December 22, 2012 baptism of the family!!!

Christmas Eve Email! Yes, I get to talk to him tomorrow!!!

So this week was super awesome! We had the family be baptized and that was such an amazing spiritual experience! I was able to baptize all 5 of the family! They are an awesome family! I am so excited for them, for when they get to go through the temple in a year!! It is going to be an awesome thing to see that whole family get sealed! They are awesome! 
We had a good week this week but the climax of it all was on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday with the family baptism, but also we have an investigator who has been kind of flaky lately but I had an impression to just shoot him a text on Saturday night and see what was up and invite him to church. We texted back and forth a couple of times and he said that his main concern as to not coming to church was that he didn't have a white shirt and tie and he felt uncomfortable coming with out it so we rushed home and got some of our shirts and ties and gave it to him with a book that shows how to tie a tie and he loved it! He is only 16, but he has researched a ton about the church on mormon.org and he has a testimony of everything. We have been praying to find out his real concern, but we keep showing him a ton a love, kind of to the point where it is a little creepy, but I don't think he minds because it shows how much we love him and want him to return back to the Celestial Kingdom. I am super excited for him and he should be getting baptized within the next couple of weeks.
We also had a very less-active lady come to church yesterday who brought a non-member friend? haha I put a question mark because it was a real delightful surprise to see her at church and not only her, but a friend? I learned the story from her home teacher and it just made me love the spirit. So a little background about her...for the past 3 months or so I have been going over there every now and then, not too often though because every time we went she would always complain and not really listen to the message that we had prepared. So we haven't visited her and her kids for a while, but she had a faithful home teacher who went way above and beyond the call of duty! He meets with her almost weekly, is always there when she needs something and just loves them so much that this past week she called him and his wife and she was wanting a blessing for her son and her who have some health issues. She had her non-member friend over to and that home teacher gave a really spiritual blessing and they felt the spirit so strong that they were, as it says in the scriptures "pricked in their hearts" to do good and they came to church yesterday and they are both wanting to take the lessons and learn more! I was so surprised that I was speechless! I almost broke down in tears! She made a total 360 degree change and it was all because of her being humble and open to the spirit!! The Spirit is so awesome!! I love our Heavenly Father's spirit so much! 
Another crazy thing happened at church today. We had a non-member from a part-member family who's husband is the member and very less-active and not wanting to come back at all but likes meeting with us and he called us out of the blue on Saturday wondering what time church started because his dad was in town and is active and wanted to go to church. I was think well, I guess he will just drop his dad off or something, but to my surprise again his wife and son came!! That was so awesome to see them at church!! Hopefully we will be able to meet with them and get them back with the husband. They are the Lent family and they are so awesome! I sat by them at church and I noticed that she was in tears after sacrament so I hope that we can help her to continue to feel of the spirit!! 

It has been a super amazing spirit filled week!!

Well I will talk to you tomorrow!!

Merry Christmas!

Love ya,

Elder Luke Johnson

Little Lukie's visit with Santa this year!

I have been a good missionary this year, so for Christmas, Santa, I want a .......

Mission Christmas Party and Temple Trip!!!

Look!  He sang, ate and went to the Mesa Temple!

Today's Letter!

So we had the baptisms this week from our area and one from the other Elder's area.  It was a super crazy baptism!  So we had the family baptism scheduled for 6 and the other one for 6:45 and so it was kind of pushing it kind of close.  So we got there about an hour early to start the font and set up, and went through everything pretty smooth, then the family showed up at the time that I had told them to come and we noticed that the baptism clothing closet was locked!  No one had a key to open it!!  So it is now about 5:50 and we can't find a key and so I was frantically calling and trying to figure out who had a dang key!  After about what seemed 50 phone calls I was given the number of the high councilor in the other ward who is in charge of the youth baptism who has a key, but the only bad thing was that he couldn't get there for other 15 minutes!  It was about 5:55 when he said that!  So I was going crazy, thinking we won't be able to get finished in time for the other area's baptism and people would hate me and everything!  But then our Heavenly Father helped me to know that everything happens for a reason, and I was comforted.  The people who were supposed to be baptizing didn't show up until about 6:15 so that was good, because we would have had to wait anyway!  We started at 6:20 and it just so happened that I was chosen to give the talk on baptism and that the talk on the Holy Ghost was set on the program for after the baptism, which was weird because that like never happens! So we got the song, pray, talk, and baptisms done by 6:30!  So everything worked out and with all of the stress that I created it ended up being just fine!  haha funny how that works!!  The family baptism was super spiritual, and oh yeah, my former companion was allowed to come back for their baptism!  His first baptism!! :) So that was amazing! :) 

So we have a baptism this week of another family!!  They are awesome!!  They had their interview yesterday and they are ready for baptism on Saturday!!  The father is so awesome!  He had quick cold turkey and is now smoke free!!  He has noticed all of money that they are saving and that is so awesome!!  Tons of blessings come to those who obey the commandments!! :)  I have noticed that a whole bunch on my mission!!

 

We had an awesome planning session this week combining the two areas and we took about 55 names that we are either working with or hoping to work with over these next few weeks!  So it is now time to, as a member in our ward says, "hunker down, get'r'done, get'r'baptized!" haha :)

 

Here goes another week of awesomeness!!  Crazy awesomeness!! :) Four wards is a lot!!  Yes!

 

Love ya,

 

Elder Luke Johnson

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

If anyone knows Luke, Christmas is his favorite time of year!! So he took a picture of the tree in his apartment. This is actually only a small portion of the decorations in his apartment! Missionaries can have the Christmas spirit too!

Saturday's Baptisms!!!

He told me that the Dad and 3 kids in the picture were baptized on Saturday!  The grandpa and a member of their ward performed the baptisms!  There is Luke with his former companion!!

Elder Johnson with his former companion, Elder Rigby and his new Tri-Companionship

So after some mix-ups, and some confusion with everything, the result of the transfers was that I am staying and that Elder Rigby is the one that got transferred up north to Cottonwood.  I was sad to see him go, but I was able to teach him all that he needed from me, so now he gets to grow being transferred away from me.  Ha, I kind of now kind of feel how you guys do when I went on my mission. So my District leader, Elder Baldree, got a call from president telling him that there was a mix-up and that I was to be staying in the area.  Then yesterday in the Transfer meeting I became companions with him and his companion, so I am in a tri-panionship now and I basically cover four wards again with me being the lone ranger in my area, with the help of Elder Baldree and his trainee Elder Rushton so I am now co-training!  (This is pretty much all I got about the transfer!  So he's staying in the same area and gets to see the baptisms!! Maybe I will hear more on Monday.  Who knows, but his address remains the same.  16630 North Reems Road #2084, Surprise, Arizona  85374)

Transfers happened, but details are still unknown!

