Go through the finish line, not to it.

Dear everyone,
I would like to start off this letter with ... (ahem) YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! haha I'm so glad that Paisley is finally here, however I dont understand still why we call her paisley when her first name is Jordyn... somebody explain please. this week I must say was probably one of the best weeks of my mission! It was slow but we saw miracles happen. One of them being the marriage between some really close friends back in Rivne! I asked around to the leaders when Volodimyr asked me to come sing at his wedding. President Klebingat told me that it was up to me... I pondered for a while and then read in my Patriarical blessing about how I can invite other people by the talents that I have... so well long story short I went and I sang my heart out with a sister there! it was probably one of the best contacting Ideas we have ever done! I had a member go on and make me add them so that she could put pictures up. Ira Yakavenko is her name, she is a cool photographer, taleya you would like her. oh by the way... in Conference when sister Elaine S Dalton made her comments you know who I thought of? lol I was like wow this is specifically for them! haha great conference I thought it was awesome! oh yeah by the way I also ... random note if Josh was ever Ukrainian I found him. this guy who drove us to Rivne was like the spitting image of Josh but with a russian tongue. I really enjoyed this week and am way happy that everyone is doing well! so yeah ... yeah so um family! I had a quick question, have you talked to mr. mac yet about the suit? also I was curious about my computer... so the computer I bought is completely distroyed now? thats really stinks.... :S well on a better note I'm sending pictures this week. so here ya go ... love ya!

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Старійшина Джонсон

Happy Birthday to those who are on their first and those beyond half a century :P

Message body

Hello everybody!

well its about time! I saw the pictures that dad sent of Jordyn! she is way cute! and that is still so weird! I'm way excited to meet her! I'm glad everything went well. Im sorry the birth problems you had going on Taleya... but I'm way glad she got here ok! wow guys thats way cool! I've totally forgotten all that I wanted to say! I'm so distracted by the pictures and the wonderful good news. this week was alright! the next week will be better! I'm headed to Rivne for Vova's wedding. I think I told you that he requested that I sing at his wedding.. its way cool and president Klebingat is down with it. so we will be there this week. yeah I did see a little bit of the first saturdau session of conference..I did see president monson and what he said, and the news about the temples are awesome! I'm way stoked! wow gosh guys I dont know what else to say! i'm an uncle! wow! I'm old! but you wanna know who's older? DAD!!!! haha happy birthday! bet you thought I forgot huh!? well Happy Birthday everyone! I"m sorry thisis so short but I forgot alot of what I wanted to say! i'm way excited for everyone! Cool!
so Happy Birthday! Love you all!

