April 29, 2008

hey everyone.
i quess i don't need to tell you about the tornadoes. we heard about them last night, we just got drenched. luckily my coat is good in the rain, the water just runs off. however elder neilson got soaked and he was drenched. he was freezing. so that didn't make it very fun. we were out tracting in very heavy rain and we meet a really mean lady. no only did she not want to listen to us, she said, your getting wet, and slammed the door. but oh well, it's her agency.
we have ahd some problems lately though but some amazing referals. most of our appointments fall through and two of our investigators asked us to drop them. one of them is the one that was committed to being baptized, but we think she's being pushed away by outside forces. the other is really busy and he asked for a thrity day break. but he told us he has felt a change since he met us. so theres stillhope for both of them.
on saturday we did exhanges with some elders in Louisa, one of which is elder beames, my companion from the MTC. We went to Goochland, it's in our area but about thirty minutes away, so it doesn't get done very often, and started tracting. the second house we got to was an older lady and she was excited to see us. it's turns out that the missionaries came by about a year and hlaf ago and watched the Lamb of God with her. they gave her a copy of the Book of Mormon and never came back. she has read it and prayed about it. she knows it is true. we made a retrun appointment so well be heading by on mondya. then we came into a less active member and turns out she wants to come back it's just to far. she also has a brother, who is in intensive care. he had a brain annorism. he had surgery but it's still been very hard on her faimly. but what was amzing about it was that she just got there we arrived near her home. then she had to leave soon. it was an incredible experience.
we also recieved a referal gfor this lady, it's turns out she's not in our boundries, but the zone office wasn't sure. so we stopped by and she just said how much of a hard time she's been going through. she has tried to kill herself twice, and she has no income. she's in a bad mess and wants help, but can't find it. we can tell she's prepared.
sunday was amazing. we talked in church. i was the third speaker out of four. the last speaker was President Bria, the first cousilour in the mission presidency, and he was amazing. he told some amazing stories about missionary work. he talked about how he joined the church. he was in high shcool and a group a girls just kept saying hi to him. he had no idea who they were but somehow they knew him. he finnaly asks them and a girl invited him to seminary and wanted him to take her. he went the first day and did not want to go back. he ends up taking her and her firends to school and the whole day people were asking him how he got his car full of beautiful girls. well after school the girl he took to seminary asks him if he wants to go again. he said, the rest is history.
i heard another story about him from my companions. he went to France on his mission and they had a memebr of the first presdiency come. he said at France you were considered lucky to get one baptism your whole mission at france. but the general authority said, you ll can get one baptism each month, lack of appliciation is the only deturnant. (not sure if it's spelled right.) he amkes it his goal for the rest of the mission to do that. each companionship had intervies with him and he extends the goal to president Bria. he accepts his companion later tells him it can't happen. then they get called in again and he said, you can get two babtism each month. the first couple of months they had no baptisms but then he was praying in a park and a girl tapps him on the houlder and says she's been coming to church for a while and wants to be babtized. the next month he had two, then foyur, then 8. he had many babtisms there and i thought it was ana amazing story.
thats all i have for right now, but i was going to try getting a phone card,, but i quess you can send it to me, just let me know where to call if it turns out to be at grandmas. elder yelton will have it rough on mothers day though. he will call and then he goes home the next week. i also do need my birth certificate for my lisence. a copy will not work.
well thats it. no more probelms with emailing, i hope. (knock on wood.)
Elder Johnson