So...I know he was at transfers as he is on the front row, but I still don't know for sure where he ended up.  No email.  May not get one till Monday....if anyone was wondering! :(  Will keep you all posted when I hear!!

GETTING TRANSFERRED!!!

TRANSFER WEEK....received a very short email from Luke on Tuesday.  He is getting transferred and is NOT too happy about it, so say extra prayers that things will go well for him tomorrow as he goes to his new area so close to Christmas and is also unable to see the NINE, yes NINE, people get baptized!  They were scheduled for this weekend and next!!!  Seriously??? Hoping for a miracle!! Such a big fat BUMMER!!!  He MUST be needed somewhere else desperately!!

More Leadership Conference Pictures!

Anyone else notice that he's wearing a grey jacket with black pants?  My poor color blind Elder!  Wish I could help!!

Trainer Meeting!!!

Huge trainer meeting on Tuesday, December 4, 2012

The weather here is still really warm during the day!  Is the weather warm in Utah?  I remember last year in Arizona it wasn't this warm.  It is like high 80's during the day and that is kind of weird, but I would much rather have this that 120! haha :)

 

So I really love this Christmas season out here on a mission!! It is great fun!!

 

This week has been a really interesting week teaching people.  It has been quite the struggle to actually meet with our investigators, but we are trying and when we do it is always a intense spirit filled lesson!  

 

We meet with our investigator family this week and it turns out that the mother has some "adopted" daughters that she has been housing this week so they have joined in on the lessons with the kids.  That was good for the frist one, but the second one we had they kind of exploded on us with a whole bunch of those stereotypical questions of, "Why do you baptize dead people?" and "Do you think that Joseph Smith is god" and some really good questions too, and so it kind of took my companion off guard a little bit and the member that we had with us and so they trying to answer the best they could, but they didn't really have that wanting to know, so we just bore testimony and left.  I really think that the spirit touch them and it really wasn't any of their fault, they kind of came into it all in the middle of the lessons and so it was kind expected for them to have questions like that.  So if they are there next time, because they are sometimes back and forth with their real mom and the mother of the family, we will start from the beginning with them.  The kids are doing good, and there faith just continues to grow every time we go over there.  Two of the children are super ready for baptism on the 15th, but the 14 yr old, kind of has a bit of teenager things to get over.  I really believe that once she feels the spirit she will be ready. 

 

We met with the other family who are super excited for their baptism on the 22nd of December and they are awesome!!  We kind of have split the way we teach them, were on Tuesdays we teach the mother and father in the Church while the kids are at scouts, so that has been good.  Then on another time in the week we teach the kids who are baptism age and that seems to go really well!!  They are an awesome family who I am really excited to see be baptized!!  The father is still is having some trouble with the word of wisdom, but he is trying, and with some strong prayer and faith, I know that he will stop by his baptism date.

 

We were also able to teach Cole who is awesome!  He just soaks up everything we teach him and we set a date with him this week for the 15th and we will try to help him get to that date.  He is awesome and is just sincerely looking for what he needs to do to become closer to our Heavenly Father, and that is awesome!

 

Since I was sick this last week my mind has kind of been in a fog and it has been a little hard to focus sometime, but this past fast Sunday I really fasted that I might be able to have a renewed focus and the work and I can really feel that from the spirit lately after that and it has been nice!  I also had a priesthood blessing and that was really awesome because right after I had that my fever broke and I felt a lot better!  It has been a really testimony builder for me to really feel and see the power of God work in my life.

 

Well I think that is about all for this week!

Love,

 

Elder Luke Johnson

Well this week has been a good one!  It has started to be a little warm this week, but not super hot!  It has been like 85 degrees and it is really weird because I remember last year being a little cooler around this time of year. 

 

So I had my last Thanksgiving on the mission and man was it a really good one!!  We first went to an older couples house because their family couldn't make it for Thanksgiving.  They are pretty awesome!  They served their mission in Cyprus, next to Greece, and they had a lot of cool experiences that they shared from there.  Then after our dinner we went to a member of the Stake Presidency's house and had a good dessert there, and tossed around a baseball with his son, it was kind of nice throwing a baseball around after a long time of not doing that!!  Then after that we went to the Bishop in the ward's house and had some more dessert there and that was really good!!  It was a super good holiday and I really enjoyed it! 

 

This week was pretty good with our missionary work!  It was a little difficult being able to meet with people this week because of the holiday, but we still managed.  We were able to meet with the one family right before they went to California on vacation, and that was really good!  They are super excited for their baptism on the 22 of December. We talked with the kids about getting baptized on that date too and the ones who are of baptism age are wanting to and are pretty excited about it!  That family is awesome!

Next we have Cole who is awesome!  He is always super excited about meeting with us and really loves to learn!  He has come to church two weeks in a row now and that is awesome, because you can tell that he really enjoys it!  We are planning on inviting him to baptism this next lesson on Wednesday.

There is also the other family who is doing pretty good!  Because of the mom's work schedule, meeting with them has been a little difficult, but it is going to be awesome when they get baptized!

We have a less-active family who came to 2 hrs of church on Sunday and that was really awesome!  We found that with the father we just teach his son, Ian, and he start to just commit himself to want to change and follow the commandments!  Like this past Saturday we taught Ian about the Word of Wisdom and Tithing and when he came to church he was wondering where he can get a slip to pay his tithing.  He also committed himself to start better living the word of wisdom!  So that was really awesome to see!

 

There is a lot of great things happening this week!!  It is super exciting to see that!!

 

So this week I have gotten a little sick. :(

 

Hope you have a good week!

 

Love,

 

Elder Luke Johnson

New blog for Arizona Phoenix Mission!!

Just to let you all know there is also a new blog for the mission.  The old one is still there and has mostly pictures and things going on in the mission, but this one is specifically for information, addresses, etc.  It was created by the mission president's wife, so has accurate and current updates.  The link is: http://azphoenixmission.blogspot.com

The other one is:  http://azphxmission.blogspot.com/  This is where I get a lot of the photos of Luke from the events they have going on in the mission.  It too was created by the mission president's wife.

