Week Six - September 4, 2014

Family!

How is everyone?  First of all.  Thank you so much for all the love and support this week.  The packages have been amazing.  I Love Gordon  B Hinckley's talk.  Lp book was awesome.  Haha I was so pumped you sent that to me!  Ahhhhh I love the packages and all the support that comes from my family!  I love you to death.  This week has been a little tough.  I have missed home kinda a lot.  But I refocus myself and know that this is the most important thing I can be doing in and for my life.  It is hard.  And I learn so much everyday.  I have been going beast mode learning here while I can.  I have been doubling my flash cards a day, and I memorize 20 words a day.  It's great.  I am so excited to get to Korea.  I got an e-mail from my mission president today and it basically said I will be arriving in Korea the 23rd of Sept. and I will stay two nights in the mission home, and then that next day, I will be in my first area!  Holy cow!  When I read that, I was peeing my pants.  I've never been so nervous and excited and at the same time.  I can't wait to be immersed in the culture and to grow a love for the Korean people.  I look forward to all that awaits me in HANGUK (Korea).  I am working my hardest everyday to be prepared for the day I get to Korea.  I know that as I work hard each day, the Lord blesses me.  I am so grateful for that.  I love being a missionary.  It is tough at times, but It makes me happy knowing that I am bringing people back to our Heavenly Father. 

I miss and love you tons.  YOur packages make me soooooo happy!  IZZZZZY holy cow.  I was pumped out of my head to get your Dear Elder.  You have to send more.  I will respond in a handwritten letter, and I'll send it by today.  I miss you Iz.  You're an amazing sister.  I was thinking about you a lot the day I got your Dear Elder and it made me so pumped!  Luke J HOly stud!!  Takin it back for 6 in your football game.  YOu're a stud.  I miss you so much and hope that you're doing good.  I heard your ankle is hurting a little.  Get feeling better.  KINGST, happy birthday bubs!  Haha I laughed my head off when you said it was his birthday.  Dad, I miss you, love you, hope all went well with your leadership meetings and things.  I loved your Dear Elder about football and stuff.  Wow!  It made me so pumped!  Keep doing that, I love it.  I miss going to the games with you and the BOYZ.  Those were some good times.  Before you know it, me, you, Luke j, and Tyler will be going to all the games together.  I miss and love my family so much.  You guys mean so much to me, and I am grateful for a family that cares so much about the important things in life.  I am grateful for the examples you are to me everyday.  YOu have taught me a lot and I have been so blessed.

This week has been pretty good.  Not a ton has happened.  First, I wanna tell you about something funny that happened!  Haha Saturday afternoon during additional study time, I spent like an hour giving a push up class to the two Korean elders.  One of them can do them fine and challenged me and Elder Lee to have a push up contest to see who could get the most in 1 minute.  I PUMPED OUT 70 in a row baby!  Sooooo sick!  I was hauling haha.  I was sweating bullets after that cuz I was in my church clothes.  After that, I taught Elder Kim how to do push ups.  I showed hims tons of different kinds of push ups to get strong.  It was so fun to teach him that stuff.  He teaches me Korean and I teach him how to get strong.  Haha lol (not that I am strong or anything.....)  I haven't really gained many pounds since I have been here.  I work out most nights with Elder Smith, and I think I have actually gotten more muscle.  It's great:)  We wrestle in the hallways some nights, and it brings back so many good memories.

We got the new elders in yesterday, and we are officially the oldest.  It's awesome!  We are leaving in like 3 weeks.  We get travel plans and our real name tags this next week, I think, or maybe the one after that.  I am pumped, but scared, too.  Hahah It's all becoming a reality.

So, this week my companion is really not feeling well.  Friday, he was really sick, and I gave him a blessing.  I said that if he was able to get some rest, he would be healed.  Sure enough, he was able to get some rest, and he woke up feeling a lot better and was able to come to TRC.  That was something I was praying for was that he would be able to come teach with me.  My prayers were answered.  I am grateful for the priesthood power.

