Family History and 2 Miracles!!!

Hello friends and family!

This week was a great one! It's hard to top last week, seeing as how we got to meet with an Apostle and all, but this week was certainly one of the best!

Monday we were still recovering from our sicknesses, so we slept like 14 hours until Tuesday morning when we were good to go!

On Wednesday we got to do some service with M., helping out some people that we have been seeing for a few months, K. and T. It was a good visit, and K. makes good pizza! 

After that we headed to the Genealogy Center to help them prepare for their conference on Saturday! Made a lot of copies and put together a lot of packets. It gives me an appreciation for what mom does. Putting together a conference for 100 people was hard, I can't imagine 150 times that many. Go mom!

We also got to teach C. on Wednesday! We re-taught her the plan of salvation and related it to the temple experience that she is having next month! We are so excited for her, and she is so excited too! Just a whirlwind of excitement. It is kind of weird to be trying to prepare someone for the temple. I was prepared for 18 years before I received my blessings, and we have a month to do it for her. Anyway! She is an awesome lady.

On Thursday we helped out at the Food Kitchen again! Such a great experience, as always. It does your heart good when people will come into the back where I was just to say thank you for the meal. It's not like we're feeding them a lot, or giving them anything to take home to help, but these poor and humble people are still thankful just for a lunch. How cool is that?

I also on Thursdays get the chance to call my awesome district! Just say a quick prayer for The Bluefield sisters and the Hillsville Elders. Both areas are awesome and all four missionaries are the coolest things that ever was. I have a pretty awesome district.

On Friday the church released their "He Lives" initiative! Go check out HeLives.mormon.org if you haven't seen it yet! It's an amazing video that brings miracles! An account of one such miracle shall be given hereafter. ;D Thanks to The F. Family's Apple Computer, we were able to burn the video to a CD to show to all the people who don't have internet at their house! We showed the video to J. and N., plus J.'s two grandkids. It was a great experience and we were able to teach the meaning of easter to all four of them! I love it when kids are there, because you are teaching them in super simple language, but the older, wiser people are also learning!

On Saturday we got an early start at 7:30 in the morning to help the Genealogy Center set up at the Wytheville Meeting Center (which is a really nice building) for their Family History Institute conference! :) It was a bunch of fun. We helped put things out and set things up, and we stuck around for the first seminar just in case they needed big strong men like us. 

Not too much else happened Saturday, except we got to go play basketball at the church! Most of the time it is just the Hillsville Elders and us, and maybe one other person, but this time The Hillsville elders brought three of their Recent Converts; J., G., and J. ! They in turn brought their home teacher, the awesome Brother N.! Woo hoo! We had so much fun. I forgot how much fun it it when people are actually there and playing! Got really tired, drank a protein shake, and went to bed after that.

The best day of the week was on Sunday! In the mornings before church, we have a correlation meeting with Brother Wh., our Ward Mission Leader. Recently we have been going down to a town called Ivanhoe to get Brother Wh.'s cousin and our investigator, D., who comes to church! Well, we were running a little behind yesterday and didn't get back to the chapel until 9:15. It was really quiet, and I realized that the sacrament was being passed. We had missed it! I was so sad. I love the sacrament. Well, just after we came in, the bishop gets up to the podium. There had been a mistake with the sacrament and it had to be redone! (For those who don't know, the sacrament, like communion in other churches, is done meticulously every Sunday. Most things in the church allow for flexibility, but one of the things that does not is this. It is a continuation of Jesus Christ's commandment to his disciples to partake of the bread and wine in remembrance of him.) So, because it had to be redone, we got to partake of the sacrament and renew our covenants! The Lord was watching out for us. As Brother Wh. loves to say, "Nothing happens by chance."

After an amazing church meeting, (wherein three investigators came!), we were mingling in the chapel with our amazing members and investigators. A former investigator who comes to church every week, J., came up to talk to me. Long story short, she told me she wants to get baptized, and I set her on date for May 10th! Right there in the chapel! Holy awesome! 

