When Life Sucks, Pray

 

Hola mis amores,

I'm currently watching the sun rise from our house and the colors look awesome so I'll snap a pic with my potato phone for you guys. Feel free to go ahead and frame it or something. You're welcome.

QUICK UPDATE:

So uh, I can't remember if I mentioned this in my last email but I'm one of the elders assigned to work in the office here as their "tech specialist" and it's actually way harder than it should be since we live in a 3rd world country and all but fun because whenever stuff breaks or we need to open up new apartments for missionaries anywhere in the country I get to drive all the way out there in an airconditioning-less tin can and fix the issue. So I meet lots of people, sweat lots of essential water and see a lot of pretty countryside.

4 elders locked themselves out of their apartment so we had to take them to our place to sleep for the night and that was a party. We cooked them all ramen and then laughed about how awful their day had been. They were keeping a good attitude and laughing about it all but I felt so bad for them. They were so sweaty and exhausted and didn't even have clean clothes to change into. Even sleeping in your own crappy bed would feel way better than being crammed together on an air mattress and couch cushions on the floor of our apartment. Luckily, my comp was generous enough to lend them my fan.

I'm keeping track of all the food Elder Reynoso cooks here so I can attempt making it back in the states. Everything is basically a different kind of chicken-and-rice variable so I'm hoping it'll be easy for me to figure out on my own when I'm cooking for myself in college! One day while we were prepping food Elder Peralta grabbed some jalapenos and then picked his nose or something and freaked out like his face was on fire. He ran to the sink and rinsed his face off with soap, held ice cubes against his nose, he tried just about everything but his nose was throbbing and red for a good few hours after that. That was probably the funniest lunch we've had so far.

I got out my camera and drone to make a cool video in a park so that was fun! I'll let y'all know when the video drops – it's just a few Christmas musical numbers so nothing too fancy, but the performers are way talented so it'll be good.

We're teaching a guy who has serious plans to be the president of the DR and he's already made an appearance on a few of the major television networks here so that's pretty cool! I'm really hoping he gets elected someday so when I come back and visit I can stay with his fam in the penthouse. Honestly such a solid guy tho, he really believes in what he's doing and has chosen this career out of a deep love for his country and family. I know the Lord will bless and help him for every honest, righteous desire and man he's got a lot of those.

It's pretty hard for me a lot of days here because so much of my work feels like it's out of my control. I can't control the people who accept or reject our message, I can't control the phone company when they don't give our missionaries more minutes, I can't control whether or not my companion feels healthy or how much food is available in the store here but I've learned to make the most of the parts I can control – my attitude, my prayers, what I do with the change in opportunities that come my way. Hey now don't read that like I'm saying it in a sweet hopeful tone because it actually sucks most of the time and it's friggin hard to be happy and positive when it feels like it's all on you to make things better. But my knowledge of the gospel has helped me learn I'm never truly doing anything on my own.

I just know that Jesus Christ lives and loves us so much that he actively works in our lives today to guide and direct us. He really is my Savior and he rose from the dead 2000 years ago and is still leading His church to this day. Prayer actually works and it is so powerful when we remember to use it to communicate our love, gratitude and desires with our Heavenly Father. Throughout much of the chaos I work through on the daily here I feel "His peace" as he talked about in the scriptures. I truly have His joy when I'm doing His work and I can honestly say there is nothing in the world like it.

I've seen a lot of miracles on my mission but the greatest is even though I've never seen them, I can say I know and love my Heavenly Father and his Son Jesus Christ.

I love you and your heavenly Father loves you! Keep praying cuz it works man.

- Elder Johnson

1. My difficult and stressful office missionary life

2. Pretty potato phone sunrise pic I promised

3. Cute pic of Elder Gray and Peralta

4. Elder Peralta

5. Elder Marley

6. Me and my comp

7. Elder Gray snoozin

Hey I’m in the D.R. now

 Welcome to Santo Domingo.

I ate an empanada from a street vendor the second day here and didn't poop for the rest of the week which just means that my stomach has already acclimated to the new country because it took all that extra time to study and analyze the new bacteria I consumed here.

We have a sandwich griller in the kitchen that I use every day. There were a ton of spices in the cupboards and since everything's in Spanish I don't worry too much about what I'm actually putting on my food (since I couldn't tell ya what it is anyway), I just dump it on everything – and have had some of the most amazing grilled cheese and egg sandwiches let me tell ya.

My companion is awesome. His name is elder Reynoso and he's from the DR so he knows all the slang and has been super helpful teaching me gradually how to talk like a Dominican. The climate is hot and humid, random warm rainstorm bursts come and go throughout the day – but miraculously I feel like I've already adjusted pretty well to the heat and the Spanish! We will see what happens when June and July come around though.

The people here are awesome. Everyone is super humble and friendly. Pretty much everyone believes in God and wants to follow the example of Jesus Christ. I was just getting my hair cut by a 16 year old dude and we were talking about regular stuff we liked to do and then he was teaching me all these slang words and phrases I needed to know "por la calle". When I asked him what he wanted to do with his life when he's older he replied simply and without hesitation, "I want to serve Christ."

That kind of response was just really cool to hear. He had his whole life ahead of him and he could've talked about a lot of other desires and aspirations but the first thing he wanted to do was serve Christ. Way to get your priorities straight my man.

Let's follow the example the people set for us here and go out of our way to be kind and inclusive towards others, especially if they look a little out of place. You will make others feel so good and you'll feel better about yourself! 😄

Have a great week everybody. Stay tuned for more shenanigans and inspiration to come from this incredible country. I love and miss y'all like crazy!

Love,

Elder Johnson

You'd think living in a foreign country would make me take more pictures but uh, unfortunately I forgot to take any so here's two that I had to scrounge around for from other people. I will try to remember to take more pictures this week.