Pictures & Update from Elder Johnson

Below is Ben's most recent letter.  Transfers are this week on Wednesday, so he'll soon know if he's transferred to a new area with a new address. He says he could possibly stay in West New York for one more transfer.  In other news, the New Jersey Cherry Hill mission is being dissolved into Ben's mission and one of the Philadelphia Missions.  Ben is excited to serve in areas of New Jersey he didn't anticipate at the time of his call.  He also looks forward to meeting many new missionaries that will soon join his mission.  These changes will begin in a couple months.  

Happy Valentines Day!!!

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2.8.10

Hello everybody :)

It has been quite the crazy week. First off I have been super sickly...I am not a fan. I guess thats what I get for the hours spent in the cold last week. And the irony is that because of a recent zone goal of 31 contacts per companionship a day, the time spent out in the cold didn't really diminish due to the illness =/ ...and for that I am yet to fully bounce back from being sick, but I'm pluggin along.

But this zone goal of contacting is a part of an even greater zone activity: Faith Week. Elder Westover and Elder Lam, our Zone Leaders, have both put tons of time and even a little bit of money (we all got faith week binders) into this amazing activity. It consists of goals, a bunch of personal and companionship studies, and a "zone blitz" (which is when every missionary from the whole zone goes to one area and works it....they are way sweet) all focused around Faith. We have all learned sooooooo much about faith in general and really have begun putting to work this faith in our own companionships.  And miracles have happened. The most amazing would have to have been this last saturday. We had a zone breakfast as kind of a lets-get-fueled-up-for-this-zone-blitz, which happened shortly thereafter. The zone blitz was to be about 2+ hours of pure contacting/knocking in one area to really give it a boost...its super exciting and was awesome. But there was one problem, the forcast said 12 inches of snow. Which obviously would be no good....who's gonna be walkin around during a blizzard first off... and second we woulda been just flat out freezing by the end of the 2+ hours. But Elders Lam and Westover had different plans in store....and as we figured out so did the Lord. They asked fervently, in faith that it would not snow during our blitz in Union City. This was asked as the snow flurries had already began... But it was the will of the Lord to answer this prayer. There was no snow. The storm was pushed to DC, where there was tons of snow. But here in our area, none. It was truly a miracle. The heart felt prayer of 2 zone leaders, compounded with their faith, kept the storm from ruining the zone blitz. From which, I am sure, many will be brought to know the truth.

Elder Johnson & Elder Ward

They are loving their time as a companionship.

The miracles continued on saturday as well....the next lesson Elder Ward and I taught was our first lesson with a potential investigator. He was so ready. We taught him and set him with a baptismal date for next month. It was amazing. 20 years ago he was taught and loved the church, but circumstances with a fiance made it impossible for him to be baptized. He moved, lost contact with missionaries, and since then has been looking for the church. He found it again and was brought to tears because of the amazingly powerful spirit which was felt during our lesson. Jorge Ramos is yet another miracle of this Faith Week.   ....He had been looking for the church all these years and ironically we contacted him right outside of the chapel lol.

I hope you all have a fabulous week. I heard the groundhog said its gonna be a longer winter....buckle up!   lol

Elder Johnson

Brother Jim Banks, from our Stevenson Ranch Ward, 

served 6 months in West New York--12 years ago.  

He visited Ben last month--surprising  Ben with his visit.  

Ben loved it and they both enjoyed sharing stories 

about West New York people they both know :)