After a great day of seeing people, we headed to D. and D.'s house! They are a part member family who came to church for the second time in a row yesterday! D.'s mom just passed into eternity two days ago, and they, understandably, have been a little stressed with all the things going on. We get over there, and lo and behold our Relief Society President and her husband, The F. family are already there having dinner with them! The Lord had been preparing this night for a long time, let me tell you. After the small talk thing that people do, and talking about her (D's) moms death for a while, we started to get into the spiritual side of the conversation. We thought it a great time to show "He LIves." It was. It brought such a palpable spirit into the room! I started directing my comments to D., our investigator. He got emotional as we asked him about how he felt at church. He could hardly express the feeling he gets in the chapel. It was amazing. We read parts of 3 Nephi 11 with him. Specifically the part about the resurrected Christ and baptism. We invited him to be baptized on May 10th, and I didn't even get the invitation out before he started nodding and committed. What a guy! He is so elect and golden. The Lord has prepared him for his whole life for this moment, and we are excited for him.

I love you all! Thank you all for your continued support and prayers. Make this week the best week ever! I'll talk to you all next week!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Mom sent me a box!

It's very BIG box!

Emmers sent me a BIG (Hershey) kiss! :)

New shoes! Thanks Mom #snazzyshoes

My VERY important, irreplaceable planners. :)

The week of Tender Mercies and an Apostle!

Hello family and friends! We had an amazing week this week! I hope you all did too!

After emailing last P-day, we went to a place near the bottom of our area called Foster Falls. All it really is, is a river that drops 30 feet over a period of about a mile, but it's really pretty! Lots of vegetation everywhere, and a fun little park where we swung on the swings and played around with the Hillsville elders. It was a lot of fun!

Jumping over the mountain, we went to a Recent Convert's house, C. She was baptized a year ago the day that we went over! She is an awesome lady. We started preparing her for the temple, which she will attend in April. I've never had to teach that lesson before. It's interesting. We are going back on Wednesday, so we will be preparing really well! 

Due to being low on miles, we have been walking everywhere for the last week or so, and it turned out to help us! As we were walking down a street, a Frontier truck pulled up. The window rolled down, and the man started talking to us! We had a good talk with him, and he was pretty interested! We gave him a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet. It was such a cool opportunity! It was a testament to me that The Lord can provide opportunities no matter where we are and what we are doing, as long as we're faithful and trying to do his will.

After dinner on Thursday, we went to Ch.'s house to see him and S. with Brother V.! We had a great lesson with them about overcoming the trials in our lives. They both struggle with some things, and we were able to testify to them that everything they have in their lives is known of their Heavenly Father. That maybe someday, the problems they face may be taken away, but if not, they are for a purpose, and they will make us stronger in the end.

We also saw D. and D. with Brother V.! We committed them to come to church, and talked about church and The Book of Mormon for a while. More on that later, we saw them again on Sunday.

We had a lesson on the priesthood with J. and N. this week too! We aren't sure we really got anywhere with them, but we know that it was a great lesson, and we felt the Spirit. We hope that something we said can touch their hearts and make them want to change their lives. We sure hope so!

On Friday night, we had the awesome chance to host Elders Mortensen and Cluff at our apartment in preparation for our mission conference the following day! They are currently serving in Roanoke together, and I knew both of them from my time in Kentucky (and I met Elder Mortensen my first transfer in Buckhannon). They are both amazing elders and we had a lot of fun together!

Now for the most amazing day of my mission so far! On Saturday we headed up to Charleston at about 5 in the morning! we arrived around 7, and got to talk to all the missionaries from the whole mission for an hour or so! It was great to see my previous companions, Elders Sawyer and Davis, as well as all my mission friends. Such an opportunity probably wont occur again in my mission, so it was a great tender mercy for me.

The conference started at 8:30. Elder D Todd Christofferson, accompanied by Elder Jack N. Gerard, our Area President, and Elder Larry S. Kacher of the seventy! What an amazing opportunity we had!

Before the talks were given, Elder Christofferson asked to shake all of our hands, so we all lined up and moved through the line. During my turn, I shake his hand and say, "Elder Johnson. I'm Priscilla Johnson's (his sister in law) grandson." He looks really happy to see me and we talk for just a moment, and then I move on and don't think much about it.

