Friday, November 15, 2013

Tracking the Bayou?

November 2013:

Elder Jeremy Johnson  "Who's sleeping at my desk?"

Elder Greenlaw and Elder Johnson in the back.
How to deter an alligator - pose like a tree.
Elder Jeremy as a bayou tree.
Elder Jeremy:  "Where's that alligator?"
I wonder who lives out here?  (Elder Greenlaw)
I think I lost Elder Johnson, was it the Alligator?
(Elder Greenlaw)
What is Elder Johnson tracking an alligator
or a perspective investigator?

The Heart Cross - Elder Greenlaw

Elder Greenlaw & Elder Johnson


Green Cove History

November 11, 2013: What to say, what to say. This week has really flown by so fast. It feels like i was just writing you yesterday. But hey i got some emails from mom finally that's all ways nice to see that she loves me enough to actually write me. Na i do love you mom. But the pictures that you tried to send didn't work, you might need some help with that. So it sounds like the big news back home is all about Loki. I am so jealous that you have a puppy. Figures that you would finally get one when i am gone. But i do love the pictures, he looks so cute. And for you questions mom, the Elder in the picture was my companion Elder Greenlaw and as for the fort i really have no idea which one it was. It wasn't the big fort that is in st. Augustine, it is a smaller one there. Well as for how things are going here with me they are going pretty good. This week was a pretty good week. We got some new investigators and a couple of them are pretty solid. None have baptismal dates yet, but they soon will. This week i had my first bike crash. We were riding on some gravel and i was just messing around, and i turned a little to sharp and my bike flew out from under me. It really wasn't that bad, just a little scrap. But today i am taking my bike to the shop. I need to get some work done on it. Not because of the crash. I need new brakes, mine at totally shoot. I have been riding the past month with pretty much no brakes. And i also need to take care of a few other things on it. So we found out a little about this area here in Fleming Island and Green Cove the two areas that we cover. Apparently in the past i think in the late 1800's early 1900's sometime around then, missionaries in Green Cove were tared and feathered, and one of them died from it. And after that it just got so bad that missionaries were taken out of the area and a general authority came in and dusted his feet off the the whole city. And Green Cove still to this day is not really that great of an area. And when it comes to missionary work there nothing happens. You find amazing people and they either disappear or become uninterested, and the sisters have most of that area and they have been having a really hard time. So this week some people are going to talk to the mission president about it and the ward is going to try and have a fast some time just for Green Cove and missionary work, opening it back up. So we will see all that goes on with that. Well that's about it. I love you all so much. Elder Jeremy Johnson

Monday, November 4, 2013

Am I in a swamp or bayou?

October 2013:
Elder Johnson in the Bayou?
Elder Greenlaw?
Elder Jeremy Johnson the Swamp Rat

The Mullins

November 4, 2013: Well, Well. Not much to really say about this week. It has been all about the same. Working hard and having fun. Earlier this week we were out one night and went to see a potential named Bill that Elders in the past had found. When we got there he didn't live there so we talked to the lady that lived there. Her name is Daphne, she told us this amazing story of how God saved her live and she new there is a reason why she is still on this earth, she had talked to missionaries before and has a Book of Mormon. Just never read it, so she told us she would, and we are going to stop by this week. She is a really wonderful lady. Then on wednesday we had a 5 stake devotional for all the ward leaders and the missionaries. Elder Zwick of the 70 was there and talked about member missionary work. He really called out alot of people on what they have done. Then on Thursday we had a huge zone conference with him which went really good. Elder Zwick talked along with his wife and it was pretty good. On the way home afterwards there was only 3 words spoken because we were all spiritually drained. Then on Friday there is this less-active family that we have dinner with every week, The Mullins. The have a 30 year old son who lives with them and has always been around missionaries and just gives them a hard time, but this friday he took us to dairy queen and started asking questions, we did not expect it coming from him. We ended up stopping by the next day and he are already read 7 chapters of the Book of Mormon and is still reading it. Now he is probably already done with 1st and 2nd nephi with how much he has been reading. So that is about how our week went. We probably won't go fishing anymore. People are flaking out. Oh well. Well that's about it. I love you all.

Fort in St. Augustine, FL

Update November: Jeremy states it is not the big fort in St. Augustine, but a smaller one. He doesn't know the name of it. And since I am still having difficulties with the blog, I am unable to correct the captions of the photos. October 2013: Castillo de San Marcos, St Augustine, FL (Jeremy did not say what fort this was, I think I named it right, if not then it is Fort Mantanzas)
 
Scenic trip of a Fort, Jeremy is the one on the
far right.
 
