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.

January, February, March= 11 Months!!!!!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Hey Ya'll
Sorry today is going to be super short. We had a zone trip today for
pday. We went to this pretty cool volcano called bromo. It was
FREEZING cold but still awesome. We got home kind of late and so we
have to write quick emails.
The work is going pretty well. We are working right now on trying to
get a small new group of church members to meet in sidoarjo which is a
little bit outside of surabaya. There are like 15-18 families that
live out there, a lot of them haven't been to church in over 10 years
because of transportation/ money issues. We almost had it set up to go
on sunday, but then it fell through at the last second. it was a
bummer! But it should be ready to go in Ferbruary. We have this
awesome investigator that lives out there named Yohanes. He has been
taught like 4 times and he already has a really strong testimony. He
will be a huge help to the work there if it can all work out!
The work keeps goin on! The Church is true!
I love you all, I hope all is well.
Love,
Kevin

This is a picture I found online of the Bromo volcanos. It looks amazing. I am hoping that Kevin took pictures of his own while he was there.


Wednesday, February 01, 2012
Hey everyone!
Things are goin pretty good over here. So I am not sure how cold it really was, I think probably like 45-50 degrees but I was FREEZING. It was so cold. I will try to attach some pictures from it so you can see it. The weather wasn't great so we couldn't see the views but it was still really really cool. It was really cloudy and windy but there was still some really awesome things to see. The couple of pictures are of some of the elders in the district.
So I can't even imagine 100 baptisms... WOW. I think last year the whole Indonesian mission had 74. That is ridiculous. I guess The people in Madagascar are just prepared and Indonesians aren't yet. But that is incredible.
Well the Sidoarjo thing is slowly falling through. Our investigator out there doesn't want to meet anymore, well more lie we don't want to waste the time going out there to have him not want to listen to us because he already knows everything... And it seems like there are members who are excited about it, and a lot who don't want to leave the churches they go to now. So we are kind of like trying to re-convert them which is tough. The other big problem out there is there are a number who are Muslim now and don't want to go back to church. A few of them are returned missionaries which just kills me... It really goes to 3 things, they stopped reading, praying and going to church, once we stop those things we will fall away.
The best thing of the past week was some good finding that happened! So the bikes that we have are pieces of junk and constantly break or have problems and it gets annoying but on thursday we were riding to go to sidoarjo, and we were just goin along when my chain got stuck and couldn't move, so we start trying to fix it, which took awhile when this lady walks up and starts talking to us and first thing I noticed was that she was wearing a cross, which is always a great thing to see. we invited her to learn about the Restoration and she was excited about it. so we got her number and address. I think it was about the 1st time I have been happy that that was my bike. haha There's no doubt that the Lord had it all planned out! It was cool. Unfortunately she is super busy and hard to meet.
We teach a ton of English here, Right now we have our weekly class at the church, and then every tuesday I teach two classes at a junior high school. English is the worst language ever! It is so hard to teach! I get confused. haha I feel bad for anyone trying to learn english. Yesterday we talked about weather and I taught them the snowman song which was pretty funny. It is really funny here because a lot of the english teachers here cannot speak a lick of english. They are SO bad. but it is a bummer for the students who want to learn but their teacher teaches them a lot of wrong stuff. So yeah hopefully we help them.
Welp, that is pretty much all this week. Thanks for all your love and support. I love you all!
Love,
Kevin
P.S. Mikey needs to write me. IT has been too long! I guess he is too busy being married. hahaha

Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Howdy!
Well the rain has kind of started to slow down a little bit but has been replaced by a little taste of the infamous Surabaya heat! Yesterday was a lot of bike riding in hot weather which was tough but good also!
Sorry I never rewally explained my companion/ house situations. There are 4 people in our house which is new and super nice. it is tiny but really good. WE have ac in our bedroom which has been a real treat but still it gets a little too cold in the middle of the night... My companion Elder Mulyono is a pretty good kid. I am not gonna lie we have had some rough spots here and there but we're getting things figured out and having more fun together. The work was really good last week, but the start of this week has been a little rough and slow...
WE had an awesome lesson with some former investigators from a year and half ago that we started meeting with. Their names are Donatus and Ita and they are so awesome! They haveone child too but she lives back at their home city which is off of jawa. They are really really humble people and just want to learn the truth which is really nice for a change. We often teach very hard headed people, but they are different. WE taught them along with our BML, Bro Alex and we talked about baptism and Donatus said he wasn't ready yet to make a choice... and then Bro. Alex shared about the need to be confident in our beliefs because the Lord knows our thoughts and needs and will help us. I am not sure exactly what he said or how we said it but it helped the Spirit testify to Donatus and then he asked when he can get baptized. So him and his wife are on date right now for the 18th of March. The hard thing is they have to work most sundays, and Donatus' boss is Advent so he believes the Sabbath day is saturday so Donatus only gets saturdays off. SO hopefully the Lord will open a way for them!
This week I got to go out on exchanges with Elder Smith, my MTC comp. IT was super fun to go out and work with him for a day. He is doing awesome. I love that guy. And yes, I do know Elder Peter Johnson, he is really cool, skis, and lives in park city, so we have already talked about a skiing trip. He is in the group that came before me so just about 2 months older than me as far as mission goes.
Well, I don't have much else to say! I hope you all are well! I love you all and it is great to hear from you.
Oh yeah, one question, how is BYU basketball doing??
Ok, The Church is true! Don't forget it!
Love,
Kevin


Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Howdy Howdy,
It has been a very different week this week. Ridiculously fast, unusually dry, and hot. haha I am guessing rainy season must be over because it doesn't rain much at all now. Good things surabaya is a very big city, with hills and i get to ride a bike! I really enjoy the bike riding in the heat, I think it is helping me slim down. I am anxious to find a scale so i can see if I have lost anything, the problem is that food here is really good and really cheap.
As far as the work goes it has been a pretty rough week. I think my goal is to have an investigator at church once in my time here in surabaya! Our investigators just don't seem to want to come. Donatus and Ita weren't able to meet at all this week so we don't really know what is going on with them, but we are trying to stay hopeful and just keep trying to find more people to teach. A couple of our investigators told us they didn't want to meet anymore and asked us to come pick up the BoM from them when we have a chance. Of course we're not going to, hopefully a few months from now they will find it lying around and read it and be prepared for the Restored Gospel! So that was kind of the extent of meetings with investigators this week.
I went on exchanges on monday and tuesday with some elders in the other house which was super fun. One of them is named Elder Widodo and his area right now is really struggling, they don't have any investigators right now, so we went out and contacted like crazy. It is really hard to contct since we can't really bring up the church, but we ended up talking to about 20 people about the Gospel which was awesome! The funniest one was this guy that was sitting at a warung drinking tea and he yelled "hello mister, where are you from" so we went and talked to him. He asked my name, then I asked his name and in English he replied, "I'm Mr. Crocodile!" and then he opened up his shirt to show his crocodile tattoo on his chest. He has made it into the top 5 weiredest people I have talked to. But he is also Christian and said missionaries can come teach him. so it turned out well.
It sounds like Jeff's thing with Mitt turned out awesome! That is super cool! Hopefully Mitt can get the job done and get elected. Happy birthday to callie as well! That is nuts that she is already 2. Crazy!!!
Mom made a comment about how fun BYU will be with mission buddies. IT is going to be hilarious. we are already making plans! There will be a lot of guys in the Provo area for college so it will be fun, and we will be able to keep up on the language (hopefully).
I guess I will end with a good experience last sunday. I was asked to speak last sunday in sacrament meeting about faith in Jesus Christ, and one of the things I talked about was how Joseph Smith and the First Vision should strengthen our faith in Jesus Christ, especially if we read his testimony in D and C 76 verse 22. I love that scripture because when I read it there is no doubt in my mind that He saw and spoke to Jesus Christ. Christ really does live and love each of us. I remember in the MTC when Richard G. Scott bore his testimony he said that he doesn't believe that Jesus Christ lives, but rather, he knows the Jesus Christ lives. We are led by Prophets and Apostles who speak to the Savior and receive revelation to help us to live happy lives and to receive eternal life after we die. We just need to have faith to live their teachings.
I love you all,
Have a great week!!!
Dengan Kasih,
Kevin

D&C 76:22 And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the atestimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!


Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Hey everybody,
Another week has flown by hasn't it! Things are still going about the same in Surabaya. There has been a bunch of moves though yesterday and today so all of the Elders in my house except me moved. My new companion hasn't gotten here yet, but I know his name is Elder Yarkasi and he is from jogjakarta. The other two elders in my house now are Elder Radianto and Earls and then Elder Garnett from my MTC group just moved into the other house here in surabaya so now there are three of the five people in my MTC group here! So that ought to be pretty fun.
As far as the work goes it has been pretty much about the same as last week. We have a few pretty good potential investigators that we will be trying soon so hopefully we will have more people to teach soon. I feel bad I haven't really had much to talk about lately, mostl ikely it will be this way the rest of the mission as well so don't get bored with me! haha
It sounds liek that new member in your ward is awesome! The branch here is trying to get home teaching set up again which will hopefully start helping the members grow. There are many who are still struggling. We are working a lot still with the families out in Sidoarjo. We still have not made a lot of progress with them. Their testimonies just aren't there yet to make the sacrifice to come back to the Church. We had a good opportunity to give a blessing to an inactive member who just had a stroke, her son, Konfernas, is also an inactive member and we have just recently contacted and started meeting with him to try to reactivate him. He is really nice guy, his financial situation makes it very hardo n him to be able to go to church though.
Dad asked about what I usually eat here, I really like to eat tempe penyet which is 4,000 rupiah which is like 50 cents and it is soo good. It is just tempe( I don't know whati ti s in english) sambal, a fried egg and rice. It is sooo good. That is my favorite by far right now. but we eat a lot of nasi campur too which is just rice with noodles, meat or eggs, and other stuff all mixed together. it is really good too and cheap, 6,000 rupiah.
Well, I know that the church is true! I know that the work I am doing is the Lord's work and that these are His children that I am serving and teaching. I know he will prepre hearts to be receive the Gospel and I just have to have stronger faith to find them.
Love you all!
Kevin

I tried to find a few pictures of the meals Kevin has described. I'm not sure these are the exact ones but I thought they gave an idea what the food might look like.

Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Hey hey!
Wow! Sounds like a pretty intense week over there! 20 inches of POW! I am super jealous. Good to hear that Mitt got the W as well in Idaho. I really want to come home to him as president. hehe
Things are going well here, my new comp is the man! He is hilarious. the work is still really slow but he has helped a lot to make it more enjoyable and we are working hard to get it to speed up again. We have been riding all over the place in the past few days and I think things sshould get going here sooner or later. It has been a really humbling experience to serve in this country, that is for sure. It has really strengthened my testimony and helped me understand the importance of working, even when it feels like no difference is being made. There are often days where we have absolutely no clue where to go, but we still just go and try. We go try to find an inactive member or a former investigator and hope that someone along the way will be prepared for the Gospel. As hard as Surabaya has been I would be fine if I never moved from this city the rest of my mission. I know that there are people somewhere in this place the the Lord has prepared. If it weren't so, He wouldn't have sent us as missionaries here.
WE were able to meet with one investigator this week, Ibu yuni, and she is awesome. I love that lady. She is so funny, and has a really good desire to just learn about Christ. She committed to come to church on sunday along with her daughter so I really really hope that will happen.
I got a great couple of emails from Ryan and Laura/ Jeff. Sorry I don't have time to day to reply to those! They were really great though Thanks a bunch!
I hope all of you are doing really great! I love you all so much! I guess the big thing I have learned lately is to just be grateful for all of the blessings we get and also be grateful for the trials! It's all about having a positive attitude!
The Church is true!!
Love,
Kevin
P.S.
the Mission office has my card, so I should have it this week sometime. So next week you can send the PIN.


Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Selamat kegilaan Maret! (happy march madness)
Haha it doesn't really translate well but oh well!
It was great to hear from you, and also good to hear that BYU squeaked out a win. awesome! And also sounds like Mitt is still doing ok. he needs to win!
Surabaya is as awesome as ever. It has been pretty rainy lately but it hasn't phased me a bit because of the awesome new rain poncho I got that makes me look totally dorky but it gets the job done. Ibu Yuni came to church on sunday with her daughter and I think it was way different than what they were used to but I think the experience was good for them. Hopefully they will come again this week too. this past week has been one of my favorite weeks in surabaya though, it was just a lot of good work that is starting to result in finding more people. The best experience was on sunday when we went out to look for an inactive members house and we had no idea where it was so we just kept asking for directions and then finally we asked this guy, daniel and his wife where we needed to go and they were heading the same way so we followed them there. As we were going along there was kind of this bump in the road that was hard enough to make my heavy body( which I thought was already a lot lighter) break the bolt in half on my seat. haha That family was really nice though and they helped us get it fixed and it gave us a lot of time to talk with them and invite them to learn about the Gospel and they said we could come share a message. So later this week we will be meeting them. they are a new family and expecting their first child soon. Elder Yarkasi and I were just super stoked about the whole experience because it was awesome! haha
Overall I am doing great, it really is pretty crazy that it has already been 11 months, it doesn't feel like it at all, Yesterday at about noon I realized that it was the 13th and I was like woah, already another month! haha Hopefully these next 13 months can go a little bit more slow! Wow the kids look awesome. So funny! I miss them a bunch! There are a ton of kids in our neighborhood that are super funny and one of them reminds me a ton of maddie and they always come stand in front of our gate and yell at us. haha it is great.
I attached some pictures, one of them is after Elder Yarkasi and I figured out that the pads inside our helmets make awesome fake moustaches, one of them is from about a month ago at a Buddhist temple in Surabaya that we went to for Pday, ( I am not sure if I already sent that) and the last one is a picture with me, Elder Mulyono and some of the teachers at the school we have been doing English service at. That has been a fun English service, and about all of the teachers are Muslim but a lot have been curious with what we do which has given us opportunities to share a little bit about the Church with them. I think I will go ahead and attach a picture of the kids we teach too. They are a combo of 8th, 9th and 10th graders.
Well that is pretty much all I have to say this week! The church is true! I hope you all are continuing to read your scriptures.
Saya mengasihi anda semua!
Kevin

Where Has the Time Gone?!

I am so behind in posting Kevin's emails. I guess Thanksgiving, Christmas, and a wedding will do that to you!
Kevin has now been out over 9 months. I cannot believe how fast time is passing. I miss him terribly, but I wouldn't have him anywhere else. His time in Manado was wonderful. Thanks to modern tecnology, I was able to "friend" several members of the branch and they were so kind to keep me informed of what was going on and to send me pictures of Kevin. I will post a few here and hope that you will see the joy Kevin has, as he is serving his mission in Indonesia.
But first I will post past emails.

