Week Ending 2/23/2014

• Pictures
• Sam chopping wood
• Sam's letter to family
• Zone conference
• Great investigators but didn't come to church
• Sick - lost voice
• Transfers coming up
• Dad's letter to Sam
• Working at ranch
• Parent Weekend
• Demi Maack's graduation
• BYU finally beats Gonzaga
• Quote from Elder Ballard

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We think this is Sam chopping wood

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Sam's Letter to Family

Hello all :) What a wonderful week it has been! I thought we finally beat the winter, but it is cold again today. It was 85 degrees on Tuesday! The rest of the week was beautiful too :)

We had zone conference this week, it was awesome!! I love going to those! It's like revelation nation!! I always come away with so many things I need to improve on it's kinda seems overwhelming sometimes. But I know if I take it one thing at a time I'll get them taken care of in no time :)

We had a pretty good week of teaching. We had some awesome lessons with our investigators, and we worked so hard to focus on getting them to church and they all committed to go and we were so excited! ....but then none of them came :( I guess they didn't understand it's importance as well as we thought they did hah. But we're not going to give up! We know it will bring them more peace, joy, happiness, and answers than they ever thought possible, but we just have to get them to understand that! They'll come along though I know they will :) It's a shame they missed church too because sacrament meeting was awesome!

I cant think of anything too unusual that happened this week. Sorry this letter is kinda lame... One of our exchanges hit a mailbox with his truck hahaha that was funny :) Luckily it wasn't a brick one like most people have around here!

Oh I caught a cold this week and I lost my voice it was terrible! Try being a missionary without being able to talk! It's pretty much impossible. Poor elder carter hated it haha. He had to do all of the teaching for like two days :) It's coming back now though so that's good :)

This is the last week of the transfer believe it or not. So we'll see what happens next week! Who knows where we'll be! I heard a quote in church yesterday that I really liked. I'm not sure who said it, but it said "It's not where you serve, but how." So I know that no matter where I'm sent, that is where the Lord will have me and I just need to do all I can to accomplish what the Lord wants me to do!

I hope you all have a great week full of missionary opportunities!! Choose the right!

Love,

Elder Johnson

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Dad's letter to Sam

Dear Sam,

This has been an interesting week. Mike Randall has been out of town all week so I spent the week out working with the horses. It was a lot of fun. Still learning a bunch about working with horses.

We had a parent weekend and I think that went well. The parents received training about working with their son's and also got to spend time with them. They all seemed to enjoy that.

I don't know if you remember Demi, but he graduated yesterday. He went home and tried out for the baseball team and made JV. After a few days he moved up to varsity. He was really excited about that. He got a really nice belt buckle from the school.

BYU update. BYU finally beat Gonzaga in basketball this week and they also won their game last night against Portland who beat BYU in a triple overtime. They blew them out 89-72. I guess they are on the bubble to make the NCAA tournament. If they can win out they probably will.

I was listening to Elder Ballard's conference talk from this past conference. There were some great promises in his talk. There were several parts that I really took to heart about doing better missionary work. There was one part where he quoted from Preach my Gospel. It was a part about if we want to share the gospel with more people we need to talk to more people. Here is the quote.

"You full-time missionaries, if you want to teach more, you must talk to more people every day. This has always been what the Lord has sent missionaries forth to do."

I guess it is a law of average deal. Well that is my suggestion for the week. Hope everything is going well in Texas. It is real dry here. No snow on the mountains. We are asked to fast for snow and rain this next week.

Well that is about it for this week.


Love Dad

Week Ending 2/16/2014

• Sam's letter to the Family
• Valentines day - lots of candy
• Colleyville stake vs Alliance stake
• Benny in his 80's
• Prayer answered with Brian
• Dad's letter to Sam
• Priest/Laural activaty (Food on the Floor)
• Quote on missionary work

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Sam's letter to the family

Happy Valentines day everyone <3 :) I hope you all had a good one :) We kept forgetting it was valentines day and we would show up at peoples houses but they would be doing something with their special someone and couldn't talk... lame.... We did get a few valentines cards and packages so we were happy about that :) Tons of candy! I mean TONS! It should last us a while :) 

Nothing too crazy happened this week. It just flew by like all of the rest of them. It's a good thing I keep a journal or I don't think I would remember some days at all! Sometimes I have to go back and check it just to make sure that we actually had a Tuesday this week! 

