12/28

Hey everyone!! How was y'alls Christmas!? It was great being able to talk to everyone! I think the thing i missed the most was not being able to make Jared and Jake look bad on the football field..oh well..but that's okay kuz they would have made me look horrible in whiffle ball! ;) Well teaching wise, this week was pretty slow..pretty much all of our investigators have asked us to come back after the holidays! haha..but yeah..we were still able to bake some cookies for some people and we got some really good feedback..so that was pretty exciting! The ward here is amazing! they keep giving us lots of food and candy! i'm probably gonna weigh more than Justin by the time i get out of this area! ;) haha..jk. The Hills are still doin great, and so is Chris Williams! We're sstill looking forward to continuing to teach them! Well i love y'all and miss y'all so much!
Elder Johnson

12/21 Merry Christmas Y'all!! =)

Hey everyone!! How's it goin!? Soo this past week has been pretty amazing! First we had our x-mas zone conference in knightdale and that was an amazing experience!! We learned a lot and the Spirit was way strong!! Then on Thursday, we got to wake up early in the morning and teach the seminary class!! haha..that was so much fun! The lesson was on Alma chapters 1 and 2..so i taught chapter 1 and Elder Tibbitts taught chapter 2..I really enjoyed teaching chapter 1 because it was all about Nehor and the evils of priestcraft haha..We discussed why his doctrine spread so fast and why it was VERY wrong! haha..we also discussed the differences between Nehor's church and Christ's church and about how we see all the same stuff today! haha..But yeah..after the lesson we left about 10 minutes time for questions and we had a really great discussion on the importance of missions and how amazing they are! =) i had a lot of fun! haha..so then on friday..it snowed!! haha..for a grand total of about 15 minutes..which was lame..it was like God was teasing me..haha..i wanted snow SO bad!! oh well..there's still time left in winter! =) Then on Saturday..we tracted into a lady named Debbie who lived all by herself. She was way lonely and she said the only people that she ever talks to are her parents. She had no friends and was so desperate to talk to someone that she went inside real fast and got all bundled up so that she could come outside and listen to us teach her. While teaching her, we found out some major concerns of her..she felt like God is there and that she wants Him to help her, but she didn't feel worthy of His help and she felt like He didn't want to help her..So we shared some powerful truths about the love of God and focused on that for the rest of the lesson..which brought her to tears..it was a WAY spiritual lesson! Then on Sunday we had an investigator named Chis Williams at church! Chris is the man! He already has a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon and he wants to get baptised really bad! so hopefully we'll be setting a date with him soon!

Soo..our district is doing AMAZING!! Every single companionship in my district has 2 baptismal dates..except for the zone leaders..they only have 1..haha..but yeah..the Lord is definitely blessing us big time in this month of December and we're seeing a TON of miracles!!

Well i love y'all and i'm looking forward to talking to y'all on Friday!! Merry Christmas!! hope y'all are doin well!

Love Elder Johnson

Our X-mas Tree! =)

Snow!

12/14

Hey everyone! Exciting news! The Hills accepted a baptismal date! WOO!! =D they're date is for Jan 30th!! We're way excited! They're doin so well and learning so much! So they brought up the word of wisdom before we taught it because they drink a lot of coffee and tea and they had heard that we can't do that..but then Jessica said quote "it really all comes down to do i want the Holy Ghost..or do i want coffee..and the answer to that is very obvious!" it was amazing! It's so great to see how prepared they have been by the Lord and i'm really looking forward to helping them get baptised and make it to the Temple! We also had a few other miracles this week while finding people, and we now have a "right good amount" of solid investigators! =) only problem is that a lot of them are hard to get to because they live so far away..haha..oh well..we're just way excited to be here and we're definitely being blessed in our efforts and the Lord is consecrating our sacrifices! =) Soo..the Hills gave us a christmas tree and we decorated it and it looks REALLY nice! haha..the top of the tree is the best part! The tree was too big for our apartment, so we just took the top off and instead of having a star on top..we've got a UNC hat!! =) haha..well hey..i'm looking forward to being able to talk to y'all on x-mas! Love y'all and i miss y'all! Take care!

Elder Johnson

Raleigh Temple!
Johnson St.
Top of our tree!

