Week Ending 1/6/2014

• Video of Dad ice skating
• Sam's letter to the family
• Lakeisha committed to baptism on January 25
• Saw some deer
• Gordon committed to baptism on January 25
• New car 2014 Ford Fusion with Bluetooth
• Cold front moved in
• Commit to missionary work
• Sam's Letter to Dad
• Sam's response to proposing to Cierra Stratton
• Hurrah for Israel
• Dad's Letter to Sam
• Grandma Johnson house robbed
• Team sorting at the fair grounds
• Rummer that Sam proposed to Cierra

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Dad first time Ice Skating

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Sam's Letter to the Family

Oh boy did we end the new year with a bang! We had an awesome week this week!! Tuesday was the best day ever!!!! 

There was this lady named Lakeisha that we taught a little Christmas message to a while back and we went back to see her on Tuesday night. She is so awesome! I love her!! We taught her about the Restoration and she thought the Book of Mormon sounded like the coolest thing ever! She is so excited to read it :) We even set a baptismal date with her for the 25th of January! When we invited her she didn't even hesitate, she just said yeah I would like that and pulled out her phone and put it on her calendar :) She went out of town for the rest of the week though so unfortunately she wasn't able to come to church, but we are meeting with her on Wednesday and she wants us to teach her mom and her brother and she has two teenage kids that we hope to teach! 

After we saw Lakeisha we went and met this guy named Gordon, who lives way out at the edge of our area we call it the boonies. Oh we saw a bunch of deer on the way out there too so that was cool :) Anyways Gordon is awesome too! We taught him about the Restoration too and then committed him to be baptized on the 25th :D We are so excited! He is such a nice humble guy. He doesn't ever want to do anything for himself he just wants to serve others. He said he feels like he closed the door on the Lord and we are opening it back up for him :) 

The work is picking up here in Roanoke it's awesome! I love the people here in Texas! I never thought I could love so many people! Especially complete strangers!! It's the best :) 

Oh we got a pretty sweet new years present on Thursday!!! We drove down to Euless on Friday afternoon to the mission office. We got a little lost but we eventually found it :) But we got a new car!!! Yaaaaaayyyy!!!!! A 2014 ford fusion :D It only had 27 miles on it when we got it! It is so cool! We hooked our phone up to the bluetooth so can just call people without even taking the phone out of my pocket :) I just wish I could drive it! I'm beginning to wonder if I'm ever going to get my driving privileges haha, but oh well :) 

Oh man we had a huge cold front move in this weekend. We went running this morning and I thought we were gonna die haha We checked the temperature when we got back and it was only 17 degrees! Good thing I got some warm socks for Christmas :) 

Well I hope everyone had a happy new year! I also hope you made some goals for you and your family to do missionary work. If you didn't you need to repent and make them :) The Lord will bless you as you exercise your faith by setting goals :) Our high priests quorum set a goal that everyone would have one person taught in their home by the end of the year :) It's going to happen! And we're going to see miracles as well as baptisms here in Roanoke! 

You guys are awesome! 

Love,

Elder Johnson

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Sam's Letter to Dad

Haha getting married right when I get back huh? That's news to me too :) Honest you don't need to worry about where my heart is dad! I love serving the Lord and there is nothing that will keep me from doing it with all of my heart might MIND and strength!! I took your advice before I left on my mission about not having a girl wait for you so I asked Cierra not to wait. I'm glad I did too. Like you said if it is meant to be and it works out it works out, but that is not what is important to me right now. So I'm not sure who's spreading the rumors, but here's the words from the horses mouth or whatever the saying is :) 

I love you dad! 

Hurrah for Israel!!

Love,

Elder Johnson

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Dad's Letter to Sam

Hi Sam,

Well we are into the new year and already had a problem. Grandma Johnson's house was broke into tonight. You mom probably got the details from mom. Pretty scary. They may get video from the school across the street. We are not sure how much their camera's can see. We'll keep you posted.

Yesterday we had a fun day. We took 7 of the boys from the school to a team sorting thing over a the fair ground. How it works is you have 10 calves in one round pen and you have to move them in order (they are numbered 0-9) into another round pen. You have 60 seconds to do it in. If you get the cow's out of order then you are disqualified. It was a lot of fun. It cost $20 dollars to enter and the 1-4 places won money. The boy I was working with and I were disqualified because one of the cows busted for the gate and I couldn't get him stopped before he went through and he was out of order.

Well not much else happened. Oh, there was one thing that concerned me. The rumor on the street is that you and Cierra??? will be getting married as soon as you get home and the plans are made. I may have got bad information, What is the most concerning is where your focus is. I think we talked about that before you left. Hey, if it works out when you come home that is great, but I hope you are not allowing it to be a distraction to you on your mission, it will be the one regret you will have when you come home.