Yesterday, my comp was throwing up again.  I'm not quite sure what is wrong with him.  I feel bad. I  have to sit back at the residence while he sleeps.  Yesterday was hard because I spent all my time at the residence, and I just read some scriptures and studied vocab.  I walked around the halls of the residence like over 70 times studying my vocab.  I was like shadow wrestling--doing push ups, singing, and lots more. 

This week, also, we had an amazing devotional.  He said so many things.  I will have to write a letter home talking about what he talked about.  He said that as I give my best everyday and be obedient and work hard, the power of heaven will be upon me and to the ones I love.  He said it will prompt the people who are close to you who aren't members.

 
This week has been pretty good.  I look forward to learning a lot this next week and taking specific steps to get me prepared for Korea.  I love you and miss you a lot.  Thank you for all your prayers.  I love you.  Hope all is well.

Love, Elder Johnson

Week Five - August 28, 2014

Annnyounghaseyouhhhh!

This week has been super busy and super good!  I have been learning so much!  The older group left yesterday to Seoul and we said bye to them.  I had a lot of Elders that I became close with so it was kinda hard to say good bye.  My district is finally the oldest district which means we are the next ones to leave!!!  It's Crazy.  I am sooooo excited!  I feel pretty good with the language.  I am able to say a few things, but not even near enough to have a complete conversation.  I am starting to be able to pick up certain words in sentences, and I can very simple respond.  I am able to read the Book of Mormon in Korean and it's amazing.  I can pick out certain words, but I have no idea what it's saying!  I am getting faster with my reading as well.  

I have set goals to accomplish certain things this week.  I memorized my Purpose as a missionary in Korean this week!!  I was so pumped when I finally got it down!  Our branch president told us that since we only have about 3 weeks left here, we need to start doubling our learning.  That is what I have been doing.  Yesterday I started memorizing the First Vision in Korean.  I hope by next week I will have it down.  Also, I am trying my best to memorize 20 vocabulary words a day, and I am also trying to study the grammar forms.  There are over like 1000 of them.  I'm not sure exactly the number, but it's crazy!  I am learning the important ones and those are ones that are used the most.  The other 900 or so don't get used that often... well as far as I'm concerned:) haha. 

This week I decided that I am going to be the absolute best missionary I can be.  I want to work hard everyday and have no regrets.  I want to set goals and accomplish them.  I know if I do this, then I will receive so many blessings.  I have been studying a lot about the restoration of the gospel this week.  I read Joseph Smiths testimony (in the beginning of the Book of Mormon), and I have also been reading in Joseph Smith History.  Joseph Smith went through so many trials and endured through every one because he knew he had a work to do and he knew that what he saw in the Sacred Grove was true.  I have strengthened my testimony this week on the Restoration of this Gospel.  I thought back to my amazing experiences on Origination and at all of the church sites we went to, there was such a strong spirit.  I have a testimony that Joseph did see Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  I know he translated the Book of Mormon.  It is so amazing that in 2 Nephi Chapter 3 ( I think) Lehi testifies to Joseph his son of the coming forth of the Restoration and how a man named Joseph would restore the church.  I also had to opportunity of watching the Restoration video on Sunday after the devotional.  Holy cowwww that movie is amazing!  It tells the story perfectly.  I am grateful for the Restoration and for Joseph Smith enduring through hard times.  He has taught me a lot.  Without him enduring, we wouldn't have the happiness that we have today.  And because of him, I can share what I know is true with the people of KOREA!

The Restoration 

(Click on the link above to watch "The Restoration" film which Elder Johnson was talking about.)