We did have stake conference yesterday, so that was exciting :) I am no longer in the Colleyville stake, I am now in the brand new Alliance stake :D They sure made a lot of changes, I'm glad I'm a missionary and don't have to worry about it :) 

We met a guy named Benny this week while we were tracting who was pretty awesome :) We taught him about the Restoration and he just thought it was awesome! He was super excited to read the Book of Mormon and said he would read it all before we came back on Friday (this was on Tuesday). We invited him to be baptized and he gladly accepted :) We are pretty excited for him! He is like 80 :) Unfortunately when we stopped back by on friday his sister said he wasn't feeling well. She told us he really isn't interested and not to come back.... So we'll just have to stake out and wait for her to leave next time we go see him :) He's ready I know it! D&C 29:7 :) 

I had a great experience with an answered prayer this week! We met this guy last week named Brian and when we were visiting with him he pulled up all of this anti- stuff on his computer and we tried hard to bear testimony to him of what we know to be true, but it didn't seem to be getting through to him. He said he wanted us to come back last Friday after he did some more research. I really really did not want to go back because I figured he would just find a bunch of more anti- stuff and try to prove us wrong and I've already heard it all and don't want to hear it again. So I was praying hard all week that that wouldn't happen. I was worried about it but when we went and saw him his countenance seemed to change. He said he had been praying a lot that week about what he wanted to talk to us about and he had a bunch of pages of stuff, but he just felt the overwhelming urge to talk about God's love. So we did! And it was really cool! The Spirit was really strong and he just asked us some questions he was genuinely curious about, like baptisms for the dead and about the spirit world. We were able to teach him about those things and show him the scriptural evidence backing it up. He thought it was very interesting and said he wanted to study it more now. I know he felt the Spirit and although he wasn't interested in learning more I know we left a good impression on him. 

It's amazing how God can change someones heart and hear every prayer. It was cool how He answered my prayer by answering Brian's prayer! 

The church is true! I know it is and nothing can make me change my mind because of all of the evidence I've seen throughout my life! It's amazing! I love this gospel and I love Jesus Christ! He is my Savior and my Redeemer! I know he loves me and I know he loves you! So show your appreciation this week by looking around you for all of the evidence of God's love for you and then kneel down and thank Him for it! 

You all are awesome and I love you too! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Johnson 

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Dad's letter to Sam

Dear Sam,

How are things going. Not to much has happened this week. 

Probably the most exciting thing was our Priest Laurel activity we had on Tuesday. The girls cooked a meal for us. As it turned out, they did a salad, spaghetti and ice cream dessert. It was all pretty good, the only catch was they served everything on the ground, meaning they just dumped it out on a plastic throwaway table cloth, starting with the salad. They dumped it out then poured dressing over it. You had to use your hands and scoop it into your eating area and then eat it. Same with the Spaghetti and then the banana splits. Everyone really had fun with it. After we had the Hansen's talk to us about dating. Everyone really liked it. 

BYU basketball update. They split this week, losing to Pacific and beat St. Mary's. Finally. They can be so bad some nights and then be so good. They are hard to figure out.

Still working on the boat. I have it all tore apart and need to get it back together. We have our fishing trip coming up here pretty soon and I need to get it ready. 

Friday was Valentines day. We went out to Bevins and barbecued steaks and watched a movie. The steaks were good. 

We told Jimi that he was going to come and live with us after he graduates and he is excited about that. I hope it works out. There is a good chance we will still have him when you get home. 

Well got to get to bed, early morning basketball tomorrow. Here is a missionary quote I found that I really liked. 

