Week 22: Happy Halloween!

I got the teaching aids, thank you so much, those are great and I will
totally use them soon! Two of our investigators died this morning, it's 
pretty shocking I'm still kind of shaken up about it. (I'm talking about
those two big brown fat cows--they got slaughtered this morning.)  It
was pretty gruesome. It was a mobile butcher and he came and did it
in the backyard. It was pretty intense and nasty. I'm glad that I don't
have to do that for a living. 

Elder Garcia has been out 10 months. He is a scripture genius
especially with Old and New Testament stuff. Elder Schmuck is
a good companion, but I don't know who my favorite has been yet.
They all have different good traits in them.

Lisa's baptism was great! Elder Schmuck and I did all the prayers,
talks and witnessed. President Yardley came...it's so nerve racking
having a old member of the Seventy sitting there listening to you. The
confirmation went great the next day as well. I was nervous but I
think I did a good job. Lisa is so strong, I love it! She loves the church
and it makes her so happy. 

The next baptism is tonight, for Sara, she's 13. It's at 8pm. Then the
next one is Nov. 6th, that's Brian, and we set another one last
Wednesday, on Nov. 21, it's for two more OAY's, Micah and Haley.
I'm excited for that one also.

Sorry this letter is so short, we have basketball right now and
everyone is waiting on me. I'll make sure to write you first next
week so I can answer all of your questions. Love ya

-Elder Johnson

p.s. Happy Halloween

Hey Mom I got some more time to email again. Let's see where
I left off. On Halloween we do have to be in early and it's a
non-proselytizing day so we don't go out and tract and teach
and stuff. It's kind of like a day off. We have to be inside by
like 4 pm I think. We also do day light savings and I'm looking
forward to that extra hour of sleep! lol

Week 21

I was talking with a guy a couple weeks ago and he shared with me
the coolest thing. We were talking about Elder D. Todd
Christopherson's talk in General Conference which kind of talked
about the economy and he told me that the lord always knows what
he is doing. He works in the temple and told me that a year ago
before the economy fell, there was just OK attendance at the temple,
especially during the morning and day times. Now it is packed! When
we go in the mornings, it is a full session. He told me the lord always
is in control, if we're lacking on temple work, he will chasten us to get
us to go there and that's exactly what is going on here. There's really
good faithful saints here that are attending the temple weekly.

We were over at Grandpa Washburn's house one night this week. I
think I told you about him, he's an Emeritus Seventy, East Phoenix
AZ Mission President, and also Las Vegas Temple President. We
were asking him about his two talks that he got to do in General
Conference and he lent us HIS book. It's a biography on his life. It
is so cool! I've been reading it and its really opened my eyes to just
how important and amazing the temple work is. I was also reading
about his time as a Seventy. He was in the Area Presidency in Africa
and spent years over there opening up the continent to the church.
Anyway, I just thought it was so cool to have him in my area and
get to spend time with him. He knows and talks with a lot of the
apostles still today.

I haven't gotten the line of authority yet. I could have gotten it when
we went to the temple this morning but the guy that takes us has to
work at 9 so we leave pretty quick after we get out and the mission
office opens at 9. So I haven't gotten that yet but I'm sure the zone
leaders will get it to me this week.


You wrote that I'll be getting Elder Bailey....did I put Elder Bailey when
I wrote you? I was getting Elder Kaylor but plans have changed.
President called us a couple nights ago and switched some things
around, so now we are getting Elder Garcia....this will be a interesting
transfer to say the least. Elder Garcia is different...very different but
like you said I'm just going to treat him like an all star and hope he
will be.

Only 2 months til Christmas, that will be crazy. I'm only 1 week away
from my 5 month mark, it's next Tuesday the 27th, we even have a
baptism that night so that will be awesome!

We do have two pumpkins in our apartment. We're gonna cut them up
today and make them into jack-o-lanterns, that will be fun. We don't
have any Halloween decorations. We could have them but we haven't
gotten any, and we don't really live with members. Members own it
but it really is like our apartment, they don't go back there ever so it's
really "ours" lol.

You said that Sister Detter has a niece in the mission...who is Sister
Detter? lol there's only a had full of sister missionaries so I probably
do know her already. Unless she's out on the east side of the mission
in Twin Falls, they're off in their own world over there, the mission is
kinda split down the middle; west vs. east.

This past week has been really good, we've taught a lot of lessons but
we have been having to battle with sickness here. Not us, but ALL of
our investigators are sick with the flu. 20% of the Boise School
District has been out the last few weeks because of the swine flu.
It's spreading around like crazy! Our zone leaders had it last week
also, I'm glad that I'm immune from it now haha.

Yesterday I had an awesome experience. We had dinner out in the
17th ward, which is the country ward and we had like 20 minutes
so we looked over a Part Member Family list and we went to go
visit a lady that was living out near dinner. We only had 10 minutes
before dinner when we got out there so we were gonna just say hi
and set up a time to meet with them. Well for some reason I
grabbed my backpack out of the car and brought it in with me.
The sister was super nice and she was telling us about herself and
her situation. Her husband isn't a member. Well I felt prompted to
share a scripture with her before we left and I read Alma 7:11-13.
That one talks about the atonement and how Christ suffered all of
our pains, afflictions, temptations, trials, and sorrows so that he
knows what we're going through and how to help/comfort/strengthen
us. After I read it she told us that she had just finished praying
when we got there and had asked for help and guidance because
her adult step son has addictions to substances and that has been
causing a lot of contention and  afflictions within their family and she
said that scripture was the exact thing she needed to hear. I was
almost speechless when we left her house. I definitely felt that I was
where I needed to be and doing  what I needed to be doing. It was
definitely a memorable little experience.

