Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Already 3 Months

July 23, 2013
HI YA FAMILY

Alright well i really don't have much time to talk but here it goes. These past two weeks went by really well and really fast. Now that i think about it, since i have come out time has flown by. It feels like i just left home last week. Some times you have slow days but not often. Most of last week we spent preparing the area for sister missionaries. There was alot that we had to do to prepare for them. We didn't get to teach that much because of all the work we had to do to prepare for them. And the members have been feeding us really well. Ever since we said that Elder Largo would most likely be leaving we have had dinner every night and sometimes lunches also. Hopefully that continues. So just this last Saturday we were at a ladies house were we go to facebook, she leaves her computer outside for us, but if her husbands home we go in. She is a really nice lady, always feeds us if we are around. Anyway so we were there and it was around 4 and we get a call. It was President Craig. He wanted to talk to Elder Largo and called him to be a zone leader. It was totally unexpected, cause usually you are a district leader first, but he just skipped that step. Then last night we had a conference call for transfers. Elder Largo is leaving and i am staying. Tomarrow we head down to Jacksonville to drop Elder Largo off and pick up Elder Craner who will be my new companion. He will also be the district leader here. It will be interesting. They say he is a bigger set guy, and a way strict missionary. So it will be interesting for sure. Oh and the sisters coming in one will be training a new missionary. So i have to introduce the area to 3 new missionaries. We will see how it goes. Oh and before i might have said that they were going to be taking away our car and giving it to the sisters. Which was the plan, but we talked with the person over the cars and they are going to let us keep our car and give the sisters a new one so that will be nice. On and now i am finding out how often missionaries go home. It alot. I thought that it didn't happen much but they say once you hit your year mark its a make it or brake it thing. One of my MTC companions just went home. Not sure why and not sure if he is coming back. He was a way strong missionary. Sad to see him go. So i glad that you had fun on your trip. It sound like the guide was kind of a bum. But thats alright, you should have just pushed her in the water to loosen her up. Thats what i would have done. Well times running down we have a lot to do. So i'll write you more next week hopefully. Oh and if you send me a package, something that i do need is a book called "The Power of the Everyday Missionary" By Elder Clayton Christensen. President Craig wants us to read it. And what ever else you feel like sending. Those sour patch kids were REALLY GOOD!!! Well i do got to get going. I love you all so much.
Love Jeremy


Message from Mom, (Sonja)
Jeremy would love to have more emails or letters from family and friends.  We thank everyone for the love and support they give to him.  Have a great day, we love you all.

Monday, July 22, 2013

"Isle of 8 Flags"

"Isle of 8 Flags"
Fernandina Beach, FL


Historic Downtown Fernandina Beach, FL




















Facts about Fernandina Beach:
*The City of Fernandina Beach is located on beautiful Amelia Island off the Atlantic coast of Florida.
*It is the northernmost city on the eastern coast of Florida.
*The city has a total area of 15.7 square miles all land.
*Approximately 25 miles northeast of downtown Jacksonville, Florida.


*Known as the "Isle of 8 Flags": it has had the flags of the following nations flown over it since 1562: France, Spain, Great Britain, Spain (again), the Patriots of Amelia Island, the Green Cross of Florida, Mexico, the Confederate States of America, and the United States. It is the only municipality in the United States that has flown eight different national flags.

*The area was first inhabited by the Timucuan Indian tribe. Native American bands associated with the Timucuan mound-building culture settled on the island, which they called Napoyca, circa 1000. They would remain on Napoyca until the early 18th century.

*A spectacular vacation opportunity on the northernmost barrier island of Florida.

**With over 13 miles of pristine beach and the backdrop of a quaint Victorian town.

**For those who love the water, Fernandina Beach is a mariner’s paradise.  Whether you enjoy fishing, sailing, or cruising the waterways in a motor boat, if you’re a water bug, you’ll fit in here.