November 30, 2011
Howdy!
First off, WHAT IS THAT NASTY THING GROWING ON MIKEY'S FACE??? eeish, he needs to shave!!! hahaha
It looks like Thanksgiving was awesome. Dad was rockin the rec specs again. The rolls looked amazing as well. Good to hear the Broncos are still rollin, the hail mary sounded sweet! The trip to Bunaken was awesome, it was the first time I have ever seen white sandy beaches and clear ocean water my life, it was definitely worth the trip.
I have finally got the pictures of our house sent, hopefully you all enjoy them. sweet toilet eh!?I also sent a picture of me playing soccer with some kids last tuesday as we were waiting to teach.
This week has been great. Novita's mom has pretty much said it is fine if she gets baptized, so the week before christmas is the planned baptismal date! The Lord has really blessed and strengthened Novita through all of this, and she is super excited.
Om Fery is comin along... we tried watching the Joseph Smith movie with him to help him understand about Joseph Smith, I think it helped out, he came to church again. The smoking thing is still really hard for him, but he has gone from 2 packs a day to one pack which is definitely an improvement.
Hendra and Moviyani are doing great as well. I love their family. They have a desire to change and do what is right, and they are working hard to make those changes.
I am excited for my Christmas package!! I am not sure when I will get it either... But either way it will be enjoyed.
I am super excited for next monday, hahaha, I can't remember if I told you all last week, come I get to be santa claus on monday!! it is going to be so funny. We are going to go visit less active members, members and investigators! There will definitely be some pictures sent next week from it.
We had a wild monday night this week. We got done with one teaching appoitment and we had to head straight to another one right after it that was like an hour away. The traffic was SO BAD, and so it took forever to get to where we needed to ride the next angkot. We finally got there, and realized that all of the angkots were already full, and that everyone was walking because of it, so we had to speed walk for like 2 miles to get to the next spot we could ride an angkot, then we finally got to Hendra's house, but a member needed us to come to her house that was another 20 minute walk, so we walked ther and met with her for 20 minutes, and then we walked 20 minutes back to hendra's house and taught them... Ugh we were sweating like crazy and worn out. It was definitely an awesome day, hopefully that's a good story of how awesome the missionary work is in Indonesia!!! I love it.
Welp, I hope you all are doing great, The church is true, Thomas S. Monson is a prophet. Don't forget to read your scriptures and say your prayers.
I love you all,
Have a great week!
Kevin

These pictures show his kitchen and bathroom. As he said previously in an email, he showers from a bucket, and that IS his toilet! Those are pretty good living conditions in that area!


Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Howdy Ya'll!
First off, I have to say that the football bowl games this year are super lame, except that Alabama is in the National championship. looks like this was a good year to miss. It sounds like the last game for that senior class was pretty cool, I cried a little bit inside at the thought that Kellen Moore will never play again on the blue... :[
It's also lame that BYU turned down the Big East bid... That could have been a lot of fun to watch BSU and BYU play every year, but oh well they still will next year right?
I am glad you liked the pictures of the house, I am pretty much a complete convert to the Indonesian toilet, I especially don't miss TP... haha sorry if that is a little gross. there is an american style toilet in the house but I already pretty much gave that one up unless I am feeling super lazy, I prefer the squatter.
The Santa Claus event was sooo hilarious. The culture here with santa claus is that they decorate a pick up truck and then santa claus rides in the back of it with a bunch of other people, some of them painted in all black. a lot of People here actually call santa claus, senter claus (not sure why), and the black people are senter pete. most kids are deathly afraid of the senter petes, so we didn't have one. Nonetheless it was still a day full of tears, as well as laughter and smiles and in true Indonesian fashion, rain. We got soaked. We went all over the place and visited a lot of members/ investigators and gave the kids some candy/ snacks. I will send fotos next week because this computer isn't letting me upload fotos.
The work has gone pretty well this week too. Novita is still set for baptism, she is very excited as are a lot of the members. It will be a great day for sure. Some other great news is that I have survived another round of transfers!!! Hopefully I will be here until january, but 4 american missionaries are going home the 19th so I might get moved. But I am liking my chances of staying here. OH! One of my friends from my BYU ward just got here too last week! His name is Mardi Mulia, I am super pumped that he is serving here, he is actually 1/2 or maybe 100% indonesian but grew up in Utah. We already planned on serving here together when I got my call. haha
Om Ferry is still doing the same... It is the worst though when we come to his house for a lesson and he is playing chess with his friends and smoking cigarettes like crazy. He still wants to get baptized, I think this will be a huge challenge for him to quit, because he has been smoking since around the age of 15, and everyone here smokes, so when people just relax, they smoke, and they give their friends cigarettes as well. He is still not doing as well with church attendance which makes it even harder.
We taught a less active member this past week that has a pretty amazing story about her baptism, when she got baptized, she was taken into the police office and questioned about the Church, the BoM, and they made her pray with them to make sure this wasn't satan's church or something... The missionaries were often prohibited from coming to her house when she was an investigator too. It is amazing to me how much a lot of these members have gone through to join the Lord's church, and yet they fall away and become less active so quickly. Undoubtedly it all returns to scripture study, prayer and going to church every week. Once we justify not going to church for one week, it become easier to miss the week after that, and then we just won't go at all. So don't quit reading, praying and going to church!!!
I love you all, have a great week.
p.s. I am excited to hear about the changes in the stake!!
Love,
Kevin

