Hello everyone!

I'm short on time, so this letter might be a little jumbled because I'm not going to read it over before I send it. Bear with me!

We had a pretty fun week! It was a little slow numbers wise, but whatevs. Numbers really don't matter a whole lot. What we did do this week was a TON of finding! Got return appointments up the whazoo! And, get this, 90% of them were all found through tracting! 

I'll tell you guys, if you need any proof The Lord is moving work forward in the mission field, it is found when stuff happens through tracting. Freaking nothing ever happens in tracting! That's just my unfaithfulness showing through. But yeah, President Hinckley said it best. Can't remember the full quote, but he says that there is a better way than knocking on doors. Elder Davis' dad was on his mission in Ireland in the early 80s, right around the time of the Catholic-Protestant war there. He said they (His dad and companion) tracted all day. That was all they did. For two years. That's all they COULD do and freaking nothing happened. 

You know those non members you're friends with? Are they being taught by the missionaries? Have they directly TOLD you that they don't want to be taught by the missionaries? If the answer to those questions are both no, you should send the missionaries to them. A member referral is a heaven-sent blessing. I've currently seen two baptisms on my mission (Well, technically one, but I'm counting Mike as mine. He was baptized 3 days after I left Buckhannon) and BOTH were referrals from members. If you send the missionaries to someone, they will love you forever. Take it from the guy with the name tag on. Also if you feed them (the missionaries). They will love you forever too for that. 

Anyway! On Thursday we had INTERVIEWS WITH PRESIDENT WOOOOOOO! It was great! The whole Zone came down to Paintsville (about half an hour north) and we party'd it up in the Paintsville Chapel with Zone Meeting while people had interviews. My interview was great! That's all you get to know. Personal stuff. :) But President Salisbury is an awesome awesome guy. Such a great man. The Spirit just kind of flows out of him. You can just feel the power. He's a super successful guy too, but super humble about it. Very thankful. He'll totally be a GA someday. Don't tell him I said that. I talked to President at lunch [again] on Thursday (oh yeah, he came to lunch with us!) I said, "You gained 250 children just by stepping off of a plane." and his lips got all thin and he kind of chuckled and nodded.

We had a few lessons this past week! We picked up a new investigator named Rhonda who's pretty cool. The sisters went over there and taught her and her mom, aunts, and kids a lot, but never really got anywhere with them. We're trying a more proactive approach. Hopefully it will work! We want them to be progressing. 

We just found out last night that we have our first progressing investigator (meaning they keep the commitments we give them) in Pikeville woohoo! WS! We are seeing him for an actual lesson on Friday where we will talk about how his prayer is going. He's a really sweet old guy who had heart surgery recently. He's been a cool miner for like 40 years. He's pretty sweet!

We also saw a cool guy we tracted into a few days ago yesterday! JM! He used to be a pretty active religious guy, but in recent years fell out of it and always felt like something was missing. He was super receptive to the Book of Mormon because, "He's always wondered what the difference is" We talked about two witnesses and how the bible and bom are companions. It was a great mini lesson, and we're seeing him and his whole family (wife and two kids) next Sunday. Will return and report then.

That's how the week went! I sure do love all of you! Thanks for your prayers in my behalf. Always remember that you guys can ask me for anything, especially prayers. I'm never too busy to say a prayer for my loved ones. 

Love you all!

Elder Brax Johnson

The Beloved Truck

I told my mom I thought this was an apple. Thoughts?

My knife. Something my mom didn't really need to know about but now does. 

My hillbilly wine glass. Really. That's what it is called.

My hillbilly wine glass and Elder Davis' amazing flag

The most majestic cat I've ever seen. We rolled up to our lesson with J., and he was just chilling
on the rock, being all majestic n' stuff. He was super friendly too. When we got out,
he came trotting over and was all "yo human! Pet. Now!" 

The trailer park we tracted and walk all the time. That's only about 1/3 of it.