Cool Miracles

Well hello family! This week has been pretty cool! Nothing too crazy or special has happened, but there have been some cool miracles and spiritual experiences! Our week hasn't had too many teaching moments where we were like 'Woah! that was crazy' or 'Wow we could really feel the spirit'. Now yes, we could feel the spirit, but there was no teaching moments that stood out... But we did get to see the spirit work very powerfully through a guy. Last night Elder Hood and I were just sitting around, not really sure what we could do, so we decided to make dinner. Well, just after we finished dinner, we were actually washing our dishes, Charlie Brown called. Like seriously. We were really confused and started laughing. But we answered it and it was not a laughing matter... He told us a less active in our ward had an infant being rushed to the ER by ambulance and Brother Brown wanted two missionary's to come with him to give this less active members baby a blessing. So to skip a few details, we met up with him at the ER and actually beat the ambulance there. (We were trying to get ther as fast as we could. We may have broken the law and ran a few lights... but we weren't the ones driving, a super cool member from our ward was;)) So when we got there, we met up with Brother Brown and talked about the situation with him and such and got all the details and finally the ambulance got there. We met up with the LA and he was really cool, he took us into the room with his baby and we gave him a blessing... Right after, I turned to him and he was in tears. I dont know what prompted me but all of a sudden I was hugging him.. Like, I didn't tell myself to do that, it just happened, and I could tell he really needed it. After the blessing in the room, he said he was crying because he is no longer worthy to use the Priesthood to give his only child a blessing. So we talked with him outside in the lobby and he was just upset at himself, he really wanted to be able to give his child a blessing. So after talking with him for a little bit longer he said he is willing to do whatever it takes to become active in the church again! He had a very strong Testimony of the church and he said he knows with all his heart and soul that it's true, and because of that testimony he has been holding on. So with him wanting that and being able to feel of the spirit we are hopefully going to be able to start seeing a new member at church! The only sucky thing about the expierence is that he's in the other Elders area... So we can't teach him. But, he is still in our ward so we still get to see him! (We have 2 companionships per ward in Norfolk) That was one of our big weekly miracles. The next big miracle we had was we went to do service for a lady in the Second Ward with the 2nd Ward Elders. We were moving bricks.. from one side of the yard to the other. Literally, like 5ft from where they currently were. So I wasn't too happy at first.. But I said 'alright this can't be too bad'. So we started moving bricks. There's two ladies that live there, one is semi confined to a wheelchair and the other is not too far away from being there. But the one that's not in a wheel chair just started bearing her testimony about how they have been asking for help to move these bricks for the past few years and everyone just always avoids the question or makes up an excuse. She was just talking about how much she appreciates Missionaries that have the light of Christ in them and are willing to help them out with something so simple, but yet no one would do that. i mean we have appointments to go to and we have people to teach but she was really happy that we would do such a thing for her. So that was pretty cool to see! But that has been pretty much our week! I hope everything back home is going great! I miss you all and can't wait to see you! Love, Elder Johnsen

Temple Week!!!

Here's my week! So this week I was able to go to a wedding of a recent convert we had. She was baptized on Valentine's Day, so just a few days before I got here! It was awesome to see how happy she was! There was a time during the wedding where she was talking to someone and I wasn't trying to listen in, but she was telling her how happy she was that the missionary's found her, converted her and brought her to the Gospel. She also said how happy she was to be able to find her husband and how he's LDS, and is also a huge impact on her life! So that was pretty awesome to see! That was on Tuesday, but on Monday after p-day ended, we had an hour of time to just go outside and do something. So we went street contacting and after an hour of ZERO success, we only ended up talking to one girl. She's 16, nothing special about it, we haven't set up an appointment with her yet. But after having no one to talk to, we decided we would take Elder Braithwate's helmet back to his apartment and we ran into a girl struggling with a TV, so we asked to help. Long story short, we helped her move in and now she is a new investigator! We have already taught her once and we are teaching her again this week! So that's been pretty awesome! We have also been teaching Mary a lot these past few weeks! We have to double up on lessons each week so she can get everything in before her baptism! She is super excited and loves the church and loves having us over to teach her! So, we teach her every Thursday and Sunday, which has been nice! Her baptism is on the 28th at 7:30pm! On Friday we had exchanges! Which was awesome! I was paired up with another missionary from Arizona! He's from Mesa! He's into mechanics and loves cars as well as engineering. So that's what he wants to do in life! He's currently building a sand rail back home and has a bunch of other fun toys! His name is Elder Mikelson, in case you happen to know anyone with that last name! He comes from a family of 12, including him, so I'm sure you can find some of his relatives! So we had a really good exchange, lots of things to talk about and never a dull moment! During exchanges we were cussed at and told we were liars from someone. So we had to deal with both of those situations. haha. Then on Saturday it rained on us again, so we didn't go outside much. We were inside making phone calls, which I hate doing by the way. I just prefer to be outside talking to people, not inside talking to people over the phone. Sunday was like any other Sunday here in Norfolk.. weird, interesting, and pretty cool, i guess? haha but Wednesday. Wednesday was the day! WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!!!!!!!! It was amazing!!!!! My 4th time going and I couldn't complain, except for one thing.. The drive was quite a bit longer than the drive to the Gilbert Temple. Oh well! haha But the temple was awesome! We did one session then we had zone conference in the stake center right next to it. I took lots of pics and such, but my companion is being very rude right now.. So you will just see them when I send the SD card home in a few days! I have been trying to take at least one picture a day for this month and it has been working out pretty well, so the memory card is filling up a lot faster than usual haha! I have been enjoying my time out here a lot! It has been fun! I have been praying lately for some personal things and I can definitely say they have been answered and have helped me a lot! I have been an awesome missionary the past few days and I can only hope that it gets better! One thing that stood out to me the most this week was something that Elder Mikelson said on exchanges. I asked if he was excited to be going home soon (he's been out for 19 months) and he said he was. And that kinda struck me, I was in awe of why he said he was excited to be heading home. Most all missionary's say they don't want to leave because they are doing the Lord's work and how amazing it is! But his explanation made me completely understand why he said that and it completely changed how I wanted to feel at the end of the mission. He said most missionary's feel that way because they have had their rent paid, they don't work, and have just been missionaries. He said people are scared to be heading back to the real world, where there is greater temptation and how they will have to start working and they will have to pay rent and have to do all these things compared to what it was like in the field, where things were super easy. And that got me thinking. He continued on to say, 'I was called for two years, if I have not finished the work and have not done my best in those two years then I have failed and would need an extension. But if I have done 100% of what the Lord has asked and I have done everything I can to devote myself for two years, then I have done the Lord's work, and I have no reason to stay longer.' After hearing him explain this, I was like thrown in my chair, I was like 'Wow! That's powerful!' So, because of that, it has changed my whole mission perspective! Anyway, I hope to hear from you soon! :) I love you all and miss you all a lot! Love, Elder Johnsen

