Monday, March 20, 2017

Transfer to Bloomington to Serve as Assistant to President Forbes with Elder Oldroyd

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 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



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






Monday, February 27, 2017

The Power of the Fast with Elder Johnston

Hello Everyone, 

This week was a a good week. We saw some miracles happen! It was really fun! Our investigator Ken Borton is really progressing. On Tuesday we had a lesson with her and Erin Rodgers was the member who came a long with us. She is really into reading the Book of Mormon, she understands the scriptures pretty well. So we talked a lot about the Godhead and the roles that each of them have. She does not really have a belief in Christ so we were trying to help her understand why we need a Savior, but it just wasn't clicking for her. We showed the video "The Hope of God's Light" which talked about fasting and praying to know if God was really there. At the end of the video we committed her to fasting on Sunday to know if Jesus Christ is real and actually suffered the Atonement. Saturday night after dinner is when we started the fast, she went to a concert that night. But she was talking to her friend who is not a member of the church and she taught her a lot about Jesus Christ. Everything really clicked with her! Sunday she came to church and it was really great for her. She loves the members, she says it feels like she is going to a family reunion every single week haha. Later in the afternoon we had a lesson with Ken. We taught her the Plan of Salvation. One of the best lessons ever! It really helped her see the bigger picture. She says that she is really starting to believe in Christ and that she believes the Fast really helped her with that. She then went on to tell us that she could see herself becoming a member soon! Something that helped me a lot was that she said "if you ever feel like you weren't successful on your missions, think of me. You have helped change my life!" When she said that both Elder Johnston and I had tears in our eyes. The spirit was so strong! She is really gaining her own testimony. Ken is one amazing girl! We will be inviting her to be baptized tomorrow in our lesson with her. We really hope that we can set a date with her then! 

We had a couple of other cool miracles during the week, we were in Two Harbors which is 45 miles north of Duluth. We were trying to see some Less Active members who lived up there because we had been getting member referrals to go visit them. We went to visit the Olsen's who live in the middle of nowhere we knocked on the door and a big man answered the door and was not very nice. He asked who we were and what we wanted, we told him we were the missionaries and then he got his wife who is actually who we were looking for and we were able to go in and meet her and her 3 kids. They all have not been to church in years and we were able to share a message with them and commit them to church. They ended up not coming to church, but they want us to come back next Saturday so that was cool.

This week was good, we needed one good things to happen. It has been kinda slow lately. But that just means we gotta get to work! We sure did that! We went all out! Relied on the Lord and he blessed us for our efforts. Hope you all have a wonderful week! 

1. Miracle from Sunday Night.
2. Plan of Salvation Lesson with Ken.
3. Throwing a snowball at my companion.





Monday, February 20, 2017

Summer in Duluth with Elder Johnston

Hey everyone,

        Not a whole lot to update you on. Our investigator Ken Borton came to church this week and she loved it. She is very socially converted, the ward was super nice to her. She even participated in Gospel Principles class. It was great!


      We had a YSA activity and it was a cooking competition and Elder Johnston and I made Fry Sauce and it was a hit. That was pretty cool! We went up to a place called Two Harbors which is like 45 minutes north of Duluth and we tried to see some people there, not a whole lot happened. This week was a week where not a lot of amazing things happened. We are going to keep trying and working hard so that we have more people to teach.

        The weather is actually getting really warm here. Apparently this Friday we are supposed to get a ton of snow, we will have to see haha!

Make this week a good one.

Alma 26:27

1. Fry sauce we made
2. Missionaries that serve in the Duluth ward.
3. The other elders brought this fish home, so we have fun with it haha




Monday, February 13, 2017

Minnesota is A M A Z I N G! Duluth with Elder Johnston

Hello family and friends,


        This week was another good one. Lots of driving though! We found outon Monday that Elder Johnston and I are both staying in Duluth whichis awesome. But we had a couple of missionaries get transferred fromthe zone so we had to help with travel down to Bloomington. So on Wednesday we drove down the STL's to Bloomington for transfers. It was good to see some of my old companions and missionaries I served around. Up here in Duluth you don't see a whole lot of missionaries often so it was nice to see some!
       
 We had MLC Thursday so on Wednesday evening we needed a place to work so we went with the Assistants on exchanges and so I went with Elder Oldroyd and we also took a new missionary out with us who arrived 3 hours previous of that! Elder Bradshaw who happens to be in the Duluth Zone. He is being trained by Elder Lowell in Virginia! We had an awesome night we taught 3 lessons. We had a lesson with a less active member and shared a scripture about serving, we taught Jennifer their investigator the plan of salvation and it went really well. It was so
cool to go out with a brand new missionary! He is really great! I love Elder Bradshaw already.
       
Thursday we had MLC and it went really well! We got a lot of training from President Forbes about how to correct missionaries in a loving way which was really great. I learned a lot! We also talked a lot about how we are going to apply the change in new key indicators. Overall it was really great! I caught up with a lot of the Elders and Sisters i served around in the Anoka Zone!
 
       Friday we had a cool day. Our investigator Ken invited her college friends over from down in the twin cities and they had a lot of questions for us. We taught the restoration and the plan of salvation in one lesson. It was really cool! We were there for a while and they all want to meet with missionaries now. So we just sent a Referral to the missionaries in the cities. Ken called us later that night telling us that she reading the scripture 2 Nephi 2:11 about opposition in all things. She was asking us what that meant and we talked to her for a good 15 minutes about the scripture! She then told us that she has been praying every night like we invited her to do and she said her faith in God is really increasing. When we met her 3 weeks ago, she didn't believe in God, how cool is that?

        She asked us what our favorite stories/chapters are in the Book of Mormon. So i lead her to Alma chapter 18 because i love that story about Ammon. She called us last night after she read it and said that she really liked it! I asked her how it could apply to her in her situation and she told us that we are like Ammon and that she is like King Lamoni. How cool is that? I love Ammon and we felt pretty cool to be compared to Ammon!


        We are really excited about Ken and how she is progressing! But we want to be teaching more people so we are going to be finding a lot more! Hopefully we can get some warmer weather this week! I love being here in Duluth its really fun!

Pictures -
1. A lesson with Ken and her two friends. Ken is on the left!
2. Driving the AP's truck.
3. Picture from Bloomington.
4. Dunking the basketball.






Monday, February 6, 2017

Hockey is Actually Cool ... Duluth with Elder Johnston

Hello Everyone,

   We had a good week, I really have enjoyed my time in Duluth. It is one unique area! Early in the week we had our zone conference and zone p day which I talked about last week!

We went on exchanges in Ashland WI with the Elders. That area just opened this transfer! I went on exchanges with Elder Black from Monticello UT. He knows Bronz from Blanding (Tanner's Cousin). It was cool to go there! We taught 3 lessons. We found a new investigator and taught one of there progressing investigators and then taught a less active family. We had a pretty good day! I like Elder Black a lot he is a really good missionary. He goes home the transfer before me!

On Friday we went with our investigator Ken to a UMD hockey game. UMD is always top 5 in the country for D1 College hockey. It was actually super intense. They won on a shootout 3-2. Our investigator Ken is so cool! This upcoming transfer we hope that she will be baptized.

Sunday we had like 4 of the less active YSA's come to church that we are working with. It was so cool to see all of them there! We also found out that one of our investigators just got out of jail and he was really progressing. So we are excited to meet with him again!

Some scriptures that I read this week that really helped me that I invite you to go read is Alma 26:27-37.

Thank you! Have a wonderful week!

Pictures
1. Exchanges with Elder Black
2. UMD Hockey Game
3. Us with our investigator Ken at the game.