Rain Rain Go Away, Junkyard Dog's, Interviews with President Cooke, Baptismal Interviews, District Meetings, Working on the Farm, and Blessings for a Family in Gaithersburg - 05/26/2016

Hey everyone how are you all doing?  This week has been kind of long as it has rained the entire time and it seems like we haven't seen the sun for the past month. Anyways some of the highlights from this week start on Monday. We went to a junkyard. There were a bunch of old cars we took time to scavenge through and we were looking for old seat belt's  that we could make belts out of. That was really fun! After that we went to lunch, and after lunch we went to a family's house and we had a birthday party for Elder Crandall because he was turning 20. 

On Tuesday we had our interviews with the mission president which went quite well. President Cooke is winding down here as the mission president in the Washington DC North mission. He will be done around the first of July. After he is released he and his family are taking a vacation to California for a month then they're coming back to their house which they bought in the same ward that they were serving in. It seems because of his short time he was making the interviews a little bit longer than usual which was quite nice. It was really cool just to be able to talk to him and be able to get to know him a little bit better. 

On Wednesday I was able to interview someone for baptism which was a pretty cool experience that I'm very glad that I was able to have the spirit was very strong. 

Thursday we had our district zone meetings.  

On Friday we spent the day at the farm working on various tasks that they needed to finish up. We spent a lot of time finishing the staining which took place last week, we also took time to take the ponies from the field that they were in and bring them up to the barn and then we brought them back when they were done. After we were finished at the farm we went to dinner at the Blewett's home. Another family from the ward was also there which made it a really fun time.

We were able to meet the Blewett's daughter who is a nonmember.  She is about 23 and she plans on attending college at UVU in the fall. She has been hanging out with lots of missionaries as of late and it really seems like the Lord is working on her. As of right now she is out in Maryland for the summer working at the summer camp that some members own. We are hoping this summer, that she will create some solid connections with some other members and hopefully she will start becoming more and more interested in the church. 

On Saturday I was able to perform two more baptismal interviews and just like the first, they were a great experience full of the spirit. Later that night I was able to go to Lacsamana family who are in the Gaithersburg ward. I called them up a few nights before and told them that I need to see them before I leave. It turned out that it was an answer to their prayers. I know they're going through some hard times and none of the missionaries in their ward right now don't really understand what is going through their lives right now. Personally I don't completely understand what is going on, but I was in the ward when a lot of the things that they're dealing with right now were developing.

During the night we had dinner and I was able to give sister Lacsamana and her mom a blessing. Those blessings were one of the most spiritual moments on my mission. That night helped me see that God really does care about everybody and their circumstances. That something that we say a lot and sometimes I feel like it's kind of deluded because of the repetition, but when you seeGod's work in someone's lives it really does bring a much greater meaning. 

On Sunday we had a meeting with all the missionaries for mission leaders in the stake at 7 o'clock in the morning we talked a lot about what was going on with the efforts of missionary work in the stake after that meeting we went to church and enjoy the services it was for conference we had opportunity to hear from the stake president and a bunch of the stake leaders. Another great highlight of Sunday, we are able to meet in new family in the ward and have dinner with them. On my mission I have appreciated the opportunity to get to know people a lot more than I did at home. I love talking and listening and hearing people's differences and their different points of view. As you listen it really does broadens your perspective and you have the opportunity to learn from them and their lives.

Thank you so much for all the emails and all the love and support. I am so sorry for the late email once again. 

I hope all of you have a wonderful week thank you so much much love!

New Suit and the Tie is Almost Done, Bible Study, Continued Work With Marie, and Service on the Farm - 05/16/2016

Hello everyone! This week has been pretty good! It has been filled with similar things that we have been doing for the past few weeks. We have been helping out with a bunch of service. We helped up at the farm, we spent an entire day organizing the mission sheds with a bunch of other elders. We also helped on of out members with cleaning out one of his storage rooms, so that was kinda fun.

