Monday, May 16, 2011

5/16

haha..apparently this is it? wow..it still has not hit yet...like at all. I don't know why but it still feels like Wednesday is forever away! It's so weird whenever people ask me about how i feel..i honestly don't know! Like..part of me is excited..but then again it's weird thinking that i'm gonna be something different on Wednesday than what i've been for the past 2 years. I'm no longer gonna be that creepy guy that chases you down in the street in the middle of the pouring rain, dressed in a suit and riding on a bicycle and wanting to talk about Jesus! haha.. Well..one thing that is for certain..even though i'm not going to be the "same thing" i'm still going to be the "same person." I may not chase people down anymore, but i know that i'm still going to be a missionary! Tag or no tag! =) The way i see it..this is really just another transfer and i guess i'm just as excited for this transfer as i am for any other transfer! haha.. I am definitely going to miss "the field" though..Maybe i'm a little crazy..but i actually think that chasing people down in the street is fun and i'm going to miss doing that! I'm going to miss talking to random strangers about the gospel on the daily! I'm going to miss the meetings and the conferences and the other missionaries and the organization. However, i can honestly say that i am excited to come home because i feel that i have done exactly what the Lord has asked me and has expected of me to do, and that is a great feeling! =) I've worked hard and have been diligent and obedient! I've accomplished everything i wanted to on my mission! Now it's time for me to go and get married! ;) hahaha.. (i threw that one in there just for you, Mom!) But yeah..words honestly cannot describe the impact my mission has had on my life! But if i had to narrow it down to one thing..i would say that the greatest thing i've learned on my mission is how great of a blessing it is to ENJOY the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost! I've got the Spirit! I'm happy! What more could i ask for? =) I am grateful for all of your examples for me! I really am indebted to y'all! If i hadn't gone on a mission..i really don't know what i'd be doing right now..but i know that it would have amounted to nothing. Well i love y'all so much. Thanks for supporting me throughout my entire mission! I'll talk to y'all soon! =)
love..
Elder Johnson

Monday, May 9, 2011

5/9

Hey everyone! It was great being able to speak to y'all yesterday! I have to admit..it was pretty weird talking to y'all..knowing that we're all going to see each other in like a week and a half! haha.. So yeah..this was a pretty good week! Not necessarily number wise..but we got a ton accomplished this week considering how busy of a week it was! We had a great zone leader council meeting last week, as well as a great training meeting! Pretty much the only 2 regular days last week were Tuesday and Saturday..every other day we had various things going on which made it a little tricky to go out and talk to people, but we were able to manage! Sister Hunter was able to make it to church for the 2nd time and hopefully she will be getting work off soon so she will be able to come every sunday! If that is the case, we may set her date for when i come back to North Carolina, so that i can be there! =) Today should be fun..we're gonna go fish for a little bit..maybe this time i'll catch that catfish..i swear that thing's head was as big as Justin's! =) haha..but then after fishing we're having our zone preparation day and i'll get to say goodbye to everyone in the zone! Well..this should be a great week coming up! I'm looking forward to going out with a bang! I love y'all and i'll see y'all soon!
Elder Johnson

