I just want to stay in Albi

Hello everyone!

These are all the missionaries that started their mission when Elder Cameron Johnson did in October.
The girls have all gone home as their 18 months are done. 

I don’t have a ton to write about this week just because we got back into Albi this Thursday. So we haven’t had a ton of time back here, which really stresses me out. Whenever I am out of my sector for a long time I just think about my amis and what they are doing. I know they aren’t being taught! It is a weird anxiety. Just sitting around in a ville that isn’t yours does bad things to you. I really enjoyed being in Lyon despite not being able to teach. I love Lyon so stinking much. It will always be my favorite ville. Anyway...

LA VISITE à LYON

So.... I was in Lyon for about five days because of the mission wide conference. I think I already told you about it. Anywho... I "hung out" with Elder Mueller and Elder Shalk (two Germans) for three days waiting until the bleus arrived. We mostly just contacted the entire time or did nice things for the office elders like clean their apartment or run errands for them. We talked to so many people. We found some really elect people for the equips in Lyon.

Famille Leporé

I did get the opportunity to visit two of my favorite familles that I know. The Bonnamys and the Leporés. Both of them where like "You are still on your mission? How much time do you even have left?!" That was kind of hard to hear. I thought that once I cleared the halfway on my mission, things would get easier and calmer but to be honest I just feel more stressed and pressed for time. I know the clock is ticking and it freaks me out. I don’t like it. haha.

Famille Bonnamy - also shared this photo last week.  :)

As cool as Lyon is, I was ready to leave when we did. On Wednesday we finally got our bleus! My new companion is Elder Strong. He is from Kentucky. He is very quiet and reserved. He probably thinks I’m crazy... hahaha. Probably, because I am. We get along well even though we are different.

Elder Cameron Johnson meeting his new bleu companion, Elder Strong

Riding in the car is a little stressful but it is getting better. He is learning quick but we have already driven on the wrong side of the road twice. Only once on the freeway, so no big deal.

LES AUTRES CHOSES

Ummm... I don't really have a whole lot more to say, just because we haven’t really "worked" this week. Our amis are doing really well despite us not being here. Eda will be baptized the 23rd of this month, so pray everything goes well! Brigitte is getting closer and closer to stop smoking. We are going to try to engage her this week to baptism.

We have to go back to Lyon this week. I think I might go crazy if we have to leave anymore. But it is only for two days to do the legality of Elder Strong. It should be quick and we will be back in Albi by Wednesday night.

Voila... that is this week! I will write more next week!

I love you all!

Elder Johnson

President & Sister Roney & Moi

UNE SEMAINE SUR LYON, BÉBÉ #2 and iPad Cases

Hello family and friends! I have a lot of thing to tell you! I'll start with the conference in Lyon :)

So! Friday of last week we got on a bus in Toulouse and headed towards Lyon with ALL of the other missionaries in the Toulouse and Montpellier Zones. It was about a six-hour ride. It went by really fast though because we just all talked about funny stories and read scriptures and talks from the Area Seventy that was coming.

We got into Lyon around 7PM and went to the Ecully chapel, and literally the entire mission was there. All 240ish missionaries. It was insane seeing so many missionaries. There were so many that I had never even seen before mostly because I have stayed on the south west side of the mission. But anyway, the office had bought all of the missionaries pizzas. They bought a crazy amount of pizza. There was a mountain of boxes afterwards the size of a car.

The actual conference took place on Saturday. And I was pleasantly surprised at how spiritual it was. I went in with the idea that I was going to just hear about all of the rules and the "nuts and bolts" of having iPads. But it was very uplifting! Elder Nielson (he spoke in this last general conference about his sister) came and showed us the view from "40,000 feet." as he said.

The church is introducing technology with iPads to missionaries for a number of reasons. They see that the work is going to explode because most people know that going from door to door and talking to people on the street is becoming less and less effective. Already one cool point.

The church also wants missionaries to develop good social media habits for when they are home and the way the iPads are formatted, we still have a ton of freedom so we will have to learn how to use them correctly and effectively.

The conference was also super, super cool because I got to see all of my old companions! (All of them that aren't home). It was like a giant family reunion. Every time a bus pulled up to the church it was like Christmas. It was also super weird because the sisters from my group are going home this week and I'm here in Lyon with them all. It is a really weird feeling to see them going home. Frankly, it is hard for me to believe!

