This is the Place!

Raleigh!!!!! I am in the absolute best place in the world! I wasn't able to really meet the ward at church yesterday because there was freezing rain that morning, so we pushed sacrament back to 3:30 and only did that. But the people here are amazing! I really don't even know where to start to describe everything here. That's how I've been even in my journal haha. But I guess I'll start out with who my companion is. Elder Teeples is from Alaska. So he is most definitely enjoying this cold spell we've been having. We've had a whole lot of snow. He has cystic fibrosis which requires him to run for an hour each morning (I don't understand the whole medical nature behind the running). That helps keep something in check with everything he has. I have noooo problem with running for an hour. :) It has been wonderful! (Besides the snow. That's made it difficult.) Today I am going to buy some new running shoes though because the ones I brought out are, well let's just say, worn out. :D
Elder Teeples and I get along super duper well. It is the greatest thing ever! He is simply a solid missionary, and hilarious! We are super similar in a whole lot of things, but different enough to be two distinct individuals. So he loves Spanish, and took 4 yrs before his mission. I did too, and it is sooooo nice to have someone who understands where I come from! Best of all he has the greatest attitude about everything I have ever seen! I feel so so comfortable here to work work work and not have to worry about ever overstressing because we have such a good time doing the hard things together. I'm going to have to get some good pictures this transfer and video as well so you can see him for real.

The other great part about Raleigh is that we are all sooo close to each other. We are constantly helping each other out with rides, information, having fun, working together, and whatever else it might be.

Saturday was Elder Teeples birthday. It has been a crazy weekend. He has had quite the experiences with cake in his face! Elder Tingey (The Elder Tingey who I was companions with) got him twice! Once with the cake on Saturday where it was expected, and twice the next day when he shoved his plate into his face! There's good old Elder Tingey and Elder Teeples for you! As you can tell, we simply have way to much fun here together. There are six elders and two sisters in the ward. Woot! :D

So far the main people we have been teaching are the Rivera family (Recent Converts of Elder Teeples) and someone named Eleuterio (Eleu for short). We had a solid lesson with Eleu and bishop Larkin and we set a baptismal date with him for the 28th of March! Best birthday present ever! We are working hard to help him to make it!

We have a few others as well who I've not met yet, but they have a baptismal date for the 14th, that we'll be pushing back to the 28th as well! Their names are Nelson and Caridad. Pray for them all! :D

I love y'all so much!! I hope that you have a great week! Missionary work is too fun to let it pass by!

Élder Johnson

Me and Elder Teeples

Raleigh!!!!!

All of my dreams have come true!! I'm going to Raleigh to be a district leader!! After being in the country for the past 6 months, this is going to be weird! And one of the things I am most excited about is the fact that I will be in an area with half bikes. I have been driving ever since my third transfer in the mission, and I am ready to get on the bikes again! And I am not going to miss the hour drives to any meeting we go to out here in the country. :)

But! I am going to miss it here in Wallace! The people in the country are great! I didn't even realize how much I love them all until I had to say goodbye to most of them on Sunday. What I also don't want to leave behind is simply all the people we have been able to work with here. We and the Sisters each had four investigators at church!! :D 

The big news is that the Verdin's got married on Saturday! They didn't tell us till the day before. They will still have a big reception on the 28th of March though. And what's better is that they set a baptismal date for the 11th of April! Wahoo!!! Man I wish I were able to be here for that.

Yuni is still doing really well, and I really hope that she can work things out to get baptized soon. I'll miss her and Elvis a lot as well.

Another thing that happened this last week while I was on exchanges with Elder Wilkinson, an assistant to the president, is we found four new investigators who all accepted baptism!! Holy Cow!! I am super excited for Elder Swinney and Elder Bowie to teach them!

I am so grateful for the Spirit. When we are doing the best we can to follow the Lord's will, and to invite the spirit into our lives, he will guide us and he will allow us to be part of the many tender mercies that surround us. We were able to see so many this last week. I am amazed every time that someone seeks counsel from a 19 and 20 year old, when they themselves have grandchildren our age. And even more amazed and grateful for the words that the spirit gives us to bless their lives. 

Here are some great pictures from this last week! If you have never experienced freezing rain, it is soooo gorgeous! And these pictures don't do it justice!

I love y'all a ton!

Élder Johnson

Freezing Rain

 

Snowing!

 The District!

Vaquero

So how does a cowboy (vaquero) call to his little girl? ¡Hija! Those without spanish experience, ask for assistance. :)

So for the past six months I have been not a cowboy, but rather a chicken, hog, dog, and log boy. Country boy! And I have loved it to death here! The people here are totally different than any other area I've served in. And I am going to miss them a lot. That's right, I'm getting transferred next week probably to Raleigh where I will be the district leader. I do not know how I am going to get along in the city again! Traffic here is called log-trucks! 