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

5/4

Sorry this e-mail is kind've late..I had a zlc meeting on Monday so our P-day is today. Well..i got to go to the temple today..for the last time as a missionary. It was such a great experience! So was our meeting last Saturday with Elder Richard G. Scott and Elder Cornish, a member of the 2nd quorum of the 70. I got to shake their hands!! haha..But yeah..they are both just really delightful, happy, loving people! We learned a ton about missionary work, things that i feel will definitely help me to have a very strong finish! =) But yeah..I guess Elder Scott was still dwelling on the same topic as his General Conference talk..he talked a TON about marriage!! haha..it was very un expected! It seemed like every single answer to any question about staying strong and improving was "get married in the temple. It is your first priority when you get home." haha..So OF COURSE..everyone has been giving me a ton of grief about it. Even President Cotterell at our zone leader council meeting was calling me out on it the entire time! So of course..i had to let everyone know that i applied to BYU Idaho in my departing testimony! haha..it was pretty funny.. Well jeeze..I'm getting down to my last few emails home here..that's so weird! We had a great experience at church on sunday! There is a guy named Eric that comes to church every week with his girlfriend, who has met with the missionaries before. We invited him to meet with the missionaries again about a month and a half ago, but he declined. But Sunday before church, we both felt that it was time to invite him again, so we wrote it down in our planners. Well..right after Sacrament was over, before we could go find him..he found us! And told us "hey elders guess what! I've finally made the decision that i want to be baptized!".....You could only imagine the state of shock that we were in! =) haha..it was pretty crazy because that is exactly what happened with Tara! The Lord moves in mysterious ways, that's for sure! Also..our zone is doing really well! We had 6 baptisms last month, and 5 the month before! The last time this zone has had 5 baptisms in a month was well over a year ago..and there is no telling when the last time this zone had more than 5 baptisms in a month..it was at least over 2 years ago! So we're really excited for our zone! We're grateful for how hard and how well they work and follow the spirit!
So for mother's day this Sunday..same rules apply as they did for Christmas..I'm only gonna have about 45 minutes to talk so we'll all probably have to conference call again. Probably won't matter too much because in a couple more weeks i'll have a lot more than 45 minutes to talk to y'all. =) I'll be calling around 5:30-6:00ish..so hopefully that works out with everyone!
Well i love y'all and i hope y'all are doing well! Can't wait to talk to y'all this Sunday!
Elder Johnson

Monday, April 25, 2011

4/25

Hey everyone! This has been just an average week..nothing too exciting happened. We did find a bunch of new investigators, so that was pretty exciting! Yesterday was Stake conference for our Stake, and we really enjoyed it! It was a great way to celebrate Easter! The zone is picking back up, a little. We had a great month of April and hopefully we will have another fantastic month of May! We are going to be meeting with Elder Scott this Saturday! I'm so excited for it! He is definitely one of my favorites! =) Elder Moreno and I are getting along really well! We both work hard together and we teach really well together, and we have a lot of fun together! He's definitely turning out to be one of my favorite companions! He's really big into skate boarding and other extreme sports, infact he got invited to some skate competition and took like..6th place in the entire state of Utah! But yeah..we were riding our bikes and he saw a jump, so he went off of it..and went face first into a bush! We got it on video! It was priceless! haha.. Well i love y'all and i'll talk to y'all later!
Elder Johnson

Monday, April 18, 2011

4/18

Soo..talk about a crazy week! First we had activity zone conference over in Chapel Hill..The lesson was really good and it was on "Revelation through Prayer" Then afterwards..we played ultimate Frisbee, volleyball, capture the flag, and soccer, followed by the final relay race..which my team actually won! =) My part in the relay race was to spin around 10 times really fast, and then sprint down the field..i ended up about 3 lanes over from where i should have been! haha.. But..the best part about the zone conference was the announcement that on April 30th, Elder Richard G. Scott is coming to our mission and we're going to have a mission conference! I'm so excited for that! Well..in case you haven't heard..about 62 tornadoes touched down in the state of North Carolina on Saturday, 6 of which were actually in our area. A few people died, and a lot of people were left powerless. We, fortunately, were safe the entire time and we never lost power. Unfortunately..we did not actually get to see any of the tornadoes..=( But on Sunday morning, we went out with a bunch of other brethren from the singles ward, and swiftcreek ward, and cleared out a bunch of trees. It was so weird because we would be driving through a neighborhood and everything would seem perfectly fine, but then we would turn down a street and there was utter chaos everywhere! I have never seen anything like it. It was a lot of fun being able to help others out, and a lot of people were very grateful for our service! We worked all morning until it was time to go to church..and then we ended up having to go to church in blue jeans and t-shirts! haha..weirdest experience ever has a missionary.. Someone asked us (jokingly..i hope..) if they switched our p-days to Sundays! haha.. But yeah..it turned out to be a great experience and an effective finding activity! (which is exactly what our zone needs right now...) Well..i love y'all and i pray for y'all every night! Take care and good luck with everything!
Elder Johnson




