HOLA !!!! From under the Equator and in the Jungle!!!!! Well, not for long, this week will be  changes and I am going to Lima. But it’s all good, it doesn’t matter where I’m at, I am still the Lord’s servant, and will keep on working hard. They told us yesterday that Elder Blas is staying here and that I’m going to Lima.  But now the changes are a little different, they just tell us what side of the mission we are in, so I am in for a surprise!!!!! jajaja Well that’s ok! It will make life interesting.

This week has been really good. We started off the week with 8 lessons on Tuesday, which was awesome and that kind of continued all week long, it has been a great week!!!!  Francisca got baptized and confirmed and that went really well.  Her son is the Ward mission leader and he got to baptize her.  They were way happy.

We also taught an atheist and invited him to pray and ask if God exists, and he agreed to do it.  We found out that one of our investigators that is 87 got hit by lightning a year ago and she lived through it, she is awesome.

The work is GREAT!!!!! It is progressing like the Lord wants it to!!!!!  We get lots of member referrals, and had a lot more than usual this week!  Also, we tract almost every day.

We get some fresh fruit and I love MANGOES!!!!! They are really, really good!!!!

Christ does live, I love what it talks about in the Liahona this month!!!!!! Live the Scriptures!!!!!!  (that was an error, I meant ‘love’ but ‘live’ is cool too!)

I love the work, I live the work, I dream the work, IT IS MY PASSION.

Well, Happy Easter Too !!!!!!!!

Love Elder Joe

Wow!!!! HOLA FROM UNDER THE EQUATOR!!!!!!!

Things with the family sound good, and I am grateful for the opportunity to serve here in Perù. This week has passed really good. On Monday we went again to Quistacocha. I didn’t eat suri again, but a couple of others did.  It was funny to see the many ways that people try to eat a suri, and help it pass by your throat!  We also had service painting our old room on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday.  Things went well. We have seen that Fransisca is really determined to be baptized.  She said that she knows that God wants her to be baptized, but that Satan is trying to stop her.

Fransisca’s son, Luigi, had a Priesthood blessing and it is all good now. We were in their house yesterday and he came toddling up and shook my hand. :) He’s a cool little guy!

Well, we didn’t have church this week because there were elections here again.  So we have fast and testimony meeting this week, woo hoooo!!!!  Also, Fransisca will be baptized on Saturday, so we are pretty happy.  Our p-day plans today are for a BARBEQUE at the Stake Center!!!!

My study of the gospel this week has been great.  I love the scriptures, they are sooo true, JESUS LIVES!!!!!  Thanks for all of your love and everything, YOU are all amazing!!

Love Elder Johnson!!!!!

Hola!  It’s been a great week in Peru.  The two photo’s from last week, showing a park were taken from our old apartment.  Now we live in another place that is closer to the church.  We moved this last week and have been cleaning and painting our old apartment.

We had scheduled a baptism, but Francisca’s little boy is in the hospital.  He had an attack, so they went to the emergency.  He is getting better, but they still aren’t sure what it was.  We went to visit him and it was after hours, so they didn’t let us in.  But we are praying.

Our investigators are good.  We have found a few new investigators, but the move has taken up some time.

We got to hear ALL of General Conference!!!  We saw it through satellite, so it was the same as what you all saw.  Also, we watched it in the Stake President’s office with AC and it was awesome!!!  Conference was wonderful.  The music, council given, and the feelings of the Spirit were soooo amazing!!!  Does it get better every time???  Because from what I have seen it does!!!

I received the packages from Valentine’s and St. Patty’s Day.  Thank you!!!

Kia Kaha!  Fidelidad Hasta El Fin!

Love,

Elder Joe Johnson

Well, everything is great here! This week has been good and we have been working hard to help the investigators in our area receive the gospel. I love the work. This last week we had a good learning experience.  Our mission president, President Blunck, sent a letter to all the mission.  So in our district meeting this week we talked about our POTENTIAL.  It was a moment to reflect on what I was doing, and if I was reaching my potential. I think that even when we do our “best” we can do better, like prophets have said before that it is never enough.  

We had a talent show on Friday, Elder Blas was sick on Tuesday and we have a baptism this week!!!!!!

Also, I have a bigger testimony of the Temple.  This week I was reading the Liahona about the Temple and WOW it is great!!! 

Every Temple that is built lessens the power of Satan on the earth!!!  I LOVE TEMPLES!!!! 

