July 25, 2016

This week was really good! I really had a lot of fun and was able to learn a lot too! But this week, we didn't have anyone at church. Our one investigator, Mr. Linwood -who has the pet chicken, was supposed to come but he called and told us he couldn't make it a few hours before church, which was sad but next week we will get him there. He is really the only one that looks promising right now. I know Tyler came to church, but he doesn't seem committed at all. He is always asleep whenever we go over and his wife won’t wake him up. So it’s very annoying and we found out they’re trying to move to Texas, so that kind of stinks as well. But we are still trying to work on it and see what happens. We will see what happens next week! Otherwise we didn't find anyone new this week.

We did go on exchanges with the zone leaders, which was pretty fun! It was fun to be with Elder Nipko, who was with me down in North Carolina. We also had interviews this week and they went awesome!!!!!!!!!!! I was actually looking forward to them for the first time! This new President is amazing! He is such a great man and is so inspired! We had a great interview and a good conversation! He loved what dad said in his last email to me saying "we expect a strong finish" and President was like ‘Thank you Brother Johnsen! You are my new favorite father of a missionary in this mission.’ He went on to say that this is now my last little bit, so I need to kick it into high gear and work even harder! We also talked about school and what will happen there and we are looking at releasing me on the 3rd or the 10^th of January, most likely the 3rd though so I can be ready for school on the 14th. He also talked about next transfer and what will happen with me. So I know what is probably going to happen next transfer! But I’m not going to tell you until I get the transfer call! :) haha All I know is I’m pretty excited!

President Weed also came to our ward for church! It was incredible! He was only given 5 minutes for some closing remarks and he blew everyone out of the water. The topic was temples and he got up and said there has been a girl in the front row in a pink blouse listening so very intently, and she has heard all about... and he talked about what was said by others and then this is where it gets crazy. He then said ‘but today we are really here because on this day in 1846, President Brigham Young took his cane and jammed it in the ground and said “Here we will build a temple of our God”.’ When he talked about putting his cane in the ground he pounded the podium with his fist! It was crazy. Then he went on to say ‘because of this, we have the beautiful Salt Lake Temple right where he put his cane.’ and he continued on. The crazy part about this whole thing is that he didn't take any scriptures up with him, no reading from his phone, he made eye contact with every member and spoke softly and it was just powerful. By far amazing! I love him! I’m excited for the last part of my mission! I’m just going to make it amazing!

My favorite thing so far for this area has got to be the members. They are by far amazing! They do so much for the missionary's, and they are actually willing to come out with us which is nice. This area has a lot of potential, once we get member referrals, so that will be my focus once I take over the area. So there’s lots of good but probably a lot of negatives as well.. haha The area is soooo ghetto... haha But we look past that. :)

Well, that was pretty much our week! I hope you guys have a great week as well! :) I love ya!

Elder Johnsen

July 18, 2016

This week we had some crazy stuff happen. But, first and foremost, we had an investigator at sacrament meeting! Tyler, the husband of Payton -the one that bishop talked to- came to church with his family! It was awesome! They jetted pretty quick out of church though, but at least they came! haha We were supposed to have a lesson with them this past week, but we ended up just talking to Payton out front because Tyler was asleep. Hopefully we can try to meet with them again here soon. We dropped a bunch of people this week as well as picked up a few people. So we’re kinda just moving through people, seeing who is ready and who isn't. Hopefully we can start to find those who are ready.

We got a member referral for the first time in this area and we are excited to be able to teach her next week! So hopefully we can see someone progress! It will be so nice! haha We teach so many people that we only teach just once or twice, and then they disappear. haha But, I guess that’s about it, so it’s now time for funny stories, because I love funny things and I love telling stories, so a scary one first. Yesterday, while we were biking through Cradock, a lady stopped us and told us not to come in the neighborhood again. We were like ok? and she said there is a new gang forming in the neighborhood and they have so far robbed 3 people at gun point, one of which they had a 12 gauge held to a kids head in the middle of the day in front of 20+ people. He was lured in by playing the new Pokemon game that lets you chase Pokemon and capture them. ? Not sure, but someone hacked it and led the kid to him. So we have decided not to go near that place unless we absolutely have to. So there ya go mom, don’t be scared, I hope to be transferred haha. So that was scary for me. It’s the first time I have ever actually been scared on my mission. haha

So now for something pretty funny! haha We have this guy we met a few days ago named Ron. He is like that friend that everyone loves. He makes everyone happy and is just a fun guy to be around. He's 28 and lives like he is making $300,000+ a year, by that I mean he has his own house a few doors down, Land Rover in the garage and a nice Benz right next to it and a bunch of cool toys haha. Well, we called him and asked if we could come over at 8:30, and he was like ‘ummm… well I’m busy, so maybe not’. So we were like ‘what about for only 5 minutes?’ He said ‘well, I’m babysitting.’ So, after talking to him for a bit we finally convinced him to let us come over. We get over there and it’s pitch black and looks like no one is home. We knock twice, no one comes. We’re about to call him and then the door opens, and we’re like ‘Hey Ron!’ and he's like ‘wazzz upppp! Y'all wanna come in?’ and we said ‘sure!’ As soon as we step in we hear party music going on upstairs. Elder Brown turns to me and gives this look of like awh crap, and I just start laughing. So we go inside and he says ‘let’s go upstairs’, so we follow him up to this house party that he has going on! haha There’s music, alcohol, and some girls. He says ‘we’ll go out onto the back deck.’ We go and it was just a mad house! haha It was crazy! haha I was laughing so hard and thought it was so funny! Two missionary's at a party? You don’t hear about that very often! haha

