Hello mom and dad,
I am emailing you at such an early time to let you know that I got called to be the assistant to President Forbes. I will probably not be emailing today because I will be doing transfers. My new companion is Elder Oldroyd! I am kinda freaking out I got like 2 hours of sleep.
Talk to you soon! :)
Taylor:
That is so awesome honey!! I love you very much. Don't get too stressed out. I know you can do it. You will be so good with the new missionaries and help them feel motivated and happy. You were born to do stuff like this. I have always known it. Just relax and be yourself. You can do this. I'm so happy you will be with Elder Oldroyd. You will do amazing things together!! I love you.
Love, Mom
Monday, March 20, 2017
Monday, March 13, 2017
On the Road Again with Elder Johnston
Hello Family and Friends,
This week was a good one. We probably drove around 600 miles! It was a good week because we got to see a lot of missionaries. We went to Thunder Bay with President Forbes and Sister Forbes. I think I already talked about that in my last email. But that was really good, those Elders are really fun! I really enjoy them. We ate with the Holden's that was sweet! On Wednesday we drove to Ashland Wisconsin to go on exchanges with the Elders that serve there. Elder Black and Elder Edwards. They are both really solid! I went with Elder Edwards. We had a pretty cool experience as a zone. We did a zone finding hour where we all got on a conference call and we had a prayer together and then every companionship in the zone went out finding all at the same time. Because our zone is so spread out its really good for all the missionaries to know that everyone is finding at the same time. Elder Edwards and I went tracting for an hour. It was really fun. We didn't see a whole lot of success but we did talk to some really nice people.
Sunday was a pretty cool day at church. We had President Smith the stake president and Elder Stacey of the seventy come and speak to us. It was super good, they taught about the priesthood and revelation. They are both powerful speakers and it was really good for the ward especially after last week. Elder Stacey led a discussion in 2nd hour. He talked about missionary work and promised the ward no less than 50 baptisms a year if the members in Duluth do their part. It was a really powerful promise. Now I just hope the members take that into action. We are now in Virginia Minnesota going on exchanges with the Elders here. Elder Lowell is serving here and I was serving around him when we were in the Anoka Zone his first two transfers. Now he is a district leader and training a new missionary Elder Bradshaw. It is really cool to see the growth of all the missionaries that I have served around.
The Lord truly is at the head of the church and leads and guides this work. There are people here in Duluth that are prepared to hear the gospel, we just need to find them. I am grateful to be a missionary and love the people I am serving.
1. Saw this on the side of the road.
2. Ballin on Saturday morning
This week was a good one. We probably drove around 600 miles! It was a good week because we got to see a lot of missionaries. We went to Thunder Bay with President Forbes and Sister Forbes. I think I already talked about that in my last email. But that was really good, those Elders are really fun! I really enjoy them. We ate with the Holden's that was sweet! On Wednesday we drove to Ashland Wisconsin to go on exchanges with the Elders that serve there. Elder Black and Elder Edwards. They are both really solid! I went with Elder Edwards. We had a pretty cool experience as a zone. We did a zone finding hour where we all got on a conference call and we had a prayer together and then every companionship in the zone went out finding all at the same time. Because our zone is so spread out its really good for all the missionaries to know that everyone is finding at the same time. Elder Edwards and I went tracting for an hour. It was really fun. We didn't see a whole lot of success but we did talk to some really nice people.
Sunday was a pretty cool day at church. We had President Smith the stake president and Elder Stacey of the seventy come and speak to us. It was super good, they taught about the priesthood and revelation. They are both powerful speakers and it was really good for the ward especially after last week. Elder Stacey led a discussion in 2nd hour. He talked about missionary work and promised the ward no less than 50 baptisms a year if the members in Duluth do their part. It was a really powerful promise. Now I just hope the members take that into action. We are now in Virginia Minnesota going on exchanges with the Elders here. Elder Lowell is serving here and I was serving around him when we were in the Anoka Zone his first two transfers. Now he is a district leader and training a new missionary Elder Bradshaw. It is really cool to see the growth of all the missionaries that I have served around.
The Lord truly is at the head of the church and leads and guides this work. There are people here in Duluth that are prepared to hear the gospel, we just need to find them. I am grateful to be a missionary and love the people I am serving.
