Handwritten Letters Home

Dear Mom!

I Love You!!!

First off, I love you so much!  XD  I really appreciate all the love and support you give me every week in your emails, they really help.  You are such an amazing person and the BEST mom a teenage boy could ever ask for!  You've helped me in ALL the chapters of problems in my life, and for that I am eternally grateful! 

Right now I want you to know that the Lord is watching over you and the family, especially while dad and I are gone.  I know, at times, things can be difficult to endure, but that is why our brother, Jesus Christ, suffered as much as he did in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Not only did he pay the price for the sins of the entire world, he provided us a way to receive comfort through times of hardships, to lighten our loads which are so heavy, to expand our joy and happiness, and to feel loved.  Not only by him, but from our Father in Heaven. 

There is a scripture that has really helped me while I've been out on my mission are in the Bible.  Matthew 11:28-30; "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  I love these verses! 

We all have to carry some sort of load in this life, for that's life.  So why wouldn't we choose to carry the Savior's load whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light?  The savior will take our load upon Him, e will still have a load, but it will be light and easy.  This allows us to be happy even in the darkest and hardest of times.  The trick is, we have to allow the Lord to take the load.  For if we don't give your problems to Him, He can't take them, and the load will feel unbearable, heavy, and at times, even impossible to carry.  It is my testimony that the Lord really does make all things better, He really is there to yoke himself to all of us. 

Something that the choir director in the MTC said is, "I like to think of Christ as a big power bull, tall in stature and very strong.  All of us are as calves who are strapped to the yoke, only to be suspended in the air kicking our legs."  I know we can get the help we need in this life, but the question is, are we willing to give it to the Savior?

I Love You Mom,
Love your son,
Elder Johnson

DAD,

I love you too!

Hopefully you like this book, I thought of you the most when I decided to make it, because I know how much you like all games!  I think you'll like the Kiribati Sorry and the Card Games the best!  Sorry if they are kind of confusing, some were kind of difficult to write the rules for!

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that everything is great and I'm seeing the Lord's hand in so many things that I am doing!  I know that he is there through all that I am doing for it truly is his work!  I want to share my testimony of the Book of Mormon.  When I finished the Book of Mormon for the first time at the beginning of this year, I was so excited to pray to gain a certain solid testimony of the book, so I prayed right there.  I prayed and sat and listened... nothing.  I was confused as to why I didn't receive an answer...  So many people promised that if you read the book, then you pray about it, then you will get an answer.  I didn't know why I wasn't getting an answer, then I had the thought to clean the house.  So Elder Kennedy and I did, and we went deep, rearranging the furniture, sweeping, mopping, your average "Mom" cleaning.  And it took a lot longer than I thought it would, and by the time we were done it was time to go out and teach.  It wasn't until the next day that I had a chance to pray and ask again, and when I did, I was surrounded and overwhelmed by the Spirit. 

I received my testimony that the book was true!  And since the book was true, I gained a firm testimony that Joseph Smith was a man called of God, that he saw God the Father and the Son, that prayers are answered, and all things we teach are true.  As I look back on this experience, 1) We are not always going to get an answer right away.  2) It may be because of something in our lives that we need to change in order to more fully invite the spirit, and 3) Cleanliness is next to Godliness! 

I know that this church is true 100% without a shadow of doubt in my brain, and I know if we press on in doing what the Lord wants us to do, we will be blessed and we will receive help and we will receive answers to prayers!

I love you dad,
Love your Son,
Elder Johnson

Short and Sweet- Transfers coming up

Dear Mom,

I looooove Elder Hunter!!! but do you want to know what we found out when President Weir was here?? He is going to become District Leader when Elder Miller leaves and guess who my companion is going to be???? Elder Ellis from my intake!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that kid so much!!!!! I am sad to see Hunter leave but Way pumped to see Ellis! XD

I am so happy to hear Tommy is still going to Russia!

