So I might be driving all of the time. I hate driving here. It is so crazy and you do not want to hit someone. They have many horror stories about that but I will not say those. I have also started to eat a bit more of the native food. The juice is so great here and they have so many fruit trees. I just walk around and eat guava's or some cactus fruit. It is so great and I might get super fat here. Have a great week all of you!

Love

Elder Johnson

First of many to come

Garett, as soon as you opened up your call, 

we knew this mission was going to be a full-committment mission.

We knew instantly that it wouldn't be a cozy plush mission, but instead

one filled with work... lots of work... but that work would turn into some of 

the most amazing memories you could ever have. So I just 

thought you might like to have all those memories

saved here so that you can flip back 

through them whenever

you'd like :) 

Love

U

Until we meet again!