WORKIN' HARD.

Family.

I really enjoyed your last letter, I was laughing through almost the whole thing!  Sounds like things are getting pretty hectic over there in Mesa AZ!  haha.  But it's good to hear that everyone is doing well and that school is starting off well for everyone....even though it might be hard.  Oh and I read Dallin's letter that had the part about Chris in it....that was super cool to see that Chris really had that much of an impact on him and was such a great example to him, it's cool to see how by "small and simple things are great things brought to pass".  I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to live with Chris almost my whole life and have that example almost 24/7....it has helped me so much to be the person I am now, and I'm sure that that has helped a lot of the people that I have come in contact with here on the mission!  Cool stuff. 

Anyway, this week was way cool. I'm loving working with my new companion Elder Aylesworth...he is a stud and we have a lot of fun together while we are working! ha.  Sometimes we as missionaries make the work so boring by just doing the same things over and over again and just being bummed the whole day, but we try to make it super fun and just have a good attitude the whole day and it helps a ton!  The people really do see the smile on our faces and it makes them want to know....why are they so happy if they are walking in the sun all day??  It changes the heart of the people and helps a lot in the work. 

We met a way cool family this week...it's just a daughter and her mom, but they are way cool.  Their names are Bertha Alicia and Lupita. they are references from a recent convert who just barely got baptized a couple weeks ago.  So we went to see if they were home and it just so happens that we arrived at the perfect moment.  Supposedly the grandma had just passed a few months ago and it was super hard for the mom...and also they have a few other problems right now in their lives and don't know where to find comfort.  So we started to talk with her just get to know her, get to know her situation and everything....then taught her the true principles of the gospel to her.  As we were teaching she looked like she was really quiet but looked really calm....we asked what she was feeling...she was silent for about a minute, then looks up at us and says....I feel comforted!  She said she had been looking for a feeling like that for so long, but until that moment had never been able to find it.  The spirit was very strong and I felt really good that we were able to bring the gospel into their lives and help them recognize the love that God has for each and every one of us! 

Love you all, hope that everyone keeps working hard and remembers to always say their prayers! 

Elder Johnson

COSTA RICA......

Family.

HELLO everyone! So it was kind of weird when I was reading your email and you were talking about Oceanside....because this week I was talking to my companion about how we always go to Oceanside Beach as a family every year and I was telling him everything that we do there, but I had totally forgot that it was in this week that we always go! haha.  But it seems as if everyone had a ton of fun!  By the way, the pic with grandma and grandpa and the cousins......I don't recognize a couple of people......I feel so bad, but everyone has changed A TON!!!  Maggie is SUPER tall and everyone else has changed a bunch! haha.  I can't wait to be able to see everyone in person again, that will be exciting. 

So by the way, I have news......I'm in a new area!  WHOOO!  Right now I'm here sitting next to Elder Larkin because I am going to be in the area that he was just in....it's called Costa Rica!  My new companion is Elder Aylesworth, he is from Chandler Arizona and is an awesome missionary so I'm super excited to work with him!  I was kind of sad to have to leave all of my investigators that I came to love so much in my old ward, but I know that I'm supposed to be here for a reason...so we're gonna work work work and see miracles!  I know that Elder Perez will take good care of all the people that I left behind, so I'm not too worried! ha. 

JESSICA IS PREGNANT AGAIN???? WHAT!!! that's so awesome, I'm so excited....the baby will be born right when I'm getting home!  That's so cool. CONGRATULATIONS JESS AND CAM! 