Okay you're a punk for ordering new sunglasses... but thank you! hahah I still laugh at who ever stole them I can see them passing around saying look if you put these on you won't be able to see!!!! hahaha

I am going to try to activate my card today but on a safer computer I'm pretty sure I got my pin down! that was pretty sneaky!

I love you so much mom,

keep up all the amazing things you do because you are the best mom in the whole wide world!!

Elder Johnson

Dad,

This week has been absolutely insane!!! And it sounds like that is was pretty insane for you guys as well!!! hahah

I think the most spiritual thing that happened was one of two things definitely when President Weir came that man is insane, last P-day he talked to us about goal planning and how when he sold helicopters into the middle east he had a team of three, one of which spent the previous 14 years and sold 7 helicopters which isn't too bad with how expensive they were, he talked about developing a vision and you want to know what his vision was...... 525 helicopters sold into the middle east...... He then told us..." Of course we didn't quite make that goal..... we exceeded it just a little bit and actually sold 625" He then went on to tell us a ton of other things that could help us become better missionaries like focusing on specific investigators, it was like the sermon on the mount it was so insane!

I also had a really amazing study by applying what I learned from him, I decided to focus my studies 100% on one of our investigators, and I learned so many different ways on how to teach different lessons it was amazing!

Fishing kind of sucked... I had a migraine and nobody caught anything! hahah

There is one investigator who has gained his testimony but keeps telling us that he needs to make sure it's okay that he does certain things with his catholic leaders.... I'm just nervous because our first few lessons with him were soooo amazing, full of the Spirit and he knows they are true, but he is now making comments such as ti te ongora they are just to listen to right?? sooo

His name is Tiebu or Jeff in English!

I love you dad,

Love your son,

Elder Johnson

True Happiness Serving the Lord

Dad,

That is a pretty crazy week with a ton of stuff happening all at once!! It is way weird for me to think that there is another graduated class after me now... it doesn't feel that long ago that I graduated....

Yeah, it is crazy about Elder Seguine getting married, that was as big of shock as anything to hear, but get this.. Elder Openshaw who left 2 weeks ago is engaged and is getting married in July! HOLY talk about fast!!!

I will definitely pray for you guys, just remember the only way to receive true happiness is to continue to do our best in the church and all things, I would like to challenge you specifically to read the working with ward and stake leaders section in the Preach my Gospel book, I think it will really help to know what kind of responsibilities church members have!

Funniest thing was probably yesterday, my lower back was sore so I tried to pop it by leaning off the edge of the Bouia which is their little houses that look kind of like forts in a way, and as I sat up a fart snuck out! XD Elder Hunter just started dying... so did I it was pretty funny!

We have about ten investigators we are teaching, but they are all really close to baptism.  We've gone, I'm not even joking, to every single house in Banana and our area of work, our area is so darn small.  But we will keep praying and looking! XD As of this Saturday we have 3 baptisms set up we are pretty excited! One being Kitaa. And last Saturday, Teauatai the lady I asked you to pray about a few weeks ago!!

(I asked about the well they dug out last week.)

We only dug about 5 feet, it wasn't deep at all, but the ground was waaay hard, and that is what made it difficult!! It took us 3 hours of non-stop digging, only taking short couple minute breaks.

(I asked what his Sunday meetings were like.)

Sundays meetings are backwards, which is good, because even the most faithful members are an hour late and they all say Te Tai Ni Kiribati or Kiribati time! Our church building is under a huge Mwaneaba made out of coconut trees, which is like a huge pavilion! It's pretty dang cool!  For the most part they are similar to what we have at home, other than the occasional killing of a centipede, chasing out a dog, or a kid walking to the edge and peeing right next to all of us! XD

I love you dad,

Love your son,

Elder Johnson

P.S.  sorry I'm early we are going fishing with President Weir in a little bit and I won't have very much time later, if any at all...

Mom,

It honestly really freaks me out to know that there is already another graduated class after me....  I feel so freaking old it is ridiculous!!!!! hahaha

I am so glad to hear that Tommy is heading back out this August! Is he still going to Russia??? I really hope so!

