Hank Williams Sr. (or at least his newfie look alike!)

This week has been quite a blessed week, our travels have taken us near and far to do exchanges. We went from one end of the island to the other, with a lot of travel in between totaling a 17 hour road trip! My companion and I were so exhausted by the end of the week! it was good though, We were blessed enough to help out the other missionaries here on the rock of Newfoundland. One of the days I was on an exchange with Elder Ellis, From B.C. I love this guy, and he and I were stuck walking it, as my comp and his comp took our car an hour away to another town. Neither Elder Ellis or I knew this place that well, elder Ellis was pretty new to corner brook, but we had two lessons set up, one at any time in the afternoon, and one at 7, and we were determined to make it to them! So we set out from our apartment at two to make it to our afternoon lesson. Well 4:30 hits and we're still walking, there is no public transport in the city of Cornerbrook, so this had been quite a hike (though we were talking with people along the way too). We got a call from our companions and they reminded us that our afternoon lesson was pretty flexible, but she couldn't meet at four... Dang it! so we set off for our next lesson. This is where i got really lost, and so did Elder Ellis. We Went in one big loop around the whole city and ended up back at where our afternoon lesson was supposed to be, but it was 8, so once again we missed our lesson. we decided we should probably just set out for home at this point and made it home by 9:30. That was quite an interesting day my friends, but an awesome adventure! The miracle of the week came in the name of Jim. Jim is a neighbor of our recent convert Rosie, so we see him quite often. We have talked with him a lot, about the gospel, and about random other stuff as well. He never has taken our invitation though to check out what we are teaching as missionaries, and has been pretty stand offish about that whole bit. We were walking past rosies apartment earlier this week and I saw Jim standing out, getting ready to take a smoke, so i called out to him, and started chatting with him. as I got closer I saw a blue hardcover book in his hands. I was quite confused as I realized this was the Book of Mormon! Jim, with a book of Mormon!?! well the story goes like this...Elder Fairbanks was talking with Jim last week and said "have you ever even read the book of mormon?" in the moment jim shrugged off the comment, and said something along the lines of "no, and i really never want too." Well those words weighed heavy on Jim's soul throughout the week. He decided one day he needed to take out the trash, as he lifted the dumpster lid he saw a blue book cover out of the corner of his eye on top of the trash. he grabbed it and it was a perfectly new, and unused copy of the book of mormon. In his eyes, it was a sign from God to Read the dang book! and he's been reading it ever since. We talked to him on Sunday, and through withstanding many invites to our Family Home Evening on Mondays, he finally gave in when he learned we do Gospel Karaoke! and He loved It. Jim is an awesome guy.😁

Love Someone this week!

It has been a busy week here in GFW, lot's of meetings and exchanges and such. We even got to work with President pratt for a day! I love that man, and he is an example of such great love. So Fun story of the week. I'm with a man I love a lot named Elder Ellis. We're out knocking doors, and He's a little bit of a bible thumper, so I was picking up on that and trying it out. I gradually found that as I talked with people that I was mostly arguing and not loving at all! So god's promise of guiding me by the spirit was no longer able to take place, and I was left to myself. Well, it was at this point we knocked on a door, and we had a very confusing conversation with a women, that ended with me inviting her to be baptized, and her slamming the door... As we walked away Elder Ellis casually said "That was a really bad contact" and I realized what Had happened. From then I recomitted to stop that and just love the Heck out of the people that I was talking to. Soon we met a man who reminded me so much of my father it was crazy, I felt as if i was actually sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with my dad. It was here that God helped me realize how I should view "Preaching the gospel"! I just need to love everyone as much as I love my dad, take time to listen to their stories, and share what will bless them when appropriate. I hope you all take time to love someone this week! One of my favorite quotes is from thomas S. Monson "Never let a problem to be solved, become more important than a person to be loved.' I invite you all to keep that in mind this week and love someone! Elder Johnson

Priesthood

I love God so much, It's pretty sweet that he's literally our heavenly father Eh? well He has given us such an awesome gift, He wants us to find the most happiness in life so he made it possible for us to access his power here on earth, and have all the blessings he wants us to have!! I know that God loves each and every one of us, and I know that Priesthood blessings are simply amazing. When we act in Faith and ask a priesthood holder for a blessing of healing or comfort we are unlocking the blessings that God has in store for us!!! I would invite you to keep this in mind, and if you are at a point in your life where you would like some more of god's blessings in your life, go find a priesthood holder and ask!!! Elder Johnson

A lot of Travel Eh?

