Tim! Tim! Tim!

Ok so the time got away from me and I have like no time to write! Basically this week we had the opportunity to go to Sussex, the most amazing little farm town in all of New Brunswick! Everyone there is so nice and actually speaks with us! A man we teach, who i will refer to as Tim, is a less active. He used to be in the Bishopric, the High Council, And was a super Strong Member! He really Has an amazing Testimony, and has shared it with me on multiple occasions. Tim loves Cigarettes though.... this has made him less active for a good 20 years. We met with him on saturday, and spoke with him simply and boldly "Tim, we know you want to be back to church, what's holding you back?" and since we had just watched him down a full pint of beer, he was very open with us and poured out his concerns. The spirit was so strong in our meeting, though Tim may have been intoxicated (I think it didn't effect him that Much). This week was stake conference the topic for the whole thing was "faith precedes the Miracle" and as part of this we must understand that our faith does not change other's agency, or god's will. But truly miracles happen as we Do all we can (2nephi25;23) and we allign our will with heavenly father's. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is a Blessing, and so is the Grace He offers us! I know that Through the Grace of Jesus Christ all things are possible! Love Elder Johnson​

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, Today is Thanksgiving. If any of you don't like it, you can bring that up with the Canadian Government. I enjoyed it though! It's great as a missionary in the Hampton Area. Since Elder Nelson and I are in one of the few wards, and People here like feeding the missionaries, Thanksgiving meals were offered by many people. Thanksgiving is technically just today, but most Canadians Celebrate it all weekened, so we had a Meal at Bishops today, and we will be going to Kevin and Melanie Graef's tonight (some of my favorite people!) This week we were finally able to meet with a lady named Lisa. FLASHBACK! Elder Smith loved knocking apartment buildings, it was my 3rd week or so in the mission, and he decided to take me through a couple. We walked into the entryway, and were going to try to buzz our way into it, when a guy walked out. We started talking to this guy, and wandered back outside with him, he said he had to go but he punched in his code and gave us his apartment number to meet with him at another time. We knocked the whole apartment and eventually came to his apartment. We Knew he wasn't home, but we knocked anyways. Suddenly! a women opened the door, and gleefully cheered "Missionaries!!!" after which she proceeded to say she would be able to meet the next teusday, and as i took out my planner to write this down, she grabbed it and wrote her number, as well as her husband Randy's (who we had just previously met). She talked on for a little longer and then said she had to go finish cooking or something. and so Elder smith and I got our First words in "Goodbye". The appointment for Tuesday fell through, and following this we simply couldn't catch them at home, and they never answered their phones. This week, we had a little extra time after visiting Gary, and suddenly i remembered this experience with Lisa. Prompting? I think Yes! Lisa lived a few apartments down the road from Gary so we drove on over, and we knocked on her door. KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK. awkward long pause.... a guy walks past, he mutters under his breath "don't go to apartment 20, we ain't interested"... KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.... another long pause, and just as we were about to leave Lisa opened the door. She was sick at the moment, but once again set up an appointment for Saturday at 11:30! We show up at 11:30, our member just cancelled on us, because his kid had thrown up everywhere. Lisa answered the door! we ended up walking to the park, because we couldn't meet with her alone in her apartment (Randy was at work). So, there we were at this little park, Lisa, Elder Nelson, and Me. Sitting on a bench. Scaring away any child who may have liked to play on the playground. The Lesson was awesome! I had Challenged Elder Nelson to lead out, and he dived right in! he was so gung-ho to teach the restoration, I had to slow him down, so that we could speak with Lisa First, and get to know her. This led us into an amazing conversation, in which Lisa Told us that when she was taking the missionary lessons in the 90's, she was nearly baptized, and she told us all of the concerns she had which stopped her. She told us a lot of her ideologies, which was totally the Character Of Christ! She had Come to find that we must not sympathize for our fellow men, but rather Empathize, and focus our all (energies and efforts) outward (like a Fire, rather than the black whole's people often are now). We Identified the one concern she really has is that she want's to know Heavenly Father is a real man for herself (in extension). In the end, Elder Nelson gave her the Book of Mormon, and we were able to give here the section of Alma 32, which is on faith, to study. This is the true church. God has a plan for each of us, and in the Moment we may not enjoy it, but that's why we're here. Our ability to experience sorrow, and pain were limited in the premortal existence, and therefore, so was our ability to experience Joy! (2 Nephi 2:11, "There must needs be an opposition in all things). Part of Faith now is trusting God, that though he will take us through some crazy wilderness of afflictions for now, this is simply the pathway to the promised land! (and don't worry, he'll take care of you along the way, you may even get to spend a while in the land Bountiful) I love you guys Elder Johnson

