October 19th, 2016

Some crazy things happened and for some reason they moved me. But the crazy part is they put me back with my old companion Elder Persecke!! So I'm going to be going to Crawley zone, Epsom ward which is about an hour or less away from the temple! I am so stoked to be serving there with him. I do love Elder Tokoragi but I'm exited now to be with a companion who I already know and works really hard and is obedient. The time we spend together is going to be amazing!! I am a bit nervous to be be serving as a Zone Leader but I've been around zone leaders my whole mission and I think I'll be able to figure it out. One thing I am really nervous for is to drive!! All the zone leaders and a few of the bigger areas in our mission drive so that means I'll have to get my English license which is kinda scary because it is the hardest driving test in the world and English roads are insane to drive on and they are really small and it'll be on the other side of the road and car haha but the fact that it took me two tries on my American test and I totaled a car within the first week of having a drivers license will have no effect on me whatsoever...

My last week in Plymouth was great. I got to see a lot of the ward members and me and Elder Wilfley cooked dinner for the whole ward. There was a ward activity/missionary fireside and the theme was kind of like a DA with the missionaries. The sisters printed out a bunch of paper slips with questions on them like "when was the last time you talked to someone about the gospel?" Or "what's a spiritual insight you have had in the Book of Mormon recently?" And placed them on the tables to facilitate missionary type conversation. Then me and Elder Wilfley made food for everyone. It was crazy and took us all night to do. I made chilli and bangers with mash and Elder Wilfley made this really good stir fry. We made enough to feed about 60 - 70 people. It was so fun to cook! And the activity went really well and we had a lot of good feedback on it. It was definitely a good last Sunday in Plymouth. Also had an exchange with Elder Burningham who is one of my favourites. We had some cool experiences as cool experiences always seem to happen on exchange. Elder Burningham has only been out 3 months and I was helping him practice being himself when finding because he felt like he was being robotic so we went knocking in an area that we were led to by a random series of events. I kept telling him that he needs to stop worrying about what he says and more how he says it because it's the Spirit that is the teacher. Well we knocked on a door and a random lady answered and the very first thing he said, very awkwardly, was "do you know the purpose of life" haha she stared at us very confused because it was also pretty dark and just said, "what?" I quickly jumped in and explained who we were and what we were doing and I then started to teach a little bit about the plan of salvation. When I finished Elder Burningham very powerfully testified and the Spirit was really strong. Then we taught her more asking lots of questions. By the time we were done she was excited and wanted to bring her and her boyfriend to church next Sunday. It was really cool and Elder Burningham and I were both able to see that it's not the words that we use but it's the Spirit that we bring that matters.

So excited for Epsom with Elder Persicke!

Love Elder Johnson!

October 12th, 2016

         It's been a pretty good week! I had exchanges with Elder Sullivan who's in my district and it went great. Such a breath of fresh air haha I love exchanges because it gives you one on one time to really get to know other missionaries and help them and just make a good friendship. We had some deep chats about life and the mission is helping us for the rest of our life. He's been out a transfer longer than me so we are kind of in the same point of our mission and we are both loving it.

         Something really crappy that happened was while on exchange we got this call from a guy named Matthew who said he had been taught by some sister missionaries online and he is going to Uni at Plymouth and he wants to be baptized. We were super excited and planned to meet with him Monday. We called him Monday an hour before the appointment and he was coming and was really excited. The appointment time came and we were meeting at the chapel with a member. 10 min past and we called and it went straight to voicemail. We ended up calling 10 or so times and waiting for 45 min and he never showed up. If we still call him it goes straight to voicemail. We even tried calling on a different number and it still went to voicemail.... so either it was a really pointless elaborated joke... or he died on the way to coming. Which ever one it was it sucked.