Well, hope you have a good week and work hard so you and your Heavenly Father will be proud of your effort to bring his children back to him. (Moses 1:39)

Love Dad

Week Ending 12/29/2013

• Pictures from Arizona Christmas trip
• Sam's letter to the Family
• Christmas at Sarks
• District party 
• Call home from bathroom
• Visit the Carols
• Brother Sarks sealed to family (long time coming - 12 years)
• Amazing Book of Mormon story with a lady named Margarite given to her by a co-worker
• Sam's letter to Dad
• Dad's letter to Sam
• Phone call from Sam
• Tanner and I taking Logan to the zoo
• BYU football lose Fight Hunger Bowl to Washington
• BYU basketball lose to Loyola Marymount
• Quad ride in Arizona
• Forgot to press send Week before Dad's letter to Sam
• Last weeks letter
• Kanab Creek horse ride
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• 
  

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Pictures from Arizona Christmas Trip

From left to right, Cade, Tanner, Kameron, Dad

From left to right. Caryn, Caleb, Conner, Cade, Kameron, Jeter, Katie, Bret, Tanner, Mom, Logan, Dad, Ethan, Natalie, Jacob

Nice buck on skyline outside of Prescott Valley out toward Perkinsville

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Sam's letter to the Family

Wow this week went by super fast!! Well they all go by fast, but this one was extra fast! The Spirit of Christ must have really been working on people this week because we got to teach a lot of lessons which is always fun :)

Christmas was awesome! I got everything I could have wanted and more :) We got a TON of candy!!! I hate it because I love it! We're gonna get fat haha.

We got up at 6 and ran to the Sarks to watch their 13 kids open up their presents :) It was so fun! I have never seen so many presents in my life! Each kid got like 10!!

We had district meeting after that. It was really fun :) We watched mr krueger's Christmas and learned about Christ :) Then we came home and went back to the Sarks for dinner and to call our families :) It was hard to find a quiet place to do it so I took brother sarks wheel chair and rolled into the bathroom and talked in there :) He had his prosthetic leg on so he didn't need it :)

After dinner we went and visited some people that were alone on Christmas, that was nice. Then we went to the carols and had dessert and played some games :)

On Friday I got to go on exchange with Elder Grigg my district leader. It was super fun, he is a cool guy! We got to split some wood for this lady, that was fun :)

Oh they had a baptism on Thursday night, it was awesome!! On Saturday Elder Carter and I got to go to the temple with our ward. It was awesome because Brother Sark was going through for the first time! I love the temple so much!!!!! I wish I could go every day!! Poor Elder Carter was so excited to see the new temple video, but then there was someone in our session that needed to watch it in sign language so they showed the old one. It was still fantastic though :) The best part was seeing sister Sark! She was just glowing! She has been waiting for this day for 12 years!! Talk about a long time investigator! She never gave up on Brother Sark though and now they are getting sealed on February 14th.

We had a really cool experience last night with a lady named Margarite. We saw her taking out her trash and Elder Carter offered to help. She accepted and she asked us who we were. As we talked for a while she told us that she had a Book of Mormon that a co-worker had given her years ago. She asked us why he gave it to her and I told her because it really blessed his life and brought him joy and he obviously cared about you and wanted to share that joy and those blessings with you. She said she had never read it so I asked her if we could mark a place in it for her to read and she went and got it. When she opened it up she found that he had written his testimony inside and it basically said the same thing I told her about why he gave it to her. It was really cool and she seemed touched. Inside he had invited her to read the introduction and 3 Nephi 11 which is what I was going to leave for her to read. He had marked it and put his own comments in it. She said she would read it and that we could come back! It's so cool to see the fruit of someone being a member missionary and he will probably never know how much it had an effect on her. It was a real testimony builder for me that I should never get discouraged if all of my hard work seems to be in vain because I know that I am planting seeds.

Well there is a real life example of what can happen when you follow the promptings of the Spirit and open your mouth! So how about we all go out and try it!! I'll do it if you do :) I'll do it if you don't too, but why miss out on blessings and happiness? :)

I love you all and wish you good luck and a happy new year!!!

Love,

Elder Johnson

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Sam's letter to Dad

Sounds like you had a pretty fun week! I wouldn't mind shooting that buck! I'm glad to hear you guys got my package :) I did get the jerky from brother Moosman, but I don't know his address because sister stuart sent me a package and it was in there. Have a good new year! And happy birthday on Thursday!!!!

Love,

Elder Johnson

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Dad's letter to Sam

It was sure good to talk to you this week. Sounds like you had a great Christmas. We wish we could have talked longer, but obedience is better than sacrifice...
Christmas was fun, we went to Natalie’s as you know. We really spoil the grandchildren and now we are headed home.

Thursday, Tanner and I were put in charge of watching Logan while Natalie and your mom went shopping. We took him to the zoo. That was fun until Logan dropped his little truck into one of the animal dens. We couldn’t get it back. Logan threw a fit which lasted for about 2 hours. He really wanted that truck back.  Well we were told they would retrieve it and it would be at the ranger station. It never showed up. Well we finally went home and Logan seemed to get over it. I guess Natalie went and bought a new truck the next day with the money Grandma Johnson sent to him.

Friday we went to Cottonwood and spend the day visiting old friends. Went and seen the Kitchens. I guess Brennen is the student body president. We also went to see Reeves. That was fun and he gave me a bag of jerky of course.  We went and seen a few others and then went over to Cade and Caryns.

