Elder Steven Johnson

Last e-mail from Virginia.

2010-03-20T17:48:00.000-07:00

so i'm able to email this last time. but things have been going very well here. it's been nice an warm, except for the rain last week, but other than that verything has been good.

i'll be leaving wakefield tuesday morning , and then i have a meeting with pres. millburn a last interview and then i quess i'll meet up with you at two then.

well for this past week the most intersting experience we had was actually yesterday. we were in for lunch and there was a knockat the door. elder conlin answeres, and it a jehovah's witness. right when he opened the door, her eyses went big, stared at his nametag, quickly went through her spill as handing him the pamplet and then took off very close to a run. it was funny. then we had a family home evening on sunday with the grubers and they had this game called missionary impossible. it was really fun. basically the game is is your trying to go through a mission, and you have cards with an amount of weeks on i, and you strive to make it to 26 weeks and then you win that round. but you can place trials on you oppenent to slow thm down, suck a dog bite, hostile investagtors and things like that. it was actaully really fun. but other than that this past week was fairly busy, we had a lot of appointments and was just running around, excpet earlier in the morning didn't have much of anything going on. but it was good all around though.well i guess i'll talk to you next week, and have fun till then and take care Elder S. Johnson

2010-03-05T16:48:00.000-08:00

well for snow, there isn't to much here, i don't know about further north or not. and from the sounds of it it won't be here to long it's suppossed to be in the sixties next week. but everything is starting to turn green here again. so spring is on it's way here.

oh yeah just so i can let some people know, old companions mostly, what time does church start? also tell kate and grace, i'm excited to see them.

well we are having a baptism on friday. so some good news on this front. there names are tim and freda. they actually have a cool story. there son got baptized about 3 years ago but he hasn't been the greatest example. he been very defiant to them. but they didn't want anything to do with the church, and from what elder conlin told me when he got here 6 weeks ago they wouldn't even let missionaries inside. but there son micheal let them in oneday and the parents didn't notice and freda when she found out they were inside just glared at them from the other room. she eventually moved and went to the room they were in and just stood there. elder conlin asked her if she would like to sit down, and she said no, shes not intersted. but he looked at her and said, no, you have questions? she was taken back by it and and a few minutes later she said, yeah i do, i want to know what my son belives. and they have changed alot since missionaries have taught them and they have changed alot, in just a space of two months or so. so thats the best news on this side of the front. last thurdsay we had mission confernce and had a senior missionary get up and basically atke to us alot of menatl health. mostly on monitoring or self talk. it was pretty intersting. and also the three stakes in richmond are hosting a huge missionary event, i'm really excited for. it will be on the 19th of march. the saints united voices choir directed by gladys Knight. basically its it going to be a musical fireside and then gladys knight is going to bear here testimony on why she joined the church. i thnik its going to be awesome, so we learned alot about what going to happen there and things like that.but thats been the biggest news on this front. but things are going great here on this end. well talk to you later, and have fun.

February 24, 2010

2010-03-05T16:46:00.000-08:00

thats an awesome story, it's always amazing to see the simple things like that bring about something larger. like theres a member here and he was walking his dog and his dog, loves people, and jumped up on a sister missionary and that how he came in contact with them. funny how things like that work. so on firday we went to pres. holle's house for a young women activity. basically they made us dinner and then we taught the first lesson to them. it was differnt, alot them were very distracted and talking with each other as we taught them. but we did some visuals for them. elder conlin did theses cups and basically made them into a building, for the church, and the bottom was the apostles. then you pull out the apostles for the apostasy. then i did this one where i made a telephone out of soups cans and related that to how God speaks to us. and compared the string to the prophet. so two young women were talking to each other threw it as i was explaining it, and then i talked about how sometimes we don't want to listen and we reject/kill the prophet. then i cut the string. they werent to thrilled. but other them goofing off the whole time, it went allright.but other than that not anything really cool to tell you right off. but i quess i talk to you later. and take care and have fun.Elder S. Johnson

MIssionary Opportunity to Speak Date

2010-02-22T18:58:00.001-08:00

Steven will be speaking in Sacrament Meeting, March 28th, at 1pm. More details to follow, but just so you have the date. He will be home on March 26th! Only 33 more days! (Gordon and I will see him in 29!).

Jane

February 17, 2010

2010-02-17T18:21:00.000-08:00

well i'm not to trunky right now, it still feels weird thinking that i only have that little left, i don't think time has hit me yet perosnally. wow, so jmaes is going to peru, that should be fun.

wakefield has changed quite abit. when i left there was a bout 40-50 members each sunday but there been a few baptisms and a few fmailies that moved in and now there is about 60. theres a new branch preisdnecy here, and a few families that have moved, other than that it's about the same. but right now the area is on fire, theres about 6 people set for baptism and one of them has a pretty cool story behind it. her mom joined the church a little less than a year ago, and two weeks ago she died suddenly and she is alot more intersted now. alot of the members here were very excited to see me again. the branch president wife when i was here she, was very excited to see me again. it's defiantly been fun.

address is still the same it P.o box 964, wakefield, Va 23888. so my companion name is elder conlin, from pocotello. he's been out for a while as well, he is actually going home 3 months after me. and his last companion here, just finished his mission. so people are strating to call him the killer.

so i actually have some funny stories for this week. yesterday was a sad one, we were leaving an invetsigators house, and as i got to the door the dog was trying to get it, so out of reflex i shut the screen again not to let it out and all of the sudden the dog started whining, i was lloking at it and was wondering what is this dog doing. and at the same time not realizing i was still trying to shut the door. it turns out it's paw was caught in between the door. i felt so bad. but the dog is fine now. but the better story is we went to teach a family and one of them volunteered to say the paryer, and then we stood there in cirlce holding hands, a baptist thing, and we stood there for about 4 minutes waiting for him to say the paryer, i was thinking are they just saying a slient prayer to themselves, i wasn't sure what was going on, so we didn't say anything and it turns out the person forgot he was saying it. so were teaching this family named the fishers and they are awesome, there son has been a member for a few years and they never have been intersted, and now they are. the reason there intersted is so there family can be together forever. pretty sweet huh.well other than that not to much more i know to say, but it's been fun being here again. it's had some sad things though, like one person that i atught she is going down the wrong road. she wants to be out on her own and basically wants freedom of no rules, and apparently she moving in with someone that has had problems with the law, so it's been heartbreaking seeing that. but all we can do is hope she comes back. well sorry to end on a sad note but things are doing very god here, talk to you later.

Letter from President Milburn (February 13, 2010)

2010-02-13T18:02:00.000-08:00

We got the official release Letter from President Milburn today! It's really going to happen--he's coming home!

February 10, 2020

2010-02-11T14:16:00.000-08:00

Mom's note: Only 6 more weeks!

yeah we got snow again. but were are able to email. it's been pretty annoying, we finally got power back yesterday from the last one, but sounds like no snow in forecast so some good news.

well for transfer news it's been pretty exciting. i foun out i am going to wakefield. i'm going back for my last six weeks. crazy huh. my companion name is elder conlin. I don't know him to well, just heard of him, so it will be intersting to see what happens.

the first week sounds fine to me. so tell him the 28th of march. (Mom's Note: The Bishop wanted to know which week he wanted to speak) yeah i heard about the super bowl, i heard it was a close game for most of i, but then peyton threw that interception, and heard it was over after that.

but for this week, we had a pretty good week, we had a good lesson with jason and tabby on thursday and there doing awesome. and then the next day we got hit by that storm. i was crazy because it snowed, and then turned to freezing rain that night, and then snowed on top of that. trees were down all over the place, what was crazy about it is that the roads didn' even look the same, after the storm, they just looked different. but powers back so it's good now. but other than that not to much exciting news for the week. well take care and have fun.

February 3, 2010

2010-02-11T14:14:00.000-08:00

as you could probably tell we are having alot of snow. so the storm last weekend dumped three times the amount they were predicting, and yesterday, had a light dusting. but from the sounds of it, were going to get dumped again this weekend. weve heard a bunch of differnt estimates, but all of them are saying around 20 inches, and i've heard higher. so i can understnading with Blanding getting aton. hopefully everything turns out allright.

the plans sound fine to me. so i don't know to much more to add right off. yeah i remember the sonntags i think, i think they were there before i left. but elders defiantly not.(Mom's note: I told him about our Sacrament Meeting, and Brother Sonntag and Brother Elder talked)

yeah transfers are next week, and i'm not expecting to stay, but it's still possible. the only way i could see us both staying is if a third elder comes in. but i quess well find out. well this past week we shoved snow, and actually met someone who was taught like 5 yers ago and still wants to be baptized. so pretty exciting. other than that i can't think of to much more o say. sorry this is short, but take care, and talk to you later. take care.

January 27, 2010

2010-02-11T14:05:00.000-08:00

hey how is everything going? yes i got the package monday and i loved the pitcures. sounds like you didn't get to much of snow, were suppossed to get more this weekend but i'm unsure on how much, i've heard light dusting, to 8 inches all from different people, so hopefully nothing to bad.

well wakefield doesn't have any motels are anything there probaly the closest would be either franklin or williamsburg, so thought i would let you know. wow, it's hard to belive colton is going on his mission now

jacob's baptism was awesome. it went very well. I think probably the best part of it was seeing jason smith baptize him. just because about six months ago, he wasn't active, and and hadn't been to church for a while, and now seeing him baptize his nephew was awesome. i can't remember if i told you this or not, but jason and tabby both got recommends to do baptisms at the temple, and she got her recommand for a patrictial blessing. they are on fire right now.other than that not to much more to tell you. but things have been going great here, i'm loving it. well tell everyone hi for me, and talk to you later.

January 13, 2010

2010-01-16T18:00:00.000-08:00

heythat's sucks about your job. well i hope that everything will go well in the new job search, hopefully everything will go well. this week has started off pretty rough for us, some of our investigators dropped us, but we were leaning toward doing that as well. so worked out for the best. but thats awesome with sunday. i've never heard of anyone doing that before, but it sounds awesome (mom's NOte: we had scripture Sunday and people told their favorite scripture). jason and tabby boith gave good talks on how the gospel has helped them with there family and both were very powerful talks. tabby said she was very nervous about giving it but once she got up it went away and she spoke from the heart and it was amazing. to bad i couldn't hear tiff or dans talk.

i don't know what the weather is like there, but it's cold here. everyone says it's the coldest winter they've had for a while. i even heard that florida is having damage to there crops because of it. hopefully it will warm up soon. so i can't really think of any cool stories right of for this week, other than we had alot of lessons with everyone and it's been very busy, but we have also found quite a few people that seem very promising, so good news on that front.well i'll defiantly keep you in my prayers, that everything will go well with the job hunt, well take care and hope that all goes well. and i'm glad that grandma is doing a little bit better. oh by the way elder beames parents aren't picking him up, but he's going home later than everyone else, because the soonest flight they could get is like thursday or something. so he's got alittle bit longer as well. well take care

January 6, 2010

2010-01-16T17:58:00.000-08:00

well thats exciting about the the tickets. (mom's note: we have our plane tickets to go pick him up!) as for the question about near the airport, as far as i know, which i don't know that part of richmond well, i belive it's farly safe. atleast as far as i remember it looked fairly safe. i'm not sure to much on things to see, but i know williamsburg and james town are close to wakefield, so that's an option. and the biggest thinbg i know down in farmville/burkeville area is appomattox courthouse/lee's retreat. basically the end of the civil war. so not sure. i don't really have to much information about getting info about tourist places here, but i'll give it a shot.

that exciting about jill and jessica, i can't pitcure any apartments there but sounds fun. oh yes, happy birthday. i'll get a card sent out soon. yeah i've seen one of those pitcure frames before. i think there pretty nice, a member had one in the nursoing home with her, she loved it. well for this week, we had it pretty crazy, on wensday night the snow storm in salt lake postponed transfers til the next day. and then the plane had mechanical problems the next. so finally saturday i got my new companion. it was a blast seeing elder beames again. it's been an adevnture here so far. i also saw pres. gruber, he was the branch president when i was down in wakefeild. it was good seeing him again. on sunday jason smith was called into the young mens and i know there working on tabby to get her a calling, so things are going good on that front. they also are giving talks on sunday as well. we also had our brakes replaced yesterday so we did a whole lot of walking yesterday. wasn't to fun. new years eve was pretty boring all we did was stay in after five, and watch elder karpowitz pack, so it was pretty boring.well i don't know to much more to say, but it's been good here, cold but good. well talk to you later

December 30, 2009

2010-01-16T17:56:00.000-08:00

well some big news here in Louisa. i'm staying. and the big suprise of all is who my companion is going to be, it elder beames. i came out here with him, and louisa was his first area. it was a very big suprise for me, but i'm excited to serve with him. so it will be crazy to see what happens next transfer, but i doubt that we will end together. elder karpowitz is headed to Norfolk. so well see.

most of the snow is gone now, mostly because it rained on christmas. but from the sounds of it we may have another storm tomorrow. don't think it will be as bad. that subks about brett and liz's car breaking down, hopefully they make it back safely.

this week was has been a blast. on monday night we had a really cool experince, we had a lesson with someone named carl. we got there to find out he wasn't there. so it's about an hour before we go in and really didn't want to tract in the dark and started calling people to see how they were doing. so we ended up calling vallery and she was really upset at the time and elder karpowitz started talking with her and can't remember all that he talked about but now she got the fire back, and really helped her out. it was awesome. thats was proabbly one of the neatest expriences this past week, sorry i can't remeber to much that happened this past week, but i'll talk to you later, take care Elder S. Johnson

Christmas Day!

2009-12-26T06:09:00.001-08:00

The phone rang at 8am and it was Steven. They have two feet of snow and he's unable to drive the mission car. They have to walk everywhere. He said they hadn't plowed his street. So that's why no e-mail this week. Yes, Virginia does have snow plows but they're not like Utah's. They were going to a members house for Christmas. They people they live with had a new baby and the mom had come home on Christmas Eve. I can't think of other things to tell about. A little about plans for going to get him in March. We agreed that I can be the excited one for him to come home and he'll keep working hard. Great to talk to him!

Jane

December 16, 2010

2009-12-16T20:01:00.000-08:00

well now to explain the pitcure with the dolls. theres a member here who collects them and has them on the back of the couch. so she told us if there feet bg you move them. so we joked around and took some pitcures with us holding them. so thats the story behind it. the other picture of me is cutting an onion. i love onions. i like them more raw though. but still good. i've heard the packages are in, but we live about 8-10 miles from the post office and everytime weve been in the area it's closed. but should be able to get it today. well as far as i know the rules with picking me up is, that ill be going in on the 23 to the mission home and then the next day is when you fly out. so not sure with everything so probably safe to say email pres. millburn. he'll be sure to answer that, or you could call the mission office and call sis. smedley and she should be able to answer any questions.

sunday was crazy for us here as well. we woke up to a little bit of ice from the night before. we had a small ice storm, but we had church. so everyone was happy. but heard snow is in the forecast again. defiantly wetter this year. we also had the branch christmas party this week as well. it was fun.

yes i also got the wedding announcemnt for brett as well. also another funny story. there two missionaries out that are companions right now, one is elder bronson and he's from tremonten. he also knows chad, and the other is an elder simpson, from blanding, and knows robby. small world huh.

so thurdays we taught jason and tabby's nephew jacob, and he's know set for the 9th of january. his mom is a member and he's been wanting to be baptized for a few years now, but he mom has been holding him back, but know she has agreed. it been crazy to see everything unfolding there. jason's parents are active, but have struggled to overcome smoking, and thats been keeping them from the temple, and right now the whole fmaily are striving to go to the temple. so it's been amazing to see the family come together like that. it's been great. then yesterday we had our christmas mission confernce. it was fun seeing alot of familiar faces. it was a blast. wwell don't know to much more to share. but i quess well talk to you later. take care and have fun.

December 9, 2009

2009-12-16T19:59:00.000-08:00

The internet was down at the library and we didn't get an e-mail from STeven this week. We did get a short note with pictures. Maybe I can get Tiff to help me post them. We did hear from President Milburn. Steven will be released March 23, 2010. Wahoo!
Jane

December 2, 2009

2009-12-05T12:16:00.000-08:00

hey everyone. this week has been great. also sounds like you did as well. well ill defiantly keep an eye out for the package. I don't think i will be sending one home this year. not much around here to send. sorry, but i am thinking about sending christmas cards so just letting you know. i can't remember if you said anything or not, but where did Liz serve her mission. bytheway did kate get the birthday card i sent her. hope she likes it wasn't much to good around here.

yeah i heard about the BYU and Utah game. jason rogers is a big football fan so elder karpowitz every saturday night asks for an update on scores. and sunday too. are you sure it was zack tghat heard his date, because i would think it would have been nick but then again i might be different for england.

thanksgiving was a blast. we spent the whole day at the lewis's and it was fun. it defiantly felt like it was a thanksgiving at the stringhams. there a very fun family. we had a football game there and it was fun. we won. we beat them by 20 points. my favorite play in that game was the ball got thrown to me and it looked like i was going to miss it but i got it at the very edge of the ball. i don't know how i caught it. but it was a touchdown so it was good. then we played a bunch of board games it was good. then on monday we went on exchnages with Scotchtown. it was pretty fun, went all the way up to a small town called bowling green. it was very intersting. we also saw kings dominion which is a big theme park, we drove by. it was pretty fun.

well thats it for this week. things have been going well. i quess i'll talk to you in 23 days. well take care and have fun. also i heard that we might be getting snow this weekend. if thats the case everything will shutdown, and hopefully they will still let us go out. well take care and have fun.

November 25, 2009

2009-11-28T10:50:00.000-08:00

Jane's note: Sorry, I haven't updated in a long time, but this should have it all caught up.

well to answer your question real quick, you didn't ask me if i needed anything for christmas. i could use another pair of black slacks. other than that i don't really need anything. i'm doing good other than that. i keep forgettiong to ask about that guy, a few months ago i saw it in the newspaper as i walked by. he is actually from Vcu not virginia tech. (Mom comment---he's talking about the Jazz Player--Eric Maynor).

well for my bike i have a really sad story with that. right now for my bike i need a new rim, so thats the only hold up, as for the story, i've been borrowing a member bike and on saturday the derailer snapped. (thats what changes gears in the back) so on sunday we borrowed another members bike and the chain snapped before we even went a mile. so i have had really bad luck this week. but verything is fixable, so nothing to bad. so for right now, i've taken a tire off the first members bike and placed it on mine. so should get them fixed soon.

yes we got invirted almost a month ago to thanksgiving. it's with a fmaily named the lewis's. actually kind of funny story with them, they have us over almost weekly for dinner and every sunday her daughter comes and asks us what we would like. so the funny thing is is some members are starting to give elder karpowitz a hard time about her. mostly it is vallery and jason, and tabby and jason smith. i even get into it at times.

so for for this week the news is, we set vallery for baptism last night. she still has some things she needs to overcome but i'm certain she can do it, she almost quick smoking all by herself. so thats some really good news. so a few weeks ago i told about the member who was in the hospital and he is doing much better, he's in a nursing home now, but he has a staph infetcion in his knee, so once the infection is gone he's going to get a knee replacement. sorry i don't have to much news for you this week, i sturggling to remember all that we did. it was a busy week. and this week has as well. but have fun with thanksgiving it should be good. take care

October 18, 2009

2009-11-28T10:48:00.000-08:00

so we just had transfer calls last night, and i'm still staying here. in fact i'm going to be elder karpowitz's longest companion. so pretty strange feeling if you ask me. we were really expecting me to go, but it didn't. so i should be here through christmas. thats great the marilyn got married, thats some good news, as well as all the new babies as well. but dylan has himself a truck... thats crazy. i didn't even think he was old enough to drive. i'm getting old. but tell colten congradulations on his mission call. he's going to love it. but i'm glad that jill is doing better, defiantly glad to hear that.

well this week was intresting. on wensday it rained, it was a cold rain, and it stayed for 3 days. it was a steady, cold rain. we even had to change a sisters tire in the rain for her. so it was a pretty wet week. but it's been fine now. so an update with vallery, she is moving out on thursday. she is going to live with her parents, who are anti, but i'm sure she should do fine, she already making plans to met with missionaries up there. sunday michelle came to church and loved it this time, last time, she couldn't hear anything but this time she and her kids enjoyed it. so very much on the plus side. well thats about it for this week. things are doing good here on this end. well take care and have a blast with thanksgiving. have fun.

