Elder Joshua Johnson: 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!