Writings from West Virginia: What I've Learned In A Year!

Hello everyone! It's been a wonderful week! I hope you guys feel the same! I'm rather retrospective today, because I have passed my YEAR MARK! I am officially an "old" missionary. I sure don't feel that way. So much to learn, so little time!

Let's jump in to the week's highlights. Wednesday morning we did service at the Genealogy center for the nice people there. While we were all sitting around the table eating lunch, the topic of it being my one year anniversary the next day came up, and M., the President of the organization, asked me if I would do it over again if I could go back. Didn't even miss a beat! Yes I would. It's rather difficult to explain the feelings that I have towards this experience, and I've only been out a year! But yes, I would do it over again in a heartbeat. Best experience of my life.

That night, we had set up an appointment to go see Ch. and S. They got married the next day, and we wanted to go talk to them before the big day! We get over there, and they had a friend, Sa., over! I had met her briefly before back before S. got baptized, but had never really talked with her too much. Later in the visit, we started asking her about the church and what she knew, and if she'd like to know more! We then had a great Restoration lesson with her, and she even prayed at the end of the lesson! It was fantastic. Hopefully we'll be able to get with Ch. and S. and get Sa. back over there for another lesson. Good things are happening!

Thursday! HUMP DAY! One year mark! It was an exciting day! To celebrate, Elder Bean and I went to a place called CJ's Pizza and Subs on the outskirts of Wytheville. Everyone here says that they have amazing Strombolis. They were right! For like $6 you can get a huge "mini" stromboli, and it's delicious! I'll definitely have to go there again before I leave! Mmm.

The real highlight of Thursday was that night when Ch. and S. were married! It was a wonderful experience to see them make the commitments to each other that would bind them together for this life! They are some awesome people, and I wish them a long and happy life together. They deserve it!

Also that night, after the wedding, we had the chance to teach J. and G.. J. is S.'s sister, and we've been teaching her on and off for the last 6 months, since S. started getting taught. She's been on date to be baptized a handful of different times, but this time we finally got a date locked down! G. is her boyfriend, and they are really trying their best to make their situation better and get married. They have a child together, and really want the best for their child. J. really wanted to be baptized on the 14th (this Sunday) and so we had to teach her as fast as we could. She has already had all the lessons and is living it, but we wanted to review with her to make sure she was ready. We invited G. to sit in on the lesson, because he had come to church before and expressed interest in learning. We end up having a completely awesome Restoration lesson with them! We were teaching in the foyer of the church, in between the gym, where the Reception was, and the kitchen, where people were cleaning up. At random times, as a member would walk by, we would stop them, ask them a question about how the Restoration/Gospel has blessed their life, and then they'd continue on. Strangest member present I've ever had! It was fun though. At the end of the lesson, we were able to resolve G.'s concerns with getting baptized, and set them both on date for June 20th! Wooooo! I'm so excited for them. They showed their real intent by coming to church yesterday, so we are planning on next Saturday! I'm excited.

Friday was a fun day, because we had Zone Meeting! I was able to see all of my wonderful district and our amazing zone! We had a really good meeting, and we were committed to basically just upping our game. In the words of President Kimball, to "lengthen our stride." I recommitted my district to do just that in our district meeting portion of zone meeting, and to become real disciples of Christ by loving him. We read the story of Jesus and the 11 on the shores of the sea of Galilee, where Jesus questions Peter, "Do you love me?." I forsook my entire lesson plan of district meeting and talked about that single story pretty much the whole time. Answering "yes" to that question is all that matters. In Missionary work, in church, and in life. We don't need all these procedures, although they do help us. Getting 5 member present lessons a week really isn't the most important thing in missionary work. The most important thing is to ask ourselves as if we were the Lord, "Do you love me?" Because when we love him, everything else falls into place. I still have a lot of work to do, but I really do love the Lord. With all of my heart and soul, and I freely give Him everything I can to build His kingdom up in these, the latter days.

Told you, I'm quite retrospective today. :)

Friday night we saw J. and G., this time with the F.'s. They were invited over for dinner, and after dinner we were able to have an awesome Plan of Salvation lesson with them! G. has been to a bucketload of churches in his life, and it was all very new to him. He was accepting of it all though and offered a kneeling prayer for us at the end of the lesson. It was fantastic! They are progressing amazingly and are just awesome. I'm excited for them!

Skipping to Sunday! We had an amazing fast and testimony meeting, with some really heartfelt and amazing testimonies offered. With Brother Wh., we were able to see some really great people too! really the highlight of Sunday was that night, when D. and D. fed us dinner with Brother Wh. We had a fun time with them. It's just such a fun time, really a party, to be at their house. D., like I've said before, has turned into one of the most humble and patient people I've ever met. He is really amazing. President Salisbury wrote him a letter asking him to share his conversion story with him. D. really took it to heart and is already on the third page of his letter, and he's not even at the part where he finally comes to church! Reading the letter really humbled me to know how much of an influence I had on such a great man. It makes me want to be better every day to help D. in every way I can for the rest of however long it takes to get him and his wife to the celestial kingdom.

Thank you all so much for your support of me this past year! I've truly felt your prayers and your fasts in my behalf. Know that I know that this work is God's work, that his gospel and church are true, and that when we do our best, we cannot possibly fail.

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Brax Johnson