(((((((From Shawna...so, when I saw this on Tyler's email today I figured that Jess had written to him to tell him.  Wasn't sure if I should edit this out, but when I asked Jessica about it, she said this is how she wants to announce her wonderful news!!  This way Tyler can be a part of it : ) )))))))))

So I thought I'd fill you in a little bit on how my week went....we had a great week! ha.  We actually had an awesome experience with one of our investigators Monserrat.  She has been an investigator for a while now in that area and we had actually stopped teaching her for a little while, but somehow we found ourselves in her path again. Right now, she has A LOT of problems going on in her life and she was almost to the point where she couldn't handle it any more......scary.  But anyway, we have been visiting her and trying to help her out, and it has been going well! She actually has a few friends that are members of the ward, so they have been visiting her also, which is super good!  But the coolest part is that right now she is out of work and her son is in dental school and it's super hard for her to help her son get through school and feed the family at the same time....so we promised her blessings that if she went to church with us and started to read and pray, that she will be blessed to find work and be able to be calm in all of her challenges.  At the end of the lesson, she said the prayer and she was crying super hard during the prayer and just asking Father in Heaven to help her find work and to bless her family....the spirit was super strong and it was really special to see her say a real sincere prayer to our Father in Heaven!  Well guess what, she came to church. and guess what, she went to the center of employees, the program that the church has, and now she has 3 or 4 appoinments with different places that would love to hire her!  And guess what, a family in the ward had just recently moved to live in the house of one of their moms in the ward, and told her that she could live in their previous house...(she has been praying to find a house for about a year now)!  And guess what......SHE IS HAPPY!!  WHOOO!  It was really special to see her prayers be answered and see her faith grow.  She is happy even though the problems are still there, she knows that she can trust in God, and everything will be OK!   Miracles are real, we just need to look for them! 

I love my family quite a lot.  I'm happy here in the mission, and I'm grateful for all the support that you are for me.  stay fly.

Elder Johnson

.......I got this pic of Elder Johnson from his former companion (Elder Larkin's) mom.  He told her they took it on a day that it was 125 degrees!!  Notice him holding tight to his camelbak!

COULDN'T BELIEVE IT!

Fam´ly.

 

HELLO EVERYONE!! Happy Birthday to Asher!! WHOOO! It looks like everyone had a super good time at the bday party....but maybe Asher had a little too much fun with his cake! haha. I can't believe that he was born a year ago....it seems like it was yesterday, but now when I see him in the pics he looks like he is growing a lot!I  I'm super stoked to really meet the little fart! ha.

 

School is already almost back in sesh?? WHAT!  I feel like summer was a lot longer when I was in high school, or maybe the time just goes by faster when your here on a mission.  But honestly, I feel like it was only 2 or 3 letters ago that you told me that they were doing summer school and all that stuff!  CUUHRAZZY!  Anyway, I hope that everyone enjoyed it as much as they could have, because now starts the work again!  I read Courtney´s schedule for this year and I felt so bad for her......haha. but I know that you can do it Court, just give it your best and don't lose focus of what's most important!  Dillon should play soccer....I've realized that it's one of the coolest and funnest sports to play!  I feel like he'd be a good goaly...real scrappy!  haha.  It's wierd to think that everyone on this side of the family is in or already out of high school.....how fast the time goes by.

 

Anyway, this week has also been an interesting one....I was a little bit sick for the first part of the week and had to rest, but I've already gone to the doctor and I'm ALL GOOD now!  So we got to work toward the end of the week which was good and we tried to make the most of our time while we had it!  Also, the meeting with all the zone leaders was this week so I got see some of my buds from the mish that I don't get to see too often, so that's always nice!  In the meeting with zone leaders we learned a lot of good stuff, mainly we learned about how we need to be more focused on the people we are teaching instead of the lessons that we are teaching the people....interesting thought!  But I loved it, I learned a lot, and we were able to put it into practice toward the end of the week with a couple of our investigators!  But the experience that I would like to share with all of you is one that was super special for me, because it was with a family that we had found a little while ago, the moms name is Lidia....don't know if you remember her??  And her husband´s name is Jose....they have 2 little girls, one who was just barely born.  Anyway, this family is super cool....but a few weeks ago, we had recieved a message from Lidia saying that she didn't want us to come by anymore, and we were SUPER bummed because she was progressing so well!  Anyway, this week I felt like we needed to go to her house and visit her, even though she had told us not too....rebels!  haha. So we went the other day and her door was open, I got a little nervous as we were walking toward the door not knowing what she was going to say when she sees us, but then we saw her husband and he told us to come on in!  HUH??  ok!  So we went in and starting talking and it felt like we had picked up where we had left off....just normal!  We started to talk with Jose about what is it that he believes and why he goes to church and everything, basically just getting to know him, because we had never had the oportunity to teach him in the past.  Then we started to teach him, but it was so much different than any other lesson I've ever taught, I wasn't worried about what we were going to teach but I was more worried about what does he need!  We could tell that he was a little resistant at first, but as we asked him questions and really helped him express his feelings and feel the spirit....the Holy Spirit touched his heart and he opened up to us....almost couldn't believe it.  We are hoping to see a lot more progression with Jose and Lidia in the near future! Straight to the temple.

