Missionary Broadcast!!

Well I guess if the subject of this letter is the World Wide Broadcast, I better start out by saying that it was amazing!!! Obviously we were a little bummed that the prophet wasn't there, but oh well. Elder Holland and Elder Bednar were!! You can never go wrong with that! The work is so amazing! I am so grateful to be a part of it!

This last Tuesday, the 25th, we had a devotional with Janice Kapp Perry. Wow. That was awesome! There were two aspects of it that made it awesome. 1, she and her husband are hilarious! oh it was so much fun. 2, we sang, and learned about the incredible power of music. I am so excited for the role that music is going to play in my mission, and in my family after my mission.

Something cool we found out this week is that our district gets the opportunity to CLEAN the temple!!! It's closing, but we still get to go in! I am sooo excited for that! I love the temple! I did my last session this morning for probably a few months. So I am super excited to go in again to clean. They said to bring sneakers, and they are going to provide white work clothes. So yeah! How often to you get to say you cleaned the temple at the MTC!

So when I get out in the field, I know I'll have so much more to talk about. So far the days feel pretty much the same haha. But they most definitely aren't. Every single day I feel an added measure to my testimony. It truly is a sanctifying work. I love it. It can be so hard, but it will always be exactly what I need. I know that I am here right now, in my district, for a very specific reason. That's how God works. He puts us where he needs us. We just have to figure out what he needs from us. The answer to that is always the same. Our will. The desire to follow the spirit, courageously.

Missionaries are some of the wisest people on the earth, because they are the most obedient. That definitely is true. I see so many wise people here. It's such an interesting phenomena to see someone who's been here three weeks longer than me, but they seem so much older and wiser. And that just continues to grow. I am so excited to do all I can to follow God's will. That takes so much practice and time though. It is frustrating at times. But God loves us through it all. His grace is sufficient. We will do it!

I love you all! Thank you so much for your support, friends and family! The work can't be done alone! :) Have a wonderful week!

Elder Johnson

Two weeks down!

Well two weeks have flown by! And I only have a little more than 3 1/2 weeks left! Oh that feels good! The MTC is amazing! And there are so many missionaries here! Though my companion and I have a six person room to ourselves, as well as the room next to us. And there are still six empty rooms in a hall. So it also feels really empty! Probably the most exciting thing about the MTC right now is that we are going to be here when the 1st presidency and the whole quorum of the twelve will be here!!! We get to sing to the prophet!!!! There is going to be about a 2500 person choir made up of 1300 missionaries and 1200 members. I am so excited!! So watch for me and my district! I'll be sitting next to elder Glazier because I'm doing tenor and Elder Padilla is doing Bass. So yeah. Watch! But most of all, listen to the coolest broadcast that there ever will have been! The MTC is shutting down, like everything is changing really soon for a little while, because the prophet and several of the twelve will be here teaching the new mission presidents. It is so crazy! Our schedule on sunday is so wacked out!

Well. Thank you so much Andre and all ya'll for the sweet package! I'll tell you all more specifically, but thanks! If you could all send me your addresses, that would make the letter process so much easier.

So this week went so much faster than last week. Everyone getting ready to go to the MTC, it is so amazing! Just work like you do, and let the lord direct you how he will. He may completely change your view of what is important. I know that he has changed me and how I work. The MTC is a refining fire for us to become the kind of missionary God wills.

Well I really don't know what else to say! I love every single one of you! I definitely feel the support that comes from your prayers. We all pray for you (our families) every day as well! We love you so much! Brother Doman, Annie Doman's Dad, is a councilor in my branch, and one thing he and his wife talk about every time is how sacred the role of being a father is. And how sacred this time is as a missionary to turn your might, mind, and strength to the lord. Missions create fathers who will listen to the spirit and to their children. Brother Steven C. Gay in the devotional on tuesday in the marriot center (2nd time in the world! 1st time was last week if I failed to mention that..:D) talked about how our first responsibility is to listen to the spirit, and then it is to listen to our investigators. That is such a true principle. I saw it in the temple this morning as well. I can't wait for the time to spend with the people in North Carolina. I love them!

