Jeff email 8/30/2010

To you,


These past weeks have been crazy exciting! Elder Thompson and I are working our cans off! I have a goal to baptize 10 More people before the end so we are working hard for that! We have been teaching a woman named Ana and she will be baptized on the 11th of September. She is excited and going along great!!!

Yesterday we had such a funny experience. We were clapping doors and it was a door that went down some stairs. All of the sudden you could hear a dog growling and barking a little bit and it was getting louder. I couldn't see the beast but my companion could and he booked it. I was trapped, and thinking that it was a pit bull or something big like that. I got behind this little brick wall and prepared to jump up on top of it. When I saw the dog finally it was probably about the size of lex. Thinking that he was still going to kill me, I stayed hidden. All of the sudden 3 woman came up and chased it off. Yeah...embarrassing right... 3 woman helping out two grown men escape a little dog. I thought it was pretty funny.

This week I nearly cut my comps hand off with a piece of bamboo. He was trying to whip me with a towel and I picked up long piece of bamboo and was protecting myself from the whipping. All of the sudden he tried to grab the bamboo to get closer to me and I pulled it out of his hand and it cut pretty deep. Apparently bamboo cuts very easily. Who would have known.

Can i just say... I love The Book of Mórmon! Its soo helpful always!!!


Keep up the good work y’all (sorry my genola blood got me again)


TCHAU!!!!



Jeffrey

First Day of School 2010

Emma and her new teacher, Mrs. Wing.
Emma and her new desk.

Cousin Peyton is in the same class as Emma.

Rachel and Susie wanted to bring Emma to school on her first day of school.

Wonder Susie!

Goober Rachel!

Emma Lou!

G-man!

Jeff pictures

Jeff email 8/22/2010

And it came to pass.....


Hello all of you! How are you all doing these days? I bet you’re wondering how I'm doing so here's the DL (down low) on whats been going on these days. First off. Elder Thompson and I are basically best friends! We have a blast in all that we do and we work very hard. This week we marked amazingly high goals and we worked our little behinds off to reach those goals.. we ended up teaching 35 lessons in one week, we marked 5 baptismal dates, and we found 14 new investigators! There have been weeks that i have found more new investigators than this but i have never taught so much in my entire mission! We were working so hard and it was so amazing! You could see the Lord blessing us because of our ardent work! The thing is work like this is addicting! I cant wait to get out and try to reach our goals that are even higher this week. Every week i have to be turning up the intensity even though its already high. Ive only got 2 more months to baptize and I'm going to make the best of these two months!


I hope all is well back home!!!!


I sure do love you guys!!!!




Elder Johnson

Jeff 8/16/2010

Jeff email 8/9/2010

Afternoon delight!


This week was a good week! We had transfers on Tuesday and my dear and beloved companion was transferred. My new companion is Elder Thompson from Mesa Arizona. It's really quite fun to do contacts in the road for when we introduce ourselves it sounds like a song because Thompson and Johnson sound the same. This week we worked hard. We did a lot of contacts, service, and we had a blast doing it.

This week I was given a “tender mercy” from the Lord. One of my investigators was such an example to me. He and his wife were expecting a child on the 26th of July but for some reason it took until the 2nd of August for the child to arrive. Shortly after being born his little heart couldn't quite handle the stress of life and he passed away shortly after being born. During the week we passed there every day bringing messages of comfort to them. The first day you could tell that they were sad and especially her, but she came up to me and said “Papai do Céu levou meu filho, mais eu sei que foi a vontade Dele” which translates to be Daddy in Heaven took my child, but I know that it was his Will. On Friday we were there giving them a message about the iron rod and about how being baptized they would then be on the trail that leads to the tree of life and eventually our “Daddy in Heaven”. She said that the change that she has seen in her husband has been enough for her to know that she needs to be baptized. They aren’t married but we are working on goals to get them married and get their entire family into the Waters of baptism and on the straight and narrow. Now for the “tender mercy” that I received. Adilson, the father of that family said the closing prayer. After thanking Heavenly Father for his many blessings he began to ask. He briefly asked for help with passing the current situation of their family. He then used the remainder of the prayer to ask Heavenly Father to bless one of their neighbors who was passing through a tough problem. He spent more time asking for blessings for that family than asking for himself and his family. I was amazed that someone who was really needing blessings at that time, and probably even more than his neighbor, was still asking Father in Heaven to bless his neighbor. This family is ELECT!

I hope that you are all staying close to the scriptures these days! Because when I get back I'm going to make us read everyday so you might as well get used to it now so that when I get home it's not as intense for you!!! That is IF you aren't already reading!


I Love you all and I hope you all know that!!!


Love,

Elder Jeffrey T. Johnson

Jeff email 8/2/2010

Good after noon,


Central Bank time 12:00, today is Monday August 2nd, current temperature 10000 degrees. I remembered about calling time and temperature the other day and how could I forget those famous lines.

This week was pretty cool. Full of hard work and childish disagreements. Needless to say my companion is currently giving me the silent treatment. (I too thought that didn't happen outside of elementary school) He's one who thinks that the love he has for his family is more than any other human being can have for his family and that's his excuse for being “trunky” all the time. I politely said that there were 52,000 other missionaries in the world that are making the same sacrifices that he's making and that because they know why they're out here they don't let the distance from their family distract them from the work. Then I got to thinking how grateful I am that I could get my mind in the right place ever since the beginning. I've never had a problem with home sickness or anything like that. Is it because I don't love you all? Is it perhaps because our family relationship is less than other people? NO!!!! It's because I was called by a prophet of God to dedicate 2 years of my life to the Lord. I don't need any other excuses to not get home sick. IF I were to get home sick it would mean that my testimony that President Monson is a prophet of God is weak. If He is a Prophet of God then I am supposed to be in this exact place at this exact moment!

I hope you all know that I Love you a ton!! Just because I don't think about you every single second of everyday doesn't take any of that Love away. Just know that I have other responsibilities I need to take care of right now and that by sacrificing my thoughts about home leaves me a lot more time to worry about the salvation of those that I am here to help!!


This Church is true, and President Monson IS called of God to be a Prophet! I know this!!!!


Love Jeff!!!!