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Старійшина Джонсон

Bryndon and Christopher

Hello Hello Hello!
Greetings from Ukraine! I'm doing well, we just finished our first week on a new transfer and well ... its going. This week was interesting because it was the cities birthday. This city has been a city longer than our country has been a country. 580 years old. so ... naturally, everyone was drunk. :S The World is on its way to ........ a really really bad place. :P It made it really hard to contact people because one they didn't want to talk to us and two if they did it was because they were plastered. Obviously we deviated and tried by other means to talk to people but yeah... was really tough. One of our member here Roman, He is 17 and plays the drums, he was in the parade on saturday and then wanted us to go support him on sund around 5 in the park. we figured cool we can do that and maybe talk to some of his friends there, maybe get a few cool people to teach. well we go there and ... apparently the celebrations just go until they say because according to them it was still the cities birthday. Everyone was drinking, some were dancing. It was a small stage that he was going to be playing on and he told us that he was the 2nd one. ..... long story short .. he wasn't. instead about 9 belly dancers came out!!! for the love of pete! it literally smacked us all in the face and I looked towards Roman, he gives me an "I have no idea" look. and so I sent the other elders on exchanges, we ditched the tags and left to another end of the park until they were done. came back. more belly dancers. ...ou vey! same ruitine. He FINALLY got to play and it was way good. He felt way bad but he didn't know. This week we found two new investigators, way cool people! I gave her husband a requested blessing. I commanded him to stand and be with health. he started to cry, when he arose he did so without us. you see we had to basically carrying him in the room. He recently suffered a stroke. so we carried him in the room and he carried himself out! we hope to have them baptized in 3 weeks. next meeting is this week. that was one of the more perfect lessons Heavenly Father helped us teach. awesome experience!
The leaves have already been changing and the chill is in the air and I think we can expect a REALLY cold winter! because we had a really mild summer. Dad as for flight numbers I wont find out until about the last 3 months and even then they are going to send them to you. If you are connecting to my flight then we are leaving like the 6th or 7th of march. I cant really do anything you guys have to contact the mission office here and talk to them about the whole thing. I beleive this is the email to the mission office. The names are Elder and Sister Park 2012235@ldschurch.org so you will have to get intouch with them. They pretty much leave me out of the whole thing until the end. I honesntly think it would be better if you guys came back with me, meaning so I go home and then we go back. because I will be a missionary while here and so I wont get to do alot of things you might want to do. I dont know if the stake president can release me over the phone but I just think it might be better that way. you'd get your money's worth out of it because then I could show you Ukraine. and not just Kyiv. but thats all up to you.
the work is way hard right now! we are you could say just nourishing the garden, hoping for an awesome bloom. I'm glad Chris is getting done! get the signature and get him out! tell bryndon he is a молодець . yeah the travel by taxi is a huge cost but president says if the presidency says no more night travel then we are going to do anything to obey! money isn't an issue. In October we are are doing an activity that our district thought up of and we are inviting 3 other cities to come join in with us. we have made alot of progress thus far. it will be a YSA and president Klebingat is on board. we are way excited!
Also I recieved a call from Rivne, and they want me to come sing at a wedding of some close members of mine down there. I really want to! awesome chance to share my talent, my comp doesn't really want to. President thinks its cool but he is going to let me decide wether ornot to go. the Zone leaders siad do it! so we will see, I might just go on exchanges to do it. well yeah so family I love you, I hope you ALL are doing well! Yes Aunt Robin I got the package a while back! it was way cool! and I appreciated it big time! tell Rosy and Uncle Brett I said Hi! Taleya... just go jump on a trampolien :D ..kidding dont do that! Я вас люблю!

Hello again,
so a long week of traveling (by taxi) and we are finally back in Kmelnitsky. this week has been sort of a run around. Lots of meetings, lots of... self reflection. which I think happens when you dont have to start thinking about a zone anymore. I've come accross the subject of repentence. Its really a cool thing aside from its reputation as being a horrible word, and hard to accept. Its a gift and good news for us, however, not surprisingly satan has certainly capitalized on making it something bad or something we fear. Repentance- in hebrew means "return to God". It was a gift bestowed on us by the Savior so that we can return back and live worthy of the blessings of heaven with our Heavenly Father. I Thought a little more about it this week and came to an understanding that the Gospel of Christ (faith, repentence, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end) is a earthly principle. Its a "till death do we part thing" if you will. Faith- is not a perfect knowledge of things, but we will have that perfect knowledge of things in the next life, Repentence - Christ mission is fullfilled when we return into the presence of our Heavenly Father. Baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost are normally just a one time thing. and enduring to the end... well there will be no end.Repentence is such an awesome step closer to our Heavenly Father, a step to become better. I wonder why people are so afraid of it. maybe yeah its because you dont want to maybe accept that you did this or that, or maybe you dont want others to know because how you said it in you letter mom, people judge. I think that what first has to happen is to have an understanding that the One who can make this all go away, and who's judgements yes you should be afraid of is waiting for you to make a decision. He is waiting for you to "return to God". repentence requires a person to be humble, its not a choice you have to be humble for true repentence. If your still fighting and justifying, and still trying to hide parts of you away, something is wrong. we are not to hide our God given light, we are to let it shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven. and if its not shining then we should do something quick to flick it back on. We were ment to shine the verse says and not to hide. to keep shining until that light can become brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
Everyone seems to be doing great! I'm glad to hear, yeah taleya I hope you pop soon. that will be a once in a lifetime I suppose (atleast with your first) I'm doing good here, I'm helping people, trying to get them to change for the better....with the thought that if I'm out inviting people to change for the better then I had better be doing the same. I hope all is well. and i'm sorry this is short. lots to do today. Love you guys