This week, my companion and I had a few really good lessons with our "Investigator."  We planned on teaching Baptism, so we planned a really good lesson to teach about baptism, and we felt really good about it.   As we sat down to give our lesson, we asked her a few questions and one of the questions that we asked her was, "Do you believe and have faith in Christ?"  Well, we thought she would say, "Yes," and then we would continue to follow our lesson plan.  But things changed.  After we asked her why we she didn't believe in Christ, we put our lesson plan aside and taught her all about Christ and why we need to have faith in him.  It was amazing.  I was able to talk so much about Christ in Korean.  We went completely away from what we had planned, and we were just speaking to her in Korean the whole time about Christ, and we followed the Spirit!  Something I have been doing in my personal study is every time I come across a scripture I like, I write it down in my little pocket notebook and then to the side I write like 3 or 4 words on why  I like it.  Well, I felt prompted to share a scripture in our lesson but I had no idea what one to share and It doesn't help that we only had our Korean Book of Mormon in there, so I couldn't really tell which book was which.  Anyway, so I pulled out my little note book and I saw one of the scriptures I wrote down. 2 NE 11:7.  I wasn't sure exactly what it said, but I had written next to it, "Jesus Christ."  So I grabbed my Korean Book of Mormon and looked it up and gave it to her.  The spirit was so strong, and I knew that that was the perfect scripture.  That was a really cool experience.  After our lesson, I looked up that scripture in English and it was Perfect.  It testifies perfectly of Christ and went along exactly with what we were talking about.  I can't wait to have those amazing experiences out in the field with real investigators.  I want to end with a quote that I heard in the Devotional on Tuesday, "If it is to be, It is up to me."  I loved that.
 

Hope everyone is doing well!  I miss everyone, and I look forward to another good week.  My MTC time is winding down, and I'm trying to learn as much as I can.  Thanks for all the support.

Love, Elder Johnson

Week Four - August 21, 2014

This week has been great! 

I have learned so much.  I can't believe it's already been 1 MONTH!  Time goes by super fast but at the same time super slow.... The MTC is great!  I am learning so much. Yesterday I had one of my funniest experiences as a missionary.  Before I had to go and host the missionaries at the curb, there were a few international missionaries that needed to be hosted that have already been here for a few days.  They were just staying in a temporary room.  So the Elder that I got assigned to host was from Tonga.  He was such a cool kid.  We like instantly became friends.  Any way, I took him and his luggage to his permanent room and we dropped it off.  But before we could leave, I had to teach him how to use the lock so he could put all his valuables in a drawer.  I showed him like 7 different times how to work it and he couldn't figure it out.  I was laughing my head off!  He was getting so frustrated and just couldn't open it.  After like 10 tries, he finally got it and we both started laughing! It was hilarious. 

Anyway, this week I have been reading in 2 Nephi and I have learned so much.  Chapter 2 is one of my favorite chapters.  It talks about The Fall and how we have our agency to choose.  We have agency to Act or be Acted Upon.  That is something I have really been working on and thinking about as I have gone through out the week.  I have been setting goals everyday and trying to accomplish them.  I have been figuring out ways to ACT on them so I can accomplish my goals.  The gift of agency is amazing and one of the greatest gifts that God has given to us.  We need to use it to our advantage and to choose the good things in life.  This Sunday our topic for all the meetings was The Atonement.  The Atonement is literally God's greatest gift to man kind.  Without an atonement, it would be impossible for us to return home to to live with him again.  God sent his son Jesus Christ down to the earth to set the perfect example of how we should live our lives.  He took upon him the weight and pain of all sins of the world for all man kind.  I am grateful for Jesus Christ.  I am strengthening my relationship with Him more and more everyday.  I'm grateful for the Atonement because when we misuse the gift of agency, Heavenly Father has given us the Atonement so we can repent and live with Him again.

Something that I have also been focusing on this week is to recognize the hand of the Lord in my life everyday.  I pray and ask than I will be able to see his hand im my life and at the end of the day I report and show gratitude.  Monday was a little rough.  I was stressed cuz of the language and I wasnt feeling well, and I opened up to a scripture in Mosiah chapter 7. Verse 33.  It really helped me and I could feel the hand of the Lord in my life.

Fridays are awesome!  We do what's called TRC.  It's where returned missionaries or random people (that speak Korean) around Utah come and receive a spiritual message from the missionaries.  In my first one, I have this older lady and basically the whole time she talked to us about Korea!  She gave me some amazing advice.  She talked about the culture and the small things that the Korean people notice.  She told us how important it is to have a good relationship with your companion.  That is the first thing they notice. If they see you have a good relationship, the (members) will bring there non-member friends and then that will open up ways to teach them.  She also talked about the importance of building a relationship with the members and investigators. 

