When I saw this picture for the first time, I was taken back by the sheer joy on his face. That smile says it all.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Selamat Siang Keluarga!
Gmana kabarnya?
First off, sorry the email is a day late! There was a problem at the warnet yesterday... the internet was not working, so there's my reason for not sending anything yesterday!
Things are going pretty well over here! IT has been another busy week. It has also been very very wet. On sunday we had a lesson with Novita, and her house is pretty tough to get to, we have to walk up a steep dirt trail to get there, right after already walking for a while on the pavement. the bad thing this time around was that it was pouring rain the whole time we were walking there, and we didnt bring anything for the rain. So we got soaked, and then we get to the dirt trail to see it is completely muddy. Nonetheless we made the trek and I think i only almost fell once or twice! haha Novita is doing well, unfortunately her mom still has given her permission to get baptized, but we all have faith and are praying that it will happen.
We taught good ol' om fery again, he is seriously the funniest guy ever, the best thing is he loves the book of mormon. Now he just needs to come to church again and he will be all set! We finally have him on date to be baptized in early desember. IT was awesome, right after we talked about it he grabbed his calendar and put a big circle around desember 4th. ITs been amazing to me how powerful the book of mormon is in this work. Only when investigators read that book do they make changes. If they are lazy about reading, they make no progress.
Om deni is doing great, we met his family last week, he has an awesome family, his wife is pregnant with their 4th child. It is pretty funny because they live in an almost completely Muslim neighborhood, and the people love seeing two white christian guys walking through the neighborhood, the kids especially loved it, you'll see in the picture I sent we had about 20 kids following us! Om Deni is really loving this Church/ Gospel. He was super pumped after church on sunday, and hopefully he will come watch conference this weekend!
IT really sounds like ya'll are doing well! Busy as usual. How long are you going to be in India dad? I wonder how similar India and Indonesia are... Hopefully you have a good safe trip! I was pumped to hear Geraldo had a good game, hopefully he willbe a big help. All your talk of the temple makes me so jealous! I havent been in 4 months, and I wont get to go for another year and half. Enjoy those experiences! Have they started building the one in Meridian yet?
So really what else has been going on with the family!? Carrie sounds like she is doing great, how excellent, Mel said spencer is showing number two who's boss, and mikey is gonna get married( I still don't believe it). It just seems like things are awesome over there.
That's totally lame about the whole mormons arent christian thing... People are so ignorant. The only way to find out if we're christian or not is read the Book of Mormon and figure ito ut for yourself, not a chance anyone can think we're not Christian after reading it.
Well I hope ya'll know the Church is true, Because I do! We're blessed to have the fulness of the Gospel, which answers all our questions, and we can look forward in faith and live knowing that we'll live as a family after this life. What a blessing it is.
I love you all!
Have a great week!
Oh ya! Selamat setengah tahun untuk saya! Sudah 6 bulan di misi. :]
Dengan Kasih,
Elder Johnson
HARD TO BELIEVE HE HAS BEEN OUT 6 MONTHS!!!!!!!
Wednesday, October 05, 2011
Hello Everyone!
How are you all doing?? It sounds like it has been a very busy week for you all! I am glad to hear that Carrie's surgery went well, hopefully the recovery is still going well for her. Mikey is actually engaged!! Oh my goodness! That is pretty insane. I guess in true Johnson fashion he is engaged within a year of being home from his mission right? Don't expect the same from me!!
Good to hear Geraldo is cleared, hopefully he can be a contributor, sounds like the receivers were horrible last game! Whati s BYU's deal!!!! They should be killing Utah State at home, not barely queaking out a win!! Eeish... Alabama/ Boise State sound freaking awesome this year. Sounds like the Non- AQ teams are weak this year... bummer. Oh well hopefully BSU can just keep it going.
I of course have not yet had an opportunity to watch conference, it was little weird going to a normal sacrament meeting the first sunday in october...
Indonesia is still amazing!! I love this place more and more each day. In Manado it is the "rainy season" now which means still hot but maybe two or three times a week there is rain. Luckily it is terribly hot here, there is usually a nice ocean breeze! The people here are still so funny. The branch is hilarious, goodness, so funny.
This place is just so ready to explode as far as missionary work goes. It really could be just like the Phillipines here in Manado. I am blessed to have had the opportunity to work here, and when it does start to boom here it will be great to know I have had a part in helping it grow.
