Called To Serve Him: 2014

I want to share my testimony with you. I know God lives, he loves and cares about me and is very watchful of me. He is my Father in Heaven, I am his Son. Heavenly Father sent his Son, Jesus Christ to come to this earth, to show us the way to return to live with our Father in Heaven. Christ suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane for my sins, my bad days, and my hard aches willingly. He then died on the cross. He rose three days. He is my Savior, my Redeemer. I would have no hope without Jesus Christ. He is my Light and Life. I am so grateful for my Mother and Father here on earth. They have truly sacrificed so much for me to be here on a mission. Thank You. I know Joseph Smith saw God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ in the grove. Joseph restored the true and living church back to this earth, and because of that, i can take the sacrament each week, and be cleansed from sin. I love the temple so much, there is truly a spirit of power there. God is over this work. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission. May God bless you until we meet again. I say that in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Coming Home

Monday, May 5, 2014

Becoming Spiritual

Well, as we almost all know, this is it. My last email as a Full-time missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

I would like to go to the beginning,

March 7, 2012:

Dear Elder Johnson:
You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Washington Tacoma Mission.

Although scared and confused of why I got called to a mission only 3 hours from my mother and somewhere were I spent my whole childhood summers since I was 13, running on the beaches of Westport and driving around Port Angeles. I would go!

May 1, 2012:

I was set apart by my stake president to be a missionary.

May 2, 2012:

I was dropped of, kicked to the curb for the lack of a better term, by my father and gave that man i so respected a hug and walked into something I could never picture to be real, a journey that would take two years and 10 days to complete and a lifetime to ponder over.

May 23, 2012: (or something close to it)

I boarded a plane that I have taken some many times, a trip I'm so familiar with. I'm scared out my suit pants, died tired, but ready to go, meet president and sister weaver, people I didn't even know but would come to love.

May 29, 2013: (or something close to it)

A Saturday, The phone rings, I look, it says President Weaver, knowing this to be transfer calls day, my heart rate stopped and hoping it to be for my companion, I answer. over the next 15-20 minutes, President and Sister Weaver give me the news that I'm going to the new mission. Although this seemed at the time a tragic news for someone about ready to shine, I at the point had no idea what God had in store for me.

October 19, 2013:

My mother now, returned to activity in the Church. Picks me up to go to the temple. Weird to say the least bit, if you would of told me at my setting apart, that my mother would come back to the church and you would be to be apart of it, I would of told no sense. As we make that drive to the temple. Memories were shared and testimonies strengthened. In the changing room, after changing, walked out and saw this long haired man, that looked oddly familiar. Wait that's my brother, Chad. I gave that man a Hug. As I sat in the celestial room, taken back by what was taking place, I couldn't stand. My knees were shaking, emotions were high, but I knew as promised to me in a blessing only 7 hours earlier by a member of the ward I was serving, "I would glimpse the eternities that day."

Although, you would read this email and you might think wow, that is amazing. Many more miracles were to come, many more memories were to still be made.

although, still the most amazing change was still to come, which was in myself.

Starting in January 2014, although I knew what I was teaching was true, I hadn't had that mighty change of heart as everybody was talking about, and with my mission coming to close, i knew I need to make some changes, President Eaton in an interview provide the gears for me to put that change into play. Although, I wont mention the means by how this change about, I will say that it took a sincere heart, real intent, and having faith, repentance, and being born again, receiving the mighty change of heart, and having no more desire to sin against my God. Although my last couple of transfers in Hylebos were ultimately tough, it was that refiners fire, that every missionary said they went through. My testimony strengthened and began to become unshakeable. I became more bold in the declaration of my Savior, and the reality of His church being restored through a young boy.

I know, first off God Lives. and He leads and guides me when I allow him, its no mistake that God sent to a mission were I spent my childhood summers. He is my Father and I am His son.

I am nothing compared to God, but I am everything to my Heavenly Father. He loves all of His children, He loved him enough to send His only begotten Son in the flesh. The Savior, did many wondrous things in His life, stories and examples that we could learn to follow and become more Christ-like disciples of Him. He taught us the way to love each other, have compassion on those that offend us, those beat us with stripes. Christ was mocked, more then we will ever be mocked, he was spit upon by those who persecuted Him, but He continued faithfully. He taught me how to forgive myself of things that I had done in the past to harm others and myself, He taught how to stand and how to lift myself up. He taught me urgency of repentance, the first recorded thing out of Christ mouth, was "Repent ye, for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand." That process of repentance was beautiful, wonderful, painful, trying, and some many other words. I have been asked this questions before I ever put on a name tag, "why would you willing give up things that bring you joy?" this is my answer, Because I am a Son of God, and I can't let my Father down.

