25 Jan - Galveston

Steve sent a quick message that he is being transferred to a new area. It is all Spanish speaking and that is all that he knows. We will update his address, location and post his next letter one he gets in place and sends us some more info. Stay tuned!

25 Jan - Galveston

Hey everyone-

This week has been Crazy. And after this crazy week, I am actually kind of relieved that I am getting transferred to a new area. I found out that I am going to be serving in one of the total Spanish areas so I am really excited to start to really learn Spanish. I don't know where exactly but I will find out on Wednesday.

This week was definitely crazy, but also a big time for my companion and I to grow. This week will be known as Anti Week. We have been doing our 10 oyms and everything was great, the people were very nice until Sunday. Sunday after church, I get a call from a recent convert's parent telling me that their kids are not going to be going to church anymore because of the weekly young men and young women activities. I had to quickly find out what the real problem was and fix it. So, after that I was very flustered, but the problem was solved and the kids can still come to church.

After that, we got on our bikes and started out 13 mile bike ride home. The first guy I talked to told me that I don't know who Jesus Christ is, and that he hopes that I could one day know who Jesus is like he does. Then for the next few people we got some rejections and they weren't the normal "no thank you" or "I am busy maybe another day," they were rude ones. So, we decided to try a new spot and we talk to some Hispanic guys who say they don't believe in the Book of Mormon, they believe in Prophets, and so we got to explain how we have a Prophet of God that leads and Guides our church here on the earth, and we got a chance to explain to him how that happened. Then after that we talked to the nicest old lady and she was very sweet and she told us that she was glad that we did this together because its very dangerous out there and everything. But then the big one came and there was a lady who threw all of her anti-mormon stuff at us trying to prove out religion was wrong and all we did was ask if she wanted a free movie about Jesus Christ. My companion told me that she was the most Anti person he had ever met on his mission. After that, we decided to find a calm place in a park where there was no one and read out of the Bible and The Book of Mormon and we felt a lot better.

I am grateful for the scriptures and for the opportunity that we have to read them and feel the comfort and the love from our heavenly father. I am also grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ because it truly does bless families. I can see how much it has blessed my family. I am grateful for my parents and the love and patience that they have had in my life especially when I was an obnoxious and crazy high-schooler. I am also grateful for all my sisters and their example of being obedient to the commandments and being good parents to their kids. I am also grateful for all of my brothers in law for the example they are to me in being good husbands and fathers and teaching their families the Gospel and doing all they can to follow it. Thanks y'all :)

Well, I got to get going. I'll let y'all know what my new address is next Monday!
-Elder Johnson

Jan 19 - Galveston

Hey family and friends!

Man this week has been going by fast and slow at the same time! Once again nothing is really too new. I loved the letters and the packages that I have gotten. So, I have to throw out a special shout out to my friends at BYU that sent the package! Thanks Heather, Winnie, Christine, Kelsey, and Austin. Y'all are the best!

This week we got a baptismal date and she is going to be baptized in 2 weeks! She is really excited and hopefully I won't get transfered on Wednesday and be able to go to her baptism! Things are really good here, I am really enjoying the bike and I don't really get that tired anymore. We even ride our bikes home from church now and its about a 13 mile ride, and on the way to talk to as many people as we can see.

Elder Christiansen is really good at Spanish so we have been speaking it a lot more with each other and that is helping my Spanish get better. It is fun to speak it with each other when we ride around because its almost like a secret language and people usually can't understand what we are saying to each other.

This week has been really good though. I really have been learning a lot but its kind of hard to explain. I can just feel it. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. I know that he has a special plan for each and everyone one of us. That plan is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and I am so glad that I have had the chance to teach it to the people here. God loves us so much that he has even given us the chance to talk to him whenever we need to through prayer. I love that part of the day, when I get to pray to our Heavenly Father and thank him for all the blessings that he has given me and for all the things he ahs done to help me in my life.

Y'all are the best and I have to go, and I love y'all a lot!

-Elder Johnson

Jan 11 - Galveston

Hey y'all!

This week has been a pretty good week. We did the impossible. Yes it is about OYMing again. But we had been slacking on it for the past week because of the sickness of my companion and laziness from both of us and we had an average of one and the president was like what happened Elder Johnson? How come you and Elder Christiansen were low on OYM's? So, we had to get 10 average for the week and we only had 10 as of Thursday. So, Friday, Sat. and Sunday we got 12, 22, and 26. It was crazy! That's all that I can really remember happening this week. It was all a blur to tell you the truth. But this week we will get 10 again and try to get 20 sitdowns.

Yea, well I can't really think of anything else to say. The week was good, my companion is awesome and I still get fed a lot of food. So, it's kind of hard to think of stuff, I guess I have to start planning what I'm going to email about. Yay one more thing to plan! haha C YA

-Elder Johnson

5 Jan - Galveston

Dear Family and friends!

Happy 2010! Wooooo! Hahahaha, this week was pretty funny and a lot of crazyness happened on New Years Eve. We went to a family's home in the branch and they had smoke bombs and these crazy sparklers that didn’t sparkle, but flamed and stuff. Well, anyway, we were lighting these on the porch and it was a lot of fun and they had a ton of them, so I decided to take a box of them and light them. And Boom! Fireball on a stick in my hand! And guess what happened? Yup, I caught their Christmas wreath on fire hahaha. It was pretty funny and the fire wasn’t that big; we were able to blow it out before it got too big so it still looks nice and everything. And no Mom, I didn’t get in trouble we all just laughed really hard that’s all. So then we went to bed at 10:30 and that was good and at around 12:00AM we were woken up by the boats in the gulf because they were blasting their fog horns and it was 2010!

