Milagros!

This was a great week! This week Elder Foote and I have been working really hard to try to find new investigators since we have just a few, and they aren't progressing very fast. And while I was on exchanges in Hampstead Elder Foote found 5 new investigators! :D We have some great potential for this upcoming week and we are looking forward to teaching people about the Gospel!

This week I had a meeting as well with the leadership in the mission. It was a 200 mile round trip! So we ended up doing a lot of sitting. But the meeting was great! I am soo grateful for the leadership that we have in the mission. I was privileged to instruct at the meeting with Elder Tingey about "finding nets" or in other words methods of finding, and using them effectively. Boy was I nervous and I felt like I was the least of them to teach it, but it went well! I have come to love the missionaries here in the NCRM. They are the greatest. 

I have come to realize that what people say about the south is generally true. It really does move at a slower pace. And things really don't change very quickly. And it definitely smells of animals. Pigs and chickens all the time!

The culture is different but the gospel still applies to them. It is amazing! We all go through the same process of life and needing the Lord. I am so grateful for the Gospel and that we can become different people because of it. A peculiar people, and a joyful people. 

One of the highlights that we have here in Wallace is Bill Buckley. He is 92 and one of my favorite persons ever. He is a slow going investigator, and eventually we may have to discontinue him, but he is one of our greatest joys. To him we are his grandsons. And he is one of the funniest people I've met! 

I am so grateful for the tender mercies of the Lord that he sends us each day and each week.

I hope that yall have an amazing week!

Elder Johnson

Breath it in!

Well this week I learned just how great the country smells. It smells greatly of pigs and chicken! And boy can it get pretty smelly! Thank goodness it's not always that way. But when you're driving down the country road enjoying the smell of the air and then you get hit by a pig farm, the smell just doesn't leave your nose. Gotta love the country! :D

But seriously I do love the country! The people out here are great! We had stake conference yesterday in Wilmington which is a beach city, and it hardly changed a thing. I saw some of the biggest beards I've ever seen, and heard some of the greatest accents! The highlight of Stake Conference though was that we were able to get one of our less actives there, and before we left to go back home we got him to say a prayer for us! He has not prayed for us the whole time talking to him. And he's proud of it haha. But a member invited him to pray and he laughed, but did it! 

The investigator that we are teaching right now is named Yuni. She has been taught for a long time by missionaries and is struggling to understand why she needs to be baptized again. They live out of the branch boundaries so it's a bit of a drive. But since they are spanish speakers we go and teach them. 

One of the big highlights of the week was that we were able to make a few great contacts. In the country it's harder to talk to everyone when they are spread out and at work. So we were super excited to talk to them! We have a potential family to teach that has been taught some of the lessons before, and there are at least 11 people in the home. We are praying to be able to teach them!

One thing that I have been loving this past week has been our studies! I have had some great studies on prayer and how we must exercise our faith as we pray. Take the time this week to analize your prayers! Preach My Gosple by the way has a great way to do that in chapter 5 :)

Prayer is such an essential thing in our life, and the more connected we feel to our Father the more we progress in our lives.

I love yall so much! Congratulations Catherine!!!! :D 

Elder Johnson

Wallace!

Well my new area is the amazing area in the Wallace branch in the Wilmington zone and stake! I thought I have been living in the south, but boy was I wrong. I have met more rednecks here than I ever met up in Henderson. It is absolutely incredible how much the culture and the accent changed going three hours south. But so far this area is amazing. We are in a small English branch with two sets of Spanish missionaries. Sisters and Elders. We both do English and Spanish work. Though we most definitely like doing Spanish work more. :D The main thing that we are focusing on at this point though here in this area is working with the part member families and the less actives. There are a lot of them, and it is what brings the most success. I have met some of the craziest people here! One of the members here has lived the craziest life. It includes being a navy seal, being shot and floating 28 miles and having amnesia for three weeks, having his bachelors degree at age 17, and living by himself in an abandoned car in the forest in Maine for a full year as a twelve year old, while going to school. 

Probably the greatest person that I met this week though was Elder Foote! (sounds like foot) He is awesome! I am following up on his training that he got from an elder named Elder Mora, who is amazing. So he was trained really well and has a burning desire to do missionary work. We get along really well and have had such a fun time this last week. We forgot our camera's at home, so hopefully we'll be able to get back to the computer to send a picture. He is from Carlsbad California! And he reminds me a lot of Brigham. It's pretty great. His Spanish is doing really great for being in a Spanish/English area. 

We have a hilarious investigator named Bill Buckley. He calls himself Wild Bill Buckley. He is 92! Holy cow! Santa Vaca! And he is soo fit. He climbs up a ladder and gets on the roof of his shed to fix the roof! We have to talk really loud and slow, but his memory is great. He absolutely loves the missionaries. We are slowly working with him to understand the Book of Mormon and especially the doctrine of Alma 34:32. I hope to get pictures of him to yall in the future.

A family that the sisters and we are working with is the Allegood family. It is a great team effort. They have set a marriage and baptismal date for Julie and the kids, since Brother Allegood is a member already. I don't know much more since I've not met them very well yet, but keep them in your prayers!

My scripture though of the week is Alma 7:23-24. "And now I would that ye should be humble, and be submissiveand gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.
And see that ye have faith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works."

Seek diligently to do these things!

I love yall a ton!

Elder Johnson

¡Despedidos!

My last week here in Henderson! Woah! I've been here for so long and sometimes I forget that we even get moved around as Missionaries! But it's always good to have a bit of change. It really gives you an opportunity to step up your dedication. Start fresh. And that's what I am really excited to do this coming week!

