September 1, 2009 to Mom

hey mumsy!

well the first week has gone well. it was a bit slow. we had alot of meetings. i got there Monday which was a normal day then Tuesday we had a meeting, then p-day, then Thursday we left for Singapore for a meeting for zls then came back Friday night so most of our week was shot but this week should be better and it has been thus far. I'm starting to get more used to the area so its going well.well the pictures last week came but i couldn't open any of them. if i tried it forced me to log out for some weird reason. so i didn't get to see them.ma, ill get back to you about the favorite scripture. ill tell ya next week.

here in kota kinabalu we use buses and taxis and walk. its different but a nice change especially for my rump. that seat on my bike was so uncomfortable in kuching haha.sad thing about the bike is that i got to a certain fitness level and just stopped because we only went a certain speed and there were no real hills or anything so i wasn't in very good shape really haha. but here theres a gym! so we've been going there in the mornings and working out. its been very nice.

ya my comp is interesting. the first week i made all the conversation. if i didn't talk we didn't talk. he can carry on a conversation but if i don't start the convo , no talkin haha. but the other day i wanted to test him to see how long he would go without talking. It was all day long. it was weird but whatever. i decided i had better just talk so i do again haha.but other good news i think. there will be two other elders in the house this Friday so that will give the apartment some more life. but i do like elder Compton. he is a good elder.well sounds good about the visit with Deanna. i sure like her. Paul was a card and she is just a sweet lady.this is true mother you are a part of the rs. make James play! haharosy is a cute name. i like it. that's the name of a singer i like very much. Rosy Thomas..

well the address here is:
D07-01 marina court resort condominium
kota kinabalu 88000
Sabah malaysiacan

send to there if you want. i just thought would be easier to go to singapore.

well special requests. Shannon a while ago sent me some delicious baskin robin mint chocolate chip hard candies and they were delicious but my favorite thing to do was give them to people to try since theres nothing like that here. so bags of american things that wouldn't be here would be cool to let people as well as little old me try haha. so anything you can think of like that would be nice.o and before i forget. i have a story that will for sure make you happy.

about 2 weeks before i left kuching we met a family. a young couple with a young baby. there names were christy and sulvester. both very great people. they will be baptized in 2weeks or so, which is awesome but not the point of the story. sulvester, although he was so awesome he had a problem with smoking. and one day i was thinking about how i could help him to stop. i was reading in preach my gospel about addiction recovery and it told us to imagine taking something we always do, some habit like cracking your knuckles, biting your nails etc and just stopping all of a sudden and imagine how hard it would be. which couldn't even compare to the addiction smokers face. well i thought, what do i always do as a habit. and I'm sure you know mom. since kindergarten..." MATTHEW!! you quit that!! your gonna get cancer!" hahawell i explained to him about that and how i had bit my cheek since i was 5 and ever since then until now. we all got a good laugh about it, but it ended up being serious, where we promised eachother we would stop our habits our "addictions". it was hard. but after about 3 days i didn't do it any more and i haven't since. the best part, about a week and a half later sulvester stopped too. it probably wasn't because of me, but i hope it helped. i called him every night and reported with him on my progress as well as his. you would be happy to know that ive stopped doing that mom.

I'm happy to hear about Gerry. I'm sure he will do wonderfully there.well thank you so much to grandpa. Johnson i appreciate him so much. i was just thinking about that the other day about helping with my mission $. i am very thankful to him. o man ma when is you foot going to get better? just keep taking care of it.I'm off now to eat some delicious Indian food. hahawell madre i hope all is well back home. i love you and pray for y'all always. have a great week ok!

love elder johnson