Well I hope you all are happy and doing good, I'll continue to pray
for you all. Love you!

-Elder Johnson

"There is no misfortune so bad that whining about it won't make
it worse."  -Elder Jeffrey R Holland

Week 20: Happy Columbus Day!

Hey Momma,

So we didn't have Lisa's baptism this past Saturday. We met with her
last Tuesday night and she had to work on Saturday so the baptism is
on October 24th now. Bishop Kellar is going to do the baptism. He is
her boss and he is also the high counselor over missionary work in our
stake, so he's a great guy. Lisa is a very spiritual lady. She's been
going to church her whole life. She is a single mom and has 5 kids, one
is married and the other 4 live at home still, the youngest is in 8th
grade. Lisa is awesome and I can't wait to see just how great a
member missionary she will be. Literally EVERYBODY knows Lisa
because she works at Albertsons and her kind of personality is just
amazing and so friendly, the entire ward really just grabbed on to her
when she started coming to church. So that is a great thing. 

I haven't really kept in contact with any other recent converts in Kuna
but another one of our converts is getting baptized out there on
October 29th so I'll get to go to that! I do keep in contact with all of
the RC's (recent converts) we have out here.

We did get a new investigator this past week, for the singles ward
too! I think I wrote about him last week, Armando? He is great and it's
great to get some more in the singles ward finally. Oh and big news!
We finally hit 20 lessons in a week! YAY! It was awesome, we're
leading our zone in lessons by a long shot right now which is great!
And I do know what a OAY is, I've had one, Tyler Gregory, and
Sara Hammer-Huber is also gonna be a OAY and she's getting
baptized on the 27th. 

Transfers are next week, usually on Tuesday/Wednesday. We got
transfer calls just last night! It was early! Elder Schmuck and I are
staying together again here in Nampa. We're actually going to be in
a three-some too. Elder Kayler is coming to join us. I don't know much
about him. We'll see how that goes. I am super excited that I get to
stay for all the baptisms we are having here!

I'm excited for the priesthood line of authority to come, and I have
heard about the gospel art book and I have one ;-), did you read
about it in the Ensign? 

The missionaries don't get taken off bikes in the winter, we have to
bear through the weather. Next transfer we're going back to a car
share since Schmuck's knee is getting better so we'll be out on bikes
soon. I'm excited for that. 

Well Mom I miss and love you guys lots, I hope you have a great
week. There's a great quote by Elder Holland, "no misfortune is so
bad that whining about it won't make it worse" so I've kept that
in my mind this past week. Hurray for Israel!

-Elder Johnson

"He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free"  -Battle
Hymn of the Republic

Week 19

Conference was amazing, I loved it! We got to watch it with some of
our investigators. Elder Holland's talk was my favorite, he was so
powerful. I've seen talks like that when he speaks about his mission
to missionaries and I love those talks, so seeing this one was
awesome. I also really liked Elder Richard G Scott's talk. It was the
first one after President Monson's opening remarks. Also Elder Tad
Callister from the Quorum of the Seventy, he really rebuked what
bad things people say about the church and as missionaries I wrote
some down so now I have the answers when anti people try to talk
with us lol.

So who did BYU play?  We went to the Temple this morning at 6:30
and it was a great session. I sat with my first District Leader, Elder Bly,
I love that guy! He goes home in December so I'm glad I got to see
him again. With my priesthood lineage, I would like it if you could
maybe print out a copy, shrink it and laminate it so I could it carry
around in my scriptures. If that's too hard, just a printed off copy you
send me would be great.

Lisa is getting baptized this Saturday, October 10th, Sara is getting
baptized the 27th and Brian is getting baptized the 6th of November
(he changed it because he's marrying a member and they're getting
married the 7th and wanted all the family to be there so it's going to
be the day before the marriage.) I am so excited for Lisa's baptism!
I think she might ask me to do the baptism because I've been with
her since the beginning and she doesn't know a lot of people at
church yet. I think it would be so cool to get to do that! I'll send
pictures next week after it.

The weather here is so cold now! It frosts every morning now and is
freezing. The weekend was all raining and windy so that was no
good. I'm good with clothes and everything now.

Well I love you guys and hope all is well.  In my Book of Mormon
reading, I loved King Benjamin's address to his people in Mosiah
chapters 3-6. He really says so many things that will help us in
our days. I know the Book of Mormon was written for our day
by faithful prophets that did see us and our challenges. I love
the Book of Mormon. I love you.


-Elder Johnson


p.s. yesterday we had some fun in the morning, Bishop Young
called us (we live with him) and told us to go help his wife put
the cows back in the backyard. The gate was left open and
they were running out in the street, so it was fun chasing them
down with sticks and trying to get them back there haha ...cows
are so much bigger when they're out in places where they don't
belong.