Probably the weirdest part about this past week though is the fact that I have been doing specific studies for a meeting that I have never lead before! And I have no idea who is going to be there! Now isn't that like trying to plan a lesson for an investigator you have never met at all. But I am super excited! 

This last week in Henderson we've had a great week. We have taught Marisol several times, and due to simple coordination with the ward and the members the baptism will actually be on the 27th. We're bummed to have to push it back so much, but it's alright. Jorge's date is for the 27th as well, so we're hoping for a great day that day! The amazing thing about this week was that we were able to teach Marisol in a members home! Marisol really clicked with a member that is here from Chile for a year teaching spanish at an elementary school. Her name is Rosa. They are really great friends now! On sundaythey both made dinner for the Elders and then we had a lesson afterwards. It was fantastic! The weird thing is that Rosa lives in the same complex that we do, so we didn't have to go far. 

We had another great lesson with Eloi and Minerva this week that made me super sad to leave! They are so great! But we'll see in a few months how they are doing. 

So I don't have my planner from last transfer with me right now so I can't remember anything else that we did! Basically we have been busy preparing the apartment and the areabook and whatever else needed for the next companion to be here and to know how to get around. I've been driving here for seven months, so I don't really have a problem going places. But without a GPS, boy is it difficult to get around. Thank goodness that I got one off of a dead missionary! :D (Missionary jargon)

One thing that I have been learning a lot about this last week is how real the Gospel is. It is simple. And it is how we must live our life. Alma the younger in Alma 5 begins to preach to both the church and the nonmembers. This is because the church has begun to get prideful and have begun to forget the Lord. He begins by referring to his father Alma the older and how he established the church by his faith on the words of Abinadi. They later are put into bondage and then he states that the Lord frees them by his word. He tells them that they were surrounded by an everlasting destruction, yet they were not destroyed. That is what the gospel is about. Literally saving us from our carnal nature to become as our heavenly father.

Verse 13 says, "And behold, he preached the word unto your fathers, and a mighty change was also wrought in their hearts, and they humbled themselves and put their trust in the true and living God. And behold, they were faithful until the end; therefore they were saved."

The gospel is truly about putting our trust and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, all things are possible, and we can have a perfect brightness of hope!

I love yall so much! Fill your life with the light of the Gospel! The light's already on, you just have to open the shutters!

Con cariño,

Elder Johnson

Milagros!!

This week was a fantastic week! Things are progressing so well here in Henderson. Marisol set a baptismal date for the 20th! :D I am soooooo sad that I won't be able to be there for it. But I am sooo happy that she is ready! I at least get the chance to teach her this last week two more times with Elder Rose to help her be prepared. We just have a few things to cover and then she's ready. And that's simply because of the fact that we teach a complete lesson 5 to all investigators before baptism now. 

We found 6 new investigators last week and three yesterday! What a miracle! And all of them are fantastic! Those include two families! :D I love teaching families! If you remember the Hernandez family, the daughter Cynthia is best friends with Alondra, the daughter of our new investigators. We are soo excited to teach them. They have really understood the lessons well so far. Their names are Eloi, Minerva, and Alondra. There's also Henry and Larry. 

The other family is Neta (said neeta), Victor, Jennie, and Selina. They have been potentials for a long time now, but Neta got sick and we've not been able to teach them. She has been reading off and on though since we first taught them, and they are all really excited to learn. Especially Neta and her daughter Jennie.

Our lessons with Jorge went really well this week. The first one was actually pretty funny. And since I'm terrible at including funny stories I'll give it a whirl today haha.

We got to Jorge's and knocked on the door and one of his roommates answered the door. His roommates are always, always drinking and smoking. Which usually they are pretty out of it and just stare at us when we knock on the door. Then we ask if Jorge is there and they without response turn around and walk away. Somehow the message gets relayed to Jorge and he comes to the door. But this time there were more people and they were getting noisy. The first thing that Martín does (the roommate) is invites us in and starts asking us why the devil doesn't speak English. We were soooo confused! He and his friend in their drunk state were hilarious! We sat and bluntly answered their questions to satisfy them while we waited for Jorge. Basically they said they had been talking to the devil and he refused to speak English with them. It most definitely got uncomfortable after a little, but we have been laughing at it ever since! Because apparently the devil does not speak English.

The actual lessons went really well with Jorge. He felt the spirit and recognized it!! That has been our prayer! Though we now have to get over the concern that he is worried that what he felt was because of medicine he takes because of how strange the feeling was. Sooo we now are waiting for him to receive an answer if what he felt was the spirit haha. But we are soo happy because we are 90% sure it was the spirit!

If things go well, he and Marisol will be baptized on the same day! Which they come to church more often than our members, and then as well to our English class. So I don't doubt that they will be ready soon enough.

I'm sad that this is my last week here in Henderson, but I am eager for the new opportunities before me!

One of the things that I loved from my studies this week was the talk in the last conference by Elder Richard G. Scott. He said, "How can each of us become such a significant influence? We must be sure to sincerely love those we want to help in righteousness so they can begin to develop confidence in God’s love. For so many in the world, the first challenge in accepting the gospel is to develop faith in a Father in Heaven, who loves them perfectly. It is easier to develop that faith when they have friends or family members who love them in a similar way."

We all have the ability to show others a love similar to that of our Heavenly Father. Whether they are our investigators, family members, members of our ward, less actives, etc. That love helps us to develop faith in our Heavenly Father's love and the redemption of Jesus Christ.

I love you all so much! Thank you for your love! It increases my faith constantly in the love that I feel from my Heavenly Father.

Have a fantastic week! :D

Elder Johnson