Address Update

Elder Johnson's address is posted under his name..(see it up there ^ ) Write to him! Send him a package! (he loves Sweedish Fish) Please make sure you address it to 'Elder Curtis Johnson' because he isn't the only Elder Johnson.

Spokane, Washington Temple

MTC District and their teacher, Sister Highland

MCT District and their teacher Brother Lewis
(the one next to Elder Johnson that doesn't
have a name tag on)

Elder Smith (Elder Johnson's MTC companion)

Sister Clark, President Clark, Elder Johnson

The missionaries Elder Johnson flew into Spokane with

Elder Johnson and his MTC district at the Provo Temple

...uh...

Studying hard in the MTC

Letter 10.27.08

Hey!
So this last week has been slow. We need to find new investigators but people haven't been interested this week. The Hargraves are doing great, they're still on date for the 8th of November. We don't really need to visit them much cuz they love the church. We have dinner with them Wednesday though, and we still visit once or twice a week.
We're teaching a 13 year old right now. He's ready to be baptized and wants to be on the 22 of Nov. His mom isn't ready for him to be though. As soon as she's more comfortable with the church [he] will be able to get baptized!
The Woodridge Ward had a halloween party last Friday. That was awesome! I was partly in charge of the donut-on-a-string eating contest thing. It was kinda fun. Elder Hightower had a mullet wig that was sweet! I went around with two other dudes in a SWAT vest, helmet, and some glasses. It was sweet!
I think that's all that's going on with the wards and the investigators.. other than [two teenage boys]. [One]'s mom is telling him to stop meeting us - he's 14. He seemed to like meeting us but he didn't come last time. Him and [the other boy] come together to the church to be taught, [he] loves it! We're hoping to get him on date to be baptized soon!
Elder Hightower and I have been getting along great! We're starting to say the same thing at the same time now. It's really weird, but cool. I'm getting better at tracting and stuff which is good, and I talk more in the lessons.
Today for P-day we went CeraGem-in. It's this massage place run by this cool Ukrainian guy, he's hilarious. I'm kinda glad I'm not in Ukraine now though, no offence Jake. Then we went golfing, played bang and stuff.
love you all,
Elder Johnson

Letter 10.20.08

Hi!
The mission is still great! Hargraves are still on date for baptism and they're doing great! This crazy drama house that we go to has two people on date now too! Shauna and Keanu are on date, Shauna is Keanu's mom, and her boyfriend Travis lives with them. Shauna and Keanu know the gospel is true and we're going to work to have them baptized at the end of November!
All our other investigators are kinda average right now. I'll tell ya about them later if anything interesting happens. We get dinner at members' homes a lot! Being in two wards helps cuz they just split the month. I think I've only had one or two dinners where we just ate at home. Also being in two wards we have a lot of church meetings! We get to the church before 7 AM and we don't leave the building till about 5 PM! It's really long but it's been good. After that we do regular missionary stuff and a dinner.
We email at the library that's by us. We bike and drive. We're in the car more of the time cuz half of the Woodridge Ward is fifteen minutes away on a drive.
I love you all, thanks for your support!
-Elder Johnson

Address

I still don't have a mailing address for Elder Johnson. If you want to write to him, send it to his hotmail account and I will either forward it to his mission email or print it and mail it as soon as I get his address.

Week 4

Weeks 3 and 4 are out of order because week 3 Elder Johnson left the MTC. When he got to the mission home he wrote letters, but they weren't mailed out until this week and we don't have them yet. I will post week 3 when it arrives in the mail. This posting is from an email Elder Johnson sent on Monday, October 13, 2008.

Hi everybody!

So Spokane rocks! It is so beautiful up here! There are pine tress everywhere! I'm sending some pictures out in the mail sometime today or tomorrow or whenever. There's a few of the trees and the lake that is in the Woodrigde Ward. There will be a few of my pictures from the MTC as well. When I have a ton of pictures I'll just put them all onto a cd and send them all. Give the cd a month or so. I'll just send a few at a time for now. [No pictures yet, but I promise I'll post them as I get them!]

So I'm stationed in both the Indian Trail Ward and the Woodridge Ward. They both are awesome. When I got here there was a family on date to get baptized in the Indian Trail Ward and a few investigators and a bunch of potentials. Mostly we've been visiting members and less actives to get me introduced.

