Re: Article from deseretnews.com: Carpenter 'humbled' by Mormon temple work

Hey Fam,
man wow! what week you all have been having. kinda kills me I cant be there... actually it really kills me. however I know that this work is more important. wow yeah pictures would be way cool! I've told everyone here about it so I think almost more than I they expect pictures. man this week was a LONG first week of the transfer... had lots of fun. but my companion is really getting to me... making me excersize my patience alot. but he is pretty funny sometimes. for instance last night we were teaching this woman in her house and Elder Reynolds had been quite pretty much the whole time I was teaching. talking to her and talking to her and then all of a sudden there was this break of seriousness and he... well you know when you go to laugh but you dont want to so you make that funny scruffy noise. like what I did at the opening of twilight that night in the theatre.. well he does this right in the middle of the lesson... I was like what?! you ok? me and the investigator was really confused... anway the lesson continued and he yet remained quite and then broke the silence again really trying to hold back bursting into laughing. I did not understand at all! I was tryin to think if there were any cognate words or something that we were saying that sounded funny ... I could think of nothing. anyway we end the lesson (which we dropped her, she is not willing to keep commitments and says she will NOT come to our church that she is orthadox catholic) she tells my comp to pray because he was laughing at her.. anyway I ask him afterwards what the heck was going on. he says well ... he tries to tell me through broken laughter.... you know when she said she had not read? well I wanted to leave right after that.. (she was a new investigator to me and an old one to him because I had gotten transfered into his area so I didn't really know her) he said so I thought what would be the most innapropriate thing to do to express the way I was feeling when she told us she hadn't read. well in the lesson there was this poor helpless cat sitting on a chair in front of him... he got a visual of grabbing the cat throwing it through the wall and tell the lady that she's not getting it!... and thus provoked his laughter... haha he's got alot to learn. he is still a little newer than I am so he still has that cloud of darkness that some what surrounds his mind as far as the language goes. way interesting. well yeah thanksgiing was really good! I hope the wedding and everything goes well. thank you so much for the transfer.. it was - 15 yesterday. I'll be frugle promise. good luck with the wedding, send me pics! unfortunantly my camera has gone down the drain.. it will no longer turn on. right when I found out I could just use the MP3 form and record the week and send it to you and make typing so much more easier! but alas thats what I get for waiting so long to figure it out. so you are going to have to wait on pictures! oh and another thing! our time to talk with each other is coming up! I'm not sure what day but you will get to call me and we will get to chat! 'm stoked for that! um yeah... lets see the work is still hard but its fun! I'm reading Jesus the Christ right now.. what an AWESOME book! I want to read the Great apostacy but nobody has it here. hey how is tine doing? I haven't heard from her, I sent a letter to grandma aswell. Alright Angel wings! here is your shout out! GOOD LUCK WITH THE WEDDING! oh I just got an Email, ok you have to pick either Christmas Day or New years eve or new years day. keep in mind we have a 9 hour or 7 hour difference. so get back to me on the time and we will figure out further, we are planning it now so we wont have any problems. I sent dad the guide lines man I'm excited! love you all and I hope the wedding goes well.. wow I cant beleive that.. well I'll do my best to quote un quote "be there" :D love you all keep your heads up

Carpenter 'humbled' by Mormon temple work
PIERRON, Ill. — In the beginning, J.R. Potthast saw it as just another job.
But the metro-east carpenter later learned that this or…
Full Story: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700088576/Carpenter-humbled-by-Mormon- 

temple-work.html--

Старіишина Джонсон

A VERY HARD LOSS/Taleya and Daddy's wedding song dance.