 

So basically that was my week, super solid and I'm super content!  I love all of you and am grateful for your weekly letters! love love love my fam.

 

Elder Johnson

 

p.s. we went to the zoo. good times! haha.

 

-dont know if you can see it very well, but the do on this goat totally looked like Elvis Presley! haha.

-the monkey's trying to get my pen through the cage....super funny.

MAKING MIRACLES HAPPEN

Family dearest,

 

WOW!  Lake Powell looked like it was a TON of fun!  Everyone is getting soo good at wakeboarding, I'm gonna have to step it up big time when I get home or Dillon is gonna pass me up pretty quick.....or maybe even COURT!  I still dont know if I can believe that that is Courtney in the air on a wakeboard, or if you just photoshoped her face in there! haha.  And mom surfing?? WHATS UPP!!  And I'm diggin' the shockers mom (hang loose)!! haha.  Anyway, I'm glad that you all had a ton of fun! Jess and Cam couldnt go??

By the way, sorry for writing again on Tuesday.....there was a HUGE storm here yesterday and there was absolutely no intenet, so we couldn't write.

So this week was a very intersting one!  We are working super hard right now to find new people and it has been a fight but we are doing basically everything we can to do it!  This week was another seminary week, but for the elders that didn't get to go to the last seminary...and so 2 elders slept in our house again and we were able to work with them almost the whole week, just like last time with Elder Blood.  But this time I was working with an elder named Elder Oliver he's from Roy Utah and is a CHAMP!  He is sort of new in the mission, so he is still learning spanish, but I couldn't believe how well and how fast he is improving!  Basically he's just a stud.  Anyway, when I was working with Elder Oliver I really wanted to have a cool spiritual experience with him to be able to build his testimony and help him be an awesome missionary, so we left the house looking for an experience.  We went to go look for all the people that we had planned to see.....and nobody was in their house.  We went to about 20 houses and not one was there.......uhhhhhh. WHAT NOW??  I want him to have a spiritual experience and nothing is hapenning....WHAT DO I DO??  Well, it was time to take him back to seminary and we hadn't been able to talk to hardly anyone, I felt super bad....but I was thinking of some way that we could have a cool experience.  We got on the bus to go over to the other side of Culiacan and a thought came to me......I leaned to Elder Oliver and asked him if he wants to contact the bus.....he looked at me and his face just went white!  Then he said yes!  haha.  So I told him, if we can't have a spiritual experience....we are going to make one happen!!  I gave him a few pamphlets and a Book of Mormon and told him that it was all his.  He was super nervous, but super determined.  After a little while of building up the courage he stood up, went to the front of the bus (which was full of people by the way) and starts to talk about the restoration of the Gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith and gave his testimony and then I stood up and bore my testimony and started to explain the Book of Mormon and everything, then we handed out a few pamphlets to peope that were interested in what we were saying!  Basically, the coolest part about all of this was that a new missionary, who is still learning spanish, was brave enough to get up in front of everyone and preach the true Gospel to a whole bus of people!  I couldn't believe he actually had done it.  He told me afterward that that experience helped him a lot to get rid of his fear of talking with people about the gospel and that his faith had increased!  I felt good knowing that even though we weren't given a spiritual experience....we made a miracle happen!  I think that's sometimes how it is, we wait and wait for the blessings or miracles to fall from the sky, and sometimes they don't.....we need to go look for them, we need to fight for them....and that's what Elder Oliver did on that bus that day, he found his Miracle!  cool kid.