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Старійшина Джонсон

Hello again,
so a long week of traveling (by taxi) and we are finally back in Kmelnitsky. this week has been sort of a run around. Lots of meetings, lots of... self reflection. which I think happens when you dont have to start thinking about a zone anymore. I've come accross the subject of repentence. Its really a cool thing aside from its reputation as being a horrible word, and hard to accept. Its a gift and good news for us, however, not surprisingly satan has certainly capitalized on making it something bad or something we fear. Repentance- in hebrew means "return to God". It was a gift bestowed on us by the Savior so that we can return back and live worthy of the blessings of heaven with our Heavenly Father. I Thought a little more about it this week and came to an understanding that the Gospel of Christ (faith, repentence, baptism, gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end) is a earthly principle. Its a "till death do we part thing" if you will. Faith- is not a perfect knowledge of things, but we will have that perfect knowledge of things in the next life, Repentence - Christ mission is fullfilled when we return into the presence of our Heavenly Father. Baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost are normally just a one time thing. and enduring to the end... well there will be no end.Repentence is such an awesome step closer to our Heavenly Father, a step to become better. I wonder why people are so afraid of it. maybe yeah its because you dont want to maybe accept that you did this or that, or maybe you dont want others to know because how you said it in you letter mom, people judge. I think that what first has to happen is to have an understanding that the One who can make this all go away, and who's judgements yes you should be afraid of is waiting for you to make a decision. He is waiting for you to "return to God". repentence requires a person to be humble, its not a choice you have to be humble for true repentence. If your still fighting and justifying, and still trying to hide parts of you away, something is wrong. we are not to hide our God given light, we are to let it shine before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven. and if its not shining then we should do something quick to flick it back on. We were ment to shine the verse says and not to hide. to keep shining until that light can become brighter and brighter until the perfect day.
Everyone seems to be doing great! I'm glad to hear, yeah taleya I hope you pop soon. that will be a once in a lifetime I suppose (atleast with your first) I'm doing good here, I'm helping people, trying to get them to change for the better....with the thought that if I'm out inviting people to change for the better then I had better be doing the same. I hope all is well. and i'm sorry this is short. lots to do today. Love you guys

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Старійшина Джонсон

Proud to be an American!!!

Dear Americans!
so yesterday was the 10 anniversary of Sept. 11th and I wont lie my thoughts yesterday just after church took me back. Drifted back to home, back to child hood. It was kind of like one of those smells you know that you get a wif of and it takes you back to a whole other world that you used to live in, wether its back home, back to school, back to that tree you used to climb, back to that bowling alley, back to that 1985 beat up ole suburban. I had one of those moments yesterday, it took me back to the family. those young years you know. back when Taleya had about 7 years on Paisley, a doll in one hand and a tonka truck in the other. Us boys and our late night super smash bro tournaments followed by an even later night of cartoons. early morning "dad drop offs" in salt lake down town listening to Shania twain on K bull 93. and then i thought how blessed we are to have those kinds of experiences in our lifes. That we live in a country that not only allowed but provided what would be a longing of times now gone, a whole scrapbook full of old memories that we can look back on with a " hey remember that time we dyed taleya's hair with mud" lol "or that time that chris ate it hard in the middle of the street on his bike" " or when bryndon romped around the house like Tarzan with his new arm" haha and mom and dad wondering if we were ever going to grow up. At this point I hope of the same future for the next generation of Johnson's, or in taleya's case Mundy. This last week kind just brought some cool old memories that gave a hope for the future that even though times might seem tough, we can look back on them as if it was needed. We did those things in the past so we could look back on them in the future  for a sense of learning and joy. You guys really are my joy!
This week was well... lets just say you remember in History class when they talked about the American revolution? well apply that lesson to the Kyiv Ukraine Mission. President Klebingat has completely assimilated our what once was the middle eastern zone of Podilska in the country. and divided it into two separate other zones. Elder Larson and I were so surprised! we are the last (for the next week) zone leaders of the Podilska zone which has been since the begining! I couldn't beleive it! President Klebingat has assigned me as district leader come thursday here in Kmelnitsky and we (companion and I) will be staying together for the next 7 weeks! totally nuts! all the of the responsability that we just had was just taken away! and I'm honestly really bumbed! thats no more helpin other elders in there cities! the serving opportunity is no longer there :( it stinks. I dont know why he even invited us to the zone leaders council because we aren't going to be doing anything as far as zone leaders go for the next forever!
I wont be writing next monday, it will probably be tuesday. we have to go to Leviv on sat, and then back here on sunday and then back again to leviv before  monday. and the new rule is, no night time travel anymore! so... we are having a hard time trying to figure that out because we have the worst train in the world which usually leaves about 12 at night. so ... me and my brain says what? I say to myself." Self! what would be the fastest way to get to leviv?" and myself responded "perhaps... you could push the envelope again"..... hehehehe oh yeah! you guessed! so we are going to check out flying there this week! my Idea has been passed through president and he's down if its resonable! so that I'm stoked for it!
on the 7 of october I will be singing for a wedding here! hopefully we get it recorded and I can get a copy! anyway! so yeah I'm still bumbed that all the stuff that we used to get to do we wont be doing anymore. :( no I haven't got boots yet! Im still looking for those. and I still have gloves that I think will work. anyway I love you all and this will be my report for the week

