March 28, 2016

This week has been pretty good! We have been having a lot of fun as well as success here! We divided the whole ward up into different sections and made a list of all the members that live in each area. That way it would be easier for us to be able to find members that are not active and to also have a better way of planning on using members in certain areas if we need them. In fact, this week we started visiting all the members, kind of like in New Bern, trying to find less actives and visiting the active ones just so we can get to know them, and we ran into 2 family's with unbaptized youth, one of which was taught 2 years ago and wanted to be baptized! So, we're hopeful we can help her along the path and get her to church and start teaching her, of course! So we hope we can continue to have the same success as we keep going through the ward list!
This week I also got to visit Kim and Jeremy Thomas from New Bern! I love them so much! They are so great! Elder Godfrey loved his redneck accent and how much he likes camo. haha! But I enjoyed the time we spent with them. They went to the temple recently to do baptisms, and she did some family names and now she is dead set on going as much as she can! She is now on the hunt for as many family members as she can find that she can take to the temple! Jeremy also went with her and he did 140 baptisms while he was there! So he enjoyed that! But it was really cool to see how happy they are about the gospel and the joy it brings! Brother Rose also came and visited, we had a good time laughing and playing jokes on Elder Godfrey! It's like I never left! We also had a good time with John the other day. We were out biking around and we stopped by his bike shop and chatted with him for a little bit. We have been trying to get him to come to church, but he kinda just won't. So we have laid off a little bit on asking him and such. Well, while we were at the shop he kinda just brought it up that he knows that he needs to be going to church! So we talked a little bit about it and how we would love to help him and do anything we can to get him there. He didn't show up because his daughter was visiting from in town, but we are hoping to try and get him there next week for General Conference!
And then I guess the last little miracle we had was that we set Hunter with a date for the 9th of April. Elder Godfrey and I had the same impression to set him for that date, so we did. He is an unbaptized youth and he needs his moms permission (which I have never heard of but oh well) before he can be baptized... So he hasn't gotten permission yet, but we're acting on faith that he will be able to be baptized on that date! My favorite companion is probably Elder Unutoa! I loved him as my companion! We never argued or had any disagreements! It was awesome! My favorite scripture story... I'm not too sure, we don't really share very many very often. But I am currently reading about Alma and how he started Christ's church and baptized a couple hundred people. It's been pretty cool to read about! Morehead City is a fishing and surfing town. It's like So Cal, haha There's not very much ghetto area. When the sisters were here they would ride beach cruisers around haha It's funny! There's tons of surf shops and sports shops! It's a pretty cool little place. The weather sucks, humidity in general just sucks. haha The people are really nice because its the south! haha And my favorite p day activity was back in New Bern when we would go to the Webber's and we would work on the race car! It was fun to just work on cars again haha. But that was my week! I hope you guys have a great week as well!

Love,

Elder Johnsen

March 21, 2016

This week was great! We taught a whole bunch! We had an awesome P-day and had a bunch of fun with the district! We taught John this week! We read over the family proclamation and after we were done, he was like 'Well isn't this what a family is?' And we're like 'Yes john!' haha And so we talked about prophets and such and ended up having a really good conversation with him! He is such a good guy! He is probably the only guy that isn't a Mormon and has their head on straight. It's amazing. But we also taught another family and we had to be pretty bold. He is an alcoholic and we basically called them all out to repentance! It was scary, but it was well needed. So it ended up going well, but they are probably still not going to change. They are very content where they are. I also got to go on exchanges up to Havelock where the Marine Corps air base, Cherry Point is, and it was pretty cool! We taught a few people which was cool, they have the first church I have ever been in where they have a ward with folding chairs as there pews.. It was weird. We went over to set up the chapel. which consisted of us just setting up a bunch of chairs.. haha Pretty weird. I'm also starting to become more acquainted with the ward. We had dinner with Bishop last night! Went pretty well! He's a funny guy, but likes to run the ward like his business. So it's kinda different. I'm just waiting for dad to get the call to be Bishop one day. haha But I did hear from a member the solution to never being called to Bishop. Grow your hair out long, skip a few Sundays without any reason, and have just enough facial hair for them to consider someone else! haha It was pretty funny. His wife was like 'Don't listen to him, he doesn't know what he is talking about!' haha This week we have the car which is nice, we are trying to organize the ward roster into different groups so we can visit them all and try to do what we did in New Bern. Hopefully we can see some success from that. Working through members is the best way possible to have success, so we're going to try it out! But that was pretty much our week! Can't complain, I love being a missionary!