One month Down...

Hello! So I have finally found out my memory sucks and I'm getting old and I forget a lot of things.. as well as my companion has now found out I have crappy hearing. Probably from my car, or Blake's truck.. not sure but I always say 'what?' whenever he says something to me. But anyway, I have started to write down, in my planner, the things that happen during the week so I can remember to tell you about them in my email! Well, where do I begin... I have a nice long list in front of me so lets see how this goes... So I got to experience something new this last week. We went to the projects. Like, legit projects. Like, straight up, get shot, downtown, ghetto. A member was feeding us so that's the only reason we were down there. The guy is a super cool guy! But the part that really opened my eyes was when we were eating with him. He's single, with one kid that he has custody of. Elder Hood and I were the only ones with plates. He was eating his food out of tupperware, the kid was eating out of tupperware and the other people in the house were eating off cardboard, or anything they could really find. It was so sad. It was crazy to see the sacrifice people make to feed the missionaries. He's a really great guy, he's been a convert to the church for a year and has been going strong and has yet to look back! We shared a really strong message with him that went really well, so we were happy with the out come. After dinner we got out of there as fast as we could, since it was night time. The next day we had dinner with a crazy lady. I. Swear. She. Is. Crazy! We had some food from some country... I HAVE NO IDEA!! All I know is there was.. I don't even know what was in it.. but she totally called me out and was saying how bad it was that I only eat chicken and burgers and that I don't eat veggies. She literally grilled me for about an hour on how I didn't eat healthy and that all I eat is meats. So I wanted to leave ASAP and never come back. haha It also doesn't help that she loves to talk, and will just talk, and talk, and talk to no end! So there's that... So now its Fast Sunday and I'm serving in a small ward. I think there's MAYBE 10 rows of soft seats.. and they're never full.. I don't think we ever open up the extra seat area. But during testimony time a priest age boy/guy/dude got up and said, "So I know my recent testimony's haven't been very spiritual, or have helped anyone grow spiritually so I'm here to change that today." So I'm thinking 'sweet! Here's a kid with his head on straight and is TRYING to do good'... He starts bearing his testimony about how he was shot at by Police. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!! He was saying how he was riding his bike with his sister and they saw a man sitting on a tree stump, they rode up to him and asked how he was doing. The man promptly asked them to leave and to never come back. That's when he said he turned around and he heard the Norfolk SWAT team open fire on this guy.. Like, this is church and all and I'm sure he thought this testimony through, but I don't think you share that with the congregation... Continuing on, he said that basically he was thankful for the man that saved his life by telling him to leave, that, the last thing this wanted criminal did was save him from being shot. Then he said amen. So, I'm in no way judging, but... I mean.. you can decide.. I'm not sure how much I spiritually grew with that testimony. So in good news! :) We went on exchanges, which was awesome! Elder Jameson and I were together for a day! We went downtown to where the harbor is. It's really crazy to see how much of a Naval Base this place is! There are ships everywhere, being built and worked on for war! So we enjoyed the view along with talking to people! Everyone we talked to was really nice! No one really said 'hey get away' or anything like that! They were all really nice and a lot of them, that didn't listen to us, would say how awesome it is that we are doing missionary work for our church. They say that we are the only church they see doing this, so that was cool to hear! Next things next! Soooo, I have found out... I.. suck... at... cooking... I can make some awesome toast!!!!! But the other day we were making chicken, and it's not like I'm horrible, but I wanna become better. So, those recipes you have would be awesome. Also, if you could ask dad how he COOKS meats that would be cool too. I know how to grill meats and pineapple :) I just don't know how you cook it... I need the nitty gritty too.. Like, do I put oil in the pan if I grill chicken? Or do I just put the chicken in the pan and cook it... So, some recipes and how to cook would be nice. We also had daylight savings, which is definitely the stupidest thing ever. Why do people move their clocks? It's so dumb.. I think this has made my decision of staying in Arizona a little easier. So I'm totally thrown off right now.. But I think we are now 4 hours ahead of you? Maybe? I don't know. Along with sacrament being super small, I have blessed every week. Sucks you can't see it, but I am. I promise. The best thing about this past Sunday was... you know how Bishops always fall asleep? Well this is the first time I have seen a Bishop fall asleep during sacrament. So, when we finish passing he usually excuses us. Well he was asleep, so we all just sat there for AT LEAST 10 minutes because HIS COUNCELORS WERE ALSEEP TOO!!!!!!! So, once everyone started laughing (all 20 of us in the congregation) he woke up and said he was "meditating." Sure you were Bishop Robertson... After church we went and taught a new investigator, our first time teaching her and we committed her to baptism. So now we have 5 people committed to baptism. We are still working with one girl and trying to get her baptized with her family, but 5 is a good number since last month our whole zone had a total of 4 baptisms and our companionship has 5 this month! We have one person set for the 28th of this month then three more on April 18th! But I love you guys so much! I miss you guys like crazy! Weeks are flying by and time is just disappearing! At some point it will feel like just yesterday I left, but I'm actually headed home! If one month has gone this fast, and this week went by with the snap of my fingers, this mission will be over in 20 seconds! I also hope you guys enjoy the letters I sent home. I did send Dad two pages, front to back, about troubleshooting my car.. hahaha So if there are any problems he will now know what they probably are. Also, if there are any problems, Blake helped me with the wiring. Not sure how much he paid attention, but he could help. And if dad ever goes and races it.. inviting my friends would be cool. They enjoy slaying tires:) And I'm sure they would be more than happy to try and get you to go out there, as well as go with you! haha Anyway, I love you all! Hope to hear from you guys soon! Love, That one missionary that's in Virginia with the first name Elder and last name Johnsen:)