Monday, April 11, 2011

4/11

Hey everyone! Sorry if this is short, i don't have much time..had to do a bunch of other stuff on the computer today. Soo..we had a baptism..randomly. haha..One of our dates named Tara called us up on Monday night and was like.."hey is it possible for my baptism to be moved up to a sooner day?" Tara has been coming to church and keeping all of the commandments since about December..so the answer was yes. =) But it turned out to be a great spiritual experience! Just before the ordinance, her and a friend went into the changing room and she was about to come out, but she felt really nervous. Suddenly she just fell to her knees and pleaded with the Lord for strength to go through with it! The Lord answers prayers. =) We've got another date for the 23rd of April with someone named Kelsey. She is amazing! She is pretty much a dry Mormon..haha..But she's been reading the Book of Mormon and she finally is pretty confident that it is true! =) Well i love y'all! I hope y'all are doing well!
Elder Johnson

Monday, April 4, 2011

4/4

Well..today is officially the first day of my last transfer in the field..That is so weird..Elder Farrer is getting transferred to be a senior zone leader elsewhere, and i get to train a new zone leader again! I really LOVED General Conference! It was all exactly what i needed to hear to help me accomplish goals that i have for this last transfer. It is definitely my new favorite General Conference! =) This has been a pretty good week! We are teaching someone named Sister Hunter who is SO solid..she's got a testimony of the Book of Mormon, understands the apostasy and the importance of baptism and everything! But unfortunately she works every sunday.. She knows for sure she'll be off Easter Sunday and she plans on coming to church then..but it would be so great if she could come EVERY Sunday. She's already asked her boss for work off on Sundays, but it got denied. =( Hopefully we will see a miracle this week! We plan on teaching her this week of the potential she has as a child of God to have great faith and obedience! (teach "be" rather than "do") Hopefully through her faith, something will happen! =) The zone had a couple more baptisms this past week, but also dropped in a lot of numbers. We had a great zone leader council meeting last week where we learned of the importance of finding new investigators and hopefully we can improve on that number as a zone, because that is where we struggle the most. Kelsey Souza is doing great! So is Tara! They both went to conference and enjoyed it! Hopefully things will pick up in our area so that we can be a model area for the zone. Well i love y'all and i hope y'all are doing well!
Elder Johnson

Monday, March 28, 2011

3/28

Well..this has been a pretty okay week. We had a miracle happen last Sunday! There is someone named Tara that comes to church every week who is not a member. She had a baptismal date back in October but something happened and she refused to continue to meet with the missionaries anymore. Well..last Sunday, Elder Farrer and I both felt like we should talk to her and invite her to meet with us again. WELL..all throughout church we didn't really get a chance to talk to her. So during third hour..i was feeling a little dissappointed, that we didn't get that chance..but after class let out, she was waiting for us in the hallway! She said she had been going through a hard time and prayed for some guidance. Then, as much as she hated it, "meet with the missionaries" kept coming to her, and she took that as her answer! So after church, she circled the building 2 times looking for us and was about to give up, but then she saw us through the window as she was walking by the class! We were able to meet with her this past week and she set the baptismal date of April 23rd! Then yesterday during fast and testimony meeting, she got up and bore her testimony for the first time of how she used to not believe in God, but thanks to the Book of Mormon, which she knows to be true, she now knows God and knows that He loves her! It was pretty cool! =) As far as Kelsey Souza goes, we'll have to see when we go to our appointment tomorrow. She plays ultimate frisbee for NC State and was gone all weekend long on a tournament, and her date is for this Saturday. We're going to pray REALLY hard for her to recieve her answer! =) Well..i love y'all and i hope y'all enjoy conference this week! Take care!
Elder Johnson

Monday, March 21, 2011

3/21

Hey everyone! This has been an amazing week!! I had the privelege of going to the temple this week with one of my recent converts while I was back in Garner to see him recieve his endowments and get sealed to his wife! It was probably the best experience I have ever had in my life and I am so grateful for it! What made it better is that i got to go through with Elder Tibbitts, who was my companion in Garner, and Elder Tibbitts is pretty much my best friend in the mission! I am very grateful for President Cotterell allowing me to go and do that! It also added to my testimony that God places us missionaries exactly where we are supposed to be, because both Elder Tibbitts and I are really really close to the Temple, so we were able to go! Where as if we had been somewhere else in the mission, it would have been a little more difficult. Well..i'm also getting started on choosing classes for BYU Idaho..i've decided to major in child development for now, but that may change to pshychology or sociology..or maybe even something else that has nothing to do with either of those..haha. Unfortunately, however..I did not get the track that I want so that is a little frustrating. They have me on the Fall/Spring track..so pretty much I'll go to school this september until december..then i have off all the way until April..and then i'll be in school until mid July..which pretty much eliminates any chance for a summer job after this year. But i guess it'll give me a little bit more motivation to do well in school so that i can transfer to Provo! Well..the zone is doing great! Just to clarify..those 22 dates last week were not my dates..but the total dates combined as a zone. (I WISH we had 22 dates..) The dates this week dropped a little bit..but investigators at sacrament improved a BUNCH so I really feel that we improved this past week. Plus..we have 5 baptisms coming up in the zone this week, so we're excited! That will put us at a total of 6 baptisms for the zone for the month of March..and it's been a while since this zone has had that many! Well..I love y'all and i hope y'all are doing great! Talk to y'all next week!
Elder Johnson

