Email to Tiffany

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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