Care package arrived and a little homesickness

Well, I got your care package, it came at an amazing time! I was kinda starting to struggle with wanting to be out here.. I had everything I wanted back home. A fast car, lake trips all the time, the 'best of the best' friends I could ask for, an amazingly beautiful girlfriend, and a family that didn't miss me every second of the day. I had it made back home. And lots of thoughts of going back to that kind of lifestyle have crossed my mind. I could become a really good wakeboarder in two years! I could do all kinds of things, but I know this is where I need to be and this is just something that is trying to make me quit early! My first area is Norfolk! Which is actually pronounced Nawfik. and if you say it wrong they think your weird and laugh at you. Just like how people in AZ say sawaro cactus when its spelled saguaro, and you can tell when someone is not from around AZ. Same thing haha. My first companion is Elder Hood, he's from Washington and is a pretty cool guy! We get along really well! He kinda likes cars and is just an all around cool guy! He loves biking so he loves that we are in a biking mission, and I cant lie... I kinda like the biking part of the mission too! Our area is about a 3 mile wide (east - west), by 6 mile long (north- south) area. You can bike from one end to the other in just under 30 mins, which isn't too bad! We have already had two dinners, one was pretty good! It was pasta so of course it was, only downside is that it had spinach, so I picked all that out. The dinner we had last night was alright. It was steak, in this gooey stuff that tasted like never ending slime running down your throat.. but I choked it down and said it tasted good! :) The area is not too cold. There's snow on the ground. It melted today. It was 13 degrees two days ago, and I hear this is unusual weather for this city. That's what they say.. but it is starting to heat up around here which is nice! The car scene sucks around here.. just a bunch of people that have there Impalas on 28 inch wheels and everything is chrome. But I have seen 3 240's I will send you pics of them next week as I forgot my camera.. But I have seen a twin turbo 2nd gen Cummins, the guy was really cool! And an Evo 8 or 9 that is all jdm super nice and I drool whenever I see it.. and the 2 240's we have seen have been hatch's! one looks like it has a ls motor in it as it has drag slicks and a completely stock body.. very suspicious... ;) And the other is an automatic.. pretty cool to see some that are stock height and have the stock super clean paint on them. We have also seen a wide body 350z. He has racing decals so I think he might be doing some auto crossing events here.. Not too sure buts it's like a purple and black, pretty slammed. I'll send another huge picture dump next week when I remember my camera! But that pretty much wraps up my email.. oh! The area reminds me of California when we lived there! Not too many whites... but none the less I have met some really cool peeps! We have 4 people set with a baptism date, 11 investigators, maybe 12 since we asked a guy last night if we could teach him a lesson. So that's our important numbers so far! I'll keep ya updated on what happens with them! :) Actually, funny thing.. my first lesson was a drop lesson.. haha First day here we go and drop a guy and tell him, hey your not progressing, sorry we cant teach you! haha It was interesting.. Anyway I love you all and miss you guys like crazy! I cant wait to read your email back! :) I love you! :) Love, Elder Johnsen

Week 2 of the MTC

Well our flight got delayed another day so we will be leaving on Wednesday.. we are not happy at all about that.. We really wanted to leave... My ride leaves at 3:30am now which is basically the same time so no biggie there and our flight out of SLC leaves at 7:30... Anyway, so my past week has been kinda weird, crazy, weird, interesting, weird, and FREAKING AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well where do I begin... just so you know, I myself have not changed in any way except for in the church and in how I am spiritually... so just imagine Michael from AZ in a MTC.. things have been SOOOO FUNNN!!!! (well I made it fun) So we found a short cut through a building that we use every morning since we always hit the snooze button at least 5 times in the morning.. The alarm is set for 6:15 but we usually roll out of bed at about 6:50-7. haha We suck at getting up on time.. So we use the short cut we found and we always make it to breakfast on time!! I cant say we make personal study every morning.. but it's the thought and effort that counts right? Well in true Michael manner we have tried photo bombing every picture and when asked to take pictures for other people, we take selfies with their camera cause that's just the thing to do. And recently we did a world class photo bomb... So we were in a devotional and it was all being recorded on cameras and such, in typical church fashion. A sister in front of us raised her hand to speak and say something so I immediately turned to Elder Jenson and Elder Reed (my companions) and was like 'alright guys when that tv turns on with the camera pointing at us, we need to make the best photo bomb faces ever...' Well guess what... we did such a good job that they removed that camera angle immediately as it went up! We all had the funniest faces and were being completely immature but I think it was a record that we got to photo bomb for 5 seconds since the last church photo bomb only lasted 4 seconds at General Conference! hahahaha We were dieing and I could totally see President Trost and his wife directly staring me down!!! We also had a salsa party! We have so much junk food in our dorms that we decided to bring it all out to the tables and invite the Sisters to come join us for a little party! Along with that we just left it all at the table for free game since we didn't want to bring it back in the room with us! Anyway.. on to a more serious note... So we have 4 sisters in our district, Sister Charlesworth, Sister Hatch, and my personal two favorites, Sister Hanks and Sister Young! They're so awesome! But, two days ago we gave Sister Hanks a blessing because she is struggling with something. So being the good guy I am, I wrote a little encouraging note to her about how she has taught me a lot and should stay strong and the Lord will bless her. Well I didn't know that it would leave such a huge impact... I wrote like a 10 line note and she in turn wrote me a 2 page thank you note! So that was nice, it built our relationship and we have become really good friends! Along with becoming really good friends... I talked about Lake Powell and invited them all to Lake Powell when we get back. Soooo, better start reserving a week for the RM's, because they made it clear that if I disappointed them there would be consequences.. haha I also challenged Sister Hanks to a rowing competition during gym time.. I beat her pretty bad.. haha But other than that we have been having a really good week! We taught our first investigator in TRC (that's just some fancy lettering for some fancy program that we go to). We really connected to him and did an amazing job teaching him! We really loved him and we saw so much growth in him! It's interesting to actually teach them, since we don't know if they're members or not, which really makes it a lot easier! Unlike in class, we suck at teaching because we know our teachers are just role playing, so we don't really care if we mess up haha! It also snowed today and hearing everyone say how much they wanted to go skiing reminded me of wakeboarding and how much I miss it... Oh well, in two years when Garrett gets back, as well, I'll get back out there and shred the water again.. I love you guys a lot! and miss you like crazy!

