Miracles and Transfers

Hello!

This week was so wild.  So much happened this week, it was crazy.  We saw so many blessings and miracles.  It's so cool to see the Lord bless you with things when you are obedient, when you have the faith, and when you work hard!  You gotta have faith to see the miracle!  Ether 12:12!

So, to start out the week, we had an exchange with the Jan Ree Elders.  I was with Elder Zach Smith from Lehi.  We had a good time and did some work.  We had a sweet lesson with some of the people we are teaching named Wendy and Owen.  It was a great spirit filled lesson and we were able to answer a lot of their questions. 

We got like 5 referrals this week and some of them are worth mentioning.  The first one is Heather.  She reached out to an RM from this mission over Facebook and told him that she was ready for missionaries to come over.  We went over to meet her and taught her the Plan of Salvation.  It was so cool as we taught her about the Atonement, everything just clicked for her.  The spirit was definitely present.  She is working toward a baptism date of September 22nd.

Another one we got is for this super awesome older lady named, Fern.  She's a party.  We met with her everyday almost since we first met her.  She is open and really wants to learn more.  She always hooks us up with cookies too so there's a plus!  The other is Monica who is super open and prepared.

The church building in our area isn't your average building.  It's ancient.  It was the first LDS church built in Oregon...so we had an open house fireside thing on the history of the building on Saturday.  It went nicely.  We had some people we are teaching show up so that was good.

I was surprised with a visit from the boys this week ha ha!  Definitely wasn't expecting it, but it was good to see them!

Today we went to this Mexican place and they have this massive 6 pound breakfast burrito called El Jefe.  It was so huge.  I'll send pics.

We also got transfer calls on Saturday and we are both staying here in Salem 1st.  I'm so pumped.  Good things are happening here.  Love y'all, have a fantastic week!

The District--Elders Crafts, Smith, Thomas, Wuthrich, me, Rasmussen

El Jefe

Bros from home--Landon, Brady, me, Bowler

El Jefe--Betos needs to step up their game!

Exchange with Elder Smith--early morning run to the river

Love,
Elder Johnson
3647 River Rd N. #102
Keizer, OR 97303

We Came Out with the Dub!

August 13, 2018

What's up everyone?

Hope you all had a nice week.  It honestly seemed like there were only two days this week!  It went by sooo fast.  We did see some nice things happen.  One of the people we are teaching named Jeremy, is on date for baptism October 20th!  Super cool guy who is really prepared and ready.  We found quite a few new people who we are going to teach this week.  Should be fun!

We had an exchange in Silverton this week.  It is a pretty nice smaller town outside of Salem.  I was with Elder Jackson from Houston.  He has been out 9 months and he's also a fellow Cubs fan.  Although, he's starting to turn towards the Astros now that they are good--smh!  He knew Bowler from the MTC, too, so that was pretty cool.  We had a sweet lesson with one of their people and we also almost witnessed a street fight go down.  we were talking to a dude on the street and all of a sudden a guy comes walking down the street just yelling at this guy.  I thought someone was about to throw hands, but nothing crazy happened :(.

Tuesday we had our last teaching visit with Kenn.  We had to stop teaching him because of his Alzheimer's.  Super sad.  I've grown to love him though.  He's such a good guy.  Although he won't be able to be baptized in this life, he's going to be a golden investigator in the next.

Honestly nothing else too exciting this week.  We did lots of finding and talking to people.  We even got bashed by a 17 year old Baptist kid.  Don't even fret you already know we came out with the dub!  He didn't want to meet with us though, which is too bad.  We also saw a dog get run over.  That was pretty sad.  I thought it was a cat at first so I didn't really care, but then I realized that it was a little dog. Super sad.

Anyways, hope you guys have a good week.  Love you all!

Kenn....such a legend.

Alright, so we have a Sonic in our apartment complex and their shakes are half price after 8 pm....so nightly shakes from Sonic is a thing

MLC from last week.  Good times.

