Hey

Hey everyone...sorry its been a while since i wrote but ive been getting so many emails its been hard to write. But things are going well here....im still in Estancia but my companion is finally a poly...hes Elder Tafiti from New Zealand but he speaks Samoan and english....he grew up speaking english. So, yah. We also have had a new mission president now for about a month now. President Aquino. President Pagaduans time is up and so its definitely different and itll take some adjusting, but its doable. Also my best friend was just baptized yesterday :) its way cool after all that shes been through in her journey to just entering the gate to salvation, shes finally entered it and i cant wait to see the rest of it and i get to be there too :) Also, my family had a great week last week with going to the family reunion and see all the love of the family members there :) So it was way awesome to recieve such good news...also, i want to thank all the family and the individuals that helped my mom to get back home and just for all the love you showed her. She really needed it and still does.So dont stop. Thanks a ton.

Also, i am very grateful for this wonderful gospel and the pure message of truth that it has. I have taught many, many, many, many people through out the course of my mission and the ones that accept this message ive seen the way it changes them and in turn changes me. This wonderful work requires us to be non hypocritical, always repentant, humble,submissive, teachable, inspired and dependent on the spirit, slow to anger, full of patience and love, stretch ourselves and our faith and have the eternal perspective. And this wonderful gospel in its true restored form shows us how to do that :) With the standard works and the living prophets and apostles, continue to guide us and with the Preisthood authority of God,or the license to do this work, we can change and understand it faster than anywhere else.

the church really is so true and has all the answers to our questions :)

Elder Johnson            

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

cool story

  I wanted to share a story with you all this week. So, theres this family we teach and the two boys 12 and newly turned 14 are our investigators. Edgin and Matt, so things were going really good with them in their house and their progression but then the grandma came and starting to really not like us. So one day she was like really fighting with us and so i just straight up told her that we arent here to fight. Her husband wants the boys to listen, and so do they, so if you dont want to, thats fine. But we're sharing to them. And then she became quiet. So, then the Branch President talked with her, because he was working with us, and as he talked, she was still kind of bitter, but then she actually just started to talk with him and, eventually, we were gonna start and we told him, and he asked her to sit down. And she did and she listened too! I was shocked.
  Then the next visit we went, because we were prompted to speak to the husband personally, and addressed the issue of her husbands drinking. And she opened up some more, and then the last visit we spoke on Repentance and the whole house was very sad because the husband has been drinking and so the wife was upset and being very condemning. So, i said a prayer in my heart that we could show them how repentance can help them and make them happy. Then we started to share and i was amazed, by the end of it, they had hope somewhat restored and the whole house was laughing and making jokes and everyone was happy again. It was so cool. I was so shocked. Then we told the husband we would drop by every day and ask him how his drinking is.
 So, last night we dropped by and the tatay (husband or polite term for older man) said he hadnt drank yet and it had been three days :) and the nanay ( same as tatay but for a woman) popped up from washing with a huge smile on her face and said " i wish youd been here last night because he still hasnt drunk" and it was sweet to see how happy this woman was. Just like a straight miracle that shed even let us continue to come in and now how happy she was to actually see us!.  Then we reminded him..."Tay ano ihambal mo so mga friends mo?"  (what will you say to your friends, (when they want you to drink with them)?) and so he said again "kamo lang anay" (you guys only) it was awesome! and we just cheered him on and pointed out to him how happy his wife was too. It was awesome..and the true works of repentance. It was a testimony builder to me of what happens when we follow the spirit and teach people, not lessons :)   Just wanted to share that with you.
God is a God of miracles STILL.

The missions awesome.

