Teaching in Toronto

Hello everybody, Happy belated Birthday to my amazing dad on the 25th! You don't look a day over 55 :) I hope it was a great day, I love you dad! Congratulations to my brother Jordan for graduating from BYU! You are going to do some great things in the future! Good luck with everything! My new companion Elder Kohl is sweet. We get along very well, we have many similar interests and a similar sense of humor so we are working well together. The work is moving along well in Woodstock. I would like to share one amazing miracle that happened yesterday! An unfamiliar man walked into fast and testimony meeting a few minutes late. Right after the meeting finished our bishop took a b-line for him and we caught up. The man was in tears as he shared a spiritual experience he had last November: he parked in our church parking lot during a dangerous storm and felt a feeling of peace unlike anything he had ever felt before. He came to ...

Hello everybody! I have very little time for this email so it will be short! I won't be able to read your emails until next week! I will be staying here in Woodstock for a 3rd transfer (since  Jan. 31 )! My new companion coming here is named Elder Kohl, he has 2 transfers left in his mission so I will definitely learn from his experience. I am looking forward to meeting him and taking the lead in working this blessed area! My companion Elder Coffey who has been here in Woodstock for 5 1/2 months (4 transfers) is now going to Kingston to be a zone leader so he's saying goodbye to people today (that's why my email time is short). We had another good week here in Woodstock; miracles happen here and there and the work is continuing to progress. I know I am staying put because there is more work for me to do here in Woodstock, I strive to be the best tool in the Lord's hands so things can happen! I know the church is true and I know the Lord's work is progressing...

Hello everyone,  Spring is most definitely in the air here. The weekend was beautiful, with temperatures peaking 20 degrees. I hope everyone had a fantastic week and a spiritual Easter Weekend because I did! I hope you had some good experiences with the "Prince of Peace" Easter video. If you still haven't shared it with someone it's not too late because we should celebrate Christ everyday. Our investigator Hubert is actually on a week long vacation in a tropical place so we won't be able to meet with him but we hope he will have a relaxing experience and continue to read his scriptures and pray. One of our returning member's we are working with attended the temple for baptisms which was the first time for her in many many years. She had an amazing experience, she is doing so well!  We some something really cool while tracting on Saturday. One house had the garage door open and parked inside were 2 impressive cars. The owner was working in his garag...

It's funny, I did a re-read of my email from last week and realized I forgot to delete 3 sentences that I added to the conclusion, so it was said twice. It's kind of an embarrassing mistake for me, but oh well haha. Anyways, I hope everyone had a wonderful week after General Conference weekend! My prayers are with the family, grandma Fay returned to heaven to reunite with her loving husband and family in paradise. She is a true disciple of Christ and a wonderful example of what it means to endure to the end. Her influence will be felt by many people for many years. At this time, I am especially grateful for my incredible family and my knowledge of the divine Plan of Salvation. What a blessing it is that families are forever. I love my family so much! As always, things are going great here in Woodstock! Elder Coffey and I are busy bees working under the direction of Bishop to help strengthen this wonderful ward. Hubert, our progressing investigator is so close to baptism...

Hellooo everybody!  Happy 1st Birthday to my Nephew George yesterday! He's already on his second year of life! I hope everyone had a great week and enjoyed General Conference. Everybody says this, but It's true, General Conference on the mission is the best! Our investigator Hubert came to Priesthood session and really enjoyed it, I look forward sharing some of the talks with him that were shared this weekend. I would like to share one of the most important things I learned this Conference. In the priesthood session President Eyring gave a wonderful talk called "Walk with me" He said something in the talk that really hit me. I don't have the exact quotation but he said something like this:  "The purpose of the Lord's work is not to solve problems, it is to build people."  This insight from President Eyring greatly enriched my understanding of repentance. To me, the Lord's work is accomplished through repentance, therefore, I substitut...

I hope everyone is doing well and excited for General Conference! On Friday it got up to 20 degrees (C) which gave me a taste of what humid Ontario heat feels like. It was evening and it was just right, so I'm scared about what the hot summer afternoons will feel like, I might die. The rest of the week was chilly and cloudy/rainy, it isn't spring quite yet. Elder Coffey and I were blessed with 2 new investigators via an online referral this week! On Wednesday night we found a notification on our website that a man named Michael wanted a Bible delivered to him. We dropped by the next day and he wasn't home, but we were greeted by his wife. Her name is Virginia and we gave her the bible and talked with her about our church and what we do as missionaries. She was flattered that we had showed up! She said that they go to a Pentecostal church and they love Jesus Christ. She said she would love to learn more about him so we got their info and we will meet with them this w...

Hello everyone! Glad to hear the families doing great! Happy Birthday to Michelle and Addison on Wednesday! Elder Coffey and I had a wonderful week here in Woodstock. We were both healthy and we are really starting to become friends and have a lot of fun. From the very beginning, we got along really well, but recently, I have seen how we can be ourselves around each other which makes everything better. This change has reminded me of how weird I can be when I am being myself haha, I don't think I can repent of my weirdness. On a more serious note, I know that God needed Elder Coffey and I to stay together for a reason, so we will continue to be diligent to discover what the Lord has in store! Despite the mild craziness that goes down in our apartment, we still of course are hard working and obedient and we had a lot of success finding this week! Thank you for your prayers! While street contacting this week, we found 1 new investigator and 2 solid potential investigators w...

