12/29

Hey everyone!! Soo..crazy story..The day after Christmas we got 8 inches of snow!! It literally came out of nowhere..like we woke up the next morning and looked outside..and everything was white!! It was so nuts!..i'm pretty sure it's the most snow i've ever been in! Unfortunately it wasn't a day earlier..i've never had a white Christmas before. =( Oh well..At least we had time to play in it. I'ts almost all gone now, but it was fun while it lasted! Well it was great being able to talk to y'all on Christmas! This has been a great week! We were able to set a baptismal date last night with a 10 year old girl named Brianna Stewart! She is so smart for a 10 year old! She read 2 Nephi 31 all by herself before we came over! (if only all of our investigators had the dedication of a 10 year old..) But yeah..she's way excited for the baptism, so we are too! =) Well..not a whole lot else happened this past week..it's just been a usual week i guess..I hope y'all have a good week with everything that's going on! I love/miss y'all! And thank y'all for all of the presents! I really appreciate it!

Elder Johnson

12/20

Hey everyone! So..i don't know what it is..but for some reason i'm finding this Christmas season to be a little bit harder than last year. Not harder as in discouraging..but harder as in..i miss y'all a little more this year. Christmas really didn't even phase me at all last year..I guess it's because of all the talk about going fishing and dove hunting, and it makes me a little jealous! =) haha.. Or it could be the fact that all of our investigators have gone on their Christmas leave and noone is in town anymore!! haha..that's a little frustrating, but i know things will work out! So..a miracle happened..Ryan Dudash was able to get some money and fly home to see his family..which is great because he hasn't seen his family since before his deployment to Afghanastan over a year ago. However..he doesn't get back until the 29th..and his baptism is scheduled for the first..so we're just hoping for another miracle to happen so that he can be baptized before he leaves for Fort Stewart, Georgia on the 10th. But yeah..this week has been really good..we had our Christmas Zone Conference on Tuesday..there's supposedly some really embarrassing videos of us singing on youtube if y'all wanna look them up. =)

Well..i'm truly grateful for the Christmas season. Something that we're doing as a mission is giving the Savior the gift of perfect obedience. It has really helped me to spend a little bit more time pondering about the Savior and all of the great stories of his life! It has made me a lot more grateful for the things that i have. I am grateful for these 2 short years that i have been given to represent the Savior full time as His servant. There's a man in the singles branch named Brother Brack who goes out with us quite a bit. But he can't serve a mission because of a back injury he incurred while deployed in Iraq, and he really wishes that he could be out here on the mission serving the Lord. He has helped me to truly be grateful for the ability to be able to do this, and has helped me realize the importance of the Christmas story, because without Christ, i wouldn't have the ability to do anything. I know that's true. Well..i hope y'all are doing great! I miss/love y'all a ton! I can't wait to speak to y'all on Saturday! Merry Christmas! =)

Elder Johnson

Brother Coleman's Baptism

12/13

haha..soo i didn't even realize it until i just put the date into the title..but i've been out for 19 months today..crazy. This has been a great week! I am truly grateful for the sacredness of baptisms! Last week at Brother Coleman's baptism, some members in the Fort Bragg Ward came and brought a non member friend with them! I was blessed with the opporotunity to present the message of the restoration to the congregation while Brother Coleman and Elder Hughes got dressed, and the Spirit was soo strong! Well..the next day at church, Ryan Dudash, (the nonmember) came to church and we got to teach the lesson in the Gospel Principles class, which he really enjoyed as well! Then on Thursday, we were able to go over and have a formal lesson with him inside of the member's home that brought him to church. Their names are the Farr's and they are amazing member missionaries! They've recently been re activated a couple of months ago, and they're leaving late this week for Mesa, AZ where they're gonna go be sealed for time and all eternity! But anyways..during our lesson with Brother Dudash, he had some great "questions of the soul" and was looking for more purpose to his life, as well as life in general. We had originally planned on reviewing the Restoration with him because we never got to actually go into full depth with him, but we barely talked about the restoration at all untill the very end! The Spirit ended up directing the conversation towards obedience, and happiness, and prayer, the plan of salvation, and even the gospel of Christ! (faith, repentance, baptism, gift of The Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.) He was willing to give up smoking before we even brought it up! He then accepted the invitation to be baptized on January 1st! =) (talk about new year's resolutions..) Well..then we went over on Saturday night and he was...quite enthused about our visit..haha. He was so eager to let us know that he had not smoked a cigarrette the whole time in between our visits, even though the day before was the most stressful day of work he had had in a LONG time!! =) We are so excited for him! We knew that setting the date for January 1st was a big leap of faith because he is being transfered to Ft. Stewart, Georgia on January 10th..so he had to stop smoking fast! I'm so proud of him and that he was able to pull through! At the end of our lesson on Saturday night, he took the last pack of cigarrettes that he owned and proudly went into the back yard and destroyed them! That was a lot of fun! =)

Well..Christmas is coming up, and these are the rules for the call. I can only talk for about 40 minutes, so you're all probably gonna have to be around the phone when i call and we can do speaker phone, or something. I'll probably call around 1:00 pm here, so 12:00 back in Houston..if that changes, i'll let y'all know!

Well i love/miss y'all and i hope y'all are doing great!! I'm attaching a picture of Brother Coleman's baptism for y'all! Merry Christmas!!

Elder Johnson

Brother Coleman's Baptism

12/6

Hey everyone!! How's it going!? This has been a great week! My companion and I were asked to sing at the relief society activity on Saturday..haha..i received another confirmation that i am definitely not the singer in our family. =) Soo..Brother Coleman decided to get baptized this week instead of waiting to do it later on in the month so that his father in law could do it! He just decided that it would be too hard to do all of that traveling so he just decided to do it now! The baptism went great! There was a very good turn out and it was exactly what that ward needed to get excited about missionary work! We were able to teach Brianna Stewart last night (the 10 year old girl) and her baptism will probably be sometime in January so that her family can make it to the baptism! But other than that, not a whole lot has happened with our investigators. We're in a state of rebuilding now. Luckily, there was a non member at the baptism on Saturday who got to hear the restoration of the Gospel for the first time at the baptism, and we'll be teaching him this week! Hopefully that goes well!

It's starting to get cold here! It's in like the 30's right now!! December just completely snuck up on me, i totally wasn't ready for it! Well i love y'all and i hope y'all are doing well! Take Care!

Elder Johnson