     

Investigator wise, Marie is still crawling forward. She has been reading the Book of Mormon which is still a huge step with her. She still has not come to church in quite a while, so we will be focusing on that in the up coming visits. A really cool experience we had this week was that we were able to attend a bible study hosted by one of our members. All the other people (about 5 or 6) who attend are non LDS. Usually the bible study is just one guy talking about the reading that everyone should have read before coming. This time at the end of the bible study, the main guy started asking us questions about what we do as missionaries and what we believe in. We were able to give him a brief rundown before we had to end. We will be heading back over this week hopefully to be able to continue to share what we believe in an open environment.

     

On Sunday we had the Why I Believe fireside. It was awesome! The keynote speakers were the Turley family, who are from our ward. Sister Turley is pretty well known. She played Cossette in Les Miserables and now she goes to different parts of the country speaking and singing for something called Timeout for Women. She bore her testimony primarily through song. The awesome part of this Why I Believe is that her whole family was involved. So she had her 4 kids who range in age from 2 to 10 sing which was pretty funny, then they had brother Turley bear his testimony at the end! It was a great fireside.

    

In other news I got a new suit and my tie is almost done Yay!

Thanks for all the emails have a great week! And sorry for the late email once again! Byeee

Mother's Day Facials and Call, Kentlands Days, and Knitting a Tie??? - 05/09/2016

Happy Mother's Day! Hope you all had a great week and you all spoiled your moms. This past week we have had lots of fun! I'll let the pictures do all the talking! Hope you all have a great week!

Mother's Day facials.... We spent Mother's Day with a family off all boys. All the mom wanted for mother's day was do girly stuff with her boys, so we were a part of that experience... More pictures to come of that:

(Saturday) Great day at the Kentlands day. ( kinda like steel days but much smaller) our church had a booth set up where we talked to people about the different things that our church offers like the relief society for the women, and scouts for the young men. While we were there we realized that we scare people away, so we kinda stayed away from our booth for a while and went to talk to people at the other booths. This picture is of Elder Crandall and I checking out some of the cars they had at the event.

Mother's Day call:

Knitting a tie:

Some other highlights that I don't have a picture of is being able to meet with Marie! She wasn't at church because she wasn't feeling good so we dropped off some flowers to her. It was a really nice brief visit. I feel like she is coming closer and closer to being able to commit her to baptism. We also have been meeting with lost of the members trying to help strengthen their faith. Anyway thank you all so much for the emails! Keep them coming! 

Elder Tyler Johnson  

Zone Activity, Electric Long Boards, Temple Trip, District/Zone Meetings, Service, and Last Transfer Next Week - 05/02/2016

Hey everyone! This week has been pretty great! 

Monday we headed down to a zone activity in silver spring. We had a chalk fight and then we played a bunch of sports. It was pretty fun. After the activity, Elder Lee came on exchanges with us up to our area. We had dinner and family home evening with some awesome family's.

Tuesday we did a bunch of service for members. We helped this older lady with some yard work. We then helped another member with his garden. While we were doing this we started talking about things that we liked to do at home. Long boarding came and one thing led to another, he let Elder Crandall and use his boosted boards. They are self propelling longboards that are controlled by a blue tooth controller that you hold on to. It is way sweet and they go pretty fast. They told us one of these P-Days we can take them down into DC! We will for sure be taking them up on that offer. After we had finished with them we had a great dinner with some other awesome members.

     

Wednesday was our temple trip and that is always great!  After we had finished we came back into our area and visited a few members then we had to drive back to the temple for a lesson with Marie. We watched Joseph Smith, Prophet of the Restoration with her. We then had a really good conversation with her, talking about what she needs to do to build her faith.

     

Thursday we had our last district meeting of the transfers. Everyone in the district gad the opportunity to bare their testimonies. After the meeting we walked across end the street to the temple to take our District and Zone pictures. 

