5/3

Dear Family! I'm pretty excited to be able to talk to y'all this Sunday! I'll be calling home around 2:30 Houston time. This week has been lots of fun! Elder Petersen and i "sang" in the talent show..haha..it was ridiculous..i wish we would've had it on video!! So..we had been riding bikes all day..and we were tired to the point where you just start laughing at everything..and you can't stop laughing..and so Elder Petersen starts singing...and i just burst out laughing on stage because it was so bad!! Then my part came and i tried so hard to sing..but i couldn't help but laugh..which made everyone in the audience laugh histerically..because they could tell we were trying to sing, but we just couldn't!! haha..at one point in the song, the piano player stopped playing because she and everyone was laughing too hard! haha..but yeah..we sounded THAT bad!! haha.. at the end..the Bishop came up to us and said "great effort Elders..great effort.." haha..but yeah..it was lots of fun! =)

So we had an investigator named Sylvia come to church on Sunday! Sylvia is a single parent that moved here from Detroit..so maybe Jared already tracted into her! haha..who knows. But yeah..she only stayed for the first hour..she said she enjoyed church..but you could tell it wasn't really her "cup of tea"..it was probably a little bit more reverant than what she's used to..haha..but who knows..we shall see this Friday when we go over again for our return appointment!

So..we had an amazing experience this past Thursday! I was in a District and Zone Leader Council meeting, and we had two members from church headquarters come and talk with us. Their names were Brother Mitchell and Brother Watson, and they were from the missionary department. Plus..they both participated in the development of Preach My Gospel, so yeah..it was a great revelatory experience! The meeting lasted from 9 in the morning to 4 in the afternoon..but it seemed to go by too fast!! (kind've like General Conference) But yeah..i learned a TON!! So i'm excited to take the knowledge and inspiration i've received and apply it into the work!!

Well i hope y'all are doing well! I love/miss y'all!

Elder Johnson

4/26

Hey fam! How's it going!? This week has been a lot better..the only disappointing thing about it is that we didn't have anyone at church!! =( Well we had our zone conference this week, and that helped out a lot! I learned TONS! President Cotterell really knows what he's doing! Well i've only got 5 minutes left on this thing!! oops! But yeah..we had a lot of fun this week! We taught a lot and had a lot of member present lessons! We're really excited for a few of our new investigators! We had an interesting experience..we taught a family that was part of the "Church of Christ Restored"..haha..they're a break off from a break off of our church! (no..they don't beleive in polygamy..haha..) But yeah..it's pretty interesting seeing how much of their doctrine has been distorted! But at least they still do use 3 of the 4 standard works...(they don't view the Pearl of Great Price as inspired doctrine, but they do view it as something interesting to read..i guess kind've like the apocripha??) But yeah..apparently they believe Brigham Young re-baptized everyone when they moved west..and killed everyone that tried to leave!! yikes! haha..but yeah..that was a very fun lesson! Well i hope everything is going great for y'all! Can't wait to talk to y'all on Mother's Day!

Elder Johnson

We tracted into Larry..and helped him build a bonfire!

My updated Posterity Picture!

I need more letters.. =(

4/19

Hey everyone! I'm really enjoying this week and the weather we are having as well! The Hills came to church this past week, and they even fed us dinner last Friday! They are making tons of progress! It's just been so much fun being able to actually see the progress they make! Soo..we have a ward talent show coming up on May 1st..and my companion and i got suckered into singing a duet..haha..we're pretty excited for it..although neither of us can sing to save our lives! haha..Well..numbers weren't too well this week (unless you're counting number of dropped/canceled appointments..then we were on fire!!) But nevertheless, it was still an amazing week! We worked really hard and tried our best to have some success this week..but things didn't quite pan out the way we expected it to..but i guess the highlight of this week was going to the temple!! That was refreshing and inspiring, as usual.. Well i hope everyone is doing great! Can't wait to hear from y'all next week!

Elder Johnson

4/12

Hey everyone! How's it going? North Carolina is going well! The "green monster" has almost passed, but we're still at the tail end of it. haha..(when everything gets covered in pollen, everyone here calls it the green monster) Well..not much happened this week..it was more of a finding week than it was a teaching week. But fortunately, we were blessed with a lot of success in our finding!! We found some great people that have some great potential to progress! But unfortunately..the Hills were sick and we weren't able to get any investigators to church. =( But..i've learned a lot this week..i'm improving a lot on my District Meetings, and they're getting better! The District is doing really well! This week has gone by really fast..but also slow at the same time..probably because all of my greenie mail is gone and no one writes me anymore. ;-) haha..

Well i hope everyone is doing great! can't wait to hear from y'all!

Elder Johnson

4/5

Happy Easter!! I hope everyone's Easter went well! I got to spend mine at General Conference! =) I don't know why..but when you're a missionary, General Conference is just like..the greatest thing ever! It's a bummer that we have to wait 6 more months for the next session..But yeah..some of those talks seemed like they were especially for me..(not so much the ones on parenting..haha) I loved how Elder Neil L. Andersen said that there are no assigned topics for General Conference, and about half of the talks were about parents strengthening the youth..it really shows how important that is right now! Soo..Sunday morning during my personal study, i just happened to feel my leg and i felt a bump there, at first i thought it was something from the fabric in my pants, but it didnt move! So i pulled my pant leg up and i had a tick! haha..it was my first tick ever and it was pretty fun trying different methods to get it off, then i finally just got bored with it and took some tweezers to it! =) But it was weird..like..i didn't even feel any pain or anything from the bite!

Elder Petersen and I are getting along really well, it's so much fun watching him grow and improve! Especially from how hard he works at it during Personal Study, and our Companionship Study! Well..i love y'all and i hope y'all are doing well!

Elder Johnson

This was my tick!

This was in someone's yard while we were tracting!

We had a house leak..haha.

3/30

This week has been a very exciting week, being able to watch Elder Petersen grow! Elder Petersen is from Pocatello Idaho, and he is amazing! He never ceases to amaze me, how much he grows every single day, and how hard he is working at growing every single day! "Greenie miracles" are blooming with the Spring here in Garner, especially in our finding efforts! We tracted into an older couple that had investigated the church for about a year..but that was 30 years ago..we were able to get in their door and teach them a little bit of the plan of salvation. Then when we asked for a return appointment, they asked if they could feed us this friday night! Then on Sunday, we had a former investigator show up to church and him and his wife told us that they need us to come back over to their home this week! We are really enjoying the blessings of improvement! I feel that i probably have learned more from him, than he has from me! I am way excited for General Conference this week! Everyone pray that we'll be able to get a lot of our investigators there at church! =) Well i love everyone and i hope y'all are doing amazing! The springtime here in North Carolina is amazing! A ton of the trees, when they're first blooming, are just covered in pink flowers! But unfortunately it doesn't last very long..=( I'll talk to y'all next week!

Elder Johnson

3/22

This week has been a little slow, but it was definitely a preparatory week for this upcoming week!! hopefully..=) We didn't see too many of our investigators, but we found some pretty good new ones! We had stake conference yesterday and it was broadcasted from Salt Lake. President Boyd k. Packer spoke, as well as Elder Sitati and Elder Jensen from the quorom of the 70. We had a pretty good lesson with one of our investigators named Eric on Sunday. Eric and his wife just moved from Utah..his wife is a member but he is not. He took the lessons in Utah says that he wants to be baptised..infact one of the reasons he moved to North Carolina is so that he could be baptised somewhere other than Utah (he doesn't like the mormons in utah very much..haha..) But he's still got a lot of things to gain a testimony on, so we're working with him on that and also coming to church.

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

Elder Johnson