“Elders who go out to preach the gospel sometimes return and report that they know not whether they have been the means of converting anybody or not. But if they have been faithful, the harvest is sure. The seed they have sown may sprout and come to maturity years after they have been released.” (Smith and Sjodahl, Commentary, p. 434.)

Work hard, be humble and pray always.

Love Dad.

Week Ending 2/9/2014

• Pictures from Dad's Trip
• Indian writings 1
• Indian writings 2
• Pictures from Sam's Mission
•  Sam and Elder Quarter
• District picture
• Picture of Sam
• Elder Carter?
• Chandry to Sam
• What happened to you
• Sam's Letter to Family
• Snow
• Reported as criminals
• Sam get's to drive
• NJ's suprise...comes to church
• Dad's letter to Sam
• 3 day 2 night horse ride to Kanab Creek
• Answer to 2 prayers
• Spoke in church
• Tanner came for dinner

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Pictures From Horse Ride

Sam's Pictures to Family

Sam and Elder Carter

Elder Carter?

Sam's District

Sam somewhere

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Chandry's letter to Sam

What has Texas done to you?!

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Sam's Letter to Family

Let it snow let it snow let it snow :) Guess what we woke up to snow on Thursday! It was pretty fun :) No ice this time so that was nice! It still didn't stop us from doing our run in the morning though! There was ice on my eyelashes :) We're getting pretty quick believe it or not :)

We had a pretty funny experience this week on Tuesday. We were tracting this street in Woodland Springs and no one was really answering because it was the middle of the day, but there was this lady that kept driving by and looking at us and we thought that was a little odd. Our handbook tells us to watch out for people that ask probing questions or watch us closely so we kept our eye on her. Then finally she pulled up and asked us who we were working for so we told her we were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints then she asked us if that was our car parked at the end of the street and we said it was. Then she drove off but she pulled into this driveway (which we assume was her house) and she got out and was just watching us. So we finished the street and then got in our car and drove off. Like an hour later we started getting texts from people in our ward asking us if we were in Woodland Springs that morning because some lady had posted on the neighborhood facebook page that there were two guys walking around claiming to be from our church and they were acting suspicious! Hahahahaha I guess she took a picture of our car and posted it. A member showed us the facebook discussion yesterday and they were all arguing about whether missionaries drove cars or if we only rode bikes. Then people were like reporting sitings of us around town that day haha. We were like outlaws! We told the members that text us that it was us and they posted that we are legit. It was pretty funny though. Some people were talking about reporting it to the police and stuff. I don't know what we were doing to act suspicious, but whatever :)  It gave our members some missionary opportunities because they were able to post about what missionaries do and how people can learn more so it was some good publicity :) kinda :) The original lady that was watching us when she found out we really were missionaries "commended us for our service" :)

Oh I get to drive now! Not going to lie I was a little nervous at first after not driving so long! I guess it's like riding a bike though it comes back to ya :)

Our investigators are doing ok. We are having a hard time getting in with people because everyone is getting sick and it just passes around their families for like two weeks until everyone has had it then it goes away.

We did have a lady named NJ come to church yesterday! We were sitting in sacrament meeting and some lady came in and asked if we were Elder Johnson and Elder Carter and she said we had an investigator out in the foyer. We were trying to figure out who the heck it would be and it turned out to be NJ! The last one we would have expected! We hadn't seen her for like two weeks and we had an appointment for that evening. She said she wanted to surprise us :) She did a good job :) I think she really enjoyed it too :) We had lots of members come up and introduce themselves so that was awesome :) She said she wants to come back :)

Well that was about all of the excitement from the week that I can remember! Now I'm going to try and figure out how to attach some pictures to this so you guys can remember what I look like :)

Have a great week!!

Love Elder Johnson

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Dads Letter to Sam

Hi Sam,

How is everything going. Any progress on your investigators? Hope so.

This week we took some boys down to the Kanab Creek where we went a couple of months ago. This trip was three days and 2 nights. It was a blast. I was a little better prepared this trip and didn't get as sore this time. We saw a bunch of Indian writings that were really cool. It rained on us all the first night, but we had good tents. The rest of the time the weather was great.