November 10, 2009

2009-11-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

yeah, we found out yesterday p-day was moved to tuesday this week. beacue of veterans day. so i quess i wont hear from you this week. anyways things have been going all right here. i got round two of a cold, but thats doing much better now. nightquil done the trick there. i also made chili last week. it turned out okay, still could use some work but it's getting better, i even put green peppers in it. going back to my bike, last week the axle broke, and so we took it to a member to fix it, and he's good but he says it's shot. so sometime i need to get a new rim. so hopefully that can get done soon. in the meantime i'm borrowing another members bike.

so for this week we found out one of our investigators named michelle got the swine flu, she's doing better, she was able to make it to church on sunday so that was good news. then we also found out this week that a member who weve helping out alot is in the hospital. his knee is is rough shape. he can barley move it without it hurting. but hopefully he can get out soon. on saturday jason and vallery, and preston were all sick. so it's been a ver7y sick week for alot of people. we only hyad one branch presidency member there at church on sunday. but things have been doing better here on this end though.

yesterday we saw jason and tabby and theyre doing great. there preparing for the temple and i'm sure they'll make it. now for the funny stopry for the week. so we live in the byrds basement and they have two kids, the youngest is named roger and he's about 2. and he's a blast, he is very friendly and you never see him without a smile. well yesterday morning we just woke up and i started to stretch before morning workout and and i start hearing a thumping sound. about the time i get up to see what it is, roger opened the door and peeked out from around it and said, hi, elders. it was so funny. he came down three times that morning. each time he came down just to see us. it was funny. well i should be emailing next week on wensday, anyways take care, and have fun, hoep everything goes well.

November 4, 2009

2009-11-28T10:44:00.000-08:00

hey thanks for the pitcures, it was great seeing them again. they sure are getting big. yeah pitcures work here, but down in burkeville the computers there weren't the best. most areas aren't that bad. wow. sounds like woods cross is doing really good this year. so how did they overall do in the regular season.

yeah we didn't get any trick or treaters this time at the byrds house, mostly because we live down a mile long driveway. so for this week i've had some intersting stories. on friday we had zone confernce, and it was great. then afterwards we had exchnages with the zone leaders, i went to downtown richmond. i went with elder hoopes, who actually plays collage basketball for SUU. name sure fits huh. it was werid being there. it feels so differnt from louisa. different atmsophere. but the funniest part is that all the people there are scared about the swine flu. it's just a rougher area, just has alot of gangs and things and everytime i coughed, they all got scared and asked if i had the virius. it was differnt.

then for halloween, we had alot of finding, and then we went to the branch halloween party. they did a boxer treat. basically you designed a box and basically it's the same as trunker treat. then we went in a 6 and planned, that was basically it for us.

monday we taught jason and tabby again. and it was crazy, all there kids were bouncing of walls so it made it tough to teach. but the funniest part was there youngest son named will, he put on this mask and it was haning around his neck and was trying to scare people with it. it was funny, at first he was petrified of it, but he loved scaring people with it. it was pretty funny. then yesterday we had a district meeting and went very well, then i went on exchnages with an elder named elder sparrow. it was fun. so we had fun week. things are doing well here and it's been great. well take care and have fun. oh yes, real quick, my bike is having problems again. the axle broke on monday, which i think was a blessing in disquise, because if it happened last week we would have been screwed. we were very tight on miles. but i have the parts to fix it, so shouldn't be to tough. well take care

October 28, 2009

2009-11-28T10:42:00.000-08:00

well this week was pretty intesrting. it was full of alot of differnt things. yes, don't worry i did get the package and the birhday card. i enjoyed them. so it's been snowing alot, here we've just had rain. i think people thought we were crazy saturday. we were about five miles down the road when a huge downpour started. we were soaked. we got in a couple of them that day, so not to much fun. oh yes, i talked to pres. millburn this past week and i asked about what it is you need to do? and this is what he said, that in about four or six weeks. the church normally sends a letter explaining about the missionary coming home and stuff like that. and apparently you fill something out that comes in that if you want to pick them up. so should be recieving something in the next few weeks.

well for us this week, we saw a member thursday who hasn't been feeling the best, so we went by and found out she has the swine flu. so we gave her a blessing and so far looks like we haven't caught it. so thats been on the plus side. then friday we saw jason and tabby again, and she's doing great. she is loving life right now. so it's been going great. so for by brithday on sunday, elder karpowitz kept telling everyone it was my birthday, i was just keeping it quiet. but other than that we had lunch with the swinson's, our branch mission leader, and then did alot of finding, and that was about it. but on monday we had a lesson with jason and vallery and they even made a cake for my birthday, but i swear they had to put trick candles on it, because they would not blow out. it took about 4 tries to blow them all out. but thats been my life this week. haven't had to much exciting.

but sounds like the new tv should be nice, i thought we had already gotten rid of that old tv. and thanks for the cookies they were great. i loved them and so did elder karpowitz. i also got a letter from the young women this week but don't know the reasoning behind it at all other than a friendly note. well take care, and have fun.

October 21, 2009

2009-11-28T10:40:00.000-08:00

hey everyoneyeah this week was pretty intersting, it was cold for alot it but it's warmed up alot now. but i am feeling much better now. so some really good news. sounds like that banquet was awesome, it's kind of funny you heard bishop edgely speak and we had elder kenneth johnson speak to usthe very next day. it was great. mission confernce was not at all as i expected it. a little background of elder johnson is he is from england and was a convert at age 18. he's pretty much a comedian, he was making jokes left and right. he was just bursting full of enengy. everyone we've talked to loved it. he talked alot about teaching with your testimony, teaching with the spirit and things like that. it was great. he even made the joke he had everyone come up and shake his hand and introduce themselves. when he i told him my name he said, oh so your the one speaking today? it was a great experince, learned alot from that confernce.

well for our week we had a lot of crazy things happen. between weddings, baptisms, and funerals we were very busy. your probably wondering why i said funeral, this is the reason why. a member here named sis riddle, after we finished visting her, as we left we forgot to lock the gate behind us and her dogs got out, and one got hit by a car. i felt so bad about we volenteered to bury her dog for her. we felt so bad. but on a brighter note, tabby got married and baptized on saturday. it was great. it was pretty much at the last minute mostly because jason had a problem with getting a copy of his divorce papers, but once he got them it went great. we had basically two days to get verything planned, so we were gald when it was done. but everything went well. and one other thing, i made those homeade peanut butter cups to the baptism and they were a hit. everyone loved them. alot of people were telling me i need to get them the recipe. so tell grandma that they were a hit.

the last night we taught vallery and jason again and there doing awesome. vallery cancelled a trip to north carolina with her mom beause she wanted to go to church. her mom is very anti against the church and wasn't to happy. but that was a big step for her because thats what's held her back for a while now. but she knows this is true, now the only hold up is marriage but we have no idea how that is going to work right now. so it's still work in progress. other than losing that one dog this week has been great. we learned a ton from elder johnson and now it's trying to apply everything that was taught there. thats the challenge. but good to hear from you again, well take care, and have fun. next time i email, i'll be 21.

October 14, 2009

2009-11-28T10:37:00.000-08:00

hey everyonei hope that everything is going well thereas for myself, i've been sick this past week. mostly it's been a cold with really bad congestion. it's been very annoying. but i've been doing good other than that.

as for right now we should be having the baptism on saturday, and were both really excited for it. so how was the banquet last night? i think that would be fun to be there, and good food as well. i can't belive how fast halloween is here. i can't belive it's been almost a year. time is going way fast. yeah i heard the dolphins back up has really come form nowhere. i heard he really is looking good. yesterday we taught vallery and jason and there big football fans. so they usually talk alot about football. she is a big 49ers fan and she also likes the redskins which is the big team here. so usually hear alot from them.

so funny story for the week. we had stake confernce this past weekend and we called and asked if were suppossed to go to the priesthood leadership and adult sessions of stake confernce. one of zone leaders said, yes you should go. so we went and went to the leadership meeting and afterwards we called the zone leaders because they needed one of our beds and we called and told them were at the priesthood meeting where are you? we talked to the other one and found out we didn't need to be at the priesthood meeting. oops.. oh well we still learned some good things from it. but stake confernce was really good it had a lot about missionary work and about strengthing our families. it was really good. we had a slow week, but it was filled with service opprunties. we had to move quite a few things for members who needed help. so it felt good to help them and we've had a good week. well hope that everything goes well. take care and have fun.

October 7, 2009

2009-11-28T10:34:00.000-08:00

yeah i was pretty excited to hear that brigham city was reciving a temple. i was also crossing my fingers for one in Richmond but brigham city was cool. i always thought when i was younger there was a temple there, so pretty cool theres one there now. yeah we did not get to have any ice cream this time. we didn't have the time. we spent the night at the scotchtown elders place and we didn't get in till 10:30. so by then we were very tired and had no time to. but i enjoyed confernce of what i was able to see. the reception at scotchtown wasn't the best and it cut in and out all the time. but we had alot of good talks that we did see. elder hollands was powerful and then the first session alot of talks seemed to speak towards me. it was great.

thats sad about jills hamster. i'll be sure to write her today. elder karpowitz is from salt lake, near sugar house. he loves football and just loves giving people a hard time. he's been out about a year. last night was transfer calls and were staying together another transfer. in fact at the end of this transfer i will be his his 2nd longest companion. i'll be tied with his trainer. and you asked about for my birthday, right now the most i need is socks and some more garments. so thats all that i really could use.

so i have a funny story to share, last firday we were at jason's and vallery's having dinner and as we were eating, our phone starting ringing. elder karpowitz pulls it out to silence it and it said it was coming from jason. he made the comment, your calling me. then we heard Preston, there son start laughing and he was holding his cell phone. the funny part is he's almost two and from all the people he could have called, he called us. it was pretty funny. but other than that not tomuch news i know of to say, other than we've had alot of fun and had a lot of fun expriences. oh yes, jason and tabby another couple were working with should be getting baptized on the 17th. were looking forward to that. well my bike is fixed now too. it's been fixed for a few weeks now, i just keep forgetting to say something. well sorry if this isn't to long but hope everything is going good, well take care. Elder S. Johnson
oh just another thing, i think dad might be intersted in hearing. so for hunting in virginia, theyre pretty lazy. they climb up into a tree stand and send the hounds out to chase them out and then they shoot um. and they tend to do it in hunt clubs. so it 's kind of a cheap way it you ask me. well that's it. well take care

September 30, 2009

2009-11-28T10:29:00.000-08:00

wow, woods cross is doing pretty good this year. yeah i remember wendover's airshows, that they usually had to look towardthe sun with it, so that was not always fun. but did see part of an airshow a few weeks ago here. yeah we had a a cool weather pattern satrt for us, it was in the 80's and next day the sixties. yes i did get robby's wedding announcement, so it was good. it's been kind of funny between the two of us we have 4 wedding announcemnts. three of them go every week. so elder wangemann got married last friday, and now it will be robby, and then next week it's his cousin.

yeah i'll be fine with you picking me up, i thought that was the plan. so i don't know much else about it right now, so i'll write him today and ask about it. or you could too. so last friday we were able to teach vallery and we talked alot about trials and overcoming them. it was a great lesson, spirit was very strong there. she wasn't able to come to church mostl;y because he son was kepping her up the night before. but she's really excited for us to come over this week. so it's been great.

sunday we had the primary program and it was really funny. me and elder karpowitz were laughing at some parts. theres a family we've been working with, the mom not's a member and there oldest son leroy was up there and was it was funny watching him doing this one song, it was one where there was signs in the song, and he kept the whole time doing the same one. it was funny. but the best part is his younger brother whoses about three went up on stage and said, i know i'm not to be up here, but i want to. then on the primary leaders let him sit next to him and he was just fine the whole time.

saturday we biked in the rain all day so that wasn't to much fun, but we actually found alot of sucess that day, so went good. i'm sure looking forward to confernce this week. it's going to be a blast. i'm looking foward to it. well hope everything goes well at robby's reception, and have fun.

September 23, 2009

2009-09-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

this week was pretty good. yeah i heard that tom brady got beat and byu and utah as well. well it good to hear that dad is doing better, but time sure flying for me as well. i'm also looking forward to general confernce. i'm excited to hear what will be said.

well right now i'm up at richmond actually. we doing p-day uphere. we did exchnages and instead of switching back up we both are staying here. so it's been fun. had fun talking with them, earlier we played frisbee golf and that was great. also this past saturday we had a grounbreaking ceremony for the new church. it was great. there was a really neat story with it, there was a member who was very excited for it and he passed away and they dedicated the groundbreaking to him. he died a few weeks before i got here. it was really cool. the buliding is going to be big from the sounds of it. it suppossed to be able to house two congrogrations. very big for a branch. but everyone is excited about it.

well last thursday a member invited his friend to be taught and he's been reading the Book of Mormon and loving it. it's was a great lesson. then saturday after the groundbreaking we had an awesome lesson with another members friend. very powerful she knows it's true, the only problem is we had to pass her over because she lives in Charlotteseville, but other that that it was great. then sunday had a stake priesthood mtg and we had a great time there. i saw alot of members from Gayton. alot of them thought i had gone home already. they asked me if i was visiting. it was pretty funny. defiantly shows i've been out for a while. so yesterday had a pretty fun time with elder simmons. he was the elder i was on exchanges with. very odd being in city though. theres so many people here. kind of creepy. but it was a really good week. things are really starting to pickup here and it's been great. well take care, and tell everyone hi for me.

September 16, 2009

2009-09-24T19:37:00.000-07:00

how is everything going? things here have been on the fair side. bike still needs some work done it, i'm planning to look over it today and do some, but i've been borrowing a bike from a member and thats been fine. yeah sounds good that dad is doing better. i've had cole slaw a few times, but i'm not the biggest fan. but i hear its really good on bbq sandwiches. atleast most places that have them have cole slaw on it.

oh yes, tell the stringhams hi for me too, plus grandma. there actually a missionary out here from tremonten and he says he knows chad. all i know is his name is elder bronson. he had to go home for a while for health problems but he's back out now.

so the normans moved, thats sad, i'm going to miss them, but tell the ward hi for me. so kate has started dancing lessons. wow, she really loves dancing. well for this week, we've had a alot of things happen. i spoke in church on sunday, about missionary work, tied into the plan of salvation. so that i think went allright. things have kind of gone downhill with vallery. she was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and her mom isn't very supportive with the church and it's back to square one again, but she will make it sometime. but for the other couple we've been working with jason and tabby, there oing great. theve been having som troubles lately but what helped out was the member we took with us talked alot of marraige and what caused his marriage to fail. then he went on how to strengthen it, so it went very well. they defiantly needed that. we also visited a member who is really big into the confedrates, and showed us this flag he has thats the title of liberty, sown into a confedrate flag. i'll make sure to send you pitcures. but anyways our week been pretty good. had some bumps in the road, but things have been doing good. i aslo got a wedding announcement from one of my old companions. so that was pretty fun. well take care, and have fun.

September, 2009

2009-09-24T19:34:00.000-07:00

well we had an intesrting week, things are starting to cool off but still on the warm side. yeah i heard about byu and utahs game, utah i wasn't to suprised about, but Byu i heard that they did really well. heard that okaholmas quaterback is out for the year now as well. well we actually saw a piece of an airshow on friday. louisa has a small airport and we saw a plane doing the acrobatic tricks, so we figured out what was going on there pretty quickly.

i also found out this past week that next month were having a 70 come out and visit the mission. his name is elder kenneth johnson. so they've been telling us to prepare because he will be doing one on one roleplays with some missionaries. so some exciting news here. well for this week we had a zone mtg on friday and had a good time there, it was a werid feeling thinking i was there a year ago. espcially because one of zone leaders was brand new when i was there last. i also found out i'm the oldest in the zone, that, was very scary, doesn't seem right.

then sunday we had a really cool exprience, we called up jason rodgers to see why he didn't come to church and vallery picked up the phone, and elder karpowitz stared talking to her about football, and then it got on to prayer and said when she came in on tuesday and saw us parying she felt like she was missing out. well she wants to get taught again, so we will be teaching her tommorrow, it's great. then yesterday we had zone confernce and learned a lot of things there. alot about making sure you have love for the people and bringing heaven into the work. it was really powerful, they also gave a copy of a tallk that was for training new mission presidents, that was all about making sure the holy ghost is in everything. Im excited to read the talk.

oh yes, also on saturday, we were drivng down the road and and a car in fron t of us motion us over and he said that a bike fell off the back. i turned back to see that my bike was no longer on it. so it needs some repairs now, not to badly damaged, mostly just scrapped up and such. but still needs some work done, just thought id let you know. anyways take care

September, 2, 2009

2009-09-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

hey everyoneyeah things have been great here in Louisa. so brett is getting married, sweet. alot of people i know are right now, bro. wangemann, one of my old companions, and now brett. sounds great. friends with kim too, that's pretty funny. well sounds like it will be fun the singles ward back up. well i'll probably give it a shot. theres been a cold bug moving around here. the bracnh president here is sick as well. or the people we live with. so we actually live with members here, i'm not sure for how long, because they have plans to move back to idaho, so maybe moving out soon, but for now my address is 829 goodwin store louisa, va 23093so about louisa, it's country, right now were meeting in the local high school, but there going to have a grounbreaking ceremony for the new building in a few weeks. so they'll have there own building soon. alot of things are very spaced apart, so my companion elder Karpowitz loves to bike, so we've done alot. he is from salt lake, and he loves sports and hunting. so for a story, we parked the car and went out biking for about 9 miles and he got a flat. so we had to walk all the way back to the car. the worst part is we had little water, and it was about lunch time. so wasn't to fun. but this week we had a lot of intersting things happen, at transfers i saw bro. brockman, formerly elder, and we talked briefly. he actaully ives in newport news now. so i'm may seem him again sometime. it's been pretty fun being her seen someplaces where i've been before on exchanges so its been fun. yesterday we taught jason rodgers and got to see vallery again. just incase uyou don't remember, she was someone me and elder beames met on exchanges. she actually came out to us and said how she had been praying to know what to do, the night before and we knocked on the door the next day. so it was good to see both of them again. she right now got a little bit of cold feet, because after the missionaries started working with her she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, so she asked for sometime. so hopefully we get to start teaching her soon. well i don't know to much more to say, but good hearing from you, take care, and have fun. and get feeling better

August 26, 2009

2009-09-02T09:24:00.000-07:00

well last night was transfer calls and i'm getting transfered. i'm actually going somewhere i have been before on exchanges of course. i'm headed to Louisa. it's kind of funny, about a year ago i left Gayton, and now i'm headed next door to it. my companion is someone i've never heard of, elder cupplets or something like that. i'm sad to leave again i loved it here. so you aksed aout richard and he is still set for the end of september, but it may get pushed back. not sure though. elder hines will have to worry about that. my replacement should be arriving in virginia in a few hours. he's training, so he's excited about that. but i can understand a bit with you not feeling well, i had a few days were i felt a little sick. i think it was mostly i didn't drink enough water. but i'm doing better with that. now for what happened this week. on thursday we taught someone named George toth. he is a great guy, has a lot of questions. the biggest thing is he's a talker, and we brought a member wth us named bro. berryman who is also a talker. so what ended up happening is we got pushed to the side and they both went back and forth. we struggled to get anything in. but it was still a good lesson. then monday we had a lesson with kevin and sarah. they lesson went very well. were we quite nervous going in there, because we were going to teach the law of chastity and word of wisdom, but they accepted it and they should be set soon, unfornately i wont be able to. then we taught richard last night and he's doing great. last night he made a comment this is the only church he's every been to that explains everything. he's solid, he going to be baptized, i'm sure of that, he even gave a friend of his a book of mormon sunday. i'm sure going to miss them. richard, sarah, and kevin are all great. well i don't know to much more to say, but i'll let you know my new address next week, and much more. well take care, and have fun.