......................wow, that was the last thing that I could have thought of that I would have recieved from you this week. I cannot beleive that... dallin is gone? ... I honestly dont know what to say. man every week there is always something that I read in where I forget everything I else I wanted to say. I cannot beleive it! any news on Laura? how are rick and val? give them my email I would like to hear from them! ... what to say. man Dallin was tight, one of the few cousins that we actually knew.... what all happened in the accident? like how did it come about? did anyone else get hurt? who hit dallin? ... man I wish I would have known about this last week, I could have put there names in the temple. the temple was great! first time in there on a session. it was in russian :D but I took the translator and listened to it in Ukrainian. I also was curious and found myself listening to german which I quickly changed because it became very difficult to keep a straight face... so awesome making those covenants in Ukrainian... it really is a melodic language. I told you its the second most melodic right? Italian is the first... we also ran into some italians and we are teaching them the message in there spotted english. plus we are getting to learn some italian.. the italian guy siad yeah people say that italians dont speak when they talk, they sing! :) his wife said after she found out that I love italian food that she would make some for us. see mom I didnt have to go to italy to have there food! :D by the way transfers happend. Elder Hofeling is now training here in revna and I was transfered to the other companionship here in Revna because Elder Powel finished his mission... so my new comp is Elder Reynolds... and guess what? I've gone senior comp!! what?! man now I dont have the luxury of speaking the language.. I have to now! I'll be spending christmas in revna which I'm very happy about! this branch is great! oh by the way its really snowing over here... yeah I could use some things ... like shoes.. one pair of them are already pretty much distroyed. I have found it doesn't take much to keep me warm.. however keeping me stable on the ground is another thing.. I've been sliding all over the place

                       hey thought of an Idea but i might be a little to late. you know how I wanted to sing at taleya's wedding.. well I TRIED! let me reemphisize that I tried to sing the song. picked the best of them all and if know someone who knows how to remix songs ... just an Idea. anyway there attached to this email. so yeah.. wow I cannot believe that happened to dallin... how is the rest of his family? man. sent some pics of the fews from the new apartment. everyone says its suppose to be very cold but I'm still waiting on it. I mean we just got snow a little bit ago. tell the briner family that my prayers are with them... and that I love them very much! not only I but my district will be praying for them. they cant beleive it iether... they tell me I have had the worst luck with relatives on the mission so far. however I'm grateful for the plan of Salvation. because I know I will see my brother in the work again. wont that be a day. family I love you and I hope that everything goes well with the wedding.. oh I guess that I have one more pday before it. what day is it? on the 8th our mission president is doing a parley p pratt day for reading the book of mormon. meaning for the first half of the day we are going to read and finish the book of mormon! ... wont that be fun! wow.. I love you all. tell the briners I love them aswell. all the work here is great! I have given this side of the city an overhaul on the area. my comp decided to play sick and go to kiev all week so he could buy shopka's to send home.. so the area completely died! ( I was still with my old comp) but things are looking up. within the last two days we were able to swing two new investigators which is saying something! considering the mission goal is two in a week. I have alot of hope for this transfer. love you all... tell everyone I said hi. p/s/ is Chris working? cause that could help him go. and I also like how bryndon is sporting my clothes. thank you for the pictures! keep sending them! love yur eldest.