When President shook my hand for the conference he said "Good morning Stabby..." And then when he said goodbye, he told me I needed to keep my iPad in my back right pocket... just to be safe. Lol. I just imagine him lying in bed at night thinking about what he could say and then just laughing. He is too funny. I really love him. He only has 8 weeks left on his mission and it makes me super sad to think I'm not going to finish with him. I never imagined my mission president being someone who has influenced me so much.

As for visiting members I got to visit the Famille Bonnamy! It was sick to see them again. I really like them. They had us over for some juice and a tarte citron. We talked for about an hour and a half and just caught up. They asked me how much time I had left and they were shocked that I only had six months. Time passes fast!

Bonnamy family

Cool tender mercy... We are waiting in the metro station for the next car when I'm looking around and I see this woman that looks super familiar. I keep looking and I realize it is Annick! HA! I run up to her and she is like, “ WHAT?! IT IS YOU! JOHNSON!” hahaha It was so awesome. She was really happy to see me, as I was happy to see her. She is doing better but she hasn't been going to church. Rachelle is still going to church though, which is awesome. After seeing her, I felt overwhelmed with how much God loves us and gives us little experiences like that. What are the chances of visiting a city of two and half million people for a couple of days and I am going to come across someone that I know? God is so awesome :)

In the end we didn't even get iPads yet! The mission has received the cases but not the iPads. President has named the conference we had,”The iPad Case Conference.” lol. I imagine in the next month we will have them. It will be weird but after being at that conference, I see how much it can advance the work. I'm very excited.

So... I'm actually still in Lyon right now.... because I'm training AGAIN! I guess I messed up so terribly they decided to give me a second chance. I'm excited and nervous to train again. I'm sure it will be a great learning experience. I'll be here in Lyon until Wednesday if all goes as planned. I am pretty sad to see Elder Ottesen leave Albi, he has been a great companion. But we will see each other at BYU. Anyway!

Saying goodbye to Elder Ottesen

That is about it for this week. I love you all so much. Every time I think about you all, I just work harder. Thank you for your support and above all, your prayers (especially because the bleu will be the one driving the car).

Je vous aime tous!

Elder Johnson

iPads? Mile Time Trial?

Hello! Family and friends! This week was crazy! We had lots of things to do this week! 

EXCHANGES

This last week we had two exchanges! We had one with the Zone Leaders in Toulouse. Frankly, Toulouse is beautiful. Almost all of the buildings are red brick and les Toulousains are super nice. It is a little more upbeat than Bordeaux but still classic French. I loved it. 

Something cool about my exchange with Elder Kirkpatrick was that we didn't have anything really solid as a plan. We didn't have any fixed rendezvous, so we pretty much contacted the entire time. A cool miracle, we contacted this girl and she was from IDAHO and not a Mormon! She was super nice and although she was super rushed she wanted to meet with us again to talk about the church and all that cool stuff. She has family that is Mormon. I mean she is from Idaho so she must know a little bit about the church. Anyway, that was probably the best part of the entire exchange. 

Recently when I have been talking to people, I've noticed how nice they actually are. People talk all the time about how rude French people are and how they don't like Americans or whatever but it isn't true! They are actually really nice. You just have to know how to break through their superficial social barriers. A lot of the things they do to indicate that they aren't interested is pretty rude to an American but to a French person that is how you say no. 

France has become more and more of another place in the world to me than a foreign country. I'm still struck with how beautiful things are and it is true, there are some pretty weird things here but whenever I walk down the street I don't think "Wow, I'm in France right now, it is so crazy... wow France." I used to, but now I just feel comfortable here. haha

Anyway! We had another exchange with the district leader, Elder Gossel and Elder Keller. I went with Elder Keller. He is cool. He is just in his fourth transfer. He is in the same group as Elder Brill. Our exchange was pretty "relaxed". We took and hour and a half bus ride to a members house, did service, ate pizza and left. And that was our exchange! haha

DISTRICT MEETING

This week we had district meeting here in Albi. I like not being district leader! hahaha It is nice to be the one who is listening, not the once teaching. When we were talking about our stuff I thought a lot about the last six months that I have on my mission and how important it is going to be for me to set good goals so I stay focused and work as hard as a I can to the very end. So, I've fixed some pretty stellar goals. Elder Ottesen challenged me to try to gain ten pounds before the end. I told him it would be easy. I could just eat nutella before going to bed every night. hahaha.