Time Flies When You Are Serving the Lord!

Here we are starting week 3 of my 3rd transfer, pretty sure it's going to be a great week! especially Wednesday, being the 3rd day. Looking back to last week though, I'm trying to still process what Happened! On Thursday, I was calling members to see if we could get one to come to a lesson with us in Sussex, which is 30 minutes away from everyone. After calling the people who I knew would be more open to come in the middle of the day, I realized that we had not yet asked Sister F (who happens to live in sussex). Sister Friars had work, but before she hung up the phone I blurted Out "What about Walter" She passed Walter the phone, and Walter agreed to come to the lesson! After I hung up I realized what i had just done. I asked Walter, Who has been Inactive since before I was born, to come to a lesson with us. At first I was really nervous. I love Walter, He is one of my favorite people Honestly. I was just so uncertain about How this would all work out in a lesson! After thinking more about it I came to the conclusion that this was a Prompting from God to ask him, and though I may be uncertain, God was certain. And I took Comfort In that! We Dropped by to pick Walter up, and Dang! He had dressed up in his White shirt and a sweater for Us! Once we got into the Lesson, Walter being Raised in the Same small town as Dawn new many of the same people, and they were able to gab on about the good old days, It came to the point where we had to Stop them for the lesson! The lesson was great though, and Elder Nelson invited Dawn to be baptized. Thanks to this Dawn finally brought forth her concerns!(Dawn has read the Book of Mormon 3 times, and we've extended dozens of invitations) This is where Walter was a blessing, he spoke with Dawn about them, and shared his own experience in conversion. He simply tied her concerns to the Book of Mormon, since what does anything matter, if you know the Book of Mormon to be from God. Driving Walter home, He shared with us how he had prepared himself for the lesson by studying the scriptures. His Preparation gave him power, and He was able to share his experience with the spirit. I love Walter, and Heavenly Father knew what he needed. Love Elder Johnson ​​P.S. Last Sunday Harley, (a member here who is super awesome and works a lot with us) Challenged my Nose. He said His was bigger, I said there was No way, and thus we had Elder Nelson settle it with a nasty old tape measure. Sadly, the glory of my nose was overcome by the size of his. His was 1/8" longer and 1/16" further out from his face. !

Forget Yourself and go to Work! Eh?

