divine compassion never flees nor fails us‏- Dec. 16th

Dear Family!

Guess what - I am calling home in 9 days!

This is what I need:- The phone number of whoever or whereever I am calling. It would be nice if it was a landline with more than one phone so I could talk to more of you at a time at once - I hear that we are encouraged to only talk for about 45 minutes. If not, then no worries.- The Pennytalk or whatever phone card number that mother alreayd has money on. I need - the international access number (not the US number), the pin, etc. I can buy a card here too, just let me know. I will probably call Christmas night, which will be the morning of the 26th for me. If someone could check the time change between Utah and Taiwan that would be useful. I think we are 14 hours ahead...I'm not sure. Okay, that is that.

So remember Sister Wang- the investigator that has a bird in tupperware? Well, it turns out she has two birds. More importantly, she read the Book of Mormon in about a week, then gave it to her father to read. Then I accidentally left my English Book of Mormon at her apartment, and when we came back two days later, she had read IN ENGLISH through half of Alma. She had a dictionary on top of it when we came. It is honestly amazing. She still doesn't grasp that we aren't like other Christian churches, but she set a baptismal goal. First she didn't want to set it because she had already been baptised, and then when we convinced her, she was adamant that she had to be baptised tomorrow and didn't want to wait until she had been to sacrament meeting three times. She reminds me of Peter when Christ is washing his feet. First Peter says, Don't wash my feet! and Christ says, I have to wash your feet , and then Peter says, Okay, then wash all of me! and Christ says, No, just let me do what needs to be done in the proper way. That was a terrible summary, but I hope you know what I am talking about.

We also have a really great investigator, Sister Song, who is very beautiful and wealthy and so socially able. I just love Sister Song. She has a Christmas baptismal goal, and hopefully will make it on time! We moved her goal up two weeks to meet a challenge from our Zone leaders to have a White Christmas (with baptisms!)

GUESS WHAT. I went to Monkey Mountain today. At first I was not impresssed. We had gotten lost, then when we found the trailhead we happened to time it to be in the middle of a huge tourist group of Asians from Britian. It didn't look like a hike, it was a boarded path in the middle of a bunch of tourists. There was not a monkey in sight. I was ready to leave. When we saw an unmarked dirt path split off, my companion and I took a minute to decide if we should take it, though we didn't know where it lead. A native said to us in Chinese, this way and waved us. He went up ahead and we looked at each other, looked at the group of tourists and decided to follow the dirt trail. On the way we ran into a man, walking stick in hand, hiking barefoot. It was...insane. It was the roughest trail I have ever hiked and he had no shoes. When we got to the top, it wasn't what I was expecting. It was a wooded area, you couldn't even see the view, but there were chairs and soft music and people lounging and laughing. It was really peaceful. There was work out equipment there, people were doing sit ups or stretching their backs or lifting weights. Others just sat and drank tea from huge silver pots that were apparently there for public use. It was like a camp. It had an amazing feel, really peaceful. We hadn't seen any monkeys, but I decided I didn't care. It just had been a really great hike. I love the city but my heart had missed nature. Then on the way down...we saw monkeys! A lot of them! Here is what I learned from observing them in the wild:Monkeys really are adorable, They really do have red butts, and they smell much better in the wild than at the zoo. We took about a million pictures. It was so great.

I'm not sure how much time I have left, so I will send this off now.

I love you all very much!

Oh, my next preparation day is Monday, so write me on Saturday or so and I should get it.

It is move call! I hope I stay here and stay with Sister Busath. Really, really I do.

FML
Sister Johnson




Cami's memorial to Fish: (separate email to us)


Fish, Fish was a good fish. He swam well, he always was ready to do a dance when I came into the room and eat food off my finger. He was the only fish who ever lived longer than a month in the family. He survived numerous trips back and forth between Elko and was a strong fish, a survivor. He enjoyed eating, swimming, and pooping. He had an excellent modeling career and spent his last days in the loving care at the Johnson loony bin. He was a source of colsolation and joy to all who knew him. We know, even now, Bear and Fish are looking down on us, by our side whenever we need them. We will see them again someday. May Fish rest in peace. Amen.



Cami's message to Donna:


it sounds like you are doing a great job at institute! I'd want to go for sure :) Fish will be okay. Don't be sad, he is by my side always.
I love you so much!
Talk to you SOON!
FML
Cami