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

3/15

Hey everyone! How's it goin!? Things here in Garner are going great! Our investigator Eddy Hill took us to the Museum of Natural Science today, and that was tons of fun! Phil's baptism went really well! It was a very spiritual meeting! The members came up and told us how spiritual it was, especially while Elder Tibbitts and i were presenting the Restoration of the gospel shortly after the ordinance. There is a definite power behind the 1st vision. While we recited it..the room (including all of the little children) got really quiet..and nothing but peace filled the air. The Spirit was way strong! We even had the first counselor of the bishopric come up to us afterwards and he told us "hey..you just remember this when you're old and have children that are screaming and crying and yelling really loud and they won't stop..just tell the the first vision..they'll shut up!" haha..Brother Anderson is the funniest guy ever..Well that's about all that's going on right now. We're still trying really hard to find and to teach and increase the teaching pool! I love y'all and miss y'all!

Elder Johnson

3/8

Hey everyone! Soo..great news! Our baptismal date this week, Phil Hess, threw a little curveball at us! He surprised us on Thursday and told us that after speaking with the bishop and praying about it, him and Jennifer Abbott are going to be getting married this Thursday a couple of hours before his baptism..and they're going to be living here in Garner!! soo..we'll get to see him get baptised here in Garner, so we're way excited about that!

We also had another pretty funny experience this week..we were tracting down this street..and when we got about half way down, we start talking to this one lady for a while..she wasn't too interested..but then when we turned around..we saw about 10 cop cars that had just appeared from out of nowhere, and cops were swarming this house with their guns drawn and everything! Elder Tibbitts and i were kinda freaking out a little kuz we had already knocked that house..then a female cop pulls up next to us and asked us if we had seen anything suspicious around here. We answered no..and then she told us to be careful because someone called in a burglary into that house! Soo..we keep knockin and we get to about the end of the street..when a young cop pulls up to us and starts questioning us pretty hard. He even asked if we had a permit to be knockin doors..but then we found out that he was just kidding with us and that he had just gotten off of his mission in the Dominican Republic and that he goes to the singles ward! haha..then he told us what happened to the house..he said "yeah..some little kid thought that y'all were trying to break into their house, so he called the cops on y'all!" haha..we felt pretty bad for scaring the kid..but we thought it was pretty funny at the same time!

Well i hope y'all are doin well! I love/miss y'all! Keep me posted on what's going on!

Elder Johnson

You won't like me when i'm angry! =D

The sacred grove in North Carolina

3. Elder Tibbitts and I in the woods

3/1

Hey everyone! How's it goin!? My week has been pretty good..except for a pretty stressful exchange with some missionaries in my district..but other than that, it's been great! So we found out that Phil, whom we have been teaching and has a baptismal date, does not live in our area..so we're going to have to give him to the elders in north Raleigh. haha..oh well..i'm still way excited for him getting baptised!

Soo..i also found out some pretty exciting news..i'm going to be training at the end of this transfer! I am WAY excited for that! And what's really cool is that his great grandpa Elder Henley,(which is my grandpa) is actually the other district leader in my zone! He just dropped from being an assistant and now i'm really close to him! And Elder Condie, (which is my dad) is a zone leader in the raleigh zone, so he's pretty close! But i think we're going to be the longest line of posterity in the mission..which is pretty exciting! I never got to meet my great grandpa..he died soon after i was born, but i heard he was a great missionary! My companion right now, Elder Tibbits whom i am follow up training, is going to be a district leader somewhere else! So i'm way excited for him!

But other than that..not too much has happened this week..the Hills are still doing great..we're just waiting for them to let us know they're ready and then they'll get baptised! Well i love y'all and hope y'all are doin well!

Elder Johnson

Shootin' up my companion!

2/22

Hey everyone! Soo..exciting news! We have been teaching this man named Phil Hess, who has been dating one of the members in our ward and he has been praying about joining our church. Well yesterday at church, he came up to me and told me that he had gotten an answer, and it came in a dream! So we were able to set a return appointment after church, where we went and taught him. The first counselor in the bishopric was there and we were able to set a baptismal date for Thursday the 11th of march! We're way excited for him and we are really looking forward to teaching him more, and he's way excited to learn more! But other than that, not too much happened this week. The Hills are still coming to church..Jess really loves the releif society! She said that she had a little run in with one of the sisters, but that she would never let that keep her from coming to church..which was way exciting! Eddy is kind've struggling though..but we'll keep praying for him and working hard! Well i love y'all and i hope y'all are doin well!

Elder Johnson

Scariest sign .. EVER!!
You cant serve a mission without eating octopus
My best haircut yet!

2/16

A few things have begun to pick back up here in Garner! We had a pretty amazing experience with our investigator Chris Williams. Chris came to church a while back ago, but had slipped a little since then. He was sick, he had to work a lot, his family was sick, and we haven't seen him in about 3 weeks. When we came over last Tuesday to check up on him, he was ready to throw both his Book of Mormon and the Bible in the trash. He said he was pretty much done with God..but when he saw us that morning, he said he felt like there was someone else there with us and that he couldn't turn us away again. We've taught him twice since then and his door has always been open before we get there because he has been waiting for us! He came with us to church again this past Sunday and had an amazing reveletory experience! He has told us that he wants to "become mormon" but part of his contract with his work is that he has to work on Sundays, and he had gotten in trouble for missing last sunday. Fortunately his boss is his younger brother and he's already expressed his desires to attend church to him, but as for now he still has to work. We are sure though that the Lord provides a way for us to accomplish all of His commandments and so we are continuing to encourage him to continue to read about the Book of Mormon and to pray for a way to come to church. We didn't get to really meet with the Hills this week because Jess Hill was in the UK for business. We had dinner with Eddy, but he didn't really want to go any further without Jess there, which was a bummer because all we wanted to do was review..but she should be back in town now so we should be seeing them this week!
Soo..i got my second round of snow last week! =) About 3 inches of it and it was like..perfect snow, too! There was like..no ice at all so it was lots of fun to throw! =D
Oh yeah..i almost forgot..Elder Walter F. Gonzalez, which is a member of the presidency of the first quorum of the seventy wanted to have a surprise meeting with a group of missionaries in our mission, and my companion and i were selected to go! It was so amazing! We learned tons and had a way spiritual experience!
Well..i love y'all and hope y'all are doin well!

Love Elder Johnson