Love,
Elder Johnson
3647 River Rd N #102
Keizer, OR 97303

Crazy, Fun Week

August 6, 2018

Friends and Family!!!

Holy cats, this week was pretty crazy.  So much went down it was fun.  We were so busy.  The work in the ward is kind of slowing down a bit.  We are really focusing on combining our efforts with the members. We can only do so much as missionaries, but with the members' help, the work can just explode.  Kenn and Leah both fell off date but that is okay!  All in the Lord's timing.  We are still continuing to work with them!

So, the week started off with an exchange with the Hubbard Spanish Elders in Woodburn.  That was a party!  They are in a trio so I was with Elder Heiner from Ogden and Elder Briggs from North Carolina.  They are super fun.  I basically just smiled and nodded the entire exchange.  I said the phrase, "no hablo espanol" like 50 times.  We did lots of service for people.  We helped move a table into this super old Masonic lodge.  It was so sick.  The "lodge master" gave us a tour when we were done.  It was super creepy but pretty cool.  We asked the lodge master how to become a free mason and he told us all we needed to do was be 18, be a male and ask to join.....so you already know we became free masons that day!!  Pretty cool experience.  I'm totally joking but you don't know how tempted I was.  Anyways, it was a pretty good exchange.  Those Elders are awesome and plus we got some bomb empanadas for dinner!!

Thursday we had MLC up in Newberg at the mission home.  It was super fun!  President and Sister Tateoka trained us on a bunch of different things, we counseled together and set goals for the mission.  It was just overall a good time and awesome to see some good mission buds.  Right after MLC we came back and set up for Zone Conference the next day.  Zone Conference was nice!  Always fun.  Saw the man, Elder Calder!  They are tearing things up in Willamina right now!  So pumped!  I freaking love that place.  Zone Conference was fun.  We had to do a demonstration thing so that was fun, ha ha!  Good times!

Then right after Zone Conference, we exchanged with the assistants!  That was awesome.  The assistants are so much fun.  I was with Elder DeHart from Texas and we were here in Salem.  He is such a good missionary.  So loving and so powerful.  We had some good lessons and talked to so many people.  I learned so much!  Good times!!

Well, that basically sums up the week.  It was nuts but the rest of the transfer is going to be nice.  We have a couple more exchanges but other than that, nothing really so we are just gonna go ham these next two weeks!!

Elder Johnson and Elder Rasmussen

With Elder Heiner and Elder Briggs

With Elder Calder

Exchange with the Assistants--Elder O'Neil and Elder DeHart

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Johnson
3647 River Rd N #102
Keizer, OR 97303

A Good Week

July 30, 2018

Family and Friends,

How is everyone doing?  This week was a good one!!  Lots of good stuff happening.  The Lord is preparing people here!  We are starting to teach a former who has been meeting with missionaries for about a year but kind of fell off but is now ready to get back into the swing of things!  We had to take Kenn off date just because he's having a harder time remembering things.  We are going to continue and work with him though.  We go over there very night.  He's so funny.  At church on Sunday, me and Elder Rasmussen taught a part in the combined third hour and when we were done, this dude, Kenn, just starts clapping so loud!  It was so funny!

We were referred to this super cool part member family we didn't have records for.  The mom is a member and she has a daughter who isn't a member.  We taught her last week and it went really well.  We invited her to go to Young Women's and she said she'd love to go.  She went and loved it.  So, there is some potential there.

We weren't able to meet with Leah this week just because sh was pretty busy.  She was sick this weekend and couldn't come to church.  All good though, we are meeting with her this week.  We have to go follow up with some other people as well this week so it should be fun.  This week is gonna be super busy!  So pumped!

Love you guys and hope you all have a fantastic week!  The Church is true!

Cutting hair like a champ (Would you want Elder Johnson cutting your hair??  um...NO)

Finished product!

Love,
Elder Johnson
3647 River Rd N. #102
Keizer, OR 97303