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.  

Major Dental, Car Show, Wall Repair, & Baptisimal Talk - 02/02/2015

Sorry about all of these dental problems. I'm doing better at brushing and flossing I promise.

Anyway this week nothing to crazy. Just the same old same old. One cool thing was that I was able to learn how to repair a wall by patching it up with sheet rock and the spackling it. I also got to give a talk at a baptism. Pretty much on the spot and people were saying it was really good! So I think I am getting better at speaking. 

Other than that, we did have a great p-day.  We went to guitar center and then the mall. Pretty chill day, it felt great to get away from South East.

If you have any more info on the dentist then let me know. 

Byeee

Love your son (the first) 

Sore Gums, Transfers, Crazy Lady's, Food Poisoning, Car Chases, and Did I Mention Sore Gums? - 01/26/2015

Well well well, I'm not even sure we're to start this weekly email. his week my gums on the left side of my mouth, both top and bottom were inflamed and it hurt all week!! The only thing that would make it feel better was when I drank some cool water. This helped me drink more water then I have ever in my life. Over the course of one day I would drink around 160 oz of water. This was like every day, just so my gums wouldn't kill me. 

This week was also transfers so I got a new companion. His name is Elder Paul. I don't know him too well yet, but I am sure he is great. Before transfers elder Elliott and I didn't do much. He just wanted to say bye to some people so went all over. It was fun. Wednesday was transfers. After the transfer meeting, I let elder Paul get situated. Then we went with the other Elders to meet a crazy lady they have been helping. When we got close to the place where she was staying, she was already walking towards us. She told us that she had a missionary opportunity for us. As we walked with her she was talking about this pastor who was ready for the gospel. So I thought we would be just going to his house and talking with this guy but I was greatly mistaken. We walked right up to their church. So at this point I thought we were meeting him there, but as we were walked in we saw that there was a session going on so we sat down and joined them for a few minutes. The lady walks right up to the pastor, gives him a Book of Mormon, and our phone number, and then we left. Ha ha it was kinda crazy. Then we walked back with this lady to her house and she gives us food for dinner. All of a sudden this ice cream truck pulls up out of nowhere. These ice cream trucks are famous for DC. They are called weed wagons. People call them that because with all the other normal goodies that they sell, they also sell drugs out of them. While we continue to talk to the lady about this, she gets this look of disgust, and she walks right up to this truck and starts flirting with the guy, trying to get information from him. She walks back and tells us to write down the license plate info. This lady is insane! We did not want to get wound up into some problems with the drug lords.  Good thing nothing happened.  We started walking back and when we almost got back home 8 police cars went flying by back the from where we came from. Hope it wasn't related. 

The next day we had district meeting after district meeting we headed to lunch and then went home. My mouth was in lots of pain so I did not want to leave the apartment so we did weekly planning. We finally made it out of the apartment to go to dinner. Dinner was miserable! Each bite I just wanted to rip out all of my teeth. At the end I started to feel sick as soon as we got home so I went straight to bed. I would slept wonderfully but my body wanted that food out of my stomach, so I woke up around 11 and had to relieve myself out of my face, to put it nicely.  This happened every couple of hours through the night but nothing was coming out after the first time. Even the next day I still had a few episodes where my roommates, who were downstairs, were wondering if I would live through it or not(it's pretty funny looking back on it). I stayed in bed for the rest of that day. The only thing that made it better was that my companion and one per roommate had gotten sick as well. It was a tough missionary work week.  We did get rested up though.

     

Other then that I did have pretty crazy thing happen. On one of the nights I started to feel better, we witnessed a car chase.  It was freaking crazy hahah I'll send you the video. I'm not sure if mom would find it cool till I was home if you know what I mean. 

President Eyring, New Investigator, and Goals - 01-12-2015

President Eyring is so cool! I loved listen to him speak! As soon as he walked into the auditorium you could feel the special spirit about him and how he is a special witness of Jesus Christ. It's really crazy to think that he has probably seen him with his own two eyes. He talked about a lot of things. He pretty much said that he didn't really prepare anything and he was just going off of personal revelation and talking about what people in the room needed to here and I definitely feel like that he said what I needed but I didn't even know. He talked about how the best way to teach is to love them, but it is impossible to love someone who you just met by yourself.  You need to ask your Heavenly Father for that love and for him to tell you something about them. And I feel like that's what has been missing a lot of the time. It seems like the mission is all about the numbers which I hate because I forget that these numbers are precious souls to God and it seems a lot of our mission leadership forgets that as well. I loved that experience. 

That was definitely the best moment of my week as far as missionary wise. Other than that, it kinda was a bummer week. We were supposed to have two investigators at church (at on point we were suppose to have 3) but all of them ended up baling:/. We will have to recommit them this week. 

One of the miracles we were able to see this week was me and my companion had to bike to this members house and it was freezing cold. We got there and the member we were there to see was asleep. But the son who is a non member was there and he said we can come back and talk to him sometime. So that was good.

So for my goals, I have made a few so far, but I am planning on making some more. Alright for physical I want to be able to bench my body weight by St Patrick's day which I think I should be able to do. I got 135 up today so I still have a long ways to go but it's getting better. A social goal I have is to talk to at least 10 people a day on the streets. A spiritual goal is to read from the Book of Mormon everyday. And yep those are a few of the goals I have.

Love Elder Johnson