Christmas Day Phone Call

We heard from Elder Johnson on Christmas day and he sounded great! He is doing so well and loves his mission and pretty much everything about it. We are happy his testimony is growing and he is learning to serve God with love. We love him and miss him, but know he is where he needs to be at this time in his life.

Here is a portion of this week's email. It was short as we talked to him just a couple of days ago:

So we are going to teach the new family about the Plan of Salvation today and that should be a good lesson. The mother of the family lost her mom about a year ago and so we are also going to talk about how through the sealing ordinance of the Temple we can be sealed together as a family. We went to the Temple lights with them last week, and so I am sure they are going to have a lot of questions about that.

We also picked up one of a former investigator's son. She has been taught on and off for the past few years and so she went to the open house a couple of weeks ago and her son picked up a Book of Mormon that we had there. Her son started to read it and now wants to learn more which is nice! We will be going over there tomorrow to talk with her son and hopefully her too. :)

Well, that is pretty much my week and the past week and Christmas was really nice. It was weird to not be at home, but it made me really appreciate all of the simple things that I am not able to do while on a mission.

Hope this week goes really nice!!

Happy New Year!! 2012!!! Man this mission has gone by really fast!! it is going to be six months in a week!! crazy!!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Visit to the Mesa Temple!

Thanks for all the wonderful GIFTS!!!

Christmas Week!!!

So this week was really fun and exciting!!

The temple this week was really fun! I really missed going to the temple and so it was nice to be able to go through it!! The Mesa temple is really pretty, not like the Salt Lake temple but I don't think that much can compare to that :) After the session we walked around the temple and it was a lot like the lights at temple square. That was really fun and made me miss decorating our house...speaking of that is it decorated yet? I hope so I don't want you to ruin my reputation that I have in the neighborhood ;) it is ok our room is all Christmased out so that is good :) I took some pics and so I will send them with this email.

So on Thursday we normally have splits scheduled with some of the ward missionaries and so we got a call from the member who we are going on splits with. He said that we were going to go and talk to some of his son's friends parents of family who he played baseball with in high school (his son is on a mission by the way). So we went in there and they were all really nice and open about learning more. They have been attending a Christian church here in Anthem, and they said that they really like the people there, but they just don't feel it. So me and my companion were both thinking what better place to "feel" it then at the true church. So we taught them very briefly about the Book of Mormon and we are going back there tomorrow to teach them the first discussion!! That was really exciting!! I will have my first family of 6 to teach and to baptized and then see go and get sealed in the temple!! Yes!! They are really open to learning and it is going to be a really amazing thing to be able to baptize a family!! The member who came with us invited them to the temple lights and so we get to go a second time with them and that is going to be so much fun!!! I have learned that you should never be discouraged and have that faith that the Lord will provide and he ALWAYS does!! I have made it a goal that even if it seems that no one wants to hear what we have to say, to never be discouraged and rely fully on the Lord.

So that is my amazing experience this week!!

Well I hope all is well this week and that the holiday's are bright and cheery!! :)

Love,

Elder Johnson

CLOSE UP!!!

Elder Johnson with Santa!