August 19, 2009

2009-09-02T09:22:00.000-07:00

hey everyoneyeah this week has moved by quickly once again. its crazy how fast things are going. but it great that everything is going well at mom recovery. and grandma's too. wow, sounds like that harry potter clue sounds really fun, i'm starting to get bored of the games elder hines always wants to play. normally chess, and this game that is a lot like sorry. but it's been fine. Sarah and kevin are doing great. kevin's mom should be out of the hospital now and they didn't need to have anymore of her foot taken. now for a funny story, elder neugebauer is leaving tommorrow to go home, so he can get home in time for school. well yesterday he had to get an ingrown toenail removed, so the doctor brings some papers to sign and he reads on it that theres a chance that if it gets infected he may have to lose his toe, foot, or leg possibly. he was fine until that point. so afterwards we had exchanges and the elder there kept giving him a hard time about it. he wasn't to happy. so after we met back up for exchanges we found out that they still had a our phone, in fact we found that out after we got back. so we called them using a payphone and they had to drive back down to give us it. so they weren't to happy. so hopefully it doesn't happen again. but exchnages were good, i was able to go up to farmville again, and i got to see the jones fam again. it was great. last thursday we had interviews with pre. millburn and committed everyone to use a scripture before he asks you to share one with him, well almost everyone failed because as soon as you sat down he asked you. so it did not go to well. well other than that i don't know to much more to say, but take care. everything is going well here, i'm lovin it. well take care

August 12, 2009

2009-08-17T20:09:00.001-07:00

well i'm glad to hear that everything went good with the surgery. it kind of suprismed me to hear about it, i was riding an email from tiff and read that mom had surgery, took me off by suprise. but anyways glad to her that everything is going better. wow, i can't believe that grace is almost 7 months now. it doesn't seem like it's been that long. still feels like the other day that i emailed. we've had a couple of really warms days lately. we had a few days where we were just roasting. well on thursday we took the car to colonial heights to find out that they don't have the cable to replace for the recall, so were supposed to get a letter when the part arrives, so for now we still have the car, but the person in charge of the cars has told us if anything happens they'll switch the car for us, so it's been good. then we had a lesson with someone named george toth. he's awesome, he talks alot, and gets on alot of tangets but he asked us a lot of questions, which we could answer, such as the spirit world and such. it was great. then we had a district mtg the next day and went on exchanges with elder rodgerson, one of our zone leaders. it went very well. it was great. then sunday was a very discouraging day, kevin and sarah did not come to church and we spent most of the day with things falling through. then the next day we found out that kevin's mom was in the hopital with a very bad infection in her foot. she is also diabetic, and they had to remove three toes. they hope they got it all or else she will be losing more of her foot. so they've had some rough times start showing up, but we should be teaching them again on saturday. then yesterday we had another day of running all over the area, it was fun though, plus got to stay out of the heat. well i don't know to much more to say, things have been going very well here. things have really been moving along here. well take care, hope that evrything goes well with your recovery. i love you all so much

August 5, 20009

2009-08-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

wow, jill and jason broke up, that was a shocker. but sounds like it was a good thing. also it was suprising to hear that james and mitch are elders now, mostly it helping me realize how long i have been out. time is just flying by. i'm starting to wonder where it's going, it felt like yesterday i emailed. it's crazy. sounds like you all had a blast at the reunion, oh yes, i keep forgetting to say this, one of the new things i've tried is goats milk. it's actually really good. theres a member here that has a milking goat and gave us some to try. very time time we go back they ask us if we want some. i say sure. well no scary weather experinces for this week. just so you know. well we had a very intersting week. we taught kevin and sarah again, theyre doing great. there just taking everything in. sarah even came to church even though her boyfriend was sick. she called for a ride and came. it was really great. then saturday we did alot of walking out in the country, mostly due to elder hinds bike needed some repairs. not much happened, just saw a lot of cornfeilds and heat was not fun. but then we had a lesson with the cathey's a member family that way and they had some intestring stories they told us. bro. cathey told us of how he came into the church, and said, that missionaries came looking for his wife, and he kept saying she wasn't here, and a fter a few weeks, they finally ask if they could share a message with them. he agrees. and then when it came to being baptized he didn't tell his wife at all just said, there was an activity going on at the church. so they both go and turns out it was his baptism. she was very much taken by suprise. then yesterday we found out that our new car has had a recall on it. so tommorrow we have to take it in. apparently theres a problem with the parking gear, that it hasn't been working, it's worked for us, they just want to inspect it. so no big worries there. then the rest of the day we went all over the area teaching lessons, it was a busy day, we loved it, espically after the slow week we had last week. well it was good to hear from all of you. things are doing great. well hope everything goes well and take care.

July 29, 2009

2009-08-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

hey everyonesounds like you all had a fun week, we did here. yeah we had tornado weather again belive it or not, but we luckily were on the good side. it was in amelia, all we knew was we were talking with a guy on the porch, and then a storm out of nowhere popped us, and he said, i think you guys needs to get going, we didn't get any rain but elder hines said, it was tornado weather, hopefully i'm not scaring any of you, but i'm fine, don't worry. there an older couple that serving in framville named the fishers, and aparantley her maiden name is rasmussen, so i don't know but we may be related, i think she said she has family in brigham city. so maybe you could find out, i don't know. but that sounds fun, there was one in the branch here a while ago and it was pretty much three familes, that make up most of the branch. the three familes are the daltons, roarks, and adams. wow that activity sounds great, that sounds very fun, wish they did that back then for me. thats sad to hear about brother soelberg, wow it's going to be werid going back there. well for some other stories for you, on thurday we had a lesson with kevin and sarah and it went great. we went over the restoration with them again to make sure they understood and they did. they also made it to church on sunday and they loved it. then monday sarah told us that this is the happiest she's been in a long time. theres alot of potiential there i'm really excited. well were reallyexcited with them. saturday the branch did a fish fry and that was really good, there was a lot of less actives and plenty of members there. it went very well. monday we went over to the johnsons and were going to have sarah and kevin taught in ther home. so thats a plus. there i also found out that wakefield's branch presidency was reorganized. i don't know to much information other the bro. Johnosn's son is the new second councilor. elder Salisbury is still there as well. then yesterday we had our zone confernce and learned much about doing short, powerful lessons. we took alot out of that. pres. millburn also told us how he was called as weel and said that pres. Faust told him your sucess as a mission president will not be determined until 20-30 years later. it depends on how your missionaries will be as parents and grandparents. so that was something i never really thought about. then that night we went on exhcnages and elder neugebauer came down with us. we also set richard for baptism. he's right now scheduled for september 26th. so thats the good news on this end. elder burmister, one the missionaries i came out with is a trooper, he 's been having alot of health problems recntly, but he's still going out strong and he's great. he was just diagnosed with something, i cant remeber what it's called, but he know has to eat alot of fruits and vegatables. he cant have very much fat. well other than that thats the news for us. we've had a lot of things happen this week, and saw lots of miracles. it's been great. it so good to see how much the lord wants to bless us. it's great. well take care, and have fun.

July 22, 2009

2009-08-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

hey everyone
so blair is getting married, thats great news. that so good to hear. i'm also glad that grandma is doing better as well. thats some really good news. wow so tiff and dan got to ride in a limo, thats something. well sounds like grace is doing well. thats great to her that everything is fine at the doctors. that sucks about spencer breaking two teeth. thats no fun. but for the drug trafficng , the cloest thing ive seen to that was all the unmarked police cars pulling people over. they always seem to come out of nowhere. luckily were always going the speed limit. this week had some intersting things happen. on thursday we said goodbye to elder hall and he's no out in washington, probably strumming a guitar. that same night i somehow stepped in a nest of ticks. i had about thirty on my leg, that was annoying. then the next day we were headed to victoria, and we got a few miles out of town and we saw some really meaning clouds on the way there, we decided to turn around and get inside, which was a good thing, the lightning was terrible, and it rained fairly heavy and had some nasty hail. a little bit later we found out there was a tornado warnin, i don't know if there was one or not, but all i know, is the clouds were a a mixture between this dark bluish gray with a green tint. but we were fine, excpet for getting a little wet. then we had a great lesson with a couple we met named sarah and kevin. were going to see them again tommorrow. then the next day we went up to amelia, and got a lost, i looked at the wrong road and and by the time i figured it all out we were way off target. so we've had to walk a monday, everywhere, still a little sore from it. but other than that not much more i know of to say. things have been on the slow side this week but they are getting better. well take care, have fun

July 15, 2009

2009-07-15T16:57:00.000-07:00

don't worry i did get the email from dad. it was good to hear from dad. well this week as been an intersting one. transfers, i don't know too much about, other than i'm staying here and so is elder hines. it will be just the two of us, so it will be a little differnt but should be fun. i'm glad to hear that grandma is doing better. thats really good news.

well i have a funny story for you, sunday we had dinner with the johnson's, and there son was my branch mission leader in wakefield, there was loking like a storm was going to hit there and bro. johnson needed water for his graden so elder hall joked around and did a rain dance for like 5 seconds, and about five minutes later, a really nasty storm hit. it was crazy, afterwards they joked around and said, it's a good thing he didn't do any more or we would have been blown away. it was really something. we also had quite a few miracles, theres this one less active family that all of the sudden want to come back now, so that was really something.

well i don't know to much more to say other than that i got a letter from Jacob this week, and i found out that he's works on updates for the new family search service, and he also is putting in a bunch of names from brazil. he says it's a blast. well take care, glad to hear from you again. take care

July 8, 2009

2009-07-11T07:12:00.000-07:00

hey everyone,i'm able to email this week, but we still have terrible interent. they were trying to change internet last week and apparently it didn't work. so hopefully i'm able to email.

well i just heard some good news from elder wangemann. he's engaged. so that was a shock to see this week. it's almost been a year since he went home. but anyways it good to email today. i'm also sending a home a package today so i can get rid of some things, so it's your choice whether to wait to open in 9 months or you can open it. mostly it's letters, cards, and some souvioners. that sucks to hear about sis. thompson, i defiantly write them today. and it good to hear that grandma is doing better. so thats really good news.

we were not able to see any fireworks this past week. so it was a bummer but the branch had a barbque so we went to it and had a good time. i've been fine with the heat, only a few times has been bad, but thoise salt tablets work wonders. well i did hear about that new policy at the Mtc, but i heard what it was like there with the newbies, found out it was actuallly the swine flu, but heard its good now.

friday i was ble to return to Farmville on exhanges, so that was pretty fun, didn't get to see to many memebrs but it was fun. had a good time with elder neugebauer. monday we saw a recent convert named brother McCadams and he is a geniune redneck. he is very intersting, however he always gets into longwinded tangets on politics and stuff, but he also is very much in to food storage, and stuff. in fact he keeps telling us when we get home to make sure we have plenty of food and bullets. yeah he has a lot of guns. but he's a character, a little crazy, but it's fun. i don't know much else to say right off but that things are going really well here. well take care, tell mom to have a good time a shakespeare. take care.

Letter July 2, 2009

2009-07-11T07:08:00.000-07:00

Hey family, as you could probably tell I couldn't email this week. The internet was down today so, I get to write this time. This week was interesting. ONe day we went out with Brother Berryman, and he went out and contacted quite a number of people all over the area. We found success. So we were pretty excited about that. We also had a family named the Hammonds (?) whose kids want to take the lessons again. So good news there as well. Sorry I don't know much to write. I can't really tink of much but take care. I should be able to email next week take care.

day after mission conference

2009-06-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

hey everyone. this week went very well. the week before nothing happened and now quite a bit happened. so it was great. i also got the package monday, so thanks. wow, thats crazy, that the new ward mission leader served here and trained todd that shows how small of a world it is. okay so to tell you more about Elder Hinds, he is from pleasington, Kansas. he been alot just a little bit less than me, and he enjoys playing games. so today we have been playing rook. it's been fun.

yesterday we had mission confernce, so all the northern zones got together. i was able to see alot of missionaries i haven't seen for a while, it was great. found out how my past areas have been going and so forth. it was great. pres. millburn has also starting up a book of mormon reading, i'm so pumped for it. it's called a 146 days to remember. basically were given different gospel principles to look for as we read so that we can use them to become better and more powerful teachers. i'm really excited for that. we also were able to hear from siter millburn yesterday as well. she been having some health problems, that she just hasn't been getting alot of energy. she got up and bore her testimony to all of us, it was really powerful. in fact what was really special is that when she walked in everyone stood up for her. it seemed to hit her pretty hard. but she is doing better, sounds like it's been slow but she been improving.

we had a really cool miracle as well the first day with elder hinds, we had a lesson with a less active part member family and we got there and they hadn't got home yet, so we worked for a little bit and then decided to go back. they were they and in fact they had a friend there and he wanted a book of mormon. so we gave him a copy and now were teaching him as well as them. so you can call it two birds with one stone. that was a miracle. but other than that, thats been the most intersting stories for the week.well thats basically our week, we had some pretty bad stroms earlier in the week, an ac that broke down, and now it's been nice so far this week, knock on wood. well take care. have fun.

June 17, 2009

2009-06-18T19:15:00.000-07:00

well i have some news for everyone. i'm staying here with elder Hall. but i'm also getting another elder with us. his name is elder Hines. i've met him a few times, but i don't know much more to say. but ill let you know next week. i was not too suprised with grandma going to the nursing home, i was kind of expecting it. but i think it sounds good that she'll move in with pam though. that way she has someone there to help her.

well it's still cloudy here, probably will get some rain today again. we've been getting rain alot as it is. monday during study it was a downpour outside and luckily by the time we got out it was good. well this week was very discouraging, we would go out and come in and nothing happened all day. we just couldn't get appointments to keep. it was very annoying. on sunday me and elder hall spoke on missionary work. and then the stake mission leader spoke as well. he's a character. i spoke on fear and faith tied into missionary work, it went all right, didn't go the way i wanted. but i think i got the point acrossed. saturday, notoway county did this thing called relay for life and it was a fundraiser to stop cancer, the church had a booth there so we went there and helped out for a bit. it went fairly well. then later that day we had a lesson with a media referal. she was awesome. she asked us a lot of questions about the church, and she is geniunely intersted. it was great.

there was also this older man we met he was outised and told us he had a stroke three year ago and it was really bad and barely survived. he was from puerto rico and as we finished the street we walked back and he was sitting underneath the tree. it turned out his leg gave out from under him and he couldn't get back up. so we helped him up and helped him walk back to his house and then his wife showed up and after that he expressed his thanks and it reminded me alot of bro. thompson. but it was so amazing because he said he was praying that we would come back by and help him, and we did. I know we were suppossed t be there, because his wife would have needed help to get him up and yet we were there to help. well i'll be sure to write grandma and give her some good news. i don't know much else to say right off but take care. and have a good day.

June 10, 2009

2009-06-10T17:58:00.000-07:00

well it's been intestring here so far. i thought i told you but my new companion is elder Hall. he's going home next month. but whether ill be with him one week or six i don't know, but it will be known tuesday. sunday there was a baby blessing here and it was reminding me that grace was going to get blessed so it was a little discouraging but at the same time i got over it. i'll see her when i get home. sounds like you got a lot of rain this week. we did as well. there was one day i think it was friday we tracted all day out in the rain and most people acted like were nuts going out. but it was fun. the other day we tracted outside a small town and came by an airfield, it reminded me of dad. well burkville is basically country, lots and lots of country. in fact its one of the biggest areas. i cover most of amelia, all of nottoway and lunenburg, counties. and a corner of two others. so it's big. well this week has been pretty crazy. it's been alot of finding, goes from hot, to wet, pretty much every other day. but it's been fun. the branch here is about the saem size as farmville, but more priesthood holders. but is still difficult because the area is so big. well it was good to here from you. yeah i'll be excited to get those confernce talks once they come. but things have been going very well. i'm loving it right now. well take care

June 3, 2009

2009-06-04T18:26:00.000-07:00

well this week was intersting, monday we got a phone call and found out transfers are being postponed two weeks. but the missionaries going home need to be replaced, so i got moved, not to far but to burkville. in fact the burkville branch was a ward but was split and made into two branches. one of which is farmville. so i'm not to far, but i'll be here atleast till transfers. my new address is 620 south main street apt 8b, Blackstone, Va 23824. just leeting you know.

well i've gone a week without any ticks now, so it's good, but i've heard there really bad this summer. so hopefully it can keep going. i hope dad gets feeling better, i don't think it's fun getting sick though. well that exciting news for robby.

well the most intersting stories this week was that the jones family are praying about a baptismal date, but we think theyre lacking that spiritual conversion, right now, we think its more they know it mentally. but they've been doing really well. but i can't think of any other good stories though, i forgot my planner to make a brief look over. well it's good to hear from you again. things are going very well. well take care.

a few things

2009-05-28T20:20:00.000-07:00

hey evryone. things have been going fairly well here. we've been getting rain as well. yesterday we sat down in someones garage and a minute later it was downpouring. we were glad about that. well sounds like you had a fun trip i bet it was great toget away from everything for a while.

so heres a story foryou.last monday were near the end of the month and miles are getting tight.we had a media referal and so we biked five miles to it. we get there and found out that we had the wrong street. and it was 2 miles from were we parked the car. so we weren'tto happy. the way down was fine,but the back had a very large hill. so we finally get back and then we had a great lesson with her. she just had a son shot, wasn't killed but, is prepared. it was really awesome. for the week, we had a lesson with bobby and sam, they know finally have a marraige date. so there getting closer than they have been for a while. he feed us chili. now to tell you about. he warned us, as long as you keep scooping it down,your fine, but once you stop, that when the heat gets you. he makes spicy chili. it wasn't actaully to bad, i was expecting it to be bad but it wasn't.

then firday we went on 24's with the zoneleaders. i went out with elder burmiester and we had a great time. then saturday we had a special meeting with the assainsts to the president.it was a really good meeting, and we learned about the vision of the mission more, and things they want to get acrossed to everyone. making sure we are all on the same page. it was a very powerful meeting. we left there pumped. then we meet with a less active lady yesterday and found out that she wants to come back, she just can't drive but all she needs is a ride. so it was really awesome, she bore a powerful testimony to us and now we are going to work on having her get out to church. so that was pretty much our week. haven't had tomuch happen yet. edmund is still trying to find a job, and once he moves out,he'llbe baptized. he'slooking so forward to it, but he just hasn't been able to get a job yet. hows your friend doing mom, have you hsared your testimony with her yet? you need to,she doesn't realize the happiness she could have in her life. thank you for the prayers, and for the support you allhave continued to give me. i love you all. take care.

