Snow Week, Competitive Hot Dog Eating, Melvin Dean, and Sweet Deals at Radio Shack - 03/09/2015

Hello family and friends. I am typing this email out on my brand new keyboard case. Not sure if it is making me go faster or just slowing me down haha, but I only paid 12 dollars, thank you Radio Shack for going out of biz so I can get some sweet deals. As I am typing, I am actually getting better with this thing, yessss! 

Anyway this week has been very very slow with the weather. Monday we just chilled. we went to Cafe Rio which is always good. Other than that, we really didn't do anything. 

Tuesday we were able to do some service for a guy in our ward who is moving. It didn't take long but I had to leave early because I went to the dentist whoop whoop. At the dentist, they took my final impressions and put my temporary crown on, so all I need now is the crown and they said it would take a couple of weeks for them to get one from the lab. After that we went home and it was time for dinner so we went over to our ward mission leaders house. They made us this really weird but good casserole and for dessert we had pie. 

Wednesday was transfers and I already new that my companion and I were staying together so I wasn't really too excited for this meeting. The craziest thing that happened for me was that they opened another area in the Anacostia ward and they assigned two missionaries who are in their last transfer to it. And my roommate got a companion who is also going home at the end of this transfer. So there is a total of three dying missionaries in the ward now. Oh and my old companion, Elder Simons, is back in the ward so that is kinda strange. After transfers we went to Costco for some food, then we went home and helped the other elders get settled and that took us till dinner. We ate at a members house. It was really good. She mad us some curry chicken. Haha its going to be a lot harder to get member meals now that there is a total of 8 missionaries in the ward. After dinner we went to ward meetings and it was alright. We talked a lot about the focus 15 and the ward stewardship visits that took place on Saturday.

Thursday was a winter storm and so we had to stay inside allll day. It snowed probably a total of 6 inches which is a pretty good size snow, but it did cause everything to shut down. Before we got the call out, Elder Paul and I went to the grocery store and you would have thought it was World War III out side. The lines went all the way to the back of the store. It was not a very good choice to go to the store that day. After that we went to Little Caesars so we could have some pizza while we were stuck inside, but when we got there we found out that they closed the store because of the snow..... If Little Ceasers is closed then you know that mud just hit the fan (missionary edit). On the way home we got the call that we had to get inside. As a missionary when you get stuck inside you can't really do much. So it was really boring. 

Friday morning we get another call out saying that we had to stay around our apartment and we could only use mass transit. So in the morning Elder Paul and I shoveled our entire street. It took forever but it was really fun. Only down side is that i got sun burnt because of my fair complexion.  After that we took the bus to the sketchy McDonalds for lunch. Then while we were waiting for the bus we went to Radio Shack that is going out of business and I found a keyboard case for only 12 dollars yay! We also talked to this crazy for like 20 minuets it was pretty great. After that we went to the Church and had our weekly planning session. After the planning session we walked home. On the way home some 14 year olds tried to pick a fight with us. It was quite funny. When we got home it was time to go to brother Masons house. Brother mason is a legendary member in the Anacostia ward. He his a very special guy. The missionaries have been stopping by at his home for a few years every Friday night and Elder Paul and I are lucky enough to go with the South Elders. After Brother Mason's it was time to go in for the night.

Saturday we started out with going to the stake center for basketball, while my companion went to a meeting. Basketball was really fun. After basketball we headed home to get ready for our ward stewardship visits. The stewardship visits we have every first Saturday of the month. Stewardship visits are when all the members of the ward council and all the missionaries get together and visit less actives and members who need help. I went with one of the High Priest Group Councilors and we did not get a hold of any of the people we wanted to visit, so we were the first people back. After we reported all that we did to the Bishopric we had lunch. I was really hungry so I was a little piggy and ate 8 hot dogs. Don't worry mom there were a ton of hot dogs. After that we had to go to the Stake Center and wait for my companion to come back from his all day leadership meeting. We had to wait for him for quite a while. He finally came and we went home and set up some appointments set up for the week. After that we went to Melvin Davis's house. He is probably my favorite member in the ward. He is so funny. I have an awesome video from our visit. Ill have to send you guys the video from it. Probably one of the funniest moments on my mission. He is a really funny guy. After Melvin's we went home for the night. 

Sunday we went to church and it was really good, but I was tired because of the time change. When we got out of church it felt soo nice out side. It was about 60. we were able to roll the windows down and put on the sunglasses on the way to dinner. For dinner we went to the Forson family who feed us quite often. Every time I eat at there house I feel like my heart is going to stop. These people eat the most greasy most fattening food in the world. Hopefully I will be able to get back into shape and eat healthy food soon. After we were done with dinner Elder Paul and I went to Family Home Evening with the Harrison family. We had a nice lesson by the senior couple, the Biolos. Then we played games. After that we went home and that was the whole night.