12/7

Soo..i love being in "The Triangle" the triangle pretty much consists of the area within the perimiter of the cities chapel hill, raleigh, and durham. There are so many people here and its a lot more fun to do missionary work because there's always people to contact and doors to knock! We went to the christmas parade the other day and were able to contact a ton of people! we even got to see Santa!! =D

but yeah..the Hills came to church yesterday! They even came to the chilli cookoff the night before and they brought chilli! I was a judge and i was trying to figure out which chilli was their so that i could choose it..but i couldn't figure out which one it was. =( haha..
But we also had a girl named Lee at church too. Her parents are way less active members and we've been trying to get them to church..but finally lee's mom was able to bring her to church yesterday! but yeah..lee usually won't be able to come to church because every 2 weeks, she's with her real father in Clayton, then on the 3rd week she's with her mother in garner..so it's kinda hard to help her progress..

well i can't wait for christmas!! i'm way excited for it! Well i love y'all and hope y'all are doin well! I heard it snowed in Houston! i'm kind've bummed i missed it!! they said we were supposed to have "frozen percipitation" last Saturday..but of course it didn't happen. =( well can't wait to talk to y'all on x-mas!

love Elder J

11/30

Happy late Thanksgiving! hope y'alls went well! mine did! The ward here is great and they are very friendly! soo..our investigators Eddie and Jessica Hill came to church again! They absolutely loved it! in fact, they even told us that all their kids have been talking about the past week was wanting to go back to church! The ward has also been doing an amazing job of fellowshipping them and making them feel comfortable! We should be setting a baptismal date with them this week, so i'm way excited for that! =) So things are going pretty well with me..i'm still trying to learn the area, but i guess i'm doing pretty well so far. So i love the car we get to drive in this area! We get to drive an '09 chevy malibu! =) they're pretty sweet! But yeah..the work in this area is still pretty slow..it's only been open for 8 weeks now so there's a ton of work to do, so i'm way excited to be here kuz i love working hard! =)

Well i love y'all so much!
Elder Johnson

Sister Jeffers & her grandchildren! (Michael Jordan's aunt)

Me and JJ!

Victor, me, and Peter

My Thanksgiving Turkey! =)

11/23

Greetings from Garner, NC!!

I am now in Garner, which is pretty much south of Raleigh! It's pretty exciting to be here in the city and I'm excited for my new district! Except I have sisters in my district now and I've never been in charge of sisters..haha..yeah it's a little awkward..but they're amazing missionaries! But yeah..Garner is so amazing! My new companion is named Elder Tibbits, and I'm actually follow up training him! He's only been out for one transfer and he's pretty amazing! We've been working hard this past week and we are having a really great time together! He's from a very small town named Panaca..it's somewhere in Nevada near the Utah border..but yeah..I'm way excited for this transfer! We're going to see so many great things!

This past week we were able to teach a couple named Eddie and Jessica Hill. It was amazing to see how they had been prepared for our message and for our church, so we invited them to come to church and they came with both of their kids! They had a really great experience, the members were great with the fellowshipping and Eddie is going to be coming to the turkey bowl this Thursday! But yeah..there's a lot going on here in Garner and I'm excited to be a part of it!

Soo..I've been thinking about winning the lottery so that I can go to the BUY Jeruselem Center! =) haha..that would be SO amazing..just even for a transfer..but it would also be WAY expensive..even for just a transfer..haha.. Well I'm excited for this upcoming week and being able to work with the Hills and some other golden investigators!

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

11/16

Soo..I've got some bad news..I'm getting transfered =( I'm kind've bummed about it kuz I've really grown to love this place so much! It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone yesterday, I'm gonna miss them! So other than that, this past week went okay..I got to go to the temple, which was pretty sweet! I really enjoyed that! I also got to go on an exchange with the Zone Leaders, and I ended up being with my trainer Elder Condie over in Iilmington..it was so amazing seeing how much we've both grown since we split up! We taught one of the most spiritual lessons that we've ever taught together on that exchange! It was so awesome! Soo..I just found out that missionaries are gonna be allowed to play in turkey bowls, which is way exciting! =) The only bad news is that we aren't allowed to wear cleats =( so I am kinda bummed about that..but hey..at least I get to play football! =)

So..even though I'm getting transfered..I am kind've excited about meeting my new district! I get to be a district leader somewhere else, which means I get to work with a whole new set of missionaries, which will be way sweet! I'm looking forward to it!

Well I love y'all and hope y'all are doing great!

Elder Johnson

The Cavenaughs!

My Wallace district

Wallace Train Station

Hampstead Waterway

Sun Shot! (me & Elder Bentley)