Gladys Knight

Well this was quite the week! We have been making some good progress with our investigators, mainly David and the Hernandez family. Anthony leaves for Kentucky sadly, so wish him luck out there! We are working to get him in contact with the missionaries as soon as possible with his brother Brandon. The rest of the family is doing well. We were not able to teach them as much this week due to events that happened on the days we normally teach them, but we were able to meet Alicia's mom who's here from Mexico! That was an awesome experience since Alicia had the chance to tell her mom about the restoration and what it means. We are working to help her to have a good testimony of these things. She said she is going to try and come at least to sacrament now, and go to the flea market late so that she can come out to church. AWESOME! We are so excited to get her and the daughters out to church! Keep praying for them! Help them to maintain real intent through the hard times!

We had a great lesson with David about the word of wisdom, and he's working to take it on! Boy can this one be a hard one, but he's truly expressed sincere desires that he wants to change.

One awesome thing that we got to do this week was go to the Temple! I am so grateful for the Temple! The Temple truly is the house of God, and the spirit is so strong there. I went to the temple with a focus on the restoration of the Gospel. I have been focusing on gaining a stonger testimony of each principle of the Gospel, especially the principles we teach, and I wanted to know even stronger about the truthfulness of the Restoration. Could you imagine that someone would be able to come up with a work that brings the spirit as much as in the temple without revelation? I could not in one bit as I sat in the temple.

The other awesome thing that happened this week was that we watched Gladys Knight perform live! :D Well what she did was direct a grammy award winning gospel choir, of very few black singers, as they sang songs of praise and testimony. The history of the restoration was shared in a very informative way, and then Gladys Knight bore a very strong and powerful testimony in such a natural and normal way. She talked exactly like they do in a baptist church, but speaking the gospel. And the whole audience amen'd to all the simple truths that she shared, and invited to learn more. The gospel truly takes EVERY culture, and combines it into the family of God. There was no doubt about that as you sat among every culture you could imagine in that room.

I wish I could remember everything that she said so I could relay it on to all y'all. But no matter what we do in this life, we MUST remember that we are ALL brothers and sisters.

I love you all so much! Have an excellent week!

Élder Johnson

Some random pics...

Greatest "donk" ever! They are all over the place here!

A Henderson Mexican Restaurant

La Pascua!

Well what a week this has been! The work here in Henderson is continually growing! It is crazy to think about the effects of putting all the small and simple actions together. It all adds up to amazing miracles!
This week was super great because we made some really good progress to clear out some of our not really interested investigators, and focus in on our elect investigators. One new investigator that we have just recently started teaching is named David. David has lived in Henderson all of his life and has worked at a factory for about 18 years. He lives with a less active member Nicasio that we just contacted a few weeks ago! We have had some pretty great lessons with him and we have really been able to talk to him about some of the questions of his soul. He really wants to be baptized and we are working towards the 31st of May! He is american, but speaks spanish. We are super excited to work with him and help him to overcome his struggles! He'll need a lot of prayers to give him the strength to stop drinking!

We found another great family this week as well! Antonio and Kaitlyn are so great! Antonio is catholic and Kaitlyn is christian. She is american and he's from mexico. She speaks spanish though. So many people are like that here! :D When we taught them the first time she had some awesome questions! We taught the restoration, and then right at the end we talked about the three degrees of glory and she said "Thank You!" She was soo excited that there was a church that believed the same way that she had felt her whole life! She accepted baptism the first lesson!

The Hernandez Family is doing really well! The oldest daughter Eliza accepted a baptismal date as well for the 17th of May! We are still working to get them at church instead of the flea market however. :) Anthony has been progressing so well! Sadly it looks like we will be passing him off to missionaries in Kentucky like we did with his brother Brandon. But we know that he will continue to progress there. Especially as he is with Brandon who is super elect.

I am so blessed to be here as a missionary! I have been realizing that more and more. Truly I would not wish to be anywhere else in the world! Where else can you tell everyone God Bless and they will happily shout it back? It is great!