We watched BYU play Washington in the “Fight Hunger Bowl”. They were terrible. Lost 31-18 and looked bad in the process.
BYU basketball team played Loyola Marymount in basketball on Saturday. A game they should have won easily, but were beat soundly.

We didn’t really watch the game. We went out on a ride with Cade’s artacat and a ranger borrowed from a friend. That was cold, but fun. We seen a bunch of antelope and a heard of deer with two nice bucks in it. I have included some pictures.

We went to Golden Coral for dinner that was good as usual. Ate to much.

Everyone, except you of course, were in Prescott for the blessing of Caleb Mason Johnson. Cade did a nice job in the blessing.

Well that is about it. We are driving home and almost to Fredonia, the longest part of the trip.

I was thinking about the Sons of Mosiah. 17 verses 2-3 and 9-10 where it talks about their preparation before separating on their missions. That was important for them to be sensitive to the spirit. I think of what made Ammon so successful. As I read it, I realized that because of his loyalty and more importantly his service opened the door for his ability to teach the king. So strong was Ammon’s righteousness that he could discern the thoughts of the king. This further opened the door for him to teach the gospel. I am not saying that you will be able to read every investigators thoughts, but if you are in turn with the spirit, you will be led by it to know how to better serve, teach and know their needs.  It will take effort on your part (Alma 17), but I believe if you will be diligent and really pray for inspiration for your investigators you will be able to touch their hearts beyond your own capability. Remember you are on the Lords errand, and are entitled to all the guidance of the spirit as any missionary throughout all history. Sometimes you will have an Arron (Ammon’s brother) experience , but if you are true and faithful you will see much success.

Take care,

Love Dad.


PS. Just opened your Christmas present to me, It is the best. Kameron will have to wait on his present. Who is the long round gift to? There was no name.

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Dad's last week letter to Sam (Forgot to click send)





Only 3 days until Christmas.

We are wondering what your plans are for calling on Christmas day. We will be in Arizona for Christmas this year so not much chance of a white Christmas. Can you skype of will you just be calling on a phone?

Did you get Brother Moosmans jerkey? Make sure you write him. He is sure proud of you and Josh.

Hard to believe you have been out over six months now. Man time is flying by.

I did a really awesome thing this week. On Wedesday we took 6 boys down to Kanab Creek. Out by Pipe Springs and about 30 miles south on a dirt road. One of the guys that work out at our ranch with Mike has a family member that does overnight trail rides. He had us come down and help pack some of the stuff into his camp sites. It was about a 40 mile ride from what they said. We had pack mules and horses that we loaded and packed gear in to the camp sites. We had a lot of fun. I was sore when I got home though. It was an over night trip and the camping was a little cold at night, but not unbarable. The fun part was coming out it got dark on us and we were hearding 12 horses it was pitch black. We had to ride about 9 miles in the dark. I guess horses can see at night, but we couldn't see the person in front of us. You really had to trust the horses. We all made it out safe and sound.

Cade, Kameron, Conner and Jeter came this weekend. We have been doing a few things, but Jeter has a real bad cold and you know how that zaps you. We have had fun though.

We had an amazing Christmas program in church today. It was really focused on Christ. I really love that part of the Christmas season. It is so commercialized now so I have been working really hard to make it more focused on Christ. I realize that everything we do should be focused on Christ, all year long.

Well hope you are having a good Christ centered Christmas. We pray for you and all the missionaries daily.

Talk to you on Wednesday.

Love Dad.

I didn't click send on this from last week.

Week Ending 12/22/2013

• Waiting for First phone call
• Sam's letter to the Family
•  Christmas Devotional (seen old buddies)
• Sam got sick 
• Blessing from companion
• Christmas caroling
• Testimony of Christ
• Mom's letter to Sam
• Trevor's graduation
• Cade, Conner, Kameron and Jeter come to visit
• Going to Phoenix for Christmas

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Additional Note from Sam

ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...... I think I'll call at like 3:30, but it might be anywhere between then and 5:30... I hope that's not inconvenient.

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Sam's letter to the Family

Well my first full week in Roanoke was pretty great :) Elder Carter and I threw a baseball last pday which I haven't done in a long time! It was pretty fun :) 

Oh we had a Christmas Devotional on Tuesday. It was fun because I got to see all my missionary buddies :) Elder Hew Len is doing good up in Denton so I was glad to hear that :) We had a big lunch then we watched a movie, I think it is called how rare a possession. It was a good one :) That was a really long day because we had interviews with president Ames before the devotional so we had to get up at like 5 to be there before 7 just to be told that we didn't have to be there until 9! This zone seems to have some communication issues haha oh well, we just did our studying at the church :) 

Oh man on Friday I got so sick!!! It was terrible!! I did get a nice ab work out from throwing up so much so it wasn't all bad :) 

something cool did happen that morning though! So I had been over the toilet since like two and at like 5 I decided to go ask elder Carter for a blessing and I guess he had slept through the whole thing (don't ask me how since our bathroom is connected to our bedroom) but right as I walked in the room he sat up and said he just had a dream that someone told him he needed to get up right now. So I told him what was going on so he gave me a blessing :) It's cool that the Lord loves me enough to show me that he really is aware and is looking out for me when I could have easily have walked over and woken Elder Carter up myself. 

