7/26

Hey everyone! How's it goin? This week went great! The baptisms were amazing! The Spirit was soo strong! There were so many people there, that we had to move the baptism from the releif society room, to the chapel! There were also bunches of non members there, so it went really well!! =) Then after the baptism, the ward had pioneer day festivities. Yvonne, Josh, and Brittany all really enjoyed themselves and seemed to have a really great time! It was so amazing to be able to have that experience, and to be able to take part in that great story! It's very humbling..especially because Elder Bednar taught that all baptisms simply are, is a gift from the Savior. I think that was the best gift i have ever been given! =) Well the transfer just ended..and my companion and i found out that we're staying together here in Morehead for at least another transfer! We're both way excited, and we're looking forward to witnessing more miracles together as we work hard! We're also both pretty excited to be staying here because he's got a membership at Gold's Gym, and i've been given a free 30 day trial, so we've been waking up at 5:20 in the morning and going there to work out lately! It's pretty embarrassing how out of shape i'm in..haha..

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

Elder Johnson

7/12 & 7/19

7/12/10

Hey fam! How's it goin? Well..i hope y'all like to read because this letter is gonna be pretty long! haha..but it's worth reading, i promise! =) God has blessed us a lot this week!

So do y'all remember Shirley? The extremely nice lady that we baptized last week? Well she also lives in her trailer with her daughter Yvonne, and Yvonne's 3 children. Yvonne and the kids have had a really tough life. She used to be married and had a job working for Doctor Bloomfield, (who..turns out..is actually a very active member in our ward!) But as time passed, her husband got worse and worse. He would come home drunk and would abuse the family, and it got pretty bad, so Yvonne and her family were forced to move out and start living with Shirley, however, because of the father, it caused a lot of pain in that family and a lot of sorrow. The kids were never the same, especially the oldest named Josh. He built up a lot of anger and would lock himself up in his room, yell at everyone including his grandma and mother, and completely lost his faith in God. Things for this family only got worse as last October, Yvonne got in a major car accident and suffered some horrible injuries as a result. The most devestating injury was the damage done to the nerves in her head, and she now suffers from memory loss. Because of her brain injury, she had to be let go as a nurse, so she lost her job. Slowly this family was falling apart, understandably because of the trials they were facing. When i first met Yvonne, it was in the hospital because she still suffers from neck pains from the accident. Shirley had asked us to go to the hospital to give her a blessing, and even then, Yvonne's faith in God was weak. The next Monday, we had a lesson with Shirley, and because of how greatful Yvonne was, she came in and listened to us! She seemed to really enjoy the lesson because she accepted a return appointment for us to come back and teach her! The next time we came back to teach her, she expressed to us her concerns about life and trials and was really depressed from them. At the end of the lesson, she requested another blessing, and so while we blessed her, Heavenly Father promised that if she would keep the commitments that we give her and come to church, than she would be the example for her children and that her children would receive the gospel as well. Knowing the condition of her children, especially her oldest, Josh, who is 16..this seemed like it would take a miracle. Everytime we would be over there, Josh would be locked up in his room and would never come out, and never really wanted to talk to anyone. Well the next day, Yvonne had to go to court to face some things that she had been charged of from her accident back in October. While there, Yvonne had a tremendous experience that boosted her faith in God! She said right before the hearing, she had prayed that God would help her through this trial. Then at the end of the trial, all of the charges were dropped and she was free to go! =) She then accepted a baptismal date for the 24th! Well, that Saturday was Shirley's baptism, and Yvonne ended up coming to that, and then to church the next day! Then we went back on Tuesday to teach her and a miracle happened! We were able to invite Britney, her 12 year old daughter, to listen to the message! At the end of the message, she told us that she really really liked the story of Joseph Smith and that she felt really good while we shared that message with her! She then accepted the 24th as a baptismal date, to be baptized with her mom! =) Well..then on Friday, Shirley called us up and asked us to come over because Yvonne just found out that her friend had died. So we rushed over there and tried our best to comfort her in anyway that we could, but i feel that the most comfort came from the Holy Ghost as we shared true doctrine with her. Her countenance took a dramatic change from the beginning of that lesson, to the end of that lesson, and i feel that she has grown closer to God most from that lesson, out of any of the other ones! Then on Saturday, we came over for our appointment with Yvonne and Britney and taught them both the plan of salvation, which went really, really well! However, we had promised them some pictures from Shirley's baptism, but we forgot them at home, so we told them that we would bring them over later on that day. So later on in the afternoon, we swing by to drop them off, and while we were sitting down, out of nowhere, Yvonne's son Jake comes in and sits down and starts talking to us. (Jake is 14) We were able to teach him with Shirley and Britney there, then towards the end of the lesson, Yvonne comes in after waking up from her nap and is really excited to see Jake listening to us! Jake, too, felt really good as we explained the message and said that he beleived it all! We were able to set a date with him as well, to be baptized with both his sister Britney, and his mom, Yvonne. When Jake accepted that date, Shirley began to cry and was so happy to see her family coming together again! She said that "now there's only one more..Josh is a great kid, but i really worry about him. He's got so much anger built up and he said he didn't want to listen to y'all, but i just know he'll come around." About 30 seconds later, Josh walks out of that room and sits down on the couch next to his mom and his brother, and tells us that he's been listening to us. In fact, everytime we came over, he turned off the TV in his room so that he could hear us, and he really liked what we said. He expressed to us that he was tired of being angry all the time. He really didn't want to yell at his mom. He recognized that he was angry with his Dad, and that he had just been taking his anger out on his mom because that was the only way he could take it out, but he's ready to let go. He then told us, with a big smile on his face, that he wanted to be baptized with his brother and his family on the 24th. =) After we shared the message of the restoration with him, we invited him to pray. He said that he didn't know how to pray, so we taught him and he was willing to do it. I don't think i have ever felt a more sincere prayer in my life. It brought almost everysingle one of us in that room to tears, including Josh. Then i looked over at Shirley, and she looked happier than she did at her own baptism! With tears in her eyes, she expressed how happy she was that her family had all come together like this! She never thought it would be possible! The Spirit was so strong in that room. The next day, all of them came to church and really enjoyed it! Soo..now i'm looking forward to the best Pioneer day ever! =) I am truly grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord. I know the Lord fulfills all of His promises and i know that miracles DO happen! I am humbled by the opporotunity that i had to be a part of this great miracle! Well..we are also having a baptism this Saturday with Tim Libby. Tim is 19 years old and he's the son of a recent convert in our ward. Missionaries have worked with him for a long time, and now he's decided that he wants to get baptized, so we're pretty excited for it!

