So I finally made it to madagascar! Its so crazy! The people here are so amazingly happy and courteous. I love them all so much, I can't explain in words the emotions and feelings i am experiencing right now. Its almost overwhelming. But enough of that, lets get down to what happened in these past two weeks.
two mondays ago, it snowed hard in tucumcari and elder ward and I were out in the morning to help out with shoveling snow out of peoples driveways. I loved it, and while we were shoveling this one ladys house, a man from the newspaper company came and took our pictures and wrote down our names. He told us he might put us on the paper, but it wasnt a definite thing. Later that week, I found our companionship on the front page of the local newspaper. Later on in that week, i said goodbye to my investigators as I prepared to go to madagascar. Nothing else really happened that weekm but to be honest I really miss Tucumcari and I especially miss Elder Ward and his amazing missionary spirit.
Last monday, Elder ward and I got into our 2018 toyota tacoma and drove from tucumcari to amarillo. It would be the last time on my mission i would see tucumcari.
I was able to have some fun with the zone leaders before they had to drive me to the airport at 4 pm, and that was really fun.
And then, they dropped me off.
I said goodbye to one of my best friends, one of the best people i have ever known: Elder ward. I will miss him so much, and I still do. We took one last picture, exchanged hugs and goodbyes, and then we parted ways.
I got to the lobby section of the airport, and as soon as I set my personal bag down, a flight attendant by the name of Juneah bought me some food, and I felt super blessed. She said she felt my burden because she had served in wasington D.C. At 6 pm, I boarded the plane and flew to dallas, texas. There, I met up with Elders wilkes, mano, and smith. It was so nice to see them after 3 months of not seeing them since the MTC. At 10 pm, we boarded the plane headed to London, England. And I am here to tell you, dear friends, that riding in an aluminum tube 5 miles in the air going over 500 miles per hour for 9 hours isnt exactly the most comfortable thing to experience. I was riding with british airlines, and I liked the british feel a lot. I even almost accepted some of their tea at 2 in the morning. About halfway through the flight (4 hours), I wanted to look out the window to see the atlantic ocean, but one of the flight attendants told me not to look outm because it was about to be morning.
My jaw dropped.
And after a little while, so did my brainwaves.
We landed in London, and I wanted to call my parents so bad, but no one hade a working mobile phone. It was a little bit frustrating, but I figured I could at least call them in my next destination, Johannesburg, South Africa.
I was able to meet up with the rest of my MTC buddiesm including all of the elders from the MTC that came after us. They are really cool.
By the way, if my grammar or spelling is a little weird, its because I'm not using a english keyboardm so my apologies.
Anyways, we boarded the plane to go to South Africa at 4 or 5 pm. This flight was actually 2 times more tiring and confusing to my body than the first flight. I had a man on the left of me that really only spoke afrikaans and another man on the right that only spoke the language spoken in ghana. Both sound asleep. The man in front of me had his seat stuck in the reclining position for the entire flight. And whats more, my seat wouldnt recline. It was as if captain literally from studio c came and restored his balace requisite to save the universe or whatever. One seat would only recline, one wouldnt. I was stuck in the same position sleepless for 12 hours. We FINALLY landed in South A and I felt like I got hit by a train. I got to call my parent, though. It felt so nice to hear their voice and talk to them for a little while.
Then, finally, after 7 month of patient, eager waiting, I stepped foot onto the plane that would take me to Madagascar.
The Indian ocean is beautiful. I saw the atlantic and medditeranian ocean on the way, but the indian ocean is so beautiful.
I landed in antananarivo, and stepped off the place to find that the city smelt like....garbage. it made me gag a little bit. I came out of the airport and met my mission president, and shook his hand with a hand that had been clutching the airplane seat for more than 25 hours. It was a little sweaty. I went to go load my baggage into the taskibe (bus) that would take the luggage to the church, and as I was putting my bag in the taksibe, a group of malagasies came up to me and asked me for a stylo (pen), so I gave them one, but when I asked for it back they just wanted my money. one of the APs told them to settle down and go away, and they cussed him out and went away.
The driving down here is crazy. No one cares if you are in the street or notm they will keep going. I thought I saw my life flash before my eyes at least 50 times on the way to church.
My new companions name is elder Keener, and he's pretty cool (but as our little secret, elder ward won by a landslide).
anyways, over this past week, I got sick partially due to jet lag and partially due to the air pollution here in antananarivo. The air here is horrible, it will literally take at least 2 weeks off of your life. I got sick with a bad cough, with a bit of sinus congestion, and a fever of 100.8. It was a little bit of a rough start here in mada, but i know things here can only go up from here.
The people are wonderful. I always get called vazaha (foreigner) because I'm white and everyone else is black. The ones that usually call me vazaha are the little ones, to which I reply, salama zazakely (hello little one). They laugh at that, and it can only make me laugh.
I bore my testimony yesterday at my first fotoam-bavaka (sacrament meeting) and everyone seemed impressed. I couldn't understand everyone else too much, though. In due time, I will understand them.
Well, thats about it!
I cannot thank you all for your amazing faith, prayers, dedication, and motivation for this amazing thing to take place. I always include each and every one of you in my prayers. I hope those prayers have been answered.
I love you all so much, I wish I could say more, but time here at the cybers is a little tight. I will email yall next week!
Truly yours,
Elder Johnson
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