I am so proud of you reading in the Book of Mormon everyday, I truly have a testimony that reading every single day will bless us beyond anything that we can possibly imagine.  There is a scripture that I love in Alma chapter 31 verse five it says that the Lord's word is more powerful than the blade of a sword, I know that to be true, I know that we can conquer anything that the devil throws at us!!

So I brought my preach my Gospel to tell you about my baptisms... buuuuuuut I left it at the house when we went to the internet place...... So I will let you know by next time!!

We get about 270 Australian dollars every month... It's pretty good, except at times it goes faster when the Freighter comes in because there is a lot better food at JMB like fresh fruit and stuff and it is pretty dang expensive....

I love you so much mom,

Love your son,

Elder Johnson

P.S I am waaaaaaay happy, things are going so great, the only problem is we are running out of people to teach... so pray that we will find more, because I already told Dad, but Elder Hunter and I have gone to every single house in Banana and that is not a lie.... hahah

Oh also don't do anything about it but my sunglasses got stolen last week.... luckily they are old so it is not that big of a deal, but I just thought Iwould let you know! (The poor guy that stole Jeff's glasses was in for a big surprise since they were prescription glasses and Jeff is blind as a bat!)

(We received a letter from Jeff's companion Elder Hunter.  It made us happy to see what a great guy Jeff is with right now!)

HELLO JOHNSON FAM!!

This is Elder Hunter.  I have come to realize that I have been a very ungrateful Elder.  You guys have sent out so many packages and Elder Johnson has been very nice to share with me.  The spoon/forks that you guys sent out are suuuupperrr convenient.  I've absolutely loved all of the food that you guys have sent out as well.  I realized though this week that I haven't even said thank you!  Hahaha forgive me for the late thank you but just wanted you guys to know that I am very appreciative!

Elder Johnson is awesome.  You guys did well haha.  Super easy to get along with and we are having an absolute blast out here in Banana.  We have also had some good success which has been very nice!

Anyways just wanted to thanks for everything.  Hope you guys have a fantastic Sabbath!

Elder Hunter  

Birthday Celebration and Other Good Times in Banana

Little Gifts for the Kiribati kids!

Jeff sent us a quick email mid week apologizing for not sending any letters last week.  They planned on sending them from the hotel after hanging out with the YSA, but the internet was not working when they got back.  He made up for it this week by sending a ton of pictures!

Mom,

Volleyball with the YSA for Jeff's Birthday

That sounds like it has been a pretty eventful last week,  again, I am so sorry that I didn't have the chance to email last week.... We really did try... BUT it was still a really fun day! We went and we played cards, and volley ball with the YSA it was a lot of fun!!!

 

My birthday was absolutely amazing, Elder Hunter surprised me by paying a lady in our branch to bake me a cake, and it was real too!!!! I started off the day by cooking us chocolate chip pancakes, cheesy scrambled eggs, shredded coconut, milk and an orange!!!! So awesome! Then we had a service set up and we dug a mwanibwa or a well for a widow in our branch. Let me tell you what, it was probably one of the hardest services I've done!!  After we went home, ate some cake, showered, changed, and went to our lessons.  Then for dinner, not only was there shark, there was lobster, octopus, cake, raw fish, rice and this pumpkin mash stuff!! They went all out for my birthday!!! I loved it!

 

That is so funny about dad popping a tire, and let him know that I am worthy of a beard too one day, because I changed the tire on Elder Miller's van when it blew.... ahhahaha XD

 

Package was AMAZING I loved it!! hahah I found another brand that does water proof bags Patagonia.  Also do you remember that trail mix from Costco? I think it is that has dried strawberries, pineapple, mango, apples and stuff in it I honestly want anything with fruit! hahaha

 

I love you so much mom, and I appreciate all that you do for me at all times!!!