Well, fast forward to after the best mission conference ever, and I am standing by the bathrooms with Elder Larson waiting for Elders Cluff and Mortensen. They come out and we start heading down the hall to get going on our way. President Salisbury and Elder Gerard come up to me to ask if I'm related to Elder Christofferson. I said yes, and they took Elder Larson and I into the back stake president area to see him! Wow! Elder Larson got to talking with the other people there (Elder Gerard, Kacher, and the three stake presidents), and I followed Elder Christofferson into the stake president's office where we had a chat for the next 10 minutes! How amazing an opportunity is that? I am probably one of the most blessed missionaries in the history of ever. I'm so grateful for that chance I had! 

Coming off of that spiritual high, we had an amazing Sunday as well! We were blessed to have 5 investigators come to sacrament and 5 less actives as well! What a day it was. We were able to see a few people with Brother Wh. after church, but due to a stomach bug I caught somewhere, we returned home early. 

I'm so thankful for an amazing week! I hope all of your weeks went well, and have the best week ever this week too! I love all of you, and thanks for taking the time to read this. Have a great day!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

Time to go give service!

On our way to Charleston for our mission conference!

After the mission conference :)

Elder Larson was tired. :)

11 Hours of Service, an Awesome Zone Meeting, and Exchanges!

Hello family and friends! 

It's a great day to be alive! It's an especially great day to be a missionary! I am loving it out here in Wytheville. The work is progressing, the weather is warming up, and things are just great!

Lets get started with the week!

After emailing last week, The Hillsville Elder's and us headed up to Bluefield for a Zone P-day! We got there a little late, and the main event of glow in the dark Volleyball was over, but a whole bunch of elders were playing two hand touch Rugby, so we joined in on that! It was great.

Headed back from Bluefield, we stopped by Sister B's' moms house. A cool surprise, Ch. and S. were there! Her mom isn't doing too well, and doesn't have very long left. We stopped by and talking about The Plan of Salvation and I gave her a blessing. In the blessing, I told her that The Lord and her Heavenly Father are ready for her to come home, and that the time is soon approaching. I pray that she will hear the gospel in the life after. I do have the utmost trust in my Heavenly Father that everything will work out. Her story is far from over.

On Tuesday, we had double dinner appointments! It was crazy, but they were both delicious. In the first dinner appointment, we had Stuffed Pasta Shells (I think there is a name for them that sounds really Italian and starts with M, but I forgot)! We were at a less active/part member family's house, and she (the non member) wanted to feed us dinner! That just shows that hard work and diligence pays off, because 14 weeks ago, every time we'd come to visit her husband, the member, she would always go into the back room or somewhere else. Never would stick around. She also sent us home with Banana Pudding!

The Second Dinner Appointment was with one of our good recent converts, who fed us a dish from her childhood! It was some real Southern Cooking, but I liked it!

We ended the day with The G. family! Another Recent Convert family, they live in humble circumstances, but their love for each other and the gospel keeps them going. They are an inspiration! They need a lot of prayers for their situation, but it is improving! They are seeing the fruits of living the Gospel.

On Wednesday, we did our first bout of service! M. had us help him on his farmhouse land, getting it ready for the spring and summer. The project was so big that we also enlisted the Hillsville Elders to come and help! After the project, he took us out to Cracker Barrel to eat! It was a good experience, we got to talk to a bunch of his workers that were helping and also the Cracker Barrel staff about who we are and what we do! Fun fun!

Thursday morning was The Food Kitchen again! A good experience, as always. I got to scoop the baked beans onto the plate after the Pulled Pork Sandwich was put on, and then handed it off to Elder Larson to throw on some Coleslaw. Delicious Southern Cooking! It's always a good experience to get to meet the people that work with us, and the good people that come to eat food. Most of them come from very humble circumstances.

Friday was when the week really started to pick up for me! Friday morning we had Zone Meeting! Elders Bingham and Trujillo and Sisters Erickson and Francis taught a great Zone Meeting about The Atonement, teaching more simply, and becoming more effective at planning!

In regards to having a good morning routine and getting to studies on time, they shared this quote from Elder Holland:

"At 8 o'clock you have an appointment with The Godhead."