I feel that I have truly been learning about how important the work that we do is. As I have continued studying chapter 2 in preach my gospel, and studying the book of mormon with a strong focus on the attributes of Christ, I have learned more how important it is that we actively seek to be that person! We must make a "rock hard decision" to be a disciple of Christ! Make that decision! Become who the Lord needs you to be! :D

I love you all so much!

Élder Johnson

Awesome week

This week was an awesome week! We had about one of most fun conferences ever! We had what we call our April fun activity zone conference. We did 3 hours of instruction and then 3 hours of playing games! Our mission has grown quite a bit so we were pretty packed on our fields, but we had a blast! It was combined with the Raleigh, Apex, and Durham zones so I was able to see just about all the missionaries that I know here! Elder Sullivan my trainer is "Dying" in a few weeks, so it was fun to get to see him. Though, that was pretty much our whole day, since it takes an hour to get to zone meetings haha. The joys of living in Henderson!

But the true joy of living in Henderson is that we are having some great success! Anthony is still going super strong! We reviewed the baptismal questions with him and he is doing great! He will be getting baptized on the 26th so his family can come. Then what we are doing on that Sunday night is going to a performance of song and testimony by Gladys Knight and her Saints United Voices choir! Alicia, Sonya, Cynthia, and Anthony should all be there! It is going to be an amazing experience! One person in our ward has invited 44 non-members!

This week we were able to set the 17th of May for Alicia, Sonya, and Cynthia! It was so good since earlier they have been a little more hesitant to do so! Pray pray pray that Alicia can find a different job as she tries to come to church!

Another couple we have been working with for the whole time that I have been here is Pedro and Angela. They are slowly progressing and I realized that we simply have not been praying for them enough to be able to know how to move forward with them. Please pray for them :)

One of the greatest things that I learned this week from my different studies is that we truly need to have pure integrity before God. As we strive to have integrity and to be completely true to the covenants that we have made, we change who we are! Without that integrity we don't learn how to incorporate into our very nature the commandments of God. I love the commandments of God, and especially the commandments that he gives to each one of us personally through the spirit!

It is gorgeous over here in North Carolina as the spring rolls in! And the work is continuing on with great joy! I hope that this week goes well for each one of you! Have a great week!

Suerte!

Les quiero
Elder Johnson

¡Conferencia!

What a conference! I truly have to say that the most amazing part of conference this year was that Alicia, Sonya, and Cynthia came!!! That was probably the biggest step that they could have taken in these days! Ah how good that felt. I was standing anxiously at the door of the chapel waiting for them haha. The first two sessions I watched in Spanish, and I could understand about 85% of it! It was great! But boy does Elder Holland use some crazy hard words. I am excited to come back to them all in the upcoming six months.
Before I forget I wanted to do something with yall. I am sooo grateful for all of the letters that I receive from yall and whether you have written me, or you just read my blog, I would love to implement what was said in conference. If you can please send me what you are learning in your scripture study and your study of Preach My Gospel! :D I may be a full time missionary, but I have to work with members just like all yall! Feel free to share what you learn through email, posting on facebook, and commenting on my blog beblessedandhappy.blogspot.com.

Thank you so much for all the support! The work moves forward, and I am so grateful for the opportunity we have each day to stand up boldly as representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I love the Lord! This is his church! People may say that religion doesn't matter, but I testify that the lord has clearly stated otherwise!

Thank you to everyone who sent me something for my birthday! I got the packages at a meeting so I just got it this last week. I hope to be able to respond in good timing to each one of you!

Probably one of the key things that I learned this conference is the importance of the family. I sadly didn't bring my notes with me today, but I'll bring them from now on haha. But I remember someone saying to us to not forget the experiences that we have in the Temple. Those experiences are so sacred and so key to understanding the joy of the gospel. I know that I can have an eternal family! :D
The part that really hit me though was that our family does not mean grandparents, dad and mom, siblings, kids, grandkids. We were invited to learn the conversion of our parents, grandparents, and even our ancestors. Hold true to the faith that our [Family] has cherished. We are a covenant people! If we are bound by the Abrahamic covenant, then our family ties to our ancestors should be just as strong.

I'm running out of time to respond to yall haha, so have a great week and love life and be grateful for it! :D

Les Quiero!

Élder Johnson