Elder Austin J. Johnson

Elder Austin J. Johnson
Elder Austin Johnson has been called to serve in the Marshall Islands Marjuro Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and invites you to share in his adventure! "You will know at the finish line."

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

TRAINING!!!

Hey Mom!

Indeed another week gone. I hit my 3 month mark in a week! That is crazy that I am more than 1/8 done with the mission. Kendrick and I get along well. I wrote in my journal my list of accomplishments so far in the mission and I am really proud of it. Training in 5 weeks, Translating sacrament meeting in 6 weeks, 2 whitewashes first two transfers. Honestly white washing is the worst and I hate it. Finding here is really hard. Uliga is a lot different from Delap even though they are right next to each other. I have had some really close encounters with dogs lately so I don't think I need to go on that Jack Hanna's Wolf Experience thing at Busch anymore. But honestly next package I was advised by someone older in the mission to either get a real police baton, or what is called a "dog taser" its like a small box that when the button is pushed makes a high pitched sound not heard by humans but dogs like hate it and run away. So either of those would be lovely! 

So we are actually staying in that small apartment which I am completely okay with because I love the fact that we have our own washer and dryer and no bugs:). The laguage is picking up. The hardest part for me is understanding what other people are saying. There are two different dialects and they slur their words a lot and they speak really softly. I didnt really think I was progressing until the new intake came. I started speaking in Marshallese to my companion and he was like "first, I have no idea what you are saying, and second, I can't even hear you cause its so soft." so now I know I have progressed a little since leaving the MTC. I understand about 50-60% of what people are saying. So the new people that have come in all got trainers who have been out for a year or more and then there's me. My comp thanked me last night out of the blue and said that he really appreciates all that I do for him and for helping him in the language and being obedient, because all of his friends say that the old trainers don't do that with them and they hate it. It made me tear up a little bit :)

Believe it or not I have actually been cooking! I cooked my own chicken recipe and everyone loved it! Other than that its expired cereal and ramen because expired stuff is cheap! Everything is good with my body. I haven't been sick yet and I still maintain 158.6 pounds. Frick, I didn't even gain anything in the MTC! I do burpees every morning so that when I come back my cardio isn't totally shredded. There are 3 main stores in Majuro and they are all in my area so it is fantastic! All of the kids here call me Elder John Cena because they can't say my name right and they all love wrestling here. 

Lately I have been thinking about home. It was probably a pretty low point so far. It was a bad day and I just counted how many days I have left and how many transfers etc. But I think its all goods now. How are you doing? I am excited for Dad and Cam and that injury looks like it hurts! Cam driving a CAMry :)

There are two places I email,

CMI (college of Marshall Islands library) slow internet, but free internet, no places to send pics (I am here right now)

NTA (national telecommunications authority) slow internet, $5 an hour, you can attach pics but you risk freezing the cpu and restarting. 

I will try to send some pics out at NTA one day but if not I am taking a lot of pics and we can look a tthem when i return home :)

Much love mama


Elder J

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