Sept 3, 2008

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

July 8, 2008

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.