Om Poltje is still doing super well! I just want to teach his family now too! He is a really smart guy, jsut ridiculously busy with his couch/ chair business sometimes meeting with him is hard. He is continuing to progress though, it is great to see his excitement and testimony about the Gospel grow.
Om Deni is doing awesome as well. I am excited to finally meet/ and teach his family today as well! He had an awesome/ funny experience while he prayed about the Book of Mormon, he had a pack of cigarettes right next to where he was at and he had the feeling he should get rid of them. He said he had a really hard doing it, i am still not sure if he did, but he has a great heart and definitely wants to do what the Lord wants him to do.
I am still jsut in shock that Mikey is getting married... what a goof! Sounds like he really did do it in true mikey fashion. I love that kid!
How are Jeff, Laure, Jack, Luke, Mel, Dave, Trevor, Spencer and everyone doing?? I am sure they are just doing great.
Hmm what else, Is Capital doing well this year in football??
Welp I don't really have anything else to say, I am doing great. The Church is true! Don't ever forget it!!!
Love,
Elder Johnson
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Selamat Oktober! (hampir)
It has been a petty awesome week! We have some pretty great investigators right now! Om Poltje is still doing very well, He is pretty much on date for baptism, he just wasn't sure on the exact date last week! he is the man though, super humble and super faithful and hopefully his wife and kids will start meeting with us too. Oh just in case you are wondering why a lot of our investigators' names start with om or tante, it is kind of like the title mrs. or mr, except in Bahasa Manado om is uncle and tante is aunt, it is just a respect type of thing, just in case anyone was wondering! We have a new investigator named Om Deni that is on date for baptism now too, he has been Christian for like 5-10 years but has not been active in any church for a very long time. He is a very great guy and wants us to meet with his wife as well. Novita is still doing pretty well, her mom is never home when we go there, so it has been difficult to try to discuss with her mom at all about the church. Oh well Novita has a strong testimony and Heavenly Father will prepare a way for her.
On Sunday there was 5 investigators from the South area that got baptized! One of them is a family of four that is so awesome! They are such cool people. They each asked one of us to baptize them because they wanted all four of us to have to get wet. haha It was a pretty amazing experience for sure, I figured I would send a few pictures of that to you all, even though they werent my investigators, haha.
The other picture is some random home builders that want a picture with us! haha
I am super duper excited for conference too!!! Except i will probably have to wait a few weeks to a month for the translations and what not! so you all will have to fill me in on all of the good talks and all that good stuff! So Mikey is popping the big question??? that DOG! how exciting. In a selfish way i am excited for him because it means i wont have to stand around at the wedding reception! but besides that i am just excited for him, I still cant picture the skinny boy getting married!
Sounds like a good week of football. Eeish I remember at the start of this month I had a little bit of trunkiness because I thought to myself, football is starting, and it was a killer. And now I pretty much dont remember about it until I read the emails. Hopefully BSU will put a whippin on Nevada! What is BSU's ranking right now???
Carrie has and will continue to be in my prayers, just let me know how all of it goes next week!
Hmmm I dont really know what else to talk about! It is crazy that I am probably about half way done with my time in Manado... This place is really really really awesome. My Indonesian is getting better each day, at times it is a little tough to understand people and having an American companion can make it tough at times to get better at the language, but oh well we are doing well. elder Kujanpaa is the man. So this past week President Groberg came to Manado and in our interview I prayed in English for like the first time in almost 4 months... It was a little rough I felt weird. Hopefully all of my English will be that way after awhile here! haha
Welp I am doing well, I know the Church is true, I am grateful I can be doing the Lord's work, and I know that when I faithfully and diligently work, I am happiest and things go the best.
I love you all!
Have a great week,
sampai minggu depan,
Kevin
PS Hayden looks so different and Skinny. that is nuts.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Hello family!
It sounds like you all are doing very well! It has been a very good week in Indonesia, like always!
We were able to meet with Om Poltje again, he is so awesome, his brother was there too for our lesson and his brother Petrus was super excited about it too. It was funny because right before that we had a lesson with this really lame guy that was not open at all, and we were a little frustrated, but after meeting Om Poltje we were just so pumped. It is great when someone actually reads the Book of Mormon. haha
So Mom asked if we teach English, the answer is yes we do, every friday night. It isn't always my favorite thing to do but it usually ends up pretty fun. The people here are all so shy that they don't like to talk so it gets a little awkward but it is understandable. We actually have a lot of investigators that come, so it gives us more opportunites to talk with them.