So this week wasn't very eventful, we did a lot of driving though! We had Zone training on Tuesday, which took like 3 hours. We drove to Dartmouth for a 5 minute doctors appointment, which took 7 hours. With all of this driving though, we were able to listen to almost all of last conference! and Oh my gosh, I'm so excited, the gospels true, and I love me some modern day revelation! A couple of weeks back I heard a talk, either in church or one we got online to listen to in the car, It was about Growth. The talk detailed that to Grow we must be put through trials, and "stressed" (like the Mormon message on trials), because we are either in a Comfort zone or a Growth zone. I realized at that time, that I was pretty dang comfortable with Elder Smith and this great area. So I prayed for a growth zone, and now here I am! (Last time I prayed for a Growth Zone we ended up moving twice) and so if we want to progress, that is what God want's as well, and He will definitely answer these prayers. I'm learning a lot. I've been reading a talk by Elder Holland on "the miracle of the Mission", and I'm really coming to Understand that this is the lord's work and He can do it with or without me. But as I strive to be obedient, and bring others unto Christ, God Will Bless My Efforts! I am reminded of something i heard not too long ago. God never answers our prayers with a no, He answers "Yes", "Not Now", and "I've got Something Better". I've been taking a look at how God answers my prayers, and so far I have found this definitely applies Though one exciting thing happened, we just started doing Family Home Evening at the church every week with investigators, and less-actives, and this week for the activity we played "do you love your neighbor" lets just say, I always loved my neighbor when it was sister Graef (a 6 month pregnant Filipino women) man, it was scary going for the same chair, I wouldn't go for it if i saw her going for it because i have respect for women (especially pregnant women) but let's just say, some other people learned to respect her the hard way😁

Well Not much has happened since I emailed last Wednesday.....oh wait! my Whole life is actually different. I'm in the Same area, and the same district, but I have a new companion, and I'm suddenly in charge of imparting all i know too him! Oh, and we may have baptized Gary (Blind Gary) on Saturday😉 So Long story short, I love Gary so Much! He's the funniest dude like ever, and such a blessing in my life

, add him and he will make your gaming reach a whole new level of fun. Specifically Cole, ADD GARY!) About 3 months back, when i had just arrived into the mission field, Elder Smith Shared the Joy of Knocking apartment buildings with me. They're pretty fun, because you find all sorts of people in them! Not your typical middle class New Brunswick Roman Catholic. One day we were knocking and ended up talking with a lady for about a half hour, during this time here neighbor wandered out checked his mail, and grunted a greeting at us. We knocked the other apartments on that floor, except for the neighbor who grunted at us, and then knocked the rest of the building. On our way out of the building, both Elder Smith and I were prompted to go knock that guys apartment. So, we knocked on this guy's door, without saying a word he opened the door and invited us in. This was Gary. Gary was depressed, and in that first month i knew him i wouldn't have seen him getting baptized so soon, because he wouldn't even pray. But Prayer was the key, one lesson we focused on prayer, and crammed a couple of awesome members into his apartment with us. He asked us to prove where in the bible it said we need to pray, and as i went through the scriptures to find a good one for him, he proved it too himself! Gary Prayed that night, and the spirit was definitely there. From that point on Gary was Hooked. Gary's life was changed, he finally got his apartment subsidized, which he had been waiting years for, and as a requirement of the subsidy, they had to upgrade him to a larger top level apartment! Due to these subsidies Gary has excess money now, which is a huge change from the $50 a month he's used too. I Baptized Gary on Saturday and the first words out of his mouth were "I'm still here." He was Joking, but had such a grin on his face. After he and I changed we walked into the chapel where the Mormon Message "lift" was being shown. By the end, Gary was in tears. It's so amazing to see how God has Blessed Him. The Next Day He told Us he seriously couldn't sleep because he was so excited to "get the ghost from Smith". When We called Gary on Teusday to tell him which one of us was being transferred he was with one of the members. The Member sent us the text below while we were talking with Gary. I love you all, and I want each one of you to share your testimony of Jesus Christ with someone this week. You never know how it might effect them. Love Elder Johnson

It's a Boy!

