Crazy Busy Elder Johnson!!

So this week has been great and it went by super fast!!  This area is literally booming with missionary work and it is so cool to see that!!  We have even had to call on a few ward missionaries to help with all the referrals that we have been getting so that we can make contact with them because we still have a big number of people who we haven't been able to contact and so we asked the ward mission leader to help us out and they are going to be contacting those individuals and getting appointments with them.  It is so awesome to see how much work as been coming here!!  I often joked around with Elder Nieman back in Anthem that I wished we were to get to the point were we didn't have enough time in the day tracting and had so much work that we could even handle it!! I guess the Lord heard that and was like, OK here have your wish!!  It is awesome!! 

 

So this last week has been amazing!!  We had ten investigators at sacrament meeting, set a baptismal date, and had some really good teaching appointments!! 

 

So we met with Robert this past week and he is coming along nice,  he has gone from him not really feeling like he should get baptized, to starting to ask a lot of questions that have been helping him come closer and closer to baptism.  He is so close to realizing that he should be baptized and I can feel that.  So we will gauge were he is at today at our lesson with him and see what he thinks about baptism.

We met with Chris the Irish guy that is pretty cool and he is doing good.  He is still held up on faith and things are starting to come along, but he is still set in his old ways of thinking and that habit has been really hard for him to break, but we are helping with that so that he can come to know that this is true.  He is an interesting one because he has read about every book put out by the church there is and it is weird to see that he still doesn't know.  We will continue to help him and encourage him to exercise faith.

Valarie is doing good as well.  She has come a long way from what she used to be at, but still not quite there yet.  She is a philosophy major and is still trying to break that habit of thinking by facts and not by faith.  So we will continue to help her she just how great God and Jesus Christ is and help her to see the role that they play in her life.

 

Tiffany and Sam have been doing well.  We haven't been able to meet with them in a while, but we hope to meet with them this Wednesday to help with their progression.  They have said that they want to be baptized so we will go over there and set a date for May 26th with them.  

 

We met twice this week with Conrad and Naomi and their family, a new investigator family that we found last week.  They are awesome and they really want to change and come closer to God by joining the Church and living the Gospel.  They are a very humble family who live in a very small two bedroom house with them, a family of 6, and 8 other individuals who live there they are definitely a family who is very humble and it is such a great example to me to appreciate what I have.  We have been trying to get them to church, but they need a ride and there are so few people that are able to do that, that it has become quite the hassle but we will have faith and hope that we can figure something out.  It turns out that they have someone in their family who also wants to meet with us and that is a really good thing!!  We are going to baptize that whole family!! :)

 

The next one that we met with a couple times this week is the one who we set a baptismal date with.  He name is Leah and she is awesome!  She was referred to us by a media referral that we got and we contacted her and she said that she was waiting for us to call and wants to be baptized and so we set a date for June 9th!!  She is awesome and is soaking up every word that we say!! :)

We also met with a couple this week that were referred to us by the Spanish missionaries.  Chris and Elena!!  They are a couple of people that the missionaries were knocking doors and they prayed with her and She said that she really needed that and wanted to come closer to Christ and so we met with them this week and talked about reading the Bible and how the Book of Mormon can help with understanding the Bible and what it is teaching us.  They said that they don't have any desire of joining a church, but I know that as we continue to teach them they will eventually want to because the spirit teaches us and shows us that path that we have to take.

So that is an update on everyone that we were able to meet with this week!!  and there will be many, many, many, many more to come because of all of these referrals that we have been getting.  I love it here in Phoenix and the people here are awesome!!  It is so exciting to be able to teach people how they can become closer to Jesus Christ!!

 

So funny story this week...So we were inside of our house and we were doing our normal morning studies and we were in the middle of praying when we heard the door bell ring and because Bro. Ratliff, the guy that we live with was at work we had to open it and so we did and it turned out to be a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses!!  So knowing how they feel we let them say there thing and had an interesting Gospel conversation.  I learned a lot about how much similar their church was to ours, but there were lacking one vital detail and that was the authority from God and it was interesting to see has they tried and to convert two Mormon missionaries how much the spirit wasn't there when they taught and how it seemed that there was something missing.  So we gave them a Gospel of Jesus Christ Pamphlet and they gave us a watchtower and that was that.  So that was a neat experience!! 

 

I hope you and Dad are feeling old because you two are going to have a 20 year old son in less than a month!!

 

It is crazy how time flies!!  I am almost at my half-way mark!!  It is crazy!!

Hope all is well.

 

Elder Luke Johnson

ELDER JOHNSON'S ZONE

LOOK...HE'S CLEANING!!!

