New Ipads

February 10, 2014 Alrighty so this past week has been full of excitement. So much has happened. But where to begin. I guess i'll begin with the biggest news. We got Ipads. Ya thats right, they've been talking about it forever and now we finally got them. We had a zone conference that started at 8 in the morning and we didn't leave till 5 at night, it was the longest meeting ever and it was all on ipads. We didn't get them till half way through and of course once we got them everyone zoned out and was messing around on them instead of listening, but it was all good. The Ipads are so much of a hassle right now, all our planning and all of our area book(teaching records) have to all be put on it. And it just takes so much time to do so. But when it comes to teaching it's really nice, we can show videos and other things on it. They also have a lot of restrictions, we can't download anything and if we try doing so, or going to a site on the interent thats not allowed it gets red flaged and you get your ipad taken away. They have so many rules on them, i feel i i'm going to do something on accident and loose my ipad. But other than that we also had some other exciting news. A little while ago we got a media referral for a Johny Brown, but was never able to go see him until recently. We called him on the phone and he just sounded awesome as we were talking to him. When we went over we had an amazing visit. Turns out he is actually a member, got baptized back in the 1980's and he just recently had moved here, he has been less-active for the past year or so but wanted to get back. He has a fiance who has a 6 year old daughter and he just wants to do everything right with her, and wants hers to join the church. Her name is Tiffany and she is amazing. They came to church yesterday and had a wonderful experience, the only bad thing was during gospel principles class the ward mission leader teaches and he always likes to focus on one person for the entire class and yesterday it was her, but it all went good and she didn't get turned away. We are going to go see them again tomorrow and set a baptism date with her. It should go really well. And that about all the exciting news for the week, this coming saturday Chelsie is getting baptized and the Sister's have a baptism earlier that day also, so it's going to be a wonderful day. Also next week is transfers and we're thinking that i will get transfered since i have been here so long. We'll see what happens. I love you all so much.

Ping Pong Table

"The Famous Ping Pong Table"

Elder Jeremy Johnson & Elder Greenlaw's
Homemade Ping Pong Table, inspired by Laura's
Christmas present of a little ping pong set.

Basketball???

February 3, 2014 Seahawks won baby, Woot Woot. Now thats what i like to hear. Last night and this morning we had a bunch of members send texts says they won, cause you know i'm from washington and all. And i told them all that they were going to win, no one believed me though, but hey i hear they destroyed. So how are you all doing, anything interesting been going on, besides football. Laura hasn't written me since Christmas, whats up with that. She said she was going to change, sad day. So as for things here, all is well. You asked about Daphne, ever since the first of January she started working again and we haven't been able to see her, we're still trying but nothing is really happening with her. And as for Chelsie she is the one who came to us with already having an amazing testimony of the Book of Mormon and she is getting baptized on the 15th, She is pretty much set, her only struggle is Tea, and she is working on that. Tea is a hard thing for people to give up down here in the south for some reason, worse than coffee. Now lets see what else is there, we got some new beds this weeks, mine had a major sink hole and the box frame was flat on one side, it was pretty bad, they also gave us some office chairs and gave us a list of things to go buy and they will repay us. Our senior couples here are pretty nice. Oh and also on thursday the had elders quorm ball and we brought an investigator and went and played for our ward, we got totally smoked, i'm never been bettin so bad, the other team was full of non-member black guys who were just running circles around us. It was so bad. The south really does play ball a lot different than the west, they are a lot more aggressive out here. Oh and one last thing we get IPADS on Wednesday, oh ya, it's going to be crazy. Well thats about it i love you all so much. Love, Elder Jeremy Johnson P.S. those pics of the ping pong table i sent to anna-marie, but i'll forwad you them, i love you more than all the ping pong balls in the world, and that's a lot if you go to china ebruary 3, 2014

"Now Is the Time" - Hastening the Lord's work.

