Hey mom, hey dad,
I am working REALLY hard, I know how to work and I mean it when I say I"M WORKING HARD! ..... I am always sunburnt, its either sun, or rain that is up to your shins! my feet hurt everyday, my hands are all sore and cut up from the service we do in the villages, we walk mile after mile each day, I try to talk to as many people as possible! even to the ones who dont give a hoot to why I am there!! we are scoffed at, threatened and all of this in hopes that the blessings would come to the family!!!!! I had a bunch to type today but I cant remember any of it... we went to leviv for zone conference got back this morning. yeah thats all on my mind right now. I dont know what all to say this week, other than that I am still here, you will all be waking up in a few hours. I hope the move goes well. mom be careful about all of the fasting. its good to, but D&C tells us not to run faster than we are capable. be smart about it. . I love you all!!! stay faithful. Bryndon/chris! get your butts to church! what is this! you have to fulfill your duties as priesthood holders! come on your Johnson's! lets step it up a notch. any thoughts on where you think your going for the mission? well thats all from me this week. sorry, it took me a while to read all the emails. love you
Elder Johnson
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Brothers
Hey bud,
so I'm pretty sure this is bryndon. lol figured it out when you started talking about games. yeah I'm loving this mission thing. its WAY hot and the language is difficult sometimes but we are working as hard as we can every day. I cant beleive the 2nd transfer has just started. in about a month and a half I will have been out 6 months already!? what?! thats insane. the mission goes by so fast. the mtc really didn't but the feild goes by incredibly fast! hey so when are youthinking of going on the mission? going to think about starting your papers? where do you think you will go? hit me back bud. sorry the email is so short. dont have lots of time. love you though email back
Elder Johnson
so I'm pretty sure this is bryndon. lol figured it out when you started talking about games. yeah I'm loving this mission thing. its WAY hot and the language is difficult sometimes but we are working as hard as we can every day. I cant beleive the 2nd transfer has just started. in about a month and a half I will have been out 6 months already!? what?! thats insane. the mission goes by so fast. the mtc really didn't but the feild goes by incredibly fast! hey so when are youthinking of going on the mission? going to think about starting your papers? where do you think you will go? hit me back bud. sorry the email is so short. dont have lots of time. love you though email back
Elder Johnson
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Kiev Temple
This is so exciting to think about the new freedoms they now have. It will also bring a tear to your eyes!
http://ldsmag.com/youtube/100603temple.html
Elder Johnson
Monday, July 19, 2010
Thinking of Home
Hey mom,
wow I have become so blunt, and its because of the enviorment here, they are not afraid to tell you how it is. if they dont like you they will literally say I don tlike it you, or if you have put on weight they will say you look fatter. they are so not afraid. and they speak like 4 inches away from your face, they have no personal bubble bounderaies lol its way funny, I have to stop myself from laughing in there face sometimes. I have been praying for Taleya and I think the Lord is anwsering our prayers in His own way. Just trust in the Lord, things will work out for the best. but you have to stay strong in the Gospel, dont be afraid. especially if your doing what you KNOW is right! dont not be afraid to speak upi because the Lord will give you what you need to say. I know this through this past month and excersizing my faith in Him like this. He WILL be there for you! I promise! just keep chizzling at the icerberg it will work out. and yeah... Tine sent me a letter before I left the MTC I know everything.... my heart dropped when I read it. I have emailed her, president says as long as you send you family and him a good email everyweek than it doesn't matter who else we speak to if we have enough time left. yeah tell ben and sis I said hi I cant wait to see them again. miss them alot aswell as the fam. stay strong and tell the bro's to do what they do out of love and it will be better. yeah they have lots of good food here, borshe is way good, verenicky ? I dont know how to spell it in english but it sounds like that. guess what we cranked out 2 more baptisms this week! I'll send pictures when I get them but the 2nd one was last minute on sat. with an ancient in vestigator. way cool! and we have 2 more this week! a lil old man named Valerie ( stress the first "E" it makes it sound more masculine) about 60 years old 5 ft nothing and I"m baptizing him this saturday and then the other elders have there baptism on the same day and then 2 more are sechedluled for the next week after that! we are just lining them up for the temple dedication! EVERYONE wants to work in zhytomyr lol the language I can finally understand people and its been great! we are just being Very bold with them, but not oeverbearing. funny story so the other elders were havein g a lesson and went to give a scripture about obedience and wanted to use 1 nephi 3:7 well they said 3rd Nephi 3:7 lol haha way fuuny go and read it. and I think the next couple verses after it to.well mom thats all the time I have. I ahve to write dad to, he wrote this week. love you stay strong! have no fear! why should you if your doing what YOU know is right! stick it to em! love you all! tell me bro's I love em and miss em
Elder Johnson.