December 14, 2011
Howdy ya'll.
Hopefully it has been a great past week for you!!! BSU in the big east?? SWEET!
As far as the phone call goes, President Groberg said we can call on the 24th, 25th or the 26th. Also, our pday is getting moved next week until saturday the 24th so we can finalize it then. I already kind of forgot what the time difference is sooo sorry if I mess up and call at like 7 in the morning your time. I was thinking on christmas day ya'll have church early in the morning so it might be better if I called on the night of the 24th here, or morning for you. I am not sure what system I will use, but it will probably involve me just calling you all, me and elder kujanpaa might buy an international sim card together that can be used for cell phones here which should be pretty inexpensive. Oh yeah, we can talk for one hour so hopefully that is enough time! haha :]
This week has been a little different, wednesday night until saturday Elder Subadi was sick so we spent a lot of time in the house... I definitely did not enjoy that. So the mission work was a little bit slow this week, so forgive me for not having much to report on! The good news is that this sunday will be novita's baptism! It should be super awesome. Everyone is really really excited. The Lord has really known what was best for her in all of this, and hopefully her faith has strengthened from all of this as much as mine has. I have really seen first hand the fulfilling of 1 Nephi 3:7. The Lord always prepares a way for those who want to keep his commandments. On saturday night Novita was still a little unsure that her mom approved, we invited her to pray before asking her mom again, the next morning we got an SMS saying her mom was in full support. It was awesome.
The names of the Stake Presidency sound familiar, but I can't seem to remember the faces. I bet it is kind of weird to have a new stake presidency! I am sure they will do great.
I am glad that the family is still doing awesome. I miss you all, but I don't want to come home so it is the good kind of miss. haha
OH! here are some of the Santa Claus pictures, as you can see, smiles and tears... :]
Welp I love you all, I don't know how to express how grateful I am for our family. In the words of Hot Rod "You are number one!"
The Church is true, don't forget it.
Dengan Kasih,
Kevin

December 21,2011
Howdy ya'll!
So it turns out the Office told us wrong, and our P day is normal. But I dont have very much time today, and also we get to talk soon, so this one will be kind of short.
Yes! on Sunday Novita got baptized, it was super awesome. We had a lot of leaders from Jakarta here too for a christmas event at the church the friday before it too, so there was a lot of people at church on sunday to support her as well. It was just a really great experience. She is going to be a huge strength for this branch.
Ok, I will call you all on the night of the 25th, morning of the 26th for me around 7 pm your time! I am also very excited! I got my package this week too and I kinda already started eating some of the candy... hehe :] Hopefully I don't get fatter this week.
Welp, sorry this is very short, but I love you all! Oh! there are also some pictures on here from our P day today, we went to a member's sister's garden, orchard, I am not sure what the word is, and ate as much durian and manggis as we wanted. IT was awesome. we also got a pineapple and a bunch of rambutan out of it. and bananas.
The Church is True!
Love,
Kevin

This is Novita- on her baptism day- I think.

This is Kevin playing Santa ( rather scary beard) to the children and neighborhoods. It is quite the tradition and he had a BLAST, as you can tell by the look on his face!

December 28, 2011
Howdy!
Well, my email will be super short today too since we talked on monday. It was great to hear all of your voices. Everyone sounded super great. I was in complete shock that the little kids actually talked to me and weren't shy... but then again I am the favorite uncle so hehehe.
No word on transfers yet, I might know by next wednesday, but I am not completely sure. I am about 90 percent sure I will be moving though.
Things are still just going great. Christmas was a little rough on the missionary work, but it is picking up again this week.
The Church is so true, it is just amazing to me how blessed we are to be able to be members of Christ's Church and be able to following the teachings of a living prophet who receives revelation daily. We truly are on the path to Eternal Life and it that confidence brings great joy.
I love you all,
Selamat tahun baru and have fun preparing for Mikey's wedding!!! GILA!
Kevin


January 04, 2012
Hey hey hey,
Sounds like things are getting pretty busy again for you all with the wedding and what not! How exciting!! BYU's game sounded pretty sweet. Super cool finish. So the first news, as far as I know I am not moving yet. so probably another month or so here! I am very excited if that is the case, if I do in fact move, I will still be excited. We are actually going to surabaya this weekend for PLD so it should be nice to se what Java is like again, I have pretty much forgotten it. The work has still been a little slow, but stil good. and for the record, I never want to eat cookies again! A cultural thing here is that from christmas until the end of january, anyone that comes to someone's house has to eat cookies... Meeting at about 3 houses a day means eating a lot of cookies and also drinking a lot of soda, which has resulted in the addition of 4 kilos to my body, not to mention that last sunday we got fed 4 lunch/dinner 4 times. yeah... it has kind of been killing me! Oh and New Years was rediculous here. About 2,5-3 hours of fireworks and music starting at 12. I could not sleep at all. haha
Besides the over eating and stuff things have been great, we are just tryin to keep on keepin on. Hendra is doing well. he came to church on sunday and it was super awesome because Moviyani (his wife) bore her testimony and it was awesome. both of them are trying to make changes in their lives and I think the "new year resolution" thing has kind of motivated them to do so. Hopefully they continue to do well.
Om Fery is still comin along... slowly but surely is the secret with him. WE are trying to invite him to have his wife meet with us too, but no success yet. Hopefully he will be better with coming to church now that the holidays are over.
Well... I don't really have much to say today... the Church is true, Thomas S. Monson is a Prophet, and the Book of Mormon is the Word of God. Hopefully you all will continue to read it!
I love you all,
Kevin

Oh yeah, selamat pernikahan Mikey dan Valerie!

For those of you who know Kevin, he is a HUGE Alabama fan. I am sure having his "Tide" in the National Championship game while on his mission was tough. I am not much of a Bama fan, but have to admit, amidst the controversy of that game, I cheered for the Crimson Tide, for my son!