The past 6 weeks have gone by pretty quick for me. I can't imagine how quick time is going to fly by later on in my mission! I had another great week here in Woodstock. Elder Coffey and I were both healthy all week which I am very grateful for. For me the only big trials I have had on my mission so far are illness related so I suppose God's letting me get sick because he doesn't want things to be too easy for me haha. We went on exchanges this week with the Spanish Elders in our zone and the Zone leaders, I hosted in Woodstock both times so it wasn't too different. On Thursday we drove to the Toronto temple in Brampton for the follow-up training temple trip. All of the Elders and Sister's who came out at the same time as me were there with their trainers. President Shields and his wife and the AP's gave instructions and then we had lunch and then went to a temple session together! It was great to see the sisters from my MTC district and it was so awesome to ...

Hello! (I would apologize for the long email but that would just make the email even longer. I love you guys!) Happy Belated birthday to the my eldest brother Dustin! Yet another birthday and you're still in school! =D When I say "good times" in the title I'm referring to barfing and diarrhea for me and a head cold for my companion! After a big dinner on Monday evening my stomach felt very full and upset. We got home and I laid down for almost an hour but I didn't feel any better. I then went to the toilet with the hope I might clear up the pipes down there to relieve my stomach. I'll spare you the details of what happened next: I'll just say that for the next few hours, everything I had consumed the past day or two exited my body in very unpleasant ways. It happened once, then I would lie back down, then the uneasy feeling would return, so I would go back to the toilet and do it again. After round 5 of this there was literally nothing left in my bo...

Hello everyone, Last week was family day so we had p-day on Tuesday so that's why the email came that day. I'm glad to hear that everyone is doing great at home. I miss hanging out with Bennett and Addison and everybody else! We had another great week in Woodstock. I had the opportunity to have a private interview with my mission President and his wife which is something we get to do about every 6 weeks. They are such wonderful examples to me, I can feel of their love for me so strongly. We had a wonderful experience with our investigator Cynthia. She was out of town the last 2 Sundays so we realized that she was not going to make it to church 3 times before her baptismal date on Mar. 4! When we met with her on Wednesday we asked her how she felt about baptism and she said, "Ya I really want to get baptized but I just want to go to church a couple of times before." Elder Coffey and I were worried about how to bring it up to her be she resolved the issue her ...

Ran out of time to right an email to all you people but I have a picture of me with my companion at a Valentine's day dinner! Have an awesome week! Elder Johnson

Hello wonderful family!  This is another long email but I hope you will read it and feel the spirit as you do so. I've decided to write a more personal/detailed email to just the family and then do a more general email to friends, just wanted to let you know. And if this email could be forwarded to extended family that would be great! I don't know if you guys heard but there have been some changes to the missionary schedule, giving missionaries more agency when planning out their days which is great. I'll let you know about the main changes but not all of them. Daily planning is done in the morning instead of night now so you can go to bed anytime from 9:00-10:30 if you want (that's the times in the Toronto mission at least). We can also do companionship study anytime of the day to fit our schedules and it's 30-60 mins now (usually 30), and there is no companionship study on P-day so P-day technically begins at 8 am instead of 10. These changes to the sch...

Hello everybody! I apologize in advance for the long email. It's (mostly) good stuff I promise :) What a great week it has been! Monday was a really long day with all of the travelling so I won't bore you with the details. Tuesday morning was excited though, because I got to meet my trainer for the first time! His name is Elder Coffey and he is from Peoria Arizona (near Phoenix). He's a really great guy and an awesome missionary. He is a very obedient and hard working missionary which is what I am striving to be as a missionary so he is a perfect trainer. We are serving in a town called Woodstock, it's about 45 mins East of London Ontario and about 2 hours West of Toronto and has a population of about 25 000 I think. I have only been in the field for one week but I love it so much already. I am transitioning really well and I am trying to hit the gate running. I have come to the realization that I was very prepared for my mission, and I am so grateful that I took th...

Hello everyone! The  MTC  is full of surprises. I wasn't expecting it to be so hard and long in the beginning but I also was not expecting to have so much fun here. The fun I've had is because of my companion and the other Elders in my district and zone. My companion Elder Kaku brings out the goofy side of me so we've been quite outgoing and fun together as a result. The other Elders in my district are Elder Gull who's from all over the U.S. and Elder Richardson who's from Arizona, they will serve in the Denver South mission. Elder Gull is so intelligent and spiritual at times and so weird at other times, he's hilarious. Elder Richardson was quiet the first few days but now hes coming out of his shell which is awesome. The most powerful and testimony building experiences I have had so far were hearing the stories of conversion of Elders' Richardson, Gull, and Kaku, they have all been through so much to get to where they are now and their stories truly in...

Hello family! I don't have time to write a long email today so this will be short. Just have time to let you know I'm at the  MTC  and I'm doing great! First thing I should tell you is that the whole thing about 10 days at the  MTC  is not true! I am actually here for 3 weeks, I fly out to Toronto on Monday Jan. 30. I guess I'm in for the long haul haha. My P-day is on Tuesday so I will write again then. I have had a really great time at the  MTC  so far, mainly because I have an awesome companion. His name is Elder Kaku he is from Ghana. He is a really sharp guy and we share a very similar sense of humor (we laugh all the time, almost too much). His parents are mission presidents in Nigeria and he looks kind of like Idris Elba. I have had so much fun with him so far and I'm looking forward to spending the next 3 weeks with him. It feels so good to be a missionary, it feels so refreshing to leave the world behind and become close to Christ. I ha...