Things have been going really well though here in Wallace. We have been proselyting a lot in the southern part of the area, but we are now realizing that with a decrease in the missionary force we might not have the Sister Missionaries here in Wallace for that long. So we are adjusting our game plan for the future. 

Yuni is doing really well. She seems to have opened up to us quite a bit more these past two weeks and is working really hard. She still has not been able to move out, nor has Elvis gotten his passport. We are working hard to keep her working faithfully forward.

Bill Buckley! Man I am going to miss him! But he continues to love us, listen to us, and work his hardest to understand us. If the computer will allow me, I will put up a great picture of him.

Elder Swinney and I have had a great week this week as we have brought a strong message of faith and of hope to the members we have visited. We have both learned a lot about those principles as we have served in this area. We have learned that without faith and hope we never learn to climb the mountain and to reach the top, but instead we continue to go through the tunnels without light, and only holding onto the hope of the light at the end of the tunnel. We grow with faith and hope. We get through the tunnels through time. 

I challenge y'all to not let time bring the light to you, but to climb the mountain and grow from the experiences that the Lord provides for you!

I love y'all a ton! And it is the most incredible feeling how that love grows each week, and even more after 20 months!

Love,

Élder Johnson

p.s. If I really do go to Raleigh, I will be soooooo happy. It is the dream land! A Spanish Ward!! I'll have to ask the Assistants for sure when we go on exchanges this Friday. :D

Bill Buckley

Soul Food :)

Bautismo!!!

The biggest miracle of all is coming to pass here in Wallace!!!!!!!!!!!! A couple who's investigated for 10 years is finally getting married March 28th!!!!!!!!! Happy Birthday me!!!!! Well I won't actually be there to be part of it, but it's still a huge huge deal!! They are faithful members already, just not baptized or married. Their daughter has already served a mission! So we are super duper excited for them! This is the Verdín Family.

Yuni as well is doing really well. She is pushing forward to let the Gospel change who she is. Right now she is running into the struggle of her boyfriend Elvis who is a less active member. Please pray that we can receive the guidance on how to continue forward with her to help her make it to the temple!

Bill Buckley is as old and crazy as ever. :) We have really reached a point where he knows what it is that we teach about the restoration and the plan of salvation, and is nervous to pray. He's afraid to find out that what he has learned all his life isn't right and that he'd have to change, now. We love him so much!

Brandon is working like a horse! We are doing our best to maintain contact and spiritually uplift him in a super difficult time of his life. It's all to get Sunday's off! We're praying hard for him!

One of the highlights of my week was being able to play a part in the answering of someone's prayers and fasting. This week we decided to do an extended exchange to accommodate for a meeting we would have. So I went to Hampstead on Monday night until Wednesday morning. I was with Elder Garn. On Monday night we went to Bishop Smith's family home evening. It was a blast! When we got there a spanish member was leaving their home, and Sister Smith found out I spoke Spanish. Well she had been asking all of her native friends for help on a college spanish class, and wasn't getting anywhere. Without any questions asked about dinner or fhe or anything, we were at their table doing homework for the next 20 minutes! :D Things she had been stressing over for the past week I was able to help her with that night, and to finish the homework she had.

What really made me smile though was that she told us later that she had been fasting and praying the day before for help to be able to get help with her class, and boom, there I was able to be! It was a great feeling!

I love you all a ton! I hope that y'all have a great week!

Love,

Élder Johnson

Yonder Place

This week we had some crazy long drives! And we can literally say that we went to Yonder Place and back! There is a store in a little place called Ivanhoe that is called Yonder Place, and we drove for about an hour there, and then an hour back! :D We drove around our area, and it took about two and a half hours. Holy Cow! But we had a really good time with our Branch President and we were able to get to know all the places we've never been before.

I also had CMLC this last week which went super well! But it included 7 hours of driving in the space of 24 hours. And then 6 hours of sitting in a meeting. Holy smokes. And I thought driving to six mile was too long!

Brandon is super duper busy. We still didn't get to meet with him. :( But we are praying hard and doing all we can to maintain connection and pull through it all.

Yuni came to church!!! :D It has been a while because of work, and she was able to make it this time! That was a big tender mercy for us. That put a huge smile on my face. :)

Well Elvis is supposed to be going to get his passport on the 9th, so pray for him. They've decided to marry rather than separate again. She's sooo close!

This week we had a really neat miracle. We completely lost track of an investigator. Alex. Well, he moved. We found out though by knocking on his door and someone else answering. As we talked to him for a second we realized that we knew someone in the background, and they saw us too!
We have been serving at probably the best thrift store/food bank ever. Kippie and Jayson, the main people there, were at the house! No way! They immediately brought us inside to meet the people! We didn't get to teach, but it was a huge trust building experience with both of them. Awesome!