Well I'm going to be a dad (as mission lingo puts it) I'll be picking up a fresh little Greenie tomorrow at 10, and Elder Smith Gets to hang out with us for the rest of the weekend so that will be cool. It's going to be so awesome to Train a new guy! I still pretty much am a new guy, so hopefully i don't confuse the kid. It's going to be weird losing Elder Smith, I love the dude, he's a stud. Cool Story! So Saint John is the "Huge City" next to our area, and Elders Hoole and Maughn were knocking on the Eastside. They are about to knock on a door, when an overly excited hippy lady grabs them and says some stuff, they are so caught off guard they can't comprehend. Long story short this is Megan, She is a less-active, who was driving to her brothers and Having a rough day/life. She started Praying to God for a sign of what to do in her life! it could even be that dead fly on her dashboard, she didn't care. As she pulled up to her brothers, she saw to handsome young bucks knocking on his door, and she had found her answer! Unfortunately for these two young bucks she had moved into my area, and out of theirs. Megan is so Cool though! she's been less active for a while and has a super cool non-member husband named Tom. They are both totally ready for the Gospel! They both keep reiterating, over and over that they want to come to church and want God in their lives now! They both Have been down some rough paths, and have found for themselves that they truly need God in their lives, and all of these material things are a joke. Sounds kind of hippy right? I love it! It's so fun to have lessons with them (though not as fun as having a lesson with Blind Gary) They are just searching for truth, and light in their lives. It's amazing to see the potential happiness and peace the gospel is going to bring the both of them. Pics 1. We found a ridiculously large church, and guess what? It was Catholic! because there are a lot of Catholics in the Maritimes. We spoke with the Matron and it was interesting to learn there are more similarities than i had previously thought, such as the repentance process (or at least how it was explained to me). 2.Sunrise 3. I Forgot the keys inside the house, and got stuck in a tiny window 4. epic fog Well I'm grateful to be here, helping others come unto Christ. I love you all, and hope you are getting pumped for Conference! it's going to be da bomb Elder Johnson

Tea? Really??

So i would like to start by saying, the Canadians are really concerned about you guys! Probably more concerned about you than you are about yourselves. Why? Because Politics. Canadians know more about our Country than we know about it. A large majority of them wish Bernie was president and Love Barrack Obama, they're just concerned about this election, they all tell me once they find out I'm American. This week we really focused on Gary Tingley, we lovingly refer to him as Blind Gary, because 50% of Canadians seem to be named Gary, and this Gary just happens to be blind (legally that is). So Elder Smith and i have Prayed real hard to know the date that we should invite Gary to be baptised, and we came to the answer of September 10th. So Wednesday we re-invited Gary to be baptised and he totally accepted! We went through the Baptismal questions and he was on fire! To 'Do you Believe in Jesus Christ' he yelled "Heck Yes!", and to 'Do you believe Joseph Smith and Thomas s. Monson as prophets of God?' he said "too easy next" (because he Loves President Monson). We get to the word of wisdom, and Gary stumbled "I don't see anything wrong with tea, at all, why would i stop drinking it?" he said. "I'll keep the other 98% of it" but that's not good enough, and Gary was offended. His fire died. We had 2 other lessons with him, and he had re-committed to be baptised September 10th, but come sunday morning we found him drinking tea, ignoring our calls, and not coming to church. Well that stinks. It really does. But Gary knows the truth, it'll just take him time, and personal prayer. So on another topic, yesterday Elder Smith and I were volunteered to teach Elder's Quorum since the teacher had to bail. We decided just to have an open discussion/Q and A. I was totally prompted to ask about Scripture study, something i need to improve, and this set off an awesome discussion. One simple system that one guy used in reading/studying the scriptures was... 1. What's going on (background of what you're reading) 2. What principles are being taught 3. What are YOU Learning My Challenge to Ya'll is to try this tonight, i tried it this morning and i like it 👌 FUN Story. Nature abounds here and i almost hit a raccoon the other night. Elder smith and I may or may not have a points system set up 😉 just kidding... Elder smith has arachnophobia, not really but he really doesn't like spiders. Here in New Brunswick, they probably don't spray for spiders, because they are everywhere, it's crazy. Every house we go too has at least a dog, a cat, and Front door covered in huge spiders. Blessedly, spiders haven't landed on him while we are knocking yet, because I've found His tongue is definitely loosed I know Jesus Christ is our Savior and He loves everyone of us individually! Love Elder Johnson P.S. Totally saw the fourth largest passenger ship in the world, driving through St. John on Wednesday. it was cool.