Elder Joe

Hola everyone!!!

This week has been great.  We have found some new people to teach.  One of them will be baptized on April Fools day!!! One of them works for a drilling company in Alaska!!!! He comes home for 28 days, and then works for 28 days.  He has some great questions, he reminds me a TON of Dad.  The first time that we taught him, I felt the Spirit so strong there.  We taught him about “The Family, A Proclamation to the World”, it was cool.  We also were going to have a talent show on Friday, but it didn’t go through because of a power outage that we had.  We are doing good and I am way ready to rock this week!!!!  The gospel is sooooooo true!!!!! I love  it!!!! and I love you toooo!!!!

Elder Joe

Well!!!

Good week!!!!

We now have a new rule that we can send three photos every week to you, so here are three!!!!  The first is from the massive wedding, then the baptism of Jhonny and Emilio and then with Elder Blas right now in the internet.  My new companion is Hector Paul Blas Gastañadui.  He is from Trujillo Perú.  I’m not training this transfer, but am serving as Lider de Distrito (District Leader).  Our new area is great!  Similar to our last area.  We eat a lot of chicken here.

One of the members here said something that I liked a lot.  He said that life is a gift from God, but what we do with it is our gift to God.

On Sunday we had a Fireside with Elder Nash from the Area, it was POWERFUL!!!!  He explained sooo many things to the youth.  One of the things that I liked most was that he said, and explained, that there isn’t a difference between when God talks and when one of His servants talks, it is the same. He let some of the youth ask questions.  He explained that, in order to ask something, they needed to remember that he was God’s representative and that they should ask things that were of real importance. Soooo great.  I got to be in the choir with the other missionaries that wanted to sing.

We also have some great investigators and we are looking for some new ones this week.  Also yesterday we had a capacitation with President Blunck.  They gave us donuts after that were sooo goood!  Well, the church is true!!!! I love you!!!!

Happy St. Paddy’s day!!!!

Love Elder Joe!!!!!!

From under the equator!!!!

Well this week Gilmer Zevallos got baptized!!!!

It went well and he has changed many habits. Yesterday we passed by to teach him, normally in his house when his brother in law drank he did too, but now he was outside waiting for us because inside they were drinking.  Also they passed Carnival here and almost everyone put up a Yunza or Humisha, it is a tree with prizes in it, then they get drunk and cut it down and everyone runs to get a prize. Pretty interesting.  

I am great!!!! We have changed this week, I am going to a different zone here in Iquitos called Punchana with Elder Blas, he is Peruvian. I am thankful for all of my blessings and especially for yesterday in the fast and testimony meeting, I got to bare my testimony and I felt the Spirit soooooo strong and I am just so grateful for our Savior, I know that he lives, the Spirit testifies to me of that fact and I know it with all of my soul. I love you all and am thankful for your prayers. 
I love you all, love Elder Joe

Note: Peruvian Carnival - During the latter half of February and the first weeks of March, Peru is alive with carnivals, as the communities prepare for Lent. Lent is a quiet and sober time, but the Carnival period preceding Lent is a very festive time. Parades, dancing, street festivals and huge water fights can be found across the country as people celebrate with abandoned joy.  Although each region has its own variations, they each share the ritual of the Yunza. Yunza is also known as Umisha and Caramonte. Yunza is a tree filled with gifts which is danced around. While participants dance around it, they take a chop at it with an axe or machete. The dance continues until the tree is chopped down and the gifts are shared. The couple that brings the tree down is in charge of organizing the Yunza gifts and feast for the following year.

The Iquitos adaptation of the Carnival season starts with water-balloon fights and concludes in the locally unique tradition of dancing around the Humisha tree on the final night.  As early as four weeks before Carnival you will encounter young people in the streets tossing buckets of water or water balloons at passing cars and motorcycles.  These "water wars" are really a battle of the sexes, with groups of males throwing water at groups of females and visa versa.  In addition to water, they can incorporate flour, talcum powder, achiote (a natural dye), paint, or oil, and you can never be quite sure what exactly was in that balloon! Although these activities are officially against the law, the law is generally ignored by officials. Another Carnival tradition that is peculiar to Iquitos is the Humisha tree.  The Humisha is a palm tree that is placed in a pot, with the leaves being tied together at the top, and the tree is hung with gifts.  The tradition of the Humisha tree is a ritual that has been handed down for many generations in Iquitos.