So this week has been super amazing!!  We are working with so many people!!  Man it is crazy just how much success happens when you just have that faith and work your hardest to find those people who are ready to be taught the gospel!! I have found over the course of my mission that there should never be any time where you don't have anyone to teach.  If you try hard enough and have that faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement you will have a lot of people to teach.  The things that we always try to do to find new people is visiting those who are either part-member families or referrals.  That has been how we have been able to find all of these people that we are teaching!!

So yesterday we had 10 investigators at Sacrament meeting and that we so awesome!!  We had one family where Karin, the mom who is a member, has three un-baptized children that are so awesome!  We taught them the Plan of Salvation to them yesterday and really had an emphasis on be baptized to enter into the Celestial Kingdom.  The oldest, who is 14, in our past visits has not really opened up to us because of her trying to be a "cool" teenager, but this last lesson we got out a concern of her that really help us to help her to be baptized and feel the spirit. She was afraid of some things and so we offered to give her a blessing and while I was giving that blessing I could just feel how much our Heavenly Father loves her and it was so awesome to be able to participate in that and feel of that! :')  After I was done with the blessing she was just glowing with the spirit and I could really see that she had felt the spirit, and so we set a date with her and her brother and sister to be baptized on December 15th!  That was so awesome!!

We had a new investigator come to church yesterday.  He was that guy who text-ed us randomly and wanted to come to church.  We had an amazing church tour with him yesterday and he has researched a lot about the church on mormon.org, and lds.org and was curious to know so he wanted to meet with us and that was so amazing!  His name is Cole and he is 16!  He researched all of this by himself and that was so awesome to see that!!  God has really prepared him to accept the gospel!  We are going to have a lesson with him on Wednesday and so that should be pretty awesome!

We also had another family come to a bit of church, they had to leave early because of their crazy kids, but they are pretty awesome!  We set a date with them this week for the 22nd of December and so that is going to be awesome!!  We are going to start teaching the kids a bit more to get them ready for that date! :) They are so awesome!
We also had Peter come to church, but he isn't really wanting to progress any further, he is a hard one to understand but it will happen with time.  :)
We are also teaching a couple of Less-active families, with un-baptized 8 year old children and one of them came to church yesterday!! They are pretty awesome!  The father was raised in the church, but went less-active early on in his life and is a huge guy that probably could beat me up, but the nicest guy in the world with an awesome family!!  So that was a really happy thing!! :)

So this past month I have seen this area grow a ton, from not teaching anyone, to have a whole white board full of people to teach!!  We started off with not having too much time in the day to have not enough time in the day! And that is such an awesome thing!!  I hope to continue to see this amazing area continue to grow! :)
The work of the Lord is so amazing and the spirit is 100% to credit for all the amazing things that are happening in this area and I love it! :)

I love you guys!  I only have one more holiday season on the mission and man have a grow a lot from this service to our Heavenly Father.  It is so amazing!

Love ya!

Elder Luke Johnson :)

Mission Tour (Photos taken by Sister Taylor). MISS THAT FACE!

So this week has been a really good one!  The Weather here has been about 85-90 degrees and that is a bit warm for it being November! My companion keeps expecting the fourth of July to roll around soon, this is kind of a lot like last year was so the cool down should be happening pretty soon! But it is very nice weather now compared to the blistering 115 from the summer so I am pretty happy! 

 

So staying true to Teri Johnson form and probably going the extra mile a bit, I have started to play Christmas music this week! You would be so proud! :)  haha I remember back in July me and Elder Newton were listening to Christmas music to make the heat seem a little less poopy! In fact, right now, I am listening to a mix of Christmas tunes that he gave me! 

 

Well this week has been booming!  The area has gone from not too much going on from us now having a white board full of people that we are teaching!!  I am really excited for all of the work that is going on and it is so amazing to see the spirit of the Lord really working here and we are finding the harvest from that!  We are working with a ton of part-member families and they are starting to progress and that is amazing!  We have an investigator family that moved into the ward a week ago and they are amazing!  They are super ready for baptism!  They are a family of 6 kids and the parents and they are awesome!  Three of the kids are of baptism age and they are pretty awesome!!  We are going to teach them tonight and help them to set a date to be baptized!

 

Next we have a family who just moved in from Layton! They are a part-member family and the kids aren't baptized but they are open to learn and I know once they really feel the spirit they will want to be baptized!  We talked about the spirit last time and gave the 13 yr old girl a restoration pamphlet and she said she didn't like reading so I had her just read a page and then work towards the whole pamphlet!  I know that the spirit will touch her and help her to be closer to Christ!  There is also a 12 yr old and a 8 yr old there too who aren't baptized and we are going to be teaching them too!!

 

There is also a part-member family who just had a little girl baptized named the weeks and the dad who is the non-member was there and really felt the spirit and so we are going to be going over there tomorrow and hopefully start to teach him!

 

We also have Peter who we are trying to work with but he has kind of not wanted to progress any further.

 

We have some Less-active families that will hopefully be starting to come back soon and that is awesome as well!!  We are working with some un-baptized eight year old kids with those less-active families and it is really getting them excited about the gospel and it is so cool to see that! They are pretty awesome!!

 

So we have a ton a people to teach now and that is such an amazing feeling to have!  I can really tell how much more happier I am when we have people to teach!  It is so amazing how with the spirit and faith and doing some different things that haven't been done in the past to always have people to teach!

 

So this week has been really great!! My companion and I have been working on a lot of stuff and he has grown a lot just from this week!  We are really starting to work together and it is amazing to see that!  Some times I forget that he is training!

 

Well I think that is about all for this week!

 

Have a good week!

 

Love,

 

Elder Luke Johnson

October 30th Letter (Transfer Week, but none for Luke!)

Things here in Surprise have been amazing!! The weather has started to be really good again!!  With a high of about 80-85 and that makes biking a bit more bearable now!  It is kind of funny because I always talk about how last winter was great with the members and they are like, "oh you must be going home soon!" and I am like nope! Not that soon! I am now considered the "Veteran" now and it is really weird to be called that! Super crazy and fun this mission has been!

 

So we have had a really great week this past week with this next one to be a great one too!  There has been so much untapped potential in this area that it is crazy!  Using different find ideas, having more faith, and being lead by the spirit have proven to be what the area needs to be successful, it is really what all the areas need! I really have learned that these past few weeks.  We have been focusing on more things to be able to teach people and there has been some great work come out of that!  We have gone from having no one in our teaching pool to now having 10-15 families that we are working with.  Unfortunately, a lot of them have really weird schedules and it makes it difficult to meet with them, but we are and we are trying and there is some great things happening from that!