May 20, 2009

2009-05-20T16:09:00.000-07:00

well to answer the question about the letter, i got it monday, so thanks. thats so exciting the matt got his mission call. tell him congradulations. tell him he's going to love it. i belive that the mission one of pres. millburns daughters served. she got home about a year ago. but wow, i can't believe that almost all of the priest quorum is going on missions now. time is just going to fast. well last year memorial day was just another day, so it will probably be the same. sorry if spacing is bad,the spacebar isn't working well today. so just apologizing ahead of time. wellthis week has been intersting,we have seen alot ofmiracles and just alot of good things are happening. it started out rough, we had one of our top investigators drop us, jay b. but still left on good measures, he'll be back. monday we met a really awesome lady who just had a baby, and now she is wondering where to take her to church. so we gave her a book ofmormon and she had a lot of questions about infant baptism.sowe shared with her that and going to see here again sometime. then we found someone later that day who is going through a rough time and she had seen commercials for a free video from the church, keep feeling like she should order it but she never did. so we left her with it and she accpeted a return appointment. it was amazing. then yesterday we had a coolexperience as well. we recieved a media referal and we went out to contact her and she had lost a son recently. and she is very depressed about it, but she was really drunk at the time so we told her to call us when she's sober. then we went and talkedto her neighbors. the next door neighbor has been struggling with whether God really does love her and if he truly answers prayer. we bore a powerful testimony and left her with a book of mormon.the funny thing is is that where she lived we planned nowhere around, never gone that way, but becasue of her neighbor we found her.it was really awesome. last week we were struggling and now after the trial of our faith were having miracles. it's great. welli don't know to much more of what to say. well take care, have fun at blanding. Elder S. Johnson

Day after Cinco De Mayo

2009-05-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

well to answer your question about the tacos or mexican food, welll i did, we went to taco bell yesterday. so i quess so. allright i made some arrangemnts and i am going to be calling about 7:00. or five oclock there. if it's not good let me know. yes i got the recipes. i got them after i emailed. i loved it. still haven't been able to try anything yet, but i can't wait to try some. we've had a lot of rain lately. its been good because we can breathe now, but we are getting tried of getting wet. but other than that it's been good here. so for our week it was pretty intersting. we had quite a few meetings, six plus hours of driving time with it. so we are very glad theres no meetings this week. last wensday we went to instiute and it was the last one till next fall and we had a pizza party there. so it was good and then they played the Testaments. we got quite a few investigators to it and they all loved it. it was really fun. then on friday we ha our first meeting and it was an allright one but was still good. they also passed on information about the swine flu and stuff like that. so we know know what it is and what to do if we get it. then on saturday we had zone confernce and that was very good. we learned alot there and got a lot of things we were very excited to implementy but then it left us as we drove back but we turned things around and are doing better now. then sunday we had another really good meeting. elder pace and pres millburn both gave really good talks. pres millburn talked on oppistion and how it strengthens us and elder pace talked alot about "do you know?" and he challenged everyone to pray and read the jsh. it was really good, we've now been taking that and giving it to some of our invetsigators. and so far most of them have enjoyed it. then that night we had a lesson with brenda and her family and it was so amazing we saw a change that had come over them from the time before. then we as we shared the first vison there was a peace in her home and it was great. so thats was our big news for the week. i'm not sure on much else to tell you right now, but i quess i'll talk to you on sunday. well hope everything goes well. take care

Email to Tiffany

2009-04-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

sounds like dan has got a pretty good job now, i think he'll enjoy it. from what is sounds like kate has gotten over her phone shyness, so maybe she say something more to me this time than bye. so i'm not sure if i shared this story or not, but i think you'll like it, one day me and elder brockman were teaching a 4 kids about faith and how it leads you to act. elder brockman for an object lesson picked up a small bear and placed it on the table, and talks about how faith the size of a mustard seed you can move mountains. he points to the beard and says this is much smaller than a mounatin move it with your faith, go. the oldest was 9, then a set of twins that were 6, and a four year old. i kind you not, there faces were turning red as they were starring at it trying to move it. i think they were trying to use the force or something to that effect. but then he showed them that faith leads to you to act, that means pick it and move it. everytime we came back and reviewed, we would ask what faith is and they would pick up whatever it was move it across the table. it was pretty funny. well there your funny story for the week.
> well take care, it was good to hear from you.

April 29, 2009

2009-04-29T17:25:00.000-07:00

hey everyonethings have been an intersting week, we all have been battling allegies. it's been pretty bad this week, but atleast it been nice and sunny, and in the nineties. so it's been nice here, but we might be getting some rain today, i heard it suppossed to be thunderstorms. well right now, i have a phone card still. so i don't need one. right now the most i've heard is sometime in the evening for calling. so i let you know if its the case. and if i call grandma's house i'll need her phone number. so send it. thanks. well with the new stake president none of the names are ringing a bell. but i guess i'll meet them sooner or later. but we are having a stake confernce this week as well. elder pace is going to be there. so here something intersting to tell you, friday we have a zone mtg, saturday, zone confernce with elder Pace, and stake confernce sunday, all at the same place. pretty crazy huh. so we have alot of meeting this week. not to excited, but oh well. tanks for sending the recipes, i was really wanting that tuna fish cassorale again. so thats one reason i asked. plus weve been doing a lot of cooking, i even made goop this week, but we didn't have eggs, so it was in there but it was till good. oh yes, and now to tell you about elder Peterson. he is from Enoch, Utah. likes trucks, and has been out a transfer less than me, so he's hitting his year mark tommorrow. so thats who he is. so last wensday we were down tracting in a town called keysville. we ended up seeing a truck outside some ones house with a flashing yellow light, we walked up, no one there, so we knocked on the door and said the light drew us here like a lighthouse, and he invvited us in. his wife ended up talking to use and found out that she used to live with an abusive, alcholic husband, and that she has been struggling in here life now, the chucrh she went to basically left her behind and she hasn't been to church in years, but her daughter a few days before had attempted suicide and know she is wanting to come back to chucrh. it was an awesome experince it was so cool. she was so prepared and it was amazing. we taught her monday and talked alot about family and strengthing it, she loved it. i also now have a new food i can say i've ate. on firday a memebr made us squirell barbque. it was actually really good. i enjoyed it. so i added that to foods i've eaten list. so thats the news for the week. everything has been going pretty well. well it's a shame that dad is going to have to hunt up north this year, but it change, i'm sure he'll like it. well i'll talk to you later. take careElder S. Johnson

April 22, 2009

2009-04-22T17:33:00.000-07:00

well i have some news for ya. i'm staying in farmville at least another six weeks. but elder Malone is leaving, he's headed to Norfolk. we are getting a missinory named elder Peterson. not one i came out with but another one. all i know is that he's coming from Nags Head, North Carolina. another intersting thing is that elder Neugebauer, trained elder Burmiester who is now our new zone leader. thats about the only news i know of really well. well to your news, i'm glad that grandma is doing much better. i'm glad to know that. so quess well be finding out sooner who are new stake president is. well make sure to let me know. welll thats pretty funny what happened with the crockpot. we went on exchanges this week and we were going out to eat. i'm about to order and thats when i realized i forgot my wallet. it was sad, at least i figured it out before then. the worst time that happend is we finished shopping and went to go pay and thats when i realized i didn't have it. it was pretty sad. well just to let you know, my bloddy noses are doing much better. not having them as frequently, i bought some nose spray and that did the trick. well theres been alot of storms here this week. had a tornado watch out oon monday and heard there was quite a few powerful storms that blew through, but thats about all i know. but a cool story from yesterday, is that we had to go up to the mission office so that elder malone needed to speak with the mediacl officer, so we tried to get the office elders to try giving us some hints about transfers but they didn't. but we found out a few things though. mostly because of a new elder there. one of the Ap's is now a zone leader for his last two transfers. so we soon figured out who the new one was and who the new Training assiasant was. his name was elder craig, but the thing that was funny, is me and elder neugebauer left and tracted for a little bit and as we were headed back to the mission office asomeone pulled over and was wanting missionaries to visit him. it was really awesome how everything lined up. so thats about all i can think of right now. but thanks for the updates about grandma and for everything else. take care. i love all of you. Elder S. Johnson

April 15, 2009

2009-04-15T17:44:00.000-07:00

hey everyonethis transfer is going way to fast, next week is already transfers. it's crazy. time is flying by. it's been an intersting week, i've been having alot of bloody noses, but right now vasoline is seeming to do the trick, as long as i don't sneeze, or it doesn't get to dry at night. so it's been crazy, my pilllowcase is getting washed almost daily. but don't worry everything is going well now. yes i did get my package in fact theres a funny story with it as well. we were on exhnages and elder neugebauer has been expecting a package, and as were driving up he sees it on the porch. he's really excited, takes a look at it, and sees my name. he was very depressed, but he got his the next day. so it was fine. wow, it hard to belive miles is coming home now. time is going way to fast. were teaching this family named the jones, and the grandma has all her grandkids sit in so we teach them. it's really funny trying to teach them, there this one kid whose answers usually have something to do with food. then they came to chucrh on sunday and loved it. the branch pres has been out twon for almost a month and at the time time there wasn't to many investigators coming well last sunday we had 9. so it was a big suprise to him. edmund, is now set for baptism and is trying to get back on track again. so hoepfully he stays on this time. then sunday we went an easter play that this person we met invited us to, she was in it, so we wnet for here. it was good but differnt. so it was an intersting epxerince. now we went by this lessactive memebr and we quickly found out why. her health isn't the best and she has altimers really bad. she kept asking who we were every minute or so. so it made it tough. so thats the big news here, not o much exciting, but we had interviews on monday and had pres millburn do a compaion study with us. so basically like zone confernce but more one on one. i'm not sure on much else to say, but take care, have fun, and hope that tiff gets feeling better. Elder S. Johnson

April 8, 2009

2009-04-10T20:59:00.000-07:00

yeah i did notice pres. McConkie, when they announced the name at first it made me wonder, then i thought i saw him. so after that i was keeping an eye out. but that defiantly confirms that, i was planning to ask you anyways. so thats really cool. sounds like it's a good car. it's a missionary car as well. most cars are either corollas or malibu's what year is it. so that's really cool. on sunday between confernce while we were having lunch i found something really cool. i saw a book that said doctrine and covenants commenatry. so i picked it up and found a story that had to do with simeon Carter. it had his conversion story. it was really cool. it said that Parley P. Pratt was reading with him, and then got arrested and left the Book Of Mormon behind. parley P. pratt got away and simeon read it and was baptized. then it contiued to say he was made an elder and organized a brach of sixty members. it was pretty cool. well i thought confernce was amazing, i loved alot of it. i was thinking it would be elder anderson as well, i aslo loved elder Hollands, and pres. monson's. i also liked pres. utcorfs talk at priesthood, had proabably the best joke. he went on saying how he was trying to find a story to relate it with, and he went on these things the other apostles were good at, and then he said, he made his desicion, i would share something i knew really well, aviation. it was pretty funny how he brought it up. i still can't choose a favorite. hey i was wondering, when it gomes out on cd if you could get me one. i'd really appreciate it. the last two day we had some really amazing miracles. on monday we had plans to go around the collage talking to everyone we could see but before we got there elder Neugebauer reconzinged one of his investigator he was teaching in the Innercity of Richmond. he was set for baptism and then elder Neuegbauer got transfered here. then edmund(his name) just vanished. so the elders there were seacrhing every hopsital, calling prisions, everything trying to find him. so it was really cool. it's funny, because they thought he had dropped off the face of the earth. it was so crazy what happened. then yetserday we were driving to an appointment got about 5 minutes away and they cancelled it. we were pretty annoyed, so we go to the members house who was going to come with us and that's when the phone rang a minute later. it was someone that missionaries had taught in january, and had to postpone there appointment. so they called us wnated us to come by again. it was really cool what happened. it was neat.i liked that story with grace and kate that sounded really funny. i thought it was pretty good. well take care, have fun with the new car. i also loved the pitcures, i got the letter yesterday. well take care.

p.s.
oh yes one last thing. when simeon was called on a mission in the Doctrine & covenants, Jacob Scott, one of elder Salisbury's ansectors was called as well. so six genratiions later we sevred together and they may have traveled together at one point. just was really intersting when we thought about that. well take care

April fool's

2009-04-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

don't worry no joke, but maybe i get one in, who knows. snicker, snicker. this week was really fun, we had alot of miracles. on sunday we had 6 investigators at chucrh. it was amazing. i'm glad that your doing better. i'm glad that everything is fine there, well youll have to send me pitcures of the new car when you get it. i'm so glad that Grace is home as well. i'm really excited about that. i thought it was cute they were holding hands in the back. this weekend is going to be excitiong, i'm looking forward to confernce. it's going to be great. i'm getting along pretty well with elder Neugebauer, and elder Malone. Elder Malone does alot of cooking, one thing i learned from him is how to make mozarella sticks. so Jill will love that. well the only sister missionaries i know of that were in a group of three were best friends, so haven't seen anything bad. well i have alot more stories this week for you, we had some really amazing blessings this week. there was this one lesson we had where we got incredibly bold with this one person. one thing thats getting pushed in the mission is teaching more clearly, and refining our shortcomings. it's been really amazing how much improvement is happening in the mission. another cool story is we had a lesson with someone named Jay b. he's been going trhough a hard time and we taught him the restoration and he loved it, the spirit was very strong there, he was one of them that came to church, and then church had the answer he needed at the time. then monday we are working with a couple, the kids are members, but they both are not married but both have strong testimonies of the gospel. so we went into the lesson to teach the restoration, but before we started we asked, do you believ that Jospeh Smith is a prophet, and they both suprsied us with a powerful testimony. so there went or plan on what to teach them, because they didn't need it, so we taught about God, and how he is a merciful but a just God, and used alma 42. the really cool thing is we ended it with obedience, and we had bobby read 1 nephi 3:7 but swap his name for nephi. he read it and it was powerful. it really hit him, and now we have them set for baptism with plans to get married. it was really cool. then the last coo,l story is that we had zone confernce yesterday and they stressed with calling people to repentance, not being afraid to do it. and to teach with passion. it was an amazing zone confernce. a lot of things are happneing here, i'm really excited. farmville is great, i love it here, i'm not sure what else to say though, but everything is going well. take care, have a good april fools day. okay not really but have a good day Elder S. Johnson

March 25,2009

2009-04-01T11:55:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited, i hope Grace will come home soon, and i'm glad that grandma is doing better as well. now for an intesrting story, so last night we went to a member house and had dinner with her. she has alot of pitcures of ther of missionaries she has met. i looked at one and thought, he looks familar, and it was a wedding announcement, and i read, the name Todd Low! it turns out that he was one of the first missionaries that taught her. pretty exciting huh. i'm not sure he served in Farmville, because the branch was made about two years ago, but still small world, so you probably should ask him about Sis. Shelly Justice. i really love the pitcures of kate chasing those bubbles, there really amazing looking. thats sad to hear about sis. jensen though, hope the elder Hunter is doing good though. wow, kate sure has grown, i jjust realized she's almost two and half now, man thats crazy. she's grown up so much. sorry i thought i gave you the whole address, it's 912 B longwood Ave Farmville, Va 23901, oh yes the missionary from here thats is chad's mission got ther in december, so they may have meet. i told elder Malone you found her blog, he was suprised. well im sorry that this email is really short, i don't know much else of what to say. but take care, have fun, and i hope that Grace comes home soon. talk to you later. Elder S. Johnson

March 18, 2009

2009-03-21T15:57:00.000-07:00

hey everyone.this week been pretty intersting. i arrived in farmville and its a city compared to wakefield. it's still considered country but it seems more like a city. there alot of food places, alot of stores, including walmart. there is two small unvinsities there. so thats most of the exciting things i know of here. the branch is small like wakefield, we meet in an old store, werid huh. but it's alot of older people here. oh yes there is someone from the branch that is serving in chad's mission. so could ask ask chad if he reconizes the name Elder Zeledon. so exciting news. oh yes, i keep forgetting, i haven't heard yet what areas Todd served in, so maybe you could ask them again. thanks.so now for my companions, Elder Nuegebauer, is a convert. his parents joined when he was ten. he's from Billings, Montana. Elder Malone is from mesa, arizona. so you already know about him. yes he is the one, the likes Hannah Montana. so thats the brief of them. its kind of funny, we served in the same zone for 4 and 1/2 months. so its kind of funny were together now. well i hope that Grace gets to come home soon. Can't wait to meet her when i get home. but i can wait. don't worry. oh yes, we also replaced the missionaries that were here. so all three of us are brand new. on thursday we arrived at transfers, we had to wait till the evening until Elder Malone came up from cheasepeake. i also found out that three of my district from the MTC are zone leaders now. elder Peacock, Elder Beames, and Elder Peterson. so pretty crazy. then we had a ride with President Nyce to farmville. we border two different missions. there is a memebr hear who is a modern-day Job. he was involved in a very serious accident and he is on bedrest. they had to reattach his legs, and has lost alot of use of his limbs. but he has a powerful testimony and is an amazing guy. it was such a spiritual time when we were there. alot of this week, we've been trying to find investigators and the ones they were working with. most of them have been annoying trying to find. because there addresses have been wrong. so not to much fun. on monday we had a lesson with a pentecostal preacher. he understood alot of it, but just has a hard time beliving in the church. but were going to help him. okay now for the important thing. my address is 912 #B, Farmville, 23901.i'm going to miss wakefield, i was almost in tears when i left. but i'm going to give it my all here as well. well the first year has flown buy. it's been alot of fun here. i have seen alot of miracles and seen the Lord Hand in this work. i'm loving this. well take care

March 11, 2009

2009-03-12T07:05:00.000-07:00

so transfer were last night and i found out that i'm headed to another Branch. I'm headed to Farmville. it's a small town, in the country that has two collages. so i'm headed to a collage town. so that the news here. elder slaibury served there for six weeks and told me a lot about it. then there are also two new missionaries coming here. one of them is a spanish speaking elder. so thats the news here, there replacing me with two elders. my new companions names are Elder Neugabauer, and Elder Malone. so some pretty cool news. well tell grandma to get feeling better, i was feeling a little sick this week, but that was mostly the drastic change in the weather. it went from snow on monday to the 80's by friday. only a little change. sounds like Grace is doing great, hope she gets to come home soon. well now for the other news for the week. all last week again nothing happened. we would have rather had everything fall apart than that. elder salsibury described it to our district leader, it's like a hmaster running around in a wheel, you don't go anywhere. but we had a baptism so we were really excited about that. it was pretty awesome. on thursday chelsea got broncitis so we were not to happy, so we went by and gave her a blessing and she on saturday felt good enough to be baptized. it was awesome. then this week alot of great things happened. so far this week we had more going on then anything else. it's been great. well i'll let you know about the area when i write next week, or you'll probably look it up. i also border the mission boundry. but take care. take to you later and tell everyone hi for me.

We have Snow

2009-03-05T02:30:00.000-08:00

yeah, all of virginia has snow. just to let you know how bad it was, they had all missionaries go in early sunday night. mostly it rained all day, alot of standing water and then it changed to snow. we got about two inches though. but heard richmond had 6 or more. they had us stay in till the storm passed the next day, mostly because people in virginia have no idea how to drive in it, so it was just percaution. school was cancelled all over the state. but hey I got to shovel snow to this year. we did that as we went out that day. pretty fun. well next time you see Chad tell him hi for me. wow, Grace sounds like she's getting big, pretty cool. no i didn't know that charnelle was getting married, thats great. well just to let you know, mostly everything is good right now, the only problem right know are my shoes. so probably the best thing to do is put some money on my debit card for it and then i'll wait tell i can get to a place that has shoes. right know we don't hvae anything here. but transfers are next week so hopefully soon. well this week has been a trial filled week. we had almost nothing happen for most of the week. the best news is that we have a baptism on saturday for Chelsea. my first one that is not an unbaptized youth. so i'm excited. but the other highlight was sunday, we had three investigators at church. chelsea, and the stewarts. fast and testimony meeting was powerful, alot of conversion stories, and such, then at the end bro. stewart got up and bore his as well. it was amazing. it was so cool. now for a funny story, i forgot to tell you this last week. we had just turned left on a street and then we saw flashing red and blue lights. we pulled over and we thought oh no, i start going for the registraion, and elder salisbury rolled down the window. he asked the normal and then he said, eyes forward, hands on steering wheel. we give him the stuff and he then aks, how much have you had to drink tonight. elder salisbury, said none. the officer responded, why do i then smell alcohol . we both looked at each and he said say what. then the officer starts laughing and that's when elder salisbury noticed who it was. it was a member in one of his old areas. he said as soon as he saw us he knew he had to. thinking back nowit was funny, but elder salisbury didn't like it to well. just a funny story for youwell i hope that everything goes well at the doctors. well i'll talk to you later, i'll let you know next week about transfers.

