Jacksonville at last

Florida Jacksonville Mission

Sister Barry, Pres. James W. Barry, Elder Johnson

Dear family of Elder Johnson,

We are happy to send the good news that your missionary has arrived safely to the Florida Jacksonville Mission. What a great joy and privilege it is to greet each missionary as they come off the plane in Jacksonville. The smiles on their faces showed their excitement and readiness to be here.

Your son arrived with 24 other missionaries and they have enjoyed a dinner together at the mission home, have been interviewed by President Barry and were trained by the assistants. We have taken pictures and I have attached a picture of him with President Barry and I. As you can see he is well and happy although a little tired. We also took a group picture which you can view later this week on our blog at:www.floridajacksonvillemissionnews.blogspot.com

You are welcome to check this blog often to catch a glimpse of your missionary and find out what is going on in this mission.

Your missionary is about to make an eternal difference in the lives of others. We hope you will be encouraged and comforted by this quote by President Lorenzo Snow: “There is no mortal man that is so much interested in the success of an elder [sister] when he is preaching the gospel as the Lord that sent him to preach to the people who are the Lord’s children.”

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for all you have done to prepare Elder Johnson to faithfully serve a mission. We look forward to getting to know him as we serve our Heavenly Father here in the Florida Jacksonville Mission.

Please accept our love and gratitude for trusting him to us and more importantly to the Lord.

May God Bless You,

President James W. Barry and Sister Marilyn T. Barry

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                                                                   The Wave

Actually it's more like a Tsunami! Not only are the numbers of new missionaries going up but its also a wave of spiritual preparedness. We are thrilled to welcome these valiant missionaries to the FJM.  Three of these missionaries are temporarily assigned to this mission as the await their Visas to Brazil.  We are thrilled they are here along with all the rest. 

 

Jeremy center back row







  

Jeremy far right

Jeremy  center


                       Florida is so lush and green, beautiful.





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On Mon, May 6, 2013

Family,

Thanks for the letters Dad and Mom. Even Jared wrote me a  two line email. Whats up with the rest of the family? So as you know i got into Florida on tuesday. When we got off the plane and into the airport everyone was complaining about the humidity but if wasn't really bothering me, i could tell that there was a difference but if wasn't bad, maybe when summer comes around i'll start to notice it. So after we got picked up we went the the mission office and had our introduction, and then headed over to the mission home where the Barry's live. Its a nice place, and they are really nice as well. We had dinner there and man did i eat alot, i even had seconds which i haven't done since before the MTC ( cause they really messed with me up there). Oh and there are palm trees everywhere i look WOW!!! And the grass here is sooo wierd, it's not even like grass i don't know how to explain it, it's just wierd. Anyway that night all the sisters were taken to members homes to sleep for the night and the Elders were taken to a hotel (lucky us). The next day we went over to the church where we spent most the time and were taught and had interviews with the President. Oh and they make us part our hair everyday (such a bummer, it feels so wierd). So then in the afternoon we got our new companion/trainer, mine is Elder Largo. He is way cool he has been out for 8 months, and he is native american (just something interesting). So that night when we got back to the appartment and i found out our area, i realized that we are surounded by beaches on this island like the size of manhattan they say but no where near as many people. When we got to the apartment its not the nices one and there are lots of things broken (the manager won't fix anything). So in June we are transfering over to an apartment on the beach (lucky us!!) i will be in this area for at least 3 months. Oh and we also get to drive a car, but i need a bike also, we will be getting one today. Our car is a 2010 Malibu, it's a way nice car and in like a month they will actually be upgrading us to a Malibu 2013. WOW (who knew the church was so rich)!!!! Anyway so Elder Largo has been in the area for a month so he knows the general area, but when i got in, they currently had no investigators or anything so we are starting from scratch. And last week we meet this girl (about 16) her mom was on the "Do not contact" list but we stopped by anyway and she let us give her a lesson and at the end I asked her to be baptized and she said yes!! We has found some other new inverstigators but we are still looking for new ones always. Oh mom you would love the beaches here and the waves they are so amazing we have to come back after my mission. Also for the first three days (thursday, friday, and saturday) it has been raining like crazy, but at least now it is nice and sunny. It hasn't gotten to hot yet. The people here say that this weather is really unusually and it's normally way hotter. Also on sunday i was asked to give the closing prayer and i also gave my testimony during sacrament meeting. At the end i was asked to give a talk at the end of the month on Jesus Christ Corner Stone, so dad i would love it if you would like to help me on this. Its a 20 min talk and i have no idea where to go with it. The people in this ward are
 kinda nice, the ward mission leader is an interesting person. The ward is also really small i think there is a top of 90 active members for the whole fernandina beach area and a ton of inactives. The ward does have some issues they are not one, there is so much contention within the ward its really sad, they don't even like to have ward activities or anything. But we will change that. Oh i also meet a Brother Johnson, dad he told me to ask you if we are related to a Julia Hills Johnson from way back ago when they where in Kirkland, it would be your great great grandma or something like that, i think she had five kids or something. Oh they also had a big shrimp fest. going on here over the weekend, it is their biggest party of the year, with fireworks pirate boat battles, all the works. To bad all the fun stuff happened after our curfew. Well i don't know what else to say. i Love you guys and tell Laura and Grandma i love them.

Love Jeremy



Jacksonville, Florida