 

We had an investigator family move into our area from another and they are awesome!  They are the Mathews family and the parents both want to be baptized and they want their kids too as well (3 of which are baptism age)!  We had a great lesson with them last night and that was so awesome!  They were asking about being sealed and and the temple and all of that and really want that for their family! So they will most likely be getting baptized in the next month! :)

 

We also have a part-member family from St. George move in and from the looks of feelings of that family they are super ready for baptism.  They have four kids who aren't baptized and the mom is wanting to get back active in church!  So that should be some good things happening from that!

We also have another family.  They are a part-member family who the dad, Rex, is not a member.  His wife is super active in the church and as an 8 yr old being baptized this week and one of his kids, who is about 6, said that when she is 8 she wants to be baptized, but she wants him to do it!  So that is awesome!  I kept thinking of that scripture that talks about being taught through the mouth of babes! So we are going over there tonight and are going to see how the spirit has been working on him.

We also have the another family who the dad is not a member, and has taken the discussions before but because he was working out of town for a while couldn't continue, so we are hopefully going to be teaching him because his wife really wants the priesthood in that home so that they can have a more peaceful family.

 

We have a whole bunch more, but for right now that is so main ones that we are working with that we are excited about!

We had a ward council training last week with someone from the mission presidency.  It was really great and we should be having a lot of work with some more part-member families and less-active ones too! 

Other than that things are going great!!  Elder Rigby and I are doing great and he is starting to learn some of the things of missionary work.  It gets to him at times but I remember back when I was new and leaning things and it did with me.  I just have be able to help him with that.  For me it is just 2nd nature now, but I am trying to help him be able to get to that point.

 

Have a great week!

 

Love,

 

Elder Luke Johnson

Luke with Elder Rivas who goes home next week!!

The other two are the missionaries that live in the apartment with him!  (Not sure where Elder Rigby is?  Maybe holding the camera?)

This week's news!!!

So this week has been pretty good! We have been teaching a lot of Less-active families that have some un-baptized 8 yr olds and that has been really fun! We have a family we are teaching with a son who is 8 and he is pretty awesome! The whole rest of his family is less-active and at the request of the Bishop we are trying to help him to get to the point of being able to baptize his son and bring him to church, he is starting to commit to doing that and that is great because we were starting to work with him earlier in the months and he flat out said to us that he is really lazy and dosen't want to change. That was interesting and now we have seen the spirit work on him and he is starting to have that desire now. So that is going to be an amazing thing to be able to see and we are going to continue to work with the whole family to help to get them to the temple!

We also have another un-baptized 8 yr old who has a less-active mom because of some health issues and also a dad who is currently deployed in Iraq. So the Bishop want us to go over there and start teaching a girl who is super awesome and we are going to teach her so that when her dad gets back in November she will be ready for that.

We are also trying to work with an awesome part-member family and they are all active members except for Mike and we are trying to teach him and help him to prepare for baptism and commiting to come to Church which will be a bit difficult because he works a lot, but with faith we can over come a lot of things.

We have a pretty cool family who is a part-member family and we helped them move a couple of weeks ago and that really warmed them up to us! We were talking with the father yesterday and he said that he wants the whole family to get active in church as soon as they get settled in! So that is going to be awesome to be able to teach that family!

Elder Rigby is doing great! We had a member with us at a lesson that we had and the member said that you can't even tell that he is a new missionary! So that is really good! He is become quite the missionary and is going to be a really great one too!

Elder Rigby and I got a huge feeling this last week, that the biggest work that is coming and continually coming from this area is completing families and getting them to the temple! We got goose bumps from thinking about how many families are so close to getting on that path to reach that goal that it is really exciting! This next week that we have is going to be a busy who full of blessing the homes of members/teaching part-member family/contacting referrals and some other things as well and that is super exciting!

So this past week we had a mission conference and that was an awesome meeting! We had Neil L. Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve come and I got to shake an apostle's hand for the first time in my life!! That was an awesome experience to have been able to be taught by him more personally than general conference!

Hope your week goes great!!

Love,

Elder Luke Johnson

The ENTIRE Arizona Phoenix Mission!!

Mission Conference with Elder Anderson of the Quorum of the Twelve!

This letter was from the 8th of October, I forgot to post!

October 8, 2012

We have been working really hard to find some new people and there is some really great potential that we are finding and hopefully we can make it into something. Elder Rigby (Luke's companion and greenie) went on his first split this last week and he was super nervous about it, but I helped to prepare him for it and he wasn't as scared. So we split up and I went with some one in the Sierra Montana ward while Elder Rigby went to the teaching appointment that we had set up with a new part-member family that just moved in. So he went to that then when he came back he said that he talked with the husband who is a non-member and he wants to learn more. So that is really awesome to see that! He was able to get a new investigator out of that and that was really good!

We are also working with Peter and he has kind of been up and down with some things but he still has that desire to be baptized! So that is good. This last lesson that we had with him we were able to sure up his testimony of the restored gospel so that this next lesson we can teach to him the word of wisdom so that he will know that this is something that he needs to do and it is from a prophet and by the testimony he has to be converted to the Gospel.

We are trying to get to teaching some Part-member families that we have here and we are working very closely with the members to help them with their missionary work by saying a prayer with them and instead of asking the usual "who do you know who would benifit from a prayer", we sit down with them and set goals and make plans to get to know their neighbors if they don't already know them and invite them to do one thing this week to help their neighbors come closer to christ through the plans that they have made. We tried it out with a family this past week and there was some amazing things that are going to happen from that. Then we say a prayer with them to confirm the plans that have been made and offer a blessing on the home and they have that spirit with them to share to others. It is something that I know will work here in this area and it will be a great thing to see all of the things that will happen. So that is some good work that we are doing here and I love it!

Well I hope all is well back at the home!

Have a good week!

Love ya!

Elder Luke Johnson

Monday, October 15 Letter

This week has been a really good one.  The weather he last week got really cool, down to the high 70's!!  and it is getting down to the 60's at night and that is pretty awesome!! Gaging off of last year's experience with the summer this week is going to be the last heat wave of the hot season, then it is down to the 60's to 70's for about 6 months!  So I am real excited for that!  It was nice and cool this last week and everyone is outside and in a good mood because of it and that is really amazing!  I am super ready for the winter here as you can tell because it makes biking a bit more managable, that also means that the end is kind of near, and that is a bit scary but I don't think about that too much. 