But I love you guys and will see you in a very short few months... The time is counting down... :) 

Love,

Elder Johnsen

 

Pictures from his P-day adventure.

This would be Michael (in back, dark pants) and his companion doing back flips on the sand dunes.

The district.  Michael on the far right, his companion next to him in front.

 

March 14, 2016

This week we have been doing lots of things! We have been teaching soooo much! We taught 16 lessons! And we barely even tried! We had so many meetings! We had a meeting all day on Wednesday and we did service for two days, that took up tons of time! Which I also caught a snake while doing! haha I have pictures below, we're unsure what kind it is, but it didn't bite me! haha He was chill! But we did really well! We don't really have anyone progressing towards a date yet.. But we are getting close. We did have one of our investigators at sacrament meeting which was great! But I think the highlight of our week was we met with John, the guy that has the bike shop and lets us ride his bikes around! haha But we met with him and for our next appointment we needed a third male so we could teach a young man, and so we asked John if he would like to sit in on a lesson.  And it was amazing! He taught the youth part of the lesson and bore testimony of it! It was crazy! Our investigator taught another investigator! It was insane! And so we ended up basically teaching both the youth and John with out John knowing. haha It was great! We love both of them so much! We are really trying hard to see how we can best help both of them. I have been trying to become better familiar with the ward. They're no where near as cool as New Bern, but they are getting there. haha They seem really cool and I know it will take some time for me to be able to fully get to know everyone that is here in the ward. I was looking for a challenge and I got it now haha! We had a really cool activity last night with both English and Spanish members. It was a family home evening style kind of meeting. It went a lot better than expected! I guess I forgot to tell you that Morehead City is a Spanish and English ward. They have the Spanish missionaries translate during sacrament meeting, which is pretty cool. They do it through these little radio things haha. But at the FHE thing it was cool because they would talk in Spanish for a bit, then they would switch to English and teach a little bit in English, then switch back and they would be trading off! So that was really cool! Not sure if I got anything out of the lesson, but I was amazed at the teaching hahaha! But that was pretty much all that happened this week! Not too much. Just a very low key week! I love and miss you guys alot! 

Love,

Elder Johnsen

 

Little snake he caught.

Michael and Elder Godfrey at the beach at night.

The beach after the sun went down, look at all the stars!

 

March 7, 2016

I love my new companion! I knew he was awesome, but I didn't know he was this awesome! haha If you look up nitro circus on youtube, that's him. Gregg Godfrey is his dad... OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! He has performed in nitro circus live!!! LIKE HOLY FLIP!!!!!!!!!! It's insane, he backflips a bunch of crap and does rad things. haha In fact I think it's the 'Mastercraft nxt, more room for family' video, it's like 8 minutes long. Well he is the one that rides the two stroke across the lake! haha It's insane, he's super dope! But, heres our week!

Well we had a pretty good week! This new area is defiantly new. It really shows how little I know. But I am working on learning it as fast as I can! It's tough because I knew everyone in New Bern but now I know like nothing.. haha Starting over from scratch.. It's been fun though! We have a really cool investigator that owns a bike shop and he let us play on his super duper expensive downhill bikes. Those 8,000 dollar ones. But he's awesome, his wife is more of the one that is holding him back. So we're trying to get through to her.. kinda. It will come with time. But he is great! Here we teach about 18 lessons a week. Which is almost double what Elder Pitts and I did in New Bern. So it's been fun and it's been nice having time just fly by! haha But for right now, nothing too crazy to report on the area. Nothing has really happened yet. I'm still learning so I don't know very much.. haha But I'm excited! This should be a really fun area! Well, love you and miss you! 