We went caroling that night with our district which was a lot of fun :) it was super cold though! This week's weather has been crazy. One day it's 80 and the next day it's 20. 

We did something called living Christmas cards. We had people give us the names of friends and neighbors that we could go sing to and that's who we went to. We are usually pretty terrible singers but I guess the Lord was blessing us that night because we sounded pretty good :) We are going again tonight to the other missionaries areas so hopefully He will bless us again :) 

Well I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas season! I hope you all have the opportunity to bear your testimony to someone about the Savior. There is nothing like it! I love Jesus Christ and I know that he lives! I know he loves us and that he is the Son of God. I know that he lived and died for each of us so that we can return to live with him and our Father in Heaven. I KNOW that this is his true church upon the earth today and that is always will be! I love this gospel with all my heart and I would do anything to help the kingdom of God progress on the earth! I love being a missionary and I love EVERYONE in Texas!! 

Merry Christmas everyone!!!!!

Love,

Elder Johnson

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Mom's Letter to Sam

Sam,

Are you ready for Christmas? Did you buy the lighter fluid? You also need to make sure you have 2 potatoes. 

This has been a very busy week trying to finish up Christmas and we also had a parent weekend and Trevor graduated from our school. So we had a graduation ceremony for him.

We also had a boy run away. He made it to the super 8 motel in Hurricane and went in and used the Internet to facebook his mom and told her where he was. He made his bed look like he was sleeping in it and left at about 11pm and the staff didn't find out he wasn't in his room until the next morning. Not good. His mom called to tell us where he was around 9 am.

Kameron, Cade,Conner and Jeter came up on Friday night. Saturday we went out to gather the eggs from the chicken, ride the horse (just in the field because it was cold).While we were at the graduation the boys went 4 wheeling in Toquerville.  I think the boys had just as much fun playing the Christmas train as anything.

Kameron and Cade are leaving tomorrow night and we are leaving after work on Tuesday to go to Natalie's for Christmas. We thought Kameron and Katie were going to come to Natalie's house like they did last year but they decided they were going to stay home this Christmas. I don't blame them we travel one Christmas day and it wasn't very fun. We are going to go to Cade's on Thursday and spend the rest of the weekend with them. They are blessing Caleb on Sunday.

When are you going to Call? I can't wait, that will be the best present ever. Well we'll talk to you then.

I Love You,

MOM

Week Ending 12/15/2013

•  Pictures
• Rockville rock slide
• Sam's letter to Family
• New area, no investigators
• Now have 4 investigators
• Christmas Devotional and see Elder Hew Len
• Sam's letter to Dad
• Elder Carter (New companion)
• Found left handed mitt
• Dad's letter to Sam
• Record cold weather
• Rock slide in Rockville
• Bringing horses off the range at Pipe Springs
• BYU basketball - Lose to Utah
• Got Christmas tree 

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Rockville Rock Slide

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Sam's Letter to Family

Merry Christmas everyone!!!! Are you all so very excited!? I know I am!

We have a christmas tree and lights, all we need is some Christmas music :)

Roanoke is awesome! I love it! And my companion is even more awesome!! It's Elder Carter from Spanish Fork utah :) My first utah companion. We are having so much fun! He loves hunting and fishing and baseball and basketball hah sounds like someone I know :)

The ice is finally melting here it's pretty much all gone now. They just got a new church building here in Roanoke, so I wasn't the only one who was lost at church :) This ward is awesome! I didn't think anywhere could be as great as denton, but so far Roanoke is pretty great!

I was pretty worried when I first got here because we had 0 investigators, but since wednesday we have already found four solid ones!! The Lord is truly blessing us! We have taught so many lessons it's super fun! Elder Carter and I are learning to teach together so that is good :) I just need to work on not talking so much haha I'm getting better though :) Everything is just going dandy here in Texas! I still love being a missionary!!! It never gets old feeling the Spirit and preaching the gospel :)

I hope you guys are having lots of missionary opportunities and if you're not you need to pay closer attention :)

We have a Christmas Devotional tomorrow so I should get to see Elder Hew Len so that will be fun :)

Well we're going to go play some basketball :D I hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Love,

Elder Johnson

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Sam's Letter to Dad

My new area is fantastic I love it!! Oh and I didn't get a package from Brother Moosman, did he send it to my old address or my new one?

When I first met my companion, Elder Carter, the first thing he said was "elder Johnson, I hear you have the best jump shot in the mission." haha I guess that is good :) I would of rather him said "elder johnson, I hear you are the best missionary in the mission." It looks like I've got some stuff to work on :) He is awesome though I love him! He loves fishing and hunting and sports, especially baseball. He has a glove and he said I should have you guys send me a glove but then I was exploring our apartment (which is huge by the way) and I found a left handed baseball glove! Hah imagine that! It's just like my old one, but not as old and worn out. So we were throwing the ball around today :)

Well that's too bad about the basketball team. Maybe I'll be the new coach for hurricane when I come home :)

Well I hope you have a good time camping! Stay safe! And I'll talk to ya next week!