Monday, March 14, 2011

3/14

Hey everyone. I'm sorry to hear about Grandma Johnson's passing, I'm gonna miss her a lot. I think what i'm going to miss the most is how happy she always was! I honestly can't remember Grandma Johnson without a smile on her face. It's times like these that help remind us how great of a blessing the plan of happiness really is! It's really comforting knowing that we'll all get to see her again.

Well..this week was pretty tough..it was spring break! Campus was a ghost town..and pretty much..so was the church! haha..Literally every single one of our investigators was out of town. So this week..in order to be effective..we had to be creative! NC State has something called the "free expression tunnel" where you can just go and paint whatever you want. Well..this tunnel gets a lot of traffic during school hours..so us, two other missionaries, and some singles took a couple of hours out of the day and went and painted an advertisement for mormon.org on the side of the tunnel..it was pretty fun! =) It should be a good little surprise to everyone coming back from spring break! Now the only thing we've gotta worry about is..how long it stays up there! We told all of the members that they're on guard duty to make sure it lasts at least a week! =) Well..hopefully this week will pick up a little bit! The zone is doing great! We went from 15 to 22 investigators with a baptismal date! So things are definitely picking up in that area! Well i love y'all and i hope y'all are doing great! Here are some pictures of the wall! Enjoy!

Elder J

Me golfing
Brother Brack's Reenlistment Ceremony
Free Expression Tunnel
Mormon.org

Monday, March 7, 2011

3/7

Hey err-body! Great news! Our zone more than doubled baptismal dates this past week! =) WOOO!! It really is a lot of fun being able to see the zone improve so much! As a zone, we have a goal of 8 baptisms for the month of March, which is about 1 per companionship. Right now, things are looking great so hopefully we should reach that! This week for us was great! We contacted someone on campus named Christina, who, beleive it or not, is actually writing a missionary that is currently serving in Brasil! She is such a great individual! She is actually in Guatamala right now for spring break doing service for some organization! She seems really excited to read the Book of Mormon, which is exciting! I know that as she reads the Book of Mormon sincerely, which i think she'll do..there is no way that she won't feel the power of the book! =) Speaking of Spring Break..this week is going to be kind've hard..haha.. Literally..every single one of our investigators is out of town! haha..On a lighter note..the NC State school of Math and Science set out to break the world record for a food drive by having the most pounds donated in a day. The old record was held by, none other than The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. So what do they do? They ask both the Raleigh and the Apex stakes to pitch in and help out! In fact..our church made the biggest contribution to the food drive and the organization set the world record by donating over 500,000 pounds of food in one day! Yay for Mormons, beating the Mormons!! haha.. well..i love y'all! I hope y'all have a good week!
Elder Johnson

Monday, February 28, 2011

2/28

Dear "J" clan. This might be brief..i don't have too much time. But this week has been pretty good! The zone improved dramatically!! We're still not quite where we want to be, but we definitely feel that it was a step in the right direction and that we are going to continue to climb! Our District Leaders help us out a TON and we are so grateful for them! We had an amazing Zone Leader Council meeting this week where our Mission President stood up and announced to us as leaders and pretty much called us out on our lack of faith. He said something to the effect of Elders, we, as a mission in general, need more faith. That was so huge! A key holder, calling us to repentance, pretty much! It was such a neat experience. As far as our area, we've got someone that we're teaching named Kelsey..and she is great! We're excited to be able to continue to work with her and see miracles happen! Well..i love y'all a lot! Take care!
Elder Johnson