wow I have become so blunt, and its because of the enviorment here, they are not afraid to tell you how it is. if they dont like you they will literally say I don tlike it you, or if you have put on weight they will say you look fatter. they are so not afraid. and they speak like 4 inches away from your face, they have no personal bubble bounderaies lol its way funny, I have to stop myself from laughing in there face sometimes. I have been praying for Taleya and I think the Lord is anwsering our prayers in His own way. Just trust in the Lord, things will work out for the best. but you have to stay strong in the Gospel, dont be afraid. especially if your doing what you KNOW is right! dont not be afraid to speak upi because the Lord will give you what you need to say. I know this through this past month and excersizing my faith in Him like this. He WILL be there for you! I promise! just keep chizzling at the icerberg it will work out. and yeah... Tine sent me a letter before I left the MTC I know everything.... my heart dropped when I read it. I have emailed her, president says as long as you send you family and him a good email everyweek than it doesn't matter who else we speak to if we have enough time left. yeah tell ben and sis I said hi I cant wait to see them again. miss them alot aswell as the fam. stay strong and tell the bro's to do what they do out of love and it will be better. yeah they have lots of good food here, borshe is way good, verenicky ? I dont know how to spell it in english but it sounds like that. guess what we cranked out 2 more baptisms this week! I'll send pictures when I get them but the 2nd one was last minute on sat. with an ancient in vestigator. way cool! and we have 2 more this week! a lil old man named Valerie ( stress the first "E" it makes it sound more masculine) about 60 years old 5 ft nothing and I"m baptizing him this saturday and then the other elders have there baptism on the same day and then 2 more are sechedluled for the next week after that! we are just lining them up for the temple dedication! EVERYONE wants to work in zhytomyr lol the language I can finally understand people and its been great! we are just being Very bold with them, but not oeverbearing. funny story so the other elders were havein g a lesson and went to give a scripture about obedience and wanted to use 1 nephi 3:7 well they said 3rd Nephi 3:7 lol haha way fuuny go and read it. and I think the next couple verses after it to.well mom thats all the time I have. I ahve to write dad to, he wrote this week. love you stay strong! have no fear! why should you if your doing what YOU know is right! stick it to em! love you all! tell me bro's I love em and miss em
Elder Johnson.
ps the pictures are from the Harry potter train and from these sweaters a really old member gave us. lol mine is ukrainian made lol way loud. shoot I had a poem.. dang I'll send it next week.
