GOOD NEWS!!

HOLLAAA! 

Hy everyone, thank you so much for the letter this week...they always help me to be better!  Fo reals.  So I thought I'd start out by telling you all some news that we just received here in the mission.....my release date got bumped back to April 1st instead of when I was originally going to be going home (March 11th)...it's around 3 weeks more!  Some pretty big news, and I was thinking about it and thought about Jess's new baby...will I still be there? if not...I'll just have 2 secret nephews that I don't know, that will be kinda wierd!  haha.  But I'm SUPER STOKED to find out that she is having another boy!  That will be so cool! Next week I want to hear some names that your thinking about!  But yeah, that was the big news that we received this week.

Anyway, I can't believe that Dillon has his permit!!  That is...if he passed the test?? haha.  And I can't believe how tall he is getting, it's going to be so wierd getting home and seeing everyone just totally different.  ha.  But I'm always blown away at how fast time goes by...everyone is growing up super fast....now I just feel like a grandma that says that every time they see their grand children! haha. 

My companion was super jealous when he saw the pic of you in front of the San Diego temple, because that's the temple he would go to every week before his mission! haha.  He was actually a temple worker before his mission, the first called missionary in the history of the San Diego temple to do that....kind of a cool fact about my companion!  haha.  But I'm glad to hear that you had such a good time in San Diego...now it's back to work time! ha. 

We also had a pretty good week here in Costa Rica...we're starting to see a lot of progress with the branch here which is super good!  We actually have a new system where we are officially not allowed to knock doors!  WHATT!  Kinda wierd...honestly, I've never been one to knock a lot of random doors all day, but it was a big shock for a lot of the missionaries!  We are hoping to see some good progression with working with the members here and really start to see some solid progress in missionary work in general!  STOKED!  I wouldn't be surprised to see this go world wide sometime...so get ready and start talking to some neighbors so you can pass some solid references to the missionaries....the work will EXPLODE if members really start to work like that!  WHOOOO!!!  Good stuff is ahead.  We are finding some super awesome people here that are super ready to hear the gospel, so we are super excited about that!  One in particular was Griselda!  She is the step daughter of one of the members here in the branch who supposedly had talked with the missionaries a couple of years ago but never had gotten baptized.  We have actually been teaching her mom for a couple of weeks now, but she is showing too much interest and never wants to go to church and we were thinking about dropping her as an investigator, but one of the members made an appointment for us to go back...so we decided that we were going to go and teach one more time and really see if she wants to keep listening or not...so we went and lo and behold, Griselda shows up.  We introduced ourselves and started to talk a little bit getting to know her and everything....and we started to see that she was super interested in what we do and what we teach...she started to ask us a few questions...and then BOOM we were teaching her and it went SUPER well!  She accepted the Book of Mormon and said that she really wants to know if it's true, so we invited her to read and pray and she was so stoked to know that she could get an answer from God!!  She is really excited and we are very excited for her!  Although, we are not going to have too much time to be in our area this week because of meetings and stuff in Culiacan, we are going to talk with the members so that they go over and see how she's doing and answer any questions she might have and to invite her to church this week!  We are hoping to see that work and that she will continue to progress!  WHOO!  But we are super excited right now, hoping to see a lot of progress and good things ahead!  Pray for the missionaries! 

I love my fam, you guys are the best and I can't believe how much I have seen you progress in this past 20 months or so!!  I love to see you all happy and living life to the fullest, and the way it's supposed to be lived!  Keep it up. "...be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."  John 16:33.  BE OF GOOD CHEER!  Love you all.

Elder Johnson

DILIGENCE!

Greetings loved ones! 

Hey everyone!  I wish I could say different....but the snake, was not alive....DANG! haha.  We found it on the side of the road and couldn't resist taking a pic with it....those are just the kind of things you find when your in a little ranch town here in Mexico. haha.  But anyway, looks like you guys had a good time at the Schnepf farms this last week, that was pretty crazy to see Karissa again haha...kinda random, but that's cool for her and Chase.  It's one of the wierdest things to see friends getting married, friends coming home from missions, friends getting ready to go on missions....all while I'm in the mission! haha.  Life just keeps going and the world just keeps turning...cool stuff!  While thinking about that, it always reminds me of the quote..."your future is as bright as your faith is."   We just need to have faith that all will be fine and good if we just simply trust in God and do His will. 

I'm excited to meet everyone in the ward, especially the Bishop.  It's honestly gonna be a little wierd coming home to a totally diffrent ward, but then I think about it a little bit and say...there's nothing wierd about that, I have done it quite a few times here in the mission so I don't think it will be too much different....I think?? haha.  I just know that we are placed where we are placed for a reason and no matter where we are, we can always contribute with something to help the work of the Lord move forward...just have FAITH!  But honestly, I'm glad to hear that everyone is liking the new ward and that everyone is learning and progressing....after all, that's the reason for everything we do!  Just remember to always sustain the Bishop not only by the raising of the hand, but help him and really sustain him by what you DO! 

