Address

Elder Eric Johnson
2516 Normandy Dr. SE Apt. 304-C
Grand Rapids, MI 49506


Please send letters or packages by First class or Priority Mail via U.S.P.S. so they can be forwarded to him.

Saturday, January 6, 2018

December 30, 2017

fam,

Monday was good. Skyping was fun. Unfortunately we didn't have a full P-day and were out working at 6pm. It was kind of blizzardy outside and no one was outside. We stopped by a few people and distributed some presents given to us to pass out by our branch president.  

Tuesday is when things really began to happen. This week has been consumed by two occurrences. Tuesday was a clear and snowy day and Elder Magalei and I were making our way to visit with someone we met a few days prior. I was driving. The street we were driving on has a few streets that flow into it off of some actually steep hills. Unbeknownst to us, someone was coming down the hill at a speed where they couldn't stop. They ran or slid through a stop sign in front of us leaving us with little to no time to react or divert any momentum. We only saw them about a second and a half before we collided, but with the amount of snow on the ground there wasn't really anything I could have done to avoid the collision. We collided and all airbags blew. Obviously we came to a quick stop, but the first thing we I noticed was a considerable amount of smoke in the cabin. A little jumpy on adrenaline Elder Magalei and I both jumped out of the car pretty quick thinking it was going to burst into flames or something crazy like that. Only later did I realize it was likely the airbag charge. 

Once we were out of the car we noticed the other car was gone. I was a little disgruntled thinking it was a hit an run. We then called the police and our vehicle coordinator. I thought I had a good idea of putting all my warm coats in the car for emergencies but turns out when you smash the hood in, and the trunk doesn't have a physical key or lever or even a latch in the cabin you can't access any of your stuff.... what a design flaw. The other car came back about 15 minutes later and the first cop came another 20 minutes later. The crash took place just outside Wyoming city limits and when the Wyoming cop got there he basically asked if we were okay and then dipped out pretty quick. We exchanged information and these two sketchy SUV's pulled up and were kind of eyeing us and giving us some angry looks from the other side of the street. It was a little worrisome but luckily they left when the Grand Rapids cop came. Not sure what was going to happen with the people in the SUV's but it definitely was sketchy. 

Our car had to get towed but we were fine. All our stuff was still locked in the trunk, but our zone leaders graciously came to pick us up and get us out of the cold. The zone leaders then dropped us off where our car got towed to and we waited there for a while. After a little over an hour they said they couldn't get into the trunk which contained all our warm cloths and missionary materials so we were definitely crippled from that. Elders Rencher and Wall let us borrow some warm clothes and we were outside for the rest of the day.






Wednesday we got dropped off at the dealership, where our car got towed to and spent an hour there trying to break into the car without breaking anything more and without tools. The bigger problem was the guy who would help was busy, so we had no access to tools beyond what I had on me. (Editor's note:  if you know Eric, he's pretty handy). Eventually he was able to join us and using a thin pole pushed through a gap in the seats was able to release the physical lever on the inside of the trunk. That took a sizable chunk out of the day and then I had to fill out some church forms to report the accident. A fun day. 

The other item that has taken so much time this week was that with Elder Wall going home with a group of missionaries finishing their missions, Elder Magalei and I had to clean out our apartment to move into the other Spanish apartment. We packed and cleaned and then moved everything over. Elder Wall got picked up by the transfer van at the church at 7 pm. We had one appointment after that and then we began to unpack. Now with all the Spanish elders form the branch together our area has become the size of the stake. Technically I'm still in my first area, it's just like twice the size now, same amount of miles, but that's okay. Also I'm back in a Trio. It's still weird. 

Teaching in a trio is very different. It's much more relaxed because instead of the teaching being on two person's shoulders, it's now on three. 

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