 

So this week has been one truly guided by the spirit and it has been amazing to see that.  I really have gained a testimony that God is in EVERYTHING that we do and when we listen to the promptings of the spirit we are able to be guided by him to know what we need to do and where we need to go!  So this week we had some really amazing experiences.  On Tuesday after our District meeting we planned to go and visit this part-member family that the Bishop wanted us to visit and we were having a pretty good visit with them and then he got a call from a member in the Sierra Montana ward who introduced him to the Gospel. She was calling to ask for some help for a couple who she met in a parking lot a few months back who called her and said that they needed some help getting back to Colorado.  She was wanting our number to be able to help them and we were at his house and he was able to give us a ride and we were able to teach this couple the first lesson and give them the number to the Bishop to be able to give them some help to get back up to Colorado were they had a Job and family waiting for them.  So that was an amazing thing!  Because that Bishop followed a prompting to tell us to visit this family and we listened to him and did that and followed the spirit to know where we should go we were able to help a struggling couple with there spiritual needs and the bishop was able to help with their temporal.  So I have really gained a even better testimony of how important it is to follow the spirit in everything.  Then the next day we were prompted to go and use the hour that we get for looking up things on Mormon.org and while we were at the Library I sat next to a man and glanced at his screen a couple of times and saw that he was on facebook talking about the Lord and how he needed help, he talked to me and I was able to get his info to have missionaries go and visit him to help him out with some service and to teach him a little bit about how to become closer to Jesus Christ.  We had to leave but I invited him to check out mormon.org right there at the computer.  So we left and I probably will never see that man again, but because we followed the prompting to go and use that hour for mormon.org we were able to help that man out and get missionaries to him.  I realize that when we follow a prompting from the spirit it is something that impacts eternally and is often an answer to someones prayer.  Then to finish out the week yesterday we were prompted to go to this part-member families house that we have been trying to meet with and it was about 7:30 and when we got there it was dark and all the lights were off, but we still followed that prompting and gave a knock and set something up for this Thursday to go by and start teaching that family!  So that was neat, then I had an impression to go to a family that we helped move the day before and they weren't there but their neighbors were moving in and we offered to help but they declined then we said are you sure and they still declined it, then Elder Rigby felt prompted and got off his bike and just started helping!  It was amazing because they were really appreciative for the help and we were able to help them cut an 2 hour unloading of a u-haul truck into about half an hour.  So that is some of the amazing things that have happened this week and hopefully next week we get to some more amazing things from following the spirit!  Elder Rigby is doing good and is learning a lot!  He is trying to learn the ropes of missionary work and I am trying to help him with that and things are going great!

Well that is about all for this week!

 

Hope all is well!

 

Love,

Elder Luke Johnson

Back row Joe, just like his mom!!! Haha!! This was a training in music!  (for those with musical background!)  Even funnier!! Guess that is why he is on the back row as he knows it already!!

Elder Johnson, Trainer

So this week was a great week for the work here in the area. Elder Rigby, my new companion and greenie, set his first baptismal date yesterday and that was awesome to see that. He is doing awesome his first few days here. He experienced a drunk investigator on Thursday, which was an interesting experience, Friday we were able to contact an investigator who we haven't been able to contact in a while and Elder Rigby gave a good lesson to a lesson active family who we have been working with, Saturday he gave his first blessing and picked up a couple of new investigators, and Sunday he commited his first person to be baptized. So he has had a really interesting couple of days and has grown a ton. I am really humbled to be training him and it has been something that I r

eally needed at this time in my mission. So the man who we commited to be baptized comes to church every week and really wants to have God more in his life. So that is going to be great to continue to work with him and prepare him to be baptized on October 27th! We picked up a couple of new investigators this week that has been a real huge miracle that it happened. So a couple of weeks ago there was a part-member family that we helped move in and they have a 16 year old daughter who was baptized about 3 years ago in Vegas. So we helped them move in and on Saturday I had a strong impression to go and vist this family and it was awesome. Coty the 16 year old who is a member was having some health issues and so we went by to offer her a blessing and one of the first things that she said to us was that her dad wants to take the missionary lessons and so that was a miracle because from we have heard is that he has always not liked the church so we talked to him and he has a real broken heart and contrite spirit and is really wanting to change his life and let go of the past. So that was really exciting to be able to see that change happen in him and see the family be completed and come closer to Christ.

Well that is all for this week!

Love ya!

Elder Luke Johnson

Elder Nieman (Luke's trainer) and Elder Johnson with Luke's first couple baptized!  They were helping with transfers!!

Elder Johnson's Greenie, Elder Rigby!

Elder Rigby, greenie, and Elder Johnson, trainer!!! He is from Mountain Crest and played football!!! Looks like a great companionship!!

TRANSFER WEEK!! Elder Johnson is now a TRAINER!

So I don't know if you knew but transfer week is this week and here is what is happening.  I am staying here in Surprise, but Elder Jones is leaving.  We kind of all knew that this would happen because he has been here since last November.  So it is really sad to see him go, he taught me a lot about what it is like to be a convert and how hard it is for them.  So that was really good for me to learn...So on another note my mission is about to have a nice change of pace.  I have been called to be a trainer of a new missionary!!!  That is super crazy!  President Taylor called me on Saturday and told me that I would be training a new missionary!  So that is pretty awesome! It has now been 14 or so months since I was trained and man time just flies by!  Elder Nieman is training this transfer as well and so I got to see him at a meeting we had yesterday to train the new trainers and man was that crazy!  He goes home in two transfers and so we talked a lot about our good times in Anthem and about my last area, because he is there right now, and now I will be training a new missionary and will be that mentor that he was to me to another missionary!  So that is some exciting news as of late.

 

So the area is doing pretty good.  We are slowly but surely picking up in our work.  We are trying to get in contact with some really good part-member families and start teaching them there has been some conflicting schedules as of late so hopefully we can start meeting this week with the new missionary.  We are teaching a man named Peter and he was found by a member who helped him with some house troubles and we have been teaching him pretty regularly for the past couple of weeks and he comes to church every week so he has some really good potential there.  There is actually a really cool back story to all of this.  We were looking through our area book last week during weekly planning at some former investigators and came across the same Peter that we are teaching and from the things that the past missionaries wrote about him was that he just wasn't ready at that time.  That was about a year ago and now it is his time to accept the Gospel.  It is so amazing to see how even though he wasn't ready a year ago he was prepared to accept it at this time and you can see how the Lord prepared him for that through experiences that caused him to meet a member, that member following the spirit to help him and invite him to church, and the us teaching him the Gospel and he is know accepting it.  So that was a cool thing that happened this week. 

