PURTY BUSY WEEK!

FAMILY!

WHAT UP!!  I can't believe that it is already baby week!  That's NUTS!  I had serioudly almost forgotten that it was this week that Jess is going to have her baby, it came so dang fast....I feel like Asher was just born yesterday and now I'm going to have another nephew.....WHOOOO!  haha.  I can't even tell you how excited I am to finally meet Asher and then get to meet the new little guy!  By the way.....have you chosen a name yet, or is that still up in the air??  Ah man, I seriously am so excited to meet them...you have no clue!!  haha. 

Also, that's so cool that Derek...ooops, I mean Elder Skousen now....already gave his farewell talk and is off to Spain!  That pic that you sent me of him hugging his Mom brought back a bunch of memories and really hit me big time!  haha.  That's so wierd to think that I'll be hugging everyone again for the first time in 2 full years.....that's so unreal!!  SO STOKED!  haha. It's cool how many missionaries there are in the family now and how many there will be in the near future!  It's just gonna get bigger and better!  Good stuff!  I'm not gonna lie, it kind of bums me out that I won't see Derek for 4 years because we got super close before I came out, but it's alright, he's in the best possible place he could be right now so that's why I'm so stoked for him! 

This week for us here in ME HE CO was pretty wild...we were super busy the whole week and we had to do a lot of boring "branch president" stuff as Elder Parkinson says!  haha.  Right now the branch had a trip planned to go to the temple because there are 2 members of the branch that just got married this week and they were planning on going to the temple this week to get sealed so we were running around doing interviews and what not and renting buses and just a bunch of other stuff....but it seems like they are not going to be able to go because there were some problems with the bus and with the amount of people that were going to go......so they are going to wait a little bit.....I'm not lying when I say that I'm SUPER bummed that they are not going to be able to get sealed this week, but I'm sure that if we keep working and keep looking, we will be able to get things figured out so that they can go to the temple!  Gotta keep positive thoughts!  Haha.  So yeah, that was most of our week and along with a ton of other stuff! haha. 

We had a pretty cool experience this week though.....so I think I've mentioned Arturo and Armando and about how they are super excited for their baptism...well something really cool happened with them this week, something that we have been working on for around 3 weeks now, and that something is the DAD!  haha.  We have been really trying to teach their dad because we felt that if they had real support from their dad it would help them so much more to not fear and to be really excited about their baptism and everything....and then something really cool happened this week.....we were there in church waiting for the services to start and then we look in the back of the room and see Arturo and Armando walk in with their mom....and.....THEIR DAD!!  WHOOOO!  I can't even tell you how happy I was to see that he went with them to church to show them that he supports their decision and that he will be there to help them!  But that's not all.....in the classes the dad was actually participating and really feeling the spirit....he was saying that he has been really wanting to change his life around and really start to live like he should...I'm pretty sure he had a really good experience at church!  We are hoping that we are going to see some big time progression with him and with his kids now!  I am sooo hoping that their whole family will accept the gospel and be able to live it all together because there is nothing that compares to living the gospel with your whole family and just having everyone build eachother up!  PRAY FOR THEM PLEASE!

So I'm basically super excited right now and really enjoying this time in my mission!  I'm trying to be diligent and keep working until the end so that I can be a good example for Elder Parkinson because I see a bunch of potential in him....he is going to be an awesome missionary!  But I am super excited to see you all, you guys keep me motivated and make me want to work hard till the end....I appreciate all the support!  I love you all so much.

Elder Johnson

p.s. I'm sorry that I've been pretty bad with the pics....but here are some of the pics of us.