February 18, 2009

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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