February 25, 2009

2009-02-25T14:21:00.001-08:00

well i just finsihed writing a big email and lost it. so i'll try again, so sorry if it's small. thanks for the pitcures and i sure got laughs form kate. do you know if Jacob has to go the MTC or will he go straight there? i can't belive that the larry milller passed away, that's going to be rough on the Jazz, but cool story with it though. well i'm no longer feeling sick now, so that's some good news. we luckily had it very brief, and wasn't bad. hope you all get feeling better, and why is jill's knee sore? well the biggest things that happened this week is we had on staurday 7 appointmnest scheduled. we did not even know when we would have lunch. we ended up only have one go through. it was not fun. but we had a very powerful lesson with a man named stewart and his wife. they both loved it as well. then sunday we set chelsea for baptism. apparently the guardian ship is not an issue and she was asked by one of the young women in the branch when she was going to be baptized. she answered, no one's asked me yet. so when we heard that we asked her. and she accepted. so that was pretty cool.well sorry about all that happend but this is about all i remember i had down. but i know it was much longer earlier, but oh well it happens. well take care. Elder S. Johnson

February 18, 2009

2009-02-19T16:18:00.000-08:00

yeah, as you can tell were getting rain today. it's cooled off a bit now and getting cold again. i've heard febuary is really like that here. i loved the pitcures from last week i just wasn't able to print them off, i didn't have change on me but that's fine. just so you don't worry, my shoulder is fine now. still not sure what i did to it but it's fine, unfornately we think we got that flu bug going around. we had zone confernce yesterday and we were both sick during it, and when we got back we both just went to bed. but were doing better today so thats good. i'm glad that things are improving with Grace. sounds like she's already growing up. well tell Jamie congradulation on her new girl. yeah, i hadn't heard that at all. well i had a pretty odd week and werid at times. friday we had a pretty fun district mtg and as we were heading up there, the memebr who was giving us a ride up there, bro. henry saw an amublence and a police car at another's memebrs house. she is pregnant and it's going to be her first child, she keeps getting panic attacks and so we stopped by to see if there was anything we could do. we gave her a blessing and it really helped her out. it was awesome. they should of known what sex it is by now, but everytime they try the ultrasound, the baby looks right at it so they can't. i kind of think it funny. then i went on exchanges with an elder horsley. we had a good time had some pretty good lessons. he's from reno, neveda. then on sunday we visited some members that are less active because of health. i have a pretty funny story there involving ther cat. they have this one cat that is very fat. but it is very freindly as well. at one point bro. gibbs said, if your ever in the area come over and we'll feed you. at the time the cat was purring very loud and then he said, we've been fattening the cat for ya. the cat instantly stopped, turned at looked at him, and then he turned and looked at me and the expression on his face was your not going to eat me right. we all started laughing, it was pretty funny. then zone confernce yesterday was really powerful, it was amazing. i learned alot there. well the people i told you about last week, one of them got sick, and the rest we keep missing them. so it's been a little aggravating. well I hope that everything keeps going well. i'll continue keep grace in my prayers. well take care

February 10

2009-02-11T18:28:00.000-08:00

hey everyone. thanks for the pitcures you sent me. i really apprecatied it. she defiantly is looking pretty good. things have been good on this end we had some really good things happen the last few days. oh yes, i heard the elder scott was out in viginia not to long ago. he was there for there stake confernce. he also held a special class for all new members and elder Salisbury had several recent converts meet him. we both thought that was exciting. unfornatley we wished we were serving over there because elder scott went to the zone confernce there for the missionaries there. so we were kind of bummed when we heard that. I can't remember if i told you about one of our new investigators. her name is chelsea. she is a foster child whom the Terri's have taken in. she is right now loving the church and is undertsnading alot of waht we teach her. then we had another really awesome lesson with someone named william Vaughn. he's an older man and he is very freindly and last monday we watched the restoration with him. he loved it, he really felt the spirit it was really powerful. were really getting excited with him, and we also met this new lady yesterday. we met her husband a while back whose from Guatemala. he wanted a spanish book of mormon and we kind of forgot about him. so yesterday we decided to go back. we talked to his wife and found out he had to go back to guatemala because his visa expired while they were trying to get him to be a us citizen. and found out he was more intersted than we thought. so she is going to ship him it. so it was a big testimony booster. last week we were having a rough week and so far we had a good one, but we know it's the Lord why things are happening that way so were very thankful. i don't really know to much more to say right now. but some more good news it's been in the seventies lately. so it's no longer the wet cold. but it's fine. well it's fine that you didn't send me a package. i'm fine with just having the pitcures. well take care. i'm glad things are going well on that end. keep up the good work.

February 4, 2009

2009-02-04T14:22:00.000-08:00

hey everyonethis week has been intersting. i heard that the steelers won, but i heard it was good game though. i was kind of rooting for the cardinals. i also heard they had a transformers two preview on. elder salisbury was going mad when he heard about it. he's a big transormers fan. oh, by the way how did woods cross football team do. so to answer your question about the lightsaber thing. a missionary named elder green, who is from bountiful, showed me that. you can use some colored pencil lead. yeah, i had fun with it with elder meyers. i'm glad that things keep going well with Grace. I'm glad that things are improving and going well. well i hope that the martins feel better soon, my companion once a week gets sick it seems like. but he's usually able to sleep it off so we can go out, so that makes it a better day. i alos hurt my shoulder this week. it's doing fine now, just every now and then i strain it a bit and get sore again. at first it wasn't bad, i just joked with people i was having sympathy pains. because my companion shoulder was hurt, but friday night it got really bad and had to take imbrufen. it's more my shoulder blade that's sore. but it's doing much better now.
oh yes, i haven't cahsed the check yet, i keep forgetting about it, but i will soon, so don't worry. other than that everything has been going fairly well. now for the other news for the week.
oh yes, we got pulled over at one point because our inpsection stickers were expired. oops. so we got that taken care of and then realized we were behind on getting an oil change, o that was intersting. but everything good there now. one day this week we had a pretty cool experince, we went to some partments to go tracting we get there and is practically no cars there only like fifeteen at the most. so we stopand said a quick prayer and that's when elder salisbury noticed that one was a moving van. so we went over and helped them out and were going to be headed back there tomorrow, that was a very neat experience.
well not much else i know of to say right now. but things are oing very well here. i'm glad to that's things are doing a little bit better down there. i can't belive spencer been out almost six months. i'm struggling to belive i'm getting close to a year. man times flies.well take care.

January 27, 2009

2009-01-28T15:41:00.000-08:00

well as it says transfers are going on, and quess where i'm headed. i'm moving pretty far, well actually, i'm staying here another transfer, i'm also staying with elder Salisbury again as well, so we are now each other longest companion. so that's a little exciting. as far as i know theres not any big news on transfers this time. i also mailed pictures home monday , so you should be getting them soon. I also survived boot camp, elder salisbury got injured though. a lot missionaries live in the same complex we were at and every mourning play basketball. he and someone else collided and he was the one that got hurt, he shoulder is just pretty sure. other than that were fine. yeah so i heard the super bowl is this week, i heard it's the Cardinals and Steelers. boot camp was pretty intersting, espically because we were in the city, so that was a big change. the two training assiants were elder Hatch and Hancock. they were pretty fun. we also were there with the a.p's as well, so that was very differnt. we worked with a lot of members up there and had pretty busy schedule. i'm still feeling tired from it. other than that not to much exciting news for you this week. oh yes here's a funny story for you. at boot camp one night, i took off my watch and set it down, went to bed and when i went to put on the next day, i couldn't find it. all four of us looked everywhere and still could not, so finallywhen we came back we stopped at walmart, and i bought a new watch. then when i was unpacking that night, i found it in the bottom of my bag. so i now of two watches. well i'm glad that things are going well on on end. that was awesome what you told me about with the spirit beingso strong in that room. well i hope that everything keeps going well on your end. things have been going great here. i'll talk to you later

January 21, 2009

2009-01-21T20:45:00.000-08:00

hey everyone.this week has been another trial filled week. we had many appointments set up and one two were there. but last night was intersting though. evrything was falling through, and i wasn't feeling the greatest, and was bitterly cold again, we get back check the mail and there was the letter. i opened saw the card, and i was thinking this is random, i opened the card saw the pitcure of kate, and then i saw grace's pitcure and my companion heard me gasp and saw the pitcure as well. the rest of the night went very well after that. so i did get it, and thanks for letting me know. i also called president millburn and let him now as well. he also started talking about how amazing it is how a baby can be born so early and know with the miracle of modern science they can live. i still have a long way to catch up with elder salisbury and his neices and nephews. he has 16, but he is also the second youngest of ten. wow, i've never even heard of gout. i'm not even sure what it is, but your description helped a bit. monday we had zone confernce excpet this time it was on a much smaller scale. it was just our zone but it was still fun and a good learning experience. then today we are headed up to richmond for what is called missionary boot camp. it's a new thing that has started. we work in an area meant to help train missionaries. so that should be intersting i'll let you know about how it went next week. well i'm glad that everything turned out all right at maggie moo's, sounds like that was really scary. but glad that everyone is okay. oh yes we woke up to snow yesterday. so that was fun. I have some pitcures of it. i don't know if it was enough to cancel school or not, but it was on the ground, so that was an intesting suprise. well i'm glad that everything is going good right now. hope everything keeps improving. talk to you next week

January 14, 2009

2009-01-21T20:44:00.000-08:00

i'm glad things are starting to sound better. that's great. things have been crazy here, friday is sounding like it's going to be bitterly cold, high in the twenties here. i alos called pres. millburn last wensday after emails just to let him know what is going on. yeah so last week everytime the phone rang my heart stopped for a second until i saw who it was, but it's been good. i've done pretty well at not thinking about it but at times it came up. but i am glad things are improving there. things have been going well here, the scary thing is were getting close to the end of the transfer here. i'm getting a little nervous. but it sure has flown by. we had a pretty funny story on thursday, we feel bad though. we had a dinner appointment with a member and we showed up about five minutes early and bro. jones was outside. we said hi, he saw and said, elders your early. it turns out we wrote down the wrong time, it was at 5:30 instead of five. so it was sad, but they fine with it. nothing to exciting really happened to let you know about but things have been going fairly well, we had interviews yesterday with pres. millburn and he told us he is pleased with what has been happening here. it was good to hear it from someone. things have been intersting though.i can't belive that chad is already in his last transfer. it was almost a year ago i entered the mtc. it's crazy. i can't believe how the time flies. but i'm loving it here. i'm really enjoying it. well not sure on much else to say but i like the potiential names from by next niece, hope and grace are nice ones. well talk care.

ps from January 7, 2009

2009-01-21T20:43:00.000-08:00

oh yes one last thing a while ago in a zone confernce president millburn told us that, "when oppistion comes it is a blessing and that we should welcome it as friend." oppistion truly does strengthen you. i noticed that a lot last week. we had plenty of oppistion thrown at us but then we had a huge spiritual experinece with the baptism. it was great. trials do truly strengthen you, that;s why it's a good thing.that's all for now. hope this helps.

January 7 2009

2009-01-21T20:41:00.000-08:00

well as it says it is really wet here. we just getting pounded by rain. i was nervous we were going to losepower so we couldn't email. but it's calmed down now. man that is scary with Tiff, i hope everything goes well with that. we have a had a very up and down week with trials and blessings. friday we had alot of disappoints only one out of five our appointments went through, but it was an awesome lesson, and that was from what i heard what a very spiritual lesson. i was on exchanges though at the time so details are a little skecty. but earlier that day we were at a pizza hut and us and a group of missionaries sung there. so that was pretty fun. we also went to the far reaches of our area and we made it two a town that splits us and another area. we were talking and said you know what would be funny is if we saw the other missionaries here. then less than a minute later we both stopped and looked at each other. they were there as well. it was funny. saturday we had an amazing baptism for trisha. the spirit was strong there. the cool thing about it is that two sets off missionaries were there with investigators and they felt it as well. in fact our zone leaders there invetsigator was someone they talked to five minutes before the baptism. we also had the Assaints to the president make a suprise quest appearance as well, so that made it a little nerve wracking. but after the baptism all of us got up and sung Joseph smiths first prayer. that was amazing. so it was a great week atleast for us.well i hope things keep getting better there. i have faith that blessings really do help. oh here's something funny here about snow. whenever snow gets in the forecast people panic and buy as much milk, eggs, and bread as they possibly can. and if an inch of snow is on the ground anywhere school is cancelled. so just pretty funny. but i will be praying that everything goes well. oh yes i also heard that the colts lost and but heard that the dolphins are doing really well. well that's all. talk to you later

Letter December 17, 2009

2009-01-21T20:40:00.000-08:00

Hey fam,
I just wanted to let you know my feelings about this work and what the Savior means to me. This has been a unique experience and one that I am not regretting. It has been full of ups and downs but it's amazing to see the Lord's hand in everything. Some nights when we plan for the next day we have no idea what to do but we are almost always led to know where to go. The spirit is truly behind us, just like it says without the spirit, you cannot teach. I said this many times and probably anyone who has served can say the same thing. The time has flown by, I'm not sure it has for you, but it has to me. I do not regret this decision but I'm so thankful for it.
I have truly seen the confusion among the people out there, I can understand why Joseph Smith was so confused at all the churches. I can clearly see the fruits of the great apostasy, but above all, I know that Christ's church has been restored in its fulness. I can truly testify to that. I know by the Holy Ghost that these things are true and I know the Book of Mormon is true. It clearly teaches of Christ and it is the fruit of a prophet. I now have an understanding of Moroni's challenge. I know this to be true.
I know that Jesus Christ lives and that he is truly God's son. It's only through him we can be saved. I now know the power of his Atonement and I am so grateful for that. He truly knows what each of us need and he wants to help. All that is unfair about life can be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. "The Son of man hat descended below them all. Art though greater than He?" D&C 123:8, means a lot to me. He is truly in our trials. Opposition truly does strengthen us. It is for our good.
I know I am meant to be here. For I have been called of God to labor among his children here in Virginia. I would like to close with a scripture in 3 Nephi 5:13. "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have Everlasting Life." Thank you for helping me prepare for this. I am truly thankful.

Your Son, Elder Steven Johnson

December 17, 2009

2009-01-21T20:39:00.000-08:00

well, i'm not getting transferred. i'm staying with elder salibury once again. so that's pretty exciting. were getting along well. yeah, we bought a little 2 inch tall wire tree so we have something to put our presents under. so it's been intesting. no big changes for me this transfer. the first time no changes for me at all. yes, i have got your package. in fact i got it last thursday. so it was very fast this time. i don't know when i'll be calling yet, still need to figure that out but it will be in the morning i belive. i'll write when we figure that out. i stil have the phone card from mothers day, so no worries. well we've ben just getting rain here. the weathers been crazy though. one day it will be low forties and then the next in almost 70. makes its hard to know what to plan for. yesterday we made plans to go bike tracting. we woke up to find out it was raining. i think i'll be emailing on thurday i believe it's open but if not oh well. i will either just write or talk to you the next day. oh yeah i forgot to tell you this but last fast sunday i taught the lesson in priesthood. that was fun. it was on richard g. scott talk about honoring the priesthood and use it well. it was a silent rebuking in it but more of reminder was still a good talk. had a lot to do with respecting the daughters of God. thers not to much i know to talk about other than they called two traveling assiants in the mission, mostly those to help train those in the mission, one of the a.p.'s stepped dwon to help train the traveling ones. then one of my old zone leaders was made an A.P. so that was fun to hear. but other than that not to much i can think of to tell you. oh yeas last friday had a not so pleasant experince. we had a branch christmas activity and alot of good food. but at the end i was helping take the tables down and were i had the crown put on was feeling a little werid. and then five minutes later it popped off. it turned out the dentist had a bad batch of cement. but it was an easy fix, in and out in fiev minutes. so no worry. we had an intestring sacramnet meeting on sunday. one of the talks was a brother fly and he talked alot about the econmic cirsis but then tied into the christmas story. so it was an intesting talk he even made a joke about his wife saying, he's going to a give a doom and gloom talk during christmas. it was pretty funny. i don't know if you heard about the trial here involving some missionaries you served here three years ago but i'm sure you've heard something. i've know about that for a while but didn't want to worry anyone about it so i have said anything. but i'm glad that the guy was found guilty, just is a very sad story involving them. but the cool part is that elder hiebrink, ended up coming back out. well enough of that story but things have been going well here. i'll get to talk to you next week. happy holidays.

December 10, 2008

2009-01-21T20:36:00.000-08:00

well sounds like that was a very exciting week for you. yeah today is actually warm. it's been bitter cold and then last night we had a heat wave move in with thunderstorms so may be a stormy day today. i'll probably be getting my package off today so you should get it soon. and it's for the whole family, so just giving you the heads up. now about the phone call, i don't think i'll be able to call on chrismas eve, because it's designated in a letter christmas day. i can talk for about forty minutes just like mothers day. so i don't know, but i will see. yeah, well I might have some news next week. transfers are coming up. well this week was good. we had a member who invited there friends to be taught. the lesson went very well. so we hopefully will be teaching them again this week. then friday i got everything finished at the dentist, but my companion had his root canal. he was not looking forward to that. but he turned out fine. yesterday was an amzing day, first off we had zone confernce. so i got to see alot of familar faces. but what was the coolest is that we had this little video that showed everyone in the mission. it had there pitcure and then someones elses showed up. so it was fun. oh yes make sure your sitting down for this. the lunch there was chili over fritos, and i loved it. it was yummy. so theres a new food that i like. after zone confernce we had an amazing lesson with deneen once again. she is very much prepared. she is the first one who has read every reading assignment we have left. most takes once or twice asking them too. it's amazing. she like an inch away from being set. but she is praying about being baptized. so that's some good news. well i'll be sure to let you know, whether through email, or i'll write to let you know about calling home. well talk to you soon. not sure what else to say though.