(Elder Warnick, MTC companion of Elder Johnson)

I am so excited for all my amazing experiences that await me in Korea!  I look forward to it everyday!  The language is the thing I worry about most.  I know I will eventually get the hang of it!   One thing I really liked this week as I was reading in PMG.  It said, "The attitude you have toward your mission reflects your love you have for your Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ and the Priesthood."  I loved that!

I love and miss everyone! hope all is well.  Thank you for all the support.
Love,
 
Elder Johnson

Week Three - August 14, 2014

Annyanghashayooooo!

This past week has been awesome.  There have been a lot of good things that have happened.  First off, I am so grateful to be a missionary.  The power and authority that comes with being a missionary is truly amazing.  I think sometimes we don't realize the blessings and power that missionaries have.  This week I have noticed a bunch of different things.  I am grateful for everything that my Heavenly Father has blessed me with.  I have been so blessed in my life, and I know the best thing that I can be doing now is serving the Lord and bringing the Korean people back to Him.  I can't wait for all my crazy cool experiences that I will have in Korea!

On Tuesday, I went and sang in the choir for the devotional.  The power and spirit that hymns have is incredible.  We sang "Nearer my God to Thee."  The choir director has so many cool stories and ways to tie the songs into  spiritual thoughts.  He talked about how God gives us trials so we can become closer to Him.  That is something that I have really noticed while I have been out on my mission.  When you go through hard times, you just have to pray and ask for the help and strength that you need to overcome a hard time or a big trial.
  

After the devotional on Sunday, I watched, "The Character of Chris" talk for the second time.  It is amazing.  Elder Bednar said something that really stood out to me.  Testimony:  What you know to be true by the witness of the Holy Ghost.  Conversion:  Consistently being true to what we know.  We need to be converted unto the Lord.   We can't just live on our testimonies.  If we strengthen it and become more like Christ, we can become converted unto the Lord.  That is something I am also working on.  Being converted unto Him so I can have a change in heart.  He said, "Lose yourself in others and you'll find yourself, but you won't be looking for it."

Also, after the devotional on Sunday, I had the opportunity of giving my first blessing.  Me and T Ash gave each other blessings before he left to Florida.  The Priesthood authority is real.  The spirit during the blessing I gave and the blessing he gave to me was so strong!  He said some really good things in my blessing.  After we were done, he told me I said something almost exactly like his stake president said in his setting apart blessing.  I was grateful to speak by the Spirit and to have that opportunity of giving a blessing.  It was such a cool experience to give one of my best friends a blessing while in the MTC.

(Elders Ashworth, Johnson, Paskett, and McCracken)

(Elders Johnson and Peterson)

The Language is getting better!  It is crazy hard, but I am trying my best everyday.  Looking back on the last three weeks, I have learned a lot.  I just focus on what I know rather that what I don't know.  If I do that then I don't get as frustrated:)  Our lessons are getting better.  I am starting to be able to say certain things and I'm very very simply, creating my own sentences.  I sometimes try to speak in English the sentence structure of Korean (if that makes sense?)  It helps me practice the sentence structure and helps me get used to the way they speak because it so much different from how we speak.  I am so grateful for everyone's prayers!  I feel them everyday.  I have been reading in First Nephi this week, and I am noticing things I have never noticed before.  My District and I were talking about how much more we understand from the scriptures from just being a missionary.  It's amazing.  I love the scriptures.  They teach me so much.  I have been reading slowly through them and marking everything that stands our to me.  The word "Faith" is something I circle every time I read over it.  You can never have enough faith.  We have to strive to strengthen our faith in the Savior every day and he will bless us.  

I love and miss everyone.  Hope all is gong well. Have a great week!

Elder Johnson

Week Two - August 7, 2014

  Annyounghasayeeeoo!

Family!  How are you?  I miss you guys so much!