I know for reality that God and His Son appeared to a boy, that had question,

"I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me. …“When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing to the other—This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!”

I know with out a shadow of doubt that this in reality happened, it is true! You might then ask how could you ever believe such a ridiculous statement, it seems like a fairy tale. "He was on drugs", as once one man said to me. It took 4 years for me to find this out, and be where I am today, but it started back in January 2011, I had to read the fruits of this restoration, the Book of Mormon, I fully believe, that you must daily read from the Book of Mormon, to nourish and strengthen your testimony of it and the precepts found therein, and that of Joseph Smith.

I know that if you lack faith, it waivers from time to time, that you must repent, and read that little blue book, God never ever ever requires to much of us, He says, if you want to know if what my prophet is teaching is true, and wither Joseph was prophet or not, then read 531 pages, 1/3 of the bible in length. and you can then know for yourself, its truthfulness. I bear my humble witness for the last time to my loved ones. I know that everything that I have sent you, every promise I have made, and every declaration of testimony that you have received, while I have been a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. The temple blessings, when we accept them and make an honest effort to attend as often as we can, will change your life. Attending the temple on my mission has been hard, I have only been 5 times on my mission, I know more than most missionaries. I wish I could attend more, the blessing and the power of attending the Lord's House are miraculous. Words of advice, and things to ponder over, where am I along the Gospel path, am I struggling with my testimony? could I use a little more faith? could I use and recognize God's blessings in my life more fully? Do I know who and what the Savior is? Have I felt, spiritually, the prints of the nails in His hands and in His feet by feeling the effects of the Atonement? We all might want to take a look at our lives and become more spiritual. Pray Always, and be believing, drink deeply of the scriptures, attend your church meetings, attend the temple, and remove the sins that easily doth beset you. In the sacred name of my Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Its What We Put Into It

Hello Everybody,

I can't even begin to express how busy this last week has been. To give an example, I have not has a personal or companion since last Sunday (the 13th). A lot has happened.

Tuesday:

I had a dentist appointment, I have several catavites so I got one worked on. then that night, we got a call from the district leader that we had an emergency, so we went on splits, and I met and taught a young man, Bradley, who had a baptismal date for may 3rd. he walked in and we asked if had any questions, he said, "can I be baptized on Saturday?" we said sure. we reviewed the baptismal interview questions with him, he passed. then we went to exchange back. and then a missionary was struggling so we had emergency sleepover. (pretty sweet)

Wednesday:

We woke up and my companion went back to our apartment and worked in silver lake. We were able to visit a lot of people, we had a missionary meeting, which is every Wednesday at 7pm. We burnt things like, my paper suit? (haha)

then we went beck over and had another sleepover with the district leader.

Thursday:

The District leaders companion ended up going home over everything, (medical reasons) and we were put into an temp trio. we had weekly planning until 1pm, The district leader is Elder Isham (he comes home with me and is from Saint George) Elder Isham went on splits with a member to continue to cover dash point. so Elder Walters and I continued to cover Silver Lake.

Friday:

On Friday, we were able to do service in a park in federal way, we were helping build fun land/ play land. Our primary purpose was to remove dirt out of this area around the playground equipment, it had rained really hard on Thursday so it was super muddy, we had to build bridges over ditch to get the wheelbarrow out, and work around the mud. SO much fun, I mostly ran the wheel barrows out while others loaded them. our whole zone was there. which is huge, the first time the whole zone has gotten together other than zone meetings, it was a really nice day, super sunny. after that we helped a member move, then we had Bradley's interview with the zone leaders, he ended up passing, then we had dinner at jimmy mac steakhouse like Texas roadhouse so good

Saturday:

In the morning the dash point ward had an Easter breakfast, during this breakfast we received word the trio would be permanent, so we then moved all my stuff and Elder Walters stuff to the dash point apartment, more room. and we trade cars with the sisters, they had a Subaru legacy, also for more room, we had a Chevy cruze, then at 4pm we started filling the font, and man was that water cold, because of no hot water in the building, so we started boiling water in the kitchen to try to warm it up, the final water temp was 55 degrees, so cold. We had his baptism, I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost, and we sang for the special musical number, "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing." Video to come when I get home.

