April 13th!!! Forget Tax Day- we hit the ONE YEAR MARK!!! I thought I would take a few minutes and express my feelings as Kevin has hit the year mark of his mission. First of all, it went by so FAST! I can hardly believe that a year has passed me by. I wonder at times if I have used my time wisely...probably not. But as I think back on the past year and all that has happened one thing stands clear... I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY MOM...and I am still grateful that this is my last one! It is true, so many wonderful blessings come to families as missionaries are serving, that I cannot deny. I would not want Kevin anywhere else, doing anything different, but this mother heart is very glad that Kevin is my last one to send away and that it is down to the last year! I have a strong testimony that the decision to serve a mission will bless a young man, or woman, EVERYDAY for the rest of their lives. It will make a man out of a boy. My son Jeffrey said it best. It was during his release interview with the Stake President. Pres. Cutler asked him what was different about the boy who left 2 years before, and the man that had returned. Jeffrey's reply went something like this: "I left a teenager, doing teenage things. I soon became a missionary and did missionary things, but then...I became a disciple of Christ, and knew I was changed forever." I believe a mission does that to a young man. I have seen it in my husband, and 2 sons, and a son-in-law and am watching it as Kevin serves. ( I didn't know my other SIL before his mission, but he is a wonderful man, so I am sure it did the same for him.) I will be indebted to the Lord forever, and am so thankful to a loving Father in Heaven for watching over Kevin and strengthening him. I am so humbled to be Kevin's mother, I love him so very much. I know that he is doing his best, that he is obedient and he will RETURN WITH HONOR!!!

President and Sister Groberg on Elder Johnson's first day in Indonesia.

Random pictures that he has sent home.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 Oh yeah! If at all possible could you send me some cds of good music with the package you want to send? Ask mikey if he could make a cd of the most relaxed sigur Ros songs, I am bored of what we have here! He should know which ones are ok! How's it goin Ya'll? 63 degrees? Sounds really really cold. No thanks. It is a very sunny and hot day here in Surabaya, it has been amazingly great, it feels like summer here today after a lot of rain. I am glad you all liked the pictures, sorry there aren't more today, the computer I am using today can't do it. Things are going pretty well here, I have been a little sick this week ( stomach and cold) but I am trying not to let it slow things down. I think the main cause is the very very loud snoring of one of the missionaries in the house. haha. It is the worst I have ever heard. But I found some ear plugs which has helped a lot. Yuni and her daughter Dian came to church again on Sunday, they really liked it. They are very surprised at how nice everyone is and how friendly the members are to each other. So that has been good. She is really starting to get a testimony, but I don't think she quite recognizes it. She is awesome about reading the Book of Mormon which has been the key. I am just praying that her husband and family will start learning too. To answer some of the questions for that mom who asked about what to take here and what not. As far as pictures go, they might not want to risk sending the pictures home, I am just saving my memory cards and I will bring them home with me when I go home. It might be a little expensive but It is safer. AS far as the medicine and stuff goes, the mission book and stuff make it sound like it is a lot harder than it is to find stuff here. Every city here has pharmacies and a good walmart style store that has all that stuff (shaving creme, tooth paste, etc.) But pack floss because it is reallytough to find here. The other thing about that is you are only allowed to bring 20 kilos of stuff in the airplanes here in Indonesia so a lot of stuff has to be left at the mission home. Still bring a little bit of that stuff for at first, but I think I brought way too much. Make sure to tell that mom/guy that he is going to the most amazing place ever! What is his name? So that english service we do at the school is set up with the teachers, every tuesday we teach an hour and a half block.IT is mostly just helping them speak, they are very shy. They are really funny. I make jokes a lot about the music and stuff here. Boy bands and Girl bands are HUGE here. It is terrible. There is one called CherryBelle that is like 10-15 girls that gets played anywhere you go so I make jokes about that. A lot of the time they don't understand but it's ok. They love American culture and music, which unfortunately they only know the lame stuff, Justin Beiber, Avenged Sevenfold other stuff that is lame. But oh well they just don't know better yet! Well I am almost out of time, but I know that this work is the Lord's work. I just see over and over again how He leads us to them. He is always at work. One thing that has been challenging here has just been accepting that all people have Agency. Even though the Lord leads us to to them they have the choice to accept or reject. At times it gets frustrating, but then again I always know that I have done my part, and that someday ;ater that person will get another chance and accept it. I have gotten a stronger testimony this week of the Holy Ghost. It is often whispering to us and as we have faith to pay attention to it and act on it we will be blessed and, in my case here, led to people who have invited us to come share a message with them. I love you all! Thanks for all your prayers and support. Kevin