           The rest of the day has been us moving houses. Moving is the worst!!!! There is so much junk in our flat and we aren't even close to being ready and we have be done by Friday... we'll see what happens. Next Tuesday is moves day and we get our call on Saturday but I'm pretty sure I'm staying. Things have been getting better with Tokoragi. It has been more of me having an attitude change that helped the whole situation. I was reading in Mosiah 24 and it talked about how they bore their trials with faith and patience and everything just worked out. So that's the lesson I'm learning from all of this. I just really don't want to be that missionary who gets bitter about everything when things aren't looking up and then looks back at his mission with negative feeling. I know a few people like that and they're a drag haha

Connor Hess phelps... I'm the wind beneath his wings

We're moving so we all decided to sleep on the floor and have a sleepover. No, there was no real reason for it and yes, we all woke up with sore backs haha

October 5th, 2016

       This week has been pretty good with plenty of ups and downs. Last Wednesday in the evening my companion told the 3 of us he wanted to go home and be done with the mission and take a little break. We had a really good and long talk with him helping him understand that this is the time and place to get strong and to grow. We explained to him that we get hard times in life to make us stronger. The whole time the 4 of us were talking the Spirit was really strong and it kind of felt like we were teaching a lesson to an investigator. He understood and at the end said he wants to stay. It was a bit frustrating but he was fairly good for the rest of the week. 

       I had a really good chat with my mission president about it and how I can help him and help myself because I found myself falling into a rut of "I don't really care anymore" when things would get frustrating instead of getting mad I would just kinda shut off and stop caring but then I would get really down because I wasn't being an effective missionary. President Gubler and I chatted about finding the balance and how in the end all we can do is love and remember that everyone struggles with something but their struggles are just different than ours. Charity never fails because as we love and support others we love and support ourselves and become spiritually stronger.

      The absolute highlight of the week was conference. It was so uplifting and there really was a massive spiritual recharge. Some of my favourites were President Uchtdorf's in the women's conference and Pres Nelson's Sunday morning. I still haven't been able to watch all of the last session because it started at 9pm our time so we just watch one talk a day or so afterwards. Absolutely love it though. Well that's pretty much my week. Nothing too crazy happened after that it was a good week of growth though and I'm very grateful for growth that I'm having out here! 

Conference at a member's house

Caramelized Banana French toast. New favourite breakfast 

Weird Cats

September 28th, 2016

Zone training was in Poole which is a 4 hour train ride away. The train left at 4:57 and tokoragi decided to randomly take a shower at 4:20.... we missed the train. Because of that we ended up getting into Poole around midnight. Zone conference was so so so good!! One of my favourite things I took away from it was how to ask questions and how to dig deeper. Questions like: Tell me more. What did you like? How did you feel? What would it mean to you if....? Asking the level 2 questions really get people to open up and share how they feel which enables us to teach better but it's also just a very good life skill that I hope to master.

My comp is still struggling. He is so hard to get going and to motivate. He doesn't like taking instruction or improvements. It's difficult to be able to teach but it does come. I have to call president every week and give a report and this last time he told me to just keep loving him and be stern. The hard thing is though when I care too much about him and helping him change I get really frustrated so I find myself not caring and just letting things go. Then I feel bad and start caring again and I go through that cycle a few times every week. Also another thing that's been kind of meh is the missionary work in the ward has really been struggling. There are 6 missionaries in this ward and there has only been one baptism in the ward in the past years and he went less active after the second Sunday. We had a chat with the one of the counselors in the bishopric and also the ward mission leader and they had some really bad stories of the ward struggling with missionary work and them pushing investigators away. They both said separately that God won't let people be baptized into a ward that isn't ready. I don't know how true that is but it's definitely making us focus on helping the ward more than anything else. But the mission pressing doesn't want us to focus on the ward. So confusing.... I'm just trying to be the best I can be. 

We were teaching this guy named Jim who we found a while ago and we just never got to do because schedules didn't work out. He has mental illness. He is schizophrenic and has anxiety. We were in the lesson for 20 minutes and it was going well but then he started sweating and shaking and then said he was having anxiety and asked us to leave so we said a prayer and left. It was really sad to see him like that and how he had no control. I wish I could do more for him.

I'm doing good. Been doing a lot to try and help the missionaries in the district. The winter is definitely coming and the days are getting short and shorter. Last year it sucked when it got light at 9am and dark at 4pm. Not looking forward to that but I am so looking forward to the holiday season. All in all life is good though! 

Nightly shakes

Comp study/snuggle time

A random pic

September 22nd, 2016

Hey fam!