Monday, July 5, 2010
4th of July
Hey Mom,
so HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!! and no the missionaies are the only people who do anything here, and it consists of wearing a patriotic tie. my first Holiday every outisde of the US. so yeah wow I'm glad things are starting to look up! its good to hear all of the good news. sounds busy but it sounds good. I'll keep all those people in my prayers and the family as you prep to move. yeah I told dad about coming to get me and some need to knows. its a long time away but just take into consideration not just your passports but you visa's for the country. they take some time to get in to. also the currency. it just went back down to 8 gryvan for 1 dollar so you come here with $1000 its 8000 gryvan. which is quite alot here. we only live on $37 a week. kinda of funny how it works. and then transportation once we get here. public is easy to take but its hot, they have a superstition that if you open the windows that it will cause of a draft (obviously!) and that then everyone will get sick! so it gets hot but there way cheap. I think it would be like 25 cents in U.S. dollars. Anyway! So the work here is just exploding! I have my first baptism this weekend! Valentina is her name! very sweet old lady. she got up and bore her testimony yesterday which was awesome for all of our other investigators there! I have been memorizing the baptismal prayer so I can say it write. and then have to find out her full name which will be an adventure in itself! after this baptism we have 3 more next week! wow! I think that we should have a temple going up every transfer! everyone is way stoked for "the day of open doors" as it translates here, aka open house. its been an intersting week. had my bed sheets get burnt by cigaretts as they were hanging out to dry. Ask dad about that one. also missing a few things, we got tricked into talking to a j-dub aka Jehovah's witness! he stopped us on the street and kinda told us he was interested so we set up a meeting the following day. I didn't catch this but I guess right off My comp asked him what religion he was. he responded that it wasn't important. and I guess, Elder Johnson told me after that he knew right off who he was. well at the begining of the "discussion" I didn't know he was a Jdub and I was have a hard time understanding because he was speaking surgic (Ukrainian Russian mixed) but it was SO amazing! I got a prompting!!!!!! kind of random but it said " Satan will also put people in you path that would distract you from those who would here the truth" word for word I remember it so Clearly. I dwelled on that and then really started trying to listen in on what was being said. I then got another prompting after I started to understand that he was trying to find fault in the Book of Mormon and with what we said. I remembered the book of Alma when Amulek is teaching and some of his words reigned true in my head as he spoke to the lawyers who were trying to find fault in his words. he said to them "you are trying to lay traps and snares to catch the holy ones of Israel" by this time I had a way bad feeling! Elder Johnson looks at me and in English says lets go... I agreed. just after that he says "you need to address God by his name" OH MY GOODNESS! those are the words of a Jdub! thats when I figured it out. I got kind of contentious! because he persisted to teach us! and in D&C 43:15 it states that we are not sent forth to be taugh, but to teach the children of men that which God puts into our hands. and in 16 " you are to be taught from on high" I thought wow if we were not missionaries and people looking for the truth and you told us that by calling God by his sons name will allow us to be saved, where would our salvation lie then? the actions he does in his life will hang over his head on judgment day for leading the Children of men astray! I was so fired up! but none the less I guess thats missionary life! so yeah we had a couple of other experiences where people persisted to say that what they knew was true. here they pray to Icons alot. people sell these cards with apostles and prophets on them. I call em Pokemon cards "gotta catch em all!" its good though Im always sizing people up, making sure if the drunk ones get crazy we can either take em or get out quick! I'm way excited for the baptisms coming up I finally feel like I'm remembering the language! but yeah thank you for your prayers, everytime I get and feel promptings like that I can always justify that I am here, and worthy to be! that I have the holy ghost and the ability to have my Heavenly Father Direct my actions! My heal has been really hurting me though lately. I dont know what it is. we went tracting yesterday from 4 till 8:30 and it was killing. but it only started doing that a few days ago. like the begining of the week. its weird but If its suppose to teach me something I'm all for it! well I'm going to email dad now I have some pics for you to. OH and yeah so my camera got rid of ALL of my pictures before Ukraine. and the first ones in Ukraine. I am so angry! I dont know what happend butthey are no longer there! AUG! stupid Camera! I love you all and hope all is well. Enjoy the pics
Elder Johnson (the younger)
so HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!! and no the missionaies are the only people who do anything here, and it consists of wearing a patriotic tie. my first Holiday every outisde of the US. so yeah wow I'm glad things are starting to look up! its good to hear all of the good news. sounds busy but it sounds good. I'll keep all those people in my prayers and the family as you prep to move. yeah I told dad about coming to get me and some need to knows. its a long time away but just take into consideration not just your passports but you visa's for the country. they take some time to get in to. also the currency. it just went back down to 8 gryvan for 1 dollar so you come here with $1000 its 8000 gryvan. which is quite alot here. we only live on $37 a week. kinda of funny how it works. and then transportation once we get here. public is easy to take but its hot, they have a superstition that if you open the windows that it will cause of a draft (obviously!) and that then everyone will get sick! so it gets hot but there way cheap. I think it would be like 25 cents in U.S. dollars. Anyway! So the work here is just exploding! I have my first baptism this weekend! Valentina is her name! very sweet old lady. she got up and bore her testimony yesterday which was awesome for all of our other investigators there! I have been memorizing the baptismal prayer so I can say it write. and then have to find out her full name which will be an adventure in itself! after this baptism we have 3 more next week! wow! I think that we should have a temple going up every transfer! everyone is way stoked for "the day of open doors" as it translates here, aka open house. its been an intersting week. had my bed sheets get burnt by cigaretts as they were hanging out to dry. Ask dad about that one. also missing a few things, we got tricked into talking to a j-dub aka Jehovah's witness! he stopped us on the street and kinda told us he was interested so we set up a meeting the following day. I didn't catch this but I guess right off My comp asked him what religion he was. he responded that it wasn't important. and I guess, Elder Johnson told me after that he knew right off who he was. well at the begining of the "discussion" I didn't know he was a Jdub and I was have a hard time understanding because he was speaking surgic (Ukrainian Russian mixed) but it was SO amazing! I got a prompting!!!!!! kind of random but it said " Satan will also put people in you path that would distract you from those who would here the truth" word for word I remember it so Clearly. I dwelled on that and then really started trying to listen in on what was being said. I then got another prompting after I started to understand that he was trying to find fault in the Book of Mormon and with what we said. I remembered the book of Alma when Amulek is teaching and some of his words reigned true in my head as he spoke to the lawyers who were trying to find fault in his words. he said to them "you are trying to lay traps and snares to catch the holy ones of Israel" by this time I had a way bad feeling! Elder Johnson looks at me and in English says lets go... I agreed. just after that he says "you need to address God by his name" OH MY GOODNESS! those are the words of a Jdub! thats when I figured it out. I got kind of contentious! because he persisted to teach us! and in D&C 43:15 it states that we are not sent forth to be taugh, but to teach the children of men that which God puts into our hands. and in 16 " you are to be taught from on high" I thought wow if we were not missionaries and people looking for the truth and you told us that by calling God by his sons name will allow us to be saved, where would our salvation lie then? the actions he does in his life will hang over his head on judgment day for leading the Children of men astray! I was so fired up! but none the less I guess thats missionary life! so yeah we had a couple of other experiences where people persisted to say that what they knew was true. here they pray to Icons alot. people sell these cards with apostles and prophets on them. I call em Pokemon cards "gotta catch em all!" its good though Im always sizing people up, making sure if the drunk ones get crazy we can either take em or get out quick! I'm way excited for the baptisms coming up I finally feel like I'm remembering the language! but yeah thank you for your prayers, everytime I get and feel promptings like that I can always justify that I am here, and worthy to be! that I have the holy ghost and the ability to have my Heavenly Father Direct my actions! My heal has been really hurting me though lately. I dont know what it is. we went tracting yesterday from 4 till 8:30 and it was killing. but it only started doing that a few days ago. like the begining of the week. its weird but If its suppose to teach me something I'm all for it! well I'm going to email dad now I have some pics for you to. OH and yeah so my camera got rid of ALL of my pictures before Ukraine. and the first ones in Ukraine. I am so angry! I dont know what happend butthey are no longer there! AUG! stupid Camera! I love you all and hope all is well. Enjoy the pics
Elder Johnson (the younger)
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