So this week has gone by really well!!  I have gotten better, and I am doing fine now!!  The mission doctor gave me a prescription for my strep throat and the missionary medical coverage only had me pay a ten dollar co-pay!!  So that was nice :)  I have been feeling a lot better and things are going great!!  This week has been super hot here!!  It peaked this week to a unbearable 107 degrees which means that it is only going to get worse from here!!

 

We were looking at our board of people we are working with and we counted all of them up and came up with about 42 people that we have that either need to be contacted, new referral, new investigator, or progressing investigator.  So it has been a bit of an interesting challenge to be able to meet with all of these people this week because it is the end of the month and our car has only 300 miles that we are allowed to drive! It has been quite fun trying to get to places on time because our work is so spread out and is almost impossible to bike to each appointment if we want to be on time.  Most of our days are backed up, one appointment after the other, so we have been kept super busy!!  We barely have time for dinner and lunch!!  The Lord has blessed us so much with all of these people that are just coming to us to help them come closer to God!!  I know that it is because of our faith and with Christ's help all of these people are coming to us to teach!!  It is so amazing that when we exercise even a particle of faith, the Lord blesses us so much!! 

 

Here is an update on those people who we have visited this week! To start off the list we have Chris, he is the Irish guy who is having troubles on faith and finding answers.  We are still working with him and helping him along in his faith growing experiences, but it just seems like we are hitting a brick wall so we will go back and see what other approaches we can take with him to help him really realize that this is true, and have faith in God and in Jesus Christ. 

 

Next, Chris and Valarie are doing really well and we actually brought Val with us to a lesson this week just to see how someone else has faith and who is wanting to be baptized and become a member.  I thought that is was really good for her and helped her gain a different perspective on things.  She is still hung up on faith, but every time I see her I continually see that her faith in Jesus Christ is building as she is praying and asking God if Jesus Christ was really the son of God.

Next we have Robert!  He is progressing a ton!!  Our last lesson that we had with him was really good for him.  We had a lesson on repentance and how that is important to do and understand.  So we read in Alma 36 which is Alma the younger and how he came to repentance and he really related to that and likened the scriptures to himself to see how he can change and repent because he is really wanting to but thinks that he has to know a lot, even when we have said that you don't.  He is progressing really well and is coming closer and closer to Christ! :)

 

Next Tiffany and Sam.  They went to the DI this week and got some really nice church clothes and they are becoming more and more repentant.  We have a lesson with them this week and we are planning on setting a baptismal date with them.  They are going to become pretty awesome members!!  The Gospel has blessed them so much and you can see that.

 

AJ was confirmed this week and we are planning on getting him and his family more active and into the temple to be sealed together!

 

The Next few are new ones that we met with this week.The first one is Leah.  We found her by a referral that we got from Salt Lake and and she is really wanting to change and have a better life.  So we are meeting her to help her on that path and she is so ready for baptism!!  She just needs to figure out some things at work to be able to help her come to church.

 

The next one is a referral we got from a member.  Their names are Conrad and Naomi.  They are really wanting to change and fix their lives with their family.  So their family consists of Harvey who is 13, Alyssa who is 11, Carmen who is 7, and Conrad Jr. who is 6.  So they are going to be meeting with us and hopefully in the future we will see them all in the temple being sealed together.  They already accepted to be baptized, so we just need to continue to teach them and they will be able to enjoy the blessings of the gospel.

 

The next one is a referral that we got from some missionaries in our zone and so we contacted her and had a really good church tour with her.  At first it went a little weird because she didn't like how the building was old and in a bad part of the town, but after a nice tour of the church she warmed up to it and to the spirit and we were able to teach her a short first lesson she really felt the spirit and she will be at church this next week.

The next on is Carlos and Nicole.  They were referred to us by the Spanish speaking missionaries and they are really solid.  We went over there a few times this week but kept missing them, but late Saturday afternoon we had an impression to go and visit them, so making sure to be obedient to the spirit we followed our prompting and went to go and stop by and it turned out that the whole family was there.  We left them with some of the children Book of Mormon stories and New Testament Stories for the kids (which they loved) and then we talked about the priesthood and gave them a blessing because they were experiencing some tough times in there life and we had the impression to give them a blessing.  Which was really good for them and the Spirit was so strong when we were done.  They are a great family and they are really wanting to have a better life so we will help them progress in the Gospel and that should help :)

 

Well that is just on update on all those who we were able to meet with this week.  We are hoping that the Lord will provide and that we will be able to meet with those who we have not had the chance to yet.  So that was our week.

