7/29/2013 - Sams Letter to the Family

Well things are still going great out here! I am loving it more and more everyday. Being a missionary is the best! Don't believe me? Just try it and you will see :) Holy smokes this week went by fast, I can hardly remember what happened. It was nice and cool this week. It mostly stayed in the nineties every day so that felt nice compared to how it has been.

We found our baptismal date guy again! He disappeared for a while and we couldn't figure out what happened to him but he finally returned one of our calls and said he was in the hospital and he wanted us to come visit him. The zone leaders wouldn't give us permission to leave our area though so they went and visited him for us. They said he is doing good and still wants to be baptized so that is great! He should be home now so we are going to go see him tonight.

We are still working on Evon. He just needs to get baptized, I don't know what he is waiting for. I think it will happen soon though.

Oh I gave a training in district meeting last week. It was ok I guess. Hmmmm.... We built a fence for someone last week. The young men put the poles in for it though so I was a little crooked hah it looked good from the street though :)

On friday we went to a follow up training for all of the missionaries being trained. That was fun I got to see my old mtc buddies and hear about their adventures. President Ames trained on having a vision of what we want to do as missionaries. It was really good.

Oh something cool happened this week! We have been trying to get this less active to church since I got here and he is never interested, but we called the elders quorum president to see who our exchange was one night and he told us to call the less active and ask him if he wanted to go. We were a little hesitant but then we did and he said yes! He was sharing his insights during our lessons and baring his testimony and everything it was awesome!!!! Now they have called him to be in the elders quorum presidency. He came to church yesterday and everything is looking up for him it's fantastic! It's amazing what a calling can do for someone.

Everything seems to be going smoothly down here. Some girl in my ward told me that Jody Rich made it to florida or wherever he was biking to so that is cool. I hope everything is going well for you guys. Keep being missionaries!

Love
Elder Johnson

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7/28/2013 - Dad's letter to Sam

Dear Elder Johnson,

I just realized that you have been on your mission for over 1 month now. Less than 23 to go. Not that I am counting, but realize how fast time can go. This is a good time to evaluate yourself and see if what you are doing is taking you in the right direction. Is your faith growing? Do you look at each person you meet and see them being baptized or reactivated. One thing I hope you learn early is that effective planning before teaching or tracking is very important. Prayerful preparation to teach investigators is as important as anything you can do. Finally are you courageous in opening your mouth and taking every opportunity to testify of Christ and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

When I was on my mission I thought that if I worked hard I would get results. I believe I did work physically hard, but I could have done better at working hard preparing to teach. I think the missionaries today are better at preparing to teach. I have no doubt that you are doing your very best. I hope you are not suffering to much home sickness. We tried to make it as miserable here as possible to you wouldn't be home sick :-)

I took the lower unit off the boat last night and am working on finding parts to fix it. It is a shame to have a boat and not use it. I think I am going to tear the carpet out and redo the inside to make it look a little nicer. 

We took a hike to Kanaraville Fall on the 24 of July with Bevin, Dale and wives. It was fun and a neat hike. Your mom said it was the best hike she had ever been on. It was really cool. I'll include a few pictures. 

Your mom and I went to the family history center this week, but didn't have too much success. When I logged on half of my family line was missing and we could not get it back. Don't know what happened to it since it was there earlier. They tried to find a name for your mom to take to the temple and couldn't. Hopefully we didn't discourage the family history workers to much. Remember when you get a new convert to the temple within 3 months of their baptism the stay active rate is over 80%. Good incentive to get them to the temple.

Scripture of the week comes from Alma 17:2-3,9. 

Have a great week.

Love Dad