1. Saw this on the side of the road.
2. Ballin on Saturday morning
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Apostasy in Duluth with Elder Johnston
Hello,
This week was one to remember that's for sure. On Tuesday we had a lesson with Ken at the church. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson out of 2 Nephi 31. We read the entire chapter and it actually went really well. We talked a lot about Jesus Christ being baptized, and why it is necessary for us to be baptized! We then invited her to be baptized and she had an anxiety attack and got really nervous and had to leave the room cause she didn't know what to say. When she came back in the room we talked to her about it and she explained that she feels that if she was to be baptized it needs a lot more time. She has a lot of changes to make, but she has that desire. So she won't be getting baptized any time real soon, but she eventually be baptized for sure! We are just going to continue teaching her and keep committing her to smaller commitments and naturally she will repent and change. It will be awesome!
On Wednesday we went down to the Twin Cities for MLC which was on Thursday but since we are so far away we go down the day before so we don't have to leave at 5:00 in the morning. So for dinner that night we went to The Wilson's house in my last ward. The Wilson's just returned from being mission presidents in the Virginia Richmond mission. What's the coolest part of this though, the Wilson's are Elder Johnston's great aunt & uncle who he has never met. So they were so excited to have two missionaries over that they had a connection to! That evening we went to the TCYSA area and hung out at the institute building with the YSA missionaries. It was fun!
MLC on Thursday was really good. I love seeing my mission friends every month and MLC. That is my favorite part of it! Because we cover Duluth which the whole city is on a hill we drive a truck. We drive a Nissan Frontier. I have not told any of you, but I have been suspended from driving since the middle of January for speeding and will be until the end of this transfer. So we drive down the sisters to MLC every time we go to save miles. On the drive down we were talking to the sisters about how girls don't drive trucks. During MLC we find out the Elder Johnston is now suspended from driving and so we were kinda in a weird position where we both can't drive. So we talked to President Forbes who then talks to the vehicle coordinator and we are told that I will get my privileges back and Elder Johnston will stay suspended until the end of his mission. The vehicle coordinator Elder Checketts then told us that I couldn't drive until the next day so the sisters would have to drive us back to Duluth and we would be sitting in the back seat. We were pretty salty.. hahah. I so the sisters drove us back and we were very humbled to say the least!
Sunday roles around and it is fast and testimony meeting. The spirit was strong and it was a good meeting. Elder Miller another missionary in the Ward was bearing his testimony and it was about 11:05 so the bishopric is about to end the meeting as he rapped up. When a man in the back I had never seen before stands up and says holding up 1 finger "one more, I have something to say." He then gets up there and starts calling out bishop for apparently calling him into his office and accusing him of things.." as it starting to get out of hand bishop stands up and asks this man to sit down and the man looks at bishop and yells "SIT DOWN!!!" He then goes on to say "oh, then it gets worse, the stake president called me into his office and called me out for apostasy." Then the Elders Quorum President stands up and says loudly "I support bishop, and will not listen to another word you say." Then he just walks out. The whole congregation stands up and went to the foyer. This man is still standing up front saying a lot more stuff, but the bishopric turned off the microphone. Then a bunch of the priesthood men pretty much go up there and tell this man to get off the stage! He got down and the 2nd counselor turned on the microphone and said the closing prayer. Elder Johnston and I stayed in the chapel the entire time because we wanted to see what was going to happen! It honestly took the Spirit away from the meeting and it made me just sick for the rest of church. People were just crying outside in the hallway. It was truly sad! What was cool though, we were in gospel principles and we sang "I Need thee Every Hour" the gospel principles teacher was just balling and the spirit was so strong. The rest of church everyone was just a little off! But it honestly made me love bishop and the entire Duluth ward a lot more. It was cool to see them all stand behind bishop and come together as a ward! Crazy experience I will never forget.
Yesterday morning President & Sister Forbes picked us up to go to Thunder Bay. President was going to interview them all, and we were going to exchange with the elders there. We had a four hour drive with president there and it was really cool. I felt like we both gained a relationship with them and it was really fun! We got there and had dinner with the Holden's (my favorite family in Thunder Bay). President and Sister Forbes also went to that. Very neat experience! Then we went on exchanges for the night, we just went in tri-panionships. I went with South Elders, we saw my good friend Brian and that's all we had time for. This morning President interviewed the missionaries and then president and sister Forbes took us back to Duluth. We took some cool pictures on the way home of Lake Superior. If you are still reading this email I applaud you and appreciate you! Anyway, this week was crazy! Memories I won't forget. I love this gospel and love being a missionary more than anything! Thank you for your examples to me! I love you all! Have a wonderful week!
1 ,2&3) pictures by Lake Superior
4) my boy Newbold and MLC
5) president&sister Forbes with Thunder Bay Elders in their house.