Have a great week!!

 

Love,

 

Elder Luke Johnson

So this week was a pretty good week.  We are really trying to make serving in four wards work and it has been so far.  We have been do a lot of finding and it is starting to pick up a bit.  We have  been really making part-member families a focus because there a some here that are ready to be complete and to have the fullness of the gospel in their lives.  We have been working hard to find people and we have been really working with the members to start getting some referrals going.  This area is pretty awesome and I am really excited to start teaching some people the we have found.  We have a part-member family who have been taught by the missionaries in the past, the one who isn't the member, texted us this past week wanting to meet and so we are going to meet with him this week and hopefully some good things come from that.  We have a guy who was found by a member who helped him when he was having some troubles with his house.  He came to church last week and we had a lesson with him and he was really receptive.  He came to church yesterday and that was really awesome.  We were looking through the area book and found that he was meeting with missionaries in the past and wasn't prepared at that time but now we think that he is.  We have a couple more investigators which we had a lesson with them on Tuesday that went really well.  They have been going through some personal things and so it has been a bit difficult trying to teach them but they are ready for the gospel and it is something that they really need.  So some extra prayers from them would be great!

Well that is all for this week!!

Hope everything is well!

Love,

Elder Johnson

It's September....already!!!

So this week has just flown by!  With us now covering two extra wards we are still trying to get in the hang of things, but things overall are doing good.   The weather here is starting to cool down and that is nice!  This August has been a lot better then last August in temperature,  and this week the highest that it is supposed to get is 104 so that is not bad at all...haha.  So this August marked my last August that I have being a missionary, that is weird to think, but we have a saying here that helps us with the heat and it is "just get through August" and boy is that true!  It is crazy because I am coming up on my lasts pretty soon here and it is so crazy how fast time flies!  Me and Elder Jones were have our studies on Saturday and we were like, wait a minute August is over! So now the temperatures go down and makes being on bike bearable!!

 

So for an update of this week in Surprise!  We have been working hard and we are starting to get some work coming along.  Our focus this past week has been working with Part-member families and it is starting to pay off.  It is a really effective tool that has been the result of all the great success in this area in the past, so that is going to be our main focus.  We were able to find one family, who are a part-member family, and are going to try and to start teaching the dad more.  He has a crazy schedule so setting something up will be kind of hard, but he wants to get back into being taught and so that is good.  So there is some great potential there.  We also have a guy who we found tracting who is a non-denominational Christian, and has a lot of question about what we believe and is trying to understand what our beliefs are so we have been going over there and teaching him about that, and hopefully he will continue to meet with us and start acting on that knowledge and feel that this is right, but it is going to take a bit of time to get to that point.  We have been stopping by some more part-member families whose children aren't baptized, so we are trying to get the head of the household to start coming back to church so that the child has that support from home.  So that is going to be a fun thing.  I have starting to find out what is working in this area and running with it so that the work can go forward!  This area is a lot like my first area in Anthem, but it has its differences that I am trying to work with and so it has been a really good learning experience.  I am taking those things that I have learned my previous areas and have started to adapted them to this area.  So I am learning a lot from this area, and that is good so that I can better know how to help the work of the Lord later on in my mission/life.

 

Love,

 

Elder Johnson

Knock, knock....at the haunted house!! Almost Halloween, you know!!!

 

Giving a pass along card to the funny guy in the cowboy hat!!!

 

Scary house in Surprise!!!

The mail here is very safe, we have locked boxes that our mail goes to so you can send anything you want there.  When we get a package it goes into a lock room in the apartment complex, so you don't have to worry about it being lost or stolen, so you can send anything you want to my place. 

 

So some things have changed this week.  Due to a missionary going home this week, me and Elder Jones and now Elder Bush are in a tri-companionship covering 4 wards! (That is a lot by the way!) I now cover from Circle City, AZ to Wadell Rd and from 165th ave to the White Tank mountains(Google it).  So for the next three weeks we will be doing that. Don't worry I will have a car. So this past week I have got an additional companion and 2 wards to cover!!  Man!!  This is going to be fun!  The mission right now is short about 40 missionaries and that is causing us to stretch really thin!  You should get on all the Young Men of the ward to serve missions because we need them!  I hear that being short this many missionaries has been something that is happening all throughout the world!  Here in the Arizona Phoenix mission each companionship is to cover two to four wards and that is a lot of ground to cover!  Especially when there is a lot of work to be done!  So that is a little change that has taken place this week!  I am still living in the same place, just covering more ground.

So we have been doing a ton of finding this week.  It hasn't really be successful, but we are trying our hardest and if there is anything that I have learned in my mission it would be that when you are working hard and trying all that you can do to find people to teach, the Lord will bless you with people to teach and to bring closer to him.  We have a few potentials that have been being taught for a while now, and they are starting to become more progressing towards baptism.  We have a family who have been taught for a couple of months who have been canceling appointments a lot, but hopefully we will be able to meet with them this week.  We have another family who are coming along, slowly, but sure.  We have an appointment with them tonight and we will be talking about the restoration and helping them along. 

 

So that is about all for this week!

 

Love ya!

 

Elder Johnson

 

 

Elder Jones, Luke's companion, eating what they eat a lot!!! (I think this was a hint that he needs some good food!)

 

Can this be any funnier????

I got this email today from Luke about his address:

OK...so this is the actual address

16630 N Reems Rd apt#2084
Surprise AZ 85303

For sure...sorry...i have checked multiple times.

So use this one!!

New area, New fun!!

So the address that I sent to you was wrong. It is actually:
 
16330 Reems Rd. apt# 2084
Surprise, AZ 85303

So my new area is pretty awesome!!  It is in Surprise!  It is a lot different from the city were I was before but it is a lot like Anthem.  There are a lot of rich people here and everybody is pretty well off.  It was a bit of a culture shock when I went from the ghetto's of Phoenix to the high class of Surprise! The members here feed us almost as well as in West Maricopa, so it is pretty nice.  It is such a great blessing to be fed by members because our small missionary budget is not enough for the month...so when ever you see the Elders always offer to feed them!