Love your son,

Elder Johnson

Dad,

It sounds like everything is going pretty great at home! I've noticed that you left out the story of the car tire popping ahaahahah that is so funny!!!!! My birthday went awesome!! I already sent mom most of the details, but I ate shark, lobster, octopus, raw fish, cake.  That family went above and beyond to make that a special day for me!

 

Funniest thing that happened this week..... I don't know.... there are so many funny things that happen while I am with Elder Hunter.... But the funniest thing is we finished the Mwanibwa that we started a week ago, and the guy who was cleaning it out pulled out 2 live crabs!  The Widow's son who is 3 to 5 grabbed the spade and chases/sneaks around until he smashed them to pieces!! hahahah XD

Digging a Mwanibwa- (Well)

 

Golden investigator........ has evolved into a member! and yes I just used a Pokemon reference! hahah

 

One is Kitaa (guitar in Kiribati) we can't really tell if he is that into lessons or not... other than that all of our other investigators are really solid!

 

There is a rumor, not confirmed yet, that after this transfer now that Elder hunter and I are staying so we think I am staying at least until end of august early September!

 

I love you dad,'

Love your son,

Elder Johnson

Elder Johnson is having a great time with Elder Hunter!

Birthday Breakfast

Elder Hunter paid a member to bake Jeff a cake for his birthday!

Birthday dinner- Shark, Lobster, Octopus, Raw Fish, Pumpkin Mash and Rice!

Baptism

MacGyver Fix on the Mission Bike 

New Christmas Island District- (He didn't send names)

How many other missions have a rat kill rate of the Kiribati Islands?

Wedding Day

I love that Jeff has grown up, but is the same kid he has always been!

Heaven on Earth

Mother's Day Letters Before the Call

Mom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy freaking MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!!!

First off I want to thank you and let you know how much I appreciate you and all the things that you have done for me.  If it were not for your love, support, help, understanding and all other amazing characteristics that you have I would not be the person that I am today!!!

I know that you are sad that we won't get to talk, trust me I am too! BUT I also know that all things happen for a reason, this is a trial that is going to help us grow some way, and we may not understand how as of right now, but later down the road, we will look back and be grateful for this trial.  And at least that the connection is good enough that we can email!!!  (We were able to talk to Jeff after all!  They got the internet connection working and we had a great conversation with him!)

I want you to know that you are the absolute BEST mom a kid could ever ask for! No matter what, you have always been strong even through my ugly teenage years!! hahah  You are the ONLY person that I would ever want to be my mom. 

I love you with all of my heart! don't worry about me I am healthy I am happy and I am going to have the best week of my life! We have so many amazing things set up for this week! We have a baptism with I do dare say my golden investigator, I am going to eat shark for my birthday, and the YSA is putting a dinner together the day before my birthday so we can party! hahah

I thank God every day for such an amazing mom as you, and I want you to know that I appreciate all that you have ever done what you do now, and all those things that you will do.  Every time I think of that Mom talk given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, I think of you!

I love you, you are pretty darn close to the perfect mom,

Love your ever so grateful son,

Elder Johnson

Dad,

Let's just say this sucks, but there is a reason for it!!

Funniest thing that happened this week is probably yesterday, we got a fifteen year old member to come with us as a member present, who is also fifteen years old, and as we were all riding our bikes the kid Teangaua, kept egging us on and telling us that our bikes were slow, so Elder Hunter takes off and he is screaming, and he pulls ahead of this kid, but then his bike chain falls off!! hahah so funny!!

Bike ride to our area is literal buokonikai or forest for a straight 20 minutes, we don't pass any houses so how we do our studies is an hour of personal an hour of companion, an hour of language then an hour of lunch/ then we head to our area to work for the day. 

I love you dad,

Love your son,

Elder Johnson

Elder Osborne 

On Splits with Elder Osborne, Elder Johnson's first companion in the MTC.

Baby Coconut Crab

Mai (Breadfruit) Jeff loves this stuff!

WWE Kiribati Style

Tiim and Nakaroro

Tiim and Nakaroro

Some of the Awesome YSA

Elder Hunter eating octopus for the first time.