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

2/23

Sooo...surprise! I'm not in Fayetteville anymore. I got transferred on Tuesday, and the libraries were closed on Monday so i couldn't tell y'all about it. I am now a zone leader of the Apex Zone! (where the Temple is) I cover the Raleigh University Singles Ward..so pretty much my area is the NC State campus! It is so much fun! Campus contacting is a blast! But i think the craziest thing about the entire thing is that our ward meets in the same building as the Garner ward, which is one of my past areas!! So i'll get to see everyone from the Garner ward all over again! The greatest part about that is that Phil Hess, who i helped get Baptized in the Garner ward is getting sealed on March 11th, and now i'm so close to both the Temple and the Hess family! The Lord definitely answers prayers! =) As far as Fayetteville goes, I'm going to miss Elder Petersen a ton! I learned so much from him, and we both had SO many miracles our last week together! We were able to set 2 baptismal dates last week, and they both have tons of potential! Also, the Fayetteville 3rd ward just got new missionaries for themselves on Tuesday, so now my last area only has 2 units that they cover, the Fort Bragg Ward and the YSA Branch. Well..i've finally got my mormon.org profile up! The link is http://www.mormon.org/me/3CCH/# if y'all want to check it out. Well..my new companion is named Elder Farrer, he is so amazing! The Lord has definitely been blessing me with great companions lately! We both face a pretty tough challenge. The Apex zone usually hasn't done too well baptizing and numbers have been dropping these past couple of weeks, but I feel that we're going to see a lot of success here in the near future! One of our District Leaders is Elder Marc Oslund. I took his place when in Fort Bragg when I became a Zone Leader, and I had some LARGE shoes to fill! Elder Oslund is a convert to the church and was a pitcher at BYU before he came on his mission! I'm really excited to have him as a District Leader, as well as Elder Tibbitts who is one of my past companions. Actually..he was my companion back when I was in Garner! Small world..We also have another District Leader with a ton of potential! This is his first time being a district leader..in fact..he got called about 5 minutes before transfer meeting started! haha.. But we're both really confident in our district leaders and we're excited to be able to work together and see some miracles! Well i love y'all and i hope y'all are doing well!
Elder Johnson

Monday, February 14, 2011

2/14

Happy V-Day! =) Probably the most worthless holiday as a missionary, but it's okay. At least i got a sweet valentine from my companion this morning! Soo..crazy story. I was sitting on one of the chairs at church on Sunday, and someone in the singles branch comes up to me and asks.."Hey..are you Jared's brother!?" haha..he then introduced himself as Adam Facundo and said that he knew Jared, and had actually taken seminary from Mom! He even said that he had slept in my house! haha..how crazy is that? The church is such a small world.. So yeah..if there's anything y'all want me to tell him, let me know! =) Well..this was an okay week. We definitely saw some improvements and some more miracles! One, for example, we went to go try to stop by a part member family, and while we were walking down the street, we realized that the address we had was not in existance. Soo..we were a little flustered at first, but then we realized that the Lord wanted us there for some specific reason and that we needed to find out what it was. We then looked over at the house a little bit further down the street from us and saw that it had a really nice truck, so we figured we would start there! haha.. Well..we approach the truck and there is a sticker on the back that says "Kingdom of Tonga"..so we were like.."wait a minute!..." sure enough, it was the part member family we were trying to find! We have an appointment to go and see them this Friday..and it's a dinner appointment, too! =) Then while we were walking back..some random guy stopped next to us and asked if we needed a ride! We both kind've looked at eachother and were like ".....sure!" So we hop on in and start talking to this guy, and we have an appointment to go see him this week! That was such a great experience! It definitely lifted our spirits a ton! Well..i love and pray for y'all! I hope y'all are doing well! Take care!
Elder Johnson

