Muslim Investigators, Porch Lessons, Capital Tour, Union Station and Flash Bang Sauce - 08/17/2015

Hello Everyone!

I apologize for the late email. It has been a pretty crazy day, but I will get to that later. This week has been quite nice. We have seen some awesome things happen. Probably a highlight from early on in the week was teaching a Muslim couple. It was quite interesting. They were very friendly and very open to listing to us. We tracted into them, we started having a conversation and about 45 minutes later we had a point in every lesson. We went through most of the plan of salvation. We went all the way through the gospel of Jesus Christ. At the end of the lesson, we gave them a Book of Mormon and they said they would read it. The cool part of this experience was that during the whole discussion we were all able to share what we believed in a very non confrontational way. We all agreed that we are children of God. Because of that foundational doctrine everyone should treat each other with respect.

Another cool thing that happened was that we were able to go with the assistants on an exchange. It was pretty awesome! We spent pretty much the whole afternoon tracting. At the end of the day we had taught 4 lessons to people on their porches! It was great!

     

On Sunday we had the Why I Believe fire side. It was great to feel the spirit so strong as we listened to bear their testimony's on why they believe. The guest speaker was Jason Hinds. He ran track for BYU. He has trained with some of the fastest people on earth including Usain Bolt. He also has a Mormon message about him and his mission in NYC. His story was very interesting.

      

Today has been crazy!! We decided to go down to the city. We started off going to the Capital Building and went on the general tour. That was pretty cool but we wanted to see more of it so we got in line for a specialty tour. We got our tickets then we decided to go to Union Station for lunch because we had an hour and a half before our tour was going to start. While at Union Station we were looking through the shops and we see this hot sauce shop and since I like spicy food I was drawn to it. They had hundreds of different sauces.  At the very front of the store was a sign that allowed you to try a sample of the hottest sauce they had. This stuff was called Flash Bang. It was made out of scotch bonnet peppers (third hottest pepper in the world) and scorpion pepper (second hottest pepper in the world). So of course being the silly missionary's we are, we all had a sample. It was the worst decision of the day by far haha. As soon as we tried it, it was instant pain. It burned everything form your throat to your tongue. My eyes began to sweat, my face was dripping, and so we tried running through the train station trying to find a place to drink water. We finally found a drinking fountain but of course, it's the only drinking fountain in all the place that does not work. So we ran to the bathroom and started drinking the water from the sink. It helped a little bit but by this time I had realized that I had not had any breakfast and so by stomach started burn super bad. It got to the point where I thought I was going to throw up. Luckily We were sitting right next to the shop where they have the huge cupcakes and luckily they had milk so one of the elders we were with bought me some and that made me feel like almost instantly better.  Another Elder had the same problem as me so I got him some milk and he felt much better after that. After all that happened we got to the capital building just in time for our tour of Statuary Hall. It was really cool. We got a picture with Brigham Young.

Later on we had our zone activity. We went to the home of Brother Dr. Prince for a dinner. It was so cool. This man is probably a billionaire. He created a vaccination that every single child needs to have so he has lots of money. I have never seen so much money in one place. Anyway enough with that. We went had dinner and it was really really good. After dinner we had a little fire side in his basement. He did a very good job. He talked about how we need to own our religion and it was very well said. After that we went to his personal library. He says it is probably the largest Church library out side the state of Utah and I would have to agree with him on that one, it was incredible.

 I am so sorry for this late email. I hope all of you have a great week! 

Byeee

Tracting... Live

Interesting Investigators and an MLB Baseball Game - 08/10/2015

Hello Friends and Family,

This has been quite a fun week. We have been able to teach a few lessons with non members. The most interesting one was probably with a Catholic youth minister. We tracted into her a few weeks ago and we stopped by to give her a book of Mormon. We sat down and talked a little bit about what we believed in. She was not very interested. She kept getting held up on the trinity and she wouldn't even think of the possibility of being any other way.

We also taught this lady who is Hindu. It is very challenging because she does not have a Christian background and Hindus think that all religion is good and teaches the same thing. We taught her the plan of salvation because her husband passed away about 5 months ago so we thought that would be a good message for her to hear. It went pretty well. We will see if she starts to change her view on all of the teachings.