We also had a cool story about how we got a new investigator. Well, part of our area in Galveston is across the ferry on Bolivar Peninsula and we decided to go check it out. Apparently no other Elders have really been over there since the hurricane because most of the homes there were destroyed, but 5 members live over there and they are all inactive. So, we wanted to go see if we could visit some of them. We wrote down the addresses, ate lunch at the local subway, and rode 2 miles to the ferry. We were the last people on the ferry and we rode over not knowing what to expect because all we had were these addresses and no map so we knew that it was going to be an exciting adventure. As we were getting off one of the ferry workers said, "Good luck Elder Johnson, and be safe."

So we got off the ferry and there was one road that went for a couple of miles, it was long and straight and narrow so we rode the shoulder of it. We came up to an old World War 2 fort/bunker where they had big guns and everything it was cool and we looked around it. We stayed for about 15 minutes and then went back to the road. We kept riding and we came to a fork in the road and we didn’t know which way to go, left or straight. So we went where all the cars were going and that was straight. We kept riding and riding and riding for about 8 miles and all we could see was a few abandoned houses and stuff, even an old elementary school. We kept riding and I said, "Elder Christiansen, I don’t know if we should keep going." And he said, "We will just ride for 20 more minutes, and if we don’t see anything we will go."

So we stumbled into a town and found the street we were looking for! And we visited a member lady and her non-member husband and they came to church on Sunday (sorry I can’t go into more detail, I’m running out of time), but anyway, they said we rode for about 10 miles out there and that we can call them next time and they will pick us up from the ferry, so it was great and they are awesome.

But I have to go y’all are awesome!!!

Elder Johnson

Dec 29 - Galveston

Hey family and friends!

Thank you so much for the wonderful packages and cards! You really helped me have a extra special Christmas away from home! Christmas on the mission was actually very neat. I really am starting to feel of the true spirit of Christmas. I got to have a chance to reflect on the greatest Christmas gift of all, and the was from our Heavenly Father. He sent his son Jesus Christ to the earth, to live and walk with us and to be our greatest example. He Atoned for our sins and took upon him all our sins and sicknesses and pains and afflictions of every kind. My favorite verse about the Atonement is in The Book of Mormon in Alma 7:11-13. I am grateful for Christ and how he loved me and all of you so much that he did this great act of love for us so we can have the chance to live with him and our Heavenly Father again one day.

I love all of you so much and thanks for all that you all do! I only have a few minutes left so sorry if this is short. The college where we usually email is closed until Jan 11 and this library only lets us email for 30 mins. But, I hope you all had a great Christmas and have a Happy New Year! Make some new year goals and try to achieve them!

-Elder Johnson

Here are some pictures from Elder Johnson's first Christmas in the mission field

Dec 21 - Galveston

Hello Family and friends!

This week was a kind of slow week because of transfers. We had to say a lot of goodbyes and a lot of hellos. Elder Roberts moved to the inner Houston area, so he is now down in the city. My new companion's name is Elder Christiansen and he is from Blanding UT. He has 2 transfers left in his mission. He likes to play the guitar and the cool thing with him is that he was my zone leader but now he is my companion too, so I am learning a lot from him everyday. We have gone on a lot of exchanges with each other before, so for the past couple of days it has felt like one big exchange. I went and introduced him to a couple of the members and our investigators and half of them have met him before so it was pretty funny. They were all anticipating a new face and then they saw him and were like oh hey. I think I have met you before. We have been riding our bikes hard this week and it's pretty funny because my new companion has been in a car for a long time, so we come home and lays down because he is really tired. I hope I stay on a bike so I can stay in shape.

We really want to work with OYMing (opening your mouth, talking to people) so we thought of a plan. At every district meeting we would total up the total OYM's for the companionship and whomever had the most OYMs would get a trophy. Our trophy is a stuffed animal that we found in the closet (a camel), and he is called Olly the OYMing camel and he is pretty cool. So, if you were to win the trophy, you would get to add something to Olly. This week we won, so we gave him a neck tie. I got the idea to add something to him from Boy Scouts back in the day, because I remember at Boy Scout camp if we were the cleanest, we got a big stick or some sort of trophy and our troop would get to add something to it. So, we are doing that with Olly.

The OYMing helps a lot because we have a lot of new potential investigators and this week is going to be an awesome week. We want to extend 3 baptismal dates to people and try to OYM 10 people each every day. So, that's 20 people a day, every day. So, by the end of the week that would be 140 different people. Pretty wild huh!

We had a cool missionary fireside this week and Elder Roberts was in charge of it so when he got transfered it all fell into my hands. Not only that, but our ward mission leader went out of town so it really was all in my hands. A member in League City named Chad Neth came down, and he is a professional singer. He has a couple of songs on the EFY CD's and has done some songs with Michael Mclean. Anyways, he came down to do a musical fireside. It was really good and I had fun making the final preparations! He is a really cool guy and he sings a cool missionary song on the 2006 EFY CD. I had a lot of fun learning how to plan a fireside and I have an extra special appreciation for all the people that planned the firesides growing up, because I realize now how much work it takes! So thanks!

I think one of the things that a lot of people miss while on their missions is ESPN and the big games! We went to a resteraunt on friday for a district lunch and all of us were glued to the TV to get the latest new on the sporting world. It looks like the Lakers are still doing well, so that's good!

I want to say thanks to all the ward members and all my friends and family for writing me all these letters! I am kind of getting behind with writing letters because I have been getting so many, so I will get them out as soon as possible! But I really love hearing how everyone is doing!!

Thanks so much! See y'all soon!

Elder Johnson