L'OEUVRE 

The work is going really well. We found some really cool potential(s) this week. We kind of got destroyed at the end of the week. No one could meet with us so we just had to port and contact all day. At the beginning I had a really bad attitude about it. I didn't want to walk around all day, it is hard! But as I forced myself to think about how the least I could do was sacrifice my will to the Lord for four hours it got a lot better. 

We saw a lot of miracles! We were able to teach one lesson at a door and we got several numbers of cool people. At the end of the day we ended up with 23 conversations! WOO! The average is usually around 7. I was pretty happy. We worked really hard.

Sunday I had to conduct and preside. And I blessed the sacrament. It was one of the rougher weeks as far as that goes but it is getting easier. Anyway! 

That is about it for the week! I love you all! Sorry about no pictures.. I forgot my card reader in the apartment...

Love,

Elder JOHNSON

PS

Elder Ottesen and I have been running all transfer and this morning we decided to run a mile time trial on a 200 meter concrete track.  Well, let's just say I wanted to die. hahaha I ran a 5.37 and he ran a 5.07. It was so hard. I remember thinking the entire time, “This sucks, I hate running. Why do I run?” Then when I got done I was really happy. The end. hahah

OHHH

Also, the mission is having a MISSION WIDE conference in Lyon this Friday so we can get iPads! YAY! hahaha. Just kidding, I don't really want one. I've done without for this far on my mission and it has been okay. But yeah.

Donc, voila quoi, vous savez... bien. C'est tout. 

WOOOO

Hello Family and friends! 

This letter is going to be pretty pathetic... We had a really good week but I am trying to think about what I did and literally nothing comes to my head. But, I will think of things! 

Okay... I noticed some really weird things about France today:

*Whenever you drive into a car wash, you get out of your car and watch your car get      washed by the machine! It is so lame... they miss the best part of getting your car            washed. 

*The man on the crosswalk light here is green... not white like in the US of A. 

*Hedgehogs roam the hills and mountains freely. They are considered wild animals here. 

*Hugging people is a more intimate greeting than giving each other kisses on the cheeks. 

Yeah... that is pretty much all for weird things I thought of at the moment. 

As for the work this week, it was really good. We were able to teach most of our amis and they are all doing really well. Mithel, our Chinese amie, prayed for the first time and it was super sweet. At first she was a little hesitant but then she was like okay, I'll do it. 

She starts praying and she is just super genuine. She said in her prayer "... I have doubts but please help me build my faith." I thought that was one of the highlights of the week. 

Something else really good! Actually, this was a huge miracle. We have about three hours until it was time to go back inside and we don't have anything planned besides finding. Which isn't the most fun, but it is good work. Elder Ottesen is says, “We should drive out to an outer ville.” We start driving out of Albi and JUST before we take the last round point, we see Axel walking on the side of the road and I'm like, “WE HAVE TO PULL OVER AND TALK TO HIM!” And we pull over, say a prayer and jump out of the car and go over and talk to him. 

Basically he told us that he had a super hard week because he went to his family's house and they just really bashed the church and all of its teachings and principles. He kind of freaked out and told his family that he wouldn’t meet with us anymore. He told us as soon as he sent the text message he knew that it wasn't the right thing to do. He was very sorry and then we had a lesson with him and set up another one! It was a huge miracle. I'm glad that we listened to the spirit and gave him some space until an opportunity naturally presented itself. 

Also for our amis, The Famille Leroy had their baby! The birth went well and we sent them a text telling them how happy we were for them. We didn't even ask to come over just because she just had her baby but she said, “We will invite you over this next week!” I thought it was funny just because they felt bad they couldn't invite us over this week. HA. We understand you just had a baby! 

Anyway! This was a good week! Thanks for all of your love! 

Avec amour,

Elder Johnson

PS.

We found a wild hedgehog this week. I tried to pick it up but it didn't let me... D:

PPS. 

This last Sunday officially marked six months until Columbus day and my flight home! Pretty stinking weird.