Teresa!

This week Teresa is getting baptized! The crazy thing is is that she has been taught several times by missionaries with no success. It most definitely had to do with the fact that her parents weren't actually coming to church. But it has been so fun teaching her and her family. We are looking forward to a really great baptismal service with great attendance!

Jorge is doing great! We had a church tour with him to help him know where the building was, and then he came to church! He is so great! Our gospel principles class was on the scriptures, specifically talking about what scriptures we use and all. He talked so much and shared a great testimony of the Book of Mormon! We are pretty excited to teach him again this week. He's more than on track for his baptismal date on the 13th of September! So we may just have to do it a week earlier haha. That way I will be able to be there before transfers come. Which I don't know for sure I'm leaving, but pretty sure. To be here a 6th transfer would be crazy! But as the lord wills!

Marisol got sick with a virus this week and couldn't meet or come to church. But we are meeting with her on Wednesday. She says she is planning on coming to church next week so things are still going well!

We found a great investigator this week named Maria! She is a former that Brother Jester has taught a few times, and she accepted a baptismal date for the 27th of September! Woot! We'll be telling you about her more next week when we can meet with her again. 

Nancy got a job and is going to school, so we have been struggling to get up with her. We plan on teaching her over facebook this week. 

Now the biggest news for this week was that our Bishopric was changed!!! HOLY COW!!!!! That is huge! Henderson is such an amazing place, but since the ward only just recently became a ward, it has been functioning as if it were a branch still. And some of the functions just really weren't happening. We have been struggling to work with the leadership in the ward to unite the missionary work with what they're doing. They have helped us out a lot, but it's been on separate fields. Brother Kinnin is the new Bishop, and he is amazing!!! He has been one of our most faithful exchanges so we are sooo excited to work with him as our new Bishop. We've been able to get some great work done here, and with this change, the ward should be taking off! 

One thing we hope to see is less actives returning to activity. We have about 150 active members with about 400+ members on our roster. Our building only holds about 250 people at the absolute maximum. We really do expect some great things to happen here.

A few other people that would be great to keep in your prayers are Moises Hernandez and Karina Lopez. They are both the recent converts here for spanish. It's super difficult to hold firm without a solid friendshipping base to work with, and they definitely need prayers. Thanks! They're both working hard and doing well!

This week in my studies I have been learning a lot about the attributes of Christ. The attributes of Christ are so amazing! When we apply the gospel (faith, repentance, covenants, the holy ghost, and enduring to the end), then we let these attributes become a part of our nature as well. Though it takes time, if you pay attention you can see yourself change and it brings so much hope! Plus you are exercising patience when you look for the results, since it takes some time haha.

I know that we are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father, and that we have divine potential. Our potential is to become as our Heavenly Father is! And what joy that brings and what hope it offers! Often we can have the temptation to settle for the easy way, or the temptation to justify our pride, but it is in that moment that we have the divine opportunity to develop the attributes of Christ and decide to do as he would.

I am so grateful that the Lord sacrificed his will so that we too could know how to sacrifice our will and be endowed with all that the Father hath!

I love you all so much! I'm so sorry that you have to go to school! This is so much more fun! :D

Have a great week!

Elder Brian Johnson

English Class

This week was an awesome week! We had all sorts of great things happen, and all sorts of things not happen. That's what happens when it rains. We had sooo much service planned for this week and almost all of it fell through due to rain. But things turned out in the end. One of the great things that happened this last week is that we had an english class! Boy am I grateful to already know English! Trying to teach English is quite complicated and this class we are doing is going to be really stretching for us. I feel like I could teach Spanish with not much problem, but since English never has been my forte, and it just doesn't make sense, I feel so inapt! I can understand a little better now how some hispanics don't learn even after 15-20 years of living here. None of our investigators came to the class, but we had a blast with the four members and us. One family is learning english as their 3rd language. Spanish is their second, and Tarasco is their first. So they have such a hard time! So all yall out their be grateful for the language you speak. It's a huge blessing!