The only down side was that I got sick the last night, but I prayed that I would feel better by morning for the long ride out. A miracle happened and I was better by morning.

I actually had two miracle's on the trip. On the ride out I had my smart phone in my shirt pocket and as we were riding out, we got a little stampede going. We were all on a dead run and my phone fell out of my pocket. It wasn't until several miles later I realized that I had lost it. We had a truck carrying the gear out and it was behind us. I turned and road back to the truck and told Justin Heaton who was driving and over the ride that I lost my phone. He said we could go back and look for it. I turned my horse lose and and got in with Justin to go look for it. I was praying that we could find it but it could be anywhere so I guess I wasn't real hopeful, baring a miracle. We drove back a couple of miles and I saw something in the dirt and a tire track right over it. I figured it would be smashed or the glass broken, but I got out of the truck and went and picked it up and other than being a little dirty, it didn't have a scratch. I was really grateful to find it.

It is scout month and I spoke in church today. It went ok, but I didn't really have it prepared like I wanted to. Got it over with though.

Tanner stopped by with a friend and a girl named Jennifer. He seems to always find another girl to bring over. Spiritually he doesn't look that good, but I guess he goes to church, at least he says he does. We keep praying that his heart will be softened and he will desire a testimony. We can never give up hope.

BYU update, they won both games this week and are now in second place, but I don't think they can catch Gonzaga. They will have to win the tournament. I guess the winter Olympics have started. Haven't watched any of that.

Well that is about a wrap. Hope things are going good in Texas. Keep working hard. We pray for you.

Love Dad.

Week Ending 2/2/2014

• Sams letter to the Family
• Teaching the Alzatrouns with Brother Burns
• Exchanges with a brand new missionary Elder Visser
• Commentary on the 2000 Stripling Warriors 
• Pictures from Tuweap trip (Grand Canyon Corridor and the Colorado River)
• Dad's Letter to Sam
• Email addresses
• Finished fence at school
• Legacy of Legends
• Tuweap trip for your moms birthday
• Special fast (Rain, Josolyn, House) 
• 
  

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Pictures from our Tuweap Trip (your mom's birthday present)

Panoramic picture looking off the cliff at Tuweap

If we were to take one step backward, it would be 3000 feet down and we'd be swimming in the Colorado River

Same picture as above but without the faces in the way

Can you find the deer in this picture. Nice buck, but hard to see

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Sam's letter to the Family

My oh my another great week come and gone in burning freezing icy melting snowy raining sunny Texas :)

Man this week went by so fast I can hardly remember what happened!

On Tuesday we got to teach this really cool family named the Alzatrouns. We took Brother Burns with us and taught the Restoration and he bore a super powerful testimony at the end of our lesson. It was so awesome! I love when members open their mouths! The Spirit was so strong! We invited them to be baptized, but they said they have already been baptized which is a common thing here in Texas, but luckily we talked about this in our last zone training so we were more prepared this time!

Instead of jumping right into Priesthood authority we have started to try and take their experience with baptism and use it to our benefit. Just because someone wasn't baptized by priesthood authority doesn't mean it wasn't a spiritual experience for them. Any time someone is trying to follow Christ it is a good thing. That is why people usually feel good no matter what church they attend. We talked to Julie about her how she felt when she was baptized and you could feel the Spirit just talking about it, it was cool. We helped her see that following Jesus Christ is a great thing and that the book of Mormon can help her become closer to him and it will help her know that His true church is once again on the earth! She said she would read and pray so that she could know :) Now we just have to wait for the Spirit to testify to her that it is true and then bring up baptism again :)

Oh I got to go be on exchange with a brand new missionary this week it was fun :) It was Elder Visser from Chicago. He is waiting on his visa to go to brazil. It was fun to see how similar he is now to what I was when I first came out! I remember being in his shoes and thinking I would never be able to teach as good as the other missionaries that had been out for a while. I cant believe that was.... a long time ago! Where did all of the time go!? I finally understand the saying time flies when you're having fun :)

