Hey Mama!

So happy to hear that you get to spend time with you family and have a little pioneer day fun! Thank you sooo much for the package! The oreos will be coming to district p-day with us to give us a little something to snack on as we play frisbee as a district down in Plaquemine. Its a small town across the Mississippi river and normally the elders down there have to come up to BR to hang out on p-day or for district meeting. So we decided that us BR missionaries would ride the ferry over to Plaquemine and spend p-day down there. I'm excited to get out of the city and go down to the ghetto/farmland/country. Last transfer we went down one time to visit some senior single sisters who the elders couldn't visit but who needed some TLC and it's awesome. I've been spoiled in Baton Rouge - most of Louisiana is in branches instead of wards and most members of those branches are converts with only a few life long members. Our ward up here is very much like a Utah ward since it's so many families that have moved here for school or who have moved here from other places. But yeah, I'm excited for a change of scenery :)

 It's been pretty hot down here too, and the mugginess is ever present. I feel so bad for the Elders who are on bikes. Did I tell you that mission presidents are now strongly discouraged from putting sisters in biking areas, and are supposed to put them in car areas wherever possible? My bike is getting used though, don't worry. The Elders in our ward, Elder Asuao and Elder Bennett, have both been having bike troubles so I've been letting them borrow mine. We call it Big Red, because this bike is BIG and it's very red! lol. Seriously, I love that bike but I'm happy that it is being put to use in the service of the Lord.

That's so nice of people to ask about me! Tell everyone that I say hello and that I miss them! Debbie Wehrhahn sent me a super cute package and I haven't written her to say thank you yet, but it seriously brightened my week. I've rationed the m&m's she sent and I am still enjoying them two weeks later! 

Here's something weird - in the MTC, the missionaries who are going to Louisiana are often put in the district with missionaries who are going to either Milwaukee, Philadelphia, or Pittsburg. So you should ask any greenies that come into the ward if they were with Louisiana missionaries in the MTC. Sister Tuft and Sister Jones knew Elder Campbell in the MTC - crazy!

Thanks again for the package! If you have time, could you keep looking for different arrangements of Savior Redeemer of my Soul? The one you sent isn't quite the right one, but it is still beautiful! I love it and I'm excited to play around with it! :) Also, there's this CD called "Poly Praise" that I would love - it's floating around the mission but I'd love to have my own copy. Also if you see any music by "Lower Lights" they are an awesome LDS bluegrass band that does hymn arrangements.

So I'm having less and less time to email/write letters, so I'm hoping that you are just editing my emails and posting them on my blog for Gramps and Nana and Chuck and Lovely  and everyone else to see. I need to to do better but P-Day is really only 8 hours long (10am to 6pm) and we barely have enough time to get everything done that we are supposed to before we have to start proselyting at 6pm. I'm not complaining, just saying that it gets tricky and I don't want to offend anyone.

K, I love you tons! Sorry this wasn't a super spiritual email! I just miss you and love you and I'm so so so grateful that I have you. Other missionaries moms are not even close to as awesome as you and I'm so grateful.

Hugs hugs hugs!

-Johanna

PS: This is a picture of me, Sister Tuft, Sister Olsen, and Kenny after Kenny's baptism! We got there late so I didn't get the traditional dressed in white picture, and it's a little awkward since as Sisters we can't touch guys, but Kenny is the one standing next to me and Corey Jackson, the ward mission leader and Kenny's best friend and the one who baptized/confirmed Kenny, is standing between him and Sister Olsen. So great! The whole picture is a little discombobulated but I love it because that's pretty much how the whole mission is - one big awkward moment with smaller moments of joy and love!