 

Love,

 

Elder Johnson

Look, we still have a son...he's getting old!

Hi Mom!!

Luke and Elder Newton doing their weekly emails.

AJ's Baptism. Luke had Strep so he couldn't baptize him. Good job, Elder Newton!

Sick again :((((

So this week has been good!! I got sick towards the end of the week and that was kind of a bummer, but Sister Taylor is helping me through that. It kind of sucks that it has happened twice in two weeks, but that is just life I guess!! I am enjoying being the one who drives the car, after delivering flowers for those two years and going from driving like 100 miles a day to none was kind of a shocker, but now I am back on the car and things are going great!! We only have to use the bikes every now and then which is good because the 118 degree weather is starting to come back and that is not good! We just had the last cool down of the season and so now is up in temperature until Nov.!! haha!! Maybe I will get lucky like Elder Bennett and go to the North for the summer and come down here for the winter, but chances are that won't happen!

So this week has been full of referrals!! We have been catching up on media referrals and trying to get those all organized and contacted and we found a lot of great potential in a lot of them!! We have a ton of return appointments this week and it is going to be awesome next week with more and more return appointments!! AJ was baptized and things went well there and the next day he didn't show up to his confirmation because he was sick, but we are going to make sure that he is there next week to take care of that. Christian isn't going to be baptized today because of family going to be out of town that they wanted there, so we are going to be rescheduling that tomorrow. Robert is doing good, he has been sick this past week, and so we having really been able to meet with him, but things are going good. Tiffany and Sam are doing really well too!! They are being fellow shipped in the ward a ton and they are starting to get on the right path for baptism!! Chris (this Irish guy) is doing well and he is starting to come along a lot now!! Valarie is doing well, her faith has grown a lot and she still has questions but she is starting to think more spiritually then what she was so it is good. We have some new investigators that we are planning on meeting with this week and things are going well for this area and our teaching pool keeps increasing every week!! It is nice when we don't have enough time in the day for dinner and whatnot!!

We are getting fed a lot down here so we only have to worry about breakfast and lunch which is good!! I like that a lot better because the budget for a missionary is tight!! So when you see a missionary send him home with food!!!! Feed him!! Because chances are they are like me and don't have any money for anything!!

Well things are going great down in the heat of Arizona!!!

Hope all is well back in da hood!!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Elder Bumblebee from Transformers!

Elder Johnson and his new companion!!!

At the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant with an investigator

Flowers at the Mesa Temple

Hoppy Easter :0)

So this Easter went really well. We had a good time this week and things are going well. We had two Easter dinners yesterday. The members here feed us really well!! :)

So this week, as you know, I got a new companion!! Elder Bennett got transferred up to Prescott so that lucky duck will never experience a REAL Arizona summer on his mission. I will most likely have to endure at least one. Oh well! Life goes on. My new companion is...Elder Newton!! He came out from Tennessee (and no he doesn't have a southern drawl) but he grew up in Connecticut mainly, but also lived in New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. He is pretty cool! That is what happened on Wednesday. Then on Saturday we got a call from the Zone Leaders, and they called saying that we are getting our car back!!! We went up to north Phoenix and picked it up and drove it back down to its home :) I am the one assigned to drive and that is super fun!! Driving in Phoenix is a bit different than Utah, because of all the crazy speed racers around, but it is way fun!!! :)

So this week was a real crazy week, which is really good :) We went to the Easter Pageant with Robert and he loved that!! I think that is was a real key point in his progression in the Gospel. We are going over to teach him today about the Atonement and Repentance and so that will be a good lesson for him because he needs to understand that before baptism which he is super ready for! :) We also went to an apartment complex in our area that has a lot of interesting people in it a lot which are members/investigators, and we went over there about three times this week and all of it was a good experience :) There is a couple over there named Tiffany and Sam and they are investigating and they are going through a lot of things and so the Gospel will be a really good thing for them. We also met with a new investigator that we picked up today whose name is Rose and she is really wanting to learn more and has met with missionaries in the past, but they moved and were kind of dropped off until they got in contact with the Spanish missionaries and then they referred her to us. We weren't able to meet with Chris, the Irish guy this week, but he is coming a long real nice. He is starting to understand Faith a bit more and exercising on it. We met with AJ, the one who is a kid, and talked about how they need to be coming to church and how that is an important thing that we do to renew the covenants that he is going to make this weekend. We also had some really good contacts with many people who we hope to make into new investigators this week. The work is going super good and I am excited to help it along more :)

Well hope all is well back home!!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Clean Car Award!!! Wow! I always knew he could be clean!!

The West Maricopa Zone! Find Elder Johnson!