Elder Johnson

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Hey

Hey everyone,

Just wanna tell you some cool experiences or "little miracles" here that have been happeneing.
First if all, with the weather its ALWAYS HOT and in fact i would love to have some cold really cold weather for a change lol. Like seriously, its soooooooo stinking HHOOT, it really is making enduring to the soooo difficult lol the humidity here is killler!!! now im actually very happy for change in weather i miss and i want it....but anyway..so thats the "Update" on the weather. Also, i have a new companion Elder Tafiti hes from New Zealand and hes samoan...its sweet hes also about 6' 3'' so hes quite big...but its cool though. Also, i want to share this other story with you. So, we've been working on this LA (less active) family here and our last visit was quite difficult because brother or the father had quite an attitude of "all is well in zion" and we were trying to get him to church..but he said he had to watch his kid as he slept...so we told him to wake him up and bring him, and well he still refused saying "hindi pwede" or he cant. Then my companion said this analogy of what if Christ came in his second coming and he came here to Estancia...hed probably go to his house which is the church here...and what if that day he came turned out to be sunday and all that were at the church were saved but you and your child werent at church and your family was ...how would feel if they were saved? then he pauses to think and says that wouldnt happen...and other things like "i would be saved also because i told them to go...so i would be saved"....then also he said that "i have the priesthood, so i would know when he would come" so basically it was really bad pride...so i kind of lost my patience at his remarks and told him to read 2 nephi 28:20-25. I suggest you read it too :) So anyway, the following sunday they ALL went to church, all of them, for the first time ever. And that night we visited them and followed with their experience and brother actually told us that he read it and that he learned a lot about what he read and that he had been refreshed about how satan works...also his whole attitude had been changed completely and he was actually back to his normal teachable self. I was speechless at how much those few verses helped him change and it made me even more grateful for the BofM and just how it can help us be aware of Satans attack on our souls. Then we told him that yes there will be many temptations as we try and do good and follow Christ..because we are doing all the things that are taking us from Satan and closer to God. So we committed him to continue and he said he would. It was awesome. So i just wanted to share that with you. Also, im reading this cool book called "Missionary Miracles" and it has been a very humbling book because i hear of people serving in places like Russia, india, and Africa and there situations are even more different than mine. I mean it made me really rethink all the "i have nothing here"  to really like wow, i have a lot more than i thought like nicer apartment and just nicer people and even nicer things...like some of those missionaries literally had nothing at all familiar to them and were living in some really, really poor situations. It was very humbling. So yah, just want to share those experiences with you.
   I love you all and the Lord is still continuing to teach me constantly...i just hope that i will always be teachable and willing to listen to His advice

I hope you are all the same too. A mission really is full of miracles that will shape us forever, its shaped me forever. And i pray i never forget anything thats happened to me.

So thats all :)

thanks for reading and i want you all to know that my mission has flown by so  very fast. I mean i only have 3 transfers left...or 4 and a half months...its crazy. So long still...but so little too.

Anyway, also my batch is the oldest in the mission now...its crazy.

So thats about it.

Elder Johnson

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Fathers!

Happy Fathers Day!!!! to all the fathers out there. I want you all to know that you are very important in your roles in your families and there is much expected of you from God. Also, i want to say Happy Fathers day to my dad and grandpa!! Happy fathers day to you guys. I have learned very much on my mission about the role of a father and the power that he has on his children and wife to bringing them such joy and happiness or to the bringing of saddness and despair. The father really is the pillar of the home and he needs to be that righteously. A righteous father can really do wonders for his family. He really is meant to provide and support and comfort. He comforts his wife and helps her in her struggles, he never dominates, or is cruel, he never uses harsh or angry words, he is never mean and he always outs his family before him. He is full of patience, and willingly sacrifices for his family. He is humble to the Lord and treats his wife as an equal partner who has her own suggestions and he humbly seeks her help with the Lord to raise their family. He is a good example to his children of what they need to do. "For the son doeth nothing of himself but that that he seeth the father do" (John 5:19) He is not hypocritical, but honest in all his deeds and loves all that is good. He loves God first and puts Him first in all things.

So to all you dads out there. Thanks for all you do and continue doing it.

