Monday, October 24, 2016

Back In Tarawa!



Dear mom,
Fiji was an amazing experience on Wednesday we went out and went on splits with some Fijian elders it was so much fun but the Elder that Elder Parry and I work with was very strange.  hahah I have already seen why I had to stay, there were so many things that played out.  The main reason is those couple that we met in Christmas Island! XD
Our area is so crazy, I walked into 80 plus investigators, 30 or so member presents a week and 7 baptisms last Saturday! Pretty crazy!!! XD  The Ward is huge it is the first one that has stood on the island...... pretty nuts! XD
Well we made it to Tarawa, and the last couple of days flew by! It's great to see Elders Christensen and Elder Hunter and to finally be training! Work here in Eita, I'm going to be honest is a little overwhelming, but it is going to be a great time. Some amazing things happened walking in to the area. We met one family and Elder Jackson and I were their second lesson. I had the impression to invite them to church and the entire family came yesterday and stayed the entire time. The husband and wife even participated in the gospel principles class. We also just got a long term investigator of over a year to come to church for his first time. The Lord has definitely prepared people for us here, and I am already starting to see the reasons for me being here.
Elder Jackson is a great kid, he is really excited to work and get going, and is doing great with the language. I was blown away by how much he is doing.  We get a long great, our personalities mesh very well, and I have had a fun past couple of days with him.
He is a pretty crazy kid and does some pretty crazy stuff! He's killed an alligator for a neighbor, he bungee jumps, spear fishes, and does some cool things.  I love him!  It has been a great past couple of days! He's from the southern tip of Texas and he loves it there!
Me, I am doing great.. There were a couple of rules that were added that I didn't hear about until I got here to Tarawa, like the going to bed at 10 and being to church by a quarter to. Honestly my daily routine makes it hard to make it to that 10 bed time, but this week I am going to sacrifice certain things in order to change that.
You guys will definitely be in my prayers!
Journal entry for the week: Oct 20
"Today was a crazy day full of some crazy adventures  So we woke up at 4 am so that we could be on the curb ready to be picked up at 5 am which took a while.... We got up there checked out to which the front desk told us we had left over money we didn't use to which she pulled out some money then had us sign a paper.  We actually got payed for staying in the nicest resort in Fiji!!! XD  After about an hour our taxi didn't show up and the desk was trying to call to find out where the taxi was.... They ended up arranging a different taxi for us.... The thing I don't understand is why are we going so early?????? The Check in doesn't start until 9:30... so we got to the airport, got a refund for our taxi service... found a spot on the wall crossed our legs sat down got stared at by several Asians who were surprised we could cross our legs so well.... After a while we went and bought breakfast at a little cafe, which was really tasty!  I bought a couple of fried Indian foods and a chocolate danish.  Is was good!  When we were done eating, we played Teroka a game similar to Uno, to which it came down to Elder Gilbert and I .  Elder Gilbert played a 7 of hearts which ends that game and you have to count your cards to see who has the least points.  He had 2 jokers 30 points each and 2 twos which are 20 points each.   It was so funny we laughed so hard at him! 
When we got to the check in counter, we were going to take some Kiribati people's luggage, but the guy said that was not allowed.... Then something amazing /horrible happened we got told that we were put in business class since we missed our flight last week.  We were all freaking out because that is awesome, and super embarrassing having to sit there with all of the Kiribati people,  Well we got through security and into the waiting lounge, to which all the workers in all the stores were in a meeting... so we waited for a while, until the Nike store opened. I bought some shoes with the money I got given by the Hotel then some chocolate for people on Tarawa. 
We then waited at some burger king then waited to get loaded.  When we got seated on the plane, we had to endure through all the people walking past us.... Several "Rich Mormon” comments got thrown at us by some Kiribati people.... .  After everyone was on the first thing that happened was hot towels to wipe your face... then as we got in the air menus for the food 3 courses.... appetizer, main then dessert.  We had silverware place mats... crazy.  They even gave us personal Ipads for movies.... but of course I didn't use it!   We landed in Tarawa, went through the chaotic building where bags and people were just crammed in waited for an hour to get out.   Reminded me a lot about my first day!!! XD  I met my kid, Elder Jackson, Elder Hunter, Sister Eubanks and Sister Vuvute!!!! XD  It was so good to see them! Elder Jackson is a great funny kid.  We are going to get along great!!! His parents have an amusement park in Texas, bungee jumps pretty crazy!  We got to the house and I went out to work with Elder Christensen, who sounds Kiribati, teach for a while hand out chocolate, teach some amazing people, then get back to no power and no water.   .   Messy everything so what happens is Elder Hunter and Elder Christensen go get Elder Larsen.... What??? He fixed the electrical stuff and got shocked and almost just almost let out a few select words XD sooooooo funny!!! Great day!!!
Love you mom,
Love your son,

Elder Johnson





Dad,
yeah I got to Tarawa just fine.... in business class.....(see mom's email) The airline went above and beyond to apologize to all those who got stuck... I think they did a pretty good job! XD 

The area is great I work with Elder Hunter and Elder Christensen, we share the area so it's not as bad as I thought!!! XD 

Most spiritual thing is probably our lesson with a guy named Tooti who is really hard on himself, but we got him to say that he felt the spirit and that he really wants to be like Joseph Smith! We taught on repentance even though at first we were planning on teaching Plan of salvation.

Funniest thing.... we got chased by a pack of 20 dogs going to a lesson.... this is why I hate tarawa.... so scary... but we got permission to throw rocks at the dogs.

love you dad,
Love your son, 
Elder Johnson





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