Sounds like a rough week for BYU... eeish that is such a bummer, hopefully they will bounce back. I can only imagine t he depression on campus right now. Glad to hear BSU got another win, hopefully Geraldo can get cleared soon, that is really lame that he can't play yet! Sounds like the soccer is a fun thing to see the kids play. haha
So sounds like your havin a little trouble with the long hair in Priest Quorum. Hmm i guess you could read together about Captain Moroni and ask them if a stud like him would have long curly locks, because the answer is NO!
Novita is still kind of the same, we are just trying to be patient and having faith that all will work out. Om ferry is doing better, we were pumped because he read the BoM and was super pumped about it! He is so funny, just a goofy dude, his son Boris is pretty interested in the Church now too. We are excited about them, hopefully Ferry will invite his wife to attend/ learn as well.
Well I sent a few pictures. Apparently i am a little famous here because there are advertisements for my website on the back of the angkots! haha I thought it was pretty sweet. The other few pictures are from a nearby town, just a little outside manado that we went to today for Pday.
Welp The work is great here in Manado, I know it is the Lord's work, I know he blesses us as missionaries each day and I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and it is the most important part in gaining and maintaining a strong testimony! Never slack off in your reading of it!!!
I love you all, I will continue to pray for all of you, and I am glad to hear that Carrie's Surgery will happen soon so all of that can be corrected! Tell hello to all the little kids from their favorite uncle!!
Love,
Elder Johnson
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Another week has flown by!
It has been a really awesome week here. WE have been working really hard, meeting with our investigators and trying to be way more bold with them! That was one thing Elder Kujanpaa wanted to do, start pushing our investigators a little bit more. A little more about Elder Kujanpaa, he is from Highland, Ut. He played hockey in high school, his dad was born in finland, hence the funky last name. He is a way awesome missionary though. It is pretty rare to get to serve with another american, but it wont last too long, a whole bunch of new Indo missionaries will be coming in.
Novita is doing well, it is just so frustrating that her mom is tough on her coming to church and stuff. She really wants to come, her mom just wont let her. Oh well, it is just going to take a lot of prayer and faith and all will work out! It was pretty funny because the last meeting we had with her, we had no idea what to teach her because she pretty much knows it all already!
We have this awesome investigator, Ferry, that is hilarious. He is probably 45-50 years old, married, not too active at his church, and likes to learn. The hardest thing is how simply we have to teach for him to understand. his son Boris comes to english class a lot, and now he wants to come to church too, so hopefully that will help his dad out a little bit too. Their family is super awesome, very quiet and humble and so nice.
As far as investigators go we just taught this awesome guy, Poltje on monday. It was our first meeting and the Spirit was so so strong as we taught the Restoration with him. It was really cool because he said he felt it too, and hopefully when we meet with him again this weekend we can have a good meeting with him again.
It is just so nervewracking after a good first lesson with someone because probably 50 percent of the time we never see the person again because they ask their friends or pendeta about the Church and are told lies about it. Hopefully Om Poltje will remember how he felt as we met, and hopefully he has already prayed too!
Hmm sounds like BYU had a typical cruddy 2nd half, it always seems like they do. oh well sounds like their defense is pretty awesome, and they will get it together for sure!
I really hope they get the Geraldo thing settled, that is really annoying, I dont think the mcmartin family has done anything wrong in that, just loved the kid!
Mom, here is the deal with packages, if you want to send a package it needs to be SOO light. If it is heavy at all, the mission office has to pay a fine for it and stuff. I cant remember the exact weight, i know it needs to be light though.
Oh! we met again with Ferry, all is well again, he is such a good guy. He is still excited about coming to church more and stuff.
The kids sound like they are doing awesome! The kids are playing soccer?? AWESOME! Soccer is HUGE here, pretty much everyone loves it so much. Jack scored 3 goals!!! Awesome!
mmm Marinated chicken sounds sooo good. Food here is great, I think I am in love with rice now though, it is so good. We eat it almost 2 times a day.
Welp, I dont really know what else to say, I am loving the mission, it is hard, but the more and more I think about it I wouldnt rather be anywhere else, Inviting people to come to Christ is an amazing thing to be able to focus on!
I love you all!!!
Kevin
Jakarta Time