This week has been a good one...we have a few people that could be baptized this week so we are excited about that and we are continuing to find new people to teach. This week was supposed to be the week of the baptism of Lorenzo and his family, but it fell through because he went to sign the papers to finalize the divorce, but supposedly there was something wrong with the witnesses he took...so he is going to have to wait another month!!  AHHHH!!  noooo.  But he took it really well, he was humble and accepted the will of God and didn't get down on the situation!  I learned a great lesson from him through all of this...that we need to be patient and accept the Lords timetable and not our own...and to be DILIGENT in all that we do!  So we are still working with that, but he needs some prayers for him and his family so that they can finally have the blessings of being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost! 

Oh and also, we found a way cool family this week that just moved here from Sacramento Cal....2 of them are members named Angel and Yolanda, they are an older couple that are super awesome...Yolanda reminds me SOO much of Grandma Netty it's unbelievable!  haha.  She is just super nice and wants to help everyone in every moment!  But it's kinda funny because the mom of Yolanda (94 year old woman) wanted us to teach her...and not to mention, wants to be baptized! haha.  I can honestly say that I have never thought that I would be teaching someone so old and let alone, baptizing someone so old!  haha.  I just don't know how were gonna get her under the water...gonna have to use the good ole chair sitting down techique! haha.  I don't have pics of the family this week, but I'll try to send some next week!  But she is way cool and really nice, she is not like any other super old person that usually just have no clue whats goin on, she is actually responsive and knows her stuff...she responds to all of our questions and even comments on how she feels....we sang her a hymn and we felt the spirit way strong and she told us afterward how good she  felt inside! Good stuff...teaching the seniors! haha.

Thank you so much for all your support that you all give me...I can't tell you how much it really means to me to know that I have a family back home who loves me and supports me every step of the way!  "Remember faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, charity, humility, DILIGENCE." D&C 4:6.  I think it's significant that diligence comes last in this great list of attributes because in the end, what we need to do is be diligent in exercising all these attributes till the end of our lives here on earth...and if we do that...we will receive eternal life!  Be diligent in all that you do...ex. scripture study, prayer, service etc.  I love you all so much.

Elder Johnson

Elder Johnson and his companion, Elder Crisp

This week was AMAZING!

familia.

I can't believe how eventful your week was!! haha.  Sounds like things are going great on the homefront!  I was so STOKED to see the pics of the wedding!!!  That's so crazy, my best friend is officially married...and she said she was never gonna get married within 2 years! haha.  I'm really happy for them!   Also, I was so glad to hear about the Glausers...Dan wrote me and I was super stoked to hear that they are doing well!  Tell them that I love them to death!  haha.  Also, I'm glad to hear that you could get a temple trip in this week...I can't wait to go to the temple again!  Oh and well done on the spanish.  There were a couple parts that didn't translate too well, but I got it figured out!  haha. 

This week was AMAZING!  We were super determined to find new people this week and we were excited to do it!  A few weeks ago, we were thinking about what we can do to find new investigators and I remember that we prayed to be able to receive revelation about what we needed to do and a member family popped into my mind and I thought to myself that we needed to go ask them for references, so we went with them and they actually had quite a few references waiting for us...but one in particular that she really wanted us to visit....her name is Julie.  So this week we went with the member to go contact her and it went a lot better than we had ever expected!  We got there and Julie, her sister Rosy and Rosy`s daughter were sitting out front and they welcomed us in.  So we started talking a little about who we are and what we do and they started to become very interested in the work we do and everything that we have left behind to do it!  We got to know them and soon it seemed obvious that they were very interested in the gospel that we preach.  So we started to teach them and the whole time we were teaching they were so focused on what we were saying and they were asking us a bunch of questions and answering the questions that we asked them...then during the lesson, more and more people started to show up, including the other daughter of Rosy, without saying anything, they just came and sat and started to listen attentively!  By the end of the lesson we could all feel the spirit very strong!  Something super cool actually happened, Rosy noticed that her daughters were listening very closely and she said that she was SUPER surprised that they hadn't gone off and gotten on facebook like they normally do...they preffered listening to us than anything else at that moment!  She asked them why....and they both said, we feel good and I really like what they are telling us!  WHAT!!  So cool.  It honestly wasn't anything spectacular that we did, we just taught the true gospel and the spirit testified to them that it was true...but when that happens, there is no other place in the whole world that anyone would rather be at that moment!  We all left there very uplifted and gratified.  We hope to see some super good progression with them in the near future!!  Pray for them! 

I'm trying to be better every day, I know that I'm not the best that I can be but I try, at the end of day, to be able to say that I became a better person than who I was yesterday!  This gospel is true and I'm eternally grateful for it, now we just have to make sure that we are living it daily! 

I love each and every one of you and I'm grateful for all you do....STAY STOKED! 

Elder Johnson

THE LORD COMES THROUGH.......

Family!!

