Happy New Year! December 30

first off, family, it was great to see all of your wonderful faces and hear your voices! i miss you all and it was great talking to you!

this week was a hard one! it was really hard to fund people who would listen to us this week because of christmas and all but i have lots of hope for this week! 

this week 2 of our main investigators moved.. it was a bummer! but the other missionaries in that area said that they would make sure they baptized them for us! haha so that was a bummer, we only have one real investigator right now, so this week is basically going to be a searching week were we will try and find new people to teach! 

also this week elder soares accidentaly dropped our cell phone and it broke! haha so that made things a little tricking because we couldnt confirm our appointments and we ended up having to walk to there houses, but for the most part no one was home, so that was a bummer because we would walk a ton just to turn around! haha 

on the bright side! we have running water as of today!!! haha it is a miracle!! im just hoping it lasts for more than 3 days, unlike last time! haha

this week i played the piano in sacrement meeting, and that was a exciting seeing as i had never practiced any of the hymns that we sang! haha but it was fun! i missed playin! also this week i became the sewing csar of the house! it turns out that none of the elders i live with know how to sew so this week i sewed a bunch of shirts and pants! haha it looks like mrs wasmers class is coming in handy after all! haha also saw my first sunset in brazil! its crazy, i have never seen one because normally we are teaching at that time! but it was really cool! its really differnet without mountains! haha

spiritual thing of this week! my companion said it was my turn to pick a house to knock on and i saw this house really far down the street with a light on in the front, and i just got this feeling that we needed to go there! My companion i think was a little skptical because that area had already been tracted, but we did it anyway and we found this family who was super in active, like 6 years! and the son was baptized when he was ten, but doesnt really remember much about church, so we taught them a lesson and he said that he really wants us to come back! it was cool! it just goes to show that if you have a hunch, and its good thing, you need to follow it, becuase you dont know what you might miss! 

well that is my weekly update! also i need to say this.... IM SO HAPPY THE JAZZ BEAT THE LAKERS!!!!!! hahaha 

happy new year to all! i love and miss all of you!

Elder Ryan

SKYPE TIME December 25, 2013

hey i will try and skype or call around like 11-1 on christmas! im not for sure what time in this time frame for sure, but it will be between 11-1 for sure on christmas day! love you all!!

The computer started making noise about 1:15 pm and luckily all the computer equip set up by Ken and Cathryn worked like a charm....Mom forgot to do anything but look at that big smile and smile back.  Luckily Cathryn thought to take a picture of Elder Ryan (yes, that is what his official tag says) and his comp Elder Soares from Sao Paulo ("elder Hyan is cool" was his only English phrase). We got to talk for 59 min and 59 seconds according to the Skype timer.   Best Christmas gift ever!!

Contact info for Ryan

ADDRESS UPDATE


Email Address--keep them short and sweet so he can read the epistles from his MOM and DAD :-) He only has a short time to be online so if you want him to savor your words feel free to send things snail mail.

ryanej210@myldsmail.net

Snail Mail--  letters go to the Mission home address

Elder Ryan Johnson
Av. Dom Antonio Brandao, No. 333, Sala 402
Farol-Maceio, AL  57021-190
Brazil

Packages are highly unlikely to get to him unscathed--he has requested that all packages go straight to the mission home.

Elder Ryan Johnson
Av. Dom Antonio Brandao, No. 333, Sala 402
Farol-Maceio, AL  57021-190
Brazil

send me lots of packages! ;) hhaha 12-23-13

 DECEMBER 23, 2013

hey everyone!

i hope everything is going well for you and that you are all hving a great holiday season and getting lots of awesome presents for christmas.. and sending me lots of packages! ;) hhaha

weeelll this week was way better than last week! its amazing how much more portugues i can understand and speak after just 2 weeks! it truly is a miracle! its not like im fluent or anything but i can see a graduale improvement everyday! its good stuff!! 

this week we had mission confernece! it was good, i got to meet lots of people in my mission and see all my friends that were in the mtc with me! it was awesome to see how All of them had progressed so much in the language after just one week! the only downer about it is that the conference was in maceio, which is 3 hours from arapiraca! so there was a total of 6 hours in a bus.. great fun! ahaha, but other than that it was good!

so i thought that i would be eating a ton of rice and beans when i got here, but i actually havent eaten like any! i mostly eat pasta, which is nice, except the members here are trying to make me fat so they can eat me for christmas dinner or something because every time we eat at a members house, they just keep piling food on my plate until im at the point of explosion! haha 

this week we found 7 new investigators, and marked 2 of them to baptism, so i should have my first baptism by the 2 week of january! i am pretty excited about that! one of out investigators found us, his name is john, he saw us teaching a lesson, waited for us to finish, and then asked us if we could teach him! it was pretty cool, we taught him and he came to church with us and he said he liked it a lot! speaking of church, in my first ward meeting here in brazil, the bishop asked me to give a talk! hahah lets just say it was like 2 minutes long! haha but all the members said they could understand me, so i was pretty proud about that! haha! also we taught paula, and investigtor we met on the street, 3 lessons this week! on the final lesson, which was sunday night, we taught her for 3 hours, she had so many questions and it just went on for forever, but at the end we bore our testimonies of the truthfulness of our message and by the end of this everyone was crying and the spirit was so strong! it was awesome, and because of this we were able to mark a date for bptism! it was awesome!

well that pretty much sums up my week, we taught lessons, clapped at doors, walked like 40 miles probs, and it was awesome! i love my mission so much, ive learned so much abot my self and about our purpose here on earth. i have learned that true happiness comes from living the gospel of jesus christ and serving others! 

i miss you all and hope everything is going smooth for you! 