*Known for their Shrimp Festival.
*Five fiberglass shrimp sculptures, each whimsically decorated by a local artist, have been installed in downtown Fernandina Beach and four other sculptures are located around Amelia Island. Three more shrimp sculptures to come.

"Rock" Shrimp


Shrimp Sculpture



A Hot July

A 'Hot' July In Florida 

July 15, 2013
HI!!!!!!!

Hello Family. I guess i will write you even though no one wrote me. Na i suppose you did write me. I got you postcards, which i loved. Glad to hear you had a fun time. But no one really said how the rafting went. So how was rafting? What else that was fun did you do? So for me here things are going pretty well. So not this past week but the week before i had a really rough week and was getting really down about a lot of things.  But i pushed though and this past tuesday we had interviews with president Craig and that went really well. After that everything started getting better fast. This past week was week 11 out of 12 for training and i had to take charge in everything. And to top it off one day i had trade offs with the district leader and another day i had trade offs with the zone leaders. But everything went well. This past week was the best week we have had in a while. We taught more lesson this week than we have ever taught. And the one lady i told you about a while ago that committed to baptism this month well for the past couple weeks we lost all contact with her. But then this week we dropped by one last time and we found her. we have been teaching her and she in on for a baptism on the 28th. With transfers coming up i may not be here but thats okay. And the best part is that she came to church yesterday. That was the first time we have had an investigator at church since i have been here. It was really nice. Other than that things have been going really good. I'm still not the missionary that i wish i was, but thats okay. Something that my companion told me really helped. He said out of all the 26 missionaries that came down with me, I am probably one of the strongest. Because most of them have had thing going good for them and are baptising and just doing really good this whole time. While i on the other hand got put in one of the hardest areas and have had trial after trial this whole time. But thats because Heavenly Father knew that i could handle it and that it would strengthen me. And like my companion said though all these trials we are just now starting to recieve all of these blessing. I am not the perfect missionary and i still have alot to learn and a lot of growing to be done, but i am grateful to be out here. I love you all so much. And with transfers coming up if you send letters send them to the mission office address.
Love ya,
Jeremy

Well we split our email time up today, cause elder largo wanted to. So he could see what his families reply was about. So about ben i did receive 2 letters from him, maybe 3 im not sure. But i have written to him twice. I guess the first one never made it. But i sent him another about a week ago. he should get it before he moves. And yes i got a GPS, sorry i forgot to tell you how much it was. It works well. It was crazy to see how much they where. i got the cheapest one i could find. As for liking my bike, we havn't had a need to you it much lately. But if i stay here after transfers next week i will be using it alot. Like i said earlier we are getting sisters in this area and our car hit the 50 thousand mark, so what they are going to do is trade out the car we have right now and get a brand new car, but the sisters will get it and cause they are short on cars in this area we will not have one and be on bikes for how ever long it take to get a new car. The people say the missionaries before that were on bike sweated like crazy because of the heat and humidity. So it will be interesting. So what do i study well most if it is about what we teach and going in depth on chapters in the Book of Mormon. Since Elder Largo is a facebook missionary he does that for an hour and a half a day. so that give me that much more time to read or do what ever. I read the Book of Mormon during that time but then finish. Not  sure what i will read next. Lately i have just been studying up on different topics using the bible dictionary, ocasionally looking at End of the World things. Its really interesting. But i will probably start to read the Doctrine and Covenants. Other than that, thats about it. Love ya..  Jeremy

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July 8, 2013
Im not sure if i got some emails from you. I got the one froms karls place. But there were a couple others that were blank repies. Anyway so did you go rafting. How was it? What was your favorite part of the trip? How was the car ride up and down? How do you like Jared's place? Well things here are going well. It was a rough week and this week will be better. I am suppose to take charge of all teaching and planning activites for these last two weeks of my training. We shall see how it goes. For the 4th fo July, the Ward did a big breakfast and there was alot more people there than they had planned on. There were more people then there are normally at church on sunday. Then for dinner we had dinner at an investigators house (hamburgers and BBQ Chicken) Boy was it good. Then that night we saw a little bit of the fire works but had to leave because it was time to go home. Other than that all is going good.
Love ya, Jeremy

Monday, July 1, 2013

Tender Mercies

"Hi Ya Family"
July 1, 2013

Well Well,
There is so much to say, but where to start. Alright well Mom i finally did get you letter but it was the one that you resent. Not sure why i didn't get it the first time. It's good to hear that all is going so well with you and that you are enjoying you car. Now you will have a nice car to drive over to Leavenworth with A/C (YAY). Hope you all have fun without me . The one time you go rafting i'm not there. Anyway thats alright. So as for that broadcast you were wondering about. Well it said a couple of things. First and the most important is that missionary work is really going to be focused on the ward members and we are there to support them. Pretty soon the ward mission leaders will be filling out the missionaries planners. Next was that missionary work is going to become alot more technological. Our area was one of the test pilots for facebook and aparently it went well so now all worth missionarys will have one. Also they will be giving an ipad to every companionship. And they will be opening up the churches all day for people to visit. So thats pretty much what the broadcast said. So this up coming week we will be finding out much more. President Barry left and now President Craig is here. He came in on friday. Before he left President Barry told us that this coming week we will find out what all the meant with EVERYTHING they said in the broadcast and when we will get ipads. We have a zone meeting on wednsday this week and President Craig will be there and tell us all that is going on. We are told that it will be a HUGE change for the better. It will be really interesting. And to go along with all this. Yesterday for combined 3rd hours, Elder Largo and i taught it. We did a power point bassed on the conference talk "Catch the Wave" and the broadcast from last week. It didn't go as good as we wanted, we wanted the members to get more involved but they didn't. It still went really well. We even made some cry.
Now for this past week. So much has happened. Well for starters One of the girls that we have been teaching read a chapter that we left with her which she has never done before and things are starting to click with her. Then we have also been blessed alot this week. So the week before as i had said was rough. But this week the Lord really showed us his tender mercies. We ran into alot of people this week and even got a couple of new investigators. But the coolest story is on wednsday we were out looking for a potential that was taught before we got here. We were out walking in the rain and could not find the house, we look every where. Finally we gave up and started walking back to the car cause we had a dinner appointment(we had one every night this week), on the way back a lady that was on her porch called us over and started talking to us saying it was such a blessing seeing us walk by, cause the night before there were some boys doing inapropriate things on the street and she said seeing us walk over that same area was like a cleansing of the street. The next thing we know we are on her porch teaching her the restoration. She was crying the whole time. At the end we invited her to baptism and she said yes for the 14th of July. Before we invited her to Church, she asked when and where it was. It was really something amazing. Oh and also since i have been out here i started reading the Book of Mormon again from cover to cover. I will be finishing it today i have 5 pages left. This week everything has hit me. I have come to such a greater understanding of some things. Through watching the Broadcast, reading the Book of Mormon, and just everything. I have realized that the end is coming and that there is a reason why i have been saved to come down here in these last days. And it is because of Missionary Work just like my patriatical blessing say. Like what they are saying right now is the big boom of Missionary Work, and i am starting my mission at the beginning of it. Through reading the Book of Mormon i have come to realize that i not just want to but need to gain the faith that all the prophets and people in the Book of Mormon had. Like Lehi, Nephi, Alma the Younger, Sons of Mosiah, Nephi before Christ came, Mormon, Moroni, Brother of Jared, Ether, all of them had the faith to have God preform Miracles though them. And that is something that i need to make stronger so that i am more like them, not necessarily by preforming miracle but the faith they had. Things are coming fast and i am ready to do the Lord work even if i at this time am just planting seeds, soon they will bloom. I love all of you.
Love Your Favorite
Elder Jeremy Johnson
P.S.
TELL LAURA TO WRITE ME
Oh and tell her that i had dinner with a member out here and she is actually the aunt to the Wood's family (Sophi, William, Phillip, Rachel) from the River.