We had a pretty good day together and the weather was beautiful that day! Thank goodness because neither of us can drive so we were riding bikes :) It's nice to have Elder Carter back though :)

I've been reading in Alma lately and I am in the war chapters right now and the thing that has really been sticking out to me is the preparation that the Nephites put in to defending themselves against their enemies. We, like the Nephites, have enemies that are trying to drag us down and destroy us. It is so important that we do what it takes to protect ourselves. I like how it says that they protected their vital parts so that most of their wounds were not fatal. It is important for us to also protect our "vital parts" and only you know what they are. If you struggle with the word of wisdom protect that vital part by staying away from places like the bar. Or if you struggle with profanity or losing your temper, fishing probably isn't a good hobby for you. We all need to do a self evaluation of ourselves and see where our vital parts are and then decide right then and there what we are going to do to protect ourselves.

Another interesting note is that it says pretty much everyone got wounded, but not unto death. God knows we are imperfect and that we are going to make mistakes and get those wounds, but let's keep from getting the big ones then we can work on protecting ourselves from the small ones. Let's put on the whole armor of God so that we can receive all of the blessings that the Lord has in store for us! I know that Jesus Christ lives and if you will let Him, he will heal our wounds and carry us in times of struggle. He loves you and he loves me and I love Him and I hope you do too!!

You guys are awesome :)

Have a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Johnson


P.S I am bound and determined to figure out this picture thing so expect some next week :)

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Dad's Letter to Sam


I don't have mailing addresses for Brother Moosman and Sister Stuart, but here are their email addresses.

Reeves: mooserv21@gmail.com
Sister Stuart: Leslie@colvilleconsulting.com

To bad on Gordon, but that happens a lot. I think they realize the commitment and that scares them. You gave him a chance and planted a seed. Maybe sometime down the road it will stick.

Probably the big news of the week for me is that we finished the fence down to the end of the lane. That was a real pain, but we finally got it done.

On Friday we took 3 boys, Rand, Jimi and Ben down to Las Vegas to a horse event at South Point. It was called "Legacy of the Legends". It was real fun and we learned a lot. A guy named Buck Brannaman who is a world famous horse trainer was there. It was a three day event, but we only stayed 1 day as it cost $100 per person per day. One of the boys and our staff stayed for all three days, but his father paid for it.

I learned some really cool stuff about breaking horses and roping and cattle sorting. We happened to be down under the arena putting our horses away and Buck happened to come by. Jimi and me introduced ourselves and visited with him for a few minutes. That was cool.

Mom has probably told you about our trip to Toweap yesterday. That was fun and a neat place to see. We will have to go out there when you get back.

This is out on the Arizona Strip where the big bucks roam. As we were driving out I spotted a heard way out in a flat area. So I got out and ran as fast as I could to see if I could get close to get a picture. Well that didn't work out to well they took off and never stopped for about a mile. The funny thing was while I was running towards them I almost run over this big buck that was laying down in the tall bushes. He was a nice buck, not a 40 incher or anything like that. I never did get close enough to the other heard to see if there were any big bucks in there. It was fun chasing them though.

We had fast Sunday today. We were asked by the stake to fast and pray for rain and snow. Well we got that on Friday, so I guess it was a fast of gratitude. We also fasted for Josolyn, Dwayne and Dixie's daughter. She is dating a Jehovah Witness and is serious about converting. They ask us to fast for her.

Your mom and I also were fasting on how to proceed on building a house here. Prices are going up fast here, but not so much in Cottonwood. We are kind of stuck. We need to sell something down there so we can build here. I guess it will all work out one way or another. Try not to be like your mom and I. We take to long to make a decision and by the time we do it seems that the opportunity is past. Make a best educated (and prayerful) decision and move forward. That was the advice for the week.

I'll include some pictures in a second email from our trip.

We love and pray for you always.

Love Dad.