GOALS, PLANNING & CHALLENGES

Dear Fam,
so... well... this week was another fly-by, however, these past two weeks have been the best in my mission. I have never been able to do so much here. Planning has become huge to us, all those things that before the mission I would have thought were meaningless and pointless to plan. well we are planning them now! the city we live in doesn't often see baptisms... however we started this transfer with two. we took our ratio and attached it to the cities.... we have to find 54 brand new investigators to get our goal of 4 baptisms haha wow... or just find 6 amazing investigators. but we broke it down and now exactly what we have to do to get them all. its way cool. last week we traveled to Lutsk (I have almost over half of the mission) and we did a missionary day with the members from Revna and Lutsk. was alot of fun! members recieved a little bit of we do as missionaries. it was really weird though being in a city with no rules again.. I didn't really know any other way than trying to pick a perfectly good person that I didn't need to trick into talking to me. we had LOTS of exchanges this last week. our district leaders last week in the country... I'll attach the pictures.. we ate the biggest pizza in Ukraine. about a meter long with 5 different topings or something like that. it was HUGE! also this week as far as investigators go... have I mentioned I have lost ALOT of respect for ALL other religions.. infact one might say that I have absolutley no respect for them. this week we met with a baptist minister (considering my experience with baptists) I knew exactly what he would say, however this one was slightly different. he was a very facticious man. had read the book of mormon already and was on his second time around. he has not yet found any... facts "" that bring cause for the book of mormon to be false. when he called us he said he wanted us to bring him a D&C in russian. sounded like to me he just wanted to peice at it until he found something that was incoherrent with his "FACTS". we meet with him again tonight. I have found I have lost ALOT of patience for other religions, if they understood the bible like they say they do they would understand that there is something missing. and instead of finding out for themselves what is missing they make up something that sounds good and then go out an preach it. anyway on a higher note. this week right before transfers was awesome! we are taring up this city and loving every minute of it. however if I get transfered I will be going to the other companionship... which the companion staying just let the area die with his little vacation to kiev.. I'm kind of upset about that. we making all preps for kiev so that we dont hurt the area we are leaving. we will be coming back on friday, but thats still 3 days that we wont be here. anywhos... hmm. its cool everything is going well on the home front. thats kind of scary about bryndon, so there still going to let him go on a mish right? and what about Chris!?  so everyone is going to the wedding right? I honestly dont care if there parents are being retarted that does not mean we as a family leave taleya hangin..... in the temple of all places!!!   :D LOVE YOU ALL! :D so yeah I have found I'm not reporting back to you everything that is happeneing and alot of that has to do with I cant seem to remember all the cool stuff at the end of the week and the starting of this week. I dont know if I told you but a few weeks ago we just finished a lesson and saw this man drunk out of his mind go head first into the ground spliting his head open. the W of W of such an issue here. we dropped an investigator last week for it. we are still working with him but he is not keeping commitments. we have our baptism that is planned to go down on the 11 of Dec. we pray we are still together. we have so much work to do here. and its the holiday season. oh wow the other day right after our personal study I stopped right in the middle of my sentence because I heard this noise coming from outside... elder Hofeling looked at me and asked "is that a bombing rade siren" we bolted out to the balcon where we estabished yes it most deffinently is and we grabbed our camera's and started filming! it was so crazy! we asked around and apperently sometimes they go off just for tests and other times for bad weather... I thought what a sick joke!! two totally opposite things to attach one siren to.... (siren sounding) well boris looks like we have some bad weather today  BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! lol I mean seriously, I would say that some bad weather when it starts exploding!. haha anyway oh I started this like web cam week thingy where I just sit infront of the camera telling all of the funny and amazing things that happened during the week! OH and we get to go to the temple this week! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so excited for that! oh wow now I'm way excited! oh for part of my study this week in the back of the Ukrainian book of mormon are these 17 points of the true church, I wrote them down and translated them. whats awesome is they all have bible refrences! and we used them with this bible bashing orthdadox catholic dude this week... after the lesson he pondered for a bit and said... hmm.. I need to read that book! do you have an extra copy!? he is now a new investigator! with SOO  much potential!  was funny we got dogged that day and didn't expect him to be the one who was going to help us accomplish our goal! man we have got to expect miricales! by the way how is your missionary work coming? also part of my study is all the stupid questions and statements that have been given to me on the mish so far... anything from baby baptisms and they are born in sin to the God and Jesus being separate! it has helped so much! my companion is ... I've gotta say it probably the best one I ahve had! its awesome! well thats all from me for this week! I promise I'll get better at this emailing thing! I love you all!  CHRIS GET CHUR TUCKAS ON A MISSION! your going to regret it! I have a feeling you headed this way! love you all! Bryndon! I love you buddy! and I'm so ......sorry we didn't hang out as much.. that we never had you come with us.. bud I promise when I get back we will do all the hangin out you can handle!!!! capeesh?! mom  and dad... I love you.
your eldest