This week has been amazing!  I am starting to get used to the schedule and things are becoming normal:)  The language is such a beast.  There are times where I feel like I have a good amount of it down and then we learn something new and  all off a sudden I don't know anything anymore!  Haha!  Our lessons are starting to improve.  Yesterday I went to my lesson without any of my Korean papers to help me.  I wrote down a bunch of sentences in English and was able to say them all in Korean!  One of the hardest things for me is the structure of the sentence.  It is so much different then English.  I am studying hard each day so I can learn more and more.  I pray so hard everyday for the gift of remembering and I notice that I am starting to remember the things I learn each day.  But they only stick if I do my part.  STUDY STUDY STUDY.  I flip through my flash cards every second trying to learn a bunch of new vocab.  Things are slowly coming.  I consider It a miracle with how much Korean I already know.  Looking back on two weeks ago, I only knew how to say Hello and Thank you.  Now I am able to Pray, Testify, Greet, Teach (simply) and a few other basic things. 

This week I have also learned to compare myself to myself and not to compare myself to anyone else in my zone or district.  I have set many goals to help me with my language growth and spiritual growth.  This week I have been studying the topic of Faith.  I have really been studying Alma chapter 32 and Ether chapter 12.  In those two chapters it talks about faith.  One thing I love is in Ether 12 towards the end of the chapter it gives examples of some of the prophets who had faith and did mighty works!  I have been working on strengthening my faith in my Savior.  If I have faith and accept Jesus Christ as my Savior, He will bless me more than I will ever know.  I may not know every detail of the gospel, but It brings happiness and I can't wait to share that with the Koreans.  The power of simplicity is real.  I know that this is the most important work that is on the earth and me and Ty are a part of it.  Mom, how amazing to have two sons out on a mission at once!  We miss you lots.  In D&C chapter 18, it talks about how the sight of one soul is great in Christ's eyes.  It then says, "How great is your joy if you save one soul and bring them to the kingdom of God."  That is what I am doing.  How great is my joy if I bring the Koreans to the gospel!

 I love everyone so much.  Thank you for all your support.  It means a lot. Send me  lots of "Dear Elders."  One of my favorite things is reading them right before dinner!

 

Have a good week!  Elder Johnson

Week One - July 31, 2014

Family!  I miss you like crazy! 

How are you?  What's everyone up to?

First week!  I can't believe I am on my mission!  Seems like yesterday I was starting my first day of 9th grade!  The MTC is awesome.  The first few days were extremely long.  They were some days I will never forget.  One thing I learned very early was that I have to strengthen my relationship with my Heavenly Father.  I can't do anything without him.  It is definitely hard being a missionary, and it isn't something I am used to.  But, I am starting to slowly adjust to the schedule, and I am beginning to love my mission.  There isn't another mission out there other than Daejeon, Korea that is for me.  The Korean language is seriously impossible!!  I am slowly learning things, and I actually am praying in Korean!  It's amazing.  I have memorized the alphabet and have a million flash cards with vocabulary on them.  It's slowly coming!

My District is pretty cool!  We are starting to become closer and getting to know each other better. I am the District Leader and there are many responsibilities that I have.  It's kinda stressful at times, but it is also wayyyyy fun!  My zone is amazing.  We have like 90 missionaries in it.  There are some really cool Elders in it that I have built good relationships with.  But most of them are going to Seoul, sooooo I can only be their friend for like a few more weeks! lol.  But, building relationships is key because if you or they are going through a hard time, you can help each other get through it.  My Schedule goes as follows: 6:30- Wake up and go straight to exercise.  8:00 breakfast.  8:30 planning and them from 9:15 to about 12:50 is personal, language, companion and additional study time.  Then lunch is at 12:50 and then classroom time is from 1:35-5:50.  Sooooo long, but I learn a lot during that time.  It's only Korean.  The teacher will only speak to us in Korean!!  My teacher's name is Sister Lee.  She is very nice and helps me out a ton!  Anyway, at 5:50 is dinner and then we go back to our class room and have class again till like 9:30.  But, during that time we teach a lesson in Korean!  It is so fun, but sooooo hard!

 (Elder Johnson with his district after attending the Provo Temple.)

 (Elder Johnson in front of the Provo Temple)

The MTC is getting better and better each day.  One of my favorite things is seeing all my friends!  It makes me so pumped that we are all out here together doing the Lord's work. There is no place or better thing that we could be doing other than serving the Lord!

I look forward to hearing from everyone.  Thank you for all your love and support.  It means soooooo soooo much. 

Love, 

Elder Johnson