January 27, 2014 ----(Jeremy) Hi ----(Mom) Good Morning. What is your day like? I'm going to try and get to go to the dump today, for that is what our garbage service is. Meaning we do not have garbage pickup. And it is time, so we borrowed Jared's little truck "The Sexy Mex". ----(Jeremy) oh, that sounds like fun..... . So far our day has been pretty good, did some shopping and cleaning and now just relaxing by the computer, talking to my amazing parents ----(Mom) Great. It sounds like a good day and it is half over for you, and our day has barely begun. Are you going to go play some ball? So, is my amazing missionary son going to tell me more about face-book? ----(Jeremy) Na, today we are just going to relax and enjoy ourselves, we did have a pretty good workout today. And yes i will tell you more about facebook, i'm putting it into my weekly letter. But right now my companion is complaining that he is hungry so we are going to go get some food and come back, i'll let you know when i'm back. I love ya mommy ----(Jeremy) Well, Well looky here mom actually got on facebook, that's a first, never thought that would happen. Na i'm just messing with you. Facebooking for missionaries is pretty sweet, a lot of what we get to do is really amazing, we do post a lot of things on our pages so people can see, but we also do a lot of other things to. Right now i am teaching a couple people on facebook, i've joined some christians groups on facebook and have been posting and talking to people there, we also talk to our investigators on facebook to, and yes of course my wonderful mother is able to comment on things, i just can't talk to you, thats all. Oh and a couple of exciting things that are going on, on facebook right now, is that i have started talking to Whitney, and Justin(justin hall), haven't started teaching any major gospel stuff but that will come. Thought i have bore my testimony to Whitney and So how has my week gone, well like always it has just flown by so so fast. 2 weeks ago only 8 missionaries got ipads, and just this past week all the leaders got ipads, soon on the first of febuary all the missionaries in our mission will have then, kinda exciting but i here that right now they are a pain. As for the weather there is has been interesting. For the past 2-3 weeks it has been going for hot to cold, there will be a couple days where the temp. is in the 70s 80s and then there will be a couple days where it's in the 30s 40s, no inbetweens and when it's cold i mean it is freezing, with the humidity out here the cold gets to the bone and hurts like no other. But right now it is once again warm and i am rocking my shorts and flip flops, oh ya. Now as for missionary work, things have been going pretty good, we have our good days and our slow days but all in all it is going well. Chelsie our investigator with a batismal date is getting baptized on the 15th, and her whole family is going to be there, it is going to be really exciting. Lately we have been getting a lot of media referrals where people go onto lds.org or something and ask for missionaries to visit. Normally your lucky to get one a months but we have been gotten 4 or 5 in just these past 2 weeks, the Lord is really hastening his work, this area which was once dead, in now starting to pick up, not just for missionaries but for members also. Members in our ward have really picked things up and are talking to others, they are reading the book "Power of the everyday Missionary"( which you should really read, it's really good) and they are doing what it says, we are having less-actives start coming back, members inviting their friends, it's just amazing to see. The Church right now is really focusing on "NOW IS THE TIME" and i really believe it, things are happening and the lords words is being spread like no other. We just need to hop on the ban wagon and do our part in helping others come closer to our Heavenly Father. Our stake has set a goal to double it's size in order to get a jacksonville temple which is highly likely. Members are praying for a missionary opportunity and they are getting them. I strongly encourage you to do the same, to read the Power of the Everyday Missionary and to pray for opportunities and i promise that they will happen. It is just so easy. Members aren't there to help the missionaries, Missionaries are there to help the members, and it is such a beautiful sight to see. I am so glade to be out here serving a mission right now, and just seeing so many miracles happen, it is truly an amazing thing. I love you all so much and am so grateful for all that you do for me. Enjoy the cold weather, Love, Elder Jeremy Johnson ----(Mom) "I love you to, Jeremy."

Working Hard & Having Fun

January 20, 2013 So this past week has just flown by, it feels like it was just pday yesterday. So much has happened. We have been working hard and having a lot of fun at the same time. This week has just been full of service. One day we had district meeting and afterwards the whole distrtict all went to a members house and painted their house for them, lately we have been doing a lot so service and for some reason i get stuck doing all the cutting in which sucks. Also this week we have help a guy move a piano which was a little hard to do but we got it done. Then also this past week we have had a huge blessing happened. I already told you about how we are teaching this girl who already has a testimony of the book of mormon. Well we wen't back and taught her the plan of salvation last night and had an amazing lesson with her. She is one who has been prepared her whole life for this moment, she has accepted a baptismal date for the 9th of febuary. She has been attending the singles ward for this past month and will continue going there. Yesterday for church our mission president and the stake president were both there and they taught 3rd hour really hitting on missionary work. This ward is already starting to kick it into action and they are all ready to go out and be member missionaries. As for P-day today, we had a huge district breakfast and then afterwards meet up with the rest of the zone and had a big zone p-day at the stake center. We played a lot of basketball and did some volleyball there to. I have to say that i enjoy playing in sand pits better than in the church. Well thats all folks, love reading your letters and hearing whats going on. I love you all so much.

Painting

Januaru 13,2013 Well, not much to say this week. It has flown by once again, but for some reason when mondays come around i can't remember what all happened. So lets see for the whole week we had the sisters car because Greenlaw had injured himself and i have to say it felt so good to be driving again, we gave back their can yesterday, and now we are on bikes again which sucks. Oh and also this week we did a lot of service, we helped a food pantry down here paint their walls, ended being there for a lot longer than we thought, but it was still fun, i got paint all over myself and by the end my arms were so sore, they had me do all the trim work and Greenlaw got to use the roller the whole time. As for missionary work we were able to go out with a members and see some really interesting people, one just wanted to bash with us the whole time but was holding back because she wants us to come back again. It will be interesting to see how that goes. Oh and one of the families out here has a friend that they want us to start teaching, she already has a testimony of the book of mormon so things will go really good with her. Well i really can't think of much else to say, today we are going to St. Augustine and playing some volleyball again, so that will be fun. We'll i love ya all so much. Love, Jeremy

A Car Again

January 7,2014 We'll i'm not quite sure what to really say this week. I feel like lots has happened but i can't think of anything. This past week has been kinda tough, not much really went our way, appointments got canceled things fell through, it was just one of those weeks. But some interesting things have happened. Earlier this week We were playing some basketball with a couple of kids and of course Elder Greenlaw ended up hurting himself, he tried to pull some fancy moves and twisted his ankle, got a pretty bad sprain. He had to use crutches for a couple of days. Now he is off them but still has a really good limp. Oh Sunday the sister missionaries gave us a ride to church because he was on crutches and then they even offered to let us use their car for a week, we tried saying no at first but then they kept insisting so we took their car. The sisters have really changed and are really nice now, don't know what happened but these past couple weeks we have been getting along really good. Anyway so now I get to drive a car which i haven't done in like 6 months, it felt so wierd at first but now it feels so right. It's going to stink having to give it back at the end of the week. Now the other exciting news that happened this week was transfers. Elder Greenlaw and i both thought that i would probably be getting transferred, but last night we had the big mission wide conference call and we are both staying in this area. Pretty exciting!!! This is going to be an awesome transfer we feel like we have so much going for us here in this area. I am excited to see what happens. Well that about it for this week. I love you all so much.