This week we had a lesson with Marisol that went really well. She no longer has a baptismal date for the 16th because she is nervous about being baptized and then not feeling that desire to come back because it's in English. She really wants to be able to understand better. After talking to her about that on tuesday and trying to resolve her concerns, it turns out that she turned down going to the beach with her family so that she could come to church! Halleluiah! She left church too fast to talk so I'll have to tell you next week about her experience.

Teresa is on for the 23rd! I love working with the youth because they are so willing to try and make it fun! At least Teresa is haha.

Jorge is doing great. We missed him at church this week, but he understands the doctrine so well. Simply he needs to understand how to recognize an answer from the spirit to know it's all true. Once we can help him feel/know that, he is ready to be baptized! He understands what he is doing so well! So pray to help him step out and come to church to feel the confirmation of the spirit to his question!

This week I have been studying several things, but the thing that has stuck out to me is love. What is the pure love of Christ? Do we really have the pure love of Christ? Do we limit how much we can love people? I have found sooo many things to work on to truly allow me to love people. All people. And here in Henderson we are surrounded by many great and spacious people. And I love them! And I continue to pray to find an even more unconditional love for them. 

I love yall a lot! Though I have to say that the people here are running a close battle for who I love more! :D

Have an amazing week!

Hey!

This week was a great week! We didn't teach that many lessons compared to normal, but we taught really outstanding investigators! 

First of all this week we taught Marisol. She accepted a baptismal date for the 16th!! We're most likely going to push it back though to help her out. When we went over and talked to her this last week she let us know that she really does feel like it is true and that she has been receiving her answer along the way. She feels like she needs to learn more before she is actually baptized, so we have set up a good plan to teach her more through the week. Pray for her! Help her to hold strong and strengthen her conversion!

We also taught Teresa this week a few times. She is the best! We were trying to set a baptismal date with her and she was sooo nervous and we couldn't figure out why! Turns out she is really scared of drowning! Haha! We were soooo confused! And we were so relieved that it was just that. Turns out that she's perfectly fine if the youth leader baptizes her, and not us haha. We're just fine with that though. We're actually teaching her tonight! 

The miracle for this week though was Jorge. We found Jorge a while ago while I was companions with Elder Swinney. Though ever since then we hadn't been able to get up with him until last sunday. And turns out he is super elect! When he taught him yesterday we invited him to be baptized on the 13th of september when he came to know it was true. His answer was that there's nothing that would keep him from doing it, so of course! It was great! He probably has the best understanding of what the Bible teaches than any other person I have met on my mission. Explaining gospel dispensations was the easiest thing to do! We are super excited to keep working with him. And it will be really easy since he is home every day. The difficult part is that he is most likely going to have to move to be baptized. So please pray that doors will be opened for him to be able to find new and affordable living circumstances.

This week we had a great Zone Leader Training meeting. It really was one of the greatest ones we have had. Really it was because the topic was completely on Baptism. For the year we have a 894 baptism goal. So far we have 193, leaving 701. We've had some since, but over all that means by the end of the year each companionship needs to have 6 baptisms by the end of the year. The great thing about the meeting though was that we tried not to focus so much on the big number, or even the number. Yet we focused on what we are going to change to actually achieve that and apply it to specific people.

As a zone we have committed to these goals. 1. Pray specifically to baptize. 2. Invite investigators to be baptized no later than the second lesson. 3. Include baptism in the step of How to Begin Teaching.

We saw miracles happen as we were able to set three baptismal dates after that meeting! 

I know that if we do pray for the blessing of the lord that he will bless us in his time and with what his children need. We must be dedicated to do what our leaders ask of us to do, and as we do that the Lord will place people in our path that we can influence and bring with us the whole way.

I love yall a ton! I know that the gospel is true and that it is specially designed for each one of us as children of God! Have a great week!

Elder (Brian) Johnson

El quinto!

Here I am in Henderson for a fifth transfer once again! :D I don't know exactly how often this happens, but this is only my second area, and I'll be here for another month and a half. That puts me at being here for about 7 1/2 months. Which I am super happy about! We have some great investigators here in Henderson that I believe will be baptized by the end of the transfer. First of all will be Teresa. Right now we have a baptismal date for the 9th of August! We think we're going to have to push it pack a week just to help her learn everything, but she is still going great! Her parents are returning less actives who are doing great.