Sunday:

Easter Sunday, we were able to attend two wards, Dash Point and Silver Lake, a long day of church, Dash Points Sacrament meeting was great, We were able to confirm Bradley. some very amazing talks, we also sang in the ward choir, then we had meetings in Silver Lake, then silver lakes sacrament meeting, We are busy.

so the big news of the week, I'm now in a trio and will be the rest of my mission, My companions are Elder Isham and Elder Walters. We had a Baptism. The work will not stop progressing and the Lord has hastened his work for the Dash Point and Silver Lake Elders to the pace of a run. and we will be running for the rest of my mission. We have another Baptism Sunday, The sisters are teaching her, but she has asked Elder Isham to baptize her, and for me to confirm her, that's Sunday at the stake center. Im giving a talk in the Dash Point ward next Sunday. This has been the most trying week of my mission, although I have had a companion go home before, this was nothing close to comparison. We were really tight and well contacted, it has been hard. I thank you for your prayers in my behalf.

Through this all, I know God has a plan. I know am meant to be apart of a wonderful companionship and serving in both Silver Lake and Dash Point. A spiritual thought now:

Alma 40-41;

Bishop Mooth pointed this out to me in return I hope to point it out to you. Just like with the resurrection, we all will be restored, good to good, evil to evil, well its like this with trials too. its what we put into it, is what we get out of it.

41:14 Therefore, my son, see that you are merciful unto your brethren; deal justly, judge‍ righteously, and do good‍ continually; and if ye do all these things then shall ye receive your reward; yea, ye shall have mercy‍ restored unto you again; ye shall have justice restored unto you again; ye shall have a righteous judgment restored unto you again; and ye shall have good rewarded unto you again.

So when sour trials come upon us, let us remain faithful and push through them, for its what we put into it, is what we get out of it.

I love you all, may God bless you in all aspects of your life. Read your scriptures, pray always, and be believing.

Elder Johnson

Monday, April 14, 2014

Weekly Report 4/14/2014; Silver Lake Ward

Well, here we go again another prep day.

Our week has been so amazing, we have seen the Lords hand in the this wonderful work. We took some time this week to focus on the area book and get it updated and remove old records and organize and make it look it pretty. (I might add now it does) Since we don't do a whole lot of tracting anymore, we have been hitting the formers and potentials, we have seen wonderful blessings come from that. We have found three new investigators this way. One we had a lesson with last Monday, we taught the restoration using the pamphlet and the pictures, it was rocky. But went well. After the closing prayer, We read with him this paragraph out of the pamphlet:

"This knowledge can be miraculous and life changing, but it usually comes as a quiet assurance, without spectacular displays of God’s power. The Holy Ghost confirms the truth through feelings, thoughts, and impressions. As taught in the Bible, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, [and] temperance” (Galatians 5:22–23). These feelings from the Holy Ghost are personal revelation to you that the gospel of Jesus Christ as restored through Joseph Smith is true. You will then need to choose whether you will live in harmony with the knowledge you have received."

After that it got him thinking and we have a lesson with him tonight at 6pm. Another former, lives in the ghetto of our area, we were on bikes and they never left our side, but we found this lady, she wanted all the pamphlets, and we set up a return appointment with her for Wednesday.

We finally had a lesson with this other former, last night. We taught him the book of Mormon lesson with him, we read the paragraph talking about the 1 nephi, and then read with him 1 nephi 1:1-12, We were really excited about it, and set up a lesson with him tonight at 7pm, to talk about the restoration, out of the pamphlet.

Some other cool experiences, yesterday while trying some other potentials and formers, we met a wife to a former, she said, "I let him know you stopped by." like most of them say. Seeing an ipad in her hands, we were like, " hey, the church just came out with a new website for Easter (easter.mormon.org), you should check it out right now, so she did. and watched the video to go along with it. She wanted us to come back.

We are having fun too. we are enjoying our time together. Saturday, I was asked to give a talk at a COR baptism we attended. Then Fast sunday, like normally I got up and bore my testimony, since I actually remember to tell you about it, im going to tell you about it.

I talked about cause and effect, I gave this analogy, when we act on the temptations from Satan, its like putting a shovel into the ground, and over a period of time, of continual sin and addictions we find ourselves in a whole 10 feet deep and no way out, but as we glance up we can see the Savior reaching down. The Savior is the only way we can get out of our holes of sin and addictions. ITs through repentance and the atonement that we can escape. It takes our own agency to look up. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.