Jeremy on the right.
Castillo walls were made of a local stone "coquina",
meaning "little shells", little shellfish that died long ago
& thru time have bonded together to form the stone. 
Mortar was made from oyster shells.
 
"A Prisoner is Escaping"
In the 1800's the castillo was used as a prison.

Prince Elder Jeremy of Castillo de San Marcos

Missionaries at Castillo de San Marcos
Jeremy on the far right
Note Flag is the 1st Spanish Flag flown over the fort.

Nasty Sandwiches "Yummy"

October 2013

That's a Big Pretty Spider,
is that a Nauvoo Temple picture caught in it's web?
 
Fleming Island

Fleming Island
Jeremy's room ? (nice and clean)
"Nasty Sandwiches"
That we made for each other, just so I can remember
good times with Anna-Marie.

Love to Have Some Letters

October 28, 2013: So i guess Mommy doesn't love me this week since she didn't write me an email or anything. At least i still have daddy, i know he will always write me amazing emails. So do you know what i just realized that i have been out over 6 months now and i don't think i have gotten any letters from my family back home. What is up with that. You use to make us write hand written letters to clifton and jared every month. Oh well i still love you though. So it sounds like you all have had a fun past week and lots has happened. Yet i can't believe that Dad is stuck in the cold corner of the house. I thought he was loved more than that. Don't worry Dad i still love you!!! So you had a pumpkin carving party, sounds like a lot of fun, and hey James and Callie came that is way cool, so how far away do they live, looks like now you will be finally close to some relatives for once. I don't know if that is good or bad. And as for the car, wow it is still pulling along even if anna-marie tries all she can to tear it down. Oh and i have to say that i love the pictures of my little siblings all dressed up in 80's clothes, they look soooo cute!!!! Well as for things here in the mission field they have been going pretty good. Like I said the week before last was pretty amazing and lots of miracles happened. As for this week though things have been pretty slow. Elder Greenlaw was sick for two days and we had to stay in the whole time and the rest of the week he was just not feeling good at all, so it was really a slow week. The two days that we stayed at our apartment i was bored out of my mind, being confined in a small area all day with nothing to do at all. It was not fun at all. Then the rest of the week was kinda interesting. One night we were out with a member going to see an investigator that we had set a return appointment to see, but they where not there, so once again we decided to knock some doors in that area and we came across a black man named Vernon who was really nice to us and loved the message that we had to share and at the end he committed to be baptized on the 24th of November. And the funny thing is, we found him in the same neighborhood that we found all our amazing investigators last week. On Saturday we had a halloween party at the church, you know a little trunk or treat. It was pretty nice, they had a chilli cook off there also. A member who feeds us quite a bit made some really hot chilli, the hottest one there. He said he put some ghost pepper hot sauce in it and of course i promised that i would have some. And it ended up being a whole bowl full of it. Yes it was pretty hot and did not feel good coming out the next morning, but hey my companion had it a lot worse than me. But that isn't the only story about hot sauces we have had this past week. Earlier in the week we were at a members restaurant and Elder Greenlaw was bragging how he could handle any kind of hot sauce, so this member made us some wings and used the ghost pepper hot sauce that he had just gotten, and that by far was the hottest thing i have ever had. It burned like no other and i even started to cry a little, but my companion was brave and ate 3 wings, but needless to say he had an awful next day with it. So those are about all the interesting stories from the week. Elder Greenlaw and i are getting along really good. But the Sister missionaries in the ward, we are pretty sure don't like us. And we have no idea why. This week for halloween night we are having a meeting with our ward mission leader and the sisters and just doing some talking and we are pretty sure it will all come out then, so we will see how that all turns out. Oh and answer to dads question, we have not gone deep sea fishing yet, it is going to take another week or two before it happens. Oh and hey mom if you haven't sent a package yet i have some things that you might be able to add to it. So i know i have been hounding you all about getting me an mp3 and music but i just realized that i have two mp3's packed up some where, with all the cords to them and everything, so if you can it would be amazing if you could find them and put some music on one of them or just send it out and i will get music from other missionaries. Oh and i also have a pair of khaki pants packed up that i was wondering if you could find and send also, because we cane wear those now. And as for other things that you might be able to send, i need a new memory card for my camera it's an SDHC card. There was a couple of other things that i was going to ask for but i can't remember now. Well I love you all so much. Elder Jeremy Johnson