Well..i'm truly grateful for the love and support that y'all send me! =) I love/miss y'all and hope y'all are doin well!

Elder Johnson

7/19/10

Hey everyone! This week went pretty well. We had a few dissappointments, a few missed appointments, but a few miracles as well, so it works out alright i guess! Morehead City is great! Tim's baptism went really well and it was very exciting to be there and feel the Spirit! His mother is a recent convert, and she was very excited to watch Tim get baptized! I'm also really excited for the baptisms this Saturday! However, we went over for our lesson on Friday and they 14 year old boy expressed to us that he did not want to get baptized yet, because he felt like he wasn't ready and that he would be getting baptized for the wrong reasons, so that broke my heart pretty bad..but, if God be willing, Yvonne, Brittany, and Josh will still be getting baptized this Saturday right before Pioneer Day..so we're very excited about that! Hopefully we'll be able to work with Jake more, and i know that as he continues to feel the Spirit and watch the change that takes place in his family, he'll have a desire again to be baptized! Brittany also brought 2 of her cousins to church yesterday, and they seemed to really enjoy it! So we're way excited for that as well!

We had the chance to go down to an old Civil War fort this past P-Day and take some pretty cool pictures..it was so much fun! There is a lot of rich history here in North Carolina and it's really fun to learn about it all!

Last night, we were able to attend a really great fireside! There was a missionary that served in this ward about 12 years ago, named Elder Johnson! (his initials are JJJ, as well which is really cool!) Well he's at the head of an organization called the "More Good Foundation" and pretty much all he does is try to drown out all of the anti websites out there with postives concerning the church! Well he came and spoke to the members of the ward here and talk all about sharing the gospel by using the internet! He used the scriptures that talk about how in the last days, the gospel shall be "taught from the rooftops", then he pointed out that we've got satelite dishes on top of our roofs that can bring us General Conference, as well as internet access! This organization has been able to do a lot of good! Look at YouTube..4 years ago, when you typed in "mormon", 80% of the results were anti. Now when you perform the same search, almost 90% is positive!! pretty cool! but yeah..y'all should check out the organization's website and learn a little bit more about it..i think its like moregoodfoundation.com or something like that..but yeah..i'm sure y'all can find it!

