Thanksgiving Eh?

Well all of my american Friends, I've been blessed to enjoy Two thanksgiving dinners this week, as Thanksgiving here is in the beginning of October! fun fact, now you know. that, and it's always on a monday, instead of a thursday. I can say that not too much exciting happened this week, though we did have an exchange in cornerbrook, and that was Gorgeous! it was real pretty out there. We were able to teach a dude named Greg, he was a chill young fisherman, who sadly didn't get enough hours this year for his EI (the social service most fisherman get on as soon as their fishing season is done, pretty interesting) There really isn't any great story I can share so I'll just share a bunch of pics!

In the ER the last session of Conference

So I'm sadly missed the last session of conference this Sunday. We had an awesome experience with our investigator Brandon throughout all other previous 4 sessions (including priesthood), I could see in his eyes that this was feeding the spiritual hunger he didn't know that he had! We had all met as a group here at the church to watch the Sunday sessions of conference, and had a potluck in between sessions. after the potluck, I laid down joking that I'd need a nap so i didn't sleep through the next session. Brandon our investigator followed suit, and the next thing I knew he had fallen asleep, though intriguingly his head slowly curled up and to the right. I walked into the next room with my comp, and a member named cathy ran to us "Elders! he's having a seizure." We ran in to find his fellowshipper Dennis holding him in recovery position, and he grabbed our keys and were off to the hospital. Well, after getting a tylenol and a pat on the back we were sent back out with brandon. Worried about him staying alone in his tent that night (He's currently homeless, and a recovering addict so we didn't want him do any more harm to him in the tent) we sought out our options to help him that night. We didn't have much to work with, with such few members here, but after approval from our mission president, Brandon stayed in the apartment we use for the church, along with His Fellowhsipper Dennis. In Helping Brandon this time, among many smaller incidences, I've leaned that Love and charity truly effect the hearts of those who we apply them too. Our actions are truly the strongest testimony out there, as the saying goes "Action's speak louder than words" and I'm grateful for awesome parents who taught me this with their examples simply enough from my birth 😁 I love you guys! have an awesome week! Elder Johnson

Faith is Awesome

"There is a power to make things happen that need to Happen" "Faith is a principle of Action and Power" "Faith comes by choice, not by chance" "Faith is in the power of your words" I love FAITH!!!! without faith we would do nothing, it is the hope for a good day that helps us get out of bed, as well as the hope for perfection and Eternal life that keeps us on the Strait and Narrow path of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This week one simple act of faith allowed a miracle to happen! Elder Fairbanks and I had extra 15 minutes while waiting for a member, and we could have easily wasted it by waiting in the house with him. But no! there was a less-active member next door, and we were going to use God's time in the best way. So we went to talk with her, and she just talked with us through her window. Next thing I know, a brand new Nissan Rouge with a well dressed man pulls over next to us and rolls down his window, staring at us. I walked over, assuming the stare meant he wanted to talk with me! and all he said was "I met with missionaries in the past, come over and talk to me, here's my name, number, and address" Awesome!!!!!! God is great. Love Elder Johnson

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!