Our mission president gave us permission to send the fam a little love and a picture of our tri zone conference. It was a great conference and I learned so much! I love you guys and I love you!! Have a great week

Love, Elder Johnson 

September 21st, 2016

      My week has been pretty good. I got to meet my second cousin for the first time who just came into the mission and it was a really cool experience. He is from the Canadian side and I saw him at DLC (district leader trainer meeting) because his comp is a is DL in my zone. I knew he was coming because my parents were telling me about it for the last 3 weeks but I never thought I would see him immediately because there are 9 zones in my mission. Well we had a great chat and I got to know him really well and at the very end right before he left he said to me "hey can I talk you privately?" so we walked away from everyone and he said quietly, "I'm feeling a bit homesick. How did you get over your homesickness?" I smiled put my hand on his shoulder and said, "great question let me call you tonight!" So I called him and we had a great chat I talked more about the start of my mission and how I struggled with home sickness. We talked about learning from the scriptures and focussing on the day ahead of him not the 700 days ahead of him. I talked about having a girlfriend on a mission too because he is writing a girl and I told him how he can stay focused. We talked for a solid 30 minutes and it was so good and such a tender mercy for me to help my family member. I love how God works!

      My comp struggled a bit this week. I think he is slowly losing the motivation to be here which sucks. It sucks because I don't think there's a whole lot I can do for him to help him change. His main language is French too so that's a bit of a struggle and when he doesn't know how to say something he doesn't have too much of a desire to learn. It's a struggle. 

      The work has been really slow. No new investigators this week and we had a few of our appointments cancel. I don't always understand why times in the mission like this happen, but they do and I know that we grow through the struggle though. I love being here and I love the growth that has happened. 

I was reading in 2 Nephi 4 this week which is one of my favourite chapters in the BoM and verse 33 and 34 stood out to me so much. 

33 O Lord, wilt thou encircle me around in the robe of thy righteousness! O Lord, wilt thou make a way for mine escape before mine enemies! Wilt thou make my path straight before me! Wilt thou not place a stumbling block in my way--but that thou wouldst clear my way before me, and hedge not up my way, but the ways of mine enemy.

34 O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever. I will not put my trust in the arm of flesh; for I know that cursed is he that putteth his trust in the arm of flesh. Yea, cursed is he that putteth his trust in man or maketh flesh his arm.

      We get trials all the way through life and I have learned that a lot of the time those trials are there to make us turn to our Heavenly Father. When these trials come the first thing we need to do is turn towards God and acknowledge Him. As we do this we come closer to Him and more quickly learn from our trial. I think a really good "trial replant" is just to stay close to God. This is a lot easier said than done because we always need to be on a path of growth and we tend to like to coast. I love how Heavenly Father has a plan for all of us to grow! He is so good to us

September 14th, 2016

      This week has been pretty uneventful. I got sick on Friday with a bit of a head cold so that put me out that day and I'm just now recovering. The weather has been changing a lot and it's getting very rainy and cold again. Winter is not a happy time here in England. By next month it will start getting dark at 4 and raining loads. But that's why Christmas is in the winter so it can warm everyone's hearts haha

      Me and Tokoragi are doing good and it's been interesting to work with him. He is quite different than most Polynesians for a few different reasons one in particular he doesn't like fish... Yeah that was a bit of a shock haha but we have had some good laughs. One really funny thing that happened this week was when we were out proselyting and saw an old lady cutting some very overgrown brier bushes. As missionaries do, we asked if we could help her and she surprisingly let us (most people don't like getting help). So we finished cutting and putting the briers cuttings into bags. When mostly everything was cleaned up in the bags I looked around the perimeter of the garden to find any stray pieces and I saw what looked like an old dead tree branch that wasn't a brier so I picked it up and then it in the bag. When I picked it up felt a tug of the root snapping and when I did tug Mavis, the old lady, very dramatically shouted, "oh no!" She then said that this bush was 50 years old and she had had it most of her life. I tried to apologize but the damage was done and we very quickly finished and left. She was not happy. We are still laughing at her reaction of the death of her dead bush haha       

        The work has been alright but we are going to have to clean out our teaching pool a little bit as people aren't progressing but that's mission life. We got flogged by Marie when we were going to teach her and Alex and Hannah are sticking to their beliefs and didn't read the Book of Mormon.

        We also have to worry about grown up things as the mission is dissolving all 4 man flats. The mission office told us to buy a flat so this week we have started the process of finding flats and setting appointments to view flats. It's not my favourite, but must be done. 

        A great lesson I was reminded of is the spirit is the key to missionary work and a successful life. As soon as we start to rely on ourselves we instantly let pride in our hearts and lose the Spirit. When we have the attitude of' "I know I can do all things through you" that's when we have the spirit and are successful.