Love,

Elder Johnson

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Dad's Letter to Sam

Well I am chiseling the ice off my fingers to type this letter. Judging from the pictures you sent last week you may be doing the same. It was one cold week.

The most exciting (and sad) is this last week Bevin, Dale and I rode up to Grafton to break the ice on the pond for the cows to get a drink. As we drove into Rockville we could see this cloud over part of the town. At first we thought it was fog, but as we got closer we could tell it was something else. We thought it must be smoke from a fire. Then as we came into town we seen some a couple of cars pulled over in front of a house. Well I should say what was left of a house. What had happened was a big rock from the cliff's above Rockville had broke away and came down and smashed the house. There was hardly nothing left of the two story house. It had only happened about two or three minutes before we got there. As it turned out there was a couple in the house. They didn't make it out. I have attached a picture. I guess you never know when your time is up.

One of the fun things I did this week was go out by Pipe Springs with 5 of the boys from the school and we took horses and rode out and gathered about 50 horses off a range. It was pretty fun. It was a bit like the scene's from "The Man from Snow River". We were trying to cut off a heard of horses and we were all on a dead run. It was pretty exciting.

The bad news of the week was that BYU lost to Utah in basketball. It was so pathetic we finally quit watching. They lost by about 20. They shot 54% from the foul line, 31% from the field and 20% from three point line. Hurricane is 0-7. They even lost to Parowan this year. Todd Langston is the coach. I guess they have really got to a slow down game this year. They cross half court and hold the ball out until someone come's out and guards them. I guess they scored only 24 points in one game.

Well we are fast closing in on Christmas, great time of year. We got our tree up this week and we also have the nativity scene up. The snow is melting pretty fast, but it is still pretty cold. This week we are taking some boys at the school on a horse ride with pack mules down to the grand canyon. It will be an overnighter so pray for me that I don't freeze to death.

Well have a good week, don't freeze and keep a warm heart.

Love Dad.


PS. How is your new area? Did you get a package from Reeves Moosman? It probably came (or should come) from Josh's mom.

Week Ending 12/8/2013

• Pictures from Sam
• He will have to fill in the details
• Pictures From Home
• Grafton
• Snowman
• Grandma's house
• Sunday Morning at home
• Sam's Letter to the Family
• Huge ice storm
• Teaching kid named Danny
• Being transferred to Roanoke. New companion Elder Carter
• Dad's Letter to Sam
• Cold weather
• Tina in Arizona to see new grand-baby
• Got a Christmas tree
• Temple trip
• Grafton to get cows
• BYU basketball looses to UConn
• Florida State vs Auburn for football national championship
• Snow and more snow

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Pictures from Sam

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Pictures from Home

Pictures taken out of Grandma Johnson's back door

One of the old cabins at Grafton during a snow storm

Our giant snowman at Grandma Johnson's house

Snow pictures on Sunday morning. So icy they canceled this church. Spent the day shoveling sidewalks

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Sams Letter to the Family

Wow this week has been crazy awesome!!!!! We had so much fun!!!! We had a huge ice storm roll through this weekend and it has been crazy!! There has been a solid 2 inches of ice everywhere for 3 days! We were sliding around everywhere! Mostly on purpose but sometimes on accident haha.

On Thursday after planning we biked to the library and it was hailing a little bit but nothing too crazy, but after we came out of the library like an hour later it had rained and our bikes were frozen solid!!! So we were trying to break the ice off so our gears and brakes would work then we started the most freezing bike ride of my life! It was so fun :) My buns literally froze hahaha There was a layer of ice on pants when I got home and my pants could practically stand up on their own!

We got to help so many people on Friday and Saturday. People were sliding off the road left and right so we were trying to get them back on track :) People in Texas are awesome! There were so many people just driving around in their trucks just looking for people that needed a tow. It was cool :)

So we have been walking since Friday and my feet are so sore now! I haven't slipped and fallen yet so that is a blessing haha too bad Elder Hew Len cant say that :)

Church was cancelled on Sunday so that was sad. Yesterday we took cookie sheets and went out on the golf course and sledded down the hills :) I would send you a video but I don't know how.

Oh we started teaching this kid named Danny this week! His is so awesome I love him!! We set a baptismal date for the 11th of January :D He is only sixteen but he is super in tune with the spirit it's so cool!! On our second lesson with him he brought his best friend who is the star receiver for the high school here. They are hoping to repeat state championships which is a real feat here in texas! They are both super cool though! We are teaching him again tonight so it will be fun :)

I am getting transfered tomorrow! I'm going to Roanoke, and my new companion is Elder Carter. I hear he is pretty awesome so it should be fun :) I'm so sad to be leaving Denton though. I love the people here!! I feel like crying when I think about it... but I am also super excited to try something new and meet more awesome people in Roanoke :)

There is nothing like being a missionary I love it with all my heart!!!!!!!!! I just want to be a missionary forever!!! People always talk about how much you give up to serve a mission, but I think what they should talk about is how much you gain!!! I've gained a million times more than I ever gave up!! Really the only thing I'm giving up is time and that's the Lord's anyway :) Everything else will still be there when I get back :)

I found a verse in 2 Nephi the other day that I thought was cool. Its chapter 10 vs 20 I think. What I took from it was that the Lord may take us out of a good situation and put us through hard things so that we can obtain something so much better! That's the definition of a mission right there! I love this gospel and I love my Savior Jesus Christ! I know he loves me and he loves all of you too!!!!!