Have you ever thought about your scripture study that way? As I was thinking about this quote, I realized how true it is. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is based and surrounded on the principle of continuing revelation. Reading the scriptures is often how our Father in Heaven speaks to us! We would always try our utmost to be at an important interview or class, but do we put the same emphasis on our appointment with God? Let's change what we need to change so that our Father in Heaven can help us find more opportunities to share the gospel!

After Zone Meeting, we had exchanges! I headed to Princeton with Elder Bingham! For those of you who don't know, Elder Bingham and I were in the MTC together, although in different districts. He's my Zone Leader now! How crazy is that? We had a lot of fun teaching and contacting, and also had some great opportunities to talk about our lives in the past 9 months. It was a great opportunity.

Back in Wytheville on Saturday, Elder Larson and I went to go see R. and J.! Using what we learned in Zone Meeting, we had an amazing lesson with them where we taught them The Restoration! It was awesome!

Sunday was a busy day, as they usually are! In Sacrament meeting, we had the chance to hear from N., a girl who recently returned from her mission (just last week in fact!) She gave an amazing talk on The Atonement and a great testimony. 

After a lengthy Ward Council meeting after church, we headed down to a town called Ivanhoe to see D., Brother Wh.'s 1st cousin! We have been meeting with her regularly for the past couple weeks, and this week she committed to come to church! Brother Wh. and us will be going to pick her up Sunday morning! Elder Larson and I are pretty excited about her future. She is living proof that you can come back from the grasp of addiction and the devil's temptations. It's a great story!

That is the meat of the week! Thank you everyone who took the time to read this. I love and appreciate all of you! Have a great week, and make it the best you've ever had. 

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

My First District Meeting!

Hello everyone! Thank you for taking some time to read this email! I appreciate it!

The week really started picking up around Wednesday! Wednesday morning we did the usual thing and went to the Genealogy center to do some work around there. We were able to have a great conversation about our church and why we do genealogy with one of the other volunteers there! It was great! Experiences to find are everywhere! Even if they don't want to take the lessons, you can still share the gospel with them!

Later that day, we went to L&J's house to see them and make sure they are doing well. L. is a member from Salt Lake, and J. is one of our awesome investigators. J. is awesome! She always has questions about the bible and book of Mormon every time we come over. We love being able to discuss and answer the questions with her! It helps us get better. I was also able to administer a blessing to J., as she had gotten some scary news from her doctor a couple days before. It was a great blessing! Heavenly Father really loves that woman. I made some cool promises in the blessing too. Something Hank told me the day I went in to the MTC still rings in my ears every time I lay my hands on someone's head, "You have the Priesthood of the Almighty God, the authority to act in His name. Never be timid in what you say, and the promises that you make." Puts some pressure on, for sure. It was awesome though!

Wednesday evening we finally got in contact with a couple members of the church that we've been trying to catch for the last 12 weeks! We were able to have a great visit and get to know them well. Their names are the W.'s, C. and C. They have a cute little boy who is five, and they are really just all around awesome. C. was baptized in March of last year. Pray for them!

On Thursday, we were able to see a couple another Recent Convert! A.G. was baptized last year around August I think. His wife, M., was at work, but we were able to have a great conversation with A.G. He's an awesome older guy with an even more awesome (if that's even possible) beard! You all know how I love facial hair.

On Friday was my first District Meeting ever! Oh my goodness! I was so nervous. It went well though. I prepared throughout the week, and then the night before decided I didn't like the way it was structured and basically redid the whole thing. I'm glad I did though, because I feel that it went really well because of it.

After that, I headed to Hillsville with Elder Garrett for an exchange! It was interesting because our last exchange was me, the junior, trying to learn all I could from this missionary, and now I'm the leader --but, I still tried to learn everything I could from him, :)  because Elder Garrett is an awesome missionary and a great teacher! He has a lot you can learn from him! We had a great exchange!

Church was great! We had some awesome speakers in Sacrament, Brother Wh. gave an awesome lesson in Sunday School, and J.K. led a great discussion in Elder's Quorum, talking about Ezra Taft Benson. 