Love,

Elder Johnsen

 

 

Elder Godfrey and Michael.  Not sure who the girl is...

Michael and Elder Godfrey.

 

2.29.16

This week was very laid back... haha We taught a few people, but spent more time doing service for some people and other things... haha We had exchanges as well which was fun! That took up Thursday and Friday, we did service for a guy all day on Wednesday which was pretty fun haha. We also taught Craig which went really well! He even came to church which was great! I loved seeing him there! He better get baptized! haha But since it was also my last week basically.. we went to Wilson Webbers baseball game, so I got sun burned.. So when I walked into church they asked what we were doing.. haha Told them we were doing service! #winning It was fun. He lost both games but it was cool to watch him play! He's really good, the team just made a few mistakes which costed them the game.

So yes, I am being transferred.. I'm going to Morehead City, which is just a stones throw away so it's not too bad! I'll still be in the stake so I can see my New Bern family at stake activities, which will be great! My new companion is Elder Godfrey. If you recognize the last name it's because, if you remember the name of the guy that produced or created Nitro Circus?, Well that was his dad. So we should get along just fine, talking about reckless stuff haha! I'm fairly excited! Everyone in the ward was really nice and really appreciated my service there it was really great to hear that. Being a missionary is awesome! Well I know it's short but not much happened! haha Love you guys! 

Elder Johnsen

 

Perfect Companionship!

Mr. Perfection??  Lol

 

This pic was sent to me by Wilson and Henry's mom.  It was taken the night before he transferred.  She said that 'Wilson (on left) cried when MJ left that night'.  Michael called these two his adopted North Carolina little brothers.  He loves them and I'm sure he is missing them.

 

Then I got a text from Kim with this picture.  She gushed about how much she and her husband are going to miss Michael and that he converted her and she was baptized on January 2nd.  She said a whole bunch of things that made me cry.  We texted back and forth for a while, both of us crying.  She is amazing.  Michael plans to go back to be at their Temple sealing next year.

 

Both of these families said they plan to visit Michael and take him to lunch in his new area, since he is still so close.  I'm sure there are others that may do the same.  I know Michael was ready for a new challenge, but I know he will really miss the ward he was in.  He really loves the people there and they love him and have blessed him so much.

 

 

 

February 22, 2016

When I wrote Michael this week, I told him I was really frustrated -and had a bad attitude- about the math class I am taking.  (I went back to college to finish my degree)  When he wrote back, this is what he had to say about it (which I think is really funny so I thought I would put it here on the blog):

If you want help on formulas think of it like real life situations. that's what life is based on is formulas. your mortgage is a formula, your car payment, your taxes, your tax bracket, everything has a formula. A simple formula used in the automotive world is crank horsepower compared to brake horsepower (or rear wheel horse power). There's usually a 10%-15% drive train loss from the crank to the wheels. So you figure you have JUST an engine that makes 550 CRANK horse power. You want to know how much power it would make in your car. Well with 10% drive train loss you could figure having about 490-500 REAR WHEEL horse power after factoring in drive train loss. So it looks like this in formula terms. CRANK-(CRANKhp*10%)=BRAKEhp or in calculator form 550-(550*.1)=495.  So if you did it with other variables by saying x is equal to crank hp, y is equal to the percent, and z is equal to the rear wheel power. So in that form it would be X-(X*Y)=Z.  So now you can insert anything you want if your looking for what 10% of a certain thing would be. Or for any percent you could say 50% of something, 80% of something, anything. Just as long as you know that the percent is the variable Y, and the percent of something your trying to find is X. Remember also, that whatever is in parenthesis is done first. So for a house if you want to know how much it has depreciated over one year of owning it, and you know that in one year a house will depreciate 40%, you would factor something like this. I bought the house brand new for $1,330,980 in February of 2015, so in one year of owning it, it's now is worth $798,588. Hopefully that makes more sense. Probably not. But I guess anything helps. I sent more time writing this part of my letter than any other part. haha I had to do the house one since I don't think the car one would make sense. haha Ask dad to help you as well, he would understand the car one better if you don't get it. Anyway! haha Here was our week!