Have a wonderful week and let's show our gratitude to the Savior by serving his children :)

Love,

Elder Johnson

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Dad's Letter to Sam
How is it going Sam?

Enjoyed your last letter. Sounded like you had a great Thanksgiving. We are already gearing up for Christmas. 1st Presidency Christmas program is tonight and only 3 weeks until Christmas. It will be here before I am ready.

This past week has been busy and very cold. It is getting down around 0 degrees at night and it was not getting above freezing during the day. We have had two snow storms in a week and the one yesterday was huge. We got almost a foot of snow. Unbelievable huh. I included some pictures for you to look at.

Your mom has gone to Arizona. Tammy was going down to see a step-daughter give her missionary farewell. She was going to stay in Cottonwood. that was a good excuse for Tina to go and see Cade and Caryns new baby. So she went with to Prescott and has been there since Friday. She is on her way home as I type.

On Friday Dale called to see if I had got a Christmas tree. I told him we had gone out over Thanksgiving, but had not found one. He said he knew where one was and if I could off early we could go and get it. It was up on Gooseberry. We ran out and cut it. After we got back I went with Dale to the temple to go through with one of the boys in his mission prep class. We got there late and missed it. Since we were there we did sealings. That was interesting as I had a new guy who was learning what to do and he must of had poor eye sight. He was reading the names wrong and I had to tell him what to do a few times. Anyway he got better. There were a couple of other funny things that happened. So it was an interesting experience.

After the temple Dale and I went to Paula's Mexican Restaurant. It was really good.

Saturday I went up to Grafton with Bevin, Dale, Randy and Tony to get some cows. I took Daisy. While we were there it started to snow. By the time we left there was about 2 inches of snow on the ground. We took the cows down to Hurricane. When I got out Daisy was not in the back of the truck. She either had jumped out or was standing on the tool box and fell out. By now it is snowing pretty hard and the roads are icy. Dale and I drove back to Grafton and talked to a few people to see if they had seen our dog. They hadn't. As we drove toward Grafton we say a lady jogging down the road and there was Daisy running with her like he belonged with her. The girl told us she found her at Grafton. We were just where the oil stops.

After getting back to Hurricane we went out to Grandma Johnson's to watch BYU basketball. We thought it started at 1:30, but it actually started at 11:30. We got there just for the last 4 minutes. They played UConn. They lost 105-96. UConn is ranked 21. BYU has lost 3 games this year to the 11 ranked team, lost by 2, to the 18th, lost by 12, but it was close until the last 45 seconds and they lost this game. I think they have potential to be pretty good if they can run. Not to good in half court.

It looks like Florida State and Auborn will be playing for the National Championship for football. Kameron is probably pretty happy about that.

Back to the snow, it snowed all day and we got almost a foot. It was amazing. I don't think it has snowed this much since I was a kid. We build some pretty big snowman's.

Today, because of the snow they canceled church. It was really icy and I guess they decided it would be a mess in the parking lots. I spent the morning shoveling peoples sidewalks.

Tanner and I went out to Grandma Johnson's for dinner. Of course that was really good. We had stake and funeral potatoes.

Well that is about a rap. Hope you are not freezing in Texas. I was reading it was really cold in Dallas. Work hard. You are about 1/4 the way through your mission it is going fast.

Take care,

Love Dad...

Week Ending 12/1/2013

• Sams Letter to the Family
• Thanksgiving
• The Wrights
• John from Guam (Fish Head)
• Welcher's
• Answer to prayer from Ether 12:37
• Testimony
• Dad's Letter to Sam
• Thanksgiving 
• Natalie, Jacob, Logan, and Ethan were here
• Ate at Bevins
• Attempt to find a Christmas Tree
• Horse ride
• Thoughts from Jeremiah 16:16

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Sam's Letter to the Family

Hello :)

We had a pretty awesome thanksgiving this week! I'm pretty sick of pie now though. The worst part is there are still like 5 pieces in our fridge! Pumpkin, pumpkin cheesecake, apple, pecan, applesauce, we got them all. It all started at noon on thursday. We went to the Wrights and had the traditional thanksgiving dinner with the turkey and the potatoes and the stuffing it was super good! They had a smoked turkey which was delicious!! Oh my goodness and the best sweet potatoes ever!! I didn't think I liked sweet potatoes but I don't think I have ever really tried them before until now.