Lastly, while we were riding around a giant cummins dually rolled past us and I yelled and gave him a thumbs up. Later in the night we were in a neighborhood and around the corner turns this huge dually! I have my gopro, so I immediately get excited and stop him when he gets up to us. We start talking and shooting the breeze and then I whip out my gopro and say ‘does she roll?’ and he just gets this big grin on his face and says ‘ohhh yeah!’ haha He says ‘hey y'all watch this.’ So I start recording and he spools that thing up and rolls some nasty coal and then starts doing a burnout! Now this is a dually that has wheel adapters to allow him to run semi wheels and tires on it, and he's lighting them up like its nothing! It was insane! I was having a good ole time! Then he takes off and Elder Brown kinda had a look of like ‘really?’ that was kind of undignified haha I thought it was funny and got a kick out of it! I will always remember the grin on his face! :)

But that was our week! I hope you guys have a good week! I love you all! :) 

Elder Johnsen

Just a few fun pictures: 

July 11, 2016

Well this week has been interesting! I’m not being transferred which is great! I love the ward here! They are so great to us and I love them! But, to start things off, George, one of our less actives we have been working with, has gone crazy. He recently got cancer and he won’t come to church and is very rude to us in lessons. He is looking for a church to pay all of his bills because he is being lazy right now. He says he is too tired to ride his bike to work. If I were in his position I would be riding my bike to work, and have a newspaper route so I could pay my rent and all the co pays I would have for all the doctor visits. It’s pretty annoying too, because he feels like everyone in the ward should just give him money and help him out. But that’s not the way the church works. The church helps those who are going to help themselves. So we’re not sure what’s going to happen with him.

But, something really cool that happened was, we had an appointment with a part member family that forgot about it so we went and visited a new move-in family a few doors over, and he was from 2 miles from where we live in Gilbert... Super weird.. He lives in white fence farms and we talked about Gilbert for a good amount of time. It was sooo funny! He hasn't been to church in a long time because of joining the military. But his wife is not a member and was asking really good questions about the church! So we are excited to secretly try and get her to investigate the church! haha Then after that, we went back over to where the original appointment was and knocked on their door, and they let us in! Now her husband, who is not a member, is investigating the church! It was super cool! The family was the family that Bishop met with a few weeks back, so we were finally able to meet with him. They didn't show up at church, but hopefully next week they will come!

Otherwise, that's been the highlights of the week! haha Just trying to get through the next 4 weeks as fast as possible! Then we can see what happens! I will only have 5 months left when that day comes! :) A funny story for you guys, this might scare mom. One day, at 8:30ish pm, we were in a super ghetto neighborhood called Cradock. We were just finishing up talking to someone when we heard 9 gun shots, and then 7 gun shots in retaliation, and then 6 shots back and then 7 more and then pure silence... We were freaking out. It was only a few streets away, from what it felt like. We’re freaking out and so we are like, alright let’s get home. So we start heading home and we pass this street with about 12-15 young adults standing in a line walking down the street like a gang. We saw that and went oh flip, and started biking faster. Then we passed the next street which was filled with people, the whole street was packed, and they were all running around freaking out! So we were like whoa! This can’t be happening! So we got out of there as soon as possible! haha So that was cool!

I hope you guys have something cool happen! Enjoy! 

Love,

Elder Johnsen

July 4, 2016

This week has been pretty good. We taught a few lessons. but a real big bummer is that our investigator, George, found out he has cancer this week, and it's really bad. Like, the doctor told him to get his will together. So we are wondering what to do next with him... I have never been in this position before, so I'm not sure what to do or to even teach, So lots of prayers has been happening. Hopefully everything will work out, we are still waiting on some details from George as well. 

We found 3 new investigators but none of them are progressing. It's pretty sad when you work so hard only to teach one or two lessons before you never see them again. This is why member referrals and trust is key. But, with my companion we will never see any of those. So we are working hard in the ghetto teaching a bunch with no real end accomplishment. I know I sound like I'm upset or mad about it, or that I'm just complaining, but it really is frustrating. I'm not trying to say I want baptisms, but it would be nice to have investigators at church and to be able to see them and have them actually experience the church. But as Brother Rose from New Bern said it, "everyone wants to go to heaven, but people don't want to work for it." That sums up the ghetto very nicely. 

We did meet the new mission president! He is awesome! He is going to do amazing things here in Virginia! I'm excited to see what all he does! he and his wife are super funny and they are just full of energy to be here and to be part of this mission! so I'm super excited for them. I'm just disappointed they will only be here for 6 months of my mission, but its alright! We have been to Dee Dee's, but the pork they got was bad so they took it back. So I think on Saturday she will be having us over again! It's good to hear you had the missionaries over the other day. We got feed only twice last week. It's really bad in this ward. I'm trying to help and get people to sign up but it's not working. 

But that's pretty much it. I'm sorry these are so short and they're mainly a bunch of complaining... but there's really not that much going on here. We did get rained on super hard the other day! It was crazy I recorded the whole ride home, even though my companion was mad at me for it. I had too, I mean those are memories that will never happen and your better off getting it on video so there's proof of it! If there's no video, it didn't happen! so I will figure out a way for you guys to be able to see that at some point. 

I love you guys and I miss you guys a lot! 

Love,

Elder Johnsen