Well..all is going well here! I love/miss y'all! Take care!

Elder Johnson

1. Tim's Baptism
2. Fort Macon

3. Overview of Fort Macon4. Texas will rise again!

5. Cannon w/Battle ship in the background

6. More of Fort Macon

7/6

Hey everyone! So..just so everyone knows, Shirley's baptism went great!! It was so exciting to see how happy she was! We're also working with her daughter, Yvonne, who is just as amazing as Shirley is! She has a baptismal date for July 24th, so keep her in your prayers! Well..the longer i'm in this ward..the more i'm growing to love it! Dad, you might like this..we have a retired golf pro named Charles Pace who lives in our ward, and him and his wife are amazing! But he says that we can go golfing with him for free on Mondays, so we might have to take him up on that pretty soon! His wife, Sister Pace, is amazing, too! She just cut my hair yesterday and did a really great job with it! =) haha..she's also one of the most missionary minded members i've ever met!

Well..last week went pretty well..we got a lot of work done, that's for sure! Right now we're just trying to do a bunch of finding, because that's what really needs to get done right now. We've been receiving a bunch of help teaching wise from a recent convert in the ward named Anthony Rios. He's a marine and he's actually from Harlingen, TX..which is right next to you Jamie! But he just got deployed for a month yesterday, so we won't be able to use him for a while, so we're going to be using the time finding now!

Well i hope y'all are doing great! I love/miss y'all! Take care!!

Elder Johnson

Shirley's Baptism

Working in the rain

Dolphin Ride

6/28

Hey Fam! Things here in Morehead City are still going really well! We've got a baptism this Saturday with Shirley, which we are way excited about! She came to church yesterday, and really enjoyed it! She says she's never felt more loved at any place on the earth, than at our church! It's very exciting to watch her progress, and she'll be a great member! Well..this past week has been pretty great! We were able to go with a recent convert named Anthony to a really cool pageant that our stake does once a year in a town called "Bath." Bath is actually the oldest town in North Carolina..i even got to take a picture next to the first church building in North Carolina..it's an Episcopal church named "St. Thomas", and we even got to go inside of the building! But the pageant was really neat..it's called "The Promised Land" and it connects the American Revolution with the Restoration and the Book of Mormon stories. It was a really cool pageant and i'm glad i was able to go! I also saw a few members from Garner there as well, so that was really exciting to be able to talk to them! We also had a few miracles this week, just little things that truly testify of the divinity of this work and i'm really glad to be a part of it! Well, i hope everyone is doing great! I miss/love y'all! Take care!

Elder Josh Johnson

The Bass I Caught

Oldest Church in NC

Really Blurry Picture of the Pageant

6/21

Greetings from Morehead City, NC! =) Oh my gosh..it's so gorgeous here, i love it! I'm literally less than a mile from the beach! (just in time for hurricane season, too!) The water here is amazing, the people are friendly, the ward is fantastic, and we've got a lot going on right now! Well i've been having a lot of fun while working hard here in Morehead. My companion's name is Elder Thatcher and he's from St. George, Utah. He's been out for about 6 months now, so i'm the senior companion. He really loves to work out, and we live with members here that have a shed with workout equipment in it..so it's a lot of fun! There's also a pond in their backyard that's great for fishing! I caught a largemouth bass this morning! =) haha..But speaking about fish..(Dad, you'll love this part!) the Big Rock Blue Marlin tournament was here in Morehead this past week, so there were a lot of people there! Well we decided to go contacting there, and while we were there..this boat brought in a Marlin that weighed 460 pounds..which looked like it was really big..but earlier that week..someone brought in a 860 pounder! That broke the tournament record, and it's been goin on for about 50 years now! I really wish i would have been able to see that fish! I'll bet it was huge!! As far as the work goes, we've got a couple of really solid investigators! We're teaching a lady named Shirley right now who is in her 70's, but is probably one of the sweetest ladies i've ever met! She's got a baptismal date for July 10th and is very excited for that date! We've got another appointment with her this Wednesday night, as well as with her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend who just recently became investigators as well! =) I'm very excited to be here and i'm looking forward to working with this great ward!

