19 July—Manvel, Texas

Hello everyone!

Well things here are going. We have been working hard and working some more. I guess I just hit my hump mark. Well, at least I will in 3 days (July 22). I feel like I am, and forever will be a missionary. I like being a missionary, but I am stuck right in the middle. I have been out for a while, and I still have a while to go. I don't hate the feeling, but I don't love it either. I think it is understandable haha.

My new companion is Elder Henrie. He grew up in Colorado; he then lived in Idaho for 2 years and moved to Utah to go to Utah State for 2 years. If I could sum him up in comparison to some other person I have known before it would be Zach Wetzel. He likes to run, and likes to ride his bike for fun. He likes to read, and is tall and has blond hair. He is pretty funny.

I guess a funny thing that happened to us was last night. He was saying a prayer and at the end of the prayer he said en el nombre de tu hijo amado (In the name of thy beloved son)... escuchalo (Hear him) ....... amen. I started busting up laughing and it was a great memory, and one I will remember forever. The reason why it was so funny is because in the 1st vision it goes este es mi hijo amado escuchalo (This is my beloved son, hear him), and so I started busting up laughing.

He actually speaks Spanish well for a greenie and it's pretty awesome. The only thing that is real hard is he can't understand Spanish very well yet. But he does get about 33 percent of what people say. So, go greenie!

My new role as district leader is pretty tough. I don't know how much I like it or dislike it right now. We just watched some new training movies this week and its called the district 2 and it is about some missionaries in the San Diego mission, and man that made me want to go home! Man, the beach was there they had the San Diego temple. It was just great! The weirdest part of the whole district thing is that there are my companionship and one other companionship in my district. There is a grand total of 4 missionaries woohoo! Hahah smallest district I have been in on my mission.

I have been surviving with the Spanish. On Sunday, I had another funny thing happen. I was sitting next to a member and he started talking to me and asked me something and I didn't get exactly everything he was saying and he is like come on Elder let's go. Your a Mexican. You should be speaking this language easy; it's in your blood. I was like what are you talking about? Then he said, you have the face of a Mexican, and then he holds out his arm and I was almost as tan as he was. He is like, don't lie to me. I know your mom is Mexican. I said my mom is white hermano. Then he tells me, so is mine; my mom is whiter than you are, and she is from Mexico. Then he said maybe your just adopted and we started laughing. I said, I think you could be right, I mean I can already grow the mustache. It was a funny time at church.

Another cool thing that happened this week. We were driving home and my companion was driving and we had to slow down, because the street has a bunch of speed bumps and there was a dog in the road and suddenly this Mexican lady from Monterey waved us down, and asked us if we were missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and we said we were. Suddenly, she got a little teary eyed and told us her name was hermana Cruz and she had been here in America for 12 days and had been looking for the church and had praying for the Elders or members to come by and she expressed how she wanted to go to church this week and everything. It was really great. She got to church on Sunday and it was awesome!

This Sunday, we should have a baptism! Please pray for Maria Cruz that everything will go smoothly this week. We can use all the help we can get. I love you all and thank you for the letters. They were great.

-Elder Johnson

12 July—Manvel

Hello everyone!

This week has been a little slow, last week we had 6 investigators at church and this week we had 0, and I believe it was because of the world cup. There was like no one even at the branch on Sunday...

Anyway, we got transfer calls last night, and if you have been praying for me, I ask you to pray a little harder now because I can use all the help I can get. I got a call from President Saylin last night, and he told me that he wants me to do two new things this next transfer. First thing was he said he will be dividing our district up and splitting it up into two districts and that he wants me to be the district leader in the new Manvel district. He said it is a big responsibility. The second thing that he told me was that he had been praying earnestly to find out who the new missionaries trainers should be, and he strongly feels that I need to train and give the new missionary a good experience and teach him the principles of following the standards of excellence and being 100 percent obedient. So, I have a lot on my plate this next transfer with training and being a district leader.

This week has been a good week, actually a tough week. I think Satan was in my head a bunch with Spanish because I kept on getting these negative thoughts about my Spanish and I was very unconfident about my Spanish this week. My companion said I still spoke it well, and he didn't know why I was worried about it all. However, on Sunday we were driving in the car and it was one of those open random and read the scriptures things and I opened to Ether 12 and just starting reading. I read verses 24 through 29 and it talks about Moroni's weakness in his writing and how he felt that the people would mock the words he wrote, and God tells him that fools will mock but the humble in heart would listen to what he had to say, and that as long as he has faith in Jesus Christ; he will be able to overcome any challenge, and as he humbled himself his weakness will become a strength. It made me feel a lot better because sometimes its tough to speak or people "mock you," but I know that as I continue to put my faith in Christ he will help me. I know my Spanish is fine; I can communicate with the people. I just need to step it up to the next level, especially because I will be training a missionary and I need to give him a good experience.