And that was our whole week. Thanks for everything guys. Have a great week!

iPad Resets, Sleepy Investigator, Temple Trip, and Another Tour In Anacostia - 03/02/2015

Hello family and friends. I hope all of you have been having a great week so far. Last week was pretty great for us. Elder Paul and I had a lot going on but we still managed to get s pretty good week together. 

Tuesday our mission had a meeting at the Washington, D.C. Stake Center. We all gathered in the chapel. Beforehand our mission leadership told us it had to do with iPads and how we are getting rid of the old ones and getting new ones since the pilot program that our mission has been doing for the past year is now complete. A member from the 2nd Quorum of the 70 came to our mission and announced that we are doing a reset when we receive our new iPads. In short and simple terms, this means that we are acting like we are receiving iPads for the very first time. Along with this we are receiving training on how to properly use iPads as a proper tool for missionaries. Along with this training we are going to go through certain stages where we focus on more specific things. For example we could focus on how to use the gospel library app more effectively for a certain amount of time then we focus on online proselyting. This program will be very beneficial for all of the missionaries. I know I could use some help and advice on how to use these resources more effectively. I believe that the last stage that we are going to cover is online proselyting so that means that all of us missionaries will not have Facebook till then. So this could be up to a month or so. Not quite sure how long, they have not given us too much info. This meeting lasted for several hours. By the time we got back to our area it was about 4. So we had just enough time to get some of our studies in before we headed to a members house for dinner.

Wednesday was our most productive day. Elder Paul and I had to head up to the dentist once again.....  But before we left we had the opportunity to give a missionary a blessing. Elder Paul anointed and I sealed it. This was the 3rd blessing I have been blessed to give, but it was the first time I had done the sealing of the oil. It was an amazing experience. The missionary who I was blessing had gotten under my skin a couple of times, but while I was giving the blessing I felt an overwhelming feeling of love towards him. Heavenly Father showed me just a glimpse of how much he loved this missionary and it was truly an amazing feeling. And ever since then I have really enjoyed being around him. The next thing on the list we had to do on Wednesday was go to the dentist. Once we were done with that we went back to our area for lunch with a member. After lunch we went strait over to visit a man who had requested a DVD.  His name is John Kia and he is very interesting. Our plan going into this lesson was to give him the DVD and then transition into the restoration lesson. To make a long story short, John was on medication for his eyes and this made him very sleepy. He fell asleep probably 7 times in about a half our period. He would be in the middle of a sentence and he would just clonk out. He would also fall asleep if he was reading, answering a question, or just listening. It was a very strange lesson but the good news is we were able to meet with him again and he was a lot more with it. After this lesson we went to Capital Hill to meet a member for dinner at an awesome pizza place. We had a good time. By the time we were done, it was time to go to Ward Council. 

Thursday we started out with some snow, so we were not able to attend our weekly missionary meeting. We were able to make it to Althea's. Althea is a recent convert. She is an amazing person! She has been diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and it's not look very good for her. She is currently working on getting her temple recommend so she can go through the temple and that is what we talked to her about. After Althea, we had our weekly planning day.

Friday we were able to go to the temple! Yay! All of the missionaries were able to go on Wednesday, but since I had a dentist appointment, Elder Paul and I were able to with the North Elders who were sick on Wednesday. It was a very good session. Much more peaceful because there was hardly anyone there.  After the temple we went to good old Costco for lunch. Then we went home. There was lots of traffic on the roads so It took us forever to get home. When we did it was already time for dinner.

Saturday, like always, we played basketball at the stake center with some non-members and other missionaries. It was a lot of fun. Afterward, we had to drop the the other elders off at their apartment and then we ran a couple of errands. Elder Paul wanted to return a CD case he got the other day and all the other missionary's canceled their gym passes because of transfers being next week and some other reasons. By the time we were all done, Elder Paul and I had just enough time to get ready and get to our appointment with John. This time it went a lot better than the last time. We just talked about the Book of Mormon and why it is so important to our religion. We gave him one and asked him if he would read and pray about it and he said he would. After John we went to a recent converts home and just sat down and talked to her for a little bit until it was time to go to our member dinner. After dinner we went home and waited for the call to tell us if we were going to be leaving or if we were going to be staying for transfers. I was pretty sure I was going to stay, but I was really hoping I would leave. And I am staying . Oh well haha. I will be spending a least a quarter of my mission in Anacostia.

Sunday we had some pretty bad weather. We had freezing rain so we were told to stay off the roads a much as possible, so we went to church went back, and then went to dinner and that was it.

Today we are planning on going to Cafe Rio and I'm really excited about that. Other than that, we don't really have any plans. 

Have a great week everyone!   

Snow, Cold, Cancellations, More Snow and Cold - 02/23/2015

So tomorrow we are going to a meeting with some general authority. I don't really know who he is but I guess the meeting is going to be about our iPads. I guess we are losing the ones we have right now and later in the week we will be getting new ones. Also our mission has decided to discontinue Facebook for a little while. So right now I am trying to save everything on my iPad.

This past week has been kinda slow because of the weather: here is how it went...

This past week has been pretty bad weather wise. We spent most of the time indoors because we have been snowed in. Let's see... 

Tuesday we were snowed in. 

Wednesday I had to go up to the dentist again 😬. After the dentist we did have a lesson with a less active. He's really cool. He is taking my companion and I to a sweet pizza place. It's really good.

We talked about getting him to church. I think it was overall good for him.

Thursday we had an awesome district meeting. A district meeting is we're all the missionary's in an area get together talk about how things are going and then some missionaries give lessons. The lessons that were given we pretty great. They talked about humility and how to become more like Christ. I learned a lot from that. After district meeting we went out to eat because that's just a tradition we have. After lunch we had an appointment with an investigator that I was really excited for. We were going to try to put her on date to be baptized, but she never showed up. So that put a huge damper on the week. Because of that we went to the church and did some online time. My companion put together an awesome time lapse video of our ride through the city from Wednesday. We also did a little bit of planning and setting up lessons with other people. After that it was dinner time but we found out that our dinner appointment was canceled. So we just ate at home. And we stayed in for the rest of the night because it was about three degrees and if you put the wind chill into the equation it was below 0.

Friday was also freezing cold so we couldn't do to much. We spent a lot of time planning and doing online lessons.

Saturday we had basketball in the morning and after basketball my companion had a meeting he had to go to since he is the district leader, so we were at the stake center for quite some time. When he got out of the meeting the snow was coming down really hard so they called it another snow day.  So we were stuck inside for another day. All we did was play board games and just chill. 

Sunday it was still snowy and they cancelled church and our mission president sent out a call out saying to stay inside unless you have planned appointments. We had a couple but they ended up canceling on us. We were able to get one lesson with a member. His name is Melvin Davis. He is really awesome.

Here some pics form the visit:

More Root Canal, Pat, Zone Conference, and Snow Day's - 02/16/2015

This past week has been pretty good! 

Tuesday we called a bunch of people and set up a ton of appointments for the week,then we made plans for the week and updated our map. Later in the evening we went and visited a member and taught him about the temple. 

Wednesday we had a lesson with a member around at about 11 o'clock, then we had to go to the dentist and that took up pretty much the entire day because of the DC traffic and because they finished the root canal. It was pretty bad. As soon as we got home we had to go to ward meeting that took up the rest of the night. 

Thursday was our weekly planning day. We tried to make plans for our investigators but we never got in contact with them so it was kinda hard. We also had an appointment set up with a focus 15 family. So we headed over there but they weren't home so we weren't able to teach them. That night we went to a ward chili cook off and that was a lot of fun. There was lots of good food and lots of members to talk to. We all had a good time. But the best part of that night was that we were able to meet Pat. I have heard about Pat the entire time I have been in this area (about 4 and a half months) but I have never seen her. She is one of our members girlfriends that wants to take the lessons. And we were never able to see her until Thursday night. We set an appointment for tomorrow so it should be good. 

Friday we had zone conference. We had lots of great workshops about how to use our iPads. I learned a lot. The Gospel Library App is sweet! Afterward was not very productive. We had three appointments and all of them canceled on us.

Saturday was pretty awesome. We went and played basketball in the morning then we got ready and went out and checked on less actives. We didn't get a hold of any of them but we did fined two other people who are interested. I'll keep you guys updated on them. After that we went to another lesson we had with a less active. Then we went home. Later that night it went all blizzard mode and it got really cold.

Sunday we got a call from the APs telling us it was a snow day. The only thing we could do was go to church. After church we went home and stayed inside. It was so cold that I didn't even care. And now today we are stuck inside because they just called another snow day haha.

Thanks for all you do. Glad you guys are having fun on this holiday. And I'm not sure if it's big or not. I'm sure it's a lot bigger of a deal if you cross the river. Have a great day! 

Love,

Elder Johnson

Busy Week Play by Play - 02/09/2015

Hey everyone! This week has been pretty good. Nothing too crazy:

Tuesday Elder Paul went to a members house for steak. I wish I was able to go over there but I had my steak 2 transfers ago and this member only feeds missionaries once. So another elder and me chilled out and I tried to set up appointments for later in the week but nobody answered. Then we got a text form our investigator telling he can't meet this week and that was a pretty big bummer. Then later all of the missionaries went to the home of a new senior couple in the Capital Hill Ward for dinner. They are really cool! Their mission is to work in the archives, scanning documents and digitizing those documents. Right now they are working on the homestead paper work and they just finished Arizona. They said this project is going to take years. It's very interesting what they get to do. The dinner was awesome. 