Старіишина Джонсон

DIFFERENT CULTURAL LAWS DIFFERENT RELIGIONS

Dear Family,
wow... The weather is chilly, and its humid so its even more chilly. the language is great! infact now I kind of yearn to speak it. its a way pretty language, I understand pretty much every thing now, however sometimes I'll completely forget or something and speaking back can be hard... unless its in a lesson where I cant shut up lol na its all good! how is the computer doing? oh hey you never answered about my pistol? or about Wells fargo... I'd really like to know how that is working. the town is really pretty and I think I will probably be staying here for Christmas.. I think. not sure though. The word from the DL is that I'll be goin sr companion next month... :S not thrilled. but it happens... people here speak alot more Ukrainian and its way nice to be able to know that you will know what they say when they open there mouths. The only reason its harder to teach is because we cant do normal missioanry work.. there are those stupid rules here that make it difficult however this last week was the best week other then the ones with the baptisms that I have ever had. President has a standard of lessons and what not every week and me and my comp obliterated them this week... in a city where we cannot prosilyte haha. well... Transfers are already in 2 weeks.. and then a huge thanks giving feast. info that was leaked out of the office so obviously the whole mission knows already haha so I'll be headed to Kiev on a 7 hour train in a few weeks. looking forward to that. Hey bryndon the video games sound awesome! that will be fun, hey how is Chris on the mission papers!? HEY HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAY BRO! I wont be able to mail you on saturday so I thought i'd do it now rather then later! big 21! so have you turned them in yet? I want to know where your going! I still think your headed out this way! I'm really going to laugh if you get called to france haha you and your french out look haha that would be way funny. the pictures are a service project out in one of the villages.. haha that stump was Johnson Cut! you name 5 people who know how to specifically cut out one fourth of a log! haha this week really has been great! the people just kept coming! and if we would get dogged the Lord provided another.. literally, 5 min later we recieved a call from a man who wanted to meet. and he is now a new investigator! boggles my mind sometimes.. I'm learning also that I have really no patience for other religions now... lol its kind of bad. My companion is such an example to me. we rent apartments here and to get into the apartment building your have to have a little specific key, or you have to call up to the apartment you want to go to. well we had some Jehovah's witness call us yesterday morning wanting to come in to prosilyte... my comp answered and said ofcourse. however as far as I go I would not have let them in... I actually am very pationate about other religions and about how people seem to think that they know the scriptures and they should be delivered this way. If they truly understood the gospel and/or the bible they would know something is missing, and instead of searching it out for themselves they create there own answer and go out and preach it to others who are to ignorant to know any better..or to those who are searching for the truth. they are about the devils handy work. THAT is the fruit of apostacy when people take there own idea's and mix it with doctrine. Joseph Smith said that those people who are about this work can speak so close to the truth that even the chosen ones will fall to it. AUG! makes me so mad sometimes... they are messing with peoples salvation!!!! ANYWHO! I will stop.. there are plenty of pages in my journal about that we can read when I get home... well I think thats all from me this week guys.. i'm sorry next week I'll just reply after and email the week first so its still fresh in my head  Love you all... I'd really appreciate some pictures! Chris dont break my computer! lol ... but seriously!
YOUR eldest and big bro

WAKE UP ELDER WAKE UP

I feel like sending some of the church members here in Bila a word about this... almost the entire preisthood is ex mafia but they still use there connections. Darin says he speaks russian so they'll get along just great :D if this keeps up, those two are not going to like my return, especially if they are at the airport! I'm afraid I dont have as many pictures this week! way funny though me and my comp had some really funny experiences... anywhere from him think that he didn't have a contact in and once he put it in he found out quick he already had one in... haha he gave me this weird look and then asked me.."wow.... you know when you look through binoculars backwards!" haha I laughed so hard his face was priceless... and then this morning haha so my comp gets up and Iwas like NOOO it cant be time yet, so I started to say my prayers assuming I was just tired because of the day light savings...anywho so he comes back and starts praying to... I get up to go the work out room but I cant bring myself to I was just WAY to tired... kind of fell to sleep sitting there. and then I heard him coming my way so to be a good example I started doing something anyway he comes in and says hey... so uh "how did you sleep" told him "honestly? Horrilbe! I'm so tired right now! how bout you?" he says "yeah.. not so good either... hey do you know what time it is?" immidianlty I thought oh no we slept in! I looked at my watch ...and I read 1:39 A.M. I was like WHAT!??? " my comp goes "yeahhhh....I"m confused" we checked all the other clocks and then finally determined it was a huge misunderstanding on my part! he just needed to go to the bathrooom, I thought he was getting up so I began to pray, then he came back and saw me praying so he thought that oh guess its time to get up... "he said honeslty elder I wasn't praying I was sleeping." haha I told him yeah I wasn't working out either! was way funny but the first thing we did this morning when we got up was check the clocks to make sure they had the correct time. haha hey anway what are the rules with the card? are there any fee's for withdrawing money from another country and what not? I'll just be needing boots and a coat. and... maybe shoes... the covington's we bought are SHOT! there are ripping all over the place... there is a hole on the ball of the foot, rips on each side and the soul is majorly cracked. but those aren't as expensive as the other things I need to get. I just asked taleya whats up and so I want to see what she says..see if I cant use my missionary training to probe the questions. well love you all... oh hey mom what about my pistol? what happened to it? love you!  Tell Bryndon I"m stoked about all the games! does he know that batman comes out in 2012 the rise of the dark knight? told dad I think Christopher is headed my way on his mission.. maybe not Ukraine but perhaps one of the surrounding countries! think that would be way funny if it was russia! haha always competeing anyway love you all stay strong!