Then at two we went to John's and he had like a bazillion people there. He had a ton of Guam food that he kept piling on my plate hah it was.... interesting... :) Hah no it was actually really good. The only thing I didn't like was the mashed eggplant with coconut milk and a bunch of other weird stuff on it. Luckily I ran out of room on my plate when we got to the seafood part of the table! He was about to drop a fish head on my plate but couldn't find a place to put it :)

Then at 5 we went to Brother Welcher's and had another normal thanksgiving dinner with them. None of his family is members so it was fun talking to them :) We probably put on ten pounds that day!

Nothing else too crazy happened this week. The weather has been amazing!! It felt good to get back to just short sleeves. I guess the high on friday is only supposed to be 31 though so I shouldn't put my jacket up just yet!

I did have a pretty cool answer to a prayer through the scriptures this week. We were talking to this guy the other day and I talked with him for a really long time, but I just couldn't get him to understand the importance of the message we share and after we left I was thinking about it. As missionaries we kind of subconsciously evaluate ourselves after we talk to people and you start thinking of all of the things you could have said and I kind of began to get down on myself for ruining this guys chance for eternal salvation. So I began to pray for comfort and right after that we went home for lunch. I opened up the book of Mormon at home and I happened to be in Ether 12 and I came to verse 37 which was exactly what I needed. It let me know that the Lord knows that I'm not perfect, but so long as I am doing what he asks and trying my best he will be proud of me and if that man would have received the message if it had been presented better I know that the Lord will send him someone that will present it better :) So in the end it all works out :) I'm so grateful for the power of prayer and for the scriptures that God uses to speak to me.

I know without a shadow of a doubt that this is Christ church once again established on the earth and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God! I know it! I love being a missionary and I wouldn't trade it for the universe!!!

I love you all and hope your week is full of miracles!

Love,

Elder Johnson

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Dad's Letter to Sam

Hi Sam,

Well we are really in the Christmas season. It's December. It seems like they started advertising Christmas in September. Crazy huh.

This week we had Thanksgiving of course. Hope you had a good one too. I'm sure someone invited you over didn't they?

We had Natalie and Jacob here. It was a lot of fun. Logan would not leave my side. Where ever I went Logan went. He was my shadow. Sometimes that wasn't good. I would forget he was behind me and once opened the door on his head. That hurt. He payed me back by jumping on my face when I was laying down and my glasses cut a big gash on my nose that really bled. We called it even.

We had Thanksgiving over at Bevin's and of course ate to much. The bummer about eating at someone else's house is that you don't have all the leftovers. No pie's, not turkey sandwiches, nothing.

We made a feeble attempt to go and get a Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. We picked some really bad area's to go to and did not find a single tree that even remotely looked like a Christmas tree. So we will have to try again this week. Dale said he found one when he was out getting his that we could go get. He said it was small, but looked good. We need to get out earlier than last year when we were out the last weekend cutting a cedar tree. Although that tree looked pretty good after it was decorated and had a nice shape.

Jacob, Logan and I went on a horse ride and Logan really liked that. We also took Grandpa's Razer and out quad out to the sand dunes. That was fun.

One day we helped de-horn a calf. That is always exciting, blood us usually pumping everywhere. So over all I think we did a pretty good job of entertaining Natalie and her family. Ethan, their newest baby is a real cutie and always smiling. Just look at him and he starts smiling, unless he is hungry of course and then he is pretty much crying.

BYU update. BYU football team beat the University of Nevada yesterday. I didn't see the game, we went out quad riding. The basketball team has potential, but when they are bad they are bad. They beat Texas on Monday in a tournament and lost to Iowa State (ranked 12) in the championship game. One think about BYU, when they go cold they go really code. Didn't score a basket in the last 9 minutes of the game and still had a chance to win it until a flagrant foul and a technical. They ended up losing by 12 or 13. The basketball team beat Utah State last night.

Well that is about it. I was reading this lesson on the last day and it was pretty interesting. One scripture that I really liked came from Jeremiah 16:16.

"Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks."

LeGrand Richards who was an apostle when I was your age said the fishers and hunters are the missionaries of the church. So you were a fisher and hunter of fish and beast and now your are a fisher and hunter of the souls of men. If you apply the same effort in your missionary work as you did for fishing you will be an excellent missionary. Remember, don't let the distractions of home deter you.

One of my pet peeves is when missionaries try and look like the people of the world on their missions, and when they come home for that matter. Always be recognizable as a missionary with your suit on or if you are in street clothes.

We love you and pray for you daily.


Love Dad.

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Weekending 11/24/2013

• Picture
• New grand baby Caleb Mason Johnson (Cade and Caryn)
• Sam's letter to family
• Beyond cold
• Stay cool, Stay Hot
• The daily bread at the Presbyterian Church
• Thanksgiving coming
• Thoughts from reading 1 Corinthians 2:9 
• Dad's letter to Sam
• Comment on spiritual week
• Horse drive with school boys
• Camp out with school boys to Whitney Pockets (rain and more rain)
• BYU loses to Notre Dame
• Cade and Caryn have new baby boy (6 for 6 on grand-babies being boys) Caleb Mason

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Caleb Mason Johnson

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Sams Letter to the Family

Ok so I have a confession... I lied, last week wasn't cold this week is cold!!!!! We had an ice storm roll through that was supposed to hit yesterday at noon so they had a combined sacrament meeting but no classes. It just rained all day and hailed a little bit.