A view of the Harbor where they work on the ships.

What we look like after riding our bikes in the rain.

Study time is sometimes hard... Hard to stay awake.

Elder Johnsen, signing off...

It's been a Month?

Well its been one month! I have been a missionary for one month and it has only felt like a week! If this is how fast the mission goes by then I will be home tomorrow! This week has been pretty awesome. I have learned a lot, as well as did some stupid stuff (in typical Michael fashion). We were snowed in for two days, so we baked a cake one of those days. And then ate it all in one day. I have started filming dumb things of my companion doing dumb things, and we have been just having fun! There's no better way of getting through the week than to have fun. Yes, we are serious about the work, but we have fun while we do it! So we now have 5 baptism's scheduled and we have had very little success street contacting and knocking on doors. So we have been looking through our former referrals and former investigators to see if there is anyone that has become interested in the gospel since we last taught them. Zero luck. So we have been kind of stuck. We keep dropping investigators because they don't answer the door, their phone or won't even text back, so we drop them! There's nothing we can do at that point. So we are trying to find a way to get new investigators. So, we will figure it out! This week we had some awesome dinners! They were AMZAING! We had Shepard's Pie, which is super simple but really good! And then we had a 5 member 'break the fast' fiesta party! Lots of Mexican food and lots of amazingness! And I don't remember the other dinners we had! And don't worry, the bike I got will last me many years! It's a really solid bike! Anyway, I hope everything is well at home! :) I love you all and can't wait for more care packages! Especially if they have Red Velvet Oreos... ;) love, Michael

The New Bike... Here is what he said about his bike: I duct taped my whole bike. That bright red is now covered in duct tape. Why would he do that?

We cover the nice bikes with ductaope, so they look crappy, so they don't get stolen! It's actually a way of protecting your bike from theft. I put saran wrap all over the bike then duct taped it. So, when I get home I will just peel the tape off and have a brand new bike! So it has a huge advantage! Oh, I also forgot to tell you.. we live one street away from a street with the highest crime rate in Norfolk. It's .1 miles away. Just thought I would let you know! ;)

Here's what the tap water looks like... It looks like milk.. It's gross. Oh my Goodness I totally forgot! We got approval to go to the Temple on the 11th!!!!!!!! So if you can overnight my packet here, to get here by the end of the week, that would be sooo awesome!!! I need it ASAP, because the Raleigh Temple does not loan out clothing. Thanks! Love you! Love, Michael