I'm glad to hear that everyone loved conference!  I only got to see the Sunday session, but I was blown away at how good it was!  Oh and mom, about your goals....read Mosiah 4:27 I think that may be able to help you not feel so stressed about all the goals you have....just make sure you don't do everything all at once super fast, because we usually do things really good (for a couple days maybe weeks) and then end up forgetting all about our goals....we need to be wise, have order, and most important BE DILIGENT!!!  I have learned and am still in the process of learning that important principle, but I can tell you that it has blessed my life very much here in the mission and has changed my habits.  But anyway, I feel really bad for that missionary that went to eat dinner at the house...because if he keeps up that attitude, he will be miserable his whole mission...but on the other hand, if he changes his attitude, his whole mission will be fantastic!  They talked a lot about our attitude in Conference and it really is sooooo important!  I love the verse in Proverbs 13:13, 15 and would invite you all to read it and to put it into practice!!!  Also, I had no clue about the change of age for missionaries until you told me!  haha.  But I think that's soooo great and is going to help this work progress SOO much!  Everyone that is able to go and is at the age of 18....DON'T WAIT!!!!!  I loved the talk of Elder Richard G Scott about vicarious work when he said...don't waste your time on things that have no importance, do something that is going to have an eternal impact!  Although he was talking about vicarious work for the dead, I think we can apply it to this situation also!  I can't believe that I only have 5 months left to enjoy being a full time missionary, but I am trying always to keep my attitude just as happy as I was when I entered the MTC or received my call! 

So this week was way good!  There was a cool surprise that happened to us this week, but was definitely not coincidence!  Our invesitgator Lorenzo has been wanting to get baptized for a while now but has not been able to, due to the fact that he is not divorced from his previous wife and now lives with another woman and obviously they are not legally married....so we have been working with him and helping him to MAKE THINGS HAPPEN!  For a really long time he has just been waiting to see what happens, but wasn't really doing anything to help it move forward.  So we went and I told him that if he really has a true desire to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized, then he has to show God that this is what he really wants.  Well, he took our advice and went into Culiacan to see what was up with his divorce papers and they told him that if he had come in a few months ago, he would be divorced by now....figure that!  haha.  Anyway, they gave him an appointment to go back and check them again and so he went and he will be officially divorced by the 19th of this month!! WHOO!  We are very excited for him and his disposition to go and MAKE IT HAPPEN!  By the way, he fasted on his own the day before and asked Heavenly Father to give him this blessing and He did!  The faith of Lorenzo just shot through the roof!  We are working also with his wife and his daughter to be baptized this month, so pray that they can enter into the waters of baptism as a family and receive the joy that comes from the Gospel! 

I love my family and I'm so grateful for you all!  Keep being awesome and FOLLOW THE COUNSEL GIVEN IN GENERAL CONFERENCE!  We are blessed to have a prophet who leads us and guides to the straight and narrow path and we need to remember to invite others to know of all the blessings that God invites us to have!  I love you, keep being cool.

Elder Johnson

THINGS IS A GOIN' GOOD

Hello family.

So it seems as if you all have quite a few questions for me!  haha.  To start, I am still zone leader just a different zone....the zone is called El Dorado and it's AWESOME!  But in this zone, it's really spread out everywhere....if you look on a map of Sinaloa and see Costa Rica, it will be the first town south of Culiacan in our zone and that's where I am....then if you go down a little farther and a little closer to the beach, you will find El Dorado....then a little farther and you will run into La Cruz....that's our whole zone and there are missionaries in those 3 towns...that's why we travel so much!  haha.  But for us in our area, we stay here in Costa Rica and our area is just normal size, but we do have a chapel here in Costa Rica which is super nice!  Also, our house is pretty nice actually...we have AC!!!!!! WHOOO!  I haven't had to suffer too much through the heat...besides during the day, but it's not that big of a deal....the pioneers went through WAY more so I'm grateful for them!  We have a washing machine here which is great and very convenient and when I eat on my own we normally eat tacos made with dog meat.....................................just kidding, I've never seen that here!  hahaha.  We eat almost always with members and they feed us good.....but I haven't grown for a while now, I was hoping to grow more but I guess it's just not happening for me!  haha.  But that's all the exciting stuff about good ol Costa Rica. 

So about the package, I would like a new towel, more face wash (starting to run low on that....but it works GREAT), some of those CTR rings would actually be pretty cool and I think that's about all!  Oh wait.....SOUR PATCH KIDS!  haha. 

I'm happy to hear that everyone is doing well and it's really crazy to me to see how much everyone is changing....I feel like every week that you send pics....everyone looks different!  haha.  It will be cool to see everyone when I get home....I hope that I recognize all the cousins still!!  ha.  But right now, were doing good here...Elder Crisp is a good missionary who motivates me to be better every day!  Right now we are trying to work a lot more with the members and it is going well!  We are receiving references and this week I'm really excited to contact all of them and then teach them with the members present....that's always the best way!  Almost all the converts I have had have been references from the members who help us teach their friends or family or neighbors!  it's the way missionary work should be and we are excited to see that it is progressing here in Costa Rica.  By the way, Alexis just recieved the priesthood and by next week he should be passing the sacrament so I'm really excited about that and his mom just got called to be the 2nd counselor in the Relief Society!  WHOO!  Good stuff.  I'm excited for conference this week and I hope that all of you are preparing to hear the words of the prophet! 

I love you all, have a great conference weekend and make sure to always smile! 

Elder Johnson