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

Training a Greenie and Finding Efforts Underway - 07/13/2015

Hey Everyone,

This week has been pretty exciting. On Wednesday I recived the missionary who I am training. His name is Elder Rowley. He is an awesome guy. He is very hard working, which is good. It has been quite a change from my last couple of companions who went home on Wednesday, to a brand new missionary. It has been great. Exactly what I needed. It has been pretty stressful as well trying to get this area under control. I think it will all turn out though. I am for sure getting excited about my half way mark. By the end, I think I will be ready to go home haha.

    

This week have been doing lots of finding. We have been trying to contact referrals and also some tracting. It has been making me exhausted, which feels good in a strange way. Anyway I hope you have a great week. Thanks for the updates Byeee.   

-Tyler 

Lots of Service, No Fireworks for Missionaries on the 4th, a Vist to the French Branch, and Cafe Rio is Still Yummy! - 07-06-2015

Hello Everyone,

I hope that you all had a fantastic 4th of July full of explosions, greasy food, and family bonding. This week has been pretty crazy. We have been doing tons of service for different people. Surprisingly none of it has been in our ward. It is all coming from the surrounding wards.

     

On Thursday I found out that I will be training a new missionary so that is really exciting. I went to a meeting for that on Friday and that was pretty good. There are quite a few missionaries coming in, so I guess it is my time to train. Saturday the 4th, was not as exciting as I thought it would be. We were not allowed to go down to the National Mall and watch fireworks, so we just hung out with some other missionaries, which was alright I guess. We had a little Nerf war which was kinda weird haha. After that we went to Cici's Pizza, which is a Cheap pizza buffet. Then Elder Reynolds and I ditched with some other Elders and went to the farm and hung out there. That was actually pretty fun. We took pictures for a slide show that our district is doing and I must say they turned out really well. I'll send you guys my favorites. We were not able to watch any fireworks which was bummer because we had to be in at 9:30 and that is when all the fireworks started. Hopefully we will be able to go down to the city next year.

    

On Sunday, since Elder Reynolds is going home, we went to one of his old areas for church. And that area just so happens to be the only French branch in the United States so that is pretty cool. That pretty took up most of our day. 

Today we have not done too much. We went to lunch at Cafe Rio (so glad there is one near by) and now we are using the computers at the stake center to email. Thanks for everything guys. 

Have a great week. Byeee

-Tyler        

Baptisms for Ericka and Grandma, Rain Storms, and Preparation for the 4th of July - 06/29/2015

Hey everyone sorry for the late email. Today has been kinda weird. Today is not a pday because of the 4th of July. But we do get a couple of hours so that we can email. We have been running around so this is the only time that I have been able to email.

This week has been great. Yesterday was the baptism of Ericka and Grandma! It was so awesome! They were so happy and everything went according to plan except nobody had cleaned the baptismal font so the water had a greenish tone to it, but anyway that does not matter. The point that matters is that they are taking the first step to returning back to their Heavenly Father. Here is a picture:

The weather was also crazy this week. It rained almost every day and it was a down pore so it flooded some roads: