Trying to be like Jesus

the weather is so beautiful here in Roanoke Virginia. We are so blessed to have a wonderful place to serve. We spent Saturday with Homer. hes so funny and a great member missionary. he picked us up that morning, and took us home at night! We had a great start to the day by helping with the ward easter egg hunt. yeah you read it right, we had it this past Saturday, it rained when it was originally supposed to be but had to reschedule. we had a busy Saturday teaching. i love being busy teaching. 

we also got to have dinner down town with the assistants to the president. they were passing through and asked if we wanted to join them! theyre fun guys, always making ya smile or laugh. We had such a beautiful Sunday! Manny and his wife and kids came to church!!! it was such a blessing and miracle to have them. they were worried that their children would be disruptive. we told them how its a family congregation and that there were many other kids trying to keep their kids reverent.   a never have i been so grateful for noisy kids at church! haha Sheila gave us some fruit snacks cuz we were all hungry haha! We got to meet with the Crotts. The first councilor in the stake presidency, and his wife joined us. they are one of thr many people we love to go see. they treat us like family. we taught about the authority to baptize. it went so well and was directed by the spirit! i love it! the real teacher is the spirit in all we do 

Shout out to my baby sister for going to get baptized this weekend!! im so excited for her! so many good things are going on here! i love serving in Roanoke with Elder Lopez! 

i was listening to this song and it really brings the spirit in a awesome way. it makes me think of how im trying to be like Jesus, wearing His name over my heart and sharing those things about Him that are near and dear to my heart. please have a good week! love yall! 

Elder Johnson 

http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/music-videos/im-trying-to-be-like-jesus-emily-brown

Holy Conference!! #Happy Easter

We had so many things happen this past week! this past transfer flew by like crazy!!! i blinked and it was gone!! haha 

We had a mission leadership meeting in Charleston, i loved being able to see president and sister Salisbury. they have soo much insight and bless our lives. We always learn so much from them! 

when we got home and saw our neighbor moving an old desk down her driveway. she we went over and helped her, shared the #BecauseHeLives pass along card with her and she wants to meet with us! she asked some cool questions about the temple and such. the Lord is preparing people! 

Huge shout out to Mama Johnson for sending the Roanoke zone some leis! Everyone loved them! they made it fun. Conference was amazing! im tellin ya, its the missionary super bowl! i dont know if i could pick a favorite talk but i really enjoyed Sunday morning session. isent it great to having living apostles and prophets?! good  stuff. We had some investigators come Sunday, and gave them a church tour! its always funny to see peoples reactions to seeing the cultural hall. i never thought it different to have a full sized basketball court in the middle of the church building cuz ive grown up with it haha. 

We had a humble Easter lunch with Homer, chili hot dogs with lemonade and chips haha. it was nice. Homer is like our 3rd companion, he comes out with us all the time. things here in Roanoke are going so great! Elder Lopez and i get to stay together another transfer! i love being a missionary with a passion! it so fulfilling. this is the best 2 year for me for my life! i learn so much everyday, serve others and have fun while doing it. love yall!!! have a great week! do something fun in remembrance of me! 

Elder Johnson 

Conference Weekend! #Because He Lives!

Really cool highlight this week was last night! Parker Jacobs in my home ward served here in Roanoke! He had baptized sister Huffman here in Roanoke. i hadn't met her yet so we stopped by and talked to them and shared a message. theyre such cool people!! what small world! AND i found out that President Larry Johnson was a mission president here! so cool!

We got some pretty sick referrals this week! One of them texted us and said "when can i get baptized? and whats yalls significance of your baptism?" Really awesome!!! we met with him, he had been going to primary as a kid and really enjoyed and wants to have those happy feelings he had there all the time. thats the spirit my friends! haha 

Manny is progressing really well!! he wants whats best for his family and has a sincere desire to do good. you can see the spirit working with him. his wife has opened up to us and comes in more often for the lessons. we got to ride bikes for a couple days! it was really nice out. but these Virginia hills are unforgiving! ive had a car my whole mission so my legs felt like they were gunna fall off haha. we had a lot of fun though! the sisters (Sister Combs and Jackson) drove past us, laughed and took pics ahah. theyre fun. 

#BecauseHeLives is out! go watch it and bask in the awesomeness!!! share it with your peeps!! ill make it easy for ya, heres a link hahaha  --> http://www.mormon.org/easter 

love yall!! have a great week! happy Easter! 