January 11, 2012
The national champion is...
Roll Tide!
That is sweet that they won. I was pretty excited, I am also glad that Mikey's marriage and what not was good. I will be honest it was a little bit of a bummer not to be there, but I had a super great weekend too. On Sunday after church we headed to Surabya, and when we got there I found out that I was not moving to Tangerang but staying in Surabaya. My new companion is Elder Mulyono from Solo. He is a stud. He just finished getting trained. On Monday we had PLD, it was super good, it was a ll about developing Christlike attributes. It was really refreshing and there was a lot of things taught that I am going to need in this new area, especially patience. I am not sure how big zones were for Mikey and Jeff or Dad, but our zone conference consisted of 4 elders from manado, 8 from surabaya, 2 from Malang and 2 sisters from malang as well as 2 senior couples, So not really a lot of people, but it was fun to get together with a lot of missionaries after not really seeing anyone else for 6 months. Jawa is so much different than Manado, so I am trying to adjust to that. It is just way more like what you would expect in Asia. haha I don't know how to explain it, it is just different. Oh yeah, I am on a bike now too. Surabaya is the second biggest city in Indonesia, so we have a lot of area to cover each day too. There are about 7 million people in Surabaya and 8 missionaries. Tuesday was the first day of bike riding in over a year and a half and it kicked my trash. I am so sore today. pretty much everyone here is Muslim, of all the people we talked to yesterday maybe one was Christian, well only one asked what church we were from. So that will make things pretty interesting. It is definitely going to take a lot of hard work and patience in finding people to teach. From the sounds of it the best tool is service, we are supposed to do 4 hours of service each week, a lot of which is teaching english. There are 2 branches here, and each branch has its own building.

I am sorry to hear that mom is not feeling well, cepat sehat! I bet it is fun having mel and the boys around, say hello to them for me!! My last few days in Manado were nice and busy, it was definitely a little hard to leave that place, but I am also very excited for change. Luckily Elder Jameson from my MTC group is heading up there so I know the investigators up there are in good hands. Oh yeah... I almost forgot to say that I am also in the same house as my friend from BYU, Elder Mulia.
Welp I don't really know what else to say... The Church is true. I know that I am doing the Lord's work, and even though this new area is not going to be easy, I know that He is preparing people to receive the Gospel, so I will just have to patiently work hard to find them. The Book of Mormon is true, Don't be lazy and miss out on the blessings of reading it!
Love,
Kevin

These are pictures of Kevin on his last day in Manado. I know that all the people he met there will forever be in his heart. This was an amazing place to begin his missionary journey. I want to thank all the people who treated him so kindly, and became my friends through Facebook. I will never forget you, and pray that we can stay in contact.

January 18, 2012
Wow, this week really has flown by. Thanks a bunch for the pictures! Everyone looks so good. and really different too, especially the little kids! They are HUGE! I probably won't even recognize them when I come home again. Mikey and Valerie look good. I am super pumped for them! I am still confused how he pulled of such a great girl like that. haha
Surabaya has been great this past week. The work here is soooo slow right now, and from the sounds of a lot of the missionaries here it is going better than usual right now, Haha. I don't want to make it sound like I am complaining or anything, but lets just say we taught less lessons than the amount of days in a week. It is definitely a lot different than Manado in that aspect as well as almost every other aspect haha.
The weather has been very very rainy lately, we spent two afternoons in a row looking for the addresses of old investigators in the pouring rain. That is kind of tricky way of finding new people to teach, because it is so islamic here, we definitely cant go door to door and we can't really say much about the church unless were asked about it first. So we ask a lot of people for directions and try to start up conversations with them, and then hope they ask us why we're here. A lot of the muslim people will tell us where christian people live too, which is really great. We two new investigators through that.
So mom asked what are the major differences between here and Manado. Surabaya is a lot more city, Manado was a lot more country/ hills/ green. Manado in a few ways had a lot of people that were not well off, Surabaya has it's fair share of wealthy wealthy people. I have seen a lot of BMW's and Mercedes, I don't think I ever saw one in Manado. The local language here is javanese... I don't think I will ever get it figured out. It is ridiculous. But pretty much everyone here speaks indonesian just as well so it isn't a problem, except their accent threw me off for the first little while but I am almost used to it now.
The branch here is kind of struggling. It was shocking how empty church was on sunday. There was probably about 25 people. So there is a lot of work to be done here, with investigators as well as less active members.
Well, I am sorry if my emails seem like they are getting shorter and shorter, each week is just a blur, it goes too fast. I am already planning to extend if I can....
Haha that was just a joke, i don't think mom would like that too much. But then again I might do it if i could. hehe
I just love the mission, it is so hard, but I just get so much satisfaction from doing the Lord's work. The Church is so true! Each day as I read the Book of Mormon I just feel my testimony grow so much stronger and it just gets me excited to go out and share with others. I really hope you all are reading the scriptures each day, even if it is just for a minute. JUST DO IT!
I love you all so much!
Kevin

I don't find the humor in his remark about extending! Am I missing something? I am kidding. I suppose if it works out and is the right thing to do, I would support it. I am not convinced that extending is always the right thing, but we shall see. We have 15 months to think about it:)
So that's it, I am caught up for now. Kevin is growing and maturing and I look forward to his emails each week. I am excited to see how things go in this new area.

November Emails!

