September 13, 2010
Hello again everyone,
This last week has been pretty awesome back here in Elizabeth. Really weird to have schools startin back up over here. Especially the nearby colleges...just a gentle reminder that normal life is going on, lol. We were thinking about how crazy it sounds that we'd be juniors in college if we weren't here in the mission field. Last I checked thats like old! lol. But thats just how time works right? ...goes by all too fast.
Whats crazy to think is that its already 1 transfer down here in Elizabeth. My companion and I will be staying the same, and there are only 3 changes in the zone. So all in all not to much craziness happening for us. Next transfers will prove to be a little bit more interesting for several different reasons, but we've got 6 weeks before we start thinkin of that one.
The work is going pretty well for us. We are continually finding new people and using the members to do so. Member work is so helpful...even when they aren't like perfect member missionaries they are still huge helps with the investigators. It kinda gets me pumped to do my best to be the same when I'm a lil older, living on my own, gettin started on my career. It is just gonna be so much fun to keep the missionary fire alive in many ways as I start my family. ....And speaking of families, we are teaching some pretty sweet families. We just found a couple of new ones these last few days and we're both really excited to help them progress towards eternal happiness. Cuz that is truly what it is all about right??? of course. That is one of my favorite things to tell people we teach... often they think that our purpose or our end game is to get another person in the pew or dollar in the dish at church, but it isn't. I love looking them in the eyes and telling them that our "end game" or our "goal" is their fullness of happiness which comes only through their immortality and eternal life (Moses 1:39 anyone?) That is why it is so important for us to keep our eye single to "His glory" (namely immortality and eternal life), because if we don't then we are just like any other preacher/pastor that is only doing it to get gain. What an opportunity it is to do all I can for 2 years to simply help others and make eternal friendships.
I hope everyone is having a great time starting school back up again. Its been amazing over here. I have a feeling I am really going to like the Jersey fall after a cold winter and hot summer without much of a spring. 65-70 and sunny can stay all year round and I wouldn't complain one bit :)
Thanks so much for your support and reading my lil updates. I love you all and hope you have a great week :)
Elder Johnson
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September 7, 2010
Hello everyone!
Hope going back to school has been going pretty well. There is a university and a lil county college here in my area so I have very much so felt a 'lil heat from the "back to school fever" ....it is surreal to me that next time the "fever" hits I'll have it in full force. But for now I'll just be chillin' here preachin' the gospel to the nations in NJ.
It was a pretty sweet week. Elder McBroom and I are gettin work done. Not that numbers really matter but we have really begun to hit our stride and we're having some great days/weeks. But numbers aside there are 2 investigators we are particularly excited about. Yasena (with a tilde on the n btw) and Alvaro (accent on the 1st "a") ...they both are on track for baptism this month. Yasena is the sister in law of an active member...whose husband now is starting to come back to church btw. She is super awesome and wants to be baptized. So she should progress fairly quick. She has been to church the last 2 weeks and seems to be assimilating really well with it all :) ...Alvaro is a lil different. He is the 21 year old father of one of the youth's baby bakin in the oven. ...they are planning on getting married here soon which is great and Sandra, the mom, is doing such a great job of dealing with it all. She has been able to see how she has made a mistake and wants to make the best of it...consequently she has moved towards marriage and bringing him to church with her. All of this and she is only 16....yes 16 (only by a few months too). I am just amazed by her maturity that has seemed to come almost instantly with these rather huge changes of the past couple weeks. Basically Alvaro and her could make a great member couple in not too long...and we're excited to help out.
A lil on the fun side of things, Elder McBroom and I went to the mall during P-day yesterday. And amidst all of the hustle and bustle of going back to school and whatnot we were able to make some rather nice tie purchases. He got two gems and I got a pretty ridiculous one myself ...we did some huntin and found some pretty good deals. It was good stuff...and totally weird to be in a mall....first time since before the mish! The atmosphere was all too familiar. Just everyone looked at us like we were crazy. (I wonder why? (; lol).
Anyways hope all is well with you and wish you all the best of luck with the new school year =D
Till next time,
Elder Johnson