OH HOW TIME FLIES

So another incredibly fast week out of Рівне (Revna) lots of working and wow I'm beat. Im surprised the tree's here have survived for so long, the leaves are still falling and its making some of the parks look way pretty. Well this was my first normal week in my new area, the work is harder to do here... and sometimes frustrating... that and when people wont treat us like human beings. The trick to this city is finding ways to work around the rules... for instance this last week we did that tie contacting with Elder Powell on exchanges (by the way the statue picture is what we refer to as "the man" statue, apparently a bunch of dentists in Рівна got together to restore the statue lol kind of funny it was dentists that restored it) anyway its been working well, the Church is WAY fun to work with here, we have lots of member presents and I have found that that is the best way to teach is WITH the members.. there is nothing more powerful than the testimony of a convert (yeah I know we are all converts but you know what I mean) this last week was my introduction to the branch so I got up and bore my testimony/talk lol about you all and why I came out on a mission and then I have made a goal to sing in every city that I serve in so after sister yulia who just so happened to talk about music and how we need to share our talents, so after my talk I sang a short him for them... but I sang it my way :D lol it was fun! and I didn't mess up so that was WAY good! its really nerve racking getting up and speaking anyway but when you have to do it in another language is where it really takes nerve! finally listening to conference in english! it was SOOO great! I loved Elder Hollands And President Uchtdorf's talk! especially President Uchtdorfs! haha I am now going to use that "but Elder! what does that have to do with flying the plane?" the other picture of us kind of mad is in Kmilnitsky for Zone meeting! the missile in the back apparently was to be shot off towards america back in the day... and they made a memorial about it!! as you can see I was not thrilled! this last week also my companion who is AWESOME! preformed a Concert for the city in the church.. and with our unability to procilyte was kind of tricky to get the word out. we had a decent amount of people show up and did he ever play that piano! I have it all recorded on my piano.. was anything from CHarlie brown and starwars to Claire De Lune and a an awesome accompanament with a sister in the ward. yeah remember how I said I thought Ukrianians couldn't sing? I was so wrong! she is an amazing singer! it was way spiritual! everyone loved it! I have had a good time here, its hard alot of the time but I think this city is good for missionaries.. makes them learn to be creative and find ways to share the gospel or how we put it "trick them into asking about it" I'm in another learning stage with the language and when I say that I mean its been SOOOO tough this last week with the language, I dont know if everyone decided to use big words or what but I had the toughest time understanding people this week. but such is life! ... I'm way excited Chris is now a High Preisthood holder, now when is he getting out here! I dont want him to be at my homecoming! I want to be at his! ok I'll let the office know its on its way and to keep a look out for it. we are headed to Луцкь next week for another district meeting so maybe I can have the zone leaders pick it up or something! thanks a bunch! yeah I'm not sure what else I can say... I should start bringing my journal to remember the week! I just barely finished that one I left with, I have exactly 7 months in that one if I counted right... oh yeah this last week I ran into another JDub....grrrrrr I have about had it! ah man I get all sorts of fired up when they start preaching to me! lol on that note I have been really contemplating something Pres. asked us, are we always keeping Jesus Christ in our thoughts, constantly thinking about him, what he would say if he were here, I have been trying it... and wow, I feel bad saying this but it has been really hard. I mean preaching the gospel yeah but CONTSTANTLY having him on my mind... its a goal of mine and I'm trying. I feel like I always need to have my nose in the scriptures to actually accomplish it! Thanks mom for the scriptures! I love scripture study, its one of my favorite parts of the day! Elder Holland said that we could either make of break our missions and that all depending on those few hours in the morning, word for word he said " you can make or break your missions between the hours of 8 and 10! that is SOOO true! I have found out so much more than what I knew, I'm on my third time around in the book of mormom and still trying to get the first time done in the language. Ukrainian is truly a beautiful language, after a while of not speaking in it you start to miss it, lol its kind of weird how all the missionairies relate on that. This last week the president of Ukraine was here in town, this place isn't very big, some 100,000 people or so I hear, but its REally up to date. Житомир wasn't really so its kind of a nice change. wow guys I love ya! I'm grateful to be here! Bryndon stop telling me how long I have!!! hahaha wait until I atleast get past my year mark, or even my last six months! our District leader here is kind of trunky, he goes home in less then a month! I cant wait to get there and game it up with ya bud! wha what! he so yeah I could still use some pictures! oh hey mom I showed your picture to one of our investigators and he said that he thought you were my sister! good job momma! haha he was really confused when I said no I only have one sister in my family! but yeah if you could send more that would be great! I love you all and I hope all stays well at home! anything I can do to help you? I promise I'm working as best I know how! in short sleaves some days just to tick off the grandma's haha its a great contacting Idea! :D thats all folks from my side of the world! dos vidania