So..just before i got here, tragedy struck the ward. The Sister Holmes in our ward is the daughter of our Bishop, Bishop Reese. Well on Tuesday morning, all of the Holmes kids were at the Reese's home while Brother and Sister Reese were going to be gone all day. Well while they were gone, their 2 year old son fell into the pool and drowned. It was really rough on a lot of the members of the ward here, and especially the Reese and Holmes families. The funeral for little Danny was yesterday after church, and it was a great blessing to have had the presence of the Spirit there in such great abundance. I feel that the Spirit was the strongest when at Danny's graveside, we all sang "Families Can Be Together Forever"..and then just the family sang "Love At Home" which was tradition to sing in their family at the end of every single one of their family home evenings. Now, i don't know the Reese family or the Holmes family that well, however after just meeting them twice, i truly have grown to love them as if they were literally part of my family, and i think that is just another testimony on how true this gospel is. Where else besides the Lord's work are you going to see such friendship and such brotherly love during such times of trial and heartache. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true, and i am eternally grateful for the opporotunity that i have to live together with my family for forever one day! =) Well i miss/love y'all! I hope y'all are doing well!

Love

Elder Johnson

My fish!

Elder Thatcher and me!

460 pound Blue Marlin!

Atlantic Beach!

The Ocean

I never realized how much i missed swimming before..

Elder Thatcher and I on the dock

Hill Family

6/14

Well..this is my last e-mail from Garner, i get transfered tomorrow. =( It was really hard saying goodbye to the members yesterday, i grew really attached to them over these past 8 months! I'm going to miss Garner a lot, but i'm looking forward to serving in my next area, as well and having more great experiences like the ones that i've had here in Garner. So, i found out that i'm getting released from District Leader, which i guess is pretty bitter sweet. I loved being able to serve with, learn from, and get to know my district very well as District Leader. It was a lot of fun! On the flipside though..i've been planning District Meetings almost every week for 11 months now, and a little break might be refreshing! However, President Cotterell said that my days as a leader are nowhere near being finished, so i'll probably be back to being a District Leader sooner or later, which will be fun again! =) Well, not much to report on this week. We had an investigator named Eric Banks that came to church yesterday, unfortunately he might be shipping back into the military in a couple of weeks. =( bummer..

Well i love/miss y'all! I hope y'all are doing well..i really hate packing by the way..it's the worst! I've got so much stuff now, that i don't even know where to begin! It'll be a miracle if i can get all packed by tomorrow! Take care y'all!

Elder Johnson

Anderson Family
Bailey FamilyHeaberlin Family
Holmes FamilyNewbry Family
Quiller FamilyRiggleman Family
Sister Lugo
Sister WilliamsDistrict 2
Garner District

6/7

I have a testimony of latter day prophets. =) Our meeting with Elder David A. Bednar was truly a once in a lifetime experience. It was a 4 hour, question and answer session, where he would ask us questions, and we would answer them. Then we were able to ask him questions, and he answered them. I am absolutely amazed with how profoundly, how swiftly, he answered and responed to each question. I'm amazed at the questions that he asked us. I am humbled by an experience that i was priveleged to have during this meeting. Just the day before, we met with an investigator named Eric Heyberlin, who is married to a member. He accepts Joseph Smith as a prophet, he accepts the Book of Mormon as scripture, he does not however accept the way that we call prophets now, and honestly i didn't know too much about how we call prophets now except for the senior apostle always takes over, so i didn't know exactly what to tell him. Then when Elder Bednar was introducing the question session, he gave an example of a bad question to ask him, than he gave an example of a good question to ask him. The bad example was asking him where the sword of laban was..haha..But then for the example of a good question, he "just so happened" to use the example of asking him how prophets are called today! He did not answer that question immediately, but i knew that it was inspired. So i raised my hand and asked him that question, and as he looked me in the eye, and explained to me this God inspired process of the selection of the next prophet, i felt the Spirit probably stronger than i've ever felt it before, as i sat there and held a brief conversation with an apostle of the Lord. I know, and i witness that there truly are apostles and prophets of God that walk the earth. I know that President Monson has truly been called on by God. I just hope that one day, i'll be able to have another experience like this some other time in my life!

Well i'm really grateful to be out here on my mission! Elder Wilding is doing great, he's got a great spirit! He reminds me of the greenie on "the best two years" haha..(i just hope i'm not as trunky as his trainer was!) Oh yeah..i found out that i'm getting transfered next tuesday! =( It's sad..i'm going to miss garner. Well i love/miss y'all!

Elder Johnson