 

I hope that this week we will be able to find a lot more people to teach.....teach the people that we find.....and baptize the people that we teach! We're looking for miracles, and we're gonna fight to find them!

 

I love you family, you will never know how much you have helped me grow while here in the mission and I'm so grateful for every one of you!

 

Elder Johnson

 

p.s. sorry I haven't sent pics in a while.....next week i promise I'll send some.

VAMANOS!

Dearest friends and FAMILY!

 

WHAT'S UP!  Sorry for the delay on writing you.....we were a little busy yesterday and couldn't write, so we had to write today....so don't worry. ha. Anyway, I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying Powell!  Why does something always go wrong when you're at Powell, but it's always the time of your life?? Funny how that happens! haha.

Soo, I don't have a whole lot of time right now so this letter may be a little shorter than the others...just an fyi.  But anyway, this week was one of those tougher ones where you try and try and try but nothing seems to go super well, but it's ok, because those weeks always have to come and that's normally when we learn the most!  We had a few super cool investigators who were progressing a TON....actually, one day we were going to visit one of the families that we are teaching and when we got there we see part of the family reading in the Book of Mormon together.....WHAT! that was super cool.....but then in the same week, we went back to visit them and they told us that they didn't want us to visit them anymore....NOOOO!  I honestly couldn't believe it.  It was a little hard to hear that, but I know that we need to continue looking for the people who are ready to accept the gospel in their lives and to live it!

 

I've learned something through all these experiences.....that every single one of us is going to be put up against the wall of faith and then when we are there, make our decision. Pres Ezra Taft Benson gave a talk about that and until being here on the mission and really living it, I never really realized how true it is!  We are all going to have things happen in our lives to really see if we believe what we say we believe!  I was thinking about how after my mission, I'm going to have to face real life and when that day comes, put in practice everything that I have learned here in the mission out there in the real world.  So I have come to the conclusion that Heavenly Father loves us enough to gives us these "tests" of faith, so that we can grow.....even though it hurts Him to see us suffer, He knows the final result if we endure it well!  So thats what we are going to do here, is endure, keep fighting and keep looking for those special people who are waiting for us!  love it.

 

I love you all....go have fun at the lake!

 

Elder Johnson

 

YES.....WE ARE GETTING RAINED OUT!

FAM FAM FAMILY.

 

WHAT'S UP EVERYONE!' Just thought I'd let you know that my fùtbol (soccer) skills are improving very much....haha.  We played today in the morning and it was super fun, we had a few locals show up who were unbelievable and so I learned a few things from them....it was GNAR LEE

haha.  Also, we are getting a TON of rain right now.....yesterday we were walking back from the lunch that we had, which by the way was super far away from the house, and it started to POUR rain!  The streets were completely flooded within about 3 minutes and so when we got to the house....we were literally drenched with water!  It was way fun though. ha.

 

So now I suppose I should fill you in on how the actual missionary work is going! haha.  This week went well for us....we had plans that we were going to find a lot of people this week and we went out with our goals in mind and we found quite a few people actually!  But the bad news is, is not one of the people we are teaching came to church......BUMMER!  That was a little disappointing, but there is no need to get down on ourselves, we just got  to keep working and help these people feel the spirit enough in their hearts to have the desire to go to church to really know if what we are teaching is true!  So that is what we are going to focus on this week, is helping people come to church so that they can progress in the gospel and change their lives!

