So this week has been a really crazy and emotional one.

It mainly started this Saturday when we got a call from the President saying that one of my companions is going to be emergency transferred to the first zone I was in and that he is leaving today at some time...so that was a little hard to hear for him and also for me too.  He kind of took it hard but I know that he will do great things down there.  This is his first area and I know that it is very hard to be transferred away from it, especially when his dad was born and raised here and that is a good tie to his home.  So I hope that he will find some awesome people to teach down there.  It kind of impacted me too because it was kind of like a reality check for me, I was kind of hoping that he would be around when I am to go home and so it kind of got me that I really don't have that much time left and I really hope that I can stay diligent as a continue to work for the Lord.  So I have really made some goals for myself to become more involved in peoples life and gain more of a relationship with them.  I kind of found myself starting to go through the motions and just teach the lessons while not really connecting with the people.  So I have come back to the basics again and while I am studying to get some revelation to help my investigators and it has really started working a ton!!!  I saw myself doing that when I was in that zone and I am starting to look back and see what I did there and figure out where I forgot some stuff and restore it back to what it was. 

So anyways some exciting news with our investigators!!!  We have been having meeting with the xxx  xxx everyday this week to help them prepare for their baptism this Saturday!  I am super excited for that because they have been through a lot in their lives and that is so amazing to see just how much they have turned around their lives!!  It was so cool how everything this week has played out with them finalizing that decision to be baptized!  So a couple of days ago a got this text from a recent convert of mine in the first zone I was in who was coming up to the city this weekend for her Birthday and wanted to go to some lessons with us so I thought that she was perfect for xxx because she had some word of wisdom problems before she got baptized and so does xxxx.  So we brought her over and they connected a ton!!  It was the perfect situation for her, because we were really struggling to find a solid fellow shipper who was around her age with the same problems as her and since there is like 3 active YW and they have all been members for their whole life.  It was a little hard to find someone and so it was such and amazing thing see one of the people that I baptized follow the spirit and contact us because if she hadn't I don't really know if she would be getting baptized now!  So that was awesome!!  We has a really emotional lesson with them on Saturday because we had to break the news that my companion was leaving and so that was a little crazy, but that didn't stop anything. They are going to have their interview on Wednesday and then baptism on Saturday and I am super excited for that!!  They have come such a long way since I first met with them.  They are one that I have really gained a good relationship with them and I see just how much they are progressing because of that.  I took me about a transfer and a half to get a good relationship with them but now that I did it has really been an awesome thing! 

We weren't able to meet with the other family this week because of sickness, but we have been following up with them about every other day to see if they read so that is really good.

We met with a guy this past weekend and he had a ton a questions for us and they were all very good questions that really helped him to progress.  He brought his daughter in and she had some questions for us and she sounded interested to learn more so that is really awesome.  There is a ton a good potential there and hopefully some good things will come of it in the future.  I was able to answer a lot of the questions and I really used the spirit while doing it and after we were done with the lesson we found that we had taught all the principles in Lesson 1without really knowing it.  So that was a good example of teaching people and not lessons for me.

The other family are doing good, their mom came back and so hopefully we can get them all to church soon and they will start progressing.  They know it all they just need to start living it.

So that has pretty much been my week.  It has been an emotional one but an amazing one with tons of growth.

So I think that is about all!

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Johnson

Can he really WALK ON WATER? Haha!

Flooding of a road in Camp Verde, but it does look like he is walking on water!  LOL!

So this week we were able to find a lot of potential and a new investigator!  This past Friday we were up in one of the cities we cover and it is a really funny place because sometimes we go there and we don't find anyone home and other times we go we find everyone home!!  This last Friday was a day were out of the 11 families that we tried to visit 8 of them answered the door and with about all of them we set something up for when we go up there next Friday.  We made a list a while back of all the members in the area we cover and we counted 99 families who are less-active up there and so we have been devoting a lot of time there to find those who lost their way and those who need to find it.  We were able to have contact with a less-active family and they probably haven't been contacted by anyone in about 5 or 6 months and so we were able to get some good things going there.  

 

Also on Friday we went to the Reservation and met with this part-member family who has a ton of potential, the father is a member has been less-active pretty much his whole life and doesn't really know too much about the church, and his wife Libby is a non-member and has had a lot of questions about the church and is wanting to learn more and so after spring break happens we will go over there and start teaching them and they really want a church for their kids too and so it will be an exciting thing to be able to bring the spirit into their home and bring that family closer together!  So that was an amazing miracle that happened this week because we have really been struggling with find new people to teach and so this a prayer that has been answered!  