Nov. 26, 2008

2008-11-26T08:48:00.000-08:00

hey everyone
yeah this week has been intesrting and frustrating. that family i told you about last week fluffed off. they weren't there so we both were pretty bummed. then i got sick monday. more of a cold like flu. mostly my stomach been alittle upset, and i've been exhausted. yesterday i woke up and were suppossed to exersice thirty minutes each morning, all i did was stretch. i was exhausted. so it wasn't to fun. well i'm glad your feeling better. i'm feeling much better today as well, just a sore throat now.
well wensday we had a lesson with a investigator who has the nickname mad-dog hersey. she in her 60's, and she a retired police officer, from washington d.c. she also was on survior, so that was intersting. the lesson went fairly well, she seems very intersted. she has took lessons before and last time she was running for sheriff, then she found out that basically all the members lived in the other county and so she stopped taking the lessons. she really does seem intersted, so no worries this time.
friday we had a zone meeting and that was pretty fun. theres a funny story with that. it's elder neilson's last transfer, so i waned to make a joke to him. when he walked in i said, hi elder neilson, you trunky yet. he said in a fast, annoyed voice, no! trunky means basically your packed and ready to go home, no longer care about missionary work. so it was pretty fun.
satyrday we did some service and raked up some leaves. made me wonder if jill is helping dad with them this year.
heres a cool story we tracted into this older woman a while back and as were were talking with her she kept taking about her neice that lived with here. she has two kids and so we decided to go back, felt like we needed to talk to her neice. it was cold that day and we started to talk with her. we tried to make it brief but she was very intersted. and we talk with her for a while. we set up a time to come back and that lesson was amazing. we committed her to read the book of mormon and to pray to know if it's true. she said, i already feel it ius true. it was amazing.
well that basically we had this week. hope you keep feeling better. tomorrow we have one place were going, with a part member. wife's the member but the husband just got back from being on a ship for a month. he's in the navy. they also have a two year old son that for some reason reminds me of the stories i herad when i was that age. he also loves trains. so i talk with you later. have fun tommorrow.
Elder S. Johnson

Nov. 19, 2008

2008-11-26T08:46:00.000-08:00

yeah i can understand with being sick. no i'm not sick but my companion is, was, is. back and forth. we stopped by the branch president saturday night and we were there for a bit and then the next morning him and his son who lives in the branch, who was there as well, they both got sick. so we considered ourselves a little lucky. he's been sick twice in the past week. last wensday and yesterday. luckily it's been off and on so it's not been bad. we had a an intesting week to say the least. doesn't sound like you've had to fun of a week for us we had it intestring. i can't believ rebecca is getting married. the last time i heard anything about marraige she was totally turned off by the idea. but i guess that was about a year and a half ago.
so your probably wondering why i said from the cold son, it is very cold here right now. when we left the apartment it was in the thrities this morning. the biggest problem about the cold here is its a wet cold. so it makes it more miserable. yesterday we drove through snow. wasn't sticking but it was cold. and it's funny because last saturday it was high seventies. so it changed fast.
oh yes, i found out that elder salisbury is related to some peterson's, up near the blackffot area of idaho. so i asked him if there from denmark and he said yes. so we might be related somehow. just thought that was intesting.
saturday we had this person we tracted into invite us to his church. basically he said this, if you want me to come to ours come to mine. so we went to a bible study sunday night. it was intesrting. never turned into a bash or anything but it was differnt. he never came though, but the pastor there knew we were coming. we were kind of nervous about what might happen, i know some have anti mormon classes around here. so it turned out okay.
but the cool story happened yesterday. it started out bad. elder slaisbury was sick and we were in the morning. then we had an appointment at three that fell through. the road we chose to tract had no houses on it. so it wasn't going well. so we prayed to know where to go. i looked at our map and say a street not to far from us and felt like thats were we should go. so we found a house and found a parking spot, said a prayer and was getting ready to leave a school bus just pulled up behind us. two young girls got off and so we started towards the house, nrevous because the other day we scared two young girld and there dad wasn't to friendly. we asked if we could give them something and one of them went inside and the mom came out. she said, now is not good time. so we were going to leave her with a card for a book of mormon. as soon as she saw the card. the mom said, we were wondering how to get in hold of you. we found a family. so it was a really cool. so that was the highlight yesterday.

well i hope you get better. and not much else i know to say, but get well. and how is dad's back doing? i hope it's better.
well talk to you later.

Elder S. Johnson

Nov. 12, 2008

2008-11-26T08:43:00.000-08:00

hey everyone.
this week sure has been an adventure. so it turns out with transfers, that we had an intersting time. there was two elders getting transferred and 5 coming in. becuase three went home. so it was intersting. so we got everything arranged so that three elders stayed behind and then they picked up everyone else. with a senior missionary couples help. the peterson's, there from orem, i don't know if were related though. yes i just got my line of autority today. i was really excited when i saw it. well my mouth is doing just fine, no pain so far. knock on wood. but i have a return appointment saturday. my companion hopelly doesnt have it too bad. he going in after me to have his tooth checked out. it's been really bugging him. well from the smallville thing you asked doomsday is somesort of genetic monster from kyrpton. don't know much about him. yes i also got my package as well. don't worry i shared.

well this week was intesting. sunday we had a branch confernce. so we had a lot of people from the stake there. then this branch has this thing called a lingerlonger every second sunday. basically it's just a big get together that has a lot of food. so it was fun. they couldn't last month becuase of general confernence, stake confernce, and fast sunday, so it was pretty busy.
my new companion elder salisbury grew up in long beach california, and then moved to logan, utah four years ago. he'll be out a year this friday. he is also thinking about playing football in collage as well, he's thinking of utah state.
on monday we had a big group family home evening again. that was pretty intersting, theres this one little kid named eban, and i think he reminds me of myself. i don't know what i was like but he's usually bouncing off walls. me i had a cat jump onto my lap and fall asleep so it was pretty funny, the lint roller came in handy.
yesterday we had interiews with president millburn, and it went pretty good, we also now have elder salisbury's bike which makes country tracting a lot better. don't have to use as many miles, and don't take as long walking in between houses.
one thing about the ensign magazines, the missionaries always get them last. they give them to us at a meeting, sometimes we get it a week before the end of the month. this one i think might be sooner, but don't know. well that's about it. this week. it was great to hear from all of you. later
Elder S. Johnson

Nov 5, 2008

2008-11-05T10:42:00.000-08:00

yeah i've heard about elections. not to excited about either of it. obama kind of scares me though. i'm up in hopewell staying till my new companion elder salisbury arrives. which will be tommorrrow. i'm stil junior though, but elder peterson has it pretty crazy. he's going senior, and district leader. he is also step-training, and training. so he's got it crazy. no the cookies were fine. they were still good. i'm feeling okay after the dentist. bad night for it though. man i hope dad's back get better. i also thought it was cute how kate says goodbye to all her toys and such. at chucrh sunday before sacrament meeting a little boy at 1 years old was walking around. i smiled and said, hello james. well he then walked up to me smiling and started wanting to pick me up. now i'm not allowed to as a missionary, so because i didn't he walked off and began to cry. it was so sad. i felt so bad. thats a cool story from chad. right now we have someone set for the 29 of this month. an eleven year old girl. still can only seem to only baptize kids. but oh well. i don't know if you remember about elder martz and elder taylor. they both are zone leaders now. so that's some good news.

sunday we had an awesome branch fireside. there we started a book of mormon reading that will take place the next year. so that's pretty exciting. everything is pretty crazy. though. last night i've been with a zoneleader and we went to fort lee to visit some members. there is senior missionary couple that serve there as well. we did a little fmaily home evening and that was pretty fun. i also get to play zone leader tonight. we have a meeting with the stake president so that is a fairly strange feeling.

well that all i really have. i still haven't got that halloween one but i'm sure it will be there by tomorrow. so that all for this week.
Elder S. Johnson

Oct 29, 2008

2008-11-05T10:39:00.000-08:00

hey everyone.
this week has been intersting. i still haven't recieved the package, dont know where it is. so elder brockman said, you mihht be able to track it, but don't know. it's hopefully at the post office now, didn't go by it this morning. wow, i can't belive josh is back now. but it sounds like he had a good time there. yeah, i heard byu was humilated. so i have some exciting news this week.
so friday we had our baptism. we did it up in petersburg. elder brockman baptized aidan. heres the funny thing. it was suppossed to start at 6:00 and bro. johnson our mission leader made the goal that we were going to start on time. the problem was, the local highschool had a parade for homecoming and people struggled to get around it. so byt the time it got started it was 30 minutes late. not our fault. besides the person doing the opening prayer was in the caravan running late. but it went very good. then on sunday i confirmed him, so that was pretty exciting. but thats the most exciting thing for this week. today is elder brockman last p-day and then next wendsday he's flying home. i'll be staying up in hopewell. where there will be only one zoneleader, because the other one is going home as well.
we have to be in by six on halloween and i've already heard plans by memebers planning to come by, so we have to get some candy, kid probably wouldn't like pass along cards to well. oh yes yesterday we were out tracting and sometimes a dog will start foling you, this time we had a cat. it was funny, never pet it, never fedd it or anything, but it just followed us everywhere. it was funny walking down the street and having it walk along the side of us. it was pretty odd. it acted a bit like a dog. whenever a dog follows us we call it a disiple dog, this time it was a disiciple cat. well that's it for this week.
i'll talk to you in less than two months. later

Elder S. Johnson

Oct 22, 2008

2008-10-26T15:59:00.000-07:00

wow, that good that dad got himself another deer. that sounds great. this week has been intersting. i just got that card from grandma today, elder brockman is already liking grandma's idea of taking him out for lunch. yes i've been to the diner a few times. the first time was the day we arrived here. so this week was amazing, i got to shake elder cooks hand, twice. second time was on accident but i talk about that in a minute.on friday we did twenty fours with the zone leaders. that was an intersting exprience. i was with elder brockman's mtc companion. so that was intersting. then monday i went on exchanges with the petersburg elders. petersburg is differnt. for example saw a drug deal as we drove by. so that was differnt. also talked with this one guy who was really bent out of shape because two of his neighbor houses were broken into that day. so petersburg is differnt. but for some good news, we made it to stake confernce and we herad from some elder where elder cook was. so we styaed around that area waiting till he came out. so he came out and he said, hello elders. shook our hands and pres. millburn was coming out of the room with him and he placed his hand on my shoulder and said, good work elders. and then walked off. so we both looked at each other and chuckled abit. it was a really good meeting. pres millburn spoke at ours as well as elder cook, and it was a very good meeting. then afterwards we were trying to find some members really quickly and accidently ended up at the door right when he was walking through. so second time was on accident. then we had zone confernce yesterday, but no special quests were there. the richmond area had two apostles sunday, and three seventy's. so it was unusual, no news was revealed like a temple or anything, but i think alot of people were hoping. zone confernce was amazing. it was very good. well i still havent recived the package yet, i think there somthing wrong with the post office near us our something. but who knows. we have a baptism on friday. for a 9 year old named Aidan fosser. it's been differnt teaching him mostly because of his younger siblings. there a set of twins, that are both six, and another one that is 4. so it's been intersting. well that's it for today. next time you here from me i'll been twenty. elder johnson

October 15, 2008

2008-10-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

wow, i can't belive it's deer hunting season allready. wow is time flying by. were now in what's called suit season, so we wear them everyday, for the most part. we can remove them if it gets over 70 degrees. so it okay. we take them off within an hour of going out in the morning. well so far i haven't done to much. our first sunday they asked us to each give a short talk and then last sunday elder brockman gave the lesson in priesthood. so that went very well. oh yes and quess what our furnace is like. basically we flip a switch and oil will fill up and then we light it with a piece of paper. it gets pretty toasty in there but it's still good. that doesn't sound to fun, there but it might get better. so the big news for this week is, we have a stake confernce on sunday, and Elder Quentin L. Cook is coming. Boyd K. Packer is going to another one though, but it's still exciting. well i bought myself some porkchops this week and i cooked them. they turned out allright. so i cooked my first porkchop. then friday we were out tracting and we had a phone call from the brnach president wife, sis. gruber. she had a referal for us. it's a cool story. his name is chuck. he just moved into surry and was going through a rough time. the first box he unpacked had a book of mormon in it. he recieved a year ago and he started reading. he starting cross referncing it between the bible and saw other referances from the D&c and covenats and pearl of great price so he found pres. gruber's phone number anc called seeing if he could get them. so we talked with him for an hour and he's intersted in the lesson's. so that's pretty exciting. then on monday we are starting up a joint family home evening. it went very well. elder brockman loves to cook and made this taco soup. it was very good. i'm going to ask him for the recipe. this week has had it's up and downs. but it's been a pretty good week. this area is defiantely challenging i will give it that. but it's very fun fun here. belive it or not there are 14 chuches in the town of wakefield alone. and it's smaller than blanding. it crazy. well that's it for this week. talk with you later.

Oct 8, 2008

2008-10-10T08:17:00.000-07:00

sounds like you had a great week. things have been great here. we just opened up a P.O. box so we can get mail now. it's
P.O. box 964
Wakefield, VA 23888

so there you go. so right now it's been going great here. yeah, confernce was kind of scary me and elder brockman have been talking about. a lot of talks seemed to be get prepared, the second coming is coming. it just seemed to have a lot of focus on it, so the probably the biggest message. also found out president monson like showtunes. i'm not sure what my favorite talk was but elder worthlin defiantly had the best joke. so saturday morning we were going out to go tracting and quess what, we had a parade here. elder brockman was tempted to call elder martz, the distict leader and tell him the world was ending, cause there was a large number of sirens going off. so we ended up going to the church early, because we couldn't do anything else. so it was intersting. theres something i want to tell you about elder martz. he been in the same area for almost a year now. it will be a year at the end of this transfer. it's crazy. but he loves the area. he is up in petersburg. then yeterday we had a zone meeting. that was fun. elder peterson and neilson are both in my zone now. it's werid tough, elder neilson is going home next transfer.

well tell jordan congradulations. i'm excited for him. we actually already had an apartment. we had it when we got here. the landlord told us that missionaries have moved in and out of that same one many times. yes we do have a grocery store. here's the funny thing. every area with a car is allowed fourty p-day miles. here's the sad part, we can walk to the libary, to the grocery store, and back to the apartment. we are that close to everything. there are a few fast food places, we have a subway and then we can go to th north and find a hardee's(carl's junior) and a mcdonalds. so there are places, but not much. we actually cover two counties here. sussex, and surry. we made it to the james river this week. but that's about it. oh and we also can walk to the church. it's pretty much across the street. well that's about it for this week. everything is going well here.
elder johnson

Oct 1, 2008

2008-10-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

so i guess you already now a bit about this place. i have more to share though. it has an airport, last area didn't. it also has many peanut fields around us. alos micheal Vick's house is in our area. the one with the dogfighting thing. but the biggest thing is, that me and elder brockman are reopening this area. it's been crazy. we arrived basically with nothing. but the branch is very supportive. all of them are thrilled that were back. it's very exciting. i've learned a lot. so the first night we arrived, we unpacked bought our food, and evrything else. then we went out with a bro. holle. he toured us around, helped us go up to the zone leaders apartment and get some more supplies. so that was pretty intersting. we already have someone set for baptism, belive it or not, and another were planning to set on sunday, there unbaptized youths but still something. i have already seen so many miracles here. one day we were looking up potental investigators and we knocked on the door, no one. elder brockman then felt inspired to go to another door, and we ended up tracting everything and nothing happened, as were getting into the car, the potientails wife pulled in. so we talked with her and she's always been interseted in learning more. it's been great here. and quess how big the branch is... make sure you sitting down for this. in my last ward there was about 40 active young men, here there is about that many active members. it is very small. but it's great.
so my companion, elder brockman was a zone leader and now were reopening this area. he has only six weeks left though, so we are really moving to get this area going. he's great, he's really been helping me learn. i've already leanred alot from him. right now we are working on getting a p.o. box because they don't have mailboxes in the town limits. so it's been intersting. we ont be biking here, mostly because elder brockman doesn't have one, and it's not worth it to buy one for six weeks. so it will be different. congradulations on your calling that sounds great. yes, wealso get the ensigns but usually later in the months so we get sneak peaks from members often. well that's about it, i don't know when i can sned pitcures though, mostly because of there's no place here to do it. but i will sometime. well that's it for now. talk to you later.
elder johnson

Sept. 24, 2008

2008-09-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

i am getting transferred. i'm going to wakefield. don't know much about it other than its kind of country. if you wonder where it is on the map it southeast of Petersberg. i'm am going to be working with an elder brockman. don't know much about him, so i'm excited. transfers were very exciting this time. elder beames, and elder Peacock, two that i came out with are training. so i can't wait to tell them congradulations. there was alot of big news. we had interviews this week and wensday after were were coming home from the holocaust museam we heard that all the zone leaders had an emergency meeting with the mission president. it turns out that there making some changes. there now having the ap's are going out into the field, and they have called to traveling assiantants that are sister's. and now zone confernces will be just our zone and then they have missionwide confernces three times a year. so it's been intersting. they also announced this leadership training for the stakes here, and elder cook, and president packer, as well as some seventies are coming. everyone is wondering what's going on. ward council was joking around about annoucing a richmond temple, but probably not.
well this week was definately interesting, wensday we went to the holocaust museum and it was pretty depressing. then thursday was pretty fun with interviews. but that's really about all that's really exciting this week. i alos had a bike crash in goochland saturday. i'm fine, knee is a little brusied but doesn't hurt, my wrist is a little sprained so it's been differnt trying to type. so sorry if it bad, and a bunch of mispelling. but other than that it's fine.
so i quess that john beck has been playing, or is someone else. i heard brett frave is doing good. still can't pitcure him as a Jet. sounds like kate is getting into airplanes now. she's defiantly got johnson blood in her. i have't had the chance to make the cookies yet, but i have brownies. but i'm excited for this next week. so next week i'll have the address for you. well that's it for this week, but i am very excited to go to wakefield, nervous, but excited.
elder johnson

Sept 17, 2008

2008-09-17T09:11:00.000-07:00

well so far virginia is starting to cool down, had some rain yesterday but other than that not to much. i've heard quite a few things this week. one about the big bankrupty this week, the hurricane, and about gas going up again. so basically the big stuff. hopefully you all get better soon. it's not to fun being sick. our disrtict leader hasn't been sick, just sore. he had a really bad bike wreck monday. we come in for lunch and they called us and said, how they were out for fifteen minutes and then they have to be in all day. but they're excited anyways, they got a car out off it, because he got stiches in his leg, and hurts to much to bike. haven't had a companion yet you has slept walk, but i heard one of the old aps did. but he also talked in his sleep. i keep forgetting to tell you this, but make sure you don't jump, or scream, but i cut my hair, all by myself. it's looks great, i have pitcures of it. so when i send them you can see them.
i can't remeber if i ever have told anyone this, but one of the pitcures of me and kate. in the Mtc on the first days there, everyone was showing pictures of ther girlfriends, just showing off mostly. i grabbed out that pitcure and said, you want to see a pitcure of my girlfriend. everyone said, sure and i showed them and they all just started laughing, it was really funny. but that's it for now.
last wensday we had an apppointment that fell through, so we head to go see someone else and after we got out of the car, we heard this hissing sound. our tire was deflating. so we drove back to our appartment and then changed it there. then the next day we went and got a new tire. so it was intersting. we don't know exactly what it was but were quessing a nail, not as bad a louisa, a while back. they pierced there tire with a key. sunday we had an appointment with an investigator named terrance. we taught him a few times now, and we set him for baptism. it went great. we are so excited right now. he is a body builder, has a job, as well as a fulltime student. it's great. he is great. he's set right now for the 18th of october.
well not much else i know of to say right now. but i heard from tiff that she's pregant again. i'm excited. well thats all for this week. next week at this time i know if i'm getting transferred or not. so i'm getting nervous. and thanks for the card. that's great the ward/stake is trying to do missionary work. thats something there really pushing in this mission is getting members excited about doing it. well thats it. talk to you later.
elder johnson

Sept 10, 2008

2008-09-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

hey everyone
this week has been intesting. we got quite a lot of rain last weekend, i'll tell a bit more in a bit. i don't now him right off but, i'll be sure to meet him when he comes in. i have heard that Byu and Utah have done pretty good, i heard that utah beat Michigan. but other than that not much. i heard from someone that Tom brady left the game on sunday, and that he's out for the season. don't know if it's true or not. wow, so pam and roger have a bird now. that's intesting.
so last wensday we huung out with Glen allen again, and we went to a place called Carytown. it was pretty cool, just a bunch of hole in the wall shops. we went by a lot of antique shops and went tie shopping. missionaries here like to look for the older 70's polyester ties. it was pretty fun done there. i got a black tie with pink circles. it's cool looking. then i'm not sure if you heard about it or not but wensday night we get a call from our district leader telling everyone to get our 72 hour kits together because a hurricane is coming. it was a weak one but they still wanted everyone to be prepared. it was a tropical storm when it hit though. everyone in the mission was praying that it would hit, a lot of missionaries were wanting to experince it. it hit friday night and then we went tracting out in it saturday morning. it just rained, that was it, not much wind, but just a lot of water.

but other than that not to much exciting things happened this week. i'll talk with you later.
elder johnson