Later that day we had dinner with a family. One of their son's is getting back from his mission very soon and another son is getting married only a couple of weeks after the other one gets home. On top of all that this family is getting ready to move down to South Carolina, so they are very busy. It was really nice of them to take time out of their crazy schedule to feed us.

     

Friday Elder Crandall and I went on an exchange to the farm that we work at weekly. That day we spent pretty much the whole day pouring cement for a horse barn they are putting in. We then spent the night with a bunch of other missionaries. It was pretty exciting haha.

     

Saturday we we worked on the farm for a couple of hours then we headed back to our area. We went to the Blewett family for, you guest it, more service. We spent pretty much the entire day shoveling dirt and spreading it all over the lawn. It was actually really fun. The Blewett's are one of my favorite family's that I have met on my mission. Mary Ellen and Rick have been members for almost two years now. They were baptized on Mother's Day in 2014 so just a few months before I came to the Kentland's Ward for the first time. They are the only two members in their family. They have two kids who are in their early 20's that we are trying to work with. We are hoping that over time their hearts will soften and they will be willing to listen.

    

Sunday we had our regular church meetings. It was a really great fast and testimony meeting, with awesome lessons the cap it all off. After church we had our study's then we went to dinner with another solid family in the ward. Once we had finished, we spent the rest of the day checking on less actives and we were able to actually have a really great visit with one of them. All in all it has been an excellent week!

    

This Wednesday will be transfers and Elder Crandall and I will be staying together in the Kentland's Ward.

Thank you so much for all the support you guys give me. Hope you all have a fantastic week! Byeeee!

New Investigator, Service on the Farm, and a Fun Zone Activity - 04/25/2016

Weekly Video Update

Zone Activity

100 Days Left!, Thank you cards, Service at the Farm, Cherry Blossom Parade, Ward Dance Limbo, and Why I Believe with Senator Pressler - 04/18/2016

Hey everyone! Sorry for the late email! It's weird how fast the weeks go by. I don't really know what to say anymore because I feel like I've said it all by now. In emails and in person. We did a lot of service this week, and because of that, I now have some color to my face and arms. 

Tuesday we did a few check ups on members and a few others. We figured it'd be a good time in the afternoon since school gets out around 2:30 and we'd catch a few at home. We did our best but only some of the Carver family was home so we had a good chat and talked with them about Sister Carver's conversion and about the work. We're doing this new thing where we made some cards with our pic on it, writing something like a thank you in it, and leaving it at all members so it's a reminder to do missionary work that day (assuming they put it on their fridge and see it before they're out the door). 

Wednesday we had service at the farm and it was great! Helped move some dirt around, sprayed for weeds/bugs, trimmed trees, and had a great time serving. The guy that runs the program there is Mark, (I don't know his last name). He's a real nice guy. We met with Marie, one of our investigators, that evening and brought Mary Ellen Blewett along with us to meet her. We talked a lot about how the church makes life better and Marie agrees with all we talked about. Now we just gotta get her to act! :) read a bit from Mosiah 2. Mary Ellen is a great missionary and actually taught most of the lesson haha. Good stuff. 

Thursday was meetings,  then we helped Kevin Clark do a few things and then they fed us dinner. Such a nice family. After dinner we head up to the farm for an over night exchange.

Friday we were at the farm most of the day and it was good. Did a lot of weed spraying and weed pulling. It was actually pretty fun. We then hustled over to the Chipman's for dinner then helped set up for a Ward dance for Saturday. 

Saturday day was pretty cool so listen up. Sis. Cooke was able to set up a sweet service opportunity with Events DC for the whole mission, so about 150 18-20 year old missionaries. We got to help out at the Cherry Blossom parade on Constitution Ave. downtown. Some missionaries were ushers and some balloon holders in the parade. We had to be there at 8 am and we got our green long sleeve volunteer shirts. We wore them over white shirts a tie and had our name tags on the front so people easily identified us as LDS missionaries. Sick right? We did that for the better part of the day til mid afternoon. We visited some investigators that have been giving us the slip lately and had some success in contacting some of them. We attended the Ward dance and only participated in the limbo pole song haha. Was good to talk with people there. 