We did the usual thing and went with Brother Wh. to go and see people! We hit more people that day than we ever have before when being with him! Our best visit was that night, with the usual lesson with S&J! J. wasn't there, having to return to West Virginia for a couple days. We were able to have a great "hope and peace through church and Christ" lesson with S. We committed her to come to church, and I really really hope she comes! I think she's starting to see how much better her week goes when we come over, and the Spirit that we and Brother Wh. bring into the home there. She's an amazing woman! I have a lot of respect for Single moms (shout out to Mom!), and is a strong lady!

That's all I have for this week. Thanks again for taking some time to read this. I appreciate the support and love all of you! Have a great week! Make this the best week ever!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

I made dinner for all of us today. Chicken Enchiladas. YUM.

My study scripture study guide

My mom doesn't like this shirt. What's that about?

Spring is here!

My District Meeting notes!

Shout out to my friend Jerie!

My mom has no idea what this is for...

Hi MOM!!!!

My Short Week!

Hello everyone! It's only been 5 days since I sent my last email off, but thankfully I do have some cool stuff to tell you about!

First off, the day after P-day last week was transfer day! We took Elder Davis up to transfers in Princeton so Elder Garrett and his new companion (Elder Tebbs) could save some miles. It was a great time! We were only able to stay for the morning "train" (two 15 passenger vans, a huge moving truck that carries luggage, and a minivan), but I was able to see Elder Sorenson on his way up to my old zone, Clarksburg! For those of you who don't know, Elder Sorenson and I were MTC companions, and he was the ONLY ONE of our group of 10 that I hadn't seen. Hadn't seen my own previous companion in over 8 months! Can you believe it? The injustice of it all. Anyway, it was a huge tender mercy for me to get to hug him. He's an awesome kid. 

After that we drove back to Wytheville with Elder Garrett and Elder Tebbs! During the hour long drive, we were able to get to know Elder Tebbs pretty well. He's a great kid from Cedar Hills, UT. My neck of the woods! ish. Same county! He makes a great addition to an already awesome district. 

On Saturday, Elder Larson and I headed north BACK to Princeton (well, Bluefield technically, but they're close to each other) for a District Leader Training Meeting! As it turns out, no leader in our zone, except our zone leader Elder Bingham, has been a district leader before! That was fun. We counseled together, came up with some zone goals, and had a good time! We also went out to lunch at Macados with Elder Bingham and Trujillo, and Elder Carter and Gibson. That was fun.

Later that day, back in Wytheville, we had a baby shower for one of our investigators! S's sister, J. It was great! We had a fun time. It was cool to be around so many people that aren't members that can't run away when you get close to them. >:D No, just kidding. But it was fun. Hopefully she'll start coming to church!

Speaking of church and S! She was confirmed yesterday! Woo hoo! It was an amazing confirmation. I've given some cool and powerful blessings before, but The Spirit I felt while confirming her was the strongest I've felt it ever in a blessing. She needed it too. Lots of Spirit to combat lots of trials, right? It amazed me just how much our Heavenly Father loves her. Couldn't even comprehend it. I could feel the loving flowing through me and my words though. It was great.

After church we did the usual thing and went out with Brother W! We got to see some pretty awesome people! First off was his extended family, his Aunt, J.; his Uncle, T.; and his cousin, D., along with her two kids. It was a great visit, and they invited us back for dinner! A couple times! It was awesome! 

We also saw a Less active and his nonmember family, S&A! They are a great family and we think some great things can happen with them if we keep working hard. His wife is really interested and loves talking to us. Yay!

Our last visit was with Sh & J., whom we haven't been able to get a hold of for the last couple week! J's mom passed away two weeks ago, and we heard that he was kind of down. We made an appointment with them for Sunday, and came over with Brother W. We had a great Plan of Salvation lesson where we shared part of Alma 40 with them and talked about the Spirit World and how she'll be waiting for when her family comes over the veil to greet them at the gate. It was great.

That's all for this week! I hope your week was fantastic! Make sure to make this week the best one ever! I love you all! Thank you for your prayers and support!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson

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My friend and amazing Zone Leader Elder Bingham!

Some of the Sisters and Elders from our zone.

us again. :)

Present!!!

Thank you MOM! My old one was thrashed.

Mom's March calendar!

My new marking system in my new scriptures. Woot Woot! :)