February 26, 2018

Hey mom ! This week was good it went by really fast the days are long but the weeks are short.  I was able to go out to the Indian rez and that was wild.  We got chased by so many dogs and they're not friendly dogs either.  They are pitbull/mut dogs and so I had a big beating stick I'd carry with me and there was one I was close to hitting and the reason is there's a 5 ft fence that it jumped out of and started coming but we made it OK.  We were able to visit a few families and get return appointments with them. Then on Thursday we went to Reno to a dermatology appointment because my companion has something growing on the back of his neck and so we were at the appointment and it went good but then as we were leaving Reno on the road home there was a 15 car pile up.   Traffic was backed up over 4 miles double sided and luckily we were right next to an off ramp and so we took it and found this back road along the river and we followed it and we thought we got around all the traffic but then when we tried to get back on the accident happened right where we were trying to get on.  The cop said it'll be about 4 hour wait and so we decided to go to Carson City and around but then halfway there the roads were so so slick probably the worst I've ever been on and there was another 10 car pile up.  Luckily on the other side but we were back up because of ambulances and there were cars on our side sliding all over and people hitting each other and I was able to make it through OK.  We made it home late that night but it was an interesting day.  I'm grateful that I had a couple years experience of driving on bad roads !   For meals we eat at members homes every night and that's why I've gained weight because there are some awesome cooks here in Nevada and they make a lot of food and so I feel bad if we don't eat a lot.  But normally for lunch I eat some fruit and breakfast I'll make eggs, nothing to special. My comp doesn't know how to cook haha I show him how to ! We like to make these things called tostones which is like a french fry but way better my last companion taught me how.  Last night we went to a church sing along with a bunch of other churches and it was pretty fun.  We had a return missionary give his talk yesterday and it was good he talked a lot about family history.  Other than that that was my week ! Today we are headed to Fallon to see the zone and have a BBQ so that'll be fun.  I'm grateful for the challenges Heavenly Father gives me to help me grow in the Gospel.  I have learned so many things being here and I know Jesus Christ lives and that He loves us all ! I hope you have a good week ! love you mom ! 

Elder Johnson

February 19, 2018

Hey mom !  Sounds like you had a pretty good week ! This week we were really busy with 

meetings and what not and didn't have too much time to work in our area but we went to 

Carson City for Zone conference and it went really good ! It was good to see some of the

 missionaries I haven't seen in a while. I haven't been to the temple in almost over a year but 

we're going to try and get our recent converts to go do baptisms and if we can get them to

 go then we can go with them.  This last week was really warm and it got really windy yesterday 

but no snow ! The rest of the mission got snow except for here so its been nice ! My current

 car is a 2016 Toyota corolla,  my house is really small and the worst one I've been in my 

mission but it's OK it's still a house !, My companion is from Dominican Republic and his home

 is actually in Owen Koldwen's mission ! We come to the church to email.

 I'm grateful that we have a car too because our area is really spread out and it was cold the

 other day and I know what it feels like to be biking in weather like that and it's no fun ! 

  Other than that not a whole lot happened this week.  We are planning on working on the

 Indian rez this week and seeing how that goes because missionaries haven't been there in 

a while so hopefully we can find some work there ! anyways I'm grateful for all you do and 

I know the temple is the best place to be when you have questions and just need a break

 from the world ! I have a testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ and I know He lives and loves 

all of us ! I have a testimony of the Priesthood and how real it is.  It is on the earth today 

and I'm grateful to live worthy of it.  Have a great week ! love you mom ! 

Elder Johnson

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February 12, 2018

Hey mom ! This week was pretty amazing I had my first baptism on my mission where I was
 the one baptizing ! Never thought that it would happen but it did and I'm grateful for it.  This 
week was good though.  It started out where it was really warm like 65 70 and we were in our t-shirts
 and then today it put down a couple inches of snow.  But earlier this week we just taught a 
couple of our investigators and went to Fernley for meetings and walked the streets to find people
 to teach.  Something that missionaries have in their head is that we can't go "tracting" and I 
don't know where they got that idea from but I love to go tracting ! I love just praying about
 a street and knocking every door on that street until we find people to share the Gospel with.
  We did that on Saturday where the work was going slow and I just said to my companion we're
 going tracting and so we started knocking doors and not even 4 doors in we found a family of
 4 to start teaching and he was excited to talk with us and wants to learn more about the Gospel !
 It's always interesting to see what people say when we knock some are really friendly and some 
are really rude but it's worth it though and I find a lot of joy doing that ! On Friday we had a baptism
 for Heather and Aubri and I never thought I'd stand in a font on my mission and I actually did !
 It was a memorable experience that I'll never forget.  The font here in the church is really small 
and so the water was really shallow and I had to do it twice because the first time her dress and
 foot popped up and so the second time I stood on her feet and it went well. It was an amazing
 experience and the spirit was really strong there ! On Tuesday we go out to a place that is called 
Shurz and it's an Indian reservation and we get to play volley ball with them on Tuesday evenings
 and it's a lot of fun.  We have two investigators out there who are getting baptized in a couple
 weeks. That was most of my week but I'm grateful for all you do mom and I hope Brianna gets
 feeling better ! have a good week love you mom ! 

Elder Johnson