   

On Saturday we were able to go to a Baseball game! It was so much fun. It was the Nationals vs the Rockies. All the missionaries from D.C. North and D.C. South were there. the game started at 7 but go there an our early so we had time to walk around and check out the Stadium. It was very cool. It felt so weird to be doing something like that on your mission. The game ended around 9:45 and we did not get home till 1 so we were very tired at ward counsel at 7:30. That is a very brief overview of this past week.

Thanks for all you guys do! have a great week! Byeeee  

Getting To Know Ward Members, Stephen Confirmed, & New Investigators - 08/03/2015

Hello Everyone!

Thank you for your support and your emails. This past week has been pretty good. We have been able to get to know the Ward a little bit better and we are seeing blessings from that. We have been focusing a lot on getting to know people so we can find members that will fit best with our investigators so they can start to fellowship them and it is starting to work out.

      

The highlight from this week was Stephen being confirmed. It was great being able to to be a part of that circle. Elder Rowley was able to be the voice which is a great experience being so young into his mission. 

     

Another highlight happened Friday night. We were tracting a townhouse complex and on the very last house of the night we knocked on a less active lady's house who has not been to church in years. She is the only member in her family and she feels like she needs to starting coming back for her kids sake. We have an appointment with her tonight so hopefully everything will go well there and we will be able to start teaching the family and also get her coming back to church. We are very excited for this opportunity.

     

Another exciting thing that happened this week was we got this call from a lady who used to have a member live with her. She wanted us to change some light bulbs in her house so we went over and got that taken care of. We started making small talk and we found out that her husband died about 5 months ago and she is still having a hard time with it. Well, we told her that we have a special message about life after death. She seemed pretty interested so we have an appointment set up with her for later on in the week. It is going to be interesting because she does not have a Christian background at all. She is some form of Buddhist. We are very excited to see where it leads to.

      

Everything that happened this week just shows me how much Heavenly Father is in charge of his work. If he had no part in this then we would just be wasting our time because nobody would listen. I am very grateful to be on his side and being able to participate in his work. I know I am blessed just to be apart of this great work. Have a great week everyone! 

Love Elder Johnson    

Hump Day, Golden Investigators, and Mountain Biking - 07/27/2015

Hello Everyone!!

I am so sorry about this late email that I am sending out. It has been a crazy day full of running around . This past week has been amazing. We were able to be apart of one of our investigators becoming a member of the church. We were able to participate in the confirmation. We were also able to see another investigator be baptized and I was able to perform that. It truly has been amazing to see the Lord work with these people. To prepare them to receive the gospel. As we walk and talk with tons of people it is quite clear that everyone is in a different state of life. And everyone is in a different phase a preparedness. Stephen and Latisha had been led to this point in their lives where they were humble enough to listen and to except the message because they felt the Holy Ghost. It's exciting to play just a very very small role in this process.

     

Thank you so much everyone who participated in the packages a received. That was an awesome idea. Haha I laughed so hard when I saw that everything was cut in half. I also love every single thing that was in there. So thank you!! It's been a crazy year and looking back on it a have found that I have grown so much (not in weight)  I am excited for the next one.

     

Today has been great as well! We were able to go Mt. Biking! It was crazy fun! Hopefully I will be able to send some videos to you all. Thank you for everything you all do. Sorry once again from that late email. 

Have a great week everyone!

Stephen's Baptism

Half of a Hump Day Care Package

7.20.2015 PIX

Chicken, sunset, and Elder T with the comp.

Golden Investigator and More Baptisms on the Calendar - 07/20/2015

Sounds like everyone is having a great summer. This week has been pretty great! We have been able to meet with some less active members and they said they would start coming to church so that was a success. We also have a baptism coming up this Sunday. Hopefully everything will turn out. His name is Stephen. He is from Ghana and he is the definition of a Golden investigator. He is awesome! We are very excited to see him make that promise that is necessary for eternal life. He is also very excited as well haha. 

     

We also have another person set to be baptized on the 30th of August. Her name is Rutendo Reid. She is form Zimbabwe  Africa. We taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it! she has already been to church 3 times. The only  problem is that 2 of the three times she went to the Kentlands building because she says she likes it better. Hopefully we will be able to talk up our ward so she will start coming here. 

   

Well dad thank you so much for the email and the video. That is so crazy. It looks like a ton of fun! Crazy thought of the day. I will be on a plain heading home a year today haha. so weird. Some other exciting news is that we are going to a baseball game in a couple of weeks. I am very excited for that haha. Well thanks for everything dad! love you so much. Have a great week! Byee