Another family that I am really excited to work with right now is the Nuci family. They work seasonally here and in Florida. They are only here for about four months though. They have 7 boys and another one on the way. They are having a hard time keeping up with work and the church, and feel pretty discouraged. But they have such sweet hearts and such great desires. Just yesterday we taught the parents and the kids were going crazy. I couldn't help but think of the fact that Mom and Dad once had to do that with 11 of us as well!

The great miracle of this week was that Marisol came to church! It was such a huge miracle! We weren't actually able to teach her last week because of the rain, and when we texted her to ask if she was going to be able to make it to church she never responded. We really thought that she was losing interest and didn't want to come. Then two minutes before sacrament meeting started she called us and told us she was there. Booyah! She has been telling us basically the whole time we have met with her that to know for sure she needs to come to church. Even after a church tour she still needed to come to church. Well obviously we agree. But the thing was that we were caught off guard. And there were no hispanics there! We have been working so hard to help her to have a good experience at church with great friendshipping from hispanics, and no one came! We were super nervous that she wasn't going to enjoy church because of it.

My nerves definitely got to me, because I was translating terribly. I was praying and praying for the gift of tongues, but simply it didn't come. But the Lord knew the situation. Marisol decided to go without translation and listen in English the best she could. I kept translating just in case she wanted it, and in the end the spirit calmed my nerves and told me to not translate. I calmed down, and I could see that Marisol felt perfectly fine. 

To make the whole experience better, we had an amazing lesson in gospel principles about prayer. She shared with us that on Saturday she was praying a lot to know if this was the true church, and if this was the Sunday that she was going to go and not give any excuses. And she said that finally she felt the simple peace that it was the day. Her testimony about prayer was so strong! I am so excited to teach her again tomorrow!

Our other investigators are doing well too. And I wish I had time to tell you about them, but time's about out!

I love yall so much! Have a great week!

Élder Johnson

Henderson!

I love Henderson! Simply it's the greatest place ever. The culture of Henderson is it's completely own culture. If you don't have chairs on your porch then you don't belong here! This week we had some great experiences contacting people and building up our pool of people to teach. It's amazing when you have been going to the same places for four months straight how you can still find someone else to teach! This is week six, so I'm going to find out whether I am staying here in Henderson or not, but I am about 90% sure that I am going to be staying. I've been here for four already, but it seems like President Bernhisel wants to keep me here another. Which is totally fine! I love it here! And we have great potential here! 

Speaking of potential we had some really great lessons this week. First of all we had a church tour with Marisol which went really well. She is super shy, and she was able to come to the church! She didn't make it out to church though. But we'll get there. 

After the lesson with Marisol though we went to Nancy's house with a recent convert and it was the greatest lesson ever! Brandon, the recent convert, comes from a very catholic family and was almost disowned. Nancy has been feeling more and more sure of herself about baptism, and it's been making her nervous and sad about leaving the family tradition. Brandon was able to help her so much. She wasn't able to make it out to church this last week sadly. But we are super excited to work with her this week to keep progressing!

Sorry today was so short! I love yall so much!

Elder Johnson

Follow up Follow up Follow up!

I just recently read once again the talk that Elder Ballard gave about following up, and it is absolutely amazing! I have really been trying to focus on that principle this last week, and well really this last transfer. We meet sooo many people on the streets and there are only 24 hours in the day. We cover four counties, and have about 40 miles a day to use. Let's just say that it's difficult to want to follow up with someone when to get to their house it's a 20 mile trip both ways! But following up is soo essential. This week that is what made all the difference! We have been coming up short on finding investigators to teach recently, but this last week we were able to do some great follow up with potential investigators and we found 6 new investigators! I think that they all have great potential and I am excited to work with them!

