Tuesday, March 11, 2014

I'm so Happy I'm Singing



"I'm Singing in the Car"
Elder Jeremy Johnson


Blind Side look-a-like

March 10, 2014 -------- Well let's see this week has been pretty good. We have been able to get a lot done and miracles are just abounding, it's truly crazy. For some reason elder Russell and I have so much going for us while the rest of the missionaries in this area are struggling. I don't understand why he is blessing me as much as he is but I am so thankful for it. As of right now we have 8 people on for a baptismal date, six of them are kids that I mentioned to you before, and they are really excited for the 29th of March. They came to church yesterday and were really well behaved and listened, which is surprising for six kids between the ages of eight and twelve. On Saturday we went over to their house to do some service cutting down trees and having a big Bon fire. Afterwards we played a little football with them. Russell ended up running into a mailbox and breaking it. Anyway so that's their story. Now as for the other two baptisms one is Michael Lawson who I told you a little bit about last week, you know the one that looks like big mike for the blind side. Well we went by and saw him this week with a member in our ward and turns out another one of our investigators was there also. We had a powerful lesson with them and you could tell that Michael was really interested and the whole Joseph smiths story he had no doubts about, and both him and Sarah the other person that was there both accepted baptismal dates for April 5th. So amazing. So needless to say things are going amazing here and I am loving every minute of it. This past week we were actually able to go bowling twice. Once was on p-day with a bunch of other missionaries, and then we went on Saturday and we're suppose to meet some of our investigators there but they never showed so we ended up making some friends there and playing with them for a game. And today we are going bowling again. It's so nice because the bowling alley is right across the street from our apartment. Oh and on a side note out here we have been meeting so many people from Washington and and they all know where you live, for enuclaw being such a small little town lots of people know about it. Well that's a rap. Love you all so much and hope you all are having a fun time.

Loving Orange Park

March 3, 2014 ---- Well, well, what has happened this past week. Where do I begin. Let's see I am loving the my new area, the people here are amazing. There is this family in the ward that feeds us ever week, usually takes us to Buffalo Wild Wings, anyway this Last Tuesday they took us there and oh is was amazing, probably the best wings I've had on my mission, but they still don't compare to yours mom. Anyway it turns out that they love doing birthday parties also and mine will be the same day as their sons, so that will be real fun, so after we had dinner that night we did some Geo Cashing, which is pretty cool, you would like it, you should check it out. Oh and for as our teaching goes out here it is really good. We are getting a lot more Teaching done in a week than I ever have in my mission and with the four sets of missionaries In Our ward it is crazy that we are getting as much as we are. We have one Investigator with a baptismal date, her name is Lisa, but she is struggling with the word of wisdom so we will have to push it back a bit, but she is so solid, every commandment we tell her she commits to, except for smoking, but she is really trying, she went from a pack a day to 2 a day if that. Oh and we are also teaching six kids between the age of 8 to 13, their parents are members but have been inactive for a while, but we talked to them earlier and set a date for the kids to be baptized on the 29th of march, oh ya so exciting. Oh and do you remember to movie Blind Side, the main character is Big Mike, well guess what we found our Big Mike out here, and he has committed to read the Book of Mormon and is so excited to see us tomorrow. There are just people popping up left and right for us to teach, it is so amazing. Now for some funny stories. So this week it has rained a lot, and one day while it was just pouring out, we decided to bike over to the bike shop cause my back tire was all messed up. They said to come back to next day, and after we left the bike shop that day both my front and back brakes went out. So i was having to use my foot on the tire to stop all day, anyway so i took the bike to the shop the next day and had them do work on it, and i also got some fenders so i wouldn't get totally soaked the next day. All in all the charged my a lot, most of it was for the service though, and i droped like 110 dollars on it, ouch. Now for the funny story, a couple weeks ago before i came here some of the missionaries got pedicures and said they loved it, so guess what we did this morning, ya we went and got a pedicure and i have to say it felt amazing, the main reason why i did it though was because i have had an ingrown toe nail for the past 8 months and i was ready to get ride of it. So besides that today has been going pretty well, and soon we will be going bowling. Love Elder jeremy Johnson --------------------------- P.S......As for the area i love it, there are so many amazing members here that are so nice to us. And the work here is amazing, we have so many people to teach and more and more just keep popping up left and right, i've never had work this amazing my entire mission. I feel like Heavenly Father is blessing me but i really don't know why. Well i guess i will just accept the blessing and thank him for it. Remember Mom that i love you, i love you more than all the word that have ever been written or typed in all of history, ya thats right, that is a lot. Love ya, Jeremy

New Address, Orange Park

Hey my new address is 2150 spencer road 23b 32073, orange park, fl

Baptisms !!!!

February 24, 2014
Baptism!!!!
Elder Greenlaw, Chelsie Alvarado, Elder Jeremy Johnson


Baptism, Chelsie Alvarado
 
The Thinker?  The Ponderer?
(I'm not quite sure.)
Elder Jeremy, and Elder Greenlaw


My Piggy Bank

February 24, 2014




New Ipads -- "Cool"

"My Piggy Bank broke.  Or did I drop it from 9 feet?


Someone Stole My Bike!