Elder Johnson 

A visit from an Apostle!!!

so elephant in the room, got to meet a member of the quorum of the twelve apostles!!!! the meeting was about to start and President Salisbury got up and said that he wanted to shake all our hands and know where we're from!! it was amazing!! i got to shake his hand!! we made eye contact for what felt like 15 minutes, it was more like 15 seconds haha. He spoke with such power. ill get right into the meat of it, so one thing he said that i really liked was "The Lords got our back, the rest is taken care of". how comforting! he went on to talk about how we all will face rejection and adversity but not to worry. how comforting! he also said "there's nothing that can defeat Him, or us while we stand with Him." we already know that Christ will be the victor. I love thinking about how we have all kinds of help seen and unseen. we need to be confident in the Lord and have faith in Him. This is His work, we just need to keep His pace.

Elder Chirstofferson mentioned how its rare that the whole mission gets together like we did. some random things that i thought we so cool of him, one he said that he has his wife look over his conference talks and critiques them, says he should add something, or take something out. how cool and humble! before he walked off the stand he looked at all of us, got a huge smile said "your all so great" then blew us a  kiss. hes such an amazing man! 

we had an amazing week! we were able to meet with Jamal ad his friend that he introduced us to, troy. they are soo cool! they cant believe that we're their same age haha. our lesson with them was so powerful!! they are really prepared and want Christ more in their lives. We also met with Chester the Jamaican man! he is the funniest!! he introduced us to his friend Austin and he wants to meet with us! manny is doing really well!!! he came to church the past 2 weeks! Hes excited to be baptized! his wife is also investigating! So many awesome things are happening here in the Noke! love it, love the people, love how much im learning! i can explain how much joy this work brings to my soul! i love it! love yall! 

Elder Johnson 

This place is about to blow up! #In more ways than one

first off, happy birthday to Cadence!! one of my most favorite humans to walk the earth. wish i could be with her on her special day!! What a week! Got a lot of good goin on here in the Roanoke area and zone! cant wait to see Elder Christoffereson this weekend! 

We had dinner with a member and the whole time i was thinking about how their 2 little boys were so much like me and Clarkis when we were kids! one was loud and always had something to say and everyone had to listen and the other was a little more shy and put his 2 cents in every one in a whle hahaha. you can imagine who was like who ;) haha

So this last week we had someone threaten to bomb the stake center where we meet for church! we were supposed to have a zone meeting on Friday but President Salisbury advised us not to, for obvious reasons haha. Everytime we went to the church, a cop would pull up within 10 seconds! they got the Lords church on a close watch! 

We had a meeting in Charleston for all the zone leaders and Sister Training leaders. There were 2 members of the missionary board there! they work with Elder Bednar! they trained us on how we can teach more effectively and use Preach My Gospel in a deeper way. It was soo powerful! Bro. Donaldson gave us some really good insight! got to see some of my missionary buddies! both the missionaries i trained were there! 

a member (Homer) took us to go eat at a place called Hollywoods. it wasent anything like the real thing haha. there was a less active lady who was there and bought our dinner !! and asked us to come see her! cool stuff! Manny came to church! After sacrament hes was really eager to get to sunday school. We are really excited for him and know good things are to come with him! Also are making good progress with with the crotts, an older couple. they are so welcoming and open! they always tel  Sister crotts sister came to visit in the middle of the lesson! so we gave them a restoration lesson using the pamphlet and they enjoyed it, the members testified with power and the sister said she would read the pamphlet. after she left bro. crotts said how she would normally never listen to missionaries! it was such an amazing lesson! 

well, love yall!! thanks for the support and love and especially the letters!! 

Love Elder Johnson 

ps, i love serving with Elder lopez!! 

Elder Johnson and his new companion in Roanoke Virginia

#DaNoke

So Roanoke is pretty much the best place on earth. It reminds me a lot of Huntington Beach! minus the ocean ;) I love it here so much! and i love even more bein able to serve with Elder Lopez!
We were in the MTC together and came to the mission together! hes a stud missionary and i know great things will happen in our time together!

Just in this short time of bein here we have gotten a lot done, met some wonderful people and taught a lot! A member, Homer, is so rad! he comes out with us whenever hes able to! the past few days we met at his home in the morning and got back at night, working all day. #MemberMissionaryWork #GoinAllOut 

Bein a zone leader has been stressful but so much fun! i love bein able to work with and serve the missionaries around me. i have a lot of missionaries in the zone that i already have a good relationship with and have served around them. 

Its pretty much decided that its going to be Elder D. Todd Christofferson comin to speak to us!! that should be epicly epic! 

If you feel inclined to write me or need my address its 5007 Polly Hill Ln 24019 Roanoke Va :) 

Hope yall have a great week! Love yins so much! 

Elder Johnson