 

So I don't know if you remember me talking a little bit about the specific prayers and specific plans and everything like that....well if you do, we had a super cool experience with that this week!  We had made super super specific plans the night before of what we were going to do the next day...when we were going to leave the house, we said a specific prayer that we would be able to find a family of 4 that day that would accept to listen to us, so we left with all the faith in the world, and we followed the plans that we had put.  We arrived at one house and a little girl, about 12 years old answers and says...."my mom left to go the super market"....while she said that, we heard a voice in the back of the house...and we asked...."could we talk with your mom?" and she got all red and said...."I'll talk to her to see....." hahaha.  Anyway, that's not the important part.  We started to talk with the mom and she let us into her house, we started to talk with her and as we were talking, her cousin walked into the house, sat down and started to listen to us!  Then a couple minutes later, one of her uncles walks in, sits down and starts to listen to us!  WHAT! There were 4 people in the house listening to the message of the restoration, and they were all super interested, asking a bunch of super solid questions and at the end we challenged everyone to be baptized and everyone accepted!  Cooool cool cool. haha.  Our prayer was answered and we left the house super stoked!  The only bad part is....they all went to Mazatlan this weekend to visit family, so they couldn't go to church. Oh well, we'll just have to help them this week go to church.  So yeah, that was the cool experience of the week, hope you all liked it!  Remember to always pray, because Heavenly Father does listen and does answer!

 

I love you all, I hope you all have a TON of fun at Lake Powell!  I actually had a dream about Lake Powell this week, so that was cool....I'm there without really being there....believe that being there is WAY better than just dreaming your there!  haha.  Love you all.

 

Elder Johnson

 

p.s. this is after playing soccer in the morning! the one in the orange shirt is my companion and the other 2 are the assistants right now! tons tons tons of fun.

RoLLer COAstER RiDe

FAMILY.

 

Hello everyone, just thought I'd let you know that I enjoyed my 4th of July very much and felt very American....the reason why is because....without even knowing, the family that we ate with that day made the BEST HOT DOGS EVER and I ate about 6!  Who would have thought that I would be eating hot dogs in Mexico on the 4th of July!  Good stuff. haha. Still missed the fireworks, but I'll settle for hot dogs.

 

Thank you thank you thank you for the package!  My companions and I destroyed the candy super fast and I am enjoying a nice, clean and convenient shave each and every morning! haha.

 

So I'm guessing your wondering why I put as a title to this letter....RoLLer COAstER RiDe....well the reason is because this week was full of ups and downs...high points and low points!  First of all, I'm not sure if I have told you about Lidia, but if I haven't, she is one of the coolest and best investigators that we have right now...she has been reading in the Book of Mormon and has prayed to know it's true and she told us this week that she felt and knows that it is true!  Well, that was the up....now for the down. about 2 days ago there was a baptism in the ward so we had invited her to come and she was super excited to go, and the day of the baptism we received a message from her....but it wasn't the message we were really hoping for. she said that she did not want us to come back to her house anymore and that she will not be going to church, and said that we should spare her the embarrassment of not opening the door when we come again........uhhhhhhhhh....NOOOO!!!  I really couldn't believe it, we had felt the spirit super strong with her and she had just received her testimony that it was all true, and now this....NO WAY!  I felt super bummed at first, but then I remembered that we had done everything what we could to help her come to Christ, but in the end, she has her agency to choose.  I felt comfort in knowing that she now knows EXACTLY where to go if she wants to have an eternal family and it's cool that we could provide that knowledge for her...I hope that she will realize that in the future and have a desire to follow the promptings of the spirit!  We just gotta keep looking for the people that are willing to act upon the promptings that they feel and never get down on ourselves!  I just think about what it says in D&C 4....."with an eye single to the glory of God"....we can't lose our vision nor forget our purpose of why we are here!  Love love lovin it.

 

Gibran, his mom Lourdes and sister Marisol are progressing really well right now, we are working with them to be baptized this coming Saturday......they actually went to see the baptism in the ward this last week and really liked it, so pray for them a lot POR FAVOR!

 

I love you all sort of a lot!  Keep looking for ways to progress, and always look for ways to help those around you!!

 

Elder Johnson