Two Johnsons in the Mission Field

Hi everybody!  I hope and pray that you all had a good week.  First off, I am honored to be in the mission field alongside my main homie, ELDER JOHNSON!  Welcome to the Big Leagues!  I honestly am super hyped for this experience, I know it will be one of the most special experiences that I, as well as my family, will ever experience.  I am thankful for you and your example, Elder Johnson.

On another note, I want to wish a happy pioneer birthday to my little sister, Brynn!  You have had me thinkin' all day about how awesome trek was 4 years ago.  I'm sure you are feeling super happy that you were able to go on trek less than a month ago!  You are blessed!  Haha nah Brynney!  I hope you have a happy birthday!  I'm jealous that you get to watch fireworks tonight.  I want you to know that I love you and that you are so special to me.

Anyways, I had a lot of spiritual experiences this week.  I feel really thankful to be a representative of Jesus Christ this week.  I feel a great change in me that I could never explain.  I know the gospel is true.  So this week, we had a lesson with this dude named Eduardo Araujo.  he is a G.  He is from the Sierra and is living here alone for work.  We were able to have a lesson with him this week and it was one of the strongest moments that I have ever felt the spirit.  It strengthened my testimony so much of the restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ here on earth.  I know that we truly were instruments in the hands of the Lord at that time.  We invited him to be baptized for the 26 of August.  Pray for him.

Yesterday, the district presidency in Viru, did an activity that had a great impact on me that I want to share with you guys.  They had recent converts and less active members write them letters and then had someone from the congregation read the testimony of someone else.  It was honestly so powerful.  I could feel the power in every single testimony.  It made me think that all of us have our own conversion story that has power to have a great impact on other people.  I know that sharing our testimonies is a responsibility that all of us have as members of the church.  I invite all of you to do the same and write your testimonies on a sheet of paper and give it to someone to read.  I know it has power.  The spirit testifies of all truths.  He has power to change lives and He works through us.  I promise you all you will feel the presence of the spirit more as you go throughout your days.  God and Jesus Christ live.  I know it.  I am a witness and I see the truthfulness of them and this gospel daily.

I love you all and hope that you have a good week.  Let the spirit guide you!

Elder Johnson

Surprise!

Surprise everybody!  Literally, right after I told all of you that I would be emailing on Wednesday, I got the news that the temple date got changed to August 8th....so here I am!  I hope that you all had a good week.  I had a really good week this week.  To start everything out, we had a district leader meeting in Trujillo with President Rios on Tuesday.  I got to see my main homie, Elder Rokovitz.  It was really good.  It was a good time to receive revelation and guidance from the Lord to become a better missionary.

Elder Johnson and Elder Rokovitz

This week was full of a bunch of cool experiences.  On Wednesday night, we were walking down this road that we don't walk down too much.  We didn't have much going on, so we were just knocking doors basically and out of nowhere, this dude that was walking to one of the million crazy churches that are here, stopped us and called us over to go and talk to him.  We talked for a little and took out a return date and then on Saturday we went and visited him.  We talked to him about the restoration and told him that the church that Jesus Christ established is on the earth today.  I remember when we said that, he felt the spirit super strong.  As we had that lesson, it made me reflect on how blessed I am to have the gospel in my life.  I love the Gospel and I know that it's true.  We are really pumped to work with him and help hi to progress so that he can be baptized.

On Sunday, it was a pretty crazy day.  In the church, the four missionaries in our branch gave a training to the members about revelation and the importance of them in this work.  It was a really spiritual experience and I know that it will help us have success.  Then in the afternoon, we went out to proselyte and we found one of our references that we haven't been able to teach yet, inside her house with a body box.  She just gave birth to her daughter and she passed away.  It was one of the saddest things that I have ever seen.  They are a family who has nothing and they had to pay everything that they had to bury their baby girl. We were able to help them with some food and other things.  I know that now is a crucial time for them to accept the gospel.  God is great and I know that he will make big things happen for this family.

I love you guys!  Have a good week!

Elder Johnson

I'm Proud to be an American

What's up everybody?  Hope you all had a great week celebrating the independence of the greatest country on earth.  I definitely missed pounding real hamburgers, but I'm over it and had a pretty good week this week.

So to start out, next week I will be emailing on Wednesday because we're going to the Temple as a zone so just in case I'm not online to say bye to Kaden--I want to share a few thoughts with you before you head out.  First off, it is one of the hardest things to think I won't see my brother for almost 4 years.  It's a hard thing, but all I can say is that it is worth it!!  The mission is the greatest experience ever.  I know this work is the work of the Lord.  I love you man and know that I am praying for you every single day.  Give everything to the Lord!

As for my week, the only thing I can say is I'm so thankful that I got my toenails cut out finally!!  It was one of the most painful things ever when the doctor put the anesthesia in, but after that was over, I haven't felt anything since.  I wasn't able to leave for a couple of days just to be careful of infections.  I didn't get to leave until Friday but everything is all good and I'm ready to roll and go hard this week!

Ouch!!  Before surgery!

Elder Johnson is an AMAZING artist!  He drew this Plan of Salvation while he was "mobbing" in his room and unable to work last week!

 Other than that, nothing much went down this week.  Remember Felipe in your prayers.  The day is soon that he will be baptized.  I know the gospel is true!  Have a good week, I love you guys!

Cute kids Elder Johnson was making laugh

Elder Johnson

Uneros

Hello everybody!  I had a good/bad week, ha ha, to start out with the only good things this week, is that on Wednesday, I had the opportunity to go back to my old area in Trujillo and proselyte for a day there, which was an awesome experience.  I went with Elder Guerrero, who is the new missionary serving there and showed him all of the secret tunnels in Laureles!!  It was honestly pretty weird thought!  When I saw Hermana Neyra, she freaked out and was super happy to see me.  I love her, but other than that day, that was about the only good thing that went down this week.

Now for all of the bad news!  To start out, the reason why I was in Trujillo was because I had to go to the doctor to cut out two ingrown toenails--because I cut my nails like a 3 year old and now I can't do anything about it!  Uneros means ingrown toenails I got to the doctor to cut them out because they kill, after being pumped all day long and the doctor told me that I had to come back on Tuesday because they were too swollen at the time for him to do anything.  So, as a result of that, I have been mobbing in my room ALL week!  It sucks!  I have read the Book of Mormon countless hours and I am a master at the rubix cube!  That is basically it.  It has been horrible but hopefully I will be able to get back at it in a couple of days.  I have to go back tomorrow to get my toenails cut out--wish me luck!
The other crappy news is that Felipe e Irma didn't get baptized.  They are a really poor family and, of course, the day of the baptism their property that they own broke some water pipes and flooded and destroyed a bunch of stuff....that completely ruined everything!  No matter what they had to bounce or else they would have lost everything that they had.  We have our heads high and know that everything will go through.  We are planning on inviting them for two weeks more so that things can be more chill, but we will see how that goes.

Now for the last of the bad news, my comp, Elder Arevalo, is bouncing to the area that borders our ares for his last change.  When they told us that I was dying laughing hahaha, but it sucks at the same time because we are bros!  I had such a good time working with him, every single day we were laughing and having a good time.  I learned a ton from him.  My new comp, his name is Elder Ibarra.  He just finished his training a change or two ago so it will be a good learning experience to be with him this change.

Anyways, I love you all and hope that you have a good week!

Elder Johnsoncito