my first hotel experience in Ukraine.... it was aweful! lol forgot to mention that. I'll send pictures of our Fortress finding andventure in a sec

I am PROUD to be an American!!!

Dear Americans!
so yesterday was the 10 anniversary of Sept. 11th and I wont lie my thoughts yesterday just after church took me back. Drifted back to home, back to child hood. It was kind of like one of those smells you know that you get a wif of and it takes you back to a whole other world that you used to live in, wether its back home, back to school, back to that tree you used to climb, back to that bowling alley, back to that 1985 beat up ole suburban. I had one of those moments yesterday, it took me back to the family. those young years you know. back when Taleya had about 7 years on Paisley, a doll in one hand and a tonka truck in the other. Us boys and our late night super smash bro tournaments followed by an even later night of cartoons. early morning "dad drop offs" in salt lake down town listening to Shania twain on K bull 93. and then i thought how blessed we are to have those kinds of experiences in our lifes. That we live in a country that not only allowed but provided what would be a longing of times now gone, a whole scrapbook full of old memories that we can look back on with a " hey remember that time we dyed taleya's hair with mud" lol "or that time that chris ate it hard in the middle of the street on his bike" " or when bryndon romped around the house like Tarzan with his new arm" haha and mom and dad wondering if we were ever going to grow up. At this point I hope of the same future for the next generation of Johnson's, or in taleya's case Mundy. This last week kind just brought some cool old memories that gave a hope for the future that even though times might seem tough, we can look back on them as if it was needed. We did those things in the past so we could look back on them in the future  for a sense of learning and joy. You guys really are my joy!
This week was well... lets just say you remember in History class when they talked about the American revolution? well apply that lesson to the Kyiv Ukraine Mission. President Klebingat has completely assimilated our what once was the middle eastern zone of Podilska in the country. and divided it into two separate other zones. Elder Larson and I were so surprised! we are the last (for the next week) zone leaders of the Podilska zone which has been since the begining! I couldn't beleive it! President Klebingat has assigned me as district leader come thursday here in Kmelnitsky and we (companion and I) will be staying together for the next 7 weeks! totally nuts! all the of the responsability that we just had was just taken away! and I'm honestly really bumbed! thats no more helpin other elders in there cities! the serving opportunity is no longer there :( it stinks. I dont know why he even invited us to the zone leaders council because we aren't going to be doing anything as far as zone leaders go for the next forever!
I wont be writing next monday, it will probably be tuesday. we have to go to Leviv on sat, and then back here on sunday and then back again to leviv before  monday. and the new rule is, no night time travel anymore! so... we are having a hard time trying to figure that out because we have the worst train in the world which usually leaves about 12 at night. so ... me and my brain says what? I say to myself." Self! what would be the fastest way to get to leviv?" and myself responded "perhaps... you could push the envelope again"..... hehehehe oh yeah! you guessed! so we are going to check out flying there this week! my Idea has been passed through president and he's down if its resonable! so that I'm stoked for it!
on the 7 of october I will be singing for a wedding here! hopefully we get it recorded and I can get a copy! anyway! so yeah I'm still bumbed that all the stuff that we used to get to do we wont be doing anymore. :( no I haven't got boots yet! Im still looking for those. and I still have gloves that I think will work. anyway I love you all and this will be my report for the week

my first hotel experience in Ukraine.... it was aweful! lol forgot to mention that. I'll send pictures of our Fortress finding andventure in a sec