The other elders that live behind us were told by their zone leaders to stay inside but we didn't hear anything from ours so we went tracting :) Holy smokes talk about freezing!!! That was the coldest bike ride of my entire life! Luckily my fingers and toes went numb after a few minutes so it wasn't so bad :) The common phrase has changed from "no I'm not interested but you guys stay cool" to "no I'm not interested but you guys stay warm" hah at least they are friendly :)

We got to go to our daily bread on friday which is a soup kitchen at a Presbyterian church. It was a lot of fun because we finally got to do something besides dishes! We got to serve the food this week :) It was super fun because the people are so grateful... well most of them... I like talking to them, they are funny. The food was actually really good this week. They had their thanksgiving meal this week because they aren't going to do it on thursday. We had ham and turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy and stuffing and green beans and fruit and rolls.

I love the thanksgiving season and to think of all of the things I am grateful for. It's true that you really don't appreciate things as much until they are gone. I realize that a lot more now that I am on a mission, but I have been blessed with even greater things than ever before!

I was reading in Corinthians the other day chapter 2 verse 9 I think and I began to think of all the wonderful things God has blessed me with, then to think that I can even comprehend the things that he has in store for those who love him is kind of mind blowing! What does he have in store for us!? There is only one way to find out and that is to be one of the ones who loves Him!! And how do we show Him we love Him? By the way we act of course :) We must make sure we do those things that SHOW God we love Him. If we show God our love by doing what he asks he will just bless us more so it is a win win situation :) Everything we have is from the Lord so lets give him the one thing that is actually ours, our will! You have nothing to lose but eternal life to gain :) God wants to bless someone through you today so be on the lookout for that person!

Well I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving! I know I will! We have thanksgiving lunch at noon with the Gordons then Mid afternoon thanksgiving meal with john from Guam at two then dinner with Brother Welcher at 4 :) Good thing I'm a bike elder :)

Life is good!! I've got nothing to complain about :) Being a missionary is the best thing ever!!!! Try it try it you will see :)

Love,

Elder Johnson

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Dad's letter to Sam

Hi Sam,

How is everything going, your last letter sounded really good. Sounds like you had one of those spiritual weeks that really inspire you to be better. I had a dream last night that I was talking to this guy and I was teaching him the gospel and he wasn't really buying it. I started to tell him how families could be together for ever and he just started to get interested and I woke up. So I guess he is still out there in limbo waiting for me to finish. May I can pick up on it again tonight. I'll let you know how it went.

This week we have had cold weather and lots of rain. Pine Valley Mountain is covered in snow so that is cool. I think they are talking that the ski resorts have opened. Tanner stopped by yesterday and he and a friend were going snowboarding. They went, so I guess there is snow at Brian Head.

On Wednesday one of the staff out at horses and I took 7 of the boys and Jimi's dad up to the base of Pine Valley and we gathered up a heard of horses and drove them down to Leeds. About 7 miles. It was a nice ride and everyone had fun. It was cool and wet and thus I have a pretty good cold going now.

On Thursday Dave, who is our outdoor guy for the school took 6 boys down to the Whitney Pockets for an overnight campout. They were predicting rain, and for once they were right. We got rained on all night. Normally I don't take any kind of tent, but because they were predicting rain, I took your little one man tent. It is a pretty nice tent, easy to pitch, but with one design flaw. Doesn't hold out water. By morning (it rained all night), my sleeping pad was completely soaked and so was my sleeping bag. I think it was still better than just being out in the rain. Barely.

We had fun even with the rain. We went to Little Finland and the big sink hole. I think they call the sink hole "Devels Throat" now. Anyway we at good and the boys enjoyed being away from the school. We had one boy Bernard that your mom and I picked up last Friday on the camp that had never camped before. After being rained on all night I am not sure he really enjoys camping to much.

It rained all day yesterday so we didn't do to much. I did ride up with Bevin to Grafton. Someone called and said the cows were out. We went up and sure enough they were out. We got them back in and then came home.

BYU Update. They really stink. They played Notre Dame in a freezing snow storm and got beat 27-17. They had some of the worst play calling I have ever seen. They could have easily won the game if they would have played it better. It was pretty upsetting. The calls coming in after the game were really critical of the play calling.

Well that is about it for this week. Oh we did go to that movie on the missionaries kidnapped in Russia. It was pretty good. Probably every parent's worst nightmare.

Breaking News Flash...Cade and Caryn just had their baby. Another boy. 6-6 on boys. We have a basketball team and one sub. I'll attach a picture. Don't know the name.

I read a good scripture this week, but can't find the exact one, but there was another one that I read today that I really like. It is found in D&C 21:4-6. It is talking about Joseph Smith, but I think it would apply to following the council of all the prophets and the promised blessings.


Love Dad.