Mom: the address you can send stuff to is the mission home address, and it should be in my call packet, if you cnt find it ill have it when i call on christmas! about the call, it will be on christmas, not sure what time! haha but just expect it on christmas at some point!!

love you all! have an awesome christmas!!

Elder Ryan

First Week in the Field 12-16-14

** Sorry, I forgot to post this letter while I was in London with Cathryn....distractions! 

Arapiraca, Alagoas, Brazil  December 16

well lets start off with the fact that i dont know portuguese! hahaha

but everything is going good! brazil is awesome! and i love the field!

the mtc ended on monday for me and got to the field on tuesday. on monday i had a 10 orientation, all in portueges.. soooo.. i only understood like 30 percent! hahah but what i did understand was good, but it was a little too long.. at times it was real dificult to stay awake! haha

my new companion is elder soares! he is way awesome! he works way hard and is way funny. he is a brazilian and doesnt speak a word of english which makes it a little difficult to talk sometimes but he is really patient and a great trainer, i have already learned a lot from him! my city im in is called arapiraca! its about 3 hours from maceio! the weather here is hot, hot and hot! my companion says that it never rains here either! so looks like im going to become as red as a lobster while im here! haha also we have running water every other week! haha and this week was the other week, so we had no water! i had to shower out of a barrel! haha it was legit! it is such a cool experience! i taught my first lesson my second day out here! and that was exciting! haha it was a struggle! but in total we taught 4 lessons this week! the final one was awesome! we taught this guy named jose! he was legit, he only had one foot and was super cool! we taught him about christ and the book of mormon and i shared with him heleman 5:12 about how we need to build on the rock of christ, and i think he really felt the spirit strongly becuase while we were reading it he started crying! it was a cool experience! the city in general is pretty poor but its crazy because even though they have almost nothing, they are the happiest and most accepting people ive ever met! its cool!

random things about the city! they have a different accent here and talk super fast so that is always fun when i am trying to understand what is going on! haha also coca-cola here is amazing! haha it taste so much better here than it does in the states! we walk probably 5 or 6 miles a day so by the end of each day im ready to sleep! its a good feeling every night, you go to bed knowing you did some good in the world and that you worked hard! another thing, horses, goats, dogs, and cats just roam around the streets here! its crazy! haha i havent quite gotten used to that yet! haha

we also eat lunch with members like every day which is nice, we dont really have to worry about meals to much here, becuase the members try to stuff us here! haha

my first sunday was stake confernece here! and it was a struggle to stay awake! i could barely understand anything and there was air conditioning! haha im pretty sure my head was bobbing for at least half the time!

another random thing. they have corn flavored ice cream here.. and suprisingly it isnt completely nasty

andria:HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! i hope it was awesome! i love and miss you!!! hope it was awesome! i sent you a letter, but i have no idea when it was get to you! haha

last thing, they already have an elder johnson in my mission, and my president doesnt like having repeats, so my new name is Elder Ryan! or to the brazilians, elder hyan! haha its an adventure! 

well that is it from me! hope you are all doing great! i love and miss you all! thanks for your letters they are great!! 

Elder Ryan

the final week in the MTC 12-6-13

my family!! what is up??

everything is going great on my end! this week has been my best week so far of the mission! i only have 4 more days left in the field! it is crazy!! but im so excited to get to macieo! i will be out in the field officially on tuesday morning of this week! its crazy! i feel like the language is coming quite nicely but i was talking to my instructot brother alvino, and he said that in maceio they talk really funny and that they have such a different accent that i will basically have to learn protuguese all over again! haha so that will be exciting! but i just cant wait to get out there and do the real thing! even if it is super hard! i just am so excited!!

well this weeks update!

we only had ham like 10 times this week!! it was a miracle!! hahaha i actually enjoyed meal times instead of dreading them! so that was nice for a change!

the mtc put up christmas lights this last week and last friday night they had a little light show in the court yard and we sang christmas carols! it was so fun!

both of my "investigators" got baptized this week! it was awesome! its crazy to think that just 5 weeks ago i could barely speak any portuguese at all, and now im at the point where i could sit and teach and explain almost anything gospel related for like an hour! its way cool! the gift of tongues is so real here its amazing! during lessons we'll be teaching and our investigator will ask me something and i will have had no idea how to answer and then all of the sudden im using words that i didnt even know i knew! its awesome! im just hoping that it stays with me as i go out to the field! haha

this week me and my companion spoke only portuguese everyday! it was so fun! it was hard sometimes and for sure some quiet moments but i was surprised how much i knew and how much faster i learned if i did that! it was awesome!

i decided that it is a good thing that i am leaving the mtc soon becuase i think ive started going a little bit senial! haha because seriously i dont think ive laughed so much in my whole life than i have this week! just the slightest thing will get me busting out in laughter! haha i guess that is what happens when you are in the same like 7 rooms everyday for 5 weeks! haha but lets just say that for the sake of my sanity, i need to get out of here! haha

this week i had a really cool thing happen to me. one of the sister missionaries in my district asked me to give her a blessing. im not sure what she was having a hard time with for sure, but you could tell she was just having a really hard time! she asked me to give the blessing! it was a really cool experience for me! being the mouth peice, i really felt the spirit, and even though i had no idea what to say before hand, i felt that the spirit guided me and  it was really cool. later that day she seemed to be doing a lot better! it was awesome!

cathryn, my instructor is wondering why you havent written him back, and honestly.. im a little disappointed in you! haha just kidding! but for real you need to meet him when he gets to provo and message him back today because he is the coolest guy!!!

MOM! i miss your emails! please write me one soon! and one of the sisters in my district dropped my camera when she was taking a picture for me and it broke.. so if you could send me a new one, and another memory card, that would just be grand and peachy! love you! also some zout, because that other stuff you gave me didnt work!

i love you all and miss you all! i hope you are all doing great! the church is true!!

Elder Johnson!