Michael with Elder Jensen (L) and Elder Reed (R)

Selfies with Bro. Monson!

Sister Charlesworth, Sister Hanks, Sister Young and Sister Hatch

Everyone fell asleep except me and Brother Alexander!

The MTC knows these teenage boys pretty well it looks like.

The Three Amigo's

Another Surprise!

I logged on tonight to check my email and low and behold... Another quick email from Michael. He had just written and it made me laugh out loud. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did! "hehehe I love you! :) Today we got the cleanest room in the building award.. Hope your happy about that momma! Hope you guys got my letter too! and for dad we have been working out a bunch more, doing more heavy weight low reps and I still suck at basket ball.. Anyway I'll write you more when I get to my p day. Love you all! :) Please don't worry about me! :) Love, Michael"

Dear Mom & Pa

So, the MTC is way different than I expected... THEY HAVE COKE!!! and the food is really good... like really good! So where do I start... Well I was expecting to have the MTC grill you with scriptures but they don't. They teach you how to be a better teacher. They don't ask how much you know about the scriptures but instead use the knowledge you already know about the gospel to make you a way better teacher. I have also prayed more in the past 4 days that I did the last year of my life! Also, mom don't worry, I have been brushing my teeth twice a day!! And Dad... I now can say we both have a nice gut (belly's)! Yes I have been gaining weight. The food is just too good, I keep going back for seconds and thirds. Anyway, I have two pretty cool companions. One is like the nerdy bookworm kinda guy. The other is a country redneck! He can backflip his dirt bike, loves to go off road and is pretty freaking cool! Me and him are both excited to get southern country accents and participate in some country line dancing! YEE HAW!! So I had a scripture in mind for mom but I have been marking so much in them I forgot to put a little tab in it so I could remember where it was. But, I have another for the little boys. It's kinda funny but they should like it! 1 Corinthians 13:11. Anyway, I leave for Virginia on the 17th! I'm so excited to leave the MTC and be in the mission field! It's a 7 hour flight & we have to be up at 3:30am that morning. That freaking sucks! Anyway, I miss you guys but please don't worry about me. I am in good hands and doing Great! Hope to hear from you soon! Love, Michael

Surprise

Hello, this is Brenda. I was at work today and I received a text, from someone I didn't know, with an attachment. When I downloaded the attachment, this popped up:

'Brenda, Elder Johnsen is doing great!' I responded with: OMGosh!! Thank you, whoever you are! I needed that today! Missing him. So glad he is doing great! Her response: Haha I know the feeling -- I have a son out too! and have had pics of my son sent to me! So Fun! Really, he seemed so happy and solid! My name is Kimberli and I'm just a volunteer 'investigator' there once a week. I thanked her and then cried! I cannot believe how much I miss this kid!! It was so fun to see a picture of him. I did ask him to send pictures next time he writes. So, hopefully he does!

Well Hello! :)

I just mailed you guys a letter, sorry if you can't read it cause my hand writing sucks.. but that will give you the address. All the information is in the letters I was kinda hoping you would get it before my p day but I guess that didn't happen. haha But, the mtc is pretty awesome. Its just straight class time all day and that's about it. We teach people more than we do actual Scripture mastery things and study the scriptures. It's all just about how we can be better teachers. The food here hasn't been too bad there's some days where the food is good and there's other days where the food sucks... like this morning the pancakes were like Frisbee's haha they sucked! But for lunch the chicken burgers were amazing! I had seconds and tons of curly frys! haha So my first two companions are pretty cool.. well one of them is. haha We're in a trio so it is a little different. Lets start with the weird one, Elder Jensen is from Utah and loves video games... you can get the idea.. the other companion is freaking awesome!!! If you mixed Christian Stowe and his dad together that's what he looks like. haha He dirt bikes, off roads, has a bronco -one that he romps in the desert, and lived in the middle of nowhere in a place called Hurricane Utah. He back flips his dirt bike and loves cars so we have been pretty close, talking about cars and dirt bikes and guy stuff! haha. But yeah, nothing too crazy I'm really excited to get into the field which will be happening in a few days so I'm pretty excited about that. Not really sure what else to talk about since I talked alot in my letter to you guys.. haha If you decide to send a letter I have to get it before the 17th, that's when I fly out to Virginia! Anyway, I hope the family is doing well. How's Christina doing? Well can't wait to hear from you guys. Love, Michael Oh I forgot to add!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I meet Brother Monson and he is the coolest guy I have ever met. He is so smart and really knows how to connect with the missionaries here! (if your thinking I met PRESIDENT Monson your wrong.) But I recorded a little bit of a spontaneous fireside he had in the residence hall that I would love to send you. I'm not sure if you can hear it or not... I kinda recorded him secretly... just him talking not video.. :) But it's really good! He's talking about his uncle, the prophet, and what it's like when he enters the Temple and about his BBQ that he would invite God too! haha It's really funny! I hope you guys get a kick out of it like I did!!