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Старіишина Джонсон

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

hey mom!,
thanks for the happiness of the birthday sending! but unfortunately I read dads first so technically he said it first! I'm emailing you all from Kmilnistky today we are having a big meetinghere so five hours later off a bus here we are! but guess what... yeah I've been transfered! 5 months in Житомир... my first area matter a fact! I'm serving now in Revna with Elder Hoffling! we just pumped out two more baptisms out of here between Elder Hoffling and I, Revna is a really pretty city! and when I say that I mean that I hear Ukrainian 85 percent of the time! its so nice! the ward here is huge! ... well kind of haha 40 members strong.. well now 42 HA! Revna is known for her "branch girls" as the missionaries refer to them as.. apparently missionaries have just been baptizing woman here, yeah we contributed to that last week with yuliana and Inna. however we have alot of preisthood here to which is nice. the only crappy part about Revna is there are rules here that the missionaries have to follow! no no no not white handbook rules! but city rules! apparenlty somes missionaries a while back got kicked out for being retarded and when they let us back in they tagged us with some rules .. one being.. we cannot prosylite.... at aLL!!! we cannot talk to anyone about the gospel.. unless however they ask about it. cannot tract... all this junk however I think its a blessing in disguise because it makes us that much more creative. For instance one of our contacting tools.. other than every "bob" (our abreviation for Бабуся which is grandma) giving me and earful when they see me just wearing a shirt.. I found out lots of people like to talk to me in those circumstances so it works great! however at times it gets annoying and in those cases I just make a 360 degree turn, find the nearest short skirt (many here, yes even in winter) and then I point! and they stop chewing me out! but one of our other contacting tools that works great is TIE CONTACTING! basically we walk up to people and tell them we are having a tie contest. well its EUROPE! and they are all fashion like so they love giving there imput! Elder Hoffling and I have been taring it up here in Revna. He is a madman on the piano! he knows music, and he knows music theory and knows how use them both! he can turn I'm a little tea pot into a motzart composition. infact this next week we are having a little concert with him on the piano and we are inviting everyone! wow what else! .... oh yeah I haven't told you about BURNER BOB'S.. basically here, the old world war two, under Stalin rule, ancient grandma's are afraid of technology. Actually it would be better to say that some of them REALLY dont like it! so what do they do??? well they walk on into the apartment complex and they will light the circuit breaker on FIRE!!! and then waddle away! you see these giant scortch marks on the walls walking in to the complex sometimes haha I get a kick out of it! there SO superstitios sometimes! well sorry I will continue later because we arrived here kind of late and we aren't exactly getting a pday.. might be on thrusday! anyway love you! hope all is well! oh hey Chris and Bryndon... any uh... any potentials in florida??? haha love ya