So transfer meeting this week was pretty fun.  So guess who Elder Newton's new companion is?  It is Elder Nieman!!  That is so crazy!!  My trainer replaced me in my last area!!  So that is pretty awesome!!  I was really worried about that because of all the work that I left behind, but I trust Elder Nieman a lot so I know that he will do well in that area.  So that was pretty awesome!!

So this area just had a baptism the Saturday after I got here and that was pretty cool.  I didn't know them but it was a good baptism.  There is a lot of really good potential here is this area.  It reminds me a lot of Anthem so I felt that I should try some stuff that I did in Anthem and see how that sticks.  I really feel that the experiences that I had in Anthem will be able to help me here in this area and help to bring a lot of people closer to Christ.  I am super excited to be here in this area and use my talents here to help the work of God go forth!  The members here are awesome and they have some really great potential of being great member missionaries, so I hope to be able to spark up a good member missionary program with the members here.  It is going to be great being in the area! 

 

My new Companion, Elder Jones is a really cool guy, and a really great missionary!  He is from Portland, Oregon and is a convert to the Church of about 2 years!  So that is awesome about him!  He is the only member in his family, and his parents don't approve of him going on a mission so support from home is not really there, but he has a strong testimony and he doesn't let that phase him too much...so you should send him some good stuff ;) haha he is pretty awesome and I am excited to work with him.  He has been here in Surprise since last November so that is a long time!!  He has been out for about 19 months. 

 

I live with another companionship and so our place gets kind of messy, but we don't have any nagging moms to tell us to clean up our rooms or take out the trash so it is ok...right? Love you mom! :D 

 

Love,

 

Elder Luke Johnson

 

Beautiful Arizona sun!!!

 

Elder Newton and Elder Nieman are now companions!!!

Luke's trainer, Elder Nieman and Elder Newton are now companions in Glendale where Luke was!! Cool!!

Elder Jones and Elder Johnson. New Companionship!!

 

Elder Johnson isn't sure where he is living....

Got an email today from Elder Johnson and he gave me another address telling me that he had given me the wrong address.  I am not going to post it yet, because I google mapped it and it still is a big field in the middle of nowhere.  So, don't send anything yet till I get my Monday email, just in case any of you wanted to send him a letter.  And yes, I did send him a letter....humm.....hopefully I will get it back!!!

SURPRISE...LUKE WAS TRANSFERRED to Surprise, Arizona!!!

Elder Johnson was transferred today!  His new address is:

16330 Bell Rd Apt #2084
Surprise, AZ 85303

He is in an apartment now and it is a little weird, but it should be fun.  His new companion's name is Elder Jones.  He is pretty awesome, and his area is a bike area, so here comes the bike problems...haha hopefully not :)

More to come next week.....

Saturday's Baptism!!!

Well so this week has been pretty good!!  We have had tons of really good success and it has been awesome!!  

To start we will hopefully be having a baptism this week!  Maive is progressing really well and we are going over tonight to teach her a bit more things and then we are going to be having her baptismal interview then her baptism!!  She is really great and is really excited and ready for baptism!!  We are super excited for that because her husband has been less active for quite some time now and because of diligent home teachers he is coming back into activity and is going to be baptizing Maive!!  We are completing a family so that they can be married in the temple and be together forever! I love it when that happens!! 

Then next one is Brittney.  She was the one who came up to us at Church a couple of weeks ago and said that she was taking the lesson is Casa Grande and she is super ready for the gospel and we invited her to baptism last week and she said that she had been thinking about it and she was talking about how she doesn't want to be baptized until she turns 18.  That is pretty interesting because her parents are all for her being baptized and are supportive of what she chooses, but she thinks that she has to know everything about the church before she is baptized.  We helping her through this struggle and hopefully she will have realized that you don't need to know everything about the church before baptism.  She is awesome and her testimony is growing and she comes to church every week and so she will want to be baptized soon :)

We also have Jessica and Amar!  Jessica is growing a ton and quickly!  Amar kind of isn't as much, but he is growing so we talked about baptism and set a baptismal date with them for Aug 18!  We are starting to teach the commandments and they are currently not married, but we talked about the Law of Chastity yesterday with them and they understand it and are willing to keep it!!  They come to church every week and are progressing towards baptism really well!!

The next one is the other family!  Nicole, the mother, is doing great is just soaking up everything that we have been teaching her and is super ready for her baptism!  The father, is doing good too he just has some things right now that are holding him back from baptism.  We are helping him through those things that are holding him back and he is coming along nice, slowly, but surely and that is OK :) We had a really good lesson with him on Saturday with our district leader while we were on exchanges and that was really nice. He said that he had some issues that were preventing him from feeling the spirit and so I gave him Alma Chapter 36 to read on his own and I think that that will help some :)  We are going to start into teaching the kids soon and prepare that whole family for baptism!!  :)  It is going to be so amazing to see them be baptized on Aug 25!!  I hope and pray that they will all be ready by that date :)  i really think that they will.  I am really excited to continue to work with them.  They are an awesome family!! :)

So I that is all the awesome things that are happening here and I just love it here so much!! 

 

Love ya all!!

Elder  Luke Johnson 

So this week has been a really good one!  I have really enjoyed the work that keeps on coming and coming!!  Last month in June we baptized our whole teaching pool, but this month has been a focus of finding more people to teach and boy has it paid off!!  I have now 9 people that we believe can be ready for baptism in August!!  That is so amazing!!  We have already set baptismal dates with some of them this week, and this next week we plan to set a couple more!!  I love, love, love this area sooooo much!!  The members here know their purpose in missionary work, and that is such an amazing thing.  They are always willing to help us, and if they can't find someone for us to teach, they help us to find.  This week we have gone on visits with members at least 4 times a day, all with different members and it has been paying off a ton!!  There is this one family, that every time we go over there and not have a member with us they never answer or are not there!!  I really think that this is the Lord telling us that it is very important to always have a member with us :)  Over this time that I have been on my mission I have really come out of my comfort zone and started asking people for help!!  It has been a real blessing and I have been able to be very humbled because of it.

We have a lot of people who we are working with now and a ton more are coming!!  