 

We also had another amazing miracle happen this week too!  We were able to set a date for baptism with one of the investigators and that was super amazing!!  She is so ready for it too and I am super excited for it!  The whole family comes from a very hard background and so it is so amazing to see just how much the spirit is working in that home.  Her mom has really been the driving force behind all of this, she was baptized just a couple months ago and really wants her kids to be able to feel of the Gift of the Holy Ghost like she has.  Her son has been a little non-committing with us and so it will take a bit more work with him, but he will come along eventually.

 

We had an amazing lesson with another investigator last night and was able to commit all of the kids to come to church.  Their less-active mom still doesn't want to go but we are getting them rides through the ward so that they can get there.  They are pretty awesome and hopefully they come to church so we can get somewhere with them. :)

 

We also had a pretty good lesson with the guy who is having a hard time quiting drinking and smoking.  He has cut back a lot on the beer and is starting to not want it anymore.  We asked him last night why he wants to get baptized and he said it was to be with his wife and we asked him what was stopping that and his wife, who is an active member said that it is that thing in his hand (his beer) and so that was good for him to hear that.  It is going to take a while with him to be ready for baptism but it will happen.

 

Well hope your week goes good!

Love,

Elder Luke Johnson

Luke got to go to the Mesa Temple to see the sealing!!!

So this week has been one of the best weeks of my life!!  We are still trying to get some good things going in the area but I know that is will pick up soon because I have gained a more eternal perspective on missionary work this past week.

So to start off, the most awesome thing that I was able to see was the Sealing and Endowment of Don and Toni  from my first area in Anthem.  I am so grateful I got to see that because it was just what I needed to see the final product of the hard work I put into that area and those people.  They have become super active in the church and now they are a couple for all time and eternity!!! :)  I remember the first contact that my companion and I had with Don.  I answered the door without a shirt on and a martini in his hand and we sat down with him and talked about the Book of Mormon and was able to give him a copy and then we came back by a week later and started teaching them and the first thing that he said to us was that he wasn't going to give up his coffee and his alcohol and so we were able to share the spirit with him and his wife and ever since then they have progressed so much and now they are endowed and sealed and that was such an awesome thing to see them in the Celestial room of the temple. So that was awesome to see a couple of recent converts be able to go through the temple.
While I was there for the endowment of Don and Toni I was able to see a bunch of old ward members and also I had a really awesome surprise to see a Less-active couple who we found in Anthem going through the temple to receive their endowments and also I was able to see them be sealed!!  I can remember when we first got in contact with them.  We were biking down the street one Saturday in the 120 degree weather of August of 2011 and suddenly we saw a couple on a bike going the opposite direction flag us down and they came right up next to us and said "Hey! You Mormon missionaries?" We said "yes" and they said, "What time does church start tomorrow and where is it?" This was before the Anthem Chapel was built so we gave them the address to the Daisy Mountain building and the time the ward they lived in started.  The very next day we saw them at church and we were going to talk to them after church but they rushed out of there too quickly and we weren't able to get there address, but we remembered them saying that they were on this one street.  So we knocked all the doors on that street and found them and started meeting with them and they started coming back to church and then later on they told me that their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren all got baptized a few months after I left.  That was such an amazing thing to see the two different works of missionary work come full circle.  The first, the importance of finding new people to teach so that they can enjoy the blessings of the temple and second the importance of finding those who once accepted the gospel and who have fallen away from the fold of God and get them back and bring their family with them so they call all enjoy the blessings of being a family forever.  These two experiences have greatly increased my vision, testimony, goal, and thoughts about missionary work and the such great importance it is and what the eventual goal is to be. 
I have thought a lot about these experiences that I have been able to have this week and have been thinking about ways to see that in this area and I have noticed multiple times now that there are at least 150 less-active members in both of the wards in which we serve and that there needs to be some attention paid to these families who have not yet seen and enjoyed the blessings of living the gospel and being sealed together as a family.  So we are going to be making some goals this week to were we can save those who have fallen away and also bring those who do not know yet about this great gospel.  It has been such a good learning experience that I hope to take to this area and to the rest of my life.  Missionary work is so amazingly awesome!!


So I think that that is all for this week!

Love ya!

Elder Luke Johnson

Luke's First Baptisms were sealed in the Mesa Temple on Saturday!!

Luke in his tri-companionship!