27 June—Brazos

Hey Family!

This week we are emailing Monday instead of Tuesday, because we have a busy week ahead of us with the leadership meeting, and also a ZLC meeting this week.

But I wanted to tell you about the good week that Elder Garrido and I have had here in Rosenburg and Richmond. We have been patiently searching, talking, knocking doors, and asking people if we could share the important message of the restoration with them. One day, I think it was maybe on Tuesday, we were finding people to go and teach and we went to this street were it didn't really look like there was going to be much success because there were some nice looking homes around, but we decided to go down it anyway. At the very end of the street there was a little dirt road with some smaller homes and trailers that were not visible while we were at the entrance to the street. We knocked on the door at the end of the little dirt road and a very nice lady answered. We began to talk with her, and she told us she was from El Salvador, and back when she was living there she had a friend who was a member of the church. She went on telling us about her friend and how he was such a good man, and told us she would be happy for us to come and teach her and her family later that week.

We went over on Saturday and had a very awesome lesson with them. We knocked on the door and the husband answered it, and said pasale which means come in, so we did and we began to talk with them. The husband immediately began to talk about religion these days, and how there were so many issues with it and everything. He definitely started of the lesson with the ball. He had control with where he wanted to go. He would ask us a lot of questions and we were able to answer them through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and when we gave answers he would say things like exacto! Prefecto ustedes saben and things like that. Then we were able to teach this family the restoration, and we felt inspired to watch the 20 minute restoration DVD because we felt it would be better for the family because that way the husband would have to listen and learn instead of talk and talk and talk.

By the end of the movie there was a great spirit, and everyone was content and happy, we were able to testify of the truth of the restoration. Their 3-year old girl liked the movie, which made the dad really happy. The family accepted dates for July 30th. They said they would come to church this week to see how it is and to see if they like it. We are really excited about this family.

Other than that we are excited to keep working the with ward members and our investigators. This past week I had the chance to interview a man for baptism in a different ward and at the end of the lesson he asked me what I was doing on Saturday and I said, well more missionary work, and he invited me to come to his baptism and baptize him. I was shocked and I got permission to do it, so I will be baptizing him today, because his baptism was moved to today so that's exciting!

Well I love you all a lot and I hope you all have a good week!

-Elder Johnson

21 June—Brazos

Hey Family!

Things here in Rosenberg are going great! We have been busy-bees as we have started to take over the sisters' area! All-and-all, things have been the same, but the thing that we are the most happy about is the fact that we obtained seven member referrals this week! We are really happy about it. Five of the referrals are from a young man who had just finished serving a six week mini-mission! We are teaching his cousin and the cousin's boyfriend, and his two sisters and their boyfriends. It was amazing to see the change in this young man. He went from waking up at 12:00 in the afternoon and playing video games all day to having the desire to read the whole bible this year, and coming out with us to teach his family! It is awesome!

We also got one referral from our recent convert, Richard. He introduced us to his mom and we are going to start teaching her. We hope to see her come to church sometime with her son. It would be a great experience. We also got one from an older lady in the branch, and we didn't even ask for it, but she just gave it to us and said that she had given it to missionaries before but they never went to see her. So we went by but no one was home so we are going to try again.

Well, it sounds like everything went well this past week, and I just want to say happy Fathers' Day to Dad and all the brothers-in-law: Jeremy, Greg, and Tyler. You all are cool guys and thanks for being good husbands to my sisters. And thanks Dad for the good example you are for me, and I hope you enjoy the letter.

Well that's about it for the week. Nothing crazy exciting happened, but we are super excited for this next week so we will see if I will be able to provide some cool stuff for you all!

-Elder Johnson

14 June—Rosenberg

Hey Family!

This week I am pleased to announce that I will be staying in Rosenberg with Elder Garrido for the next six weeks. The cool/crazy/exciting/intense thing is that the sisters' missionary area for the branch was closed down this transfer; so we have doubled the size of our area, moved to a new apartment in Richmond,(sorry I don't know the address yet), and now we get to work with all the members in the branch! We are very excited about this, because we can really focus on getting member referrals and building up our relationships with them.

We also had our investigator fireside this last Sunday, and it went really well. I think it was the first time that the Houston West Zone was able to get every companionship to come to the fireside. We had a total of ten people there and it was just a very spiritual meeting. It was super cool.

As far as transfers go, only two missionaries from the zone were transferred, and we are excited because we will be able to grow more in unity and see good things happen in the areas. But it is the calm before the storm, because there is a huge group coming and a huge group leaving next month, so many missionaries are going to train and that means many people will be getting transferred.

I forgot my camera again, but I hope to bring it next week so I can show you the picture of Richard getting baptized. And what my companion Elder Garrido looks like.

Good news for the week is that we had our dear friend Abel come to church! He is a less-active member who is missing both of his legs. He came to church, and it was the first time that he has been in about three months, so we are very excited about it. It is great to see the branch go serve and help him.

I guess this one goes to the friends, just to let you know I have really wanted to stay completely focused on the work the last few weeks of my mission so that is why I haven't responded to a lot of the letters. We will catch up soon! I hope you understand.

I am not really sure what to say to you this week besides the fact that everything in my life is going great, and I am still loving to study the scriptures. I hope everything goes well, and just so you know we email now on Tuesdays instead of Mondays.

I love you!

-Elder Johnson

7 June, 20011—Brazos, TX

Family!

Richard is now a member of the church! He is so awesome! His baptism was super cool, and it just showed the kind of man he is! We got to the baptism, and began to fill up the font and some brown rusty-looking water came out. It was dirty! There was some road work going on outside, and some how it affected the water in the fount. Anyway, while this was going on we were frantically thinking of other solutions to fix the problem, like going down to the Brazos river, or using someone's swimming pool. When Richard heard this he said, no I want to be baptized right here. He said President Puig, you're a holy man right? Then let's get this baptism started!

Then we started the baptism, and Richard was baptized. He was so happy afterwards, and it was a cool sight to see. His life has completely changed and it was nothing any of us did. The change all came from the spirit, and Richard's open heart. Sunday, he received the Holy Ghost and it is so cool to see the fire he has. All he wants to do know is share the gospel with his friends and his family. He swallowed a little bit of the water, and he got sick from it. We gave him a blessing, and he just about had tears in his eyes and he said that's some powerful stuff. The priesthood of God is back on the earth, and with this authority all of God's ordinances can be performed once again. So awesome.

Right now in the branch out efforts have now switched from our own efforts to involving more of the members. We knock and talk, and knock and talk, and have a hard time getting any where. The other day a young women from the branch invited her boyfriend over for dinner, and he accepted a baptismal date. The family is pumped. This guy's life is about to change for the better. The gospel is true.

We got in our first Bible bash the other day. It wasn't even intentional. A man looked like he was interested, we start teaching, and he tried to back us into a corner, which didn't work. He showed us his Bible, and in the back it has a section about how "Mormonism" is a cult. And all this other garbage. I think that is so lame! Who puts that in the back of a bible??? It wasn't just about our church, but about tons of other churches as well. I was grateful that I had the chance to realize that this was a testimony builder, not a destroyer because I know the church is true! There is nothing anyone can say that will prove the Book of Mormon false, or prove that Joseph Smith was not a Prophet of God.

The church is true! That is all I have to say today. We will see what happens with me next week. Transfer calls come Tuesday, and I will let you know what happens!

Love y'all

-Elder Johnson