February 24, 2014 ----- Oh how i miss my family, but still love being a missionary. So lets see, just to catch up on what happened to my bike, turns out it's kinda a funny story. So the Sister missionaries in the ward there thought they would be funny and hide our bikes from us, and then when we told them that our bikes got stolen they thought it would be funny to let us sweat it out. Me personally i wasn't to worried i knew i would figure something out but my companion was freaking out like no other and then that night at like 9:30 the sisters call us and tell us what they did, so needless to say the games have begun, to bad i'm not in the area anymore, but they are definitely gonna get them back, i told Elder Greenlaw that he should saran wrap their car, we'll see how that goes. Now as for my new area, i think i have a curse, every time i go to an new area they always get the car taken away right when a get there. And thats what happened here, it was a car share area but now it's an all bike area, whats up with that, more biking, how am i suppose to gain weight when they put me on a bike all the time. . So my new area Orange Park is pretty nice there's alot more stores and businesses out here so it's a little different that what i'm use to. My new Companion is Elder Russell, he has been out 6 weeks and is already an amazing missionary, he definitely came out prepared. And of course he is from Utah, go figure. Anyway so it's us and 3 other sets of missionaries in this ward, ya crazy. There's another set of Elders, a set of spanish Elders, and a set of sisters. Way to many missionaries for me in one ward, but we will make it work. Now as for our past week, it went pretty good. Did a lot of biking in the rain and got soaked a couple of times, no biggy. As for all the people i have meet here i am totally lost, so many new names and new faces, it hard to keep up. We do though have a baptism for this saturday, it's a little sketchy on the situation though so we will have to see how it turns out. Oh so lets see this last friday was probably the worst day i have had in a long time. So many appointments fell threw, it was raining the whole time, had to change clothes once, our dinner appointment cancelled, which is always said, and in general it was just rough, then that night we had an appointment with a guy way far away, so as i was following my companion we came up to the freeway, he stops and turns around and says that we got to get on the freeway otherwise we have to bike an extra 6 miles. I questioned it at first and then decided to go along with it. Oh and by the way it was dark out to. So we took off, went up the on ramp and got on the freeway for a mile, it was so sketchy, ran over a few hub caps, and one more thing we had no front lights either and it was dark, both our lights were dead. Anyway so finally we got to the guys house and you wouldn't believe it he wasn't home, go figure with how our day was already going. So as we were heading to go to another place, a lady got a flat tire and we changed it for her, she was really nice and said she would come to church next week, hopefully she does. Then all top of all this on the way home my companion had a pretty nasty crash, kinda sucks to be him, but funny to watch, we all have crashed like there from time to time. Anyways so thats the story, there a lot of other things that happened i just can't think of them for some reason. Remember i love you all so much. More than the skittles that fall from all the rainbows.

Valentine's

February 18, 2014 ---- Wow, this week has been amazing. It has probably been our best week in a long time. Just so much good has happened. So lets start off at the beginning of the week, I told you already about Tiffany the wonderful black lady that came to church last week, well early in the week we went over and had a powerful lesson with her, we taught her about the restoration and watched the video that goes along with it. At the end we asked her to be baptized and she said yes for March 1st!!!!! The next day we saw them again at the church cause they had a meeting with the bishop and when we got there she said she knows everything is true and wants to be baptized now, but she has to come to church a couple more times before that, but she is so ready, she knows what the spirit is and loves it. The only sad part about all of this is i am getting transfered tomorrow so i won't be here for her baptism. I will be going to the Orange Park 2nd ward, with another elder who has only been out 3 months, should be go. Now we also got to see one of our investigators this week, we haven't been able to see him in two months, but finally got in, it didn't end well, the member we brought with us and our investigator Gary were going back and forth talking about the bible, getting frustrated and all, it was still interesting none the less. Then came along Valentines day, and you wouldn't believe what happened, i got a package from my family, a bunch of goodies, oh ya it was so nice. So for valentines night we didn't have anyone that signed up for dinner so we went to Chilli's, ended up seeing quite a few members there and Chelsie the one that was getting baptized. Which was the very next day, and boy was that a full day. In the morning the sisters had a baptism that we went to, it was a little 12 year old girl and then that night was Chelsie's baptism, it was amazing, her parent who are not members came and really enjoyed it. The spirit was so strong there. Then afterward you know how you usually have refreshments, well her mom did a full on dinner for everyone, and boy was it good, we even got all of the left overs. Then the next day Chelsie received the Holy Ghost and a miracle happened, her parents came to church for it, they weren't planning on it until that morning and they just felt like they should come, it was probably the best sacrament meeting we have had there in a long time, the speakers were really good and they talked about families the whole time. It all went really well. Then Yesterday came along and we had a day full of service, our morning was spent cleaning carpets and in the afternoon we were making a patio for a lady. It turned out pretty well. So i guess we did have a good week. And our numbers look really good to, we taught lots of lessons this week. Now for the bad news. Woke up this morning and found out that our bikes were stolen. On saturday after the baptism we had left them at the church hidden behind some bushes and on sunday they were still there and then yesterday, we didn't need them and then today we went to get them and they were gone, no one know what happened to them. Kinda sucks. I won't have a bike in my new area. Good thing it's a car share area. That well be nice. Well thats about it i love you all so much. Elder Jeremy Johnson