Elder Johnson

      

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

hey

This week was actually a really good week. We had worked really hard the past few weeks and we saw the efforts of a labors this week. We had 69 people at church this week which is really high for the branch were in and we had total, us four missionaries, 7 investigators at church...and we had four with a date for baptism...it was sweet and we also had some people who hadnt been to church in a while come too. Three individuals but most of them were families that had become more complete it was awesome :) and so exciting.It was such a relief to see such wonderful things happen and to have this rest and assurance from all these people that came that were doing good work and God is proud :) The work is hard, but God is in charge, so its always worth it and as long as we seek Him in doing it and doing it compleltey His way it will always turn out good. So, its nice :) I love it and God is so good :)

So thats all.

Elder Johnson        

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Hey

I have great news this week everyone. Here in Estancia, we have been really working. Our focus this week was to find new investigators because we like had none...and we found 14!!! The Lord has been putting people in our paths left and right and its been sweet :) we have found some awesome families that are all former investigators and some many are referals. In fact,we have found so many progressing investigators that the branch president was like wow....thats awesome well have to work with you a lot more because they are all cool he said we have finished the restoration with many of them too. :) we have given four baptismal dates and are going to give more, but we have invited all to be baptized and most have accepted. God is really helping us and ive really had to be listening closely to the spirit this week because sometimes people will pass by us and like ill get a very strong impression to talk to them or like theyll say hi or something and so i get the feeling to continue to talk to them and its great what happens, because we found out they had been taught before. So, i am so grateful for the gift of discernment and how much it has been helping me here in being dilligent in talking to people that normally i would just say a normal hi to, So, its awesome how much more im noticing or recognizing the spirit compared to at first and how almost obvious it is and i love it :)

 So, i know that God is in this work and is really helping us :) many miracles have happened this week.

So its been sweet.

This work is awesome.

Elder Johnson   

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

News!

Hey everyone, i want to share with you all a really cool expereince that happened to me last night and strenghened my testimony even more in serving others and the power thereof.
So ok, my week was ok...not much really changes as a missionary but, i wll tell you we have been looking for new investigators like crazy because we dont have too many and so thats been nice and weve been getting referals too. I attended to birthday party of this lady who is 79 but acts like a 30 year old in personality and is about as tall as yoda lol, its awesome.her name is nanay (mom) Cedrine. So that was fun..so its been nice..our new house is a quite humid so thats a little rough but its nothing i cant adjust to lol. But still working hard.  And i want to share an experience with you that happened last night. I was somewhat discouraged after meeting with this less active family and the father and talking to him outside of the house and finding that he wouldnt join the church with like his family because of tradition. And so i told him that we were kind of sad because that means he dosent want to be with his family for all eternity and i felt very much so the love of God for this man and his family and just the sadness that this man wouldnt accept such a wonderful message because of tradition. So, then we went to another house of another less active who has quite a few vises (addictions) and so i was a little saddened from this last family but as i thought, discerned, and listened to this man and the spirit, i actually felt so much better and started to really love this man, and saw his potential. And it led to a very good lesson and i went away feeling much better. It just reminds me of what President Monson said how the happiest people are those who are in the service of others and the most miserable are always thinking of themselves and how that is so very true because well lately ive been feeling so happy simply because i havent been thinking about myself at all. As soon as i do i get frusterated, or mad and the work stops and the area starts to struggle, but if i study,pray and think about the people, everything even though its hard, seems easier and i feel happier and really begin to love the people. Its awesome. I remember President Uchtdorf says "Humilty is not thinking less OF ourselves, but thinking MORE about OTHERS and LESS about ourselves."  Its all so very true and i expereinced it agan last night.

I love this gospel and all that it entails. Kabalo ko guid nga guided guid ind nga simbahan paagi sa mga buhi nga propeta kag mga apostoles. I cannot beleive that i near the sunset of my mission and im actually the longest out in the field in my new district here in Estancia and here in the apartment, and one of the oldest in the zone...its crazy. But the happiness ive been feeling is so hard to describe but oh so wonderful.

The joys of a mission are truly wonderful.

No regrets.

Elder Johnson 

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.