The family that's on date to be baptized is awesome! They're the Hargraves. Sister Hargraves is just getting over smoking. She'll be done with the chruch's stop smoking program tomorrow! She's really determind to be ready for baptism. The two girls are already ready, but they've been waiting for their mom. One of the girls is about 14 with a simple, but firm, testimony and the other girl has had hers for a while. She kind of opened the door to her family I guess. She returned from BYU and brought home a desire to learn more about the church. I think that's how it went, I don't really know much of the background story. I don't really know much background with anybody yet, but I will.

Tyler is an awesome dude! He's a 16 year old who needs to be taught the commandments. He's coming to church next Sunday and wants us to teach him '3 times this week'. He loves learning about the gospel! I think we will be able to get him on date to be baptized in November. I like teaching him I've gotten to see him progress already!

Another family is a non-married couple and her son. They need to stop smoking and get married, but they have big desire and that's what will pull them through. It's going to take them a long time, but I think they'll get there if they keep striving together. I wish I could tell you more about them but I know they wouldn't appriciate it.

NOBODY EMAIL ME ON MY HOTMAIL ACCOUNT PLEASE! [If you email him on his hotmail account I will make sure he gets it, but he prefers getting letters in his real mail box.]

Elder Hightower [Elder Johnson's companion] is a great trainer.. as far as I can tell anyway. He's patient though. I bet he's thinking of getting a dart board though just so he can put my green face on it. If he is, he doesn't let me know it though, he's a good dude.

Elder Hightower and I live in Brother and Sister Marx's basement. It's basically an appartment and it's nice. The elders call it the Tashma Hall.

I heart all of you,
Elder Johnson
-A.K.A. (That one guy who likes you who lives in northern Spokan right now at this very moment)

[Brackets]

Just want to answer a question: Yes, things in [brackets] are things I added, not things Elder Johnson wrote in his letter. Hope you all enjoyed conference!
-Renee

Weeks 1 & 2

Weeks 1 & 2
Elder Johnson and his sister have decided that a blog would be a good way for him to keep in touch with everyone, since he doesn't have time to write letters to everyone he would like to. This blog will be updated weekly (I hope!) Here are some highlights from Elder Johnson's first two weeks as a missionary...

Week 1

The MTC Rocks! We study all the time. When we aren't studying we are in meetings. The food is good..at least for now anyway. My companion is Elder Smith, which is funny cuz it makes us the stereotype elders. He is from Southern California. Our whole district are already great friends. We have a laughing problem though, sometimes. My teachers are both cool. Gym is fun so far. I've been playing basketball. I found out that Sis. Highland [one of his teachers] knows Anton's family [Marie's, (Elder Johnson's Sister) fiance from Russia.) We're already teaching the first lesson! It's awesome! The church is true and don't forget it! We got to go to the Provo temple. It's beautiful and spiritual. We learned Spokane is rated 2nd in the nation fpt homiside rates. We've started calling it Spokampton. Write to me! You have no idea how exciting it is to be handed a letter after lunch. Send me pictures too. Send questions at the end of your letters too.
Love ya All,
Elder Johnson

Week 2

The Missionary Training Compound is great! We've nicknamed our residence hall our "Cell Block." We call the laundry room "the Bunker." Showers are weird here, they are either hot or they're cold. The MTC is still good though. I've managed to get the first lesson down! We're learning lesson two now and we'll be learning about door approaches and such before Friday. Also, I've spent time at the Referral Center. [Where they do confirmation calls to see if people got their free Bible or movie, etc, and sometimes see if they want missionaries to come over.] I made a soapbox out of a cassette box (half of it I mean). We put the ribbon from the cassette on the fan in the class room and it brings us joy. Much joy. You can find racquetball in the residence halls. Binders become racquets and a bouncy ball works after you block the hall by closing the doors to the stairs. We learned how to open a locked door using dental floss, an envelope and a power cord from a vacuum. We can make light sabers from our cameras! Picture are coming soon to a mailbox [or blog in this case] near you. Don't worry, we aren't getting into trouble. We are normally very obedient. I'll be on my way to Spokane Monday morning. I'm excited to watch conference. It will be cool in the MTC.
-Elder Curtis Johnson