Wednesday I was able to go to the dentist and get my face drilled into. Yay!!! It actually wasn't bad at all. The dentist who is doing the work is very skilled and it doesn't hurt at all. I even fell asleep! During this appointment, he cleaned out all of the infection and he located all the roots so this Wednesday he is going to take the nerves out. I'm very grateful that I'm here in the U.S. and not in some third world country so I'm able to get care. That dentist appointment basically took our whole day till dinner, mostly because of traffic. 

Thursday I went on an exchange with the zone leaders and it was awesome! I went down to southern Maryland and I'm in love! There are farms everywhere and they actually have pine trees. That's the first time on my mission I have seen pine trees. Anyway we went and visited  two of their investigators. They are really cool and they are getting baptized in March.  Then we visited this guy who is going on a mission and we helped him get ready by helping him learn how to teach the 3rd lesson. It was really cool because it reminded me of mission prep. After that we went to dinner with an awesome family. Then we went and played basketball with a bunch of non members. Only problem was that I didn't bring my basketball shoes so I didn't really play. For the most part, that was the exchange. 

Friday we had an interview with our Mission President and it was actually really good. It helped give me a lot of motivation for the area I am serving in. It was something I for sure needed. Then we also had interviews with Sister Cooke, who is our mission presidents wife and that was also really great. She asked all about my tooth and about when we got sick a couple of weeks ago.  After that we had weekly planning. We made some plans for people we are going to focus on and we also decided that we are going to start working with less actives to see if we can get them to church and also see if we can get some investigators that way. After weekly planning i started teaching online lessons to some less actives and one former investigator. I didn't get to much of a response from some of them but I did see that they saw it so I hope it helped them out. After that we went to a family that's on the focus 15. She wasn't home but her boys were there so we talked to them and they are really cool. We are trying to get them to church. Only problem is that they need a ride just like everyone else in the ward. It is difficult because there are only a handful of members that have cars in our area. To make it even more frustrating they are only 3 blocks away from the church and they refuse to walk haha. After that we headed to the bus stop. On the way we talked to this really cool lady she was feeding like 20 stray cats. She was not interested but she was really cool. She said that her brother is a member and that shows how popular the church is. Most people we talk to have seen the missionaires at some point. 

Saturday was a pretty slow day we had to go into a different area that was pretty far away because my companion had to practice for a performance and we were there for s little while. After that we went to lunch at this pretty good burrito joint. It was a lot like Cafe Rio. Then we went to Target because my companion needed a charger for his razor but he didn't find it haha. By the time we got back we had only a couple of hours before dinner so I taught more lessons online. Facebook helps out a lot for reaching people you want to check on really fast. After I got done it was time to go to dinner and the DC South Elders invited us to meet the investigator that they are working with and we went to  sweet pizza place right next to the capital building. It was really cool! And the pizza was amazing. It's called We the Pizza if any of you are interested. The investigator we met was really cool! He's way into Star Wars, metal music and Mine Craft haha. I'm not sure how much he really want to progress right now. One of the main reasons he is meeting with missionaries is because his fiancee is Mormon. He was cool though. 

Sunday we went to church. All the lessons were good. Then we had to go strait to the Visitors Center because my companion had to perform. And that was are whole day:).

Today we had a zone activity and it was really fun. We played soda pong. Elder Paul and I did pretty good! We made it to the semi finals. And then we ate pizza. And that was last week. It was kinda slow but we got some good lessons in with some active members. 

So we do have some good things going on. Some of the email lessons I had were with Clayton and Owen in the home ward. I don't know why but I have been thinking about them. I talked to Owen to kinda see how some of the young men are going. I had a pretty good lesson with both of them. We should have good week this week. I find when I go to the gym early in the morning I'm a lot more motivated throughout the day and I haven't been able to go for the past couple of weeks so I am going to focus on that as well. I went to the gym today and I have had a lot more energy. So next week will for sure be better! I should probably go.  I have been obsessed the brushing and flossing for the last 3 weeks so I will continue that as well.

Have a great week! 

Love Elder Johnson  

The ladies of DC and testimony meeting.

We got hit on this week. She had piercings everywhere. It was really funny me and my roommate were just looking at some things in the store and two girls walked up and asked us if we wanted to hang out and we were like uh yeah we are missionary's we can hang out and teach about the gospel and then she was like oh that's awkward. Does that mean you guys don't drink and we were like yep.  

The highlight of my week was probably fast and testimony meeting though. The spirit was really strong! Some guy started singing over the pulpit.  Even the guy who was getting baptized boar an awesome testimony that left the whole congregation silent.