This week we had a great lesson with Nancy where she accepted baptism 100%! And then to confirm it she came to church!! It was so good to see her there! She didn't quite make sacrament, but we'll work on that haha. We have a lesson with her tonight with a member and recent convert who are super great missionaries. With the testimony that she has now of the church and the Book of Mormon we feel she is ready to change her life by living the commandments. We've still got some time we'll have to work with her, but she's going to make it! :D

We had a great lesson with Marisol as well this week! She is super timid and takes time to get to know, so it is natural that she is really timid about coming to church, even though she really wants to go. We have a church tour set up with her as well this evening with the same two members who are great friendshippers. So we are really hoping to help her out today to feel comfortable with people there.

I wanted to say real quick that what has been super important this week with both Nancy and Marisol is that we have had really great follow up, and it makes so much difference!

Oh on a sad note, Briahn discontinued us. :( That always hurts so much! But we most definitely grew so much from that experience. :)

We had a great lesson as well with the Hernandez crew. Alicia, Sonya, and Cynthia. Alicia let us know that she would go to church every day if it weren't for her husband. She is nervous about him not wanting them to go to church. We are starting out this next week by getting them out to mutual. This has been kind of our last concentrated effort to keep them going, and I think that it will work for them. Patient perseverance is key :)

Are little group is getting up on it's feet and it's really awesome to see! We've maintained our group for over a month now and we are praying we can lay the foundation for continual growth!

Just real quick in follow up with yall, what have you learned in Preach My Gospel what have you been able to share with your friends and family?

I love yall so much! I love the area of Henderson! The people here are so great! Elder Rose is the greatest! And I hope you all have an fantastic week! :D

Élder "Juanhijo" Johnson

:)

Asoleado

Happy 7th of July everyone! Oh and happy 4th of July three days ago! I couldn't believe that the fourth of July was already here! And come to find out that so many people were gone! We had the weirdest Sunday because of it, because there were 0 hispanics at church! It was crazy! Elder Rose and I don't know what to do! What else to do than fill in someone's class that they didn't get a sub for haha. 

So for the fourth of July we had a great time. We had a full day of proselyting ready to go, but with the precautions of staying away from iffy situations and such, and then we got a phone call to do some service! I love service! So we changed quickly and got picked up, the four of us, and went to a members home to build a deck! I never really understood how much I love to get outside and work on projects like that. But after a year of not doing it at all I had a blast! We all had a blast! And we all got great sunburns. Ouch. But hey, as missionaries we are deprived of living in the sun. We live in cars and houses! So I have a great tan line of my watch right now, and a huge farmers tan. I love it!

The deck was for Brother Jester's mother, and we were building with all of his sons and sons-in-law. I felt right at home in a house of 25 people not including us! One of the wives actually is family to the Rodriguez family in Cary, so I was so excited to see her and ask her about the area. It's exploding! It's great! Other than that we simply ate dinner and had other items of business to get done.

This week we as well did a service project for the Hernandez family. We came for a lesson, and instead they were upstairs painting. We went and talked for a little and then said, "We'll be back in 20 minutes. We are helping you paint!" They kindly and awkwardly protested, but we went anyways. It was great! I think that it really helped us to keep going with them to recognize their potential to accept the gospel and live it.

Probably the greatest lesson that we taught this week was to Nancy. We taught her about the Plan of Salvation, and really helped her to understand why Baptism is so important. We helped her to understand why reading the Book of Mormon is so important as well, and that she really can and needs to know through the spirit if these things are true. We are anxious for our next lesson with her to see how she is doing with her reading and seeking that answer.

One of the greatest things that I learned this week was in chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel about charity. Charity is a gift from god. And the first and great commandment is to love the Lord thy God. We are able to receive the gift of love and charity for the Lord, from the Lord. That Love for him enables us to greater appreciate the Atonement and what he did for us. We love him more for it. I am praying to deepen my Love for the Lord, so I can love those around me with a more deep understanding of what the Lord has done for them. 

I love the Gospel! I am so grateful that it is the way that we live and that I can keep using it every day to change. I've got a long ways to go so I might as well live it every day to go the furthest I can. 

I love yall so much! You are the greatest!

Élder Johnson