We have the first family (well soon to be because they aren't married yet)  Nicole the mom is really into learning more and is came to church with her son for the first time this week!!  Her boyfriend, Carlos, is going to be a bit more of a challenge.  He is really wanting to change and learn more, but he is just not wanting to put the work into it.  We will help him through those things and it will be really awesome to see him and his family be baptized and come closer to Christ!!  We had a super spiritual experience with them this week.  Nicole was asking about her daughter who died as a baby, and where she went.  We taught about the Plan of Salvation and she said that that gave her a lot of comfort to know that she will see her daughter again.  She is really wanting to get to the Celestial Kingdom and when we talked about that she was super happy that she and her family will live together forever there.  She came to church and she said that she really enjoyed and that she will be coming every week! :)

The next one is someone who moved back into our area after taking the lessons in where she was staying with her sister over the Summer.  She is super ready for baptism and she is really wanting to learn and grow in the Gospel and she is one the we will be setting a date with this week.  She is a teenager and her parents don't mind if she is baptized.  They don't want it for themselves but they are OK with her getting baptized.

The next one that we will be setting a baptismal date with this week is Jessica and Amar.  They are coming to church and are really liking it!!  They are really liking the things that we are teaching them, and we know that they are ready to set a date to be baptized!!  We taught them the plan of salvation this week and it was really good for them because it answer a lot of their questions about life!!  There is a great fellow shipping base where they live and hopefully it stays that way.

We taught someone this week who is wanting to know more because her daughter is taking the lessons , and so we talked about the restoration and things related to that.  She is really open minded so that should be a good start to help her understand about what we believe.

 

Our week has been pretty good!  I really love all of the work that is going on here and all of the many people who I have been able to see come closer to Christ.

 

I have really been getting along with Elder Newton and we are working super super well together and it has been something that I have really enjoyed!  We work together a lot!!  It is kind of amazing how different our personalities are and yet we work really well together!! :)

 

Love,

Elder Luke Johnson

 

Computers weren't working, so we got a late email!

This week we have had some great success!!  We taught Maive this past week about the Plan of Salvation and she really enjoyed that!!  We had our recent convert Leah with us and that was great because she and Maive have pretty much the same background and they really connect a ton!! We were able to teach her yesterday and that went great!! We talked about Gospel of Jesus Christ and also talked about how that relates to the spirit world she just recently had her mom die a little under a year ago and that was really cool how we were able to talk about how because she is accepting the Gospel of Jesus Christ she is able to affect her whole family before her.  She currently has a baptismal date for August 4th and she is ready and accepting of it and is excited for it.

We were able to teach Valarie this week.  She still has some troubles with really believing in Jesus Christ and we have tried everything with her to help her to believe.  She is praying, but doesn't receive answers.  We talked about fasting and how that could help, but maybe she just isn't ready to have an answer just yet.  So to really help her understand Jesus Christ more we prescribed reading parts of Jesus the Christ because she is a philosophy major and thinks very philosophically we thought that Jesus the Christ would be good for her because it will help understanding the what and the why.

We were able to meet with Carlos and Nicole and we are trying to continually meet with them so that we can help them to come to church and to eventually be baptized!!  We are working on them so they can be ready for baptism in August!  I have a really good feeling about this family and that they are so ready for baptism now.  We have been trying to work with them for a while now and it feels like they are ready now more then ever!  It is going to be exciting to see them be baptized!!

We also found a couple of new investigators this week and that has been awesome!!!

The first one is Mary and she has gone through some pretty tough stuff in her life and she is really wanting a good religion to raise her kids in to get them on the right path, because they kind of started out a little rough. We are hopping to have her as someone who is going to be baptized in August.

We also have Jessica, who was the one who was referred to us last Sunday.  She came to church and really enjoyed it!!  We are going to be meeting with them on Wednesday and that should be a good meeting because they are really wanting some change in their current life.

So as you can see we are going to have a very busy next month and things here in this are are going great!! :)

Well that was the week!!

Hope yours goes great!!

Love,

Elder Luke Johnson

The blog said this was a lesson on obedience.  Not sure if standing up was good or bad!  Haha!

Clean Car Award, again!!!

Another week....

So this week was kind of a rough one... I am sick...again...with the same strep throat as I had before...I think that it may be my camelbak and because my area isn't the most clean, it is picking up all of these germs and stuff.  So I will have to be better on cleaning it daily.  So that kind of slowed the work down a bit, but I am still trying to do the best that I can!! 

We have a lot of people who have been out of town because of the holiday and so we weren't able to meet with a good majority of them...but this next week should be better we have a few appointments this week, and it is going to be a good week this week!!  We have many people who are just right there for baptism and we will be helping them to start committing to things and help to get them baptized and have a lot of joy and happiness.  

There was a cool experience that we have had this past week, well it is kind of an ongoing experience, that has been happening ever since I got here.  So there is this apartment complex that is a very shady area and were a lot of people try and to avoid.  It is the same apartment complex that Sam and Tiffany live in that were just recently baptized a couple of months ago.  It is a place were if I wasn't a missionary preaching the Gospel and having the protecting hand of the Lord on me I probably wouldn't go there.  But this complex has an interesting story as far as the church entering it.  It all started when a very outgoing member moved into this complex.  He started talking to his neighbors about the Gospel and  a few months later one of them was baptized, then this member talked to some more neighbors about the Gospel and a family of 6 was baptized, then this member talked to some more of his neighbors and another person was baptized.  Then all these recently baptized people started talking to their neighbors and then Tiffany and Sam were baptized.  So this shady apartment complex has some light in it now and now there are members of the church going there to do visiting and home teaching and they are strengthening the light of this shady apartment complex, and now others see that as well!!  Then we got a call yesterday from one of the ward missionaries who are teaching Sam and Tiffany their new member lessons and he said that while he was walking back to his car someone approached him and said "what church are you from?"  He said "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints"  She then said, "I have been looking for a church for me and my family and want to know more about your church because some of the people who live here who are members of your church have talked to me about it and they seem to really enjoy it so I want to learn more about your church". So he called us as soon as he was done talking to her and we called her as soon as we found out and she is really wanting a nice family centered church were she can raise her kids.  I said "This church is exactly what you are looking for".  So we have an appointment with Jessica and her family this Thursday, and she is wanting to come to church next week as well.  It is amazing to see how the Lord really love each of his children and that he protects his servants when he wants his children to hear the Gospel.  So that is a cool experience of the week.

We have a lot of people who are in our teaching pool who we are going to meet with this next week, so we are really excited for that :) We have an amazing family in the independence ward too.  We have been trying to meet with them for some time now, and as soon as we do and have constant appointments with them, they will get baptized fairly soon.  There is also some others who we are going to meet with this week that will be very promising appointments.

Hope your week goes great!!

Love,

Elder Luke Johnson