Wednesday, November 02, 2011
Mom & Dad,
Hey Hey!
Dang, it sounds like halloween was pretty great!! The kids are so dang cute. And Jeff and Laura were looking pretty awesome as well! There isn't any halloween here, I think it is the greatest thing ever! haha, I am glad that it was good for you all! speaking of holidays, there has been christmas music playing here since the beginning of october, and every day it seems like it is played more and more often. It is ridiculous. WAY TOO EARLY.
Things have been decent here, hot but finally there was a little rain today. The bad news of the week is that Novita's mom did not give permission for her to get baptized. Novita was really bummed, we were really bummed, but this isn't the end we are going to keep working and doing what we can so she can be baptized. It is really going to come down to having faith that the Lord will open her mom's heart. We'll see how it goes. Novita is going to try to keep sharing her testimony with her mom about the Church, and that should help out a lot too.
Om Fery finally came to church. Haha. He still has a lot to learn to be ready for baptism. Ugh, we have been working hard with him on the Word of Wisdom, we call him each day and remind him about it, and last week we walk around the corner to his house and he was playing chess with some buddies, one of them our old investigator Om Poltje( long story on him, maybe later) and they were smoking cigarrettes like crazy. ugh... oh well he will get there.
I really liked what you sent me dad about just loving the work. I absolutely love Manado, and the people, and the culture. The people here are so nice, but then again so tough. It is a completely church centered area. Each family usually has been members of the same church for a very long long time, so inviting people to join a different one is tough. Nonetheless the thing I have learned is I can't make the decisions for them but I can invite them and do my part and no matter what feel good about it, even if the success doesn't come. I'm responsible for the work, not the success.
OH yeah, I am a trainer now. It is pretty fun. Elder Subadi is a goof, but i love the kid. We are having fun together.
Some other good news is that I am now 91 kilos. So I have lost about 20 - 25 lbs since coming to Manado. Who knows how low I will drop if my next area is a biking area too!
I have been trying not to eat as much as I did when I first got here, especially not the really fattening foods. I am a huge fan of eating rice, a fried egg and sambol right now, that's probably why I have dropped about 8 kilos in the past two and a half weeks!
Welp, that is just about it for this week. OH! as far as the package thing goes, if you could send me some pictures, like already printed out pictures, that would be awesome. People really like to see pictures of our families here. And don't send too much food and stuff, maybe just a little bit of beef jerky and some peanut butter m&m's!
I love you all! I know the church is true! Keep reading the scriptures!!! They are so important!
Love,
Elder "Kevbot" Johnson
haha


Wednesday, November 09, 2011
Mom & Dad,
Howdy Ya'll!
Well this week was a pretty lame week, not gonna lie, but some weeks have to be less good so the rest can be great.
Novita still doesn't have permission to get baptized, but it sounds like things are starting to get a little better with her Mom so it really is just a matter of prayer and patiently and faithfully waiting. I know everything will work out. She is the bomb though, her testimony is so strong, she is going to help this branch out so much here.
I am super super jealous that it snowed... It is getting a little more windy here and rains a bunch more. But I like the rain a lot, it is soooo nice, way better than the heat.
Ugh... Om Fery is killing me!!! He is the coolest guy ever but he is having such a hard time coming to church. He is doing really well with everything else, He is handling quitting smoking well, and still reads the Book of Mormon he just doesn't understand the need to come to church, Hopefully we can figure something out to help him.
So I guess the best news of the week came from an awesome lesson that we had with Geyli, who has been an investigator for a while but not really progressing at all until this past week. Her dad is a very high up leader at her church (GMIM of course), and we have almost stopped meeting with her a number of times. She has been really good about reading the Book of Mormon though and on Monday she started asking what she needs to do if she knows it is true, unfortunately she doesn't believe she needs to be baptized again haha she says if knowing the BoM is true means coming this church she has no problem with itas long as she can do it without Baptism. But I guess the point of the story is that the Book of Mormon is the best!!! I guess maybe this is qhat you could share with Brother Featherstone, that the most important and quickest way to have a testimony of this Church is to read the Book of Mormon. Anyone that reads the Book of Mormon will know that it is the Word of God, translated through His power given to man because He loves His children and wants them to come unto him. Every investigator I have taught that reads the Book of Mormon has some feeling that it is true. I know for myself it was the same thing, about a year ago I started reading the BoM more diligently and then I saw the blessings of peace and happiness in my life, and then I prayed and asked if it was true, and the answer came in sort of a " why are you even questioning if it is true?" answer. The Blessings that the BoM brings into our lives is what strengthens our testimonies of it, especially when we live it's teachings.
Welp, Thats pretty much it this week, sorry I don't have much to share! I am doing great though, healthy, happy and loving Manado, as stubborn as the people are!
The Church is true!
Elder Johnson


Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Mom & Dad.
I was in shock that BSU lost.... but then I saw the orange uniforms and realized that is why. Dang. What a bummer, but oh well, life goes on.
Things are going super great here. I am learning quickly the idea of patience with Om Fery, the good news is he has quit smoking! the bad news he is still not coming to church, but I am so pumped that he has quit smoking and is trying to make more changes in his life. I love that guy, he is the best.
Novita is doing super well, she is really committed to coming to church now because she wants to show her mom the importance of this to her. It really is just a matter of time with her.
I don't know if I have ever talked about Sis. Uli before, but she has been an investigator for over a year now, and is super good friends with Novita, but she is doing super great as well. I was really impressed with what she said last week when we met with her. Last sunday she came to church, and that evening her penatua and another leader from her church came and asked her where she was. She has a super funny son and so she asked him where they went and he answered, " Torang masuk di gereja OSZA!!!" We went to the LDS church! Her parents and also her church leaders weren't thrilled, told her that the church is sesat (apostate/ false). But she told us she doesn't care because she knows that this is true and what is right for her. I was super pumped when she said that. For her it all starts once again with the BoM. We started really focusing on the BoM with her, she started reading it, and her testimony was noticeably stronger.
So Mom asked a little bit about where we live, we have a little house in the wildest kampung ever. Our neighbors are hilarious, very loud, but just awesome. There is a grocery store like 5 minutes away from the house, it is just like an american grocery store so it's nice. We usually bring dinner home with us when we head home for the night, there is a super good warung on our way home that has Ayam goreng, sate ayam, nasi goreng, gado gado. All of the good stuff! We rarely eat at members houses because it isn't exactly effective to do so, we eat maybe once or twice a week with members. it is always sooo good, but It is hard because everyone lives so spread out from each other.
Sounds like it is getting to be that great time of year in Boise, nice and cold... I have forgotten what it feels like to be that cold... I get cold here at night time and it is maybe 75 degrees... eeish.
Last week I think dad asked for anything that Elder Subadi does that is goofy... In Manado there are A TON of dogs everywhere... Elder Subadi is super scared of dogs, so anytime there is one in our way he goes to the other side of the street, or like the other day he asks if we can just not walk down the street... It always makes me laugh. My trainer, ELder marijanto went and played with any dog he saw, now it is the opposite. Elder Subadi is suuuuper javanese, so that adds a little humor into everything, the cultures of java and Manado are pretty different.
We are having a super good time together, I love the guy, he is a good hard worker. I am in awe that I have already almost been here for 5 months, and I am really bummed at times because that means I probably only have another month or so in Manado, but hopefully I am here until after Christmas!
Welp, I know the Church is true, I know God loves us, that's why he sent Jesus Christ, and that's why they have restored their Gospel on Earth again.
Don't forget to read the BoM every day!
Saya mengasihi anda semua!
Sampai Minggu depan!
Kevin


Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Mom & Dad,
Selamat Pengucapan syukur!
It is crazy that it is thanksgiving for you all tomorrow! I am jealous! Make sure to eat lots and lots and lots of rolls!
But first off, I need to ask a super huge favor. So tomorrow we got permission form pres. Groberg to go to Bunaken, which is an island off the coast of manado, for Pday ( We still email on our usual day, don't worry I am not apostate and taking two Pdays). But the thing is that the boat to go there is a little more pricy than we thought, and I thought i had enough in my personal account but I actually dont... Is there any chance I could get like 100 dollars put into my account ASAP so we can go tomorrow? Sorry to drop that kid of a request out of nowhere... I promise my second one hundred dollars (the first bit is for tithing) I earn when I come back home will be given to you to pay it back!!
Hopefully that is ok... Could you put it in my checking account?
Well this week has been super awesome. We have had a lot of really cool teaching experiences, plus it is indonesia so it is always a little interesting. Christmas season is in full swing here... gila so much fireworks. But yeah everyone is pretty excited. The branch here is having a christmas thing next saturday which should be pretty...different, haha. I will let you all know how it goes. Mom asked if there are any cool christmas traditions or things and I don't really know yet. And as far as good indonesian treats, there arent really any, the snack foods/desserts here aren't all that great (hence the loss of weight), just the real food is what is amazing. Hopefully i can learn how to cook some of it so you all can taste it... and hopefully I can find sambal in america because I cannot eat without it now. Sambal is tomato, onion and cabe smashed up and fried together. It is kind of like spicy ketchup and we eat it with everything. SO GOOD.
The rainy season is also in full swing... it has poured just about every day for at least an hour and a half in the afternoon after a very very hot morning/ mid day. I am still enjoying the rain, but if this keeps up my opinion might be a little different.
I was going to send some pictures of the house, but time is a wee bit short so not until next week..
Novita is getting closer and closer and closer... not much more to do but wait and pray, I am thinking this week or next week she will be baptized.
We had an awesome couple of lessons with a part member family. The father is hendra, he isnt a member, and his wife is a less active member. They are really awesome people, but have had rough pasts as far as the commandments go, and I think a lot of people have treated them in a way that has made them feel like they can't get better. We invited hendra to get baptized, and he accepted it right away, and was super excited about it. Then yesterday we invited them to live the word of wisdom, after watching hendra smoke two cigarettes, and they accepted to start quitting smoking. It is just great to see their desire to change and do what is pleasing to the Lord. Hopefully they will have the faith and strength to do it.
That was the best experience of the week by far, I am just loving this time to serve, I am getting a little worried that I will be moving soon though... Hopefully not until after Christmas, so I can enjoy it in a christian city where it will feel like christmas haha. But Whatever happens, happens.
I hope ya'll still know the Church is true, because it is! God loves each of us and wants us to be happy, that's why He has given us His Church.
Keep reading your scriptures and being awesome, and for reals, everyone has to eat one extra roll for me. :]
Happy thanksgiving,
Saya mengasihi anda semua!
Kevin

A Picture Says a Thousand Words...I was Speechless!

As you can tell I am doing another catch-up session with Kevin's emails. He is doing very well and seems to be happy. I am so grateful that he is having positive experiences and I can see so much growth in him.
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