8/30

Yikes..my birthday is less than a month away..i still don't even know what i want yet! haha..maybe one of those 12 dollar watches from Wal-Mart..mine just broke. =( Well..this week has been amazing! We've been in Goldsboro from Tuesday-Thursday for leadership training meetings from 9 in the morning, to 4 in the afternoon all 3 days. It was a lot of great stuff! Supposedly the greatest thing that's happened to the missionary program since "Preach My Gospel." It wasn't anything new..it was just an entirely different view of how we are to teach..and i like it a lot! While in Goldsboro..i got to stay with Elder Tibbitts..whom is one of my past companions! He's actually my mostest favoritest companion in the whole wide world! And guess what!! Tuesday night..i got to work with him, as well as my Trainer, Elder Condie, who is an Assistant to the President right now and he decided to come with us in a 3 some..so it was pretty cool being able to work with 2 of my past companions and seeing how much we've all grown since we were together! But the training went really well..infact..we now have 2 baptismal dates! One is with a 16 year old named Ethan Waycott..his brother Tim got baptized in July, and now he's back in town and wants to get baptized. Then on Friday, we were able to meet with Brandon Struyk again and he accepted the invitation to be baptized on October 9th..which is funny because his wife was baptized on October 10th! Unfortunately..Brandon was not able to make it to church yesterday, and we still don't know why yet. =( keep praying for him! Then we were able to meet with a man named David Starnes, who is dating a member here. David is in the Army and is stationed up in Fort Drum, NY..which is funny because my companion's real dad is the 1st counselor in the branch presidency up in Fort Drum..coincidence? I think not. =) But we taught him on Friday for the first time..and then at the end of the lesson, he told us that he beleived EVERYTHING! He wants to get baptized..but he might be headed back to Fort Drum here pretty soon..so we are gonna keep working with him and the Lord's will shall be done! =)

Well..i hope everyone is doing great! I love/miss y'all!

Elder Johnson

8/23

Hey Fam! How's everyone doing!? We had a pretty great week! The boatride was lots of fun! We got to check out the Cape Lookout lighthouse and got some great pictures of that! The fishing was kind've weaksauce, though..my companion foul hooked a dinky 14 in. spanish mackerel, and we caught a lizard fish, which is a trash fish, on one of the handlines. That was my first time ever trolling before..apparently that's what a lot of people do out here and it works pretty well..just not for us, i guess! haha.. But it was still a ton of fun!! Hopefully we'll do a better job at fishing today in the pond behind our house! =)

But as far as the work goes, we had a pretty great miracle this week! We had stopped by an active part member sister, Sister Struyk, on an exchange last week, and during this visit, she expressed a deep desire for her husband Brandon, who works on a boat for 3 weeks at a time, to get baptized. She told us of how Brandon has taken the lessons before, but really wasn't interested, and that he's probably afraid of committment. We shared a few scriptures with her and suggested prayer at the end of our visit. Well..we stopped by Sister Struyk to see how she was doing, and she gave us a report on what happened during the past week. She said that after we left the night before, she went into her room and prayed harder than she has ever prayed before. The next morning, she gets a call from her husband who is on a boat somewhere, telling her that he's coming home early due to a knee injury..but then he told her that due to a couple of "chance" happenings..he wanted to go to church with her when he gets back! So when we get there this past Friday, he's there and we have a really good talk about fishing and boating..then he asked us if we wanted some dinner..which we happily accepted. After dinner, we all go and sit down in the living room..and he allowed us to teach him the first lesson. At the end of the lesson, he expressed his desire to grow closer to God and told us that he would be at church this Sunday. Sure enough, Brandon came with his wife and stayed the entire 3 hours! We're really looking forward to meeting with him again this week! Hopefully he will keep his committment to read from The Book of Mormon!

Well..i hope everyone is doing well! I love/miss y'all! Keep me updated on the Little League World Series..i hear a team from Texas is still in it! =)

Elder Johnson

Me and Elder Thatcher

Cape Lookout Lighthouse

The Charter Boat we were on

The Sandbars

My Rooster!!

Goin to work!

8/16

Hey everyone! Sorry i didn't get an email out last week..the computer wasn't really working, plus i was kind've in a rush to get out and hit some golf balls with Brother Pace! =) This week has been great! So as far as who we're teaching..there is Robert Green who is amazing! He is a really funny/nice old guy that is extremely smart..especially about money! He's got lots of it..haha. But a long time ago..him and his wife went to hawaii for their honeymoon, and while there..got invited into the Polynesian Cultural Center! =) Robert ordered a book of mormon from there and when they got home, Sister missionaries were already calling them to try to bring it by. So they did..and robert read it..but didn't join the church! He did, however, gain a testimony of the book of mormon and said quote "no person on this earth could have ever written that book..let alone someone with a 3rd grade education and do it in less than 70 days. There's no way!" haha..so now we're just trying to help him beleive in the Apostasy. He finally understands it..but doesn't fully beleive it..yet. =) So he started reading the Book of Mormon over again and is now about half way through 1st Nephi. There's also a couple from Scottland, (they have the accent and everything!!) that we tracted into this week. Their names are Richard and Janet. They're 7th day adventist, but are pretty open. They've had missionaries before back in Scottland, as well as Delaware, in fact, Janet even watches the BYU Channel every Friday! Richard is really picky with what you say, so you have to be careful! haha..but they're really great! We have a return appointment with them this Tuesday so hopefully we'll be able to make some progress with them!

Soo..on Thursday, there were some Recent Converts in the ward that needed help butchering their chickens..so we got to help out! haha..it was pretty fun! We got to catch 'em, than kill 'em using some hedge clippers, than pluck 'em, then gut 'em! haha..Needless to say..it was a messy job..but we got free eggs out of it! =) Today's going to be pretty exciting!! A member from the Harker's Island ward owns a charter boat..so he's taking our district out on it to go and see the Cape Lookout lighthouse, and to go fishing off the coast! Apparently because it's a charter boat..we have permission to do it! So yeah..this will be great! I haven't been salt water fishing in forever! I'll take lots of pictures! =) Well..i hope y'all are doin well! i love/miss y'all!

Elder Johnson

8/2

Wow..it's August already..Well this week has been kinda slow, yet somewhat eventful. On Tuesday i went on my first split! haha..Usually when we go on exchanges, both of us go together..but on Tuesday i went with Brother King to a dinner appointment with the Willis family and a part member family was there, while Elder Thatcher went out with Anthony Rios, who is a recent convert here from Harlengen Texas. That night went really well! We got a lot of great things accomplished that day..so we're gonna try to split more often. Josh, who is our 16 year old recent convert, got interviewed on Sunday and he's going to be receiving the priesthood this Sunday! We're all very excited! I was also blessed with a very special moment yesterday during sacrament meeting as both Shirley and Yvonne, our recent converts, got up and bore their testimonies in front of everyone, and Brittany bore hers in front of all the young women! That family truly is very special and a lot of great things will come from their decision accept the gospel! Josh told us the other day that he really wants to go on a mission someday! =) We watched mountain of the lord the other day after we taught them about temples and they were really impressed with the pioneers, it was really fun telling them how they too, were pioneers for the rest of their family, being the first to accept the gospel! =) The gospel is true. Just thought i'd let y'all know that! =) Where else besides the Lord's work are you going to see miracles like this family?

Well i love y'all! Hope you're having fun! I hope the beach house reunion goes well! I still think the beaches here are much nicer and better for a reunion than there, though.. =)

Elder Johnson