Monday, February 7, 2011

2/7

Soo..last week we had a great DLC/ZLC meeting, and we all bought into the goal of doubling our baptisms this year. At first it was a little hard to beleive that it could be done, but then we remembered who it was that was asking us to double baptisms. A couple of years ago, President Hinckley asked us to double baptisms, and even today President Monson supports that. So if that is coming from Prophets of God, then that means it is a commandment from God to double baptisms and He will always provide a way for us to keep His commandments. So then we had a very revelatory experience as my companion, myself, and our 2 amazing District Leaders discussed how we were going to accomplish this. We talked a lot about how we need to increase in our faith, and how we need to repent, and how we need to be obedient to our covenants..and before we knew it, we were talking about the Doctrine of Christ! So we came up together as a zone to not only teach the Doctrine of Christ, but to apply the Doctrine into our own lives, and then we were going to hold eachother accountable. So ever since then, we've been looking for ways that we can apply the Doctrine of Christ into our own lives. Well..last Monday we got an email from our mission president asking us to destroy all of our copied cds!!! I have to admit..i completely ignored that email at first. I think it wasn't until the next day when my companion and I finally realized that we needed the blessings and miracles that would come from being obedient, more than we needed music. So we destroyed them, and we spent the rest of the week watching for miracles to happen! Well..they did happen! We were able to meet lots of people, and set up some great appointments with people we wanted to set baptismal dates with! We even had members who were bringing friends to church this Sunday..it was amazing! All of that happened randomly and right after we destroyed those cds! We were so excited to see the fruits of our obedience!
Well..all of those things fell through. Every single one of them..for random reasons, too. One of them had to leave town because he had a friend die overseas, one had to go out of town for family, one had a sick child and had to rush him to the hospital, one had to go comfort a friend who gave birth to a still born, another was sick, another got called in for work the morning of church. It was as if they were all destined not to progress. We didn't have anybody at church yesterday, we weren't able to teach anyone that isn't moving soon, and we had to drop the only baptismal date that we had. It was hard. To be quite honest, i was very disappointed and upset. I think I even told God that in my prayers last night. But then in the middle of my prayers, i just reflected back on the week and i was able to see all of the positives and all of the good things that happened, and then I realized that my time is not His. We will be able to double our baptisms, but it's probably not going to be a sprint. I realized that I need patience..haha. But i know everything is going to work out and I can't wait to report to y'all next week and hopefully have some better news! Well, i love/miss y'all and i hope y'all are doing great! Take Care!
Elder Johnson

Monday, January 31, 2011

1/31

Wow..what a week! I have never been so busy in my life! I spent about 9 hours driving this week back and forth from meetings in other cities..we had church all day on Sunday because we cover 3 units, and we were able to teach 16 lessons this week! Busy busy busy..But i'm grateful for it though..it's what i've been praying for..now the task is just getting everything all organized so it's not so stressful! haha..Well..Brianna's baptism went really well! She was baptized by one of the senior missionaries covering Fort Bragg, Elder Burris. Him and his wife are both from Austin, so we have a lot of great conversations about good ol' Texas every once in a while! My companion and i are doing great! I love serving with Elder Petersen, just because of how much i learn from him each week, as well as how well we get along! I'm impressed by how much the Church is embracing technology now a days! They want all of the missionaries in our mission to create a profile on www.mormon.org and to encourage our members to do the same and to invite their friends to look at it! Mormon.org has changed a TON! It's so amazing now..As a missionary, i would encourage each and every one of y'all to create a profile and get started on it! =) But also, not only do we have cell phones..but we can text now! It makes things so much easier and it is super effective! Next thing you know..we'll be proselyting via facebook! =)
Soo..the King family..the family that we taught and wants to get baptized but are moving to Fort Riley, Kansas..it turns out that they are moving one street away from the Ward Mission Leader in that ward..how crazy is that!? It's pretty amazing to see how the Lord works..even though they won't be baptized here..He's still doing everything He can to help them out! Oh..and speaking about solid people not being able to be baptized here..we had been teaching these 3 singles and 2 of them are pretty solid! But then we found out on Saturday that they are in the Army reserves and will be heading back home in 2 weeks..haha..it was pretty funny..it really does seem like we're professional seed planters lately! haha.. well..i love/miss y'all! I hope y'all are doing well! Write me! =)
Elder Johnson