Week Ending 1/26/2014

• Sam's letter to Dad/Family
• Gordon's baptism fell through
• Lakeisha still progressing, in army reserves and gone alot
• Not homesick love teaching
• Dad's letter to Sam
• Did Schedule baptisms happen?
• Getting ready for tours at the school
• Taking Allyn to airport in Las Vegas (Answer to prayer)
• BYU Basketball update 
• Lost to Portland in Triple overtime 114-110
• Lost to Gonzaga by 15
• Gave blood
• Thoughts on Moses encounter with God and the devil
• Worked on the boat bottom

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Sams Letter to Dad/Family

Unfortunately we didn't have our baptisms this week. Gordon decided it wasn't for him, but Lakeisha is still doing really well :) We have a date for her for the 15th of February, but it is hard because she is in the army reserves so she goes out of town a lot and she cant get baptized until she comes to church several times, so we are hoping it sticks but we may have to move it back a little more, but we'll see.

I never really have felt homesick, I don't know why, but I'm grateful I haven't! In fact the thought of going home is rather terrifying to me hah I feel like I'm still a kid and when I get home I am going to have to make lots of important decisions so I try not to think about it. I just love being a missionary :) It's so fun to meet so many interesting people! I also love learning so much from the scriptures and from other missionaries! There is so much good stuff contained in the pages of the scriptures! I just want to learn more and more and more! I love teaching and I love talking to people so being a missionary is a good fit for me :) It's just plain ol' fun :)

I'm trying not to waste a minute of it because it goes by so darn fast and when it's gone it's gone!

Well I hope you have a great week!

How is grandma doing?

Oh and were you able to track down brother moosmans address and sister stuarts email? I would really appreciate if you could find them!

Love,

Elder Johnson

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Dad's Letter to Sam


Wow the month of January is over already. Time is really flying

You had a couple of baptisms scheduled for this weekend, did they happen? Gordon and Lakeisha. I know baptism's sometimes don't always happen as scheduled, but I hope these come through.

This week we are preparing for some big tours coming up at the school so I have been working on getting things cleaned up and fixed up. Dick Prince and I have been putting in vinyl fence clear to the highway. One day the wind was blowing 100 miles an hour all day as it can in Toquerville. It was a pretty miserable day, but we ended up getting a lot done.

I took one of the boys (Allyn) to Las Vegas to fly home on a week home visit. We got a late start missed the exit. We found out that you can arrive at the airport with only a half hour til your flight leaves and you can still make it. I honestly believe we had some divine intervention. I was sure we would not make it. But people in lines let us cut to the front and we were able to get him to his plane before they closed the doors. The guy that went with me told me that he asked Allyn if they could stop for a minute while he offered a prayer that they could make it on time. They did and they did. Heavenly Father hear's and answers the simplest prayers.

BYU Basketball update. Well it was a bad week for BYU. They lost to Portland in a triple overtime game 114-110. It was luck they got into overtime, but in the second overtime they should have won it. They were up by 8 with 2 minutes to go. Portland had this guy that couldn't miss on 3's no matter who was guarding him. He brought them back to tie it for the (8 three's in the second half) 3rd overtime. All BYU's big guys fouled out. Tyler Haws scored 48 points in the game. Only the second player in BYU history to score 40+ points more than once. Jimmer is the other. On Saturday they were out of gas and lost to Gonzaga by 15. It looks like the NIT again for BYU unless they win their tournament.

Your mom and I did our civic duty and gave blood on Thursday. I don't really enjoy it, but feel that it is our duty.

I got the would cut out for the bottom of the boat on Saturday. I have a little more to do, but need more plywood. The cutouts look pretty good.

I was reading the Sunday school lesson today and it is about Moses being in the presences of God then the devil. One calling him the son of God and the other son of man. The Lord sure has a greater expectation of who we can become. It is important that we pass that message on to those we teach.

I never ask, but have you felt homesick at all or just lost in the work?

Well have a good week, be spiritual and work hard.

Love Dad