Twins Game with Elder Oldroyd

Hello Everyone,

        This week was a great one. We had many things going on. Tuesday we had Mission Leadership Counsel, that went well. Elder Oldroyd and I lead a discussion on the importance of Role Plays. Overall MLC was a good experience and I think we were all uplifted.

        Wednesday we had new missionary training so all the new missionaries came to Bloomington and we had pretty much a zone conference for all of them. We gave a training on Planning for our investigators. It went fairly well. I love seeing all these new missionaries. They have so much faith and are so excited and scared at the same time. I remember being the exact same way, like a deer in the headlights.

        Thursday we had the twins game as a mission. Well at least all the missionaries in the Twin Cities. It was super awesome to see all my missionary friends and to watch my favorite game in the world. The Twins played the Royals and beat them 5-3 it was a good game and I was happy to see the twins doing so well. Elder Oldroyd got to be on the big screen because he was apart of a competition where they flipped water bottles and was trying to land them straight up. He lost though.. Elder Harper won though so that was good. The game was actually pretty windy and cold we were in the shade so it was even a little colder, but anything to be at a MLB game. After the 6th inning we couldn't really feel anything anyway we were just numb.

        Friday we went on exchanges with the Karen Speaking Elders. I got to teach a couple of lessons with them, even though I had no idea what they were saying. It was really cool, we sat on the floor for both lessons. They like to sit criss cross apple sauce. I actually can't sit like that very comfortably so I was moving around quite a bit haha. But the overall experience was cool. The Karen speaking people are so nice, the Elders told me that every door they knock on, they get in. They teach lessons all day long, it is really cool. I got a Karen name as well, the investigator told me mine and it translates into " Sweet Miracle" So i was pretty excited about that!

        We have been sharing the Easter video #PrinceofPeace with everyone and it has been really great. One night this week we were actually trying to tract down this women who referred herself on mormon.org, but she was not home. So as we were walking out of the apartment we see this lady on her knees looking through her purse with this man standing there as well. So we started talking to them and found out that she was a member but had been inactive for many years. We asked her what she was doing and she said that she had lost her keys to the car. We told her that when we lose things we like to pray and ask for help to find it. So we prayed with her and not even 10 seconds after amen she grabs her keys right out of her purse. What a miracle. We tried to share the video and she was not really interested, but we both know that experience had an impact on her. Down the road she will become active again. It was just a testimony to me, that God really is there. He watches over every single one of us! Prayer is a real. God answers prayers when we have faith.

This week was honestly good, just a little bit stressful. But stress helps you grow right? Haha anyway, thanks for supporting me out here! Have a wonderful week.

Pictures
1) Elder Oldroyd and I in MLC haha
2) Twins game
3) New Missionary Training
4) President Forbes playing catch
5) President Forbes, ELder Oldroyd, Elder Jones and I
6) Lesson I had in the Karen Elders

New Area with Elder Oldroyd

Hello Everyone,


      I apologize for not writing very recently. I have been very busy and it has been hard to get some time to write a good email. I don't even remember if I wrote since I got to my new area. Either way, I will just tell you. I am now serving in Bloomington which is just south of Minneapolis. I am serving with Elder Oldroyd one of my favorites. He and I were in the same MTC room together and to say we have fun would be an understatement. Just in the two weeks that I have been here I have had so much fun and so many things to do. President Forbes lives in Bloomington so we get to see him a lot and that has been really fun to be around him.

        The Bloomington ward is very solid, they love missionary work and do a lot of member missionary work. Elder Oldroyd and I have been praying that we will find a family to baptize this transfer which is really exciting. We have decided that we are going to tract 5 houses every single day and that sometime within the next couple of weeks we will find the family we want to baptize.

        Conference weekend! Oh my goodness! It was so amazing to be able to listen to our prophet, his counselors, and the apostles. What amazing talks! I felt the spirit very strong throughout the entire conference. Elder Costa gave an amazing talk that I am sure all missionaries loved because it was directed to all investigators that were watching. He was truly and answer to many prayers! I am so grateful that we have this opportunity every 6 months to be spiritually fed by these inspired servants of God. I encourage all of you to study out the talks again and apply things that you learned. We can all improve,repent, and change daily.

        I love this gospel! I love being a missionary more than anything. The Savior gave us everything he had, I want to be able to tell him that I gave him everything I had on my mission. Elder Oldroyd and I both have very motivating attitudes and are very excited about this work!

1. The car I am sitting in set a record by going 412MPH
2. Mall of America

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

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

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

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.

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