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

1/25

Hey everyone! This has been a pretty great week! We've been blessed with so many miracles, it's hard to know where to start! This past Tuesday we were able to meet with a family named the Kings, who were a referral from that family that moved to El Paso. They are such a great family! They have so many great questions and it has been so much fun meeting with them and being able to answer their questions and help them to learn! We were also able to meet with someone named Nathanial Davis, who is going through his AIT schooling right now in the Army. (AIT school is the schooling you get right after basic training to teach you how to do your job) Well..because of some pretty strict rules that he's under, we weren't allowed to teach him in a member's home, so we ended up teaching him in the food court at the mall on base. Then in the middle of our lesson, some random guy inturrupts us and starts screaming out some anti at us..which was really awkward..haha..Finally he left and we kept teaching..then 10 minutes later he comes back again and starts doing it all over again! haha.. it was pretty weird..He did, however, compliment my smile! =) Well..inspite of the adversary's efforts to drive the spirit away, we actually had a great lesson with him! We have another appointment to see him this Saturday, as well as with someone else named Rose who is also going through AIT right now. Well..Brianna Stewart is finally getting baptized this Saturday! We're so excited for it! Some of her family is flying in for it, and we're trying to invite as many people as we can to it, so hopefully we'll have a great turn out! Well..i hope everything is going great for y'all! I love and miss y'all! Take care!
Elder Johnson

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

1/18

Hey y'all! How's everything going!? This has been a pretty good week! Elder Petersen and i have been getting along great! He's probably going to end up being my favorite companion, just because of how hard we work, and how much fun we have! (but most importantly because of how hard we work..) =) He's been a great example to me of how to work with members, and i'm really looking forward to learning more from him as we continue to work together! But, as far as missionary work, we weren't able to find any new investigators this week, however, we were able to find a TON of potential! There was a family in one of our wards whom came up to us and gave us a referral to stop by, right before they got transferred to the Army Base in El Paso, Texas. So we stopped by, which was a little intimidating because we aren't really allowed to knock on people's doors on Base, unless we have an appointment..But fortunately we were able to set a return appointment for today, so we're really excited for it!! There's also a couple of other people that we are trying to get a hold of, whom have great potential! So yeah..hopefully soon we'll begin to see some change! Well..i love/miss y'all and i hope y'all are doing great!

Elder Johnson

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

1/12

Soo..i just got my new companion..it's Elder Petersen..the missionary that used to follow my blog! haha..how nuts is that!? Such a small world..But yeah..i love him to death..he's so awesome! I've learned so much from him being my district leader these past 2 transfers! We're both really excited for this upcoming transfer! I really feel that us two are going to work together really well and see TONS of success! Also some more crazy news..it snowed again! We got about 4 more inches of snow..and then it froze over night and turned into ice! The librairy was closed, which is why it is taking me so long to finally send this email out, however it was pretty fun to slide around on! =) We're teaching a great family named the "Williams" They have a 13 year old daughter that got baptized about a month ago when she was visiting her Mom in Arkansas, then she came back and her parents are really supportive of her going to the church! We've also been able to teach them a little bit. There hasn't been any tremendous progress yet, although they did come to church, but i know that as they read the Book of Mormon, it will help them out a ton! Well..we're going to be hitting the pavement pretty hard this week, so wish us good luck!! I love/miss y'all! Take care!
Elder Johnson

Monday, January 3, 2011

1/3

Hey everyone! Happy new year! This has been a pretty great week! Kind've slow teaching wise, but it has still been pretty fun! Soo..Ryan Dudash ended up having to PCS (permanant change of station) down to Fort Stewart sooner than expected, so he didn't have a chance to be baptized here, but he will be baptized down in Georgia! We are really excited for him! He was out of town for about 2 weeks, and didn't smoke the entire time! (GREAT accomplishment!!) Also, Brianna Stewart set a baptismal date for the 29th of January! Brianna is the 10 year old girl that is really smart and her mom is in the Army! So yeah..we're really excited for her, too! Earlier this week, we heard that a family that we had tracted into was going through a hard time, so we got a box and emptied our cubbards, then drove over to their home. Then we snuck up to the house, all nice and sneaky like because their front door was open, left the box on the doorstep with a note that said "Merry Late Christmas", and booked it back to the car, all without getting caught! I can only imagine what it looked like..two guys dressed in dark suits, sneaking up to a house in the roughest part of Fayetteville with some kind of package and leaving it on a doorstep, then sprinting back to the car and driving away really fast! (after we put on our dark sunglasses, of course) But it felt really good and i'm glad we did it! We haven't seen that family yet, so i don't know if they know it was us or not. Other than that, it has just been a pretty regular week! We are struggling a little bit with our finding efforts though, so we're going to be working on that a ton this week!
Well, i love/miss y'all and i hope y'all are doing great! Take care!
Elder Johnson