Sunday we attended the meetings and they were fantastic. Teachings of the priesthood and prophet. Some great questions were asked then answered. Dinner at the Elliott;s was so much fun! :) We had Why I Believe and the speaker was Senator Larry Pressler from the Chevy Chase Ward. He was baptized last year on 19 April, 2015. He spoke about his story of becoming baptized and it was over a 30 year period. 

Over all it was a great week! I love being able to serve people and I feel like it is one of the most affective ways to do missionary work. Thanks for all that you do! Have a great week! Byeeeee

100 Days Left!!!

Improving Missionary Work in the Kentland's Ward, Pony Rustling on the Farm, Dinner With the Pattersons, a Good Meeting with a New Investigator, and Igor's Baptism - 04/11/2016

Hey everyone! 

Hope you all had a great week, it's been awesome to read your emails so, thank you so much for sending those. This past week has been kind of tough but, it was also pretty fun. 

On Monday Elder Crandall and I pretty much chilled for the entire day. We went to one of the nicer malls in the area and looked at all the things that we can't afford. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be haha. After we had finished at the mall we went home, ate some food, and then we went to the Miller family to have Family Home Evening. It was really fun! We shared a short message and then we played games with the family.  

On Tuesday we checked on a bunch of less active members but unfortunately nobody was home. We did drop by one of the members the missionaries had to been teaching and we had a nice discussion there. After we were done visiting with her we had dinner at our Bishops house. We met with his family and got to know them. After dinner we had a talk with our Bishop about some things we can try to implement in the ward to get people excited about missionary work. For a while now, the Kentlands ward has been really slow in the area of missionary work, so we are trying to come up with some other ideas that would be beneficial for the ward. It was a great meeting and I think it will help the ward out a lot. 

On Wednesday we had service at the farm. It was really exciting to be able to go back to the farm and to work. We spent most of the day trying to catch a pony so, we could hook it up to a cart. It was pretty frustrating, but it was pretty funny. We have a few videos of us trying to lasso this pony. While we were doing this I actually got a massive rope burn on my hand. One of the missionaries was able to get a lasso around it's neck but, the pony pulled loose. The pony started running in my direction and so, out of instinct I went and grab the rope. The rope slid right through my hand and now I have a massive rope burn. After we got done at the farm we had dinner with one of my good friends!

Levi Patterson and his dad were in DC for the week and they got in contact with us and said they wanted to take us out to eat. It was awesome being able to see them! After dinner we went and checked on some more people but unfortunately nobody was home.

On Thursday we had our district zone meeting. The meeting went pretty well, I did not have to plan too much because the zone leaders were planning on taking most of the time, so that was nice. After our meeting we met with a family in the ward for dinner. After dinner we had an appointment with one of our investigators, Marie. This was the first time I had met with her and this was the first time Elder Crandall had met with her since being back in the area, so we went into the appointment with the plan of introducing ourselves and building a relationship with her. It went really well. She is very nice and is very open to us and about her concerns. We are pretty excited for her and we feel like she will be able to start making those steps in the right direction. 

On Friday we had our weekly planning session and then we went out and knocked on doors and checked on some less-actives. 

On Saturday we did some of the same things with really no results. We were able to make some contact with a few less-actives in the area, so that has been nice. 

Sunday we had our regular church service and after that we headed down to my last area for a baptism. Igor finally got baptized!! It was so awesome! I am so happy for him! I was able to give the talk during the baptismal service. After his baptism we spent some time getting caught up with Igor and with the other missionary's in the White Oak Ward. Once we had finished we drove back up to our area for dinner with some members and then we went to the Miller family for a family home evening since they were going to be busy on Monday. And that was our week! 

Thanks for everything guys! 

Have a great week!

Igor's Baptism

Look who we "bumped" into...

Rope Burn...dang pony :)