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

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

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

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