Zachary Justus Johnson

I remember that first day arriving in Asuncion. It was so hot and I was in my suit. I remember being in a van looking out the window and seeing the bustling city around me. Even at 6 in the morning it was so warm and humid. The whole country of Paraguay seemed a little post-apocalyptic to me. The dated and falling apart buildings all overgrown with vines and branches. Tons of trees. The power lines that seemed so tangled and messed up. Everything seemed slowly decaying. And it seemed that even though I was brand new and just starting, things were also ending. And in a way they were. I remember President Hansen taking us to the temple hostel where he told us that he only had 6 months left. He also said that even though he would leave before most of us reached a year on our mission, we would always be like his kids. Looking around at the mission office, with a ton of elders, I felt like I was home. I had parents and brothers and sisters and a place to stay. It was a good feeling. If on...

  Recently, we were walking through a field in a kind of back section of a neighborhood. There were not a lot of houses but we were looking for a member, someone that we were told lived back there. There were a few kids playing a game in the street called bat'e. To be honest I am not even sure how the game works. I believe it involves a bat (or whatever scrap piece of wood you can find) and two markers that could be bottles, bricks, or like a shoe or something. There are teams of two and your teammate pitches to you. The goal is to knock down the marker with your hit. If you don't and if you and your teammate both cross to the other marker at the same time, I think that's a point. While you are doing that however, the other team can pick up the ball and tag whoever is running across the line to prevent the point. I've never played but that's just what I've picked up from seeing it played. Anyway, we cross a bridge--made out of an old door--and just as we look up...

  I'll say it, I have had a terrible week. It's been cold and rainy and I was pretty sick for a lot of it. I still have some cold symptoms, but I think I am better now. It's getting colder here. I remember leaving my jacket and all of my sweaters in Reno to get rid of the extra weight. That was pretty dumb because I never thought it was going to get cold. Especially when I first got here, I thought I was going to be warm forever. Now, I have to bundle up in my one hoodie and pair of sweatpants and socks every night. I could never sleep with socks on in the past and I still think it's kind of weird. I used to laugh at anyone who slept in socks. We don't even turn on the ac anymore because it's actually kind of cold. It came out of nowhere and caught me off guard. I read a quote the other day that said, "You can tell a man's ambition by if he considers his alarm clock his best friend or his worst enemy." Despite going to bed extremely early every nig...

T he weather has been getting a lot cooler lately. There is a thing here where in the winter the sun may not be as hot but it's still strong. It still beats down on your neck and face. The masks that we are required to wear have actually been a good way to keep from being sunburned. I really hate wearing hats. I have heard a lot of news from my old mission in Reno. My trainer, Elder Dalton, is now an AP. Just like his trainer, and the trainer before him. All of my (quote) heritage as a missionary are Polynesians serving in the Philippines. I wonder where that is going to end up.  I also heard news from my last area that a lot of the people I used to work with are getting ready for baptism. I feel like I am always getting moved right before the good part happens. Right before I see the people I have come to love and share with enter into the covenant. But maybe that's what my role is. Maybe I'm a starter. It's not that I'm bad at finishing the job here, I just haven...

I am finally getting around to writing about what has been happening to me the past couple of weeks. It's been nonstop since my birthday.  The night before my birthday Elder Cartwright and I were walking home for one of the last times. We had both received the news that we were going to be transferred and that some Hermanas were going to be "pink washing" the area. "White washing" is when they call 2 new Elders to go into a new area without any introduction. It's called a "pink wash" if it's Hermanas because pink is for girls or something. I don't really know. So, we had a ton of stuff to do when we got home, including calling one of the sisters who was going to be coming in. It's kind of nice to get the run down so you are not completely stranded. We had to do that and then start cleaning our apartment because President told us it had to look like the Celestial Kingdom before we left. Just as we sat down, we got a call from the Zone Le...

  I like looking back in my journal. When I am tired, I often express really random feelings in my life. Also, my handwriting is horrible. I wrote on Sunday March 21, "I am really hungry right now, representing my hunger for game (mission)." There's a quote from Spencer W. Kimball while he was referring to keeping a personal journal that says "angels may quote from it one day." I wonder which angel is going to quote my random thought. The past 3 weeks have seemed more like a couple of days because of everything that has happened. The first thing I guess I will cover is Holy Week. Holy Week or Semana Santa is the week leading up to Easter. The Covid cases in Paraguay recently skyrocketed and due to some problems of civil unrest, the government decided to put a curfew out. It slowed some things down but nobody really followed the 8:00 pm curfew, so they decided to shut the country down for Semana Santa. It was pretty dead on the street. About as dead as a Sunday m...

This past week my companion and I were eating some chicken and rice, as one does in this country. I had finished my plate so I decided to do what is considered customary in this country--chuck the bones at the dog. I don't think any household here really has a pet dog but there's just a dog that sort of hangs around each house. I threw one bone right at their dog who was preoccupied with scratching, so the bone bounced off of his neck and landed right in front of a chicken. The chicken took it, ran off, and started eating it. Apparently, the cannibal chickens are the most rico. Our area covers the downtown part of Encarnacion or as some people call it Encarnayork, but it has a sliver of some outside areas as well. It's about a 30-40 min bus ride to get there but it's always worth it. Unfortunately, the collectivos drivers are fed up with only charging 3.5 mil per person instead of 4 mil because fewer people are taking collectivos to work because fewer people are working...