Wednesday, April 04, 2012 Hey ya'll! Well it definitely feels pretty much the same to be 20. haha But it is a good feeling too. Unfortunately I spent my birthday with some sort of bug, or maybe food poisoning and I could't leave the house... It was pretty rough but I am really healthy now not to mention a few pounds lighter haha. One of the senior couples gave me some chicken noodle soup and brownies though which was super great and delicious. Me and Elder Yarkasi are still waiting to go to eat my birthday lunch because we want to go to the wendy's that they have here and get frosties but we haven't had a reason to be in that part of town yet... Hopefully soon though! It was great to hear from all of you! And huge props go out to Sydnie, the weight losing machine! You are amazing! Today we went out to pretty cool zoo and cave thing and as you'll see in the pictures we got to hold birds which got a little interesting once they started climbing on to my neck and head and tried to eat my glasses... haha it was really fun. The work has gone pretty decent this week but a little slowed down by my health issues and then bike problems again that will hopefully be over today! The bearing for the crank on the bike is basically destroyed and we have gone all over this city looking for a replacement part, most stores didn't have it in stock and finally we found it yesterday so today it just needs to be replaced. Yes... I am so excited to be able to ride a bike that actually works again! Yuni is still doing well, their motorcycle was being repairedo n sunday so she and dian couldn't come to church, but they are going to the branch activity on friday and also this weekend they will come watch some of conference on sunday! I am so excited to watch donference this weekend! It will be awesome. :] Still no progress on her husband though, he is just a busy guy and isn't interested still... I am praying that it will happen soon, or at least some time though! Well I don't have a lot of time left, but I just hope we all recognize how blessed we are to have this Gospel! I know I have really come to love the Gospel and its simplicity. It is such a blessing. Earlier today I was reading in D&C 11 and it was super awesome. Basically the Lord tells Hyrum in that section that His job(and ours) is to obey His commandments! It just kind of hit that That is the Gospel! Obedience. And if we do our part, the Lord will bless us with happiness that we can't get anywhere else! How incredibly simple and amazing is that! Obviously it is often hard to do it, but the blessings will be worth it in the end! I know that trying my best to obey has brought far more happiness than not trying. I am grateful for this Gospel and I am trying my best to live it, and I hope ya'll are too! Love ya! Have an awesome week, Kevin

Wednesday, April 18, 2012 3:43 AM To: Johnson, George (ACSO-Boise) Subject: Re: Mom & Dad Howdy, Woah spring football! Crazy that it is alreadythat time of the year. Sounds like the Broncos and Cougars are looking good. Glad to hear you all are doing awesome. Surabaya is heating up big time!! It has been soo hot lately, from the sounds of it the warm season has started. And no, I did not feel the earthquakes, they were more near Medan, which has 4 missionaries but is very very far from Surabaya, it's on a different island. Yuni and Dian are still doing great. The dad is never home when we are there because of work so we don't ever really get to talk to him. They are continuing to read, come to church, and yeah just the same old same old. IT has been great to have investigators that want to learn, and receive what we teach because a lot of people here always disagree or try to debate with us. They just want to know what they need to do to come closer to Christ. The reason I have been going on exchanges is because I am serving as District Leader here right now... It has been a pretty good experience. I especially just like going out with all of the missionaries in the district and teaching and working with them. it's fun to see how others do the work. I am pretty excited because this past week we were able to teach 13 lessons which has been the most I have taught since moving here. IT is just way nicer when we are busy teaching rather than contacting and proselyting and looking for addresses all day. Oh some other exciting news is that this sunday we are going to be having a group meeting out in Sidoarjo! We finally found a place to have it, in a member's car AC repair shop. It ought to be really interesting to see how many people come! It will be great to see these people have a chance to partake of the sacrament again and to meet together as members of the Lord's Church. Well, I don't have much else to talk about! I am sorry to hear about Trev, poor guy, oh well I guess now there's one less monkey jumping on the bed... hehe :] I love you all a bunch! I am so grateful for this Gospel and this opportunity to serve our Lord. The Church is true! And I know that as we as members try our best to serve others, in our callings, home teaching, families, quorums, that the Lord blesses us and unifies us. That is really a huge part of the Gospel, If we as members aren't willing to serve, we aren't living the Gospel, and the Church is not going to grow and be strengthened. That is the big thing I have learned this past week. I have already told myself that after I return home I am going to be the most diligent home teacher ever! haha IT is SO important!! Love you all! Kevin

Here is a map of Indonesia that shows where the earthquakes were in comparison to where Kevin is. Medan is a totally different island than Surabaya.

These are two very special people that Kevin was able to baptize while serving in Manado. Novita and Sergeyenev have become very dear friends, thanks to Facebook!!! They have been so wonderful to send me pictures of Kevin and other members of the ward there in Manado. As always, Manado will be a very special place, as it was Kevin's first area.