11/29

Hey everyone! How's it going!? Soo..i've decided on my list of things that i want for Christmas.. i need a nice brown belt, about 2 longsleeve white shirts, a loofah sponge =), oh..and ties wouldn't hurt! I don't need much this year..but if y'all could correlate your efforts to help me obtain those items, it would be very helpful! Well..Kris' baptism went amazing! He is super excited to be a member! He was confirmed, and also received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday, and he was also went in and asked the Bishop about receiving a Patriarchal Blessing..without any prompting from us! He is so solid! I'm excited to be able to watch him grow and become more and more converted! We were also able to teach a really great family named the "Barnetts." They have a ton of great potential to progress, so we are really excited for them! They are what Elder Packer would call, "Seekers". =) Elder Packer's visit was amazing! We learned a ton and the Spirit was very strong! Sister Packer was actually, fairly equal with him! She was just as amazing and spiritual as he was! Thanksgiving went really well! We had about 4 meal appointments and had a bunch of turkey! =) but other than that..this was kind've a fairly average week! Not too much to report on. It was kind've hard to get up with a bunch of our investigators this week because they are in the Army and were out of town for thanksgiving break. Well..i love y'all and i hope y'all are doing well! Take care!

Elder Johnson

Kris' Baptism!

Etch a' Sketch Skills

Messing around on an old gun

11/22

Hey y'all! How's everyone doing? This has been an interesting week! Soo..we had a miracle, disguised as a tragedy this week..haha. Soo..Kris' fiance...dumped him this week..right after he got back from his trip out to Utah to see her..Yeah..pretty lame. He doesn't even fully understand why, yet. So we were pretty crushed for him..however..inspite of that happening..Kris is still solid as a rock for his baptism this Saturday!! I am truly impressed at his faith and how much he has grown. It is definitely very apparent now that Kris has been investigating and reading the Book of Mormon for the right reasons!! So yeah..i'm definitely cheering him on right now! He's come so far, and he'll make a great member! But honestly..what i think was the entire reason for his progression was just because he is reading the Book of Mormon..(he's in Alma 16 already!!) and the fact that we are teaching him in a member's home where the Spirit is just SO strong everytime we go over there!! Brother Coleman is still doing fantastic!! We had dinner and a lesson with him on Saturday and invited him to live the Word of Wisdom! Later on Saturday night, we got a phone call from a man named Scott Wallis, whom had been talking to a friend about the church and he called us wanting to set up a time when we can come together and meet with him! Then on Sunday..a lady whom i had never met before came up to us and told us that she had just got stationed here in Fort Bragg about a month ago, and that her 11 year old daughter had not been baptized. Then her daughter came up to us and asked us, "what do i have to do to get baptized!?" it was so cute! =) So we will be meeting with them this week and helping them out with that! The Lord is continuing to bless us with miracles, and i am loving it! I am so grateful for it too, because it really feels like we didn't do anything to obtain these blessings! Also, last night i was priveleged to be able to meet with all of the other zone leaders, the assistants, President and Sister Cotterell, and Elder Alan F. Packer (Pres. Packer's son) and his wife! We had a counsel meeting where we discussed the needs of the mission. The Spirit was so strong there and i learned a lot from it all! That is one thing that i definitely love about being a zone leader, is the opporotunity that i have to be amongst the bretheren of the mission and being able to feel the spirit, knowing that i am surrounded by such great missionaries! Elder Packer is here for our mission tour, which we will be having tomorrow. Well..i love y'all and miss y'all and i hope you are doing well!

Love, Elder Johnson

From the Field

The following email came from a sister in the area where Elder Johnson is serving right now:

Dear Missionary Moms,

We had your sons over for dinner tonight, it was delightful. You should be very proud of them! They are doing really well, and seemed happy. We had a non member friend (who is in the military as well) over for dinner. I was impressed by how your sons were both able to articulate, and share their testimonies of the gospel. And the spirit that they brought, and shared with us was amazing. I also was impressed by how they were able to engage/include my husband into the conversation. They asked him questions that promoted him to share how the gospel was an aid in his life, especially during his recent deployment. This was a common ground for our non member friend to relate to. But more so a great setting (with the missionaries) to hear my husbands testimony and how it correlated with being in the military. Which im not sure had been shared before with his friend. Not only did we feed your sons, but they blessed our lives just by having them over for dinner. Thank you for raising and supporting such fine men. We sure enjoyed them.