Sept 3, 2008

2008-09-03T10:44:00.000-07:00

hey everyone
this week has been really good. we had an AMAZING zone confernce. i talk about that in abit. just to let you know, i did just get the package. i got it yesterday. thanks a bunch. the shrew we decided to try to keep for a bit but it got loose and we tried to catch it but i accidently killed it. so it's dead now. i was telling people about it a zone confernce, and one elder named elder Moa, he was there a few months before me and he said, what are you doing to that apartment. i told him, just trying to keep it from falling apart. it's much nicer than that, just probelms come up every now and then. well we had a big rainstorm on thursday, so that may be part of it. i heard new orleans had another hurricane get close. i have also heard there is quite a few of them out there from people. that is one of the reasons the whole mission has cell phones now. we got ours just two weeks ago. it used to be all sister missionaries and thosewho live with a member, now it is everyone. my bike is brand new, and it's a yellowish color. when i send pitcures home soon youll see it.

now for the stroies this week. last wensday we went up to glen allen, and we hanged out up there for the day, and then they decided they all wanted to get slurpees, so we get a ride with a member and eventually we ended up in Innercity of Richmond and went to Belle Island, it has a bridge that go underneath the freeway over the James river. there we walked around and saw some old civil war prisions and other things. it was pretty fun, but i did not have my camera at the time, so i'll have to go there again sometime. then on thursday we had Elder Zwich come and speak with us and he talked to us for about three hours. it was amazing. he talked about all sorts of stuff like how mission calls are made, then about preach my gospel how it got made, and many more things. he told us how preach my gospel was written on the other side of the veil, so like what you said in email, and he told us about how elder maxwell wrote chapter six on christlike attributes, after he was diagnosed with cancer. and how he finished it and then passes away a few months later. it was incredible, the spirit in there was so strong. it was great.

other than that i cant think of much more to tell you. tell jill sorry her card is a little late. but it's in the mail. yeah we talked with many people on monday who told us yeah, labor day is for labor. i answered quite often, to me it was always my sisters birthday. but it was good day. elder wangemann sent me an email that told me that he is now an uncle. perfect timing. he's back home now. i can understand going without sugar, a less active meber had us for dinner on friday. she's greek. very intersting food, but it's good. she gave us a sugar free chocolate cake. so it's very bland. i'm not sure to much for birthday right now, but i'll let you know. but right now a shirt and a tie sounds good. just make sure it's not one of those shirts that you tried to iron and wouldn't, there still bad. well thats it for this week, i think it's quite a bit more than normal, but i'm sure you wont complain.
elder johnson

Aug 27, 2008

2008-08-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

the last two days have been a little rainy. just to answer you few questions, no i haven't got my package yet. haven't done any sight seeing, not to much in my area of richmond. we are talking about heading up to Glen allen and hang out, but it depends on the weather. i am right now reading jesus the christ, slowly, but reading it. it's very good, but he's got a big vocabulary. usually i have a dictionary next to me when reading it. then i have alos read our heritage. last week i also finished the Doctrine and covenants.
well now for some good news. we had an interesting week. on friday we had a district meeting. we had the high councilor over missionary work there and talked to us about a new program the stake is doing to help move the work along. it sounds great. so they aksed us to help memebrs start it up. then afterwords we went to whats called, hardee's(or carl's junior back west.) it was pretty good. then i bought myself a bike. so thats were the money went if you were wondering. then staurday we were having personal study in the morning and elder meyers heard something moving near the door. he looks over and saw something stick it head out from under our closet and then went back in. he said, we have a mouse. he then got some peanut butter and sat next to the closet with a stick waiting for it to get the peanut butter. he took a couple of whacks at it, but didn't get it. monday we see it again. and we take everything out of the closet and caught it. it turned out to be a shrew. then we doubled checked for a nest and everything else and there wasn't one. so we were lucky.
other than that's that's the most exciting stuff for this week. but it was great hearing from everyone. tommorrow should be fun. we have zone confernce again. and elder zwich for the sevnty is coming as well. everyone is looking forward to it. well that's it for now.
elder johnson

Aug 20, 2008

2008-08-20T11:57:00.000-07:00

this week has been intesrting to say the least. it was on the slow side but still fun. I still haven't recived the packge yet, but it should arrive here. yeah, i was just reazling it's been five months as well. it doesn't feel like it. but then i think about all i have done and it makes sense. well my companion elder meyers is from Oregon. a small town named Cottage grove. in school he was on the school swim team. he's been out about 6 months. or a transfer ahead of me. he's a good missionary as well. now for the other person you were asking about, belinda. she is thirteen, and she was born in ghana. then they moved to new york. her mom converted there, and her dad i think was already a member. they move around alot, and went less active. the sister missionaries in the area next to us went over, and taught them a bit and found out she and her little brother hadn't been baptized. so they began to work with them. derrick mostly thinks it's a game when were over there so his mom wnated him to wait. so they ended up moving into our ward boundries, and thats the story.
so thurday we normally would head down to the meadowbrook chapel to pick up my new companion, but i was already with him, and so i didn't get to go down. so we were both sad about that. on friday the ward a a barbaque so we went and was good to introduce him to alot of members. thn saturday we ended up having to take bikes up to scotchtown. it turns out that the schotown elders didn't tie there bikes down and one fell off and was in desprate need of repairs. so they take to a shop, and then we had to take it back up there. so we went into a very country area. it was very beautiful, and alot of been fields. then sunday we had a dinner appointment with the high councilor over missionary work, bro. anderson. and it was a very good meal. i enjoyed it alot. i alos got to met elder wangemann's family. all excpet his older brother whose wife is expecting any day. he flying home i think today. his family came out to pick him up. so that was fun to meet them. then monday we went on exchanges with glen allen. so i met elder amlone greenie. his name is elder holly, and he reminded me alot of spencer nish. that was very fun, we had a great time. then yesterday was my funny story for the week. we had a return appointment with someone we met off of tracting and she said, she would have goodies over there for us as well. i figured it meant snack foods. we ended up having a dinner appointment that night, and we head straight fro, there to see her. she had a fried chicken meal. luckly i saved some room.
it was a very interesting week this week. not much else i know to say, but i will email you next week. i also have herad micheal phelps is tearing it up in china right now. but I haven't heard much else other than about him.

2008-08-13T14:17:00.001-07:00

well this week has been very intesting. we had a baptism, said goodbye to elder wangemann, and found out who my new companion is. sister goodhue on sunday asked for our families email, she wanted to email them, so that's the basic story behind it. your going to have to let me know who it is that coming to virginia, i'm sure i know him. yeah, we been hearing alot about the olympics from people here. so brett farve is jet now, that werid, just thinking about it. yes, Glen allen is in richmond, in fact it is just to the east of us, in fact our boundries meet. here's a funny story last night. i was staying with elder malone, and elder meyers. elder malone gets a call from president millburn saying that he is training in glen allen, so elder meyer was depressed that he is going. at 11:15 transfers come in over the fax and they had it first, and then found elder meyer and his companion is elder S. Johnson, area gayton. so i'm already with my new companion. he's just going across the street. so that was very unusual.
so on wensday we went to the cheesecake factory. mmm, that was good. that was a very fun day. then on thursday we had inetrviews with the mission president. it went well, and then we went straight to an appointment at three, and we then went to one at 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. we were running all over that night. but it was fun. then saturday was awesome, belinda was baptized, and everything went well. it started alittle late though, about thirty minutes. but everything went good, other than that. it was because her oldest sister whose not amemebr was coming, and she got lost. so we waited for that. then that night me and elder wangemann went to maggie moos to celebrate that, and it was his two year mark. then sunday was intersting, we were getting gray hairs because belinda came very late. and for converts they have them confirmed in sacrament meeting.
man this week flew by. last transfer flew by. i was also wondering if you might be able to get zack's and nicks email address. well thats it for this week
elder johnson

Aug 6, 2008

2008-08-07T07:40:00.000-07:00

wow. sounds like you going to have a fun trip. elder neilson wanted to go there really bad. tell spencer congratualtions. the bishop's wife had a son who is tempe, arizona mission. so tell him to keep an eye out for an elder weber. yesterday we were lucky it was supposed to be mierable. humity in the nineties and tempeture over a hundred. lucky we had cloud cover and it was cool, but still humid. but not as bad. i remember hearing about kim and shawn moving to michigan for school. there is also a person here who is going to SUU this year as well. he is also preparing for a mission as well. who knows they may meet. i was also wondering about whether the gopher was around or not. i cook every now and then, but recipes could be fun, so you could send some. i'm still adjusting to wensday as well. oh yeah, let wendels know i got the pitcures and note from the primary. thanks. oh yeah, last week we had a new family move into the ward. kelli black's older brother. i talked with there dad and he said, he knows dad. his name is lyle black.
well this week has been intesting. it's starting to heat up here. tempture. yesterday we had one of our invetsigators take us to brewsters. it's an ice cream shop, very popular here. it was good. it's seems alot like maggie moos, but they already have stuff mixed in. it's still good. she has a son that's a member who is one mission in uraguay. he's a zone leader down there and just loves it. so she loves to have us come by. he comes home in october, so i may not be able to meet him, before he goes back out to BYU.
we also have a baptism this weekend. it's for belinda. so i'm looking forward to that. tomorrow is going to be very busy. we have interviews in the morning, then we head there to an appointment with an invetsigator, then, we have one at four, five, six, seven, and eight. so it's going to fly bye, it's between less actives and active members.
yesterday i found a rechargable battery charger so i bought that for my camera, that will quickly pay it's self off. but that's mostly it for this week. well maybe try to wait for my package, because tuesday i will be staying with the glen allen elders, and there is still a chance that i will be transfered. so just to give you a heads up. but that's it for this week. i am also headed to the cheesecake factory today. elder wangemann is throwing a last p-day party. so it should be fun.

i just remebered something we did on saturday. the elder quorum in our ward did a pig roast and invited us to come. it was great. we had a less active meber arrive and he has an almost three year old that is always getting into trouble. he thinks everything is his and doesn't like to share. but he is fun. there was alot of little kids there running around, checking out the chickens, pigs, peacocks, goats, and even there dog. i was thinking the whole time, kate would of had a blast there. they even were letting the kids feed the goats. i wish i would have brought my camera though, but that's it. hope to hear from you.

July 29, 2008

2008-07-30T18:50:00.000-07:00

well i'm glad you got that letter, i'm sure quite a few parents were wondering what was going on yesterday, when they didn't get an email. this week was definately intertesting, a little bit longer than normal. well transfers are coming up in two weeks. so it's coming up, i'm probably going to stay here but there is still a chance of leaving. sounds like kate is learning a lot of things since i've been gone. prayer even. i started using my debit card mostly because i got a little low on money this month. so i used it a bit. but you don't need to worry about replacing it yet. i already have a helmet but not a bike. (elder yelton gave me his.) well let grandma know i say hi as well.
well in our zone there is about ten areas. then about 3 districts with about 3-4 companions in that area. which covers a stake. there is 8 zones in our mission but one is spanish. so at zone confernce, ours has elders from the chesterfeild, midlothian, waynesboro, and richmond. pembroke is the spanish. then the other one which is for the newport news, virginia beach, and cheasepeake. zone confernce a more learning oprunties from the mission president, and the other senior missionaries. then they have departing testimonies for those who are going home that transfer. then usually the A.P.'s make some sort of game to break it up. so thats the normal zone confernce.
the past ftwo days have been tiring, weve been doing service for an older lady in the ward. she's from greece and has problems with her lawn mover. so we go over monday just planning on mowing her lawn and it turns out she was us to take out two of her small trees and plant them some where else. we agreed and now were are stiff and sore from it. she also a little crazy, but the good kind.
our zone confernce was just amzing. it was about the Book of Mormon. then they had recent converts who came and bore there testimonies of the Book of Mormon. it was really good. it was long because the testimonies went a little longer than planned, so they ended up cutting out the game. many missionaries were not happy. but it was still good. elder wangemann had a really funny departing testimony. he made quite a few jokes during it. like sorry if this isn't too good, i've never done this before. but my favorite, he said, my companion is really nervous about who is next companion is going to be. then he turns to President milburn and said, will you let me know who my next one will be. let me tell you, it took people a little bit to get it. but once they did everyone laughed. he really woke everyone up.
then on friday i went on exchanges with our zone leaders. i went with Elder Baird. he was amazing. it was a great learning experince. elder wangemann wen to the inner city of richmond. very ghetto. that area is always on fire and about 70 percent of the crazy stories come from there. elder wangemann was talking to someone and asks this lady if she ever knew that christ came to america. and she said, i know that, i am Jesus. that's just a little why missionaries love that place, it is full of crazies. Elder yelton served there once and met a person who believed he was god. it's very intersting.
well thats about it this week. today we are having a zone get together and playing basketball and stuff. talk to you later.
elder Johnson

July 22, 2008

2008-07-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

Just me being silly. The pastor tag is Elder Wangemann's. Below is a funny road out in Goochland.

well everything is dried up now. we now are having quiet nights of sleep. so no more insomnia. the carpet was to be fixed on last wensday but it turns out that it was still alittle wet so on friday, everything was good. everything is mostly fixed now, other than the hole in the wall they made to fix the pipe, but other than that it good. well i should be getting mail anyways. on wensday i sent to letters, one that said, elder johnson, the other said steven johnson, i got them both, so everything is fine now. so send everything you got for me here now. so this week has been interesting, between trying to sleep with five loud blowers on.
on wensday we had a district meeting and i did a little training on the missionary handbook, it went good for my first one. elder wangemann did one as well. he started out saying this week was been werid. first our apartment flooded and then i got my going home papers. i then said, woohoo. everyone just started laughing. one of the sisters that loves to give people a hard time really enjoyed it. elder wangemann got a kick out of it as well, then said he would get me back for it. but the meeting went great. on saturday i went on exchanges with elder taylor. i got burned pretty good there, but it was good, we got to talk quite a bit. there was aslo a baptism on saturday for one of the sisters investigators. it was amazing from what i heard from elder Wangemann and Elder Green. the nioght before the sisters were just frantic because they could not get a hold of her. she ends up calling them at about ten o'clock that evening and told them they shoul;d not have been worrying and such. then after she was baptsied she gave a heart tocuhing testimony about the Savior. that brought the whole room into tears. elder green came out of there so ready to go find someone to teach. he's an incredible missionary and he's only been out three weeks, it's crazy.
it's been a great week. we've been teaching a person named Jim who is very solid. he hasn't started reading the book of mormon yet but he just sucks everything in. so he is doing very well, we both think, once he starts reading everything is going to move fast with him.
well i'm glad to hear that grandma is doing better. i also heard from elder neilson a while ago that he has met the lady who wrote popcorn popping on the appricot tree. she lives somewhere in virginia. man that's annoying with brett farve. but everything has been going well here. it sounds like it next week is going to be very hot. yesterday it reached a hundred, but many people offer water here though. but thats it for this week.
elder johnson

July 15, 2008

2008-07-15T15:00:00.000-07:00

thanks for letting me know about grandma. i'm glad she's doing better. that letter was from me, i was just checking to see if my change of address worked or not, two weeks ago. i'm going to try to send something else to see if it works now or not. so hopefully, but it should be fixed.
this week there's not to much exciting news. on thursday we had an appointment with a less active member we have been working with. he called us earlier and told us he would be a few minutes late, so just hang around. so we did, five minutes passed, and then ten minutes, next thing we knew it was over thirty. so we knew something must of happened. we go back to the apartment and theres a message on on our answering machine. it's the person we were heading to go see, and it turns out he was at the checkout stand and his two year-old son was in the shopping cart and dropped his truck. he bent over to pick it up and the cart fell over and he busted his lip open. so he had to take him to the emergency room. so it was the most intesrting story this week until last night.
it was normal, we go to bed nothing unusual. i wake up about one thirty needed to use the restroom, i placed my feet on the ground and my feet got wet. i told elder wangemann get up, but he is a very deep sleeper. he slept through his alarm eariler this week. i turne on the lights pick up my glasses and it was bad. i yelled, get up now. he heard now, wakes up. and as soon as he stood up he said oh, shoot. we quickly found out that the main pipe for the water heater broke. so we call a plumber and they said they cant help us because we live in an apartment, so we have to call the landlords. so we call them and it just rang, and about the time elder wangemann didn't think they were going to answerthey did. a person came turned off the water, and called someone one else to to come a suck it all up. so elder wangemann calls President Millburn to let him know whats going on. he said, president we have an emergency. we wondered what the look on his face would be when we said that. but everything ended up turning out allright. we getting new carpet and we also don't have any water at the moment. but i'm sure glad it's p-day, so we can catch up on sleep. but we had almost two hundred gallons of water in our apartment by the time the water was shut off. our neighbors woke up because that vacuum they use is loud. so that's my crazy story for the week.

other than that everything has been fine. we had a really good week. i met a baptist pastor that was very much telling us we are being mislead, but were doing good, but were mislead. so it was crazy. we also found out the jehovah witness had tracted that street earlier that day. so people weren't exactly thrilled. we had a zone meeting this week and it sounds like p-day is going to be moved to monday soon. we think he's going to have a vote at zone confernce and probably start next transfer. after our zone meeting this week, we went to a resturant, called five guys. it had very good burgers as well as french fries. i've been there twice now and they are just amazing, but that's it for this week.
elder johnson

July 8, 2008

2008-07-08T12:44:00.001-07:00

well so far it hasn't been to hot. so far, knock on wood. there has been thunderstorms the last couple of nights and been raining alot here. but Virginia is needing it. this week was very interesting. on wensday we went to a golden corral before elder neilson transfered. it was very good. elder neilson had found four five dollar gift cards in an old area so we used them that day. i tried these things called hushpuppies. they were very good. there like these scones, but more of sticks, but there more like bread. they were delicious. that was supposed to be elder neilson's last day. we arrived back at the apartment that evening, and there was a message from the zone leaders. transfers were postponed a day. it turns out that the new group of missionaries plane broke down before they left salt lake. so they were stuck at the mtc another day. so we had another day together. so it was strange. i'm now elder neilson longest companion, three months and a day. so after we dropped elder neilson off we had a lesson with a new family that just moved into our ward. it was in another ward with sisters, now they passed them to us. the parents are members but the kids have not been baptized. right now the oldest is set for baptism but the youngest the mom wants to wait on, because he thinks of it more like a game. so we know have someone set for baptism. then we had a barbque with the ward mission leader. it was good and fun. so that day we didn't get much missionary work in except for the lesson. yesterday we helped someone move in. there an older couple, one is dutch, and the other is german. they are very friendly. one is an art teacher and his wife is a designer. they mostly had some things they needed help with, like a marble slab that was ridiciously heavy. so we are still alittle tired from it. so far i have met three of the new elders that have come out. the first one is Elder Green, and he is from bountiful. but he's just north of the temple. so opposite end. then i met an elder simmons. he said, i flew farther to go to the MTC, then to my mission. he's from new york. then the last one i've just heard his name. his anme is elder lovelady. he's going to get jokes about his name for two years. well thats it for this week. it looks like my address cancelltion didn't work, so i'm going to have to try it a third time. so hopefully it will get fixed soon. but that's it for today.