6) MLC - Sisters driving the truck
This week was one to remember that's for sure. On Tuesday we had a lesson with Ken at the church. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ lesson out of 2 Nephi 31. We read the entire chapter and it actually went really well. We talked a lot about Jesus Christ being baptized, and why it is necessary for us to be baptized! We then invited her to be baptized and she had an anxiety attack and got really nervous and had to leave the room cause she didn't know what to say. When she came back in the room we talked to her about it and she explained that she feels that if she was to be baptized it needs a lot more time. She has a lot of changes to make, but she has that desire. So she won't be getting baptized any time real soon, but she eventually be baptized for sure! We are just going to continue teaching her and keep committing her to smaller commitments and naturally she will repent and change. It will be awesome!
On Wednesday we went down to the Twin Cities for MLC which was on Thursday but since we are so far away we go down the day before so we don't have to leave at 5:00 in the morning. So for dinner that night we went to The Wilson's house in my last ward. The Wilson's just returned from being mission presidents in the Virginia Richmond mission. What's the coolest part of this though, the Wilson's are Elder Johnston's great aunt & uncle who he has never met. So they were so excited to have two missionaries over that they had a connection to! That evening we went to the TCYSA area and hung out at the institute building with the YSA missionaries. It was fun!
MLC on Thursday was really good. I love seeing my mission friends every month and MLC. That is my favorite part of it! Because we cover Duluth which the whole city is on a hill we drive a truck. We drive a Nissan Frontier. I have not told any of you, but I have been suspended from driving since the middle of January for speeding and will be until the end of this transfer. So we drive down the sisters to MLC every time we go to save miles. On the drive down we were talking to the sisters about how girls don't drive trucks. During MLC we find out the Elder Johnston is now suspended from driving and so we were kinda in a weird position where we both can't drive. So we talked to President Forbes who then talks to the vehicle coordinator and we are told that I will get my privileges back and Elder Johnston will stay suspended until the end of his mission. The vehicle coordinator Elder Checketts then told us that I couldn't drive until the next day so the sisters would have to drive us back to Duluth and we would be sitting in the back seat. We were pretty salty.. hahah. I so the sisters drove us back and we were very humbled to say the least!
Sunday roles around and it is fast and testimony meeting. The spirit was strong and it was a good meeting. Elder Miller another missionary in the Ward was bearing his testimony and it was about 11:05 so the bishopric is about to end the meeting as he rapped up. When a man in the back I had never seen before stands up and says holding up 1 finger "one more, I have something to say." He then gets up there and starts calling out bishop for apparently calling him into his office and accusing him of things.." as it starting to get out of hand bishop stands up and asks this man to sit down and the man looks at bishop and yells "SIT DOWN!!!" He then goes on to say "oh, then it gets worse, the stake president called me into his office and called me out for apostasy." Then the Elders Quorum President stands up and says loudly "I support bishop, and will not listen to another word you say." Then he just walks out. The whole congregation stands up and went to the foyer. This man is still standing up front saying a lot more stuff, but the bishopric turned off the microphone. Then a bunch of the priesthood men pretty much go up there and tell this man to get off the stage! He got down and the 2nd counselor turned on the microphone and said the closing prayer. Elder Johnston and I stayed in the chapel the entire time because we wanted to see what was going to happen! It honestly took the Spirit away from the meeting and it made me just sick for the rest of church. People were just crying outside in the hallway. It was truly sad! What was cool though, we were in gospel principles and we sang "I Need thee Every Hour" the gospel principles teacher was just balling and the spirit was so strong. The rest of church everyone was just a little off! But it honestly made me love bishop and the entire Duluth ward a lot more. It was cool to see them all stand behind bishop and come together as a ward! Crazy experience I will never forget.
Yesterday morning President & Sister Forbes picked us up to go to Thunder Bay. President was going to interview them all, and we were going to exchange with the elders there. We had a four hour drive with president there and it was really cool. I felt like we both gained a relationship with them and it was really fun! We got there and had dinner with the Holden's (my favorite family in Thunder Bay). President and Sister Forbes also went to that. Very neat experience! Then we went on exchanges for the night, we just went in tri-panionships. I went with South Elders, we saw my good friend Brian and that's all we had time for. This morning President interviewed the missionaries and then president and sister Forbes took us back to Duluth. We took some cool pictures on the way home of Lake Superior. If you are still reading this email I applaud you and appreciate you! Anyway, this week was crazy! Memories I won't forget. I love this gospel and love being a missionary more than anything! Thank you for your examples to me! I love you all! Have a wonderful week!
1 ,2&3) pictures by Lake Superior
4) my boy Newbold and MLC
5) president&sister Forbes with Thunder Bay Elders in their house.
6) MLC - Sisters driving the truck
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)