BUT! it doesn't stop there. They told us that Alex had moved to another trailer park, but didn't know which one. So we went looking for his car! And lo and behold, we go and find it the first trailer that we knock on. And we had a great first lesson with the family about the book of mormon! Woop!

Life is wonderful. And miracles are all around us.

I love y'all a ton! Happy February!

Élder Johnson

Invitation Sunday

This was one of the most amazing weeks here in Wallace!!! This last week we had what we called Invitation Super Sunday. It was a mission-wide event where the meeting was geared towards inviting anyone to come see what our services are like, and what we're all about. The focus of everything was on Jesus Christ. The spirit was soooooo strong the whole time! And the feeling during Sacrament meeting was even more strong. So we normally use two trays of water for the sacrament, and we don't use it all. Well we used it all. And then we had to fill about 15 more cups after that! After the sacrament, what was supposed to be a trio ended up being a solo because Elder Swinney and Sister Sonksen were both sick. So I sang a solo. :) I sang Savior Redeemer of my Soul, by Rob Garner. I have never seen the song go before the talks, but it started out the meeting with such a stong spirit.

After church we had a linger longer! So all these people that came got to stay and visit as we ate tacos! I am so excited to keep going with this spirit of missionary work in the branch. Our numbers have been dropping slowly, and to go from about 30 people in attendance to about 70 was a huge difference!

Investigators!

Brandon needs your prayers! We have been doing our best to stay in contact and to send him supporting scriptures, but he has gotten really really busy recently. And he is still getting anti/conflicting material/scriptures from a family member.

He's busy because he is getting set up for a job that he doesn't have to work Sundays. So that is good. We are going to be meeting with him on Wednesday at 8:00 a.m. before district meeting. We're going to be shooting to move his baptismal date for february 21st!

Yuni needs your prayers!! She has decided to be baptized on February 14th! I don't know if she realizes that that is Valentine's day... but what better day to have separated from your boyfriend to get baptized??..... Ouch. But, that is what Yuni has come to the realization of. She needs to separate from Elvis until they can get married, and be baptized without delay. We are so proud of her decision to do so. Elvis doesn't understand as well as she the need for it, but she needs to be out of the house by february 1st do make the 14th like she wants. So pray that she finds the way to live elsewhere. We had a great lesson with her where we reviewed D&C 20:37 and the baptismal interview. It finally sunk in that she needs to be worthy and ready to make it all happen. And it finally started to sink into Elvis that he isn't living the commandments either, and that he needs to change. Especially since he's already been baptized.

Felicia! Wow what a lesson this week! It was going sooo well, and finished off dry of the Spirit. We boldly testified of Jesus Christ and of the Restoration of the Priesthood and of the Church of Jesus Christ. We boldly testified of Joseph Smith as a prophet, and the need to know that for yourself. Sadly there were too many people in the room for the questions they were asking. Any question they would ask us, someone else would answer as if from us. Everyone got confused, and ended off with a lack of understanding what we really believe.

It was a lesson that was needed though. One thing did come clear. That the Priesthood is only found in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They didn't like that...

With the relationship that we've been able to build with them, we are hoping to keep inviting them to pray and know for themselves.

I love missionary work! The Spirit is the master at it! Without him, we're pretty weak with what we can do.

I love y'all a ton! Have a fantabulous week!

Elder Brian Johnson

Hey Y'all!

Hey! Life is good! Don't you love the rain? Especially in the winter, because it warms the air up so much, and then there's usually a gorgeous day after with a beautiful sun!

Well, that's how it was yesterday for us on a great holiday, which also means that we couldn't email yesterday very easily. So we are scurrying trying to do it before our zone conference this morning! :D

So, this may be brief. But I'm so glad that I can email y'all!

This week we have been trying to get down into Burgaw. It's 15 miles away, but there are so many people there. I've hardly ever proselyted it. But, we have already seen miracles as we have gone down there!

So there's this place called the Durham Village Apartments. They are super ghetto. Now Wallace is nice. Small town and there really is never any sort of problems in town. It's great! But we were going to go contact a referral and when we got out of the car immediately we were hit with the smell of weed. Boom! I haven't smelt that for a long time. Not really since Henderson! So all of the sudden we just really didn't feel very comfortable. In Henderson I got sooo used to being in the ghetto and talking to gangsters and scary people. But all of the sudden I was really scared again. It was soooo awkward because there were so many people outside in the cold. Well, we went and knocked on the door, and no one answered. So we knocked the next door. It was Felicia's sister!!!! No way!!! And she totally wants us to come back! Cast aside all fear, and the Lord will take you to who he needs you to see.

Everyone we are seeing is doing well. No huge progress though. Brandon however is doing great! We will be moving his date, but he's going solid! He may have even gotten a job to come on sundays already!

Well anyway, I love y'all a ton!!!!!!!!

Elder Johnson