This week was great! We had lots of fun, like usual when your with Elder Johnsen! We did race car things, cooked pigs, and taught the Gospel! We taught a lot of less actives and recent converts this week. The most this transfer! We're trying to get into more less actives homes, which can be hard since we already went to all of them about 4 months ago.. So we are starting to slowly go back through all of them again and see how they're doing and trying to re visit some we thought needed just a little time before they would come around. We also started slowly going through the previous investigator list and trying to meet with those people. In fact, we had success tracking one down this past Sunday. She is the daughter of a member in the ward that I don't know. Which is surprising because I know everyone in this ward, including in-actives and excommunicated members. haha But we went to her moms house, which is a 30 minute drive from our place, and she let us in and we had a good talk with her and we brought up her daughter and she said that she was with her at church about 2 weeks ago and she had some really good questions! So we're excited to be teaching her again! The last time she was taught was back in July of 2012, so its been many years! But we're hopeful this will help expand our teaching pool. It's been pretty slim these last few weeks. We keep baptizing our investigators! haha I guess that's a good problem to have! So my favorite thing about my current area has got to be the members! I love them so much! They are great! In fact this past week while at a linger longer, or lunch after church potluck, Sister Wilson in the ward came up to me and said 'Elder Johnsen, I love seeing you here!' And I was like 'Aww, well thank you!' And she said 'We love seeing your smile and all the great things your doing here!' And I was like 'Well thank you, we try our best!' And she said 'How long have you been here?' And I said '7 and a half months.' And she said 'That's not breaking a record yet for New Bern, but you are close!' haha And I said 'Yeah we'll see, I might be getting transferred here in the next week.' And she said 'Aww well we hate to see you go, but we will miss you!' And it was just a nice little short conversation with her! She's great and everyone else is great as well! So that's what I love about this current area! I also love the untapped potential that's here. There's so many great things that could happen and will happen here if the right missionaries are here. But if they put the wrong ones here all the work we have done will go to waste.. So I would hate for that to happen... I think the biggest change is how I view people and being able to see and learn more about the church. Seeing why people get offended and don't come back and why people don't come has forever changed how I will view advice Bishops give me or what people say to me. My favorite thing about serving my mission thus far is probably just the experience and how much fun they are! Yes it is lots of work but it pays off. I thought a mission was going to be lamer than a rock sitting in an Arizona rock garden. But they are way more fun than you think! And it teaches you so much about serving others. Nothing I'm doing benefits me, except for the experience and lessons I learn, but otherwise it's all for the benefit of others. No money, no extra blessings, not extra favors of Heavenly Father, not being exalted, nothing like that. Your helping others reach for the Celestial Kingdom and helping them become better people. So you learn lots. haha
So for fun things that happened this week, now that we got all the spiritual stuff taken care of. This week I got to work on Brother Webber's race car! We put on new calipers and new lines. I'll get another video of us starting it up and running it. He still needs a few more things! The carb started leaking on it last time we started it and ran it. And we're trying to sort out the line lock. We also need to make a bracket for the line lock switch since you can't reach it when in the harness. Kinda like taking my car through a drive through.. doesn't work.. I promise! haha You can't reach the lady trying to hand you your food! haha Then on Saturday we cooked a pig on a giant pig cooker for ward conference! It was awesome! We got to just pick at the pig while it was on the cooker. We would just reach and grab some rib meat, butt meat, anything! haha It was so good! The process of making Carolina BBQ is quite the process! And I video taped all of it so you can watch it! haha Your welcome! So that was cool! But, that was our week! Hope all is week back home! I miss you guys!

Love,
Elder Johnsen

Enjoying some Carolina BBQ.

The Linger Longer dinner.  Looks pretty good!

Doing some service with the Thomas', I think.

 

Wish we had tree's like this!