So we did a lot of travel this week. We went for grand falls to gander, from gander to Halifax, from halifax to Moncton, and then reversed that whole Journey, we did that in about 3 days, with lots of meetings and missionary work squished in between. I had an awesome experience with one of my favorite missionaries of all Time, Elder Derek Larson. So we were going Around Halifax, teaching Repentance. We went to a meeting we had with this guy named Brandon, but we showed up and he wasn't home. It was ok though, we were going to find someone else to teach! so we said a prayer and off we went a walking. We saw this lady pacing around a parking lot, so we stopped and talked with her, she had been having a rough day and we talked a lot with her about God and Repentance. We will call her Sarah. So we were talking with Sarah, and in passing she said, "Man, it's weird! the last 4 times I've seriously prayed to God for help you Mormon Missionaries show up" that blew my mind, and was awesome. We continued talking, and we taught her more about the nature of God, and How god is not Hateful, or grudging, he is simply our Heavenly Father! Well she said "That's funny, today i felt really bad for a lot of the things I've done in my life, and God told me 'go on a walk until you know that you love me' and then I met you guys" We were able to testify to sarah that She has a loving Heavenly Father, and we invited her to follow the path to learn this for herself. She accepted! and asked if we could get her a ride to church, we said Absolutely. that was my sweet experience this week 😁 Also I got to fly in a plane, I love flying in planes!

The Weekly

​So I don't have too much time today! we went out to Twillingate, which is the norths side of the Rock (newfoundland) We got to see some legit Icebergs, and earlier this week i met this nice old woman who told us to go check out a remote fishing village that had an iceberg stuck in the bay, so we did, and we met this super sweet guy named sherman! WE would have probably been able to teach him, he sadly lives 2 hours away from our apartment, #myareaistobigtocover Also! wlater Leaned up to me after the sacrament, and said " i get a really good feeling when I eat that" that's the spirit walter!! Elder Johnson

Yesh me B'Y

Well It's safe to say that I only understand half of what people are saying around here, this little island of Rednecks sure has an interesting sense of what english is. Blessedly my new comp can understand them better than I can, though it's pretty funny because he's from Belgium and I can't always understand his English. I love him so much though! He's such a goofy goober. Anyways he understands the newfies better than I do and english is his second language. So we Have a nice little group here in grand falls. We're a group, rather than a twig or a branch! and so I already know all of the members real well! even the less-active ones. There are 8 on our records, and 4 are active. our church here is just a typical apartment, we are actually moving into the apartment above it later this week. So Church on sunday was a unique experience. it was awesome! Every person was fully engaged in church, and we had a nice service. The spirit was there and I learned a lot. I said goodbye to Jeff and Terrilynn last week, and I sure am going to miss them. I'm going to miss hearing his Prison stories every time I come over, and even his hellfire and damnation prayers. We also Got to ride in a plane over here! that was awesome! Not much to say this week, Love you all! Elder Johnson Here's a whole slew of video's and pictures, Some of my favourite missionaries went home this week, Elder Breinholt from Mesa, Az is the dude i'm awkwardly standing next too in one Sister Richardson is a sister I've served like 9 months of my mission around, so we had a super awkward handshake picture. And then our plane adventure And Me with Jeff and Terrilynn, posing like the punks we is. 😁

Come From Away

So on Monday, during a brief lunch, in the middle of a long string of Skype calls we had, I checked my Email. I got an Email, from my Uncle Kyle, saying that he's going to see a musical on Broadway that takes place in Gander, Newfoundland. With the upcoming transfer on my mind I said "oh, wouldn't it be funny if this was foreshadowing from God, and I was transferred there" didn't think much of it though, because I haven't been here in moncton that long, so I wasn't leaving. Well, I was wrong, and God was right! I'm not going to gander though, i'm assigned to the elders area of that Branch which is grand falls. I'll be one "come from away"..the Newfs are strange fun people, and I'm pretty stoked to get out there. To set you all straight Newfoundland is pronounced (New-Fn-lan), and apparently there are lots of wonderful old women there. I already have one kind grandmother who promised to make me some molasses buns! So recap of the week before as well, it was pretty legit, We went to Prince Edward Island Again, and I got to go on this sweet sandbar, to where I was surrounded by the ocean. There we found some sweet Jellyfish, and The ground was carpeted in mussels. After that we went to the Anne of green gables farm, and that was mostly lost on me, because I've never seen the movie. Canada day was nice this year, Being here in moncton, it of course Rained, so after helping with the ward Picnic (indoors) We went and knocked doors till we were soaked! People are so funny! this week we met some goobers, one old man came to the door in his overalls and wasn't happy to see us "Why are you on my porch?" To this Elder Kearsley and I replied with happy smiley faces, "we're here to share with you something that's helped find a lot of happiness in our lives" The old man was clearly taken aback but managed to stammer "uh..well,..If you won't get off my porch you won't be happy anymore!" Just after Him we met a french Acadien, he was quite soused, I couldn't understand a lot of what he said, but it was quite inappropriate that much I do know. Then He got on some random tangent of loving his boss, it was great. We met a nice lady who was raking up her lawn, and we set up an appointment with her to teach her later this week! as we were leaving I noticed an I pad, open to facetime. and That there was a random shirtless guy posing on a bed watching us talk to her through face time, And shortly after this a man tried to convert us, not listening to anything we were saying, but adamant that if we attended this one convention with him, that we would see the error in our ways. Well as we walked back to our car to end the night, one of the first guys we talked to was out in his flower bed, "Did you get any Action up that way?" he asked? "Oh yes!" we replied Missionary life is awesome though, I love people and I love Jesus! put my two favorite things together and I think I've found my calling in Life! I hope you guys take some time this week to enjoy meeting the people around you! Elder Johnson