I know this church is true! I know that this is the lord's work, NOT mine. My work is to do His work. I love chapter 6 in PMG. That is the model for our lives. I know that we can receive strength daily from the atonement of Jesus Christ. He is our savior and he is our brother. Our father in heaven is there for us. I cannot wait for the time I can be greeted into his kingdom. I know that I will know him when I see him. I love you all!

Elder Johnson

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Some picture of the missionaries in my district...

Elders Glazier, Padilla, Kenely (on the way to the temple)

 Hermanas Hendry, Malmrose, Wright, Cardon, Tui'one

 Elder Padilla and I

First Week!!

Well, this was my first week at the MTC!! I arrived with about 950 other missionaries! The largest group to ever enter the MTC. :D The MTC is so amazing!! And I was definitely not prepared for it haha! I came here ready to feel like I was out in the field! That is not what the MTC is haha! It is so vigorous here! But I love it! Honestly it doesn't feel much different than High School as far as the classes go. But the thing that changes the feeling of the classroom and the learning of the language, is completely based on faith. There is such a strong spirit of faith here. We all have the choice to tap into that spirit though. So many go through the MTC and learn a ton! That is awesome! The most successful missionaries here though, are becoming. They have become a learner. Not just a student. The spirit has the power to enlarge your mind and your understanding. I have definitely seen that with the language! I already loved the language, but now it is soo exciting to be able to learn through the spirit and feel completely able with any part of the language that I need to be learning. That spirit though only comes by pleasing the lord. We can never just take that spirit for granted. The spirit here is so strong, because we are exercising our faith on the smallest things in our day. It is so amazing.

Clint: real quick, what is your room number?? I want to stop by some time and leave a note! :D I am in room 217 in 9m for class, so.... yeah haha.

Family and friends I love you! I pray for you all and I feel your support every day. It is such a blessing to have such amazing friends and family! Mom I am sooo glad for the collection of pictures. They make me sooo happy :D

Oh yeah! my companion's name is Elder Padilla. He's like 6'1" and is super strong. He is such a gentle person though, and it is awesome! We have gotten along really well so far and have been learning great things about missionary work. I'm going to try and attach some pictures of us and our district, so hopefully you can see him. We have a huge district. There are 6 elders and 6 sisters. I love them all! They're so great! I am so grateful to have been assigned as their district leader for the first three weeks. Like I said, well maybe I didn't haha, but we get working and leading right off the bat here. It's awesome! Our zone leaders are awesome! Elder Heyen and Elder Harper are stalwart! I am the youngest of us all! :D I am running out of time, but I love you all! I am doing super well and can't wait to hear from you all!

Yo sé que el evangelio es verdad! El profeta nos ama! Yo sé eso! Nadie puede decir que no es cierto.

Les amo mucho! Todos! Hasta el próximo semana! :D

The Mission Has Begun!

On Wed June 5th, we dropped Brian off at the MTC! His mission has begun! He was ready. The last month has really been a whirlwind! In a very short period of time we... helped get Brian done with school, got everything bought that he needed, Brian received the Melchizidek Priesthood, gave his farewell talk, graduated from High School, got his room and belongings packed up, got set apart as a missionary, and did a lot of last minute things. And a good portion of that list happened between graduation on Thursday May 30th and the following Wednesday morning, June 5th! Less than a week. Brian and Marcia did a phenomenal job to accomplish all that. We weren't even very rushed on the day he went into the MTC. We had enough time to have some time together as a family that morning and then go get some pizza at Pizza Pie Café before taking him to the MTC and doing the now famous missionary curb drop off. Very bitter sweet moment for us all.

I will now be posting Brian's letters that he sends to us each week throughout his mission. We very much look forward to hearing about his experiences as a missionary and have every confidence that he will be a fantastic missionary.

Lane

The Call

I will come back and add a blurb about Brian receiving his call. And I will post a video as well. Come back to see this soon.

Lane