27 Sept—Houston

Hello,

This week was a really busy. We went on an exchange and a missionary blitz with some missionaries that needed a push this week. Things are busy busy and I am sleepy sleepy. We did really good this month with our zone goals for baptism and confirmations. I am really tired and can't think, sorry.

This morning was cold like 65 degrees. We have a zone activity today. We are going to play some soccer, and run around; so that will be fun. My companion is going home in a week and that is really weird.

Umm... 4 investigators came to church and that was good. Well, that's all I can think of right now. It was just another good week serving in the field. Last sunday the Espitia family was baptized (the family I was teaching in Manvel), and that was super awesome news that I heard. It made me really happy; well bye!

-Elder Johnson

ps. Thank you and I love you

20 Sept—Houston

Hey Family,

This week was good. I am tired, and its P-day and I want to sleep, but that's a waste of time. My companion and I right now have been working out and trying to get big muscles again. He is near the end of the mission and wants to look good for when he goes home. It has been fun, we have been doing some perfect push-ups in the morning and been doing sit-ups and stuff like that. We even have a pull up bar. Yea, if I keep this up, in 10 months, I'll be in the best shape of my life.

Other than that it has just been busy. I got to confirm someone this week. That was cool. That was the first one that I had done in Spanish. I still have a lot to learn to be fluent fluent. I can talk to people, and keep a conversation going, but I would like to not have to think about what I am saying, and how to say it, if that makes any sense to you. Yea, other than that things are going well.

We had a special zone conference with President Saylin. He came and talked to us about how we can use the Book of Mormon more effectively as we teach and things like that. Something that was interesting was that he told us that if our investigators don't keep their reading commitment we should not teach the next lesson, but instead read out of the Book of Mormon with them. Well I need to get going I will see you later!

-Elder Johnson

13 Sept—Houston

Alrighty family!

So here are the updates! This week was really awesome, and I think I am going to spend most of my time talking about Sunday night. On Sunday night, we had three of our investigators get baptized. Our baptism was held in the chapel and there was another ward that was having two people get baptized, so we combined the baptisms into one meeting. There where so many people there! More than I have ever seen in any baptism on my mission! It was awesome!

During the first talk it started to rain and thunder, and guess what happened! The power went out! Hahaa it was crazy! Then the power came back on and the baptism kept on going. Anna was baptized by Elder Greenwood, I got to baptize Jaime, and Elder Scavo got to baptize Juan.

As zone leaders every transfer we have to plan an investigator fireside and call 2 recent converts to give a talk about their conversion story; how they found the gospel, and how it has helped them. We also find a member that has been a convert for a while to share how he has been blessed throughout his life. It is a lot of work. So, we got that done and had that meeting right after the baptism. Anna spoke and talked about how it helped her and her family grow closer together and how she has been blessed. It was awesome, and then a lady that Elder Cole and I found back in Houston 1 spoke about us and how she was baptized with her family it was super awesome, and I got to take a picture with them and everything it was great.

But the thing that I wanted to share today was that Anna and Jaime and Juan changed their family life. Their parents have been less active for like 12 years, and last Sunday they came to church. After the fireside, due to the parents seeing their daughter speak, the dad came up to us and called us his angles. It was awesome, and a very humbling experience. The Gospel really does bless families and through it all mankind may be saved. I am glad to be serving as a missionary for Gods church, and I may be busy, but it is definitely worth it.

As far as everything else, sorry for being a bad letter writer. I just have no more time any more to get them out. We have like 20 mins of nothing time on mondays. I hope all of you can understand. Well I love you all.

-Elder Johnson

7 Sept—Houston

Hello family!

This week has been crazy, and I have 12 minutes to write about it. So let's see how I do. I am serving in a area called Houston 8; the cross streets of my apartment are cooperate and beachnut. It is by one of my old areas in Houston 1. It is cool. There are a lot of apartments and people everywhere! The people here are really nice and it is a neat experience to see people really change their lives. Some of them really do have to give up their way of life. They have to stop a lot of bad habits that they are in and change through their faith in Jesus Christ.

Our zone consists of 11 companionships and they are hard workers everyone of them. I had the chance to go on exchanges with one missionary named Elder Collins and he is the man! We had a lot of fun working with each other and helping people learn about the Gospel. This new assignment has been really cool, and I am learning a lot from it. Like how to work with people, how to help people have the same goal, and how to have responsibility for important paper work.

It has been fun being with Elder Greenwood again. We had 4 baptisms in our last area and we will be having 3 or maybe even for this Sunday! It seems like we will be having a lot of rain this week, woohoo! hahaha maybe it will help this place cool done a bit.

Well I love you all and it was great to hear from you again. I don't know my address but Dad does. So, if you want it call him. I don't really know what else to say so I love you.

-Elder Johnson