July 1, 2008

2008-07-03T09:04:00.000-07:00

howdy yall
well this week was intersting. this whole week elder neilson was saying he was going to get transfered, he just had a good feeling he was, and he did. he's going just south of us. the end of this transfer is going to be an experince. me and elder wangemann will remain here and at the end of his transfer he goes home. so i will have a day without a companion. so i will either be here 4 and half months and the area will get shotgunned(me leave, two new ones come in) or i will be here six months. either way i'll enjoy it. i love this area. so i'm going to have to stay with someone else till transfers. so it will be intersting. elder beames is going to newport news, so i want see him any more in distirct meetings, so i pretty bummed out about that.
well hopefully mail will be better now, i asked to cancel the change of address form, and the person helping me didn't fully understand so instead i've been sending everything home. so i went by there this week and this time i am fairly certain i did it right. it was different form anways, so hopefully letters will work now. well i'm not sure what will be going on, but it sounds like it will be like any normal day. but most likely someone will have us over for dinner. so it should be fine.
nothing really exciting happened much this week, other than we had another lesson with ashley, and that went very well. i've enjoyed teaching her because you have to try teaching it to someone younger than you. so i we usually draw a lot of pitcures. so it works well. on friday i went to Louisa on exchanges and it went very well. we met a really hypocritical lady there, so that was to much fun. but i still enjoyed it. sunday we had dinner with a family in our ward and it went very well. they have an almost eight year old that was very picky. cant believe i was that way. i've tried many new things here. i've tried broccoli. not the best, i like the stems but not the tops. i hear it's usually the other way around.
everything has been going well here. but sorry about the whole mail screwup, i kept forgetting to ask if it caused any problems at all or not, but at least i know now. so thats it for this week. jill, i'm sorry but i can't remember your email. i remeber you changed it and i can't remember to what. but i'll email you next week. have fun.

June 25, 2008

2008-06-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

hey everyone.
this week has gone by fast to me. jill got herself a hamster, that was a suprise when i read that. last tuesday was amazing. the game we went to was fun, a missionary nearly caught a ball. it was in his hand one second, and gone the next. what was intesting the most about it, i saw clifford the big red dog, and cursious george. they had a PBS kids day there. it was very fun, unfornately i forgot my camera. so i was sad about that, but i still enjoyed it.
then that night we had a dinner appointment with a lady that cuts hair. she is very intersting and she's fairly crazy, and gets scary at times. she's greek. so the meal was intersting anyways. she very hard to describe.
on wensday we went to a farewell party for A.J. it was great. it was a fun and good barbaque. we also had a lesson with someone we met off of tracting a while back. don't worry we still have our heads(the roads name is sleepy hollow). the lesson went very well and he had a lot of questions concering baptism. such as infants, when people are baptised, and if it's done by immersion. it went very good.
we have alos been seeing a less active member as well, he understands what we talk to him about, he just doesn't come very often. the scary thing is he reminds me to much of Robby, he doesnt get hurt like robby, but everything else reminds me of robby. how is Robby doing by the way?
on sunday we had a dinner with a nonmember family. they have a son who is a member, he's in uraguay. so she loves to have us stop by, and also enjoys feeding the missionaries.
this week has been great. on monday i'll find out if i will be transferred or not. so i will let you know on tuesday. i dont have much else to say, but i have created an intersting meal though. a cheese tortilla with ramen inside. it very good. my companions think it werid but i like it. reminds me off enchaldas a bit. well thats it for now.
elder johnson

Virginia Pictures

2008-06-22T19:48:00.001-07:00

MTC Pictures

2008-06-22T19:45:00.001-07:00

June 17, 2008

2008-06-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

hey everyone this week was awesome. not only did i have a baptism, but the heat has gone down. (knock on wood) i heard from people it was record heat for this month. so not to fun, now it has cooled down a bit, feels much nicer.
i forgot a very funny story last week, we were teaching a members friend in his home, the lesson went well, answered all of his questions, and then at the end he said, i only have one problem with the book of mormon. i was excpeting somethinmg really bad, and then he said, "i can't read it, the prints to small." so the member happend to have another copy of the book of mormon, large print. so that was good.
on wensday we had a zone confernce. it was fun. i got to see my old MTC buddies, and it had quite alot of speakers. were losing quite a few good missionaries though. elder Callahan, our zone leader is finishing up his last transfer, along with an assiastant. so that was fun to hear there departing testimonies.
the lady me and elder beames tratced into a while back, she has know been set for baptism, and she is very excited. it was very exciting to hear.
sunday, they had four men speak about there dads, all of them were amazing, one of them, was A.J. who i talked about last time. he spoke about his dad, and it was very touching. his dad and mom were both there to hear it. his talk was really amazing. he talked about the islamic belives on families and fathers, and then shared our views. it was very good, then he ended with the faith of our fathers talk by president Uctordf. it was very good, but all of them were. then we had a baptism. it went very well, they had some primary kids there, and after she was baptized, a little kid as they came back said in an excited voice, wow. me and elder wangemann laughed quietly to ourselves.
yesterday we finished up some service we have been doing for a less active member in our ward. he's cuts down trees for a living, and he's been spliting wood, to use in a firplace. so we been helping him, load into a truck, and then unload it. it was fairly fun. he competes in compition shooting events as well. so he aalways is telling stories about that, or when he was in the miltary. he's one who is hard to leave at times. he also had this small cat, that loves to play fetch with twisties ties. it's really funny.
well thats my life right now, today we are having a tri-zone p-day and are going to a baseball game. sounds fun to me. but thats my life this week. school here ended last friday, or on friday the 13th. i liked that story with Kate pushing her stroller to the door and then sitting in it waiting for a ride. i laughed when i read it, well quietly. transfers are coming up as well. on the thrityth i'll find out if i'm going somewhere else or not. but i'll let you know. that's it for this week.
elder johnson

June 10, 2008

2008-06-11T08:36:00.000-07:00

the heat has started to hit. we have had hit the 100 everday since about friday. it's bad. yesterday the district leader called us and told everyone to have banannas and salty foods with us when we go tracting. sounds like quite a few missionaries are getting in trouble from the heat. yesterday it really got me. a lot of people have been much more nice. most of them offer water but there not interseted. so that part sad. last tuesday night, we got rained on really hard, and we also had a tornado warning for our area, but nothing happened, just rain, rain, and more rain. then the heat came. sounds like it usually doesn't get this warm this fast, unfornately the humity still hasn't reached it's july, and august levels from what i've heard.
this week has been great though. i'm having my first baptism this week. her name is Ashlee Vosper. she's an unbaptized youth. so we've been teaching her like crazy. we also have been meeting with a less active memebr whose husband is not a member. but her husband is a proffesional chef, so far all our appointments have been dinner appointments, so it's been fun. we also have zone confernce this week. so that's going to be interesting. no quest speaker this time, elder Wangeman's told me i'm very lucky to have that on my fisrt zone confernce. it was Elder Marriot.(his family own marriot hotels). we tracted into this guy this week that has been fighting cigarettes in court, he trying to to make them unconsitutional, so that good. hope he succeeds, but we kind of doubt it.
we've also met this little kid a few weeks ago that told us that were with the church that lied to them. it turns out some missionaries a while back tracted into there family, and they wanted them to come back. they never did. so we were able to set up an appointment with them and came back on saturday. he was not expecting us to come back. we ended up giving them a book of mormon because that was what he really wanted. it was a very sad experince.
we then went tracting somewhere else and we finish the street with no sucess. it was very disappointing and then as were heading back to the car, another car starts going very slow behind us. the ended up stopping next to us and it was a spanish family. the girl was trying to translate for them but the mom asked us if we had a stamp. the girl gets a very confused look on on her face and said, no, no, a card. we talk with them for a while and luckily elder Wangemann knows spanish fairly well. that family is a family we like to call golden. they were very much wanting to get involved with a church, in fact our church. so it was a very fun experince. we have sent the spanish missionaries to them and there very excited.
there is also this recent convert in our ward, who joined the church a few months ago. he is very amazing. his name is Aujeng Abadi. everyone just calls him A.J. though. his whole family is muslim, and he converted over. well he's going for to Iran for six weeks to visit his family members. he's very nervous about going over there, but he's going. he's very amazing though, he had an incredible testimony and he feels like he didn't betray Islam, he just builded upon it, and thats the highest focus of his testimony. he very amazing, hopefully he makes it back safely.
that was the highlights for this week though. so i'm glad it's p-day today, and that we have many appointments later on so we can stay out of this heat. with the music we can listen to, it's tradintaion hymn music, Motab, and efy music. so anything that is included in that is fine. i asked elder Wangemann and he said that i can email friends as well. so that is on the plus side, but i only have an hour to email though. well i'm glad that earthquake wasn't to bad. i've heard about that one in China a while back. thats it for this week.
elder Johnson

June 3, 2008

2008-06-03T14:54:00.000-07:00

hey everyone.
i'm glad i read the one from mom before i read jill's and wonder what happened to Robbie. elder neilson told me about one of his friends who broke his leg and had to come home this week and i told him about Robbie, now i have something new to say. not trying to be mean or anything, but tell robbie to stop trying to hurt himself. there's this less active memebr in the ward that to me makes robbie accident look like nothing. i heard the story last week and his wife does a paper route. well she was in a car ahead of them and she said she looked back and saw two cars racing down the road, one of them lost control and nailed her husbands car. he is a mess. almsot all he does is sleeps. his vison was blurry and now there is some black spots in his eyesight. he also is having a hard time with short term memory and he has some spinal cord damage. his wife says he should have died, but some reason he didn't. but he is slowly getting worse. it's very sad to here, his neighbors, whom we are teaching, said he used to be a very outgoing guy, and he hardly can do anything now. it very sad. the accident happend in january.
i am glad you got my pitcures,now for a better story. the reason we had a hannah montana cake is that elder malone bought a cake and brought it to our district meeting.
it been really great this week. we finally got an appointment withh an unbaptized youth. we have her set for the fifteenth. then there family is getting sealed on that saturday. so we kind of in a rush to teach the six lessons. but its been going well. we have had a lot of dinner appointments this week. it had been slow for a while and then we get alot. we had one on friday, with bishop barbee and his family, porkchops off the grill. then on saturday we had a dinner and it was hamburgers off the grill. now these were the biggest ones i have ever seen. they were about an inch thick. they were very good. so far i have had only two meals i haven't liked.then yesterday we had [pizza for lunch and it turns out we had pizza from pizza hut for dinner that night. so it was pretty intesting day. on saturday we did exhnges with the elders in louisa. they're having quite alot of babptisms down there, it's incredible. they already have had three this month with more to come. elder wangeman made a joke the night before about sending me and elder beames out to louisa by ourselves. elder taylor ended up thinking it was a great idea. the first street we go tracting on was gravel road. the first house we knock on and no one answered. we walk up the street and every one told us were not intersted and slammed the door. we walk back down and then as we get in view of the first house a lady walks out and flags us over. it turns out that her husband is a member and she intersted in the church. she told us a story about how bad her life was and how she was not supposed to get pregant. she ends up getting pregant and it changed her life around, and now she wants that to kid to grow up in the church and she wants to join. it was amazing, elder beames said as went went back to the car and said, that is our next baptism. he was very excited to tell his companion.
everything has been going great here. i'm loving it here. it's starting to get warm here and everyone is telling me just you wait, this is nothing. wait till august. so i'm not too excited about that coming up. but everything is going great.
Elder Johnson

May 27, 2008

2008-05-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

sounds like you have had a lot of fun. i actually mispelled my new companions name last week his name is elder Wingemann. he's an amzing guy. he's from Lindon, Utah.
this week was intersting. wensday was just tracting. we had no appointments that day and couldn't set anything up. so we knocked on quite a few doors that day. we found this one street that looked like you should have belonged out in Goochland. there was just a house and then a big space. but by the end it was fairly normal. it was werid anyways just being with Elder Neilson. he had a fairly embarrasing story this week. he called up a sister in the ward and it turns out she was converted by another elder neilson. he still calls her up everynow and then. the funny story is, that she thought it was the one who converted her. she asked, how's your baby. elder neilson said in a really confused voice, okay, i guess. it was pretty intersting.
on thursday we picked up Elder Wangemann, and he's pretty amazing. i'm glad to have him as my steptrainer. he's also has very good sense of humor.
on saturday we have been working with a member. it's a funny story, we had a lesson with him to pray about finding missionary oppritunties. the next day he gets a call from jehovah witness's missionaries. so he has been taking lesson's from them and is trying to introduce them to the gospel. he's invited us over a couple of times. we've gone twice now, the first time we just sat there, and it was werid. this time we tried to teach them. we even handed out a Book of Mormon to them. it's been very intesting so far. unforunately he's just accepted a job offer and is moving outside our mission boundries. so who knows what might happen.
on sunday we had talks by former servicemen and it went very good. it was a very amazing sacrament meeting. i had a hard time staying awkae after that though. i slept really bad the night before and then slept bad again. so it wasn't very good. but i have slept fine ever since.
this week has been intersting to say the least, but i've enjoyed it. elder yelton i think is going to be around bountiful this week for a wedding. a former compaion is getting married in the bountiful temple. he made a comment about dropping by, but it sounded like he was joking around. so you may just have a visitor this week. my allegies have been doing better, i bought some pills to try and they've been doing pretty good. gas is about four dollars here at places. it's insane. sorry i wasn't able to send pitcures home last week, but i will try this week. so soon you will have some visual proof that i'm allright.
Elder Johnson

May 20, 2008

2008-05-20T11:59:00.001-07:00

everythingt has been going well here, we haven't had any bad storms for a while. the pollen is starting to get me however. that heat doesn't sound fun, but i heard this summer it gets bad. humity goes up and summer heat. so i'm not to excited for that. elder yelton is leaving for the mission home today and he flies home tomorrow. i am also getting transfered. i'm going to Innercity richmond. from what i've heard it's very scary at night but it's supposed to be amazing. it's the most coveted area in the mission and it's been having alot of sucess there. i have alos heard there's been some murders there lately. just kidding, i'm staying here. but we recived transfer call yesterday. so thursday, me and elder Neilson will pick up our new companion. his name is elder wingson or something like that.
thats cool that jill got to see Andrei kirlenko. that's cool. one friday we had to go on exhanges with the zone leaders, so i got to see intercity richmond. the main road there is called moneument ave, mostly because there are many statues there, like general lee. so we were will elder ord, not elder ford. elder yelton stayed there and we stayed here at gayton. so it was a very intersting experince, elder ord was amazing. we also had dinner that night and it was good. we get to his street and it turns out we didn't have his address. we see some kids and roll down the window, and one of them told us were itb was, turns out it was there son. his firneds were screaming at him saying get away, it's church people. so it was a little werid. he explained later that his friends think missionaries are spies for the church. the diiner was great and we had a good lesson.
then i went on exhanges the next day and went to Louisa again. it was pretty fun. it's very country and they live in a members home. i also found out they they to donot have a church building, so they hold it at the high school. that was a very foriegn idea to me.
on sunday we had a meeting with Jack again. it was more of an interview you could say. he just asked elder yelton many questions and it was mostly his testimony. jack is a very amazing guy. he knows we have amde a differnce in his life and he feels the spirit, he just doesn't gain the spiritual apsect of it. but he very nice, he even gave us a very delicous chocolate pie. so it was good experince.
a few weeks ago we were looking up a less active member and we met someone else, who had just moved in with him. he speaks french, and creole, but he's not very good at english, and he wants to know english. so we have been working with him, trying to teach him english. so that's been an expeince. he is also a memeber as well. then we had a dinner appointment with a some non members. they are very nice. they have a son who converted to the church, and is on a mission in urguway. so she is always happy to see us, and any other missionaries. we think one day they are going to join.
everything has been going great here. yesterday we gave some cd's to memeber and he burned some copies. so if you would like, could you please send me my cd player. i already have some speakers. but other than that everything. i'll try to send some pitcures home this week as well.
elder Johnson

May 13, 2008

2008-05-13T20:34:00.000-07:00

well this week has been going well here in Virginia. that's awesome that Spencer is going to Arizona. there a missionary from the Gayton ward(the ward were in) who is there. the girl we were going to baptize this saturday has decided to postpone it. she wants her grandpa to do it and he couldn't make it out here, or someone she wanted here would not. so she is going to be staying with them in the summer and will get baptized then. so it's good, just wont include us.
the bishops soon was baptized on sunday and there was no room in the inn(well the room the font was in). we ended up sitting outside and then after he was babtized, they had us teach the restoration. it went fairly well. then the bishop's wife invited us over for dinner. we had homemade fried chicken. it was good.
i have a funny story that happened last week. we were talking with a member and she asked if we could help her take some stuff over to her best friends house(not a member). we heard some sort of muttering behind the door. her friend answers it and it turns out her husband came to the door looked out the peephole and said in a panicked voice, "it's louise, and she brought the mormon's." we all thought it was funny.
we also had this meeting with a member in our ward who lives in the same apartment complex as us. it turns out he has the Jehovah witnesses coming to his door and trying to teach him. he's told us he going to try to convert them instead. he was missionary at one point and he's says the biggest difference between us and them, is we have the spirit when we teach, and they try to convince everyone through there bible, unlike us who ask everyone to pray and ask if it's true. a way he discribed it is black and white.
the program we had was four older sisters and they talked about there mothers and i believe all of them were converts. it was really amazing. i haven't told you this yet, but some intersting history for the chucrh in virginia is, that it was all started by two families, the powers, and the amos's. one of them had 21 kids and they all tned to live in the same place. i met the powers awhile back and there's this long street and most of them live on it.
on friday we were tratcing and we were not being very successful. i knock on a door and someone answers it. i then gained the impression to talk about the book of mormon, and it turns out he's very intested in studying about different religions and he had never heard of it before and he wanted to read it. it was amazing.
well that's all for this week and i think it would be fine for grandma to email me. i always have spare time waiting for everyone else. i laos just realized i forgot my camera so no pitcures this week. hoepfully i can next week.
Elder Johnson

May 6, 2008

2008-05-06T12:26:00.000-07:00

hey everyone
this week was amazing and i got it yesterday. so everything is fine. it sounds like i'll be calling sometime around 8:00 in the morning. (your time). tell Chad congradatulations on his call. how did Jill's test go? everything has been fine here. weathers been nice. it was so rainy that week. the missionary that was assualted was a spanish missionary, and i haven't heard much other than the person walked up to him and struck him. the good news is he's not going home, the bad news is, he has to stay inside for two weeks.
we have a had an amzing week here. we started a goal to get two babtisms by the end of this transfer. one sunday we taught a family with an unbaptized youth. we've been teaching her for a while and sunday invited her to be baptized. she wants to she's just not sure she will stay active, so she's nervous. before that this person came up and asked about if a child is over nine and not baptized, they need to have the lessons before theyv can be baptized. elder yelton said yes and said, that his daughter wants to be baptized, and was talking about sunday. so it may not work and it may, we don't know yet.
last friday we were going tracting on a road. i start up a driveway and heared someone yell get back here. i turn around and there's this black lab running towards us wanting to play. we ended up talking with her for a while. it was great. she's known quite a few members of the church but not exactly intersted, but it went effectively i think.
yesterday we went on echanges with the Louisa elders. so i went to Louisa county for the first time. it was very spread out there. buty nothing really intestring happened out there. i'm going to try sending home some pitcures soon. so far every meal i have had i've liked, except for two. the first night here, and a dinner we had last week. it was meatloaf, but everything else was good.
Elder yelton right now has been making alot of jokes about being trunky, he even wrote a poem about it. but he's still working hard and effectively and he wants to stay. one intersting story is that when he got out here, he found out he had a cousin live here. he never met them or anything. his first area he met them and he sent some sisters there later. they opened the door and said there not intertsed and then the sisters said, that Elder yelton sent them and they invited them in. last tuesday, his cousin called and said he had something important he wanted to tell him. he said, he wants to be baptized and wants him to baptize him. he feels like thats the reason he was sent here. it's a really cool story. we can see the Lord's work in so many places, and it's so amazing.
i can't remeber if i've told you about elder neilson or not. he is very allergic to pollen and he's a very nice guy. he's from Carey idaho. most maps from what i have heard don't have it. it's about two hours away from other civilization. elder yelton makes jokes saying that he just pitched a tent in the middle of nowhere and called it his home. his high school from the sounds of it is small. he said he graduated out of a class of eighteen.
well i'll talk with you this sunday. i can't think about much more to write. and thank you for all the letters i have recieved the past two weeks. the one from jacob was forwarded three times till it got to me, and the one from Aunt pam was nice as well. tell kim and Shawn congrats.
Elder Johnson

April 29, 2008

2008-04-29T13:51:00.000-07:00

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