love,

the T family

11/15

Hey everyone! How's it going!? This has been an amazing week! Stake Conference was this week, and it was amazing! Our Mission President and his wife came and spoke at it and both did an amazing job! The random guy that showed up at church last week was named Michael Everett. He lives in a group home with a few other kids, and everytime we have seen him this week, he has had someone new with him from his group home, all seem pretty interested! He came to the Adult session of Stake Conference with us on Saturday and enjoyed it, and he has even expressed his desire to be baptized! We are going to be meeting with him tomorrow and discuss baptism and the things he has to do and understand before he's baptized. He's got a great heart, but it may take a little longer than usual with him. We just want to make sure that he thoroughly understands everything before he commits. Also, we were able to invite a former investigator to Stake Conference, and she came! That was exciting! But even more exciting was another one of our investigators having a very special and spiritual experience at stake conference! Brother Coleman has been coming to church for the past few months just to make his wife happy..he really didn't like church, and we found out just last night that he really didn't like meeting with the missionaries..haha.. But recently he says he's had a change of heart. He's not going to church for the same reasons anymore. Usually his wife has to get his clothes ready for him every Sunday, this past Sunday he was ready for church before she was! And Stake Conference really sealed the deal for him! He has committed to being baptized on Dec 4th, so we're really excited for that! Kris Parkins is still doing amazing! He was at church in Utah yesterday with his fiance and her family. Her brother gave his farewell talk yesterday, he's going on his mission to Hungary! Plus, the military had a 4 day weekend because of Veteran's day, so Kris just decided to spend it with his new family! But he's still reading the Book of Mormon..in fact, last time we checked he was almost through the book of Mosiah!! Needless to say..I'm impressed! haha.. Well the zone is doing well..it's looking like we're going to fall a little short of our goal for 13 baptisms this month, but things are looking terrific for the month of December!! I just know that as we continue to be grateful for the success we have had, we will continue to be blessed with more! I love the example that President Monson gave in his last talk on gratitude. When the multitude followed Christ into the wilderness without food, Christ was concerned about them. He asked his disciples how much food they had, and they told him that they only had a few loaves of bread and a few small fishes. They fell into the trap of focusing on the lack, instead of what they had. Then Jesus took what they had, gave thanks, and then he blessed the bread and fed the multitude and had left overs. I love how President Monson pointed out how he gave thanks, and then a miracle followed. He was grateful for the things He had, and so he was given more!

Well..i love y'all and i hope everyone is doing great!

Elder Johnson

11/8

Why is it November already!?..crazy..This has been a great week! We've been teaching Kris in a member's home and he has progressed tremendously! Kris is engaged to a member who told him that she would like to be sealed in the temple one day..so Kris told her that he wasn't going to do anything that he didn't know to be true, so he decided to investigate the church. While deployed in Afghanastan, Kris had a pretty tragic event that pretty much eliminated his faith in God. While he was a group leader, he had decided to go into town one day by himself, but 3 other soldiers in his group wanted to go with him. At first he was hesitant to allow them, but then he decided it would be okay. Before they left, he prayed for safety and protection. On the way into town, they were hit by a bomb and Kris was the only one who survived. I can only imagine how much pain and confusion that must have caused him. However, y'all should see him now! He's reading the Book of Mormon..infact..he made it through 2 Nephi and is well into Jacob!! He had a great experience the other night when he prayed..it was the first time he had prayed since the event. He prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true..and it brought him to tears. Then he decided to go watch some TV..and the next 3 shows he saw, all involved Mormon families in them! So he knew that this wasn't just by chance anymore. He has accepted the invitation to be baptized on November 27th! =) It truly has been so much fun watching him progress! He had a great time at church yesterday and he's going to be at church in Utah this Sunday to see his fiance's brother's farewell talk! I truly do feel a sincere love for Kris and i'm really excited for him!

We were also blessed with another tender mercy of the Lord when a man named Michael, whom noone had ever seen before, just randomly showed up for Sacrament meeting yesterday! He said that he was at a point where he knew that he needed God in his life and he was looking for a church. This church "just so happened" to be really close to his house, so he decided to come to this one! We have a return appointment with him on Tuesday! =)

Well..i hope everything is going great for y'all! I love/miss y'all!

Elder Johnson

11/1

Happy late Halloween!! I really love the south..you know why!? Because when Halloween is on Sunday..they have enough respect for the Sabbath to go trick or treating on Saturday! Well..this week has been great! The zone is doing amazing, we are the smallest zone number wise, but we can still compete with the other zones! The Lord is blessing us tremendously! I think the highlight of my week though was last Monday when i was walking through the ice cream isle at Wal-Mart and guess what i saw...BLUE BELL ICE CREAM!!!! Ahhh..i was so excited!! So of course, i had to buy a half gallon of cookies n' cream and now my companion is hooked on it, as well! We had a miracle yesterday after church..some guy named Kris walked into the building and he asked someone if the missionaries were here, so someone came and got us. It turns out that he has a fiance that is a member and he had been checking out the church's website and really likes what he saw! He said that he completely lost all of his faith in his last deployment to Aphghanastan..but he's really open now to learning more...we've got a return appointment with him on Tuesday..so we'll keep you posted on him! Well..i love/miss y'all! I hope y'all are doing well!

Elder Johnson