Burritos & Biscuits and Gravy

Hello everyone! It is kind of weird writing this email just after having Skyped yesterday. But it was great to see my family. You motivate me to be a better missionary :) 

This week was better than last week. We still had a two-day "business trip" to Lyon for the legality of Elder Strong but other than that it was really productive and good :) 

TRIP TO LYON PART 2

Trip to Lyon was very efficient and fun! We went out to eat with all the other missionaries that had to come back as well. We went to this place called Master Taco, which is more of a burrito place but still super good. You can order numbers 1-5 as far as size goes. I got a number 3 and it was hard to finish but a couple elders got the 5 (which is more than a kilo or 2.2 pounds). I will attach pictures. Souer Tupai doesn't really know what to think about it :) 

Also, riding the train, I was just looking out the window, admiring the French country side, when we pass this house and in the yard there is a completely naked man, just chilling walking around his yard. I tried to wake Elder Strong up in time to see it but he just barely missed it. I laughed so hard because I was just enjoying this beautiful landscape and BAM... naked man. #OnlyinTheSouthofFrance

NOS AMIS

Our amis are all doing really well. I recently realized how many miracles have been coming our way. It is a great comfort to know that the Lord can work in ways that we could never accomplish ourselves. 

Brigitte and Aurelie- They are going really strong right now. Brigitte is still trying to stop smoking but she is making great progress. They have seemed to have finally made the "click". Everything just makes sense now. They don't have weird questions or concerns in lessons anymore. We are still working on trying to fix a baptismal date for them both but they feel like they aren't ready because they still need to stop smoking. I really think we are getting close to a date. They have a friend named Eric who kind of floats in and out of lessons. He was there when we invited her to fix a date. Brigitte was like, “I don't know....” and then Eric is all like "This is what you need to do. And you know it is what you need to do. It will bring you great peace in your life!” It was super cool because he actually has been listening in lessons enough to testify to Brigitte about the importance of baptism :)

Eda- Eda cracks me up. She is so nice. This week we went and cut her lawn. It is a pretty big lawn but not THAT big. Afterwards she asked, “How much do I owe you?” After I told her that she couldn't pay us and debating for like 15 minutes she was resolved to saying "Well, this is just an extra blessing... I don't see anything wrong with paying you!" I told her she could pay us in food but not cash. She agreed but wasn't happy. hahaha Her baptism is coming up in two weeks. She is excited. It is going to be a great experience for her. She has already invited like 20 friends. No joking. Now we just have to teach all of them. :) 

BISUITS AND GRAVY

Sooooo... for Zone Training, each equip had to bring some type of food that represented their equip. Elder Strong and I had the idea of making biscuits and gravy because we are both from the south, it is easy to make and it is cheap. Well, sadly enough, biscuits don't exist in this country. I was NOT about to make biscuits by hand so we abandon the idea until we got to the imports section where we saw scone mix and they look exactly like biscuits on the box. We buy all of the boxes and take them home where I accidently dump too much milk into the mixture and then have to add flour and roll them out like biscuits. They actually turned out really well and everyone was impressed with Elder Strongs gravy making skills. I'm blessed to have a fellow southerner as a companion :) It was nice to eat biscuits and gravy as well, it had been a while. 

EXCHANGE

This last Friday, after zone training we went on exchange with the Zone Leaders. I went with Elder Duckworth and Elder Strong stayed in Toulouse. Elder Duckworth is in my MTC group so we had a ton of fun on exchange. We just talked a lot about our whole group and how weird it is that time flies so fast. We taught Ambre, a really cool less active that we are going to reactivate this transfer. She has so much potential. There are some things she needs to do before she comes back to church but she has so much potential. She is such a jokester. We are going to play a funny joke on Elder Strong this week. All in good humor of course. I'm excited to tell you about it :) 

PENSÉE SPIRITUELLE 

This week I have been studying faith vs fear and I found a scripture that really touched me. It is in

2 Timothy 1:7 It reads:

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

I really like this verse. God isn't someone who wants us to be afraid, He doesn't want us to worry or fear about the future or what decisions we have to make. He has given us the blessings of love, power and a sound mind through the comforts of the Holy Ghost. I know the more fully we put our trust in him, the more fully He can bless us with these comforts :)

Anyway! I love you all! Have a great week! 

Que Dieu soit avec nous

Elder Johnson