The past week, I have been studying about the spirit. I don't remember if I talked about this last Monday. But, it is a very important topic, and I feel like I should talk about it. I had always known the the Holy Ghost was a comforter and testifier of truth, and a constant companion if we are living worthy, but I don't think I realized the importance of really having the spirit as your constant companion. It is very important, he will teach us all things that we need to know and guide us in all aspects of our lives. I guess the new question is, how can we receive the Holy Ghost, or what can we do to always have the spirit to be with us?

I guess first we can look to the sacrament. In the prayer, it talks about our covenants; that we are making when we take the sacrament. First, it is to take upon the name of thy son Jesus Christ. What do you think that means? 2nd, to always remember him. How can we always remember the Savior? And third, to keep his commandment. a.k.a. obedience. Are we obedient to the unenforceable? Are we obedient to the things that only you and God will know about. For example are our thoughts clean, do we tell the truth, or do we judge others? Our quest to have the spirit, I feel, is always moving we are never at a stand still we are either growing closer to the spirit or we are drifting away from the spirit.

With that idea in mind, what are some things that we can do to keep the spirit with us? To keep our change of heart? And how can we give ourselves a spiritual check up?

Well, I think the first things are the simple things. Like reading your scriptures, praying every morning and night and going to church. But ask yourself these question. When I study am I reading or am I spiritually feasting? When I pray, is it me me me or am I giving thanks for the things I have and praying for others? When I go to church, am I going because I have to or am I going to renew my baptismal covenants though the sacrament? And am I fulfilling my calling and learning new things as I listen to the spirit?

One thing I like to do to give my self a spiritual checkup is to read Alma 5. Alma asks us a lot of good questions and when you read those questions, answer them in you head and change things if you need to. We can also go and think about the temple recommend questions and see how we are doing with those.

The more and more I am out here on my mission, the more and more I realize that this life isn't a game, but that this life really is the time that we have to prepare to meet God and to do the things that we need to do to make sure when we are at the judgment bar we won't have regrets. It is important, I think, to realize that just because we have been baptized or just because we went to the temple that it doesn't mean that we are going to be saved. We need to constantly give ourselves these check ups and constantly repent. Continual repentance doesn't just mean repent of the things we are doing wrong, but it also could mean doing the things that we are doing better. Trying our best to stretch ourselves. It is also important while we are doing all these things to make sure we have our family time. Spend time with the family and make your family your best friends.

Anyway I will keep working hard as long as you all keep praying hard :) and I love you and I will talk to you in another week.

Love,

Elder Johnson

5 July—Manvel

Hello Family and Friends,

This week was a hard week because of a lot of rain from Hurricane Alex. The end results for the week were great! We had 6 investigators come to church! Do you know what the secret was? To have member lessons. We had 5 this week and it helped so much. I think sometimes our investigators think that we are scripture robots and I think that sometimes they think that we can't relate to them at all. When we bring a member, I let the member go for it and say what they want to say and man it is great suddenly you see the investigator and the member relate and become friends and then the member invites the investigator to church and they come; it is wonderful! Yay for members!

We had 2 families and a 75 year-old lady come to church today. Man this lady is great! She came to church with some members and she came in the chapel with her cane and looked super happy to be here. Testimony meeting was awesome!

The reason why it was awesome was..........Youth bearing their testimonies! Yes, you the youth bring a special spirit to the testimony meetings. One young boy got up there and he said "I had a test in school and was scared, I asked my dad for a blessing and I think I did good on the test." That was awesome! to me this boy shared a great testimony of the priesthood. I was studying for my test and I was really scared and nervous. I know my dad has the priesthood power of God so I put my faith in God and asked him for a blessing. I know the Priesthood power that my dad holds is real because I did well on my test.

Later, this boy's older sister came up and shared her testimony about serving others and she is 13 and was up there just crying because she felt the spirit so strongly through serving others. Then one other 9 year-old girl went up there and shared how she loves Jesus and her family and she knows that we will live with them again one day. These simple testimonies of truth are so strong! So I challenge any youth who reads this to go and share his or her testimony next testimony meeting.

We have transfers again next Monday. I don't think I will be leaving but you never know. We will see. My companion probably will be transferred because he has been here for 6 months already, so we will see what happens. Either way it will be great; we have been working hard out here and it's been great. This place has a ton of potential and I am excited to keep on trying my best to share this special message that Jesus Christ Church is back on the earth again.

Thank you for your prayers.

-Elder Johnson